Chad’s Morning Brief for 2.21.13
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of February 21, 2013. Give Chad your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am.
1. Open Letter to Obama (link)
Now here is something you will want to pass around to your friends, even the liberal ones, today. Evan Todd was a survivor of the school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. He recently wrote an open-letter to President Obama rejecting the President's views on gun control. According to The Blaze:
The letter, which speaks directly to the president, covers a number of key facets in the gun control debate. On universal background checks, Todd expresses his fears that “universal registration can easily be used for universal confiscation.” Additionally, he says his belief that assault weapons bans are ineffective and argues that the first law did little to stop violence when it was in effect from 1994 until 2004; he cites Columbine as a prime example.
“It was during this time that I personally witnessed two fellow students murder twelve of my classmates and one teacher,” he writes. “The assault weapons ban did not deter these two murderers, nor did the other thirty-something laws that they broke.”
Below is the full letter courtesy of The Blaze:
Mr. President,
As a student who was shot and wounded during the Columbine massacre, I have a few thoughts on the current gun debate. In regards to your gun control initiatives:
Universal Background Checks
First, a universal background check will have many devastating effects. It will arguably have the opposite impact of what you propose. If adopted, criminals will know that they can not pass a background check legally, so they will resort to other avenues. With the conditions being set by this initiative, it will create a large black market for weapons and will support more criminal activity and funnel additional money into the hands of thugs, criminals, and people who will do harm to American citizens.
Second, universal background checks will create a huge bureaucracy that will cost an enormous amount of tax payers dollars and will straddle us with more debt. We cannot afford it now, let alone create another function of government that will have a huge monthly bill attached to it.
Third, is a universal background check system possible without universal gun registration? If so, please define it for us. Universal registration can easily be used for universal confiscation. I am not at all implying that you, sir, would try such a measure, but we do need to think about our actions through the lens of time.
It is not impossible to think that a tyrant, to the likes of Mao, Castro, Che, Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and others, could possibly rise to power in America. It could be five, ten, twenty, or one hundred years from now — but future generations have the natural right to protect themselves from tyrannical government just as much as we currently do. It is safe to assume that this liberty that our forefathers secured has been a thorn in the side of would-be tyrants ever since the Second Amendment was adopted.
Ban on Military-Style Assault Weapons
The evidence is very clear pertaining to the inadequacies of the assault weapons ban. It had little to no effect when it was in place from 1994 until 2004. It was during this time that I personally witnessed two fellow students murder twelve of my classmates and one teacher. The assault weapons ban did not deter these two murderers, nor did the other thirty-something laws that they broke.
Gun ownership is at an all time high. And although tragedies like Columbine and Newtown are exploited by ideologues and special-interest lobbying groups, crime is at an all time low. The people have spoken. Gun store shelves have been emptied. Gun shows are breaking attendance records. Gun manufacturers are sold out and back ordered. Shortages on ammo and firearms are countrywide. The American people have spoken and are telling you that our Second Amendment shall not be infringed.
10-Round Limit for Magazines
Virginia Tech was the site of the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. Seung-Hui Cho used two of the smallest caliber hand guns manufactured and a handful of ten round magazines. There are no substantial facts that prove that limited magazines would make any difference at all.
Second, this is just another law that endangers law-abiding citizens. I’ve heard you ask, “why does someone need 30 bullets to kill a deer?”Let me ask you this: Why would you prefer criminals to have the ability to out-gun law-abiding citizens? Under this policy, criminals will still have their 30-round magazines, but the average American will not. Whose side are you on?
Lastly, when did they government get into the business of regulating “needs?” This is yet another example of government overreaching and straying from its intended purpose.
Selling to Criminals
Mr. President, these are your words: “And finally, Congress needs to help, rather than hinder, law enforcement as it does its job. We should get tougher on people who buy guns with the express purpose of turning around and selling them to criminals. And we should severely punish anybody who helps them do this.”
Why don’t we start with Eric Holder and thoroughly investigate the Fast and Furious program?
Furthermore, the vast majority of these mass murderers bought their weapons legally and jumped through all the hoops — because they were determined to murder. Adding more hoops and red tape will not stop these types of people. It doesn’t now — so what makes you think it will in the future? Criminals who cannot buy guns legally just resort to the black market.
Criminals and murderers will always find a way.
Critical Examination
Mr. President, in theory, your initiatives and proposals sound warm and fuzzy — but in reality they are far from what we need. Your initiatives seem to punish law-abiding American citizens and enable the murderers, thugs, and other lowlifes who wish to do harm to others.
Let me be clear: These ideas are the worst possible initiatives if you seriously care about saving lives and also upholding your oath of office. There is no dictate, law, or regulation that will stop bad things from happening — and you know that. Yet you continue to push the rhetoric. Why?
You said, “If we can save just one person it is worth it.” Well here are a few ideas that will save more that one individual:
First, forget all of your current initiatives and 23 purposed executive orders. They will do nothing more than impede law-abiding citizens and breach the intent of the Constitution. Each initiative steals freedom, grants more power to an already-overreaching government, and empowers and enables criminals to run amok.
Second, press Congress to repeal the “Gun Free Zone Act.” Don’t allow America’s teachers and students to be endangered one-day more. These parents and teachers have the natural right to defend themselves and not be looked at as criminals. There is no reason teachers must disarm themselves to perform their jobs. There is also no reason a parent or volunteer should be disarmed when they cross the school line.
This is your chance to correct history and restore liberty. This simple act of restoring freedom will deter would-be murderers and for those who try, they will be met with resistance.
Mr. President, do the right thing, restore freedom, and save lives. Show the American people that you stand with them and not with thugs and criminals.
Respectfully,
Severely Concerned Citizen, Evan M. Todd
2. Hillary Leads in Texas? (link)
Would Hillary Clinton win Texas and other Republican states in 2016? According to a new poll out, the answer is yes.
Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling has found former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leading top GOP 2016 contenders in red states from Alaska to Texas, from Kentucky to Louisiana. You can now add Georgia to that list.
Clinton, with high name recognition and coming off four years in an unelected post, leads Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 49 percent to 46 percent, in the Peach State, according to a poll released Wednesday. She leads Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan 50 percent to 45 percent. And Newt Gingrich trails the wife of the president he once harangued, 51 percent to 44 percent.
Forty-nine percent of Georgians have a favorable opinion of Clinton, and 44 percent have an unfavorable view.
According to PPP surveys from the past few months, Clinton holds narrow leads in several red states. She tops Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Christie and Gov. Rick Perry in Texas. She leads Rubio in Alaska while barely trailing Christie. She bests Sen. Rand Paul and Rubio in Kentucky.
Sorry, not buying it. This is mainly a name recognition poll. We are so far away from 2016 there is no way you can take this poll seriously. I will play along though. If Hillary is doing that well in GOP states and especially here in Texas, she would be a fool not to run.
3. Perry Goes After Magpul (link)
I was wondering if Governor Rick Perry would try and go after that gun magazine manufacturer in Colorado. In fact, I even sent out a tweet about it. Magpul Industries threatened to leave CO if state lawmakers passed a bill banning high capacity magazines. Well, lawmakers did and Governor Perry wants Magpul to know Texas is open.
In a letter to Magpul founder and CEO Richard Fitzpatrick, Perry touts Texas’s business climate, citing such things as “low taxes, a fair legal system, reasonable regulations, a well-trained and skilled workforce and unmatched transportation and communications infrastructures.”
“There is no other state that fits the definition of business-friendly like Texas,” Perry wrote.
Perry mentioned gun rights only briefly, in a business context.
“While I support the efforts of law enforcement to identify, apprehend, prosecute and punish criminals who use firearms in the commission of their crimes,” he wrote, “I do not believe that imposing additional requirements or restrictions on businesses is the correct approach.”
The letter was dated Feb. 7, days before debate began on the high-capacity magazine ban, indicating that Magpul had anticipated little resistance to it in Colorado’s Democratic-controlled legislature and may have been putting out feelers. If so, Texas would have gotten a jump on other states that only started wooing the company after its threat to leave Colorado became public.
Magpul, which employs 200 people and supports another 400 jobs in its supply chain, estimated that it would add $85 million to the Colorado economy in 2013.
Controversy over Gun Control legislation could turn into a blessing for the company, as states position themselves to compete for its business. Wyoming and Utah are also courting the company, as is South Carolina, where Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan has made a big push to lure arms manufacturers.
But so far Texas is the only state where the governor is known to have made a personal appeal.
In his letter, Perry noted a slate of financial incentives Texas offers companies, including cash grants, sales tax exemptions and refunds, employee training programs and low-interest loans.
Good job Governor.
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