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TOP STORY
Gun Control Lobby Resorts to Hysteria, Lies In Opposing National Reciprocity Bill
With Rep. Richard Hudson’s (R-NC) proposed Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 waiting formal review before the House Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations Subcommittee, the gun-control lobby is, again, using hysterics and misinformation to curry opposition to the bill.
The latest example is Sen. Mark Warner’s (D-VA) statements in aligning himself with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and former Rep. Gabby Giffords’ gun control group, Americans for Responsible Solutions, campaign against the proposed bill, which would recognize the national recognition of concealed carry for law-abiding citizens in accordance with the Constitution.
Warner, in a May 3 statement, declared his opposition to the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, claimed since 2013, the “country has suffered over 100 mass shootings and tens of thousands of Americans are killed through gun violence each year.”
He went on to say the bill represents a “renewed efforts this Congress to relax the standards for issuing concealed carry permits or to establish a national system that would further erode state-level concealed carry standards.”
Of course, as noted by Breitbart News’ AWR Hawkins, Warner’s statements are total balderdash (AKA, “fake news”). America has not suffered “over 100 mass shootings” since 2013, Hawkins writes on May 5, noting Warner may have been referring to the long-refuted claim by the gun control lobby that there were 355 mass shootings in 2015 alone.
Hawkins cited Mother Jones Editor Mark Follman’s effort to confirm the claim that there were 355 mass shootings in 2015 which resulted in the discovery that there were four — as in four — mass shootings in 2015. .
Warner’s claim that “‘tens of thousands of Americans are killed through gun violence each year’ simply is not so,” Hawkins writes. “In reality, the number of firearm-related homicides – what the left calls ‘gun violence’ – hovers around 10,500 to 11,500 each year. There are, on average, an additional 20,000 to 22,000 deaths each year that the (gun control lobby) adds to the homicide figures, but those additional deaths are suicides; and suicides are not deaths via ‘gun violence.’”
Hawkins writes that the gun control lobby’s true fear isn’t that the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would erode state-level concealed carry standards but preempt “draconian gun controls” in California, Illinois, New Jersey and New York. “It will force those states to fall in line and recognize Americans’ right not simply to keep arms, but to bear them as well,” he writes.
For more, go to:
— Giffords joins Democrats accusing Trump, GOP of pandering to NRA
— Sen Mark Warner Joins Gabby Giffords’ Fight Against Concealed Carry for Law-Abiding Citizens
— Giffords joins Democrats accusing Trump, GOP of pandering to NRA
— John Lott: Half of All U.S. Murders Happen in Just Two Percent of Counties Written by Bob Adelmann
— Gun Rights Leaders ‘Ecstatic,’ ‘Excited’ in Early Days of Trump Administration
— Five years after Sandy Hook, still no new gun laws
— Speaking to gun-safety group, Pat Toomey reaffirms support for background check bill
ABOUT FACEBOOK
Anti-Gun Zealots Blame Law-Abiding Gun Owners For Suicide, Murder Social Media Posts
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on May 3 that the social media giant is adding 3,000 new hires to its 4,500-member community operations team to review reported posts and videos following a series of suicides and murders posted to the site.
“These reviewers will also help us get better at removing things we don’t allow on Facebook like hate speech and child exploitation,” Zuckerberg said in a press release. “And we’ll keep working with local community groups and law enforcement who are in the best position to help someone if they need it — either because they’re about to harm themselves, or because they’re in danger from someone else.”
Zuckerberg explained that the network will make it simpler to report problems so reviewers can more quickly address flagged posts and alert law enforcement if needed.
There was no mention of firearms, of illicit gun sales, or anything related to guns and/or gun owners whatsoever in Zuckerman’s statement because law-abiding gun owners and gun laws are not the problem.
But that didn’t stop former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s front groups Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action from seizing the opportunity to advance their anti-gun agenda by blaming law-abiding gun owners for, well, everything bad on the planet.
“This increase in staffing affirms Facebook’s leading industry role in gun violence prevention — and shows its commitment to preventing gun violence,” Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts blathered in a statement.
Facebook has blocked firearms sales between private parties attempting to transfer firearms to felons, minors or across state lines without an Federal Firearms License since 2014. The platform has banned private, person-to-person sales of guns since 2016, although FFL-licensed dealers are allowed to use Facebook for legal, regulated sales.
For more, go to:
— Gun control group welcomes news Facebook to hire 3,000 additional content reviewers
— Inside The Secret Group For Gun Owners Banned From Facebook
— 5 Reasons Why Facebook’s Ban On Gun Sales Isn’t Working
STATE ROUNDUP
Pennsylvania Lawmakers Restore State Firearms Preemption
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on May 4 restored a 2014 preemption law that allows individuals and organizations to sue municipalities that adopt gun control laws that are ore restrictive than state firearms laws.
The House overwhelmingly adopted HB 671 in a 134-53 vote. The bill is an amendment to Title 18 of Pennsylvania’s consolidated statues that would replace Act 192, which was signed into law in 2014.
In June 2016, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled the law was unconstitutional, not because of its substance, but because of the way it was adopted as a rider within a bill dealing with criminal penalties for the theft of metals.
Rep. Mark K. Keller (R-Perry), who sponsored the bill, told the Associated Press that state law already “provides, in most circumstances, for pre-emption of local firearm laws, (but) the courts have made that law very difficult for ordinary citizens to enforce.”
State firearms preemption was approved by legislators more than 30 years ago to do away with a growing matrix of regulations across the state. The 2014 bill was approved in response to local governments enacting gun control ordinances in violation of state preemption.
For more, go to:
— House OKs Bill That Would Restore Controversial Gun Law
— Nevada: Anti-Gun Bills Scheduled for Committee Hearings Next Week
— Maine: Gun Bills Still Pending in House – Continue Contacting your State Representative
— Georgia Governor Nathan Deal Signed Bill Into Law Permitting On College And University Campuses
— Alabama could drop permit requirement for concealed guns
— Courthouse security and gun rights at odds under new Iowa law
— Tennessee House Passes Gun-Lawsuit Bill
— Bills on guns, medical marijuana among those dead for year in South Carolina
— N.J. should honor other states’ firearms permits
— How California’s ‘off-roster’ gun exemption for peace officers is causing problems
— After a violent week, a look at Texas gun laws
— Louisiana: Disarm all abusers: bill includes violent dating partners in gun ban
— New York: Far-reaching bill package is aimed at curbing gun violence
— Florida lawmakers kill pro-gun bill in exchange for Everglades water bill
— Gun bill intended to prevent suicide moves forward in Oregon
IN THE COURTS
Cleveland Gun-Offender Registry Ruled Unconstitutional
The city of Cleveland’s gun-offender registry is unconstitutional, the Ohio Court of Appeals wrote in an April 27 opinion released May 3.
Ohioans For Concealed Carry (OFCC) challenged the the city’s 2015 ordinance’s constitutionality, as well as a mandate to call police about guns on school property. The appeals court tossed both out.
In 2015, Cleveland imposed a law designed to “increase regulations that limit discharge of weapons, increase awareness regarding the presence of weapons in school zones, promote law enforcement officer safety and most importantly…keep weapons out of the hands of children,” according to court records.
According to Jeff D. Gorman of Courthouse News Service, OFCC appealed the city’s ordinances based on the state’s definition of an automatic firearm. The city conceded its definitions of “automatic firearm” and “dangerous ordnance” violate state law because they include legal semi-automatic weapons.
“OFCC claims that by changing the definitions of the terms ‘automatic weapon’ or ‘automatic firearm’ and ‘dangerous ordnance,’ the trial court (in a previous ruling) made changes to the legislation that constituted a violation of the separation of powers. We agree,” Judge Sean Gallagher of the Ohio Court of Appeals wrote in the April 27 opinion. “A court may not invade the province of the legislature and violate the separation of powers by rewriting a statute or ordinance.”
Gorman notes that Gallagher also agreed with OFCC’s challenge to the validity of 11 other city ordinances, including creation of a gun-offender registry and the prohibition of weapons on school property that creates “a duty to notify police if weapons are found on school grounds.”
“Municipalities may not exercise their police powers in a manner that conflicts with the general laws of the state,” Gallagher wrote. “Because the ordinances place restrictions on conduct that the state has authorized, they conflict with the general laws of the state.”
For more, go to:
— Appeals Court Tosses Cleveland Gun Regulations
— Appeals court bans Cleveland gun registry, regulations
— Appeals Court Shoots Down Cleveland’s Gun Offender Registry