Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

Via David Codrea, Nedd Scott.

This ended the NRA as it was originally envisioned as evidenced by the massive overhaul of Article I of the NRA Bylaws. This was also the year that a young lobbyist, Wayne LaPierre was hired on by the organization. Now the firearms community would go on the offensive. Carter, now EVP, created the Institute for Legislative Action or (ILA) to lobby on Capital Hill. The NRA was focused solely at the national level with its activism at this time. Carter and Knox’s efforts bore fruit with the passing of the Firearms Ownership Protection Act (FOPA) in 1986. Although it was a major win for the organization its still had its failings. Although the NRA championed its reforms of the GCAs abuses the NRA allowed for the Hughes Amendment to be attached. (The Hughes Amendment banned future machine-gun production for civilians after May 19, 1986 and set the precident for banning firearms by type.) This, and other failures like the permanent Bush import “assault weapon” ban in 1989 can be attributed to Carter leaving the organization in 1985 while the NRA’s political focus was still in its infancy. Future leadership fell back into previous levels of minimal action and this lead up to the passing of the domestic Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) in 1994. Yes, the NRA did voice opposition but in reality it exerted very little influence as the amount of money the NRA used for lobbying and election campaign contributions were a fraction of what they provide today.

Carter’s departure left a void in the organization’s leadership at a crucial time. Wayne Lapierre saw an opportunity and began his rise to power. By 1991, he had earned the position of EVP and saw a need to brand himself and rebrand the NRA. He then created the NRA Foundation, giving a third entity as a means of fund raising. An investigation of the financial dealing of the NRA will also come in a later article. By 1999, he was voice of the NRA even though it didn’t have a decisive direction. Although Lapierre called the ATF “jack-booted government thugs” after the Ruby Ridge and Wako incidents, in May of 1995 he testified before Congress supporting background checks for all firearms sales at gun shows including between private individuals. He has been economically involved with members of the established opposition including Karen F. Thomas who has ties to Hilary Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council.

It’s good to know your history.

Via David Codrea, this report on his daughter.

Axios reports that Ivanka “has quietly been calling lawmakers since the El Paso and Dayton massacres to gauge their openness to movement on gun legislation when Congress returns.”

These calls reportedly included a conversation with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who is preparing to reintroduce the universal background check bill he and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) pushed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School attack.

One of Manchin’s aides told Axios, “[Ivanka] was trying to get a sense of what bills are out there. She had him explain how they drafted the bill, where it stands and what changes needed to be made in order for it to pass.”

The Washington Post reported Manchin saying Trump called him August 5 and “the two spoke again on [August 6], when Trump said he wanted legislation before September, when the Senate is scheduled to return.”

So you can prepare for universal background checks.  It’s not surprising that his daughter had no earthly idea what these two sponsors wanted, what was in their bill, or why it had no legs before.  Next up, Trump is contacting all the wrong people for counsel.

Amid a renewed push for all kinds of gun control following mass shooting incidents in three states over two consecutive weekends, the Trump administration has reached out to leaders in the Second Amendment community seeking their input, a marked change from the previous administration.

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the grassroots Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and founder and CEO of the Second Amendment Foundation confirmed to Liberty Park Press that he had spoken with a “top White House staffer” on a wide range of gun-rights-related topics. He anticipates further discussions.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump had spoken to Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. LaPierre, currently embroiled in the NRA’s internal turmoil, issued a statement that he is “not inclined to discuss private conversations with President Trump or other key leaders on this issue.” That statement can be found on the NRA website.

The same story noted, “A White House official said Trump had asked some advisers and lawmakers this week about whether the NRA had enduring clout amid an internal leadership battle and allegations of improper spending, as well as what his supporters would think of the bill.”

LaPierre and Gottlieb will only lead him down a path to more gun control laws and regulations.  Once again, it’s not surprising that Trump thinks this will bring on board gun owners.  Just talk to their “leaders” and they will “follow.”

He is a Northeastern collectivist at heart, steeped in unions, big government and big programs.  But gun owners aren’t a union, LaPierre is only unpopular because of his refusal to use the power of the NRA to stop new gun control, and Gottlieb loves him some “smart guns.”

Some folks are still in denial, but there are cold winds, and by the turn of the year, we may even see sensible decisions reversed again by the ATF at the whim of a president who thinks we behave like hive insects, following “leaders.”

Townhall.

Donald Trump is a lot of things, but stupid is not one of them. Like all of us, he is understandably horrified by the murder sprees of that progressive environmental eugenics weirdo and that member of Big Chief Warren’s tribe.* But Trump is also keenly aware that any betrayal of his supporters on a literally life or death issue like guns – if you’ve been listening to the left you have a good idea what miserable fate awaits you if you get disarmed and they take power – will result in his wholesale abandonment by his supporters. No, his base probably won’t go vote for the furry, or Doxxy Castro’s brother, or Gaffe-y McOldenheimer. His base will just stay home. Trump will lose, the GOP will lose the Senate, and the left will take over. And bad things will happen to the liberal elite’s enemies, not least of all to Trump and his family.

Trump understands this. And he understands that the media is trying to get him to alienate his own supporters. But so far, he has never stuck us in the back even after the garbage media eagerly reports on his conciliatory talk on subjects near and dear to us in the hopes that it means a betrayal is incoming. It never has been in the past. There’s no reason to believe he would sell us out now.

I hate to break it to you Kurt, but it’s already happened.  It’s a done deal.  It’s past tense.  From the gun rights blogs (like this one), to the folks at reddit/firearms, to one diehard Trump supporter I dined with a few days ago, every single gun owner I know now considers Trump an enemy of gun owners.  Every … single … one.  I don’t know any more Trump defenders among gun owners.  He has succeeded in alienating his base.

And it’s because he already did undercut his base.  Consider: bump stock ban, where he singlehandedly created felons out of 550,000 bump stock owners, support for red flag confiscatory laws, statement opposing the sensible use of suppressors for hearing conservation, and appointment of the former head of the Fraternal Order of Police to head the ATF (who by the way, supported the AWB).  And if reports are accurate, he’s not finished yet.  Give him time.

Get into the game, Kurt.  You’re two years behind the times.

Statehouse Report.

When state lawmakers return in January, senators will consider final reading of a bill that would make it legal to carry a concealed handgun in the state without a permit (S. 139). The bill has already received second reading in the Senate. If passed, it will need to get approval in the House.

Other bills calling for expansion of gun rights include:

• Allowing clerks of court to carry concealed weapons on duty (H. 3073);
• Allowing concealed weapon permit holders to carry on church property, and make it so the church is not held liable in the event of an incident (H. 3774); and,
• Reciprocating all out-of-state concealed weapons permits (H. 4314).

Bills calling for gun control so far in 2019 session include:

• A “school safety fund” (H. 3109) that would charge a 7 percent fee on the sale of handguns to provide for school resource officers;
• Lizzy’s aw (H. 3683), which is a proposal that would mandate the reported loss or theft of a firearm;
• Several bills (S. 154, H. 3248) that would require a 10-day mandatory reporting of criminal cases to state law enforcement (also known as closing the “Charleston loophole”);
• A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines (H. 3206); and,
• A mandatory national background check for any sale, exchange or transfer of a firearm (H. 3059).

You know what’s not there?  That’s right.  Open carry.  Nary a word.

Politico:

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Sunday differences between Republicans are “all reconcilable” on gun control legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week that strengthening background checks and so-called red flag laws “will be front and center” when addressing gun violence in the Senate after mass shootings in Texas and Ohio left at least 32 people dead.

But John Barrasso of Wyoming the No. 3 GOP senator, told reporters Friday he has “a lot of concerns about the due process component of“ red flag laws, adding he doesn’t “want to punish law-abiding citizens.”

Asked about the conflicting responses, Conway said on “Fox News Sunday” it’s “all reconcilable.”

[ … ]

“We can protect people’s civil liberties, privacy, constitutional rights and public safety all at the right time,” Conway said.

“A” can be “not-A” at the same time it’s “A.”  I guess she believes in the tooth fairy too.

So either Trump (or his communications people) sent her out to parrot those words, or she believes them and is counseling the White House (and thus, Trump).

Either way, it doesn’t portend good things and it once again demonstrates that Trump is out to alienate the base that put him in office.

Via reader Mack, let’s play a game.  “We need a mental health database.”  Who said this?  Let’s name names.

Andrew Cuomo:

Democrats should come together with one clear message on gun safety.

The federal gov’t must:

1) Outlaw assault weapons and high-capacity magazines
2) Create a mental health database
3) Pass universal background checks
4) Pass a Red Flag Law

Wayne LaPierre:

None other than Wayne LaPierre has suggested the same idea. Jeryl Bier pointed me to this speech delivered by LaPierre in 2012 after the Sandy Hook massacre. So frantic was the NRA to steer the conversation away from gun regulations that it proposed having the feds keep tabs on America’s mental illnesses instead.

“How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame – from a national media machine that rewards them with wall-to-wall attention and sense of identity that they crave – while provoking others to make their mark?

A dozen more killers? A hundred? More? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation’s refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill?”

Always remember what reader Menckenlite said.

Control freaks love psychiatry, a means of social control with no Due Process protections. It is a system of personal opinion masquerading as science. See, e.g., Boston University Psychology Professor Margaret Hagan’s book, Whores of the Court, to see how arbitrary psychiatric illnesses are. Peter Breggin, Fred Baughman and Thomas Szasz wrote extensively about abuses of psychiatry. Liberals blame guns for violence. Conservatives blame mental illness. Neither have any causal connection to violence. The issue is criminal conduct, crime. Suggesting that persons with legal disabilities are criminals shows the nonsensical argument of this politician and his fellow control freaks. Shame on them.

Wayne is as much of a “control freak” as Cuomo.

Military.com.

Such laws could be used to “identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people not only get treatment, but, when necessary, involuntary confinement,” Trump said. “Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.”

[ … ]

“To put this in perspective, there are over 1.6 million disabled veterans with a service-connected adjudication by VA of mental illness, including one million veterans with PTSD,” he said.

Let me assist Military.com with their article headline.  “Trump backs red flag laws that WILL impact veteran gun ownership.”

Because.  Forecasting the future, witchcraft, sorcery, wicked divination by community witchdoctors who may as well howl at the moon at midnight and throw chicken bones over their shoulder.

There.  Fixed.

Utah Shooting Sports Council writing at Ammoland.

H.R. 8 is sold as a “background check bill” to keep guns away from bad people, but we know from 50 years experience that less than 1% of the bad people who fail the background checks are prosecuted.

What is needed are not more background check laws, but enforcement of existing laws. If bad guys are illegally trying to purchase a firearm, they need to be punished. The lawmakers pushing H.R. 8 do not want to do that. They are not serious about stopping bad people from getting guns, they only care about gutting the Second Amendment.

I stopped reading right there.  Because.  Existing laws.  Infringement.

“This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty…. The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”
– St. George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803

Cited by David Codrea.  His article at Firearms News is full of important commentary on the current state of affairs, and the apparent current support for a new AWB if only enough rulers would favor it.

Don’t miss the fact that Mitch McConnell feels pressured.

“The urgency of this is not lost on any of us,” McConnell said.

But he noted the bar for legislation includes passing the House, garnering 60 votes in the Senate and a presidential signature.

He did not rule out looking at a ban on assault weapons, but noted there is a dispute over whether the 1994 ban that expired in 2004 had showed results.

“It’s certainly one of the front and center issues,” he said. “But what we can’t do is fail to pass something. What I want to see here is an outcome, not a bunch of partisan back and forths, shots across the bow.”

It’s urgent.  They must do something, because politics.  Codrea points out that Trump has jettisoned his base of gun owners.

Since Donald Trump was elected, the gun community has seen the president bypass Congress and ban bump stocks, support over 21 gun purchases, a Department of State over 32-round magazine ban for civilian firearms exports, push red flag laws which destroy the 1^st, 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Amendments, and a complete ignoring of the evisceration of the 2^nd Amendment in the states of: CA, OR, WA, IL, NM, NV, VT, FL, NY, NJ, MA, etc… And then there is his statement that he “doesn’t like” silencers.

Yes, and I’ll point out one more time that Florida received an influx of Puerto Ricans after the hurricane who will likely vote collectivist, Trump won North Carolina by a small margin, and he is in trouble in Ohio, possibly Georgia and perhaps even Texas.  The road to victory in the next election is narrow.

But it’s like that when you have no principles and undercut the very base you used to put you in office.  We are where we are because enough people didn’t ask Trump the hard questions on his core belief in gun rights (or enough people didn’t listen when I asked the hard questions on core beliefs).  It appears he doesn’t have any.

That thing we fought so hard for, the hard won victory that required throwing Eric Cantor out of office, is going to come to pass.  The republicans are all on the band wagon now and Trump is pushing for it.

President Donald Trump endorsed an expansion of background checks for U.S. gun buyers following the massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, but said there’s “no political appetite” to renew a ban on military-style rifles.

“I’m looking to do background checks,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House on Wednesday to visit the two violence-stricken cities. “I think background checks are important.”

While he said there’s not enough support in Congress to re-enact what was commonly known as the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, he indicated he would discuss the idea with lawmakers. “I will certainly bring that up,” he said.

Remember those words: “I will certainly bring that up.”

So now Trump has ensured that he is a one-term president.  Between the bump stock ban, red flag laws, and universal background checks, he has alienated millions of gun owners.

Other pretend-conservatives have jumped on the band wagon as well. David French has never failed to disappoint me.

A so-called “red flag” law fills the gaps in criminal law and the laws governing mental-health adjudications by granting standing to a defined, limited universe of people to seek temporary seizure orders — called gun-violence-restraining orders — for a gun if they can present admissible evidence that the gun’s owner is exhibiting threatening behavior.

Properly drafted, these laws can save lives while also protecting individual liberty. Improperly drafted, they grant the state an overly broad tool that can be systematically abused to deprive disfavored citizens of a fundamental constitutional right.

He then lists a number of things he pretends will ensure against the improper use of this tool.  It doesn’t matter.

French calls himself a Christian.  I will make no claim whether he is or isn’t.  But I will certainly make the claim that he is an ignorant Christian if he is one at all.  He has bought into the wizardry and community witchcraft of psychiatry.  He may as well advocate howling at the moon at midnight on a full moon and throwing chicken bones over his shoulder.

Some Christian.