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AN AMERICAN WARNING
Because you should know!
November 2008 - Posts
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Barack Obama has named former Clinton official Eric Holder as his Attorney General. This is not a good sign for gun owners.
Back in June of 1999, Holder told ABC's Charles Gibson that amending a Senate bill that mandated background checks on private sales of firearms at gun shows would place children "at risk". The amendment passed, the violent crime rate has fallen from 523 crimes per 100,000 people to 466.9 violent crimes per 100,000, and yet we still hear Barack Obama and Joe Biden declare a need to "end the gun show loophole". There is no gun show loophole because there are no special laws regarding firearms transactions at gun shows. The law applies no matter where you're buying or selling a firearm.
Eric Holder has also supported, on the record, denying 2nd Amendment Rights on a government's "watch list", even though federal officials have stated that not every individual on the list is suspected of criminal behavior. And he's gone even further than pushing for a ban on private sales of firearms at gun shows to a blanket ban on the private sale of firearms.
Now that Mr. Holder is Obama's choice for Attorney General, I hope he will demonstrate the wisdom to go after people committing violent crimes in this country, and not waste our resources and money by promoting another gun control bill that affects only the law-abiding, but his past record and rhetoric give gun owners one more reason to be skeptical of the incoming administration.
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Gun owners have much to be thankful for this year. First of all, we should be thankful for the Supreme Court's decision in D.C. v. Heller, which confirmed what we've known all along: The Second Amendment protects an individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms. In addition to ending Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban, that court victory has provided us with an opportunity to push for a restoration of Second Amendment rights in some of the most anti-gun cities in the United States.
Gun owners should also be thankful that across the country, politicians ran for office as friends of the Second Amendment, not gun control. You didn't see many candidates touting their Brady Campaign endorsement. In fact, most of them didn't mention support from gun control groups. Candidates endorsed by the NRA, on the other hand, were proud of that endorsement. We're winning the battle of public opinion, which is just as important as the legislative and legal fights.
Finally, we should be thankful for our fellow NRA members. Working together and speaking as one, we have accomplished amazing victories. Without a doubt, there are tough days ahead of us. Together we can face those challenges. Together, we can fight to restore, protect, and preserve our Right to Keep and Bear Arms. On this Thanksgiving holiday, I'm thankful for you.
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The anti-hunters at the Humane Society of the United States (the group that has nothing to do with your local animal shelter) are now trying to convince Americans that lead ammunition should be banned.
The HSUS says a new study from the CDC shows that those who eat harvested game have elevated levels of lead in their blood. But here's what HSUS isn't telling you.
According to that CDC study, which took place in North Dakota, the hunters and their families who ate harvested game had lower lead levels than the average American. In fact, the North Dakota State Department of Health says the highest lead level of an adult in the study was still below the CDC accepted lead level for a child, and was much lower than the CDC accepted lead level for an adult.
HSUS is once again relying on scare tactics to advance its agenda, and gun owners once again have truth on their side.
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For over a year now, groups like Students for Concealed Carry on Campus have been trying to extend Right-to-Carry onto college campuses. The gun-control crowd hates the idea, and says there's no reason for any student to have a firearm for self-defense.
Tell that to the student at Middle Tennessee State University who was recently the victim of an attempted robbery on campus. The 22-year-old student was walking to her car late one evening when a man with a gun tried to rob her. Unarmed, she still did her best to fight back, but the robber got off one shot.
Thankfully, the bullet hit the student's purse and not her. But ask yourself … if it was your daughter walking to her car in the dark, would you rather she be able to defend herself with a purse ... or a pistol?
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Election Day has come and gone, and the results are clear. Gun owners face a threat unlike any before: a president-elect, a vice president-elect and a Congress who have both the desire and the dominion to infringe on firearm freedoms. Plus a re-energized gun ban movement demanding that they do so.
At the presidential level, Barack Obama ran a campaign designed to appeal to gun owners. He spent millions of dollars saturating the heartland with flyers pledging to support the Second Amendment, promising no difference between himself and John McCain on the issue. Given Obama's anti-gun record, gun owners have every reason to be skeptical of his promises.
In fact, I don't believe President-elect Obama will be able to keep those promises to gun owners. We know there are many in Congress who can't wait to unleash their gun control bills. Will the next president stand up to those who want to push gun bans and more through the House and Senate?
We've been down this road before, and the NRA stands ready once again to defend the constitutional Second Amendment rights of every law-abiding American to keep and bear arms.
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The Obama administration's employment application proves what NRA has been saying: the Obama administration is anti-firearms ownership and anti-Second Amendment.
And as this litmus test shows, they have every intention of putting together an administration that is hostile to firearms ownership and to Second Amendment rights.
One of their first official acts is to make a list of gun owners among their own employees. It proves where their hearts are. It shows what their philosophy is. This is more proof that this administration is coming after our freedom and NRA stands ready.
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The inauguration of Barack Obama hasn't even taken place yet, but already the gun control advocates are demanding action from the next president. The Brady Campaign is already demanding action on a semi-auto ban ... a ban that Barack Obama supports.
We can't wait until Carolyn McCarthy or Chuck Schumer introduces a gun ban in Congress. Now's the time for us to talk to our elected representatives and remind them of the importance of our Second Amendment rights. We need to remind them that they represent the people, not the gun-ban lobby comprised of big-dollar foundations. And we should remind them what happened the last time a semi-auto ban passed through Congress. In case they forgot, let them know that the Clinton Gun Ban was responsible for huge losses for the Democratic majority in Congress.
We have strong support for the Second Amendment among some Democrats in Congress, but they will be under enormous pressure from Speaker Pelosi and others to go along with gun control proposals. Those representatives who stand with gun owners will deserve our support. Those who abandon us? They'll soon learn, once again, that Americans don't like politicians messing with their freedoms.
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In the weeks before Barack Obama's inauguration, pay close attention to the discussion about who Obama will appoint for some key positions.
In particular, gun owners should be watching the names discussed for attorney general, secretary of state and head of the ATF.
The attorney general will have a lot of power in our post-Heller world, especially with the number of Second Amendment-related cases working their way through the court system. The Secretary of State will be working closely with the members of the United Nations pushing for an Arms Trade Treaty. And of course, an anti-gun ATF director could make life miserable for gun owners, even those working inside the agency.
It's not a matter of figuring out if Obama's anti-gun or not. We already know he is. What we're looking for now are signs of how aggressive he will be in trying to enact his gun control policies, and these appointments may give us real clues.
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I've heard a lot about Barack Obama's "judgment" over the past few weeks. We're supposed to believe that Senator Obama has displayed good judgment over the course of his political career. Well, by once again looking at his Second Amendment record, I think we can put that myth to rest.
Just look at a couple of the things Obama has proposed: a 500 percent increase on excise taxes for guns and ammunition, and a ban on gun stores within five miles of a school or a park. Those two measures wouldn't just decimate the firearms industry, they would kill it. That, in turn, would have a drastic effect on our military, because the same companies that sell guns to civilians are also the ones selling guns to the government. I wonder how Obama would feel about a multi-billion dollar bailout of the firearms industry, because that's what just two of his proposals would require. That's not hype or hyperbole. It's just the truth, and the truth is Obama's judgment is as bad as his Second Amendment record.
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