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Gun Control ≠ Gun Safety

March 17, 2011 by 2 Comments

There seems to be an effort going on either in the media or within the gun prohibitionist camp to portray their efforts at gun control and gun banning as gun safety.

Case in point – Jackie Calmes of the New York Times. In her article published Tuesday noting that the NRA was declining to meet with President Obama for his so-called stakeholder’s meeting on gun issues, she referred to the gun control groups as either gun safety advocates or gun safety groups.

From the lead paragraph:

More than two months after the Tucson shootings, the administration is calling together both the gun lobby and gun safety groups to find common ground.

Later, speaking about Mayor Bloomberg and his group of Illegal Mayors, she said:

But gun safety advocates, including a group of mayors headed by Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, called on Mr. Obama to do more, including endorsing legislation to ban high-capacity magazines like those used in the Arizona attack.

I find calling a group like the Brady Campaign a “gun safety” group highly ironic given their rabid opposition to one of the best and tested gun safety programs around. That is, the Eddie Eagle program. Likewise, the Violence Policy Center has opposed the Eddie Eagle gun safety program likening it to “Joe Camel with Feathers”.

Gun control groups are not now nor have they ever been anything that could be remotely called a gun safety group. However, I think we will see them trying to reposition themselves as such in an effort to try and make up all their lost ground with the public. We need to call them and their media allies out on it every time we see or hear that claim.

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Plagiarism At The Washington Post

March 17, 2011 by 2 Comments

The Washington Post has a mini-scandal on its hands. It seems that they had to acknowledge that their Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sari Horwitz had lifted copy from the Arizona Republic without attribution. In order words, she plagiarized it.

Plagiarism is both cheating and cutting corners in your research. It should call into question the rest of the plagiarist’s work.

Sari Horwitz is the co-author with James Grimaldi of the Washington Post’s anti-gun screed (or investigation as they call it) The Hidden Life of Guns. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

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Get Your Eyes On Target Faster

March 17, 2011 by

The NSSF has been putting out a lot of instructional videos lately. One of the latest is how to get your eyes on target faster when wingshooting. After seeing the video the thought came to me that the techniques as well as the mechanics of how the eye works would apply for more than wingshooting. If the target – or bad guy – is moving, how the eye acquires the target is going to be the same whether you are using a shotgun, an AR-15, or a Glock.

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Bill To Repeal Pistol and Crossbow Permits Introduced In NC

March 17, 2011 by 3 Comments

A bill was introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly today that would repeal the requirement to get a permit from your local sheriff’s department in order to purchase a pistol or a crossbow. The bill, HB 390, is sponsored by Rep. Michael Wray (D-Northampton) and Rep. Mark Hilton (R-Catawba).

This is a change that is long overdue given the NICS system. I’m not sure how, why, or when a permit was required to purchase a crossbow. However, the requirement to obtain a permit from the local sheriff dates from 1919. Less than 20 years earlier, the Democrats had regained control of the North Carolina state government on a platform of strict segregation. Pistol permits were a way of ensuring only the “right people” were armed with sidearms and the thought was that the local sheriff would know who those people were. It goes without saying that an African-American was de facto not one of the “right people”.

It is past time for this vestige of the Jim Crow South to be gone.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2011
H D
HOUSE DRH50130-LH-52B (01/19)
Short Title: Repeal Pistol/Crossbow Transfer Permit. (Public)
Sponsors: Representatives Wray and Hilton (Primary Sponsors).
Referred to:

*DRH50130-LH-52B*

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT TO REPEAL THE STATE LAW THAT REQUIRES A PERSON TO OBTAIN A LICENSE OR PERMIT TO PURCHASE, SELL, GIVE AWAY, RECEIVE, OR OTHERWISE TRANSFER A PISTOL OR CROSSBOW.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1. G.S. 14-402 is repealed.
SECTION 2. G.S. 14-403 is repealed.
SECTION 3. G.S. 14-404 is repealed.
SECTION 4. G.S. 14-405 is repealed.
SECTION 5. G.S. 14-406 is repealed.
SECTION 6. G.S. 14-406.1 is repealed.
SECTION 7. G.S. 14-407.1 is repealed.
SECTION 8. G.S. 14-408 is repealed.
SECTION 9. This act becomes effective December 1, 2011.

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Some Pictures From CCRKBA Rally In Los Angeles

March 16, 2011 by

The CalGuns Foundation, the California Rifle and Pistol Association, CalGuns.net, CCRKBA, and the Second Amendment Foundation sponsored a rally today in Los Angeles to protest Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Illegal Mayor’s plans for more gun control. It also featured CCRKBA’s Guns Save Lives rolling billboard truck.

Below are some pictures from the event posted by Eugene Tan. I see a lot of great signs with a lot of great Oleg Volk photos in them.

Congratulations are due to Gene Hoffman and all the attendees at this event as well as to the sponsors.

Links to all the pictures from the event can be found here.

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College Planning Courtesy of CSGV

March 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is horrified at the thought that trained, state-certified, law-abiding adults should be allowed to carry concealed on the property of higher education institutions. To that end, they have established a new website called Armed Campuses. The website lists those schools where concealed carry on campus is permitted.

CSGV tries to equate gun-free zones as safe places.

The overwhelming majority of colleges and universities in the United States of America prohibit the carrying of firearms on their campuses. These gun-free policies have helped to make our postsecondary education institutions some of the safest places in the country.

To justify this position they use 1999 stats from the Department of Education that says that the criminal homicide rate on college campuses is lower than the criminal homicide rate for the United States as a whole. While their stats may be correct insofar as they go, no effort is made to compare rates for urban campuses versus rural campuses or anything in between. Moreover, using 1999 stats cuts out the murders that happened at gun-free Virginia Tech and gun-free Northern Illinois University.

The site tries to say that rapes and other violent crimes perpetrated against college students happens off campus 93% of the time. That is like saying that if a student at UNC-Chapel Hill is robbed on the north side of Franklin Street it is off-campus crime while if it happened on the south-side it may well have been on campus. It is still a violent crime.

When discussing so-called gun-free zones, I prefer to remember what Massad Ayoob said about them on Tom Gresham’s GunTalk radio program a few years ago. He said “so-called gun-free zones are nothing but hunting preserves for psychopaths.”

If I were a parent, I would use the Armed Campuses website as a place to look for a place to send my child and not as a place to avoid.

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S. 570 – No Tracking Of Multiple Long Gun Purchases

March 16, 2011 by

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is serious about getting the gun owner’s vote when he comes up for re-election in 2012. In February, he introduced S. 381, the Collectible Firearms Protection Act, which would amend the Arms Export Control Act so as to allow the nearly one million Garands and M-1 carbines in Korea to be imported into the U.S.

On Monday, Tester introduced S. 570 which would ban the Department of Justice from tracking or cataloguing the purchases of multiple rifles or shotguns. The bill would do this by prohibiting the use of any Federal funds to require the reporting of such information. Rather than just do it by budget amendments annually, this bill puts a permanent fix in place to stop ATF’s over-reaching with their emergency reporting requirements.

A BILL
To prohibit the Department of Justice from tracking and
cataloguing the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PROHIBITION OF TRACKING OR CATALOGUING FIREARMS PURCHASES.
For fiscal year 2011 and each fiscal year thereafter, no Federal funds may be used to require a person licensed under section 923 of title 18, United States Code, to report information to the Department of Justice regarding the sale of multiple rifles or shotguns to the same person.

This bill has bipartisan support with 11 other Senators as co-sponsors.

Sen Barrasso, John [WY] – 3/14/2011
Sen Baucus, Max [MT] – 3/14/2011
Sen Begich, Mark [AK] – 3/14/2011
Sen Burr, Richard [NC] – 3/14/2011
Sen Chambliss, Saxby [GA] – 3/14/2011
Sen Coburn, Tom [OK] – 3/14/2011
Sen Ensign, John [NV] – 3/14/2011
Sen Enzi, Michael B. [WY] – 3/15/2011
Sen Inhofe, James M. [OK] – 3/14/2011
Sen Paul, Rand [KY] – 3/14/2011
Sen Vitter, David [LA] – 3/15/2011

Tester’s press release had this to say about the bill and ATF’s efforts to obtain emergency approval for their multiple-sales reporting requirement for certain long guns.

Tester’s bipartisan legislation follows his call for the Administration to formally reject a request by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) to use emergency rulemaking authority to track the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns by law-abiding Americans.

ATF requested the new rules to help combat violence on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tester rejected that reasoning, pointing to a need to “enforce the laws already on the books instead of making up new rules.”

“Any discussion dealing with Americans’ basic rights should be debated out in the open—not behind closed doors,” said Tester, Chairman of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. “My bill strengthens gun rights by ensuring that kind of transparency. And I plan to keep standing in the way of anyone trying to curtail our rights under the guise of reducing crime.”

Tester’s measure would prevent ATF from circumventing Congress by collecting records on thousands of Americans’ gun purchases. It would also forbid the Department of Justice from using any federal funds to expand reporting requirements on firearms.

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In Important News From Japan

March 16, 2011 by 1 Comment

With all the bad news about nuclear meltdown or potential meltdowns in Japan post-earthquake and and post-tsunami, comes some heartening news. The Japanese whisky industry seems to be OK.

Latest update from David Croll at Whisky Magazine Japan on the status of Japanese distilleries after the earthquakes…

Suntory: (15.3.2011)

Yamazaki Distillery

Hakushu Distillery

Awaiting response from PR department.

Nikka: (15.3.2011)

Due to ongoing transport problems and power cuts, Nikka have not yet been able to carry out a comprehensive assessment at the Miyagikyo Distillery. Initial reports suggest that there has been no major damage however and they have confirmed that distillery staff and their families are unharmed.

The Yoichi Distillery has been unaffected.

Venture Whisky: (15.3.2011)

Ichiro Akuto says

“The Chichibu Distillery staff and their families are all okay. There has been no damage at the distillery to either cask stocks or distilling equipment and just some minor damage to bottled stock. We appreciate the concern from overseas.”
Mercian: (16.3.2011)

Karuizawa Distillery

The Karuizawa Distillery was not damaged by the earthquake and the site has been operating (not distilling) since March 14th.

Kirin: (15.3.2011)

Fuji-Gotemba Distillery

Awaiting response from PR department.

Hombo Shuzo (16.3.2011)

Mars Distillery.

There have been many aftershocks in the Nagano area but so far the distillery, located in the Shinshu area, and the staff and their families, are all okay. After a break of 20 years, they are planning to produce whisky continuously from March 15th through to April 20th. They are grateful for everybody’s concern and interest.

The above comes courtesy of Mark Gillespie and WhiskyCast. While I’ve never tasted Japanese whisky, it is reputed to be very good and in the Scottish single malt style.

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A Serious Rebuttal To Colin Goddard

March 16, 2011 by

By now most people have heard the name Colin Goddard. Many people also know that he was one of the students shot by the deranged student at Virginia Tech. Many also know that he is now a paid staff member of the Brady Campaign with the title of Assistant Director of Federal Legislation.

The New York Daily News called Goddard a “walking, talking poster boy for gun control” while discussing his movie “Living for 32.” I didn’t realize until I read that article that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s sister, Maria Cuomo Cole, was both the producer and financier of Goddard’s movie.

Michael Bane is his Down Range Radio podcast last week provided a serious examination and rebuttal to Colin Goddard. Goddard is now touring the country promoting “sensible gun control”. As Michael notes, we seem in this country to confer special rights and status to those who are “victims”.

Goddard has said when the gunman came to his classroom that he and his fellow students “didn’t know what to do”. As Michael rightly points out, “Which sensible gun law protects you when you are cowering under your desk?”

While you can listen to the whole podcast on the embedded player below, the relevant part starts at the 32:06 mark and continues to the end. It is well worth a listen.

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Recall On Certain Remington .223 62-Grain HP Ammo

March 16, 2011 by

Remington has issued a product safety recall on certain lots of its .223 62-grain hollow point (match)ammunition. The full recall notice is below:

Product Safety Recall Notice
Warning

REMINGTON .223 62 GR (MATCH) HOLLOW POINT AMMUNITION WITH
LOT NOS. H03RAI, H04RDI, H16NAI OR H17NDI

Remington has determined that four (4) Lot Numbers of its .223 Remington 62 Gr Hollow Point (Match) Ammunition may have been improperly loaded. The four (4) Lot Numbers are identified above. Improper loading may cause a malfunction of the cartridge when the firearm is fired resulting in higher than normal pressures. This malfunction may result in damage to the firearm, serious personal injury or death.

Do Not Use
REMINGTON .223 62 GR (MATCH) HOLLOW POINT AMMUNITION WITH
LOT NOS. H03RAI, H04RDI, H16NAI OR H17NDI

To identify if you have one of these Lots of ammunition:

* If you have a case of .223 Remington 62 Gr Hollow Point (Match) Ammunition the Lot Number is stenciled on the outside of the case; and,
* If you have a box of .223 Remington 62 Gr Hollow Point (Match) Ammunition the Lot Number is stamped on the inside flap of the box.

If you have any of this .223 Remington 62 Gr Hollow Point (Match) Ammunition, as identified above, immediately discontinue use of this ammunition and contact Remington at the below telephone number. Remington will arrange for the return shipment of your ammunition and upon receipt will send you replacement ammunition at no cost to you. If you are unsure whether or not you have one or more of these Lots of ammunition or if you have mixed boxes of ammunition; please immediately discontinue the use of the ammunition and contact Remington at the below telephone number – we will replace this ammunition for you.

For any consumer questions or instructions on how to return of your .223 Remington 62 Gr Hollow Point (Match) Ammunition with one of the following Lot Numbers H03RAI, H04RDI, H16NAI OR H17NDI, please contact the Remington Consumer Service Department at 1-800-243-9700, Prompt #4.

The only Remington .223 Remington 62 Gr Hollow Point (Match) Ammunition affected by this recall has one of the following Lot Numbers H03RAI, H04RDI, H16NAI OR H17NDI . No other Lots or ammunition is affected.