Jay Leno Cancels Gun Show Appearance Under Pressure From Anti-Gun Groups

Comedian and former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno pulled out of a scheduled appearance at the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s 2015 SHOT Show in Las Vegas under pressure from leftist gun control groups.

Leno dropped out just hours after the Newtown Action Alliance began circulating a petition calling on him to cancel. Several hundred people had already bought tickets to his performance, which the NSSF was calling the “highlight” of the event.

According to Town Hall, the most recent SHOT show attracted 67,000 people and pumped $73 million into the Las Vegas economy. More than 1600 companies were involved in the event, which included a performance by the magicians Penn & Teller.

Leno’s spokesman claims the comedian had accepted NSSF’s invitation without knowing that the NSSF was part of the “pro-gun lobby”. The spokesman also said Leno did not receive any payment for the gig, although the NSSF has since disputed that claim.

The NSSF responded to Leno’s cancellation with a statement criticizing the “bullying political tactics” of gun control groups.

“We are clearly disappointed by Jay Leno's decision not to perform at the 2015 SHOT Show State of the Industry Dinner. He unilaterally cancelled his promised appearance due to pressure from the anti-gun lobby, which included false statements about our industry and its commitment to genuine firearms safety, which we attempted to personally correct with him, but to no avail. We are not deterred by their publicity seeking nor are we unfamiliar with the bullying political tactics of the gun control groups that seem to have as little respect for the First Amendment as they continually demonstrate with regard to the Second Amendment.”

Is Pennsylvania’s New Gun Law Anti-Conservative?

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett signed a firearms pre-emption law last month, which will allow citizens to sue local governments whose gun regulations exceed state law.  The NRA says it is “the strongest in the nation”.

While I certainly applaud putting limitations on gun control, preemption laws are not the right way to promote gun rights. Gun rights are important, but so is local democratic decision-making.

The idea of preemption is that federal laws are more important than state laws, and state laws are more important than local laws.

This puts serious limits on the power of local government. States often use it to force cities and towns to comply with state rules on things like zoning and special education funding.

The federal government uses preemption as well, usually in ways that hurt conservatives.  In 2011, the Supreme Court cited preemption as a reason for striking down an immigration law that had been passed by voters in Arizona. Senate liberals have tried to use it to force states to ease access to abortion.

These types of decisions should be left up to local voters, not career politicians. Most conservatives would agree. Yet the NRA has been pushing preemption laws not only in Pennsylvania, but also throughout the country.

In its effort to protect the freedom to carry guns, the NRA has to be careful to preserve other freedoms as well.

America’s Youngest State Legislator Ever Is An Eighteen Year Old Republican Woman

Last week, West Virginia elected America’s youngest state legislator, eighteen-year-old Republican Saira Blair.

Just a freshman in college, Blair beat her Democratic opponent Layne Dieh by a landslide, winning sixty three percent of the vote to his thirty percent.

And she did it by running on a proudly conservative platform, expressing strongly pro-life and pro-gun views.

“I fully support the Second Amendment, I believe in protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty. It’s time that we stopped treating our citizens like terrorists and terrorist like citizens,” she wrote on her campaign website. “Simply stated, firearms allow our law abiding citizens to protect themselves and their families. Our constitutional right shall not be infringed!”

She was endorsed by guns rights organizations like West Virginia Citizen’s Defense League and the NRA.

Blair is also staunchly pro-life. She believes that life begins at conception and that tax dollars should not fund abortions. Unlike her father, Republican West Virginia State Senator Craig Blair, she does not support the use of Plan B contraception.

And, she believes in responsible job creation. In an interview with Time Magazine, she explained why she wants to make West Virginia a right-to-work state. “I’ve watched too many people get a high school and college education and then leave the state because they cannot get a good paying job,” she said.

Blair recently told Fox News that many young Republicans are too afraid to speak up about their fiscally and socially conservative values because of the criticism they will receive on social media.

Blair’s historic win shows that there is nothing wrong with being a proud young conservative. She will be a fresh voice in West Virginia state government and will undoubtedly go on to do great things.

PETA: Pro-Hunting Yearbook Photos Could Lead To School Shootings

The animal rights organization PETA is publicly criticizing Broken Bow High School in Nebraska for allowing seniors to pose for yearbook photos with hunting rifles and other sport shooting equipment.

The organization says that the photos “glamorize killing” and that they “are particularly egregious coming on the heels of the recent deadly rampage at a Washington high school.”

In a leap of logic that is shocking and disrespectful even for a far-left activist group, PETA claims that hunting and school shootings are linked because “time after time, when young people are involved in school shootings, they have a history of abusing animals.”

This is a complete non sequitur. Responsible hunting is a far cry from torturing animals, and it certainly doesn’t lead to school shootings. Broken Bow’s policy for these photos, as put forth by Superintendent Mark Sievering, specifically states that the portraits must be taken off-campus and staged “in a non-threatening and tasteful manner.”

Speaking with Fox News, Sievering elaborated further on the policy. “Hunting is a very important activity in this area,” he said. “We are a rural community and a number of our families participate in hunting, fishing, skeet shooting, trapshooting — it’s part of life here.”

Only a small-minded bigot would think that a child that grows up in an environment that appreciates responsible hunting is automatically destined to participate in a mass shooting. PETA’s comments show that they know very little about hunting and even less about America.