Just after another Kay Hagan attack ad which, I, of course, muted, comes an ad featuring Natalie Foster. I’m like, wait, that’s a NRA ad. Quick, unmute the TV. It was the one below on privacy which is a really good ad.
I’m really glad to see the NRA starting to run these ads featuring the new generation of commentators dealing with issues like neighborhood safety, privacy, etc.
Is anyone else seeing these ads in your states? I’d like to hear about it.
Grass Roots North Carolina has responded to the denial of a temporary restraining order that would allow those with concealed handgun permits to carry at the North Carolina State Fair. While disappointed, they are weighing their options including whether to appeal.
Judge in State Fair Case Legislates From Bench
Judge Donald Stephens’ decision in the GRNC lawsuit against posting the state fair against concealed carry can best be summarized in his own words: “If I can find a way to interpret the statutes to prohibit concealed handguns in the state fair, I will.”
It was evident to all that Judge Stephens had his mind made up long before the hearing began. When GRNC’s attorney argued, his attitude was nearly contemptuous, and when the Attorney General’s representative argued, Stephens was soothing and supportive as if talking to a pet dog.
The denial today of GRNC’s temporary restraining order was a classic case of legislating from the bench by, perhaps willfully, misinterpreting both the intent of the General Assembly in passing HB 937’s opening of assemblies to concealed carry, and the potential cost to crime victims of not being able to protect themselves against violent predators, as has happened repeatedly in other state fairs, the most recent being last weekend in Arizona.
GRNC is examining our options, including appeal, legislative action, and possibly an open holster demonstration at the fair. Allow me to say what I told conservative talk show host and GRNC supporter Bill LuMaye: “We don’t know yet how we will react to this setback, but I can tell you one thing: Whatever we do will be done to expand the rights of lawful North Carolinians and their ability to protect their families. The left has called it ‘the long march.’ This is our long march.”
GRNC’s operating philosophy: Never give up. Never give in. Never go away.
It is a long march. I’m reminded of a statement that Gene Hoffman of the CalGuns Foundation made at the 2010 Gun Rights Policy Conference. He said we lost our gun rights over a 40-year period of time and it will take time to get them back.
Like so many “secret weapons” late in World War II, the Japanese fire balloons or Fu-Go (Windship Weapon) were a failure. Of the 9,300 hydrogen balloons launched with incendiaries attached, about 300 were found to have landed or been shot down in North America. The Japanese hoped that these balloons would have reached the forests along the Pacific coast and started massive fires that would divert resources from the war in the Pacific Theater.
The bombs did kill six people, a pregnant woman and five kids, in southern Oregon who were out on a church camping trip. However, no massive fires were started and no resources diverted.
Until this month, the last time a balloon bomb was found was in the 1970s. A forestry worker in Lumby, British Columbia discovered one last Thursday.
On Thursday morning RCMP in Lumby were asked by one of Tolko’s employees to come to an area off Thunder Mountain Forest Road. The employee suspected that he had found an unexploded Japanese balloon bomb. The bomb is partly embedded in the ground within the bush in the area east of Lumby. Officers photographed the bomb and the military disposal unit from Esquimalt is heading to the area to deal with the unexploded bomb.
The RCMP said that they hoped to be able to salvage parts of the bomb such as the aluminum ring seen in the picture below for display at the local Lumby Museum.
This is a cool bit of history. I hope they succeed in preserving as much of it as possible. Looking at Lumby on the map, it is in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. This means this balloon bomb, after crossing the North Pacific, drifted over the coastal mountains and about two-thirds of BC to land in Lumby. That’s incredible.
Grass Roots North Carolina filed suit last week seeking a temporary injunction to keep the North Carolina State Fair from being posted against carry. HB 937 made changes to the law that should have prevented Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler (R-NC) from posting the fairgrounds. I say should have.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens refused to grant the temporary injunction in a ruling this afternoon.
Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens said he believed “it would be unwise and imprudent to allow firearms into the State Fair.”
This is truly a case of the law being what the judges say it is despite the clear wording of North Carolina statutes. Given that Judge Stephens was re-elected in 2012, he won’t be coming up for re-election again until 2020 as Superior Court judges in North Carolina serve eight year terms.
Ag Commissioner Troxler is happy about the decision saying, “”for upholding the longstanding policy banning weapons at the State Fair and for issuing his decision so quickly.” Troxler has contended that the changes in the NC General Statutes brought about by HB 937 are “vague”.
Troxler, who says he is a gun owner himself, argued that the law was badly-worded and legislators had not intended to allow guns at the fair. He said they didn’t belong there, citing the huge crowds and the potential for guns to fall out during midway rides during the annual rain of wallets, keys and change, and then go off.
At the press conference Monday, Troxler said that no matter which way the ruling went this week, there will be metal detectors at all the entrance gates. And after the fair, he said, he would go back to the General Assembly to ask legislators to be clear about what they think the law should say about guns at the fair.
“Either the legislature believes there needs to be concealed carry at the fair or not,” he said.
Troxler, it should be noted, is a practicing farmer as required by Chapter 106 of the North Carolina General Statutes. He is not an attorney. Thus, any claims to the law being vague should be taken with a grain of salt.
The State Fair Facebook page is getting lots of feedback on their announcement of the decision in which they said they are glad Judge Stephens didn’t grant the injunction.
So the North Carolina State Fair will be a gun-free zone. As to the reality of gun-free zones, I’d urge you to listen to what Massad Ayoob said about the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference in Chicago. His comments start at the 1:14:45 mark and are well worth a listen.
Helga Glock, former wife of Gaston Glock, Sr., has filed suit against him and his assorted companies. The suit was filed on Thursday in US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She is seeking $500 million plus punitive damages. In the suit, she accuses Gaston Sr. of theft, money laundering, and racketeering. She is invoking RICO as part of the suit.
Paul Barrett, author of Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun
Prior to the divorce and Gaston Sr’s stroke, all the children and Helga were part of Glock. Gaston Jr. worked in IT, Robert in marketing, and Brigitte ran human resources. It all changed in 2010.
In 2010, Gaston Sr. issued a three-page handwritten letter dictating his “unconditional wishes for a reorganization of the Glock Group.” Helga and the children were to cease their “operational” roles, he declared. “I thank my wife, Helga, for her support and wish her a carefree and good life in her deserved retirement.” The letter instructed: “There will be no harassment, spying, stalking, violation of human dignity, or scheming toward me and my environment.” Gaston Sr. “guarantee[d] the agreed-upon payments to the beneficiaries for a lifetime.”
Mrs. Glock’s attorney, John Da Grosa Smith, is very familiar with Glock, Inc. He was the attorney for former Glock, Inc. (the US affiliate) CEO Paul Jannuzzo and secured the reversal of his conviction for embezzlement on appeal.
All I can say, it is going to be interesting. Glock lovers and haters alike will find tons of spicy details in the complaint below. My only fear is that the gun prohibitionists will also be combing it with a fine tooth comb to buttress their allegations against the firearms industry.
Aaron at the Weapon-Blog has posted his monthly list of contests featuring firearms.
In the pistol category, there are 12 contests featuring pistols ranging from the Sig Sauer P320 to a Kimber Custom 1911. The coolest pistol, and I use that term loosely, is a Sig Sauer PM400 Elite Pistol with their SBX brace in .300 Blackout.
As to long guns, there are two shotguns offered and 20 rifles. I don’t think I’ve seen that many in a long time. There are, as usual, a number of ARs in various calibers, a couple of IWI Tavors, the PTR-91, and a handful of hunting rifles.
I apologize for being a few days late with the list. Aaron let me know a few days ago and I’ve just gotten around to posting about it.
Marshall J. Brown was a reporter from a time when reporters were reporters and not journalists. According to his obituary in the Buffalo News, he passed away yesterday after an extended battle with multiple system atrophy, a neurological disease. He was 78 and had spent much of his career as the police beat reporter for the old Buffalo Courier-Express.
Mr. Brown came from a newspaper family. His father and two uncles were editors with United Press International (UPI). He started out as a copy boy with the old NY Herald-Tribune, received a degree in journalism from New York University, and began his career at the Lockport (NY) Union-Sun & Journal.
His obituary states that he received a number of awards from the Associated Press for his reporting. These awards, however, were not his most prized awards. He reserved that for his James Madison Award For Journalism from the Second Amendment Society.
A fellow reporter from a competing newspaper had this to say about Mr. Brown:
“Marsh was a feisty, hard-nosed old-time newsman, like one of the characters you’d see in an old movie like ‘The Front Page,’ ” said Buffalo News reporter Dan Herbeck, who worked with Mr. Brown at Buffalo Police Headquarters in the late 1970s and early 1980s. “He carried a gun when he was on the job, sometimes beat the police to crime scenes. On more than one occasion, he conducted his own investigations and helped the police solve crimes.”
Herbeck said he will never forget the time he and Mr. Brown in 1982 – both police reporters for Buffalo’s two competing newspapers – decided to go out and have lunch together. They were walking toward a small diner when a waitress came running outside, spattered with blood and screaming, “Help, he killed Ellie!”
“Marsh grabbed his gun out of the holster and we went running inside. This poor waitress was on the floor, bleeding to death,” Herbeck recalled. “A mental patient who had recently been released from a psychiatric center had jumped over the counter, grabbed a knife and began stabbing this poor woman. Then he ran out of the place. Marsh and I ran outside, looking for the guy, but he was long gone. The police came and we told them what happened.”
Can you imagine any of the modern-day authorized journalists doing this?
Mr. Brown was a Life Member of the NRA and was a longtime vice-president of New York’s Shooters Committee on Political Education. He also was a member of the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Holland Rod and Gun Club. He was a certified NRA firearms instructor as well as a three-time NY State pistol champion in various categories.
Rest in peace, Mr. Brown. The likes of you will almost never be seen anymore and more’s the pity.
The gun prohibitionists at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) must think the novel 1984 
Such is the case now in their petition attempting to get the Maryland State Police to revoke the instructor certification of Wicomico County (MD) Sheriff Mike Lewis. His “thoughtcrime” is his outspoken support for the Second Amendment. Sheriff Lewis has stated that he would refuse to let Federal authorities into his county if they wanted “to come in here and strip my citizens of their right to bear arms.”
Inspired by a post by David Codrea on his War On Guns blog saying that all the “right people” were signing the petition, I decided to sign it as well using an appropriate pseudonym. I wanted to choose a name that would express my thoughts about their petition.
David chose Adolph Hitler. I went with Heinrich Himmler. Most people know that Himmler was the head of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Hitler named Himmler Chief of German Police in 1935 which included the Gestapo, the Criminal Police, the SD, and other police agencies. Given how the Gestapo sought out those who deviated from the National Socialist creed, I think he was an appropriate signatory to CSGV’s petition.
Felix Dzerzhinsky who directed the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-revolution and Sabotage or Cheka would have also have been an appropriate pseudonym to use.
If you want to avail CSGV of your personal disgust at their actions, here is the link to their petition. I’m sure you can come up with a good pseudonym to use.
If you watch television in Western North Carolina right now, it is about 2-1 in terms of campaign ads from Democrats and their allied organizations (NEA, League of Conservation Voters, Senate Majority PAC, etc.) It may be different in other areas of the state but I doubt it.
Thus, it was refreshing to see this ad from the NRA featuring Colion Noir on WLOS this evening. It was one of the few ads that I didn’t immediately have me reaching for the mute button on the remote control.
Students and faculty at George Washington Carver High School in Rancho Cordova, California are upset due to a new indoor gun range being developed near the school. According to the city’s planning department, the land is zoned industrial and gun ranges are a permitted use. Translated from PlanSpeak, that means the gun range meets the previously established criteria to be located there and must be allowed to operate in that location.
So, you can guess what the students did next – they held a protest complete with what appear to be professionally made signs. They had slogans like “Legal? but WRONG WRONG WRONG” and “Way TOO CLOSE for Comfort”. It appears from the news story that the “protest” was organized with the full cooperation of school officials. One has to wonder if the students really organized it or were given it as class assignment for a grade.
Reason.com comments on the story and the slant given to it from the reporter from CBS Sacramento:
The local news story spins this as a beneficial lesson in participatory democracy for the high schoolers. True enough, I suppose. If nothing else, they learned that when it comes to politics and governance, think-of-the-children paranoia trumps property rights every single time.
So much for the Lockean rights of life, liberty, and property.
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