The Knox Update

From the Firearms Coalition

Mid-Term Elections – Victory & Challenge

By Jeff Knox

(Manassas, VA, November 9, 2010) The mid-term elections were a big win for gun rights and therefore a big win for liberty and the Republic.  Gun rights represent liberty in its most personal form and individual liberty is what made this nation great.  Therefore, what’s good for gun rights is good for the nation.  To each of the millions of Tea Party Patriots and Constitutional Conservatives who helped beat back the anti-constitutional agenda this year, GunVoters say, “Welcome to the party pal.” We’ve been fighting this war for decades.

As the nation moves forward from the November 2 rejection of the Obama, Reid, Pelosi socialist/globalist vision, gun rights will continue to play an important role – directly or indirectly – and this is an excellent opportunity for supporters of individual rights to press our advantage.  The Second Amendment and “gun control” was a back burner issue in the recent elections, but the gun issue was and remains significant.  The right of the People to keep and bear arms disturbs the ruling class like no other, making support for the Second Amendment the “miner’s canary” of the Constitution.  It’s been that way for over a century and that role has not changed.

In the coming months there will be debate, argument, and votes in Congress about taxes, spending, health care, corporate regulation, ear-marks, and all manner of other complex and confusing issues.  The politicians will do their best to convolute those issues beyond comprehension.  At the same time, there will be some proposals for minor shifts in the way the federal government deals with firearms and firearms owners.  Amid all of the confusion, GunVoters will remain clear because we have our own established and trusted information sources and, since we know that politicians who work to circumvent the Second Amendment can pretty reliable be counted on to work against other provisions of the Constitution, we are clear about just who the enemy is and we will continue to lead the fight for liberty and the Constitution. Continue reading Election Analysis →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

First Doesn’t Apply to Second in Phoenix

By Chris & Jeff Knox

(Phoenix, AZ, November 01, 2010) The City of Phoenix, Arizona apparently doesn’t think the First Amendment protections of free speech do not apply to speech related to the Second Amendment.  The City recently tore down a number paid advertisements which encouraged firearms safety training.  The move came after the signs, sponsored by a coalition of firearms trainers and other responsible gun owners, had been up in area bus shelters for a little more than a week.  The outrageous order to tear down the signs was attributed to a Assistant City Attorney Ted Mariscal who claimed that the messages on the signs did not meet the city’s criteria for public service announcements – even though the messages were commercial advertising, not public service announcements.

Our friend Alan Korwin, the force behind GunLaws.com and the Gun Owner’s Guide book series, is also a key player in a new project called TrainMeAZ.com.  The project is a coalition of members of the Arizona firearms training industry, rights activists, and concerned citizens.  The focus of TrainMeAZ.com is to honor the state’s firearms heritage by encouraging gun owners, prospective gun owners, and other interested persons to get proper training in the use of arms, to make sure that the kids they contact – and who might come into contact with guns – also receive appropriate training, and to provide an easy means of finding quality training services. Continue reading Phoenix Pulls Training Ads →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

Hope for Goldilocks Election

Not too much.  Not too little.  Just Right.

By Jeff Knox

(Manhattan Kansas, October 18, 2010) While there is still some jockeying in the polls over a few seats in the coming congressional elections, the broad outcome keeps coming back to expectations of a closely divided Congress with Democrats maintaining a slim majority in the Senate and Republicans taking a slight majority in the House.  While such a result will be a disappointment to Republican activists seeking control of both houses, a limited victory and a gridlocked Congress is probably much better strategically for conservatives in the long run than tenuous control of the House and Senate.  I contend that the likelihood of extensive conservative gains in 2012 will actually be diminished if Republicans gain control of both houses this year.

Before Erik Erickson at RedState.com blows a gasket let me explain my reasoning.  If Republicans take control of both houses this year they will be expected to “do something,” but the political reality is that, while Barack Obama wields the veto pen and RINOs remain in office,  little can be accomplished beyond blocking more damage to the Constitution.  That will be reported as “Gridlock” and Republicans will be blamed for it whether they control both houses or not.  If they do win a slim majority in both houses they will not have enough votes to get any more done, just a little more control of the process such as naming committee chairs and controlling floor agendas.  Most importantly, control of both houses would also mean blame and recriminations from their own base for failing to accomplish anything a serious value.  When you throw in a handful of RINO’s to effectively negate the slim majority on anything important the Republicans get double the blame. Continue reading Election Hopes →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

ATF Shoots Own Foot – While in Mouth!

By Jeff Knox

(Manhatan, KS, 15 October 2010) New documents have come to light showing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was behind the recent State department decision to renege on an arms sale agreement with South Korea.  The Republic of Korea has some 800,000 military surplus M1 rifles and carbines which they would like to sell to US importers as part of a plan to upgrade their military arms.  The guns qualify as “Curios & Relics” under US law and are completely legal for importation and sale here, but since they were originally given to the ROK by the US government there is a requirement that the US Department of State approve of any plan to dispose of them.  The Obama State Department, headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had originally approved the ROK plan to sell the guns to US importers over a 10-year period, but they reversed that decision a short time later citing concerns that the firearms posed a threat to public safety.

What has been missing from this story until recently is the rationale for the “threat to public safety” statement.  The newly uncovered documents, which are posted at www.FirearmsCoalition.org, show that it was the ATF which raised objections to the deal.  In a report titled “Effect of Granting Retransfer Authority to the Republic of Korea for M1 Garand and M1 Carbine Rifles,” ATF spells out their concerns.  First they suggest that approving the deal would set a precedent and open the floodgates to millions of similar firearms in military warehouses around the world.  They also insert the idea that if the M1s are allowed in, that M1911 pistols would also be included in future import requests.  It is this potential deluge of US made, military collectables that ATF says “poses a threat to public safety in the US.” Continue reading Korean M1 Mess →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

Soft-Grading Politicians

By Jeff Knox

(Manassas, VA, October 11, 2010) In every election season the gun rights movement renews a running battle as various experts and activists argue over candidate grades and endorsements.  Since our movement is dominated by conservative Republicans, many of our people get upset when NRA or other groups give high grades or endorsements to liberal Democrats, regardless of voting records.  This year Republican activists outside the rights movement have been exerting a lot of pressure trying to force gun groups to endorse only Republicans.  There are some very compelling arguments for weighting grades based on party affiliation since most members of Congress try to be loyal to their party and will “bend” their principles when the party demands it.  The fact that all but one of the Democrat members of the Senate, including several avowedly pro-Second Amendment senators, voted to confirm Sonya Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court in spite of their demonstrated hostility toward the Second Amendment, demonstrates how party politics can outweigh a politicians personal “convictions.”  But it is hardly a winning strategy to abandon an incumbent politician who has worked for the cause and reliably voted as asked 90% of the time in favor of a newcomer who hews a more conservative line, but who is statistically unlikely to unseat the friendly incumbent.  Such is the conundrum of grading politicians. Continue reading Making the Grade →

Right Angles and Wrong Angles

By Jeff Knox

Attacks on Sharron Angle, constitutional conservative Republican candidate for US Senate in Nevada, have been eclipsed in the national media recently by attacks on Christine O’Donnell, constitutional conservative Republican candidate for US Senate in Delaware, but the attacks on Angle continue in Nevada – where they really count.

These attacks on Angle and O’Donnell – and indeed on all of the constitutional conservative candidates – follow a premeditated formula to discredit the candidates and shift attention to some personal trait, belief, or experience and away from any substantive debate.  The preferred method of attack is to find some statement or position and denounce it as “wacky” and “crazy.”  Infer that the candidate isn’t to be taken seriously because of their “extremist” position on some narrowly focused idea.  They raise their eyebrows and incredulously ask; “Can you imagine someone so radical trying to dupe you into voting for them?”  They leave the clear suggestion that anyone who believes the Second Amendment means what it says, or who thinks lower taxes can generate more tax revenue, or that the federal government should not do things which it is not authorized to do in the Constitution – good, important, helpful, ‘for the children’ things – should be dismissed as a “radical” and an “extremist,” a “nut-job,” and basically an idiot – out of touch with the mainstream (and reality) and clearly unfit to hold public office.

The Nevada campaign is a textbook example of what’s going on in all of these races and Sharron Angle has been expertly demonstrating how a candidate should react to such attacks in order to make the attacks effective.

Continue reading Lessons from Bill Clinton →