From: Stephen P. Wenger http://www.spw-duf.info
comments in () by Stephen P. Wenger
===========================================
Pelosi Reveals Plans for New "AWB": The ball is in Congress's court to craft a compromise in reinstating regulations on assault weapons, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) acknowledged Tuesday. During an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Pelosi said that the Congress will work to find some middle ground between the previous ban, which expired in 2004, and the precedent laid by the Supreme Court in a ruling enumerating more concrete gunowners' rights last term… Pelosi indicated that new regulations might entail registration and prohibitions on transporting some firearms across state lines. The Speaker also expressed displeasure at the attachment of a gun rights provision to legislation that would grant Washington, D.C. a voting member of Congress…
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/04/07/pelosi-pledges-compromise-on-assault-weapons-ban/
---
"Gun Control" Restricts Those Least Likely to Commit Violent Crimes: The March 21 murder of four Oakland police officers by Lovelle Mixon, a convicted felon wanted for a recent parole violation, epitomizes the futility of "gun control," or the banning and restricting of gun ownership for law-abiding adults. Using the officers' tragic deaths to further an unrelated agenda - stripping away the Second Amendment rights of honorable citizens - is both harmful and distracting. Mixon was not an anomaly. Felons commit over 90 percent of murders, with the remainder carried out primarily by juveniles and the mentally unbalanced. The United States already has laws forbidding all three groups from owning guns, which, by definition, are ineffective against the lawless. "Gun control," therefore, only "controls" those who have done nothing to merit such regulations…
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/Gun-control-restricts-those-least-likely-to-commit-violent-crimes--42507652.html
---
The Logic of Gun Bans: The press has sensationalized recent sprees of mass shootings across the nation. From Jiverly Wong's murder of 13 (plus killing himself) in a Binghamton, New York, language center to the shooting of three police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the murder of eight by another gunman in a Carthage, North Carolina, nursing home just weeks earlier, the incidents are all over the press… The logic of the gun-grabbers is that if they can take guns away from the law-abiding people then criminals will readily surrender their weapons, and shootings would all but disappear. But areas with gun control have the highest rates of crime and violence, including gun violence… Meanwhile, nobody's saying that police can save people from mad shooters. At the Binghamton shooting spree, police took more than 40 minutes to respond after the first 911 call was placed. "Nobody could have been saved if the police walked in the door that first minute," Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen told reporters at a press conference, excusing the extended police delay in response…
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/election/970
---
Not True: They had more in common than unleashing carnage - nearly every gunman in this monthlong series of mass killings was legally entitled to fire his weapons. So what does that say about the state of gun control laws in this country? One thing appears certain: the regulations aren't getting stricter. Many recent efforts to change weapons laws have been about easing them. Despite eight rampages that have claimed 57 lives since March 10, "it hasn't sparked any national goal to deal with this epidemic. In fact, it's going the other way," said Scott Vogel of the Freedom States Alliance, a gun control activist group… (No, legal ownership of firearms and even legal concealed carry of them does not make it legal to fire them at others without justification.)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30094954
Tangentially Related: Federal agents yesterday sought records from a Wilkinsburg gun dealership where Richard Poplawski, the accused killer of three Pittsburgh police officers, is believed to have purchased guns… "Every gun purchase he ever made was legal," Mr. Perkovic said. "How did he pass all those background checks? Who let him have these guns if technically, legally he wasn't allowed?" …Two aspects of Mr. Poplawski's past - his discharge from the Marine Corps in 2005 and a protection-from-abuse order obtained by his girlfriend the same year - would not necessarily preclude him for buying or possessing guns. Mr. Poplawski's mother told police he was kicked out of the Marines during basic training for assaulting a drill sergeant. Citing privacy laws, the Marine Corps refused to divulge whether Mr. Poplawski was given a dishonorable discharge, a severe penalty that would have made it illegal for him to buy or own guns or ammunition, or a less-severe type of discharge that did not carry such a prohibition… (There has been some internet discussion alleging that Poplawski was a prohibited possessor due to his USMC discharge, which appears to have been an administrative one.)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09097/961071-53.stm
---
Out of Both Sides of Their Mouths: In a recent editorial entitled "Gun Lobby Working Overtime to Normalize Abnormal Behavior," the Joyce Foundation's anti-gun blog "GunGuys" asked if readers would be willing to "sip hot chocolate with your toddler at Starbucks while a fellow patron openly displays a gun at the table next to you?" But before they chide gun rights activists for advocating the practice of open carry, they might want to consider some of the comments made by their fellow gun ban extremists in Ohio during the battle to establish a concealed carry law in the Buckeye state. Before Ohio's concealed handgun licensure law was established in 2004, citizens had suffered under a ban on the carrying of concealed firearms for more than a century. Despite the enumeration of a right to bear arms for self-defense in the state constitution, Ohioans were told that the archaic ban was not unconstitutional, because the practice of open carry was still legal…
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/6598
---
California Prosecutors Disagree over Open Carry: …Last December the Los Angeles District Attorney issued an erroneous legal opinion stating that police officers could detain persons openly carrying guns in order to run serial numbers of guns, and further, could demand identification from the gun carriers to run background checks. OpenCarry.org contacted the LA DA and pointed out their mistakes with citations to pertinent California and federal authorities. But the LA DA stood his ground. And now comes San Diego Assistant District Attorney at saying that "Los Angeles DDA Desallis Rutledge" was mistaken is opining that police officers had the power to detain open carriers to check gun serial numbers or demand IDs from gun carriers to run background checks… (Note that the open carry referred to in California pertains to unloaded handguns. California bans the permitless carry of loaded firearms in "public places.")
http://www.examiner.com/x-2782-DC-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d6-San-Diego-District-Attorney-says-LA-DAs-memo-on-open-carry-is-wrong?cid=exrss-DC-Gun-Rights-Examiner
---
Montana Passes "Firearm Sovereignty" Bill: In the wake of the easy passage through the Montana legislature of Montana House Bill 246, Governor Brian Schweitzer's signature is all that is needed to set up a potentially explosive battle between state sovereignty on the one hand, and smothering, centralized federal power on the other… Whether or not Governor Schweitzer will sign the bill is open to question. Although considered a reliably "pro-gun" Democrat, I cannot help but raise an eyebrow over his enthusiastic support of Obama's candicacy, and defense of Obama's position on private gun ownership… Whatever the outcome, the people of Montana should soon gain some insight into whether their governor's true loyalty lies with them and the Constitution, or with his party and president.
http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d7-Gun-fight-with-the-feds-in-Big-Sky-Country?cid=exrss-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner
---
Arkansas House Committee Kills RKBA Resolution: A resolution asking President Obama not to renew the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons narrowly failed in a House committee Tuesday. In a 10-7 vote, with 11 votes needed to advance, the House Judiciary Committee rejected House Resolution 1032 by Rep. John Woods, R-Springdale. Woods and Rep. Eddie Cooper, D-Melbourne, who spoke for the measure, said later they would probably bring the back to the panel Wednesday for reconsideration. Woods told the committee U.S. Reps. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, and Marion Berry, D-Gillett, along with 65 other congressmen recently sent a letter to the president asking that the assault weapons ban not be reinstated because there was no statistical evidence to show that crime had been reduced…
http://arkansasnews.com/2009/04/07/resolution-opposing-assault-weapons-ban-fails/
---
Maryland Governor Objects to DC Gun Rule: As D.C. officials fret over the public safety implications of a congressional push to limit gun control in the city, the administration of Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has voiced its own objections, arguing that the legislation would put a costly burden on the state's system for regulating firearms. In Virginia, however, a spokesman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) expressed no immediate alarm over the measure, saying Kaine and the Virginia State Police want to study the proposal before offering an opinion. At issue for the District's neighbors is a key provision in a much-debated amendment to the D.C. voting-rights bill on Capitol Hill. Besides stripping the District of much of its power to regulate guns, the amendment would create an exception in federal law for D.C. residents, allowing them to buy handguns in Maryland and Virginia… (It sounds as though Maryland has created the problem by requiring a much more extensive check than NICS.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040703853.html?hpid=sec-metro
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/04/07/pelosi-pledges-compromise-on-assault-weapons-ban/
---
"Gun Control" Restricts Those Least Likely to Commit Violent Crimes: The March 21 murder of four Oakland police officers by Lovelle Mixon, a convicted felon wanted for a recent parole violation, epitomizes the futility of "gun control," or the banning and restricting of gun ownership for law-abiding adults. Using the officers' tragic deaths to further an unrelated agenda - stripping away the Second Amendment rights of honorable citizens - is both harmful and distracting. Mixon was not an anomaly. Felons commit over 90 percent of murders, with the remainder carried out primarily by juveniles and the mentally unbalanced. The United States already has laws forbidding all three groups from owning guns, which, by definition, are ineffective against the lawless. "Gun control," therefore, only "controls" those who have done nothing to merit such regulations…
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/Gun-control-restricts-those-least-likely-to-commit-violent-crimes--42507652.html
---
The Logic of Gun Bans: The press has sensationalized recent sprees of mass shootings across the nation. From Jiverly Wong's murder of 13 (plus killing himself) in a Binghamton, New York, language center to the shooting of three police officers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the murder of eight by another gunman in a Carthage, North Carolina, nursing home just weeks earlier, the incidents are all over the press… The logic of the gun-grabbers is that if they can take guns away from the law-abiding people then criminals will readily surrender their weapons, and shootings would all but disappear. But areas with gun control have the highest rates of crime and violence, including gun violence… Meanwhile, nobody's saying that police can save people from mad shooters. At the Binghamton shooting spree, police took more than 40 minutes to respond after the first 911 call was placed. "Nobody could have been saved if the police walked in the door that first minute," Broome County District Attorney Gerald Mollen told reporters at a press conference, excusing the extended police delay in response…
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/election/970
---
Not True: They had more in common than unleashing carnage - nearly every gunman in this monthlong series of mass killings was legally entitled to fire his weapons. So what does that say about the state of gun control laws in this country? One thing appears certain: the regulations aren't getting stricter. Many recent efforts to change weapons laws have been about easing them. Despite eight rampages that have claimed 57 lives since March 10, "it hasn't sparked any national goal to deal with this epidemic. In fact, it's going the other way," said Scott Vogel of the Freedom States Alliance, a gun control activist group… (No, legal ownership of firearms and even legal concealed carry of them does not make it legal to fire them at others without justification.)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30094954
Tangentially Related: Federal agents yesterday sought records from a Wilkinsburg gun dealership where Richard Poplawski, the accused killer of three Pittsburgh police officers, is believed to have purchased guns… "Every gun purchase he ever made was legal," Mr. Perkovic said. "How did he pass all those background checks? Who let him have these guns if technically, legally he wasn't allowed?" …Two aspects of Mr. Poplawski's past - his discharge from the Marine Corps in 2005 and a protection-from-abuse order obtained by his girlfriend the same year - would not necessarily preclude him for buying or possessing guns. Mr. Poplawski's mother told police he was kicked out of the Marines during basic training for assaulting a drill sergeant. Citing privacy laws, the Marine Corps refused to divulge whether Mr. Poplawski was given a dishonorable discharge, a severe penalty that would have made it illegal for him to buy or own guns or ammunition, or a less-severe type of discharge that did not carry such a prohibition… (There has been some internet discussion alleging that Poplawski was a prohibited possessor due to his USMC discharge, which appears to have been an administrative one.)
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09097/961071-53.stm
---
Out of Both Sides of Their Mouths: In a recent editorial entitled "Gun Lobby Working Overtime to Normalize Abnormal Behavior," the Joyce Foundation's anti-gun blog "GunGuys" asked if readers would be willing to "sip hot chocolate with your toddler at Starbucks while a fellow patron openly displays a gun at the table next to you?" But before they chide gun rights activists for advocating the practice of open carry, they might want to consider some of the comments made by their fellow gun ban extremists in Ohio during the battle to establish a concealed carry law in the Buckeye state. Before Ohio's concealed handgun licensure law was established in 2004, citizens had suffered under a ban on the carrying of concealed firearms for more than a century. Despite the enumeration of a right to bear arms for self-defense in the state constitution, Ohioans were told that the archaic ban was not unconstitutional, because the practice of open carry was still legal…
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/6598
---
California Prosecutors Disagree over Open Carry: …Last December the Los Angeles District Attorney issued an erroneous legal opinion stating that police officers could detain persons openly carrying guns in order to run serial numbers of guns, and further, could demand identification from the gun carriers to run background checks. OpenCarry.org contacted the LA DA and pointed out their mistakes with citations to pertinent California and federal authorities. But the LA DA stood his ground. And now comes San Diego Assistant District Attorney at saying that "Los Angeles DDA Desallis Rutledge" was mistaken is opining that police officers had the power to detain open carriers to check gun serial numbers or demand IDs from gun carriers to run background checks… (Note that the open carry referred to in California pertains to unloaded handguns. California bans the permitless carry of loaded firearms in "public places.")
http://www.examiner.com/x-2782-DC-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d6-San-Diego-District-Attorney-says-LA-DAs-memo-on-open-carry-is-wrong?cid=exrss-DC-Gun-Rights-Examiner
---
Montana Passes "Firearm Sovereignty" Bill: In the wake of the easy passage through the Montana legislature of Montana House Bill 246, Governor Brian Schweitzer's signature is all that is needed to set up a potentially explosive battle between state sovereignty on the one hand, and smothering, centralized federal power on the other… Whether or not Governor Schweitzer will sign the bill is open to question. Although considered a reliably "pro-gun" Democrat, I cannot help but raise an eyebrow over his enthusiastic support of Obama's candicacy, and defense of Obama's position on private gun ownership… Whatever the outcome, the people of Montana should soon gain some insight into whether their governor's true loyalty lies with them and the Constitution, or with his party and president.
http://www.examiner.com/x-2581-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m4d7-Gun-fight-with-the-feds-in-Big-Sky-Country?cid=exrss-St-Louis-Gun-Rights-Examiner
---
Arkansas House Committee Kills RKBA Resolution: A resolution asking President Obama not to renew the 1994 federal ban on assault weapons narrowly failed in a House committee Tuesday. In a 10-7 vote, with 11 votes needed to advance, the House Judiciary Committee rejected House Resolution 1032 by Rep. John Woods, R-Springdale. Woods and Rep. Eddie Cooper, D-Melbourne, who spoke for the measure, said later they would probably bring the back to the panel Wednesday for reconsideration. Woods told the committee U.S. Reps. Mike Ross, D-Prescott, and Marion Berry, D-Gillett, along with 65 other congressmen recently sent a letter to the president asking that the assault weapons ban not be reinstated because there was no statistical evidence to show that crime had been reduced…
http://arkansasnews.com/2009/04/07/resolution-opposing-assault-weapons-ban-fails/
---
Maryland Governor Objects to DC Gun Rule: As D.C. officials fret over the public safety implications of a congressional push to limit gun control in the city, the administration of Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) has voiced its own objections, arguing that the legislation would put a costly burden on the state's system for regulating firearms. In Virginia, however, a spokesman for Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) expressed no immediate alarm over the measure, saying Kaine and the Virginia State Police want to study the proposal before offering an opinion. At issue for the District's neighbors is a key provision in a much-debated amendment to the D.C. voting-rights bill on Capitol Hill. Besides stripping the District of much of its power to regulate guns, the amendment would create an exception in federal law for D.C. residents, allowing them to buy handguns in Maryland and Virginia… (It sounds as though Maryland has created the problem by requiring a much more extensive check than NICS.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/07/AR2009040703853.html?hpid=sec-metro
No comments:
Post a Comment