News from Florida.

Some top Florida Republican lawmakers have now said they would support constitutional carry legislation in the upcoming session.

The policy would allow all legal gun owners to carry firearms without a concealed weapons license.

The constitutional carry legislation was filed by the Legislature’s most outspoken conservative member, Rep. Anthony Sabatini.

“Our very liberal Republican Speaker Chris Sprowls has gotten tens of thousands of emails from gun groups,” said Sabatini.

The policy is split into two bills.

The first would allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a license.

“You don’t have to go ask the government for permission,” said Sabatini.

The second would allow for open carry.

“You shouldn’t have the duty to hide your firearm if you’ve done nothing wrong,” said Sabatini.

Eskamani said she’s doubtful Sabatini’s bills will get a hearing, due to his strained relationship with the House speaker.

“Sabatini does not have a lot of leverage within the chamber,” said Eskamani.

But recently, top brass in the Senate indicated they would support constitutional carry legislation, including Senate Majority Leader Debbie Mayfield.

“I support constitutional carry. That is one of the things that we will probably be looking at this session because it is important,” said Mayfield in a legislative delegation meeting last week.

Florida GOP Chair and State Sen. Joe Gruters said he might support constitutional carry, but doesn’t want to see assault weapons openly carried on beaches.

“Because I think that would adversely impact Florida’s tourism economy,” said Gruters.

While there seems to be some support for constitutional carry legislation in the Senate, a bill hasn’t yet been filed in the chamber.

I predict it won’t go anywhere this session.  Florida has a horrible history on gun control.  But it will eventually pass in coming sessions with enough effort.

You know what would help the case?  If Governor Ron DeSantis went on record for his support for the measure, and even demanded a bill be brought to his desk for approval before any other bill would be considered by the governor.

I also predict he won’t do that.

News from South Carolina.

An ordinance restricting the open carry of firearms passed its first reading with the Anderson City Council on Monday night.

The ordinance would prohibit residents from openly carrying firearms during events that take place on public property. These events include protests, according to the officials.

The background for the ordinance states, “While the City recognizes and appreciates the First and Second Amendment rights of its citizens and visitors, the presence of firearms at protests can serve to escalate tensions.”

The council will discuss the amendment again before it becomes a part of the law.

There’s always an excuse, isn’t there?

“While the City recognizes and appreciates the First and Second Amendment rights of its citizens …”  No, of course it doesn’t.  Otherwise, they wouldn’t be debating the prohibition of open carry at events.  They always have to declare their support for your rights while they refuse to recognized them, don’t they?

As for the reason – “the presence of firearms at protests can serve to escalate tensions?”  They don’t believe that, otherwise they would be trying to ban concealed carry, because there is no difference between concealed and open carry except for the fact that the firearm can be seen with open carry.  The reality of the firearm is still there.

The good thing about the declaration of tyranny among the cities (Spartanburg, Greenville, Charleston, Columbia, and now Anderson have made it clear they intend to ban open carry) is that the tyrants self identify.

That’s good.  It gives patriots information on who to cast out of office next.

At Shooting Illustrated.

I’m not sure what makes these so great.

On another note, I was wondering if there’s something different for the same or less price as Pelican out there?  I recall I stumbled on a booth at a gun show a few years ago demonstrating their cases (both rifle and pistol), and I was very impressed.  I can’t recall their names.  If I can find a card from the show I’ll post it.

Related point, Condition 1 seems to have a loyal following and be pretty sturdy.

Any comments or input?

News.

In a reversal of Trump administration policy, the State Department on Tuesday disclosed the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. stockpile. It said this will aid global efforts to control the spread of such weapons.

The number of U.S. weapons, including those in active status as well as those in long-term storage, stood at 3,750 as of September 2020, the department said. That is down from 3,805 a year earlier and 3,785 in 2018.

As recently as 2003, the U.S. nuclear weapon total was slightly above 10,000. It peaked at 31,255 in 1967.

The last time the U.S. government released its stockpile number was in March 2018, when it said the total was 3,822 as of September 2017. That was early in the Trump administration, which subsequently kept updated numbers secret and denied a request by the Federation of American Scientists to declassified them.

[ … ]

At the Conference on Disarmament last February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “President Biden has made it clear: the U.S. has a national security imperative and a moral responsibility to reduce and eventually eliminate the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction.”

Find any infographic depiction of the number of deaths from conventional war through the centuries, and see where the graphic bottoms out to see the effects for peace brought about by nuclear weapons.  Nuclear weapons are the greatest contributor to world peace in human history.

But Biden and his ilk believe that the entire world is populated by folks with master’s degrees in social work from Ivy League schools who want nothing more than world peace, and are willing to divulge sensitive information about U.S. defense capabilities in order to join the club.

This follows a pattern of divulging OPSEC information, one of which I called out concerning Biden’s plan to share sensitive naval nuclear technology with Australia, whose commitment to protecting that technology will live no longer than the current administration.

It does no good to claim that it was all approve by Biden.  The State Department should not have done that, and Biden should not have approved it.

So after watching the debacle in Afghanistan, and then telling the world the status of our most important defensive capabilities, if you were actively trying to destroy the defense capabilities of America, what would you do any different than the administration?

By the way, a well connected source with the Navy SEALs tells me that morale among SEALs has tanked.  It couldn’t get much worse.

David Kopel writes at Reason explaining the 2A brief filed with the SCOTUS in the New York case.  It’s very good, but this part is worth lifting.

The king ordered London hostelers to tell their guests not to carry arms in London. According to the Ninth Circuit, this shows that arms carry restrictions “permeated public life.” To the contrary, the Feast of St. Thomas decree presumes that travelers will be carrying arms and will expect to continue carrying in London. The king ordered the hostelers to tell the visitors to pause their usual practices.

[ … ]

Whatever the English Bill of Rights protected, it was not good enough for Americans. James Madison’s notes for his speech introducing the Bill of Rights in Congress show that he regarded much of the English Bill of Rights as deficient, including the Protestants-only provision of the right to arms. St. George Tucker, William Rawle (author of an influential 1825 treatise on American constitutional law), and Joseph Story all denounced the English right to arms as feeble and as far inferior to the Second Amendment.

The second amendment also presumes that free men will bear arms, and in order to understand it, we must use that as a working assumption.  Nothing else will do.  The bearing of arms in colonial America was ubiquitous.

And yes, clearly, the founders felt the rights understood under English common law were inferior to what they understood under God.  Thus, the second amendment was crafted to ensure that the federal government stayed out of the business of dictating when or where to bear arms, or what kind of arms to bear.

How far we’ve fallen.

A lot of cops are liars, and the media is their willing partners in that enterprise (or too stupid to call them out).

Referring to statistics released by SLED in June and confirmed by the FBI this month, Keel cited a 51% increase in homicides statewide the past five years, including a 25% surge in 2020.

“It’s important that our legislative priorities reflect this, and we take immediate legislative steps to stem the violence,” Keel said, noting state and local law enforcement agencies said the measure would allow them to arrest more felons illegally carrying firearms.

Keel’s comments echo Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook’s letter to legislators in February that suggested “commonsense solutions” to reconcile variations in state and federal code.

For instance, Holbrook wrote, a conviction for strong arm robbery doesn’t preclude a South Carolinian from legally owning a firearm although the individual cannot legally purchase one under federal law.

Felons who violate South Carolina’s 2010 law can be charged with illegal possession with a maximum punishment of a $2,000 fine and/or up to five years in prison. Law enforcement officials want escalator tiers to increase penalties for repeated violations.

This information is just not true.

SECTION 16-23-500. Unlawful possession of a firearm by a person convicted of violent offense; confiscation; return of firearm to innocent owner.

(A) It is unlawful for a person who has been convicted of a violent crime, as defined by Section 16-1-60, that is classified as a felony offense, to possess a firearm or ammunition within this State.

(B) A person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be fined not more than two thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

And the chief of SLED worded his speechery to neatly avoid telling lies overt like Holbrook did.  He’s just not telling the whole truth – and your mother would have called that a lie too.

You see, he uses words like “the measure would allow them to arrest more felons illegally carrying firearms.”  What does he mean by this, that it would be more illegal to be a violent felon in possession of a firearm?  No, that’s not a rational position to take.  There is no such thing as more illegal.  He just made that up.

What he means is that SLED can go on boy’s outings with FedGov (ATF, FBI) to make arrests, bust down doors, etc., and feel all manly while they “get some,” if there is a hint from an AFT agent that there may be a firearm in the hands of a felon which SLED didn’t know about.

You see how he did that?  “Arrest more felons.”

The chief of SLED wants to partner with FedGov, the entire point of which second amendment sanctuary laws are in place to prevent.

Because illegal firearms may one day be a rifle with a brace, or an AR-15, or a pistol with a magazine capacity of more than ten rounds, or any semiautomatic firearm.

Constitutionalists in South Carolina have a problem on their hands, namely, law enforcement.

And rather than focus on anything South Carolina law enforcement says, the legislature should go ahead and pass second amendment sanctuary laws that prevents their own LEOs from working with FedGov, and maybe even give it more teeth, where their own LEOs arrest FedGov agents for infringements on the 2A.

Law enforcement should be your servants, not your rulers.

I clean my muzzle loader every time I shoot it.  I’ll let an AR-15 go several hundred rounds before I even ponder whether I should maybe think about planning to plan to clean it some time in the future (but not today).

I know a guy who proudly stated to me that “The sun won’t got down on me before I clean a gun I shot that day.”  The only reason I didn’t tell him he’s wasting his time is that he shoots CommBloc guns with corrosive ammunition.

Ammoland

I had always wondered how easy or difficult this would be.  It looks like it just requires some basic tools and a little patience.

I especially like that they got a gunsmith to explain it, and he provided pictures.