gun control

North Carolina Senator Elizabeth Dole has reportedly joined a movement to allow individuals to carry firearms in our national parks. The movement begun by Republican Senator Mike Crapo from Idaho is pressuring the Department of the Interior to remove the federal ban on guns in our currently gun free national parks. According to reports by extreme North Carolina gun rights organizations Senator Dole has written a letter to the department asking them to lift the ban—in effect opening the door to all park visitors to carry concealed weapons provided they have a permit.

National Park Service ordinance 36 CFR 2.4, and 50 CFR 27.42(Fish and Wildlife Service), prohibits all individuals from possessing a firearm on lands managed by these agencies. These ordinances currently ensure that the national parks system remain a safe environment for visitors and visiting families. At the present time, families who travel nationwide visiting our park system can expect consistent rules and regulations throughout the country. It is likely that families may no longer feel at ease visiting a variety of national parks if they can not anticipate conditions upon arrival---put simply: they will not visit without knowing if it is a gun-free vacation spot.

Frontpaged by A. Thanks.

In his diary last Wednesday, Robert P. did his best to describe the middle ground he takes on gun control. There are probably many of us who fall in line with him on this issue.

I don't necessarily consider myself a gun rights or a gun control advocate. Like Robert, I fall somewhere in the middle. I realize that making something illegal isn't necessarily going to keep it out of the wrong person's hands. Then again, when it comes to something deadly, you err on the side of caution, right? Unless, you're a Republican Congress sitting idly by while the assault weapons ban is lifted.(This one I supported)

After the Virginia Tech tragedy, and a recent post about David Price that brought out some debate concerning gun control, I thought I would post what I’ve always thought was a middle-of-the-road solution to gun control. Note here that I mean 1980s middle-of-the-road here, not the modern middle-of-the-road where outlawing a woman’s right to choose is “moderate”.

Will the terrible tragedy of Virginia Tech become the new rallying cry for gun control? Will the second amendment now be on trial? I hope not.

Usually when I write a post for BlueNC it is long and probably a little much, but this time I would like to get right to the point.

Last week I wrote an article about Abortion. In it I very deliberately reiterated the fact that our Constitution is only good and valid in its entirety. The parts of our constitution we use to propound the many positions we take, and the rightness of them, are part and parcel of the rest of the Constitution, yes even the parts we do not like to discuss at times.

For all intents and purposes, the issue of gun control in America is dead. As I've said on several occasions, this is a battle that progressives fought long and hard - and lost. So be it. But that still doesn't excuse the lunacy of a bill recently sponsored by Howard Coble (NC-6) that would hog-tie ATF investigators as they attempt to weed out unscrupulous gun dealers. The Greensboro paper has the story.

Opponents view the bill — the ATF Modernization and Reform Act — as a Trojan horse that looks good on the surface by enabling federal inspectors to issue fines up to $15,000 and suspensions up to 90 days. But its inner details set a standard of proof so high that the ATF would lose its most powerful tool in fighting corrupt or dangerously careless dealers, said Daniel Vice of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Washington.

An AP Story on the Technical Corrections bill in the NC State House has this little nugget:

There are some nontechnical changes. One provision would allow company police officers authorized by the state to make arrests to carry concealed weapons without receiving a permit. There is no opposition to the change, Hackney said.

This seemingly innocuous provision is a union-busting gift to the hog industry.

According to the NC Council of Churches the Smithfield Company Police have wide powers to arrest and intimidate workers. This provision would give them the ability to carry concealed weapons without a permit.