The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

You Must Vote!

By Jeff Knox

(September 16, 2008) Your vote absolutely matters and if you fail to vote, your rights and liberties could be in greater jeopardy.  Not voting is a vote for your least favored candidate, as is voting for someone who can not possibly win.  The time to send a message was during the primaries when there was still a chance of getting a solid, pro-gun candidate at the top of the ticket or of at least moving the eventual winner toward a more favorable pro-gun position.  In the general election for President, unless the two major party candidates are both simply abhorrent, it is best to cast your vote for the candidate who will best work with the congressional candidates you support.  This also raises the question of voting for congressional and state candidates.  Voters who choose to stay home or go hunting on Election Day because they don’t like Obama or McCain, are throwing away their votes for lower-ticket candidates as well.  Since lower-ticket candidates have smaller voting districts and fewer eligible voters, the lower on the ticket a candidate is, the greater impact your individual vote has on their race.  There are currently slim pro-gun majorities in both houses of congress, but that could easily change in the coming election if GunVoters don’t bother showing up or don’t take the time to do a little research before heading out to the polls.

When it comes to the president, the “lesser of two evils” is not always the less dangerous threat and, while voting for the “lesser of two evils” simply because he is “less evil” would be Continue reading You Must Vote! →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

GunVoter.org Needs You!

By Jeff Knox

(August 26, 2008) What if there was a single web site where you could go to learn about the gun rights position of every candidate in every race in every state and federal election in the US?  A site where you could find voting records, editorials, and discussion groups of knowledgeable, committed, gun rights activists?  A site where local grassroots organizations from all over the country come together to share information and ideas for legislative and electoral success?  That web site doesn’t exist, but it could exist.  It could be GunVoter.org.  We’re not there yet, but we’re working on it.  We have the structure in place.  The software is operating smoothly.  The technical bugs have been worked out and our user base is growing, but we need your help to turn GunVoter.org into the valuable resource that it has the potential to be.

This year everyone knows who’s running for President, but few people know who’s running for Senate and fewer still know who’s running to represent them in the House, much less who’s running for seats in the state legislature.
Continue reading GunVoter.org Needs You! →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

The Nine Principles of Policing

By Jeff Knox

            (August 12, 2008)  Sir Robert Peel, the architect of Nineteenth Century English police process (and from whom English “bobbies” get their name), established the following nine principles as a guide to reorganizing and refocusing the London Metropolitan Police: 

Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing:

1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.

2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.

3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.

4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.

5. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.

6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.

7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.  

8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.

9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

Take particular notice of principle number 7: Continue reading The Nine Principles of Policing →

GRPC ’08:

Electing Freedom

September 26-28

Phoenix, AZ

By Jeff Knox

            (August 5, 2008) Once a year for the past 22 years, the leaders of the gun rights movement have come together with some of the nation’s most involved activists to share information, ideas, and inspiration.  On September 26, 27, & 28 the movement comes together again for the 23^rd annual Gun Rights Policy Conference.  This year the theme is “Electing Freedom” and the event is being held in Phoenix, AZ.  I want to mention right off the bat that there is no charge to attend GRPC.  The Conference and all materials, including a substantial stack of firearms-related books, are absolutely free to all attendees.

            Unlike the NRA Convention or SHOT Show where tens of thousands of people gather, GRPC is typically only a few hundred activists and gun rights leaders.  Regulars include, Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens’ Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms; Joe Tartaro, Editor of Gun Week newspaper; Chuck Cunningham, Director of Federal Affairs for NRA; scholars, historians, and authors like John Lott, Steven Halbrook, Dave Hardy, Alan Korwin, and Dave Kopel.  I’m sure the lawyers from the Heller case, Alan Gura and Robert Levy will be in attendance as will current and former officers of NRA like Sandra Froman and perhaps John Sigler.  Wayne LaPierre usually makes a brief appearance too.

Continue reading GRPC ’08 →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

The Past Illuminates the Future

By Jeff Knox

(June 3, 2008) Now that all practical doubt has been removed as to who the Democrat and Republican candidates for President are going to be, let’s look forward to what the future might hold.  Is there doom and gloom on the horizon or is tomorrow a bright new day?

I haven’t found anyone in the firearms rights community who is looking forward to a brighter tomorrow.  All of the arguments I hear are about which candidate is more of a threat to gun rights.  While most believe Obama, with his far-left philosophy and horrible record on guns must be defeated at all costs, there is a vocal minority who are convinced that McCain, in spite of his solid pro-gun voting record, is more dangerous, citing his past betrayals and “maverick” deal making.  A third camp suggests that the only thing that will bring our country back from the brink is a disastrous Democrat presidency, pointing out that it was Jimmy Carter’s train wreck that swept Ronald Reagan into office and Democrats overreaching that led to the “Republican Revolution” in 1994.

Continue reading Future Sight? →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

You Can’t Do That

By Jeff Knox

            (May 13, 2008) Everyone knows that you can’t legally purchase a handgun from a dealer in another state, and most folks know that it is a crime to purchase a gun on behalf of someone else or to sell a gun to someone knowing that it is intended for someone else, but there are other deals that many people seem to be confused about.

Ask ten gunowners what the rules are regarding sales by private individuals to other private individuals and you are likely to get at least 12 different answers.  There are also questions about transporting weapons, and of course about carrying concealed or open, carrying in cars, and carrying guns in the woods.

Some of the questions can be easily answered while others can get complicated.  Here are a few items I have run across recently that are in need of illumination.  In all of these cases I am talking about regular folks and regular guns, not FFL holders or C&R items:

Continue reading You Can’t →

The Knox Report

From the Firearms Coalition

The Pen is Mightier…

 and More Dangerous

By Jeff Knox

(May 6, 2008) When Steven Barber turned in his midterm creative writing assignment at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise (UVA-Wise), he was hoping for a good grade to complement his 3.9 grade point average.  Instead, Barber was expelled from school, locked in a mental institution for three days, and had his concealed carry permit revoked. 

 Barber’s fictional story was a first person narrative of a troubled college student consumed by depression, paranoia, drug addiction, and alcoholism as he struggles with one of tragedy’s recurrent themes, “To be or not to be.”  The character progresses through fear, anger, and despair; sleeping with a gun under his pillow after the Virginia Tech massacre, contemplating the murder of an unpleasant professor, and finally deciding on suicide.  The entire story is just contemplation – no characters, real or fictional were harmed in the telling of the story – and Barber himself is nothing like the character he described.

Continue reading UVA-UnWise →