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Hasn’t Bought A Gun There, Has She? (Updated)

July 19, 2015 by 8 Comments

The latest little campaign that has sprung from the febrile mind of Shannon Watts is against Cabelas. It’s entitled, “Tell Cabela’s: No Completed Background Check, No Gun Sale.”

Unlike Little Ms. Shannon and her acolytes, I have actually purchased a firearm at Cabelas. I bought a used FN Mauser in 6.5×55 at the Greenville, SC store last year. As I’m sure Linoge would attest, Cabelas is not slack when it comes to gun sales.

Let me take you through the process as I remember it. Also bear in mind that I have a NC CHP which is accepted as a substitute for the NICS check in North Carolina. I also have a Curios & Relics FFL which could have allowed Cabelas to ship that Mauser to my door if I had gone that route.

First, the clerk wrote up the sale. He then took me, my ID, and the firearm to another sales counter to start the NICS check process. I was turned over to a specialist who handled the Form 4473 paperwork which was actually on the computer. After I filled out the computer screen, it was checked for accuracy. Then it was checked again by a manager. I remember having to wait until an authorized manager was available. Once she gave the OK, it was submitted to the FBI in Parkersburg, WV.

It came back OK. Duh! A manager gave the authorization to complete the sale.

Now I actually pay for the Mauser. After I paid for it, a manager walked me and the firearm out of the store. From time the transaction began until I walked out the door was close to 30 minutes.

Shannon, please tell me again how Cabelas is being a slacker when it comes to firearms transactions.

I also note that you are addressing your petition to Thomas Millner who is the CEO of Cabelas. I have one word for you – Zumbo.

Prior to becoming the CEO of Cabelas, Tommy Millner was the CEO of Remington Arms for 10 years. He was CEO of Remington when Jim Zumbo stepped on it. He pulled Remington’s sponsorship of Zumbo’s TV show within a matter of days after Zumbo called the AR-15 a “terrorist rifle”.  Millner saw the outraged response of the gun community and he listened.

So Shannon, let me pose this simple question to you. Do you think Tommy Millner and Cabelas is going to kow-tow to you and your airhead friends OR is he going to put his business at risk?

I think we all know the correct answer.

UPDATE: Linoge posted this on Facebook regarding the differences between a denial and a hold/delay in a NICS check. He worked the Gun Library at Cabela’s for a while so I think he knows of what he speaks. The key thing is that the default in the NICS check is “yes”. He gave me permission to reprint it.

Wait.


Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America are harassing Cabela’s for abiding by federal law?


Let’s make something clear here – an FFL making a sale on an “incomplete” background check is breaking the law. Period dot.


Cabela’s doesn’t sell people guns if they don’t complete their background checks. I should know. I helped with those background checks.


Furthermore, a “hold / delay” in the background system is NOT an “incomplete” background check.


For those not in the know, the background checks you submit to whenever you purchase a firearm from an FFL – ANY FFL at ANY location, including gun shows – can have one of three responses.


1. Approved. Congratulations. You’re either not a criminal, or you don’t share enough identifying characteristics with a criminal, and you’re allowed to purchase a firearm.


2. Denied. Suck. You’re either a criminal, or you share enough identifying characteristics with a criminal, and you can’t buy that gun. You can, however, appeal the decision. I know of perfectly law-abiding folks who ONLY ever get this response, and it gets overturned every time. The system is that broken.


3. Delayed. Wat? Well, the FBI – you know, the owners of the NICS system – have an explanation of this right here: https://www.fbi.gov/…/federal-firearms-license…/a-nics-delay Basically it boils down to NICS is not willing to say the person’s clean, but can’t find any reason to deny him, so they’re going to go do some more homework. If the FFL doesn’t hear anything from NICS after three full business days have elapsed, they are allowed to lawfully transfer the firearm to the buyer.


That is not an “incomplete” background check, as the blithering imbeciles at the anti-rights organizations are trying to get everyone to believe. That is a background check that failed to discover any disqualifying problems in the buyer’s history, and, as such, cannot prevent the person from purchasing the firearm.


Simply put, the government doesn’t give us the permission to buy firearms. They only tell FFLs if we’re not allowed to – the default, however, is “yes”, as it absolutely should be in the free, permissive society that America is supposed to be.


Suffice to say, statists like the ignorant tools at Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Bans want the equation to work the other way.

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It’s Because Of All Those School Shootings By Grandmas With Alzheimers

July 18, 2015 by 11 Comments

Alzheimers and dementia are dreadful diseases. They leave an individual as a shell of their former self. It hollows them out and leaves a physical shell with no soul. As I’ve often described it to others, the person you knew and loved has died. In their place is a sweet little lady (or man) who (hopefully) brightens up when she or he sees you. They will sweetly ask you, “How is your mother?”, and act exasperated when you tell them “You are my mother”.

I have seen the ravages of Alzheimers up close and personal. My mother died of it in 2008 after suffering from it for five to six years or more. Now my mother in law Grace whom I dearly love is moving towards the middle stages of the disease.

So why am I talking about Alzheimers and dementia?

Because of this as reported on the front page of the LA Times:

Seeking tighter controls over firearm purchases, the Obama administration is pushing to ban Social Security beneficiaries from owning guns if they lack the mental capacity to manage their own affairs, a move that could affect millions whose monthly disability payments are handled by others.


The push is intended to bring the Social Security Administration in line with laws regulating who gets reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, which is used to prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, immigrants in the country illegally and others.


A potentially large group within Social Security are people who, in the language of federal gun laws, are unable to manage their own affairs due to “marked subnormal intelligence, or mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease.”


There is no simple way to identify that group, but a strategy used by the Department of Veterans Affairs since the creation of the background check system is reporting anyone who has been declared incompetent to manage pension or disability payments and assigned a fiduciary.


If Social Security, which has never participated in the background check system, uses the same standard as the VA, millions of its beneficiaries would be affected. About 4.2 million adults receive monthly benefits that are managed by “representative payees.”


The move is part of a concerted effort by the Obama administration after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., to strengthen gun control, including by plugging holes in the background check system.


But critics — including gun rights activists, mental health experts and advocates for the disabled — say that expanding the list of prohibited gun owners based on financial competence is wrongheaded.


Though such a ban would keep at least some people who pose a danger to themselves or others from owning guns, the strategy undoubtedly would also include numerous people who may just have a bad memory or difficulty balancing a checkbook, the critics argue.

So as the individuals – not all of whom are elderly by the way – suffer from a disease for which there is no known cure, the Obama Administration is looking for ways to rob them of even more of their dignity.

The whole idea is utterly repulsive.

If the criterion for being added to the NICS prohibited list is the inability to manage your own financial affairs, I have seen more people than I can count who would be on that list. I’m talking educated people – professionals. Many with advanced degrees and specialties. People with whom you would entrust your life if you were in the hospital yet who have debt out the ying-yang and are living paycheck to paycheck because they can’t get a handle on their finances.

Heck, if the inability to manage financial affairs was the sole criterion, most Democrats and many Republicans in Congress would be on the prohibited list given how they’ve helped screw up the economy. I’d add in every appointee in the Obama Administration that has helped grow the national debt to over $17 trillion.

So while we have a mental health system in crisis, while we have “lone wolf” Islamofascist terrorists killing unarmed Marines, while we have street gangs in major cities having more control of the city than the police, while we have young men who aren’t being treated for their psychosis engaging in mass murder, while we have all of this, the Obama Administration thinks the way to solve “gun violence” (sic) is to put grandma on the NICS prohibited list.

What the hell are they thinking?

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No Preliminary Injunction In California 1st Amendment Gun Store Case

July 17, 2015 by 3 Comments

California law prohibits a gun store from having advertising on the building indicating that they have handguns for sale. Obviously, this is a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of the store owners and it was for that reason that they sued California Attorney General Kamala Harris last November.

The judge hearing the case, US District Court Judge Troy L. Nunley, an appointee of President Obama, agreed that the First Amendment rights of the plaintiffs were being violated. Nonetheless, he refused to issue a preliminary injunction as it “would alter the status quo” and he found that this was a greater harm than the damage to the plaintiffs’ Constitutional rights.

Say what?

Please tell me what harm there is to the public by allowing a store to put a Team Glock sign or a S&W logo on their front display window.

I’ll let the CalGuns Foundation continue the story.

July 16, 2015 (SACRAMENTO, CA) – The State of California’s ban on
handgun-related speech by licensed gun dealers likely violates their
First Amendment speech rights, held a federal judge in
Sacramento earlier this morning. The order, issued by District Court
Judge Troy L. Nunley, found that the ban is probably unconstitutional,
likely doesn’t materially reduce crime, and likely irreparably harms
plaintiffs’ First Amendment right to express themselves the way they
wish to. Nonetheless, the judge allowed the restriction to temporarily
stand, while the case progresses further.

The gun dealers argued that California Penal Code section 26820—first
enacted in 1923—prevents them from displaying any “handgun or
imitation handgun, or [a] placard advertising the sale or other transfer
thereof” anywhere that can be seen outside their stores and
“unconstitutionally prevents firearms dealers from advertising even the
most basic commercial information—‘Handguns for Sale’—at their places of
business.”

In today’s order, Judge Nunley said that the State “does not meet its burden of showing that the Central Hudson elements,
in tandem with the additional First Amendment principles discussed
above, are met. Therefore, Plaintiffs raise serious questions going to
the merits of their First Amendment challenge to section 26820.

“On balance – based on the arguments and evidence currently before the
Court – the Court also finds it is more likely than not that Plaintiffs
will succeed on the merits of their First Amendment claim.”

While California Attorney General Kamala Harris had argued that the law
was useful in preventing handgun-related crime, the Court held
that “there is not adequate evidence produced by the Government showing
how, specifically, limiting impulse buys from passersby helps to manage
handgun crime and violence….the Government has not shown that the ban is
narrowly tailored to achieve the desired objective of managing handgun
crime and violence.”

Drawing an inference that most prospective gun store customers would
believe the dealers sell handguns in addition to other types of
firearms, the Court said that common-sense understanding “perhaps shows
the pointlessness of section 26820.”

In spite of the fact that the firearm dealer plaintiffs showed a
“likelihood of irreparable harm” to their First Amendment rights, and
Judge Nunley’s finding that Harris failed to show how the law actually
advanced public safety, the Court said that the public interest is best
served by allowing the California Department of Justice to continue
enforcing the challenged law during the course of the lawsuit.

“Granting the injunction would alter the status quo by requiring
California to alter its regulatory scheme and practices as they pertain
to firearms. Therefore, the Court takes the requisite caution in
deciding against altering the status quo. With due consideration to the
free speech considerations raised by Plaintiffs, which are also of
public interest, a cautionary approach that favors denial greater serves
the public interest than granting the injunction.”

The gun dealers noted that judge’s arguments for a “cautionary approach”
in denying the preliminary injunction are undermined by his conclusion
that the law likely isn’t really reducing crime.

In response to today’s ruling, California Association of Federal Firearm
Licensees (CAL-FFL) President Brandon Combs said that
the firearm dealers are reviewing the decision and
considering their options.

“While we are pleased that Judge Nunley agrees with us on the law’s
likely unconstitutionality, it’s disappointing that he would allow the
State of California to continue enforcing it during the balance of
litigation.

“If this were a speech case about abortion providers rather than gun
dealers, I doubt very seriously that the Court would have allowed the
law to stand while it was being litigated. For that matter, it’s hard to
imagine that Attorney General Harris would have bothered defending it.

“We look forward to the plaintiffs’ next steps and will continue to
support the case until the law is overturned and our dealers’ First
Amendment rights are restored.”

Today’s order in Tracy Rifle and Pistol, LLC, et al. v. Attorney General Kamala Harris, et al. and other case documents can be viewed at calgunsfoundation.org/litigation/trap-v-harris.

The lawsuit is supported by CAL-FFL, California’s firearm industry association, as well as Second Amendment rights groups The Calguns Foundation and Second Amendment Foundation.                         

UPDATE: Professor Eugene Volokh discusses the case at the Washington Post. He advised on the case and thinks the judge got it wrong here.

As we noted in our reply, the “impulse buying” rationale for the law rests thus on a rather far-fetched argument. It imagines a person who is in the grip of some emotion (presumably anger, jealousy or depression). He “otherwise might not enter [a] store” (to quote the state) to buy a handgun — even though he is seized by an emotion that presumably makes him contemplate violence, and even though everyone knows that handguns are commercially available.

That the store is free to have a sign saying “Guns” and has signs depicting rifles or shotguns does not influence him at all. But when he sees the word “handguns” or a picture of a handgun, he “respond[s] on impulse,” and then waits 10 days to get a handgun that he otherwise wouldn’t buy. After those 10 days are up, he then proceeds to commit a handgun crime (or commit suicide). His rage or depression is thus strong enough to last 10 days — but so weak that they wouldn’t drive him to get a handgun, were it not for an ad that specifically depicts or mentions a handgun (as opposed to some other gun).

The court agrees that this sort of argument isn’t reason enough to justify a restriction on speech promoting handguns. I think it likewise can’t justify keeping in place a restriction that the court has recognized likely violates the First Amendment; instead, as is normal for such likely unconstitutional speech restrictions, the restriction should be preliminarily enjoined while the litigation proceeds.

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I’m Going To Miss Them

July 16, 2015 by

The Gun Dudes are riding off into the sunset. Podcast episode 340 was their last one. I have to admit being a little shocked when they were talking about what they did with guns this week and then all of a sudden slipped in that this was the last podcast. WTF?

I have been listening to them since around Episode 30 or 40. They were part of my Monday morning commute and got my week off to a start with a laugh.

I remember feeling a bit down and somewhat old about just turning 53 that day. Then I started laughing as I listened to them talking about the Misfire Award or Shelton or how to slip a new gun past their (extremely patient) wives. I could feel my mood begin to improve and suddenly I didn’t feel so old.

To the Dudes, I say thank you for 340 podcasts. Or some number like that but who’s counting. After all, I am older than Stan.

I’m going to miss those guys. I wish them all the best as they ride off into the Utah sunset. Their humor made at least one person’s life a little easier.

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Video: Ankle Holsters For Concealed Carry

July 16, 2015 by 2 Comments

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has just released another one of their excellent training videos. This video features SIG SAUER Academy’s Adam Painchaud talking about carrying a pistol or revolver in an ankle holster.

As I have long batted around the idea of doing this given that I drive a lot and often work in places where guns are not welcome though not illegal. While it is not the ideal situation for a primary carry gun, it is good for a backup gun as well. I think it is a viable option when it’s a choice between carrying and not carrying due to clothing or the work environment.

Adam mentions both Galco and Alessi holsters for ankle carry. I’m sure there are others if you look. I think he is correct in saying a flimsy holster isn’t got to be comfortable. I’d go a step further and say it ain’t gonna cut.

One last comment – if you typically wear skinny jeans, you may want to consider other alternatives for carrying your concealed firearm. Just saying.

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Nasty Little Fascists Struggling For Relevance

July 15, 2015 by 5 Comments

I received an email this morning from Greg Waples of the Center for American Progress alerting me that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) was going to be delivering a petition to both the Federal Election Commission and the Internal Revenue Service tomorrow. This petition, ostensibly signed by 11,000 people, demands an immediate investigation into the National Rifle Association for potential violations of campaign finance and tax laws.

Waples is the Campaign Manager for the Guns and Crime Policy team at the Center for American Progress. Prior to that, he worked as a coordinator in the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence. That was his reward for being a regional coordinator for the 2012 Obama reelection campaign.

His emails says:

Just wanted to flag this event happening tomorrow for those in the DC area. CSGV will be delivering 11,000 petition signatures to the FEC calling on them to investigate the National Rifle Association for potential violations of federal law. This is in response to a series of investigative reports and follow up by Yahoo News on potential NRA violations and the subsequent complaint filed by CREW.

CSGV is asking for people to be present for a crowd build at this event. If you are free and in the area tomorrow morning, please consider stopping by! Also, please forward this to any others who might be interested.

 Given the recent successes of the gun prohibitionists attracting crowds, I’m wondering if it will be 15 or will it be 25 people other than staffers who show up.

CREW or Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is far from the non-profit, non-partisan watchdog group that they want you to think they are. As the website Crew Exposed makes clear, it is conservatives that are targeted by a ratio of 8-1. This is not surprising given that their chairman is Media Matters’ David Brock and their executive director Noah Bookbinder was a high-level staffer for Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Let’s be clear about what CSGV and CREW are seeking. They want two powerful government agencies to do their dirty work in swatting down their political opponents. This is a dangerous game that they are playing. In an open society government agencies shouldn’t be called upon to use their power to punish one’s political enemies. This is akin to asking the FEC and IRS to play much the same role as the Nazis asked the Sicherheitspolizei and Gestapo. That is to be their state enforcement agency against regime opponents.

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How Did My Ancestors’ Homeland Fall So Low

July 15, 2015 by 2 Comments

Facts. appears to be an Irish YouTube channel. This video by them features three Irish hipsters who are going shooting for the first time. They are shooting trap and sporting clays. It’s called, “Irish People Use Guns For First Time”.

They seem to have enjoyed themselves. That said, their conclusions are negative. One guy said he’s changed his view on guns. Now he just thinks that they are crazy. The only woman piously says that they are designed to cause damage.

If these kids were around in 1916, there would have been no Easter Rising. There would have been no Michael Collins and the Irish Volunteers. It still would have been the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and not the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This is the end result of being constantly told guns are bad by the education system and the media combined with onerous restrictions on firearms from the government.

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“I’m Older Now And It’s Very Scary”

July 15, 2015 by

WTSP Channel 10 News did a report a couple of days ago about the growth in Florida senior citizens applying for and getting the concealed carry permits. The report notes that over 350,000 permits holders in Florida are over the age of 66.

I’m glad to see these people taking the responsibility for their own self-defense. With regard to the disparity of force argument, most senior citizens would be at a disadvantage against a younger attacker. I’m not a senior citizen (yet) but I would feel at a severe disadvantage if I were attacked by an attacker in his 20s or 30s.

I like the tone of this story. It isn’t “this is dangerous for Grandma to have a firearm” but rather an honest report on how senior citizens are taking the initiative to protect themselves. I hope the trainers in Florida and elsewhere recognize this and develop classes aimed directly at this demographic.

I would embed the video but I can’t get it not to autoplay. Bummer. Here is the link.

H/T Laura Carno

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This Flag Offends Me

July 14, 2015 by 3 Comments

I look at this flag and see within it the flag of a nation that oppressed my mother’s people from the Middle Ages until the first part of the 20th Century. A nation that forbid primogeniture to my mother’s people which, when combined with their callousness, led to over a million dead men, women, and children from starvation. This, while my ancestors’ homeland was a net exporter of grain and other foodstuffs. While that nation didn’t consider it a genocide, many of my mother’s people most certainly did.

It is also the flag of the nation that my father’s people fought to gain their freedom. Their independence, if you will.

My mother’s people came from County Cavan, Ireland while parts of my father’s people were in America before the Revolution.

That nation that oppressed my mother’s people and with which my father’s people fought in a revolution is of course Great Britain.

The flag to which I refer is the state flag of Hawaii which celebrates its friendship with the British with the Union Jack in its upper left corner.

If the social justice warriors are really serious about getting rid of any symbol that smacks of oppression, I demand then that they get rid of the flag of Hawaii.

It is also the flag of the state where the President was (probably, possibly, potentially) born. Given his goal to out-Nixon, Nixon, I see it doubly as a symbol of oppression.

I won’t go so far as to demand that the graves of famous Hawaiians be dug up but that flag has to go.

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A Commemorative Day I Could Do Without

July 13, 2015 by 5 Comments

July 9th was the UN’s International Small Arms Destruction Day. Who knew?

From the UN’s press release:

In light of the International Small Arms Destruction Day, Kosovo destroyed over 1,700 small arms and light weapons (SALW) with support from the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Firearms and Explosives Risk Minimization (FERM) project. The objective was to raise awareness of the dangers of surplus, illegal and insufficiently secured weapons, and to increase the security and safety of people living in Kosovo.

The destruction was organized by the Kosovo Police and took place at Shkritorija, Janjevo. The arms that were destroyed were weapons that the police had confiscated during their crime investigation work.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo, Mr. Skender Hyseni, and UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, Ms. Alessandra Roccasalvo were joined by the Deputy General Director of the Kosovo Police, Naim Rexha and Mr. Asllan Uka on a panel.

This destruction is an important element of Kosovo’s comprehensive Small Arms and Light Weapons Control Programme because it is an effective method of reducing the number of illegal weapons in the market, and reducing the potential supply of such weapons in the future. This destruction ensures that SALW will not find their way back into the illicit market and can thus build confidence in overall efforts to prevent, combat, and eradicate their illicit trade. It also contributes to decreasing the number of people who will face the similar hardships to Asllan Uka in the future.

The destruction of SALW was supported by the European Union, through the COUNCIL DECISION 2013/730/CFSP, dated 9 December 2013, in Support of SEESAC Disarmament and Arms Control Activities in South East Europe (EUSAC), in the framework of the EU Strategy to Combat the Illicit Accumulation and Trafficking of SALW and their Ammunition.

It seems the State Department stopped publicizing the day back in 2010 when Hillary Clinton was still Secretary of State. Back then, the State Department boasted that the United States had spent over $130 million to support the destruction of 1.4 million small arms and light weapons, 80,000 tons of munitions, and 32,000 ManPADS.

I’ll give them the ManPADS. However, doesn’t it make more economic sense to reuse some of that 80,000 tons of ammunition? I will acknowledge that some will be artillery shells but a lot of it probably was 7.62×39 ammo which could have either gone to our allies who use that round or be imported here as surplus ammo. Moreover, I would think many of the destroyed small arms could have been imported as parts kits.

Of course it made more economic sense but when has economic sense mattered to the United Nations or, for that matter, to the Obama Administration. It is the agenda and not the cost that matters.