Tactical Gear magazine tries out the Steyr M40 A1 at the SHOT Show. They love the sights.
Steyr’s US website describes these sights as:
The unique trapezoid sight offers a new dimension in rapid target acquisition. The sight’s shape guides the eye onto the target, and thus the target is captured exactly and quickly.
Has anyone had a chance to try this pistol or the 9mm version out yet? If so, I’d love to hear your comments on it.
The Second Amendment Foundation released this reaction to the Attorney General of New Jersey’s response to their lawsuit, Muller v. Maenza, challenging that state’s concealed carry provisions:
SAF REACTS TO NEW JERSEY RESPONSE IN RIGHT-TO-CARRY LAWSUIT
For Immediate Release: 1/27/2011BELLEVUE, WA – The New Jersey Attorney General’s motion to dismiss a recently-filed Second Amendment Foundation lawsuit against the state’s subjective handgun carry laws was “predictable and disappointing,” SAF said today.
The lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Garden State’s “justifiable need” gun permit standard also involves the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs and six private citizens. It was filed in November in federal court.
The Attorney General’s brief asserted, “When a handgun is carried in public, the serious risks and dangers of misuse and accidental use are borne by the public.”
“That is a pretty lame argument,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. “Considering that there are more than 6.2 million law-abiding citizens licensed to carry in 48 states, and that many of these people have either intervened in, or prevented crimes by their mere presence, New Jersey’s position on this issue simply defies common sense.”
Gottlieb said the very nature of New Jersey’s “justifiable need” requirement is arbitrary, discriminatory and “wide open to official abuse.”
“We are disappointed but not surprised by the State’s response to our lawsuit,” noted ANJRPC President Scott Bach. “The right to defend yourself with a firearm outside the home has long been disparaged in the Garden State, and if necessary we are prepared to take this lawsuit all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to change that.”
SAF is also challenging gun permit provisions in neighboring New York and Maryland, and has filed a federal challenge to North Carolina’s Emergency Powers Act. Additionally, SAF filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder over enforcement of provisions in the 1968 Gun Control Act that prevent American citizens living abroad from purchasing firearms in this country. SAF won Second Amendment incorporation in its lawsuit against the Chicago handgun ban, McDonald v. City of Chicago.
Brady Campaign board member Joan Peterson who goes by JaPete online has a website called Common Gunsense. She calls it a blog to advocate for “common-sense” gun legislation. Many gun bloggers and podcasters have tried to engage her in dialogue without success. She eventually calls them “mean spirited” and bans them from commenting on her blog.
There is an alternative!
Gail Pepin has started her own blog called Uncommon Gunsense. For those that don’t know Gail, she is a Registered Nurse, IDPA competitor, and part of the ProArms podcast crew. She is also Massad Ayoob’s significant other and helps Mas with the Massad Ayoob Group.
Gail got fed up with people being banned on JaPete’s site so started Uncommon Gunsense as the alternative. As she says:
Tired of false promises of thoughtful reflection about the issue of guns and gun violence?
Tired of the misperceptions and the culture of gun violence in America?
Tired of misrepresentation of facts and the censuring of posts that don’t support a given agenda?
Then it’s time for some Uncommon Gunsense.
Comments here will be unmoderated, post what you can’t get posted on other blogs.
Welcome Gail to the blogging world and visit her blog by going here.
Guns America, the online sales and auction website, has a video from the SHOT Show about the Sig P290 that they have just released.
Bob Mayne of the Handgun World Show podcast just released an audio review of the Kimber Solo 9. You can listen to it here or download from iTunes. He rates it a 7 on a 10-point scale. Bob explains why in the podcast.
If you like to listen to podcasts and you haven’t listened to the Handgun World Show, you should start. It is part of the Gun Rights Radio Network. Bob is just a regular guy who makes it a point to emphasize he is not ex-military or ex-law enforcement. It is one of my favorite podcasts out there.
I watched both episodes of Sons of Guns tonight. It is the Discovery Channel’s new reality TV show featuring a custom gun manufacturer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’d say the show is kind of a blend of American Chopper with the family bickering (but not as nasty) and Monster Garage with its machine shop ingenuity.
The first episode featured the modern and the historic. Red Jacket was commissioned to construct a suppressed Saiga 12 shotgun. After one misfire because it was too loud, they succeeded in reducing the sound to 144 db. Even better, the shotgun is available for sale from Red Jacket for $2500 plus NFA tax stamp.
The historic was a Confederate cannon made in 1862 from the church bells of New Orleans. It was valued at $250,000 and the owner wanted to know if it was safe to fire. After having it X-rayed, they took it out to the field and had a go with it. For something that hadn’t been fired since 1865, it held together and was as accurate as could be expected.
Overall, I enjoyed the show. I think they overdid Will’s daughter Stephanie trying to control Will’s child-like impulsiveness but it wouldn’t be a “reality TV show” without a bit of the bickering.
A Canadian couple run afoul of airport security at Gatwick Airport recently.
It may be three inches long and made of plastic – but that didn’t stop a toy soldier’s gun being branded a “firearm” by zealous airport officials.
Ken Lloyd and his wife bought the “signaller crouching” figurine during a recent visit to the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Garrison.
But when the box containing the figure passed through the scanning machine at Gatwick airport, security officials declared the tiny plastic rifle a “firearm”.
Mrs. Lloyd eventually had to ship the 3-inch toy gun home by mail. However, before she could do that, the Royal Mail insisted that it be scanned by the X-ray machine. The Lloyds did receive the figurine’s SA80 rifle about 5 days after they returned home to Canada.
If these security officials ever get tired of working in the UK, I’m sure TSA has a place just waiting for them!
H/T Cam Edwards
Want to be prepared for the Zombie Apocalypse? Don’t want to expose yourself to their depredations? Then you need the deFNder Medium from FN Herstal.
Pete Brownell, President and CEO of Brownells, Inc and NRA board member, was interviewed at the SHOT Show by a reporter from ThinkProgress. I think they were trying for a repeat of their “report” supposedly indicating that a number of SHOT Show attendees didn’t see a need for standard capacity magazines. They failed.
ThinkProgress asked Mr. Brownell about a report from the Center for Public Integrity which tried to make a link between monetary support for the NRA and the NRA’s fight against restrictions on standard capacity magazines. The Center for Public Integrity bills itself as a center for investigative journalism in the public interest. The majority of their funding comes from foundations including, as you might guess, the Joyce Foundation.
The CPI report entitled “High-Capacity Magazine Sellers Raise Millions for NRA” attempted to portray the donations from MidwayUSA owners Larry and Brenda Potterfield as payoff of sorts to the NRA in exchange for lobbying against restrictions on magazine capacity. The report also noted that Pete Brownell and Ronnie Barrett serve on the NRA Board and Brenda Potterfield is on the Board of Directors of the NRA Foundation. Given that all three have companies that sell products that the anti’s love to hate, the report took this as prima facie evidence of the NRA kowtowing to “the gun industry.” They quote Josh Sugarman of the Violence Policy Center as their authority on this.
When ThinkProgress questioned Mr. Brownell on connections between NRA stances and his service on the Board, he said:
The NRA has always been active in the public interest. They’ve been a defender of the Second Amendment. It’s not because of financial interest, it’s because they defend the Second Amendment, what the founders, the original people that wrote this, were intending, what they actually wrote down. So they defend the Second Amendment. They don’t necessarily say, “We’re going to do this because someone is writing me a check.” […]
We need leaders to lead organizations, and the one place they get leaders is the military. The other place they get leaders are politicians and really the third place they get them are entrepreneurs. You can’t just get leadership from one area because then you’ll become pretty myopic in that area as an organization.
Listening to the audio recording posted along with the ThinkProgress interview, you could almost hear the disappointment in the reporter’s voice that he hadn’t gotten another “gotcha” interview. Nonetheless, he couldn’t resist throwing in this little tidbit to conclude his article after Mr. Brownell said standard capacity magazines give the defender an advantage:
Indeed, high-capacity magazines are an advantage. And one such clip was an advantage for Jared Loughner in Tucson this month, who was subdued by attendees at Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ (D-AZ) constituent event only after he stopped to reload his 31-bullet clip.
People with an agenda just don’t want to get it, do they?
H/T Brownells
SayUncle points to a story today indicating that the South Dakota legislature is rethinking its ban on concealed carry permits for non-citizens. As I pointed out in examining a Kentucky case, Say v. Adams, I didn’t think South Dakota had much of a leg to stand on.
As it is, South Dakota has one of the best concealed carry laws short of constitutional carry. It only requires a clean criminal and mental health record. The law also allows 18-year olds to obtain a permit. There are no training or marksmanship requirements.
HB 1149 which would change the law to include legal residents was introduced yesterday. The text of the bill is below:
State of South Dakota
EIGHTY-SIXTH SESSION
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2011HOUSE BILL NO. 1149
Introduced by: Representatives Gosch, Blake, Bolin, Brunner, Conzet, Gibson, Hansen (Jon), Hunt, Kirkeby, and Liss and Senators Cutler, Begalka, Brown, Frerichs, Olson (Russell), Peters, and Rave
FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to allow legal residents of the United States to obtain a concealed pistol permit.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
Section 1. That § 23-7-7.1 be amended to read as follows:
23-7-7.1. A temporary permit to carry a concealed pistol shall be issued within five days of application to a person if the applicant:
(1) Is eighteen years of age or older;
(2) Has never pled guilty to, nolo contendere to, or been convicted of a felony or a crime of violence;
(3) Is not habitually in an intoxicated or drugged condition;
(4) Has no history of violence;
(5) Has not been found in the previous ten years to be a “danger to others” or a “danger to self” as defined in § 27A-1-1 or is not currently adjudged mentally incompetent;
(6) Has physically resided in and is a resident of the county where the application is being made for at least thirty days immediately preceding the date of the application;
(7) Has had no violations of chapter 23-7, 22-14, or 22-42 constituting a felony or misdemeanor in the five years preceding the date of application or is not currently charged under indictment or information for such an offense;
(8) Is a citizen or legal resident of the United States; and
(9) Is not a fugitive from justice.
A person denied a permit may appeal to the circuit court pursuant to chapter 1-26.
Rarely would I say that the passage of a bill in any legislature is a slam dunk. However, this bill will be passed.
It is sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans in the South Dakota House and Senate. More importantly, it has as co-sponsors the Speaker Pro Tem of the House and the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate. Finally, the Governor of South Dakota has come out in favor of the change. It is good to see a legislature that is so quick to move to correct what is a constitutional defect in a law.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg introduced the following three gun control bills yesterday. While the text of the bills is not available yet, I am presuming that S. 32 is a clone of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy’s HR 308 and that S. 34 is a reiteration of Lautenberg’s proposal to ban anyone on the Do Not Fly list from buying a firearm (or explosives).
S.32 : A bill to prohibit the transfer or possession of large capacity ammunition feeding devices, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen Lautenberg, Frank R. [NJ] (introduced 1/25/2011)
Cosponsors (9)
Committees: Senate Judiciary
Latest Major Action: 1/25/2011 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.S.34 : A bill to increase public safety by permitting the Attorney General to deny the transfer of firearms or the issuance of firearms and explosives licenses to known or suspected dangerous terrorists.
Sponsor: Sen Lautenberg, Frank R. [NJ] (introduced 1/25/2011)
Cosponsors (8)
Committees: Senate Judiciary
Latest Major Action: 1/25/2011 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
S.35 : A bill to establish background check procedures for gun shows.
Sponsor: Sen Lautenberg, Frank R. [NJ] (introduced 1/25/2011)
Cosponsors (10)
Committees: Senate Judiciary
Latest Major Action: 1/25/2011 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
The co-sponsors of the bills above read like a who’s who of gun banners in the Senate. Senators Boxer, Feinstein, Durbin, and Schumer are all co-sponsors of the bills along with an assortment of other lesser gun banners.
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