Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made no secret about her desire for more gun restrictions. She has prepared an a la carte menu of ideas from universal background checks to bans on “assault weapons” and standard capacity magazines to ending sales to those between the ages of 18 and 21.
By Joe Bartozzi, NSSF President
On the other side of Capitol Hill, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced the Assault Weapons Ban of 2019, which took a failed experiment of the 1990s and somehow made it even worse.
Long-time political writer Dick Polman, in a column in the Atlantic, this week noted that the only missing ingredient to getting these bills signed into law is a “new massacre” to make gun control “a first-tier story.” There you have it. Polman pointed out what we’ve witnessed time and again.
So, here is our position — plainly stated. Those in the firearms industry are on the front lines, every day, working to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. Gun control advocates, whether elected officials and their staffs or the paid professionals of gun control lobbying organizations, meanwhile, are fully prepared to take advantage of the next tragedy.
Safer Communities
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), working on behalf of our industry, promotes the safe and lawful use of firearms for target shooting, hunting, and self-defense. We want to ensure that those who are prohibited from possessing them, or those who can’t be trusted to purchase or handle firearms responsibly, never get their hands on them. It is the firearms industry that leads the way to making our communities safer.
We act on the clear distinction between what constitutes lawful commerce in firearms and the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens to bear firearms and their criminal misuse. Gun control advocates may pay lip service to the Second Amendment and talk about not wanting to “take away your guns,” but that is exactly what most of what they propose tries to accomplish.
Through Project ChildSafe, NSSF has partnered with more than 15,000 law enforcement and community partners in all 50 states and five U.S. territories and engaged more than 8,500 organizational supporters to distribute more than 38 million firearms safety kits including cable style gun locks. The program was singled out by the Government Accountability Office for its effectiveness. We have run this program for 20 years. Firearms manufacturers have been providing locking devices in the box with each new gun purchase for about the same amount of time.
NSSF launched Don’t Lie for the Other Guy in 2000, to help prevent illegal “straw purchases” of firearms. The program is run in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to help educate firearms retailers on how to detect and deter straw purchases. The public outreach associated with this campaign warns those who might consider this crime, they risk 10 years in jail and $250,000 fine. In that time, more than 1 billion media impressions have spread that message.
Real Solutions
The NSSF’s FixNICS campaign was launched in 2013, to encourage states to report to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System all records that establish someone is prohibited from owning a firearm under current law. As the result of our work in 16 states, in just five years, the number of disqualifying mental health records submitted to NICS increased by 220 percent to more than 5.3 million, from about 1.7 million in December 2012. Patterned on our work at the state level, The Fix NICS Act was passed on an overwhelming bipartisan basis in both houses of Congress and signed into federal law by President Trump last year. This law gives the states resources to further improve this reporting and also compels federal agencies to submit all disqualifying records.
More recently, NSSF again partnered with ATF to launch Operation Secure Store to help retailers stem firearms thefts from their stores. This program encompasses a longstanding commitment to match ATF rewards for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those who commit these crimes. Additionally, through store security seminars nationwide, NSSF and ATF team up to help educate retailers on steps they can take to reduce the likelihood of thefts. NSSF independently takes this commitment further by offering retailers in-depth security audits and encouraging the use of such security products as protective window film and smash-resistant display cases. Affinity programs offer discounts to NSSF member retailers on these and other such products.
About two-thirds of firearms-related fatalities are due to suicide. Recognizing that tragic fact, NSSF has joined with the nation’s largest suicide prevention organization to develop a suicide prevention toolkit to help firearms retailers, shooting range operators and customers understand risk factors and warning signs related to suicide. The materials point to where to find help and help encourage secure firearms storage options. NSSF also works closely with the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department to help prevent suicides.
This is what action looks like. These are real solutions that help build safer communities. Instead of taking advantage of and politicizing tragic events with public relations tactics in support of policies that are ineffective and harmful to our citizens’ rights, we will always work for solutions over soundbites and will be steadfast in our work, day in and day out, on the front lines of preventing guns from getting into the hands of those who should not have them.
How will you help spread this NSSF message of how the gun industry and gun owners are proactively working to prevent tragedies while the anti gunners are working to exploit tragedies?
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PLEASE STOP!!! “GUN VIOLENCE” will NEVER end as long as we have a Government that is RESPONSIBLE for CREATING and RUNNING FALSE FLAG Operations AGAINST US in a MISTAKEN belief that if they do it enough times and to enough people and get PROGRESSIVELY MORE HEINOUS in their efforts, they will eventually succeed!!! WHEN will “OUR SIDE” EVER learn this FACT and act accordingly??? PRIME example—the so-called Bump Stock. After devoting TWO ops to that subject THEY GOT WHAT THEY WANTED WHEN OUR SIDE (INCLUDING TRUMP!!!), TOTALLY CAVED AGAINST US AND OUR CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED 2nd AMENDMENT RIGHTS and OUTLAWED THEM!!! AT THE SAME TIME MAKING CRIMINALS OF US ALL WHO DO NOT “SURRENDER” THEM TO THE “AUTHORITIES”!!! I personally do NOT own one, NEVER did. This is TOTAL BS because as EVERYONE knows, the Bump Stock is NOT NECESSARY in order to RAPID-FIRE a Semi-Auto as ANY semi-Auto can be MADE TO “BUMP” WITHOUT ANY SPECIAL ATTACHMENTS. It’s a “LEARNED SKILL” of the operator of the weapon. And THAT my FELLOW AMERICANS brings us to the REAL REASON they went after them. Because they are SUDDENLY going to realize THAT FACT (which they ALREADY know), and decide that ANY SEMI-AUTO is just TOO DANGEROUS for AMERICANS TO OWN!!!! JUST LIKE FULL AUTO!!! WANNA MAKE A F’N BET?????? If ANY of you think FOR A MINUTE we are going to get out of this mess WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT, you are SORELY MISTAKEN!! TRUMP SOLD US OUT!!! HE’S NOT “THE ONE”!!! He’s INCAPABLE of the LEVEL OF FIGHT NEEDED TO WIN THIS COUNTRY BACK FROM THE “CREATURES” THAT HAVE IT!! He SQUANDERED the opportunity we had. FREEDOM is NOT FREE!!! A “FREE man’s rights reside in THREE boxes, The BALLOT BOX, The JURY BOX, and, WHEN those TWO BOTH FAIL, as they ALREADY HAVE, The CARTRIDGE BOX!!!! Y’all ready for what’s coming???
If what has transpired in the Congressional Judicial Committee thus far is any indication, this information will never reach their ears or eyes. The deck on Universal Background Checks has already been stacked in favor of UBC’s and information to the contrary that it will have little effect on violence or crime will never reach the public via our elected representatives.