Anti-Gun Legislation DOA, Says Democrat

From The Hill ~ Gun-rights supporters in the Democratic Party are putting to rest any doubt over who holds sway in Congress with a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder warning him not to try to reinstate an assault-weapons ban.

Sixty-five Democrats signed the letter, a show of force with implications for several other issues, including a bill to grant the District of Columbia a vote in the House.

“Now we know there are 65 pro-gun Democrats,” said Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.). “When you add up all the pro-gun Republicans and the pro-gun Democrats, that or any other anti-gun legislation is DOA.”

He added, “You could safely assume we’d also have the votes on the D.C. issue.”

Republicans and the National Rifle Association want to add an amendment to the D.C. voting rights bill that would wipe out most of the District’s gun laws. The bill is stalled by the fear that the NRA would go after any centrist Democrat who votes for a procedural motion to prevent the addition of the gun amendment.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has said District residents might accept the gun provisions in exchange for getting voting rights in the House. But that provoked a split with the District’s delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), who rejects any notion of giving in on the gun issue.

Likewise, gun-rights supporters in the Democratic Caucus have shown no willingness to buck the NRA on the D.C. bill issue, according to leadership aides.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who is shepherding the bill for leadership, has said he’s “hopeful” he can schedule a vote on the bill by the end of next week. He said including the NRA-backed gun amendment is “part of the discussion.”

But the bill would still face severe obstacles even with the gun amendment. Despite the addition, Republicans won’t vote for D.C. voting rights, which they claim to be unconstitutional. Unless Norton urged them to support it, most liberals and members of the Congressional Black Caucus would vote no. The “no” votes of Republicans, liberals and CBC members would likely sink the bill.

Beneath the surface, however, some shifts can be detected. The measure of pro-gun support in the Democratic Caucus last year was the 65 Democrats who signed an amicus brief in a lawsuit to toss out the District’s handgun ban.

Twelve Democrats who signed the amicus brief didn’t sign the Ross letter. Both were heavily promoted by the NRA. But another 12 freshman Democrats — about one-third of the freshman Democrats — replaced them on the list.

Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) sent a similar letter to Hoyer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The pro-gun support also has implications for the appropriations process, where Democratic leaders will have to decide whether to continue Republican riders that called for the rapid destruction of information the government collects on gun purchases. And gun-control groups are interested in passing a bill that requires background checks on gun purchases made at gun shows.

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Obama's Anti-Gun Slinger: Arne Duncan

He's a product of Chicago's liberal environment, a former professional basketball player known for his one-on-ones with rising Illinois politician Barack Obama.

Commentary By Mike McCarville

Now, at 44, former Chicago Schools Superintendent Arne Duncan is President Obama's choice as Secretary of Education and to that post, he brings a long-standing hostility toward gun ownership by law-abiding citizens and a stated desire to remove firearms from every home in America.

Duncan is viewed by some as part of Obama's stealth campaign to eliminate gun ownership in America. Teamed with Obama's new bureaucrat-in-chief, anti-gunner and wacko animal rights activist Cass Sunstein, Duncan is poised to ramrod an anti-gun agenda in the nation's educational system.

The NRA's flagship magazine, America's 1st Freedom, recently profiled Duncan in an article by well-known 2nd Amendment expert Dave Kopel.

Kopel notes that last October, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (aka the Illinois Council Against Guns) gave Duncan its "Man Of The Year" award. He refused to accept it, saying his fight to ban guns isn't over: "We'll keep fighting the NRA, the gun makers, the gun dealers, the gangbangers aned everyone else who refuses to accept the undeniable fact that guns and kids don't mix."

His statement is an attack on the high school Scholastic Clays Target Program, "gun clubs with small-bore shooting teams for teenagers, and parents who take their children hunting," Kopel writes.

Duncan goes further: "We'll fight them in Springfield, in the courts, in the community and even in the home."

In the home. Duncan wants to bring his radical opposition to firearms ownership and the 2nd Amendment into our homes.

Writes Kopel: "You may ask yourself, 'What can the secretary of education do to prohibit the rights of law-abiding gun owners?' To begin with, he can incessantly and hysterically use his bully pulpit to promote repressive gun control as an absolute necessity 'for the children.' That's what he did as superintendent of Chicago public schools."

Duncan believes in his radical approach: "This is a public health epidemic. We are struggling to find the cure for AIDS, we are struggling to find the cure for cancer; we know the cure for this public health epidemic: getting rid of guns."

Among Duncan's running mates are the extremist Catholic priest Michael Pfleger, whose statement that a Chicago gun dealer should be "snuffed out" brought censorship from his bishop; Mayor Richard Daley, who presides over a city with stringent gun control and one of the worse crime rates in the nation; and notorious gun-grabber Jesse Jackson.

Concludes Kopel: "There is every reason to be concerned that Duncan will turn the Department of Education into a tool to promote a gun-ban agenda in America's public schools. And we can fully expect that the 'mainstream' media, which was so viciously hostile to the Bush administration, will fawn over Duncan's public demands to repress the Second Amendment 'for the children.'"

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Boren Leads New Congressional Gun Rights Group

From The Tulsa World/Washington Bureau ~ U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, a board member of the National Rifle Association, announced Wednesday that he will be co-chairman of a new task force on gun rights.

"I am afraid we could witness a significant tilt to the left on gun issues in the current climate in Washington, and that has me greatly concerned," the Oklahoma Democrat said.

"I believe members of the Second Amendment Task Force will serve a critical role in preventing overreaching by those who would seek to enact anti-gun policies."

Rep. Paul Broun of Georgia will be the group's Republican co-chairman.

Boren said the task force will be charged with monitoring legislation regarding the Second Amendment during the 111th Congress.

He said the group will act as a unified and proactive force to promote legislation that protects the Second Amendment and to fight legislation that poses a threat to citizens' constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

"As a member of the National Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association and co-chair of the Congressional Sportsmen Caucus, I am proud to co-chair this task force with Congressman Broun and to take a leadership role on these important issues on behalf of my fellow Oklahoma gun-owners," Boren said.

He said other members of the task force were chosen after a thorough review was conducted of their voting records on Second Amendment issues and working closely with groups such as the NRA and Gun Owners of America.

Boren described the carefully selected group of lawmakers as "true believers" in the constitutional right for Americans to bear arms.

Other Democrats who were chosen for the group are Reps. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvania, Travis Childers of Mississippi, Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, Jim Matheson of Utah and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina.

Other Republicans chosen for the group are Reps. Rob Bishop of Utah, John Boozman of Arkansas, Steve King of Iowa and Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

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Appeals Court Says Guns In Vehicles OK

Oklahoma’s law requiring employers to allow workers to have guns in their locked vehicles at work is valid, an appeals court in Denver ruled today.

The ruling overturns a court order by a Tulsa judge in 2007.

A panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided 3-0 that U.S. District Judge Terrence Kern erred in concluding that the law is pre-empted by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act.

The judges said Kern’s ruling “interferes with Oklahoma’s police powers and essentially promulgates a court-made safety standard — a standard which OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has explicitly refrained from implementing on its own. Such action is beyond the province of federal courts.”

The law sparked a national dispute over gun rights, pitting some employers and gun-control advocates against workers and the National Rifle Association.

“We’re pleased with the court’s decision,” Charlie Price, a spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, told the Tulsa World. “It was our opinion that the law is constitutional, and the court agreed with us today.”

The law was passed in two stages in 2004 and 2005 by legislators who angered by the Weyerhauser Corp. firing eight workers at a timber mill in southeastern Oklahoma because they had guns in their vehicles at the mill in violation of company policy.

Over the years, a changing lineup of employers, including the Whirlpool Corp., which later dropped out, and more recently ConocoPhillips, challenged the law, starting with a 2004 lawsuit. Kern issued his permanent injunction in response to the challenges.

Goveror Henry and Edmondson, the defendants in the lawsuit, appealed Kern’s ruling.

ConocoPhillips spokesman Rich Johnson said Wednesday that “the safety of our employees is a top priority of ConocoPhillips, and we are disappointed with today’s decision.” He said the company has not had time to determine what its next step will be.

In an unusual step, Edmondson had an attorney for the National Rifle Association, instead of one of his own lawyers, argue the case before the appeals court in November.
The court had allowed the NRA to submit arguments as a “friend of the court.”

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Gun Owners Fear Obama Administration

From NewsMax ~ President-elect Barack Obama has a bad reputation regarding the Second Amendment right to bear arms, and it’s having a dramatic effect in gun and ammo retail outlets.

Gun sales across the country were up before Election 2008 – just in anticipation of a Barack Obama victory in the White House race. Now that the President-elect is poised to take the oath of office, guns are flying off the shelves.

“Sales of firearms, in particular handguns and semi-automatic hunting and target rifles, are fast outpacing inventory,” National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) president and CEO Stephen Sanetti disclosed in a statement to the media. “It’s clear that many people are concerned about possible gun bans under the incoming Congress and are reacting accordingly.”

For example, firearms sales in California jumped by a third from a year earlier -- from 99,396 to 132,599, according to the state Attorney General’s Office.

The Franklin Gun Shop outside Nashville, Tenn. sold more than 70 guns on Election Day, racking up the best sales day since the business opened. Also on Election Day, a Cheyenne, Wyoming, gun store set a one-day sales record – only to break that record the next day, according to a report by OneNewsNow.com.

Prior to Election Day, The New York Times reported a Pittsburgh-area merchant taking up to 30 calls daily for inquiries about buying assault rifles, a single-day record in Colorado for required background checks of gun buyers, and sales spiking as much as seven times in Houston gun stores.

So, has Barack Obama over the years said something or intimated anything by his record to cause this apparent panic?

Yes, in spades, maintains the National Rifle Association (NRA).

Read the entire story at www.newsmax.com.

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NRA: Oklahoma Proposal Will Lead Nation

By Darren La Sorte/NRA-ILA Manager of Hunting Policy ~ This past session, legislators in Oklahoma passed legislation by a combined vote of 143-2 allowing Oklahomans to decide whether to adopt a truly meaningful Right-to-Hunt constitutional amendment in November.

Over the last five years, NRA-ILA has been leading the effort to adopt these improved amendments, and it is hoped this success in Oklahoma will lead to a wave of meaningful protections in other states as well.

Read La Sorte's entire article at http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?ID=324.

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Friends Of NRA Donates To Murray State

Tishomingo ~ Thanks to a grant from The NRA Foundation Friends of NRA program Murray State College received a $2,000 grant to underwrite the MSC Summer 2008 NRA Gunsmithing & Law Enforcement Armorer School.

“We are very excited about this program and pleased that the NRA is making an investment in our community,” stated Dean Arnold, NRA program coordinator.

Friends of NRA is a grassroots, community-minded program supported by gunowners, sportsmen and NRA friends that conducts banquets and other fundraising events to generate income for the NRA Foundation.

Last year, the Friends of NRA raised over $11.7 million through events in 990 communities nationwide.

The NRA Foundation has awarded 395 grants totaling over $1.1 million for charitable programs in Oklahoma.

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