Monthly Archives: October 2019

Ask a U.S. citizen what the Second Amendment stands for. Some respond this amendment protects an individuals right to carry a gun. Like a shooter who misses the target, they are confused as to the amendments scope and intent.

Historically, the Second Amendment safeguards the citizens right through the states efforts to recruit armed militias that defend our nation. In 1939, Robert H. Jackson, who served as President Franklin Delano Roosevelts solicitor general, maintained the Second Amendment is restricted to the keeping and bearing of arms by the people collectively for their common defense and security. Robert Bork, President Ronald Reagans nominee for the Supreme Court in 1989, then agreed, saying this amendment works to guarantee the right of states to form militia, not for individuals to bear arms. On target, Bork later missed the mark as to what the Second Amendment allows.

Granted, its stilted expression blurs the amendments meaning. It reads: A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Constitutional framers were wary of growing a federal government that usurped the rights of states to defend themselves. Consequently, the federal army remained small. When President Thomas Jefferson left office in 1809, federal troops numbered a little more than 12,000. Most patrolled the western frontier, consisting of territories east of the Mississippi River, which included the Ohio River Valley. There Native Americans fought encroaching white pioneers. Federal troops protected white settlers who headed West through the Cumberland Water Gap.

Whena foreign adversary attacked the U.S., colonials assumed states had the rightto raise volunteer militias to defend the nation. States fiercely protectedtheir rights to draft, fund and provide leaders for local militias.

Statesexpressed slight, if any, concern about the federal government infringing oncitizens by denying them the right to carry a gun. The colonial U.S. was an agriculturaleconomy. Farmers hunted game to supplement harvested crops. Children 10 yearsand older fired muskets to kill deer while their parents worked the land. ThomasJefferson shared the cultural assumption that the U.S. would prosper with10-year-olds trained to fire muskets.

Historian Garry Wills pointed out that the Second Amendment had everything to do with the common defense and nothing to do with hunting: One does not bear arms against a rabbit.

Since the 1970s, the National Rifle Association has turned the Second Amendments meaning on its head. It cleverly treats the opening to the amendment about arming militias as a preface to its alleged main punchline: every citizen has the right to carry a gun.

The NRAs grammatical hatchet separates the amendments two clauses. The second clause is wrongly elevated about alleged gun rights, casting aside state militias right to bear arms.

When the NRA kept its national headquarters in Washington D.C. instead of moving to Colorado Springs in the late 1970s, it placed a motto on its headquarters doors, making muddy the Second Amendments original meaning. The NRA separated the second clause from the first in its motto posted on the door: The Right of the People to Keep and Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed.

Historian Jill Lepore traces the NRAs slippery slide to reshape the Second Amendment. In 1982, Utahs Republican Senator Orin Hatch headed the Judiciary Committee that passed a report: The Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

Hatchs committee spun a convoluted constitutional argument thats off-target. What the Subcommittee [Hatch chaired] on the Constitution uncovered was clear and long lost proof that the second amendment to our Constitution was intended as an individual right of the American citizen to keep and carry arms in a peaceful manner, for the protection of himself, the family, and his freedoms, scoffs historian Lepore, who rejects this faulty historical reading.

Many conservative citizens accept this unconventional interpretation of an alleged older, long-lost interpretation of the constitutions original meaning regarding their gun rights. Evangelicals tend to oppose restrictions on gun ownership, reported NBC News on September 4, 2019, and prefer having guns in the hands of good guys, schoolteachers, security guards and law-abiding citizens.

The NRA stacked the deck with handpicked pundits to support their false claim. Of twenty-seven law review articles published between 1970 and 1989 that were favorable to the NRAs interpretation of the Second Amendment, reports historian Lepore, at least 19 were written by authors employed or represented by the NRA or other gun groups.

The NRA violates the Second Amendments original intent: the right of states to arm their militias.

The Rev. Dr. Jack R. Van Ens is a Presbyterian minister who heads the nonprofit, tax-exempt Creative Growth Ministries (www.thelivinghistory.com), which enhances Christian worship through dynamic storytelling and dramatic presentations aimed to make Gods history come alive.

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Van Ens: Hit the Second Amendment's bull's-eye - Vail Daily News

Why Don't People and Vogue Celebrate the Second Amendment? iStock-1145895496

United States/United Kingdom -(AmmoLand.com)-When we talk about the need for the NRA to get involved in cultural engagement in order to establish a pro-Second Amendment culture, some might question the need. After all, Hollywoods bias is well known, its arguably baked into the planning many Second Amendment supporters have. But this will matter a lot even if correction, especially if the Supreme Court case on New York City gun regulations ends up with a favorable ruling.

Why? Think of it this way: In America, while the Constitution protects our God-given rights, the people still rule. The First Amendment not only protects the right of Second Amendment supporters to defend our freedoms, it also protects the right of anti-Second Amendment extremists to encourage the American people to throw out pro-Second Amendment elected officials and replace them with anti-Second Amendment extremists. And we need not kid ourselves: Anti-Second Amendment extremists have been running an incredibly effective long game against our right to keep and bear arms, one that is a full-spectrum fight that includes wielding pop culture against us.

One way is through those magazines you often see in the supermarket, either in the checkout aisle, or where others are stored. Two that blatantly snubbed women who support the Second Amendment in issues celebrating women who made a difference are People and the British edition of Vogue, the latter guest-edited by Meghan Markle.

But in those two magazines, we saw three anti-Second Amendment presidential candidates, a prime minister who inflicted an injustice on thousands of people in her country (when people are wrongly punished via having their legally-owned property confiscated over a shooting they did not carry out, an injustice has taken place), and a major media mogul who supported the extreme anti-Second Amendment group March 4 Our Lives. Excluded? Women who support our right to keep and bear arms.

No talk of Dana Loesch, who has defended the Second Amendment despite becoming a target for vicious slurs and worse. What about Suzanna Gratia Hupp, who turned into an activist for our rights after her parents died in a mass shooting? There are countless other women who gave stood for the Second Amendment and have a great deal of accomplishment to their names, including former NRA President Marion Hammer, former NRA-ILA Executive Director Tanya Metaksa, and even NRA board members like Susan Howard or Sandra Froman (another former NRA President). People and Vogue dont even mention them.

You may wonder why we should care about a magazine from the supermarket checkout aisle, or a publication devoted to fashion. Well, when they are leveraged to attack our rights, we need to care. Worse, these magazines have wide circulation. Between its English and Spanish versions, People reaches almost four million people a week. The American edition of Vogue reaches about 1.2 million. American Rifleman comes in at 1.85 million, or less than half that of People. Vogue has a larger circulation than either American Hunter (929,000) or Americas First Freedom (roughly 630,000).

People, incidentally, will also get mentioned in other news outlets and it sits in the waiting rooms of doctors offices so the four million figure is probably low. Vogue also will crop up in those waiting rooms. American Rifleman? Not so much these days.

Finally, who reads those magazines? Well, much of that readership comes from the suburbs. One admitted success that anti-Second Amendment extremists like Michael Bloomberg have achieved is that they are doing well among suburban women the proverbial soccer moms precisely because they have them so scared of their kids school being the location of the next mass shooting that they dont consider the facts.

Plus, look at who often turns up as the subjects of those magazines Hollywoods A-list. Say what you will, but the writers are good storytellers, and while the actors and actresses are often against our rights, we should not dismiss their ability to help along a narrative that makes Second Amendment supporters resisting the injustices like those that Beto ORourke wishes to inflict on us as the villains.

People and Vogue will be two of the venues used to spread that narrative. The NRA and other pro-Second Amendment groups are going to need to adjust to this new type of threat, and that will require changes. It will be very important for Second Amendment supporters to be mindful of how their approach in defense of our freedoms comes across, and to use the right techniques to convince our fellow Americans that the narrative that anti-Second Amendment extremists are presenting is phonier than a red carpet smile, instead of reinforcing the phony narrative.

About Harold Hutchison

Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.

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Why Don't People and Vogue Celebrate the Second Amendment? - AmmoLand Shooting Sports News

Gun Owners of America State Director Alan Rice has often clashed with Fish and Game officials. Here he testifies at a legislative hearing against the agency while Col. Kevin Jordan, right, listens in. (Courtesy Photo)

CONCORD Gun rights advocates who condemned as anti-Second Amendment the outgoing Fish and Game director are urging Gov. Chris Sununu to nominate a pro-gun replacement.

The state chapter of Gun Owners of America, along with gun rights leader and state Rep. John Burt, R-Goffstown, celebrated the Fish and Game Commissions recent decision to oppose a third four-year term for Director Glenn Normandeau.

They maintain that Normandeau, the second-longest-serving administrator in the agencys history, opposed every attempt to relax gun regulations. They say those efforts included repealing the law requiring a permit to carry a concealed gun, and unsuccessful bills to eliminate the need for a license for pistols or allow riders to carry guns on snowmobiles.

The anti-gun activism is coming from the top. New Hampshire Fish and Game needs a strong leader who respects and reveres the Constitution and doesnt break faith with the taxpayers of New Hampshire who fund the department with state tax dollars, Burt said. The department needs to stop advocating for gun control since the department receives close to $500,000 per year of federal gun tax monies.

For nearly 90 years, Fish and Game has received Pittman-Robertson Act dollars from a 10% federal tax on handguns and an 11% tax on shotguns and ammunition.

Rep. Mark Proulx, R-Manchester, is still angry that the agency opposed his bill several years ago to end the prohibition against motorists carrying loaded guns in cars and trucks.

Normandeau has pushed against the Second Amendment across the board. It boggles my mind how you have someone against firearms running Fish and Game. It is time for a change, Proulx said.

State Rep. Daniel Eaton, D-Stoddard, has worked with Normandeau throughout his career. Eaton praised Normandeau as someone who could work with opposing factions, from those seeking fewer restrictions on guns to others who want to license all guns or even ban private ownership outright.

(In) no place in the description of the Fish and Game Department does it say that the executive director is to be a gun activist. Quite the contrary, the job of Fish and Game is to provide for the safe use of firearms, said Eaton, who is entering his 30th year in the Legislature and is a retired police chief in his hometown.

Eaton maintains that regardless of his personal views, Normandeau has been an impartial arbitrator.

He is anything but anti-gun. I have seen him in events off campus when hes not on the job and hes very supportive of the rights gun owners have, he said.

Impartial arbiter or gun control promoter?

Alan Rice, state director of GOA-NH, claims Normandeau has acted as if he represents Americans for Responsible Solutions, the group founded by shooting victim and former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

We are urging the governor to appoint a director who is not a lobbyist for gun control as if hes working for the Giffords Group, he said.

Rice has often tangled with Fish and Game officials. He once told Col. Kevin Jordan, chief of Fish and Games Law Enforcement Division, that he would not hesitate to use a gun to shoot a deer during bow hunting season.

Even the popular television series North Woods Law stoked the activists ire, with Rice decrying how Fish and Game conservation officers were depicted in interviewing suspected scofflaws without providing proper Miranda warnings and allegedly committing other civil liberty violations.

Two studies out this week offer compelling insights into guns in New Hampshire and complicate the politics surrounding them. While the state ranks in the top 10 per capita in gun ownership, it is one of the nations least violent states, including having the lowest gun-involved murder rate.

This state is more pro-gun than ever, said Mike Hammond, general counsel to GOA-NH and a former congressional candidate from Dunbarton.

Outgoing Fish and Game Executive Director Glenn Normandeau fired back at gun advocates who maintain hes been anti-Second Amendment during his long tenure. The Fish and Game Commission voted in secret not to recommend a third, four-year term for Normandeau.

I think people who think its good politics to run a lot of anti-gun legislation up the flagpole in Concord have been fooling themselves. Gun owners here have been fat, dumb and happy and not worried about anyone taking their guns, Hammond said.

Normandeau said his mandate is simply to enforce the laws and monitor any changes that affect them.

Mr. Rice, et al, clearly dont know how things work, he said, citing the duties of the commission.

The two issues of significance causing concern were public safety and poaching. The deliberations of the commission, as well as the votes, on these issues were all done in public. I do not recall Mr. Rice or Mr. Hammond ever appearing at a commission meeting to bring their comments to the commissioners or myself and the staff.

I do not believe I have ever met either one of them, Normandeau said.

AG says commission exceeded its authority

In June 2017, Attorney General Gordon MacDonald issued a memo to the commission warning it had exceeded its authority by coming out against a bill to repeal a license to own a pistol or revolver and to make it legal to carry a loaded pistol in a car (SB 12).

In summary, the Legislature directed the commission to establish positions on proposed legislation. However, that legislation is limited to the commissions presumably unique expertise in matters relating to fish, wildlife and marine resources as defined by statute as well as overall department management, MacDonald wrote. Firearms is not one of the enumerated subject matters.

In the memo, MacDonald rejected the commissions defense that it acted because the bill could somehow relate to shotguns, which come under Fish and Game regulation.

It is the position of this office that SB 12 has no effect on existing law with respect to loaded rifles and shotguns, MacDonald wrote.

A group of gun advocates attacked the outgoing director of the Fish and Game Commission and urged Gov. Chris Sununu to make sure a "pro-gun" nominee replaces him when the incumbent's term ends in March. (Courtesy Photo)

Not all gun advocates share Rices negative view of Normandeaus tenure.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Clegg is a lobbyist and president of Pro-Gun NH, but hes often at odds with Rices views.

Its not a gun issue; its a hate issue, Clegg said. The idea a gun group would interfere in the commissions work is ridiculous. Alan Rice opposes all the changes we were able to get into Fish and Game laws.

State Rep. Katherine Rogers, D-Concord, and a former Merrimack County attorney, wrote two of the four gun control measures that Sununu vetoed last spring.

This attack is insane. The Fish and Game Department is the only agency that doesnt have a commissioner but a director that gets jerked around by this politically-appointed commission, Rogers said.

It is already tilted and skewed to people who want to go out and hunt. I do not want to grab their guns; I hardly have room for my dogs toys, she said.

Rogers believes the governor appreciates that firearms are just one facet of Fish and Games mission.

I have fought with the governor on these issues, but I think he understands the job of Fish and Game is about more than a gun, Rogers said.

Rather than Second Amendment loyalty I want to know, does the next director have a background in marine biology, eco-tourism, hiking trails, the green economy, she said. Frankly all of these will have more to do with the success or failure of that agency going forward than what the NRA wants.

As for Rice, he intends to remain a vigilant guardian of gun freedoms in New Hampshire.

When wildlife managers decide they are going to stray from managing wildlife and get into issues of gun safety and freedoms, thats when we have to step in, he said.

Rep. Ellen Read, D-Newmarket, is working on a 2020 bill to reorganize the agency.

Sununus office did not respond to a request for comment.

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Gun advocates seek 'friend' to take over Fish and Game - The Union Leader

Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro opposed the mandatory gun buyback program proposed by rival Beto O'Rourkebut it's not because he believes it violates the Second Amendment.

Instead, the former Obama administration official pointed to the recent killing of Atatiana Jefferson by a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, to demonstrate that he wouldn't want to create more scenarios in which police are going to people's homes. And the only way for a "buyback" to be truly "mandatory" is if officers are going door-to-door to get the guns.

"There are two problems I have with mandatory buybacks," Castro said during Tuesday night's Democratic debate. "No. 1, folks can't define it, and if you're not going door-to-door then it's not really mandatory. But also, in the places that I grew up in, we weren't exactly looking for another reason for cops to come banging on the door."

Castro went on to summarize the Jefferson story, explaining how she was fatally shot by a police officer who came to her home after a neighbor called the nonemergency line to have someone check on her.

"I am not going to give these police officers another reason to go door-to-door in certain communities," Castro said. "Because police violence is also gun violence, and we need to address that."

Castro was responding to O'Rourke's advocacy of "mandatory buybacks," which is the term of choice for Democrats instead of "confiscation." O'Rourke said that people who don't comply with the mandatory buybacks can expect to get a visit from the police. Meaning people who don't want to sell their guns to the government will have them taken by force.

Although Castro is approaching it from a different perspective, his overall point is something that many on the right agree with: If you send police officers to people's homes to take their guns, there are likely to be some violent consequences.

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2020 Dem candidate opposes mandatory gun buybacks not because of the 2nd Amendment, but because of police brutality - TheBlaze

By Kylie Chisholm, Special to the Telegram and Gazette

ThursdayOct17,2019at7:12PMOct17,2019at8:05PM

STURBRIDGE - A Sturbridge man is making his mark in the gun community with his YouTube series "Riding Shotgun with Charlie."

Charlie Cook was inspired by shows like "Carpool Karaoke" and "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" when he started his series. Cook wanted to talk to locals in the gun community from the comfort of his own vehicle and started making videos doing just that.

Cook interviewed a friend whose story was featured in the book "Lessons from Unarmed America" by Mark Walters and Rob Pincus. Walters connected Cook to the Second Amendment Foundation, an organization dedicated to educating people about the constitutional right to bear arms and the gun control debate.

"I was given the opportunity to speak at the Gun Rights Policy Conference for the past four years," said Cook. The Second Amendment Foundation has hosted the conference annually for 34 years.

Cook was presented with the Blogger of the Year award at this year's conference, last month in Phoenix. This was the first year the award extended to video bloggers, known as vloggers.

The conference had more than 1,100 attendees and 90 speakers. Cook said the panels covered a variety of perspectives on gun safety and gun laws.

Cook posts his content to a variety of platforms. His videos are posted to his YouTube and Facebook pages, and the audio is posted as podcasts available from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, IHeart Radio and Google Play.

Attending national conferences has allowed Mr. Cook to interview people across the country. He said at this year's Gun Rights Policy Conference he interviewed several people for the series during his time in Phoenix.

Since starting the show, Cook said, he is amazed at how generous the community has been to him.

"The people I have met doing this are the greatest people," said Cook. He said his guests are always willing to help and share their stories about why they are pro-gun activists.

Cook hopes to spend next summer traveling across the country interviewing people for the series. He also works as a firearm instructor in Massachusetts.

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Sturbridge gun rights advocate is Blogger of the Year - Worcester Telegram

WASHINGTON It's never just a deal.

President Donald Trump's penchant for overselling his accomplishments has been on vivid display in recent days as he hailed his Syria cease-fire as a boon for civilization and claimed his trade agreement with China was the biggest ever. The economy is the "greatest" ''in the history of our Country," the military is the "most powerful" it has ever been, regulations have been cut at record rates, and, in his telling, America is "winning, winning, winning" like never before.

Trump has been a master of the art of exaggeration for decades, as he famously explained in his 1987 book, "The Art of the Deal."

"People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular," he wrote. "I call it truthful hyperbole. It's an innocent form of exaggeration, and a very effective form of promotion."

A search of Trump's Twitter feed turns up more than 1,200 mentions of the words "biggest," ''best" and "smartest."

Critics, for their part, accuse him of creating problems in order to solve them essentially setting fires and then demanding credit for putting them out.

Here's a look at some recent inflated claims.

THS SYRIA CEASE-FIRE

Trump made big news Thursday when he announced that Vice President Mike Pence and other top administration officials had secured a five-day cease-fire deal with Turkey in northeast Syria something Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said he wouldn't do.

Trump quickly took credit, insisting his "unconventional approach" including a pullback of U.S. troops that paved the way for a Turkish invasion targeting Syrian Kurds was responsible.

Rather than bemoaning the loss of life that resulted, Trump spent much of Thursday minimizing the carnage and hailing the deal in epic proportions.

"It's really a great day for civilization," Trump said. He insisted that because of his intervention, "millions of lives will be saved."

"What Turkey is getting now is they're not going to have to kill millions of people, and millions of people aren't going to have to kill them," Trump said. In all, over the more than eight years of Syria's devastating civil war, hundreds of thousands have been killed.

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THE CHINA DEAL

Trump last week announced with great fanfare a reprieve in the U.S.-China trade war that has resulted in tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods.

"The deal I just made with China is, by far, the greatest and biggest deal ever made for our Great Patriot Farmers in the history of our Country," Trump tweeted the day after. "In fact, there is a question as to whether or not this much product can be produced? Our farmers will figure it out. Thank you China!"

But despite his big talk, there is much left to be done, with many details to be determined and no documents signed. And some of the thorniest issues such as U.S. allegations that China forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets and a major dispute over the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei were dealt with only partially, or not at all, and will require further talks.

"The president is acting as if a lot of Chinese concessions have been nailed down, and they just haven't," said Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

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CRITICIZING DEMOCRATS

Plenty of politicians criticize their rivals for having a bad idea or pushing ill-conceived policies. Trump paints them as an existential threat to the Republic and democracy. Throughout the 2016 campaign, the 2018 midterms and at his recent rallies, Trump has demonized Democrats as the enemy, claiming Thursday that they are out to "destroy America as we know it."

"At stake in this fight is the survival of American democracy itself," he told the crowd at a Dallas campaign rally. "I don't believe anymore that they love our country."

He warns the stock market will crash if he loses, and says Democrats want to destroy health care and repeal the Second Amendment.

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HIS CROWD SIZE

Trump's exaggerations of his crowd sizes are well documented. On Thursday night he offered a doozy.

"So outside, they have close to 30,000 people," he reported to the enthusiastic crowd. Then he asked local officials whether they might be able to "fill up this little area, let 'em in. It would be so nice."

"You know they have a certain max," he added. "We broke the record tonight."

Tamika Dameron, a public information officer with the Dallas Police Department, said that wasn't even close.

The Dallas Fire-Rescue Department and American Airlines Center calculated the total number inside was 18,500, less than the 20,000 or so capacity of the arena, and said there were "about 5,000 on the outside."

During the Mavericks 2011 NBA Finals series, the highest attendance at the American Airlines Center was 20,433.

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Associated Press writers Jake Bleiberg and Stephen Hawkins in Dallas contributed to this report.

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The art of the boast: Trump's a master - Star Tribune