"It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Well, folks, it looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us this year. President-elect Obama has selected Eric Holder as his nominee for U.S. Attorney General. In case you didn’t know, Mr. Holder is a virulent opponent of the right to keep and bear arms. Among other things, he signed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court last year in the Heller case, in which he argued that the complete ban on handguns and the complete ban on functional rifles and shotguns in Washington, D.C., did not violate the Second Amendment, because the Second Amendment, in Mr. Holder’s opinion, applies only to the National Guard. Mr. Holder was a deputy attorney general under the hideous Janet Reno during the Clinton Administration. If the Senate approves his nomination, Mr. Holder will become the chief law-enforcement officer of the nation. The mere fact that the Brady Bunch wants Holder confirmed is sufficient cause for concern.
Here’s a more detailed history of Mr. Holder’s rather disturbing activities.
Unfortunately, our own Senator Orrin Hatch has hinted that he may vote to confirm Mr. Holder. We have no idea what Senator Bob Bennett’s intentions are. Please contact both of them and tell them that you are a Utah voter and gun owner and that you expect them to stand on principle and oppose Mr. Holder’s confirmation. See the Action Item below for details.
Here at home, Utah State Senator Scott McCoy from Senate District 2 has introduced a bill, SB 96, which re-writes portions of the state law regulating concealed-weapon permits. The text of SB 96 was released yesterday, and we’re indebted to Utah gun-rights activist Leonard Wojcik for combing through the bill and providing an initial analysis of its contents. Here’s a summary of what Mr. Wojcik found, along with our own comments:
SB 96 would completely eliminate the issuance of Utah concealed-weapon permits to non-Utah residents. Nobody has been able to show that non-residents are any less responsible that Utahns when it comes to legally carrying a self-defense weapon.Our view is "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it," especially when the "fixing" would impose further restrictions on a basic right that’s already highly regulated and tightly restricted. Right now, a sizable percentage of the carry permits issued by the State of Utah go to non-residents. We have no problem with this, nor do we understand why Senator McCoy and Governor Huntsman have a problem with it. But then there’s a lot about hoplophobic* politicians that we don’t understand.
SB 96 would also change "concealed weapon" (the term that’s used in the current law) to "concealed firearm", which means that a permit-holder would no longer be able to carry other types of concealed weapons. For example, a concealed hunting knife would become illegal.
SB 96 could also be interpreted to restrict you to carrying only one firearm. Which means that you couldn’t carry a backup gun. And, depending on how the bill gets interpreted by the courts, it could perhaps restrict you in the future to carrying only one specific firearm (i.e. with a specific serial number). Believe it or not, some states actually require this sort of thing. You have to register your carry gun with the authorities, and if you get caught carrying a different weapon you’re in deep trouble. We don’t want Utah to go that route.
Finally, SB 96 would eliminate the current provision that allows a concealed-weapon permit to be issued to a retired policeman within the first five years after his retirement, without the policeman having to go through the full application process.
Although Utah now recognizes CCW permits issued by all other states, we can’t guarantee that this will always be the case. The anti-gun people have been chomping at the bit to repeal that particular law. Furthermore, people who frequently visit Utah but who live in states where it’s virtually impossible to get a carry permit have benefited from being able to obtain a Utah permit, which allows them to carry in Utah and in the roughly two dozen other states that recognize Utah permits. N. W. Clayton, GOUtah!’s Director of Communications, lived in California during the 1990s. He tried repeatedly to obtain a carry permit in that state, only to be turned down each time because he was not rich, famous, or politically well connected (which is what you have to be to get a permit in California). But he obtained a Utah permit while he lived in California, which at least enabled him to legally carry a self-defense weapon on the many occasions when he visited his family in Utah, as well as when he traveled in other states that recognized Utah permits.
Defeating SB 96 is high on our list of priorities this session. We’ll keep you posted on what you can to do help.
*hoplophobia (hop’ – lo – fo – bi – a): A form of mental illness characterized by an irrational fear of weapons.
Please contact Senator Hatch and Senator Bennett and ask them to oppose the confirmation of Eric Holder. You may use the pre-written letter below if you wish.
Sen. Orrin Hatch
Webmail: http://tinyurl.com/4wqcvg
Phone: (801)524-4380
Fax: (801)524-4379
Sen. Bob Bennett
Webmail: http://tinyurl.com/c5vbr
Phone: (801)524-5933
Fax: (801)524-5730
On 11 December 2008 our friends at Gun Owners of America (GOA) posted the following summary of the national elections in regards to RKBA issues.
With many gun owners and sportsmen focused on the presidential election results -- and for good reason, as the Obama presidency promises to be the most anti-gun in history -- it is easy to overlook the few but significant victories gun owners and sportsmen won in the 2008 elections.
In December, gun owners scored two important wins.
Most recently, John Fleming won a December 6 runoff election by a razor thin margin in Louisiana's Fourth Congressional District.
Fleming, a member of Gun Owners of America, is a 100% gun rights supporter. His opponent also claimed to be pro-gun, but refused to respond to the GOA questionnaire and had the support of the extreme anti-gun wing of the Congressional leadership.
Also in December, Gun Owners of America supported Sen. Saxby Chambliss in a race that could have tipped the balance of power even more in favor of anti-gun Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
A loss in Georgia would have put the Democrat majority at 59 votes, just one shy of the number needed to overcome a Senate filibuster. Because a Senate seat is still up in the air in Minnesota, Reid held out hope that he could have complete dominance over the Senate. The Senate leadership is squarely in the anti-Second Amendment camp, so pro-gun Senators will likely be forced to resort to filibusters as a way to stop the Obama-Reid gun control agenda.
Though gun owners took it on the chin in the November elections at the Presidential and U.S. Senate levels, Second Amendment supporters did gain several new friends in important races for seats in the House of Representatives.
In California, State Senator and long-time conservative leader Tom McClintock won his race by less than one half of one percent. The Fourth District seat, based in Sacramento, was one of the top targets of the liberal, anti-gun establishment.
Also in California, the 52nd District went to Duncan Hunter (Captain, USMC Res) a strong Second Amendment advocate who respects the Founding Fathers and their pledges of lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.
Another military veteran who takes seriously his oath to protect and defend the Constitution won a seat in Florida's 16th District. Tom Rooney, a U.S. Army Veteran and current Army Inactive Ready Reservist, defeated an incumbent Second Amendment compromiser, making this a double victory.
There's even some good news coming out of Illinois. Aaron Schock, who at 27 years-old will be the youngest Member of Congress, is also a staunch Second Amendment supporter willing to take on the anti-gun establishment.
After a shooting earlier this year at Northern Illinois University, when many lawmakers were pushing for more gun restrictions, Aaron Schock argued that allowing decent citizens to carry firearms could help prevent such tragedies.
"The perpetrator might have thought twice before [he] went into a situation like that and opened fire had our citizens had the right to have a concealed weapon," said Schock, who was the prime sponsor of a state concealed carry bill and will now represent the state's Eighteenth District.
Wyoming's lone House seat went to Cynthia Lummis, who compiled a perfect pro-gun voting record during fourteen years in the state senate.
Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-9) and Erik Paulsen (MN-3) are additional pro-gun former state legislators who will join the 111th Congress.
All of these outstanding candidates were supported by Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund.
Anti-gun House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will return to Congress in January with an even greater majority, and it will fall upon these newly-elected members, along with our existing friends in the House, to stem the tidal wave of gun control that is certain to follow the swearing-in of the new President.
You may recall that the Department of the Interior has overturned the 70 year old ban on loaded weapons within the U.S. National park system. Hoplophobes throughout the the country have decried this decision. In a Salt Lake Tribune editorial, "Parks under fire, Loaded guns should be banned", 11 December 2008 and in a Salt Lake Tribune reprint of a Miami Herald editorial "Restore firearms ban in national parks", 4 January 2009, the "dangers" of this change are predicted. Among the many "blood-in-the-streets" scenarios predicted are an increase in poaching, violent crime and vandalism. These predictions remind of the predicted dire consequenses of allowing Utah residents to exercise their right of self defense when the CCW laws were changed some years ago.
The Trib eloquently summarized their anti-gun position, "Proponents of the rule change claim the old regulations infringed on the Second Amendment rights of thousands of law-abiding gun owners. But what about the rights of millions of visitors to view wildlife and enjoy a safe vacation? The Obama administration should shoot the new rule down before more damage is done."
One has to wonder what additional "damage" has already happened because of this rule change.
Just in case you thought that the Supreme Court striking down the District's three-decade-old ban on handguns, in the Heller lawsuit, ended the issue - think again. The Washington Times reported in an article, "D.C. gun regulations finalized, Registration, background checks enforced", 17 December 2008, that the D.C. council has passed a new series of regulations that will require a gun owner to jump through regulatoy hoops including "firearms training or safety course that requires them to spend at least one hour at a firing range and four hours receiving classroom instruction", "register their weapons every three years" and "a background check every six years."
The bottom line is that gun-control is still alive and well in Washington D.C.
On 17 December 2008 our friends at Gun Owners of America (GOA) posted the following alert regarding a National Geographic Channel program, "Gun In America", that was aired on 16 December. Below is an excerpted version of that alert.
National Geographic Channel ran a show last night entitled, "Gun In America." According to the program, there are millions of misguided gun owners across the nation. Why? Because your guns are supposedly more likely to harm you than to help you in an emergency.
"As a society, we're totally out of control with weapons," said one Philadelphia cop who was interviewed during the show. "You need to limit access that people have to these type of firearms."
That was the basic thrust of the program. National Geographic recited the usual worn-out factoids that are peddled by the Brady Campaign. It only cited anti-gun cops. And for every person who was filmed stating he or she believed in a right to own firearms for self-defense, the program would cite "facts" to prove that such a hope was misplaced.
Gun owners should let the President and CEO of National Geographic know that the channel should stick to showing pictures of kangaroos and foliage -- images that we normally attribute to National Geographic's magazine -- and keep his personal, anti-gun views to his private conversations around the Christmas dinner table.
The National Geographic Channel presents itself as an educational, unbiased alternative. But "Guns in America" was hardly unbiased, as can be seen by the following agenda items that were pushed during the program:
It's bad enough that a liberal teacher's union controls the education of our kids in the public schools, and that many of them are being brainwashed with politically correct thinking. We don't need supposedly neutral programs like National Geographic peddling the Brady Campaign's favorite factoids to an unsuspecting public.
ENDNOTES:
On 14 January 2009 our friends at Gun Owners of America (GOA) distributed the following urgent alert to Utah residents.
Press reports indicate that Utah Senator Orrin Hatch is prepared to SUPPORT the nomination of Eric Holder as Attorney General.
A congressional newspaper, The Hill, reported on January 12 that Hatch "will support Eric Holder's nomination for attorney general, giving him a major boost toward confirmation."
Asked whether he would support the Obama nomination, Hatch said, "I intend to."
This is outrageous, as Eric Holder's record shows his antipathy to our gun rights. Consider just part of his record:
More recently, in the DC v. Heller case, Holder joined 12 other Justice Department officials in SUPPORTING the DC gun ban and arguing that the Second Amendment does NOT protect an individual right.
How can a self-proclaimed pro-gun Republican Senator like Orrin Hatch support the anti-gun nomination of Eric Holder, when the act of confirming him will give him tremendous authority to "stick it" to gun owners?
It is imperative that Orrin Hatch change his mind! Sen. Hatch is a member of the powerful Judiciary Committee, and his support of Holder will carry a lot of sway with other Republicans.
ACTION: Please contact Sen. Orrin Hatch right away. The Senate is just about to begin hearings on the Holder nomination, and his name could come to a vote within the next week. So please contact Sen. Hatch and urge him to vote NO on the Holder nomination.
And then, please forward this alert to your pro-gun friends and family in the state and ask them to contact Sen. Hatch as well.
"I was dismayed by the editorial 'Assault weapons: Renew a federal ban' (Our View, Nov. 10). I'm not a gun owner, yet it disturbs me to see the media throw responsible gun owners in the same group as deranged killers. The Second Amendment was written to ensure that Americans could protect themselves from criminals, foreign invaders and our own government.
Banning the sale of assault rifles won't prevent criminals from killing large numbers of people; they can simply use different firearms, get assault rifles through illegal channels or use different weapons altogether, like bombs or even SUVs. Gun laws only punish law-abiding citizens because criminals ignore laws.
Lastly, military and police officials are not unique in their ability to use firearms; anyone can learn to handle them properly. We should be thankful for those responsible citizens who learn to use firearms; they are an asset to our free society.
Our legislators should spend their time protecting the rights of the law-abiding instead of trying to exercise control over them."
-- Brandon Forsyth, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 11 December 2008.
"I was quite amused by the editorial 'Parks under fire: Loaded guns should be banned' (Our View, Dec. 11). The litany of offenses it says could happen in our national parks by people who have concealed-weapon permits are done by the people who don't get permits. It's criminals and grossly irresponsible people who have a tendency to perpetrate this type of behavior.
People who go through the legal process to have a concealed-weapon permit are exactly the people you want to meet on a trail in the middle of nowhere. By their very actions, they subscribe to the rule of law that our society is based on.
The Tribune editorial board needs to take a deep breath and actually see that states that allow the right to carry a concealed weapon usually have lower crime statistics than those that do not.
Just allow for the possibility that you may be wrong."
-- Thomas E. Butterfield, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 14 December 2008.
"According to Sen. Bob Bennett, the National Park Service's ban on guns is 'confusing, burdensome and unnecessary' ('Loaded guns in national parks get green light,' Tribune, Dec. 9). To the extent that this is so, I will certainly watch my back next time I go hiking with Bennett. Anyone confused by the eminently simple 'You can't carry a gun in a national park' represents a far greater danger to me than the nastiest grizzly bear.
Let's hope that someone less easily confused by such complexity, someone,
say, like Barack Obama, reverses Bush's policy of 'guns for dummies' at the earliest opportunity."
-- Ed Firmage Jr., in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 15 December 2008.
"It's been a pretty comprehensive effort, and I think we've got a good, balanced program that balances safety with the Second Amendment right to have a handgun for self-defense in the home."
-- D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles, as reported in the Washington Times, 17 december 2008.
"I disagree with the editorial 'Parks under fire: Loaded guns should be
banned' (Our View, Dec. 11). In the past citizens with concealed-weapons permits were not allowed to take loaded weapons into national parks. They were to unload their weapons and place them in inaccessible places in the vehicle. Law-abiding citizens were aware of this and would do so. A new rule now allows those of us with gun permits to carry our concealed weapons into parks, just as we do when we go into grocery stores and malls. The new rule is a good change for law-abiding concealed-weapons permit holders.
To claim that there will be an increase in crime and poaching due to this
rule is ridiculous. The average person and general public will not notice the difference, since the weapons will not be out for others to observe. There are a few with permits who think it is important to flaunt their weapons, but that is not what the vast majority of permit holders believe or want. The goal for most is to keep their weapons concealed and out of view for their own personal security."
-- Jerry B. Johnston, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 December 2008.
"Brandon Forsyth wrongly takes issue with the Nov. 10 Tribune editorial 'Assault weapons: Renew a federal ban' ('Useless gun ban,' Forum, Dec. 11). First, the constitutional right to bear arms is a right of militias, not individuals. Second, to avoid injury, self-defense should be left to cops. Third, using high-powered automatic weapons for self-defense is overkill."
-- Thomas A. Liese, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 21 December 2008.
"The front page of Tuesday's paper shows a photograph of two men smoking a cigarette 'on what could be one of the last cigarettes smoked inside a city bar' ('No butts about it,' Tribune , Dec. 30).
Banning smoking in public space is smart and responsible.
Directly below this article is a photograph of a gun salesman for Fuzzy
Bunny Movie Guns.
The story reports that 'nearly 9,000 more guns were sold this November
compared to the same month last year' ('Anxiety triggers gun sales in Beehive State,' Tribune, Dec. 30).
Because I believe that both smoking in a public space and carrying weapons
in a public space are just a wee bit dangerous, I offer a thought for a New Year resolution: Wherever one is not allowed to smoke, one is not allowed to carry weapons (permit or not).
Just a thought."
-- Jeff Metcalf, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 2 January 2009.
"Sheena McFarland's story about gun sales in Utah refers to AR-15s and AK-47s as assault weapons ('Anxiety triggers gun sales in Beehive State,' Tribune, Dec. 30). They are simply semi-automatics and have been around for more than 100 years.
Just because a politician points at a firearem and shouts 'assault weapon'
does not mean a reporter shouldn't find out what a a true assault weapon is. That would be a full automatic, or a gun with a selector switch to fire full-auto or semi-auto. Check with a local military recruiter who could tell you what is a true assault weapon.
Don't let The Tribune's apparent ongoing bias against the Second Amendment get in the way of reporting the truth."
-- Ken Warr, in a letter printed in The Salt Lake Tribune, 3 January 2009.
"I was reading the news the other day about Barack Obama's pick for attorney general, Eric Holder. I was absolutely shocked to read that our own Sen. Orrin Hatch was proudly planning on voting to confirm him. Eric Holder is radically anti-Second Amendment and wrote briefs to the Supreme Court that he believes that no citizen has the right to keep and bear arms. I urge anyone who cares about this issue and who lives in Sen. Hatch's district to please contact his office and tell him to not support Eric Holder's nomination."
-- Matt Brown, in a letter printed in the Deseret News, 14 January 2009.
Date:
From:
To:
Dear Senator :
As a Utah voter and gun owner, I encourage you to strongly oppose the confirmation of Eric Holder as U.S. Attorney General. Mr. Holder has repeatedly made it clear, in writing and otherwise, that he believes that the Second Amendment does not protect my right to possess firearms. Given his brazen disregard for a key component of the Bill of Rights, I can’t stomach the thought of having this man become the highest-ranking law-enforcement official in the nation.
Thanks for taking time to consider my opinion on this matter.
Sincerely,
That concludes the GOUtah! Political and Legislative Alert #309 for 15 January 2009. We hope this information will be of assistance to you in defending your firearms rights.
Remember that getting this information is meaningless unless You Act On It Today. If you just read it and dump it in the trash, your gun rights, and the gun rights of future generations go in the trash with it. Get involved, get active and get vocal!
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