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AN AMERICAN WARNING
Because you should know!
June 2008 - Posts
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Thursday, June 26, 2008, will go down in history ... not as the day that the Supreme Court found a new right, but the day the Court recognized an ancient and unalienable right. The right to keep and bear arms has been with us since before the founding of this great nation. The dedication and perseverance of millions of American gun owners paid off when five justices agreed that not only does the Second Amendment protect our right to own and use firearms, but that we have a basic right of self-defense as well. The importance of the Heller decision cannot be overstated. Because of it, Americans across this country now know their right to own a gun is just as real and important as their right to speak freely or to worship God without government approval.
With the Supreme Court's monumental ruling in the Heller case, gun owners aren't going to rest. Armed with the judicial recognition that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm for any lawful purpose, we're taking the fight to the cities that have denied residents their Second Amendment rights. We're going after Chicago and those suburbs that have banned handguns. We're going after San Francisco and their laws that block Americans in poverty from owning a firearm. We're going after New York's licensing laws that allow the rich to exercise their rights, while telling working-class men and women that the Second Amendment is not for them.
We're not just going to cling to our recognized right to keep and bear arms, we're going to embrace it. We're going to make sure our right is strong, not out of arrogance, but out of concern that the fragile 5-4 decision could be ripped apart by lower court rulings, legislative overreach, and local politicians who put their elected office over the constitutional rights of their constituents.
We have to prepare for the other side to go after us, as well. The Court ruled that they may find some gun-control laws acceptable. Our opponents will try to exploit the language of the Heller decision for their own gain. Some are claiming that the court's decision was actually a victory for gun-control supporters. With our continued push, we'll make sure they're wrong ... again.
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It looks to be a phenomal day for gun owners and District of Columbia residents.
Our Founding Fathers wrote this as an individual right, they intended it to be an individual right, and the Court is now acknowledging that right.
It's a historic day for us as gun owners and us as Americans. As we read the decision we'll know much more about how Heller will impact gun owners around the nation.
The next step is to ensure that every American has access to this right, no matter where they live. This court decision, I believe, will help us get there.
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In recent days, GOP presidential candidate John McCain has highlighted Barack Obama's comments about small-town Americans "clinging" to guns and religion. Senator McCain's comments, though, have a different spin. In Arlington, Virginia, for instance, McCain said: "I know why [residents of small towns] embrace their constitutional rights, and why they embrace their religious beliefs, and it's because they're fundamentally good and decent people. "
By referencing our constitutional right to keep and bear arms, John McCain demonstrates an understanding of this issue that has continued to escape Barack Obama. Americans don’t "cling" to their guns out of bitterness. They fight to preserve their constitutional liberties because they love this country.
If Barack Obama wants to believe that gun owners are simply bitter...he should remember something else. We're voters too, and we don't support those who believe in Chicago-style gun control.
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The United Nations, which will be meeting next month to try and push for more global gun restrictions, isn't content to try and remove the Second Amendment from our Bill of Rights.Now the UN says Britain's monarchy should be abolished.
While I'd love to see a Bill of Rights (including the Second Amendment) for our British cousins, the United Nations Human Rights Commission must have more important issues. Even the British TaxPayers' Alliance says "the UN should be busy reporting on issues of starvation, execution and the denial of the vote to huge numbers of people around the world." The UN is never too busy to try and change the world. It's just that it's safer to try and change Great Britain and the United States than it is to try and change Sudan, China, North Korea or Iran.
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"Papers, please." That's the first thing I thought of when I heard about Washington, D.C., Police Chief Cathy Lanier's plan to designate certain parts of D.C. as "Neighborhood Safety Zones." The idea is that police will be able to stop anyone entering the neighborhood, demand to know what business they have there, and either let them pass, turn them away, or search them if they're deemed "suspicious."
Doesn't sound like the United States of America, does it?
Of course not, because this is Washington, D.C., we're talking about. A place that defies Second Amendment rights will defy any other rights it chooses.
Crime is out of control in Washington, D.C. There's no doubt about that. Law enforcement should be viewed with trust and respect, not fear and suspicion.
We can start that process by scrapping Police Chief Lanier's plan and treating the residents of D.C. like they're citizens of the city, not property of the State.
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California's prison problem could soon let tens of thousands of inmates free. A special mediator has proposed housing 40,000 inmates in California county jails. The problem is, those county lockups are already full, which could mean early release for thousands of criminals.
Matt Gray from Taxpayers for Improving Public Safety says, "It makes it safer for everyone who's inside the prison system, both the inmates, the staff members - the correctional custody staff."
I guess Mr. Gray doesn't mind the fact that this proposal won't make it any safer for people outside the prison system. He doesn't say anything about the fact that county jails are already overcrowded as well, and simply moving state inmates to those facilities means more criminals out on the street before they've served their sentence.
More criminals on the street will overburden the state's parole system, allowing more felons to fall through the cracks. That, in turn, will lead to more crime with no place to house those re-offenders.
If the problem is overcrowding, the simple solution is to build more prisons. Yes, it's expensive, but compared to the alternative it seems like the safest answer. Most people I know would rather pay with more dollars than pay with more lives.
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Another violent weekend has Washington, D.C., police blaming guns, not the criminals. And this time they're even blaming guns for homicides committed by someone who used a knife!
Assistant Police Chief Diane Groomes told the press, "We need to get the guns out of people's hands," despite the fact that one of the people killed over the weekend was stabbed to death.
It's not a matter of gangs of guns wandering the streets of Washington, D.C. It's a matter of gangs of people with evil intent. The police chief, assistant chief and mayor in D.C. want to get rid of the guns. They've been trying for thirty years, and they're still presiding over one of the most violent cities in the country.
If you don't deal with the criminal, then you're not dealing with the criminal activity. It's as simple as that.
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The mayor of Toronto, David Miller, is at it again. The Michael Bloomberg of Canada is not just calling for a nationwide ban on handguns, but is now trying to shut down shooting ranges in his city.
Miller says that sport shooting "directly results in people being shot and killed on the streets." As you can imagine, the few gun owners that remain in Toronto are angry that their mayor is accusing them of being accessories to murder.
Olympic shooter Avianna Chao, who will represent Canada in Beijing this summer, says the news "knocked the wind" out of her.
Frankly, it should not have come as a surprise to her. Mayor Miller has always treated law-abiding gun owners as the real problem. Until he recognizes that the criminals are the problem, people like Avianna Chao will continue to be targeted for extinction.
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