by On this, the 237th birthday of the United States Marine Corps, I’d like to offer my thanks to all Marines, present or past, for their service.Semper Fi!
And an earlier recruiting poster which offers “congenial employment” as “soliders of the sea”.
Uncategorized
It’s Bush’s Fault
Police in Manhattan Beach, CA are investigating a pig’s head wrapped in a Romney T-shirt left at a local GOP headquarters as an “illegal dumping of an animal carcass”.
You know in your heart of hearts that if that pig’s head was left at a Demcratic Party officer or an Obama for America headquarters that the Party of Tolerance™ would be screaming about a “hate crime”. The Secret Service would be involved and there would be a joint press conference with representatives from the LAPD, the FBI, and the LA District Attorney’s Office promising to track down the miscreant.
Go figure.
Sportsman’s Guide Returns To American Ownership
If you are like most of us, you either get the Sportsman’s Guide catalog or you used to get it. It is full of stuff from military surplus to ammo to some really weird trinkets. I know I’ve ordered everything from shoes to surplus to ammo from them and their prices tend to be pretty decent.
What most people don’t know is that they have been owned by the French catalog company Redcats. No longer.
According to a story published yesterday in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, the South St. Paul based Sportsman’s Guide is being sold by Redcats to Northern Tool + Equipment Co. along with the Golf Warehouse for $215 million.
Pending regulatory approvals, the acquisitions will give Northern Tool approximately $1.5 billion in annual sales.Northern Tool said both companies will be integrated into its
existing operations to take advantage of economies of scale, but they
will continue to operate as stand-alone brands to “take advantage of
their considerable brand equity.”Northern Tool does not plan to cut any jobs at those businesses, and it may add positions as the operations merge.
“We are very bullish about this milestone acquisition — it builds on
our operational strength and synergies,”Northern Tool President Chuck Albrecht said in a statement. “Furthermore, we were drawn to both companies being family-run institutions with strong management.”
I’m glad to see Sportsman’s Guide be American-owned again. I just hope they still will have all the interesting European military surplus. I mean where else can you find both East German splinter camo coats and Czech-made glass urinals for field hospital use (among other things).
Crimson Trace Announces 5 New Green Laser Grips
Crimson Trace plans to release five new green Lasergrips in December. They will be for the 1911, the Glock, and Smith & Wesson J-Frames.
Crimson Trace’s Revolutionary Green Lasergrips® Coming Soon(Wilsonville, OR) Crimson Trace will launch five new Lasergrips which feature the industry’s smallest green diode before the end of the year. This groundbreaking technology raises the bar when it comes to size, battery life, temperature stability and visibility in all levels of lighting conditions.
Utilizing the company’s patented Instinctive Activation™, models will be available for 1911 full size and compact frames, Glock full size and compact frames and the Smith & Wesson J-Frame revolver. All five of these models will be available in December through normal distribution and from www.crimsontrace.com, starting at $299.
Although the human eye perceives green lasers as being brighter, until now they have had several drawbacks when it came to power consumption, performance in cold weather and overall size. Crimson Trace has solved all of these by developing an entirely new laser package, no larger than the tried and tested red version currently used in its award-winning Lasergrips. “We have been anticipating and perfecting this line of green Lasergrips over this past year,” explained Kent Thomas, Director of Marketing for Crimson Trace. “Our goal was to deliver the most visible and consistent green laser available on the market in our flagship platform and we’re proud to have accomplished everything we set out to do.” Finding holsters to accommodate firearms equipped with these green Lasergrips is simple as the grips do not interfere with most standard holster options.
All Lasergrips models are pre sighted from the factory at 50’ and are fully adjustable by the user to fine tune it to their chosen self defense ammunition. Featuring the most powerful laser allowable by law, the units offer an industry leading 2 hour run time on two, easily replaced #2032 batteries.
Concealed Carry Considerations
In another of the excellent short training videos from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Charlie McNeese of Gunsite Training Academy discusses various carry options for carrying concealed. Among them are pocket carry, ankle carry, and using a waist pack. The one thing he emphasizes about any of the methods is that they should be accessible whether standing or sitting.
Interesting Location Holder Chose To Speculate On Future
Attorney General Eric Holder spoke to law students today at the University of Baltimore Law School and revealed he isn’t sure about staying on as Attorney General.
Of course, while I suppose it would be possible to replace him with someone worse, it would be tough. The blog of LegalTimes.com says some potential candidates would be Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and S. District of NY US Attorney Preet Brahara.
What I found most interesting is that Holder chose the University of Baltimore Law School to make these sentiments known given its dean is Ronald Weich. Weich, you may recall, was the smarmy representative of the Justice Department who appeared many times before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearings on Project Gunwalker. I wonder if this was a sort of payback for Weich for taking so much heat and lying so artfully before the Committee.
Dave Kopel on Second Amendment Election Results
Ginny Simone of NRA News interviewed attorney Dave Kopel of the Independence Institute regarding how the 2012 elections impacted the Second Amendment and gun rights. It fleshes out his column from the Volokh Conspiracy and gives more detail.
It will be interesting to see if the Louisiana amendment setting strict scrutiny as the standard is exported to other states. I’d love to see something like that in North Carolina.
GRNC-PVF Reflects On Results In North Carolina
Grass Roots North Carolina-Political Victory Fund sent out their impressions on electoral results here in North Carolina last night. They were generally pleased with the results here in NC with some new strong pro-gun State Senators coming on board. While not mentioned directly, the one downside is that St. Senator Doug Berger (D-Northampton) lost. He had been a stalwart on the pro-gun side.
First, congratulations are due to North Carolina gun voters who ensured our state was the only battleground state to repulse the Obama machine. Better yet, thanks to your efforts, anti-gun candidates went down in flames around the state. This is the closest thing to a “clean sweep” GRNC-PVF has ever managed.RACES
CONGRESSIONAL RACES
Frankly, with your help the GRNC Political Victory Fund kicked butt. In congressional races, the three districts in which GRNC-PVF was active, all saw pro-gun victories, with Richard Hudson (USH-08, GRNC ****), Mark Meadows (USH-11, ****) and George Holding (USH-13, ****) all winning their races. There may yet be a 4th victory, with the race in USH-07 being still too close to call. Unfortunately, the NRA endorsed anti-gun incumbent Mike McIntyre (GRNC **, with a pro-gun voting record of only 74%) against GRNC-recommended challenger David Rouzer, whose 100% pro-gun voting record in the NC Senate earned GRNC’s highest 4-star (****) evaluation. NRA members should contact the organization and ask them why they might have helped to re-elect an anti-gun incumbent against a superior challenger.
GOVERNOR & NC COUNCIL OF STATE RACES
In the governor’s race and NC Council of State races relevant to gun rights, you were tentatively 3 for 3, with Governor Pat McCrory, Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and conservative Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby winning their races. (Note: As of this writing, Forest is ahead by only 0.2%, with opponent Linda Coleman not yet conceding.)
NC SENATE
An early analysis of General Assembly races indicates that of 35 NC Senate races in which GRNC-PVF made recommendations, 28 (80%) of the recommended candidates won. Of districts in which GRNC-PVF did mailings and/or robocalls in the General Election (in addition to primaries and runoffs), only one candidate lost. Big wins included Trudy Wade (NCS027, ****), Jeff Tarte (NCS027, ****) and Thom Goolsby (NCS009). These candidates will be leaders for your rights.
NC HOUSE
In the NC House, results were better still. GRNC-PVF made candidate recommendations in 70 races, helping to produce 58 winners (83%). Of the districts receiving mailings and/or robocalls, only one recommended candidate failed to win his race (a win rate of 88%). Notably, one Republican incumbent lost his reelection bid: Gaston Pridgeon (NCH046), who voted against gun owners in the last session of the General Assembly. Despite entreaties to mail for this RINO, GRNC-PVF not only refused the mailing, but also issued a recommendation that gun owners sit out the race. Pridgeon will not be missed.
NOW THE BAD NEWS …
As you are acutely aware, national results were not as satisfactory. Barack Obama, who stood before the world in the second presidential debate to call for re-implementation of the ban on semi-automatic firearms, saying he will “[see] if we can get an ‘assault weapons ban reintroduced”, will now have what he described to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev as “more flexibility.” What else “more flexibility” entails we will soon see.
HOW GRNC IS PREPARING
GRNC will be working to:
Reorient its efforts to provide greater focus on federal, as opposed to state issues;
Increase its size and effectiveness by running a membership drive;
Run a statewide petition to the NC congressional delegation opposing any restrictions on semi-automatic firearms or magazines.HELP GRNC-PVF
GRNC is restricted by law from using organizational money to advocate the election or defeat of candidates, meaning GRNC-PVF must raise money separately from membership resources. GRNC-PVF depends on your contributions to run radio spots and do mailings. Again, because our effort is all-volunteer, we are able to put your money to more efficient, effective use than any other organization.
Please contribute to GRNC-PVF by going to:
Good Advice
Among my morning reads is Randi Rogers’ Shooting. It is a good compendium of articles, pictures, and videos on shooting and gun issues. One of her regular links is to competitor Julie Golob who is captain of the Smith and Wesson Team and her blog.
In her reflections on the recent election, she concluded with this:
I am frustrated, disappointed, and at times, shocked by many of President Obama’s policies and actions. As a parent, veteran, shooter and hunter, like so many of you, I worry over what the next four years will bring. Now, more than ever before, is the time to share your passion for your right to own firearms, hunt, shoot and protect yourself. Be proactive and share the fun and excitement of your sport. Be the positive example. Encourage others to give shooting a try. Let’s continue to be welcoming ambassadors for our gun rights!
I think that is excellent advice. Bringing new people into shooting is like the flu shot I got yesterday – it is a vaccination. In this case, a vaccination against the gun prohibitionists and the laws they would like to see enacted. Once a person see just how fun shooting can be or, in the case of many women, empowering, they are not going to believe the lies, half-truths, and distortions our opponents regularly spout.
SAF On UN Move
The Second Amendment Foundation which has been participating in all the United Nations conferences on small arms as an accredited non-governmental organization (NGO) released this statement today regarding the move to push the ATT forward now that Obama has been re-elected.
U.N. CELEBRATES OBAMA RE-ELECTION BY PUSHING GLOBAL GUN CONTROL
For Immediate Release: 11/7/2012
BELLEVUE, WA – Less than 24 hours after winning re-election, President Barack Obama’s administration joined with China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and more than 150 other governments, in supporting renewed debate on the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, confirming the worst fears of the American gun rights community.
The vote came at the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting of the First Committee on Disarmament at the world organization’s headquarters in New York City.
“It’s obvious that our warnings over the past several months have been true,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. “The election was called about 11 p.m. Tuesday and by 11 a.m. this morning, we got word that the United States was supporting this resolution. We have to be more vigilant in our efforts to stop this proposed treaty.”
SAF Operations Director Julianne Versnel, who has been back and forth to the United Nations over this proposal, said the fight is not finished. The measure will be considered for finalization in March 2013.
“We will continue to monitor this issue and oppose any effort to enforce a global gun control measure,” she stated.
Amnesty International issued a statement Wednesday lauding passage of the resolution, saying the treaty will protect human rights.
“The right of self-defense is a human right,” Gottlieb countered, “and in this country, the Second Amendment protects that right.
“Just days ago as he campaigned for re-election,” he concluded, “Barack Obama told his supporters that voting is the ‘best revenge.’ I guess now we know what he was talking about. The revenge he seeks is against American gun owners and their Second Amendment rights.”