Branco: If You Like Your Guns, You Can Keep Your Guns
April Fools!
A.F. Branco – Obama Cares. Period.
Should we hope for more of this kind of change in the upcoming election?
Iowa Becomes 42nd State to Legalize Silencers
Governor Branstad Signs HF2279 Into Law
In an update to yesterday’s story about support for gun mufflers in Iowa and New Hampshire, Iowa’s governor has signed the proposed legislation into law, making suppressors legal for civilian ownership.
Iowa has become the 42nd state to legalize suppressors. House File 2279, a bill introduced by Rep. Matt Windschitl and Rep. Terry Baxter, recently passed the Iowa Senate Judiciary Committee on March 2, 2016 by a wide margin of 11-2. The bill moved through the Iowa Senate without issue, and has now been signed by Governor Terry Branstad.
After three years of efforts by the American Suppressor Association, the National Rifle Association, and the Iowa Firearms Coalition to educate lawmakers on the benefits and realities of suppressors, HF 2279 was met with positive response.
This victory in Iowa is bringing hope to the eight other states where suppressors are still illegal for civilians to own. As part of their “No State Left Behind” campaign, the American Suppressor Association will now turn its attention to those states, including California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York.
Joshua Waldron, CEO of SilencerCo, says “SilencerCo has been a strong supporter of the American Suppressor Association since its inception. We’re proud of the hard work they have put behind HF 2279 along with the help of the NRA and the Iowa Firearms Coalition. Because of the determination and educational push by these groups, Iowans can now enjoy the same rights as are held by law-abiding citizens in 41 other states.”
There is also proposed legislation to remove suppressors from the purview of the National Firearms Act (NFA) altogether through the Hearing Protection Act.
NRA-ILA: The Next Supreme Court, by the Numbers
With the passage of Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia, how will the Court rule on Second Amendment cases in the future? The answer is, “it’s just a matter of simple math.”
In January, when the next president takes office, our eight Supreme Court justices will range in age from 56 to 83, with an average age of 69.
Four of the eight—Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, and Clarence Thomas—joined the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s majority opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), recognizing that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep a handgun in the home for protection. They, along with Justice Scalia, also formed the majority in McDonald v. Chicago (2010), which applied Heller to the states.
Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both nominated to the Court by President Bill Clinton, dissented in Heller and McDonald, and Ginsburg has said that Heller should be overturned. The former president of Handgun Control, Inc. (today the Brady Campaign), has produced a BLUEPRINT to do precisely that.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by President Barack Obama after Heller, joined Breyer’s dissenting opinion in McDonald, claiming there is “nothing in the Second Amendment’s text, history, or underlying rationale . . . to protect the keeping and bearing of arms for private self-defense purposes.” Justice Elena Kagan, appointed by Obama after Heller and McDonald, was Associate White House Counsel for President Bill Clinton in 1995 and 1996, and assisted his efforts to impose gun control. Continue reading
NRA’s “Freedom’s Safest Place” Commercial
We have been seeing these during select programming in our market. Have you seen NRA’s TV ads lately?
The Hollywood celebrities, political elites and billionaires who attack the Second Amendment want to take our God-given freedom away. Yet at the core of the Second Amendment is the eternal truth that no life is more worthy of armed protection than another. The National Rifle Association fights for the protection of these liberties. The NRA is Freedom’s Safest Place.
Are you ready for #GunVote 2016?
Every election is, of course, important and we hear the “most important election ever” rhetoric in just about every election cycle. This one, however, is quite important for gun owners. Not only because we are electing the next commander in chief and we want the POTUS to be a solid supporter of gun rights as proscribed in our country’s founding documents, but because – provided that Mitch McConnell isn’t completely full of it – the next President is guaranteed to nominate at least one Supreme Court justice.
Being a well informed voter and being active in helping others to be the same is paramount and, for gun owners, there is a great resource to help with that: the NSSF #GunVote voter education initiative.
The crowded GOP field is still narrowing itself down and there are some solid (and not so solid) pro-gun candidates. The democrat presidential candidate for the general election will almost certainly be Hillary Clinton.
Despite making a lot of noise about enacting gun control measures, the current president has proven himself to be an inexperienced, politically impotent empty suit who achieved nothing more than stirring up a few uninformed rabble rousers who complained enough to get their coffee shop posted as a gun-free criminal protection zone. The running joke among… pretty much everyone… is that he is the Gun Salesman of the Century thanks to the ensuing panic buying every time he picks up his pen and his phone. Clinton, on the other hand, has been engaged in politics for more than five decades, including being part of the administration that enacted the 1994 so-called “Assault Weapon” Ban, which outlawed many of the most popular firearms based on cosmetic features. Continue reading
NRA Show is Just Around the Corner
NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits Lands in Louisville May 19-22
Are you sad that you weren’t able to attend the industry-only 2016 SHOT Show in January? Cheer up, because the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits (NRAAM) is just around the corner!
The 145th NRAAM will be held at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, KY May 20-22, 2016. The show, which is open and free to all NRA members and their immediate family, features over 650 exhibitors covering over 475,000 square feet of exhibit hall space and offers a terrific opportunity to meet with representatives from the manufacturers and vendors of your favorite shooting, hunting, and outdoor gear, guns, and more.
The NRA Show also features numerous educational seminars, celebrities, and fun filled special events for the whole family. Visitors can spend the day exploring products from every major firearm company in the country, book the hunt of a lifetime in the outfitter section, and view priceless collections of firearms in the gun collector area. There will also be no shortage of knives, wildlife art, shooting accessories, hunting gear, ATV’s, and much more. Continue reading