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The Ithaca Auto & Burglar Shotgun

September 9, 2015 by 2 Comments

I had heard Michael Bane make reference to the Ithaca Auto & Burglar shotgun pistol but had never seen one. Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons shows two examples of these any other weapons that are up for auction at Rock Island Auctions.

While these would have been a beast to handle in 12 gauge, in the lesser gauges like 20 or 28, I think they’d still provide more than adequate protection against highwaymen and carjackers.

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Florida Carry Sues Florida State University Over Firearm Polices

September 9, 2015 by

The Florida State Seminoles start each home game with their mascot Osceola racing across to midfield on his horse Renegade and sticking a flaming spear in the ground. In a figurative sense, that is just what gun rights organization Florida Carry did today when it filed suit against FSU, FSU President John Thrasher, and FSU police chief David Perry.

Before John Thrasher became President of Florida State University, he was a successful lawyer, politician, and lobbyist. He served in both the Florida House and Senate and was the chairman of the Florida GOP in 2010. When he was a state senator, Thrasher as noted below in the Florida Carry release told them that they should look to the courts rather than the legislature to correct unconstitutional infringements on the right to keep and bear arms in the Sunshine State. They are making him eat his words.

The lawsuit was filed in Leon County Circuit Court. They are seeking an injunction and declaratory relief stating that the defendants are violating Florida statutes. The complaint can be found here.

Tallahassee, Florida – In 2014 then Senator Thrasher admonished Florida
Carry during a legislative committee hearing for supporting a pro-Second
Amendment bill that corrected an unconstitutional infringement on the
right to bear arms rather than going to the courts and bringing a
lawsuit.

Today Florida Carry is taking his advice.

Florida
Carry, Inc. joins FSU Graduate Student Bekah Hargrove of Florida
Students for Concealed Carry in filing Florida Carry v. Thrasher today
seeking an emergency injunction against John Thrasher, now President of
Florida State University, the university, and FSU Police Chief David
Perry.

In 2013 the Florida First District Court of Appeals made
it crystal clear, in the case of Florida Carry v. UNF, that Universities
have no authority to regulate the lawful possession of firearms that
are properly stored in private vehicles on campus. Despite the fact that
FSU, Chief Perry, and President Thrasher are well aware of the law and
the binding decision of the court, they have chosen to continue
illegally prohibiting the possession of firearms in people’s private
vehicles. They even go so far as to use their own police force to
publicly threaten criminal enforcement of their unlawful regulations.

A recent release published by the FSU Police Department instructs that:
“Weapons and/or firearms are not permitted to be stored in a vehicle on the FSU campus at any time, including game days.“(Emphasis in original)

The “FSU Game Day Plan 2015 – New Info” publication goes on to flout the laws of Florida by stating that:

“Weapons
are prohibited on the Florida State University Campus at all times
including football games. Fan may not store firearms or other weapons in
their vehicles parked on campus while attending the game. Possession of
a firearm or weapon on the FSU campus constitutes a felony and
violators are subject to arrest pursuant to Florida Statute 790.115.”

The
FSU Student Code of Conduct also attempts to enforce these illegal
policies by prohibiting all “On-campus possession or use of firearms…”
without an exception for firearm possession in a private vehicle and
even “Off-campus… or unauthorized possession or use of firearms…”
https://dos.fsu.edu/srr/_localDocuments/student-conduct-code.pdf

“It
has a chilling effect on the right to bear arms when law abiding gun
owners are lied to by public officials, especially ones who control
their own Police Forces, and are told that they will be breaking a law
by the legal possession of their firearms.”
Said Sean Caranna, Executive Director of Florida Carry, Inc.
“These
publications are a blatant attempt by FSU President Thrasher, and his
anti-Second Amendment employees, to enforce illegal gun control with the
threat of throwing good people in jail for the lawful exercise of their
right to bear arms. We demand that public officials follow the law and
will stand for nothing less.” 
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This Is What Conservatives Should Do To Reach Millennials

September 9, 2015 by

Millennials have been a hard group to reach for conservative and (some) libertarian organizations. It is why the NRA started their younger commentator series featuring Colion Noir, Natalie Foster, Dom Raso, etc.

I just came across a series from the Independent Institute called “Love Gov”. It features Alexis, a fun loving, independent young woman, and Scott “Gov” Govinski, her creepy, intrusive boyfriend. It is an allegory using the boyfriend as a stand-in for our current government. In Episode 5 below, Alexis has broken up with Gov and now he is intruding upon her privacy.

Kudos to whomever at the Independent Institute came up with this. I found it a very effective way to reach 20-somethings. Now if we could just get them to look up from their smart phones and see what else is happening in the world.

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We Aren’t The Suppliers; Thieves Are The Suppliers

September 5, 2015 by 4 Comments

Willie Dixie, Jr. is the Special Agent in Charge of the BATFE’s Charlotte Field Division. He was interviewed earlier this week by WCNC – NBC Charlotte regarding gun thefts in North and South Carolina.

“We are the supplier of those firearms that end up in the northern cities,” Wayne Dixie, Jr. said.

Last year there were 256 guns stolen in South Carolina that ended up in just New York. Another 279 from North Carolina ended up there. And those numbers have been pretty steady over the last five years.

It’s not just stolen guns from here that make their way up North, others are bought here legally and make the same trek.

“North and South Carolina are source states…a lot of times people from the North will come down here and purchase firearms here because of lax gun laws.”

Sorry SAC Dixie, “we” aren’t the suppliers. Thieves and criminal organizations are the suppliers. When examining the BATFE’s own gun trace data for New York for 2014, North and South Carolina are not even the top source states. That honor goes to New York itself with five times as many traced guns as either North or South Carolina.

Also, what the hell do you mean by “lax gun laws”? Do you mean that because North Carolina has a greater appreciation for the Constitution (to which you took an oath) that we are “lax”?

Straw purchases are illegal whether done in downtown Charlotte or downtown Manhattan. Moreover, even private sales of handguns in North Carolina require either a pistol purchase permit or a concealed handgun permit to be legal. That pistol purchase permit system, by the way, was instituted by Democrats to keep African-Americans like yourself disarmed.

Your office conveniently proclaims when they have been involved in a conviction of any sort. Despite your so-called surge of FFL inspections started in 2014, I see only one reported set of convictions for either firearms theft or trafficking in the last two years. Indeed, more people were convicted of smuggling cigarettes than firearms if your releases are any indication.

No dealer ever wants to see firearms from his or her store used in a crime. Furthermore, none of them want to see firearms stolen from their store. Gun stores go to great lengths to protect their inventory and, unless I am mistaken, this is part of your inspection process.

You can see SAC Dixie’s statements below in his interview with Michelee Boudin of WCNC.

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They Wouldn’t Stand For That – So Why Should Gun Owners In SF

September 3, 2015 by 1 Comment

Imagine, if you will, a proposed ordinance from a San Francisco supervisor stating the proprietors of medical marijuana dispensaries must have a multi-zone video system in place and then forward the video along with records of every purchaser to the San Francisco Police Department. Mind you, even though marijuana for medical purposes can be prescribed under California law, it is still a Federal crime.

Being that it is San Francisco, let’s imagine another scenario. Say it was 1981 and the AIDS epidemic was starting. Public health officials knew it was hitting gay men disproportionately and suspected it was related to having multiple sexual partners. So as a public health measure, a San Francisco supervisor proposed that a video system be put in place at the city’s bath houses which were known meeting places for sex used by gay men. All the video along with a record of everyone who entered these bath houses was to be sent the SF Department of Public Health.

Can you imagine the outrage that either of these scenarios would cause? Any supervisor who even made such a proposal like either of these would be run out of town and encouraged to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge will he was at it.

SF Supervisor Mark Farrell has made such a proposal. However, it isn’t aimed at marijuana users or gay men but rather legal purchasers of arms and ammunition. A purchase which is not only made in full compliance with Federal and state law but is part of an enumerated right under the Constitution.

The first portion of Supervisor Farrell’s gun control package would simply require the videotaping of all gun and ammunition sales within San Francisco. The videotaping would also apply to other critical areas of the business premises, including, but not limited to, all places where firearms or ammunition are stored, handled, sold, transferred, or carried, including, but not limited to, all counters, safes, vaults, cabinets, cases, entryways, and parking lots.

The second portion of Supervisor Farrell’s gun control package would require any permittee who has the proper documentation to sell or transfer ammunition to keep records of their ammunition sales and transfer data for up to five-years, and electronically transmit the ammunition sales data at least weekly to the SFPD. The SFPD would develop the forms and information that would need to be regularly transmitted to the department, and at a minimum will include:
(1) The date of the transaction;
(2) The name, address and date of birth of the transferee;
(3) The number of the transferee’s current driver’s license or other government issued identification card containing a photograph of the transferee, and the name of the governmental authority that issued it;
(4) The brand, type, caliber or gauge, and amount of ammunition transferred;
(5) The transferee’s signature; and
(6) The name of the permittee’s agent or employee who processed the transaction.

Farrell, a lawyer and venture capitalist, represents some of the most expensive neighborhoods in San Francisco. Places where guns are considered icky except when in the hands of private security guards. He first made the proposal in July and plans to introduce them when the Board of Supervisors comes back from recess this month.

The impact of Farrell’s ordinance would be to force High Bridge Arms, the only gun store in San Francisco, to close or move out of San Francisco. Owner Steve Alcairo said they have 17 surveillance cameras in the store and shares the video with police when requested by court orders. However, this ordinance goes much further and Alcairo said he’d probably close if it passes.

“What we don’t do is voluntarily give private information to the police department. Voluntarily, we just don’t do that. People are very private about their information,” Alcairo told KPIX 5.


He believes if the new law passes it will have a chilling effect on his business…


“The element we’re concerned with, they don’t shop here. They don’t,” Alcairo said. “I mean you’re going to get video surveillance of people who are coming in here legally buying stuff with their identification, criminals are not doing that.”

Mr. Alcairo is correct. Criminals in San Francisco don’t shop at High Bridge Arms. They get their guns from former Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) and his tong friend Shrimp Boy among other illegal places.

This measure has nothing to do with crime, preventing criminals from getting guns, or public safety. It is a feel good measure by Supv. Farrell to look good among his constituents as they go home to their Victorian and Edwardian mansions in his Jordan Park-Laurel Heights neighborhood and shop in its high priced boutiques.

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Win You Some Guns

September 3, 2015 by

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. I’ve been tied up with work. Hopefully, the chance to win some nice firearms will make up for it.

Aaron at The Weapon Blog has posted his monthly list of contests involving pistols, rifles, shotguns, ammo, knives, accessories, and even a hog hunt. He and I are trying something different this month. He sent me a formatted file with a list of all the contests for posting. Instead of giving  you an abbreviated list, how about the full list! With links!

Contest list courtesy of The Weapon Blog
Handguns

Rifles

Shotguns

Air Rifles

  • None this month

Ammunition

Knives

Constitution

Gun Rights Organizations

  • None this month

Accessories

Raffles

Training

  • None this month

Hunting

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Virginia Delegate Doesn’t Let A Tragedy Go To Waste

August 27, 2015 by 5 Comments

I got an email sent at 9:36pm Wednesday by Virginia Delegate Patrick Hope (D-Arlington) asking me to sign a Change.org petition asking for universal background checks in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Not only does this come less than 15 hours after a TV reporter and cameraman were murdered in Virginia but it explicitly ties the appeal to that.

The crime scene is still fresh and this blood dancer is reveling in it. Because the killer doesn’t fit the usual constructs, instead of blaming the person or even a broken mental health system, Del. Hope blames the gun. That is, the totally inanimate object that the killer appears to have purchased at retail after a FBI background check. While neither the killer nor the method in which he purchased the gun fits the narrative, this doesn’t stop Del. Hope from conflating this tragedy into a call for universal background checks.

Mr. Hope seems to be a person willing to abandon principles for political gain. According to his biography, he grew up in San Antonio, Texas, attended a Baptist high school, attended Catholic-run St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, and then moved to the DC area seeking fame and fortune. Along the way, he picked up a Masters and law degree from Catholic University while working on Capitol Hill. In the latest news from his website, he is proudly proclaiming he was given a major award from the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL). Pardon me if I am suffering from a little bit of cognitive dissonance. Less surprising is that he is also an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health where much of the so-called scientific gun control research originates.

Rather than blaming the object used, I humbly suggest that Del. Hope look at both the role that the media played in setting this man off and the broken mental health system. Either one or both of these are more at fault here than the inanimate object that seems to have been legally purchased.

John –

You probably woke up this morning and saw the news just like I did: another terrible shooting occurred – this time in my home state of Virginia. From Newtown to Aurora to Charleston and now Moneta, Virginia, horrific acts of gun violence are becoming the norm in local communities across the nation.

We lost Alison Parker and Adam Ward today – two young journalists who were gunned down on live television. Their heartbreaking story mirrors so many others nationwide, where people who’ve been going about their lives – attending church, going to school, watching a movie, or just doing their jobs – have lost their lives to senseless acts of gun violence.

The time for change in my state is now. That’s why I started a petition on Change.org to call for comprehensive background checks for all gun purchases in Virginia. Will you please sign it?

As a Virginia State Delegate, I’ve supported common sense gun safety measures like background checks in the legislature – only to see them stall because of political gridlock, undue influence from the gun lobby, or just sheer apathy. We’ve seen tragedy in our backyards before with shootings like in Virginia Tech, and now again today in Moneta, but haven’t acted. We can’t let another one pass without collective action.

Polling shows that more than 92 percent of voters in Virginia support background checks for all gun purchases. And in the wake of today’s shooting, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe reaffirmed his commitment to pass universal background checks because he knows how important it is for my colleagues and I to pass this measure if we are truly going to call ourselves “public servants.”

Many people feel powerless in these situations because of the political climate that holds us back from real change. I’m asking my colleagues to put people first to get this done once and for all. I know we can’t end all acts of gun violence, but that doesn’t need to stop us from advancing common sense solutions like background checks that can help keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.

Please, sign my petition, and let’s try to take a small but important step forward in addressing the epidemic of gun violence in our country.

Thank you,

Del. Patrick Hope
Arlington, VA
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No Mention That It Was A Gun Free Zone

August 25, 2015 by 8 Comments

The chutzpah of the gun prohibitionists is certainly on display here. The Brady Campaign is highlighting an article from Mike Bloomberg’s newest media property TheTrace.org. The article says the abortive terrorist attack on the Amsterdam to Paris train which was stopped by three young Americans, a British businessman, and an undisclosed Frenchman shows that you don’t need guns.

Evan DeFillipis and Devin Hughes say the fact that the people who stopped the attack were unarmed validates data from the latest research by Harvard’s David Hemenway.

In the wake of mass shootings, Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association (NRA) frequently returns to a familiar soundbite: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun.” The corollary of which is that unarmed civilians are helpless “fish in a barrel.” But the heroes on that French train clearly demonstrated otherwise — and the outcome of that active-shooter incident is just the most recent in a list of examples refuting an argument that has become central to the push for expanded gun rights.

Defillipis and Hughes, Oklahoma-based investment advisors who blog at Armedwithreason.com, go on to say that Hemenway’s “research” shows that having a firearm does not make a person safer nor give you any advantage in protecting property.

What they don’t discuss is why these incidents always seem to happen in gun-free zones. I guess that would not support their narrative.

As an aside and it has nothing to do with the article, how narcissistic do you have to be to put your SAT scores in your LinkedIn profile? There are some things you just can’t make up.

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Not Only No But Hell No

August 25, 2015 by 6 Comments

With Hillary Clinton mired in her email and other troubles, Rupert Murdoch is trying to start a “Draft Bloomberg” movement.

Now enter a man who knows a thing or two of drumming up attention (and selling papers) – Rupert Murdoch. Just as massive stock drop has many investors eyeing the financial headlines, the media mogul is stirring the pot, trying to draft fellow billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg into the presidential race.

Murdoch wrote in a tweet last night, “with Trump becoming very serious candidate, it’s time for next billionaire candidate, Mike Bloomberg to step into ring. Greatest mayor.”

Yahoo News has the story in this video below. They discuss how Trump has upended things and perhaps set the stage for a Michael Bloomberg.

The very thought of having, in Michael Bane’s words, that nasty little fascist as the President of the United States is repugnant. It is not just what he would do to the Second Amendment that scares me but his entire “I know what’s best for you” agenda. If you combine Bloomberg’s authoritarian impulses with what Barack Obama has done to to the Executive Branch, I could see myself moving to a freer country. You know, like China or Russia. They couldn’t be as bad as living in a country where Mike Bloomberg controlled the reins of government.

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A Documentary For A Day Like Today

August 24, 2015 by 5 Comments

If you are an investor in the stock market, the last few days including today have been a little unnerving. At one point this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by 1,100 points. As I write this, the DJIA is down by over 450 points after recovering earlier to about 150 points down.

I suggest a deep breath and a glass of bourbon or a libation of your choice is in order. To go along with that glass of bourbon is this trailer for a new documentary on bourbon entitled NEAT.