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A Public Gun Range For Buncombe County?

June 20, 2016 by

Buncombe County Commissioner Mike Fryar (R-Buncombe) has proposed the county switch $500,000 from a budget line allocated to the Asheville Art Museum and use it for the development of a public shooting range in the county. He had visited the range that was recently opened in Cleveland County (Shelby, NC) that is run in a partnership between the county and the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.

Photo Credit: WLOS Staff

The range as Commissioner Fryar envisions it would have a 100-yard rifle range with six stations and a 25-yard pistol range with eight stations. I would hope they go further and create a pistol bay that can be configured for more advanced training or IDPA/USPSA competitions.

As might be expected, Fryar’s proposal is not being met with open arms by some of his fellow commissioners. From WLOS:

Commissioner Ellen Frost, also from District 2, called the gun range “absurd”.

She went on to say that it was not an appropriate time to bring up the issue after 49 people were gunned down inside a gay nightclub in Orlando.

“I think it’s incredibly disrespectful to the people of Orlando,” she said.

Fryar says he understands both views.

“Orlando was terrible. It was bad terrible, but as I told my brother 35 years ago, be careful brother. There’s a nightclub here in town called Scandals. He opened it,” he said. “My brother went to gun ranges and shot, in indoor range to shoot his pistol because he always had a pistol at the bar.”

Scandals, by the way, is a gay-friendly nightclub in Asheville.

The issue comes to a vote on Tuesday. Unfortunately, given the left-leaning composition of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners which include Ellen Frost, I don’t expect the proposal to pass.

From the Citizen-Times quoting Commission Chairman David Gantt:

Getting a majority of commissioners to defund the museum and put the money toward a gun range may, however, prove difficult. Fryar had the support of the two other Republicans to put the proposal on the agenda. But Democrats hold a 4-3 majority on the county’s governing body.

Democratic board Chairman David Gantt said he opposed the proposal because it would “leapfrog” over other projects the county has planned for years, including work on the East Asheville Library, the recycling transfer station and the radio system for emergency responders.

“Buncombe County would also have to buy land to build this proposed public outdoor shooting range,” Gantt said, adding a site would be tough to find and that he thought costs would exceed $500,000 for taxpayers.

“I believe that public shooting ranges should be financed by private business, not Buncombe County taxpayers,” he said.

The problem with a range as a private business is zoning. I fully expect the Buncombe County Commissioners to react similarly to the Haywood County Commissioners and put too many restrictions on new private ranges that they would not put on their own range.

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GRNC On Anti-Gun Bills Looming

June 19, 2016 by

Grass Roots North Carolina sent out this alert yesterday. It is asking that people contact their Federal representatives to oppose any of these measures.

I agree with GRNC that it is disappointing that NC Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper (D-NC) is calling for the no-fly list gun ban. You would think that after 16 years as the state’s attorney general he would have at least a little appreciation for due process. However, he must feel that it is politically expedient to ignore constitutional rights.

ANTI-GUN MEASURES LOOM
AFTER TERRORIST ATTACK
The Battle is Not Over! Weak politicians continue to teeter on your gun rights. . .
Even after a massive outcry from law-abiding Americans demanding that Congress respect their rights, and instead take effective steps to stop terrorism, many US Congressmen and Senators appear ready to cave to dangerous political correctness. Many politicians continue to indicate that they might support new legislation, or a return to failed legislation, such as the prior Clinton assault weapons ban laws.  Those laws were repealed because they did nothing to reduce gun crime, and they infringed on the rights of the citizenry.
U.S. Legislators Cannot be Trusted

Senators Schumer, Feinstein and other anti-gun elected officials will still be pushing anti-gun bills and amendments this coming week in the U.S. Congress!  


Roy Cooper Joins the Gun Control Frenzy

If there has ever been a time when Americans need to be prepared to protect themselves and their families from the unexpected and unthinkable, this is the time! 

Yet, even after the horrific event in Orlando, there’s now talk of a “No Buy List” and Trump and GOP Lawmakers in Washington are opening the door to restricting gun buys for those on a watch list. The problem is that you can be put on the Watch List without ever knowing it and once you’re on there you’ll find it almost impossible to get off the list.Mitch McConnell is opening the door to this as well. He’s announced that the GOP is “open to keeping guns from terrorists” but we have to be careful that sloppy legislation rushed through to appease the anti gun nuts doesn’t restrict the rights of law abiding gun owners. Appeasing noisy protesting anti gun nuts will do nothing to make us safer. 

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED!
  • PHONE YOUR SENATORS AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE using:202-224-3121.

  • EMAIL YOUR SENATORS AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVE Use the links below, which will connect you to their contact web forms. You can use the copy/paste message under ‘Deliver This Message.’

  • Please contact other gun owners to tell them this threat is real, and ask them to take action as well.

U.S. Senate
Senator Richard Burr (R- NC)
Senator Thom Tillis (R- NC)
U.S. House of Representatives
Representative G. K. Butterfield, Jr. (D – 01)
Representative Renee L. Ellmers (R – 02)
Representative Walter B. Jones, Jr. (R – 03)
Representative David Price (D – 04)
Representative Virginia Foxx (R – 05)
Representative Mark Walker (R – 06)
Representative David Rouzer (R – 07)
Representative Richard Hudson (R – 08)
Representative Robert Pittenger (R – 09)
Representative Patrick McHenry (R – 10)
Representative Mark Meadows (R – 11)
Representative Alma Adams (D – 12)
Representative George Holding (R – 13)

DELIVER THIS MESSAGE
Suggested Subject: “ No Gun Control for Law-abiding Voters in Wake of Terrorist Attack!” 


Dear (Congressman or Senator):

Many members of the House and the Senate are weakening their previously stated strong promises to gun owners that they will not sponsor or vote for any legislation that would weaken the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. I’m writing you to insist that you not co-sponsor or vote for any knee jerk legislation that is now being suggested in the wake of the Orlando tragedy.

Blaming law-abiding gun owners is wrong. Instead of fixing blame I want you to fix the problem and make Obama answer for his complete failure in the war on terror. The introduction of any legislation to restrict our 2nd Amendment Rights is a depraved attempt to politicize a tragedy that will result in destroying our freedom.

I will be monitoring your actions on this topic through legislative alerts from Grass Roots North Carolina.


Respectfully, 

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The Hobbyist Exemption?

June 19, 2016 by 5 Comments

I just learned of an exemption to the NICS check when purchasing a firearm from a FFL. This is over and above the exemption for those that have CCWs from states where it is recognized as a substitute background check.

It is called the “hobbyist” exemption and I learned about it from a Demanding Mommy from Texas with whom I have been going back and forth with on Twitter.

This was in response to a tweet that noted a background check is required when purchasing a firearm from a Federal firearms licensee. “Tricia” said earlier you could buy an AR-15 without a background check in Texas because the state didn’t require it.

This shows just how little our opponents know about Federal firearms law and what is required.

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A Friendly Reminder To Take Action

June 17, 2016 by 2 Comments

Just in case you haven’t already called or emailed or faxed your Senators and Congressman/woman, here is a reminder. I don’t care if you live in San Francisco and you have Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as your representative, do it anyway. Get it on record so she can’t say she didn’t hear from you.

The
NRA has learned that Senators Schumer, Feinstein and other anti-gun
elected officials are going to offer several anti-gun bills and
amendments next week in the U.S. Congress!
These
measures are wide-ranging and include an attempt to reinstate the
failed federal ban on semi-automatic firearms, commonly referred to as
the “assault weapons ban.”

It doesn’t matter that the Clinton gun ban did nothing to reduce crime.
This is about YOUR freedoms and YOUR Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

But it doesn’t stop there. In fact, one amendment will attempt to strip
the Second Amendment Rights from those on secret government lists while
another could lead to federal registration of all gun owners.

They’re also planning to push for increased federal funding of anti-gun research.

We must defeat every one of these anti-gun proposals.

What’s obvious is that many who want to destroy our firearm freedoms are
using the terrorist attack in Orlando to push their anti-gun agenda.

They’d rather blame you as a law-abiding gun owner than make Obama answer for his failures in the global war on terror.

We can’t let them succeed in this depraved attempt to politicize a tragedy so they can destroy our freedoms.

Please contact your U.S. Representative and U.S. Senators immediately
and let them know you oppose any new gun control measures. You can call
your lawmakers at 202-225-3121 or click the “Take Action” button below.

Be sure to share this message with your fellow NRA members and gun
owners and let them know this threat is real. Your action is needed now.

https://act.nraila.org/takeaction.aspx?AlertID=261
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Julie Nails It

June 17, 2016 by 4 Comments

Libertarian comedienne Julie Borowski with her squeaky little voice and innocent, confused looks nails it in this video. This is especially true given the statement from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) that “due process is what’s killing us right now”.

Due process is and will remain important so long as we as a country remain faithful to the Constitution. Once due process goes we might just as well have just remained colonies under the British Crown.

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Toomey Really Doesn’t Want To Be Re-elected

June 16, 2016 by 3 Comments

As Sebastian at Shall Not Be Questioned has pointed out over numerous posts, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) is in very tough re-election fight. Moreover, as Sebastian has also pointed out, Toomey just seems to want to lose the votes of the one group that would make the difference in his election – gun owners.

He’s at it again. In today’s Wall Street Journal there was a discussion of the anti-due process filibuster being waged by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) in an effort to get anyone and everyone in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database and other assorted “terrorist watchlists” on the NICS denied list. What caught my eye was this little tidbit.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) and Mr. Toomey introduced again on Wednesday their legislation that would expand background checks to all sales at gun shows and online, with the goal of flagging people with criminal or mental-health histories that disqualify them from gun ownership. Currently, the checks are needed only for sales by federally licensed dealers. The bill stalled in the Senate in April 2013.

Like a zombie, Manchin-Toomey lives again!

I don’t have the bill number as it is so new that the Library of Congress and GPO don’t show it on their databases.

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Some Good News On Knife Rights In New York

June 16, 2016 by

There may be some hope for New York yet. The State Senate just passed the Knife Rights sponsored bill that stops New York City’s switchblade and gravity knife arrests by a vote of 61-0! The State Assembly had previously passed the bill by a vote of 99-12. The bill now goes to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) for his signature.

From Knife Rights:

NY Senate Passes Bill to Stop Bogus NYC Gravity Knife Arrests
Next to Governor Cuomo  



Knife Rights’ Gravity Knife and Switchblade Reform Bill, S6483-A/A9042-A,
passed the New York Senate today on a unanimous vote of 61-0. Knife
Rights’ Director of Legislative affairs, Todd Rathner, has spent many
weeks on the ground in Albany this session working closely with our
friends there to shepherd this bill through politically treacherous
territory. All that extraordinary personal attention has paid off with
this unanimous vote. The Assembly previously passed this bill 99-12. 



However, it is not over yet. S6483-A/A9042-A still needs to be
signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo. The Governor will not officially
receive the bill for his consideration until it is transmitted.
Transmission of the bill could take a few weeks, so please be patient
with the process. When the time is ripe, we’ll ask for your help, but
until then there’s no benefit to contacting the Governor about this
bill.


Knife Rights would like to thank the following people who
played a key role in helping to get this legislation through the
legislature. Assembly Member Dan Quart (D) our primary sponsor in the
Assembly, Senator Diane Savino (D) our primary sponsor in the Senate,
Senator Michael Nozzolio (R) who made passing this bill a priority this
session and Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan (R) whose staff worked
closely with us to get the bill to the floor for a final vote.

Knife Rights would also like to acknowledge the invaluable
assistance and support of The Legal Aid Society of New York, as well as
the many other organizations that supported this bill. We’d also like to
thank all of you who called or emailed Leader Flannigan asking for a
vote on this bill. Your calls and emails make a difference.

S6483-A/A9042-A add clarifying bias-toward closure exclusions
to the state switchblade and gravity knife definitions, similar to that
included in the revision to the Federal Switchblade Act that Knife
Rights helped pass in 2009. This clarifying exclusion should prevent the
bogus Gravity Knife arrests and prosecutions of honest law-abiding
individuals in New York City who are carrying common folding knives,
tools that are legal to carry everywhere else in the U.S.

Neither Gravity Knives nor Switchblades have a bias towards
closure found in common folding knives to keep the blade safely closed
in the pocket. Only in New York City has the NYPD and District Attorney
Cyrus Vance, Jr. abused the states’ gravity knife law to prosecute those
carrying simple pocket knives by claiming they are illegal Gravity
Knives.

The City’s Village Voice newspaper found two years ago that
there had been as many as 60,000 gravity-knife prosecutions over the
past decade! Hundreds of innocent pocket knife carriers are being
arrested every week! You can read the Village Voice article at: http://bit.ly/1MiJbvv

Knife Rights’ Federal Civil Rights lawsuit against New York City and
District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. over these unconstitutional arrests
and prosecutions continues with oral argument scheduled for tomorrow,
June 16, which will be just over five years since the lawsuit was filed.
The trial continues because until, and only if, Governor Cuomo signs
the bill does the case become moot. The public is welcome to attend the
oral argument, click here for more information about attending.

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Dom Raso – The AR-15: Americans’ Best Defense Against Terror and Crime

June 15, 2016 by

NRA News just released a new video commentary from former Navy SEAL Dom Raso. He launches into a very vigorous defense of the AR-15 as a self-defense weapon. I really like these couple of lines from his commentary:

AR-15s are fine for Hillary and her family. They’ve been protected by armed guards who use them for three decades. But average Americans who watch the news and feel genuine fear for their safety, and their families’ safety—Hillary wants to deny them the level of protection she insists upon herself.

The elites will always have protection, usually government-supplied, against threats from their enemies, domestic and foreign. As to the rest of us, we are, as Michael Bane and others have noted, on our own. That means you and I are our own first responders. Why should we be denied an easy to use, fairly lightweight, highly functional, medium-powered firearm that is rarely, if ever, used in criminal attacks just to appease the powerful and the ignorant?

The answer is we shouldn’t.

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Yo, Donald! Fuhgeddaboudit (updated)

June 15, 2016 by 3 Comments

I just saw this tweet from presumptive GOP nominee for president Donald J. Trump.

You will need the gun culture if you want to be elected. You have been tough on other stuff so now is no time to go wobbly.

As I’ve written in the past, the Terrorist Screening Database, the TSA’s “no-fly” list, and the FBI’s terrorist watch list should not be used to deny an otherwise non-prohibited person from making a firearms purchase. Secret lists, even if created with the best of intentions, have no place in a free society and definitely no place in the United States.

The possibly gay Islamofascist who pledged his allegiance to ISIS during the middle of killing 49 good people had been interviewed by the FBI multiple times yet was not on any so-called watch list. Saying the addition of people on these secret lists to the NICS banned list would prevent further attacks is nonsense.

UPDATE: The NRA-ILA released this statement about meeting with Trump regarding no-fly and terrorist watch lists.

Fairfax, Va.— The executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, Chris W. Cox, released the following statement regarding terror watchlists:

We are happy to meet with Donald Trump. The NRA’s position on this issue has not changed. The NRA believes that terrorists should not be allowed to purchase or possess firearms, period. Anyone on a terror watchlist who tries to buy a gun should be thoroughly investigated by the FBI and the sale delayed while the investigation is ongoing. If an investigation uncovers evidence of terrorist activity or involvement, the government should be allowed to immediately go to court, block the sale, and arrest the terrorist. At the same time, due process protections should be put in place that allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watchlist to be removed. That has been the position of Sen. John Cornyn (R.-Tex.) and a majority of the U.S. Senate. Sadly, President Obama and his allies would prefer to play politics with this issue.

If the Democrats really believe that a no-fly list and/or the terrorist watch list will stop them from obtaining the means to kill Americans, they are sadly mistaken. Gangs use straw purchasers all the time. Am I to think that ISIS terrorists are so mentally disabled that they won’t emulate this? No!

As to the efficacy of no-fly lists, this CNN story details some of the people who have been prevented from flying due to the list including Democratic icon Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA).

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Horrifying! Loud! Very Loud! Bruising! Disorienting!

June 14, 2016 by 1 Comment

The headline contains some of the adjectives that Gersh Kuntzman used in his NY Daily News story about his experience shooting an AR-15 for the first time. Modern journalism has sunk lower than I thought possible. The sad thing is that some people will believe the stuff he has written.

Such as:

I’ve shot pistols before, but never something like an AR-15. Squeeze lightly on the trigger and the resulting explosion of firepower is humbling and deafening (even with ear protection).

The recoil bruised my shoulder. The brass shell casings disoriented me as they flew past my face. The smell of sulfur and destruction made me sick. The explosions — loud like a bomb — gave me a temporary case of PTSD. For at least an hour after firing the gun just a few times, I was anxious and irritable.

Even in semi-automatic mode, it is very simple to squeeze off two dozen rounds before you even know what has happened. In fully automatic mode, it doesn’t take any imagination to see dozens of bodies falling in front of your barrel.

Reading this you would think it was written by some Special Snowflake that had just graduated some Ivy League school in Aggrieved Peoples Studies.

Instead it was written by a 51-year old man who is the deputy managing editor of the NY Daily News. Someone of an age that could be expected to have some measure of maturity and life experience. A Baby Buster and not a Millennial. Someone who didn’t just get participation trophies but actually had to work for it.

According to his resume, Kuntzman did graduate from the Ivy League (Brown with a degree in Russian). His bio, which may contains some padding, says he also attended the Sorbonne, the London School of Economics, and the Yale School of Drama. I can believe that last part!

I can take the drama but what pisses me off is the tossed off claim to “a temporary case of PTSD”. There are too many good men and women, both old and young, who put themselves in harm’s way for this country and now suffer the silent scars of PTSD. It is disgusting beyond belief to lay claim to PTSD – even temporarily – after a mere trip to an indoor range.

Gersh Kuntzman – you are beneath contempt! Take your yellow journalism and go back to writing your books about baldness and plays about SUVs.

UPDATE: Larry Correia has a great sendup of Mr. Kuntzman called “Ask Kuntzman”. It will have you snorting with laughter.