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The Triumph Of The Lame Ducks

December 16, 2014 by 5 Comments

The Senate voted at 5:59pm EST to confirm Dr. Vivek Murthy as the next Surgeon General of the United States. The final vote was 51 in favor with 43 opposed and 6 not voting. The confirmation of Dr. Murthy could be called the triumph of the lame ducks.

In March, the nomination of Murthy was dead in the water. It was going nowhere because a number of red-state Democrats were up for re-election and knew voting for Murthy would have been the kiss of death.

From the New York Times on March 14th:

The nominee, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, an internist and political ally of the president’s, has come under criticism from the National Rifle Association, and opposition from the gun-rights group has grown so intense that it has placed Democrats from conservative states, several of whom are up for re-election this year, in a difficult spot.

Senate aides said Friday that as many as 10 Democrats are believed to be considering a vote against Dr. Murthy, who has voiced support for various gun control measures like an assault weapons ban, mandatory safety training and ammunition sales limits.

Liberal journalist Dave Weigel attributes the death of the filibuster to putting the pressure on these Democrats. They could no longer hide behind a Republican filibuster to avoid taking a position.

Presumably the 10 Democrats including such “pro-Second Amendment stalwarts” as Kay Hagan, Mark Pryor, Mark Begich, Mary Landrieu, and possibly Mark Udall who all lost re-election in November.

It’s funny how a politician’s true colors come out when either they don’t face an election for a number of years or they are being sent home by the voters.

Only three Democrats voted against Murthy:  Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Joe Manchin (D-WV). And the rest, including Hagan, Pryor, Begich, Landrieu, and Udall voted for Murthy.

Murthy’s confirmation was the triumph of the lame ducks. Their vote was a big “f*%k you” to the voters of their home states who had just turned them out of office.

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Vote On Obama’s Anti-Gun Surgeon General Choice This Week

December 15, 2014 by 2 Comments

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will be pushing the vote on Dr. Vivek Murthy this coming week. According to the tweet posted on Saturday by Adam Jentleson, Reid’s Communications Director, the vote on cloture will be this week. Thanks to a change in a Senate rules pushed through by Reid last year, Murthy nomination will only need a simple majority to invoke cloture and be confirmed.

Reid is evidently trying to make the most of his remaining time as Majority Leader. Murthy cleared a procedural vote on Saturday by a vote of 52-40 that allows his nomination to come to a vote. Voting in favor of bringing his nomination to a vote include so-called pro-Second Amendment lame duck Democrats Kay Hagan (D-NC), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Mark Begich (D-AK). It is interesting to see how being a lame duck brings out their true colors.

Dr. Vivek Murthy co-founded Doctors for Obama in 2008 which later became Doctors for America. He is profoundly anti-gun and views firearm ownership as a public health issue.

From the NRA-ILA on Murthy’s nomination and his anti-gun views:

A recent letter sent to Congress by “Doctors for America,” and signed by Dr. Murthy, urges mandatory licensing “for anyone purchasing guns and ammunition–including mandatory firearm safety training and testing.” Under Dr. Murthy’s scheme, further regulations would place “limits on the purchase of ammunition,” and establish a “mandatory waiting period of at least 48 hours.”

In the letter, Dr. Murthy also advocates for a “federal ban on the sale” of popular semi-automatic firearms and their ammunition, and proposes a “buyback” of these popular types of firearms to “reduce the number… that are currently in circulation.” Even some of the most ardent anti-gun researchers, along with the Department of Justice, have admitted the futility of gun “buyback” programs.

Another of Dr. Murthy’s proposals would strip vital privacy protections put in place to protect firearm owners and prevent the fracturing of physician-patient relationships. The letter, for example, calls for removing “the provision in the Affordable Care Act and other federal policies that prohibit physicians from documenting gun ownership.” While some advocates of the ACA had argued the provision prohibiting such documentation was unnecessary, given that the ACA had nothing to do with guns, Dr. Murthy obviously sees the ACA as playing a role in gun control.

And, in late 2012 and early 2013, Dr. Murthy took to his personal Twitter account to promote his gun control beliefs, including a statement on October 16, 2012, that “Guns are a health care issue.”

While the Surgeon General has no real power to effect change, he can use the position as a bully pulpit to push issues.

I’d suggest a call and email to your two Senators ASAP. You can get a list of their phone numbers and email contact pages here. Even if you know your Senators are anti-gun, call or email anyway. It still puts them on notice.

UPDATE: A copy of the letter that the NRA-ILA’s Chris Cox sent to Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell regarding Murthy can be seen here. The most salient takeaway from the letter is that they are going to score the vote on Murthy. Of course, this means nothing to the Democrats who lost but at least it should hold the Republicans in line.

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For Revolver Fans

December 11, 2014 by 1 Comment

Grant Cunningham, revolversmith extraordinaire and personal defense trainer, has created a quick and easy way to carry speed-loaders concealed. The Crossbreed Speedloader Case attaches to your belt and keeps the speedloader right at your waistline.

In the video below, Grant shows the details of the case and how to effectively use it.

The Speedloader Case comes in either black cowhide or natural horsehide. It retails for $36.95 with the horsehide being $2 more. For those that carry a revolver concealed, I think this should be a useful addition to your rig.

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In Seattle, The Rich Vote For Gun Control But Buy Their Own Cops

December 10, 2014 by 6 Comments

I get a lot of emails from the various financial planning publications. Sometimes they are touting a certain mutual fund company and sometimes they are little news stories about HNW individuals. Translating from finance-speak, that means high net worth individuals aka the wealthy.

A story in Financial Advisor about the Seattle wealthy caught my eye yesterday and spurred me to do some research. The gist of the story is that Seattle suffers the top property crime rate in the country and that certain wealthy neighborhoods have taken to hiring a force of off-duty police officers and private security guards to watch over their neighborhood.

After Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat wrote about how the police largely disregarded his family’s repeated calls about car thieves in his neighborhood, a resident of the city’s tony Laurelhurst section dropped him a note.

“I bet if you had been in Laurelhurst, somebody would have come,” the reader wrote. “Your mistake was being in a regular part of town.”

Turns out that Laurelhurst, the neighborhood where Bill Gates was born and lived until about 1994, isn’t completely satisfied with its police protection, either. In fact, it has hired its own security force.

Exasperated with a spate of car break-ins, the neighborhood adopted its strategy from Windermere, an even more exclusive neighborhood directly north, where homeowners pay an annual $575 fee that mostly goes toward having off-duty police and private security guards patrol year-round.

Seattle has the top property crime rate in the country, the Seattle Times reported recently. It’s more than double the Boston area’s rate and almost one-third higher than the rate for the Denver area.

Laurelhurst’s security force consists of off-duty policemen who keep the neighborhood under surveillance six nights per week in five-hour shifts, and also conduct foot patrols when residents are on vacation. One of the city’s off-duty bicycle cops also rides around the neighborhood during the day—something that helps with the now ubiquitous package theft that appears to be a result of faux dog walkers following UPS trucks to their delivery destinations.

Although the off-duty cops wear their official uniforms and carry police radios and firearms, they drive their personal—that is, unmarked—cars. They monitor incoming 911 calls and work with on-duty police officers if there’s an incident.

“We don’t expect them to catch people,” says Brian McMullen, who sits on the neighborhood council and helps oversee the crime program. “We view it as a deterrent.”

Knowing that Seattle and King County provided the base of supported for Washington State’s I-594 gun control initiative, I wondered how these areas voted. Did they jump on the gun control bandwagon along with the majority of Seattle residents? Moreover, how much money did residents of the area donate to the gun control front group Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility?

Let’s take the last question first. Residents in these neighborhoods live in the 98105 zip code. Donations to the Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility totaled $179,305. Donors included Bill Gates, Sr. who gave $500. That $500 contribution by one individual was more than all the donations to the pro-gun group Protect Our Gun Rights combined. Those donations totaled a mere $335. Put in relative terms, pro-gun contributions totaled two-tenths of one percent of the amount donated to the anti-gun forces.

Overall, the vote for I-594 in King County was 74.99% in favor and 25.01% opposed. Statewide, the numbers were 59.27% in favor with 40.73 opposed to more gun control.

So how did the two neighborhoods, Laurelhurst and Windermere, vote? It took some doing but I was able to identify the relevant voting precincts from the election district maps and pull the data from eCanvass file.

Windermere’s eight precincts had a total of 2,101 people vote in I-594 contest. Of these, 1,856 voted yes on I-594. That 88.3% is significantly higher percentage than King County as a whole.

Laurelhurst’s 11 precincts went even higher in their support of I-594. 2,181 or 89.1% of the 2,448 votes cast on the initiative were in favor of it.

I guess if you are sitting in your (multi) million dollar home in Laurelhurst or Windermere with security provided by off-duty police, you don’t really worry how the riff-raff provides for their security. You are protected and they can pretty much go to hell for all you care. So what if it is harder for them to get the tools to protect themselves and their families. You got yours and that is all that matters.

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This Is Why It’s Called Fiction

December 10, 2014 by 10 Comments

The quote below is from Chapter 3 of Ruthless – The Blackwell Files Book 2. It is a book of fiction by author Steve Freeman. He says this series of novels are from “his firsthand knowledge of military service, the tech industry, and the diverse cultures of our world”.

After a bit of research and the purchase of a masterfully-produced set of faked credentials, (the killer) used the forged documents and a Visa gift card to buy a used Smith & Wesson through one online retailer, and a compatible silencer via a different online site. (The killer) had the purchases shipped to an abandoned house, allowing for a an anonymous, nighttime pickup of both items.

While our enemies in the gun prohibitionist movement would like to believe the above is reality, it is utter fiction. You know it, I know it, and the author of the book hopefully knew it.

Unless it was an intrastate transaction, firearm sales go through a FFL and get a NICS check before delivery to the purchaser. As to the silencer, you are looking at a $200 tax stamp plus a generously estimated 6 month wait for the background check. You also have to submit photos.

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A Day That Shall Leave In Infamy, 73rd Anniversary

December 7, 2014 by

Today marks the 73rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. I like to honor this day by remembering those veterans – Army, Navy, and Marine – who were there on that fateful day as well as those stationed on Wake Island and in the Philippines. These vets are dying out daily and the time will shortly come when no one who faced the waves of Japanese bombers will still be alive. So if you know one of these vets, take the time today to thank them for their service.

Magazine of the USS Shaw exploding after being hit by a bomb

More of these photos can be seen here.

That generation of men and women would go into action to avenge these losses and they would win.

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A Treasure Trove Of Gun Contests

December 7, 2014 by

Aaron at the Weapon-Blog has assembled a treasure trove of contests offering firearms and other stuff for December.

There are 12 pistols including Sigs, Springfields,a Walther PPQ, a Glock 42, and a number of 1911s.

Add to this 21 rifles ranging from a Daniel Defense DDM4V9 AR to the IWI Tavor. There are also a bunch of bolt action hunting rifles.

Add into this “accessories” including high-end optics, suppressors, and even a GMC Sierra.

You can find this treasure trove here.

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Sua Sponte Call For Peruta En Banc Hearing

December 4, 2014 by 5 Comments

Under the General Orders of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, any judge in the circuit may call sua sponte for an en banc rehearing of a case. What this means translated into ordinary language, any judge, active or senior, within the 9th Circuit, can make the call for a en banc rehearing on his own behalf without any request from either the plaintiff or defendant.

And this is just what has happened in the case of Peruta v. San Diego. The parties involved have been ordered to file briefs within 21 days saying why or why not this case should be given an en banc rehearing. Amicus briefs may also be submitted within this 21 days period.

Professor Eugene Volokh, while surprised that this happened with Peruta, notes the reasoning behind this call.

This sort of “sua sponte” call for rehearing en banc, even without a petition, is a pretty well-settled procedure, though not one that’s often used. Opinions of three-judge panels in the Ninth Circuit are binding on all future three-judge panels, and can only be reversed by en banc rehearing (or, of course, by the Supreme Court). As a result, even if the parties are content with the result of an opinion, and don’t seek rehearing, each judge has his own interest in the precedents set by his colleagues. Judges are therefore allowed to seek en banc rehearing (which will be granted if a majority of active judges agree to rehear the case), regardless of whether the parties file petitions for such rehearing.

Given the strong Second Amendment rationale in the Peruta decision by Judge O’Scannlain, I’m guessing some of the more liberal judges on the 9th Circuit don’t want to be bound by it. After all, the 9th Circuit has a reputation as the most liberal circuit. Only 18 out of the 38 current active judges – those not having senior status – were appointed by Republican presidents.

Voting on whether or not to grant an en banc rehearing will be by all of the active judges on the 9th Circuit. If a majority approves the rehearing then, under 9th Circuit rules, a panel consisting of the Chief Judge and 10 other active judges will sit en banc and rehear the case. The 10 judges are chosen at random from among the active judges on the Circuit. The Chief Judge as of December 1st is Judge Sidney Thomas – the dissenter in the Peruta case and a Bill Clinton appointee from Montana.

I should emphasize that the Peruta case hasn’t gone to an en banc rehearing yet but that it could go to one if a majority of the judges call for it. We shall see.

H/T Sebastian

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And Now You Know The Rest Of The Story

December 2, 2014 by 3 Comments

The late radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to have a feature called, “The Rest of the Story”. He’d end the feature with the tagline, “And now you know the rest of the story.” I saw the tweet below from Shannon Watts of Everytown Moms for Illegal Mayors yesterday. Just like Al Sharpton demands “Justice!”, Shannon demands “Gunsense!”.

This is not just some Walmart store. This is my Walmart store. The one that is a five minute or less drive from my house. The one at which I buy ammo if it is in stock. In other words, I know the store and I know the gun counter. Both ammo and firearms are kept in a locked case and only certain employees have the key.

The story as reported involved the theft of an AR-15 and 150 rounds of ammunition from the locked case on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. The thief purportedly shoved the rifle down his pants and just walked out.

And now for the rest of the story.

Donald Alan Skelton, 33, was arrested on Thursday as he went back to the same Walmart. According to records from the NC Department of Public Safety, Skelton was released from prison in February. His criminal record goes back to at least 2008 and includes convictions for felony breaking and entering and for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

For this theft, Skelton was charged with larceny of a firearm, misdemeanor larceny, and possession of a firearm by a felon. He is being held in the Buncombe County Detention Center under an $11,000 bond.

Watts got 28 retweets and 7 favorites from this tweet. How the theft of a firearm by a convicted felon relates to “gunsense” and the call for universal background checks is beyond me.