Blog 12/15/22

Weekly Spotlight 12/12 – 12/18/22


Why Lawmakers Must Prioritize Right to Self-Defense in New Congress on Day One

The Democratic majority on the House Judiciary Committee are making a last-ditch effort to call for restrictive gun-control policies in efforts to curb “gun violence” throughout our communities.  However, the reality of more anti-gun laws is that they are a political tactic used to limit responsible gun ownership by law-abiding citizens.  Often, those who say they are working to eliminate “gun violence” are misrepresenting what, or in most cases who is committing the crime – it’s the person, not the tool. 

The only way to address the real issue of rising crime is to:

  • Do so head-on
  • Pass legislation that will actually protect our school children and other public places such as groceries, community centers, subway stations 
  • Encourage safe and responsible firearms ownership through firearms education and training

That is why the USCCA-FSL is urging the incoming Congress to consider a more effective path by understanding the impact of defensive gun use to thwart crime and passing laws that support responsible gun ownership.  The safety of all Americans depends on it. 

We need policies like North Carolina Representative Richard Hudson’s National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act to ensure Americans’ right to self-defense is honored wherever they go.  Too often, families visiting out-of-state relatives or business professionals traveling for work get caught up in unknowingly criminal situations due to convoluted concealed carry permit laws.  As the Supreme Court reaffirmed, the right to keep your firearm on hand shouldn’t stop at just your home or property.

Further, we need to say good riddance to the idea that a firearm ban will have any impact on crime.  If history has taught us anything, it’s that banning firearms, specifically those that are deemed to be “assault weapons,” shows no significant association with decreasing homicide rates.  Instead, America needs to better understand how defensive gun use plays a role in saving lives throughout our communities. 

Fortunately, with new leadership in Congress on the horizon, there will be stronger checks and balances in the creation of our nation’s policies, and we want to make sure that lawmakers protect and affirm our rights.  However, we need to make sure they see this on DAY ONE and we need YOUR VOICE to help.

Add your name to the Protect Our Rights Petition now.

Stay updated with this issue and others by visiting our website and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook so you stay an informed gun owner.

OTHER NEWS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

The Secret Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement secretly coordinated with the FBI to strip U.S. citizens of their rights to own, use, or even buy firearms, according to internal emails obtained by the Washington Examiner. Behind closed doors and without congressional approval, the FBI has stripped gun rights from at least 23 people with internal forms, the Washington Examiner reported. However, Secret Service and ICE, two agencies under the Department of Homeland Security, have also quietly used these same forms, emails show.

In Washington state, you can ask the state to deny you the right to buy a firearm. This first-of-its-kind law was the brainchild of Democrat state Sen. Jamie Pedersen. Several years ago, a pair of law professors approached him with the idea of allowing people to voluntarily give up their gun rights. “Their basic pitch was, ‘Hey, if you give people the power to do this then folks who know that they are suffering from some sort of mental illness…. when they have a break, do harm to themselves would be empowered to prevent that by getting firearms away from them in advance,” he said.

As gun registrations climbed to an all-time high during the last two years, a report shows women account for nearly half of those purchases—far above the 10 to 20 percent of gun owners they usually represent. That’s good news for Ronnie Wood, owner of Flat Top Arms on Eisenhower Drive in Beckley. “Last year was a record year for gun buying,” Wood said. “Sales started climbing in March of 2020 after coronavirus lockdowns began, and by June, background checks were up by 136 percent from the previous year.”

Blue states are pursuing new gun control measures in the wake of a Supreme Court decision this year that upended the way courts may look at gun laws in the future. In New Jersey, lawmakers in the state are advancing a bill that would severely restrict where lawful gun owners could carry their firearms with a permit that, under the new law, would cost significantly more money to obtain. In Illinois, lawmakers on Monday debated a proposal that would ban assault-style weapons, outlaw higher capacity magazines, and raise the minimum age for gun ownership from 18 to 21 years old.