Month: May 2016

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Carolina Meets Kentucky

May 31, 2016 by 2 Comments

As the two NCAA Division 1 basketball teams with the highest winning percentages, the Universities of Kentucky and North Carolina have a storied rivalry. Having met 37 times, Carolina leads Kentucky 23-14. Between them, they have 13 NCAA championships.

However, this post is about another meeting of Carolina and Kentucky. It is about a meeting of two of their better known products – Cheerwine and bourbon. Cheerwine, for those that aren’t familiar with it, is a cherry-flavored soda that originated in Salisbury, North Carolina. It isn’t a cherry cola nor is it Dr. Pepper.

I used 1.5 oz of the Heaven Hill Green Label to 6 oz. of Cheerwine. If you want a stronger bourbon taste, cut down on the amount of Cheerwine.

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Even On Memorial Day The Prohibitionists Are At It In Illinois

May 30, 2016 by 1 Comment

I got the following alert last night from the Illinois State Rifle Association. It appears that the gun prohibitionists are still at it in their efforts to have state licensing of gun stores in Illinois. This would be over and above what is required by the Gun Control Act of 1968 and BATFE.

They are trying to use an amendment to an environmental protection bill to put gun dealers out of business.

On a positive note, there is an amendment to a crime bill that would allow Illinois residents to own suppressors.

If you are an Illinois resident, call your representatives and senators.

Things are moving swiftly in the Illinois General Assembly as we are down to the last scheduled days.

HB1016
If you recall HB 1016 with Amendment #6 was voted down on Friday.
It was expected to be called for a vote again today, but that did not happen.
However
the anti-gunners, the ARS, the Bloomberg Moms and others were combing
the halls today trying to pick up votes for this thinly veiled attempt
at curtailing your Second Amendment rights.

It is expected that it will be called for a House vote again tomorrow.
Yes, you are reading it correctly, the Illinois General Assembly will be in session on Memorial Day.

There is no additional amendment, so there are no witness slips to be filed, but please call your Illinois State Representative and your Illinois State Senator tomorrow urging them not to support HB 1016.

SB 206
SB
206 came out of the House Judiciary Criminal Committee hearing today on
a favorable vote of 9 to 5. It will be back in committee soon to
address the suppressor amendment to the bill, now House Amendment #2. 
This is a bill to allow suppressors in Illinois as long as there is NFA
compliance, and to be able to use them while hunting with long arms.

At this point there is no committee hearing to fill out witness slips for, so please call your Illinois State Representative and your Illinois State Senator to urge their support of SB 206 as amended.  There is a possibility that the bill number may change, so make sure that that your legislators know that you are in favor of suppressors in general.

Here are a couple of quick talking points for suppressors when you call your legislators:

  • They can decrease noise complaints that are increasingly used as an excuse to close lands to hunting.
  • They help prevent hearing loss among those hunting or accompanying.

If you do not know who your Illinois State Legislators are, please use the website of the Illinois State Board of Elections and access their lookup app for elected officials based on your street address and/or 9 digit zip code.

Thank you for giving this your attention during the holiday weekend.

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What Would Be A Suitable Punishment For These Vandals?

May 29, 2016 by 9 Comments

Punji sticks?

Tiger pits?

How about this:  they have to go and meet with the families of those missing in action who have suffered for up to 50 years not knowing what happened to their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons and explain just what the hell they were thinking when they “tagged” that memorial. I doubt they will be able to truly justify their actions.

If they have any feelings, if they are sentient beings, they should feel profound shame at their actions. Perhaps this will get their lives turned into something productive.

I was lucky. My father came home from the Republic of Vietnam. Twice. Though he wasn’t in combat, his name could have been up on that wall or the one in Washington, DC. As I said, I was lucky unlike the families of those men listed on that wall in Venice, California.

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“Suspected Of Impersonating A Police Officer”

May 27, 2016 by 1 Comment

The Anchorage Police Department received complaints about an obnoxious driver last weekend. They were very concerned as the vehicle involved had flashing red and blue lights and thought they might be dealing with someone impersonating a police officer. They asked the public for help in identifying the driver.

The driver in question, a white male in his 30s with short hair, came up behind multiple cars, flipped on his flashing lights and then would speed past them when they yielded. Oh, and he would laugh at them while flipping them the middle finger.

One of the motorists who had been pulled over took a picture of the license plate of the vehicle in question. This is where it really gets interesting. The APD went to run the plate against the DMV database and came up empty. Thinking it might be an undercover car of the Alaska State Police, they contacted them and also came up empty.

After a few days of detective work by APD, the car and unidentified driver were traced to a federal law enforcement agency – the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. In a later release, APD said they were informed that this employee of BATFE was “on official business at the time of the incident”.

ATF’s Seattle office, which also oversees operations in Alaska, declined to answer questions Tuesday about the bureau’s policies regarding unmarked vehicles or whether any disciplinary action had been taken. The office released a brief statement from special agent in charge Doug Dawson.

“ATF is aware of the allegations made in the complaint and is investigating the incident,” Dawson said. “Further, as a matter of policy, ATF does not comment on personnel matters.”

I’m guessing the BATFE agent in question was confused by his agency’s directives on trafficking. He must have thought it had something to do with traffic enforcement as opposed to trafficking in guns, dynamite, moonshine, or cigarettes.

H/T Sipsey Street

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First Amendment Lawsuit With Second Amendment Implications In California

May 27, 2016 by 1 Comment

Two Second Amendment groups and three individual plaintiffs including a Congressional candidate have filed suit against California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The suit filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of California seeks an injunction against a California law that makes it illegal to use video footage from the California State Assembly in a political campaign or ballot initiative. The suit is brought on First Amendment grounds as the law restricts political speech. The plaintiffs would have used video footage from the State Assembly to produce ads opposing Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s gun control ballot initiative and the gun control bills being rammed through the legislature.

One of the individual plaintiffs is filmmaker Kris Koenig who produced the Second Amendment documentary Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire.

An interesting note about the lawsuit is that UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh who blogs at the Washington Post’s Volokh Conspiracy is one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.

A copy of the complaint can be found here.

A release with more details on the case and the plaintiffs is below.

SACRAMENTO­­­­­­ – Today, two civil rights groups opposing Gavin Newsom’s gun control ballot initiative were joined by two Emmy Award-winning filmmakers, a San Diego-based civil rights activist, and a candidate for Congress in filing a new First Amendment lawsuit challenging the State of California’s ban on using Assembly video footage for political speech.

The complaint, filed in the Eastern District of California federal court, states that California Government Code section 9026.5 prohibits the use of the public video feed from the California State Assembly “for any political or commercial purpose, including . . . any campaign for elective public office or any campaign supporting or opposing a ballot proposition submitted to the electors.”

Tim Donnelly, a plaintiff in the case who is currently running for Congress, was previously threatened by the Assembly Rules Committee for using a clip of a hearing in which he participated as an elected Assembly member.

Violating the statute is a misdemeanor crime that can lead to imprisonment in a county jail for up to six months, a fine of up to one thousand dollars, or both imprisonment and fine. Because of the importance of political speech and the criminal liability under the statute, the plaintiffs say they’ll be asking the court to issue a restraining order against the law.

“Millions of good, law-abiding people are at risk of becoming criminals through dozens of new gun control bills and the most dangerous, anti-civil rights ballot initiative we’ve seen in decades,” explained Firearms Policy Coalition Second Amendment Defense Committee Chairman Brandon Combs. “Yet Section 9026.5 says it would be a crime for us to use video of the people’s Assembly hearings and votes in political speech. It is shocking that this law was ever passed in a state that claims to value diversity, tolerance, free speech, and open government.

“This blatantly unconstitutional statute should be opposed by people across the political spectrum.”

“Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Kevin de León are playing fast and loose with legislative rules, but California law says that it’s a crime for us to use Assembly video to oppose their extreme agenda. We filed this lawsuit because we’re not going to stand by and watch while Senator de León and Gavin Newsom compete to burn the Bill of Rights to the ground first,” concluded Combs.

The plaintiffs are represented by Bradley Benbrook and Stephen Duvernay of Benbrook Law Group, PC, and Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor who has written and taught extensively about the First and Second Amendments. Before joining the UCLA faculty, Volokh clerked for Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court. He also operates the popular legal blog “The Volokh Conspiracy,” now hosted at the Washington Post.

A copy of the complaint for Firearms Policy Coalition Second Amendment Defense Committee, et al. v. Attorney General Kamala Harris can be viewed or downloaded at www.fpcsadc.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2016-05-26-Complaint-filed.pdf.

Firearms Policy Coalition Second Amendment Defense Committee (FPCSADC) is the official pro-gun grassroots political action committee (PAC) dedicated to opposing Gavin Newsom’s gun control ballot initiative. FPCSADC was formed days after Newsom announced his intention to put his gun control scheme on the November 2016 ballot and has been fighting against the initiative since its inception. More information about FPCSADC can be found at www.StopNewsom.com.

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) is a grassroots, nonprofit public benefit organization. FPC’s mission is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, especially the fundamental, individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. More information about FPC can be found at www.firearmspolicy.org.

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The NRA Endorsement Of Trump

May 24, 2016 by 8 Comments

I posted an article from Politico on Facebook yesterday. The article said the NRA was facing member backlash from their endorsement of Donald Trump on Friday. I noted that I thought Politico was stretching to find NRA members who were opposed to the Trump endorsement. I compared it to finding people at the Annual Meeting who were in favor of universal background checks. You would find them if you looked hard. I went on to add that Politico was a part of the mainstream press whose job it seems is to get Hillary elected even if she does treat them like something she found on the bottom of her shoes.

I thought what I said was fairly uncontroversial.


I was wrong.

I have lost track of how many comments and replies pro and con the Trump endorsement that I have received. Some of the comments have up to 50 replies to them. Much of it is back and forth between people who oppose the endorsement and those who thought the NRA right to do the endorsement. To get a true feel for it you need to read the comment and then the back and forth replies.

The comments on both sides of the argument have come from people within the gun culture whom I respect for their devotion to the Second Amendment. Given that, I do see that the endorsement of Trump was more controversial than I thought.

My take on why the NRA-ILA and NRA-PVF made the endorsement now is that it was pragmatic politics. The NRA is nothing if not a practitioner of realpolik. The pragmatic consideration is that an early endorsement at a time when it would get lots of media attention cements the NRA as one of the inner circle of organizations who will have the ear of a President Trump. It is already a given that the NRA will have no seat at the table under a President Clinton. She has already declared us as one of her prime enemies.

The NRA could have waited to make the endorsement later in the campaign season but they would have risked that endorsement getting lost among other endorsements. Moreover, as some have suggested, they could have just foregone an endorsement of Trump as they have done with some past Republican nominees. Given Trump’s past pro-gun control comments, they could have been excused for going this route. That said, 2016 Trump is very pro-gun, has made very pro-gun statements throughout the campaign, and has very pro-2A positions posted on his website. It could be posited that the NRA endorsement is a reward for coming over the from the dark side.

As I said above, I do see the endorsement of Trump as being more controversial than I thought. However, pragmatically, I don’t see that the NRA had any other choice than to do what they did.

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“Heartless Hillary”

May 21, 2016 by 2 Comments

I listened to Donald Trump’s speech at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum yesterday. Two things stood out for me. First, and most important, I really do believe that Trump understands the issues surrounding the Second Amendment and gun rights. In his speech he referenced the makeup of the Supreme Court, judges, concealed carry permits, the threats to the Second Amendment, self-defense, and gun free zones.

The latter two, self-defense and gun free zones, are two areas that he really highlighted. Noting the Paris Massacre in a gun free zone, Trump said he doubted that it would have gone on long if held at the Annual Meeting due to the number of armed citizens. (As a sidebar, due to the Secret Service and their protective rules, Trump *was* speaking in a gun free zone.) Trump spoke of single moms in Florida and grandmothers in Ohio that would be left defenseless if Hillary was elected. That lead to his newest nickname for Clinton as “Heartless Hillary”. Though, he admits, he still really likes “Crooked Hillary.”

Second, listening to a Trump speech is an exercise in patience. This is not because of what he says but how he says it. The man has a severe case of attention deficit disorder when it comes to public speaking. He’d start out on a topic and then …SQUIRREL! and he’d be off on a tangent. He makes some good points but he can be damn hard to follow.

I read some discussion yesterday on Sebastian’s blog on whether or not the NRA should have endorsed Trump. In my opinion, the NRA did not have much of a choice. They deal in realpolitik. Their avowed foe Hillary Clinton has doubled down and made gun control, the Second Amendment, and the NRA her number one target.

This is a two-person race unless Bernie decides to run as an independent which Trump encouraged in his speech. The NRA has to pull conservatives who supported other candidates and gun owners who don’t trust Trump back into the fold. Without them, Hillary most likely will win and the Second Amendment will be lost as an actual civil right. It will become a historical artifact. That is something the NRA can’t live with and I certainly won’t live with.

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Gunpocalypse Hits California While NRA Annual Meeting Starts

May 20, 2016 by 1 Comment

I’m listening the NRA Leadership Forum as I write. There have been some good zingers against Hillary from Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox. In the meantime,  Democrats in California are pushing more and more gun laws.

This release from the Firearms Policy Coalition gives more details on this “gunpocalypse”.

Firearms Policy Coalition Condemns “Fast-Tracked” California


Senate Votes it Calls ‘Gunpocalypse’


Civil rights group says gun-owners are being used as pawns in a turf war between Lt. Gov. Newsom, Sen. de
León.


SACRAMENTO – Ten anti-gun rights bills were fast-tracked through the California State Senate today on a
party-line vote of Senate Democrats led by Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León.


The slate of proposals attacking California gun owners included four Assembly bills that were “gutted and
amended” in the Senate just two weeks earlier in an effort by Democrats to avoid a full legislative vetting process
and public scrutiny.


On the floor, debate about the need for the bills centered on a political turf war between Lt. Governor Gavin
Newsom, sponsor of a gun control ballot initiative opposed by my California legislators, and de León, who,
ironically, views the ballot initiative process as a “last resort” rather than a way to short-cut the legislative cycle.
“It is nothing short of unconscionable that millions of law-abiding Californians are being used as chess pieces in a
twisted political game to see who can race to the bottom first,” said Craig DeLuz, legislative advocate for the gun
rights group Firearms Policy Coalition.


Senator de Leon hopes that by fast-tracking gun control through the legislature, he can take the wind out
Newsom’s “Safety for All” initiative’s sails—and his 2018 campaign to be the Golden State’s next governor.
“The political class needs to know that law-abiding gun owners are not second-class citizens and the Second
Amendment does not protect a second-class right,” noted DeLuz. “Even the liberal Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals acknowledges that.”


The ten gun control bills that were passed out of the Senate today are:


  • • SB 880 (Hall): Bans common and constitutionally protected firearms that have magazine locking devices.
  • • SB 894 (Jackson): Victimizes victims by criminalizing the failure to report lost and stolen firearms.
  • • SB 1006 (Wolk): University of California taxpayer funding for gun control research.
  • • SB 1235 (Deleon): Restrictions on ammunition purchases, creates a DOJ database of ammunition owners.
  • • SB 1407 (Deleon): Retroactively requires serial numbers be placed on firearms dating back over 50 years.
  • • SB 1446: Confiscation of lawfully acquired, standard capacity magazines that can hold over 10 rounds.
  • • AB 156 (McCarty): Formerly dealt with global warming, but is now the same as SB 1235.
  • • AB 857 (Cooper): Formerly addressed greenhouse gasses, but is now the same as SB 1407.
  • • AB 1135 (Levine): Formerly centered around groundwater but is now the same as SB 880.
  • • AB 1511 (Santiago): Formerly dealt with energy conservation, but now criminalizes loaning of firearms between personally known, law-abiding adults, including sportsmen, family member and competitors.
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ASA Suppressor Shoot

May 20, 2016 by

The American Suppressor Association sponsored their 3rd Annual Range Day at Knob Creek Range in Westpoint, Kentucky yesterday.

Members of the ASA that were there included Sig, Dead Air, Gemtech, AAC, SilencerCo, Yankee Hill, Daniel Defense, the Silencer Shop, and Liberty Suppressors.

Knox Williams of the ASA gave out a number of awards to members. As I remember it, Vender of the Year went to the Silencer Shop, Comeback Award went to Gemtech, and Person of the Year went to Josh Waldron of SilencerCo.

We (the Complementary Spouse and I) got to shoot a number of the suppressor. Below is a video of her shooting a Ruger 10/22 with a integrally suppressed barrel from Yankee Hill Machine.

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NRA Annual Meeting Traffic Tip

May 20, 2016 by 1 Comment

Everyone and their brother seems to be heading to the NRA Annual Meeting. It took us an hour to get through the gates coming of Interstate 65. That seems the norm no matter which road you are coming in from.

That is, except if you are coming in through Gate 6. We saw very few people coming in that gate and no holdups. Gate 6 is accessed off of Preston Highway. See the map below.

I’m probably going to jinx things but I consider this a public service.