So What DID the Nation’s Founders Think About Individual Gun Rights?
There has always been much debate and rhetoric about the true meaning of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and what it’s guarantee of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms really means. From consternation over the placement of a comma to knee-jerk reactions to discourse over who, exactly, comprises the militia and what well regulated means, it seems like some are having a problem – perhaps deliberately, sometimes – grasping what the intention of our nation’s charter was.
Since we are celebrating the birth and early shaping of the United States of America this week, let’s take a look at what some of America’s architects had to say about gun rights and the necessity of individual firearm ownership.
As you read through these quotes and discussion, do so through the lens of current gun control laws and regulations, as well as those that have been proposed with various levels of success throughout history, and reflect on how you think the Founding Fathers may have felt about them. Continue reading
Setting the Stage for Gun Control to be a 2016 Campaign Issue?
Clinton Joins Obama in Call for Additional Restrictions on Constitutionally Protected Rights
“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” – Rahm Emanuel
Although the quote above is from 2008, the concept is nothing new for anti-gun zealots on the left, including Emanuel’s political cronies. The current mayor of Chicago – a prime example of the failures of gun control – has close ties with many other anti-gun politicians, including President Obama and 2016 democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton, and it is obvious that they are sharing the same playbook.
Emanuel was first appointed as the finance committee director for Bill Clinton’s presidential bid in 1992, before going on to be Clinton’s Assistant to the President for Political Affairs. Emanuel was later serving as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy when when the 1994 “Assault Weapon Ban” (another fine example of the failures of gun control) was enacted. After a stint as a US Congressman representing Illinois’s 5th district, Emanuel was appointed by the Obama administration to serve as White House Chief of Staff following the 2008 election. Perhaps it was during all of this close time together that Emanuel shared his strategy of capitalizing on crises to push unpopular political agendas like the ones that top democrats are now espousing with renewed vigor in the wake of the recent tragedy at a Charleston, South Carolina, church. Continue reading
NRA-ILA: Stop ATF’s Ammo Ban
Urge Your U.S. Representative to Sign Congressional Letter to ATF on Proposed Ammo Ban
As NRA has been reporting since the night the news broke, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) is moving to infringe upon the rights of law-abiding gun owners with a drastic reinterpretation of a nearly 30-year-old law regulating so-called “armor piercing” ammunition. So draconian is BATFE’s new “Framework” that it would prohibit the manufacturing, importation, and sale of M855 ball ammunition, one of the most popular cartridges for the most popular rifle in America, the AR-15. Not coincidentally, the AR-15 is among the firearms the Obama Administration has unsuccessfully sought to outlaw. If they can’t ban the pie, so the thinking apparently goes, they might at least get the apples.
In an effort to thwart BATFE’s attempted action, NRA has worked with U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to draft a letter to BATFE expressing the lawmakers’ opposition to the proposed Framework. To read a copy of the letter, please click this link.
According to the letter, “The idea that Congress intended [the ‘armor piercing’ ammunition law] to ban one of the preeminent rifle cartridges in use by Americans for legitimate purposes is preposterous.” It goes on to state that the law “should be construed in accordance with the Continue reading
NRA-ILA: BATFE To Ban Common AR-15 Ammo
M855 ‘Armor Piercing’ Classification Could Drastically Impact Ammunition Availability
In a move clearly intended by the Obama Administration to suppress the acquisition, ownership and use of AR-15s and other .223 caliber general purpose rifles, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives unexpectedly announced today that it intends to ban commonplace M855 ball ammunition as “armor piercing ammunition.” The decision continues Obama’s use of his executive authority to impose gun control restrictions and bypass Congress.
It isn’t even the third week of February, and the BATFE has already taken three major executive actions on gun control. First, it was a major change to what activities constitute regulated “manufacturing” of firearms. Next, BATFE reversed a less than year old position on firing a shouldered “pistol.” Now, BATFE has released a“Framework for Determining Whether Certain Projectiles are ‘Primarily Intended for Sporting Purposes’ Within the Meaning of 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(17)(c)”, which would eliminate M855’s exemption to the armor piercing ammunition prohibition and make future exemptions nearly impossible.
By way of background, federal law imposed in 1986 prohibits the manufacture, importation, and sale by licensed manufacturers or importers, but not possession, of “a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely . . . from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium.” Because there are handguns capable of firing M855, it “may be used in a handgun.” It does not, however, have a core made of the metals listed in the law; rather, it has a traditional lead core with a steel tip, and therefore should never have been considered “armor piercing.” Nonetheless, BATFE previously declared M855 to be “armor piercing ammunition,” but granted it an exemption as a projectile “primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes.”
Now, however, BATFE says that it will henceforth grant the “sporting purposes” exception to only two categories of projectiles: Continue reading
Gun Control Advocates are as Useless as Gun Control Itself
Remember back in September when we told you about Kroger standing up to Moms Demand Action? The top brass of the grocery chain refused to be bullied into an anti-gun statement or policy (like Target, Starbucks, Chipotle and others). Instead, the world’s 5th largest retailer decided to employ actual common sense and allow their patrons to #ShopSafe, saying “Our long-standing policy on this issue is to follow state and local laws and to ask customers to be respectful of others while shopping. “We know that our customers are passionate on both sides of this issue, and we trust them to be responsible in our stores.”
Despite their claims to be “common sense” advocates, the astroturf anti-gun zealots threw a hissy fit and decided to boycott Kroger. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand, said “Moms need to shop for groceries, but we don’t have to shop at stores that put our families in harm’s way. Kroger’s policy endangers our families by putting us in the position of having to guess if the man carrying a rifle through the cereal aisle is a threat to their safety.
A lot of good that did.
As pointed out by the Iowa Firearms Coalition, Kroger is doing as good or better than ever. According to Supermarket News, Kroger posted a 21% increase in profit in the third quarter compared with the same period last year while identical store sales excluding fuel were up 5.6%, making this the 44th quarter with positive identical store sales.
Maybe it is time for other retailers to take an honest look at their policies and ask who they are really hurting when they kowtow to bullies like Moms Demand Action and don’t allow their patrons to #EatSafe or #ShopSafe – especially when the store is unwilling or unable to protect them… Like Target: Continue reading
