----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not yet a VCDL member? Join VCDL at: http://www.vcdl.org/join
----------------------------------------------------------------------
VCDL's meeting schedule: http://www.vcdl.org/meetings
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. VCDL President's interview on Freedom & Prosperity Radio
2. Get Your Supplies and VCDL Gear on Lobby Day
3. Lobby Day Sign Needed
4. Congressman Eric Cantor has a Republican challenger
5. Reminder: meetings in Roanoke, Richmond, Pre-Lobby Day (Richmond), and Annandale
6. New Norfolk gun show coordinator
7. VCDL in the news
8. Supervisors move forward on examining gun issues in Dinwiddie
9. Defending yourself against knockout criminals with a gun
10. VA bill would ban enforcement of federal gun control measures
11. [MD] Reducing gun deaths [editorial]
12. White House gun control goals fade as Newtown anniversary nears
13. White House, Biden drop gun control, take up mental health
14. Lawyer raises questions about ATF and NFA collector's group
15. Reid says gun debate isn't over
16. Firearm manufacturers' success shows 'Americans clearly don't want' gun control
17. Brady Campaign 2013 state scorecard
18. What the media is not telling you about future lead ammo shortages
19. 13 Worst states to be a burglar
20. Keep your guns, but take responsibility
21. Media Super Fail: Newtown results in surge of looser gun laws
22. Americans' thoughts on how to stop school shootings
23. The most loved, and hated, gun in America
24. Hired guns: K Street revolvers shot blanks against NRA artillery
25. How gun control is losing, badly (in charts)
26. Concealed Carry: How Utah became America's gun permit mill
27. State gun laws enacted in the year since Newtown
28. ROI Miss: Gun-control groups outspent opponents 7 to 1 on TV
29. Media Fail: NRA twice as popular as Mike Bloomberg
30. Gun stocks soar, gun control 'dead as an issue'
31. [CT] Connecticut boys' Instagram gun photos draw police
32. [IL] McCarthy: "Carrying a loaded firearm is the gateway to committing a murder."
33. [CO] Bang! Payday for man suing cops over guns [VIDEO]
34. [FL] Colleges can't ban guns, rules FL court in major 2A victory
35. [CO] Arapahoe High gunman held strong political beliefs, classmates said
36. [CO] School shooter wounds 1, kills himself, Sheriff says
**************************************************
1. VCDL President's interview on Freedom & Prosperity Radio
**************************************************
Part 1: http://www.tertiumquids.org/122813%20d.mp3
Part 2: http://www.tertiumquids.org/122813%20e.mp3
**************************************************
2. Get Your Supplies and VCDL Gear on Lobby Day
**************************************************
If you are in need of any supplies (brochures. carry cards, etc.) and are coming to Lobby Day please email Bruce@vcdl.org and he will bring it along.
In addition, we cannot sell anything on the Capitol Grounds, but if you pre-pay, your VCDL gear can be delivered to you on Lobby Day with no shipping charges.
If you have question regarding cost and availability, send an email to Bruce@vcdl,org
Send checks, made out to the VCDL, to:
The Fulfillment Center
P.O. Box 254
Garrisonville, VA 22463
**************************************************
3. Lobby Day Sign Needed
**************************************************
We are looking for a sign for Lobby Day that can be printed on 8.5x11 paper.
That way members can download it, print it, and post it in like minded places.
This needs to be a pretty quick turn around to be effective.
If you want to give it a shot, do it and email it in to bruce@vcdl.org
Thanks!
**************************************************
4. Congressman Eric Cantor has a Republican challenger
**************************************************
Commander Peter Greenwald of the JRHS Navy JROTC is going to run against Congressman Eric Cantor in the Republican Primary for the 7th District.
You can check Peter out at:
http://www.greenwaldforcongress.com
**************************************************
5. Reminder: meetings in Roanoke, Richmond, Pre-Lobby Day (Richmond), and Annandale
**************************************************
RICHMOND - JANUARY 16
VCDL will have a membership meeting in the Richmond area on Thursday, January 16th.
Fellowship will begin at 6:30 PM and the meeting will be called to order at 7 PM.
The meeting is being held at:
The Community Room
Martin's grocery store
10250 Staples Mill Road
Glen Allen, VA
We will be discussing the upcoming Lobby Day as well as going over the current gun bills in the General Assembly. We will also be discussing current events dealing with guns.
As with all VCDL membership meetings, it is open to the public. Bring family, friends, co-workers.
See you there!
-
RICHMOND - JANUARY 19
EM Tess Ailshire has made reservations for a pre-Lobby Day dinner:
The dinner is being held at 6:30 PM on Sunday, January 19, at:
Hibachi Sushi and Supreme Buffet (Westland Shopping Center)
8087 W Broad St.
Richmond VA 23294
(https://hibachisushiandsupremebuffet.com/).
The dinner is open to the public, so come and join us!
-
ANNANDALE - JANUARY 21
VCDL will have its regular monthly meeting in Annandale on January 21 at the Mason District Government Center. Fellowship starts at 7:30 PM and the meeting is called to order at 8:00 PM.
The meeting is open to the public, so bring along some friends and family.
Directions:
http://vcdl.org/node/180
-
ROANOKE - JANUARY 21
VCDL will have a supper meeting on Tuesday, JANUARY 21, at:
ODD FELLOWS LODGE
2615 ORANGE AVE NE (460 EAST)
ROANOKE VA 24012
PLEASE NOTE the NEW LOCATION for this meeting. The location is behind and above Commando Supply, just east of GUS NICKS
(go past the BP Station--next door to White Tire.)
Fellowship starts at 6:30 PM--food will be served at 7 PM.
FREE HOT DOGS and ALL THE FIXIN'S will be provided by VCDL Members Bill WASH & wife HEATHER!
We do ask local members bring some type of side dish or desert to go along with hot dogs.
Philip Van Cleave will discuss the Lobby Day event, which will have happened the day before.
This meeting is open to the public, so bring family and friends! There will be door prizes, too!
PLEASE RSVP with numbers attending to: al@vcdl.org so proper seating and food will be prepared!
**************************************************
6. New Norfolk gun show coordinator
**************************************************
VCDL's Statewide Gun Show Coordinator, Neal Jefferis, has announced that VCDL Executive member Chip Marce has stepped up to the plate to become our new Norfolk Show Coordinator! I've known Chip for many years and I have no doubt that he'll do a great job.
**************************************************
7. VCDL in the news
**************************************************
Celebratory gun fire:
From timesdispatch.com: http://tinyurl.com/kmvjjar
Gun transactions reach new peak:
From timesdispatch.com: http://tinyurl.com/mjv35qa
**************************************************
8. Supervisors move forward on examining gun issues in Dinwiddie
**************************************************
Member Roy Scherer emailed me this:
--
FYI: Notice that two apparent anti-gunners were appointed.
From progress-index.com: http://tinyurl.com/lwtznoy
Supervisors move forward on examining gun issues in Dinwiddie
by Vanessa Remmers (STAFF WRITER)
December 8, 2013
DINWIDDIE - Talk about exploring gun-related issues in Dinwiddie County has now turned to action.
The Board of Supervisors recently appointed members to a committee that is in charge of looking at a range of gun issues that have come up in the predominately rural county.
Daniel Lee, District 4 supervisor, called for the creation of the committee after several citizens lodged complaints against target shootings near residential neighborhoods. The loud noises from the shootings made some in the Squirrel Level Road community feel as if they living in World War III.
Earlier complaints about celebratory gunfire in residential neighborhoods in the northern part of the county seemed at first to lose traction with the board. Back in October, Lee said that the committee will look at all issues regarding gunfire in residentially zoned areas. He added that complaints have also come in from agricultural parts of the county.
Currently, Dinwiddie County code only restricts gun discharges near schools. The county's current noise ordinance does not specifically mention guns. Guidelines for setting up target shootings date back to 1990, County Attorney Tyler Southall said in October.
Southall added that an updated noise ordinance may not be the most effective tool for tackling the target shooting issue. Since noise ordinances are hard to enforce, Lee said that an effective regulation may be a distance ordinance that regulates how far someone must be from a residential neighborhood before discharging a weapon.
Two citizens, Delores and William Bland, came before the board about the target shootings near their neighborhood and were named at-large members of the committee.
Lee will chair the committee, which will also consist of Commonwealth's Attorney Lisa Caruso, Sheriff D.T. "Duck" Adams, Mark Shaw from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and Planning Commission member Samuel Hayes.
Supervisors also picked representatives from each of their districts to serve on the committee. Jimmy Connelly will serve for District 1, Steve Schmidt for District 2, R.T. Hoyle for District 3, Wayne Lucy for District 4 and Anthony Simmons for District 5.
County officials did not have an exact timeline of when the committee would meet.
**************************************************
9. Defending yourself against knockout criminals with a gun
**************************************************
Member Peter J. Louie, Esq. posted this to the VCDL facebook timeline:
--
From PeterLouieLaw.com: http://tinyurl.com/lg4dkhp
Defending yourself against knockout criminals with a gun
By Peter J. Louie, Esq.
December 9, 2013
I'm sure many of you have heard of the "knockout game." If you haven't, it is a game where the participants randomly select an innocent stranger and attempt to knock them out with one punch. Three people have already been killed in suspected knockout attacks. As Matt Walsh notes:
In some corners of the Earth, this activity is also
known as "attempted murder." Here, for some teenagers,
it's a hobby, like collecting baseball cards.
Matt advises his readers to defend themselves with a gun. This is good advice, but before you do that, here's a primer on Virginia law.
In Virginia, you may open carry a weapon in most places with or without a concealed handgun permit. If you go on private property and the owner of the establishment prohibits guns, you must abide by their wishes. To learn more about where you can carry, I would recommend you check out the Virginia Citizen's Defense League website. For example, there are prohibitions on carrying on federal facilities and schools.
In Virginia, if you desire to conceal carry a weapon, you will need a Concealed Handgun Permit. This is relatively easy to get. You can take a concealed carry online safety course, then apply for your concealed handgun permit at your local Circuit Court. Again, the VCDL website may be a good resource for you to learn about prohibited areas.
But be careful not to brandish a weapon. Virginia Code Section 18.2-282 states:
It shall be unlawful for any person to point, hold
or brandish any firearm or any air or gas operated
weapon or any object similar in appearance, whether
capable of being fired or not, in such manner as to
reasonably induce fear in the mind of another or hold
a firearm or any air or gas operated weapon in a public
place in such a manner as to reasonably induce fear in
the mind of another of being shot or injured. However,
this section shall not apply to any person engaged in
excusable or justifiable self-defense.
Some commentators have argued that the brandishing statute should be rewritten to prevent those with hoplophobia, an unreasonable fear of guns, from abusing the statute. There was recently a case where a citizen that was moving his own weapon from his person to a console while in his own vehicle was charged with brandishing a weapon because he was spotted by a hoplophobic bystander.
You should only draw your weapon if you need it for self-defense and are justified in using it. Brandishing a firearm in defense of personal property is a crime. There must be imminent danger to human life to justify drawing your weapon. The Virginia Court of Appeals notes: "... the amount of force used to defend oneself must not be excessive and must be reasonable in relation to the perceived threat." Diffendal v. Commonwealth, 8 Va.App. 417, 421, 382 S.E.2d 24,25 (1989).
The Virginia Citizens Defense League properly cites the relevant portions of the Sands case, which states:
The "bare fear" of serious bodily injury, or even
death, however well-grounded, will not justify the
taking of human life... "There must [also] be some
overt act indicative of imminent danger at the time."
(citations omitted). In other words, a defendant "must
wait till some overt act is done[,] ... till the danger
becomes imminent." (citation omitted). In the context
of a self-defense plea, "imminent danger" is defined
as "[a]n immediate, real threat to one's safety ..."
(citation omitted). "There must be . . . some act
menacing present peril... [and] [t]he act... must be
of such a character as to afford a reasonable ground
for believing there is a design... to do some serious
bodily harm, and imminent danger of carrying such
design into immediate execution." - Commonwealth v.
Sands, 262 Va. 724, 729, 553 S.E.2d 733, (2001).
Because these knockout thugs operate with the element of surprise and there is legal risk involved in drawing a weapon preemptively or even in firing in self-defense, I would counsel you to be thoughtful about whether you should open carry or conceal carry your handgun. Some of my readers may opt to do both. Obviously you can't brandish a weapon, but open carrying may provide a deterrent effect. (Or perhaps you might open carry an unloaded weapon and conceal carry a loaded one if you foresee someone grabbing your weapon.)
**************************************************
10. VA bill would ban enforcement of federal gun control measures
**************************************************
From communities.washingtontimes.com: http://tinyurl.com/pqoxn99
Virginia bill would ban enforcement of federal gun control measures
by Michael Boldin
December 10, 2013
RICHMOND, Va., December 10, 2013 -- Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall introduced legislation this month to ban his state from enforcing any new federal gun laws, executive orders, or regulations "issued on or after December 1, 2013."
"The federal government doesn't have the manpower to enforce all its laws and regulations," said Mike Maharrey, national communications director for the Tenth Amendment Center. "Our research has shown that most federal enforcement actions are done in partnership with state and local law enforcement. Marshall's legislation would render any new federal gun control measures toothless in Virginia."
Dubbed the 2nd Amendment Preservation Act, the legislation is part of a growing effort to push back against federal gun control measures on a state level. Similar laws were passed in 2013 by Alaska and Kansas. The Missouri legislature came one vote shy of overriding a veto by Governor Jay Nixon in 2013, but a new bill will be introduced in early 2014 as well.
The legislation is based on the long-standing principle of the "anti-commandeering" doctrine. Upheld regularly by the Supreme Court, it holds that states cannot be forced to carry out federal acts, laws, regulatory programs, and the like.
The doctrine was a prominent feature of the 2012 Sebelius case, where the court held that states could not be forced to expand their Medicaid programs, even under the threat of losing federal funding. It was also part of the 1997 Printz case. There, the court held that a state could not be compelled to enforce the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act on behalf of the federal government.
"[T]he Court's jurisprudence makes clear that the Federal Government may not compel the States to enact or administer a federal regulatory program," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority in the 1997 opinion.
Supporters say that state refusal to enforce federal acts is an effective strategy to stop them. James Madison, writing in Federalist #46, said that a number of states doing so in unison would create difficulties the federal government "would be hardly willing to encounter."
And, in an appearance on the Fox Business channel earlier this year, Judge Andrew Napolitano suggested that a single state refusing to enforce federal gun control measures would make them "nearly impossible to enforce" within that state.
House Bill 43 (HB43) was pre-filed by Marshall on December 2, and will be taken up by the Virginia House once the state legislative session starts on January 8.
**************************************************
11. [MD] Reducing gun deaths [editorial]
**************************************************
While the press has orgasms because Maryland has the 4th toughest gun laws in the nation, they somehow fail to mention they also have an extremely high crime rate that goes with all that gun control.
From baltimoresun.com: http://tinyurl.com/kcjckr6
Reducing gun deaths [Editorial]
Our view: Report highlights actions that will make Maryland safer
December 10, 2013
Thanks to new restrictions passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Martin O'Malley this year, Maryland is now in the top tier of states when it comes to the strength of its gun laws. It had been close to the top before, but now it ranks fourth, behind only California, Connecticut and New Jersey, according to a new report from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign. Another part of the report demonstrates why moving up a few slots was important: Unlike most of the top 10 states for gun laws, Maryland is not among the lowest for gun deaths.
Seven of the states the law center and Brady Campaign rank as best for gun laws are in the bottom 10 for gun deaths, but Maryland ranks 17th -- better, perhaps, than many would expect, given Baltimore's perennial status as one of the most violent cities in America. Part of the reason for that disconnect is that the gun deaths statistic includes suicides and accidental deaths in addition to homicide, and part of the reason is that the gun violence in Baltimore is an aberration compared to the rest of the state, fueled in large part by the circumstances of the drug trade. There is good reason to believe that the new laws Maryland passed will help it join the seven states that rank best for gun laws and lowest for gun deaths.
Much of the debate about gun laws in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting nearly one year ago focused on proposals to ban assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines, and Maryland took action on both fronts. Those were important advances, given that such weapons are frequently used in mass shootings and are not needed for hunting or self defense. But it's the other parts of the law that are most likely to improve Maryland's standing.
Perhaps the most important component of the new law is a requirement that handgun purchasers be licensed by the state and provide their fingerprints to the state police. Similar laws have long been in effect in many of the top-tier states, and their chief purpose is to cut down on so-called "straw purchases." That's when someone who is prohibited from buying a gun, for example because of a criminal record, gets someone else to do it for him. Many people assume that criminals typically steal guns or buy them on the black market, but that isn't so. Most commonly, the guns that show up at Maryland crime scenes come from Maryland gun dealers, often via a straw purchaser.
The theory is that people will be less inclined to make straw purchases if the state police are going to have their names and fingerprints, and the data seem to bear that out. Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for Gun Policy and Research, found rapid increases in the share of crime guns in Missouri that went from a dealer to a crime scene in less than two years -- a hallmark of straw purchases -- in the years after it dropped a similar licensing requirement. At a time when gun violence declined across the Midwest, it rose in Missouri.
In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, elected officials nationwide -- and even the National Rifle Association -- focused on the link between mental health and gun violence. Though there's good reason to imagine that mental illness played a role in the Sandy Hook shooting and some other mass shootings, it is not, overall, a major driver of the homicide rate. It is, however, perhaps the most significant factor in the gun death rate. The reason is that suicides by firearm far outnumber gun homicides -- 19,392 to 11,078 in 2010, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Breaking the link between mental illness, gun access and suicide could go a long way toward improving Maryland's standing.
To that end, Maryland's new gun law changes an existing restriction on gun ownership by those who suffer from mental illness to more closely tailor the prohibition to those who present a danger to themselves and others. Now, those who suffer mental disorders and have a history of violence against themselves or others, those who are voluntarily committed to a mental health facility for 30 or more consecutive days, or those who are involuntarily committed for any length of time, are ineligible to own firearms. That could prevent an extraordinary tragedy like the Sandy Hook shooting, but more likely, it will prevent the sadly common tragedy of suicide.
**************************************************
12. White House gun control goals fade as Newtown anniversary nears
**************************************************
Member Bill Albritton emailed me this:
--
From foxnews.com: http://tinyurl.com/njfxsal
White House gun control goals fade as Newtown anniversary nears
by FoxNews.com
December 10, 2013
A year after President Obama pledged "meaningful action" to address gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting, the White House has little to show for its aggressive campaign to pass new gun control legislation.
Instead, as the one-year anniversary of the massacre approaches, the Obama administration is shifting its focus to mental health as a way to prevent future shooting sprees.
"The fact that less than half of children and adults with diagnosable mental health problems receive the treatment they need is unacceptable," Vice President Biden said Tuesday, in a statement announcing new mental health spending -- as he met Tuesday with parents of Sandy Hook victims.
The statement, though, made no mention of assault weapons or gun background checks or other measures which, in early 2013, were the domestic priority of the Obama administration. Biden was tapped to lead the effort and, even after Congress rejected a gun control package, said the White House had not "given up." The vice president warned that those who don't get on board would pay a "political price."
It's unclear whether the administration will launch a second push for gun legislation. But with his political capital sapped amid the rocky ObamaCare rollout and one legislative defeat behind him on the firearms front, the president would no doubt be on weaker footing the next time.
The National Rifle Association and other gun-rights groups organized swiftly against the administration's post-Newtown effort to pass gun legislation. The most resounding rebuke came in April, when a law that would expand background checks on would-be gun owners failed in a 54-26 vote -- six votes shy of the 60 needed for the measure to advance.
The Senate also blocked a proposal that would ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Following the vote, Obama blamed party politics in the Senate and called it a "shameful day for Washington."
Lawmakers who voted against tougher gun measures argued that tightening laws unfairly punished their law-abiding gun-owning constituents.
The National Rifle Association argued that attacks like that at Newtown are representative of a weak mental health system, and says a fix lies in repairing that system, not in stronger gun controls.
A week after the Sandy Hook attack, NRA chief Wayne LaPierre called for armed guards in every school in the country.
Obama set about, though, to pursuing more modest changes, unilaterally.
Between the December shooting in Sandy Hook and the Washington Navy Yard shooting in September which left 12 people dead, Obama has taken 23 executive actions on gun violence, most of which were firearms-related. The actions did not require congressional approval.
Not all of the president's initiatives were highly publicized. Initiatives ranged from local law enforcement officials and schools receiving additional training on how to handle an emergency situation similar to Sandy Hook, to moving to give law enforcement the ability to run full background checks before returning a seized gun.
The administration on Tuesday made a new push on the mental health front. Biden announced that the administration is pledging $100 million to improve mental health services as part of its response to the Connecticut shooting last year which ended with the deaths of 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook Elementary.
Some of the parents of the victims of Sandy Hook were in attendance. Fifty million dollars will go to the Department of Health and Human Services to expand behavioral health services for people with addiction problems. The rest will go to the Department of Agriculture to expand mental health services in rural areas.
Leading up to Tuesday's announcement, there hadn't been much progress on mental illness initiatives on a national level. Thirty-seven states, according to one study, took matters into their own hands by restoring or increasing funding from programs that had been cut. In all, more than $4 billion had been shaved off state mental illness budgets between 2009 and 2012.
Most notable was Texas. Lawmakers there gave their state the biggest funding boost in state history -- green-lighting $259 million more for mental illness programs, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
**************************************************
13. White House, Biden drop gun control, take up mental health
**************************************************
Member Bill Albritton emailed me this:
--
If one way doesn't work, try another way.
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/n2jkhpa
White House, Biden drop gun control, take up mental health
by Awr Hawkins
December 11, 2013
After failing to pass any gun control at the federal level during 2013, the White House has signaled its intention to lay off guns for a time and focus on mental health.
Just days before the first anniversary of the heinous crime at Sandy Hook Elementary, Fox News reports Vice President Joe Biden is presenting arguments for the mental health focus. The administration believes there are things they can do in this arena "to prevent future shootings."
During a December 10th meeting with "parents of Sandy Hook victims" Biden said: "The fact that less than half of children and adults with diagnosable mental health problems receive the treatment they need is unacceptable."
He said nothing about "assault weapons," expanded background checks, "high capacity" magazines, or other gun control measures. Nor did he rule out another gun control push by the administration in 2014 or beyond.
For now, however, it appears gun control has gone the way of "Cash for Clunkers."
**************************************************
14. Lawyer raises questions about ATF and NFA collector's group
**************************************************
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From examiner.com: http://tinyurl.com/q95vtzu
Lawyers' comments raise troubling questions about ATF and NFA collector's group
by David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner
December 10, 2013
Making its filing under the wire for the December 9 deadline, the Firearms Industry Consulting Group submitted its comments Monday responding to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' proposed rulemaking change ATF-41P, regarding "Machine Guns, Destructive Devices and Certain Other Firearms; Background Checks for Responsible Persons of a Corporation, Trust or Other Legal Entity With Respect to Making or Transferring a Firearm." The FICG comments raise serious questions about both ATF's compliance with established rules and the law, as well as about the Bureau's relationship with leaders of the National Firearms Act Trade and Collectors Association, which filed the petition ATF says prompted the rulemaking change proposal in the first place.
The proposed changes resulted in 9,230 comments which can be viewed on the Regulations.gov website. These changes, discussed in a series of Gun Rights Examiner reports since ATF first announced its proposal in August, would affect the way NFA gun trusts, legal entities through which NFA firearms can lawfully be owned, are established.
"With exhibits, [the FICG submission] is over 500 pages," attorney Joshua Prince told readers of the Prince Law Offices, P.C. blog. "While our Comment may seem massive to some, with funding, a thorough Comment with evidentiary support, including expert affidavits, reports, and analysis, would have likely been almost double in size.
"Nevertheless, ATF's failure to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act in a number of ways will allow for judicial review, if ATF decides to move forward with promulgating any final rule," Prince predicts.
Problems with ATF's handling of the notice and comment process are immediately raised in FICG's extensively researched document. For starters, ATF is criticized for "fail[ing] to make available the underlying studies and other information upon which it purportedly relied in formulating its proposed rule" despite specific requests that the Bureau ignored.
"[ATF] failed to describe a single situation illustrating the problem it purports to address," FICG noted. "The entire rulemaking seems to rest on a false premise ... [ATF] failed to identify a single example where a prohibited person gained actual possession of a NFA firearm by virtue of his relationship to a legal entity, let alone where a person gained possession of a NFA firearm due to his relationship to a legal entity and then used that firearm in the commission of any crime."
Complaints on the way ATF has handled this rulemaking attempt are numerous and supported with exhibits throughout. Among FICG's charges are that "ATF failed to provide any explanation for selecting its proposal over alternative measures ... under consideration," and that "ATF provided conflicting information regarding implementation of any new rule, potentially providing false reassurance to persons interested in filing comments. ATF may have confused members of the public by posting unrelated material to the docket, including a statement that the comment period was closed.
"ATF failed to include pertinent submissions in the docket," the list of complaints goes on. "ATF failed to permit a 90-day comment period [due to 'government shutdown']. ATF's reading room was closed to any inspection and no newly-received comments were posted for review on www.regulations.gov.
"Correspondence and telephone calls related to this proceeding went unanswered," FICG elaborated. "ATF selectively delayed reviewing and posting comments received.
"ATF has distorted the public comment process by apparently submitting hearsay information via proxies," FICG charged. "ATF's prior lack of candor demonstrates a heightened need for procedural regularity."
Another accusation is one that longtime readers of this column will recall, dealing with what FICG calls "ATF's 'institutional perjury' before the courts." Gun Rights Examiner reported on the acting chief of ATF's NFA branch admitting "when we testify in court, we testify that the database is 100 percent accurate. That's what we testify to, and we will always testify to that. As you probably well know, that may not be 100 percent true."
This column again relayed how a leading statistician, under oath before the 10th District Court, testified "the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) is insufficient for criminal proceedings," causing ATF to fold on a major case rather than produce documents that would reveal their inner workings.
FICG comments raise these points and more, citing "ATF's deception in Congressional oversight," and flat-out accusing the Bureau of "misleading ... the public."
Additionally, FICG asserts, "ATF's proposed rule raises important constitutional issues." As examples, they demonstrate why "'silencers' or 'suppressors' are not properly subject to the NFA," nor are "short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, and 'Any Other Weapons,"' all classifications requiring registration and transfer taxes.
FICG also raises federalism concerns to demonstrate how ATF's position intrudes on and undermines state laws, how ATF is exceeding its statutory authority assigned to it by Congress, and how it has misrepresented reasons given by Chief Law Enforcement Officers for not signing off on NFA forms (some simply don't believe mere "civilians" should be allowed to own NFA firearms, and requirihng their signature ensures collectors in their jurisdictions will not be permitted to own NFA weapons).
These are all serious and vital points, but there is another series of observations that begin on page 27 of the comment file that elaborate on concerns about the role of the NFATCA, and specifically the relationship of its president with ATF.
"Docket entry ATF-2013-0001-0437 [view] is a public comment submitted by John Brown, apparently the very same John Brown who, as President of National Firearms Act Traders and Collectors Association ('NFATCA'), submitted the petition to initiate a rulemaking on which ATF purports to base this proceeding," FICG relates. "Repeated efforts to ascertain from Mr. Brown the details of the incidents as to which he asserts he has knowledge met refusals as he disavowed direct, personal knowledge stating only that as a result of 'working inside ATF for over 10 years' he knew things he 'should never know.'"
"[I]t would thus appear that ATF is itself the source of this information," FICG infers. "The planting of comments that merely repeat to ATF the very information ATF purports to have but refused to submit to public critique exacerbates the problem of ATF's refusal to provide underlying information.
"Mr. Brown's connection to ATF extends beyond his acknowledgment that the information to which he alluded in his comment came from ATF itself," FICG continues. "Indeed, as Richard Vasquez -- ATF's Chief of the Firearms Training Branch and previous Assistant and Acting Chief of the Firearms Technology Branch -- testified under oath only last year, Mr. Brown 'interacted with ATF a lot,' was a friend since at least 2006, had personally transferred two firearms to him, had transferred firearms to other ATF employees, visited ATF 'to meet and become personal with a lot of the offices' over a period of years, and provided him with information to pass along to ATF for ATF's use in a forfeiture proceeding.
"Mr. Brown apparently went so far as to forward e-mails he had received from a FFL involved in litigation with ATF to ATF for ATF's use in the litigation against the FFL," the FICG narrative continues. "Indeed, Mr. Brown was not surprised to be characterized as a 'confidential source' for Acting Chief Vasquez and ATF.
"Despite having acquired three machineguns illegally manufactured by George D. Clark, Mr. Brown seems to be the only FFL in that situation that ATF never referred for prosecution," FICG asserts. "In fact, ATF knowingly left Mr. Brown in possession of that contraband for six weeks and then promptly destroyed that evidence before the completion of prosecutions of other individuals in possession of Mr. Clark's machineguns.
"In addition, during this same time period Mr. Brown, together with the attorney he reportedly hired to prepare the NFATCA petition upon which ATF now relies, hired two 30-year veterans of ATF who simultaneously worked together with ATF to draft the National Firearms Act Handbook.
"ATF seeks to simultaneously prevent any investigation into the incidents to which it makes vague reference in the NPR while 'planting' comments in its own docket to give further credence to the incidents," FICG observes. "The most benign characterization of the relationship between ATF and Mr. Brown (if not his other associates and NFATCA more broadly) would seem to be that ATF established an unauthorized "advisory committee" in violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act ... With respect to discussions relating to the proposal at issue here, either ATF is withholding records of consultations with Mr. Brown and NFATCA in violation of FOIA or ATF failed to create such records in violation of FACA.
"ATF has made a mockery of this proceeding, engaging in numerous tactics designed to deny meaningful public participation," FICG concludes. "As a result ATF cannot promulgate any final rule that hopes to survive judicial review without starting fresh. In doing so, ATF should consult with a broad cross-section of interests familiar with the laws governing trusts, estates, and business entities rather than a select few."
That is consistent with what Gun Rights Examiner concluded in its first report on the NFATCA petition being the catalyst for the proposed NFA rule change.
"What's apparent from these new revelations is that additional public scrutiny is required, including scrutiny of backroom deals being arranged without fanfare by special interest groups who petition for changes to regulations that will reach beyond their membership of collectors and investors," this column maintained.
**************************************************
15. Reid says gun debate isn't over
**************************************************
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From thehill.com: http://tinyurl.com/lpav3su
Reid says gun debate isn't over
by Pete Kasperowicz
December 13, 2013
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday that Democrats will continue to push for new restrictions on gun ownership, in a floor speech he delivered just one day before the one-year anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., shooting that left 26 dead.
"Last December I promised the families a meaningful conversation about how to change America's culture of violence," Reid said. "I want everyone within the sound of my voice to know that the conversation is not over.
"The American people will prevail on this issue."
Reid did not lay out a specific timetable for action in the Senate, but said 85 percent of Americans agree on limiting gun availability to people with criminal backgrounds or with a mental illness.
"Why should someone that has severe mental illness and someone who is a criminal be able to purchase a gun? They shouldn't," he said. "Those that are trying to stop that legislation from going forward should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves."
Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people in Newtown's Sandy Hook School last December, including 20 children and six school employees. Lanza, who suffered mental health issues, then killed himself.
In April, Reid pulled a gun bill that was being considered in the Senate after comprehensive proposals to restrict guns were voted down in the Senate.
The bill Reid pulled included language to boost funding for menial health. However, the Senate defeated language banning military rifles, capping the size of legal ammunition clips and requiring background checks on almost all gun sales.
Reid has not indicated if or when that bill may be taken up again, but he called on survivors of the Newtown tragedy not to give up hope.
"I urge the families and friends of those killed in Newtown to never lose hope, never lose hope," he said.
**************************************************
16. Firearm manufacturers' success shows 'Americans clearly don't want' gun control
**************************************************
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From Breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/m3z34ke
Firearm manufacturers' success shows 'Americans clearly don't want' gun control
By Awr Hawkins
December 7, 2013
A December 5th CNN Money report shows that purchases of stocks in firearm companies have become a staple for many investors during Obama's presidency.
According to the report, the positive performance of such stocks suggests that "tough gun control laws" will never take hold. This performance shatters the expectations of those who held that gun violence would allow politicians to rapidly pass gun control legislation.
Instead, stocks in all manner of firearm and ammunition companies have climbed steadily since the shooting at Sandy Hook:
Smith & Wesson shares are up 56% from the 52-week low they
hit just days after the Newtown shooting. Cabela's shares have
gained more than 60%. Ruger's stock is up 82%. Ammunition makers
Olin (OLN) and Alliant Techsystems (ATK) have popped this year
as well.
The author of the report believes that these stock prices show that "Wall Street (and America) still love guns." The success of these firearm companies causes him to explain, "So don't expect tougher gun control laws to ever take hold. The majority of Americans clearly don't want it."
The financial viability of firearms manufacturers has not been lost in the broader marketplace. Major mutual fund companies like Vanguard and Blackrock and firms like Capital Research and Management have increased their holdings in various firearm companies over the last year. Even firms which promised to liquidate their firearm investments in the wake of Newtown -- such as Cerberus Capital Management -- have been slow to do so, suggesting the extent to which "money talks" in the gun control debate.
**************************************************
17. Brady Campaign 2013 state scorecard
**************************************************
Virginia is #21 and a "D". I don't understand how we could possibly be that high. :-( Well, we'll try again this year to lower that score.
--
From bradycampaign.org: http://tinyurl.com/osontjy
2013 State Scorecard
State gun laws fill enormous gaps that exist in our nation's federal laws, and help to reduce gun violence and keep citizens safe. In part because these laws help to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and aid law enforcement in solving gun crimes, many of the states with the strongest gun laws also have the lowest gun death rates.
Because state laws differ widely, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence have teamed up to evaluate and compare the laws of all fifty states. Together, we have ranked all fifty states based on thirty policy approaches to regulating guns and ammunition, such as: background checks on gun sales; reporting lost or stolen firearms; and prohibiting dangerous people from purchasing weapons.
**************************************************
18. What the media is not telling you about future lead ammo shortages
**************************************************
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From thedailysheeple.com: http://tinyurl.com/od2gvo6
What the Media is Not Telling You About Future Lead Ammo Shortages
Freedom Outpost, www.FreedomOutpost.com
by Joshua Cook
December 7th, 2013
Both the left and the right have disputed Col. Allen West's claim that President Obama is engaging in backdoor gun control by using the EPA to close down America's primary lead smelter.
Col. West argued that without lead, gun manufacturers cannot make conventional ammunition, and accuses Obama of using backdoor gun control tactics to weaken the 2nd Amendment. Lawrence Keane, the senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which represents the ammunitions and firearms industry, told the Washington Times, "Manufacturers use recycled lead to make ammunition. They don't buy from smelters."
"The EPA closing, which has been in the works for a while, will have no impact on production, supply or cost to the consumers," said Keane. I called the NSSF, but they could not be reached for comment.
What is unclear is how gun manufacturers will get their additional lead supply? Secondary smelters have only recycled lead from manufacturers. Secondary smelters only provide the service of processing the lead, which is then returned to the manufacturers.
I contacted the smelter set to close, which is owned by Doe Run and located in Missouri. Cook asked Doe Run's spokeswoman Tammy Stankey to clarify if lead ammunition will be affected by the closure of America's last primary smelter.
Stankey told me:
"Primary lead is produced from ore. We have the largest mining district in the world here in Missouri. We extract the minerals to produce a pure lead concentrate, which goes to our smelter at the Herculaneum facility in Missouri."
"That smelter produces the primary lead that battery manufacturers prefer. We also have a secondary smelter in Missouri. It recycles 13 million batteries a year used in automobiles all over the world."
"The secondary smelter recovers lead by recycling it from batteries, spent lead ammunition and other lead materials. The predominant customers are battery companies. The battery companies send batteries in, and we recover the lead and send it back to them. These companies in America rely on us to provide them with secondary lead and primary lead."
"We also sell lead to ammo manufacturers who are using primarily secondary lead."
"Some of them may not be concerned; however, 130,000 tons of lead, which is primary lead, but still lead, will be removed from the North American market."
"So we are in the supply-and-demand market, if you remove 130,000 tons of lead from the market, there will be greater competition for the remaining lead. So it's really a matter of supply and demand."
"There will be a smaller supply of lead in the U.S. market in the future."
"Having said that, between 96% to 98% of all lead acid batteries are recycled annually. So that tells you that on an annual basis, we are losing 2% to 4% of the lead. It's not being returned in to the recycled lead production in the U.S. The primary lead historically helped to make up the gap."
"So are the ammo manufacturers are correct when they say they get their lead from secondary smelters, that's an accurate statement."
"Is it also accurate to say that we are looking at lead shortages all over? That is an accurate statement too, because 130,000 tons of lead will be removed from the U.S. market."
"So the next question is where to get additional lead? The only primary smelters left in North America are two in Canada and one in Mexico. There are also some smelters in Asia."
"China will likely ship us batteries but not the raw material the battery manufactures wants to use to make their own batteries. It's simple economics. Would you rather sell corn or loaves of bread? There is a profit motivation for China to sell batteries, not the raw material of lead."
"That's the part that people who aren't concerned are missing. We are taking 130,000 tons off the market. So the question is: where will that lead come from? What additional costs will come to supply the market with that demand? How much will shipping lead, which is a heavy material, cost? What about the political and environmental pressure to regulate lead smelters all over the world? How much competition will be there for lead imported to the U.S.?"
"The battery companies require the largest percent of lead, 80%. So if you are someone that is not a high-demand customer, you will have less leverage with the supplier for lead. The battery companies will have an easier time with suppliers, because suppliers do not want to jeopardize a large contract. Battery manufacturers own the lead. It's not our lead. We simply provide a service to recover the lead and return it to the battery manufactures," said Stankey.
If ammunition manufacturers are like battery manufactures, only with less leverage, then where will they get new lead supplies? It must be imported.
As stated in a previous article, U.S. Congressman Jeff Duncan's communications director told Cook, "We're very concerned and extensively looking into the lead issue."
The concern for gun owners is that if President Obama bans lead imports for gun manufacturers by executive order, he can limit ammo supply.
Cook asked Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, if he was concerned that Obama may ban lead imports for ammunition manufactures by executive order?
"That's why we need to impeach him," said Pratt. The sheriff of the county where that smelter is located should have already communicated with the chief attorney of the EPA and said, 'Not in my county. If you come into my county, I am arresting you.'"
Cook asked Michele Hickford, communications director for Col. Allen West, about the recent criticisms regarding his article and the reality of the lead issue. "It's fair to say the EPA is slowly tightening the noose on the lead industry in this country. It doesn't take much to connect the dots and see where it's headed. Any reduction in production, as you point out, is bound to impact supply at some point," said Hickford.
"You know, last fall before the election, Col. West was vilified for questioning the sudden drop in unemployment figures. Turns out they were fake after all," said Hickford.
**************************************************
19. 13 Worst states to be a burglar
**************************************************
Member Jay Minsky emailed me this:
--
This article states that Virginia has the toughest penalties for burglars and it has reduced burglaries in the state.
From dailycaller.com: http://tinyurl.com/kajgyxz
13 Worst states to be a burglar
By Cara Giaimo, SimpliSafe
December 10, 2013
We've come a long way from chopped-off hands and the stockades, but the fate of burglars still varies widely depending where you are, even within the US. While some states let thieves off with a slap on the wrist, others lock them up for life. We dug into the states that are hardest on burglars, and explored what effect their hard-line tactics have on crime rates. The results may surprise you.
Residential burglary has the same basic definition everywhere: illegally entering a private dwelling with the intent of committing a crime. But once a burglar has been found guilty, any number of things might happen to him. Federal, state, and local laws all frame things slightly differently--for one nation, the United States sure does have a lot of different rules--and sentences, fines, and even classifications can change entirely the minute you cross the border. To borrow a phrase, one state's felony is another state's misdemeanor: what gets you locked up for life in South Carolina can mean a mere decade behind bars in North Carolina. Meanwhile, burglary rates are also very different depending on where you are.
Which got us to thinking -- which states are the least forgiving of burglars? And when it comes to burglary rates, does harshness make a difference? To find out, we first searched through the legislative codes of all fifty states (plus DC) to find maximum and minimum burglary sentences, as well as maximum fines. We dug into hard data from actual prison populations to figure out how long the average burglar actually spends in jail. Finally, we looked into "stand-your-ground" and "castle doctrine" laws, which mandate the lengths to which homeowners can legally go to protect their property, under the logic that getting shot at is, effectively, another consequence of burglary in some places.
When we put all this information together, we found wild extremes--the minimum sentences ranged from zero (in many states) to seven years (in Oklahoma). Maximums could be as low as three years (in New Mexico and Kansas) and as high as life imprisonment (in South Carolina and Virginia), while fines could be anywhere from five hundred dollars to a hundred thousand dollars -- two hundred times as much! In order to compare states, we developed a ranking system that weighed each data point according to where it fell within its range. We added up these weights to get a total for each state, sorted the totals, and came up with this list: the 13 states where you really, really don't want to be convicted of burglary. This information also gave us a new perspective on the FBI Uniform Crime Report, which ranks states according to burglary rate. Does being hard on burglars make them give up a life of crime--or does it just make them try harder?
**************************************************
20. Keep your guns, but take responsibility
**************************************************
Member Bill Albritton emailed me this:
--
"I've fired an M-16A2 semiautomatic rifle at Marine Corps target practice. "
Not so sure about this sentence. [PVC: Yep. Eric Liu doesn't seem to know the difference between a fully-automatic rifle and a semi-automatic rifle.]
From cnn.com: http://tinyurl.com/pma4gv8
Keep your guns, but take responsibility
by Eric Liu
December 13, 2013
Editor's note: Eric Liu is the founder of Citizen University and author of several books, including "The Gardens of Democracy" and "The Accidental Asian." He served as a White House speechwriter and policy adviser for President Bill Clinton. Follow him on Twitter @ericpliu
(CNN) -- On the anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre, which comes the day after yet another awful school shooting, it's time not only to remember the lives lost on that awful December day but also to reimagine how we think and talk about guns in America.
The typical gun debate pits "gun rights" against "gun control." That frame is so ingrained that we hardly note it when the press describes those who want to reduce violence via firearms as "gun control activists" and those who oppose them as "gun rights advocates." It's an either/or: rights or control.
This binary choice feeds bipolar fear and anger, especially on the rights side, leading to scenes like Alex Jones screaming insanely at Piers Morgan on CNN.
That may make for compelling television, and such conflicts are satisfying to each side's core constituents. But there is a better way to talk about guns -- and, perhaps more importantly, to address the problem of gun violence. And that's to focus on "gun responsibility."
Gun responsibility isn't gun control. It isn't about "controlling" people or banning ownership of guns or confiscating weapons. But neither is it about treating the gun issue as if it were only a matter of rights -- as if everything else, from the safety of our children to the lethality of everyday crime to the reduction of gun suicides or accidents, were irrelevant.
A gun responsibility agenda respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms. It also demands that the right be exercised with the level of responsibility that a functioning society applies to any public health or safety issue.
That means first we shouldn't dismiss gun owners as an undifferentiated mass of zealots, or dismiss gun culture as simply the overcompensating fearmongering of insecure men.
I've fired an M-16A2 semiautomatic rifle at Marine Corps target practice. I've hunted deer and duck with a rifle and shotgun. I can respect those who respect the power of these weapons and the craft of their skillful use.
At the same time, gun responsibility means accepting -- indeed, championing -- reasonable rules and standards for the ownership and use of firearms. Criminal background checks prior to gun purchases, to take one obvious example, should be completely noncontroversial. That's the bare minimum responsibility requires.
Criminal background checks can't prevent every gun death, of course. Similarly, speed limits and seat belt laws can't prevent every highway death. That is no argument for the repeal of either. It's just a reminder that our job as citizens is to make rules that reduce the chances of preventable harm.
Yet on days when there isn't a mass shooting or the commemoration of one, we Americans have accepted as unremarkable an unrelenting flow of 30-plus gun murders a day. Changing that will require changes to both law and norms.
That's why in my home state of Washington I joined a group of citizens to create a grass-roots organization called the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. We're supporting a background checks ballot initiative, but we're also working with faith leaders and parents and others to change the attitude on a deeper level.
This is the zone of common sense, where we each do what we can and where not every curb on our desires is a total surrender of liberty. This is where a large and growing majority of Americans live. Background checks, for instance, garner 80% to 90% support in most public opinion polls.
The idea of gun responsibility can and does appeal to people across the spectrum. A majority of NRA members would likely call themselves adherents. It's not about left versus right. It's just about being adult versus being immature. Adults know that every right carries an implicit duty to others -- that no right, constitutional or not, is absolute -- and they live accordingly. Such mindsets have nothing to do with age.
A group of activists has chosen to designate December 15, the day after the Newtown anniversary, as "Guns Save Lives Day." They'll ignore the desire of Sandy Hook families for quiet by loudly protesting "attacks" on their gun rights. They'll brandish firearms and insist against evidence that more guns means less gun violence. There is a term for this, drawn from adolescent psychology: acting out.
America can't afford to act out anymore. We have a problem to solve, which is tens of thousands of gun deaths a year. A good way to honor the children of Sandy Hook Elementary school is to thank gun owners who behave like adults, to support policies that encourage greater gun responsibility -- and to remember that this is how we fulfill our Second Amendment duties.
**************************************************
21. Media Super Fail: Newtown results in surge of looser gun laws
**************************************************
Member Bill Albritton emailed me this:
--
Maybe the silent majority is waking up. [PVC: We can only hope!]
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/mh7gtoy
Media Super Fail: Newtown results in surge of looser gun laws
by John Nolte
December 11, 2013
The failure of the mainstream media's months-long crusade to exploit the horrific murders at Sandy Hook Elementary into restrictions against our Second Amendment civil rights was already apparent. On the federal level, no new gun controls were passed, and the only electoral fallout has been the recall and resignations of gun control extremist Democrats in Colorado. By way of actual legislation, we now know that the media's campaign was an even bigger failure.
In the year since the murder of 20 children in Newtown, The New York Times reports that, at the state and local level, 1500 gun bills have been introduced. Of the 109 that have actually become law, 39 have tightened gun restrictions, while almost twice as many, 70, have loosened gun restrictions.
"Not only have gun purchases soared since gun-control advocates began their push for new legislation; The National Review's Greg Pollowitz adds: "We can see that the majority of new legislation getting passed hurts their cause more than if they were silent."
Thousands of new guns on the street, and a surge in laws loosening gun restrictions. Not only is this a major setback for Democrats but also for a mainstream media that went all in on this campaign. But through the use of facts, logic, reporting, and compassion to push back against the media's fear-mongering, demonization, hysteria, and emotional blackmail, New Media and the NRA absolutely routed the Left.
The media's demagoguery, dishonesty, and partisanship have now handed the American gun culture a rolling parade of victories for a full year -- victories that would have otherwise not have been possible or even fought for.
This has to be unsettling for the media. Ten years ago, the media was entirely too dominant and powerful to ever lose a battle they poured everything they had into.
Those days are over.
**************************************************
22. Americans' thoughts on how to stop school shootings
**************************************************
Member Paul Henick emailed me this:
--
From reason.com: http://tinyurl.com/q43xxsn
Americans Think Better Mental Health Services, Better Parenting and Armed Guards are More Likely Than Gun Control to Stop a School Shooting
by Emily Ekins
December 12, 2013
A year after the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in which 20 children and six adults were killed, just 16 percent of Americans believe stricter gun control laws would have been most effective in preventing the tragedy. While this does not necessarily mean they do not support stricter gun rules, it demonstrates that their priorities lie elsewhere.
When asked to select the most important factor that may have prevented the Newtown shooting, nearly a third of respondents, 27 percent, told the Reason-Rupe poll that better mental health treatment is the most important factor in preventing the tragedy at Sandy Hook.
Twenty-two percent say better parenting is most critical, and 20 percent say having armed school officials or armed guards on site would have been the most likely way to prevent the tragedy.
The fourth most preferred approach was stricter gun control laws, selected by 16 percent of respondents in the Reason-Rupe poll.
Reducing the violence in media and video games was cited by eight percent of Americans as the best way to prevent the school shooting.
Republicans place the greatest importance on better mental health treatment (26 percent), armed guards on site (25 percent), and better parenting (22 percent). Only one in 10 Republicans say that stricter gun control is the most important factor that could have been used to prevent the Sandy Hook tragedy.
Similarly, independents say better mental health care is the most important factor that could have prevented the Newtown tragedy (31 percent), followed by better parenting (23 percent), and armed guards at school (18 percent). Just 12 percent of independents say stricter gun control is most important when considering what measures may have prevented the Newtown shooting.
Democrats say tightened gun control is the most important factor (24 percent), followed by enhanced mental health care (23 percent) and better parenting and armed officials on site (tied at 19 percent).
Nationwide telephone poll conducted Dec 4-8 2013 interviewed 1011 adults on both mobile (506) and landline (505) phones, with a margin of error +/- 3.7%. Princeton Survey Research Associates International executed the nationwide Reason-Rupe survey. Columns may not add up to 100% due to rounding. Full poll results, detailed tables, and methodology found here. Sign up for notifications of new releases of the Reason-Rupe poll here.
**************************************************
23. The most loved, and hated, gun in America
**************************************************
Photo caption of an AR-15 for sale, "An AR-15 style rifle is displayed at the Firing-Line indoor range and gun shop, on July 26, 2012, in Aurora, Colo., six days after a shooting inside a crowded movie theater nearby."
So after a particularly horrible alcohol induced automobile crash, would they show a photo of a Ford for sale and say, "A Ford Explorer for sale at a car dealership in Seattle on July 26, 2012, six days after a fatal crash killed a family of six nearby."
Of course not. Just the press continuing to be wide-eyed and inflammatory about an inanimate piece of metal called a gun. Very unprofessional.
Bill Albritton emailed me this:
From nbcnews.com: http://tinyurl.com/kpn8nxh
The most loved, and hated, gun in America
by Andrew Blankstein, NBC News
December 13, 2013
It has become one of the most popular -- and one of the most infamous -- weapons in American history.
The Colt AR-15, often known as the assault rifle, has captured the imagination of gun enthusiasts who are drawn to its sleek form, portability and ease of use, as well as a mystique born of its connection to the M-16, its combat cousin from the Vietnam War.
Part of the appeal of the firearm stems, as one gun aficionado told NBC News, from the ability to "accessorize it like a Barbie doll," given extras like interchangeable optics systems and gun barrels. Its military pedigree and appeal to hobbyists has helped spur sales of 5 million AR-15s in the last two decades, with most of those buys coming in just the past six years. According to industry figures, nearly one of five guns sold in the U.S. is now a semi-automatic AR-15-style rifle.
Yet the AR-15-style rifle has also been used in many of the mass shootings that have stunned the nation.
Adam Lanza used a variant of the gun to kill 26 people -- 20 of them children -- at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. last Dec. 14.
Months earlier, James Holmes allegedly opened fire with the weapon in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., killing 12 people.
And suspected L.A. airport gunman Paul Ciancia, accused of killing a TSA agent and wounding three others, allegedly fired dozens of rounds inside LAX with yet another iteration of the gun, a Smith & Wesson 223 M&P-15 assault rifle.
The shootings have sparked calls to revive a lapsed federal ban that outlawed military-style semi-automatic weapons and their features, notably high-capacity, detachable magazines.
But even with the renewed drive to ban them, AR-15-style rifles appear to have attained a level of cultural currency rivaling the six-shooter that "Won the West" and Dirty Harry's .44 Magnum.
The AR-15 was designed in the 1950s by ArmaLite, a division of Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation, to sell to the military as a replacement for the clunky rifles of World War II, the M-1 and M-14. But despite the futuristic lightweight design, the U.S. military didn't want it.
By 1959, Fairchild had sold the AR-15's manufacturing rights to Colt Firearms. Colt embarked on a marketing blitz. It courted the military, and won its first important convert with the man who became famous for the phrase "bomb them back into the Stone Ages."
In 1960, Curtis LeMay, then U.S. Air Force vice chief of staff, was invited to a demonstration of the rifle using watermelons at a birthday party for a Fairchild exec on a Maryland farm.
"When struck by the little rifle's ultra-fast bullets, the first two fruits exploded in vivid red splashes," wrote journalist C.J. Chivers in his book "The Gun." "General LeMay was so impressed ... that he spared the third melon; the party decided to eat it."
In 1961, LeMay became Air Force chief of staff. Under LeMay's influence, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara ordered thousands of the weapons for the Air Force and for the military's special forces. Other branches of the military followed, and the military version of the gun became known as the M-16. By the late 1960s, with the Vietnam War in full swing, the gun was a fixture among infantry soldiers, despite widespread reports of jamming, and a grudging belief that the Russian assault rifle used by the enemy, the AK-47, was a better fit for jungle warfare.
On the civilian front, however, sales of AR-15-style guns were not spectacular until recently. Even as sales of hunting rifles have fallen, industry stats indicate that sales of guns based on the AR and AK platforms -- so-called assault rifles -- have spiked since 2007. More than half a million of the guns have been purchased annually, with numbers soaring to 1 million in 2009 and hitting 1 million again in 2012, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The pace shows no sign of slowing. According to a recent NSSF survey of gun owners, the rate of ownership of "modern sporting rifles" -- the industry rejects the term "assault rifle" -- "has increased dramatically since 2010." Half of all "MSR" owners had bought their first MSRs earlier this year. The rest were adding to existing collections. In 2011, 19 percent of all guns purchased were MSRs.
Scott Reitz, a former LAPD SWAT team member and a national firearms tactics and deadly force expert, said there are a number of reasons behind the gun's popularity. Like many firearms, it provides self-defense for the user and is relatively easy to use. But it also allows the individual to "experience what a special forces or SWAT officer might experience."
"It's got a bit of a Walter Mitty factor to it," Reitz said, recalling the meek character of fiction and movies who loses himself in heroic daydreams.
Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, an anti-gun-violence group, said that pro-gun forces have turned their marketing and lobbying might to military-style weapons to counter a long-term drop in overall gun sales. They've found a new pitch to gun enthusiasts, he says, that combines military code words like "honor" and "duty" with a heavy dose of fear.
"The gun industry working with the NRA has become expert at using outside events to promote fear-driven gun buying," said Sugarmann, "whether it's the threat of federal gun legislation, the election of Barack Obama, Y2K, 9-11 terrorist attacks or the Mayan apocalypse."
Neither the NRA nor Colt responded to requests for comment.
Chuck Michel, a California attorney who has defended gun owners and vendors in numerous cases, disputes the contention that the AR-15 sales pitch winks at the conspiracy-minded. He says the weapon's accuracy, light recoil and simplicity give it a versatility that few other weapons can match.
"It's got a universal appeal," Michel said, "because no matter what you want to use the gun for -- hunting, target shooting or plinking -- you can interchange the parts of the gun for that use."
Despite high-profile shootings, the AR-15-style rifle is not found at many murder scenes. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, of the 8,855 homicides committed with firearms in 2012, only 322 were known to have been committed with any type of rifle. The report does not describe the type of rifles used in slayings.
But Tom Diaz, author of the "The Last Gun: How Changes in the Gun Industry Are Killing Americans and What It Will Take to Stop It," said the stats don't change the fact that the AR-15 and its imitators and descendants were designed for law enforcement and the battlefield.
"It's a highly effective killing machine," he said, "(and did) exactly what it was designed to do in places like Newtown, the Aurora movie theater and elsewhere."
With the brisk sales of the weapon, Diaz said, "It's not a question of if, it's a question of when (there will be another mass killing). It doesn't take a lot of imagination to think of even worse scenarios than Newtown."
**************************************************
24. Hired guns: K Street revolvers shot blanks against NRA artillery
**************************************************
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From sunlightfoundation.com: http://tinyurl.com/m9j277z
Hired guns: K Street revolvers shot blanks against NRA artillery
by Nancy Watzman
December 9, 2013
At the national memorial service last December for the 20 children and six teachers shot and killed by Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary School, President Barack Obama issued a call for action.
"In the coming weeks," he said to people gathered at a prayer vigil mourning the dead, "I'll use whatever power this office holds to engage my fellow citizens, from law enforcement to mental health professionals, to parents and educators, in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have? We can't accept events like this as routine."
With these words, the issue of gun regulation took center stage in Washington for the first time since 2004, when Congress had declined to renew a 10-year-old assault weapon ban. For advocacy groups on both sides of the gun issue, it was also a sign they should staff up. The result: a boon for inside-the-Beltway lobbyists.
Over the past year, gun control groups reported spending five times as much on federal lobbying as they had the previous year: $1.6 million versus $240,000, a review of federal lobbying records shows. That's the largest amount recorded since 2004. Despite this increase, however, groups on the other side of the debate maintained their enormous advantage: Organizations backing gun rights, such as the National Rifle Association, reported lobbying spending of $12.2 million, more than seven times as much as gun control groups. Even if the amount were adjusted by subtracting the amount reported spent by the National Association for Gun Rights, which is likely inflated because of the way in which that group counts lobbying expenses, gun rights groups reported spending $6.2 million, nearly four times as much as gun control groups.
By year's end it was the gun rights groups that could claim victory in the nation's capital. In April, Senate Democrats were unable to garner enough votes to pass legislation that would extend background checks on gun buyers to private sales. All other proposals also died in the Senate. While the situation was different in states such as Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland and New York -- all of which approved major gun law overhauls -- at the federal level, the status quo reigned.
For gun control advocates, the Washington stalemate came despite a stepped-up campaign that not only saw an increase in the quantity of their lobbying but a fundamental shift in strategy. Much of the increased lobbying spending by gun control groups at the federal level went to hire lions of the Washington lobbyist establishment, big names who have gone through the revolving door from Congress and the executive branch. Their typical clients are Fortune 500 companies and major trade associations, as opposed to clients with an ideological bent. In this, the gun control groups were mirroring their opposition: The NRA has long hired outside lobbyists to supplement its staff.
Overall, gun control groups reported hiring some three dozen lobbyists at eight lobbying firms. For the vast majority, it was the first time they reported lobbying on behalf of a gun control group. Not only do these lobbyists offer direct personal connections to powerful players on the Hill, but many are also generous campaign contributors and fundraisers. Sunlight's Influence Explorer, which combines federal and state campaign finance records from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money in State Politics, shows that the outside lobbyists hired by gun control groups contributed $7.3 million since 1989 to federal and state campaigns. Just under 64 percent of that went to Democrats.
Among the lobbyists hired by Mayors Against Illegal Guns was Lawrence O'Brien of the firm OB-C Group and an alumnus of the Carter administration's Treasury Department. His official firm bio says he's been called a "major Democratic operative." He is a top fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He personally has contributed $1.4 million to political campaigns since 1989, according to Influence Explorer. His other 2013 clients are all corporate: They include Anheuser-Busch, Eli Lilly & Co. and Honeywell International.
Steven Elmendorf of Elmendorf Ryan, another major Democratic lobbyist, was hired by the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence. Described as "one of the leading lobbyists in Washington, DC," Elmendorf "represents some of the nation's most important corporations, trade associations and organizations on critical legislative and regulatory issues, helping drive their businesses, build their brands and expand their market shares." For a dozen years, he served as a senior aide to then-House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt. He has opened his home for Democratic fundraisers, bundled at least $200,000 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and personally has contributed more than $731,000.
Not all the gun control hired guns were Democrats. Sandy Hook Promise, a new organization that sprung up after the shootings, signed on Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti Inc. Mehlman, who served in President George W. Bush's Commerce Department as an assistant secretary, is described as "widely regarded as an expert in running issue campaigns, managing C-suite associations and developing advanced lobbying strategies that achieve impactful policy outcomes." Mehlman also serves as host for congressional fundraisers and personally has contributed more than $206,000 to political campaigns.
New type of lobbyist
These for-hire lobbyists overall have a different profile from those who work directly for gun advocacy organizations. For example, Kirsten Rand, a lobbyist for the Violence Policy Center, a small organization that concentrates largely on research, has been a registered lobbyist since at least 1998. She is not listed as giving a single campaign contribution over $200, the threshold amount for itemized donations, and the Violence Policy Center has been her only client.
For Mayors Against Illegal Guns' Executive Director Mark Glaze, himself a registered lobbyist, increasing staffing power was an obvious choice. "It was about having extra hands and brains at a time when every minute mattered," he told Sunlight. "[Obama] largely endorsed a set of priorities we'd been promoting for years. When you move to the Hill you just need more smart people to talk to other smart people in congressional offices. So we staffed up on both chambers and both sides."
Mayors Against Illegal Guns, founded in 2006 by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other big city mayors, hired 14 outside lobbyists working for four different firms, reporting federal lobbying spending of $1.3 million overall in 2013. While Mayors had hired the Raben Group before -- indeed that is Glaze's former employer -- the other firms were new: OB-C Group, home of O'Brien, the JBH Group and Thorsen French Advocacy. All of these groups were on Mayors' payroll as of the first quarter of the year.
Among the lobbyists hired, in addition to O'Brien, was Thomas J. Keating, also of OB-C Group, who had worked for more than a decade in the Sergeant Of Arms office, most recently as director of police services on Capitol Hill and whose personal campaign contributions are concentrated on Democrats. The connections of others, according to Sunlight's Lobbying Tracker: Robert H. Marsh worked for former President George W. Bush; Michael S. Johnson was chief of staff to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel, R-Ill.; Nathan J. Miller worked for former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I.; Patricia Nelson labored as a Democratic staffer for the House Ways and Means Committee; and Robert G. Stevenson toiled for former Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Carlyle Thorsen of Thorsen French Advocacy worked as an aide to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, as well as for both the House Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department, key for the gun issue. His lobbying disclosure form specifically lists the background check issue as his focus. He was on hire by Mayors through September.
The Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, originally established in the 1970s as Handgun Control Inc., had for many years conducted all its lobbying in house. However, in February the group took on the firm Elmendorf Ryan, whose team of a half dozen lobbyists, in addition to Elmendorf, all boasted resumes that included Capitol Hill service for Democrats. In March, the group also hired Amanda Wood, then of the Ferguson Group, who had worked for former Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla. The Brady Campaign maintained ties with Wood after she left for a new firm, Becker and Poliakoff, in October. Overall, the Brady Campaign reported spending $60,000 on federal lobbying.
Two new groups founded after the Sandy Hook shootings also turned to K Street to gain a lobbying presence on Capitol Hill. Americans for Responsible Solutions, founded by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, opened its doors in January -- the anniversary of the 2011 Tucson shooting that led to Giffords' retirement. The group reported spending a total of $55,000 on federal lobbying, all of it to hire the firms Covington & Burling as well as the Majority Group. Covington & Burling was brought on in March but terminated at the end of June. Muftiah McCartin of the firm served as the first woman parliamentarian for Congress and as staff director for the Rules Committee. Her colleague, Martin Gold, is the veteran of several Republican Senate offices and was an adviser to then Majority Leader Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. At the Majority Group, lobbyists include former Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, who despite his Democratic credentials is an alumnus of the Nixon Administration.
Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit group founded in direct reaction to the shootings in Newtown, reported spending $130,000 to hire the firm Mehlman, Vogel, Castegnetti; A total of 12 lobbyists are listed, including Mehlman, who together bring experience from the House, Senate and executive branch on both sides of the aisle. Both of the other name partners are also listed on the disclosure forms: David Castagnetti, who served as chief of staff to Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Alex Vogel, who served as chief counsel to Frist.
NRA still lobbying top gun
For gun rights groups, the pattern was markedly different. The National Rifle Association not only includes 15 registered lobbyists directly on its payroll, such as long-timer Christopher W. Cox, who serves as executive director of the group's legislative arm, but it also has been hiring extra help from outside firms since at least 1989. The earliest records are available on Sunlight's Influence Explorer.
In 2013, the NRA and its legislative arm reported spending a total of $2.5 million on federal lobbying, including the services of 15 lobbyists working for a total of seven firms. To put that in perspective, that's substantially more than all the gun control groups combined: $1.6 million. The amount that the NRA has reported spending on federal lobbying is also relatively consistent, ranging between $2.1 and $3 million per year since 2009. Firms hired by the NRA and its legislative arm were: Prime Policy Group; Barnes & Thornburg; C2 Group; Cauthen, Forbes, and Williams; Crossroads Strategies; FTI Government Affairs; Greenberg Traurig; and Shockey Scofield Solutions.
Overall, it is a highly seasoned group. Of the outside lobbyists hired by the NRA, only one was new to the issue in 2013: Scott Styles, who began the year at C2 Group before it merged with FTI Consulting, and whose experience includes serving as chief of staff to Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. Longtime lobbyists-for-hire for the NRA include Jeff Forbes, a veteran of former President Bill Clinton's administration. John Green and G. Stewart Hall of the firm Crossroads Strategies have been on board since the late 1990s. Michael E. Williams of Greenberg Traurig worked as a senior lobbyist for the NRA before joining the law and lobbying firm.
The biggest change in federal lobbying expenditures on the gun rights side of the debate in 2013 came from another group, the National Association for Gun Rights. It reported spending a whopping $5.9 million. However, this figure must be taken with a grain of salt. Founded in 2001, the group, which describes itself as a "no compromise gun group," says it spends most of its money on communications with members. Political Ad Sleuth shows it has run advertising in several states.
However, after Sandy Hook, the group decided to hire a lobbyist, according to this report by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). Christopher Kuper, one of the listed lobbyists, worked for a super PAC supporting libertarian Ron Paul. Lucius O'Dell's LinkedIn profile lists him as working for the Republican Study Committee of Colorado and the campaign for former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo. The group's executive vice president, Dudley Brown, told the Center for Responsive Politics that the group includes money targeting members of Congress with issue ads on social media sites -- amounts that are not typically included in federal lobbying reports.
**************************************************
25. How gun control is losing, badly (in charts)
**************************************************
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From washingtonpost.com: http://tinyurl.com/qduuz3s
How gun control is losing, badly (in charts)
by Niraj Chokshi
December 11, 2013
This Saturday marks the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Newtown, Conn.'s Sandy Hook Elementary School. Twenty children, six staff members, shooter Adam Lanza and his mother all died that day. The killings reinvigorated both sides of the gun-control debate, but gun rights advocates maintained the edge they've had for years.
An impressive (roughly) 1,500 state gun bills have been introduced in the year since the Newtown massacre and, of those, 109 are now law, according to The New York Times. Seventy of the enacted laws loosen gun restrictions, while just 39 tighten them. And, though largely symbolic, some 136 bills nullifying federal gun regulations were sponsored in 40 states. In Colorado, two pro-gun control lawmakers were booted from office in historic recalls and a third stepped down in anticipation of a similar fight.
The nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, which promotes government openness and transparency, reviewed lobbying, spending and policies at the state and federal level over the years and, along nearly every metric, rights advocates have trounced opponents.
Contributions, from 1989 through 2012
The gap between direct contributions in favor of gun rights and those in support of gun control is stunningly large, with gun-control contributions amounting to just 6.5 percent of what gun-rights advocates raised from 1989 through the 2012 elections.
Gun rights candidates and causes raised $29.4 million in direct contributions to candidates, parties, and PACs at the federal and state level. Gun control causes raised just $1.9 million, according to Sunlight-provided data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute on Money In State Politics. In seven states--Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wyoming--no contributions whatsoever were made in support of gun control.
The graph and interactive below show how much each cause received at the federal and state level, by state.
Polling
Though support for stricter gun laws spiked slightly recently, it's falling back down to its historically low levels, according to Gallup data. But while support for stricter laws has fallen, support for loosening restrictions has remained relatively steady. Instead, support for making no changes has climbed.
Federal lobbying
Lobbying spending for gun rights accelerated faster from its already elevated level than that for gun control following both the Columbine High School and Sandy Hook school shootings, according to Sunlight. Gun control groups increased their federal lobbying fivefold to $1.6 million over the past year, yet it still paled in comparison to gun-rights lobbying, which clocked in at $12.2 million.
Broadcast ad buys
There was one metric on which gun-control advocates beat gun-rights advocates in the past year: broadcast ad buys. As shown in the chart below, a wide ad-buy gap developed earlier in the year.
The single largest financial influence on the gun control side was outgoing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a nonprofit he founded in 2006, is active in 17 states, according to Sunlight. His personal super PAC, Independence USA, spent about $3 million--more money than any other at the federal level. (About $2.2 million of it went to defeating pro-gun Illinois Rep. Debbie Halvorson.) And he personally gave $350,000 to help defend two Colorado state lawmakers against recall votes. (They both lost.)
**************************************************
26. Concealed Carry: How Utah became America's gun permit mill
**************************************************
Another article from a pouting, anti-liberty press.
From politico.com: http://tinyurl.com/lc3uy2f
Concealed Carry
How Utah became America's gun permit mill--and other surprising, terrifying absurdities from the fight over firearms.
By Alan Berlow
December 12, 2013
On a recent Sunday morning at a small target range in rural Frederick, Md., a handful of teenagers are shooting .22 caliber rifles. Inside an adjacent clubhouse, Perrin Lewis, a crane operator and part-time firearms instructor, presents a fact-packed, six-hour lecture about guns, gun safety and gun laws to a dozen men and one woman, each of whom paid $100 for a course that--assuming they pass a federal background check--will entitle them to receive a license to carry a concealed weapon.
The license, though, will be of no use to them in their home state of Maryland. To carry a gun there, they would have to take a far more rigorous test and then demonstrate that they have some reason for needing a gun (such as providing a "reasonable precaution against apprehended danger"). Instead, in a twist that speaks to the inscrutability of modern American gun regulation, their permits will be issued by the state of Utah, 2,000 miles due west.
[Article continues - http://tinyurl.com/lc3uy2f]
[This worthwhile story has been truncated for space. -Ed.]
**************************************************
27. State gun laws enacted in the year since Newtown
**************************************************
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From nytimes.com: http://tinyurl.com/koyb2fb
State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year Since Newtown
About 1,500 state gun bills have been introduced since the Newtown massacre.
178 passed at least one chamber of a state legislature. 109 have become law.
December 10, 2013
In the 12 months since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., almost every state has enacted at least one new gun law, according to a database compiled by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Nearly two-thirds of the new laws ease restrictions and expand the rights of gun owners. Most of those bills were approved in states controlled by Republicans. Those who support stricter regulations won some victories -- mostly in states where the legislature and governorship are controlled by Democrats -- to increase restrictions on gun use and ownership. Select categories from the table below to see all gun bills that passed at least one chamber of a state legislature.
*Editor's note: website gives a table listing each of gun related bills per category/state as well as how far it went in the states' legislature.*
**************************************************
28. ROI Miss: Gun-control groups outspent opponents 7 to 1 on TV
**************************************************
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From adage.com: http://tinyurl.com/m7cdlre
ROI Miss: Gun-Control Groups Outspent Opponents 7 to 1 on TV
In Battle Over Gun Regulation, Lobbying Beats Advertising
by Ana Radelat
December 12, 2013
In the year after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., gun-control groups spent $14.1 million on TV advertising. According to Kantar Media's CMAG, that gave such groups a seven to one advantage over gun-rights organizations, which only spent $1.9 million.
At the same time, gun-rights groups, led by the National Rifle Association, spent about $6.2 million on lobbying instead of advertising, according to a study by the Sunlight Foundation.
The gun-rights groups may have had the better tactic -- especially in a quiet election year.
White House efforts to strengthen gun-control laws went nowhere. Watered-down legislation to broaden FBI background checks of gun buyers failed in the Senate. And the GOP-controlled House did not even consider addressing gun-control legislation.
"The return on the investment has been very weak," said Elizabeth Wilner of Kantar Media. "When you are doing advocacy advertising you are looking for Congress to pass something."
And things weren't that much better on the state level. The New York Times reported that about 1,500 gun-related bills had been introduced in state legislatures since the Newtown tragedy and 109 of them became law. Nearly two-thirds of the new laws actually ease restrictions and expand the rights of gun owners, according to the Times. Most of those bills were approved in states controlled by Republicans.
Gun-control groups did win victories in some states, including Connecticut, New York and Colorado, where the legislature and governorship are controlled by Democrats.
Michael Bloomberg, the outgoing New York City mayor and a billionaire, was responsible for most of the spending on the gun-control side. Founder of Mayors Against Gun Violence, Mr. Bloomberg budgeted $12 million for an ad campaign this year. The effort was kicked off with celebrity-heavy ads demanding a plan but became more targeted as the year went on, even reaching out to "responsible gun owners."
But not all of Mr. Bloomberg's efforts were aimed at swaying Congress. He used his PAC, Independence USA, in an attempt to elect supporters of gun control and defeat gun-rights candidates. In this, Mr. Bloomberg may have had a better return on his investment.
Independence USA spent $2.2 million to defeat Debbie Halvorson, a pro-gun, former one-term House member who was vying to win a special election in Illinois' 2nd Congressional District. The PAC also spent more than $732,000 on ads to help Democrat Cory Booker, former mayor of Newark, N.J., win an October special election for Senate and $3.1 million in independent expenditures and direct contributions to help Democrat Terry McAuliffe, an outspoken proponent of stronger gun control, win the Virginia governor's race.
According to the Sunlight Foundation, gun-control broadcast advertising peaked last spring, especially in the days before and after the Senate held its decisive vote in April. At one point in May there were nearly 80 buys in the nation's top 50 broadcast markets, the foundation says.
As the grim Dec. 14 anniversary of the mass shooting that killed 20 first graders and six women approaches, broadcast ad buys by gun-control advocates have virtually stopped.
But Mayors Against Illegal Guns partnered with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense to produce a commercial for cable that's running this week.
The ad, titled "No More Silence," shows a roomful of young children standing for a moment of silence to mark the Newtown anniversary.
A ticking clock can be heard throughout the ad. About halfway through the spot, a presumed shooter can be seen carrying a large duffel bag and walking towards a building that looks like a school.
"But with 26 more school shootings since that day," the narrator continues, "Ask yourself: Is silence what America needs right now?"
Near the end of the ad, the person pulls something out of the duffel bag and enters the building.
The Sunlight Foundation predicts gun-rights group, which have largely kept their powder dry as far as ad spending, will become much more active next year as mid-term elections near. The foundation also said, thanks in part to Mayor Bloomberg, "gun-control groups ... are heading into 2014 with formidable campaign war chests."
**************************************************
29. Media Fail: NRA twice as popular as Mike Bloomberg
**************************************************
Of course vomit is probably more popular than Bloomberg. ;-)
Member Walter Jackson emailed me this:
--
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/kjehwwe
Media Fail: NRA twice as popular as Mike Bloomberg
by John Nolte
December 13, 2013
Saturday is the one-year anniversary of the horrific murders at Sandy Hook Elementary, which means it is also the anniversary of a shameless media attempting to exploit those murders into restrictions against our Second Amendment civil rights. Everywhere today you can see the elite media licking their wounds over this humiliating defeat. What has to be especially bitter is a new poll that shows the National Rifle Association is twice as popular as anti-gun extremist Mike Bloomberg.
According to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, the NRA is viewed favorably by 39% or those polled, while only 31% view the civil rights organization unfavorably. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, however, is upside down at 19%-24%.
This is a massive fail for a media that spent months pouring its black heart and soulless soul into an anti-gun crusade. A big part of this coordinated campaign, which literally began on the day of the shooting and never relented, was to make the NRA the bogeyman of Sandy Hook. On the flip-side, this same media did everything in its power to make Mike Bloomberg The Saint of Saving The Children, as he poured millions of his billions into a campaign for laws that would have done absolutely nothing to stop Sandy Hook.
Despite months of relentless hammering, though, the media couldn't drive the NRA's unfavorability rating any higher than 31%.
Put another way, the media failed to convince roughly 40% of those who voted for Obama to turn against the NRA.
While Obama, Democrats, and the media outwardly claim that they intend to bitterly cling to their anti-gun campaign, that is really just pandering to an audience. They got routed and they know and feel it.
**************************************************
30. Gun stocks soar, gun control 'dead as an issue'
**************************************************
From breitbart.com: http://tinyurl.com/lb6ghol
Gun stocks soar, gun control 'dead as an issue'
by Awr Hawkins
December 13, 2013
While the White House and Senate Democrats hammered guns and gun rights during 2013, investors put their money into gun company stocks and garnered "incredible returns."
According to The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch, "those who bought [stock in] Smith & Wesson in the aftermath of [the heinous crime at Sandy Hook Elementary] have made profits of more than 60 percent."
Those who bought Sturm, Ruger & Co. stock have made profits of "nearly 80 percent."
These investments beat "the overall stock market by more than two-to-one."
As Breitbart News reported on December 6th, these gains have not been lost on mutual fund companies like Vanguard and Blackrock. They too have broadened their investments in various firearm companies over the last year, as have financial firms like Capital Research and Management.
As WSJ's Marketwatch put it: "Gun control is dead as an issue."
**************************************************
31. [CT] Connecticut boys' Instagram gun photos draw police
**************************************************
Member Bill Albritton emailed me this:
--
From FoxNews.com: http://tinyurl.com/mmz8rmt
Connecticut boys' Instagram gun photos draw police
December 7, 2013
Two Connecticut teenagers from the same middle school are in hot water -- and one is facing charges -- after they both posted images of guns to their Instagram accounts at different times on the same day.
In the first incident, a 13-year-old boy from John Read Middle School in Redding uploaded a photograph on Thursday morning of what appeared to be a pair of handguns to the popular photo-sharing service along with the accompanying caption, "I think I'm ready to go to school," according to the Connecticut Post.
Police swooped into action and although the weapons eventually turned out to be pellet guns, the boy - who was not identified because of his age - was reportedly arrested, charged with disorderly conduct and released to his parents.
Then and a few hours later on the same day, a second 13-year-old boy, who also attends John Read Middle School, reportedly used the same social media outlet, Instagram, to publicly portray an image of a large handgun. In this case, the youth, also unidentified for the same reason, wrote a caption reading, "Colt Anaconda .357. Damn I love revolvers," according to the Connecticut Post.
Yet again, Redding police responded swiftly, although in this case, the boy apparently had swiped the image from the Internet and did not own the referenced gun.
"Anything that is posted online, once it gets out there it's read by all and oftentimes it's interpreted differently by all," Redding Police Chief Douglas Fuchs told The Post. "Whether it's words or photographs, we all have to be very cognizant about the consequences of whatever it is we put out there on the Internet."
Fuchs reportedly added that despite police's alarm in both instances, the second teen who merely re-posted the revolver's image, will likely not be charged with a crime.
**************************************************
32. [IL] McCarthy: "Carrying a loaded firearm is the gateway to committing a murder."
**************************************************
Chicago's Police Chief once again shows that he is an unprofessional, bigoted, gun-hater (except for police, who he likes being armed).
Member Floyd Bayne shared this:
--
So, he is acknowledging that all police officers are potential murderers? Thanks for clearing that up, chief.
From bearingarms.com: http://tinyurl.com/nx6oc6d
McCarthy: "Carrying a loaded firearm is the gateway crime to committing a murder."
by Bob Owens
December 11, 2013
Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy made his authoritarian views on the Second Amendment quite clear in September when he announced that he'd have his officers shoot concealed carriers first and ask questions later.
You know, because the Chicago PD's anti-gun zealotry has made the city so incredibly safe and not the murder capitol of the United States.
Oh, wait.
McCarthy is now attempting to claim that a new initiative to take guns off the street is a success, even though it's very "success" shows how much of a miserable of a failure Chicago's anti gun laws really are:
We've reported extensively about Chicago's problem with gun violence.
Now Chicago police said they have seized more than 6,500 illegal guns this year. That's 130 illegal weapons each week.
Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy says that's more than any major city and he says if you can reduce weapons you will reduce crime.
"Carrying a loaded firearm is the gateway crime to committing a murder," McCarthy said.
Here's another take on McCarthy's absurd spin.
If Chicago's officers are taking 130 from criminals every week--6,500+ so far this year--then that statistic is cold, hard evidence that the draconian anti-gun laws of the city are an abject and complete failure. This suggests that there are probably tens of thousands of criminals with guns in Chicago, while law-abiding citizens are effectively disarmed. Chicago has set their citizens up as lambs to be slaughtered, and being slaughtered they are.
McCarthy's view of his department's success is so divorced from reality as to be laughable. There were 500+ murders in Chicago last year, so many that the exact numbers are in dispute; this CBS report claims "just" 507, but Chicago Redeye documents by name 520 homicide victims, and Crime in Chicago blog claims 537!
Crime in Chicago also documents that 2,670 were injured by criminals that ignore Chicago's laws in 2012, and there are 2,393 casualties so far this year, on pace to easily exceed 2,400 for 2013.
There are entire blocks of U.S. states, and even war zones with fewer deaths and injuries than Chicago, and McCarthy dares claim that Chicago's anti-gun views, policies, and laws are working, and that even more draconian laws are needed?
Garry McCarthy shouldn't be running a major city's police department. He should be institutionalized until he can bring his delusions under control.
**************************************************
33. [CO] Bang! Payday for man suing cops over guns [VIDEO]
**************************************************
From wnd.com: http://tinyurl.com/kug65ta
Bang! Payday for man suing cops over guns
'This is bogus ... This is bullsh--'
by Joe Kovacs
December 11, 2013
A man who sued police in Colorado Springs, Colo., for violating his Second Amendment rights has reportedly won more than $23,000 from the city, as local officers apparently did not know it was legal to "open carry" firearms at public parks.
The saga of James Sorensen began in July 2012 at a homosexual-pride festival, just one day after the shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., that left 12 people dead and 70 others injured.
He was openly sporting a handgun on his hip, which prompted police to take him into custody.
Sorensen's arrest was caught on camera by his partner, who documented the discussion with officers who at one point threatened Sorensen with violence. (Watch raw video of the arrest below:)
"Put your hands in the air," an officer ordered Sorensen.
"Negative, sergeant," he replied.
"Put your hands in the air," the officer again stated.
"Negative, sergeant," repeated Sorensen.
"You're about to get the sh-- kicked out of you," the officer warned.
Over the course of his encounter with police, Sorensen can be seen on the video asserting his constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
"This is against the law! This is against ... my Second Amendment rights, sergeant," he exclaimed.
"Then hire an attorney when you get done with it," was the officer's response.
At one point, Sorensen actually phoned police headquarters, hoping to find an officer who knew it was legal to carry a gun in public.
"I need a real officer," he said on the phone.
He later added: "This is bogus. I can't wait to get this into court. This is bullsh--."
KUSA-TV in Denver reported the four sergeants and three officers involved were simply unaware it's legal to open carry in city parks and has been since gun laws changed statewide in 2003.
Authorities blamed the mistake on the criminal manual or "cheat sheet" that officers carry which, at the time of the incident, said it was still illegal in Colorado Springs to open carry in a city park.
The station found the city's settlement of $23,500 with Sorensen through an open-records request, but Sorensen said a confidentiality clause precluded his further comment.
That clause read in part:
"Plaintiff recognizes and agrees that this confidentiality provision was a significant inducement for City Defendants to enter into this Agreement. ... Any violation of this section shall be considered a material breach of this Agreement, and Plaintiff will be subject to repayment to City Defendants of the consideration set forth herein without restatement of the claims."
In previous interviews with local news stations, Sorensen said, "They had the gall to say, 'Ignorance of the law is no excuse,' and yet they are the ones that are ignorant of the law."
"We decided to file suit because we want to better protect our rights," he explained, "and make sure everyone knows they can't just treat citizens like crap."
He told KRDO-TV: "I just hope people will do more to protect their rights instead of letting people just walk all over them."
In the wake of the settlement, KUSA spoke with Joseph Sandoval, a professor of criminal justice at Metro State University and a former police officer, who noted Sorensen is very fortunate to be alive.
"A situation like this could turn very grave," Sandoval told the station.
"If James would have resisted to the point of pulling his weapon on a police officer, there may have been a fatal mistake."
**************************************************
34. [FL] Colleges can't ban guns, rules FL court in major 2A victory
**************************************************
From bizpacreview.com: http://tinyurl.com/q82eze2
Colleges can't ban guns, rules Florida court in major 2nd Amendment victory
by Joe Saunders
December 11, 2013
The Florida appeals court ruling that the University of North Florida was violating state law when it prohibited a woman from storing a gun in her vehicle while she attended class will spill over to cities and counties statewide, an attorney said Wednesday.
And it's one of many nationwide where anti-gun activists are trying to do at the local level what they can't do in the statehouse -- restrict Second Amendment rights.
"This is a growing movement in a number of cases," said Jacksonville attorney Eric Friday, who represents Florida Carry Inc. and UNF student Alexandria Lainez in the court fight.
Friday, who called the Lainez decision the biggest of its kind in Florida in 20 years, said the case "reaffirmed that the power to regulate firearms rests solely with the Legislature and not anywhere else."
Florida Carry Inc. and Alexandria Lainez vs. the University of North Florida centered around Lainez's ability to store a gun in her vehicle while attending classes at UNF so she would have available for self-defense while traveling to and from campus.
Lainez is a young mother, Friday said, "and she takes seriously her responsibility to protect herself and her child."
Lainez, who's 24 and has had a concealed weapons permit for three years, said she takes firearms safety and training pretty seriously, too. A Jacksonville resident with a half-hour one-way commute to school, she said she's working to get students at other schools interested in gun training, too.
"I think it's pretty important to be able to protect myself and my son, especially with that long commute to and from school."
And making that commute armed means storing the gun on UNF property.
UNF regulations prohibit weapons on campus. According to the student handbook printed in 2011 when the case was filed, expressly threatened that violators could be arrested.
"No college or university has the authority" to make such a regulation, Friday said.
Lainez, a member of Florida Carry, sued UNF to change the regulation, but lost at trial to UNF's argument that it could ban weapons because state law allowed school districts to do so. UNF argued that since it's a school, it should be considered like a public school district.
In Tuesday's decision, the 1st District Court of Appeal ruled otherwise.
"From the beginning, the argument was an absurdity in my mind," Friday said.
But the broader issue, Friday said, involved the powers of local governments -- such as counties and cities -- to violate gun rights through control ordinances that in effect in one part of the state but not another, putting gun owners at risk of arrest depending on the jurisdiction.
It's a gun rights battle being fought in other states -- where officials in places like libraries and bus companies try to make petty authority grounds for violating constitutional rights.
In Michigan in November, the state Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by a library district in Lansing that claimed it had a right to ban guns in a battle with Michigan Open Carry Inc. National Review's headline called it a "victory for open carry advocates."
In Wisconsin, the gun rights group Wisconsin Carry is suing the Madison Metro Transit Authority for trying to ban guns on city buses. That would make for stricter gun law than the ones passed by the state Legislature -- which meets in Madison.
In Florida, a state law in 1987 prohibited local governments from passing local gun control ordinances stricter than those passed in Tallahassee, but included no way of enforcing it, Friday said.
That led to local governments -- particularly in South Florida -- "thumbing their noses at the Legislature," Friday said.
In 2011, the Legislature passed another law containing a series of threatening local jurisdictions or agencies with fines against the agency heads, removal from office for elected officials and allowing for personal damages up to $100,000 for violations, Friday sad.
When that law passed, most local governments changed their laws to comply before it came into effect Oct 1, Friday said. UNF and some other agencies didn't.
In an emailed statement Wednesday, UNF Associate Director for Public Relations Joanna Norris wrote that the university is still reviewing its options on whether to appeal the case. Until it makes that decision, she wrote, the university's policy prohibiting weapons on campus will remain in effect.
Friday said that means the university intends to continue breaking the law.
"In other words, despite the express, well-reasoned opinion of this court, they intend to continue violating students' rights until they have to comply," he said.
Why this kind of obstinacy by officials at the local level when they can't get their anti-Second Amendment way in state capitals?
"In some cases, it's just a personal belief, or bias against firearms or the right of self-defense," Friday said. "People in power don't like it when their power is challenged."
**************************************************
35. [CO] Arapahoe High gunman held strong political beliefs, classmates said
**************************************************
More insight into a mass-murderer-wanna-be.
Member Paul Henick emailed me this:
--
From denverpost.com: http://tinyurl.com/oxsxqfn
Arapahoe High gunman held strong political beliefs, classmates said
By Zahira Torres and Yesenia Robles, The Denver Post
December 13, 2013
The teenage gunman who entered Arapahoe High School on Friday afternoon and shot two fellow students with a shotgun was outspoken about politics, was a gifted debater and might have been bullied for his beliefs, according to students who knew him.
Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson identified the gunman as Karl Pierson, an 18-year-old student.
"He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff," said junior Abbey Skoda, who was in a class with Pierson during her freshman year. "I also heard he was bullied a lot."
Robinson said that his department was investigating reports that Pierson was seeking to settle a score with a teacher after a confrontation.
Even before authorities named the gunman, friends and neighbors were in shock as word spread that Pierson was a dedicated, bright student from a religious family that attends Bible study meetings.
"They're just a normal middle-class family, like many of the families around here," said neighbor Diane Shea.
On Friday night, neighbors huddled in the quiet Highlands Ranch neighborhood adorned with holiday lights to console one another.
Neighbors and students remembered Pierson as a track athlete and a member of the Arapahoe speech-and-debate team whose mother worked for the Douglas County School District.
In April, Pierson placed third in national extemporaneous speaking at the National Qualifying Tournament held at Cherry Creek High School, earning him a spot in the national tournament in June.
After the June competition, he wrote on Facebook: "Hey guys! I just got back from day 2 of nationals and I'm sorry to say I am not moving on, nor am I in the top 60 in the country. Thank you from everyone for your support, and have a great rest of the summer and hope we can send some more guys to nationals in Kansas next year!"
Jo VanDeWege, who has lived across the street from the family for five years, described Pierson's mother as outgoing and said the family was "very nice, very kind."
Pierson's parents divorced in late 2011, according to court records. The divorce was finalized in August 2012.
Thomas Conrad, who had an economics class with Pierson, described him as very opinionated.
"He was exuberant, I guess," Conrad said. "A lot of people picked on him, but it didn't seem to bother him."
In one Facebook post, Pierson attacks the philosophies of economist Adam Smith, who through his invisible-hand theory pushed the notion that the free market was self-regulating. In another post, he describes himself as "Keynesian."
"I was wondering to all the neoclassicals and neoliberals, why isn't the market correcting itself?" he wrote. "If the invisible hand is so strong, shouldn't it be able to overpower regulations?"
Pierson also appears to mock Republicans on another Facebook post, writing "you republicans are so cute" and posting an image that reads: "The Republican Party: Health Care: Let 'em Die, Climate Change: Let 'em Die, Gun Violence: Let 'em Die, Women's Rights: Let 'em Die, More War: Let 'em Die. Is this really the side you want to be on?"
Carl Schmidt and Brendon Mendelson, both seniors at Arapahoe High, knew Pierson. They said he had political views that were "outside the mainstream," but they did not elaborate.
Schmidt said the shooter "was an outspoken kid about what he believed and a good political thinker."
Mendelson added, "He did have a lot of friends. He was popular with the people he knew."
**************************************************
36. [CO] School shooter wounds 1, kills himself, Sheriff says
**************************************************
Member Mark Shinn emailed me this:
--
Surprise! Surprise! The strictest gun laws never stop a determined person.
From washingtonpost.com: http://tinyurl.com/modydte
Colorado school shooter wounds 1, kills himself, sheriff says
By Dan Elliott and Ivan Moreno,
December 13, 2013
CENTENNIAL, COLO. -- A teenager who may have had a grudge against a teacher opened fire Friday with a shotgun at a suburban Denver high school, wounding a fellow student before killing himself.
Quick-thinking students at Arapahoe High School alerted the targeted teacher, who quickly left the building.
The wounded student, a 15-year-old girl, underwent surgery and was in critical condition. Authorities originally said a second student was wounded, but Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said Friday night a girl taken to a hospital was covered in blood from the other student but wasn't injured.
Robinson identified the shooter as Karl Halverson Pierson, 18. The sheriff did not elaborate on a possible motive except to say Pierson had had a "confrontation or disagreement" with the teacher.
Pierson made no attempt to hide his weapon after entering the school from a parking lot and asking for the teacher by name, Robinson said.
When the teacher learned that he was being targeted, he left "in an effort to try to encourage the shooter to also leave the school," the sheriff said. "That was a very wise tactical decision."
Two suspected molotov cocktails were found inside the school, the sheriff said. Robinson said one was lit and thrown, but no one was injured.
The school was swiftly locked down. Within 20 minutes of the first report of a gunman, officers found Pierson's body inside the school, Robinson said.
Several other school districts in the Denver area went into lockdown as reports of the shooting spread. Police as far away as Fort Collins, about a two-hour drive north, were increasing security at public schools because of the shooting, which came a day before the anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
At Arapahoe High, students were seen walking toward the school's running track with their hands in the air, and television footage showed students being patted down. Robinson said deputies wanted to make sure there were no conspirators but now think the gunman acted alone.
Parents were told to go a church to find their children. One young girl who was barefoot embraced her parents, and the family began to cry. Neighborhoods were jammed with cars as parents sought their children.
Arapahoe High sits just eight miles east of Columbine High School in Littleton, where two teenage shooters killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves in 1999. The practice of sending law enforcement directly into an active shooting, as was done Friday, was something that developed in response to the Columbine shooting.
Tracy Monroe, who had step-siblings who attended Columbine, was standing outside Arapahoe High on Friday looking at her phone, reading text messages from her 15-year-old daughter inside.
Monroe said she got the first text from her daughter, sophomore Jade Stanton, at 12:41 p.m. The text read, "there's sirens. It's real. I love you."
A few minutes later, Jade texted "shots were fired in our school." Monroe rushed to the school and was relieved when Jade texted that a police officer entered her classroom and she was safe.
Monroe was a family friend of a teacher killed in the Columbine shooting, Dave Sanders.
"We didn't think it could happen in Colorado then, either," Monroe said.
Colton Powers, a 14-year-old freshman, said he heard three shots in a classroom. The shots sounded far away, he said.
"We all ran to the corner of the room and turned off the lights and locked the door and just waited, hoped for the best," he said. "A lot of people, I couldn't see, but they were crying.
"I was scared. I didn't know what to do," he said.
His mother, Shelly Powers, said she first got news of the shooting in the middle of a conference call at work.
"I dropped all my devices, got my keys and got in my car," she said. "I was crying all the way here."
More than 2,100 students attend Arapahoe High, where nine out of 10 graduates go on to college, according to the Littleton Public Schools Web site.
-------------------------------------------
***************************************************************************
VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization
dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to
Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.
VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]
***************************************************************************
IMPORTANT: It is our intention to honor all "remove" requests promptly.
To unsubscribe from this list, or change the email address where you
receive messages, please go to:
https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=15843530&id_secret=15843530-842dc303 [https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=15843530&id_secret=15843530-842dc303]
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=15843530&id_secret=15843530-842dc303
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
No comments:
Post a Comment