Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership: Do We Need New Gun Laws?
Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership:
Ask the average gun buff if we need new gun laws and the knee-jerk reaction is, “Not just no, but hell no!”
That’s followed up with, “What part of ‘Shall not be infringed’ don’t you understand? All those gun laws on the books are illegal and should be repealed!”
Let’s just think about that.
You know rights come with limits and responsibilities. Your right to swing your arms ends at the tip of my nose, right? Who would argue a law disarming convicted murderers in prison violates the Second Amendment? You get the point. Some gun laws are just fine. A five year old can’t walk into a gun shop and buy a gun.
Yes, on cool reflection, some gun laws work and are a part of the American concept of ordered liberty. We control bad elements in society and mete out punishment for bad actors and their bad acts. The worse the act is, the harsher the penalty. You want those laws-
Let’s look at our legitimate need for gun laws. Because laws protect the innocent as well as punish the guilty. That’s especially important now the Constitution no longer constrains Congress. Officials do whatever they please, trashing our rights, ignoring their limits, acting like tyrants unrestricted by “a government of limited delegated powers.” You can fight this using new laws, with teeth, to stop those defilers of our magnificent system.
Here’s how you grow teeth. Instead of a law stating (in simple terms), “It’s illegal to take a gun away from an innocent person” (a toothless statement, but oh so typical), you say instead, “Anyone who takes a gun from an innocent person shall go to jail.”
Now the authorities have to watch their butts because there’s a penalty for violating your rights, not just some feckless statement they shouldn’t do it. We win.
“Kosher” Gun Laws
Of all the groups defending the RKBA, the most aggressive is Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, and even those people support “reasonable” gun control, the type I’m talking about. They’ve identified five Kosher Gun Laws (“Kosher” means proper). JPFO suggests all the rest should be tossed in the ocean:
1) If you criminally misuse a gun, your gun rights can be severed.
2) People who are mentally unfit to handle their own affairs may not bear arms.
3) Until the age of 18, your gun rights come from your parents.
4) You are responsible for the outcome of every shot you fire.
5) Because the God-given right of self-defense is inviolate, anyone who, under color of law, denies or attempts to deny your civil right to bear arms, pays a stiff fine and goes to prison.
See the footnotes and more that expand on these basic rules, at www.jpfo.org.
Other Ideas
No one who reads Handgunner [Magazine] should be a spectator in the struggle to preserve freedom. Find out who your local legislators are and start enacting reasonable common sense gun laws with them. That’s how things get done. What laws? You can read the details of these and more “Model Gun Laws” at www.gunlaws.com/ModelLegislation.htm.
Here are some ideas.
- Constitutional Carry: The right to discreetly or openly bear arms should not require a government-issued permission slip, taxes, paperwork and an expiration date.
- Gun-Free-Zone Liability Act: If you create a dangerous, make believe, so-called “gun-free” zone by simply hanging a sign, you are liable for any harm it causes.
- High School Marksmanship Act: An elective class worth one credit is offered toward your high school diploma, earned after you safely discharge a firearm at a target. “Educate kids on the constitutional roots and proper exercise of the right to keep and bear arms.”
- Protection of Private Property Act: Any legally owned private property may be kept in or on a private means of transportation at any place the means of transportation may legally be. This removes bans on guns in vehicles (without mentioning guns).
And there’s more.
- Defensive Display: Warning an attacker you’re armed is protected by law in Montana and Arizona. Get your state onboard. The warning can be verbal, a motion or reach, or presenting a firearm in a way a person would understand is meant to forestall an assault.
- BIDS vs. NICS: If we must have gun-buyer background checks to stop criminals, at least do it without compiling massive records on the innocent. A simple system called BIDS can do this, and at far less cost than NICS.
- Limited Immunity for 911 Emergency Reporting: If you have the right to remain silent, and the right to have an attorney present during questioning, why are you encouraged to call 911 after self defense and speak into a police voice recorder, to the people trying to convict you? Yes, America needs more common sense gun laws.
Alan Korwin is the author of nine books on gun law. He runs the GunLaws.com website, and is the manager of the TrainMeAZ.com campaign, which you should check out.
About:
Jews For The Preservation Of Firearms Ownership Mission is to destroy “gun control” and to encourage Americans to understand and defend all of the Bill of Rights for everyone. Those are the twin goals of Wisconsin-based Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO). Founded by Jews and initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed, JPFO has always welcomed persons of all religious beliefs who share a common goal of opposing and reversing victim disarmament policies while advancing liberty for all.
JPFO is a non-profit tax-exempt educational civil rights organization, not a lobby. JPFO’s products and programs reach out to as many segments of the American people as possible, using bold tactics without compromise on fundamental principles. Visit www.JPFO.org – Copyright JPFO 2011
HealthCanal Cites Mayors Against Illegal Guns Biased Study as Fact
This week HealthCanal.com ran a story titled, “Gun traffickers exploit differences in state laws,” and cited information from Mayors Against Illegal Guns. While the story notes the findings of a new study by Brown University, much of the information still comes from the anti-gun group, which suggests to us that the study is biased from the get-go.
The article makes it sound like the study is fair, noting:
“The results indicate that illegal firearms flow from states with weak gun laws to states with strong gun laws, suggesting that traffickers are responding to differences in gun laws across the states.”
But consider this passage:
“Using gun tracing data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which identify the source state for crime guns recovered in each of the 50 states, Knight constructed an import-export matrix to measure the state-to-state gun trafficking flow. Knight then classified each state on a scale of weak-to-stringent gun regulation using 10 laws deemed significant in terms of reducing trafficking by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, including legislation on straw purchasing, background checks, and required reporting of lost or stolen guns.”
The fact that ATF’s data was included, as well as that of Mayors Against Illegal Guns seems to suggest that this could be far more biased. Additionally, it made no mention that gun ownership is on the rise while gun crime is down.
Basically this seems like little more than a Mayors Against Illegal Guns study repurposed as “news.”
Slate Magazine: “Florida’s crazy new laws…”
Slate Magazine’s Dahlia Lithwick pulled no punches this week and in an article titled “Shooting Pains,” noted “Florida’s crazy new law preventing doctors from asking patients about their guns.”
“Crazy law” – imagine if other laws were considered crazy? Is this legitimate journalism to declare something “crazy” because they don’t agree? The article adds:
“Patient privacy is already protected by law, and the right to bear arms is also already protected by law. So the new bill mainly just protects patients from feeling bad or judged at their doctor’s office. Now if Florida doctors make their patients feel bad about their guns—or if patients only think their doctors are trying to make them feel bad about their guns—the doctors are on the hook for disciplinary proceedings, possible revocation of their medical license, and administrative fines up to $10,000 per count.”
It seems to us that the media already does a great job making people feel bad about guns – but in this case the media likes to make non-gun owners feel bad about all guns!
Perez Hilton: Do We Need Stricter Gun Laws?
Gossip writer Perez Hilton, in a piece titled, “Awful! Children Shouldn’t Be Anywhere Near Guns!,” notes that a 6-year old boy took a loaded gun to school. This is a serious problem, but it is more a problem of bad parenting than it is about gun laws.
Perez of course sees it another way, writing:
“What do U think about this incident? Do we need even stricter gun laws to counter against this type of thing?”
What we think is that this type of off the cuff blog post from Hilton is “awful.” Is it that hard to spell out “you?” But to his point, what would stricter gun laws do? It would just keep guns out of the hands of responsible law-abiding citizens! We agree, children shouldn’t be near guns – and children should be taught how to respect guns.
But this type of silly post just stirs the pot and creates hysteria.
MICHAEL KRYZANEK: U.S. could learn from other nation’s gun policies
Writing for the Patriot Ledger, Michael Kryzanek, executive director of the Center for International Engagement at Bridgewater State University, offers an interesting commentary on international gun laws. He writes that the United States could learn from other nation’s gun policies. He cites examples in England, Canada and Australia.
But what about Nazi Germany? What about the Soviet Union? How about North Korea or Cambodia? How about China as an example? China today has laws that ban individual gun ownership, but yet criminal syndicates not only have guns but they have gun making factories that churn out AK-47 clones!
And how about Mexico? That one seems surprising to leave off the list. Private gun ownership is tightly controlled in Mexico, and yet the criminals there have no problem getting guns.
Did banning alcohol turn the United States dry in 1919? That didn’t seem to work. So why would gun control?
NRA and CRPA Take on Microstamping
CalGunLaws.com, via our friends at Ammoland.com, is reporting that lawyers for the NRA and CRPA Foundation have submitted another set of comments to the California Department of Justice (“DOJ”) opposing DOJ’s recently revised proposed regulations requiring new handgun models sold in California to be equipped with a “microstamping” mechanism.
If adopted, the new regulations may be used to implement AB 1471, which requires that after January 1, 2010, all semiautomatic pistols not already listed on the roster of handguns approved for sale by firearm retailers be “designed and equipped” with microstamping technology.
Read more at Ammoland.com: NRA & CRPA Foundation Submit Opposition To Proposed Microstamping Regulations
California Gun Laws Official Website
Steven Armbruster: As sheriff, I won’t enforce gun control
Steven Armbruster, candidate for Carbon County sheriff, didn’t pull any punches in an op-ed piece for The Standard Speaker. He essentially called out New York City’s draconian gun laws and said that he wouldn’t enforce similar bans.
Kudos to a candidate for any office that has that level of nerve.
Bloomberg Offers Biased Take on Challenge to D.C. Gun Laws
With a headline such as “Gun Owners in Washington Seek to Weaken City’s Restrictions in U.S. Appeal” is anymore evidence needed that the story from Bloomberg probably has an anti-gun agenda? The article even describes what residents in the nation’s capitol must go through to own a gun:
“Washington requires residents who want to keep a gun at home for self defense to be fingerprinted and photographed by police, provide a five-year work history, and note their intended use of the weapon, among other regulations. Residents must register every firearm they own and firearms defined by the city as assault weapons are also restricted.”
Seriously, a five-year work history? And we like the point about “defined by the city.” Well, that wouldn’t be vague or unfair would it?
Unify Gun Laws Says LoHud.com
Here is probably the most idealistic view we’ve seen in a while, “Study shows need to unify gun laws.” The study of course is that from the anti-gun group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and the editors at LoHud.com seem to believe the hype.
The story offers this passage:
“The research offers rare insight into how even residents of distant states can pay a price for another state’s weak gun laws.” Read more
Gun Collecting: Understanding the Basics of Buying a Machinegun
Separating the truth from the fiction can be difficult at times. When it comes to buying certain types of guns you certainly don’t want to cross into any gray area. This is especially true when it comes to machineguns. Despite numerous misconceptions, buying a fully functional machine gun involves a lot more than merely going to a gun show. It can be a long and often times tedious process, one that includes no small amount of paperwork, and when all that is done, be prepared to do some waiting.
With the kind help from our friends at GunBoards.com they offered some thoughts on what it is actually involved in buying a machinegun. Read more
