| Most readers of this column knew my late father, Neal Knox, as a Washington lobbyist and gun-rights hard-liner. And most of you also know that his family - particularly my brother Jeff and I, along with our mother Jay - continue the work he started with The Firearms Coalition. But in my travels, I've been dismayed to discover that many of "our guys" - from shooters at the range to industry types at the trade shows - don't really know or understand who Neal Knox was and what a significant impact he had on their rights. More importantly, they don't know or understand the history of the fight which has brought us where we are today. Imagine a west-bound wagon train with no one among them who had ever forded a river with a wagon or crossed a difficult mountain pass. Neal Knox - The Gun Rights War is the journal of an experienced guide and wagon master. He wasn't perfect and he wasn't always right, but he had a good compass and was always trying to move in the right direction. |
Neal Knox - The Gun Rights War is History
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The Knox Update
Disappointed with Sotomayor
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The Knox Update
| The confirmation of extreme leftist (and unimpressive jurist) Sonia Sotomayor to a seat on the Supreme Court is bad news to supporters of the Constitution in general and the nation's gunowners in particular. Judge Sotomayor has demonstrated throughout her career on the Federal Appeals Court bench that she has much more regard for her own "feelings" and "sensibilities" than she has for the Constitution or even court precedent. Judge Sotomayor has repeatedly dismissed important constitutional questions out of hand, with no constitutional review and total disregard for established precedent or accepted principles of jurisprudence. Judge Sotomayor has made clumsy attempts to conceal this cavalier behavior behind flawed and incomplete citation of precedents which fall far short of supporting her decisions. What's worse, she has routinely been supported in her disingenuous practices by one or more of her colleagues in the Second Circuit where she has served for the past 15 years. As Federal Appeals Courts standardly operate with three-judge panels, Judge Sotomayor's erroneous decisions could only prevail if one or both of the other judges on the panel agreed. |
Conflation to Coalitions
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The Knox Update
| The growing dissatisfaction of more and more citizens with the direction of our government and our nation presents a recruiting opportunity for rights activists. We are already being grouped together with these folks as objects of ridicule for the talking heads on the television so why not put their conflation to good use? |
Attention Ranges and Clubs: A Call to Arms!
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The Knox Update
| On Independence Day 2009 we will celebrate several things in addition to celebration of the 233rd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we at The Firearms Coalition will be celebrating our 25th anniversary as an organization. We'll mark the occasion with the release of the new book The Gun Rights War, a compilation by my brother Chris of highlights from Neal Knox's extensive writings stretching from 1966 to 2000. |
Where has all the ammo gone?
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The Knox Update
| Where has all the ammo gone? That's a common refrain these days and not just in a few places, but all across the country. The answer is simple and complicated, but it's not part of a nefarious plot hatched up by Washington politicians. Ammo supplies got thrown out of kilter as a result of military action in Iraq and Afghanistan and several former Warsaw Pact nations transitioning to NATO caliber arms. Some sources of military surplus ammo have been drying up under a UN agreement to "de-militarize" (read destroy) |
Training Bad Behavior
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The Knox Update
| The Republican Party lost big in 2006 and lost even bigger in 2008. They didn't lose because of opposition to the war in Iraq. They didn't lose because of the floundering economy. They didn't even lose because of a "culture of corruption." Those were symptoms and side issues. The reason Republicans lost, and continue to lose, is because they have failed to keep their promises, live up to their stated beliefs, and they have provided little reason to their base to get excited about keeping them in office. |
The Noisy Wheel Gets the Shaft
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The Knox Update
| Range protection is a hot topic these days and it’s becoming more important every day. Urban sprawl continues to envelope ranges and traditional shooting areas, pushing shooters farther and farther out to engage in their sport and training. Developers build houses closer and closer to established ranges and soon the new residents are complaining about the noise. While much of the emphasis in range protection has been focused on passing laws shielding ranges from noise complaints, such laws only provide limited protection and can give ranges a false sense of security. Noise is just the tip of the iceberg and ranges need to guard against the mountain hiding beneath the surface. |
Equipped to be a Killer
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The Knox Update
| There is a funny story about a woman who rowed her husband's boat out for a little solitude. While she was enjoying the fresh air and sunshine a Park Ranger pulled up alongside and asked to see her fishing license. When she told him she didn't have one he said that he was going to write her a ticket because, even though she was just sitting in the boat reading, there was fishing equipment in the boat. The woman replied that she wanted to charge the Ranger with rape then because, even though he was just sitting in his boat talking, he had all of the necessary equipment. |
The Myth of Mandatory Training
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The Knox Update
| Rights activists are shooting themselves in the foot whenever they advocate for mandatory training for concealed carry, and they're shooting themselves in the foot a lot lately. There is absolutely no question that all gun owners, especially those who choose to carry in public, need to take their responsibilities seriously and seeking out quality training is just the beginning of the responsibility.
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