More Guns Equal Less Crime, According to FBI Statistics

From the President, Jeremy Smith:

A recent e-mail from the NRA has two significant articles for our club.

First is an FBI report stating there was a rather large decrease in violent crime between 2008 and 2009. This was the same time period when gun sales were soaring. Go figure; it doesn't take a genius to guess why that happened.

The other is the PA House Judiciary Committee successfully passed HB40, Castle Doctrine legislation which will now head to the House floor for consideration. This bill not only makes it legal for someone to use deadly force to protect themselves, their home and property, it also makes it legal to use deadly force to protect themselves and others anywhere outside the home they are legal to be. This is a very similar law to the one passed in Florida a couple years ago.

Currently in the state of PA, an individuals' first obligation, when faced with a violent situation, is to flee the area (even your own home). If you get a chance, please put a little of this information on our blog.

From the NRA E-Mail :
The FBI released crime statistics that should cause the applauding anti-gunners to sit on their hands. The statistics indicate that between 2008 and 2009, as gun sales soared, the number of murders in our country decreased 7.2 percent. That amounts to about an 8.2 percent decrease in the per capita murder rate, after the increase in our nation's legal and illegal population is taken into account. And it translates into about a 10.5 percent decrease in the murder rate between 2004, when the ban expired, and the end of 2009. And finally, it means that in 2009 our nation's murder rate fell to a 45-year low.

PENNSYLVANIA: Castle Doctrine Passes out of Judiciary Committee On Tuesday, May 25, the House Judiciary Committee successfully passed HB40, Castle Doctrine legislation which will now head to the House floor for consideration. The committee also defeated three anti-gun bills (HB1043, HB1044 and HB1045). House Bill 40, would permit law-abiding citizens to use force, including deadly force, against an attacker in their homes and any places outside of their home where they have a legal right to be. It would also protect individuals from civil lawsuits by the attacker or the attacker's family when force is used.

Hillary Clinton And The UN Arms Trade Treaty Rumor

Friday, May 28, 2010

We continue to receive numerous inquiries regarding UN international treaties, and their impact on our Second Amendment rights. The latest rumor making its way around the Internet claims that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton actually signed a UN small arms treaty.

Contrary to this widely circulated e-mail, Hillary Clinton has not signed any small arms treaty. She could not have done so, in fact, because no such treaty has yet been negotiated.

As we noted in an update from last November, the UN Arms Trade Treaty will be drafted between now and 2012, and even if signed, would not take effect in the U.S. until it was ratified by the Senate.

Please rest assured that, as we said in November, NRA will be actively involved in this process and will oppose any treaty that would attempt to impose limits on our Second Amendment rights. In the meantime, we urge gun owners to follow this issue in NRA's magazines and NRA-ILA's Grassroots Alerts. We also urge gun owners not to circulate misinformation on this issue.