Barry Smitherman ONLY Texas AG Candidate w/ CHL - More Trusted on Gun Rights than Ken Paxton or Dan Branch

Barry Smitherman is the ONLY candidate in the Texas Attorney General race with a Concealed Handgun License (CHL). The fact that Barry Smitherman actually packs heat, on top of the fact that he got an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA), is why I believe that Barry Smitherman is clearly the best gun rights Texas AG candidate over Ken Paxton and Dan Branch. Anyone can talk a good talk about supporting gun rights, but Barry Smitherman actually practices his right to bear arms. Anyone can say they understand the importance of gun rights and anyone can say they defend the right to bear arms, but at the end of the day, if you have never even gotten a concealed handgun license then you DON'T really fully understand the importance and need to protect gun rights. If you did really understand the importance of guns and gun rights then you would ALREADY have a concealed gun license.

One of the biggest issues facing America right now is an unprecedented attack on the 2nd amendment rights of Americans. Obama and the Democrats are doing everything they can to strip away our gun rights in exchange for gun control. The Texas Attorney General will need to protect and defend the 2nd Amendment rights of Texas. The Texas Attorney General will need to protect and defend the gun rights laws that the State of Texas has passed. It is not a matter of if. It is a matter of when. So the question is, when the time comes for Obama and the Democrats come after our guns, who do you want "behind the barrel of the gun" firing back at the liberals? I want Barry Smitherman.

When it comes to voting for the person who I can trust most to understand and defend gun rights, I pick the guy who actually packs heat instead of the guys who talk about the right to pack heat but have never felt it to be important enough to actually pack heat.

Furthermore, the State of Texas is actually NOT even the most gun friendly state in America. Texas does not even allow any open carry handgun laws even though MANY states DO have open carry laws. These laws to allow open carry in Texas have been pushed in recent years, but the Senators and State Representatives have blocked the laws. I would be willing to bet that most of those legislators do not have a concealed handgun license and therefore do not really understand the importance of gun right. They certainly do not understand that open carry is no more dangerous or alarming than concealed carry. Just look at the other states with open carry rights, no one is getting into shootouts in the middle of the streets or anything and I would be willing to bet that a criminal who sees someone with a gun is less likely to commit a crime in the first place knowing for sure someone has a gun and will fire at them.

Because Texas has a long way to go to be even more of a gun rights state, it is imperative that the next Texas Attorney General be someone who goes above and beyond just supporting the current Texas gun rights laws. The next attorney General for Texas should be someone who will push for even more gun rights than what we currently have in Texas.

The list of Texas Concealed Handgun License holders is not a public list. So how do I know that Barry Smitherman is the only candidate with a concealed handgun license? It is simple. Barry Smitherman has talked about having a CHL in public with the other candidates around and the other candidates have not chimed in about them having a CHL. Furthermore, Barry Smitherman has actually come out and said that he believes he is the only candidate in the race with a CHL and neither Ken Paxton nor Dan Branch have disputed this statement from Smitherman. You don't allow someone to say they are the only candidate with a CHL unless they actually are the only candidate with a CHL.

Texas A&M Law Professor Wants the 2nd Amendment REPEALED

Texas A&M University is a great school to go to, especially for conservatives. There are all kinds of conservative groups and it is consistently ranked as one of the most conservative Universities in America based on the large percentage of self identified conservatives in the student body population.

Just because Texas A&M is conservative does not mean that Texas A&M does not have some liberal nutjobs though. I remember there being some crazy left wing professors at Texas A&M when I went there.

We can add one more crazy liberal professor to the list.

Apparently, one of the law school professors wants to repeal the 2nd Amendment!

from Red Alert Politics:

A professor at a Texas law school believes she has the solution to gun violence, one that includes the complete repeal and replacement of the Second Amendment.

Texas A&M law professor Mary Margaret Penrose spoke on panel discussing gun control and the Second Amendment during a day-long symposium at the University of Connecticut’s School of Law. During the panel, the professor asked the audience — full of law students and attorneys — if they felt legislation to prevent gun tragedies was successful. As the room remained silent, Penrose then suggested it was time for some controversial changes to be made to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.

read the full story about this liberal professor here: http://redalertpolitics.com/2013/11/16/texas-am-law-professor-believes-its-time-to-repeal-the-second-amendment/

Texas Open Carry Come And Take It Gun Rights Rally At THE Alamo 10/19/2013

Only in Texas.... well, actually I should correct myself to say that rallies like this only happen in Texas. People open carrying guns happens all over America. Surprisingly, open carrying modern handguns in Texas is illegal even though many other states have some form of open carry gun rights. It is legal to open carry a rifle in Texas though and that is what will happen this Saturday at the Alamo in San Antonio, TX.

The rally will be Saturday, October 19th, 2013 starting at 10a.m. at the Alamo in San Antonio, TX.

The purpose of the rally is to protest the San Antonio Police Department's ticketing of law abiding citizens who openly, and legally, carry their rifles.

Fear is really the only thing that causes people to want to deny law abiding citizens their second amendment rights. The liberal media has trained people to be shocked when they see someone in public with a gun in a holster or over their back. Funny, I have never heard of a shooting at any of these gun rallies or at gun shows. There was just recently an open carry BBQ in Michigan and no one got shot.

Jerry Patterson, the Texas Land Commissioner who oversees the Alamo grounds, will be one of the main speakers at the event.

According to the event flyer:

We will gather for an armed march in response to the San Antonio Police Department policy of harassing law abiding citizens and gun owners. We cannot stand by any longer in silence. They have been left unchecked too long. This day we will stand under weight of arms and declare: "This Is Our Line In The Sand!" We will stand as free men and women. And we will take back the rights that Chief McManus believes he can revoke. Our right to bear arms shall not be infringed!

Sponsored by:

DontComply.com
OpenCarryTexas.org
Texas Open Carry
Gun Rights Across America
ComeAndTakeItAmerica.com
William Barret Travis

Rep. Steve Stockman: ‘The right to keep and bear arms is granted by God’

The following article is from the Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac:

Texas congressman Steve Stockman is about as strong a supporter of gun rights as there is.
He believes that the right to keep and bear arms is protected by the Bill of Rights. But he believes that gun rights run far deeper than the U.S. Constitution.
“The right to keep and bear arms is granted by God and protecting from government aggression by the Constitution,” he said today in explaining his opposition to the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. “It is not subject to the whims of global totalitarians massed in New York City.”
Stockman, a Republican from Friendswood, was one of 17 Texas Republicans to sign a letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry demanding they not sign the U.N. treaty. Another 113 lawmakers joined the conservative Texans.
The Texas congressman said the treaty “requires nations that sign on to it to record and track all guns and gun owners in their country, and submit the list to the ‘international secretariat.’ It would also require signing nations to ban many common types of hunting rifles.”
“I oppose any U.N. treaty touching the right to keep and bear arms,” Stockman said. “It’s beyond time for the United States to withdraw from the U.N.”
Here’s the letter and the complete list of signatories:

UN Arms Trade Treaty letter

read the rest of the article here: http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2013/05/rep-steve-stockman-the-right-to-keep-and-bear-arms-is-granted-by-god/

Colt AR-15 Manufacturing Company Moving to Texas

the following is from Ace of Spades HQ:

April 08, 2013

Colt Manufacturing Company Moving to... Texas

Pardon the vague headline -- I can't tell from this article if the company in question is a licensee of Colt, or a branch of Colt, or some sort of corporate entity affiliated with Colt.
Point is, whatever they are, they make AR-15s under the Colt name. And they're moving to Texas.

The move by Colt Competition into Breckenridge comes as the CEO of Colt Manufacturing in Connecticut has said there will soon be few good answers to keep his company in the state. Connecticut passed some of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws this week. It also comes weeks after Governor Rick Perry reportedly sent letters to gun companies, encouraging them to move to Texas. Perry sent a message on Twitter to Colorado company Magpul as recently as March 21, saying “Come on Down to Texas.” The Governor’s office did not confirm Friday if it had sent a recruitment letter to Colt Competition.

This goes beyond the 2nd Amendment. Texas is attracting companies because it's offering economic freedom. And it goes beyond that, too: This is about a fundamental dispute about whether our government exists to serve us and get out of the way of our exercise of our own free initiative, or whether government exists to instruct us and limit us as if we were schoolchildren in their care, permitted only to do the things the agreed to by a consensus of ill-educated moral scolds.
It's also about pluralism vs. monoculture. Liberal Connecticut would certainly like to imagine itself as the pluralistic society, and Texas as the monoculture, but in fact that's backwards. As Connecticut (and the various other former democracies of the east) claim that a "social consensus" has now been reached, politically, on a great many "issues" previously not thought to be political in nature at all, and more and more establishes an Official State Position on every question a Free Man might have, with those disagreeing with the party orthodoxy punished, or at least burdened, by official state sanction.

read rest of article here: http://ace.mu.nu/archives/338956.php

Eric Holder Memo Reveals Gun Control Flaw – It Doesn’t Work! DOJ Prosecuted 55,000 Illegal Firearm Cases

A couple of months ago, Eric Holder sent a memo to all DOJ employees titled "Accomplishments Under the Leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder."

Most of this memo was not interesting and had to do with Attorney General Eric Holder's Department of Justice wrongly making claims of racism against states, banks, etc.

This section of this memo did catch my eye though:

The Department has successfully prosecuted thousands of violent criminals for illegal gun possession. For the past four years, the Department’s investigations resulted in the prosecution of more than 55,000 defendants – many of whom were involved with criminal groups or gangs - for violations of firearms laws. Of those defendants:
• 63 percent were previously convicted felons and 84 percent had been previously arrested • 28,037 were convicted for firearms-related offenses, 11,861 were referred for prosecution for violations related to the trafficking of firearms,, and 5,612 of those defendants have been convicted to date • 15,388 were involved with criminal groups or gangs and 7,250 have been convicted to date  


What does this statistic in Eric Holder's memo mean? It means that gun control does not work. Criminals will still get guns. Criminals do not care if you make guns illegal, they will still get them. In just the last 4 years, the DOJ has prosecuted over 55,000 people for firearms violations, and the super majority of those prosecutions were against felons or people who have been arrested before. 55,000 is a huge number and that is just the number of people who were CAUGHT.

I am not advocating for allowing criminals to have guns. What I am saying is that the current gun control measures do not work on criminals and any expansion of gun control that prevents law abiding citizens from getting guns will only create a situation where the good guys do not have guns but the bad guys do. Criminals will still get guns as proven by 55,000 criminals getting prosecuted in the last 4 years for having a gun even though it was ALREADY illegal for them to have one.

Gun restrictions will lead to law abiding citizens not being able to have a gun to protect themselves from the violent criminals who WILL have a gun regardless of whether or not it is illegal for them to have the gun.

So thank you Eric Holder. Your memo bragging about what you have done as AG has just turned around and bitten you in the rear by showing that criminals will get guns even when gun control measures are in place. The best solution to the gun problem is not to restrict 2nd Amendment Rights by barring law abiding citizens from getting guns, but to continue to prosecute the bad guys who use the guns to commit crimes.

Congressman Stockman Gets Death Threats for Opposing Obama Gun Control, Suggesting Impeachment

Texas Conservative Republican News Exclusive, by David Bellow

Texas District 36 U.S. Congressman Steve Stockman has received numerous death threats made against him and his children from leftist gun control advocates. These threats have been forwarded to the Capitol Police.

These threats against Congressman Stockman have come in response to Stockman's strong stance for the 2nd Amendment and against unconstitutional gun control executive orders from Obama. Stockman made national news last week when he declared that he would try to block funding of any Obama unconstitutional gun control executive orders, and that they would be grounds for Congressman Stockman to file impeachment papers against President Obama.

The thousands of responses that Stockman has received have been overwhelmingly positive, but some of them have been negative, even to the point of threatening violence. Funny how these liberals cry for peace with violence. They call for strict gun control laws to curb violence but then they turn around and threaten to kill a congressman and his family, probably with a gun.

But hey, you will probably not see this on the national news because the left leaning media bias wants you to think that guns are the problem and not the person pulling the trigger. And the media would surely not want you to know that liberals calling for more gun control are also calling for violence and sending death threats to a congressman.

Here is an example of the Death Threats sent to Congressman Steve Stockman:

"Your kid probably needs to get gun down"


Congressman Stockman has posted this on his Facebook Page in response to the Threats:

Steve Stockman for Congress shared a link.

5 hours ago

Thank you all so much. Please share this.

I really wish I could personally respond to every one of you, but I have received literally THOUSANDS of messages, emails and phone calls. They are running 25 to 1 in favor of my efforts to block, defund and overturn Obama's Executive Orders, and seek impeachment if that's what is necessary.

Obama is angry at me. Obama's anti-gun extremists are targeting me for defeat and trying to bully people into opposing me.

His supporters are leaving vulgar and sexually explicit emails and phone calls, and even threatening to shoot me, shoot my staff and blow up the Capitol -- in the name of gun control.

I won't back down. I am trying to build a national grassroots movement to stop Obama. Could you please go to https://rally.org/congressmanstevestockman/donate and chip in $10 or more to help me stop Obama's gun grab?

Also, be sure to include me, and our country, on your prayer lists.

-- Steve

In other news:

Anti-gun Democrat lawmaker arrested for threatening to shoot, kill Nevada Speaker

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/jan/20/assemblyman-jail-accused-threatening-fellow-lawmak/

Anti-gun Va. Democrat lawmaker who brandished AK-47 in legislature was disbarred after brutal 1999 assault http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/20/va-lawmaker-who-brandished-ak-47-during-legislative-session-was-disbarred-following-assault-death-threat/

Texas A.G. Abbott: I’ll Go to Court to Block Any Gun Ban - Mexico Gun Ban Increases Crime

One of the best statements from Abbot regarding this issue was, "Guns are banned in Juarez, guns are legal in El Paso,” he said. “But El Paso is far safer than Juarez.”

He is right. Those two cities are right beside each other but on the Mexico side guns are not legal and so all the bad guys can kill and victimize all they want because they have guns but law abiding citizens do not have guns to protect themselves.

Even Mexicans are crying out for the Mexican government to allow law abiding citizens the ability to have a gun to protect themselves.

from the Dallas Morning News:

Brothers in tiny Mexican town push for changes to nation’s strict gun-control laws

The LeBaron brothers, Alex and Max, walked outside their sprawling ranch surrounded by chile fields and pointed to the spot where they traded fire with gunmen who pinned them down for what seemed like hours until both sides reached a truce.

“Had we not been able to defend ourselves that afternoon with our own weapons, I don’t know that we’d be standing here today,” said Alex LeBaron, a state legislator who is leading a campaign to allow residents to arm themselves.

“Without our guns, we stood no chance,” added Max. “We would have been like sitting ducks at target practice.”

Mexico has some of the strictest gun-control laws in the world, but an overwhelming arsenal of illegal guns is readily available to drug cartels battling federal forces and rival criminal groups. The drug war has left more than 60,000 people dead and 25,000 missing since then-President Felipe Calderón sent federal troops to reclaim territories from drug traffickers shortly after taking office in 2006. Few communities have been harder hit than this region, home to chile, apple and pecan growers and cheese makers — and a smuggling route, coveted by traffickers, that leads into the United States through Texas.

“We don’t have a problem with jackrabbits,” Max said. “We have a problem with sicarios — hitmen. People show up here in fake police, soldier uniforms. You shoot first and then ask questions.”

“The right to bear arms is the best thing Americans have going for them,” said cousin Brent LeBaron Jr. “And here in Mexico, we have high hopes that we too can someday defend ourselves from traffickers armed to the teeth.”


Statements from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott from 1200 WOAI News:

Congress may be ramping up to consider gun restrictions in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting, but Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott says the proposals being discussed now are unconstitutional, and he says he will ask the courts to throw them out if they are approved, 1200 WOAI news reports.

“I’ve been to the Supreme Court twice,” Abbott said in an interview with 1200 WOAI’s Joe Pags. “I can tell you that these laws that try to restrict our gun rights violate the Second Amendment guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms. The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken on this issue twice.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) has already indicated that she will try to ban the ownership of so-called ‘assault weapons.’ U.S. Rep Carolyn McCarthy (D-New York) is proposing bill to ban high capacity magazines. President Obama has indicated that he plans to fast track a gun restriction, even though the White House hasn’t said what proposal it will support.

Abbott says whatever is passed will be a waste of taxpayers time and money, because it won’t pass Constitutional challenges, and he says gun restrictions are ‘illogical,’ pointing to the twin cities of El Paso Texas and Juarez Mexico.

“Guns are banned in Juarez, guns are legal in El Paso,” he said. “But El Paso is far safer than Juarez.”
He says there has not been any effort ever to restrict gun ownership in the United States which has resulted in a reduction in street violence. In fact, he pointed to Chicago and New York City, both of which have among the country’s most restrictive local gun regulations, as examples.

“Two places that are two of the most dangerous cities in the United States are two places which have tried to place serious restrictions on guns, to no effect, to no consequence,” he said. “It is clear that gun restrictions are not successful.”

Abbott said the logic behind anti-gun measure escapes him.

“For something like the past eight or nine years, there have been more people killed by clubs and hammers than there have been by rifles,” he said.

Texas Speaker Straus REFUSES to Support Gun Rights Pledge

The following information is from an email I recieved from Bob Hall of the Canton Tea Party:

Incumbent Speaker Joe Straus has REFUSED to pledge his support for the right to keep and bear arms.

He has fought efforts to restore your God-given right to keep and bear arms every step of the way.

He even mocked efforts to restore law-abiding citizens' right to carry a firearm on a college campus saying:

"Guns on campus, guns somewhere else? Are we really fixing problems or do we just think we do?"

(Scharrer, Gary, "On-the-job training pays off for Straus as House speaker," Houston Chronicle, 6/7/2009.)

But all of this should be no surprise, since Joe Straus gained his position as Speaker with the support of anti-gunners in BOTH parties.

You see, his winning coalition in 2009 included only 11 House Republicans. 

The rest were anti-gun Democrats whom Strauss had cut a deal with -- immediately appointing gun-grabbing Democrats to 16 of 34 House chairmanships.

Then, right after the 2012 elections, profanity-laced emails out of Speaker Strauss' office were leaked showing his true colors -- even going so far as to call Tea Party activists "idiots" and other grassroots activists "motherf***ers."

In fact, one online news source stated the emails reveal Straus' ongoing malicious "War Against Conservatives." [Erickson, Erick, "Private Emails From Texas Speaker Joe Straus's Office Reveal War Against Conservatives", RedState, 11/4/2012.]

It's not often you and I get a chance to knock a real anti-gunner out of legislative leadership.

Right now, you and I have that chance!

Considering everything that's at stake, it's critical you act at once.

That's why it's vital you contact your State Representative IMMEDIATELY and urge your Representative to vote to oppose the nomination of Joe Straus for Speaker of the House.

You can reach your State Representative at 512-463-4630 or  click here to find out who represents you :[http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/find-your-representative/]

Tell your State Representative to take a stand.  Make sure they know they won't get off scot-free by voting to install Joe Straus as Speaker for another term.

But please act IMMEDIATELY.  Time is running out.

For Liberty,

Dudley Brown Executive Vice President

Houston Texas Man Kills Burglar with Concealed Handgun

All you gun control nuts out there; are you telling me that you would deny innocent people like this the right to defend themselves in their own home? Tell me, without a gun, what would have this old man have been able to do to protect himself and his property from this burglar? Should he have asked him nicely to leave and hope the burglar does not try to attack him like many burglars do to victims inside homes they are robbing. This man had a concealed handgun license. He never once has used his gun for the wrong reasons. He is a law abiding citizen who has a 2nd amendment constitutional right to have a gun to defend himself and that is exactly what he did.

Burglary suspect shot, killed by man who says he was defending his property

HARRIS COUNTY - From KHOU TV and www.khou.com - A burglary suspect died late Thursday morning after he was shot by a homeowner who said he was defending his property.

The shooting occurred in northwest Harris County on Place Rebecca Lane just off Kuykendahl Road, according to the sheriff’s office.

Harris County Sgt. Robert Spurgeon said it was around 2 a.m. when the homeowner, 51, heard glass breaking in his condo. He went to investigate and found a man entering through a window.

The homeowner told deputies he warned the suspect to leave, but the man allegedly continued to enter the condo. That’s when the homeowner opened fire, striking the suspect in the head. The suspect was sent to Ben Taub Hospital in critical condition.

Deputies noted that the homeowner was defending his property and even has a Concealed Handgun License, but as per protocol, the case would be sent to a grand jury.

The suspect’s identity was not released, but deputies said the man was 22 years old.

The condos where the shooting occurred is the same location as a fire on Wednesday morning. The fire destroyed several units and forced crews to cut power to part of the complex. The male homeowner who opened fire said he decided to stay in his unit overnight to protect his belongings during the power outage.

This story comes to us through KFDM TV's media partnership with KHOU-TV in Houston

List of Mass Killings Stopped by Armed Citizens - The Media Doesn't Want you to Know About

There are thousands of incidents per year where an armed citizen with a legal concealed weapon or a weapon at home has used the weapon to successfully prevent a crime or protect themselves or others. This includes incidents where mass murders have been stopped by an armed citizen. I really do believe that most mass shootings and mass murders, even the one at the Connecticut School and the Movie Theater in Colorado, would have been stopped before so many people died if someone was carrying a weapon to be able to take out the bad guy before the police got there....


from GunWatch:

http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2012/12/mass-killings-stopped-by-armed-citizens.html

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Mass Killings Stopped by Armed Citizens