Archive for March, 2017

Continuing Down The Road To Second Amendment Freedom – America’s 1st Freedom (press release) (blog)

The Right-to-Carry revolution continues to sweep across the country. With Gov. Doug Burgums signing of HB 1169 last week, North Dakota became the latest state to adopt a permitless/constitutional carry law. New Hampshire passed its own permitless carry law earlier this year, while other states like South Carolina are still considering similar legislation. (South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard vetoed a constitutional carry bill passed by the legislature earlier this month.) There are now more states that have constitutional carry laws than there are states with restrictive may-issue policies for carrying firearms. In other words, more state laws look like New Hampshires than New Jerseys, and thats a very good thing.

Judges have been considering the right to bear arms in courtrooms across the country, and a few of them have come up with some pretty extraordinary interpretations of the Second Amendment to justify restrictive gun control regimes. Many of them try to seize upon Antonin Scalias comment in Heller that not all gun control laws would be found to be unconstitutional as evidence that governments should have broad leeway in passing laws restricting the Second Amendment rights of their constituents. Others claim that as firearms have changed over the years, the meaning of the Second Amendment must have changed as well. Because the Founding Fathers never could have envisioned semi-automatic rifles, or multi-shot pistols, laws banning rifles and restricting the carrying of firearms are therefore fine and dandy. But few courts have considered what states around the country have actually been doing for the past few decades.More state laws look like New Hampshires than New Jerseys, and thats a very good thing.

In 1987, there were only nine states that were shall-issue in regards to concealed-carry licenses, and only Vermont expressly allowed carry without a permit. Twenty-four states authorized broad discretion in terms of who could carry, and 16 didnt allow any concealed carry at all. Just 30 years later, there are no states left with complete bans on carrying firearms. Twenty-nine states now have shall-issue laws, 13 now have permitless carry, and only eight (nine, if you include Washington, D.C.) still have the may-issue laws on the books. Constitutional carry isnt clustered in just one region of the country, either. In the northwest, Idaho adopted its permitless carry law in 2016; in the southeast, Mississippi did the same; while in the mid-Atlantic, West Virginia also adopted constitutional carry. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed constitutional carry into law in 2010, and Maine and New Hampshire recently joined Vermont in becoming permitless carry states. This is a broad movement, but good luck getting many judges on the 4th or 9th Circuits to notice.This is a broad movement, but good luck getting many judges on the 4th or 9th Circuits to notice.

Even if you view the Constitution as a living document, changing with the times without any need to actually amend it, its pretty clear that this country supports the individual right to keep and bear arms as much or more than we did at the time of the nations founding. Yes, there are a handful of states where anti-gun attitudes dominate legislatures and the public square, but the momentum is on the side of the Second Amendment. While dozens of states have adopted shall-issue or constitutional carry measures over the past three decades, not one state has reversed course. No state has instituted a ban on the carrying of firearms, or even switched from a shall-issue to a may-issue law. The country has been moving in one direction when it comes to the right to carry, and its in the direction of a full recognition of our Second Amendment rights.

Cam Edwards is the host of Cam & Co., which airs live 2-5 p.m. EST on NRATV and midnight EST on SiriusXM Patriot 125.He lives with his family on a small farm near Farmville, Va. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @camedwards.

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Continuing Down The Road To Second Amendment Freedom - America's 1st Freedom (press release) (blog)

This Nevada Senator Is Trying To Protect Second Amendment Rights Of Cannabis Consumers – Civilized

Right now it's illegal for any cannabis consumer in America to own firearms under the Second Amendment. But a state senator in Nevada is trying to get a law passed that would defend the right of medical marijuana patients to bear arms in the state.

According to federal law, people aren't allowed to buy or possess firearms if they use marijuana medicinally or recreationally.

The Gun Control Act of 1968states, "It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person...is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act."

Since marijuanais listed as a Schedule I drug in the Controlled Substances Act,cannabis consumers can't legally bear arms.

But Nevada State Senator Kelvin Atkinson (D-North Las Vegas) hopes to change that by convincing his colleagues to pass Senate bill SB351, which isaimed at protecting the Second Amendment rights of medical marijuana patients. He introduced that bill to state legislators last week at the request of medical marijuana patients who reached out to him and asked for help.

"People have come to me and said, 'This isn't fair. Can you guys at least hear us out?' " he told local CBS-affiliate KTVN. "So, it's an opportunity to hear folks out and see where we need to go with it."

Atkinson argues that barring cannabis users from owning firearms is unjust since people who drink don't lose their Second Amendment rights.

"You look at everything else an individual can be on, including alcohol...and it's not an immediate disqualifier," he said. "I think it should be looked at and it shouldn't be an immediate disqualifier for individuals who are...taking it medically."

The senator added that the bill doesn't address recreational cannabis consumers because they aren't required by law to identify themselves. Medical marijuana patients have to apply for and carry a card authorizing their drug use. Recreational users don't face those requirements in the state that legalized adult use in 2016.

But even if the new law does pass, its value would be mostly symbolic since gun dealers would still have to abide by federal regulations. Before people in America can buy a gun, they have to fill out an ATF 4473 form, which specifically asks, "Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?"

The form also clarifies that marijuana remains federally illegal even if the state an applicant resides in has legalized or decriminalized it.

Atkinson's bill can't overrule those guidelines, according to Jay Hawkins, Manager of Reno Guns & Range.

"That law doesn't change the guidelines that we're bound by, which is federal guidelines," Hawkins told KTVN. "All that law would change is the possession."

So a person could legally own a gun under the new Nevada law, but they couldn't buy a new one and they couldn't buy any ammo. So thanks to federal cannabis prohibition, their Second Amendment rights have been basically watered down to the freedom to own an expensive paperweight.

But that could change if Congress passes acannabis reform billintroduced to the House last month byRep. Thomas Garrett (R-Virginia). Rep. Garrett's bill would essentially repeal federal prohibition and allow individual states to determine the legality of marijuana.

h/t KTVN (Reno, Nevada)

Banner image: thelegislator.org(Nevada State Senator, Kelvin Atkinson)

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This Nevada Senator Is Trying To Protect Second Amendment Rights Of Cannabis Consumers - Civilized

American Rifleman | The Keefe Report: "It’s My Second Amendment" – American Rifleman (press release) (blog)

This is the Colt U.S. M1911 .45 ACP pistol Burgett carried throughout his combat experience with the 101st Airborne Division in Europe during World War II. Nickel-plated and acquired by his father, the pistol was mailed to Burgett in Aldbourne, England, the day before D-Day.

A man should have heroes. And I am proud to say I have come to know some of mine. With familiarity only comes deeper respect.

I lost a friend, hero and fellow NRA life member last week, Donald R. Burgett. His books, starting with Currahee!A Screaming Eagle at Normandy, told the story of the enlisted man in the American Airborne during World War II.

I have been fortunate to spend time with some of my heroes, and through American Rifleman have been able to help tell their stories.

At the NRA Annual Meetings in Pittsburgh I had breakfast with Don and his family, including his daughter Rene, as well as Dr. Sidney Clark Phillips Jr., and his lovely sister Katherine.

Then-NRA-Secretary Jim Land had asked if these two World War II veterans, who were honored guests at the Special Presentations we were running that weekend, would lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the NRA Meeting of members. Of course, they were honored.

Don Burgett, left, and Sid Phillips (not pictured) were presented with Taurus M1911s by the company's CEO Bob Morrison at the 2011 NRA Annual Meetings in Pittsburgh, where the two NRA Life members and World War II veterans were guests of American Rifleman. They led the Pledge of Allegiance at the Annual Meeting of Members.

I recall Don asking Sid, "How do you want to do this?" Sid responded, "I believe we should do the hand salute," to which Don replied, as he wiped his mouth with the hotel napkin, "Then that's what we'll do." And shortly thereafter, they did. As they walked across the stage, they were no longer men in the twilight of their lives, a Detroit factory worker and a genteel southern doctor, they were a swaggering Army paratrooper and a Guadalcanal Marine. Their backs were straighter, and age seemed to fall away from them. They graciously took the standing ovation given them by their fellow NRA members, and then Don, who had been a sergeant said, "Hand salute," and a 17-year-old Marine and a 19-year-old paratrooper, more than half a century after they swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, saluted the national colors and began, "I pledge allegiance... ."

Before heading to New Zealand and the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, Phillips trained stateside with a Springfield '03. Nearly 70 years later, Phillips was still proficient with the rifle on his backyard shooting range.

We lost Sid Phillips in 2015. And we have now lost Don Burgett. I sat down to write about Sid a half dozen times, but could not find words adequate enough to express the gratitude our nation owes such men. Our nation is poorer for their loss. They were but two men. Humble men. Amongst millions. They did their part and more. They did nothing less than save the world from unspeakable evil. We owe our freedom, our way of life, to Don and Sid, and all those who served with them. And we are losing them.

We did TV shows with both Don and Sid. As well as magazine articles. You may have missed them in the magazine, but they are online (see links below). I was fortunate enough to come to know them. But their stories and their words are things every American should know. Know what they did for your freedom. And remember them.

Men like Don Burgett and Sid Phillips safeguarded your freedom. Make their valor, their sacrifice, worth it.

I interviewed Don for American Rifleman TV, and we listened to a man who jumped into Normandy, who fought to keep Hell's Highway open, who fought from a frozen foxhole on the road between Bastogne and Foy, tell us his story. He talked about liberating a Nazi death camp, telling the very souls the Nazis sought to exterminate, that things were different now that "America is here." And when he talked about what the Second Amendment meant to him, I watched the eyes tear and voice break of one of the bravest men I've ever met. Watch the video. Men like Don Burgett and Sid Phillips safeguarded your freedom. Make their valor, their sacrifice, worth it. As Don told me, "It's my Second Amendment." And it's yours too. Because men like him were willing to fight for it.

Learn more about these great men here:Video:American Rifleman TV: Don Burgett, Part 1 Video:American Rifleman TV: Don Burgett, Part 2 Hotter Than The Hinges Of Hell's GatesDon Burgett Marine & RiflemanSidney C. Phillips, Jr.

Link:
American Rifleman | The Keefe Report: "It's My Second Amendment" - American Rifleman (press release) (blog)

On The Front Lines Of The Migrant Crisis – Huffington Post

Its night, 18 miles off Libyas coast. Im waiting alongside Sharo, who is eight months pregnant. That morning, wed rescued her from a dangerously overcrowded wooden boat. To save her, as well as the children and those who were sick, wed had to leave her husband. All day, Sharo has battled labor pains and anxiety for her husband. Was he alive? Headed for a refugee processing center hundreds of miles away?

For two weeks, Ive been a volunteer on the Minden, an 80-foot former German Coast Guard ship operated by two German nongovernmental organizations, Cadus and Lifeboat Project. The Minden now carries a crew of eight including medical staff and RIB (rigid inflatable boat) operators to the front lines of the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean.

On my very first shift, at 4 a.m., we passed the Bouri Field, a huge offshore oil and natural gas complex in the East Mediterranean just 65 miles from Libya. Its gas flare is so bright it burned like a candle in my peripheral vision for hours until sunrise. Later, I learned the flare serves as a beacon for migrants heading north to Europe. Smugglers tell them the flare is the faint glow of Italy.

For the first week, we idled next to seven aid vessels from other NGOs Sea-Eye, Sea-Watch 2, Topaz Responder, Aquarius, Golfo Azzurro, Astral, and the Iuventa scanning the horizon. But high swells and strong onshore winds kept refugees ashore.

Waiting, we practiced rescue maneuvers and monitored Channel 16 VHF, the open channel for maritime activity. But the channel remained quiet except for late-night requests by Russian trawlers and Egyptian tankers heading to Tripoli, Libya, or European Union warships enforcing the Libyan arms embargo.

On clear days, through binoculars, I could make out a refinery and transmission towers on the coast. There are no landmarks to denote Libyas territorial waters, so we steered carefully, directed by a series of red pixelated skull-and-crossbones icons on our radar. They look like something from a video game, but we had to take them seriously. In August, the Libyan Navy fired on and boarded the Bourbon Argos, operated by Doctors Without Borders, for crossing the line to help a refugee boat in distress.

After a week, I began to doubt what seemed to be an excessive show of humanitarian assets. Had the migrants moved east, away from us?

Then, as the weather calmed, everything changed.

Over a three-day period, some 11,000 refugees tried to cross the Mediterranean, according to the Italian Coast Guard. These arent so much attempts to reach Europe as they are sprints past the Libyan Coast Guard known to extort money or force rafts to return to the loose receiving line of rescue boats waiting beyond the 12-mile territorial limit.

The sheer number of rafts overwhelmed our flotilla. Tragedies mounted. Hassim, a Syrian refugee, told me that he and his family had left with seven other boats. Two days later, wed recovered only three. The others may have drifted out of our patrol area, into the open ocean.

We began to hear of deaths: a pregnant woman, a teenage girl. A man we rescued died hours later from extended exposure to toxic fumes. The next day, I joined the crew of the Astral to load 26 casualties into body bags.

Amid the tragedy so many risking so much for a chance at a safer, better life Im unexpectedly struck by instances of a shared humanity:

Like the group of women from Ivory Coast befriend Cadisha, a mother from Mali who is partially paralyzed from a bullet lodged in her head. The women take turns caring for Dani, her 3-year-old daughter.

Or the realization that on every raft, there will always be two or three people whose glances are so transparent that they emerge as leaders, helping to transform a traumatic situation into a bearable one. They maintain calm on the craft, identify the sick and dead, the pregnant and the children, and ensure that everyone has a life jacket.

Or when a migrant breaks protocol, stepping uninvited onto our RIB a cardinal rule meant to keep people from panicking only to lay three broken men near death onto our bow, one by one, and then fall back.

Or when, hours after the rest of our refugees have disembarked safely, Sharo remains aboard and still alone. Then she calls me over and gestures to an oncoming RIB from another aid ship. She whispers: Thats him. My husband.

Note: many thanks to the German NGOs, Cadus and the Lifeboat Project, who are working on the frontline of the refugee and migrant crisis. Special thanks to the crew of the Minden.

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On The Front Lines Of The Migrant Crisis - Huffington Post

EU states to seize control of migrant return policy from eurocrats – Express.co.uk

Maltas home affairs chief Carmelo Abela said the issue of sending back failed asylum seekers had been catapulted to the top of member states agendas because of a lack of faith in the EU Commission.

The extraordinary admission came as interior ministers from across the bloc gathered in Brussels today to discuss bold plans to finally bring the migrant crisis under control.

EbS

It demonstrates an increasing friction between the member states and eurocrats over the issue of migration, with many national governments looking to take the issue back into their own hands amid voter outrage.

Top EU figures are set to discuss a massive increase in returns to send a message to would-be immigrants not to travel to Europe unless they are in genuine need of international protection.

EbS

GETTY

Mr Abela told reporters: The return policy will be discussed because it wasnt trusted on the Commission to come up with the proposal.

Just over a third of all failed asylum seekers in Europe are currently sent back to their country of origin, a low rate which ministers say is failing to act as a deterrent to irregular migration.

Member states are responsible for processing asylum requests and for physically sending back those deemed not to have a case for international protection.

However, the EU intervenes heavily in the return process through its border agency Frontex and via a 2010 directive, not applicable in the UK, which governs the rights of failed refugees.

And now eurocrats want to dismantle large parts of the controversial law, which they say makes it too easy for irregular migrants to indefinitely stall deportation orders.

The return policy will be discussed because it wasnt trusted on the Commission to come up with the proposal

Maltese interior minister Carmelo Abela

They want to alter EU policy to allow member states to detain migrants seekers awaiting deportation, so they cannot abscond, and to target specific nationalities which are seen to be abusing the asylum process.

Ahead of the meeting migration commissioner Dimitris Avramompoulos said: An effective return policy starts within the European Union. But we don't need new legislation or new rules. We need a better implementation of existing rules, in a coordinated way by all Member States.

Ultimately our aim is to reduce the number of irregular arrivals by making it clear to those migrants who are not in need of protection and who do not have a right to stay in the EU that they should not undertake a perilous journey to arrive in Europe illegally.

Some countries on the frontline of the migrant crisis think the measures still do not go far enough, and want to adopt a new action plan to further crack down on irregular migration.

But Estonias interior minister Andres Anvelt backed eurocrats changes and said he believed national governments were close to agreeing unanimity on a way forward.

REUTERS

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A migrant taunts Hungarian riot police as they fire tear gas and water cannon on the Serbian side of the border, near Roszke

He said: I fully support the new renewed action plan of the Commission. Sending back the people who dont have the legal right to be in Europe is the key action tor educe the refugee crisis.

It will send loud and clear a message to all those who want to become illegal immigrants. All together we have to speed up our returning mechanism as soon as possible.

We are very close to that. Some countries they are thinking of a new action plan. I think we have a very good return policy but we are not fulfilling it as much as possible as countries can do.

European countries issued 530,000 deportation orders to irregular migrants and failed asylum seekers in 2015, during a year in which more than a million people arrived on the continent.

But just 194,000 of those deemed to have no right to stay - a pitiful 36 per cent - were ever actually send back to their home countries, with the rest finding ways to stay in the EU.

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EU states to seize control of migrant return policy from eurocrats - Express.co.uk