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NRA Board Member Criticizes Angry Rhetoric at Pro-Gun Rallies

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Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The president of one of the National Rifle Association’s largest state affiliates has criticised the increasingly angry and inflammatory pro-gun advocates who “scream obscenities” and “pound their chest and tell the attendees to prepare for war” at large rallies.

In a letter, Tom King, the head of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, said that holding such rallies was like “preaching to the choir”, and that “rabidly” anti-gun types would never be converted. Advocates of gun rights must instead concentrate on “the soccer moms, the guys who say: ‘I’ve never shot a gun but would like to try it,’ and the people worried about their safety,” King said. King is also a national board member of the NRA.

King initially announced he would not attend a rally on Tuesday in the state capital, Albany, to protest the New York Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (Safe) Act of 2013. He has since said he will attend, but not in any official capacity.

The New York gun control laws were passed in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in December 2012. The rally on Tuesday and others like it are aimed at persuading state lawmakers to repeal the restrictions.

In February, King revealed that the NYSRPA’s membership had grown from 22,000 to 41,000 since the Safe Act was passed a year ago. The act requires universal background checks on gun purchases and contains the toughest assault weapons ban in the US.

Read more from this story HERE.

Connecticut Politicians Warned Over Gun Laws

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Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Politicians in Connecticut and other states that have either threatened to approve or have already passed new restrictive gun laws have received a fair warning from gun rights activists.

Perhaps the sentiments of gun owners are best expressed by T.L. Davis, who stated,

Those in possession of firearms are not asking the several governments if it is legal for them to have such weapons, they are telling these governments that they are legal and any attempt to confiscate them will be forcefully resisted.

Upon what does Davis base his declaration that the firearms possessed by citizens are legal no matter what the federal or state governments say? The answer is simple. The Constitution that created this nation of freedom says that firearms possession is an unalienable right. How do we know that? Because it is the second of the citizens’ rights specifically protected by the Constitution in the Bill of Rights, second only to the First Amendment right to free speech, free assembly, free press, and free religious expression.

The Founding Fathers said that these rights cannot be negated by the laws of men. If they try, then they are automatically showing they are dangerous and tyrannical, and they will not hesitate to remove every God given liberty this country has enjoyed for over 200 years.

Read more from this story HERE.

WATCH: Customers Cheer On Coffee Shop Armed to the Teeth with Gun-Toting Baristas

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

By Joe Saunders.

A Spokane, Wash., coffee stand is taking a stand of its own against predatory criminals by making sure at least one of its staffers is armed at all times.

“A couple of them bring handguns every day, no matter what shift it is …,” Jitterz Java owner Sara Chapel told local television station KXLY last week. “There is always a gun here now.”

Chapel made the decision after an unknown man, armed with what appeared to be a weapon, tried to enter the coffee stand through its drive-through window on March 16. An employee on duty managed to block the attempt and grab her gun, and the lesson – the store’s third robbery or robbery attempt in less than a month — isn’t being forgotten.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Armed baristas at Spokane coffee shop

By Nick Provenza.

The next robber who tries to hold up Jitterz Java in Spokane is likely to face a gun.

After three robberies in a month, the owner says there always will be a gun at the coffee stand.

Read more from this story HERE.

Home Depot Loss Prevention Officer Sure Is Glad There Was a Concealed Carry Permit Holder Around…

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Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Police in Roseville, Mich., say a heroin addict attempted to steal a $179 battery-powered drill from a Home Depot and then stabbed the store’s loss prevention officer with a contaminated syringe when he was confronted.

Luckily, there was a customer carrying a concealed firearm nearby. The man reportedly drew his gun and ordered the suspect to drop the syringe.

Police arrested Joshua J. Silva, 26, shortly after the violent altercation on Monday night. He was charged with second-degree retail fraud and assault with intent to do great bodily harm, a felony. The suspect held in Macomb County Jail on $25,000 bond.

Police Chief James Berlin said the loss prevention officer attempted to stop Silva after he stuffed the battery-powered drill under his coat. He fought the employee to avoid arrest.

The Detroit Free Press has more:

During the fight in the parking lot, Silva pulled a concealed syringe from his jacket and used it as a weapon, swinging it around in a slashing motion, police said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Connecticut in Turmoil as Gun Owners Demand Return of Rights

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesA Second Amendment fight is brewing in Connecticut over new legislation that turned tens of thousands of gun owners into potential felons.

The law, passed last April in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, put in place bans on magazines that carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition and on many types of weapons, including those that simply have the cosmetic appearance of assault weapons.

The law also requires residents to undergo mental and criminal background checks and to register certain types of guns with authorities.

The pro-gun group Connecticut Carry “calls on every state official, every senator, every representative to make the singular decision: Either enforce the laws as they are written and let us fight it out in court, or else repeal the 2013 gun ban in its entirety. We say: Bring it on,” the group said on its website in a memo intended to rally members.

A challenge to the law has already been shot down, although U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello acknowledged in his ruling that the text of the gun law was fuzzy and that legislators hadn’t written it “with the utmost clarity.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Court: The Right to Bear Arms Doesn’t Stop at the Front Door

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Photo Credit: APLast week, in a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a restriction on carrying concealed handguns. The court held that carrying a handgun “outside the home for the lawful purpose of self-defense, though subject to traditional restrictions, constitutes ‘bear[ing] Arms’ within the meaning of the Second Amendment.”

The question of whether the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends to the public is contentious. The 7th Circuit agrees with the 9th Circuit that carrying a gun outside the home is protected by the Constitution, but other courts (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Circuits) are unsettled on the issue.

This issue should be a no-brainer.

Few people, if any, would dare suggest that any of the other Bill of Rights be limited to the privacy of one’s home.

Does free speech end in the home? No. Do Fourth Amendment privacy rights end in the home? No. So why should the right to bear arms end in the home?

Read more this story HERE.

Senator Mark Begich Trying to Fool Alaskans about His Recent Anti-gun Actions — GOA Holding the Senator’s Feet to the Fire

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Photo Credit: GunOwner.orgQUESTION: How do you tell when an anti-gun politician is lying?

ANSWER: His lips are moving.

On February 10, GOA alerted Alaskans to Democrat Senator Mark Begich’s role in defeating the Rand Paul pro-gun amendment that would have allowed individuals to carry firearms in Post Offices.

But rather than just admit his complicity in helping to kill the pro-gun amendment, Senator Begich is trying to fool Alaskans into thinking that he was the hero who saved the day.

However, these claims couldn’t be further from the truth.

Read more from this story HERE.

Remington Arms Co. Unveils Clothing Line for the ‘Gun-Toting Crowd’

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Photo Credit: Reuters/CaterpillarCall it concealed-carry chic: With all 50 U.S. states now permitting people to pack pistols in public, it was only a matter of time before some company came to market with an apparel line targeting the gun-toting crowd.

Remington Arms Co, which has been making firearms for nearly 200 years, has just unveiled a collection of clothing and accessories, including the “Smoothbore Field Coat” ($1,295) and the “Double Derringer Leather Vest” ($300).

In drawing a bead on the apparel market, Remington becomes the latest U.S. manufacturer to try reinventing itself as a “lifestyle brand” as a way to bolster its bottom line.

Next up is Winnebago Industries Inc, the U.S. maker of motorhomes and trailers. In October, the Forest City, Iowa-based motorhome maker announced an agreement with Brandgenuity, a New York-based licensing agency, to put the Winnebago name on a range of outdoor fashions and camping gear.

“We stand for quality products and a fun lifestyle,” Randy Potts, the company’s chairman, chief executive and president, told Reuters. “We think there’s an opportunity to leverage that beyond RVs.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Interpol Chief: Citizens Need Guns

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Photo Credit: WND As the United Nations seeks to push its global anti-gun campaign – through a treaty U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry just signed – the chief of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, believes open societies can be protected from terrorists by citizens defending themselves with guns, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

The U.N. effort in the U.S. is expected to be dead on arrival at the U.S. Senate, which would have to ratify the treaty. The United States for years has refrained from signing it, until now.

Mindful of the recent terrorist attack at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said that armed citizens in open societies need to be able to defend themselves and others against terrorist attacks.

In the Sept. 21 shopping mall attack, considered to be a “soft target,” some 72 people were killed, including five of the attackers from the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab. While five of the dead were members of the Kenyan military, 61 were civilians.

Noble said in a report on ABC the attack on the mall marks an “evolution in terrorism.” Instead of targets like the Pentagon and other high-security locations, attackers have begun to focus on sites with little security that attract large numbers of people.

Read more from this story HERE.

Gun Rights Groups Throwing their Weight Behind Efforts to Rein In NSA

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Photo Credit: Getty ImagesThe National Rifle Association (NRA) is among a number of groups that have signed on to an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit against the secretive government agency.

The NRA has also endorsed bipartisan legislation proposed by House and Senate Judiciary committees that would end the NSA’s collection of bulk phone records.

Another Second Amendment advocate, the Gun Owners of America, expects to back NSA legislation as well.

“There are issues that, maybe at first blush, wouldn’t seem like a gun issue, but once you start looking closely at the issues, they really do affect our gun rights,” said Erich Pratt, the director of communications for Gun Owners of America.

Gun groups fear the NSA could have the authority under a section of the PATRIOT Act to collect information that could be used to create a federal gun database. They also fear the government could be spying on, or eventually targeting, gun owners.

Read more from this story HERE.