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Update On NC State Fair Injunction Request

October 13, 2014 by 1 Comment

Grass Roots North Carolina filed suit last week seeking a temporary injunction to keep the North Carolina State Fair from being posted against carry. HB 937 made changes to the law that should have prevented Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler (R-NC) from posting the fairgrounds. I say should have.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens refused to grant the temporary injunction in a ruling this afternoon.

Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens said he believed “it would be unwise and imprudent to allow firearms into the State Fair.”

This is truly a case of the law being what the judges say it is despite the clear wording of North Carolina statutes. Given that Judge Stephens was re-elected in 2012, he won’t be coming up for re-election again until 2020 as Superior Court judges in North Carolina serve eight year terms.

Ag Commissioner Troxler is happy about the decision saying, “”for upholding the longstanding policy banning weapons at the State Fair and for issuing his decision so quickly.” Troxler has contended that the changes in the NC General Statutes brought about by HB 937 are “vague”.

Troxler, who says he is a gun owner himself, argued that the law was badly-worded and legislators had not intended to allow guns at the fair. He said they didn’t belong there, citing the huge crowds and the potential for guns to fall out during midway rides during the annual rain of wallets, keys and change, and then go off.


At the press conference Monday, Troxler said that no matter which way the ruling went this week, there will be metal detectors at all the entrance gates. And after the fair, he said, he would go back to the General Assembly to ask legislators to be clear about what they think the law should say about guns at the fair.


“Either the legislature believes there needs to be concealed carry at the fair or not,” he said.

Troxler, it should be noted, is a practicing farmer as required by Chapter 106 of the North Carolina General Statutes. He is not an attorney. Thus, any claims to the law being vague should be taken with a grain of salt.

The State Fair Facebook page is getting lots of feedback on their announcement of the decision in which they said they are glad Judge Stephens didn’t grant the injunction.

So the North Carolina State Fair will be a gun-free zone. As to the reality of gun-free zones, I’d urge you to listen to what Massad Ayoob said about the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference in Chicago. His comments start at the 1:14:45 mark and are well worth a listen.

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Helga Glock v. Glock Et Al: A Soap Opera In 354 Pages

October 13, 2014 by 1 Comment

Helga Glock, former wife of Gaston Glock, Sr., has filed suit against him and his assorted companies. The suit was filed on Thursday in US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. She is seeking $500 million plus punitive damages. In the suit, she accuses Gaston Sr. of theft, money laundering, and racketeering. She is invoking RICO as part of the suit.

Paul Barrett, author of  Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun, had an interview with Helga and the children from Gaston’s marriage to her. It was the first time they spoke out about Gaston Sr., the divorce, and his remarriage to his nurse Katherin. From the story we learn that Gaston, who came from a simple family, married up when he married Helga. She came from a prosperous Bavarian family and traded a good job in Munich to marry him. She was part of his company from the start taking care of the accounting while raising the three children and being a good Austrian “hausfrau”.

Prior to the divorce and Gaston Sr’s stroke, all the children and Helga were part of Glock. Gaston Jr. worked in IT, Robert in marketing, and Brigitte ran human resources. It all changed in 2010.

In 2010, Gaston Sr. issued a three-page handwritten letter dictating his “unconditional wishes for a reorganization of the Glock Group.” Helga and the children were to cease their “operational” roles, he declared. “I thank my wife, Helga, for her support and wish her a carefree and good life in her deserved retirement.” The letter instructed: “There will be no harassment, spying, stalking, violation of human dignity, or scheming toward me and my environment.” Gaston Sr. “guarantee[d] the agreed-upon payments to the beneficiaries for a lifetime.”

Mrs. Glock’s attorney, John Da Grosa Smith, is very familiar with Glock, Inc. He was the attorney for former Glock, Inc. (the US affiliate) CEO Paul Jannuzzo and secured the reversal of his conviction for embezzlement on appeal.

All I can say, it is going to be interesting. Glock lovers and haters alike will find tons of spicy details in the complaint below. My only fear is that the gun prohibitionists will also be combing it with a fine tooth comb to buttress their allegations against the firearms industry.

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You Snooze, You Lose

October 13, 2014 by

Aaron at the Weapon-Blog has posted his monthly list of contests featuring firearms.

In the pistol category, there are 12 contests featuring pistols ranging from the Sig Sauer P320 to a Kimber Custom 1911. The coolest pistol, and I use that term loosely, is a Sig Sauer PM400 Elite Pistol with their SBX brace in .300 Blackout.

As to long guns, there are two shotguns offered and 20 rifles. I don’t think I’ve seen that many in a long time. There are, as usual, a number of ARs in various calibers, a couple of IWI Tavors, the PTR-91, and a handful of hunting rifles.

I apologize for being a few days late with the list. Aaron let me know a few days ago and I’ve just gotten around to posting about it.

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Reporters Such As These Are Unfortunately Extinct

October 12, 2014 by

Marshall J. Brown was a reporter from a time when reporters were reporters and not journalists. According to his obituary in the Buffalo News, he passed away yesterday after an extended battle with multiple system atrophy, a neurological disease. He was 78 and had spent much of his career as the police beat reporter for the old Buffalo Courier-Express.

Mr. Brown came from a newspaper family. His father and two uncles were editors with United Press International (UPI). He started out as a copy boy with the old NY Herald-Tribune, received a degree in journalism from New York University, and began his career at the Lockport (NY) Union-Sun & Journal.

His obituary states that he received a number of awards from the Associated Press for his reporting. These awards, however, were not his most prized awards. He reserved that for his James Madison Award For Journalism from the Second Amendment Society.

A fellow reporter from a competing newspaper had this to say about Mr. Brown:

“Marsh was a feisty, hard-nosed old-time newsman, like one of the characters you’d see in an old movie like ‘The Front Page,’ ” said Buffalo News reporter Dan Herbeck, who worked with Mr. Brown at Buffalo Police Headquarters in the late 1970s and early 1980s. “He carried a gun when he was on the job, sometimes beat the police to crime scenes. On more than one occasion, he conducted his own investigations and helped the police solve crimes.”

Herbeck said he will never forget the time he and Mr. Brown in 1982 – both police reporters for Buffalo’s two competing newspapers – decided to go out and have lunch together. They were walking toward a small diner when a waitress came running outside, spattered with blood and screaming, “Help, he killed Ellie!”

“Marsh grabbed his gun out of the holster and we went running inside. This poor waitress was on the floor, bleeding to death,” Herbeck recalled. “A mental patient who had recently been released from a psychiatric center had jumped over the counter, grabbed a knife and began stabbing this poor woman. Then he ran out of the place. Marsh and I ran outside, looking for the guy, but he was long gone. The police came and we told them what happened.”

Can you imagine any of the modern-day authorized journalists doing this?

Mr. Brown was a Life Member of the NRA and was a longtime vice-president of New York’s Shooters Committee on Political Education. He also was a member of the Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Holland Rod and Gun Club. He was a certified NRA firearms instructor as well as a three-time NY State pistol champion in various categories.

Rest in peace, Mr. Brown. The likes of you will almost never be seen anymore and more’s the pity.

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It Was CSGV – I Couldn’t Help Myself

October 11, 2014 by 6 Comments

The gun prohibitionists at the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) must think the novel 1984 wasn’t merely a novel but the playbook for a future American society. They see themselves as the Thought Police out to punish any and all “thoughtcrimes” or deviations from the party line.

Such is the case now in their petition attempting to get the Maryland State Police to revoke the instructor certification of Wicomico County (MD) Sheriff Mike Lewis. His “thoughtcrime” is his outspoken support for the Second Amendment. Sheriff Lewis has stated that he would refuse to let Federal authorities into his county if they wanted “to come in here and strip my citizens of their right to bear arms.”

Inspired by a post by David Codrea on his War On Guns blog saying that all the “right people” were signing the petition, I decided to sign it as well using an appropriate pseudonym. I wanted to choose a name that would express my thoughts about their petition.

David chose Adolph Hitler. I went with Heinrich Himmler. Most people know that Himmler was the head of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Hitler named Himmler Chief of German Police in 1935 which included the Gestapo, the Criminal Police, the SD, and other police agencies. Given how the Gestapo sought out those who deviated from the National Socialist creed, I think he was an appropriate signatory to CSGV’s petition.

Felix Dzerzhinsky who directed the All-Russia Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-revolution and Sabotage or Cheka would have also have been an appropriate pseudonym to use.

If you want to avail CSGV of your personal disgust at their actions, here is the link to their petition. I’m sure you can come up with a good pseudonym to use.

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It’s Not All Ads For Kay Hagan

October 11, 2014 by

If you watch television in Western North Carolina right now, it is about 2-1 in terms of campaign ads from Democrats and their allied organizations (NEA, League of Conservation Voters, Senate Majority PAC, etc.) It may be different in other areas of the state but I doubt it.

Thus, it was refreshing to see this ad from the NRA featuring Colion Noir on WLOS this evening. It was one of the few ads that I didn’t immediately have me reaching for the mute button on the remote control.

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Quote Of The Day

October 10, 2014 by 5 Comments

Students and faculty at George Washington Carver High School in Rancho Cordova, California are upset due to a new indoor gun range being developed near the school. According to the city’s planning department, the land is zoned industrial and gun ranges are a permitted use. Translated from PlanSpeak, that means the gun range meets the previously established criteria to be located there and must be allowed to operate in that location.

So, you can guess what the students did next – they held a protest complete with what appear to be professionally made signs. They had slogans like “Legal? but WRONG WRONG WRONG” and “Way TOO CLOSE for Comfort”. It appears from the news story that the “protest” was organized with the full cooperation of school officials. One has to wonder if the students really organized it or were given it as class assignment for a grade.

Reason.com comments on the story and the slant given to it from the reporter from CBS Sacramento:

The local news story spins this as a beneficial lesson in participatory democracy for the high schoolers. True enough, I suppose. If nothing else, they learned that when it comes to politics and governance, think-of-the-children paranoia trumps property rights every single time.

 So much for the Lockean rights of life, liberty, and property.

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GRNC Seeks Injunction Against Posting Of NC State Fair

October 9, 2014 by

North Carolina’s Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler (R-NC) is the official in charge of the State Fair held in Raleigh. This year, for some reason, he held a press conference announcing that it would be policy to post the State Fair against concealed carry by properly permitted CHP holders. His argument is that this is just a continuation of how things have always been.

The Criminal Law blog of the UNC School of Government has looked at this issue and it appears that Commissioner Troxler is on very shaky ground. The State Fair isn’t a private business nor is it a unit of local government which might allow him to do it. As it is, the law is very specific that CHP holders are allowed to carry at assemblies where a fee is charged. Moreover, state law specifies which state government buildings that are posted including such places as the Executive Mansion and the State Capitol Building. The State Fair is not one of the buildings mention.

Given that state laws regarding firearms and where they may be carried legally has changed considerably in the last few years, this is an odd move on the part of Troxler. In response, Grass Roots North Carolina is going to court seeking an injunction to stop Troxler from posting the State Fair. The State Fair runs from October 16th through the 26th so time is of the essence.

Gun group to file injunction against state fair posting today
Due to an impasse in negotiations with North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, Grass Roots North Carolina will today file  for a temporary restraining order in Wake County Superior Court with the intention of preventing the Department of Agriculture from posting the state fair against lawful concealed carry.

BACKGROUND
At the request of North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, GRNC representatives met with the commissioner and his legal counsel after his police chief for the state fairgrounds, Joel Keith, began telling people the North Carolina State Fair would be posted against all firearms, including lawful concealed carry. Although Troxler is not particularly anti-gun, he seems unwilling to take responsibility for doing the right thing, saying instead that as a member of the executive branch, he cannot interpret statutes and must follow the interpretations given to him (more on that shortly). 

Consequently, the commissioner and GRNC were unable to achieve a satisfactory resolution of the problem. GRNC is now preparing a filing for a temporary restraining order, through its sister non-profit, Rights Watch International, to prevent the fair, which starts next week, from being posted.

ORIGINS OF THE PROBLEM

Before passage of House Bill 937, which became effective on October 1, 2013, guns were prohibited at “assemblies of people for which admission is charged.” Since that section of NCGS 14-269.3 was changed to permit carry by those with concealed handgun permits, however, only private property owners hosting such assemblies may prohibit concealed carry. The state fairgrounds, of course, are not private property.

TROXLER’S DODGE

Although NCGS 14-269.3 specifically opens carry to permit-holders, Troxler claims “vague” language in the statutes enables the state to post under NCGS 14-269(a2), which says the state’s general prohibition on concealed weapons, “does not apply to a person who has a concealed handgun permit issued in accordance with Article 54B of this Chapter, has a concealed handgun permit considered valid under G.S. 14-415.24, or is exempt from obtaining a permit pursuant to G.S. 14-415.25, provided the weapon is a handgun, is in a closed compartment or container within the person’s locked vehicle, and the vehicle is in a parking area that is owned or leased by State government.”
THE TRUTH
  1. The section above merely enables permit-holders to keep guns in closed compartments of locked motor vehicles in state properties where guns are prohibited. It does not create a prohibition in itself.
  1. In fact, NCGS 14-269.4 lists the specific state properties – such as the State Capitol, Governor’s Executive Mansion” and courthouses – where guns are prohibited. That section does not include the state fairgrounds.
  1. Even in the exceedingly unlikely event a court agreed that Troxler is allowedto post the fair, nothing requires him to do so. In short, his rationalization that he is just following what he has to do is false. Troxler is choosing to prohibit lawful concealed handgun permit-holders from protecting their families not only at the fair, but also in the parking lots outside the fair.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
As we’ve seen time and again, gun-free zones are dangerous places for law-abiding citizens. No family should be rendered entirely helpless should an event occur such as what happened at the Wisconsin State Fair in 2011. Dozens of teenagers and young adults attacked peaceful fairgoers as they left the fair. Eleven people were injured and thirty-one arrests were made. Criminals are always empowered when they know that their intended victims are disarmed.

I will keep on top of this to report on what the court’s decide. It should be interesting.

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The Polite Society Podcast Needs A Little Help

October 6, 2014 by 2 Comments

I noted a few days ago that the Polite Society Podcast in conjunction with Ammoland.com and the New Jersey Second Amendment Society will be live streaming the 2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference. In order to do so, Paul Lathrop will need to purchase some new audio and video equipment.

Paul has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise the necessary funds. The goal is a conservative $731 for the video camera, tripod, and additional audio equipment.

The live streaming project is being done with the explicit permission of the Second Amendment Society and will be using the official audio feed managed by Charles Heller.

Unlike the Demanding Mommies, we in the gun rights movement don’t have a Sugar Daddy like Mike Bloomberg so we need your help. If you can help out with a donation of any size, please go to the GoFundMe page Paul has set up.

The live stream project will allow everyone to be able to follow the conference as it happens even if they can’t afford to fly to Phoenix or there is another case of a suicidal pyromaniac taking down a FAA control center. I’ve made a donation and hope you will do so too.