RE: SB 2099

There’s an email floating around detailing the effects of a senate bill currently in committee — and soon to be made law without a vote — designed to make it a felony if you do not report all your owned firearms on your IRS tax return, then pay an additional tax per firearm to the government.

I just did some research on this, and it is

false!

NRA-ILA has issued a statement about it:

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=4925

And Snopes has also written an article on it:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/taxreturns.asp

Y’all can relax now.

Free NRA memberships!

Been wanting to join the NRA but not quite sure you wanted to fork out the cash right away?  Now’s your chance!

The NRA is offering 1-year FREE memberships (great gift for family members and friends!):

https://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/accept-membership.asp

http://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/

Contexts

In deciding what the Constitution means, the powers that be have to consider what the Founders meant when they wrote it.  This is called Original Intent.

To figure out what the Original Intent is, usually, people do research to determine how key people to the issue believed about the issue — i.e. finding the context.

Consider this:

http://www.stevesimon.us/blog/?p=848

Revealing the Second Amendment

http://www.examiner.com/x-2323-LA-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m3d27-Revealing-the-Second-Amendment

and

http://www.examiner.com/x-2323-LA-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2009m3d28-Saturday-Special-Revealing-the-Second-Amendment-Part-II

This guy has a very enlightening take on the importance of the Second Amendment.  It isn’t about guns — it’s about preventing the abuse of power.

Go, read.  And come back and let us know what you think.

Crime and guns

Here’s your thought for the day:

If criminals don’t want to get shot,

And they openly admit to targeting those who won’t fight back,

(Hence, why they avoid people who look like they might be carrying)

In terms of protection and personal safety,

Doesn’t it just make sense to own a firearm?

Children & Firearms

Someone — a politician, I believe, though I forget who — said something once to the effect of:

A firearm in the hands of a child is an accident at least and a crime waiting to happen at worst.

Maybe I’m biased, but I disagree.

Teaching a child to shoot teaches them responsibility.  They learn to think before they act, to weigh the consequences of their actions.  To this day I still remember the words from my Grandfather’s mouth:

Never point that gun at anything you aren’t willing to shoot.

More eloquently, don’t point it at anything you aren’t willing to destroy.

Even when considering paper targets and empty pop cans, it’s an important lesson, and one I feel is at the root of most so-called “gun crimes” involving minors.  No one ever took the time to teach them that their actions have consequences.  Life, contrary to popular belief, is NOT a videogame.  You can’t hit “new game” and have it all start over.  There are consequences to the things we do.

Through shooting sports, children learn focus, and discipline.  If you’re going to hit that target, you’ve got be patient.  Focus on lining those sights up.  Do it right.  Take the time to do it right, because if you don’t, if you slack off at that last minute, it’s going to show.   And, if it doesn’t go right the first time, you try, try again.  Often times, you don’t hit the mark you’re aiming for.  (It happens in day-to-day life, too.)  But you can’t just give up.  You keep at it, until you reach that goal.

They also learn to be self-reliant.  In shooting sports, it’s just you and your equipment.  You can’t pass the ball to someone else and have them shoot the free-throw.  You can’t rely on someone else to carry the show.  You are responsible.  My grandpa taught me how to load my rifle myself.  Since we were a hunting family, he taught me how to field dress a carcass myself, how to use as much of it as possible (because it’s your responsibility to not let anything that can be used go to waste).  He also taught me about the finer points of marksmanship, about scopes and sights and how to fit a gun.  My grandpa taught me everything I needed to know to do it myself, and from that I became self-reliant. I could do it myself, and that confidence spread to other areas of my life as well.  I am not afraid to try new things, to learn new things.  Through shooting sports, I learned that all it takes to master a new skill is patience, the discipline to keep at it, and the responsibility to do it right.

I learned all these things young.  (Thanks, Grandpa.)

A firearm in the hands of a child should not be an accident.

A firearm in the hands of a child should not be a “crime waiting to happen.”

It should be an opportunity to teach life-lessons that will help shape a future member of society.

HR 45

It recently came to my attention that there is a bill currently in Congress called the “Blair Holt Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009″ also known as HR 45.

Under this bill, many honest, law-abiding citizens will become criminals.

As I understand it:
HR 45 will make it illegal for anyone to possess a firearm without a federally issued license.  To get a license (from the Attorney General), citizens will have to not only register every gun they own, they will also have to provide full details about where they are stored and how they are stored, in addition to providing personal information including mental health records.  Citizens will also have to pass a federal test on firearms and firearm safety, as well as pass a universal background check.

Failure to report a change of address; sale, loss, or theft of a firearm; possession without your license; or letting a child (defined as anyone under 18 ) use a firearm or have access to a firearm will earn you jail time.  The minimum penalty is two years, and you will be federally prosecuted.

To read the full text of it, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c111query.html and search for HR 45.

As of 1/6/09, HR 45 was referred to the Judiciary committee for consideration, but don’t wait to see if they will approve or disprove it.  Please.  Email, call, or write a letter to your Representatives and Senators.  It only takes a minute, and there is no guarantee your government will protect your rights.  You have to make yourself heard.

To locate your Representatives (by state), go here:

http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml

To locate your Senators (you can search/limit by State using the drop-down menu), go here:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

California condors in Washington?

Today I received an email alerting me to the Washington State Senate Bill 5095, a piece of legislation intending to “protect the California Condor from lead poisoning” brought on by bullet and shot leavings from hunters’ gut piles.

Since when does Washington state harbor the California Condor?  Last time I checked, the Condor was a Southwestern bird, native to Southern California, New Mexico, and Baja.

Furthermore, few hunters, if any, leave carcasses and gut piles laying around.  (Um, the purpose of hunting is to eat what you kill??)  They cart the animals home to skin and process them, and, at least in my experience, that includes picking out the remaining bullet fragments and disposing of them properly.

I sat down and read the entire bill; it listed only vague numbers (where is their bibliographic resources?  Their works cited of all their research info?), and no specifics regarding their “protected areas,” other than “the commission shall by rule determine the areas… the types of non-toxic ammunition” acceptable….

At what point will their determinations end?  Will they continue expanding the range of this non-native bird until it covers the entire state?  Will they continue specifying the acceptable forms of non-toxic ammunition until the price skyrockets to unacceptable levels?

This bill has nothing to do with the California Condor.

It has everything to do with implementing control over our guns via their ammunition.

Senate Bill 5095 (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/Summary.aspx?bill=5095&year=2009) was heard today, and so we’ll see what happens.

One more thing about the White House Agenda…

I want to clear things up a little bit.

During my examination of President Obama’s agenda on his website I found a lot of really good, well-thought out policies that I could really get behind.  I think the man’s got it going for him in quite a few areas, and I hope he really lives up to some of the things he’s proposed.  Honestly.

However, while he mentions on his website that he wants to protect the rights and heritage of America’s sportsmen, at the same time he’s also talking about a permanent ban on these so-called “assault weapons.”

I mentioned in my previous post that “assault weapons” is simply a buzz-word, and it’s true.  As they are defined:

…refers to a broad category of firearms, including military-style semiautomatic rifles derived from assault rifles, and also including some pistols and shotguns. Assault weapons are often similar in appearance to military firearms, but are capable of firing only one round each time the trigger is pulled.

from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_weapon

This includes all modern-day hunting rifles.  This includes varmint rifles (used to keep agriculturally damaging populations down — you like your food, don’t you?  Farmers use these firearms to put that food on your table). This includes pistols used by police, sport shooters, and your grandmother who got mugged three times last year and won’t have it happen again.  It includes every gun of every caliber some way or another, because, as one well-researched historian said, “Today’s hunting rifles are the military’s firearms of 50 years ago.”

And,  going back even further, the military firearms of past days includes antiquated revolvers of the “Old West” type, double-barreled shotguns, single-barreled shotguns, and muzzleloaders of the mountain man era (yes, they do shoot “one round each time the trigger is pulled”).

B.B. guns/air rifles are also included as they can shoot “one round per trigger pull” and are modeled after real firearms, which, you guessed it, were modeled after military arms.

It isn’t just those crazy, tricked-out rifles you see in Hollywood’s thrillers.

They say they want to protect our hunting and sporting heritage.

Do they really?

With all these vagaries floating around, with all these ill-defined words clouded by a Hollywood-ized version of the “truth,” what is really going on?

Do you really know what your politicians stand for?

Or have you just taken their word for it?

Just one thing: the election is already over.  The board is set, the chess pieces in motion.  But your work is not done. In the months ahead, please, pay attention to what your legislators are doing.  Pay attention to where your government is going.  Pay attention, and think about the issues.  Formulate an opinion.

People who lived centuries before our time have all said again and again that you can’t trust government.

You, the people, have to be active in it to make it work.

“We the People….”

You voted for ‘change’

But really, it isn’t “change” at all.

President Obama is at this time planning to return to gun control policies which have already been proven ineffective.

From his Urban Policy Agenda, as seen on the White House website:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/urban_policy/

Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

First of all, gun trace information is inaccurate at best, and an extreme, hindering disaster to law-abiding citizens at worst.

Secondly, how do they propose to keep guns away from criminals?  Criminals do not purchase guns through legal channels since legal channels are already well-regulated.  Criminals get their guns illegally.  So what good will further regulation do?

Thirdly, keeping guns away from children is not a problem they should be focusing on.  Do they really know exactly how many children are injured by firearms related accidents every year?  Consider this: riding your bike  is far more dangerous (809.4  injuries per 100 thousand to shooting sports’ 6.7 injuries).  Even playing golf (163.5 injuries per 100 thousand) is more dangerous.

I know several young marksmen who are more disciplined and responsible than many adults, and they learned those valuable traits from participating in shooting sports.

Fourth, there is no “gun show loophole.”  Every vendor who has firearms on their table is certified and registered according to federal guidelines.  They can’t participate otherwise.

Fifth, I would like to know how they can make a firearm “childproof,” when manufacturers can’t even make “childproof” locks, bottles, prescription containers, and door barriers and child gates.  It can’t be done.

Sixth, did you know “assault weapon” is a buzz-word that, if you look at the definition, covers ALL firearms in one incarnation or another?  A so-called “Assault Weapons Ban” is just another way of saying “Goodbye, Second Amendment.”  In other words:

You only have the Rights I want you to have, not what our Founders decided are unalienable.  I can and will take away your Rights as I see fit.

Is this the “change” you voted for?

Even if you don’t care about guns, or your Second Amendment, consider this:

If they take away one of your rights as a citizen,

what’s to stop them from taking away the rest?