Month: February 2013

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Sounds Like A Put Up Job To Me

February 16, 2013 by 3 Comments

Colorado Rep. Joe Salazar (D-Thornton) and other Democrats in the Colorado House are saying they have been getting death threats over their stance on gun control.

Color me skeptical. It has all the earmarks of a modern day Reichstag fire incident. That, for those don’t remember their history, was a put up event staged by Hitler as the pretext for getting an emergency decree which suspended civil liberties in Germany.

Given how the Democrats love to use victimhood as the pretext for pushing legislation, what could be better when discussing gun control measures than playing the victim against those evil, angry, and deranged gun owners who want to bitterly cling to their guns and “high capacity” magazines.

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Magpul Draws Their LIne In The Sand

February 16, 2013 by 8 Comments

Magpul has made it more than just talk. If the Colorado legislature passes the mag ban law, they will be moving. Going with them will be one of their major subcontractors Alfred Manufacturing. They made the official announcement a couple of hours ago on Facebook.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
MAGPUL INDUSTRIES ANNOUNCES IT WILL LEAVE COLORADO IF GUN BILL PASSES

MOVE WOULD COST STATE 600 JOBS, $85 MILLION

Denver, Colorado – February 15th, 2013 – Magpul Industries, an Erie, Colorado, based manufacturer of firearms accessories, announced today that it will be forced to leave the state if House Bill 1224, which would ban standard capacity magazines, becomes law. The announcement was made to Governor Hickenlooper, state legislators, members of the media, and in a full-page advertisement to appear in the Denver Post on Sunday.

Richard Fitzpatrick, Founder, President, and CEO of Magpul Industries, said that regardless of any amendments that may be worked into the bill, he will no longer be able to continue to do business in Colorado if his core product is made illegal.

“Our company could not, in good conscience, continue to manufacture our products in a state where law-abiding citizens are prohibited from purchasing and owning them. ” Fitzpatrick said. “The passage of this bill will do nothing to enhance public safety, but will force us to immediately begin taking our business to another state.”

A proponent of the bill argued that with the amendment language, the choice to stay or leave was up to Magpul. Fitzpatrick responded, “Our relationship with our customers across the country would be severely damaged if this bill passes and we stay. We’ve already heard word of potential boycotts if that happens. They (legislators) really need to understand that our customer base is as passionate about freedoms as we are, and staying here if this bill passes would cripple the company. Make no doubt about it…we have no choice, and would be forced to leave in order to save the business.”

Magpul cited the example of the Eastern Sports and Outdoors Show, which was canceled earlier this year after the organizers announced that it would not permit a popular category of firearm, like the ones Magpul makes accessories for, in the show. Public outcry from the customer base forced exhibitors to withdraw from participation, causing the cancellation of the show, and an estimated loss of $70 million of show revenue for hotels, restaurants, merchants, and other businesses in Pennsylvania, where the show was to be held.

Magpul Industries directly employs 200 people, supports another 400 supply-chain jobs, and contributes over $85 million annually to Colorado’s economy. Doug Smith, Chief Operating Officer for Magpul, says that it is a difficult position to be in. “We could choose to stay in a state that wants our jobs and revenue, but not our products, and lose half the jobs we are fighting to save, or potentially the entire business, when our customers stop buying. Or, we can take the company and those 600 jobs out of Colorado to continue our growth and the growth of American manufacturing in a state that shares our values. This is not really a choice. It’s an unfortunate and inevitable result of the actions of the Legislature if this bill passes.”

Magpul was started over a decade ago by Fitzpatrick, a former U.S. Marine. It has become one of Colorado’s fastest growing businesses, successfully marketing its products to American and allied military forces, police departments, sporting goods stores, and thousands of responsible private citizens. Fitzpatrick says that the rich western culture and strong values of individual freedom and responsibility, traditionally found in Colorado, were one of the reasons the company chose to remain in the state.

“It is heartbreaking to me, my employees, and their families, to think that we will be forced to leave,” Fitzpatrick said. “But if HB13-1224 passes, we will simply have no choice.”

 See this earlier post on ways to contact Gov. John Hickenlooper. On his Twitter feed, Hickenlooper keeps talking about growing the economy and adding jobs. Losing 600 jobs due to ineffectual, liberal feel-good legislation will give Colorado negative job growth. I’d emphasize that among other things.

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From The NJ Second Amendment Society

February 15, 2013 by

The New Jersey Law and Public Safety Committee held hearings yesterday on 23 gun control bills and the pushed all of the bills out of committee to the full house. As the release below from the NJ Second Amendment Society makes clear, it was the intention of the committee chairman that all of these bills would pass his committee.


NJ LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE PUSHES THROUGH ANTI FREEDOM BILLS DESPITE OVERWHELMING OPPOSITION

By Rich Petkevis
NJ2AS Media Relations
press@nj2as.com

On Wednesday, February 13, 2013, the New Jersey Law and Public Safety Committee heard testimony on 24 anti freedom bills. Approximately 500 liberty minded people showed up to testify against these bills, however only about 200 actually made it into the State House. The other 300 were forced to stay outside during the hearings. Around a half dozen people were on hand to testify in favor of the proposed legislation.

The day started with Committee Chair ASM Charles Mainor declaring all bills would move out of committee and into the general assembly. This bold statement set the tone for the day. As the hearing got under way, it was evident that the chairman and the majority of the committee had no plans on listening to any of those who testified against the bills. The first two pieces of legislation were then hurried through, and only 5 people allowed to testify on each. It was brought to the attention of ASM Mainor that more than 5 people wanted to testify on these bills, and explained that people were told to write “testify on all” instead of individually listing each bill when registering for the day. ASM Mainor then offered to allow testimony after the committee voted on the bills, further insulting the majority of the crowd. The reaction of the crowd forced Mainor to allow people to testify on all the bills, then voting would happen at the end of the day.

Several members of the NJ2AS, ANJRPC, various Tea Party organizations, and other liberty minded citizens came up to testify. People were told there was a two minute time limit, however anyone who went up to speak in favor of the rights restricting legislation were pretty much allowed to talk as long as they wanted. Anyone testifying against the bills were held strictly to the two minute time limit. Toward the end of the day, a Navy Veteran stood up to testify, and called out ASM Mainor for not listening to her being he was having a sidebar conversation when she tried to speak. Mainor quickly shouted back at her, “I am going to conduct my meeting my way, your time is up” drawing much anger from the crowd.

It was a long day, and all of the bills left committee and are headed to the NJ general assembly for vote sometime next week. There was one bill that stood to protect the privacy of NJ firearms owners, A3788 which exempts firearms records from NJ’s open public records law.

NJ2AS urges all freedom loving, liberty minded citizens who oppose this legislation to call, email, and fax New Jersey’s elected members of the Legislature and urge them to vote NO on these bills.

New Jersey gun bills introduced since January 1, 2013 can be found at http://www.firearmspolicy.org/newjersey.

The committee chairman, Assemblyman Charles Mainor, is also Detective Mainor of the Jersey City Police Department. It would be interesting to know if he acts as much like thug when he’s on the streets of Jersey City as he does in running his committee.

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Flood The CO State House AND Also Do This

February 15, 2013 by

The NRA is calling on gun rights supporters to flood the galleries of the Colorado State House tomorrow morning “to hold your state Representative accountable by making sure they vote NO on these restrictive bills.” The gun prohibitionists are trying to ram their gun control bills through the State House as fast as they can. They’ve ignored the testimony of hundreds opposed to these bills and passed them out of committee on a party line vote.

Session will convene at 9:00 a.m. on Friday. Please make plans to arrive no later than 8:30 a.m. to ensure a seat. If you are unable to attend session, please call AND e-mail your state Representative using the contact information provided here.

Magpul Industries reports that even if a manufacturing exemption is added to the bill, they will leave Colorado and take their jobs with them. They say they can’t disappoint their customers and ignore their convictions.

Magpul reports that they have met with representatives of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s administration and delivered that message. They are asking everyone, Coloradans and non-Coloradans alike, to contact the Governor’s Office to urging him to oppose this and the other gun control legislation.

Contact Governor Hickenlooper right now and urge him to oppose HB1224 and all other proposed firearm legislation to save Colorado jobs and support freedom in Colorado. His Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/JohnHickenlooper / John W. Hickenlooper , his Twitter is https://twitter.com/hickforco and you can email him your opinion of legislation at http://www.colorado.gov/govhdir/requests/opinion-leg.html Legislators’ email boxes and voicemail boxes are overflowing, keep up the momentum and let Governor Hickenlooper know how damaging this legislation will be. Share this, retweet it, help us get the word out.

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“It’s Not About Keeping Kids Safe In School” – Wayne LaPierre

February 15, 2013 by

Wayne LaPierre, NRA CEO and Exec. VP, gave the NRA’s response to the State of the Union address at the 37th Annual Convention of the National Wild Turkey Federation. He discussed how the emphasis has shifted from keeping kids safe in school to the gun control agenda. As he pointed out, President Obama made no mention of school safety in the State of the Union address.

“Less than two months after saying we had to look at our schools, the
president made not one mention, in his entire speech, of the need to
improve security for our schoolchildren.” says NRA CEO and EVP Wayne
LaPierre in response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address
from the 37th Annual Convention and Sport Show of the National Wild
Turkey Federation in Nashville, Tennessee. “They only care about their
decades old agenda — ban every gun they can, tax every gun sold and
register every gun owner.”

I think Wayne did a decent job in this address. He got the point across and that’s what matters.

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Practice For When Ammo Is In Short Supply

February 14, 2013 by 3 Comments

When ammo is in short supply or rising in cost, many people don’t get in the practice that they need to stay proficient with their handguns. This new video from the National Shooting Sports Foundation discusses an alternative – dry-firing. Charlie McNeese of Gunsite Academy discusses the many important skills that you can hone with dry-fire practice at home. These include trigger control and reset, your presentation and draw, and magazine reloads. Some of these skills are hard to practice at public ranges as they often prohibit things like drawing from a holster or speed reloads.

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Local Media In Colorado Pick Up The Magpul Story

February 14, 2013 by 2 Comments

As reported earlier, Colorado HB 1224 would ban the manufacture of standard capacity magazines in that state. This, of course, would directly impact Boulder-based Magpul and their 200 workers. On Tuesday, the bill passed out of committee on a party-line 7 to 4 vote and was sent to the full Colorado House for action.

It looks like the local Colorado media has finally picked up on the story. Fox31 News out of Denver interviewed company officials and toured the production line.

One of the things I noticed in the video was that the majority of the workers assembling magazines appeared to be Hispanic. The representatives voting to close down their jobs, by contrast, consist of five whites, one Hispanic, and one African-American. This is just an interesting observation about progressive priorities.

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Support For Kachalsky Petition From States

February 14, 2013 by 1 Comment


Attorney Generals from 20 states have filed an amicus brief in support of the Second Amendment Foundation’s petition for a Writ of Certiorari before the US Supreme Court. This brief is in addition to supporting briefs from the NRA, the Cato Institute, and others.

BELLEVUE, WA – Twenty state attorneys general have filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Second Amendment Foundation’s petition for a Writ of Certiorari in a case challenging New York’s gun permitting statute, along with several other interested parties that have filed their own briefs.

The case is known as Kachalsky v. Cacace and was argued before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. SAF is represented by attorney Alan Gura, who won both the Heller and McDonald Second Amendment cases before the Supreme Court.

“We are delighted at the support being shown by attorneys general in Alaska, Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico and 13 other states, and particularly for the leadership of Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli in bringing them all together,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “This case is all about an individual’s right to carry a firearm outside the home for personal protection, and it is gratifying to see so much support.”

In addition to the brief filed by the attorneys general, supporting amicus briefs have also been filed by the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence represented by former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, the National Rifle Association represented by former Solicitor General Paul D. Clement, plus the American Civil Rights Union, Academics for the Second Amendment, Cato Institute, the Second Amendment Preservation Association, New Jersey Second Amendment Society and Commonwealth Second Amendment, Inc.

“This is an important case,” Gottlieb said, “and that’s why so many parties are interested and supportive of our issue.”

SAF and the five individual plaintiffs are challenging whether the state can arbitrarily restrict the Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home by requiring people to prove a special need to the satisfaction of a government official.

“Our case is about equal protection and the arbitrary authority of government officials to essentially decide on a whim whether average citizens can have the means of self-defense outside the confines of their home,” Gottlieb said. “Most crimes happen away from the home, and it is in public places and on public streets where a citizen is most likely to encounter a life-threatening situation where he or she might have to defend themselves.”

UPDATE: Dave Hardy of the Of Arms and the Law blog has links to all the pro-Kachalsky amicus briefs. You can find them here.