By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New—Biden Administration: On a Friday afternoon the Biden Administration stopped the Firearms Industry’s Commercial Export Business; U.S. Congress: H.R. 4366 is in conference and your help is needed to ensure that military veterans keep their Second Amendment rights;Michigan: HB471, and HB472, defining while being vague what constitutes an offense that causes a person to lose their Second Amendment rights; is on third reading in the House. These bills have already passed the Senate; Politics: November election endorsements; News of the Day: Michael Bloomberg’s fears are featured in zerohedge.com; New Mexico: the Interim Joint Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee met on Thursday to go over priorities for the 30-day session of the legislature meeting in 2024. Politics: News of the Day—Maine: tragic assassination of innocent people;Minnesota: Minnesota Law Review Symposium Panelist Saul Cornell was shredded in the Benitez decision in Miller v. Bonta; NBC news—American Jews are flocking to gun training classes; Bloomberg News anti-Second Amendment bias.
Biden Administration
On a Friday Afternoon the Biden Administration stops the Firearms Industry’s Commercial Export Business
On Friday, Oct. 27, Larry Keane, NSSF’s senior vice president for Government & Public Affairs, tweeted, “Hearing from the Hill that Biden administration’s Commerce Dept is going to shut down commercial exports of firearms for 90 days.” Then 4 plus hours later he again tweeted, Official: @BISgov is “pausing” for 90 days all new firearm EX licenses to non-government agencies, w/ the exceptions of Ukraine, Israel and essentially NATO countries, includes all firearms and parts, shotguns, optics and ammunition.
President Biden not only hates gun owning Americans, but he is out to destroy the US munitions industry import/export business. As @klkdave tweeting in response, “or is this ‘Guns are icky so let’s screw with people’s livelihood!”
Ninety days is a long time for people to be without a paycheck. Ninety days is a long time for businesses to stop production. He is making it impossible for the defense industry to ramp up production if and when conditions change. Mark Oliva, NSSF’s public affairs director, was quoted by Cam Edwards at Bearing Arms as saying, “It is another instance the Biden administration doing all they can to disrupt the firearm industry and weaken the industry that provides the means for exercising Second Amendment rights.”
U.S. Congress:
Military, Construction, Veteran Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2024 (H.R. 4366) passed the House on July 26. It was amended in the Senate, with the Kennedy/Bost Amendment that defunds the “Fiduciary Rule” that has been used to take away Second Amendment rights of more than 250,000 veterans. Thankfully the House also included this important language. However, there are difference between the Senate and House versions, so the bills will then go to a conference committee. Gun Owners of America has set up a web page to send a letter to each person’s Representative and two Senators to request that they vote to keep the language protecting veterans Second Amendment rights in the final bill.
Politics
Virginia Races
Virginia Citizens Defense League has a page devoted to this year’s statewide election. The statewide offices are not up for election in 2023, but all the members of the Virginia Legislature. This year both the state Senate and the House of Delegates are up for election. If you live in Virginia check out their ranking for all the candidates.
Kentucky & Mississippi Races for Governor
Two more gubernatorial races will be decided on Nov. 7—Mississippi and Kentucky. In Mississippi current Governor Tate Reeves is running for reelection and has been endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund again. In Kentucky, incumbent Democrat Governor Andy Beshear is still leading in the polls with less a week remaining before Election Day. The NRA-PVF has endorsed his Republican challenger Daniel Cameron, citing his record of support for NYSRPA v. Bruen and his opposition to the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases by credit card companies. In the race for Attorney General, Republican Russell Coleman has also been endorsed.
Legislation and local communities
The following states are currently in session: California, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. The states that are still in session but in recess are: Alaska, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Vermont .
As a result of the heinous crime perpetrated by the mentally ill man in Maine, be prepared for any legislators in any state to introduce more anti-Second Amendment legislation.
Massachusetts: Although the Massachusetts House passed HB4135, according to WGBH the state Senateis slated to devise its own gun bill.The state’s police chiefs association (Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association) has unanimously voted to NOT support HB4607.
Michigan: HB471, and HB472, defining while being vague what constitutes an offense that causes a person to lose their Second Amendment rights; is on third reading in the House. These bills have already passed the Senate.
New Mexico: the Interim Joint Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee met on Thursday to go over priorities for the 30-day session of the legislature meeting in 2024, which is scheduled for opening day on Jan. 16, with adjournment on Feb. 15. Any bills not acted upon by the governor by March 6 are pocket vetoed. Governor Grisham’s modified executive order is in effect until Nov. 3.
Vermont: The NRA Vermont state director, Justin Davis, has authored an opinion piece in which he states the VermontFederation of Sportsmen’s Clubs is initiating a lawsuit against the waiting period and magazine ban. Unfortunately, we have been unable to find this lawsuit.
News of the Day for Second Amendment supporters
Maine assassin, after going on an insane shooting spree, took his own life. Why couldn’t he just do that first? The recriminations and calls for more laws started with the first shooting and will continue for a long time. However, the laws already on the books in Maine were written to stop him. But…they were never enforced.
Attorney Mark W. Smith, @fourboxesdiner, wrote this tweet: “It is totally irrelevant whether Maine had a red flag law. The Maine shooter was a FEDERAL US Army Reservist who allegedly threatened to shoot up his FEDERAL installation and who had spent several weeks in mental health institution this summer. The threat alone should have triggered FEDERAL law enforcement jurisdiction and had the FEDS act by (a) charging him for criminal threatening; (b) bring a court martial or similar process under Military Code or (c) bring civil commitment process to involuntarily commit him thereby denying him, the right to have a gun under 18 USC922(g)(4).”
There is a mental health problem, not a gun control problem and unfortunately mental health providers think they can fix mental health by listening to the pharmacy lobby, who have produced drug after drug with very little acknowledgement of the probable or even possible side effects.
As Mark W. Smith points out, laws do NOT work when those whose job it is to enforce them act as if they were never enacted. Prosecutors, politicians, the military and regular cops let the criminals get a pass and then blame and punish those who have committed no crime, and in many cases are the victims.
Bloomberg anti-gun and anti-American business. In a multi-part series in Bloomberg News, the billionaire behind several American anti-gun groups is trying to stoke fear not only in this country but around the world that US gun companies are selling semi-automatic firearms in record numbers across the planet. A Zerohedge.com article tries to alert people about Bloomberg’s motives.
Minnesota: On Oct. 27 the Minnesota Law Review hosted a symposium co-sponsored by Giffords. One of the panelists, Saul Cornell, who was a key expert witness for California in the assault weapons lawsuit was shredded in the Circuit Court’s decision by Judge Benitez decision in Miller v. Bonta. Judge Benitez devotes pages 58-62 inclusive to Cornell’s historical accuracy, concluding with “his opinions are not persuasive and are entitled to no weight.”
NBC news discovers that Jews are flocking to firearms training in order to defend themselves. Antisemitism has been given free rein to flourish with the Hamas attack on Israeli citizens on Oct. 7. Now even American Jews are being threatened.
“A 41-year-old Jewish woman living in Miami Beach said she is pro-gun control and had no desire to use a firearm. But she signed up for gun training sessions after receiving death threats from unknown accounts on Instagram, where she had previously posted about being Jewish,” the report said.
