Month: December 2013

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John Dodson On His New Book

December 12, 2013 by

BATFE Senior Agent John Dodson was interviewed about his new book and Operation Fast and Furious on Cam & Company on Monday. It is an interesting interview which touched upon not only Fast and Furious but the culture within BATFE that led to using developmentally disabled individuals as middlemen.

I just picked up a copy of his book The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious at my local Sam’s Club. I am looking forward to reading it between now and the New Year.

I’m glad to see it on the shelves at Sam’s Club because this means both the book and the scandal will get more exposure. I spoke with one of the product demonstrators at Sam’s who noticed the book in my cart. She was shocked when I told her the story behind Fast and Furious as she had never heard anything about it in the news.

It is a good interview and it flows right along. I suggest listening to the whole thing.

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If It Is Gun Deer Season, Expect To See “Men With Guns”

December 12, 2013 by 1 Comment

Police in Ohio recently responded to two reports of “men with guns”. The first report resulted in a lockdown of a high school and a middle school while the second had a number of police cruisers converging upon the scene along Interstate 70.

What in the world is going on in Ohio to cause all these reports of “men with guns”?

Deer season. Or more appropriately, deer season mixed with a healthy dose of hoplophobia.

In the first case, Pickerington North High School and Lakeview Junior High were locked down for about 30 minutes when a student reported a man with a rifle near the schools, said Pickerington Superintendent Rob Walker.

Fairfield County deputies determined that the man was a hunter on his own property. The same thing happened seven or eight years ago, Walker said.

Still, he’s glad students are paying attention: “When in doubt, let’s err on the side of safety.”

In the second case, Columbus police cruisers converged on the Near East Side after reports of a man in camouflage with a gun near I-70 and Lilley Avenue.

Officers soon declared it a nonemergency, saying the man was a lost hunter.

As Miss Emily Litella would have said, never mind.

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“Carrying A Loaded Firearm Is The Gateway Crime To Committing A Murder”

December 12, 2013 by 16 Comments



Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in an interview with Dean Reynolds of CBS News that “carrying a loaded firearm is the gateway crime to committing a murder.” He said this during the course of the interview discussing how the Chicago police seize 130 “illegal” guns a week.

I don’t know about you but I have a hard time wrapping my head around McCarthy’s statement. Much of what McCarthy considers “illegal” is perfectly legal in the rest of the country. That would include such things as concealed carry, open carry, and firearms with standard capacity magazines. I see millions of Americans legally carrying a loaded firearm daily and murder does not begin to cross their minds even once.

While the state of Illinois has passed their shall-issue concealed carry law, it still is in the process of being implemented and no Illinois CCWs have been issued yet.

McCarthy points to the seizure of firearms as being responsible for the reduction in murders in Chicago this year. However, correlation is not causation especially when the police have concurrently stepped up their presence in high crime areas and put more resources into street-level intelligence gathering. If perhaps McCarthy put as much emphasis into suppressing violent street gangs as into suppressing firearms, Chicago might really see a dramatic decline in its murder rate. That would unfortunately deprive many Chicago politicians of a constituency so I doubt we’ll be seeing that.

McCarthy is pushing for a New York City-style law which provides a three year mandatory sentence for the illegal possession of a firearm. His efforts to get such a law passed in Illinois have stalled in the General Assembly.

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Guns Save Lives Day Is Also Bill Of Rights Day

December 11, 2013 by

In a happy coincidence, Guns Save Lives Day is also Bill of Rights Day. Both take place on Sunday, December 15th. Given that the Second Amendment IS a part of the Bill of Rights perhaps it is more than a happy coincidence.

One of the suggestions that the Citizens Committee makes as a way to observe Guns Save Lives Day is to attend a gun show. That’s not a bad idea given all the hoopla that the gun prohibitionists will try and make the day before which is the anniversary of the Newtown shootings. I’m sure that the gun prohibitionist forces will try to gain publicity for some of their goals such as so-called universal background checks and closing the non-existent gun show loophole (sic).

Originally, Guns Save Lives Day was scheduled for December 14th and it caused a lot of angst and gnashing of teeth about the politicizing of that sad day. Alan Gottlieb said at the time it was a coincidence that the day was the same as Newtown. Maybe yes and maybe no but in the end it was a smart move. It put the mainstream media on record in opposition to the politicization of the anniversary of the Newtown shootings. After getting them on record, CCRKBA and Alan Gottlieb moved the day to Sunday so as not to conflict with the anniversary of the Newtown shootings.

Below is their release on Guns Save Lives Day:

BELLEVUE, WA – With dozens of gun shows scheduled around the country this weekend, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms suggests that one way a gun owner can observe Sunday’s “Guns Save Lives Day” is to attend a gun show, and network with other firearms enthusiasts to protect the Second Amendment.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who serves on the Board of Directors of the Washington Arms Collectors – which is holding a gun show this weekend in Puyallup, Wash. – noted that gun shows are “great places to meet like-minded law-abiding citizens and discuss common concerns.”

Click here to see a list of gun shows. ( http://gunssavelivesday.com/about/gun-show-list)

“One reason why gun prohibitionists are so determined to shut down gun shows is because they provide a venue where tens of thousands of honest citizens regularly gather, share information, enjoy camaraderie and talk politics,” Gottlieb said. “After all, gun prohibitionists are shamelessly exploiting the first anniversary of the Newtown tragedy on Saturday to push their anti-gun rights agenda.

“Gun shows also frequently offer firearms safety classes for new and even seasoned firearms owners,” he added. “So, in addition to all the other good reasons, education stands out as a major benefit.”

If not a gun show, then visit a gun range and practice with your defensive firearm, he suggested. Guns are used in self-defense as many as 2.5 million times a year by some estimates, and in the overwhelming majority of those cases, a shot is never fired. Good marksmanship and firearm familiarity are two critical components to any personal protection strategy.

People can also combine this Sunday’s observance with some Christmas shopping. Buy a new holster for the family member who has a defensive firearm, or a new box of ammunition, spare magazines or speed loaders.

“Perhaps the most important consideration,” Gottlieb said,” is that ‘Guns Save Lives Day’ coincides with Bill of Rights Day. Without a strong Second Amendment all other civil rights are in jeopardy. It is important to keep that in perspective.

“As with all other rights,” he observed, “the Second Amendment carries with it some important responsibilities, not the least of which is to protect our rights from being incrementally eroded by misguided or misrepresented legislation fueled by half-truths and outright lies.

“We must never allow a civil right to become a casualty of political correctness,” Gottlieb concluded.

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NSSF Sues Sunnyvale, California Over New Gun Ordinance

December 11, 2013 by 6 Comments

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, US Firearms Company LLC, and Eric Fisher filed a lawsuit Monday in Santa Clara County (California) Superior Court seeking to enjoin the enforcement of a new gun ordinance. The ordinance requires sellers of ammunition to keep logs of purchasers, bans magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and requires the reporting of a firearms theft to the police within 48 hours. The ordinance was passed in a special city election with great support from Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors.

The lawsuit contends that the ordinance violates both state and Federal laws as well as being preempted by California state law dealing with firearms. The plaintiffs are seeking a temporary restraining order, a preliminary and permanent injunction, and a writ of mandate prohibiting its implementation as well as requiring notice to the police that the law is invalid.

The NSSF’s release on the lawsuit is below:

NEWTOWN, Conn. — the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms industry, has filed a lawsuit against the City of Sunnyvale, Calif. and the Sunnyvale City Council to prevent an ordinance passed in November from being enforced that is detrimental to responsible and law-abiding firearms retailers doing business within city limits.

In the complaint, NSSF and U.S. Firearms Company LLC, a local retailer, are challenging portions of the city’s newly enacted gun-control ordinance that violates and is preempted by state and federal law and that imposes an onerous regulatory burden on firearms retailers including requirements that they keep ammunition sales logs and personal information on their customers and that expands and duplicates an existing reporting requirement for lost or stolen guns.

“Retailers in Sunnyvale must be federally licensed and already comply with a myriad of state and federal laws in operating their businesses. These businesses should be entitled to operate under the same rules, not a patchwork of different and conflicting local laws across California,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “It is unjust to ask retailers within the Sunnyvale city limits to collect sensitive personal information from customers who easily can drive a few miles to a store in another city where such information is not required. Surely, no demonstrable public safety benefit is achieved and only law-abiding businesses are penalized.”

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin enforcement of the Sunnyvale ordinance.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the NRA will be filing a similar lawsuit in Federal district court.

The NRA had threatened to sue even before Measure C was approved, and the group’s West Coast counsel, Chuck Michel, intends to file that federal lawsuit Monday, a spokesman for Michel said Tuesday. Michel last month filed an NRA-supported suit against San Francisco over a similar ban on high capacity magazines.

But Sunnyvale taxpayers won’t foot the bill because of the offer of (San Francisco law firm) Farella Braun + Martel to defend the city against the gun-related lawsuits for free.

Farella Braun + Martel has 137 attorneys and is headquartered in San Francisco with a satellite office in Napa Valley. The Legal Center to Prevent Gun Violence (sic), formerly the Legal Center Against Violence, gave them their “Outstanding Pro Bono Contribution” award in 2009 and 2010.

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ATF 41P: Deadline For Comments Is Monday At 11:59PM EST (Updated)

December 11, 2013 by 1 Comment

Back on September 9th, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives issued a proposed rule and opened the comment period. The proposed rule would require Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) signoff for all NFA transfers including ones for trusts, partnerships, and corporations. As we all know, in many areas, this is impossible to obtain and people go to NFA or gun trust route for just this reason.

The comment period is coming to an end tomorrow (Monday, December 9th) at 11:59pm EST. As of Saturday, BATFE has received 7,291 comments on the ATF 41P. From what I can tell, the overwhelming majority are firmly opposed to this proposed rule.

The American Silencer Association has an excellent page up on how to comment along with templates for your comments. I used one of their templates and then modified it.

Robb Allen at Sharp As A Marble has posted his comment which is much shorter and to the point. There are some variations in the comment section. I think any or all of them would make worthwhile comments to submit.

Jeff Know of The Firearms Coalition has his organization’s comment up here. They are pointing people to attorney John Pierce’s site for examples of short comments as well as some background information on the rulemaking effort. Mr. Pierce has nine suggested comments.

It is too late to mail a comment by the US Postal Service but it sure isn’t too late to use the Federal eRulemaking Portal. Just ID as being for ATF 41P.

All you need to do is cut and paste one of the suggested comments from the links above. It will push up the number opposing it and make it harder for the BATFE to justify going through with this nonsensical proposal.

Or at least it should!

UPDATE: The number of submissions as of Sunday night was 8,124. That means they received 833 comments or more than 10% of the total yesterday. Let’s see if we can double that today!

UPDATE II: The comments are now closed for ATF 41P.  David Codrea’s National Gun Rights Examiner column from Tuesday points to one of the more important submissions. It is from the Firearms Industry Consulting Group of the Prince Law Firm. The submission, which can be downloaded in its entirety here, is over 500 pages including appendices. The comment was submitted on Monday to the Federal and does make reference to a number of the earlier comments submitted.

David notes that:

The FICG comments raise serious questions about both ATF’s compliance with established rules and the law, as well as about the Bureau’s relationship with leaders of the National Firearms Act Trade and Collectors Association, which filed the petition ATF says prompted the rulemaking change proposal in the first place.

Joshua Prince, one of the two principal authors of the submission, says that the BATFE’s actions with regard to the rulemaking give plenty of cause for judicial review if the rule is adopted.

While our Comment may seem massive to some, with funding, a thorough Comment with evidentiary support, including expert affidavits, reports, and analysis, would have likely been almost double in size. Nevertheless, ATF’s failure to comply with the Administrative Procedure Act in a number of ways will allow for judicial review, if ATF decides to move forward with promulgating any final rule. If ATF is inclined to move forward with any final rule, it’s best course of action is to start anew and correct all of its violations of law. But, we know ATF won’t do that, because it cannot admit when it violates the law.

Hence, the Firearms Industry must prepare to fund the necessary litigation to invalidate any final rule.

Given the BATFE’s predilection for bending or breaking the law and with the Democrats’ packing of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, this rulemaking bears a lot of attention as it goes forward.

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Comment Of The Day

December 10, 2013 by 5 Comments

The Senate passed the extension to the Undetectable Firearms Act early yesterday evening. It passed without any extra riders to the everlasting consternation of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

The comment of the day comes from Emily Miller on Facebook who takes note of the fact that President Obama is out of the country attending the funeral of the late South African president Nelson Mandela.

Since Obama is out of the country tonight, the White House will use the autopen to sign the 10-year plastic gun ban extension so it doesn’t lapse. So he’s using a fake signature to ban a gun that doesn’t exist.

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California Waiting Period Fails To Meet Constitutional Muster

December 9, 2013 by 2 Comments

Senior Federal District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii denied Attorney General Kamala Harris’ Motion for Summary Judgment today and indicated that California’s 10-day waiting period probably is unconstitutional when viewed under either intermediate or strict scrutiny.

The CalGuns Foundation which along with the Second Amendment Foundation brought the case
challenging the 10-day waiting period is extremely pleased by this development as noted in their press release below.

I’ll have more after I’ve had to read the ruling. Sebastian at Shall Not Be Issued has some comments on the case here. Likewise, Professor Eugene Volokh has his analysis of the decision here.

From CalGuns:

Federal Judge Says California Attorney General Kamala Harris Wrong on Gun Control Laws

Court denies Harris’ arguments and agrees with gun rights group The Calguns Foundation, says state’s firearm waiting period laws fail to meet Constitutional muster

ROSEVILLE, CA — In a rejection of California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ stance on the rights of law-abiding gun owners, Senior Federal District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii denied Harris’ motion for summary judgement today in a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by The Calguns Foundation, indicating that California’s 10-day “waiting period” gun laws are likely unconstitutional.

“The fact that a federal judge saw these laws for what they are — baseless restraints on the exercise of a fundamental civil right — is monumental,” explained Gene Hoffman, Chairman of The Calguns Foundation. “California’s waiting period laws for those who own guns is not Constitutional and this order really underlines the point.”

In his order, Judge Ishii said that Harris has “not presented sufficient evidence to show that the [10-day waiting period laws] passes either intermediate or strict scrutiny.”

About the laws being challenged in the case, named plaintiff Jeff Silvester of Hanford, California, said, “I have a license to carry a loaded firearm across the State.It is ridiculous that I have to wait another 10 days to pick up a new firearm when I’m standing there in the gun store lawfully carrying one the whole time.”

“This is certainly an exciting development in Second Amendment case law,” noted Brandon Combs, an individual plaintiff in the case and the Executive Director of The Calguns Foundation. “If our Constitution means what it says, then California’s gun waiting period laws have to be overturned and law-abiding people must be allowed to exercise their rights without irrational infringements.”

Regardless of the final decision at the district court, the case is virtually certain to end up at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and possibly even the United States Supreme Court.

“Cases like this one will define the limits of government regulations on firearms and Second Amendment rights,” said Combs. “We look forward to making sure laws like California’s waiting period are properly scrutinized by the courts.”

Judge Ishii was appointed to the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of California by President Bill Clinton in 1997.

A full copy of the Court’s December 9, 2013, order may be viewed at http://www.calgunsfoundation.org/?p=1683.

The press release announcing the lawsuit and case docket may be viewed at http://www.calgunsfoundation.org/?p=1024.

UPDATE: Here is the correct link to the Court’s Dec. 9th order denying the motion for summary judgment.

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Cerberus Capital May Have Found Investor For Its Gun Business

December 9, 2013 by 2 Comments

A report in today’s Wall Street Journal states that Cerberus Capital may have found an investor for its firearms business. The unidentified investor and/or lender would hold a minority stake in the business large enough that Cerberus could let some of its investors sell out their stakes.

But Cerberus hasn’t reached an agreement with a buyer. The sales process has been complicated by several factors, including subsequent high-profile shootings and financing issues for some possible bidders, the person familiar with the matter said. Some offers were lower than what Cerberus thought was fair, the person said. In addition, some private-equity firms looked at the company but dropped out in early September, the person said.

Cerberus had originally sought around $1 billion for the business, a person familiar with the matter said. The new planned deal, including about $200 million in a credit facility, values the business at around $1.2 billion.

Freedom early on attracted interest from gun makers such as Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. and Sturm, Ruger & Co., people familiar with the matter have said.

Meanwhile, business at Freedom, which was already profitable, has improved. Freedom reported that revenue for the quarter through September rose 46% from a year earlier to $347.1 million as its earnings nearly doubled to $31.2 million.

In the post-Newtown shootings hysteria, Cerberus announced that it would sell its Freedom Group firearms business which includes brands such as Remington and Bushmaster. This was, in part, a reaction to the shooter using a Bushmaster rifle which he took from his mother after he murdered her.

The California State Teachers Retirement System – the largest teachers’ pension fund in the country – is one of the investors who is trying to get out of the investment fund. My guess is that there are other public pension funds who are also trying to sell their stakes in Cerberus because they don’t want to deal with pressure from their holier than thou members.

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Remington Looking At Georgia?

December 9, 2013 by 1 Comment

Georgia is home to both Glock and Daniel Defense. It is also being considered by Beretta who was reported to have scouted a central Georgia location earlier this year. Now it appears that Georgia officials are working hard to convince Remington Arms to relocate from Ilion, New York to their state.

State Sen. Burt Jone (R-Jackson) discussed this in a Q&A session with the Butts County Partners for Smart Growth this past week. Butts County is midway between Atlanta and Macon along Interstate 75.

Jones, R-Jackson, said that while Beretta has narrowed its focus to two Georgia locations — not in Butts County — the Remington Arms Company is considering relocating from New York, where its Ilion Firearms Plant and Custom Shop is located. He said state officials are working to try to bring the plant to Georgia and he’s hoping to land it in his district, possibly his home county.

Jones discussed the possibility during a question-and-answer session after his remarks Thursday to the group Partners for Smart Growth.

Remington, he said, “is looking to leave New York due to taxes, due to the unions, due to all the factors that run businesses away from your community, and they have zeroed in on the state of Georgia as being one of the states that they’re considering.”

He said he is working to get Butts County and District 25 on a list of “potential landing spots” for Remington.

“It could mean literally thousands of jobs for a community, wherever it might land,” Jones said.

It may only be wishful thinking on the part of the state of Georgia and Sen. Jones that Remington would leave New York. However, it is a fact that the NY SAFE Act has cost that state jobs. American Tactical and Kahr Arms are relocating out of state and others have decided any expansions will be made in outside of New York.

UPDATE: Tom at Fill Yer Hands reminded me that Heckler & Koch has operations down in Columbus, Georgia.

H/T Tim Glance