NRA News: How Are Gun Rights God-Given and Inalienable?
Cam Edwards talk to Dr. AWR Hawkins
NRA News: Ohio State Student Group Asks For Dialogue On Allowing Concealed Handguns On Campus
Cam Edwards talks to Michael Newbern – Buckeyes for Concealed Carry
The Dangerous Power of the Brady Campaign
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!
Who Guards the Guards: NYPD Guards Itself
There is the old Latin phrase Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? This translates to “Who will guard the guards themselves?” And now it seems in New York City the police will indeed police themselves. The New York Post reported this week:
Instead of hitting the streets, cops are being paid to patrol an NYPD locker room.
Police Department brass recently assigned an around-the-clock security detail to the locker room of the Ninth Precinct station house in the East Village, where at least four 9mm handguns, an iPad and even bulletproof vests have been stolen since February, sources told The Post.
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, must find this as ironic as we do.
LA Times Reminds Readers “Corruption” on U.S.-Mexico Border
American gun owners, gun shops and the gun industry are typically targeted as being accomplices in how guns flow to Mexico. But fortunately the Los Angeles Times offered another view in a piece this weekend titled, “Corruption flows freely along U.S.-Mexico border,” which noted:
From a small hill at a state park here, the border town of Palomas, Mexico, can be made out through the desert haze. It lies four miles to the south, but the corruption that roils Palomas and the rest of Northern Mexico may as well be a block away.
Last year, black sedans and hatchbacks loaded with federal agents poured into Columbus, a town of 2,000 people, arresting the mayor, the police chief, a city trustee and nine others. They have all pleaded guilty in a gun-smuggling operation that sold about 100 firearms, mostly assault rifles, to Mexican drug cartels.
This is a story we’ve widely covered, but remains on that has thus far failed to catch much mainstream media attention.
LA Times Story Notes What We’ve Been Saying for Years
One of our biggest pet peeves about gun buybacks is that it is an easy way for a criminal to turn in a gun used in a crime and basically have the evidence destroyed. The media usually ignores this aspect of the story, but this past weekend it was actually noted in a Los Angeles Times story:
“This program has a real function of criminals getting a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Boyer, president of San Fernando-based Lone Star Security.
“It’s immunity. If even five guns were used in a murder, and five murderers don’t go to prison because the city runs this shenanigan stunt, that’s five too many.”
Finally, the media notes what we’ve been saying for years.
NRA News: Rep. Trey Gowdy with the Latest on Fast and Furious
Ginny Simone talks to Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) about the Chaffetz/Gosar/Farenthold Fast and Furious Amendment
Firing Back: Gun Control That Actually Makes Sense
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.
The Wall Street Journal reported:
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.
GOA: Obama Pushing UN Gun Control While Senate Bill Would Cut Funding of UN Small Arms Treaty
Gun Owners of America:
Kansas Senator Jerry Moran introduced legislation to prohibit the Obama administration from negotiating away our gun rights as part of the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).
The ATT is a backdoor attempt to impose massive restrictions on U.S. gun rights. While negotiations on the treaty are being held behind closed doors, it is certain to include language that will:
- Require the registration and licensure of American firearms;
- Ban large categories of firearms;
- Require the mandatory destruction of surplus ammo and confiscated firearms;
- Define manufacturing so broadly that any gun owner who adds an accessory such as a scope or changes a stock on a firearm would be required to obtain a manufacturing license;
- Require “microstamping” of ammunition.
The treaty could also be self-executing, which would mean that it would achieve its anti-gun objectives whether or not implementing legislation was passed by Congress. Read more
Media Continues to Claim Obama Not Anti-Gun
In its Election 2012 coverage the Sacramento Bee showed promises kept and unmet by President Obama. It noted:
-Silent on issue of gun violence after calling for “sound and effective steps” to keep guns away from criminals after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot.
This isn’t quite true. But read the sentence again… note that it says “issue of gun violence.” Really, is anyone in favor of gun violence?
And again, no one wants to see criminals with guns. So not only is it not accurate but it throws in some anti-gun bias in the process.
