Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

This is the wisest 17 minutes you’ll spend today.

NECN.com:

Gun owners in Massachusetts are being warned if they own bump stocks, they have two weeks to get rid of them.

The Massachusetts legislature voted last year to ban them and Feb. 1 is the deadline to comply or face criminal charges.

“This is not a joke,” said Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League. “A violation of this new law is up to life in prison.”

Wallace says many bump stock owners may not be familiar with the new law, and a warning from Massachusetts state officials to gun owners — despite being dated Dec. 18 — only went out Friday, more than a month later.

[ … ]

There are no exceptions.

The collectivists in the great Northeast have threatened bump stock owners with life in prison for owning one.  Do I have readers in Massachusetts?  Do you own a bump stock, and if so, what are you going to do about this?

David Codrea points out an article by Alex Yablon that appears on the face of it to be quite fair and impartial, but David points out to me that he is a Bloomberg apparatchik and relishes pointing out dissension in the gun ranks.  Whatever.  There is a lot of dissension and if you haven’t seen it you haven’t been looking.  With friends like we have, who needs enemies?  Hey, here’s a quick note to Alex.  If he really wants to be impartial and fair, I invite him down to my neck of the woods to go shooting at a local range.  Will he take me up on the offer?

At any rate, David has made his remarks on the proposed rulemaking on bump stocks.  I’ll get to it before the deadline, but I’m still expecting some help from readers.  To date there hasn’t been much input.

There is more.

“When I was 18, I was arrested and charged with felony retail theft for theft of $479 worth of clothing at a Chicago mall,” a young man whose name  I’m withholding told me in a recent email. “State law of Illinois says any value of retail goods above $300 is a felony.

That was a bad decision, no way around it. He regrets the hell out of it, and has since striven to learn from his poor choice and to lead a productive and law-abiding life. But now he’s a “prohibited person,” forbidden by law to touch a gun. And unless he can figure out a legal way around that, it’s a life sentence.

Well, he has a God-given right to defend his life like anyone else.  I’ve made known my views on the alleged “debt” criminals have to society.  It’s a myth statists and collectivists like to tell.  There is no debt to society.  If a person steals, he should become the slave of the offended until the debt has been paid threefold.  The debt is to the offended.  If he rapes, kidnaps, or murders anyone, his life should be taken by the community.  This concept would clear out the prisons, yes?  And if someone refuses to become the slave of the offended until his debt is paid, put him into the pit with the murderers and rapists and fill it up with stones, with the first one being tossed in by the offended.  How about some Biblical justice for a change?

Remember when the hurricane came through and the communist who is governor of the U.S. Virgin Island ordered seizure of guns and ammunition?  We discussed it.  Well, he’s at it again.

U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp renewed a highly controversial executive order in January that allows the National Guard to seize arms from everyday civilians.

The executive order Mapp extended on Jan. 2 was first issued in September. The order declares that the U.S. Virgin Islands is in a “state of emergency” and gives the adjunct general power “that may be required by the military forces for the performance of this emergency mission.”

Mapp told The Daily Caller in a December 2017 phone interview that the national guard is “not authorized to take arms and munitions from civilians,” and said those that continue to think the order authorized that power are being “foolish.” While Mapp continues to make the same assertion when questioned about the order, the language of the text explicitly authorizes the seizure of arms and ammunition.

The governor said in the Jan. 2 order that the nation is still in a state of emergency following the devastation brought on from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. The order also says that the “state of emergency declared effective 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2017  is hereby renewed, and such State of Emergency, along with all terms previously declared in the order.” That would include the language authorizing the seizure of arms, ammunition and other property.

And it doesn’t even matter.  As I’ve previously noted, confiscation of guns and ammunition is irrelevant when you’re not allowed to have any to begin with.  Communists gotta’ be communists.  It’s what they do.  Can a leopard change it spots?

Tucson.com:

But the attorney who crafted it for Republican state Rep. David Stringer said that still won’t let Arizonans keep their “bump stocks” if the federal government declares them illegal.

The legislation spells out the kind of firearms the state believes are necessary for those who are members of the state militia. Existing Arizona law already says that automatically includes all “able-bodied citizens of the state” between 18 and 45.

And just to be sure that folks who turn 46 don’t lose their gun rights because of new federal laws, HB 2057 also would expand the definition of the militia to remove the maximum age. But it would add a new requirement that they be “capable of acting in concert for the common defense.”

The measure — and a companion constitutional amendment — were introduced by Stringer who said he wants to ensure that whatever occurs in Washington doesn’t interfere with the right of law-abiding Arizonans to possess firearms.

But Stringer left it to attorney Michael Taylor, who has some expertise in the area of gun rights, to come up with the actual language. And Taylor said it is crafted to conform to a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have upheld gun rights.

Courts will never decide in your favor, sir.  Never.  The festooned, robed tyrants will always decide for more communism.

That’s why this is toothless and powerless right out of the gate.  If you’re not willing to enforce this Arizona law by arresting ATF agents who enter the state and throwing them in the state penitentiary, and protecting your citizens by allowing them to purchase guns and ammunition regardless of form 4473 (which the FedGov will use to its advantage), then you’re setting your citizens up for illegalities and yourself up for failure and complete embarrassment.

You’re a loser.  Unless you act like you have some guts about this thing.  I have confidence you won’t do that, and neither will your fellow statesmen.

But wait, that’s not the whole story.

Governor Asa Hutchinson has informed the Arkansas State Police that he believes a 2013 law made open carry of hand guns the law of the land in Arkansas and they should act accordingly.

There is, as yet, no definitive court case that substantiates this view of the law. Ever since its passage, a debate has raged over the law’s meaning. Some contended it was merely meant to be a technical correction to Arkansas law that long had allowed the carrying of weapons on a “journey,” but not in all circumstances. Gun advocates argued that the wording validated open carry. Critics argue that such an expansive view might override some of the restrictions in law on where concealed weapons may be taken.

The governor’s letter comes as he faces a challenge in the Republican primary from Jan Morgan, a gun range owner who’s depicted Hutchinson (a former spokesman for the NRA) as somehow soft on guns (she was critical of some limitations added to the campus carry legislation, among others). His opinion carries no force of law, but the directive to an executive agency will have the effect of guiding state troopers, as indicated by a notice sent yesterday to troopers by Col. Bill Bryant, director of the State Police.

Context: An off-duty trooper in 2014 arrested a man who was carrying a weapon in a Searcy Walmart. He was acquitted of an obstruction of governmental operations misdemeanor charge, but lost a lawsuit at the circuit court level in which he sought to have his concealed carry permit restored. Judge Wendell Griffen rejected James Tanner’s argument that the 2013 law allowed open carry so long as no unlawful intent was present. The judge called that interpretation “senseless.” The judge ruled Tanner wasn’t entitled to get his license back because he openly carried a concealed weapon as a permit holder and refused to provide identification to an officer who asked for it. That case has not been appealed, court records indicate.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued an official opinion in 2015 that indicated open carry was legal in Arkansas, but she also commented that confusion about the 2013 law suggested clarification would be useful. Her predecessor, Dustin McDaniel, had opined the law was only a technical correction, not legalization of unlimited open carry.

Rutledge also enumerated these caveats about open carry:

* Law officers can freely question anyone openly carrying a weapon about their purpose.

* Other statutes prohibit open carry in certain circumstances — in government buildings such as the Capitol, for example.

* Private property owners are entitled to keep firearms off their property, and armed people who refuse to leave can be prosecuted for trespass.

* The law doesn’t affect concealed carry statutes. All carrying concealed weapons still must comply with permitting and other requirements.

By “soft on guns,” Morgan means that Asa isn’t the gun rights supporter he purports to be.

Hutchinson hasn’t been hard enough on the gays and the transgenders; he once took a meeting with gun control advocates; he wouldn’t sign a meaningless anti-Sharia law bill; he’s supported the continuation of the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.

Arkansas is in fact a stop and identify state, but only for loitering.  The judge that decided the case against the open carrier, Wendell Griffen, is clearly an idiot and communist.  Expect the police to ignore the governor’s edict and work towards their communist ends.

As for the governor’s race, I don’t know what will happen.  But Arkansas is as much a mess as every other state.

And they’ll leave our bump stocks alone.

Gun Owners of America (GOA) is decrying the latest push from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for bump stock gun control, contending that part of the solution is to defund the ATF altogether.

The GOA’s statements come after the DOJ announced that the ATF is weighing whether to redefine the term “machinegun,” so as to include accessories that do not convert semiautomatic firearms into automatic ones. This would place firearm accessories like bump stocks on par with actually firearm conversion devices, therefore bringing an entire new category of firearm accessories under the auspices of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). Placing such accessories under the purview of the NFA would require bump stock owners to pass a background check, be fingerprinted, photographed, and pay a $200 tax to the federal government.

GOA executive director Erich Pratt told Breitbart News, “Gun Owners of America will rally its members in opposition to any proposed restrictions on bump stocks by the ATF.  GOA holds that any such limitations are unconstitutional and would open the door to additional regulations, even while doing nothing to stop evil people from committing heinous acts.”

Well, of course that’s true.  The way to stop the unconstitutional infringement the mere existence the ATF poses is to entirely defund the ATF, forcing the bureaucracy to send all of its employees pink slips.  It won’t happen because the Senate and Congress believes in this infringement just like the executive does.

By the way, you’re aware, aren’t you, that the ATF is preparing to fold in bump stocks to the NFA?  The reddit link on this can be found here.

Remember this great decision by the Delaware Supreme Court?  Yea, well, it didn’t take long for the controllers to spring into action in order to blunt the force of God-given rights (finally recognized by men).

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and the Delaware Department of Agriculture plan to issue interim firearm regulations early next week.

The regulations come after the Delaware Supreme Court repealed a firearmsban.

The state anticipates that the interim regulations would prohibit firearms in certain public facilities and designated areas – including park offices, visitors’ centers, bathhouses, zoos, educational facilities, dormitories, group camping areas, swimming pools, guarded beaches, stadiums and water parks.

In addition, the regulations would allow holders of valid Delaware concealed carry permits to carry within parks, including designated areas. The regulations would further allow active-duty law enforcement officers and qualified retired officers to carry anywhere within the parks and other areas affected by Supreme Court decision.

Group camping areas.  So in other words, when you might most need a firearm for self defense (if you were a criminal bent on evil, would you go to a location where nobody else was?), you aren’t legally allowed to have one.

Hemp rope and lamp posts, after their toe nails have been pulled off, one by one.

The State:

Four months isn’t enough time to get all the state’s business done.

When South Carolina lawmakers wrapped the 2017 legislative session in May, they had approved a plan to fix the state’s dilapidated roads, including a higher gas tax, and shored up the state’s pension system.

But some bills didn’t reach the finish line for one reason or another, so even before moving on to new business, the Legislature will have a lot to pick back up when they convene for the second half of the session in January.

Multiple bills affect South Carolinians’ ability to buy and carry firearms publicly. Last year, the S.C. House of Representatives approved two bills loosening the requirements for carrying a gun in the Palmetto State, only to see them get stuck in the state Senate.

One would allow anyone with an out-of-state gun permit to carry a concealed weapon in South Carolina as long as their state also recognizes S.C. carrying permits. The bill removes any requirement on the traveler to have passed a criminal background check or taken a firearm safety course. However, the traveler still must observe S.C. laws for carrying firearms while in the state.

The other bill would eliminate the need to have any permit to carry a weapon, either concealed or openly – a position proponents call “constitutional carry.”

Meanwhile, a Senate bill would do away with the so-called “Charleston loophole” by requiring a 28-day waiting period for a gun seller to complete a background check.

That loophole – a federal rule that allows a gun purchase to be completed if a background check takes longer than three days – allowed convicted Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to purchase a handgun because a prior drug conviction was not reported to the seller within the three-day wait period. Another bill would require courts to speed up the reporting of criminal convictions for background checks.

Both of those bills remained in committee when the 2017 session came to an end.

The debate around all these bills started before this autumn’s mass shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas, and it’s unclear what effect those might have on S.C. lawmakers’ appetite for more gun legislation.

It remains sitting there, S.C. gun owners.  If the S.C. legislature doesn’t prioritize some form of open carry – with or without constitutional carry – it’s because they feel no pressure to prioritize it.

Events of recent months have given the progs a good excuse to delay this legislation.  Of course.  Not good in the sense that it has anything to do with open carry, but good in the sense that the optics are altered.

PJM:

Islamic State supporters issued a new Christmas-themed threat showing the National Cathedral in Washington in flames, with a camouflage-clad jihadist wielding a rifle standing in front of the Gothic structure.

The poster circulating among ISIS channels photoshops the photo of the church used on its Wikipedia page.

The text warning on the image is of a city just attacked this past week, though: “Wait for us: We meet at Christmas in New York… soon.”

The threat mirrors that on a poster of Santa with a case of dynamite overlooking Times Square, which was released just after Thanksgiving: “We meet at Christmas in New York… soon,” reads the text on that image.

Idiots.  Santa Claus has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas or Christianity.  And the National Cathedral has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity either.  They no longer believe in anything at all, and ISIS is wasting their time assuming that an attack on the National Cathedral would deter believers in America from meeting and worshipping on the Lord’s Day Sabbath.

However, it does bring up an interesting little dilemma for the National Cathedral, yes?  You see, they are leaders in the progressive community in gun control.  This sermon (posted on their web site) tells us everything we need to know.

I, for one, have decided to join forces with Dean Hall at the National Cathedral and all people of faith and good will who are saying now, in response to Friday’s tragedy, that enough is enough. We have been fed enough the stale bread of violence. We have been complicit too long in a system that allows such crimes to continue. 119,079 children and teens have been killed by gun violence since 1979, according to Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund, more than the number of Americans killed in any of the 20th century’s largest wars. More than 10,000 Americans were killed by gun violence last year alone.

Dean Hall and I have decided to dedicate ourselves to the work of passing national legislation to ban the sale of assault weapons and ammunition in this country and I invite you, as a congregation, to join us and others for whom something snapped inside on Friday, as if we collectively all awoke from a very bad dream. While there are legitimate reasons to own a gun for sport and self-defense, there is no reason for civilians to own weapons whose only purpose is to kill large numbers of people. And while there is far more to be done to reduce violence in our nation and to care for the mentally ill, if we don’t begin with the most obvious first steps, how will we ever progress to more difficult challenges?

So there you have it.  The very people who have been threatened by ISIS believe they shouldn’t be allowed to defend themselves and should have to turn to the state for protection.  The National Cathedral has never once averred that congregants should carry, any more than they believe that men walking the street should be allowed to carry weapons.  Their tip of the hat to self defense is a lie.

If I was a congregant at the National Cathedral, I sure wouldn’t be attending there any more.  But then again, why would anyone be a congregant at the National Cathedral?  They don’t believe in anything.