Media Laments No Action on Gun Control 10 Years After Columbine

On the 10th Anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting, media outlet after media outlet, inside and outside of the U.S., ran stories to mark the event.  The BBC ran this story.  The Australian Broadcasting Company posted this story on its web site including this audio report from the World Today.  Both stories played into the theme started in February when Attorney General Eric Holder first stuck his foot in his mouth regarding reinstating the semi-automatic rifle ban.  Since that time, the media has led a steady drumbeat for more gun control, using the various shootings around the country as their back drop.

FactCheck.org Corrects President on Number of U.S. Guns In Mexico

The Obama Administration and anti-rights crowd in congress and the media seem to believe that by simply repeating a talking point enough will make it so – thus the constant repetition of the “90% of guns confiscated in Mexico are purchased in the U.S.”

Well, FactCheck.org, which did a horrendous job during the presidential campaign of picking out the facts about candidate Obama’s record on Second Amendment issues, has done their own check on the U.S. guns in Mexico debate. FactCheck.org also picked apart Fox News‘ number of 17%. Here is what FactCheck came up with:

Given the lack of hard data from Mexico we can’t calculate a precise figure for what portion of crime guns have been traced to the U.S. Based on the best evidence we can find so far, we conclude that the true percentage is probably less than half of the 90 percent claimed by the president and others in his administration, who base their claim on a badly biased sample of all guns seized in Mexico. But we also conclude that the number is probably at least double what Fox News has reported, based on their mistaken interpretation of ATF testimony.

Unfortunately, FactCheck.org did their own editorializing with this close:

Whether the number is 90 percent , or 36 percent, or something else, there’s no dispute that thousands of guns are being illegally transported into Mexico by way of the United States each year.

Maybe the President should work on protecting our borders.  That way we could stop a whole lot of illegal activity that is going on in both this country and south of the Border.

DHS Report Targets Conservatives

Yes, you read that right. On tax day, a day where thousands of Americans attended “Tea Parties” around the counrty to protest the out of control spending by Congress and the President, the media reported that a Department of Homeland Security report titled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment, included a footnote targeting Americans that tend to support certain conservative causes, as being likely to join “extremist” groups. The footnote went on to say while there is no specific information that domestic “right-wing terrorists” are planning acts of violence, such acts could come from unnamed “rightwing extremists” concerned about illegal immigration, abortion, increasing federal power and restrictions on firearms. The footnote also singled out returning war veterans as susceptible to recruitment of “rightwing extremists.”

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre appeared on Glenn Beck’s Fox News program the afternoon that the report was issued to discuss it.

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NY Times Calls on President to Use Power of Office for Gun Control

An editorial in yesterday’s NY Times lamented that the shootings of a decade ago at Columbine, two years ago at VA Tech, and last week in Binghamton haven’t resulted in tougher gun control.  NRA was once again trotter out as the reason, sighting the organization’s ”intimidation” tactics against congressmen and the Times urged the President to ”place the immense persuasive powers of his office behind an across-the-board, badly overdue push for sensible gun control”.  Never mind the fact that a recent Gallup poll showed that  support for gun control is at an all time low.

Call Your Legislators Today to Override Kaine Vetoes

Today is your last day to contact your legislators and urge them to override Governor Kaine’s vetos of five important gun bills.  Get more information here.

Kaine Vetoes Gun Bills

Not only did Governor Tim Kaine veto SB1035 that would have allowed you and me to carry concealed in Applebees, he vetoed SB877 – a bill allowing retired law enforcement to carry concealed in restaurants like Applebees that happen to serve alcohol along with food.

This is after having signed a bill last year that allows Commonwealth Attorneys to carry concealed in restaurants. Mind you SB1053 prohibited consuming alcohol while carrying. Last year, Kaine allowed Commonwealth Attorneys to drink while carrying concealed in restaurants.

I guess this means the only people Tim Kaine trusts are lawyers while thumbing his nose at law enforcement, you, and me.

In addition to vetoing the restaurant bills, Kaine also vetoed the following:

HB1851, which would have exempted active duty service members in Virginia from the state’s limit of purchasing one handgun a month.

SB1528, which would have allowed training required for a concealed weapons permit to be completed online.

HB2528, which would placed some much needed sunshine on compensated gun confiscation schemes (gun buybacks).

More information to follow.

Global Gun Control

NRA’s Wayne LaPierre has been warning us of this for several years. 

 
Many gun owners likely considered it one more ploy to raise money.  But the Obama Administration has all but confirmed that LaPierre was right with a new focus on ending a supposedly deadly flow of “assault weapons” to Mexico.

The Washington Times is right- it hasn’t worked with drugs and gangs flowing out of Mexico and I doubt the gang bangers they migrate to do their bidding here will find this new focus on guns a deterance to what they do.

DC Voting Rights Act on Life Support?

It appears that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer may be putting the DC Voting Rights Act on the back burner to simmer – signaling that DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton’s attempt to extort pro-rights supporters to abandon basic constitutional rights for DC residents through a threat of a bad “Civil Rights” rating for not voting for “clean” bill free of a gun rights amendment, has failed. Hoyer has not signaled that he is completely giving up – saying he expects a bill to pass and be signed by the president by the end of the year – he apparently is just adjusting his timetable to later rather than sooner.

In her letter to the “Blue Dogs” Norton claims that racism is to blame for members of her own party historically opposing “Home Rule” for residents of DC. Scream racism when all else fails.

I’m not going to get in to what people I did not know were thinking 30, 50 or 150 years ago.  I think we can all agree we have some things in our nation’s history that most people today are not proud of – things that were products of the times in which they occurred.  What I do know is Norton and those pushing for a D.C .member in the House conveniently forget that Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution explicitly states:

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States…(emphasis added)

D.C. is a frigging federal district – a city – NOT A STATE!!! So is it asking too much that if we are going to violate the Constitution to give D.C. representation in the House, that we should at least recognize the right of self defense that is enshrined in the Bill of Rights?

DC Gun Rights Amendment

NPR ran this story yesterday on the DC Voting Rights Act/DC Gun Rights Amendment.  The theme of the story was how the big bad NRA injected itself into how the House does its business by making a vote on voting rights for DC without the pro-rights amendment a tabulated vote against the rights of gun owners.

 They found some Indiana representative who said he has always been an NRA supporter to say “But the NRA is wrong on this one.”  In fact, the NPR reporter actually begins the story by asking ”What does all this have to do with guns?  Well nothing.”  

 They miss the whole point – that DC has to recognize the rights guaranteed by the Constitution – they can’t pick and choose what they want.  Norton has said she will not entertain a vote on the bill if it includes the pro-rights amendment

The story reports that for her part, DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton plans to use a similar tactic by getting “civil rights” organizations to count the vote negatively against any member that votes for what Norton calls a poison pill.  Norton is qouted as saying “we have to get this bill without the amendment.”

Yeah, when was the last time that so-called civil rights interest groups carried the clout of the NRA in an election.  Further, the right to self defense is a basic civil right so a vote for the DC Gun Rights Amendment should be a positve civil rights vote.

CNN and Guns

Who would have dreamed given the story CNN did on the Clinton Gun Ban in 2004 that you would see a story like this from CNN now.  Of course the new story was done on the Lou Dobbs Tonight program and Dobbs has been good on our issue.

Hat tip to Sebastian.