Obama Praised for Vintage Gun Ban

If you have been following FirearmsTruth over the last few weeks, you know that the federal government has banned the return of vintage Korean War small arms to this country. The facts of this issue are like drunk drivers, they are all over the place. What is clear is that the president is being praised for stopping the import of M1 Garands and M1 carbines. These firearms are popular with history buffs and collectors. But because of the popularity of recent WWII movies and TV series, these weapons have become expensive to buy.  It seems that anti-gun zealots are ecstatic over the ban.

As Mary Bargeman of World News Heard Now wrote: “The Brady Campaign is aglow with praise for the Obama Administration, because these people would love nothing more than to take away the one Constitutional right which guarantees all others- the right to keep and bear arms.” Read more

Firing Back: Politicians and Guns – Does the Liberal Media Get it?

Apparently the liberal media will always find a way to get upset about guns, even when there isn’t much of a story. The most recent example is how gossip site TMZ reported that Levi Johnston – father of Sarah Palin’s grandson – stopped in a gun shop while on the campaign trail. Not much of a story there, especially given that this stop took place in Alaska! That in turn was picked up by liberal rag the Huffington Post. Each offered snide comments on the issue – and TMZ even Photoshopped (badly) a rifle on a photo of Johnston. Our “friends” at the Huff and Puff have noted how guns (gasp!) have turned up at various political rallies, as if it somehow indicative of a plot to overthrow the government – instead of merely being an expression of the state’s understanding of the Second Amendment.  

All this begs the question, does the liberal media not get it? Read more

Call for Texas Law to Impede Firearms Ownership: Lower the Drawbridge

Paul Kamprath, a writer for the Austin Liberal Examiner (need we say more?) is calling for a Texas law that would require any gun purchaser to prove that he or she passed a firearms safety course. At the beginning of the editorial Kamprath recalls the story of a recent and unfortunate shooting. A business owner shot a formal employee when that employee returned looking for his old job back. The owner shot the man after a verbal confrontation and was later arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Read more

Firing Back: MSM Fails to Pick up on M1 Rifle Story

Last week The Korea Times reported that the Obama administration has blocked efforts by the South Korean government to sell more than 100,000 vintage M1 Garand and M1 Carbine rifles in the United States. The rifles, which were actually produced in America, were supplied to the South Koreas during the Korean War. So far the mainstream media in the United States has been silent on the issue. But should we really be the least bit surprised?

The MSM has gone out of its way to note that the Democratic controlled congress, along with President Obama have not made any effort to draft new gun legislation. However, there has been no mention of this ban of the importation of the M1 rifles. The irony is that these rifles, which were the first semi-automatic rifles generally issued to infantry soldiers, were in fact made in the United States. Thus these are not a foreign-made import firearm. These guns could be seen as “simply coming home,” and they would appeal to collectors. Prices of M1s have gone up dramatically in recent years. So why the holdup?

As we previously noted, The Korea Times reported that concerns from the United States government included the age of the rifles, and that gangs or terrorists could obtain these weapons. The latter is of course ridiculous as the weapons are pre-World War II technology, and again these would hardly be sold at bargain basement prices – thus not even close to the first choice for either terrorists or gangbangers.

Of course the real question is why isn’t the American media bothering to report on this issue?

Firing Back: Fine Guns are Like Fine Art Too

Perhaps one problem with firearms in this country is that movies, TV shows and video games only depict the worst side of guns. Seldom are guns shown in movies or TV shows where someone defends their home from a break in. If anything, usually the bad guy loses control of his big, mean gun and the homeowner gains the upper hand. This is seldom the reality. Read more

Firing Back: San Francisco Bans Guns, But Won’t Charge Shooter in Homicide

Are we really reading this right? According to news reports the San Francisco prosecutor’s office won’t file charges against a suspect, who was arrested in connection to the fatal shooting of 50-year old German tourist Mechthild Schröer. And yet in San Francisco it is nearly impossible for a law-abiding citizen to actually own a gun! Read more

Firing Back: Maybe the Media is Changing After All

Chances are you won’t actually see more “pro gun” articles from the mainstream media, but the fact is that you might just see less from the MSM and more from gun magazines. According to Daily Finance, gun magazines are on the rise, while the rest of the mainstream media continues to falter. Read more

Firing Back: 8,300 Guns Destroyed But is it a Celebration?

Tamco Steel Mill has hosted an event that turned 8,300 confiscated guns into rebar for upgrades to freeways and bridges reported The Los Angeles Times. Known as “Project Isaiah,” this annual event, which has run for 17 years, takes a “stash of weapons taken from criminals” to the Tamco Steel Mill, where the guns are destroyed.

Said Deputy Bill Brauberger: “It’s pretty exciting and very visual.” We think it is sad and unnecessary. Read more

WALB News Fair in Firearms Sale Story — To a Point

Recent crime in Albany, GA has spurred gun sales to local business owners and employees. When I read the headline from WALB’s site I figured it would be another attack on the dangers of gun ownership. But Georgia isn’t New York.

District Attorney Greg Edwards supports the local population buying handguns for self-protection, as long it is done responsibly. If only the mayors of Chicago and New York were this reasonable the gun rights issue could be settled.

The problem I have with the story comes at the end when the same statistical clap-trap is listed as though authoritative. It starts with a bullet point about FBI statistics that show gun sales between 2008 and 2009 are up 10%. And that four people are killed by firearms every hour. (Is this in just the U.S. or worldwide? Are all those killed victims or does this include dead criminals and suicides?) What the WALB story doesn’t tell the reader that over that same time period the number of per capita murder rate in big cities decreased by 12%. The rest of the nation saw an 8% drop in the murder rate.

Jackie Sizemore, owner of Backwoods Outdoors, gets it right. “Desperate things are happening, and it’s making people nervous. You know it’s made us nervous. We know we are vulnerable. But we’re prepared too,” Sizemore said.

Firing Back: Questioning the Second Amendment

Another round of news stories, editorials and blog posts have appeared since the Supreme Court ruling two weeks ago. All too often the mainstream media continues to go all out with biased reports questioning the intention of the Second Amendment in regards to firearms.

It is dangerous, at least in our opinion, to question the logic of the Second Amendment in regards to the times of the Founding Fathers without thinking of what it means. Here are some points we continue to see:

• The wording means a militia as in the National Guard should have guns, not individuals. But this isn’t accurate, not when you consider that it was mostly individual’s guns who were used to fight the war, notably in its early days. Likewise, the Founding Fathers made no attempt to take the guns away from the population following the conflict. There were no “buybacks” to get guns off the cobblestone streets; there were no amnesties or other events. The guns went home with the people, and that was the intention of the Founding Fathers.
• The Founding Fathers say the MSM couldn’t have envisioned how lethal guns could become. Actually this argument is made time and time again, but the truth is that at the time even a minor wound from a musket ball could be a death sentence. Soldiers today can survive far worse wounds thanks to modern medicine. The Founding Fathers had sent he carnage of the American Revolution and they were men who know how deadly the arms could be, so this is an extremely weak argument.
• TheFounding Fathers also say the MSM couldn’t have envisioned the technological improvements of guns. Another point, a play on the previous one, is that that the Founding Fathers couldn’t have known we’d have semi-automatic handguns with magazines and other high-powered weapons. So clearly the argument is made that if they had known, they’d want these items banned. But the counter point is that the Founding Fathers had no way to know about radio, TV or the Internet. The Founding Fathers would not have approved of much of the content that is on the media today. So to say that more modern guns aren’t protected suggests that the First Amendment is only valid to newspaper and printed material in guaranteeing freedom of the press.

That’s just our take on the issue, and no doubt others will see it quite differently. As we’ve said we doubt we’ve heard the end of this debate. Feel free to weigh in.

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