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The Roadkill Platform

February 26, 2014 by 1 Comment

If you are a deer hunter and you have ever used scent products, you know of Tink’s #69 Doe-in-Rut deer scent. It is the most famous of products developed by Tink Nathan. Now Mr. Nathan is looking beyond just deer scents and lures to politics. He is a candidate for the Texas House of Representatives running as a Republican.

His platform? Roadkill! More specifically, an end to the prohibition in Texas on picking up roadkill for human consumption.

From the Dallas Observer:

He’s also the only candidate, apparently in the entire state, bold enough stand up and defend Texans’ God-given right to eat animals they run over in their cars.

As it stands, picking up roadkill is a crime. Partly, this is because of health-and-safety concerns (hard to know what vile pathogens might be swarming over any given carcass), partly it’s to discourage people from using their cars as hunting weapons. (This has actually been documented. In a 2012 Dallas Morning News story, a state game warden’s staffer recalled a couple of incidents in which motorists intentionally ran over exotic deer in Kerr County, right in Nathan’s backyard.)

Nathan thinks that scavenging roadkill is a personal decision best left up to a driver and the critter he just flattened. There’s no need for the government to stick its nose in.

Besides, he told the San Antonio Express-News, why should buzzards be the only ones to benefit from the frequent animal-car collisions that occur by the thousands on Texas roads. “That meat goes to waste,” Nathan says. “Why not utilize it?”

I think he might have a point. In other states it is legal and oft times fresh (emphasis on fresh) roadkill is taken to charitable food pantries for distribution.

Besides, I like his campaign slogan – “Don’t Send Another Lawyer To Austin” – not to mention the fact he is a Life Member of the NRA.

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I’ll Bet He Wishes He Still Played For The Bobcats

February 25, 2014 by 3 Comments

What is considered normal and lawful in most of the rest of the country is illegal in New York City. Knicks guard (and former UNC Tar Heels star) Raymond Felton unfortunately found this out the hard way. Felton was arrested this morning on two felony counts of possession of an unregistered firearm. The firearms were taken to a local police precinct house by an attorney for his wife Ariane Raymondo-Felton.


From ESPN:

But before the Monday night game, an attorney for wife Ariane Raymondo-Felton arrived at a Manhattan police precinct with a Belgian-made FN Herstal pistol, police spokesman Sgt. Lee Jones said. Ramondo-Felton later went to the precinct that night and made a statement to detectives, police said.

Investigators then contacted the director of security at Madison Square Garden in an attempt to reach Felton, police said.

Felton made no statement after he arrived at the precinct with a lawyer, police said.

He was charged with second- and third-degree criminal possession of a firearm, which are felonies, and fourth-degree possession of a firearm, a misdemeanor, a police spokesman told ESPNNewYork.com. Police said Felton was in possession of a gun he wasn’t registered to own.

Felton is expected to appear in criminal court in Manhattan later Tuesday.

Raymondo-Felton is a law student at Fordham University School of Law, a spokeswoman confirmed. Court records show she filed for divorce from Felton on Feb. 18.

Felton, a South Carolina native, started his NBA career playing for the Charlotte Bobcats. Given the hell that New York Police are going to put him through, I’ll bet he wishes he still was in Charlotte. 

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Tenn Law Review – New Frontiers In The Second Amendment

February 25, 2014 by

The Tennessee Law Review will be hosting a symposium on the Second Amendment this Saturday in Knoxville. The symposium will feature a number of Second Amendment scholars including Glenn Reynolds, Stephen Halbrook, and David Kopel. It will have three panels discussing state regulation, the Second Amendment in the “academy”, and the reach of the Second Amendment after Heller and McDonald.

The symposium will take place at the UT School of Law located at 1505 W. Cumberland Avenue in Knoxville. Free parking is available in the White Avenue parking lot. Entrance to the law school is from White Avenue.

The Tennessee Law Review will be publishing the papers presented in an upcoming issue of the Tennessee Law Review (81:3 Spring 2014).  The cost for this issue will be $10 plus postage and can be ordered from TLR.

If you live within driving distance, this sounds like a good way to spend a Saturday morning if you have an interest in Second Amendment scholarship. Oh, and did I mention that this symposium is free? Knoxville is right at a two hour drive for me and I’m going to do my damnedest to be there.

The schedule and list of speakers is below:

Tennessee
Law Review
New
Frontiers in the Second Amendment
Panel
Schedule—March 1, 2014
Time
Topic
Participants
9:15
Introduction
Cottone
and Reynolds*
9:30–10:30
State
Regulation and the Second Amendment
O’Shea*
and Halbrook*
10:30–11:30
The
Second Amendment in the Academy
Wolitz,*
Reynolds, Denning, Kopel, O’Shea, Pratt, and Blackman
11:30–12:45
Lunch
12:45–2:45
Defining
the Reach of Heller and McDonald: Second Amendment Penumbra
and First Amendment Corollaries
Kopel,*
Pratt,* Denning,* and Blackman*
* Indicates
article presentation
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Catching Up

February 24, 2014 by 3 Comments

This week was a good example of work interfering with blogging time. I had a two day out of town conference that was mandatory to attend and it was a very full two days. So I am now just catching up on the blog. I’ve bookmarked a number of things and will make this a tab-clearing of sorts.


The biggest news of the week is that San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore will not seek an en banc review of the ruling of the 9th Circuit in Peruta v. County of San Diego. Dave Kopel notes here that one of the judges on the 9th Circuit could still request a vote on an en banc review sua sponte.

It should be noted that there are two cases still pending in the 9th Circuit in which the oral arguments were made at the same time as the Peruta case. They are Baker v. Kealoha et al from Hawaii and the CalGuns/SAF case Richards v. Prieto.

Then there is the new (maybe) stamp from the US Postal Service honoring actor, activist, and NRA President Charlton Heston. Now it seems, that the USPS is denying that they definitely are going to have a Heston stamp, that it was just a suggestion, and that they will take into account opposition from the gun prohibitionists. Bitter rightly calls them out on their outright lies pointing out previous memos and announcements.

Speaking of gun prohibitionists, Bob Owens applies a well-deserved fisking to that Demanding Mommy (and formerly well-paid Democratic PR flack) Shannon Watts. I think calling her the Carrie Nation of the Gun Prohibitionists is spot-on.

On Wednesday, the Washington Times had a feature length article on the case of Lane v. Holder. The plaintiffs have appealed the decision of the 4th Circuit which dismissed the case for a lack of standing to the Supreme Court. The plaintiffs are petitioning for a writ of certiorari in the case. The article features one of the plaintiffs, Amanda Welling, and her challenge to the Gun Control Act of 1968 which prohibits residents of one state from purchasing a handgun in another and then taking delivery of it in the purchase state. Currently, while you can buy a handgun from an out of state vendor, it must be delivered to an in-state FFL who then completes the transfer.

In a blow to the anti’s argument that guns cause crime, the FBI released a report this past week which showed that crime actually went down as the sales of firearms went up. It is even more interesting to note that in the areas with the highest firearms ownership – the MidWest and South – crime went down even more than in areas with less firearms ownership – the NorthEast. Go figure. However, as Jason Riley at the Wall Street Journal notes, “Not that gun-control zealots, who are so certain of a causal link between firearms and violent crime rates, care about such details.”

When it comes to firearms, state laws are often stricter than Federal laws. This is most evident in what firearms and accessories citizens of a state are allowed to possess, e.g, mag restrictions in New York, etc. However, these state laws may include disqualifying events that preclude a person from legally purchasing a firearm which are stricter than Federal law. Attorney Paloma Capanna has an interesting article up on these state prohibitors and their roll in NICS check denials.

The fallout in New York from the decision of Remington Outdoor Company to expand to Huntsville, Alabama continues. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in denial about the roll of the NY SAFE Act in Remington’s decision saying it was for “purely business reasons”. Other analyses say that the SAFE Act is one of the major reasons that Remington looked South.


Attorney Chuck Michel takes apart a study purporting to show that policies designed to reduce the number of firearms in the home, especially handguns, were instrumental in reducing the number of childhood gunshot wounds. The funny thing is that injuries and deaths involving children have declined as the number of firearms in circulation has increased dramatically. The old saw about lies, damned lies, and statistics would seem to be the case here especially since Chuck notes the author uses “non-traditional” data sources.

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Some Thoughts About Remington, Jobs, And Its Union

February 19, 2014 by 9 Comments

I will be the first to admit I don’t know much about the inner workings of unions. I was born and bred in North Carolina which is both a right-to-work state and the least unionized state in the nation. While I have and have had relatives who were union members in the North, I’ve never worked in a job that lent itself to unionization.

Yesterday I received a very perceptive and enlightening email regarding Remington, jobs, and unions. The person who sent it to me is very well versed in the inner workings of unions but prefers no attribution and to remain anonymous.

The first point he made is that Remington Outdoor Company will say nothing about moving jobs from Ilion to Huntsville for a couple of reasons. First, anything that Remington says that could be interpreted as coercion or related to bargaining would likely lead to serious charges brought by the National Labor Relations Board. The second reason is that Remington’s contract with UMW Local 717 could very well contain language or clauses that would lead to automatic unionization of the Huntsville facility. This is referred to as successor language.

The second point he made is that without successor language, it doesn’t look good for union representation in the South especially given the loss at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. Interestingly enough, Alabama has the highest unionization rate of any Southern state.

Remington has a large operation in Ilion and it won’t be easy to move. But given time, you will start to see operations begin to move South. It is my understanding that R&D is already slated to move to Huntsville. The city, by the way, is also home to the Redstone Arsenal which has as one of its component organizations that Army Material Command as well as a number of Ordnance Corps units. If the Republicans take control of the US Senate, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is the 3rd ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and could easily get the ear of the DoD for Remington.

I was able to look at an earlier collective bargaining agreement between Local 717 and Remington. While I did not find successor language in it, I did see language that mandated certain models produced by Remington must be made in Ilion. Article II- Scope and Coverage, Section g – Job Security says that products such as the Remington Model 7, 700, 7400, and 7600 rifles and the Remington Model 870, 1100, and 1187 shotguns “will continued to be produced only at the Ilion plant”. It did allow for Remington to procure component parts elsewhere. This contract expired in 2007 and I can’t imagine succeeding contracts not containing similar language.

The current contract was ratified in December 2012. The highlights of the contract as publicized by the United Mine Workers of America HQ include:

The new pact includes a provision extending Local 717 jurisdiction to any new plant that Remington builds, as the company is presently considering, within a 100-mile radius of the main plant in Ilion, N.Y. In addition to a $500 signing bonus, the contract features 3 percent wage increases in each of the first four years, and 3.5 percent in the final year. It also maintains the current level of medical benefits, improves the language governing overtime and creates a new position, Utility Specialist, aimed at reducing the reassignment of regular workers.

This contract was ratified two days before the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. They could not have imagined the NY SAFE Act when the collective bargaining agreement was ratified. If this contract contained the same earlier language as to what models would be produced at the Ilion plant, you have to wonder if it extended to the Bushmaster AR-15s whose production had been shifted from Windham, Maine to Ilion. It is hard to conceive that a company would want to take the chance of producing a firearm in a state where it couldn’t be sold.

To sum it all up, while Remington’s current contract with Local 717 may preclude the rapid transfer of existing production lines from Ilion to Huntsville, production will start shifting South over time.

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The Official Announcement From Remington And Alabama

February 18, 2014 by 2 Comments

Remington, the Governor’s Office, and the local governments involved sent out a joint press release yesterday announcing the expansion of Remington Outdoor Company in Huntsville, Alabama.

The release is below:

OFFICE OF GOVERNOR ROBERT BENTLEY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2014

Remington Outdoor Company Announces Expansion to Alabama

HUNTSVILLE AND MONTGOMERY, AL — Governor Robert Bentley on Monday announced Alabama has recruited the country’s oldest firearms manufacturer to Alabama.

Remington Outdoor Company (ROC) will expand to the old Chrysler building in Huntsville, and create more than 2,000 new jobs within the next ten years. Governor Bentley joined Remington Chairman and CEO George Kollitides and other state and local leaders for the official announcement.

“I am honored to welcome Remington to Alabama,” Governor Robert Bentley said.

“The Alabama workforce, our business climate and our quality of life continue to make Alabama extremely attractive to companies. Remington will soon experience the same type of success that other companies in Alabama have already experienced. Today’s announcement will create more than 2,000 jobs in Huntsville, and reflects a statewide capital investment of $110 million. Our relationship with Remington is just beginning, and I look forward to a continued partnership with the company.”

“With the acquisition of this facility, we plan to create more than 2,000 jobs in Huntsville over the next decade,” said George Kollitides, Chairman and CEO, Remington Outdoor Company. “This additional capacity is essential to fulfill demand and introduce new products. Having watched our Company grow from 2,400 employees in 2008 to 4,200 employees by the end of 2013, a five year, 75 percent increase, it is easy to see why we’re investing now.”

In 2013, ROC made significant strides including its ammunition facility expansion, firearm capacity growth, winning a multitude of highly competitive military and law enforcement contracts, launching its 1816 lifestyle brand, and introducing a series of exciting new products such as Ultimate Defense Handgun Ammunition and the 783 bolt action rifle. Bolstered by record sales, the company chose to expand operations to Alabama.

“2013 was an outstanding year during which we grew by every key measure,” continued Kollitides. “We are capitalizing on this momentum by strengthening our positions across the board. With demand for our products at an historic high and more new product launches planned for 2014 than ever before in our 200-year history, we are investing in the future.”

Last year, ROC modernized its production facilities, re-focused its research and development on customer requirements, and ensured consistent, high-quality manufacturing. Together, these advancements demonstrate a commitment to meeting customer demand. The Huntsville expansion provides for future needed capacity to support existing product demand and a robust new product pipeline.

ROC has 19 locations in the United States, and Huntsville and Madison County officials praised the company’s decision to expand to Huntsville.

“With news of this Remington facility expansion, we have yet another example of Huntsville fulfilling its economic development promise,” Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle said. “Our workforce is among the best and brightest in the nation, and they deserve challenging career opportunities, along with the high quality of life Huntsville provides. We are thrilled to welcome Remington to our city and region.”

“Our pro-business environment, along with the region’s extensive manufacturing experience, helped us outmaneuver two dozen other states looking to attract Remington,” Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong said. “This announcement represents new diversity to our local economy, and will provide an array of opportunities for skilled tradesmen, engineers and support personnel.”

Following facility upgrades, ROC is expected to begin operations in Alabama within the next 18 months.

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Cuomo Spokesman: “No Remington Jobs Are Leaving NY”

February 17, 2014 by 4 Comments

Rich Azzopardi, who some describe as “Ewok-like”, has been the spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) since 2012. Yesterday he went on Twitter to try and deflect from some of the attention the Remington expansion in Alabama is getting.

In the strictest sense of the word, New York may not be losing any jobs – for now. In the short-term, it will take some time before Huntsville is up and running. However, as the production lines begin to come online in Huntsville and the cost per unit of production starts to decrease compared to Ilion, just how long do you realistically think Remington Outdoor Company will wait before shifting production lines south?

The Ilion, New York plant will become for Remington what the East Alton, Illinois plant has become for Winchester: an aging albatross of a building with a highly unionized workforce in a state whose politics is dominated by the gun prohibitionists. While you may leave some production there because of specialty machines and craftsmen, the bulk of it is eventually going to shift to the newer plant.

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California Carry Licenses Could Reach 1.4 Million In First Year

February 17, 2014 by 6 Comments

The CalGuns Foundation has calculated that the number of carry licenses in California could reach as high as 1.4 million if the Peruta decision stands and California goes “shall issue”.

Following the Ninth Circuit decision holding “good cause” requirements unconstitutional, The Calguns Foundation projects that the number of California carry licensees will skyrocket during the first year of effective “shall-issue” licensing.

According to data sent to The Calguns Foundation by the California Department of Justice, the number of California CCW licensees in 2013 totaled about 56,000. However, in applying projections to state and county population figures from the state’s Department of Finance, Calguns believes that the number of licensees in California might reach as high as 1.4 million in the Golden State during the first year of a “shall issue” system.

 They have calculated the growth of carry licenses on a county-by-county basis which can be seen here.  Their table provides estimates for a range from one to five percent of a county’s population with the expectation that two percent will be the most likely. CalGuns has used available census statistics, California Department of Justice statistics on both carry licenses and firearms purchases, and the experience of other states to make this projections.

Looking this over, it is is interesting to look at the table to see what might transpire in some of the more anti-gun counties. For instance, San Franciso County might grow from two carry permits to an estimated 12,707 at the 2% level. While San Francisco is the most extreme example, many other counties could see multiple 1,000% increases such as LA which could see an 88,000% increase in carry permits at the 2% level.

You have to wonder if the state’s anti-gun politicians might moderate their extremism if they suddenly found a good number of their constituents had carry licenses. It is easy to demonize a group of people when you only have a few examples like the two who have carry licenses in San Francisco County. It is much harder to do if you have substantial numbers and everyone knows someone with a carry license.

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First Official Confirmation On Remington Expansion

February 16, 2014 by 1 Comment

The first official confirmation that Remington plans to expand to Huntsville, Alabama comes from Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL). Prior to this, all reports have had to say that “an announcement is expected” because “high level sources” “have confirmed it”.  I sincerely doubt a senator would make such a release unless it was a done deal.

From Sessions’ Senate homepage:

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) issued the following statement today after Remington Arms announced plans to open a plant in Huntsville:

“Remington’s decision is great news and a further testament to the world class workforce in Huntsville. This plant will create good-paying manufacturing jobs for thousands of workers. We warmly welcome Remington Arms and look forward to their success and presence for years to come.”

While Gov. Robert Bentley (R-AL) did allude to it when asked, all he said was “I think Monday you’ll see something very special in the state.” That is a lot more nebulous than Sessions’ comment.

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The Effects Of The NY SAFE Act Coming Home To Roost

February 16, 2014 by 1 Comment

The backers of the New York SAFE Act said the law would make New Yorkers safer. About the only thing I can see that it has done is to cost good, hard working New Yorkers their jobs.

This view is shared by Fran Madore, President of United Mine Workers Local 717. The union represents the overwhelming majority of the workers at Remington’s Ilion, New York plant.

A union official said Saturday the Remington Arms Co.’s decision to open a manufacturing plant in Alabama does not bode well for Ilion, and he’s blaming New York’s SAFE Act restrictions on assault weapons.

“It can’t be good,” said Fran Madore, president of United Mine Workers Local 717, which represents 1,180 of the 1,300 Remington employees in Ilion. “How can it be good?”

Madore said plant officials told him they wanted to meet with him Monday. They did not say what they wanted to talk about, but Madore said he assumes it will be about the company’s reported plans to open a 500,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Ala.

In his interview with the Syracuse Post-Standard, Madore goes on to say that the NY SAFE Act crippled them and that he is worried that jobs will lost in Ilion.

I think Mr. Madore has good reason to be worried.