GRNC Proves Forsyth Sheriff Violated Law

Our friends over in Forsyth County will be going to the polls to decide on the office of Sheriff, and if you have any question about their current Sheriff's position on Concealed Carry Permits, this Press Release from Grassroots North Carolina should answer a few for you.

Grass Roots North Carolina / Forum For Firearms Education
Post Office Box 10665, Raleigh, NC 27605
877.282.0939 (Phone) 919.573.0354 (Fax)http://www.GRNC.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact: 704.907.9206
E-mail: President@GRNC.org
Release date: April 29, 2014

GRNC Proves Forsyth Sheriff Violated Law
Form proves Schatzman collected private employment information on Concealed Carry Permit applicants

The GRNC Political Victory Fund supports David Griffith for Forsyth County Sheriff because incumbent William T. Schatzman is one of a number of sheriffs around the state who have unlawfully imposed extra requirements on concealed handgun permit (CHP) applicants in violation of N.C.G.S. 14-415.4, which stipulates a standardized statewide application process.

Recently, a member of the "Sheriff's Citizens Patrol" responded to a GRNC-PVF mailing by distributing a letter (http://grnc.org/documents/Miller_Letter_Schatzman.pdf) which accuses GRNC of perpetrating a "flat out falsehood" when it said Schatzman demanded employer information from CHP applicants in violation of the law.

Accordingly, GRNC has now published all documents related to Schatzman's law-breaking, including the original form demanding employment information as well as the newer "voluntary" employment information form which replaced it only after a GRNC alert targeting Schatzman at: http://grnc.org/schatzmanviolateslaw

Statement from GRNC president Paul Valone:

"Recently, we've received dozens of complaints about sheriffs who violate the law by obstructing concealed handgun permit applications. The GRNC Political Victory Fund action against Forsyth County Sheriff William Schatzman is intended to deliver a message that when it comes the re-election prospects of sheriffs who break the law, there is a new sheriff in town."

Timeline of GRNC response to complaints about Schatzman:

August, 2011: GRNC receives member complaint received Forsyth County is requiring concealed handgun permit applicants to provide full employer information, including the name, address and phone number of the applicant's employer.

September 1, 2011: GRNC president Paul Valone sends fax to Sheriff Schatzman, including the employment form printed from the Forsyth County Sheriff Office (FCSO) website, notifying him of his non-compliance with N.C.G.S. 14-415.4.

September 8, 2011: Valone speaks at length with Davida Martin of the Forsyth County legal counsel's office, who directed him to Kevin McGuckin. Valone then leaves detailed message for McGuckin.

September 21, 2011: After both fax and phone message are ignored by FCSO (the former for 20 days), Valone again phones McGuckin, this time reaching him at 3:00 PM. When apprised of the situation, McGuckin replies “We’ll take that under advisement.” When Valone explains that failure to remove the form will result in legal action, McGuckin says, “Goodbye” and hangs up.

September 22, 2011: GRNC issues alert targeting Schatzman for requiring employment information:http://www.grnc.org/grnc-alerts-archive/...of-gun-law

September 27, 2011: GRNC board member advises Valone that the link for the employment form is still on FCSO website. However, when Valone checks the site he discovers that a new form has been placed there without notice. The new form does not require name of employer and clearly says that providing the information is "voluntary."

September 28, 2011: GRNC issues update to members noting that FCSO has complied with the letter (but not the spirit) of the law: http://www.grnc.org/defend-your-rights/r...f-complies

March 1, 2012: GRNC issues alert targeting Schatzman for placing arbitrary time limits on required training for CHPs in violation of state law:http://www.grnc.org/grnc-alerts-archive/...ate-nc-law

Description of documents provided at link above:

· Sept. 1, 2011 notification letter from Valone to Schatzman

· Fax transmission report for notification letter

· Original Forsyth employment form

· Sept. 8, 2011 email exchange about message left for McGuckin

· Sept. 27, 2011 email from GRNC board member noting that form still on FCSO website

· Sept. 27, 2011 email from Valone to GRNC board member noting that form had been changed to reflect "voluntary"

Additional obstructions to CHP applications

The "Sheriff's Citizens Patrol" writer also claimed the GRNC-PVF mailing against Schatzman was incorrect in saying that FCSO obstructed issuance of CHPs, however:

· Even the writer admitted that FCSO shortened the time of day in which it processed CHP applications from a full business day to the period 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM while most other departments place no such limits.

· On March 1, 2012, GRNC issued an alert after receiving complaints that Schatzman was placing an arbitrary "expiration date" on training courses required to obtain permits, even though state law has no such limit under N.C.G.S. 14-415.12 -- another clear violation of law. This alert is available at:http://www.grnc.org/grnc-alerts-archive/...ate-nc-law

Summary

The documentation above clearly demonstrates that Sheriff William Schatzman first violated state law by requiring concealed handgun permit applicants to supply potentially intimidating employer information, including contact information for employers, then stonewalled when notified of the department's non-compliance. Telephone contacts to the Schatzman's legal representatives were met with hostility, including hanging up on GRNC president Paul Valone. Only after an alert directed hundreds of contacts to Schatzman did the department grudgingly comply be replacing the form with one which indicates completion is "voluntary."

Schatzman continued to obstruct concealed handgun permit issuance, however, first by restricting permit applications to only three hours per day, then by refusing to accept valid training certificates from applicants. Grass Roots North Carolina stands by all of the statements about Schatzman made in the GRNC Political Victory Fund mailings and emails sent to Forsyth County voters.

Bloomberg's Protesters At Anti-NRA Rally Were Paid Shills

Looks like Bloomberg can't even draw enough support to fill a small rally, and now his anti-gun groups have resorted to paying attendees to show up.
The Truth About Guns is reporting that the anti-gunners' gathering was anything but grassroots, more along the lines of AstroTurf. 
Read More HERE:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2014/04/robert-farago/bloomberg-paid-protestors-to-attend-anti-nra-rally/

This can't make Bloomberg and his cronies feel good. He's footing the bill for his so called supporters, while pro-gunners outspend him by sheer number alone.

Hypocrisy On The March As Gun Control Activists Admit To Having Armed Security

It seems we have yet another case of "Do as we say and not as we do" in the battle for gun rights here in America. We have known for years that many of the high profile gun grabbers in Washington and our state capitals as well as anti-gun members of the media and the celebrity sphere preach anti gun rhetoric all while owning and using firearms themselves or even having armed security.
Obviously they see themselves as better and superior to the rest of us commoners, and feel that their own safety outweighs ours.
Now one of the head goombas from Bloomberg's anti gun organization, "Everytown For Gun Safety" which is the new blanket name for  Mayors Against Illegal Guns & Moms Demand Action, has admitted during an interaction on Twitter with Dana Loesch that their anti gun protestors up in Indianapolis during the NRA's annual meeting is employing heavily armed security.
The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Their claim is that they receive so many death threats supposedly from our side of the aisle, that they fear for their lives,  and must employ firearms as a defense of their own lives. While I feel that many of their allegations are probably blown far out of proportion,  I assume this means that they do believe that guns are ok for self defense, but only for them.
In other words, Mr. and Mrs. Average American: Go F*** yourself.

The whole interaction started when Dana Loesch, a conservative journalist, tried to confront Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts at the MDA's protest of the NRA meeting in Indy, but was physically accosted by Watt's security team, as seen in this Youtube clip: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fMVq9hMtE4

New York Gun Owners Stand Defiant Against Registration Deadline

Today was the deadline for all New York State gun owners to register their so-called "assault weapons" under the SAFE Act. It was a hastily passed law, that demonizes and criminalizes law abiding citizens while doing nothing to curb criminal gun violence.
Jason Howerton of The Blaze tells us how the Empire State's gun owners and 2nd Amendment activists spend the day giving the Finger to Gov. Cuomo  and the NY Legislature.

 http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/04/15/time-is-up-for-new-york-gun-owners-to-register-their-so-called-assault-weapons-see-what-some-chose-to-do-instead/

Kurt Hofmann "No Room for 'Politeness' in 2A Advocacy"

An excellent piece by Kurt Hofmann, a contributor to the JPFO.
Perhaps the time for playing nice in the fight for fundamental rights is over with.

http://jpfo.org/articles-assd04/no-room-for-politeness.htm

No Room for 'Politeness' in 2A Advocacy

By Kurt Hofmann, April 2nd 2014
JPFO writer contributor, © 2014.

As an NRA board member and the head of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Tom King is admonishing gun rights advocates to soften the rhetoric, and hope that the courts see fit to restore the rights that lawmakers have trampled. From an email he sent to NYSRPA members, as quoted in the New York Daily News:

We will never convert the 22% rabid anti-gunners, we don't have to convert the 32% avid pro gunners but we must convert a sizable portion of the 46% of those somewhere in between if we want to retain our 2nd Amendment Rights long term. These are the soccer moms, the guys who say I've never shot a gun but would like to try it and the people worried about their safety. How do we do that? Not by standing on stage screaming obscenities at Cuomo and certainly not at large rallies where people stand on stage, pound their chest and tell the attendees to prepare for war. That frightens the very people we want to attract to our side, the people who will insure [sic] 2nd Amendment Rights for our grandchildren.

In other words, we cannot retain our Constitutionally guaranteed, fundamental human right of the individual to keep and bear arms, unless we politely persuade a sufficient number of the people who have so far not bothered to even form a strong opinion on the gun rights/"gun control" debate. Furthermore, we must depend on the courts to protect our rights. On what grounds we are supposed to base any confidence ofthat happening, King is oddly silent.

As gun rights blogger Herschel Smith explains, this is precisely the wrong way to go about it:

But second, this letter is as emblematic of everything that's wrong with the NRA as I've ever seen. It's the perfect example of how not to think about our rights.

The strategy he advocates is why we're where we are, among other reasons like loss of our national moral conscience. He wants first to turn to the black robes, and failing that (as it certainly will fail and has already failed), he wants to turn to popular opinion.

The idea that we must be more "polite," lest we frighten "the very people we want to attract to our side," ignores the nature of the right we are fighting for. The Second Amendment exists to guarantee the people's right to the means of killing aspiring tyrants and their hired muscle. There is no polite way to say that, as insurgencies tend to be more than a little "rude."

We must be "frightening," because the people who would trample our rights will only lose interest in doing so if they perceive a very personal risk to themselves in continuing on that course. They will have no reason to perceive such a risk if they see that our strategy is to cross our fingers and let judges tell us what our rights are, and when those judges tell us that those rights are effectively nothing, we then reduce ourselves to hoping that our liberties can win a popularity contest.

When the Founding Fathers flew the Gadsden Flag, they did not rally under a banner saying "Please Don't Tread on Me, Unless the Courts Say You Can." Indeed, the choice of the rattlesnake as their emblem was calculated for its implied threat, or, more accurately, for its explicit threat. As Benjamin Franklin wrote in thePennsylvania Journal:

Conscious of this, [the rattlesnake] never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her.

To attempt to hide the fact that we will fight any effort to disarm us is to withhold that "generous" warning that Franklin so admired, and will indeed make the fight's eventual necessity inevitable, because we will have given up on deterrence.

That is a course badly flawed both strategically and morally.

____________________________________

ABOUT KURT HOFMANN

A former paratrooper, Kurt Hofmann was paralyzed in a car accident in 2002. The helplessness inherent to confinement to a wheelchair prompted him to explore armed self-defense, only to discover that Illinois denies that right, inspiring him to become active in gun rights advocacy. He writes a gun rights blog, called Armed and Safe.

CT Gun Rights Activist John Cinque Explains "Why We Won't Yield To Unconstitutional Gun Law"

If you have been following the ongoing battle for 2nd Amendment rights in the state of Connecticut then you are most likely aware of John Cinque, who became a bit of a folk hero to the gun onwers and Patriots of the "Constitution State" when he spoke out against the Draconian anti-gun agenda that the CT legislators and Gov. Malloy slapped in the law books.
The YouTube video of Mr. Cinque has spread around the blogosphere like wildfire and is inspiring other Patriots across the US to resist laws that are in direct violation of the Constitution.
VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se7VtF4Cu7U
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)

John is quite clear where he and the rest of the American Patriots stand on the issue of gun control.

We will not comply. It's as simple as that. No law that restricts a natural right will be adhered to.
Cinque has penned an excellent commentary that was publish by the Courant, entitled:
"Why We Won't Yield To Unconstitutional Laws".
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/commentary/hc-op-cinque-connecticut-gun-bill-attacked-rights--20140328,0,2505425.story
To quote him from his excellent piece:
"

"Those in government who choose to rule by fiat instead of by representing us have a choice to make: This choice is reason or force. The line is drawn and the people will no longer allow further encroachment of our natural rights. An armed society is a polite society. As long as the people remain armed, government knows that it cannot rule over the people by force. Those who stand in defiance of unconstitutional laws do so out of duty, honor, oath and love of country."