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NSSF Statement on Court’s Backing of Multiple Sales Reporting

January 14, 2012 by

Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation released this statement today regarding U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Collyer’s decision to allow the ATF to continue requiring multiple sales reporting for certain semi-automatic rifles in the Southwest.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is, of course, disappointed by today’s ruling. We respectfully disagree with the court’s reasoning which places our industry on a “slippery slope.” Today’s ruling will allow ATF to demand whatever information it wants from any law-abiding retailer anywhere in the country for any reason ATF wants simply by sending a letter demanding information. While we understand ATF’s motivation is to try to curtail violence in Mexico, Congress simply has not granted ATF regulatory carte blanche. NSSF looks forward to having the Court of Appeals review the district court’s flawed decision.

Our industry abhors the criminal misuse of firearms, whether on the streets of El Paso, Texas, or in Juarez, Mexico. Notwithstanding our forthcoming appeal, NSSF is continuing to encourage all retailers — not just those along the border — to cooperate with law enforcement and report any suspicious activity to the ATF. Members of the firearms industry take great pride in their longstanding cooperative relationship with ATF. Retailers have long been considered by ATF to be a vital source of information for law enforcement in combating illegal firearms trafficking.

I think the key word in this is “appeal”. They are not going to just give up and let things lie as they are which is good. I think you will also a bigger push for Sen. Jon Tester’s S. 570 which would prohibit DOJ from doing this. It currently has 33 sponsors including a number of Democrats. However, it seems to be languishing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Gun Control Activists Fire Squib Loads

January 14, 2012 by 2 Comments

I’m sure Joan Peterson will accuse the NRA-ILA of being big meanies for their take-down of the gun prohibitionists Josh Horwitz and Josh Sugarmann. And I’m equally sure that whomever wrote this for the ILA had a damn good time doing it!

The NRA-ILA took issue with CSGV’s Josh Horwitz and his contention that gun sales are not booming. They point out that reporters could do just exactly what the NRA and NSSF do: go to the ATF’s website for their reports.

They then look at  Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center and his work. Given his “scholarship”, they suggest he might be able to con the Joyce Foundation out of another $100 grand “for his tiny operation.”


Friday, January 13, 2012

On Monday, Josh Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence—previously known as the National Coalition to Ban Handguns— penned an item for the very left-leaning Huffington Post website, deriding media reporters for writing articles that say gun sales are booming.

According to Horwitz, the reporters are wrong because their claims are based upon the FBI’s monthly counts of National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks. As Horwitz points out, not all firearm-related NICS checks are for firearm acquisitions, and the number of checks does not reflect the number of firearms acquired in conjunction with the checks. Among other things, he also points out that some NICS checks are for acquisitions of second-hand firearms.

Yet NICS checks, over 99 percent of which are related to firearm acquisitions or carry permits, have risen from 11 million in 2007, to nearly 13 million in 2008, to over 14 million in 2009 and 2010, and to 16.4 million in 2011, almost guaranteeing that sales of new firearms have been increasing during that time frame.

However, Horwitz is wrong to conclude that new gun sales have not been rising, merely because NICS check tallies do not specifically address the question of whether new gun sales are increasing and, if so, by how much.

There’s a much better indicator of new gun sales that Horwitz ignored: U.S. firearm manufacturers’ production data and firearm importation statistics, both reported by the BATFE. Horwitz accuses NRA and the National Shooting Sports Foundation of not providing reporters hard data, but reporters can get the BATFE’s data the same way the NRA and the NSSF do—by visiting the BATFE’s website.

The BATFE’s data show that the number of firearms made in the U.S.A. and not exported, plus the number of firearms imported, increased from 5.1 million in 2005, to 5.7 million in 2006, 6.5 million in 2007, 6.9 million in 2008, and almost 9 million in 2009. Figures for 2010 and 2011 have not been released, but based on the trend in NICS checks, it’s likely that they will follow a similar pattern.

Also this week, the Violence Policy Center’s Josh Sugarmann—a former employee of the NCBH himself—had an item on the Huffington Post website, claiming to have conducted a “study” of homicides in California. To be precise, the “study” consisted of cutting and pasting data available from the California Department of Justice. If that’s a “study,” then anyone with a computer and 15 or 20 minutes to spare can be a “scholar!”

In Sugarmann’s case, however, it may have been 15 or 20 minutes well spent. His “study” concludes that the California data surely warrant further study of “the identification of the make, model, and caliber of weapons most preferred by this age group as well as analyses identifying the sources of the weapons” and an “expansion of comprehensive violence intervention and prevention strategies that include a focus on the psychological well-being of witnesses and survivors of gun violence.” Those are just the sort of things Sugarmann might convince the Joyce Foundation to donate another $100,000 or so for his tiny operation to whip together, since the Congress recently banned the National Institutes of Health from using taxpayer dollars for such a frivolous and politically motivated end.

Meanwhile, Fox News ran an article concerning data that undercut the concerns of both anti-gun activists. Bearing in mind that the number of privately owned firearms in America is at an all-time high and apparently, increasing at a record pace, the article says that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that “For the first time in 45 years, homicide has fallen off the list of the nation’s top 15 causes of death,” down to 16th place on the list. So much for their assumption that more guns bring more crime.

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Why Couldn’t He Have Done This Earlier

January 14, 2012 by 3 Comments

When I saw this video of Gov. Rick Perry shooting at the Palmetto State Armory range in Ridgeland, South Carolina, I thought to myself, “Why did he have to participate in all those stupid ‘debates’ when he should have just been doing this?”

Rick Perry is the Fred Thompson of this election cycle. He’s the guy you thought had tons of potential, a mostly good record, some decent ideas, and would be almost unbeatable – and then flamed out quickly.

I guess now, when you know in your heart of hearts that you don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the nomination, you might as well do stuff you enjoy while campaigning. Not to mention having lunch at Five Guys which I think is one of the best burger places around.

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SAF, ANJRPC Will Appeal

January 13, 2012 by 2 Comments

The Second Amendment Foundation and the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs plan to appeal the dismissal of what had been Muller v. Maenza. The ruling from Judge Walls can be found here.

SAF, ANJRPC WILL APPEAL NEW JERSEY RIGHT-TO-CARRY RULING

For Immediate Release: 1/13/2012

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs will appeal a federal judge’s ruling Friday that “the Second Amendment does not include a general right to carry handguns outside the home.”

Federal Judge William H. Walls, a Clinton appointee, dismissed a case filed by both organizations challenging New Jersey’s handgun carry laws, which have all but eliminated the right to self-defense with a firearm outside the home.

“The Second Amendment Foundation and ANJRPC are prepared to take this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where SAF has already won a landmark case defending the rights of gun owners,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb.

In upholding the New Jersey law, which effectively denies the right to carry a firearm for self-defense outside the home, Judge Walls wrote “the protection of citizens from potentially lethal force is compelling.”

“The judge has it backwards,” said ANJRPC President Scott Bach. “If he really cared about protecting citizens from lethal force, he wouldn’t be interfering with their constitutional right to defend themselves against violent criminals. Ironically, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the police owe no duty to protect individual citizens, so you’re on your own when you step outside your home. This decision wrongly demonizes those who want to take responsibility for their own safety and turns all but a privileged few into helpless victims.”

Particularly disturbing to Gottlieb was Judge Walls’ comment, “The Supreme Court has found limitations on the scope of a constitutional right outside the home in the First Amendment context, recognizing a right to privately possess obscene materials in the home but allowing the states broad power to regulate obscenity outside the home.”

“He appears to suggest the right to keep and bear arms is an obscenity,” Gottlieb said. “I wonder how that view might square with Thomas Jefferson or James Madison.”

Judge Walls’ decision sets the stage for appeals which could bring this case to the U.S. Supreme Court as early as next year. The case was filed in late 2010 by ANJRPC, SAF and six individual plaintiffs, challenging New Jersey’s “justifiable need” standard for issuance of handgun carry permits, which is nearly an impossible standard to meet. Plaintiffs believe that requiring a showing of “need” to exercise a fundamental right is unconstitutional.

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Repeal Virginia’s Handgun Rationing Law?

January 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Earlier this week, Cam Edwards interviewed Dave Adams of the Virginia Shooting Sports Association about the potential repeal of Virginia’s one-a-month handgun rationing law.

As Dave notes, when he pointed out to an anti that when South Carolina repealed a similar law to Virginia’s and it hadn’t increased crime in South Carolina, she couldn’t answer his question as to why Virginia even needed the law.

That says it all.

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How Important Are Four Minutes?

January 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Ask the Brady Center.

In a case coming from Connecticut, Gilland v. Sportsman’s Outpost, Inc., four minutes meant a lot. From Larry Keane, General Counsel of NSSF:

After the Superior Court granted the motion to dismiss, the plaintiffs continued their attack against the PLCAA by renewing their motion to file a third amended complaint and separate motion to reargue the order dismissing their case. Unfortunately for the Brady Campaign, their attorneys filed their paperwork four minutes after the filing deadline. The Superior Court subsequently denied the motion to reargue as untimely and denied their motion to amend — in part because the plaintiffs had already been granted several opportunities to establish that their claims were not barred by the PLCAA and failed to do so each time.

In this case the plaintiffs tried to hold a store in Connecticut responsible for a wrongful death claim as well as negligence for a firearm that was stolen from it. The defendents argued that under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (“PLCAA”) they couldn’t be sued and the Superior Court agreed.

The Brady Center appealed to the Connecticut Appellate Court arguing for a chance to reargue their case and again challenging the PLCAA’s constitutionality. This appeal was denied and the court issued a ruling affirming the Superior Court’s decision dismissing the case on PLCAA grounds and upholding its constitutionality.

The full opinion of the Superior Court in Hartford from May can be found here.

The NSSF reported on this in their May 31st Bullet Points saying:

Last week a Connecticut trial court dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Brady Center against a Connecticut firearms retailer, Sportsmen’s Outpost, on the grounds that the case was barred by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). A firearm and ammunition were stolen from the dealer in 2007 and used by the thief several weeks later to murder his ex-wife and commit suicide. The Brady Center unsuccessfully argued that the stolen firearm was somehow transferred by the dealer and that the dealer should have conducted a Brady background check on the thief when he walked into the store acting like a customer asking to see firearms. Of course, the Brady Center knows background checks can only be performed when a firearm is being transferred, not whenever any customer asks to look at a firearm. The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the case to defend the constitutionality of the PLCAA. Representing Sportsmen’s Outpost was the Renzulli Law Firm of White Plains, N.Y.

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Plea Deals In NYC

January 13, 2012 by 1 Comment

Sebastian has reports on one plea deal and another that may be pending on the recent arrests for possession of firearms in New York City.

First, a plea deal has been struck for the Tea Party leader arrested at LaGuardia Airport when trying to check a firearm. He pled to disorderly conduct and had to forfeit his Glock 27. An updated link to the story can also be found here.

The second involves registered nurse and medical student Meredith Graves. According to what Sebastian is reporting, a plea deal to a similar charge may be in the works.

Read both and push your Senator to support HR 822 which would have, at the least, exempted Meredith Graves from this madness.

UPDATE: Mark Meckler writes about his whole experience here. It makes for some interesting reading.

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SHOT Show Feed

January 12, 2012 by 2 Comments

If you look, you will notice a new feature in the blog sidebar. Just above the blog archives is a widget that features a direct feed from the Professional Outdoor Media Association.

This feed will feature news and video from the both the 2012 SHOT Show next week and the 2012 Archery Trade Association show this week.

Let me know if you like it or not.