Law School Conservative

Some people seem to think you should have less freedom to protect yourself in America's national parks than you have almost anywhere else.

Across the country, crime is rising in our national parks. They've become a base of operations for criminals ranging from illegal ginseng pickers and black bear poachers to marijuana farmers, meth lab cooks, drug smugglers and illegal immigrants.

Meanwhile, despite increased budgets, there are fewer U.S. Park Police today than there were before 9/11.

Yet under current National Park Service regulations, you're not allowed to have a firearm to protect yourself or your family-regardless of state law.

To correct that, U.S. Senator George Allen has introduced S. 4057, which would protect the Second Amendment Right to Carry in all national parks, so long as that doesn't contradict state law.

Seems to make sense, right? After all, you shouldn't have to give up your constitutional rights as soon as you set foot in a national park.

But to date, not a single senator on Capitol Hill has stepped forward to co-sponsor this important bill.

And the New York Times, in its typical snotty fashion, said, "We hope the bill will die the miserable death it deserves." The bill, they claimed, "can only endanger the public."

But history proves the point: Freedom doesn't endanger anyone. Violent felons do.

Last year, there were scores of killings and rapes committed in America's national parks, and almost 4,000 serious crimes investigated by park rangers.

In fact, National Park Service officers are 12 times more likely than FBI agents to be killed or injured due to a criminal assault.

If National Park Service employees can't protect you, then you have every right to demand that freedom as your own.

If a state honors the Right to Carry within its borders, then so should every national park within those same borders.  And American media ought to agree out loud.

There's a reason that few in the United States are calling for an across-the-board ban on firearms these days. 

That's because they've learned not to try to ban them all in one fell swoop. 

Instead, the disarmament crowd calls for banning certain types of guns.  Guns that are too big, or too small.  Guns that are too affordable, or too exotic.  Guns that are too scary-looking, or too easy to conceal.

This approach has had a great deal of success outside the United States.  Scotland, for instance, has been banning ownership of pistols for a decade.  But every year, their crime figures prove that banning guns doesn't work.

The latest figures from the Scottish government show that crimes involving banned firearms are increasing in Scotland, but crimes involving legally owned firearms are decreasing. 

The number of criminals using banned handguns is up seven percent over last year, while the overall number of guns used in crime is down six percent over the same time period.  What makes this even more important is that the number of legally owned firearms is climbing as well, reaching the highest level in five years.

You won't see this story reported in the American media.  Papers like the New York Times and the Washington Post are still obsessed with banning all guns, believing it will somehow lower the crime rate. 

But the gun-ban facts from Scotland - and everywhere else - tell a different story, year after year.

I read lots of newspapers, and most editorial writers are pretty clear about what they believe when it comes to the Second Amendment.

But at the New York Times, they're really confused.  So they assume everyone in America is just as confused as they are. 

Here's what the Times had to say about Right-to-Carry in a recent editorial:

"America's confusion about the Second Amendment is now nearly total. An amendment that ensures a collective right to bear arms has been misread in one legislature after another - often in the face of strong public disapproval - as a law guaranteeing an individual's right to carry a weapon in public."

You know, if we're going to rely on the New York Times to educate us on the Second Amendment, we might as well learn to drive from Ted Kennedy, or maybe get a lesson in humility from John Kerry.

The Times can repeat a lie over and over again, but it still doesn't make it true.

The truth is that almost everyone agrees that the Second Amendment is about individual rights, just like the rest of the Bill of Rights. 

Even anti-gun scholars like Saul Cornell acknowledge that fact.  But the New York Times won't. 
And never will.

I'm starting to think some politicians in San Francisco have lost their hearts as well as their minds.

Last year, they tried to pass a ban on ownership of handguns, as well as a complete ban on the sale of firearms and ammunition in the city.  Now the local school board is trying to end the JROTC program in San Francisco public schools.

Board member Dan Kelly says JROTC is "a recruiting program for the military."

Even if that were true, would that be a bad thing?  The men and women serving in our armed forces should be applauded, not denigrated.  But that might be too much to ask of San Francisco.

Even Mayor Gavin Newsome gets it.  He called the decision disrespectful of the armed services. 

He's right.  He's also right that this is going to make some residents leave the city.  They've already shown disgust for our Second Amendment rights.  Now they're turning up their noses at the men and women who guard their freedoms every day.  They should be ashamed.

Now that the Thanksgiving holiday is over, it's time to roll up our sleeves and get back to work.  Congress still has a couple of weeks before the anti-gun leaders take over, and NRA is going to try to use that time to try to get HR 5092 passed. 

HR 5092 is also known as the BATFE Modernization and Reform Act.   It's legislation that's extremely important, not just for gun sellers, but gun owners as well.  We're losing our places to purchase firearms, and this bill will help stop that by ending the practice of revoking licenses for unintentional clerical errors.   You can find out more about this bill by visiting  www.nraila.org. 

The talking heads say that this is a do-nothing Congress, that nothing can get passed until the new session starts.  Let's prove them wrong.  Call your senators today, and urge them to vote on HR 5092.  It won't be easy, but I think we can get this bill signed into law before Nancy Pelosi and the other anti-gunners take charge.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving, you'll no doubt hear a lot from the media and politicians about what we should be thankful for... but, for NRA members and gun owners... as usual... they'll miss a lot.

 I can't think of a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than by spending time with our families.  I'm also thankful for the men and women who leave their families behind to put their lives' on the line to protect us.  They fight abroad for the freedom we are charged to protect here at home.

And I'm grateful for my NRA family and the kinship I feel with my fellow patriots on the front lines of defending freedom.  Our diligent struggle to defend our rights and to pass them on to future generations is as uniquely American as Thanksgiving itself.

Even though the media won't admit it, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is the one freedom that makes all others possible.  No, reporters don't talk about it, but our Second Amendment guarantees their First Amendment-and the rest of the Bill of Rights.

You could even say that the Second Amendment is, in reality, America's First Freedom, for without it, there would be no freedom of speech or assembly or anything else.  And for that, we can all be thankful.... even if the media won't admit it.

So, turn off the evening news and put down the paper.  Take a moment to reflect upon our family, our nation, our freedom and our NRA.  There's a lot to be grateful for.

I can't believe it.  A paper's written about right to carry, and they didn't use the phrase "blood in the streets."  They didn't compare it to the days of the "Wild West."  The reporter didn't try to scare his readers, just educate them.  Good for the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. 

The right to carry story admits that Memphis, Tennessee has its share of violent crime.  But reporter Don Wade points out that there are more and more armed citizens willing to stand up to criminals. 

Like Chris Cope, who stopped an attack on several individuals at a local grocery store. Or the 53-year-old convenience store worker from Thailand who stopped an armed robber early one morning.

The people of Memphis have had enough. 

Wade also quotes Memphis Police Sgt. Vince Higgins, who says he's all for an armed populace.  And Wade concludes his piece by telling us that the people in his right to carry course aren't looking for trouble, they're just trying to stay safe. 

It's a fair, accurate story-and something you'll never see in the national media.

On a crowded Queens street in Long Island last week, rush hour pedestrians were terrified by a hail of machine gun fire, according to the New York Post (11/15/06).  The Post described the scary scene in detail... but failed to even mention how the whole thing could have been prevented.

Near one of the city's busiest subway stations, a criminal armed with an illegal .45 caliber machine gun, outfitted with a silencer and extended magazine, began firing several rounds into the air.  Frightened pedestrians ran for cover.  Apparently, no innocent lives were lost, and the man was soon shot and apprehended by police.

That's good news.

But the bad news is what the Post didn't tell readers - that the entire crime could have been, and should have been, prevented.

The perpetrator had five prior arrests, including two for criminal possession of a firearm. 

And although the Post ignored it, those two crimes alone allowed authorities to send this armed criminal to a federal prison for a total of ten years.  That's right - ten hard years of federal time... instead of being free to roam Queens with an illegal gun.

So, if you hear New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg or Senator Chuck Schumer or Hillary Clinton talking about the need for more gun control laws to prevent such frightening crimes... remind them of that number ten.

That's how many years this guy should have been rotting away in a prison cell.