Gun Issue Stuff

I don't know a great deal about Newsmax as a source -- but, from what I've been getting and hearing, this does seem reliable.
Gun and ammunition sales continue at record levels nationally.  Here in Pocatello, Idaho, it's difficult to find ammo these days.  

NRA membership continues to grow very rapidly all over the country and is pushing toward the five million mark.  Smaller gun rights groups are also expanding.

Gabby Giffords, badly wounded in the firearms assault of a few years ago, and her spouse, are getting a fair amount of PR from the anti-gun media: especially CNN and MSNBC.  The presumption in hers and similar cases seems to be that, if you are shot by a deranged person, blame "the gun" and move to try to penalize gun owners nationally as well as attempt to further erode civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.  Taking Giffords as an example, little is said about the extremely poisonous wave of anti-immigrant fear and hysteria that was sweeping central and southern Arizona at that point -- and was very likely an emotional trigger for the shooter/killer at Tucson.

Efforts to mandate gun ownership in various jurisdictions is, of course, quite contrary to the meaning of the Second Amendment and will get nowhere.  Reserve, New Mexico, a rather strange and isolated little town on the Arizona border with which I'm personally familiar, tried this some years back and it failed.  

I continue to be personally very wary of efforts to arm, in classroom settings, teachers at various levels and college/university students.  'Way too dangerous and chilling re the teaching/learning process.  It takes more than a few hours of quickie firearms training to know guns and their proper and safe usage.  School security should be handled by trained specialists.  I do, of course, feel that college and university students should certainly be able to keep firearms in dorms.

H.

Newsmax
State, Local Lawmakers Rush to Enact Gun Laws Ahead of Federal Controls 
Saturday, March 9, 2013 11:06 AM
By: Sandy Fitzgerald and Matthew Auerbach

The battle over gun control is playing out across the nation as well as in Washington D.C., with towns and states considering gun laws they say will protect their residents' rights to bear firearms at a time when many fear the federal government will enforce weapons bans.

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence reports more than 1,100 gun-related bills have been introduced in recent months on the state level. 

Several communities also are considering ordinances to make gun ownership mandatory, reports Fox News, while others recommend keeping firearms but don't go so far as to require gun ownership.

A town of 140 people in western Maine is another in the list of communities from Idaho to Georgia who decided to require or recommend their residents own a gun. 

But while residents of Byron, Maine, and their selectmen favor the legislation, Maine prohibits, through a 2011 state law, municipalities from adopting firearm regulations.

Supporters in Nelson, Ga., a town of 1,300 located about 50 miles north of Atlanta, say they want a gun requirement law because light police patrols leave city residents virtually unprotected.

The proposal there carries exemptions for people who object because of personal beliefs, religious reasons or mental disability, and Mayor Pro Tem Jonathan Bishop said convicted felons will also be exempted.

Kennesaw, Ga., has had a mandatory gun law since 1982, and Police Lt. Craig Graydon said the law has worked to keep crime staying low, even though the ordinance is "unenforceable," and the town has never tried to enforce it.

The new gun laws are also extending to schools in the wake of the Dec. 14 shootings in Newtown, Conn., reports On Friday, South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a law giving school boards the ability to allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom. 

According to the New York Times, South Dakota is now "believed to be the first state to pass a law that specifically allows teachers to carry firearms."

The new law specifies that a school district must "obtain the approval of the law enforcement official who has jurisdiction over the school premises" before creating a sentinel program. 

On the national level, lawmakers are struggling to advance some of the bills that have been introduced in Congress following the Newtown shootings. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday for a gun trafficking bill that makes so-called "straw" purchases -- or buying a gun for someone who can't legally purchase one -- illegal. The bill was sponsored by committee Chairman Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., and Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley was the lone Republican to vote for the bill.

Three other bills, calling for an assault weapons ban, enhanced school safety, and a background check bill, remain in committee. The ban on assault weapons may have difficulty passing the Senate, and the background check legislation is in trouble after Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma backed out of talks with bill sponsor Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat. 

On Thursday, California Sen. Dianne Feinstein opposed an amendment to her assault weapons ban seeking to allow military veterans to continue buying the banned firearms. The Democrat noted a veteran may be mentally ill or suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. In addition, she said, it's not clear how the seller of an assault weapon would be able to verify whether or not the veteran was mentally ill. 

While some towns and states are considering laws encouraging guns, the Colorado Senate on Friday considered legislation including background checks, banning high-capacity magazines, and permitting the prosecution of gun sellers and manufacturers whose firearms are used in the commission of violent crimes. 

Another bill, though, to ban concealed weapons on college campuses, failed before making it to the floor. 


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq /St. Francis 
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO
www.hunterbear.org 
(much social justice material)

I have always lived and worked in the Borderlands.

See my piece ON BEING A MILITANT AND RADICAL
ORGANIZER -- AND AN EFFECTIVE ONE (Mississippi et al.):
http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm
(Expanded in Fall 2012. Photos. Material on our Native
background.) 

See the new and expanded/updated edition of my very well-reviewed 
"Organizer's Book" -- the inside story of the massive Jackson
Mississippi Movement, the murder of Medgar Evers, and more.
And with my new and very substantial introduction:
http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm