Articles by Herschel Smith

The State:

A Senate bill that would clear the way for carrying firearms in South Carolina without a permit advanced from a panel on Tuesday with fewer than five days remaining in the legislative calendar.

It’s the beginning step for the bill that was first discussed in mid April. The bill – whose author is Sen. Shane Martin, R-Spartanburg – is different than one the House bill has already passed.

[ … ]

Like the House version, the Senate bill allows those who are legally permitted to own, carry or purchase a firearm to do so without having to obtain a permit. “Open carry,” which allows for a person to carry a firearm exposed on their person, also would be permitted …

As of Tuesday, however, there were no plans to schedule another hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee during the last week of session, which is the panel where the bill is headed to next.

The bill, however, does not die; 2017 is the first half of a two-year session. When legislators return in January, they will be able to continue discussing the bill with the progress that has already been made.

I consider it a minor to moderate failure for this bill to sit stagnated while the legislators go home.  We lose momentum, and there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that they couldn’t have come to terms with the House and passed a bill to send to the governor’s desk this week.

The upshot, however, is that I was worried about whether the rapidity of this would prevent us from addressing the South Carolina state senators one by one in order to do what we can to ensure success.  Now we don’t have that problem.  We have time to single out the senators with directed and focused communications.  Sitting stagnated but in process is better than having completely died or being rejected by the senate.

I hate that the legislators are going home, but we can pick this up again and make it clear to the senators that they have to do this first thing.  They need to move apace on this.  So says we, the free citizens and men of good will everywhere.

David Reeder at Breach-Bang-Clear:

“I’d rather just come on out and get it out there. There’s nothing more to say about it. I came into the Marines as an intel guy, started working at the NSA, and got some deployments out of it. The deployments were national intelligence teams [three letter agencies, ed]. That’s all true. But I was never Recon. Someone called me out on it, and I copped to it. It’s nothing I didn’t bring to my own doorstep. I could easily have shut it down, and I didn’t. It’s a lie I’ve been living for twenty years.

This is a soul cleanse for me after looking over my shoulder all this time.

I apologize to the community, to everyone for misrepresenting myself. I don’t ask or expect forgiveness. I can’t make up for what I did, but I can try to atone for it.”

So let me get this straight.  Someone called you out on it, or otherwise you would have kept living with that false impression from your students and followers?

Okay, perhaps I’m being to harsh here.  Nathan had to point at David too, and say “Thou art the one.”  David engaged in true repentance at that point.  I don’t regularly follow Mr. Lamb so I have no dog in this fight.  I hope he benefits from this experience.  But I have this to say to him.  You do not atone for your own sins.  Only the sacrifice of Jesus does that, and if you have no savior, you aren’t saved.  It’s that simple.

Here is the thing, though.  It just isn’t necessary to embellish CVs like that.  I learn from people when I can, and when I can’t, I don’t.  I really couldn’t care less about their CV.  The question is always for me, “Is what they’re teaching valuable and meaningful for me, and am I physically capable of implementing and practicing it?”  If yes, then I try to learn from it.  If not, then I ignore it without any malice at all.

There is no shame in not being a recon Marine.  My son Daniel wasn’t a recon Marine.  He was an infantry Marine who saw heavy combat in Fallujah in 2007, earning the CAR.  He was a SAW gunner, and a designated marksman for his platoon.  He went through all of the shooting and sighting training that the Scout Snipers go through, but he told me he had no desire whatsoever to take the rest of the training and testing, i.e., stalking, egress, etc.

He also had no desire whatsoever to run everywhere, which is what the recon Marines had to do to be able to achieve a perfect score on their PT.  Mr. Lamb didn’t have to embellish his CV (or perhaps he did if Magpul would not have hired him, possibly leading to more difficulty in building his brand).  I don’t know what the future would have held for him had he killed this perception at the outset rather than live with it.

In the end, when you get enough years under your belt in your own line of work, you know you are the craftsman, expert and mentor when the kids come to you for mentoring, being able to choose anyone they want.  It is that choice that is confirmation of your life’s work, not your CV.

The initial reactions by Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms had convinced me that they didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation for their business.  This is similar, and even more troubling because of the power of these manufacturers, to the situation with Jerry Tsai and Recoil magazine.  Jerry lost his job over that.

Rock River Arms has an updated statement, released May 2, 2017, and it is shown below in full.  I think this begins to show wisdom from RRA over the “abandonment” to which they refer.

For immediate release:

May 2, 2017

After further review, Rock River Arms, Inc.® (RRA) is immediately severing all ties with the Illinois Firearms Manufacturers Association (IFMA).

We feel that IFMA’s integrity is compromised and we will not be a part of the organization. We trusted that contributions and resources provided to IFMA by RRA were being used to promote and uphold our 2nd Amendment values. IFMA’s actions have destroyed that trust.

For more than twenty years, RRA has actively opposed gun control legislation at the local, state, and federal levels. We have supported and provided monetary and product donations to multiple pro-gun organizations including NRA, NSSF, ISRA and countless others. We have attended rallies and spoken at educational events on be half of gun owners’ rights. Our employees have collect ed signatures, written letters and e-mails, called legislators’ offices, as well as attended events, meetings and hearings in Springfield, Illinois.

What we learned, however, was that we are better at manufacturing firearms and accessories than playing political games at the state capitol. So, we began to utilize the services of lobbyists, first through other organizations and then in 2009, we partnered with several other manufacturers to form IFMA.

Prior to our further review, we believed that the organization had accurately represented us. We feel that IFMA’s actions have compromised its integrity. While their actions may be standard practices at the capitol, backdoor politics and convoluted deal-making are counter to the way we do business and lead our lives.

I sincerely apologize for my lack of direct engagement in IFMA’s governance and subsequent actions, as well as the abandonment gun owners are feeling.

If you have any questions regarding, or need more information about, this statement or RRA’s position, please contact:

Sarah Larson, RRA General Manager at 309-792-5780.

Thank you,

Chuck Larson

President/Owner

Rock River Arms

Via Codrea, I learned about the recent IFMA FFL and firearms manufacturers licensing scheme, which basically does the following.

Earlier today, the Illinois State Senate passed bill SB-1657 by a one-vote margin. While its prospects are still unsure in the House, if signed by Governor Bruce Rauner, the new law will mandate state licensing for all Illinois gun dealers. It will also restrict all others in Illinois to nine firearm transfers per year.

The lobbyist for the Illinois FirearmsManufacturers Association (IFMA), Jay Keller, traded that group’s opposition to the bill in exchange for a carve-out, removing Prairie State firearms manufacturers from the licensing requirements.

Two companies provide the bulk of the funding for IFMA: Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms.

To be clear, the original version of SB-1657 did not exempt manufacturers from the licensing regulations. At the time, Jay Keller and IFMA opposed it.

At a March Senate hearing, however, Keller stated that IFMA would drop its opposition to SB-1657 and go neutral if legislators gave the state’s gun makers a pass. State Senator Don Harmon delivered on his end of the deal with an amendment exempting big box stores and manufacturers from this scheme.

With that amendment, IFMA dropped its opposition to the bill,going neutral on the witness slip. That serves as a very public position on a bill in Illinois politics.

Perhaps this is the whole story.  Or perhaps not.  From here it gets really confusing, with the Springfield Armory statement as follows.

Springfield Armory has always fought hand-in-hand with the NRA, NSSF, ISRA and many others for legislation that fiercely protects the Second Amendment, individual rights and the industry as a whole. Our fight continues today as some members of the Illinois legislature are pushing to overregulate the industry through Gun Dealer Licensing Act (SB1657).

“At the time of my initial statement to the media, I was ill-informed of the ramifications of this bill and its detrimental effects to the Second Amendment, which I have personally fought to protect my entire life. I can tell you now, we at Springfield Armory are unequivocally 100 percent against this bill and will continue to work with the NRA and others to ensure that it is defeated,” said Dennis Reese, Chief Executive Officer, Springfield Armory.

Springfield Armory, like Rock River Arms, was not aware of the actions taken by our trade association, IFMA, until after the fact. We take this situation very seriously and are looking into how this very unfortunate lapse in communication occurred.

Springfield Armory has fought and defeated legislation like this in Illinois for the past 15 years. We are wholeheartedly against this bill and will fight to see it defeated as the unnecessary and harmful overreach that it is.

Rock River Arms has responded thusly (so far).

RRA Moderator
Posted: Yesterday 4:38:04 PM EDT [Last Edit: Yesterday 4:43:02 PM EDT by RRAMODERATOR] RRA’s owner is at NRAAM in Atlanta, where he is meeting with a number of people about this. While many of the necessary people are in Atlanta, some are not which is complicating things. RRA has been opposed to this bill (and earlier bills prior to it for more than a decade) and is still in 100% opposition to it. Both our exemption and the change in our lobbyist’s position from “opposed” to “no position” were surprises to us. We found out after many of you, and have been trying to make sense of it since. A statement will be forthcoming as soon as it is possible to make one that is accurate and complete. It may still come out today. Thank you all for your consideration and to the many who have been willing to give us the benefit of the doubt. Steve/RRA

Perhaps the lobbyist for the IFMA acted on his own.  Or perhaps not.  We need to know the truth about this, as customers and their loyalty, and the health of two very good companies, and the lives of their workers, hang in the balance.

Look, I’ve got it.  Every company worries over things like a well-trained work force, retention of good employees, and forcing workers to relocate to far-away states which are much more gun friendly, leaving behind extended family, perhaps some with dependent care issues.  This is an absolutely sordid situation to be faced with.

On the other hand, some companies have relocated, such as Magpul and Remington.  Customers have rewarded Magpul, and the Remington plant in Alabama is reported to be doing very well.  Customers punished Smith & Wesson for their fornication with Bill Clinton and the gun controllers years ago, and with the situation as it is today, if this occurred again I seriously doubt Smith & Wesson would recover as it has.

Ruger makes fine revolvers and so we don’t need S&W if they were to go out of business, everyone makes a polymer pistol (so the M&P isn’t an absolute necessity), and many more manufacturers are making 1911s (although buyer beware, it’s much harder to make a quality 1911 than a plastic double stack gun).  There are too many AR-15 manufacturers to count now, with quality makers such as Daniel Defense, LaRue Tactical, Knight’s Armament, and Head Down.

I am a huge fan of RRA as readers know.  But if RRA and Springfield Armory were complicit in passing this legislation, they will suffer from it.  RRA distributors will stop asking for delivery and prices will plummet, although I expect RRA to survive.  If Springfield participated in support of this bill (or lack of opposition to it), I expect them to fold their tents.  They will not survive.  They don’t make anything unique enough to survive in the face of the competition.

I hate this for both RRA and Springfield, but you just simply cannot jump in bed with the controllers and be forgiven by the customers.  Gun owners won’t tolerate it – if you doubt what I’m saying, read the comments to this reddit/r/firearms thread.  If there is more to this story than we see, RRA and Springfield need to come clean and address the issues forthrightly – immediately.

UPDATE from RRA concerning IFMA.

The State:

A bill that supporters argue would strengthen Second Amendment rights could be a disaster for the image of the Grand Strand, officials in multiple jurisdictions said.

On Tuesday, Myrtle Beach Police Chief Warren Gall said a measure under consideration in the general assembly could make law enforcement’s job more difficult, because it would be legal to carry a weapon openly as long as a user doesn’t intend to use it for an unlawful purpose. But police can only prove someone intended to use a gun unlawfully after a crime has occurred, he said.

The bill, which has passed the S.C. House of Representatives and moved to the Senate, does not require a permit for open carry.

“I don’t think they’re going to pass it this year. But imagine walking down Ocean Boulevard on Easter weekend, Fourth of July weekend, Memorial Day weekend, Labor Day weekend, and everybody down there is carrying a pistol on their side because they can,” Gall said.

Myrtle Beach has recently seen a string of shootings, many in the downtown area near or on Ocean Boulevard. Officials are grappling with multiple ways to calm the atmosphere there, but Councilwoman Mary Jeffcoat said controlling the flow of firearms could be an impossible task for local police.

“I don’t know how many people in town have guns,” she said Tuesday. “I don’t know if we’ve even guessed how many people have guns, but I bet it’s a lot of them. I’m surprised we don’t have more shootings on weekends.”

[ … ]

Chief Joseph Hill of the Horry County Police Department previously worked in Virginia, which allows open carry. He said that he hadn’t seen issues with it there, but said in his personal opinion, a proliferation of guns in public could run counter to the intended brand of the Myrtle Beach area — a family friendly resort town.

“Where are you gonna strap it when you’re in your flip flops and your shorts on the beach?” Hill asked.

“I don’t think it will work here,” he said. “I don’t have any personal objections to it other than it doesn’t fit the culture of Myrtle Beach.”

Myrtle Beach Police Chief Warren Gall may know something we don’t.  We already know how weak-kneed the South Carolina legislators are, but perhaps the chief knows something about stalling tactics.  The authors of the article let that pregnant line of questioning slip away from them.

Here’s another pregnant line of questioning.  If Chief Joseph Hill of the Horry County Police Department has worked in Virginia before, which is an open carry state, and which also has beaches, then why can’t it work at another beach like Myrtle Beach, S.C.?  And for that matter, if North Carolina is a “gold star” traditional open carry state, also with magnificent beaches like Emerald Isle and the Outer Banks, what the hell is Hill talking about?

What image are they trying to protect if crime is rampant in Myrtle Beach anyway?  Hey, if you want to handle crime in that area, why don’t y’all target those thousands of homeless, drug addled beach dwellers in between Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach?  Yea, you know the ones I’m talking about, don’t you?  The ones who live just off the beach in makeshift shanties and card board boxes.

Your dirty little secret – the one you try to hide from all those Canadians and Northerners who come down to S.C. for some fun and frolic in the beach.  That is, during the times when High School students aren’t going to the beach to get inebriated and have sex with each other in hotel rooms their parents know nothing about.

Hey South Carolina LEOs!  You don’t have room to tell me anything about open carry and image.  Go fix your own damn problems and leave my rights alone.  And authors Chloe Johnson and Elizabeth Townsend, do a better job of pushing the envelope with your writing.  Why don’t you ask the hard questions?

Leo Hohmann:

Of course hate isn’t a crime.  The collectivists just want to control what people think, or at least, what they say they think.  Volition before God, and accountability for what one does, says and thinks, is replaced in this calculus with accountability before the state because the state usurps God’s authority to judge.

The collectivists want to expand it for some other reason though, to wit, they just don’t want individuals to be capable of self defense, which circumvents the process by which they adjudicate “justice,” dispense grace, and decide the future for everyone.

Yahoo:

Can you imagine a better reason not to send your children for public schooling where they will indoctrinate them in collectivist philosophy?

When children should be learning geometry, algebra, physics, chemistry and language, they worry over what color to wear today in order to stay alive.  This is disgusting and despicable in the superlative.

I believe if I was a Long Island parent I would be hunting down those MS-13 thugs and handling the problem per Herschel’s Dictum.  If the cops won’t do the job, you will just have to handle it yourselves.  In a group, if you have to.  A few well-placed .45 ACP rounds through skulls should cause the thugs to start looking over their shoulder.  Oh wait.  That’s right, you can’t legally own or carry a gun where you live.

How sad.

David Codrea:

“It’s up to us to speak up against the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites, and media elites,” National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told attendees at the NRA Annual Meeting.

Go see how David connects the dots.  I agree with him but connect the dots a little differently.  I think it’s literally all of the politicians, from local to state and then federal.  Oh, there are some who are good men, such as Congressman Jeff Duncan (who not coincidentally sponsored the hearing protection act).  But there just aren’t enough of them to make a difference.

It’s the political structure, which kowtows the global elitists, who invite immigrants into the country, undermines the culture and the economy, and redistributes the wealth of the middle class both upward and downward.  And this dovetails with the main point David makes, because the politicians empower the elitists to remake America in the global image.

Roger J.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
From ‘The Gulag Archipelago’, Part I, Chapter 1, ‘Arrest’:

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the down-stairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that you’d be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur — what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked? The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!”

Translated from the Russian by Thomas P. Whitney