Vote LINDA WALKER for NRA Board of Directors

Posted on by Buckeye Firearms Association

To My Fellow Second Amendment Brothers & Sisters and NRA Members,

My name is LINDA WALKER and I need your vote for the NRA Board of Directors.

If you are a voting member of the National Rifle Association, by now you should have received your ballot for the Board of Directors elections in your February magazine or you will receive it in the mail.

As I come to the end of my first 3-year term as your NRA Board Member, I reflect on how quickly the time has gone by. I have been incredibly honored and humbled to represent our 5 million members. I am very excited in the direction that your NRA is moving. We have record-breaking attendees at the Annual Meetings, NRA News is now the #1 show on Sportsmen’s Channel, we have new shows on the Outdoor Channel, NRA has nearly 3 million supporters on social networking and we are bringing in more and more woman and youth as members every day. NRA is stronger than ever!

Newspaper conglomerate Civitas Media discusses building nationwide database of CCW licensees

Posted on by Buckeye Firearms Association

According to an internal email provided to Buckeye Firearms Association by a confidential source, Civitas Media, which owns some 88 newspapers across the country, has discussed the use of “public records act requests” to “build state-by-state databases that list those who have the right to carry” firearm licenses.

The email, dated January 19, 2014, was written by Civitas Media’s director of content, Jim Lawitz, and distributed to content directors, managers and producers at company-owned newspapers in 12 states, including 38 newspapers here in Ohio.

Civitas Media editorial report – Jan. 13- Jan. 17
From Jim Lawitz

We are launching two enterprise projects across our newsrooms this month. The first will deal with the creeping influence of heroin in our communities. The deadly drug has quietly taken over, reaching across all age groups and eclipsing meth as the recreational drug of choice. The second project examines the explosion of “conceal and carry” gun permits across the U.S. Through public records act requests, we will attempt to build state-by-state databases that list those who have the right to carry a concealed weapon. (emphasis added)

Here is a scan of the original email with email addresses redacted.

Buckeye Firearms Association contacted several Civitas-owned newspapers around the state about the email, and while they acknowledged its existence, no one was willing to provide comment on the record.

Likewise, Mr. Lawitz was initially reticent to speak on the record. Eventually, however, he provided the following quote:

“We do not typically publicly comment on internal proprietary communication. However, we have no plans to publish any names on any lists. Further, we are open to discuss any published reports.”

Lawitz would not otherwise comment on the record about the status of the company’s plans for building the “state-by-state databases” referred to in his January 19 email.

Whether or not this statement proves satisfactory to the gun rights community remains to be seen. As I explained to him in our conversation, gun owners are deeply sensitive when it comes to a discussion of building a database of gun owners, and anti-gun rights media have a long history of attempts to compile and use these types of lists to intimidate concealed handgun licensees.

Ruger, S&W First to Stop California Sales

Posted on by Buckeye Firearms Association

by Jim Shepherd

“Dear California,
Since you insist on passing laws that are not only unenforceable, but technically impossible with which to comply, we have decided to do the inevitable and just write off your state as a marketplace for our products.”

OK, that was not a real note, but it’s a message any number of industries would probably like to deliver to the nanny-statists in Sacramento. The rules, regulations and rigamarole companies have to endure to do business there would drive anyone except a liquor company to drink. The liquor people are too-busy filling out paperwork to have a belt.

Now, California has decided to move ahead with its ridiculous microstamping requirement for all new firearms.

Consequently, Sturm, Ruger & Company (NYSE: RGR) and Smith & Wesson (NYSE:SWHC) have confirmed the fact they’re going to allow many of their semiautomatic handguns to “fall off” the state’s approved firearms list.

While the companies aren’t “firing” California as a customer, they are clearly delivering a message: microstamping is beyond the reasonable and they’re done trying to comply unenforceable laws.

Miles of Guns: A bright spot in the US economy

Posted on by Buckeye Firearms Association

by Jeff Knox

It has been suggested that Barack Obama is the greatest firearm salesman in history, and with good reason. Gun sales have boomed under Obama’s watch. Gun companies have reported record sales, and, contrary to the claims of the anti-rights crowd, surveys indicate that the growth isn’t just due to existing gun owners building bigger collections, but to many new, first-time gun buyers.

Of course Obama doesn’t deserve all of the credit; he had lots of help from fellow politicians, gun control organizations, and the media. They place the “blame” for record gun sales on rights groups whipping gun buyers into a feeding frenzy of panic buying by making exaggerated claims of impending gun bans and restrictions. And, while there’s no doubt that pro-gun groups do sound the alarm at the slightest provocation, you’d think the anti-rights folks would figure out that it’s their provocation that instigates the alarms and the resultant buying – and voting – response. As prominent rights leader, Alan Gottlieb, recently pointed out, if the real objective of the anti-rights crowd was to reduce the number of guns on the street, they have not only failed miserably, they are the root cause of their own failure. Tens of thousands of Americans have bought guns – especially threatened “assault-style” guns – due to threats created by gun control proponents.

What is most important to note however, is that there has been no corresponding rise in gun crime to go along with the tremendous rise in gun ownership. Two decades of steady increases in gun sales, including five years of record growth, have corresponded with steady declines in criminal misuse of firearms. While economists and statisticians can argue about whether the increase in guns was a factor in the falling crime rates, there can be no argument about whether more guns in civilian hands caused increases in firearms abuse. Clearly it did not.

Toledo homeowner shoots at suspects during attempted break-in

Posted on by Buckeye Firearms Association

WTVG, Toledo’s ABC affiliate, is reporting that a homeowner used a gun to thwart an attempted break-in at their home earlier this week.

From the article:

According to police, three young men tried to break into the garage of the home. The owner was home at the time and says he heard noises.

“It’s just a shame that you work for everything you get, and then, someone wants to come and take it out from under you,” Sharon Edwards, one of the homeowners said.

Police say Sharon’s husband fired his gun at one of the suspects.

At this time, it does not appear anyone was actually shot.

“I just thank God that nothing happened to them, but I hope they see this and know you can’t keep coming up on people’s stuff,” Edwards said. “These kids need to know how their life could be on the line messing with peoples property.”

Poll: Household gun ownership on the rise in U.S.

Posted on by Buckeye Firearms Association

by Chad D. Baus

Breitbart.com is reporting that the latest Economist/YouGov poll shows that 39 percent of American households own guns, which represents a five percent increase over the number of gun owning households in 2012.

According to the article, throughout 2013, gun control proponents frequently dismissed the importance of empirical data on gun sales by claiming gun companies were simply selling multiple weapons to the same purchasers. But by showing that “nearly 4 in 10 American households have guns,” the Economist/YouGov poll demonstrates that there was actually a broadening of the base of gun ownership last year.

The poll found that 30 percent of gun owning households were Democrats, and 49 percent were Republicans.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary, and BFA PAC Vice Chairman.

Omnibus appropriations bill prevents the implementation of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty

Posted on by Buckeye Firearms Association

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) has announced that the Omnibus appropriations bill prevents the implementation of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) by prohibiting any funding of the treaty unless it is ratified by the U.S. Senate, which opposes the treaty. In October 2013, Sen. Moran led a bipartisan group of 50 U.S. Senators in reiterating to President Obama that the Senate overwhelmingly opposes ratification and will not be bound by its obligations.

“Last fall, the Obama Administration’s signed the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty in a direct dismissal of the American people and the bipartisan Senate majority that rejects this treaty,” Sen. Moran said. “Throughout this process, it has been disturbing to watch the Administration reverse U.S. policies, abandon its own ‘red line’ negotiation principles, admit publicly the treaty’s dangerous ambiguity, and hastily review the final treaty text. With the passage of the Omnibus bill, it will be made unequivocally clear that Congress is committed to upholding the fundamental individual rights of Americans and rejects the ATT. We will not be bound by the treaty and we will not fund its implementation.”

The Omnibus appropriations bill includes specific language in Section 7075 stating, “None of the funds appropriated by this Act may be obligated or expended to implement the Arms Trade Treaty until the Senate approves a resolution of ratification for the Treaty.”

© 2002-2024 Buckeye Firearms Association