Gun Rights

Posts about gun rights and second amendment issues.

34th Annual National Gun Rights Policy September 20-22 in Phoenix

Second Amendment FoundationWith guns and the Second Amendment in the political crosshairs this year, and promising to be a major issue in the 2020 national and state elections, the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms are expecting huge interest in this year’s 34th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference the weekend of Sept. 20-22 in Phoenix, Ariz.

The conference will be held at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel, 2620 W Dunlap Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85021. It is co-sponsored by SAF and CCRKBA. Hundreds of Second Amendment activists and experts from across the country are expected to attend.

The full list of speakers is not finalized, but there will be appearances by SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, nationally-syndicated radio hosts Tom Gresham (Gun Talk) and Mark Walters (Armed America Radio), SAF President Joseph Tartaro. Stephen Gutowski with the Washington Free Beacon and AWR Hawkins with Breitbart.com and many others. In addition, SAF and CCRKBA leaders will be joined by representatives from Gun Owners of America, the National Rifle Association, Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.

The 2019 GRPC will feature panel discussions on state and national political issues ranging from gun rights to the 2020 elections outlook, legal battles and legislation. Almost 1,000 gun owners, activists and experts from across the country are pre-registered to attend, and the number is growing. The record attendance is being fueled by calls from Democratic presidential candidates for mandatory surrender of most semi-automatic firearms with gun owners facing prison terms for non-compliance.

“Just like last year’s record-setting conference,” Gottlieb said, “we will be live-streaming this year’s event and we anticipate more than 100,000 viewers. Those in attendance will go home with valuable books and other materials important to Second Amendment protection. We look forward to seeing everyone.”

Attendance is free, and on-line registration is available at www.saf.org/grpc.

NRA Supported Case Calls for Suspension of Illinois’s FOID Act

Grassroots Illinois-based Second Amendment organization Guns Save Life filed an important NRA-supported case challenging the very foundations of Illinois gun law. Following an early adverse ruling the group filed an expedited appeal asking the Illinois Supreme Court to put aside the lower court’s ruling and suspend the state’s Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) Act. NRA has supported and been involved in this case as they are in cases all over the state. The FOID Act requires law-abiding Illinois citizens to obtain and pay for a license from the State before they are allowed to posses or purchase any firearms and ammunition.

“Law-abiding citizens should not be required to obtain government approval before exercising a constitutionally protected right,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.

The case of one Guns Save Life member, mentioned in the organization’s complaint, shows how drastically the FOID Act infringes on that right. In compliance with the Act, the member recently sought to renew his FOID card. But the police denied his application and revoked his card, claiming to have “suddenly” found a battery conviction in his record. The problem is he has no such conviction, and the courts have no record of one. Nevertheless, because he no longer had a FOID card, he was forcibly disarmed.

Yesterday’s motion asks for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to put the Act on hold while litigation is underway.

“Illinois is one of only two states to impose such extreme gun control restrictions upon law-abiding citizens,” continued Cox. “The men and women of the National Rifle Association are pleased to join Guns Save Life in this fight to protect the Second Amendment rights of Illinois gun owners.”

NSSF Celebrates President Trump Signing ‘Range Bill’

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry trade association, celebrates President Donald Trump’s signing of H.R. 1222, the Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act, at The White House. The President signed the NSSF-priority bill May 10, just two weeks after the bill was passed by Congress.

We deeply appreciate President Trump’s swift enactment of this legislation that will give state fish and game agencies greater flexibility to build new recreational shooting ranges and expand and improve existing ranges,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “This administration understands the value and investment the firearms and ammunition industry makes to safe recreational shooting and to sustained conservation to benefit wildlife and habitat restoration across the United States. Public shooting ranges provide hunters a place to sight in rifles and pattern shotguns before hunting seasons, for people to take firearm safety and hunter education courses and for recreational target shooters to enjoy their sport.

The “Range Bill” has been a sustained-effort priority for NSSF and is a crucial step forward in promoting, protecting and preserving hunting and the shooting sports. In the course of more than a decade, versions of the bipartisan legislation were introduced as 29 different numbered bills and 15 separate legislative packages, starting with the 110th Congress. While it had broad support from both Republicans and Democrats in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, previous attempts to pass the legislation were derailed for reasons unrelated to the actual legislation.

The Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act, also known as the “Range Bill,” allows states to use their Pittman-Robertson Fund allocations to begin construction of new ranges, or improve existing state-run public recreational shooting ranges. Prior to this law’s enactment, states were required to put up 25 percent of the cost of range construction projects to access the matching 75 percent of Pittman-Robertson funds. Now, states can access those funds with a 10 percent match and will have five fiscal years to acquire land for range construction or expansion projects.

Pittman-Robertson funds are derived from an excise tax paid by firearms and ammunition manufacturers. Since 1937, the fund has generated more than $12.5 billion funding wildlife conservation and safety education programs in all 50 states. NSSF estimates more than 80 percent of Pittman-Robertson excise tax contributions are generated by sales attributed to recreational shooting. This means today’s recreational target shooter is an overwhelming contributor to conservation through excise tax support.

A recurring concern of recreational shooters, and those considering entering the sport, is proximity and access to a safe range. This new law would make it easier for states to enable recreational target shooters to enter the sport, which in turn would generate continued contributions to Pittman-Robertson funds and the conservation programs which it supports.

NSSF is especially grateful to U.S. Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), as well as U.S. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), John Boozman, (R-Ark.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Angus King (I-Maine), Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska). All are original co-sponsors on both the House and Senate versions of the legislation.

Gun Control Takes Center Stage in 2020 Democratic Presidential Race

U.S. Senator Cory Booker on Monday released a sweeping plan to curb gun violence by creating a national licensing program and repealing a law that gives gun manufacturers legal immunity, becoming the latest Democrat in the 2020 presidential race to make gun control measures a feature of their campaign.

In the past, Democrats have feared that supporting gun restrictions could cost them the backing of working-class, swing voters – the group widely credited with tipping the 2016 presidential contest to Republican Donald Trump.

After dozens of mass shootings in recent years, however, including at schools like the February 2018 massacre in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead, curbing gun violence has become a component of the Democratic policy platform embraced by congressional and presidential candidates.

“In my community, kids fear fireworks on the Fourth of July because they sound like gunshots,” Booker said of his hometown of Newark, New Jersey, in a news release. “In communities across the country, from Newark to Charlotte, from San Diego to Chicago, and everywhere in between, Americans are being killed and families are being torn apart. We must do better. We need to do better.”

Booker’s plan would also ban assault weapons; allow the Consumer Product Safety Commission to regulate gun manufacturers; require microstamping technology be incorporated into new models of semi-automatic handguns; calls for universal background checks for gun sales; and close the “boyfriend loophole” that allows dating partners to purchase firearms after being convicted of abuse or under a restraining order. Current and former spouses convicted of abuse or under a restraining order are prohibited from purchasing a firearm.

Most but not all components of Booker’s plan would require approval of the U.S. Congress. Democrats currently control the House of Representatives and Republicans the Senate, where gun safety legislation would likely meet intense pushback.   Continue reading

USCCA Sets the Record Straight on “Red Flag” Legislation

USCCA Continues To Oppose Legislative Efforts Aimed At Stripping Americans of Their 2A Rights Without Due Process

The United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA), which provides education, training and self-defense protection to more than 300,000 responsible American gun owners across the country, said today that it will continue to oppose any legislative efforts at the state and federal level that seek to strip law-abiding Americans of their Second Amendment rights without due process.

This comes as anti-gun groups are pressuring lawmakers in a number of states to pass so-called “Red Flag” laws – which are also referred to as Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs) – and some have inaccurately suggested the USCCA would support these efforts.

USCCA President and Founder Tim Schmidt said today that the USCCA will continue to stand behind any law-abiding, responsibly-armed American who faces an unfounded “Red Flag” situation and will oppose legislative efforts that allow for the confiscation of firearms without due process. “We must ensure that dangerous persons with mental illnesses do not have access to firearms, but that cannot come at the expense of allowing our government to target law-abiding Americans and confiscate their firearms without due process,” Schmidt said today.

“Many of the so-called ‘red flag’ laws under consideration by various states would make it far too easy for bad actors to abuse them and target innocent people. Imagine, for example, losing your right to self-protection simply because someone with an axe to grind against you falsely claims you’re a danger. Many of these legislative proposals are nothing more than backdoor efforts by the anti-gun lobby to strip law-abiding Americans of their God-given right to self-defense, and the USCCA will continue to oppose them.”

Schmidt also noted in a new video that he recorded and shared with USCCA members today that the USCCA has been voicing its serious concern with “red flag” laws that have been passed by states like California for the last several years now including in a January 2018 message to USCCA members where he wrote, “Therein lies the ‘extreme risk of ERPOs: relying on feelings to potentially strip an individual of his or her constitutional right to keep and bear arms — all while neglecting due process.”

Nevada: Assembly Judiciary Votes to Cede Authority To Pass Stricter Gun Laws To Counties

On April 12th, the Nevada Assembly Committee on Judiciary voted to approve Assembly Bill 291 with amendments and Assembly Bill 153 with technical amendments. The amendments were not made publicly available until just prior to the 8AM hearing, giving Nevadans no opportunity to read and express their concerns with legislators on the committee. The bills will now head to the Assembly floor where they will be eligible for a floor vote next week. Please contact your Assembly member and urge them to OPPOSE AB 291 and AB 153.

Assembly Bill 291, introduced by Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui (D-41), is omnibus anti-gun legislation that is a threat to both law-abiding gun owners residing in Nevada and those who are visiting. Most notably, AB 291:

  • Allows Local Gun Control Laws: Nevada’s firearm preemption laws have been on the books since 1989 and have been improved over the years to ensure consistency in firearm laws throughout the state, by occupying the field of firearm related regulations with the State Legislature. With the amendments to AB 291, the legislature is ceding authority to the counties to pass stricter gun control laws without limitation. This move could result in a confusing patchwork of laws for both residents and visitors to navigate while subjecting Nevadans in one county to a different set of rules and regulations regarding their constitutional rights than to a person in a neighboring county.
  • Criminalizes Certain Firearm Modifications: With the amendments, this legislation remains broader than existing federal regulations, criminalizing certain modifications on semi-automatic firearms. Violations of this section will result in felony penalties.
  • Expands the ability for localities to create “gun-free zones:” These arbitrary boundaries only disarm law-abiding citizens and leave them defenseless against the criminals who ignore such restrictions.

Assembly Bill 153, introduced by Assembly Member Ozzie Fumo (D-21), would expand Nevada’s current law regulating firearm storage that could make firearms unavailable for self-defense.

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