House blocks EPA from banning lead in ammunition

by Audrey Hudson

04/17/2012

14
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The House on Tuesday passed legislation giving hunters and fishing enthusiasts access to certain public lands to pursue their sport and also blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from banning lead for use in ammunition and fishing tackle.The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act passed on a mostly party line vote of 274 yeas and 146 nays.

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The strange birth of NY’s gun laws

This article appears in the New York Post

Recent months have seen a former Marine from Indiana, a Tea Party activist from California and a nurse from Tennessee all arrested and charged in New York City for possession of firearms they had legal permits to carry back home. All were “nabbed” when they naively sought to check the weapon with security.

These innocents fell afoul of the nation’s toughest gun laws. But few New Yorkers know how those laws came to be.

The father of New York gun control was Democratic city pol “Big Tim “Sullivan — a state senator and Tammany Hall crook, a criminal overseer of the gangs of New York.

[snip]

Sullivan knew the gangs would flout the law, but appearances were more important than results. Young toughs took to sewing the pockets of their coats shut, so that cops couldn’t plant firearms on them, and many gangsters stashed their weapons inside their girlfriends’ “bird cages” — wire-mesh fashion contraptions around which women would wind their hair.

Ordinary citizens, on the other hand, were disarmed, which solved another problem: Gangsters had been bitterly complaining to Tammany that their victims sometimes shot back at them.

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House pass gun permits reciprocity bill

The National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 passed 272-154 with 229 Republicans and 43 Democrats backing it, the Los Angeles Times said.

Proponents want the measure to make it easier for gun owners to travel between states without having to worry whether their permit is valid, but opponents view it as a federal infringement on states' rights, the newspaper said.

"The simple right to defend yourself and loved ones from criminals is fundamental, and it doesn't extinguish when you cross a state border," said Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., who sponsored the bill.

The bill goes to the Senate where similar legislation died in 2009.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/11/16/House-pass-gun-permits-reciprocity-bill/UPI-48001321500898/#ixzz1dxtS4D00

Obama Pushing Shooters Off Public Lands

Gun owners who have historically been able to use public lands for target practice would be barred from potentially millions of acres under new rules drafted by the Interior Department, the first major move by the Obama administration to impose limits on firearms.

"It's not so much a safety issue. It's a social conflict issue," ...urbanites "freak out" when they hear shooting on public lands.

In a draft retort to BLM, the council said other users of public land aren't required to be as safe as shooters. They note that shooters have a much lower injury rate than others, like ATV users. "The policy fails to recognize that recreational shooting has one of the lowest incidences of death and injury compared to virtually any other outdoor recreational activity. The policy is prejudicial and discriminatory to target shooters as compared to other recreationists," said the council's draft response, expected to be finalized today.

To read the entire article from "US NEWS" click anywhere in the above selections.

Record low support for gun control

In an article by Don Surber the point is made again:

Handgun use is up, yet gun homicides are down, contrary to what the Brady Campaign has preached for a quarter-century.

Also noted in the article, people in general are wising up and realizing that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution is vastly important to our liberty and freedoms.

The Second Amendment has rebounded in the last half-century as support doubled since 1959, the Gallup poll reported. Nearly 3 out of every 4 Americans now opposes a ban on handguns — only 1 in four are for banning possession of a handgun. In 1959, 60% of Americans favored banning handguns — and only 36% opposed such an affront to the Second Amendment.

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NRA Delivers Remarks at U.N. Concerning Proposed Arms Trade Treaty National Rifle Association's Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre addressed the United Nations this afternoon. He told the U.N. to not interfere with the Second Amendment freedoms of Americans and pledged to continue the fight to preserve civilian ownership of firearms in the U.S. He said the NRA will oppose any U.N. provision that seeks to prohibit or regulate U.S. civilian firearm ownership. LaPierre said in his remarks, "The cornerstone of our freedom is the Second Amendment. Neither the United Nations, nor any other foreign influence, has the authority to meddle with the freedoms guaranteed by our Bill of Rights, endowed by our Creator, and due to all humankind." United Nations Arms Trade Treaty Preparatory Committee - 3d Session New York, July 11-15, 2011 Statement of the National Rifle Association of America Mr. Chairman, thank you for this brief opportunity to address the committee. I am Wayne LaPierre and for 20 years now, I have served as Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association of America. The NRA was founded in 1871, and ever since has staunchly defended the rights of its 4 million members, America's 80 million law-abiding gun owners, and freedom-loving Americans throughout our country. In 1996, the NRA was recognized as an NGO of the United Nations and, ever since then, has defended the constitutional freedom of Americans in this arena. The NRA is the largest and most active firearms rights organization in the world and, although some members of this committee may not like what I have to say, I am proud to defend the tens of millions of lawful people NRA represents. This present effort for an Arms Trade Treaty, or ATT, is now in its fifth year. We have closely monitored this process with increasing concern. We've reviewed the statements of the countries participating in these meetings. We've listened to other NGOs and read their numerous proposals and reports, as well as carefully examined the papers you have produced. We've watched, and read ... listened and monitored. Now, we must speak out. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms in defense of self, family and country is ultimately self-evident and is part of the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution. Reduced to its core, it is about fundamental individual freedom, human worth, and self-destiny. We reject the notion that American gun owners must accept any lesser amount of freedom in order to be accepted among the international community. Our Founding Fathers long ago rejected that notion and forged our great nation on the principle of freedom for the individual citizen - not for the government. Mr. Chairman, those working on this treaty have asked us to trust them ... but they've proven to be unworthy of that trust. We are told "Trust us; an ATT will not ban possession of any civilian firearms." Yet, the proposals and statements presented to date have argued exactly the opposite, and - perhaps most importantly - proposals to ban civilian firearms ownership have not been rejected. We are told "Trust us; an ATT will not interfere with state domestic regulation of firearms." Yet, there are constant calls for exactly such measures. We are told "Trust us; an ATT will only affect the illegal trade in firearms." But then we're told that in order to control the illegal trade, all states must control the legal firearms trade. We are told, "Trust us; an ATT will not require registration of civilian firearms." Yet, there are numerous calls for record-keeping, and firearms tracking from production to eventual destruction. That's nothing more than gun registration by a different name. We are told, "Trust us; an ATT will not create a new international bureaucracy." Well, that's exactly what is now being proposed -- with a tongue-in-cheek assurance that it will just be a SMALL bureaucracy. We are told, "Trust us; an ATT will not interfere with the lawful international commerce in civilian firearms." But a manufacturer of civilian shotguns would have to comply with the same regulatory process as a manufacturer of military attack helicopters. We are told, "Trust us; an ATT will not interfere with a hunter or sport shooter travelling internationally with firearms." However, he would have to get a so-called "transit permit" merely to change airports for a connecting flight. Mr. Chairman, our list of objections extends far beyond the proposals I just mentioned. Unfortunately, my limited time today prevents me from providing greater detail on each of our objections. I can assure you, however, that each is based on American law, as well as the fundamental rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution. It is regrettable that proposals affecting civilian firearms ownership are woven throughout the proposed ATT. That being the case, however, there is only one solution to this problem: the complete removal of civilian firearms from the scope of any ATT. I will repeat that point as it is critical and not subject to negotiation - civilian firearms must not be part of any ATT. On this there can be no compromise, as American gun owners will never surrender their Second Amendment freedom. It is also regrettable to find such intense focus on record-keeping, oversight, inspections, supervision, tracking, tracing, surveillance, marking, documentation, verification, paper trails and data banks, new global agencies and data centers. Nowhere do we find a thought about respecting anyone's right of self-defense, privacy, property, due process, or observing personal freedoms of any kind. Mr. Chairman, I'd be remiss if I didn't also discuss the politics of an ATT. For the United States to be a party to an ATT, it must be ratified by a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate. Some do not realize that under the U.S. Constitution, the ultimate treaty power is not the President's power to negotiate and sign treaties; it is the Senate's power to approve them. To that end, it's important for the Preparatory Committee to understand that the proposed ATT is already strongly opposed in the Senate - the very body that must approve it by a two-thirds majority. There is a letter addressed to President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton that is currently being circulated for the signatures of Senators who oppose the ATT. Once complete, this letter will demonstrate that the proposed ATT will not pass the U.S. Senate. So there is extremely strong resistance to the ATT in the United States, even before the treaty is tabled. We are not aware of any precedent for this - rejecting a proposed treaty before it's even submitted for consideration - but it speaks to the level of opposition. The proposed ATT has become more than just controversial, as the Internet is awash with articles and messages calling for its rejection. And those messages are all based on the same objection - infringement on the constitutional freedom of American gun owners. The cornerstone of our freedom is the Second Amendment. Neither the United Nations, nor any other foreign influence, has the authority to meddle with the freedoms guaranteed by our Bill of Rights, endowed by our Creator, and due to all humankind. Therefore, the NRA will fight with all of its strength to oppose any ATT that includes civilian firearms within its scope. Thank you.

NRA: The steel behind American freedom

What few realize is that until gun ownership became a partisan and ideological issue in the 1960s, the NRA hadn’t spent a dime on politics, didn’t have even one registered lobbyist and avoided political involvement whenever possible. Indeed, after President Johnson signed the landmark Gun Control Act of 1968, one major Senate sponsor of the bill described the NRA as a “paper tiger.”

The NRA was formed to promote civilian marksmanship in the days following the Civil War and spent a century as a service organization running firearm competitions and shooting ranges, educating generations of Americans on the safe use of firearms and providing technical information to hunters, shooters and collectors.

The entire article at the Washington Times can be read by clicking anywhere in this post! CLICK

Swiss vote to keep their guns at home

Sport shooters take aim at a shooting event in Switzerland
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: An estimated 2 million guns are stored in Swiss homes
Switzerland has rejected tighter gun controls and will continue to allow citizens to keep army-issued weapons at home. A referendum that sought to have weapons stored in armories instead was rejected.

Swiss voters on Sunday rejected a proposal to ban army firearms from their homes, following a nationwide referendum.

[snip]

The government had called on the population to vote against the initiative, explaining that "current legislation assures adequate and sufficient protection of the population against the abusive use of weapons."



Advocates of the ban said the easy availability of weapons poses a danger for suicidal people, and Switzerland's suicide rate is three times higher than in the rest of Europe.

Click within the article above to go to the original article.

Utah Bill Designating State Gun Goes To House

Gun Violence Prevention Center Against Bill

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SALT LAKE CITY -- The Utah House is debating the designation of an automatic pistol as the official state gun amid protest from a group who says it would be inappropriate because of recent mass shootings.Republican Rep. Carl Wimmer of Herriman told a House committee Monday the state should have the Browning M1911 automatic pistol as one of its state symbols.

Click in the article to see the entire post at KJCT. com

Kindergartner off the Hook for Bringing Toy Gun to School

Matt Kroschel

Story Created: Oct 14, 2010 at 6:19 PM MDT

Story Updated: Oct 14, 2010 at 6:45 PM MDT

A Grand Junction kindergartner will not be expelled for bringing a toy gun to class. That's because of a new state law.

The entire article at the KREX web page can be seen by clicking in the article above.

Concealed Permits up 43% in Pueblo

I sniped a couple of paragraphs from the Pueblo Chieftain for the information included

The surge is because of the 2008 election of Democratic President Barack Obama and, according to gun advocates, his track record on gun issues and the threat they say he possess to the Second Amendment right to bear arms."I think the election was the catalyst to the hysteria. That and a lot of misinformation about concealed handguns," said Taylor, a Democrat who said he's a "strong" supporter of the Second Amendment.

Two examples Taylor offered on the misconception of state gun laws is possessing a gun in a vehicle and the regular carrying of a firearm.

"People think you need a concealed handgun permit to carry a gun in your car. By law, you can carry a gun in your car because it's an extension of your house," he said.

"Colorado is also an open-carry state, which means you can openly carry a firearm, except in places where it's prohibited, like the courthouse and schools. Now, if you walk down the street with a .45 strapped to your leg, that doesn't mean a citizen isn't going to call you in to the police, but you can openly carry a firearm in Colorado."

To read the entire article at Chieftain.com click in the article above

EPA denies bid to ban lead in hunting ammunition

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency has denied a petition by five environmental groups to ban lead in hunting ammunition.

The agency said Friday that it did not have the authority to enact the ban under the Toxic Substances Control Act, as the groups had requested.

But the EPA says it's still reviewing another part of the petition, to ban lead fishing sinkers.

Click here or anywhere in this post to read the entire article at Yahoo news.

Packing heat in AZ to become easier soon

New law taking effect, allowing concealed weapons, no training

The Wild West is about to get wilder - on Thursday, Arizona will join Alaska and Vermont as one of the states with the country's most liberal gun laws. Senate Bill 1108 removes the requirement that gun owners must be trained and licensed to carry a concealed weapon. Arizona already allows for "open carry" - anyone not legally prohibited from possessing a firearm, such as convicted felons or those adjudicated mentally incompetent, can carry firearms in public as long as they are clearly visible.

Click in the paragraph above to see the entire article

McDonald and how gun rights were essential to black civil rights

Within the text of the 214-page Supreme Court ruling on gun rights is a history lesson on how Americans’ right to keep and bear arms was a major issue in the struggle for black civil rights in the South after the Civil War. To wit, Southern resisters, black codes and lawless lawmen attempted to disarm freedmen (usually in order to make them more vulnerable to racist terrorism), and the federal government came to their rescue by protecting their 2nd Amendment rights.

The quotations and detailed references leave absolutely no question that Congress and the ratifiers of the 14th Amendment viewed it — and accompanying post-war civil rights legislation — as a safeguard against state infringement of the 2nd Amendment right of the people to keep and bear arms. It’s not a part of our history that the Left has much stomach for, but fewer people argue against the obvious now that the Democratic Party has all but conceded the gun issue.

For the entire article at the Washington Examiner click anywhere in the above article:

Man who challenged gun ban: 'I am so happy, I am so happy'

Otis McDonald says all he wanted to do was protect himself.

But first he had to fight the city of Chicago all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where today he gave a victory speech after the high court ruled against the city's handgun ban.

"I am so happy. I am so happy," McDonald, 76, exclaimed as he left the Supreme Court building this morning.

As he spoke, people approached him, shook his hand and congratulated him.

Nattily dressed in a dark suit, light blue shirt and lilac handkerchief in his breast pocket, McDonald seemed oblivious to the sweltering, ninety-something temperatures gripping the city. It was his second trip ever to the Supreme Court, having come beforehand for oral arguments.

To see and read the entire article at the Chicago Tribune click in the article above.

"Coming to a state near you soon"

Ohio Democratic Party unsuccessfully tries to get gun records

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Ohio Democratic Party tried unsuccessfully this week to get information on all people licensed to carry concealed weapons in the Buckeye State. The state party sent letters to Ohio's 88 sheriffs requesting the names and addresses of permit holders

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Concealed Handgun Permits Issued by County Sheriffs

In 2004 Colorado enacted Senate Bill 04-24, a law which established clear guidelines for the issuance of concealed handgun permits by sheriffs. One of the requirements of the law is that each sheriff submit and annual report to the legislature listing the number of permit applications received, the number of permits issued, the number denied and the number revoked. County Sheriffs of Colorado collected the data from sheriffs and submitted in in one report. This report was included in the County Sheriffs of Colorado magazine and is published HERE.

This is provided so that readers may see the permit activity that each county has reported.

If you wish to compare the last few years, I have provided links to the pages that I posted for the last 2 years and this year (2009).

2009 report => HERE

2008 report => HERE

2007 report => HERE

John Lott said: "More Guns Less Crime"

Students resist Colorado State gun ban

Activists at the Fort Collins campus say a ban will make them more vulnerable to a Virginia Tech-style attack.

Reporting from Denver - After a gun-wielding student killed 32 at Virginia Tech, faculty at Colorado State University in Fort Collins found, to their alarm, that theirs was one of the few public schools in the country with no policy banning firearms. Anyone with a concealed weapons permit could legally carry on campus.

(SNIP)

Advocates of the restriction point to the study, prepared by the International Assn. of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators, cited by the Board of Governors.

The study found that of the 30,000 Americans killed by guns in 2005, only 147 were shot in justifiable homicides -- in other words, for protection.

The report, prepared after several states discussed allowing guns on campus in the wake of the 2007 Virginia Tech killings, concludes: "There is no credible evidence to suggest that the presence of concealed weapons would reduce violence on our college campuses."

To link to the entire article at the Los Angles Times, click in the article above.

Ft. Hood Shooter Shouldn't Have Gotten Gun

The all wise Charlie Schumer tells us again how smart he is. ???

Sen. Charles Schumer says a hole in federal gun laws allowed the man charged with a shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas to purchase a gun. Read more

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: What stops mass murderers? A gun

From Reviewjournal Dot Com

Early in the morning of Dec. 5, 1999, off-duty Las Vegas police officer Dennis Devitte was one of the customers at Mr. D's Sportsbar & Grill, at Rainbow and Oakey boulevards, where he and some pals had gone to hear the band Pigs in a Blanket

A little after 1 a.m., three armed robbers charged through the back door with guns drawn and their faces covered with T-shirts or bandanas. "I'd only been in the bar a short time and was talking to friends," Mr. Devitte later told an interviewer for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "I saw a ruckus at the end of the bar. ...

Mr. Devitte dug the handgun out of his pocket and approached 19-year-old Emilio Rodriguez, who was firing into the crowd with a .40 caliber pistol. "I went straight at him.....(snip)

On Nov. 6, America found reason to honor another brave civilian police officer, as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. army psychiatrist about to be deployed to Afghanistan, reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and opened fire at a soldier readiness facility in Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 28.

Police Sgt. Kimberly Munley and Sgt. Mark Todd responded separately within three minutes of the report of gunfire. Sgt. Munley was hit by the mass murderer's rounds in her wrist and both thighs while returning fire, standing her ground. Sgt. Todd then delivered the rounds that ended Hasan's brief career as a jihadist -- providing the current White House doesn't intervene to commute his pending court-martial sentence to singing three rousing choruses of "Kumbaya."


To read the entire article click HERE