gun control

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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.”

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Executive Actions Obama Plans To Take

January 16, 2013 by 6 Comments

FoxNews has published a list of the executive actions that President Obama plans to take regarding gun control. This list is as released from the White House to the media. It is not yet published on the White House’s website.

Looking over it quickly, No. 14 on the list – directing the CDC to investigate the causes of “gun violence” (sic) – has been prohibited by Congress in their appropriations bills if I remember correctly. No. 18 on the list – hiring more school resource officers – is interesting given Obama’s criticism of the NRA’s proposal for more armed guards. With regard to health care privacy, Obama is opening a big can of worms that will have many unintended consequences. People will be less likely to seek help for mental health issues such as depression. Moreover, I see many strained physician-patient relationships over guns. If my own internist were to ask, I’d tell her to mind her own business unless she were trained in gun safety. 

The list includes:


1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign.

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a DOJ report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within ACA exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

UPDATE: Sebastian at Shall Not Be Infringed examines this list and gives his response to some of these proposals. I would tend to agree this is not as bad as we foresaw but a lot will depend upon how it is implemented. Never forget that implementation is policy.

UPDATE II: Daddy Bear gives his response to the list including a good fisking of many of them.

UPDATE III: Here is a PDF from the White House that gives the entire list plus the legislative proposals as well as their rationale for it.

UPDATE IV: The Everlasting Phelps translates the list of Obama’s executive actions into plain English and SayUncle gives his take on the list.

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Rush To Judgment

January 16, 2013 by

A rush to judgment with ill-conceived and hasty “solutions” seems to be a common response to any crisis. It is what Lenore Skenazy called yesterday Post-Traumatic Stupidity Syndrome.

President Obama will unveil his proposals for gun control (which he calls gun safety) while surrounded by a gaggle of little kids today. In that light, I think it is instructive to think about some other rushes to judgment coming out of Washington.

TSA.

Patriot Act.

TARP Program.

Stimulus Act.

Need I say more?

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Ever Wonder How Some Groups Got Invited To See Biden?

January 15, 2013 by 2 Comments

When you look over the list of hunting and outdoor groups that met with Vice-President Joe Biden last week, you have to ask yourself why one group and not another? Why was a group such as the Bull Moose Sportsman’s Alliance Action Fund invited and not a group like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation or the National Wild Turkey Federation? While the latter two groups are nationally known, I’d wager most have never even heard of the Bull Moose Sportsman’s Alliance Action Fund.

I wonder if their invitation had anything to do with their co-founder and co-director Gaspar Perricone penning an op-ed that supported universal background checks, magazine restrictions, and an enhanced national database of the mentally ill.

Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals has always
been the law. Enforcing that law more effectively must become our
priority. We should start by making sure that all records of dangerous
individuals are entered into a national database, and we should
immediately end the background check loophole.

Perricone says that he opposes a reinstatement of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban “as written”. However,  he goes on to say this.

But that does not mean we’re opposed to keeping dangerous weapons and
high capacity magazines out of dangerous hands. We will defend the
rights of sportsmen to own firearms for hunting, as well as our ability
to protect our families in our homes. But we believe that we can protect
our outdoor heritage and ensure our citizens’ safety at the same time.

Divide and conquer is at the key of Chicago-style politics and so it is with the assault on the Second Amendment. The Obama Administration obviously believes it can turn enough hunters against pro-rights groups by promising to leave their sporting guns alone. That is why a group you’ve never heard of gets invited to the White House to meet with Joe Biden.

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More New Federal Gun Control Legislation Introduced

January 15, 2013 by 2 Comments

Yesterday was the first day that the House of Representatives was back in session since January 4th. Four more gun control bills were introduced to go with the nine other bills that were already introduced on the 3rd of January.

I have listed the bills below in order of their introduction along with their sponsor and the bills working title.

HR 226 – Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
Co-sponsor: Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a credit against tax
for surrendering to authorities certain assault weapons.
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

HR 227– Theodore Deutch (D-FL)
Co-sponsors:
Gerald Connolly (D-VA)
Mike Quigley (D-IL)
To establish a gun buyback grant program. 
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

HR 236 – James Langevin (D-RI)
Co-sponsors:
Matthew Cartwright (D-PA)
David Cicilline (D-RI)
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Bobby Rush (D-IL)
Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
To ensure greater accountability by licensed firearms dealers. 
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

HR 238 – Grace Meng (D-NY)
To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to restrict the
ability of a person whose Federal license to import, manufacture, or
deal in firearms has been revoked, whose application to renew such a
license has been denied, or who has received a license revocation or
renewal denial notice, to transfer business inventory firearms, and for
other purposes.  
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

The Government Printing Office has not received the text for any of these bills. The last bill listed – HR 238 – would seem to be identical to HR 93 introduced by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI).

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Dave Kopel On The Second Amendment In 2013

January 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

Attorney and law professor Dave Kopel was interviewed about the Second Amendment for the Cato Institute Daily Podcast last week. Much of what he says about the presidential power to use executive orders is increasingly relevant given President Obama’s press conference today. In the press conference Obama didn’t rule out the use of executive orders for gun control.

As Kopel points out, Obama would have broad powers to impact imports under the Gun Control Act of 1968 but less power domestically. Kopel does touch upon the reclassification of existing rifles to put them under the purview of the National Firearms Act by the use of executive order.

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Obama On Guns At Press Conference

January 14, 2013 by 3 Comments

President Obama had his last press conference of his first administration this morning. Among the questions asked was one by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. Karl specifically asked Obama “what are you willing to do, or able to do, using the powers of your presidency to act without Congress?”

Obama responded with mention of improvements in data collection and tracking. He then said the administration would be pushing legislation that was “common-sense” dealing with regulation and “gun safety”. He consistently tried to use the words “common-sense”, “sensible”, and “responsible” throughout his answers. He also accused his opponents of trying to fan the fears about gun control.

One thing I think we will be seeing from both the administration and the gun prohibitionist groups is an effort to equate gun control with gun safety. Obviously they are not one and the same but you would never know that from listening to Obama. Moreover, and you won’t hear it from them, but that group “fanning the fears” does more for gun safety through the Eddie Eagle program and other training programs than any of them will ever do.

The video from the press conference is below:

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Not Just Walmart Should Be Called

January 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

Walmart was the largest of the retailers invited (or summoned as the case may be) to meet with Vice-President Joe Biden’s “gun violence” (sic) task force. A number of other large firearms/sporting goods retailers were at the same meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder held on this past Thursday. It is my understanding that the National Shooting Sports Foundation had requested to be at the same meeting as they represent many independent gun shops but the request was refused.

They included:

Academy Sports and Outdoors
Bass Pro Shops
Big 5 Sporting Goods
Cabela’s
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Dunham’s Sports
Gander Mountain
Sportsman’s Warehouse
Wal-Mart
National Retail Federation

Sen. Chuck Schumer has announced he is contacting them to “voluntarily” stop selling semi-automatic rifles with bad cosmetics while Congress debates a new assault weapon (sic) ban. As Schumer notes:


“Since the Sandy Hook shooting, the sales of assault weapons are skyrocketing,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) told The News.

“We have no idea how many people [buying the guns] are mentally ill, or how many are felons,” he continued. “If Congress passes measures to reduce availability of these weapons, those efforts could be undermined by the purchase of thousands of weapons before then.”

Just like it has been suggested that we call Walmart and express our concerns lest they think it is in their best interest to screw gun owners, I’d suggest we call the rest of the retailers on this list. If Schumer can contact these companies, then there is no reason that we as consumers shouldn’t as well. I have assembled contact information for all of these companies as well as other relevant information.

When you call be respectful and polite but be firm in your stance. You don’t need to argue but merely state your case. Make sure the company knows that you’ll refuse to do business with them in the future if they cave to pressure from the Obama Administration on guns. This is different than a corporate decision decides to stop selling a product due to the profit margins.

Academy Sports and Outdoors

Customer Service: 888-922-2336
Corporate Offices: 281-646-5200
Kevin Chapman is Sr. VP for Store Operations 

Academy’s headquarters is located in Katy, TX. They were bought by buyout firm Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts in 2011. Academy has 131 stores in 11 states. They hold 145 FFLs.

Bass Pro Shops

Customer Service: 800-227-7776
Corporate Offices: 417-873-5000

Johnny Morris is the founder of Bass Pro Shops which is headquartered in Springfield, MO. I suggest contacting Larry Whiteley, Manager of Communications at 417-873-5022. His email is lwhiteley@basspro.com. He heads their public relations staff. Bass Pro Shops holds 53 FFLs.

Big 5 Sporting Goods

Customer Service: 800-898-2994
Corporate Offices: 310-536-0611

Big 5 is headquartered in El Segundo, California. Steven Miller is the CEO. Shane Starr is Sr. VP for Operations. Big 5 is a publicly traded company (BGFV) which trades on the NASDAQ Exchange. They have 413 stores in 12 western states. They hold 389 FFLs.

Cabelas

Customer Service: 800-237-4444
Corporate Offices: 308-254-5505

Cabelas is headquartered in Sidney, Nebraska. They have 40 destination stores in 23 states and 3 Canadian provinces. Thomas Millner, former CEO of Remington and the Freedom Group, has been CEO of Cabelas since 2009. Scott William is the Ex. VP and Chief Marketing Officer. Joe Arterburn is Corporate Communications Manager (308-255-1204) Cabelas is a publicly traded company (CAB) and trades on the NY Stock Exchange. They hold 31 FFLs.

Dick’s Sporting Goods

Customer Service: 877-846-9997
Corporate Office: 724-273-3400

Dick’s Sporting Goods is headquartered in Corapolis, PA. They are publicly traded on the NY Stock Exchange under the symbol DKS. Edward Stack is the CEO and Lauren Hobart is the Chief Marketing Officer and Sr. VP. Dicks has 511 stores in 44 states. They hold 470 FFLs.

On December 18th, Dick’s caved to the perceived pressure after the Newtown shootings and “suspended” sales of all AR-15s in their stores. They also cancelled the pre-orders for the special AR-15 made just for them by Troy Defense. I would suggest calling the corporate offices and letting them know what you think of their corporate cowardice.

Dunham’s Sports

Corporate Offices: 248-674-4975


Email Link

Dunham’s is a sporting goods chain that is primarily in the Mid-West. They are headquartered in Waterford, Michigan and have 180 FFLs.

Gander Mountain

Customer Service: 888-542-6337
Corporate Offices: 651-325-4300

Gander Mountain is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota and has their customer service operation in Greenville, North Carolina. They have 113 stores in 23 states. They also own Overton’s, Gander Mountain Acadmey, and 3 Forks Ranch. David Pratt is Chairman of the Board and Interim CEO while Steven Uline is the Ex. VP for Marketing. They hold 114 FFLs.

Sportsman’s Warehouse

Customer Service: 800-286-3076
Corporate Offices: 801-567-1000 

Sportman’s Warehouse is headquartered in Midvale, Utah. They operate 32 stores in 17 states. Karen Seaman is their Chief Marketing Officer. She can be reached at 801-566-6681 or by email at kseaman@sportsmanswarehouse.com. They have 32 FFLs. 

Sports Authority 

Customer Service:  800.360.8721
Corporate Offices:  303-200-5050

Sports Authority is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. It has 465 stores in 45 states. The CEO is Darrell Webb who until recently ran Jo-Ann Stores. Greg Waters is the Ex. VP for Merchandising and supervises store operations. They have 169 FFLs which means only about one-third of their stores carry firearms.