| Issue No. 1 | May 2009 |
Oblivion for Firearm Freedom?
by Wayne LaPierre, Townhall.com
Americans don’t need the NRA to tell them that the Barack Obama-Joe Biden administration could spell oblivion for their freedoms: Americans are telling us!
Even during the poorest holiday spending season in almost 40 years, with consumer confidence in a freefall, Americans bought guns like they were going out of style—or going to be banned.
NRA Official Rips Weapons-Ban BidCalls linkage to Mexican gangs 'phony'
by Kara Rowland, The Washington Times
A top National Rifle Association official said the Obama administration is using the increasingly violent drug cartels in Mexico as an excuse to push for reinstating the ban on assault weapons.
"They're trying to piggyback this whole phony issue on the back of the tragedy in Mexico," said Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President of the gun-rights group, on CBS' "Face the Nation" program Sunday.
EDITORIAL: Democracy in Actionby The Washington Times
The degree to which the Obama administration is responsible for sagging employment might be debatable, but the President and his team definitely deserve credit for the boom in job growth at political action committees. As the government expands in every direction and stimulus spending is dispensed like candy, an increasing number of lobbyists are being drawn to Washington to try to get a piece of the pie.
…But individuals still have influence when they group together with other like-minded citizens. The National Rifle Association's influence on Capitol Hill is based on its membership of 4 million Americans who have banded together to defend the Second Amendment. There is power in numbers, and sometimes the numbers and the power are measured in dollars. With appropriate reporting, PACs help bring political attention to important issues. This process might not always be pretty, but it is democracy in action.
Why Congress Should Not Bring Back the Federal ‘Assault Weapon’ BanThe Hill’s Congress Blog
Congress allowed the ban on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms to expire in 2004 for two main reasons: the ban was an infringement on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans and it failed to live up to supporters’ promises.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the right of individuals to possess firearms is protected by the Second Amendment. There is no question that the firearms affected by the now-expired ban have been legally and widely owned for decades. These guns aren’t machine guns; despite anti-gun groups’ efforts to confuse the public, the guns fire just one shot for each pull of the trigger, using technology that’s more than a century old.
Letter: Be Thankful NRA Exists to Protect Our RightsThe Cape Cod Times (MA)
Your April 9 editorial "Had enough?" contained important factual errors and omissions.
The National Rifle Association does not, as you claim, "thwart every effort at keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people." In fact, immediately after the Virginia Tech massacre, the NRA threw its full support behind H.R. 2640, the "NICS Improvement Amendments Act," which will further strengthen laws that keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.
JOHN LOTT: ABC’s Shameful ‘20/20′ Experimentby John R. Lott, Jr., Fox News / Fox Forum
Gun control advocates look desperate. Last Friday night, on April 10, ABC aired a heavily promoted, hour long “20/20″ special called, “If I Only Had a Gun.” It is ABC’s equivalent of NBC’s infamous exploding gas tanks in General Motors pickups where NBC rigged the truck to explode. With legislation in Texas and Missouri advancing to eliminate gun-free zones at universities, perhaps this response isn’t surprising.
The Myth of 90 Percent: Only a Small Fraction of Guns in Mexico Come From U.S.While 90 percent of the guns traced to the U.S. actually originated in the United States, the percent traced to the U.S. is only about 17 percent of the total number of guns reaching Mexico.
By William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott, FOXNews.com
EXCLUSIVE: You've heard this shocking "fact" before -- on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.
-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it to reporters on a flight to Mexico City.
-- CBS newsman Bob Schieffer referred to it while interviewing President Obama.
-- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said at a Senate hearing: "It is unacceptable to have 90 percent of the guns that are picked up in Mexico and used to shoot judges, police officers and mayors ... come from the United States."
…There's just one problem with the 90 percent "statistic" and it's a big one:
It's just not true.
by Michelle Malkin, Townhall.com
What and who exactly are President Obama's homeland security officials afraid of these days? If you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion, favors strict immigration enforcement, lobbies to protect Second Amendment rights, protests big government, advocates federalism or represents veterans who believe in any of the above, the answer is: You.
Obama Administration Targets Conservatives and War VetsBy Jim Kouri, Examiner.com
The Obama administration's new Secretary of Homeland Security recently ordered immigration agents to stop their workplace searches for illegal aliens, while at the same time denigrating U.S. war veterans and conservative or right-wing groups.
In a warning sent out nationally to local police and law enforcement executives, the Department of Homeland Security is cautioning local police agencies about the alleged rise in “right-wing extremist activity.”
New Gun Law Aimed at Asserting SovereigntyBy Kahrin Deines, Associated Press
Gov. Brian Schweitzer has signed into law a bill that aims to exempt Montana-made guns from federal regulation, adding firepower to a battery of legislative efforts to assert states’ rights across the nation. “It’s a gun bill, but it’s another way of demonstrating the sovereignty of the state of Montana,” Democrat Schweitzer said.…Read More
