Newspaper Calls For Full Repeal Of Second Amendment

Responding to last week’s shooting at Florida State University, a local newspaper columnist called for the full repeal of the Second Amendment. Gerald Ensley wrote in the Tallahassee Democrat:

“I'm not talking about gun control. I'm not talking about waiting periods and background checks. I'm talking about flat-out banning the possession of handguns and assault rifles by individual citizens. I'm talking about repealing or amendment the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

Ensley’s argument is riddled with factual errors and leaps in logic. He claims that the Second Amendment has been “misinterpreted” and that it does not ensure private gun ownership — only gun ownership for a “well-regulated militia”.

The Supreme Court struck down this argument when it ruled in 2008 that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms anywhere under federal jurisdiction.

Ensley also claims that guns should be banned because the US is the “far and away leader in gun homicides.”

Yet violent crime in the United States has been plummeting for decades. The FBI’s most recent statistics show that murders have fallen most dramatically, to their lowest number since 1968. Property crimes have also decreased every year for eleven straight years.

Meanwhile, statistics show that gun bans in other countries have repeatedly failed to lower crime. As Breitbart.com notes, Britain banned nearly all handguns in the 1990s. Since then, it has become the most violent country in Europe.

Like most progressives, Ensley has no time for factual arguments or thoughtful debate. But at least he admits that the true purpose of “gun control” is to ban guns altogether.

Poll: Guns’ Popularity On The Rise

The percentage of Americans who believe that having a gun at home improves security has almost doubled over the last decade. According to a recent Gallup poll, 63 percent of individuals surveyed said that they felt safer having a gun at home. Only 35 percent of respondents said the same in 2000.

This surge in support for gun ownership applied across the entire political spectrum, although support grew by 37 percent among Republicans and only 13 percent among Democrats. Republicans were twice as likely as Democrats to have a gun in their home.

According to Gallup, these changing attitudes show that guns are “taking on a more protective role than they have in the past.”

In other words, more and more Americans are seeing guns exactly as they should — not as something scary but as something useful.

The Price Of The NRA’s Defeatism

The NRA’s failure to mount serious opposition to I-594 in Washington is looking increasingly like a real miscalculation, if not a complete abdication of duty.

In the wake of their victory in Washington State, gun control groups continue to announce plans to pass universal background checks bills in states across the country.

This means that the door is now open to gun registries — and possibly even even gun confiscation — in places like Nevada and Maine.

The NRA devoted next to nothing protecting gun owners in Washington State, possibly because they didn’t think they could win. The latest figures show that only $600,000 was spent debunking the pro-gun control ads, about six percent of what the gun control groups spent promoting I-594.

Yet even without the NRA’s help, gun rights supporters won 40% of the vote in Washington. How much more would they have won with real support behind them?

Instead of fighting against gun control in Washington, the NRA spent millions this year on behalf of RINOs and career politicians who were virtually assured of victory.

They spent hundreds of thousands on Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, who won by sixteen points. They spent nearly a million on David Perdue in Georgia, who won by eight points. They spent a $1.3 million on Tom Cotton in Arkansas, who won by twenty-six points.

Mitch McConnell and Tom Cotton didn’t need the millions that the NRA gave them. Washington gun owners did.

Mitch McConnell Rules Out Government Shutdown

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell is already giving ground to Democrats, and he hasn’t even taken over as Senate Majority Leader.

Last week, he told reporters: “There will be no government shutdowns and no default on the national debt.” He also said that he “hopes to” work with Obama on trade legislation and that there would be no full scale repeal of Obamacare.

These capitulations make no sense, even for a political careerist like McConnell.

Last week’s elections proved that Republicans paid no political price at all for shutting down the government in 2013—no matter what Karl Rove and the insider establishment will tell you.

Second, the threat of another shutdown was one of McConnell’s strongest bargaining chips. Even if you don’t think a shutdown is a good idea, you have to admit that conservatives used the shutdown to extract key concessions from the left.

Leave it to Mitch McConnell to use a sweeping victory as an excuse to give in to his opponents.

Background Checks Bill Passes In Washington State…Where Was The NRA?

Voters in the state of Washington passed a universal background check law on Tuesday by a vote of 60% to 40%. The law will require background checks for private gun sales and sales at gun shows.

Having notched this victory, the gun control lobby is now planning to pass similar voter referendums in a number of other states.

For some reason, the NRA mostly sat this one out, spending less than ten percent of what the anti-gunners devoted to the effort and only hiring two employees in Washington. In August, a Washington state blogger said that only half of gun owners in the state had even heard of what was going on.

Now that the measure has passed, gun groups around the country are finally starting to notice. The Virginia Citizens Defense league posted a statement warning that the bill could lead to a universal registration of all guns, with “confiscation being the end goal of the scheme.” They are calling for “a massive education effort for both gun owners and non-gun owners alike.”

But it is already too late for gun owners in Washington State, and the national gun control interests have been handed an important victory.

The NRA should be taking gun control head on — not handing victory to the enemy by failing to show up in the first place.

New York’s “No-Gun” List Balloons To 34,500 Names

The state of New York keeps a database of individuals that it considers too mentally ill to own a gun. Recently released figures indicate that the list has grown to a massive size and includes many people who pose no threat to the public.

Figures published last month indicate that the registry includes 34,500 people. Mental health doctors say that this figure far exceeds the number of people who actually have dangerous mental illnesses in the state.

“That seems extraordinarily high to me,” said Sam Tsemberis, the former director of New York City’s involuntary hospitalization program for homeless and dangerous people. “Assumed dangerousness is a far cry from actual dangerousness.”

The state of New York requires doctors, psychologists and social workers to notify county officials about patients who they believe should be prohibited from owning firearms. The decision for who qualifies for gun confiscation appears to be completely up to the doctor.

There have already been at least two cases where guns were confiscated from law-abiding citizens.

In 2013, a college librarian in Amherst, NY was forced to surrender his weapons despite no criminal record or indications of mental instability. Why?  Because he had briefly been prescribed anti-anxiety medication.

Another individual, who remains anonymous, also had his pistol permit revoked after the state found out that he was seeing a therapist for anxiety. He had no criminal record or history of violence.

Now it appears that thousands of other peaceful citizens could face similar consequences.