Some ‘Gun Rights Leaders’ are Endorsing the Absolute Wrong Idea on Fighting Crime

What if your possession of a gun is “illegal” because you have been convicted of defying unconstitutional edicts, or because Democrats say you can’t have it anymore? (ProjectExile.org)

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “PA Dem Has Right Idea to Fight Crime,” a Wednesday email alert from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership proclaims. They’re passing on a link to a Bearing Arms article by Cam Edwards, former NRATV personality and host of Cam & Co., and a widely followed commentator on the right to keep and bear arms. JPFO does that regularly, providing extra visibility for articles that inform gun owners about developments of interest and they deserve to be thanked for that.

But this time they’ve passed along a self-defeating prevailing sentiment that has been promoted for years by NRA and some other groups, one that gun owners need to free themselves of.

“Rep. Amen Brown says he’ll be introducing a bill in the near future that would increase the penalties for being a felon in possession of a firearm,” Edwards writes. “Each subsequent offense would come with more time behind bars, including a mandatory minimum sentence to ensure consequences for those carrying a gun when they’re prohibited by law from possessing one.”

That’s not the “right idea,” especially noting it comes from a “Gun Sense Voter” candidate. It’s the absolute wrong one, and by endorsing it, gun owners are placing a noose around their own necks, particularly if they adhere to the “I will not comply” declaration and refuse to obey gun confiscation edicts they know to be unconstitutional and tyrannical.

Sure, it makes for a good sound bite, because who wants dangerous criminals out there armed?

Well, who wants dangerous criminals out there in the first place? If their actions have proven they can’t be trusted without a custodian, how does releasing them back into the general public make any more sense than opening a man-eating tiger’s cage (H/T) because time has been served? Who thinks that doesn’t put the public at unacceptable risk, and importantly, that such predators will let a little thing like “the law” stop them from getting – or taking – whatever weapons they want?

But that’s not the way the law works and we have to deal with reality, many will counter. True, and the reality is, such “prohibited person” laws make no distinction between repeat offender killers and Martha Stewart or Scooter Libby. A felon is a felon.

Rep. Brown himself declares his proposed bill will apply to “any previously convicted felon who is found to be in possession of an illegal firearm…”

“Felons” with “illegal firearms” like me…

Well, I’m an “undocumented” one, anyway. I just never got caught after publicly refusing at an NRA-sponsored “terms of surrender” event to register my “assault weapon” with the California Department of Justice.  That also went against NRA’s very public position that “any honest, law-abiding American would” turn in banned guns, and resulted in one sheeplike NRA member in a mostly subdued audience bleating out “He doesn’t speak for all of us!”

I’d like to remind our friends at JPFO that I’m not alone in rejecting the persecution of “felons” for gun possession. At the time NRA was making a big push to convince its members that “Project Exile” was just what was needed to deter violent crime (it wasn’t really), a group of us pushed back with the Project Exile Condemnation Coalition, stating:

The signers of this statement support any reasonable law-enforcement program that removes violent repeat-offender felons from our cities and neighborhoods, but only if the laws utilized to convict and to punish such felons are constitutional.

We condemn any program that involves enforcing unconstitutional ‘laws’, even if such ‘laws’ are enforced only against violent criminals. Unconstitutional ‘laws’ are illegal, harmful to public safety, tyrannical, and are inevitably enforced against ordinary, non-criminal citizens.

The ‘Project Exile’ supported by the current NRA management calls for enforcing all existing gun laws, regardless of their unconstitutionality and regardless of their being enforceable against non-criminals. Furthermore, the current NRA management’s quoted remarks … indicate a disregard for our public safety, our heritage, our freedom, and our Constitution.

Among the many signers I was honored to join was:

Aaron Zelman Exec. Director, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership

Does anyone at JPFO really believe he would have agreed with Mr. Edwards, that enforcing unconstitutional anti-gun edicts is “the right way to fight crime”?

“Demanding that government ‘enforce existing gun laws’ is more than a bit like calling on King George to enforce existing Intolerable Acts,” I wrote in an earlier AmmoLand piece, noting that it’s the last thing true rights advocates should be calling for. What we should all be demanding, especially those who have positioned themselves as our influencers and leaders, is to repeal the damn things.

Remember, enforcing existing gun laws is what precipitated Ruby Ridge and Waco.


About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.

David Codrea

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Lou

I owned a media company from 2009 to 2019. During those years one of my account managers never recorded refunds for advertising cancelations. They just got lumped into general funds because they could not be sourced to an active account. This somehow became Bank Fraud, Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud with the Postal Police. Only problem was I lived overseas and never stepped foot in a bank or handled U.S. mail. The Feds only found that out after they kept me in a cage on a military base in the Dominican Republic for ten days on a fugitive warrant. Only… Read more »

Roland T. Gunner

Other than your imprisonment, I’m not seeing any crime here.

nrringlee

Declining civil society is best noted by increasing criminalization of behaviors. Eventually everything will be subject to criminal law when moral restraint fails. Self-discipline is the only valid and effective form of discipline. A society that fails to transmit that one central truth fails. And we are failing. We fail to differentiate tax cheats from murderers in this particular case so the truly evil and dangerous are able to hide among the general population of the non-compliant. The term felon has virtually no meaning relative to threat to public safety because now everything is a felony. Teenagers arrested fifty years… Read more »

Tionico

I learned some time ago that in my county, to SHOOT a cat, even a nuisance feral cat, is a felony. I never would have guessed such folly. No, I was not charged. Should not have been.

JSNMGC

Enforce existing laws against murder, rape, armed robbery, and other violent crimes. Do a better job of arresting and convicting those violent criminals and don’t let them out early. Just leave other people alone. Arrests are made in less than 10% of the murders in Chicago. The number of convictions is far less than that and the number of criminals who serve their entire sentence is only a portion of that remainder. Less than 2% of murderers in Chicago will be arrested, convicted, and serve a meaningful sentence. Unfortunately, there is a significant percentage of the firearm community who believe:… Read more »

nrringlee

Correct. A progressive utopia is based upon fear and resentment and is maintained by establishing mandarin classes who will do the enforcing. I have struggled over the years to explain to friends who are from the law enforcement community that these gun rights restrictions cut both ways.The proof in the pudding is this: where I live, Mohave County AZ, we have a disproportionately high percentage of out of state law enforcement officers retiring here because the gun laws and other progressive good ideas no longer look so good once retired. And I compare them to my circumstances, retired military with… Read more »

Asltrfl

I too, reside in LHC, AZ. I met two CHP Officers at a gas station one day. I found it odd that they lived in AZ and drove their marked cars across the State line to go to work every day in CA. I thought you had to live in the State that you enforce the laws in. They told me CA lets them live in AZ and drive their CHP cruisers back and forth to work. Of course, it was the better schools, less taxes and cost of living, affordable housing and low crime rate that brought them here.… Read more »

Roland T. Gunner

Outstanding article; goes to show how few of our citizens truly are capable of thinking for themselves.

Jeffersonian

“‘Legal’ doesn’t mean ‘right’ and ‘illegal’ doesn’t mean ‘wrong’.”
-Jerry Pournelle

Finnky

A fine author, yet relatively unknown.

Mack

Well known to the Sci-Fi world.

Country Boy

Agreed. I’ve been saying it for years. Either one believes in the entire US Constitution and Bill of Rights or they don’t. One cannot “pick and choose” which rights,when and whom to apply or not to apply them to.
As far as felonies, one has to remember one can be Pardoned. Thus returning the gun and voting rights of one previously convicted of a felony.
Most of the existing gun laws are total BS anyway.

Last edited 3 years ago by Country Boy
JSNMGC

Unfortunately, despite Trump being petitioned to do so, there was no Presidential pardon for these guys:

https://www.guns.com/news/2019/01/17/case-at-supreme-court-challenges-legitimacy-of-the-national-firearms-act

Trump did pardon some violent criminals, however.

Last edited 3 years ago by JSNMGC
loveaduck

No right is absolute. Having firearms does not OK criminal action.

JSNMGC

I don’t believe that was the point he was making.

Tionico

yu and the duck you love need to learn how to READ. NO ONE is saying criminal action (by which I mean an evil act, unjustfied, that has an IDENTIFIABLE VICTIM who was HARMED. My possession of a prohibited firearm harms no one. Nor does having one nine milimeter round of hollow point ammunition inside the State of New Jersey harm anyone.

Chris Mallory

If it is not absolute then it is a privilege. The Bill of Rights was written in plain language. We have allowed the courts to rape that plain language into meaningless phrases.

Larry

It is, perhaps, a fact provocative of sour mirth that the Bill of Rights was designed trustfully to prohibit forever two of the favorite crimes of all known governments: the seizure of private property without adequate compensation and the invasion of the citizen’s liberty without justifiable cause…. It is a fact provocative of mirth yet more sour that the execution of these prohibitions was put into the hands of courts, which is to say, into the hands of lawyers, which is to say, into the hands of men specifically educated to discover legal excuses for dishonest, dishonorable and anti-social acts.… Read more »

Neanderthal75

Yeah here we are again, another self-righteous kontrolfreek ignoring context in favor of sheer emotional hyperbole!

What you are saying to the idiot confiscator is is see I’m a good gun owner I’m a good gun owner you don’t need to take my gun!

News flash kontrolfreek: they are coming for all of our guns and from everybody.

Wake up and smell the cordite!

Cheers from the oil patch in Central Wyoming

Roland T. Gunner

ALL rights are absolute. Abuse of your rights carries consequences.

Roland T. Gunner

All existing gun laws.

Stag

This is what I’ve been saying for years. The existing arms laws are infringement!

OldJarhead03

Mr. Codrea is right on target. This “prohibition” is just another Fudd supported prohibition.

Tionico

Except I can’t remember WHAT “gun laws” were broken” at either Ruby Ridge or Waco. I do remember that at Waco, they tried figuring out how to leverage the presence of underage miinor children in the same place as their hated Mr. Koresh, but even AFTER their unconstitutional detainment and “questioning” of a number of those minor children, could find no basis in law or fact to provide an excuse to detain Mr. Koresh. So they decided to raid the place and kill them all, one might suppose ending up with “letting God sort it out”. It is safe to… Read more »

USMC0351Grunt

God’s wrath will prevail for destroying the lives of His children.

USMC0351Grunt

The “issues” with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians is that the feds were acting on fear and Janet Reno’s hysteria based on false and misleading information. Koresh was not in any way stupid. The actions and items they bought and utilized out at their compound were ALL within the laws of the state and federal governments. The Hellfire Switches they used on their semi-automatics, the case of “inert” hand grenades that were being delivered, case dropping to the ground breaking open and these inert grenade casings being discovered by the UPS driver, ALL LEGAL TO OWN IN A FREE… Read more »

JSNMGC

I’m not so sure Reno started that atrocity. The BATFE looked bad after the truth started leaking out about Ruby Ridge. Some of the information that is out there suggests the BATFE was concerned the bureau would be eliminated or downsized. They wanted to grow. They needed a major way to display the capabilities they thought they had so they would appear to be needed. The informal name they gave to the Waco operation was “Showtime.” They had a significant PR effort running in conjunction with the raid, including video. Of course the video disappeared (along with other evidence) after… Read more »

Considerthis

Webster Hubbell ,Hillary Clinton’s former law partner at Rose Law Firm was made Attorney General when Bill Clinton was elected. He was the position of power around the time it started. When enough ” WhiteWater ” scandal caught up with Hubbell he went to prison, and Janet Reno was appointed,approved and took over the Department of Justice. The Waco stand-off was already in progress and dominating the news for a couple months.. Hillary wanted her ” National Healthcare Plan ” to be the big headlines and demanded the stand-off be brought to a close. I do not think it is… Read more »

JSNMGC

The BATFE started shooting on February 28, 1993 Reno was sworn-in on March 12, 1993 The FBI “this is not an assault” assault was conducted on April 19, 1993 Like I said, Reno (and many others in LE) should have been held accountable for Waco. However, she didn’t get the ball rolling with the initial BATFE involvement. There are people who believe Reno had to be convinced by the FBI to conduct the final “this is not an assault” assault and they lied to her to get her to approve it. Either Reno or Clinton could have called the whole… Read more »

Neanderthal75

I’m up here just north of Casper, I didn’t hear a thing about any hearings going on, but then I’m in really bad health and don’t have any local information since I don’t have TV and I don’t trust the Star Tribune.

Could you clue me on the committee hearing subject matter. Thank you

RoyD

“Of course the video disappeared (along with other evidence) after things went sideways.”

This sentence of yours is all that really needs to be said about the aftermath of this horrible affair. It is always about the coverup.

JSNMGC

They largely got away with it.

If asked about Waco, the average person on the street who has even heard of it will say something about a bunch of machine gun wielding, child raping, religious nuts in Texas who got what was coming to them by the heroic federal authorities.

Mack

“Enforce existing laws …” remains the creed of the Neocons. Like Orrin Hatch, who used to be in the Senate. Anyone here remember his infamous  “Hatch 10-20-Life” amendment? Search for it. His quote: “I’d have the Hatch 10-20-Life amendment. And that is, if you commit a crime with the use of a gun and you have a gun on you, it’s an automatic 10 years without parole. If you fire that gun, it’s an automatic 20 years. If you hurt somebody with that gun, it’s an automatic life. And I think that would set a rule that people would have to abide… Read more »

Finnky

Would this mean 10 years for speeding with a gun in the car? What if someone claims you “brandished your gun” – which never left it’s holster. Would you willingly trust our legal system to get it right? How about a hunter who shoots at a deer, unaware he’s crossed an imaginary line somewhere – that’s 20 years – if someone gets frightened, falls down and skins their knee (hurt) now the hunter is looking at life. While judge discretion gets abused, mandatory minimum sentencing regardless of circumstances. For that matter homicide is a crime. If you are convicted with… Read more »

Mack

This last is a stretch …”

Oh and THAT is what Progressives do.

Hatch has never regretted his idea.

Chris Mallory

I know around here they love piling those gun charges on people growing or possessing pot. Doesn’t matter if it is a single shot squirrel gun that hasn’t been fired in 50 years sitting in the back of a closet, they will give them firearms enhancements.

USMC0351Grunt

Drugs and Guns? Booze and Guns? Minor Children and Guns? Mentally ill people with Guns? Corrupt Politicians and Guns?

Tionico

Leland Yee?

RoyD

I knew a guy who went back to prison because the “girlfriend” he was living with got mad at him for something so she placed several 9mm rounds in his clothes drawer of the dresser and called the cops. He had to do two years for that. Choices, life is all about choices.

Hazcat

You have the right of it Mr. Codrea. Cam starts every broadcast reading the 2A then goes on to ignore the heart of it “..shall not be infringed”.

Oldman

I think all of the pictures shown in Ammoland articles should always be about safe gun handling. Nobody, ever, should put their finger on the trigger of a holstered pistol, or inserted in a waistband, I know, I know they do it on TV and the movies all the time, whether or not the safety is on. Bad form, I say.

Bill

A felon might accidentally make a mistake like that. This one might be for realism, and not safety training.

BillyBobTexas

Maybe – but a picture is worth a thousand words…..people will SEE that picture…and not read the words to see it is a ‘felon’. Dumb to show it.

Tionico

and who HERE would be “led astray” by viewing such bad practices? And the Ignorati “out there” don’t have a clue anyway

Mack

What David did was get that photo from Project Exile itself.

He is showing what idiots they are when they can’t even get their photos right.

Neanderthal75

I am so tired of you safety fanatics!

You people are obsessive compulsives on steroids! I don’t give a rodent’s posterior if you feel uncomfortable about that picture or any other picture! You’re just as bad as jack-booted thug government officials demanding compliance without knowing the context!

You do not care about context, you do not care who the individual is in question! What you care about is showing your self-righteousness to be a good little control freak!

Leave people alone and deal with your own problems Jocko!

Cheers from the oil patch in Central Wyoming

Oldman

No, I guess not. I was going to, but decided against it. I mean what can anyone say about a neanderthal, except Joe Obiden

Roland T. Gunner

Gun safety virtue signaling.

USMC0351Grunt

Taking a close look at that photo, his trigger finger appears to be pressed hard against the inside forward side of the trigger well. Believe it or not, that IS a safe quick-draw tactic.

Oldman

Yeah, right up until he snags the gun on the waistband of his pants.
Sorry, I have been shooting pistols since 1971 and I have never been taught that any weapon should have a finger inside the trigger guard until it is totally presented and aimed at what you would care to destroy. I aint buyin’ it.

Morrigan

“Illegal gun”? Pray tell, what “law” did that criminally inclined GUN
break?

Mack

David cited the Project Exile statement from KABA.com.

Here is what Russ Howard had to say:

https://web.archive.org/web/20011217004141/https://keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=712

Tionico

Excellent piece, recommend all to read. Want proof? Just go ask the Colorado attorney who tried to attend a conference in Pittsburg. He, of course, checked his lawfully owned and carried handgun in his baggage, per TSA rules. booked flight to JFK then a connector on to PBurg. Weather, unforseen, diverted flight into Newark NJ. No outbound to PBurg that night, airline put him up in an hotel near the airport. TSA rules FORCE him to take possession of his checked bag. With handgun inside. IN New Jersey. He never opened it. Next morning, getting in the queue to board… Read more »

Larry

WHY is Martha Stewart denied HER rigiht to arms?”

Because she told a cop she didn’t do something that wasn’t a crime in the first place. Welcome to Amerika.

USMC0351Grunt

She willfully committed a felony and got caught. Baretta is often seen with an unlit cigarette in his lips or behind his ear. His catchphrases include “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time“, “You can take dat to da bank” and “And dat’s the name of dat tune.” When exasperated he, occasionally speaks in asides to his late father, Louie Baretta.

USMC0351Grunt

And a hairdresser raises HALF-A-MILLION in just ONE fundraiser account for her war chest for opening her beauty salon, and WE in the 2nd Amendment arena sit silent and pitch in NOTHING to help this guy out? WTF is WRONG with THIS picture???

JSNMGC

A large percentage of LEOs will follow orders to enforce any new law that is passed in order to keep their jobs.

The ones you described in NJ ruined someone’s life on their own initiative for the pure sport of it – psychopaths.

Disgusting.

RoyD

“The ones you described in NJ ruined someone’s life on their own initiative for the pure sport of it – psychopaths.”

Well, we are talking about New Jersey after all.

JSNMGC

I don’t know – Wyoming LEOs did not look good yesterday when they testified against the 2nd Amendment Preservation Act. They made it clear they are on their own side.

Tionico

forgot to mention this little detail: it seems TSA, who KNEW he had checked handgun in his baggage, tipped off the Airport cops at Newark. They moved in on him as he was waiting in line to recheck thae bag he was FORCED to take the night before, because of TSA regs. Seems the FOPA was useless. As I undertand it, he copped a plea to a sub-felony charge, paid them far too much money, forfeited his gun and ammo, and most likely will NEVER set foot in New Jeresey again. Of couirse, it was never HIS decidsion to enter… Read more »

JSNMGC

Unfortunately, NJ is not the only state with LEOs who are eager, or at least willing, to enforce never-ending gun control laws.

Finnky

So if I’m ever diverted to NJ, should I simply refuse to deplane? Wouldn’t that in and of itself be a federal felony?

Seems best choice would be to make sure they know you will be returning for rescheduled flight – then get a rental car, taxi, uber or whatever and haul ass out of that state.

Roland T. Gunner

I recognized, and have been a proponent of these concepts for twenty years. But try explaining them to your average gun owner, gunsmith, gun dealer or LEO. Their brains instantly go into lockdown.

USMC0351Grunt

Is this thing on?

DC Dalton

David, you know I (and our organization) have nothing but respect for you and your writing BUT I have to say you are off base with this article. Being based in Pennsylvania we know all too well what is going on and what this legislation is directed at …. one word, Philadelphia For many many years now the current DA of Philly (Krasner) and his predecessors have been dropping gun charges on violent felons (even repeat ones) and tried the suspect on the other charges. See anything wrong with that? It happens in a good 50-75% of the cases in… Read more »

Larry

“what this legislation is directed at” In the never-truer words of swamp critter MA Senate President Thomas Birmingham, “The Legislature makes a promise in legislation… not in description, not by prediction. I reviewed the legislation. There was no promise.” When the NRA complained some decades ago that enhanced federal penalties for “use of or carrying a gun during a drug crime” could be triggered by simple possession, Congress pooh-poohed them, insisting that this was not their intent and nothing in the law supported it. Sure enough, once the law was passed, a pot-using defendant was convicted for possessing an unloaded handgun… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by Larry
USMC0351Grunt

This is why it is important for the locals to ATTEND the city council and county commission meetings in order to put and keep their elected and appointed officials in check, or immediately remove them from office, replacing them with an official that will REPRESENT the people, NOT “Lead”.

Finnky

Gun enhancements serve only to vilify firearms. A violent criminal is a violent criminal regardless of whether they have a gun or not. Unjustified violence, taking other’s possessions, or putting other’s life or health at risk should be crimes. Simple possessions should not.

Your examples support David’s point. Gun laws and punishment for possession only serve to harm the innocent.

Stag

That’s a lot of words to say you support infringement as long as it’s only done to certain people you find undesirable.

RoyD

Yeah, that “one word” you are looking for is not “Philadelphia.” But, you do you.

Tionico

DveDalton said THIS: “Rep Brown also just happens to be my rep and while she …….. but she has and still is on the ‘right side’ of gun rights. I know her, I talk to her and her staff” If you are speaking of Rep Amen Brown, I smell a whole kettle of rotten fishheads. I used <r. Crump’s feedback link yesterday, addressed to “Amen Brown”, and within half an hour I had a telephone call to my home from someone identifying themself as “Representative Amen Brown”. Great, you might think.. I was impressed. We had quite along chat. Funny… Read more »

JSNMGC

You are obsessed with gun law violations. Please call Amen again and ask him about murders, rapes, armed robberies, and illegal entry into residences, specifically: Arrest rates; Of those arrested, what percent are charged; Of those charged, how many get a plea deal; Of those taking a plea deal, what percent receive a meaningful sentence; Of those that go to trial, what percent are convicted; Of those convicted, what percent receive a meaningful sentence; and Of those incarcerated, what percent actually serve their entire sentence. If you were able to get the data, I think you would find that less… Read more »

Roland T. Gunner

Fudd.

JNew

Cripes! I’m hearing a lot a problems from you but not one damn solution.
If you disagree with current laws and policies, it just means you aren’t working hard enough at your American duties to change them.

The new conservative anthem: “b*tch b*tch b*tch.” How embarrassing.

Tionico

have YOU tried lately to sign up to speak on any issue being considered in any legislative body? First you have to get past the troops in place, then you have to sign up, which means you tried but will almost certainly not be far enough up on the list to actually SPEAK for your forty five seconds….. write to them? And be ignored. And possibly be put on a do not fly list because you oppose “common sense” gun legislation that violates the Constitution. We have the soap box, the letter box, the ballot box, the cartridge box if… Read more »

Larry

Not one damn solution? How about, “We have too many bad gun laws now, let’s not get behind one more!”

JSNMGC

I agree. David Codrea continues to provide good articles.

The problem is that conservatives have not bitched nearly enough.

USMC0351Grunt

Conservatives bitch plenty, but the mass majority remain sitting on their apathetic asses and fail to one way or another engage in solutions.

JSNMGC

No we don’t.

There was no immediate, massive response to the 2/28/18 “Bi-Partisan Conference on Gun Violence” when numerous Republican politicians coordinated with Democrats to push yet more gun control. Quite the opposite – people who view themselves as “conservatives” shrieked at people who criticized the people in that meeting.

Neanderthal75

Wrong, it is not apathy; in order for it to be apathy they would actually have to be apprised of what is going on in the country politically. The sad fact is that people’s lives are so hectic these days that they have little to no time to do the research, or even know that they need to do the research, in order to educate themselves about what is going on in our country! The rest are in such an utter state of fear about losing what they have work so hard to gain, they are willing to bend the… Read more »

USMC0351Grunt

Or, let’s get together and toss the politicians that created, sponsored and passed them, then repeal the unconstitutional trash they passed?

USMC0351Grunt

Uh? Open dialogue works toward and aides to create solutions. Unless you have a book of PREPARED SOLUTIONS that you just grab one and go charging into the courts with it/them?