Gun enthusiasts unite at NRA convention
(CBS News) ST. LOUIS - Avid hunter Rob West drove from Chillicothe, Ohio, to St. Louis this week to join some 70,000 fellow National Rifle Association members at the organization's annual convention, where seven acres of guns and gear were on display and where politics was never far from anyone's mind.
For the NRA, which opposes any restrictions on gun ownership and President Barack Obama's re-election, the Second Amendment right to bear arms is sacrosanct.
"We don't want politicians or Supreme Court justices who are going to try to take that liberty away from us," West said in an interview under the Gateway Arch.
West and the NRA leadership cite the possibility that President might appoint more Supreme Court Justices in a second term as a prime reason to work for his defeat. It was a 5-4 vote by the current conservative court majority (Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito) in a 2008 case that solidified the right of individuals, outside of a militia, to own guns.
On the legislative front, the NRA's top priority for its 4 million members is to increase the portability of their guns. The organization is lobbying Congress to pass a new national law that would allow gun owners with "concealed carry" permits to bring their guns into every other state that allows qualified residents to carry concealed firearms.
"Whether in my home state or a state across the country," West explained, "I may be going to a hunting trip or a shooting range or just on a family trip, if I end up in the wrong part of town or broke down, I
have something to defend myself and my family."
NRA member John Jaffrey drove down to Missouri from Illinois, which is the only state in the country that doesn't allow any gun owners outside law enforcement to carry a concealed weapon.
Patricia Maisch, a Gabrielle Giffords constituent who grabbed a bullet-filled magazine from Loughner before he could reload his semi-automatic handgun, said the NRA stands in the way of closing key loopholes on background checks for gun buyers.
/ CBS NewsThe concealed carry reciprocity bill passed the House of Representatives last year. Senate sponsors are pushing for a vote in the coming weeks.
"Law-abiding citizens aren't gonna be the ones that are going to be causing a problems with this, and all the folks that say, 'Oh, if everyone has concealed carry, it's gonna be like the Wild West -- that's already been proven as not true," Jaffrey said.
To the contrary, a 2002 study by the Violence Policy Center found in the first five years after Texas allowed concealed weapons, between 1996 and 2001, such permit holders were arrested for 5,314 crimes.
A 2007 investigation by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel found more than 1,700 people with felony convictions, outstanding arrest warrants, and domestic violence injunctions were among those cleared for concealed weapon permits in Florida in the first half of 2006.
Richard Watkins, a competitive trap shooter from Indiana attending his first NRA convention with his wife, still believes a federal law on concealed carry is fair.
"I would like to see that mandated -- that we could go anywhere in the country and carry our gun, just like we drive our car," Watkins said. "Why should I have to dis-arm just because I'm crossing the state line and take a chance on a criminal coming after me?"
The NRA is sounding the alarm to its members that "all of the rights we've worked so hard to defend....could be lost if Barack Obama is re-elected." Signs posted at the convention said "Trigger The Vote." Buttons for the election fight said "All In!"
Only Republican presidential candidates -- Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Perry -- addressed the convention.
"We need a President who will enforce current laws, not create new one that only serve to burden lawful gun owners," Romney told the convention Friday. "We need a President who will stand up for the rights of hunters and sportsmen, and those seeking to protect their homes and their families. President Obama has not; I will."
Outside the convention hall, there were voices challenging NRA views, including three survivors of last year's mass shooting in Tucson that killed six people, including nine-year-old Christina Green, and wounded 13 others, including former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords at her "Congress On Your Corner" event outside a supermarket.
Bill Badger, a Giffords constituent who helped stop that massacre by tackling alleged shooter Jared Loughner, is a Republican, Romney-supporting, gun owner.
"We would like to get NRA support to do the background checks on the individuals when they buy a gun and to not support laws where you shoot first and ask questions later," Badger said.
By "shoot first and ask questions later," Badger was referring to "stand your ground" self-defense laws in effect in half the states and under scrutiny due to the Trayvon Martin murder case in Florida.
"These laws have no place in American life. They encourage armed confrontation among our citizens -- confrontations that are best left to our police and law enforcement," said Joe Grace, a gun violence prevention advocate from Philadelphia who attended a sparse gun control demonstration in rainy St. Louis on Saturday.
Grace launched an Internet petition drive to repeal stand your ground laws that, he said, has obtained 215,000 signatories from around the country in the past three weeks.
"We want the NRA to stand down on Stand Your Ground. We think these laws are reckless," Grace said.
Patricia Maisch, a Giffords constituent who grabbed a bullet-filled magazine from Loughner before he could reload his semi-automatic handgun, said the NRA stands in the way of closing key loopholes on background checks for gun buyers.
About 40 percent of U.S. gun sales, such as at gun shows or between private individuals, escape the checks required of licensed gun dealers, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
"I don't think they care. I think that the NRA has gone from gun safety and gun training to being about selling guns and making money," Maisch said. "I think it's important that every gun sale have a background check."
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They are the polite ones.
Got a copy of Wayne LaPierre's service jacket?
You got a DD214?
http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp
How does it feel to make a fool of yourself in front of God and everybody?
The first year results are now in:
List of 7 items:
Australia-wide, homicides are up 3.2 percent.
Australia-wide, assaults are up 8.6 percent.
Australia-wide, armed robberies are up 44 percent (yes, 44 percent)!
In the state of Victoria alone, homicides with firearms are now up 300
percent. Note that while the law-abiding citizens turned them in, the
criminals did not, and criminals still possess their guns!
While figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease in armed robbery with firearms, this has changed drastically upward in the past 12 months, since criminals now are guaranteed that their prey is unarmed.
There has also been a dramatic increase in break-ins and assaults of the ELDERLY. Australian politicians are at a loss to explain how public safety has decreased, after such monumental effort, and expense was expended in successfully ridding Australian society of guns The Australian experience and the other historical facts above prove it.
You won't see this datum on the US evening news, or hear politicians
repeating this information.
Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property and, yes,
gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.
http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp
How does it feel to make a fool of yourself in front of God and everybody?
It was 16 years ago that Australia put restrictions on certain kinds of guns, the kinds that criminals like to use. Crime was dropping before that; it dropped even faster afterward.
http://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/gun-control-in-australia/
http://www.snopes.com/crime/statistics/ausguns.asp
http://www.gunsandcrime.org/auresult.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060225125951/http://www.handgunbuyback.gov.au/
I have read the 2nd Amendment over and over again and I cannot find any language that gives even a hint that anything contained in section 776.013 is endorsed by that Amendment.
Florida section 776.013 is, quite simply, bad law. It is a law that was passed by legislators whose only thought was to the money the NRA and ALEC would pay them to vote for it.
It's interesting that most all these high crime area's have the strictest gun control laws int he country. Proves that gun control laws don't work worth beans.
--------------------------------------
Thank you for the most idiotic comment of the day. That's as stupid as saying that extra cops patrolling a bar district on Saturday night proves that enforcement against public drunkenness doesn't work.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE buy more guns THIS WEEK. Take them out and play with them CONSTANTLY.
Suicides can't be prevented and there are a lot of people that need to die each year because of they're criminal activities and criminals killing criminals is not really a bad thing.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And gun owners are far more like to kill themselves with their weapons than anyone else.
So the more guns, the more dead gun owners.
Y'know, I've got no problem with that.
DON'T look it up, don't do anything, just buy more guns. More guns=more dead gun owners.
Feel all macho about owning a gun now, gunstroker? Any gun you own is far more likely to kill YOU than a bad guy.
HAW
HAW
HAW
Hunters, particularly deer hunters, pay for the privilege of taking out vermin we'd otherwise have to pay to have removed. I applaud hunters like I applaud people who go to casinos and voluntarily pay my taxes for me.