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guns

Mitch to Move on Guns, Hickenlooper Heading for Senate Race? Another Biden Bungle

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Daniel Foster of National Review Online and Greg Corombos of Radio America are still searching for those elusive good martinis.  Today, they wonder why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is suddenly insisting the Senate “can’t fail to pass” gun-related legislation in an effort to stop mass shootings.  They also see the news former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper may soon jump from the presidential race to his state’s 2020 U.S. Senate race as bad for both campaigns.  And they take a deeper look at the latest Joe Biden stumble on the campaign trail and what it tells us about his bid for the White House.

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Gun Owners Explain Opposition to Gun Control Agenda

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In wake of three horrific mass shootings, demands for gun control legislation are intensifying. Supporters of the movement insist universal background checks, assault weapons ban, red flag laws, and other measures will reduce the odds for more atrocities like we witnessed over the weekend in El Paso and Dayton.

But while you might not know it from watching and reading mainstream media sources, there is another side of this debate.  Second amendment groups like Gun Owners of America are pushing back vigorously across the board, starting with the push for the Senate to take up the House bill on universal background checks.

Gun Owners of America Legislative Counsel Mike Hammond says the House bill infringes far more on personal liberties than its supporters would have Americans believe.

“The legislation which the House passed is completely screwy.  It’s a trap which could basically enmesh any gun owner,” said Hammond.

He says the most innocuous activity could make you a hardened criminal under the House bill.

“If you show your gun to your neighbor in your dining room and then go into the next room to go to the bathroom, you’re a felon.  If you sell your gun to your kid for one dollar, you’re a felon.  If you take someone shooting and the person doesn’t have a hunting license, you’re a felon.

“The bill has a whole lot of deliberate provisions in it to make if very, very difficult to own a firearm in America,” said Hammond.

President Trump has not indicated support for that particular bill but he has said in recent days that he is open to expanded background checks.  Hammond says it’s hard to read Trump’s commitment to the second amendment moment to moment, but hopes the president will not go down that road.

“Depending on who’s in the room, he’s either pro or anti-second amendment.  I hope that he holds firm because if he basically kisses off the second amendment community, I think he’s going to be a one-term president,” said Hammond.

Listen to the full podcast to learn what Hammond think about requiring a background check for every firearm purchase or proposed red flag laws which would allow guns to be removed from Americans reported as a danger to themselves or others.  And we ask whether the Senate is likely to take up any of these issues.

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Guns & the Constitution, Trump & Blago, Bernie & Aliens

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America marvel at the civic illiteracy in the gun debate, as Fox Business Network host Trish Regan asserts that President Trump could simply issue an executive order to ban assault weapons. They also discuss Trump’s bizarre fascination with possibly commuting the prison sentence of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And they have a lot of fun with Bernie Sanders and Joe Rogan discussing whether a President Sanders would reveal everything the government knows about aliens and UFO’s.

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Gravel Gets Out, Biden’s Big Exaggeration, Mayor Pete Targets Filibuster

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America welcome the exit of Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel, revealing he was never really running in the first place. They also push back strongly against Joe Biden’s assertion that white supremacists are winning the culture war. And they have plenty to say after Pete Buttigieg claims the Senate filibuster must be scrapped because it stopped a background check bill from passing in 2013.

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Virginia Gun Battle Begins

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On July 9, the Virginia General Assembly will enter into a special session ordered by Gov. Ralph Northam to address gun violence.

Northam is specifically asking the Republican-led legislature to enact universal background checks, a ban on “assault weapons,” reinstating Virginia’s one gun per month law and more.

But Republicans are planning a much different approach. Del. Nick Freitas is a member of the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee, which will review every piece of legislation in this special session.

Listen to the podcast to hear Freitas explain why he believes public safety and civil liberties ought to be the top priorities for lawmakers, why he thinks Northam’s proposals are more about politics than saving lives, why he expects the narrow GOP majorities to hold together on the Second Amendment, and what he makes of poll numbers showing strong support for some of the Northam agenda.

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Northam & Guns: Sound Policy or Political Posturing?

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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is calling a special session to push new gun laws in the wake of last week’s deadly mass shooting in Virginia Beach, but a pro-second amendment lawmaker sees Northam’s move more as an attempt to burnish his own image than to seriously address incidents of deadly violence.

Earlier in the week, Northam called for seven specific items to be enacted, including universal background checks; a ban on assault weapons, bump stocks, and suppressors; an extreme risk protective order; re-instating of the one-gun-a-month law; requiring people to report lost or stolen firearms; and expanding local authority to regulate firearms – including in government buildings.

Northam’s call comes just days after a disgruntled former municipal employee in Virginia Beach killed 12 people and wounded at least six others before being killed by police.

But GOP Delegate Nick Freitas does not believe Northam is approaching the issue with sincerity.  Instead, Freitas thinks the governor is trying to improve his standing among voters following his notorious medical school yearbook scandal, in which a photo of one person in blackface and another in KKK garb appeared on Northam’s personal page.

“Ever since his blackface and KKK robe scandal, everything he has done has been about trying to rejuvenate his political career.  When it interferes in sound public policy, that’s a real problem,” said Freitas.

The Virginia Beach murderer legally purchased the handguns he used to shoot people in a government building, leading Freitas and other Northam critics wonder how Northam’s policy demands would have made any difference in that horrific attack.

To the contrary, Freitas says Northam’s agenda would Virginia citizens less safe.

“The whole reason why, in the United States, we value the individual’s right to be able to protect themselves and if necessary to have a firearm to do so.  It’s because it actually makes a weaker person able to defend themselves from a stronger attacker.

“Every single one of these provisions they’re now pushing out creates an environment where a law-abiding citizen is going to be put at a disadvantage to somebody that is not obeying the law,” said Freitas.

Freitas says the narrow Republican majorities in the General Assembly will examine ways to make Virginians safer but that will not include the Northam agenda.

“We’re going to use this as an opportunity to actually look at all of the data points – all of the information coming in surrounding this shooting – and figure out a way that we can actually make people safer.  But we’re certainly not going to succumb to this knee-jerk reaction by the governor to politicize a tragic event in order to rehabilitate his political career,” said Freitas.

Listen to the full podcast to hear Freitas discuss whether there can ever be common ground on this issue and where Virginia Republicans can take action to increase safety for people in the commonwealth.

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The Medicare for All Myth, Booker’s Bogus Gun Grab, Who’s the Hateful One?

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America applaud the USA Today editorial writers for pointing out Medicare for All would rip more than 100 million Americans away from coverage they like and run up a cost that even government economists can’t figure out.  They also slam Cory Booker for demanding a ban on “assault weapons” and refusing to say whether he would jail gun owners who refuse to give up their weapons.  And they unload on Pennsylvania Democratic State Rep. Brian Sims for filming himself harassing people peacefully praying outside a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood abortion clinic and even offering rewards for his followers to identify the people he’s intimidating.

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Media’s Mueller Madness, Freedom On Hold in Venezuela, MSNBC & the 2nd Amendment

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Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are exasperated as Democrats and the media breathlessly report that Robert Mueller disagrees with Attorney General Bill Barr’s summary of the report since the very same story confirms that Mueller did not find the summary inaccurate.  They’re also disappointed as Juan Guaido’s effort to remove Nicholas Maduro from power in Venezuela appears to be a failure.  And they applaud MSNBC for inadvertently explaining the purpose of our second amendment while watching Venezuela’s military crush protesters in the streets.

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‘They Can’t Find One Single Crime That’s Been Solved’

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President Trump is taking heat from political adversaries and international activists for withdrawing the United States from the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, but one of the nation’s leading crime researchers says the tactics used in the treaty have never been used to solve any crime.

The Obama administration signed onto the Arms Trade Treaty shortly before Trump took office.  It would require widespread firearm registration and licensing within signatory nations.  The goal is to be able to track guns and prevent them from winding up in the hands of terrorists, gangs, cartels, and other nefarious elements.

Crime Prevention Research Center President Dr. John Lott says the premise seems to make sense: if you can find the gun used to commit a crime, you can find the person responsible.  However, Lott says most guns aren’t left at the crime scene, those that are are not registered, and killers do not use guns registered in their own names.

In addition to concerns about second amendment rights, Lott says there’s literally no evidence the UN approach works.

“When you look at Hawaii or Chicago or Washington, D.C. or other countries such as Canada, people have gone back and looked at the data.  They can’t find one single crime that’s been solved as a result of registration and licensing,” said Lott.

In Honolulu, for example, Lott says police logged 50,000 working hours filling out paperwork for gun licensing and registration.  Not only has it not solved crimes, he says it’s taking valuable time away from police work that does yield results.

“Maybe if you’d solved thousands of crimes, or at least hundreds of crimes, or at least a dozen crimes, or at least any crime, then there might be some discussion about the trade-offs that were there.  Obviously, 50,000 hours of police time could have been used in traditional policing that we know works, we know solves crime,” said Lott.

Listen to the full podcast as Dr. Lott explains how the UN Arms Trade Treaty could also handcuff U.S. foreign policy and how fierce the debate over the second amendment will be in the 2020 campaign.

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