Free Republic

Evergreen State gun owners recall Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke as the fellow who declared war on Starbucks for serving armed citizen patrons — and lost — and as he departs that post, an editorial in a Michigan newspaper yesterday underscores why. This column discussed Helmke's looming departure the other day. We talked about the record number of CPL holders here while violent crime had declined. We talked about it on a national scale here, all on Helmke's watch. We noted here how Starbucks profits actually climbed after Helmke's attempt to browbeat the business chain into submission. As America celebrates...

Paul Helmke, Yale Law graduate and former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne Indiana who has served as the president of The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence since 2006, has announced that he is stepping down effective July 10th. Despite his highly respected resume, during his tenure at the Brady Campaign, Helmke has presided over a steady decline in the organizations relevancy.

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- Paul Helmke, ringleader of the aggressive Brady Anti-Gun gang, released this statement about the “bipartisan” gun-control meeting the White House scheduled.(Note: The “White House” is a building and can’t do anything; the person responsible in that building remains unidentified but appears to be Steve Croley) The meeting only included people who want to ban guns, an indicator of the plans, according to unidentifiable experts. “On Tuesday, I attended a meeting at the U.S. Department of Justice with representatives from the White House, the Vice-President’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI, and...

An angry electorate… More divided than during the Bush years… Marked by nasty ads and commentary, over-the-top rhetoric, and even violence. These are just some of the ways that political observers have described American voters and the 2010 mid-term elections. Without a doubt, many election contests were bitterly fought and divisive. Now comes the hard work of legislating and governing. It won’t be easy for either side, but if there is one thing the new Congress and President Obama ought to agree on, it’s that gun violence victims deserve their support, their leadership, and their determination. And that should be...

Recently David Codrea wrote an article in which the Brady Campaign is petitioning Starbucks to ban firearms. Is it possible that Starbucks is experimenting here in Wyoming before making sweeping changes to policy in all their stores? Recently a member of Wyoming Gun Owners stated “after I purchased my beverage I was asked to remove my firearm from the premises”. Has Starbucks already caved to the Brady Campaign? It appears that Starbucks is taking a clear path to ban firearms in Wyoming locations. I can only say this because of conversations with the store manager Matthew at the Casper location,...

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has declared war on a Northwest institution, and in the process perhaps the public will discover the extremes gun prohibitionists will go in an effort to push their radical agenda. The Brady Bunch has Starbucks squarely in its crosshairs, hoping to browbeat the coffee giant into refusing service to an evidently growing clientele of law-abiding firearms owners. In an e-mail message sent out this week, Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke laments that, “Starbucks is refusing to prohibit open carrying in its stores, despite protests from loyal customers.” Over the past few months, more...

'CZAR' Sunstein Shoots Himself In The Foot Gun Hater Lautenberg Proposes "Extraordinary Powers" Be Given To the U.S. Attorney General To Limit Gun Sales. Obama and the White House are looking the other way as Lautenberg seeks to ban guns from 1,000,000 US citizens on a secret FBI terrorist watch list. Obama has deliberately and repeatedly lied to America's 90 million gun owners across the country when he insisted that he would not try to take away anyone's firearms. Now Obama's silence endorses Lautenberg's latest attempt at banning guns. Lautenberg has now introduced bill S. 1317 that would give the...

I asked this question last week of the candidates for President now campaigning in Iowa, and I think that for most of the American people [pdf] the answer is clearly “no.” In the last ten days, two states in the heart of the country have sustained mass shootings by people armed with military-style assault rifles – two attacks with assault weapons in less than a week. One shooter attacked a mall full of employees and Christmas shoppers in Omaha. The other attacked a church in Colorado. Together, they left twelve people dead.Yet today assault weapons remain perfectly legal to buy...

Firearms control chief admits political radioactivity of agenda, notes United States gun law expert Washington, DC  20036   November 17 2006 “The president of one of the nation’s leading anti-gun organizations recently admitted that the gun control lobby’s agenda is politically radioactive,” gun law expert John M. Snyder noted here today. In an article appearing in the November 12 issue of the Los Angeles Times, Peter Wallsten and Janet Hook wrote that Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, “acknowledged that his challenge is to persuade potentially squeamish Democrats that his cause is not ‘radioactive.’” Snyder...