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Gun Ban Groups Seize On Misinformed Al-Qaeda Threat

NRA - ILA

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- Anti-gun groups have been quick to exploit last week’s al-Qaeda video in which Adam Gadahn, an American-born militant on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list, calls on followers in the United States to buy firearms and attack major institutions and public figures.

On June 7, the Brady Campaign, the Violence Policy Center, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the Legal Community Against Violence, and States United to Prevent Gun Violence wrote to President Obama, urging him “in the strongest terms to order an immediate and thorough review of steps the Administration can take in the short term to reduce the firepower available on the civilian gun market, to tighten existing laws regulating the gun industry, and to improve the background check system to make it harder for those with terrorist ties to obtain firearms.”

Of course, it’s never surprising that anything even remotely related to firearms inspires these anti-gun groups to promote whatever unrelated issues were already at the top of their agenda. And it’s even less surprising that the groups’ preferred initiatives would have no more effect on a committed terrorist than they’ve ever had on domestic criminals:

• Terrorists around the world have never lacked for “firepower,” no matter how harsh the laws in the countries they’ve attacked. India’s strict laws, for example, failed to stop the deadly attack on Mumbai.
• Even if private gun sales in the U.S. were banned, terrorists – like common domestic criminals – could simply use straw purchasers who can pass background checks, or could rely on stolen guns and other black market sources.
• Legislation to arbitrarily deny sales to persons on the “terrorist watchlist” would be useless against Gadahn’s target audience of “lone wolf” attackers with no previous ties to terrorist organizations.
• Fully automatic “assault weapons” cannot be purchased over the counter.

Ironically, Gadahn’s call for “lone wolf” attacks may itself be a sign of his group’s decline. As the private intelligence firm Stratfor said in an analysis of the video, earlier al-Qaeda communications “suggested that militants who answered the call would be trained, equipped and put into the field of battle under competent commanders,” while the more recent calls for would-be terrorists to go it alone “may be an admission of defeat and an indication that the jihadists might not be receiving the divine blessing they claim.”

About:
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military. Visit: www.nra.org

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Brady Campaign – The New Champion Of The Tenth Amendment

NRA - ILA

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- For more than 30 years, the Brady Campaign has demanded that the federal government impose gun bans, ammo bans, waiting periods, gun registration — you name it – with no regard for the states.

In 1994, when the group was called Handgun Control, Inc., it said that its main “goal” was to “enact a comprehensive federal gun control policy.”

In January, the Brady Campaign endorsed Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) bills proposing a federal law to prohibit Americans from possessing firearms on the basis of secret allegations, another federal law to regulate gun shows out of business, and another federal law to prohibit magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Etc., etc., etc.

Brady Campaign

But when the states have exercised their powers, the Brady Campaign has usually been against it. The group has vigorously denounced dozens of state Right-to-Carry and other laws dedicated to protecting the right of people to use firearms to defend themselves. And last month, it vilified most states for refusing to impose one or another gun restriction.

“Arizona, Alaska, and Utah do not have a single common sense gun law on their books [and] 31 states have few gun laws or none,” the group whined.

The only time the group supports a state gun law is when it restricts the right to arms.

Yesterday, however, the Brady Campaign spoke with a new enthusiasm for “states [and cities'] rights,” demanding that Congress “Let D.C. residents govern themselves,” while complaining “Every year we see members of Congress interfering with the fundamental American principle of self-government.”

This nonsense follows the group’s opposition to limiting state and local power over the right to keep and bear arms through the Supreme Court’s McDonald v. Chicago decision last year.

The Brady Campaign should stop their hypocrisy and phony arguments. The notion that the group believes in the Tenth Amendment is laughable. Everyone knows that the group believes in restricting the right to keep and bear arms any way it can, with federal gun control, state gun control, local gun control, by executive regulation, by court decisions, by lawsuits designed to bankrupt gun manufacturers, and by any other means it can think of.

Trying to cast itself as a defender of our country’s federal system, it only discredits itself even more than usual.

About:
Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military. Visit: www.nra.org

Filed under: Gun Rights News by Ammoland No Comments »