Month: November 2012

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DoubleTap Chooses New Manufacturing Partner

November 7, 2012 by

DoubleTap Defense, formerly known as Heizer Defense, which announced back on October 11th that they were seeking a new manufacturer for their DoubleTap pistol has found one. It will be Azimuth Technology, LLC out of Naples, Florida.

From their press release:


ST. LOUIS, MO (November 7, 2012) – DoubleTap™ Defense, LLC announces today that it has chosen Florida-based Azimuth Technology, LLC to manufacture the DoubleTap™ concealed carry pistol. The DoubleTap Tactical Pocket Pistol was introduced at the 2011 NASGW show in Reno, Nevada.

“When we announced that DoubleTap was looking for a new manufacturing partner [October 2012], we were pleasantly surprised by the positive response from the firearms manufacturers and other precision manufacturing companies,” Ray Kohout, inventor and founder of DoubleTap™ Defense commented. “Our industry has been very supportive of the DoubleTap project and we are ultimately grateful. Out of all the responses we received, it became very clear that Azimuth Technology was the perfect fit in corporate philosophy, facility capability and plain, old-fashioned, roll-up-your-sleeves determination to bring this product to market in a timely fashion.”

The ultra-compact, no-snag, pistol in .45 or 9mm built on titanium or aluminum frames was well received by both industry media and firearms distributors with initial orders in the tens of thousands.

Azimuth Technology of Naples, Florida, is a state-of-the-art precision contract manufacturing facility. Azimuth produces products for various industries including defense, aerospace, oil/gas and many others. The Azimuth Technology facility boasts over 60 of the newest CNC precision machines capable of handling lot sizes from a mere 100 pieces to 1 million.

Azimuth Technology, founded by Len E. Zaiser and Len E. Zaiser IV, has over 50-years of manufacturing and business experience. Len Zaiser Sr. has founded seven different manufacturing companies that have employed thousands of people throughout his highly successful career. Len Zaiser Jr. is the President and co-founder of Azimuth Technology and former founder and co-founder of several area businesses.

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I’m Hanging It Up For The Night

November 7, 2012 by 3 Comments

I’ve had enough of politics for the night. I don’t know how the nation will turn out – not good is my suspicion – but North Carolina turned out fairly well.

Pat McCrory picked up the governor’s seat beating Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton (D-NC) rather handily. This will be the first time NC has had a Republican governor since 1988. The Lt. Governor’s race is currently too close to call.

In the US House, Republicans have picked up the 8th, 11th, and 13th congressional districts which were held by Democrats. It is too close to call in the 7th where Rep. Mike McIntyre (D) holds a 400 vote lead over State Sen David Rouzer (R). Gun owners win either way. The Congressional delegation will either be 9-4 Republicans or 10-3 Republican with the Senate split.

The Republicans look to hold on to their majorities in both the State Senate and House.

And the state was just called for Mitt Romney. We did our part and now it is up to the rest of the nation.

UPDATE: I see Fox and most of the others have called it for Obama. It isn’t going to be pretty for the next four years and Chris Christie can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.

UPDATE II: In North Carolina, the General Assembly will be solidly Republican. In the State House, Republicans will hold 77 seats as compared to the Democrats 43. This looks to be a net gain of 9. The State Senate will remain under Republican control with 31 Republicans and 19 Democrats. This is no change.

 Rep. Mike McIntyre (R-7) held on to his seat in Congress by 508 votes. He did have the NRA endorsement while GRNC was supporting his opponent State Sen. David Rouzer. In the 8th District, the other Blue Dog Democrat, Larry Kissell lost by over 20,000 votes to Richard Hudson. The 11th and 13th Districts were open seats with Democrat incumbents who chose not to run for re-election.

Pat McCrory won the governorship with over 54% of the vote while Dan Forest squeaked by with about a 100,000 vote margin.

Finally, not that it matters in the greater scheme of things but Mitt Romney did win the state by about 97,000 votes.

On the state level, I think we have a better chance to get more reforms passed with regard to gun laws. I think restaurant carry along with a clarification of park carry will come before the General Assembly in the 2013 session and pass.

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Some Are More Equal Than Others

November 6, 2012 by

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor doesn’t think too much of our Second Amendmen rights. It is also apparent that she thinks she is much too important to stand in line to vote like the rest of us great unwashed.

Photo by @jeffkrehely

The photo above was taken by Jeff Krehely and posted to Twitter. He called her his most famous neighbor.

The publication DCist is perfectly OK with this.

Would we hold it against Sotomayor for jumping the line? Of course
not—the court is hearing arguments in two cases today, after all, and it
wouldn’t be any good for her to miss those because she’s trying to cast
her ballot.

That is bullshit.

If she was so concerned about missing arguments, she had plenty of opportunity to vote by either absentee ballot or by taking advantage of the District’s early voting. According to the DC Voter Guide, they had early voting available in all wards beginning as early as October 22nd and this included Saturdays.

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Ninety-Nine Judges

November 6, 2012 by

Tom Gresham devoted his entire three-hour show on Sunday to the elections and the impact that they will have on gun owners and gun rights. The guests ranged from the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox to SAF’s Alan Gottlieb and NSSF’s Larry Keane. In addition, he interviewed attorney Alan Gura. The one thing every guest said about this election and gun rights was the critical importance of judicial appointments to securing gun rights.

The interview that really peaked my interest was with Alan Gura. Tom asked Alan straight out what would have happened if there had been a 5-4 majority with a Sotomayor or Kagan in that majority, could he have won Heller or McDonald? Alan’s response, “Probably not. I mean NO. There would be no way.”

Alan went on to say that lower Federal Court nominees rarely make the news and are often confirmed on voice votes. Given that few cases make it to the Supreme Court much of the case law is made at the District and Circuit Court levels.

Alan pointed out that there are currently 65 District Court vacancies, 15 Appeals Court vacancies, and another 19 judges who have indicated that they plan to retire or more into senior status. This means the next president will get to nominate at least 99 judges and probably more like 150-200 over the next four years. This does not even take into consideration a probable one to three Supreme Court nominations.

Remember this – all Federal judges serve a lifetime appointment. This means that the next president will get to nominate at a minimum one-tenth of all District Court judges and one-tenth of all Court of Appeals judges. The impact will be felt for years and years.

This is what this election is about: the future direction of the Federal judiciary and with it our rights as gun owners and Americans.

If you haven’t already voted, then you damn well better do it tomorrow. And when I say vote or voted, I sure as hell don’t mean for Obama.

UPDATE: I forgot to add that if Obama is re-elected and gets to replace one of the “Heller Five” then  Second Amendment litigation will grind to a halt. At the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference, Gene Hoffman of the CalGuns Foundation emphasized this point and said the best thing to do in that situation is to shut down Second Amendment litigation. The reason is that you can’t risk bringing a case that could end up before a decidedly unfriendly Supreme Court.

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The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution And CSGV

November 5, 2012 by 1 Comment

There are times that I think that Josh Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) gets his ideas from outerspace and there are times I think he channels his inner Maoist student revolutionary. Today it appears he is looking to Chairman Mao and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution for his inspiration.

The stated goal of the Cultural Revolution was to enforce orthodoxy and to wipe out those who deviated from it. In China’s case, it meant Communist orthodoxy. One of the hallmarks of the Cultural Revolution was the public denunciation of those who may have deviated from this orthodoxy. So it is with Josh Horwitz who would have made a good Red Guard.

Today, in his column in Huffington Post, he attacked not only Kurt Hofmann but those gun bloggers who have stood with him.


It would be tempting to dismiss Hofmann as an aberration — an isolated extremist with little ability to inspire actual acts of violence — except for two important factors. The first is that Hofmann’s disturbing call to use IEDs against American service members has been defended by a broad swath of the pro-gun movement. This includes statements of support from “The War on Guns” blogger David Codrea, “No Lawyers — Only Guns and Money” blogger John Richardson, the pro-gun Calumet Foundation, “Gun Free Zone” blogger Miguel Gonzalez, “Guns Save Life” blogger John Boch, “Days of Our Trailers” blogger Roy Kubicek (AKA “Thirdpower”), “Shall Not Be Questioned” blogger/NRA election volunteer coordinator Keith Milligan (AKA “Sebastian”) and “Of Arms & the Law” blogger David Hardy, among others.

Second, and more important, is the man that Hofmann himself cites in his blog (on four separate occasions) as the inspiration behind his scheme to empower “budding militia ordnance engineers”: former Alabama militia leader Mike Vanderboegh.

The real target of Horwitz is not Kurt and not the other gun bloggers. It is Mike Vanderboegh. Horwitz devoted as much time attacking Mike and his online novel Absolved as he did the rest of us. That Horwitz feels so threatened by a middle-aged man who is in tremendously poor health is telling.

After reading the post and the comments, it is obvious to me that they hate the First Amendment as much as they do the Second Amendment. To be more precise, Josh Horwitz and his erstwhile Red Guard believe in freedom of speech for themselves but not for those who deviate from their notion of orthodoxy. Those of us who deviate must be silenced, denounced, and made to confess our sins.

The ironic thing is that during Mao’s Cultural Revolution, as the child of a physician father and a research scientist mother, it would have been Josh himself who was expelled from school and his parents made to confess their sins against the proletariat.

Josh Horwitz is just as much a totalitarian thug as the rest of his minions at CSGV. No amount of education at “the better schools” will ever change that.

UPDATE: Joe Huffman is upset that he wasn’t listed among the gun bloggers by Josh Horwitz. Moreover, he does know a thing or two about blowing things up.

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Actions On Taxes Have Consequences

November 5, 2012 by 1 Comment

I’ve written a couple of times about the Cook County “violence tax”. On Friday, the Cook County Board’s Finance Committee in a special meeting approved this tax.

Taxes are an important consideration for any business.

Outdoor (and firearm) retailer Cabela’s opened a large store in Hoffman Estates, IL in 2007. This is in the western part of Cook County. Soon after, the Cook County Board raised property taxes. Retailers are assessed based upon their retail space. Though it has a second floor, this Cabela’s store has closed that section and crammed everything into the first floor of the store in an effort to reduce their taxes.

In an article published yesterday in The American Thinker, Anthony Ciani speculates that the Hoffman Estates store may become the first Cabela’s to close down and this new firearms tax may be the reason.

When bullets only cost 3.5¢ to 20¢ apiece, a 5¢ tax is ridiculous, and $25 per gun is around 5% to 10% of the value of most guns. Preckwinkle dropped the bullet tax but the gun tax was just approved by the Finance Committee for a vote by the whole, along with a bunch of other tax increases. Primary season is long over with. The proposal is not an anti-gun tax, but retail vampirism disguised as sin taxes. The normal sales taxes in Cook County are already high, and the sales tax in the Village of Hoffman Estates is 9.5%. There is no reason for a person to pay a total tax of between 14.5% and 19.5% on a gun purchase in Cook County, when they can go 3 miles down the road to one of Illinois’ largest gun dealers, GAT Guns, in East Dundee, Kane County, where the sales tax is only 8.25%.

While Cabela’s has not indicated that they will close the store, Ciani says they have good reason to do it and offers some suggestions on how they can make it a win-win proposition for the company.

Read the whole article here.

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And This Would Be Just The Start If Obama Is Re-Elected

November 5, 2012 by 1 Comment

I consider Jim Shepherd one of the more astute observers out there. Given his ties to the shooting industry combined with his experience as VP for news at CNN, when he reports on a “rumor” I tend to listen.

In today’s Shooting Wire, he reports on a meeting that Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s legal staff is reported to have had with the FBI and ATF concerning a new assault weapons (sic) ban.

Don’t have the minutes of the meeting (yet), but sources tell me California Senator and longtime gun-hater Dianne Feinstein’s legal staff held meetings on Friday with FTB/ATF legal staff to discuss a new “Assault Weapons Ban” Madame Feinstein would be looking to push through Congress if President Obama wins reelection.

This same “pretty good intelligence” says the items that would lead to a ban would ban pistol grips and “high-capacity” magazines, eliminate any grandfathering and ban sales of “weapons in possession”. I don’t know about you, but if these things come to pass and I’m “in possession” I’m certainly not selling. In fact, the lack of interest in the idea surprised the California liberal’s legal staffers. Apparently, they believe no logical person could possible disagree with them.

Ordinarily, I wouldn’t begin (or end) with a rumor, but today and tomorrow aren’t exactly ordinary days. Today is the final day before the general election, and in case you haven’t noticed there are plenty of significant items on ballots across the nation.

I think such efforts would be just the start of bad things coming from the gun prohibitionists if Barack Obama is re-elected president. Obama said in the second debate that he would like to see a new ban on ARs and AKs.

As Jim notes and I would agree, if you haven’t already voted, then postpone what you are doing “short of live saving surgery” and get to the polls tomorrow. Or as they have been saying on Instapundit, this is a broken glass election – drag yourself to the polls and vote for Romney-Ryan even if you have to drag yourself across broken glass.

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I Love Getting New “Guns”

November 5, 2012 by 4 Comments

A few months ago I saw something about a new “gun” that was in development. It looked interesting and the developer was using crowd sourcing to secure funding. I ended up ordering two and they arrived this week. The developer sold 21,400 of these “guns” using Indiegogo.

My new “gun” is a Bug-A-Salt. It is a pump airgun that shoots table salt at flies and kills them. I love it! I paid $30 including shipping for it and can’t wait to shoot my first fly. I tried it out by shooting into water and it works fine.

You can order your own Bug-A-Salt from the developer’s page here. The price has gone up to $34.95 but it seems worth it. My extra one will go to one of the Complementary Spouse’s sons-in-law for Christmas.

The instruction video is below. I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with this!

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Keep Calm And Finish Him

November 4, 2012 by

I saw this posted at the Chicago Boyz blog which deals with economics and politics from a free market perspective and I really liked it!

Early voting has ended in most states. So if you haven’t voted, Tuesday is your option. Make use of it. As someone said at the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference, this is the most dangerous election of our lifetimes especially when it comes to our Second Amendment rights.

So take heed of the picture below and finish the job started in 2010.