Maybe all of our open carrying is paying off!!

[Joe88XJ]

I saw this article in the reading eagle on the front page no less!!

http://readingeagle.com/news/article...-rights-rising

Pew survey: Americans' support for gun rights rising

Tuesday January 13, 2015 12:01 AM
By Dan Kelly

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.
That pro-gun slogan has been around for years, and Richard Stuebner, owner of Dick's Gun Shop in Lower Heidelberg Township, thinks it might explain the results of a Pew Research Center survey that found that on the two-year anniversary of the mass school shootings in Newtown, Conn., more Americans favor gun ownership than gun control.
The survey also found that a majority feel guns do more to protect people than put them in danger.
Stuebner pointed to changes in state and federal laws like the Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground and said they represent advances for gun owners. In addition, more people are coming to realize they can't rely on law enforcement to keep them safe, only to clean up afterward.
"We've never really been able to rely on police as far back in history as you go," Stuebner said. "The settlers didn't have any police."
Pew reported that for the first time in more than two decades of its surveys, there is more support for gun rights than gun control. The survey of more than 1,500 Americans of varying parties and ethnicities found that 52 percent feel it is more important to protect the right to own guns, while 46 percent say it is more important to control gun ownership.
Support for gun rights represents a substantial shift in attitudes since shortly after the Newtown school shootings, which occurred Dec. 14, 2012.
Since December 2012, support for gun rights has increased 7 percentage points - to 52 from 45 - while those preferring gun control has fallen 5 points to 46 from 51.

Law enforcement
Reading Police Chief William M. Heim said he doesn't think being in favor of gun ownership necessarily means you oppose some restrictions.
"I don't like the term 'gun control,' " Heim said. "I have no problems with citizens possessing a firearm for personal safety unless they are legally barred from it."
Heim said the only trend he has noticed locally is a steady increase in the number of concealed-carry permits issued in the county.
"But I am in favor of some gun regulation," Heim added. "I think there should be background checks on all firearms purchases before someone takes possession. I think investigation and enforcement efforts into straw purchasing, especially at gun dealerships and gun shows, should be strengthened, and this should come from the state and federal government because they have a broader jurisdiction.
"I would also be in favor of those wanting to carry concealed permits for their weapons being required to take a course in using the weapons, which would include learning the laws regarding its use and what constitutes self-defense and proper care and responsibility for keeping the weapon as safe as practical from accidents and theft."
For self-defense
Marty Hayes, a lawyer in Washington state and president of the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network Inc., in a pamphlet titled "What Every Gun Owner Needs to Know About Self Defense Law," essentially agrees with Heim.
"With firearms ownership comes serious responsibilities," Hayes said. "The need to understand the legal system and the laws regarding use of deadly force is the key to making sure you sleep in your own bed and not on a jail cot."
Robert Horst, owner of Firearms Solutions in Robeson Township, said he is 62 and has had a permit to carry a concealed weapon since he turned 21. He has been a certified firearms instructor for 35 years.
"For the past 15 years people have been becoming more and more concerned with their constitutional rights, including the Second Amendment right to bear arms," Horst said.
He said actions like President Barack Obama's executive order relaxing immigration laws for about 4 million illegal aliens remind people how easy it would be for the government to strip them of their rights.
He pointed to the case of a bicyclist who shot two teens after they tried to rob him on the Thun Trail bridge crossing over the Schuylkill River into Reading. In January 2012, a 65-year-old man, acting in self-defense, shot two teens on the trail after they tried to rob him on the Cumru side of the bridge crossing.
"For that man, police were just minutes away in Reading, but they weren't there to help him when he needed them," Horst said.

Getting used to guns
Or maybe we are just getting used to guns and gun ownership, said Dr. Arthur H. Garrison, assistant professor of criminal justice at Kutztown University.
"What I think is happening is a norming of gun ownership in the U.S.," Garrison said. "The right to own a gun and gun ownership is becoming the norm."
Garrison noted that the only ones still advocating gun control are liberal Democrats. Whites, blacks and Latinos surveyed all trended toward gun ownership, according to the survey.
"After Newtown the NRA came out with a simple solution: If someone in the school was armed, that shooter would have been dropped a lot sooner," Garrison said.
Also mass shooters tend to go where they think most people will not be armed, he said. If the trend continues, shooters may be faced with the fact that there are armed people everywhere.
"If criminals think you are armed they are less likely to attack you," Garrison said.
Contact Dan Kelly: 610-371-5040 or dkelly@readingeagle.com.




- See more at: http://readingeagle.com/news/article....BcbcTpZi.dpuf

[NEAHS]

Already posted... http://forum.pafoa.org/pennsylvania-...t-surging.html

BTW I know a Joe who had a White XJ use to/ is a member of BMJA. Are you that Joe?