TrainMeAZ  News:
Media and Public Resources

Testimonials about TrainMeAZ from government officials
High-rez art files linked here

We won the gun censorship case against Phoenix elites! May 8, 2014. (Korwin v. Phoenix)
“Guns Save Lives” can’t be banned from city bus stops, Court of Appeals forces lower court and Phoenix “officials” to remove the gag and allow our gun-safety training message to be posted. Read all about it, link to the decision, new signs will be up shortly, news coverage very positive (media sides with free speech despite the gun message), stunning victory.

No longer illegal!
(It took 3-1/2 years to get this done)



While we waited:

Bus shelter gun-safety-training ads are back up in Phoenix! Sept. 26, 2013.
No, we didn’t win the “Guns Save Lives” censorship lawsuit (yet), but we got the city to approve a different message, “Guns Stop Crime,” and we’re up at 30 locations with about 1.8 million views daily. We’ll have maps, details and pictures posted soon.

Catch the latest news about the Guns Save Lives censorship case
(awaiting a decision at the Court of Appeals, heard on Dec. 3, 2013):

FOX-TV interview
The New York Times (have their readers ever seen the phrase “Guns Save Lives”?)
Capitol Media Services did the most accurate, detailed review of the case
USA Today ran a favorable piece, reproduced the ad (yes!), gave the ACLU good space
The Washington (D.C.) Free Beacon covered it, with links to the briefs and pictures of the ad, the city’s proposed rewrite of our ad and more

Audio recording of the oral arguments here (fascinating, 20 minutes each side):
http://azcourts.gov/coa1/OralArguments.aspx Case # 1 CA-CV 12-0878
Use this link: CR2_12-3-2013_CV120878.mp3 (or ask and we’ll send the mp3 file)
Scroll down on this page for links to all the briefs and more news.


Breaking News – July 1, 2013: Arizona Firearms Industry Directory released!

The first-ever guide to the entire gun industry in the Grand Canyon State has been compiled and released by TrainMeAZ. More than 300 firms are doing over $1B in business and are listed in detail along with… read more, get a copy

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Timeline:

TrainMeAZ Backgrounder
TrainMeAZ is a non-partisan, joint educational effort of the firearms training and Second Amendment community in Arizona. The state’s unique Constitutional Carry law served as the spark to initiate…

TrainMeAZ Gets Started (Press Release #1)

Packed Press Conference Announces New Law and TrainMeAZ
The Arizona Senate Meeting room was packed with media and dignitaries in July 2010 when the Constitutional Carry Law and TrainMeAZ held a press conference to announce the launch of…


The Highway Billboard Campaign

Billboards went up around the state to get the word out — now that government no longer forces you to take a class in order to exercise your rights, it makes sense to take classes voluntarily, enjoy the #2 participant sport in the nation and…


The TrainMeAZ “GUN MAP”

Featuring excellent cartography and a wealth of information, The Arizona Where-To-Shoot GUN MAP is a 2-foot-by-3-foot full-color printed map with dots indicating every publicly available shooting range. Released in April 2011…


Bus-Stop Campaign
CENSORED!

In October, 2010, TrainMeAZ began a campaign of street-level bus-shelter posters, illuminated, with extremely high visibility, to promote its sponsors and the concept of responsible gun safety. Nine days after our ads went up, the city of Phoenix tore them down in the middle of the night, without warning, in what has become a major first-amendment court case with nationwide implications that…
Initial case description • All filings • What’s at stake • The arguments
The ACLU joins the case as an
amicus!
Lower Court Finds Against Us, We Plan Appeal, 10/30/12
Goldwater Institute Reports, All Legal Briefs Here, through Winter 2013

The red heart poster was censored, but this blue heart poster was approved.
The city’s policy is arbitrary and cannot be understood by a person of ordinary
intelligence, one of the key elements of the case. More important, the city
should not be sitting in judgment of the words people use, trying to decide
which are commercial, which are political, which it will allow, and which it will ban.

 

Increasing Trainers and Sponsors
The numbers of trainers and sponsors supporting TrainMeAZ continues to grow, despite setbacks with censorship of the effective bus shelter campaign, and our web search and user tools have gone through improvements as…

Phase II of TMA turns to Industry Attraction in 2012 and 2013
The national frenzy for gun restrictions also generated massive interest in gun sales, training and industry coalition. Responding, TrainMeAZ developed the Arizona Firearms Industry Directory, and became involved in identifying and helping attract new business to Arizona, from states increasingly hostile to the industry. Working with the Governor’s office of business attraction in the Arizona Commerce Authority, we continue to pursue the new jobs, tax base, commerce and wholesome neighbors such business represents.

Expanded Goals beginning in 2012 include:
• Attract firearms industry and high quality jobs to the state of Arizona.
Support a more robust firearms tourism component to the state’s economy.
• Create the first-ever Arizona Firearms Industry Directory in the state.
• Reintroduce marksmanship and gun-safety education into public schools.
• Speak out for improvement to the legal protections of the Second Amendment.
• Campaigning to increase public awareness of the social utility of firearms.
Read the Original Goals set in 2010

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 Posters like this one were up under contract for about nine days
before Phoenix had them removed without notice. The initial contract
called for eight weeks of exposure at 50 locations, renewable at our option.
The city says it’s about commercial vs. political speech, but in phone calls,
it seemed apparent they just didn’t want the message out there.

NEWS FLASH — 10/21/10
Our bus-stop billboards have been banned by the city of Phoenix,
acting apparently without clear written guidelines or legal due process.
Without notice, all 50 bus-stop ads under contract were torn down
and removed from public view. This is a developing story.
June, 2013: All preliminary depositions, hearings, trials and papers
have been filed. Oral argument in the appeal is likely in the Fall of 2013.
The ACLU has joined the case as an amicus. Stay tuned.

WorldNetDaily columnist Jeff Knox got it right –
http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=223245
Google it for lots of coverage and commentary.

Read Laurie Roberts’ front-page story on the censorship
(Arizona Republic)
http://tinyurl.com/2bog46q

Read about the lawsuit against the City of Phoenix.