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Separation of Church and State Isn’t Such a Good Idea After All; Biden Urges Religious Groups to Preach Gun Control

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photo credit: dcjohn

President Barack Obama is trying an end run around the NRA — rallying groups as varied as churches, medical organizations, retailers and the Rotary Club to build support for new gun regulations.

It’s an unusual strategy but one the Obama administration has used before: projecting strength on an issue by trying to create the perception that the White House is riding a wave of momentum from the American people. It was the theme of Obama’s two presidential campaigns and was central to his campaign-style road show to tout his fiscal cliff priorities in December.

Participants in Vice President Joe Biden’s meetings have said the White House is seeking to mount an aggressive effort to back the gun control push, which is likely to formally commence next week after Biden delivers his recommendations to the president.

During one session with a dozen religious leaders on Wednesday, Biden made a specific request to those gathered to preach to their congregations about the importance of enacting stronger gun control laws, said the Rev. Michael McBride, a participant in the meeting and a community organizer for the PICO Network, an alliance of faith-based organizations.

“The vice president shared how he felt this was one of the most important meetings of all the meetings, that the faith leaders, the faith community has a very unique role in engaging in the moral persuasion necessary to address the gun challenges in our country,” McBride said. “He called upon us to take that seriously and that the administration and everyone involved is going to be looking to us to help to make that argument across the different faith traditions.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Kentucky Sheriff to Feds: ‘You Are Never Going to Pull Guns Out of Jackson County’ (+video)

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by AWR Hawkins – As I wrote on Jan. 11, Jackson County Kentucky Sheriff Denny Peyman has made it clear that gun laws which violate the United States Constitution or the Kentucky Constitution will not be enforced in his county.

On Jan. 12, he followed this up with a press conference in which he explained that a Sheriff’s powers are predominant over the powers of federal and state agents. When he says these things he drives gun-grabbers batty because he says them with the conviction that rests on knowledge, and he has no intention of backing down.

During the press conference, he took time to explain his powers as sheriff: “I am responsible for the people inside this county. I am the highest elected official in this county, and this is the only opportunity the people have to speak for themselves and say ‘this is what we want.’

I can ask federal people to leave, they have to leave. I can ask state people to leave, they have to leave. …[And] it doesn’t matter what [new laws] Obama passes, the sheriff has more power than the federal people.”

See video of press conference:

Read more from this story HERE.

Wyoming Lawmakers Propose Bill to Nullify New Federal Gun Laws

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photo credit: cliff1066

Wyoming lawmakers have proposed a new bill that, if passed, would nullify any federal restrictions on guns, threatening to jail federal agents attempting to confiscate guns, ammunition magazines or ammunition.

The bill – HB0104 – states that “any federal law which attempts to ban a semi-automatic firearm or to limit the size of a magazine of a firearm or other limitation on firearms in this state shall be unenforceable in Wyoming.”

The bill is sponsored by eight Wyoming state representatives ad two state senators. If passed, the bill would declare any federal gun regulation created on or after January 1, 2013 to be unenforceable within the state.

In addition, the bill states would charge federal officials attempting to enforce a federal gun law within the state with a felony – “subject to imprisonment for not more less than one (1) year and one (1) day or more than five (5) years, a fine of not more than two thousand dollars ($2,000.00) five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), or both.”

The bill also allows the Attorney General of Wyoming to defend a state citizen from any prosecution by the United States Government.

Read more from this story HERE.

Local Law Enforcement CAN Block Federal Gun Control

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photo credit: conner395

“A high-profile former sheriff who once sued the U.S. government over its gun regulations – and won – says it is the local sheriff who will have to defend Americans when and if the feds starting banning and confiscating guns.

Richard Mack, a former sheriff in Graham County, Ariz., joined with then-Ravalli County Sheriff Jay Printz in a lawsuit against Washington when Bill Clinton demanded sheriff’s enforce provisions of the Brady Bill gun control law.

He won. And since then he’s been at the front of a movement that highlights the responsibility of local sheriffs.

Now, as Washington gears up to consider imperious plans to limit guns, require fingerprinting and registration, impose additional taxes and fees, ban particular features or functions outright, and even confiscate weapons of self-defense, Mack has told WND that there’s hope remaining in local law enforcement.

It’s not complicated, he said. “Gun control is illegal and it’s against the Constitution,” he said. “What people don’t realize is that the Second Amendment was designed to protect us from the power of the federal government.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Opposed Illinios Gun Ban Exception to Defend One’s Home

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photo credit: utenriksdept

As a state senator in Illinois, President Obama opposed legislation providing an exception to handgun restrictions if the weapon was used in the defense of one’s home.

Obama’s vote would have maintained the status quo, which made it a violation of municipal gun ban law to use a firearm to save your own life in your own home. But the bill was passed anyway without his support.

The vote is a sign of how committed Obama may be to strict gun control measures.

The Illinois vote is hardly ancient history, having occurred in 2004 as Obama was running for election to the U.S. Senate. In opposing the measure, Obama lined up well to the left of the mainstream . . .

Read more from this story HERE.

NRA Says Meeting with Biden Disappointing; Accuses White House of Attack on Second Amendment

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NRA Says Meeting with Biden Disappointing

by Alexis Levinson

The National Rifle Association said it emerged “disappointed” from a Thursday meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and other gun owners’ groups.

The meeting was a part of Biden’s work on a task force on gun policy, established in the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 children dead.

The NRA statement on the meeting said that the group was “prepared to have a meaningful conversation about school safety, mental health issues, the marketing of violence to our kids and the collapse of federal prosecutions of violent criminals.”

“We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment,” the statement said.

Read more from this story HERE.

NRA Accuses White House of ‘Attack’ on 2nd Amendment Rights

by Justin Sink

The National Rifle Association said Thursday it was “disappointed” by its meeting Thursday with Vice President Biden, accusing the Obama administration of using the time to “attack the Second Amendment.”

The statement, issued shortly after the conclusion of the conference, deflated any prospect of an unlikely alliance between the White House and the gun lobby group as President Obama looks to push a set of new gun regulations in the coming month.

It also likely signals that the NRA will oppose any legislative attempt to change federal gun laws in the coming Congress.

“We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment,” the group said in its statement.

“While claiming that no policy proposals would be ‘prejudged,’ this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners — honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: NRA Has Added 100,000 New Members Since Sandy Hook Shooting

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The National Rifle Association has gained more than 100,000 new members in the past 18 days, the organization told POLITICO’s Playbook on Thursday.

The number of paid new members jumped from 4.1 million to 4.2 million during that time.

“Our goal is to get to 5 million before this debate is over,” the NRA told POLITICO’s Mike Allen.

Read more from this story HERE.

Public University Professors Join Ranks of Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theorists

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(Daily Caller) Two professors at mainstream, respected state universities are advocating conspiracy theories about the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

James Tracy, a tenured associate professor of media history Florida Atlantic University and a one-time union leader, has claimed that the school shooting didn’t happen as it was widely reported and perhaps didn’t happen at all, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports.

“As documents relating to the Sandy Hook shooting continue to be assessed and interpreted by independent researchers, there is a growing awareness that the media coverage of the massacre of 26 children and adults was intended primarily for public consumption to further larger political ends,” Tracy wrote on his blog, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

Tracy said he believes that the Sandy Hook shooting could have been constructed to increase public support for gun control.

He has authored a report showing, he says, how a mélange of federal agencies, state agencies and major media outlets could have framed 20-year-old Adam Lanza as a lone, methodical gunman when, in fact, several additional people were involved.

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Piers Morgan and Guests Laugh About Killing Alex Jones

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photo credit: thisiscow

If you’ve followed the flap with Piers Morgan over gun control and the Second Amendment, you know how insistent the CNN host is about infringing on our “right to keep and bear arms.” It’s supposedly all in the name of shutting down violent crime in America.

Yet, Piers and his friends take the issue so seriously that they can talk and laugh on national television about shooting a critic with an assault rifle. What kind of message are they sending to America’s children?

Gun control advocates are apparently not really all that offended by violence. They celebrate it in Hollywood, and promote it in the gaming industry.

Let’s be honest. Isn’t it really more about control without dissent? Watch video below:

Biden Pledges Unilateral Obama Action on Gun Control, Executive Orders Considered (+video)

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By Erica Werner. Vice President Joe Biden vowed urgent action against gun violence in America Wednesday, pledging steps by the Obama administration that he said could “take thousands of people out of harm’s way” and improve the safety of millions more.

But a day ahead of a meeting with the National Rifle Association, which has sunk past gun control efforts and is opposing any new ones, Biden signaled that the administration is mindful of political realities that could imperil sweeping gun control legislation, and is willing to settle for something less. He said the administration is considering its own executive action as well as measures by Congress, but he didn’t offer specifics.

“I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion that unless we can do everything, we’re going to do nothing,” Biden told an array of gun control advocates, crime victims and others at the White House. “It’s critically important we act.”

Shortly after last month’s slaughter of schoolchildren at Newtown, Conn., President Barack Obama tasked Biden with heading a commission to come up with recommendations on gun policy by the end of this month. Obama supports steps including reinstating a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and closing loopholes that allow many gun buyers to avoid background checks.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence says that some 40 percent of gun sales are made without background checks, such as at gun shows and over the Internet. Read more from this story HERE.