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AN AMERICAN WARNING
Because you should know!
October 2007 - Posts
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You want to talk about a case of judicial activism? A judge in Tulsa, Oklahoma, recently ruled that a state law that allows employees to keep their legally owned guns locked in their car while they're at work violates federal law.
But to reach that strained conclusion, the judge had to engage in some pretty bizarre legal readings. He relied on the Occupational Health and Safety Act, which requires employers to minimize workplace risks.
I don't know about you, but thinking that a legal gun owner is automatically a "workplace risk" because she wants to be able to drive to and from work safely is just crazy.
If a parking lot is considered part of the workplace, and OHSA dictates that employers minimize workplace risks, then shouldn't these employers be required to ban cars from their parking lots? After all, in 2004 there were 42,000 people killed in car crashes in this country. How on earth could these employers let these vehicles onto their property without any regard for the safety of their workers?
Now I'll admit, that's a pretty weak argument. But not nearly as weak as the judge's ruling. Here's hoping the state of Oklahoma will appeal this decision.
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Officials in Australia are saying no to a total ban on guns, which is pretty amazing when you consider how effective the global gun ban community has been in Australia. Don't forget, the Australian government spent more than half a billion dollars in confiscating more than 600,000 firearms from law abiding Australians.
Even the politician proposing the total firearms ban admits it won't work. Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Pallaras told reporters, "I'm reluctant to totally prohibit anything because prohibition historically hasn't seemed to work very well."
Yet even though he says it doesn't work, he wants to try it. He wants to try and wipe out gun ownership in Australia... because it feels good.
That's ridiculous. Other politicians have pointed out that criminals in Australia are getting their guns the same way criminals get their guns here; on the black market. And so far, logic seems to be winning the day.
Of course most Australian gun owners will say it's too late, that their country has already gone too far down the road to disarmament. They say they're a warning to the rest of the world... a warning to us: stand up for your rights before it's too late.
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Jesse Jackson just made a trip to Newark, New Jersey, where he laid out another of his calls for more gun control. This time Jesse wants a ban on semi-automatic rifles, as if that would make a difference in crime.
But while Jackson was using the brutal slayings of three young Newark residents to further his political agenda, he completly ignored discussing the alleged killers, at least one of whom was in this country illegally and had a criminal record.
If you're interested in talking about reducing violent crime, it seems pretty stupid to ignore the violent criminals. Nobody has ever accused Jackson of being an idiot, so maybe there's another reason Jackson didn't bring up the criminals accused of these brutal murders.
Maybe it's not about reducing violent crime for Jackson. Maybe it's just about using whatever tragedy is available to get himself back in front of the cameras, offering another flippant distraction to a very serious problem.
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A new survey from The Gallup Poll shows great news for gun owners. In every section of the country, support for more gun control is falling.
In the East, support for more gun control has dropped 16 percentage points over the past six years. In urban areas, support for more gun control has dropped 11 percentage points. Among women, support for more gun control's declined 12 percentage points.
In every demographic, across the board, the gun control movement isn't just losing momentum, it's losing ground.
And for every retreating step of the gun control crowd, defenders of the 2nd Amendment can move forward.
But public opinion is only part of the picture. Anti-gun politicians aren't going to change their ways just because public support for more gun control is declining. They might operate in stealth mode (has anyone in the press even bothered to ask Hillary about the Clinton Gun Ban?), but they haven't changed their minds.
So be happy that we're winning, but don't let your guard down.
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A lot of people are talking about the microstamping bill that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law over the weekend. And all of the folks who say it can't stop crime, but only make firearms more expensive, are absolutely right.
But there's another unintended consequence, and it's one every gun owner should think about. When the California governor signed this law, he signaled to the gun banners nationwide that it's time to introduce microstamping bills in other states, too.
That means this isn't just California's problem anymore. Mark my words, we'll see this garbage legislation (pushed by gun control groups in California) introduced in New Jersey, Illinois and other states before long.
The fight over microstamping is far from over. In fact, it's just getting started.
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A little education can be a good thing, and that's why I'm pleased to see high schools in the Roanoke, Virginia, area are heading to the range to educate kids first-hand on firearm safety and the shooting sports.
The teacher at Hidden Valley High School who takes her kids to the range says it's their favorite activity. And she's been doing this for years. In fact, her own mother started taking students to the range years ago.
The gun banners like to say that kids shouldn't be "exposed" to firearms. But we don't get to choose what our children are exposed to. We can't keep an eye on them 24 hours a day. When you keep that in mind, education is always going to be better than ignorance, and the thousands of students who take part in this program are the literal living proof of that.
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Here's a question: How do you protect yourself with a firearm in Washington, D.C., without breaking the law?
Here's the answer: You can't.
And the District of Columbia isn't just taking their gun ban to the Supreme Court. As John Lott points out, the District of Columbia was also involved in another court case, one where the District officials successfully opposed taking responsibility for the individual safety of its residents.
So here's the next question: If the District isn't legally responsible for the safety of its residents ... and its residents can't legally use the most effective tool for self-defense … why do the elected leaders in the District of Columbia want armed criminals to have the upper hand?
Answer: They won't admit it, but that's the cold reality of their policy.
Let me put that another way: Criminals who defy the law can take a life far more easily than a law-abiding D.C. resident will ever be able to save one.
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Law professor Jonathon Turley is lamenting the idea that the NRA is right when it comes to the Second Amendment. But Professor, I'm here to tell you, that's no reason to be sad.
Jonathon Turley says coming to this conclusion is hard for "someone raised to believe that the Second Amendment was the dividing line between the enlightenment and the dark ages of American culture." Now Turley knows what gun owners have known for years: that the enlightened men who spoke of our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the same individuals who recognized it's impossible to safeguard those rights when you're disarmed.
In fact, I'd say you'd have to be pretty unenlightened to look at the history and the background of the Second Amendment and still believe it doesn't protect an individual right to keep and bear arms.
Professor Turley may be worried that his recognition of the right to keep and bear arms might get him blackballed from the liberal community, but I don't think he has anything to worry about. From people like Laurence Tribe to the gun blog Pro-Gun Progressive, there are plenty of people on the left who understand the Second Amendment is for them as well. There aren't as many as I'd like, but that's changing every day.
The Second Amendment isn't just for conservatives, though they've been the most vocal guardians of that right for decades. It's for each and every one of us.
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D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton has a great idea. She wants to spend $50 million of taxpayer money... your money... to fund "gun buybacks" nationwide.
But there's a big problem with that old idea: The federal government already tried subsidizing gun buybacks during the Clinton administration. And in 2001, they stopped funding gun buybacks because "the results of gun buybacks are minimal." That's what the Department of Housing and Urban Development said, not me. They don't work.
Now Norton wants to more than triple the funding, from $15 million to $50 million. It was a waste of time and money before... so tripling the waste of taxpayer dollars will only make it a three-times-more-expensive failure.
If Delegate Eleanor Norton is really serious about reducing violent crime, I can think of a lot of cops, investigators, prosecutors and prisons that could use the money. Even if she doesn't want your money to go where it could help, you shouldn't let her waste it where everyone knows it won't.
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Is a major media outlet teaming up with the Broward County sheriff's office to lie about the effects of the Clinton Gun Ban? It happened once before, in 2003, and now it looks like it may be happening again.
There've been a lot of blogs that have covered this story, but the blog Call me Ahab probably has the best summary of the story. The "CBS Evening News" ran a story about AK-47s that are supposedly flooding the streets of Broward County. But after taking a look at the confiscated firearms put on display by the Broward County sheriff's office, I have my doubts.
See, none of the guns they put on display can be identified as AK-47s. In fact, there are only a few semi-automatic rifles on display at all. But there are more than a dozen handguns, an over/under shotgun, and what looks like a muzzleloader!
We don't know under what circumstances these guns were seized, but we do know one thing: CBS in 2007 isn't much different than CNN in 2003.
The issue then was the Clinton Gun Ban, and CNN ran a hit piece by John Zarella where they showed fully automatic firearms and tried to claim they were semi-automatics. I made sure the nation knew about CNN's lies, and they were forced to retract the story. It's great to see these gun bloggers exposing the CBS story. Now we'll see what the response from CBS will be.
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For months and months now, the Philly politicians have been screaming that they need more gun-control laws. And for months and months, I've been saying they just need to get smart about dealing with crime.
Arrests are made in only one-third of murders in Philadelphia, and only half of all rapes. And when Philly police do get a bad guy, the justice system lets him out the door with a slap on the wrist. If the criminal is a juvenile, it's even worse. Rather than doing jail time, these young offenders might have their candy bars taken away.
That's not a joke. That's the truth, as reported by the Philadelphia Daily News. Two teens in a city-run facility, a 17-year-old in for illegally possessing a firearm and an 18-year-old with 13 arrests to his name, assault two counselors at the Youth Study Center. Their punishment? They lost all "points," good behavior credits that can be used to buy candy, soft drinks and toiletries. Big deal. Two days later, the 17-year-old was back on the streets and able to buy whatever he wanted.
To make matters worse, one counselor even lost his job for daring to defend himself by throwing a walkie-talkie at one of the violent teens.
And just weeks after this assault took place, the 17-year-old went before a judge on the illegal possession charge. He received probation, but even that was too strict. He cut off his electronic monitoring anklet and is now another wanted man... another "success" story from the Philadelphia legal system.
So what do you think? Do you think another gun-control law is going to make a difference when people like this are allowed to get away with their crimes? I wish the local politicians in Philly had the guts to be honest with residents, but since they don't, I will. You want to see the crime rate drop in Philly? Tell the mayor and the city council members to quit treating criminals like they're fish. Catch-and-release is fine when you're an angler, but it's bad news for the cops on the beat. Give them the tools they need to make sure that when a bad guy gets caught, he goes away.
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Despite what you may have read at places like MSNBC.com, the Supreme Court hasn't yet decided if it will take the D.C. Gun Ban Case (currently known as D.C. v. Heller). I saw a story the other day that made it sound like the high court was guaranteed to hear the case. Well, not quite.
While the case is technically on the court's docket, it hasn't yet decided if it will in fact hear the case. I only mention this because if the court does decide to hear the case, we're going to be getting more bad reporting from the mainstream media.
Luckily, there's an antidote to the poison pens of the anti-gun media. In fact, if you're reading this, you already know about NRAnews.com. If the media can't even get basic information about this case right, can you really trust them to give you the details that are important to gun owners?
So turn off NBC and CNN, and tune in to Ginny and Cam at NRAnews.com. They'll let you know what's really going on with news that's important to you.
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I wish we had more Colin Bruleys in the world. The 25-year-old Jacksonville, Florida, man was fired from his job earlier this year after he helped a woman who'd been shot.
That's right. Bruley was fired after he responded to the screams of 24-year-old Tonetta Lee. Bruley worked as a leasing agent at the Oaks at Mill Creek apartment complex, but he wasn't on duty when he heard the screams just before 2 a.m. on June 12. Bruley was just a regular guy who heard a woman who needed help. Hearing that she'd been shot, Bruley grabbed his legally- owned shotgun and headed out to help, not knowing if the woman's shooter was still around.
The good news is he wasn't. The bad news is Bruley was fired after the company that owns the apartment complex, Village Green Companies, said Bruley violated the company's "no weapons in the workplace" policy. The employer also said Bruley should have told his bosses immediately about what happened.
Now Bruley's filed a wrongful termination suit. I don't know how it will end up, but I do know this: Making a person choose between helping a fellow human being and keeping their job just seems wrong to me. I guess we'll see if a jury feels the same way.
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