Top Shot Chris Cheng

No on Prop 63 / No To Newsom

10/18/2016

I've been busy the past few months helping fight "Gunmageddon" -- the crazy anti-gun laws coming through California this year. We are still on our back foot but starting to lean into an offensive position with our "No on 63" campaign, an anti-gun initiative supported by Lt Gov Gavin Newsom.

Please join me and 6-time Olympic champion Kim Rhode, in saying No to Prop 63, and No to Newsom. See our videos below.

More details on Prop 63 at stoptheammograb.com.

#BLM + Firearms = Black Panthers?

10/16/2016

The Black Panthers on the steps of the California State Capitol, 1967.

The Black Panthers are a controversial group. Were they freedom fighters or domestic terrorists?

Yesterday marked their 50th anniversary which prompted me to revisit their history in relation to where we stand today.

The Black Panthers' historic action of going to the California State Capitol in 1967 with guns in hand, aiming to fight abuse by the Oakland Police, started what some consider a racist, anti-gun reaction by California Republicans.

At the time, California was an open carry state, and the vision of lawful African Americans having firearms in public was untenable for many politicians. The Black Panthers were all for gun rights. Ronald Reagan and his fellow Republicans enacted the Mulford Act which repealed open carry of loaded firearms (Note: open carry of unloaded firearms was legal until 2012).

The Atlantic has an informative article on the Black Panthers and gun rights, and this particular quote stood out to me:

"...the only tangible outcome of the civil-rights movement had been more violence and oppression, much of it committed by the very entity meant to protect and serve the public: the police."

So here we are almost 50 years later and we're still facing a huge problem with law enforcement and African Americans. The new incarnate of the Black Panthers is the Black Lives Matter #BLM movement. The stark difference is that while the Panthers fought with firearms, #BLM fights with cellphone videos and social media.

Is the video is mightier than the gun? Perhaps. We have clearly seen how viral videos continue to bring the #BLM movement to the forefront of our national conversation. Ultimately a movement is judged on the impact is has on society.

This story is far from over.

San Francisco's Last Gun Shop Closes

11/13/2015

Chris Cheng poses in front of Highbridge Arms which closed its doors October 31, 2015.

San Francisco's last gun shop, Highbridge Arms, has closed after years of anti-gun pressure from local and state politicians. The final straw that broke the camel's back was proposed legislation by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors which would have required firearms and ammunition transactions and personal data be handed over to the San Francisco Police Department. The invasion of privacy and additional overhead costs became too much for the store to handle.

Highbridge Arms expected to lose customers to neighboring gun shops outside city limits where customers would retain their privacy. There was no explanation how this invasion of privacy would have helped decrease crime in our city. This is the real travesty. Anti-gun politicians pursuing an agenda that won't have any effect.

Last week I picked up my last batch of firearms from Highbridge Arms, a fantastic collection of Mossberg shotguns.

Chris Cheng poses for one final picture with Highbridge Arms employee "Russ" with a number of Mossberg shotguns for Cheng's final order. Full order of shotguns in the picture below.

I've got one of the best jobs in the world. @mossbergcorp sent me some of my favorite shotguns and I feel so fortunate to have their support. Pictured from top to bottom: 500, 590A1 Mariner, 590 Magpul, 930 JM Pro, 930 Turkey with @leupoldoptics scope. Which one's your favorite??

A photo posted by Top Shot Chris Cheng (@topshotchris) on Nov 2, 2015 at 3:51pm PST

I am thankful for all the years of support Highbridge Arms provided me and my career. While I'm generally an optimistic person, I'm pessimistic that any new gun shop will open in San Francisco any time soon. Now that Highbridge Arms has been removed as an obstacle for the Board of Supervisors, I won't be surprised when new anti-gun legislation is introduced to target individual law abiding gun owners within city limits.

San Francisco is supposed to be a city for people from all walks of life. Especially those who are considered on the fringe of society. Law abiding gun owners abhor the gun violence in our cities and communities, and it takes the gun community acting as a collective whole to make our goals clear. We want safe communities for our children, our families, and friends. This is actually a goal that both pro-gun and anti-gun people share. Let's focus on the criminals and the mentally ill as a way to prevent the next gun crime from occurring.

Chris Cheng on Fox News: San Fran law "superficial, Anti-American"

9/25/2015

Fox News contacted me regarding my home gun shop in San Francisco closing. Here's a snippet of what I had to say:

“This is yet another piece of thoughtless, superficial, anti-American, anti-gun legislation that is a dangerous threat to our freedom and Constitution,” Chris Cheng, winner of The History Channel’s Season Four TOP SHOT, and a San Francisco resident, told FoxNews.com. “High Bridge Arms, like many gun shops around America, was a place for well-to-do folks to gather and talk shop about firearms and freedom.”

Read the full article at http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/24/surrender-san-fran-iconic-last-gun-shop-to-close-over-new-regulations/

You Can Stop Gun Violence The Same Way You Stop AIDS Or TB

8/13/2015

NPR reported on an interesting concept of tackling gun violence like an infectious disease:

Physician and epidemiologist Gary Slutkin has worked in more than 20 countries, fighting infectious diseases like cholera, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. After a decade abroad, he returned to the United States in 1994 and found an acute problem here: gun violence. He began to study the issue and saw familiar patterns: "I just said, 'This is behaving exactly like an infectious disease.' This is the same kind of map, same kind of clustering. Someone has picked this up from someone else, and they pass it on to someone else, and pass it on to someone else."

Slutkin decided to approach gun violence the same way he curbed cholera and AIDS — by convincing people to change their behaviors. And that doesn't happen by threatening to punish them: "You're not going to punish people out of AIDS." Rather, he found that training community members to spread the message about safe behavior could get people to rethink risky behaviors.

He decided to try the same approach to curb violence in the U.S. In 2000, he started CeaseFire (later renamed Cure Violence), which trains and deploys outreach workers, or "violence interrupters," in high-risk communities. The program has also been used in Honduras, Iraq, Mexico and other countries and profiled in the acclaimed 2011 documentary, The Interrupters.

It's an interesting concept and there's more interesting thoughts in the edited version below, and deep in the link is the full interview:

Read the full article at http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/08/06/429788345/you-can-stop-gun-violence-the-same-way-you-stop-aids-or-tb

NRA: Give guns to military recruiters (CNN)

7/21/2015

I literally have one word for this: Absolutely.

Full story via CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/20/politics/nra-guns-military-recruiters/index.html

NRA: Give guns to military recruiters
By Theodore Schleifer, CNN

Updated 9:17 AM ET, Tue July 21, 2015

Washington (CNN) The National Rifle Association said after a deadly shooting at a military facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that the rule that prohibits U.S. military men from carrying firearms on military installations was "outrageous."

The powerful gun lobby on Monday called on the White House to repeal its Pentagon directive that regulates who can carry firearms and then for Congress to "pursue a legislative fix to ensure that our service men and women are allowed to defend themselves on U.S. soil."

Troops on recruiting bases aren't armed.

"It's outrageous that members of our armed services have lost their lives because the government has forced them to be disarmed in the workplace," said Chris Cox, the leader of the NRA's legislative and political shop.

Since the shooting last Thursday that killed five service members, several governors have aimed to strengthen protection at National Guard facilities in their states, including some states choosing to arm their National Guard unit.

The Pentagon has reacted more slowly: Defense Secretary Ash Carter has asked military branches to recommend ways to beef up security on bases and installations, but at first only announced relatively modest steps in the aftermath of the shooting.

"Obviously force protection everywhere around the world, abroad and now at home, is a big priority for us at the department, and will continue to be," Carter said Friday.

San Francisco: The New NSA?

7/16/2015

You'd think that after the recent NSA data collection scandals the government would reel in their Big Brother tendencies. San Francisco must not have gotten the memo.

I live in San Francisco (yes, by choice), and as a native Californian it is one of the best cities in the state for many reasons. The food, the people, the ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, and I could go on and on and on.

However, the anti-gun politicians are still keeping at it and their newest attack on the Second Amendment has come as a knee-jerk reaction to the Pier 14 shooting by an illegal immigrant who had seven felonies and had been deported more than enough times. Many factors contributed to the poor victim's death but the city's sanctuary laws protecting immigrants, both legal and illegal has drawn the most ire from the national discourse.

What is simply incredible though is that The San Francisco Board of Supervisors believes that gun control is the solution. The guy reportedly found the gun wrapped up in a cloth on a bench, and that gun was stolen from a federal agent's work vehicle. I have no idea how gun control would have prevented this tragedy. So the only logical conclusion is that the Board of Supervisors is trying to take advantage of an innocent person's death to push their gun control agenda.

It's shameful, and now the Board of Supervisors will be hearing a new law in September which would require all dealer sales of guns and ammunition to be videotaped. Buyer data would be collected and handed over to the San Francisco Police Department creating a database that has no use. More wasteful government spending- that is something I can tell you San Francisco is good at.

Major questions:

What will the SFPD even do with all that data? If someone came in and bought 1,000 rounds of 9mm, is that going to trigger some sort of alert and the SFPD will then go to that person's home? Then what?
Is this data collection constitutional?
Why does San Francisco think this will be effective when someone can just go to the next city over to buy guns and ammo? Also, there is only one gun shop in the city, Highbridge Arms, and so we're considering a whole law that targets a single business?

I plan on chatting with my Supervisor to voice my dismay over this proposal. I encourage other San Francisco residents who are against this proposal to contact their Supervisor as well.

Source: https://www.firearmspolicy.org/news/newslinks/new-san-francisco-measure-aims-to-videotape-all-gun-and-ammunition-sales/

CCRKBA SAYS SCOTUS RULING SHOULD OPEN DOOR TO NATIONAL CCW RECOGNITION

6/26/2015

http://www.ccrkba.org/?p=5014

BELLEVUE, WA – Following today’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said that the same principle should apply to nationwide state recognition of concealed carry licenses and permits from all other states.

“To paraphrase what Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy said about same-sex marriage,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “no right is more profound than the right of self-preservation, and under the Constitution, all citizens should be able to exercise the right of self-defense anywhere in the country. It disparages their ability to do so, and diminishes their personhood to deny the right to bear arms they have in their home states when they are visiting other states.”

While many states recognize the concealed carry permits or licenses from other states, this is not universal. In some states, law-abiding citizens have been egregiously prosecuted for conduct that is perfectly legal in their home state. For example, New Jersey has become notorious in recent years for prosecuting honest citizens, the most recent being the unjust treatment of Shaneen Allen, the Pennsylvania single mom who had to be pardoned by Gov. Chris Christie because she crossed a bridge from one state to the other, and was honest about having a firearm when quizzed by a police officer during a traffic stop.

“State drivers’ licenses are universally recognized,” Gottlieb observed, “and with today’s high court ruling, same-sex marriage must now be recognized in all 50 states as well. It not only stands to reason, but common sense demands that the concealed carry licenses held by more than 11 million citizens across the country should now be valid in every state without question.

“We’re talking about law-abiding citizens who have gone through background checks, and in many cases, state-mandated training programs,” he added. “To continue treating their Second Amendment rights as second-class privileges seems unconscionable after today’s ruling.”

My worlds collide in anti-Gay, Pro-Gun controversy

4/17/2015

“The Facebook post is the equivalent of putting a “No Gays Allowed” sign in front of his shop, and while the owner sees himself being a good Christian, I disagree. I challenge the notion that Jesus discriminates, when we all know he is about love and acceptance.”

If you haven't heard about the recent controversy in Michigan with a small business owner who refuses to repair cars for openly gay people, but will give discounts to gun owners, check it out.

It's made national headlines and Guns.com quoted me for the pro-LGBT side of things and how I believe it's wrong to discriminate, regardless of your rationale. This is America, where we can agree to disagree and not push people away through discrimination. We learn through interaction and engagement, and as the owner is a proud Christian, I would encourage him to embrace the idea that Jesus loved everyone and was accepting of man and all his flaws.

It's quite an interesting controversy where the 1st, 2nd, and 14th Amendments are all involved.

What are your thoughts on all of this? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Full article: http://www.guns.com/2015/04/16/michigan-auto-shop-offers-discounts-for-gun-owners-bans-gays/

Taking Over the #ImUnloading Campaign

3/12/2015

As I discussed in this week's episode of The Second Scoop, this new #ImUnloading campaign is led by former rapper and purveyor of gun violence, Snoop Dogg. The campaign is encouraging people to divest their 401Ks of holdings in the firearms industry. It's illogical, and pointless. Snoop Dogg and friends are blaming firearms deaths on gun manufacturers, instead of the people pulling the triggers.

Here's the campaign video:

One of my fans had an idea, let's take over the #ImUnloading hashtag with our own campaign.

To participate, it's similar to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and really easy to join the cause:

Create a video or picture of you "unloading" your magazine/tube/gun in whatever fashion you like.
Post it to your favorite social media platform, and make sure you include the hashtag #ImUnloading.
Call out a friend or three to make their own #ImUnloading video or picture.

Here's my first #ImUnloading video (I couldn't get to the range today, but I will be making a few #ImUnloading vids with live fire soon):

So get to the range and make your own #ImUnloading video for everyone to see!

I'll post some of the good #ImUnloading videos and pictures I see on my blog. Let's have fun with this!