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Gun Rights Policy Conference – Live Feed From Both Days

September 28, 2011 by 2 Comments

Mark Vanderberg and Doc Wesson of the Gun Rights Radio Network filmed (or more accurately, videoed) both days of the Gun Rights Policy Conference held this past weekend in Chicago. They have taped their live feed and have made it available for those that just could not make it to the conference. This is over 13 hours of video.

For those that are unfamiliar with the Gun Rights Radio Network, it now features approximately 24 podcasts on topics ranging from gun rights to gunsmithing. It includes people such as Michael Bane, Massad Ayoob, Bob Mayne, Doc Wesson, and, of course, the Gun Dudes. It is a voluntary project started by Mark that grew out of his Gun Rights Advocates Podcast. As Mark says, this isn’t about guns, it is about freedom. If you’d like to listen to any of the podcasts or, more importantly, make a donation go to this link. GRRN exists on voluntary subscriptions and donations. It is totally a grassroots effort funded by people like you and me unlike the Joyce Foundation funded gun prohibitionists.

Day One

Day Two

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It Isn’t Just Gun Rights Bev Wants To Suspend

September 27, 2011 by 3 Comments

In what has to be the stupidest political statement of this year or any year, Gov. Beverly Perdue (D-NC) suggested at a Rotary Meeting in Cary that the next Congressional elections be suspended for two years so that “so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election.”

Her full statement is as follows:

“You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It’s a little bit more contentious now but it’s not impossible to try to do what’s right in this state. You want people who don’t worry about the next election.”

Chris Mackey, Perdue’s press secretary, later clarified that she meant it as a joke according to an email sent to The Daily Caller. Some joke.

While I don’t believe Gov. Perdue can be impeached as stupidity isn’t an impeachable offense according to § 123‑5 of the NC General Statutes which details the causes for impeachment, I do question her mental capacity to serve. The North Carolina Constitution speaks to that in Article III, Sec. 3 (4).

Mental incapacity. The mental incapacity of the Governor to perform the duties of his office shall be determined only by joint resolution adopted by a vote of two-thirds of all the members of each house of the General Assembly. Thereafter, the mental capacity of the Governor to perform the duties of his office shall be determined only by joint resolution adopted by a vote of a majority of all the members of each house of the General Assembly. In all cases, the General Assembly shall give the Governor such notice as it may deem proper and shall allow him an opportunity to be heard before a joint session of the General Assembly before it takes final action. When the General Assembly is not in session, the Council of State, a majority of its members concurring, may convene it in extra session for the purpose of proceeding under this paragraph.

That said, we all know the General Assembly isn’t going to a damn thing except huff and puff about it. If I were her opponent in the 2012 General Election, I would keep reminding the voters of that every chance I got so we can send the self-described “the coal miner’s daughter” back to New Bern.

Ace of Spades and Mike Vanderboegh both have some good comments on Perdue’s so-called “idea”.

UPDATE: JammieWearingFool  reports that more criminal charges are expected in an investigation of Bev’s campaign expenses. His suggestion to Bev – Maybe North Carolina’s Democrat Governor Beverly Perdue should suspend her re-election efforts while her campaign is under criminal investigation.

Or maybe she can just declare a statewide State of Emergency and suspend both elections and gun rights.

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United Way Pledges

September 27, 2011 by 4 Comments

Now is about the time that companies start their United Way Campaigns. I know our parent company is really pushing it this year and is looking for 100% participation. They will even match my contribution at 50%.

If you don’t specify an agency, your contribution goes into the UW General Fund and is spread out amongst the recipient agencies. Some of these you may like and some you may not. Some may even be actively working to restrict gun rights.

There is an alternative. You can designate the organization to receive the money. They don’t publicize this much but you can do it. The only requirement is that the organization be a 501(c)3 non-profit.

So how can you combine the United Way with the fight for gun rights? Simple – designate your gift to go to the Second Amendment Foundation. They are a 501(c)3 non-profit and are eligible to receive United Way monies. Their ID number for the United Way is 91-6184-167-501-C3.

It is something to consider.

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Impressions From The 2011 Gun Rights Policy Conference

September 27, 2011 by 5 Comments

The 2011 Gun Rights Policy Conference is over and the attendees should be home by now. I think it was a good event attended by a lot of committed individuals who gained a lot of knowledge that they can bring home to use in the fight for our rights.

My first impression is that compared to last year there were more women – especially younger women – and there were definitely more African-Americans. This is good news as it shows the broadening of the gun rights movement and increases our depth. I noticed that many of the younger women dressed for the occasion. When I mentioned this to the Complementary Spouse she said it was because when women attend a conference that they consider important they dress for it. That they considered it important is a great sign.

Project Gunwalker was prominently featured at the conference. David Codrea, Dave Workman, and Mike Vanderboegh all attended the conference. Codrea and Workman also did a panel presentation on it and gunwalking was mentioned by a number of other presenters as well.

One thing that Dave Workman said after the opening night reception really struck me. A few people were gathered together discussing it and Dave noted how the ATF managers were giddy when guns were found at crime scenes that traced back to Operation Fast and Furious. Dave said with much anger in his voice that for it to be a crime scene that it meant someone’s husband or wife or son or daughter lay on the ground dead or bleeding to death. Moreover, they lay there dead or dying because someone in our own government wanted to build support for his or her agenda. That was very powerful.

The current SAF legal cases were discussed and more will be coming. Either today or tomorrow, a new case will be launched in Omaha, Nebraska challenging their regulations. I don’t have the details yet but will report on them when I can see the complaint. And on a happy note, the City of Chicago had to cough up almost $400,000 in attorney’s fees for the McDonald case which was received this past week.

I am still digesting the information that I gathered over the weekend and will be reporting on it over the next week. In the meantime, if you go to Twitter, do a search for tweets with the #GRPC hashmark. I put out a number of tweets as did Thirdpower, Tom Gresham, and the ProArms podcast people. Massad Ayoob also did some posts of his blog with a summation of each day’s events. Day one can be found here and day two is here.

On a final note, I have been reading Professor Adam Winkler’s book Gun Fight which details much of the back story behind District of Columbia v. Heller. For those that don’t know, this case was personally funded by Bob Levy who is now Chairman of the Cato Institute. On my way home to the mountains of North Carolina, I ran into Mr. Levy. He was taking the same flight to WNC as I was. I could not think of a better or more fitting end to the weekend than to meet the man who helped insure that the Second Amendment remained a viable part of the Bill of Rights.

UPDATE: Thirdpower at Days of our Trailers has pictures up from all three days of the conference. You can find them here, here, and here. He’s a good photographer and even made me look good! There are also a number of pictures up on ISRA’s Facebook page.

UPDATE 2: Rob Reed is the Detroit Gun Rights Examiner. I first met Rob at the Lucky Gunner Memorial Day Blogger Shoot. He has an article up about the conference here and discusses in detail the award won by David Codrea as the CCRKBA Journalist of the Year.

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ATF And FBI I Can Understand But The FDA?

September 27, 2011 by

When it comes to investigating illegal sales of firearms, the Federal agencies that you usually think would be involved are the ATF or the FBI. In a case from Indiana another Federal agency has gotten involved – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to a story from WBEZ – Chicago Public Radio, three police officers in the Lake County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department are facing Federal indictment for selling full-auto firearms and laser aiming devices on the Internet. Some of these have been traced to crime scenes in Canada and Mississippi.

Lake County is situated in the northwest corner of Indiana and includes the cities of Gary and Hammond.

The three indicted officers are Edward Kabella, a patrol officer; Ronald Slusser, SWAT officer and firearms instructor; and former Deputy Chief Joseph Kumstar. They are alleged to have bought 74 full-auto firearms and 92 laser devices and then resold them.

(WBEZ/Michael Puente)

The three officers purchased the H&K machine guns in the name of the sheriff’s department, since these types of guns can only be purchased by law enforcement agencies, according to the indictment.

The guns were shipped to the sheriff’s department in Crown Point and then removed to Slusser’s home. The barrels and additional parts from the machine guns were then removed and sold on the Internet.

The men are also facing charges that they understated their income from the sale of the guns and parts. The purchases all took place during the administration of then-Sheriff Roy Dominguez. He says he had no knowledge of it but that he knew that his chief deputy Joseph Kumstar had a side business selling firearms as an FFL.

One of the more interesting aspects of this story is not that crooked cops were selling firearms but who did the investigation into the case. It was the Food and Drug Administration.

“It’s unfortunate when persons in positions of trust allow their greed to cause them to disregard their oath to enforce the law and subsequently betray and endanger the public they serve,” said Dan Hensen, Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Investigation’s Unit for the Food and Drug Administration’s office in Chicago. The FDA is involved in the investigation because laser devices fall under its jurisdiction.

As the picture above shows, the lasers in question appear to be higher-power military-grade lasers.

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A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

September 26, 2011 by

The picture above is a screen cap of The Drudge Report from this afternoon. It links to this Fox News story which is based upon work by David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh.

Maybe now the so-called elite media will pay attention given that it is the lead headline in The Drudge Report.

What the headline refers to is a letter signed by Phoenix AFT Group VII supervisor David Voth authorizing an FFL to transfer firearms to ATF Senior Agent John Dodson without requiring a Form 4473 and paid for with government funds. Read the Fox story but more importantly read both Mike and David. They have the proof in the form of the letter signed by Voth with the handwritten note from the dealer who filled the order.

Botched sting operation, my foot.

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A Safety Masquerade

September 26, 2011 by 2 Comments

As I’ve mentioned more than once on this blog, I teach financial and retirement planning as an Adjunct Instructor for undergraduates majoring in Financial Planning at a local university. This year all campus employees including adjuncts are required to take a mandatory safety class. If it were CPR or how to respond to a medical emergency, I think it would be valuable. However, it is a “class” on how to deal with “violent situations.”

Western Carolina University is committed to creating and maintaining a culture of safety. As part of the university’s on-going safety initiative, all employees will attend a Campus Safety Training presented by the WCU Police Department and Emergency Management in conjunction with representatives from Academic Affairs, Student Affairs and the Office of Human Resources. This training is mandatory for all campus employees and will be held on numerous dates over the coming months.

The goal of this training is to increase campus community awareness to methods utilized and action steps to be taken if confronted with a violent situation; individual and departmental response; preparedness and prevention. A UNC sanctioned video entitled “Shots Fired” is included in the training program. Objectives of this training include but are not limited to: learning to recognize a potentially unsafe situation; learning the university systems and processes for handling a violent situation; learning about on-line websites/linkages to access policies, procedures, and presentations; and identifying campus consultants, referral contacts, and crisis teams/committees.

I’m afraid that this so-called class will be nothing more than a safety masquerade, a sham, a Potemkin village, required in an effort to cover the University administrators’ rear-ends so that they can say they are “doing something”.

The reality of the matter is that I am precluded by both North Carolina law and university regulations from doing the one thing that might actually increase my own personal safety as well as that of the students in my class. That is, of course, to carry a firearm concealed.

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And There Was An Attorney And A Plaintiff

September 24, 2011 by 1 Comment

Alan Gura and Rhonda Ezell were both at the opening reception of the Gun Rights Policy Conference tonight. Ms. Ezell is the lead plaintiff in Ezell v. Chicago. While I don’t think you can see it in the photo, she was wearing a pair of silver 1911 earrings which were really cool.

I wonder if wearing a pair of 1911 earrings is considered open carry in Chicago.

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