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Welcome to this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter.
This is the monthly communication from my Web site at www.SaveTheGuns.com.
Thank you for reading this month's issue and for passing it on to a
friend.
Major U.S. gun control legislation has been around since before the National
Firearm Act of 1934. This act put strict restrictions, taxes and
fees upon
short-barreled shotguns and fully automatic machine guns. There
has been more than 25,000 local, state and federal laws and ordinances
regulating firearm ownership, carry and transfer ever since.
Why then, with 25,000 gun laws, don't we have the safest country in the
world? Why hasn't gun control put a stop to violent crime
committed with firearms? To find out why gun control is a terribly
ineffective method of reducing crime, not to mention that it's
unconstitutional...
Read On...
SaveTheGuns.com Quotes of the Month
"[Tyranny cannot be safe] without a standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed
populace."
James Madison, In his autobiography
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions,
they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
John Adams (1735-1826) Founding
Father, 2nd US President
"... of the liberty of conscience in matters of
religious faith, of speech and of the press; of the trial by jury of the
vicinage in civil and criminal cases; of the benefit of the writ of habeas
corpus; of the right to keep and bear arms.... If these rights are well
defined, and secured against encroachment, it is impossible that government
should ever degenerate into tyranny."
James Monroe
(1758-1831), 5th US President
"Laws that
forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined
nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the
assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage
than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater
confidence than an armed man."
Thomas Jefferson
"I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be
formed to guard the people against the Federal government as they are
already guarded against their State governments, in most instances."
Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1788. ME 7:98
SaveTheGuns.com Gun Safety Tip of the Month
The gun safety tip of the month for this issue of the Minuteman
Monthly Newsletter is to positively identify a threat in your home
as a true threat before you draw and fire upon them.
Many hundreds of people have been shot by mistake in a home because
the homeowner misidentifies a threat. Unannounced sleepovers from
unfamiliar guests have resulted in tragedy. Don't let this happen
to you.
Perhaps a friend of your teenage son and your son decided it would be
best for him to sleep at your house tonight without telling you or your
wife... You wake up to find a total stranger in your home trying
to find the bathroom... Think about it...
Never assume that a person you don't know in your home is there to do
you harm and is deserving of a .45 ACP in the chest. Positively
identify a threat as a true threat before utilizing your basic human
rights of self defense.
NRA Membership Recruiter Corner
http://membership.nrahq.org/default.asp?campaignid=XR017807
As you may already know, SaveTheGuns.com is one of thousands of
NRA Membership Recruiters across America. As an NRA Recruiter, I'm
officially a subcontractor for the National Rifle Association of America
and not an employee.
I make a small commission whenever you join, renew or give an NRA
Membership as a gift. Please use the link above for all your NRA
Membership needs.
I have written a Web page with more information on membership in
the National Rifle Association. It has a list of benefits as well
as membership options and prices. For your convenience the above
NRA Membership link is there as well.
http://www.savetheguns.com/nra_membership.htm
P.S. Remember, my link goes directly to the NRA Membership
check out page. Using my special link is a lot more convenient
than trying to find the page yourself.
As of this issue of the Minuteman Monthly Newsletter, I've
recruited 92 NRA Members through this
link.
Contributions to SaveTheGuns.com
Please use the following convenient link to securely use a credit
card online to give SaveTheGuns.com a voluntary contribution:
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My contributors have kept this informative Web site going for
seven years. Become a contributor today... please?
Item of the Month
The item of the month is going to be a new feature in the Minuteman
Monthly Newsletter. I hope you find it useful.
Minuteman Monthly Newsletter Aiming Point
Okay, here it is Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Daley and many, many others
in local, state and federal positions of authority who believe that gun
control laws are effective means of reducing rates of violent
crime. If only they can find the right type of gun restriction...
There have been, according to most experts, more than 25,000 local,
state and federal laws, regulations and ordinances passed by legislative
bodies in the United States alone. The Massachusetts Police Chief's
Guide to Gun Control Laws in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is
larger than War and Peace and The Lord of the Rings put
together.
Why then, with so much gun control, is Massachusetts the eighteenth
(18th) most violent state in America? It's the same case in
Maryland, California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey. These gun control capitols of America should be the safest states of
all, but they're not.
Maryland has countless firearm restrictions and regulations that
apply to lawful gun owners, yet Maryland has the third (3rd) highest
rate of violent crime in the country. The law abiding gun owners
of California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey are equally frustrated,
as their states rank 10th, 11th, 21st and 26th in violent crime per
capita, but make gun owners jump through hoops merely to exercise their
rights under the Constitution.
The states with the least
restrictions upon gun owners are actually among the safest. For instance,
the upper New England states of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine are
47th, 48th and 49th in per capita rates of violent criminal acts
respectively. Yet, gun control up here in the northeast corner of
the nation means using both hands and a proper and consistent grip.
In Maine, I can carry a handgun openly in public, without a permit,
although nobody really does it anymore and many towns have implemented
ordinances against it. Concealed carry is more
acceptable to the general public in these states. Heck, in Vermont, you can carry
a concealed firearm under your clothing without any permit required as
long as you're of age to do so. But these three states have among the lowest per-capita
violent crime rates in the country.
If gun control was so darn important in reducing rates of violent
crime committed with handguns, shouldn't Vermont, Maine and New
Hampshire with the state motto "Live Free or Die", be among
the most violent instead of the safest?
I'm not saying that if Washington D.C., Detroit and Los Angeles just
adopted Vermont's firearm laws, that everything would be fine. But
I am saying that at the very least, there is no correlation whatsoever
between harsh firearm ownership regulations and low rates of violent
crime.
If you take a close look at the state of Alaska for instance, you'd
see that they have the highest rates for forcible rapes per capita of any other
state, but in Alaska one can lawfully carry a concealed firearm without
a permit as in Vermont.
So very few firearm restrictions, doesn't necessarily mean very
little violent crime either. Alaska has very few firearm ownership
restrictions, but is the 7th most violent state in the nation, mainly
because of its colossal number of forcible rapes.
In Washington D.C., handgun ownership has been banned since 1976, but
they have the highest rate of violent acts per 100,000 citizens of
almost any area in the world.
Gun control legislation as a method of curtailing rates of violent
crime has completely failed. The evidence is very clear on at
least that point.
Why has gun control completely failed as a method of reducing violent
crimes committed with firearms?
The easy answer is actually pretty darn simple:
Violent criminals and those who are willing and/or inclined to commit
rape, robbery and murder with a firearm, are already disobeying some of
the most basic laws of humanity and are not concerned that they're also
breaking a law that regulates firearm possession. That's the easy
and quick answer.
The somewhat more involved answer is this:
Violent criminals do not obtain their firearms from properly licensed
sporting goods retailers, while filling out
all the forms correctly and with proper identification.
According to the United States Department of Justice, around twelve percent
(12%) of all criminals who actually used a gun in the
commission of a crime, got their gun from any retail source.
About 88% of violent criminals who committed a violent crime with
a firearm, got their gun outside of the reach of any firearm
regulations. Firearm sales and acquisitions can only be controlled
by a government entity or regulation when you have an upstanding licensed retailer
and an honest and law abiding citizen as parties in the sale. When
neither is involved in the transfer of possession of a firearm, the sale
falls outside the reach of state or federal gun control policy.
That makes perfectly good sense doesn't it? When the buyer or
the seller have no interest in abiding by local, state and federal law, the
transfer of possession of the firearm cannot be controlled by any government
policy. Even the biggest liberal secular progressive dimwit can
understand that...
According to the U.S. Department of Justice,
about 40% of violent criminals who used a gun to commit a crime with, got
their guns from family and friends. They were either voluntarily
given to them by their family and friends or stolen from them. The
study does not differentiate between the two.
Approximately another 40% got their firearms from street purchases,
through the illegal narcotics trade and from burglaries and
robberies. So we can clearly see that about 80% of violent felons
got their guns from sources that lie outside the control of government
policy. Of the remaining 20%, here's the breakdown:
8.3% came from retail outlets. Such as major retailers,
sporting goods specialty stores and from gun dealers. These
purchases were mostly made through falsifying documentation, providing
false identification and a small number (about 1%) of licensed (FFL) gun
dealers who disregard the National Instant Check System (NICS), don't
keep good BATFE records or who knowingly sell to felons.
6.2% came from undetermined sources, but were probably
outside the reach of gun control laws, simply by the evidence that they
were classified as undetermined.
3.8% of crime guns came from pawn shops, where again, there was false
identification, lying on required forms or a very small number (1%) of pawn shop owners who did not
follow proper record keeping or NICS procedures.
1.0% came from flea markets and yard sales through private transfers
of firearms directly to violent criminals.
About 0.7% of guns actually used to commit a crime came from gun shows.
Yet, with this small sliver of seven tenths of one percent, gun shows
seem to be the latest focus by dimwitted gun control fanatics. Gun
control fanatics it seems to me are not really the brightest lights on
the chandelier, if you know what I mean...
Looking closely at the actual sources of guns that were actually
used in criminal acts, we can pretty easily see why gun control laws
don't work to reduce acts of violent crime. With full realization
that violent criminal thugs do not concern themselves with breaking gun
laws, why are many in government touting them as effective?
To recap, here is why gun control doesn't work and only serves to
diminish the Bill of Rights and harass and burden honest gun owners.
***Violent criminal thugs do not observe and heed laws that regulate
firearm possession, because they're already committing worse crimes and
pay no heed to such laws. In addition, they know that most often,
illegal firearm possession or firearm possession during the commission
of a crime is plea-bargained away or dropped entirely by the District
Attorney's office.
***Violent criminal thugs do not customarily get their guns from
properly licensed retail outlets where gun control policy is followed
through. Only the law-abiding are effected by such laws.
***Violent criminal thugs fabricate documentation, lie, cheat and
provide false identification when they get their guns from retailers,
pawn shops and others sources.
"Laws that forbid the
carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the
assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage
than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
greater confidence than an armed man."
Thomas Jefferson
Since laws that regulate firearm possession, ownership and carry affect
only those who obey the law in the first place, what can we do? What steps can we
take to diminish guns being used during the commission of a violent
crime? How can we diminish gun-crime, without placing any undue burden
upon the lawful and honest gun owner?
How can I/We stand here and thrust the Bill of Rights into the faces
of politicians, without offering viable and useful alternatives?
Violent crimes committed with firearms need to be curtailed somehow.
It's indeed a serious problem in many of our larger cities and something
needs to change.
It's mostly a social problem, a lack of good fathers, terrible role
models, a lack of general public morality and empty churches. It's
certainly not the fault of lawful and honest gun owners...
Can we curtail these incidents where firearms are used to commit
crimes, while leaving the lawful and honest gun owner out of the
loop? I think we can!
We must diminish criminal access to firearms and introduce policies
that really affect the criminal mind. These are some steps we can take to
actually affect criminal usage and access to firearms, while leaving
legitimate and honest gun owners completely out of the loop.
- Add significant civil (fines) and criminal penalties onto a friend or
family member of a violent felon who knowingly provides a firearm to
him/her.
- Add five (5) years of federal prison (per firearm) onto any
burglary or robbery charge where a firearm is stolen. This
additional five year of real prison per stolen firearm must be
mandatory and should not be dropped or plea-bargained away. (I.E.
Six guns stolen from a home burglary would get thirty years in
prison (6X5=30))
- Add significant civil (fines) and criminal penalties onto any violent
crime of rape, robbery or murder, where a firearm was used or
carried as a
weapon. (I.E. 5 additional years for gun possession during the
commission of a violent crime, 10 additional years for brandishing, 15 additional
years for firing it and 20 additional years for personal injury to
the victim with the firearm discharge.) We must make
criminals think twice about choosing a firearm to commit a crime
with.
- Prosecute felons who attempt to purchase a firearm through a
properly licensed retailer and get caught. It's been illegal for felons to
own firearms since the Gun Control Act of 1968, but they're rarely ever punished for
the attempt to purchase one. If you choose to be a felon, you have to realize that
you're giving up certain freedoms when you commit a crime of violence.
As Benjamin Franklin said
"[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
Legislators have to refocus crime control efforts and aim at the
felon and the felon's access to firearms and not at firearms themselves
or those who lawfully own them.
Concentrating efforts to reduce violent crime upon the violent criminal thug and not the firearm they obtained,
would go a long way toward fixing this persistent problem.
Hey Bloomberg and Daley! Are you listening?
Government must take more careful aim at diminishing actual sources
of firearms that are used in crime. They
must also promote efforts that affect the criminal mind by increasing penalties for choosing a
firearm to commit a crime with, while not providing a way out for these
increased penalties. If we're going to be serious about reducing
violent crime, we must do away with the plea-bargaining of illegal
firearm charges. Most often these gun charges are dropped in
a criminal case and violent felons know it....
Let's look at the problem even more simply shall we? Honest and upright
gun owners commit no crimes, while violent criminal thugs don't obey
laws that regulate firearms. That's the whole reason behind the
failures of gun control laws to affect violent crime.
Even the most ignorant dimwit liberal can understand that...
Shine the floodlight upon the violent felon and not the gun in his
hand. How's that for being simple and focused?!?!?!
It is only the slow-witted legislator and obtuse leftist who thinks that
a hardened violent criminal thug will obey a law regulating firearm
possession.
Oh wait a minute, I do have another answer! Let's
stop voting dimwit blockheaded anti-gun legislators into public
office!
"When you become
entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be
impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers,
"just men who will rule in the fear of God." The
preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of
this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men
in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not
for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or
incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public
revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the
citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails
to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the
citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and
administer the Laws."
Noah Webster 1758-1843
Closing Comments
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read the Minuteman
Monthly Newsletter. I encourage you to pass it on.
You may use this newsletter as you see fit. You may post it,
blog it, print it, forward it and publish it. The only thing I ask
is that somewhere in your material, make sure the URL www.SaveTheGuns.com
appears prominently.
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