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Activist Cancels Plans for Armed March on Washington

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Photo Credit: Washington Times

An activist has canceled a planned armed march into the District on July Fourth that drew a confrontational response from the city’s police chief.

“Please don’t come to Washington, D.C.,” Adam Kokesh said during an interview on the online “Pete Santilli Show,” saying he could not be certain he would be present for an event in the District and instead urging supporters to march in the 50 state capitals in favor of dissolving the federal government.

News of the cancellation was first reported by the website Media Matters.

The idea of the armed march, which would start at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and proceed across the bridge into the District — where it is illegal to carry guns on the street — was proposed earlier this month and immediately met resistance from city officials.

“If you’re coming here to break the law, then we’re going to take action,” Chief Cathy L. Lanier said in an interview on News Channel 8. “There is a pretty good chance we’ll meet them on the D.C. side of the bridge.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Comey, Anti-Gun Chicago-Trained Enforcer, Tapped to Run FBI

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As President Barack Obama doubles down on his gun control agenda, he is expected to nominate a former Bush administration official who pioneered a federal gun control program.

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey, a University of Chicago Law School alumnus, is credited with the creation of Richmond, Virginia’s Project Exile — a “highly regarded gun control program,” according to a 2001 Los Angeles Times piece.

The program — which even received the support of both the NRA and the Brady Campaign — was a partnership among federal, state and local law enforcement that stiffened penalties for gun-related offenses.

Offenders faced a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison if convicted.

The program was established in Richmond in 1997 when Comey headed the Richmond division of the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District Office of Virginia as as Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Read more from this story HERE.

One Inch Toy Gun ‘Traumatizes’ Students, Results in Kindergartner’s Discipline (+video)

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Photo Credit: WGGBA plastic Lego sized gun caused a disturbance on a Old Mill Pond Elementary School bus Friday morning.

Mieke Crane is the mother of the six-year-old kindergarten student who brought the gun on the bus.

“I think they over-reacted totally. I totally do,” said Crane.

Another student on the bus saw the toy and yelled to the driver.

“She said he caused quite a disturbance on the bus and that the children were traumatized,” said Crane.

Read more from this story HERE.

Lawmakers Vote to End Last Concealed Weapons Ban in the Nation

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Photo Credit: APGun owners could carry concealed weapons in Illinois, the last state in the nation to prohibit it, under legislation that swept through the House Friday with the backing of the powerful Democratic speaker from Chicago, a city torn by violence despite what critics claim are the nation’s toughest firearms restrictions.

The historic 85-30 vote would allow the carrying of concealed guns, a legislative task compelled by a federal appeals court ruling and precipitated by House Speaker Michael Madigan’s turnabout.

But its obliteration of all local gun laws, including Chicago’s ban on assault-style weapons, drew immediate resistance from Gov. Pat Quinn, a Chicago Democrat like Madigan. Quinn said the proposal endangers the public by pre-empting local gun laws, which have nothing to do with concealed carry, the only subject covered by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decree.

“We need strong gun-safety laws that protect the people of our state. Instead, this measure puts public safety at risk,” Quinn said in a prepared statement.

Senate President John Cullerton, another Democrat from Chicago, called the pre-emption provision “offensive.” Cullerton said he would meet privately with his majority caucus Monday to decide how to proceed. A Senate concealed-carry plan, which overrules local control only by requiring a statewide carry program, is on the Senate floor awaiting a vote.

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‘We’re Not Going to Tolerate It’: Colo. Sheriffs Unite to Block ‘Unenforceable’ Gun Control Legislation

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Photo Credit: APIn the wake of the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado passed some of the strictest gun control measures in the country.

But in recent months, an overwhelming 55 of the state’s 62 county sheriffs have joined a lawsuit aiming to block the measures.

“These bills do absolutely nothing to make Colorado a safer place to live, to work, to play or to raise a family,” Weld County Sheriff John Cooke explained at a recent press conference. “Instead these misguided, unconstitutional bills will have the opposite effect because they greatly restrict the right of decent, law-abiding citizens to defend themselves, their families and their homes.”

Sheriff Terry Maketa of El Paso County is one of the opposing sheriffs, and he explained on TheBlaze TV Wednesday how the public was “duped” into supporting overly vague legislation banning high-capacity magazines and requiring background checks.

Maketa says they believe the laws are unenforceable, but also violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.

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Joe Scarborough, Piers Morgan: Obama Scandals Prove Gun Advocates aren’t Crazy (+videos)

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Photo Credit: breitbartHow big of a wake-up call are the Obama scandals, especially the ones surrounding the seizing of phone records from the Associated Press and the IRS’s targeting of conservatives? So big that two of the media’s most shameful and shameless gun control advocates — Joe Scarborough and Piers Morgan — have finally conceded that arguments made by pro-Second Amendment activists against the expanding of background checks might not be so ridiculous.

In a roundtable discussion on Friday’s “Morning Joe,” Scarborough said that because of the IRS scandal, “My argument is less persuasive today because of these scandals.” He added: “People say, ‘Hey, if they do this with the IRS, asking people what books you read, then how can I trust them with information about my Second Amendment rights?’”

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Colorado Sheriffs Sue the State Over New Gun Control Laws

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Photo Credit: George FreyA consortium of plaintiffs led by 54 of Colorado’s 62 elected county sheriffs filed a lawsuit in federal court against the state Friday in an effort to overturn two new gun control bills that are set to go into effect on July 1.

The plaintiffs have in their sights one law that effectively bans all firearm magazines, and one that requires a background check for every gun transfer when the gun will be in the possession of someone other than the owner for more than 72 hours.

“On one hand, I’m proud to be part of this historic case,” said Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, who spoke on behalf of 18 sheriffs who attended a press conference announcing the suit.

“But on the other hand, it saddens me that we have to be here at all,” he added. “It should never have gotten to this point in the first place.”

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said the laws are not only unconstitutional, but also confusing and unenforceable.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gun Ranges Now Forced to Ration Due to Extreme Ammo Shortages

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Photo Credit: Daily CallerGun ranges are being forced to implement rationing policies in order to keep enough ammunition to meet some customer demand due to a prolonged ammunition shortage the likes of which many industry employees say they have never seen.

Blue Ridge Arsenal Inc. in Chantilly, Va. is one such range. For the last few months, they have limited customers to one ammunition box per shooting lane, no matter the number of people shooting on one lane. Up to four people are permitted to shoot per lane.

“I never thought I would see the day in America when stores could not keep .22 ammo on the shelves,” an employee of Blue Ridge Arsenal, who wished not to be named, told The Daily Caller. “I have never seen anything like this.”

Efforts to enact more restrictive gun-control legislation and reports of the government purchasing mass quantities of ammunition have compounded to spark a mass increase in demand for guns and ammunition.

The shortage and ensuing policy at Blue Ridge Arsenal has resulted in a decline in customers, particularly during the week.

“During the daytime Monday through Thursday, I’ll be lucky to see a handful of people shooting,” the employee detailed. “The weekends pick up significantly, but there are a lot of law enforcement officers shooting.”

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Senate Rejects Firearms on Army Corps of Engineers Lands, Boosting Gun Control Supporters

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Photo Credit: APThe Senate rejected an effort Wednesday to expand the use of firearms on some of the nation’s most frequently visited federal lands, handing gun control advocates a modest success.

The measure, backed by the National Rifle Association, represented one of two efforts Wednesday by gun rights supporters to take the offensive in Congress. Across the Capitol, a Republican-run House committee voted to make it easier for some veterans with mental difficulties to get firearms.

The rejected Senate proposal would have let people use guns for any legal purpose on lands managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees nearly 12 million acres that abound in lakes, rivers, campsites and hiking trails. Currently, guns on those properties are limited to activities like target-range shooting and hunting, and weapons must be unloaded while being carried to those activities.

Senators voted 56-43 for the proposal by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., but it fell short of the 60 votes needed for passage.

Eleven Democrats and one Democratic-leaning independent voted for Coburn’s plan, underscoring the party’s divisions on the gun issue.

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Report: Boehner Trying to Move Gun Control Bill in the House

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House Republicans are not ruling out passing gun legislation this year, according to a key GOP lawmaker.

The collapse of gun control in the Senate last month led many on and off Capitol Hill to believe the issue would not be revived in this Congress.

But House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told The Hill on Friday that he’s had “a lot of discussions” with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on guns. Goodlatte suggested the Speaker is more involved in the behind-the-scenes wrangling of how to move a gun bill than the Ohio Republican has let on in public.

“We are trying to improve the system to keep people who are barred under the law from owning firearms, from getting access to them. We don’t think the things that were proposed in the Senate do that. So we have not backed away from trying to figure out how to improve that, but we’ve made no decisions yet about what to do,” Goodlatte explained.

Goodlatte, serving his first year as the head of the Judiciary panel, pointed out that the National Instant Criminal Background Check System needs to be reauthorized before year’s end. The reauthorization could be the vehicle through which the GOP tackles the highly charged issue. Goodlatte, who has an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA), said earlier this year he wants to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

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