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Don’t Be A Bubba

November 20, 2022 by 6 Comments

When surplus firearms were really plentiful, it was not unusual for a “home gunsmith” to convert one into a more sporting configuration. Usually it involved cutting down and reshaping the stock along with maybe a little metal work. There were even books on how to do it along with articles on it in gun rags. Now I am not talking about custom rifles where a professional gunsmith might use a surplus action as the basis for the custom rifle. I have a couple of Eddystone 1917 Enfields that formed the basis for magnum rifles. I also have a period correct Eddystone 1917 rifle with the protective leaves on the rear sight.

Given that you can now get a Savage Axis or a Ruger American centerfire rifle for a fraction of the price of an original Mauser that will be more accurate, it just does not make sense to destroy a piece of history for a hunting rifle. I don’t have a problem taking something that have been “bubba’ed” and reworking it but using a period correct, matching numbers Mauser of German or Swedish origin is almost a sin.

Reddit has a sub-reddit called Gun Memes. I saw this today and it was spot on.

When SKS carbines sold for $100 or less, they were a cheap way to get a deer rifle with almost .30-30 ballistics. Now if you want a Chinese or Russian SKS carbine, expect to pay $450 or more. Even the formerly ubiquitous Yugoslav SKS carbines are selling for $300 plus.

Respect that piece of military history and don’t be a “bubba”.

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Everytown Fundraising Off Trump Announcement

November 17, 2022 by

Unless you were living under a rock, you know the former President Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. It is was not unexpected nor were the fundraising appeals based upon his announcement.

However, one fundraising appeal that appeared in my in-box today was somewhat unexpected. It was from Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety (sic).

Yesterday, Donald Trump announced that he is running for president in 2024.

Time and again President Trump has shown himself to be unfit for office. The NRA has long been one of Donald Trump’s top supporters, spending tens of millions to support his presidential bids in 2016 and 2020. As president, he was the NRA’s number one ally, fomenting the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda and emboldening far right extremists.

Donald Trump is a threat to democracy and a threat to gun safety.

No matter who the gun lobby decides to support in 2024, Everytown and Moms Demand Action will always be the counterweight to their far-right extremism. We are a grassroots movement of parents, students, survivors, educators, gun owners, community leaders, and concerned citizens working together to fight for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence—and we rely on your support to power our work.

In my opinion, this appeal was targeted to the low-information voter and donor. While President Trump had a great relationship with Wayne LaPierre and the NRA, other than his appointments to the Federal judiciary including the Supreme Court, he did not do a lot for gun rights. We never got national carry reciprocity and we never got the hearing protection act. Instead we got President Trump pressuring the DOJ and BATFE to concoct a ban on bump stocks by reclassifying them as machine guns. This was despite the clear intent of Congress and the clear wording of the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act of 1968. Thus to say Donald Trump is a threat to “gun safety” (sic) aka gun control is farcical.

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Florala Pharmacy: Drugs, Guns, & Gifts

November 14, 2022 by 3 Comments

I have written in the past about McCaysville Drug and Guns in McCaysville, Georgia. Well, I found a place that goes one better – Florala Pharmacy.

Florala Pharmacy is located in Florala, Alabama which as the name suggests just across the border from Florida. Located in downtown Florala along US Hwy 331, the pharmacy was established in 1904 and is locally owned.

As this next photo makes clear, it is more than just a pharmacy.

In addition to being a full service pharmacy with a home health aids department, it has a gun counter and a quite extensive gift and clothing section. The gun counter had a selection of new rifles, shotguns, and a few pistols along with ammo and other accessories. The gift and clothing sections had a lot of nice items that were more than just “trinkets”. In a sense, this was a health-oriented, small town (pop. 1,906) general store that had some things for tourists and lot of what was needed locally.

The gift section had everything from a Christmas tree to greeting cards to clothing and more.

I did ask the lady whose back is in the picture if it would be OK if I took pictures. She said, “Honey, people take pictures of our store all the time.”

And yes, I got the T-shirt.

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Thank You To All Veterans

November 11, 2022 by 1 Comment

I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to all veterans of the United States armed services on this Veterans Day. Your service to our nation in good times and in bad is appreciated by all who have a sense of honor and decency.

In my own family, my dad and almost all my uncles on both sides of the family served in either the Army or the Navy. The Complementary Spouse’s father, brother, and sister-in-law all served as Air Force officers. I was about to say we didn’t have any Marines but then I remembered my cousin Jackie served as a Marine Corps mortarman in the 1950s.

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More Money Down The Drain At NRA

November 10, 2022 by 1 Comment

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied the NRA’s request for an en banc hearing in their lawsuit against Maria Vullo of the NY Department of Financial Services. They had originally sued her on First Amendment grounds saying she had violated their right to free speech and to equal protection of the law with regard to an investigation involving the NRA and three insurance companies.

This was an appeal from the court’s decision on September 22nd which reversed and remanded the District Court’s decision not to dismiss the NRA’s free speech claims against Maria Vullo. The court found that she was covered by qualified immunity.

So we see, yet again, that the vaunted legal prowess of Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, is more a myth than a reality. When one sees how much the NRA has spent on legal bills with the majority going to Brewer, one has to wonder just what value that they got for that money.

To help put things in perspective, the legal budget of the Second Amendment Foundation was $1.8 million according to their new Executive Director Adam Kraut.

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Happy 247th Birthday, USMC!

November 10, 2022 by 1 Comment

Today marks the 247th birthday of the United States Marine Corps founding at Tun Tavern. Interestingly, the person commissioned by the Second Continental Congress to raise two battalions of Marines, Samuel Nicholas, was the innkeeper of Tun Tavern and a Quaker. He is buried at Arch Street Friends Meeting’s graveyard where the Marines lay a wreath in his memory on the Marine Corps’ birthday.

Nicholas gives new meaning to the term “Fighting Quakers”. I wonder how many Quakers are aware of this connection to the Marine Corps. I know that I never heard of it when I attended Guilford College which is a Quaker college.

Nicholas started recruiting immediately upon receiving his commission from the Continental Congress. In that spirit, here are a couple of older recruiting posters.

Finally, here is the official birthday message from the Commandant in video form.

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Observations On The Midterm Elections

November 9, 2022 by 3 Comments

The pollsters took another election on the chin. Few races turned out anywhere near what was predicted. The so-called red wave or tsunami has turned into, at best, a red rivulet. The US House may be Republican majority but it will be only so marginally. We still don’t know about the Senate. The Georgia senate runoff may be the deciding factor there.

In North Carolina, it was generally a good night for Republicans and conservatives. Rep. Tedd Budd (R-NC) defeated former Ch. Justice Cheri Beasley. He had a positive vote margin of approximately 135,000 votes. In my district, St. Sen. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) beat Buncombe County Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara (R) by over 30,000 votes.

In the North Carolina statewide judicial races for Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, it was a Republican sweep. Republicans will now have a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court with the addition of Judge Richard Deitz and Trey Allen. With the US Supreme Court hearing Moore et al v. Harper et al, a case involving redistricting and the legislative prerogative, redistricting will probably come before the NC Supreme Court again.

Speaking of redistricting, the forced redistricting of Congressional districts by the NC Supreme Court resulted in a 7-7 split between Republicans and Democrats. Without this forced redistricting, it probably would have been 9-4.

The other NC results of note are that the Republicans regained a supermajority in the State Senate and are only one short in the State House. This bodes well for both the elimination of the pistol purchase permit as well as allowing church carry when the church has an attached school. Both bills were vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) and had his veto sustained in this past session.

Moving on from NC, let’s look at Pennsylvania. I think it was widely expected that AG Josh Shapiro (D) was going to win the governorship over St. Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) and he did. It was the Senate race between Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman that got most national attention. It appears that Fetterman, damaged as he was from his stroke, has won that race by about 200,000 votes. I have looked at the results and one thing stands out to me. The PA Secretary of State’s office shows the votes on the day of the election and “mail in” votes. Fetterman got 886,217 mail in votes versus 217,932 for Oz. A 4-1 split like that is statistically suspicious in my opinion. This is especially true given that Oz had about 45,000 more election day votes than Fetterman. It just doesn’t pass the smell test.

As to Fetterman serving a full term, I’m going to go out on a limb and say he will be gone by mid-year 2023 due to “health reasons” with Shapiro then appointing a replacement to serve until Jan. 2025. I just can’t see Fetterman as being much more than a placeholder given his condition.

J. D. Vance along with Republicans in general had a good day in Ohio. They took the governorship, Vance’s senate seat, and the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court along the rest of the Council of State offices.

Oregonians decided that they wanted to stick with the leftist policies of Gov. Kate Brown and elected Tina Kotek (D) as governor. Again, polls were deceiving as it appeared that Republican Christine Drazan might have been in the lead. Also, voters barely passed anti-gun Measure 114 which contains a magazine ban as well as requirements to obtain a permit before purchasing any firearm. Multnomah County, the home of Portland, provided the most votes for it. Why am I not shocked. I foresee that this will be challenged in Federal court given the Bruen precedents.

One last observation is that former President Trump was good at pushing candidates in the primaries. He was not so good at getting candidates that could actually win a general election. If you look at both New Hampshire and Georgia, Republican governors cruised to re-election while the Trump-backed Senate candidates struggled. Bolduc lost in New Hampshire and Hershel Walker is slightly behind Warnock at they are headed to a run-off. Meanwhile in Florida, both Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio who have been dissed by Trump won handily. I know Trump wants vindication for his 2020 loss to Joe Biden but there comes a time when you just have to suck it up and move on. Now that I’m officially a senior citizen, I think I can say we need a 2024 presidential candidate that is younger than me which automatically precludes him.

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Vote Like Your Rights Depend Upon It

November 6, 2022 by 3 Comments

That is because your firearm rights do depend upon this election. If the Democrats retain control of Congress, you can be assured of a new assault weapons ban along with a magazine ban. Fortunately, if the polls are correct, the Republicans should take at least the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.

In most areas, early voting has concluded and you must vote in person on Election Day. As I write this, the polls will open in less than 48 hours in most states.

If you are unsure of where a candidate stands on gun rights, most gun rights organizations will have candidate ratings. Some will only rate Congressional candidates and state level races while others will drill down to state house and senate races.

If you are a North Carolinian, your best source is the Grass Roots North Carolina-PVF. Their ratings don’t give extra weight to incumbents unlike the NRA. Moreover, they take a hardline approach to candidates who blow off their issues survey. If you blow off the survey and have no voting record, you get zero stars. I still shake my head at local Republicans who do this such as Pratik Bhakta in my state house district. He did get an AQ rating from the NRA but I don’t know how.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation doesn’t rate head-to-head races for Congress. However, they do have a report card with the ratings of each member of the House and Senate. Bear in mind that some of these politicians are not running again or have been defeated in primary.

The NRA-PVF does rate candidates for Congress, state legislatures, and some other races like the North Carolina Supreme Court. You do not need to be a member to see their ratings and endorsements. Just click on your state on the map they have to find their ratings and endorsements.

Gun Owners of America only does Congressional races. Their ratings do differ a bit from that of the NRA and are a bit tougher in general. You can find them here.

If I had one suggestion to make here besides making your voice heard by voting, it would be to seek out the ratings or recommendations from your state level gun rights group first. This is especially true when it comes to state legislators and other state and local candidates. Whereas the NRA-ILA may have one representative covering two or more states, the state level groups know who is who on the local basis. They know who has stood with them in the past, who has worked with them at various levels of government, and who has actually attended their events.

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Frank Tait To Be On NRA Board

November 4, 2022 by 1 Comment

Dave Butz, longtime NRA Board member, passed away earlier today. He played on two Super Bowl champion football teams for the Washington Redskins. He was 72.

As a result of Butz’s passing, Frank Tait will now serve on the NRA Board of Directors until the next NRA Annual Meeting. Frank was notified this afternoon by NRA Secretary John Frazer of Mr. Butz’s passing and his ascension to the board. Under the bylaws, vacancies on the board are filled by the next highest candidate not elected. Frank was the last remaining candidate not elected to the board.

So what does this mean for NRA members. By himself Frank will not be able to do much given the size of the board. However, he will have access by law to the books and records of the NRA. Even if Judge Cohen in the New York AG’s suit would not allow him intervenor status, he would be obligated to force the powers that be at the NRA to grant Frank access to this information.

I assume that the Friends of Wayne will give Frank the same cold shoulder that they have given Judge Phil Journey. Their petulance is actually rather pathetic as they would rather stay in the good graces of a hireling than those of the members.

I wish Frank the best in this position and hope that some good can come from it.

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LawDog Needs Our Help

November 3, 2022 by 4 Comments

Ian McMurtrie aka LawDog is an author, a blogger, and a retired lieutenant from the Wichita County (TX) Sheriffs Department. He blogs at The LawDog Files and has a number of books and anthologies out including Ghosts of Malta which is excellent.

From LawDog’s donation page

He retired from the sheriffs department in April 2020. In October 2020, he was charged with excessive use of force regarding an inmate in the jail. The charge is a misdemeanor for which he is not guilty. As Jim Curtis explained to me yesterday, it involved a very large inmate who was out of control and who had been arrested for assaulting an officer. I have read the news stories regarding LawDog’s arrest and the “excessive force” he used. It is total and utter bullshit. Indeed, the prisoner involved did not even file a complaint. The excessive force was more in line with what a nun might have used in a Catholic school to control an unruly student in days gone by.

The charge stems from internal politics within the sheriffs department. It is being made worse by a DA who is trying to bleed LawDog dry by dragging the case out over two years with numerous bogus plea deals. Cedar Sanderson gives more background. It is way more eloquent than my post.

A successful defense costs money and LawDog is at the point where he has to ask for help. A legal defense fund has been set up. You can find it here.

Jim Curtis aka Old NFO has set up a raffle for donors with some very nice prizes in order to help raise awareness and contributions. Every $20 donation gets one entry into the raffle. Prizes include a custom rifle along with some other great stuff.

I have donated and I would encourage everyone to do so as well. While you could win a raffle prize, make a donation because it is the right thing to do. If we don’t stand up for what is right in the face of an injustice, who will?

UPDATE: As of this morning, Sunday, Nov. 6th, over $36,000 has been raised for LawDog’s legal defense fund. To those who have donated, thank you. To those that plan to donate, you can still do it!