Barely 100 days into the new Obama-Biden administration, ominous storm clouds are already gathering over your most fundamental right as a free citizen: Your right to own a gun to protect yourself, your family and your freedom.
Betraying all their campaign promises to protect your right to keep and bear arms or your freedom to hunt, the Obama administration has put its chess pieces in place and set in motion its strategy to do just the opposite.
Throughout the West Wing, they’ve appointed a cabinet composed of some of the most experienced and politically effective gun grabbers Washington, D.C. has ever seen.
Meanwhile, powerful members of the U.S. Senate and House have admitted that gun bans remain a top objective, but only “when the time is right.” Which really means “when some awful tragedy conveniently captures national attention.”
Yes, Barack Obama had an extensive and extreme anti-gun voting record as an Illinois senator. Yes, he called for gun bans during the Democratic presidential primaries. But once he won his party’s nomination, Obama reversed that spin and spent millions showering key states with flyers promising voters that he would never try to take their guns. But after winning the presidency, those pro-freedom showers dried up overnight. ...
In order to justify their political agenda, gun control organizations often claim that “most Americans” support various restrictive laws. For example, Mayors Against Illegal Guns published a report last year stating:Nearly 60 percent of Americans favor stricter gun laws. A majority of Americans, 59 percent, believe that the laws covering the sale of guns should be made more strict than they are currently. This is very similar to the 56 percent of Americans who said so in a January 2007 poll conducted for Mayors Against Illegal Guns. A third of the public, 33 percent, think that gun laws should be kept the same, and only 7 percent believe that they should actually be made less strict.
With such polling numbers, it seems reasonable that gun control organizations should have large, active membership, just like the National Rifle Association with its “nearly four million members.”
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The question is: Does Violence Policy Center actually represent the public’s views?
One way to determine if an organization has true public support is to see if they garner a certain amount of membership dues. For example, if an organization’s total annual revenues is $1 million and $750,000 of that came from membership dues, then one can reasonably conclude that since dues represent 75% of revenue, the organization represents part of the public. Further, if annual dues are $25, then the organization has about 30,000 members. ...
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In the beginning of this section, the concept of public support was in part defined by evidence of membership dues being paid to an organization that claims to promote beneficial public policies. Violence Policy Center’s tax returns included a section entitled “Schedule A, Part IV-A: Support Schedule.” It includes a line item for membership fees.
For the years 2000 through 2006, the total membership fees received was $0. ...
The Mexican Ambassador to the United States, Auturo Sarukhan, appeared on a CBS news program recently and repeated a lie we have heard for many months about the violence in Mexico. The ambassador says Americans are to blame for the violence wrecked on his country by the Mexican drug cartels because “most of the guns confiscated by Mexican police can be traced back to the United States.” That is not true, but the way that claim has been accepted by American politicians and the mainstream media raises suspicions about a hidden agenda.
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We can easily understand Mexico's reasons for preferring the 90% number to the more accurate 17%. Mexico does not want to openly discuss the many other sources of advanced weapons being used by the drug cartels. Thousands of advanced weapons and tons of military equipment are stolen from its own military and state police. Weapons are smuggled across its southern borders from Guatemala and by boats landing on its 8,000 miles of coastline, weapons that often originate in Venezuela, Colombia, and Nicaragua, or from purchases in Eastern Europe. But it is easier for a Mexican politician to blame the U.S. than to explain his own government’s failure to police its borders, its ports of entry and its military installations.
Did the Mexican ambassador mention that over 100,000 soldiers have deserted the Mexican army in the past seven years and that many of them took their weapons with them and joined the cartels? ...
Last week, in a typically misleading move designed to bolster their political agenda rather than reduce violent crime, the Brady Campaign released a report calling for background checks on "all gun sales in America, including at gun shows." The Brady report was intentionally designed to correspond with, and bolster, a "gun show loophole" bill (S. 843) introduced this week by fanatical anti-gun Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ). In fact, the Brady report was released at the press conference Lautenberg held earlier this week.
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The bill is not about gun shows. Rather, S. 843 is a solution in search of a problem; numerous government studies have determined that gun shows are an insignificant or miniscule source of firearms misused in crime. For instance, a 2000 Bureau of Justice Statistics study, "Federal Firearms Offenders, 1992-98," found only 1.7% of federal prison inmates obtained their gun from a gun show. Similarly, a 1997 National Institute of Justice study reported less than 2% of criminals' guns come from gun shows. ...
For four days in March, gun owners across the country were up in arms about a Department of Defense decision to not resell its spent brass casings.
The DOD sells more than 100 million used casings a year -- in .223 and .308 variants -- to businesses such as Georgia Arms, near Atlanta, which in turn reloads the cartridges and sells them to the public.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz says the decision not to resell was made intentionally by the Obama administration, and he plans to introduce legislation to ensure it doesn't happen again.
It was "a concerted effort by this administration to short the supply" of ammunition, said the 3rd District Republican who views it as back-door gun control.
Georgia Arms co-owner Larry Haynie agrees. He said he was told by government officials that it was a clerical error.
"Hell no," he said when asked if he believed that. "That's just the government catch-all right there." ...
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer this week signed into law a new self-defense statute that will “steal the thunder” from gun prohibitionists who invariably whine that armed citizens might “take the law into their own hands.”
The new statute squarely puts the law in the hands of the citizens, by plainly stating they have no duty to retreat if attacked in a place where they have a right to be. The law also allows armed citizens to use force or threaten the use of force when he or she reasonably believes an attack is about to occur, or to stop an attack already in progress.
There is also a section on citizen’s arrest, and one that codifies the legality of open carry.
It is a gun prohibitionist’s nightmare, but for the armed Montana citizen – or anybody visiting the Big Sky Country – it may just be the best news they’ve had this year. ...
The Second Amendment Foundation, The Calguns Foundation and four California residents today filed a lawsuit challenging a California state law and regulatory scheme that arbitrarily bans handguns based on a roster of “certified” handguns approved by the State. This case parallels a similar case filed in Washington, DC, Hanson v. District of Columbia.
California uses this list despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer that protects handguns that ordinary people traditionally use for self-defense, and a recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments. The California scheme will eventually ban the purchase of almost all new handguns.
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“The Glock-21 is the handgun I would choose for home defense, but California has decided the version I need is unacceptable. I was born without a right arm below my elbow and therefore the new ambidextrous version of the Glock-21 is the safest one for me. The identical model designed for right hand use is available in California, but I can’t use it,” said plaintiff Roy Vargas.
Added SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, “The Supreme Court’s decision is crystal clear: Handguns that are used by people for self-defense and other lawful purposes cannot be banned, whether the State likes it or not. California needs to accept the Second Amendment reality.”
Co-counsel Jason Davis remarked, “The California Handgun Roster has always been about making the possession of handguns for self defense more difficult by imposing arbitrary and unconstitutional restrictions that limit choice and increase the cost of exercising a fundamental right.”
Joining plaintiffs Peña and Vargas are Doña Croston and Brett Thomas. Doña Croston’s handgun would be allowed if it were black, green, or brown, but her bi-tone version is supposedly ‘unsafe’ merely based on color. “I didn’t realize that my constitutional rights depended on color. What is it about two colors that makes the gun I want to purchase ‘unsafe’?”
Brett Thomas seeks to own the same model of handgun that the Supreme Court ordered District of Columbia officials to register for Dick Heller. However, that particular model is no longer manufactured, and its maker is no longer available to process the handgun’s certification through the bureaucracy.
“There is only one model of handgun that the Supreme Court has explicitly ruled is protected by the Second Amendment and yet California will not allow me to purchase that gun,” said Mr. Thomas. ...
When Nampa gun store owner Roberta Regnier offered a chance to win an AR-15 rifle for anyone who brought in two cans of food, she got 7,000 entries and collected 10 tons of food for the Boise Rescue Mission.
The winning ticket was drawn on April 15.
The raffle piqued so much interest that Regnier's Alpha Omega Services is doing another one - the shop's third - this time for a new, 1927-style Tommy gun.
Other businesses are catching on.
Sheepdog Ammo in New Plymouth donated 1,000 rounds of ammunition to Regnier's raffle. ...
CLAYTON, Mo. - A run on ammunition helped trigger record quarterly earnings for its Winchester Division in East Alton, Olin Corp. said Tuesday.
Olin's overall first-quarter 2009 net income was $46.7 million, or 60 cents per share, which compares to $37.3 million, or 50 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2008. Sales in the first quarter of 2009 were $400.6 million, compared to $399.1 million in the first quarter of 2008.
Winchester first-quarter 2009 sales were $132.9 million, compared to $110.8 million in the first quarter of 2008.
"Winchester achieved the highest level of quarterly earnings in its history, reflecting the continuation of the stronger-than-normal demand that began in the fourth quarter of 2008," Joseph D. Rupp, chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a conference call with investors. ...
Today civil rights attorney John Monroe filed a federal lawsuit against West Milwaukee and it's police force for gross abuses of power against a man solely because the man was legally carrying a holstered gun. A copy of the lawsuit can be found here.
The complaint alleges that police illegally detained, harassed, and arrested Jesus Gonzales without cause in violation of the federal constitution. Further, the complaint alleges that police unlawfully demanded Gonzales' social security number in violation of Section 7 of the Federal Privacy Act, arguably a felony under the Social Security Act at 42 USC 408.
Mr. Gonzales was never actually tried in court, but the complaint alleges that the police have refused to return the property confiscated from Mr. Gonzales. OpenCarry.org's co-founder John Pierce, a law student at nearby Hamline University in Minneapolis, MN where open carry is also legal, says that "the police have no more power to confiscate openly carried handguns that they do to confiscate openly carried cell phones."
In Wisconsin, like most states, citizens can openly carry handguns in public without any permit. Recently a Wisconsin judge ruled that mere open carry of holstered handguns is not "disorderly conduct" in Wisconsin. ...
Since November, more than seven million people applied for criminal background checks in order to buy guns, according to the FBI. That figure excludes anyone buying a weapon at the thousands of gun shows in states such as Virginia, without facing any checks.
The sudden run on weapons has also stripped gun shops in some parts of the country almost bare and led to a national ammunition shortage, the Guardian reports.
Gun-shop owners and the National Rifle Association claim the surge is driven by concerns that Mr Obama is planning to ban many types of firearms and that the deepening economic crisis will fuel a crime wave. ...
Gun control was among the chief topics to emerge from President Obama's meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
Obama said the talks were "productive and wide ranging" and Calderon characterized them as an "open, frank discussion."
Obama said while he still supports an assault weapons ban, the lapsed law isn't likely to be renewed anytime soon.
"None of us are under any illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy, so what we focused on was enforcing our existing laws," Obama said.
"I have not backed off at all," he said, from his position during the campaign. [emphasis added] ...
... On his first presidential visit to Mexico, Obama praised Calderón for taking on the drug cartels, whose potent arsenals and economic power are threatening the integrity of the Mexican state. Obama announced that he will push the U.S. Senate to ratify an inter-American arms-trafficking treaty.
But Obama indicated that while he favors reinstating the U.S. ban on assault weapons, which Congress allowed to expire five years ago, the move would face too much political opposition to happen soon. He said better enforcing existing laws to prevent arms smuggling would have a more immediate effect on keeping U.S. weapons from Mexican cartels.
"I continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment rights in our Constitution, the rights of sportsmen and hunters and homeowners who want to keep their families safe to lawfully bear arms, while dealing with assault weapons that, as we know, here in Mexico, are helping to fuel extraordinary violence," he said in a news conference with Calderón at Los Pinos, the presidential compound. "Now, having said that, I think none of us are under the illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy." ...
A retired Navy captain who now serves as an analyst says arming the civilians who run freight ships through the waters offshore from Somalia would allow them to defend themselves and fix much of the pirate problem.
Crew members from the recently attacked Maersk Alabama returned today to the United States and told reporters, "All we had was knives. They had AK-47s."
But retired U.S. Navy Capt. Chuck Nash, who also has served as an analyst for Fox News, said the right of the crew members to defend themselves – even with force – needs to be established firmly.
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Nash suggested the shipping companies need to "get out from under the nebulous conditions that exist today, where they are afraid from a legal perspective to arm their crews."
"It comes down to the inherent right to self-defense," he said. "We have to arm these merchant marines."
He explained the U.S. Navy, and ships from other nations, simply cannot patrol the millions of square miles in the ocean.
He said a second significant move would be to "start imposing limitations on where these pirates operate."
The pirates initially worked within a few miles of the coast because they were in open-hulled fishing boats. Then they moved into large trawlers, he said, and that greatly expanded their coverage.
"Therefore what we need to do is roll up that process, starting with getting the rules of engagement for our Navy to take out those mother ships, squeeze them back up against the coastline, which automatically makes the job of the military easier," he said. ...
WASHINGTON -- According to the U.S. government, I am an extremist. I am a Christian and meet regularly with other Christians to study God's word. My faith convinces me the prophecies in the Holy Bible are true. I believe in the sanctity of human life, oppose abortion, and want to preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman. I am a veteran with skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. I own several firearms, and I frequently shoot them, buy ammunition, and consider efforts to infringe on my Second Amendment rights to be wrong and unconstitutional. I fervently support the sovereignty of the United States, and I am deeply concerned about our economy, increasingly higher taxes, illegal immigration, soaring unemployment, and actions by our government that will bury my children beneath a mountain of debt.
Apparently, all this makes me a "rightwing extremist." At least, that's what it says in the April 7 "Assessment" issued by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security. The nine-page report, titled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment," is full of warnings about American citizens who share any part of my background or subscribe to the beliefs above. It is one of the most alarming documents produced by our government that I ever have read. ...
A Senate committee narrowly approved a bill that would encourage companies to adopt policies that let workers keep guns in their cars.
The Senate State Affairs Committee voted 4-3 on April 16 to pass a measure that would provide legal protections to companies that “allow or (do) not prohibit” employees to store firearms in their vehicles. Those businesses could not face civil damages for such policies.
Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Idaho Falls, said prohibitions on guns in employee vehicles infringe on the rights of hunters and people who carry guns for self-defense. But he said businesses that have such policies wouldn’t have to change their procedures because of the bill.
“We’re just trying to encourage employers to help employees practice their Second Amendment rights,” Thompson said.
Julie Pipal, a lobbyist for the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, also spoke in support of the bill. She said chamber members support any measure that provides protections for “those things beyond an employer’s control.” ...
Legislation allowing concealed handguns on state campuses has incited passionate debate at UT. This battle has been ongoing since the founding fathers guaranteed “the right to bear arms” in the Bill of Rights.
In protest of a new bill, UT students and faculty, will walk out of classes today at 11:30 a.m. and march to the steps of the Texas Capitol against guns on college campuses.
Today marks the second anniversary of the shooting at Virginia Tech.
Several constitutional law professors across the country, however, are debating this issue in light of the rights listed in the U.S. Constitution. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects the individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in the militia, but the question remains whether or not this right applies to the states.
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Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the Texas Constitution gives power to lawmakers to prevent crime but that the question remains whether the Legislature should restrict carrying guns in certain places and certain ways.
“The constitutional matter is not imperative, but at the same time it’s a matter of good policy,” Volokh said. “Protecting the right to self-defense is an important moral right. My sense is that allowing concealed carry is, generally speaking, a good idea.” ...
VICTORVILLE - Assemblyman Steve Knight spent Thursday afternoon visiting local gun shops to promote his proposed legislation to streamline the concealed weapons permitting process.
“It’s an equality issue...” said Knight, R-Palmdale. “If you go through the process fully and you complete your firearm training class, complete the paperwork, pay the fees and pass your background checks, you should be allowed to carry a (concealed carry weapon) — clean and simple.”
Currently, law enforcement agencies “may issue” concealed weapons permits at their discretion.
But Knight’s proposal, Assembly Bill 357, changes the law to state that law enforcement agencies “shall issue” concealed weapons permits to residents who meet certain criteria. ...
A bill to limit public release of information about concealed handgun permit holders is headed for a vote in the Oregon House.
The measure endorsed Wednesday by a House committee was sought by Oregon sheriffs who want to prevent newspapers and others from getting lists of people with concealed handgun permits.
The sheriffs and gun rights groups say that releasing the information would jeopardize permit holders' personal security. ...
Having backed off--for now--from the politically difficult push for a ban of so-called "assault weapons," President Obama hopes to assuage Mexican President Felipe Calderón's disappointment with a promise to push the Senate to ratify the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and other Related Materials, a treaty signed in 1997, but never ratified in the U.S.President Obama announced in a visit here today that he will push the U.S. Senate to ratify an inter-American arms trafficking treaty designed to curb the flow of guns and ammunition to drug cartels and other armed groups in the hemisphere.
Obama no doubt believes that ratification of this treaty is much more feasible than passage of a renewed AWB, and in that assessment he is almost certainly correct. There is, for example, no indication to this point of any organized resistance to ratification of the treaty. Although the NRA contests the Washington Post article's contention that it participated in the meeting at which the treaty was drafted, the NRA has not made clear that it has determined the treaty to be a threat to gun rights in the U.S., and thus something to be forcefully opposed.
Even a cursory glance at the text should convince any gun rights advocacy group (or individual) that this agreement is indeed dangerous to the rights of American gun owners. This section stands out (emphasis added): ...
The Obama administration says it will not appeal a federal court ruling that prohibits carrying loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.
Instead, the Interior Department says it will conduct a full environmental review of an earlier policy that allowed concealed, loaded guns in parks and refuges. ...
SEATTLE—More people have bought concealed pistol permits, guns and ammunition in the Seattle area since November, apparently because of fear that the Obama administration could impose new restrictions on gun ownership.
The state Department of Licensing has handled more than 27,000 concealed pistol permits so far in 2009, about 2,000 more than the first four months of last year and 3,700 more than the same period in 2007. ...
... Pierre Lemieux is an economist whose most recent book, Comprendre l’économie, just won the prestigious Prix Turgot in Paris. When it comes to guns, he’s a hobbyist, not a lobbyist, but in his spare time he has been trying to make the authorities comprehend something about the relationship between public safety and his love life. Not because he thinks there’s a nexus, but because the government does.
Before renewing his gun permit in 2007, the authorities decided to inquire into Lemieux’s bedroom history. Did he divorce anyone in the last two years? Did he break up with a girlfriend? If yes, use a separate sheet to explain.
Pardon me? Explain?
Well, it was nothing personal. Apparently, Canada’s government feels it ought to know the romantic status of all firearm owners. Hmm. Didn’t someone say the state had no business in the nation’s bedrooms? Who would say something so fuddy-duddy? Oh, the same fellow who actually said fuddy-duddy: Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Well, that was before the Flood.
It could be worse, I suppose. Canada’s gun clerks could ask applicants if they suffer from erectile dysfunction. Perhaps clerks don’t ask because they worry about a human rights tribunal finding the question discriminatory. Or maybe they haven’t thought of it yet. ...
Until Congress closes a loophole that makes it easy for criminals to buy firearms at gun shows, Virginia and other states must work to tighten their own laws, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Monday.
Mr. Bloomberg joined family members of Virginia Tech massacre victims in Northern Virginia to unveil a new television ad that will begin airing Tuesday. It calls on the state to end a practice allowing what are called "occasional sellers" at gun shows to sell weapons without conducting background checks.
"Many of the guns bought here are then resold to criminals and used in violent crimes across the country," Mr. Bloomberg said. "In fact, nationally ... gun-crime guns are more likely to come from Virginia than from all but five other states, and we know that all too well in New York City." [emphasis added] ...
Days before the second anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, a group backed by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg plans to launch a television advertisement that questions Republican gubernatorial nominee Robert F. McDonnell's opposition to closing a loophole in state law that allows some private vendors at gun shows to make sales without background checks.
The 30-second commercial, expected to run statewide on cable and broadcast TV for four days starting today, ends with an image of one of the victims of the 2007 campus massacre: Reema Samaha is shown dancing as a child as a phone number for McDonnell appears on-screen.
"I know that closing the loophole won't bring Reema back, but the question is: Whose sister is next?" Omar Samaha, Reema's brother, asks in the ad. "Ask Bob McDonnell why he's protecting criminals instead of protecting us." ...
... Then, like floundering rookies, Holder and Pelosi were benched, and the “old pro” has now come into the game. I think we can safely bet that Feinstein will remain Obama’s Quisling Quarterback of Choice for the duration of his fumbling stay in office.(Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian politician who helped the Nazis conquer his nation. A “Quisling” is another word for traitor.)
And Dianne has certainly taken charge with an arrogance and egotism that is truly stunning. In a recent interview with Leslie Stahl on “Sixty Minutes” she made some remarkable pronouncements. (See "60 Minutes" article)
Asked of her plans for more “gun control” legislation, she told Stahl: “I’ll pick the time and place.”
Oh yes, Your Highness! Please do exercise your Divine Right to befoul our freedom even further! Do so whenever your tea leaves and chicken entrails so instruct you!
I wonder how quacking Carolyn McCarthy, smirky Chuckie Schumer, and sob sister Sarah Brady feel about Dianne acting like she’s the new leader of the Gun Ban Band?
Feinstein then went on to declare that: “The National Rifle Association essentially has a stranglehold on the Congress.” ...
... Obama and the Democrats appear to have lost all interest in a ban on assault weapons or any other legislation cleaning up loopholes in America's gun laws even though killings are on the rise and gun violence continues to escalate around the country.
White House officials admit support for a new ban isn't there and the President isn't willing to take on another losing battle with Congress.
Although information on banning assault style weapons remains on the White House web site, sources within the Democratic party say the issue is dead and unlikely to be revived in the near future.
"It's over," a Democrat strategist admits. "The gun nuts have won...again." ...
Eight Valley residents have been indicted on charges of planning to transport five semi-automatic weapons into Mexico, according to court documents released Monday.
U.S. District Court documents filed March 31 state that the group, which includes four Mesa residents and others from Surprise, Avondale and Mexico, used false paperwork to purchase firearms from two Glendale gun stores and one in Scottsdale.
The indictment named Saul Rodriguez, 24, of Mesa; Jesus Gutierrez, 46, of Avondale; and Olegario Gutierrez-Martinez, 30, of Mexico; all of whom face charges of conspiracy to export munitions, conspiracy to illegally smuggle goods from the U.S. and conspiracy to make false statements in acquisition of firearms. ...
... Joseph Tierney, owner of the Mohawk Sport Shop LLC at 716 Erie Blvd. in Rome, said he doesn’t think the Binghamton tragedy sparked an interest in pistols or hand guns.
He says his business has been good across the board and that he’s been getting an increased number of customers interested in assault weapons.
“It’s the assault weapons, AR-15 and AK-47, they seem to want,” he said. “I can’t get them right now because there’s such a high demand everywhere in the country they’re in demand. “It’s difficult for even the dealers to get. I currently don’t have any. In the last two weeks, I’ve turned down a minimum of 30 people wanting them.”
At larger retailers such as Gander Mountain, gun sales have been going up as well.
“I can tell you, in general, for the last six to eight months the sales of firearms and ammunition have been brisk,” said David Ewald spokesman for Gander Mountain which is based in St. Paul, Minn. “There’s been all sorts of speculation on what’s the driving force. I think a little bit of everything is driving it.” ...
It seems as if every liberal in Texas is up in arms over the issue of concealed carry on campus.Liberals' reasons seem to be endless, but the one most often echoed by the masses is how dangerous it would be for students to be allowed to carry handguns.
Apparently, once a student is in possession of a legal weapon he will become a crazed killer, out to shoot anyone who disagrees with him. A concealed carry law will mean the end of safe campuses and it is likely that colleges across Texas will turn into war zones between rival students. Greeks vs. GDIs, whites vs. blacks, athletes vs. nerds; all will be armed and killing one another.
The fact that guns would make every college campus more dangerous is a great reason to keep guns off campus. However, it is far from the truth.
According to Texas Department of Public Safety arrest data from 1996 to 1999, .128 percent of concealed handgun license (CHL) holders were arrested for violent crime, .004 percent for murder, and there was not a single arrest of a CHL holder for negligent manslaughter. According to the same data .683 percent of Texans over 21 were arrested for a violent crime, .005 percent for murder, and .001 percent for negligent manslaughter.
These figures represent only arrests and therefore do not take into account the fact that some CHL holders may be arrested for a crime, such as killing someone in self-defense, and later cleared of the charges, so the actual conviction rate could be even lower than what is shown by the data.
According to this data, the average Texan is more likely to be responsible for a murder or negligent manslaughter than a CHL holder. You are more likely to be killed in an automobile accident (1 in 6,500), struck by lightning (1 in 500,000), or even killed by a falling airplane part (1 in 9.3 million) than you are to be killed by a CHL holder (1 in 10.2 million).
This means that the average Texan is 20 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be murdered or negligently killed by a Texas CHL holder.
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My father was a student at the University of Texas when Charles Whitman climbed the UT Tower and began shooting at students, killing 14 and wounding 32, and his memory of the event is of seeing students and other civilians get their deer rifles out of their trucks and return fire at Whitman, keeping him pinned down and unable to kill more people than he did. ...
The identities of people with permits to carry concealed handguns or stow them in their cars may soon be a secret in Alabama.
A bill supported by the National Rifle Association would seal the handgun permits maintained by county sheriffs and make them available only to law enforcement officers. The public would have access to individual records only if the gun owner had committed a felony.
The sponsor of the proposed legislation, Rep. Jack Page, D-Gadsden, said the purpose is to prevent theft of the identity of gun owners. Showing his own permit to a news reporter, Page said gun permits contain enough private information, such as date of birth and eye and hair color, to help someone apply for a credit card or other documents in another person's name.
"That's sensitive information," Page said. ...
Allowing guns in company parking lots.
One Idaho lawmaker is hoping more companies will allow it, and Monday the majority of lawmakers from the Idaho House of Representatives passed a bill that would do just that.
They're hoping to give companies immunity to any lawsuits, which involve their employees Second Amendment rights.
For a lot of people guns are a way of life. And now one lawmaker is trying to make a little easier on gun owners, many who often have a firearm in the car or truck.
"All this bill does is allow people to store their weapons in their personal vehicle on company property. That's all it does," said Rep. Jeff Thompson, (R-Idaho Falls). ...
Sportsmen may be preoccupied with trout and the upcoming spring turkey hunting season right now, but in a couple of weeks the New York State Assembly will be voting on a dozen or more gun bills that will have a lasting effect on everyone who owns or would like to purchase a firearm for self-protection, target shooting, hunting and — as strange as it may seem — trapping and fishing.
Why trapping and fishing you ask? Because a number of trappers and anglers carry a sidearm to prevent attacks from coyotes, black bears or any other wild animal — rabid or otherwise — that might take exception to them entering their bailiwick.
But regardless of the purpose you choose to own a firearm, excessive gun control will take center stage at the New York State Capitol on April 29 when the assembly debates and votes on a package of anti-gun bills.
Commonly referred to as “Gun Bill Day”, it always conspicuously coincide with New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (NYAGV) “Albany Lobby Day” — a day when anti-gun zealots demonstrate in the lobby of the state Legislative Office Building (LOB), eventually taking their misguided convictions directly to state lawmakers — not that they need to.
It’s no secret that the vast majority of New York lawmakers want to remove guns from the hands of legitimate gun owners. The fact that every anti-gun bill introduced in the state Assembly during the past three decades has passed is testimony to that. And, up until this year, each was stalled by a Republican majority in the state Senate.
But the Republicans no longer rule the roost and there is an excellent chance that this year the anti-gun lobby will be successful, especially with the rash of gun-related shootings in Binghamton and other cities. [emphasis added] ...
AUSTIN — Texans would be allowed to stow their guns and ammo inside their locked cars or trucks while at work and parked on employer property under a controversial bill passed Wednesday by the state Senate.
The Senate voted 31-0 to prohibit employers from enforcing restrictions against employees possessing a legally owned handgun or ammunition inside a locked vehicle while in a company parking lot. Firearms and ammo must be stored out of sight.
“Here in Texas people like their firearms and … if they want to bring them to the workplace they are going to do it whether there’s an employee policy against it or not,” said state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the measure’s author. “This is designed to stop employers from punishing employees who legally bring weapons to work .”
Supporters say employer rules banning guns in a company parking lot infringe on their Second Amendment right and their ability to protect themselves as they travel to and from work.
Opponents, among them a number of influential business groups, argue the bill is an affront to an employer’s property rights and are wary of potential gun violence as a growing number of Texans lose their jobs. ...
Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, today persuaded the Idaho House to vote 61-9 in favor of his legislation that would prevent the government from seizing guns in cases of “extreme emergency.”
HB 229 declares that during a such states including martial law, invasion or insurrection, “No government authority will have the right to come and pick up our arms and ammunition.” ...
Thanks to Sen Wilkins of Pine Bluff, HB 1237 The bill that would remove churches from the list of prohibited places in the concealed carry statute, died in the Senate Committee on Judiciary on a 4-2 vote.
After the bill failed in committee last time, the bill was amended. Instead of the version we believe was most appropriate, which would remove churches from the list altogether, it would have now included churches on the list of prohibited places but allow churches to allow CHL holders to carry on their property if they chose to.
This was done over a concern that churches would have been required to place a sign at every entrance proclaiming, "the carrying of hanguns is prohibited."
Then there was the Church shooting in Illinois.
After this Senator Wilkins made the remark that he honestly didn't know how he felt about it and that he could change his mind.
He also said he wanted to hear more testimony on behalf of the bill, so we brought him ten people to speak on behalf of the bill, eight of them were pastors. Some came from as far away as Springdale. They all came to speak on behalf of the bill mostly because Sen, Wilkins told us that he "wasn't sure." He honestly wasn't sure and wanted to know how other pastors felt. He wanted to hear from these people.
So in a good faith effort we tried to meet him half way, even sacrificing some language in the bill we believed wasn't the best option. We knew we had 4 votes we just needed to convince him that this really mattered to people and that we didn't want to let an Illinois church shooting happen here.
So just before HB1237 was heard, Sen Wilkins's bill regarding stalking was being discussed and the hearing became contentious. His bill failed in committee. When he was done with his bill he got up and walked out.
He just walked out. And he didn't come back untill after the vote was taken on HB 1237.
My friends, that's what we call cowardice. ...
LONG BEACH - A City Council vote on a proposed gun ammunition registration law is being postponed, police officials said Monday.
The issue had been placed on the agenda for today's meeting, but is being pulled because unanswered questions remain, said Deputy Chief Bill Blair.
He said community members had asked a slew of questions about the law during the Public Safety Committee hearing last month, but that he was still waiting on some answers from the City Attorney's Office.
Still, Blair said he doesn't expect changes to be made to the law, which is designed to deter felons from buying ammunition.
Under the ordinance, anyone who buys ammunition would have to register their name, address and date of birth; the date of the transaction; driver's license or other identification number; brand and type of ammunition purchased; the purchaser's signature; name of the sales person in the transaction; and the thumbprint of the purchaser.
Vendors would have to keep and maintain records on store premises for two years. The records would be open for police inspection. ...
A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that licensed firearms owners may not carry guns into parts of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
GeorgiaCarry.org, a gun-rights group, and state Rep. Timothy Bearden (R-Villa Rica) challenged the airport’s ban on guns. They contended a law enacted last year overrode a longstanding policy prohibiting visitors to the airport from carrying firearms in non-secure areas.
...
Bearden expressed disappointment.
“I know what the legislative intent was,” he said, noting he was the author of the legislation. “We will either continue to handle this through the judiciary process ... or we could just go ahead and fix this legislatively and spell it out.” ...
A case that drew national attention over a legal dispute between Idaho's oldest gun store and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reached a quiet and uneventful conclusion on Wednesday.
Attorneys working on behalf of Red's Trading Post announced an agreement Wednesday that will end litigation over allegations that the gun store "willfully" sold guns improperly.
An attorney representing Red's said neither party admitted any wrongdoing in the case, which lasted nearly four years before reaching an agreement in U.S. District Court.
...
In March 2007, the ATF revoked the store's license to buy and sell firearms, saying that employees continued to make "repeated" and "willful" errors. The case went to U.S. District Court, where a federal judge determined that the ATF exaggerated and omitted some of its findings used to justify revoking Red's license.
In the two years that followed, both Red's Trading Post and the ATF each spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation to determine if store employees intentionally sold firearms improperly. [emphasis added] ...
... Regular readers of my WarOnGuns blog know I've credited CEO Tommy Millner before for being accessible and responsive, both in the Jim Zumbo flap and the H.S. Precision catalog fiasco.
I just got off the phone with him and I'll share with you the Cliffs Notes version of our conversation:
Remington is flat-out working to maximum capacity. Demand outstrips ability to produce and deliver. If they could produce more to sell, they would. He believes his competitors would, too. And there is no hoarding.
As far as I'm concerned, that should end the matter. Does anybody believe he'd give me such an unequivocal response if he wasn't being straight--as he consistently has been?
Gun owners in Utah likely would have the ability to carry weapons in more places than ever before.
Two gun bills to grant people the ability to keep guns in their cars and homes await a final, mostly technical vote before going to the governor for his signature.
SB78 would require business owners to allow guns in vehicles in private parking lots, although the property owner could require the gun be secured. The guns could be loaded or unloaded, though business owners could mandate only unloaded weapons on their property.
"A person has the right to control what's in his car," said Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield. ...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) -- An Arkansas lawmaker says she will reintroduce a bill to allow concealed weapons in churches after a deadly Illinois church shooting March 8.
State Rep. Beverly Pyle (R-Cedarville) originally introduced a measure Jan. 29 to remove "any church or other house of worship" from a list of places where people licensed to carry concealed weapons are prohibited from bringing their guns.
The bill passed the Arkansas House of Representatives on a 57-42 vote Feb. 11 but then died on a voice vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 25.
After a gunman entered First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill., and killed Pastor Fred Winters with a gunshot to the heart, Pyle told Little Rock CBS affiliate KTHV Channel 11 she was making changes to the bill and planned to take it back to the committee hoping for more votes.
"I have received numerous e-mails and phone calls concerning this wanting me to bring this back, none against it," Pyle told the TV station March 9.
The station talked to one Arkansas legislator -- Sen. Hank Wilkins (D-Pine Bluff) -- who indicated he might change his vote from "no" to "yes."
"In light of the shooting yesterday I think there will be a number of legislators who will want to reconsider this," said Wilkins, who is also a United Methodist pastor.
Police said the suspect in the shooting, 27-year-old Terry Joe Sedlacek, was armed with enough ammunition to kill as many as 30 people and had planned the attack to the point of writing "death day" on is planning calendar for March 8.
His weapon jammed after four shots, however, before he pulled a knife and wounded himself and two church members trying to subdue him. ...
... Gun owners are right to wonder if this is the event that will be the catalyst for making a new 'assault weapon' ban a priority.
Why?
We know Obama wants to ban semiautomatic firearms.
We know Eric Holder does, too, and thinks it's important enough to talk about the game plan before the rest of the team is suited up.
We know the Brady Campaign is hot on the heels of any opportunity to exploit their push "to restrict civilian access to military-style assault weapons."
And we know from history how "massacre" events are used as fulcrums to leverage support for gun bans.
We saw it in California.
We saw it in Britain.
We saw it in Australia.
So it's not like there's not a pattern.
...
The popular wisdom says Team Obama is too busy with other priorities. In case anyone hasn't noticed, the economy is in the toilet, the guy can't even assemble a cabinet, and some are beginning to express "buyer's remorse" as his popularity slips. And if the history of "gun control" edicts shows us anything, it's that when politicians have no clue, what better way is there to distract, make it look like they're doing something, and get favorable publicity, than to propose something that will be wildly popular with the media?
But aren't I being premature and hysterical? ...
... When it comes to the armed citizen, the fear of more guns is no different from the apprehension of Citizen CPR as if it meant more heart disease on the streets. The armed citizen is not the cause of violence, he/she is the solution. What’s taking so long?
Every shooting has its own features, and facts will soon emerge, but one fact is common to all shootings. They could have been stopped sooner, perhaps stopped entirely, if an armed citizen were nearby. In EMS, there is a concept called the Golden Hour. It is a statistical inference that finds that the patient’s ultimate outcome is determined by what is done immediately. The scattergram, or the graph of how this is inferred, seems to fall immensely around less than sixty minutes. After that, cost, recovery, length of hospital stay, capacity or quality of life are inversely proportional to the time of intervention. The same is true for shootings. How soon you can stop the shooter is everything. Seconds count.
Societally speaking, this kind of refusal of acceptance of the ubiquitous armed citizen is the worst of all possible response times. For lack of intervention that could have been, innocents die. They die for dispatch protocol reasons and asset availability reasons. They die for political reasons. They die due to misinformation and they die to boost anti-gun arguments. They die for nothing. ...
Do you know how to upset people, really fast? Force them to confront the reality that many people own and carry guns. It isn't even like open carry has some great advantage over concealed carry when it comes to self-defense. It's a bit quicker to draw, sure, but if a random spree killer is deciding who to attack first, guess who's first? The person who is obviously armed.
Open carry may make you as an individual somewhat safer from criminal attack, because it encourages those criminals who don't have a death wish to go look for an easier target. Concealed carry, however, makes everyone safer--because the criminal doesn't know if his intended victim is going to draw a gun--or perhaps a bystander is going to do so.
Open carry is constitutionally protected, as the Idaho Supreme Court has ruled in the decision In re Brickey (Ida. 1902). But that doesn't mean that this is the most appropriate or most polite way to carry a gun.
Don't be rude. Don't be stupid.
UPDATE: It strikes me that there is an analogy to gay men who feel the need to have sex in public view (something that I have blogged about before). Just about every adult knows that there is homosexual sex happening out there. Most Americans aren't approving of it, but at least it isn't something that they have to see. It's an abstraction. When you walk down a public beach in Rhode Island, or along the Russian River in California, and there are guys having sex, it is no longer an abstraction. It's a reminder that someone wants you to see what they are doing, or at least doesn't care that it might not be what others want to see.Now, some of the goal of both groups--public sex and open carry--is desensitization. They are hoping that if people see this happening on a regular basis, that it will no longer be shocking, and eventually, everyone will get used to it. There are people for whom this is probably true, and it is part of why television shows make a point of including gay characters--to get everyone used to it, so that it is no longer shocking. But for most people, public sex and open carry--and especially in a setting where there are children present--it has the opposite effect: it infuriates, enrages, or (at best) annoys.
UPDATE 2: I keep getting emails, so let me clarify. You have a right to open carry in Idaho and many other states. I would not for a minute propose that this should be illegal. But if your actions drive people that are neutral about guns into the enemy camp, should you do it?
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