On this, the 238th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, I’d like
to offer my thanks to all Marines, present or past, for their
service.Semper Fi!
And what would be better for Devil Dogs seeking adventure and travel than to ride a leopard jaguar.
And in a more serious vein, here is the Commandant’s Birthday Message which salutes the men and women of the US Marine Corps and their service to our nation. I do notice Gen. Amos still uses the knife hand to get his message across.
It is that time of the month again. Aaron at the Weapon-Blog has posted his updated list of contests offering firearms and ammunition as prizes.
Checking this month’s listing, I see Glocks, 1911s, a Sig, and a Bond derringer. Oh, and how could I forget someone is offering a Hi-Point C9 pistol as a prize.
On the rifle side, there are a number of AR-15s including one from Daniel Defense. There are also some muzzle loaders for those interested in black powder shooting.
You can find all the contests here.
As a follow-up to my post on the closing of the Herculaneum, MO primary lead smelter is this article from Friday’s Wall Street Journal regarding an anticipated rise in the price of lead.
Bullish investors are hoping for a repeat of last year’s rally, when lead prices soared by 17% between late October and early February.
Some money managers say gains could be even bigger this time amid tighter supplies compared with a year ago. Lead production has been under pressure as more smelters around the world are shut down due to environmental concerns. The International Lead and Zinc Study Group estimates global lead supply will total 11.02 million metric tons in 2013, while demand is pegged at 11 million metric tons. The group predicts supply will fall short of demand in 2014 for the first time since 2009.
“The market looks a lot tighter in terms of balance this year and next year,” said Joseph Murphy, a senior analyst who helps manage about $2 billion at Hermes Commodities, a unit of Hermes Fund Managers Ltd. in London. Mr. Murphy’s fund had recently added bullish wagers on lead futures.
Lead used in batteries for automobiles and trucks account for 80% of the demand. The estimate that I’ve seen for ammo is about 3% of the total usage. According to the International Lead Association, 98% of lead used in car batteries in the US will be recycled.
While demand for lead has been increasing, the amount of lead obtained from primary metal production has been level or slightly decreasing since 1970 according to this chart from the International Lead Association.
The bottom line is that, with increased demand for lead, ammunition makers will have to pay more for their components to make bullets. One cannot expect the ammo makers to just swallow this cost so we should expect the price of both finished ammo and components to increase.
Glock, Inc. filed a amicus brief last Friday the case challenging California’s handgun roster. The case, Pena et al v. Lindley, was originally filed in 2009 in US District Court for the Eastern District of California. Glock’s amicus brief was filed in support of the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment.
It is rare to see an individual firearms company take a stance such as this. These briefs are usually filed on behalf of a group like the National Shooting Sports Foundation. That said, it makes good business sense for Glock to support this case as none of their Gen4 pistols can be sold in California as they don’t have magazine disconnects and aren’t microstamp-ready.
The brief was written by attorney Erik Jaffe and Chapman University School of Law Professor John C. Eastman. Both Jaffe and Eastman served as law clerks for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. They argue that given the ubiquity of the Glock pistol throughout the United States that it meets the Heller decision’s common use test. Because of this, banning the sale of the Glock in California runs afoul of the Second Amendment.
They start their argument by attacking the requirements for a magazine disconnect and for microstamping technology. The brief states that a magazine disconnect is a disadvantage in that a chambered round cannot be fired without a magazine in place.
GLOCK pistols can be fired if the magazine is lost or
damaged, and a round in the chamber can be fired if necessary while the user is in the
process of changing magazines. A pistol with a magazine disconnect mechanism would
not be capable of firing under those circumstances. For those reasons and others, the
overwhelming majority of law enforcement agencies require pistols that do not have a
magazine disconnect mechanism. In addition to GLOCK pistols, the majority of semiautomatic
pistols sold today do not include a magazine disconnect mechanism because of
its significant disadvantages. Accordingly, the pistols that are in “common use” by “law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes,” Heller, 554 U.S. at 625, 627, generally do not
include a magazine disconnect mechanism.
They attack microstamping as “novel and essentially theoretical” technology which does nothing to enhance the firearm’s safety which is the purported purpose of the handgun roster. It is meant to possibly help law enforcement. The absence of a magazine disconnect and microstamping does not make a pistol either unsafe or more dangerous.
Jaffe and Eastman argue that:
California has in essence reversed the Supreme Court’s “common use” test and
prohibited the sale and possession of those pistols that are commonly used by “lawabiding
citizens for lawful purposes,” Heller, 554 U.S. at 625, 627, and allowed only the
sale of those pistols that are not in common use and, in fact, are not even commercially
available. The absence of a magazine disconnect mechanism and microstamping technology in the Gen4 GLOCK pistols does not render them the type of “dangerous and
unusual weapons” that the government may prohibit, id. at 627, because they are
functionally identical to the earlier grandfathered versions of the GLOCK pistols that also
lack those features.
They attack California’s claim that the burden caused by the handgun roster is minimal. Consumers are not able to buy newer – and presumably safer – handguns while at the same time older handguns on the roster are exempted from the mag disconnect and microstamping requairements. As they note, this serves to weaken California’s argument that there is public safety interest in these requirements.
That
the government continues to allow sales of numerous handguns lacking these features,
and completely exempts law enforcement from regulations designed to exclude the sale
of allegedly “unsafe handguns,” shows at best an equivocal interest in the supposed
benefits from those technologies, not the type of substantial government interest that
would justify restricting an enumerated right.
They continue by saying:
In fact, the largest actual effect from the expanding list of novel technological
requirements for new models of guns is to prevent California consumers from being able
to obtain the new models of handguns, such as GLOCK’s Gen4 pistols, that incorporate
the latest improvements. It makes absolutely no sense to force consumers to purchase
older model handguns that lack the same features that the government is relying on to
prohibit the sale of newer model handguns. Justifying such a scheme in the name of
consumer safety or crime fighting is nonsensical, or simply disingenuous… Indeed, the very absurdity of the
scheme suggests that the actual objective of the challenged roster requirements is not
safety, but to create increasingly more problematic and expensive hurdles to the sale of
handguns in order to make the process more difficult and thereby deter the sale and
purchase of new handguns in California, an objective that cannot be squared with the Second Amendment.
They conclude that the burden is substantial and that California has a “minimal government interest inconsistently pursued” in maintaining the restrictions imposed by the handgun roster.
I’m glad to see Glock stepping up in this fight. The California handgun roster is a joke. Any roster such as the one in California that makes a distinction between a pistol based upon whether it is all stainless or all blue and then bans a two-tone version of the same pistol has just proved this.
The amicus brief can be found here.
The mainstream media has now officially taken notice of the Guns & Ammo/Metcalf controversy. The Complementary Spouse was watching ABC’s Gun Good Morning America a few minutes ago and saw a news scroll that read “Editor of Guns & Ammo Magazine Resigns After Publishing Column Pushing For Gun Control”. The controversy has also caught the eye of the New York Times, The Atlantic, HuffPo, New York Magazine, CNN, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Media Matters for America. Their articles are full of tut-tutting about the intolerance of gun owners for any dissent. As Miguel points out, Metcalf’s article made him the “new darling of the anti gun groups.”
Jim Shepherd, publisher of The Outdoor Wire, in a rather classy move asked Dick Metcalf to respond. He did and Jim has published his response. I will leave it to you to read rather than summarizing it.
After reading his response I’m still not clear on what Metcalf hoped to accomplish with his original column. As to why he wrote it, I’m voting for Stockholm Syndrome.
UPDATE: The Metcalf response has drawn some equally strong counter-responses.
Bitter at Shall Not Be Infringed does an excellent job at taking it apart bit by bit.
It’s as if he doesn’t even comprehend that those “voices” are the very customers and readers of Guns & Ammo and purchasers of the firearms products advertised in the pages. Not everyone may be a subscriber, but they are all part of the target market.
The industry is shifting. The markets are adapting. The audience, as a whole, is more sophisticated. I think the evidence suggests that it’s Metcalf who isn’t ready to have a serious discussion on these topics, not his audience.
This is not, as Bitter so lucidly notes, a “free speech” issue. Let me go a step farther than that…as I noted in my earlier post, we have been having a “dialog” about the role of firearms in American society at least as long as I’ve been alive. IMHO, the “dialog” ended when the war began.
Let me say this again…we are at war with a segment of society whose sole goal is total civilian disarmament. We are not in a dialog. We are not in a debate. We are not in a healthy give-and-take in the Cornell University academic lounge. The primary weapon used by our blood enemies is the Big Lie.
Lest it be forgotten, Michael was in the front lines of this war in Colorado. He has seen the Big Lie used against those of us who believe in freedom time and time again.
Bob Owens at Bearing Arms notes that Metcalf’s response seems more incoherent than his original column.
Just like opposition to ObamaCare allowed Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to almost win the governor’s race, opposition to New York’s anti-gun SAFE Act allowed Erie County Sheriff Timothy Howard (R) to win his third term.
Four words that he uttered at a news conference last May helped Timothy B. Howard win a third term as Erie County sheriff.
The words were “I won’t enforce it,” and Howard was talking about the SAFE Act, a controversial new state firearms law that has outraged gun owners.
The support of angry firearms owners helped the Republican sheriff to a big win Tuesday over his Democratic Party opponent, retired Sheriff’s Deputy Richard E. Dobson, and Sheriff’s Lt. Bert D. Dunn, a Law and Order Party candidate who lost the Democratic nomination in the September primary.
Erie County is home to Buffalo which is the second largest city in New York State. It is also home to a lot of hunters, shooters, and gun owners. Carl J. Calabrese, a former Erie County deputy county executive, thinks Howard’s stance helped him win a lot of Democrats who wouldn’t normally vote for a Republican saying, “A lot of Democrats are blue-collar people, union people, hunters and gun owners.”
Gun owners also worked hard to support Howard who supports the suit challenging the SAFE Act.
Howard supports a court challenge to the SAFE Act and has publicly stated that he won’t enforce the law, because in his view, it violates the constitutional rights of gun owners.
Gun owners worked hard to help Howard win, said Harold “Budd” Schroeder of Lancaster, chairman of the board of the Shooters Committee on Political Education. “Don’t you see the signs posted all over Erie County, opposing the SAFE Act? People are very upset about this.”
To be fair, some people did vote against Howard because they supported the SAFE Act but they were a low fewer than those who voted for him due to his opposition to it.
Lisa Fullington is outraged, outraged I say, because she saw a man carrying at a grocery store in Greensboro, NC. She is even madder that the store refuses to post the store against carry.
The store is question is a Harris-Teeter grocery store located in one of the nicer areas of Greensboro. I’ve shopped at this store many a time and affectionately call it the Taj MahTeeter because it is so large and so upscale. It is located in a shopping area that has REI, Ann Taylor, Talbot’s, and Brooks Brothers among other upscale stores.
“I don’t think you need to bring your gun into a grocery store, a shopping center, and I’m a little peeved that Harris Teeter can’t put up a sign that says no arms, concealed or otherwise, allowed in the store,” Fullington said Wednesday in her home explaining that she has decided to no longer shop with the grocery store chain. It’s an about-face for a woman who’s been a Harris Teeter faithful for years.
“I’m not joking, I’m not going there. I think it’s dangerous to shop there,” she said incredibly. “I just can’t imagine that they want people in their stores, it’s dangerous! I mean, those people, I don’t know who is trained and who isn’t”
And Lee Atkinson is fighting right along with her.
“It’s a place I go all the time, so I can’t solve all the places where people are with guns but I can start where I shop,” Atkinson said.
This past summer, lawmakers in Raleigh expanded the concealed carry law which now allows guns in bars, restaurants and other areas unless the owner forbids it.
“I don’t want to be in a place where people are packing a lot of guns. I don’t want the possibility of bullets whizzing past my head,” added Atkinson.
I am reminded of the quote attributed to bank robber Willie Sutton who when asked why he robbed banks said, “I rob banks because that’s where the money is.” I wonder if Lisa Fullington and Lee Atkinson realize upscale areas make great targets for thieves “because that’s where the money is.”
You can see their little hissy fit here. Bob Owens calls them “two self-important, self-absorbed gun haters” and I have to agree. My consolation is that I won’t run into them when I’m in Greensboro and going to the Taj MahTeeter for my favorite Utz Extra Dark Special pretzels.
The big races yesterday were in New Jersey and Virginia. Others have covered those races and I won’t bother to rehash them other than to say than to say, despite the different party tags, neither winner is a friend of gun owners and their rights.
Despite all the media attention focused on Chris Christie, Terry McAuliffe, Ken Cuccinelli, and that Sandinista elected to replace Bloomberg, there were elections at the local level in many areas of the country.
Bitter at Shall Not Be Questioned examines the results in Pennsylvania as they impact gun rights here.
In North Carolina, municipal elections are usually held in odd years and there were a number of elections across the state involving mayors belonging to Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors. According to their website, there are currently 15 misguided mayors in North Carolina who have lent their names to that effort. Out of those 15 cities, 12 had elections yesterday. The other three held their elections in 2011 and weren’t due until 2015. The incumbent mayors of Carrboro and Emerald Isle did not run for re-election.
This left 10 elections in which a MAIG member was up for re-election. The mayors of Carolina Shores, Chapel Hill, Creedmoor, East Spencer, and Hillsborough faced no opposition except for possible write-in candidates. Thus, only five of the 15 MAIG mayors faced any real opposition.
So how did they fare?
In the cities of Durham and Winston-Salem respectively, incumbent Mayors Bill Bell and Allen Joines cruised to re-election with 80% plus majorities. The Mayor of Oxford, Jackie Sargent, squeaked through in a 3-way election but with less than a majority.
That leaves the mayors of Greensboro and Morrisville who both lost. While gun control was not an issue in the overwhelming defeat of Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins by Nancy Barakat Vaughn, it most certainly was an issue in Morrisville.
Morrisville Mayor Jackie Holcombe was quite outspoken in her support for gun control.
Holcombe has drawn the ire of both the National Rifle Association and Grassroots NC for asking Gander Mountain to stop selling semi-automatic rifles at its local store and for joining the Mayors Against Illegal Guns lobbying group.
Holcombe also pushed and failed to find ways for Morrisville to evade state law regarding concealed carry in city parks, greenways, and athletic fields. As such, she incurred the wrath of Grass Roots North Carolina and its Political Victory Fund which actively worked for her opponent Councilman Mark Stohlman who was pro-gun.
I don’t know if Holcombe’s anti-gun stance made the difference but she lost to Stohlman in the 3-way race by almost 100 votes.
With the defeats in Greensboro and Morrisville, the number of Illegal Mayors has been reduced to 13. I don’t know where the new mayors of Carrboro and Emerald Isle stand on gun rights. It may be if we are lucky that they don’t want anything to do with that organization. We’ll just have to wait and see.
To sum up, gun owners came out a little better after the election than before. Since most of the mayors in North Carolina who belong to Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors represent small cities and towns, a concerted local lobbying effort might reduce the number even more. It’s worth a try.
The Second Amendment Foundation has filed another in their series of suits challenging the denial of gun rights to legal aliens. In this case, Martin Pot is a Dutch citizen who has resided in Arkansas since 1986 and would like to obtain a concealed carry permit. Arkansas law currently limits concealed carry permits to US citizens.
Laws barring possession or carry permits by legal aliens are low hanging fruit because courts have consistently ruled against them. In cases in Kentucky, South Dakota, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Nebraska brought by both the Second Amendment Foundation and the ACLU, courts have held that alienage is a suspect class, that strict scrutiny must be applied in these cases, and that laws banning possession or carry by legal aliens fail to meet that criteria.
The release from the Second Amendment Foundation gives more details on the case below:
BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Arkansas on behalf of a legal resident alien, alleging that his right to keep and bear arms is being violated by a state law that prevents him from obtaining a concealed carry license.
The lawsuit, on behalf of Martin Pot (pronounced Poht), a citizen of the Netherlands, challenges the Arkansas statute because it “completely prohibits resident legal aliens from the concealed carry of guns, in public, for the purpose of self-defense. Named as a defendant in the case is Colonel Stan Witt, director of the Arkansas State Police.
“Mr. Pot is a law-abiding resident of Eureka Springs, and has been so since 1986,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “He is self-employed and is a productive member of the community, with an American-born wife and family. He came here almost 30 years ago, met and married his wife, and has many solid connections in his community.”
SAF and Mr. Pot are represented by attorney David Sigale of Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
“When I first spoke with Mr. Pot over the telephone, I was alarmed at the prospect of his being denied a fundamental constitutional civil right because of the discriminatory citizenship requirement that was added to the law,” said SAF general counsel Miko Tempski. “He previously had a license, but under the revised statute, the state will not renew it.”
Gottlieb noted that Pot is allowed to possess a firearm in Arkansas only in his home, on his property or – under certain circumstances – while on a “journey.” However, state law prohibits him from obtaining a concealed carry permit because he is not a citizen.
“This is not the first time we have taken an action on behalf of a resident alien,” Gottlieb said, “and we are very confident that this will be a successful case. We have faced similar successful challenges in Washington, New Mexico, Massachusetts and Nebraska.”
SAF is seeking a declaration from the court that the citizenship requirement contained in Arkansas law is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
The case is entitled Pot et al. v. Witt. I will post a link to the complaint later today.
UPDATE: Here is the link to the complaint in the case.
What do Austin Weiss, Colion Noir, Natalie Foster, Dom Raso, and Billy Johnson have in common?
The first two things are obvious: they are all commentators for NRA News and they all love guns.
The third thing is that they are all authentic. They are who they are. Just as Colion Noir is urban and hip so Natalie Foster is girly and fashionable. This authenticity was brought home to me yesterday while listening to the newest contributor Austin Weiss.
Austin is a car guy who with his beard (and tats) would have looked at home on the Boston Red Sox. His cars blend new technology with old style chrome. His guns are the same blending the old and the new. In the video below, Austin mentions how his over-and-under shotgun has carbon fiber stocks instead of nice walnut. He notes the false dichotomy that the O/U with wood stocks says hunting while his with the carbon fiber stocks are “killing machines”. He calls this terrible and a misconception.
Say what you will about the NRA and the “lairds of Fairfax”, somewhere amidst all those stodgy old white guys is someone who gets it and is working hard to reach out to Gun Culture v.2.0. And you know that this has to piss off the Ladds, Sarahs, and Joshes of the gun prohibitionist industry.
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