Month: June 2012

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One Percenters For You Know Who

June 3, 2012 by 3 Comments

I really don’t see how having events like this will let you connect with the middle class but I guess when you need campaign cash you’ll do anything.

The best comment on this campaign video comes from David “Iowahawk” Burge who wrote on his Facebook page:

Rejoice, you bitter clingy filthy flyover hillbillies! Thanks to the Obama campaign, you finally have a chance to live the dream of every American: rubbing elbows with chic lefty fashionistas. Dessicated Eurotrash Vogue editor Anna Wintour explains it for you in what will go down in history as the WORST CAMPAIGN AD EVER.

You have until tomorrow to enter to attend this event!!! Think of all the fun you could have by asking Anna her opinion of 9mm Luger versus .45 ACP.

UPDATE: It didn’t take the Republicans long to use this video. As Ed Morrissey of HotAir says of it, the Republicans played it straight but it may as well be a parody called “When Obama Wears Prada”. Also, on the same day the Wintour ad appeared and the jobs report was released, Obama appeared at six – count’em six – campaign fundraisers.

And today I got emails from both Michelle Obama and Sarah Jessica Parker inviting me to donate and to enter the contest. I’m thinking donating one cent might cost them a lot more in processing that the donation. Hmmm. Just think of the blogging opportunity…..

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CCRKBA Nails Chinese On Hypocritical Comments

June 1, 2012 by 2 Comments

I mentioned the Red Chinese criticizing the US for human rights violation the other day. For the ChiComms, those violations were that we allowed citizens to own firearms. I thought that was rich and so does the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

BELLEVUE, WA – When the People’s Republic of China accused the United States of violating human rights because of our Second Amendment, they voluntarily became the world’s laughing stock, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

China’s State Council Information Office in Beijing criticized the United States’ human rights record because of this country’s high level of firearms ownership. In their report, the Chinese alleged, “The United States prioritizes the right to keep and bear arms over the protection of citizens’ lives and personal security and exercises lax firearm possession control, causing rampant gun ownership.”

An outraged CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted, “It’s appalling that the Chinese complain that our constitution and Bill of Rights allows wide civil liberties latitude, including the right to keep and bear arms.” He accused the Chinese of engaging in world class hypocrisy by complaining about poor human rights in another country.

“The Chinese have hardly set a sterling example for protecting and advancing human rights,” he observed. “Perhaps what offends them most is that our Second Amendment was authored to prevent this country from going down the same road toward totalitarianism that rulers in the People’s Republic have embraced. We are not like China, and we will never be like China so long as American citizens retain their right to keep and bear arms, and they know it.”

The Chinese also criticized this country’s crime rates, to which Gottlieb responded that in the United States, citizens accused of crimes have the right to a fair trial, legal counsel and judgment by a jury of their peers.

“We don’t imprison political dissidents simply for speaking their minds,” Gottlieb noted. “We consider people to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, not the other way around. We afford an array of legal rights to people accused of crimes. Of course we don’t have a perfect system or a perfect country, but it’s better than all the rest. When was the last time we saw an American asking the Chinese embassy for political asylum?”

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Batteries For Life – A Nice Bonus From Crimson Trace

June 1, 2012 by 1 Comment

Crimson Trace has started a program to encourage owners of their laser products to register their lasers. Free batteries is a nice bonus on top of a great product.

Crimson Trace Extends Popular ‘Batteries For Life’ Program

(Wilsonville, OR) Crimson Trace, the Oregon-based manufacturer of the World’s only grip-activated laser sights today announced plans to extend its hugely popular ‘Batteries for Life’ scheme. CTC customers will receive free replacement batteries for the lifetime of their laser sights, in exchange for registering their products with the company’s customer service department.

“There are very few things in life that are truly free,” said Nate Hoke, Director of Customer service for Crimson Trace. “This is one of them. Just register online or via our 800 number and every year, we’ll send a fresh set of batteries for your Lasergrips® or Laserguard® product for as long as you own it.” Hoke reported that many customers were still using the original batteries in their sights after six or seven years. “While Crimson Trace products have the longest run times in the industry, laser sights are safety devices and as such, should have regular battery changes. We’re proud to be able to offer this program to our loyal customers – it’s one more way for us to show our appreciation to the people who have supported us over the years.”

All Crimson Trace products are proudly designed engineered and manufactured in the USA and fit the widest range or popular self-defense handguns, including Glock, Smith & Wesson, Kimber and Springfield.

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Update On HB 489 – The Effort To Negate The Bateman Win

June 1, 2012 by 3 Comments

Grass Roots North Carolina sent out an update yesterday evening on HB 489. This was the attempt to re-write North Carolina’s state of emergency gun ban that would have negated the win in Bateman v. Perdue. It now appears that all efforts to re-write the gun ban have failed and that the NC General Assembly will just vote to repeal the offending law.

From GRNC:

Congratulate yourselves on applying pressure that has resulted in another GRNC win added to a growing trend of recent pro-freedom victories. As you recall, in the case Bateman v. Perdue, GRNC and SAF won the lawsuit over North Carolina’s ban on transporting firearms outside the home during declared states of emergency, resulting in the law being declared unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. Because the state chose not to appeal, the decision stands and our unconstitutional law had to be repealed.

Rather than simply repealing the ban, however, NC Senate staffers apparently ran amok and drafted replacement language which was worse than the original law. But after GRNC issued alerts to tens of thousands of gun owners, your input shut down the committee and forced them to reconsider.

Suffice to say you made quite an impression. Instead replacing an unconstitutional gun ban with yet another unconstitutional gun ban, and even including language to “authorize” your right to bear arms in your home during emergencies, as did HB 489, the SOE gun ban is headed for repeal pending an almost certain floor vote in the Senate and House concurrence. This is what should have happened from the very beginning, and serves as a reminder that we need to remain ever vigilant against anti-gun legislation.

This is good news. More importantly, it emphasizes the need to keep an eye on the state legislature to nip these bills in the bud. Without an organized and aggressive state level organization this might have gone through. If you don’t belong to a state level gun rights organization like GRNC, CalGuns, or whatever your state has to offer, you should strongly consider it. The NRA-ILA can only do so much and state-level organizations fill in the gap. Or in the case of organizations like GRNC and CalGuns, lead the way.

WizardPC at Guns, Car, & Tech is assembling a list of these organizations. Check there to find your state’s organization if you don’t know it already.

UPDATE: Two North Carolina gun bloggers, Knitebane and Mark of a Free Man, have been doing some detective work into just who rewrote HB 489 in an effort to negate the Bateman win. No state senator is taking credit for the substitute language and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary I committee won’t identify the author. The person that they come up with makes sense to me. Go here to read the full story. It makes for some interesting reading.

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The Mexican Ambassador Can Go Screw Himself

June 1, 2012 by 3 Comments

When the ambassador of a neighboring nation disparages our Second Amendment rights and our commitment to them, in my humble opinion, he can go screw himself. The Ambassador of Mexico to the United States, Arturo Sarukhan, suggested today that our concerns about his country’s attempts to denigrate our Second Amendment rights is “gobbledygook”.

In a slap at gun-rights advocates, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. dismissed accusations that Mexico is seeking to undermine the Second Amendment in order to curb the influx of U.S.-purchased guns.

“There is an urban myth out there that somehow the Mexican government … is seeking to lobby against and destroy the rights enshrined in the Second Amendment,” said Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan. “This is gobbledygook.”

He also praised the Obama Administration’s multiple rifle purchase reporting requirement in the Southwest border states but then said that the cartel’s will just look elsewhere.

Well, duh! They have already looked elsewhere and that elsewhere is your own army as well to Guatemala and quite possibly Chavez’s Venezuela.

If you would like to give the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from the Republic of Mexico a piece of your mind, the Embassy’s phone number is 202-728-1600 and you can send an email through this form on their website.

According to the article, representatives from the NRA and NSSF didn’t take his comments lying down.

Sarukhan was making excuses for Mexico’s failure to curb police, judicial and military corruption that undermines its pursuit of the cartels, they said.

“There’s finger-pointing at America but no mention of the corruption so pervasive in Mexico,” said Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, when asked for reaction to Sarukhan’s comments.

“Restricting the Second Amendment rights of Americans is neither an option nor a solution to Mexico’s internal crime problem,” said Lawrence Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which represents gun manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.

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NC Wildlife Resouces Commission Backs More Public Ranges

June 1, 2012 by

Gordon Myers, Executive Director of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, testified last week before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Natural Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans, and Insular Affairs. They were holding hearings on HR 3065 – the Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act. Mr. Myers was testifying in favor of the bill on behalf of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

From the release put out by the NCWRC:

H.R. 3065, named “Target Practice and Marksmanship Training Support Act,” promotes construction and maintenance of public shooting ranges. The bill was introduced in the House by Reps. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) as a companion bill to a similar piece of legislation introduced in the Senate.

HR 3065 provides incentives for states to develop much-needed shooting ranges on federal and nonfederal lands by increasing the amount each state could spend of its Pittman-Robertson grant funds on shooting ranges. Because these funds are allocated to states on a formula basis, changing the reimbursement rate would not result in increased federal spending.

Further, this bill does not require a state to use the money on ranges. Instead, it provides incentives. All of these incentives would enhance the ability of states to build and maintain shooting ranges. Based on Fiscal Year 2011 apportionments, North Carolina would be eligible to allocate an additional $700K of its apportioned funds to build or upgrade shooting ranges in our state.

“It seems fitting that this legislation is being considered as wildlife agencies, industries, and conservation groups have come together this year to mark a hallmark partnership that has led to 75 years of quality hunting, shooting, and wildlife-related recreation,” Myers said. “The Pittman-Robertson Act is the cornerstone and the life blood of one of the most significant and successful partnership approaches to fish and wildlife conservation in our nation’s history.

“More and more governmental lands are being closed, and fewer and fewer outdoor ranges are being built. The effects of this pattern are amplified by increased urbanization. It is simply harder and harder to find a place to shoot.”

Myers explained the need to address emerging patterns that hinder successful implementation of this conservation model. The shortage of shooting ranges is detrimental to the future of recreational shooting. It is jeopardizing the ability to practice the safe handling of firearms, and it is diminishing opportunities to participate in our nation’s longstanding user-pay, public-benefit conservation model.

“In North Carolina, one of the principle impediments to shooting range development is the initial capital cost attributed to land acquisition, facility design and construction,” Myers said. “H.R. 3065 includes a combination of key incentives that significantly reduce these barriers.

“Shooting sports are a part of our heritage. Further, recreational shooting is growing in numbers. To accommodate this growth, as well as to ensure that hunters continue have places to shoot and practice firearms safety, and that ranges are available to train law enforcement and members of our military, we need to provide and maintain the infrastructure necessary to support these activities.”

Currently the Wildlife Resources Commission has only one range. This is located at the Cold Mountain Game Land in Haywood County. This is the same Cold Mountain featured in the book and movie of the same name. Given that the range is a 15-20 minute drive from my house I am one of the lucky ones. It is a nice range and it is free. The only downside is that you can’t shoot on Sundays.

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The Black Pastor Not Invited To Meeting

June 1, 2012 by 2 Comments

Attorney General Eric Holder held a meeting on Wednesday with a number of African-American religious leaders to discuss ways that they can discuss political issues (and support President Obama) without endangering their tax-exempt status. One of the major issues that they will discuss is Voter ID laws.

Rep. Emanual Cleaver (D-MO) had this to say as reported by the Washington Examiner:

“We will have representatives from nine denominations who actually pastor somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 million people, and we’re going to first of all equip them with the information they need to know about what they can say and what they cannot say in the church that would violate their 501c3 status with the IRS,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told MSNBC today.

“In fact, we’re going to have the IRS administrator there, we’re going to have the Attorney General Eric Holder there, we’re going to have the lawyers’ organization from around the country, the ACLU — all giving ministers guidance about what they can and cannot do,” he noted.

Cleaver said they would not tell pastors which candidate to support. They will let them know who to regard as the bad guys, though (hint: not Democrats). “We’re going to talk about some of the draconian laws that have cropped up around the country as a result of the 17 percent increase in African American votes,” Cleaver said, describing voter ID laws as a form of Jim Crow-style “poll tax” on seniors and black voters.

One African-American pastor not invited to the meeting was Rev. Kenn Blanchard. NRA News’ Ginny Simone interviewed Kenn about this meeting as well as the attempt to use black clergy to put pressure on Speaker John Boehner over a contempt citation for Eric Holder.

Kenn didn’t hold back in the interview. He described many of those who claim to be “civil rights veterans” as mere opportunists who are not even close to following in MLK’s footsteps. That is pretty powerful stuff!

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ATF And Local Police Invade Wrong House In Colorado

June 1, 2012 by 5 Comments

SWAT teams and drug task forces raiding the wrong house isn’t a new story or, unfortunately, even a rare one. Radley Balko has written many stories about these raids and the tragic aftermath. If it isn’t the homeowner getting killed, it is the family dog.

Fortunately for Amanda Griego of Greeley, Colorado neither she nor her son Colby were physically injured when a combined ATF-Greeley PD task force knocked down her front door at 7 am on the morning of June 15, 2010. They were looking for a previous tenant by the name of Angela who had not resided at the location for over a year. Moreover, officers from the Greeley Police Department had been informed she didn’t live there twice preceding the day of the raid.

Ms. Griego filed suit in US District Court for the District of Colorado on Tuesday charging the Greeley Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the City of Greeley with violating her 4th Amendment rights. The lawsuit names Officer Alan Steinhage and the unnamed officers and agents of the entry team in both individual and official capacities. It would seem that her attorney is trying to pierce the veil of qualified immunity in this case.

Ms. Griego alleges that Defendants violated her and her son’s Fourth Amendment rights when, intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, and with deliberate indifference to her constitutional rights, entered her home without a warrant, without consent, without exigent circumstances, and without any basis for believing they had any legal right to enter the home.

Ms. Griego was not shown any warrant at the time of the raid nor has she ever been shown one since despite her requests to see it according to the complaint.

The reporter in the video above is correct in that “Angela” is still listed in databases at that address. Even though the reporter blacked-out her last name in the video, you can still read it. When I did a search for that name in Greeley, I found three people with that name in three different locations in Greeley. However, given the local police had visited Ms. Griego’s house twice prior to the raid, you would have to think they could have found the correct address.

I think, unfortunately, when all is said and done that Ms. Griego’s suit will be dismissed because the court will accept the officers’ claim of qualified immunity. It won’t be right and her son will continue to have nightmares of that morning in June.