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House Dems Join Call for Gun Control Czar

March 1, 2021 by vagunrights

Bloomberg’s gun control mouth piece The Trace reports this morning that a group of Democratic Representatives in Congress has sent a letter to Biden urging him to appoint a gun control CZAR. Of course they call it a “gun violence” czar. In the letter, the group cites the “record level” of gun ownership as one of the reasons that the country needs this new appointee. Folks, every pro-rights group including the NRA, Second Amendment Foundation, and the Firearms Policy Coalition, is pointing out that Biden is going to do something, it’s just a matter of when. If you are not a member of all of the groups mentioned, as well as your state firearms association and other state groups, you need to do it now. For all of the talk about the NRA and their bankruptcy etc, I know personally that NRA was very active during the 2021 Session of the General Assembly as were the Virginia Shooting Sports Association (VSSA), VCDL, and this year a representative of the Liberal Gun Club even spoke during committee meetings. Don’t let anyone tell you NRA isn’t doing anything because they are and they still need our support because more times than not, they were the first ones called on to speak in committee meetings during the just completed Legislative session.

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Bloomberg Betting $100 Million on Joe Biden In Florida

September 14, 2020 by vagunrights

Fifty days out from Election Day, Former New York Mayor and anti-rights activist Michael Bloomberg is dropping $100 million in Florida, that’s right – $100 million in one state, to help Joe Biden win the state. Bearingarms.com editor Cam Edwards has to story today on Bearingarms.com’s Cam and Company.

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Free Beacon: Riots Likely Drove 2020 Gun Sales Spike

September 9, 2020 by vagunrights

Steven Gutowski and colleague Charles Fain Lehman have this story at the Washington Free Beacon about those massive gun sales over this summer.

While March saw the most guns sold thus far in 2020, seasonally adjusted data show that it was June—the month after the death of George Floyd and subsequent onset of protests and civil unrest—that most exceeded expectations, massively outpacing usually languid summertime sales.

That suggests images of stores being looted and buildings being burned across many of America’s largest cities drove citizens to purchase guns at even higher rates, relative to usual seasonal patterns, than the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. David Kopel, a Cato Institute scholar with decades of experience in gun research, told the Washington Free Beacon the sales spike is clearly a response to the violence.

“Crime in general is a driver of gun sales,” he said. “And that includes not just individual criminals, but it also includes criminals who operate in large groups like rioters and looters. We had nationwide riots, mass violence, and police often ordered not to interfere or even overwhelmed. People understood more than ever that they have to be their own first responders.”

As Gutowski noted on his Twitter feed:

Gun sales tend to peak in March due to new models hitting stores and old models being cleared out (much like car dealerships) but then fall in the summer. This year was very different. The March peak was WAY higher than normal and June nearly matched it in raw sales!

The authors noted that while more guns were sold in March 2020 than in June 2020, June  is the bigger outlier once you account for seasonal effects—implying that the riots that began in June drove a bigger relative increase in gun purchasing than the onset of the Wuhan virus crisis in March.

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Large Number of First Time Gun Buyers are Women, Minorities

September 1, 2020 by vagunrights

If you Google “Gun Purchases and Women, Minorites”, you will come up with several stories in August that report a good portion of those 5 million new gun owners are first time gun owning women and minorities.  The National Shooting Sports Foundation reported last week:

NSSF surveys revealed that 58 percent of firearm purchases were among African American men and women, the largest increase of any demographic group. Women comprised 40 percent of first-time gun purchasers. Retailers noted that they are seeing a 95 percent increase in firearm sales and a 139 percent increase in ammunition sales over the same period in 2019.

These new gun owners make the gun community more diverse but the NSSF also said this is nothing new:

Against the backdrop of historically high firearm sales, one major theme is shattering misconceptions that America’s gun owners are “old white men.” A surge in gun buyers across the country in 2020, more than 2.5 million since March alone, has boosted the diversity of the firearm-owning population.

While surprising to some, it’s not to those in the firearm industry. Today’s gun buyer looks more like the rest of America. They represent all walks of life and those buying firearms today increasingly are women, minorities and more urban than in previous generations.

Yesterday,  Cam Edwards, editor of Bearingarms.com and the host of Cam and Company, spoke with Tony Simon who has hosted a Diversity Shoot at New Jersey gun range Gun for Hire for several years.  He had to move it this year due to New Jersey’s onerous Wuhan Virus restrictions but it will be held this month.

Tony told Cam he didn’t expect these new gun owners to become gun rights activists right away.  I tend to agree but even folks like Gun Talk Radio’s Tom Gresham has said he doesn’t think these new gun owners are going to want to ban the guns they just bought.  I’ve heard others in the firearms community say they think there is a chance some of these new gun owners will vote their rights.

If you are a woman and a new gun owner reading this, let me recommend A Girl and a Gun as a resource.  If you are African American and a new gun owner, let me recommend the National African American Gun Association and for everyone, I recommend the NRA.

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Even ACLU Says NY AG Overstepped in Calling for End to NRA

August 31, 2020 by vagunrights

The ACLU’s Legal Director, David Cole, wrote in the Wall Street Journal last week that the NRA has a right to exist and, whether you agree with the NRA or not, we should all be concerned when a government official seeks to abolish an organization that speaks for millions of members.

Our democracy is premised on the right of association. The First Amendment protects not only the right to speak, but also to band together with others to advance one’s views. Making or resisting change in a democracy requires collective action, and a healthy democracy therefore demands a robust “civil society.” The right to associate can’t survive if officials can shut down organizations with which they disagree. The Supreme Court has notably invoked that right to protect union members, Communist Party adherents, the Boy Scouts and the NAACP.

And this isn’t the first time the ACLU has supported the NRA from a political attack:

That’s why two years ago, we supported the NRA’s lawsuit charging Gov. Cuomo with violating its First Amendment rights. Mr. Cuomo moved to dismiss the case, but a federal judge ruled against him, holding that if he targeted the NRA for its gun-promoting views, he violated its First Amendment rights.

And that’s why we believe Ms. James has also gone too far. Dissolution of a nonprofit is the most extreme remedy state regulators can seek. It has historically been reserved for organizations that are essentially false fronts for personal gain.

The ACLU is just the latest in organizations calling the New York Attorney General’s attack on the NRA a dangerous political game. The last time the ACLU came to the NRA’s defense it cost the ACLU in donations. It will likely do the same this time but the organization is showing that at least in this case, standing by the Constitution is more important than politics.

 

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House Committee Passes Magazine Ban, Other Gun Control

September 12, 2019 by vagunrights

Yesterday, the Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to approve three measures: a so-called red-flag bill, a ban on standard-capacity ammunition magazines (often miscalled “high-capacity”) for consideration by the full House and legislation to prohibit people convicted of violent hate crime misdemeanors from possessing firearms.  It’s all part of a coordinated strategy between House and Senate Democrats to put pressure on Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on gun control bills including so-called “universal” background check legislation that passed the House earlier this year.

Meanwhile, President Trump is being pressured to signal his support for “expanded” background checks (whatever that means) and so-called red flag laws.  Bearingarms.com editor Cam Edwards asks the question today whether President Trump will cave or “dance with the ones that brought him to the White House?”

H/T Cam Edwards

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NRA Stands Strong for Freedom

August 14, 2019 by vagunrights

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Kristen Gillibrand Wants to Make You a Criminal if You Don’t Comply with Compensated Confiscation

August 14, 2019 by vagunrights

Politico has the story here.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Wednesday suggested she supports a mandatory federal buyback program for assault weapons and criminal prosecution for gun owners who do not sell those firearms to the government — a measure the vast majority of her fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidates have been reluctant to embrace.

“I think we should ban assault weapons as well as large magazines, and as part of passing that ban, do a buyback program across the country so that those who own them can be … compensated for their money that they spent. But I think both of those ideas are strong,” Gillibrand told CNN.

“You don’t want people to retain them because if you make them illegal, you don’t want to grandfather in all the assault weapons that are all across America,” Gillibrand said when pressed on whether such a buyback program should be mandatory. “You would like people to sell them back to the government so that you can make sure people who shouldn’t have access to these weapons couldn’t have them.”

Most of her fellow Democratic candidates for President favor a voluntary compensated confiscation program but New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker also support the proposal.

The Democrats have been emboldened since the most recent mass shootings.  They believe they have a majority of the public on their side helped by a willing media to spread the narrative created by the gun ban lobby.  It is up to us to effectively counter that with letters to the editor and by contacting our state and federal legislators.

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Media Repeats Gun Ban Lobby Narrative

August 7, 2019 by vagunrights

One of the strongest voices pushing back against the Democrats and the gun banners since this weekend’s shootings has been radio talk show host Mark Levin. I recommend you go back and listen to the entire podcast of Monday’s show and at least the first hour of last night’s program.  He started out last night with this:

The pressure is on to destroy the Second Amendment. If you believe President Trump is the reason that this mass shooting took place then why do you need to take away our weapons? All the Democrats need to do is defeat Trump, right? So why go after the Second Amendment? Because it’s a lie! Two domestic terrorists with socialist, racist and progressive views commit atrocious acts of terror and they continue to blame Trump. Despite one shooter’s support for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, they still blame Trump. The Democrats and the media endlessly lobby for more gun control without ever casting blame on themselves. Then, Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke and others say they’re open to taking tyrannical measures to make the United States more like Australia (a gunless society). Every major communist and fascist in history gained control by eliminating everything we protect in our First and Second Amendments; speech, press, faith, and the right to keep and carry guns. Afterward, despite Trump’s multiple disavowal’s of white supremacy, Sen. Cory Booker and sympathizers in the media continue to malign Trump falsely accusing him of racism. It’s difficult to see if they even care about this shooting at all, or just relish in attacking Trump and the Second Amendment.

Gun owners are under attack on multiple fronts.  Republicans are caving under withering pressure.  Now is the time to call your congressmen and senators, even if they support gun control because they need to know your views.  Even if they don’t support our rights, they do keep track of he number of calls they get on an issue.

 

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Will More Gun Laws Stop Mass Shootings?

May 6, 2019 by vagunrights

Marsha Mercer has this op/ed in the Lynchburg News and Advance (it appeared in other newspapers as well) that discusses gun laws and the 2020 Presidential Race.  It regurgitates the questionable claim that 90 percent of the public supports so-called “universal” background checks (no ballot initiative trying to enact these have ever gotten more than 60% support and one in Maine actually failed to pass and got less than 50%).  She closes out the opinion piece with this:

No one wants more mass shootings. The 2020 campaigns and election offer us the chance to show we care enough to try to stop them.

Legal gun owners are not the problem and the restrictions mentioned would only apply to legal gun owners so exactly how would passing more gun control actually stop mass shootings?

 

 

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