Bill To Reauthorize Assault Weapons Ban — Submitted By Five Republicans
With the incoming left-wing administration it was only a matter of time until the repugnant ‘Assault Weapons Ban’ reared its head again. What I didn’t expect was for republicans to be responsible for it. However, I guess it’s just par for the course given the state of the GOP.
The Assault Weapons Ban Reauthorization Act of 2008 is being sponsored by five, I repeat five republicans.
To borrow a line from John McCain, I think we need to make them famous…
Sponsor:
Rep. Mark Kirk [R-IL]
Cosponsors [as of 2008-11-07]
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen [R-FL]
Rep. Michael Ferguson [R-NJ]
Rep. Christopher Shays [R-CT]
Rep. Michael Castle [R-DE]
This is an outrage on the 2nd amendment and must be opposed vigorously. Visit The Arsenal and take the assault weapons ban quiz.
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As a result of this news, I had to order this as a Christmas present to myself.
-Chris Jones
Victory: Heller Gets His Gun Permit
The man whose lawsuit overturned Washington’s handgun ban has successfully registered his handgun, ending a more than 30-year wait to keep the weapon in his home. Dick Heller walked triumphantly out of a D.C. police station today with his permit in hand.
It’s a shame that Heller had to go all the way to the Supreme Court merely to excercise his right as an American, but thank God he did. Thanks to Dick Heller the SCOTUS has said once and for all that Americans have the consitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms.
(Hat tip to Michelle)
Texas School District Will Allow Teachers To Carry Guns
It looks like a Texas school district will be first in the nation to finally take a common sense approach to school shootings. Rather than allow students to be lambs waiting to be slaughtered by a crazed gunman, teachers in one tiny Texas town will be able to intervene.
A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.
Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.
In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.
Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district’s lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.
“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ’sic ‘em’ to a dog,” Thweatt said in Friday’s online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
It’s at times likes this that I’m most proud of being a Texan. Every law abiding citizen should have the right to defend his or herself in America. So called “gun free zones” are absurd, because then the only person with a gun is the crazed lunatic.
Had a teacher had a gun at Virginia Tech, it’s very unlikely that lunatic would have been able to murder 31 people before killing himself. The idea is to at the very least stop a school shooting from turning into a double-digit blood bath.
AP: Half of U.S. Gun Deaths Are Suicides
The AP is reporting the newest figures for gun related deaths in America. Surprisingly, 55% of the 33,000 gun related deaths in 2005 were suicides. 2005 is the latest year for which such statistics are currently available.
Supreme Court: Ban On Handguns “Incompatible” With Second Amendment
The Supreme Court struck down Washington D.C.’s ban on handguns as unconstitutional. Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion saying in part that an outright ban on handguns is incompatible with the second amendement.
Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by “the historical narrative” both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.
The Constitution does not permit “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home,” Scalia said. The court also struck down Washington’s requirement that firearms be equipped with trigger locks or kept disassembled, but left intact the licensing of guns.
Scalia noted that the handgun is Americans’ preferred weapon of self-defense in part because “it can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police.”
This was absolutely the right decision. There are few rights as fundamental to being an American as our right to keep and bear arms.
Unless you are a felon or mentally disabled in some way, the State can no longer prevent the ownership of handguns. Washington D.C. has had the strictest gun laws in the country with an outright ban on handgun ownership. Ironically, Washington D.C. is also home to the worst gun violence in America.
No state official yet has explained how the only place in America with an outright handgun ban has some of the worst handgun violence. The idea that no one will have a gun because it’s against the law is comical.
Criminals will continue to own firearms with or without gun laws, the only question is whether or not law abiding citizens will be able to protect themselves from gun toting criminals.
The Supreme Court has rightly concluded that Americans have a right under the Constitution to do just that.
-Chris Jones
Barack Obama’s Gun Grabbing Agenda
Barack Obama’s rhetoric on the campaign trial about supporting gun rights doesn’t mesh with his history of supporting even the most radical gun control policies.
Student Group Fights To Carry Guns on Campus
Mike Guzman and thousands of other students say the best way to prevent campus bloodshed is more guns.
Guzman, an economics major at Texas State University-San Marcos, is among 8,000 students nationwide who have joined the nonpartisan Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, arguing that students and faculty already licensed to carry concealed weapons should be allowed to pack heat along with their textbooks.
“It’s the basic right of self defense,” said Guzman, a 23-year-old former Marine. “Here on campus, we don’t have that right, that right of self defense.”
I completely agree with the student group. Any student who has a concealed weapons permit should be able to carry his gun on campus as well. The VA-Tech massacre would not have happened if a few of the students had guns. He would have been able to kill one or two students, but not 33.
When a student like the one at VA-Tech decides to start shooting people, the rest of the students are completely defenseless. It would save lives if students were able to fight back, and it may even act as a deterrent to future gunmen.
Crazed students don’t think twice about planning a massacre at a school, because they know that no one will be able to defend themselves. They might reconsider if they knew that others will be armed as well.
These days, I would carry a concealed gun on campus regardless of what the law says. The only thing gun control laws do is prevent good people from protecting themselves. Criminals are always gonna have guns, so it’s best that both sides are armed.
-Chris Jones
Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to DC Gun Ban
From CNS News:
The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Tuesday that it will decide whether the ban on owning guns in the District of Columbia is constitutional, a pivotal case that could determine if the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right to own firearms.
At issue is a 31-year-old Washington, D.C., law banning handguns and requiring that all shotguns and rifles be kept unloaded and either trigger-locked or disassembled at all times.
There is no exception for self-defense. “The Bill of Rights does not end at the District of Columbia’s borders, and it includes the right to keep and bear arms, said Alan Gura, lead counsel for the plaintiffs in Heller v. District of Columbia.
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