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March 8, 2010 by On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard a historic constitutional gun rights case in McDonald v. City of Chicago. But, as Ken Klukowski notes in his FOXNews.com blog, the White House is not taking a position.
"Instead, President Obama is hiding under his desk in the Oval Office," he writes. "What a profile in courage."
Not surprising. In June 2008, when the Supreme Court handed down its landmark Heller decision, Obama, a liberal Illinois Senator, "decided to play some politics," Klukowski writes. "Despite his longstanding record of denying gun rights, Obama said that he supported the Heller decision."
It made sense—sense, that is, if you're running for President. "Obama knew that he couldn’t win the presidency without getting a good number of votes from America’s 90 million gun owners," Klukowksi writes. "So he did a 180 on his long-held beliefs, and announced that the Court made the right decision in Heller."
Obama's silence on gun-control has been a shocking reversal for liberals, and especially zealot gun-grabbers.
"It seems to be shaping up to be the lefty complaint du jour this week," writes Warner Todd Huston in biggovernment.com.
“We expected a very different picture at this stage,” whined Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which last month issued a report card failing the administration in all seven of the group’s major indicators.
Still, gun rights groups remain skeptical. “The watchword for gun owners is stay ready,” said Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA. “We have had some successes, but we know that the first chance Obama gets, he will pounce on us.”
Make that very skeptical.
As Huston warns in his biggovernment.com blog, don't mistake Obama's inaction on gun-control initiatives as a statement of support for gun rights. A reader concurred, adding this footnote:
"Obama may sign 'pro gun' legislation; but he is appointing 'anti-gun' judges and regulators. He knows that it is the regulators, and the judges, that will interpret and apply these laws. Do not be fooled; this fellow makes KY jelly jealous."
For more, go to: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/03/02/ken-klukowski-obama-chicago-gun-ban-supreme-court-hiding-desk/
Also:
*Obama The Pro-Gun President?; http://biggovernment.com/wthuston/2010/02/15/obama-the-pro-gun-president... <http://biggovernment.com/wthuston/2010/02/15/obama-the-pro-gun-president/>
*Gun Rights Expand under Obama
*Gun-Crazy in Obama's America;
*Obama Perhaps Not as Anti-Gun as Feared;
[ Read Full Post ]March 1, 2010 by Major League Baseball's gun ban reveals how some sports reporters are clueless about real issues
Most sports reporters live in privileged sanctuaries where the world's realities are but a hazy background to games, scores, statistics and players. And let's be honest: Most of us would happily live such a life, if we could.
But sports reporters are still journalists. As such, they should be held to the same standards as all journalists and take the time to understand issues before commenting on them.
Case in point: Gabe Lacques of USA Today.
Lacques called Major League Baseballs reiteration of its no-gun policy a "no-brainer" in his Feb. 23 "Daily Pitch" column about how St. Louis Cardinals closer Ryan Franklin disagrees with the ban on firearms.
Lacques exposes his ignorance of the issue in this paragraph: "While Franklin clearly stated he uses guns in the sportsman's sense and not for self-defense, here's guessing his comment will draw the ire of anti-gun activists, particularly given the St. Louis and Missouri areas' rank in various homicide rates."
First: The policy is not a "no-brainer." It says, "Individuals are prohibited from possessing deadly weapons while performing any services for MLB." Does that mean the ban extends beyond locker rooms? If so, it is unconstitutional.
Second: What does using guns "in the sportsman's sense and not for self-defense" have to do with a MLB players' 2nd Amendment right to own firearms?
Third: Despite the abundance of statistical evidence, numerous articles, television documentaries, published studies, Lacques doesn't understand that when you have more law-abiding citizens who own firearms, violent gun crime goes down. Saying Franklin's comments "will draw the ire of anti-gun activists, particularly given the St. Louis and Missouri areas' rank in various homicide rates" reveals he has no understanding of this issue at all.
The information is out there: Look it up.
As Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea wrote in his Feb. 23 blog, gun rights activists can point to the same high homicide rates as a direct consequence of gun bans and a justification for gun ownership – and back it up with statistics time after time, place after place.
"But then again," Codrea writes, "we're dealing with people who think mandated defenselessness is 'smart.'"
For more, go to: www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m2d23-Is-Major-League-Baseballs-gun-ban-a-nobrainer
Also:
*Franklin bemoans ban;
*Carry bats, not 'gats,' MLB warns;
*Padres Clubhouse prohibits guns;
[ Read Full Post ]February 16, 2010 by A detective in East Palo Alto, Calif., is under fire after he allegedly encouraged fellow police officers in Facebook postings to shoot gun advocates who carry unloaded weapons in plain view as a political statement.
Detective Rod Tuason, apparently in response to a comment about open carry advocates with visible weapons sipping coffee at cafes in the San Francisco Bay area, suggested officers challenge the gun owners.
"Sounds like you had someone practicing their 2nd amendment rights last night!" Tuason wrote. "Should've pulled the AR out and prone them all out! And if one of them makes a furtive movement ... 2 weeks off!!!"
Tuason ridiculed how law-abiding gun owners can't get concealed carry permits. "Haha that's when you attend one of their meetings and laugh at them cuz they can only dream to have a ccw..." he wrote.
Unfortunately for Tuason, blogger and lawyer Kevin Thomason — a Second Amendment advocate — read his remarks, posted a screen grab of the thread and a link to Tuason's Facebook page.
[ Read Full Post ]February 11, 2010 by
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is duping people into signing a petition telling Starbucks to keep guns out of its shops. According to The Seattle Times, by Feb. 10 the petition had more than 15,000 signatures.
The petition is in response to OpenCarry.org members demonstrating their legal right to openly carry properly holstered handguns in San Francisco Bay-area locations such as California Pizza Kitchen, Peet's Coffee and Starbucks. Brady activists reacted by browbeating California Pizza Kitchen and Peet's Coffee officials into revising policies to only allow law-enforcement officers to carry guns in their stores.
But Starbucks stood firm, stating its policy complies with state and federal laws. If residents are permitted to carry unconcealed weapons, it will allow them to do so in its shops.
This enraged the Brady bullies. On Feb. 9, Brady flaks Paul Helmke and Dennis Henigan blustered: "What would your reaction be if you and your kids walked into the local Starbucks and ... you noticed several fellow customers had semi-automatic pistols and ammunition magazines hanging from their hips? This scenario has become more than a flight of imagination. In several communities in California, and elsewhere, it has become reality."
This is classic hysteria-mongering. It was reality and is reality — a reality Brady apparently wants to change by making believe it isn't reality.
Ammoland.com struck back. "The hand-wringers at the Brady Campaign must have figured out what the rest of us have known for quite some time," an unbylined Feb. 6 blog noted. "Having been rendered all but entirely irrelevant, the group is resorting to weird publicity stunts, in a vain attempt to again be taken seriously by its former not-so-secret admirers in the national anti-gun news media."
OpenCarry.org also chimed in, applauding "Starbuck’s policy to serve all lawful gun carriers world wide. It is refreshing to see yet one more company not requiring law abiding gun owners to go to the back of the bus."
But, some, such as Bruce Ross, editorial page editor for the Record-Searchlight in Redding, Calif., in his Feb. 6 column, wonder what it is all about. "What are the 'Open Carry' activists really hoping to accomplish at Starbucks, of all places?"
A reader, "Max," provided a succinct answer: "I will hazard a guess," he wrote, "they want to get some coffee."
Ammoland.com and Opencarry.org, by the way, are asking Second Amendment advocates to support Starbucks by signing this petition:
For more, go to:
—Brady Campaign Wants Guns Out of Starbucks;
—Brady Campaign circulates petition to keep guns out of Starbucks;
—Starbucks gets backlash from anti-gun advocates;
—Crazy Continues: Starbucks Still Allowing Guns in Its Stores;
—Starbucks manager in Wyoming blows it;
—Maybe the Social Bigots of the Brady Campaign Should Switch To Decaf;
—Free Market Ensures Gun Owners Will Get Served;
[ Read Full Post ] February 3, 2010 by
Meet Otis McDonald, 76, a retired maintenance engineer, grandfather, and life-long Democrat who wants a handgun for self-defense in case gang members break into his Chicago home—again.
But, Chicago says he can't have one because the city has a 28-year-old handgun ban.
And so, on March 2, Otis McDonald will become the "new face of the Second Amendment" when opening arguments in McDonald v. city of Chicago begin before the U.S. Supreme Court.
In April 2008, McDonald agreed to serve as the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. Choosing a sympathetic lead plaintiff is a legal strategy pioneered by the NAACP. Second Amendment activist attorney Alan Gura used the same strategy with McDonald, who was the only African-American among four potential lead plaintiffs. "Is it just because I'm the only black?" he joked.
"Likely, yes," wrote Abigail Field in Daily Finance on Feb. 1, noting McDonald "could not get further from the classically unsympathetic Montana militiamen so many people associate with gun rights."
For more, read:
—The new face of the Second Amendment?
— Chicago grandfather plaintiff in Supreme Court case against city gun ban;
—The man who could be the new face of the Second Amendment;
—Meet the plaintiffs;
—In Their Sights:
—Why Otis McDonald Is Lead Plaintiff in High Court Gun Rights Case;
—Old McDonald Had a Gun;
[ Read Full Post ] January 21, 2010 by What do Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) of Detroit and Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) of Baltimore all have in common? Yes, the (D).
(D) for Democrat, disgraced, deposed.
Oh, and one more thing: All are vocal, fawning apostles of New York City Mayor Michael Bamboozleberg and henchmen in his "Mayors Against Illegal Guns," that smoke-blowing artifice created to bamboozle you from your Constitutional rights under the guise of benevolent Nanny-Fascism and elitist deceit.
The record—more specifically, Blagojevich's, Kilpatrick's, Dixon's records — speaks for itself.
For more, go to: Mayors Against Illegal Guns Loses Yet Another Member;
Also:
—Does Your Mayor Belong To An Anti-Gun Group?;
[ Read Full Post ]January 20, 2010 by
After spending a couple days here in Vegas looking at new products it is clear that this is not going to be a huge year for new guns. No, instead the story is going to be ammunition. The themes? Value and performance.
For value there is a new line of ammunition that Weatherby is introducing that will cost significantly less than what we currently pay to shoot rifles in Weatherby chamberings. Shooters who own either a .257 Wby. or a .300 Wby. will soon be able to purchase a box of ammunition that doesn’t require a second mortgage.
The costs aren’t fully settled yet, but it should end up running somewhere around $30 for a box of 20. This is big news because there are a lot of shooters who purchased Vanguards, which represent one of the best values in big game rifles out there, only to find that feeding their guns (if they got one in a Weatherby cartridge) cost so much that it prevented them from shooting as much as they’d like.
Other value buys include the increase in the number of “semi-premium” loads on the market. Winchester’s Power Bond Max is one example.
For performance, there is a new load for the Taurus Judge that is sure to gain a lot of attention. Built by Winchester, these .410 shells have three metal disks stacked on top of each other in front of a load of 12 smaller pellets. The disks don’t fly like Frisbees, rather they sail through the air on their side and during tests the other day at the range, penetrated about 10 inches or so into ballistic gelatin. Hunting editor Andrew McKean accurately described the pellets that were behind the disks in the gelatin—they penetrated about 4 inches or so—as looking like a swarm of angry bees. Nasty.
There are also some hyper-velocity shotshells in the offing from Remington that are supposed to deliver their payload at 1700 fps. Hornady has a new line of “super performance” ammunition that is going to replace their light magnum line. These new loads are engineered to deliver improved velocities with special blends of powders that burn more completely in the barrel, which is supposed to reduce recoil by lessening the volume of gasses that exit the muzzle.
It’ll be fun to put these new products to the test in the coming year.
[ Read Full Post ] January 11, 2010 by If you think that Americans are obsessed with preserving their gun rights, you haven't seen anything until you've been to Switzerland.
Rich Wehr, in a column published earlier in the month in the Evansville, Ind. Courier & Press, offers some interesting observations about Switzerland that may stun Nanny-Fascists and anti-gun whackoes.
"Switzerland is the safest country in the world to live in. It is not because it is a neutral country or anything of that sort. I believe it is due to the fact that each male citizen is required to keep a firearm in his home," he writes. "When every male citizen of Switzerland turns 20 years old, he is issued a fully automatic assault rifle. Every male citizen is on call to defend his homeland if his country calls on him.
"Olympic-style target shooting is Switzerland's national sport and it is not uncommon at all to see a regular citizen on a train, bus, or just walking down the street with a rifle slung over his shoulder," Wehr continues. "The policy in Switzerland requiring a firearm in every home is one of the main reasons the Nazis didn't invade Switzerland in World War II. Had the Nazis invaded, there would have been far more German blood running through the streets than Swiss blood.
"Switzerland is the toughest place in the world to be a criminal because if you plan on breaking into someone's house, you are guaranteed that the owner of the home has a firearm and is trained to use it. If you think that Americans are obsessed with preserving the Second Amendment, you haven't seen anything until you've been to Switzerland."
For more, go to: www.courierpress.com/news/2010/jan/03/the-swiss-have-the-right-idea-about-firearms/
While we're at it:
Gandhi and The Dalai Lama Are Not Opposed to Guns; www.prisonplanet.com/gandhi-and-the-dalai-lama-are-not-opposed-to-guns.html
[ Read Full Post ]January 9, 2010 by
It is surprising that there has been little "told you so" cluckery from the Nanny-Fascists and anti-gun zealots about Gilbert Arenas brandishing unloaded firearms at a Washington Wizards teammate during a Christmas Eve gambling-debt dispute in their Verizon Center locker room in Wasington, D.C.
It is surprising they haven't seized the moment to shriek about the menace of the Second Amendment, about how freedom really shouldn't be free, about how 2008's U.S. Supreme Court rejection of the Washington, D.C., gun ban in the Heller decision should be overturned.
Of course, no one was hurt and Arenas, who has been arrested for illegal weapons possession before, is not a licensed gun owner, nor the type of responsible adult who would be eiligible for a permit to carry.
But such facts have never stopped the harpies from haranging you for the acts of idiots before. What's the difference now?
Related commentary:
Wednesday eye-opener: What would you do with Gilbert Arenas? www.blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2010/01/wednesday-eyeopener.html
Role of guns in deaths of athletes overstated; www.app.com/article/20100105/OPINION04/1060318/1028/OPINION
Wizards star Gilbert Arenas won't be able to laugh off repercussions from cops and the league; www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gz3kqsSe0zhLgBnyBV7zmtuW4qcg
Analysis: Arenas Incident and NBA.ís Image; www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/sports/basketball/04arenas.html?ref=basketball
[ Read Full Post ] January 6, 2010 by
NBA all-star legend Karl Malone, who also happens to be an avid hunter and support of gun rights, weighs in on the stupidity that took place in the locker room of the Washington Wizards when one player allegedly brandished a number of firearms in front of his fellow players.
Malone (a finalist in the OL 25 awards program) rightly worries about the impact this has on the image of responsible gun owners:
Once again, gun owners get a bad rap. We're good people; we're not back in the Old West. I got my first gun when I was 8 years old—an old .410 single shot. I've been around them all the time ever since, and I'm a member of the NRA. I love guns, and I respect guns. I have them in a secure place. When I was in Utah, I took all the necessary training with the gun and had my concealed-weapons permit, and I'll be the first to tell you I don't go anywhere in my vehicle without my weapon, but at no point has it ever occurred to me to take it inside anywhere, let alone an arena.
Unfortunately, we always hear bad things about guns. But guns don't kill people —people kill people. I'm not saying that everybody should have guns, but I will tell you this: If you're willing to go through the training and proper procedure to have guns, then they're fine.
He also doesn’t want to see the NBA sweep this under the rug in an attempt to minimize the incident:
To me, this is another example of a dark cloud that we can never seem to get over. When I say "we," I mean the NBA. I'm still an NBA player; I'm just retired. The amazing thing to me is, it seems just when the league has a little bit of positivity, then we have one big negative and it reflects on all the players. Now people think every NBA player is carrying firearms into the locker room. I guess the next thing is that instead of us walking around those metal detectors in arenas, we should start walking through them. So many kids are doing it the right way in the league, but you get linked with one guy making one mistake.
Read the whole thing.
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