The only reason his opponent advocates handing hard-earned money over to the Chamber of Commerce and doing their bidding is that he wants to fleece middle class taxpayers to fund his own constituency.

The representative is right. It’s called socialism, and it has never worked anywhere. By another name it’s theft.

South Carolina Rep finally SNAPS in chamber, PERFECTLY lifts veil of political corruption in middle of lion's den in two minutes🔥

“I will ALWAYS fall back on the common sense of my constituents FAR MORE than I will EVER listen to you unelected bureaucrats and other… pic.twitter.com/4ir7g7psfK

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 13, 2024

Epoch Times.

“Luckily, we at Brady know how to fight the NSSF because we’ve been fighting the NRA for years, and we’re seeing the disgraceful end of their organization play out because of our dedicated work,“ the email, written under the name Kris Brown, president of Brady, reads. ”We may know their tricks, but we’re going to need all the support we can get if we’re going to overcome another extremist gun lobby group, and that’s why I’m reaching out today.”

The email doesn’t specify how Brady assisted New York Attorney General Letitia James. But it does provide a list of its complaints against the NSSF.

According to the email, the NSSF spends millions of dollars lobbying on behalf of the gun industry. The email says the NSSF opposes universal background checks and state laws to allow lawsuits against gunmakers whose products are used in the commission of a crime and has branded President Joe Biden as “waging war on the Second Amendment.”

Mr. Oliva said the email contains tiny bits of truth while leaving out significant facts.

When it comes to background checks, he said groups such as Brady are late to the party.

“I think it’s important for everyone to understand that the firearms industry was actually the progenitor. We came up with the point-of-sale background check system,” Mr. Oliva said.

According to Mr. Oliva, this resulted in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

He added that NSSF came up with the Fix-NICS plan after it was clear that not all states were sending relevant records to the FBI for NICS. This resulted in federal legislation to make the background check system truly keep guns out of the wrong hands, he said.

“Brady had nothing to do with that,” Mr. Oliva said.

Yeah, I’d rather NSSF focus their efforts on ending the background check at all rather than make it better or help codify it.

NSSF is an industry advocacy group, not a gun owners advocacy group. To the extent we can cooperate with them on important things, I’m okay with that. But we may find ourselves in different ends of the spectrum on certain issues, and when we do, I will see them as my enemy.

As long as Brady focuses on NSSF, they ignore GOA and FPC. That’s fine with me. GOA and FPC is where the action is.

Source.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Some law enforcement agencies are weighing in on Gov. Henry McMaster’s decision to sign a constitutional carry ― or permitless carry ― bill into law.

McMaster signed the constitutional carry into law on Thursday just a day after the South Carolina Senate passed a compromise.

It would allow a person 18 or older who can legally own a gun to openly carry their weapons without a permit or training.

Last year, several law enforcement agencies from across the state testified before legislators on why the legislature should not pass a bill like this.

But of course they did, just like in every other state (who considered constitutional carry) where they said there would be blood in the streets, and the wild, wild west, and that cops are “the only ones.”

Academy Director Jackie Swindler said he believes this new law will have an impact on the dynamic between law enforcement and the community.

“The potential is there for a lot of things to happen,” Swindler said.

Because of that, Swindler said officers and deputies may approach situations differently than they would before the constitutional carry bill was signed into law.

“People seem to have lost patience, people seem to have different temperaments,” he said.

“Now with the readily available of anyone having a gun or carrying a gun, that certainly does have the potential for different interactions between people. It certainly changes the dynamic of police answering calls and stopping cars,” he continued.

Newbery County Sheriff Lee Foster said, “I think the training should be mandatory, because I think a lot of people with good intentions, may get into trouble because they don’t know what the laws are.”

Let’s examine his objections so far: the nature of mankind has changed, it changes dynamics, people may get into trouble. Well, the nature of mankind hasn’t changed in millennia, cops should have always assumed that good and bad men carry weapons because that’s the way it’s always been, and criminals don’t care about the law.

The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division sent this guidance to law enforcement immediately after the governor signed constitutional carry into law.

Some of the points included in the guidance were possession of a firearm alone is not a reason to stop an individual, a person carrying a weapon does not have to notify law enforcement, and there are no restrictions on having a gun inside of your vehicle.

Well, at least the SLED, led by a corrupt leader, got that part right. S.C. isn’t a stop and identify state, and that would be unconstitutional even if it was.

We also reached out to Sheriff Leon Lott for a response to this law. He sent this statement which reads in part:

“I said a prayer last night that Richland County does not turn into the wild wild west,” he said. “This is a win for the criminals, who can now walk around with a gun and law enforcement cannot do anything about it.”

“I support the right to carry and it was already in place with conceal weapons permit and the proper training, but this does nothing to make our communities safer; instead of getting guns off the street we just put more guns on the street,” the statement continues.

The wild, wild west. Like every cop everywhere has said in every state so far. It never happens. Oh, and you left out the part about “blood running in the streets.” As for putting more guns on the streets, you don’t know that. You just made that part up.

Oh my, such emotion, such drama. But if this law does one thing good – causing cops to become more respectful of the folks they’re interacting with and less tyrannical – it will have been worth it.

I don’t get too worked up over TFB videos of new products, but for fans of the CZ Shadow 2 (and I can attest that it’s a fine firearm, reminding you of what it’s like to shoot a 1911), this is the dope right here.

Put a red dot and a light on it and it would make a fine truck gun or home defense gun (for those who don’t relish the thought of ever having to discharge a rifle round inside a home).

I can see putting this on the wish list – but I’ll admit that the price is a bit steep.

We recently covered the ideological downfall of Patagonia (with its Patagonia Holdfast Collective). Some of every dollar they make now goes to DEI efforts, the ridiculous and counterproductive rewilding effort, and other silly things unassociated with simply providing good outdoor gear. Besides, do you really want to support something called the “collective?”

North Face appears to have joined Patagonia, albeit a bit late.

To keep flourishing, retail brands need to invite new customers in, try their wares and build goodwill so that they keep coming back. Discount promotions are a proven way do that.

However, The North Face — a global leader in outdoor gear and ranked No. 1 in U.S. brand awareness in its class, according to Statista — has just launched a limited discount promotion that could knock it off its pedestal.

The North Face is offering a 20% discount certificate to U.K. customers who complete an online diversity, equity and inclusion course entitled “Allyship in the Outdoors.” The discount is redeemable through The North Face website and currently is not available to customers in North America, though they can still take the course.

The North Face designed the hour-long course “to foster a deeper understanding of the unique challenges people of colour face when accessing the outdoors,” it stated. The participation invitation promised to “provide training and resources to help you be a better ally and to make the outdoors a safer and more welcoming place for everyone.”

Some recent graduate of an Ivy League college hired as director of diversity, equity and inclusion dreamed up this genius idea. Hey, let’s not focus on making the very best outdoor apparel we can make, investing all of our dollars into research to stay better than the next company. Let’s focus on something completely different. It will help the company, I promise.

And company COOs, CFOs and CEOs are so stupid and gullible that they believe them. All of the time, in every instance.

I have a better option. When you need to purchase outdoor gear and apparel, go to the hunting companies. I have three suggestions: (1) Badlands, (2) Sitka, and (3) Kuiu.

In addition to being hypocrites (North Face just shut down their only store in downtown San Francisco – how’s that for helping the underprivileged?), they appear to be going the way of L.L. Bean, who once made good outdoor gear and switched over to making regular, ordinary apparel when they got big enough.

The hunting gear and apparel manufacturers, on the other hand, know what’s what. One bad review of a product can send it into the tank. There are so many hunter forums and discussion threads on various topics that you wouldn’t be able to read them all in a lifetime. But the well-visited sites have so much power over the hunting gear and apparel manufacturers that virtual instantaneous changes have been made because of complaints.

Their gear works, or it gets phased out very quickly in favor of something that does. They invest magnificent amounts of money into research of relevant topics. For example, how do we know that deer can’t distinguish between red and orange versus grey? And that they see blue very well, so that all blue threading and dyes must be removed from deer hunting apparel? We know it because Sitka sponsored a student doing a PhD at the University of Georgia to study that very thing.

Their GoreTex fabric works, and you can get one, two or three layer fabric (the three layer being just right for awful conditions). You know those hunting shirts that use silver to do built-in odor management for your hunts? I have several. They really work.

Do you want similar apparel without the camouflage patterns? They all have that too. Do you want backpacks? There are so many that it would take weeks to go through them all – or go to Mystery Ranch and get one, or one of the many makers of tactical packpacks (like TRU-SPEC, Condor, 5.11, etc., etc.). I have a TRU-SPEC and it works great.

You know one cold weather garment that you won’t find that much (if at all) at ordinary outdoor apparel makers? Neck gaiters. It literally changed my hunting when I found the right one.

Do you want really cold weather gear? They all have that sort of thing too. And it works. And they focus on one thing: making better gear than their competitors. That’s all.

Dump North Face and Patagonia. You don’t need them.

Full disclosure: I haven’t been paid a single penny by any hunting gear and apparel manufacturer for saying these things. I have to buy everything with my hard-earned money.

Listening to this video I wasn’t sure I was listening to Chuke! He goes down a very long list of calibers that may be a potential deadly affect on large game.

I doubt some of this. Put me up against a large predator like a brown bear and I want a .45 SMC, .44 magnum, shotgun or semiautomatic rifle.

The Alaskan can weigh in since he is experienced with large predatory animals in Alaska. I doubt he will agree with Chuke on this video.

Source.

Director Dettelbach bemoaned that Congress refuses to give him the authority to implement universal background checks. In fact, Congress has roundly rejected that idea because the Department of Justice (DoJ) admitted that for universal background checks to work, every law-abiding gun owner would need to be placed on a national firearm registry. That’s forbidden by federal law.

“So again, really, you know, people ask me, what’s my top priority? What’s my- what’s my wish list? I think the reality is it’s going to be a lot of things that we have to do to get out of this situation to make things better,” Director Dettelbach said. “… if Congress wants to consider more on universal background checks…”

Well then, just declare him god and maybe he will be happy.

On a serious note, the days of law enforcement on any level simply enforcing the law are gone forever. On the local level, witness the number of police union representatives and local cops and sheriffs who turn out to oppose constitutional carry, just like SLED did in South Carolina.

As if being in law enforcement gives someone the right to weigh in as mafioso concerning what changes are to be made in society!

John Richardson.

Unfortunately, as I found out yesterday from multiple sources, regardless of the new procedures, nepotism and the disrespect for the members’ money lives on at the NRA. That is because a mere 21 days after Wayne LaPierre’s resignation from the NRA became effective, his niece Colleen Sterner was promoted to be Director of Events for Advancement. She will continue to live and work from her home in Nebraska. According to my sources, insiders are saying her salary is estimated to be in the $300,000 range.

300K for work at home. It’s a nice gig if you can get it.

I’m frankly not sure that I disagree with nepotism as a practice. It seems to me okay to hire family members. There are benefits to the practice, such as family loyalty transferring to company loyalty.

The problem to me is (a) any association with Wayne or his family at all, (b) favoritism in performance evaluations or pay scale, and (c) over-payment for work. 300K is of course too much for the job this lady has.

And no, I wouldn’t give one penny to the NRA until the entire board has been replaced, along with virtually every employee of the organization.

The corruption goes too deep to trust the NRA with any money at all.

As I had said earlier, I was skeptical about the chances for success, especially given the gamesmanship in the senate. The previous attempt “codified the right to carry without a permit as long as you had a permit. No, I’m not kidding.”

But it looks like it has happened, adding to the list of constitutional carry states. But there are caveats I want to call out.

Greenville News.

Permitless firearm carry is now legal in South Carolina. Gov. Henry McMaster on Thursday afternoon signed the bill, which was prefiled in the state House of Representatives in December 2022. The legislation was heavily debated by members of the state’s House and Senate.

After a joint committee with members of both chambers met Tuesday, that committee’s report was approved by the House later the same day and by the Senate on Wednesday.

Rep. Bobby Cox, R-Greenville, told the Greenville News Wednesday afternoon that McMaster signed the bill into law at a private 2 p.m. ceremony. South Carolina becomes the 29th state with permitless carry after Louisiana enacted a similar measure last week.

The new law enables individuals 18 and older who are legally allowed to own firearms to carry them, openly or concealed, without requiring training or registration for a permit.

Previously, the 2021 Open Carry law allowed a concealed weapons permit (CWP) holder to open carry handguns. With House Bill 3594 – dubbed “constitutional carry” by some – signed into law, it negates the legal need for CWPs in South Carolina.

“(People) can open or concealed carry if they can legally own guns,” Cox told the News. “If you’re prohibited from owning guns, you’re breaking the law.”

Cox, the Vice President for Government Affairs at Sig Sauer, a firearms company, was the lead sponsor of the bill, which originated in the House, and was one of six legislators on the joint legislative conference committee that convened Tuesday.

There are restrictions of where an individual may carry a gun, such as hospitals, doctor’s offices, churches, many government buildings, schools, polling places, detention facilities, post offices, or personal residences without permission.

However, some places, such as churches and doctor’s offices, may choose to allow individuals to carry weapons onto the premises.

Businesses have the right to label themselves as a gun-free zone.

I am an incrementalist (something I’ve learned from the controllers) and believe in taking chunks where we can get them. This is a big chunk, but there is still more to go.

We had a difficult fight with open carry, but a permit was still required. At the time I said that police would have a difficult time enforcing that because if open carry was legal, then it wouldn’t be a so-called “Terry Stop” if police stopped you and demanded to see your permit. Additionally, the S.C. legislature didn’t do anything in the open carry law to make S.C. a stop and identify state (which would have been unconstitutional anyway). If they had wanted to enable police to stop folks, they would have had to make that change to S.C. law. They didn’t do that when they passed the open carry bill.

But there was still that nagging issue of the fact that a permit was required to exercise a God-given right. Now that permit has vanished, but churches are exempt from carry unless specifically posting that firearms are allowed.

So this is the same trap into which New York fell in essentially making everywhere a gun-free zone without specific posting by the establishment, and that feature of the NY law has been struck down (and furthermore doesn’t comport with the Bruen decision). I say trap, but of course anything the controllers can do in NY to infringe upon rights isn’t so much a trap as it is a reward for reflexive behavior.

Churches shouldn’t have to specifically post that firearms are allowed. Rather, like every other establishment, they should have to post if firearms are not allowed. Gun rights advocates are also property rights advocates, and if an establishment doesn’t want firearms, then they have that right (just as I have a right not to patronize that establishment).

This chunk of liberty should be the focus of effort going forward. Remove the exemption for churches in the current law. This is another increment of freedom for future work by our community.

Source.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Within a matter of days, South Carolina could become the 29th state in the country to allow adults to carry guns with no permit or training.

On Tuesday, a group of legislative negotiators struck a compromise after weeks of discussion on the bill known as “permitless carry” or “constitutional carry.”

“The dialogue we’ve been having with the Senate, the House, and the governor’s office is that they want this to immediately become law,” Rep. Bobby Cox, R – Greenville and the bill’s lead sponsor, told reporters following the conference committee’s meeting Tuesday morning.

The Senate and House had already passed this permitless carry gun bill, but their versions of it were different.

Yeah, the gamesmanship in the S.C. senate codified the right to carry without a permit as long as you had a permit. No, I’m not kidding.

The compromise they reached Tuesday now allows the bill to move closer to the governor’s desk.

In their agreement, the bill would allow adults 18 and older to carry loaded handguns openly with no permit or training.

Guns would still be banned in the same places they are now, including schools, courthouses, and the State House, and people could still obtain a concealed weapons permit if they wanted.

It would also tack on the governor’s top request, increased penalties for people who illegally carry, like felons who possess guns despite being legally barred from doing so.

The negotiation committee adopted most of the Senate’s changes, including optional, free training offered twice a month in every county and tougher penalties for people who do not have a permit and are caught carrying where it is prohibited.

“Is it really fair to, I guess, punish those particular folks more severely than the ones who choose to get a CWP when the state doesn’t require it anymore?” Rep. Justin Bamberg, D – Bamberg, asked.

Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, who advocated for those enhanced penalties during the Senate’s debate on the bill earlier this year, pointed out they would only apply to people already convicted of certain gun crimes.

“Y’all, we’re talking about criminals now,” Massey said. “We’re talking about shooting into a dwelling, we’re talking about sneaking a gun into a school, we’re talking about pointing a weapon at somebody.”

But they nixed a Senate provision that would allow state lawmakers to carry guns in places where the general public cannot, an exemption that judges and prosecutors currently have.

“We’re not special. We’re servant leaders, and what’s good for our constituents is good for us,” Cox said.

They also omitted a House section that could have, unintentionally, allowed local school boards to vote to override the ban on guns in schools.

Well, congratulations, maybe, for the win for civil liberties. I want to see the bill first. This has been a long, hard-fought battle to get open carry first (with a permit), and then constitutional carry next (because of law enforcement opposition – as always, of course, you know, because of the “blood running in the streets” and all of that). I have always advised incrementalism, and the gains have been nothing if not incremental.

I will try to find out the gesticulations of the committee and get the final bill and share as I can.