SOTG 154 – Mississippi Gov. Strengthens Gun Rights & NRA Annual Meeting

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant signed two bills strengthening the rights of the citizens of the state while protecting them from an overreaching Federal Government.  Among several positive aspects, permitless carry of handguns in purses, handbags, satchels and briefcases was affirmed.

The boys are back from the NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits in Nashville, Tennessee.  Paul and Jarrad begin their after action report and pointed out the distortions and outright lies of the New York Times and “Mainstream” media.

SOURCES:

From www.nraila.org:

Fairfax, Va. – The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) applauds Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant today for signing into law Senate Bill 2394 and Senate Bill 2619.  The Senate adopted conference committee reports on SB 2394 on a 49-3 vote and SB 2619 unanimously. The House passed them by margins of 103-15 and 98-18, respectively.

The new NRA-backed laws will reduce concealed carry permit fees, allow permitless concealed carry in purses and briefcases, and streamline enhanced carry training requirements for active military and veterans.

“These measures provide key reforms that will strengthen the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Mississippians,” said Chris W. Cox, Executive Director of the NRA-ILA. “On behalf of the NRA and our five-million members, we thank Governor Phil Bryant, Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves, House Speaker Philip Gunn and the Mississippi Legislature for their leadership over the last four years to allow citizens to more fully exercise their right to self-defense.”

SB 2619 takes effect immediately and SB 2394 will take effect on July, 2015.  Other key provisions of the measures include protection from federal overregulation of commonly-owned rifle ammunition, lowering the age requirement for a carry permit from 21 to 18 for National Guard or Reserve unit personnel, and clarifying limits on where cities and counties can regulate enhanced carry permit holders in light of a recent Attorney General opinion.

“The right to keep and bear arms is fundamental to America and to Mississippi,” Gov. Phil Bryant said. “I have always been a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment and I am proud to sign these bills into law. I thank the National Rifle Association for their support of these measures.”

The NRA also recognizes the leadership of House Judiciary B Chairman Andy Gipson, bill sponsors Senator Terry Burton and Senator Haskins Montgomery, and the members of the conference committees on SB 2394 and SB 2619 for their critical work to pass these important reforms: Sen. Nancy Collins, Sen. John Polk, Sen. Phillip Gandy, Sen. Philip Moran, Rep. John Moore, Rep. Becky Currie, Rep. Sam Mims and Rep. Joey Hood.

From www.powerlineblog.com:

Yesterday the New York Times published a typically vituperative editorial on the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in progress in Nashville. Titled No Firing Pins, Please, as the N.R.A. Gathers, the editorial accused the NRA of hypocrisy because it banned guns from its own convention:

Seventy-thousand people are expected to attend the National Rifle Association’s convention opening on Friday in Tennessee, and not one of them will be allowed to come armed with guns that can actually shoot. After all the N.R.A. propaganda about how “good guys with guns” are needed to be on guard across American life, from elementary schools to workplaces, the weekend’s gathering of disarmed conventioneers seems the ultimate in hypocrisy.

NRA bans guns! Is that a “gotcha” moment, or what? The editorial continued:

There will be plenty of weapons in evidence at the hundreds of display booths, but for convention security the firing pins must be removed. So far, there has been none of the familiar complaint about infringing supposedly sacrosanct Second Amendment rights — the gun lobby’s main argument in opposing tighter federal background checks on gun buyers after the 2012 gun massacre of schoolchildren in Connecticut. Anyone interested in buying the guns on display, many of them adapted from large-magazine battlefield weapons, will have to apply later at a federally licensed gun dealer where, sensibly enough, background checks are required.

As so often happens, the Times was late to the party. Its editorial mimicked claims that were made by MSNBC and others on the left. By the time the Times editorial appeared, its claims had already been debunked: this Snopes entry, which finds the claim that the NRA banned guns from its convention “false,” is dated April 8.

Bob Owens explained:

The National Rifle Association holds an annual meeting every year in a different host city, and requires that attendees follow the federal, state, and local laws applicable in that city, like every major convention of every significant national group, ever.

This year in Tennessee, that means that attendees can indeed carry firearms in the Music City Center with the proper license in accordance with Tennessee law. Bridgestone Arena prohibits the possession of firearms, and always has. Attendees to the concerts held there are not allowed to carry weapons according to these pre-existing laws. Is it really news that the NRA asks members to follow laws?

The only guns to have their firing pins removed are the display guns put up by the vendors, not the self-defense weapons of attendees. It is a common safety practice at every sporting goods show or convention for firing pins to be absent from weapon displays being handled by thousands of people. …

As for gun sales at the convention, they are simply following—once again—federal and state laws on the purchase and possession of firearms. Vendors typically only bring representative display firearms to large outdoor shows like the NRA annual meetings, and attendees can order firearms that they like at the event. The vendors will take these orders, and then send the ordered firearms to the customer’s specified local gun dealer, at which point they will have a NICS background check and any additional local checks before the firearm is transferred to them.

So the NRA is law-abiding, not hypocritical. Many, many attendees are in fact carrying permitted firearms to the convention in accordance with local law.

Red-faced, the Times issued a half-hearted correction this morning, and quietly rewrote its editorial. This is the correction:

Correction: April 11, 2015

An editorial on Friday about the National Rifle Association’s convention incorrectly described the rules for carrying concealed firearms at the event. Carrying is prohibited at one of the main convention venues, not all of them.

The correction implies that the NRA is only somewhat, not entirely, hypocritical. In fact, the correction should have acknowledged that there was zero basis for the editorial, and it never should have been published.

This is the opening paragraph of the editorial, as rewritten:

Seventy-thousand people are expected to attend the National Rifle Association’s convention opening on Friday in Tennessee, but they won’t be allowed to carry firearms in one of the main convention venues. This may run counter to the N.R.A.’s ideas about carrying guns everywhere, from elementary schools to workplaces.

Then follows the pointless paragraph about the fact that people who order guns at the convention will have them shipped to licensed dealers near where they live, in accordance with federal law.

Quietly dropped from the editorial is the claim that “not one of them will be allowed to come armed with guns that can actually shoot.” Silently erased is the reference to “N.R.A. propaganda about how ‘good guys with guns’ are needed to be on guard.” And now missing is the central point of the editorial as originally written, the assertion that the NRA’s alleged gun ban is “the ultimate in hypocrisy.”

A more honest approach would have been to delete the editorial in its entirety and replace it with, “Oops. Never mind.” But honesty is not something anyone expects from the New York Times.

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Professor Paul Markel

Founder & CEO at Student of the Gun

Paul G. Markel has worn many hats during his lifetime. He has been a U.S. Marine, Police Officer, Professional Bodyguard, and Small Arms and Tactics Instructor. Mr. Markel has been writing professionally for law enforcement and firearms periodicals for nearly twenty years with hundreds and hundreds of articles in print. Paul is a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio talk shows and subject matter expert in firearms training and use of force. Mr. Markel has been teaching safe and effective firearms handling to students young and old for decades and has worked actively with the 4-H Shooting Sports program. Paul holds numerous instructor certifications in multiple disciplines and a Bachelor’s degree in conflict resolution; nonetheless, he is and will remain a dedicated Student of the Gun.

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