Monday, March 2, 2015
A Major Victory for the Open Web
OFF THE WIRE
We just accomplished something very important together.
Today, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission voted for strong net
neutrality protections. This happened because millions of people —
including many hundreds of thousands
in Mozilla’s community — joined together as citizens of the Web to demand those strong protections.
This is an important victory for the world’s largest public resource, the open Web. Net neutrality is a key aspect of enabling innovation from everywhere, and especially from new players and unexpected places. Net neutrality allows citizens and consumers to access new innovations and judge the merit for themselves. It allows individual citizens to make decisions, without gate-keepers who decide which possibilities can become real. Today’s net neutrality rules help us protect this open and innovative potential of the Internet.
Mozilla builds our products to put this openness and opportunity into the hands of individuals. We are organized as a non-profit so that the assets we create benefit everyone. Our products go hand-in-hand with net neutrality; they need net neutrality to bring the full potential of the Internet to all of us.
Today’s net neutrality rules are an important step in protecting opportunity for all. This victory was not inevitable. It occurred because so many people took action, so many people put their voice into the process. To each of you we say “Thank you.” Thank you for taking the time to understand the issue, for recognizing it’s important, and for taking action. Thank you for helping us build openness and opportunity into the very fabric of the Internet.
Video message from Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman, Mozilla Foundation
in Mozilla’s community — joined together as citizens of the Web to demand those strong protections.
This is an important victory for the world’s largest public resource, the open Web. Net neutrality is a key aspect of enabling innovation from everywhere, and especially from new players and unexpected places. Net neutrality allows citizens and consumers to access new innovations and judge the merit for themselves. It allows individual citizens to make decisions, without gate-keepers who decide which possibilities can become real. Today’s net neutrality rules help us protect this open and innovative potential of the Internet.
Mozilla builds our products to put this openness and opportunity into the hands of individuals. We are organized as a non-profit so that the assets we create benefit everyone. Our products go hand-in-hand with net neutrality; they need net neutrality to bring the full potential of the Internet to all of us.
Today’s net neutrality rules are an important step in protecting opportunity for all. This victory was not inevitable. It occurred because so many people took action, so many people put their voice into the process. To each of you we say “Thank you.” Thank you for taking the time to understand the issue, for recognizing it’s important, and for taking action. Thank you for helping us build openness and opportunity into the very fabric of the Internet.
Video message from Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman, Mozilla Foundation
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Friday, February 27, 2015
Oppose ATF’s 5.56 M855 Ball Ammunition Ban
OFF THE WIRE
as “armor piercing ammunition.” If you have not already done so, all industry
employees, target shooters and gun owners should contact your Member of
Congress AND the ATF to oppose this unnecessary ban, which is
truly a solution in search of a problem and that raises serious
questions about executive agency attitude and overreach. Stopped cold on
Capitol Hill, this action appears to be the Obama administration’s
attempt to pursue gun control by other means.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has announced it is seeking to ban commonplace 5.56 M855 ball ammunition
Commonly available steel-core, “green tip” M855 and
SS109 rifle ammunition that is primarily intended and regularly used for
“sporting purposes,” like target shooting, has been exempt from federal
law banning armor piercing ammunition for decades. There is no question
that the 5.56 ball ammo has been in wide use by law abiding American
citizens for sporting purposes.
It is with the increasing prevalence of handgun versions
of rifle platforms, that ATF now apparently sees an opening to now ban
the widely used M855 and SS109 ammunition.
ATF’s proposed “framework” for applying the “sporting
purpose” exemption test rewrites the law passed by Congress to disregard
the manufacturer’s intention that a projectile or cartridge is
“primarily intended for a supporting purpose.” ATF inappropriately
places the focus on how criminals might misuse sporting ammunition in a
handgun.
Just as disturbing, language used by ATF in its long
white paper refers to criminals as a “consumer group.” The implication
that the industry purposely sells firearms and ammunition to criminals
is misleading and echoes the shopworn charges of the gun control lobby.
Manufacturers will face serious limitations in their
ability to develop and market alternative ammunition in other popular
hunting rounds, such as .308 rifle hunting ammunition, if ATF’s
so-called “framework” is adopted. This will have a detrimental effect on
hunting nationwide, especially in California where a total ban on
traditional ammunition for hunting is being phased in now.
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Write to your Member of Congress and the ATF today and tell them you oppose this unnecessary, misguided and damaging ban on commonly used ammunition for America’s most popular sporting rifles. |
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Tweet to your Member of Congress today |
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