by Carmen Amedori
In the words of John R. Lott, Jr., “More Guns, Less Crime.” I first meet Mr. Lott in 2000 when he came to testify against the Glendenning “smart gun” legislation. I presented him as an expert witness to counter every aspect of the former Maryland Governor’s initiative to restrict firearm ownership from law-abiding taxpayers.
One of the first things I learned that year is everything in the legislature is orchestrated. Everything. And the conductor is not We the People. In spite of the solid facts economist Lott put forth, Glendenning’s legislation passed. The bill signing took place in the State House Rotunda in Annapolis with the then POTUS Bill Clinton in attendance.
THE DEBATE
There was no doubt the bills would leave the House and Senate judiciary committees un-amended. This was the Governor’s “Legislative Package” for that year and he’d be damned if it would be changed in anyway during the committee process. Democrats had their marching orders and if they fell short, sanctions included not having a leadership role or benefiting by other preferential treatment of the majority “leadership.”
Politics is the epitome of “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” On the surface, it can appear to be adult negotiation all in the best interest of We the People. However, it is not at all. There are so many individual agendas it is nearly impossible to repeal any laws. Consequently, the “power” that permeates through the hallowed halls of the Maryland General Assembly does not have “to the people” as a tagline. Unfortunately, our elected officials soon forget their elected position is a responsibility and not power.
Under the historic, stained glass dome crafted by Tiffany and presented to the people of Maryland in 1902, in the round Joint Hearing room, the Senate and the House judicial committees convened to hear the second reader testimony from citizens. During the joint committee debates, pro second legislators argued for days against any and all legislation that was against our United States Constitution to no avail.
We did everything we could to slip in an amendment to the extent Glendenning sent his goons in to monitor the committee room. Lurking in the back, they would serve as a stark reminder to the Democrat members to accept no amendment. So regardless of the evidence presented to curtail the myths of “evil” guns, there was no way the minority would ever win.
The hearings on these bills lasted well into the night with 100’s of “average” law abiding, taxpayers and experts such as John Lott, Jr. showing every reason gun control is not in our best interests. The presence also put pressure on the chairman to move things along to minimalize any risk of an amendment. It was in preparation of the Third Reader floor battle that it became apparent my purpose was to don my armor every day, dodge knives, and throw grenades. We would never win against the liberal gun grabbers but our voices would be heard.
FOR WEEKS leading up to the “third reader” debate, every time Glendenning had a news conference, I was there. I would stand directly across from him, stare him down, and hope the media would report my rebuttal to everything he said.
I became his worst nightmare to the point where one day we were walking across Lawyers Mall from opposite directions; he from the State House and I from my office in the House Office building. As our eyes met, he began to turn around but then quickly walked into the Legislative Services building. I felt a bit victorious; as it was apparent, the commie gun grabber did not like me and dreaded crossing my path.
On third reader, the majority Democrat party gave us, however reluctantly, the opportunity to voice the opposition. They really were quite aggravated that the Rules required it. In their minds, it was a done deal and a waste of their time to hear otherwise. At one point, during my debate, the majority leader at the time John Adam Hurson, a delegate from Montgomery County was forced to come back to the floor from the legislative lounge, take his microphone, and debate this Freshman Delegate from Carroll County.
In the end, unfortunately, it was a basic party line vote albeit for a few Dems who were pro-gun. And I promise they were only given a pass on the vote because it was wrapped up and so they still could “save face” with their gun community constituents, win reelection, and return to help keep the Dem majority power.
The anti-second amendment legislation passed.
STATS v. FACTS
In the “third edition” book, “More Guns, Less Crime,” Lott presents the results of his unbiased factual analysis of crime data for every county – 307 counties in all – in the United States spanning a 29-year period from 1977 to 2005 (1st edition through 1998). The facts revealed show very clearly a few things.
First, the very areas where firearms are desperately needed for protection are the areas the government hits first when seeking to restrict our right to bear arms. Therefore, the inner cities where there are many law-abiding, taxpayers are the center target. Then the government will use the stats of injuries, deaths by guns including gang-related incidents as well as deaths of “kids”/juveniles under age 18 and sometimes they will include stats for under 21 in an effort to distort the facts. The Center for Disease Control also will skew the numbers in their favor.
This is by design so that they can use the murder, gang-related stats to further the agenda. We all know that in areas where we have gun-free zones or laws that prohibit the good guy from firearm ownership are going to help produce, not prevent crime.
It is incomprehensible THAT those who are anti-God-given rights:
1- Cannot see the demise of a free nation with every restriction to our God-given right. It is incomprehensible that they want to restrict honest Americans and in essence with these “pretended laws” make an innocent into a criminal.
2- Always want to blame the inanimate object and not the criminal for the illegal use. Someone needs to tell the gun grabbers hands that firearms are not sold with hands and fingers attached.
Dr. Lott’s, study also shows where there are less laws on firearms, crimes is not as prevalent. Of course, that only makes sense when no one is armed there is a better chance of crime being committed. That is why gun-free zone laws are rotten. It makes everyone a sitting duck, when no one in the gun-free area is armed and have no way of protecting self and/or others from some criminal who wants to hurt someone.
When we have no gun-free areas, and there is a possibility that a good guy with a gun may be present, the risk to the criminal is higher, and so the crime potential decreases.
GOOD GUYS with guns save lives
The stories the Mainstream media never disseminate happen all the time. At least 6,850 times a day, a life is saved because a good guy somewhere had a gun, and was at the right place at the right time, according to Gary Kleck. A criminologist, Professor Kleck does not work for nor compensated by either side of the gun debate. His book, Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America reveals that each year armed good guys lawfully kill 1500-2800 criminals.
Just this past June, an armed citizen shot and injured a crazed shooter in Lyman, S.C. According to police and witnesses, the shooter was in an argument that turned heated and he shot three people in front of a nightclub. Prevented from further harm to others by the good guy’s bullet.
Other such incidents:
September 11 2016: Shawnee Kansas a woman was attacked in a parking lot, and two good guys came to assist. One had a gun and he shot the attacker.
September 7 2016: Richland County, S.C. a clerk responses to an armed robber with the barrel of firearm in his face. The robber fled.
September 2014 in Oklahoma, Alton Nolen of Moore beheaded a co-worker at Vaughan Foods. Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff’s deputy and the company’s chief operating officer, who used his personal firearm to wound, halted his rampage.
Shortly after her husband died in 2012, an 18¬-year-¬old mother saved the life of herself and her baby in Blanchard, Oklahoma. There, a knife-wielding intruder was attempting to enter Sarah McKinley’s mobile home. She fired and killed him. The additional intruder fled the scene..
In 2007, former cop and volunteer security worker, Jeanne Assam, saved the day at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Thousands of people were exiting from Sunday mass that day as the shooter opened fire. However, Assam ran toward the line of fire, killing the shooter and saving countless lives.
And even as those type of incidents continue, the gun grabbers continue to win with more and more restrictions on our rights. In my time, the Glendenning “Smart Gun” legislation was the…
…BEGINNING OF THE END
The night before the day that legislation was signed, I sobbed with a broken heart. As I sat in the old Maryland Inn treaty of Paris bar the same area where patriots including Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson convened and schemed the succession from King George III, I told my tales of that battle to whoever would listen.
I warned everyone I saw that night to buy guns now because the extinction has begun. The battle had left me weary. I wept for a Nation under siege. I prayed for more strength and I heard Ben Franklin repeatedly say “A Republic if you can keep it.”
On signing day, I awoke to the sound of a rotating mast of rotor blades from a helicopter batting through the skies over the harbor of downtown Annapolis. It was making its way to the Naval Academy for landing. Clinton was aboard. He would then be driven to Maryland’s historic state house.
My eyes swollen shut from the all night crying, I still managed to go to the window and give the finger to whoever was in the whirly bird. I was sick to my stomach and my heart. I saw no pleasure in the irony that General Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief marking the end of the Revolutionary War and the slap to his face with the signing of the Glendenning anti 2A legislation.
This is what we have; a political system filled with gangsters who believe they always know what is best for us, politicians who continue to say one thing and do another. Elected officials who only work to further the One World Order agenda snub facts, like those presented via the hard work of Dr. Lott, and Gary Kleck. The only way to conquer a free society is by disarmament. Any legislation that goes against our God given rights should be damned. It is the duty of every patriots to nullify these pretended laws.
via Modern Survival Online https://ift.tt/2OBjIEj
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