by I came across this little church outside of Kernersville, North Carolina this afternoon. Given the state of the Middle East these days, it’s too bad there aren’t more of these churches.
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Report On ATF Shotgun Study
Link at the Peace, Love, Ammunition blog has examined the 516 page document that purports to have ALL the comments received on their “Shotgun Study”. While there are numerous problems with this document – including the publication of personal address information – the worst is what seems to be the deliberate omission of comments.
As Link notes about the comments he submitted:
I downloaded the poorly planned 516 page PDF and immediately searched for a distinct portion of my email address. It was not found. I know I submitted an email to the BATF on this matter, and I also knew that I had received an acknowledgment from the ATF confirming receipt of my email.
I searched and found their receipt email which I was initially going to post, but as I dug deeper into the rabbit hole it became less relevant. Their receipt email was sent to me on 13 May 2011, which struck me as bizarre, since I knew I sent my response to their request for comment prior to attending the NRA Annual Meeting at the end of April 2011. I searched my sent items and found that I had sent them my thoughts on their “study” on 8 April 2011.
Read the whole report which includes a link to the ATF released comments. The link to the study is below.
Peace, Love, And Ammunition: BATFE Shoutgun “Study”: I Smelled A Rat
UPDATE: According to the ATF label on this file at their website, these are only the responses received up through March 6th.
BBQ Nirvana
There are a lot of good BBQ restaurants in this world. There is also a lot of disagreement over barbecue styles and which is best.
True to my Greensboro roots, the place I prefer over all others is Stameys. They have been cooking their Lexington-style BBQ for 80 years. It isn’t a trip to Greensboro unless I get at least one meal at either of the two locations of Stameys.
This is their regular chopped pork plate. It comes with hushpuppies and their vinegar based Cole slaw. It is heaven on the taste buds!
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Majority!
Thanks to a Tweat from Sean at A NC Gun blog, I saw that HR 822 – the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act – has now is co-sponsored by a majority of House members as of Friday. HR 308 is still stuck at 107.
Thanks to these Congressmen and Congressmen who pushed the bill up to 227 co-sponsors from the 200 previously reported..
Rep Royce, Edward R. [CA-40] – 5/10/2011
Rep Quayle, Benjamin [AZ-3] – 5/10/2011
Rep Upton, Fred [MI-6] – 5/10/2011
Rep Pitts, Joseph R. [PA-16] – 5/10/2011
Rep Pearce, Stevan [NM-2] – 5/10/2011
Rep Price, Tom [GA-6] – 5/10/2011
Rep Hurt, Robert [VA-5] – 5/10/2011
Rep Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7] – 5/11/2011
Rep Fleischmann, Charles J. “Chuck” [TN-3] – 5/11/2011
Rep Huizenga, Bill [MI-2] – 5/11/2011
Rep Walberg, Tim [MI-7] – 5/11/2011
Rep Issa, Darrell E. [CA-49] – 5/11/2011
Rep Rohrabacher, Dana [CA-46] – 5/11/2011
Rep Campbell, John [CA-48] – 5/11/2011
Rep Nunes, Devin [CA-21] – 5/13/2011
Rep Berg, Rick [ND] – 5/13/2011
Rep Noem, Kristi L. [SD] – 5/13/2011
Rep McMorris Rodgers, Cathy [WA-5] – 5/13/2011
Rep Ribble, Reid J. [WI-8] – 5/13/2011
Rep Ryan, Paul [WI-1] – 5/13/2011
Rep Burgess, Michael C. [TX-26] – 5/13/2011
Rep Shimkus, John [IL-19] – 5/13/2011
Rep Womack, Steve [AR-3] – 5/13/2011
Rep Black, Diane [TN-6] – 5/13/2011
Rep Kingston, Jack [GA-1] – 5/13/2011
Rep Young, C.W. Bill [FL-10] – 5/13/2011
Rep Cardoza, Dennis A. [CA-18] – 5/13/2011
As I said earlier, it is time for the House Judiciary Committee to have hearings on this bill.
Mary Shepard – Victim Of A Thug And Chicago Politicians
Mary Shepard is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit brought by the National Rifle Association and the Illinois State Rifle Association against the State of Illinois for denying Ms. Shepard the right to defend herself.
If there was ever a plaintiff who could make the case for needing to defend oneself with a firearm, it is Mary Shepard. Back in 2009 when she was 69 years old, she and 76 year old Leona Mount were the victims of a vicious beating attack. They were attacked by Willis Bates as he was burglarizing the Anna (IL) First Baptist Church where both ladies worked. The Associate Baptist Press gives this description of their injuries:
Arrest warrants claim that Bates repeatedly kicked the heads and bodies of Shepherd, the church treasurer, and Mount, a maintenance worker, before getting away with less than $600.
Both women were taken by ambulance to Union County Hospital in Anna and airlifted to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Shepard remained there, while Mount was transferred to St. Louis University Hospital in St. Louis. Both women are expected to recover, a fact that church members are calling a miracle.
Shepard’s injuries included a skull fracture, concussion and a possible broken bone in her right cheek. She was moved from the trauma unit to the ICU for observation and later transferred to a regular room. She has since been released from the hospital and is recuperating at home.
Surgery was scheduled Oct. 8 for Mount to begin to repair a broken nose, numerous facial fractures, jaw fractures and a fractured palate. Medical staff at St. Louis University told family members the injuries were like nothing they had ever seen. Despite that, she reportedly suffered no damage to her brain or eyes.
The video above is a report from WSIL Channel 3 back in October 2009 announcing Bates’ arrest. Bates was given a 23 year sentence for two counts of attempted murder. He had previously served 7 years in Illinois prisons for residential burglary. Here is his Illinois Department of Corrections rap sheet including a current picture.
Even before this horrific beating, Mary Shepard, now aged 71, had obtained concealed carry permits from the states of Pennsylvania and Florida. According to IllinoisCarry, Ms. Shepard had taken five firearms training courses including Personal Protection Outside the Home. However, because Illinois law forbids concealed or open carry, she was unarmed when attacked by 6’4″, 240 lb. psychopath Willis Bates. Ms. Shepard discusses the attack, her injuries, the aftermath, and her firearms training which if she was allowed to carry for self-defense could have prevented these horrible injuries in an video made for IllinoisCarry.
The Cook County politicians who kept Mary Shepard defenseless in the face of the attack by Willis Bates should be forced to watch this video. Of course that is a futile hope but perhaps one day – whether by court order or by legislation – the good people of Illinois will be allowed to protect themselves in public with a firearm.
2011 Gunnie Awards
LuckyGunner.com, the online ammo distributor, is sponsoring a contest for gun bloggers and gun podcasters called the Gunnie Awards. As other bloggers have noted, it is a popularity contest but I’m cool with that.
No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money has been nominated for a Gunnie Award in the following categories:
- Best Gun Blog – Law
- Best Gun Blog – Politics
Voting is now open for the next 14 days to determine the winners in each of the 9 categories. If you want to participate, go to the special Gunnie Awards webpage.
In the Law category, I’m competing with such heavy hitters as the Instapundit, Dave Hardy of Of Arms and the Law, Dr. John Lott, David Codrea’s War on Guns, and Dave Kopel. Meanwhile, in the Politics category, I’m up against Sharp As A Marble, SaysUncle, and Snow Flakes In Hell among others. I feel like a rookie pitcher just called up from Single A level and is now facing three of the biggest sluggers on the other team….and the bases are loaded with no outs.
I have no expectations of winning anything. I have to admit I am a little thrilled to be put in the same categories as those mentioned.
Shepard v. Madigan: The NRA-ISRA Challenge To Ban On Carrying Firearms
The National Rifle Association and the Illinois State Rifle Association filed suit today on behalf of Mary Shepard challenging the State of Illinois’ ban on the carrying of firearms for self-defense. As I posted earlier, the Second Amendment Foundation filed suit yesterday in Illinois with a similar challenge. Fortunately, the NRA suit is filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois while the SAF suit was filed in the Centeral District of Illinois. Therefore, the cases cannot be combined.
The release from the NRA-ILA announcing the case is below.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Fairfax, Va. — The National Rifle Association is funding and supporting a lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of Illinois’ complete and total ban on carrying firearms for self-defense outside the home. The case, filed today in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, is Shepard v. Madigan. The lead plaintiff is church treasurer Mary Shepard; joining her is the Illinois State Rifle Association, the NRA’s state affiliate.
Mary Shepard is an Illinois resident and a trained gun owner with no criminal record, who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun in two other states. Because Illinois remains the only state that completely prohibits all law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms for self-defense outside the home, Mary Shepard also became a crime victim. While working as the treasurer of her church, Mrs. Shepard and an 83-year-old co-worker were viciously attacked and beaten by a six-foot-three-inch, 245-pound man with a violent past and a criminal record. Mrs. Shepard and her co-worker were lucky to survive, as each of them suffered major injuries to the head, neck and upper body. Mrs. Shepard’s injuries required extensive surgery and physical therapy.
“Mary Shepard isn’t just a victim of the violent criminal who attacked her,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “She is also a victim of anti self-defense activists in the Illinois legislature who have consistently refused to recognize that good people have the right to protect themselves when they go about their everyday business. We’re pleased that the legislature has come closer this year than ever before to changing the law, but close isn’t good enough for Mary Shepard and the thousands of other Illinois residents who are prohibited by statute from defending themselves outside the home.”
Because Illinois statutes prohibit the right to keep and bear arms and the ability to carry handguns in Illinois, they infringe on the right of the people, including Mrs. Shepard, members of the ISRA and other law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and are thus null and void.
Cox concluded: “In its historic Heller and McDonald decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms. Mary Shepard’s story highlights the need for law-abiding citizens to be able to fully exercise their Second Amendment rights. Whether through the legislature or through the courts, we won’t rest until that happens.”
Meeting Bloggers In Person
After I returned home from the NRA Annual Meeting, I received an email from Scott McCray. Scott is the blogger who puts out the blog MacBourne’s Musings. We had met in Pittsburgh at a couple of the blogger events.
However, neither of us realized at the time that we were both located in western North Carolina. It turns out that Scott works only about a 20 minute drive from where I live. Even better, I tend to go to where Scott is located at least once a week on business.
We had lunch this past week which was a lot of fun. Now we just need to go shooting after work. His favorite range is Moss Knob which is on Forest Service land. Here is Scott’s report on it.
I tend to go the the Cold Mountain Range run by the Wildlife Resource Commission which is closer to me. If the name Cold Mountain sounds familiar, it should. This is the same Cold Mountain that was featured in the book by Charles Frazier and the movie featuring Nicole Kidman and Renee Zollwegger.
It is really good to know that there are other gun bloggers located in these parts. I was beginning to think the nearest gun bloggers to me were in the Knoxville area like SayUncle and Linoge or the Raleigh area like Bob Owens (Confederate Yankee) or Sean Sorrentino.
Missing Posts
Blogger is the software and website that I use to run this blog. It is a from Google. As you are probably aware if you tried access the blog anytime since late yesterday afternoon, they have been having problems.
Currently, I am missing the two posts I put up yesterday. Google assures me that these have been archived and will be put back up after everything is running smoothly again.
I must say it has been very frustrating as I had notice of the latest SAF suit much earlier today and would have posted on it then.
UPDATE: The missing posts have been restored.