Time to Go From Defense to Offense on Gun Rights
What a New Regime Could Mean for the Second Amendment
After decades of battling just to keep hanging on to whatever shred of gun rights that we still have left, capped off by eight recent years of renewed and intensified attacks on those rights, many see the recent election results as a turning of the tide in the fight for Second Amendment rights.
While this fight is certainly not new, anti-gun (and anti-Constitution, apparently) zealots seem to have gained steam in recent years – at least in their own minds and among their echo-chamber groups – taking the role of the squeaky wheel that bends sympathetic leftist politicians’ ears. The growth of social media during the previous president’s term led to a handful of cranky anti-gunners (and their bot-net armies) working themselves into a fervor and making complete fools out of themselves.
Given recent changes, it is time to go from being on the defense and take up an offensive position to fight back and regain Second Amendment rights that we have lost over the years at local, state, and federal levels. Continue reading
NSSF Backs President’s Selection of Gorsuch for Supreme Court
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition and related industries, tonight expressed its strong support for President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to become an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
“We are pleased to lend our support to President Trump’s nomination of Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and urge the Senate to approve his nomination in as expeditious manner as possible,” said Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “We are confident that Judge Gorsuch will serve our nation with distinction as an Associate Justice of our nation’s highest court and that his service will do honor to the legacy of the late Justice Antonin Scalia in the protection of the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans.”
About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 12,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, visit www.nssf.org.
NRA Applauds Neil Gorsuch’s Nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court
The National Rifle Association (NRA) applauds the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat on the United States Supreme Court.
“President Trump has made an outstanding choice in nominating Judge Gorsuch for the U.S. Supreme Court. He has an impressive record that demonstrates his support for the Second Amendment,” said Chris W. Cox, Executive Director, NRA-ILA. “We urge the Senate to swiftly confirm Judge Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, just as it did in confirming him to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit by a unanimous voice vote.”
During his tenure on the Tenth Circuit, Gorsuch has demonstrated his belief that the Constitution should be applied as the framers intended. To that end, he has supported the individual right to self-defense. Specifically, he wrote in an opinion that “the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to own firearms and may not be infringed lightly.”
“On behalf of our five million members, the NRA strongly supports Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court. We will be activating our members and tens of millions of supporters throughout the country in support of Judge Gorsuch. He will protect our right to keep and bear arms and is an outstanding choice to fill Justice Scalia’s seat,” concluded Cox.
Trump Inauguration Garners Enthusiastic Response from SHOT Show Attendees
After spending eight unsure years years of worrying about forthcoming gun control laws that would further infringe upon rights ostensibly protected by the US Constitution, firearms enthusiasts and industry members breathed a sigh of relief as the 45th President was sworn in on the last day of the 2017 SHOT Show.
Team GunLink members who stuck around through the end of the show were in the press room during the official swearing in ceremony – as were many other members of the media. There, the transition from President-Elect to President Donald Trump elicited a boisterous round of applause and a standing ovation from many, and cheers were heard from exhibitors and attendees alike who filled the hallways and downstairs show floor areas.
The reaction was no surprise, given the political environment and near constant threats against Second Amendment rights over the past decade and the perceived sea change in that environment.
The perception is not only reinforced by President Trumps loud proclamation of support for Second Amendment rights during his campaign, but also his creation of a “Second Amendment Coalition” that is populated by half a dozen political representatives and big-name industry players like Ronnie Barrett, Marty Daniel, Alan Cors, Kim Rhode, and Josh Waldron – true supporters of the Right to Keep and Bear arms, to be sure. Continue reading
National CCW Reciprocity Bill Introduced for 2017
Ask any concealed carry license holder who does any appreciable amount of travel and they can tell you that the United States can be a patchwork of state and local laws. Can you have a loaded firearm in your car? Are rifles and handguns treated differently? Does a loaded magazine count as “loaded,” or must a round be chambered? Do No Guns Allowed signs carry the force of law? Can you carry in restaurants which serve alcohol? Is your concealed carry permit even good in your destination state?
These issues might represent a lot to consider when traveling with firearms, but a new bill introduced in the House might solve at least one of them.
Yesterday marked the first day of the 115th Congress and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC-8) kicked it off with a piece of pro-gun legislation in the form of The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017. HR38 would eliminate the confusing hodgepodge of laws across the nation by allowing individuals who legally carry a concealed firearm in their home state to exercise the same right in any other state that does not prohibit concealed carry – a concept known as National Reciprocity.
NRA-ILA Executive Director, Chris Cox, supported the bill, saying “the current patchwork of state and local laws is confusing for even the most conscientious and well-informed concealed carry permit holders. This confusion often leads to law-abiding gun owners running afoul of the law when they exercise their right to self-protection while traveling or temporarily living away from home.”
The official Congressional summary of HR38 is still pending as of this writing; however, Rep. Hudson has released this text of the bill, a one-pager summary, and a brief Q&A.
Hudson, a strong advocate of Second Amendment rights, has introduced similar legislation in the past, including last session’s HR986 during the 114th Congress. Despite decent support from among his congressional peers, this bill failed to make it through the legislative process. Now, with republican control of the House, Senate, and White House – along with at least one Supreme Court seat to be filled by the incoming President Trump – the new iteration of the national reciprocity bill has a chance at passing. It is already off to a good start with a bi-partisan field of more than 60 co-sponsors. Continue reading
Corporate Lawyers Can’t Tell the Truth about Gun Laws
via NRA-ILA
The newly formed anti-gun Firearms Accountability Counsel Task Force was featured in a National Public Radio interview with attorney Mike Schissel of Arnold & Porter, one of the big corporate law firms that has joined together with other firms to provide free legal services to anti-gun groups. Mr. Schissel openly bragged about the “collective talent and collective manpower” of his group and that “the brute force of the major law firms in this country” would use “novel and aggressive thinking … to put a full-court press on the gun lobby.”
This “novel and aggressive thinking” clearly does not involve telling the truth about the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), since Mr. Schissel claimed “There’s no other law – no other law at all – that shields consumer products from safety regulation.” He further alleged that “there are state laws that literally immunize a gun seller of any liability even if that gun seller knows he’s selling a gun to a criminal.”
Unfortunately for Mr. Schissel, literally every part of his claim is untrue. The firearms industry is not the only industry to enjoy the type of protection the PLCAA affords, and it most certainly does not provide blanket immunity from lawsuits. Any honest lawyer would also understand that it is a federal crime to knowingly sell a firearm to a criminal. There is no law which can immunize against this action in such cases.
The truth is that gun manufacturers have been found liable for defective firearms and gun dealers have been held both criminally and civilly liable for selling guns to prohibited persons. While spurious claims like the Connecticut suit against Remington Arms and the Brady Campaign’s lawsuit against Lucky Gunner were dismissed, Badger Arms was found liable for selling guns to an obvious straw purchaser – a case Brady Campaign attorneys were forced to leave after violating Wisconsin Supreme Court rules on pretrial publicity.
The truth about the PLCAA cannot be clearer. It was passed after anti-gun activists partnered with big-firm plaintiffs’ lawyers, big-city mayors, and the Clinton administration to bring an avalanche of lawsuits against the firearm industry and force them to either settle or go bankrupt from legal fees. The PLCAA only prohibits lawsuits for injuries “resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse” of firearms – the same way that car manufacturers and auto dealerships are not liable for injuries caused by drunk drivers.
Schissel’s other “novel and aggressive” strategy is to claim that state carry laws infringe on the rights of private property owners because they have to post “No Gun” signs to exclude people who are legally carrying a concealed firearm. Following this line of reasoning, business owners must be equally burdened by having to post signs to exclude other legal activity – like “No Smoking,” “No Pets,” and “No Shirt-No Shoes-No Service.” It is laughable to think that the effort to post these signs is so terrible and onerous that it can only be remedied by the courts. Continue reading
