Does Lamar Alexander Actually Have The NRA’s Support?

Earlier this week, I wrote that the NRA endorsed Lamar Alexander in the upcoming Senate primary in Tennessee. This information came from an article published in The Hill last Sunday, which stated:

“Alexander dismisses criticisms that he’s moved too far to the center, citing his NRA endorsement and ‘A’ rating with the National Right to Life.”

It has since been brought to my attention that the NRA has not formally endorsed either candidate in this race. Either Alexander has been lying about being endorsed by the NRA, or the reporter misconstrued his comments.

It turns out that Alexander has also made misleading statements about his NRA rating. On his website, he claims that the NRA gave him an A rating in its most recent assessment of him earlier this month, while the NRA’s website states that he was downgraded to an A -. His opponent, Joe Carr, was given an A.

I take responsibility for mistakenly reporting the NRA’s endorsement, and in the future I will do a better job of checking my facts. But I also believe that Sen. Alexander needs to be less misleading about his support from the NRA.

NRA Endorses Sen. Lamar Alexander Despite Anti-Gun Votes

The NRA is supporting moderate Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander in his primary against Tea Party challenger Joe Carr, despite Alexander’s poor track record on gun issues in Congress. Alexander is merely the latest in a string of questionable endorsements that the group has made in this year’s Republican primaries.

Alexander sided with Democrats when gun rights were on the line in 2013. When Rand Paul tried to lead a Republican filibuster of the Obama’s background check bill, Sen. Alexander joined Democrats and provided a crucial vote to allow debate. He also voted to confirm Obama’s gun-grabbing Attorney General, Eric Holder.

Several other gun groups are opposing Alexander, including Gun Owners of America and the National Association for Gun Rights.

In their endorsement of Joe Carr, GOA said: “Washington establishment insiders — who care more about their reelections than your constitutional rights — are being defeated by an electorate fed up with the status quo. It’s time for the same kind of change in Tennessee.”

Unlike Alexander, Carr has an unblemished record on gun rights. In its endorsement, GOA said:

“Time after time in the state legislature, Rep. Carr stood up for gun owners’ rights. Joe voted to protect the privacy of concealed carry permit holders, and he voted to expand concealed carry to all restaurants so you are better able to protect yourself and your family. Joe voted to eliminate the unconstitutional requirement that gun buyers submit a thumbprint to Tennessee firearms dealers."

GOA added that Alexander has a “C” rating from the group and he refuses to fill out the group’s survey.

This is far from the first time that the NRA has chosen to support a moderate Republican with a weak record on guns over a more worthy conservative challenger. The group endorsed several moderate candidates in 2014 including Mitch McConnell, Mike Simpson and Thad Cochran.

Like Alexander, Mitch McConnell won the NRA’s support despite having a history of weakness on gun issues. In 1991, McConnell voted for Joe Biden’s crime bill that imposed a waiting period on handgun sales. In 2004, he supported Barbara Boxer’s bill to prohibit the sale of guns without a safety storage device.

McConnell also voted with the Democrats to allow debate on Obama’s background check bill. Just like Alexander.

The NRA needs to go back to picking candidates according to their record on gun rights — period. If gun issues are not important to the NRA, then what is?

“Guns Are Welcome” Sign Brings In Business

A restaurant owner in Tennessee says that posting a “Guns Are Welcome” sign on the front door of her establishment has brought in new customers.

Sharma Floyd, owner of Shiloh Brew and Chew in Maryville, TN, posted the sign after reading about a store in North Carolina that was robbed after it banned guns.

“They had put up a sign that said ‘No Weapons Allowed’ and they were robbed at gunpoint two days later. The convenience store manager was shot,” Floyd told the television station WBIR. “That got me thinking”.

Floyd decided to put up a sign of her own, welcoming people carrying guns to her establishment.

Floyd was simply trying to keep her restaurant safe, but she soon learned that the sign was also good advertising. She has gotten at least twenty new customers since posting it. 

“I have had so many customers take pictures of the sign, ask to meet me in person, and thank me,” Floyd said. “There have been as many as eight people in here at one time who I know for a fact had guns. And no one would have known it except I know them personally.”

Floyd isn't the only business owner who is finding that welcoming guns is good for business. In the town of Rifle, Colorado, a restaurant called Shooters advertises itself as a “gun-friendly” dining establishment. Guns line the restaurant’s walls, and one waitress even carries a Ruger Blackhawk .357 revolver with a bandolier of live ammunition.

These businesses are reacting to big chains like Target and Starbucks that have banned guns in recent months. 

"As the owner, I wanted to stand my ground," Floyd told WBIR. "I have that constitutional right. If you like it, that's great, if you don't, I'm sorry for you. I can't change who I am."

Comic Book Icon Archie Dies For Gun Control

The publishers of Life With Archie have announced that Archie Andrews will be killed in the next edition of the comic while protecting a gay politician who is trying to push gun control.

The politician is Archie’s best friend, a former soldier named Kevin Keller who entered politics in order to pass gun control after his husband was shot in an attempted robbery. Archie dies protecting Kevin from a would-be political assassin. The assassin’s identity will be revealed when the comic is released tomorrow.

If Archie’s death sounds like a ridiculous liberal publicity stunt, that’s because it is. Life With Archie underwent a “modern” makeover when it was re-launched in 2010. The new version of the comic targeted liberal readers by dealing with so-called “socially relevant” issues like gay marriage.

Archie’s re-invention generated lots of awards from left-wing organizations, but it must not have attracted many actual readers because Life With Archie will end permanently in August.

Apparently the publishers decided to try one last publicity stunt before pulling the plug. It’s sad to see a classic comic that was created in order to spread a Christian message end in such a silly and cynical way.

Obama’s Biggest Regret? Failure to Pass Background Checks

A few weeks ago, Obama said that his biggest disappointment as President was Congress’ failure to pass background check legislation.

Yes, you read that correctly. Of all the things he has bungled and ignored over the past six years, Obama thinks that his failure to limit the Second Amendment is the worst failure his presidency.

Really? That’s all he can come up with?

There are about seventeen million things that he should regret more than failing to take away gun rights from law abiding Americans. In case he forgot, here is a short list to remind him of some of the big ones:

• Abandoning Iraq and thrusting the country into civil war.
• Using the NSA to spy on millions of Americans.
• Spending the country’s future into oblivion.
• Bailing out all of those banks and companies that were “too big to fail”.
• The unmitigated disaster of Obamacare.

Instead, despite this endless list of screw-ups, Obama’s biggest regret is the fact that Congress didn’t pass a background checks law.

2016 cannot come soon enough.

NRA Changes Stance On Guns For “Abusers”

Last week, the Governor of Vermont signed a law allowing police to confiscate guns from anyone under a judicial order for domestic abuse. This means that men and women accused of domestic crimes in Vermont could lose their Second Amendment rights before ever seeing a jury.

Similar laws have passed this year in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Louisiana. In each of these states, local gun groups protested the laws arguing that they not only violate the Second Amendment but also of contradict the basic concept of “innocent until proven guilty.”

The groups also argue that these laws will not do very much to actually protect victims of domestic violence. In Vermont, only one domestic violence murder was committed with a firearm during the most recent year on record. In Minnesota, a state of nearly five and a half million people, there were only ten such crimes last year.

Despite this, all four of these laws passed easily in each state. And in each case, their passage was approved and aided by the least likely of organizations: the NRA.

Over the past year, the NRA has been quietly helping legislators pass this kind of domestic violence legislation, either by promising not to oppose the bills or by actively working with the bills’ liberal sponsors. After the Minnesota bill passed, Minnesota Democratic State Rep. Dan Schoen said: “The NRA has been really good to work with on this particular issue. It pains me to say, but they have been.”

It is not entirely clear why the NRA is doing this. Until recently, it strongly opposed this kind of legislation and was successful in preventing the passage of these laws. Perhaps its change of heart has something to do with its recent outreach to women, or maybe it is another one of its lame efforts to appear “bipartisan”.

Who knows?

Either way, the NRA shouldn’t be handing victories to the gun grabbers just to protect its own image.