Firing Back: Media Ignores Dangers of Trigger Locks
While most of the time we agree that trigger locks are a good thing, especially if you have children at home, we have noticed a new trend where law enforcement has begun a campaign to push the use of gunlocks. The media has picked up on this, but only highlights the worst cases of children accessing guns – such as in a WECT.com story:
“The Cumberland County Sheriff’s office is trying to start a major gun lock campaign.”
What about those cases where an intruder was stopped and the lives of the home owner saved because someone acted quickly with a firearm? Why are these stories never brought up in the mainstream media?
Firing Back: Pakistani Gun Markets Revealed
While liberal politicians and the mainstream media report about getting guns off the streets, in war torn countries such as Pakistan, it isn’t a matter of getting the guns off the streets – it is closing down the gun bazaars and stopping the production of illegal firearms. China might be a nation that makes counterfeit PlayStation 3s and Rolexes, but in the Pakistan border region with Afghanistan near perfect replicas of major firearms are mass produced BY HAND!
CNN.com offers a rare inside look at these markets, which was captured on video by VSB.TV from Brooklyn, New York in 2006. This was possibly the last time that western journalists were freely allowed in this region.
The warning is that criminals and warlords will always produce guns. You can close gun show loopholes, lock up the straw buyers, but keeping guns out of the hands of criminals is as impossible as it is to keep the guns out of the hands of rebels and insurgents. That’s something to think about the next time the media reports on a buyback that took a dozen guns off the streets.
Firing Back: Consider Being In Haiti and Being Unarmed
The disaster that’s unfolding in the Carribean nation of Haiti is still unmeasured in its ferocity. With nearly the entire capital city apparently wiped from the map, the death toll could top 100,000. Mass destruction, complete loss of infrastructure, communications shot to hell and the national police and military facing an untenable catastrophe makes security the number one issue. Factually crime follows natural disaster; looting, cons, burglary, extortion, price gouging and innumerable criminal behavior by those desperate and those seeking to take advantage. Read more
Firing Back: Multiple News Stories Miss Point on NBA Gun Incident
While it still isn’t entirely clear what transpired between NBA players Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton in the locker room, what is known is that firearms were involved. Regardless, the issue is that this is yet another example of the rich and semi-famous getting a different level of standards when it comes to firearm ownership and possession.
Firearms aren’t toys, and whether Arenas was joking when he “challenged” Crittenton to a duel is a moot point. The real issue is that Washington, D.C. is a city where gun ownership is closely controlled – yet these millionaires brandish firearms as it is just so much more “bling.” And that’s just bad news for those law-abiding citizens who actually respect the guns they hold in their hands.
Firing Back: New Year’s Eve Edition
Many news outlets are urging firearms owners not to fire their weapons in the air as part of tonight’s New Year’s celebration, and this is solid reporting. However, many times this coverage seems slightly biased, as to suggest that this is a practice carried on by ALL gun owners.
Of course this isn’t even close to accurate. And our wish for 2010 is that the mainstream media treat gun owners with some respect. Most firearm enthusiasts know that these aren’t toys. The problem is that criminals, gangsta rappers and other celebrities treat guns as if they are toys all too often.
But let us hope for a peaceful New Year’s this year!
Firing Back: Philadelphia Inquirer Offers Snide Editorial, so Here’s my Rebuttal
We all get junk mail, but Leonard Boasberg of the Philadelphia Inquirer made light of it when he received an NRA application and questionnaire. For the record I don’t own a car, as I live in New York City at this point, but I still get offers for car insurance. I also get all sorts of catalogs for things I don’t want. Most of this junk mail I just throw away!
Oh don’t get me wrong. I don’t “recycle” these paper catalogs. I throw them away. Of course I’m being snide and anti-politically correct, and I’m going off topic. But what gets me fired up is that Boasberg notes that he’s a Democrat yet gets junk mail from the RNC. So when he received the NRA package, he made light of it. Good for him. But he goes too far with this point:
“By the way, if I join the NRA (at a special discount of $10 off the regular $35), they’ll send me a special bonus gift: a razor-sharp, rosewood-handle pocket knife.
“A knife? Why not a gun? Maybe just a little gun, like a Beretta?”
I know Leo is trying to be snide, and I get it, but its off topic. In truth it is a stupid question to ask, especially as he tries to “set the record” straight regarding gun violence, and offers all sorts of statistics to back up his argument.
And here is my problem. If you’re going to be all facts and figures and try to make a point, then understand that you shouldn’t make such stupid points in the process such as asking why you can’t get a “little gun.” You lost all credibility with me before you even got started..
Firing Back: Should Bankers Have Guns? Why Not, We Ask?
Look for this to become big news… Wall Street big wigs are getting guns. Well, not quite. Media outlets around the New York City area are reporting that some bankers are applying for pistol permits. What isn’t typically mentioned is that any New York resident, at least those who haven’t been convicted of a crime or have a mental illness, can apply. Many media outlets are also failing to report what a difficult and time consumer – not to mention expenses process it is to go through!
At least the New York Posted noted this much:
“At least Goldman bankers, who can make tens of millions a year, will find the permit fees relatively cheap: Registration and fingerprinting charges total $434.25.”
That’s right. For everyone, millionaire or not, the fees are nearly $450 in New York to obtain what the U.S. constitution says you have a right to own. And note that this is fingerprinting, as in the same type of fingerprinting people who are actually arrested go through. But if Mike Bloomberg had his way, he’d probably make it a crime to apply for a gun permit!
Firing Back: Bill Mann – Please Shut Up!
Leave it to a “TV-Radio” critic to take up the anti-firearm cause. In a post for the ultra-liberal/ultra-wacko Huffington Post (which always sounds to us like they’re going to “huff” and “puff” until they blow away anyway who disagrees with their narrow point of view), Bill Mann has the audacity to suggest that gun collectors consider coins instead. In a counter argument to those who responded to early nonsense that he wrote, suggesting that many firearms are purchased as collectibles, he states:
“You mean, like the ones that killed Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy? Ever thought of collecting coins instead?”
I don’t want to collect coins Billy. Of course Bill the Mann mentions all this in response to the tragic shootings at Fort Hood last week. But the point is that the shooter didn’t even use “collectible firearms.” Why is when a tragedy like this occurs are law abiding citizens attacked and meant to feel like nutters? My firearms don’t hurt anyone. As long as the law is followed, why should collectors be made to suffer when a tragedy happens? Care to respond this time Bill?
Firing Back: Will Other Collectors be Next?
A Staten Island man is in jail. He claims to be a collector, and that he applied for gun permits, and was denied. This is just another example of how the tough New York City gun laws make it tough for collectors.
Yes, it is true that Gary Granato has broken the law. He was arrested for having an “arsenal” that included 77 handguns and three rifles. The SiLive.com Web site reports that this clearly isn’t so cut and dry however:
“Some of the weapons, including a ‘pepperbox’-style revolver with rotating barrels, several single-shot derringers and black-powder pistols resembled guns found in the Old West.”
These actually do seem like the sort of firearms that would be of interest to a collector, and hardly would be ideal for street crime. It is a shame that the police focused on this man, who while he did break the law, or his guns, which hardly seems to be of the type used as an example of guns that should be gotten off the streets!
Firing Back: No Vote of Confidence for Bloomberg
As a resident of New York City I feel less and less like a New Yorker with each passing year. While this is where I have lived for more than 17 years, it also feels less and less like a home. The reason is simple, Michael Bloomberg. His policies on firearms border on Fascist, and he is unwilling to budge. The laws are draconian and only getting worse.
But beyond what Michael Bloomberg does in New York City is really not the issue. Nearly my entire collection of firearms is housed out of state, because I fear that Bloomberg will change New York City gun laws and require me to “hand in” my guns. There is no grandfather clause in New York City. If the laws change, you change with them or you leave. I’m hoping I can leave, and the sooner the better.
Again, what Michael Bloomberg does in New York City is really not the issue. It is that Mr. Bloomberg is trying to change the laws in other states, and on the national stage. I find it ironic because many “lifers” as those who were born and will likely die in this city, complain that much of the old New York City is changing, that too many outsiders are coming in, and that New York City looks too much like the rest of the country.
Well, I say to the old guard in New York, including Mr. Bloomberg, maybe you should keep your old New York City. But keep your hands off the guns of law-abiding citizens, especially those who don’t live in New York City.
And to those New Yorkers, or just residents of New York City, who feel as I do… stay home on Tuesday. Don’t vote. This is a year when Mr. Bloomberg says he needs to see every voter get out. I say instead, stay home and vote by not going to the polls.
