29 January 2011

Former MD Gov Carried; Lawful Citizens, No Such Luck

Positive proof that the bastard liberal elites believe they have more rights than us!  So much so, that they even de facto admit that guns are the best defense against threats from two legged predators.

Read and listen here to see that former Maryland Governor Marvin Mandel carried (potentially without a permit) at the suggestion of some MD State Police.

EDIT:  Bonus around 27 minute mark, the radio host has to correct himself when he says "target."  The pussification of society is almost complete!

Automatic Weapons Are the Problem!

The week after the Giffords attack, Maryland's 2nd Congressional District Congressman, Dutch Ruppersberger, joined the Norris & Davis Show to discuss the event and, obviously, guns.

You can catch the whole interview right here.

Of course, even though a semi-automatic pistol was the culprit of the crime (emphasis added), the Congressman wasted little effort to perpetuate the myth that it was fully automatic.  Of course, the Congressmen also wasted little effort on saying that automatic weapons should not be in the hands of law abiding citizens (well, paraphrased anyways).

I was shocked to hear that Ruppersberger supported concealed carry!  However, his name is absent from the cosponsor list on the House version of the Thune Amendment.  Shocker, a politician that speaks out of both sides of his mouth.  Nice try Dutch Wonder Boy, but ya ain't foolin' no one!

NFA Arms Reform Badly Needed

Author's Note:  I have had this post title written for well over a month now and have brainstormed ideas on it in one form or another for about that long.  In that time span, our nation has seen a tragic criminal act against freedom and the legislators whom craft and shape our freedom.  Accordingly, a corresponding attack coordinated by an agenda driven dino-media and anti-freedom groups against civil rights has also been sprung against mainstream citizens who believe in gun rights and responsibility (notice that I use both at the same time).  What I am about to say will no doubt be controversial to the old guard of gun owners, down right unrealistic to those who oppose us, and quite a feat to achieve in our own right.  However, while our opponents are calling for tighter restrictions, others have said we need to go Patton on them and keep them on the run.  Never slow down when you can keep your enemy moving (and prevent them from entrenching and fighting a war of attrition).

As far as gun civil rights go, we have just barely crossed the Seine River on our judicial blitzkrieg.  Almost daily, we read where new suits have been filed to expand carry, limit restrictions during states of emergency, or even prevent prohibition of rights to resident (and legal) aliens.  So is it time that we go after the Hughes Amendment?  Do we stand a chance of repealing Section 922?  What about the National Firearms Act of 1934 and it's corrupt baby brother GCA of 1968?  Obviously, after the events of several weeks ago, these objectives have become a bit harder to achieve, but they are not impossible.

Let me start by painting a picture for you.  John Doe, Jr., son of John Doe, Sr. whom is a Vietnam vet, has to clean out his father's house upon his untimely passing.  In the process, John Doe, Jr. comes across what appears to be a vintage AR-15.  Wait a second, vintage AR-15?  Or M-16?  Being somewhat familiar with weapons, but not familiar with the laws, John Doe, Jr. goes to his local message board and asks how do I get fully automatic weapons transferred to me legally from my father's estate?  It's an excellent question that is posed, but one that doesn't have an easy answer, especially if the bring back was never put on the registry.

What is worse is when we see stories like the one depicted above but it's the grandson of a WWII vet whom kept his BAR or 1919.  If the WWII vet never bothered to register it prior to '68, and then forgot about it after '68 when there were amnesty periods, the BATFE will say, oops, your bad, tough luck.  Therefore, we are doomed to not only a dwindling number of machine guns on the registry, due to those now 25 year old arms (if they were produced in 1986) breaking and failing, but we also allow family heirlooms and history to be lost.

Never mind the fact that these asinine firearms laws act like a bill of attainer, creating a special class of citizens (those with machine guns and those without or with unregistered arms), no that matters not to the BATFE or Congress.  If the last great generation members who brought back their right arms of freedom didn't know to register them or decided that the government didn't need to know about them period, our successors in family linage pay the price.  If John Doe, Jr. is lucky, he has to forfeit his rights and property at best, and at worst ends up in the Federal Pen doing 10 years for an unregistered machine gun.  Did he chose to break this law?  No, this was a choice that congress made for him before he was born or while he was in his infancy.

Our opponents, and even some of our friends, are busy back peddling about freedom.  This is where we draw our peaceful line in the sand.  Yes, that may sound a bit radical, but millions of Americans like myself are tired of the relentless attack against the responsible, and mostly free, citizen.  The question is, when do we turn to the ways of Egypt?  I don't want that to happen, those in Congress do not wish for that to happen and by no means do I advocate for that form of freedom's resurgence, but, I for one as a responsible citizen am unwilling to accept "reasonable restrictions" as defined by the pushers.

So, where's the road map?  Right here.

First, I will implore you to go to www.opencongress.org and register for an account.  This site is an excellent resource for bill text, bill indexes, and integration to contact your legislators.  Hell, fill in your zip code and it will tell you who your Rep is and will even proxy you to their "contact" page.  Do it, don't make an excuse, just make the out click right now!  After you register, track batnut Carolyn McCarthy's bill and don't forget to click nay for "your vote."  (Also, track Sen. Lautenberg closely as he's leading the Senate's charge on the issue for our opponents).  

There have been some rumors that the Thune Amendment will be back sometime this year to create national reciprocity for carry.  That's a good start.  I like that we will be offering an alternative to advance freedom, and not repeal it.  But we shouldn't rest there.  Thune is a good ally to have on the Senate side of things and fortunately Boehner has said that he will not push anything in the house.  Take the time to write them a short thank you for their support and assure them that if they hold the line here, we will pay them back in spades come election time.  After all, this is all about vote buying for both our allies and opponents.

Before we get to repeal of the Hughes amendment or the GCA of '68, we must push for the BATFE Reform and Modernization Act first.  This has languished in congress for a few years, mainly because Democratic leadership doesn't want floor sessions with it, knowing it will probably pass with an overwhelming and bipartisan majority.  Of course, those of us on the side of freedom know that gun rights are a winning issue for politicians.  The problem is, as we are seeing, most politicians can't stand the thought of average Joe citizen having the same power as their government overlords.

Over the course of the last few years, the Tea Party movement has been called an astroturf movement.  If  Washington wants astroturf, let's give them that (obviously since it is more peaceful than lead, copper, and brass, and cheaper too).  I am challenging everyone to write at least one letter a week to your representative, senator, the NRA-ILA (notice I just said write TO them), SAF, your local newspaper for a letter to the editor, or even the house and senate leadership.  It won't take you but 10 minutes, and you can even recycle your letters.  If but 10% of NRA members were to do this, we'd have 40,000 letters a week hitting someone's desk.  If just 10% of all gun owners do that, we're talking about 7 million letters a week.  Politicians see those as 7 million potential votes, and that's a huge number to ignore (certainly more than enough to sway most election races).  (Also, do not forget to vote for the NRA leadership if you are a voting member.  This is something I'm usually guilty of not doing, but no mas).

I've just given you the encouragement for the Federal level (and don't forget to voice your thoughts to your state leadership too if you have to defend there like I do here in Maryland), but I've remained silent on the headline agenda; Hughes Amendment.  Is this something we can live without?  We've lived without it for 25 years, but that is 25 years to long.  Losses of freedom are hard to reverse, but it's time.  We need to push this issue considering how disgusting the floor process was under Charlie Rangle.  We should look at this on two fronts; challenging the ignorance of freedom and destruction of history.  The points need to be drawn that this is class warfare against us gun owners and has been for the last 2.5 decades.  Additionally, this portion of the Federal code needs to be corrected to merely prevent honest citizens from running afoul of the law when they find war bring backs or have simple gun malfunctions. Congress and the President (and even SCOTUS) need to be challenged to repeal bad laws instead of allowing them to languish on the books.  Bad laws do not make citizens bad, except in the minds of power hungry elites.  Further, bad laws will still be ignored by criminals.

Finally, we need to educate the firearms owners whom may be of older generations and not as receptive to freedom as the modern generation.  Yes, that's right, it is my belief that those of us growing up shooting ARs and AKs, participating in IPDA or 3-Gun competitions have less fear of modern arms and anything that looks "menacing" and not so "sporting."  After all, the fun button is nothing more than a little switch in a $10 part, and if used responsibly, like all firearms, presents no excessive dangers to law enforcement or legislators.    Change the minds of our fellow man in the arena of ideas, and we win the day, and the battle (screw "winning the future," let's win the now).

Yes dear readers, this is a lot to digest and take in but it is a cause that is uniquely American in nature.  So, what are you waiting for?  After all, on this blog there is no room for cowards!  Get to it!