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“The House Judiciary Committee has advanced legislation that would allow Vermont police to temporarily seize firearms from the scene of an alleged domestic assault,” digital.vpr.net reports. “It’s drawn opposition from Second Amendment advocates who worry about constitutional infringements on the right to bear arms.” Ya think? I think . . .

Gun owners are having the rug pulled from under them in the name of domestic violence. Lest we forget, California’s Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVRO) are now law. The cops can remove a CA gun owner’s firearms based on the ex parte (unchallenged) testimony of a family member.

Same deal in Connecticut. According to our good friends at The Trace, eleven states –New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Michigan, and Massachusetts — would like to follow suit.

Where’s the lawsuit challenging this clear and present danger to gun owners’ — make that Americans’ right to due process? And while we’re at it, what of the hugely unconstitutional laws limiting magazine capacity and “assault weapons” in so-called slave states?

Are The People of the Gun feeling fat and happy with Trump in the White House, waiting for a pro-gun Supreme Court to right these wrongs? Is that really our only hope?

 

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45 COMMENTS

  1. Some of them, yeah. The guys who think the NFA will magically be repealed because Trump won are flat out delusional, that would take an act of Cones with a filibuster proof majority, which we don’t have. We will be lucky if we get the HPA and National Reciprocity, the later of which I’m almost certain will end up requiring a federal CCL of some sort.

    Presidents aren’t kings, and all of the real change has to come from the same Congress that made the mess in the first place. This isn’t pessimism, this is realism. Are there steps in the right direction? Yes. Have all problems been solved? Not even close.

  2. The ‘I sort of like guns’ people, maybe… the real gun people, not so much. Until we get some pro gun movement at the federal level I don’t think we have gained anything at all. Gorsuch is table scraps and far from a bulwark against tyranny. We need national rep and HPA at the absolute minimum to even consider Trump’s win a fair trade in light of all the bullshit we’ve had to put up with electing him.

    • We don’t need some sort of Superman in SCOTUS, we just need someone who can read and understand 27 words written in English.

      • No, we need 5 people willing to do that consistently. Apparently, 7 people on the Supreme Court don’t want to here 2A cases. It only takes 4 votes for a case to be granted a hearing. Adding Gorsuch doesn’t change that number. We need to have someone leave the court and add another who is willing to enforce the 2A on the lower courts until the lower courts start respecting precedent.

  3. I think we are all going to find out how much our gun rights are affected by protection of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. This includes Mr. LaPierre.

  4. For the foreseeable future, most of the action will be at the state and local level.

    Pro-civil rights states like Texas may become more pro-gun. South Dakota wanted to improve its gun laws, but the pantload in the Governor’s Residence decided that rights aren’t rights after all.

    Slave States will tighten restrictions. At this point, the Slave States don’t care what restrictions are tightened or who suffers; they just want more civil rights restrictions.

    Federal law is the Big Enchilada, but it’s unlikely to change for better or worse because of the makeup of the Senate.

  5. I think just about everybody who voted for Trump, for whatever reason is still in the “fat and happy” stage. I think a lot of people are busy telling themselves “He (or they) will get to it.” I forget where I read it, hell it could’ve been this site, but laws are much easier to pass than to repeal (Look at Obamacare). While I would love to have such lofty goals as repeal of the NFA come to fruition, it’s a pipe dream for the time being. Look at how slow the momentum for the HPA and NR is going, yet we realistically think NFA repeal is on the horizon? Like one of the commentators above, I am not pessimistic, just realistic.

    So far, it seems like the best we can hope for on the federal level is an end to new restrictions on gun rights, which is great, but that is a far cry from repealing a lot of the current laws on the books. And if you currently reside in a slave state, what good does that do you anyway?

    We need to stay on top of things and keep the pressure up, especially in dealing with politicians, because pressure and money are all they understand.. If a thief keeps stealing your stuff, but then stops, do you thank them for stopping or do you then begin the process of trying to get your stuff back?

    • “I think just about everybody who voted for Trump, for whatever reason is still in the “fat and happy” stage.”

      Heh. Not the people I know. Regret-city is all I hear at church. No Hillary love but growing anger at the GOP for taking a Trump dump in the bed (not that they use that language at church 😉

      • This (I think, if I read you right) 🙂

        I’m still pro Trump and pretty happy with the job that he’s doing (especially on days he can keep off Twitter). I’m pretty disgusted at the Republicans for not pressing *any* advantage. So the left is hysterical, we expected that. The right being apparently paralyzed when they should be making real change is even more pathetic.

    • And here’s the where we part company– There’s progress. You just fail to see or recognize it for whatever reason.

      -Social Security Gun Ban …Repealed.
      -Lead Bullet Ban in state lands …Repealed.

      No, seriously. We’re not even outside the first hundred days and you’re already panning his electorate as fat and happy? Come on, now. Not only is there progress, he’s already hired the most conservative cabinet the white house has seen in the last 40 years, at least. You and Farago need to relax. Take a valium. Recognize that you’re not going to get everything you want overnight.

  6. Well I haven’t…nothing substantial has happened YET. And I live in Illinoisistan where my “rights” hang by a thread. Buying my old azz off and politically active. Oh and I don’t completely trust ANY politician…

  7. I can only speak for myself, but I’m neither fat, dumb, and happy, or am I quixotically tilting at windmills when the Supreme Court has a 4.5 to 3.5 liberal to originalist divide. It doesn’t do any good to fire off court challenges that we know we’ll lose. At the very least the NRA/GOA should get Gorsuch confirmed so it’s not a slam-dunk win for the liberals. If we can replace Breyer, Kennedy, or Ginsburg, we have a meaningful shot at reform. All else is pissing in the wind.

  8. It’s not up to us, it’s up to our “elected officials” to step up and follow through. Also, all you NRA members might wanna watch and see how much they really push for your 2A rights. I bet the HPA doesn’t see the floor this year and national reciprocity will die in a committee. All you people who thought Trump’s two sons would help to move things along, You think that Eric and Don Jr. have to worry about national reciprocity? Now that they have secret service details no real cop would ever get close enough to them for them to have to sweat a permit any longer. The NRA doesn’t want to see all our gun rights restored in a timely manner, because that would kill their business model wich for the last 8 years+ has been structured on fear, not the safety and educational organization they had been previously.
    We are still on our own, subject to the whims of lesser people who think themselves our RULERS, not our EMPLOYEES. Until we use the things we so highly covet for their intended purpose, we will always be compromising all our rights, not just the second amendment.

    • So interesting footnote: I have been getting bombarded with calls for the last 3 weeks from one number in particular. Since I don’t answer unknown calls I have been ignoring it, but it called me again on sunday so I decided to call it back… It’s the NRA looking for more money. This is after I already upped my membership early once AND told them ‘fuck you get some laws passed’ 3 more times after that. They haven’t even done anything and they’re already looking at me for a handout.

      • Yeah, the NRA has seen its last dime from me. I’m not in the habit of supporting lobbyists, especially those that get literally nothing done. Wayne Lapiere totally caved to the squawking left after Sandy Hook and I’ll never forget it.
        How he was not immediately replaced with someone who has some balls says more than enough about that organization to me.
        It took three years and they NEVER stopped calling. I would tell them to take me off their list and every time I was assured that they would. Finally, when I moved and changed phone numbers it stopped. Great people.

  9. We will have to keep our eye on the ball only so long as there are legions of idiots who think that Americans should have to give up our guns. If you think they are going to give up on their crusade to disarm us, please raise your hand – and then place it firmly over your mouth because anything you will say is going to be stupid.

  10. I would say the tides are moving in our favor. In a few short weeks, we’ve reversed that awful ban on lead ammo on National Land, we’ve reversed that awful decision to take guns away from SS recipients who’ve never broken the law, and we have a nominee that is infinitely better than anyone Hillary would have picked. More and more states are looking at Constitutional Carry, Campus Carry, and lowering the age to get a conceal carry permit. Congress is working to pass National Reciprocity and the HPA. Public opinion on the so called “assault rifle” is at an all time high.

    Does the rising tide mean that every wave is going to crash in our favor? Of course not. We should vote against Rinos and FUDDs, we should exercise our constitutional rights, we should take liberals to a gun range and teach them safety and the joys of shooting.

    I think most POTG are happy with the direction our national gun laws and most of our state gun laws are going. I don’t believe that a couple of state legislative losses means that all POTG are so blissfully happy that they are unaware of bad laws or of the bad politicians who write and vote for them.

  11. The courts are still hostile to us. To the point where going door-to-door to take our guns by force and sending us to extermination camps would be viewed as constitutional.

    Florida might actually have assault weapons ban legislation go up for a vote.

    Federally gun control is dead. For now. It’s on the state level where a lot of movement it. However if you don’t live in a state under assault what are you supposed to do for those states? You can’t really send messages to critters that aren’t your own.

    • Sure you can, I have done it several times in the last couple years. Send $$ to those politicians and organizations which oppose them.

  12. POTG in California are not fat and happy, and they have never taken their eyes off the ball, because what happens in D.C. has jack to do with the rape we are suffering on the state level here. While other people are talking about the wonders of national reciprocity and repeal of the NFA, California is going in the opposite direction. NFA repeal will not reverse California’s ban on automatic firearms and silencers, or its jihad against the possession of semi-automatic “assault weapons”. A national reciprocity law will not reverse California’s “may issue” CCW law that grants a Sheriff unfettered discretion as to who will be allowed to receive a license, a law reinforced by the Ninth Circuit decision declaring that there is no right to carry a concealed weapon (a decision that ignores that it is illegal to openly carry a firearm in any city or town or within 1000′ of a school). And while Trump was being elected by the vast fly-over country, California voted 2-1 for Hellary. Meanwhile, the Legislature passed laws that requires us to obtain licenses to buy ammo, with an additional check against the prohibited persons list at every purchase for an additional $10 fee. And it is trying yet again to ban the “evil black rifle,” declaring all currently legal AR and AK style rifles to be illegal unless registered with the State (and once registered, nontransferable to anyone for any reason within the State boarders except the police).

    You can’t take your eyes off the ball when the ball is a sharp stick being shoved into your skull.

    • If CA cannot be corrected by Californians, it will be corrected for them en masse. If you can’t extricate yourselves from that problem and deal with it yourselves, then you cannot complain when others deal with the problem and you with it. People aren’t going to (and it would be stupid and wrong to assume they would) waste their time sorting out the venison from vinny come hunting season.

  13. I consider the delay on Gorsuch, prison anal stretching by the POS left. We don’t know what he’s been compelled to “give” (concede) to the POS opposition out there in order to not be “Sessioned”. Gorsuch could be Roberts, too many black robed assholes have talked the talk long enough to get confirmed, only to be dangerous POS material later.

    F them all (and all usurpers of power, in the goat a_ _ ), I wouldn’t delay a Civil War over it. And some are definitely going to pay more.

    • What delay? The average length of time from nomination to confirmation of the current members of the court is over 70 days. It’s only been six weeks since Gorsuch was nominated. This is how the process works now, and how it has worked since at least the 1970s. Doesn’t matter which side is doing the nominating, the other side drags out the process in hopes of digging up some kind of juicy scandal on the nominee.

      • The average time from announcement of the nomination to announcement of the hearing is 28 days (call it 30). So feet dragging = 1 week already, confirmation hearing commencement opened today to Gorsuch being called a wholly unfit candidate so clearly the evil (D) don’t know how alien they appear to the rest of us.

  14. Anything Trump does is doomed to failure until we get at LEAST Gorsuch on the Supreme Court. Look at the second travel ban — there is no intelligent human being on Earth who could interpret it as a “muslim ban” — yet that’s exactly what the judge in Hawaii decided. Even the first travel ban wasn’t a “ban on muslims”, as 85% of the world’s Muslims were still free to travel to the US.

    But since it was Trump that suggested it, they blocked it. Judges came out of the woodwork to block it.

    This is the political reality of 2017. Policy no longer matters — the only thing that matters is *who* the policy is from. Ivanka is a woman, so she should be supported by women, right? Nope — she’s a traitor because she’s a Trump. She’s “complicit”, as SNL says.

    If an initiative has Trump’s name on it, it will be fought tooth, nail, hand, glove, fist, knee, to the death to make sure that it cannot pass. And the “judges” on the 9th Circuit who rule that the letter of the order doesn’t matter, it’s the “intent” as stated by Trump the candidate? That is nigh unto treasonous. They’re opposing an unquestionably legal order, because of campaign rhetoric? It’s like if Trump came out and offered free college to everyone in the USA and in Mexico and in Iran — they’d still oppose it, because it is from Trump.

    The only way out of this nightmare? Gorsuch.

    I hate to put too much on it, but — sorry folks, that is the ONLY way out of it. We need the Supreme Court to deliver an almighty bitchslap to the 9th Circuit and to the revisionist activist judges. We need the Supreme Court to explain to these utter asshats that the letter of the law is the letter of the law, and it doesn’t matter what your mood was when you wrote the law. The law needs to be applied as written, not as a response to who it was written by.

    So do I think great gun reforms are coming? Hell no. Not until Gorsuch is on the court, and even then it’s iffy as hell. We really, really, really need a second Gorsuch to replace The Notorious RBG or Kagan or Sotomayer or Breyer.

    It’s either that, or revolution/civil war/secession is inevitable. If it cannot be actually and legitimately governed, the country cannot stand.

  15. Edited to add: there is another way out of this. Campaign like hell to get 8 more R’s in the Senate. I don’t care if it’s Pat Toomey or that pile of detritus John McCain; if it ain’t an “R”, it ain’t gonna help. Yes, by all means, primary out any RINO you can, but when it gets to the general, the only way forward is with 60 “R”‘s (of any type) in the Senate.

    Today’s politics has nothing to do with the individual politician. It’s all about party lines. That’s the only thing people are responding to now.

    • Yep. A filibuster-proof Republican majority, plus the will to enact judicial reform. I think that’s the only way we get out of this peacefully.

      Constitutionally, the federal judiciary system (excepting the Supreme Court) is under the authority of Congress. They can break up the federal court districts, remove the president’s ability to make judicial appointments, make judges subject to periodic elections & evaluations, or even recall them by congressional vote. And they should do all those things.

      Oh, and the death of the Democratic party. That would be another really helpful thing.

      Gorsuch on the court wouldn’t hurt, but the prog/left can cause years or decades of mayhem and infringement before the Supreme Court gets involved. And even then they can drag their feet for decades afterward (as Chicago and DC are still doing).

      • Just noting, it doesn’t take 60 votes to end a filibuster. A senator can only speak twice on any issue in one legislative day. A legislative day is whatever the majority says it is. A senator can speak only so long as he holds the floor. There are procedural methods for taking the floor for someone. The Senate can conduct business (committee hearings and such) during the day and debate at night.

        Following this method, the Republicans can burn through two Democrats a day and get an up or down vote in about thirty calendar (not legislative) days. That’s how Republicans passed the Civil Rights Act over a Democrat filibuster without 60 votes.

        The upside is all the hard work would be done by the Democrats, we’d get a bill every other month passed, the Democrats would be seen as obstructionists, and all that hard work and late hours might kill some of those old bastards.

        My point is don’t buy the establishment’s BS about how they can’t get anything done without a super majority.

        • I didn’t know that. But I probably should have known the dreaded filibuster would be only another excuse. The Republican party is conservative only when it comes to conserving their cushy place in the statist status quo.

        • “My point is don’t buy the establishment’s BS about how they can’t get anything done without a super majority.”

          That is completely brilliant. It should be implemented immediately. Thanks for bringing it up. Please call your Senators and somebody who’s on Twitter should tweet it to President Trump immediately.

        • Here is the link to the article where I got the information about the filibuster. http://thefederalist.com/2017/02/07/heres-republicans-can-confirm-supreme-court-nominees-without-killing-filibuster/

          Senator Cornyn says all the right things and is in the leadership, but only goes for half measures. Senator Cruz is an outcast.

          I think I was mistaken about the length a full court filibuster would last. Each senator can speak twice. Procedural motions can take the floor from two senators a day starting on day two. There are 48 Democrats. If only the Democrats speak, then the full length of a filibuster would be 50 days. It would probably be shorter than that because many senators can’t hold the floor for that long.

  16. Thus far, I’ve been pleased but not impressed by Trump’s actions. We’re less than 90 days in, and as yet he has only kept a few of his promises, and those are mostly the only ones he could simply sign EOs for- border wall funding for example. I’ve done what I can and written my Congressmen urging them to push reciprocity and expanded gun rights as the ball is firmly in their court anyway. Gorsuch is a turn in the right direction if we can ever get him confirmed- Schumer, Feinstein, and Pelosi are messin their britches over him!- and if we can get legislation moving and cases brought before SCOTUS, we might be able to make some good changes. Until then, it’s just business as usual with us getting our token lip-service treat from On High and the NRA. That said, it’s still early and gun rights are only a part of the agenda. Here’s hopin!

  17. Yes we have (myself included). Stay vigilant my friends.

  18. Never expect the Courts to save your rights. Then you will not be disappointed.

    Beat the anits at the Legislature. If not, load the bill up with due process, lots of dues process.
    And attorney fees for any person who has to sue and wins.

    • Consequential damages and actual monetary damages for deprivation of a right. The Supreme Court really screwed up with that cops don’t care about money, only convictions non-sense.

      Money damages are what we use for all the torts because apparently everyone who isn’t a cop only cares about money.

  19. And while we’re at it, what of the hugely unconstitutional laws limiting magazine capacity and so-called “assault weapons” in slave states.

    Fixed it for you.

  20. People of the Gun are foolish if they think the Supreme Court is “pro-gun”. Yes, they passed Heller but that is it. They have denied to hear concealed carry cases, assault weapon bans, magazine bans, etc. As far as I am concerned Kennedy is a traitor and the court if 5-4 anti-gun. We need either Kennedy or Ginsburg to die and get a Trump replacement before the court is truly pro-gun.

    Until then, we need to bury these anti-gun laws in lawsuits and hope that by the time they get to SCOTUS (Which could take a decade considering how slow our courts are) that SCOTUS will be pro-gun.

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