Townhall.com The Blogspot for Political, Conservative and Republican Blogs and Bloggers

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

"Healthier" Not To Own A Gun? Uncle Sam Might Think So

Posted by: Townhall.com Staff at 10:36 AM

Incentives for not owning firearms aren't explicitly laid out in the health reform mandates that passed the House or Senate, but they're not explicitly prohibited, either. That made the Virginia-based Gun Owners of Americaa little concerned, sending out a notice to its members saying that premiums for gun owners could potentially be higher than premiums for non gun-owners, if the "rabidly anti-gun Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius" felt that not owning a gun was somehow healthier.

HT The Examiner

Tags: guns

(60) |

(0)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Legally Armed Students 'Fishing' for Bad Guys

Posted by: Chris Field at 9:04 AM

From Seattle (video below):

A group of University Of Washington students are being called vigilantes after they armed themselves with handguns and tried to set up patrols on University Avenue and other areas around campus where students have been attacked over the past year.

Stanley Luong and Luis Garcia have armed themselves. Both are assault victims.

Luong says, "Some guy just broke down the window, reached in and unlocked the door and came in and robbed us."

Garcia says, "Four men jumped out of a car. They assaulted me and threw my girlfriend to the ground and they attempted to rob me. Two times I've been jumped. I said it's not going to happen a third time."

So both got a concealed license permit and bought handguns. Now they walk with pistols in their pockets...looking for the bad guys.

Luong says, "I don't know if it's illegal to walk around and be bait. I'm kind of fishing for robbers."

Garcia says, "I believe the police they come after the fact. They aren't there when the incident is occurring I believe this is just the fastest means of protecting oneself and those around you? and so I decided to take that measure and execute my second amendment to bear arms."

According to the UW Daily Newspaper, there have been ten assaults and robberies in the area in just the past two months.

(51) |

(0)

Thursday, August 27, 2009

NO CONSERVATIVE DEFENSE FOR POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Posted by: Michael Medved at 2:23 PM

The constitution firmly protects our right to bear arms, but displaying those weapons in an inflammatory context can deeply damage the conservative cause.

A protester named William Kostric showed up at President Obama’s New Hampshire Townhall meeting wearing a holstered gun on his leg and carrying a sign that read: “It is Time to Water the Tree of Liberty.” The sign referred to Thomas Jefferson’s quote that, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” With this background, the gun-toting protester was clearly calling for murder, suicide or both.

How else could you interpret his sign? What other liquid, besides blood, did he have in mind for “watering” the liberty tree? Serious conservatives make a big mistake when they defend such sick and irresponsible calls for violence.

(75) |

(0)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Soto Ducks on Guns

Posted by: Jillian Bandes at 11:51 AM

She relied on the archaic case of Presser v. Illinois when dealing with 2nd amendment issues, but said she hadn't read Presser in a while or "analyzed the issue thoroughly" when questioned about its content. And this is how she reached the opinion that the 2nd Amendment doesn't apply to states???

Tags: Sotomayor

(8) |

(0)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Sotomayor and the Second Amendment

Posted by: Garrett Murch at 2:39 PM

The American Civil Rights Union's Jan LaRue, a frequent Townhall contributor, in today's American Thinker exposes reasons to seriously question Sotomayor's commitment to the Second Amendment as a fundamental, individual right--even after the Heller decision. This does not look good.

(11) |

(0)

Monday, May 11, 2009

"Now is the time to give back our guns."

Posted by: Jillian Bandes at 11:16 AM

Rapper T.I. is heading to prison for a year after being caught with illegal weapons. Before he gets there, he has started a foundation dedicated to serving the needs of low-income youth, which includes an education component about the dangers of gun violence.

Now is the time to speak out against gun violence. Now is the time to take responsibility for our actions. Now is the time to make our communities safer. Now is the time to support good legislation... Now is the time to give back our guns. Now is the time for me to lead by example.

Though it sends the wrong message, the foundation certainly is an admirable attempt by T.I. to repent for his illegal behavior. It just represents the type of high profile cases that cultivate PR for anti-gun advocates which opponents of gun regulation simply don't have.

(26) |

(0)

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Obama AND Calderon Perpetuate The '90 Percent Of Mexico's Weapons Come From The U.S.' Lie

Posted by: Greg Hengler at 6:22 PM

FOX News blasted this liberal lie out of the water a couple of weeks ago. The lie--or "myth" if we're going to be diplomatic--was passed down from the Obama administration. I have not heard any mention of the 90 percent myth since the FOX News report--until now.

Obama's bottom line is consistent and predictable: It's our fault. Mexico's President Calderon seconds Obama's motion.

(51) |

(0)

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Dispatch From Massachusetts

Posted by: Jillian Bandes at 3:33 PM

I was given consent to publish this photograph only under the condition that I identify the photographer as Sam Adams.

(14) |

(0)

Monday, April 06, 2009

The Coming Gun Debate

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 9:32 AM

http://bluedandelion.net/english/usa/freedom.crop.jpg

With the recent shootings in Binghamton, NY and Pittsburgh, PA -- plus the ten-year anniversary of Columbine on April 20, some calls for more gun control are likely to come.

Of course, like stem cells and gays in the military, the gun issue poses a problem for a president who benefited electorally from the death of cultural outrage, as well as the dormancy of the culture wars.

In the 2008 general election, Obama was able to win the Catholic vote (a bloc that may well go against him next time), and to win states like Virginia where issues like gun control have in the past haunted liberal Democratic candidates.

Of course, it could be argued that one of the reasons conservatives have done poorly of late is that many of the hot-button issues which galvanized conservatives have now been settled. A prime example of an issue which had been taken off the table is the gun issue. After losing many elections, liberals, for the most part, gave up on efforts to curtail second amendment rights. This allowed them to win governorships in states like Virginia (see Mark Warner and Tim Kaine) and to elect Congressmen in conservative states like North Carolina (see Heath Schuler).

But just as Obama has been pressured by the left to pacify his liberal base on other issues, the recent shooting may force him to, at least, return to more liberal anti-gun rhetoric of the past.

This weekend, I did a BloggingHeadsTV segment (to be posted shortly) with Rachel Sklar, who raised this issue. Her argument was essentially that there should be more gun registration and gun licensing laws (and a way to close the gun show loophole) because, as she noted, you need a license to do just about everything else...

Of course, defenders of the second amendment see licensing as a veiled attempt to limit gun ownership, a slippery-slope method to ban all guns, a way for Big Brother to keep track of citizens who own guns -- or all three.

While additional licensing may sound like a harmless compromise, I would propose to those who support this notion that they consider applying their second amendment solutions to the first amendment. After all, if the pen is mightier than the sword, shouldn't bloggers be ~~forced~~, umm, required to obtain a license from the government before opining about politics??? ... Of course not!

Regardless of where you stand on this issue, though, I think it is very clear Democrats have benefitted tremendously from the decline of hot-button cultural issues. In some cases (like the gun issue), the issue has become less important because Democrats have proactively "hugged" Republicans on this issue. In other cases, the public may have moved leftward.

Perhaps most importantly, though, Republicans were in power -- and thus, the public could not blame Democrats. Regardless, if Obama and the Democrats are not careful (and humble regarding the tenuousness of power), they may find themselves reawakening the same powerful populist forces that propelled Republicans to victory in 1994.

(91) |

(0)

Monday, February 23, 2009

Mayors Against Illegal Guns True Agenda is Anti-Gun

Posted by: Dwayne Horner at 3:23 PM

A Guest Blog from Scott O'Grady.

As I crouched behind enemy lines in Bosnia after my F-16 was shot down more than a decade ago, I promised myself that when rescued, I would always speak out when the values we hold dear as Americans are threatened. Through the years, I have kept that promise.

There is an organization whose primary agenda is anti-gun, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and one of their members is a candidate to replace U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson is Houston Mayor Bill White. Mr. White opposes our Second Amendment right to bear arms.

It’s website says “As Mayors, our highest responsibility is to enforce the law and to protect the people we serve,” however eight current members find themselves in trouble with the law in their respective cities.

Mayor’s Against Illegal Guns is headed by liberal mayors Mike Bloomberg of New York and Tom Menino of Boston. Their mission is to put pressure on the federal government and state legislatures to strengthen anti-gun laws. White and the other mayors want to prohibit guns from entering the hands of law-abiding gun owners.

Some mayors who originally joined this group resigned when they discovered its true agenda. According to media reports Alaska’s Mark Begich, currently a U.S. Senator, told his hometown newspaper: “I recently withdrew my name from the coalition after initially agreeing to sign on. I am concerned the coalition is working on issues that conflict with the beliefs we share in Alaska about legal gun ownership." (Begich, "Letters: Guarding Second Amendment rights was not a part of mayors' coalition," Anchorage Daily News, 2/4/2007) As you can see, when leaders see the true mission of the organization, they are not staying on board.

All Americans should be concerned about any politician who doesn’t strongly support a law-abiding individual’s right to bear arms because this Constitutional right should not be infringed. Bill White, or any politician for that matter, who doesn’t fully support the Second Amendment as an individual right should not hold public office at any level.

I will always be a public proponent of our Constitutional rights, especially when it comes to defending our right to bear arms as citizens. Please join me in my effort to inform all voters, not just in the Texas Senate Race, about the importance of our Second Amendment Rights. We must unite in our opposition to candidates, such as Bill White, who do not agree with us regarding the right to bear arms.

Scott O’Grady,
Strong Proponent of the Second Amendment
Former NRA Board Member
Bosnian War Survivor

Tags: ScottOGrady SecondAmendment MayorsAgainstIllegalGuns AntiGun

(22) |

(0)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Chuck Norris Featured in NRA Ad

Posted by: Matt Lewis at 9:07 AM

Gotta love this one...

(7) |

(0)

Friday, June 27, 2008

Pro-Gun Protest

Posted by: Amanda Carpenter at 7:05 AM

A group of about twenty students, wanting to protect our 2^nd Amendment right to bear arms, banded together in front of the Supreme Court today to await the fateful decision regarding the DC gun ban. Moved by a common passion, they held hand made signs, chanted to overturn the DC gun ban, and overwhelmed the Brady supporters, who stood idly on the sidelines. After the Court decided in their favor, the students gathered around Heller to extend congratulatory messages and take pictures. Though the students do not originate from the DC area, they represent groups from all over the country and consider this decision a major victory in defending the liberties of all citizens in America.
-A mini report sent to me from Leadership Institute intern Geneva Hackler, who I met earlier this year when she visited Washington with her college debate team. She was one of those students supporting 2nd Amendment rights on the steps of the Supreme Court yesterday. Her pictures from the protest are below.

(3) |

(0)

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Gun Owners

Posted by: Townhall.com Staff at 12:04 PM

Today, the Supreme Court overturned the D.C. gun ban in an unprecedented case. In the May issue of Townhall Magazine, David Kopel, research director at the Independence Institute, discussed the possible repercussions of the Supreme Court's landmark decision. In support of the Second Amendment, Kopel talked about several benefits of overturning of the gun ban.

A Second Amendment victory in District of Columbia v. Heller would have two important effects: First, it would save the lives of D.C. residents. Second, it would promote gun-rights consciousness in the U.S. - school textbook publishers will no longer be able to pretend the Second Amendment pertains only to the National Guard and students will learn about the Second Amendment as an ordinary right, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights.

Conservatives should be hopeful that Kopel's predictions will ring true in light of this constitutional decision. D.C. residents can now enjoy their full set of rights thanks to the 5-4 ruling upholding the Second Amendment.

To read more about gun rights and conservative principles in Townhall, get a free copy today by visiting www.gettownhall.com. Already sold? Visit http://magazine.townhall.com/jihad to order your 12 month subscription of Townhall and, for a limited time, receive a free copy of Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad by Andrew McCarthy.