Governor’s Office
Governor Fallin today signed into law Senate Bill 1733, a measure that allows (licensed) Oklahoma citizens to openly carry firearms as of November 1st.
The bill permits those who are licensed, or already have been licensed, to carry a firearm under the Oklahoma Self Defense Act to openly carry a weapon or conceal it. It also allows property owners to openly carry a firearm on their property without a concealed carry permit for the purpose of self defense.
To receive a license under the Oklahoma Self Defense Act, applicants must take a firearms safety and training course and submit to a background check by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation. Those convicted of felonies and certain misdemeanors may not receive a handgun license.
With Governor Fallin’s signature on SB 1733, Oklahoma becomes the 25th state with either “permissive open carry” laws (no permit required) or “licensed open carry” (permit required). Oklahoma now joins Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Massachusetts as a “licensed open carry” state.
“As a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and a gun owner myself, I’m happy to sign this bill into law and grant law-abiding citizens the ability to openly carry firearms,” Fallin said. “Senate Bill 1733 sends a strong message that Oklahoma values the rights of its citizens to defend themselves, their family and their property. It does so in a responsible way, by requiring those citizens who choose to ‘open carry’ to undergo both firearms training and a background check.”
Businesses may continue to prohibit firearms to be carried on their premises. SB 1733 prohibits carrying firearms on properties owned or leased by the city, state or federal government, at corrections facilities, in schools or college campuses, liquor stores and at sports arenas during sporting events.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Anthony Sykes and Representative Jeff Hickman.
“I want to thank Senator Sykes and Representative Hickman, as well as the entire Legislature, for their commitment to protecting the Second Amendment rights of Oklahomans,” Fallin said.
World Net Daily
Police have arrested a 16-year-old in connection with a mob attack by large numbers of black teenagers against a young white couple in a car, a case which has sparked national outrage.
As WND reported in a story posted on the popular Drudge Report, the couple was pummeled April 14 by dozens of black teens, and the Virginian-Pilot newspaper did not report the incident for two weeks, despite the fact the victims, Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami, are both news reporters for the paper.
Michelle Washington
Editorial Writer/The Virginian-Pilot
Wave after wave of young men surged forward to take turns punching and kicking their victim.The victim’s friend, a young woman, tried to pull him back into his car. Attackers came after her, pulling her hair, punching her head and causing a bloody scratch to the surface of her eye. She called 911. A recording told her all lines were busy. She called again. Busy. On her third try, she got through and, hysterical, could scream only their location.
Church and Brambleton. Church and Brambleton. Church and Brambleton!
Make sure you read this: http://hamptonroads.com.nyud.net/2012/05/beating-church-and-brambleton
Brandon Dutcher
Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs
Several years back I attended a state-capitol press conference at which some conservative lawmakers were discussing their plan to get rid of the Oklahoma estate tax. Curiously, one reporter covering the event felt the need to express his opinion on the subject (you won’t be surprised to learn that he thought the tax was worth keeping).
I remember being startled that a reporter would do that, and remarking to some of the lawmakers afterwards, “How does it feel to look over at the other team’s huddle and see the referee in there with them?”
It’s worse than that, one legislator told me: It’s like we’re Nehemiah rebuilding the wall—trying to do our work with one hand while having to hold our sword with the other hand to fight off the enemy.
Liberal media bias is nothing new, of course. In its long march through the institutions the Left long ago captured the J-schools, and conservatives have simply had to learn to deal with it. We recognize clearly that media bias is a problem with the likes of CNN and MSNBC and The New York Times, for example. But many Oklahomans may not be aware of how big of a problem it is in our state-capitol press corps.
Interestingly, while most Oklahomans are on the center-right—
only 9 percent identify themselves as liberal—I would say the inverse obtains in the state capitol press corps. The press room leans heavily to the center-left, with a small minority of conservatives. As past OCPA speaker Rich Lowry has observed, “most journalists are part of a media establishment that has attitudes and values that seep into its coverage the way cigarette smoke at a bar gets into everything you wear; it doesn’t matter whether you smoke or not, you stink.”
Even though these left-leaning journalists are part of
America’s fastest-shrinking industry and are watching their colleagues drop like flies, too many of them continue to write for themselves and their sources rather than for their customers. Cato Institute scholar Andrew Coulson
marvels that some Oklahoma journalists not only distort facts but in some cases “continue to do so even after having been apprised of their error.”
“I never cease to be amazed by this kind of behavior from an industry that is clinging for its life,” Coulson says. “The purpose of journalism is to apprize customers of the facts. Demonstrating indifference to the facts cannot be good for business.”
Examples of media bias are so numerous that I could blog about it every week. What prompted today’s blog post is a recent column written by a reporter for one of the state’s most respected newspapers. This journalist was highly laudatory of Oklahoma’s higher education system, which he says is “filled with hardworking, focused professionals who take their jobs very seriously.” He added, “it’s time for the Oklahoma Legislature to listen to those who are teaching.”
Fair enough, he’s certainly entitled to his opinion (this was a column, not a news story). The problem is that this professional journalist didn’t think it was worth mentioning to his readers that he himself is numbered among “those who are teaching” in that very system—and that he receives financial compensation for doing so. Now, according to the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ)
Code of Ethics, journalists should:
- Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
- Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
- Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity.
- Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
Yet this conflict of interest was not worth disclosing? Seriously? And there you have it—reason number 762 that conservatives don’t trust the media.
To its credit, the SPJ says that journalists should “encourage the public to voice grievances against the news media.” I think it’s safe to say that’s not going to be a problem.
Ann Coulter
Via Tulsa Today
Liberals have leapt on the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida to push for the repeal of “stand your ground” laws and to demand tighter gun control. (MSNBC’S Karen Finney blamed “the same people who stymied gun regulation at every point.”) This would be like demanding more funding for the General Services Administration after seeing how its employees blew taxpayer money on a party weekend in Las Vegas. We don’t know the facts yet, but let’s assume the conclusion MSNBC is leaping to is accurate: George Zimmerman stalked a small black child and murdered him in cold blood, just because he was black.
If that were true, every black person in America should get a gun and join the National Rifle Association, America’s oldest and most august civil rights organization.
Apparently this has occurred to no one because our excellent public education system ensures that no American under the age of 60 has the slightest notion of this country’s history.
Gun control laws were originally promulgated by Democrats to keep guns out of the hands of blacks. This allowed the Democratic policy of slavery to proceed with fewer bumps and, after the Civil War, allowed the Democratic Ku Klux Klan to menace and murder black Americans with little resistance. (Contrary to what illiterates believe, the KKK was an outgrowth of the Democratic Party, with overlapping membership rolls. The Klan was to the Democrats what the American Civil Liberties Union is today: Not every Democrat is an ACLU’er, but every ACLU’er is a Democrat. Same with the Klan.)
In 1640, the very first gun control law ever enacted on these shores was passed in Virginia. It provided that blacks — even freemen — could not own guns.
Chief Justice Roger Taney’s infamous opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford circularly argued that blacks could not be citizens because if they were citizens, they would have the right to own guns: “[I]t would give them the full liberty,” he said, “to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”
With logic like that, Republicans eventually had to fight a Civil War to get the Democrats to give up slavery. Alas, they were Democrats, so they cheated.
After the war, Democratic legislatures enacted “Black Codes,” denying black Americans the rights of citizenship — such as the rather crucial one of bearing arms — while other Democrats (sometimes the same Democrats) founded the Ku Klux Klan.
For more than a hundred years, Republicans have aggressively supported arming blacks, so they could defend themselves against Democrats. The original draft of the Anti-Klan Act of 1871 — passed at the urging of Republican president Ulysses S. Grant — made it a federal felony to “deprive any citizen of the United States of any arms or weapons he may have in his house or possession for the defense of his person, family, or property.” This section was deleted from the final bill only because it was deemed both beyond Congress’ authority and superfluous, inasmuch as the rights of citizenship included the right to bear arms.
The economic impact of the firearms industry is up 66 percent since the beginning of the Great Recession, providing an unexpected shot in the arm for the economy, according to a new study.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation says the economic impact of firearm sales — a figure that includes jobs. taxes and sales — hit $31 billion in 2011, up from $19 billion in 2008.
Jobs in the firearms business jumped 30 percent from 2008 to 2011, when the industry employed 98,750.
The industry paid $2.5 billion in federal taxes in 2011, up 66 percent in three years.
“Ours is an industry with a rich history and heritage that remains vital and important to the American economy today,” NSSF Senior Vice President Lawrence G. Keane said in a statement. “To millions of Americans our industry’s products represent liberty, security and recreation.”
Some in the industry attribute the jump in sales to fears the Obama administration will tighten gun control laws in a possible second term.
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
A bill already passed by the U. S. Senate and set to be rubber stamped by the House would make it mandatory for all new cars in the United States to be fitted with black box data recorders from 2015 onwards.
Section 31406 of Senate Bill 1813 (known as MAP-21), calls for “Mandatory Event Data Recorders” to be installed in all new automobiles and legislates for civil penalties to be imposed against individuals for failing to do so.
Via Drudge
New York apartment buildings that permit smoking would be identified under a new law proposed Wednesday by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Landlords of buildings with three or more units would have to inform prospective tenants and purchasers whether smoking was allowed in apartments and on balconies, as well as in common outdoor areas like rooftops.
Bloomberg said this would give potential renters the chance to choose a smoke-free environment, free from wafts of cigarette smoke from other apartments.
The long road in their attempts to find justice for their son comes to a head next Monday in Washington as the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, a civilian body, hears the case that Vicki and Scott Behenna have pushed for three years, the innocence of their son, Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna. Below is an email from the Behennas today:
To the thousands of Michael Behenna supporters,
After three long years of waiting for Michael’s case to be heard by a court not under command influence the day we have been waiting for is about here. On April 23rd at 9am Michael’s case will be heard by the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF). This civilian court will hear oral arguments regarding Michael’s case at 450 “E” Street in Washington, DC. This hearing is open to the public and while no decision will be made that day all present will gain an understanding of why Michael’s case intrigues the news media, military legal scholars, and the patriots of this nation. Michael killed an Al-Qaida cell leader in self-defense in a war zone and then was sentenced to a lengthy sentence at Fort Leavenworth prison after the Army prosecutors withheld evidence and the judge ruled he had no right to self-defense. Hopefully the CAAF will dissect this horrible injustice and free Michael from his Leavenworth cell. As soon as we know h ow the CAAF rules on Michael’s case we will let you know.
Please remember to pass along the YouTube link of the Ballad of Michael Behenna http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMbytddDjWI. Also, if you know of any radio stations (country or otherwise) that might play Michael’s Ballad, please provide an address and contact person and we will be glad to send them a copy of the CD.
It has been a long and burdensome road these past three plus years, but you have seen us through it with your prayers, kind words, and letters of support to Michael and to us. It is our hope that soon all of our prayers will be answered and Michael will be home where he belongs.
Finally, Michael asked all of us to keep the families of Sgt Adam Kohlhaas and Sgt Steven Christofferson in our thoughts and prayers. It will be four years ago this weekend (April 21st) that these two brave and remarkable soldiers from Michael’s Mad Dog 5 Platoon were killed by an Al-Qaida IED attack in Iraq. Michael loved them as brothers and brothers they were along with the entire Mad Dog 5 platoon.
Sincerely,
Scott & Vicki Behenna
http://www.defendmichael.com
