NRA Sues Cuomo

[nyantler]

On 5/17/2018 at 9:19 PM, Rattler said:

NY gun owners had the chance to vote Cuomo out of office.  The NRA supported Astorino and made every NY gun owner aware of the absolute need for every one of them to vote for Astorino.  Many of them didn't vote.  Some Fudds actually voted for Cuomo.  What do you think the NRA can accomplish in a state with gun owners like that?

 

This is the real reason the NRA has abandoned NY... NY gun owners alone could have voted Cuomo out of office, but instead apathy prevailed. Based on some of the negative NRA comments here and gun owner voting records in NY it is easy to see that the NRA is not the problem... ignorant, apathetic, cry baby, do nothing gun owners are.

[DirtTime]

7 hours ago, nyantler said:

This is the real reason the NRA has abandoned NY... NY gun owners alone could have voted Cuomo out of office, but instead apathy prevailed. Based on some of the negative NRA comments here and gun owner voting records in NY it is easy to see that the NRA is not the problem... ignorant, apathetic, cry baby, do nothing gun owners are.

That's a load of crap! That's the route the democrats take when things don't go their way! It's a cop out! The stats people get so caught up on are BS! Big money corporations and ALL the major cities are why Andy keeps getting voted in. You think that's not factual, look at the companies that back Andy, and look at the war on 2A! The NRA hasn't done Jack for most states as of late, not just NY. Once the bill or law is passed, they just collect your money and do nothing. When things hit the legislative mark, they don't do anything then either.

I wish I could live in the fantasy world some live in, but I can't.

 

It has been brought up about people doing nothing. Define "Nothing"! To me, paying someone to do what you should be doing means you are doing nothing! To piss and moan and not get rallies or protests going means you do nothing.

Stop whining about the people who question who they pay to get a job done. The return line at Walmart starts over there! ---------------->

[steve863]

On May 18, 2018 at 9:56 PM, Rob... said:

Nothing to say Rattler/Wilderness/VJP ? Get back to us at your earliest convenience. Wondering who the real culprit is. Starting to think this crap is just "Click Bait". 

 

Funny you mention VJP.   I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks he and Rattler sound like one and the same.  Have no way of proving it, but it seems like I've heard the same boasting before.  If it wasn't for him we would have all had our guns confiscated years ago. 

[DirtTime]

On 5/18/2018 at 6:13 PM, Rob... said:

This is an issue. I'm a "NOTHING" and you want to "SLAP" me? LOL! It's this way of thinking and acting that will drive people away. Keep up the fight! You are certainly winning me over.

Here's my problem, and if you don't get it, that's fine by me.

If I pay for a service, I would expect those whom I pay to be living up to the promises/expectations. I don't care who they are.
Years ago, the NRA had more pull and fight then they do now. Take the Safe Act out of the equation, and please, tell me one thing they have done to combat Cuomo's nonsensical attacks on the Second Amendment?

Let me also explain something else, no organization will be able to stand up to the new anti gun protesters. Kids! Why is it so difficult for some to grasp?



Sent from my SM-S327VL using Tapatalk
 

Never did reply to my post. Guess you don't get it!

On 5/18/2018 at 9:56 PM, Rob... said:

Nothing to say Rattler/Wilderness/VJP ? Get back to us at your earliest convenience. Wondering who the real culprit is. Starting to think this crap is just "Click Bait". 

Hmmmm........

On 5/20/2018 at 11:15 AM, Rattler said:

Been busy with much more important things than a reply to people on here.

I'll just say this, and then I'm done with this thread.  The replies posted after my last post just prove how whiny some gun owners are, and how they are of no value at all in the fight to preserve our rights.  And I mean all of our rights  A bunch of excuses about why the fight is lost, or pleas to placate the enemy.  Just verifies everything I posted about being done with them.  Never have our rights been under greater attack, yet some people still think the NRA and those who stand up to fight the attacks are the problem.  Clueless.  

Busy with what? You clearly aren't out hunting turkey, or so it appears. Perhaps to busy drinking the Kool Aid from from Info Wars? How is your compound looking?

Clueless? Let me tell you who are clueless! Anyone who pays someone to do something you can do for yourself! You do NOTHING but pay someone else to get it done for you.

You wanted to talk about people you don't respect, well here's people I don't respect, those who whine on a forum instead of actually doing anything. I despise people who put on a front, like "The Ride On Islambergh". A whole lotta 'tough talk' on the web. Then it fizzled like a faulty sparkler! That's not the only time people talked tuff about a pro Gun rally either. That big thing that was going down in Washington years back that never happened. I don't have enough fingers and toes to account for all the "Pro Gun" rallies or protests that never happened. You and a few other people on here are the truly clueless and are just little fish in a big pond. 

On 5/20/2018 at 8:58 PM, steve863 said:

 

Funny you mention VJP.   I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks he and Rattler sound like one and the same.  Have no way of proving it, but it seems like I've heard the same boasting before.  If it wasn't for him we would have all had our guns confiscated years ago. 

Ah, I call it like I see it. Birds of a feather is one thing. Fonts of the foil stick together. Still waiting for one of them to create a foil hat to sell on Amazon.

_______________________________

I was bored, can't hunt in the morning, can't sleep, so decided to play "Whack A Fascist" who don't know they are fascist. 

Edited May 23, 2018 by Rob...

[nyantler]

On 5/20/2018 at 8:24 PM, Rob... said:

That's a load of crap! That's the route the democrats take when things don't go their way! It's a cop out! The stats people get so caught up on are BS! Big money corporations and ALL the major cities are why Andy keeps getting voted in. You think that's not factual, look at the companies that back Andy, and look at the war on 2A! The NRA hasn't done Jack for most states as of late, not just NY. Once the bill or law is passed, they just collect your money and do nothing. When things hit the legislative mark, they don't do anything then either.

I wish I could live in the fantasy world some live in, but I can't.

 

It has been brought up about people doing nothing. Define "Nothing"! To me, paying someone to do what you should be doing means you are doing nothing! To piss and moan and not get rallies or protests going means you do nothing.

Stop whining about the people who question who they pay to get a job done. The return line at Walmart starts over there! ---------------->

My post was about the failure of gun owners to get to the voting booth to vote out Cuomo and then blaming the NRA for failing. Not sure how you get from that to big business. Let your heart not be troubled... your wish of living in a fantasy world is real. Financing the largest 2nd Amendment advocate in the world is doing something... they are the single reason there still is a 2nd Amendment in this country... I have gone to numerous rallies and I'll bet you dime to donuts you weren't there. Lots of people talking the talk, very little walking the walk.

[DirtTime]

On 5/24/2018 at 8:21 AM, nyantler said:

My post was about the failure of gun owners to get to the voting booth to vote out Cuomo and then blaming the NRA for failing. Not sure how you get from that to big business. Let your heart not be troubled... your wish of living in a fantasy world is real. Financing the largest 2nd Amendment advocate in the world is doing something... they are the single reason there still is a 2nd Amendment in this country... I have gone to numerous rallies and I'll bet you dime to donuts you weren't there. Lots of people talking the talk, very little walking the walk.

It's still hogwash! I again inquire, what has the NRA done in the last ten years to stop the gun control nut jobs? Show me some results!  You all keep preaching, but the evidence speaks for itself.

This gets boring. You blame people who will not donate money organizations who in all honestly have become more about taking your cash ( and caving to political distress ), then delivering on the "cause". I'm done. Carry on. Have a nice day!

[nyantler]

On 5/25/2018 at 9:39 PM, Rob... said:

It's still hogwash! I again inquire, what has the NRA done in the last ten years to stop the gun control nut jobs? Show me some results!  You all keep preaching, but the evidence speaks for itself.

This gets boring. You blame people who will not donate money organizations who in all honestly have become more about taking your cash ( and caving to political distress ), then delivering on the "cause". I'm done. Carry on. Have a nice day!

You still have your guns... that's what they have done. I can't make you see what you refuse to see. So please do carry on and the NRA will continue to fight the fight while you sit and watch, complaining from the sidelines.

[Doc]

On ‎5‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 9:39 PM, Rob... said:

It's still hogwash! I again inquire, what has the NRA done in the last ten years to stop the gun control nut jobs? Show me some results!  You all keep preaching, but the evidence speaks for itself.

This gets boring. You blame people who will not donate money organizations who in all honestly have become more about taking your cash ( and caving to political distress ), then delivering on the "cause". I'm done. Carry on. Have a nice day!

You see this kind of attitude in every aspect of life. Basically it is the free-loaders that let everyone else do the heavy lifting for them and then berate the very organizations that do ALL the work. The funny thing is that when you ask them, What have you done to stop the 'gun control nut jobs'? you are met with dead silence. Today it is fashionable to belittle your allies while enjoying the work that is done on your behalf. It's the "free-ride gang" letting others finance the legal battles and the lobbying as the NRA tries like hell to be effective with only a miniscule percentage of gun owners willing to pay the way. These are people who think that law suits and lobbying and pro-gun candidate support  happen out of thin air, for free. And when the lack of participation results in an occasional loss along the way, these free-loaders point the finger at the NRA screaming and yelling....."See .... see.....they are useless"! In reality, the only useless ones are the free-loaders who ride the coat-tails of those who put their money and efforts where their mouths are. Instead of running your mouth and proclaiming that all you are is a cheap-skate whiner, you should hang your head in shame and admit that you don't have the courage of your fake convictions regarding the 2nd amendment and the organizations that have for decades safeguarded the gun rights you have enjoyed all these decades (for free). It's bad enough to not financially support the only organization that fights for your 2nd amendment rights, but to turn around like the gun control nuts themselves and attack the NRA shows a complete lack of character and conviction. Frankly I am getting damned tired of your senseless carping. I have little patience with people like that. Today gun ownership is under more well-financed attacks than ever before, and the fight requires more backbone and support and unity than ever, and here we have weasels sniping from within doing the gun-grabbers work for them.

[Rattler]

As I said prior, NRA membership should be considered minimum commitment to the 2nd Amendment.  The number of NRA members represents votes to elected officials, because they know NRA members VOTE!  That number now stands at 6 million, 1 million more than this time a year ago.  And if you think they are all stupid, you should do a little research and find out who some of those members are.  They ain't your average US citizen.

If a gun owner can't muster enough commitment to at least be counted among the pro gun voters,  they really are worthless in this fight.  I cannot find it in me to associate with them anymore.

 

 

[ADK Native]

Just some thoughts on the National Rifle Association to consider:

·         The NRA was founded in 1871 NOT as a guns right organization, but to provide marksmanship training for men to prepare them in the event America needed them in military service.  One of its founders was former President/General Ulysses S. Grant.

·         It was not until the 1960’s did the NRA become a highly vocal Second Amendment advocate and lobbyist due to the rise in violence caused by the large scale civil disobedience, rioting, drug use and President Johnson failed “Great Society” all which contributed to increase gun violence.

·         Last I heard there were 80 million gun owners in America and only 6 million NRA members.  I would like to know the identities of the gun rights advocate organizations who those 74 million non-NRA members belong to so I can research how they measure up to the NRA.

·         Yes, I know allot of money goes to certain workers at the NRA.  The complexity of dealing with the many anti-gun organizations and their followers is a monumental task.  These NRA employees must be armed with the truth and legitimate facts when dealing with anti gun organizations.  Their leaders and members are vulgar and hostile, and suffer from a mental deficiency that leaves them mentally unwilling or unable to understand the root causes of gun violence.

·         Yes, I know allot of money goes to certain NRA lobbyists.  They must have money to gain the resources to be the best advocates for preserving the Second Amendment.  Their job is complex and involves much socializing to gain access to law makers where they can preach the truth to protect legal dun ownership.

The NRA is the most effective organization, but it is surrounded with the bizarre falsehood preaching anti-gun organizations.  Yes, the NRA is dangerous to them.  Hillary Clinton said “The fight against the NRA should be led by a new organization of gun owners.”   What “gun owners” is Hillary talking about? Not me Hillary, I am with the NRA all the way!

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/16/hillary-clinton-nra-gun-control-scare-mongering

[b3h]

It would be my request that this forum ask for all members to be members of a pro2a org at the local, state and federal levels.

cut-n-paste from an NRA email

Here is a summary of the top stories brought to you in 2017 via the NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert.  As we move into critically important election year of 2018, we must continue to ensure we're prepared to meet the great opportunities and challenges before us. We will continue to provide you with information in future Alerts to ensure you have the information necessary to protect and advance your rights.

View Related Articles

January

 

    With his successor’s inauguration only hours away, President Obama completed his final assault on gun owners’ and sportsmen’s rights, this time in the form of Director’s Order No. 219 of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The order sought to expand “the use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle on Service lands, waters and facilities and for certain types of hunting and fishing regulated by the Service” outside of those areas.

    

    Gun owners across the nation breathed a sigh of relief as Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. Trump’s election was the result of a sweeping grassroots movement to upend the Washington status quo and restore the concept of popular sovereignty in America. Your NRA was among Trump’s earliest and most faithful backers during a campaign in which conventional wisdom gave him no chance of winning. As a concealed carry permit holder, Second Amendment advocate, and father to two enthusiastic hunters and shooters, Trump may well be the most pro-gun president to date.

    

    America lost a civil rights icon and a true free thinker with the death of Roy Innis.  Mr. Innis served on the NRA’s Board of Directors for nearly 25 years and was a friend to many within the organization. For the nation at large, he was a champion of freedom who exemplified the courage of a man who follows his own convictions. He counseled other African Americans that gun control “was not meant to protect your safety; it was meant to deprive you of your freedom.” By disarming law abiding citizens the government aids and abets crime, he explained to the New York Times.

    

 

February

 

    President Trump kept one of his most important campaign promises by nominating an originalist judge – Neil Gorsuch – to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. Judge Gorsuch’s embrace of originalism is a bulwark for our Second Amendment rights.  When given the opportunity to consider the matter in his professional capacity, Judge Gorsuch has made clear that he understands the importance of the individual right to keep and bear arms.

    

    Jeff Sessions, the former U.S. senator from Alabama, was confirmed as the new U.S. attorney general. The NRA had heavily supported Sessions’ nomination, and he enjoyed the support of the entire Republican caucus in the U.S. Senate.  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) also crossed the aisle to confirm the long-time Alabama senator.

    

    The Washington Post reported on a “white paper” written by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Associate Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer Ronald Turk that outlined several changes that ATF could make to decrease the burdens placed on gun owners and the firearm industry while maintaining public safety.  Titled “Options to Reduce or Modify Firearms Regulations”, the document covers a raft of issues that NRA has previously worked to address, and vindicates NRA’s long-held contentions about the dubious efficacy of many firearms regulations.

    

 

March

 

    President Donald J. Trump signed the repeal of an Obama-era Social Security Administration (SSA) rule that would have resulted in some 75,000 law-abiding beneficiaries losing their Second Amendment rights each year. The SSA rulemaking was issued in the waning weeks of Obama’s presidency and targeted those receiving disability insurance or Supplementary Security Income based on SSA’s listed mental disorders and who were appointed a “representative payee” to help them manage their benefits. The agency –for the first time in its history– sought to portray these individuals as “mental defectives” who were prohibited from acquiring or possessing firearms under federal law. It had planned to notify them of their prohibited status and to report them to NICS.

    

    The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1181, the Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act, sponsored by Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. H.R. 1181 in many respects mirrors a resolution to repeal an Obama-era Social Security Administration (SSA) rule that sought to deprive certain SSA beneficiaries of their Second Amendment rights. A federal statute prohibits firearm acquisition or possession by anyone who has been “adjudicated as a mental defective.” The statute, however, does not define the meaning of this term. Like the SSA, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) interprets the phrase very broadly, considering any VA beneficiary who is declared “incompetent” to manage his or her benefits and assigned a fiduciary for assistance to be a prohibited “mental defective.”

    

    The National Safety Council released the 2017 edition of its annual “Injury Facts Report”, which contained welcomed news about firearm safety. The number of fatal firearm accidents dropped to the lowest point ever (since 1903, when the data was first tracked).  There were 489 total fatal firearm accidents nationwide – a 17% decrease from 2014. As a percent of the total number of fatal accidents, firearm accidents rank very low; just 0.3% of all fatal accidents involved a firearm.

    

    In a tacit admission that criminals and scofflaws have had little trouble circumventing Australia’s National Firearms Agreement (NFA) and the government’s confiscation effort, Australian officials held another firearms amnesty program. The program began in July and lasted for three months. Despite offering no compensation for surrendered firearms, government officials hoped that the plan would net 260,000 of an estimated 600,000 illegally possessed guns.

    

 

April

 

    The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Neil M. Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Gorsuch’s nomination was heavily backed by the NRA, due to the pro-Second Amendment views expressed in his judicial writings and his originalist approach to jurisprudence. History will record that the balance of power on the Supreme Court was in fact a key issue in the 2016 presidential election, and that Obama’s hand-picked successor, Hillary Clinton, suffered a crushing defeat after emphasizing her own view that the Heller decision had been “wrong on the Second Amendment.”

    

    For the first time since President Reagan spoke at the NRA Annual Meeting in 1983, a sitting president addressed NRA members during the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum. Donald Trump ran as the most pro-gun presidential candidate in history, and his speech at the forum made clear his commitment to our firearm freedom has not wavered in the slightest.  During his speech to the crowd of nearly 10,000, President Trump boldly proclaimed, “You came through for me and I’m going to come through for you.”

    

    News broke that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) had reconsidered and “clarified” its Jan. 6, 2015, Open Letter on the use of stabilizing braces as shoulder stocks. As we explained at the time, the BATFE took the position in that letter that merely affixing the stabilizing brace to a pistol did not constitute the “making” of a National Firearms Act (NFA) firearm. Firing the braced pistol from the shoulder, however, was held to constitute a “redesign” of the firearm that brought it under the jurisdiction of the NFA, with all the additional regulations that classification entails. This directly contradicted earlier advice the BATFE had provided, in which the agency stated, “firing a pistol from the shoulder would not cause the pistol to be reclassified as an SBR.”

    

    Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with representatives of the UCAN social service organization to make the case for further gun controls to combat the city’s violent crime. Chicago’s WLS news reported that Emanuel used the opportunity to demand enactment of "strong and sensible" legislation targeting firearm dealers, while lambasting federal gun laws as weak. However, a sentence handed down in a straw purchasing case bolsters the argument that the city’s violent crime problem is a result of weak and inconsistent enforcement of existing law rather than a need for more gun control.

    

 

May

 

    Information collected by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) indicated an unprecedented surge in the number of concealed carry permits, with the largest one-year increase on record occurring between May 2016 and May 2017. The CPRC tracks permit numbers across the country and publishes an annual report on concealed carrying in the United States. As of late last year, the number of Americans with carry permits hit the 15 million mark, and the current estimate of permittees is at 15.7 million – almost double the number from 2011.

    

    Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources Rob Bishop (R-UT) introduced H.R. 2620, the "Lawful Purpose and Self Defense Act.” This bill would remove ATF's authority to use the "sporting purposes" clause in federal law in ways that could undermine the core purpose of the Second Amendment. Under Chairman Bishop’s legislation, all lawful purposes – including self-defense – would have to be given due consideration and respect in the administration of federal firearm law.

    

    The Supreme Court of North Dakota confirmed that simply possessing a handgun while on one’s own private property cannot support a finding of “disorderly conduct” under the state’s disorderly conduct restraining order law. The decision is Keller v. Keller, 2017 ND 119 (N.D. May 16, 2017).

    

 

June

 

    The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that effectively let stand California’s “may-issue” permitting regime, resulting in law-abiding Californians in many areas of the state effectively being denied the right to “bear” arms in public for self-defense. But there was a silver lining to this development, as Justice Neil M. Gorsuch – President Trump’s pick to replace the late Antonin Scalia – came out strongly in favor of the Second Amendment by joining a dissent from the court’s decision penned by Second Amendment stalwart Justice Clarence Thomas. Gorsuch’s participation in the dissent confirmed that he, unlike so many of his colleagues in the federal judiciary, is indeed prepared to take the Second Amendment seriously.

    

    The Supreme Court of New Jersey upheld the right to lawfully possess and hold a weapon for self-defense in the home, rejecting arguments advanced by the State that would treat a citizen like a criminal for simply answering an angry knock at his own door while holding an object that was legal to possess. In the case, Montalvo v. State, the court clarified that possession of a lawful weapon in one’s home could not form the basis of a conviction under Section 2C:39-5(d); that a person may possess, in the home, objects that serve multiple lawful purposes, including the purpose of anticipatory self-defense; and that a person who responds to the door of his home with a concealed weapon that threatens no one acts within the bounds of the law.

    

    Second Amendment advocates cheered a federal court’s opinion blocking enforcement of California’s draconian magazine ban. That opinion, in Duncan v. Becerra, shows what’s possible when a federal judge treats the right to keep and bear arms with the respect deserved by all provisions within the Bill of Rights. As Judge Roger T. Benitez put it in his order, “On July 1, 2017, any previously law-abiding person in California who still possesses a firearm magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds will begin their new life of crime.” Thanks to the injunction issued by Judge Benitez, that is no longer the case. His order prevents enforcement of the ban on possession and the requirement that those in possession rid themselves of their magazines, pending further proceedings in the case.

    

 

July

 

    In a major development in the ongoing effort to restore the Second Amendment in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion that would effectively require D.C. officials to make concealed carry licenses available on a “shall-issue” basis. The court’s decision comes in the combined cases of Wrenn v. D.C. and Grace v. D.C. Following the landmark case of District of Columbia v. Heller, which recognized a Second Amendment right to have operable handguns in the home for self-defense, the District retaliated by banning carrying of firearms outside the home.

    

    This year’s Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) appropriations bill helps undo the damage inflicted on the right to keep and bear arms under the Obama administration and which Obama loyalists remaining in government are only too happy to continue. One of the most significant provisions bans the use of funds for the program launched under the Obama administration to require federally licensed firearm dealers in Southwestern Border States to report certain rifle sales to the U.S. government. Implementation of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty is also effectively blocked under the bill. Under the language, any shotgun that was importable before the release of ATF’s 2011 shotgun importability “study” could not be reclassified as “non-sporting” and therefore banned from importation.

    

    A federal judge in Austin, Texas, dismissed a lawsuit by several professors who sought to block the University of Texas from implementing a state law that provides for the lawful carrying of concealed handguns on campus. The judge stated that the professors’ “subjective fear” that an unnamed, unknown student would be moved to future violence because of a differing opinion was based on “mere conjecture.” The judge accordingly ruled that the plaintiffs had not articulated enough of an injury for the court to have standing to hear the case. Stripped of its legal jargon, the ruling basically states that the professors’ own biases against lawful concealed carriers does not constitute a legally addressable injury.

    

 

August

 

    The Czech Republic made good on their promise to pursue a legal challenge to the European Union’s (EU) onerous new changes to the European Firearms Directive. The Central European nation filed suit in the European Court of Justice, demanding that the new gun controls be scrapped, postponed, or that certain countries be given exemptions from the measure. The centerpiece of the changes is a severe restriction on the civilian ownership of certain types of semiautomatic firearms.

    

    The Department of Justice made clear that the Obama Administration’s underhanded attack on the gun industry using the banking system - better known as Operation Choke Point - is over. In a strongly-worded letter to U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) dated August 16, Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd assured the chairman that the operation has been terminated and that “it will not be undertaken again.”

    

    The Arizona Supreme Court unanimously held that the state was within its authority to prohibit cities and counties from routinely destroying firearms obtained through forfeiture or as unclaimed property. State law holds that political subdivisions must instead (subject to certain exceptions) recirculate the firearms through legitimate channels of commerce, just as they do with other types of valuable property.

    

 

September

 

    The NRA-ILA commends the House Committee on Natural Resources for markup and passage of H.R. 3668, the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act.  This year’s version of the SHARE Act is the most expansive and far-reaching yet. Besides previously-introduced provisions aimed at enhancing opportunities for hunting, fishing, and shooting and broadening access to federal lands for these purposes, this year’s SHARE Act contains reforms that would widely benefit sportsmen and the gun-owning public at large.  Under the successful leadership of Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA), the SHARE Act now moves to the full U.S. House of Representatives.

    

    In the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), Gov. Kenneth E. Mapp issued an order for the National Guard to seize residents’ lawfully-owned firearms and ammunition, ostensibly as a means of promoting public order and protecting life and property during Hurricane Irma. The order states in no uncertain terms that the Adjutant General of the U.S. Virgin Islands National Guard is “authorized and directed to seize arms, ammunition, explosives, incendiary material and any other property” deemed necessary to the mission of maintaining or restoring order during the storm. The NRA quickly condemned Gov. Mapp’s order and pledged to take any necessary legal action to ensure that the people of the USVI were not deprived of their constitutionally protected arms when they might need them the most. Barely 24 hours later, Gov. Mapp appeared before a national audience on the Tucker Carlson Show and furiously backpedaled, bizarrely claiming that the order simply meant that Guard units could purchase necessary emergency supplies at retail without the formalities of normal procurement procedures. “This is not about seizing anybody’s personal property,” he insisted.

    

    Texas' Campus Carry law went into effect on August 1, 2016. The University of Texas at Austin was a hotbed of opposition to the law, but an article in the Austin American Statesman reported that the new policy has posed “no problems so far at UT-Austin.” Recalling the gun control fanaticism at UT, the article elaborated, “Opponents of Senate Bill 11 feared there would be a rise in gun-related violence at the campus. But as the one-year anniversary approaches, those concerns have been unfounded.”

    

 

October

 

    It was announced that hedge fund billionaire and radical left-wing activist George Soros had infused his Open Society Foundations with a gift of $18 billion. According to a New York Times report, Soros funneled the money to the organization over the course of several years. The paper also called the gift, “one of the largest transfers of wealth ever made by a private donor to a single foundation,” and pointed out that Open Society is now the second largest “philanthropic” organization in the U.S. The organization has routinely targeted Americans’ Second Amendment rights. Further, the group’s global reach has imperiled gun owners throughout the world.

    

    The New York Times published an article titled, “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades.” The piece detailed allegations that the mogul used his position of influence to make unwanted sexual advances towards young women in the movie industry, including movie star Ashley Judd. That same day, Weinstein issued a statement that addressed the Times’s story and attempted to excuse some of his behavior. Oddly, following a series of tepid apologies and justifications, the statement turned to NRA. The beginning of the final paragraph of Weinstein’s statement read:

 

    "I am going to need a place to channel that anger, so I’ve decided that I’m going to give the NRA my full attention. I hope Wayne LaPierre will enjoy his retirement party. I’m going to do it at the same place I had my Bar Mitzvah."

    

    The San Francisco 49ers followed in the footsteps of recently disgraced Hollywood media mogul Harvey Weinstein by targeting the Second Amendment and advocating for gun control legislation in order to change the narrative and deflect attention from the team’s substantial problems.  The 49ers announced that the team is pledging $500,000 towards a campaign “which will advocate for legislation banning 'bump stocks' and other mechanisms that allow semi-automatic weapons to become automatic weapons, as well as silencers and armor piercing bullets.”

    

 

November

 

    Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced S. 2095, which she is calling the Assault Weapons Ban of 2017. The 125-page firearm prohibition fever dream is perhaps the most far-reaching gun ban ever introduced in Congress.  Subject to an exception for “grandfathered” firearms, the bill would prohibit AR-15s and dozens of other semi-automatic rifles by name (as well as their “variants” or “altered facsimiles”), and any semi-automatic rifle that could accept a detachable magazine and be equipped with a pistol grip, an adjustable or detachable stock, or a barrel shroud. And that’s just a partial list. “Pistol grip” would be defined as “a grip, a thumbhole stock, or any other characteristic that can function as a grip,” meaning the ban could implicate even traditional stocks or grips specifically designed to comply with existing state “assault weapon” laws.  Needless to say, semi-automatic shotguns and handguns would get similar treatment.  Also banned would be any magazine with a capacity of greater than 10 rounds or even any magazine that could be “readily restored, changed, or converted to accept” more than 10 rounds.

    

    In early October, after unsuccessfully applying for a rehearing of Wrenn v. D.C. and Grace v. D.C., the District announced that it had decided against an appeal of the decision, which means that applicants for concealed carry licenses in the Nation’s capital are no longer hindered by this capricious and obstructive requirement. A year ago, October and November each showed only a single National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) check done in relation to permits in D.C., as was the case again in September of 2017. This October, however, 145 District residents have had permit-based NICS checks. It is unclear how many of these, if any, concern previous applicants who were denied because of “good reason” and who may now reapply, but the October 2017 NICS figure, by itself, comes very close to the total for permit-based checks in D.C. over the rest of 2017 combined.

    

    Anti-gun advocates like Gun Control Network Chair Gillian Marshall-Andrews tout the United Kingdom’s longstanding firearms restrictions, which include a near total ban on handguns, as the “gold standard” of gun control. According to the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) statistical bulletin “Crime in England and Wales,” firearm crimes in England and Wales were up 27-percent for the year ending in June 2017. The bulletin noted, “The latest rise continues an upward trend seen in firearms offences in the last few years.”

    

 

December

 

    In a resounding show of support for the Second Amendment, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a legislative package that included H.R. 38, the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017, and H.R. 4477, the Fix NICS Act of 2017. The bipartisan vote of 231 to 198 advanced a measure that would allow law-abiding Americans who are eligible to carry a concealed handgun under the law of a state to do so in all other U.S. states and territories that recognize the right of their own residents to carry concealed. Without a doubt, this is the strongest piece of self-defense legislation to ever come before Congress.

    

    The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, gained support from a coalition of America’s highest-ranking law enforcement officers. Twenty-four attorneys general from across the country signed a letter spearheaded by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley supporting this common sense legislation. “America’s highest-ranking law enforcement officers understand that law-abiding citizens should be able to exercise their fundamental right to self-defense while traveling across state lines without fear of unknowingly breaking the law. The NRA applauds these attorneys general for supporting this important legislation,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA-ILA.

    

    For the third consecutive year – and this time without the looming threat of anti-gun politicians in power, background checks on Black Friday broke the previous record. The FBI reported 203,086 background checks were run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). This beat the previous single day record by more than seventeen thousand checks. The two-previous single-day records were Black Friday 2016 (185,713 checks) and Black Friday 2015 (185,345).

[b3h]

2016 NRA-ILA Year in Review

No doubt 2016 was a very successful year for NRA and our members in the fight to protect our Second Amendment rights, culminating in a historic political victory in November!  In the most important election cycle in generations, NRA members and supporters proved once again to be the most potent political force in America, electing a pro-gun president and maintaining pro-gun majorities in the U.S. House and Senate.

 

 Here is a summary of the top stories brought to you in 2016 via the NRA-ILA Grassroots Alert.  As we move into 2017, we must continue to ensure we're prepared to meet the great opportunities and challenges before us. We will continue to provide you with information in future Alerts to ensure you have the information necessary to protect and advance your rights.

 

January

•President Obama issued a 15-page brochure or “guidance” on firearm sales. Even though the President could not unilaterally expand the requirement to obtain a federal firearm license, he tried to instill fear in gun owners and have them believe that private firearm transfers were illegal.

 

•Anti-gunners endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. Clinton received endorsements from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Americans for Responsible Solutions, and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

 

•The FBI stopped processing NICS denial appeals. In what was dubbed a “makeshift reorganization” in a January 20 USA Today article, employees tasked with reviewing NICS appeals had been “temporarily” reassigned to assist with the considerable increase in background checks.

 

•Bloomberg considered a run for President. CBS New York reported, “They say Bloomberg would strongly consider running if the general election looked like it would be a contest between Democrat Bernie Sanders and Republicans Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.”

 

February

•U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away. Scalia was a stalwart defender of the U.S. Constitution and author of the critically important majority opinion in the District of Columbia v. Heller case.

 

•The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court required “strict scrutiny” for the “Maryland Firearm Safety Act of 2013” (FSA). This increased the odds that the U.S. Supreme Court would take up the issue of semi-auto and magazine bans and determine a rule applicable to the entire country.

 

•Jesse Hughes, front man for the Eagles of Death Metal, the band targeted in the Paris terror attack, stressed the importance of armed self-defense. In an interview, Hughes said, “Did your French gun control stop a single [expletive] person from dying at the Bataclan? And if anyone can answer yes, I'd like to hear it, because I don't think so. I think the only thing that stopped it was some of the bravest men that I've ever seen in my life charging head-first into the face of death with their firearms.”

 

•Corrections officer Raymond Hughes was hit by a drunk driver while traveling in New Jersey with a firearm and a Pennsylvania concealed carry permit. He faced 3 ½ to 10 years in jail on a felony charge for possessing a firearm. The drunk driver was only charged with a Class 4 misdemeanor.

 

 

March

•Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that he was abandoning a potential run for the White House in 2016. One national poll found that out of 4,000 registered voters, almost half (43 percent) either didn’t recognize Bloomberg’s name or had no opinion about him.

 

•A case involving the scope of firearm prohibitions prompted Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to break his more than decade-long silent streak on the bench. Thomas asked Assistant U.S. Solicitor General Ilana Eisenstein to identify another “constitutional right that can be suspended based upon a misdemeanor violation of a state law.”

 

•NRA announced its strong opposition to President Barrack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the United States Supreme Court.

 

•The European Parliament took initial steps on EU gun control measures. Among the most burdensome provisions was a change that would place popular semi-automatic firearms into the same category as automatic firearms, thus barring civilian use.

 

 

April

•Hillary Clinton promised to attack gun owners on her “very first day in office.” In a town hall meeting, she stated, “I really support everything President Obama said he would do through regulation on guns but we're going to start the very first day and tackle the gun lobby to try to reduce the outrageous number of people who are dying from gun violence in our country.”

 

•The Social Security Administration (SSA) released a draft of a proposed rule that would strip many recipients of their Second Amendment Rights. The proposal focused on five factors to determine if certain SSA recipients receiving Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) have been “adjudicated as a mental defective” and were therefore federally prohibited from possessing or receiving firearms.

 

•Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the United States District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands struck down the last handgun ban in the United States in the case of Radich v. Guerrero. Judge Manglona’s opinion held that the Islands’ bans on handgun possession, possession of any firearms for self-defense purposes, importation of handguns, and firearm possession by resident aliens violated the Second and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

 

 

May

•NRA-PVF endorsed Donald J. Trump for President. In a statement, Chris Cox, chairman of the NRA’s Political Victory Fund, said, “If Hillary Clinton gets the opportunity to replace Antonin Scalia with an anti-gun Supreme Court justice, we will lose the individual right to keep a gun in the home for self-defense. Mrs. Clinton has said that the Supreme Court got it wrong on the Second Amendment. So the choice for gun owners in this election is clear. And that choice is Donald Trump.”

 

•Analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine published in BMJ concludes that medical mistakes are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. (behind only heart disease and cancer), accounting for more than 250,000 fatalities a year. This is almost 10 times the number of annual deaths attributable to firearms, including the some 20,000 that occur by suicide.

 

•Donald Trump exceeded the 1,237 delegates necessary to win the Republican Party’s nomination for President of the United States on the first ballot at the party’s convention.

 

•Hawaii began considering a bill to use the FBI’s Rapback database as a firearm registry. Under the bill, all registered gun owners and anyone entering the state temporarily with a firearm would have their names entered into the database, where it would remain indefinitely. Rapback provides the police with updates any time new information about an individual is entered into the system.

 

 

 June

•A New York Magazine writer overhears Hillary Clinton calling the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller, “a terrible decision.”

 

•The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review lower court decisions upholding sweeping bans on popular semiautomatic firearms enacted in Connecticut and New York in the wake of the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.

 

•U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit effectively blocked a lower court order that briefly made D.C. a shall-issue jurisdiction for concealed carry licenses.

 

•A full panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit used perverse “reasoning” to effectively deny millions of Californians their constitutional right to bear firearms in public for self-defense. The ruling came in the long-running case of Peruta v. San Diego, which challenged California’s discretionary issuance of concealed carry permits; the only option Californians have to legally exercise this right.

 

 

July

•In a historic moment, NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox addressed the Republican National Convention about the grave threat to the Second Amendment posed by a Hillary Clinton presidency. The next day, Clinton’s attack dogs were out in force, desperately trying to discredit the case Mr. Cox methodically built against her.

 

•Massachusetts attorney General Maura Healey unilaterally banned thousands of previously legal guns. She alleged that the ban’s definition of “copy” or “duplicate” “assault weapons” had been misinterpreted for the last 18 years and she was simply the first law enforcement official to discover this incorrect interpretation.

 

•Hillary Clinton and establishment Democrats embraced gun control at the Philadelphia convention. In her speech, Clinton insisted, “I'm not here to take away your guns. I just don't want you to be shot by someone who shouldn't have a gun in the first place.” Again and again, the convention’s organizers made sure the issue of “gun violence” was front and center.

 

•As members of his party were gathering in Philadelphia, the Obama Administration once again released a sweeping gun control measure by executive fiat. This was done through the U.S. State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC). DDTC began labeling commercial gunsmiths as “manufacturers” for performing relatively simple work such as threading a barrel or fabricating a small custom part for an older firearm. Under the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), “manufacturers” are required to register with DDTC at significant expense or risk onerous criminal penalties.

 

 

August

•The California Rifle & Pistol Association and several individuals, with the support of the National Rifle Association, filed a lawsuit in federal court to vindicate the Second Amendment right of Californians to carry a firearm in public for self-defense. Flanagan v. Harris would broaden the scope of an earlier lawsuit by challenging California’s open carry laws, in addition to state and local restrictions that deny concealed carry licenses to law-abiding citizens.

 

•Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane resigned after a jury found her guilty of perjury, criminal conspiracy, and several other criminal charges relating to the abuse of her position. Gun owners took particular interest in this conviction, as during her tenure as AG, Kane repeatedly demonstrated a marked hostility to the rights of Pennsylvanians, evidently while displaying a personal disregard for the laws she was tasked to uphold.

 

•Amid social and economic strife that threatened to topple the regime of Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan government employed a favorite tactic of tyrants the world over, further gun control. Reuters reported that Venezuela Interior Minister Nestor Reverol ramped up efforts to disarm the populace through a program of confiscation and gun turn-ins.

 

 

September

•In the summer, ATF had released an Explosives Industry Newsletter that changed the agency’s treatment of nitrocellulose, which had the potential to seriously disrupt ammunition supply in the United States. By September, they issued an addendum announcing that it “will conduct further industry outreach concerning wetted Nitrocellulose. In the interim, previously authorized industry practices concerning wetted Nitrocellulose will not be affected.”

 

•Hillary Clinton labeled millions of Americans who supported Donald Trump as “Deplorable” and “Irredeemable.” She stated, “…you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables,” because of what she described as their “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic” views. “Now,” she continued, “some of those folks – they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America.”

 

•New York City billionaire Michael Bloomberg donated a cool $300 million for the School of Public Health that bears his name at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Demonstrating the ex-mayor’s typical hubris, “the Bloomberg American Health Initiative” seeks to increase life expectancy of people in the U.S. by tackling issues from a “public health” perspective, which includes pursuing restrictive gun control.

 

•Democratic VP Candidate Tim Kaine on gun control: “I can't think of an issue I'd rather be aligned with than this” Among his many anti-gun efforts, as Mayor of Richmond, Kaine once used more than $6,000 in public funds to charter eight buses to support the “Million” Mom March in Washington, D.C.

 

 

October

•A report in the Wall Street Journal claimed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents used local police officers in Southern California to drive around the parking lot of a large gun show to “collect all of the cars’ information.”

 

•According to an article in USA today, Obama had shifted his prisoner release strategy to free more serious and violent offenders. “Before last month, 13% of inmates receiving clemency had used a firearm in the offense,” the article states. “For those granted presidential mercy last month, it was 22%.”

 

•A judge issued a ruling in the case, Soto v. Bushmaster, which held that Bushmaster was entitled to immunity from the suit. In the ruling, Judge Bellis stated, “Congress, through the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act … has broadly prohibited lawsuits ‘against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of firearms … for the harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful use of firearm products … by others when the produced functioned as designed and intended.’”

 

•Leaked emails of Clinton campaign staffers published by WikiLeaks show that the candidate planned to bypass Congress to enact gun control by executive order. In one such email, press secretary Brian Fallon said that Clinton would support, “universal background checks of course, but also closing the gun show loophole by executive order and imposing manufacturer liability.”

 

November

•November 8 was a historic night for gun rights supporters. In the most important election cycle in generations, NRA members and supporters proved once again to be the most potent political force in America, electing a pro-gun president and maintaining pro-gun majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. When faced with the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency, a U.S. Senate led by Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), and a U.S. Supreme Court that would threaten the recognition of the individual right to keep and bear arms, NRA members delivered a resounding rejection of the anti-gun agenda.  Vital to this victory was the work of NRA’s dedicated grassroots network.  Our hundreds of Election Volunteer Coordinators, and 23 Campaign Field Representatives worked with thousands of volunteers on the ground on voter outreach efforts, knocking 170,000 targeted doors and making 1.5 million targeted phone calls. In addition to our supporters on the ground, NRA spent more than $20 million on television ads in support of Donald Trump’s bid for the White House and to oppose Hillary Clinton, and millions more on ensuring a pro-gun congress. Further, NRA targeted voters with 38,000,000 mailings and 15,000,000 pre-recorded phone calls. The result of NRA’s efforts was indisputable. On election night, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd commented on just how important NRA’s efforts were to Trump’s win during NBC’s election coverage. Todd noted, “Trump got a big assist here… Donald Trump didn’t get a lot of help from major Republican institutions, but he did from the NRA and they came through big. This is a big night for the NRA.”

 

•NRA congratulated President-Elect Donald Trump on his victory. NRA-ILA executive director Chris Cox issued a statement that said, in part, “Despite the unprecedented efforts by New York City billionaire Michael Bloomberg and the gun control lobby, the Second Amendment prevailed. In the face of threats against their constitutional freedoms, NRA members and Second Amendment supporters rallied to elect a pro-gun president. Trump’s victory repudiates the assertion by gun control advocates that the political calculus regarding the Second Amendment has changed.”

 

•In one of its final acts on firearms, the Obama Administration’s ATF announced that its proposed changes to the Form 4473 would go into effect on January 16, 2017, just four days before the inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump.

 

•Guinness refused to validate NRA’s 1,000 Man Shoot world record. The reason for Guinness’ refusal was not clear, as a search of the organization’s records database shows that they recognize a host of firearms-related records.

 

December

 

•The FBI processed 185,713 NICS transactions on Black Friday 2016.  This surpassed the prior one day record set on Black Friday 2015 by several hundred checks and the third busiest day for NICS by over eight thousand checks.

 

•Some of the nation’s largest law firms are forming a coalition with gun control advocates to provide tens of millions of dollars of free legal services to battle the Second Amendment. The firms are a Who’s Who of the corporate legal world: Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Covington & Burling; Arnold & Porter; O’Melveny & Myers; Dentons; Munger, Tolles & Olson; Hogan Lovells. What is less known is whether their high-paying clients are aware their legal fees are subsidizing attacks against the gun rights of law-abiding Americans.

 

•The anti-gun movie, Miss Sloane, tanked completely at the box office, making one industry list of the worst openings of the past 35 years for a movie with a national release. Miss Sloane featured Jessica Chastain as a Washington lobbyist who takes on “the establishment” to push for passage of gun control in the U.S. Congress.

 

•On President Obama’s way out the door, his Social Security Administration finalized a rule, which by the White House’s own estimate will ban 75,000 law-abiding SSI and disability insurance beneficiaries a year from possessing firearms by characterizing them as “mental defectives.” 

 

On behalf of all of us at NRA-ILA, we thank you for all you did in defense of our Second Amendment rights in 2016, and we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year!