Posted on 05/17/2009 6:25:32 AM PDT by marktwain
During last year’s presidential campaign, gun-owners’ groups like the National Rifle Association said Barack Obama, if he were elected, would be the most anti-gun president in the history of the United States.
That claim and similar statements sparked a buying spree on guns and ammunition immediately following the election, which continued well into this year. I bought some shells last week, and told I was limited to two boxes.
There is nothing to indicate that this shortage is the result of Obama administration actions, however.
I’m not here to proclaim that President Obama is really a great friend to gun owners, or that he and Attorney General Eric Holder won’t concoct some plan to make it harder to acquire and keep guns.
But I will say that, after nearly four months of the Obama administration, the great gun grab that some folks anticipated hasn’t begun to show itself. In many ways, it’s been a good four months for gun owners and Second Amendment supporters.
For instance, there was the news last week that the U.S. Senate had approved an amendment (to a credit-card reform bill, of all things) which would allow holders of concealed-weapons permits to carry guns in national parks if state law authorizes doing so.
Colorado’s senators were among the 27 Democrats who voted in favor of the amendment.
Readers may recall that President George W. Bush, with the support of senators from both parties, issued an executive order late last year allowing concealed weapons to be carrried in national parks. That order was struck down, not by the Obama administration, but by a federal judge.
Even so, gun rights have fared reasonably well in court lately. The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — viewed as the most liberal in the country — has issued two key rulings recently that gun groups have applauded. In April, it held that the Second Amendment limits the ability of state and local governments to adopt laws which infringe on gun owners’ rights. And just last week, the Ninth Circuit made it clear local government couldn’t sue gun manufacturers for crimes committed by people who used their products.
At the state level, legislatures around the country have adopted or are considering laws that make it easier for gun owners to carry their weapons in vehicles in public places or otherwise extend gun rights. The Colorado Legislature has passed Rep. Steve King’s bill to make a background check unnecessary for a gun buyer if he or she has a current concealed-weapons permit. Gov. Bill Ritter has yet to sign the bill.
There is also a move afoot, led by Montana, to challenge federal authority to control guns in some circumstances. Montana has passed legislation that says if guns are manufactured in that state for sale only in Montana, then the federal government has no authority over them because their sale doesn’t involve interstate commerce.
This fight is as much about the 10th Amendment as the Second, and it is almost guaranteed to face a court challenge. But other states are already lining up to consider similar legislation.
And what’s going on at the White House?
Obama and his team have been taking fire, so to speak, from gun-control groups that are outraged the president is not pushing to re-establish the so-called assault weapons ban that expired in 2004. And they are mad that he has not sought to eliminate the Tiahrt Amendment, which requires records from gun background checks to be destroyed within 24 hours and keeps other gun records confidential. Based on his actions so far, Obama hasn’t been the gun-control fanactic that some predicted.
I don’t mean to suggest gun owners should breathe a sigh of relief, say all is well, and become complacent about possible changes in gun laws.
Obama’s picks for Supreme Court justices and other judicial appointments may have a great deal of influence on Second Amendment rights in the future.
There are plenty of folks out there who still want to impose more limits on guns. Several members of Congress are talking about trying to re-establish the assault weapons ban. There are perennial efforts to place new limits on ammunition or to substantially expand registering of weapons and licensing of gun owners.
One proposed piece of legislation would allow the attorney general to deny firearms to “known or suspected dangerous terrorists.” That may sound fine on its face. Who doesn’t want to keep guns out of the hands of Osama bin Laden’s minions? But if the Department of Homeland Security’s recent definition of potential terrorists were to be used, an awful lot of law-abiding Americans could be denied guns.
The problem for all of those who support such control, however, is that virtually all Republicans and a substantial number of Democrats want nothing to do with these measures. They know they are political losers that will hurt them come election time.
As I said, the Obama Era could yet prove to be devastating to gun rights. But, it hasn’t started out that way.
It is Obama's statements not others that have created the run on ammo and guns.
or buy a diffrent pistol , i got a cz52 for 230 dollars
and you can buy about 1200 rounds for 138 dollars delivered
its a 7.62x25 round (30cal) , good luck
We need to stop them every step of the way . They will obviously never stop trying. One way or another they intend that only criminals have guns.
Some of those congress critters should be learning new respect for their voters, it would seem. I would think that some of them should be afraid to return to their home states, but then if those states tolerate people like that, then we should be ever vigilant on those areas.
“It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
- Samuel Adams
"Irate & Tireless" would make a great patriotic slogan and bumper sticker. It might even fly under the DHS' radar for a while.
First: READ the Heller decision, the definition of what “ARMS” is. This decision has major changes, in line with the UN Convention on Light Weapons, which Obama sponsored as part of his Global Poverty package.
2ND: The International Criminal Court Treaty is being mentioned for passage.
McCarthy of NY now talking about including the “No Fly list” in firearm purchase denials. Any one wonder if the “right wing extremist veterans” in the DHS report might be included?
The groundwork has already been laid to ban and seize ALL
MILITARY MANUFACTURE, copies of, designs derived from (MAUSER?) of any age.
Even match lock muskets from the 1600’s will fit this definition.
Look at Britain and Australia for the desired and coming results.
First.... “we only want you to register them” (California has a record here....”
Next... We’ll come get them.
The crisis will be food supply. Walmart will be the supply point, for the only (federal) distribution, and be sure to bring your guns...
That’s when you will learn all? firearms purchased since 1968 are already in the Federal data base.
Open pollinated seed is getting scarce, in certain desirable varieties. Some corn from a major national seller is now $6.99 PER OUNCE.
Baby pigs are unavailable, and baby chickens scarce.
Exactly. That’s why the British troops in America were called “Regulars”.
The irate and tireless have mostly been on the left. The guns will be useless unless we have the guts to use them, or better yet, to make our enemies understand that we will use them. Deterrence.
This is not factually true. The run on guns and ammo started in the summer of 2008, and there is more than one dynamic driving the boom in the guns and ammo business.
1) Yes partially driven by fear that some kinds of guns may be banned,
2) There is fear that there will be a rise in crime as our cities and towns run out of money for law enforcement pay and equippage.
3) There is also a fear of civil disorder as a result of government imposed martial law to quell riots related to the recession or a depression.
4) People in rural areas realize they might have to hunt to eat.
5) Some people believe that we will have to fight our own government which will seek to confiscate wealth and property of its citizens to pay for the huge government spending boondoggle and “redistribution.”
6) Congressional representatives have not followed the will of the people on security and spending issues.We may have to take back our federal government through force or the threat of force.THe people know this as a matter of fact.
The demand for guns and ammo will remain strong as long as the nationalist socialist government of Obama is in control of the White House and Congress.It has only a little to do with fear that guns will be banned. America is arming itself to the teeth, as well it should.
Thus article seeks to define a myth that gun sales are only driven by fear of a ban. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is why America is arming itself, fear that our liberty will be taken.We will fight to prevent that.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ON LIBERTY
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.
Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.
The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.
Samuel Adams
________________
Oh I agree with you 100%. The MSM is lying when they say it’s fear of gun and ammo bans. All one has to do is visit gun shops or go to gun shows. Listen to the conversations, look at the quantities they are purchasing. They expect they may have to use them and they aren’t buying cases and cases of ammo to use at the range.
A range employee related a story about a 416 Weatherby rifle. The owner of the rifle had a potential buyer who wanted to fire it. The owner was the 2nd owner of the rifle. He had a box with 18 of 20 rounds left. The first owner had fired it once and decided it was too much rifle. The 2nd owner came to the same conclusion. The 3rd potential owner was "on deck" with round #3. The range employee and owner #2 stood behind him as he fired it. One of them caught the flying rifle. The other caught potential owner #3. No sale. No damage to the rifle. It's not a .577 Nitro T-Rex, but it is still too much rifle for most people.
You may have seen the video from Saudi Arabia of a fellow shooting the T-Rex. It knocked him over and the flying rifle broken the glass in the door and windows behind the shooting both. Amusing and pathetic.
Somebody certainly supported a relatively recent change in Colorado law such that a non-resident in Colorado can only carry if they bear a permit from their state of residence. For a Kalifornian like myself, it means that none of my permits are any good in Colorado.
Fortunately, there are about thirty other states which are happy to receive my vacation money.
Yes, they are, and that is precisely why they will not stop until they disarm us...or worse.
What? This guy needs to get out more. One of the first things Hussein did was try and prevent the DOD from selling scrap shells and the like to weapons loaders..
Maybe that's because the rhetoric - and buying patterns - of his opponents on the issue are so intense that it's all he can do to merely maintain the status quo. Seriously: when both the Congress and President are hard-core leftists with no viable opposition, and they actively oppose merely considering anti-RKBA legislation, the lack of movement on the issue isn't merely a matter of distraction.
Well regulated, as in well practiced in the use of personally owned weapons.
I thought that particular T-Rex was a .600 or .700.
“Abdul and the T-Rex”.
It's a .577 Nitro. The rifle weighs 13.6 pounds. The bullet is 750 gr @ 2600 fps. If the link doesn't play directly for you, download and play it in the Windows Media Player.
That’s it; I didn’t remember it being the .577.
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