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Posts Tagged ‘Cam Edwards’

Governor Younkin Ends Talk of Gun Bans, For Now

Posted in gun rights, tagged , , , , , , , on April 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Last week, Governor Glenn Youngkin ended the gun ban lobby’s dream of a gun ban mecca in Virginia, at least for now. The Democrats in the General Assembly and the gun ban lobby introduced a flurry of gun control bills from waiting periods to buy a gun to outright bans of the most popular firearms in the nation. Last Tuesday, Younkin vetoed 30 of the bills and amended six. The Democrats did not react well to the news. House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D.) said she is “ashamed of the Governor’s vetoes.” House Democratic Caucus Chair Kathy Tran said the vetoes “threaten the safety and prosperity of our communities across the commonwealth.” And not to be out done House Speaker Don Scott turned to what has become basic talking points when talking about Republicans by referenceing “MAGA Republicans” and claimed they “refused to act and protect our children, and Virginians will hold them accountable in November.”

The Reload talked to Bearingarms.com‘s Cam Edwards for this week’s Reload Podcast. Among the things that Cam noted:

He argued the dynamics at play during this year’s legislative session were pretty surprising.

Not only did we not know what Youngkin would do with the dozens of gun bills that made it to his desk before he formally announced his vetoes, but the way those proposals got through the legislature was surprising too. Every Democrat in the state house held together to vote for every single proposal, even the more aggressive bans and restrictions.

Cam said that was a fascinating development given the large grassroots backlash the party faced after its last attempt to enact sweeping gun reforms in 2020. He also argued the dynamic that has developed in the state’s gun politics should be very concerning for gun-rights advocates.

I totally agree with Cam on that last point. I was in committee meetings in 2020 where the hearing rooms were packed to overflowing with gun owners. This year it was the NRA lobbist, a couple of VCDL folks, and the Virginia Shooting Sports Association (VSSA) representative who testified virtually by ZOOM. Every now and then there would be less than a handful of gun owners but nothing like 2020. Gun owners in Virginia need to wake up because Democrats have circled the wagons around Abigail Spanberger for Governor in 2025 and she is not going to be easy to beat.

Take a listen to the full podcast and if you aren’t a subscriber to The Reload, I highly recommend it because there is a lot of member only content.

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Bearing Arms: Concealed Carry Applications Soar Across Country

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on April 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Cam Edwards writes over at bearingarms.com that applications for concealed carry permits are rising across the country despite the fact that over half of the states allow concealed carry without a permit:

The trend is most visible in those states where concealed carry was off-limits to most residents until last year, when the Supreme Court struck down “may-issue” systems requiring applicants to demonstrate good cause or a justifiable need to carry a firearm for self-protection. Communities across California, for instance, are seeing a huge influx of applications despite the fact that some localities are charging more than $1,000 in fees and associated costs in order to obtain a permit to carry.

Cam notes that it’s not just states like California and Maryland, places that had restrictive or non-existent requirements to obtain a permit pre-Bruen, but it is also states like Florida and Pennsylvania.

It could be that folks still want permits in states that have Constitutional Carry because states like Virginia require non-residents to have a permit in their state of residence to carry in Virginia. Regardless of the reason millions of Americans have the ability to carry concealed post Bruen and they are taking their right to self-defense seriously and taking the necessary steps to exercise that right.

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Will Biden Take Executive Action on Modern Sporting Rifles?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on November 29, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Last week, President Joe Biden called for banning all semi-automatic firearms.

Number two, the idea — the idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick.  It’s just sick.  It has no, no social redeeming value.  Zero.  None.  Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.

Biden seems to think that the polls have shifted in his direction with the recent spate of shootings:

But with an eye toward positioning himself and his party for 2024, Biden believes public opinion has shifted in Democrats’ favor on certain key social issues, said the aides, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe internal strategy.

Today, Cam Edwards over at Bearingarms.com writes about how the White House won’t say if Biden will accede to the wishes of the gun ban lobby and ban modern sporting rifles:

Most of those guns purchased by responsible Americans are precisely the semi-automatic firearms that Biden believes should be illegal for the average citizen to own and possess, but if Congress won’t provide him with the votes needed to impose his ban his friends in the anti-gun movement are already suggesting another idea; banning them through an administrative order. 

I’m not really sure why Biden thinks the public is on his side on this one. Last week, a Gallup poll released shows a nine-point drop in support for stricter gun laws since the same survey was taken in June. It also showed a three-point increase in the number of Americans reporting they have a gun in the home. While a majority of respondents report supporting stricter gun laws and having no gun in their home, the gap none-the-less has shrunk significantly. Stephen Gutowski at The Reload wrote of the poll results that the rising trend of gun ownership combined with weakened support for more gun control could make passing new restrictions more difficult at the national and state levels.

Virginia’s General Assembly convenes in January. We will see what if any new legislative proposals come from the Democrats, which still control the State Senate. 2023 is also an election year with the entire assembly up for re-election.

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Gun Control Low on List of Voter Priorities According to New Poll

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on March 10, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Cam Edwards at Bearingarms.com shares a new poll that supposedly shows “wide support” for requiring background checks on all gun sales.  It’s part of this article where he asks a simple question related to so-called “universal” background checks.   These polls never seem to dig down beyond the surface and the generic “should all gun purchases require a background check”.  They never ask the question that Cam asked.

Do 84-percent of Americans think a person should go to federal prison if they transfer a firearm to their neighbor who’s afraid of her abusive ex showing up at her door? Do 84-percent of Americans think that it should be crime to sell a gun to your cousin without a background check, but legal for you to sell a gun to your aunt without one?

Most people support in the affirmative the generic question about background checks because they already know that most gun sales require a background check.  But, if these pollsters were to dig down into the issue and ask the question the way Cam does, you would probably get a much different answer. And, we need to remember, unlike the bill that passed the Virginia General Assembly last year that specifically said “sales”, the bills winding their way through congress use the term “transfer” which has a much broader meaning under federal law than the word “sales”.

There is other news in that poll though.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have a narrow advantage over their Republican counterparts on the topic, with 44 percent of voters trusting them over congressional GOP lawmakers on gun policy, while 38 percent trust Republicans more.

It is the narrowest split of trust on a number of issue they polled.  They break it down for us and we learn that the gun issue is way down on the list of priorities for those surveyed:

The move on Capitol Hill — which is not likely to move forward in the Senate as long as the chamber’s legislative filibuster remains intact — comes after Democrats advanced legislation to address the pandemic, a subject 2 in 3 voters believe Congress should prioritize. By comparison, just 28 percent of voters said gun policy should be a “top priority,” roughly the same share who said Congress should elevate the passage of a bill to reduce inequality or provide relief to Americans with student loan debt.

Make sure you are contacting your elected officials and let them know you oppose additional restrictions on your rights.

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We Need Every Gun Owner Involved in the Fight

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on March 8, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Millions of people became new gun owners last year.  Reports by the National Shooting Sports Foundation as well as others have reported that a large number of these new gun owners are minorities and women.  These new gun buyers need to add there voices to the over 100 million existing gun owners in the country when it comes to protecting our rights.  We need to welcome these new gun owners at our ranges and our clubs.  Last week, Bearingarms.com’s Cam Edwards spoke with National African American Gun Association Founder and president Phillip A. Smith:

As you might have guessed, Smith isn’t a big fan of the new gun control laws being proposed in Congress, including the universal background check bill that could be brought to the floor of the House as early as next week.

“I’m not excited about it,” Smith tells me. “I’ll say this, just so everyone knows who’s listening to me. In our organization and myself when I represent my organization, we don’t typically comment on politicians but we will adamantly and vigorously talk about policies like we’re doing today. And I think any time you have policies that are coming down the pipeline that, to me, are just reckless and they go after the wrong group of folks time and time again – it’s like the effort is at any turn or stop to have something there that’s going to make it difficult to get a firearm. That’s just the wrong mindset.”

You can hear the entire interview below.

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Large Number of First Time Gun Buyers are Women, Minorities

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on September 1, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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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House Committee Passes Magazine Ban, Other Gun Control

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , on September 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

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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9th Circuit Rules There is No Second Amendment Right to Concealed Carry

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , on June 10, 2016| Leave a Comment »

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals finally ruled in the Peruta Case.  Originally, a three judge panel ruled that Sheriffs did not have the authority to arbitrarily refuse to grant permits to most citizens who applied for them, invalidating the “good reason” excuse that Sheriffs were using.  San Diego appealed to the full court.  That appeal was heard about a year ago.  The en banc court ruled  yesterday that there is no Second Amendment right for members of the general public to carry concealed firearms in public.” Andrew Langer president of the Institute for Liberty, an organization dedicated to promoting freedom and individual rights was on NRANews Cam and Company yesterday and discussed the ruling with host Cam Edwards.  He said the court deliberately bypassed California’s current infringement of Second Amendment rights. The dissent describes the decision as an “elaborate straw man argument” with regard to the “good cause” requirement. Langer says that the manner in which the decision was made is politically cynical. He questions whether the judges began writing the decision following the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The video below is about 25 minutes but is worth the time to watch.

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Did DC Police Chief Throw Gun Ban Lobby Under Bus?

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 1, 2014| 1 Comment »

Yesterday, the Washington Post had this article where District of Columbia Police Chief Cathy Lanier said she isn’t worried about law abiding citizens being able to carry firearms in the District, but being able to provide security for the dignitaries and special events in the area.  One has to ask, if she isn’t worried about law abiding citizens using firearms to commit crimes, why would she worry about them being a security threat?  It also appears the chief may have come off the gun ban reservation with her comments about law abiding citizens carrying firearms not being a criminal threat.  That’s not what we usually hear from those wanting to restrict our rights.

Lanier also questioned the position that armed citizens have a deterring affect on crime:

“When Heller came out in 2008, people said, ‘Oh, street crime’s going to go down.’ Well, Heller only allows you to have a handgun in your home, and guess what happened? Burglaries went up. So I don’t know that there’s any valid debate on the crime side. My one focus, really, now is going to be security of our dignitaries in those really highly sensitive large events.”

NRA News’ Cam Edwards talked about this yesterday (and suggested was throwing the gun control crowd under the bus) and he said when he went back and looked at the numbers, he had to wonder what the chief was talking about because while robberies were higher in the first part of 2008 than they were for the same period in 2007, the Heller decision did not come out until June of 2008, and the final robbery numbers for ’08 were lower than the final numbers for 2007.  He said they were also lower in 2009 than in 2007.  While robberies did spike in 2010, they went down again in 2011 and were lower than 2007.

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Terry McAuliffe Fails Tightrope Walk on Gun Control

Posted in gun rights, Politics, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

National Review Online’s Jim Geraghty joined Cam Edwards on NRANews.com yesterday to discuss, among other things, Democrat candidate for Governor Terry McAuliffe’s comments related to gun control.

It’s clear that McAuliffe believes being out front on gun control will not hurt him.  It’s up to gun owners to prove him wrong. Geraghty is right, this is going to be a low turnout election and gun owners can make a difference in that environment, when we get out and vote.

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