NRA

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They Only Donated To Recruit Your Children

April 16, 2014 by 2 Comments

The lunatic fringe of the gun prohibitionist crowd insists that the only reason the NRA and the firearms industry wants to build ranges, organize shooting events for women and children, and the like is because it is a dying culture. We in the gun culture need to suck them in to replace all of the old, gray-haired European-descent males of the shooting patriarchy who are dying off.

The announcement below from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission acknowledging a substantial donation from the NRA for a new shooting range will certainly set their teeth on edge. The new range is also an example of what Pittman-Robertson money could be used for if the US Senate would get their act together.

I’m actually excited by this range as it will be little more than an hour’s drive away and you don’t have to be a member to use it.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission recently accepted a $25,000 check from the National Rifle Association of America to help fund the construction of a public shooting range in Cleveland County.

Brian Hyder, director of the NRA’s General Operations, Program Development Education and Training division, presented the check to Gordon Myers, the Commission’s executive director, at the Commission’s headquarters on Centennial Campus in Raleigh.

The state-of-the-art shooting range will be available to the general public, shooting sports teams and law enforcement personnel for practice, training and recreational use for pistol, skeet and trap, rifle and archery. It will feature a 200-yard rifle range, five 50-yard pistol ranges, two skeet and trap shotgun ranges and a 3-D archery course. The Commission will begin construction in late summer.

“The Wildlife Commission is grateful to have the National Rifle Association as a partner to help us increase shooting range opportunities in North Carolina,” Myers said. “Through this partnership, the WRC is working hand in hand with the NRA to develop and enhance public shooting facilities across our state.”

The $25,000 donation was a grant from the NRA’s Public Range Fund, which was established in 2009 to provide funding for the construction of public ranges across the country.

The need for public shooting ranges nationally is huge, according to Hyder, so the program focuses on creating partnerships at the city, county, state and federal level, with a special emphasis on wildlife agencies in all 50 states. Since the start of the program, the NRA has given more than $1 million to fund public shooting ranges from Florida to Alaska.

“Public shooting ranges are critically important to hunter recruitment and retention – providing ranges is important in hunter education, training and especially recruiting of young hunters and shooters,” Hyder said. “The NRA is proud to be able to work with the Wildlife Resources Commission in its desire to expand recreational shooting opportunities for the citizens of North Carolina statewide.”

The Wildlife Commission and the Cleveland County Board of Commissioners signed a memorandum of agreement in November to build and maintain the public shooting range, which will be located at 250 Fielding Road, outside of Shelby. The Wildlife Commission will build the range site and perform all grading work as well as construction of berms, roads and parking lots. Cleveland County is providing the property and will build a training facility and a separate building with restrooms and concessions. The county also will handle all routine maintenance and will be responsible for day-to-day operations.

For more information on public and private shooting ranges in North Carolina, visit the Commission’s website, www.ncwildlife.org/hunting. Click on the “Before the Hunt” link.

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The Second Sunnyvale Lawsuit

December 20, 2013 by

I’m a few days late on reporting this but on Monday the NRA filed suit in US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division against the City of Sunnyvale and their Measure C which contains a magazine ban. The lawsuit is entitled Fyock et al v. City of Sunnyvale et al and is being handled by California attorney Chuck Michel. The suit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief on the grounds that the new ordinance violates the Second Amendment.

This makes the second lawsuit against the City of Sunnyvale over Measure C. The National Shooting Sports Foundation filed their lawsuit a week earlier in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

The NRA-ILA gives more details on the lawsuit and why they brought it in the release below:

Several Sunnyvale residents have filed a lawsuit supported by the National Rifle Association, challenging the City’s recent ban on the possession of magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds. The federal, Second Amendment-based legal challenge is part of a campaign of nationwide litigation filed and supported by a variety of individuals, civil rights groups, and law enforcement officers and associations. The coordinated lawsuits seek to confirm that the Second Amendment protects these common standard-capacity magazines for self-defense and sporting purposes.

Firearms equipped with magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds have been around for nearly two centuries. Today, these firearms are possessed by millions of law-abiding citizens for a variety of lawful purposes, including self-defense. And the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that self-defense is the “central component” of the Second Amendment.

As most gun owners already know, magazines holding more than ten rounds are standard equipment for many popular pistols and rifles throughout the country. In fact, most pistols in the United States are manufactured and sold with magazines holding between ten and seventeen rounds.

The overwhelming majority of states have not banned law-abiding citizens from owning standard-capacity firearms. And only a handful of states refer to such firearms and magazines as being “high-capacity.” The label “large-capacity magazine” is, of course, a term created by anti-gun zealots in an attempt to ostracize what, in reality, is the absolute norm nationwide. Some in the gun ban lobby have even started referring to magazines over ten rounds as “mega magazines.”

The majority of law enforcement officers in the United States acknowledge that banning standard-capacity magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds will not increase public safety. There is now a growing trend of law enforcement organizations actively opposing and challenging these measures in court. The San Francisco Veteran Police Officers Association (SFVPOA) recently filed a lawsuit challenging San Francisco’s recent ban on the possession of standard-capacity magazines. In Colorado, a broad coalition of law enforcement officials filed suit against that state’s recently-enacted ban on common magazines. Earlier this year in New York, the State Sheriffs Association, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund and individual law enforcement officers filed an amicus brief in support of a challenge to the state ban on common rifles and magazines. And in Connecticut, a coalition of individual law enforcement officers and the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund filed another legal brief in support of pending challenge to similar laws.

The Sunnyvale ordinance essentially allows for confiscation of any prohibited magazines and, because of state laws restricting their transfer, they cannot be replaced. Sunnyvale’s ordinance took effect on December 6, 2013. Residents of Sunnyvale then have until March 6, 2014 to turn over their lawfully-possessed magazines to the police, remove them from Sunnyvale in the few cases where it might be legal or transfer them to a licensed firearms dealer.

Lawyers at Michel & Associates representing the plaintiffs will seek an injunction to prevent Sunnyvale from enforcing this law. The plaintiffs are prepared to appeal this case as high as necessary to have this misguided ordinance declared unconstitutional. This important Second Amendment issue may ultimately be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

By allowing residents and visitors to Sunnyvale to only possess reduced-capacity magazines, the City has arbitrarily limited the number of rounds that its law-abiding residents have to protect themselves and their loved ones. Hunters and sport shooters traveling through Sunnyvale with these magazines can also be prosecuted, even if they are unaware of this law.

Even active law enforcement officers are forced to surrender their magazines and cannot possess anything but reduced-capacity firearms for self-defense in their homes. Although this law strangely exempts some retired law-enforcement officers who are authorized to carry a concealed firearm, it only exempts magazines possessed by active law enforcement officers while acting in the course and scope of their duties.

Police officers who have any magazines over ten rounds in their personal collections, or any magazines they were authorized to purchase for off-duty use, must dispose of those magazines. If they don’t, the officers will become criminals. The same is true for active law enforcement officials in San Francisco where the City Attorneys Office confirmed that only official-duty magazines issued by the Police Department are exempt.

Family members of law enforcement officers are also at risk. If an officer leaves the house without locking his or her magazines away, anyone who is present in the home will be in violation of the law. These misguided laws also place thousands of state and federal law enforcement officials who travel through Sunnyvale and San Francisco in jeopardy. Many off-duty law enforcement officials lawfully carry a firearm with a magazine that holds more than ten rounds when traveling in other cities and states. Every time these officers travel into San Francisco or Sunnyvale, they will be in violation of the law and subject to criminal prosecution.

Sunnyvale’s decision to limit law-abiding citizens to magazines holding a maximum of ten rounds endangers the public by giving violent criminals an advantage and decreasing the likelihood that a victim will survive a criminal attack. Of course, criminals who wish to carry out violent attacks will not be thwarted by the City’s restriction since they ignore all gun control laws. Criminals will simply continue to do what they have always done – buy and possess magazines on the black market or carry multiple firearms to complete their violent crimes.

The Sunnyvale magazine ban is part of a gun control package known as “Measure C” – a ballot measure that was passed by Sunnyvale voters earlier this year. Litigation has already been filed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation challenging the law’s ammunition sales registration requirements, which are preempted by state law and violate state privacy protections.

All the case documents can be found on the Michel and Associates website here.

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Fat Chance Of This Happening

November 20, 2013 by 2 Comments

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Bullet Points for November 18th, a coalition of groups has requested that Attorney General Eric Holder apply the “‘sporting purposes’ exemption to the definition of armor piercing ammunition set forth in the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA).”

The letter accuses ATF of sitting on petitions from ammunition manufacturers for exemptions for ammo made from materials such as brass and copper. While these materials fail the composition test set forth by the Gun Control Act of 1968, the law does provide an exemption for products clearly intended for sporting purposes. Long range target shooting and hunting would both clearly be sporting purposes.

The letter from these groups (seen below) makes a good case for why such ammo should be granted an exemption. That said, I don’t think there is a chance in hell of Eric Holder pushing ATF to act on these petitions. Not only is Holder anti-gun, he tries to portray himself as pro-cop which would cause him to rule out any ammo that could be considered “armor piercing”. It is a sham but it is what it is.

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A Manly Picture!

October 25, 2013 by 4 Comments

As many people already know, JayG of the blog MA-rooned has been appointed the Associate Editor of the NRA’s publication Shooting Illustrated. It was reported first on The Squirrel Report and then on his blog.

The NRA has now issued a press release announcing that Jay will be the new Associate Editor. As SayUncle notes, “JayG has gone from blogger to one of those guys that sends out emails of his press releases to bloggers.”And I might note, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

What caught my eye was the picture of Jay accompanying the article. Jay is shown holding what appears to be a Mossberg 590A1 with a bayonet.

The only thing that could have made the picture better would have been if Jay had been holding the shotgun over his head a’la Red Dawn and shouting “Freedom!”. It would have been an appropriate way to celebrate his departure from the Volksrepublik. However, it might have scared the suits in NRA Headquarters a bit too much.

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The Gun Prohibitionists’ Worst Nightmare

October 4, 2013 by 5 Comments

The gun prohibitionists and their allies in the mainstream media like to portray gun rights activists as old, grumpy, and male. Its a stereotype that has less and less basis in reality.

Enter Matti Warren of Texas. She is cute, young (17 years old), female, shoots, and hunts. She has also lobbied the Texas Legislature on crossbows. Moreover, her career ambition is to be a lobbyist for the Second Amendment. She is a passionate advocate for the Second Amendment.

Young women like Matti are the gun prohibitionists’ worst nightmare because she breaks the stereotypes that they have so carefully crafted.

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NRA Statement On Kerry Signing The Arms Trade Treaty

September 25, 2013 by 3 Comments

The National Rifle Association has been a staunch opponent of the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty from the beginning. They issued the response below to the signing of the treaty on behalf of the United States by Secretary of State John F. Kerry. As Bitter noted in a post on the signing, elections have consequences. Prior administrations not only opposed the talks which led to the Arms Trade Treaty, they actively refused to participate in them. That was then and this is now – unfortunately.

Fairfax, Va. – Today, Secretary of State John Kerry signed the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty on behalf of the Obama administration. The National Rifle Association strongly opposes this treaty, which is a clear violation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“The Obama administration is once again demonstrating its contempt for our fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action. “This treaty threatens individual firearm ownership with an invasive registration scheme. The NRA will continue working with the United States Senate to oppose ratification of the ATT.”

A bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate is already on record in opposition to ratification of the ATT. On March 23, the Senate adopted an amendment to its FY 2014 Budget Resolution, offered by Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), that establishes a deficit-neutral fund for “the purpose of preventing the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.” This amendment is in addition to the previous efforts of Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) to pass concurrent resolutions opposing the treaty in their respective chambers.

Notably, the ATT includes “small arms and light weapons” within its scope, which covers firearms owned by law-abiding citizens. Further, the treaty urges recordkeeping of end users, directing importing countries to provide information to an exporting country regarding arms transfers, including “end use or end user documentation” for a “minimum of ten years.” Each country is to “take measures, pursuant to its national laws, to regulate brokering taking place under its jurisdiction for conventional arms.” Data kept on the end users of imported firearms is a de-facto registry of law-abiding firearms owners, which is a violation of federal law. Even worse, the ATT could be construed to require such a registry to be made available to foreign governments.

“These are blatant attacks on the constitutional rights and liberties of every law-abiding American. The NRA will continue to fight this assault on our fundamental freedom,” concluded Cox.

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Distance

September 20, 2013 by 1 Comment

In the latest NRA video from Il Ling New of Gunsite, she talks about the importance of creating and maintaining distance. While this series of short videos is aimed at women and is sponsored by NRAWomen.tv, her advice applies for both men and women. Distance from a potential threat is good, more distance is better.

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Natalie Foster On Language

July 23, 2013 by 1 Comment

Natalie Foster of A Girl’s Guide to Guns fame has a new commentary about about the abuse of language used by the gun prohibitionists. I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one whose hackles start to rise when they hear the words “commonsense”, “reasonable”, or the new buzzword du jour, “gun safety”. Natalie calls this condescending, manipulative language meant to confuse the voters. She is absolutely correct.

Alan Korwin of Gunlaws.com has pointed out many times that we need to change our use of language. Instead of being pro-gun, we are pro-rights. Natalie makes the point when she talks about the use of the word “gun safety” as a stand-in for gun control. If you are against the newest gun safety law aka gun control, it puts us in an uncomfortable position if we would be forced to say we are anti-gun safety laws. I think you get the point.

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Would They Prefer The Term “The Late Unpleasantness”?

May 5, 2013 by 1 Comment



The editors of the New York Daily News are all bent out of shape by the new president of the National Rifle Association, Jim Porter. It seems that they take exception to his use a Southern euphemism for the American Civil War.


Elected on the eve of the NRA’s annual convention, set to start Friday in Houston, James Porter
takes over as its president with a long record of Second Amendment
absolutism, conspiracy theory looniness and racial repulsiveness.

What they term racial repulsiveness is Mr. Porter’s use of the euphemism – the War of North Aggression. Given that Mr. Porter is from Alabama, it is one of those tongue in cheek expressions often used as an alternative name for the Civil War just like War Between the States and, the even more genteel, The Late Unpleasantness”.

I guess the editors of the Daily News forget their city’s own little bit of racial repulsiveness during the Civil War – the Draft Riots of 1863.

Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests turned into an ugly race riot, with the white rioters, chiefly Irish immigrants, attacking blacks wherever they could be found. At least 100 black people were estimated to have been killed. The conditions in the city were such that Major General John E. Wool, commander of the Department of the East, stated on July 16, “Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it.” The military did not reach the city until after the first day of rioting, when mobs had already ransacked or destroyed numerous public buildings, two Protestant churches, the homes of various abolitionists or sympathizers, many black homes, and the Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, which was burned to the ground.

As to that conspiracy theory looniness, they are speaking of the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty in which Mr. Porter’s comments have been spot on.

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Could It Be He’s An Actor?

April 15, 2013 by

The NRA released a video ad this morning that takes aim at Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors’ ad that feature a bearded guy on the back of a pickup truck. The ad suggests that the actor – and we have to assume that given his lack of gun handling skills – take one of the NRA’s gun safety classes.

I like it. Punching back twice as hard is the way to go.