NSSF: Aiming for Accuracy

Stay Informed with Legislative Alerts

Looking for timely updates on legislation affecting hunters, shooters and the shooting, hunting and firearms industry? 

Through its Legislative Action Alert system, the National Shooting Sports Foundation provides subscribers in all 50 states with e-mail alerts on legislative threats affecting hunters, shooters and businesses on the federal, state and local levels. The alerts are also available via RSS feed.

These alerts not only provide subscribers with timely information on new legislation being introduced, but they also provide links to the facts on issues commonly conveyed inaccurately by the news media.  

To subscribe to NSSF action alerts, simply click here or visit www.nssf.org.

Origins of the Second Amendment

Need a holiday gift for your favorite Second Amendment advocate? "The Founder's Second Amendment: Origins of the Right to Bear Arms" is a readable account of how the Founding Fathers arrived at the right to bear arms as a freedom as fundamental as that of free speech and freedom of religion. Even before the book was published last summer, author Dr. Stephen Halbrook's research played an important role in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in the District of Columbia v Heller case reaffirming the Second Amendment rights of all Americans. (The research also formed the basis for NSSF's supporting brief to the court.) The reason for the plug at this time is a promotion that marks December 15 as America's Bill of Rights Day, the anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution. Check out the book at Amazon.

 

Washington Post Readers Misinformed

Over the course of the last month, NSSF has received hundreds of calls from media wanting comment on everything from increasing gun sales to bullet serialization; however, one media call NSSF did not receive was from the Washington Post regarding a story on an anti-gun "study" by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) coalition. Not surprisingly, the Post piece was chock-full of errors. To set the record straight, we hope the Post runs the Letter to Editor we submitted. Just in case they don't, here's a sneak peek:

To the Editor:

States with more moderate gun laws reflect the will of the people and the considered judgment of their elected officials concerning lawful firearms sales, ownership and use (“Report Links State Gun Laws to Rates of Slayings, Trafficking,” December 5, 2008).

It’s unfortunate, albeit not surprising, that big-city mayors, who only see firearms in their most negative context, are attempting to impose their will upon rural states where lawful gun-ownership is a way of life. More troubling is the misinformation these mayors are spreading in their attempt to control their cities’ crime by curtailing firearms ownership across the nation.

Your readers should know the following:

• Each state is its own top source state for recovered firearms.

• According to the ATF, firearms traces are in no way an indicator of criminal wrong-doing by any licensed firearms dealer or retail purchaser. Under the logic of these mayors, tracing a car brought into a city and later used by a drunk-driver would implicate the rural dealer who lawfully sold the car years ago.

• The Fraternal Order of Police and ATF support the Tiahrt Amendment because, contrary to the claims of some, gun trace data is available to all law enforcement, but public release of such sensitive data endangers the lives of undercover officers, witnesses and others.

• Federal law requires all licensed firearms retailers to run FBI background checks on every gun sold (including sales at gun shows).

If Americans want to continue to see reductions in violent crime, our federal, state and local governments need to spend more time on programs like “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation's anti-straw purchasing campaign developed and run with the ATF, and less time on policies that will at best distract attention and resources (i.e., tax dollars) from real solutions and, at worst, compromise investigations and risk the lives of law enforcement.

This issue is an outgrowth of an ongoing cultural divide in America, and attempts to change rural culture to fit big-city government ideas is needlessly divisive and just plain wrong.

Boston Globe Readers Misled About Guns

An anti-gun opinion piece from John Rosenthal, co-founder of such prohibitionist groups as Stop Handgun Violence and American Hunters and Shooters Association, isn’t surprising, but we wish the Boston Globe’s op-ed editors had caught at least some of the inaccuracies in “A Chance for Sensible Gun Laws” before it reached print. Here is NSSF’s response to this misleading column:

To The Editor:
 
“Sensible” dialog on any topic begins with a factually accurate statement of the situation. In this, John Rosenthal (“A Chance for Sensible Gun Laws, Nov. 27) falls short, to the point of misleading your readers on the emotional topic of gun control.
 
He states that there is an “unrestricted access to guns,” ignoring the over 20,000 federal, state and local gun control laws on the books. Indeed, firearms are the only consumer product which, nationwide, require either an FBI or state police clearance after an electronic criminal records background check before anyone can buy a firearm at retail.
 
And his statement that “Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont do not require background checks” is just plain wrong. Federal Law has required background checks for all retail sales in every state for 15 years.
 
He claims that “gun violence has risen steadily,” yet he cites a 22- percent decrease in gun-related homicides in Boston. During the last 15 years, homicides involving firearms have decreased by 32 percent, and assaults with firearms decreased by 33 percent—despite increases in firearms ownership.
 
America is not “the gun violence capital of the world,” as Rosenthal states, and law enforcement has full access to firearms trace data as a part of law enforcement investigations; again, not what he avers.
 
Honest citizens certainly can and do disagree about the need for, and the effectiveness of, even more gun laws than we already have. But we all have a responsibility to study this complex issue in light of facts, not fears.

Mr. Rosenthal has been misleading Greater Boston residents for a long time about firearms, mainly through the use of a billboard spouting anti-gun messages that sits prominently on the Massachusetts Turnpike just outside of Boston.