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The Houses Of “Everytown”

April 18, 2014 by 11 Comments

The world looks differently to you and me than it does to Michael Bloomberg and Shannon Watts.

Unless you live in an exclusive suburb with armed guards at the gate, I doubt your home looks like the array of homes below. It should be noted that I don’t begrudge Mr. Bloomberg his money as he earned it by taking an idea for providing financial data and ran with it. That is the American Way and I applaud his entrepreneurship. Shannon Watts took the more old fashioned way and (re)married well to the former CEO of a Wellpoint subsidiary.That, too, is OK…I guess.

Bloomberg’s Upper East Side Townhouse
Bloomberg’s Long Island Estate
Bloomberg’s Bermuda vacation residence
Bloomberg’s London apartment in Cadogan Square

Bloomberg’s North Salem, NY Farm
Bloomberg’s Vail, Co “Mountain Haus” condo

Aerial view of Bloomberg’s Wellington, FL horse farm & estate
Watt’s Indiana home – street view

When you live in a million dollar plus home in a plush neighborhood, your view of the world is just different. You don’t have crime at your doorstep and you really don’t have to worry about home invasions. And if you are Mr. Bloomberg, you have your own private armed security detail made up of ex-NYPD cops. I don’t know if Mr. Bloomberg provides armed security personnel to Mrs. Watts when she travels around the US on behalf of the Demanding Mommies but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did.

However, the populist streak in me is offended about being told that I should support gun control for my own good by people who live in a well-protected environment. Moreover, my liberal arts education makes me cringe at the perversion of the word “safety” by those who really mean prohibition and control by it. If you are going to be for gun control, at least be honest about it, like it was when the Brady Campaign was called Handgun Control, Inc.

When it comes to real gun safety, it is the NRA, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and other gun rights organizations AND their members who do the grunt work of promoting gun safety. We are the ones running the Eddie Eagle classes, we are the ones teaching kids how to handle a firearm safely at home and at camp, we are the ones who invest our hard-earned money into safes, locks, and other security devices, and we are the ones providing classes to abused spouses so that they can learn how to protect themselves. And we are doing it every day in everytown at the grassroots level.

So my advice for Mr. Bloomberg and Mrs. Watts is that they should stay in their palatial homes and worry more about the next gallery opening, the next society event, or the next cocktail party than how the rest of us in Everytown America provide for our own self-defense. In other words, they should mind their own damn business and leave us in the real grassroots the hell alone.

UPDATE:  Little did I realize when I wrote that Bloomberg and Watts should worry about the “next gallery opening” that Shannon Watts and her husband John actually owned an art gallery. Thanks to “Dirk Diggler” for pointing it out. The gallery, Watts Fine Arts, was located in Zionsville, Indiana. They said their goal is to be a destination for art collectors around the Midwest. The Watts wanted to bring contemporary masters to the Midwest saying in the press release, “Watts Fine Art represents living American artists who create exceptional
paintings, sculpture and photography previously only available on the East and
West Coasts and in the American Southwest.”

The funniest thing about all of this is not the pretentiousness of it but that I found the press release on bloomberg.com. Go figure.

UPDATE II: After I wrote about the Watts’ gallery, I find that it closed its doors in October 2012.

John Watts, owner of Watts Fine Art, said despite several marketing efforts, the store will close in October because business has been slow and the shop isn’t getting enough foot traffic and sales.


“After over three years in business, it became clear to us that our strategy of bringing museum quality national artists to Indianapolis was not a fit for the local market and especially Zionsville,” he said. “We don’t see this changing for a variety of reasons and did not want to compromise on the type of art we sell or the artists we represent.

Obviously, their heathen neighbors in flyover country just didn’t appreciate the efforts of the Watts to bring them culture. 

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Supreme Court Considers Whether To Accept The NJ Carry Case

April 18, 2014 by 3 Comments

Today is the day for the US Supreme Court to consider whether they will grant certiorari in the case of Drake v. Jerejian. This case, originally named Muller v. Maenza, challenges the state of New Jersey’s requirement for the showing of “justifiable need” in order to obtain a carry permit.

From the petition for a writ of certiorari as filed with the Supreme Court:

QUESTIONS PRESENTED

The Second Amendment “guarantee[s] the individual
right to possess and carry weapons in case
of confrontation.” District of Columbia v. Heller, 554
U.S. 570, 592 (2008). But in accordance with “the
overriding philosophy of [New Jersey’s] Legislature
. . . to limit the use of guns as much as possible,”
State v. Valentine, 124 N.J. Super. 425, 427, 307 A.2d
617, 619 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1973), New Jersey
law bars all but a small handful of individuals showing
“justifiable need” from carrying a handgun for
self-defense, N.J. Stat. Ann. § 2C:58-4(c).

The federal appellate courts, and state courts of
last resort, are split on the question of whether the
Second Amendment secures a right to carry handguns
outside the home for self-defense. The Second,
Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Circuits, and the supreme
courts of Illinois, Idaho, Oregon and Georgia have
held or assumed that the Second Amendment encompasses
the right to carry handguns outside the home
for self-defense. But along with the highest courts of
Massachusetts, Maryland, and the District of Columbia,
which have refused to recognize this right, a
divided Third Circuit panel below held that carrying
handguns outside the home for self-defense falls
outside the scope of the Second Amendment’s protection.
It thus upheld New Jersey’s “justifiable need”
prerequisite for carrying defensive handguns.

The federal appellate courts are also split 8-1 on
the question of whether the government must provide
evidence to meet its burden in Second Amendment
cases. The First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh,
Ninth, Tenth and District of Columbia Circuits require
the government to produce legislative findings
or other evidence to sustain a law burdening the
right to bear arms. But the majority below held that
the legislature’s policy decisions need not be supported
by any findings or evidence to survive a Second
Amendment challenge, if the law strikes the
court as reasonable. Accordingly, the majority upheld
New Jersey’s “justifiable need” law despite the state’s
concession that it lacked legislative findings or evidence
of the law’s public safety benefits, let alone the
degree of fit between the regulation and the interests
it allegedly secures.

The questions presented are:

1. Whether the Second Amendment secures a
right to carry handguns outside the home for selfdefense.

2. Whether state officials violate the Second
Amendment by requiring that individuals wishing to
exercise their right to carry a handgun for selfdefense
first prove a “justifiable need” for doing so.

The attorneys for the plaintiffs appealing this case are David Jensen and Alan Gura. Amicus briefs in favor of the plaintiffs have been filed by the NRA, Gun Owners of America, 24 Members of Congress, the Cato Institute, 19 states, the Judicial Education Project, and the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at Chapman University School of Law.

Attorney David Jensen said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the Supreme Court will accept the case.

“The issue has percolated in the appeals courts for the last year and a half,” Jensen said. “It would be well-timed.”

This echoes the sentiments of Frank Fiamingo of the NJ Second Amendment Society expressed in an interview Wednesday on the Polite Society Podcast. He noted the split between the Federal Circuits on this issue. The recent rulings by the 9th Circuit in Peruta and the associated cases adds weight to this argument.

It will take four Justices voting to accept the case for it to be granted certiorari. We didn’t get that in the petitions for the Kachalsky and Woollard cases. We should know by the end of the day whether the Supreme Court will consider the third major Second Amendment case in the last decade.

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The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

April 17, 2014 by

When you are a billionaire rolling out a new so-called grassroots organization funded with $50 million of your own money, you expect your underlings to have taken care of all the details.

Splashy story in the New York Times? Check.

Fancy new website? Check.

New YouTube video to get the message out? Check.

Facebook page for the new organization? Uhh….

It seems that if you go to Facebook and look for Everytown for Gun Safety you will go to a page actually devoted to gun safety and not gun control. The page lists the Four Rules in its header and it includes links to the real grassroots gun safety organization: the National Rifle Association and its Gun Safety 101 page.

Buzzfeed even did an article on this move. And how did Mark Glaze, former Executive Director of Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors and current Executive Director of Everytown for Gun Safety react? With the predictable violent rhetoric of the gun prohibitionists:

When alerted to the presence of the page, a representative at Everytown for Gun Safety said that it wouldn’t be long before it disappeared from Facebook.

“Maybe they’d like to duel for it,” said Mark Glaze, the executive director of Everytown for Gun Safety. “I hear every person on our staff of 85 is a better shot than Wayne LaPierre. Or maybe a bidding war!”

We’re going through the proper process for transitioning our Demand Action page to ‘Everytown,’ which takes a few weeks, and acquiring trademark protection for both Everytown and Everytown for Gun Safety. Once that happens, we expect Facebook to shoo these cybersquattters politely off this name/page.”

Staff of 85? Shoo these (peon) cybersquatters? So much for their image of being a grassroots organization even though the mainstream media will try to push it for them.

So how do you fight a billionaire who wants to be king and impose his rules? If you are part of a grassroots movement that is willing to fight for its rights you use guerrilla tactics just like these guys did.  Kudos to them on their preemptive strike against the Bloomberg Death Star.

UPDATE: Sebastian has more on this here. There are now many state specific sites dealing with real gun safety.

In addition, let me point you to two new blogs. The first is by Rob Morse and is called Everytown for Gun Safety. The second is by yours truly and is named Everytown for (Real) Gun Safety. They were there for the taking. As that famous Tammany Hall politician George Washington Plunkett said, “He seen his opportunities and he took ’em.” It works for me.

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They Only Donated To Recruit Your Children

April 16, 2014 by 2 Comments

The lunatic fringe of the gun prohibitionist crowd insists that the only reason the NRA and the firearms industry wants to build ranges, organize shooting events for women and children, and the like is because it is a dying culture. We in the gun culture need to suck them in to replace all of the old, gray-haired European-descent males of the shooting patriarchy who are dying off.

The announcement below from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission acknowledging a substantial donation from the NRA for a new shooting range will certainly set their teeth on edge. The new range is also an example of what Pittman-Robertson money could be used for if the US Senate would get their act together.

I’m actually excited by this range as it will be little more than an hour’s drive away and you don’t have to be a member to use it.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission recently accepted a $25,000 check from the National Rifle Association of America to help fund the construction of a public shooting range in Cleveland County.

Brian Hyder, director of the NRA’s General Operations, Program Development Education and Training division, presented the check to Gordon Myers, the Commission’s executive director, at the Commission’s headquarters on Centennial Campus in Raleigh.

The state-of-the-art shooting range will be available to the general public, shooting sports teams and law enforcement personnel for practice, training and recreational use for pistol, skeet and trap, rifle and archery. It will feature a 200-yard rifle range, five 50-yard pistol ranges, two skeet and trap shotgun ranges and a 3-D archery course. The Commission will begin construction in late summer.

“The Wildlife Commission is grateful to have the National Rifle Association as a partner to help us increase shooting range opportunities in North Carolina,” Myers said. “Through this partnership, the WRC is working hand in hand with the NRA to develop and enhance public shooting facilities across our state.”

The $25,000 donation was a grant from the NRA’s Public Range Fund, which was established in 2009 to provide funding for the construction of public ranges across the country.

The need for public shooting ranges nationally is huge, according to Hyder, so the program focuses on creating partnerships at the city, county, state and federal level, with a special emphasis on wildlife agencies in all 50 states. Since the start of the program, the NRA has given more than $1 million to fund public shooting ranges from Florida to Alaska.

“Public shooting ranges are critically important to hunter recruitment and retention – providing ranges is important in hunter education, training and especially recruiting of young hunters and shooters,” Hyder said. “The NRA is proud to be able to work with the Wildlife Resources Commission in its desire to expand recreational shooting opportunities for the citizens of North Carolina statewide.”

The Wildlife Commission and the Cleveland County Board of Commissioners signed a memorandum of agreement in November to build and maintain the public shooting range, which will be located at 250 Fielding Road, outside of Shelby. The Wildlife Commission will build the range site and perform all grading work as well as construction of berms, roads and parking lots. Cleveland County is providing the property and will build a training facility and a separate building with restrooms and concessions. The county also will handle all routine maintenance and will be responsible for day-to-day operations.

For more information on public and private shooting ranges in North Carolina, visit the Commission’s website, www.ncwildlife.org/hunting. Click on the “Before the Hunt” link.

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Sorry For Lack Of Posting

April 16, 2014 by 3 Comments

I apologize for the lack of posts since Friday. We spent the weekend at the Mother Earth News Expo held at the WNC Ag Center and I was exhausted by it. However, all the walking was good preparation for next week’s NRA Annual Meeting.

Our attendance wasn’t because we are going full granola or anything like that. The Complementary Spouse’s brother and sister-in-law had a booth for her Usborne book business and we helped them out.

Unlike what I would have thought it wasn’t just a bunch of back to nature hippies with dreadlocks. They were there but so were a lot of preppers, homesteaders, farmers, and just everyday people. I even saw a guy with a Sons of Liberty T-shirt who was probably a Threeper.

Larry and I spent a lot of time at the workshops on butchering and sausage making. It is amazing how fast you can cut up a sheep carcass with only a knife and food-grade hacksaw when you know what you are doing. The workshop on butchering a sheep impressed me so much that I bought the book. Of course, the skills translate into butchering deer or other large game animals.

Life has gotten back to normal and I will be co-hosting the Polite Society Podcast tonight. You can listen live, warts and all, by going to the Polite Society Podcast’s YouTube channel.

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Taking No Prisoners

April 11, 2014 by 3 Comments

You may have read that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) objected to attorney Andrew Branca’s lecture at Campbell University’s School of Law. He was speaking about the law of self-defense and how it has become a hot-button issue. CSGV has now started a campaign to protest everywhere Branca speaks because he doesn’t parrot their party line about little Trayvon being a martyred saint. Indeed, as Branca has said, the only one responsible for Trayvon’s death is Trayvon himself.

In response to CSGV’s totalitarian attempt to silence him at Campbell University, Branca has this wonderful tweet.

And in response to CSGV’s continuing efforts to silence him, he has put his excellent book, The Law of Self-Defense, 2nd Edition, on sale. To get the 25% off discount, you have to use the special code. You can see it in the tweet below.

You have to admire someone who takes it to the self-appointed thought police like CSGV. By the way, if you haven’t read Branca’s book, you should. It is a good read and a valuable resource to anyone who is a gun owner.

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Which To Attend? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

April 11, 2014 by 3 Comments

My Mom got an email today from the Brady Campaign. I guess at this point I should mention that she passed away almost six years ago, but I digress.

The Brady Campaign is having their very own Brady National Summit in Washington, DC in June. The announcement and details are below:

The Brady National Summit will take place June 9-10, 2014, at the Washington Marriott at Metro Center, with a cocktail reception on the evening of June 8. This year’s theme is “Bring It Home!”

The summit will feature experts, thought leaders, key advocates from across the country, and fellow Americans who have been personally impacted by gun violence. Participants will hone the skills needed to effectively engage friends, neighbors, media and elected officials in our national conversation about gun violence, and learn about what they can do in their community to help reduce gun violence.

The summit will close with a powerful day of citizen lobbying, as we join together to spread our message throughout the halls of Congress!

Join us for three days of education, inspiration & empowerment on reducing gun violence in our country.

The cost to attend this soiree is a mere $50. And more importantly, it will feature thought leaders! I guess these are the people who tell the thought police how to prosecute thoughtcrime.

And speaking of thoughtcrime, my alternative to the Brady National Summit is the NRA Annual Meeting which is free, is not in DC, and not full of Debby Downers.

Which to attend? Such a hard decision. Or not.

Screw it! I’m going to ignore the thought leaders and chance the thought police to indulge in thoughtcrime in Indy and I going to have a helluva time doing it.

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People Violence

April 10, 2014 by 3 Comments

I guess I could have titled this “Comment of the Day” but the above title more accurately describes this. It is a Facebook post by Sheriff Jim Wilson regarding the knife attack by a student on his fellow students in western Pennsylvania yesterday.

THE RECENT SCHOOL KNIFING TRAGEDY is just a reminder that we are not faced with GUN VIOLENCE in our society. It is PEOPLE VIOLENCE that is causing all the trouble.

The kid could have used a machete, a baseball bat, a firearm, or even a weed whacker to cause harm. Violence is violence regardless of the adjective that precedes it.

UPDATE: I would also point readers to a post by Jim Shepherd at The Outdoor Wire who notes that the usual groups calling for something to be done (e.g. CSGV, Brady, MAIG, Demanding Mommies) are strangely absent from the media after this knife attack.

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Turns Out The Rumors Were True

April 9, 2014 by 6 Comments

When the rumor first started that Russian-made 5.45×39 ammunition with steel cores (7n6) was about to be banned, there was a bit of discussion and it seemed that the rumor was just that. Given that it started with the somewhat infamous James Yeager that made some sense.

Well, it turns out the rumor is now reality thanks to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. They issued a special advisory yesterday (April 7th) saying that it was prohibited from importation into the United States because they found a “pistol” chambered in that round. They deemed the steel core made this ammunition “armor piercing” which is prohibited from importation under the Gun Control Act of 1968 (unless for government use).

I remember buying two more spam cans of this ammo for about $159 per can plus shipping on Election Day 2012. Checking the Internet, the cheapest to be found is going for $209 a can with most other places selling it for $260 to $270 per can of 1,080 rounds. I’m glad I laid in what for me will be a lifetime supply for my AK-74.

To paraphrase that old saying about the blind pig and acorns, even James Yeager can be right…sometimes.

The BATFE special advisory is below:

Test, Examination and Classification of 7N6 5.45×39 Ammunition


On March 5, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) received a request from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) to conduct a test, examination and classification of Russian-made 7N6 5.45×39 ammunition for purposes of determining whether it is considered “armor piercing ammunition” as defined by the Gun Control Act (GCA), as amended. Since 1986, the GCA has prohibited the importation of armor piercing ammunition unless it is destined for government use or testing. The imported ammunition about which CBP was inquiring was not destined for either excepted purpose.


The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA), as amended, defines the term “armor piercing ammunition” as:


“(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or


(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.” (emphasis added)


When ATF tested the 7N6 samples provided by CBP, they were found to contain a steel core. ATF’s analysis also concluded that the ammunition could be used in a commercially available handgun, the Fabryka Bronie Radom, Model Onyks 89S, 5.45×39 caliber semi-automatic pistol, which was approved for importation into the United States in November 2011. Accordingly, the ammunition is “armor piercing” under the section 921(a)(17)(B)(i) and is therefore not importable. ATF’s determination applies only to the Russian-made 7N6 ammunition analyzed, not to all 5.45×39 ammunition. Ammunition of that caliber using projectiles without a steel core would have to be independently examined to determine their importability.

H/T SayUncle

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For Chicago-Area Gun Right Activists

April 8, 2014 by 2 Comments

The Illinois State Rifle Association has released an urgent alert regarding a public meeting held by the anti-concealed carry forces including the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (sic) and anti-gun State Rep. Elaine Nekritz. They are trying to build support for more restrictions on concealed carry in Illinois. After fighting so hard for so many years, it would suck to see all that hard work go to waste through overbearing regulations.

From ISRA:

URGENT ALERT – YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

GUN GRABBERS PLAN ANTI-CONCEALED CARRY MEETING

The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence along with Anti-Gun State Representative Elaine Nekritz are planning a public meeting to build support for legislative restrictions on Illinois new concealed carry law.

IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT THAT LAW-ABIDING GUN OWNERS SHOW UP FOR THIS MEETING!

Anti-gun forces in the Illinois House are attempting to pass legislation that would make it nearly impossible for law-abiding citizens to get concealed carry permits. They even want to force the removal of firearms from American Legion and VFW halls. Imagine that. Our vets serve their country with honor and the gun grabbers want to thank them by denying them their Second Amendment Rights.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN STOP THIS NONSENSE!

1. IMMEDIATELY call (847) 229-5499 and politely tell the person that you would like to RSVP for the April 16th public meeting. Call and RSVP even if you cannot make it to the meeting. DO NOT say anything to the person on the phone about your position on guns. If asked, just say that you are interested in learning about the impact of the concealed carry law on you and your family. Again, DO NOT say anything to the person about being pro-gun…they do not need to know where you stand…they only need to know that you are RSVPing for the public meeting. It’s important that you make their phones ring off the hook! Keep them busy!

2. Attend the public meeting – even if organizers tell you that there is no space available:

a. Indian Trails Library, 355 Schoenbeck Road, Wheeling, IL

b. The meeting will be held Wednesday, April 16, 2014 and begins at 6:00 PM. Be sure to show up by 5:15 or so to be sure that you get a seat. This meeting will be very crowded so plan ahead and get their early.

c. The antigunners who will be there will certainly attack your right to keep and bear arms and your right to defend yourself and your family from dangerous criminals. Be prepared to vigorously defend your rights! Do not let these people trample on the rights that so many brave Americans fought and died for.

d. If you see members of the media there, approach them. Tell them that you are a law abiding citizen and that you do not appreciate having your rights challenged. Tell the media that you fully support the right to self defense that you will not allow your right to defend yourself to be diminished.

Remember – only you can preserve and protect your rights. If you leave that job up to the “other guy,” you will see your rights evaporate.

DO NOT FORGET TO RSVP (847) 229-5499 WHETHER YOU PLAN TO ATTEND OR NOT!

CALL NOW!