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This Billboard Should Be Across The Street From The White House

October 17, 2012 by 3 Comments

A group called MurderedMexicans.org is sponsoring a billboard that asks “Who cares about a few hundred” murdered Mexicans. I don’t know if they have other billboards up but the one below is in Clovis, New Mexico on S. Prince Street. This picture comes from a post on CleanUpATF.org.

This website along with its Spanish language version lays out the details of Operation Fast and Furious. It urges people to call their Congressman but especially those on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. It says to thank those asking the tough questions of ATF and the Justice Department and to ask those defending Attorney General Eric Holder “why they are defending such a despicable person”.

Not having heard of this group, I checked Network Solutions and their Whois tool and found that the website was registered in March of 2012 to Charles Abernathy.

An Internet search turns up a story from the Portales News-Tribune about Abernathy and the billboard.

Charles Abernathy, 47, said the website is a grassroots effort to
hold those responsible for the Fast and Furious fiasco, in which a
border patrol official was killed.


He said the “murdered Mexicans” refers to the hundreds who were killed by weapons supplied to Mexican Drug Cartel leaders through a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms sting.


Abernathy said he chose the words for their shock value.


“I’m sure some people are offended,” said Abernathy, an oil field truck
driver from Houston. “I think if they use that and end up doing research
over the issues. …. This is what I’m trying to accomplish; people
don’t know about this and now they do.”

The story points out that some in Clovis were offended by the billboard until they went to the website. They do wish he’d chosen his wording a little differently. Abernathy is also paying for digital billboards in Odessa and Lubbock, Texas. He says it is a grassroots effort and he is paying for it out of his own pocket.

 More power to people like Charles Abernathy who put their money behind their convictions.

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CCRKBA Says Justice Steven’s Comments Illustrate Importance Of This Election

October 16, 2012 by 2 Comments

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens was the speaker at a luncheon sponsored by the Brady Campaign on Monday. In his speech, he said he was astounded that Congress hadn’t taken steps to address “gun violence” (sic).

In reaction and to illustrate the importance of this election for both the Second Amendment and the future direction of the Supreme Court, Alan Gottlieb of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms released this statement:

BELLEVUE, WA – Monday’s high-profile prodding by retired Supreme
Court Justice John Paul Stevens for Congress to do something, and for
presidential candidates to say something, about gun control proves the
importance of who is in the White House and the U.S. Senate to make and
confirm high court nominations, the Citizens Committee for the Right to
Keep and Bear Arms said today.

Reuters reported that the retired justice was the speaker at Monday’s
luncheon hosted by the anti-gun Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Stevens wrote dissenting opinions on both the 2008 Heller ruling and
the 2010 McDonald decision, both of which affirmed that the Second
Amendment protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms.

“In both of his dissents,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb,
“Justice Stevens contended that the right to keep and bear arms was
limited to state militia service. It was, and remains, an astonishing
position on a fundamental civil right.

“What Justice Stevens’ speech clearly underscores,” he continued, “is
the critical importance of who is president, not just for the next four
years, but whenever a vacancy occurs on the high court. Imagine if
Justice Stevens’ opinion had prevailed.”

Stevens’ dissent in the Heller case was heavily criticized by the
majority opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia. The majority ruling
described Stevens’ arguments as “simply wrong,” and at one point – when
addressing Stevens’ history of the Second Amendment – said that he
“flatly misreads the historical record.”

“Stevens’ replacement on the Supreme Court was liberal Elena Kagan,”
Gottlieb noted. “A liberal, anti-gun majority could easily narrow,
rather than expand, the scope of our Second Amendment. That’s why it is,
and always will be, important for gun owners to have a pro-gun-rights
president and pro-gun majority in the Senate, especially on the
Judiciary Committee.”

To see more on Steven’s speech, Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned has video of the event.

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Quote Of The Day

October 16, 2012 by

Today’s quote of the day comes from historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson. To my mind, Hanson is one of the most astute observers in America.

From his post in the National Review Online entitled “A Presidency Squandered” in which he discusses all the advantages and goodwill that Barack Obama had going for him when he entered office in 2009.


And what happened?


Barack Obama chose to ram down the nation’s throat a polarizing,
statist agenda, energized by the sort of hardball politics he had
learned in Chicago. Rather than bring the races, classes, and genders
together, he gave us an us-versus-them crusade against the “1
percenters” and the job creators who had not “paid their fair share,”
accusations of a Republican “war on women,” and the worst racial
polarization in modern memory. Statesmanship degenerated into chronic
blame-gaming and “Bush did it,” as he piled up over $5 trillion in new
debt.  Financial sobriety was abandoned in favor of creating new
entitlement constituencies, and job creation was deemed far less
important than nationalizing the health-care system.


And so here we are, three weeks before the election, with a
squandered presidency and a president desperately seeking reelection not
by defending his record, but by demonizing his predecessor, his
opponent — and half of the country.


What, then, was Obama’s first term?


Jimmy Carter’s ends justifying Richard Nixon’s means.

That is indeed a bad combination – Carter’s ineffectiveness combined with Nixon’s paranoia and viciousness. God help us if he is returned for a second term.

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Understand Flash Sight Picture

October 16, 2012 by

In another of the National Shooting Sports Foundation short training videos, Bob Whaley of Gunsite Academy discusses flash sight picture and the importance of using your sights at all times (except shooting from retention).

The flash sight picture is part of the Modern Technique promulgated by Col. Jeff Cooper. It is simply a glance at the front sight which confirms your aim as set up by your grip and stance. Whaley emphasizes that in stressful situations people revert to their training. If you train to always use your sights – even just a flash sight picture – you will use them in stressful situations. The flash sight picture is the final confirmation that you are on target before you press the trigger.

As Whaley makes clear at the beginning of the video every bullet that leaves your gun will have a 100% hit ratio. It is up to you whether it hits the intended target or something you’d rather not hit.

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Fauxcahontas Isn’t Paying Her Fair Share

October 15, 2012 by 4 Comments

Elizabeth “Fauxcahontas” Warren, the Democratic nominee for the US Senate from Massachusetts, has a high six-figure income and a net worth in the neighborhood of $14 million or so. She is said to have created the “intellectual foundation” such as it is for the Occupy Wall Street movement. She also claims based upon family lore to be 1/32 Cherokee Indian.

Thus, when I read this morning in Professor William Jacobson’s Legal Insurrection blog that she had obtained fee waivers from at least 50 judicial districts for the use of the federal Pacer system, I was pissed.

But Warren, who berates factory owners, obtained fee waivers for access to the bankruptcy docket maintained by the federal PACER system, for which others have to pay.
.
Warren took advantage of a policy at PACER which provides for fee waivers for academic research based on her standing as a law professor….
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It is easy to surmise that Warren saved thousands of dollars, maybe even more, over the course of her research, by not having to pay the PACER fees that all other users have to pay.
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The savings were a result of her representations that the research was being done for academic purposes. 

Why am I pissed? Because I have been using the Pacer system to download court records, filings, opinions, etc. since I started this blog. I have paid my fair share of fees to use this system and there have been quarters where the amount ran over $100. I like to think that my posts on the various Second Amendment cases serve to educate readers. However, unlike Warren I don’t make close to $900K a year or have assets of over $14 million. Moreover, I don’t get grant funding which pays the fees as well as the cost of law clerks to assist in the research. I do this because it is fun and because it helps to advance, in a small way, our rights.

As to Warren’s claim of being a Cherokee Indian, I have clients who are enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and her supposed 1/32nd wouldn’t cut it with them. The Eastern Band are those Cherokee who lived so deep in the mountains that they were able to avoid the forced removal. I find it insulting that someone who’s ancester is more likely to have helped in the removal of the Cherokee from the mountains around me and put them on The Trail of Tears dares to claim kinship with them.

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Gun Shows In Chicago?

October 15, 2012 by 7 Comments

A posting in today’s The Shooting Wire announcing the Chicagoland Gun Show caught my eye.

Outdoor Sports Group (OSG) is proud to announce the first ever Chicagoland Gun Show January 23-27, 2013 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont Illinois.

The Chicagoland Gun Show will be co-located with the Chicago Outdoor Sports Show which continues a 30 + year tradition of sports shows gracing the shores of Lake Michigan and providing the Greater Chicagoland area a break from cabin fever.

While there are other shows in the vicinity of Chicago, for example shows in Wheaton and Lakemoor, I couldn’t find any that were actually being held in Cook County unlike this show. Rosemont is outside the city limits of Chicago near O’Hare Airport.

I like the fact that they are co-locating the gun show with the outdoor sports show as it should bring higher traffic to the gun show. Given the onerous restrictions on gun ownership and even gun stores in Chicago, I’m guessing there might be some pent-up demand to go someplace where you can actually “touch and feel” a firearm and, with the proper documentation, buy a firearm.

I know the promoters are calling this the “first ever Chicagoland Gun Show” but I wonder if this is hyperbole. If any readers in the Chicago area know of gun shows in Cook County, either current or in the distant past, I’d love to know about it. You can post the info in the comments section.

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A Weekend Tab Clearing

October 15, 2012 by 3 Comments

The attendance of Bitter and Sebastian at the NRA’s legal seminar in Philadelphia has attracted protesters from Heeding God’s Call. Or maybe it is just because the organization doesn’t like the Second Amendment. Whatever.  Sebastian has pictures of the massive number of gun prohibitionists protesting at the event.

DVDs, magazines, and internet gun forums are not a substitute for actual firearms training. Intuitively we know this but most of us procrastinate and/or make excuses. Trainer Rob Tackett in a post entitled “Less than 1/110 of a %” examines the excuses and issues this challenge:

Save.  Don’t work on instant gratification and move forward with training instead of buying.


Stop Using Excuses


Its time folks.  Its time for all the internet time to be turned into
training time.  Everyone is releasing their 2013 schedules this month
and next.  I challenge you to take the first step to better yourself.
 Take a class. Find out more about yourself and your true capability.


Stop living as a Tactical Teddy and become a shooter.

 Tam has her usual trenchant observations about the Glock factory sights and the process to replace them.

Linoge has now created a table of contents to the uber-post about TTAG. It makes it much easier to read the individual sections.

Thirdpower has a good post up about those who claim that Obama really hasn’t moved against gun rights in his first term.

Ron Larimer at When the Balloon Goes Up opens his store tomorrow which will carry EDC gear, preparedness items, and range gear. The store is meant to complement the stuff he has been writing about on his blog.

Speaking of stores, Average Joe has posted his suggestions for newbies (and not so newbies) with regard to gun shop and range etiquette. It puts on paper what he discussed with Doc Wesson on a recent Gun Nation Podcast.

Finally, keep Mike Vanderboegh in your prayers. David Codrea has an update here and Mike reported he entered the hospital on Friday due to minor strokes in his cerebellum as well as brain stem. At the link David provides an address where you can send Mike a get well card.

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R Doesn’t Stand For Republican In NRA

October 15, 2012 by 1 Comment

Anti-gun opponents of the NRA will insist that the “R” really stands for Republican. While the majority of the candidates supported by the NRA-PVF tend to be Republican it is because they also support gun rights. That said, the NRA often does support Democrats who are pro-gun such as the retiring Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC-11)

The Grand Forks Herald ran a story yesterday morning illustrating the NRA does indeed support Democrats. In the race for North Dakota’s sole Congressional seat, the NRA has rated State Rep. Pam Gulleson (D) an A and given her their endorsement based on her pro-gun record in the State House. She faces Republican Kevin Cramer who is rated AQ by the NRA-PVF. Cramer does have the endorsement of the Gun Owners of America which does tend to be more Republican oriented. The dueling endorsements is what grabbed the paper’s attention.

FARGO – The North Dakota U.S. House race has attracted dueling endorsements from the pro-gun lobby.


Pam Gulleson, the Democratic candidate, was recently endorsed by the National Rifle Association.


Meanwhile, Republican Kevin Cramer has picked up the backing of the Gun Owners of
America, a more hard-line group on Second Amendment issues.

Gulleson on her website said she was proud to receive the NRA’s endorsement and does list them at the head of her endorsements’ list.

Gulleson accepted the endorsement, saying, “I am strong supporter of the
2nd Amendment and will protect and strengthen the rights of law-abiding
Americans to own guns for both recreation and personal security. I’m
proud to have received the endorsement from the National Rifle
Association and look forward to working with the NRA as a member of
Congress to protect gun-owners.”