Category: Politics

While these always deserve careful attention, overreaching bills like this are usually nothing more than a combination of political grandstanding and attempts to move the ‘Overton window’ to make less draconian bills appear more palatable.

Below The Radar – Handgun Purchaser Licensing Act of 2021

United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- Bad ideas are hard to kill, especially in Congress. One of the worst has been this notion of licensing gun owners at the federal level. This was something anti-Second Amendment extremists have wanted since 1968 – and you can read how angry Lyndon Baines Johnson was that such provisions were not in the Gun Control Act of 1968.

So, for over five decades, Second Amendment supporters have thwarted this goal of our enemies (and people who wish to inflict injustice on us are rightly described as enemies), who think that treating law-abiding gun owners like criminals is the answer to the misuse of firearms. We know it isn’t, as the Brevard County Sheriff lays out. But that hasn’t stopped anti-Second Amendment extremists from trying.

While Sheila Jackson Lee drew a lot of attention with HR 127, the Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act, a number of other licensing schemes have shown up in past Congresses, and they will likely show up in the current Congress, and in Congresses in the future.

One of those bad ideas that keep turning up is the Handgun Purchaser Licensing Act of 2021, known as S 770. We covered a similar version that was introduced in 2019 by Senator Chris Van Hollen and Representative Jamie Raskin. Van Hollen is again the Senate sponsor of this assault on the dignity and reputation of those who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Van Hollen, of course, doesn’t even tell states to impose it. He instead tries to bribe them with federal grants. It’s yet another insult from these Bloomberg stooges who seem eager to cast blame for high rates of violent crime on everyone but those who are really responsible.

Here’s the truth: Less than a fifth of the states in the Union require any form of licensing scheme. If anything, the overwhelming consensus (at least, what seems to be the consensus) among the states is that there is no need to license firearms owners at all. States like New Jersey, Illinois, and Massachusetts are the real outliers when it comes to firearms ownership. Those schemes don’t stop firearms from getting into the hands of bad guys.

In addition, what was noted on the web pages of Ammoland back then still applies. This legislative proposal is pretty much asking to create tragedies like the one involving Carol Bowne. Anti-Second Amendment extremists often claim they are trying to save lives, but it was an onerous law they want to extend nationwide that cost one woman her life at the hands of her abusive ex.

Second Amendment supporters should contact their Representative and Senators and politely urge them to oppose S 770, and instead seek to override state waiting periods and licensing schemes. They also should support the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action and Political Victory Fund to ensure that the current anti-Second Amendment regimes in the House, Senate, and White House are defeated at the ballot box as soon as possible.

 

Dan Patrick has always seemed to be a wishy-washy standard operational squish politician when it comes to any civil rights matter.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Senate currently lacks the votes to pass permitless carry of handguns

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Monday that the state Senate does not currently have the votes to pass permitless carry of handguns but that he will try to see if there is a “path” to change that.

The news from the Republican presiding officer of the Senate came days after the House approved a permitless carry bill, commonly referred to as “constitutional carry” by supporters.

“If we have the votes to pass a permitless carry bill off the Senate floor, I will move it,” Patrick said in a statement. “At this point we don’t have the votes on the floor to pass it. I plan to meet with law enforcement who oppose permitless carry and with the [National Rifle Association] and [Gun Owners of America] who support it to see if we can find a path that a majority of senators will vote to pass.”

In most cases, Senate bills require 18 votes from the 31-member chamber to be considered on the floor. There are only 18 GOP senators, so a permitless-carry bill would need the support of every Republican in the chamber to reach the floor — or at least one Democratic vote if any Republicans defect.

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Louisiana bill allowing gun owners to carry concealed firearms without permit advances

Louisiana gun owners could carry concealed firearms without training or a permit under a bill advanced by a Senate committee Monday with a similar measure on deck in the House.

Supporters of Senate Bill 118 by Sen. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, testified the current law requiring training and permits to carry a concealed firearm are infringements on their Second Amendment right to bear arms.

“We shouldn’t need the government’s permission to defend ourselves,” said Chris Patron with Firearm Professionals of Louisiana.

Members of the Senate Judiciary C Committee vote 3-2 to report the bill favorably to the full Senate.

Twenty states currently allow what’s known as “constitutional carry” by supporters, which means gun owners can carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

Gun owners in Louisiana can legally carry guns without permits if they are visible.

“The mood for constitutional carry is gaining momentum,” Morris said. “This step is not that great a step forward.”

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Biden’s Anti-gun Lies are Too Much Even for Legacy Press Fact Checkers

U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- With President Joe Biden securely in office and the 2024 presidential election 43 months away, the mainstream press has determined it an acceptable time to expose the frequent fibber’s most flagrant falsehoods. This week saw a plethora of so-called “fact-checkers” take issue with the blatantly false statements Biden made while announcing his “initial actions” on gun control on April 8.

In touting H.R. 8, which would criminalize the private transfer of firearms, Biden stated,

These bills, one, require background checks for anyone purchasing a gun at a gun show or an online sale.

Most people don’t know: If you walk into a store and you buy a gun, you have a background check. But you go to a gun show, you can buy whatever you want, and no background check.

This decades-old gun show talking point is a lie.

There is no “gun show loophole” or “online sales loophole.” Federal law requires all firearm dealers to be licensed and to initiate a National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check before transferring a firearm to a non-dealer, regardless of where the transfer takes place. Further, those “dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit” are required to be licensed as firearms dealers. Dealing in firearms without a license is punishable by up to 5 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

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Virginia Senators reintroduce “Virginia plan” to reduce gun violence at federal level

Democrats in Virginia are asking Congress to follow the state’s lead in harsher gun laws, but some Southwest Virginia lawmakers are not in favor.

Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are introducing nationally, “The Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act”, which would include expanding background checks and limit purchases of handguns to one per month.

“I’ve always supported the core of this background check idea, since I was Governor of Virginia when the Virginia Tech shooting happened,” said U.S. Senator Tim Kaine during his visit to Southwest Virginia last week. “That very troubled man was legally barred from getting a weapon, but he got a weapon because of gaps in the background check system, and 32 people died as a result.”

State Sen. Travis Hackworth, (R-38th District) said he does not believe it will work.

“Criminals… they don’t respect the law,” he said.

Hackworth said weapons are not the problem, the people who commit the crimes are.

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Texas House Approves Constitutional Carry, Bill to Be Sent to Senate
A bill to enact “constitutional carry” in Texas, which would allow individuals 21 years or older to carry a handgun in public without a permit, was approved by the state House.

On Thursday, the lower chamber voted in favor of House Bill (HB) 1927 from Rep. Matt Schaefer (R-Tyler) to allow individuals who are 21 years or older and are legally permitted to possess a firearm to carry a handgun in public without a permit.

The House approved HB 1927 in a 84 to 56 vote.

 

When even the most hairbrained idiot of a House Speaker figures her own party members are so full of it that she needs to stomp on their bill………….

This Just In:

Nancy Pelosi and senior Dems kill their own party’s bid to pack the Supreme Court with four more liberal judges by saying they WON’T support House bill

‘Do you support [Rep.] Jerry Nadler’s bill to expand the Supreme Court by 4 seats and would you commit to bringing that bill to the floor,’ a reporter asked the House Speaker at a press conference on Thursday.

‘No,’ she said.

Arkansas: House Committee to Consider Self-Defense Clarification Measure

[Today], the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to consider self-defense expansion legislation, Senate Bill 573. Please contact committee members and ask them to SUPPORT SB 573.

Senate Bill 573 clarifies existing law to prevent cities and municipalities from being able to create gun free zones in locations where they shouldn’t be allowed to. This legislation removes infringements placed on enhanced carry permit holders by deleting a loophole in State Law that technically allows cities to do so. However, this was not the intent of the law. SB 573 would fix that and expand the rights of permit holders to carry in these areas.

 

Conor Lamb, previously a “pro-gun” anti-Assault Weapon ban demoncrap, now tweets support for an Assault Weapon ban

Comment O’ The Day

Now he can be pointed to as an example, along with Jason Kander, of how ‘pro-gun’ Democrats can never be trusted to remain pro-gun. No matter how many ads of them shooting AR-15s they star in. –-GuyDarras

Conservative state legislators are taking a page from the playbook of pro-immigration activists and the marijuana legalization movement.\

Republican Study Committee Memo Pushes Back on Biden Administration’s ‘Gun Grab’

The Biden administration recently rolled out a series of gun control measures via executive order, and Republicans are pushing back on the president’s “gun grab.” Biden recently said that “no amendment to the constitution is absolute,” insinuating that reforms to the second amendment are necessary.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC), a House GOP caucus currently led by Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), refutes the Biden administration’s rhetoric on gun control. Banks distributed a memo on Wednesday, which was first shared with Townhall, dismantling Biden’s gun control plans, from a ban on “ghost guns,” to Red Flag laws. From the memo:

1. Biden’s actions on pistol braces would take millions of the most popular firearms accessories on the market and make them illegal and their owners felons by executive fiat.

The ATF repeatedly told sport shooters and collectors everywhere these pistol braces were legal. The federal government must stop playing games with the Second Amendment rights of Americans, including the pro-gun community. Biden has a history of infringement going back to his days in the Senate.

This betrayal of the American people could force them to either spend $200 and place their gun on a registry, or risk becoming a felon and lose everything.

Stripping Americans’ freedom to customize their firearms won’t affect how criminals use firearms in crimes.

2. Homemade firearms, or “ghost guns,” are a long standing tradition in America. Our country was founded by free men with handcrafted firearms. The right to make weapons is the right to be free.

3. Democrats’ Red Flag Law proposals are an affront to the 1st, 2nd, and 4th amendments. No right should ever be stripped from free and law abiding Americans by an anonymous report with a low standard of evidence and no penalty for false reporting.

No one should be able to nominate their neighbor for a 4:00 am flashbang and a no-knock from the local SWAT Team.

The lack of transparent reporting, strong evidentiary standards, and penalties for false statements make Democrats’ Red Flag Laws a nightmare for due process.

4. It is disturbing that the Biden administration would nominate David Chipman to lead the ATF who not only made a career of advocating for the restriction of Americans’ liberties, but also was present and took part in the ATF’s failed operation at  Waco in 1993.

 We already know about his participation in Waco, but what don’t we know?

The president said it was “time for some action,” but promised that his series of executive edicts are just “initial steps” in implementing gun control measures.

“Sanctuary counties” Take Stand on Second Amendment

GRAND ISLAND, Nebraska — A growing number of Nebraska counties declare themselves sanctuaries for the second amendment saying Pres. Biden has put a target on the right to bear arms.

“Our government wanting to come for our guns is a deal breaker,” Barry Niedfeldt told the Hall County Board. “Law abiding citizens want to be on the same side as law enforcement.”

Sheriffs are giving their support to resolutions declaring counties as sanctuaries for the second amendment. Buffalo and Hall Counties are two of the largest, both voting unanimously……….

Fremont County declared ‘Second Amendment sanctuary county

RIVERTON, Wyoming — The Fremont County Commission and Sheriff have signed a resolution to make Fremont a “Second Amendment sanctuary county.”

Citizen Harold Donahue asked the governing board to adopt the resolution, which reaffirms the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms in defense of self or state.

The document also states that neither the county nor its sheriff will expend any resources or personnel to behave contrary to the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution………..

Arkansas legislators pass bills in opposition of gun regulations

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas. – The House Judiciary Committee passed out three bills on Tuesday that could have major implications for the state.

HB1386 would establish the Arkansas Second Amendment Liberties Safeguards Act and said no state agency shall enforce a law, statute, rule, or regulation regarding a personal firearm, firearm accessories, or ammunition that is made in Arkansas and stays in Arkansas.

The bill stated that the Attorney General shall defend a resident who is prosecuted by the Federal Government………….

 

Missouri House advances bill for guns on buses, in churches

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri lawmakers are advancing a sweeping firearms bill that would allow concealed guns on public transportation and in churches.

The Republican-led House on Monday gave initial approval to the bill in a voice vote.

Currently, people need permission to bring firearms into places of religious worship. The bill would allow people with concealed carry permits to bring guns in churches, synagogues and mosques regardless.

Another provision in the bill would ensure that gun stores are considered essential businesses. That means state and cities couldn’t order them closed during emergencies such as the coronavirus pandemic.

BILL WOULD UP NFA TAX 50% AS FEDS STUDY TURNING PISTOLS TO SBRS

The very day that the Biden-Harris Administration moved to establish a rule reclassifying millions of braced pistols under the NFA, a Democrat lawmaker introduced a bill to bump their costs.

On April 8, U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., announced two new gun control proposals, H.R. 2426 and H.R. 2427. The former deals with making it illegal to give a firearm to someone who has had their state license to possess or purchase firearms revoked. The latter is termed the National Firearms Act Modernization Act and aims to increase the tax rates on NFA-regulated items such as machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and suppressors.

Noting that the tax amounts in the NFA, established in 1934, have not changed since enacted– for instance, $200 in 1934 would be the equivalent of $3,925 in 2021– Raskin’s proposal would immediately bump the rates by 50 percent. This would make the basic $200 tax stamps on most NFA transfers $300 moving forward. After that, the rate would increase in line annually with the federal cost-of-living adjustment.

At the same time that Raskin’s tax spike scheme was being unveiled, President Biden was announcing he would order the Justice Department to issue a proposed rule within 60 days, “to make clear when a device marketed as a stabilizing brace effectively turns a pistol into a short-barreled rifle subject to the requirements of the National Firearms Act.”

With an estimated 10 to 40 million stabilizing braces and similar components in the hands of otherwise law-abiding gun owners, Raskin’s move could theoretically see a fantastic $8 billion gleaned from the wallets of compliant Americans for items they already legally own. The lawmaker, whose chief claim to fame since joining Congress in 2017 was to serve as the lead impeachment manager for the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, signaled knowledge of the Biden plan when he debuted his NFA tax increase proposal.

“I applaud President Biden and Vice President Harris for announcing strong executive action to address the gun violence public health epidemic,” said Raskin in a release from his office.

Raskin’s bill has been referred to the Democratic-controlled House Committee on the Judiciary, where he sits as a member.

Actually, it’s not “How will Joe Biden respond…“, it’s how will his masters tell him. And really, it’s not even that. It’s “How will his handlers load the TelePrompTer for him to read?”

BLUF:
How will Joe Biden respond to these three powder kegs?  The more important question is this: Is his mind so trapped in last century’s geopolitics that he’s now overestimating American strengths, miscalculating other nations’ resolve, and stumbling headfirst into global conflagration?

Guns of April and Global War

War between Russia and Ukraine looks imminent.  Israel and Iran are engaging in tit for tat maritime altercations.  And China is ratcheting up provocative incursions into the airspaces and waters of Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines.

Any one of these regional conflicts is incendiary enough to ignite World War III (or, more accurately, each one is capable of transforming the cold, hybrid warfare of cyberhacks, technology thefts, financial markets manipulation, and perhaps even biological attacks that has been underway for many years into total and unrelenting global bloodshed), yet trading markets and news media are largely ignoring what’s unfolding.  It’s as if the Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1999 Kargil War between nuclear-equipped India and Pakistan, and the Soviet and Nazi Invasion of Poland were all happening concurrently, and the world decided it was too busy enforcing face mask mandates upon religious congregants and following the turmoil of Khloe Kardashian to care.

Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August paints a vivid picture of European elites so mentally imprisoned by the mores and cultural etiquette of the nineteenth century that they failed to grasp the reality of the geopolitical chessboard before them or the likelihood of the monumental carnage of WWI.  Something eerily reminiscent of those miscalculations is going on today.

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Biden’s planned gun control actions do not pass muster

On Thursday, in a Rose Garden statement, Biden announced that he’s going to take myriad executive actions, all purporting to save Americans from gun violence. In fact, as is almost invariably true for leftists, just about everything he said was a lie, including “and” and “the.” In an epic segment on his show, Tucker Carlson reveals that the truth behind Biden’s lies is that he will disarm law-abiding Americans who oppose his political agenda. The purpose of this post is to show that, as a purely legal matter, he lacks the authority to carry out any of his threats.

The Second Amendment states simply:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

The Supreme Court, in 2008’s District of Columbia v. Heller, gives a masterful disquisition about the law and history behind the Second Amendment’s language. Suffice to say that we are all the militia and that the government has only the most limited power to interfere with our right to keep and bear arms. Rifles, even if they have cool attachments, are still “arms.”

While there are rights as fundamental as the Second Amendment – namely the other enumerated rights in the Bill of Rights – there are no rights that are more fundamental. Indeed, the Second Amendment is unique in have an entire amendment dedicated to it. The others are portmanteau amendments that gather several related doctrines under a single heading.

At this point, it’s important to point out that the Bill of Rights is not a set of liberties that the government graciously grants to the People. (I have capitalized “People” in this context because I’m using it in its constitutional sense of “We the People.”) If the government gives something to the People, it’s merely a privilege. When it comes to privileges, the government can dole them out and take them away again.

By contrast, the People have “unalienable rights” because they came from the Creator – that is, whether you’re religious or not, they came from a source greater than government.

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Abusers and oppressors will rejoice the death of the Second Amendment

As a group of House Democrats pushed the presidential action on gun control, a group of House Democrats are pushing the Senate to vote on House-passed gun control bills. In either case, the result would be dangerous and make Americans more vulnerable. When the right to keep and bear arms is suppressed by a government, the doors to oppression and abuse are opened. I know, because I’ve seen it.

Hardwired, the global human rights organization I founded, fights against the oppression of religious communities of all faiths in countries around the world. Among these countries is Nigeria, where Fulani herdsmen have been waging a war against Christian farmers for the past decade, but in recent years it’s grown much worse. The Fulani herdsmen are attacking farmland throughout the region to force Christian farmers out of the area and take over their land. The attacks typically increase in the spring and are carried out with AK-47s and machetes.

In Nigeria, the law does not permit citizens to own firearms. As a result, the Christian farmers are sitting ducks. They have no recourse.

Not only will their government not protect them, their government is preventing them from protecting themselves. Herdsmen attack entire villages, burning churches, killing pastors and worshippers, kidnapping and forcibly converting young children and destroying homes, business and crops.

And the Nigerian government is not only silent, it is complicit. The illegal sale of weapons in Nigeria is a global concern but it ignores the real issue. The government is not only to be condemned for their silence about attacks on Christians, but also for their apparent complicity in leaving the Christians defenseless.

As a result, the conflict in Nigeria’s Middle belt states continues to worsen.

As Benjamin Franklin famously said, “Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

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North Dakota: Stand Your Ground Legislation Joins Other Pro-Gun Legislation on Governor’s Desk

[Friday] the North Dakota House concurred on Stand Your Ground Legislation, House Bill 1498, sending the measure to the desk of Governor Doug Burgum for his signature. This measure now sits alongside House Bill 1450 which was approved yesterday. Please contact Governor Burgum and ask him to sign House Bill 1450 and House Bill 1498.

House Bill 1450 enhances North Dakota’s permit laws by reducing certain minor violations on its list of prohibiting factors for applicants. HB 1450 would allow more individuals to exercise their constitutional right to self-defense.

House Bill 1498 will strengthen North Dakotans’ fundamental right to self-defense anywhere they are legally allowed to be. Victims of violent crime who respond with defensive force while protecting themselves or their loved ones should not have to face the additional threat of criminal or civil prosecution. If enacted, law-abiding citizens would no longer be required to retreat before defending themselves.

 

Kansas: House Concurs on Senate Amendments to Pro-Gun Bills, Sending them to the Governor

Two bills sprinted through the legislative finish line yesterday as the Senate passed two pro-gun measures which were subsequently approved by the House.  Omnibus legislation, House Bill 2058, and Eddie Eagle Gun Safety legislation, House Bill 2089, now head to the desk of Governor Laura Kelly for her signature.

Proposed by Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, House Bill 2058 does the following:

  • Recognizes all out-of-state concealed carry permits, and allows those who have been licensed to carry a firearm for self-defense, to do so lawfully in Kansas.  This legislation recognizes that visitors to Kansas should not be left defenseless simply by crossing a state line.
  • Allows individuals who are 18 to 20 years of age to apply for a Kansas concealed carry permit.
  • Authorizes the Attorney General to issue an alternative license to carry a concealed handgun to qualified applicants during a declared state of disaster emergency.
  • Creates a Restoration of Rights process for individuals to reestablish the Second Amendment right to possess a firearm upon expungement of certain convictions.

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Substitute House Bill 2089 directs the state Board of Education to establish grade-appropriate curricula guidelines to teach firearm safety to K-12 students, based on NRA’s Eddie Eagle GunSafe® program, and/or the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks & Tourism’s existing Hunter Education In Our Schools. Individual school district boards are to have the choice whether they wish to provide gun safety education under these standards. This gives the flexibility to school boards and parents to decide what gun safety education is appropriate for their communities and school children. Developing these standards by drawing from proven, existing programs, results in cost savings for the taxpayers.

South Carolina: House Passes Constitutional Carry

[Thursday], the House voted to pass House Bill 3096 on third reading. It has been sent to the Senate for further consideration.

House Bill 3096 allows a law-abiding adult to carry a handgun without first having to obtain government permission. This ensures that citizens have the right to self-defense without government red tape or delays. Additionally, this legislation maintains the existing Concealed Weapon Permit (CWP) system, so citizens who still wish to obtain a permit may do so. Currently, 20 other states have constitutional/permitless carry.