Mediaboss Marketing

One of my main criticisms of many in the gun rights community is that sometimes they act like anti-gunners. Name-calling. Mockery. Screaming. Unprofessionalism. Violence. These are the weapons of the left. Our main arsenal should only consist of the Constitution, the writings of the Founding Fathers, logic, reason, and respect.

Those who follow my Facebook.com/2ndAmendmentUSA page have seen me criticize inappropriate behavior and remove those using harsh profanities against others. I also get upset by irrational claims and outright lies that hurt the firearms community, but I always try to take a breath, collect my thoughts and reply respectfully with logic (The Liberal Bane Cocktail).

Believe it or not, merely acting in a calm professional manner will win more undecideds to our side than all the homicide statistics or constitutional arguments that you can quote.

Last week, the Second Amendment supporting community lost a huge advocate. Bob Owens, founder and editor of BearingArms.com took his own life. Many of his friends, fans and followers were shocked to hear the news. It appears that some on the left celebrated the tragedy.

Jake Tapper of CNN, tweeted For family and friends of @bob_owens so sorry for your loss. Horrible news. For an anchor at a liberal 24-hour news network, this was very professional and respectful. However, his simple thoughtful tweet drew the ire of some of his cohorts. Here are some of the mean-spirited tweets:

Yes Jake, this is indeed a terrible loss. (Followed by a link to a story where Ownes called Trayvon Martin a thug)

-@willmenaker (podcaster/blogger)

Youre making a lot of fun new white supremacists friends Jake! Great place to plant your flag.

-@jacobtierney79 (Writer and director)

When Mr. Tapper tried to stop the spiteful trend, it only got worse.

Jake is crying because were being mean to his dead racist friend

-@leyawn (Internet artist)

Mr. Tapper eventually relented the argument with I didnt know him. Im just an adult. Again, this didnt stop the attacks, insults or mockery.

It seems Jake Tapper may have gotten a small realization of the attitude and hatred of those with his political leanings. Hopefully, he has the guts to stand up to it and possibly even decry it to try to make a change, but its doubtful that will ever happen.

I do not want to give any indication that I think conservatism has won a convert in Jake Tapper. I merely wanted to use an example of why we should be professional and respectful in our demeanor when discussing gun rights with others. Any behavior that is on par with the disrespectfulness mentioned above will surely drive away people who may be on the fence about Second Amendment rights.

Our arguments should not even be arguments. They should be discussions or informative facts. Dont drive away potential converts or supporters by acting like a jerk. You will drive them straight into the arms of Every Town for Gun Safety.

The old saying goes that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. In your 2A advocacy, be sweet and smooth. Let the leftists be salty and bitter.

John Cylc is an eight year U.S. Army veteran. He is also a contributor to LifeZette. To read more of his reports Click Here Now.

2017 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Link:
Acting Appropriately Is Key to Second Amendment Advocacy - Newsmax

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

It is already legal to carry a handgun openly without a permit in Michigan. The situation is as it was in New Hampshire, where law-abiding citizens could carry their handguns openly without having to ask governments permission but were suddenly obligated to ask government before carrying if their jacket or sweatshirt hung down over the gun.

New Hampshire lawmakerspassed legislation abolishing their concealed carry permit requirement earlier this year and Gov. Chris Sununu (R) signed the bill on February 22. North Dakota followed suit and abolished their concealed permit requirement on March 24, 2017. Now Michigan lawmakers are pushing to make the same change.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Rep. Michele Hoitenga (R-Manton)a sponsor of the permitless carry billsuggested the only reason a permit exists is so the state government can collect fees for the exercise of natural rights.

Hoitenga said:

It is currently legal in the state of Michigan for a law-abiding person to openly carry a firearm on their person without any training classes, fees or state bureaucracy. It only becomes illegal when a person puts on a coat because the gun then becomes concealed. Our Second Amendment should not be used as a money grab for permit fees

Michigan Open Carry president Tom Lambert echoed Hoitenga, equating the fee for a concealed carry permit with a coat tax.

Presently, law-abiding Michigan residents have to pay about $100 to the state and take a class before being allowed to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. This burdensome fee will be done away with if Hoitengas bill passes and is signed into law.

AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

Read more:
Michigan House Considers Bill to Make 2nd Amendment Your ... - Breitbart News

While the National Rifle Association and North Korea and Iran may not like each other, there is one policy position they all mutually share in common: They all do not approve of the United States government interfering with and preventing their right to own and possess the weapons and armaments they choose in the interests of self-defense.

While the U.S. president might speak in glowing terms of approval to the NRA and threatening disapproval toward North Korea and Iran, his approving comments would probably change and he has become well-known for changing his mind when the guns become known to be pointed in his direction, rather than at his adversaries and opponents.

Neither North Korea nor Iran may understand the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But they readily reflect understanding the principle inherent to the amendment. A Second Amendment interpreted without qualification or reservation creates a formula for self-defense being suddenly transmuted into mass self-destruction.

When any, all and everyone is armed to their maximum ability, at some random unexpected point an equally random and unexpected incendiary spark omnipotently stands to be struck for creating an Armageddon nuclear or otherwise.

We may not know what the spark might be or when it will occur -- but everyone will know when it does, and we will all come to bear the scars for our ignorance.

Read the original here:
Letter, 5/14: Second Amendment ignorance - Lincoln Journal Star

GETTY

In a letter to eurocrats the interior ministers of Germany and Italy have called for new EU-backed border posts to be set up on the frontier between Libya and Niger to vet would-be asylum seekers.

War-ravaged Libya, which is in a state of political chaos, is now the main gateway to Europe after a deal between Brussels and Turkey last year effectively closed that route off to economic migrants.

And EU officials have long spoken of it as the next major flashpoint in the migration crisis, saying the route must be closed down to prevent a rush of newcomers from central and sub-Saharan Africa.

European leaders have been unnerved by a recent surge in numbers of people making the perilous sea crossing to Italy which have put the continents new frontline member state under huge pressure.

And with the blocs much-vaunted relocation scheme in tatters, facing stiff political opposition and an ongoing court challenge from Hungary and Slovakia, the need for a new solution is urgent.

In their proposal to the EU Commission Berlins Thomas de Maizire and Romes Marco Minniti said new border controls were needed In Italy to prevent a new crisis Europe would struggle to contain.

They argued EU border posts would save lives by preventing hundreds of thousands of people once again risking their lives in Libya and on the Mediterranean Sea in the hands of smugglers.

The proposal appears to be an admission that the EUs current policy of patrolling the Mediterranean and intercepting smugglers boats, known as Operation Sophia, is not working.

Critics have said the rescue missions simply act as a taxi service for migrants who have to be brought ashore in Europe after being plucked from the sea and is encouraging criminals to place them in unseaworthy vessels.

Some in Italy have even accused charities running the operations of colluding with the smugglers by coordinating rescues, although NGOs deny this and eurocrats insist there is no evidence to support such claims.

The ministers pointed out that Italy, which is struggling in the economic doldrums, has already registered nearly 42,500 migrants this year, with 97 per cent having arrived by sea from Libya.

In response they called for the setting up of an EU Mission at the border between Libya and Niger as soon as possible, which would include technical and financial support for Libyan authorities fighting illegal migration.

UNICEF

1 of 11

A migrant gestures from behind the bars of a cell at a detention centre in Libya

Libya struggled to control its 3,000 miles of southern borders with Sudan, Chad and Niger - largely made up of barren desert - even before the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Since then smugglers have capitalised on the post-uprising chaos to step up their lucrative business, with tens of thousands of people each year making the perilous crossing to Italy just some 300 kilometres away.

According to the Libyan government, between 7,000 and 8,000 migrants mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, are being held in Libyan detention centres after entering the country illegally.

Plans to shut off the Mediterranean migration route are being championed by Malta, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, which has proportionally taken in a huge number of people.

Eurocrats have proposed striking a similar deal with Libya as they did last year with Turkey, under which all economic migrants are sent back, whilst some EU leaders have even called for European detention camps in the country.

Excerpt from:
EU plans to move external border to AFRICA as Brussels moves to stop new migrant crisis - Express.co.uk

BERLIN A stunning election win for Angela Merkel's conservatives in Germany's most populous state is the strongest sign yet that voters have forgiven the chancellor for her open-door migrant policy and are set to hand her four more years in power.

Sunday's triumph in North Rhine-Westphalia marked the third regional election win this year for Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), providing them with powerful momentum as they head into a federal election on Sept. 24.

The win reflected directly on the chancellor, who had placed herself at the center of campaigning in a state that has traditionally been a stronghold of her Social Democrat (SPD) rivals.

It dealt a huge blow to new SPD leader Martin Schulz, who in February and March had boosted the party's poll ratings and raised its hopes of ending Merkel's 12 years in power.

Images of smiling senior conservatives piling into CDU headquarters are a far cry from last year's headshaking, when poll ratings sagged and some allies even spoke of the end of the Merkel era.

"Merkel has risen from the ashes of 2016 when she was widely criticized for her open-arms policy on the refugees," said Josef Joffe, publisher of Die Zeit weekly.

He argued that she was benefiting from a slowing of the migrant influx to about 280,000 last year from almost 900,000 in 2015. That is due to neighboring countries closing borders, an EU deal with Turkey to stem the flow, and some domestic action.

Acknowledging voters' fears, Merkel's grand coalition of conservatives and the SPD has tried to speed up the processing of asylum requests, stepped up deportations and banned the burqa full face veil for state employees at work.

"All seems forgiven. I have no doubt that her party will come out as the strongest in September, that she will gain a fourth term.... So four more years," Joffe told Reuters.

Bild daily wrote that voters had rewarded local politicians who had shown they backed Merkel, and provided "something to think about" for those in the CDU who had called for her head.

GLOBAL STANDING

As the migrant crisis has receded in voters' minds, and the right-wing, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) has descended into infighting, Merkel has regained her role as an anchor of stability, especially amid fears of rising populism.

Under her leadership, Europe's biggest economy is growing steadily and unemployment is at a record low. Television footage of U.S. President Donald Trump praising Germany's apprenticeship system, and talk of her budding friendship with his daughter Ivanka, remind cautious Germans of Merkel's global stature.

In office since 2005, she is routinely rated by Forbes as the world's most powerful woman, and wields unparalleled clout in the European Union at a time when it is trying to map out a new direction after Britain's vote to leave.

"Angela Merkel is a cart horse for her party, the likes of which the SPD clearly doesn't have," wrote the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine daily in an editorial.

An unexpectedly strong result for the conservatives' preferred partner, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), in NRW means an alliance of the two may take power there.

That could boost the FDP's hopes of forming a coalition with Merkel at national level after September's election, as they did during her second term from 2009 to 2013. But despite the boost to sentiment, FDP leader Christian Lindner said his party would not compromise on substance to share power, either in NRW or nationally.

SPD DISASTER

Merkel's state election gains, especially in NRW, are at least in equal measure the SPD's losses: on Monday, Bild daily dubbed the much-feted "Schulz effect" the "Schulz curse".

Of the roughly 10-point gain in opinion polls that the party had initially seen under Schulz, about half has vanished, and it trails the conservatives by at least 7-8 points in most polls. Most analysts expect another grand coalition after the election, led by Merkel.

The SPD, which has tried to blame its loss on local factors like infrastructure problems and crime, slumped to its lowest level of support in NRW since 1947.

Many analysts say Schulz's focus on social justice, including plans to extend long-term unemployment benefit, is not enough. Politics professor Karl-Rudolf Korte from the University of Duisburg-Essen said the SPD needed a new start quickly if it was to have any chance of winning.

"They need to develop ideas for the future that ignite enthusiasm and mobilize voters, not just on social justice."

Schulz, who said the NRW result was a bitter personal setback, on Monday pinpointed investment, innovation, education and a strong Europe as areas to focus on.

But analysts say security is also a weakness for the SPD. The party was punished in NRW for its handling of the mass groping of women in Cologne on New Year's Eve 2015. And the Tunisian man who rammed a truck into Berlin's Christmas market last year, killing 12 people, had links to NRW.

Compounding the SPD's problems, pollsters say, is voter concern about the prospect of a leftist coalition on the federal level between the SPD, Greens and radical Left party.

SPD leaders are banking on another bounce. Some commentators pointed to the 2005 federal election, called by SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroeder after losing NRW, where Merkel squandered a hefty poll lead to win by just a whisker.

"It will be a long, bumpy path," said Schulz to his dejected supporters on Monday.

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

BERLIN/WASHINGTON Last month, in a phone conversation between Donald Trump and Angela Merkel, the U.S. president shared his views on Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan.

BAGHDAD Iraqi forces have reduced the area of Mosul controlled by Islamic State to 12 square km, military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told a news conference on Tuesday.

BANGKOK Thailand has no immediate plan to block access to Facebook , the telecoms regulator said on Tuesday, as it expects the social media giant to comply with court orders for the removal of content deemed to threaten national security.

The rest is here:
Forgiven for migrant crisis, Merkel in pole position for fourth term - Reuters