Sunday, March 31, 2013

Military installations sidestep questions on brass destruction


Thinking that compliance issues over unauthorized destruction rather than resale of brass had been resolved back in 2009 and again in 2010, tips that the practice was ongoing and continuing resulted in a special Gun Rights Examiner investigative report in January about reports of destruction at Fort Drum in New York, but not in clarification from responsible authorities.

With that as backdrop, independent reports and tips continued to be provided to this column by interested readers, including a military combat veteran relating not just the alleged destruction of ammunition but also the financial advantages he said the Oregon National Guard benefited from by deforming and selling casings as scrap, and also a report alleging similar destruction at an Army base in Wisconsin, Fort McCoy.

“I'm responding to a tip that Ft. McCoy brass from expended small arms ammunition is being shredded instead of sold on the civilian market,” this columnist wrote in the base contact form. “I’m told that as of the beginning of this month, no brass may be sold without being rendered unusable.

“Is this true?” the query continued “Is or was brass being destroyed? If so, who ordered it, over what time period, under what authority, and will you make a copy of such orders public? Did an order to destroy brass once exist and has it been rescinded? When and by whom? Does everything that is being destroyed meet the criteria of being ‘unserviceable or unsafe for further use’? What is the policy for destruction of brass that could be sold on the civilian market? Are all destruction activities consistent with appropriations and public law requirements?

Many embedded links at the gun rights examiner, here

130-years of Revolver Speed Loaders (VIDEO)


I post this article out of nostalgia. The first article that I was paid for was a short in the NRA magazine, The American Rifleman. It was about my reinvention of the Full Moon Clip to speed load a Webley top break revolver. Dean Weingarten

Like most firearms, the revolver suffers from a very annoying limitation that affects virtually anyone using it in the field: once you fire every chamber, the gun needs to be reloaded. Most of the time (meaning range time), reloading is a minor albeit sometimes irritating inconvenience and time is a no issue. Sometimes however, a bad person or animal is attempting to end your existence and, under the stress of this real-life situation, time is a priceless luxury. It was for just these occasions that the speedloader was created. The Early days

The first revolver speedloader patented was that of William H. Bell in 1879. Bell’s device was a simple metal disk with a rotating locking mechanism that held six revolver rounds. When used with a top-break revolver of the time, such as the Smith and Wesson Lemon squeezer, the speedloader would drop six ready rounds in the cylinder extremely rapidly. It is unclear if Bell’s device ever was manufactured, but it certainly seems like the first of its species.

More Here at guns.com

Burglar Pinned on Front Lawn as Naked Homeowner Holds Him at Gunpoint (VIDEO)


"I’m in bed sleeping, I get up, I retrieve my sidearm, I chase him out the front door. I’ve got him pinned on the ground. It’s 4:55 in the morning and I don’t have a stitch of clothing on. I’m basically telling him at this point, ‘Stay on the ground, don’t move, because if you do move, I will shoot you.’”

When the times comes to protect your house, you do what you got to do. This is what happend to Eric Martin, a Utah homeowner who woke up to an intruder in his house this past Thursday. The suspect, Clinton Keller, had made his way through various rooms in the home before being noticed. As his girlfriend called 911 and his 8 year old son lay asleep, Martin who was naked only holding his sidearm chased the burglar out on to his front lawn. The suspect ended up tripping over his duffle bag, where Martin held him at gunpoint until police arrived.

“I said, ‘Do you know what I have pointed at you?’ He said, ‘No,’ and I said, ‘Do you want to know?’ and he of course doesn’t respond to that one, so I tell him, ‘Let me explain, I’ve got a .9mm pointed at you with high-velocity hollow points in the chamber.’

The police lauded Eric Martin for his actions in handeling the situation. The suspect Clinton Keller was booked on residential burglary and theft.

More Here at guns.com

Free shotguns, ammo and training offered in ’anti-rape’ kit by Houston group


An initiative to arm citizens in high-crime neighborhoods with shotguns, and provide training in how to use them, is a first-of-its-kind program, the Huffington Post reported today, March 29. The Houston-based organization behind this effort, The Armed Citizen Project (ACP), was launched this February with the mission to facilitate “the arming of law abiding citizens." The group plans to analyze the relationship between increased firearm availability and crime rates.

Earlier this week, the group announced the launch of its anti-rape kit initiative. This project will provide free guns, ammunition and training to Houston area women. According to the ACP, the city of Houston has a backlog of 7,000 unprocessed rape kits, kits used to collect evidence needed to identify and prosecute rapists. This backlog in the criminal justice system allows violent criminals to remain at large.

The group believes arming and training vulnerable women to protect themselves is a more effective way of preventing rape, and is more cost-effective. The city spends $400 to process one rape kit.

more here

FL:Police: Would-be burglar shot dead by homeowner


The attempted burglary happened in the area of 121st Street and Northwest 18th Avenue. Investigators said three shots were fired after a car alarm went off. Police said the homeowner shot the suspect when he saw him attempting to break into his home.

More Here

TX:Armed Robber Killed by Victim


One man is dead after a would-be armed robber was shot by the robbery victim as he tried to steal the victim's SUV.

Police said the victim, whose name hasn't been released, had a gun pressed against his head by the armed robber in the parking lot of the Bel Air Place apartments on Dewberry Blvd. in Lancaster.

-------------------cut--------------------------

While being held in his apartment, the victim grabbed his own gun and started shooting at the robber. The two exchanged gunfire inside the apartment and the shootout continued to the breezeway and down into the parking lot.

More Here

Saturday, March 30, 2013

GA:Butts County home owner shoots intruders


"It appears that there was a female and three black males. They put on bandanas across their face, they went to the back door to break into the house. The homeowner heard them, the female there. She comes around the corner and they're kicking the door to try and come in and she fires one shot," said Long.

One of the suspects,Cornelius Williams, 19, a student at Jasper High School, was shot near the right eye. A second suspect, Frank Milligan, also 19, and also a Jasper High School student, was hit in the head with shrapnel. A third suspect, Louis Ross, 25, broke his leg when he jumped off the back porch trying to escape. The female suspect, Ashley Eiland, 29, who Long says had picked the boys up from high school, has been charged with criminal attempt to commit burglary.

More Here

Even a woman who knows her assailant needs armed self-defense (Photos)


Starting last month, Little Rock Gun Rights Examiner Jennifer Cruz wrote a "30 days of guns saving lives" series, as a response to media exploitation of criminal "gun violence" in furtherance of the agenda of more oppressive gun regulation, and also in response to the mass media's chronic under-reporting of defensive gun use. The series was successful enough that she has continued it even after the planned 30 days ran out--and there is certainly no danger of running out of such incidents.

They are of course all compelling stories, as accounts about decent people protecting their and others' lives from predatory evil are bound to be. Yesterday's "Virginia woman shoots husband in self-defense," though, is perhaps of special interest. What makes this story particularly significant is that those who disparage the very notion of armed self-defense for women often justify their disdain with the puzzling argument that women commonly know their assailants. A "study," by the rabidly anti-gun Violence Policy Center, for example, citing statistics VPC claims "dispel many of the myths" about women and guns:

More Here

Related:The Misleading Murderer that you Know

OH:Home Intrudeer stoped by 72 year old on Oxygen has been Charged


A fair amount of details in the story. The 26 year old male broke though two glass doors to get into the house. He may have been on drugs.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The man who broke into a 72-year-old woman's southside home by busting through the front window has been charged with burglary.

More Here

PA:Diner Owner Tells NPR Why He Openly Carries a Gun


In a nationally aired segment about an Easton rally Thursday, Hellertown Diner owner Vasilios 'Bill' Christogiannis told NPR he openly carries a loaded Ruger semiautomatic pistol to show 'support...for protecting the right to own a firearm.'

More Here

UT:St. George Man Holds Burglary Suspect At Gunpoint


By Ladd Egan (KUTV) An early-morning burglary attempt at a St. George home ended in the homeowner holding the burglary suspect at gunpoint until police arrived.

Police got the call just before 5 a.m. Thursday to respond to a home on Lone Rock Drive.

Officers arrived and arrested Clinton Keller, 30, of St. George. He is being held in the Washington County Jail awaiting formal charges of residential burglary and theft.

“The suspect was lying on the ground with the homeowner standing over him,” said Sgt. Sam Despain with the St. George Police Dept. “He identified himself as the homeowner, communicated with our officers and it wasn’t hard for officers to determine who was the good guy and who was the bad guy.”

More Here

Big Money To Demos: “Gun Control Or We Cut You Off!”


With the usual note that the source is not reliable, the Washington Post reports big money Democratic donors such as Buzzfeed’s Kenneth Lerer have given the Democrats an ultimatum.. Pass gun controls or you get no more money from us

On the other hand, if the Dimmos do pass gun control they will almost certainly suffer the consequences in both Congress and at the State level. Which puts Andy Jackson’s Jackass Partei on the horns of the dilemma. Briefly quoting the item linked above:

Lerer also said he would be intensifying his contributions to Democratic Senate candidates in the next few years — excluding any that don’t take a strong position on gun control. “We intend to get very active in Senatorial campaigns during the next cycle and the one after,” he said. Red state Dems up for reelection in 2014 include Mary Landrieu, Kay Hagan, Mark Begich, Mark Pryor, and Max Baucus.
All of which merely confirms what observers have known since at least 1982. The Democratic Partei belongs to the big donors, lock, stock, and barrel. And the poor? Well, I see the Democrats have stopped paying for diagnostic tests for Medicare recipients. I also see that the going rate of return for “donations” to the Obama campaign are running around fifty million in taxpayers money for a five hundred thousand donation. Which makes donating to Dimmos the soundest investment around.

And all of this means we must emulate the old time loggers. Spit on our hands and start chopping. Chopping down Democrats. Because the United States is not that far behind Mexico when it comes to corruption.

Stranger

Source extransoalley.com

Friday, March 29, 2013

A pro-gun blogger crashes MAIG’s press conference (*VIDEO*)


Today was awesome. I had to be in Durham today, and just this morning I found out that the Durham Mayor, a (Illegal) Mayors Against Illegal Guns was holding a press conference to push for passage of Harry Reid’s anti-gun bill. There’s something really cool about seeing the faces of three Mayors when they realize that they’ve invited a question at a press conference from a political opponent.

Harry Reid’s bill, S649 includes an almost carbon copy of Senator Shumer’s ”Fix Gun Checks Act.” That bill would have criminalized something I did last year. My wife wanted to learn to shoot my Ruger 10/22. I took my rifle to a friend’s farm and gave it to him. My wife went up to his farm and he taught her to shoot it safely out on the “back forty.” Then he put it in her truck and she brought it home. He had the rifle for about 4 months. S649 would put all three of us in Federal prison for 5 years each, minimum. I asked the mayors, “How would making me, my wife, and our friend Mike into federal felons keep criminals from selling guns to each other on the streets of Durham, Morrisville, or Chapel Hill?” Here’s the video that they played at 6pm.

More at NCGunBlog, with video, Here

Effort in Arizona Would Give Residents Free Shotguns


Tucson residents living in crime-ridden areas could soon receive free shotguns.

Operating on the premise an armed neighborhood is a safer neighborhood, a group led by former mayoral candidate Shaun McClusky is raising money to purchase shotguns and provide training for anyone who lives in a mid- to high-crime neighborhood and can pass a background check.

The project is part of a developing nationwide movement to see if more guns really do translate into less crime.

McClusky said he's bringing the program to Tucson because the City Council has failed to properly fund the Police Department, leaving many residents easy targets for criminals.

"We need to take back our city, and it needs to come back to the citizens and not the criminals," McClusky said. "Right now, the criminal element is winning."

More Here

Thousands of armed vigilantes takeover Mexican town, arrest police


'Community police' arrest former director of security in Tierra Colorado.

They allege he took part in killing of their leader, 28, for criminal cartel.

State prosecutors agree to investigate official's links to organised crime.

Vigilantes have been stopping traffic at checkpoints and searching homes.

Tourist injured after vigilantes opened fire because he failed to stop his car.

Takeover comes amid growing 'self defence' movement against cartels.

More at dailymail.com here

PA:Police: Homeowner shoots 1 of 3 men beating on door in Greenwich


GREENWICH TWP., Pa. -

State police are investigating a shooting at a home Monday night in Greenwich Township. They said people were pounding on the door and the homeowner sent a shot through the wall of his house.

State police said this investigation is ongoing and by Tuesday no one had been arrested.

More Here

Thursday, March 28, 2013

KY:Man Fires Shot At Suspected Burglar


A Lexington man fired a shot at a masked man trying to break into his home Sunday night.

Police say three adults and three sleeping kids were inside a home along Boysenberry Street in the Suburban Trailer Court around 10:30 p.m. when somebody started beating on the door. They all went into a back room and one resident came out with a gun. He says he spotted a masked man armed with a gun trying to get in. Police say the resident fired a shot at the burglar and ran back to the room.

More Here

VA:Police: Wife Shot Husband In Self Defense; Man Charged


It is not easy to determine who is at fault in domestic situations. Much research indicates that violence occurs from both sexes, at about 50/50 levels. Men use their hands and feet, women use instruments. Dean Weingarten

CHESTERFIELD, VA—A Chesterfield County woman who police say shot her husband in self defense during in a domestic dispute Sunday will not face charges.

NC:Felon Defending Home may be Charged With Gun Possession


COLUMBUS COUNTY, NC (WECT) - A homeowner in Columbus County allegedly shot an intruder in the neck late Saturday night and could also face charges in this incident.

Deputies in Columbus County said Brian Riggins and two other men broke into a home at the intersection of FM Watts and Peacock Road, which is between Tabor City and Whiteville.

More Here

One Day After Calling Gun Owners “Heartless Motherf&ckers,” Jim Carrey Admits He Has An Armed Bodyguard


After making news for doing a tired “humor” video mocking gun owners, whom he also called “heartless motherf&ckers,” Jim Carrey announced today on twitter that his armed bodyguard “doesn’t have a hundred rounds in his clip.”

More Here

CO:Magpul gives Preferences to Colorado Residents to Ship Magazines to Colorado Before Ban


During this period of high demand, and with the reality of Colorado state legislation, we at Magpul are taking steps to ensure that responsible Colorado residents who want to own standard capacity magazines have the opportunity to do so.

To meet this need, we have set up a process for CO residents to purchase limited quantities of magazines from our website.

In order to participate in this program, go to: http://store.magpul.com/member_register

Create your login account with your Colorado address and click the “Register” button to submit.

Create your login account with your Colorado address and click the “Register” button to submit.

Once registered, you will be added to an authorized Special Purchase group, which will allow you to purchase select magazines from a limited access section of our website. After registering on the site you will receive two emails, one verifying your registration, and another with instructions for placing your order.

If you already have a login account at Magpul.com, please just send an e-mail to ColoradoPMAGS@magpul.com including your name, the email used to sign up for the account, and your CO address, then the process will proceed as above.

NOTE: WE CANNOT SHIP MAGAZINES TO ADDRESSES WITHIN DENVER DUE TO THE EXISTING CITY BAN.

All sales are subject to our normal compliance checks.

More Here at Ammoland

Is Buying Guns a Sickness?


Political commentator Cynthia Tucker is sad. As she’s noticed, National Gun Fever Shows No Sign Of Breaking. Even worse, ”Apparently, there will be no ban on assault weapons.” She apparently thinks that the way to attack these problems by encouraging future mass murderers; listing various mass casualty shootings including the names of the shooters in her articles. But, like so many wanna-be gun grabbers, she confuses reality with liberal fantasy land . . .

Tucker notes that the Sandy Hook shooter:

used a Bushmaster AR-15 assault-type rifle to rip apart the bodies of children
Actually darlin’, he used bullets from an AR-15 “type” rifle to do his despicable deed (nice non-inflammatory rhetoric, by the way). But according to an un-named “law enforcement veteran” cited in a New York Daily News piece, this wasn’t just a case of some kid snapping, grabbing the nearest rifle and opening up on the most convenient targets. The
names, body counts and weapons from previous mass murders and even attempted killings. ‘It sounded like a doctoral thesis, that was the quality of the research,’
But it was more than a spreadsheet:
“They don’t believe this was just a spreadsheet. They believe it was a score sheet,” he continued. “This was the work of a video gamer, and that it was his intent to put his own name at the very top of that list. They believe that he picked an elementary school because he felt it was a point of least resistance, where he could rack up the greatest number of kills. That’s what (the Connecticut police) believe.”
So this shooter laid his plans for years. And to maximize his body count (and his score) he chose a gun-free zone. The type of weapon he used was really immaterial, as was the magazine size because (again, according to the law enforcement veteran quoted in the Daily News piece):

More Here

Here is a link to an article on media complicity in promoting mass school shootings:

Media: Stop Shouting Fire! in Crowded Schools

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Kan. lawmakers advance expanding concealed carry


TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A bill that would expand the number of public buildings in Kansas where concealed weapons are allowed and let public school and college employees carry concealed firearms won first-round approval Tuesday night in the state Senate.

More Here

Ho hum!





Particulars here

Fear of guns





AZ:Phoenix Gun Turn in "buyback" Dates Announced for May 2013


The gun turn in events for Phoenix have been given dates. They will be held on Saturdays, the 4th, 11th, and 18th of May. $100 gift cards will be given for handguns, most rifles, and shotguns. $200 will be given for semi-automatic "military style" rifles.

The turn in events will be held in the Maryvale, South Phoenix, and Sunnyslope neighborhoods. The addresses of the events have not yet been announced. It has been reported that "high capacity" magazines that are turned in will also earn a card.

No limits or qualifiers have been announced so far, but only $100,000 has been allocated. Dreams of making a killing trading in old triple K magazines for $100 each are likely misplaced.

Anyone with a 3D printer might start paying it off by using the Defense Distributed designs.

Many "buybacks" (turn in is the correct phrase, the government never owned these guns in the first place) have been attended by private buyers. Some have made very good deals. Their presence stretches turn in dollars, prevents ignorant gun owners from turning in valuable guns for a pittance, and takes valuable firearms off the street and into responsible hands that appreciate them.

One charity program in Maine resulted from cooperation between a gun rights group and a gun control group. The firearms turned in were sold to a dealer, and the money donated to the Special Olympics.

Some have likened "buybacks" that have the firearms destroyed to medieval deodand rituals.

Link to cooperative charity turn in done in Maine

Link to article with numerous links to "buybacks" with private buyers

Link to article on deodands

©2013 by Dean Weingarten Permission to share granted as long as this notice is included.

Gun Turn In Program for Rhode Island: Private Sales Forbidden


Four cities in Rhode Island will be offering various gift cards for firearms turned in anonymously at four locations. The cities involved are: Providence, Warwick, Central Falls, and Bristol.

The turn ins will be conducted from 10am to 2pm on April 6th. Unlike some programs that put forfeiture funds to questionable use, this program will be conducted with privately donated funds.

Rhode Island is one of a handful of states that forbid the private sales of firearms. All firearm sales must be conducted through State agents, and there is a waiting period of seven days after the sale before a firearm can be transfered. This makes the conduct of private sales at these turn in events practically impossible.

Many turn in events have had healthy competition from private buyers, stretching turn in funds and placing valuable firearms in responsible hands.

A turn in event in Maine featured cooperation with a gun control group and Second Amendment supporters. Turned in firearms were sold to a dealer, with the proceeds used to fund the special Olympics.

Turn in events where valuable firearms are destroyed for political theater have been likened to Medieval deodand rituals, where objects were found guilty of crimes.

Link to "Buyback" notice

Link to Rhode Island statute

Link to article with numerous links to "buybacks" with private buyers

Link to cooperative charity turn in done in Maine

Link to article on deodands

©2013 by Dean Weingarten Permission to share granted as long as this notice is included.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Gun Dealer Refuses to be Used for Political Purposes by Gabby Giffords' Husband


Diamondback Police Supply, the gun dealership that was to sell the AR-15 type rifle to Mark Kelly, Gabby Gifford's Husband, has returned his money now that it has learned that he did not intend the rifle for personal use.

Here is the statement:

Statement of Douglas MacKinlay, Owner/President, Diamondback Police Supply Co., Inc.

“While I support and respect Mark Kelly’s 2nd Amendment rights to purchase, possess, and use firearms in a safe and responsible manner, his recent statements to the media made it clear that his intent in purchasing the Sig Sauer M400 5.56mm rifle from us was for reasons other then for his personal use. In light of this fact, I determined that it was in my company’s best interest to terminate this transaction prior to his returning to my store to complete the Federal From 4473 and NICS background check required of Mr. Kelly before he could take possession this firearm. A full refund was sent to Mr. Kelly, via express mail, on Thursday of last week.

The Sig Sauer rifle will be donated to the Arizona Tactical Officers Association where it will be raffled off to generate funds the association can use to purchase much needed tactical equipment for the organization’s members. The A.T.O. A. represents the SWAT and Special Response officers of the state’s law enforcement community who regularly place their lives on the line to protect the residents of this state.

Additionally, Diamondback Police Supply will make a $1295.00 contribution (the selling price of the M400 rifle) to the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program that teaches children, in pre-K through 3rd grade, four important steps to take if they find a gun. The emphasis of the program is on child safety, something that is important to all of us and at the core of the current debate on gun control,” stated Douglas MacKinlay, Owner/President, Diamondback Police Supply Co., Inc.

It is nice to see a gun dealer stand on principle and refuse to be a pawn in political games designed to infringe on our Second Amendment rights.

It is an added bonus that a contribution will be made to teach children gun safety.

Kudos to Diamondback Police Supply for their defense of our Constitutional rights.

Link to facebook Statement of Douglas MacKinlay

Dean Weingarten

Flippant Frummery


Writing about the Black Panthers and gun rights, David Frum begins well — which is to say, with a quotation from me — but quickly reverts to First Order Frummery.

”The purpose of having citizens armed with paramilitary weapons is to allow them to engage in paramilitary actions.” That sentence is quoted not from the Black Panther manifesto, but from an article published just a few weeks ago in National Review by Kevin Williamson.

Before 1965, it would have occurred to precisely nobody that the Second Amendment guaranteed the right to organize private armies independent of the state.

The only way Frum could write that sentence is to have ignored the evidence in the piece of mine from which he was quoting or, more likely, to have failed to read it. If he had read it, he would have encountered the sentiment of Justice Joseph Story — who lived well before 1965 and who was not “precisely nobody” — which says the thing Frum says nobody said:

The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.

Frum is here guilty of either willful ignorance or intellectual dishonesty. Such sentiments as Justice Story’s are of course not terribly difficult to document: It was hardly unthinkable to the gentlemen of the founding generation that an armed people might throw off a tyrant, since they had just done so. For the benefit of humanity, they published a famous laundry list of their reasons for doing so, and Mr. Frum might consider availing himself of their wisdom.

It is worth noting that taking up arms against an oppressive government is hardly unprecedented, even in modern American history. When the people of McMinn County, Tenn., petitioned state and federal officials for relief from their corrupt, violent, election-rigging local government, and none was forthcoming, they took up arms against the ruling junta in order to stop its stealing another election.

The Black Panthers were a criminal gang, but then so were a lot of Jim Crow-era sheriff’s departments. The fact that the Black Panthers cited the right to self-defense does not invalidate the Second Amendment any more than David Frum’s occasional descents into self-righteous inanity invalidate the First Amendment.

Source at National Review

IN:Gunfight in Evansville


It happened in the 900 block of line street near the intersection of Powell Avenue and South Governor Street. Detectives tell Eyewitness News they believe Dominique Pollard shot Jamie O'Neil Jones in self-defense.

More Here

Press rushes to ‘exonerate’ DHS as OIG report raises more questions than answers


It is not hard to cover things up with a willing media. Dean Weingarten

As with its rush to declare Eric Holder “cleared” upon release of the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General’s report, major media outlets are unquestioningly accepting Department of Homeland Security OIG conclusions from its long-awaited “Fast and Furious” report, strategically pre-released last Thursday to the Los Angeles Times.

“[T]he report determined that top Department of Homeland Security officials in Washington did not learn about Fast and Furious until [Border Patrol Agent Brian] Terry was shot to death in December 2010 and two of the 1,430 lost firearms were found at the scene of his murder,” The Times dutifully accepted, setting the tone for “legitimate media” to follow.

“Senior Department of Homeland Security officials did not learn about the flawed gunwalking tactics involved in the ATF’s Fast and Furious case until years after the investigation began,” ABC15.com chimed in. “The report, issued this month, shows senior DHS officials ‘had no awareness’ of the investigative strategies that allowed criminals to access and smuggle guns to Mexico, until media reports were published in March 2011.”

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Interested officials weren't aware of that? Really?

“He put service before self, which is a mark of heroism,” DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano proclaimed at slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s funeral the preceding December. “We resolve, I resolve, to pursue swift justice for those responsible for his death.”

Less than a week before, per the OIG report, she’d “visited OBP Arizona offices … to support the OBP staff and to assert to the USAO and to the FBI that DHS wanted an aggressive investigation and prosecution. Tellingly, the report documents “U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke traveled with her from Phoenix to the offices she visited and attended the meetings with OBP personnel. However, Burke and others did not inform her about the connection between the weapons recovered at the scene of the murder and the OCDETF operation. They did not mention Operation Fast and Furious.”

Didn’t they? Burke used to be her DHS Senior Advisor, and before that was her Chief of Staff when she was Arizona governor. He’s the guy who ended up resigning over his involvement in Fast and Furious, involvement that included leaking secret records about whistleblower John Dodson. He wouldn't be spilling his guts to make sure they were both covered?

And we’re supposed to not only accept without question that scenario, but conclude that Napolitano, with an obvious and important vital interest in a high-stakes game reaching to the White House, and an intelligence-gathering apparatus that makes Orwell’s Big Brother appear like inept neighborhood snoop Gladys Kravitz on “Bewitched” by comparison, was flat-out uninformed and waiting for The Washington Post to notice? Based on what the auditors admit they did not find evidence on, as opposed to finding evidence to corroborate such claims ... ?

And, as with the DOJ OIG report, there were plenty of avenues closed off to the DHS auditors.

“We were not able to interview the ICE Chief of Staff, who left DHS employment during the course of our review,” the report admits.

That's a reason?

And it’s not like conflicting recollections didn’t surface.

“[T]hree senior leaders, including the HSI SAC, said that they did not remember the conversations about problems with ATF’s methodology or with assigning an HSI special agent to Operation Fast and Furious,” the report states.

As for tracking down other details, the audit also reveals gaps in what they could investigate, such as “We do not have access to those ATF ROIs [Reports of Investigation] and can only review the special agent’s 33 ROIs to understand his activities on the operation,” and “We were unable to interview the ASAC, who has since retired and declined a voluntary interview with us.”

Compare that to similar refusals noted in the DOJ OIG report, relevantly including the footnote stating “The ICE agent who was assigned to ATF’s Group VII declined our request for a voluntary interview.”

There’s plenty of finger-pointing, plenty of well-deserved blaming of ATF and plenty of plausible deniability policy barriers set up to insulate higher-ups, or at least making tracing what they knew and when they knew it problematic, leaving operational ground troops out on limbs that can be sawn off to save those occupying the top branches. What this report does clearly add additional corroboration for is the conclusion that the intent of breaking off surveillance and allowing guns to “walk” to Mexico was to have those guns recovered at crime scenes, meaning at places where people died in firefights.

Nothing else makes sense.

Anyone denying that is being disingenuous at best. Anyone ridiculing that as “conspiracy theory” is being intentionally deceptive to protect an agenda. And anyone accepting reports like this (and the prior one) and maintaining they exonerate anyone, is being, generously, a willing dupe.

More Here at Gun Rights Examiner

Gov. Cuomo's 7-bullet magazine limit dies an embarrassing death


One of the centerpieces of Governor Andrew Cuomo's hastily written state gun control bill will be "suspended indefinitely," the Senate majority leader said.

The ban on magazines containing more than 7-bullets had to be withdrawn because of one, teensy, tiny problem with it:

Nobody told Cuomo and the gun grabbers that manufacturers do not make 7-bullet magazines.

more here at American Thinker

Knives and the Second Amendment (David Kopel)


That’s the title of my forthcoming article in the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. My co-authors are Clayton Cramer and Joe Olson. The abstract:

This Article is the first scholarly analysis of knives and the Second Amendment. Knives are clearly among the “arms” which are protected by the Second Amendment. Under the Supreme Court’s standard in District of Columbia v. Heller, knives are Second Amendment “arms” because they are “typically possessed by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,” including self-defense.

Bans of knives which open in a convenient way (bans on switchblades, gravity knives, and butterfly knives) are unconstitutional. Likewise unconstitutional are bans on folding knives which, after being opened, have a safety lock to prevent inadvertent closure.

Prohibitions on the carrying of knives in general, or of particular knives, are unconstitutional. There is no knife which is more dangerous than a modern handgun; to the contrary, knives are much less dangerous. Therefore, restrictions on the carrying of handguns set the upper limit for restrictions on knife carrying.

The Article is just the beginning of long overdue scholarly analysis of laws about knives. Not all households own firearms, but almost every household owns a knife, even if we do not count table knives. Issues involving knife carrying come up quite frequently in state criminal courts, but the legal academy has thus far failed to provide the courts with useful guidance. Persons who are interested in writing on Second Amendment issues, and who wish to make an original contribution, will find that there is plenty to write about.

Source, The Volokh Conspiracy

MI:Citizen Report on Second Amendment Rally 20 March, 2013


Re: 2nd Amendment March & Rally at the State Capital

A big shout-out to Nick of northern Michigan for car-pooling me and big Dan to Lansing!

What a nice time. Lots of people open-carrying their sidearms along with LOTS of men and women with slung carbines and shotguns. Folks were polite, smiling and friendly. The only repugnant folks present were a few panty-waisted, slack-jawed liberals who wanted to ban all firearms.

The Michigan State Police and Capital Police were good-to-go and professional. One of the Troopers came up and commented on my jacket and told him where he could buy one. We spoke for a bit and later got a photo of us standing next to one another. Met lots of military brother's-in-Arms who were combat veterans. Talked with one big black fellow who was packing his M-16/M-4 and turns out he is a cop in Flint, MI. Met a retired Chief Warrant Officer (Army Special Forces) who had cross-trained with some of my SEAL Team-mates in Honduras. This guy served 26 years on active-duty and had three (3) Purple Hearts. You'll see him being interviewed in the video (see below).

I was impressed with the messages the speakers had for the big gathering. Those in attendance were hardy folks and quite animated and vocal despite it being 23 deg. with 15 knot winds. At one point me and Nick, being quite chilled, decided we would go into the capital building. We warmed up a bit on the third floor in the audience seats overlooking the senate hearings in progress (while open carrying both sidearms and long guns). One family man there, with his little one's in tow, said to us, "I feel a lot safer with you guys here." : )

Oakland County Campaign for Liberty put together a ten minute video of the march/rally. Here's the link: http://ap711.com/Video.html ...if for some reason the link is "No Go" then got to their home page at http://ap711.com/OakC4L and click on "Videos."

Thanks be to God for His providence and protection each new day, for, as it is written, "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep [i.e., guards] the city, the watchman waketh but in vain" (Ps. 127:1).

Take care, neighbors...

Respectfully, Billy

-ex U.S. Naval Special Warfare operator

Source

Monday, March 25, 2013

KY: Great OC story from Elizabethtown


From the site Opencarry.org

I have been a lurker on this site for a few months now and an interaction I had today made me want to register to tell everybody about it.

I was standing in Best Buy in Elizabethtown, open carrying as I do most every day for the last few months. As I am picking up some ram for my wifes computer a soldier in his BDUs walked up to me and put his hand out to shake my hand. "Thank you for exercising your rights." he said as he nodded down at my weapon. "Thank you for protecting them." I responded.

From there we talked for almost an hour about random things from guns to computers to farm animals. Such a great encounter.

Source

Bloomberg Anti-Freedom Commercial will Fall Flat


Anti-freedom politicians have a history of overreaching on guns. They think they can fool the stupid country rubes by picking up a shotgun and asking "can I get me a hunting license here?", the image of Diane Feinstein with her finger inside the trigger guard of an AK47 variant, and various political figures picking up guns just prior to elections.

Mayor Bloomberg is attempting to do the same with his 12 million dollar buy of commercials pushing for universal gun registration (also known as Universal Background Checks) in 13 states.

Here is one of the advertisements.

In the advertisement, you see many cultural referents designed to create a link to the rural gun culture. There is a pickup truck, a beard, a plaid shirt/jacket, children in the background playing on a tire swing.

But all that is undercut by the body language of the actor who is transmitting the message. It is clear that the gun is merely a prop. It is hard for me to pin exactly what screams "fake" to me from the screen. Maybe it is the time of year. Maybe it is the way he is positioned on the truck. Perhaps more alert viewers will be able to explain it better.

I do not think that Mayor Bloomberg is going to be able to fool many people in the gun culture with this message, and I do not think he will convince many outside of it to action.

Link to "can I get me a hunting license here?" discussion

Link to discussion with picture of Diane Feinstein with AK47 variant

Link to article about Bloomberg ad campaign

Link to YouTube of advertisement

Dean Weingarten

Bloomberg thinks he is "the public"


He is close to being off his head

NEW York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he will invest $US12 million ($A11.5 million) in a nationwide ad campaign to counter the powerful US gun lobby and rally support for background checks in gun sales.

"We're running ads around the country. We have people manning phone banks and calling. We're trying to do everything we can to impress upon the senators that this is what the survivors want," Bloomberg told NBC's Meet the Press.

"I don't think there's ever been an issue where the public has spoken so clearly where Congress hasn't eventually understood and done the right thing."

He added: "If 90 per cent of the public wants something and their representatives vote against that, common sense says they are going to have a price to pay."

Wayne LaPierre, head of the powerful National Rifle Association, brushed off the billionaire mayor's plans, telling the same news program his group's members had already mobilised to oppose new gun control legislation.

Bloomberg is "going to find out this is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people. And he can't spend enough of his $US27 billion to try to impose his will on the American public," LaPierre said.

"We have people all over, millions of people, sending us $US5, $US10, $US15 cheques, saying stand up to this guy."

He said the NRA would support a better system of keeping records on the mentally ill and convicted criminals, as well as harsher penalties for individuals who use firearms to commit crimes.

Bloomberg has said he will focus his campaign on legislation to expand background checks, which is seen as having a much better chance of succeeding than an outright ban on assault weapons or high-capacity magazines.

SOURCE


Suicide


The latest theme of those who oppose guns seems to be suicide (e.g. here).  All those naughty guns lying around makes people pop themselves off, apparently.  So the USA with all its guns must be the leading country for suicides?

Far from it.  The USA is well down on the list.  It comes in at no. 34 on the list of suicides per head.  If you indulged in the sort of shallow reasoning that Leftists use, you could in fact conclude that having guns around generates a PROTECTIVE effect against suicide. 

DHS Fast and Furious OIG report fed to Los Angeles Times, not to public


The Department of Homeland Security's long-awaited Office of Inspector General report on Operation Fast and Furious “gunwalking” has been obtained by The Los Angeles Times, Richard Serrano reported Thursday.

“ATF agents asked their Border Patrol counterparts not to pursue criminal leads or track gun smuggling in southern Arizona so they could follow the firearms themselves, and senior Homeland Security agents ‘complied and the leads were not investigated,’” Serrano writes.

“The report … also said that a Homeland Security special agent on the border was collaborating with the ATF in Fast and Furious, but his ‘senior leaders’ in Arizona never read his updates about fundamental flaws with the failed gun tracking operation,” The Times story continues. “Had they done so, Homeland Security officials could have tried to close down the operation before one of their Border Patrol agents, Brian Terry, was killed not far from Tucson.”

In other words, per their narrative, it was all local and never made it up the operational command chain through Arizona, let alone to Washington. But all the public has to go on to verify that, at this point, is The Times report. And while finding a copy of the OIG report, which is not included with his story, should be of import -- not just for wider public scrutiny, but also for legislative oversight -- it appears to be something that hasn’t registered on anyone else’s radar yet.

That should be surprising and a cause for concern, as opposed to something most aren’t even aware of, let alone seriously looking into. Last November, this column was a lone voice following up and expressing concern about where the DHS OIG report was, especially since it had been reported several months earlier that DHS had told Congressional staffers to expect the report in October.

Of course, this column had also been a lonely voice in asking where the Department of Justice OIG report was once it passed the Warren Commission milestone, and again raised concerns when that document -- which admitted key witnesses refused to speak to investigators and key documents had not been available to auditors -- was finally released last September, resulting in undisguised administration media supporters calling it an exoneration for Eric Holder.

More Here many embeded links in the original article by David Codrea

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Montana Firearms Freedom Act, MSSA v. Holder, Update from the Ninth Circuit Court


Missoula, MT --(Ammoland.com)- The three judges from the panel hearing oral arguments in MSSA v. Holder seemed interested in and attentive to the arguments made by MSSA’s counsel and counsel for amicus Goldwater Institute.

The judges seemed bored with the argument by the DoJ attorney that I lack standing as the only individual plaintiff because I haven’t actually made and sold the planned “Montana Buckaroo” (single-shot, bolt-action, .22 youth rifle), and been arrested and convicted of that under federal law.

The DoJ attorney claimed that because I haven’t actually made one yet, that proves I don’t know how and can’t. As I say, the judges seemed unimpressed with the DoJ attorney – they asked him few questions and basically let him run his clock out

No idea what they’ll do with the case. It’ll likely be months before we get their written decision.

If you want to hear the arguments yourself, the audio is now Online at:

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/media/2013/03/04/10-36094.wma

Thanks again to those generous donors who made my travel to attend this important hearing possible.

Gary Marbut, President Montana Shooting Sports Association http://www.mtssa.org Author, Gun Laws of Montana http://www.MTPublish.com

Source

Harry Reid: Senate Gun Bill will have Universal Background Checks (VIDEO)


In what might be music to the ears of those who support tougher gun laws, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on Thursday that universal background checks will be included as part of the baseline gun control bill that the Senate will debate next month.

“Later tonight, I will start the process of bringing a bill to reduce gun violence to the Senate floor,” Reid said in a statement. “This bill will include the provisions on background checks, school safety and gun trafficking reported by the Judiciary Committee.”

“I hope negotiations will continue over the upcoming break to reach a bipartisan compromise on background checks, and I am hopeful that they will succeed,” Reid continued, referencing the ongoing feud between Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) over a negotiating point of the UBC provision, i.e. the call for strict record keeping and a national registry of law-abiding gun owners.

More Here at Guns.com

OK:‘I Just Put Three Rounds in His A**’: Dramatic 911 Call Captures Oklahoma Man Shooting Home Intruder After Police Couldn’t Arrive Fast Enough


A dramatic 911 call recorded a Oklahoma man’s confrontation with an intruder who broke into his Ponca City home early Thursday morning. The homeowner ended up shooting the intruder several times when police didn’t arrive in time.

The roughly five minute 911 call begins frantically enough: “You better get these (expletive) here or they will die,” the man told a 911 dispatcher.

The homeowner stayed on the line with 911 as he waited for the police to arrive. However, the police didn’t arrive before the intruder found his way into the house.

More Here at The Blaze

NY:Man holds burglar at gunpoint in bathrobe


An Lacomb-area resident armed with a shotgun caught a burglar in his shop early Friday morning and held the suspect at gunpoint until deputies arrived.

Jim Brazel, 82, said the culprit, who was hiding behind a tractor, came within a half-second of dying.

“This man doesn’t realize how lucky he is to be alive today,” Brazel said. “My finger was half-pressed against the trigger. That close.”

More Here

AR:Dem senator says impostor asking Arkansas families about their guns


A Democratic senator claims impostors pretending to work for his office are calling people in his state to ask how many guns they own.

Sen. Mark Pryor, of Arkansas, took to Twitter Friday to clarify that he is not the one behind those calls.

More Here

Defense Distributed Will Release Complete 3D printable Pistol in 30 days.


On a hour long interview with Alex Jones, Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed states that they will be releasing files for a functional, completely 3D printed pistol within a month.

Cody states "We have found some ways to make printable guns work."

Defense Distributed has already shown that they can make workable, usable magazines and lower receivers. This will be the first completely printable firearm.

Expectations are not high, but Cody Wilson believes that it will be capable of a few shots before it becomes inoperable.

It will be a modern day Liberator pistol, delivered by the internet rather than air dropped.

Link to the interview on YouTube

Link to picture and history of Liberator pistol

Link to article on Defense Distributed

©2013 by Dean Weingarten Permission to share granted as long as this notice is included.

YouTube: VIDEO: Gunny & Glock – Wrong Convenience Store – Extended Version


Fun video to watch. If gun manufacturers were all as involved as Glock, we would have far less politicians pushing unconstitutional infringements.

Video Link Here

Oklahoma teens killed in Texas shooting; armed homeowner praised


HOUSTON — Authorities were investigating an attempted robbery scene in north Texas on Thursday where two Oklahoma teenagers were found fatally shot — possibly by self-inflicted gunshots — and the local sheriff praised the armed homeowner who fired on the suspected intruders.

More Here

Utah governor vetoes bill to carry concealed gun


The governor said Friday he had vetoed a bill that would have allowed Utah residents to carry a hidden, unloaded gun without a permit.

It was a very popular measure. Dean Weingarten

It was one of the most hotly contested measures to come out of the Utah Legislature this year.

How can you say "hotly contested" with a straight face when it passed with over a two to one margin? Dean Weingarten

"As I've said it before, if it ain't broke, don't fix it," Gov. Gary Herbert said, noting the current system has not inhibited the ability of state residents to bear arms.

Supporters of the bill say they will urge lawmakers to overturn the veto.

More Here

Mont. Senate ok's concealed carry without permit


HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A bill that would allow concealed carry without a permit is shooting toward passage after receiving the Senate's initial endorsement.

More Here

Says of 80,000 people who were denied a firearm in 2012 due to a failed background check, only 44 were prosecuted.


Rated Mostly True, but they ignore the primary reason: Because most of the denied background checks are false positives, or denials of Constitutional Rights to elegible people.

Before Congress enacts any new gun control laws, the nation’s law enforcement officers and courts should better enforce the regulations they have on the books now, according to U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte.

In a meeting with the Telegraph editorial board, New Hampshire’s junior senator took aim last month at the national background check system, which does not go far enough prosecuting those who illegally try to obtain weapons, she said.

"Of approximately 80,000 in 2012 that were denied (a gun) because of a background check … only 44 people were prosecuted for that," Ayotte said during the February 19 meeting.

More Here

Illinois Concealed Carry Rally vs Anti-Rights Rally


Source Illinois State Rifle Association

Saturday, March 23, 2013

NC: Woman Shoots Burglars, Armed Neighbor Forces Them to Flee


Elm City, N.C. — An Elm City woman shot at two men who broke into her home on Tonya Road Friday morning, her husband told WRAL News. Chris Griffin said his wife, who had stayed home sick from work, heard a noise around 11 a.m. and then saw two men outside her house. When she heard them start kicking in the back door, she hid in the bedroom closet with a cellphone and a pistol.

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The wounded man then started toward Crumpler's house.

"He started in this direction. I stepped inside and got my revolver," he said. "I told him to hold it."

The man then ran into the woods, Crumpler said.

More at WRAL Here

Bans of so-called 'assault weapons' may not hold up to Supreme Court scrutiny


To be clear, it has always been the contention of this column that there is absolutely no way to reconcile the "shall not be infringed" language of the Second Amendment, with bans of the very arms best suited to maintaining the security of a free state. Whether or not the Supreme Court would see things the same way, though, has been an entirely different question. Ten years ago--and probably less--the idea of SCOTUS striking down such a law would have sounded like idle fantasy.

Now, though, there is a growing body of opinion--sometimes expressed by those not necessarily considered "pro-gun"--that such laws would be skating on thin ice, should a challenge to them ever reach the Supreme Court. UCLA Constitutional law professor Adam Winkler is one who can hardly be considered a fervent gun rights advocate--having written about what he called "the Tea Party's gun problem," and having described Firearms Freedom Act legislation as "insurrectionist." Even so, he has his doubts about a so-called "assault weapons" ban surviving a Supreme Court challenge. As he wrote for the Daily Beast:

More Here

Dems: Goal of banning modern sporting rifles is unreachable at present time; Focus efforts on registration via background checks


Fox News is reporting that the leader of the Democrat-controlled Senate has dropped a proposed ban on modern semi-automatic rifles from the chamber's gun-control package – dealing a blow to supporters of the ban.

Noting that the ban could still come up for a vote, the article stated that the sponsor of the measure, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA., revealed that Reid told her the proposed ban would not be in the initial package. Feinstein reportedly said she's "disappointed" with the decision, and is expected to nevertheless offer it as an amendment.

From the article:

...The move by Reid to cut it from the main bill signals a lack of congressional support for a proposal that would not only revive, but strengthen, the decade-long ban that expired in 2004.

The proposed ban passed was passed last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with three other measures. The others dealt with providing more school safety aid, expanding federal background checks on potential gun buyers and helping authorities prosecute illegal gun traffickers.

Feinstein has led the gun-control charge since President Obama called for federal legislation in the wake of the Newtown and other mass shootings.

The assault weapons ban was the most controversial of the major proposals to restrict guns that have been advanced by Obama and Senate Democrats. Because of that, it had been expected that the assault weapons measure would be left out of the initial package the Senate considers, with Democrats hoping the Senate could in turn amass the strongest possible vote for the overall legislation.

According to the article, Feinstein said Reid told her there would still be a vote on her gun control proposal, which also includes a ban on standard-capacity ammunition magazines that carry more than 10 rounds. She was told there would also be a vote just be on prohibiting the magazines.

In The Connecticut Post's coverage of these developments, it is clear that the decision has been made among gun control groups to put all of their efforts into a national gun registration scheme branded as "universal background checks."

Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns told The Post "If their view is that the assault weapons ban is tougher sledding, we respect that." According to the article, Glaze said his group wants Reid's bill to be focused on expanding required background checks for gun buyers, a provision that he called "the biggest policy fix" that could be made.

Speaking to The New York Times', Glaze noted that "the background check bill has been always been the center of our agenda," since it would include the registration of not just rifles, but handguns as well.

Meanwhile, according to a press release, an online survey of federally licensed firearms retailers conducted this week by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms industry, reveals that those who would be on the front line of implementing what is touted as "universal background checks" have serious concerns both about whether such proposals would work as well as the potential negative effects on their businesses.

Asked whether they supported or opposed "universal background checks," 85.7 percent of the responding firearms retailers said that they opposed them. To the question of whether they believed that such legislation would prevent criminals from obtaining firearms, a nearly unanimous 95.7 percent said no.

In addition, the retailers reported that that they feared these proposals would result in higher regulatory and additional record-keeping burdens, increased risk of license revocation for record-keeping errors related to private party sales of firearms, additional delays in processing of National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) requests, low government-set fees that will not cover their costs, and increased liability exposure arising from having to process private-party transactions.

"The concept of universal background checks sounds appealing on the surface, but the details involved in what actually would be required on the part of firearms retailers to make it work are quite another matter," said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. "In fact, the obligations and burdens that would be put in place could be overwhelming for many of those who would be called upon to carry them out. It is unfair to call upon private companies, many of them quite small and with limited personnel, to conduct what essentially would be a function of government."

The online survey of 640 federal licensed firearms retailers nationwide was conducted on Monday, March 18.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.

Source Buckeye Firearms Association

Friday, March 22, 2013

Unarmed armored car robbery fails when guard pulls gun


SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - Police don't think the transient who wound up in the Willamette River is the same guy who tried to rob an armored car, but the two incidents kept authorities busy in Springfield on Thursday.

A Lane County Sheriff's deputy fished one man out of the river around noon.

About the same time, Springfield Police officers responded to a report that a man demanded money from an armored car driver - and got a closer look at the armored car driver's gun instead.

More Here

NRA sues Gov. Cuomo over New York gun law


The National Rifle Association today filed a federal lawsuit against New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and other officials, seeking injunctive relief from the state’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms (SAFE) Act.

This was the law for which Olympic Arms in Lacey announced in February that it would no longer do business with agencies in New York State. It’s the kind of law anti-gunners would like to see enacted in Washington and Oregon as “sensible” or “reasonable.” It limits magazine capacity to seven rounds, requires background checks for ammunition purchases, and requires that retailers report large ammunition sales to the police.

More Here

Bloomberg buys Colorado Legislature


Cam Edwards of NRA News interviewed Duane Liptak of Magpul yesterday after Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) signed HB 1224 into law. Mr. Liptak is the Director of Product Management and Marketing for Magpul. Mr. Liptak had a number of interesting comments during the course of the interview. First, Magpul will be going with a multi-state, multi-location manufacturing approach. While they haven't released just where they are going, certain sites have already been selected. They plan a phased move out of Colorado with the magazine manufacturing being the first part of their company to move for obvious reasons.

When asked about their current employees and the impact the move will have on them, Mr. Liptak said that many of the current employees had expressed a desire to move with the company to the new locations. He seemed rather gratified by this loyalty of the employees to Magpul.

Magpul met with a number of state legislators during the fight against HB 1224. While Magpul presented facts and legal opinions as well as stressing the economic repercussions of the bill, this didn't seem to make any headway with a number of the Democrats. Mr. Liptak noted that every time they went to the state capitol, they always ran into lobbyists from Bloomberg and MAIG. He said they were everywhere. It is a sad day when a New York billionaire can buy a western state legislature so easily. It reminds one of the railroad barons in Frank Norris' The Octopus so dominated California of the late 19th century.

Source: No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money

Louisiana Trial Court Strikes Down Louisiana Felon-in-Possession Ban, as Violating Newly Strengthen Louisiana Right to Bear Arms Provision


In November 2012, Louisiana voters strengthened the Louisiana Constitution’s right to bear arms provision, to read
The right of each citizen to keep and bear arms is fundamental and shall not be infringed. Any restriction on this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.

Today, Louisiana Judge Darryl A. Derbigny, in State v. Draughter (La. Crim. Dist. Ct. Mar. 21, 2012), held that the Louisiana ban on felon possession of guns violates this provision. The analysis was brief:

Under the strict scrutiny standard, government action is not presumed to be constitutional, and will not be upheld by [a] Court unelss shown to be necessarily related to a compelling state interest.... After applying the strict scrutiny standard to [the statute], this Court concludes that the statute is not narrowly tailored to achieve the government’s interest. [The statute] applies without discretion to nearly every felony crime enumerated in the Louisiana Criminal Code. As such, the statute, ‘as-is’, is unconstitutional in its entirety.
I assume the government will appeal, and Louisiana appellate courts will consider the issue. Note that the federal ban on possession of guns by felons remains in effect — federal law is governed only by the Second Amendment and not by state constitutional provisions, and D.C. v. Heller stated that felon in possession bans generally don’t violate the Second Amendment. Federal prosecutors could thus prosecute felons possessing guns in Louisiana even if the decision as to the Louisiana law is affirmed.

Source

NM:23-year old Jonathan Mitchell was killed


ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque police have identified the man who was shot and killed by his neighbor Tuesday night.

Investigators say 23-year old Jonathan Mitchell was running through the Ventana Ranch neighborhood with a loaded weapon when he shot at his neighbor Donnie Pearson.

Pearson shot back, killing Mitchell.

More Here

Fourth Circuit Upholds Maryland Restrictive Licensing System for Gun Carrying


The case is Woollard v. Gallagher (4th Cir. Mar. 21, 2013).

UPDATE: The court claims that it’s not deciding whether the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in self-defense extends to carrying a gun outside the home. Rather, the court concludes that, even if such a right exists, Maryland’s licensing scheme — which requires a “good and substantial” reason for a license to carry and which doesn’t treat a general desire for self-defense as an adequate reason — passes intermediate scrutiny.

But it seems to me that means the court is thereby deciding that the right to keep and bear arms doesn’t extend to carrying outside the home for self-defense. If a court lets the government deny the ability to carry guns outside the home for self-defense to nearly everybody, the court is in essence saying there is no such right to carry.

A constitutional right that can be trumped in some of its applications under intermediate scrutiny (or for that matter strict scrutiny) is a right, albeit a qualified one; consider, for instance, the right to engage in commercial speech, or the right to be free of sex discrimination. But a constitutional right that can be trumped in nearly all its applications, under whatever level of scrutiny, is not really a right.

This also reflects, I think, the fact that intermediate scrutiny (which requires that “the legislature’s policy choice substantially serves a significant governmental interest”), coupled with deference to the legislature’s factual judgments (“[i]t is the legislature’s job, not ours, to weigh conflicting evidence and make policy judgments”), essentially means per se validation of pretty much all gun controls that will be tested under such scrutiny. The legislature will always be able to assert a significant governmental interest in preventing crime, reducing the use of police resources, and so on, and will nearly always be able to plausibly argue that it has “weigh[ed] conflicting evidence” in concluding that the law “substantially serves” the interest. (Intermediate scrutiny without deference to legislative weighing of evidence might offer more protection, but that’s not the intermediate scrutiny being applied in this case.) Indeed, the same might even apply to strict scrutiny, except that courts might be more reluctant to read strict scrutiny as essentially eviscerating the right than they are as to intermediate scrutiny (and courts might be more inclined not to defer to legislative conclusions about facts under strict scrutiny).

I discuss this issue in more detail in my Implementing the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Self-Defense article (pp. 1464-70). But the main point is that verbal distinctions such as significant governmental interest (intermediate scrutiny) vs. compelling governmental interest (strict scrutiny) or even substantially serves (intermediate scrutiny) vs. narrowly tailored (strict scrutiny) are unlikely to make much of a difference. What is likely to make a difference is (1) the degree to which courts do or do not defer to legislative evaluation of the facts, and (2) the degree to which courts say that a core aspect of a constitutional right must be protected regardless of legislative or even judicial judgments about the supposed harm that the right causes. (See pp. 1464-64 for more on that.)

Source

Meet the NRA's Biggest Recruiter


Picture of Diane Feinstein, RealClearPolitics

If you want to know why Sen. Dianne Feinstein's assault weapons ban couldn't muster 40 votes -- that's according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who says he will cut the ban from the Democrats' gun bill -- attend a National Rifle Association event in Feinstein's backyard. Though critics like to paint the organization as an out-of-touch haven for angry old white guys, Sunday's NRA "Fun Shoot" at the San Leandro Rifle & Pistol Range was anything but.

I attended a safety and shooting lesson for 12. Half of the group was female -- and white, black and Asian. Four teens showed up with their parents.

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/21/meet_the_nras_biggest_recruiter_117572.html#ixzz2OCzG034y Follow us: @RCP_Articles on Twitter

More Here

Texas authorities identify missing Oklahoma teen killed in attempted robbery


The bodies of Kenneth Chaffin, 17, who went missing after stealing weapons and a pickup Monday, and Dillon King, 18, were identified Wednesday after they were killed in an attempted robbery in Texas.

Two Bethel Acres residents were found dead of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, including one inside the pickup stolen by a missing Pottawatomie County teenager, after a robbery attempt in northern Texas, authorities said.

More Here

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Texas Sheriff: Homeowner’s Gun Key to Saving His and Wife’s Lives from Home Invaders


Two men invaded the home of a Maypearl, TX family today. Maypearl is in Ellis County, south of Dallas. Only the wife was home. She spotted the men trying to break in, called her husband, who came home, retrieved the family gun, and confronted the two invaders. A shootout ensued, the man wounded one of the invaders, and then the invaders apparently killed themselves.

The Ellis County sheriff’s department spokesman, Lt. James Saulter, said “It’s another reason that we’re good with our homeowners being armed. I believe there would’ve been a different outcome if they hadn’t been armed. Our suspects were heavily armed.”

The homeowners will face no charges.

Source

UT:Sign it, governor


Salt Lake’s Catholic Bishop John C. Wester says that HB76, which would allow people to carry a concealed firearm without a permit, "establishes a culture in Utah that prioritizes deadly weapons over human life" ("Capitol opposes firearm controls," Tribune, March 15).

I disagree with Wester’s assessment and his call for the governor to veto this constitutional-carry gun bill.

I, too, have been a bishop (the Latter-day Saint kind) — for almost 14 years on three different occasions in three different states — and I say that allowing good citizens to be armed actually protects life.

More Here

Atlantic Wire suggests NRA threatened from surprising direction


Since the Sandy Hook Elementary atrocity, a theme one sees repeated ad nauseum is that the "gun lobby" (generally presented--falsely--as synonymous with the NRA) is dead, or at least mortally wounded. U.S. News and World Report quotes United States Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) gloating about a "turning point":

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How is that a problem for the NRA? Atlantic Wire's reasoning is that when people can "print" their own guns, they will no longer need a lobbying powerhouse defending their right to buy them.

Or, farther in the future: Why donate to the NRA every month when you have access to any weapon you could want, on demand?

more here

Blacks thank the NRA




MI:Hundreds gather for pro-gun rally at state Capitol


Hundreds of people came to the state Capitol today to voice their support for pro-gun legislation.

Many openly carried firearms, which is allowed in and around the Capitol building.

Jim Gulliksen is with the Michigan Militia Corps of Wolverines.

He says he’s happy that state lawmakers have taken up a number of pro-gun bills recently.

“Lansing has shown some trends lately to reduce some of the restrictions, as far as like the pistol purchase permit and some of the controls on where you can carry weapons. We do like to see that.”

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ND:Leftists oppose commonsense gun legislation


BISMARCK — State officials took stands against two gun-related bills Tuesday.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem urged lawmakers to defeat legislation that he says would pit local and federal law enforcement against one another; while Superintendent of Public Instruction Kirsten Baesler testified against allowing concealed weapons in public schools.

Stenehjem told the Senate Judiciary Committee that House Bill 1183, which would prohibit state law enforcement from enforcing any new federal firearm law passed after Jan. 1, 2013, is overreacting to the threat of federal firearm bans, since no laws have been passed yet.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Is Bloomberg starting to ‘get it’ about semi-auto rifles?


Buried in a new CNN report about anti-gun New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s sudden shift of attention almost totally to background checks is an indication that the Big Apple billionaire may be starting to understand the futility of arguing that a ban on semiautomatic rifles will have much of an impact on deadly crime.

Bloomberg has not experienced an epiphany; these things happen slowly, but at least according to CNN yesterday, the co-founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns acknowledged, “This year in America, 12,000 people will be killed with handguns. Four hundred people will be killed with assault weapons or high capacity magazines. So it is the vast bulk of - of the, uh, murders are done with handguns.”

Well, that’s not quite accurate. As this column reported, FBI crime data for 2011 – the most recent year for which statistics are available – handguns accounted for less than half of the total homicides. The data shows that, “Firearms were used in 67.8 percent of the nation’s murders, 41.3 percent of robberies, and 21.2 percent of aggravated assaults (data on weapons used during forcible rapes is not collected).”

That year, there were 12,664 murders, of which 6,220 were committed with handguns and only 323 were positively linked to rifles. There were 1,587 cases in which the type of firearm was not identified. Overall, 8,583 murders involved firearms, another 1,694 were committed with knives or “cutting instruments,” and 728 – more than twice the number killed with rifles – were beaten or stomped to death and another 85 were strangled. Here is a breakdown of all 50 states.

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INFORCE APL (Self Defense Pistol Light)


A review of a new pistol light by Moderno

INFORCE APL

A while back I reviewed the INFORCE WML, a lightweight, polymer body weapon light that attaches to a rifle, carbine or shotgun. The short version of that review is that I was, and continue to be, very impressed. I actually run a WML on all of my carbines now, and I’ve even used them hog hunting (a bit outside of their intended use haha).

Just about everyone who has used a WML has said the same thing – awesome, now make one for my pistol. Well INFORCE did, and it’s called the APL.

The APL, which stands for Auto Pistol Light, is a 200 lumen light that attaches to both Universal and MIL-STD-1913 rails. The APL came out late 2012, and I’ve been testing one for a few months now. I’ve been very impressed.

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Fourth Circuit gets it right on Open Carry


Does Open Carry, in an Open Carry state, give police a reasonable articulable suspicion that a crime is occurring?

Cops can’t just stop you, frisk you, or demand identification from you. Terry v. Ohio decided that a police officer must have “reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime and has a reasonable belief that the person “may be armed and presently dangerous” before he can detain you. But does that change if you’re hanging out with a person who openly carries a firearm?

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Police: Fla. College Student Plotted Attack


ORLANDO, Fla. — James Oliver Seevakumaran (pictured), a college student with two guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, and a backpack filled with explosives pulled a dorm fire alarm Monday in an apparent attempt to force other students out in to the open so that he could slaughter them, authorities said. But he instead put a bullet in his head as police closed in.

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Campus gun ban had no deterrent effect on UCF shooting


That a former University of Central Florida student still living on campus did not carry out a wider plan to shoot others in his dormitory and instead turned his gun on himself was a mere matter of luck for his potential victims, the Orlando Sentinel is reporting this morning.

“James Oliver Seevakumaran, 30, was found in his dorm room in Tower 1, a seven-story structure near the UCF Arena,” the story reports. “He died from a single shot to the head fired by one of his newly purchased guns, police said.”

He had a handgun, what police call an “assault weapon,” hundreds of rounds of ammunition and “handmade explosives” which another report describes as “four bombs.” Writings found in his room reveal he had planned a wider attack, which he evidently decided against.

Had Seevakumaran decided on that other course, anyone obeying UCF policy would have been defenseless in a face-to-face encounter.

More Here at Gun Rights Examiner

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Now 340 sheriffs refuse to enforce gun control


A Colorado sheriff has joined the list of at least 340 sheriffs who have vowed to uphold the Constitution against gun-control measures that violate Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

Weld County Sheriff John Cooke said he and many other county sheriffs “won’t bother enforcing” laws poised to go into effect in Colorado because it would be impossible to keep track of whether gun owners are meeting the new requirements.

More Here at WND

VA:Caleb Gordley shot and killed in Sterling


An investigation into what exactly led to the Sunday morning shooting of a 16-year-old at a Sterling home continues, but details are still murky as to what exactly happened.

Loudoun County Sheriff's officials say that between 2:30 and 3 a.m. Sunday, a homeowner in the 4500 block of Pullman Court shot and killed a juvenile intruder.

Before the shooting, an alarm was activated inside the home, and the homeowner says he discovered 16-year-old Caleb A. Gordley on the stairwell.

Gordley lived two doors down from the home - both of which look similar. Authorities add he had been drinking earlier that evening.

More Here

Both sides hitting Herbert on 'constitutional carry' gun law


SALT LAKE CITY — Telephones rang constantly in the governor's office Monday as people weighed in on the so-called "constitutional carry" gun law the Utah Legislature passed last week.

Emails and letters also were streaming into the Capitol urging Gov. Gary Herbert to veto or sign controversial HB76.

West Jordan resident Steven Beckstead, a National Rifle Association certified instructor, wrote the governor asking him to reject the bill. He contends the law is a step in the wrong direction because gun carriers wouldn't have to receive instruction in self-defense law.

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Boyfriend tackles burglar while girlfriend holds shotgun, calls cops


EUGENE, Ore. - A Eugene couple caught a burglar in the act and made a citizens arrest with a shotgun early Sunday morning, Eugene Police said.

Derek LeBlanc was headed to work around 5 a.m. Sunday when he saw a pair of feet hanging out the shattered rear window of his pickup truck parked at his north Eugene home on Kenmore Street.

"At this point I had my car keys in my hand. I threw them, and as soon as he got to his feet I just instinctively took him down," LeBlanc said. "You never know what you're going to do until it happens, but I sure as hell wasn't going to be a victim."

After he tackled a man in his front driveway, LeBlanc said he began calling to his girlfriend for help.

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37 gun rights groups form 'Coalition Against Universal Background Checks'


Last Monday a "divided Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday narrowly approved a Democratic bill expanding required federal background checks for nearly all gun [transfers and not just] purchases . . . by 10-8, supported by all Democrats and opposed by every Republican." But now a broad coalition of 37 gun rights groups from across the United States has stood up to stop the bill.

Calling themselves the Coalition Against Universal Background Checks, these groups, normally focused on state legislation and elections, are poised to enter the fray with all their "grass roots" blazing to stop what they view as a “prior restraint” which will: destroy gun shows, and cost gun owners over $1.04 billion per year (1). In a press release, posted below, John Pierce from one of the Coalition's national groups, OpenCarry.org, said that

the Senate bill will "strip 18-20 year old adults of their right to buy a handgun and turn you, friends, neighbors, and un-married domestic partners into felons.(2)"

Time will tell if the Senates bill will garner 60 votes in favor of cloture, but in the mean time, 37 gun rights groups stand ready to play hard ball. According to Mr. Pierce, both a Virginia attorney and co-founder of OpenCarry.org, politicians know that gun rights are a bigger "voting issue" for pro-gun voters than nominally anti-gun voters. And he adds that

"local state gun rights groups ARE the local ground game, and they do know how to primary members of Congress who vote against gun rights, just ask President Bill Clinton who watched a 1994 Democratic majority in Congress be eviscerated after voting for a ten year ban on new sales of so-called ‘assault weapons.’"

“It’s kind of like that Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams (5),” chuckles Pierce: “If they vote for it, we will come - and primary them.”

Monday, March 18, 2013

Defense Distributed has its Federal Firearms License (3D printed Guns)


Defense Distributed has now obtained its Federal Firearms License for manufacturing.

Cody Wilsons has said in an arstechnica article, that he will wait for the add on license that allows for manufacture of fully auto firearms before selling some of the guns - or at least receivers - that Defense Distributed prints.

Link to arstechnica article

GIFFORD: Gun-grabbers blowing smoke It’s about confiscation


If no serious crisis is to be wasted as a chance to sneak laws onto the books that fail the rational reflection test, all “gun control” proposals hastily put forward after the Connecticut elementary school slaughter by a mentally disturbed young man should be seen for what they actually are. They are gradual steps toward the confiscation of firearms from private hands, the “Holy Grail” of “gun control” activism.

Should that assessment seem overly distrustful of legislator and anti-gun activist bloviation about reducing gun violence and preventing mass shootings “from ever happening again” (mass shootings will happen again no matter what laws are passed), conservative Fox News pundit Charles Krauthammer must have surprised many fans in 1996 when he articulated and justified the gun free society case for confiscation in his Washington Post column while the Clinton administration’s law banning “assault weapons” was up for repeal.

“[E]ven a cynic must marvel at the all-round phoniness of the debate over repeal of the assault weapons ban. … The claim of the advocates that banning these 19 types of ‘assault weapons’ will reduce the crime rate is laughable. … In fact, the assault weapons ban will have no significant effect either on the crime rate or on personal security. Nonetheless, it is a good idea, though for reasons its proponents dare not enunciate. I am not up for reelection. So let me elaborate the real logic of the ban. … Its only real justification is not to reduce crime but to desensitize the public to the regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation. … Yes, Sarah Brady is doing God’s work. Yes, in the end America must follow the way of other democracies and disarm.”

Whether you agree or disagree that Mr. Krauthammer’s statist confiscation goal is a desirable objective, it is the actual goal of those seeking to sacrifice the Second Amendment for a phony notion of public safety. This means the Second Amendment needs to be gutted on the same public altar for all to see, and candidly discussed, even if most of our First Amendment-protected media refuses to do so.

More Here

Sunday, March 17, 2013

PA:More Private Gun Sales at "Political Theater" in Coatesville at "buyback"


A group of about 15 people offered cash to buy guns that were brought to the organized turn in event at Coatesville Pennsylvania on Saturday.

Only about 40 mostly rusted firearms were turned in at the event, while the private purchasers saved at least two of the more valuable items.

From the Daily Local News:

Darren Wolfe, a blogger and political activist who organized the gathering outside the buy back, questioned the motivations and effectiveness of gun buy back programs like this one.

Wolfe described the event as “political theater” while questioning its effectiveness at increasing public safety. He also claimed events like this one demonize gun ownership and increase the stigmatization of firearms.

This type of opposition could not occur if the "background check" registration scheme of Senator Schumer were implemented.

The First Amendment and the Second Amendment complement and support each other.

"Buyback" is an obvious propaganda term, as none of the firearms were originaly owned by the government.

These "buyback" events are being opposed by private buyers all over the country.

At least one turn in effort joined Constitutional rights and anti-gun forces in an effort to remove unwanted guns from homes, sell them to responsible people, and use the proceeds for charity.

Falmouth Maine program raises money for special Olympics

Link to Daily Local News

©2013 by Dean Weingarten Permission to share granted as long as this notice is included.

AR:Little Rock store owner shoots armed robber


A Little Rock grocery store owner on Thursday, March 15, protected his property and family when an armed man came into the store for what he thought would be easy cash. Arkansas Online states that before the robber got out of the store with the money, he also got a bullet in his left foot.

According to reports, 21-year-old Alvin Aikens entered the Santa Maria Mexican grocery store on Baseline Rd. in Little Rock, put a gun to the owner’s back and demanded cash. After taking the cash, Aikens then shot at the store owner when he saw him reaching for something. The store owner shot Aikens, hitting him once in the foot.

Aikens fled the scene and later led police on a chase before they detained him. He was arrested for aggravated robbery, theft of property and fleeing, after being treated and released from UAMS Medical Center.

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Marine veteran stops beating, holds man at gunpoint for police


Blackmore was driving home from work at about 4 a.m. Tuesday on W. Lincoln Ave. near S. 102nd St. in West Allis when he saw a man kicking someone on the ground. He jerked his steering wheel to pull over, turned his ignition off and stepped out.

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Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. praised Blackmore Wednesday, issuing a statement that read, in part, "I want to get to a day when acts like this are viewed as a citizen doing their civic duty. Criminals have got to be reassessing things right now. They have to be asking themselves if it is worth it anymore, might they face resistance or be shot? That's a good thing."

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