Month: July 2012

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NRA Life Membership…At Half Price

July 31, 2012 by 1 Comment

The NRA is running a promotion for the next 48 hours offering Life Memberships for $500. This is half of the normal $1000 cost of Life Membership. The 48 hours started this morning at 6:30am.

From the NRA:

The NRA is currently offering half off Life Memberships ($500) for a limited time. This is a promotion we are doing on our facebook page as a thank you to all of our fans who helped us reach 1,550,000 likes! This promotion began today at 6:30 a.m. and is available for 48 hours ONLY. You can find the promotion on our facebook page at: www.facebook.com/nationalrifleassociation

If you’ve been thinking of upgrading your membership, this is a good time to do it.

As an aside, the NRA has more people merely liking this offer than any of the gun prohibitionist groups have followers on Facebook. Hmmm.

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Illinois Governor Proposes AWB

July 31, 2012 by

The Springfield (Illinois) State Journal-Register is reporting late this morning that Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) is proposing a ban on so-called “assault weapons” (sic) in Illinois.

The Democrat will use his amendatory veto power Tuesday to include the ban in a bill related to ammunition sales. It would then be up to lawmakers to accept his changes or reject them.

The report states that his proposal faces “big hurdles” noting that other gun control measures have recently failed in the Illinois General Assembly. From a constitutional standpoint, such a law would be on shaky ground as the AR-15 is the highest selling rifle in recent years and should be considered in “common use.”

UPDATE: The Illinois State Rifle Association is taking Gov. Quinn’s proposal very seriously. The bill he hijacked was a pro-gun bill. They sent out the following early this morning:

GOVERNOR QUINN TEAMS UP WITH MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL TO PROPOSE BILL TO TAX AND BAN YOUR GUNS

YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED

As many of you know, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn today utilized his amendatory veto authority to hijack a pro-gun bill and convert it into a ban on so called assault weapons. Quinn claims that his bill would “…make Illinois a safer place.”

Of course, lawful Illinois firearm owners know better. We know that Quinn’s true aim is to obliterate private firearm ownership in the state. Closer analysis of Quinn’s bill reveals a host of opportunities for Quinn and his buddy Emanuel to make life miserable for the state’s lawful firearm owners.

Here is just a partial list of what this bill would do, if passed:

1. Ban the manufacture, possession or sale of nearly every semiautomatic rifle, pistol and shotgun you own.

2. Specifically ban Glock pistols since they share a common design with the Glock 18, a select fire handgun.

3. Require you to register every semiautomatic firearm and every magazine you own that exceeds 10 round capacity. The kicker is that, under Quinn’s proposal, the State Police can charge you unlimited fees to register your guns. Thus if Quinn’s bill passes, you could very well find yourself paying $100 or even $1,000 per firearm per year to comply with the law. Additionally, you could find yourself paying $50, $100 or even $500 per year for each “high capacity” magazine you own. Can’t pay? Well then you would have to surrender your guns to the State Police for destruction.

This is just a taste of what you could expect from Quinn’s gun ban. Twists and turns in the bill would certainly open up the doors to taxation, regulation, and outright bans on every civilian owned firearm in the state.

Oh, and one thing is for sure, you can forget about concealed carry if Quinn’s gun ban passes.

HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO PROTECT YOUR GUN RIGHTS:

1. Call your State Senator ASAP and politely tell him or her that you are a law-abiding Illinois firearm owner and that you expect him or her to vote against Quinn’s gun ban should it come up for a vote. If you do not know who your State Senator is, please follow this link:

Illinois Board of Elections District Official/Search:
http://www.elections.state.il.us/DistrictLocator/DistrictOfficialSearchByAddress.aspx

2. Pass this alert on to all your friends and family who own firearms. Tell them to make calls to the senate as well.

3. Post this alert to any and all Internet blogs or bulletin boards to which you belong.

4. If you’re not already a member of the ISRA, then it’s time you signed on to protect your gun rights. To join the ISRA, follow this link: www.isra.org/join

5. Make a generous donation to the ISRA today so that we will be able to fight on against gun grabbers like Pat Quinn and Rahm Emanuel: www.isra.org/fight_4_your_rights.

If you live in Illinois, now is the time to act. If you have relatives or friends in Illinois, let them know about this attack on their gun rights.

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The Bill Of Needs?

July 31, 2012 by

Kurt Hofmann, the St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner, recently posted a column entitled, “Gun rights: Of rights, needs and ‘sporting purposes'”. In it, he examines the responses from the gun prohibitionists including Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and  Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Rep. Carolyn McCarty (D-NY) to the shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

As Kurt notes, the common thread among all three is their claim that we don’t “need” whatever they want to prohibit.

Never mind the fact that it is not the place of Congress to determine what we “need.” Never mind the fact that when being attacked by dozens of assailants (as can happen right here in St. Louis) a person most definitely does need the ability to fight off more people than can be accounted for with a 10-round magazine. Never mind that Lautenberg and McCarthy apparently believe that police officers–even retired ones–do have such a need.

 Read the whole column here. It is well worth it.

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They Always Have To Turn It Into A Discussion Of Black Swan Events

July 31, 2012 by 1 Comment

I didn’t see CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight with the interview of Kim Rhode. All I could find of the interview was this clip in which Morgan is asking Kim about the Aurora shooting. While Kim gave an excellent answer, it is sad to think that this is the only thing that CNN deemed worthy of excerpting. There is nothing about her record-breaking performance, nothing about how hard she trained to get there, and nothing really about the shotgun sports.

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The United States Is 2 For 2 In Olympic Skeet

July 31, 2012 by

Following on the heels of Kim Rhode’s gold medal in Women’s Skeet, Sgt. Vincent Hancock became a back-to-back winner of the gold medal in Men’s Skeet. Hancock took his first gold at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and repeated this year in London.

In the course of winning this gold medal, Hancock broke his own Olympic record by scoring 148 out of 150 clays. He dropped one clay in each of the two qualifying rounds but was perfect in the finals. The silver medalist, Anders Golding of Denmark, had a 146 while the bronze medalist, Nasser Al-Attiya of Qatar, had a 144.

Sgt. Hancock is a member of the US Army Marksmanship Unit. According to this profile of him, he shoots a Beretta DT-10 with a Ergosign stock.

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Kim Rhode On NRA News

July 31, 2012 by 1 Comment

John Popp of NRA News interviewed gold medalist Kim Rhode on her record-breaking win in London. Unlike some of the other media interviews which have tended to be a little superficial, this interview got into things like social media, the impact of her win on the shooting sports, and the positive attention it has brought to shooting. One of the interviews that Kim mentioned she will be doing is with Piers Morgan of CNN.

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The Concealed Carry Holster Fashion Show

July 31, 2012 by 33 Comments

The First Annual Concealed Carry Holster Fashion Show was held Saturday a week ago. Not only did it attract the media but it was a sold out event. It was held in the New York State town of Hudson which, as the name might indicate, located in the Hudson River Valley about 30 miles south of Albany. The show was a fundraiser for a domestic violence center, REACH of Columbia and Greene Counties, but it was also an event designed to educate (and entertain) women about responsible gun ownership and use.

Gracie McKee of Packing Pretty had a full write-up of the show yesterday with tons of pictures. Gabby of ArmedCandy has assembled a slide show of the event which can be seen here.

I’m glad to see events like this and think that more are needed. If there are a Million Moms carrying concealed, the gun prohibitionists can start hanging it up. Moreover, self-protection and self-defense with a firearm becomes the “women’s issue” that it rightly should and only misogynistic politicians would stand in the way of this.

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Naming Names

July 31, 2012 by 1 Comment

Richard Serrano of the LA Times writes that a report that should be released later this week by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee names five BATFE officials as collectively responsible for Operation Fast and Furious. The report also states that they attempted to hide from the Mexican the fact that is was walked guns that were used in the murder of the Mexican attorney general’s brother.

This report is the first of three to be released. The other two will detail the failure of supervision and leadership by Justice Department officials and will go into the obstruction of the Congressional investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department. This report is co-authored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

The officials named in the report include William Newell, William McMahon, Mark Chait, William Hoover, and Kenneth Melson.

They found that William Newell, the special agent-in-charge in Phoenix, exhibited “repeatedly risky” management and “consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques.” The report said “he had been reprimanded … before for crossing the line, but under a new administration and a new attorney general he reverted back to the use of risky gunwalking tactics.”

His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon, “rubber stamped critical documents that came across his desk without reading them,” the report alleged. “In McMahon’s view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field.”

They added that McMahon gave “false testimony” to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.

His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, “played a surprisingly passive role during the operation,” the report said. “He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required.”

Above Chait was Deputy Director William Hoover, who the report said ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: “Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized.”

And they said Melson, a longtime career Justice official, “often stayed above the fray” instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an “end sooner.”

The report, while naming Melson as one responsible officials, said that Justice Department officials tried to make him the scapegoat for the operation after his testimony to the committee on July 4th of 2011.

To date, all the men named in the report still hold positions within BATFE headquarters or the Justice Department in the case of Kenneth Melson.

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Congratulations To Kim Rhode

July 29, 2012 by 5 Comments

Kim Rhode not only won the gold medal in Women’s Skeet today but she did it with a new Olympic record. Even more impressive, she became the first American to medal in five consecutive Olympic events.

Kim Rhode at the medal ceremony

The previous Olympic record for Women’s Skeet was a score of 93 (out of 100). Kim’s winning score was a 99. This means she only missed one clay pigeon on her way to a gold medal.

Rhode’s history-making performance began with an Olympic record score in the qualification round, as she missed only one target out of 74 shots.

She then erased any doubt about who would take the gold, nailing all 25 targets in the final to tie the world record with her gaudy total score of 99, a number that blew the Olympic record of 93 out of the water. Rhode had shared the record of 93, which she and two other women turned in at the Beijing Olympics, but Italy’s Chiara Cainero wound up winning gold in a shoot- off.

This time, Rhode didn’t leave anything to chance. Her closest competition on Sunday was China’s Wei Ning, who hit a total of 91 shots to fall way short of the standard set by Rhode. In those terms it was the most dominating performance in Olympic shooting history, with Rhode securing the largest margin percentage between first and second place.

Kim Rhode after the prelims

The New York Times had this to say about her making US Olympic history.

Under drizzly, gray British skies, the shooter Kim Rhode made American Olympic history.

Rhode, 33, became the first American athlete to win five medals in an individual event in five consecutive Olympic Games. She earned a gold medal in women’s skeet on Sunday, setting an Olympic record and tying the world record by hitting 99 out of 100 targets. She also became the first woman to win three gold medals in Olympic shooting.

In her first Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, Kim won a gold in Double Trap. She was all of 17 at the time. She followed this with a bronze in Sydney in 2000 and another gold in 2004 in Athens. The Olympics then did away with Double Trap for women and she switched to Skeet. She won silver in 2008 in the event in Beijing and now the gold again in London. With five medals in five Olympics, does she plan to retire? What do you think!

This success marked another high in Rhode’s amazing career, but she insisted she is far from finished and she now has her shotgun sights set firmly on Rio 2016 – and beyond.

‘I do not see myself quitting any time soon,’ Rhode said.

‘I’m looking forward to 2016 and a few more after that. The oldest Olympic medallist was a shooter and he was 72, so I still have a few more in me.’

According to a story in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Kim’s family had some special pins made for this Olympics with the approval of the US Olympic Committee. The pin even has a battery operated light that makes the shotgun muzzle glow red when you push on it.

Many countries fully financially support their shooters. The US does not unless you want to count the US Army Marksmanship Unit. Given she shoots anywhere between 500 and 1,000 rounds daily, the costs add up. The Christian Science Monitor estimates she has shot over $3 million worth of shells over her career. I do think her training and competition ammo is provided free by Winchester but still…

Training since before she won gold in Atlanta as a 17 year old, Rhode estimates she shoots 500 to 1,000 rounds shot a day. The total cost of that ammunition over the course of her competitive life (again thanks to the math whizzes at the Times): $3.65 million.

Can we remember her name now? Kim Rhode. Please take out a piece of paper and write it down if you have to.

At every competition, she is “competing against people who have everything given to them,” she said at a media event in May, noting that other top shooting countries fund their shooters. And still, she has accomplished more than any of them.

“In China,” she added, “if they win, their families are taken care of for life.”

She lugs all her own gear to practice at a California range. In her spare time, she builds cars. Builds them. She has 13, including a 1917 Model-T, she said. Her favorite? A Shelby Cobra she built from a kit.

Aren’t famous Olympians supposed to be winning cars, not building them?

 In conclusion, congratulations to Kim Rhode on her record-breaking performance. She had done her country and her family proud.

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NRA News On Last Day Of Arms Trade Treaty Talks

July 28, 2012 by 2 Comments

Ginny Simone of NRA News interviews Tom Mason of the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities about the last day of the Arms Trade Treaty talks. They discuss the speech by the State Department’s Tom Countryman which said that consensus had not been found and the talks need to be continued later. In essence, the US can’t agree to it…yet. They also discuss the letter from Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and 50 other senators saying they won’t support the treaty.

In a later interview with Tom Mason, Ginny Simone asks about the report that Russia and Canada both indicated they can’t support the treaty at this time.

H/T Weer’d Beard