Senate committee OKs assault weapons ban

Via mppsepoc

 

 Democrats pushed an assault weapons ban through a Senate committee on Thursday and toward its likely doom on the Senate floor, after an emotion-laden debate that underscored the deep feelings the issue stokes on both sides.

Exactly three months after 26 children and educators were gunned down in Newtown, Conn., the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure on a party-line 10-8 vote. The bill would also bar ammunition magazines carrying more than 10 rounds.

Thursday's vote marked the fourth gun control measure the committee has approved in a week and shifted the spotlight to the full Senate. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he will decide soon how to bring the measures to the chamber, where debate is expected next month.

"Americans are looking to us for solutions and for action," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. He said that despite gun-rights advocates' claims, the Second Amendment's right to bear arms is not at risk, but "lives are at risk" unless lawmakers can figure out how to keep firearms away from dangerous people.

The other bills would require federal background checks to more would-be gun buyers, make it easier for authorities to prosecute illegal gun traffickers and boost school safety aid.

Barring assault weapons was part of President Barack Obama's plan for reducing gun violence. But banning the high-powered weapons has encountered strong opposition from congressional Republicans and elicited little enthusiasm among moderate Democratic senators up for re-election next year in GOP-leaning states in the West and South.

The measure's sponsor, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and her supporters say the ban would help eliminate the type of firearms and magazines that have been used with deadly effect at Newtown and several other recent mass shootings. Opponents say barring the guns would violate the right to bear arms and have little overall impact because assault weapons are involved in small percentages of gun crimes.

At one point Thursday, Feinstein responded angrily after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, asked if she would also support limiting the First Amendment's freedom of speech by denying its protection to some books.

More @ MSN

Aporkalypse Now

Via mpopenker

 

Sources: NRA won't oppose background check deal – if Democrats cede tough records fight

Via avordvet

 

Senators negotiating a bill mandating background checks for all gun buyers are privately expecting the National Rifle Association not to fight the measure -- provided the legislation does not require private gun sellers to maintain records of the checks, NBC News has learned.

If that requirement is met and key Republican negotiator Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma signs on, the powerful gun lobby has signaled to lawmakers that they would not actively oppose the bill -- and not count votes in favor of it as part of its highly influential NRA lawmaker ratings -- according to Senate aides familiar with the stalled negotiations.

Such a deal could clear the way for a universal background check bill, a central tenet of President Barack Obama's gun control initiative, to pass the Senate with significant Republican support. Odds of passage in the House would brighten significantly as a result.

The NRA denies being part of any agreement. "We do not take positions on hypotheticals. We will make our position known if and when legislation is introduced," said Chris Cox, the group's top lobbyist.

The NRA is still adamantly opposed to expanding background checks to private sales. "To be clear, the National Rifle Association does not support legislation that would criminalize otherwise lawful transfers of firearms between law abiding Americans," Cox said.

More @ First Read

Commierado Magazine Ban On Gov.'s Desk - We're All Criminals

                                            

House Bill 1224, the Magazine Capacity Ban, was signed off by the House today. The bill is now on the Gov.'s desk. He has indicated he will sign it.

The bill will 'allow' you to keep your high capacity magazines if you owned them prior to the date this bill goes into effect. But even if you magazine complies with this bill, you may still be in violation

Why?

The devil is in the details.

The bill prohibits the sale, transfer, or possession of an ammunition feeding device that is capable of accepting, or that can be readily converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition or more than 5 shotgun shells (large-capacity magazine).

Did you catch that?

can be readily converted to accept, more than 10 rounds

If you have pistols magazines, take one and look at it. Does the baseplate come off for cleaning the springs and internal housing of the magazine?

More @ Resistor in the Rockies

Illegal aliens are raping their way through North Carolina's children

Via NC Renegade

 

In recent years, the illegal alien population in North Carolina has exploded thanks to 'sanctuary policies' in several cities and counties throughout the state.

Most recently, the welcome mat was made even larger for those who enter this country illegally by the Tarheel State, when the North Carolina DMV began issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

Of course, these decisions and disastrous policies have been made over the very loud objections of many North Carolinians. However, as is so often the case, the desire for cheap labor and commerce has trumped the rule of law and the safety of the citizens.

Not surprisingly, as with any location that has a large concentration of Mexican and Central American illegal aliens, the children are truly paying the price for that so-called 'cheap labor.'

A very cursory search turned up the following sex crimes against children, in which an illegal alien has either been charged or convicted in North Carolina in the first 10 days of March 2013, alone:

More @ Examiner

“God is Pro Gun!”

 

Fox News- God and guns go hand-in-hand according to a Chicago-area pastor who hosted a Second Amendment Sunday in his church – that included a cake decorated with an edible chocolate Glock emblazoned with the phrase, “Blessed Are the Peacemakers.”

“Jesus was not a pacifist,” said John Kirkwood, pastor of Grace Gospel Fellowship in Bensenville, Ill. “The idea that the gun is evil – that’s a myth that’s been perpetrated by the left. It’s sad to me as a pastor to see that.”

Kirkwood said he has been disturbed by a series of incidents involving school children punished for playing cops and robbers, a student who was punished for chewing his pop tart into the shape of a gun, and a boy whose cupcakes were confiscated because they were decorated with plastic green army men.

“The one that really got to me was the cupcake story,” Kirkwood told Fox News. “Political correctness is the bonfire of the sanities.”

“To make a decision like that – in the midst of a war – that’s a 1960’s hippy ‘spit on our returning soldiers’ kind of decision,” he said, referring to the cupcake confiscation. “That really burned me up.”

More @ Clash Daily

Youth Baseball Team Raffling AR-15 Rifle

 

A youth baseball league in central Illinois is in desperate need of cash – so they’ve decided to auction off an AR-15 assault rifle.

Last year the Atwood-Hammond baseball league tried to raffle off half a hog. But they only raised $10 – and barely had enough to pay the local butcher.

So this year a local gun shop provided the league with a Rock River Arms Tactical Operator Two – and the response has been massive.

“My phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Charidy Bucher, co-owner of the Atwood Armory shop. “The response has been tremendous.”

Bucher told me her phone has been ringing since 4:30 a.m.

“People from out of state have been calling,” she said.

She said the winner of the rifle will also receive 260 rounds of ammunition.

“Ammo is just as hard to get as the firearms these days, unfortunately,” she said.

 More @ Cowboy Byte

GOP Voters Give Rand Paul Much Higher Marks Than McCain, Graham

 

Republican Senator Rand Paul drew the criticism of two senior GOP senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, for his recent filibuster forcing the Obama administration to say categorically it would not use drones to attack U.S. citizens in this country. But Republicans now have a much more favorable view of Paul than of former presidential candidate McCain.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of Likely GOP Voters have a favorable opinion of the first-term Kentucky senator. That’s up nine points from 58% less than a month ago and includes 35% with a Very Favorable opinion.

More @ Rasmussen

Wisconsin’s VISTA Program Encourages Volunteers to Overcome White ‘Privilege’

 

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) wants its white VISTA volunteers who work with low-income, racially diverse public schools to examine the “privilege” their Caucasian race confers on them.

DPI devotes an entire Web page to “Power and Privilege,” including links to racial justice workshops and online tests where VISTA volunteers can “learn about your personal bias.”

One “diversity” document linked to DPI’s Web site suggests that white people “wear a white wristband as a reminder about your privilege, and as a personal commitment to explain why you wear the wristband.”

The document — written by a diversity resource center in New Jersey — also suggests that white people ask themselves questions, such as: “How do I ignore privilege? What am I doing today to undo my privilege? How do I fool myself into thinking I am powerless?”

 Other suggestions for white people include:

           – Set aside sections of the day to critically examine how privilege is working.

– Put a note on your mirror or computer screen as a reminder to think about privilege.

– Make a daily list of the ways privilege played out, and steps taken or not taken to address privilege.

– Find a person of color who is willing to hold you accountable for addressing privilege…

 LANGUAGE

More @ Keep It Simple Survival

Absaroka, or Crow Indians in winter camp, c. 1902

Daily Timewaster 

VERBATIM 

 

Originally part of the Hidatsa people, they historically lived at the head of the Mississippi River in Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Later the Crow moved to the Dakotas before splitting off from the Hidatsa and moving west to the Yellowstone region.

The Crow men were proud of their long hair, sometimes so long that it drug on the ground.  Oddly, their women wore their hair short.  

Today, the vast majority of the Crow live on their reservation in south central Montana, which is the fifth largest in the United States.  85% of them speak their Crow as their first language.