Month: May 2016

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NFA Trust Bleg

May 12, 2016 by 6 Comments

I have made the decision to set up a NFA Trust and buy a suppressor or two in advance of the ATF 41F implementation date of July 13th. I’m going the trust route for a couple of reasons. First, it will make estate planning easier as the suppressor will be passed on to the trust beneficiary without the need to pay another $200 tax. Second, other members of the trust will be allowed to use the suppressor without my being with them. It circumvents the potential constructive possession problem for the Complementary Spouse as she does know my safe combination. The issue of fingerprints and photos is irrelevant for my purposes but it is nice to be able to avoid it – for now.

There are a number of prototype NFA trust documents being offered on the Internet. You can get them from suppressor dealers like the Silencer Shop, manufacturers like Silencerco, and a number of attorney–related websites. The cost of these prototype documents are in the $99-199 range. This is a significant cost savings over the estimated $350-500 that an attorney would charge for a “custom” NFA trust. At last year’s Annual Firearms Law Seminar, the BATFE attorney from the NFA section offered some horror stories on NFA trusts that were set up without the hands-on assistance of an attorney.

Yesterday I took advantage of a Gearhog discount offer of a NFA trust for $49. This was a 75% discount off the normal price of $199 from www.199trust.com. This discount offer runs for another two days. My rationale was that I’d not be out of much money if I decided this trust document didn’t meet North Carolina trust law standards.

  1. Has anyone gone the prototype or prewritten trust route? If so, did you run into any problems?
  2. If you did go the prototype trust route, did you have it reviewed by a local attorney to make sure it met the trust law of your state?
  3. Would you suggest having a local estates attorney review the trust? 
  4. What were your reasons for using a trust instead of purchasing the NFA item as an individual? 
  5. If you went the prototype route, did you later have the trust rewritten by a local attorney?
I would love to know your experiences. You can either leave a comment below or email me at jpr9954 AT gmail DOT com.
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Presented Without Comment

May 12, 2016 by 3 Comments

I get a number of press releases from firearms manufacturers, tactical companies, and outdoor companies. With the NRA Annual Meeting fast approaching, this number is increasing. Below you will see a press release I got yesterday. I am presenting it without comment as any comment I’d make would be considered either snarky or snobbish.

2016 NRA Convention Invitation
Drop by booth 2662
 
MKS Supply, LLC, Dayton OH May 2016-
MKS Supply the exclusive marketer of Hi-Point Firearms and Inland
Manufacturing (.30 caliber M1 Carbine and new 1911s) invites all
attendees at the 2016 NRA Convention to drop by and see these and some
new (not yet released firearms).
 
So, if you are attending the NRA convention we hope you will stop by the Hi-Point/MKS Supply booth 2662
and talk guns with Charlie, Ron and the gang. You will learn about some
neat new things to come and see some really popular (and new model)
guns.
 
   MKS Supply, LLC
8611-A North Dixie Drive
Dayton, OH
45414
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Q&A On Flamethrowers With Charlie Hobson

May 10, 2016 by

Following up on his interview with noted flamethrower historian and technical expert Charles Hobson, Ian of Forgotten Weapons now has a question and answer session with him.

The questions by timestamp are:

  • 0:40 – Still in use today?
  • 1:15 – Hollywood realism
  • 3:02 – Effective historical use
  • 3:55 – Pressure and nozzle diameter
  • 4:57 – Use of fins to create laminar flow
  • 6:18 – Do they blow up if shot?
  • 7:28 – Maintenance and repair
  • 9:44 – Realism in “Saving Private Ryan”
  • 10:52 – Reproductions
  • 12:10 – Accidents
  • 14:07 – Field resupply of fuel in combat
  • 19:35 – Oxygen problems for the user
  • 20:32 – Modern improvements
  • 24:10 – Is there still a role for flamethrowers in modern war?
  • 26:35 – Lighting cigars from flamethrowers
  • 27:43 – Cost

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Grading California’s Legislature On Gun Rights

May 10, 2016 by

Just as not all Republicans are pro-gun rights, neither are all Democrats anti-gun. Though, I must admit that it is easier to find a pro-gun rights Republican in California than to find a pro-gun rights Democrat.

The Firearms Policy Coalition has just released their analysis of California legislators’ voting records. Unfortunately, there are a lot more F and F- grades than A and A+ grades. Such is the hellhole that is the California Senate and Assembly when it comes to gun rights.

The FPC release and link is below:

SACRAMENTO – Just as vote-by-mail ballots are about to land in mailboxes, the Firearms Policy Coalition is releasing their legislative report card for the 2015 legislative session.

Each legislator is graded based on how they handled priority legislation. Actions such as voting record, authorship and co-authorship of bills were included in the analysis of their records.

The highest scores in the California State Legislature belong to Republican Assemblymembers James Gallagher and Melissa Melendez, as well as Republican Senator Tom Berryhill, who all scored an A+ grade—and have been labeled Defenders of Liberty; a distinction that not only demands a stellar voting record, but also requires the member to actually author or co-author a pro-gun bill.

Other notables include top scoring Democrats Senator Richard Roth who received an

“A” and Assemblymember Jim Frazier with a “B”.

In contrast, Senator Hannah Beth Jackson, and Assemblymember Nora Campos bottomed out their respective houses scoring the lowest grade of “F-” and could be considered the most committed anti-gun owner and anti-gun rights Members of the Legislature.

View all of the grades at www.firearmspolicy.org/grades/2015-california-legislative-grades/

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Happy National Nurses Day

May 6, 2016 by 4 Comments

May 6th is the day that we celebrate National Nurses Day. It is the beginning of Nurses Week which concludes on May 12th, the birthday of Florence Nightingale.

Unlike what you see on Grey’s Anatomy, it is the nurse who gives the shot and not the doctor. Unlike what you saw on Nurse Jackie, very few nurses are drug addicts stealing medicine from the patient. Unlike what you saw on Ben Casey or Dr. Kildare, nurses are not just subservient pretty little faces whose job it is jump when the doctor says jump. No, nurses are the professional health care givers who provide the backbone of our health care system. Much of their job isn’t exciting and doesn’t make for good television but is utterly necessary.

So on this National Nurses Day, I want to salute nurses everywhere and especially my own special nurse, the Complementary Spouse.

The Complementary Spouse, BSN, RN, MHS, CPAN

I am told by the Complementary Spouse that the only time she wore this white uniform with the pin and nurses cap was for this photo and at her graduation from nursing school. I won’t say what year she graduated other than to say it was in the last quarter of the 20th century.

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I Lied!

May 5, 2016 by 20 Comments

Basically, I’m an honest person. You ask me a question, I’ll give you the best answer that I know  how. That said, I lied yesterday.

I am switching internists. My old doctor, nice (and competent) though she was, never was on time. It drove me crazy to be the first or second person on the schedule and she was still late. So I switched.

When you are establishing a relationship with a new physician, they ask a lot of questions. Are you married? Who is your emergency contact? Are your parents still alive? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera to quote Yul Brenner in The King and I.

So I am sitting in the examining room with the medical office assistant and she is going down the list of questions. She gets to a few she called “safety questions”. You know where I am going with this.

She asked, “Are there any guns in the home?” Rather than giving an evasive answer of “no comment” or asking “why do you want to know?”, I gave a clear, definitive “NO”.

I freely lied and I would do it again.

I was confirmed in my decision to lie when as the doctor was asking more medical history questions he stopped and apologized saying they were due to ObamaCare. I said I don’t have ObamaCare and he said they still force us to ask them. He was an experienced physician who had been practicing for many years and you could tell the bureaucratic oversight of his profession was driving him nuts. I know and he knows that somewhere some faceless bureaucrat sitting in some Federal agency will be data mining my responses.

As I joked with the Complementary Spouse later in the evening, I said we don’t have any guns in the home – we have firearms. On a serious note, I can’t tell you how to answer this question. I am firmly in the camp of it is none of their business. If you have to lie to protect your privacy and your Second Amendment rights, is it really a lie. Maybe yes, maybe no but you’ll have to let your own conscience be your guide.

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Comment Of The Day

May 4, 2016 by 2 Comments

The comment of the day has nothing to do with the Indiana primary, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Bernie, or Hillary. You can rest easy now and read it.

Our longtime “friend” Ladd Everett of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) was quoted in a New York Times article regarding the expansion of gun rights in the states and how some police object to it. He said, ““What is alarming to the police is that they have no power to ascertain the potential criminal background of an armed individual until a crime is committed, and by then it is too late.”

My friend Josh who is a gun rights activist in California had this comment on Facebook:

You can always count on Laddie to pull the Stasi card…

I think Ladd pines for the days when the Young Pioneers would have been reporting on the subversive activities of their parents to the Committee for State Security. Or in the East German context of Josh’s comment, the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation members reporting on Mutti und Vater to the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit.

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And Now For Something Entirely Different

May 4, 2016 by

Flamethrowers are one of the few weapons that were used by the US military in WWII that are not only legal to own but not regulated in any way by the Federal government. Currently, only two US states ban their possession.

Ian McCullom of Forgotten Weapons interviews Charlie Hobson in this video. Mr. Hobson is one of the leading authorities on flamethrowers, their development, and their history. He has worked extensively with military museums as well as the entertainment industry on their restoration and preservation.

Mr. Hobson is the author of The Illustrated Manual of U. S. Portable Flamethrowers.

The interview with Mr. Hobson dispels many of the myths concerning flamethrowers. For example, they didn’t explode when hit by a bullet unlike what is usually shown in old WWII movies. Moreover, they killed, for the most part, not by fire but with carbon monoxide.

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Gun Industry News – 3

May 3, 2016 by 1 Comment

In the third bit of gun industry news, Remington Arms has announced a limited lifetime warranty for all Remington firearms produced after January 1, 2016.

In celebration of its 200th year in business, Remington Arms is introducing a new limited lifetime warranty for all Remington firearms purchased on or after Jan. 1, 2016.

“We take pride in crafting dependable, quality firearms designed to last a lifetime in the field or on the range,” said Leland Nichols, Senior Vice President/General Manager of Firearms & Accessories. “We’re proud of the Americans who manufacture our products and want to showcase their skill by offering a limited lifetime warranty on all of our firearms.”

The warranty covers the original purchaser of a new firearm from defects in materials and workmanship for the duration of their ownership of the firearm. It allows for repair or replacement of any part(s) of the firearm, or replacement of the firearm if un-repairable, so long as all other requirements of the warranty are fulfilled*.

All products purchased Jan. 1, 2016, or after are covered by the limited lifetime warranty offer.

Remington Arms was born in 1816 when Eliphalet Remington II turned his first rifle barrel in his father’s New York State forge. He soon began making his own flintlock rifle, selling thousands to American gunsmiths and creating a name for himself in the firearms business.

Twelve years later he and the factory were in Ilion, a city that has become synonymous with Eliphalet’s firearms. From there Remington won military contracts, armed the Federals in the Civil War, and saw his three sons join him in what became a family business.

In its 200 years Remington has introduced truly paradigm-shifting creations, from the Model 700 to the 870. With handgun designs providing an important piece of the company’s portfolio in its early years, Remington once again offers pistols with its 1911 and .380 ACP varieties.

For more information on the warranty and to learn more about Remington’s history, visit remington.com.

* Remington does not warrant against any type of defect to the firearm that Remington did not cause, including but not limited to:

  • Failure to provide proper care and maintenance
  • Accidents, abuse, or misuse
  • Barrel obstruction
  • Handloaded, reloaded, or improper ammunition
  • Unauthorized adjustments, repairs, or modifications
  • Normal wear and tear

Coming on the heels of Remington’s troubles regarding triggers in the Model 700 and the R-51 debacle, perhaps this is an effort to assure consumers that their troubles are in the past. I will be checking out their booth at the NRA Annual Meeting later this month.

Commentary on Facebook hasn’t been too generous. Grant Cunningham posted news of the new warranty with this comment, “Somehow I don’t think many R51 owners will be impressed.” The other comments were even less generous.

Speaking of the R-51, Richard Johnson of Guns, Holsters and Gear reports that he is hearing rumors that Remington will reintroduce the pistol at the NRA Annual Meeting. If so, that lifetime warranty was announced in the nick of time for potential buyers!

PS: I don’t think it is smart business for a company headquartered in Madison, North Carolina with their largest operations in Huntsville, Alabama to be bragging that they “armed the Federals in the Civil War.”  Are they trying to appease the anti-gun social justice warriors who want any vestige of the Confederacy erased by saying “we were for the other side”?