NBCMontana – AP-NORC Poll: Support soars for stricter gun control laws

NEW YORK (AP) – Support for tougher gun control laws is soaring in the United States, according to a new poll that found a majority of gun owners and half of Republicans favor new laws to address gun violence in the weeks after a Florida school shooting left 17 dead and sparked nationwide protests.

The poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that nearly 7 in 10 adults now favor stricter gun control measures. That’s the strongest level of support since The Associated Press first asked the question five years ago. The new poll also found that nearly half of Americans do not expect elected officials to take action.

“It feels hopeless,” said 30-year-old Elizabeth Tageson-Bedwin, of Durham, North Carolina, a self-described Republican who teaches 7th grade English. “Considering recent events, gun control in this country needs to be stricter — and it can be without infringing on anyone’s rights.”

Overall, 69 percent of Americans think gun laws in the United States should be made stricter. That’s up from 61 percent who said the same in October of 2016 and 55 percent when the AP first asked the question in October of 2013. Overall, 90 percent of Democrats, 54 percent of gun owners and 50 percent of Republicans now favor stricter gun control laws.

Sixty percent believe that making it harder to legally obtain a gun would result in fewer mass shootings; just 49 percent said the same in the 2016 poll.

The new poll finds support for specific gun control measures even among those who bristle at the term “gun control.”

“That’s what Hitler did,” said Flora McIntyre, of Simi Valley, California, repeating a common, but inaccurate, line of criticism against gun control measures. “Hitler made everyone register their guns. Then he came and collected all the guns.”

But when asked about specific gun control prescriptions, the 82-year-old retired nurse, who said she owns a rifle and a .44 Magnum, said she favored stronger background checks and limits on the number of bullets allowed in a gun magazine. She also opposes President Donald Trump’s plan to give guns to trained teachers.

The poll shows that McIntyre is not alone.

More than 8 in 10 Americans favor a federal law preventing mentally ill people from purchasing guns, along with a federal law expanding background check requirements to include gun shows and private sales.

Nearly 8 in 10 favor allowing courts to prevent people from owning guns if considered a danger to themselves or others, even if they have not been convicted of a crime. And 7 in 10 favor a nationwide ban on devices known as “bump stocks” that allow semi-automatic guns to function like automatic guns.

Nearly 6 in 10 favor a nationwide ban on AR-15-style rifles.

“They should take them off the market. Too much power right there,” 25-year-old Sedrick Clark, of St. Louis Missouri, said of AR-15s.

Clark, a self-described Republican, said he recently purchased a handgun for protection. But he said he’d support police efforts to go door-to-door to confiscate “dirty guns” from convicted felons and others who shouldn’t have them.

“I know Trump would do it,” Clark said, praising the Republican president.

Americans have mixed views on whether they expect any elected leaders to enact tougher gun control laws in the next year.

The Florida legislature passed a law earlier in the month to raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21. The law also extended the waiting period to three days, banned “bump stocks,” funded more school police officers and mental health services, and allowed certain staff members to carry guns in schools. Congress, however, has yet to adopt new gun control measures that would apply to the rest of the country.

Just over half of Americans — 51 percent — expect elected officials to tighten gun laws, while 42 percent expect no changes; another 6 percent expect gun laws to be made less strict. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans, but less than half of Democrats, predict gun laws will be made stricter.

Democrat Cody Campbell, a 42-year-old IT worker from Atlanta, suggested that the financial impact of the gun industry would prevent meaningful change.

“Here in the U.S., it’s all about the money, and guns are a big part of how we make money,” said Campbell, a gun owner who supports stronger gun control.

In Florida, not far from where a 19-year-old gunman killed 17 people and wounded 17 others last month, 50-year-old John Karnosh said he’s favored stricter gun control measures since the 1999 school shooting in Columbine, Colorado that left 15 dead.

“All this time has passed and still nothing has changed,” said Karnosh, a gun owner from Miramar, Florida, who is not registered with either party. “I live in the same county, down the street from Parkland. I see what these kids are doing. If anyone can build a movement for change, these kids will do it.”

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,122 adults was conducted March 14-19 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

Respondents were first selected randomly using address-based sampling methods, and later interviewed online or by phone.

TheGatewayPundit – Figures. #MarchforOurLives Protests Were Funded and Organized by Democratic National Committee

The March for Our Lives protests were held yesterday in cities across the United States.

The liberal mainstream media widely publicized the protests as being student organized.

But, of course, this was complete rubbish.
The well-planned events against the Second Amendment were organized and funded by outside groups – including the Democrat Party.

Americas1stfreedom.org – Universal Background Checks Unenforceable Without Gun Registry

So-called “universal” background checks have become a go-to gun control push for anti-Second Amendment politicians. They come out of the woodwork to push such checks each time a high-profile firearm-based crime occurs. The fact that the vast majority of high-profile attackers already acquire their guns via background checks matters not; gun control proponents step up and demand that background checks be expanded to cover private gun sales anyway.

We saw this after the horrific attack on Sandy Hook Elementary. President Barack Obama called for universal background checks, Vice President Joe Biden called for them, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., pushed legislation containing such checks, and the whole of the Democrat Party rallied to secure them.

But a strange thing happened while Manchin was trying to sell his gun control bill: The American people realized such checks would not prevent another Sandy Hook from occurring because the gunman in that attack did not acquire his guns via some private sale in a dark alley—rather, he stole his guns. Moreover, he stole them from his mother, then killed her before going to the school.

During an April 14, 2013, appearance on “Face the Nation,” Manchin admitted his gun control would not have prevented the attack on Sandy Hook.The bottom line—no amount of gun control would have stopped him, and universal background checks, in particular, would have proven impotent to restrain his evil desires. (During an April 14, 2013, appearance on “Face the Nation,” Manchin admitted his gun control would not have prevented the attack on Sandy Hook.)

If Manchin is right—that is, if universal background checks would not have prevented Sandy Hook—why do Democrats continue to push such checks, and why have entire gun control groups formed with seemingly the sole purpose of securing them? The answer is that universal background checks are insidious, and instead of being the end-all, be-all gun control that makes Americans safe, they are the vehicle through which other controls—including gun registries—are instituted. In fact, universal background checks are unenforceable without a gun registry.

Think about the mechanics behind universal background checks. They treat private sales like retail sales and require a background check to be performed whenever a gun changes hands. In many cases this includes requiring a background check before a hunter can loan a gun to a fellow hunter. Viewed theoretically, the Left sees these checks as a way to “keep guns out of the wrong hands.” The theory sounds good and, when pushed after a high-profile attack, benefits from good-hearted Americans who are thinking with their emotions rather than their brains.

But ask yourself one simple question: How can the government know whether a gun is changing hands? That is, how can they know a resident in Nebraska is not selling a gun to his neighbor in Nebraska at this very moment? How can the government know that a resident in Kentucky is not selling a gun to his neighbor in Kentucky at this very moment? After all, they have to know these things in order to make universal background checks enforceable.

Consider the example of California, a state that adopted universal background checks in the 1990s. They followed those checks with numerous other gun controls, a gun registry chief among them. It is the registry that makes universal background checks enforceable, because it is the registry that tells the government the name of every gun owner and the guns that owner possesses.

By the way, in addition to adding registration to universal background checks, California also added firearm confiscation laws.By the way, in addition to adding registration to universal background checks, California also added firearm confiscation laws. Some of the laws allow for permanent confiscation and others for temporary confiscation via Gun Violence Restraining Orders (GVROs), but all ultimately revolve around confiscation.

Universal Background Checks
Firearm Registration
Firearm Confiscation

Again, this is not in some foreign country—although gun laws in foreign countries could be cited to bolster the dangers of universal background checks. Rather, it is in the United States.

The fact that universal background checks are not enforceable without a gun registry was not lost on New Mexico sheriffs during a recent Democrat push to enact such checks there. On Feb. 9, 2017, Breitbart News reported that 32 of New Mexico’s 33 sheriff signed a letter warning that Democrats’ push for universal background checks would necessitate a gun registry.

New Mexico residents rallied around the sheriffs and defeated universal background checks, thereby defeating a gun registry.

 
WNEP – SCHUYLKILL COUNTY, Pa. — “There’s a rocky controversy when it comes to school safety in Schuylkill County.

The superintendent of the Blue Mountain School District is in the spotlight after telling lawmakers in Harrisburg his students protect themselves against potential school shooters with rocks.

“Every classroom has been equipped with a five-gallon bucket of river stone. If an armed intruder attempts to gain entrance into any of our classrooms, they will face a classroom full students armed with rocks and they will be stoned,” said Dr. David Helsel.

That was Dr. Helsel testifying to the House Education Committee last week in Harrisburg.

The superintendent of the Blue Mountain School District was explaining his unconventional form of protecting the students in their schools in the event of an active shooter situation: give them rocks.

“At one time I just had the idea of river stone, they`re the right size for hands, you can throw them very hard and they will create or cause pain, which can distract,” said Helsel.

Helsel says teachers, staff and students were given active shooter training through a program known as ALICE which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate and they routinely hold evacuation drills for active shooter simulations.

But if a teacher decides to lockdown a classroom, there are rocks in a five-gallon bucket kept in every classroom closet that students could throw if shooters get inside.

Still, Helsel says the rocks are seen as a last resort.

“We have devices installed in our doors that help to secure them, to make it very difficult to break through,” said Helsel. “We also have, we train kids and talk about barricading the doors.”

A teenager who is a senior a Blue Mountain High School and says he and other students like that plan.

“It matters because it will help protect the schools, anything helps, rocks are better than books and pencils.”

Parents do as well.

“At this point, we have to get creative, we have to protect our kids first and foremost, throwing rocks, it’s an option,” said Dori Bornstein.

But not everyone thinks this is a practical line of defense.

“I think that’s rather comical,” said one college student in Schuylkill Haven.

“It’s absurd, arm the teachers,” said a parent in Schuylkill Haven.

Helsel says the district has no plans to arm teachers, however, Blue Mountain does have a maintenance employee who is trained and certified to work as school security and is armed.

And the district plans to have more support staff get the same training to act a security.”

Montana Public Radio – “State Legislator, College Republican To Speak At Helena’s ‘March For Our Guns’

Hundreds of thousands of students are calling for stricter gun control measures at “March For Our Lives” rallies across the country on Saturday. But in Montana’s state capitol, counter protesters are organizing a “March For Our Guns.”

“I love our second amendment rights,” says 18-year-old Joey Chester, a College Republican. “I don’t want to see those restricted for law-abiding citizens.”

Chester is slated to speak at the pro-gun rights rally in Helena. He says organizers expect more than 500 people to attend and other speakers include two high school students and Montana Republican state legislator Seth Berglee.

“I have a basic right that’s not granted by society – it’s granted by God – to self-defense,” he says. “I don’t see how society or people in society can make the argument that they have the right to take away a right from me because one person went and did something bad.”

According to the “March For Our Guns” website, the rally was organized as a response to “alarmist leftist rhetoric” about guns.

A group of Helena high school students are planning a “March For Our Lives” rally at a nearby park.

Organizer Clara McRae says they don’t want to strip away second amendment rights.

“But we don’t want those rights to infringe on others rights to be able to exist safely in public spaces,” she says.

“March For Our Guns” organizers are urging attendees to remain civil and to leave their firearms at home.

Montana has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the country, as well as one of the highest firearm death rates in the U.S.”

With 200,000+ subscribers MrGunsnGear is pretty popular on YouTube. If you haven’t already heard of him, he’s been making gun and gear review videos for years on his YouTube Channel.

He and countless other gun friendly channels will soon lose their presence on YouTube if they follow through with their threats against firearms content. He is asking his subscribers and followers to send YouTube a message, which interestingly enough has since been deleted. You can see a screenshot of it attached.

Copy his example and edit as you see fit: ” I use YouTube to learn information about firearms, accessories, and related materials and how to safely use them.

This policy will limit the ability of Americans who are newly exercising their 2nd Amendment rights to attain information that will keep them and those around them safe. I will not be using YouTube in the future if this policy goes into effect. I urge you to reconsider this decision as it violates the core principles Youtube claims it adheres to.”

Visit this link which describes their new “Policies on content featuring firearms”. Click the NO button at the bottom and paste that text below.

Natural News – YouTube banning all gun videos in latest censorship assault on liberty… but a new video site welcoming gun videos launches soon.

(Natural News) In the latest bombshell censorship attack on both the First and Second Amendment, YouTube announced a policy change today that will quickly lead to a complete banning of all gun videos, including movie trailers and video games that depict the use of firearms.

As Bloomberg reports, this is all being framed by YouTube as a way to prohibit the “sales” of guns:

YouTube will ban videos that promote or link to websites selling firearms and accessories… Additionally, YouTube said it will prohibit videos with instructions on how to assemble firearms.

But it is widely understood that YouTube’s policy shift will rapidly expand to encompass more than just “demo” videos. As the National Shooting Sports Foundation has now stated, “YouTube’s announcement this week of a new firearms content policy is troubling. We suspect it will be interpreted to block much more content than the stated goal of firearms and certain accessory sales. Especially worrisome is the potential for blocking educational content that serves an instructional and skill-building purpose. YouTube’s policy announcement has also served to invite political activists to flood their review staff with complaints about any video to which they may proffer manufactured outrage.”

“The unprecedented decision is a major move against free speech,” writes Jamie White for InfoWars. “…[T]here are thousands of gun channels on YouTube who didn’t receive any warning of the upcoming transition.”

Breitbart.com’s AWR Hawkins explained further, “YouTube is entering the gun control debate with a new ban on videos which demo firearms or link to websites selling firearms or firearm accessories.”

In just the last two weeks, YouTube has outright terminated thousands of content accounts, including my own channel (“The Health Ranger”) and the ever-popular Military Arms Channel, which reviewed firearms with a high degree of intelligence and experience.

With this latest assault on firearms-related videos, Google/Alphabet/YouTube once again demonstrates that it is the enemy of both the First and Second Amendments that protect individual liberty from authoritarianism.
A new video site rises up, welcoming firearms videos: REAL.video

Now, more than ever, the need for a pro-liberty, free speech video site is more urgent than ever. We’ve got precisely such a project already in development: REAL.video.

The REAL.video site welcomes guns and firearms instructional videos as well as content supporting food freedom, health freedom and independent science. I can now reveal that this site will be going live on or before July 4th, Independence Day. People and organizations interested in posting video content to the free speech community can request an invitation on the REAL.video home page right now.

The site does not pay content creators for video views. Instead, we focus on protecting the free speech platform and preserving the video knowledge base for humanity that YouTube is now systematically eliminating from its own anti-America, anti-freedom network run by truly evil techno-tyrants.

To pay for all the hosting, bandwidth, maintenance and support, we plan to run a 5-second pre-roll ad in front of each video. Content creators are encouraged to incorporate their own sponsors in their videos, and yes, we absolutely support videos that are sponsored by firearms and ammunition companies, along with accessories, holsters and other types of weapons, including edged weapons and bows.

At REAL.video, we believe the Second Amendment is a sacred right, and we stand with all those who seek a pro-liberty platform to share instructional and tactical videos on firearms, reloading, self-defense and military.

We support veterans, active duty soldiers, local law enforcement and making America great again. We strongly encourage everyone who supports liberty to stop using Google, YouTube and Facebook and seek alternatives that support your liberties, your freedom to speak and your sacred right to defend your life, family, property and country.

Register now at REAL.video and check back on this website for more updates as we approaching the launch.