2014 was a highly successful year for NRA in our fight to protect our
Second Amendment rights. Although we didn’t win every battle, our
opponents were unable to hold back a wave of pro-gun victories. Our
members and supporters heeded the call to “Stand and Fight” with NRA,
helping to elect pro-gun majorities at both the state and federal
levels.
Here is a summary of the top stories brought to you in 2014 by the ILA
Grassroots Alerts. We'll look to continue our successful trend in 2015,
particularly in the U.S. Senate where we will work to push for pro-gun
reform while simultaneously working to block any anti-gun initiatives
from President Obama's administration.
NRA
continued to support the legal challenge against New York's recent gun
control law, commonly known as the SAFE Act. The suit was brought by
the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, among others. When a
state’s legislature oversteps its bounds, NRA demonstrates it can be
counted on to file, or support, litigation to ensure that citizens’
rights are protected.
Detroit police chief, James Craig, voiced his public support for
allowing law-abiding citizens to obtain concealed carry permits.
Previously serving as police chief in Portland, Maine, after working
nearly 30 years in the LAPD, Craig changed his views on the issue of
Right-to-Carry after seeing how effective CCW permits were in reducing
crime in Maine. Chief Craig understood that the best way he could ensure
that citizens were protected was allowing them to protect themselves if
need be.
Colorado-based Magpul Industries, a manufacturer of popular AR-15
ammunition magazines and accessories, announced that it would move its
corporate headquarters to Texas and its manufacturing operations to
Wyoming due to recently-passed anti-gun legislation. The company's
decision, affecting over 200 employees and 400 supply-chain workers in
Colorado, is expected to cost the state over $80 million annually.
President
Obama's State of the Union address contained some disturbing gun
control rhetoric, with the President pledging he would continue to
promote his anti-gun agenda "with or without Congress." Frustrated by
the legislative defeats his anti-gun bills suffered in Congress in 2013,
the President was left with only angry rhetoric and threats to continue
flouting the Constitution to force his anti-gun agenda upon the
American people, further demonstrating why we must be ever-vigilant.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 3590--the "Sportsmen's
Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act." This measure passed
with broad bipartisan support by a vote of 268 to 154. The SHARE Act
promotes and protects the rights of hunters in a variety of critical
ways.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that the Second Amendment
protects an individual right to carry firearms for self-defense in
public. The landmark decision came in the NRA-supported case of Peruta
v. San Diego County, brought on behalf of the CRPA Foundation and five
individuals who were denied carry licenses by the San Diego Sheriff. In
its ruling, this federal court struck a major blow against “may issue”
carry laws that frequently lead to law-abiding citizens having their
rights arbitrarily restricted or denied.
The
fight over President Obama’s Surgeon General Nominee, Vivek Murthy,
began in the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee. Murthy had a favorable 13-9 vote in that committee, prompting
a strong response from NRA-ILA. Murthy's record of political activism
in support of radical gun control measures raised significant concerns
about the likelihood he would use the office of Surgeon General to
further an anti-gun agenda. NRA-ILA, with the aid of our members
contacting their Senators, was able to block the impending nomination at
that time.
NRA files a Friend of the Court Brief in the appeal of NSA spying case.
NRA supported this case out of concern that bulk data collection could
undermine privacy protections in federal law that prohibit creating a
registry of firearms or firearm owners. Additionally, the NRA filing
argued that the mass data collection violates the First
Amendment-protected freedom of association,as it may make individuals
fearful of joining organizations like the NRA and speaking their minds
on controversial issues. Citizens should not have to fear being watched
for exercising their Constitutionally-guaranteed rights in a lawful
manner.
The FBI arrested anti-gun California Senator Leland Yee on firearm
trafficking charges. Senator Yee asked for campaign donations in
exchange for introducing an undercover FBI agent to an arms trafficker
who trafficked in bullet resistant vests, handguns, semi-automatic
rifles, shoulder-fired rockets and mines, as well as possibly being tied
to money laundering and murder-for-hire plots. Senator Yee also
happened to be A+ rated by the Brady Campaign for his anti-gun advocacy.
U.S.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Cal.), sponsor of the federal "assault
weapon" and "large" magazine "ban" of 1994-2004, asked President Barack
Obama to direct the BATFE to reinterpret a provision of the Gun Control
Act of 1968 to prohibit the importation of various semi-automatic
firearms and their parts. Thanks to the efforts of NRA, and of our
members who contacted their Senators in droves, NRA was able to block
this extreme measure.
Anti-gun former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledges $50
million for the gun control cause and consolidates his anti-gun groups
Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) and Moms Demand Action under a single
organization--Everytown for Gun Safety--with the stated goal to
“outmuscle the National Rifle Association.”
While Bloomberg struggled to mount an ineffectual grassroots campaign,
more than 75,000 members and 600 vendors flocked to NRA’s 143rd Annual
Meeting, all of them attending on their own dime. The contrast further
affirmed that NRA supporters do not need a $50 million dollar
sugar-daddy to rally and support their cause.
NRA
continued its support for the "Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2013"
(H.R. 2959)--introduced in the U.S. House by Representatives. This
legislation recognizes the right of those who hold a permit to carry a
firearm in their home state to carry concealed firearms nationwide,
subject to the laws governing manner and places of carry while in a
particular state. Similar legislation passed the House in 2011 by an
overwhelming bipartisan vote of 272-154. Federal Right-to-Carry
Reciprocity legislation continues to be a top priority of NRA as a
federally protected Constitutional right should not end at a state
border.
U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell
Issa (R-Calif.) released a staff report, The Department of Justice's
"Operation Choke Point": Illegally Choking Off Legitimate Businesses?
The U.S. Department of Justice, under anti-gun Attorney General Eric
Holder, claimed the operation was aimed at combating mass-market
consumer fraud by shutting down access to the banking and payment
systems that are necessary for fraudulent businesses to operate. The
report, however, concluded that the true goal of the operation is to
"choke out" certain industries-- including legal businesses that sell
firearms and ammunition-- which the current administration considers
politically objectionable.
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved the FY15 Commerce,
Justice, Science Appropriations bill. The bill moved to the floor of
the U.S. House where it was passed by a vote of 321-87. The bill
contained a number of pro-gun provisions including: banning gun walking
operations; preventing the Obama administration from using taxpayer
dollars to implement the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty; and preventing the
Obama administration from requiring registration records on the sale of
more than one rifle or shotgun to law-abiding individuals in Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona and California.
Michael
Bloomberg’s gun control operatives from Everytown for Gun Safety tried
to mislead legislators and the general public with a list of
firearm-related incidents in a report titled, “School Shootings in
America Since Sandy Hook.” This factually inaccurate report listed, “at
least 74” such incidents occurring since Sandy Hook. However, the list
included incidents most reasonable Americans wouldn’t consider “school
shootings” in the traditional sense, including: crimes (some involving
gangs) that happened to take place on or near school grounds; incidents
where no one was injured; suicides; accidental discharges; self-defense
uses of force; and even an off-campus crime spree that ended with police
shooting the perpetrator after he ran onto the grounds of a college.
Most of the cases bore little or no resemblance to the Sandy Hook
incident that the anti-gun Everytown group tried to invoke.
President Obama once again shared his desire for Australian-style gun
control while participating in a Q&A session involving social media
website Tumblr. Australia’s severe gun control law, the National
Firearms Agreement (NFA), includes many provisions that would be blatant
violations of the Second Amendment.
Mark Glaze, the executive director of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against
Illegal Guns (MAIG), resigned. Shortly after he resigned, he admitted
that none of Bloomberg’s gun control offerings would stop mass
shootings. While Glaze characterized this as a “messaging” problem, the
policy objectives of Bloomberg go far beyond issues with messaging. They
would violate constitutionally-protected rights, if adopted, and are
recognized by ordinary Americans as too extreme.
New
Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie (R) vetoed legislation that would have
banned the possession of ammunition magazines holding more than 10
rounds. Such magazines are most commonly used in handguns and
general-purpose semi-automatic rifles kept for defensive purposes. New
Jersey law is already strict enough, and the current restrictions have
done nothing to reduce violent crime in New Jersey.
Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) was sentenced to 10 years in
prison for public corruption. The charges stemmed from actions Nagin
took during his time as mayor of New Orleans. Nagin was infamous for
ordering the unconstitutional confiscation of lawfully-owned firearms
during Hurricane Katrina. The City of New Orleans later agreed to settle
a lawsuit initiated by NRA and a permanent injunction was issued
against the city, and then-Mayor Ray Nagin.
The City of Chicago was again ordered by the court to pay NRA’s legal
fees, this time $940,000, for work on Illinois Association of Firearm
Retailers v. City of Chicago (formerly Benson v. City of Chicago). That
case challenged the prohibition on lawful gun sales within the city.
The order brought Chicago’s recent total for NRA legal fees to over
>.5 million.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld Florida’s Firearm
Owner’s Privacy Act. This law was passed after a series of events in
which patients were harassed or denied access to services because they
refused to be questioned by their doctors about their ownership of
firearms.
Beretta USA announced that it would be moving its Maryland operation to
Tennessee. Beretta joined fellow firearm and firearm parts
manufacturers, such as Remington, Kahr Arms, PTR Industries, Sturm,
Ruger & Company, and Magpul Industries, all of which have either
left states hostile to gun owners, or which have chosen to expand their
operations in more gun-friendly areas. Beretta’s move could cost the
so-called “Free State” millions in investment and 160 jobs.
United
States District Court for the District of Columbia issued a decision in
Palmer v. District of Columbia, which challenged D.C.’s ban on carrying
firearms in public for self-defense. The court’s decision struck down
D.C.’s blanket prohibition on the right to carry outside one’s home.
Superior Court Judge Michael Donio declined to dismiss a case for
unlawful possession of a firearm against Philadelphia mother Shaneen
Allen or to disturb the prosecution’s refusal to allow her to attend a
diversion program to which she had already been accepted by the
program’s director. Ms. Allen was arrested during a traffic stop after
she volunteered to the officer that she had a firearm in her car. A
concealed carry permitee with no criminal record, she mistakenly thought
her Pennsylvania concealed carry permit was recognized by New Jersey.
Ms. Allen’s difficult road over the next few months to avoid a mandatory
prison sentence illustrated the need for federal Right-to-Carry
Reciprocity legislation.
Missouri’s primary election included a legislatively referred
Constitutional Amendment to strengthen Missouri’s right to arms
provision. Voters approved the amendment by a 61% to 39% margin.
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg failed in his attempt to oust Milwaukee
County Sheriff David Clarke from office. Bloomberg poured money and
support into the campaign of Sheriff Clarke’s anti-gun challenger.
Clarke, a strong supporter of the right of people to Keep and Bear Arms,
was easily re-elected and confidently proclaimed, “I trust the voters.
The voters can’t be bought.”
United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
issued an opinion holding that California’s 10-day waiting period for
nearly all firearm sales violates the Second Amendment as applied to
persons who either own a firearm already or have certain firearm-related
licenses or certificates. The opinion, written by Judge Anthony W.
Ishii, generally found California’s justifications for the waiting
period insufficient to overcome the burden the waiting period placed on
Californians’ right to keep and bear arms.
U.S.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) aggressively tried to reverse the
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision (which
invalidated unconstitutional restrictions on the ability to speak freely
at election time of grassroots groups like NRA and others) by pushing
“Senate Joint Resolution 19." This was a proposed "Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States relating to contributions and
expenditures intended to affect elections." S.J.R. 19 would have
authorized burdensome federal and state regulation -- or outright
prohibition -- of spending by corporations and other legal entities
(like NRA) to do what many were created to do: protect the rights of
their members at the ballot box. NRA and the activism of our members
again blocked this anti-gun ploy to narrow the scope of the First
Amendment.
NRA supported the USA FREEDOM Act of 2014 as a positive step toward
protecting the privacy of innocent Americans and ensuring that
surveillance activities are properly and narrowly focused on actual
threats to the nation’s security.
In a major reversal by the Atlantic County Prosecutor, Pennsylvania
mother and concealed carry permit holder Shaneen Allen was admitted to
the Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) program, ending a nightmarish,
months-long miscarriage of justice. Allen was only given this
opportunity to avoid conviction after the acting New Jersey attorney
general issued an opinion clarifying the application of New Jersey’s
mandatory sentencing scheme to certain minor firearm violations. That
opinion, in turn, followed revelations that the same County Prosecutor
who initially denied Allen’s request for PTI granted such an opportunity
to Baltimore Raven Ray Rice after he knocked out his then-fiancée on
video in a highly publicized incident.
Multiple
groups and media outlets damaged their own credibility and provoked
countless disbelieving face palms by attempting to tie the NRA to the
Ebola crisis. They groups absurdly claimed that NRA’s well-founded
opposition to Obama’s nomination of anti-gun activist Vivek Murthy as
Surgeon General exacerbated the Ebola outbreak, as Americans supposedly
had nowhere else to turn for reliable information on the outbreak.
Little airtime was given to the NRA’s legitimate concerns with the
nominee or to any evidence that Murthy himself had a singular ability to
effectively handle the nation’s Ebola response. Such outlandish
assertions offer yet another example of gun control supporters use
sensationalism to advance their anti-gun and anti-NRA agenda, no matter
how ridiculous and desperate it reveals them to be.
Eric Holder's legacy of mismanagement, incompetence, and the
politicization of federal law enforcement continued, as Judicial Watch,
through a public records lawsuit against the City of Phoenix, uncovered
more victims of the botched Operation Fast and Furious. An AK-47-type
rifle involved in Operation Fast and Furious was used in a gang-style
shooting in the city that left two people injured with multiple gunshot
wounds. More victims may be discovered as evidence suppressed by Eric
Holder and the Justice Department continues to come to light.
A coalition of congressional representatives issued letters requesting
internal investigators at the Department of Justice and FDIC to examine
Operation Choke Point and any officials and staff involved in the
program. Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), characterized
Operation Choke Point as “a DOJ-initiated effort that aims to force
businesses, many of which are licensed and legally-operating, out of the
financial service space and therefore, out of business.” Operation
Choke Point's targets include firearm and ammunition manufacturers and
retailers.
On
November 3rd, one day before the midterm elections, the U.S. Department
of Justice released over 64,000 pages of materials pertaining to the
infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Some, including former CBS
reporter Sharyl Attkisson, who helped break the Fast and Furious story,
have suggested that the timing of the document dump was calculated to
ensure the release of the documents would not receive adequate press
coverage due to the midterm elections. This document dump did not escape
NRA’s or other watchdog groups’ notice, however.
NRA-PVF achieved historic election victories, while anti-gun billionaire
Michael Bloomberg was proven to be a political liability. The
elections on November 4th proved to be a pro-gun tidal wave, with NRA
having its best election night in over a decade. Of the 251 races we
were involved in, we won 229, which translates into a 91% success rate.
NRA-PVF endorsed candidates won hard-fought victories in Arkansas,
Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, North
Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia. And because of our members’
support and activism, NRA was pivotal in re-electing pro-gun governors
in Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin, and in ousting a
Bloomberg-backed anti-gun governor in Maryland. In addition, we had
great success in races for the U.S. House.
Mississippi voters exhibited a firm commitment to preserving their
strong sporting traditions by ratifying NRA-supported Amendment 1.
Eighty-eight percent of voters cast their ballots in favor of Amendment
1, which establishes an individual constitutional right to hunt, fish,
and harvest wildlife.
In conjunction with the release of its annual crime report for 2013, the
FBI announced that all categories of violent and property crime
declined from 2012 to 2013. From 2012 to 2013, the nation’s murder rate
decreased five percent, to at least a 57-year low. The 2013 rate was
down 56 percent from the all-time high recorded in 1980, and down 54
percent since 1991, when total violent crime hit an all-time high.
Americans’
support for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has sharply increased, and
support for restricting gun ownership has sharply decreased, over the
last two years, according to the results of a poll by the Pew Research
Center for the People and the Press. The poll found that 57 percent of
Americans believe that gun ownership does more to protect people from
crime, while only 38 percent believe guns do more to put people at risk.
Viewed in conjunction with Pew’s previous polls on the same topic, the
percentage of Americans who believe that gun ownership protects people
from crime has risen by nine points during the last two years, a period
during which President Obama, Michael Bloomberg and other gun control
supporters have campaigned relentlessly for restrictions on firearms and
the Second Amendment. By comparison, the percentage believing gun
ownership puts people at risk has risen only one percent.
NRA will be closed on Thursday, December 25th, Friday, December 26th,
and Thursday, January 1st. Because of this abbreviated schedule, the
next Grassroots Alert will be transmitted on January 9th.
Have a safe and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
