Showing posts with label Gun control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gun control. Show all posts
Monday, January 24, 2011
Which way will you run?
From American Thinker:
By Russ Vaughn
January 10, 2011
Geraldo Rivera just interviewed an articulate and eloquent young man of but twenty-four years, Joe Zamudio, who was inside the Safeway to buy cigarettes when he heard the Pop! Pop! Pop! of gunfire outside. Zamudio, legally carrying a firearm himself, obviously a pistol, ran to the sound of the guns where others in the crowd were attempting to overpower the shooter. Zamudio, who appears to be a young man of some physical substance, assisted in that successful effort.
When asked by Geraldo if he thought of shooting the shooter, young Zamudio wisely replied that he did not feel that was the needed course of action since others were already involved in taking down the perpetrator. Zamudio specifically stated that he did not draw his weapon for fear of collateral damage to innocents in the chaotic situation. That is a particularly salient point that should be seized upon by those of us who advocate for the public's right to bear arms. The gun-hating left all too frequently tries to portray us as careless amateurs who have little regard for the consequences of our use of our weapons in a public setting. Their argument is that armed citizens will only contribute to the body count. Zamudio proved them wrong.
The second thought in my mind at this moment is the courage demonstrated by the people in the crowd who took this shooter down before he could commit more mayhem, Zamudio among them. Young Joe Zamudio didn't drop to the floor and seek safety when he heard those ominous Pop! Pop! Pops! which anyone familiar with firearms knows are out of place in a shopping mall parking lot. He ran to the sound of the guns. Without regard to his personal safety, he ran to the sound of the guns.
That points to a troubling question I think we all carry within us. Confronted with the scenario Zamudio faced, would we hit the floor seeking safety or would we have the courage to burst through those doors and face the devil? Geraldo correctly stated that such a decision is split-second and the decision one makes at that critical moment defines them forever. Joe Zamudio now knows the answer to that critical question about himself.
Most of us don't. We all like to think we would emulate Zamudio's courage and instincts, but would we really? As I just confessed to my wife, I don't know that critical truth about myself. I would hope that in similar circumstances, with my combat infantry experience, I would conduct myself with the courage and honor of young Zamudio and the others who took down this killer.
But like most of you I wonder...
Would I run to the sound of the guns?
By Russ Vaughn
January 10, 2011
Geraldo Rivera just interviewed an articulate and eloquent young man of but twenty-four years, Joe Zamudio, who was inside the Safeway to buy cigarettes when he heard the Pop! Pop! Pop! of gunfire outside. Zamudio, legally carrying a firearm himself, obviously a pistol, ran to the sound of the guns where others in the crowd were attempting to overpower the shooter. Zamudio, who appears to be a young man of some physical substance, assisted in that successful effort.
When asked by Geraldo if he thought of shooting the shooter, young Zamudio wisely replied that he did not feel that was the needed course of action since others were already involved in taking down the perpetrator. Zamudio specifically stated that he did not draw his weapon for fear of collateral damage to innocents in the chaotic situation. That is a particularly salient point that should be seized upon by those of us who advocate for the public's right to bear arms. The gun-hating left all too frequently tries to portray us as careless amateurs who have little regard for the consequences of our use of our weapons in a public setting. Their argument is that armed citizens will only contribute to the body count. Zamudio proved them wrong.
The second thought in my mind at this moment is the courage demonstrated by the people in the crowd who took this shooter down before he could commit more mayhem, Zamudio among them. Young Joe Zamudio didn't drop to the floor and seek safety when he heard those ominous Pop! Pop! Pops! which anyone familiar with firearms knows are out of place in a shopping mall parking lot. He ran to the sound of the guns. Without regard to his personal safety, he ran to the sound of the guns.
That points to a troubling question I think we all carry within us. Confronted with the scenario Zamudio faced, would we hit the floor seeking safety or would we have the courage to burst through those doors and face the devil? Geraldo correctly stated that such a decision is split-second and the decision one makes at that critical moment defines them forever. Joe Zamudio now knows the answer to that critical question about himself.
Most of us don't. We all like to think we would emulate Zamudio's courage and instincts, but would we really? As I just confessed to my wife, I don't know that critical truth about myself. I would hope that in similar circumstances, with my combat infantry experience, I would conduct myself with the courage and honor of young Zamudio and the others who took down this killer.
But like most of you I wonder...
Would I run to the sound of the guns?
Monday, July 19, 2010
Once again... Looking Backwards to look forward
Thomas Jefferson, an American visionary... or an educated conservative?
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
Thomas Jefferson
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'
When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.
Thomas JeffersonThe democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:
'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'
Monday, May 17, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Day 6 At the rifle range!
Daaa daaaaa da da da adadadadad da I am Iron Man! Well ok kevlar and ceramic man at the eye popping weight of 42 pounds! Rifle and pistol shooting today. Oh did I mention it was raining! If it aint rainin we aint trainin... Uniform for wet weather is wet fatigues! for some reason we all were talking about motrin on the ride home? Maybe it is that fact that the class average age is 38 or that we sling on our k-pots, vests, camel backs, elbow pads, knee pads, eye protection, ear protection about 5000 times a day? Beware nutz can sling the lead!
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
The Ohio State University's Anti-Gun Policy Saves lives....
NOT!
COLUMBUS, Ohio—An Ohio State University janitor who was about to lose his job walked into a maintenance building for his early morning shift Tuesday and shot two supervisors, killing one of them and fatally shooting himself. No students were hurt.
Just think if this former criminal really had an axe to grind we could be looking at another Virginia Tech event!
Transportation and Use of Weapons
The Ohio State University Sport Club members utilizing weapons in their club's activities
must be aware of university rules pertaining to the presence of firearms and other weapons
on campus and each member must realize their obligation with regard to these guidelines
and the consequences of any violations to these guidelines.
Current university policies prohibit weapons, genuine or facsimile, on campus property
(including parking lots).
Obviously the janitor did not adhere to this rule!
This policy applies to anyone involved in a Recreational Sports
sponsored event (students, faculty, staff, and visitors). Weapons prohibited include, but are
not limited to rearms (i.e. handguns, rifles, shotguns, facsimile firearms- including laser tag
toys); illegal knives (i.e. foil, epee, and sabre swords); clubs (i.e. wooden swords, staffs,
bows and nunchakus); and armor-piercing ammunition. Only with permission from the
Sport Club office can an exception be made to allow use and transportation of
weapons on campus. (See Code of Student Conduct 3335-25-01 (D) for complete
information on the university's policy.)
Sunday, February 21, 2010
The Author is trying to sell a different topic...
WASHINGTON (Feb. 18) -- Teddy Roosevelt couldn't bring a gun into Yellowstone National Park, but soon anyone with a permit will be able to shoulder a shotgun as they watch Old Faithful erupt.
Read the article by Andrea Stone and see how he/she tries to lead the reader astray from what is actually happening. He/she muddies the waters between conservation and self protection. Yes, Roosevelt could not hunt, shoot, trap in National Parks where these activities were not allowed all in the name of "Conservation" gun slingers will not be hunting either when it is not allowed. I will bet ya my life's saving that when Obama toured Yellowstone National Park there were LOTS of guns in very close proximity on National Park Grounds. Did someone forget to tell the sitting president that guns were not allowed in National Parks and the Secret Service would have to:
"According to historian Douglas Brinkley's "The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America," the park's superintendent "issued a stern statement declaring that the president's gun would be sealed by the U.S. Army when he entered the park, just as with every other citizen."
I don't think so?
However, crime is also not allowed anywhere and it still happens. When was the last time you took a stroll though a National Park and needed a park rangers assistance?
Mother natures creatures like to eat as well and little tikes make yummy snacks for cougars, bears, gators and other animals high on the food pyramid.
Next time I take my family for a cruise down Colonial Parkway and if I unfortunately come across someone that requires the use of a firearm for protection, I will be sure to ask the victim if they feel firearms should not be carried by those who have take it upon themselves to be licensed, trained and courageous enough to exercise their second amendment rights in National Parks. Ok, I fibbed a little there but you get the point!
Read the article by Andrea Stone and see how he/she tries to lead the reader astray from what is actually happening. He/she muddies the waters between conservation and self protection. Yes, Roosevelt could not hunt, shoot, trap in National Parks where these activities were not allowed all in the name of "Conservation" gun slingers will not be hunting either when it is not allowed. I will bet ya my life's saving that when Obama toured Yellowstone National Park there were LOTS of guns in very close proximity on National Park Grounds. Did someone forget to tell the sitting president that guns were not allowed in National Parks and the Secret Service would have to:
"According to historian Douglas Brinkley's "The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America," the park's superintendent "issued a stern statement declaring that the president's gun would be sealed by the U.S. Army when he entered the park, just as with every other citizen."
I don't think so?
However, crime is also not allowed anywhere and it still happens. When was the last time you took a stroll though a National Park and needed a park rangers assistance? Mother natures creatures like to eat as well and little tikes make yummy snacks for cougars, bears, gators and other animals high on the food pyramid.
Next time I take my family for a cruise down Colonial Parkway and if I unfortunately come across someone that requires the use of a firearm for protection, I will be sure to ask the victim if they feel firearms should not be carried by those who have take it upon themselves to be licensed, trained and courageous enough to exercise their second amendment rights in National Parks. Ok, I fibbed a little there but you get the point!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Northam Update RE SB334
So what is more important to Senator Northam, the safety of the general public or infringing on the rights of the citizens of the commonwealth?
If Senator Northam is concerned about the safety of the general public when it comes to bars and restaurants which serve alcohol; maybe legislation should be introduced and passed which makes it a crime to consume alcohol while in possession of car keys while in a bar or restaurant. If you are a car driver you need to ensure that your car keys are clearly visible and not concealed. After all alcohol/automobile deaths in 2008 were 300 plus and injuries were over 6000.
How many alcohol related gun deaths were there by "licensed" concealed weapon carriers? Might be quite a revealing study? Anybody have any good stats?
In Senator Northam's words:
"I believe that we must strike a balance between protecting individual liberties, and protecting the public at large, and I also believe that is consistent with being a supporter of Second Amendment rights. Repealing the ban on concealed weapons in restaurants serving alcohol is not in the interest of public safety. I have heard from many in the law enforcement and business communities who agree. While we may not see eye to eye on this issue, I thank you for writing, and hope that you will continue to contact my office on matters of importance to you.
Sincerely,
Ralph S. Northam
Senator, Virginia's 6th District "
If Senator Northam is concerned about the safety of the general public when it comes to bars and restaurants which serve alcohol; maybe legislation should be introduced and passed which makes it a crime to consume alcohol while in possession of car keys while in a bar or restaurant. If you are a car driver you need to ensure that your car keys are clearly visible and not concealed. After all alcohol/automobile deaths in 2008 were 300 plus and injuries were over 6000.
How many alcohol related gun deaths were there by "licensed" concealed weapon carriers? Might be quite a revealing study? Anybody have any good stats?
In Senator Northam's words:
"I believe that we must strike a balance between protecting individual liberties, and protecting the public at large, and I also believe that is consistent with being a supporter of Second Amendment rights. Repealing the ban on concealed weapons in restaurants serving alcohol is not in the interest of public safety. I have heard from many in the law enforcement and business communities who agree. While we may not see eye to eye on this issue, I thank you for writing, and hope that you will continue to contact my office on matters of importance to you.
Sincerely,
Ralph S. Northam
Senator, Virginia's 6th District "
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Attacking the 2nd Ammendment
A re-post from John and others...
I have no idea if this is on the level; but, if it is true, it would be consistent with the aims of Obama and Eric Holder, US Attorney General.
It sure would be easier for Obama to establish his "National Civilian Security Force" if folks like us were disarmed! I know that I may seem fixated on the NCSF; but, when Obama took the time to mention it in his speech back on 2 July 2008, he intends to pursue its establishment.
John
On Wednesday the Obama administration took its first major step in a plan to ban all firearms in the United States.
The Obama administration intends to force gun control and a complete ban on all weapons for US citizens through the signing of international treaties with foreign nations.
By signing international treaties on gun control, the Obama administration can use the US State Department to bypass the normal legislative process in Congress.
Once the US Government signs these international treaties, all US citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments.
These are laws that have been developed and promoted by organizations such as the United Nations and individuals such as George Soros and Michael Bloomberg.
The laws are designed and intended to lead to the complete ban and confiscation of all firearms.
The Obama administration is attempting to use tactics and methods of gun control that will inflict major damage to our 2nd Amendment before US citizens even understand what has happened.
The Obama administration is attempting to use tactics and methods of gun control that will inflict major damage to our 2nd Amendment before US citizens even understand what has happened.
Obama can appear before the public and tell them that he does not intend to pursue any legislation (in the United States) that will lead to new gun control laws, while cloaked in secrecy, his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is committing the US to international treaties and foreign gun control laws.
Does that mean Obama is telling the truth?
What it means is that there will be no publicized gun control debates in the media or votes in Congress.
We will wake up one morning and find that the United States has signed a treaty that prohibits firearm and ammunition manufacturers from selling to the public.
We will wake up another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that prohibits any transfer of firearm ownership. And then, we will wake up yet another morning and find that the US has signed a treaty that requires US citizens to deliver any firearm they own to the local government collection and destruction center or face imprisonment.
This is not a joke nor a false warning. As sure as government health care will be forced on us by the Obama administration through whatever means necessary, so will gun control.
Read the Article
U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.
The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better. View The Full Article Here http://www.reuters.com/
<http://www.reuters.com/
This is not a joke nor a false warning. As sure as government health care will be forced on us by the Obama administration through whatever means necessary, so will gun control.
Read the Article
U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.
The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better. View The Full Article Here http://www.reuters.com/
<http://www.reuters.com/
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Friday, January 08, 2010
Now this is an intersting Blog post
The Doctrine of the Three Percent
You cannot convince us.
You cannot intimidate us.
You can try to kill us, if you think you can.
But remember, we'll shoot back.
And we are not going away.
Your move.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Wonder why....
..the founding fathers and thinkers of the time were so concerned about this?
"The people are not to be disarmed of their weapons. They are left in full possession of them."
--Zacharia Johnson, speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
God Bless our Founding Fathers
"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, 1785
Monday, November 30, 2009
Here it comes!
Federal Gun Control!
By Jim Kouri
Drawing reasonable conclusions from what Holder publicly said, Deeds points out that:
* Holder wants a national, permanent gun registration system administered by law enforcement. A registration of honest citizens that have cleared the federal background check for gun purchases with those records permanently retained by and shared among law enforcement.
* Holder wants new federal authority to prohibit any person on the federal watch list (reported to be 400,000 names) from buying guns and supports confiscating guns from those on the list who posses them.
General Holder testified: "The position of the Administration is that there should be a basis for law enforcement to share information about gun purchases."
"... [It's not] inconsistent to allow law enforcement agencies to share that kind of information, for that information to be retained and then to be shared by law enforcement." "It seems incongruous to me that we would bar certain people from flying on airplanes because they are on the terrorist watch list and yet we would still allow them to posses weapons," said Holder.
By Jim Kouri
Drawing reasonable conclusions from what Holder publicly said, Deeds points out that:
* Holder wants a national, permanent gun registration system administered by law enforcement. A registration of honest citizens that have cleared the federal background check for gun purchases with those records permanently retained by and shared among law enforcement.
* Holder wants new federal authority to prohibit any person on the federal watch list (reported to be 400,000 names) from buying guns and supports confiscating guns from those on the list who posses them.
General Holder testified: "The position of the Administration is that there should be a basis for law enforcement to share information about gun purchases."
"... [It's not] inconsistent to allow law enforcement agencies to share that kind of information, for that information to be retained and then to be shared by law enforcement." "It seems incongruous to me that we would bar certain people from flying on airplanes because they are on the terrorist watch list and yet we would still allow them to posses weapons," said Holder.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Brady Center speaks.....
Why does the Brady Center want to leave the innocent unprotected?
"It is a case that calls out for common sense," Brady Center attorney Daniel Vice said then. "It's ridiculous to bring a gun to a child's soccer game."
So, the Brady center must think it is also ridiculous to bring a gun to child's classroom or a center of higher learning or a National Forrest?
So, all of you police officers, leave your bullet launchers at home, it is ridiculous to bring a gun where children are present, especially you police officers at Virginia Tech, and Columbine HS Colorado, The Amish School in PA, and the school at Winnenden Germany and many others!
"Children were sitting at their tables, with pencils still in their hands, their heads fallen over on the table," said regional police director Ralf Michelfelder, describing the grisly scene that his officers found. "Most of them had shots in their head — it must have all happened in seconds."
NUTZ: Too bad the police were minutes away when seconds counted to stop this needless act of violence. Why does the Brady Center want to prevent people from being able to protect themselves from criminals?
Still not convinced, the Brady Center should also be complicent in the recent murder of two Virginia Tech students in The Jefferson National Forrest.
Friday, August 28th 2009,
Virginia Tech students David Lee Metzler, Heidi Lynn Child found slain at Jefferson National Forest
Jul 30, 2009
Washington, DC - A federal court today permanently vacated a last-minute Bush Administration rule allowing the carrying of loaded, concealed firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. Responding to lawsuits filed by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and parks groups, the court had previously issued a temporary injunction staying enforcement of the Bush rule, finding that the rule was “astoundingly flawed” and issued in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.I am sure Mike Peters of Mother Goose and Grimm would like to redue his strip from August 31st 2009
Is your Kid safe today?
Friday, September 18, 2009
Update to the Crowd Size in DC 12 Sept 2009
<
 |
| From DC Tea Party |
Conclusion: probably well more than 850,000 in the crowd.
Came across this on the web and it is worth reading. Those that were there know the enormity of the "party". Those that don't have be mislead by the "old"failing media outlets.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vuntyBBDN8dK8SGWeQDnx6mslMQvPPaL1uRA2egBulvOzmLm-cCW9XOoyjxM6d1d4S4ypG27MwluYB_Bn_fBocLfmoGFxr3S1ZmKvuW80gtMSWT5CFiTtkSWVsAbCC2P2Wlyd_eQWSXw0SvjsEg7eD=s0-d)
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
From Virginia Citizens Defense League
I (Philip Van Cleave) have suggested that gun owners who are going to the event should wear an empty holster to protest DC's unconstitutional ban on your right to carry a gun for self-defense.
PLEASE NOTE: DO ***NOT*** bring any AMMUNITION into DC! It is a felony for every unregistered round!
I could see myself carefully taking my gun out of my holster, securing the gun in the car, jumping on the metro, and totally forgetting the spare magazine on my hip! Hmmm - seven felonies just waiting to happen. :-(
It's always such a great feeling to reenter American when that metro crosses back into Virginia on the way home!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sjcNDsGAYagz__gDke_dhA0fZNtTYG36w9Hijt_yhw5OfGXi4uo9-0UUYDkfZxa0Eb4fOHXCoc9Mju95H1_gZoyxoI9QnK61xXwDOXwE0I-xHwLEOFx4UkUaHIbNgXZrQwALmV9LnpS13VhjbN2zar=s0-d)
PLEASE NOTE: DO ***NOT*** bring any AMMUNITION into DC! It is a felony for every unregistered round!
I could see myself carefully taking my gun out of my holster, securing the gun in the car, jumping on the metro, and totally forgetting the spare magazine on my hip! Hmmm - seven felonies just waiting to happen. :-(
It's always such a great feeling to reenter American when that metro crosses back into Virginia on the way home!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Guns Save lives, Exercise your 2nd Amendment Rights!
This article, by MSNBC, starts out with a description of lives being saved here in Virginia by an open carrier (the shooting at the Golden Market in Richmond).
On the pro-gun side, VCDL EM John Pierce, is interviewed. John, along with EM Mike Stollenwerk, runs the OpenCarry.org web site.
Also interviewed is Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).
I supplied some of the information the reporter used, but was not interviewed.
Because of the continued movement towards gun-rights in the country, including coverage in articles like this, the Brady Campaign has got to be buying Tums antacids by the pallet! ;-)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32492783/ns/us_news-life//
Guns near Obama fuel 'open-carry' debate Second Amendment activists divided by public displays of firearms By Mike Stuckey Senior news editor msnbc.com updated 6:49 p.m. ET Aug. 25, 2009 Gun owners may be arguing among themselves and with gun-control activists about it, but for Mustapha Kassou, there’s no debate over the “open-carry” movement, which created a furor this month when
pistol- and rifle-packing citizens showed up near several public appearances by President Barack Obama.
Kassou was working the cash register in the Richmond, Va., market he owns on July 11 when a gunman stormed the store with robbery on his mind. In an incident captured on surveillance video, the bandit ordered the eight customers to the floor and pumped two bullets from his snub-nosed pistol into Kassou, who fell to the floor behind the counter.
As the store’s patrons prayed and screamed, one of them drew a .45- caliber revolver from a holster in plain view on his hip and ordered the robber to drop his gun. In the shootout and hand-to-hand struggle that followed, the customer managed to wound the robber three times and prevent him from shooting anyone else. By the time police responded to a 911 call, the robber lay mortally wounded in a pool of blood; he died three days later in a hospital.
“Thank God he had his gun that day,” Kassou said of the man with the .
45, a friend of his and a member of the loosely organized open-carry movement who has declined to be publicly identified and eschewed any notion that he was a hero.
“He saved many lives that day,” Kassou told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. “If it wasn’t for him, probably I would not be here.”
Kassou and other open-carry advocates say the case is an example that supports their notion that openly armed citizens can deter and stop crime effectively.
Reason to cringe
While the outcome of the gunfight at Kassou’s Golden Food Market is perhaps the best publicity the open-carry movement could hope for, some in its ranks are cringing at the far greater coverage given to the recent open-carrying activities of others. Outside presidential town hall meetings from New Hampshire to Arizona, these gun owners have worn their loaded revolvers and semiautomatic pistols for all the world to see. One man slung a military-style AR-15 rifle over his shoulder.
One of the biggest attention-getters was William Kostric, who strapped a 9 mm Smith & Wesson in a SWAT-style leg holster and wore it to Obama’s Aug. 11 town hall meeting on health care in Portsmouth, N.H.
“I wanted people to remember the rights that we have and how quickly we’re losing them in this country,” he told msnbc-tv's Chris Matthews.
The White House, hoping to allay fears of a security threat, has said that people are entitled to carry weapons outside such events if local laws allow it. "Those laws don't change when the president comes to your state or locality," spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
The incidents have stirred fear and anger among some Americans, and contempt from gun-rights activists for what they see as overreaction and unfair spin by the national media. They have also exposed a subtlety and nuance in America’s ongoing debate over firearms that are often lost in the predictable, shrill arguments between gun- control advocates and Second Amendment defenders.
As much as any issue, open carry reveals divisions within the gun- rights community, often characterized by gun-control advocates as a monolithic force that is led in lock-step by the powerful and well- heeled National Rifle Association. But you won’t find the NRA weighing in on this issue; the 4-million-member group did not respond to msnbc.com’s requests for an interview.
“They’re obviously avoiding taking a stand on this one,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the nationwide advocacy group for “sensible” gun laws. “It’s a no-win for them.” If NRA officials criticize those who open-carry near Obama events, they run the risk of irritating their “rabid membership,”
Helmke said. If they support the behavior, “they’re going to lose all credibility not only with the public but with the elected officials who usually vote their way.”
Other gun-rights groups, however, have not shied away, offering a range of reaction.
'It's their right'
“We do applaud them for being a positive example of responsible gun owners,” said John Velleco, director of federal affairs for the Gun Owners of America, probably the loudest voice of support for those who have displayed firearms near Obama events. “We’re not calling for people to do that but if they’re doing so legally it’s their right to do it,” said Velleco, who has said he would have no concerns over thousands of citizens openly carrying firearms to an event at which the president was speaking.
But Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, another staunch defender of gun rights, was not applauding. Gottlieb said the open carrying of firearms near presidential town hall meetings on health care “is not the time or the place for it. I’m not for disallowing them to do so, I just don’t think it’s politically intelligent. … I would like to see gun owners think twice before they go to a rally like that with a firearm strapped on. It doesn’t necessarily put our best face forward.”
John Pierce, co-founder of OpenCarry.org, a social-networking Web site for gun owners that catalogs weapons laws across the nation and chronicles efforts to loosen and remove restrictions against the public carrying of firearms, praised the low-key response of the White House and the Secret Service to the incidents. But he also worried a bit about the actions of those who wear guns near presidential venues.
A 'very mixed message'
“I absolutely believe open carry should be legal anywhere that a citizen can legally be,” he explained. “Having said that, one of the things that I find a little bit less than perfect about the recent situation is not the fact that citizens were open-carrying, but rather that they were there as a form of open conduct to disagree with a political position that the president has taken, whether it’s about health care or the economy.” Doing so with a gun strapped on sends a “very mixed message,” said Pierce.
Velleco of Gun Owners of America dismissed that. It “might be a different story” if the town hall open-carry incidents were organized.
“You have to remember, this is a leaderless action,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it a movement. I don’t know of anyone who is coordinating people to show up at these events armed. … Gun Owners of America would not call for an armed rally. These people are doing it on their own.”
'Setting the table'
But some gun-control activists said they see a clear link between the recent open-carrying actions and past campaigns by the NRA and other groups.
“Leading into the election last year, the NRA spent something like $15 million saying if Obama is elected he’ll take your guns away,” said Helmke of the Brady Campaign. “That whole lead-in from last year is really kind of setting the table for some of what we’re seeing with this open carry at Obama events.
“When you’re seeing some of the NRA language from the ads last year being parroted by some of … the picketers and protesters, you start realizing there’s consequences to what they’re saying.”
Jim Kessler of Third Way, the successor organization to the gun- control group Americans for Gun Safety, said openly carrying firearms near the town halls is the sort of thing done by “a very tiny faction of the extreme right wing that’s a real paranoid conspiracy theorist group.”
While he does not believe the NRA is behind the open-carrying, he said it could work to the gun group’s advantage. “I think they (NRA
leaders) think these people are whack jobs, to be honest with you, but they love a fight. What the NRA is interested in the most is raising money and increasing membership. They love having Obama as president.
It means their membership is going to go up.”
An unseemly image
The “whack job” image is a big concern to Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation. He does not like provocative open-carry actions just as “I don’t like gun owners running around with the T-shirts saying, ‘Kill Them All and Let God Sort Them Out.’ If someone from the media is at a gun show, that’s the kind of person they’re going to put on TV.”
And that collides harshly with the image that Pierce and others are trying to craft for the open-carry movement, which he said is “normal law-abiding citizens being able to exercise their rights as they go about their everyday lives.”
In rural Virginia, where he grew up, “every corner had a rifle or a shotgun in it,” Pierce said. “It was simply a part of life. Everybody hunted. Firearms were just a part of life, a noncontroversial part of life.” He’d like all Americans to feel the same and sees the work of OpenCarry.org as largely educational.
One positive of the current controversy, Pierce said, “is that it does make open-carry very visible. A lot of people living in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, the Northeast, basically … when they see this, it’s a real wake-up call that there are rights that are exercised in the rest of the country that are so far outside their experience. It makes people begin to wonder about the limits that laws in their states have placed on their rights.
“Open-carry IS the Second Amendment,” Pierce said. “If you believe in the Second Amendment, you believe in open carry.”
A call for more laws
But the Brady Campaign’s Helmke has a different take. “They’re showing the rest of the country how weak our gun laws are,” he said. “When you open-carry, you don’t have a permit, no one has checked you out, you don’t have to go through any training in a lot of places. You can carry a .50-caliber sniper rifle down the street. When folks see that, then maybe they’ll wake up to the fact that we really don’t have many laws on the books with regard to guns.”
Third Way’s Kessler said that despite last year’s landmark Heller ruling by the Supreme Court that upheld individual rights to own guns, “There is no constitutional right to carry a firearm. This is not even close on the constitutional scale — I have a right to carry a firearm wherever I go — it’s just not.”
Kessler and Helmke caution that gun-rights advocates, who have enjoyed years of legislative and legal success on issues from relaxed concealed-carry laws to the expiration of the 1994 federal assault- rifle ban, could push too far.
They cite the Senate’s failure, albeit by a narrow margin, in July to pass an amendment that would have made a concealed-weapon permit from any state valid in all.
“I think the gun lobby is starting to lose its clout,” Helmke said.
As for open-carry, which, although at least tacitly supported by most in the gun-rights community is still criticized by many as less tactically shrewd than concealed-carry, Kessler said, “You have to decide what kind of society you want to live in. Do you want to live in a society where the person next to you is openly carrying a firearm? Does that make you happy? I think for most people it disturbs them. It would for me.”
It shouldn’t, said Velleco of Gun Owners of America. “These people, if anything, are contributing to public safety, not endangering it. … Lawful gun owners use firearms over a million times a year successfully in self-defense. And they make our streets and neighborhoods safer than they would be otherwise. That’s what people don’t understand.”
Kassou, who has recovered from his wounds and returned to work in his Virginia store, said his attitude has changed. “Nobody likes to carry a gun,” he said, and before he was shot he didn’t. “We’re not here in a war zone, we’re just trying to make a living, but sometimes you have to defend yourself.”
So now Kassou straps a gun on each day when he heads for his market.
Does he wear it openly, as lawful firearms owners are allowed to do in Virginia?
“Yes sir, I do.”
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On the pro-gun side, VCDL EM John Pierce, is interviewed. John, along with EM Mike Stollenwerk, runs the OpenCarry.org web site.
Also interviewed is Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).
I supplied some of the information the reporter used, but was not interviewed.
Because of the continued movement towards gun-rights in the country, including coverage in articles like this, the Brady Campaign has got to be buying Tums antacids by the pallet! ;-)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32492783/ns/us_news-life//
Guns near Obama fuel 'open-carry' debate Second Amendment activists divided by public displays of firearms By Mike Stuckey Senior news editor msnbc.com updated 6:49 p.m. ET Aug. 25, 2009 Gun owners may be arguing among themselves and with gun-control activists about it, but for Mustapha Kassou, there’s no debate over the “open-carry” movement, which created a furor this month when
pistol- and rifle-packing citizens showed up near several public appearances by President Barack Obama.
Kassou was working the cash register in the Richmond, Va., market he owns on July 11 when a gunman stormed the store with robbery on his mind. In an incident captured on surveillance video, the bandit ordered the eight customers to the floor and pumped two bullets from his snub-nosed pistol into Kassou, who fell to the floor behind the counter.
As the store’s patrons prayed and screamed, one of them drew a .45- caliber revolver from a holster in plain view on his hip and ordered the robber to drop his gun. In the shootout and hand-to-hand struggle that followed, the customer managed to wound the robber three times and prevent him from shooting anyone else. By the time police responded to a 911 call, the robber lay mortally wounded in a pool of blood; he died three days later in a hospital.
“Thank God he had his gun that day,” Kassou said of the man with the .
45, a friend of his and a member of the loosely organized open-carry movement who has declined to be publicly identified and eschewed any notion that he was a hero.
“He saved many lives that day,” Kassou told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. “If it wasn’t for him, probably I would not be here.”
Kassou and other open-carry advocates say the case is an example that supports their notion that openly armed citizens can deter and stop crime effectively.
Reason to cringe
While the outcome of the gunfight at Kassou’s Golden Food Market is perhaps the best publicity the open-carry movement could hope for, some in its ranks are cringing at the far greater coverage given to the recent open-carrying activities of others. Outside presidential town hall meetings from New Hampshire to Arizona, these gun owners have worn their loaded revolvers and semiautomatic pistols for all the world to see. One man slung a military-style AR-15 rifle over his shoulder.
One of the biggest attention-getters was William Kostric, who strapped a 9 mm Smith & Wesson in a SWAT-style leg holster and wore it to Obama’s Aug. 11 town hall meeting on health care in Portsmouth, N.H.
“I wanted people to remember the rights that we have and how quickly we’re losing them in this country,” he told msnbc-tv's Chris Matthews.
The White House, hoping to allay fears of a security threat, has said that people are entitled to carry weapons outside such events if local laws allow it. "Those laws don't change when the president comes to your state or locality," spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
The incidents have stirred fear and anger among some Americans, and contempt from gun-rights activists for what they see as overreaction and unfair spin by the national media. They have also exposed a subtlety and nuance in America’s ongoing debate over firearms that are often lost in the predictable, shrill arguments between gun- control advocates and Second Amendment defenders.
As much as any issue, open carry reveals divisions within the gun- rights community, often characterized by gun-control advocates as a monolithic force that is led in lock-step by the powerful and well- heeled National Rifle Association. But you won’t find the NRA weighing in on this issue; the 4-million-member group did not respond to msnbc.com’s requests for an interview.
“They’re obviously avoiding taking a stand on this one,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the nationwide advocacy group for “sensible” gun laws. “It’s a no-win for them.” If NRA officials criticize those who open-carry near Obama events, they run the risk of irritating their “rabid membership,”
Helmke said. If they support the behavior, “they’re going to lose all credibility not only with the public but with the elected officials who usually vote their way.”
Other gun-rights groups, however, have not shied away, offering a range of reaction.
'It's their right'
“We do applaud them for being a positive example of responsible gun owners,” said John Velleco, director of federal affairs for the Gun Owners of America, probably the loudest voice of support for those who have displayed firearms near Obama events. “We’re not calling for people to do that but if they’re doing so legally it’s their right to do it,” said Velleco, who has said he would have no concerns over thousands of citizens openly carrying firearms to an event at which the president was speaking.
But Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, another staunch defender of gun rights, was not applauding. Gottlieb said the open carrying of firearms near presidential town hall meetings on health care “is not the time or the place for it. I’m not for disallowing them to do so, I just don’t think it’s politically intelligent. … I would like to see gun owners think twice before they go to a rally like that with a firearm strapped on. It doesn’t necessarily put our best face forward.”
John Pierce, co-founder of OpenCarry.org, a social-networking Web site for gun owners that catalogs weapons laws across the nation and chronicles efforts to loosen and remove restrictions against the public carrying of firearms, praised the low-key response of the White House and the Secret Service to the incidents. But he also worried a bit about the actions of those who wear guns near presidential venues.
A 'very mixed message'
“I absolutely believe open carry should be legal anywhere that a citizen can legally be,” he explained. “Having said that, one of the things that I find a little bit less than perfect about the recent situation is not the fact that citizens were open-carrying, but rather that they were there as a form of open conduct to disagree with a political position that the president has taken, whether it’s about health care or the economy.” Doing so with a gun strapped on sends a “very mixed message,” said Pierce.
Velleco of Gun Owners of America dismissed that. It “might be a different story” if the town hall open-carry incidents were organized.
“You have to remember, this is a leaderless action,” he said. “I wouldn’t call it a movement. I don’t know of anyone who is coordinating people to show up at these events armed. … Gun Owners of America would not call for an armed rally. These people are doing it on their own.”
'Setting the table'
But some gun-control activists said they see a clear link between the recent open-carrying actions and past campaigns by the NRA and other groups.
“Leading into the election last year, the NRA spent something like $15 million saying if Obama is elected he’ll take your guns away,” said Helmke of the Brady Campaign. “That whole lead-in from last year is really kind of setting the table for some of what we’re seeing with this open carry at Obama events.
“When you’re seeing some of the NRA language from the ads last year being parroted by some of … the picketers and protesters, you start realizing there’s consequences to what they’re saying.”
Jim Kessler of Third Way, the successor organization to the gun- control group Americans for Gun Safety, said openly carrying firearms near the town halls is the sort of thing done by “a very tiny faction of the extreme right wing that’s a real paranoid conspiracy theorist group.”
While he does not believe the NRA is behind the open-carrying, he said it could work to the gun group’s advantage. “I think they (NRA
leaders) think these people are whack jobs, to be honest with you, but they love a fight. What the NRA is interested in the most is raising money and increasing membership. They love having Obama as president.
It means their membership is going to go up.”
An unseemly image
The “whack job” image is a big concern to Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation. He does not like provocative open-carry actions just as “I don’t like gun owners running around with the T-shirts saying, ‘Kill Them All and Let God Sort Them Out.’ If someone from the media is at a gun show, that’s the kind of person they’re going to put on TV.”
And that collides harshly with the image that Pierce and others are trying to craft for the open-carry movement, which he said is “normal law-abiding citizens being able to exercise their rights as they go about their everyday lives.”
In rural Virginia, where he grew up, “every corner had a rifle or a shotgun in it,” Pierce said. “It was simply a part of life. Everybody hunted. Firearms were just a part of life, a noncontroversial part of life.” He’d like all Americans to feel the same and sees the work of OpenCarry.org as largely educational.
One positive of the current controversy, Pierce said, “is that it does make open-carry very visible. A lot of people living in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, the Northeast, basically … when they see this, it’s a real wake-up call that there are rights that are exercised in the rest of the country that are so far outside their experience. It makes people begin to wonder about the limits that laws in their states have placed on their rights.
“Open-carry IS the Second Amendment,” Pierce said. “If you believe in the Second Amendment, you believe in open carry.”
A call for more laws
But the Brady Campaign’s Helmke has a different take. “They’re showing the rest of the country how weak our gun laws are,” he said. “When you open-carry, you don’t have a permit, no one has checked you out, you don’t have to go through any training in a lot of places. You can carry a .50-caliber sniper rifle down the street. When folks see that, then maybe they’ll wake up to the fact that we really don’t have many laws on the books with regard to guns.”
Third Way’s Kessler said that despite last year’s landmark Heller ruling by the Supreme Court that upheld individual rights to own guns, “There is no constitutional right to carry a firearm. This is not even close on the constitutional scale — I have a right to carry a firearm wherever I go — it’s just not.”
Kessler and Helmke caution that gun-rights advocates, who have enjoyed years of legislative and legal success on issues from relaxed concealed-carry laws to the expiration of the 1994 federal assault- rifle ban, could push too far.
They cite the Senate’s failure, albeit by a narrow margin, in July to pass an amendment that would have made a concealed-weapon permit from any state valid in all.
“I think the gun lobby is starting to lose its clout,” Helmke said.
As for open-carry, which, although at least tacitly supported by most in the gun-rights community is still criticized by many as less tactically shrewd than concealed-carry, Kessler said, “You have to decide what kind of society you want to live in. Do you want to live in a society where the person next to you is openly carrying a firearm? Does that make you happy? I think for most people it disturbs them. It would for me.”
It shouldn’t, said Velleco of Gun Owners of America. “These people, if anything, are contributing to public safety, not endangering it. … Lawful gun owners use firearms over a million times a year successfully in self-defense. And they make our streets and neighborhoods safer than they would be otherwise. That’s what people don’t understand.”
Kassou, who has recovered from his wounds and returned to work in his Virginia store, said his attitude has changed. “Nobody likes to carry a gun,” he said, and before he was shot he didn’t. “We’re not here in a war zone, we’re just trying to make a living, but sometimes you have to defend yourself.”
So now Kassou straps a gun on each day when he heads for his market.
Does he wear it openly, as lawful firearms owners are allowed to do in Virginia?
“Yes sir, I do.”
Monday, August 17, 2009
Constition and the Bill of Rights in Work
Man carrying assault weapon attends Obama protest
PHOENIX (AP) - About a dozen people carrying guns, including one with a military-style rifle, milled among protesters outside the convention center where President Barack Obama was giving a speech Monday—the latest incidents in which protesters have openly displayed firearms near the president.
Gun-rights advocates say they're exercising their constitutional right to bear arms and protest, while those who argue for more gun control say it could be a disaster waiting to happen.
Phoenix police said the gun-toters at Monday's event, including the man carrying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder, didn't need permits. No crimes were committed, and no one was arrested.
The man with the rifle declined to be identified but told The Arizona Republic that he was carrying the assault weapon because he could. "In Arizona, I still have some freedoms," he said.
Phoenix police Detective J. Oliver, who was monitoring the man at the downtown protest, said police also wanted to make sure no one decided to harm him.
"Just by his presence and people seeing the rifle and people knowing the president was in town, it sparked a lot of emotions," Oliver said. "We were keeping peace on both ends."
Last week, during Obama's health care town hall in Portsmouth, N.H., a man carrying a sign reading "It is time to water the tree of liberty" stood outside with a pistol strapped to his leg.
"It's a political statement," he told The Boston Globe. "If you don't use your rights, then you lose your rights."
Police asked the man to move away from school property, but he was not arrested.
Phoenix was Obama's last stop on a four-day tour of western states, including Montana and Colorado.
Authorities in Montana said Monday they received no reports of anyone carrying firearms during Obama's health care town hall near Bozeman on Friday. About 1,000 people both for and against Obama converged at a protest area near the Gallatin Field Airport hangar where the event took place. One person accused of disorderly conduct was detained and released, according to the Gallatin Airport Authority.
Heather Benjamin of Denver's Mesa County sheriff's department, the lead agency during Obama's visit there, said no one was arrested.
Arizona is an "open-carry" state, which means anyone legally allowed to have a firearm can carry it in public as long as it's visible. A permit is required if the weapon is carried concealed.
Paul Helmke, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said people should not be allowed to bring guns to events where Obama is.
"To me, this is craziness," he said. "When you bring a loaded gun, particularly a loaded assault rifle, to any political event, but particularly to one where the president is appearing, you're just making the situation dangerous for everyone."
He said people who bring guns to presidential events are distracting the Secret Service and law enforcement from protecting the president. "The more guns we see at more events like this, there's more potential for something tragic happening," he said.
A call to a Secret Service spokesman was not immediately returned Monday.
The National Rifle Association also did not return a call for comment.\
So bottom line, it is OK to exercise your 1st amendment by bringing a sign to a protest no matter how grotesque or obscene it may be. However the 2nd amendment should not be exercised around the president because it may be a "distraction" for the security element. I will admit the cruising around downtown Phoenix with an AR-15 over your shoulder is a bit much however it would kill someone just as dead as a .45 on your belt. However, all interested parties are going to see the AR up and ready long before the .45... If I was a security bubba, I would say bring your long guns! They are MUCH easier to spot and monitor!
Friday, August 14, 2009
el Merto In the "View"
NORFOLK
A man was shot and killed this afternoon at the Bay Inn at 315 E. Ocean View Ave. Homicide detectives were still on the scene late this afternoon; no arrest had been made.
The shooting, which happened in the lobby of the hotel, was reported at 1:35 p.m., and the victim was pronounced dead at 1:42 p.m., said Karen Parker-Chesson, a police department spokeswoman.
Police have not yet released the victim’s identity.
The Bay Inn, also called the Relax Inn, is a single-story brick building with a neatly manicured lawn. Several people at the hotel said they were staying there while looking for permanent housing in Hampton Roads.
Police asked that anyone with information on the shooting call Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP.
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