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“Eagle Scouts: Merit Beyond the Badge “

June 29, 2012 by 11 Comments

Cam Edwards had an interview earlier this week with Prof. Byron Johnson of Baylor University. Johnson and his colleagues with Baylor’s Program for Prosocial Behavior just finished a two year study funded by the John Templeton Foundation that measured the effects of being in Scouting as well as being an Eagle Scout. In the interview with Cam, Johnson says that he was somewhat surprised by the differences in terms of leadership, civic engagement, and other issues between those who have attained the rank of Eagle Scout, those who participated in Scouting, and everyone else.

The full study can be downloaded here. It should be noted again that this study was not started by the Boy Scouts nor was it funded by them.

Prof. Johnson’s research was presented this week at the Heritage Foundation. A longer and more detailed video presentation on his work can be found here.

While this study concentrated on the Boy Scouts, it would be interesting to see follow-on studies examine the impact of being in the Girl Scouts and if earning the Gold Award produced similar results to earning the Eagle.

I was both a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout in my youth. At one time I think I held the record in my troop for being the oldest Tenderfoot. However, once I made the decision to get off my duff, work hard, and stay involved with the Scouts, I did earn my Eagle. I actually have my Eagle with the Bronze Palm and am a Brotherhood member of the Order of the Arrow (Tali Tak Taki 70 Lodge). For those of you with experience in Scouting, this will mean something. For the rest, it means I got my act together. I found Scouting to be a very valuable experience and hope boys nowadays continue to enjoy the fun times and great learning experiences it offers.

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“Shadow War On The Second Amendment” – David Keene

June 15, 2012 by 1 Comment

David Keene, the President of the NRA, is also the former President of the American Conservative Union. Thus, it is only natural that he should be at the ACU’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Chicago recently. He moderated a couple of panel discussion which Sebastian discusses here.

He was interviewed for NRA News by Cameron Gray. Among the things Keene discussed were what he termed as the shadow war on the Second Amendment. This war includes the use of regulatory restrictions at the state and local level, the fight over concealed carry permits in may-issue states, the role of certain sheriffs in denying permits, etc. While the interview is wideranging, I found this particularly interesting.

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Rep. Blake Farenthold – Wiretaps Should Have Raised Flashing Red Lights

June 6, 2012 by

Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) was a guest of Cam Edwards on NRA News this evening. The topic of conversation was the revelations today that senior Justice Department officials were well aware of the details of Operation Fast and Furious much earlier than previously thought. The information comes from released applications for wiretaps.

Farenthold, based on his conversations with Chairman Issa, said that “there is enough in there that should not only have had a red flag raised but red flashing lights and a siren.”

More details on the wiretaps can be found in the letter sent today by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to Attorney General Eric Holder.

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Kelly McMillan On NRA News

April 25, 2012 by 1 Comment

Cam Edwards of NRA News interviewed Kelly McMillan of McMillan Group International on Monday about the Bank of America’s decision to drop his company as a customer. Mr. McMillan noted a few things that haven’t come out about the story before.

First, his company and a bank representative have had a regular meeting about this time of the year to do a review. Because of this, he didn’t go into the meeting expecting what happened. He said it hit him “like a kick in the stomach.”

Second, when the banking relationship with Bank of America was started, the McMillan company involved was McMillan Firearms Manufacturing. It is hard to see, as Mr. McMillan notes, how Bank of America could not know they were involved in making firearms given that company name.

Finally, Mr. McMillan wanted to be clear that the Bank of America VP, Ray Fox, did not indicate this was a corporate bank policy. Moreover, he said he had never made a statement himself indicating it was a corporate policy when he posted on Facebook. Nonetheless, the Bank of America VP did say to him that they didn’t want his business because he was in the firearms industry. All I can say is from my experience in the corporate world is that there are written and unwritten corporate policies.

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NSSF’s Steve Sanetti On The Arms Trade Treaty

March 14, 2012 by 1 Comment

NSSF President Steve Sanetti was interviewed by Ginny Simone of NRA News at the recent IWA Show in Germany. This show is the European equivalent to the SHOT Show. They discussed the international aspects of privately owned firearms, the industry, and, most importantly, the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty.

The Arms Trade Treaty is an UN effort that seeks to control small arms and ammunition. Under the draft terms of this treaty, a home reloader would be considered an ammunition manufacturer and would have to be licensed. The previous Bush Administration had told these folks to take a hike but the current Obama Administration has indicated their support for the treaty. All international treaties to which the United States is a party must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Currently, 50-some Senators have voiced their opposition to it.

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Mike Fifer, CEO of Ruger, Talks With Cam Edwards

January 27, 2012 by

Mike Fifer, CEO of Ruger, sat down and talked with Cam Edwards of NRA News. While part of the interview was devoted to the new Ruger SR22 and the Ruger American rifle, more interesting to me was Fifer’s discussion of the Million Gun Challenge and the political challenges we face. He is worried just like many of us about the composition of the Supreme Court after this election.

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Repeal Virginia’s Handgun Rationing Law?

January 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Earlier this week, Cam Edwards interviewed Dave Adams of the Virginia Shooting Sports Association about the potential repeal of Virginia’s one-a-month handgun rationing law.

As Dave notes, when he pointed out to an anti that when South Carolina repealed a similar law to Virginia’s and it hadn’t increased crime in South Carolina, she couldn’t answer his question as to why Virginia even needed the law.

That says it all.