by Katie Pavlich of Townhall.com was a guest on NRA News. Among the items discussed was Jean Baptiste Kingery who is accused of smuggling hand grenades into Mexico.
Month: September 2011
Tweaking?
When I hear the word “tweaking” I think of the scene from the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan film “You’ve Got Mail” where Hanks’ character sends an email saying his business requires tweaking.
Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune reported that the Chicago City Council was working on tweaks for their gun range restrictions given the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling in Ezell v. Chicago. Mayor Rahm Emanuel submitted amendments to the Council’s Public Safety Committee. His transmittal letter said he was sending these amendments at the request of the Superintendent of Police and the Corporation Council.
The council’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday recommended approval of a tweak that would cut in half the licensing fee to open up a shooting range. The cost would be $2,000 for two years.
The city also would reduce the minimum distance a gun range would have to be located from homes, parks and houses of worship to 500 feet from 1,000 feet.
Other changes include requiring a registry of all shooting range patrons for at least one year. This registry would include not only their name and date and time of visit but also their FOID and Chicago Firearms Permit numbers. Another change was an amendment to the range air filtering and ventilation requirements which went into very technical detail.
M. Rose Kelly of the City’s Law Department said they had tried to anticipate the Appeals Court ruling. She said that after reading the court’s ruling, “we’ve looked at the shooting range ordinance and feel that it needs some tweaking in some areas to come into compliance.”
Whether the changes will still pass muster are still debatable. They are still quite restrictive and I think Chicago is doing the “with all deliberate speed” approach to this with emphasis on “deliberate”.
Justice Backtracks On Number Of Fast And Furious Guns Involved In Violent Crimes
In a letter sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich is backtracking on the number of firearms from Project Gunwalker that have been found at U.S. violent crime scenes. Previously, the Justice Department said these walked firearms had been found at the scene of 11 violent crimes in the United States. Now according to this letter, Weich is saying they combined the number of U.S. and Mexican guns traced into the number reported to Congress by mistake.
Weich is now saying that except for the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry that “ATF is aware of only one instance where a firearm associated with Operation Fast and Furious was traced and coded as recovered in connection with a crime of violence in the United States.”
Why does one get the feeling that anytime Assistant AG Ron Weich opens his mouth that he will seek to confuse, obfuscate, or otherwise parse what he has said in the past?
Lori Jean Gliha, a local reporter for ABC15 in Phoenix, has been following the firearms that were walked to crimes in Arizona for months now.
We uncovered official documents showing nearly 50 guns connected to the Fast and Furious case were also recovered at the scenes of non-violent Glendale and Phoenix crimes.
All of the non-violent cases involve drug-related offenses.
Notwithstanding Weich’s retraction, 2 Federal law enforcement officers and an estimated 15-200 Mexicans have been killed with firearms traced to Operation Fast and Furious. Gliha reports that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had this response to the retraction.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been a leader in the Congressional investigation into the controversial Fast and Furious case said he was not surprised by the new information.
“The Justice Department has been less than forthcoming since day one, so the revisions here are hardly surprising, and the numbers will likely rise until the more than 1000 guns that were allowed to fall into the hands of bad guys are recovered-most likely years down the road.”
Unfortunately, Sen. Grassley is correct. These walked guns will keep showing up for years to come.
Boston Holds Hearing On Knife Sales Licensing Proposal
Knife Rights issues the following alert regarding a proposal in Boston to license knife sales. You can find a link to a video interview with two of the City Council members pushing this here.
Boston Proposes to License Knife Sales
As we warned in our last News Slice eBlast, this Thursday, September 8, 2011, the Public Safety Committee of the Boston City Council will be holding a hearing with the intention of licensing the sale of knives in the city of Boston. Below is the official stated purpose of the hearing:
That the appropriate committee of the Boston City Council hold a hearing to examine requiring the sale of knives to be licensed by the appropriate police agency that would monitor, regulate and license businesses selling knives. Representatives from the Boston Police Department, Inspectional Services Department, and other interested parties shall be invited to attend.
The meeting will be at Boston City Hall, Ianella Chambers, 5th Floor on Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 10 am.
If you are a Boston citizen, here is a link to the councilors’ webpages where you can find a link to contact them and POLITELY express your outrage: http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/councillors
We urge all Boston area Knife Rights members to contact the Boston City Council and express their opposition to this measure. Currently citizens need a license to possess pepper spray. In a year or so this measure could lead to licensing citizens to possess a basic pocket knife.
As noted in the article linked below, existing Boston law already prohibits knives with a blade two inches or longer from being sold to anyone under age 18. A number of stores were fined as a result of a recent sting operation for illegally selling knives to underage persons. There is no indication that there has been any factual connection made between violence committed with knives in the city and these retailers, or that licensing would actually help the situation any more than simply enforcing the existing law on the books.
Knife Rights has a representative in Massachusetts who will be attending this meeting, but if you live in the area and can attend as well, the stronger show of opposition we can generate, the better.
Damn! Judge Rules For State In Kachalsky v. Cacace
Kachalsky v. Cacace was the second of the post-McDonald cases brought by Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation. Originally filed in July 2010, it challenged the arbitrary nature of the issuance of handgun permits in New York State and the requirement to show good or “proper cause”.
Today, Judge Cathy Seibel released her opinion granting the cross-motion for summary judgment from the State of New York and denying the motion for summary judgment for the plaintiffs. As the decision is a 60-page opinion, I have not had time to study it it in detail to see her reasoning.
As I said in the headline, damn!
UPDATE: I have quickly scanned through Judge Seibel’s opinion. She made the following points:
- The court had subject matter jurisdiction and the case was ripe. By denying them permits, the State of New York had injured the plaintiffs.
- Found that the Second Amendment Foundation did not have standing as an organizational plaintiff.
- Said none of the abstention doctrines pushed by New York applied in this case.
- Found that Second Amendment protections in Heller only applied to “hearth and home” and not to carry outside of the home.
- Says New York’s proper cause requirement meets the standard set forth in Heller.
- Argument about hunting “unavailing” as “as hunting does not involve handguns and therefore falls
outside the ambit of the challenged statute.” - Says intermediate scrutiny applies here and that NY Penal Code 400.00(2)(f) is related to a important governmental interest.
- Says equal protection claim fails as the statute “does not treat similarly situated individuals differently, but rather applies uniformly.”
UPDATE II: As Gray Peterson and Gene Hoffman reminded me by Twitter, Alan Gura lost both what was then Parker v. DC and McDonald v. Chicago at the District Court level as well as more recently Dearth v. Holder and Ezell v. Chicago. All four of those cases eventually became wins at the appellate level.
Going Old School
For the longest time I have been searching for a Colt Detective Special at a reasonable price. I finally found one and picked it up this weekend in a private sale. It is a Model D1425 or 4th Issue Detective Special. These were only made between 1993 and 1995. The 4th Issue featured a shrouded ejector rod, 2 inch barrel, composition grips with a gold Colt medallion, blued finish, and a steel frame.
Unlike most .38 Special snubbies, the Detective Special is a 6-shot revolver. Size-wise, the Detective Special weighs in at 21 oz. and is just a hair larger than the Smith and Wesson J-frame. The manual says that you can fire +P loads in it but should have it inspected by a qualified gunsmith after 2-3,000 rounds of +P ammo.
I especially was on the lookout for this variation of the Detective Special as I had been told by revolversmith Grant Cunningham that these had the best internals that he had seen.
One of the nice touches that Colt included was a letter from the President of Colt’s Manufacturing thanking the buyer for purchasing a Colt.
Now I need to find a good holster for this revolver which is easier said than done since it hasn’t been made in over 15 years. Also, I’d like to have some trigger work done on it to reduce the stacking or increase of pull weight toward the end of the trigger’s travel. That said, I am a very happy buyer and look forward to using this revolver for many years to come as a carry gun.
Sure To Cause Exploding Heads At The Brady Campaign
Thanks to a Tweet by Mark Vanderberg of the Gun Rights Radio Network, I came across an article in the Las Vegas Sun from early August that is sure to cause heads to explode at the Brady Campaign and all the other gun prohibitionist groups.
In Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, the two leading contenders for the Democrat nomination are arguing who has better pro-gun credentials and which one is better liked by the NRA.
It’s not often that two Democrats try to outdo each other on who can best push the National Rifle Association’s legislation — even in Nevada.
But that was at the heart of a skirmish between state Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, and Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, in the middle of the legislative session this year.
Now, the two Democrats are potentially facing each other in a primary for Congress, a fight that usually sees the candidates work to outdo each other on who can best appeal to the party’s most liberal voters.
Both men have an A or better rating from the NRA’s Political Victory Fund. Oceguera was rated A and endorsed by the NRA-PVF in his 2010 election while Lee was rated A+ and endorsed his 2008 election.
It seems the two of them have been going at it since earlier in the year over who is better on gun rights. Lee fired the first shot saying in a letter to Oceguera in which he accused him of “plagarizing” other gun bills:
“I hope that in your zest for self promotion and aggrandizement in trying to receive a coveted A+ rating from the National Rifle Association that you haven’t jeopardized the ability to pass sensible and much needed legislation concerning the gun rights of Nevadans,” Lee wrote in a letter to Oceguera.
Oceguera responded back that he was proud of the work he was doing for gun rights, have been endorsed by the NRA, and that Lee was “very angry about the legislation I am sponsoring, which protects the right of gun owners all across this state.”
Oceguera’s omnibus gun bill which lowers the cost of a concealed carry permit and changed the requirement from qualifying with each semi-auto pistol to only one semi-auto pistol passed overwhelmingly. Unfortunately, Lee’s signature bill which would have allowed campus carry at universities in Nevada and which was NRA endorsed didn’t pass.
This Democratic in-fighting over who is better for gun rights is a good reminder that the “R” in NRA doesn’t stand for Republican. Whether it is Oceguera or Lee who faces Rep. Joe Keck (R-NV) for the 3rd Congressional District seat, gun owners are in good shape with any of the three.
Proud To Be A Barbarian
Vice-President Joe Biden told a crowd of AFL-CIO supporters in Cincinnati today that “you are the only folks keeping the barbarians from the gates.”
One of the older definitions of “barbarian” is a non-Greek. During the Renaissance, it was used by Italians to mean anyone who wasn’t an Italian. Given the state of the economies of Greece and Italy, I am proud to be a barbarian. Unfortunately, given the actions of the Obama Administration since January 2009, I think they would be happy if we were to adopt the failed economic policies of both countries.
Know Your Enemy
The famous director Frank Capra produced a film for the military called “Know Your Enemy – Japan”. It was a part of his famous series of films entitled “Why We Fight” whose purpose, in Capra’s words, was to explain to soldiers “why the hell they’re in uniform”.
Linoge posted an entry today entitled “The Strange Bedfellows of ‘Gun Control'”. It could just as easily be entitled “Know Your Enemy – Violent Gun Banners”. In this post he discusses an anti-rights cultist Laci the Chinese Crested aka James Charles Michael Bannerman. Bannerman has now taken to hanging out on JaPete – Joan Peterson’s blog.
Linoge reminds us that we need to bear in mind the perspective of these gun prohibitionists:
In any case, it is an important perspective for pro-rights advocates for us to bear in mind. “Gun control” supporters like Bannerman do want us dead for daring to have differing opinions, and are willing to use the government to kill us if they have to. Other “gun control” supporters with stiffer spines are willing to murder us themselves. Countless “gun control” supporters want to ban firearms, ban our rights, harass and bully us, intimidate us and our families, and silence us by any means available.
These are the people we are fighting against, folks. These are the people we would defend our rights against. And these are the people we cannot permit to win. Ever.
I don’t normally call someone who disagrees with me my enemy but when they want me dead it is not normal times. They are our enemy and that is why we fight.
Gangs Hiding Guns In Sarah Brady Paradise? Unpossible!
SkyNews has a breathless account of how they were tipped off to a cache of guns hidden by gang members in London “ready for further disorder after the unrest in England last month.”
The tip lead to a major raid by the Metropolitan Police which is shown in the video below. The reporter had received a text message with the location of the guns and he passed it on to police.
“Guns in yellow and orange jd bag at st peters court wickham road brockley london se4, open the bin area at entrance, on left hand side, this is a black metal door, you will find in bin the guns within the bag, describe, the bin area has st peters court written above in big writing on sign, remember left hand side bin, st peters court are a small block of flats.”
A quick English to American translation – the guns are in a JD Sports shopping bag hidden in a garbage can within a garbage can storage area for the St. Peters Court apartment building.
So the total haul was 2 flintlock pistols, 2 flare guns, and an old rusty revolver. Not that they can’t be used to kill someone but the way the British police were acting you’d have thought it was 3 full-auto Glock 18’s and a pair of Glock 17’s loaded with +P jacketed hollow points.
I love the last comments from Detective Chief Inspector Theresa Breen after calling this a major haul.
“We will identify whether those weapons have been used in any crimes. If they have we will use that information to go out and identify those offenders, arrest those offenders and put them before the courts.”
I really wonder how they are going to do that. I guess they’ll be checking records in the area to see who was buying pieces of flint at a lapidary shop.