Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

Guns.com:

The International Association of Chiefs of Police on Thursday made public a letter directed at Congressional leaders voicing the group’s opposition to the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act pending in Washington. The measures, H.R. 38 and S.446, respectively, would expand carry rights nationwide, in effect forcing states and local jurisdictions to respect all valid concealed carry permits, a move the letter’s signatories feel is a mistake.

“Mandated reciprocity would effectively override the permitting requirements of individual states, such as requiring safety training or prohibiting permits for people with multiple convictions for violent misdemeanors or drug or alcohol abuse problems,” the letter says in part.

Though made up of some 30,000 members, just 473 individuals from 39 states elected to lend their name to the letter. There are no active police chiefs who signed the letter from such conservative bulwark states as Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico or Nevada. In comparison, states with strict gun laws had numerous chiefs support the declaration. For instance, at least 85 signers were from Massachusetts departments and 55 from New York.

“This bill would override state laws determining who is qualified to carry a loaded hidden gun – laws which take into account the unique circumstances and needs in each state– and would force states to allow individuals to carry guns who are not qualified to do so under their own laws,” said Boston Police Commissioner William Evans in a statement issued by the IACP. “During traffic stops and other interactions with the public, our officers would have to be familiar with 50 different state’s laws on concealed carry permitting. Given the split-second decisions our officers frequently need to make, this is nearly impossible and can foreseeably lead to violent confrontations.”

That’s a blatant lie and they know it.  They know in the deepest recesses of their hearts that gun carriers are even safer than they are, and this has nothing whatsoever to do with crime.

They don’t want people to be able to effect their God-given duty of self defense except themselves.  This is the pinnacle of wickedness.  Every single person who lent their support for this lobbying effort is a liar and desires to see the deaths of innocent people, plain and simple.

Still, I’m with reader Fred Tippens on this issue.  Getting the FedGov involved in national carry laws is a profoundly had idea.  Let’s hope and pray that all states that oppose the right of self defense simply go bankrupt, and work towards that end.

NY Post:

They might as well have a had a hotline: 1-800-GIFTS4GUNS.

A former city cop spilled his guts Tuesday, telling Manhattan jurors about years worth of bribes he and his fellow officers received for doling out gun permits — everything from cash, prostitutes and expensive watches to baseball memorabilia and exotic vacations.

David Villanueva, an ex-supervisor in the NYPD’s License Division, said he and other cops — including officers Richard Ochetel and Robert Espinel and Lt. Paul Dean — were on the take for years from so-called gun expeditors.

In exchange, the officers doled out pistol permits like candy — even to people who should not have had them, Villanueva said.

One expeditor, he said, may have had ties to organized crime. Another got help with 100 gun permits over the years — “none” of which should have been approved.

Villanueva gave the testimony at the Manhattan federal court trial of John Chambers, a self-described gun lawyer to the stars accused of plying Villanueva with lavish gifts, including an $8,500 diamond-studded watch and tickets to Broadway shows, in exchange for gun permits.

So what’s the problem?  This is the way Banana republics and communist countries are supposed to work.  Bribery of government officials is a way of life in totalitarian states.

David Codrea:

From their position as stated on July 27, 2017:

“Bump firing is the process of using the recoil of a semiautomatic firearm to fire in rapid succession, simulating the effect of an automatic firearm when performed with a high level of skill and precision by the shooter… The rapid fire sequence in bump firing is contingent on shooter input, rather than mechanical input, and thus cannot shoot automatically”

From their position as stated on Sept. 13, 2017 (scroll to page 8):

“[B]ecause of the manual, skill based methods required to operate a bump fire device they are not machineguns.”

What has changed? Besides a political position ordered by superiors who would not be qualified to intern at the Firearms Technology Branch…?

Of course, nothing has changed, including the lack of integrity of the FedGov who cares not about officially approved lies and inconsistency.

From the comments there is this gem from someone named Dave Brown.

OK, when the pistol arm brace first came out we all said, better get one before they change their mind. WE all said the same thing when they said The Bump was OK. Get one before they change their mind. Me, I don’t need one as I have a few firearms I can bump without adding a stock, but even Bumping is considered a no no. As for Bump Stocks, they should never have been allowed, and you all know it. So quit being a Complainer, ask them to make a special Stamp for The Bump, and pay the price.

Of course, that’s true if you don’t believe in the second amendment.

David Codrea:

The way things are going in favor of the antis while “Republicans” are nominally in control does not look good. If Democrats sweep the midterms and then manage to impeach Donald Trump, expect them to go full bore, from “universal background checks” to “assault weapon” bans and more. Don’t think for a moment because fault has been found here with Republican disappointments that the other side of the aisle represents anything other than utter disaster for legal recognition of the right to keep and bear arms.

Oh, I don’t even think it’ll be necessary for them to impeach Trump.  I think he is in fact a lame duck president as I write this.  He doesn’t have the backing of Congress to do anything of significance, and even if he did, given his predilection to gun control, I’m afraid of what might happen.  A democratic Congress would seal the deal, and given the inactivity from the White House in the event of a democratic Congress and the unreliability of North Carolina and Florida, I suspect as I’ve said before, we have a little less than two years to get where we want to be.

Where we want to be doesn’t include the legality of bump stocks, repealing the Hughes amendment, removing suppressors and SBRs from the NFA items list, or national reciprocity.  I’m talking individually.  You understand that.

No, I’m not talking about the kind who wants to see everyone follow the rules of gun safety, as well as specific range rules.  I’m talking about this kind.

The guy wasn’t overly aggressive but before I even got all gear out he spotted my AR pistol with a KAK brace. he came right over and said “i don’t want to see that touch your shoulder, if you don’t like it you can leave” . The range was packed so I thought it rather funny how fast he zeroed in on my evil pistol that should not be owned by plebs like myself.

He then proceeds with an ignorant quip about it being a federal offense to not have the proper paperwork blah blah. I didnt argue I just smiled and said “ok”. I fired off a few from a cheekweld so he could get his powertrip ego stroked which worked and he left me alone. Seems like these types of people are all the same and predictable.

As soon as my yearly pass is over I will be taking my money elsewhere maybe a less fuddworthy range nearby. Just kind of astounds me that someone who spends as much time around firearms is ignorant of the law.

What a dick.  I hope they go out of business.

The Washington Times:

Reversing the usual script, Democrats praised one of President Trump’s federal appeals court nominees Wednesday while Republicans brought the tough questions for Mark Jeremy Bennett over his defense of gun control laws and free speech rights.

Mr. Bennett, a former Hawaii attorney general now nominated to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had backed a limited interpretation of Second Amendment rights that was overturned by the Supreme Court.

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, also questioned Mr. Bennett over opposition to Citizens United, the Supreme Court case that overturned campaign finance restrictions and helped pave the way for the current system.

“You took positions, taking a very narrow view of what the First Amendment protects,” Mr. Cruz told him during a confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Usually it’s Democrats who fire the tough questions at Mr. Trump’s judicial picks, but Mr. Bennett won praise from them.

[ … ]

The Alliance for Justice, which has led the fight against Trump judicial nominees, said Mr. Bennett is an exception, and they won’t oppose him.

David Codrea makes the following remarks.

Just being a highly-placed Hawaiian political nominee ought to raise red flags. The state is a “leader” in citizen disarmament. If they ever do have another real catastrophe there, most citizens are going to find out how badly those who have been defrauding them of their birthrights have screwed them.

Add to that the fact that the Ninth Circuit, widely recognized as one of the most “progressive” (read “anti-gun”) courts, recently lost the one sane voice it had on the Second Amendment with the #MeToo-pressured resignation of Judge Alex Kozinski.

Obama gave us Fast & Furious, a number of very bad judges, and a lot of anti-gun rhetoric.  In a short tenure thus far Trump has given us a good justice on the Supreme Court, a bump stock ban, and new funding for the CDC to pump out anti-gun propaganda.

Ignoring words and focusing on actions, if the two presidents were in a contest to see who had done the most damage to observation of our gun rights, I’d be hard pressed to pick a winner.

There are some who might claim that being the 3D chess player Trump is, he is baiting the Senate, who didn’t oppose the bump stock ban, and some of whom will face reelection soon, to turn this nominee away and thus burnish their second amendment credentials before the election.

This view suffers from two fatal errors.  First, Trump himself will face reelection in the coming several years, and will need the support as badly or worse than the Senators he allegedly is trying to help.  Some of the gun owning public will remember this nomination.

Second, there is always the chance (and it may in fact be the highest probability) that the Senate won’t turn this nominee away and we end up with yet another totalitarian at the appeals level.

The contrary view is more likely.  This is who Trump is.  He is supposedly a supporter of the second amendment because he had enough money to pay lawyers to get him a concealed handgun permit, and because he sat for an interview with Field & Stream where he showed a predilection towards Fudds.

I wish I could say that seldom has the bar been so low for gun owners to lend their support to a candidate.  But that would be a lie.  The only historic limitation on gun owners whoring themselves out has been the availability of opportunities to do so.

Burlington Free Press:

Vermont gun shop owners reacted with anger and disappointment Thursday to the new gun laws signed by Gov. Phil Scott on Wednesday …

Adam Nilson co-founded Atlas Gunworks in North Ferrisburgh in 2016, together with his partner, Tod West, making competition handguns that start at about $4,000. Nilson said his business has doubled its revenue each year, and that he expects to do $2 million in business this year. He has 8 employees.

But they might soon not be working here.

“We’re going to leave,” Nilson said. “It was hard enough to do business here when Vermont was gun-friendly. Seeing how fast they did what they did, the writing’s on the wall. We don’t feel welcome here.”

Gov. Phil Scott signed the new gun laws Wednesday in an outdoor public ceremony in front of the Statehouse, facing a hostile crowd of gun-rights activists, together with supporters of the legislation.

Nilson, who grew up in Colchester, said he’s considering moving to Tennessee, West Virginia or North or South Carolina, “somewhere where they’re gun friendly.”

[ … ]

Henry Parro, who supported Scott with a $200 donation to his campaign from his business, said he was going to “reserve comment” on the new gun laws until he gets an interpretation of the laws from his attorney.

Like Datillio, Parro said he has “thousands” of high capacity magazines that would become illegal after Oct. 1.

[ … ]

One of the provisions in the new laws requires universal background checks for private sales. People who want to transfer a gun privately must visit a federal firearms licensee for the background check. There are exceptions for immediate family members and law enforcement.

Pidgeon said he will not be offering background checks for private sales.

“Anger and disappointment?”  What?  Where were you guys earlier before this abomination was signed?  He told you he was going to do it.  How can you now be disappointed that he did what he said he would do?

At any rate, as I said before, move South like all other gun manufacturing.  The North will have nothing left.  That’s perfectly fine with me.  Rock River Arms, Mossberg, Remington, Kimber, Springfield Armory?  Why are you still there?

The great thing about the ban is that if law abiding and peaceable citizens can no longer get standard capacity magazines, neither can the criminals, and so everyone will be on a level playing field when it comes to home invasions.  And since there is now universal background checks, the criminals probably won’t even be able to get guns.

That’s true, right?  The criminals can’t get them, neither guns nor standard capacity magazines.  Right?  And a level playing field between peaceable men and criminals is a good thing, right?  Each has an equal chance of winning, statistically speaking?  Everybody will play fairly, right?

The Hill:

A Bank of America executive announced Tuesday that the bank will stop lending money to companies that manufacture “military-style” rifles that are available for civilians to purchase.

Anne Finucane, Bank of America’s vice chair, told Bloomberg TV that the bank doesn’t want to “underwrite or finance military-style firearms” and has told a number of gun manufacturers that it will no longer do business with them.

The bank has lended to the gun makers Vista Outdoor, Remington and Sturm Ruger, CNBC reported.

Bank of America had said that after the shooting in Parkland, Fla., in mid-February it was exploring ways it could contribute to stemming gun violence. The confessed gunman in that shooting used an AR-15-style rifle.

“These are clients we have enjoyed a relationship with,” Finucane said. “There are those I think will reduce their portfolios and we’ll work with them and others that will choose to do something else.”

Asked if Bank of America would stop doing business with retailers that sell assault weapons, Finucane said that would involve complicated issues dealing with civil liberties and the Second Amendment.

“That’s a good public dialogue, but that’s a ways off,” she said.

Finucane said that reaction from gun manufacturers to Bank of America’s decision has been mixed.

“Reduce their portfolios.”  That’s what the progressives at BoA want gun makers to do.  Reduce their portfolios.  Gun control by fiat via decisions in the banking industry.  Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear at some point that the FedGov was involved in meetings with BoA to encourage this decision.

Also take note that the notion of stopping business with retailers who do not comply deserves a “public dialogue,” and is “a ways off.”  In other words, it’s a step in the works but needs more time to ferment.  And it was two days ago I said this.

Now let’s turn to gun manufacturers.  Suppose that Ruger needs to spend $500,000 buying to tooling to replace old and worn tooling machinery, or to retool a line to fabricate a new product.  Suppose that none of the banks will do business with Ruger.  How does Ruger pay for the tooling machinery?  They can’t go through the bank.  They can’t hand cash to the machinery manufacturer – their accountant would reject it as making them look like they’re doing business with Iran.  No bank in their right mind will allow a company to deposit $500,000 cash without knowing where it came from.

I know accountants.  I maintain that no accountant can deposit a million dollars in cash with a bank teller.  It just doesn’t happen.  No, I’m not talking about drug deals in Florida or Texas or whatever other exception you can find.  I’m talking about people who pay their taxes, want to stay in business, and have to make it work with banks in order to stay above board.

This will prove to be very difficult for gun manufacturers to deal with.  And I maintain that this is just one step in the coming festivities over the next couple of years.  There will be further controls over gun owners as well.  You mark my words on that, whether at the local, state or federal level.  Bump stocks won’t be the last you hear of gun control by the Trump administration, all endorsed and given cover by the NRA.

Dallas News:

Months before President Donald Trump announced that he would ban bump stocks in the wake of the deadly Las Vegas mass shooting, Doug Alexander spent $300 on the accessory to show off at the gun range.

“I’ll be real honest with you, the bump stock, I bought it as a toy because it looked cool,” the Abilene resident and Air Force veteran said of the gun device that allows a semi-automatic rifle to fire at nearly automatic rates.

Although Alexander purchased the device legally more than a year ago, he’s now among tens of thousands of bump stock owners whose expensive accessories face an uncertain fate under a proposed federal ban of the devices.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimated that more than half a million people own bump stocks in a report released March 29 for the agency’s proposed bump stock ban. The report also found that 2,281 retailers and two bump stock manufacturers would be impacted by a ban. The proposal is expected to cost the industry, public and the government more than $200 million in a 10-year time span.

Alexander, a 61-year-old Dallas native, purchased his bump stock from Slide Fire, the country’s leading bump stock manufacturer based in the tiny Texas town of Moran, 40 miles east of Abilene.

“I thought it was cool that they were producing this, and I kind of figured I was helping the local economy, too,” he said.

ATF posted the proposed ban at the end of March, which requires a 90-day public comment period. The change would revise the agency’s definition of a machine gun to include “bump-stock-type devices,” despite a 2010 decision that determined bump stocks can’t be classified as a machine gun.

Under pressure after mass shootings around the country, Trump ordered the Justice Department and ATF to ban the devices. Bump stocks were found in the Las Vegas shooter’s hotel room, but they were not used in the Florida high school rampage in February or the massacre at the Sutherland Springs, Texas, church in November.

“Bump stocks are going to be gone,” Trump vowed last month.

Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA. As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 23, 2018

And you can bet that many gun owners feel the same way.  I told you – Trump is a one-termer because of this.  They separated him from his base.  And in doing so, the Congressmen and Senators managed to get the ban they wanted without having to go on record with a vote, thus opening themselves to the disapproval of the gun owning public.

The NRA gave him cover to do this.  You can blame the NRA, and you can blame Trump, who believes in nothing but himself.

I am neither a prophet nor son of a prophet (2 Kings 2:3).  If I’m wrong, no one stands to lose anything.  But if I’m right, we might all be headed for rough times ahead.

There is such a proliferation of gun control and ammunition control articles, commentaries, editorials and laws that it would be impossible to mention them all, let along discuss them.  Boulder has just announced a new assault weapons ban.  The LA Times advocates ammunition regulation, Smith & Wesson will soon be under pressure from its parent company, Black Rock Investment is pimping gun free investments, a recent challenge to the Massachusetts assault weapons ban has fallen, bump stocks will soon be illegal, the Las Vegas Sun is publishing letters advocating the confiscation of ammunition, and the News Tribune published a reader who wants to tax ammunition more heavily.

I was in the Bass Pro Shop recently and looked at ammunition. I noticed that a box of 9mm bullets, 50 rounds, cost exactly the same as I paid for it in high school in the early 1990s — $10 to $15.

How is it that ammunition has totally escaped inflation? Perhaps state officials should add a 10-cents per round tax that would go to fund school security and mental health services.

I have made this suggestion to all 27 local legislators as well as Congressman Derek Kilmer but have received no substantive response, just a form letter.

Note that to the reader, if ammunition makers have held costs in check (although I doubt he remembers it correctly), that’s a reason to tax them more, not celebrate the free market.

We could go on for hours and hours over this.  The point is that something has snapped in American culture, and we are being put in a pincer movement.  Consider this thought experiment.

Suppose that an assault weapons ban happens in your AO, or suppose it’s just standard capacity magazines.  Are you stocked like you would want to be?  Suppose that it requires a background check to purchase ammunition in the future in your AO.  Is your stock where you want it to be?

Now let’s turn to gun manufacturers.  Suppose that Ruger needs to spend $500,000 buying to tooling to replace old and worn tooling machinery, or to retool a line to fabricate a new product.  Suppose that none of the banks will do business with Ruger.  How does Ruger pay for the tooling machinery?  They can’t go through the bank.  They can’t hand cash to the machinery manufacturer – their accountant would reject it as making them look like they’re doing business with Iran.  No bank in their right mind will allow a company to deposit $500,000 cash without knowing where it came from.

This could all happen to Ruger without a new law being passed, since CEOs can do what they want, and corporations are in the main controlled by progressives and lawyers.  Furthermore, when bans happen, we’ll all have to decide where we stand, and some of us will have to turn “gray man” in order to live and work in our communities and continue to have a job.  Not everyone can be a very public figure like Mike Vanderboegh was.

Unless the culture makes a U-turn very quickly – and I don’t think it will – we are in for some hard times ahead and we will all have to make difficult choices.  Put on your thinking caps, stock your supplies, watch your six, consider your options, and make sure of your friends.