Do not mistake me here. The fight to defend and yes, extend American gun rights is far from over. In fact, it will never be over. But this gun blogger spends an awful lot of time reading the electronic tea leaves. I reckon the sleeping giant has awoken. Hundreds of thousands of formerly politically inactive gun owners have joined the firearms freedom fray. The shock and horror of Sandy Hook has worn off—in a good way. American gun owners will never forget Adam Lanza’s crimes against humanity in general and 27 innocent souls in particular. But gun owners are no longer intimidated the left’s clarion call for civilian disarmament. The victory over Illinois’ unconscionably unconstitutional gun grab is a small but important milestone in the journey towards protecting gun rights and, someday soon, rolling back the government’s infringement. Am I reading this right?

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104 COMMENTS

    • How do you get to 27? Don’t tell me you consider the shooter innocent. Or did another victim pass away?

      • The mainstream media morons put the death toll at 26 because they’ve decided, for some inscrutable reason, not to include Nancy Lanza — who was actually the first victim, not the 27th.

        • everybody likes to blame her for “giving him access to guns”, which is a blatant assumption based on no facts whatsoever.

          talk about blaming the victim…

        • I guess the Mum should bear some responsibility for not keeping the guns away from her monstrous son, but she didn’t deserve to die, and she wasn’t complicit.
          I obviously wasn’t referring to the beast that did this.

        • Thanks, I guess I forgot about her. Sorry. Kinda think she made some bad choices (RIP). If the stories of him being on medication are true, you have to question her introducing trips to the range and the method used for securing her fire arms. Sadly, all too late.

        • No sweat, but don’t forget that being on medication isn’t an indicator that someone is going to do something like this. Evil isn’t a mental illness.

  4. A little premature to count them out. The GOP is compromised and the so-called blue collar dems cannot be counted on. There are far more folks in this country for whom guns are a non issue and who know pitifully little about rights vs privileges and our history.

    • The red-state dems seem to be getting a little spine back on this issue. Sen. Manchin (D-WV) has pretty much retracted his ill-conceived musings about “everything being on the table” and Sen. Heitkamp (D-ND) just called out the suggestions being batted around by Biden as “extreme.”

      As for me, I just upgraded my NRA life membership to the next level.

  5. I think the empty rifle racks, handgun cases and ammo shelves across the country are a clear statement as well.

  6. This fight is just beginning. From what I hear the NRA numbers are swelling to never before seen numbers.

    The NRA know’s that the reason people are joining them is because they want to keep their hi-cap mags , AR’s and AK’s.

  7. I am a suspicious soul by nature, and it has served me well. My spidey sense tingles when people try to tell me, “relax, the fight is nearly over…” You are getting very sleepy, very lazy, very complacent….

    • “These are not the violations of your rights you should worry about” (While waving a hand in a Jedi manner)

  8. The usueful iditos have moved onto complaing that their FICA went up. Sandy Hook like Sandy before is all a faded memory. The Auruoa nuts trial is starting so that may bring up some more bad feelings but if the needle on assault weapons hasn’t moved really at all after Sandy Hook it’s not moving any time soon.

    Ironically the mention of a new AWB has created a defacto ban because months if not years of supply has already been sold and none will be available at reasonable pricies for quite some time.

    • The only good thing about ‘Low-information voters’ is that they have a really short attention span. Easy to get them riled up, but it’s hard to keep them riled.

  9. Don’t know about that. I don’t vote at the federal level for many reasons, but sometimes do at the state level. Republicans at state level are generally less noxious than Democrats. Democrats, particularly in Illiois, are wretched. I hear they won more seats this past election…..Democrats promise their idiot followers chickenfeed. Which feed will buy less and less, but their followers don’t care, they’re morons, who won American Idol? They’ll gladly take your guns for more feed. I expect this trend to continue as the economy deteriorates.

    • Lose the purity bullshit and get your supercilious ass to the polls and vote in the Congressional mid-terms. You don’t win by sitting on the bench and acting above it all.

  10. I can report from here (Az and Co) that a lot of my friends and I who were normally politically inactive are now very active. Been writing our congressmen as well as some of those in other states (either as thanks for supporting 2A or letting them know we’ll help their opponent out if they vote for gun control).. and seeing a lot of positive chatter about gun ownership. We’re sending emails every few days, and some are finally joining NRA / other groups.

    I am more positive now than I was last week, but it will be a long hard slog. I do think it is waking a lot of people up.

    The key for me is – how many of those woken up will “settle” for a minor gun control law (like mag cap) and breathe a sigh of relief it wasnt worse, and how many will say “no, we need less laws, no more compromise”.

    • And I’ll be looking at names in 2014 to contribute — both here and in other states. Something I’ve never even contemplated before. But I can guarantee I’ll be looking to help defeat the 2A enemies and promote the champions.

    • “I can report from here (Az and Co) that a lot of my friends and I who were normally politically inactive are now very active.”

      Welcome to the party, pal.

      Could’ve used you in 2008 and 2012. But better late than never.

  11. Good job I agree. I think we can and will win this Even some Dems now like Sen Heitkamp say Obama-Di Fis ban is too extreme and she say it wont pass. SO we unit and show the truth and call and email all progunners and all Reps and Senators to win this we can win and we should and will!

  12. I hope that you are right and some Liberties can be restored. At the very least, not giving up any. It is vitally important that the giant not be allowed to sleep again for as long as possible.

  13. We may have them on the run, but we shouldn’t stop until we chase them into the sea. That said, we shouldn’t get too comfortable. Just because one skirmish has been won, that’s a far cry from winning the battle. Keep fighting the good fight!

  14. The worst part is that there is probably no real final victory here, no light at the end of the tunnel.
    I foresee only and endless battle – we’ll lose some, then win some. Then lose again, then win again.
    I wrote two emails about a year apart to a popular gun writer.
    The first one was to ask him, “what’s OUR end game?” And he didn’t really have a solid answer, because our side doesn’t necessarily have one. Our enemies do – total elimination of our gun rights. And I think that hurts us.
    The second was in the wake of the MacDonald V. Chicago decision. I expressed that we were at risk of a change in our fortunes, and the reply was politely dismissive – everyone was riding high from two successful Supreme Court decisions, but I had a nagging feeling in the ol’ gut that something bad would or could turn it all back in the wrong direction, and quickly at that.

    • It’s always been an endless battle.

      1791 was the high point for the 2nd amendment. Since then its been continually and systematically eroded.

  15. I feel compelled to add the political realities for a little perspective: it’s the lame duck session, which ends this week, and there’s only so much politician bandwidth and/or horsetrading. Besides gun control (dropped), there’s also gay marriage (dropped), illegal immigrant DLs (might happen), and most importantly the state pension apocalypse (almost there, but probably ineffective anyway.)

    But make no mistake: there was a TON of support from individual gun rights activists, guided by all the various IL and national gun rights groups. Every voicemail box was maxed out, every email address was flooded, hundreds of witness tickets were submitted. So yes, the sleeping giant HAS awakened. Case in point: me. First time I called/emailed my reps ever, first time writing a political Facebook post, first time doing witness tickets. And I don’t even own a gun.

    Eternal vigilance…

  16. I mentioned this previously, but on arfcom there’s a thread where NRA Life Members can sponsor other people to become new Life Members for a significant discount. That thread alone has accounted for easily 300 new Life Members since Newtown, and probably more. There are thousands more who have signed up for a year, or two.

    That said, I’m nowhere near ready to say the tide is turning. Talk like that leads to complacency, and we are not in a position to consider complacency yet.

    • I signed up using that post a year ago when the NRA first started doing it. I’ve got at least 2 others this year in the last week or two.

      • Only in your mind, I guess.

        It was just some random picture I had laying around when I signed up for Gravatar. I was gonna change it, but people seemed to like it and I can’t blame them. Beautiful girl, great smile, evokes thoughts of summertime when it’s 30 degrees out… (well, not where I am). What’s not to like?

      • hb, I’m pretty sure that’s why this site exists, so we can comment our asses off. If I’m wrong, enlighten me.

  17. We need a similar temporary victory here in NY state. Cuomo would love to burnish his progressive street cred with a anti-2A victory and Republicans only hold the Senate by virtue of a handful of renegade Dems. Please encourage your readers to keep the phone lines and Internet tubes burning so that the NY state lawmakers get the jist as well.

  18. As much as I hate the crappy economy and political gaming…the crappy economy aids the cause, from a political gaming perspective. When your paycheck takes a hit, even due to an expiring tax holiday, you notice on a whole nother personal level, particularly when prices on daily use goos are through the roof. All that being said, we can’t relax…the fallout from losing this battle is too great.

  19. It has not been removed from the roster. Once its off, that’s the final sign, they can still sneak it in and soak up the punishment at the polls later. We have to stay on this until the thing is off the roster.

    • And apparently an existing bill can be stripped or modified. It will never be over.

  20. We can relax when we have a pro American administration, when statesmen return to our governments, when a constitutionally minded SCOTUS is seated……and on.
    We were warned about letting our guard down by the mechanics of this ship of state.

  21. “… rolling back the government’s infringement.”

    I’m curious how the left and anti-gunners in general would react to a serious push to repeal the NFA and the Hughes amendment. On one hand “Machine Guns! Silencers! Briefcase Nukes! Everybody PANIC!!!!1!!!”. On the other hand I can see them not wanting to tell everyone about how regulated and difficult those things are to obtain.

    • I honestly think that’s the push we need to make. We need to push to get silencers no longer NFA items, it should be like buying a muzzle break. And we need to get the Hughes Ammendment repealed so that I can buy an MP5 that doesn’t cost $28,000

      • Yes, yes!!! Seriously, my neighbors really appreciate that I have a suppressor. There is NO reason they should be restricted items. It helps save peoples’ hearing and reduces noise pollution.

        • In some European countries you’re expected to have a suppressor for your sport rifles so you don’t disturb anyone else.

          Apparently someone forgot to tell the Finns that suppressors are magical artifacts which cause a Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation to a Sicilian-looking Mafia hitman. That appears to be the theory behind suppressor restrictions in the US.

        • You’ve probably noticed I’m about as pedantic about grammar as anyone on here, and even I’ve given up on that one. When certain gun authorities whose knowledge is above reproach continue to spell it “break,” you know you’ve lost the battle.

          I did learn last night that the proper, true pronunciation of forte, as in “It’s not my forte,” is fort, not fortay. That may also be a lost cause, but it’s interesting to know.

        • Yes, Jesse. Not picking on you personally, just trying to slow the deterioration of the English language.

          MinFL: I find this one particularly difficult to ignore because the same break/brake mistake is made by both gun folks and car folks. The commonality, IMHO, is that many of them (in both categories) have a more hands-on, practical approach to the world so as long as the word sounds right, good to go.

          If a firearms authority misuses break for brake, then by definition they’re no longer above reproach. But you may look like a dick if you just straight-up try to correct them. 🙂

        • Nothing wrong with be ever vigilant about the Kings good English. Just as we need to be about the gun grabbers. They will never stop, and are becoming more sneaky and subversive every day.

    • That’s the “compromise” needed now; push for machine guns, silencers, grenades, artillery, shoulder-fired missiles, training facilities and whatever else the militia requires to be the militarily effective force the founders envisioned.

    • There was a post from Bruce on compromise. Bruce is absolutely right. We demand so much they will wet themselves.
      After that we can compromise. Over the last decade it has been us who have compromised left right and center. We have had to lawyer up and fight legislation in court just to prove it was unconstitutional at great expense to us. If we frame the argument, then anything we conceded will be because we allow it to happen, not because we have bent of and excepted defeat.

      • Our ultimate goal should be the ideal of “shall not be infringed”. With that in mind, Bruce’s list *IS* the compromise position.

  22. I hope the American people are waking up. Jury is still out. I don’t trust either party. I don’t think the Republican Party will stand. They didn’t stand on the “money”. I have no reason to trust the government when it comes to any part of the US Constitution and the amendments and I don’t have a lot of faith in the US Supreme court.

    “…the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.” JFK

  23. The fight isn’t over and will never be over. I got into it in 68. However, there’s hope at least. In my lifetime we have most of the states now at shall issue. We also have a first, the SCOTUS ruling that gun ownership is an individual right.

    Let’s not forget the fed court ruling against Illinois and it’s draconian no concealed carry law.

    Even here in Ca. there’s a couple of court cases that might take out our counties that still ban concealed carry. I live in one of those counties. And even living here in Ca. I have a safe full of guns and a castle law of sorts.

    So no, the fight will never be over, but it’s not all gloom and doom.

      • Roosevelt packed 8 justices on the SCOTUS during his terms as POTUS. And even though there had not been a decision affirming an individuals right to guns, guns were not banned.

        We are in a much stronger position legally than we’ve ever been.

  24. I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I had never done it before now, but the anti-gun hysteria in the media and with Democrats has caused me to start doing something I had not done previously, and that was t0 start donating to NRA-ILA and to start writing congressmen. Also renewed my NRA membership.
    I hate the media and Dems for not allowing me to properly and respectfully grieve for the murdered in Sandy Hook, the howls for stripping us of our rights began literally before the blood of the children had dried. I hate them for that.

    • Since you’re feeling inhibited in mourning the Connecticut dead, maybe you could devote some of those tears to the victims of US imperialism in the Middle East. There are enough dead six year olds in Iraq to equal 100 Sandy Hooks (or 1000?…who’s counting).

      • Most of those six year olds where killed by Saddam Hussein, but don’t let the facts get in the way of your stupidity, comrade.

  25. I can tell you I have defiantly been more active with fighting the infringement of our 2nd Amendment right as of late. I have even been trying to get other gun owners I know to be more active and not take this newest round of attacks lying down. If we do not fight this, the gun grabbing left will take our Firearms away, there is no doubt about it.

  26. I seriously doubt that those wishing regulation view this as a defeat….As the cliche says, this is just small victory in major war. They will not stop. Period

  27. I will be deeply proud of my country if we can emerge from this crisis with our rights unscathed (or at least if they remain equally scathed). I predict that crises continue to emerge unfortunately. Crises that are easily manipulated to justify whatever claim evokes the most pathos.

  28. Guys,
    Don’t be fooled into thinking the fight is over!!!!!!! Keep on the front & stay strong. My wife never thought Obama would get elected in 2008 & I thought he would. She also said he didn’t have a pray for re-election with the bad economy, etc, I hoped he wouldn’t. But low & behold the Supreme Lord & Dictator Himself is back for another four………..& possibly more in my opinion. He got HIS way and Himself and his cronies tend to get their ways in anyway they can.

    These grap & go anti’s don’t give up they always are looking for another route to dismantle the 2nd and they keep working on the 1st in the PC way and possibly the 4th ammendments.

    Not sure if they are on the run and or if it’s just a walk but either way they are not finished. With all the fiscal stuff happening you’d think all these do gooders would be working on getting debt under control or limiting spending realistically. But when there is a perfectly good shock & horror event to take advantage of why waste it especially when there is all this emotion to take advantage of. It would be easy to control guns if the gun owners would let their guards down. Say pass a bill (local, state, federal) for manditory confiscation & turn in and give a grace period of say 90 days? After that 90 day make anyone in pocession of what they list a felon under that new law. Could happen………but remember an unarmed citizen is a subject of their goverment. Stay strong & stay together. As Japan did in 1941 “awoke a sleeping giant” let us be rsolved with a terrible rage.

    God Bleas the USA!
    Rob Drummond
    Hillsboro, NH

  29. Sandy Hook fever has abated, but gun ban fervor has not. The dems in Illinois sisn’t have enough votes to pull a fast one–separate and apart from the legal propriety of such a course of action, but will have more dems in the new assembly where they will try again. No telling what an injunction against the carry ban will accomplish, but I find it difficult to believe that Chicago will roll over on constitutional carry, but instead demand–and get–onerous restricitions of a “may issue” law that will still render it nearly impossible for anyone to carry there, and that will bar reciprocity (as California’s law does). Cuomo has signaled but not played his hand, but he is an ardent banner and would seize firearms if he thought he could do so constitutionally. The dems in California with their supermajority in both houses of the Legislature have yet to full vent their spleen, as the new sessiojn is just starting to get underway. California can expect an ammo bill that will require identification, fingerprinting, and registration of ammo sales with the DOJ, a renewed bullet button ban, and further restrictions on the handguns that can be purchased by the hoi poloi. San Francisco is trying to get “home rule” so that it may enact an ordinance banning “military” and HP ammo (and we haven’t figured out yet if they understand that there really is not much else left.) How far any of these bills will go is anybody’s guess.

    My best guess is that bills will pass and be signed into law, and that the judicial process will have to be employed to defeat them.

    • I don’t think either of us can really start celebrating ’til we leave NJ for good. Let’s hope we can get out before the rest of the country runs like ours.

  31. Wisconsin weathered the storm awhile back. All you heard was gotta get Walker out for months & it looked bleak. Then came the “we must resind Walkers dangerous policies” & everyone knew CC was a target. When the silent majority spoke the BS went away. Hopefully that continues on a national level, Randy

  32. Keep fighting for freedom. While this may be the beginning of the end regarding this latest assault on the 2nd amendment, I prefer to view it (tactically) as the end of the beginning. Franken(fien)stein is a monster, and as everybody well knows, undead monsters never die, they just keep appearing in sequels (“Sister of Feinstein”, starring Bela Pelosi and Barny Frankenweenie the mayo swallower, etc…).
    Liberalism is mental disorder…..and potentially a mortal danger to the Republic.

  36. I hope the “end of the beginning” means we don’t have to hear any more from otherwise intelligent people about how Barack Obama is no threat to gun owners nor the elitist snobbish disdain for the NRA frequently voiced on this blog. I don’t care how Caucasian and Midwest they are, they are numero uno for defending the Second Amendment.

    Your mother’s kaffee klatsch friends may hate guns but you don’t have to keep throwing them that particular bone.

  37. Let’s hope you’re right. NRA membership in my house quadrupled last week and I was thinking of joining GOA as well.
    Those are just a couple of ways to fight. And if the totalitarian wannabes are in retreat, let’s keep chasing them.

  38. I don’t mean to be crass Robert, but you also called Obama the wrong direction.

    If we can hold the Federal line through tax day we might be out of the federal woods.

    If we can hold IL through June, maybe.

    If we can hold CA through the end of the gubernatorial veto season, maybe.

    And make no mistake, this has emboldened those dishonest federal judges who hate us (not a majority, but an all too significant number.)

    -Gene

    • Not crass at all. I fully admit (as I have before with an apology) that I underestimated the potential gun grab inherent in the Obama administration. In my defense, who could foresee the slaughter of twenty first graders? Anyway, hands up. I was wrong.

      I am not saying the battle for gun rights is over. It will never be over. I’m saying that we’ve got our heads in the game now. And that’s a good thing. Because there’s everything to play for.

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