VP Pence to speak at NRA in Dallas

VP Mike Pence,
Official White House photo

In a previous post, I noted that handguns will be allowed at the NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas this year.

BUT--

I learned from Jenn Jacques this morning at TTAG, that VP Mike Pence will be speaking at Friday's Leadership Forum.

SO--

I contacted the NRA and asked if that event (the Leadership Forum) would be a Secret Service weapons exclusion zone.

YES, it will be. Here is the reply I got from NRA:

---------------------------

Matteo, Jack 
10:55 AM (12 minutes ago)
to me 
Good morning,

The ILA-Leadership Forum will be a Secret Service secured event. Firearms will be strictly prohibited in the hall.* Please make the necessary arrangements with your firearms prior to the event.

 Firearms will be allowed in the exhibit hall in accordance with state law and proper documentation.

Thank you,

---------------------------

So, please be sure to not attempt to go there with your gun.  

I then contacted KnifeRights and asked,

" Will you be providing knife checks at the Leadership Forum, like you did at Louisville. VP Pence is speaking, therefore it will be a no weapons zone."

Thanks,

I got a quick reply from Doug Ritter:

---------------------------

Doug Ritter 

11:22 AM (10 minutes ago)

to me 

Yes

Doug Ritter

Chairman and Executive Director

Knife Rights, Inc.

Knife Rights Foundation, Inc.

www.KnifeRights.org

---------------------------

*emphasis added

The Second Amendment as an Expression of First Principles

Edward J. Erler
Co-author, The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration

Edward J. Erler is professor emeritus of political science at California State University, San Bernardino. He earned his B.A. from San Jose State University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School. He has published numerous articles on constitutional topics in journals such as Interpretation, the Notre Dame Journal of Law, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. He was a member of the California Advisory Commission on Civil Rights from 1988-2006 and served on the California Constitutional Revision Commission in 1996. He is the author of The American Polity and co‑author of The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration. This fall he is a visiting distinguished professor of politics at Hillsdale College.

Reprinted by permission from Imprimus, a publication of Hillsdale College. Although this is five years old, it is still pertinent today, in view of the renewed attacks on the Second Amendment. Now retired Justice Stevens advocates repealing the 2nd. 

This is a long read, so find the time to give it your attention. You can also see Dr. Erler's presentation at the end. Added note, fully automatic weapons are not totally illegal. But they are very expensive, and possession without the proper paperwork is illegal. The bold emphasis in the article is my addition.

The following is adapted from a lecture delivered on February 13, 2013, at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C.

We are currently mired in a frantic debate about the rights of gun owners. One example should suffice to prove that the debate has become hysterical: Second Amendment supporters, one prominent but less than articulate member of Congress alleges, have become “enablers of mass murder.”

Special animus has been directed against so-called assault rifles. These are semi-automatic, not automatic weapons—the latter have been illegal under federal law since the 1930s—because they require a trigger pull for every round fired. Some semi-automatic firearms, to be sure, can be fitted with large-capacity magazines. But what inspires the ire of gun control advocates seems to be their menacing look—somehow they don’t appear fit for polite society. No law-abiding citizen could possibly need such a weapon, we are told—after all, how many rounds from a high-powered rifle are needed to kill a deer? And we are assured that these weapons are not well-adapted for self-defense—that only the military and the police need to have them.

Now it’s undeniable, Senator Dianne Feinstein to the contrary notwithstanding, that semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15 are extremely well-adapted for home defense—especially against a crime that is becoming more and more popular among criminals, the home invasion.