Category: Gun Control

Springfield Armory Cuts Dick’s, Field & Stream

GW:  You’re either for us or against those that are law-abiding citizens and Springfield’s sentiment and subsequent action speaks volumes.

GENESEO, IL, (05/03/18) – Springfield Armory is severing ties with Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, in response to their hiring a group for anti-Second Amendment lobbying.

This latest action follows Dick’s Sporting Goods’ decision to remove and destroy all modern sporting rifles (MSR) from their inventory. In addition, they have denied Second Amendment rights to Americans under the age of 21. We at Springfield Armory believe that all law abiding American citizens of adult age are guaranteed this sacred right under our Constitution.

It is clear where Dick’s Sporting Goods and its subsidiary, Field & Stream, stand on the Second Amendment, and we want to be clear about our message in response. Their position runs counter to what we stand for as a company. At Springfield Armory, we believe in the rights and principles fought for and secured by American patriots and our founding forefathers, without question. We will not accept Dick’s Sporting Goods’ continued attempts to deny Second Amendment freedoms to our fellow Americans.

Firearms, Gun Control

Rights, Needs, and the Second Amendment Pondered

By Glen Wunderlich

To safeguard individual liberty, the State of Virginia became the last to approve the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791, thus limiting government’s power over its citizens.  Today’s protesters have called on government to “do something” about guns and point to retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ recent cry to abolish the Second Amendment.  Well countrymen and women, there’s an “app” to do just that.  What’s missing in any discussions, however, seems to be some basic understanding of the process to repeal an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as the reasons why so many Americans find the notion utterly revolting when their liberties are under attack.
 

The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures. A proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States).  In today’s divide – evidenced at every turn in government – it’s difficult to comprehend any such agreement on anything, let alone something as drastic as limiting foundational, unalienable rights of self-protection.  Yet, our Forefathers have provided a roadmap that cannot be superseded by any amount of bellyaching alone.
 

Rationale for gun owners to own a particular type of firearm or sheer numbers of them is often heard in sentences beginning with the words, “Why do you need…?”  It’s a bogus question, it’s irrational, and a non-starter for any sensible discussion about guns.  Here’s why.
 

The psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory suggesting humans are motivated to satisfy five basic needs, the first of which relates to issues of survival.  While many folks today may focus more on pay and benefits to satisfy their most basic needs, others see survival in a more literal sense.  On June 27, 2005 the Supreme Court ruled, once again, that police have no constitutional duty to protect a person from harm.  That duty and its inherent stark reality, therefore, rest on the shoulders of individuals.  That’s where the “need” for guns begins for so many of us.  What type and how many become no more than personal preference for various situations.  Yet, the desire to own even more guns goes deeper than that.
 

Many people will invest in firearms and knives as alternatives to antique vehicles, gold, or other forms of capital; others keep them for myriad hunting purposes.  Firearms in a general sense were not always the best of investments, however, increasing in value at a lesser rate than inflation in years gone by.  But we’ve witnessed the fact that as protesters protest and politicians push for infringements on Second Amendment protections, demand for firearms increases proportionately.
 

Consider the Obama administration years as a prime example of this economic reality and incessant talk about banning certain types of guns.  The total economic impact of the firearms and ammunition industry in the United States increased from $19.1 billion in 2008 to $51.4 billion in 2017, a 169 percent increase, while the total number of full-time equivalent jobs rose from approximately 166,000 to almost 310,000, an 87 percent increase in that period, according to a recent report released by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the industry’s trade association.  There has been no better gun salesman than President Obama and his minions in the history of this country and it occurred in an otherwise downward economy!
 

So, for those that desire change, you have it.  Tens of millions more firearms are in the hands of law-abiding American citizens since the failed enactment of the “assault weapons” ban of 1994.  If  “no more guns” means confiscation, just how will it be implemented?  How will they be gotten from criminals?  And, how will anyone prevent basement manufacture or black market trade?
 

So, if anyone wants to begin an honest discussion about guns, let’s begin with some honest reality and not mere hyperbole so prevalent today.
 

Firearms, Gun Control

Teachers’ Union Calls for “Investor Action” on Guns

GW:  If anyone continues to wonder why there is a divide between ideologues and law-abiding American citizens, one needs to look no further than the taxpayer-funded teachers and their unions.
WASHINGTON—To help confront the United States’ gun violence epidemic, the AFT today released a special edition of its “Ranking Asset Managers” report, which creates a watch list of investment managers that invest millions of dollars in companies that make assault weapons. Since the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, 200 students have been killed in school and 187,000 students have been affected by school shootings. The report offers information for pension fund trustees, and it calls on asset managers to evaluate risks associated with investing in gun manufacturers and to engage in meaningful action, such as adopting policies that mitigate the safety risks assault weapons pose.

“We have a gun violence epidemic in our country, and our children and their teachers are caught in the crosshairs of this public health emergency,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “Educators, parents and students need safe and welcoming schools, and educators have a right to assume their deferred wages are not being invested in the companies that make the military-style assault weapons used to injure and kill them and their students in countless school shootings.”

Weingarten added, “When companies produce a dangerous product that creates a national public health and safety crisis, that company becomes a high-risk investment and people have the right to know. This report is about exposing that risk and providing pension trustees and investment managers with the tools they need to demand meaningful action.” Read more

Gun Control

SAF Sues Illinois Agency Over Day Care Operators’ Gun Rights

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on behalf of two Prairie State residents, alleging deprivation of civil rights under color of law.

Joining in the lawsuit on behalf of individual plaintiffs Jennifer J. and Darin E. Miller are the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) and Illinois Carry (IC). They are represented by Glen Ellyn attorney David Sigale. Named as a defendants in the case are Beverly J. Walker, in her official capacity as director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS), and state Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, contends that Mr. and Mrs. Miller have been denied their rights because IDCFS policy “substantially prohibits day care home licensees, and those who would be day care home licensees, from the possession of firearms for the purpose of self-defense, which violates Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights under the Second Amendment.”

Read more

Gun Control, Self Defense

Michigan Supreme Court Hears School Preemption Cases

This past Wednesday, the Michigan Supreme Court heard oral arguments in MGO v. Ann Arbor and MOC v. Clio. At issue in the cases is whether schools, as local units of government, are subject preemption by the State of Michigan preventing them from creating and enforcing their own firearms restrictions. While MCL 28.425o prevents concealed carry in schools,  MCL 750.237a provides an exemption for concealed pistol license holders, allowing a CPL holder to openly carry. MCL 123.1102 prevents local units of government in Michigan from enacting their own firearms regulations, a law that has been supported by Michigan courts in past cases, most notably MCRGO v. Ferndale in 2003.

Chief Justice Stephen Markman dominated questioning and appears to be supportive of preemption. He repeatedly referenced the sentence in state law that says school gun prohibitions don’t apply to people who are licensed to carry a concealed weapon. “I don’t mean to be flippant about this, but I don’t understand why that isn’t perhaps the beginning, the middle and even perhaps conceivably the end of the argument,” Markman argued. Justice Richard Bernstein and Justice Bridget McCormack, who has a son at Ann Arbor Pioneer High School, suggested there’s a need for schools to set restrictions, indicating the court may be divided on it opinion.

 

The Michigan Supreme Court will now meet privately to discuss the case and to agree on how the case is to be decided. A Justice will be selected to author an opinion of law, explaining the Court’s decision. Another Justice may write a dissenting opinion or an opinion expressing a separate point A decision on the case is expected to be decided by July 31 but could come much sooner.

Read more

Gun Control

Bank of America Will Stop Lending to Makers of AR-Rifles

“It’s our intention not to finance these military-style firearms for civilian use,” Anne Finucane, a vice chairman at Bank of America, said Tuesday in a Bloomberg Television interview. The firm has had “intense conversations over the last few months” with those kinds of gun manufacturers to tell them it won’t finance their operations in the future, she said. Finucane said Bank of America also won’t underwrite securities issued by manufacturers of military-style guns used by civilians. Bank of America helped finance Vista Outdoors and Remington. No official response has been received from any firearms company, the National Shooting Sports Foundation or the NRA as of today.
Firearms, Gun Control

CCRKBA Asks Sessions to Withhold Funds From Those That Violate 2A Rights

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has written to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, requesting that the Department of Justice withhold funds from any local or state government that adopts policies that infringe on the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.

“The liberal municipal governments of such cities as New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, and states including New Jersey, Connecticut, California and Massachusetts should not be receiving taxpayer funds while violating the constitutional rights of those taxpayers,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “It is ironic that all of those places are willing to spend millions of dollars to attack the rights of gun owners, when they should be protecting civil and constitutional rights, including the Second Amendment.”

In a letter to Sessions, Gottlieb stated that local or state laws that infringe upon or impair the Second Amendment rights of citizens have done nothing to reduce violent crime, but they have reduced the ability of honest citizens to defend themselves.

In addition, the Citizens Committee is launching a national petition drive to mobilize grass roots support for withholding Justice Department funds from the offending local and state governments that are thumbing their noses at two U.S. Supreme Court decisions affirming the individual right to keep and bear arms.

“Why should American taxpayers see their hard-earned money used to erode their fundamental rights,” Gottlieb asked. “Those of us on the front lines of this civil rights battle see this as the ultimate abandonment of common sense. When government becomes the enemy of its constituents, it should be penalized, not rewarded.”

Gottlieb noted that anti-gun local governments penalize their citizens in many ways. For example, when Chicago lost a federal lawsuit to the Second Amendment Foundation, the city paid SAF’s legal bills by taking money from police department funds.

“These stubborn anti-gun local governments will spitefully hurt their citizens any way they can,” Gottlieb observed. “The time has come to slap them down, and the best way to get their attention is to turn off the funding spigot.”

Gun Control

AFT Tells Wells Fargo: No Business With NRA, Gun Companies

Teachers union will withdraw Wells Fargo mortgages from benefits program if bank continues to do business with NRA, gun manufacturers

WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is in negotiations to meet with Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan to discuss the bank’s ongoing support for the gun lobby and gun manufacturers.

If Sloan continues the bank’s arms business, the AFT will dump its popular Wells Fargo mortgage program offered to members.

Other leading companies—including Dick’s Sporting Goods, REI and L.L. Bean— have acted to protect kids and educators in the wake of the Parkland massacre, but Wells Fargo continues to bankroll the NRA and help gun manufacturers such as American Outdoor Brands Corp. (the parent company of Smith & Wesson) and Vista Outdoor borrow hundreds of millions of dollars.

On Friday, the AFT released correspondence between Weingarten and Sloan outlining the union’s concerns about Wells Fargo’s connections with the NRA as well as its intention to stop offering Wells Fargo mortgages if Wells Fargo continues being the NRA banker. The Wells Fargo mortgage program is part of the Union Privilege program and approximately 1,600 AFT members have opted for these mortgages annually. Read more

Gun Control

SAF, Illinois State Rifle Association Sue Deerfield, Ill.

>BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit against the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois seeking an injunction against enforcement of the ban on so-called “assault weapons” and “large capacity magazines” adopted by the Village Board of Trustees earlier this week.

Joining SAF in the legal challenge is the Illinois State Rifle Association and a private citizen, Daniel Easterday, who resides in the village and is a gun owner. The lawsuit was filed in the 19th Judicial Circuit Court in Lake County. Plaintiffs are represented by Glen Ellyn attorney David Sigale.
The lawsuit challenges the village ban under a 2013 amended state statute that declared “the regulation of the possession or ownership of assault weapons are exclusive powers and functions of this State. Any ordinance or regulation, or portion of that ordinance or regulation, that purports to regulate the possession or ownership of assault weapons in a manner that is inconsistent with this Act, shall be invalid…”

Read more

Gun Control
1 … 60 61 62 63 64 … 136