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Remington Fires First Shot in Round Two of NBC War
Rep. Michael DeBose (D), remembered for becoming pro-concealed carry after mugging, dies at 58
by Chad D. Baus The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reporting that State Rep. Michael DeBose, a Cleveland Democrat, has passed away at the age of 58. From the all that changed on…
EPA Denies Anti-Hunting Group’s Latest Petition to Ban Traditional Ammunition
NSSF Calls Upon Congress to Pass the ‘Hunting, Fishing and Recreational Shooting Sports Protection Act’
NEWTOWN, Conn. — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on April 9 denied yet another frivolous petition by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) — an established anti-hunting group — calling for a ban on the traditional ammunition (containing lead-core components) for hunting and shooting.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry, applauds the EPA’s latest decision and called upon Congress to immediately pass the Hunting, Fishing and Recreational Shooting Sports Protection Act (S.838/H.R.1558). In the House of Representatives, the bill is also included in the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012 (H.R. 4089), an important piece of legislation that combines three other legislative priorities for sportsmen. The bill (S.838/H.R.1558) amends the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to clarify that the Congress has excluded traditional ammunition from regulation by the EPA. The legislation is supported by more than 35 national conservation and sportsmen’s groups. The bill is even supported by the Fraternal Order of Police because a ban on traditional ammunition would apply to law enforcement and the U.S. military.
NSSF opposed the petition, which was filed by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and other like-minded groups. This was the second attempt by the CBD to ban traditional ammunition since it first petitioned the EPA in August of 2010. In rejecting the CBD’s latest petition the EPA agreed with NSSF, telling the CBD that it did not have jurisdiction under TSCA to regulate ammunition. The CBD’s petition purported to narrow the scope of the ban sought, but the EPA concluded that this change was a “distinction without a substantive difference.” The EPA went on to say the new petition “contains no new information.”
The CBD’s serial petitions erroneously claim that the use of traditional ammunition by hunters poses a danger to human health and wildlife, in particular raptor populations such as bald eagles. The truth is that wildlife populations, including raptor and bald eagle populations, are soaring. The myth of a human health risk has been thoroughly debunked by a 2008 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found the health of hunters consuming game harvested with traditional ammunition was not at risk.
SB332: Better to slowly burn a child to death than to shoot her with a gun?
Editor’s Note: The article below was originally published on June 17, 2008, about Senate Bill 348, introduced by Senator Eric Kearney (D-9). That bill died at the end of the 127th General Assembly. Kearney reintroduced the bill again in 2009, as SB49, and we again published this article by way of response, on February 12, 2009. SB49 died at the end of the 128th General Assembly. But the necessity of republishing this article is again apparent, because Sen. Kearney has reintroduced the legislation, this time as Senate Bill 332.
By Gerard Valentino
Senate Bill 348 49 332, designed to add an additional 10 years to a prison sentence if a gun is used to cause injury to or death of a child, was introduced recently by Senator Eric Kearney (D-9).
The bill, which Buckeye Firearms Association strongly opposes, is another example of the legislature trying to make an existing crime more illegal.
Killing someone with a baseball bat, hammer or even a car leaves the victim dead. The person committing the crime is still a murderer and the family of the victim will still grieve. Just because a gun might be involved in the crime is irrelevant.
Op-Ed: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal
By Katie Pavlich
Operation Fast and Furious is the deadliest and most sinister scandal in American history. A scandal so big, it’s worse than Iran-Contra and makes Watergate look like a high school prank gone wrong.
In the early days of the Obama Administration, President Obama claimed his goal was to stop the trafficking of guns from the United States into the hands of violent Mexican drug cartels. He claimed gun dealers in the United States were responsible for sending guns to Mexico. Both of his claims were lies.
In order to push his lies and policies built around them, with a goal of implementing harsher gun control laws and reinstating the assault weapons ban, President Obama packed his administration full of anti-Second Amendment zealots. After all, personnel is policy.
In my new book, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama’s Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Coverup, I document the conspiracy of senior Obama officials to subvert the Second Amendment, which led directly to the murders of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, I.C.E. Agent Jaime Zapata and countless, faceless lives in Mexico. It debunks the Obama administration’s lies, denials and excuses. This administration was willing to use humans as collateral damage to push a political agenda, and had no shame in doing so. Now, the administration has no shame in covering up their reckless actions.
Since just moments after Brian Terry was killed in the Arizona desert on December 15, 2010 by Mexican cartel thugs, carrying AK-47s provided to them by the Obama Justice Department through Operation Fast and Furious, the FBI, Homeland Security, ATF, Justice Department and the White House have been engaged in a full scale cover-up. These are simply names of government agencies, but who are the people behind the cover-up?
Second Amendment Foundation chalks up more legal victories
BELLEVUE, WA – A Federal District Court Judge in Massachusetts has granted summary judgment in a Second Amendment Foundation case challenging that state’s denial of firearms licenses to permanent resident aliens. U.S….
Op-Ed: Where’s the ‘Probable Cause’?
by John Lott
The charges brought against George Zimmerman sure look like prosecutorial misconduct. The case as put forward by the prosecutor in the “affidavit of probable cause” is startlingly weak. As a former chief economist at the U.S. Sentencing Commission, I have read a number of such affidavits, and cannot recall one lacking so much relevant information. The prosecutor has most likely deliberately overcharged, hoping to intimidate Zimmerman into agreeing to a plea bargain. If this case goes to trial, Zimmerman will almost definitely be found “not guilty” on the charge of second-degree murder.
The prosecutor wasn’t required to go to the grand jury for the indictment, but the fact that she didn’t in such a high-profile case is troubling. Everyone knows how easy it is for a prosecutor to get a grand jury to indict, because only the prosecutor presents evidence. A grand-jury indictment would have provided political cover; that charges were brought without one means that the prosecutor was worried that a grand jury would not give her the indictment.
The affidavit consists of six main points:
● Zimmerman was upset about all “the break-ins in his neighborhood” and expressed anger at how criminals “always get away.”
● According to a discussion with Trayvon Martin’s girlfriend, who said that she was talking to Martin before the attack, Zimmerman followed Martin. He did so despite the police operator’s saying “we don’t need you to do that.”
● Zimmerman “confronted Martin and a struggle ensued,” though no evidence is cited on this point.
● Trayvon Martin’s mother identified the voice crying for help on a 9-1-1 call as her son’s.
● Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest, and this is confirmed by both Zimmerman’s statement and ballistics tests.
● Martin died from the gunshot wound.
Note some of the points that are missing. The prosecution doesn’t claim Zimmerman had racial animus against blacks. There was no “f***ing coons” on the police call. Some extremely relevant information from the police report is completely excluded: There is no mention of the grass and wetness found on the back of Zimmerman’s shirt, the gashes on the back of his head, the bloody nose, or the other witnesses who saw Martin on top of Zimmerman, beating him, before the shot was fired. There is not even an attempt to say that the police report was in error; instead the affidavit just disregards it.
Even if everything in the affidavit is correct, it does not even begin to deal with the most crucial question: Who attacked whom?
Public opinion poll: “Most Americans back gun lobby, right to use deadly force”
by Chad D. Baus According to a recent news report, a Reuters/ Ipsos poll has found that most Americans support the right to use deadly force to protect themselves – even in…
Ohio Spring Turkey Hunting Season Opens April 23
COLUMBUS, OH – This year’s spring wild turkey season opens in all 88 Ohio counties on Monday, April 23 and continues through Sunday, May 20, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) Division of Wildlife.
“Ohio has again experienced a record low wild turkey hatch, with last year’s nesting season negatively impacted by rainfall and flooding,” said ODNR Wildlife Biologist Mike Reynolds. “The early onset of spring-like weather and green vegetation could make it harder for hunters to see and hear turkeys, creating challenging hunting conditions this season.”
House Passes Historic Sportsman/Conservation Legislation
by Jim Shepherd
It seems appropriate on the 237th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride that we announce the House of Representatives’ passage of a huge block of legislation known as the Sportsman’s Heritage Act of 2012.
H.R. 4089 is actually the compilation of four bills, all designed to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing and shooting:
H.R. 1558 amends the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to prevent this (and future) administrations from using the Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate the rights of hunters, shooters and anglers to use “traditional ammunition and fishing tackle”. In essence, the bill clarifies the EPA’s lack of authority when it comes to regulating, shot, bullets, and other ammunition components or sport fishing components.
H.R. 3440 the “Recreational Shooting Protection Act” prevents a ban on recreational shooting on BLM lands nationwide. Further, it directs the BLM to manage national monument land in a way that “supports, promotes, and enhances recreational shooting.
H.R. 2834 the “Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act recognizes the rightful place of recreational hunting, fishing and shooting on Federal lands; it supports Executive Order 13443, directs Federal land management agencies to facilitate the expansion and enhancement of hunting on Federal lands; ensures sound scientific management of wildlife and habitat; establishes an “open unless closed” policy for recreational hunting, fishing and shooting on lands managed by the US Forest Service and the BLM.
The fourth bill, H.R. 991, amends the Marine Mammal Protection Act by authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to issue importation permits to hunters for polar bear trophies taken before the polar bear was designated as threatened.
An amendment clarifying that the protection given hunting and fishing in wilderness areas is not intended to permit motorized recreation or mineral extraction was also passed. Three other amendments, opposed on the grounds they would “gut” the pro-sportsmen legislation, were pretty soundly defeated.
Yesterday, the a coalition of more than thirty outdoor organizations was doing everything possible to mobilize their constituents to let Congress know the Sportsman’s Heritage Act of 2012 was important.
Today, they’re celebrating the 274 to 146 passage, despite it having been pretty much a partisan vote. Members of the non-partisan Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, responsible for much of the legislation, however, are celebrating across party lines.