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Archive for the ‘gun rights’ Category

Bloomberg Ups Ante Against Democrats Who Blocked Background Check Bill

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on June 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The New York Times reports that Bloomberg is urging that donations should be withheld from Democrats who supported the filibuster against Schumer/Manchin/Toomey:

On Wednesday, Mr. Bloomberg will send a personal letter to hundreds of the biggest Democratic donors in New York urging them to cut off contributions to the four Democratic senators who helped block a bill in April that would have strengthened background checks on gun purchasers.

Bloomberg is known for using his mega-bucks to try to sway votes for gun control bills he supports.  He is now hoping getting donors to withhold money will have an equal impact.  It will be interesting to see if Democrat donors want to hold their majority more than they support Bloomberg’s gun control schemes because you have to figure that GOP candidates challenging vulnerable Dems will be as pro-rights if not more so than the incumbents that Bloomberg is targeting.  They’ve already told Bloomberg as much:

The move could inflame tensions that have simmered for weeks between Mr. Bloomberg, who blames the four Democrats for the defeat of the bill, and Democratic Senate leaders, who have privately told City Hall that the attacks can serve only to empower a Republican majority openly hostile to Mr. Bloomberg’s priorities.

This should be interesting and fun to watch.

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Reason-Rupe Poll Respondents Say Congress Should Forget Gun Control

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , on May 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

A recent Reason-Rupe Poll found that 54% of Americans say Congress should cut spending from current levels and 62 percent say Congress should forget about gun control and move on to other issues.

You can hear Emily Ekins her talk about it below.

Hat Tip to Cam Edwards and NRANews

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Bloomberg Ignors Harry Reid Warning

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , on May 7, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Politico reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that targeting Democrats on gun votes could backfire and harm the party.  Bloomberg decided to ignor the warning.

Ads from the Bloomberg-funded Mayors Against Illegal Guns are going up soon in Alaska, Arkansas and North Dakota — three states with Democratic senators who broke with the White House on last month’s background checks vote.

The group is also moving as many as 60 field organizers into about a dozen states where senators — Democrats and Republicans — voted against bill, with the goal of building infrastructure and countering gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association.

In Arkansas, Bloomberg is placing ads in markets in Black communities, a segment of the voters that Politico notes Democrat Mark Pryor must carry to win re-election.  Senate Democrats want Bloomberg to focus on “flipping” Republicans who voted against the gun control legislation.  Biden, in an Op/Ed in this past weekend’s Houston Chronicle wrote:

In the end, I believe we will prevail. And those who wrote off gun safety legislation last month will come to realize that moment wasn’t the end at all. It was the turning point.

Biden pointed to poll numbers that suggest those who stood with law abiding gun owners have seen their poll numbers sink and those who want to criminalize private transfers have seen their poll number hold or increase.

We will see if those numbers hold.  In the end, it’s not about what the polls tell politicians, but what their constiuients tell them, and by most accounts, senators voting against Schumer, Manchin, Toomey heard from a lot more gun owners than they heard from gun ban supporters.  So, keep holding their feet to the fire and make sure they know we are watching.

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NRA Annual Meetings in Houston

Posted in gun rights, tagged on May 2, 2013| Leave a Comment »

It’s that time of year again and this year’s NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits promise to be one of the largest yet.  There is even talk that as many as 100,000 people will file through the Exhibit Hall over the course of the weekend. 

I will be posting live updates over the course of the next three days.  You can also follow all of the speeches and important news on NRANews.com as well as live streaming on NRA.org.  So even if you can’t be here, you can be part of the events.  And Glenn Beck will be taping his televison show from the Convention Center this afternoon so if you are a subscriber, be sure to tune in.

Look for more about the event later this evening and throughout the day tomorrow and Saturday.

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New NRA Ad Hits Obama’s Use of Law Enforcement to Push Gun Control

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on April 17, 2013| Leave a Comment »

While the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) constantly provide Obama with a show of support for his gun ban schemes, a recent survey of rank and file police show a much different story.  The NRA has used the results to make this new ad.

The vote on criminalizing private sales at gun shows and through published advertisements is today at 4:00.  Tell Mark Warner to stand with rank and file law enforcement who know what really works to prevent crime and vote no on Manchin-Toomey-Schumer.

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Manchin and Toomey May Amend Background Check Amendment to Gain Support

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , on April 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The vote count continues to be close but looks to be short of the 60 votes needed for approval, so Senators Manchin and Toomey are trying to sweeten the deal to appeal to rural senators who may be concerned about the requirement that advertised private sales be done through a licensed retailer because some constituents may not have easy access.  This from Politico:

Late Monday night, the New York Times reported that Manchin and Toomey are considering a possible revision to their bill that would exempt residents in rural areas living hundreds of miles from licensed gun deals from some of the requirements of the bill.

The revision, which would be added only as amendment if the Manchin-Toomey proposal is adopted, is designed to appeal to Begich and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), said aides familiar with the issue. Manchin huddled with both Alaskan senators on the floor after a vote Monday night.

However, only four Republicans are voting for the bill at this time. They include Toomey, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona.

Other Republicans are on the fence and undecided, such as Sens. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Dean Heller of Nevada. Democrats believe they will pick up some of these Republicans.

In related news, Virginia Senator Mark Warner just spoke on the floor of the U.S. Senate and his comments indicate that he supports the Manchin-Toomey-Schumer background check amendment.  Please call Senator Warner and let him know that you do not approve of his support of this amendment.  Tell him that the amendment is not pro-rights but is actually a “Bonanza of Gun Control“.

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These Senators Could Determine Fate of Manchin/Toomey/Schumer Background Check Amendment

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on April 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

David Hawkings of Roll Call lists the senators that could decide the fate of the Manchin/Toomey/Schumer background check amendment to the senate gun control bill.

Among the Republicans, only four have so far committed to voting for the background check compromise: Toomey, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona.

And the rest of the lobbying attention is being focused on six of the GOP senators who voted last week to bring the bill to the floor in the first place. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Dean Heller of Nevada, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and John Hoeven of North Dakota.

Hawkings notes that a key to knowing if they have 60 votes is if they bring up the vote early (i.e. Tuesday).  If the vote is put off one day, then they are likely close.  The longer it is put off, the less likely it is they have the votes and the harder it will likely be to get to the magic number.

Hat tip NRANews.

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Biden Continues to Lobby GOP Senators on Gun Control

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , on April 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Hill reports that Vice President Joe Biden is contacting former colleagues on Capitol Hill on a daily basis, including GOP members, to round up support for the administration’s gun ban proposals:

Biden has already held private meetings with Republican senators including John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Johnny Isakson (Ga.), according to a senior administration official. The official added that Biden would also be spending considerable time on Capitol Hill in the weeks to come.

“There are always a lot of dark alleys on these issues, but he’s been trying to shake that all out,” the official said. “He’s making sure he’s hearing from everybody and knowing where the pressure points are.”

I’m betting that he won’t have much success with Graham and Isakson on this.  McCain is a question mark.
 
Some doubt just how effective Biden will be, as he tends to act more like a hammer than a chisel:

“His effectiveness depends on how you define his role,” said GOP strategist Ken Lundberg. “So far, his work has been to rally allies and berate opponents. In that role, he’s very effective but, as for reaching out to the other side, he’s impotent. He’s breaking no new ground and that’s probably by design.”

While the media continues to tell us that all but maybe expanded background checks is dead on arrival on the Senate Floor, the administration is at least giving the appearance that they believe they can win with enough pressure.  So we need to make sure our pressure is even more than that applied by the administration.

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Language of Senate Gun Control Bill

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , on March 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned has S. 649.

This is the bill that will be bought up for a vote. The “background check” language is identical to the language I analyzed in S.374. The rest of the bill is the same as S.179, Gillibrand’s trafficking bill. It’s essentially those two bills combined together into one bill. Needless to say, this bill is unacceptable and needs to be opposed, unless you want to have it be a felony in many conditions to hand a gun to a friend, such as plinking on your farm.

You now have the specific bill numbers to tell Warner and Kaine to oppose and why.  You know what to do.

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Obama Continues to Use Tragedy to Push Gun Ban Agenda

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on March 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The Hill newspaper reports that President Obama will use the 100 day anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to rebuild momentum for his gun ban agenda.  With Congress and recent polls indicating that few of the proposals still have support wide support, the White House is  battling the perception that the move is out of fear none of their agenda is going to pass.

Earnest also disputed the notion that Obama was pressing now over fear that momentum on a gun bill had stalled as time passed since the Newtown shooting. He noted that by the White House’s count, the president and vice president had held 20 events on gun violence since the shooting, and he said the decision to appoint Vice President Biden as the point man on the issue underscored the importance of the issue.
 
Time is not on their side.  Obama new the longer the country moved away from the shooting, the public would also move on and support for any proposals would drop with it.  That is why he wanted to roll out something within a month.  What he could not control was the timeline of Congress.  By the time the Senate takes up its bill we will be into mid to late April. 
 

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