REPUBLICANS PLOTTING THEIR OWN DEFEAT
VIA MORE GUN CONTROL
BY JEFF KNOX
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Buckeye, AZ –-(Ammoland.com)-
In what twisted universe is it “commonsense” to respond to an atrocity
by passing laws that have not, will not, and cannot have any sort of
significant impact on preventing or mitigating such atrocities?Your elected representatives need to hear from you right now. They need to be reminded that none of the laws currently being proposed would have prevented the latest attack on school children – or any of the high-profile mass-murders of the past 30 years – and that enacting these laws in response to this emotional trauma will do nothing but hurt innocent, law-abiding gun owners, and reduce the politician's chances of being reelected.
From a purely political perspective, many short-sighted Republicans had already been expecting a Democrat wave to slam Congress this year, based on low approval ratings for Congress and the president. That's one of the main reasons we've seen so many of them announce their intention to retire after the current session. If it weren't for the recently passed tax bill, they might be correct. Republicans have done a very poor job of following through on their campaign promises, and conservative voters have a well-earned reputation for turning their backs on politicians who don't keep their promises.
If Republicans had just made a serious effort at doing what they said they would do, they could have forced the Democrats to block them – if they dared – and would have been able to leave that baggage on the Democrats' doorstep. Instead, for the most part they just whined that it was no use to push things to a vote, because Democrats had the votes to block them, so why bother. What few feeble efforts they did make were often preempted by “maverick” Republicans undermining their own party, and shielding Democrats from the consequences of their intransigence.
But passage of the President's tax bill offered Republicans a second chance. It buoyed them in the eyes of many of their base constituency, and once voters start noticing the extra money in their paychecks, should bring a whole bunch of swing voters into the Republican camp by November.
At least that was the thinking until the Florida attack happened, and Democrats and the media started beating their well-worn – and hollow – gun control drum, offering no effective solutions, but leveraging emotions to blame Republicans and “the NRA” (we're all “the NRA” to them) for the atrocity, and calling for congressional action.
So now Republicans are tripping over themselves to again fall into the trap.
A major Republican donor in Florida put out a public statement insisting that no Republican would receive another check from him until they passed an “assault weapon” ban. That's a pretty ridiculous move on his part, but even more ridiculous for Republicans to worry about. Even if this guy gives millions of dollars every cycle, money can't compensate for actual votes, and offending millions of GunVoters in hopes of accessing a few campaign dollars is just stupid.But at least one Florida congressman has leapt into the abyss, declaring that Americans are going to have to give up some of their liberty in the name of protecting children.Weak-kneed Republicans are deluding themselves if they think that voting for gun control will protect children, or their own political careers. The reality is that coming out in support of gun control is almost certain to cost them their seats.
They will not be rewarded by their base for caving on the right to arms, nor will they be rewarded by the anti-rights crowd, which has a much broader agenda. While there are Republican voters who support gun control, few of them would vote for a Democrat over a Republican on that single issue. Likewise, Democrats and left-leaning independents are not going to abandon their other causes just because a Republican politician went along with their assault on gun rights.
This is just a political bludgeon being used to convince Republican politicians to cut their own political throats. There is no upside to a Republican supporting gun control, just as there is no benefit to society for enacting these laws.
Rather than fall into this political trap, Republican politicians need to be educated about the reality of the situation. Democrats don't have any answers. We've tried their way and it has failed every time.
Connecticut had one of the nation's strictest bans on “assault weapons” in place for over a decade before the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary.
Most mass-murderers passed “background checks” to obtain their weapons, most because they had no disqualifying record, and a couple because the system is faulty, and those that did not, generally stole them, not infrequently after killing the legal owner.
Mass-murderers almost always plan their attacks for months or years, picking their targets, analyzing potential obstacles, acquiring weapons, and exploring alternative means of wreaking destruction.
Republicans need to put this issue back into the laps of the Democrats. Rather than try to avoid a debate on gun control and mass-murder, Republicans should embrace that debate, and force the Democrats to justify their calls for restricting the rights of innocent Americans.
Democrats can't do it, because gun control does not work – especially when it comes to rampage murderers.
We've tried it their way, and it failed. Now let's try it our way. Lets stop disarming qualified teachers, coaches, and administrators willing to undergo extensive training and accept the responsibility of being prepared to stop an armed aggressor.
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.
School Safety and the Placebo of Gun Control
BY ROB MORSE
SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2018/02/school-safety-and-the-placebo-of-gun-control/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- “We have to do something.” We’ve heard that phrase time and again from politicians and gun control spokesmen.With some 23 thousand firearms regulations already on the U.S. law books, it seems that we’ve done quite a lot that hasn’t worked. Those ineffective laws don’t stop the urge for more feel-good regulation after the murders in Parkland, Florida. What would really save our students?
We tried mandatory background checks. Those laws didn’t stop the mass murder at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. Background checks didn’t stop the murders at Isla Vista, California, or at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. I chose these particular examples because Oregon and California have some of the most restrictive firearms transfer laws in the country..including mandatory background checks. They already failed, but I expect the gun-prohibitionists to call for more background checks.
We tried gun-free zones, but they failed too. Rather than stop mass murderers, gun-free zones seem to attract these killers. In fact, almost all of our mass murders took place in gun-free zones. The reason is easy to understand. Mass murderers don’t want to get into a gun fight. Instead, they want to shoot innocent victims who can’t shoot back. Gun-free zones effectively disarmed the honest people who were never a threat in the first place. Unfortunately, also we disarmed the honest people who could slow down or stop the murderer. Expect to hear more calls for gun-free zones.
We tried an “assault weapons ban” back in 1994 under President Clinton. The ban didn’t disarm criminals. It didn’t stop mass murders. Dedicated mass murderers got their guns before they committed their crimes, or they got them by murder. The assault weapons ban didn’t stop them in either case. The ban only made it harder for honest gun owners to own some guns, and that is the lesson we haven’t learned.
Before you pass a new law, assume that the people who commit mass murder will break it. Passing another law will only change the behavior of the honest people who obey the law.
The sad fact is that we’re passing laws to make us feel better rather than to effectively stop attacks on our schools. We know what we should do, but doing it doesn’t give us that warm feeling inside. The pleasure of a quick fix, putting more ink on paper and passing another law does.If more laws could stop mass murder, then our 23 thousand current gun regulations should have done it long ago.
We should know better. It is amazing to me that we finally have a generation who figured out that drug prohibition laws don’t work. That same generation is now eager to pass more gun prohibitions. Some things never change.
I want us to change what we’re doing and to protect our children. We need better mental health treatment. We also need armed staff in schools. That is what law enforcement says. That is what we do for the children of elite society, and I think they are right.
Our kids deserve it too.
About Rob Morse
The original article is here. Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily, and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob is an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.
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Pres. Trump Bump Stock Memo
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
Springfield, VA –-(Ammoland.com)-
President Donald Trump released a memo to direct the attorney general
to seek comments on a rule purporting to ban bump stocks. The memo,
states, in part:
“Today, I am directing the Department of Justice to dedicate all available resources to complete the review of the comments received, and, as expeditiously as possible, to propose for notice and comment a rule banning all devices that turn legal weapons into machineguns.”In light of Trump’s action, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America (GOA) Erich Pratt issued the following statement:
“If President Donald Trump’s goal is to ban bump stocks, then that is a gross infringement of Second Amendment rights. GOA has long warned that such a ban can easily be applied to triggers, magazines, or semi-automatic firearms.
“Furthermore, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has ruled multiple times that bump stocks do not convert semi-automatic firearms into fully-automatic firearms. Converting semi-automatic firearms into fully-automatic firearms is already illegal under federal law.
“Additionally, a ban on bump stocks would ignore the ATF’s previous public comment period that garnered over a hundred thousand comments, which were overwhelmingly anti-regulation.
“Banning bump stocks will not stop criminals from getting guns, but it can be used by gun controllers to ban triggers, magazines, and semi-automatic firearms.
“While Trump ran as a pro-gun candidate, this action does not appear to line up with his campaign rhetoric. Instead of further restricting the right to keep and bear arms, Trump should urge Congress to pass H.R. 34, which would repeal gun-free school zones, an issue Trump campaigned on.
“Regardless of Trump’s future actions on bump stocks, Gun Owners of America remains committed to fighting any bump stock ban or regulation — including the use of legal action.”
Erich Pratt, or another GOA spokesperson, is available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a nonprofit lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. GOA represents over 1.5 million members and activists. For more information, visit GOA's Newsroom.
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‘Bump Stock’ Ban “Lawless”
SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2018/02/fpc-calls-president-trumps-bump-stock-ban-lawless/;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research
purposes:
Yesterday, President Donald Trump said that he signed “a memo” directing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to declare firearm parts, like so-called “bump stock” devices, to be illegal “machineguns” without due process or a legal basis in the statutes for doing so.
Just as we opposed the lawless manner in which President Obama often ruled by ‘pen-and-a-phone’ executive fiat, and we likewise object to and resist President Trump’s outrageous lawlessness here.
Last month, FPC submitted a formal letter of opposition to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ advanced noticed of proposed rulemaking on the “Application of the Definition of Machinegun to Bump Fire Stocks and Other Similar Devices.”
In our comments, we explained that the “DOJ and BATFE clearly lack the statutory authority to re-define the targeted devices as ‘machineguns’,” and that these ATF-approved and legally-possessed devices could not be regulated firearms under the statutes.
Today’s order makes clear that the Trump Administration will leave FPC and law-abiding gun owners no choice but to seek a judicial remedy. It is time for the People to wrestle back control of its policies from runaway executive branch officials and eliminate the “jiggery-pokery” of made-up judicial constructs like agency deference under cases like Encino Motorcars v. Navarro, Auer v. Robbins, and Chevron v. NRDC.
Regardless of the venue, the American peoples’ fundamental human rights—and lawfully-possessed private property—are not up for debate. As the Supreme Court held in its landmark, but too-often ignored, D.C. v. Heller decision, “The very enumeration of the right takes out of the hands of government—even the Third Branch of Government—the power to decide on a case-by-case basis whether the right is really worth insisting upon.”
If the Republican-held House and Senate, and President Donald Trump, choose to act on new gun control over the pro-gun rights legislation that the American people were promised in 2016, they will have shown the voters that neither major political party cares about their rights or the Constitution—and that the only real, civil option left is a new constitutional amendment.
About the Firearms Policy Coalition
Firearms Policy Coalition (www.firearmspolicy.org) is a 501(c)4 grassroots nonprofit organization. FPC’s mission is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially the fundamental, individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
