Washington Times Special Second Amendment Foundation Section On Gun Rights

7/29/2019 Washington Times Special Second Amendment Foundation Section On Gun Rights

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Second Amendment, Bill of Rights,Te Constitution of the United States.

he Right o

Keep And BearArms Shall Not

Be Infringed.

Selections Reprinted From the Commentary Section of The Washington Times

Presented by

SecondAmendment

Foundation


2/12

ThursDAY, FebruArY 28, 2013PAGE 2

Joe,Congratulations on your appointment tolead a presidential commission to end gun-related violence.

As a National Rie Association boardmember, husband, ather, grandather, lawenorcement ocer and genuinely concernedAmerican, I too want nothing more than tosee evil, senseless massacres stopped. I concurwith the president and caring people every-where: Its time to end these slaughters.

As you gather your team to study massacresand how to stop them, I oer to you my ser-vices and a lietime o expertise on guns in alltheir implementations. While I strongly dierwith President Obama on many issues, I agreewith him that we must work with all we canpossibly muster to end these tragedies.

As you begin to ormulate your thoughtson how to proceed with your task, I hopeyour starting point is to provide the presidentwith the acts regarding these slaughters andto oer him common-sense recommenda-tions that are void o a political agenda andwill actually make a meaningul dierence. Ithe American people smell a political agendahere, that will only bog down our eorts.

In the spirit o goodwill and a deep desire toend gut-wrenching, incredibly sad and sense-less rampages, I oer you the ollowing rec-ommendations:

I encourage you to persuade the presidentto lead this eort by providing a numbero public service announcements. Te an-nouncements should include watching outor each other, encouraging parents to bemore involved in their childrens lives regard-ing entertainment choices, and knowing vari-ous indicators we should watch or in peoplewho are unstable.

Clearly, the ocus on solving these massmurders must be on the mentally ill. In al-most every instance o mass killing, therewere ample red ags and warning alarms thateither were avoided or were not acted upon bymental health proessionals, amily members,riends and acquaintances. While I deeply re-spect an individuals privacy and civil liberties,the American people need basic awareness owhat indicators to look or regarding poten-tially violent, psychotic people. Our collectivesaety begins with being collectively vigilant.

You will nd in your assessment that allo the massacres have occurred in gun-ree

zones. What gun-ree zones create is an en-vironment where good people are unarmedand virtually deenseless against an unstableperson intent on committing mass murder.Gun-ree zones are modern killing elds. Iimplore you to recommend that Congresspass a law to ban gun-ree zones immediately.

Just like your ull-time, armed security de-tail, qualied citizens with authorized, legalconcealed-carry permits should be able tocarry weapons virtually everywhere to protectthemselves, their loved ones and innocents.

I also implore you to strongly consider rec-ommending that trained school ocials haveaccess to weapons to protect students. Just asairline pilots may have access to a weapon toprevent another Sept. 11 mass murder, schoolocials also should be trained to stop shoot-ing sprees at our schools.

I dont encourage you to recommend a banon any weapon, magazine capacity or type oammunition. Tat wont accomplish anythingother than prevent the 99.9 percent o respon-sible, law-abiding Americans rom enjoyingthese modern weapons as we do now. Weshould never recommend or develop pub-lic policy that restricts the rights o the good

guys based upon what evil people do or mightdo. I that were the case, alcohol still would bebanned. As you may know, drunk drivers killan estimated 12,000 Americans each year andhurt tens o thousands more.

I encourage you also to keep this mis-named gun violence in perspective. Whileall deaths are tragic, the vast majority o gun-related murders and violence are committedby gang members who do not use guns thatlook like - but do not perorm like - militaryassault weapons. Te majority o crimes thatinvolve a rearm are committed with hand-guns. I concurred with you back in 2008when you stated, I [Mr. Obama] tries to oolwith my Beretta, hes got a problem. I trustyou still maintain those sentiments.

Again, I oer you my services and a lie-time o expertise. I look orward to hearingrom you.

Sincerely,ed Nugented Nugent is an American rock n roll,

sporting and political activist icon. He is theauthor o ed, White, and Blue: Te NugentManiesto and God, Guns & Rock N Roll(Regnery Publishing).

January 1, 2013 uesday

Open letter to Joe Biden on gunsGun control wont save lives

By ed Nugent SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMES

January 4, 2013

Seven mass shootings in 2012 most since 1999

Recognizing warning signs key to preventionBy Grant Duwe SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMESI it seemed like 2012 was an especially bad

year or mass public shootings, thats because itwas. Mass public shootings had been on the de-cline in the United States since the 1990s. Teseven in 2012 were the most since 1999, whichalso had seven cases. More victims were killedand wounded in mass shootings in 2012 thanin any previous year.

Its unclear whether 2012 is the bellwethero a more ominous trend in mass murder.What is clear, however, is that theres been littlevariation in our responses to high-prole masspublic shootings over the last ve decades. Al-though mass shootings have occasionally pro-

voked debates over issues such as violent videogames, hate crimes or bullying, the publicdiscussion has, by and large, concentrated onguns. Te main points raised in 1966 ollowingthe mass murder committed by Charles Whit-man, which was the rst one that ignited wide-spread debate over gun control, remain largelythe same today. Due to the entrenched debateover gun control, though, neither side has beenable to make much progress over the years. Agood example o this tug-o-war is the passageo the ederal assault weapons ban in 1994and its expiration 10 years later.

Te recent loss o young, innocent and pre-cious lives in Newtown, Conn., may packenough emotional power to engender enact-ment o new gun laws, including reinstatement

o the assault weapons ban. Yet we should askourselves a critical question: When it comesto reducing the incidence or severity o masspublic shootings in the United States, wouldtightening or loosening gun control legislation

make a signicant dierence either way? Prob-ably not. On the one hand, when the incidenceo mass public shootings began to increase dur-ing the 1980s and 1990s, rates o gun owner-ship were relatively stable. On the other hand,peer-reviewed research has demonstrated thatright to carry concealed rearms laws do nothave a signicant impact on mass shootings.

Our myopia over guns, however, may ulti-mately be counterproductive, because it divertsattention rom areas where it might actually bepossible to make a dierence. Rather than theshooter erupting without warning or snap-ping, mass shootings are ofen preceded by

a great deal o planning and deliberation inwhich there are multiple warning signs thatprovide an opportunity to intercede. For in-stance, as mass public shooters are contem-plating their attack and brooding about thosewho have, in their eyes, wronged them, theyrequently make verbal or written threats oviolence. O the more than 150 mass shootingsin the United States over the last century, nearlyone-third involved the shooter communicatingviolent threats beore the attack.

We havent always done a good job o takingthreats seriously. When Joe Wesbeckers co-workers heard gunre at the Standard-Gravureplant in Louisville, Ky., on the morning o Sept.1, 1989, they knew that Crazy Joe had re-turned to make good on the violent threats he

had been expressing or months. Beore ClifonMcCree killed ve o his ormer co-workers inFlorida in 1996, he had repeatedly threatenedthem by promising, I you mess with my job, Iwill take you out.

Since the 1990s, especially afer Columbine,schools and workplaces have generally beenmore likely to take threats seriously, whichmay have contributed to the recent over-all decline in mass shootings. Over the lastdecade, a number o school and workplaceshooting plots were thwarted because threatswere promptly reported to authorities, as evi-denced most recently in Maryland ollowingthe Aurora, Col., shooting.

Notwithstanding the strides made in re-sponding to threats, theres still room or im-provement. One area that warrants increasedattention involves the connection we ofen see

between mental illness and mass public shoot-ings. More than hal o the killers in mass shoot-ings over the past century were beset by seriousmental illness (most ofen severe depression orparanoid schizophrenia), a rate thats at leastve times higher than that estimated or thegeneral population.

O these mentally ill mass shooters, a littlemore than one-third sought or received mentalhealth care prior to the attack, which suggeststwo things: First, we need to reduce the rate ountreated serious mental illness. Te treatmentgap among mass shooters is high, but its alsoconsistent with research showing that the rateo untreated serious mental illness is greater ormales (who have committed nearly all o themass public shootings in this country), and is

higher in the United States compared to mostother Western countries.Second, we can also do a better job o as-

sessing risk among those who come to theattention o mental health care proession-

als. Accurately predicting who will commit amass shooting is challenging, to say the least,because it is, ortunately, very rare (an averageo nearly our per year in the United Statessince 1980). Te emergence o machines thatlearn, along with advances in statistical mod-eling, has opened up new possibilities in thecreation o prediction tools. Within the lastve years, or example, weve seen the devel-opment o prediction instruments or rst-time, low-requency criminal events such ashomicides among Philadelphia probationersand sexual oenses among released prisonerswithout a prior sex oense history.

o be clear, though, there are no easy solu-tions to this problem. Not all mass shootersdemonstrate easily observable behavior thataugurs the attack. Still, there are quite a ewmentally ill, suicidal and socially isolated massshooters who make violent threats, have su-ered the loss o an important relationship orhave recently experienced ailure at work orschool.

Passing new gun laws may hold symbolicimportance. Yet i we truly want to reduce masspublic shootings, we need to consider preventa-tive strategies that tap into the roots o extremeviolence. Striving to improve our assessment,identication and management o those at risko committing this type o violence would be agood place to start.

Grant Duwe is director o research and evalu-ation at the Minnesota Department o Correc-tions. Te views expressed are his own.

Te Washington Metropolitan Police

Department (MPD) inquiry into whetherNBCs David Gregory possession on na-tional V o an illegal 30-round high-capacity magazine has been ongoing orthree weeks. Meanwhile, U.S. Army veteranJames Brinkley is still grappling with theallout rom his arrest last year on the samecharge. Mr. Brinkleys story is just one ex-ample o at least 105 individuals who, un-like Mr. Gregory, were arrested in 2012 orhaving a magazine that can hold more than10 rounds.

On Sept. 8, Mr. Brinkley says he intendedto drop his wie and young children at theWhite House or a tour and then head to ashooting range to practice or the U.S. Mar-shals Service test. Just like Mr. Gregory, Mr.Brinkley called MPD in advance or guid-ance on how he could do this legally. Mr.

Brinkley was told that the gun had to be

unloaded and locked in the trunk, and hecouldnt park the car and walk around. Un-like Mr. Gregory, Mr. Brinkley ollowed thepolice orders by placing his Glock 22 in abox with a big padlock in the trunk o hisDodge Charger. Te two ordinary, 15-roundmagazines were not in the gun, and he didnot have any ammunition with him.

As he was dropping o his amily at 11a.m. on the corner o Pennsylvania Avenue,Mr. Brinkley stopped to ask a Secret Serviceocer whether his wie could take the ba-bys car seat into the White House. Te o-cer saw Mr. Brinkley had an empty holster,which kicked o a trac stop that ended ina search o the Chargers trunk. Mr. Brin-kley was booked on two counts o highcapacity magazine possession (these areordinary magazines nearly everywhere else

in the country) and one count o possessing

an unregistered gun.Despite the evidence Mr. Brinkley hadbeen legally transporting the gun, his attor-ney Richard Gardiner said the D.C. Oceo the Attorney General wouldnt drop it.Tis is the same oce now showing apparentreluctance to charge Mr. Gregory. Mr. Brin-kley reused to take a plea bargain and admitguilt, so the matter went to trial Dec. 4. Tejudge sided with Mr. Brinkley, saying he hadmet the burden o proo that he was legallytransporting. Mr. Brinkley was ound notguilty on all rearms-related charges, includ-ing or the high-capacity magazines, andhe was lef with a $50 trac ticket.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovantold Te Washington imes, We eel it wasa valid arrest, and the appropriate chargeswere brought. Moments later, a spokes-

man or the D.C. attorney generals oce,

ed Gest, called and provided the exactsame quote. Mr. Gest added that, despiteMr. Brinkleys acquittal, the ruling doesntmean the judge is right, and were wrong.

Mr. Brinkley believes the Meet the Pressanchor is receiving special treatment be-cause o his high-prole job. Im an aver-age person, Mr. Brinkley said in an exclu-sive interview with Te Washington imes.Tere seems to be a law or us and a law orthe upper echelon. Mr. Brinkley was pub-licly humiliated, thrown in jail and orced tospend money to deend himsel or violat-ing a law that millions o viewers watchedthe NBC anchor violate. I D.C. is going tohave this pointless law, it should at least beenorced airly.

January 7, 2013

I youre not David Gregory ...D.C. prosecutes ordinary Americans or high-capacity magazines

By Emily Miller, Senior Editor or Opinion, HE WASHINGON IMES


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PAGE 3ThursDAY, FebruArY 28, 2013

Owning frearms is aFirst Amendment exercise, too!

By Alan Gottlieb

Following the hysteria generated

by gun prohibitionists in the wake

of the Sandy Hook tragedy, a na-

tionwide rush on gun stores began

as citizens bought semiautomatic

modern sporting ries, handguns

and ammunition, in effect making a

political statement about proposals

to ban such rearms.

Making political statements is

what the First Amendment is all

about.

The so-called assault rie has

become a symbol of freedom and

the right of the people to speak outfor the entire Bill of Rights. Banning

such rearms, which are in common

use today, can no longer be viewed

exclusively as an infringement on the

Second Amendment, but must also

be considered an attack on the First

Amendment.

Many people now feel that own-

ing a so-called assault rie without

fear of government conscation de-

nes what it means to be an Amer-

ican citizen. Their backlash against

knee-jerk extremism is a natural

reaction to overreaching government.

What should one expect in re-

sponse to this heightened rhetoricand legislative hysteria? Citizens

in other countries react differently

to government intrusion into their

lives, but Americans are uniquely

independent. Among firearms own-

ers, talk of gun bans and attempts

to limit ones ability to defend

himself or herself against multiple

attackers by limiting the number

of rounds they can have in a pistol

or rifle magazine turns gun owners

into political activists.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

did not intend her gun ban propos-

al to cause skyrocketing sales ofsemiautomatic rifles and pistols,

but tha ts what happened. She must

live with the consequences of her

shameless political exploitation of

the Sandy Hook tragedy.

President Barack Obama never

envisioned the rush to purchase

rifle and pistol magazines, but

telling American citizens they

shouldnt have something is like

sending a signal they need to ac-

quire those things immediately.

Vice President Joe Biden never

imagined his efforts would result

in a tidal wave of new members

and contributions to gun rightsorganizations, making the firearms

community stronger and more

united in opposition to any assault

on the Second Amendment.

Freedom of association is also

protec ted by the First Amendment.

Perhaps they should take a

day off and visit the monuments

at Lexington and Concord, and

reflect on what prompted those

colonists to stand their ground.

It was the first time in American

history that the government moved

to seize arms and ammunition from

its citizens, and it went rather bad-ly for the British.

Beneath the surface many

Americans are convinced that we

may be approaching a point when

the true purpose of the Second

Amendment is realized. Under-

scoring this is a new Pew Research

Center poll that, for the first time,

shows a majority (53 percent) of

Americans believe the government

is a threat to their rights and free-

doms.

Exacerbating the situation is

a perceived indifference from the

administration toward the rights of

firearms owners who have commit-ted no crime, but are being penal-

ized for the acts of a few crazy

people.

It is time to lower the rhetoric

and allow cooler heads to prevail.

The demonization of millions of

loyal, law-abiding Americans and

the firearms they legally own must

cease. If we are to have a rational

dialogue about firearms and vio-

lent crime, we must recognize that

the very people who could be most

affected have a First Amendment

right to be heard.

Recall the words of AbrahamLincoln, who cautioned us more

than 150 years ago that A house

divided against itself cannot stand.

A half-century before him, Benja-

min Franklin taught us that Those

who would give up essential liberty

to purchase a little temporary safety

deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Their spirits are calling to us

now.

Alan Gottlieb is founder and ex-

ecutive vice president of the Second

Amendment Foundation.


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Tere is a new year stampede developingthat we have not seen or a long time.Gun stores are swamped with panicking

customers. Tey are looking or handguns,semi-automatic ries and as much ammu-nition as they can aord. Buyers are not justcamouaged hunters, conspiracy theoristsand gun hoarders. Instead, many o thosepurchasing rearms and ammo are so-called ordinary people, convinced that thisadministration will soon begin to centrallyregister - and then ban - ar more than as-sault ries.

Tere were probably lots o reasons whyAdam Lanza shot 26 innocent childrenand adults at the Sandy Hook ElementarySchool in Newtown, Conn. So ar, however,the government and media are not ocus-ing much on his prior obsessions with vio-lent video games, on societys seeming in-ability to hospitalize the unstable, or on thecrude violence peddled in Hollywood andthrough popular music that portrays shoot-ing people as a sort o cheap antasy withoutconsequences.

Instead, the administration is zeroing inon the ability o Lanzas mother to legallybuy semi-automatic weapons that her sonthen stole to murder her, schoolchildrenand school employees. Te result is a pan-demic o ear that the Second Amendment

will be reinterpreted and redened as nev-er beore.With the resolution o the scal cli, tax-

es on those who make more than $400,000are going to rise considerably, as they willrevert to the Clinton-era income tax rates.Only this time the landscape is radicallydierent.

Tere will not be much decit reductionand certainly no balanced budgets, addinginsult to injury or those who must pay thegovernment ar more.

Te new, higher rates also come on top ostate income tax hikes in many states - a ll inaddition to urther increases in capital gainstaxes and new Obamacare taxes. Te resultis not just a 3 percent to 5 percent increaseon the well-o. For some payers there willbe various aggregate hikes o 7 percent to 8percent or even more.

No wonder many companies are rushingto pay dividends now to beat rising capital-gains tax rates. Likewise, many individualsare considering expensive, new lie insur-ance policies to protect their heirs romlosing small arms and business to ederalestate taxes that may soon increase dramati-cally. Red states will attract even more reu-gees eeing high-tax and nearly insolventblue states.

Most Americans are already seeing their

health insurance premiums shoot up, inanticipation o the 2014 ederal takeover ohealth care. o pay or the vast Obamacareprograms - whose details remain a mysteryor most - money will be raised in all sortso bizarre ways, rom reducing Medicarecoverage to taxing new medical devices andsome drugmakers.

A sense o oreboding hangs over the cur-rently insured. Almost everyone is unsurewhether the new ederal statutes will stillcover currently covered procedures - orwhether they will be rationed or curtailedaltogether. Expect many people to schedulecheck-ups and major medical procedures in2013 beore Obamacare kicks in.

Tere is a common denominator thatunderlies all this multiaceted uncertainty.Fairly or not, there is a sense that those whoplayed by the rules and did well instead havedone something wrong, or at least are un-der suspicion, and it is now time or theirgovernment to seek atonement rom them.Worse still is the dread that the governmentsnew policies and taxes will not solve prob-lems, but may make them worse and prompteven more government engineering.

For the law-abiding gun owner, the eder-al government may make it more dicult tobuy legal arms - even though there is littleevidence that gun restrictions have stopped

shootings, and some evidence that stateswith lots o armed citizens have lower crimerates. I the semi-automatic rie ban doesnot work, what gun is next to be banned tostop violence?

Most well-o taxpayers add up their lo-cal, state, ederal, payroll and capital gainstaxes and eel they really have paid theirair share. Tey all know that handingover more wont solve the scal crisis, butinstead only empowers more governmentdecit spending. I new taxes on some wontstop decits, whats next?

Finally, those who budgeted and provid-ed their own health insurance eel that thenew restrictions and higher taxes on theircoverage are the costs o subsidizing manywho could have bought, but chose not tobuy, their own health insurance.

Te ability o citizens to protect theirhouseholds, to keep at least hal their earn-ings sae rom various government taxes,and to use their own judgment in makinghealth care decisions is central to a reepeople. No wonder the ear that a radicallygrowing government will inringe on suchtraditional reedoms is sending millions oAmericans stampeding in all directions.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and his-torian at the Hoover Institution.

January 7, 2013

New Year, new loss o personal reedoms2013 bodes more government takeover

By Victor Davis Hanson SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMES

In the wake o the December schoolshooting in Newtown, Conn., politiciansand journalists who hate to see guns inthe hands o ordinary citizens turned intoa raving mob who sensed that victory overtheir enemies was near.

Reality is now starting to set in. Tereare several reasons why we probably wont

see any new laws and certainly no laws thatwill prevent school attacks. Te rst reasonis that the American people are now seeingthe hypocrisy and dishonesty o the anti-gun lobby.

For years, we have been promised thatPresident Obama and his party would nev-er move against lawul gun owners. Nowthat he is not acing any more elections, thepromise is orgotten. Who doubts that thiswas the plan all along?

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Caliornia Demo-crat, is about to introduce the most restric-tive weapons ban in American history. Gov.Andrew Cuomo o New York has said thatconscation may be an option. New YorkCity Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is apo-plectic at the thought o revolting peasantsout there he cant control. All o these poli-

ticians are protected by armed guards whocan use any guns they wish, but they dontthink the public merits the same privileges.

In NBCs Washington studio, Meet thePress moderator David Gregory, whilecriticizing the National Rie Associationproposal to put armed guards in schools,displayed a 30-round magazine that is pro-

hibited in the District o Columbia. As amember o the media elite, he will neverspend a day in jail. It was also revealed thathe sends his children to a school that is pro-tected by armed guards. Guns or me, butnot or thee.

People are starting to remember that thehistory o gun control laws is one o ut-ter ailure. Ask Mayor Rahm Emanuel oChicago how his super-strict gun laws areworking or him: 506 murders last year, andhe is still demanding tougher gun laws.

Te ederal law that made schools gun-ree zones was a proud accomplishment othe anti-gun lobby. Did they know that thiswould make schools magnets or homicidallunatics? It seemed like harmless, eel-goodlegislation at the time, but afer seeing howrantically they exploit the deaths o school-

children to support their agenda, conspira-cy theorists are wondering i it was part oa cynical plan to justiy more laws. Morelikely they were just blinded by aith in theiragenda.

Lets imagine that a law banning semi-automatic rearms is enacted. Te SupremeCourt has said that the Second Amendment

protects an individual right to arms. How-ever, the strange and twisted history o guncontrol eorts also created another SupremeCourt decision called United States v. Millerin 1938. Tis was seen as a victory or guncontrol at the time, because it allowed thestrict regulation o shotguns and ries withbarrels less than 16 inches long under thetheory that they were not suitable or militiaservice. Guns that were suitable or militiaservice were ne. odays so-called assaultweapons, or what some call reedom ries,are perect examples o guns that are wellsuited or militia service.

What will happen i new laws are passedand withstand judicial review? Te long his-tory o American gun laws gives us a prettygood idea. You can be absolutely certain thatnone o the new laws would have stopped

the Connecticut school attack. In act, gunlaw proponents requently say that this lawwould not have stopped the tragedy, but it isa step in the right direction. Why then arethey using that particular attack to promotetheir law?

We also know gun laws are always writtenby people who hate guns. Ironically, they

are the ones who know the least about guns,so there will be many ways around the laws.Only law-abiding citizens will be inconve-nienced or have their lives ruined by inad-vertent technical violations.

Many gun control laws have been triedin many places over the last ew centuries.Aside rom those that were obviously in-tended to disarm minorities prior to a cam-paign o genocide, none have ever had thedesired eect.

Te American people are not stupid. Evena urious campaign o emotional reworkswill not persuade the majority to supportutile and counterproductive new laws.

Dr. Michael S. Brown, a radiologist, isa member o Doctors or Responsible GunOwnership.

January 10, 2013

Americans are too smart or gun controlHistory o restriction is one o utter ailure

By Michael S. Brown SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMES

January 9, 2013

White House goes aer gunsAdministration coordinates radical eort to gut Second Amendment


Te White House just realized it had toat least pretend to listen to Americas 100million gun owners. Vice President JosephR. Biden Jr. invited a representative romthe National Rie Association (NRA) to at-tend a White House meeting with anti-gungroups scheduled to take place Wednesday.

Up to now, gun owners have been lef outo President Obamas task orce seekingsolutions to gun violence by the end othe month. Te simultaneous high-prolemedia blitz is meant to ready the public orradical limits on the Second Amendment.

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloom-berg appears to be calling the shots. Te bil-lionaire is exploiting the second anniversa-ry o the shooting o ormer Rep. GabrielleGiords with a new V advertisement run-ning in 20 markets where there have beenmass shootings, including ucson, Ariz.;

Roanoke, Va.; Denver; and Milwaukee,along with Washington, D.C. It eatures themother o a 9-year-old girl killed at SandyHook Elementary School saying, I haveone question or our political leaders. Whenwill you nd the courage to stand up to thegun lobby? Hizzoners Demand a Plan

initiative intends to impose governmentbackground checks on private sales, banguns that have certain cosmetic eaturesand outlaw high-capacity magazines.

Ms. Giords and her husband, MarkKelly, announced uesday they have startedAmericans or Responsible Solutions toraise money to ght gun-rights groups. Wesaw rom the NRA leaderships deant andunsympathetic response to the Newtown,Conn., massacre that winning even themost common-sense reorms will require aght, the couple wrote in a USA oday op-

ed. Tey were not specic regarding whatlaws they will be pushing, but they hintedat a shared agenda with Mr. Bloomberg bysuggesting the need to do something aboutweapons designed or the battleeld onour streets.

James J. Baker, director o ederal rela-

tions or the NRAs Institute or Legisla-tive Action, will attend the White Houseconab. NRA President David Keene sayshis organization is acing the most brazengun-grabbing push in recent memory. Ithas been clear since the Newtown tragedythat the anti-Second Amendment crowdsees what happened there as giving themtheir best shot in years o attaining at leastsome and perhaps most o their substan-tive goals, Mr. Keene told Te Washingtonimes. Tey are better prepared or thiseort than ever. Tey have the president,

the media and the messaging expertise theyhavent had in the past - thanks largely toMr. Bloombergs willingness to spend anyamount he thinks they will need to coor-dinate and advance their activities. Recentpolls show the public isnt buying the gun-control arguments. Tis is going to be a

long and tough ght because i they cannotroll back Second Amendment rights thistime, they may not get another chance oryears or even decades, Mr. Keene said.

Tough the pro-gun organization will beoutnumbered at Mr. Bidens meeting, its re-ally Mr. Bloomberg and his allies who are inthe minority. Te American public has seencrime all as gun ownership and concealed-carry laws have been on the rise. With luck,this truth will combine with the NRAs lob-bying muscle to deeat Mr. Bloombergswell-unded schemes.


5/12


Mayor Michael Bloombergand his Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Sheila DixonBaltimore, MDConvicted of perjury

and embezzling fundsmeant for charity

Gary Becker

Racine, WIConvicted of attempted

child molestation and luringa child for illicit purposes

Larry LangfordBirmingham, AL

Convicted on 60 countsof bribery, fraud, moneylaundering, tax evasion

Eddie PerezHartford, CT

Convicted of briberyand extortion

David DonnaGuttenberg, NJConvicted of extortion

and tax fraud

Frank MeltonJackson, MS

Convicted of violating his owncity gun possession ordinance

Buddy CianciProvidence, RI

Convicted of assault andracketeering

Samuel RiveraPassaic, NJ

Convicted of extortionand accepting bribes

Jeremiah HealyJersey City, NJ

Convicted of disorderly conductand resisting arrest

Will WynnAustin, TX

Convictedof assault

Kwame KilpatrickDetroit, MI

Convicted of assault on apolice officer and perjury

Richard CorkeryCoaldale, PA

Convicted of child pornographyand bail violations

Adam BradleyWhite Plains, NYConvicted of domestic

violence charges

Gordon JenkinsMonticello, NY

Pled guilty on five counts oftrademark counterfeiting

Roosevelt DornInglewood, CA

Pled guilty to public corruptionand embezzlement charges

Tony MackTrenton, NJ

Recently charged foraccepting $119,000 in bribes

April AlmondEast Haven, CT

Arrested and charged for interferingwith a police officer

Pat M. Ahumada Jr.Brownsville, TX

Arrested three times fordriving while intoxicated

Here are just a few current or former Mayors from Bloombergs Mayors Against Illegal Guns

Americas 80 million law-abiding gun ownersor Mayor Bloombergs gang

of gun-grabbing politicians?

Many of these elitist politicians can no longer own firearms, maybe thats why they dont wantyou to own one either?

Help the Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) protect your freedom by exposing thecorrupt politicians who have no respect for our right to keep and bear arms.


6/12


Anti-gun politicians are wasting no timewhile the Newtown, Conn., school shootingsare still resh in Americans minds. Te WhiteHouse task orce on gun violence will issue rec-ommendations on uesday, and Vice PresidentJoseph R. Biden Jr. said President Obama mightbypass Congress and implement unpopulargun-control measure through executive orders.

In advance o this extraordinary move, Mr.Biden met Tursday with representatives romgun owners groups, including the NationalRie Association and National Shooting SportsFoundation. NRA President David Keene toldTe Washington imes, We were very disap-pointed, though not surprised, that the meet-ing was just what we suspected it would be:a perunctory meeting with groups like the

NRA, designed simply so the vice presidentcould say, I met with them.Te White House press pool was denied

any access to the meeting. Earlier in the day,the media was allowed in the room to hear the

veep address hunting and shooting groups,where he called or totally universal back-ground checks, including private sales, a banon high-capacity magazines, and unding orresearch into what kind o weapons are usedmost to kill people. Teres no need to wastetaxpayer money on such a study as the FBIalready tracks this inormation. In 2011, therewere 12,664 people slain in the United States.Te top weapons o choice were: handguns(6,620), knives (1,694) and sts or eet (728).Although the White House wants to ban rieswith certain military-style eatures, ries oevery type were used in just 323 homicides.

Te assault is also under way at the state level.New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is hoping toadopt the countrys most stringent gun-control

laws. Set an example or the rest o the nation,he thundered Wednesday during the open-ing session o the state Assembly. Tis is NewYork, the progressive capital, you should showthem how we lead. Te rst-term Democrat is

pushing the myth that the Second Amendmentis only meant or hunting, not an essential de-ense against government tyranny. Forget theextremists, he said. Its simple: No one huntswith an assault rie. No one needs 10 bullets tokill a deer.

In a backroom deal that could hit the ooro the Empire State Senate as early as Friday,the governors plan would ban all so-called as-sault weapons outright. Mr. Cuomo even toldWGDJ-AM radio that conscation could bean option. Tats a radical step, and one thatwould do nothing to improve public saety, asonly ve o the 447 killings by rearm in NewYork were committed with a rie o any typein 2011.

Te proposal making the rounds in Albany

would also impose mandatory registrationor every gun purchase, and private gun saleswould be subjected to ederal backgroundchecks. Te scheme even includes the manda-tory storage laws similar to those the Supreme

Court struck down in the 2008 Heller decision.Backed by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloom-bergs money, Mr. Cuomo would reduce themaximum legal capacity or a magazine romthe arbitrary 10-round limit to an even morearbitrarily chosen seven. Ammunition wouldbe registered at the time o purchase, and limitswould be placed on how many rounds a citizenwould be allowed to buy and possess.

Make no mistake, these plans are have onegoal, and one goal only: Te disarming o theAmerican people. Tats not something Mr.Obama, Mr. Biden and Mr. Cuomo shouldbe allowed to do, unless they go through theconstitutional process to amend or repeal oneo the most essential provisions o the Bill oRights. Attempting to inringe on the right

to keep and bear arms through executive or-der and conscation is exactly the sort o tyr-anny the Founding Fathers wrote the SecondAmendment to prevent.

January 11, 2013

Gun owners under assaultWhite House and New York politicians declare war on the Second Amendment


January 17, 2013

Gun control regulations disarm womenSel-deense is a womanly virtue

By Gayle rotter SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMES

Even in the afermath o unspeakable trag-edy like the shootings in Newtown, Conn., guncontrol zealots advocate mindless and misogy-nistic policies.

We have to take action, Vice President Jo-seph R. Biden Jr. urged in response to the New-town horror. Te president is absolutely com-mitted to keeping his promise that we will act.

In other words, to quote a rat boy rom themovie Animal House: I think that this situ-ation absolutely requires a really utile and stu-pid gesture be done on somebodys part.

Mr. Bidens statement may sound high-minded in theory, but new gun control eortswill prove ineective and sel-deeating. Te

Obama administrations proposals will ail tomake Americans saer and, worse still, harmwomen the most.

In reality, guns make women saer. In a vio-lent conrontation, guns reverse the balanceo power. Armed with a gun, a woman mayeven have the advantage over a violent attacker.More than 90 percent o violent crimes occurwithout a rearm, according to ederal statis-tics. When a violent criminal threatens or at-tacks a woman, he rarely uses a gun. Attackersuse their size and physical strength, preying onwomen who are at a severe disadvantage.

How do guns give women the advantage?An armed woman does not need superiorstrength or the proximity o a hand-to-handstruggle. She can protect her children, elderlyrelatives, hersel or others who are vulnerableto an assailant.

Using a magazine that holds more than10 rounds o ammunition, she has a ghtingchance even against multiple attackers. Tat is,she can protect hersel unless she lives in a ju-risdiction like the District o Columbia, whichcriminalizes possession o even an empty mag-azine that can hold more than 10 rounds.

Recently, NBCs David Gregory inadver-tently exposed the absurdity o the Districtsgun laws when he displayed a 30-round maga-zine on national television, embroiling himselin a police investigation. Last week, the D.C.attorney general decided not to charge Mr.Gregory. Despite the clarity o the violation othis important law, he concluded, a prosecu-

tion would not promote public saety. WhenDavid Gregorys magazines are outlawed, onlyDavid Gregory will have magazines. Why is itpermissible to possess magazines to persuadepeople that guns are dangerous, but not or awoman to possess one to deend hersel againstgang rape?

Armed women benet even those whochoose not to carry. In jurisdictions with con-cealed-carry laws, women are less likely to beraped, maimed or murdered than they are instates with stricter gun ownership laws.

All women in these states reap the benetso concealed-carry laws, which dramaticallyincrease the risk that a would-be assailant aces.

In response to horric incidents like thosein Newtown and Aurora, Colo., politicians ad-vocate more restrictions on gun rights. Holly-wood celebrities somberly urge Americans to

demand a plan to reduce gun violence.Many o these politicians and celebrities al-

ready have a plan: Tey rely on guns to sae-guard their own personal saety. Some criticsadvocate limiting violence in movies and tele-vision, but Hollywood stars apparently do notconcur, considering that most o them partic-ipate in graphic depictions o lethal violenceon the screen.

President Obama said in his rst inaugu-ral address, Te question we ask today is notwhether our government is too big or too small,but whether it works. Instead o ineective andsel-deeating gestures, we should ask the samequestion about proposed gun regulations.

Armed security works. Tats why snipersstand guard on the White House roo. Tatswhy Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Caliornia Demo-crat and a gun-control advocate, admits to hav-ing a gun permit.

Armed guards serve in the employ o thevery actors who publicly advocate limiting gunrights. For instance, armed guards protected asuburban newspaper in New York afer it pub-lished the names and residential addresses ogun permit holders. In act, the newspapersown reporter uses a gun or his protection. A-ter publishing the story, the papers editors dis-closed that the reporter owns a Smith & Wes-son 686 .357 Magnum and has a residencepermit in New York City.

While armed security works, gun bans donot. Anti-gun legislation keeps guns away romthe sane and the law-abiding - but it does not

keep guns out o the hands o criminals, as theNational Rie Associations Wayne LaPierrehas observed. Nearly all mass shootings haveoccurred in gun-ree zones. Law-abidingcitizens do not bring their guns to gun-reezones, so murderous wackos know they can in-ict more harm in these unprotected environ-ments. Te sane and the law-abiding becomeeasy targets.

Politicians congratulate themselves ormandating gun-ree zones, touting increasedsaety while actually making us more vulner-able to the next horrible monster in search osof targets.

I we could simply legislate gun-ree zones,

why cant our politicians with the stroke o apen remove all guns rom banks, airports, rockconcerts and government buildings?

We already have more than 20,000 under-enorced or selectively enorced gun laws onthe books. Gun regulation aects only theguns o the law-abiding. Criminals will not bebound by such gestures, especially as we con-tinually ail to prosecute serious gun violationsor provide meaningul and consistent penaltiesor violent elonies using rearms.

In lieu o empty gestures, we should addressgun violence by doing what works. By sae-guarding our Second Amendment rights, wepreserve meaningul protection or women.

Every woman deserves a ghting chance.Gayle rotter is an attorney and senior ellow

o the Independent Womens Forum. Te viewsexpressed are her own.

January 15, 2013

Obamas one-man gun grabWhite House to use executive orders to get around pro-gun Congress


Pro-gun groups werent exaggerating dur-ing the election last year when they warned

President Obama intended to go afer gunsin a second term. With his second inauguralless than a week away, Mr. Obama is alreadyso determined to put sweeping new restric-tions in place that he threatened Monday toresort to executive action to bypass Con-gress and the will o the American people.

In an East Room press conerence, Mr.Obama said he will vigorously pursue theproposals on gun violence that the taskorce run by Vice President Joseph R. BidenJr. will give him uesday. Im condent thatthere are some steps that we can take thatdont require legislation and that are withinmy authority as president, he told report-ers. Where you get a step that has the op-portunity to reduce the possibility o gun

violence, then I want to go ahead and take

it. He was vague about what he would dowith his presidential powers, only mention-

ing tracking better how criminals get guns.He openly said the White House propos-als will include items on keeping thesemagazine clips with high capacity out othe hands o olks who shouldnt have themand an assault weapons ban that is mean-ingul. Mr. Obama also claimed the recordspike in the sales o guns and ammunitionwas unrelated to his policies, instead result-ing rom groups ginning up ear that theederal government is about to take all yourguns away.

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloombergexplained the executive actions he has beenpushing. Tere are other steps that Presi-dent Obama can take without congressionalapproval at any time he chooses, with the

stroke o a pen, said Mr. Bloomberg at Te

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School o PublicHealth on Monday. Vice President Biden

understands this, and we hope his recom-mendations will include at least these oursteps that weve urged him to do. Te bil-lionaire mayor urged the president to recess-appoint a new crony - presumably an anti-gun zealot - to head the Bureau o Alcohol,obacco, Firearms and Explosives. He alsowants the Justice Department to prioritizeprosecutions o anyone who provides alseinormation in a background check, notingthat our ederal government is prosecutingless than one-tenth o 1 percent o them.

Joining Mr. Bloomberg at the hastily-organized event in Baltimore, Gov. MartinOMalley jumped on the bandwagon andannounced his own plan to tighten Mary-lands already restrictive gun laws. Te

Democratic state executive outlined the

legislative package he will unveil this week,which will include bans on so-called high-

capacity magazines and assault ries - eventhough only two o the 390 murders in theFree State in 2011 can be traced to any ri-es. His most radical plan would require alicense and ngerprinting or all handgunpurchases.

Anti-gun politicians have been preparingthis assault on the Second Amendment oryears. Tey were just waiting, cynically, orthe right tragedy to strike. Gun owners in-tend to stand up or themselves with a GunAppreciation Day this weekend and amarch on state capitals. Teyll need to turnout in big numbers i they hope to thwartthis well-organized attack.


7/12


20 State Attorneys Generaland others support SAF brief

Twenty state attorneys general

have led an amicus brief to the U.S.

Supreme Court in support of the

Second Amendment Foundations

petition for a Writ of Certiorari in

a case challenging New Yorks gun

permitting statute, along with sever-

al other interested parties that have

led their own briefs.

The case is known as Kachalsky

v. Cacace and was argued before the

Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

SAF is represented by attorney Alan

Gura, who won both theHellerand

McDonaldSecond Amendment cases

before the Supreme Court.

We are delighted at the supportbeing shown by attorneys general in

Alaska, Alabama, Florida, Oklaho-

ma, Nebraska, New Mexico and 13

other states, and particularly for the

leadership of Virginia Attorney Gen-

eral Kenneth Cuccinelli in bringing

them all together, said SAF founder

and Executive Vice President Alan

Gottlieb. This case is all about an

individuals right to carry a rearm

outside the home for personal pro-

tection, and it is gratifying to see so

much support.

In addition to the brief led by

the attorneys general, supporting

amicus briefs have also been led by

the Center for Constitutional Juris-

prudence represented by former At-

torney General Edwin Meese III, the

National Rie Association represent-

ed by former Solicitor General Paul

D. Clement, plus the American Civil

Rights Union, Academics for theSecond Amendment, Cato Institute,

the Second Amendment Preservation

Association, New Jersey Second

Amendment Society and Common-

wealth Second Amendment, Inc.

This is an important case, Got-

tlieb said, and thats why so many

parties are interested and supportive

of our issue.

SAF and the ve individual

plaintiffs are challenging whether the

state can arbitrarily restrict the Sec-

ond Amendment right to bear arms

outside the home by requiring people

to prove a special need to the satis-

faction of a government ofcial.

Our case is about equal pro-

tection and the arbitrary authority of

government ofcials to essentially

decide on a whim whether aver-

age citizens can have the means of

self-defense outside the connes of

their home, Gottlieb said. Mostcrimes happen away from the home,

and it is in public places and on

public streets where a citizen is most

likely to encounter a life-threatening

situation where he or she might have

to defend themselves.

The Second Amendment Foun-

dation (www.saf.org) is the nations

oldest and largest tax-exempt educa-

tion, research, publishing and legal

action group focusing on the Consti-

tutional right and heritage to private-

ly own and possess rearms. Found-

ed in 1974, The Foundation has more

than 650,000 members and support-

ers and conducts programs designed

to better inform the public about

the consequences of gun control. In

addition to the landmark McDonald

v. Chicago Supreme Court Case,

SAF has previously funded success-

ful rearms-related suits against the

cities of Los Angeles; New Haven,CT; New Orleans; Chicago and San

Francisco on behalf of American gun

owners, a lawsuit against the cities

suing gun makers and numerous

amicus briefs holding the Second

Amendment as an individual right.


8/12


January 21, 2013

Gun talk rom the experts

No advice needed rom the ruit yBy Oliver North SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMESCLARK COUNY, Nev. | Ocial Wash-

ington has the collective attention span oa ruit y. Tis condition is exacerbated bythe Obama administrations proclivity ordeclaring selective events and issues to becrises that require immediate action. Teproblem is aggravated because the loyal op-position is in nearly total disarray, and ewin the so-called mainstream media have anyidea what they are talking about.

Tats the summary assessment o manyattending the annual Shooting, Hunting,Outdoor rade Show here in Harry ReidsNevada. Te SHO Show isnt a gun show.

Nobody here can buy or sell a single re-arm. Tere are guns here - and tents, boats,clothing, boots, camping gear, all-terrainvehicles, SUVs, bows, arrows, shing tackleand all manner o police equipment - evenhigh-tech wheelchairs or outdoor activi-ties. Te SHO Show isnt open to the pub-lic - only to representatives o the industriesabove, proessional outtters, law enorce-ment ocials and military suppliers andcontractors.

My rst SHO Show, in 1992, was as themanuacturer o specialty armor and bal-listic protective equipment or law enorce-ment and our military. Tis year, I came torepresent the Military and Veterans AairsCommittee o the National Rie Asso-

ciation (NRA). Freedom Alliance sent our

outreach coordinator to explore additionaloutdoor activities to help Americas militaryheroes recover rom the wounds o war.

rade shows are really nothing more thanan opportunity or members o an anitygroup to meet and exchange ideas on newproducts and services, challenges acingtheir industry, and what works and whatdoesnt to stay in business. Tere are morethan 90,000 trade and proessional associa-tions in the United States, and nearly all othem have gatherings with ample opportu-nities or ruitul conversations among like-minded people seeking solutions to com-

mon challenges. Te nearly 36,000 peopleattending this years SHO Show are nodierent.

What was dierent this year was whatwas happening in Washington and, to alesser extent, in Albany, N.Y., where Gov.Andrew Cuomo signed new gun controllegislation into law Jan. 15. Nearly everyoneI spoke with understood that New YorksSecure Ammunition and Firearms Enorce-ment Act and the 23 directives issued theollowing day by President Obama weregoing to aect their business. Te commonrerain was: How is this going to stop badpeople rom doing bad things? Tese arenot cynical questions.

Tey are serious inquiries rom serious

people who see their businesses - and the

employment o hundreds o thousands oour countrymen - jeopardized by hasty, ill-conceived regulations that will not achievethe goal o a saer society.

Tats not to say there is universal opposi-tion to what the White House announcedon Jan. 16. In two days here at the SHOShow, Ive had hundreds o conversationswith participants. A ew observations:

Tere is widespread support or theNRAs proposal to put police ocers inschools. All here endorse the idea o keep-ing rearms out o the hands o criminalsand mentally unstable individuals who pose

a danger to others.Te ideas o pursuing and prosecuting

straw purchasers o rearms and givinglonger sentences to those convicted o vio-lent crimes have wide appeal. Tere were,o course, some who suggested that Attor-ney General Eric H. Holder Jr. might haveto prosecute himsel or straw purchases iit turns out he authorized the ill-conceivedFast and Furious gunrunning scheme.

Te NY SAFE Act requires law-abidingcitizens to pass a background check beorebeing able to purchase ammunition o anykind. One retailer points out: Tere is nomechanism or making such a check - noorm we can ll out, no way o complying.My lawyers have told us to stop lling cata-

log and Internet orders rom New York Zip

Codes until this is claried. Te people whodrafed this law spent more time concoctinga cute acronym than thinking about howthis could put me out o business. Maybethats their real objective.

At 3-Gun Nations Rumble on the Range- where competitors are scored on speedand accuracy in ring a shotgun, a hand-gun and a rie - one o the competitors, aU.S. Marine, observed: Tis sport cannothappen with small-capacity magazines. oobad Cuomo and Reid arent here to explainwhy this is a bad thing. Citizens o the Em-pire State must now go elsewhere to practice

and participate in three-gun competitions.Finally, there were numerous complaints

that nobody in politics or the media knowswhat an assault weapon really is. Perhaps.But there is an organization that does: theNational Rie Association. I the numbersare accurate, more than 100 million Ameri-cans own rearms. Yet only 4.5 million ous are members o the NRA. Tis would bea good time or law-abiding gun owners tojoin the organization that will ght or theright to keep them.

Oliver North is host o War Stories onthe Fox News Channel and author o the newnovel Heroes Proved (Treshold Editions,2012).

January 17, 2013

Obama is coming or your gunsFirst White House announcement o more gun control in almost 20 years


Gun control is back. President Obama onWednesday unveiled a series o eel-goodmeasures designed to play on the emo-tions o Americans saddened by the horricshooting o 20 students at Sandy Hook Ele-mentary School last month. Almost nothinghe proposes to do would make anyone saer.

Surrounding himsel with children, Mr.Obama said, Tis will be dicult. Terewill be pundits and politicians and special-interest lobbyists publicly warning o a ty-rannical, all-out assault on liberty - notbecause thats true, but because they wantto gin up ear or higher ratings or revenueor themselves. Te president said that hewould go around Congress by taking 23 ex-ecutive actions. He signed a handul as soon

as the news conerence ended, and one othe upcoming proclamations will order At-torney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to reviewcategories o individuals prohibited rom

having a gun to determine i those cat-egories need to be expanded. Mr. Holdersagency is hardly the model or gun saety,considering it came up with the OperationFast and Furious program to run guns toMexican drug cartels.

Te National Rie Association respondedwith a campaign to ght back against gun-ree zones. Everything in his statementwas either about limiting gun rights or giv-ing himsel a g lea while he does so, NRAPresident David Keene told Te Washing-ton imes. It wasnt so much about pro-tecting our children as it was about usingour concern or their saety to push an ideo-logical agenda.

Mr. Obama was silent throughout his rst

term on gun control. Its only now that hesa lame duck that the most radical aspects ohis agenda are emerging, cloaked with mis-leading phrases. Weapons designed or the

theater o war have no place in a movie the-ater, the president said, deliberately conus-ing the ully automatic weapons used by ourtroops with the popular semi-automatic ri-es available to civilians that are rarely usedin crimes. He wants to reimpose the Clin-ton-era gun ban that expired in 2004, eventhough that law did not decrease crime, nordid it prevent the 1999 shooting at Colum-bine High School in Colorado.

Te administration is throwing its weightbehind Senate legislation that would limitpistol and rie magazines to 10 rounds, asi criminals werent aware it only takes asecond or two to reload. Mr. Obama saidhigh-capacity magazines have one pur-pose - to pump out as many bullets as pos-

sible, as quickly as possible, to do as muchdamage, using bullets ofen designed to in-ict maximum damage. Te White Housealso called or a a universal background

check or anyone trying to buy a gun. Sincethe majority o states dont require registra-tion o guns, it is unclear how the WhiteHouse can enorce this provision when onelaw-abiding American sells or trades a gunprivately with another resident o the samestate. Criminals who obtain their guns othe streets wont be calling the FBI to per-orm a background check beore complet-ing the transaction.

Most o the nearly two dozen items onMr. Obamas action list are equally pointlessor unenorceable. Teyre a public relationsstunt designed to prime the public or evengreater inringement on Second Amend-ment rights. As the president begins hissecond term next week, Americans need to

be doubly vigilant to preserve their libertyin the midst o this well-coordinated attackon their rights.

January 18, 2013

Nixing the rule o law or rule by ObamaNew frearms rules are unconstitutional

By Jerey . Kuhner SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMES

President Obama is abusing his power

and usurping congressional authority. He isreplacing the rule o law with arbitrary rule,ignoring the constitutional limits upon hispower. Tis is the real meaning o his assaulton the Second Amendment.

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama released hisproposals to curb gun violence in the wakeo the Sandy Hook massacre. Surroundedby schoolchildren, the president announcedthe most sweeping gun-control package indecades. His reorms have three policy ob-

jectives: implement universal backgroundchecks on gun owners, ban so-called assaultweapons, and place strong limits on high-ca-pacity ammunition magazines. In short, hisgoal is to roll back gun rights.

Moreover, the president is issuing 23 ex-ecutive orders to combat gun violence. Teir

primary purpose is to bolster the ederalgovernments system or background checks.Te orders expand the nanny state, urtherundermining individual liberties. All gunowners will be registered in a national com-puter database. Hence, Big Brother will knowwhich U.S. citizens own guns and how many.We are one step closer to achieving what lib-

erals truly crave: the conscation o all re-

arms. I the government can identiy all gunowners and how many weapons they have,then an all-out gun grab becomes possible.

Mr. Obamas proposals would have donenothing - absolutely nothing - to prevent theshootings in Newtown, Conn. Tey are simplysmoke and mirrors to advance the radical lef-ist gun control agenda. Shooter Adam Lanzasmother passed a comprehensive backgroundcheck. Te shooter killed his mother beoretaking her AR-15 rie and several handgunsto unleash his diabolical rage.

Te sad truth is that the Newtown massa-cre occurred or one reason: An evil, men-tally ill man snapped and slaughtered 20children and six adults. Lanza should havebeen receiving serious psychiatric treatment.He wasnt. His mother should have properly

secured and stored her weapons, and not hadhim practice regularly at the ring range.She didnt. Tat was the lethal cocktail thatsparked the tragedy. Te government cannotabolish bad parenting or severe mental ill-ness - at least not in a ree society.

Tere is only one policy prescription thatcan help prevent school shootings: placing

armed guards in every school. School dis-

tricts should hire trained proessionals, es-pecially ormer military personnel, who willpatrol school grounds and exercise deadlyorce i an armed intruder threatens students.Tis would serve as a massive deterrent, sub-stantially reducing the likelihood o SandyHook-style massacres happening again.

Instead, Mr. Obama and his media alliesare exploiting the dead children o Newtownto eviscerate the Second Amendment. Liber-als hostility toward gun rights is based upontheir hatred o limited government and in-dividual reedom. Te Constitution clasheswith their dream o utopian collectivism.Hence, a disarmed citizenry is undamentalto their drive to erect a powerul, centralizedsocialist state. Stripping away the SecondAmendment would remove another major

obstacle to the rise o big-government pro-gressivism. By monopolizing orce, the statewould have nearly complete control overcitizens. Tis is why our Founding Fatherschampioned gun ownership as the linchpino a sel-governing republic.

Moreover, it is why Mr. Obama is politi-cizing the Sandy Hook shooting. He realizes

that comprehensive gun control will take

America one giant step closer to a European-style social democracy. He wants to do thiseven i it means trampling upon the Consti-tution and usurping power.

His executive orders are illegal and uncon-stitutional. Te president has no authority- not a scintilla - to unilaterally regulate orlimit gun ownership or violate the SecondAmendment. Such acts are strictly the pur-

view o Congress and the courts. Moreover,his order using Obamacare as a vehicle to es-sentially deputize doctors, enabling them toask patients whether they have rearms, is ablatant abuse o executive power. He is turn-ing doctors into agents o the ederal govern-ment.

ea Party Republicans are nally wakingup to Mr. Obamas game. Rep. Steve Stock-

man o exas has warned that he may learticles o impeachment. Sen. Rand Paul oKentucky is rightly comparing the presidentto a king or monarch. Mr. Obama is actingas though he is above the law. He isnt.

Jerey . Kuhner is a radio commentator inBoston.


9/12


January 21, 2013

Obama opens a new term with a loud bangShooting holes in the Constitution

By Robert Knight SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMES

Leave it to Barack Obama to come into hisinaugural weekend with a bang, and not juston guns. Hes made it clear that he intendsmore spending, more regulation, more radi-cal appointees and less national deense in hissecond term. Te word overreach is goingto be one o the most overused words in theEnglish language.

Since he just red a load o executive or-ders on gun control like shotgun pellets ata duck hunt, its time to ask a ew questionsabout this part o his agenda. Te rst onesor President Obama.

Why did you display children prominently atyour press conerence? Were you implying thatanyone who opposes your policies wants to seechildren shot? I think you were.

Second, did you really justiy your assaulton the Second Amendment partly by equatingsae shopping with the right o assembly?

Finally, in citing the right to lie, did you seeany irony in being the most pro-abortion presi-dent in history? You support even partial-birthabortion, and when you were a state senator,you killed legislation that would have requireddoctors to treat children who survive abortions.

Now heres a more general question: Whatexactly are executive orders?

You wont nd them in the Constitution.Teyre derived rom Article II, which con-ers executive power on the president totake care that all laws be aithully execut-ed. Executive orders are work orders romthe president to employees o ederal agen-cies. Tey do not apply to state or local gov-ernments. Tey direct the implementation ostatutes that Congress enacts and which aresigned by the president into law. I they go

beyond this, they are unconstitutional.A look at some o the 23 gun control execu-

tive orders that Mr. Obama issued on Jan. 16leaves one wondering whether the president,as Clint Eastwoods Dirty Harry would say, isa man who knows his limitations. I a Re-publican president issued 23 executive orderson a single subject, many in the media wouldpronounce him obsessed. No such observa-tions were orthcoming here.

One o the orders calls or incentives orstates to share inormation with the back-ground check system. Funny, Mr. Obamadoesnt seem to want to apply this principle tovoter registration in order to curtail voter raud.Incentives can take many orms. Enorcementmay well involve either coercion, like with-

holding ederal highway unds, or bribery, likedispensing ederal highway unds.Mr. Obama also wants ederal law enorce-

ment to trace guns recovered in criminalinvestigations. Since most criminal enorce-ment occurs at the local and state levels, thiswould seem to give the eds carte blanche toinsert themselves into every crime scene thatinvolves a recovered rearm. Maybe they al-ready do that. I hope not.

Another executive order is to provide lawenorcement, rst responders and school o-cials with proper training or active shootersituations. Does this mean that all school andemergency personnel will have to attend ed-erally run programs? wo more executive or-ders are or the eds to provide incentives orschools to hire school resource ocers, and todevelop model emergency response plans orschools, houses o worship and institutions ohigher education. Tose poor local school o-

cials, clergy and college deans must never havethought o re-tooling, say, re drills, or otheremergencies, even afer Columbine, Virginiaech and now, Sandy Hook Elementary.

One o the scarier orders directs the Attor-ney General to review categories o individu-als prohibited rom having a gun to make suredangerous people are not slipping through thecracks. It wasnt long ago that Janet Napoli-tanos Department o Homeland Security is-sued a report tagging pro-liers, war veteransand opponents o illegal immigration as po-tential terror threats.

Ten theres the doc snitch order. Federalocials are to clariy that the Obamacare lawdoesnt prohibit doctors rom asking aboutguns in patients homes. We have to wonder

what the physicians are supposed to do withthat inormation - its a short step to requiringthem to ask.

We need to keep in mind that gun owner-ship is not merely a Second Amendment is-sue. Guns are property, says constitutionalattorney Leah Farish. Inringement o Sec-ond Amendment rights should also be sub-jected to due process scrutiny under the Fifhand 14th Amendments. I do not think thatexecutive orders amount to sucient due pro-cess in this context.

Former U.S. Attorney General EdwinMeese III said last week that impeachmentcould be a proper remedy i Mr. Obama usesan executive order to try to override the Sec-ond Amendment in any way.

Now there are some things he can prob-ably do in regard to the actions o the Bureauo Alcohol, obacco, Firearms and Explosives,or some other governmental agency in its

operations, Mr. Meese told Newsmax. Butto impose burdens or regulations that aectsociety generally, he would have to have con-gressional authorization.

Tats why Mr. Obama is urging Congressto enact a urry o gun restrictions, rombanning so-called assault weapons, to pro-hibiting people rom buying guns rom pri-vate sellers without undergoing backgroundchecks, outlawing high-capacity magazineclips and a ew other things that the anti-gunlobby wants.

Finally, theres this open-ended executiveorder: Maximize enorcement eorts to pre-vent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.Id like to think this would mean that JusticeDepartment ocials responsible or loss o

lie due to the Operation Fast and Furiousgun-running program would be prosecuted.Yet the order also gives ederal ocials in theDepartments o Justice and Homeland Secu-rity a lot o incentive, i not actual legal au-thority, to intervene whenever and whereverthey want.

All o this adds up to a mega-increase inederal law enorcement power and will re-quire billions o dollars and thousands o newbureaucrats. Will it make us any saer? Dontbet on it.

Te strategy is not that hard to discern:Shoot the Second Amendment to pieces withhigh-velocity magazines ull o executiveorders and questionable legislation. Whileyoure at it, use some kids as political humanshields in order to demonize your opponents.

Robert Knight is senior ellow or the Ameri-can Civil Rights Union and a columnist or TeWashington imes.

January 24, 2013

Spreading gun hysteriaTe Newtown tragedy exploited to advance an agenda


Six states are eager to capitalize on lastmonths horric shooting o schoolchildrenin Newtown, Conn. New Yorks quick-drawGov. Andrew Cuomo was the rst to craf agun-control package behind closed doors andram it into law within a matter o days.

On Monday, Connecticut will have its rstpublic hearing on gun-control plans thatare speeding through the legislative process.Te National Shooting Sports Foundation(NSSF), which represents rearms and am-munition manuacturers, put out an alert tourge gun owners and sportsmen to attend thehearing and call their representatives.

We all share the goal o wanting to makeour communities saer, but these gun-controlproposals will not do that, Lawrence Keane,

NSSFs senior vice president and generalcounsel, told Te Washington imes. Wehope the politicians in Hartord would ocuson proven and eective solutions to violence

- like providing resources to help amilies ad-dress mental health issues and putting morepolice on the streets - and not impose urtherburdens on an already heavily regulated in-dustry that will kill badly needed jobs herein Connecticut. Mr. Keane reers to the eco-nomic impact on Connecticut manuacturerssuch as Colt, Mossberg, Ruger and Stag Arms.

Te proposed law would orce gun ownersto surrender (or sell out o state) magazinescapable o holding more than 10 rounds alongwith any semiautomatic rie with a singlecosmetic eature that would classiy it as anassault weapon. Failure to comply means thepotential or conscation by state police anda elony charge. All rearms would be regis-tered with the state government. Individuals

would only be allowed to purchase a limitedamount o ammo with the permission o thestate, which would also collect a 50 percenttax on the sale.

In neighboring Massachusetts, a rearmsidentication card is already required beoreresidents can purchase a rearm. On Jan. 16,Gov. Deval Patrick introduced his proposalto crack down urther on gun rights, writinghe was doing so both proactively, and in thewake o too many tragedies. Te Democrat,who is stepping down in January 2015, wouldmake it so that only one rearm can be pur-chased or rented every 30 days under threat oup to $1,000 in nes and 2 years in jail. Gunowners would have to go through the hassleo renewing their license every two years, andthey would also have to maintain liability in-surance. Gun-show organizers would have toprovide the state with the names and licenseso all dealers attending, who would then be

required to submit records o all sales, trans-ers or rentals. Te measure would also re-quire the surrender o all magazines capableo holding more than 10 rounds.

Similar proposals are being oated in thelegislatures in Caliornia, Delaware, Hawaii,Maryland and New Jersey. Fortunately, not allstates are jumping on the bandwagon. Mis-sissippi, Vermont, Wyoming and Oklahomahave either rejected the knee-jerk gun-controleorts or adopted even stronger protectionsor the Second Amendment.

Gun owners should be concerned aboutthe open season being declared across thecountry on their rights. Te coordinated andshameless exploitation o the Connecticuttragedy has nothing to do with making any-one saer. Te proposed laws are meant to beannoyances and hurdles to discourage law-abiding Americans rom joining the ranks ogun owners. Tere has never been a more im-

portant time or the nations 100 million gunowners to exercise their First Amendmentrights to ensure theyll be able to keep theirSecond Amendment rights.

January 25, 2013

Te assault weapon mythObama, Feinstein and allies use ear mongering to push gun-grabbing agenda


Gun grabbers arent subtle. Flanked byuniormed police ocers and a wall o blackries, Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tursdayunleashed the most restrictive ever nationalassault weapon ban in the Senate. Te Cali-ornia Democrat and the assembled anti-gun ocials directly reerenced last monthshorric shooting o children at Sandy HookElementary School no ewer than 45 times.Tey will let no tragedy go to waste.

Te proposal would ban the manuacture,sale or transer o 158 specic makes andmodels o guns, along with any semiautomat-ic rearm (rie, shotgun or handgun) thathas a detachable magazine and one cosmeticeature such as a pistol grip or olding stock.Te bill also prohibits a magazine that can

accept more than 10 rounds. No item allinginto a banned category could be imported,

and i a gun owner wanted to sell or trans-er one o these, he would have to undergoa government background check. We havedone our best to craf a responsible bill toban these assault weapons - guns designedor military use, bought all over this countryand ofen used or mass murder, said Mrs.Feinstein o her ambitious proposal.

President Obama and his allies, such asMrs. Feinstein, deliberately misuse the termassault weapon to conuse the public. As-sault weapons are machine guns, automaticries that continue to re until the triggeris released. Tese guns have been highlyregulated since 1934 and are never used incrimes. Te guns that this congressional billtargets are simply the standard semi-auto-

matic weapons that re one bullet with eachtrigger pull.

Te best illustration o this deception isMrs. Feinsteins placing o the Armalite M1522LR Carbine on her list o items that sheclaims have the sole purpose to hold at thehip i possible, to spray re to be able to killlarge numbers. Tis particular weapon resa .22 long rie cartridge, which has one-tenth the power o the standard militaryround and is generally suited or plinkingtin cans or hunting small varmints. It sim-ply looks like a military rie, which ts Mrs.Feinsteins eort to eliminate items that lookscary to her.

During the marathon news conerence,politicians played on emotions rather thanacts. We know the new assault weaponsban would be useless because crime didnt

decrease during the 10 years that the 1994ban was in eect. In the eight years Ameri-

cans have been ree to buy any semi-au-tomatic ries, gun ownership has gone upwhile crime has steadily declined.

According to a survey conducted in 2010or the National Shooting Sports Founda-tion, 90 percent o the owners o modernsporting ries use them or target shooting,80 percent or home deense and 60 percentor hunting. About 44 percent o owners areormer military or law enorcement, who en-joy using a amiliar rie. Te typical owneris over 35 years old, married and has somecollege education. Tese good Americans arethe ones who will be aected by a ban, notthe criminals who will continue to use what-ever they want.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid should

bring this measure to a oor vote soon so itcan quickly be shot down.


10/12


January 28, 2013

Schools push to disarm the minds o childrenConditioning kids to reject the Second Amendment

By Robert Small SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMES

Maryland educators are launching anassault on normal childhood behavior. Inalbot County, Md., two boys aged 6 wererecently suspended or pretending their n-gers were guns while playing cops and rob-bers during recess. Tis comes just afer an-other 6-year-old at a Montgomery County

school was suspended or the same thing.Tese suspensions were later reversed, butwhy are they happening in the rst place?Tey seem to be part o a larger eort tocondition our kids to reject guns and theSecond Amendment.

Its tempting to call suspensions like thesean overreaction to the December shootingat Sandy Hook Elementary School in Con-necticut, but thats not the case. A couplemonths beore Sandy Hook, my son, whois in elementary school in Howard Countywas playing war with riends when a re-cess monitor warned them to stop shootingwith their ngers because guns are violent.

I dont get it, my son said to me thatnight at dinner. We were just playing.

In a childs imagination, a thumb and ore-nger make a handy play gun. Some adults,however, see a ully cocked nger and theirimaginations run wild. Maybe they imaginetodays nger-pointer coming back one dayas a homicidal maniac and pointing a real

gun at them. Maybe they see a uture NRAmember - another threat to their dream o agun-ree world. Its obvious they dont see acop protecting them rom robbers, or a sol-dier rom our countrys enemies.

Punishing kids or nger guns has noth-ing to do with school saety. Children know

the dierence between a nger and a gunas well as adults do. It has everything to dowith moral disarmament.

Whats more, the idea o using schools asconditioning grounds is not new. TomasSowell discusses it at length in his 2009book Intellectuals and Society. Afer thehorrors o World War I, intellectuals o thetime determined that war and weapons,not other nations, were the real enemies.Tey promoted both military disarma-ment and disarming o the mind. Nobelprize-winning author Anatole France urgedFrench school teachers to promote pacismand internationalism, saying, In develop-ing the child, you will determine the uture.Prominent intellectuals rom a number o

countries, including many amous novelists,signed a petition banning military conscrip-tion, and students at Oxord pledged not toght to deend their country. Condition-ing a generation to reject arms to promotepeace nearly consigned Britain, France and

the rest o the world to a very bleak uturewhen World War II exposed the pacistsolly. Yet, the worlds progressives continueto champion policies that target guns andprivate gun ownership as a bigger threat tohumanity than the worlds tyrants.

In his 1999 article about the gun control

movement, Te Armed Deense o Lib-erty, Alan Keyes wrote, Perhaps more im-portant than the physical disarmament thegovernment is attempting is the moral dis-armament that accompanies it. I we acceptthe view that the American people cannotbe trusted with the material objects neces-sary to deend their liberty, we will surelyaccept as well the view that the Americanpeople cannot be trusted with liberty itsel.... By disarming, we will coness to our gov-ernment that we no longer aspire to sover-eignty, and wish our rulers to take up thisburden in our stead. We will be signalingwith great clarity that we wish to be com-ortable slaves - and slaves, at least, we willsoon become.

How tting that these warnings aboutmoral and physical disarmament comerom two men whose amily trees are root-ed in the bitter soil o state tyranny. Slaverywas Americas Old World inheritance, andree people bearing arms ended it in the

New World. Anyone amiliar with the Fed-eralist Papers knows the claim by some pro-gressive academics that the purpose o theSecond Amendment was to preserve slaveryis nonsense. Te right o the people to keepand bear arms is constitutional insuranceagainst threats to lie and liberty, including

rom abusive government at all levels.Acting out pretend battles with riends in

the schoolyard is probably better or a kidssocial development than playing violentvideo games alone in the basement. o keepplay rom being interrupted by pacist pro-ponents o gun control, they could try keep-ing their thumbs down. A de-cocked ngergun is indistinguishable rom a magic n-ger wand and equally eective. Tey can saytheyre only playing Harry Potter. Parentso kids who have been sent to the principalsoce or nger weapon violations, coulduse the opportunity to inorm your educa-tors that you reuse to let them disarm yourchilds mind. odays playground warriorsmay be tomorrows soldiers and upholders

o the law.Robert Small is a Maryland-based writerwhose articles appear regularly in the Ameri-can Tinker.

January 25, 2013

Emergency response to gun violenceShould a loaded gun be placed next to the defbrillator?

By Dr. Constance Uribe SPECIAL O HE WASHINGON IMES

Te week beore his second inauguration,President Obama again exercised the onetalent he has that will carve his name in in-amy. He signed 23 executive orders violat-ing our constitutional rights and putting thelives o more American citizens under histhumb. Tis time, the Second Amendmentwas at center stage.

During the signing, he was surrounded byour children, a clear play or our emotionalresponse to the tragedy in Newtown, Conn.Unortunately, his call or bans on guns willnot actually solve the problem. I anything,it will make the problem worse.

Te city o Chicago is amous or its attemptto keep citizens rom owning guns. Whenasked about the citys high violence rate, Chi-

cago Police Commissioner Garry McCarthyremarked, We have a prolieration o illegalrearms. Mr. Obamas $500 million gun vio-lence package will do nothing to prevent theprolieration o illegal rearms.

What happened at Sandy Hook Elemen-tary School was truly a tragedy, but Mr.Obamas response oversteps the bounds ohis oce. No tragedy can justiy limitingour reedoms, especially when lives are onthe line.

As National Rie Association ExecutiveVice President Wayne LaPierre says, Teonly thing that stops a bad guy with a gunis a good guy with a gun. With more than

23 years o experience teaching basic andadvanced techniques in saving lives, I amamazed at how heroically even the mosttimid person will behave when a human lieis at stake. Te only limiting actor is wheth-er or not the potential liesaver is adequatelyprepared.

No one thinks twice about applying thepads o an automatic external debrillatorto a strangers chest and pushing a buttonon command to deliver an electrical shockto save a human lie. Likewise, people rec-ognize the need or the Heimlich maneuverwhen someone in a restaurant is choking.

So why do people have a problem decid-ing what to do when it comes to saving thelives o our children in the classroom, sav-

ing the lives o church congregations or sav-ing the lives o theater patrons when some-one threatens them with a gun? Do theynot deserve the same consideration? Doesit really take 23 executive orders or an act oCongress? Does it have to cost the taxpayers$500 million?

Te idea o arming teachers has receivedmixed reactions. Many teachers do not eelsae owning or using a rearm. Others wantaccess to a gun in the classroom to protecttheir charges.

It is known that 350,000 people die romcardiac arrest every year, more than 33,000die rom auto accidents, and more than hal

a million die rom cancer. Yet our govern-ment overlooks all these deaths, and hassuddenly taken on a quest to stop deathsrom gun violence. Mr. Obama did not takesteps to mandate CPR certication or ev-eryone, to ban automobiles or demand acure or cancer. Te ocus on guns ignoresstatistics showing that increasing gun own-ership actually lowers crime.

Our schools, churches, theaters, stadi-ums and other venues where people gathershould consider including another emer-gency item next to the debrillator: a load-ed rearm. A containment device can beinstalled in the wall, completely enclosedwith a metal door and a hand-activatedcombination like other gun saes. It should

be accessible rom a central location and,in larger acilities, additional ones could beplaced in oces o principals or managers.

Only designated employees would haveaccess to them. Selected personnel shouldbe trained in rearm saety and the laws re-garding the proper use o the weapon in theunortunate event it would ever be needed.Tis can all be done or less than $500 mil-lion.

It is highly improbable that any armedcriminal would dare enter a school or the-ater knowing that someone had the capabil-ity o deending the people inside. Burglarsrarely enter a home with an alarm system.

In times o emergency, the American peoplewill deend themselves. A properly armedacility can halt a deadly attack or, at least,minimize casualties beore rst respondersarrive at the scene.

Te media have sensationalized the SandyHook, Aurora and Sikh emple shootings,oering the president and members o Con-gress an opportunity to shine. Tese mis-guided leaders are now wasting time toyingwith the denition o an assault rie andcreating more ways to encroach upon ourprivacy. Capitol Hill sees an opportunityto legislate, to regulate, to control, and thisesoteric odder does nothing but expose thenext school or theater targeted or somewarped minds 15 minutes o ame.

Mr. Obama and Congress should spendtheir time perorming the duties as de-scribed in the Constitution and stop mess-ing with our Second Amendment. Mean-while, the public should install securedemergency rearms in public areas and de-velop training programs. As Americans, wewill deend ourselves. We will protect ourchildren. It is our moral obligation, and it isour right - at least, or now.

Dr. Constance Uribe is a general surgeonand author o Te Health Care ProvidersGuide to Facing the Malpractice Deposition(CRC Press, 1999).

January 31, 2013

Senate showdown over gunsTeatrics and partisanship that took center stage must give way to reality


Te battle over gun rights is on. Te SenateJudiciary Committee on Wednesday held therst congressional hearing on the issue sincePresident Obama declared new gun-controllaws one o his top priorities or the year.

Te sides were predictably drawn alongparty lines. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, CaliorniaDemocrat, insisted, We cant have a totallyarmed society. She and her colleagues ad-mitted the assault weapons ban and relatedproposals are the same items theyve beentrying to pass or years. Its just the horricshooting o children at Sandy Hook Elemen-tary School in Newtown, Conn., created theopportunity to grab attent

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