Uncategorized

You Don’t Want To Go There, Mr. Bothwell

January 2, 2013 by 4 Comments

Cecil Bothwell is a City Councilman in Asheville, North Carolina. He also ran for Congress in the 11th District but was trounced in the Democratic primary. He is proudly the left-most member of the Asheville City Council.

Today Bothwell called for banning gun shows on city-owned property. He wants to use a city ordinance that prohibits the possession of firearms in parks and other city-owned property (other than concealed carry holders in parks.)

From a report in the Asheville Citizen-Times:

City Council member Cecil Bothwell today called for the City of Asheville to ban gun shows from City-owned properties, including the WNC Agricultural Center.

“Our municipal code specifically prohibits the carrying of weapons on City-owned properties. I don’t understand why that law is not being enforced,” Bothwell said.

The City of Asheville’s Civic Center and WNC Agricultural Center have both been rented to gun show promoters in recent years, despite this long-standing ban.

“Many citizens have contacted Council members asking for action in the wake of the Newtown school murders, but the City has very little ability to regulate guns, permitting or background checks under North Carolina and United States law,” Bothwell said. “However, we do have the power to enforce the laws that are on the books.

“Gun shows not only promote the ownership and use of weapons, including the glamorization of the assault-type, semi-automatic killing machines used in too many mass murders, but sellers at shows are not required to perform background checks on buyers. That means that guns intended for rapid fire killing may easily fall into the hands of persons who are mentally unstable or who have criminal intent.”

“This is one place we can easily draw the line,” Bothwell added. “The law is already on the books.”

 The ignorance in Bothwell’s statement astounds.

First, as a councilman, Bothwell ought to know what properties the city owns or doesn’t own. The WNC Agricultural Center is owned by the State of North Carolina and operated by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Second, his statement about background checks and “rapid fire killing” is so ludicrous that I’ll just pass on it other than to say that FFLs are required to make NICS checks regardless of where the sale takes place.

Third, and on this I might excuse Bothwell, given Nordyke v. King was in the 9th Circuit. Despite being in another circuit, Asheville would be on very shaky legal ground to try and ban gun shows on city property. I don’t think the City of Asheville wants to be in Federal court for 13 years like Alameda County. Precedent is against them. More on Nordyke can be found here.

Uncategorized

Prohibitionist Pipe Dreams

January 1, 2013 by 8 Comments

Imagine if you will that the Freedom Group is bought by a consortium of investors including Michael Bloomberg and George Soros. Imagine further that the new CEO is a pro-gun control “hunter” and that the new board of directors will include representatives from the families of the children shot in Newtown. Top this all off with the notion that the company will provide “moral leadership” to the gun industry and will establish a fund to compensate crime victims who have been shot with firearms produced by the Freedom Group.

You would be right to ask if I was either showing signs of early dementia or having some sort of drug-induced hallucinogenic dream. Actually, it is neither. This comes from an opinion article written by John Macintosh for CNN.

Mr. Macintosh was a partner with private equity firm Warburg Pincus and is now a partner in SeaChange Capital Partners. The latter sees it mission as:

SeaChange Capital Partners is an entrepreneurial organization that seeks
to deploy its resources – team, relationships, reputation and funds –
to achieve the greatest social impact. At present, these situations fall
into two areas: Nonprofit Collaboration and Advisory Services.
SeaChange also engages in making markets within our extended network by
organizing convenings wherever we see topics of common interest that
are directly connected to transactions.

 Mr. Macintosh specifically suggests that a new non-profit “special purpose acquisition company” be established to buy the Freedom Group. He would call this new non-profit by the cutesy name of  BeForFreedom.org or BFF. He suggests getting the pension funds that have invested in Cerberus to roll their portion of the investment in the Freedom Group into BFF.

His “moral turnaround” plan for the Freedom Group would have the following parts:


(i) Appoints a high-profile CEO with impeccable credentials as a hunter and/or marksman who is nevertheless in favor of gun-control.

(ii) Elects a new board of directors including representatives from the families of victims killed in Newtown (and/or other massacres perpetrated with Freedom Group weapons), military veterans and trauma surgeons with real experience of human-on-human gunfire, and law enforcement and mental health professionals.

(iii) Operates the business as if sensible gun laws were in place (this may turn out to be a wise investment in future-proofing the company): discontinuing sales of the most egregious assault weapons and modifying others as necessary so they cannot take huge-volume clips; offering to buy back all Freedom Group assault weapons in circulation; micro-stamping weapons for easy tracking; and providing price discounts for buyers willing to go through a background check and register in a database available to law enforcement.

(iv) Voluntarily waives its rights to support the NRA and other lobbying groups.

(v) Creates a fund to compensate those who, despite its best efforts, are killed or wounded by its weapons.

(vi) Agrees that if the effort to provide moral leadership in the weapons industry doesn’t succeed within a year, BFF should consider corporate euthanasia, even though it entails a risk of allowing more retrograde manufacturers to fill the void in the market left by the then-deceased company.

Mr. Macintosh does realize that this would be a long shot in his opinion but it has to be tried. He goes on to say:

that a reconstructed Freedom Group, fighting for sensible change as a
fifth column from within the industry, might well find that many people
— even a significant portion of the NRA’s members — would buy from a
truly responsible (and high quality) gunmaker if given the chance.

I’m not some young semi-retired corporate raider who has found religion, so to speak, like Mr. Macintosh. However, I’d say I have a better grasp on the firearms industry and reality than does Mr. Macintosh. If he really thinks this would come to pass and people would buy from the reconstituted Freedom Group, I’d offer these three little words of warning.

Smith and Wesson.

Uncategorized

“Childish And Petulant”

January 1, 2013 by 4 Comments

As we have now heard, the Journal News of the Lower Hudson Valley of New York plans to release more names and addresses of pistol permit holders. In an article in the Huffington Post, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz thinks the publishing of the names, addresses, and other personal information of Journal News staff in retaliation was “childish and petulant.”

Howard Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York
at New Paltz, called the critics’ response childish and petulant.

“It
doesn’t move the issue of gun control to the level of intelligent
public discussion,” he said.

“Instead, it transforms what should be a
rational public debate on a contentious issue into ugly gutter
fighting.”

That would be the same Professor Howard Good who lives in the Village of Highland in Ulster County, New York. He is fortunate that his 1,944 square foot raised ranch house built in 1972 has a full basement.

I wish I had a full basement.

Uncategorized

Doing Something

December 31, 2012 by 4 Comments

The constant refrain that we’ve heard every minute of every day since Newtown from the gun prohibitionists, the politicians, and the mainstream media is that we must do something, we must “demand a plan”, we must pass a law. Josh Felker of LoneStar Handgun in Schertz, Texas decided to do something but it isn’t what the gun prohibitionists and their political and media allies are advocating.

Mr. Felker offered 400 slots in his Texas CHL classes free to teachers in Texas. The teachers in Texas took him up on the offer and all were booked within 24 hours.

From the San Antonio Express-News:


Middle school teacher Kim Williams traveled from Houston to cash in on Saturday’s free concealed handgun licensing course offered to educators after the mass shootings at a Connecticut elementary.

“I feel the need to be proactive,” Williams, 38, said during a break in the 10-hour class at LoneStar Handgun.

“I’m entrusted to the care and safety of over 100 students. I want to be prepared, if and when things go that way,” said the long-time employee of the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

Felker is trying to build momentum to get Texas laws and policies changed to allow teachers who are Texas CHL holders to be allowed to carry on campus. Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) is one of those who supports this move.

According to Felker’s site, Dury’s Gun Shop in San Antonio will pay for a CHL class for any Texas teacher who purchases a handgun from them. While I don’t know for sure, I imagine other Texas instructors and gun shops are making similar offers to Texas teachers. I certainly hope so.

Josh Felker and these teachers are making a positive contribution to keeping kids safer in Texas classrooms. Experience has shown that active shooters tend to be cowards and kill themselves when confronted by an armed person as was the case in the Portland, OR mall shooting.

Uncategorized

Rare Events; Contrasting Statements

December 31, 2012 by

Just as it is rare to have multiple shootings, so too is it rare to have subway riders in New York City murdered by being pushed in front of an ongoing train. New York City has had two of these murders within the last month with the last one happening on Thursday. Both of these murders seem to have been committed by people with mental problems.

Given that multiple shootings as well as murders by being pushed on the tracks fall into the realm of “black swan events” – that is, very rare and very difficult to predict – it is interesting to compare the comments of Mayor Michael Bloomberg after the Newtown shooting with his comments on the latest subway pushing murder.

On the school shooting in Newtown, CT, Bloomberg said:

“With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still
almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten
class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners
learning their A,B,Cs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too
soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After
Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For
every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of
them were five-year olds. President Obama rightly sent his heartfelt
condolences to the families in Newtown. But the country needs him to
send a bill to Congress to fix this problem. Calling for ‘meaningful
action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the
rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the
White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a
national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest
sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my
determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever.”

Following the murder of Sunando Sen, an Indian immigrant who lived in Queens and had opened a printing business, Bloomberg had this to say:


Mayor Michael Bloomberg said commuters should “exercise care” after Thursday’s attack. He suggested little could be done, though, to prevent what he called a “rare occurrence.”


“It’s a very tragic thing,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

On Friday, in his weekly radio appearance on WOR-Radio’s John Gambling Show, Bloomberg discussed the subway murder among other things. You can listen to it here. It starts at about the 11:48 mark and ends at the 13:15 mark.

From my transcript of it:


Gambling: Unfortunately another push on the subway.

Bloomberg: It’s only two in, you know, a long period of time. (That) doesn’t help either person. I don’t know what happened here.

I was talking to somebody the other day. We used to incarcerate an awful lot of people who were mentally ill. The courts or the law was changed said, “No, you can’t do that because unless they are a danger to society, our laws protect you. And that’s fair enough. If you look at, you go out on Long Island there are a number of old psychiatric big and all of them now are empty and falling apart. They are derelict buildings and just the roofs are starting to cave-in. (They) can become dangerous.

Gambling: I read that the Governor is thinking of releasing even more people.

Bloomberg: I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him about it. But yeah, you know, it cost a lot and the trouble is you may incarcerate the handful of people who do something wrong but you’d also incarcerate an enormous number of people who will never do anything wrong. And the essence of America is unless you do something wrong, we don’t incarcerate you.

Right after this, Gambling asks him how he would integrate these thoughts with the Newtown shootings. The first thing out of his mouth is the comment that there will always be crazy people. He then goes into his usual harangue about guns, semi-auto firearms, standard capacity magazines, and how we need to ban them.

I find the contrasting statements interesting. On the one hand, Bloomberg demands immediate action for one rare event involving a mentally ill person while on the other hand he dismisses another event involving again a mentally ill person as a “rare occurrence” that not much could be done to prevent.

In both cases you have rare but deadly events involving mentally ill persons. Rationally, it is not the tool involved that is the causative factor of the event but rather the untreated mentally ill person. I think even Bloomberg understands this but for his own selfish and aggrandizing political aims chooses to ignore it.

Uncategorized

Infographic On Standard Capacity Magazines

December 29, 2012 by 7 Comments

I came across this infographic on Facebook this morning. It is from the American Preppers Network. It examines how long it would take to get off 100 shots with various sizes of magazines assuming 3 seconds per change and 1 second per shot. Of course, both changes and aimed shots could be made in less time with practice but it is a starting point.

Use this link to view the videos mentioned in the infographic.

Uncategorized

We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us

December 28, 2012 by 2 Comments



Bryon York, Chief Political Correspondent for The Washington Examiner, details a trip he took to Birmingham, Alabama over the holidays. He went to Hoover Tactical Firearms to shoot some of the more “controversial weapons”.

Disregarding his comments that the .45 ACP in the KRISS Vector is “hugely powerful”, I think his comments about his talks with friends and relatives about gun and magazine bans are instructive. These are the gun owners who must be made to understand that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. Moreover, they need to realize that their scoped deer hunting rifles are nothing but “sniper rifles” to the gun prohibitionists.

From his comments:

Should guns like the KRISS be legal to buy?
Or, at least, should they be harder to buy and their magazine size
limited to, say, 10 rounds? Talking with relatives and friends, all of
whom own firearms, I didn’t sense much opposition to limiting the size
of magazines. Nor did I sense much opposition to imposing the same sort
of background checks on people who buy guns at shows as are currently
imposed on people who buy them at licensed dealers like Hoover Tactical
Firearms.

As far as banning some types of guns
altogether, many point out that beyond their military styling, “assault
weapons” are basically semi-automatic rifles like zillions of other
semi-automatic rifles with wooden stocks and a traditional look. They’re
the same guns. Even so, I didn’t sense much opposition to banning the
sale of some types of rifles.

Even though as York reports that he didn’t sense much opposition to the bans, he did report that nobody thought that they would be effective in stopping another Newtown-type shooting or any mass shooting.

Uncategorized

A Lump Of Coal From The UN

December 28, 2012 by 1 Comment

As a lump of coal for our Christmas stockings, the United Nations voted on Christmas Eve to restart debate on the Arms Trade Treaty.

The talks had collapsed in July when a consensus couldn’t be reached. It was felt at the time that this was due in part to President Obama not wanting the ATT hung around his neck going into the fall elections. Of course, this was denied by the US delegation.

That was then and this is now. According to Reuters, the US supported the resumption of talks.


But after Obama’s re-election last month, his administration joined other members of a U.N. committee in supporting the resumption of negotiations on the treaty.

That move was set in stone on Monday when the 193-nation U.N. General Assembly voted to hold a final round of negotiations on March 18-28 in New York.

The foreign ministers of Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan, Kenya and the United Kingdom – the countries that drafted the resolution – issued a joint statement welcoming the decision to resume negotiations on the pact.

“This was a clear sign that the vast majority of U.N. member states support a strong, balanced and effective treaty, which would set the highest possible common global standards for the international transfer of conventional arms,” they said.

There were 133 votes in favor, none against and 17 abstentions. A number of countries did not attend, which U.N. diplomats said was due to the Christmas Eve holiday.

The exact voting record was not immediately available, though diplomats said the United States voted ‘yes,’ as it did in the U.N. disarmament committee last month. Countries that abstained from last month’s vote included Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Sudan, Belarus, Cuba and Iran.

 The Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill says of the resumption of talks:

The move could intensify another high-profile fight between the
administration, which backs the treaty, and the National Rifle
Association (NRA) which says it will restrict the domestic sale of
firearms.

 As I see it, we will have both a domestic and international battle on our hands in the coming months. Now, more than ever, we need to be united and to deluge Congress with letters, faxes, and emails demanding no new gun control.

Uncategorized

Possum Drop Will Continue In Brasstown

December 28, 2012 by

New Year’s Eve is almost upon us and Clay Logan has said that the annual New Year’s Eve Possum Drop in Brasstown, NC is a go. However, thanks to PETA and a foolish administrative law judge it will be a modified possum drop. 

From the Asheville Citizen-Times:

Logan said Monday that he’s considering using a stuffed opossum or possibly a road-kill opossum.


“It
ain’t going to deter us from having the event,” said Logan. He expects
the party to draw about 3,000 people to his store in Brasstown, about
two hours west of Asheville.
There’s
plenty more to see than just the ’possum drop, added Logan. There will
be music by a country and bluegrass band, a tribute to the men and women
who serve in the military and a ceremonial firing of muzzleloaders by
the Brasstown Brigade.

Frankly, I hope they use a road-kill opossum for the event and then send it to Judge Fred Morrison as a memento of his ruling.