Uncategorized

Good News From Florida Carry

February 10, 2014 by

Gun rights organization Florida Carry filed suit against Eastern Florida State College on Monday, February 3rd, to force them to comply with state law regarding defensive firearms and weapons storage. State law allows firearms to be stored in locked vehicles parked on the campuses of Florida’s public universities, colleges, and community colleges.

On Friday, the college issued a revised policy and will work with Florida Carry to craft lawful policies. Eastern Florida State College is located in Cocoa, Florida and was formerly Brevard Community College. They changed their name in 2013 when they began offering 4-year bachelor’s degrees.

From Florida Carry’s release:

Palm Bay FL – On Monday Florida Carry, Inc. filed a lawsuit against Eastern Florida State College seeking to protect the rights of students, faculty, and the public from the college’s illegal regulations prohibiting defensive firearms and weapons stored in private vehicles. Today Eastern Florida State published a revised policy that brings them in to compliance with state defensive firearms and weapons laws. We are pleased by the college’s response to the case thus far and greatly appreciate their willingness to work with Florida Carry to craft lawful firearms and weapons policies. We hope to reach a final settlement of the case soon.

In December Florida Carry won a similar case against the University of North Florida (UNF). In Florida Carry v. UNF the First District Court of Appeal ruled that “The legislature’s primacy in firearms regulation derives directly from the Florida Constitution… Indeed, the legislature has reserved for itself the whole field of firearms regulation in section 790.33(1)…” No public college or university has any authority to prevent students and the public from having a functional firearm in places that are constitutionally protected or permitted under state law.

Florida law provides for strict penalties against public entities and individuals who violate the rights of gun and defensive weapon owners. Any public entity which attempts to restrict the statutory and fundamental right to keep and bear arms in Florida is subject to enforcement actions by organizations such as Florida Carry.

Uncategorized

Early Morning Fire At Winchester’s East Alton Plant

February 9, 2014 by 6 Comments

There was a fire in the early hours of the morning at Winchester’s East Alton, Illinois ammunition plant. Fortunately, it seems that only a maintenance shed was destroyed and the fire did not spread to other areas of the plant.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

An early-morning blaze and propane explosion at an ammunitions factory in East Alton was contained to a maintenance shed and caused no injuries, according to police.

A motorist spotted fire in a maintenance shop at the Winchester Ammunition plant, which is a division of Olin Corp., and called 911 about 3:15 a.m., according to East Alton Fire Chief Randy Nelson.

Reports vary as to when the fire was first spotted but it was finally extinguished around 7:30 this morning. The blaze caused propane cylinders to explode and steam lines to rupture from the intense heat.

More on the fire from St. Louis station KMOV:

You can see the morning after pictures in this report from Fox 2 St. Louis:

Winchester has been in the process of moving its center-fire ammunition production from the East Alton plant to its much newer plant in Oxford, Mississippi. Winchester started this move in mid-2010. Rimfire ammunition was moved to Oxford earlier.

 Olin Corporation, the parent of Winchester, has not made any official statement on the fire that I can see on their website. Given that it happened on a Sunday morning, this is not too surprising.

Uncategorized

Black History And The Second Amendment

February 8, 2014 by 3 Comments

This video featuring Craig DeLuz of Cal-FFL was posted on YouTube yesterday in honor of Black History Month. It is an excellent overview of the intertwined relationship that African-Americans have with the Second Amendment and gun rights. The overview ranges from before the Civil War to the modern civil rights era.

While not as comprehensive as Prof. Nicholas Johnson’s Negroes and the Gun, it does cover a lot of ground and is well worth watching.

Uncategorized

Monthly Contest List

February 8, 2014 by

Aaron at the Weapon-Blog.com has just released his compilation of contests that are giving away firearms.

The list of rifles include a boatload of AR-15s, a couple of AR-10s, a Tavor, a Barrett 99, and a handful of other rifles. There are only three shotguns but one is a Browning Maxus celebrating gun rights in Louisiana.

Pistols include everything from a Colt Peacemaker to a Beretta Nano and everything in between.

You can access the list here.

Uncategorized

Thank God For Local TV Stations

February 7, 2014 by 1 Comment

The following story and the positive tone it takes is just not something you would get from a large network. Witness last week’s Diane Sawyer Special on ABC’s 20/20 regarding children and firearms.

This story is about how Gabby Franco of Top Shot and Olympic fame is giving shooting classes for women in the Greenville-Spartanburg area of South Carolina. She is doing it in conjunction with a local range and the local chapter of The Well Armed Woman.

As I said in the headline, thank god for local TV stations because they don’t always buy into the guns are bad theme. They know their local markets and know that theme doesn’t play well.

FOX Carolina 21

Uncategorized

White House – Target Shooting Is OK But Self-Defense Is Not

February 7, 2014 by 5 Comments

HR 3590 – the Sportsmen’s Heritage And Recreational Enhancement Act of 2013 – passed the House of Representatives yesterday on a vote of 268 in favor with 154 opposed. The bill passed in a somewhat bipartisan manner with 41 Democrats and 227 Republican voting in favor of the bill.

The bill, if acted upon and passed by the Senate, does a number of things including setting aside Pittman-Robertson monies for range construction, removes the authority of the EPA to regulate lead for ammunition and fishing tackle, and allows electronic duck stamps. The bill would also prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from banning firearm possession on Corps recreational and water resource development projects. The US District Court for the District of Idaho issued a preliminary injunction preventing the US Army Corps of Engineers from doing just that in the case of Morris et al v. Army Corps of Engineers.

A summary of Title VI states:

Title VI: Access to Water Resources Development Projects Act – Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act of 2013 – Prohibits
the Secretary of the Army from promulgating or enforcing any regulation
that prohibits an individual from possessing a firearm at a water
resources development project administered by the Chief of Engineers if:
(1) the individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing
the firearm, and (2) the possession of the firearm is in compliance with
the law of the state in which the project is located.

On Monday, the White House issued a statement on the SHARE Act stating what they supported, what they opposed, and what they didn’t care about one way or another. The White House said it supported the use of Pittman-Robertson monies for range development (Title II), it supported allowing the importation of a handful of legally killed polar bear trophies from Canada which have been stuck in limbo (Title IV), and it supported the electronic sales of duck stamps (Title V).

The White House said that it didn’t oppose Title I which, in its words, “excludes certain sport fishing equipment from the classification of toxic substances.” They ignored mention of that part of the bill that would amend the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 to “exclude from the definition of “chemical substance” for purposes of such
Act: (1) any component of any pistol, revolver, firearm, shell, or
cartridge the sale of which is subject to federal excise tax, including
shot, bullets and other projectiles, propellants, and primers”.  I guess I should be thankful that they didn’t oppose it.

Among the things the White House opposed was Title VI. They said:

The Administration also opposes Title VI, which prohibits the Secretary of the Army from enforcing any regulations that would prohibit the possession of firearms at water resources development projects with limited exceptions.

In other words, they are opposed to the right of visitors to any Corps-administered lands to be able to be armed for the purposes of self-defense. A tent or camper has been found to be a temporary residence many times
by the courts and, as such, is the place which the Supreme Court found
in the Heller case that the need for self-defense is “most acute”.  Thus, while the Obama Administration is somewhat OK with gun owners and hunters doing target shooting at some backwoods, out-of-the-way location, they don’t believe you have the right to self-defense while in a tent or camper in a campground on Corps-administered lands.

Go figure.

Uncategorized

NSSF Training Tip: Holdover And Offset

February 6, 2014 by 1 Comment

Adam Painchaud of the Sig Sauer Academy talks about holdover and offset in the latest training tips video from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. A red dot sight or a scope is zeroed for a specific distance. If shooting a distance that is either greater or less than the zeroed distance, you need to compensate for it in order to get an accurate hit.

Adam discusses ways to determine the holdover and offset for your rifle. This becomes important in a defensive situation when you are using a rifle at close range. It is also important if you are in a competitive match such as a 3-Gun competition.

Uncategorized

Shew V. Malloy Will Be Appealed

February 5, 2014 by 2 Comments

On Thursday, Senior US District Court Judge Albert V. Covello ruled that despite being “in common use” the State of Connecticut could impose an assault weapons (sic) and magazine ban. This ban had been challenged by the Connecticut Citizens Defense League in the case of Shew et al v. Malloy et al. Today the CCDL announced that a formal notice of an intention to appeal had been filed.

From their release:

HARTFORD – Just one day after receiving an adverse ruling from the lower federal court on their
Second Amendment challenge to Connecticut’s new firearms law,
the plaintiff-firearms owners and organizations filed a formal notice of their intention to appeal the ruling. In addition to following the U.S. Supreme Court precedents in the renowned cases of
Heller
and
MacDonald,
the lower federal court deciding the case was bound to follow recent precedents of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. To date, the Second Circuit has upheld laws that place greater restrictions on the right to bear arms than have courts in federal circuits in other parts of the country. It is these diverging views of the Second Amendment on issues that were not resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in
Heller
and
MacDonald
that make it likely that the Supreme Court will decide to hear one or more Second Amendment cases in the next few years.


Although the legal conclusions did not go their way at this initial stage of the litigation, the lower court did make factual findings that gun owners view as favorable. For example, the court found that certain of the newly banned firearms, such as the popular AR-15, are in
“
common use
”
for lawful purposes throughout the nation. The AR-15 type modern sporting rifle, which is newly classified as an
“
assault weapon
”
under the legislation, is the leading type of firearm used in national shooting matches and in other competitions sponsored by the congressionally established Civilian Marksmanship Program. The court also
found that banning such commonly used firearms places a “substantial burden” on fundamental Second
Amendment rights.

 The photo below was posted on their blog announcing that they planned to appeal the decision. I think they have it right.

Uncategorized

Quote Of The Day

February 4, 2014 by

The quote of the day comes from US National Rifle Team member and gun blogger Anette Wachter who is also known as 30CalGal. She was one of the people who had testified before a Washington State legislative committee about Initiatives 591 and 594. Initiative 594 is the gun prohibitionists’ “background check” initiative which would criminalize transfers without a state background check while Initiative 591 is the Protect Our Gun Rights Act.

Describing how one opponent of gun rights had said she was afraid of guns, Anette said we must work on those in the middle.

But as I listened to Wa St. Senator Jeannie Darneille from Tacoma state she is deathly afraid of guns period, I knew that there was to be no convincing people like her to back off of gun control measures. They hate guns period. Our work to be done is to make those on the fence see the light. Those on the fence are the ones that only hunt, or only have a pistol, or only go to the range once in a while or who’s dad used to shoot, that all aspects of the 2nd Amendment need to be protected. Just because you don’t shoot an AR and it does not affect you does not mean you should vote against the right to own them. Do you want me to vote against one side of your First Amendment because I don’t like your choice of social media but as long as my social media choice is not affected that is it ok? It is all or nothing.

She is dead on with that observation and that is where we need to concentrate our efforts. It is what military strategists call the concentration of force.