Guns - American Style

[Warph]

State GOP to auction AR-15 style rifle at dinner

April 11, 2013

When the Washington State Republican Party holds its annual fundraising dinner this weekend, one of the items up for auction will be an AR-15 style rifle  — the type of semi-automatic weapon targeted by many gun-control advocates since Adam Lanza used one to rapidly kill 20 children and six adults at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.

State GOP Chairman Kirby Wilbur touted the gun auction on Twitter Wednesday. In an email to The Seattle Times, he said the party has auctioned other weapons in the past and that the AR-15 sale was not meant as a pro-gun political statement.

"It's intended as a pro-fundraising statement. I think folks already know the state GOP is committed to gun rights," he said in an email.

In the wake of the Newtown massacre, gun-control advocates have pushed for a renewed assault-weapons ban, heightened background checks for gun buyers and limits on high-capacity magazines. But many Americans have reacted by rushing to buy AR-15 style rifles, whose prices have shot up due to the demand.

Wilbur said he is aware of the controversy surrounding the rifles, but added: "It's also the best-selling weapon in America, I own two, they have never killed an innocent person."

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/politicsnorthwest/2013/04/11/state-gop-to-auction-ar-15-at-dinner/

[Warph]

Dear Joe Blow -

This week, two U.S. senators, a Democrat and a Republican with "A" ratings from the NRA, introduced a bill to close loopholes in background checks for all commercial gun sales.

Let that sink in for a minute. Millions of Americans have demanded action, and Congress is listening.

Now that we've got legislation, the next step is passing it. And no surprise here: Allies of the gun lobby are threatening to block a vote. You can be damn sure they're going to do the same thing if the bill makes it to the House, too.

OFA is taking the gun lobby head on. We won't stand by silently while the families in Newtown, Aurora, and Tucson grieve. So many people have worked tirelessly for congressional action.

We won't let Congress forget.

Chip in $5 or more today — and let's get this done:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Demand-Action

Thanks for your help.

Jon

Jon Carson
Executive Director
Organizing for Action

Nope... nothing partisan about this. Gee... I wonder how all that came about?  Could it have been this:

GOP Senator Mark Kirk Says Booze And Parties On Dem-Owned Yacht Led To Bipartisan Gun Deal

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/11/sen-mark-kirk-booze-and-boat-parties-smoothed-bipa/

Sen. Mark Kirk says the real driving force behind the gun deal that was hatched by bipartisan work was booze and boat retreats.

The Illinois Republican said to reporters that visits to the Black Tie, a yacht owned by Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin, played a large role in the Democratic-Republican come-together over background checks and other legislation related to gun control, Roll Call reported.

"You guys really ought to go out to National Harbor and see the Black Tie, which has been much of the reason for much of the bipartisan cooperation around here," he said, as quoted in Roll Call.

Frequent visitors to the luxury vessel: Democrat Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Mr. Kirk said.

"Sometimes alcoholic beverages might be served and ties might ... get loosened," he said, in Roll Call.

Mr. Manchin and Mr. Kirk are known in the Senate as great friends, both in and out of office, Roll Call said.

[...]

Oops: OFA loses fight over Organizing for Action domains

posted at 5:21 pm on April 9, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/09/oops-ofa-loses-fight-over-organizing-for-action-domains/


From Politico:

An arbitrator has denied the organization's effort to obtain the domain name organizingforaction.net, registered by a quick-moving computer technician in Castle Rock, Colo., on Jan. 18, when the news broke that Obama's former advisors were launching the group.

Derek Bovard proceeded to configure the site so all the hits were directed to the website for the National Rifle Assn. It was one of three domain names for Organizing for Action that the group failed to register before it launched.

"If they don't like it, they can buy it from me," Bovard told the Los Angeles Times at the time.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-organizing-for-action-website-nra-20130129,0,3159504.story

Instead of just purchasing the domain, OFA chose to force Bovard to give up the domain names through legal action.  That backfired, in part because OFA didn't even bother to register its name as a trademark until three weeks after Bovard bought the domain:

In a decision issued last week, Karl V. Fink, a retired judge in Ann Arbor, Mich., concluded that Organizing for Action did not provide evidence that the name was "a distinctive identifier" of the group or that it owned any trademarks at the time.

(In fact, the group did not file a trademark registration for "Organizing for Action" until Feb. 7, according to United States Patent and Trademark Office records.)

D'oh! Well, what about using a .org or the much more common .com versions of the domain name?  OFA neglected to secure those, too.  Both are owned by a Florida Republican, whose website offers OFA and its followers a little advice:

But those sites now include a disclaimer stating that they are "NOT affiliated with any 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), or other entity or business that uses the generic phrase Organizing For Action as all or a portion of its name."

"Organizingforaction.com is not seeking to prevent you from contacting any such entities, businesses, or their websites, or to disrupt their activities," the disclaimer reads. "Therefore, if you are seeking a different entity, business, or website, it is suggested that you perform a Google or other Internet search to locate it."

It's not the only battle they're losing, either.  National Journal's Beth Reinhard reports that the gun-control push has gone badly as OFA's first attempt to impose the Obama agenda:

Although the first votes on gun -control legislation have yet to be cast, by some measures the National Rifle Association has already won.

Obama's ambitious plans to ban assault weapons and limit magazine capacities are off the table, while the NRA suggested it could support the most likely outcome — expanded background checks — as recently as 1999. The NRA claims that the president's efforts have triggered a fundraising surge and boosted its membership from 4 million to nearly 5 million. Members of Congress who seemed open to legislation after the shooting deaths of 20 Connecticut schoolchildren are still on the fence, while Republicans are threatening a filibuster.

Perhaps a battle pitting one of the oldest and most aggressive lobbying organizations against President Obama's fledgling advocacy shop wasn't a fair fight.

"Fledgling"? This organization has existed in one form or another since 2007.  All they have done is change names, and they haven't even managed to do that correctly.

[Warph]

Hitler Survivor Condemns Obama's Gun Control:
'Hitler Originally Talked Like An American Politician
– Keep Your Guns! Buy More!'

Published on Feb 19, 2013

Katie Worthman was born in Austria, and lived there for seven years under Hitlers brutal regime, and after world war II, she also lived three years under Soviet communist occupation. Needless to say, but Mrs. Worthman is someone who has an acute awareness of how media distorts things and tyranny comes to power. Mrs. Worthman, not only says that the media was wrong about how Hitler came to power, but she says that "In the beginning, Hitler didn't look like, or talk like a monster at all. He talked like an American politician."

She says that the story of Hitler overthrowing governments and people in order to come to power just simply isn't true, but rather the Austrian people elected Hitler with 98% of the vote at the ballot box. Mrs. Worthman then goes on to say that the Austrian people had guns, but the government began to say that they were dangerous, so they began to implement gun registration. Then she said this was followed by turning in their weapons to the police station in order to cut down on crime, and if citizens didn't... there would be capital punishment.

Mrs. Worthman says that the dictatorship, "didn't happen over night, but it took 5 years, gradually, little by little, to escalate to a dictatorship."

She then goes on to say that, "When the people fear the government, that's tyranny, but when the government fears the people, that's liberty."

As a Nazi survivor, what is her advice to us... "Keep your guns, keep your guns and buy more guns."

[Warph]

** Obuma's Pathway To Gun Confiscation **

Let's be clear.

This new national background check legislation is not designed to stop criminals from getting guns, it is designed to use the tragedy of Newtown, Connecticut to establish a national database of gun owners.

It would serve no other purpose except to allow the federal government to have a pathway to confiscate guns.

America's eyes have been opened to what anti-firearm politicians want through their actions in California, Connecticut, Maryland and New York.  The cloak of reasonability has been lifted and the predator is bearing its teeth.

In those states, one U.S. Supreme Court Justice's vote stood between the people and confiscation.

And one national election could easily change both a future Court vote reconsidering Heller and those in Congress on gun bans and confiscation.

This is why this Congress must defeat Obama, Reid and Schumer's attempt to put a pathway to gun confiscation on the federal books under the guise of expanding a national background check.

It is also why any Member of Congress who supports the Obama, Reid and Schumer national background check bill is actually voting to allow the future confiscation of firearms.  There simply is no other justification for the inclusion of a permanent gun owner database within the bill.

Next week, NBC, ABC, CBS and CNN will try to tell the American people that the vote in the Senate is about stopping future tragedies and having a national background check system.

Obama will stand in Connecticut and Colorado crying crocodile tears as he exhorts Congress to pass a national background check.

All of them know they are lying, and the true objective of the legislation.  Now, so do you.

Read whole story at NetRightDaily.com: http://netrightdaily.com/2013/04/obamas-pathway-to-gun-confiscation/#ixzz2QK7Oo59V

[Warph]

How Obuma's Gun Grab Was Dead Until The GOP Saved It
At The Hands Of Gutter-Snipe RINO Traitor Pat Toomey

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/us/politics/compromise-on-background-checks.html?hp&_r=1&pagewanted=all&

Repeatedly rebuffed, Mr. Manchin, a conservative West Virginia Democrat, decided to call on his friend [RINO traitor] Senator Patrick J. Toomey, the Pennsylvania Republican known almost exclusively for his conservative fiscal positions. On a recent Amtrak trip from New York to Washington where they happened to intersect, Mr. Toomey agreed to listen.

On Wednesday the two gun owners, long favorites of the National Rifle Association, came together in a last-ditch effort on a background check compromise that opened the door to a rare Congressional consideration of gun law changes, beginning Thursday. While their agreement ensures only that the measure will reach the Senate floor for debate, it rescued gun law changes sought by President Obama and gun control groups from an early defeat.

Lawmakers who represent neighboring states, allies on energy issues and temperamentally aligned, Mr. Manchin and Mr. Toomey announced they had gingerly put together a bipartisan deal that would expand background checks to cover unlicensed dealers at gun shows as well as all online sales.

It would also maintain record-keeping provisions that law enforcement officials find essential in tracking guns used in crimes, but that some Republicans had balked at. Unlike the initial Democratic plan, it does not cover sales between family members and neighbors.

For Mr. Toomey, a Republican toiling in a swing state chock-full of suburban women who often favor gun safety legislation, a relatively modest measure to expand background checks seemed both politically viable and in need of a Republican imprimatur. Gun legislation was "not something I sought," he said.

"I've got to tell you, candidly, I don't consider criminal background checks gun control," said Mr. Toomey, who led the conservative advocacy group Club for Growth after a stint in the House.

He acknowledged that it was hard to take heat from fellow conservatives over his reach across the aisle.

"There have been people who've called the office expressing disappointment," he said in an interview. But some have expressed support, too, he said.

For Mr. Manchin, whose signature campaign ad in 2010 featured him shooting environmental legislation with a hunting rifle, Mr. Toomey represented his best hope of a credible Republican ally who may be able to bring along fellow conservatives to the bill.

"I wanted to make sure whoever I was with came from a gun culture such as mine," Mr. Manchin, who opposes most gun control legislation but wants to close background check loopholes, said in an interview. "I just appreciate Pat so much for being able to get there." Mr. Manchin, who wept during a meeting with family members of victims of the Newtown shooting, has been lauded by gun control advocates for his help.

The politics of the deal are so fragile that Mr. Toomey asked that one of the Democratic co-sponsors of the amendment, SenatorCharles E. Schumerof New York, not appear at a news conference Wednesday morning, Senate aides said. Mr. Schumer agreed, and told Mr. Manchin at the 50th-birthday party of the television hostJoe Scarboroughthat he would not be attending.

The details took so much fine tuning that on Tuesday, as the two senators negotiated, "around 4:00 I was concerned we couldn't do it," Mr. Manchin said.

"We took a half-hour break," he said, and managed to put it over the line late Tuesday night.

The gun bill will receive its first procedural vote in the Senate on Thursday. The House leadership sounded cool on the measure but for now the fight is in the Senate.

The bill also enhances some gun rights. For instance, it would allow gun owners who have undergone background checks within the past five years for a concealed-carry permit to use the permit to buy guns in other states, and it would relax some of the restrictions on hunters traveling with their guns through states that do not permit them. It would also allow active members of the military to buy firearms in their home states, currently prohibited when they are stationed outside their state.

The compromise, which two weeks ago seemed elusive, is intended to pull in as many members from both parties as possible, including Democrats running for re-election in Republican-leaning states.

"There was the danger that we might not accomplish anything," Mr. Toomey said, adding that he and Mr. Manchin have consulted with the National Rifle Association. The group released a statement painting it as a defeat for the White House and MayorMichael R. Bloombergof New York but also saying the proposal was ultimately ineffective.

"While the overwhelming rejection of President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg's 'universal' background check agenda is a positive development," the group said, "we have a broken mental health system that is not going to be fixed with more background checks at gun shows. The sad truth is that no background check would have prevented the tragedy in Newtown, Aurora or Tucson."

The compromise was met with cautious optimism by Mr. Obama, who has made new gun regulations a centerpiece of his second term, and gun control advocates."This is not my bill," Mr. Obama said in a statement, "and there are aspects of the agreement that I might prefer to be stronger."

The president said the Senate proposal "does represent welcome and significant bipartisan progress" and recognizes that some in both parties agree "we've got to do something to stem the tide of gun violence."

Michelle [Mooch] Obama stepped into the gun debate on Wednesday as well, speaking before hundreds of business leaders in Chicago, her hometown. "Right now my husband is fighting as hard as he can and engaging as many people as he can to pass common-sense reforms to protect our children from gun violence," Mrs. Obama said. "And these reforms deserve a vote in Congress."

Many issues remain unresolved in the Senate proposal, chiefly how such new regulations would be enforced, and how law enforcement officials would be able to easily tell the provenance of some guns. But the measure would close many of the loopholes in gun laws.

On Wednesday families of the Newtown shooting victims continued to meet with senators to encourage them to support the bill, and Senator Christopher S. Murphy, a freshman Democrat from Connecticut, chose to focus his first speech on the Senate floor on gun violence, bringing large photographs of some of the 20 children killed in the massacre to the floor.

Mr. Toomey, who said he had long supported background checks, described Mr. Manchin as a great partner. "It's going to be intense for the next few days," he said.


Monica Davey contributed reporting from Chicago.

A version of this article appeared in print on April 11, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Senator's Search for Ally Keeps Gun Bill Alive.

[Warph]

Oops! New York State Police Admit to Major Mistake in Gun Confiscation Case

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/11/oops-new-york-state-police-admit-to-big-mistake-in-gun-confiscation-case/

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/04/09/a-form-of-gun-confiscation-has-reportedly-begun-in-new-york-state-heres-the-justification-being-used/


This is amazing.  Not only was it offensive and unconstitutional.... but they also had the wrong person.  A mental health provision that is not narrowly drawn is susceptible of broad interpretation and can be used to deny rights very easily.

Oh yeah, and let's ask the question... who told the NY State Police to go after the man... and how did they get access to someone's medical records?

[Warph]

At least four Republican senators likely to vote yes on gun purchase background-checks bill
Posted on Monday, April 15, 2013


Just Toomey, Collins, Kirk, and (AZ Goofball) Maverick John McCain so far, but expect a few more to flip soon. Jeff Flake's on the fence but he's probably worried about voting no on gun control across the board when fellow Arizonan Gabby Giffords is campaigning hard against it in the media. (Since McCain's apparently voting yes, Flake has some cover to follow suit.) Dean Heller has also been galloping towards the center ever since his close call against Shelley Berkley in last year's Senate race in purplish Nevada. That's six Republicans — normally enough to break a filibuster when the Senate's 55 Democrats vote together. Are they voting together this time? Pryor and Begich voted against even considering the bill, so presumably they're both no's the rest of the way. Frank Lautenberg's ill and unlikely to be on the floor this week, so that's 58 for Reid right now.

Who'll be numbers 59 and 60?

More @: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3008020/posts

[Warph]

Background Checks Die At The Hands Of Senate Filibuster

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/04/senate-vote-background-checks-manchin-toomey.php

The Senate voted 54-46 on Wednesday afternoon for bipartisan legislation to expand background checks to gun shows and Internet sales, falling short of the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. Families of the Newtown, Conn. shooting victims were present in the chamber and looked on as senators cast their votes.

The Republicans who voted for the bill were Sens. Pat Toomey (PA), Mark Kirk (IL), Susan Collins (ME) and (Rino) John McCain (AZ).   Democrats who voted against it were Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Max Baucus (MT), Mark Begich (AK) and Mark Pryor (AR) — the latter three are up for reelection in 2014.

Senate Majority Leader (Dirty) Harry Reid (D-NV) changed his vote to no in the last minute to reserve the right to bring up the bill again.


[...]

Nanny Bloomberg:
Defeat Of Background Check Bill "A Huge Victory" For Criminals,
Senators Who Voted Against It Scared Of Gun "Extremists"

(Of course, Ms. Bloomberg... because everyone knows criminals buy their guns legally.)

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the nation's most prominent gun control critics, issued a scathing statement Wednesday after legislation to expand background checks to gun shows and Internet sales failed in the Senate:

Today's vote is a damning indictment of the stranglehold that special interests have on Washington. More than 40 U.S. senators would rather turn their backs on the 90 percent of Americans who support comprehensive background checks than buck the increasingly extremist wing of the gun lobby. Democrats – who are so quick to blame Republicans for our broken gun laws – could not stand united. And Republicans – who are so quick to blame Democrats for not being tough enough on crime – handed criminals a huge victory, by preserving their ability to buy guns illegally at gun shows and online and keeping the illegal trafficking market well-fed. Senators Manchin and Toomey – as well as Majority Leader Reid and Senators Schumer, Kirk, Collins, McCain and others – deserve real credit for coming together around a compromise bill that struck a fair balance, and President Obama and Vice-President Biden deserve credit for their leadership since the Sandy Hook massacre. But even with some bi-partisan support, a common-sense public safety reform died in the U.S. Senate at the hands of those who are more interested in attempting to protect their own political careers – or some false sense of ideological purity – than protecting the lives of innocent Americans. The only silver lining is that we now know who refuses to stand with the 90 percent of Americans – and in 2014, our ever-expanding coalition of supporters will work to make sure that voters don't forget.

[Warph]

Police Departments Beg And Barter For Ammo While DHS Buys Up 1.6 Billion Rounds In Past Year

http://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-williams-jr/police-departments-beg-and-barter-ammo-while-dhs-buys-16-billion


Gun Shops Rationing Ammo: 'We Have Police Departments that are Scrambling'

http://cnsnews.com/blog/gregory-gwyn-williams-jr/gun-shops-rationing-ammo-we-have-police-departments-are-scrambling


DHS Bullet Inventory Is 246,451,611, Chief Procurement Officer Testifies

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/dhs-bullet-inventory-246451611-chief-procurement-officer-testifies

(As someone said, "What you're told and the truth is somewhere inbetween."  First of the year it was announced that DHS bought 1.2 Billion rounds of hollowpoint ammunition.  Now onlly 0.2 billion in inventory, what happened to the billion rounds?)

[Ross]

Oklahoma Lawmakers Introduce 'AMMO Act' to Prevent Feds from Stockpiling Ammo (VIDEO)

Worried that the feds are purposely hoarding ammo which is consequently leading to shortages in the marketplace, two Oklahoma lawmakers introduced a bill last Friday that would place sensible limits on the amount of ammunition the Obama administration is allowed to purchase on a biannual basis.

The AMMO Act, which stands for Ammunition Management for More Obtainability, is the brainchild of U.S. Sen. Jim Inohfe (R-OK) and Congressman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and it would specifically "restrict agencies from obtaining additional ammunition for a six-month period if current agency stockpiles are higher than its monthly averages prior to the Obama Administration."

According to the bill, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) would keep tabs on the ammo being purchased and stockpiled by the government and weigh that against the relative supply of ammo available to the public.  However, the Dept. of Defense would not be included in the evaluation and would be free to purchase ammo, unchecked.

"President Obama has been adamant about curbing law-abiding Americans' access and opportunities to exercise their Second Amendment rights," said Inhofe, in a press release.

"One way the Obama Administration is able to do this is by limiting what's available in the market with federal agencies purchasing unnecessary stockpiles of ammunition. As the public learned in a House committee hearing this week, the Department of Homeland Security has two years worth of ammo on hand and allots nearly 1,000 more rounds of ammunition for DHS officers than is used on average by our Army officers," he continued.

"The AMMO Act of 2013 will enforce transparency and accountability of federal agencies' ammunition supply while also protecting law-abiding citizens access to these resources," Inhofe concluded.

http://www.guns.com/2013/04/30/oklahoma-lawmakers-introduce-ammo-act-to-prevents-feds-from-stockpiling-ammo-video/