GLOCK, Inc. to Donate $115,000 During

2012 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits

Manufacturer continues philanthropic efforts by making four significant donations  

Smyrna, GA – GLOCK, Inc. will donate a total of $115,000 to four separate organizations within the National Rifle Association (NRA) during the 2012 NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits held in St. Louis, MO, Apr. 12 – 15.  GLOCK, Inc. Vice Presidents Gary Fletcher, Chad Mathis and Josh Dorsey, alongside spokesman R. Lee Ermey, will make presentations to each group inside the GLOCK, Inc. exhibition booth (#2031) on Friday, April 13, 2012 at 10:00AM.

“There are millions of NRA members and thousands of certified NRA firearms instructors who continue to protect our Second Amendment rights and help to promote firearms safety,” said GLOCK Vice President, Gary Fletcher. “It’s important for us at GLOCK, Inc. to recognize that commitment by supporting the NRA and its affiliate organizations.”

The four organizations that will be receiving donations at NRA include:

National Rifle Association – This is the third consecutive year that GLOCK will make a $50,000 donation to the NRA. The NRA is America’s foremost defender of Second Amendment rights. The organization advocates for the promotion of firearm ownership, as well as marksmanship, firearm safety and the protection of hunting and self-defense in the United States. Ron Schmeits, President of the NRA, Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the NRA, and Kayne Robinson, Executive Director of Operations and past President of the NRA have been invited to accept the donation.

NRA Whittington Center – A $50,000 donation will mark the fourth consecutive year that GLOCK has donated to the NRA Whittington Center. The Center is the most comprehensive shooting facility in America today, complete with 15 shooting ranges, classrooms and a dining facility.  It hosts recreational shooting and guided hunts as well as camping, hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding activities.  Wayne Armacost, Executive Director at NRA Whittington Center has been invited to accept the donation along with Schmeits, LaPierre and Robinson.

NRA Whittington Center’s Adventure Camp – GLOCK will make a $15,000 donation to this group. This marks the tenth consecutive year that GLOCK has donated to the NRA Whittington Center Adventure Camp. The Camp is a unique place where young men and women have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of pistol, rifle and shotgun shooting in a positive environment.  Invited to accept the donation on behalf of the NRA Whittington Center’s Adventure Camp will be Armacost, Schmeits, LaPierre and Robinson.

NRA Law Enforcement Division (LED) - GLOCK will donate 30 pistols to the LED. This marks the fifth consecutive year that GLOCK has donated to the LED. This event held in Albuquerque, NM, is the NRA’s premiere annual shooting competition where Law Enforcement officers from around the globe compete to test their shooting skills. Invited to accept the donation on behalf of the LED/NPSC will be Glen Hoyer (Director-Law Enforcement Activities Division at the NRA), as well as Schmeits, LaPierre and Robinson.

His point, I believe, was that, without support from the population, all the political and legislative changes he could make are pointless.  If the majority of the people don’t want guns availible to the public, who are we, as gun enthusiasts to try to change that?  It may not be right.  I may not be possible.  So, the real work is not in Washington, it is in your own neighborhood.  We must re-educate the citizenry that has forgotten that guns are an important part of a civilized society.  We must take people out to shoot in a safe, enjoyable environment.  We must change the voters if we want to change the votes.

One listener had this to add:

Arthur Wood says:

I loved Morgan’s comment, “take someone shooting,” when asked how to help the Alan Gora’s work. I couldn’t agree more!!! The majority of Americans view guns as being negative. We need to take steps to change the general public’s perspective. I would like to add, because you were also talking of the NRA, the NRA has a fund raising banquets done by the Friends of NRA. Most NRA members are unaware of it. The banquets have raffles, live and silent auctions with NRA and donated items. All of the money raised goes directly to shooting programs, with 50% staying in the state it is raised. The programs include Boy Scouts, Eddie Eagle, youth shooting programs, women shooting programs and other programs. We NEED to change the anti-gun culture and the Friends of NRA is a great step in that direction. Keep up the great work guys.

OK, I’ve been watching this for a couple of weeks.  Knife-rights organizations have been blowing it all out of proportion.  Now the NRA makes it sound like Obama himself is going to organize a pocket knife turn-in program.  These types of organizations tend to try to stir up fear.  I think they’ve missed the real frightening point of this proposal.

The deeper meaning behind this legislation is this:  It is an attempt to establish a legal precedent, one of the most powerful statutory tools of over-reaching government.

In a nutshell, the new law proposes that ‘assisted’ (either by spring or gravity) knives should be considered Switchblades.  They’ve called out a few of these knives (detailed in the law) and describe them as having no legitimate utilitarian purpose.  They describe them as designed only for use as ‘weapons.’  Read it, as I did, here.

OK.  That’s fine.  Some knives are in fact only intended as weapons.  Some would say that restricting those knives from entering the USA is a good thing.  But think about what that means.  Asside from the fact that everyone needs something that is ‘just a weapon’ sometimes.  Think about the precedent this is setting.  What other class of tools can be handily prohibited if it is shown that ‘weapons’ can legitamately be outlawed?  What about your handguns?  It can be argued, particularly for Glocks, that there is no other reason to have a handgun except to use it as a weapon.

We must not let this ‘Pocket Knife Assault Ban’ get through.  It is much more serious than it appears.

Below is the NRA news blurb and an email from KnifeRights.org.

Friday, June 12, 2009
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a proposed rule change that directly targets the importation of “assisted opening” folding knives.  (Read the proposed rule here.) The proposed regulations would designate all these knives as “switchblades” (despite the fact they do not fall under the federal definition of “switchblades”), and would make them illegal for import into the United States. The proposed rule could affect all knives that can be opened with one hand, because it also includes changes in the interpretation of “gravity and inertia” opening knives in a way that could outlaw all knives that can be opened with a single hand. This means the new regulation could ban the importation of most of the pocketknives that are now in popular use.  

And it could have a far greater impact.  The American Knife and Tool Institute and Knife Rights, Inc. have both reviewed the proposed new regulations and are very concerned that the impact will be far greater than just a ban on the importation of assisted opening knives.  If the new regulations also affect the broader category of single-handed opening knives, it could make millions of knives illegal for import.  More importantly, many local jurisdictions and some states depend on the definitions used by the CBP.  These changes could make hundreds of millions of knives now in regular use, illegal.  And, of course, millions of hunters use and rely on their knives and would be adversely affected by this proposed regulation.

CBP is attempting to expedite this rulemaking and is only keeping comments open until June 21, 2009.  The American Knife and Tool Institute and Knife Rights, Inc. are leading the charge against the.  For more information and to make your voice heard in opposition to these new regulations, please go to: http://www.kniferights.org/index and http://www.akti.org/.

Knife Rights News Slice Vol. 2 Number 5This newsletter is emailed to Knife Rights members, those who have notified Knife Rights of their interest in the issues discussed and the news media.  If you prefer not to receive these emails from Knife Rights, please email: dritter@kniferights.org and ask to be removed.

A digital copy of this News Slice can be found online at: http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84&Itemid=1

Customs Says “NO EXTENSION!” – They Want Your Pocket Knives NOW!CBP’s denial of an extension seems to be a clear indication that they do not intend to act in a fair and reasonable manner on this issue and have already made their decision to go ahead. That may be a somewhat cynical viewpoint, but given the history of CBP, it seems like a good bet. That means we have to set the stage for the next act, which will likely be conducted both in court and in Congress. The battle is far from over; your comments will play a key role in both efforts. If you haven’t yet submitted comments, you need to do it NOW!  Your comments on the record will make a difference and the more the better.

Breaking News: We have received word that U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) has DENIED the numerous requests for extension that it had received from Knife Rights, AKTI, manufacturers and citizens like you, and is planning to stick with the June 21 deadline for comments.

In light of the denial, Knife Rights has re-written our Model Comments letter for concerned knife owners to send to CBP.  If you have not already sent your letter to CPB, please do so TODAY!  If you want to send another letter, it couldn’t hurt. The comments cannot be emailed, they must be mailed or sent by FedEx/UPS, etc. and they must be received in Washington, DC, no later than June 20, 2009.  (The deadline is Sunday, June 21, but there’s no mail delivery on Sunday).

To all of the hundreds of you who have already sent letters, thank you very much.  It will make a difference in the end.A number of emails have asked where it explicitly says in the CBP’s document that they are going after almost all pocket knives. If you are looking for explicit language to that effect, you won’t find it. That would be too easy, and CBP had no interest in a direct confrontation of that magnitude. They were, after all, trying to slip this one through in the first place as just a minor ruling change. One has to take the logical next step based on the rationales provided by Customs in expanding the interpretation of a switchblade to assisted openers to see where that is headed. It is not even a small leap from assisted openers to one-hand openers, if they succeed. From there to slipjoint folders that can be opened using various tricks one-handed is only another very small step.

If their new ruling is accepted and put in place, the next step will be seizing a warehouse full of imported one-hand openers, which they can legally do, declaring them to also meet their now very broadly defined interpretation of what a switchblade is. They came very close to doing that a few years back in a seizure involving Columbia River Knife & Tool. With this ruling in place, they would succeed. Then the definition of what is a switchblade is expanded even further. It is this that has knife owners and the knifemaking industry up in arms, because our lawyers understand how these bureaucrats use these rulings and language games to get well beyond what it appears at first glance they are reaching for.

For those who are just now hearing of this, you can find our original News Slice with an expanded explanation of the issues and links to the original CBP document, etc., at:

http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&Itemid=1
or
http://tinyurl.com/lbcz4q

We need you to write CBP NOW!  Their 30 day deadline is fast approaching and these letters must go via postal mail (or Fedex/UPS).  Click below for a Model Letter you can send to CBP. You MUST write TODAY!http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=29
or
http://tinyurl.com/q7w8tm

We also want to continue efforts to bring this absurd proposal and CBP’s efforts to take our pocket knives away to the attention of Congress. Based on feedback already received from some more gullible Members who have swallowed CBP’s story hook, line and sinker, we have revised our Model Letter to Congress to emphasize the far reaching effects that this ruling will have, both on millions of law-abiding citizens and by destroying the vibrant knifemaking industry. This is clearly NOT just about imported assisted openers, no matter how much CBP wants us to believe that.

We must flood Congress with letters so they understand the gravity of the situation. This will be a huge help going forward, so please get your emails out today. Click below for a Model Letter you can send to Members of Congress. Only your efforts will stop this and save our Knife Rights!

http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=78&Itemid=29
or
http://tinyurl.com/qqvmns

We are not about to roll over for this clearly out-of-control government agency. But, we need your help to stop them. Your letters and emails will make a difference!

Knife Rights Retains Nappen Law FirmWith the denial of an extension, our primary attention now shifts to submitting comments on the proposal by the deadline. Towards that end, Knife Rights has retained the law firm of E.F. Nappen Attorney at Law, PC. Evan and his associates specialize in gun and knife criminal cases. Evan is a leading authority on the Federal Switchblade Act and has authored numerous articles on the subject.

As you might suspect, such expertise does not come free. The good news, such as it is, is that with such a tight deadline, the cost is limited, if not insignificant. We need your support to do this; we don’t have a large cash horde or the financial resources of some larger organizations. Please consider becoming a member at the Benefactor level to help pay for this defense of our knife rights.

We’re also setting up a contributions page, but it has been delayed due to technical issues and it will be a day or so before it is up and running.

SAF and CCRKBA Joins with Knife Rights
 
The Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have joined with Knife Rights to help fight this unwarranted knife grab by Customs. They are supporting us with Email Alerts to their membership and additional resources. SAF founder, Alan Gottlieb, noted, “we stand with Knife Rights in their support of Americans’ right to own and carry the knives of their choice.” 

And, just a reminder, the Second Amendment doesn’t say “Firearms,” it says “Arms.” Knives are clearly covered. Clearly the founding fathers expected that knives would be included.

NRA Joins the FightWe have also been working with the National Rifle Association in recent days and they have officially taken this issue up and you should soon be seeing evidence of their involvement if you are an NRA member. NRA recognizes that this ruling will not only affect virtually every NRA member, but that the precedent it would set would not be good for supporters of the Second Amendment.

NRA Alert:  http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=4972

Again, the Second Amendment doesn’t say “Firearms,” it says “Arms.” While we primarily focus on our knives as essential tools, mankind’s oldest, our essential rights to own and carry knives are enshrined in the Second Amendment.

Spread the Word!Please, forward on this email to all your friends, email list servers, post it on forums and encourage everyone you know to get on board. Remember, regardless of where you are active online, a significant proportion of your fellow online participants and contacts use and carry a pocket knife. They will be impacted. They need to know. And, that’s the point.  It’s not just a few knife enthusiasts.

You can also add a sig line or button to your email or forum signatures or a banner to your web site to help spread the word about Customs’ rulemaking:

http://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=83&Itemid=1
or
http://tinyurl.com/lpglwf

Knife Rights on TwitterKnife Rights is now on Twitter and we’ll issue critical updates and notices on Twitter as this issue evolves:  http://www.twitter.com/KnifeRights

Join Knife Rightshttp://www.kniferights.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=39
or
http://tinyurl.com/qnu988

Your membership dues help support our efforts to protect your rights. Invest a modest sum in A Sharper Future™. Join at the Benefactor level to help us even more. JOIN NOW!

Doug Ritter
Chairman and Executive Director
Knife Rights, Inc.
a 501(c)(4) Member Organization
dritter@KnifeRights.org

Have you signed up? Go to: www.KnifeRights.org
Protecting your right to own and carry knives and pocket tools

Jon Meacham

Guns, Liquor and the Age of Obama

NASHVILLE — Tennessee House members voted on Wednesday to override the governor’s veto of a bill to allow handguns to be carried in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

Gov Phil Bredesen

The House voted 69-27 against the veto. The Senate is expected to vote on the matter today.

The final version of the bill previously passed the House on a 66-23 vote. All but one of the new votes for or against the measure came from lawmakers who were absent on the previous vote.

Nashville Rep. Beth Harwell, who was the only Republican to vote against the veto override Wednesday, previously abstained.

It takes 50 votes in the House and 17 in the Senate to turn back the veto. The bill passed the Senate 24-7 last month.

“I think the people have spoken,” Republican Rep. Curry Todd of Collierville, the bill’s primary sponsor, said after the vote. “This just gives folks an opportunity to protect themselves.”

Beth Harwell

Curry Todd

Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, said he was pleased to see the “broad bipartisan support” for the bill.

“This is the first step in a two-step process to override the veto,” Cox said. “We now look forward to moving to the Senate.”

Before the vote, several lawmakers supporting the veto cited groups opposed to the bill. The list included law enforcement officials, district attorneys and hospitality organizations.

“When there’s so many organizations opposed to this legislation, it seems this Legislature should listen,” said Rep. Jimmy Naifeh, a Covington Democrat and former House speaker. “The very people we want to force this on do not want it. Why can’t we understand that?”

Jimmy Naifeh

But House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada of Franklin said the measure is necessary because “criminals are brandishing guns in restaurants and killing people.”

“I’m a firm believer that an armed citizen is a safe citizen,” he said.

Currently, 37 states have similar legislation.

Gov. Phil Bredesen spokeswoman Lydia Lenker said the Democratic governor expected an override when he vetoed the bill last week.

“He’s disappointed with this action but that doesn’t change his belief that we can exercise our Second Amendment rights and common sense at the same time,” she said. “He believes guns and bars simply don’t mix, and this legislation doesn’t provide the proper safeguards to ensure public safety.”

WASHINGTON — Frustrated liberals are asking why a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House can’t manage to close the Guantanamo prison or keep new gun-rights laws from passing.

After all, President Barack Obama pledged to shut down the military detention center on Cuba for suspected terrorists. And Democratic control of the government would suggest that any gun legislation leads to tighter controls on weapons, not expanded use. Even as they grouse, however, liberal lawmakers acknowledge that no one factor explains last week’s disappointing back-to-back votes in Congress.

The Obama administration is focused on other priorities, they say. Party leaders don’t want to endanger Democratic lawmakers from conservative districts by stressing divisive issues such as gun control.

On Guantanamo, many say, Obama and his allies were caught napping as Republicans stirred public fears about relocating suspected terrorists.

“I think it’s one of the few times that he didn’t think it all the way out,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., an unabashed admirer of the president.

As for trying to keep loaded guns out of national parks, Cummings said, “I don’t think he put a lot of energy into it.” Issues such as national security and the distressed economy deserve greater attention, at least for now, he said, adding that the president “picks his fights very carefully.”

Such explanations provide small comfort to left- leaning Democrats after eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency and nearly a dozen years of Republican control of Congress.

“We’ll probably end up passing more gun bills” that expand owners’ rights “than we did during the Republican administration,” said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a leading gun control advocate. “That is what surprises me.”

She placed less blame on the White House than on ordinary Americans and advocacy groups that are consistently outflanked by gun owners’ groups, especially the National Rifle Association.

“Until the American people say enough is enough, and get active in it,” Democratic control of Congress and the White House will not be enough to turn the tide, said McCarthy, whose husband was killed by a gunman in 1993.

Two votes in Congress last Wednesday dismayed many liberals and exposed the limits of their influence even with Obama as president and Democrats holding solid majorities in both houses.

The Senate voted 90-6 to join the House in blocking the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo. Harsh treatment and indefinite detention of suspects there have sparked worldwide criticisms of the U.S. government and helped al-Qaida recruit volunteers, said Obama, who pledges to close the prison early next year. Lawmakers say they want more details on where detainees will be sent.

Also Wednesday, the House voted overwhelmingly to join the Senate in letting people carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. More than 100 House Democrats and 174 Republicans voted for the gun measure, which was attached to an Obama-backed bill imposing new restrictions on credit card companies.

Earlier this year, gun-rights supporters derailed a bill to give the District of Columbia voting rights in Congress by adding a provision that would repeal the city’s strict gun regulations.

The gun votes were less surprising to many Democrats than were the Guantanamo developments. The NRA remains among the most powerful lobbies, and many lawmakers take care to stay off its political enemies list.

“People do not want to be on the wrong side of this particular cultural divide,” said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., who supports tougher gun controls. “It’s too bad there’s not a more responsible national organization” to counteract the NRA, he said.

In some ways, the gun-control lobby is choking on Democratic success in congressional races. “The seats we’re picking up come disproportionately from those more conservative areas,” Price said, where linking the Democratic Party to gun control can be dangerous at re-election time.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California is another Democrat frustrated by the gun debate. When she asks colleagues why they don’t support tougher restrictions, she said, they reply, “You just don’t get it, Woolsey. You don’t have our districts.”

“It has to do with being afraid they’ll lose their election if they stand up against guns,” she said.

Guantananamo is a more pressing issue for the administration.

For months, congressional Republicans and conservative commentators said Obama’s plan to close the prison would place terrorists on U.S. soil, even though the locations presumably would be prisons. By the time the administration offered more details and reassurances, congressional Democrats were backpedalling, voting to block funds to relocate detainees.

“I’m not sure they realized the opposition they were going to come up against,” Woolsey said.

Many Democratic lawmakers predicted that Obama will resolve the Guantanamo problem and eventually turn to gun issues, where he has advocated ownership rights with “common sense” regulations.

“I do believe that down the road the president will start working on some of the gun violence issues,” said McCarthy, the New York Democrat. “But let’s face it,” she said. “We’ve got an awful lot of issues on our plate right now.”

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