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How Important Are Four Minutes?

January 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Ask the Brady Center.

In a case coming from Connecticut, Gilland v. Sportsman’s Outpost, Inc., four minutes meant a lot. From Larry Keane, General Counsel of NSSF:

After the Superior Court granted the motion to dismiss, the plaintiffs continued their attack against the PLCAA by renewing their motion to file a third amended complaint and separate motion to reargue the order dismissing their case. Unfortunately for the Brady Campaign, their attorneys filed their paperwork four minutes after the filing deadline. The Superior Court subsequently denied the motion to reargue as untimely and denied their motion to amend — in part because the plaintiffs had already been granted several opportunities to establish that their claims were not barred by the PLCAA and failed to do so each time.

In this case the plaintiffs tried to hold a store in Connecticut responsible for a wrongful death claim as well as negligence for a firearm that was stolen from it. The defendents argued that under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (“PLCAA”) they couldn’t be sued and the Superior Court agreed.

The Brady Center appealed to the Connecticut Appellate Court arguing for a chance to reargue their case and again challenging the PLCAA’s constitutionality. This appeal was denied and the court issued a ruling affirming the Superior Court’s decision dismissing the case on PLCAA grounds and upholding its constitutionality.

The full opinion of the Superior Court in Hartford from May can be found here.

The NSSF reported on this in their May 31st Bullet Points saying:

Last week a Connecticut trial court dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Brady Center against a Connecticut firearms retailer, Sportsmen’s Outpost, on the grounds that the case was barred by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). A firearm and ammunition were stolen from the dealer in 2007 and used by the thief several weeks later to murder his ex-wife and commit suicide. The Brady Center unsuccessfully argued that the stolen firearm was somehow transferred by the dealer and that the dealer should have conducted a Brady background check on the thief when he walked into the store acting like a customer asking to see firearms. Of course, the Brady Center knows background checks can only be performed when a firearm is being transferred, not whenever any customer asks to look at a firearm. The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the case to defend the constitutionality of the PLCAA. Representing Sportsmen’s Outpost was the Renzulli Law Firm of White Plains, N.Y.

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All I Want For Christmas…

January 10, 2012 by 1 Comment

The National Shooting Sports Foundation paired with social media monitoring service Radian6 to search blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other sites to get an idea what brand of gun people were desiring for Christmas. They used the search words “Christmas”, “firearm or gun”, and the names of leading firearms manufacturers. The chart below shows the results.

The marketing managers at Glock and Ruger have got to be happy with these results. Colt should be happy that they placed third on this list as their proportion of the civilian market is, I believe, much less than its ranking here.

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NSSF On Slings For Your “Modern Sporting Rifle”

December 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

Mark Thomas of the NSSF talks with Bob Whaley of Gunsite about slings for the “modern sporting rifle”*. They discuss both 1-point and 2-point slings. It gives some good stuff on what to look for in a sling.

Slings don’t have to be expensive. I just paid $20 for a decent 1-point sling at Wally Word that is actually pretty decent.

If you are good with craft-oriented stuff, read through this thread on Arfcom. It gives instructions on making many types of slings on the cheap.

*AR-15 or M-4gery

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Eighteen Months And Counting

December 6, 2011 by

November marked the 18th straight month in which the year over year FBI-run NICS checks increased according to the adjusted statistics provided by the NSSF.  The numbers from NSSF show that 1,101,076 National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks were run during the month. This figure is an increase of 16.5 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 945,463 in November 2010. Undoubtedly, this was pushed along by the almost 130,000 checks run on Black Friday, November 25th, alone.

The NSSF research staff has to adjust these figures because a number of states use the NICS checks for concealed carry permit approval purposes and for checking on active CCW permit holders. The states include Kentucky, Iowa, and Utah.

Moreover, this November had the second highest number of NICS checks for the month of November in the last 10 years. Only November 2008 had more. I believe that we can reasonably say that November 2008’s sales can be explained by the election of Barack Obama and the feeling that he would seek to implement new gun control measures once in office. He did after all says that we gun owners were bitterly clinging to our guns and religion.

November is also an auspicious month as it marks the 18th anniversary of the signing of the Brady Act on November 30, 1993 by President Clinton. I can’t think of a better way to mark the 18th anniversary than to have 18 straight months of year over year increases in NICS checks. It somehow seems fitting.

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NSSF To File Amicus Brief In Jennings v BATFE Appeal

October 25, 2011 by

In their Bullet Points newsletter, the National Shooting Sports Foundation announced plans to file an amicus brief in support of the NRA’s appeal of Jennings et al v. BATFE. This was the NRA’s challenge in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on the prohibition of the sale of handguns to 18-20 year old adults by Federal Firearm Licensees.

In response to a ruling by a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas in favor of the federal government in a case brought by the NRA challenging the federal restriction on the purchase of handguns by 18-20 year old adults, NSSF plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief in support of NRA’s appeal of the ruling. In the case, Jennings v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the NRA and a group of responsible young adults argued that since 18-20 year olds are considered adults for virtually every other purpose, such as voting and military service, adults in this age group should also be able to purchase handguns from licensed retailers. A similar case, in which many of the same plaintiffs challenge the state of Texas’ ban on issuance of right-to-carry permits to adults under 21, remains pending in the same court

Attorneys for the plaintiffs filed their appeal on October 7th and the case was assigned a docket number last week on the 19th. No briefs have yet been filed.

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Doug Koenig On Dry Fire Practice

October 10, 2011 by

In another one of his shooting segments for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, champion shooter Doug Koenig discusses the importance of dry fire practice. I especially like his suggestion that those who carry concealed should practice with their cover garments. This just makes sense as does his comment that we all have 10 minutes a day we could devote to dry fire. I know I personally need to make it a daily habit.