Whitehouse Petition: Avoid talks with the NRA/GOA who only promote more guns and detract from a real gun reduction solution

Dear friends,

We only need 146 more signatures before the petition below will appear publicly on the Whitehouse.gov site.  Don’t miss your opportunity to make a difference!

If this petition gets 25,000 signatures by January 23, 2013, the White House will review it and respond!

We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.

You can view and sign the petition here:

http://wh.gov/Q8wO

Here’s some more information about this petition:

Avoid talks with the NRA/GOA who only promote more guns and detract from a real gun reduction solution

It is an assault to the memory of the victims of Sandy Hook to involve the NRA/GOA in any policy debate. Are we so forgetful that we have forgotten the record of the NRA? In 2011, NRA’s La Pierre refused to discuss gun control with Obama stating “Why should I or the N.R.A. go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment in the United States?” The NRA has spent a lifetime promoting gun violence and are responsible for the gun laws that made these mass shootings possible. The NRA Litigated against the Brady Bill which among other things prevented felons and the mentally ill from receiving guns, spent millions and succeeded in getting the court to make background checks voluntary.

Tough Gun Control Laws = Lower Death Rates

A study published by the  Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence shows that states with the strictest gun laws have the lowest number of gun-related deaths.

States with strong gun laws include:

• California

• Hawaii

• Massachusetts

• Rhode Island

• New York

• New Jersey

• Connecticut

States with weak gun laws include:

• Alaska

• Louisiana

• Montana

• Nevada

• Arizona

• New Mexico

• Wyoming

• Tennessee

• Alabama

• Mississippi

Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco hopes to use the Bay area study to support SB 47 legislation in California that would prohibit semiautomatic weapons from having devices that allow them to carry high-capacity magazines or easily be reloaded with multiple rounds of ammunition. 1

The law center was formed by Bay area lawyers in 1993 following an assault weapon rampage at a San Francisco law office that ended with 10 people dead and six wounded.

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2013/01/tough-gun-control.html

Record number of Gun Background Checks in December Due to High Demand

According to the FBI, gun background checks increased by 49% over December 2011 to 2.01 Million. 1  The change is as a result of high demand.  Violence Policy Director Josh Sugarmann said the rise in gun sales after a mass shooting is “disturbing.”

“While the majority of Americans look for solutions to stop the next attack, a minority of gun owners runs to hoard the very guns used in the most recent” incidents, Sugarmann said in an email. 1

Smith & Wesson has a different view:

“The last eight years (have) been very good to be a handgun company. The market has expanded significantly, and long guns having done pretty good, as well,” said Smith & Wesson Chief Executive James Debney at a December 12 conference for investors. 1

Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/02/us-usa-guns-record-idUSBRE9010H020130102

Gun Control Doesn’t Survive Christmas

This disturbing chart shows the number of times gun control has been mentioned in the news media since the Sandy Hook shooting.

This is the view from Twitter:

Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/01/gun-control-doesnt-survive-christmas-153146.html

Does this Guy Deserve a 485% Raise?

This is P. James Debney, the chief executive of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: SWHS).  He starts the new year with a  485 percent raise to $2.89 million this year, according to an SEC filing. 1 He earned $493,322 in 2011.

Debney, who took the helm of the Springfield-based gun-maker last September, will receive a base annual salary of $404,433, stock worth$554,400, stock options worth $1.37 million and non-equity incentive of $508,050.

SOURCE:

1. http://boston.citybizlist.com/article/smith-wesson%E2%80%99s-top-gun-james-debney-gets-485-raise

Historical Record Supports a Collective Right’s View of the 2nd Amendment not an Individual Right

Until the 2008 Supreme Court case of District of Columbia vs. Helen, most held to a collective rights view of the 2nd amendment. 1  That is, the right to own a gun was not an individual right but a collective one in the context of a militia.  This view has gradually been eroded by politically motivated legal “scholars.”2  History matters writes:

“Much Second Amendment scholarship has taken the form of “law office history,” a form of advocacy scholarship designed to influence the way courts decide constitutional questions. Legal scholarship influences the way briefs are written and may also be used by judges when deciding a case. For most historians the goal of scholarship is to reconstruct and understand the complexity of the past, not influence contemporary policy or jurisprudence.”

The mass majority of historians discount the individual rights view and have found serious errors of fact in legal scholars interpretations. 2

SourceS:

1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_the_United_States

2.  historymatters.gmu.edu (Search for “2nd amendment” – The Second Amendment Under Fire: The Uses of History and the Politics of Gun Control by Saul Cornell, Associate Professor, Department of History, The Ohio State University)

Myths About Gun Control; Regarding the 2nd Amendment

The following was written by Robert Spitzer of the Washington Post:

Myth: The Second Amendment was intended to protect the right of Americans to rise up against a tyrannical government.

This canard is repeated with disturbing frequency. The Constitution, in Article I, allows armed citizens in militias to “suppress Insurrections,” not cause them. The Constitution defines treason as “levying War” against the government in Article III, and the states can ask the federal government for assistance “against domestic Violence” under Article IV.

Our system provides peaceful means for citizens to air grievances and change policy, from the ballot box to the jury box to the right to peaceably assemble. If violence against an oppressive government were somehow countenanced in the Second Amendment, thenTimothy McVeigh and Lee Harvey Oswald would have been vindicated for their heinous actions. But as constitutional scholar Roscoe Pound noted, a “legal right of the citizen to wage war on the government is something that cannot be admitted” because it would “defeat the whole Bill of Rights” — including the Second Amendment.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-gun-control/2012/12/21/6ffe0ae8-49fd-11e2-820e-17eefac2f939_story_1.html

Why Are There More Pro-Gun Groups than Pro-Gun Control?

Gun interest groups in the U.S.
Pro-gun rights	Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Gun Owners of America Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership Law Enforcement Alliance of America Liberty Belles National Association for Gun Rights National Rifle Association Pink Pistols Saint Gabriel Possenti Society Second Amendment Foundation Second Amendment Sisters Students for Concealed Carry on Campus National Shooting Sports Foundation
Pro-gun control	American Hunters and Shooters Association Americans for Democratic Action Americans for Gun Safety Foundation Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Joyce Foundation League of Women Voters Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition Violence Policy Center Source: Wikipedia

Whitehouse Petition: Avoid talks with the NRA/GOA who only promote more guns and detract from a real gun reduction solution

Dear friends,

I wanted to let you know about a new petition I created on We the People, a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov, and ask for your support. Will you add your name to mine? If this petition gets 25,000 signatures by January 23, 2013, the White House will review it and respond!

We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.

You can view and sign the petition here:

http://wh.gov/Q8wO

Here’s some more information about this petition:

Avoid talks with the NRA/GOA who only promote more guns and detract from a real gun reduction solution

It is an assault to the memory of the victims of Sandy Hook to involve the NRA/GOA in any policy debate. Are we so forgetful that we have forgotten the record of the NRA? In 2011, NRA’s La Pierre refused to discuss gun control with Obama stating “Why should I or the N.R.A. go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment in the United States?” The NRA has spent a lifetime promoting gun violence and are responsible for the gun laws that made these mass shootings possible. The NRA Litigated against the Brady Bill which among other things prevented felons and the mentally ill from receiving guns, spent millions and succeeded in getting the court to make background checks voluntary.

The Gun Owners of America – Against Common Sense Gun Laws

The Gun Owners of America are the 2nd largest gun rights group having 300,000 members (1)   But they are far more vocal than the NRA in terms of pro-gun activities.  They were the first to respond with a pro-gun message following the tragedy in Connecticut(1) and have lobbied congress against virtually every common sense piece of gun legislation to float through congress.  Like the NRA, they respond to gun violence by advocating more guns.

They are in summary:

• In favor of assault weapons

• Against any legislation to end gun shows

• Against legislation banning .5 caliber rifles or ammunition (Lobbied House of Representatives to vote against the Moran Amendment On June 6, 1995.  This amendment would have banned the above from being licensed for export.)

• Against expansion of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System

Sources:
1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/gun-owners-of-america-newtown-gun-debate-_n_2318951.html

2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_Owners_of_America