Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

US News & World Report:

A bill that would overturn most local gun ordinances that are more stringent than Nebraska state law cleared a key hurdle Wednesday despite protests from some Omaha and Lincoln area senators who raised public safety concerns.

Lawmakers gave initial approval to a gun-rights pre-emption bill 32-12, after supporters overcame a filibuster by opponents who want to preserve existing local rules.

Supporters said the bill would eliminate a confusing patchwork of local gun ordinances, particularly in Omaha and Lincoln. Critics in the Legislature argued the bill would allow gun-rights groups to sue cities which refuse to repeal their rules even if aren’t directly harmed.

Cities, counties, towns and municipalities who infringe on God-given and constitutionally recognized rights should be exposed to liability and they should be sued.

As we’ve seen in our own discussions on this topic, no one can ever show that a local government attempts to loosen gun laws.  The only thing they ever do is attempt to infringe to an even greater degree than the state on gun rights.  Therefore, it makes good sense for states to do this in order to stop the collectivists and controllers who want to dictate every little detail of life within their borders.

So here is a note to these little dictators.  Your borders aren’t sovereign.  You aren’t allowed to control guns or anything else the state doesn’t allow you to control.  Why don’t you stop worrying about this and figure out how to meet your obligations on all of those unfunded liabilities you have because of those ridiculous city worker pensions you agreed to.

Nebraska should proceed apace to make this the law of the state.

Politico:

Preparing for life with Donald Trump as president and Republican majorities in Congress, Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group is threatening to spend more than $25 million in 2018 races.

Everytown for Gun Safety, founded and funded by the billionaire former New York City mayor, is hiring several new top staffers and turning much of its attention to state legislatures, while moving to a defensive posture in Washington as it tries to stop what’s known as “concealed carry reciprocity” from becoming law. That will include starting to score congressional votes, like the National Rifle Association does, to guide spending decisions more directly.

We knew that collectivists never give up, and neither can we.  Unfortunately, Bloomberg has been moderately successful at the state level in blue states at infringing more on gun rights.  That’s why as I’ve recommended to nice people that you can’t be nice with Everytown.  You have go to war with them.  They are at war with you and your rights, and war is interested in you whether you’re interested or not.  It remains a bright spot in my blogging history that Jennifer Mascia came into my back yard on behalf of Everytown and tried to run with the big dogs (my commenters) and got chewed up.

As for what Trump has or hasn’t done on our behalf, while I’m disappointed in the degree of control that McMaster seems to have over him and his entry into the war to topple Syria, there are bright spots in Trump’s brief history of appointments.

Jesse Panuccio, the third-highest ranking official at the Department of Justice, has argued to allow firearms sales to people under age 21 and in defense of a Florida law that prohibited doctors from asking patients if they owned guns.

Noel Francisco, Donald Trump’s nominee for solicitor general, has described the Second Amendment as “a structural protection that’s intended to protect all other rights.”

And Tom Wheeler, now a senior lawyer in the DOJ’s civil rights division, once gave a speech with the title: “Arming Teachers to Prevent Tragedies, Responding to Sandy Hook.”

Forget for a moment that Sandy Hook was a false flag.  These are good appointments (go read the entire article).  On the other hand, I hold out very little hope that national carry reciprocity or the hearing protection act will get traction (much less amending or outright undoing the NFA).  The gaggle of gargoyles and demons that inhabits the House and Senate has no interest in your rights, and even if they did, trying to get anything useful done is like trying to herd cats.

So I can only recommend that you don’t wait on national carry, and if you wanted to suppressor or SBR, go ahead and get it and file the paperwork.  If there is success on the horizon, I just don’t see it.  Perhaps I’m just being pessimistic.

What do my readers think?

David Codrea:

“They were tortured with a blow torch and knives,” a chilling Middleburg Observer report about a South African farm attack relates. “A plastic bag was stuffed down Sue’s throat and they attempted to strangle Robert with a black bag around his neck … “In any other country, such a crime would be almost unthinkable. But in South Africa, these kinds of farm attacks are happening nearly every day.”

I’ve told you guys before (see comments) and if you ever had an predilections towards trying to find common ground with the abusers and controllers, you’d better listen to me again.

Mankind is evil.  It’s called federal headship, and it happened in the garden with Adam as the father of all mankind.  God’s saving grace can redeem individual men, and it can change a society by “common grace.”  It has before in America under far different circumstances.  But with the anemia of the church and so-called Christians who have abdicated all responsibility for their culture, there are consequences and they aren’t good.  There is an ebb and flow to this sort of thing until we learn that lesson again … and again … and again.

When I initially read this it reminded me of the atrocities perpetrated by AQ in Iraq when I covered the war there.  They would take drills and drill into the heads of live humans.  Don’t think it can’t happen in South Africa, and don’t think it can’t happen here, and happen to you or your family if you don’t gun up.

Prepare to defend yourself.  A lack of will is even worse than having no weapons, because you may be able to find the weapons if it’s not too late.  But don’t count on it.

There’s nothing quite like having to fund your enemies, is there?  Listen to U.S. District Court Judge Walter H. Rice.

I think open carry (and concealed-carry) laws, with all due deference to the Second Amendment, which I support…are dangerous to any community because of the epidemic of mental health issues throughout this country,” he said. “Putting guns in the hands of mentally incompetent people is a recipe for disaster.”

Lies.  And the only mentally incompetent person around here is you, judge Rice.  You moron.

Next up is a local politician – the top cop in Pelham – and I do refer to him as a politician, speaking out against constitutional carry in Alabama.

Palmer said the passage of the bill would require him to sit down and reevaluate the way Pelham Police Department conducts traffic stops.

“It puts the public and police officers at risk,” Palmer said.  “I believe in the second amendment for law abiding citizens.  I’m not trying to take away anybody’s rights.  I’m just trying to keep handguns out of the possession of criminals.”

Oh horse shit.  You know better than that.  The current system does absolutely nothing to ensure what you said, and I just think you’re whining about the loss of revenue.

So go ahead and sit down (or stand up) and have that conversation with your cops.  You shouldn’t be worrying over whether someone has a concealed handgun permit during stops or not.  That’s a false indication of your safety.

I’m tired of spending my hard-earned dollars so that government employees can concoct lies.

David Codrea:

Besides which, since when is “effectiveness” a measure of Constitutionality? Where is the authority to do this? That’s a question a group of us have been asking for years, and for which we have never received acknowledgement from Exile proponents, let alone a responsive answer. Perhaps it’s time to resurrect and heed the objections and warnings of the Project Exile Condemnation Coalition.

Even without resorting to the demonstrable truism that anyone who can’t be trusted with a gun can’t be trusted without a custodian, there is a variety of ways people who pose no danger to themselves or others are denied the right to keep and bear arms – and often without even the simulated motions of “due process.” That includes gun owners in hopelessly “blue states,” in which all doors for peaceable redress of grievances have been slammed shut by overwhelmingly “anti-gun” legislatures and judges.

I agree with David concerning the issue of custodianship and gun ownership, and I must say that all of this federal involvement in local affairs is off-putting to say the least.

Jeff Sessions is better than some AGs we could get, but frankly, I couldn’t care less about enforcement of federal gun laws, any more than I care about the so-called “war on drugs,” both of which seem like failures to me as well as unconstitutional.

One reason I was happy to see Sessions appointed AG had to do with what I thought would be his prosecution of high level politicians and power brokers associated with, bound up in, implicated in, and leading the wicked and obscene pedogate empire that has taken Washington and other international centers of power.

When is Sessions going to start this prosecution?  It’s been long enough.  I’ve run out of patience.  Drop your focus off of inner city black-on-black crime (which you can do nothing about short of removing the incentive, i.e., welfare and SNAP as payment for out-of-wedlock babies) and focus on the extortionist racket that is CP.  Otherwise, you’ll be just another worthless AG I wish I had never known.

USA Today:

A coalition of retired admirals and generals, including former CIA director and retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, are protesting “irresponsible and dangerous” legislation they say would put mentally ill veterans in harm’s way by giving them easy access to firearms.

The Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act would prevent the Department of Veterans Affairs from reporting veterans’ records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System after they’ve been deemed incapable of managing their financial affairs because of a disabling mental disorder. The bill would prohibit the VA from considering such veterans “mentally defective” without a magistrate or judicial authority ruling that the beneficiary is a danger to himself or herself or others.

In a Tuesday letter, members of the Veterans Coalition for Common Sense urged House and Senate leaders to oppose the bill. The House is expected to take it up on Thursday.

“The bill you are debating comes at a time when an average of 20 veterans commit suicide each day, two-thirds of whom do so by using a firearm. We know that non-deployed veterans are at a 61 percent higher risk of suicide compared to the American civilian population, and deployed veterans are at a 41 percent higher risk,” they wrote. “When vulnerable veterans have access to firearms, they can do harm not only to themselves but also to family members and loved ones. The impact of these tragedies is felt in communities across our nation.”

Petraeus, who is an adulterer, and McChrystal who is a murderer of the men at Ganjgal, along with losers Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli and others, want to report veterans to the NICS.  To link this up to causation, they use having someone else do finances as a trigger.  Just like the elderly who want someone to assist with finances, veterans cannot have their mother or wife assist with finances while they attend college classes for fear of loss of gun ownership rights.

Forget repairing the dysfunctional Veterans Administration, giving better health care, or any one of a myriad of things that would seriously help veterans.  No, take their guns away from them.  This is a disgusting and un-American display of total abandonment for the purpose of driving a political agenda.  This gun control agenda has been pressed by both Petraeus and McChrystal in form, fit and function completely different than the context here with veterans.  Veterans are being used by McChrystal and this group.  So much for their love of country or men with whom they served.

It’s sad, and if you’re a veteran, you need to (a) dissociate yourself from such terrible men, and (b) be very careful what you say to the VA or anyone else for that matter.  The very men who the country should be honoring are on the chopping block for loss of rights.

Prior:

David Petraeus And Stanley McChrystal Lead The Charge On Gun Control

Stanley McChrystal On Gun Control

David Codrea:

“New York Attorney General files response in Taser case, and no, it’s not a joke,” attorney Stephen Stamboulieh notes in response to the state’s position in the matter of Avitabile v. Cuomo. “I guess before I argue these motions on March 24, 2017, I have to figure out if the Supreme Court’s Heller opinion is binding law in New York. “

I have a better question.  Is God’s opinion relevant in New York?  If you say yes, then you must admit that His requirement to defend your life because it’s made in His image means that the very weapons the New York AG thinks aren’t covered by Heller are the least of the things you should be able to own.  If you say no, well then, the future doesn’t look bright for you, if you know what I mean.  Your body doesn’t just cool to ambient temperature when you die, and that’s the end.  There’s something more.  Much more.  In fact, this life is but a vapor, but what we do and how we believe matters above all else.  Forget Heller.  What about the sovereign of the universe?

Hey, take a look at the picture.  I love it how these controllers always try to line up the blue costumed hacks behind them, as if their opinion means anything.  And look at the sad, unlikable, bitchy and asshole faces in that gaggle.  Would you want to be around them for any reason under the sun?  Say one of the boys asked you to drop by for a pit fire, a bit of Maker’s Mark and some cigars with them.  Would you even want to go?  It would be like spending quality time with that creepy, weird guy who shouts a lot, looks at you strange, smells bad and pushes the buggy with all his stuff in it.  At least, that’s how I think of it.

Don’t be like them, boys and girls.  Don’t be like gun controllers.  They’re a sad, unsociable lot.

This one is a real zinger, folks.

A proposed bill in the Arkansas State Legislature with the potential to allow the concealed and open carry of a handgun without a permit is a more divisive issue for gun owners than most might think. The bill is scheduled for discussion during the senate judiciary committee on Tuesday, March 7.

El Dorado native and freshman State Senator Trent Garner (R-27th District) spearheaded Senate Bill 444 supporting what people know as constitutional carry, a movement sweeping the nation for non-permit open and concealed carry of a handgun as suggested by the second amendment: “…the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

In addition to the discrepancy mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, proponents of non-permit carry argued that there are too many confusing laws and registration paperwork for gun-carrying citizens, and if criminals and reckless people are already in possession of a handgun in public, then law-abiding citizens should be able to as well, Garner said.

Some argue that Arkansas is already somewhat of a constitutional carry state.

In 2015, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge interpreted Act 746, passed in 2013, to allow people in Arkansas to openly carry a handgun with a few caveats: law officers can ask the user’s intent of the weapon, carrying a weapon is not allowed in restricted areas — government building, public university, etc., private property owners have authority over whether people can openly carry a weapon and the law doesn’t affect concealed carry statutes.

Arkansas isn’t the only state considering the move for constitutional carry. Other similar bills are being considered in 14 other states including: Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, to name a few.

As of late, Garner’s proposal is empty, but the idea of what it could lead to has been polarizing for gun-owning citizens of El Dorado spanning from law-enforcement and gun shop employees to average gun-owners and the rest of the state. But, each stance agreed that a knowledge of gun safety and the state law is required for every gun-owner, even if it’s not mandatory.

“I have a real problem with people carrying guns without proper training,” said Larry Combs, local gun instructor and former mayor of El Dorado. “There’s enough gun accidents already.”

Combs teaches classes for people interested in obtaining a concealed carry license, and has seen some local gun-owners who have carried a handgun without a license or permit.

“This is the state of Arkansas, I’ve seen people who carry a gun concealed and say ‘I don’t need a permit, I’ve handled a gun my whole life’ and they can — unless they get stopped by the police, then they’re in trouble,” Combs said.

Danny Farley, lead court security officer for the El Dorado Federal Court building, is also a concealed carry instructor and does not favor non-permit concealed or open carry.

“It’s a bad idea,” Farley said. “The major problem is people need to know when it’s not okay to carry a weapon. I have no problem with people carrying a weapon, but they need to be educated, which a license guarantees.”

For concealed-carry certification in the state of Arkansas a person is required to take a 5-hour class where the instructor must stress liability and safety, show how to load and discharge a gun, read the state and federal gun laws in a coherent manner, and make sure the person is competent in handling a gun through a “live-fire” test.

Once training is completed, a questionnaire covering a person’s mental health, drug, alcohol, and criminal history is filled and submitted to the Arkansas State Police, at which point officials can grant or repeal a person from obtaining a license to carry a concealed handgun.

Open carry has no strings attached.

“To me, I don’t like open carry because there’s no regulations or class required,” said Ricky Roberts, Union County Sheriff. “With concealed carry, dispatch can run your name through the system and know whether you have a license to be carrying a weapon or not.”

Also, law enforcement officers are restricted to a certain extent when confronting people who openly carry a handgun, for instance: the officer can ask for that person’s intent and if the officer believes it’s for self-defense and hasn’t seen any suspicious activity, the officers move on. This can be a slippery slope, Farley said.

“If you carry openly, an officer has the right to ask if it’s for self defense use, and once that’s done he walks away, that’s all that police can do,” he said.

A large concern for gun-owners is that laws aren’t strict enough on criminals or mentally-ill persons, and until those laws are enforced law-abiding citizens should have easier access to owning a gun for self-defense, said Linda Newbury, mayor of Felsenthal.

So gun owners are split, or something like that, on the question of constitutional carry in Arkansas, but in order to prove the pretext of the article, the author cites Larry Combs, local gun instructor and former mayor of El Dorado, Danny Farley, lead court security officer for the El Dorado Federal Court building, who is also a concealed carry instructor, and Ricky Roberts, Union County Sheriff.  Two of them stand to lose the class fees for permitting if constitutional carry passes, and one of them is a LEO, and LEOs almost always hate constitutional carry.  Just because.  Shut up.  They’re in charge.

Of course, they are all huge supporters of the second amendment, but there’s that little nit early in the article on the “discrepancy mentioned in the U.S. Constitution,” whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean.  Discrepancy.  It must be that the founders didn’t really mean what they wrote, or something.  But remember, folks who want a government permitting fee are always “big supporters of the second amendment.”

As for open carry, can you imagine a sillier Kabuki dance than a LEO stopping to ask why a person is openly carrying a gun?  “Why no officer, it isn’t for self defense, it’s for shooting up the local elementary school.”  How absolutely ridiculous.  As if the person couldn’t also carry concealed if he intended nefarious things with his weapon.

And don’t even mention that Arkansas crime hasn’t skyrocketed with blood running in the streets since the Arkansas AG interpretation that the law allows open carry with caveats.  It’s the caveats that are absurd, along with the notion that being able to surmise that a person openly carrying has a permit.  Oh, that’s right, the progressives want LEOs to be able to stop and identify you if you’re openly carrying and ask for proof of permitting, a schema that doesn’t acquiesce to the notion that all stops have to be so-called “Terry Stops” in order to be constitutional.

Oh dear, people just cannot learn to keep from looking like imbeciles when they speak of these things.  They really should look to the other open carry states, where things work just fine, LEOs aren’t running scared of open carriers, blood isn’t running in the streets, and where constitutional carry (in the states that honor it) hasn’t caused wild west shootouts because people don’t know the law.

Just take a deep breath, people.  Look around you.  Think.  Ponder in the quiet for a period of time.  Learn from history.  Quit being hysterical.  And make sure to reject lawmaking for the purpose of permitting and class fees and coffers of those who benefit from that revenue.  There is a fairer way to raise revenue than penalizing gun owners.

Perhaps some reader in Arkansas can give us an update on the state of things in your beloved state.

Hartford Courant:

If a police officer stops and asks a person to show their pistol permit, most gun owners comply.

But that is not the law in Connecticut, where police must have suspicion of a crime in order to force the gun owner to display the permit. If the gun owner refuses, police say there is nothing they can do.

That’s why more than 35 police chiefs joined key legislators Tuesday in Hartford to call for changing the law.

The issue has prompted controversy in West Haven and Bridgeport, where gun owners refused to show their permits when requested. The issue arose in June 2013 when two men were walking on the boardwalk in West Haven with their guns obvious to public view in hip holsters.

When stopped by police, one of them agreed to show his permit. The other did not and was charged with interfering with police. A judge dismissed the case, and a prosecutor said the arrested man, Scott Lazurek of Derby, had a permit but simply did not want to show it to police. Lazurek told police that he did not need to display the permit under the law – and the prosecutor and the judge agreed.

Rep. William Tong, a Stamford Democrat and co-chairman of the judiciary committee, said the bill is “a very simple, but important, initiative” that is necessary at a time of increased concern about gun violence and mass killings in Connecticut and beyond.

“It’s because of Newtown,” Tong said. “It’s because of Aurora and Columbine and other places across the country. We know that reality far better than other states and other communities. We feel that acutely.”

Tong rejected arguments that the issue was a violation of the Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful searches and seizures.

“It’s not an infringement on your liberty,” said Tong, an attorney who has studied constitutional law. “It is not even considered a Fourth Amendment stop.”

Tong said he is concerned about Second Amendment activists “staging confrontations with police officers … to make a point.”

Uh huh.  To make a point.  Except in the case cited, the carriers were doing nothing whatsoever to justify being detained, much less arrested.  It’s the LEOs who staged the confrontation.

Let’s finish this thing about Newtown and Sandy Hook once and for all.  From the comments in this article, one commenter linked this video.  Watch it in its entirety.

Thankfully, the House, Senate and President Trump undid the Obama treachery against the elderly recently.  Trump’s new interior secretary just undid the Obama treachery towards shooters, hunters, fishermen and those who want to defend themselves.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed an order Thursday overturning a ban on using lead ammunition on wildlife refuges.

Zinke signed the order on his first day in office, overturning a policy implemented by former Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Dan Ashe on Jan. 19, the Obama administration’s last full day in office.

Ashe’s policy banned the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on all FWS wildlife refuges that allow hunting or fishing, as well as in all other hunting or fishing regulated by the agency elsewhere.

It was meant to help prevent plants and animals from being poisoned by lead left on the ground or in the water.

“After reviewing the order and the process by which it was promulgated, I have determined that the order is not mandated by any existing statutory or regulatory requirement and was issued without significant communication, consultation or coordination with affected stakeholders,” Zinke wrote in his order.

No it wasn’t.  That’s a lie.  It had nothing to do with protection of the environment.  It was simply an anti-gun measure, one of many the Obama administration wanted to take.

And no it wasn’t.  It wasn’t mandated by any existing statutory or regulatory requirement.  And no they didn’t – the Obama administration didn’t go through any rule making prior to this silly waste of time.

Go to hell, Obama.  Now, there is much more treachery to undo.  Get busy.