The 5th Gen AK

Russia Today has a story and a video on the new 5th generation AK which is called the AK-12. The first thing I noticed immediately is that it has a much longer sight radius than the earlier versions.

From the Russia Today story:

The Kalashnikov makers claim its has better range, increased fire dispersion, better ergonomics, usability and a potential for configuration changes.

The new weapon is as reliable as the AK-74, the Izmash factory CEO Maksim Kuzyuk says, but the dynamic characteristics differ significantly. It considerably increases the accuracy of shooting. The rifle is capable of firing in three modes: single shot, three shots and automatic fire mode.

Also, AK-12 is capable of using magazines of various types and capacity.

The basic feature of the new rifle is its modularity. It will serve as a basic platform for designing of over 20 modifications of small-arms weapons of various purpose and calibre.

AK-12’s composition allows operating it single-handedly, and can be converted for left or right handed use.
The rifle can accommodate night vision and Holo-sights, target indicator, or a light grenade launcher.

The AK-12 is undergoing firing tests in extreme conditions which should be completed by the end of the year. The Russian Ministry of Interior has already agreed to test the AK-12 in its special police units after official certification of the weapon.

Steve at The Firearm Blog has some more comments on this new AK.

The Gunny On Voting

The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (sic) has been running a campaign of sorts where they try to dish dirt on NRA Board Members. The Gunny, R. Lee Ermey, is one of the Board that they’ve profiled. Of course what they call “dirt” is, for the most part, what the rest of the world calls normal.

Now here is something that should really get them peeved. The Gunny is pushing voter registration. I am sure that they will find someway to say that the Gunny is demeaning librarians and is only encouraging gun rights extremism at the polls.

As someone who has been registered to vote since the day I turned 18 – and yes, I did it on my birthday – I think what the Gunny is doing is fantastic. There is no excuse for anyone who is pro-gun rights not to be registered to vote. That county commissioner or city councilman can do as much or more to restrict your gun rights as anyone running for President. Think about that.

SAF Comments On The Robbery Of Justice Breyer At Machete-Point

Justice Stephen Breyer and his family were recently the victims of an armed robbery at his vacation home on the Caribbean island of Nevis. The robber was armed with a machete. The Second Amendment Foundation has released a statement regarding this incident.

BREYER’S ROBBERY ILLUSTRATES WHY RKBA SO IMPORTANT EVERYWHERE

For Immediate Release: 2/14/2012

BELLEVUE, WA – The recent robbery of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at a vacation home in the West Indies should hopefully cause the learned jurist to re-examine his core beliefs about the individual right to keep and bear arms at places other than their primary residence, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

Breyer has voted with the minority twice in recent years against recognizing that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right to keep and bear arms, in both the Heller and McDonald cases. He was robbed last week, along with his wife and some guests, by an intruder wielding a machete, according to published reports. Justice Breyer was not harmed, but the robber got away with about $1,000 in cash.

“We’re delighted that Justice Breyer was not hurt during this incident,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “and hopefully this case will give him a new perspective on the right to bear arms for personal safety. Police cannot always be around when you need them, even if you’re a Supreme Court justice. One does not leave his right of self-defense at the doorstep of his home when he travels.

“If this demonstrates anything to Justice Breyer,” he continued, “it is that crime does not happen just at someone’s primary residence, and criminals do not make appointments, giving someone time to unlock and assemble and load a firearm. You must be able to protect yourself, even on vacation outside of your home state, at a moment’s notice. That’s not just a civil right, but a basic human right.

“When Justice Breyer dissented in the Heller case,” Gottlieb recalled, “he expressed concerns about keeping loaded firearms in the home for personal protection. Faced with a machete in the hands of a criminal, one wonders whether Breyer might have quietly wished he had a gun with which he could have defended himself, his wife and their guests. We hope this incident gives him new insight with which to temper his views.”

I’m not sure if “machete-point” is a word or not but if I had been threatened by a robber who was wielding one, I’d definitely consider it a word. I’m sure Justice Breyer might agree.

As to the lethality of a machete, it was the weapon of choice in the Rwandan genocide. According to Wikipedia, “Even after the 1993 peace agreement signed in Arusha, businessmen close to General Habyarimana imported 581,000 machetes for Hutu use in killing Tutsi, because machetes were cheaper than guns.” These machetes were used to kill somewhere between 500,000 and a million Tutsi in an approximately three month period of time.

A Win For Concealed Carry In Forsyth County, NC

The Forsyth County (NC) Commissioners voted 4 to 2 to allow concealed carry in all areas of county parks in the county. Unlike the City of Winston-Salem which is located within Forsyth County, the commissioners seem to have listened to their constituents.

From GRNC:

The approved ordinance not only allows concealed carry in all parks, recreational facilities, trails, greenways, etc., but also adds a provision for keeping one’s gun locked in a vehicle in ANY county property – meaning county properties beyond parks.

The only exceptions to allowing concealed carry in parks are Tanglewood (where alcohol may be sold and consumed) and Triad, which is partially controlled by less-enlightened Guilford County.

Kudos to commissioners Debra Conrad, Richard V. Linville and Gloria D. Whisenhunt for their favorable votes. Particular thanks are extended to commissioner Bill Whiteheart who worked with pro-carry advocates in drafting this excellent ordinance.

Negative votes were cast by Walter Marshall and Everette Witherspoon.

Not content with crossing only the Second Amendment, Marshall seemed also to go after the Fourth by suggesting law-enforcement should be posted in parks to determine if concealed carriers are “good intentioned”. Invoking the now tired contention of permittees “losing it,” Witherspoon expressed concern about basketball games getting heated and violent. David R. Plyler previously spoke against park carry, but did not attend the meeting to vote.

Gun-owners are cautioned that this ordinance must now pass a second reading before it is enacted. The pressure needs to continue until final passage!

 And from news reports in the Winston-Salem Journal:

Several people in the audience spoke in favor of the concealed-carry ordinance. No one spoke against it.

Brian Reese, who lives in Kernersville, said it upset him that some feel that “no matter how good you are, no matter how law-abiding you are, we do not trust you to carry a concealed weapon.”

The ordinance would allow people with the proper permit to carry concealed handguns in parks. People also would be able keep concealed handguns in their cars parked in county parking areas, as long as the guns were securely locked away.

Our BUYcott Visit To Starbucks

We thoroughly enjoyed our caramel macchiato and cinnamon dolce latte at Starbucks this afternoon. It was a nice treat for Valentine’s Day.

I stopped by the bank earlier today to get some $2 bills and made sure to leave the tip for the Starbucks’ barristas using a $2 bill obtained just for the BUYcott.

The other thing I did was send an email to the District Manager for the Starbucks in Western North Carolina. I explained why we went to Starbucks today and thanked her for the company’s policy of neutrality on gun issues. I also said we expected to partake of their fine coffees more frequently.

BUYcott Day

The Complementary Spouse and I intend to celebrate both Valentine’s Day and gun rights by meeting at Starbucks after work for a nice coffee drink as part of Starbucks Appreciation Day. I also plan to stop by the bank to get some $2 bills to leave in the tip jar.

Those calling for the boycott aren’t exactly happy that their attempt at publicity has been turned back on them. The National Gun Victims (sic) Action Council released a letter yesterday from a group of professional “peace activists.” They freely acknowledge that those of us who believe in our rights will be sipping our coffees, teas, and hot chocolates today at Starbucks and that we will be creating a bump in sales for Starbucks.

We also hope to say “thank you” soon for leadership on the legislative front¬–the kind of leadership you are exercising with respect to marriage equality. So far, your publicized rationale in defense of welcoming guns in your stores has (been) simple: you state that Starbucks is just following the law, state by state. That means that in 43 states you welcome openly carried guns and other firearms, while saying ‘yes’ to concealed carry in 49 states. But the law in all 50 states allows you to ban guns from your stores. Starbucks can do more than choose between competing laws. Starbucks can help change the law! Starbucks can use its corporate clout, in cooperation with others to challenge the powerful gun lobby, end the impasse in Washington that has blocked any meaningful gun violence prevention legislation in the 18 years since the Brady Bill was passed.

What they are having trouble comprehending is that support for marriage equality and gay rights doesn’t automatically correlate into support for gun control. Indeed, if they had looked at the plaintiffs in a number of important gun rights cases, they might have understood that many gay men and women have rejected being kept defenseless. That the right to self-defense and self-protection is a human right seems to have eluded the gun prohibitionists and the professional peace activist groups.

Historical Quote Of The Week

Given the lip service that politicians on both the right and the left pay to the Second Amendment, I thought this week’s quote from Proclaiming Liberty was particularly apt.

Every time an advocate of gun control promises not to impair the recreational activities of hunters, he demonstrates his contempt for the values underlying the Second Amendment, implying that the issues at stake are trivial.

Sullum, Jacob. “Shooting Gallery.” Reason Dec. 1995: 50-55. Print.

This quote is found on page 60 of Proclaiming Liberty which is available from Amazon.com for $12.95. The Kindle edition is now available for $3.95.

I’m Sitting On A Fortune!

The Complementary Spouse and I got tired of being cooped up in the house by the cold weather and went junking this afternoon. By junking, I mean we went to a bunch of thrift shops and antique malls in Asheville.

One of the places is a combination bookstore and interior design/art/antique mall called the Screen Door. At one booth, I found a dish full of used rifle and pistol brass.

The prices were $1.50 for used 7.62x54R brass and $1.00 for the pistol brass. That is per piece! They made a big deal over the rifle brass being “Russian” as if it was some sort of exotic thing. The brass wasn’t made into jewelry or some other trinket. It was just used brass that could have been picked up at any range.

Given those prices, I think we gunnies must be sitting upon an immense fortune with all the empty brass we have!

Grass Roots North Carolina Refutes The NY Times Hit Piece On NC CHP Holders

Michael Luo of the New York Times wrote an article that claimed more than 2,400 people holding Concealed Handgun Permits from the State of North Carolina had criminal convictions. He says he came up with this number by comparing the names on the state’s database of CHP holders with criminal records.

Sean Sorrentino of An NC Gun Blog started an email dialog with Luo. If you have been reading Sean’s blog for any amount of time, you know he has been tracking the growth of concealed handgun permits in North Carolina and he has been following the background of those arrested for criminal misuse of firearms. As such, he has as good a feel for this as anyone and Luo’s article struck him as wrong. So he contacted Luo and asked for the data.

After much back and forth, Luo told Sean he’d give the data to either a legislator or to NC law enforcement officials. This was the opening Sean was looking for and he contacted Paul Valone of GRNC seeking a friendly legislator to call Luo’s bluff. The bluff was called with the result you’d expect.

So what do you say to an author who refuses a State legislator the data needed to do his job? When that legislator asked for the data, with a mind to crafting new and better legislation along with demanding answers from the State Bureau of Investigation, Luo refused.

Paul Valone, President of GRNC, has now responded to Luo’s accusations with a point by point rebuttal. Somehow I doubt the “paper of making it up” as SayUncle calls it will respond. They are good about making claims about gun owners but not so good about making corrections.

“The fight is on and the NRA is ALL IN!” – CPAC 2012

NRA CEO and Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference being held in Washington, DC yesterday. In his speech, he served notice that the NRA and gun owners will make a difference on whether Obama wins a second term or not.

All of our Second Amendment liberty, all of the rights we’ve worked so hard to defend, all of what we know is good and right about America — all of it could be lost if Barack Obama is re-elected.

It’s all or nothing and I’m here to announce that gun owners, everywhere I go, are
signing on, joining up, and donating to our cause.

The fight is on and the NRA is ALL IN!

Let me put that another way.

Time after time, election after election when freedom is at risk, gun owners step up and make a difference. We’re stepping up again. We’re not backing down, and mark my words: when the sun goes down on Election Day, Barack Obama will have America’s gun owners to thank for his defeat!

He goes on to conclude his speech saying:

If you don’t remember anything else I say today, write this down: This is the most dangerous election in our lifetime. If Obama wins, we’ll go to our grave mourning the freedom we’ve lost.

This election is All In — all of our freedom, all of our rights. And that means all of you, ALL IN.

No one sits this one out. So stand up right now and you tell me, will you defend freedom with all your heart and might? Come on, stand up and let them hear you at the White House!

Will we fight to preserve our liberty and keep our nation strong and safe and free? Will we save America and our freedom? Will we save the Second Amendment from a second Obama White House?

We will not be denied our destiny, our place in the history of preserving American liberty! This is our time. Our election to rise up and fight for our rights!

We will defend our nation because we must.

We will prevail! We will prevail and we will stand for who we truly are.

WE ARE THE NRA.

WE ARE AMERICANS.

WE ARE PATRIOTS.

WE WILL DEFEND FREEDOM, AND IN THIS ELECTION WE ARE, BY GOD, ALL IN!

The video of the speech is below: