Colorado Congressman Pushes Gun Control Agenda on Students
Plus: Firearms industry continues sales and employment slump
TOP STORY
Rather Than Eat Crow, Congressman Files Bill To Block ‘Colorado Loophole’
After spurring a walk-out by students angered that gun-control zealots had hijacked a vigil to honor a fallen classmate and those injured in a school shooting at STEM School Highlands Ranch near Denver, Colorado first-year Democratic Congressman Jason Crow offered no apologies.
In fact, to add legislative activism to tone-deaf insult, the very next day Crow introduced a federal bill to close what he called an “obvious loophole” that allowed a woman to buy a shotgun in Colorado days before the 20th anniversary of the Columbine shooting.
Crow introduced H.R. 2634 on May 9th. It would extend restrictions already applied on handgun purchases to prohibit a licensed firearms dealer from selling a long gun to anyone the dealer knows, or “reasonably believes,” does not reside in the same state. It has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee where it is likely to be received warmly.
As justification for the bill, Crow cited an April incident in which an 18-year-old Florida woman, Sol Pais—allegedly “fascinated” with the Columbine shooting—flew to Denver and purchased a firearm, launching a manhunt and prompting Denver-area schools to close. She was later found dead with a self-inflicted gun wound.
On May 8th, Crow and U.S. Senator Michael Bennett—Colorado’s senior senator and a recently announced 2020 Democratic presidential candidate—attended a vigil one day after two gunmen opened fire at STEM School Highlands Ranch, wounding eight students and killing Kendrick Castillo, an 18-year-old senior, who heroically led a group of his fellow students to subdue the gunmen.
During the vigil, which was later revealed to be orchestrated by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Crow chastised the students about not vocally demanding gun control immediately, saying they “should demand more.”
Bennett told the 2,000 in attendance at the vigil that Congress had failed to fix “America’s broken gun laws” so students like Castillo were forced to “give up their own life to save their classmates’ lives.”
At the this point, a large portion of the students began to file out, some shouting, “Don’t use Kendrick’s name for political reasons!” and others chanting “Mental Health!” and “It’s not about guns!”
In a statement that accompanied his statement announcing he was filing H.R. 2634 Crow, in essence, refused to eat crow, choosing to crow about his commitment to duty.
“The last few days I have been asked the same question over and over again: what are you doing to stop this from happening?” Crow said. “It is my job to take tough questions and offer real solutions.“
For more, go to:
— Colorado Rep. introduces bill to prevent out-of-state gun sales
— Rep. Crow (D) Refuses to Apologize for Pushing Gun-Control at STEM Shooting Vigil
— Sol Pais scare leads to gun bill closing “Colorado loophole” for rifles and shotguns
— Why I left the Colorado school shooting vigil: Students want change but first let us mourn
— The Second Amendment Saved These Gun Owners’ Lives in April
— Gun Rights: Death By A Thousand Cuts
— How The NRA’s Controversial Gambit To Fix Its Finances Backfired
— Gun control returns to presidential campaign trail as 2020 Dems push sweeping plans
— Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) Pushes May-Issue Federal Firearm Owner Licensing and Gun Confiscation
— Beto O’Rourke says Cory Booker’s federal gun-license plan may go ‘too far’
— Klobuchar fields questions on gun control, health care
— A National Gun Registry Is Now on the Ballot for 2020
— Cory Booker On Gun Control Proposal: ‘We Are Not Hopeless’
— O’Rourke says new gun control policies should be implemented
— O’Rourke Wrong on Gun Control Stat
NO FEAR, NO SALES
Gunmakers’ First-Quarter Earnings Reaffirm Reality Of Post-Obama ‘Trump Slump’
By now, it’s an old story that reaffirms how fear sells: Firearms sales have slumped industry-wide since pro-gun President Donald Trump assumed office in January 2017, ending eight years of brisk sales under the Obama administration and fears of a successive Hillary Clinton presidency.
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation [NSSF], between 2008, when Obama was elected, and 2017, gun industry employment grew by 87 percent, wages grew 142 percent and the industry’s “total economic impact” grew by 169 percent with the National Instant Criminal Background Check [NICS] system recording record numbers of background checks nearly every month over a two-year span.
But those boom days are as over as the Obama presidency. Since Trump has been in office, the NSSF reports a 1.3 percent increase in the industry’s job growth, less than one-third of 1 percent growth in wages, and just a 1.4 percent increase in “total economic impact.”
The trend continues through the first quarter of 2019 with NICS reporting background checks declined by 8 percent in the first quarter, reflecting overall decreased consumer demand for firearms.
Gun stocks also continued to cycle down as the post-Obama “Trump slump” continues to plague the firearms industry.
Since election day 2016, Sturm, Ruger & Co. stock has fallen by 13 percent while American Outdoor Brands Corp. has plunged by 65 percent.
Since Jan. 1, 2017, Ruger has eliminated 700 jobs, or about 28 percent of its workforce.
For more, go to:
— Opinion: Why the gun industry misses Obama
— How You Lose the War: Send Any of these 5 Rifles to Battle
— The Best Semi-Auto Shotgun: A Battle of the Big Guns
— FAXON FIREARMS FORMS THE FX-19 PATRIOT, HELLFIRE
— Paradigm Shift at Henry Rifles Enter the Model 24 Side Gate
STATE ROUNDUP
‘Second Amendment Sanctuary’ Movement Spreads To Seventh State
The West Greenwich Town Council declared itself a “Second Amendment sanctuary” on May 8, becoming the third Rhode Island town to caution local law enforcement to “exercise sound discretion” in enforcing gun-related laws and stating the town will not pay to store weapons seized as a result of gun control legislation.
Republican State Senator Elaine Morgan is leading the “Second Amendment sanctuary” movement in Rhode Island, convincing all the towns she represents to pass the resolution. West Greenwich joins Burrillville and Hopkinton in approving similar resolutions.
“We’re law-abiding citizens and we need to take a stand,” Morgan said.
The three Rhode Island towns join a growing sprawl of “Second Amendment sanctuaries” that are independently and spontaneously being enacted by local governments across the country.
According to Bob Adelmann in The New American, in mid-April “Second Amendment sanctuaries” had been declared in six states—Washington, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, New York and Illinois, where the movement began in Effingham County in the winter of 2018—before Rhode Island joined the list as number seven.
Now, Adelmann writes, 64 of Illinois’ 102 counties have now declared themselves to be “sanctuary counties” for law-abiding gun owners, while another 26 are entertaining such resolutions.
Meanwhile, more than half of Washington’s 39 counties have pledged not to enforce the state’s new gun restrictions, while in Oregon, Adelmann reports, eight counties have passed “Second Amendment Preservation Ordinances” confirming the sheriff’s power to determine which of the state’s laws to enforce, or not to enforce.
Half of Colorado’s 64 counties oppose the state’s new “red flag” law with Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams vowing he will go to jail if necessary before he’ll impose it on any of his county’s citizens.
In New Mexico, nearly every county sheriff opposed new infringements of the Second Amendment, and 24 of the state’s 33 counties have already passed sanctuary city ordinances.
In New York, 52 out of the state’s 62 counties officially oppose the state’s SAFE Act (Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013).
Missouri lawmakers will again try to become a “sanctuary state,” now with a Republican governor more amendable to passing the Legislature’s proposed “Second Amendment Protection Act,” which would nullify most federal gun-control legislation.
For more, go to:
— Rhode Island: West Greenwich becomes third town to declare itself ‘2nd Amendment sanctuary’
— “Second Amendment Sanctuary” Movement Explodes
— Maine gun control bills get pushback
— Oregon: Senators Take a Stand Against Egregious Anti-Gun Bill
— [Delaware gun bills stall in committee] (https://delawarestatenews.net/government/delaware-gun-bills-stall-in-committee/)
— Minnesota: Omnibus Anti-Gun Legislation Could be Acted on Any Day
— New Ohio Bill Would Crack Down On Gun Owners When Their Weapons Get Into The Hands Of Kids
— Washington State Tightens Gun Regulations
— North Carolina: Bill Crossover Deadline Passes, Anti-Gun Bills Do Not
— New York: Essex County opposes bill banning gun raffles
— Connecticut House Passes 3 Gun Safety Bills
— Iowa Stun Gun Bill on Campus Waiting for Governor’s Signature
Read Next: House Republicans Propose Updates to Gun Control Act
IN THE COURTS
New York Ruling: Ohio FFL Not Liable For Selling Gun Used In New York Shooting
The New York State Court of Appeals ruled 4-3 on May 9 that a New York man cannot sue the Ohio gun dealer who sold a weapon eventually used by a gang member to shoot him in 2003.
According to court documents, Charles Brown, a licensed firearms dealer, sold 182 handguns at a gun show in Dayton to another Ohio man and his associates over several months in 2000.
That man, James Bostic, then took some of the weapons to Buffalo, where he sold one to a gang member. The gang member, thinking then-16-year-old Daniel Williams was in a rival gang, used the 9mm Hi-Point handgun to shoot him as he played basketball in 2003.
Williams, who according to the Associated Press had aspirations of playing college basketball, survived but was left with a serious stomach wound.
Bostic later pleaded guilty to running an illegal gun trafficking ring in western New York, the AP reports.
The Court of Appeals ruling upheld a lower court’s decision that dismissed the lawsuit because Williams failed to prove Brown should have known the guns would end up in New York judging by the conversations he had with Bostic.
For more, go to:
— Court: NY Man Wounded in 2003 Can’t Sue Ohio Gun Dealer
— New York’s top court shields Ohio dealer who sold gun used in shooting
— NRA Says New York Is Blocking Subpoenas in ‘Murder Insurance’ Suit
— Justices to decide whether law allows guns at Atlanta Botanical Garden
— Gun Group, GOP Lawmakers File Lawsuit Over Colorado’s ‘Red Flag’ Gun Control Bill