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Quick Takes From The Asheville Gun Show

March 8, 2020 by 2 Comments

I helped manage the Grass Roots North Carolina booth at the Asheville Gun Show yesterday. I wasn’t there the whole day but here are some quick takes on it.

The fear of coronavirus did not stop people from attending. The crowds seemed to be every bit as big as from the January show. As I noted then, we hadn’t seen crowds like this since 2014.

I did notice booths selling MREs, Mountain House freeze-dry packs, and other emergency foods. No toilet paper sellers that I noticed.

Insofar as people wearing face masks, I only saw two older gentlemen wearing N95 masks.

There were a lot of MAGA red hats in evidence. Then there was the guy wearing the t-shirt saying, “Only Trump Can Prevent Socialism”. It was similar to this one. The difference was that it replaced “you” with “Trump” and had the bear pointing.

The guy wearing the shirt commented that the gun show was probably the only place he could wear it without being hassled. Given the progressive/liberal/radical proclivities of Asheville, I fear he was correct.

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Russian Sports Competitions Are Different Than Ours

March 6, 2020 by 3 Comments

They do things a bit differently in schools in Russia and they have sports that would have American teachers’ unions freaking out.

Like this one in the city of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East.

While it started earlier, it was made mandatory in 2019 that all Russian students be taught how to assemble and disassemble AK47/74s. It was part of their “patriotism” lessons and is meant to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s birth.

Russia’s Education Ministry has released methodological guidelines for schoolteachers to use on November 10, the 100th anniversary of Mikhail Kalashnikov’s birth. The guidelines call for a nationwide lesson on the inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle, arguing that such a class will foster patriotism, help schoolchildren form a Russian identity, allow them to understand the value of defending their fatherland, and facilitate interest in military service down the line.

Imagine if American schools – other than places like Trinidad Junior College or Montgomery Community College – had similar programs like that commemorating the contributions of John Moses Browning, John C. Garand, or Eugene Stoner to the American military and American history.

Hmmm.

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Money Can’t Buy Me Love Nor Bloomberg A Nomination

March 5, 2020 by 1 Comment

Mike Bloomberg ended his quest for the Democrat presidential nomination yesterday. He found that his “Super Tuesday Strategy” didn’t work and that his ubiquitous ads were not enough to convince primary voters to support him.

Even his promise to eat at a Chinese restaurant to push back on the fears about coronavirus wasn’t enough. And no, that last bit wasn’t from The Onion or Babylonbee. It was real though the story about paid mourners crying over him leaving the race was satire.

As it was, Bloomberg only won American Samoa. The big winner on Tuesday was “Slow Joe” Biden followed closely by Bernie Sanders. Between them, they split the majority of the delegates up for grabs.

Perhaps the best comment on Bloomberg’s huge expenditures for his campaign came from Kyle Kashuv on Twitter.

Bloomberg has now endorsed Joe Biden. I think it will be reasonable to expect to see Bloomberg’s Independence USA PAC plus the Everytown Action Fund spending heavily in support of Biden and other Democrats throughout the rest of the election cycle.

The bottom line is that Bloomberg and his money will continue to remain a threat to our freedoms and our rights.

So to end, here is a little Beatles to brighten up your Thursday.

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Gorsuch – “But waiting should not be mistaken for lack of concern. “

March 2, 2020 by 5 Comments

The Supreme Court in today’s order list has denied certiorari in Guedes et al v. BATFE. Guedes and the Firearms Policy Foundation had appealed the decision of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. That decision denied an injunction in the case.

Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed with the decision to deny certiorari in the case given it had not been fully briefed and argued on the merits. He did think the Court of Appeals made an error in relying on Chevron deference in this case because it involves a criminal penalty. He also noted that both the plaintiffs and the government had expressly argued that any decision should not rely on Chevron deference.

Gorsuch referred to the BATFE’s actions on reclassifying bump stocks as “bureaucratic pirouetting”.

Chevron’s application in this case may be doubtful for other reasons too. The agency used to tell everyone that bump stocks don’t qualify as “machineguns.” Now it says the opposite. The law hasn’t changed, only an agency’s interpretation of it. And these days it sometimes seems agencies change their statutory interpretations almost as often as elections change administrations. How, in all this, can ordinary citizens be expected to keep up—required not only to conform their conduct to the fairest reading of the law they might expect from a neutral judge, but forced to guess whether the statute will be declared ambiguous; to guess again whether the agency’s initial interpretation of the law will be declared “reasonable”; and to guess again whether a later and opposing agency interpretation will also be held “reasonable”? And why should courts, charged with the independent and neutral interpretation of the laws Congress has enacted, defer to such bureaucratic pirouetting?

If I had to hazard a guess, when this or one of the sister cases involving the reinterpretation of the NFA to ban bump stocks does come before the Supreme Court fully briefed on the merits, Gorsuch will most definitely be in favor of hearing the case. Moreover, I would go further and say he would not find in favor of BATFE.

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An Attack On The Freedom Caucus?

March 2, 2020 by 3 Comments

Thanks to court-ordered redistricting, I will now be back in the 11th Congressional District of North Carolina starting with this election. I was looking forward to having Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC-11) as my congressman again. Unfortunately, he decided to retire and that set off a free-for-all, both Republican and Democrat, to succeed him.

We have been inundated with mailers, TV ads, and robocalls. You can’t drive past any corner without seeing a number of yard signs. The common theme in all the ads for the Republicans is that they are rock ribbed conservatives who are pro-gun and need to be sent to DC to fight for President Trump and his agenda.

The majority of the TV ads are for Republicans Chuck Archerd, Jim Davis, Dan Driscoll, and Lynda Bennett. It seems negative ads and mailers have been aimed specifically at Lynda Bennett accusing her of being a “never Trumper”.

I should note at this time that Bennett was endorsed by both Rep. Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan of the Freedom Caucus. Meadows has been doing TV ads for Bennett as well. She was also recommended by Grass Roots North Carolina thanks to her perfect 100 on the GRNC survey, endorsement by Meadows, and connections to other pro-gun conservatives in the district.

When I started hearing some of the anti-Bennett ads, I started to pay attention to who sponsored them. They were coming from a super-PAC called Fix Congress Now. They accused her of being “a Never Trumper” which I found odd given her endorsement by Meadows. At the same time, this same group has been funding pro-Dan Driscoll ads.

The GRNC-PVF alert below lays out this in more detail. In full disclosure, I helped do much of the research for that alert.

First off, we have a group that claims to be ‘non partisan’ but is pushing more leftist pablum than Bernie Sanders ordering a nonfat latte. Stuff like open primaries, vote by mail, and “unity” candidates. You know those candidates who would sell out your Second Amendment rights in a heartbeat.

Seems like they wanted to besmirch liberty advocate Lynda Bennett in the primary for the 11th District with the proven false ‘NeverTrumper’ smear. The mailing against Bennett was from ‘Fix Congress Now’ connected to Jeffrey Carson of ‘Unite America’ from Colorado, of all places, so much for the hometown touch. They even share the same suite of offices in Denver.

Federal Election Commission records show that Fix Congress Now has gotten 100% of their funding from Colorado-based Unite America. Moreover, Fix Congress Now has spent a combined $424,000 as of this week to either oppose Lynda Bennett or to support Dan Driscoll.

Unite America has Everytown-endorsed former Congressman Carlos Curbelo of Florida and “independent” Greg Orman of Kansas as advisors. Orman, running on an anti-constitutional carry platform, sabotaged pro-gun Kris Kobach in the race for governor of Kansas allowing an anti-gun Democrat to win that red state.

Just Wednesday, Dan Driscoll even received a $5,600 maximum contribution directly from Unite America.

You have to ask yourself why would, Fix Congress Now and Unite America spend so much money to defeat a candidate endorsed by Congressman Mark Meadows. And why would they support a guy who only moved to the 11th District in the last month or so? Did they see in Driscoll a RINO who would say anything to get elected and who would support their leftist agenda?

Lynda Bennett has promised to replace Mark Meadows in the Freedom Caucus.

We should note that the only reason centrist Republicans in Colorado would spend $277,000 against a member of their own party would be to break up the Freedom Caucus by electing a more controllable Moderate, specifically Dan Driscoll.  

A quick search of the Federal Election Commission’s website shows that the only other candidate being opposed by Fix Congress Now is former California Assemblyman Tim Donnelly who is running for Congress in the 8th Congressional District of California. Donnelly, like Bennett, has been endorsed by the House Freedom Fund as well as Sen. Rand Paul.

Given super PAC Fix Congress Now has received 100% of their funding from Unite America, it is interesting to see what is their agenda. They list their goals as:

  • Independent Redistricting
  • Open Primaries
  • Ranked Choice Voting
  • Vote By Mail
  • “Unity” Candidates

This list of goals is not something any conservative candidate would support. Independent redistricting has been shown to favor Democrats as been shown by the California experience. Open primaries allow one side or the other to nominate the weakest candidate for the preferred candidate to face. Ranked choice voting is why Maine has two Democrats in Congress instead of a Democrat and a Republican. Vote by mail is just asking for fraud. Finally, unity candidates are rarely, if ever, pro-2A when push comes to shove.

Coming back to the race in the 11th District, I find it the height of hypocrisy for Fix Congress Now/Unite America to castigate Bennett as anti-Trump and then push their preferred candidate Dan Driscoll as being pro-Trump. While Driscoll might actually be pro-Trump, that would tend to go against everything Fix Congress Now/Unite America has stood for since their founding.

Tuesday we will find out if people in North Carolina and California were swayed by their fallacious advertising. I hope now. I wasn’t.

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More On AK Mags – History And Issues

February 28, 2020 by 1 Comment

It seems I was not the only one to have issues with AK magazines fitting my AK47/74s.

Switchpod did a review of what fit and didn’t fit his Palmetto State Armory GF3 AK-47 pistol. It looks like he had similar issues to what I was having to deal with.

I saw that PSA pistol at the SHOT Show and kind of fell in love with it. The GF3 AK-P pistol with the triangular folding stock is almost a clone of the AKU-74 except that it isn’t in 5.45×39 and it isn’t a NFA short barrel rifle. It probably is as close to a Krinkov as I’ll ever get without jumping through all the hoops.

While looking at that video, I came across one from Ian of Forgotten Weapons in which he discusses the history of the Russian AK47, AKM, and AK74 magazines in all their glory.

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50 Days Until NRA Annual Meeting Starts

February 27, 2020 by 1 Comment

The NRA Annual Meeting will be here before we know it. I made hotel reservations for the Complementary Spouse and myself a week ago. We’ll be out near the Nashville International Airport. This means a little bit of a drive in on I-40 but it shouldn’t be too bad. We are staying over until Monday so as to attend the Board of Directors meeting which will be a first for me.

It turns out we will be staying near a contingent of my Minnesota friends who have an Airbnb rental. I last some of them at a wedding in Las Vegas during the SHOT Show officiated by the Rev. Elvis Presley (or a facsimile thereof). This should be fun.

With all the fears of coronavirus, you do have to wonder if it will have an impact on the meeting and show. Given my experience coming home from the SHOT Show, it makes me quite glad that I’ll be driving.

Speaking of coronavirus, wash your hands! My friend Grant Gallagher from the Polite Society Podcast is a PhD immunologist and sent us this article on the persistence of coronavirus on “inanimate surfaces”. I can’t begin to understand most of the science. However, thanks to Grant’s translation from science-speak, it means that your average antibacterial soap won’t be that effective but alcohol based hand sanitizers like Purel and the like will be.

Grant calls this the key line in the abstract:

The analysis of 22 studies reveals that human coronaviruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus or endemic human coronaviruses (HCoV) can persist on inanimate surfaces like metal, glass or plastic for up to NINE DAYS.

Returning to a discussion of the NRA Annual Meeting, ballots for the Board of Directors election must be received by March 29th. That is a fraction more than a month away. As always, any NRA member is eligible to vote for the 76th Director if they are attending the NRA Annual Meeting. It has to be done in person.

You can review my recommendations for the Board election here. To reiterate, I only voted for Frank Tait and Graham Hill. You could vote for up to 31 candidates but why would you.

A round-up of other endorsements is here.

The bottom line is you need to vote if you are an eligible member. Too few people vote in these elections and you know the result by now. The average local election for dog catcher and coroner has a higher turnout than the NRA board election. That is a shame!

If you are headed to Nashville in April, I hope to see you there.

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Perhaps The Locals Do Know Best

February 24, 2020 by 2 Comments

We often complain about national groups coming in and telling the locals how they should be doing it. This is usually in the context of a group like Mike Bloomberg’s Everytown, Moms Demand Action, or Giffords. However, sometimes it is our own side in the battle for gun rights that is doing this.

Such is the case in Alabama where the NRA is supporting a move to consolidate the list of pistol permit holders, that state’s nomenclature for a concealed carry permit, into a statewide database. The bills in question are HB39 and SB47. The bills provide for the permits to be standardized and issued statewide. They also provide for a lifetime carry permit.

This move is getting a mixed reaction as reported by CBS 42.

Bama Carry and the Alabama Gun Rights Network don’t always agree on the best strategies for advancing gun rights in the Heart of Dixie.

However, when I reached out to friends who are affiliated with those organizations, the response I got was virtually identical. They are opposed to the bills in their current form as they create a database of gun owners which has the potential to be abused.

My friend Beth Alcazar, the Alabama representative of the DC Project and a board member of Bama Carry, had this to say to me in a Facebook message. I’m quoting her with her permission.

At the heart of this matter (and why we are hesitant to get on board) is the fact that law abiding gun owners will be on a registry, with all information being shared, statewide, and this info. could end up on a driver license. This, of course, could cause problems traveling across state lines. What if someone is stopped or pulled over and now questioned or harassed (or searched) because of this identification? And what happens if a government body must be created to oversee this database? Currently, our permit info. is only in the hands of our sheriffs. A lifetime permit could open that up… from just local to state.

Additionally, the NRA doesn’t appear to be listening to Alabamians or to our state’s largest gun rights group, and they continue to push legislation that has potential problems or unintended consequences.

And therein lies the problem. When it is a matter of state and local politics, local activists should be listened to. That there seems to be a disconnect between local gun right rights groups and the NRA on an issue of local concern is not good. The NRA should either defer to the local groups or work to find a compromise that satisfies all gun rights groups involved.

We in North Carolina had much the same problem in 2011 concerning gun bans outside the home during periods of declared emergencies. Grass Roots North Carolina along with local plaintiffs and the Second Amendment Foundation brought Bateman v. Perdue. The NRA-ILA representative in North Carolina was pushing for a quick legislative fix that would have mooted the case. The problem with a quick legislative fix was that it could have been changed on the whim of the next General Assembly. GRNC, SAF, and local activists had to push legislators to let the court case run its path. In the end the General Assembly did that and we won a decision in Bateman declaring the gun ban unconstitutional.

I wrote back then (June 2011) that “there are some in the NRA’s hierarchy who believe the NRA has to be the be-all and end-all of all things Second Amendment.” I noted that the NRA does some things really well and others not so well. I said the NRA should concentrate on training, the legislative arena, and other areas where a mass organization can do well. I didn’t think they were nearly as good at Second Amendment litigation as SAF.

I would now modify my statement from 2011 to say that the NRA does lobbying at the national level well and should work closer with state and local groups on state level lobbying if they want to be effective. Moreover, by state and local groups I don’t mean it has to be the NRA state affiliate as the experience of non-affiliates VCDL and GRNC has shown. Whether the NRA and their state ILA representatives are wise enough to recognize this is still open to debate.

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Guns, Politics, And Freedom Radio On NC’s March Primary

February 23, 2020 by

I am a guest on Paul Valone’s Guns, Politics, and Freedom radio show this afternoon. The episode will broadcast on Wilmington Big Talker Radio at 5pm this afternoon.

The show was pre-recorded and you can also listen to the full show on YouTube which I’ve embedded below.

If you are a North Carolinian and you have not voted in the primary yet, I would urge you to both listen to the show (or YouTube) and to go to my post on Grass Roots North Carolina’s candidate evaluations and recommendations.

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Random Thoughts On AK Versus AR Magazines

February 23, 2020 by 2 Comments

The AK-47 and its variants are probably the most ubiquitous firearms in the world. They have been made everywhere from the armories of Russia and the former Soviet Union to the tiny workshops of Peshawar, Pakistan. There have been multiple books written about them and how they changed the face of war.

They have the reputation of working in all climates and in all regions of the world. They are not considered finicky as compared to the American M16/AR15.

Given all this, why are their magazines so damn finicky?

I just got a couple of orders of AK-47 and AK-74 magazines delivered in the past few weeks. They included magazines made by Magpul, by KCI in South Korea, and by AC-Unity in Bosnia. My AK-47 is a FEG AMD-65 imported by Tennessee Gun and my AK-74 is Bulgarian variant also imported (and assembled) by TGI.

The results so far is that the Magpul AK-47 magazines fit and lock into place. Their AK-74 magazines have required quite a bit of sanding and finagling to fit and lock.

You can see how this had to be sanded.

The metal “tanker” 20-round KCI magazines are working just fine.

Don’t even get me started on the AC-Unity AK-47 mags from Bosnia. Despite having metal tabs, I have yet to get one that will lock into place without pounding. Likewise, they won’t drop without a good hard slam from the heel of my hand. They are going to take some work just to make them into range magazines.

AC-Unity metal tabs highlighted.

In the past, the actual milsurp ComBloc mags seem to have worked OK. The Tapco ones were a bit of hit and miss. ProMag is to be avoided at all costs.

Contrast this with my experience with AR magazines.

I have used mil-surp, Colt, Magpul, D&H, the Israeli eLander and Orlites, C-Products, Lancers, and others that I can’t even remember. They all work. They lock into place and they drop out when the mag release is pushed. I think I even got Thermolds to work.

These have fitted in lowers made by Aero-Precision, Anderson, CavArms, Essential Arms, and probably others than I have around here.

The only explanation I can think of to explain this is that milspec means something when talking about ARs and not a damn thing when talking about AKs.