gun control

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Two New Bills Introduced In Congress; One Good, One Bad

January 21, 2013 by

Two more pieces of Federal legislation dealing with firearms were introduced in the House of Representatives on Friday.

The first bill was introduced by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and seeks to remove the budget restriction that prohibits the Center for Disease Control from doing “research” that promotes gun control. It has 31 co-sponsors all of whom are Democrats.

HR 321 – Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Co-Sponsors:
Rep Blumenauer, Earl [D-OR]
Rep Capuano, Michael E. [D-MA]
Rep Chu, Judy [D-CA]
Rep Cicilline, David N. [D-RI]
Rep Doyle, Michael F. [D-PA]
Rep Ellison, Keith [D-MN]
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [D-AZ]
Rep Himes, James A. [D-CT]
Rep Holt, Rush [D-NJ]
Rep Jackson Lee, Sheila [D-TX]
Rep Johnson, Eddie Bernice [D-TX]
Rep Lee, Barbara [D-CA]
Rep Levin, Sander M. [D-MI]
Rep Lofgren, Zoe [D-CA]
Rep Markey, Edward J. [D-MA]
Rep Matsui, Doris O. [D-CA]
Rep McCollum, Betty [D-MN]
Rep Moore, Gwen [D-WI]
Rep Moran, James P. [D-VA]
Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC]
Rep Pingree, Chellie [D-ME]
Rep Quigley, Mike [D-IL]
Rep Rangel, Charles B. [D-NY]
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [D-IL]
Rep Schiff, Adam B. [D-CA]
Rep Schwartz, Allyson Y. [D-PA]
Rep Shea-Porter, Carol [D-NH]
Rep Slaughter, Louise McIntosh [D-NY]
Rep Speier, Jackie [D-CA]
Rep Van Hollen, Chris [D-MD]
Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [D-FL]
To amend the Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2013 (Public Law 112-175) to permit research on firearms safety and gun violence.
Referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee

The second bill was introduced by Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL). It would reinforce and clarify that the Environmental Protection Agency has no authority to regulate lead bullets, ammo, or fishing tackle under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. It has 67 co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle.

HR 322 – Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL)
Co-Sponsors:
Rep Alexander, Rodney [R-LA]
Rep Bachus, Spencer [R-AL]
Rep Bishop, Rob [R-UT]
Rep Black, Diane [R-TN]
Rep Blackburn, Marsha [R-TN]
Rep Bonner, Jo [R-AL]
Rep Boustany, Charles W., Jr. [R-LA]
Rep Broun, Paul C. [R-GA]
Rep Cassidy, Bill [R-LA]
Rep Chabot, Steve [R-OH]
Rep Coffman, Mike [R-CO]
Rep Conaway, K. Michael [R-TX]
Rep Crawford, Eric A. “Rick” [R-AR]
Rep DesJarlais, Scott [R-TN]
Rep Duncan, Jeff [R-SC]
Rep Fincher, Stephen Lee [R-TN]
Rep Franks, Trent [R-AZ]
Rep Graves, Sam [R-MO]
Rep Griffin, Tim [R-AR]
Rep Hanna, Richard L. [R-NY]
Rep Hartzler, Vicky [R-MO]
Rep Hastings, Doc [R-WA]
Rep Huelskamp, Tim [R-KS]
Rep Huizenga, Bill [R-MI]
Rep Hunter, Duncan D. [R-CA]
Rep Jones, Walter B., Jr. [R-NC]
Rep Jordan, Jim [R-OH]
Rep King, Steve [R-IA]
Rep Kinzinger, Adam [R-IL]
Rep Kline, John [R-MN]
Rep Latta, Robert E. [R-OH]
Rep Luetkemeyer, Blaine [R-MO]
Rep Lummis, Cynthia M. [R-WY]
Rep Matheson, Jim [D-UT]
Rep McIntyre, Mike [D-NC]
Rep Michaud, Michael H. [D-ME]
Rep Miller, Gary G. [R-CA]
Rep Nugent, Richard B. [R-FL]
Rep Nunnelee, Alan [R-MS]
Rep Olson, Pete [R-TX]
Rep Palazzo, Steven M. [R-MS]
Rep Pearce, Stevan [R-NM]
Rep Peterson, Collin C. [D-MN]
Rep Pitts, Joseph R. [R-PA]
Rep Pompeo, Mike [R-KS]
Rep Roe, David P. [R-TN]
Rep Rogers, Harold [R-KY]
Rep Rogers, Mike D. [R-AL]
Rep Ross, Dennis A. [R-FL]
Rep Scott, Austin [R-GA]
Rep Sessions, Pete [R-TX]
Rep Shuster, Bill [R-PA]
Rep Simpson, Michael K. [R-ID]
Rep Smith, Adrian [R-NE]
Rep Southerland, Steve II [R-FL]
Rep Stivers, Steve [R-OH]
Rep Stutzman, Marlin A. [R-IN]
Rep Terry, Lee [R-NE]
Rep Thompson, Bennie G. [D-MS]
Rep Thompson, Glenn [R-PA]
Rep Thornberry, Mac [R-TX]
Rep Tipton, Scott R. [R-CO]
Rep Walden, Greg [R-OR]
Rep Westmoreland, Lynn A. [R-GA]
Rep Wittman, Robert J. [R-VA]
Rep Womack, Steve [R-AR]
Rep Young, Don [R-AK]
To amend the Toxic Substances Control Act to clarify the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency with respect to certain sporting good articles, and to exempt those articles from a definition under that Act.
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce

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“David Gregory” Clause In NY Gun Law?

January 21, 2013 by

William Jacobson of the Legal Insurrection blog is a law professor at Cornell University Law School. As a class project in one of his courses, they are trying to unravel the new 39 page gun law that Gov. Andrew Cuomo rammed through the NY State legislature.

Jacobson was interviewed by Cam Edwards of NRA News about the new law on Friday. The key point made by Jacobson in discussing this new law is that it is so complicated and full of pitfalls for the law abiding that the intent seems to be to discourage gun ownership entirely. He notes that there are all sorts of ways to run afoul of the new law. For example, Jacobson said that a previously legal “assault weapon” under New York law must now for the first time be registered. He could see someone not realizing this and being stopped with a non-registered rifle on the way to the shooting range. That person would now be a felon if convicted and lose all gun rights.

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“Choosing Between Guns And Words”

January 21, 2013 by

Rob at the SlowFacts Blog had this to say about the gun control laws being proposed by the Obama Administration and how it weakens the citizen vis–à–vis the government.

The Second Amendment isn’t about sport. The Second Amendment exists to keep politicians and law enforcement talking to us rather than demanding obedience at gunpoint. The Second Amendment discourages government officials from using guns when words would suffice. That really bothers some politicians and law enforcement officers.

When we disarm honest citizens, we are choosing between guns and words. We are choosing state sponsored violence over the frustration of peaceful political discussion. By disarming honest citizens, we are telling our government officials that they no longer need to listen to the people. That should frighten us all.

Read the whole post. It is a thoughtful post.

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NC Democrat Party Doesn’t Get It

January 18, 2013 by 3 Comments

Democrats in North Carolina took it on the chin in the 2012 elections. They lost the governorship, the lieutenant governorship, many seats in Congress, and stand at less than one-third of the members of each house of the General Assembly. Given that you’d think that they would be trying to establish positions that would help them regain lost ground.

Sean at An NC Gun Blog reports on how they just don’t get it. Clay Pittman, press secretary for the NC Democrat Party, issued a rambling, stream of consciousness, release attacking Gov. Pat McCrory for calling the gun prohibitionists “foolish” for their efforts to enact a new “assault weapons” (sic) ban. As McCrory correctly points out, all it is doing is increasing gun sales.

When Sean pressed Pittman on his statistics and position, he got a reply that said to check the NCDP party platform and that the state party will support Obama’s gun control agenda. He said what Democrat members of the General Assembly do is up to them.

I think Sean’s suggestion to write and call Democrat state senators and representatives to ask if they support this policy is a good one. My own state representative, Joe Sam Queen, is the only Democrat left in the General Assembly west of Asheville. I think one of the reasons he survived this election is because he wasn’t bad on guns. He isn’t great but he isn’t bad either.

So if you live in North Carolina and have a Democrat state senator or representative now is the time to put them on the spot. Force them to either agree with Pittman’s statement or disavow it. If they agree with it, make sure they are targeted in 2014.

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Obama’s Proposals Attack Crufflers Directly

January 17, 2013 by 2 Comments

The Obama Adminstration’s blueprint for gun control, Now Is The Time, directly targets those of us affectionately known as Crufflers. Crufflers are those of use who hold Curios and Relics Federal Firearms Licenses for the purpose of collecting older firearms. Many who collect these firearms do so out of an interest in military history.

Our ability to collect weapons from overseas that have a military connection such as the M-1 Garands and M-1 carbines in South Korea are directly impacted by Obama’s proposals.

From page 7 of Now Is The Time:

Eliminate restrictions that force the ATF to authorize importation of dangerous
weapons simply because of their age:

ATF is required to authorize the importation of
certain “curio or relic” firearms, and outdated regulations include all firearms manufactured more
than 50 years ago in the definition of “curio or relic.” But today, firearms manufactured more than
50 years ago include large numbers of semiautomatic military-surplus rifles, some of which are
easily convertible into machine guns or otherwise appealing for use in crime. Congress should
get rid of restrictions that prevent ATF from changing this definition, enabling ATF to ensure
that firearms imported as curios or relics are actually of interest as collectibles, rather than letting
these rules be used as a way to acquire fully functional and powerful military weapons.

So if you have a collection of SKS carbines with examples from the Soviet Union, China, Yugoslavia, and other Eastern European countries and need just to get the Albanian variant to complete your collection, Obama says no unless it is in the country already.

Say your tastes are a bit more esoteric and expensive and you want either a FN-49 in 7mm from Venezuela or a AG-42 Ljungmann from Sweden, you can forget it because they both are semi-automatic military-surplus rifles.

I wonder if someone in the Administration can explain just how screwing collectors is going to stop crime in the streets. For some reason, I don’t think so.

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The Ground War

January 17, 2013 by 2 Comments

The fight to preserve our gun rights in the face of the attacks that have been launched by the Obama Administration will come down to who has the better ground war – us or them.

On Monday, Vice-President Joe Biden met with a group of House Democrats regarding the proposals that would be put forth to advance gun control. In addition to laying out the proposals he was going to present to President Obama, he discussed the campaign to get them enacted by Congress.


But Biden did indicate that the remains of the Obama campaign apparatus may be activated in the effort.

“He said that this has been a real focus on the policy and that the politics of this issue, that a strategy on the politics of the issue hasn’t been undertaken yet,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told POLITICO. “He did remind us that the campaign infrastructure is still accessible.”

Not only is that campaign infrastructure still in place but Obama for America is still actively raising money even though Barack Obama is Constitutionally limited to two terms.

In an article in The Atlantic today, Ron Fournier discussed how Obama and his advisers plan to use his personal political organization, Obama for America, to fight for everything from gun control to higher taxes.


Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, a confidant of the president, signaled the high-testosterone approach shortly before Obama’s announcement on guns, telling MSNBC, “The president has the most exciting campaign apparatus ever built. It’s time to turn that loose.”

He speculated that the National Rifle Association is lobbying lawmakers with the names and numbers of new NRA members in each congressional district, gun-rights supporters galvanized by the Newtown elementary school massacre. “If the NRA has a list,” Gibbs said, “then Obama for America has a bigger list.”

OFA is the president’s personal political operation, affiliated with the Democratic National Committee. One of the great failings of Obama’s first term was his inability to mobilize his election coalition to advance his policy goals from the White House.

He’s going to try again.

Gibbs is probably right that Obama for America has a bigger list than all the gun rights organizations put together.

However, the people who have supported Obama in the past have a multitude of interests and causes ranging from economic issues to gay rights and everything in between. By contrast, gun rights supporters regardless of whether they belong to the NRA, GOA, CCRKBA, SAF, or any of a number of state-level organizations are focused on one thing – gun rights.

The Pew Research Center for People and the Press released the results of their most recent poll concerning gun control on Monday. According to this poll, a majority of Americans favor more background checks and a new assault weapon ban. A near majority favor restrictions on magazines. In and of itself, this is not good news. Overall, a bare majority (51% vs. 45%)  think it is more important to control guns compared to preserving gun rights.

Fortunately, the Pew Research Center did not limit their research to just who favored what ban and in what numbers. They also studied how committed and how active supporters on each side of the gun control debate were. The results were interesting.


There is a wide gap between those who prioritize gun rights and gun control when it comes to political involvement. Nearly a quarter (23%) of those who say gun rights should be the priority have contributed money to an organization that takes a position on gun policy, compared with just 5% of those who prioritize gun control. People who favor gun rights are also about twice as likely as gun control supporters to have contacted a public official about gun policy (15% vs. 8%).

While the numbers expressing an opinion on social media or signing a petition are roughly equal with a slight edge to those favoring gun rights, petitions and posts on Facebook don’t get the attention of those in Congress nearly as much as money and calls from constituents.

Make no mistake that we are in a war but it is a ground war that we can win. Those on the side of the Second Amendment put our money where our mouth is and back it up with calls and letters to politicians.

If you haven’t called your Congressman or Senators yet, do it tomorrow. If you don’t like talking on the phone, send them a fax. Indeed fax it to both their local offices and their Washington office. If you don’t have time to do either of those two, at least go to the Ruger website and use their tool to make your views known. Since it went live on Saturday, almost 450,000 people have taken advantage of that tool which sends a simple letter to your congressman, both senators, governor, lt. governor, and state representatives.

And continue contacting them each and every week for the next few months!

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At Least One Mega-State Governor Gets It

January 16, 2013 by 2 Comments

Unlike Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, there is one governor of a mega-state that actually gets it. That governor is Rick Perry of Texas. His comments today on the calls for more gun control make a lot more sense that the hysteria we hear from the gun prohibitionists in and out of DC.


“The Vice President’s committee was appointed in response to the tragedy at Newtown, but very few of his recommendations have anything to do with what happened there.

“Guns require a finger to pull the trigger. The sad young man who did that in Newtown was clearly haunted by demons and no gun law could have saved the children in Sandy Hook Elementary from his terror.

“There is evil prowling in the world – it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds. As a free people, let us choose what kind of people we will be. Laws, the only redoubt of secularism, will not suffice. Let us all return to our places of worship and pray for help. Above all, let us pray for our children.

“In fact, the piling on by the political left, and their cohorts in the media, to use the massacre of little children to advance a pre-existing political agenda that would not have saved those children, disgusts me, personally. The second amendment to the Constitution is a basic right of free people and cannot be nor will it be abridged by the executive power of this or any other president.”

I know he bombed on the primary trail when running for president which is a real shame given his economic record in Texas and his strong support for the Second Amendment. I hope he’ll be one of the speakers at the NRA’s Annual Meeting in Houston.

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Sen. Richard Burr’s Response To Obama’s Call For Gun Control

January 16, 2013 by 7 Comments

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is the senior senator from North Carolina and has been on the correct side of gun rights for years. He released the statement below rejecting Obama’s call for gun control. It is short, sweet, to the point, and unequivocal. I’m glad to see at least one senator from the Tar Heel State stands behind the Second Amendment.

I will fight any effort to further infringe on the Second Amendment rights of American citizens, whether it is legislation or executive action by the President. I am open to having a conversation about ways in which our nation can address mental health issues and reduce violence, but I will not stand by while the President and others try to restrict the rights of law-abiding American citizens.

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I Think My Congressman Might Actually Get It

January 16, 2013 by

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC-11) is a freshman Republican from western North Carolina. He replaced Rep. Heath Shuler (D) who retired to become a lobbyist for Duke Energy in Washington. After Obama’s gun control speech this morning, he released the statement below. I just spoke with his office in Washington and I think they get it.


Washington, D.C. – Representative Mark Meadows (NC-11) released the following statement after President Obama announced that he is moving forward with sweeping gun control measures.

“The recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut will never be forgotten. However, it is shameful that rather than having a serious discussion about the root of the violence behind the shooting, President Obama is using this tragedy as a vehicle for his own political agenda. He made his motives clear today when he used innocent children as the backdrop of his press conference.

“I am dedicated to preventing horrific incidents like the Newtown shooting from ever happening again, which is why I am committed to enforcing existing laws, examining issues like mental health and bolstering safety precautions in schools. We need to put politics aside and have meaningful conversations about the tragedy in Connecticut, but the president circumventing Congress and implementing his own rule of law is not the way to proceed. I encourage the president to change his course and sit down at the table with both political parties so we can prevent future tragedies.”

 While the release doesn’t mention the proposed AWB or magazine bans, the impression I got from staff was that he opposed it. I’ll just have to make sure that he gets a weekly call along with a letter for the foreseeable future. I think this is what we need to do with all our representatives in Washington.

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CCRKBA Responds To Obama’s Proposals

January 16, 2013 by



Alan Gottlieb and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have issued a quick response to the legislative proposals and executive actions coming from the White House on gun control.

OBAMA MISSES TARGET DELIBERATELY


WITH ANTI-GUN AGENDA, SAYS
CCRKBA



BELLEVUE,
WA — President Barack Obama has deliberately missed the target with his
proposed gun control scheme, announced today at the White House,
because it is now clear he wants to blame law-abiding gun owners for the
actions of criminals and madmen, the Citizens Committee for the Right
to Keep and Bear Arms said.

“Suddenly Mr. Obama wants to get more criminal and mental
health records into the NICS background check data base and get a
permanent director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms,”
observed CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Where has he been for the last
four years?”

Gottlieb noted that these proposals have been suggested in
the past and supported by the firearms community, but they have
repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. But now, as he exploits the Sandy Hook
school tragedy, these items are high on his anti-gun agenda.

“Perhaps he was too busy during his first term, while his
administration was running thousands of assault rifles, millions of
rounds of ammunition and countless high capacity magazines to violent
criminals and drug cartel thugs through his administration’s Fast &
Furious program,” Gottlieb observed. “Now he wants to take away our
Second Amendment rights when he and his friends have put more assault
weapons in the wrong hands than all of organized crime?

“These firearms have been used not only to kill a Border
Patrol agent, but also hundreds of people including women and children,”
he added. “This policy has resulted in more deaths and carnage than all
the mass shootings in the United States in last ten years.

“The measures being proposed by the president will not
prevent a repeat of the Sandy Hook tragedy, and he knows it,” Gottlieb
continued. “The initials ‘B. O.’ stand for more than Barack Obama. They
stand for the bad odor of his blame game.”