“The Department of Justice’s conduct in the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious has been nothing short of shameful,” said Chairman Issa.  “From its initial denials that nothing improper occurred, to efforts to silence whistleblowers who wanted to tell Congress what really happened, to its continuing refusal to discuss or share documents related to this cover-up, the Justice Department has fought tooth and nail to hide the full truth about what occurred and what senior officials knew.  Attorney General Holder must explain or reverse course on decisions that appear to put the careers of political appointees ahead of the need for accountability and the Department’s integrity.”

Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley have led the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.  In December 2011, the Justice Department explicitly informed the Committee that it would not deliver subpoenaed documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious created after February 4, 2011.  In interviews with committee investigators, senior Justice Department officials who had management responsibilities for Operation Fast and Furious have also refused to answer questions about decisions and conversations that occurred after February 4, 2011.

The hearing will occur in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.  The start time has yet to be determined.

For more information about the committee’s investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, visit the website at www.FastandFuriousinvestigation.com.

“NRA has made the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act a priority because it enhances the fundamental right to self-defense guaranteed to all law-abiding people,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “People are not immune from crime when they cross state lines. That is why it is vital for them to be able to defend themselves and their loved ones should the need arise.”

H.R. 822, introduced in the U.S. House by Representatives Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), allows any person with a valid state-issued concealed firearm permit to carry a concealed firearm in any state that issues concealed firearm permits, or that does not prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms for lawful purposes.

This bill does not affect existing state laws. State laws governing where concealed firearms may be carried would apply within each state’s borders. H.R. 822 does not create a federal licensing system or impose federal standards on state permits; rather, it requires the states to recognize each others’ carry permits, just as they recognize drivers’ licenses and carry permits held by armored car guards.

As of today, 49 states have laws in place that permit their citizens to carry a concealed firearm in some form. Only Illinois and the District of Columbia deny its residents the right to carry concealed firearms outside their homes or businesses for self-defense.

“We are grateful for the support of Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Cantor, Majority Whip McCarthy, Judiciary Chairman Smith and primary sponsors Congressmen Stearns and Shuler for their steadfast support of H.R. 822. Thanks to the persistence of millions of American gun owners and NRA members, Congress has moved one step closer to improving crucial self-defense laws in this country,” concluded Cox.

Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen’s group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and to advocate enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation’s leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the military.

An advertisement for the Don’t Lie for the Other Guy program has been placed by NSSF on the giant 18 by 34-foot screen that is an icon of Times Square, dominating the corners of 7th and 8th Avenues at 42nd Street. The message reads: “Buy a gun for someone who can’t and buy yourself 10 years in jail. Whatever you do . . . Don’t Lie for the Other Guy . . . dontlie.org”

More than 365,000 pedestrians walk through the “Great White Way” on any given day, making this a coveted spot for any public-education message campaign.

“Don’t Lie” is a cooperative program between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and NSSF, the trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry. The effort was developed over a decade ago to raise public awareness about the seriousness of the crime of purchasing a firearm for someone who cannot legally do so. The program also helps ATF educate firearms dealers so they can be better prepared to detect and help deter potential straw purchases.

The campaign drives home the message that anyone attempting an illegal firearm purchase faces a stiff federal felony penalty of up to 10 years in jail or up to $250,000 in fines.

To legally purchase a firearm, a person must be able to pass an FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check and fully comply with state and local laws. When a criminal knows he cannot pass this check, he may try to induce a friend to make the purchase on his behalf, which is known as a straw purchase and is a felony.

“Our goal is to raise awareness among New Yorkers and tourists coming into the city that there are serious consequences for illegally straw purchasing a firearm,” said Stephen L. Sanetti, NSSF’s president and CEO. “This warning can help deter an illegal purchase long before a person steps into a licensed retail store, and we have run similar notices all across the nation.”

The huge pedestrian crowds that are drawn to the Times Square area’s theaters, shops and attractions will see the Don’t Lie message. Many travelers using the Port Authority bus terminal just half a block from the giant video screen also will see the warning.

This public awareness campaign in New York City constitutes only part of the Don’t Lie for the Other Guy outreach effort. The full Don’t Lie for the Other Guy program, which also involves educating firearms retailers to better detect and prevent straw purchases, has been rolled out in major cities throughout the country and along the U.S.-Mexican border. This is a campaign that ATF has called “vital” and “an important tool for ATF as it pursues its mission of preventing terrorism, reducing violent crime, and protecting the nation.” In the retailer segment, federal firearms licensees are provided a Don’t Lie for the Other Guy retailer kit. Each kit contains a training video and informational brochure for storeowners and staff, as well as point-of-purchase displays aimed to deter illegal straw purchases.

The promotion of the Don’t Lie for the Other Guy message in Times Sqaure is being funded by the firearms industry.

“The firearms industry is proud of its longstanding cooperative relationship with the ATF and the entire law enforcement community by assisting them in their efforts to combat the criminal acquisition and misuse of firearms,” said NSSF Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF’s senior vice president and general counsel. “We are happy to make the complete Don’t Lie for the Other Guy program available to New York City and the surrounding area.”

Learn more about Don’t Lie for the Other Guy at www.dontlie.org.

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About NSSF
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 6,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.

NSSF is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2011. Learn about the Foundation’s history at www.nssf.org/50.

Read more here….

“Crimes were committed in the name of advancing an anti-gun agenda. The longer these crimes go unanswered… the longer Attorney General Eric Holder stonewalls Congress… the greater the threat to our freedom. Holder’s actions prove he can’t be trusted with the sanctity of our freedoms, the powers of his office, or the lives of our law enforcement officers”, says Chris W. Cox, Executive Director of NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA).

Watch video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvwkmM1vXpg

In case any reader of the NRA-ILA weekly Grassroots Alert has not decided how to vote in the 2012 presidential election, retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and First Lady Michelle Obama have volunteered to help him make up his mind.

Recently, Time magazine asked Stevens what he would fix about the American judicial system. Stevens’ response:  “I would make all my dissents into majority opinions.”  Fair enough, since he’s entitled to think he is right, even when a majority of his former colleagues and a larger majority of the American citizenry disagree.

But then Time asked Stevens to single out one issue in particular, and he said, “I would change the interpretation of the Second Amendment.” Referring to the Court’s decisions in the Heller and McDonald cases that the Second Amendment protects individuals from federal, state and local infringements on their right to possess and carry arms, he added “The court got that quite wrong.”

In his dissent in Heller, Stevens claimed that “there is no indication that the Framers of the [Second] Amendment intended to enshrine the common-law right of self-defense in the Constitution.” And in his dissent in McDonald, he claimed that even if one assumed the Fourteenth Amendment protects a general right to self-defense, that didn’t mean that a person has a right to have a handgun. As if to suggest some logic to his theory, Stevens said “while some might favor handguns, it is not clear that they are a superior weapon for lawful self-defense.”

We have earlier noted the comment of another of the four justices who dissented from the majority’s Heller and McDonald opinions, Stephen Breyer, to the effect that District of Columbia residents who don’t like the city’s onerous gun laws should go to Maryland. And Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, another of the Heller and McDonald dissenters, has publicly indicated her hope that a “future, wiser court” will reconsider the Heller decision.

Of course, Justice Stevens and another of the four dissenting justices in Heller, Justice David Souter, have since retired and been replaced by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who dissented from the majority’s decision in McDonald, and Justice Elena Kagan, who joined the Court in August 2010 and who had a clear anti-gun record during her service in the Clinton White house.

Sotomayor and Kagan were nominated to the Court by President Barack Obama, of course. And not long ago, during a pre-2012 campaign event, First Lady Michelle Obama asked some of the president’s most ardent supporters to remember the Court’s two newest justices when they go into the voting booth next year. In the upcoming election, she said, “we’re going to make a choice that will impact our lives for decades to come . . . let’s not forget what it meant when my husband appointed those two brilliant Supreme Court justices . . . let’s not forget the impact that their decisions will have on our lives for decades to come.”

Obama supporters will not forget, and neither should supporters of the Second Amendment. The Second Amendment’s margin of safety on the Court remains intact by merely one vote. Given the likelihood of at least one retirement from the Court during the next presidential term, the future of the amendment could easily hinge on Election Day 2012.

About NRA-ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is committed to preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  For more information, visit http://www.nraila.org.

Elijah Cummings (D-MD) discusses Fast and Furious with Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation" October 16, 2011(Photo by Chris Usher/CBS News via Getty Images)

If we are to believe Attorney General Eric Holder, he knew nothing about “Project Gunwalker” while it was being implemented, and did not first hear of it until a few weeks before Darrell Issa asked him about it…

Read more here….

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Credits: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“OK, David, so you just finished a joint and you’re on your way to the range, right?” Trigger Sports Live! host James Towle asked at the beginning of our segment last Wednesday. The point of our discussion was a recent “Open Letter to All Federal Firearms Licensees” advising licensed gun dealers that it is illegal for medical marijuana users to purchase a firearm, regardless of what state law says.

Read more here….

Unfortunately, not only do we have to continuously battle the ignorance and misrepresentation by our anti-gun opponents, but also by some so-called “pro-gun” organizations.

This bill is GOOD for gun owners.

This bill ENHANCES Americans’ right to self-defense by enabling millions of permit holders to exercise their right to self-defense while traveling outside their home states.

There is currently only one remaining state (Illinois) that has no clear legal way for individuals to carry concealed firearms for self-defense. H.R. 822 would require states to recognize each others’ lawfully issued carry permits, just as they recognize driver’s licenses and carry permits held by armored car guards.

This bill DOES NOT:

· Create a federal licensing or registration system;

· Establish a minimum federal standard for the carry permit;

· Involve the federal bureaucracy in setting standards for carry permit;

· Destroy permitless carry systems such as those in Arizona, Alaska, Vermont and Wyoming.

H.R. 822 is a good bill for gun owners. Don’t listen to false claims. Read the bill yourself and read our fact sheet to get the facts. Then, please contact your member of Congress and urge him or her to support the earliest possible consideration of H.R. 822 this year.

You can find contact information for your U.S. Representative by using the “Write Your Representatives” tool at www.NRAILA.org. You may also contact your Representative by phone at (202) 225-3121.

Please watch for future Alerts on H.R. 822’s status and what you can do to help ensure it passes out of the Judiciary Committee.

David Codrea

Exclusive report by Gun Rights Examiner“The ATF, the agency that’s supposed to stop gun smuggling, turned a blind eye for years, as hundreds of guns ‘walked’ across the Mexican border,” Attkisson of CBS News reported Wednesday. The subject of the report was licensed firearms dealer Mike Detty, who volunteered to become a confidential informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after he suspected straw purchases were being made by suspicious customers to arm drug cartels.

Read more here….