Month: September 2011

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Quote Of The Day

September 5, 2011 by

Sebastian at Snowflakes In Hell writing about Operation Fast and Furious and the most recent revelations which seem to indicate that it goes beyond merely an attempt to build support for more domestic gun control:

I should say, if this scandal gets into cloak and dagger territory, it will really speak to the incompetence of this administration. If you’re going to go that route, do you really want to leave a key component of your strategy in the hands of…. ATF? I’d like to think no one would be that foolish.

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WWII In Pictures – North Africa

September 4, 2011 by

The Atlantic is running a 20-part weekly feature on key events in World War II in pictures. The current one is on the campaigns in North Africa including pictures of German, Italian, British, Commonwealth, and American troops. An Australian unit in shown below.

Family legend has it that my father’s combat engineer unit was to have been part of the invasion of North Africa but their ship was diverted to the Caribbean. I don’t know how true that is but he did have the European/African/Middle Eastern Campaign Medal.

As Rick Atkinson writes in the Prologue to his great history of Operation Torch and the American battles in North Africa, An Army at Dawn, this campaign marked the beginning of the United States as a great power.

From a distance of sixty years, we can see that North Africa was a pivot point in American history, the place where the United States began to act like a great power — militarily, diplomatically, strategically, tactically. Along with Stalingrad and Midway, North Africa is where the Axis enemy forever lost the initiative in World War II. It is where Great Britain slipped into the role of junior partner in the Anglo-American alliance, and where the United States first emerged as the dominant force it would remain into the next millennium.

None of it was inevitable — not the individual deaths, nor the ultimate Allied victory, nor eventual American hegemony. History, like particular fates, hung in the balance, waiting to be tipped.

Measured by the proportions of the later war — of Normandy or the Bulge — the first engagements in North Africa were tiny, skirmishes between platoons and companies involving at most a few hundred men. Within six months, the campaign metastasized to battles between army groups comprising hundreds of thousands of soldiers; that scale persisted for the duration. North Africa gave the European war its immense canvas and implied — through 70,000 Allied killed, wounded, and missing — the casualties to come.

No large operation in World War II surpassed the invasion of North Africa in complexity, daring, risk, or — as the official U.S. Army Air Force history concludes — “the degree of strategic surprise achieved.” Moreover, this was the first campaign undertaken by the Anglo-American alliance; North Africa defined the coalition and its strategic course, prescribing how and where the Allies would fight for the rest of the war.

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Good Question

September 3, 2011 by

Wayne LaPierre appeared with Cam Edwards on NRA News following the reassignment of Ken Melson and the resignation of Dennis Burke. As Wayne asks, how can Valerie Plame get a special prosecutor and Eric Holder gets to continue his cover-up? Good question.

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Gun Ownership In Other Countries

September 2, 2011 by

Cam Edwards interviewed David Tipple, the owner of Gun City in New Zealand. The gun prohibitionists in that country are upset that the store is having a promotion for Father’s Day in which one gun will be sold for one New Zealand dollar.

The most interesting thing about the interview is when Mr. Tipple described how only licensed gun owners are allowed to purchase firearms in New Zealand. He compared their license to an American driver’s license except that to obtain one you must a police background check which includes interviews with your family and your neighbors, an inspection of your home, and an inspection of your gun safe. When you hear what people have to do in other countries in order to possess a firearm, you give thanks for the farsightedness of our forefathers when they adopted the Second Amendment.

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More On NRA/CRPA Amicus Briefs

September 2, 2011 by

The NRA and the CRPA filed amicus briefs in the California carry case Richards v. Prieto. The release from Chuck Michel is below which explains them in more detail.

August 31, 2011 – Today, the California Rifle and Pistol Foundation (“CRPA Foundation”) and the National Rifle Association filed amicus briefs in support of appellants in Richards v. Prieto, who have challenged California’s regulatory scheme governing the issuance of permits to carry concealed firearms (“CCW permits”) and Yolo County policies for its (non)-issuance of permits to residents seeking to exercise their right to carry a loaded firearm in public.

At issue in Richards is a Yolo County policy conditioning the issuance of CCW permits on a wholly discretionary assessment of each applicant’s “moral character” and stated “good cause.” In practice, Yolo’s policy prohibits the vast majority of county residents from obtaining a permit.

In its brief, available here, CRPA Foundation argues in support of the appellants that Yolo County’s CCW permitting policies are unconstitutional to the extent they deny law-abiding residents the only lawful means of exercising their right to bear operable handguns for self-defense anywhere in the State, despite the United States Supreme Court’s declaration that armed self-defense is a “central component” of our Second Amendment rights.

CRPA Foundation’s brief further provides an historical analysis of the right to keep and bear arms, which establishes that Yolo County’s broad prohibition on the carriage of loaded firearms is categorically unconstitutional and, at a minimum, fails to satisfy the heightened scrutiny required of regulations that so severely burden the right as to eliminate it altogether.

CRPAF is itself currently before the Ninth Circuit, litigating its own challenge to prohibitory local CCW permitting policies. Briefing in that case, Peruta v. San Diego, will be completed onASeptember 6, 2011.

In its brief, available here, NRA provides the Ninth Circuit panel with significant background on the practices and experiences of other states in issuing carry permits throughout the nation. NRA’s amicus brief beautifully illustrates the fact that issuing such permits to law-abiding citizens will not increase crime rates and may, in fact, cause them to fall.

The CRPA amicus brief is available here.

The NRA amicus brief is available here.

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Classy Move

September 2, 2011 by 1 Comment

The NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Association just filed an amicus brief in a California carry case, Richards v. Prieto. In return, the Second Amendment Foundation just issued this press release yesterday expressing their thanks for the NRA/CRPA support. Its good to see them playing well together!

SAF THANKS NRA, CRPAF FOR AMICUS BRIEFS IN RICHARDS V. PRIETO CASE

For Immediate Release: 9/1/2011

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today thanked the National Rifle Association and California Rifle and Pistol Foundation for filing amicus briefs in SAF’s challenge of Yolo County, California’s policies that exploit the state’s regulations on the issuance of concealed firearms carry permits.

Joining SAF in that lawsuit is the CalGuns Foundation. The case is known as Richards v. Prieto. It targets Yolo County’s arbitrary policy that requires CCW applicants to provide good cause for obtaining a permit, and subjects each applicant to a “moral character” standard.

“The policies practices in Yolo County are clearly unconstitutional and should be overturned,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We filed the lawsuit because citizens should not be subjected to such policies simply in an effort to exercise their rights to bear arms for personal protection.

“We are delighted that our good friends at both the NRA and CRPA have filed briefs in support of this cause,” he continued. “Authorities in Yolo County who are trying to perpetuate this egregious policy despite the Supreme Court’s clear determination that self-defense is a cornerstone tenet of the right to keep and bear arms.”

Gottlieb noted that the overwhelming majority of the states have adopted shall-issue statutes for concealed carry licenses or permits, and that they have worked remarkably well by removing the authority from local officials who may want to abuse complicated regulations such as those that exist in the Golden State.

“State and local governments should be scrambling to review, and where necessary, adjust firearms laws and regulations in the wake of two Supreme Court rulings on the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb said. “When local governments continue to resist, rather than comply with, the principles and spirit of high court rulings and the Constitution, we’ll continue to meet them in court. As NRA and CRPAF have demonstrated with their briefs in this case, when we take people to court, we’re going to have company.”

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Western NC DA Confuses A Supermarket With A Restaurant

September 2, 2011 by 1 Comment

The major supermarket chain in Western North Carolina is Ingles Markets. It sells beer and wine but doesn’t allow on-premises consumption. That didn’t stop District Attorney Jerry Wilson from prosecuting a Burnsville man for violating NCGS 14-269.3 which bars firearms in places where alcohol is sold and consumed.

Paul Valone of Grass Roots North Carolina takes up the story from here:

At precisely the moment House Bill 111 for concealed carry in restaurants is languishing in the Senate Judiciary II Committee, a western North Carolina man is being prosecuted for carrying a firearm in violation of GS 14-269.3 – a place where “alcohol is sold and consumed” – EVEN THOUGH HE IS CLEARLY INNOCENT.

To be clear: GRNC is not defending the actions of the man in question. He also faces the common law charge of “going armed to the terror of the public” and might well be guilty as charged. But the arrogance of local law enforcement and the district attorney clearly signal that you too might come under the prosecutorial knife, and that we need restaurant carry RIGHT NOW!

Arrested in Burnsville, Larry Dean Hunter is charged with “Going armed to the terror of the public” and violating GS 14-269.3, which bars firearms “where alcoholic beverages are sold and consumed.” The problem? He was arrested for displaying a firearm in an INGLES SUPERMARKET, where alcohol might be sold, but is definitely not “consumed.”

An innocent mistake on the part of law enforcement? Think again. GRNC president Paul Valone actually called the office of District Attorney Jerry Wilson, representing Avery, Madison, Mitchell, Watauga, and Yancey Counties. Here is how the conversation went:

Valone: “I am calling regarding the potential misinterpretation of a pending case regarding our concealed handgun statute in Yancey County. Can you direct me who to talk to?”

D.A. office: “Are you a defendant or a relative in the case?”

Valone: “I don’t want to talk about the case. I want to talk to the District Attorney about GS 14-269.3.”

D.A. office: “I’m terminating this call now.” CLICK.

Given that GRNC had already made attempts to contact the Burnsville Chief of Police, Brian Buchanan, and did contact the town’s mayor, Danny McIntosh, it is safe to say that D.A. Jerry Wilson is aware of the case and dodging questions on a prosecution they clearly intend to continue, despite the fact that GS 14-269.3 clearly does not apply.

 In the alert Grass Roots North Carolina released this evening on this, they are asking that North Carolinians use this to push the State Senate over HB 111 as well as ask the DA and Burnsville PD what the heck is going on.

  • CALL ELECTED DISTRICT ATTORNEY JERRY WILSON and let him know you are on to his scam: Wilson’s office number is 828-268-6610.
  • CONTACT BURNSVILLE MAYOR DANNY MCINTOSH and deliver the message that he needs to keep a tighter leash on his clearly anti-gun Chief of Police, Brian Buchanan. McIntosh can be reached at either mayor@townofburnsville.org or 828-682-2420.
  • CONTACT SEN. PHIL BERGER: This is most important. As President Pro Tem of the NC Senate, it is Berger who controls the fate of HB 111 for concealed carry in restaurants which serve alcohol. E-mail AND call Berger at Phil.Berger@ncleg.net and (919) 733-5708. Deliver the message below.


DELIVER THIS MESSAGE

Dear Senator Berger:

Your inaction in passing concealed carry in restaurants is now resulting in criminal prosecution by a malicious district attorney who is reading the ban on firearms in places where alcohol is sold and consumed to include even grocery stores. The D.A. is Jerry Wilson of Watauga County and the citizen is Jerry Dean Hunter, who is being prosecuted for having a gun in an Ingles Supermarket.

Passing the restaurant carry language in House Bill 111, which is still alive but languishing in the Senate Judiciary II Committee, could solve the problem. Moreover, it could deter crime. According to the Richmond “Times-Dispatch,” after Virginia passed restaurant carry, major crimes in restaurants dropped by 5.2%.

Gun owners didn’t give control of the legislature to Republicans only to have them slavishly adhere to polling of a public which is unaware that permit-holders would still be prohibited from imbibing alcohol. And reports that you refused to include restaurant carry in House Bill 650 in order to protect Republican legislators in marginal districts are now moot: Republicans redrew the districts.

If Republicans want continued support from Second Amendment advocates, they should deliver on legislation they were elected to pass. I will be monitoring your actions via Grass Roots North Carolina legislative alerts.

Respectfully,

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The Mounties Go Beyond Dog Sleds And Horse Patrols

September 2, 2011 by 2 Comments

Sgt. Preston of the Yukon wouldn’t know what to do with this! The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are going high-tech to investigate crime and accident scenes. They are testing unmanned drone helicopters called the Draganflyer X6.

The Draganflyer is made by Draganfly Innovations of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It can mount any number of different cameras or camcorders. The X6 weighs only 35 ounces and can carry a payload of 18 ounces.

The RCMP say that they only plan to use the drone for crime and accident scene investigations and not for surveillance. However, the manufacturer does promote it for military apps for intelligence gathering.

H/T Predator BDU blog

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Gov. Susana Martinez On Concealed Carry

September 2, 2011 by

Gov. Susana Martinez (R-NM) recently requalified for her New Mexico concealed carry license. I covered that including video of her qualification test here.

In an interview with Cam Edwards of NRA News, she discusses her background with firearms. Her parents owned a security guard business in El Paso, TX and she began carrying (openly) as a security guard at the age of 18.  Eventually, she ended up in New Mexico and became a prosecutor. She says getting her concealed carry license was just the next step in her evolution as a gun owner.