Month: September 2014

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SAF, JPFO Merge

September 5, 2014 by

It appears that the merger of Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership with the Second Amendment Foundation is an actuality. It is a move that will please some and disappoint others. David Codrea, the National Gun Rights Examiner, has been following the whole process. His article last night announcing the merger pointed out some of the controversy over the merger and that only time will tell if the merger will strengthen JPFO.

Writer Claire Wolfe has spoken out strongly against this merger. She had been a writer for JPFO and resigned her position with them to go public with her opposition to the merger. She terms the merger as a sell-out of the ideals of JPFO founder Aaron Zelman. The whole series of her posts on her Living Freedom blog at Backwoods Home magazine can be found here.

Speaking out in favor of the merger has been Second Amendment stalwarts such as Gary Marbut of the Montana Shooting Sports Association and Massad Ayoob. Both men agree that the financial strength of SAF will be essential to keeping JPFO from going down the drain.

Frankly, it is hard to keep any organization going when its charismatic founder and leader suddenly dies. While the message is ultimately the most important aspect of the organization, it and the founder are so intimately intertwined that it is hard to have one without the other. I don’t know the whole history of JPFO nor do I know the details of any animosity that Aaron Zelman might have had for Alan Gottlieb. I do know that both organizations support the Second Amendment and that anything that helps both survive to keep on fighting for it can’t be all bad.

The announcement from Alan Gottlieb and SAF on the merger is below:


BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today announced that Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) has become part of the SAF family, bringing together two stalwart gun rights organizations under one banner.

“We’re both delighted and proud to announce this merger,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “JPFO was founded 25 years ago by the late Aaron Zelman, and it has become a strong voice in defense of the Second Amendment. I’m personally confident that bringing JPFO into the SAF extended family will benefit firearms owners at many levels.”

Zelman passed away in 2010, and for the past four years, the JPFO has worked hard to maintain its position in the gun rights community.

“We see this as a tremendous opportunity,” said Gottlieb. “With SAF’s resources, we expect JPFO to continue its important work and grow to meet new challenges, educating people about the pitfalls of gun control, and the benefits of gun ownership and personal protection.”

Gottlieb said JPFO operations will be transferred from Wisconsin, where it was founded by Zelman in 1989, to the SAF offices at Liberty Park in Bellevue, Wash. JPFO editorial support staff will stay on and help maintain organizational continuity, he added.

“A few years ago,” Gottlieb noted, “Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership also merged into the SAF family and it has proven to be a great benefit to the gun rights community.”

By joining with the foundation, JPFO will also become a member organization of the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) and expand its reach internationally.

JPFO will be operated independently as a project of SAF and current members and contributors to the organization will continue to receive all benefits promised, Gottlieb added. JPFO’s website will continue to run independently as a stand-alone entity but will now include links to it from TheGunMag.com, KeepandBearArms.com, as well as SAF.org.

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“There Is No Justice For Gun Owners In New Jersey”

September 5, 2014 by 9 Comments

The headline, “there is no justice for gun owners in New Jersey”, is a statement by Brian Aitken on the treatment that he and Shaneen Allen have received from that state’s justice system. He is featured in a new NRA News Report by Ginny Simone entitled “Accidental Criminals: Brian Aitken is Living the Nightmare”.

As both Aitken and Allen point out, if Ms. Allen had lied to the officer when stopped for the traffic violation in Atlantic County, New Jersey, she wouldn’t be facing up to 10 or more years in prison for being an “accidental criminal”. The judge in her case told her that telling the truth didn’t matter in this case; it got her in trouble. Isn’t incentivizing lying a perversion of any justice system?

Moreover, as Aitken points out, the gun laws of New Jersey are not meant to deter criminals but rather to deter honest citizens from actually owning firearms. Both judges and prosecutors want to use these “accidental criminals” as poster children for their goal of a disarmed public.

Every potential juror in Atlantic County should see this video along with Simone’s earlier one on Shaneen Allen. If they understood the ramifications, they might just vote “not guilty” in the jury room. Her case is a strong argument for jury nullification.

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A Reminder From NSSF About This Year’s Senate Races

September 4, 2014 by

The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Project Gunvote just released their first video of the political season. It is a good reminder that just a few US Senate races could mean the difference between more gun control and less. For example, North Carolina’s Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) says she supports the Second Amendment. That didn’t stop her from voting for the Manchin-Toomey universal background checks among other things.

Just saying…

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Maybe He’ll Mind His Own Business Now – Not Ours

September 4, 2014 by 1 Comment

The Wall Street Journal ran a story this morning about our “favorite” former mayor Mike Bloomberg. It appears that he will be taking over the CEO reins of Bloomberg LP again.

Less than a year after leaving office as mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg will return as head of Bloomberg LP, the financial data and media firm he founded and still controls, the company announced Wednesday.

Mr. Bloomberg, 72 years old, will take charge at the end of the year, when Daniel Doctoroff, who has been chief executive since 2008, will step aside, the company said.

In a statement, Mr. Bloomberg said he hadn’t intended to return to Bloomberg LP after his mayoral stint was completed. “However, the more time I spent reacquainting myself with the company, the more exciting and interesting I found it—in large part, due to Dan’s efforts. I have gotten very involved in the company again and that led to Dan coming to me recently to say he thought it would be best for him to turn the leadership of the company back to me.”

Mr. Bloomberg—who owns 88% of Bloomberg LP and is worth $33 billion, estimates Forbes—had been expected to turn his attention to his philanthropic efforts after leaving office.

Good! Now maybe he’ll be too occupied minding his own business to mind our business. Let’s hope so.

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If You Aren’t Mad About This, You Should Be

September 2, 2014 by 15 Comments

This morning when I started to make my rounds of the blogs I came across an anomaly. Tam Keel’s View From The Porch was coming up with a weird message saying that it was open to invited readers only. Thinking it was just a typo on my part, I tried to access her blog from a link at Shall Not Be Questioned. I got the same result.

As she is a Facebook friend, I checked there for info. I saw that she had posted a note last night saying she was done with it. Reading through the comments she noted that she didn’t need the hassle and she had writing for pay that needed attention.

This is a stunning loss to the gun blogosphere. Tam was not merely the Mistress of Snark. While she was that in spades, it was her deep knowledge of firearms and training that kept me coming back. Whether it was her recent posts about testing out the Walther PPX or her collection of Savage pocket pistols arranged in chronological order, you learned something and it made you think.

And why did we lose Tam as a blogger? Because of an unrelenting cyberstalker who just wouldn’t give up.

One who writes nonsense like this:

If my South Bend business trip wraps up early tomorrow I might stick my nose in the 1500; I don’t need anything but yesterday was my b-day 60 so who knows…I haven’t hit a big show in a few years and just a walk-through with my little Georgia Girl would be fun. And I may see you at your Sun. gathering for a bit, maybe buy the group a round; that in itself would be a nice little present from me to me.

That is just a taste of the crap he’s been sending Tam at, from what I can gather, an unrelenting pace.

I don’t blame Tam a bit for saying enough was enough. Perhaps this will be merely a hiatus. We can only hope for that. In the meantime, keep an eye out for her published work. I know she writes for SWAT Magazine as well as Shooting Illustrated.

I do have one wish. I would like this cyberstalker found, charged, convicted, and imprisoned for a long time.

UPDATE: Tam has turned her blog archives on and has disabled the comments. While she is still on indefinite hiatus, we are still able to partake of her past work. Thanks to Rob Reed for making the request. And thanks to Tam for agreeing to do it.

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Road Trip To Cabelas

September 2, 2014 by 6 Comments

I’ve been wanting to visit the new Cabelas store located in Greeenville, South Carolina since it opened earlier this year. I suggested that we drive down there on Saturday and the Complementary Spouse agreed After all, it is only a hour’s drive or so from Asheville to Greenville.

The Greenville store is what Cabelas considers their next generation store. In other words, much smaller than their massive stores like the one in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. I visited that store a number of years ago and was blown away by it.

The front of the Greenville store

I wasn’t really looking for much to buy at the store. I needed a new Cabelas cap as mine was old and ratty. I also wanted to check out the Gun Library and the Bargain Cave. Of course, I expected to make a few impulse buys but not exactly what I came home with. More on that later.

The entrance to the store had a massive fireplace with a sitting area and a number of specimen mounts. The style is what one would expect for an outdoor destination store like Cabelas or, for that matter, most Bass Pro Shop stores.

It is a nicely laid out store with the clothing sections in the middle, the hunting and guns on the left side of the store, and the fishing and camping stuff on the right side of the store. As to location, it is about a block or two off of Interstate 85 at Exit 51. I think the store might make a good place for a blogger meetup as it has a conference room and a grill. The Greenville location is about an hour from Asheville, 1 1/2 hours from Charlotte, and about 2 hours from the Atlanta metro area.

The Gun Library had some impressive firearms with equally impressive prices. The display cases had everything from Colt revolvers to high-end nicely engraved Browning Superposed double shotguns. The entrance is flanked by a pair of elephant tusks. I’m not sure if they really were ivory or just replicas but it still makes for an impressive entrance-way.

Just outside the Gun Library were four double-level, double-sided racks of used long guns. And that is where I met my downfall. As I said earlier, I had only wanted to check the place out and buy a cap plus maybe something from the Bargain Cave. My downfall was a FN Mauser in 6.5×55 Swede mounted in a California-style walnut stock (rollover stock with exaggerated palm swell and contrasting wood tip). The scope that was mounted on it was an older Bushnell 2.5 Banner scope made in Japan. It has a nice, crisp trigger with no creep. I haven’t put it on my trigger gauge yet but I’m guessing it is set at about 3 lbs.

The best part is the price was about what you’d pay for a Ruger American if you paid full retail. I’m going to have to do some research on it but I’m thinking it was a FN barreled action that was customized once it got to the US. There are no gunsmith markings that I can see without pulling the action from the stock. It does have the customary Belgian proof marks and the action is marked “FAB. NAT. D’ARMES de GUERRE” with “HERSTAL – BELGIQUE” underneath it. (I’ll get pictures up as soon as I have time to take some decent shots of it.)

I have to say that Cabelas was very organized and very efficient in checking you out with a firearm purchase. It was the first time I ever filled out the Form 4473 using a computer though I did sign a printed copy of it. The only lag was getting the purchase paperwork and Form 4473 double checked and signed off on by two “team captains”. The cashier then walks you out the store and takes off the trigger lock at the entrance. It is obvious that Cabelas wants to make sure the paperwork is correct, that BATFE is happy, and that negligent discharges don’t happen while the firearm is still in their store.

The final stop before arriving home was at one of the many fruit stands dotting north Greenville County to pick up some fresh South Carolina peaches. I don’t know who grows the better peaches – Georgia or South Carolina – but these were mighty good.