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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Gun Control Submitted by: Robert Morse Website: slowfacts.wordpress.com	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
The Socialists and their donors decided to push gun control and firearms confiscation. That didn�t turn out quite the way they planned. Our culture is changing faster than our politics and our politicians can follow. Public perception is changing more rapidly than polls can record opinions, and faster than the media can spin their agenda. They talked. We acted.

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Not all gun control advocates demand it, but there is growing support for semi-automatic rifles such as the AR-15 to be outlawed at the federal level.

Some state and local jurisdictions have taken action into their own hands, enacting bans on such firearms, and those bans have been largely upheld in federal courts.

In 2015, after the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a city-wide assault weapons ban that Highland Park, Illinois enacted � which included the AR-15 � the Supreme Court decided not to hear an appeal, and Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented that decision.

SD: Governor Signs Two Pro-Gun Bills
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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On Monday, March 26, Governor Dennis Daugaard signed important pro-gun legislation, House Bill 1209 and House Bill 1271, into law.

House Bill 1209, sponsored by Representative Sue Peterson and Senator Kris Langer, will require that applicants for a South Dakota concealed carry license undergo a background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). This update would make consistent all three classes of concealed carry permits in South Dakota.

CA: A liberal case for assault rifles
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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I am on the political left. I hate the National Rifle Association. I do not own a gun. I have been a victim of firearms violence. (Shot breaking up a bar fight at the age of 20.) And I am strident supporter of keeping �assault� weapons available and leaving the Second Amendment exactly as it is.

Inconsistent? Hardly. Unlike many liberal intellectuals and commentators (BIll Maher for example) I actually believe the Second Amendment to the US Constitution is about preserving freedom, not simply about the right to hunt or owning a shotgun to protect the house. If you listen to the advocates of the Second Amendment, their arguments make sense. Widespread private gun ownership is a bulwark of a free society.

Trump�s dangerous plot to weaponize the Supreme Court
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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So much for judges calling balls and strikes.

President Trump tweeted the other day about the call by retired Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens to repeal the Second Amendment. (A dumb idea, by the way: Won�t happen, isn�t necessary, wouldn�t work.)

This was Trump�s take: �THE SECOND AMENDMENT WILL NEVER BE REPEALED! As much as Democrats would like to see this happen, and despite the words yesterday of former Supreme Court Justice Stevens, NO WAY. We need more Republicans in 2018 and must ALWAYS hold the Supreme Court!�

PA: Why Second Amendment should not be repealed
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Assault weapons are fully automatic. They continue to fire as long as the trigger is pulled. Semi-automatics fire only one round when the trigger is pulled � that is one round at a time. Almost all pistols and rifles are semi-automatic and some shotguns are as well. It is absurd to call semi-automatics assault weapons. They are simply common, everyday firearms.

The people must fight infringements in court, and the key to defeating them is to focus on the clear meaning of the term "arms." In 1776 and now, arms meant and still means weapons carried by individuals. The word "arms" meant personal weapons with a military use. With such weapons the people can defend themselves against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

FL: After voting for Parkland bill, state representative says he wants to remove gun control measures
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Just weeks after state legislators passed a sweeping package of school safety and gun control changes following the Parkland shooting, a state representative who voted for the bill says he wants to remove its gun control provisions should he be re-elected.

In a town hall hosted by Florida Today Wednesday, Rep. Randy Fine, R-Palm Bay, said he plans to file bills to remove some of the gun control provisions from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Safety Act � including a three-day waiting period, higher minimum age to buy firearms from a dealer and a ban on the sale and possession of bump stocks.

ND: No deaths, no shots fired at recent gun show
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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I recently attended the Dakota Territory gun show in Grand Forks. According to the less-than-honest left-biased media, everyone attending this show would have been shot. Thousands of rounds of ammo, thousands of handguns, rifles and shotguns of all types were on hand. Included were hundreds of the AR-type weapons so demonized, yet are the most popular hunting, sport shooting and self-defense rifles in the US. Yet no on was shot, no one was killed and no ammo just went off. Not one gun got up and started shooting.

OK: Oklahoma Gubernatorial Candidate Hopes To Shut Down Jeff Sessions�s Influence
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Keller: Recently there has been an increase in political dialogue over gun control. What do you have to contribute to this national dialogue?

Lawhorn: I have nothing more to contribute that hasn�t been said a million times already. The two most important things to remember is that gun control doesn�t reduce violence and those words �shall not be infringed�.
If they come to me with a proposal that addresses the real causes of the increase in violence, we can start a conversation. Until then, I�m unwilling to engage in even peripheral conversations about restricting the right of self-defense from anyone.

Reagan was shot 37 years ago today. Every young American should hear what he had to say about guns
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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The words of America�s 40th president on the Second Amendment are perhaps more relevant today than when he first spoke them.

Despite being hit by a would-be assassin�s bullet on March 30, 1981, President Ronald Reagan was a firm supporter of citizens� constitutionally-protected right to bear arms, as well as a proponent of the NRA, declaring �important principles may and must be inflexible.�

Speaking at an annual banquet of the National Rifle Association in 1983, President Reagan asserted that gun control laws only limit law-abiding citizens� capacity for self-defense.

I�ve Supported the Second Amendment My Whole Life. It�s Time for Reasonable Gun Control
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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But the Parkland shooting in Florida, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was the culmination of several troubling years of legal guns winding up in the wrong hands, and I am now convinced that those of us who have previously been Second Amendment absolutists � myself included � should support common-sense gun control. The American government is so broken it is literally killing people, as well-funded bureaucracies fail to keep guns out of the hands of men and women who are not fit for the awesome responsibility.

VT: Gun legislation not about safety
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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So I am asking, why is it our local representatives seem to have a need to pass gun control legislation just to pass something?

Let�s be very clear. This is not about safety for our schools and our children. This is about government control of the private citizens and those citizens rights as granted by the Constitution.

Since the Legislature likes to listen to the children, they should listen to the children of St. Albans who have it right and, as amazed as I was, the Burlington Free Press actually printed something that made sense (�Where gun heritage runs deep, Vermont students focus on safety,� March 21).

WA: McMorris Rodgers talked about everything from filibusters, to the Second Amendment, to upgrading the nuclear arsenal Submitted by: Mark A. Taff Website: http://www.marktaff.com	There are no comments on this story Post Comments \| Read Comments
�I�d like to know what you think the purpose of the second amendment is and if you think that second amendment has a purpose in the 21st century,� asked one man at the town hall. McMorris Rodgers defended the Second Amendment. �It�s fundamentally�it is our last line of defense. You can defend your family,� she answered him.

VT: Package of gun restrictions set to become law in Vermont
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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A package of gun restrictions is on track to become law in Vermont after the state Senate on Friday approved raising the legal age for gun purchases, expanding background checks for private gun sales and banning high-capacity magazines and rapid-fire devices known as bump stocks.

The measure, which the state House approved this week and Republican Gov. Phil Scott has said he will sign, reflects a remarkable turnaround for a state that has long opposed gun control measures.

MI: A stupid way to ﬁght our gun problem
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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Moreover, the Supreme Court has treated the Second Amendment as essentially codifying a preexisting �fundamental right of each person to possess the means of self-defense in the home.� The court has called this protection a cornerstone of �our system of ordered liberty� - one that preceded the Second Amendment and would remain even without it, embedded explicitly in the Fifth and 14th amendments� protections of �liberty.�

There is undoubted emotional appeal in a call to arms organized around an aim as lofty as the elimination of the Second Amendment. Its very unattainability adds to its allure. I can�t deny feeling the pull of that appeal myself.

Preemption Protects Gun Owners
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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While the story of Right to Carry is well known, many are not aware of the equally important success that we�ve had in advancing firearm preemption laws in state legislatures. These laws generally preclude local governments from enacting any additional regulations on firearms or ammunition beyond state law. Without firearm preemption, gun owners would be subjected to a patchwork of hundreds or even thousands of different sets of laws in every state.

Such a system, where a simple trip to the grocery store could involve three or four different regulatory regimes, is a potential trap for every gun owner in America.

Best Coyote Hunting Optics Set Up for Your AR Rifles
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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I feel I own the ultimate coyote hunting rifle and optics set up in America. I really do.

I don�t feel this way because of the brand I use or the look of the optics. My humble opinion isn�t based on impressing my friends.

Flat out it�s the best coyote hunting optics set up be cause it�s built around the needs of predator hunting, my shooting skills, and maximum versatility.I figured this out through trial and plenty of errors.

The Second Amendment is not the federal government's suicide pact with the citizenry
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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In response, President Washington assembled a force of 13,000 militiamen and marched with them�the only time in our history that a sitting president has led troops in the field�to suppress the rebellion. The rebellion dissolved before Washington arrived, and that was the end of it.

From this it does not appear that Washington�and Hamilton, who marched with him in Pennsylvania�thought that the Second Amendment was a ticket to resist federal authority.

WSJ: Actually, The NRA Is Not Paranoid Over Anti-Gun Nutjobs Wanting To Shred The Second Amendment
Submitted by: Mark A. Taff
Website: http://www.marktaff.com

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It seems like the only people who don�t know that abolition of the Second Amendment was part of the discussion on gun control�were those who were pushing gun control. What�s even more troubling is now endless op-eds about the abolition of the Second Amendment that were published across multiple publications, including the Washington Post. There is no excuse for the anti-gun Left to play dumb on this. So, when the National Rifle Association says progressives want to shred the Second Amendment and the rest of the Constitution with it, they�re not being paranoid.