Tag Archives: Tucson

Election 2012

Repeal the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

In Brian Leubitz' article “Gun Control and Making Tucson Shooting Even
Scarier” of Tue Jan 25, 2011 at 10:30:00 AM PST , he commented that
Senator Feinstein is considering again advocating limits on magzine sizes.
That's needed.  But that and every other effort from Congress on gun control
are like straws in the wind when we need sledgehammers.  Nobody seems to have
the guts to step up to what is needed: repealing the Right to Keep and Bear
Arms.  A resolution and legislation like the following is needed:
– – –

Phase 1 – The Resolution, Format is from H.J.RES. 438, 102nd Congress::

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States repealing the right to keep and bear arms.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid for all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States at any time after the date of its submission for ratification:

'Article–

1. Any right to keep and bear arms, whether under the Second Amendment to this Constitution, or under some pre-existing doctrine of natural law or common law or otherwise, or under Constitution or laws of any State, is repealed.

2. The privilege to keep and bear arms throughout the United States shall be under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.'

Phase 2 – A Tax; Following adoption of the constitutional amendment, a bill to tax:

1. There is imposed an annual tax on each and every firearm in any household as follows:

a. first firearm, $10
b. second firearm, $20
c. third firearm, $30
d. fourth through ninth firearms, $100 each
e. firearms in excess of the ninth, $1,000 each.

2. This tax is assessed and payable on each April 15 for firearms held by a household at the end of the preceding year, to be paid with a schedule listing firearm type, manufacturer and serial number, the schedule submitted along with the tax return of such member of the household as the members of the household may choose, with other members attaching a copy of that schedule to their tax returns as well indicating by which member the tax will be paid. Where firearms are owned by a partnership, if there is only one general partner the arms shall be included with the schedule of that general partner; where there is more than one general partner, the partners shall choose which partner will report the firearms. Where firearms are owned by a corporation, the corporation shall report and pay tax as if it were a household. Where fiscal years do not coincide with calendar years, reporting shall be as of the end of the previous fiscal year. Where firearms are owned by a legitimate museum, the museum shall report the ownership annually as if it were a household, but shall be exempt from the tax except for the penalties in section 4 below.

3. This tax may be avoided by selling the firearm to a licensed gun dealer or by turning the firearm over to an official firearm collection location before December 31 of the prior year. Once a month such collection locations shall turn collected firearms over to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for destruction, except that the Bureau may withhold from destruction such firearms as are of historical interest for later donation to an appropriate museum.

4. Any firearm lost or stolen will incur a $1,000 penalty in the reporting year it was lost or stolen. For any such lost or stolen firearm that is subsequently recovered by the owner that $1,000 penalty shall be rescinded and refunded, except if the firearm has been used in the commission of a crime chargeable as a felony an additional $1,000 penalty will be imposed.

5. For each firearm sold by a licensed firearm dealer that is subsequently used in the commission of a crime chargeable as a felony a $1,000 penalty will be imposed against that dealer for each such year in which that firearm was used in such a crime.

6. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Internal Revenue Service shall jointly promulgate regulations for administering this Act.

– – –
In recent years voices have arisen calling for this action: I've been
accumulating links to web articles and lead comments advocating repeal of
the Second Amendment at http://www.mjbarkl.com/run.htm .

Best wishes, –Mike , Candidate for Congress

Uncategorized

Gun Control and Making Tucson Shooting Even Scarier

3 Comments

As you might have guessed, I tend to get a lot of press releases. Most of them are relevant to what I do. Some are not, but are occasionally interesting.  Today, I got what must certainly rank in the top 5 of the most offensive emails I’ve received since starting Calitics over 5 years ago. A group is apparently planning on eliminating a Georgia ban on carrying weapons in a place of worship.

“We are literally one Jared Loughner away from a major massacre here in Georgia in one of our places of worship. Right now, you are in violation of the law, and a criminal, if you carry in your place of worship. Once H.B. 54 is passed, people like Jared Loughner will know that there is at least the potential for someone in a place of worship that would put him down before he could do any damage,” said Mr. Parsons.

This is wrong on so many levels, but let’s start with the biggest piece of faulty logic: more people with guns would prevent the situation. Of course, as we discovered in Tucson, that simply isn’t true. In fact, one of the heroes who disarmed Loughner was almost shot by an armed passerby who thought he was the gunman.

But before we embrace Zamudio’s brave intervention as proof of the value of being armed, let’s hear the whole story. “I came out of that store, I clicked the safety off, and I was ready,” he explained on Fox and Friends. “I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket here. And I came around the corner like this.” Zamudio demonstrated how his shooting hand was wrapped around the weapon, poised to draw and fire. As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. “And that’s who I at first thought was the shooter,” Zamudio recalled. “I told him to ‘Drop it, drop it!'”

But the man with the gun wasn’t the shooter. He had wrested the gun away from the shooter. “Had you shot that guy, it would have been a big, fat mess,” the interviewer pointed out. (Slate)

Of course, the same debate is going down in Arizona, where legislators are going so far as to say “When everyone is carrying a firearm, nobody is going to be a victim.”

The sheer lunacy of this is astounding, and fortunately, Senator Feinstein understands that the way to combat gun crimes isn’t to arm the citizenry.  In fact, she’s been discussing the topic of bringing back a regulation that she originally passed in the 1994 assault weapons ban.  It’s a simple, and sensible regulation: limit the size of clips to ten bullets.  Jared Loughner’s clip had 30, and he didn’t need to worry about reloading as he carried out his murderous spree.

Feinstein said in an interview Friday that she was exploring the idea of reviving a law to limit the size of ammunition clips. The assault weapons ban of 1994, of which Feinstein was the principal sponsor, limited clips to 10 bullets, a third of the size of the one Loughner used to kill six people and injure more than a dozen, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, his intended target. (LA Times)

While gun control can split the Democratic party, as the Western libertarian concept likes a wide open gun system, surely we can recognize that our failure to control the proliferation has resulted in higher rates of violence compared to similarly situated nations.  MoveOn is supporting an action by NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns calling for additional gun reform. Perhaps now might be a good time to let our leaders know that America hasn’t given up on controlling guns.