NRA opposes gun-grabber's appointment to head the BATFE

Oh joy, just what we need, a gun-grabber appointed by Obama to head the BATFE.

The NRA strongly opposes President Obama’s nomination of Andrew Traver as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE).  Traver has been deeply aligned with gun control advocates and anti-gun activities.  This makes him the wrong choice to lead an enforcement agency that has almost exclusive oversight and control over the firearms industry, its retailers and consumers.  Further, an important nomination such as BATFE director should not be made as a “recess appointment,” in order to circumvent consent by the American people through their duly elected U.S. Senators.  

Traver served as an advisor to the International Association for Chiefs of Police’s (IACP) “Gun Violence Reduction Project,” a “partnership” with the Joyce Foundation.  Both IACP and the Joyce Foundation are names synonymous with promoting a variety of gun control schemes at the federal and state levels.  Most of the individuals involved in this project were prominent gun control activists and lobbyists.

The IACP report, generated with Traver’s help, called on Congress to ban thousands of commonly owned firearms by misrepresenting them as “assault weapons,” as well as calling for bans on .50 caliber rifles and widely used types of ammunition. The report also suggests that Congress should regulate gun shows out of existence and should repeal the privacy protections of the Tiahrt Amendment—all efforts strongly opposed by the NRA and its members. 

Traver also participated in an extremely deceptive NBC Chicago report (http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local-beat/Assault-Weapons-Surge-in-City-69620227.html) in which he referred to “the growing frequency of gang members and drug dealers using heavy caliber military-type weapons” and described them as if they were machine guns:  “Pull the trigger and you can mow people down.”  Traver and his agents provided the reporter with a fully automatic AK-47, with which she was unable to hit the target.  He then said that stray bullets are “one of the main problems with having stuff like this available to the gangs.” 

As the Agent-in-Charge of Chicago’s BATFE office, Traver knows that fully automatic firearms are not available through normal retail channels—the opposite of what was implied in the report.
An agency involved in the regulation of a fundamental, individual right guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution should not be led by an individual with a demonstrated hostility to that freedom.  For that reason, the NRA strongly opposes Andrew Traver to head the BATFE and urges President Obama to withdraw this ill-advised nomination.

 

Maryland going from bad to worse for gunowners' rights

My N.C. concealed-carry permit is good in 30 states that have full reciprocity rights for North Carolina permit holders, but Maryland ain't one of them. Apparently this enclave is trying to outdo Washington D.C. as one of the worst places in the nation for gun owners.

The Washington Times offers this editorial update on plans by the Maryland gun-grabbers.

The gun grabbers are at it again in Maryland. Next month, the state's House Judiciary Committee will initiate hearings on legislation forcing firearms enthusiasts to register with the state government before they can exercise their Second Amendment rights.

The plan, drafted by Delegate Samuel I. Rosenberg, Baltimore Democrat, and Sen. Brian E. Frosh, Montgomery County Democrat, would mandate that citizens carry a special license while conducting any number of routine transactions involving a gun.

To obtain a gun license, a person must fill out a long application form, attend a comprehensive firearms safety course, pay a nonrefundable fee to the state and wait 30 days for the completion of a criminal background check. If all items are processed properly, the Maryland State Police would drop the license in the mail.

It would become a crime to go to a gun range and rent a firearm for a little target shooting without this license in hand. Out-of-state visitors who might want to keep up their skills while on vacation would be out of luck under the proposal because they would not even be allowed to apply for a state gun license.

The bill would make it a crime on par with murder, kidnapping, rape and extortion for a private party to sell his own gun to someone who has no license. It also would give police the authority to seize the e-mail, cell phone and other records of anyone merely suspected of selling or renting a gun in Maryland without a license. This is an extreme reaction to conduct that is perfectly legal in most states and should be a constitutional right anywhere in the Land of the Free.

It's obvious that Mr. Rosenberg and Mr. Frosh are not really interested in stopping criminals from obtaining weapons. Instead, this misguided proposal plainly is designed to harass legitimate gun owners with bureaucracy and paperwork until they simply give up on the idea of exercising their legal rights. Readers should let the measure's proponents know what they think. Mr. Frosh is available at 301/ 858-3102, brian.frosh@senate.state.md.us, and Mr. Rosenberg can be reached at 301/858-3179, samuel.rosenberg@ house.state.md.us.

When the sweet wife and I travel north to Pittsburgh to visit her daughter and our granddaughter, even though the wife's sister lives in Baltimore we do not go through Maryland due to the stupid gun laws of that state. Sounds like it's fixin' to get worse before it gets better.

There are now 40 out of the 50 states that have "shall issue" conceal-carry laws or have no restrictions on carry, like the great state of Alaska, but the other 10 all range from bad to worse, most notable being New York, Massachusetts, California and Illinois, particularly Chicago.

What the powers that be in those states do to gun owners is what the gun-grabbers wish to do to us all.

If you're a gun owner and not a member of the NRA, you oughta be ashamed of yourself. You can join up now as an associate member for free. The NRA has led the fight to get us where we are now, from the first big fight in Florida back in the '80s to 40 out of 50 states now where gun owners can freely exercise their rights of self-defense with concealed-carry permits. (Or maybe it's 57 states in the union. How did somebody get elected President who thinks we got 57 states?)

Buy guns & ammo now before gun-grabbers ban

I just received this little gem from Gunbroker.com in their December newsletter. The gunshop in North Carolina cited is not identified, but I strongly suspect it is Jim's Gun Jobbery in Fayetteville, largest gun shop in NC.

Jim's has been quoted by several newspapers across the nation as having record sales since the election, so it's a pretty good bet that's where this information came from.

One of the readers of my blog posted a comment anonymously just before the election giving me a hard time for saying Obama is anti-gun. His/her response was Obama won't be as bad as I think he will be. Maybe so, but huge numbers of gun owners or wantabe gun owners are voting with their wallets since the election that Obama and the Democrat-majority Congress will do exactly what they've done in the past when in power, ban guns.

If they don't, fine. Us gun nuts will just have a few extra arms and ammo than we had planned on buying anyway and just hadn't got around to it. But if it does turn out as bad as us gun nuts expect, well, better buy now while you can. Besides, if the bans are passed, our high-capacity rifles and pistols will appreciate in value smartly, probably more than gold and almost certainly be a better investment than the stock market and other so-called "securities," which are all headed in a downward direction lately and show no signs of a turnaround anytime soon.

If you're a gun nut or just a concerned citizen for your own safety and your loved ones, better to buy now while you can than to wait to see what happens only to find out you're too late to buy.

Assault rifles, hi-cap pistols are today's 'Redneck Gold'

I visited eight North Carolina gun shops in my area over the past few days and I can report that the gun-buying public in Moore, Richmond, Anson, Hoke, Scotland and Cumberland counties and surrounding areas is in an assault-rifle-buying frenzy. Yeah I know, big surprise. All types of assault rifles, AK and AR design, have shot up in price some 200 percent since Obama won.

Only one gun shop I visited today in Fayetteville was singing the blues. Why? They'd sold out of all their assault rifles and couldn't get more from their suppliers who are all back-ordered.

Jim's Gun Jobbery in Fayetteville is semi-famous for winning in court against the feds in September. The ATF had been trying since 2005 to revoke the store's license, but a federal judge ruled the tiny amount of paperwork errors cited were insignificant, not to mention not wilful since the attorney for the store introduced evidence that the store's owner, Jim Faircloth, has instituted training programs for his employees to eliminate the paperwork errors.

The Fayetteville store made the papers again in a story two weeks after the election, reporting more guns sold on a Saturday than the previous Christmas Eve. And business was booming when I dropped in today with clerks handing out assault rifles as customers were buying briskly.

Same story at all the other stores I've been in lately, except for those sold out of assault rifles. At Guns Plus in Spring Lake, on the other side of the huge Fort Bragg Army base in Fayetteville, more of the same was going on with guys and gals lined up at the counter to buy all kinds of guns, long guns, short guns, shot guns, rifles, pistols -- even knives and clubs.

I guess you can say guns are sorta "Redneck gold." Us poor ol' rednecks can't afford to be hoarding a bunch of gold in these uncertain economic times, but we can afford a gun or two or three. I'm hoping to get at least a couple more semi-auto pistols that hold more than 10 rounds before the assault-weapons ban hits the fan. And maybe a Charter Arms Bulldog .44 Special snubby revolver, too. One of my gun buddies is predicting we're going to see a "Saturday Night Special" ban that will include all snubby revolvers, from the cheapest hunk of pot metal to the top quality Smith & Wessons and others, all chunked into the same sack and tossed in the deep.

The boss lady behind the counter at Jim's Guns said she's even heard there's been legislation filed that will even stop the sales of .22 rifles! Is nothing sacred? That's really sacrilege, threatening our .22s! Even liberal Democrats might have a .22 firearm. Sheer madness. I've already got two .22 rifles and a .22 pistol, but I just might have to get another one or two.

As Zell Miller said, I've already got more guns than I need, but I don't have as many guns as I want. And any money I spend on "redneck gold" will certainly keep its value and will even appreciate madly if Obama and his gun-grabbing pals do what everybody expects them to.

Photos for gun nuts: What you can't see

Here’s a couple of interesting photos for gun nuts like me. First shows the gas cloud, shock wave and projectile as an AK-47 assault rifle is fired.

Then there’s the same effect as a revolver is fired, showing the gas cloud escaping around the cylinder as well as the muzzle.

Photos are by Gary Settles of Penn State University, part of a slide show illustrating an article about his amazing photography in the New York Times: The Mysterious Cough, Caught on Film

Now doesn’t that give you the proper warm fuzzy feeling to rush right out and vote for the most anti-gun presidential candidate in our history?

Chuck Norris vs. Obama: Knockout in one punch

Chuck Norris stands up for our Second Amendment Rights, gives gun-grabber Obama his famous one-two punch!