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Zimmerman Trial’s Real Goal: Destroy the Second Amendment

By Jonathon Moseley. Destroying the Second Amendment and the people’s right of self-defense was the real goal of the George Zimmerman prosecution. Liberals hoped to scare gun owners, regardless of the eventual verdict. Traumatizing and intimidating people from using a firearm to defend themselves were what this case was really about.

This prosecution was an attempt to overturn Florida’s “stand your ground law.” Florida dramatically changed the law effective October 1, 2005 by amending Florida Statute 776.013(3). Previously, one had to run away if possible when threatened.

But many believed that this put the burden of proof on the victim of aggression. Victims of crime would have to prove that they could not have escaped safely and they had no other choice but to use deadly force. Florida’s legislature was persuaded that the “duty to retreat” often put the innocent party in an impossible position to prove their innocence. While deadly force should never be used unless necessary, the victims of crime sometimes faced an unwinnable challenge.

But liberals were outraged. Gun control activists hysterically called it “Florida’s Shoot First Law.” Opponents passed out fliers at Miami International Airport scaring tourists, hoping to blackmail Florida’s powerful tourism industry and pressure the Florida legislature into a repeal.

Florida’s “stand your ground law” had to be reversed or nullified. If owning a gun is useful for self-defense, then banning guns becomes more difficult. So self-defense had to be eliminated so that owning a gun would have no purpose. How else could liberals create a population dependent upon government? Read more from this story HERE.

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Ted Nugent says lesson in Trayvon Martin incident: ‘Teach your children not to attack people’

By Jeff Poor. On Dennis Miller’s radio show on Monday, rock and reality show star Ted Nugent sounded off on the outcome of the trial of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted of charges in the murder of Trayvon Martin…

“I’m 65 years old this year, Dennis, and I’ve never seen such ugly race relations since the white and black water fountains in Detroit went away,” Nugent said. “We were on an even keel. We were on the upgrade. I think racism for all practical purposes was gone five, six years ago and it’s back with a vengeance and it breaks my heart. But here’s the ultimate lesson, if everyone would take a deep breath — I hear a lot of squawking that parents go, ‘Well, that could have been my kid, that could have been my dead child.’ Well, here’s a little update for you: Teach your children not to attack people, thank you very much.” Read more from this story HERE.

Army Vet Discovers Feds Now Digging Up Decades Old Minor Convictions to Prevent Gun Ownership

A local Army veteran is fighting for permission to own a gun after a misdemeanor pot conviction from 1971 stopped him from buying .22 caliber rifle.

Ron Kelly, who retired from the Army in 1993, after a career of firing tanks, machine guns and an array of other weapons [shooting an estimated 100,000 rounds through the course of his career], was recently turned away at the Wal-Mart in Tomball after a computerized background check turned up the arrest.

Today’s Houston Chronicle has a front page story on Ron Kellly and his fight to own a gun.

Kelly said he’d forgotten all about the incident, in which he was arrested over a baggie of pot while in high school, and given one year of probation.

He was a bit embarrassed. Now he’s outraged…

According to the FBI, which runs the background checks known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the law states that a person can be prevented from owing a gun if they are convicted of a misdemeanor in which they could spend more than two years behind bars.

Read more from this story HERE.

Illinois Becomes Last State in Nation to Allow Concealed-Carry

Photo Credit: APIllinois on Tuesday became the last state in the nation to allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons, as lawmakers overcame a last-minute attempt by Gov. Pat Quinn to change the legislation.

Lawmakers were running up against a federal court’s deadline to allow concealed-carry in their state. After Quinn, a Democrat, unilaterally tried to add more restrictions into the legislation, lawmakers decided it was better to override the governor than risk the courts allowing virtually unregulated concealed weapons in Chicago, which has endured severe gun violence in recent months.

The Senate voted 41-17 in favor of the override Tuesday afternoon after the House voted 77-31, margins that met the three-fifths threshold needed to set aside what is known as an amendatory veto. Quinn had used his veto authority to suggest changes such as prohibiting guns in restaurants that serve alcohol and limiting citizens to one firearm at a time.

Quinn had predicted a “showdown in Springfield” after a week of Chicago appearances to drum up support for the changes he made in the amendatory veto. The Chicago Democrat faces a tough re-election fight next year and has already drawn a primary challenge from former White House chief of state Bill Daley, who has criticized the governor’s handling of the debate over guns and other issues.

Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Democrat from southern Illinois, predicted a history-making day in which lawmakers would dismiss Quinn’s changes as politically motivated.

Read more from this story HERE.

With Bullets Scarce, More Shooters Make Their Own

Photo Credit: Justin SullivanGun stores around the country have had difficulty keeping up with demand for ammunition in recent months. Fears of government tightening of gun and ammunition controls have meant that retailers, from Wal-Mart to mom-and-pop gun shops, haven’t been able to keep bullets on the shelves.

Cliff Poser’s gun shop, Cliff’s Guns, Safes and Reloading in Boise, Idaho, is one of them. Business has been so crazy lately that he has to keep a special stash of ammunition, just so customers who buy guns from him can also buy bullets.

Poser says the current ammunition shortage is the worst that he’s seen. “I’ve been doing the business for 33 years, and, I mean, as big as we’ve gotten, we still can’t take care of all the people that are coming in.”

Shopper Robert Nicholson says buying cheap ammunition for target practice on the Internet used to be easy. “You know, buy a thousand-round steel case, .223 [caliber] for 150 bucks,” he says. “Now, you can’t touch it for less than $400.”

So Nicholson, like thousands of other shooters, is going a different route. He’s making more of the bullets he shoots. Shop owner Poser says the scarcity of ready-made bullets has frustrated shooters to the point they’re spending between $200 and $1,000 to get into the hobby known as “reloading.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Missouri Governor Vetoes Bill that Nullified Federal Gun Laws

Photo Credit: Fox NewsGov. Jay Nixon vetoed legislation Friday that would have made it a Missouri crime for federal agents to attempt to enforce federal gun laws in the state and could have landed journalists in jail for publishing the names of gun owners.

The Democratic governor said the bill passed by the Republican-led Legislature violated the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, which generally gives preference to federal laws over conflicting state ones. He said it also infringed in the First Amendment rights of free speech and press.

Some supporters of the legislation had proclaimed it one of the most gun-friendly bills ever passed by a state legislature. Nixon, however, said it could have had extreme consequences.

Read more from this story HERE.

Governor of Last State Without Concealed Carry Vetoes Bill

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Illinois Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn triggered a backlash from his own party as well as the NRA on Tuesday after he unilaterally changed legislation meant to allow the carrying of concealed weapons.

In a challenge to gun-rights supporters, Quinn moved to cap the number of firearms and rounds that can be carried by Illinois residents and ban guns from any place that serves alcohol.

The move was a nod to the governor’s gun-control base as the state faces a court-ordered July 9 deadline to allow concealed-carry.

But, by using what is known as his “amendatory veto power,” Quinn could imperil the carefully crafted deal, which now heads back to the legislature.

Some lawmakers have already vowed to reject Quinn’s new provisions.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘Absolutely Incredible’: Canadians Outraged After Flooding Prompts Involuntary Firearm Confiscation (+video)

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Canadians in the High River area of Alberta – many already “irate” at not being able to return to their homes after massive flooding last week – were shocked to learn late Thursday that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have seized a “large quantity of firearms” from their evacuated houses.

RCMP Sergeant Patricia Neely said that “Firearms that were unsafely stored in plain sight were seized for safekeeping,” but Sgt. Brian Topham told the National Post that officers forced their way into many of the homes because of “urgent need.”

“We just want to make sure that all of those things are in a spot that we control, simply because of what they are,” Sgt. Topham said. “People have a significant amount of money invested in firearms … so we put them in a place that we control and that they’re safe.”

They will be returned to residents with proof of ownership after the evacuation order — which is now into its eighth day — is lifted, authorities say.

Business owner Brenda Lackey told the Globe and Mail: “Now what they’re doing is looking for firearms and ammunition. How do they have the right to do that? What does that have to do with the disaster? …This is martial law. What has happened to our country?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama’s Gun Control Agenda Now Attempts to Link Public Health Issues to Gun Ownership

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In the near future, Americans who own or want guns likely will be subject to rafts of new questions from social scientists, medical researchers and law enforcement officials intent to discover just what guns they own, why they own them and what they intend to use them for — not to mention where and how they keep them.

They will also likely have more researchers poring over such issues as whether childhood education programs against gun violence actually work; whether there actually is any relationship between violence in the media and in real life; and whether the safety plans that were drawn up by schools, colleges and communities in the wake of highly publicized mass shootings actually are effective.

Those and many other gun-related questions are the thrust of a new social science research agenda that the Obama administration hopes will keep the push for gun control alive for years to come.

The research agenda is intended to produce mammoth amounts of raw data on American gun owners, users and their circumstances, meaning that violence resulting from firearms use will be studied for “its causes, approaches to interventions that could prevent it, and strategies to minimize its health burden”…

The agenda, which aims to sidestep Second Amendment political and constitutional issues of gun ownership through its public health focus, was released earlier this month in a 124-page report titled, “Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearms Related Violence.” It was sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) with financial support from private foundations.

Read more from this story HERE.

Federal Nullification Efforts Mounting in States

Photo Credit: Western Journalism

Photo Credit: Western Journalism

Imagine the scenario: A federal agent attempts to arrest someone for illegally selling a machine gun. Instead, the federal agent is arrested – charged in a state court with the crime of enforcing federal gun laws.

Farfetched? Not as much as you might think.

The scenario would become conceivable if legislation passed by Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature is signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.

The Missouri legislation is perhaps the most extreme example of a states’ rights movement that has been spreading across the nation. States are increasingly adopting laws that purport to nullify federal laws – setting up intentional legal conflicts, directing local police not to enforce federal laws and, in rare cases, even threatening criminal charges for federal agents who dare to do their jobs.

An Associated Press analysis found that about four-fifths of the states now have enacted local laws that directly reject or ignore federal laws on marijuana use, gun control, health insurance requirements and identification standards for driver’s licenses.

Read more from this story HERE.

Biden: Obama Won’t Give Up on Gun Control

Photo Credit: Charles Dharapak

Photo Credit: Charles Dharapak

Vice President Joseph R. Biden said Tuesday the fight for congressional action on gun legislation is far from over while outlining unilateral steps the Obama administration has taken to combat gun violence in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings in December.

The address was simultaneously a summary of what President Obama has been able to do through executive actions since the shootings in Newtown, Conn., and a rallying cry to remind voters and lawmakers that neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Obama is going to let the issue fade from public memory.

“The most important message to take from here today is the president and I are a team,” Mr. Biden said. “We have not given up. Our friends in the House and Senate, they have not given up.”

Mr. Biden said because of a “perverted” rule requiring 60 votes to herd off potential filibusters in the Senate, the 41 Republicans and four Democrats who opposed the administration’s gun control bill were able to block it even though it had the support of 51 Democrats and four Republicans.

“I know for a fact some of them wonder about, now, whether that was a prudent vote,” said Mr. Biden, who described the shooting deaths of 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School as “the straw that broke the camel’s back” in the gun debate.

Read more from this story HERE.