by Among the things that Cam Edwards and Dave Workman, editor of GunWeek and the Seattle Gun Rights Examiner, discussed last night was Jeremy Hoven – the Walgreens’ pharmacist fired for defending himself with a firearm during an armed attack. As Dave notes, it’s not just Walgreens that has the policies forbidding employees to provide for their own safety at work.
Quote Of The Day
Investor’s Business Daily has been running some very hard hitting editorials on Project Gunwalker. The latest published this evening is entitled Alcohol, Tobacco, and Murder and included this conclusion.
The administration that has given us “cash for clunkers” has also given us “guns for gangs” in a cynical attempt to foment violence in Mexico for which the U.S. gets blamed in pursuance of its gun-control agenda.
As bad as the crony capitalism of funding insolvent green energy companies in exchange for political contributions might be, no one died at Solyndra. As we’ve said, if the president knew, he should be held accountable.
Go For It, Sean!
If you’ve ever read An NC Gun Blog, you know that Sean Sorrentino loves the KRISS Vector and it is one of his dream guns. Look at the smile on his face after shooting a full-auto version for the first time at the 2011 Lucky Gunner Memorial Day Shoot.
I ran across a little PR tidbit last week that should excite him. Laura Burgess, the North Carolina-based PR and marketing maven to numerous gun companies, has just signed KRISS Arms Group on as a client.
LBM will be working with the KRISS Arms Group to grow their market share, implement emerging media strategies, manage press and writer programs and develop creative and targeted consumer campaigns. LBM has been providing public relations and marketing services to the firearms industry since 2003 and has been a leader in bringing clients into the rapidly evolving world of Internet and emerging media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, blogs and email newsletter campaigns.
He may not have made enough from the sales of the Gunwalker T-shirts to buy a KRISS but now, just maybe, he could get one on a Test and Evaluation basis.
Go for it, Sean!
Do Gun Numbers And Fatalities Correlate?
The answer is yes – negatively. In this case, negative is good. The more negative it is, the better.
We know that because of a lot of hard work and number crunching by Linoge at Walls of the City blog. He has just put out his Graphics Matter, Year the Third. He has examined the available data from the last 28 years and has thoroughly debunked the gun prohibitionists’ theory that more guns equals more deaths. His analysis leads him to conclude:
1. The hypothesis of “more guns = more deaths” is demonstrably false over the past 28 years of documented American history. The number of firearms in civilian circulation have been steadily increasing over that time period, and the number of firearm-related fatalities has not been equivalently increasing. However, again, since there seems to be some confusion on the concept, proving “more guns = more deaths” to be false does not prove “more guns = fewer deaths” to be true. Doing so would require accounting for far more variables than I did, and involve far more interesting math than I employed, and require controlling for far more variables than I care to.
2. When comparing raw numbers, there is a weak, negative correlation between the number of firearms in America and the number of firearm-related fatalities, and that correlation seems to become more negative with additional data.
3. When comparing rates, there is a strong, negative correlation between the number of firearms per person in America and the number of firearm-related fatalities per person, and that correlation seems to become more negative with additional data.
And unlike the gun prohibitionists, he provides his full analysis and data. That is very important in this sort of research. It allows other researchers the ability to replicate his results. Being able to do that serves to confirm the validity of his findings.
The work that Linoge did is very sophisticated but very understandable. I have had 5 semesters of statistics over the years and I would say the work he has done here is every bit as rigorous as what would be seen in a peer-reviewed journal article. Unlike a journal article, he explains what he did every step of the way and didn’t fill his page with academic jargon mumbo-jumbo.
The post that Linoge just put up should be read by everyone involved in the fight for gun rights. It is that important.
Rep. Trey Gowdy On The HR 822 Hearings
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. He discussed HR 822 and the hearings with Ginny Simone of NRA News.
Wayne LaPierre On National Right To Carry Reciprocity
The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held hearings on Tuesday on HR 822 – the Nation Right-To-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011. Wayne LaPierre was interviewed about the hearings and HR 822 by Ginny Simone of NRA News.
Katie Pavlich On Mueller’s And Big Sis’s Denial
Katie Pavlich of Townhall.com was on NRA News last night with Cam Edwards discussing the testimony on Tuesday by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller.
NCGV – Don’t Be Like North Carolina
The Brady Campaign’s North Carolina front group, North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, is opposed to HR 822 – the National Right-To-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011. They just sent out the Tweet seen below:
They don’t want the rest of the country to enjoy the same rights as North Carolinians come December 1st. For on that day, thanks to the passage of HB 650, North Carolina will recognize all out-of-state concealed handgun permits.
SECTION 22.(a) G.S. 14-415.24 reads as rewritten:
Ҥ 14-415.24. Reciprocity; out-of-state handgun permits.
(a) A valid concealed handgun permit or license issued by another state is valid inNorth Carolina if that state grants the same right to residents of North Carolina who have valid concealed handgun permits issued pursuant to this Article in their possession while carrying concealed weapons in that state.North Carolina.
I guess NCGV has their blinders on as they don’t see the hypocrisy in making such a statement.
Was She Really A NRA Operative In Disguise?
Kinde Durkee and her firm are long-time campaign consultants and treasurers for many California Democrats. As the New York Times says,
For almost 15 years, Kinde Durkee has been one of the go-to accountants for Democratic candidates in California. She and her firm kept track of expenditures and contributions and made sure that candidates and party committees’ campaigns complied with California’s tangled election finance laws.
Her firm, Durkee and Associates, proclaims itself an accounting and business management firm specializing in campaign finance.
Durkee and Associates is an accounting and business management firm that specializes in political, non-profit and small business accounting and financial management. Since 1972 we have worked for 5 presidential campaigns, 4 gubernatorial campaigns, numerous senate, congressional, state and local candidates, initiatives, political action committees and many non-profit associations and small businesses. Our proprietary reporting software handles electronic filing to both the Federal Election Commission and the California Secretary of State.
Unfortunately for all these campaigns and candidates that put their money in her hands, she is now the Bernie Madoff of California politics. Durkee was arrested on September 2nd by the FBI for stealing money from the campaign coffers of Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Anaheim). It is estimated that she stole almost $700,000 from his campaign accounts to use for personal purposes. Durkee, pictured, below also had control of an estimated 400 campaign accounts.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the FBI complaint included charges that Durkee used campaign money to pay her American Express bill:
one of the checks she paid to American Express was for $16,855, which in turn went to charges at Amazon, Baskin-Robbins, Turners Outdoorsman, Decker Surgical, Ariel’s Grotto at Disneyland, TIVO and Bixby Animal Clinic, among others.
A number of anti-gun politicians may have had their campaign war chests wiped out by Durkee. In addition to Assemblyman Solorio, NRA-rated F and who voted this year to ban unloaded open carry (AB 144), they include such leading California Democrats as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (F-rated), Rep. Susan Davis (F-rated), and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-rated). To make matters even worse for them according to the San Francisco Chronicle, they don’t know how much she has taken.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s $5.2 million re-election war chest may or may not be “wiped out” by a trusted – and now arrested – treasurer, campaign officials for California’s senior senator suggested Tuesday.
Bill Carrick, Feinstein’s top campaign consultant, said First California Bank, which holds the campaign funds for Feinstein, Reps. Loretta Sanchez and Susan Davis and others involved in Kinde Durkee’s alleged fraud, will not allow anyone access to the accounts without signing a release that indemnifies the bank against lawsuits.
Given the financial harm she has done to leading anti-gun politicians in California, one could only hope that she also handled campaign finances for certain anti-gun politicians in New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois!
Gun Industry Bankrolling The Marines
The Violence Policy Center has this meme that gun rights movement only exists to build sales for the firearms industry. In return, the firearms industry fully funds it. This is, of course, nonsense and they know it.
In their fevered imaginations, any donation made by any firearms company is for the sole purpose of co-opting the recipient and building firearm sales. To think that they would make the contribution out of a sense of patriotism, altruism, or a belief in constitutional rights is unfathomable to their little minds.
Thus, I imagine the headline above is how VPC would respond to this donation made by Glock, Inc.
Smyrna, GA – GLOCK, Inc. will donate a total of $75,000 to two separate organizations during the 2011 Modern Day Marine held in MCB, Quantico, VA, Sep. 27 – 29. GLOCK, Inc., Vice President, Josh Dorsey will present $50,000 to the Young Marines and $25,000 to the Marine Corps League during a presentation held at the Iwo Jima Memorial, Quantico on Wednesday, Sept. 28th, at 2:00PM.
“GLOCK is proud to contribute to organizations such as the Young Marines and the Marine Corps League, which play such a vital role in providing aid to the families of America’s fallen heroes as well as develop the characteristics of our nation’s future leaders,” said GLOCK Vice President, and former Marine, Josh Dorsey. “GLOCK has a long-standing tradition of supporting those that put themselves in harm’s way to protect the freedoms we currently enjoy.”
The organizations who will be receiving the donations include:
Young Marines: This will be the sixth consecutive year that GLOCK, Inc. has made this contribution to the Young Marines totaling $300,000. The Young Marines is a nonprofit youth organization whose mission is to positively impact America’s future by providing programs for youth that promote their mental, moral and physical health through teamwork, self-discipline and a drug-free lifestyle. The program strives to instill core values of “Honor, Courage and Commitment” adopted by each member of the Marine Corps. Scheduled to accept the donation on behalf of the Young Marines will be Lt. Col. Mike Kessler USMC (Ret), National Executive Director of the Young Marines of the Marine Corps League.
Marine Corps League: This is the second year that GLOCK, Inc. has made a contribution to this organization. The Marine Corps League is comprised of retired Marines dedicated to promoting the ideals of American freedom and democracy, voluntarily aiding and rendering assistance to all Marines and former Marines and to the families of fallen Marines as well as perpetuating the history of the United States Marine Corps. The group is active in supporting injured Marines, youth programs, Veterans benefits issues and the National Marine Corps Museum. Scheduled to accept the donation on behalf of the Marine Corps League will be the National Commandant and former Major League Umpire Vic Voltaggio, Executive Director Michael A. Blum, and Past Junior Commandant James A. Laskey.
Good for Glock that they will make this large donation to both of these worthy organizations.
H/T The Outdoor Wire