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Republican Women's Club talks gun rights
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Published: June 27, 2009
The Iredell County Republican Women's Club took on everything from gun rights to anti-bullying legislation during its regular meeting Thursday night at the Holiday Inn in Statesville.
The early part of the gathering focused on the members' hopes to keep both the state and federal governments from chipping away at the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The speaker for that portion of the meeting was Suzanne Anglewicz, with the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action.
"North Carolina has kept us busy these last few months," Anglewicz said.
She was referring to a number of pieces of legislation that are now, or have recently been, under consideration by the North Carolina General Assembly.
Anglewicz pointed out a handful of these bills but seemed most supportive of HB1131.
The bill is known as the Castle Doctrine and it would give greater leeway to citizens in the use of deadly force.
The bill states in part that deadly force would be allowed if a person "reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony."
Anglewicz began her talk by giving a brief history of the NRA.
She said the group was founded in 1871. She then stated her belief that the rights granted by the Second Amendment — largely, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms — are civil rights.
She added, therefore, that the NRA was the "oldest civil rights organization in the nation."
Anglewicz said one of the biggest threats to those rights is President Barack Obama.
She said that a lot of "innuendo" has swirled since Obama was elected last fall about what he and his administration would do to erode the rights of gun owners.
"But there are some things we know for a fact that he plans to do" she said. "Because he said it himself."
Anglewicz said the Obama Administration and those who support tighter gun laws use "ambiguous" language, such as "assault" in describing certain types of weapons and "childproofing," when dealing with gun safety.
" 'Assault weapon' is a buzz-word they invented to scare people," Anglewicz said. "And it's worked."
At Thursday's meeting, one club member said, "A baseball bat could be an assault weapon."
Regarding the practice of gun safety, Anglewicz said the NRA was its strongest advocate.
"But a 'childproof gun,' " she said, "is a gun that doesn't fire when you need it."
Also at Thursday's meeting was state Rep. Darrell McCormick, whose 92nd District includes parts of northern Iredell County.
McCormick, a Republican who is in his first term, spoke mostly about the state budget and a variety of other issues. He said he has been frustrated in his first experience in the state House of Representatives as a member of the minority party.
"It's no fun losing," he said. "It's no fun getting your butt kicked every time."
Among the bills McCormick was fighting was SB-526, which has been referred to as the "bullying bill."
The bill, which passed a final House reading earlier this week, would mandate that school systems institute procedures in dealing with "bullying or harassing behavior."
The bill defines that type of behavior as being "acts reasonably perceived as being motivated by any actual or perceived differentiating characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, socioeconomic status, academic status, gender identity, physical appearance, sexual orientation, or mental, physical, developmental, or sensory disability, or by association with a person who has or is perceived to have one or more of these characteristics."
But McCormick said the sponsors of the bill had another agenda.
"The bill's only objective," he said, "was to codify homosexuals and transgender people as protected groups in high school."
McCormick encouraged club members to raise money to get more Republicans elected so he is able to better fight these kinds of bills.
"We have to get eight more Republicans in the state house," he said. "It's that simple."
The next Iredell County Republican Women's Club meeting is July 23, when the group will bring in experts to address the issue of illegal immigration.
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