MDP Gun Ownership Caucus wants common sense gun control

The shooting earlier this month of Democratic U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona that killed six people and wounded 13 others illustrates clearly that common sense gun control is needed, but I heard a brief and interesting debate on Saturday from the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party’s Hunting, Fishing, and Gun Ownership Caucus, Jim Pedersen, that may shed some new light on the issue.

The Democratic Party has a big tent, and many Democrats are avid sportsmen who strongly support the Second Amendment. In fact, many Democrats have been endorsed by the NRA and given an "A rating,” such as former Vermont Governor and Democratic Presidential Candidate Howard Dean.

Pedersen’s point is that we lose voters with a knee jerk reaction to shootings like the one in Arizona, and I think he may be right. We should at least have the debate. He also thinks the sale of multiple, 30+ round magazines that the Arizona shooter used should not be banned because people already have them. I part company with him there, but some of his positions make sense.

We know a few basic facts, and it’s far too easy for mentally unstable people to get handguns. There are controls and restrictions on the 1st Amendment, so I can see no reason not to have some commons sense restrictions on something as deadly as a gun.

Every year in this country guns kill more 30,000 people, and 70,000 more people are shot and injured. Gun zealots to make the false claim that allowing more adults to carry concealed weapons significantly reduces crime in America, but that myth has been debunked by peer reviewed studies. The opportunity for a law-abiding gun owner to use a gun in a socially desirable manner--against a criminal during the commission of a crime--will occur, for the average gun owner, perhaps once or never in a lifetime. It is a rare event. Other regular citizens with guns, who are sometimes tired, angry, drunk, or afraid, and who are not trained in dispute resolution, have lots of opportunities for inappropriate gun uses.

Dean said guns and hunting are part of a way of life in Vermont, as they are here in Michigan and elsewhere.

“But I don't think any Vermonter or gun owners anywhere can argue against common sense changes to our background check system to make our communities safer and more secure,” Dean said in a press release.

Groups like Mayors Against Illegal Guns are proposing common sense changes. They have a two-part goal. First, we already have laws that make it illegal for guns to be sold to felons, drug abusers or the mentally ill. The problem is that states and federal agencies are not required to make sure these prohibited purchasers are included in the background check database.

Second, they say it’s time to stop the sales of guns without a background check at all. They say right now, anyone can go to a gun show and purchase as many guns as they want; no questions asked, no background check, nothing. It seems like common sense to fix these two loopholes and make America safer from illegal gun sales. It in no way infringes on the Second Amendment.

Hundreds of guns bought in Arizona through this loophole make their way to Mexico to help drug cartels destabilize the Mexican Government. This is not only a threat to the people of Mexico. When loopholes in our laws allow drug cartels in Mexico to stockpile guns, it is also a threat to the United States.

The Michigan Democratic Party is holding its Winter convention on Feb. 12 in Cobo Hall, and the Hunting, Fishing, and Gun Ownership Caucus is meeting at 8 a.m.

The solution to the epidemic of gun violence is more guns?

Every time I hear of a shooting, whether intentional or accidental, I always joke that the response from some 2nd Amendment zealots will be that the solution to the epidemic of gun violence is more guns, and that is, apparently, one Republican Michigan Senator’s response to the tragic shooting in Arizona; more guns.

Sen. Mike Green, R-Mayville, introduced Senate Bills 58 and 59 on Tuesday that would repeal so-called gun-free public zones that currently include sports stadiums, schools, university dorms and classrooms, day care centers, churches, hospitals and casinos. The bills would also take away the issuance of concealed carry permits from the local gun board, consisting of the elected county sheriff and other local law enforcement officials, to the Michigan Secretary of State.

Great; let’s arm drunks in Ford Field, and instead of the law enforcement officials who know their community issuing CCW permits, where they have to have a good reason to deny the permit, over to a clerk at the local SOS office. . I find it ironic that Republicans block every single effort to make registering to vote or to vote easier and more convenient, but they have no problem making it easier to get something as deadly as a handgun.

This makes no sense, and incidents continue to pile up that reinforce that. There are far more gun accidents, like the recent accidental shooting in Gardena High School in California, that instances of a gun owner using a weapon in self-defense or defense of others. There are far more murders with guns than instances of a gun owner using a weapon in self-defense or defense of others.

Every year in this country guns kill more 30,000 people, and 70,000 more people are shot and injured. Zealots like John Lott and others continue to make the false claim that allowing more adults to carry concealed weapons significantly reduces crime in America, but that myth has been debunked by peer reviewed studies, like the one called “Comparing the Incidence of Self-Defense Gun Use and Criminal Gun Use" by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, 2009,”

That study found that “The opportunity for a law-abiding gun owner to use a gun in a socially desirable manner--against a criminal during the commission of a crime--will occur, for the average gun owner, perhaps once or never in a lifetime. It is a rare event. Other Regular citizens with guns, who are sometimes tired, angry, drunk, or afraid, and who are not trained in dispute resolution, have lots of opportunities for inappropriate gun uses.”

Amen.

Last session, current Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, sponsored Senate Bill 747 that would have allowed concealed guns in classrooms and dormitories on college campuses. Law enforcement and college and university officials came out strongly against it. The good news is common sense prevailed, and the bill never got out of committee and died

Let’s hope the same thing happens to Senate Bills 58 and 59, which are currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee awaiting action.

After intensive search ‘Manoogian’ Mike finds a lawyer to support his grandstand lawsuit

Michigan Attorney General and Republican Gubernatorial Candidate ‘Manoogian’ Mike Cox’s grandstand play to gain the votes of the extremists that control the Republican Party with his lawsuit challenging the constitutionally of the health care insurance reform bill signed into law by the President is going no where.

Multiple provisions of the Constitution permit Congress to enact this reform legislation, including the Commerce Clause, and legal experts, including conservative scholars, are therefore uniformly saying that any lawsuit to stop it will undoubtedly fail. But Cox and the 12 Republican AG’s scoured the country to find a legal scholar to back up their shaky position. After searching high and low, they found one: Randy Barnett of Georgetown University.

He has been making the rounds of media outlets all over the country trying to make the case for Cox and company. The problem is Barnett is a rightwing tool, and not one media outlet even talks about his affiliations. Jared Goldberg at A Jared Manifesto lays it out.

“He's an attorney In short, Barnett is a libertarian loon. When he was at Boston University's law school, he served as an adviser to the Federalist Society, a right wing law school organization "dedicated to reforming the current legal order" in a right wing image.
Currently, he serves as a fellow at the Cato Institute and the Goldwater Institute. In 2009, he proposed a "Bill of Federalism", a set of ten amendments to the Constitution which, in effect, would codify libertarian and conservative beliefs.”

One constant refrain we are hearing from the right on health insurance reform is that citizens have never had to purchase something as a condition of citizenship or that the government required you to buy something. If you ignore the fact that you can be ticketed by the police for not having auto insurance, there’s something called the Militia Act of 1792.

The act says:
“That every citizen, so enrolled and notified, shall, within six months thereafter, provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch, with a box therein, to contain not less than twenty four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch, and powder-horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder.”

Clearly, the government required you to purchase something with the phrase “That every citizen,” but where was the hue and cry and “tea parties?”

People pushing for unrestricted access to guns use the act to justify their position. But the citizen-militia was replaced by the Militia Act of 1903, which established the National Guard as the chief body of organized military reserves in the United States.

The Michigan Militia can tries to put perfume on a pig

You can put perfume on a pig, but it’s still a pig. The Michigan Militia can wrap themselves in the Constitution and claim a civil defense role, but they are still a fringe, anti-government hate group.

The Livingston County Press & Argus is running a promo for a militia event on Saturday when it “hosts its Open Carry Family Picnic & Tea Party at Island Lake Recreation Area in Green Oak Township.” The paper is reporting “the slogan for this year's annual Michigan Militia meeting is "Show, shoot, shout, and then sip some tea with us."

Their spokesman said "This event primarily tries to take the stigma out of the word 'militia,' and provide information on what we are and who we are.” Nice try, but a zebra can’t change its stripes. After a raid on a militia group called Hutaree in a rural township outside of Adrian in Lenawee County last month, the militia is high gear trying to distance themselves from their brothers in arms. But make no mistake, their basic philosophy is the same.

These anti-government groups seem to pop out of the woodwork when a Democrat is in the White House, and the fake Astroturf “tea parties” has brought out the white supremacists, militia groups and secessionist groups. It has been the worst I have ever seen, and like when the militia went underground after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, it will take another loss of life to send them scurrying back into their rat holes.

The paper is also reporting “the picnic and tea party will also stress preparedness for disasters and Michigan's uncertain future.” “Uncertain future?” What the hell does that mean? Not only do we have the Homeland Security Department, and the real militia - the Michigan National Guard - here in Livingston County we also have the Emergency Management Department, and there are also legitimate groups that can be called on in a disaster, like the Civil Air Patrol or the Red Cross.

But the most laughable part of their mission is to push the so-called “open carry” where you can strap a six gun to your side like the days of the lawless, Wild West instead of having a concealed weapons (CCW) permit.

I have no idea why they are pushing this. It can only be to intimidate people, so it makes me wonder what they are compensating for. Most gun owners never use a handgun for self defense. But more than 30,000 people are killed in this country every year, and 70,000 more people are shot and injured by guns.

According to a study called “Comparing the Incidence of Self-Defense Gun Use and Criminal Gun Use" by the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, 2009,”
“The opportunity for a law-abiding gun owner to use a gun in a socially desirable manner--against a criminal during the commission of a crime--will occur, for the average gun owner, perhaps once or never in a lifetime. It is a rare event.

I never thought I would agree with Livingston County Undersheriff and chair of the Livingston County Republican Party Mike Murphy, who does not support the open carrying of handguns, but I do.

"I don't understand some of the logic,” Murphy told the paper. “If you want to carry a weapon, why not just get a concealed pistol license and be protected?"

Good question.

Capitol newsletter lists top Legislative accomplishments of the decade

With the end of the decade just three days away, reporters and writers are reflecting on both end of the year and end of the decade with the best of stories and lists. Subscription only Gongwer has put together a list of the most significant laws passed in the Michigan Legislature in the past decade.

My number one is the workplace smoking ban, but it was just number three on their list. Ironically, the Michigan Legislature finally passed a workplace smoking ban that includes bars and restaurants earlier this month after a fight that took the entire decade.

No. 10 – was raising the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.40 an hour in 2006. Despite Republicans controlling both the House and Senate, Gov. Jennifer Granholm managed to get it done. It was accomplished by attempt to go around the Legislature. Democrats launched a petition drive, and when Republicans saw how successful it was, they went ahead and approved it in the Legislature.

No. 9 – was the groundwater withdraw package of bills to regulate withdrawals of Michigan's groundwater. “In 2006, the first regulations and permits were imposed. Then in 2008, the state went further with the Great Lakes Compact and significantly toughened those rules. Much of the debate surrounded the groundwater withdrawals of the Nestle water bottling plant in Mecosta County.”

No. 8 – was the energy reform package of 2008. It also reversed a legislative decision in 2000 to provide customer choice and instead capped that at 10 percent of the load for Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison to give them the demand stability they said they needed to be able to finance new power plants in the state. But the most important thing it did was create a Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). It required the utility companies to provide least 10 percent of its power by a renewable power source by 2015. It doesn’t go nearly far enough, but it’s a start.

No. 7 – Was the mandatory minimum sentencing laws repealed in 2002. “ Michigan's tough anti-drug laws, especially its mandatory life sentence without parole for anyone trying to deliver 650 grams of cocaine or heroin, earned infamy in the pages of Rolling Stone, which profiled the case of Gary Fannon, who was serving a life sentence under the so-called 650 Lifer Law.” Even with that, Michigan’s incarceration rates were the 2nd highest in the 12-state Midwest region, and our rate is the 11th highest in the nation, according to a recent report by the U.S. Department of Justice.

No. 6 – was the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 2004. It was a low point in Michigan when we put discrimination into the Constitution. It was led by the state’s and nations’ leading anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association (AFA) of Michigan.
No. 5 – was the law passed in the lame duck session that made Michigan a “shall issue” state for concealed weapons. It was my introduction to how strident the pro-gun people really are. Not a word about it was spoken during the 2000 election season, but it was passed in the lame duck legislative session in December of 2000.

No. 4 – was the affirmative action ban in 2006. Some of the same people that were behind the same sex marriage ban were behind this ballot question that bans affirmative action programs based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin. Even though there was widespread evidence of fraud in collecting the signatures, this was allowed to stand.

No. 2 – was the "Race to the Top” education reform legislation passed just two weeks ago. The package of bills seeks to position the state to compete for up to $400 million in federal funds through President Barack Obama's "Race to the Top" program that requires states to enact major education reforms to receive the funds. Among the things the bills would do is to expand the number of charter schools by allowing current charter school operators to open new charter schools, provide a path for alternative teacher certification and stipulates that districts with at least 25 percent of their students in the lowest achieving 5 percent of buildings in the state would be run by a CEO appointed by the state superintendent.

The top measure of the decade – according to Gongwer – was the replacement of the Single Business Tax (SBT) with the Michigan Business Tax (MBT) in 2007. The Republicans killed the SBT in the summer of 2006 with no replacement in sight as a campaign gimmick because they knew the Republican scandals would hurt them. It did, and they lost control of the Michigan House.

Extremist gun group wants America to go back the the lawless Wild West

It takes a certain kind of person to claim the answer to the epidemic of gun violence is more guns, but that’s the solution some 2nd Amendment zealots continue to push.

Every year in this country guns kill over 30,000 people, and 70,000 more people are shot and injured. Zealots like John Lott tried to make the false claim that that allowing adults to carry concealed weapons significantly reduces crime in America, but that myth has been debunked by peer reviewed studies.

Now, the gun lobby is using the false scare tactic that President Obama wants to “take their guns” to sell and push more guns into the system and do away with common sense gun control laws. The goal is to sell more guns at all costs.

More guns also means more accidents, like the CCW instructor who accidentally shot one of his students in the face in a class in Oakland County or the 12-year-old Homer boy who died after accidentally being shot in the head by his own father. There is also the accident at a recent gathering of gun extremists called the” Michigan Open Carry, Inc.,” when a man accidentally fired his semiautomatic handgun while attempting to unload the gun in South Haven.
Last summer one of the racist, tea baggers showed up at an appearance by President Obama with a borderline treasonous sign and with a loaded 9mm handgun in a holster strapped to the outside of his pant leg.

This has led to a push by some groups like open carry to go back to the days of the old West and gunslingers with six-guns strapped to their sides. I thought we had evolved past that, but apparently not.

The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus did a feature on this group’s push to advocate open carry. Apparently, it’s legal to carry a gun strapped to your side without a carrying concealed weapons (CCW) permit.

The article quotes a Melvindale resident who has a CCW, but for the past year he has chosen to carry his .45-caliber handgun “holstered on his right thigh.” I’m baffled as to why. It’s obviously not about personal protection. The only reason I can think of is to intimidate people.

This is just ridiculous. What kind of world is this where you are surrounded by people wearing firearms strapped to their side?

Gun group advocates boycott against non-profit museum that charges no admission

Apparently, the Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners is leading a boycott against, among other places, the Monroe County Historical Museum. That’s kind of funny because, accept for the three summer months, admission to the museum located in the former post office in downtown Monroe is free.

The boycott also includes such evil places like the Renaissance Festival, the Ogemaw County Health Department in West Branch, the Ogemaw County Fair, the American Red Cross in Livonia, the Brandon Township Library, the Ferndale Public Library and even the Gibraltar Trade Center where perhaps the largest gun and knife show in the state is held every weekend. Why the boycott of these seemingly helpful places? Apparently the businesses have posted "No-Guns" signs on the premises.

I was a little surprised to see the list of boycotted businesses, but based on my pervious contact with the MCRGO I should not have been surprised. I only went to their site because I was looking for information on House Bills 4892 and 4893 that address toy or replica guns that look real. I only had a vague description of the bills, so I went there to research them, and while I was there I found the intriguing link called “places to avoid.” After looking for familiar places, like where I live in Livingston County and where I grew up in Monroe County, I came across the historical museum on the list.

My brush with - or even recognition that such as group existed - the MCRGO occurred in December of 2000. I had been covering politics in Livingston County, and for almost the past year I had been immersed up to my neck in politics, covering elections from the county commission races all the way up to the Mike Rogers/Dianne Byrum Congressional race and everything in between. Following the election, the Lame Duck Michigan Legislature passed House Bill 4530 that made Michigan a “shall issue” state for concealed weapons.

I found myself scrambling to find out what this was about because I had not heard a peep about gun control or this bill during the campaigns. What the law did was in the past, owners of handguns had to prove to local county gun boards they were worthy of a Carrying Concealed Weapon (CCW) permit, but the new law placed the burden of proof on the gun board to show why applicants should not be allowed to carry a concealed handgun.

It was while doing research that I came across the MCRGO web site. It was also my first introduction to blogging, at least quasi-blogging. They had a message board on the site, and I was surprised to read the rhetoric on the board against anyone who dared support the slightest bit of gun control on something as deadly and dangerous as a handgun. They were called everything from communists to gun grabbers. I wrote a column on both my surprise at seeing something as important as the CCW not even broached during the campaign season and the amount of heated rhetoric going on against anyone who supports any kind of gun control at all.

Because of that column, I have been forever branded as a “gun-grabber,” but I have never grabbed a gun. My military training with a .45 pistol told me that’s not a good idea. Despite numerous attempts to say otherwise, the column was accurate. It’s just amazing to me that with something that’s only function is to kill there are people out there who are against gun control for handguns.