Dave Workman

Joe Biden pivoted on gun control during his first press conference, and a new Rasmussen survey says the majority of likely U.S. voters says gun control laws won’t prevent mass shootings. (Screen snip, YouTube, WION)
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- While Joe Biden continues to threaten new gun control action, perhaps via executive order, and Capitol Hill Democrats are pushing extremist gun laws, a new Rasmussen Survey may have just provided a needle to pop their bubble as a majority of “likely U.S. voters say it is not possible to completely prevent mass shootings like the ones in” Atlanta and Boulder.

Will the Georgia mayhem ignite an effort to push a national waiting period?(Dave Workman)
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- UPDATE: While Georgia authorities are still investigating the murderous shooting spree at three Atlanta-area spas, President Joe Biden is reportedly considering “executive orders” on gun control, now that there has been another mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado.

A bill to ban so-called “high capacity magazines” in Washington State has apparently died, disappointing Seattle-based gun prohibitionists.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Washington State gun prohibitionists are singing the blues while gun rights activists are cheering because a bill to restrict access to so-called “high-capacity magazines” did not get a vote before a March 9 deadline, effectively killing it for the current legislative session.

In an email blast to supporters, the billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility was moping.

“We are sharing some disappointing news,” the Seattle-based gun prohibition lobbying group said. “SB 5078, our bill to restrict access to high-capacity magazines, was not voted on before yesterday’s house of origin cutoff, which means it will not be moving forward this session.

“This is frustrating to say the least,” the message added. “We have been fighting in the legislature for the last three years to pass legislation to keep high-capacity magazines out of our communities. And once again, lawmakers did not act.”

But it appears grassroots gun rights activists did, according to a Facebook post by Olympia-watcher Curtis Bingham with a group called “Washington 2021 Legislative Action,” and he put it bluntly in a message.
“The biggest anti-gun bills failed to pass out of their house of origin,” he reported.
One was a House bill to ban open carry near protests, another was a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” and the third was the open carry ban.

“It was hard work,” he wrote, “It certainly wasn’t a landslide. (However) your voices absolutely mattered…You were heard. Everyone pitched in and emailed/called your legislators.”

But a few lines later, Bingham cautioned, “The fight isn’t over. We have to remain vigilant and active. Remember, any rule can be suspended with enough votes, so we’re not out of the woods until Sine Die on April 25.”
However, Bingham acknowledged via private message with Ammoland News, that Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5038, which also prohibits open carry of firearms at permitted demonstrations is still alive. A check with the Legislature’s website confirmed ESSB 5038 is scheduled for a public hearing before the House Committee on Civil Rights & Judiciary on March 16, with an executive session of that committee slated March 19.
Meanwhile, the anti-gun Alliance reported something else in its email that raises eyebrows because it suggests the group is taking up social justice warmongering.

“Several other important gun responsibility bills are still moving,” the group declared.

These include House Bill 1054 “which bans police from using chokeholds, neck restraints, and ‘no-knock warrants.”
There is no explanation of what these subjects remotely have to do with “gun responsibility.”
Washington has become a hotbed of gun prohibition politics in recent years, with the wealthy gun control lobby spending millions of dollars to literally buy initiative elections, and support the election of anti-gun Democrats. But additional gun control restrictions have not significantly lowered the homicide statics in Washington State. In 2019, the most recent year for which FBI data is available, there were 135 gun-related murders in Washington. In 2018, the state saw 138 gun-related killings. The previous year (2017) saw 134 slayings involving firearms, and in 2016, there were 127 murders with guns.

Alan Gottlieb
When 2020 data becomes available in late September, many people expect the number of killings to spike upward, considering the 52 murders logged in Seattle last year, a jump of more than 50 percent over the 36 murders logged in 2019, according to Seattle police data.
Essentially, gun control has had the opposite effect on crime in the Evergreen State than what anti-gunners predicted and promised with passage of their gun control measures in 2014 and 2018. Observers including Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—which coincidentally is headquartered in Bellevue, the neighboring city to Seattle—have called the gun control crusade in his state a dismal failure. Coupled with far left demands to defund local police departments and last year’s violent protests and riots, the state has gone through a political and social upheaval that has been driving increasing numbers of people to gun stores.
And the anti-gun lobby was on the losing end recently when a three-judge panel of the State Court of Appeals unanimously struck down a “safe storage” ordinance adopted in the City of Edmonds because it violates Washington’s long-standing state preemption law.
Seattle adopted a similar ordinance that is also being challenged, in the same appellate court. Both legal actions were filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association, in cooperation with gun owners in Seattle and Edmonds.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert was one of several opponents of H.R. 8 to blister the bill during floor debate Wednesday. (Screen snip C-SPAN)
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The House of Representatives on a 227-203 vote, passed a measure to expand background checks to nearly all gun sales in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal, on the morning after a sometimes fiery and frequently emotional floor debate that brought out traditional arguments on both sides.

According to Vox, “Universal background checks are the top legislative priority for Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group and network that includes Moms Demand Action, and are supported by President Joe Biden.

Reaction from gun-rights groups to the House votes was swift.

“These bills are a transparent attempt by gun control advocates in Congress to restrict the rights of law-abiding Americans under the guise of addressing the violent criminal culture in America,” said Jason Ouimet, executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action. “The truth, however, is that neither of these bills will do anything to solve that problem. By giving full power to unelected government bureaucrats to indefinitely delay and prevent lawful firearm transfers, H.R. 1446 could ultimately destroy the Second Amendment rights guaranteed to every law-abiding American by turning it into a privilege enjoyed by a select few.  H.R. 8, so called “universal” background checks, cannot be enforced without a federal gun registry, will not prevent crime, and will turn otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals for simply loaning a firearm to friends or family members.​  If Congress is serious about the safety of law-abiding citizens, it should have passed concealed carry reciprocity so that Americans can safeguard themselves and their families across state lines and throughout our country during these dangerous times.”​​​”

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, warned this would open the floodgates to an even more ominous measure.

“With Thursday’s House passage of two extremist gun control measures covering so-called ‘universal background checks’ and closing the so-called ‘Charleston loophole,’ it opens the pathway for Congress to focus on H.R. 127,” he stated.

H.R. 127 is the sweeping gun control bill sponsored by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. It calls for gun owner licensing and registration, mandatory psychological examinations of gun owners, mandatory gun owner insurance, mandatory minimum prison sentences for gun owners who do not comply, and bans on whole classes of firearms and original capacity magazines.”
CCRKBA is currently running a national TV campaign warning gun owners about H.R. 127.
Declaring the Second Amendment “does not give Americans a right, it protects a pre-existing right and that right shall not be infringed,” Arizona Congressman Andy Biggs essentially set the tone of opposition to H.R. 8—a bill mandating so-called “universal background checks”—during a one-hour floor debate in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Opponents led by Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan repeatedly attacked the bill as a danger to individuals and the Second Amendment. Introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), H.R. 8 has 210 co-sponsors, only three of whom are Republicans. This allows Democrats to declare the measure to be bipartisan and in the end, the vote found eight Republicans voting for the measure and one Democrat voting against it.
Perhaps not surprisingly, as the House was taking up the “Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021,” and H.R.1446, the “Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021,” a look at leading stories on gun control revealed the “big push” is on, with gun prohibitionists declaring the background check legislation to be the proverbial “first step in comprehensive action.”
But the debate over H.R. 8 revealed the stark divide that exists between pro-rights Republicans and anti-gun Democrats.
Asserting that “more than 90 percent of Americans support universal background checks,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) insisted H.R. 8 and H.R. 1446 “will keep guns out of the hands of those who aren’t allowed to have them in the first place.”
Countering that argument, Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) argued H.R. 8 will not accomplish what supporters claim.
“We all know that, by definition, criminals don’t abide by the law,” he stated. “This bill will not make our communities safer. In fact, what it will do is cause law-abiding citizens to lose more of their Second Amendment rights.”

California Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell supported H.R. 8 along with fellow Democrats. (Screen snip, C-SPAN)
Liberal Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell of California insisted H.R. 8 “takes the most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the most dangerous people.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) told his colleagues, “We are told yet again that this will save lives, and yet, there is not one single mass killing that’s been brought up here today that would have been prevented by this bill.”

A former judge, Gohmert recalled his time on the bench.

“I think we had thousands of cases, felony cases that came through my court,” he said. “Over and over you hear the criminals, they’re not obeying the law. They’re not going to follow the law. They got their guns illegally. This will not change at all any of those people we tried and convicted for getting guns. They steal them. They buy them from other people that stole them. They don’t obey the law. That’s why they are criminals.”

Perennial anti-gun Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) apparently didn’t listen to such details, insisting that background checks “take 90 seconds; 90 seconds to prevent firearms from ending up in the wrong hands, 90 seconds to prevent more of our loved ones from being killed by gun violence.”
Jayapal professed pride in the voters of Washington State who “have consistently tackled gun violence with commonsense reforms, passing one of the first, most comprehensive background check laws in 2014 and raising the legal age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle to 21 in 2018.”
She failed to mention how the 2014 background check law didn’t prevent a triple slaying at a teen party in Mukilteo in 2016 by a young man who passed a background check. Nor did Jayapal acknowledge how the number of murders in Seattle—the state’s most populous city and home to a billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group—soared last year by more than 50 percent.
Jayapal’s apparent oblivion to how criminals get firearms was repeatedly refuted during statements before and after she spoke.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA) testified, “A ten-year study by Johns Hopkins and U.C.-Davis concluded that California’s background check law had no effect on gun homicides or suicides. None. The purpose of this bill is not public safety…Its purpose is to make gun ownership so legally hazardous, too fraught with booby traps that no law-abiding citizen would want to take the risk.”

Texas Rep. Chip Roy (Screen snip, C-SPAN)
Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) asserted, “My Democratic colleagues after opening up our borders want to take away our God-given rights to defend ourselves under the Second Amendment. That’s what this is about. This is about creating a gun registry that track guns of the American people. There is no way to implement what the Democrats are trying to implement without doing that…We have a God-given right to defend our families against tyranny and do it regardless of what this Democratic Congress tries to jam through.”

And feisty freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) came out swinging: “Talk about women’s rights; don’t take away my right to protect myself. I mean, seriously, what are we doing here? I ask supporters of this legislation, who do you think you are to disarm Americans and leave them vulnerable without help?
“You want to defund our police and yet leave us without a way to protect ourselves. Our founding fathers gave us a list of items and said ‘Don’t touch these things.’ And I’m telling you, keep your hands off of our Second Amendment.”

The chair scolded Boebert for directing her comments at House members rather than the chair.
The floor debate unfolded against the backdrop of what might seem like a concerted effort to make gun control the front-burner issue of the day. In an editorial calling for more Second Amendment restrictions, the Chicago Sun Times bemoaned loose gun laws in neighboring states “contribute to the flood of gun son the streets of Chicago,” and the surge of “gun violence” in the Windy City.

“Last year,” the editorial states, “gun violence increased by 52% in Chicago, and 65% more women were killed in acts of gun violence. Domestic violence increased by 16% in Illinois, and the risk of homicide in domestic violence incidents is five times higher when a gun is present.”

In the Seattle-based Crosscut online magazine, an Op-Ed calling for passage of state-level gun control laws, “Collectively, the proposed legislation seeks to modestly reign in gun violence. Senate Bill 5078 would ban “high-capacity magazines”; SB 5038 would ban “open carry” of weapons at demonstrations and the state Capitol; SB 5217 would ban “assault weapons.”
However, the magazine ban legislation appears to have died in the Senate, and an effort to ban “assault weapons” also failed to pass before a legislative deadline.

Back in “the other Washington,” Georgia Congresswoman Lucy McBath was looking forward to pushing H.R. 8 and other gun control measures, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. McBath lost a son in a shooting incident eight years ago.
“It’s not going to be easy, but I truly believe that now is the time,” McBath said. “And the country is really, really ripe. I cannot tell you how many people every week I’m talking to that are anxiously waiting for us to pass legislation. They are tired; they are afraid.”

She reiterated that position during the House debate, stating, “Our vote today is (a) beginning and it’s definitely not the end.”
Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) concurred, but hardly in the same sense.

“H.R. 8 is an assault on our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” she stated. “This bill is just the first of many steps to take away our Second Amendment rights.”

RELATED:
House Dems Launch Full Court Press on Background Checks

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Gun Control Background Checks
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- With the launch of their frontal assault on firearms rights via H.R. 8 and H.R. 127, Capitol Hill Democrats have made it clear they are not interested in facts or the “common sense” their gun control campaign perennially claims to represent, and instead provided all the justification necessary for a hard-hitting pro-rights ad campaign by a grassroots gun rights organization now heading into its second week.

Ammoland News did some homework and found five clear reasons—call them examples—why gun control fails and will always fail; the proof routinely ignored by gun prohibitionists whose ultimate goal, according to Second Amendment activists, has never been violent crime reduction but unilateral public disarmament.

Reason 1:
A Meridian, Mississippi man identified as Edmond Dewayne Miller was sentenced recently to 51 months in federal prison, plus three years of supervised release, for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. In a Justice Department news release, Miller was stopped by a Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Deputy as he headed for the home of a neighbor who had called in a noise complaint. Miller was carrying a .40-caliber pistol that turned out to be stolen, and the lawman learned he was a convicted felon, unable to possess a firearm. Miller pled guilty in January 2020 but only recently was sentenced.

Reason 2:
Michael D. Moore of Kansas City, Missouri pleaded guilty in federal court to illegal possession of a firearm following an armed standoff last Aug. 17. Moore had been under surveillance by police as a suspect in two armed robberies and when they moved in, he exited a BMW SUV, took cover and drew a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol that was later found to have been stolen. As more police arrived, Moore threw down the gun and ran a short distance before being taken into custody.
Reason 3:
Tampa, Florida resident Devon Cohen was sentenced to five years in federal prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Police stopped Cohen after observing him violate several traffic laws and a search of the car turned up a loaded pistol in the console. Cohen admitted he possessed the pistol. His criminal record included multiple felonies.
Reason 4:
A 28-year-old suspect identified by NorthEscambia.com as Christopher Torrey, Jr. has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a weapon in public by firing into an occupied vehicle, firing a weapon into a building, meth possession, and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He was being held in the Escambia County Jail without bond.
Reason 5:
Torrey has company in that jail, NorthExcambia.com reported separately. A suspect identified as 22-year-old Larry Clay is charged with trafficking and possession of drugs, and probation violation. He was arrested on a search warrant and in addition to drugs, police found four handguns, a shotgun and a rifle, the news agency said. He was being held without bond.
Each of these cases underscores why gun control is inherently and irreversibly doomed to failure, says the Second Amendment community. Criminals do not obey gun laws. They never have and never will.
It is not that anti-gunners don’t understand this fundamental fact; they deliberately ignore it. Admitting that criminals routinely disobey gun laws is anathema to the gun prohibitionist mindset, and they will never acknowledge this error in logic. It is this stubborn refusal to recognize the obvious that keeps anti-gunners in a perpetual frenzy to pass restrictive gun laws, say rights advocates. They’ve apparently convinced themselves that restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens will somehow translate to disarming criminals and reducing violent crime.
The Federalist just published an Op-Ed by firearms attorney Ryan Cleckner, detailing the “Top 9 Reasons” a new gun control bill introduced by Democrats “is a terrible idea.” In his essay, Cleckner managed to dismantle virtually every argument in favor of gun control ever put forward by so-called “gun safety” organizations. In order, here are the reasons H.R. 8 is doomed to failure, Cleckner says:
Demands for New Gun Control Are an Admission That Gun Control Doesn’t Work
Gun Dealers Already Conduct Background Checks
There Is No ‘Gun-Show Loophole’
There Is No ‘Online Gun Sales Loophole’
Universal Background Checks Won’t Stop Criminals from Getting Guns
Background Checks Won’t Stop Mass Shootings
In-State Commerce Is a State Issue
Universal Background Checks Are Too Burdensome
Universal Background Checks Create a De Facto Federal Gun Registry
In an email blast Thursday, anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety declared, “This is a pivotal moment. Legislation to expand background checks to all gun sales has been introduced in both the House and the Senate.
“HR 8 closes a dangerous loophole in our background check system that allows individuals to avoid a background check if they purchase guns in a private sale,” the Everytown message claims. “This gap allows individuals who are prohibited from possessing firearms to purchase them anyway. That doesn’t make sense. If someone can’t pass a background check at a gun store, they shouldn’t be able to buy one at a gun show no questions asked.

“For the first time in decades, there are gun responsibility majorities in Congress, which means this policy has a real chance. We are working tirelessly to make sure those gun responsibility candidates keep their promise and support HR 8. We need your help to hold them accountable.”

Everytown, like other gun prohibition lobbying groups, erroneously deems Capitol Hill anti-gunners as “gun responsibility” politicians.
One example would be Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, whose H.R. 127 is criticized by gun rights activists as being so egregiously ignorant of constitutional rights it has brought the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms into the media arena with a devastating 60-second advertisement calling for public opposition. CCRKBA is the grassroots sister organization of the Second Amendment Foundation, and typically remains in the background while SAF has emerged as a legal powerhouse since winning the 2010 Supreme Court case of McDonald v. City of Chicago.
CCRKBA’s campaign is called “SAVE2A.US” and is aimed squarely at Jackson Lee’s legislation. Public response during the first week was so stunning that CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb quickly extended it fr at least seven more days.
The message is appearing 66 times during the second week on the following networks: DirecTV, Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, DishTV, the Weather Channel, HLN, OANN, the Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel and the Inspiration Channel.

“By the end of the week,” Gottlieb said in a news release, “CCRKBA’s message will have been aired a total of 119 times.”

He said H.R. 127 represents the “ultimate wish list” of gun control zealots.
[embedded content]

“This bill really is a sinister attack on Second Amendment rights,” Gottlieb stated. “Democrats are determined to reduce rights protected by the Second Amendment to the level of privileges so tightly regulated by government red tape that they no longer really exist. The Washington Post likes to tell people that ‘freedom dies in darkness,’ but H.R. 127 is being pushed in broad daylight by people claiming some sort of mandate to trash individual rights.
“Anti-gunners have waited for years to launch this attack,” he added. “With Joe Biden in the White House, Beltway Democrats are determined to destroy the Constitution’s cornerstone Amendment, and we are determined to stop them.”

American gun owners can join this campaign by visiting ‘SAVE2A.US’ or text SAVE2A to 474747.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Screen snip from CCRKBA’s new ‘SAVE2A.US’ message to American gun owners.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—sister organization to the Second Amendment Foundation and typically operating in its shadow—is launching an aggressive multi-network television advertising effort focusing on Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s H.R. 127, and it could reach millions of people over the next week.

For CCRKBA, it does two things. First, it’s an attention-getting bare-knuckles approach to what Chairman Alan Gottlieb calls an “extremist” piece of legislation. Second, the ad campaign will raise CCRKBA’s profile among grassroots activists at a time when it appears the National Rifle Association may be flailing due to the lawsuit filed last August by New York Attorney General Letitia James that seeks to dissolve the organization, and the bankruptcy filing that is part of a strategy to get NRA out from under New York State incorporation and re-established in friendlier Texas.

Anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety last week launched its own ad aimed squarely at the NRA, and its members, according to the New York Times. Everytown’s ad is blistering. As noted by the NY Times, “The six-figure campaign includes television ads on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC, as well as digital ads directed at N.R.A. members and gun owners. Ads will also be shown to viewers in Virginia, where the N.R.A. has its headquarters, and Orlando, Fla.”

“When you pay to join the N.R.A.,” the advertisement says, “you get a sticker — and that’s about it…Today, just 10 percent of what they spend protects things like (target shooting, hunting, and safety training). The rest pays for N.R.A. executives to enjoy this: designer suits from Beverly Hills, luxury trips to Italy, Hungary and the Bahamas, private jets, golden parachutes and lots of lawyers. No wonder the N.R.A. is bankrupt.”
CCRKBA’s pro-rights message will be airing 25 times across the following networks: DirecTV, Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, the Weather Channel, HLN, OANN, the Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel and the Inspiration Channel. That’s a broader spread than Everytown’s advertisement appears to have.
[embedded content]
In her lawsuit, James asserts NRA officials have essentially milked the organization. And the scenario became more convoluted recently when NRA Director Phil Journey, a judge in Kansas, “asked a Texas bankruptcy judge to appoint an independent investigator to determine the truth of claims made by New York regulators in a lawsuit,” according to Bloomberg News.
The NY Times story quotes NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter, who insisted, “N.R.A. members will recognize this for what it is: another transparent and failing attempt by avowed anti-Second Amendment and anti-N.R.A. billionaire Michael Bloomberg to advance President Biden’s anti-gun agenda.”
That said, CCRKBA’s hard-hitting ad could get considerable attention from gun owners at a critical moment. And, H.R. 127 is a target just begging for a verbal bruising.
In a statement announcing the group’s “SAVE2A.US” campaign, Gottlieb calls the bill a “dreadful piece of legislation mandating gun owner licensing and registration, mandatory psychological examinations of gun owners, mandatory gun owner insurance, mandatory minimum prison sentences for gun owners who do not comply, and bans on whole classes of firearms and original capacity magazines.”
It’s as though Jackson Lee threw everything at the wall just to see what might stick.

“Democrats are attempting to implement this legislation,” Gottlieb cautioned, “and could take action within the next few weeks. Once again, Democrats are trying to turn your Second Amendment right into a government-regulated privilege, and we’re alerting gun owners across the country about this alarming new threat to the Bill of Rights.”

Joe Biden had promised to take action on guns on his first day in office. He didn’t do that, laments NY Times opinion columnist Gail Collins, a former member of that newspaper’s editorial board. She authored an Op-Ed Feb. 24 that bristled with dislike for gun rights, and elicited a slew of anti-gun reader comments. Here’s just one exchange, involving a reader identified only as “Enough.”

“My platform for my presidential run,” says “Enough,” “would be ‘I’m coming for your guns. Accept payment (as long as you have a valid receipt) or we’ll take them anyway.”
Collins replied, “Wouldn’t bother me, but you’re basically giving the pitch conservative politicians give the voters — they’re coming for your guns!”

But is that really just a “pitch?” Gun owners and Second Amendment advocates such as Gottlieb don’t think so. And Biden has given no indication he’s anything but heart attack serious about wanting to clamp down on gun ownership. His own scheme has been available online for a year, and it also treats the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as the government-regulated privilege Gottlieb asserts.

“America’s gun owners are facing the most sinister attack on their Second Amendment rights I’ve ever seen,” Gottlieb observed in a news release. “Jackson Lee’s legislation is really just the tip of the iceberg, because with Joe Biden in the White House, Beltway Democrats are determined to destroy the Constitution’s cornerstone Amendment.”

With all of this happening, perhaps it should surprise nobody that the Nebraska lawmakers are currently considering legislation that would “prohibit the Nebraska State Patrol, local sheriffs or the Nebraska National Guard from enforcing any new federal restrictions on gun rights.”
As reported by the Lincoln Journal Star, the “Second Amendment Preservation Act”—sponsored by State Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings—is something of a proactive, albeit probably symbolic in nature—shot across Biden’s bow. The newspaper said only one person testified against LB 188 during a hearing a few days ago. Judy King of the Nebraskans Against Gun Violence tried to label the measure as something from the “Anti-American movement.”
But what could be more “American” than an effort to protect the fundamental right to keep and bear arms?
CCRKBA’s advertisement is precisely about that, and if it raises the consciousness level of grassroots gun owners looking for some guidance at a time when their rights appear to be under relentless attack, it just might be the catalyst for a re-energized gun rights movement.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

A Washington State appeals court panel ruled unanimously that a so-called “safe storage” mandate in the City of Edmonds is illegal under the state’s 36-year-old preemption statute. It’s a victory for SAF and NRA. HK P30sk Chained Gun Locked Pistol IMG: Dave Workman
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- A three-judge panel for the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division 1 has ruled unanimously that a so-called “safe storage” mandate adopted by the City of Edmonds violates the state’s 36-year-old preemption statute, in a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association.

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb called the win a “significant victory for Evergreen State gun and privacy rights.” The case is known as Bass v. City of Edmonds and the ruling may be read here.

“Today’s ruling is an important victory for the people of Washington,” said Lars Dalseide, NRA Washington state spokesman. “Hopefully jurisdictions like Edmonds will realize that violating the Washington State Constitution is neither legal nor in the best interest of personal protection.”

The unanimous 16-page ruling was authored by Acting Chief Judge Beth Andrus, with Judges Bill Bowman and Lori Kay Smith concurring. It strongly upholds Washington’s preemption statute, first adopted in 1983 and strengthened in 1985. This law has been used as a model for similar preemption laws in other states. According to the anti-gun Giffords Law Center, more than 40 states have preemption laws.

Alan Gottlieb

“Washington lawmakers wisely adopted state preemption more than 35 years ago, Gottlieb observed. “The language is clear and unambiguous. Local governments cannot adopt or enforce their own firearms regulations that are more restrictive than state statute. The City of Edmonds knew this when the council adopted the storage requirement.”

His observation squares with what Acting Chief Judge Andrus stated in the ruling:

“We…conclude that the legislature’s express preemption of ‘the entire field of firearms regulation’ is unambiguous and necessarily extends to regulations of the storage of firearms.”

Edmonds adopted the ordinance after the City of Seattle passed an almost identical mandate, apparently emboldened by an earlier victory in a legal challenge to their gun and ammunition tax, which last year brought in revenue of $184,836, the highest total in the six-year history of the tax, but far short of original revenue forecasts.
Former Seattle Councilman Tim Burgess championed the tax, declaring in mid-2015 it would bring in an estimated $300,000 to $500,000 annually but it has never come close. The tax was supposed to fund efforts to reduce so-called “gun violence,” and in that regard, it has been a complete failure.
In 2016, the tax brought in $103,766, the same year Seattle reported 18 homicides. In 2017, the tax revenue dropped to $93,220, and there were 28 slayings in the city. The following year, Seattle’s tax pulled in a dismal $77,518 and police logged 32 murders. Then in 2019, the gun tax revenue went up to $85,352 and there were 28 killings.
Last year, the tax brought in $184,836, but Seattle’s body count soared to 52, according to Seattle Police Department data.
So far, no Seattle official has acknowledged the gun tax failure. The 2020 murder count—not all of which involved firearms—was the highest number of killings in many years.
SAF and NRA are suing Seattle over the storage requirement, and the same appeals court last year allowed that lawsuit to move forward. The Edmonds ruling sends a pretty clear signal Seattle has overstepped its authority.

“Let’s be clear about something,” Gottlieb emphasized in a prepared statement. “Edmonds didn’t adopt this safe storage mandate in the interest of safety, but rather to challenge and erode, if not irreparably dismantle the state preemption law. The city has no business dictating to citizens how they should store firearms in their own homes.”

Gottlieb has a point. How can such a mandate be enforced? Some years ago, when a state lawmaker proposed legislation that included unannounced visits by police to the homes of gun owners to determine whether firearms were being safely stored, a columnist for the typically anti-gun Seattle Times took the idea to the task. At the time Gottlieb observed, “This is the United States, not a police state.”

Evergreen State gun prohibitionists are not happy with the Edmonds ruling. Gottlieb rubbed a little salt in their wounds noting, “State preemption is the most common-sense approach to firearms regulation there is. It provides uniformity on gun laws from one state border to the other. Whether you live in Edmonds or Ephrata, the gun laws are the same.”
Still, the Everett Herald quoted Edmonds Councilwoman Adrienne Fraley-Monillas offering a familiar emotional argument, “Any time you lose in court it is a disappointment. If this ordinance may have saved a child’s life because a parent locked away a gun it is worth it.”
State legislators from Seattle have been attempting for several years to unravel state preemption, but they’ve repeatedly failed.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

NRA EVP Wayne LaPierre appeared on Grant Stinchfield’s Newsmax broadcast. (Screen snip, YouTube, Newsmax)
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Insisting the National Rifle Association is “strong financially,” embattled Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told Newsmax talk host Grant Stinchfield in a televised interview the organization is growing by “about 1,000 (members) a day” and intimated that the current legal and financial troubles are politically motivated and not just about him.

“So much of this is about the hatred of some politicians toward our constitutional freedoms and the organization,” LaPierre said during a 6 ½-minute interview, “the Number One organization that defends it, the National Rifle Association, and all we are people all over the country that believe in their freedom.”

Stinchfield, an award-winning broadcast journalist who was a lead reporter for NRA TV, opened the interview by asking LaPierre if NRA is “still in a position to be successful.”

“Is the NRA as strong as it’s ever been,” he inquired.

LaPierre responded by ticking off a list of achievements NRA has racked up over the years.
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“Y’know this organization has had an historical record of achievement,” he said. “Right to carry in 41 states. We saved the American firearms industry from certain bankruptcy by these predatory lawsuits. Emergency power bills where they can’t come into your house and confiscate your firearms and leave you defenseless in a time of emergency.
“And then those historic Heller and McDonald decisions that said the Second Amendment is your individual right,” he added. “It’s not about the government’s right.”

While the NRA submitted a brief supporting Heller, it was not the association’s case, however. And, while NRA had a companion case challenging the Chicago gun ban, McDonald v. City of Chicago was actually a Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) case. Both McDonald and NRA’s cases were argued at the same time before the U.S. Supreme Court, allowing both organizations to claim victory when the high court nullified Chicago’s gun law.
LaPierre recalled to viewers that early in 2018, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Financial Services “went after every bank and insurance company doing business in New York State, and that’s the most powerful financial center in the country, and said ‘Hey, if you do business with the NRA, we’re going to punish you; there will be retribution. You’ll pay a price.’ I mean, the awesome power of the state.

“And then.,” LaPierre continued, “his hand-picked candidate for Attorney General, Letitia James, before she ever (served) a day in office, during her campaign said that because the NRA supported the Second Amendment, she considered (us) a terrorist criminal organization and when she won she was going to open up an investigation.”

Last August, James filed a lawsuit against the organization, seeking to dissolve it. The lawsuit alleges LaPierre “exploited the organization for his financial benefit, and the benefit of a close circle of NRA staff, board members and vendors.”
NRA counter-sued James, getting support from several states’ attorneys general. As reported by the Washington Post, their brief stated, “The New York Attorney General cannot be allowed to wield the power of her office to discriminate against the NRA simply because she does not like its members’ political views, advocacy or defense of a constitutional right.”
NRA also sued Gov. Cuomo and Maria Vullo, superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, and the agency. Even the ACLU sided with NRA in a brief to the court. This lawsuit alleges that Cuomo, Vullo and the DFS had mounted a “campaign to chill the political speech of the NRA and other so-called ‘gun promotion’ organizations by leveraging state power to punish financial institutions which maintain business arrangements with the NRA.”
NRA recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a move to pull out of New York State and restructure in Texas.
More than once, Stinchfield accused NRA’s opponents of “weaponizing” government to take down the 150-year-old NRA, which was founded and incorporated in 1871, in New York State.
In reaction to the suggestion, LaPierre observed, “This is a constitutional fight. It’s bigger than the NRA. It’s for all Americans because if they can do it to the NRA today, they can do it to any organization on the right or left tomorrow.”

When Stinchfield noted the past two-plus years have been “tough,” LaPierre responded, “Well, y’know it’s not really me. This is about all Americans. This is a question of whether we’re going to live in a country where, and I really mean it, where if you have a different political point of view than the politicians that control the government at any given time. Whether those politicians can use their power to silence and destroy you.

“It’s about whether we have constitutional freedom like the right to keep and bear arms to protect yourself and your family if the glass breaks at 2 a.m.,” he continued. “I mean that’s what this fight’s about. That’s what NRA does every day. That’s what the people around the country want this organization to do and what I love about it is that NRA stands on principle and fight(s).
“It’s not here to be popular in this town It’s here to represent people all over the country who want their freedoms defended,” he said.

While some 33,000 people joined NRA last month, according to LaPierre, gun owners are also reportedly throwing considerable support to SAF, which has become a legal powerhouse in the Second Amendment litigation arena. That group, based in Bellevue, Washington, has filed dozens of lawsuits challenging state and local gun control laws in the aftermath of the McDonald ruling, which incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment in June 2010.
SAF, as Ammoland News has reported, is now entering its seventh week of advertising and promoting a grassroots effort called “2nd Amendment First Responders.” According to SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, SAF has attracted tens of thousands of new members and supporters with the “First Responders” campaign. About 25 percent of these new “recruits” were first-time gun buyers in 2020 and roughly 40 percent of those supporters are women.

“It’s important to remember,” Gottlieb recently observed, “that despite the NRA’s financial and legal troubles, American gun owners remain fully engaged.”

That’s not likely to change, as Joe Biden has a gun control agenda that amounts to a “wish list” for anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety gun prohibition lobbying group. Some are already suggesting he could accomplish much of his scheme via executive order.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Montana Gov. Gianforte Signs Bill Expanding Big Sky Gun Rights. iStock-884194872
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- In a clear victory for the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA), Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed legislation doing away with so-called “gun-free zones” and expanding places where firearms may be carried, including college and university campuses, and the Capitol in Helena.

MSSA President Gary Marbut, in an exclusive telephone conversation with Ammoland News, said Gianforte’s signature is “pretty significant” in more ways than one. To merely portray this legislation as allowing so-called constitutional carry “misses the mark a bit,” he said.

Marbut was honored in December by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as the “Grassroots Activist of the Year” for 2020.

The measure includes campus carry, restaurant and bar carry, and for permit holders to carry inside state and local government buildings, and perhaps most importantly of all, the new law takes effect immediately, according to the Helena Independent Record. The exception is campus carry, which becomes effective this summer.
Private property owners still can prohibit firearms on their premises, the newspaper noted. According to a prepared statement from Marbut posted online, “This includes banks, bars, restaurants, stores, and a host of other publicly accessible places that are privately owned. Certainly, any such places will be required to give ‘fair notice’ of any firearms restrictions, usually by posting obvious signs. Some other states have laws such that if a gun carrier should walk past a no-guns sign on private property with a gun, that is a criminal offense. Not so in Montana.”
Marbut detailed the impacts of HB 102 in his lengthy online explanation, which may be read here.

“The general purpose of HB 102,” he stated, “is to eliminate dangerous ‘gun free zones,’ those places where only criminals would be armed because of a government prohibition that only law-abiding gun owners would obey. HB 102 has four major elements:  Permitless carry, campus carry, restaurant and bar carry, and enhancement of existing concealed weapon permits (CWP), plus some minor elements.”
Later, Marbut observes, “Finally, there is no exception in the RKBA at Article II, Section 12 (of the Montana Constitution) for local governments to restrict this right, and no exception for the university system or the Board of Regents to restrict this right.”

For Marbut, it’s time to catch his breath. He has worked on this project for “six or eight years,” he recalled.
For Gov. Gianforte, it’s fulfillment and unlike his Democrat predecessors, he minced no words about telling the difference between the good guys and bad guys.

“Gun control measures don’t prevent criminals from perpetuating violence or crime. Gun control measures step on the rights of law abiding citizens,” the governor said during the signing ceremony.

Quoted by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Gov. Gianforte added, “And our Second Amendment is very clear: ‘The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’ Every law-abiding Montanan should be able to defend themselves and their loved ones.”
Gianforte is the first Republican to sit in the Montana governor’s office in 16 years, a fact that undoubtedly played a role in seeing HB 102 become law. Previously, then-Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed “several gun-related measures,” the Helena newspaper recalled.
The legislation was sponsored by State Rep. Seth Berglee (R-Joliet). It passed through the legislature almost entirely along party lines, a fact not lost on increasingly conservative Big Sky Country voters.
At the signing ceremony, as reported by the Daily Chronicle, Berglee observed, “The idea of self-defense has been a pillar in our society since even before the founding of our country. It’s a right that’s given by God and granted in the constitution. It’s my pleasure to bring House Bill 102, recognizing that the citizens of Montana have the ability to defend themselves, and I trust them with that responsibility.”

Montana’s Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen also supported HB 102, newspapers said. He issued a statement lauding the bill.

“At a time when the president is calling for state-level gun registries, strong legislation affirming Montanans’ gun rights is more important than ever,” Knudsen said. “No bill in the last 20 years has done more to protect our fundamental right to keep and bear arms than Representative Seth Berglee’s bill that was signed into law today.”

The U.S. Concealed Carry Association issued a statement after the legislation was signed, applauding Gov. Gianforte.

“Every American should be able to defend themselves and their families at all times and the U.S. Concealed Carry Association applauds Governor Gianforte for signing this important legislation into law,” said USCCA founder and President Tim Schmidt. “It will help and support the growing number of Montanans who choose to exercise their natural born right to self-protection.
“With millions of new gun owners throughout the U.S.,” Schmidt added, “this bill is also a friendly reminder for all of them to have the proper training and education necessary to be a responsible self-protector – even if the law does not require it.  Owning and carrying a firearm for self-defense comes with a lot of responsibility and safety should always be the number one priority.”

The legislation had opponents, including “Educators, gun owners, bankers, and law enforcement officials,” according to a statement from Democratic House Minority Leader Kim Abbott that was quoted by the Independent Record.
Abbott claimed the measure “makes our communities and our campuses less safe.” It’s an argument gun control proponents use when opposing virtually any firearms freedom legislation.
Marbut told Ammoland there is still work to do on gun rights. He hinted at some of this in his online discussion, but for now, Montana gun owners have a significant victory they can celebrate.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.