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**TOP STORY
Fight BATFE plan to ban M855 ammunition **
According to Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC), after the 2013 gun-control push fueled by knee-jerk emotions post-Newton fizzled out, President Barack Obama and former Attorney General Eric Holder simply changed tactics, doing things like use unelected bureaucrats at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to ban common M855 rifle ammunition.
“This new scheme seeks to dodge the people’s representatives entirely, and unlawfully nullify your Second Amendment rights through the backdoor,” the GRNC states in a Feb. 20 press release. “After all, banning ammo is the next best thing to banning guns, since one is useless without the other.”
On Feb. 13, BATFE announced plans to ban common M855 ball ammunition, which is commonly used in modern sporting rifles. The agency intends to declare that the ammunition is not “intended primarily for sporting purposes,” and eliminate its current exemption from “armor piercing” status.
“Suffice to say, the BATFE is trying to ban M855 ammunition as ‘armor piercing’ even though it doesn’t fit Congress’ definition of ‘armor piercing,’” the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) says.
Modern sporting rifles like the AR-15 are not the only firearms that may be affected by this anti-gun attack, the GRNC says. “If unaccountable administrators can skirt the law and set a precedent of banning ammunition as ‘armor piercing,” even though it does NOT meet the Congressional specifications of armor piercing, how long will it be until ammunition used in traditional hunting rifles is banned because it can penetrate body armor?” the GRNC asks. “Probably not long. If the administration pulls this off, they will be emboldened, and all ammunition types will be in their crosshairs.”
The GRNC is among Second Amendment advocacy groups calling upon gun owners to voice their opposition to this “back-door” maneuver, by sending BATFE your comments at: APAComments@atf.gov.
For more, go to:
Obama-Holder still scheming for backdoor gun control
GRNC Alert 02-19-15: BATFE to Ban Common Rifle Ammo
AR-15 Ammunition Ban: The New Obama Backdoor Gun Control
ATF Moves to Ban M855 And SS109 5.56 Ammunition
Don’t Let Obama’s ATF Get Away With Banning M855 “Green Tip” AR-15 Ammo!
THANK YOU, BLOOMBERG, ET AL
NRA donors rallied to thwart knee-jerk panic of post-Sandy Hook
Recently released IRS filings show that donations to the National Rifle Association increased by 11.5 percent to $96.4 million in 2013 from the previous year, in response to the scare-tactics employed by gun control zealots following the Sandy Hook shooting in December 2012.
The revelations, published in a New York Daily News “exclusive,” were greeted with knee-jerk hysterics by gun control advocates, demanding yet another “national conversation” about gun violence which, if they have their way, will do no more than weaken law-abiding citizens’ rights and have no effect on criminals or madmen.
“It’s very perverse,” said Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. “Most Americans would have a visceral reaction toward those numbers following a tragedy where 20 (kids) were slaughtered.”
But, as AWR Hawkins notes in his Feb. 25 Breitbart.com blog, “It’s not really perverse at all. Many people, at least $96.4M worth of people, reacted to the killing spree by supporting a group who wanted to ensure Americans kept their right to protect themselves against such madmen like the Sandy Hook shooter.”
And, as Seattle Guns Rights Examiner Dave Workman, writes in his Feb. 25 Examiner.com blog, “instead of blaming alleged ‘fearmongering’ by the (NRA), the gun prohibition lobby should really thank its own efforts to erode the Second Amendment. If the NRA is guilty of anything, it’s not “fearmongering,” but perhaps simply telling the truth.”
The bottom line, Workman writes, is gun owners support the bottom line when they think their rights are being infringed on—and will continue to do so.
“These people support the NRA not because the organization makes them feel threatened, but because they’ve looked around and realized their rights really are under attack,” he writes. “If the New York Daily News is concerned about donations to the NRA, they should simply suggest to people like Cuomo, Malloy, Bloomberg and Biden to shut their pie-holes and stop trying to regulate the Second Amendment out of existence.”
For more, go to:
NRA donations ‘soared’; thank the gun prohibition lobby
Donations To Nra Soar To Nearly $100 Million
EXCLUSIVE: National Rifle Association donations soar to $96.4M, up 11.5%, after Newtown, Conn. School Massacre
NRA Donations Increase Post-Sandy Hook: Up to $96.4M in 2013
Documents Show Sandy Hook Shooting a Cash Cow for NRA
STATE LEGISLATURES
Kansas poised to become fifth state to allow unrestricted open carry
Kansas legislators will ponder a bill enabling residents to carry concealed firearms without requiring training or a background check. Senate Bill 45, which won initial approval in the Kansas Senate on Feb. 25, would make Kansas a “constitutional carry” state, meaning citizens would not need a permit to carry a hidden firearm.
The bill, which would also maintain the current permit process for people who want to use their permits in 36 other states, would give Kansas some of the loosest gun regulations in the country.
If approved, it would group Kansas with other states with similarly open rules for tucking firearms in purses and waistbands, including Alaska, Arizona, Vermont and Wyoming. Montana requires no permit outside city limits.
“Second Amendment rights are very important to the people of Kansas,” said Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Hutchinson.
For more, go to:
Kansas Senate gives initial OK to bill allowing concealed-carry without permit
Poll finds most Texas Republicans don’t back expanded gun rights
Vermont: Sears says gun bill is dead
Wyoming school officials endorse amended gun bill
Nevada Legislators Consider Gun Bill
Michigan House approves bills changing gun permit process
Bill would eliminate requirement for concealed carry permits in WV
**DANGEROUSLY DUMB LAWS
Retired NJ teacher won’t be imprisoned for 300-year-old pistol **
Gordon Van Gilder, 72, a retired teacher at Millville Senior High School, was arrested in his home in Port Elizabeth, N.J., by the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department on Nov. 21, 2014, because his unregistered 300-year-old “Queen Anne” flintlock pistol was found in his vehicle during a traffic stop—and he wasn’t even in the car.
The unloaded antique pistol was found in the glove compartment of a car registered to Van Gilder but driven by a young man who was renting a room in his home at the time. The felony charge under New Jersey’s draconian gun laws carry a potential 10-year jail sentence for the avid antique firearms collector. In addition, a felony conviction would jeopardize his public school pension.
Van Gilder’s arrest spurred nationwide scorn and ridicule as a miscarriage of logic, never mind justice. On Feb. 25, Cumberland County prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said she will use prosecutorial discretion to decline to prosecute Van Gilder.
Good thing, too: Van Gilder had hired well-known gun rights attorney Evan Nappen to challenge any attempt at prosecution, and to use his arrest as an example of how dangerously silly New Jersey’s gun laws are.
“The dismissal’s very good,” Van Gilder told the Daily News on Feb. 25. “I commend the prosecutor for exercising her discretion accordingly. [She] did the right thing.”
“It seems any time that the light of day shines on New Jersey’s insane, and insanely unconstitutional, gun laws, the pols responsible for enforcing them scatter like roaches,” blogged attorney Andrew F. Branca author of, The Law of Self Defense, 2nd Edition. “Good for Mr. Van Gilder. I trust he’ll make good on his promise to re-locate outside of New Jersey at the earliest opportunity.”
For more, go to:
Charges Dropped Against NJ Teacher Caught with Flintlock
Prosecutor: Gun charge against Van Gilder dismissed
Unlawful weapons charges dropped against N.J. man stopped with antique pistol
New Jersey drops gun charges against man, 72, with 18th-century pistol