Uncategorized Archives - Page 61 of 705 -

Uncategorized

Grabbing The Credit

May 4, 2023

by John Richardson 1 Comment

If you read my post from last night, you know that it was not Moms Demand Action, Giffords, Everytown, or North Carolinians Against Gun Violence (sic) who deserves the credit for killing the permitless concealed carry bill, HB 189, in the NC House yesterday. The credit really goes to the people in Fairfax.

Nonetheless, Becky and her minions at NCGV are claiming credit. Below is what they posted to Instagram.

In an email sent out at 1:34pm on May 4th, they said:

HUGE news! We did it: the Permitless Carry bill was WITHDRAWN from the NC House calendar last night! Our volunteers – YOU!! – sent hundreds of emails, phone banked, spread the word on social media, and showed up at the General Assembly to stop HB 189 — all in a few days!
This was not a foregone conclusion: the bill passed two legislative committees in two days, and had been scheduled for a vote last night. It was pulled at the very last minute. So for now, HB 189 is NOT advancing to a full House vote!
We’ll keep watching to make sure this bill does not come back up for a House vote – but today, know that YOU stopped this bill in its tracks!!
Thank you for your support on stopping this dangerous bill – North Carolina is safer today because of you!
Becky Ceartas
Executive Director
North Carolinians Against Gun Violence Action Fund

Uncategorized

NRA May Have Killed Permitless Carry In NC

May 4, 2023

by John Richardson 14 Comments

HB 189 – Freedom to Carry NC Act has been withdrawn from a vote by the full North Carolina House of Representatives and referred back to the House Rules Committee. The bill, formerly known as the NC Constitutional Carry Act, may be dead for this session unless Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-79) can add a fiscal note to the bill. It should be noted that Rep. Kidwell is the Deputy Majority Whip. As noted earlier, the crossover deadline for passage of a bill without a fiscal note is tomorrow, May 4th.

So who is at fault and what happened?

You have your choice.

You can blame Speaker Tim Moore who requested a training component be part of the bill, you can blame the NRA who has now come out in opposition to the bill at the last moment because it includes a training component, or Sen. President Pro Tem Phil Berger who says they’ve done enough on gun rights.

Given the NRA had a chance to testify either for or against the bill during the Judiciary 2 Committee hearing and did not, I think the blame rests more at their feet than that of Speaker Moore. I think Speaker Moore anticipated the opposition from some in law enforcement as well as from the anti-gun lobby and wanted to negate the rationale for their opposition to the bill. As for Sen. Berger, this is not the first time he’s decided to kill attempts at permitless carry. He did it in the 2017-2018 session after it had passed the House because he was afraid of losing his super-majority which he lost anyway.

From the Raleigh News and Observer:

Grass Roots North Carolina, a gun rights group that was one of the bill’s chief supporters, had strongly urged GOP leaders to take it up this week. The group’s president, Paul Valone, said he would continue to work on trying to get the bill passed this session.
Valone indicated that the National Rifle Association had concerns about education requirements that had been added to the bill on Tuesday while it was considered by a House committee.
“We are disappointed that the NRA, which has been largely absent in this session of the General Assembly, swooped in at the last minute and declared the bill unacceptable, due to the training provision we had added,” Valone said. “We are continuing to work on the bill, it is still alive, and we are by no means done.”
D.J. Spiker, the NRA’s North Carolina state director, said in response that the NRA “will never apologize for refusing to compromise on an issue as critical as Constitutional Carry.”

Sen. Berger said as the bill was being removed from the calendar that he thought the Republicans had done enough when they finally got rid of the pistol purchase permit. He also said he didn’t think the timing was right.

From an interview with Michael Hyland of WNCN Channel 17:

“We have passed a substantial bill dealing with some concerns about (the) Second Amendment. We’ve done away with the pistol purchase permit, which was the No. 1 goal of many of the gun rights groups for a long period of time,” Senate leader Phil Berger told reporters. “I just don’t know if if there’s a need for us to delve into additional issues dealing with guns and people’s Second Amendment rights.”

In my estimation, if the NRA had been willing to join with GRNC and GOA in support of the bill, flawed or not, then it would have passed and the NC Senate would have taken up the bill either in 2023 or 2024. As for the NRA’s rationale for opposing the bill of not being willing to compromise their principles, that is a joke. One of the things the NRA always seems willing to do is compromise even when it is not warranted.

I speculate that there was an element of retribution in the NRA’s 11th hour opposition to HB 189. The bill, like the repeal of the pistol purchase permit, was closely identified with Grass Roots North Carolina and not the NRA. The NRA got really pissy when they were called out for taking credit for the repeal and dumping on GRNC for taking the rightful credit. When that is added to the “if it’s not invented here” syndrome which pervades the NRA, it became more important to screw GRNC (and gun rights supporters in North Carolina) than to pass the bill.

Was the bill as clean as one would have liked? Of course it wasn’t. However, in politics it is the art of the possible and not the perfect. Getting HB 189 passed in time to meet the crossover deadline was the critical issue. Once the bill was in the Senate, it could have been amended any number of ways to make it better. Now, unless a miracle happens, thanks to the NRA we wait another two damn years.

Uncategorized

Update On Permitless Concealed Carry In NC

May 3, 2023

by John Richardson 1 Comment

The North Carolina House Judiciary 2 Committee held their hearing on HB 189 – NC Constitutional Carry Act today. The committee adopted a substitute which they often do and reported it favorably to the Rules Committee. The vote to advance the bill to Rules was 7 aye, 4 nay according to WGHP-TV Greensboro. The bill will be renamed “NC Permitless Carry”.

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to take up HB 189 tomorrow and a final vote is anticipated to come by Thursday, May 4th, which would meet the crossover deadline.

According to the WGHP report:

The bill was supported by gun rights advocacy groups, such as Grass Roots North Carolina and Gun Owners of America, represented by Andy Stevens, who said the bill would alleviate backlogs of some sheriffs who were slow to provide permits.
Paul Valone of Grass Roots North Carolina said the bill represented a “relatively modest bite at the apple.”

Among those speaking against the bill were the NC Council of Churches, NC Against Gun Violence, and the NC Sheriffs Association. The representative from the Sheriffs Association objected saying law enforcement would not know if the person they were approaching was legal to carry a concealed weapon. As with both the current law and the proposed law, anyone carrying concealed has the duty to inform if approached by law enforcement.

Grass Roots North Carolina also delivered over 1,500 signed petitions to Speaker Tim Moore’s office prior to the committee meeting. If you have not yet signed the petition, please do as that will increase the number that will be given to Sen. President Phil Berger.

HB 189, in addition to allowing unlicensed carry, would reduce the permitted age to 18. It would also recognize training offered by US Concealed Carry Association. As I read Section 1.2 of the proposed law, the training requirement of the current law would be retained under permitless carry. The bill, however, makes no mention of providing proof of that training to law enforcement if questioned. It is reported that the retention of the training requirement was necessary to get permitless carry passed out of committee.

Another bill of relevance that passed out of the House Judiciary 2 Committee today was HB 691 – New Resident/Temporary Concealed Carry Permit. It would impact new North Carolina residents who have a current, unexpired carry permit from another state that is due to expire within 120 days of establishing residency. They would be granted a temporary permit so long as they had applied for a NC permit, paid the fee, had their fingerprints taken, and signed the mental health background check waiver. They would not be required to have taken a North Carolina training class before being granted the temporary permit. This permit expires when person gets their NCCHP or if the person does not provide proof of taking the North Carolina course within 120 days of getting the temporary permit.

HB 691 will go to the Rule Committee tomorrow along with HB 189.

UPDATE: You will note that the bill retains the training requirement. This so I understand came from the Speaker and was the compromise to have the bill move forward. It was either compromise to get something or wait another two years. It does negate the anti-gun lobby’s argument about “untrained” people being allowed to carry.

Additionally, the bill was not on the Rules Committee calendar when it was first published yesterday. However, checking the list as of this morning, both HB 189 and HB 691 are on their list of bills to be heard at 1:15pm today.

Uncategorized

There Is Camo And Then There Is Malagasy Police Camo

May 1, 2023

by John Richardson 3 Comments

The police in Madagascar have rather unique camo. I can’t say that it lets them merge into their surroundings but it is kind of cool.

I could see wearing this to a Tiki party.

This was posted on camouflage subreddit of Reddit. The guy who posted the picture said he obtained it directly from a police store with the admonition not to wear it in public in Madagascar.

You can also see these female police officers wearing it.

Uncategorized

Former Enemies Come Together To Honor The Fallen

April 29, 2023

by John Richardson

The Battle of Camden was a decisive win for Lord Corwallis in his southern campaign during the American Revolution. He only lost 68 men compared to almost 900 Americans killed or wounded. Last year, the remains of 13 soldiers – 12 American and 1 British – were found by archaeologists working on the battlefield. They were just recently reinterred in a joint ceremony featuring both soldiers from the US Army and a contingent from 2 Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland. The lone British soldier was thought be from the 71st Regiment of Foot, Fraser’s Highlanders.

The British military’s news service, Forces News, just did a video story on the find by the archaeologist and the ceremony to reinter the bodies with the honor and dignity that they deserve.

More on the archaeological dig by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA), the University of South Carolina, the Richland County Coroner’s Office, and the SC Department of Natural Resources can be found in this story by The State.

It noted of these fallen who will finally be laid to rest with the honor and dignity that they deserve:

Suffering 900 casualties, the Americans fled in defeat. According to legend, some didn’t stop until they reached North Carolina. Their abandoned dead were thrown into communal graves, arms and legs intertwined, to lie in anonymity.
For more than two centuries, they did not rest peacefully. Wild hogs rooted through the shallow graves. The land was farmed and logged. Tractors drove over the graves, compressing dirt and clay and crushing bone that lay sometimes just inches below the surface.

The Post and Courier of Charleston gives an American perspective of the ceremonies in the following video:

Uncategorized

Help Pass Permitless Concealed Carry In NC

April 28, 2023

by John Richardson 4 Comments

North Carolina has and has had permitless open carry since 1922. That is when the North Carolina Supreme Court in State v. Kerner said it was a constitutional violation to prohibit open carry. Now we are fighting to have what 27 other states have – unlicensed or permitless concealed carry.

Grass Roots North Carolina plans to deliver petitions demanding passage of permitless concealed carry to Speaker Tim Moore on Tuesday. Thursday, May 4th, is the last day for a bill to pass the House in order qualify for the crossover deadline. If the House does not pass HB 189 by then, permitless carry will be dead for the remainder of the next two years in the General Assembly.

GRNC also has an alert up with pre-written language with which to contact your State Representative. You can find it here.

I have embedded the petition below which has a QR code to lead you to where you will need to sign it. Frankly, I don’t think it matters if you live in North Carolina or not, we need numbers.

Uncategorized

Every Picture Tells A Story, Vol. 2, No. 3

April 25, 2023

by John Richardson 6 Comments

Today at 2pm CDT, Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) will sign LB77 making Nebraska the 27th state to adopt unlicensed concealed carry. Gov. Pillen is fulfilling a campaign promise in which he said he would sign the bill if it was presented to him. He will be joined by Sen. Tom Brewer (R-43rd District) who was the primary sponsor of the bill along with other state senators. The signing ceremony will be streamed live on Nebraska Public Media.

Thanks to the efforts of Rob Vance, my long running series of Every Picture Tells A Story has the update which adds Nebraska.

Here are the statistics that accompany the graphic.

26.8%	Non-compliant with 2nd Amendment per Bruen (CA,CT,DC,HI,MD,MA,NJ,NY,RI)
0.0%	No Issue
0.0%	May Issue goes away Post-Bruen
30.0%	Shall Issue (CO,DE,IL,LA,MI,MN,NC,NM,NV,OR,PA,SC,VA,WA,WI)
43.2%	Unlicensed concealed carry

As I noted in a prior post, almost three-fourths of all Americans live in a state where a permit is not required or is shall-issue. If you wanted to do a real deep dive, you could expand the numbers a bit as some counties in California such as Sacramento are de facto shall-issue.

If North and South Carolina were to adopt unlicensed or permitless concealed carry, the percentage would definitely go above 75%. The South Carolina House has passed such a bill and it is now in the SC Senate. Meanwhile in North Carolina, Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort, Dare, Hyde, and Pamlico) has introduced HB 189 – NC Constitutional Carry Act. It is now in the House Judiciary 2 Committee.

Of the remaining shall-issue states, it would appear that only Louisiana might pass a permitless carry law. The remaining states are entirely controlled by Democrats, have at least one house of their legislature controlled by Democrats, or have a Democrat as governor.

Uncategorized

“Get Your Kicks On Route 66”

April 25, 2023

by John Richardson 4 Comments

I never realized just how many versions of this song existed until I went looking for a video to post. It was done by Nat King Cole, by the Rolling Stones, by Dr. Feelgood, by Diana Krall, by Chuck Berry, by Depeche Mode, and the list goes on and on.

Now I’ve driven on Route 66 in New Mexico, Arizona, and Missouri. I have seen the concrete adobe motel in Albuquerque and have had a concrete at Ted Drewes in St. Louis. The latter is just down the street from my sister-in-law who lives just off of Rt. 66.

I’m going with this version by Asleep at the Wheel because I like the group and I like Texas Swing.

As to why this song is special for me today, I’ll let you guess. Eleven years ago this resonated with me.

Uncategorized

Only Professional Chefs Should Be Allowed These Knives

April 22, 2023

by John Richardson 2 Comments

You know how the anti-gun lobby says only the police or military should have access to certain firearms such as the AR-15 or handguns with standard capacity magazines? Well, it seems the Brits are planning to go beyond firearms to include things like chef’s knives, machetes, and “zombie knives”. Zombie knives are those that look “evil” or have markings on them that suggest violence.

British Home Secretary Suella Braverman has issued a “consultation” which seeks to give police the power to seize knives found in the homes of suspects, ban other knives, and increase the penalty for selling, making, or importing “dangerous knives.” This is a predecessor to adopting new legislation.

From the Daily Mail:

Kitchen knives could be seized from the homes of suspected criminals under a proposed Home Office plan.
Police will be consulted by ministers to allow them extra powers to ‘seize, retain and destroy bladed articles’ kept in private, even if the knives are ‘not on the Home Office’s banned list of weapons’.

Certain knives such as push daggers, swords, and butterfly knives are already bannned.

The rationale supposedly is due to “knife-enabled crime”. British police has seen an increase in stabbings along with a 17% increase in “possession of article with a blade or point” crimes.

From The Telegraph:

Chris Philp, the policing minister, said: “Too often we hear from towns across England and Wales that another life has been lost to violence, often using large knives that have no legitimate use.
“It is time that we move to ban these dangerous weapons, which is the process we are starting today. We are also consulting on giving the police more powers to seize knives.

So I guess professional chefs will now be required to keep their knives in locked cases and only farmers will be allowed to use tools like a machete. The average home gourmet cook will have to get by with unpointed (and probably dull) knives. Likewise, the home gardener who seeks to keep that bramble or hedge under control will need to use an electric string trimmer and not the “evil” and “dangerous” machete.

I wonder how soon before the Home Office goes after the quintessential British gardening tool called the Billhook like the double-edged one below from British gardening company Carters (established 1740)..

Uncategorized

NRA-ILA Picks Wrong Target

April 21, 2023

by John Richardson 2 Comments

The NRA-ILA is now headed by what I consider their third string quarterback. First, Wayne and company forced Chris Cox out for supposed disloyalty. Then his replacement Jason Ouimet left when he saw the writing on the wall. Now Randy Kozuch, an almost 30-year veteran of the NRA, was appointed as Executive Director of ILA by the Board of Directors on Monday He had been the interim head prior to Monday.

Yesterday, the NRA-ILA posted a release that claimed credit for getting North Carolina’s pistol purchase permit repealed and blasting other 2A groups for taking credit for it.

However, some other 2A groups in the state have instead continued to focus on seeking credit for the legislative victory. At least one group has gone so far as to try claiming exclusive responsibility for the passage and veto override of SB41.
Not only do these laughable claims dismiss over a decade of legislative repeal efforts by NRA members, gun owners, and other 2A groups, but they also create an unnecessary distraction. This is a time when Second Amendment expansion opportunities in North Carolina are possible, including NRA’s push for constitutional carry. We would hope that all pro-gun groups share that same enthusiasm to collectively fight for pro-gun legislation in North Carolina.

Now I don’t know if this was the work of Randy Kozuch as it reads more like something that Marion Hammer would put out. I do know that someone royally screwed up.

To paraphrase Jim Croce:

You don’t tug on superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don’t mess around with Paul Valone of GRNC

It is bad enough to take credit for another organization’s hard work. The NRA has done that time and again. However, it goes beyond the pale when you then dump on an all-volunteer, highly effective, state-level gun rights organization for having the temerity to claim credit for their actual accomplishments.

As anyone who knows Paul Valone would expect, he is not taking this lying down. He issued a point by point response last night.

Paul Valone is the honey badger of the gun rights community in North Carolina. While the NRA may still consider itself the 800 lb gorilla, “honey badger don’t care“.