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Firing Lines, Volume XXIV, Issue IV   August/September 2015 

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SHERIFF MICHAEL H. ZURLO ANNOUNCES FORMAL PATH TO UNRESTRICTED PISTOL PERMIT FOR SARATOGA COUNTY RESIDENTS

Kevin P. Mullahey, Undersheriff

Richard L. Castle, Chief

Ballston Spa, NY – June 17, 2015 –Sheriff Michael H. Zurlo today announced that since taking office in January 2014 he has worked to improve the pistol permit process in Saratoga County. His efforts have resulted in a reduction of processing time from over a year to less than three months in many cases while at the same time working toward a path for those wishing for an unrestricted concealed carry permit to obtain one.

Following recent meetings with representatives from area gun clubs and county firearms instructors, a plan has been devised that would allow law-abiding and responsible gun owners to obtain an unrestricted concealed carry permit upon completion of a live-fire safety and qualification course as well as classroom training on the legalities and responsibility of carrying a concealed firearm. To be eligible to obtain an unrestricted pistol permit in Saratoga County a person would first need to possess a restricted pistol permit for a period of one year and successfully complete the live-fire safety and qualification course. Upon successful completion of this course a certificate of completion will be provided to the permit holder who may then request that all restrictions be removed from his or her permit. It is anticipated that an unrestricted pistol permit may be issued by the County’s pistol permit licensing officer to anyone who successfully completes this course, provided that all other statutory requirements are met.

According to Sheriff Zurlo “A recognized path for obtaining an unrestricted pistol permit in Saratoga County is long overdue. I am pleased that through a collaborative effort with responsible gun owners in Saratoga County we are finally able to bring this to fruition.”

Saratoga County firearms instructors are in the process of designing the required training course in the hopes of starting to offer the course later this summer.

Led by Sheriff Michael H. Zurlo (R,I) the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, with more than 240 personnel provides law-enforcement protection and community services across Saratoga County, an area that covers more than 815 square miles. For more information visit: www.SaratogaCountySheriff.org 

By N. Keith Kappel 

There are two things to do when you’ve made a political calculation that backfires. The techniques apply regardless of whether it’s a law you’ve touted that caused unintended consequences or when an appointee or elected official you supported turns out to be an embarrassment.

In the case of unintended consequences, simply unleash a barrage of statistics to support that you have done the right thing – and they don’t have to be accurate or relevant. If it’s an individual who is a problem, then circle the wagons, heap praise on the person’s accomplishments and see that they are given prestigious awards and praise.

A year after the passage of New York’s infamous SAFE Act, a spokeswoman for the governor declares that the numbers are indisputable – the SAFE Act has enabled the state to better protect New Yorkers. “There have been 1,291 charges under the new law, with 1,155 for felony firearms possession, formerly a misdemeanor, with 1,041 of these cases (81 percent) in New York City, mostly Brooklyn and the Bronx. Separately, 17,751 people have been charged this year with misdemeanor weapons possession, almost 90 percent in New York City. These charges includes other weapons such as switchblades, blackjacks and brass knuckles.” No cause and effect correlation is provided to demonstrate which components of the SAFE Act were responsible for these enforcement actions.

Said proclamation of the SAFE Act as a success is unsupported, transparent nonsense and a shallow attempt to provide cover to the governor.

Details of the felony weapons charges noted above have not been disclosed. Interestingly, the ban on so-called assault weapons didn’t take effect until Jan. 15, so I suspect the 1,291 arrests were primarily for possession of unregistered firearms, which would have occurred without the SAFE Act. Also not reported was the disposition of these cases in terms of follow-up prosecution. Law enforcement I’ve spoken with often state their frustration with weapons charges being used as plea bargaining chips. In addition, the announcement fails to provide a breakdown between firearms, switchblades, blackjacks and brass knuckles. The 17,751 number sounds like a red herring thrown in to obfuscate and pump up the law’s effectiveness.

As Nancy Pelosi said, “...we have to pass the law to find out what’s in it!” Pass it the governor did, in the dark of night with no opportunity for debate or input. The response from the public was and continues to be loud and strong – Repeal It! Note that tens of thousands of Repeal the SAFE Act signs permeate front yards across the state. In addition, 52 of 62 New York counties and 225 municipal governments have passed resolutions in opposition, and sheriffs across the state have said they will not enforce. Billboards have been placed in Albany as a constant reminder to our legislators of what upstate thinks about this legislation. Seems like a lot of folks found out what’s in the bill.

Let’s take a look at independently published crime statistics and assess where this law is directed and whom it truly affects:

• Homicides in New York state in 2011 totaled 767. Of these, only 5 were committed with a rifle of any kind and 76 percent occurred in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and New York City.
• Nationally, of 12,996 homicides in 2010, only 2 percent were committed with a rifle of any kind.
• The 1994-2004 assault weapon ban was a failure which did not contribute to a reduction in crime. Violent crime in the U.S. has continually declined from 1990 to the present – it is down 49 percent, while the number of firearms has increased by 100 percent.
• The vast majority of violent crime occurs in cities with populations of 250,000 or more and is primarily drug- and gang-related.

There is a cultural component to violent crime that the politicians want to deflect attention from because it speaks to the failure of many government policies and programs. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI.

Uniform Crime Report and the National Youth Gang Survey show that, clearly, the crime problem is primarily an inner city demographic occurring in larger metropolitan areas and are drug- and gang related. Instead of dealing with this the politicians demonize an inanimate object with an emotion charged label of assault weapon. The SAFE Act fails to deal with the real issues and instead criminalizes people for what they lawfully owned prior to its enactment. It further penalizes and encumbers the law abiding for the simple acts of buying ammunition or giving a firearm to a family member.

Key components of the SAFE Act include a ban on so-called assault weapons, a ban on magazines that exceed 10-round capacity, a requirement that firearms be loaded with no more than seven rounds, background checks for ammunition purchases, severe restrictions for firearms transfers unless a background check is performed, confiscation of private property (without compensation) from the owners upon their passing and registration with the state of ALL firearms owned by a person upon their passing.

There is no justification in any statistics or independent study to indicate any of these elements are, can be or have been effective in addressing crime or criminals. On the contrary, there is substantial evidence that these make criminals out of the law abiding. Case in point is the singular arrest for the illegal sale of a so-called assault weapon when the seller was co-opted into consummating the sale the day after rather than the day before the law took effect.

The so-called assault weapon ban is absurd on two counts. First and foremost, no one can define an assault weapon beyond certain cosmetic features. Second, such firearms are used in an insignificant number of crimes, unless you count those given by the U.S. Department of Justice to the Mexican Drug cartels.

According to the SAFE Act, a firearm is prohibited if it is a semiautomatic with a detachable magazine and any one of the following: bayonet lug, a flash suppressor, muzzle brake, barrel shroud, grenade launcher, protruding pistol grip, protruding forearm grip, thumb hole stock or adjustable stock – characteristics which have nothing to do with the function of the firearm. I had to dispose of the thumb hole stock that came with my M597 Remington target grade 22 and replace it with a standard stock to “de-Cuomo” it and avoid registration and eventual confiscation.

The SAFE Act trashes the Second Amendment rights of the law-abiding and ignores the fact that the law will not be obeyed by criminals. Unfortunately, it is not about crime and criminals, but it is about control.

(Editor’s note: Keith Kappel is a former board of directors member for SCOPE –Shooters’ Committee on Political Education.) 

By Donald H. Smith, At Large Director

The Second Amendment isn't about hunting; it's about tyranny. Our Founding Fathers weren't worried about our being able to bag a duck or a deer; they were worried about us being able to keep our fundamental freedoms. Second Amendment rights belong to individuals, not to states or cities. Many of our forefathers died for this right.

Gun bans do not limit access to firearms by the bad guys. However, the bans do limit my Constitutional rights. It is not the responsibility of elected officials to legislate my ownership of firearms or firearm magazines. They are my personal property and protected by the Second Amendment.

California first introduced a so-called “assault weapons” ban in 1989 followed by Connecticut in 1993. David Kopel is research director of the Independence Institute and co-author of the law school textbook, “Firearms Law and the Second Amendment” [Aspen, 2012]. His article in the Wall Street Journal dated Dec.17, 2012 is entitled “Guns, Mental Illness and Newtown”. It states: “None of the guns that the Newtown murderer used was on the ban list since those bans concentrate on guns’ cosmetics, such as whether the gun has a bayonet lug, rather than their function”.

The Newtown, CT crime occurred in a “gun free zone”. Kopel continues: “Real gun-free zones are a wonderful idea, but they are only real if they are created by metal detectors backed up by armed guards. Pretend gun-free zones such as schools, movie theaters, shopping malls, etc, where law-abiding adults [who pass a fingerprint-based background check and a safety training class] are still disarmed. These pretend gun- free zones are magnets for evildoers who know they will be able to murder at will with little threat of being fired upon”.

Safety cannot be legislated with so-called “feel good” gun bills. “People who are serious about preventing the next Newtown should embrace much greater funding for mental health, strong laws for civil commitment of the violently mentally ill and stop kidding themselves that pretend gun-free zones will stop killers.”

Furthermore, Kopel explains: “Since gun controls today are far stricter than at the time when ‘active shooters’ were rare, what can account for the increase in these shootings? One plausible answer is the media. Cable TV in the 1990’s, and the Internet today, greatly magnify the instant celebrity that a mass killer can achieve. We know that many would-be killers obsessively study their predecessors.”

Consider that automobiles are more lethal than guns. We have laws for our highways but cannot guarantee everyone will obey them. Certainly regulations and personal responsibility go hand-in-hand. Perhaps we should replace large engines with small ones? But no, this might be construed as a violation of our civil rights.

The same can be said for alcohol. We know its use can result in crime and death, particularly when used in conjunction with drugs. My brother was innocently struck and nearly killed by a driver who had consumed a large quantity of alcohol. The driver died in the accident much like shooters have killed themselves after they have killed or maimed innocent bystanders. My brother never fully recovered. Some believe in restricting the size of gun magazines in an erroneous assumption that it saves lives. This suggests that we likewise reduce the size of alcohol containers. A parallel “reasonable, balanced and measured” alcohol policy might be as follows:

• Alcohol shall be served in half-pint containers only.

• Consumers must be registered in a national database.

• Purchasers must pass a fingerprint based background check.

• Immediate failure of background check upon evidence of DWI convictions.

• Number of purchases per customer shall be limited to one half-pint per week.

Thus we can end “the risk of unnecessary, high-capacity” alcohol containers. We might even consider enhanced penalties for possession of illegal amounts of alcohol.

I am sure these proposals would be considered fair and would not offend law-abiding alcohol consumers. “We can’t just stand back, the way things are, you have to do something to make a difference.” This sounds very much like recent quotes regarding proposed gun regulations. Do we honestly consider cars, containers and guns to be the real culprits? Common sense and sound judgment should convince us otherwise.

James Madison once said something to the effect that limited government , without self - government, is worse than tyranny. Those of us who are capable of governing ourselves, and obeying the law, as per Madison, should not expect to endure infringements upon our fundamental freedoms, not the least of which is our Second Amendment. Tragic events such as Tucson and Newtown should not provide the impetus for passage of legislation restricting such rights.

I end with a perspective on the Second Amendment which is quite appropriate: “No other property or objects are guaranteed to We the People, under the Constitution, as directly as “arms’ in the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment is an explicit recognition of legal property ownership.” 

By Stephen J. Aldstadt, former President of S.C.O.P.E.

One of the chief and most poignant criticisms of the NY (UN) SAFE Act is the fact that experts in law enforcement were not consulted in the drafting of the law. Most County Sheriffs and Police Unions have criticized the law.

PoliceOne conducted a Gun Policy & Law Enforcement survey in March of 2013, two full months after the passage of the (UN) SAFE Act (www.PoliceOne.com). More than 15,000 officers completed the survey. The results of this survey give a pretty good snapshot of the opinion of rank and file law enforcement personnel. These are the men and women who are out there on the front line fighting violent crime and working to make our communities safer. Let's take a look at how police officers view just a few of the major provisions of the (UN) SAFE Act. Survey questions in bold print:

What effect do you think a federal ban on manufacture of some semiautomatic firearms, termed by some as “assault weapons” would have on reducing violent crime?

71% indicated None. No effect. Interestingly 20.5% chose Negative, meaning they believe that a ban would actually have the effect of causing an increase in violent crime.

Do you think a federal ban on manufacture and sale of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds would reduce violent crime?

An overwhelming 95.7% answered NO! Do you think that a federal law prohibiting private, non-dealer transfers of firearms between individuals would reduce violent crime? 79.7% answered No. This is the holy grail of the anti-Second Amendment crowd. We hear a constant cry for “Universal Background Checks” and yet overwhelmingly, professional law enforcement personal do not believe it would reduce violent crime.

Clearly Police officers do not think laws like the (UN) SAFE Act will reduce violent crimes. What do they think would be effective?

Do you think increasing the severity of punishments for gun trafficking, particularly by unlicensed dealers or “straw purchasers” who buy arms for persons ineligible to own them, would reduce instances of gun crime?

A majority of 58.8% said yes.

Do you believe that that use of a firearm while perpetrating a crime should result in stiff, mandatory sentences with no plea bargains?

YES 91.4%!

Overwhelmingly, police officers feel that prosecuting people who commit crimes with guns will be productive in making our communities safer, not passing more and more restrictive laws on ordinary citizens. Why then do our politicians ignore the law enforcement professionals and continue to support laws like the (UN) SAFE Act? What if the law enforcement professionals decided to ignore the politicians and their restrictive gun laws?

They were asked....

What is your opinion of some law enforcement leaders' public statement that they would not enforce more restrictive gun laws in their jurisdictions?

22.2% said Favorable, and another 48.8% said Very Favorable

If you were a Sheriff or Chief, how would you respond to more restrictive gun laws?

44.9% answered "not enforce and join in the public, vocal opposition effort".

17.2% answered "not enforce and quietly lead agency in opposite direction.

10.0% answered "unsure"

Less than one in five indicated they would enforce the law!

The (UN) SAFE Act primarily effects the average law abiding gun owners and its most restrictive provisions specifically target licensed pistol owners. What do rank and file feel about civilian gun owners?

Do you support the concealed carry of firearms by civilians who have not been convicted of a felony and/or not been deemed psychologically/medically incapable?

YES, without question and without further restrictions – 91.3% !

On a scale of one to five – one being low and five being high – how important do you think legally -armed citizens are to reducing crime rates overall?

1 - 4.7%

2 - 4.9%

3 - 14.0%

4 - 21.7%

5 - 54.7%

We hear a constant drum beat for “Common Sense” gun control measures, always calling for more and more restrictions on the average citizen. How about this for common sense, how about we listen to the men and women who are out there every day putting their life on the line to keep us safe?

Those who support laws like the (UN) SAFE Act want us all to believe that gun violence is an ever increasing problem in America. The truth is just the opposite. By using government data, the FBI Uniform Crime Statistics show we have had a steady decrease in gun crime for decades.

There are notable exceptions to this: violent crime has shown an alarming increase in Baltimore and New York City, two cities where the rank and file police feel that they no longer have the backing and support of their political leaders. At a recent high profile event NYPD officers all turned their backs on Mayor DeBlasio because they feel the mayor does not have their backs. Morale among the police in Baltimore may be at an all time low.

The recent MOU, or Memorandum of Understanding, is an admission that the (UN) SAFE Act is unworkable. The fact that less than 4.5% of gun owners have complied with the “Assault Weapon” registration shows that it is un-enforceable. The fact that it is so widely criticized and ignored by our Sheriffs and Police officers demonstrates how ill-informed and ill-conceived the law is.

It is time our elected leaders started paying more attention to our police officers. Law enforcement needs to be consulted before politicians pass ill-informed, unworkable, and unenforceable gun laws. The (UN) SAFE Act must be repealed or over-tuned.  

By Shawn DuBois

Our culture of the past few decades is the reason for our current social problems. The degradation of our morals, ethics, and personal accountabilities has us at the end of our rope. Respect was the first loss to our character. By not recognizing that the stern hand of our parents and elders was not only a punishment, but a glimpse of the pain that we would succumb to in a lifetime of making bad choices, the easy way out if you will.

I know first hand of this road. In my youth I was rebellious of all forms of authority, be it my parents, school, or the law. I would seek out confrontation on all fronts to prove that I was capable of making choices. Turns out that they were all the wrong choices.

Integrity, that too has become lost from us over the course of time. We let things go and make excuses like, I don't have the time, I'm too tired, or I just don't feel like it. We allow the little things in our composure to give way to convenience and don't do the right thing when it presents itself.

The greatest loss to our collective citizenry has been honor. Honor has been replaced by a false sense of pride. This illusion allows some people to walk through life thinking they deserve your respect. Somehow this qualifies them as being honorable. In my youth I was guilty of this belief. I'm glad to say that I wised up and took into account all of the things my elders preached over the years. Encompassing all their sacrifices and hardships, I have come to realize what real Honor is; that silent strength of personal accountability.

Our society has been enveloped in an apathetic culture of senseless tragedy. This has been played out over and over again against a backdrop of forgotten values. The core of reasoning has yielded to the paper pride of an antagonist who feels that they were somehow stepped on. Their need to lash out with vengeance was to fill their empty vault of honor.

Pride comes before the fall. In the case of mass shootings, pride comes before the fall of others. I look at all the shootings and I wonder, was it just plain cold blooded murder? Was the senseless act of killing random people to satiate a practical hunger for violence or was the killing of innocent people the byproduct of a criminal who didn't get what they wanted?

When you add in the mental instability of an individual you will have consequences that lead to random acts of evil perpetrated by nothing more than a selfish madman who wants to play the part of the Joker. Those on the left side of this argument may or may not recognize the unstable minded individual as partial cause of being an active shooter.· With that being said, am I to believe that those who seek to abolish all guns would rather see an unstable minded individual walking around in a society free of guns, than a stable minded person with guns?

The anti-gun establishment also tend to lump all those with guns as "owners." Criminals are not gun owners. They simply possess a firearm by some means of a past crime, be it from a theft or an illegal purchase. Both are illegal. A true gun owner is someone who exhibits ownership of responsibilities of having a firearm. It is this same responsibility by the gun owner to prevent a firearm from falling into the wrong hands.

All of the shootings do have one thing in common, it took a person to pick up a firearm, point it at somebody and pull the trigger. Those are the human actions required for a firearm to expend a round in the manner it was so designed. A firearm itself is incapable of such an act alone. Therefore, a gun alone cannot harm anyone, until it has been picked up and used in such a wicked fashion. Often Firing Lines page 9 this puts false blame on those who are responsible gun owners.

Where does all this false blame come from, that's right, the liberal media. The misinformation machine that condemns everything that does not fall unto their irrational minded scheme. By repeating half-truths with the intention, of not only relying on a populace who are accustomed to being fed instant results, but for the sole purpose of saturating the masses with a quick one sided conclusion to distract them from the slow process of ascertaining the truth.

The willing capitulation of free thought and the erosion of intellect has become the most disturbing casualty of American sovereignty. Individuals of modern civilization quietly chooses to surrender their own common sense and allow themselves to be led into the corral of mass hysteria. This is where the anti-gun establishment lay. Penned in and reinforced by a false sense of security from, they howl and lament at every opportunity to diminish the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America. They have no respect for the great and proud history of whence it came.

Benjamin Franklin once said, "If you allow yourself to become a sheep, the wolf will surely eat you." 

By Michael Caruso 

" ... the State 'has the supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State ... for the right of the world spirit is above all special privileges."' Author/historian William Shirer, quoting Georg Hegel in his The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1959, page 144).

After every mass shooting, we hear the cries for more gun control from the statist and the faint cries to address the real issues. Presidential Candidate Donald Trump said during an October 4 appearance on This Week With George Stephanopoulos that, "Politicians who push gun control do not understand the problems they want to fix." The truth is far from what Tromp thinks. Trump also stated on October 7th that "a lot of people in this room say there is another agenda". He went further to state ·1 think they are stupid people honestly".

Any politician that pushes gun control is doing so not as a naive participant attempting to address the problem of violence in our culture. They do not want or intend to genuinely address the true issues from which our country suffers. They do so knowing what the true secret goal of gun control is: to slowly evolve into an unarmed society. This can be said regarding every leader of groups that calls for more gun control in the name of saving lives.

The common principle at play is a dialectic, often called the Hegelian Dialectic. It is a triad of propositions understood as thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Once synthesis has been reached, the process starts all over again. In layman terms this is known as problem, reaction, and solution. Again, once the solution has been reached the process starts anew. This process is at play in nearly every decision we as a society make. Unbeknownst to many, the solution or synthesis has already been formuIated.

We also see this at work when it comes to the manufactured immigration crisis that is afoot The populous is yearning for a plan, desperately yearning for action to be taken. The desperation is so extreme that they will cheer when someone proposes building a wall to keep people out. Cheering, but not realizing that these proposals attack our freedoms. Cheering, yet not thinking of the consequence of walls, to keep people out and also within. Or they may cheer when someone says they would close certain Mosques. Cheering on and not fully knowing what is within the First Amendment: freedom of speech is just being just one part; freedom of religion being another. Proposing to close certain Mosque, such as Tromp has done, is a full blown violation of the First Amendment They would rather have the extreme dialectic solutions, instead of looking at the real issues.

The statists' / establishments' ultimate goal or end game for · this ever persistent attack on the Second Amendment is the repealing of it A land where you do not have the right to bear arms is a land where your rights are reduced to privileges with the chance of them being taken away. The goal is the same for any crisis. It is not to solve the issue; it is to have the public willfully hand over their being aware of doing so. I have heard many people question if politicians are stupid and say they don't understand the issues, or even that they have never read the US Constitution. They have read the US Constitution, maybe it was a long time ago though. They are not stupid and they do understand the real issues. They just don't want to solve the problems, the real problems. To do so would be to relinquish the control they have over the populace. In regards to the US Constitution, they view it with disdain, yet in public many of these same officials praise the virtues of it.

What we are seeing is a full out war on our rights, which are endowed upon us, not by one person, nor by a group of people, but by our creator. We are seeing the movement to reform our country into one where we have privileges, not rights; a country where you could lose your privileges due to the politically driven reason of the day. We already saw this with the Sedition Act of 1918, which Wilson used during World War I. It forbade the use of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, its flag, or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. Those convicted under the act generally received sentences of imprisonment for five to 20 years.

Our Founding Fathers and Mothers envisioned a country where we all have rights. But more and more those rights are being reduced to privileges. Not a country where a citizen is imprisoned for voicing an opposing opinion to the government, Schenck Vs United States, nor a country where you are tracked daily, be it through your cell phone or on the internet Not a country where a select few are granted "permits .. to be armed in NYC and other cities.

Understand that what we see occurring is not due to naive politicians, nor officials being "stupid". "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you super-add the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority." Lord Acton

By Timothy Wheeler, M.D.

Gun prohibitionists have raged since 2008 over the astounding setback they suffered in 2008 with the U.S. Supreme Court's opinion District of Columbia v. Heller. No sooner had they picked themselves up off the mat than the court delivered the second punch in the form of the 2010 decision McDonald v. Chicago. Heller affirmed the individual right to own guns for self-defense, and McDonald clarified that Heller applied also to the states and lesser jurisdictions.

Together, they are the two landmark Supreme Court decisions that restored the right of armed self defense to crime-plagued District of Columbia residents and to Otis McDonald, a retired African-American maintenance engineer in Chicago threatened by neighborhood gangsters. They have reformed and fundamentally redirected the course of American legal proceedings regarding firearm ownership.

Gun prohibitionists have fixed their hopes on language in Heller that allows for some regulation of the right to keep and bear arms. Now comes the New York State Bar Association with its Task Force on Gun Violence Final Report, a user-friendly how-to book for gun-grabbing politicians. It amounts to a brief for gun control, a guidebook for policy makers who are looking for ways to skirt the protections of the law. With its blatant utilitarian appeal to the gun control movement, it has earned a place on the bookshelf alongside the original notorious gun control playbook. http://drgo.us/? F418.

The Bar Association's partisan support of gun control reminds me of my own experiences in my state's professional organization, the California Medical Association (CMA). In the 1990s, when the public health gun prohibition movement had gained momentum, activist leaders in the CMA eagerly sought harsher gun control laws for Californians.

Brushing aside concerns about legality, including California's constitutional protection of "defending life", the California Medical Association adopted policies calling for "cities and counties to enact [gun control] laws more restrictive than state laws", mandatory handgun licensure and registration, and "a state excise tax on sales of ammunition and firearms" (Actions of the House of Delegates 1994 and 1995, California Medical Association).

The organizations claiming to represent America's lawyers and doctors almost uniformly adopt militant gun prohibitionist positions, often pushing those agendas in the statehouses and in Congress. In the case of the California Medical Association, at least, they claim to represent their members through a representative process. But that organization's leadership at times has resorted to dirty tricks to thwart the common will and push its minority agenda.

For example, in 1996 the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209) appeared on the ballot. That initiative outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, ethnicity or national origin in California's public education facilities, employment and contracting. Both the CMA's Board of Trustees and House of Delegates deliberately refrained from taking a position on this controversial ballot measure. But a few days prior to election day, a handful of leaders (the Executive Committee) announced their own opposition to it, misrepresenting it as the CMA's official position. Members complained, but it was too late. CMA social activists resorted to other unethical behavior during their anti-gun rights campaign of the 1990s. In my capacity as a delegate to the policy-making House of Delegates, I faxed documents to a reference committee considering a gun control resolution. My documents cited criminology research showing the self-defense benefits of gun ownership, in opposition to the resolution. The reference committee never considered my documents, saying they had never received them despite my sending them-three times.

It's easy to wonder if the inner workings of the New York State Bar Association are similar, considering the raw bigotry against gun owners evident throughout their report. The reader's first clue is the repeated use of the term "gun violence", which has come to be the mutually agreed-on code word for "violent crime and suicide". Using the more accurate term would focus on the real underlying human problems instead of demonizing the tool itself, which is the gun-banners' message.

In the best tradition of public health anti-gun rights advocacy articles, the Bar Association's report omits any hint of the voluminous criminology research supporting the social benefits of firearm ownership. It devotes pages of text and footnotes to citations of medical anti-gun advocacy research by authors from major gun control advocates like Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and the CDC. But not a word of research from criminologists Lott, Kleck, Mauser, or Wright and Rossi.

The Bar Association report doesn't even mention that :firearms are used at all for self-defense. This calculated omission alone is utterly amazing, considering how public attitudes have shifted toward approval of gun ownership and the right of self -defense. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/17 /despite-lower-crime-rates-support-for - gun -rights-increases/ .

The report rehashes old arguments about the wording of the Second Amendment that were resolved years ago in the federal courts. It approvingly cites examples of early gun control laws of the republic. The countervailing arguments, the ones that ultimately convinced the appeals courts and the Supreme Court, are mentioned only to dismiss them.

Finally, the report wraps up with an entire section melodramatically titled ''Beyond the Law: Missing Gun Violence Data". In such official anti-gun rights screeds, in public health advocacy research articles, and in major media reports, it has become standard procedure to hammer away at how unjust Congress supposedly was in ordering a stop to federally funded gun research in 1996.

The truth, of course, is never whispered. Congress ordered a stop, not to gun research, but to the ongoing operation of what amounted to a taxpayer-funded gun control advocacy factory at the federal Centers for Disease Control. The Bar Association somehow omitted the ugly details of this scandal at the CDC, but you can read them at http:// drgo.us/?p=285.

The New York State Bar Association claims, among other things, to serve individual lawyers in the state. But its report on "gun violence" is so one-sided that it cannot be seriously considered to represent the range of legal opinion of New York's legal community. It is nothing more than a carefully constructed legal argument for abolishing the right to keep and bear arms.

-Timothy Wheeler, MD is director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Second Amendment Foundation 

By Ralph Esposito, Editor

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families of the terrorist attacks in Paris. Well over 100 innocents brutally murdered and hundreds more wounded by a handful of radical Islamic terrorists.

France is a nation that is restrictive of gun ownership, including all but prohibiting legal handgun carry. Despite these laws the terrorist had fully automatic military weapons, grenades and suicide vests. The best those were caught in the killers sights could do was call the police on their cell phones and beg them to save their lives.

I am not saying that the Second Amendment could absolutely prevent such a horror but we do know the following in the US:

•  The police always arrive after the shooting begins, long minutes   after.

•  Most mass shootings have happened in a gun free zone, assuring unarmed victims.

•  Many times when an armed citizen is present the shooter is stopped   long before the police arrive. Recall the Oregon mall shooting that was stopped by an armed civilian. Upon his arrival the shooter killed himself, October, 2015. Lets not forget the security guard who shot the two armed terrorists at the Dallas area Muslim cartoon event in May of 2015. Score two dead terrorists, one wounded security officer.

Could armed citizens in Paris have stopped have the carnage? That is something we will never know. What is clear is that armed citizens would have had a chance to stop or at least slow down the killers; perhaps saving some lives. Instead people died running away or begging for their lives. Pleas that fell on deaf ears of those callous vermin.

It is interesting to note that in Austria and other European Union countries since the first Paris terrorist attack, where some guns can still be purchased legally there has been a run on gun purchases. Funny how that is happening in the very countries President Obama's called "civilized" because of their restrictive gun control.

In World War II the evil that had taken control in Germany disarmed both it's own people and those it conquered. That allowed the round up and slaughter of millions of innocents to go unchallenged. I imagine many of them tried running away or begging for their lives too. Of course those who seek to disarm us today have only our best interests at heart - so they tell us, and of course that they will protect us (ask someone in Chicago about that).

The question is, if God forbid you were in Paris that tragic Friday the 13th would you rather have had a cell phone or a gun? 

By Attilio A. Contini 

Spare me the crocodile tears. Really, think about it. If Obama was actually concerned about the so called need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, why did he wait three years? Seven years? Why didn’t he go before Congress and plead his case with the sob story he gave us on January 5th? Why didn’t he ask Congress to sit down with him and propose a compromise solution that would actually work rather than the same old restrictions that never work? 

He wants background checks, so do I. But they must be against a data base that only contains the names of individuals who should not be permitted to own or buy guns! He should be making sure the names of convicted felons, drug dealers, including addicts, those that have a history of mental instability and a tendency towards violence that would cause them to be a threat to themselves and others, and most important, those who associate with and have ties to terrorist groups in particular Islamic Jihadists. 

He has put little old ladies and law abiding citizens on watch lists. How about admitting that radical Muslims are terrorists? He and his oath breaking friends such as Cuomo, are assembling a massive database that contains the names of very few individuals who should not have guns, and is of little value other than to harass, tax, and make difficult for law abiding citizens to purchase and own guns, and pave the way for the mass confiscation of our guns. 

One has to ask, how can they be so stupid as to not realize or understand that the database they are (have been) creating is almost useless in accomplishing their alleged goal. The answer is their actual goal is not to prevent mass shootings and crime; it is to give them the means to disarm and control law abiding citizens. This is why so many of the gun control advocates are the same radical progressive, left wing people who despise our free democratic form of government and are “dramatically changing” it. This is why these same people think little old ladies who pray in front of abortion mills are criminals, but refuse to admit radical Muslims are terrorists. 

Guns are as safe as they need to be. There is no need to create smart guns or make them difficult to use. Look at what the President and his henchmen have been doing the last seven years and tell me why we shouldn’t have reason and concern about our Constitutional rights, in particular the second amendment. It is time to stop blaming guns and ask why are the terrorist sickos committing these brutal senseless mass murders. Moral decay, the entertainment industry, mass media, and the Radical Islamic attack on our Western society are the primary reasons. 

By William R Fox Sr, Genesee County Scope Chair 

This letter is in reference to some of our elected officials who are demanding that anyone who is on the no-fly list be blocked from buying a firearm and, possibly, have their firearms confiscated. 

Sounds like a great idea for everyone's safety doesn't it? The people of this country really need to think about this. 

You ask why? You don't agree with this statement? 

How does one get on this list? Are there definite guidelines on how someone is placed upon it? Mistakes have been pointed out; such as the late Senator Ted Kennedy and even US military members being on the list. 

Is it because you might not agree with the politicians or our leaders about how things should be done? (Note: Remember they work for us.) Is it because of your religious beliefs? Is it because of how your name is spelled or how it sounds? 

Is it because of how many firearms you buy? 

I don't know how it's done and that's what scares me. I don't think anybody does. 

What are the guidelines and who sets them? 

Ok, let’s say you find out that you are on this list. How do you get off of it? If you are able to correct the error, at what cost will it be to you and your family-both emotionally and financially? What are the guidelines for defending yourself against something you knew nothing about? People, we need to really think about this because there are so many questions that our leaders don't seem to think, or don't care to think about. 

All of this points out one definite, dangerous fact…our Constitutional rights are unapologetically being infringed upon by the government. They are blatantly disregarding the people’s right to due process. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently suing the Obama administration because of this violation of our rights. 

People in this country are scared of what they don't understand. 

Please take the time to educate yourself and then let your elected officials know where you stand. 

One man's opinion.