Month: August 2017

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“Only Cowards Carry” – Anti-Knife Campaign In The UK

August 7, 2017 by 7 Comments

The Essex Police Department in the United Kingdom is partnering with a group called Only Cowards Carry. Part of this partnership includes placing “knife bins” around the area where you can anonymously dump knives and, it appears, other sharp objects. They are calling it knife amnesty and the object is to reduce “knife crime” (sic). They had a post about it up on their Facebook page but it has been taken down according to KnifeNews.com.

Picture captured from Facebook by www.knifenews.com

According to the Essex Police Department’s website, the bin is in Southend and is part of that town’s knife amnesty campaign.

From their website:

In a move to tackle knife crime, Sergeant Kayleigh Webster from Southend’s Local Policing Team sought to have the bin donated to Essex Police by Only Cowards Carry, it will enable the safe disposal of all bladed items handed in as part of the amnesty.

The introduction of the knife amnesty bin in Southend follows bins being placed across the county. Since a trial of a knife amnesty in Tendring in 2014, more than 7,000 knives have been surrendered safely.

Since the launch of the bin, Southend’s Local Policing Team has opened the bin to discover over 30 knives and weapons have been surrendered.

The amnesty is being supported by Essex Police, the Essex Police and Crime Commissioner, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and the Only Cowards Carry charity set up by Caroline Shearer in memory of her son Jay Whiston who was stabbed to death at a party in Colchester in September 2012.

Sergeant Kayleigh Webster from Southend’s Local Policing Team and her team have been working tirelessly over the past few months to carry out a number of operations around the clock to reduce weapon related crimes and violent crimes in Southend.

In a number of dedicated operations, Sgt Webster’s team have carried out over 50 stop and searches which led to police finding and seizing over 200 knives in Southend. A total of 40 people have been charged for being in possession of an offensive weapon.

Along with continued operations, Sgt Webster believes the knife amnesty bin will take more knives off of the streets of Southend. She said: “Knife crime has a devastating impact on the victim’s family, friends and the community. Having served Essex Police for nearly ten years, I’ve seen first-hand the impact that knife crime can have.

Only Cowards Carry Weapons Awareness is a registered charity – the UK version of a non-profit – located in eastern England. They have five of these knife bins in place and have plans for nine more. They put on a number of workshops in the area.

I feel for any mother who lost her child to a violent crime. However, blaming the tool instead of the actions of the violent offender is misplaced. You see that here in America with the various gun control groups. Moreover, terms like “knife crime” and “gun violence” are oxymorons. The knife didn’t commit the crime anymore than the gun perpetrated the violence. They are both inanimate objects incapable of independent actions. It is the violent person who decides to act that is the problem and not the tool. If we are to blame all objects that are used in the commission of a violent act, then we also have steel-toed boot crime and stick on the ground violence. I doubt we’ll see any organizations devoted to the outlawing of steel-toed boots or limbs that have fallen on the ground anytime soon.

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Dave Workman And SAF Win Against City Of Seattle (Updated)

August 3, 2017 by 3 Comments

The City of Seattle thought adding a “gun violence tax” of $25 for every firearm sold within the city limits would raise between $300,000 and half a million dollars. They forgot to factor in that buyers can vote with their feet and patronize gun stores outside the city limits. Thanks to a lawsuit under the state of Washington’s Public Records Act by Dave Workman and the Second Amendment Foundation, we now know the real amount collected. It was just a bit over $100,000 and most of that comes from one gun store that publicized its own figures.

It is not surprising that Seattle wanted to keep this embarrassing amount quiet. No politician wants the public to know that his or her pet program is an abject failure

According to the press release from the Second Amendment Foundation, they will be awarded a $377  fine plus their attorneys’ fees. The fine is a dollar a day for each day the City of Seattle drug its feet in bad faith on releasing the requested information. The unfortunate part is that city taxpayers and not the politicians are the ones footing the bill.

Congratulations to Dave, Alan, and everyone else at SAF for their win on this First Amendment case with Second Amendment overtones.

UPDATE: More on the win by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Mike Coombs, owner of the Outdoor Emporium, was the store owner whose collections constituted about 80% of the collections. Given his comments in the interview, I think the real aim of Seattle City Council is to make the city the next San Francisco. That is, no gun stores within the city limits.

Coombs sought to force the city’s hand by releasing his own pay-ins to the tax. He wrote in a memo to the court that he paid $86,410.63 last year.

The city has only said it collected less than $200,000 and that one business has paid more than 80 percent of the total tax revenue — by that math, Coombs believe he is that big fish, and estimates the city only brought in about $108,000 total.

Coombs also laid out additional devastating statistics for his business: Outdoor Emporium’s firearm sales dropped about 20 percent last year from 2015 and its ammunition sales were cut in half. Overall sales were cut 15 percent because customers who bought guns and bullets also bought other supplies at the store.

His store in Fife has not suffered the same losses.

“Many of our customers have told me that they stopped shopping at our store because of the firearm and ammunition tax, and that has meant that they have started shopping at stores outside Seattle for all their sporting goods needs,” Coombs wrote to the court. “I believe most of Outdoor Emporium’s loss of sales is directly linked to the firearm and ammunition tax.”

What’s more: Coombs laid off some staff and collected $183,747 less in sales tax last year. Deducting the portion of the sales tax that goes to the city from the amount it collected with the gun safety tax, Coombs estimated that Seattle gained only $25,000 from Outdoor Emporium as a result of the ordinance.

 Given the city pulled $275,000 from its general fund to help fund the “gun violence” (sic) prevention pilot program at Harborview General Hospital, the tax was never about raising money. It was about control.

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Well, It’s Not A Sten But It Would Work

August 3, 2017 by 2 Comments

When some of the politicians in California were railing on about 80% lowers and “ghost guns” (sic), if I remember correctly Tam said in response that you could get a 90% Sten at your local Lowe’s. That comment stuck with me. Thus, when I saw Ian McCullom’s video on the homemade full auto firearms made by Philip A. Luty which were in the Royal Armouries’ National Firearms Centre collection, I was reminded of it.

Mr. Luty was a man of conscience who objected to the British firearms laws. He designed a 9mm submachine gun from scratch and published the plans to it in his book “Expedient Homemade Firearms” (which is available on Amazon). With a quick Google search you will find PDFs of many of his plans and blueprints around the Internet. I might even suggest that you download these to a thumb drive just because you can. I’m not saying to build one of them but in a TEOTWAWKI situation it might prove useful.

Unlike the US where the receiver is the restricted part, in much of the rest of the world it is the parts like a barrel which must take pressure that is the restricted part. By restricted, I mean subject to government regulation. As Ian notes, Mr. Luty wanted to show the foolishness of British firearms laws and paid for it with his freedom. The British police eventually caught him test-firing one of his submachine guns for which he was convicted and imprisoned.

Mr. Luty passed away in 2011 from cancer while he was facing charges related to his gun rights activism. May he rest in peace.

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Meet Squish The Magic RINO

August 2, 2017 by 1 Comment

While I may have hated what Saul Alinsky stood for, I must admit his Rules for Radicals does come in handy when pushing for gun rights. Grass Roots North Carolina has learned this lesson and plans to unveil their version of Rule No. 5 tomorrow. That rule states “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon” and GRNC plans to make the most of it. They will have a new mascot to go along with their bulldog. The new mascot is named Squish the Magic RINO. You can guess where that name came from.

To protest the failure of the North Carolina Senate to bring HB 746 which included permitless concealed carry to the floor for a vote as well as to highlight those Republicans in the House who voted against the bill, they plan to have a rally in Raleigh against these Republicans in name only. Given that the Republicans achieved a super-majority in both house of the General Assembly through the hard work, efforts, and votes of gun owners, they need to be reminded that they should be dancing those that brung them. It seems that some of these Republicans would rather be beholden to Michael Bloomberg than to the voters of their own districts.

I think Squish makes a perfectly fine addition to the roster of mascots. Perhaps, in addition to Squish, there needs to be one called Squirmy because that is what I want to see these Rino guys and gals squirm.

Gun group to lampoon GOP
RINOs


Failure of Senate to pass HB 746 will be topic of demonstration at NC General
Assembly

At 11:00 am on Thursday, August 3,
Grass
Roots North Carolina will hold NC Senate Republicans accountable for the
Senate’s failure to pass House Bill 746 (“Omnibus Gun
Changes”) which would, among other things, bring North Carolina on board
with the 13 states which have already passed permitless carry of
concealed handguns. The event will be held at the Halifax Mall at the NC
General Assembly.

Meet “Squish the Magic R.I.N.O.” & Friends!

To highlight the fact that some GOP senators
(including Senator Phil Berger?) seem to be behaving like “Republicans
in
Name Only” (R.I.N.O.s), GRNC will be introducing a new mascot, “Squish the Magic R.I.N.O.” and friends. If
Republicans fail to pass HB 746 during or before the 2018 short session of the General Assembly, “Squish” could become a regular
feature at GOP campaign events.

Take advantage of this highly photogenic
event!

Squish and his friends will be cavorting under a highly photogenic banner proclaiming:

“NC Senate R.I.N.Os:

Giving Gun Voters ‘The Horn’ Since…?”

Event details:
When: August 3 at 11:00 AM
EDT

Where: Halifax Mall, NC General Assembly, 16 West Jones Street,
Raleigh, NC 27601