Attacks on out guns

by Larry J. LeBlanc      

 I do not know how many folks are aware that our new president has a long history of advocacy with gun control portion of our population.  His reputation in that area is so infamous that the economy has shown the effects of his election. Not concerning anyone’s bail out package, but in firearm sales.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSA) is the trade association for the firearms, ammunition and recreational shooting sports industry.  They recently sent out some facts that I fine interesting and I would like to share with you.

The update I received from them was February 4, 2009 and started thusly; “Despite a weak economy and slumping retail sales, firearm sales continue to increase in January, continuing an upswing that began after the November election.”

The data following is from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).  When ANYONE goes to purchase a firearm of ANY KIND their personal information must be checked with NICS and yes that is even any firearm purchased from dealers at gun shows that most media folks would like you to believe spend their lives indiscriminately sells fully automatic guns to anyone with the money.  That is the same media personage who erroneously calls anything that goes bang an assault weapon.  The one exception to the NICS check is the people who hold a valid Concealed Handgun License as they have already been run through a very extensive background check.

Back to the facts; checks on sale of firearms jumped 28.8 percent in January 2009 when compared to January 2008.  That is 1,213,855 checks in January 2009 and up from 942,556 in the same month last year.  That increase followed a 24 percent increase in December and November had a jump of 42 percent when a record 1,529,635 background checks were performed.

You know it is disturbing when this country elects a new president that has a recorded history that is so anti-gun that the citizens of the country feel the necessity to go out and buy up all of the guns and ammunition that they can for fear of them being outlawed and the second amendment of our Constitution either eliminated or so compromised that we will end up like some countries where to own and shoot a firearm is economically impractical or just plain outlawed, but that is right where we are today.

Another of the big pushes by the anti-gun groups is to attack ammunition.  They want lead outlawed because it is harmful to your health.  They want bullets serialized so they can be traced and the list goes on and on and on, only limited by the imagination of those leading the attack on the Constitution and our individual freedom.

They somehow fail to be able to grasp the concept that guns do not kill people, people kill people.  It is not something new to society either because I find a reference to that very subject in our instruction manual for life, the Bible, in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verse 13; “Thou shall not kill.” By the way that is a commandment and not a suggestion.

I also point to the cliché that says that guns are as responsible for crime as pencils are for misspelled words.  Therefore if you find any misspelled words in any of my columns or reports it is the computers fault and not mine.

Here are some more facts for you, the sporting firearm and shooting accessory industries employee thousands of people not only in our country but around the world. Remington Arms is the largest American firearm and ammunition in the country. They now own, Remington, Marlin, H&R and others. Smith and Wesson now is making rifles and have purchase Thompson Center and are making under license the Walther PPK and all in this country.

The bottom line to this firearm frenzy is if you want to purchase a handgun or a semi-automatic rifle you may have a wait ahead of you because manufacturers are having a problem keeping up with demand.

If you are a person who reloads his/her own ammunition you will have a problem finding brass anywhere because citizens of this land of the free are buying up ammunition and components faster than the industry can produce it.

Another interesting phenomena is concealed handgun classes have been running full not only in Montgomery County, but nation wide.  Two reasons that I can call to mind for this are: the police cannot possibly be everywhere all of the time and a person needs to have the ability and means to defend themselves.  Another that comes to mind is that our part of Texas is and has been undergoing a drastic increase in population and that increase unfortunately includes drug heads and dealers and other criminals.

In spite of what the anti-gun folks would like you to believe, the nonfatal firearm-related violent crimes have dropped from about 1.25 million in 1993 to less that 500 thousand in 2005 and this information comes from the Bureau of Justice Statics.  Also less than 10 percent of nonfatal violent crimes involved firearms.

So neighbors all I am saying is to watch your back and keep an eye open for subversive, anti-gun and ammunition legislation proposals in the coming years.  Also in the line of thinking of one of my favorites, Will Rogers, those folks in government office are not the ruling class; they are the hired help.