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SCI And Sportsmen’s Alliance File Intent To Sue

August 17, 2023 by

Safari Club International and the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation have filed a Notice of Intent to Sue with the US Department of Education over the department’s interpretation of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. That interpretation states that archery and hunter safety programs in schools are ineligible for Federal funding as a result of the 2022 law.

From the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education FAQ released in April 2023 on the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act:

D-1. May Stronger Connections funds be used to arm teachers or other individuals,
or to provide training in the use of weapons?

No. Section 13401 of the BSCA amended Section 8526 of the ESEA to prohibit the use of ESEA funds, including those under Stronger Connections, to provide to any person a dangerous weapon or training in
the use of a dangerous weapon. A “dangerous weapon” as defined in section 930(g)(2) of title 18 of the United States Code is a weapon, device, instrument, material, or substance, animate or inanimate, that
is used for, or is readily capable of, causing death or serious bodily injury, except that such term does not include a pocketknife with a blade of less than 2 1/2 inches in length. Accordingly, funds may not be used, for example, to purchase a firearm or to train teachers to use a firearm.

SCI and the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation filed the Intent to Sue on Friday, August 11th. They argued that the Department of Education’s interpretation was “arbitrary and capricious”, contrary to law, violated the Administrative Procedures Act, and misconstrued the intent of Congress. The Notice of Intent to Sue gave the Department 10 days to respond or a suit would be filed seeking to correct the misinterpretation of the law.

A number of House Republicans have sent a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona objecting to the Department’s interpretation of the law. Spearheading the move were House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Education and Workforce Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC). Three sponsors of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in the Senate – Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Thom Tillis (R-NC) have likewise said the Department is misinterpreting the the law.

Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) has introduced H.R. 5110 to amend the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965. The bill would clarify “that the prohibition on the use of Federal education funds for certain weapons does not apply to the use of such weapons for training in archery, hunting, or other shooting sports.” That bill was introduced on August 1st and currently has 26 co-sponsors including one Democrat (Rep. Mary Peltola of Alaska). The bill has been referred to the House Education and Workforce Committee.

I am happy to see that SCI and the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation has stepped up. Likewise, I am glad some in Congress want to make a correction. I will also say that none of this would have been an issue if a number of RINO Republicans in both the House and Senate hadn’t caved to pressure from the gun control industry to “do something”. I thought it was foolish then and I think it remains so today.

You can read the full Notice of Intent to Sue below:

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National Rum Day

August 16, 2023 by

National Rum Day is celebrated on August 16th.

In colonial America rum was the drink of choice. A tax on non-British West Indies produced molasses was a bone of contention between the American colonists and Great Britain. The Molasses Act of 1733 created the tax to try and give molasses from the British West Indies (islands such as Jamaica and Barbados) a leg up over that from the French West Indies. However, the colonists effectively nullified the Act through smuggling of molasses from French and Dutch sources and it was repealed in 1767.

Rum is made from molasses which comes from sugar cane. Spirits such as rhum agricole and the Brazilian cachaca, while similar, are made from fermented sugar cane juice.

Rum or rhum is made around the world. I have bottles of it from Barbados, Jamaica, Colombia, Panama, Martinique, Haiti, and the US (Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands) in my collection.

There are a number of rums that come from the state of Hawaii. A quick search on the Internet finds rums being distilled on the islands of Oaha, Kauai, Hawaii, and Maui.

As has been extensively reported, wildfires on the last island mentioned, Maui, have left homes destroyed, people killed, and families uprooted. One factor that made the wildfires worse was the decline in sugar cane production which let non-native invasive grasses to flourish. These dry grasses provided an abundance of fuel for the fire. There had been upwards of 36,000 acres of sugar cane grown in the area around Lahaina through the late 1990s. The last sugar cane mill on Maui closed in 2016.

National Rum Day is a good day to remember our fellow citizens in Maui and to help them out. If you want to make donations, here are a couple of non-profits that I trust to spend the money wisely.

The Salvation Army of Hawaii

Catholic Charities of Hawaii

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Vista Outdoor’s Sporting Products To Be Named The Kinetic Group

August 11, 2023 by 2 Comments

Vista Outdoor announced in May 2022 that they were splitting the company into two segments. The segment dealing with ammunition and powder was called Sporting Products. Meanwhile the segment dealing with other products such as Bushnell scopes, CamelBak packs, and Bell bicycle helmets was called Outdoor Products. Both companies would be publicly traded, independent companies.

Yesterday, Vista Outdoors announced the Sporting Products would adopt the name The Kinetic Group with the ticker symbol of HUNT. The CEO of The Kinetic Group will be Jason Vanderbrink who has been heading both Federal and Remington. Management unveiled the new name to employees in Lewiston, Idaho at the CCI-Speer plant.

Vanderbrink said this about the renaming of the Sporting Products segment:

“The performance of our products is so often measured in energy on target. Kinetic energy is the force behind our world-class brands and exhibits the spirit of the 4,500 American workers who represent our company,” said Jason Vanderbrink, Sporting Products President and CEO. “The process of developing a new company name and identity has been exciting and inspiring. We’re all proud of the brands we represent and the products we make in our four American factories. Harnessing the enthusiasm of our employees throughout this process was pivotal to coming up with the best name and logo as we move closer to becoming a standalone company.”

Eric Nyman will become CEO of Outdoor Products on August 21st. The new name for this segment of Vista Outdoor has not yet been announced but is expected in the coming weeks. In the meantime, Gary McArthur will continue as interim CEO of Vista Outdoor until the completion of the spinoff. He will then serve as the Chairman of the Board for the Outdoor Products company.

The Kinetic Group did a short video of the announcement of the new name.

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Eye Candy From The Tom Selleck Collection

August 11, 2023 by

Tom Selleck has started to sell off some of his collection of very fine guns. He is using the services of Rock Island Auctions. They already sold some guns back in May and now some more go up for bid at the end of August. RIA has created a couple of videos with highlights from the collection.

The catalog for the August 25-27th auction goes into more detail. This second video is from the earlier auction held in May by RIA. You can see the prices realized for Selleck’s guns here. Some of the prices realized were within the pre-auction estimate range and a few exceeded it.

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Agent Orange Awareness Day

August 10, 2023 by 2 Comments

August 10th is Agent Orange Awareness Day. It marks the day that the defoliant was first used in the Republic of South Vietnam in 1961. The day is meant to pay tribute to those who were exposed to Agent Orange and is a reminder of its lasting impact on many of those who served in Vietnam.

This one is personal to me. My father was medically retired from the Army in April 1972 and died almost exactly nine years later at age 62. He had served as the First Sergeant of an Army Engineers’ road building company in 1970-1971 stationed north-west of Saigon. Undoubtedly, they had sprayed Agent Orange at some period of time. Among the ailments which caused his medical retirement were both a stroke and heart issues. I don’t mean to put all the blame on Agent Orange as he was a heavy smoker but ischemic heart disease has been directly traced to it.

In 1972 he nor we knew much about the relationship between his probably exposure to Agent Orange and the disabling ailments he suffered. Likewise, when he died in 1981 it was just beginning to be understood. President Jimmy Carter had signed off on a Department of Veteran Affairs’ study only two year previously. It was not until 1991 that Congress passed the Agent Orange Act.

The Department of Veterans Affairs has recently added hypertension to the list of disabling ailments directly related to Agent Orange exposure. This is in addition to multiple types of cancer and other illnesses.

There is still much research to be done and other diseases to be added to the list. For example, I had a friend and client who died in early 2021 from pancreatic cancer. He had served in DaNang with the Air Force in 1968. His job was loading ordnance and Agent Orange on the various aircraft. His protective gear was a T-shirt. The VA still didn’t recognize his pancreatic cancer as being related to his direct exposure to Agent Orange which is a shame.

The use of Agent Orange officially ended in 1971. It is still impacting a generation of now older Americans. I hesitate to guess of its impact on Vietnamese civilians living in those same areas.

Just as there are areas of northeast France which are still no-go areas due to unexploded shells from World War One, the impact of the use of Agent Orange is still being felt almost 50 years since the Vietnam War came to a close.

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NRA’s New York Trial Delayed Until 2024

August 9, 2023 by

NRA In Danger is reporting that the trial for People of New York vs. National Rifle Association is now delayed until sometime in early 2024. It was thought the trial would have started in mid-October 2023.

According to a comment by Frank Tait, it is thought the reason for the delay is the withdrawal of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP as counsel for Josh Powell. As I noted earlier, they had a parting of the ways over Powell’s ability to pay his legal bills.

One must wonder if this case will ever get to the trial stage. The case is now officially 3 years and 3 days old. I think the only people who are happy about this are the attorneys for the defendants as it gives them even more time to run up their bills with more useless filings.

UPDATE: Stephen Gutowski of The Reload is reporting that Josh Powell intends to represent himself at the trial.

Even as far back as the 1700s, it was thought foolish to represent oneself in court. I wish Mr. Powell well but history has not been kind to those who represent themselves.

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SCOTUS Grants Stay On VanDerStok

August 9, 2023 by

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court extended the stay on the Northern District of Texas’ injunction on the BATFE’s frames or receivers rule. The stay had been requested by the Solicitor General in an emergency request to the Supreme Court. The stay keeps the rule in place. It will be lifted only when the 5th Circuit makes a final disposition of the case or if certiorari is denied assuming an appeal to the SCOTUS.

The four justices who would have lifted the stay are Justices Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Thomas. Justice Barrettt, unfortunately sided with the liberals on the Court as did the Chief Justice.

The order from the Court is below:

VanDerStok was a big win and one hopes that it will continue to be a win.

Note: Blogging may be slow this week as we are visiting relatives.

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Friday Afternoon – Don’t Do This At Home, Kids!

August 4, 2023 by 2 Comments

I’m not sure whether to be scared of what he is doing or impressed with his ingenuity.

Remember, flamethrowers are not regulated regardless if home made or from the factory. While the gun prohibitionists are getting their panties in a wad over personally made firearms, something shooting out flames would get my attention a lot quicker.

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Ontario Knives Sold To Virginia Wholesaler (Updated)

August 4, 2023 by

The parent company of Ontario Knives, Servotronics, Inc., has sold the company, its inventory, intellectual property, and good will to Marion, Virginia based Blue Ridge Knives. The purchase price for Ontario Knives was a reported $2.1 million. If you go to the OKC website, they say the company is in transition and not taking any orders. The closing of the sale was announced on August 3rd.

Ontario Knives or OKC makes bayonets and strap cutters for the military, the Old Hickory line of cooking knives, originally made all the RAT knives, many types of survival knives, machetes, and a full line of other tactical and sporting cutlery. OKC was founded in 1889 in Ontario County, New York and moved to Franklinville in 1902. Franklinville, population 1,650 +/-, is located midway between Buffalo and Olean.

While many of their knives were made in Franklinville, other like my RAT Model 1 folder shown below were made in Taiwan.

According to the Buffalo News, the plant in Franklinville employs 35. While some will be offered jobs with Servotronics, most will be laid off with severance packages. Servotronics’ CEO William Farrell’s rationale for selling OKC was financial.

Servotronics’ consumer products group, which consists of Ontario Knife’s operations, generated $8.6 million in sales last year — a 3% drop from 2021. By comparison, Servotronics’ advanced technology group generated $35 million in sales, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the first quarter of this year, the consumer products group reported an operating loss of $720,000.The cutlery business had operating losses of $21,000 last year and $1.6 million in 2021.

The Olean Times Herald is reporting that a group is seeking to buy some of the equipment and potentially the plant.

Corey Wiktor, executive director of the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency, said:

Servotronics said the equipment in the Ontario Knife plant will be auctioned off in September.

Wiktor said efforts are underway to help Dave Fenske, a Franklinville resident with decades of experience in the cutlery field, put together a bid for the knife plant that could be partially leased to Servotronics to maintain their presence there.

Fenske is also interested in bidding on some of the Ontario Knife equipment in hopes of opening a small cutlery there, Wiktor said.

It should be noted that Blue Ridge Knives is a wholesaler and distributor. They are not a manufacturer of knives.

Blue Ridge Knives CEO Phil Martin said about the acquisition:

 “We are excited to add the longstanding heritage and brands of Ontario Knife Company to the BRK portfolio. The combination of OKC and our extensive dealer network provides considerable opportunities to grow our business and enhance our position in the tactical, outdoor and hunting markets.”

Given that Blue Ridge Knives is a wholesaler and not a manufacturer, this leads to some interesting questions.

First, given that the bayonets, machetes, and strap cutters purchased by the Department of Defense are required to be US made, will Blue Ridge be getting into the manufacturing side of the business?

Second, if Blue Ridge will not be going into manufacturing, to whom will they subcontract the products that must be US made?

Third, beyond the military cutlery and tools, which of the current US made products such as the Old Hickory kitchen knives will remain as US made?

Fourth, what percentage of their entire line of cutlery is currently being made overseas such as the RAT Model 1 made in Taiwan?

I spoke with my friend Tim of Old Grouch Military Surplus this afternoon. He noted that Blue Ridge Knives had recently moved into a much larger facility in Marion that had been a manufacturing plant at one time. Perhaps they will be getting into the manufacturing side of things though it appears it would be with new equipment as the tooling was not included in the sale. He also noted that Blue Ridge Knives had been buying the seconds of Ontario and Old Hickory Knives for some time. Thus, there was a strong pre-existing relationship between OKC and Blue Ridge.

One last note – I always enjoyed speaking with the booth reps from OKC while at the SHOT Show. They were uniformly friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. I wish them the best in whatever the future holds for them.

UPDATED: I had reached out to Blue Ridge Knives with questions about whether they intended to begin manufacturing given that some of the Ontario products (bayonets, etc) must be produced in the United States.

After thanking me for reaching out to them, they wrote:

We only purchased OKC last week and are still working on the details. We should know more in the upcoming weeks.

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Words Matter

August 2, 2023 by 6 Comments

Americans, for the most part, don’t like to be controlled. It is part of our collective DNA and has been from the time the first English settlers arrived in Jamestown, continuing on through the westward expansion, and through to today. That is why the gun prohibitionists have begun to couch their aims behind innocuous buzzwords.

First it was “gun safety”. I attribute that to Mayor Bloomberg and his PR flacks including the Demanding Mom herself Shannon Watts. They understood that if they couched their desire for control behind the concept of “safety” then there would be less objection. The mainstream media has bought into the terminology wholeheartedly.

Of course, if Bloomberg, Watts, the Biden Administration, and the rest of the gun control industry were truly serious about “gun safety”, they would be insisting upon classes like hunter safety and the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program be taught in every school in America. As it is the Biden Administration through the US Department of Education is withholding funding to schools for archery and hunter safety programs. They are using the so-called Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 as their excuse. So in their pursuit of “gun safety” and “safer communities” they will defund the exact types of programs that actually work for safety.

Now it appears that the successor word to “gun safety” will be “gun responsibility”. This comes from Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey. He, of course, is using the tragedy in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas as the pretense to urge for “gun responsibility.”

White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

McConaughey says there is a difference between control and responsibility in his op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman.

There is a difference between control and responsibility. The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility. Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people is not only the responsible thing to do, it is the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.

That all sounds nice but it is sophistry. As Bishop Robert Barron noted in his commencement address at Hillsdale College:

Their concern is not being truthful or just but rather speaking in such a way that they appear truthful or just and hence become convincing to others. Such sophists were, obviously enough, enormously useful to prospective lawyers and politicians in ancient Greece, and it should be equally obvious that their intellectual descendants are rather thick on the ground today.

McConaughey enumerates four key points for “gun responsibility” in his op-ed.

  • Universal background checks
  • Age 21 to buy an “assault rifle” (sic) unless one is in the military. “Assault rifle” is undefined.
  • “Red Flag Laws should be the law of the land.”
  • National waiting period for the purchase of “assault rifles” (sic).

So in the end, what McConaughey calls “gun responsibility” is just a rehash of many prior “gun control” proposals. They are all, as the gun control industry has said for decades, a “good first step.” A good first step to even more onerous control upon an enumerated right.

The gun control industry and their fellow travelers have to rely upon sophistry and buzzwords. Otherwise they have nothing.