Numerous gun rights supporters packed the Texas Capitol to express support for constitutional carry, an issue that the House Homeland Security Committee debated through the night that continued past 5 a.m. Friday.
The hearing came a few days after the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on gun control after a Syrian migrant shot and killed 10 people in Colorado on Monday.
The Republican Party of Texas, Gun Owners of America, Young Americans for Liberty, Texas Gun Rights and many Texas gun owners have advocated for more than a decade during a Republican-controlled state legislature that a bill be passed to allow constitutional carry.
Constitutional carry laws allow individuals to carry a firearm without a restriction in place by their state government. In a constitutional carry state, no licensing or training is required to legally carry a firearm. Some states with unlicensed carry have implemented certain policies to restrict who can carry and how. Some states have an age restriction, requiring carriers to be 21 years old or older, to be a resident of the state, or only allow concealed or open carry. ConcealedCarry.com lists the regulations related to constitutional carry by state.
I figure every knows about Ted Nugent’s pro-gun political stand. It’s interesting that more rockers are out there with more or less the same point of view.
Upon re-sharing a video by Instagram user GunDrummer, which shows him drumming and shooting along to System of a Down’s “BYOB,” Malakian wrote, “Guns are essential tools for self-defense! And they make great percussive instruments as well!”
The end of his caption contained several hashtags, including “2nd Amendment,” “Defund Gun Control” and “Guns are Loaded,” which is a song by Scars on Broadway. See his post below.
All That Remains’ Phil Labonte said, “Any gun laws are infringements. That’s the definition of infringe. The justification for the law is ‘it will reduce murders’ but it clearly does not. So there is no good justification for violating the constitution.”
With the exception of the two songs they released in the fall, the members of System of a Down spent the majority of 2020 going back and forth about their American political beliefs — particularly frontman Serj Tankian and drummer John Dolmayan. Tankian admitted that it is frustrating being in a band with his “political opposite” on American issues, however they completely see eye-to-eye on Armenian topics.
Yesterday, the Wyoming Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously passed legislation that enhances Wyoming’s Permitless Carry laws, House Bill 116. The measure now heads to the Senate floor for further consideration.
House Bill 116 expands Wyoming’s permitless carry law, which has been in effect since 2011, to all law-abiding adults, not just Wyoming residents who have resided in the state for at least six months. This ensures that visitors and new residents have their right to self-defense without government red tape or delays.
“Rahm Emanuel, call your office. You said it—‘Never let a serious crisis go to waste!’ And we got one, baby—twowhite supremacists shooting up the joint in Atlanta and Boulder. The president’s into it already. Bye-bye assault weapons and those thousand round mags Hollywood lefties love to show off in their movies. We might even get ‘im to ban cap guns by executive order. … What? He wasn’t a white supremacist? His name was Al-what? … Like Al Ky-Duh? … They wiped his page off Facebook? … Why’d they do that? … Zuck must’ve had a good reason. Anyway, what about the guy in Atlanta? He was offing Asian girls in a massage parlor. What’s more white supremacist than that? … Yeah, yeah, Harvard and Yale. They’re the real ani-Asian racists but … Sex addict? … Sex addict! … Andrew Cuomo didn’t kill anybody … or did he?”
You get the idea.
That might be the beginning of a stand-up act bya conservative comic, a tryout anyway, in a provincial city, but these are the days we are living in—more insane by the minute.
It is, however, the very moment we must stand up for the Second Amendment more than ever.
Gun control activists are growing increasingly frustrated with the fact that even with Democrats in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, their agenda is still in doubt on Capitol Hill. A new piece at POLITICO highlights the palpable sense of desperation starting to emanate from anti-gun organizations like Everytown for Gun Safety and its affiliate Moms Demand Action, where activists know that their window of opportunity to put new restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms is closing. The razor-thin Democratic majority in the House and Senate could very well disappear after the 2022 midterms, and activists
For the gun reform movement — a centerpiece of the Democratic Party’s agenda for at least a quarter century — the question this week has become, if not now, when?
… It’s a pivotal moment for gun politics. The history of midterm elections suggests Democrats are at risk of losing the House next year, shrinking their window for legislative victories.
“The time is definitely now,” said Peter Ambler, executive director of the gun-control group Giffords. “We can’t wait.”
There’s a muddled message coming from the anti-gun advocates. On the one hand, they say that now is the time, knowing that they’re likely to lose ground in next year’s elections, but they’re still trying to spin their movement as one that’s growing in popularity across the country.
Tom Sullivan, a Colorado state lawmaker who sought elected office after his son, Alex, was killed in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012, said the climate surrounding gun legislation has “obviously” shifted — as evidenced by his own election and those of other survivors of victims of gun violence, including Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia, whose teenage son was shot to death in 2012. Gun control was a winning issue for Democrats in some congressional swing districts nationally in the midterm elections in 2018.
“We can run on this issue, and we can win elections on this issue,” Sullivan said. “Quite obviously, the tone has changed.”
Sullivan’s comments ignore the fact that, despite spending tens of millions of dollars in states like Iowa, Minnesota, and Texas in an attempt to flip state legislatures into anti-gun majorities, the 2020 elections actually resulted in Republican gains at the state level. Republicans in Iowa just sent a Constitutional Carry bill to the desk of Gov. Kim Reynolds, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for (and is likely to receive) a Second Amendment Sanctuary measure from lawmakers in Austin.
At the federal level, Democrats and gun control activists lost ground in the House, and were it not for the absolute sh*tshow in the Georgia Senate runoffs, Republicans would still be in control of the U.S. Senate. The gun control movement didn’t receive a mandate in the 2020 elections, but they have to act like they did because they know that they’re likely to be in an even worse position after the midterms.
In that sense, the gun control groups are right that this is the best position for the movement in decades, but that doesn’t mean that they’re still in a great position to get what they want. As long as it still takes 60 votes to pass most legislation through the Senate, the prospects for new gun control laws is murky at best. That’s why you’ll be seeing more calls from gun control groups to nuke the filibuster in the coming days and weeks.
The gun control debate has put more pressure on Democrats to abandon the legislative filibuster in the Senate, broadening the range of constituencies lobbying for the change. Lonnie Phillips, whose daughter was killed in Aurora and who now advocates on behalf of survivors of gun violence, said, “The best thing that can happen right now — the one thing I would give everything up for — is get rid of the filibuster so we can pass some laws.”
If the filibuster goes away, the least of our worries will be the passage of gun control bills like H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446. At that point, Democrats would try to ram through Biden’s gun ban and a host of new infringements on our Second Amendment rights, while also passing legislation like H.R. 1 that’s designed to ensure a permanent Democratic majority in Congress. One party rule is completely antithetical to the very idea of the United States, and it would be nothing less than a legislative coup. I’m not worried about my Second Amendment rights if the filibuster were to disappear. I’m worried about the future of the nation itself.
This past week and weekend, Governor Kristi Noem signed multiple pro-gun and self-defense bills into law. These important measures work to further strengthen and protect the Second Amendment right to self-defense in the Mount Rushmore State. Those measures enacted are outlined below:
Senate Bill 100 provides protections for gun stores, ranges, or any other entity that engages in the lawful selling or servicing of firearms, components, or accessories. SB 100 also prevents the prohibition, regulation, or seizure of citizens’ Second Amendment rights during a declared State of Emergency.
Senate Bill 111 reduces the cost for some types of concealed carry permits.
House Bill 1212 clarifies the use of force under South Dakota’s Stand Your Ground laws. The bill enhances your right to self-defense by strengthening and explaining when justifiable force can be used in defense of person and property, so long as the individual is not engaging in an unlawful activity and is in a place they’re allowed to be.
NRA thanks Governor Kristi Noem for signing these important pro-gun bills into law, as well as the sponsors and legislators that worked to usher them over hurdles and through the legislature. Also, thank you to NRA Members and Second Amendment supporters who continuously contacted their lawmakers, voicing their support of Senate Bill 100, Senate Bill 111, and House Bill 1212.
The author has it wrong. There are no ‘unintended‘ consequences. The demoncraps want exactly what you get.
As I watched the Senate hearing on gun control this week, I cringed at some of the gun control proposals promoted in the name of public safety. Many people want to “do something” to stop what some call “gun violence.” I call it violence because I realize that violence is a behavior, not an object.
Guns are used every single day in the United States to protect innocent lives. It is a point often overlooked by gun control proponents who choose to ignore justifiable defensive use of guns to protect innocent lives.
The Data files for the data used below is available here.
A large amount of research has been done on the federal assault weapons ban that was in effect from 1994 to 2004. It has consistently found no statistically significant impact on mass public shootings or any other type of crime.
This holds true even for research funded by the Clinton administration. Criminology professors Chris Koper and Jeff Roth concluded in a 1997 report for the National Institute of Justice, “The evidence is not strong enough for us to conclude that there was any meaningful effect (i.e., that the effect was different from zero).” Messrs. Koper and Roth suggested that it might be possible to find a benefit after the ban had been in effect for more years. In 2004, they published a follow-up NIJ study with fellow criminologist Dan Woods. They found: “We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence.”
Dr. John Lott and others have done similar research on both state and federal assault weapons bans. They’ve found no evidence that any such ban reduced the frequency or deadliness of mass public shootings or had a beneficial impact on any other crime rate. The third edition of “More Guns, Less Crime” (University of Chicago Press, 2010) examined the impact of federal and state assault weapon bans both before, during, and after the federal ban was in effect.
Even a 2014 survey by the left-leaning ProPublica concluded that despite some claims by Democratic politicians, there was no compelling evidence that the federal assault weapons ban had any impact on any type of crime.
As she has done repeatedly since 2016, Illinois State Rep. Sonya M. Harper (D) has introduced a bill to the Illinois General Assembly requiring that every round of handgun ammunition sold in the Land of Lincoln come with two serial numbers: one on the cartridge case and one on the base of the bullet itself.
Harper has claimed the serial numbers would help reduce crime by giving law enforcement a way to track the ammunition used in criminal acts of violence. But what H.B. 3088 would more likely do, if made into law, is create a de facto ban on handgun ammunition in Illinois. Even if manufacturers could somehow develop technology to put serial numbers—matching ones, no less—on ammunition, it would be crazy expensive. The numbers would also have to be tracked, and whoever bought the ammo would have to have their personal information registered so, somehow, authorities could figure out who bought what. This would create a registry of ammunition buyers operated by the Illinois State Police. Borrowing, gifting, and reselling ammo would have to be made illegal, too. And we’re just getting started—just imagine how long the serial numbers would soon get.
There are realities about gun control and the mentally ill that gun control advocates ignore.
The first reality is that the best that any gun control law can do is force buyers into the black market. While this is a worthy goal, if laws against gun trafficking are not enforced, prohibited persons — including the severely mentally ill — will still be able to purchase firearms.
The second reality is that gun laws do not exist in isolation. They are dependent upon the enforcement of other laws and the proper functioning of our legal and mental health systems. This post will focus upon the issue of mental health treatment and how it impacts the background check system.
As this is written we are just learning some details about the King Soopers shooting in Boulder Colorado. That said, I could have predicted the news before it was reported: The alleged mass murderer had a long history of mental illness (possibly undiagnosed) and had multiple contacts with police. I will predict now that we will soon learn that this man passed a background check. This is easy to predict because we have seen it happen over and over again. Expanding background checks to private sales will not help when the severely mentally ill can pass them!
How can this possibly happen? Well, as a former paramedic with 10 years EMS experience I know the answer: The mental health system – not gun laws – failed. This happens at two levels:
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina senator has a proposal to make sure no federal law can ever seize guns — make everyone over 17 who can legally own a gun a member of a militia.
South Carolina’s constitution allows the governor to call up an “unorganized militia” of any “able bodied male citizens” between ages 18 and 45. State Sen. Tom Corbin’s proposal would automatically expand membership to everyone who is over 17 and could own a gun.
Supporters of the bill said if everyone is a member of a militia, then they all fall under the opening clause of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that starts “A well regulated Militia.” That way a federal law restricting weapons would not apply in South Carolina since almost all residents would be in the unorganized militia.
DES MOINES, Iowa — A bill relaxing Iowa’s gun laws is heading to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk following a 31-17 vote Monday in the Senate.
The Republican-backed bill House File 756 would no longer require Iowans to have a permit to buy or carry a handgun, making them optional.
The bill passed the House last week.
“The right to keep or bear arms is a fundamental right,” Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison said. “So a lot of our citizens feel they should not have to pay a fifty-dollar fee to [the] government a permission slip basically, a permit.”……
“Take All The Guns” has a “comprehensive plan to take all of the guns.” Perhaps this person isn’t really an idiot, as the use of the hashtag “#DisarmOurDemocracy” is so over the top that it could be parody. But reading more of the new Twitter account’s posts suggests it’s for real.
Let’s get started.
Gun violence is an epidemic rivaled only by COVID-19 in our time. As we are taking progressive steps to eliminate COVID, so we should also work to eliminate guns in America. I have a plan that could result in a gun free America within a generation.
Rivaled only by ChinCOVID? The CDC begs to differ.
Morbidly amusingly, that list conspicuously leaves out the third leading cause of death: medical errors. Doctors. 250,000 to 400,000 deaths per year. ChinCOVID comes in at 552,475. Firearms?
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats have told BuzzFeed News they are considering curtailing their ambitions on gun reform and pushing a narrower piece of legislation that can actually pass, rather than sweeping reforms that would likely be doomed.
The party winning both chambers of Congress plus the White House may have raised hopes for long-sought gun control measures, such as a ban on assault rifles. But Democrats are instead starting to look at smaller measures that can win bipartisan support and break the National Rifle Association’s strong influence over Congress.
With the Senate split 50–50, any gun control measure needs at least 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster. The shooting rampage in Atlanta that left eight people dead this week has not softened Republican resistance to any new laws that broadly restrict access to firearms. In interviews with BuzzFeed News, a half dozen Republican senators expressed opposition to universal background checks and said that policy would likely be dead on arrival in the Senate.
That leaves Democrats with a choice between lowering their aims or fighting for an extensive bill and risking coming away with nothing. There does not appear to be much appetite for the latter path.
“Do you try and move a comprehensive gun bill that will go nowhere?” said Delaware Sen. Chris Coons. “Or do you take a small bill, pass it, then a medium-sized bill and pass it?”
SB-498 Church Carry by Sen. Joe Gruters and HB-259 Church Carry by Rep. Jayer Williamson & Rep. Cord Byrd have collectively been heard in five different Legislative Committee hearings in the Florida Senate and Florida House.
In every hearing, these bills have been met with a barrage of anti-church-carry questions and debate by Democrat members of these committees.
Why Democrats don’t want religious institutions to be able to make their own decisions about their private property and about protecting their own houses of worship and worshipers, is a question that defies a logical answer.
In one committee hearing, a prominent Democrat wanted to know what the sheriffs in the sponsor’s district thought about the bill. The sponsor had not asked his local sheriffs but said that he would find out.
In the meantime, Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard County decided to find out how all sheriffs viewed the bill and conducted a poll. The results are very profound.
On Monday 3/15/21 I received the following email from Sheriff Ivey:
Mon, Mar 15, 2021 7:15 pm
Dear Marion,
With the outcome of the Church Carry bill, SB-498 and HB-259 moving through the Florida Legislature, I took it upon myself to individually talk to and poll 64 of our Florida Sheriffs on how they feel about this important piece of legislation, designed to protect our citizens and houses of worship. While there are actually 67 Sheriffs in Florida I was unable to reach 3 of them after leaving messages in an effort to speak to them on the matter.
Not surprisingly, of the 64 Florida Sheriffs that I personally spoke with, 62 of them overwhelmingly SUPPORT the bill and 2 Sheriffs had not had a chance to review the bill, so were undecided in their support or opposition.
The poll without question sends a clear and profound message that our Florida Sheriffs support the private property rights of religious institutions and the self-defense rights of law-abiding gun owners.
Mark Wallace:
The killings in “Atlanta” didn’t start in Atlanta but began on the dividing line between two relatively small towns in southern Cherokee County, GA, Acworth, and Woodstock. I know the area well.
How?
I live 5 minutes from that intersection. I shopped in the Woodstock Market, The Woodstock Antique and Consignment Shops, and the Woodstock Furniture Outlet, within eyesight of the Asian Spa where the killings occurred, as late as last weekend as I searched for unique items for the newly constructed AAR Studios. I passed the spa and another one nearby on the other side of the auto repair shop that separates them. You get the idea, but it gets worse.
Turns out the murderer purchased his handgun, after passing a background check, at one of two local gun shops less than a mile (as the crow flies) from the AAR Ranch and Studios. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve bought, sold, and traded firearms from them since the day they opened. I know the owner well and they’re great folks. Straight up, real, law-abiding Americans who did nothing wrong. (more proof background checks do not stop crime and never will)
The point I’m trying to make here, and it won’t take long, is what I’ve been saying on-air for years. Evil exists.
It’s real and it’s here and it walks among us. In this case, it may very well have delivered my family a pizza, shopped at the same grocery store, or for that matter, my son may have bagged his groceries while at work. He may have stood behind me in line at a convenience store, restaurant, pharmacy. He attended the same high school my niece and nephew graduated from and it is likely in this area we have passed each other and never knew it.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Senate on Thursday advanced legislation that would allow most adults 21 and older to carry firearms — concealed or openly — without a license that now requires a background check and training.
After sailing through the Senate on a 23-9 vote, the proposal must now pass the House, which is likely in the GOP-dominant chamber. GOP Gov. Bill Lee has backed the bill and is expected to sign it into law.
Republican senators tweaked the original bill to ban those who had been convicted of stalking or driving under the influence from being able to carry a firearm. Those who had been hospitalized or judicially committed in a mental institution would also be banned.
The bill carries an estimated $17.7 million price tag because it increases penalties on gun-related crimes and anticipates more incarcerations as a result. The bill also increases penalties for anyone who is convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm. This would include unlawful possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.
The push in Tennessee came after Republicans in the General Assembly relaxed the state’s handgun law in 2020 by allowing people to obtain a concealed-carry-only handgun permit that didn’t require them to demonstrate the ability to fire a weapon.
Fifteen states already allow concealed carry without a permit, and lawmakers in nine others have proposed allowing or expanding the practice. Most states require people to do things like get weapons training and undergo a background check to get a permit to carry a gun hidden by a jacket or inside a purse.
The Iowa House has passed a bill allowing Iowans to carry and purchase firearms without a permit, sending the measure to the Senate for consideration.
It’s the first time that a full chamber of the Iowa Legislature has passed such a measure, although gun rights advocates have pushed for years to remove the state’s gun permit requirements.
The House passed the measure, House File 756, on a 60-37 vote Wednesday night after several hours of debate. Every Republican representative, as well as Democratic Rep. Wes Breckenridge, supported the bill, while all other Democrats were opposed. Similar legislation has passed through committee in the Iowa Senate but has not received a floor vote……….
[March 17th], the House voted 82-33 to advance House Bill 3094 after second reading. HB 3094 still faces a third reading before the House can vote to pass it. The progress so far has been made possible by Rep. Bobby Cox showing his strong leadership and unwavering commitment to the Second Amendment by guiding this bill. Substantial amendments were unnecessary, as a standalone constitutional carry bill is also working its way through the legislative process and, in a press conference today, pro-gun lawmakers affirmed their commitment to pass it.
House Bill 3094 allows citizens who hold a concealed weapons permit, to carry a handgun in the manner they choose. Currently, South Carolina is one of just five states that does not explicitly allow open carry, among them Illinois, New York, and California. Self-defense situations are difficult to predict and everyone has different circumstances. It is unreasonable for the law to impose a one-size-fits-all method of carrying a handgun for self-defense.
In case you think Sean is speaking hyperbolically, he isn't. This is the last paragraph of this disgusting piece. pic.twitter.com/ojYwLQtIS6
The media will now simply adapt this into a general Gun Control Narrative.
Jim Sciutto @jimsciuttoNew: Atlanta shooting suspect told police he had “sexual addiction,” “indicators now may not be” racially motivated, says Cherokee Cty Sheriff Frank Reynolds.
More: Mayor Keisha Lances Bottoms says suspect was “on his way to Florida”, possibly “to carry out additional shootings”.
Police say suspect’s family recognized him in security video and helped ID him to authorities.
But the Bluetick racists and civil war accelerationists aren’t letting this one go yet:
The usual crap-for-brains congresscritter suspects at work.
Some states never have had a ‘permit’ system beyond federal requirements.
Missouri got rid of its permit system years ago, much to the relief of the county sheriffs who administered the system and increasingly had to take more personnel time and budget money away from patrol and service functions.
Preaching at the pulpit of gun violence with the support of all the large anti-gun groups, Democrats in Congress on Tuesday announced a plan to expand permit-to-purchase laws nationwide.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Congressman Jamie Raskin, both of Maryland, along with U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, all of Connecticut, this week introduced the Handgun Purchaser Licensing Act. The measure aims to grow the practice of requiring a would-be gun owner to first apply for and be granted a state-controlled permit before they can legally buy a firearm. So-called permit-to-purchase laws are only in effect in nine states – to include both Connecticut and Maryland. Continue reading “”
As this is written we are just learning some details about the King Soopers shooting in Boulder Colorado. That said, I could have predicted the news before it was reported: The alleged mass murderer had a long history of mental illness (possibly undiagnosed) and had multiple contacts with police. I will predict now that we will soon learn that this man passed a background check. This is easy to predict because we have seen it happen over and over again. Expanding background checks to private sales will not help when the severely mentally ill can pass them!