National Parks Whining: Much Ado About Nothing

A little something happened during that past week, pretty much occurring without a hiccup. Except for the shrill whining coming from the anti self-defense fear mongers who goaded the media into coverage of an important citizen safety rule change.

Yes, I'm talking about the carrying of concealed firearms in U.S. national parks.

Of course, in its attempt to placate the anti gun crowd, got it wrong. Most national news stories noted that people with "licensed guns" can carry them in the parks. That is so very wrong. There is not much "gun licensing" that occurs in the U.S., and nowhere here in Ohio. The story they missed is that visitors to parks are safer because law abiding citizens who have licenses to carry concealed may now do so in our national parks.

Sigh . . .

Read it here. Interestingly, the usual "anti" diatribe was trotted out. Tired, but they use it anyway -- the most frequent objection being that with loaded firearms in parks there might be more violence. Guess what? There might be less violence as those who prowl the parks to prey on innocent families will think twice about doing so now!

Poll: Majority Says Government Is Threat To Rights; And This Is News . . . ???

In what some are calling a shocking poll, CNN says a majority of Americans say that government is a threat to citizens rights.

I would posit that government has ALWAYS been a threat to citizens' rights.

That's why the founders of the United States, in the early amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the former formally known as the Bill of Rights) specifically outlined what government COULD NOT do. For the very reason that they knew, hundreds of years ahead, that government would ultimately get too big for its britches and attempt to rule every facet of everyone's lives.

Just like what the revolutionaries fought to get away from during the American Revolution . . .

So, here is the poll from CNN.

Fifty six percent of people questioned said they think the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses a threat to the rights of ordinary American citizens. That is a troublesome statistic. And refreshing at the same time.

Troubling because it is not just those more knowledgable who feels that way, but ordinary citizens. Refreshing, however, because those same ordinary citizens are becoming enlightened to the problems we have in this nation.

2009 Sees Record Number of CCW Licenses Issued In Ohio

Ohio county sheriffs issued a record number of concealed handgun licenses in 2009, according to Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray.

In 2009, 56,691 licenses were issued -- a number well above that set in 2004 when Ohio's concealed carry law first went into effect. That year, 45,497 licenses were issued.

My friend Linda Walker, region leader for Buckeye Firearms Association, in an interview with local radio stations, said it best -- when you factor in both the increase in home invasions being seen in neighborhoods in pretty much every city around Ohio, plus President's Obama's abysmal record on gun rights, you have some pretty good reasons for rational, thinking people to make the decision to obtain their CCW.

Click here to go to the news release issued by the Ohio Attorney General's office.

Tennessee CCW Permits Way UP

Okay the news coverage in the Volunteer State is a bit misleading. The reporters are writing it as if you need a "permit" to own a gun in Tennessee.

You don't.

But as in many other states, you do need a license to carry a concealed firearm. And that is what this story is really about. According to state records, the number of Tennesseans licensed by the state to carry concealed increased by nearly 51,000 people last year -- a 23 percent increase -- to 268,711.

A pretty safe place to be these days. Read all about it at KnoxNews.com.

Political Meddling At Ohio Highway Patrol? Where Is The News Here?

Gee . . . the worst kept secret in the Buckeye State is now being talked about -- political meddling in the inner workings and decisions of the Ohio Highway Patrol.

Today people are shocked, SHOCKED to learn that political decisions led to the scuttling of a planned criminal sting at the Ohio governor's mansion involving workers there. SHOCKED because no one can imagine how politics can get in the way of law enforcement, right?

Well, consider the following: Firearms owners in Ohio have long known of politics interfering with clear thinking at the OHP, particularly when it came to concealed carry reform efforts during the past decade. The OHP superintendents and others would routinely express their displeasure, if not outright concern, about allowing law abiding Ohioans to legally carry a concealed firearm. You see, it was prohibited for more than a century until the early 2000s. One of their more obtuse objections was that state troopers wouldn't know who is carrying a gun in a car. Even though ALL state troopers (and most smaller jurisdiction law enforcement agencies) are trained to assume that each and every occupant of every car that is stopped is armed. That led the patrol to insist on a ridiculous provision that those individuals carrying in their automobile carry in plain sight.

Sigh . . .

It was also the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, a salary benefits bargaining union that repeatedly kept sticking its nose into the safety concerns of average Ohio taxpayers. With nonsensical objections, lawmakers for reasons only they might be able to understand, listened to the FOP and watered down Ohio CCW -- incredibly important and long overdue citizen safety legislation.

Most often, after a wink and a nod from anti safety governors such as George Voinovich and Bob Taft, both of whom hated the idea of their constituents being able to legally carry. Both these politicians are primarily responsible for the OHP opposing the reversal of the antiquated ban on concealed carry. This went on for more than a decade. You have got to ask yourselves why any thinking person would fear a law abiding neighbor, let alone a politician fearing a law abiding constituent . . . right? Seriously, both these republican governors had their flaws -- particularly Taft.

Anyway, the latest news made me laugh out loud today when I read it. The only people who are shocked, SHOCKED I tell you to learn of political meddling in the Ohio Highway Patrol are those journalists and taxpayers who are clueless about what happens in day-to-day state politics.

Shocked? Nope. Another business as usual day. Something Ohio moms, grandmothers, granddads, fathers, uncles, aunts, collectors, competitors, hunters and others -- firearms owners all -- have known all too well is now known by a few more folks across the Buckeye State.

Bill O'Reilly Steps In It With 'OK' On Gun Confiscation During Weather Emergencies

Huh?

This makes no sense whatsoever. Moreso, its ILLEGAL! New Orleans tried breaking the law and learned the hard way it wasn't a good idea.

During an interview on a recent show, most observers agree thehost of the popular FOX News show seemed ill-prepared. Frankly, long-time O'Reilly watchers know that Bill is not the Constitutionalist that he portrays himself to be.

Washington Supreme Court Bitch Slaps Bradys, VPC, et al

The supreme court of the state of Washington has ruled today that the Second Amendment is incorporated in the state. That is, the Second Amendment applies to state and local jurisdictions in Washington State. It is not just a federal guarantee.

Which is, as I understand from my civics class in high school a million years ago, what the 14th Amendment guaranteed!

Another good set of links here at Eugene Volokh's place.

The anti self defense crowd are not happy campers today . . .

Gun Owners In India Have Had Enough

Believe it or not, in the land of peaceful resistance spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi, there are people who own firearms. Collectors, target shooters, hunters, and so on.

But a cultural group that has stayed in the shadows, content to enjoy their sport without drawing attention to themselves (and without the protection of a constitutional amendment, like the United States), has had enough. Recent pushes by lawmakers in India spouting PSH nonsense about the so-called "dangers of guns" has resulted in a mobilization of firearms owners.

Enough is enough, they are saying.

Read it here. I wish them well!

Americans Have No Expectation Of Privacy?

From the desk of of President Barack Obama . . . .

Once again, he proves that he doesn't give a damn about civil rights, or civil liberties. Yes, there is no provision in the U.S. Constitution that protects our privacy. But the last time I checked, the Supreme Court opinion many decades ago legalizing abortion created a narrow expectation of privacy, in this case, for a woman's body.

So why not whip up a Roe defense for this travesty regarding mobile phone privacy that the Obama administration is pushing? Seriously, don't they think Americans will care about a Justice Department statement saying that Americans have no expectation of privacy? Are they nuts?

Read the full story here.

Trust me folks, these kinds of decisions aren't made in a vaccuum. This one had to have been blessed in the Oval Office, or at a minimum, the West Wing.

Scary times these days with each new edict coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave . . .

NC Mayor Bans Transport of Firearms Due To . . . Bad Weather?

The mayor of King, North Carolina has sparked outrage after her "state of emergency" declaration included a ban on the transport of legally owned firearms -- whether you had a CCW or not -- in privately owned vehicles.

She is defending her actions, saying she didn't declare martial law. But she may as well have. The only place you could have a firearm, she says, was on your personal premises.

Hmmm . . . and if you had to travel to pick up someone stranded, your child perhaps, Madame Mayor? Would YOU have gone unarmed? Or would you have had a police officer with you to protect YOU?

The outrage, IMHO, is justified. A number of U.S. state, in the wake of the events in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, have passed legislation prohibiting the confiscation of lawfully posseessed firearms during a state of emergency. Some states have gone even further in their prohibitions against what government can do in regards to restrictions on firearms, which may be the only defense against looters or other thugs who take advantage of natural disasters to make mischief.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm......

UPDATED: Wednesday, February 4, 2010, 12:39 AM -- Paul Caron, who edits the TaxProf Blog, has picked up this story also.

And quite seriously, Instapundit blog author and law professor Glenn Reynolds reminds us (and federal agencies) in a commententary on Mr. Caron's post that U.S. taxpayers own a lot more of these firearms than the IRS.

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The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is acquiring shotguns.....

Click here to see the IRS' Request For Quotation (RFQ).

Early Draft Of U.S. Constitution Found In Philadelphia

An unknown, early draft of the U.S. Constitution have been found in a Historical Society of Pennsylvania building in Philadelphia.

Titled "Continuation of the Scheme," the papers had been filed in another area of work authored by James Wilson. While filed among Wilson's other papers, it should have been filed among other drafts of the Constitution known to exist. The paper is written in Wilson's handwriting.

"Two drafts of the Constitution in Wilson's hand had been separated from his papers long ago. One of them included the beginning of still another draft and was apparently seen as part of a single working version, instead of a separate draft. Toler said "The Continuation of the Scheme," including its provisions about the executive and judiciary branches, completes that draft, making it a third."

Oh, and before anyone tries to weave alternate meanings into the word "scheme," please keep in mind it was a word commonly used in the 1700s that meant "plan." Not as the Huffingtons, Bradys and others would have people think that something evil was afoot.

Overall, this is way cool news..

Is The Violence Policy Center Trying To Reinstate The Black Codes?

During a dark time in our nation's history, bigots went around laws passed in the 1800s guaranteeing the vote to every man, and instituted rules that required "tests" as requirements to vote.

It was discrimination pure and simple.

And it appears the Violence Policy Center is pushing the same once more with outright discrimination against african americans in the United States. Specifically, the anti-gun rights group that Barack Obama repeatedly voted to fund while he was a director of the Joyce Foundation believes that black Americans are too violent to deserve the entire Constitution. Thus, it wants to reduce their access to firearms.

Columnist Bob Owens says that for an organization to make a public declaration that suggests an entire race be denied the same level of constitutional protections as others is both shocking and bewildering. I could not agree more! Owens notes that the study received financing from left-wing groups dedicated to social engineering, including the David Bohnett Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Public Welfare Foundation.

"While progressive groups such as these typically have a stated goal of helping underprivileged minority communities, some of their attempts to affect what they view as positive social change can be viewed by critics as ham-handed and condescending — or, as in this instance, verging on outright racist."

Amen Brother. Read Bob's full post here.

Interesting isn't it? If a right-wing group had suggested that african americans be denied some of their constitutional rights, the national media would be all over this. Once again, the bias shows through like a million watt spotlight on the darkest of nights.