Tag: gun laws

Free shotguns in major US cities?

In an experimental bid to determine whether wider gun ownership could lead to a decline in crime, a University of Houston graduate student and the Armed Citizens Project is looking to give away shotguns to residents of fifteen cities.

Kyle Coplen, 29, is the founder of the Armed Citizens Project, a group which announced that it will seek to expand its program into the Chicago Metropolitan Area at a recent National Rifle Association convention in Houston, Texas.

According to Coplen, the idea is to give out free, 20-gauge single-barrel shotguns to residents living in mid- to high-crime neighborhoods to see whether the presence of armed homes would cause a drop in crime.

“Gun-control advocates often argue that an increase in guns in an area will lead to an increase in crime, while gun-rights advocates often believe that fewer guns result in more crime. While both sides often argue that their opponents’ policies will result in more crime, gun-control proponents have largely been the victors when it comes to policy implementation,” explains the Armed Citizens Project’s website.

New measures in Congress to enact federal background checks for gun owners and the defeat of various other gun control measures indicate that in reality, gun control supporters do not have the upper hand in policy implementation.

While states such such as Connecticut and Colorado have recently passed new controls on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, elsewhere, such as in Texas and South Carolina, state legislatures are lobbying to attract gun industry investment and working on legislation to further bolster access to guns.

One Texas bill that would ban state and local police from working with federal authorities on new gun control regulations was recently passed by the state House.

As for the Armed Citizens Project, according to Coplen the group intends to both screen participants for its shotgun give-away project and provide training for those selected.

“We’re not just tossing a bunch of shotguns into a community and walking away,” Coplen told Fox 26.

“What we’re doing is finding residents who are interested in protecting themselves. we’re not forcing guns on anyone,” he added.

In addition to offering free guns, the Armed Citizens Project is setting its sights on local gun buyback programs. The group hopes to dissuade those looking to hand over their guns with training sessions, or even have those weapons traded in for 20-gauge shotguns.

City and county-sponsored gun buybacks have recently become a point of contention for gun rights advocates. In Arizona, for example, Governor Jan Brewer recently signed a bill prohibiting cities and counties in that state from destroying guns collected through such programs, instead mandating that they be sold to licensed dealers.

The Armed Citizens Project hopes to distribute guns to hundreds of people living in major American cities by the end of the year. The program is already active in Houston and Tucson, Arizona, and in addition to Chicago they are also setting their sights on New York and Detroit. In Houston, local news channel WGN reports that 100 people have already signed up for the project.

Despite early success, Copley anticipates that getting his project started in a city such as New York, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a staunch proponent of gun regulation, will be a hurdle.

“I really don’t care what [Bloomberg] thinks. I can’t think of one thing he’s ever done besides being a successful businessman that I can agree with,” said Coplen to the NY Daily News.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has already shown skepticism of Copley’s project.

“You need a permit … so obviously you won’t be able to do it here,” Kelly told the Daily News on Monday.

In addition to broad discretion over gun permits, the New York Police Department requires a $140.00 shotgun permit fee, in addition to a fingerprinting charge of $91.50.

Coplen intends to request donations to help low-income city applicants secure the necessary permits.

“I guess the Bloomberg administration doesn’t want poor people to be able to defend themselves. I guess that right is left to the elites,” Coplen told Daily News.

‘Racist’ history of gun control

In a Pew Research study from March of last year, a full 64 percent of Black Americans said that state and local governments should be allowed to pass laws restricting handguns. Only 38 percent of whites agree with that statement. Over the years, Blacks have become all too aware of the damage handguns can unleash on communities, which is why they’ve become major proponents of gun laws. But a new book about the history of American gun regulation shows how ironic Black support of widespread gun restriction actually is.

While doing research for Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, UCLA constitutional law professor Adam Winkler discovered that, contrary to modern America, there was a time in U.S. history when African-Americans were actually fighting against gun regulation.

Starting as early as the Dred Scott decision in 1857, the American federal government made a point to keep guns out of African-American hands. When then-Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote his decision that Blacks couldn’t be considered full citizens, he noted that if they were, they would be allowed “full liberty of speech … to hold public meetings on political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.” Taney and others were terrified of a full-scale Black revolt, which meant they were completely in favor of keeping Blacks unarmed.

After the Civil War, the Southern states created so-called “Black Codes,” laws that restricted the rights of newly freed blacks. Can you guess what one of the main oppressions was? Blacks couldn’t own guns. Even when Blacks did get their hands on weapons, the nascent Ku Klux Klan would frequently go on raids of Black homes and take away their weapons, making them even more vulnerable to Klan attacks.

These kinds of arbitrary restrictions on gun ownership traveled all the way to the civil rights era, when the archaic Black Codes continued to prevent African-Americans from arming themselves. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. applied for a gun permit after his house was firebombed. Despite King being a respected community leader and a man of the cloth, the Alabama police denied his request.

Nowadays, things have obviously turned around drastically. Blacks have won the right to own guns, but awful gun violence has also wreaked havoc on Black communities from coast to coast. The Klan was wrong: Rather than attacking them with guns, some African-Americans started attacking each other over gang territory and drug battles. It’s no wonder today’s African-American leaders herald gun restrictions. And one has to consider whether winning the right to carry handguns everywhere was really that wonderful of a victory. – bet.com

Republicans, Democrats clash over gun rights in Iowa

By Mike Glover

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa House approved two gun-rights measures Wednesday night that sparked Democrats to stage a walkout earlier in the day, stalling action for six hours.

One bill would allow people to use deadly force to protect themselves and the other called for writing gun rights protections into the Iowa Constitution. The second measure would have to be approved by another legislative assembly next year and then be referred to voters.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Des Moines said the chamber’s 40 Democrats decided to return after deciding they’d made their displeasure clear regarding a lack of notice about the bills and concerns the proposals would gut the state’s gun laws. He said he feared the votes would turn Iowa into the Wild, Wild West.”

“It would eliminate all gun laws,” he said. “This issue is very, very extreme. This proposal is not a mainstream proposal.”

Backers argued for the change in the Constitution, warning judges are eager to limit the rights of gun owners.

“For far too long, we’ve seen judicial abuse of our Second Amendment,” said Rep. Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri River, the main backer of the effort.

Critics argued the measure would largely pre-empt virtually all of the state’s gun control laws, a charge Windschitl rejected as “simply false.”

Both measures were approved largely along party lines in the GOP-led chamber where Republicans have a 60-40 margin.

Republicans could have technically debated the bills without Democrats in attendance. The Iowa rules are different than in Wisconsin and Indiana, where similar Democrat walkouts stretched on for weeks. More than half the lawmakers must be on hand to conduct business in those states, though Wisconsin Republicans eventually used a procedural move to approve legislation opposed by Democrats.

House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, said he decided not to press the issue while Democrats were missing because that would have poisoned the atmosphere around an issue that’s already emotionally charged.

“Right now I’m trying to be patient,” Paulsen said. “Part of my job is to protect the institution.”

The future of the measures is unclear as they move to a Senate where Democrats have a 26-24 margin. Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, D-Council Bluffs, says he has no plans to bring the issue up for debate.

Gronstal said he wasn’t warned in advance of the walkout.

“I know nothing about what happened,” he said.

Tim Albrecht, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, said the governor would have no comment.