The Case Against Gun Background Checks

Is the United Nations really trying to Override the 2nd Amendment?

 

The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday signed off on a sweeping, first-of-its-kind treaty to regulate the international arms trade, brushing aside worries from U.S. gun rights advocates that the pact could lead to a national firearms registry and disrupt the American gun market.

The long-debated United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) requires countries to regulate and control the export of weaponry such as battle tanks, combat vehicles and aircraft and attack helicopters, as well as parts and ammunition for such weapons. It also provides that signatories will not violate arms embargoes, international treaties regarding illicit trafficking, or sell weaponry to countries for genocide, crimes against humanity or other war crimes.

With the Obama administration supporting the final treaty draft, the General Assembly vote was 154 to 3, with 23 abstentions. Iran, Syria and North Korea voted against it.

American gun rights activists, though, insist the treaty is riddled with loopholes and is unworkable in part because it includes “small arms and light weapons” in its list of weaponry subject to international regulations. They do not trust United Nations assertions that the pact is meant to regulate only cross-border trade and would have no impact on domestic U.S. laws and markets.

Critics of the treaty were heartened by the U.S. Senate’s resistance to ratifying the document, assuming President Obama sent it to the chamber for ratification. In its budget debate late last month, the Senate approved a non-binding amendment opposing the treaty offered by Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, with eight Democrats joining all 45 Republicans backing the amendment.

Read More: The Washington Times

Texas to outlaw enforcement of Obama's Gun Laws

 

The Great State of Texas

 and it's support of the 2nd Amendment. 

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Police officers could be charged with a crime for enforcing new federal gun control laws in Texas under a proposal by a lawmaker who acknowledges the measure likely would end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rep. Steve Toth, a newly elected Republican from the Woodlands, said his proposal would prevent officers from carrying out any future federal orders to confiscate assault rifles and ammunition magazines.

“There’s a federal law, there’s a 30-round magazine right in front of you – what do I do?” Toth said in an interview. The measure known as the Firearm Protection Act “answers that question in spades,” he said. It moved Tuesday to the House Committee on Federalism.

President Barack Obama has proposed federal laws banning such weapons, but no such laws currently exist.

Toth’s proposal would create a Class A misdemeanor for police officers enforcing any new federal gun regulations. It also would establish cause for the state attorney general to sue anyone who seeks to enforce new federal gun regulations. It is one of several states-rights measures being offered by conservative state lawmakers nationwide in response to federal gun control proposals.

Courts have long upheld the federal government’s right to enact new laws, which generally supersede state law. Asked how legal precedent for the supremacy of federal law would affect enforcement of his bill, Toth said he expects a legal challenge.


Read More: CBS Houston

Jesse Jackson urged Obama to come to Chicago.

With all due respect to the philandering reverend, I have a couple of questions. What the heck is Obama going to do if he were to show up? Give a speech? Organize the community? Feed the multitude with a few loaves and fishes? 

Sir, your are praying to a false savior. SF

 

Before a march on the city's South Side, Jackson, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said America's third most populous city needed more help than Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police superintendent Garry McCarthy could offer.

"When the president shows up, it shows ultimate national seriousness," said Jackson, a Chicago resident. He also called for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to help patrol the streets of Chicago.

Gun violence in Chicago has been in the national spotlight over the past year, with 506 murders in 2012, an increase of 17 percent from the previous year. As of Jan. 31st 2013, there were 42 homicides and 157 shootings so far this year, according to Chicago police.

The issue received new urgency with the killing this week of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton, an honors student who performed with her high school band at Obama's inauguration on January 21.
Read More: Reuters

Joe Biden as confussed as ever! This time it's Guns

So let me see if I have this straight. We need a law that will probably not work and the best part is the fact that there will be little impact on the Second Amendment? Now that she has hit her head, maybe Hillary finally what it's like to be Joe Biden. SF

 
Vice President Joe Biden conceded on Thursday that gun regulations aren’t going to end every murder or eliminate the possibility of another mass shooting, but argued changes are needed to save lives.

“Nothing we’re going to do is going to fundamentally alter or eliminate the possibility of another mass shooting or guarantee that we will bring gun deaths down to a thousand a year from what we’re at now,” Biden told reporters after meeting with Senate Democrats in the Capitol. “But there are things that we can do demonstrably can do that have virtually zero impact on your Second Amendment right to own a weapon for both self defense and recreation that can save some lives.”

As a staffer tried unsuccessfully to cut Biden off repeatedly, the vice president argued to reporters that none of the proposals would infringe on constitutional rights.

“This is not a difficult equation, if I can prove that there is no Constitutional impact on your right to bear arms and the action I’m suggesting can in fact demonstrably show some people could be saved then this seems to be a no-brainer to me,” Biden said.

Biden said he made the case to fellow Democrats that now is the time to act on guns.
“The point I was making was, you know, the visual image of those 20 innocent children being riddled with bullets has absolutely not only traumatized the nation, but it has caused, it’s like the straw that broke the camel’s backs,” Biden said.

Biden said the change in opinion is so stark that there is now an expectation for Congress to act.

“I believe that the American people will not understand and I think everyone in there, I know everyone in that caucus agrees with me, will not understand if we don’t act,” Biden said.

Biden urged his fellow Democrats to pass all of the president’s gun control proposals, including the assault weapons ban, which faces the highest odds of all the proposals.

“My message was to lay out for our colleagues what our game plan was, what we thought needed to be done,” Biden said. “I made the case for not only assault weapons but for the entire set of recommendations the president laid out. Secondly, I asked that we sit down the interested parties and get some sense of how they wanted to proceed, the time frame they wanted to proceed.”

Read More: Politico

Interesting Theory: Obama selling the US to China

 

For some time, there have been unsubstantiated reports of the Obama administration engaging in clandestine negotiations with China toward satisfying America’s debt to that nation via exchanges of land and resources. Such an arrangement would be illegal and treasonous of course, but given its deportment to date, that would not likely deter this administration.

Also, in the face of having trillions of dollars in debt called by China, and the economic catastrophe that would ensue, it is entirely possible that Obama might request and be granted some manner of dispensation from Congress to legitimize this pact.

All of this falls well within the parameters of Barack Obama’s long-standing desire to bring America down, as it were, punishing the American people for centuries of enjoying the spoils of imperialism, colonialism, and oppression, as well as finally bringing this nation under the heel of communism.

It also explains maneuvers that have taken place over the past few years relative to this administration. Given the economic circumstances in which America found itself when Obama took office, many were horrified at his spending $5 trillion during his first term, and decisions that resulted in America’s debt increasing by approximately $10 trillion. Given his objectives, however, what better way to bring about increasing debt pressure than by more spending?

Thus – which came as an outrage, but no surprise to many – it is the Chinese government that is lobbying Obama to disarm the American public. 

They foresee a time when there will be widespread anger against them for their role in this obscene arrangement, and would rather not have to militarily engage armed Americans over land or resources that they will control, some of which is in America’s heartland. Some perceive Obama’s spirited pursuit of gun control after the Sandy Hook massacre as typical knee-jerk liberal opportunism, but it is far more than that. 

Despite Obama’s affinity for communism and show of solidarity with the world’s leftists, the Chinese government thinks him a fool, yet they are more than happy to expand their global influence at our expense. 

Read More: The Canada Free Press

Obama “I don’t believe people should be able to own guns.”

 

Mark Levin interviewed gun rights advocate John Lott. He recounted a conversation with then-Senator Obama who told Lott: “I don’t believe people should be able to own guns.”

If a Pilot Can Carry, Why Not a Teacher?

 

If a Pilot Can Carry, Why Not a Teacher?  Crazy, I know, but isn’t it crazy someone shot 20 defenseless 1st Graders and their teachers?  Isn’t it crazy to take the same guns criminals use out of the hands of private citizens?
After the Sandy Hook shooting, I heard a newscaster say, “Let’s try to make sense out of this senseless violence.”  You cannot make sense out of senseless violence.  So what does make sense?

Does it make sense for teachers to “carry” in schools across the country?  First reaction seems to be “hell no” not around my children!  After 9-11-2001, consider, your children may have been or will be on a flight to Grandma’s house and the pilot on your flight may be carrying.  That’s OK?  After 9-11, no one seems to have a problem with a pilot having a gun.  Maybe parents, who don’t want teachers to carry, think teachers can’t handle a gun as well as an airplane pilot?  If a kid wanting an easy target, knew teachers were carrying, wouldn’t they think twice?  Maybe teachers should carry?

There’s a lack of involvement and a lack of caring with regard to parent and teachers in schools today, these same parents that are for gun control.  They expect to drop the kids off at school and they become someone else’s problem.  My spouse worked in the classroom.  I know a number of teachers who work in the classroom and most of them are disenchanted with the parents and the system.  Some of them complain about the behavioral problems with the students.  So come to think of it, maybe teachers shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns?   If my spouse was still in the classroom and it was legal to carry, I would want her to carry.  The only other way I see around this senseless slaughter in schools, would be to ensure armed guards carrying equal to or superior weaponry to that which can be obtained on the streets, were guarding the school.  Otherwise the carnage will continue.

Read More: Idea Capitalist 

NY Gov: Gun Confiscation and Forced Buy-back an Option

 

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the state of New York is serious about gun confiscation. The Democrat and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development told an Albany radio station he plans to propose a package of draconian legislation during his State of the State address next month.

“I don’t think legitimate sportsmen are going to say, ‘I need an assault weapon to go hunting,’” Cuomo said, according to the New York Times. “There is a balance here — I understand the rights of gun owners; I understand the rights of hunters.”

Cuomo indicated the state will likely force some kind of permit process on owners of semi-automatic “assault weapons.” In addition to generating revenue and expanding the size and reach of government, the effort will allow the state to confiscate the weapons of citizens who do not comply.
“Confiscation could be an option. Mandatory sale to the state could be an option. Permitting could be an option — keep your gun but permit it,” the governor said.

Cuomo’s confiscation scheme follows remarks by liberal members of the establishment media who demand the government seize firearms from law-abiding citizens. Earlier this week, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz tweeted in favor of gun confiscation.
 
“We need to get guns and bullets and automatic weapons off the streets,” said CNN’s Don Lemon following the Sandy Hook massacre. “They should only be available to police officers and to hunt al-Qaeda and the Taliban and not hunt elementary school children.”

Anti-Second Amendment advocates have attacked gun ownership from a number of angles. On Thursday, anti-gun zealot and filmmaker Michael Moore said the desire to own firearms and support the Second Amendment is tied to racism.

“I think we’re a very frightened people,” Moore said. “I think we’ve been frightened ever since we landed on these shores. We were frightened of the native people… we were frightened of the slaves we brought over, as we should have been.”

Moore said gun ownership “cuts down to the heart of our race problem that we still haven’t resolved.”

Courtesy: Info Wars

Harry Reid just another hypocrite on guns.

Feinstein: Hypocrite in her own words.

'I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did'

April 27, 1995, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) spoke at the US Senate hearing on terrorism shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing. 

During the hearing, she referenced her concealed carry permit and how she carried a gun with her in the 1970's, citing the urge to arm yourself for protection- in her case from threats.

She states:

"I know the sense of helplessness that people feel. I know the urge to arm yourself because that's what I did. I was trained in firearms. I walked to the hospital when my husband was sick. I carried a concealed weapon and I made the determination if somebody was going to try and take me out, I was going to take them with me."

In 1994, Sen. Feinstein championed the federal assault weapons ban which expired in 2004 due to sunset provisions in the law.

Now, after recent shooting tragedies, Feinstein is making another push for tighter gun control. 

Thanks To: The Media Research Center

REMEMBER WHEN? Holder called for anti-gun info campaign: 'Brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way'

 

President Obama promised “meaningful action” to prevent gun violence, but he didn’t explain exactly what that meant. Although a push for some kind of gun control legislation seems likely, there’s also the possibility of an anti-gun “informational campaign” as described in 1995 by then-U.S. Attorney Eric Holder.

Holder, now Obama’s attorney general, proposed using various levers of media and pop culture to attach a social stigma to guns, just as smoking has been stigmatized in recent decades.

“One thing that I think is clear with young people and with adults as well, is that we just have to be repetitive about this,” Holder told the Women’s National Democratic Club while discussing how to curb gun violence in D.C. “It’s not enough to simply have a catchy ad on a Monday and then only do it every Monday.  We need to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”

To that end, he called for the “creative community” — “those ad agencies that create these snappy ads and make me buy things that I don’t really need” — to focus on convincing young people that “it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore.” He emphasized that newspapers and television need to devote prime space to these ads.

Holder also called for people who have influence over youngsters, entertainers,  athletes, to be involved in this program as well” — an idea that could plausibly be revived in the wake of the murder-suicide recently carried out by the Kansas City Chiefs’ Javon Belcher.  “But not only them – community leaders, Jesse Jackson, Mayor Barry,  people who have credibility with young people should be on the television, on the radio, as much as we possibly can and telling these youngsters that it’s wrong to carry a gun,” Holder added.

To be sure, Holder came up with this idea 17 years ago to address a problem of local gun violence; there’s no guarantee he’d revive it now. But the Obama administration has hired public relations firms to promote Obamacare and crafted advertisements to drive participation in the food stamp program, so it’s not implausible that the president’s team adopt similar tactics on the gun issue.

Courtesy: The Washington Examiner

Guns Do Not Kill People by The Token Libertarian Girl

Bloomberg: Obama Must Take 'Immediate Action' Against Guns

The Libs never let a crisis go to waste. They just can't wait to waive the flag of stupidity. SF

 

Today, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an ardent gun control advocate, moved to politicize the monstrous school shooting in Connecticut, issuing the following statement:

With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their A,B,Cs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of them were five-year olds. President Obama rightly sent his heartfelt condolences to the families in Newtown. But the country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem. Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever.

If Bloomberg’s deepest sympathies were with the family, he wouldn’t use this as an opportunity to get on his soapbox about gun control. We don’t know all the facts of the case yet, Connecticut has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country, and it seems that the shooter obtained his guns legally.

 By: Ben Shapiro Breitbart

 

A little of what Bloomberg doesn't know about Guns

 

In the wake of the mass shooting in Colorado, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called on police to join him in fighting for more gun control: "I don't understand why the police officers across this country don't stand up collectively and say we're going to go on strike." It is illegal for police to go on strike, and Mr. Bloomberg later backed off his statement. But the mayor is just as far off the mark in his assumption that police agree with him on gun control.

Take the annual survey by the National Association of Chiefs of Police of more than 20,000 chiefs of police and sheriffs. In 2010 it found that 95% believed "any law-abiding citizen [should] be able to purchase a firearm for sport or self-defense." Seventy-seven percent believed that concealed-handgun permits issued in one state should be honored by other states "in the way that drivers' licenses are recognized through the country"—and that making citizens' permits portable would "facilitate the violent crime-fighting potential of the professional law enforcement community."

National surveys of street officers are rare, but they show officers to be overwhelmingly in favor of law-abiding civilians owning and carrying guns. A 2007 national survey of sworn police officers by Police Magazine found that 88% disagreed that "tighter restrictions on handgun ownership would increase or enhance public safety." In the same survey, 67% opposed tighter gun control because the "law would only be obeyed by law-abiding citizens."
Regional or local surveys show similar patterns. For example, a 1997 survey conducted by the San Diego Police Officers Association found that 82% of its officers opposed an "assault weapons" ban, 82% opposed a limitation on magazine capacity, and 85% supported letting law-abiding private citizens carry concealed handguns.

These are not views consistent with Mayor Bloomberg's assertion: "The bottom line is if we had fewer guns, we would have a lot fewer murders." Police generally understand that too often the laws disarm law-abiding citizens, not criminals, and thus make it easier for criminals to commit crime. Police are extremely important for reducing crime, but they know that virtually always they arrive at the crime scene after the crime has been committed. When victims face a criminal by themselves, guns are critical for self-defense.

Read More: John Lott for The Wall Street Journal

Interview: John Lott Jr

An interview with
John R. Lott, Jr.
author of More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws

Question: What does the title mean: More Guns, Less Crime?
John R. Lott, Jr.: States with the largest increases in gun ownership also have the largest drops in violent crimes. Thirty-one states now have such laws—called "shall-issue" laws. These laws allow adults the right to carry concealed handguns if they do not have a criminal record or a history of significant mental illness.
Question: It just seems to defy common sense that crimes likely to involve guns would be reduced by allowing more people to carry guns. How do you explain the results?
Lott: Criminals are deterred by higher penalties. Just as higher arrest and conviction rates deter crime, so does the risk that someone committing a crime will confront someone able to defend him or herself. There is a strong negative relationship between the number of law-abiding citizens with permits and the crime rate—as more people obtain permits there is a greater decline in violent crime rates. For each additional year that a concealed handgun law is in effect the murder rate declines by 3 percent, rape by 2 percent, and robberies by over 2 percent.
Concealed handgun laws reduce violent crime for two reasons. First, they reduce the number of attempted crimes because criminals are uncertain which potential victims can defend themselves. Second, victims who have guns are in a much better position to defend themselves.
Question: What is the basis for these numbers?
Lott: The analysis is based on data for all 3,054 counties in the United States during 18 years from 1977 to 1994.
Question: Your argument about criminals and deterrence doesn't tell the whole story. Don't statistics show that most people are killed by someone they know?
Lott: You are referring to the often-cited statistic that 58 percent of murder victims are killed by either relatives or acquaintances. However, what most people don't understand is that this "acquaintance murder" number also includes gang members killing other gang members, drug buyers killing drug pushers, cabdrivers killed by customers they picked up for the first time, prostitutes and their clients, and so on. "Acquaintance" covers a wide range of relationships. The vast majority of murders are not committed by previously law-abiding citizens. Ninety percent of adult murderers have had criminal records as adults. 

Read the Full Interview: Univ. of Chicago Press

Can House Stop U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Gun Grab Threatening 2nd Amendment?

 

Second Amendment: A House resolution, as futile as it may be,  represents growing opposition to another administration bow to the U.N.  encroachment on U.S. sovereignty at the expense of its laws and even our  Constitution.

Treaties are ratified by a two-thirds majority of the Senate, and the final  version of the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) may likely be signed by this  president and ratified by this Senate, especially if presented as a "sensible  restriction" on international arms trafficking with no impact on our Second  Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

But some House members are not going to let it happen without a justified  protest.

Before the House left for the Thanksgiving break, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa.,  unveiled a resolution to make the treaty not binding and let no federal funds  implement it unless the Senate consents and Congress passes implementing  legislation.

The resolution is co-sponsored by 76 other House members, including some  Democrats.

"There is considerable cause for alarm regarding the U.N.'s renewed efforts  to forge an Arms Trade Treaty that could trample the constitutional rights of  Americans and seriously compromise our national security and the security of our  allies, whom we will be less able to arm and less quick to defend due to the  restrictions placed on us by the ATT," Kelly said.

One of their key objections is with the requirement in the July draft of the  treaty — which will be the starting point for final negotiations — for each  member state to keep records on "end users," or gun purchasers, for a minimum of  10 years.

Hence, Americans who purchase an imported firearm may have to be registered  in the country of origin. Ammunition could also be tracked and logged the same  way.

We have argued, as do Kelly and his colleagues, that even if it applied only  to transfers of small arms between nations, would that mean restrictions on our  ability to aid allies such as Israel and Taiwan?

Would we be forbidden from aiding resistance movements around the world  rising up against the very dictators who support this treaty?

Read More: Investors Business Daily

Obama Expands ATF's Right to Seize Guns

 

by AWR Hawkins

Obama has expanded civil-forfeiture rules making it permissible for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to seize weapons from citizens without the hassle of due process.

This effectively gives Attorney General Eric Holder, of Fast and Furious fame, extended power over guns and gun-related property.
The rules were broadened under the guise of giving the ATF authority "to seize and administratively forfeit property involved in controlled substance abuses." And if that doesn't strike you as extreme on first glance, consider the fact that this expansion of civil-forfeiture allows the ATF to fore-go almost all "due process" in making their seizures -- in effect, placing the burden of proof on the citizen instead of federal agents.
Last year, even without these expanded powers, ATF confiscated more than 11,000 guns, and nearly four hundred of them were taken from innocent citizens. With the expanded powers and the ease of bypassing due process now in place, the number of guns confiscated could rise exponentially.
We cannot view this expansion of civil-forfeiture without remembering Obama's May 2011 pledge to pursue gun control "under the radar." For what could be more "under the radar" that quietly expanding federal  power to bypass due process and confiscate private citizens' guns?

Breitbart

Obama Administration Endorses New U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Negotiations

Just as NRA warned would happen, following the election, the Obama administration has moved forward with its plans to support a United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. On Wednesday November 7, the U.S. Mission to the U.N. made clear its support for renewed ATT negotiations, casting a vote in favor of resolution A/C.1/67/L.11. The resolution calls for a "Final United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty" to be held in New York City from March 18-28.
Undeterred by the failure of July's U.N. Conference on the ATT, in recent months the global civilian disarmament groups and their patron governments have been working nonstop to revive the treaty. Most visible were the attempts made by participants at the Second Review Conference of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons. At the conference, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon used his time to state, "an arms trade treaty is long overdue… I urge you to redouble efforts to agree on a robust 'ATT' as soon as possible."
The resolution notes that at the March conference, the last draft from the July conference will be the starting point for new talks. Among the draft's most onerous requirements are those intending to burden and keep records on "end users," or gun owners. The draft states that "Each State Party shall maintain national records… Such records may contain… end users" and that "Records shall be kept for a minimum of ten years." If this obligation were to be enacted and followed, it could result in registration for any American that purchases an imported firearm.

Read More: NRA ILA