Archive for the 'Gun Control' Category

Guns.com:

A powerful south Florida state senator who repeatedly sidelined popular gun rights legislation lost his seat Tuesday, opening the door for campus carry and open carry in the Sunshine State.

Florida State Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and in 2015 refused to hold hearings on a bill to allow legal concealed carry on public colleges and universities. Diaz de la Portilla was also a fly in the ointment when it came to derailing an emergency concealed carry bill the year before and in 2016 was key in killing bills on campus carry and open carry, refusing to even meet with advocates.

However, even though he was supported by a $85,000 ad campaign paid for by Everytown, state Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat, beat Diaz de la Portilla in this week’s election.

While the loss of his seat was balanced out in the Senate by Democratic Sen. Dwight Bullard’s defeat by Republican Rep. Frank Artiles, sustaining the GOP with a 25-15 majority in the chamber, gun rights advocates argue the vanquished lawmaker simply reaped what he sowed.

“Senator Diaz de la Portilla broke is word,” Marion Hammer, executive director of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida and a former National Rifle Association president, told Guns.com Wednesday. “He betrayed gun owners and bragged about it. People know not to trust a man who not only breaks his word but then brags about being deceitful. He engineered his own defeat.”

Well good.  We had discussed this particular politician and his cocky arrogance before.  I’m glad he’s down for the count.  Remember when we issued the beat-down to S.C. State Senator Larry Martin?  Yep, he went down too.  His replacement, whomever that is, would do well to remember Larry’s fate.  We’ll do the same thing to him … and the next guy … and the next guy … until we get what we want.

Do you understand?

David Codrea:

The other thing we saw Tuesday is that Astroturf-funded state measures are the wave of the near future. The formula: Pick a “blue” state; throw in a ton of money from New York City and Silicon Valley; hire the best propagandists money can buy; rely on media allies to amplify the signal and demonize gun owners; spook the useful idiot herd; and steamroll over grassroots volunteers who enjoy neither the money, the media savvy, the contacts nor the reach.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

That’s what happened in California. Proposition 63 passed:

The initiative outlaws the possession of ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds, requires background checks for people buying bullets …

I detest that terrible state for what they are doing to gun owners.  David rightly points to the need for state and local activism in addition to what we accomplished at the national level.

But I have to admit that I am of two minds on this and I welcome your thoughts on this as well. Lee made significant errors at Gettysburg.  He didn’t listen to the counsel of his own generals, he occupied the low ground, he began the battle too late, he shouldn’t have been so far from home to begin with, and he used antiquated tactics, techniques and procedures to prosecute the battle.  He should have moved his forces in the middle of the night in order to prevent hardened formations from developing and attacked at or even before dawn.  Instead, he marched his forces into a killing field after two thirds of the day was gone.

We have to be thinking men and women.  I don’t want to give the gun controllers one inch, and I know the NRA has taken up this case for California.  But at some point we have to recognize the need to retreat, reform, and ensconce in a free state.  Why do gun owners still live in California?

Is California worth saving?  I’m asking the readers.  Is it worth spending effort on that place?

Masslive.com:

BOSTON — A Massachusetts gun rights group is protesting Gov. Charlie Baker’s nomination of First Assistant Attorney General Christopher Barry-Smith to serve as an Associate Justice on the Massachusetts Superior Court. The gun owners oppose Barry-Smith because he was a high-ranking attorney in Attorney General Maura Healey’s office when she expanded the state’s ban on assault weapons.

“He works for the attorney general’s office that operates in the shadows above the law,” said Jake Graham, a Norwood gun owner who said he purchased guns legally in Massachusetts that are now subject to the ban.

Here is a photo of the event.

Oh dear.  Massachusetts isn’t worth saving, folks.  There aren’t enough of you.  It’s best just to leave the state and set up home in another state, preferably a freer state than Massachusetts.

Who is it that still does business up there?  Oh yea.  Calling Smith & Wesson.  Why the hell are you still there?  Why haven’t you moved?  I think we’re all beginning to get a little pissed about this.

Washington Examiner:

“When I think about keeping Americans safe, obviously I think about terrorism,” Clinton said at a campaign event in Sanford, Fla. “But I also want to protect Americans from the epidemic of gun violence that is stalking our country.”

“I cannot come to Sanford without talking about Trayvon Martin,” she continued. “It’s heartbreaking that this young man all he did was go to a cornerstone, bought a pack of Skittles and walked back home in the rain. And his life was cut short.”

“Thirty-three thousand people a year die from guns and we’ve got to do a better job, my friends,” she said. “You see, I believe we have a fundamental human — even a moral obligation — to protect our children no matter who they are or what zip code they live in. We have a moral obligation to reduce gun violence and that will require us to stand up against systemic racism and promote justice and equality and criminal justice reform.”

“Something is wrong when young people, just starting their lives are dying. Something is wrong when so many parents live in fear that their child will be hurt or killed going to the movies, sitting in a first grade classroom, attending a Bible study, the list goes on. This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment and responsible gun owners,” Clinton added, referencing several recent high profile mass shooting events.

[ … ]

“But I’m looking at violence broadly,” she added. “It’s also why I’ve advocated gun-safety reform, like comprehensive background checks, closing the gun-show loophole, closing the online loophole — because, you know, it’s not only terrorists we need to be worried about.”

How awful that poor Trayvon died for skittles.  And it’s sure a shame that he couldn’t go to that next Bible study.  I’m sure it was on his calendar.

As for Hillary, that’s not all she has promised, but it’s a taste.  She wants a renewed “assault weapons” ban, registration of ammunition buyers, a limit on ammunition purchases, and a host of other things that will infringe on your liberties.

She has the support of people like Pat Toomey, Jeff Flake, Kelly Ayotte, and others.  She will have what she wants.  And she will also likely attempt to federalize local and state police.  Unlike the gargoyles, pit vipers and demons that inhabit the GOP, when she says what she will do, you can believe her.

Prepare now.  In fact, it may already be too late.

Gatestone Institute:

• During the first six months of 2016, migrants committed 142,500 crimes, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office. This is equivalent to 780 crimes committed by migrants every day, an increase of nearly 40% over 2015. The data includes only those crimes in which a suspect has been caught.
• Thousands of migrants who entered the country as “asylum seekers” or “refugees” have gone missing. They are, presumably, economic migrants who entered Germany on false pretenses. Many are thought to be engaging in robbery and criminal violence.
• Local police in many parts of the country admit that they are stretched to the limit and are unable to maintain law and order.
• “Drug trafficking takes place right before our eyes. If we intervene, we are threatened, spat on, insulted. Sometimes someone whips out a knife. They are always the same people. They are ruthless, fearless and have no problems with robbing even the elderly.” — Private security guard.
• According to Freddi Lohse of the German Police Union in Hamburg, many migrant offenders view the leniency of the German justice system as a green light to continue delinquent behavior. “They are used to tougher consequences in their home countries,” he said. “They have no respect for us.”
• “It cannot be that offenders continue to fill the police files, hurt us physically, insult us, whatever, and there are no consequences. Many cases are closed or offenders are released on probation or whatever. Yes, what is happening in the courts today is a joke.” — Tania Kambouri, German police officer.

Naturally, the administration in Germany has tried to tighten gun laws, but German weapons sales has shot through the roof – sales to non-Germans, that is.

The German people are not only being destroyed by the Islamic invasion, they are being left defenseless by their rulers.  It’s all by design, no doubt.  Don’t doubt it for a minute.  And don’t ever let an analogous situation happen with you and your family.

AJC:

New York’s attorney general has a message for Georgians: keep your guns to yourselves.

In a study released this week, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman blamed lax gun laws in states such as Georgia for much of the violent crime that occurs in New York state.

New York has some of the nation’s strictest gun-control laws: It bans so-called assault weapons; prohibits the sale of high-capacity magazines; requires background checks on buyers in all firearms transactions, including private and gun-show sales; and issues licenses to people who legally buy handguns.

“New York’s gun laws have curbed access to the guns most associated with violent crimes: handguns,” Schneiderman said in the report. “But the ready availability of these guns in states without these protections thwarts New York’s efforts to keep its citizens safe.”

The study used data from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to determine the origins of guns recovered in connection with crimes in New York between 2010 and 2015.

Of those 52,915 guns, three-fourths came from out of state – in most cases, Schneiderman said, through illegal trafficking. Just 6 percent of the guns still belonged to their original owners when the crimes occurred.

Georgia sent more guns to New York than any states other than Virginia and Pennsylvania, the study found.

Police connected 2,822 guns originally bought in Georgia to crimes in New York; 2,711 of those were handguns. Georgia accounted for 13 percent of out-of-state “crime guns” recovered by New York police during the five years covered by the study.

The largest number of the Georgia guns – 152 – were connected to a crime within one year of purchase. Another 209 had been bought in Georgia between one and three years earlier. Many may have been stolen from gun stores or individuals in Georgia.

Schneiderman used the report’s release to call for federal legislation to mandate background checks on all purchases at gun shows and for state laws s to require permits for handgun buyers.

In Georgia, at least, that proposal is a non-starter. Georgia law prohibits police from even asking people with guns whether they have concealed-carry permits. The state allows open carry of firearms in many public places – bars, for instance, or the non-secure areas of airports.

New York to Georgia: “You need to be more like us.”

Georgia to New York: ” … yawn.  Did somebody say something?”

Quartz:

Victims of gun violence are not just the people in direct range of bullets. They’re also those on the periphery.

 Almost every single American—99.85%—will know at least one victim of gun violence during his or her lifetime, a recent analysis in the journal Preventive Medicine estimates.

Around 30,000 gun-related deaths and 80,000 non-fatal injuries occur annually in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A study published in the American Journal of Medicine earlier this year showed that Americans were 10 times more likely to die as a result of a firearm compared with residents of 22 other high-income countries. Of all firearm deaths in all these countries, more than 80% occur in the US.

The researchers combined two kinds of data to establish the full scope of the effects of gun violence. First, they collected estimates of direct victims of gun violence—fatal and non-fatal gun injury rates in 2013 at the national level—from the CDC. Second, they tried to calculate the size of the average American’s social network based on data from previous social network studies.

The researchers made additional assumptions, such as that gun violence happens to anyone at random, so all individuals face same risk. In reality, of course, some people are much more likely to be shot than others, but the thinking here is that, when averaged across the entire US population, everyone’s likelihood of experiencing gun violence is about the same.

Sounds awful doesn’t it?  High income, sophisticated country, and all that.  The deaths aren’t concentrated in the inner city where the collectivists have created an uneducated and feral population of killers demanding the next handout.

Oh wait.  There’s that.  And how does the author deal with this issue?  By saying, “In reality, of course, some people are much more likely to be shot than others, but the thinking here is that, when averaged across the entire US population, everyone’s likelihood of experiencing gun violence is about the same.”

I’ve never read such a nonsense statement in my life masquerading as journalism and analysis.  Some people are much more likely to be shot than others.  But the assumption is that everyone’s likelihood is about the same.  No shit.  You can’t make this stuff up.

The author contradicted the premise for the analysis, and then restated the premise.  But if it’s to support gun control, that’s okay.  Because it’s okay to be an idiot if you’re a gun controller.  No one will call you out for what you are, not even an editor.

By now you’ve heard that Judge Barbara Bellis dismissed the case against Remington.  Good.  But she should have done this long ago.  The only people who got rich here were the lawyers.  I have no desire to analyze what she said.  It’s a waste of my time.

Early on she said the law “does not prevent lawyers for the families of Sandy Hook victims from arguing that the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle is a military weapon and should not have been sold to civilians.”  Now she says it does.  Here’s my analysis.  She has her sights set on higher things, and wants eventually to be considered for some higher judicial post.  She can’t make an idiotic ruling that gets reversed by the Supreme Court of Connecticut or the United States and keep that hope alive.  I suspect this was entirely self serving.

OUDaily:

I am a retired police officer. I’m also a gun owner, but I am weary of the “guns-solve-everything” mentality. I’m tired of the proliferation of open carry proposals that increase the visibility of firearms in public places — particularly in schools, colleges and universities. I am not convinced more firearms on campus will deter or stop active shooters.

Frankly, people who openly carry sometimes make me nervous. Some of them seem smug, over confident, even demonstrative — wanting people to notice they are indeed carrying a loaded weapon. It is a political statement, a warning and a boast. I watch them strutting into stores, sitting in restaurants and walking down the street fairly oblivious to the burden of carrying a firearm in full view.

Except for him.  You see, he isn’t tired of LEOs carrying guns, just you.  And by God, make sure that no one sees that you’re carrying.  He is a LEO, just like you, only better.  Only he can be seen carrying a gun.

As for the part about making a political statement, I’ve never done any such thing (not that it would necessarily be a bad thing to make a statement), and only open carry when it’s hot and I sweat my weapon when I carry IWB.  Here in North Carolina – a traditional open carry state – I’ve never had a problem with LEOs giving me a hassle about open carry.  And blood doesn’t run in the streets around here, and women and children don’t run down the road screaming.

But apparently it’s even worse in Connecticut.

In an effort to cover up their unconstitutional actions, Connecticut State Police made up charges against a young open carry activist last year.

The state eventually dismissed all charges when they heard Michael Picard’s recording of cops plotting to trump up charges against him to “cover our ass.”

Now Picard is suing Connecticut State Police with the help of the ACLU for trumping up fabricated charges against him as well as violating his First and Fourth Amendment rights under the United States Constitution.

The September 2015 incident was all caught on video after State Troopers John Barone, Patrick Torneo, and John Jacobi illegally seized Picard’s camera and inadvertently left it on, all while their illegal actions were plotted. The video can be seen at the bottom of the page.

“Let’s give him something. We can hit him with creating a public disturbance. We gotta cover our ass,” Barone was recorded as saying.

Picard was in West Hartford protesting a DUI checkpoint by holding a big sign that alerted drivers. After an hour of protesting, police approached Picard and knocked the camera out of his hand, noting that Picard didn’t have a First Amendment right to record the trooper.

It was then that the troopers illegally search Picard and discovered he was open carrying a gun, which is legal in Connecticut. The troopers confiscated the camera along with the gun to run a permit check, only to find out that Picard’s gun permit is valid, all while violating the young man’s Fourth Amendment right to protection against illegal search and seizure.

“Oh crap we gotta punch a number on this guy,” a trooper can be heard saying.

“What we say is that multiple motorists stopped to complain about a guy waving a gun around, but none of them wanted to stop and make a statement.”

But then one of the troopers noticed that Picard’s camera was still on.

“Oh shit!! I think the camera is on, it says it is still recording.”

There you go.  It’s that pesky constitution thing again.  If LEOs just didn’t have to mess around with things like law and rights everyone would be safer.

Connecticut.  Oh yea, that’s the home of communist and traitor Barbara Bellis.  I’m kind of getting bad vibes about that place.

Greenwich Time:

NEWTOWN – The judge in the lawsuit brought by 10 families against the maker of the gun used in the Sandy Hook massacre has denied Remington’s latest request to forego the exchange of pre-trial evidence.

The order by Judge Barbara Bellis is another in a series of incremental victories for the Sandy Hook families, who argue that Remington is liable for negligently entrusting an AR-15-type rifle to a civilian, resulting in the deaths of 20 first-graders and six educators.

Bellis’ ruling on Friday is the second time in as many months that the judge has denied a request by Remington to forego the exchange of evidence. In mid-September, the judge said she would hear Remington’s argument about why the case should be dismissed in December 2017, and not before.

The judge’s Friday order follows an objection filed by the families earlier in the week, which called gunmaker’s request to rearrange the pre-trial schedule and avoid the exchange of evidence ‘impractical,’ ‘unfair’ and ‘self-serving.’

In other words, Remington went back to the same judge that illegally asserted her authority before, and begged again to keep from having to open their books to the communists.  But since judge Barbara Bellis is a communist and traitor herself, she once again denied Remington’s request.

Another way of saying it is that she is willing to postpone the date of hearing the question of whether the case should even be in court to begin with until December, but unwilling to delay “discovery,” or in other words, she will happily help along harm of Remington before it’s even decided whether there should be a case.  And clearly when she decides that question, it won’t go in Remington’s favor.

We used to do things with traitors that judge Barbara Bellis deserves herself.  But we’re too civil for that these days, so we let traitors live among us and even adjudicate illegal cases.  Let’s be clear.  Even something like impeaching her could have stopped this abortion, but the state senate and house don’t have the balls to do something like that.

Our country is in one hell of a fix.

Prior:

Discovery In The Sandy Hook Families Versus Remington Case

Judge Barbara Bellis: Update On The Sandy Hook Families’ Lawsuit Of Remington

Judge Barbara Bellis Says Sandy Hook Families’ Lawsuit Against Remington Goes Forward