The story of Lt. Augustine Kim is upsetting to say the least, but it is a sad tale of the poor treatment our soldiers often receive. Emily Miller, writing for the Washington Post, noted Kim’s story:
After being injured on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan, Lt. Augustine Kim spent the night in a D.C. jail for possessing unregistered guns.
Mr. Kim was transporting his firearms from his parents’ house in New Jersey to South Carolina when he stopped at Walter Reed in Washington for a medical appointment in the summer of 2010.
After being pulled over, handcuffed, arrested, thrown in jail overnight, his guns were confiscated by the city.
In the end, the platoon leader felt forced to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge, which was later dismissed, but the District still refuses to return to him $10,000 worth of firearms and parts. The national guardsman will deploy to Kosovo this summer. The city should return his property before he leaves to serve our nation overseas for the third time.
Time and time again the media and pretty much every anti-gun zealot suggest that President Obama hasn’t pushed for gun control, or has shown any anti-gun stance. Fortunately our friend Dave Workman compiled just a few examples:
During his first term, President Obama has:
Appointed anti-gunners Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, where they could influence Second Amendment rulings for several years.
Appointed liberal anti-gunners to lower federal courts, where most gun rights cases will be decided because the high court is under no obligation to accept every gun case for review. Their rulings could govern gun rights for several decades, because these judicial appointments are for life.
Reversed standing U.S. policy on the proposed international Small Arms Trade Treaty.
Appointed avowed anti-gunner Eric Holder as attorney general – whose performance was discussed in this column earlier – gave us the Operation Fast and Furious cover-up scandal. Holder will forever be remembered by Northwest shooters as the man who wanted to “brainwash” people against guns, as this column discussed.
Let his bureaucrats push through a multiple sales reporting requirement on long guns in four southwest states because of the gun trafficking scandal.
Blocked, by executive order, importation of thousands of surplus M1 rifles from Korea. (Remember what Clinton advisor Paul Begala once told a reporter: “Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool.”)
Attempted to nominate an anti-gun bureaucrat to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Can you be in favor of gun ownership and national gun control at the same time? You apparently can if you are a career politician like Brian P. Stack, Mayor of Union City and State Senator of New Jersey. He writes:
I am in favor of law abiding citizens who wish to responsibly purchase and own a firearm.
He then adds:
I encourage federal legislators across the nation to put politics aside and sign a uniform gun bill into law. Give our law enforcement officers a fighting chance. Let’s take the guns that are purchased in Florida off of the streets in Union City, Jersey City, Newark and New York City.
So in other words a law abiding citizen would be highly restricted from where they can buy a gun. And yet this doesn’t address that many criminals buy illegal guns on the black market and would continue to do so.
But of course a good politician knows to support all sides of an issue and the center.
Few organizations have more strongly proclaimed their disdain for our right to keep and bear arms and self-protection.
According to a recent FoxNews.comop-ed piece by acclaimed author and scholar John R. Lott, Jr., in April alone, the George Soros-backed Media Matters ran no fewer than 32 articles on its website attacking NRA.
And Media Matters hasn’t limited its vitriol to NRA; it’s been attacking Lott as well. According to the article, since January 2011, Media Matters has criticized Lott in 25 pieces.
Media Matters’ latest hit-job, “John Lott Continues Media Tour In Defense Of ‘Kill At Will’” (http://tinyurl.com/7nwbnou) attacks Lott and “stand your ground” laws, in a feeble attempt to make political hay in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case.
Media Matters and the anti-gun media would have you believe that guns are evil. They don’t want you to own guns and they don’t want you to use them. As such, we can expect them to play fast and loose with the truth when they report on our issue, and we can expect them to continue their vilification of guns, gun owners, and pro-gun laws.
NRA always has and always will advocate the passage and preservation of self-defense laws. That’s what really matters.
About:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
Imagine if a lobby group could destroy your business? Well, this is what is happening in California. This past weekend, The San Jose Mercury News in a single story noted two upsetting events. First:
Just weeks after Pinole banned home gun sales, news that an online firearms business is operating from a Pleasant Hill condominium has gun control advocates calling for city leaders here to take similar action.
“It creates a public safety issue for the neighborhood, and that’s why Pinole is against it and that’s why we’re against it,” said Karen Arntzen, a Pleasant Hill resident and a member of the Contra Costa Chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
The fact that the Brady Campaign can “PREVENT” someone from doing business in their own home is disturbing. But let’s consider this other fact noted in the story:
Pleasant Hill waded into the firearms regulation fight last year after the Brady Campaign raised concerns about a gun store that opened across from Diablo Valley College. Planning commissioners ultimately rejected a proposal to require a use permit for new gun stores because they didn’t believe it addressed any existing public safety issues.
Let’s review this again… the Brady Campaign tried to stop a gun shop from opening because it was near a college! What’s next banning gun stores anywhere near residences? Or any other businesses? This of course is the goal the Brady Campaign has in mind.
But let’s make this point… how many bars are near college campuses all over the country? Yes, we know there have been a few tragic shootings but consider the number of alcohol related deaths, date rapes and accidents that result from just a night at the bar. And yet… if anyone called for all bars to banned near campuses there would be outrage!
Was it really necessary for New York news site Gothamist to mock Steven Holper, the blind gun collector from New Jersey who recently won his right to have his firearms collection returned? Here is how Gothamist saw it:
So justice is blind, but still has the constitutional right to carry guns, especially if her friends at the shooting range testify that she has “incredible” aim, as Hopler’s friends did to CBS.
It then concluded the story noting:
Now that Hopler has his guns back, he should consider finding a Russian waitress, heading down to Honduras for some gambling, and really having a time of it: (video to Warren Zevon’s song “Lawyers Guns And Money”)
How about next time mocking handicapped children Gothamist?
While Ted Nugent’s remakes continue to make the rounds, this week another musician – Dave Mustaine of the heavy metal group Megadeath offered his thoughts:
Mustaine: “When people in Washington say they’re going to take away my guns, they better bring theirs if they’re going to take mine.”
We guess not everyone in the entertainment biz is on the Obama bandwagon this time around!
Normally we are against the notion of gun control. But there are cases where it makes sense and where the Second Amendment does not and should not provide a right to keep and bear arms. One example is obviously criminals. But this week came word that the courts have ruled that illegal immigrants should not be able to own guns.
A three-judge panel in Denver federal appeals court upheld a Wyoming federal judge’s decision to impose a prison sentence on an illegal immigrant in possession of firearms, Reuters reported.
According to the court, illegal immigrants can be prohibited from owning guns, as well as non-citizens in the U.S. for legitimate reasons, barring a special waiver, Reuters noted.
While this particular case is very unique, given that the illegal immigrant in question has lived in the United States most of his life, we agree that it just doesn’t make sense that illegal immigrant be allowed to have guns.
