NRA // Current TV

‘You’d think if a Congresswoman got shot in the head,’ that would change Congress’ views on guns

Appearing on Meet the Press this morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed bewilderment at the many lawmakers in Washington who continue sabotage existing gun laws:

BLOOMBERG: “You’d think that if a congresswoman got shot in the head, that would have changed Congress’ views. I can tell you how to change it, just get Congress to come with me to the hospital when I’ve got tell tell somebody that their son or daughter, their spouse, their parent is not going to come home again. This past, this week, even though the murder rate in New York is so much lower than almost every big city, we still had a cop shot last week with a gun that somebody had even though the federal laws prohibited that person from having a gun.

“You know, the federal laws say you can’t get a gun if you have a drug problem, psychiatric problems, criminal record or [if you are] a minor. And yet Congress doesn’t give moneys to make sure we can have a background check. They have too many loopholes. The background databases aren’t up to date. Private sector sales of guns are something like 40 percent and they don’t do background checks, I don’t know who has to get killed for people to start saying ‘wait a second, this is enough.”

If anything, the picture in Congress is even bleaker than Bloomberg suggests. In 2006, the NRA successfully lobbied Congress to make the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) a Senate-confirmed position. Since then, the Senate has been unable to confirm anyone to serve as the chief enforcer of firearms laws due to the combination of gun lobbying and the nearly-unbreakable filibuster. President Obama’s nominee was blocked because he opposes allowing civilians to purchase a weapon capable of punching a baseball-sized hole in 2.5 inches of bulletproof glass.

Not content simply to erect barriers to enforcing federal firearms laws, much of Congress also wants to strip states of their power to enforce reasonable gun regulations. The House recently passed the “National Right To Carry Reciprocity Act,” which forces nearly every state to honor concealed carry licenses issued by the states with the laxest licensing rules.

Half of North Carolina concealed carry permit holders with felony convictions have been allowed to keep their permits, and Florida issued 1,700 concealed carry permits to people with “criminal histories, arrest warrants, domestic violence injunctions and misdemeanor convictions for gun-related crimes.” Under this NRA-sponsored bill, all of these permit holders who be allowed to carry concealed firearms in 49 of the 50 states.

Nor are federal lawmakers the only ones looking for new and more creative ways to arm the nation. Several states are pushing efforts to force colleges to allow concealed firearms on campus — because clearly what America needs are rooms full of fraternity members packing heat right after they each consumed a case of Milwaukee’s Best. Not to be outdone, Colorado lawmakers are pushing a bill to allow firearms in elementary schools.

As conservative Justice Antonin Scalia explained in D.C. v. Heller, respecting the Second Amendment does not mean filling every building with firearms, or eliminating concealed carry rules, or placing guns in the hands of convicted felons or the mentally ill. Sadly, far too many lawmakers have let the NRA convince them that the myth of the Second Amendment far exceeds the reality.

By Ian Millhiser on Feb 5, 2012 at 12:35 pmAppearing on Meet the Press this morning, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed... more

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Why the gun industry secretly loves Obama: Sales of firearms have surged since he took office

The bottom line: Since Obama took office, Ruger’s stock has climbed more than 400 percent, outperforming gold.

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I own between two and three dozen firearms. Fully a quarter of them are Rugers. I consider them to be some of the most overengineered, best buys in modern firearms, and they are made in the US, by American workers.
I haven't bought anything new since the President took office, and not much in the way of ammo either, because prices have been so artificially inflated. I do lust after Ruger's new SR-556 (I want one in 6.8 to be my "ranch rifle"), but I have a kid in preschool, and just had to help my old lady buy the VW wagon she had to have, so I'm still making do with the 181-xx Mini-14 that Ruger built when it was Bill Ruger's company, back in 1980, and that I bought as a "pre-ban" rifle when I was 20, in 1998, during the '93 AWB. After the POTUS was elected, I could hardly go into a gun store without getting into an argument with some jackass who was telling everyone to buy every "black rifle" in the place, because "Obama was gonna ban them." I can't tell you how many times I tried to explain that the POTUS doesn't write the laws, and that the COTUS was never in a million years gonna pass anything like an AWB, because it was suicide. Generally, this was recieved with a look of vauge distrust, and confusion that I didn't just automatically nod, and join in the Obama-bashing. WTF was wrong with me? Anyway, there is a saying about the length of the relationship between a fool and his money, isn't there?

Ammo prices have been atrocious too. Part if this is to be attributed to the fact that there are two wars going on, and so there is no "military surplus" ammo. I was told that in 2009 Lake City was turning out 4 million rounds of 5.56mm a day and not keeping up with what was being shot up in Iraq and Afghanistan. As metal prices have risen, the materials used to manufacture ammo have become more expensive, particularly the copper that was for so long that most common jacketing material. Now we're seeing nylon and other materials being substituted, and in many cases, performing better, since their cost is justified because copper is just as costly.

There was also a really great article in the Atlantic last month about the history of the NRA and the private gun-ownership movement in the US, and its origins, which might surprise a lot of folks. Catch that if you can, too.

I know that current is a left-leaning site, and I am definitely a left leaning thinker, but I see no reason to pick daisies while people who obviously have ill will for folk like myself arm themselves to the teeth. I was born in Huntsville, Alabama, and grew up in the rural county between Huntsville, and Tennesse. I owed $1 on a Glock 26 on my twenty-first birthday, and had a CCW two weeks later. When I was in my early twenties, my dentist's office was next door to a women's clinic, and so I had to walk past picketing nutcases every six months at least, just to get my teeth cleaned. By the time he moved to a different office building, my dentist didn't even mention it when he came in and my holstered gun was lying on the floor beside the chair on top of whatever book I had been reading in the waiting room (You don't want to be strapped up while you're in the dentist's chair, and he's using your torso for a tray table).

Anyhow, sorry for the wandering monlouge, talk amongst yourselves.The bottom line: Since Obama took office, Ruger’s stock has climbed more than... more

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Black Panthers and the secret history of gun control

A good article on both sides of the second amendment gun control debate.

Obviously, the 2nd Amendment is going to play very heavily in the 2012 debate with the possibility of a total financial collapse on the horizon, anti-2nd Amendment groups are likely to try and capitalize on that in the unfortunate event that it happens.

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It was May 2, 1967, and the Black Panthers’ invasion of the California statehouse launched the modern gun-rights movement. On the west lawn of the state capitol in Sacramento 30 young black men and women [arrived] carrying .357 Magnums, 12-gauge shotguns, and .45-caliber pistols. The 24 men and six women climbed the capitol steps, and one man, Bobby Seale, began to read from a prepared statement. “The time has come for black people to arm themselves against this terror before it is too late.”

Opposition to gun control as what drove the black militants to visit the California capitol with loaded weapons in hand. The Black Panther Party had been formed six months earlier, in Oakland, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Like many young African Americans, Newton and Seale were frustrated with the failed promise of the civil-rights movement. Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were legal landmarks, but they had yet to deliver equal opportunity. In Newton and Seale’s view, the only tangible outcome of the civil-rights movement had been more violence and oppression, much of it committed by the very entity meant to protect and serve the public: the police.

Inspired by the teachings of Malcolm X, Newton and Seale decided to fight back. Before he was assassinated in 1965, Malcolm X had preached against Martin Luther King Jr.’s brand of nonviolent resistance. Because the government was “either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property” of blacks, he said, they had to defend themselves “by whatever means necessary.” Malcolm X illustrated the idea for Ebony magazine by posing for photographs in suit and tie, peering out a window with an M-1 carbine semiautomatic in hand. Malcolm X and the Panthers described their right to use guns in self-defense in constitutional terms. “Article number two of the constitutional amendments,” Malcolm X argued, “provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun.”

The Pathers’ efforts provoked an immediate backlash. Republicans in California eagerly supported increased gun control. Governor Reagan told reporters that afternoon that he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” He called guns a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.” In a later press conference, Reagan said he didn’t “know of any sportsman who leaves his home with a gun to go out into the field to hunt or for target shooting who carries that gun loaded.” The Mulford Act, he said, “would work no hardship on the honest citizen.”A good article on both sides of the second amendment gun control debate.... more

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Exclusive: Shooter Who Shot Gabby Giffords, Posted:Text Rant //Jarod Lee Loughner aka: Classitup10

Exclusive: Man Who Shot Rep. Gabby Giffords Posted Online Rant
JANUARY 8, 2011 13:33
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Author: Matthew K
Authorities say the 22-year-old man accused of shooting 18 people including a Federal Judge and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is Jared Loughner, a military cadet and Tucson, Arizona resident.

The following is a manifesto posted online shortly before the shooting — it has since been removed from Jared Loughner’s YouTube channel but has been made available here in its entirety:

Classitup10 writes –> Hello, and welcome my classified leak of information that’s of the United States Military to the student body and you. Firstly, I want you to understand this from the start. Did you know grammar is double blind, listener? Secondly, if you want to understand the start of revelatory thoughts then listen to this video. I’ll look at you mother fuckin Anarchists who have a problem with them illegal illiterate pigs. If you’re a citizen in the United States as of now, then your constitution is the United States. You’re a citizen in the United States as of now. Thus, your constitution is the United States. Laugh. I’ll let you in on their little cruel joke that’s genocidal. They’re argument is appeal to force on their jurisdiction with lack of proof of evidence. Each subject is in question for the location! The police don’t quite get paid correctly with them dirty front runners under section 10? Their country’s alliances are able to make illegal trades under section 10. Eh! I’m a Nihilist, not someone who put who put trust in god! What is section 10 you ask? If you make a purchase then it’s illegal under section 10 and amendment 1 of the United States constitution. You make a purchase. Therefore, it’s illegal under section 10 and amendment 1 of the United States constitution. We need a drum roll for those front runners in the election; those illegal teachers, pigs, and politicians of yours are under illegal authority of their constitution. Those dirty pigs think they know the damn year. Thirdly, tell them mother fuckers to count from 0 to whenever they feel a threat to stop their count. We can all hope they add new numbers and letters to their count down. Did you run out of breath around the trillions, listener? Well, B.C.E is yet to start for Ad to begin! What does this mean for a citizen in any country? Those illegal military personal are able to sign into a country that they can’t find with an impossible date! How did you trust your child with them fraud teachers and front runners, listener? Did you now know that the teachers, pigs, and front runners are treasonous! You shouldn’t jump to conclusion with your education plan. The constitution as of now, which is in use by the current power pigs, aren’t able to protect the bill of rights! Do you now have enough information to know the two wars are illegal! What is your date of time, listener? Fourthly, those applications that are with background checks break the United States constitution! What’s your riot name? I’ll catch you! Top secret: Why don’t people control the money system? Their Current Currency(1/1) / Your new infinite currency (1/~infinte) This is a selcte information of revoluntary thoughts! Section 10 – Powers prohibited of States No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay. Each subject is unlocatible!

GO TO ARTICLE:
http://livenewswire.org/2011/01/congresswoman-shooting-suspect-leaked-military-info-online/Exclusive: Man Who Shot Rep. Gabby Giffords Posted Online Rant JANUARY 8, 2011 13:33... more

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