gun control Archives - Page 2 of 36 -

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The Same Old Blah, Blah, Blah

February 8, 2023

by John Richardson 4 Comments

I’m sorry but I just can’t watch Joe Biden bloviate on TV. I know it is the State of the Union speech which is supposed to be important but really isn’t. Thus, I went to the White House website to see what he was going to say about firearms. It is easier to read his words than to hear him shout them on TV.

From his prepared remarks:

Do something.
That was the same plea of parents who lost their children in Uvalde: Do something on gun violence.
Thank God we did, passing the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades.
That includes things that the majority of responsible gun owners support, like enhanced background checks for 18 to 21-year-olds and red flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others.
But we know our work is not done.
Joining us tonight is Brandon Tsay, a 26-year-old hero.
Brandon put off his college dreams to stay by his mom’s side as she was dying from cancer. He now works at a dance studio started by his grandparents.
Two weeks ago, during Lunar New Year celebrations, he heard the studio’s front door close and saw a man pointing a gun at him.
He thought he was going to die, but then he thought about the people inside.
In that instant, he found the courage to act and wrestled the semi-automatic pistol away from a gunman who had already killed 11 people at another dance studio.
He saved lives. It’s time we do the same as well.
Ban assault weapons once and for all.
We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994.
In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled.
Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again.

C’mon, man. Don’t you know that the firearm arm used in Monterrey Park was banned in California years ago?

I do agree that Brandon Tsay is a hero for stopping the murders. On that we can agree.

As to the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, why are we treating 18-21 year olds like second-class citizens? We are OK with sending them to war in faraway places with fully automatic weapons to fight and die for this country so why are they treated differently. They can vote, they can enter a contract, they can be imprisoned as adults, and, in most states, they have reached the age of majority.

With regard to red flag laws, they make a mockery of due process. More importantly, if the person is so dangerous to either themselves or to us, why are they still out on the street? As seen in both Europe and in Wisconsin, a killer or terrorist with a vehicle can kill a lot of people.

Finally, mass shootings are rare events. They are aberrations. They are black swans. Yes they do happen but they are not the norm. Moreover, rifles including “assault weapons” (sic) are one of the least used weapons in homicides. They lag even fists and feet.

I’m sure Joe got some cheers from the left side of the aisle for his comments. But that is all he should get.

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Tweet Of The Day

January 30, 2023

by John Richardson 1 Comment

The New York Times is bemoaning the fact that all those gun control laws in California do nothing to stop mass casualty events.

The reply by “JustynWS” nails it – do you treat the symptom or do you treat the cause.

Gun control is like giving a lung cancer patient a bottle of cough suppressant and saying the cancer is cured because their coughing went away.

You're treating the symptom, not the cause.
— Justyn (@JustynWS) January 29, 2023

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Ricketts To Replace Sasse In US Senate

January 12, 2023

by John Richardson

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) resigned his seat in the US Senate on Sunday in order to take a new position as President of the University of Florida. While he had been wishy-washy on some things, Sasse was strong on gun rights and voted against the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022.

Today, Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) announced that his immediate predecessor, former Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) would be appointed to fill the position.

In terms of gun rights, Ricketts should be great. He pledged to sign a constitutional carry bill at the NSSF Governors’ Forum held at the SHOT Show last year. Unfortunately, it did not reach his desk due to a couple of wishy-washy Republicans standing in the way. Ricketts was in favor of the right to open carry in the Nebraska Capitol building. As the tweet below makes clear, he objects to Biden’s gun control agenda.

Banning guns will not solve the underlying problems that have resulted in these tragedies. Nebraska is a pro-Second Amendment state, and we will stand up against any attempt by the federal government to expand gun laws and impede our freedoms. #2A https://t.co/S4lrYaqGpz
— Gov. Pete Ricketts (@GovRicketts) March 25, 2021

Ricketts will serve for the next two years and then will have to run again for a full term. He has indicated he plans to run in 2024.

Ricketts and his family are large contributors to conservative causes including a $1.4 million contribution to the PAC Conservative Nebraska. Ricketts’ father Joe was the founder of the brokerage TD Ameritrade. Charles Schwab Corporation purchased TD Ameritriade in 2020 for $22 billion. The Ricketts family also owns a 95% controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

Of course, Nebraska Democrats are miffed about it. They claim Ricketts’ appointment is merely pay-to-play payback by Gov. Pillen for a large campaign contribution. Whatever.

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Oh, Canada

October 22, 2022

by John Richardson 1 Comment

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continues on his path to make Canada an authoritarian state. His latest move was to freeze the sale, purchase, or transfer of handguns.

Update: People can no longer buy, sell, or transfer handguns within Canada – and they cannot bring newly acquired handguns into the country.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) October 21, 2022

While there is a gun control act called Bill C-21 that is pending before Parliament, Trudeau is relying upon regulation to do what legislation does not allow him to do. This is similar to what he did earlier with regard to certain semi-automatic firearms in 2020. Provincial governments in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan are pushing back on co-operation with the RCMP on that move.

From his official release on the move:

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the national freeze on the sale, purchase, and transfer of handguns comes into effect. From now on, people cannot buy, sell, or transfer handguns within Canada, and they cannot bring newly acquired handguns into the country.
A national handgun freeze was first announced alongside Bill C-21, the strongest gun control measures in over 40 years, in May 2022. While the bill continues to be debated in Parliament, we are taking immediate action through regulations to keep Canadians safe.
The national handgun freeze is part of the government’s comprehensive plan to tackle gun violence. We have already banned over 1,500 types of assault-style firearms and have strengthened our gun control laws to expand background checks. Bill C-21 proposes further measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands like revoking the firearms licences of those involved in acts of domestic violence or criminal harassment, continuing to fight gun smuggling and trafficking, and providing law enforcement more tools to investigate firearms crimes.

According to the details, applications submitted before October 21st for the sale, purchase, or transfer of a handgun will be processed. Their temporary ban on the importation of handguns implemented in August 2022 will remain in effect. Finally, there are limited exceptions to this freeze. Thus, “high-performance sports shooting athletes” and security guards will be exempted along with the film industry (of course!), gunsmiths, and museums. The last three are exempted only to the extent of their existing licenses.

Trudeau even used the “if it saves one life” canard in his justification for this authoritarian measure.

I love Canada. I have traveled through most of the provinces in both the east and west of that formerly great country. Indeed, my honest-to-god first girlfriend was a Canadian from Ontario. It just saddens me tremendously to see the extent to which Trudeau fils has abridged freedoms in Canada. He really does illustrate the difference between a citizen and a subject in the way he governs.

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Follow-up On Brady-Lowy Split

October 17, 2022

by John Richardson 1 Comment

This is a follow-up on the departure of Jonathan Lowy from Brady United for Global Action on Gun Violence which I wrote about last week. As many have speculated, Brady United did not want to be viewed as a foreign agent according to a story in Politico. While I had asked Lowy himself many of these questions in an email, I never got a response.

Brady United COO Susan Lavington said they were reluctant to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

From Politico:

Brady, for its part, was hesitant to dive into work that would fall under the foreign influence law, its Chief Operating Officer Susan Lavington said. Lavington added that the group would remain “laser focused on America’s gun violence,” and did not plan to collaborate with or provide any funding for Lowy’s group.

Lowy, by contrast, wanted to go international in the fight for more gun control including lobbying for new laws.

In an interview, Lowy emphasized that he departed from the legacy nonprofit “amicably.” He said he views gun control as a means to address issues with cross-border drug trafficking and migration and plans to work with countries or others “affected by U.S. gun industry practices.”
“The guns that are trafficked across the border, is like the venom in the cartel,” he said. “That is the venom that makes them dangerous.”…
Lowy explained that the goal was to go beyond litigation, suggesting that the group would lobby around legislation and regulation of gun companies on behalf of foreign governments or people outside the U.S.
He declined to provide details about the group’s funding or its advisory committee at this point. But according to a filing with the Department of Justice, its board will include Dennis Henigan, another lawyer and Brady alum, and Malcolm Ruby, a lawyer who has worked with Brady on a lawsuit against the firearm manufacturer Smith & Wesson on behalf of victims of a Toronto shooting.

Forgive me for being skeptical about Lowy’s contention that more gun control, whether in the US or other places in the world, will stop either drug trafficking or illegal border crossing. It will not.

As for his latest lawsuit on behalf of the Mexican government against Arizona gun dealers, I seem to remember a little episode in the not too distant past. You may remember it. It was run by BATFE and DOJ during the Obama Administration. It was called Operation Fast and Furious. Or, as David Codrea and others have called it, Project Gunwalker where the BATFE “encouraged” Arizona dealers to sell to known straw purchasers so that the weapons would cross the border. Their goal was use that as the pretext for more gun control when traced back to the US from crime scenes. So sorry about the two Federal law enforcement officers killed along with untold numbers of innocent Mexican nationals.

If Lowy is interested in suing anyone on behalf of Mexico, perhaps he should start with former BATFE officials and former Attorney General Eric Holder. Since we don’t know who is funding Lowy’s new organization – though we can make some educated guesses – it is impossible to say how his financial backers might respond to that. More than likely, very negatively.

H/T: Rob R.

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“Massive Resistance” In Maryland

July 5, 2022

by John Richardson 4 Comments

Many states were slow to respond to the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education holding that segregation by race was unconstitutional. You had massive resistance to the Supreme Court’s ruling throughout the South and the border states. Politicians were often the ringleaders of this opposition and the most vocal.

You are now seeing a similar “massive resistance” on the part of anti-rights politicians in may-issue states after Bruen. While some states such as New York have adopted laws that will make the implementation of this ruling difficult to the point of follow-on lawsuits, on the face of it they are complying. Then there are politicians like Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot (D-MD) who is one of the leading candidates for governor.

Franchot does not even camouflage the fact that he would ignore a Supreme Court ruling if elected. He reminds me of another Democrat politician – the late Sen. Harry Byrd (D-VA). It was Byrd who coined the phrase “massive resistance”. Taking Byrd’s famous statement and reworking it for Franchot would not be hard.

If we can organize the Southern States for massive resistance to this order, I think that in time the rest of the country will realize that racial integration is not going to be accepted in the South.

All you have to do is replace “Southern States” and “South” with “may-issue states” along with “racial integration” with “shall-issue carry” and you have it.

Regardless of whether Peter Franchot is elected governor of Maryland or one of the other candidates is elected, the Article I, Sec. 9 of the Maryland Constitution requires the winner to take an oath swearing to uphold the Constitution of the United States. From what Franchot is saying, he makes clear he would willfully violate his oath of office once elected.

I fail to see any difference between a Franchot and a Byrd when it comes to upholding the Constitution of the United States. He may just as well be saying, “Gun Control Now, Gun Control Tomorrow, Gun Control Forever.”

UPDATE: It appears that virtually all the Democrats running for governor of Maryland would ignore the US Constitution and Supreme Court rulings.

Tom Perez, Wes Moore, Ashwani Jain, Doug Gansler, John King, and Jon Baron have all issued statements critical of Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) for following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bruen.

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Did Feinstein Just Sabotage The New Gun Bill?

June 23, 2022

by John Richardson 11 Comments

I don’t know whether to condemn Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) or praise her. She has filed a bill as an amendment to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that would raise the age to purchase many semi-auto rifles, pistols, or shotguns to 21. The impact of this amendment could cause the carefully crafted “compromise” (sic) to fall apart.

From her press release:

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today filed the Age 21 Act as an amendment to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the gun violence prevention bill pending before the Senate. The amendment would raise the minimum age to purchase assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines from 18 to 21.
Senator Feinstein reintroduced the Age 21 Act on May 19, five days after the massacre at a Buffalo supermarket and five days before the school shooting in Uvalde, each of which involved an 18-year-old who legally purchased an assault rifle.
“The Senate gun safety bill is a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t address the major problem of teenagers owning weapons of war,” said Senator Feinstein. “It makes no sense that it’s illegal for someone under 21 to buy a handgun or even a beer, yet can legally buy an assault weapon. My amendment is a commonsense fix with broad public support that should receive bipartisan backing and I hope that it’s allowed a vote.”

Reading through the amendment which I have embedded below, something as innocuous as a semi-auto shotgun such as the Mossberg 940 Pro Waterfowl Snow Goose edition would be forbidden to anyone under 21. The reasoning, according to the amendment, is that it has a tubular magazine that holds more than 5 rounds. Likewise, a turkey shotgun that had a pistol grip would be forbidden. On pistols, if you wanted to have a threaded barrel for a suppressor to protect your hearing, sorry but young ears need to be damaged is the message this amendment sends.

I really think these sorts of amendments could cause the whole thing to fall apart and force the Republicans to walk away. It is one thing to say you want to do careful background checks taking into account juvenile records for those under 21 and a whole another thing to ban a whole category of firearms to them. I don’t think a Manchin or Sinema could get by with voting for such a bill that included that along with the other stuff.

I do notice that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) is not one of the co-sponsors of her original bill nor is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Here is the text of Feinstein’s Age 21 Act amendment.

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Sold Down The River

June 22, 2022

by John Richardson 3 Comments

RINOs, quislings, I don’t give a damn what you call them, but gun owners just got sold down the river by the GOP. As I said in an email to Traitor Thom Tillis earlier tonight, the “gun reform” (sic) bill was a capitulation and not a compromise.

The Washington Post is reporting that within less than two hours of the text of the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” being released, the Senate had voted 64-34 to advance the bill to the floor. That means that all Democrats voted in the affirmative that 14 Republicans crossed the aisle and vote aye.

Tuesday’s 64-to-34 test vote, which took place less than two hours after the final text was circulated, put the legislation on a path to pass the chamber by the end of the week.Key players on the political right took sides immediately after the text was released, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) backing the bill and the National Rifle Association opposing it….
Cornyn, too, acknowledged the compromise was likely to leave those on both extremes of the political spectrum dissatisfied. But he said the time had come for lawmakers to heed the public’s calls for action: “We know there’s no such thing as a perfect piece of legislation. We are imperfect human beings. But we have to try, and I believe this bill is a step in the right direction.”

Texas Republicans know just what a sell-out Beltway Bandit Cornyn has become and showed it this past weekend. Not only was he booed by the delegates but they adopted a resolution condemning the senators involved (which includes Cornyn) and stated “that all gun control is a violation of the Second Amendment and our God-given rights.”

“Cocaine Mitch” McConnell was one of the 14 that voted in favor of moving the bill. He even called the bill “commonsense”. To use that word which is right up there in the gun prohibitionists’ lexicon with “gun safety” was a slap in the the face.

He continued:

McConnell on Tuesday lent the bill firm support, calling it “a commonsense package of popular steps that will help make these horrifying incidents less likely while fully upholding the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
“For years, the far left falsely claimed that Congress could only address the terrible issue of mass murders by trampling on law-abiding Americans’ constitutional rights,” he said. “This bill proves that false.”

Bullshit!

Of course, the Demanding Moms, Everytown, Giffords, Brady, and every other gun prohibitionist group were ecstatic with “this first step” while calling for more “reforms”.

Here, by name, are the 14 Republicans who sold us down the river.

All 50 members of the Democratic caucus supported the procedural motion Tuesday, plus 14 Republicans — Roy Blunt (Mo.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Susan M. Collins (Maine), Joni Ernst (Iowa), Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), and Todd C. Young (Ind.), as well as Cornyn, McConnell and Tillis. Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (Pa.) did not vote Tuesday but issued a statement supporting the bill.

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Text Of Bipartisan Safer Communities Act

June 21, 2022

by John Richardson 2 Comments

I have embedded the full text of the “gun reform” (sic) legislation just released this evening. It is based upon the agreement between 10 Democrat senators and 10 Republican senators led by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC).

If you go to Sec. 12002, you will see that the definition for “engaged in business” which would require a Federal Firearms License has changed. Rather than the prior “principal objective of livelihood and profit”, it is now changed to “to predominantly to earn a profit”. If this is adopted, I am sure we will see many undercover ATF Special Agents at gun shows going after the frequent traders.

Those firearms purchasers that are over 18 but not yet 21 are being thrown under the bus as was expected. It will apply to all firearms purchases including that of a single shot .22 LR rifle. As I read it, the bill imposes what is essentially a 3-day waiting period which is extended if there are any juvenile mental health or criminal record exists. This is in Sec. 12001.

Sec. 12004 deals with straw purchases. We already know that they are illegal under Federal law. However, now adds extra penalties if the straw purchaser knowingly transfers a firearm (or has reason to suspect) to someone who plans to engage in a felony, drug trafficking, or terrorism. Just transferring the firearm raises the penalty to 15 years imprisonment. If it involves the furtherance of a felony, drug trafficking, or terrorism, then the penalty is now 25 years imprisonment.

There is a lot more and it will take some careful combing to get to the rest. If you see something as you read through it, make a comment.

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Protest At Tillis’ Raleigh Office, June 24th

June 16, 2022

by John Richardson 3 Comments

Given Sen. Thom Tillis’ (R-NC) role in the GOP capitulation on gun control, Grass Roots North Carolina is holding a peaceful protest outside his Raleigh office on Friday, June 24th. They were able to get Stephen Willeford, the hero of the Sutherland Springs, Texas attack, to attend as the featured speaker. Mr. Willeford is now the National Spokesman for Gun Owners of America.

The event will be from 10am until 1pm outside the Terry Sanford Federal Building in Raleigh.

If you live in the Piedmont or can get to Raleigh on the 24th, please be there. Remember, it is politicians like Tillis who are the reason the GOP is known as “the stupid party”.

More details in the alert from GRNC below: