BELLEVUE, WA – A 61 percent increase in homicides last year is proof positive Seattle’s egregious tax on firearms and ammunition sales amounts to a fraud and should immediately be repealed, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“Seattle city leaders rammed through this gun tax over our objections back in 2015,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb recalled. “It has never come close to creating the tax revenue that was predicted, and the number of homicides and non-fatal shootings has not gone down. Claims that this tax would help reduce violent crime amounted to nothing more than a snake oil sales pitch.”

Published reports place the number of murders in the city last year at 50, up from the 31 posted in 2019. It is also up dramatically from the 32 killings in 2018 and 27 logged in 2017, according to Seattle Police Department data.

“The gun tax was an outrage when it was adopted and now it is officially a disastrous failure,” Gottlieb observed. “The tax literally drove business out of the city and into a neighboring county, resulting in a loss of revenue, and it’s pretty clear the actual intent was to push gun stores out and make it harder for Seattle residents to purchase firearms and ammunition. Obviously, when you do that, only criminals will be armed and crime will go up. Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – Joe Biden’s Twitter message to former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords may read like a threat against one gun rights organization, but it is really an attack on every gun owner in the nation, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

Biden pledged to work with Giffords on her extremist gun control agenda, and promised to “defeat the NRA,” in the process, but SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said that’s just cover for a bigger goal.

“Joe Biden has labored relentlessly for decades to reduce the Second Amendment to rubble,” Gottlieb stated. “He may attack one group by name, but his goal is to crush the rights of every gun owner in our country.

“By attacking the Second Amendment Rights of 100 million Americans,” Gottlieb continued, “Biden is not bringing us together but dividing us further. If people take to the streets in protest, if violence occurs it will be his fault and he should be impeached for violating our constitutional rights and inciting violence. Maybe it is time to ban him from Twitter and Facebook!” Read more

Joe Biden admitted he lacks “executive authority” to ban “assault weapons” when the subject was broached during a December 8, 2020, meeting with civil rights leaders.

An audio recording of the meeting was shared by The Intercept’s De-Constructed, and listeners can hear Biden respond to calls for aggressive executive action by assuring the leaders that where possible, he will use executive authority to “undo every damn thing [President Trump] has done by executive authority.”

Biden said, “But I’m not going to exercise executive authority where it’s questioned.” He then referenced doing away with “assault weapons” and said, “There’s no executive authority to do away with that.”

He added, “No one’s fought harder to get rid of ‘assault weapons’ than me, but you can’t do it by executive order. You do that and the next guy comes along and says, ‘Well, guess what, by executive order…everybody can own machine guns again.’”

Biden’s admissions about the limits of executive authority regarding firearms which Democrats label as “assault weapons” points to a scenario where he would have to rely on Senators and U.S. Representatives to pass a ban he could sign.

Breitbart News reported that Associated Press addressed this scenario, noting that Biden’s fight for gun control would be an uphill battle.

The “assault weapons” ban and other gun controls being sought by the left, with the exception of red flag laws, are basically the same controls Democrats have been pursuing since the early 1990s. “It will be a tall order to get a majority of lawmakers on board,” regardless of which party controls Congress.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

From Jim Shepherd…

With the District of Columbia v. Heller decision in 2008 and the McDonald v. Chicago decision in 2010, the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the individual right to possess a firearm in the home for self-defense.

Since then, it’s been…crickets when it comes to the Second Amendment. Despite a wealth of contradictory lower court rulings creating potential Supreme Court review of everything from carrying guns in public to prohibitions on “assault weapons” or magazine limitations, the Roberts-led Court has essentially refused to take on Second Amendment cases.

It’s been the hope of the pro-Second Amendment groups that the confirmation of a third Trump-appointed Justice, Amy Coney Barrett, would compel Chief Justice Roberts to once again revisit the many open questions regarding the right to keep and bear arms. So far, that’s not happened.

So what’s ahead? What’s the potential for the Supreme Court being forced to hear Second Amendment cases, especially with a less-than-friendly administration poised to take occupancy of the White House?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a webinar given by the Liberty & Law Center of the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University. During that webinar, Professor Nelson Lund and Associate Professor Robert Leader discussed a variety of topics, from the idea of “strict scrutiny” as the standard of 2A case review to the potential for executive actions being used against guns and gun ownership because legislative actions have proven to be a dead end for anti-gun groups.

Lund, author of The Future of the Second Amendment in a Time of Lawless Violence, says politicians hold too-narrow a definition of “public safety” and it drives some of the more unreasonable positions against guns. Instead, he writes, “the most practically important Second Amendment issue that is ripe for Supreme Court resolution concerns the scope of the constitutional right to bear arms in public.” Read more

#TealFor2A

Campaign For Second Amendment Advocacy

TULSA, OK – – The #TealFor2A campaign is a collective movement spreading across America in support of the Second Amendment. The color teal represents a steadfast commitment to preserving the right to bear arms and reflects the shared mission of individuals and organizations fighting for gun rights. Spearheaded by the DC Project, #TealFor2A cause embraces the premise that there should be no compromise on the constitutional right to bear arms in the United States.

What is the DC Project?
The DC Project affirms that firearms safety and violence prevention are achieved through education, not legislation; it encourages the preservation of America’s gun culture and highlights the diversity and rising demographic of female gun owners through ongoing advocacy because gun rights are women’s rights. According to Dianna Muller, Founder of the DC Project, “We believe that self-defense is a human right and that we are our own first responders. We understand the importance of preserving the right to protect ourselves. Members of our foundation regularly stand before legislators and lawmakers on the frontlines of this battle to protect this crucial right and make their voices heard through education. Stand with us by donating to the DC Project and wear the color teal to let others know you support the rights of responsible gun owners too.”

Get Involved, Wear Teal, and Be Heard
Share the campaign by using the hashtag #TealFor2A on social media, wear teal, and share the DC Project’s social media messaging. “Research who you are electing and learn their stance on the Second Amendment, then get out there and vote,” Muller said. Read more