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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

GOP State Senator Seeks to Strip Funding for McAuliffe State Police Detail

State Senator Bill Carrico wants to repay Terry McAuliffe for his gun control overreach by removing funding for the state police detail assigned to protect all Virginia governors.  Carrico said if McAuliffe is so afraid of guns, he shouldn't have armed protection.  The senator wants to redirect the funds to hire state troopers because the agency is already under staffed.  Carrico is a former state trooper.

McAuliffe's office called the proposal a stunt that plays well with right wing blogs.

If the measure makes it in to the budget passed by the General Assembly, it will likely be line item vetoed by the Governor and would require two thirds of both houses to override the veto.

Light Posting this Week

As the site administrator is away with the family for Christmas vacation, posting will be light this week. Normal posting will begin by January 2nd.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

While Virginia's McAuliffe and Herring Restrict Rights, NJ Panel Recommends Easing Restrictions

America's First Freedom reports that a panel appointed by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is recommending that some of the state's draconian gun restrictions be eased. Who would have thought that New Jersey would be looking to ease gun laws at the same time Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and AG Mark Herring try and find ways to go around the legislature to restrict our rights.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Virginia AG Ending Concealed Carry Reciprocity With 25 States

The Washington Post reports that Virginia  Attorney General Mark Herring has found a way around the legislature to restrict gun rights and will end reciprocity agreements with 25 states. Herring told the Post that, "this is a commonsense step that can help make Virginians and our law enforcement officers safer by ensuring that Virginia’s laws on who can and cannot carry a concealed handgun are applied evenly, consistently, and fairly.”

The Post did not ask Herring how many out of state permit holders that came to Virginia and carried their firearms had committed a crime.


Monday, December 21, 2015

Another Democrat Back Tracks on Prior Support for Second Amendment Rights

This time it's former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, whom the NRA endorsed for re-election in 2010 when he was up against former Representative John Kasich.  But according to the Dayton Daily News, now that he is running for the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman, Strickland has tacked back toward the gun ban crowd:
There was nothing subtle about the TV commercial in 2010: As Gov. Ted Strickland held a hunting rifle, an announcer said as a member of the U.S. House in 1994, Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich “voted to take away our gun rights — a major reason the National Rifle Association gave Strickland an A-plus rating.

Fast forward to today and the same Ted Strickland, who is in a contested U.S. Senate Democratic primary race next spring against Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, has become an advocate of the type of gun restrictions he once opposed.

Voters don’t always reward such flip-flops. Many thought Democratic gubernatorial candidate Anthony J. Celebrezze hurt himself in 1990 when he jettisoned his lifelong opposition to abortion rights and lost the election to Republican George V. Voinovich.

And even as Strickland’s aides insist he became an advocate of new gun restrictions in the wake of the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults in 2012 at a Connecticut elementary school, analysts suggest the former governor realizes that opposition to gun restrictions could hurt him among Democratic primary voters who tend to back tougher gun laws.
It's not really good news that another Democrat that was a supporter of our right to keep and bear arms has done an about face.  When only one party believes in our rights, it doesn't bode well for our long term freedom.  Apparently, even in pro-rights Ohio, all Democrats believe it is smarter to run on gun control than against it.

Gospel and Guns Intersect at Liberty University

It hasn't been a popular decision among the mainstream educational community but among Liberty students, it seems to fit right in with the values of the students enrolled at the nation's largest Christian university.  CBC News reports that Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr.'s comments urging his students to carry concealed is popular among the student body:
Around campus, with its pastoral lawns and Christmas carols piped out from loudspeakers along University Boulevard, talk of guns in dorms was met with wide support. About 200 people reportedly attended Liberty's largest-ever gun safety class last week, following Falwell's call for more people to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

Gioanni Galan, a 19-year-old nursing student, is considering signing up for free firearms training through the Liberty University Police Department. But her roommate disagrees with the dorm proposal, worrying that tempers could flare in some suites and end in gunfire.
It should be noted that only students age 21 and older can qualify for a concealed carry permit in Virginia, but it is a positive sign that students of all ages are interested in signing up for free firearms training.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Buy A FNRA Calendar, Support VSSA, Get Entered in a Weekly Drawing for a Gun

The Virginia Friends of NRA (FNRA) is once again selling calendars that enter purchasers in a weekly drawing for a firearm.  You will have the opportunity to win more than once.  Calendars are $50 each (that works out to be less than $1.00 per chance to win). 

This year, FNRA is allowing non-profit/not-for-profit organizations to partner with them and receive a portion of the proceeds of each calendar.  So, if you would like to be entered in the drawing, and support Virginia's only full service gun rights organization, all you have to do is email or call David Wells, the Virginia NRA Field Rep., and tell him you would like a calendar and that you heard about it from VSSA.  You can email David at dwells@nrahq.org.  His phone number is at the bottom of the flyer.  Be sure to tell David you found out about the raffle calendar from VSSA.





Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Gun Ban Activists Use McAuliffe's Gun Control Executive Order as Model

On Tuesday, there were two stories on the same topic, but from slightly different angles, that the gun ban crowd is turning their attention to states to get what they can't get from Washington.  The first report was in USA Today and said even as Obama looks for ways to move forward on gun control with extra-constitutional measures, he will look to governors to help move the ball down the field:
"I think what people are realizing, and I have realized as governor, is that we have a tremendous number of tools at our disposal to take action," said Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who signed an executive order on guns in October. It required gun tracing for all guns used in crimes, started a gun crime tip line and banned guns in state office buildings.

Republicans in the Virginia legislature called those actions "shortsighted," and threatened to repeal them in the next legislative session.

But McAuliffe said the White House has been very supportive. "I think they realize that when they’re stymied at the congressional level, that governors are willing to step up," he said.
The second story was in The Hill and noted that gun ban activists are focusing on states to move their pet policy initiatives:
The Center for American Progress (CAP) released a report Tuesday outlining dozens of executive orders state governors could issue to reduce gun violence.

The gun control recommendations range from strengthening background checks to collecting gun violence data and monitoring gun dealers more closely. 
These are executive orders that governors and attorneys general could take without the consent of their state legislatures or Congress, CAP argues.  
The report follows promises by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) to take such action.
The fact that gun ban groups are focusing on states is not really new.  This has been their tactic since the mention of gun control spelled certain defeat as a campaign issue.  Be that as it may, gun ban friendly politicians are now turning to tactics used by President Obama when he can't get what he wants from Congress - take "executive action."  Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Connecticut Governor Daniel Malloy have both taken this approach in recent months. 

Notice how McAuliffe was mentioned in both articles.  And, it appears he is not finished putting out executive orders.

Gun Ban Crowd Loses Battle to Eliminate Ban on Research Promoting Gun Control

The Hill reports today that the omnibus funding bill working its way through the House and later the Senate continues to ban federally funded research that promotes gun control:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has come up empty in her efforts to eliminate a budget rider that has halted nearly all government research into gun violence for 17 years.

The trillion-dollar spending bill unveiled early Wednesday morning keeps in place the controversial amendment, which Pelosi had told gun control groups was a priority in the budget talks. It is on page 936 of the 2,009-page bill.

The top House Democrat added the gun research ban to her list of demands for GOP leaders during budget negotiations — the only gun-related provision that she has put her weight behind publicly following the recent massacres in Colorado Springs, Colo., and San Bernardino, Calif.
It is a favorite myth of gun ban politicians and the gun ban lobby that the decades old ban on using taxpayer money to promote gun control has caused research on violence committed with firearms to almost completely end.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Everytown to Air Misleading Ad on Terrorists and Guns During GOP Debate

Guns.com has the story here.  Here is he ad:

As you just saw, this ad repeats the completely false claim that suspected terrorists can walk into a gun store and buy a gun.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  According to Amy Hunter, NRA-ILA Media liaison noted on NRANews' Cam and Company last week, if a background check shows that the applicant's name appears on such a list, there is a delay and an investigation by the FBI. If there is a legal reason to stop the purchase, it is stopped. If the FBI cannot show there is a reason to stop the purchase, it goes forward. 
As Amy noted, we should all be concerned about secret lists that some mid-level bureaucrat can add people to and there is no ability to know who or how a name is added.

But that doesn't stop the gun ban lobby from putting out this tripe.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Is Paul Ryan About to Give in to the Gun Ban Crowd on CDC Gun Control Research?

Earlier today Politico reported that House Speaker Paul Ryan spoke with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi about the still unfinished FY2016 spending bill and during the call she asked if he was open to lifting the prohibition on federal funding for research advocating gun control:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi asked Speaker Paul Ryan during a phone call Friday morning whether he would be open to lifting a ban on government-funded research into gun violence, according to a source familiar with the call. It was the first time the two had spoken specifically about easing the prohibition.

Ryan (R-Wis.) is personally opposed to removing the ban, a source close to him said, but it is unclear how he responded to Pelosi. Still, the phone call, which was confirmed by aides in both parties, made progress toward reaching a deal on a massive $1.1 trillion spending bill.
Pelosi is doing the bidding of the gun ban lobby who wants an end to the 19-year-old ban on federal research that promotes gun control.  Pelosi claims including the measure in the omnibus spending bill will help the measure pick up the Democratic votes that are needed to pass the bill as many of the conservative members of the House are likely to vote against the bill.

It is a myth that no research has been done on the topic of crime committed with firearms.  According to the Crime Prevention Reearch Center, whether you look at the number of total articles or total pages, firearms related research has been as high or higher than when the restrictions were enacted.    


Thursday, December 10, 2015

President to Issue Executive Order on Background Checks?

Several blogs are reporting President Obama is about to issue an executive order "expanding" background checks. The sites are all sourcing the AP.  Stand by for more details as they become available.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Glenn Reynolds: The New York Times Diverts Attention From Obama Foreign Policy Failures to Guns

Following up on yesterday's post on William McGurn's Wall Street Journal Op/Ed on why liberals push gun control, I found this piece by Professor Glenn Reynolds, thanks to Sebastian, on the New York Times using this very strategy to divert attention away from Obama's foreign policy failures with their front page editorial on gun control:
Over the weekend, The New York Times ran a front-page editorial — its first since 1920 — on the subject of gun control. This led Jonah Goldberg to comment:

“The Peace of Versailles, Buck v. Bell, the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, the Hitler-Stalin Pact, the Ukrainian famine, the internment of Japanese-Americans, the Tuskegee experiments, the Holocaust, McCarthyism, the Marshall Plan, Jim Crow, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Kennedy Assassination, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Kent State, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Watergate, withdrawal from Vietnam, the Killing Fields, the Iran hostage crisis, the Contras, AIDS, gay marriage, the Iran nuclear deal: These are just a few of the things the New York Times chose not to run front page editorials on.”

So is the Times editorializing now because gun control is more important than Pearl Harbor? Or because Obama is in trouble? Because when people are talking about gun control, they’re not talking about Obama’s many failures, ranging from the failures of vetting and counterterrorism that may have led to the San Bernardino attacks themselves, to Obama’s foreign policy debacles in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, to how the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag campaign against Boko Haram accomplished nothing, to how Putin is running wild in Eastern Europe, to Obama’s plans to import more poorly-vetted refugees from Muslim countries that foment terror or the still-anemic economy that has left far too many Americans unemployed or underemployed despite years of “recovery.”
Reynolds closes by saying when you’re shouting and pounding the table as the Times did last week, it’s probably because you’re losing the argument.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Wall Street Journal Op/Ed: Guns Are What Liberals Talk About to Avoid Having to Talk About Islamist Terrorism.

William McGurn writes in the Wall Street Journal about how gun control for liberals is a theology to avoid talking about the real problem, in this case, Islamist terrorism.  According to McGurn, they did it during the cold war error to avoid talking about communism:
Yet while the critiques of the president’s antigun pitch are correct, they are also beside the point. Because liberal calls for gun control aren’t about keeping guns from bad guys. It’s what you talk about so you don’t have to talk about the reality of Islamist terror. And focusing on the weaponry is part of a liberal argument that dates to the Cold War, when calls for arms control were likewise used to avoid addressing the ugly reality of communism.

Understand this, and you understand why Senate Democrats reacted to San Bernardino by putting forth antigun legislation. Why the New York Times ran a gun control editorial on its front page, and the Daily News used its own cover to feature the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre underneath San Bernardino killer Syed Farook—labeling them both terrorists. And why President Obama used Sunday night’s address to whine about those resisting his call for gun measures that would not have stopped any of the shooters.

Put simply, today’s liberalism cannot deal with the reality of evil. So liberals inveigh against the instruments the evil use rather than the evil that motivates them.
Also at the Wall Street Journal, editorial page editor Paul Gigot talked about why this debate is wasted effort.


Rather than talk about things like trying to identify threats from those who are mentally ill, like the Sandy Hook shooter, or terrorists like the San Bernadino shooters, they want to talk about guns.  But, as McGurn concluded, I guess if I were Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, I'd probably prefer to talk about guns than the failures of the anti-terror policy of the last seven years too.

Ruger Stocks up 66%, Smith and Wesson up 116% in 2015

The headline on the Market Watch article is "Gun stocks rally after Obama’s prime-time address on terrorism."   Note, this is after Obama only repeated what he has been doing since the summer, telling Congress to pass laws that would not have prevented any of the mass shootings that have take place in the last four months.  Given he was holding a prime time address and at least one member of  the administration said the president would address gun control, many gun owners probably thought Obama was finally going to drop the boom and use so-called "executive actions" to get the restrictions he can't get from Congress.  In the end, it was just more of the same.  That did not stop investors from being bullish on the two publicly traded firearm manufacturers:
Shares of the two publicly traded gun makers rallied on Monday, a day after President Barack Obama gave a prime-time address calling for a modest reduction in the availability of firearms.

Smith & Wesson SWHC, +2.25%  closed 8% higher and Sturm Ruger & Co. RGR, +5.85%  rose 6% on Monday.

Smith & Wesson has climbed 116% this year, and Sturm Ruger has jumped 66%.
Obama on Sunday night said no one on the no-fly list should be able to buy a gun and that it should be harder for people to buy powerful assault weapons like the ones used in the San Bernardino massacre.

But with Congress in paralysis on the issue, the logic on Wall Street is that the increased talk of gun restriction will spur more sales, as has happened in previous instances.
Market Watch also noted that November background checks, an indicator of gun sales though imperfect, were higher than they had been in 20 months and Black Friday numbers set records.  Look for that to continue in December.  A combination of more people looking to take steps to protect themselves and Obama pushing gun control is a recipe for increased sales.

Hat tip to Sebastian.

Monday, December 7, 2015

McAuliffe Reacts Negatively to Liberty University President's Comments on Campus Carry

Jerry Falwell Jr., the President of Liberty University, made comments Friday that included advising Liberty students to arm themselves.  The comments brought a strong rebuke from Governor Terry McAuliffe. Focusing on Falwell's comments about "lets teach them a lesson if they show up here" which McAuliffe took as targeting Muslims, he responded:
"My administration is committed to making Virginia an open and welcoming Commonwealth, while also ensuring the safety of all of our citizens," McAuliffe said in a statement issued late Saturday. "Mr. Falwell's rash and repugnant comments detract from both of those crucial goals."
Falwell is focused on the safety of his students, to the point that he has arranged for free concealed handgun permit courses for students:
"I just want to take this opportunity to encourage all of you to get your permit. We offer a free course and lets teach them a lesson if they ever show up here," said Falwell.
Additionally, WDBJ 7 reported that Since Falwell's comments, a range in Lynchburg has seen a 20 percent increase in sign-ups for concealed-carry permit classes. 

Friday, December 4, 2015

Why Congress Stopped Gun Control Activism at the CDC

The New York Times has an op/ed by an editor of Mother Jones that dispels the myth the San Bernardino shooting was the 355th mass shootings in 2015.  He is to be commended for setting the record straight on that point, considering he works for Mother Jones.  But then he ended the piece by repeating another myth lamenting that the media can't get good data because congress prevents research on the subject:
One thing we all need is better data. Since 1996, Congress and the gun lobby have prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from conducting comprehensive research into gun violence. In the wake of the latest horror, and the confusion that followed, will that finally change?
Thankfully, we had Dr. Timothy Wheeler address that topic in an op/ed in The Hill on Monday.  Dr. Wheeler, is the director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership and was one of three doctors who testified before the House Labor, Health, Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee in 1996. They detailed the misbehavior of the CDC. What congress actually did was put a stop to the CDC doing advocacy research:
Not surprisingly, the full committee report for the 1997 appropriations bill contained “a limitation to prohibit the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control from engaging in any activities to advocate or promote gun control.” Further, the committee warned CDC officials that it “does not believe that it is the role of the CDC to advocate or promote policies to advance gun control initiatives, or to discourage responsible private gun ownership.”

So contrary to Speier’s tale of great minds shackled and research suppressed, Congress in fact simply directed the CDC to stop promoting gun control.  To reasonable minds this is not at all controversial.  Congress should ignore the tricksters and continue holding the CDC to its mission of objective research, not pushing for gun control.
Wheeler appeared on NRANews earlier this week to discuss his article and provide the facts about what the CDC can and can't do with Congressional Appropriations.


Thursday, December 3, 2015

Revival of Manchin-Schumer-Toomey May Come Up in U.S. Senate

The NSSF issued the below alert earlier today:
Call Your Senators Now. Tell Them to Vote NO
on These Amendments 

NSSF has learned that anti-gun U.S. Senators are expected to bring up a vote at ANY MINUTE this afternoon on the previously defeated Manchin-Toomey "universal background check" amendment as well as an amendment expanding the prohibited persons list to anyone unknowingly placed on a secret, error-prone government list, the so called "terrorist watch list."

Call your senators at 202-224-3121 as soon as you can and urge them to vote NO on both amendments.
Update: Politico reports that the "terrorist watch list" amendment has been defeated.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Katie Pavlich: Obama, Not the NRA, Sells Guns to Terrorists

Washington is all a twitter about resurrecting a 10 year-old proposal by the gun ban lobby to prohibit people on the government's "terrorist watch list" from purchasing firearms.  The recent terror attack in Paris has stoked this renewed interest.  Never mind that it is already almost impossible for a resident of France to own firearms.  That did not seem to stop the terrorists from carrying out their attacks.  Nor did it stop a New York newspaper from claiming the NRA wants to arm terrorists because the organization opposes using a list of names, that no one can say how it is compiled and includes the names of people who are not actually terrorists, as a means of keeping people from exercising a constitutionally protected right.

On Monday, Townhall news editor Katie Pavlich wrote an OP/ED in The Hill that says it's not the NRA that arms terrorists, but it is the Obama administration that is selling guns to terrorists. She detailed how the administration allowed thousands of guns to walk across our southern border to the drug cartels in Mexico, resulting in the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and hundreds of Mexican citizents.  She appeared on NRANews' Cam and Company on Tuesday to discuss the article in more detail.


Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Dave Kopel on the Costs and Consequences of Gun Control

Today, the Cato Institute published a monograph by Dave Kopel titled "The Costs and Consequences of Gun Control."  It is a very thorough look at three of the so-called "common-sense" measures that President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and groups like Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety point to as a remedy for mass shootings.  Kopel looks at "universal" background checks, a ban on so-called high-capacity magazines, and a ban on the equally misnamed assault weapons. He describes why all three are misguided and explains why none of them will prevent mass shootings. Kopel notes in his introduction to the paper that policymakers instead can take some steps to incapacitate certain mentally ill persons who are potentially violent. He also reminds us that "it would be wrong not to acknowledge that gun laws often cannot stop a person bent on murder", and it is futile for policymakers to pretend otherwise. The monograph is a must read for pro-rights advocates who wish to counter the claims of the gun ban crowd.

Update:  On Wednesday, Kopel spoke with Cam Edwards of NRANews.com about the monograph.