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More New Federal Gun Control Legislation Introduced

January 15, 2013 by 2 Comments

Yesterday was the first day that the House of Representatives was back in session since January 4th. Four more gun control bills were introduced to go with the nine other bills that were already introduced on the 3rd of January.

I have listed the bills below in order of their introduction along with their sponsor and the bills working title.

HR 226 – Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
Co-sponsor: Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow a credit against tax
for surrendering to authorities certain assault weapons.
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

HR 227– Theodore Deutch (D-FL)
Co-sponsors:
Gerald Connolly (D-VA)
Mike Quigley (D-IL)
To establish a gun buyback grant program. 
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

HR 236 – James Langevin (D-RI)
Co-sponsors:
Matthew Cartwright (D-PA)
David Cicilline (D-RI)
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Bobby Rush (D-IL)
Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
To ensure greater accountability by licensed firearms dealers. 
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

HR 238 – Grace Meng (D-NY)
To amend chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, to restrict the
ability of a person whose Federal license to import, manufacture, or
deal in firearms has been revoked, whose application to renew such a
license has been denied, or who has received a license revocation or
renewal denial notice, to transfer business inventory firearms, and for
other purposes.  
Referred to the House Judiciary Committee

The Government Printing Office has not received the text for any of these bills. The last bill listed – HR 238 – would seem to be identical to HR 93 introduced by Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI).

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Dave Kopel On The Second Amendment In 2013

January 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

Attorney and law professor Dave Kopel was interviewed about the Second Amendment for the Cato Institute Daily Podcast last week. Much of what he says about the presidential power to use executive orders is increasingly relevant given President Obama’s press conference today. In the press conference Obama didn’t rule out the use of executive orders for gun control.

As Kopel points out, Obama would have broad powers to impact imports under the Gun Control Act of 1968 but less power domestically. Kopel does touch upon the reclassification of existing rifles to put them under the purview of the National Firearms Act by the use of executive order.

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Obama On Guns At Press Conference

January 14, 2013 by 3 Comments

President Obama had his last press conference of his first administration this morning. Among the questions asked was one by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. Karl specifically asked Obama “what are you willing to do, or able to do, using the powers of your presidency to act without Congress?”

Obama responded with mention of improvements in data collection and tracking. He then said the administration would be pushing legislation that was “common-sense” dealing with regulation and “gun safety”. He consistently tried to use the words “common-sense”, “sensible”, and “responsible” throughout his answers. He also accused his opponents of trying to fan the fears about gun control.

One thing I think we will be seeing from both the administration and the gun prohibitionist groups is an effort to equate gun control with gun safety. Obviously they are not one and the same but you would never know that from listening to Obama. Moreover, and you won’t hear it from them, but that group “fanning the fears” does more for gun safety through the Eddie Eagle program and other training programs than any of them will ever do.

The video from the press conference is below:

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Media Misinformation

January 14, 2013 by 2 Comments

Cam Edwards fisks a recent NBC Today Show episode with Matt Lauer in the YouTube video below. Lauer was aghast that someone would publish personal information of the publisher, editor, and staff of the Journal News. You will recall that this is the newspaper that thought every pistol permit holder in a two county area – including retired police officers and domestic violence victims – should have their name and address linked to an interactive Google map. It looks like burglars have also used the list to target at least one home owner to steal firearms.

This is a short video but Cam does an excellent job in pointing how Lauer sets the tone and then how the panel tries to marginalize gun owners as some strange and exotic breed of American.

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Magazine Versus Clip

January 14, 2013 by 3 Comments

Greg Hickok – Hickok45 on YouTube – has come out with a short video showing the differences between a clip and a magazine. You wish this would be required viewing for every journalist or politicians who decides to opine about banning “high capacity assault clips” in the wake of the Newtown shootings. As Greg says in the video, he doesn’t know of any clips that hold more than 10 rounds.

This would also be a good video to share with your newbie shooter friends who may have rushed out to buy a firearm for the first time in the last month or so. It will help them learn the correct terminology and feel a little less like a neophyte.

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Not Just Walmart Should Be Called

January 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

Walmart was the largest of the retailers invited (or summoned as the case may be) to meet with Vice-President Joe Biden’s “gun violence” (sic) task force. A number of other large firearms/sporting goods retailers were at the same meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder held on this past Thursday. It is my understanding that the National Shooting Sports Foundation had requested to be at the same meeting as they represent many independent gun shops but the request was refused.

They included:

Academy Sports and Outdoors
Bass Pro Shops
Big 5 Sporting Goods
Cabela’s
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Dunham’s Sports
Gander Mountain
Sportsman’s Warehouse
Wal-Mart
National Retail Federation

Sen. Chuck Schumer has announced he is contacting them to “voluntarily” stop selling semi-automatic rifles with bad cosmetics while Congress debates a new assault weapon (sic) ban. As Schumer notes:


“Since the Sandy Hook shooting, the sales of assault weapons are skyrocketing,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) told The News.

“We have no idea how many people [buying the guns] are mentally ill, or how many are felons,” he continued. “If Congress passes measures to reduce availability of these weapons, those efforts could be undermined by the purchase of thousands of weapons before then.”

Just like it has been suggested that we call Walmart and express our concerns lest they think it is in their best interest to screw gun owners, I’d suggest we call the rest of the retailers on this list. If Schumer can contact these companies, then there is no reason that we as consumers shouldn’t as well. I have assembled contact information for all of these companies as well as other relevant information.

When you call be respectful and polite but be firm in your stance. You don’t need to argue but merely state your case. Make sure the company knows that you’ll refuse to do business with them in the future if they cave to pressure from the Obama Administration on guns. This is different than a corporate decision decides to stop selling a product due to the profit margins.

Academy Sports and Outdoors

Customer Service: 888-922-2336
Corporate Offices: 281-646-5200
Kevin Chapman is Sr. VP for Store Operations 

Academy’s headquarters is located in Katy, TX. They were bought by buyout firm Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts in 2011. Academy has 131 stores in 11 states. They hold 145 FFLs.

Bass Pro Shops

Customer Service: 800-227-7776
Corporate Offices: 417-873-5000

Johnny Morris is the founder of Bass Pro Shops which is headquartered in Springfield, MO. I suggest contacting Larry Whiteley, Manager of Communications at 417-873-5022. His email is lwhiteley@basspro.com. He heads their public relations staff. Bass Pro Shops holds 53 FFLs.

Big 5 Sporting Goods

Customer Service: 800-898-2994
Corporate Offices: 310-536-0611

Big 5 is headquartered in El Segundo, California. Steven Miller is the CEO. Shane Starr is Sr. VP for Operations. Big 5 is a publicly traded company (BGFV) which trades on the NASDAQ Exchange. They have 413 stores in 12 western states. They hold 389 FFLs.

Cabelas

Customer Service: 800-237-4444
Corporate Offices: 308-254-5505

Cabelas is headquartered in Sidney, Nebraska. They have 40 destination stores in 23 states and 3 Canadian provinces. Thomas Millner, former CEO of Remington and the Freedom Group, has been CEO of Cabelas since 2009. Scott William is the Ex. VP and Chief Marketing Officer. Joe Arterburn is Corporate Communications Manager (308-255-1204) Cabelas is a publicly traded company (CAB) and trades on the NY Stock Exchange. They hold 31 FFLs.

Dick’s Sporting Goods

Customer Service: 877-846-9997
Corporate Office: 724-273-3400

Dick’s Sporting Goods is headquartered in Corapolis, PA. They are publicly traded on the NY Stock Exchange under the symbol DKS. Edward Stack is the CEO and Lauren Hobart is the Chief Marketing Officer and Sr. VP. Dicks has 511 stores in 44 states. They hold 470 FFLs.

On December 18th, Dick’s caved to the perceived pressure after the Newtown shootings and “suspended” sales of all AR-15s in their stores. They also cancelled the pre-orders for the special AR-15 made just for them by Troy Defense. I would suggest calling the corporate offices and letting them know what you think of their corporate cowardice.

Dunham’s Sports

Corporate Offices: 248-674-4975


Email Link

Dunham’s is a sporting goods chain that is primarily in the Mid-West. They are headquartered in Waterford, Michigan and have 180 FFLs.

Gander Mountain

Customer Service: 888-542-6337
Corporate Offices: 651-325-4300

Gander Mountain is headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota and has their customer service operation in Greenville, North Carolina. They have 113 stores in 23 states. They also own Overton’s, Gander Mountain Acadmey, and 3 Forks Ranch. David Pratt is Chairman of the Board and Interim CEO while Steven Uline is the Ex. VP for Marketing. They hold 114 FFLs.

Sportsman’s Warehouse

Customer Service: 800-286-3076
Corporate Offices: 801-567-1000 

Sportman’s Warehouse is headquartered in Midvale, Utah. They operate 32 stores in 17 states. Karen Seaman is their Chief Marketing Officer. She can be reached at 801-566-6681 or by email at kseaman@sportsmanswarehouse.com. They have 32 FFLs. 

Sports Authority 

Customer Service:  800.360.8721
Corporate Offices:  303-200-5050

Sports Authority is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado. It has 465 stores in 45 states. The CEO is Darrell Webb who until recently ran Jo-Ann Stores. Greg Waters is the Ex. VP for Merchandising and supervises store operations. They have 169 FFLs which means only about one-third of their stores carry firearms.