Month: April 2018

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Why Appeasement Never Works

April 12, 2018 by 2 Comments

Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) probably thought rushing to get a gun control bill passed after the Parkland atrocity would appease those calling for more gun control and help him in his run for the US Senate against Bill Nelson.

As Winston Churchill probably told Neville Chamberlain many times, appeasement never works.

I got the following email from the cult of personality known as Giffords. They are asking for money so that they can defeat Scott in his run against Bill Nelson.

In just a moment, I am going to ask you to rush an urgent donation to Giffords PAC. I hope you’ll give me a chance to explain why this request — today of all days — is so important.


Yesterday morning, Florida’s Republican Governor Rick Scott announced he was going to run for U.S. Senate. And what we need to do right now is send him a message from every American who has had enough of the inaction from Congress on this issue. And that message is:


“Rick Scott, we are going to do everything we can to defeat you this November. The gun lobby doesn’t need any more allies in the U.S. Senate.”


Shortly after the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, we ran ads highlighting Rick Scott’s history of indulging the gun lobby’s every wish. Today, we need you to help us keep up the pressure:


Make a $3 donation to Giffords PAC today to help us ensure that Rick Scott gets nowhere near the U.S. Senate where he will cast votes on gun violence legislation that impact every American.


If we can send a message to politicians across the country that their path to further elected office is imperiled by their support for the gun lobby’s priorities, we will do more than we could possibly imagine to change the trajectory of this debate.


And that starts with keeping Rick Scott out of office.


All my best,


Peter Ambler
Executive Director
Giffords PAC

I hate to break it to Peter Ambler – and to Rick Scott – but we in the gun culture really don’t consider Scott an ally. If Rick Scott was an ally, 18 through 20 year olds wouldn’t have lost their ability to purchase a rifle or shotgun.

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Anti-gun Activism, Arson, Or Both? (Updated with GoFundMe link)

April 8, 2018 by 2 Comments

This past Monday a shooting range in Trinity, North Carolina was hit with arson. The Triad Active Shooters Klub – TASK – had their shooting benches and  three out of five shooting line shelters destroyed by fire. Randolph County Fire Marshal Erik Beard says the fire was intentionally set.

You can see more pictures of the destruction here. There is a $5,000 reward being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Please contact the Randolph County Sheriff’s Department at (336) 318-6699 if you have any information.

Monty Mendenhall of the club had this to say about the fire:

There was arson at the TASK early Monday morning range. Three of the five covered firing points were completely destroyed. The remaining two had five one-gallon plastic containers of gasoline placed strategically next to the wooden posts that support the roof and under the piled up shooting benches. Two covered firing lines were not burned because the fuses to the gas failed.

We believe that more than one arsonist was involved, maybe several. This belief is because, at a minimum, twenty five individual containers of gasoline were used. We found five at each of the unburned structures and assume that there were at least that many at each of the other three. It would take quite a while for one person to remove 25 one-gallon containers from a vehicle and set them out out beside the posts and under the shooting benches. Moreover, our shooting benches are too heavy for one man to lift. Two men can move one but it would require three or four to stack one upon another.

The TASK members have been great about this Daniel. The BODs and volunteers have already cleaned up the debris and stacked all of the burned tin roof panels. The metal will be taken to a salvage yard and the wood will be placed in a safe place and burned. The ground was swept with a magnetic broom and approximately two gallons of nails and screws were recovered for disposal.

All five firing lines are open now but the burned ones lack everything except the concrete floor.

The contractor who built all of the structures has surveyed the scene and he is working with us. In addition to the cost of reconstructing the covered firing lines, we are looking at an unknown cost for a video/motion-detecting security system.

Six years were required to build the structures and to clear the new 100 yard range. We did it one step at a time as our dues came in. The club lacks enough funds to pay for all of the reconstruction at this moment but construction will begin anyway on a pay-as-you-go basis. We will not allow a group of anti-Second Amendment NAZIs stop us from peaceably assembling to enjoy ours Second Amendment rights.

Any financial help that can be provided will be appreciated. Even if none is though, TASK will rebuild. It will just take a little longer.

If and when a GoFundMe or similar page is set up, I’ll post an update.

UPDATE: A GoFundMe page has been set up. They are seeking to raise $3000. Just to be clear, the donation will not be tax deductible as TASK is a 501(c)(7) organization.

UPDATE II: If would prefer to send a check rather than go through GoFundMe, the address is:

TASK
PO Box 404
Trinity, NC 27370

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Just In Case You Haven’t Seen This

April 6, 2018 by

Mayor Nancy Vaughn of Greensboro, NC announced after the Parkland murders that she would seek to end the Greensboro Gun and Knife Show held semi-annually at the Greensboro Coliseum. The Greensboro City Council was in agreement. The only problem is that they didn’t have the authority to do that.

So they invited citizens to make their voices heard – assuming it would be anti-gun – during the public comment period on the April 3rd meeting. I think they heard more than they expected but not exactly what they wanted. You can see the full hour plus long video of the meeting here.

Andy Stevens of Grass Roots North Carolina spoke. Just as importantly so did Mark Robinson. What the latter had to say has gone viral. You can see both of their comments below.

Mr. Robinson’s comments begin at about the 4:40 mark. His comments have been aired on Fox News, Facebook, and the list goes on. The number of views from various sources now totals in the millions.

Share this video with your friends. Everyone needs to see it.

UPDATE: A.P. Dillon at LadyLiberty1885 blog has more on the Greensboro City Council meeting including video of a couple of the March for Our Lives kids. Dillon notes that they repeated many false claims.

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Deerfield Sued Over Gun Ban By ISRA And SAF

April 5, 2018 by 4 Comments

The Village of Deerfield, Illinois passed an ordinance on Monday, April 2nd, that would ban “assault weapons” (sic) and standard capacity magazines. The ordinance contains a $1,000 a day fine for each day the items remain within the limits of the village. According to the ordinance posted on the village’s website, it becomes effective immediately but gives residents 60 days to remove the firearms and magazines.

As reported by CBS News:

The ordinance states, “The possession, manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the Village of Deerfield is not reasonably necessary to protect an individual’s right of self-defense or the preservation or efficiency of a well-regulated militia.”


So, beginning June 13, banned assault weapons in Deerfield will include semiautomatic rifles with a fixed magazine and a capacity to hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, shotguns with revolving cylinders, and conversion kits from which assault weapons can be assembled. And those are just a few of the firearm varieties banned. The list is long and includes all the following models or duplicates thereof: AK, AKM, AKS, AK-47, AK-74, ARM, MAK90, Misr, NHM 90, NHM 91, SA 85, SA 93, VEPR, AR-10, AR-15, Bushmaster XM15, Armalite M15, Olympic Arms PCR, AR70, Calico Liberty, Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle, Dragunov SVU, Fabrique NationalFN/FAL, FN/LAR, FNC, Hi-Point Carbine, HK-91, Kel-Tec Sub Rifle, SAR-8, Sturm, Ruger Mini-14, and more.

You will note that the Ruger Mini-14 is included in the ban. Many other earlier bans specifically excluded it.

In response, the Illinois State Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation have filed suit against the Village of Deerfield in state court. According to their email alert:

The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) have filed a lawsuit against the Village of Deerfield this morning, April 5, 2018. This legal action is a challenge to the Defendant’s Ordinance O-18-06, passed on April 2, 2018, which bans assault weapons (used specifically as that term is defined in O-18-06) within the Defendant’s municipal limits.

The suit was filed In the Circuit Court of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Lake County, Illinois, Chancery Division.

If you want to donate to the ISRA Legal Assistance Committee, you can donate here. ISRA’s LAC is a 501(c)(3) so it would be tax deductible.

I will have more up on the suit once I can get a copy of the complaint.

UPDATE: Below is the release from the Second Amendment Foundation on the lawsuit, Easterday et al v. Deerfield.

BELLEVUE, Wash., April 5, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit against the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois seeking an injunction against enforcement of the ban on so-called “assault weapons” and “large capacity magazines” adopted by the Village Board of Trustees earlier this week.

Joining SAF in the legal challenge is the Illinois State Rifle Association and a private citizen, Daniel Easterday, who resides in the village and is a gun owner. The lawsuit was filed in the 19th Judicial Circuit Court in Lake County. Plaintiffs are represented by Glen Ellyn attorney David Sigale.

The lawsuit challenges the village ban under a 2013 amended state statute that declared “the regulation of the possession or ownership of assault weapons are exclusive powers and functions of this State. Any ordinance or regulation, or portion of that ordinance or regulation, that purports to regulate the possession or ownership of assault weapons in a manner that is inconsistent with this Act, shall be invalid…”

“We moved swiftly to challenge this gun ban because it flies in the face of state law,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “While the village is trying to disguise this as an amendment to an existing ordinance, it is, in fact, a new law that entirely bans possession of legally-owned semi-auto firearms, with no exception for guns previously owned, or any provision for self-defense.

“The new ordinance also provides for confiscation and destruction of such firearms and their original capacity magazines,” he added. “What is particularly outrageous about this new law is that it levies fines of up to $1,000 a day against anyone who refuses to turn in their gun and magazines or move them out of the village by the time the ordinance takes effect in June. This certainly puts the lie to claims by anti-gunners that ‘nobody is coming to take your guns.'”

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Comment Period Opens On Proposed Bump Stock Ban

April 2, 2018 by

Adam Kraut gives a good thumbnail overview of how to respond to the BATFE proposed rulemaking in the video below. He suggests taking a shotgun approach as the more objections you can raise, the more the BATFE has to work to respond to them. Moreover, if it isn’t brought up now, it can’t be brought up in court later.

Here is the document released by the lawyers of the Department of Justice with their legal rationale (or bullshit, to be more honest about it) saying why they can now define bump fire stocks as machine guns. It is important to note that if this rule is enacted then all existing bump fire stocks become contraband unregistered machine guns and must be destroyed or turned into BATFE. Why? That little amendment to FOPA 1986 called the Hughes Amendment comes into play as bump fire stocks were developed, manufactured, and sold after 1986.

Here is the correct link to the comments page.

I say correct link because www.regulations.gov has two links to the proposed regulations. One is the correct link and the other says comments are closed. Remember, never attribute to malice that which can be explained by incompetence or stupidity.

So scan through the DOJ document to find areas on which to make comments. There is nothing to say you can’t make multiple comments on different things. The comment period closes on June 27, 2018 at 11:59pm. So do it now while it is still fresh in your mind.

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Green Mountain Airdrop

April 2, 2018 by 1 Comment

Now that the Vermont House and Senate have approved sweeping gun control legislation, Gov. Phil Scott (RINO-VT) has promised to sign it. While Scott said he was pro-Second Amendment, he is showing no hesitation in signing restrictions on magazine size, banning bump stocks, and raising the purchase age for a firearm to 21.

From the Burlington Free Press:

Scott acknowledged that many Vermonters would be disappointed by the vote and by his support for provisions that he opposed as recently as two months ago.


“I share it. I know why they are disappointed,” Scott said. “But I think at the end of the day, they’ll soon learn that what we have proposed, what’s being passed at this time, doesn’t intrude upon the Second Amendment. It doesn’t take away guns, and I believe that we will get accustomed to the new normal, which is trying to address this underlying violence that we are seeing across the nation.”

Most provisions of the law will go into effect when the Gov. Scott signs the bills into law. This includes the provisions relating to bump stocks and standard capacity magazines. Given that Vermont had been the first state to have constitutional carry and had a good record on protecting gun rights, this is exceedingly disappointing to say the least.

In response to this abridgment of the freedoms of residents of the Green Mountain State, Recoil Magazine in conjunction with Magpul organized the Green Mountain Airdrop. Similar to what they did in Colorado, Magpul provided 1,200 standard capacity magazines to be given away to gun owners in Vermont.

These magazines were distributed on the steps of the State Capitol in Montpelier on Saturday afternoon. Rob Curtis, Executive Editor of Recoil, was on hand to hand out these magazines. As you can see from the Instagram photo below, there was quite a number of people that showed up.

While the gun prohibitionists have not given up on passing legislation in Washington, I think it is safe to say that they have shifted their major focus to the states. It takes less money to make an impact on a state and that is especially true in a small state like Vermont. Moreover, as Tom Gresham noted a couple of weeks ago, Everytown and the other gun prohibitionist organizations have been building a corps of lobbyists and community organizers in the states. By contrast, your average NRA-ILA state representative will cover 3 or more states. In North Carolina, I counted 2 lobbyists for Everytown, 2 for NCAGV, and 1 for Giffords. The NRA has 2.

I think it is imperative that everyone belong to a state level gun rights organization. I will be working on making a directory of state level gun rights groups so that you can help in your state. As for me, I belong to Grass Roots North Carolina. While the NC Rifle and Pistol Club is the NRA affiliate, the heavy lifting in NC is done by GRNC.

The actions of the Vermont Legislature and the duplicitous actions of Gov. Scott are a blow and they hurt. However, I remember something that Gene Hoffman, Chairman of the Calguns Foundation, said at a Gun Rights Policy Conference. Speaking of California, he noted that they had lost their gun rights over a period of 40 years and that they would not be won back quickly. The fight to preserve our gun rights is the long war and we need to remember that.

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Hemispheric Distortions In Long Distance Shooting

April 1, 2018 by

Ryan Cleckner is an attorney. He is also a former sniper who served with the Army Rangers. He has made a series of videos for NSSF and has written an excellent book on long range shooting. In his latest video he explains the impact on hemispheric distortions on shooting. If you are planning a safari to southern Africa – Namibia, Zimbabwe, or South Africa – you should really pay attention.

You should also pay attention to what day it is and I don’t mean Easter.