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Just An Observation On Obama’s Priorities

January 10, 2013 by 4 Comments

When Barack Obama came into office in January 2009, the most critical issue facing the United States was the economy. What did he place his greatest emphasis on? Getting Obamacare passed.

Barack Obama returns for his second term and will be re-inaugurated on January 20th. The most critical issue still facing the United States is the economy which is still sputtering. We have approximately 8% unemployment and a Dow that still has not regained its high point established in 2007. The issue seeming to get the most attention from the Obama Administration currently is gun control and not the economy.

It seems to me that when it comes to priorities and a choice between what is needed to be done for the country and what is on his ideological agenda, ideology always wins.

His momma would be proud of her son.

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Walmart And Guns

January 10, 2013 by 5 Comments

SayUncle had a post up yesterday evening about the meeting that representatives from Walmart will be having with Vice-President Joe Biden and his “gun violence” (sic) task force. He posted a reader suggestion to call Walmart’s corporate office. I am reposting it below.

Ok, everybody, don’t call stores, call corporate. Here’s the number: (479)273-4000

That gets you the home office. Tell them you want to express an opinion and they’ll immediately transfer you to another line where you will talk to a real person who will take your comment and record the call.

They are getting calls going both ways right now. They said that they have made not decisions going forward except to hear what Biden’s group says and then weigh that with the comments from their customers.

So start calling. Have your family and friends call. Overwhelm their switchboard with calls and we may keep them on our side.

SayUncle said to let them know that if they cave, you and your family will no longer shop there and that you’ll urge all your friends to do the same. I agree fullheartedly.

The one thing big business understands is money and sales. Walmart had dropped the gun department in many stores but brought it back due to the demand. The only reason that they started selling AR-15s in the first place was due to consumer demand.

As of June 2012, there were 67,369 Federal Firearms Licensees in the United States. This does not include those with a Curios and Relics FFL. Out of those 67,369 FFLs, 1,823 were held by the various Walmart stores around the country. This is about 2.7% of all FFLs. My point is that you have plenty of other options when it comes to purchasing guns and ammo. While Walmart is convenient, they are not the be all and end all in the gun market.

Walmart does not live and die by your gun and ammo purchases but they do live and die by your other purchases. If 90 million American gun owners suddenly said we aren’t going to do business with you anymore, they would be hurting. That is what they need to understand.

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Supporting Our Friends

January 9, 2013 by 1 Comment



Kurt Hofmann, the St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner, posted yesterday after the efforts of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) to “punish” Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) for her bucking the gun control orthodoxy of the Obama Administration.


CSGV has also bought ads to run in Politico, Roll Call, and several North Dakota newspapers, exploiting the Sandy Hook Elementary atrocity and excoriating her for opposing so-called “assault weapons” bans (Connecticut has such a ban) and private sales bans (whether or not the killer’s weapons used in Newtown were bought without background checks, the buyer–the killer’s mother, and first victim–would by all accounts have passed even the vastly more invasive sort of checks demanded by Senator Schumer). These ads also urge readers to call Senator Heitkamp and chastise her for having the courage to stand up to her party.

Kurt urges readers to contact Sen. Heitkamp’s office and let her know we support her principled stand.

I agree and would encourage you to do so. The contact numbers, Facebook, and Twitter links are in Kurt’s post.

UPDATE: TPM covered CSGV’s campaign to intimidate Sen. Heitkamp. It was headlined, “Anti-Gun Group Declares Victory After Brushback Pitch At Heitkamp.” Heitkamp issued a statement in response to the ads and harassment.

Everitt said his group is “happy” with the statement, and that it proves the ads had an effect. “We liked it,” he told TPM. “We were happy to see more moderation there.”

Heitkamp’s office doesn’t see things the same way. “Senator Heitkamp’s position has not changed, nor shifted,” Heitkamp spokesperson Whitney Phillips told TPM.

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Ammunition Background Check Act

January 9, 2013 by 12 Comments

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) plans to introduce the Ammunition Background Check Act which would mandate NICS checks for all ammunition purchases. His legislation would reinstate the record keeping requirement for ammo sales, a report to ATF whenever anyone buys more than 1,000 rounds within a 5 day period, bans teflon-coated and incendiary bullets, and require reports of stolen ammunition.

According to CNN, Blumenthal is introducing this legislation “to keep faith with the people of Newtown and elsewhere who want action to combat gun violence.”

In his press release, Blumenthal says:

Reporting large purchases of ammunition can alert law enforcement and enable proactive intervention. Large scale purchases of ammunition are the fuel often driving mass murders.

Or, more likely, it is a sign that a person either got a good deal or is planning to take a training class that requires 1,000 or more rounds of ammo for the weekend.

In addition, the legislation bans Teflon-coated bullets and incendiary ammunition. The current federal ban on armor-piercing ammunition exempts certain kinds of Teflon-coated bullets, as well as incendiary ammunition designed to ignite or explode on contact. Both of these kinds of ammunition can defeat body armor, and pose a grave danger to law enforcement officials.

Where is Blumenthal getting his info? Incendiary is “designed to ignite or explode on contact”? That doesn’t meet any definition of incendiary bullets that I’ve ever heard. Blumenthal is confusing incendiary as in tracers with certain .50 BMG ammunition such as the Raufoss Mk. 211 which is high explosive, armor piercing, and incendiary.  As for defeating body armor, your average .30-30 Winchester deer hunting cartridge can defeat most forms worn by law enforcement officers.

Background checks have worked in many cases to keep firearms from falling into the wrong hands. According to the FBI, over the last decade, more than 100 million background checks have been run on firearm purchases. The vast majority of background checks took about 30 seconds. Approximately 700,000 people were blocked from purchasing guns – including felons, domestic abusers, and the mentally ill.

Two points on this part of his statement. First, if you dump ammo purchases into the NICS system without drastically increasing personnel, the wait times will defeat the whole rationale of “instant checks”. My second point is when have you ever heard of any prohibited purchasers ever being prosecuted for attempting to purchase a firearm.

Blumenthal’s bill has one other fatal flaw if he plans to track all ammo – reloading.

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December Adjusted NICS – Just As Suspected

January 9, 2013 by 7 Comments

The National Shooting Sports Foundation released their adjusted NICS check numbers for the month of December and they are almost off the charts.

Above is the graph of the NSSF-adjusted NICS checks for the last 13 Decembers. The only decrease over the previous since Obama was first elected is December 2009. That probably was reflective of the surge the prior year.

Here are the numbers as reported by NSSF:

The December 2012 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 2,237,731 is an increase of 58.6 percent over the NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 1,410,937
in December 2011. For comparison, the unadjusted December 2012 NICS
figure of 2,776,105 reflects a 49.7 percent increase from the unadjusted
NICS figure of 1,854,400 in December 2011.

December 2012 also marked the 31st straight month with increases over the same month in the prior year.

 It is important to note that NICS checks are not a perfect correlation with gun sales. States such Iowa, Michigan, and Kentucky use the NICS system for background checks on both new and existing concealed carry permits. Moreover, in a number of states such as North Carolina, a concealed carry permit is accepted in lieu of running the NICS check.

For the entire year 2012, adjusted NICS checks were up 27.7% over 2011.

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Illinois AG Madigan Requests En Banc Hearing In Carry Cases

January 8, 2013 by 4 Comments

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced today that she will be requesting an en banc review of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the joint cases of Moore v. Madigan and Shepard v. Madigan. This decision by the 7th Circuit would have forced the Illinois General Assembly to come up with some form of concealed carry within 180 days. An en banc review means all the judges of the 7th Circuit will review the case and not just the three judge panel assigned to the case. As I understand it, a petition for an en banc review is not automatically granted.

There had been some question on whether or not Madigan would appeal or seek an en banc review given her ambitions to succeed Pat Quinn as Governor of Illinois. Letting the decision stand would have been a bone tossed to downstate Illinois Democrats who tend to look at gun rights more favorably. I take Madigan’s petition as an indication that she feels that gun control post-Newtown is a winning proposition.

From Madigan’s press release:


Chicago — Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced she has filed a petition for rehearing before the full U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in lawsuits challenging the Illinois laws that prevent the carrying of ready-to-use firearms in public.

The Attorney General’s petition for a rehearing “en banc” is a request for all of the judges on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case after a December decision by a three-judge panel of the court held that the state laws barring carrying ready-to-use firearms in public are unconstitutional.

Madigan’s petition was filed in lawsuits brought against the State of Illinois by Michael Moore, Mary E. Shepard and the Illinois State Rifle Association, which allege that Illinois’ restrictions on the carrying of ready-to-use weapons in public violates their Second Amendment rights. The laws had previously been upheld by two separate federal district courts in Illinois.

In its December decision, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals set a 180-day deadline for the Illinois legislature to draft and enact new laws relating to carrying ready-to-use firearms in public. Today’s petition for rehearing by the Attorney General does not affect that deadline.

Madigan issued the following statement regarding her decision to seek a rehearing:

“In ruling that Illinois must allow individuals to carry ready-to-use firearms in public, the 7th Circuit Court’s decision goes beyond what the U.S. Supreme Court has held and conflicts with decisions by two other federal appellate courts. Based on those decisions, it is appropriate to ask the full 7th Circuit to review this case and consider adopting an approach that is consistent with the other appellate courts that have addressed these issues after the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Heller and McDonald decisions.”

UPDATE: The petition from the Illinois Attorney General’s Office can be found here.

The Brady Center along with Trayvon Martin’s parents and others have filed an amicus brief in support of the Madigan’s petition. It can be found here. Frankly, I find the thought of including Trayvon Martin’s parents in the amicus brief just a trifle tacky. But then again, this is the new and improved Brady Center.

There is also an amicus brief in support of Madigan’s petition from the City of Chicago, the Chicago Board of Ed, the Chicago Transit Authority, and the Legal Center to Prevent Gun Violence (the old LCAV) which can be found here.

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Snake Handling

January 8, 2013 by

That snake handling scene in the preview of Justified reminds of an incident involving a snake handling preacher It happened soon after I first moved
to the mountains of North Carolina. He had a little Holiness
congregation over in Canton. His day job, I kid you not, was as a wholesale bait dealer .

Our sheriff at the
time who didn’t exactly have a sterling reputation went to break up one of his outdoor revivals on the grounds that
snake handling is illegal in North Carolina. One thing lead to another and the sheriff got bit by the rattler. The sheriff made it to the hospital in time and lived. However, he did retire soon thereafter.

I guess we can thank that rattle snake for helping clean up law enforcement in Haywood County.

Oh, and that snake handling preacher who got arrested? He got bit by a rattler at a service in Greene County, Tennessee later in the year, refused treatment, and died.

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Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics

January 8, 2013 by

Jim Shepherd, publisher and editor of The Outdoor Wire, called out the Associated Press today for some of their reporting on gun sales. We all know that gun sales have been surging throughout the year. However, the AP would have you believe sales in Colorado and Connecticut, scenes of horrible tragedies, were off.

From the AP story “Fewer excited gun-buyers in Colorado and Connecticut”:

The government’s figures suggested far less interest in purchasing guns
late in the year in Connecticut and Colorado, where background checks
also increased but not nearly as much as most other states … Only New Jersey and Maryland showed smaller increases than
Colorado in December from one month earlier.

Sales must really be impacted there, right?

Not exactly as Jim notes:

Sounds reasonable, right? After all, these states are both reeling from the havoc caused there by crazies.

Not necessarily. While the story is accurate that the biggest surges in
background checks for gun purchases were in the South and West, the
numbers weren’t exactly insignificant in either Connecticut or Colorado.
The increases in NICS checks, and as may be implied, gun sales, in
those states were only sixty five and sixty-four percent,
respectively. Colorado’s checks frose from 35,009 in October to 53,453
in December. Connecticut went from 18,761 to 29,246 during the same
period.

It might be more accurate to say that “despite horrific tragedies, the
demand for firearms in both Connecticut and Colorado grew, although not
as fast as the red-hot markets in the South and West.”

But that wouldn’t fit the narrative, although the observation that
“background checks also tend to increase after mass shootings, when gun
enthusiasts fear restrictive measures are imminent.”

 Wouldn’t fit the narrative should be the new motto for the mainstream press when it comes to gun sales and the use of guns for self-protection.

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Hey, Felons!

January 8, 2013 by

Do you have a “hot” gun that you need to ditch?

Did that no-good two-timing son of a bitch give you a gun to “hold” for him while he did his time?

Do you live in the Greensboro, North Carolina area?

Well then, the Greensboro Police Department have a deal for you! They’ll take that gun off your hands with no questions asked. They will even do it anonymously! The only thing they won’t do is give you any money for it. They’re calling it their “Safe Surrender” program which means you ain’t going to Central Prison.

Details below in the GPD press release:


Greensboro Police Offer Two-Day Weapon “Safe Surrender”

GREENSBORO, NC (January 7, 2013)

On January 11 and 12, the Greensboro Police Department is offering gun owners another means of removing unwanted firearms from their homes. Police employees will be accepting handguns, rifles,
and shotguns at three Greensboro churches Friday from 8 am to 3 pm, and Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm.

Participating churches are:
Saint Matthew’s United Methodist Church at 600 East Florida Street•
Bessemer United Methodist Church at 3015 East Bessemer Avenue•
Christ Wesleyan Church at 2400 South Holden Road.

The “Safe Surrender” event was inspired by Councilwoman T. Diane Bellamy-Small as a way for city residents to reflect upon the tragic events in Newtown,Conn. “Although we are saddened by the impetus for this ‘Safe Surrender’, we welcome the opportunity to take weapons off the street,” said Deputy Chief Anita Holder. This is not a buy-back program. No cash will be given in exchange for eapons. Anyone age 18 and above can turn in a weapon.

Weapons can be surrendered anonymously. There is no limit to the number of firearms a person can surrender. Once a weapon is surrendered, it will not be returned. Weapons should be unloaded and cleared when they are turned in. A police employee will receive each weapon and render it safe. Ammunition may also be surrendered. Firearms will be checked to determine if they have been reported lost or stolen. Police will make every effort to return lost/stolen weapons to their rightful owners. All other weapons will be destroyed. “This two-day program supplements our existing method of taking unwanted weapons off the street,” explained Holder.

At any time throughout the year, Greensboro residents can call the non-emergency line, 373-2222, to coordinate to turn in an unwanted firearm. Citizens who are not comfortable handling a firearm may find this to be a useful option. A sworn or non-sworn member of the Greensboro Police Department will pick up the weapon from the owner’s home.

Far be it from me to accuse the Greensboro Police Department of racism or anything but I find it strange that the three churches mentioned just happen to be in areas that heavily populated by minorities.

St. Matthew’s United Methodist was, according to their church history, the first Methodist Church in Greensboro established for African-Americans. It is located in a census tract that is over 95% minority. Bessemer United Methodist is located in a census tract that is 87.5% minority and bills itself as the Triad’s Native American Church. It’s pastor, Rev. Joel Locklear, is a Lumbee Indian. Finally, Christ Wesleyan Church is located in a census tract that is over 66% minority.

So why not hold it at Temple Emanuel or Our Lady of Grace or even New Garden Friends Meeting?

Well?