In January 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a key decision in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The decision removed unconstitutional restrictions on the ability to speak freely at election time of grassroots groups like NRA and others. But now, some are trying to reverse the decision--and while they recognize that they must amend the Constitution to do so, their amendment would gut the First Amendment rights of organized political groups as we know them.
From the “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” files comes an update on heavyweight Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
As we reported in January, the movie tycoon and Obama fundraiser had, at that time, announced his intention to “make a movie with Meryl Streep” that would make the NRA “wish they weren't alive ….” We had suggested that perhaps Weinstein was not the best person to lecture the rest of America on the evils of firearms and how he doesn’t “think we need guns in this country.” Among other reasons, he himself has a well-armed retinue of bodyguards and has gained his fortune largely from sensationally bloody films.
The cultural campaign to label firearms and firearm ownership as socially unacceptable claimed another victim last week, when a “virtual” school demanded that an elementary school student remove an image of a firearm from his online profile.
The incident involved Wisconsin Virtual Learning, a public charter school, which offers Wisconsin’s elementary and high school students the opportunity to attend school online from home, rather than in a traditional classroom setting. As part of his online school profile, an 11-year-old student named Mathew uploaded a picture of a pistol on top of an American flag. A school official contacted Mathew and told him to change the image, stating, “No guns in school, even virtual schools.”
The anti-gun Violence Policy Center (VPC) thinks it has finally come up with a way to get handguns, and maybe some other guns, banned. Compare ‘em to cars!
Obviously, some background is in order.
VPC was formed, and is still led, by Josh Sugarmann, a former staffer for the National Coalition to Ban Handguns and the author of the book, Every Handgun is Aimed at You: The Case for Banning Handguns.
In 1988, in its first policy paper, VPC (then known as the New Right Watch), complained that “handgun restriction consistently remains a non-issue with the vast majority of legislators, the press, and public.” Therefore, it said, a “new topic” was needed to “strengthen the handgun restriction lobby.”
A new book from NRA Publications' Chip Lohman helps explain all that NRA does for American freedoms and safety.
Shooting Sports USA Managing Editor Chip Lohman has collaborated on a book that takes a contentious debate-private gun ownership in America, and moves it into the classroom. Called "NRA...The Rest of the Story," some readers might find the book useful as a modern-day "Trojan Horse."
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.