Sunday, December 16, 2012

The Snowdrop Campaign - Making Gun Ownership In America Illegal

Last night, at my Blog Talk Radio show, The Awakening, I spoke a bit about the Newtown school massacre.  I didn't talk about the heartache, I didn't talk about the details nor even what possibly caused the shooter to do this.  No, I talked about what it would mean to America.  I talked about "The Snowdrop Campaign."  Now, if you are a gun owner in America, you have to understand that the anti-gun coalition in this country knows exactly what The Snowdrop Campaign was and it's high time that you know all about it too.

This article from WCC-COE.org will help:


The "Snowdrop" Campaign
The Dunblane Story

On Wednesday, 13 March 1996, a 43 year old man made his way into the gym of the local primary school in Dunblane, Scotland. In his rucksack were two semi-automatic pistols, two Smith and Wesson revolvers and 743 rounds of ammunition.

While in the gym he fired 105 rounds of ammunition. He killed sixteen children, aged five, and their teacher. Thirteen others, including three teachers, sustained gunshot wounds, but survived. His guns and his ammunition were all legally held.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, there developed a massive groundswell of opposition to the legal ownership of hand-guns. The "Snowdrop Campaign", so named because March is snowdrop time in Scotland, was led by Mrs Ann Pearson, a friend of the bereaved families. The campaign was highly successful.

The British Government of the day, Conservative in complexion, proposed changes to the laws governing these weapons. Debate over these changes developed widely. Local churches, whose clergy and members had been deeply involved in the care and counselling of the bereaved families and of the families of those who had been injured, joined in the debate.

As the debate developed, supporters of rifle-clubs, shooting clubs and other interests, warned against an emotional reaction to the tragedy. In spite of this pressure, the Government introduced legislation and the result was the Firearms (amendment) Act of February 1997. This meant that all hand-guns, apart from pistols able to fire .22 or smaller cartridges, could no longer be bought, sold or possessed in Britain.

When the British Government changed in May 1997, new legislation was proposed to declare all hand-guns illegal. This measure became law in November 1997.

Accordingly it is no longer lawful in Britain to own, sell or buy any hand-gun. Arrangements were made for surrendering such weapons held, and for a measure of compensation. This legislation has been widely supported, particularly in Scotland.


I want to add this from Wikipedia to the discussion as well:

The Snowdrop Campaign was founded after the Dunblane Massacre in March 1996 to call for a total ban on the private ownership and use of handguns in the United Kingdom. Founded by friends of the bereaved families and so called because March is snowdrop time in Scotland, it gained over 750,000 signatures to a petition in 6 weeks.[1]

Following presentation of the petition and a speech by one of the founders, Ann Pearston, to the 1996 Labour Party conference, the new Labour government of Tony Blair introduced the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997, which further banned the private ownership of all cartridge ammunition handguns, regardless of calibre, including private ownership of .22 rimfire handguns.[2]

So, last night at my BTR show I told the audience that this WILL come to America - you will see the petitions....hell, the petitions have already started.  Look at this headline today at The Huffington Post:

Gun Control Petitions Flood White House Website In Wake Of Newtown School Shooting


 UPDATE:  On ABC's Sunday morning show with George Stephanopolous, the Mayor of Hartford, CT just called for the outright ban of assault weapons in America.

There are three things we need to be on the alert for:

  1. A coordinated and unified petition coming out of this - not a ton of different petitions but ONE petition that will gain a foothold
  2. The churches and clergy of America - we need to watch for the inclusion of clergy and churches across America joining in America's version of the Snowdrop Campaign
  3. The masterful efforts of the Left's most convincing weapon in the anti-gun campaign - none other than Barack Hussein Obama.  Watch for the marketing of The Snowdrop Campaign to come directly from the White House
So what can we do as advocates of the 2nd Amendment and gun ownership?  First of all, we need to realize the campaign won't be called The Snowdrop Campaign but WILL be given a name - it could be The Newtown Campain, The Sandy Hook Campaign, or something like The Innocents Campaign...but we have to know it when we see it.  Then we need to get to our clergy - we need to remind them of the emotional blackmail that will be used to gain their support - we need to remind them that only G_d can take away our rights to protect ourselves and family.  And we need to confront the Campaigners - we need to turn the petition campaign away from the "look" of those only concerned about the welfare of little children to what they really are...militant anti-gun radicals - we need to flush them out, we need to make them unmask themselves and show America who they really are.  We need to get under their skin.  We need to expose the Petition that comes as a politically motivated document, not a humanitarian outreach.

The time it took from the Dunblane School Massacre in Scotland to the introduction of The Snowdrop Campaign to the legislation that banned all handguns in Britain was amazingly fast - the gun owners of Britain woke up one day finding out that they had to turn in their guns and could never own another one.  We have people and politicians in America who want to do that even faster here.  Are you ready to fight?

--

No comments: