Thursday, October 30, 2014

The NRA’s Risky Ratings Stunt

The NRA dropped Connecticut Republican Mark Greenberg’s rating from an A down to an F earlier this month after he said that he would support universal background checks.

This type of thing helps the NRA get attention, but it could do more damage than good in the long term. The NRA shouldn’t go after candidates who otherwise support gun rights just because of their stance on background checks. Especially when they are Republicans.

Whether or not you support criminal background checks — personally I think it would depend on how they were enforced — the fact is that most Americans do. By being so strict on the issue, the NRA risks giving power to the gun control interests and opening the door to even tighter infringements on the Second Amendment.

The NRA is so afraid of getting criticism from the open carriers and the fringe groups that they forget about the mainstream voters who determine elections. Greenberg is in a tight race to take over a seat that is held by the Democrats. Couldn’t the NRA have been a little more lenient?

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Sunday School Teacher Arrested After Firing A Warning Shot To Save His Fiancé From Being Raped

A West Virginia Sunday school teacher is facing criminal charges after firing a warning shot to scare off thugs who were threatening to rape his fiancé.

Chris Harris and his fiancé CC Roxby were walking home from a bible study class in Wheeling, West Virginia three weeks ago when a group of men approached them and began making physical threats.

“They surrounded me saying some pretty vulgar things like they were going to rape my wife in front of me, cut me,” Harris said.

The men — one of whom was wielding a knife — continued to be aggressive even after the couple called 911. Fearing for her life, Roxby pulled out a concealed pistol that she carries legally and handed it to Harris.

But the sight of a gun wasn’t enough to deter the criminals.

“The kid kept advancing on me, saying it wasn’t a real gun,” Harris said. “I would much rather shoot a shot in the air to prevent them from attacking me rather than them attacking me and me shooting someone.”

Harris fired a warning shot just as police cruisers arrived on the scene. The thugs scattered. But instead of chasing the criminals, the police officers arrested Harris and charged him with “wanton endangerment”. He has since been released on bail.

Instead of punishing Harris, police should be thanking him for showing so much restraint. Considering the situation he and his fiancé were in, it would have been totally justifiable if he had pointed his gun a little lower.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Ebola Is Not A Joke, Mr. President

Instead of handling Ebola as a dangerous international threat, President Obama and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are treating the disease as nothing but a joke.

At a news conference last week, Obama made light of the situation, joking that he “hugged and kissed” Emory hospital nurses and that he felt “perfectly safe” while doing so. This type of glib comment goes to show that Obama isn’t taking the threat seriously.

In addition to his comments, Obama’s policies also show that he is routinely underestimating the threat of Ebola. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the public supports banning travel to countries that have the disease, for instance, Obama refuses to institute a travel ban.

It was also recently reported that the CDC allowed several nurses to travel shortly after being exposed to the disease, potentially spreading the virus to other parts of the country.

It is also clear that staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital treating recently deceased patient Thomas Eric Duncan did not wear protective hazardous-material suits for two days until tests conclusively confirmed that he had Ebola.

These kinds of mistakes are ridiculous and unforgivable, and they show just how unprepared the government is to handle this kind of threat.

Instead of cracking stupid jokes, Obama should be doing anything he can — including instituting a travel ban to Africa — that could potentially stop this crisis before it gets out of hand.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

California Passes Gun Seizure Bill

California legislators recently passed a bill allowing family members to ask a judge to confiscate firearms from relatives who they see as a danger to themselves or others.  The seizure will be enforced only when the judge deems the family’s concerns to be “legitimate”.

Liberal lawmakers, who never leave a tragedy unexploited, drafted the bill in response to Elliot Rodger’s deadly rampage near the University of California, Santa Barbara campus earlier this year.

California Assembly Member Nancy Skinner, who introduced the bill, said: “Family members are often the first to spot the warning signs when someone is in crisis. AB 1014 provides an effective tool to get guns out of the hands of loved ones to avoid these tragedies.”

Keeping guns out of Elliot Rodger’s hands would not have averted a tragedy – after all, he stabbed three people to death before he even picked up a gun. (It sure is funny how lefties always leave out the inconvenient details.)

That said — this law could be worse.

Individuals seeking the restraining order have to sign an affidavit under oath and can be charged with a misdemeanor if caught lying. A court hearing also has to be held within two weeks after the restraining order is granted to allow the gun owner to defend himself.

So long as California administers the law properly and does not allow vindictive family members to abuse their newfound privilege, it seems like a reasonable way to prevent mass shootings by the mentally ill.

I know some people might not like it, but gun rights supporters might have to accept compromises like this if we want to avoid all out gun control in the future.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Gay Gun Activists A Growing Force

In 2012, former Google employee Chris Cheng won the History Channel’s reality shooting competition, “Top Shot.” Beating seasoned marksmen, highly trained police officers and competitive shooters, Cheng received a $100,000 cash prize and a professional marksman contract with the show’s sponsor, Bass Pro Shops.

Cheng also happens to be openly gay.

Speaking with Fox News, Cheng explained that History Channel executives only cared about how well he could shoot and represent his season, not about his sexual orientation.

“There is this stereotypical view of the gun community as anti-gay rednecks, but nothing could be further from the truth,” Cheng said.

After his win, Cheng quit his job at Google to become an NRA news commentator and author of the book Shoot to Win: Tips, Tactics, and Techniques to Help You Shoot like a Pro.

Cheng is not alone as a gay marksman and gun rights activist. The Atlantic recently wrote about a host of websites and groups specifically for gay gun enthusiasts, including Big Gay Al’s Big Gay (Gun) Blog, GaysWithGuns.net, and the most established organization, the Pink Pistols.

Gwen Patton, First Speaker of Pink Pistols International, told The Atlantic that the gay community has not been receptive of people like them: “They treat us like we’ve left the reservation because we’re looking at these evil guns, and they don’t like guns, so that calls into question our loyalty to the gay community.”

In a blog post after her interview, Patton also took issue with Ladd Everitt, Communications Director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, insinuating that threats against gay gun enthusiasts are likely to be from fellow members in the pro-gun community.

“Everitt appears to believe that the Pink Pistols should be afraid of their fellow shooters and believers in the Second Amendment,” she said. “It didn’t take much thought to determine what Everitt meant — that gun enthusiasts and pro-rights individuals are violent bigots specifically because they are pro-rights.”

Despite what the liberal media may preach, being pro-gun does not automatically mean that someone is also anti-gay. People like Chris Cheng and Gwen Patton emphatically prove otherwise.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Obama Blames Others For His Incompetence on ISIS


In a recent interview with “60 Minutes,” Obama refused to accept blame for the rise of ISIS, instead accusing Director of National Intelligence James Clapper of underestimating the power of the terrorist group and overestimating the ability of the Iraqi army to properly fight them.

Obama’s unwillingness to take responsibility for his own errors is embarrassing. As Rachel Marsden of Town Hall put it: “When you're the Commander in Chief of the United States, downloading blame onto anyone -- let alone someone you nominated yourself -- is just pathetic.”

After Obama claimed that “no one could have possibly foreseen” how dangerous ISIS could have become, leaks from the Pentagon suggested that Obama was directly briefed about ISIS over a year ago.

As of October 1, ISIS has publicly beheaded nine Kurdish fighters, British aid worker David Haines, and American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. They have also killed thousands of Iraqis and Syrians trying to flee their control. This kind of disregard for the sanctity of human life is one of the many examples of their savagery.

Teenage girls from the Yazidi Christian minority in northern Iraq confirmed to The New York Post what was already widely assumed: that they were starved, beaten, tortured and raped while in ISIS captivity.

With CNN reporting that ISIS is probably holding at least two more American citizens hostage, as well as a host of others from additional Western countries, it is clear that all of the blame should be placed solely on Obama.