The Inartful Dodger

Earnedmedia provides a very helpful timeline of Barack Obama’s position(s) on gun control. Excerpts appear below but the Earnedmedia timeline provides explanation and documentation:

SEPTEMBER 1996: In Response To A 1996 Independent Voters Of Illinois questionnaire, Obama Indicated That He Supported Banning The "Manufacture, Sale And Possession Of Handguns."

2004: Barack Obama Voted Against "Letting People Use A Self-Defense Argument If Charged With Violating Local Handgun Bans."

NOVEMBER 2007: The Chicago Tribune Reports That The Obama Campaign Says
Barack Obama "Believes The D.C. Handgun Law Is Constitutional."

FEBRUARY 2008: During An Interview, Barack Obama Acknowledged His Support For The D.C. Gun Ban. Questioner Leon Harris: "…You said in Idaho recently -- I'm quoting here -- 'I have no intention of taking away folks' guns,' but you support the D.C. handgun ban." Obama: "Right."

Harris: "And you've said that it's constitutional. How can you reconcile those two different positions?" Obama: "...I think it is important for us to recognize that we've got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And a lot of people, law-abiding citizens, use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families. We also have violence on the streets that is a result of illegal handgun use. And so, there is nothing wrong, I think, with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets ..."

But Barack Obama was supporting a law that made all handguns illegal so when he says there is nothing wrong with a community taking "illegal" handguns off the streets, he apparently measn all handguns.

In other words, Barack Obama, the Constitutional scholar, acknowledges that the Constitution gives the right for individuals to bear arms, but he said that the Washington DC law banning handguns was constitutional, but he supports the Supreme Court ruling that says the Washington DC law was unconstitutional. If Barack Obama was running for President of Alice’s “Wonderland,” I’d say he was very qualified.

When confronted with the Chicago tribune article which “quoted the Obama campaign as saying, “Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional” the Obama compain said that statement was “inartful” (ABC News). Inartful?

I really can’t understand why anyone believes anything Obama says anymore.

Breaking: Supreme Court and 2nd ammendment

According to the Associated Press: "The Supreme Court says Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting, the justices' first definitive pronouncement on gun rights in U.S. history." Read about it in USA Today.

Republic of Montana?

Next month the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments about whether the Second Amendment right to bear arms covers individuals, or just “collective right” of a state to have a state militia like the national guard. According to an article in the Washington Times:

Montana officials are warning that if the Supreme Curt rules in the D.C. gun ban case that the right to keep and bear arms protects only state-run militias like the National Guard, then the federal government will have breached Montana's statehood contract.

Nobody is raising flags for the Republic of Montana, but nobody is kidding, either. So far, 39 elected Montana officials have signed a resolution declaring that a court ruling of the Second Amendment is a right of states and not of individuals would violate Montana's compact.

"The U.S. would do well to keep its contractual promise to the states that the Second Amendment secures an individual right now as it did upon execution of the statehood contract," Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson said in a Feb. 15 letter to The Washington Times.

The article says that “in 1889, the settlers of the Montana territory struck a deal with the federal government: They agreed to join the union, and the government agreed that individuals had the right to bear arms.”

Shooting in Jerusalem

A couple days ago a terrorist attacked a Jewish school in Jerusalem killing about 10 students and wounding numerous others. What was not so widely reported in the American presses was the fact that the gunman many have killed dozens more if not for the fact that he was shot dead by one of the students who was licenced to carry a gun.

Guns and crime rates

According to a brief submitted to the Supreme Court:

When sexual assaults started rising in Orlando, Fla., in 1966, police officers noticed women were arming themselves, so they launched a firearms safety course for them. Over the next 12 months, sexual assaults plummeted by 88 percent, burglaries fell by 25 percent and not one of the 2,500 women who took the course fired a gun in a confrontation.

…when the Georgia town of Kennesaw decided to require all residents, with exceptions for conscientious objectors, to keep a firearm at home, home burglaries fell from 66 to 26 to 11 in consecutive years.

...based on interviews with felony prisoners in 11 prisons in 10 states, one third of the felons had been "scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim," and nearly four in 10 had decided against committing a specific crime because they thought the victim might have a gun.

"Seventy-four percent agreed with the statement that 'One reason burglars avoid houses where people are at home is that they fear being shot," (WND)

Conceal and carry in Michigan

Debbie Schlussel on gun control:

Six years after Michigan's conceal and carry permit law went into effect,
there are FEWER gun deaths in the state.

Mark Cortis of Royal Oak, who conducts concealed weapons license training
and sits on the Oakland County gun board, said he believes the benefits of an
armed citizenry are evident in small ways almost every day, as permit holders
deter trouble and live more confidently. "The police just can't protect you,"
Cortis said. "If you have to call 911, it's probably already too late."

Exactly. Yet, to the gun control crowd--the ones who argue a woman has
a right to decide what she wants to do with her own body, when it comes to
abortion, but not if she wants to own a gun--facts are stubborn things.

Jeanne Assam: American hero

DenverPost.com has a moment by moment account of the final shootout between the gunman and the security guard at New Life Church. A combat veteran who was there said what Jeannie Assam, the security guard did was "the bravest thing he's ever seen." The story sounds like something right out of the movies.

She saved 100 lives!

According to an article on MSNBC, the same shooter killed Christians in YWAM and the New Life Church. The article says he hated Christians (ya think?). The gunman apparenlty had a lot of fire power and knew how to use it (someone speculated that he may have been in the military). The pastor of New Life Church thinks the female security guard who shot the gunman may have saved as many as a hundred lives. This woman is a genuine hero.

UPDATE: According to Shepherd Smith on Fox, evidence shows that the shooter at New Life Church was the same as the shooter at YWAM. He had once been kicked out of YWAM and had been sending hate mail to them. A woman at YWAM was trying to tell him where he could find shelter when he killed her.

When the shooting at New Life began, everyone ran away except the woman security guard. She ran toward the shooting. She identified herself and when he wouldn't stop, she "put him down."

Police discovered that the killer had over 1,000 rounds of amunition in his backpack! Like I said, the woman security guard is a hero. She may have saved many more than just 100 lives. We can only shudder at what might have happened had it not been for the fact that this brave woman was armed.

UPDATE: The security guard, Jeanne Assam is a Christian and a former Minneapolis police officer. See The Denver Channel for more info.

Breaking: Gunman at Virginia Tech

From Fox News:

BLACKSBURG, Va. — A gunman who reportedly shot and killed one person on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg on Monday has been taken into custody, according to police. A state government official told The Associated Press that at least one person was killed and another was injured in a shooting incident at the West Ambler Johnston residence hall early Monday morning. Officials told the AP there are seven to eight additional casualties.
"Police have one shooter in custody and as part of routine police procedure, they continue to search for a second shooter," the school's Web site read Monday. "All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until further notice. All entrances to campus are closed."

UPDATE: CBS News is now reporting that 17 students are being treated for gunshot wounds. They need our prayers.

UPDATE: News sources are now reporting that 22 people are dead and 20 more have been injured in the shooting

UPDATE: CBS News is reporting that the death toll is now up to 30.

UPDATE: The latest from MSNBC.

John Stossel on worrying

Which is more dangerous, a house with a gun or a house with a swimming pool? Read John Stossel's excellent (and short) article "Worry about the Right Things."

Senator Webb and gun control

As Recliner Commentaries reported yesterday, an aide to Virginia Senator James Webb (D-VA) was arrested for trying to take a loaded gun into the Senate office building. Senator Webb said today that he feels strongly that he has a right to carry a gun to defend himself.

I agree that Senator Webb should have a right to carry a gun to defend himself.
What really burns me up, however, is that Senator Webb is apparently in favor of gun control. In other words, he wants to defend himself but he wants to take that right away from ordinary Americans!

Webb thinks he is special because he is a U.S. Senator. But what about honest, law-abiding, people who live in dangerous neighborhoods overrun by gangs, drug dealers, and other thugs? Aren't they in danger also? Shouldn’t they have the right to defend themselves?

UPDATE: I got my information about Mr. Webb and gun control from numerous websites. I heard an interview with Senator Webb this morning in which he said he was a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. Then I found this website which say he opposes gun control. I'm not sure why there seems to be confusion on this issue, but I apologize to my readers and Senator Webb for contributing to that confusion.

Loaded gun in Senate office building

According to the Virginian-Pilot, "A top aide to U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., was arrested Monday on charges that he attempted to carry a loaded gun and ammunition into a Senate office building."

I want to think that this was somehow just an oversight, but a loaded gun? What was he thinking?

UPDATE: See observations by Michelle Malkin.

When guns are outlawed...

"Everybody but the criminals are abiding by the city's gun control laws." Sounds like something the National Rifle Association would say. But this didn't come from the NRA. Read on:

District residents have been the guinea pigs in a failed 30-year-old experiment in social engineering. Three decades of strict gun control laws have not made the capital city’s streets safer. On the contrary, since 1976, D.C.’s murder rate has increased 32 percent, and violent crimes committed during the first few weeks of 2007 by gun-wielding thugs are up a staggering 50 percent over the same period last year.

None other than former Mayor Marion Barry, now representing Ward 8 on the D.C. Council, is waving the white flag of surrender by introducing legislation to provide potential victims a limited window of opportunity to arm themselves in self defense.
“We are in the midst of a gun-violence epidemic,” Barry said. Everybody but
the criminals are abiding by the city’s gun control laws [which] have long been among the toughest in the nation. Not only are District residents forbidden from owning firearms not registered before 1977, they must also keep legal rifles and shotguns at home, unloaded, disassembled and useless against an armed intruder. (Examiner.Com; Michelle Malkin).

Why anyone would think that gun control laws would stop those who break the law anyway is beyond comprehension.

Knife attack in Memphis

At least one witness said it looked like something out of a slasher-horror movie. Last week a man wielding two knives stabbed or slashed eight people in a grocery store in Memphis Tennessee. The carnage would have been much worse if it weren’t for the fact that another man grabbed a handgun from his pickup and confronted the slasher who then immediately surrendered (Tennessean.Com).

Other knife attacks also recently occurred in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, Connecticut, Indiana, Ohio, North Dakota, Washington, New York, Nevada, Florida, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Michigan, Kentucky, et al..

When will the government put an end to this carnage? What we need is comprehensive knife control legislation. Knife sellers and manufacturers simply must be held accountable for these heinous acts, and the sale of knives must be strictly regulated. Pocket knives and steak knives simply must go, but plastic butter knives may be allowed as long as they are properly registered with the authorities and regulated to ensure that they do not have serrated edges.