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HR 308 – Updates For March

March 2, 2011 by

Another month and some more fellow travelers have signed on to Carolyn McCarthy’s HR 308 which would ban standard capacity magazines.

The newest co-sponsors who signed on yesterday are:

Rep Pallone, Frank, Jr. [NJ-6] – 3/1/2011
Rep Sanchez, Loretta [CA-47] – 3/1/2011
Rep Johnson, Henry C. “Hank,” Jr. [GA-4] – 3/1/2011

You may remember Rep. Hank Johnson as the Congressman who questioned whether redeploying more Marines to Guam would cause the island to tip over and capsize. How Adm. Robert Willard, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, kept a straight face in response is beyond me.

As to Rep. Loretta Sanchez, you may remember that in an interview on a Spanish-language radio station in fall 2010, she accused “the Vietnamese” of trying to steal her seat from Hispanics. She eventually apologized for that gaffe. In January, Sanchez attempted to get Gabby Giffords removed from the House Armed Services Committee while she was recovering from her wounds. As you can imagine, that didn’t go over too well.

I guess Carolyn McCarthy is not too picky about her bill’s supporters. As it is, not one Republican – not even Rep. Peter King (R-NY) – has signed on to her bill. No hearings have been scheduled on the bill which was referred to the House Judiciary Subcomittee on Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on February 7th.

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Is Nothing Sacred? (updated with letter)

March 2, 2011 by 3 Comments

The Public Access Counselor of the Illinois Attorney General’s Office says the Illinois State Police must release the names of all FOID card holders to the Associated Press.

According to a story in the Chicago Tribune, the Illinois State Police have always kept the names of the FOID card holders private. The State Police had argued that releasing this information would violate the privacy of the FOID card holders and should be exempted from the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. This argument was overruled by the Public Access Counselor.

The letter was released on Monday night but it is not yet up on the Attorney General’s website. I have requested a copy of the letter from the Office of the Public Access Counselor. If I can get it, I will post it here.

Given that to possess a firearm in the state of Illinois one must have a FOID card, this list gives the press the name and address of every registered gun owner in the state. If something like this were to be published, criminals would be given a shopping list of houses ripe for break-ins. A contrarian view might be that crooks would know which houses could be more dangerous to hit because the owner is armed. Frankly, I lean more towards the former than the latter.

UPDATE: As I noted above, I requested a copy of the letter from the Public Access Counselor. I just received it this morning. I have embedded the full 8-page letter below.

FOID Letter – 10313 Rfr f Pb Ex Improper Sa

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Arkansas Moves To Protect Gun Rights During An Emergency

March 2, 2011 by

On Monday, the Arkansas General Assembly sent SB 115 to Gov. Mike Beebe (Democrat) for his signature. The bill passed both houses of the General Assemby in overwhelming and bipartisan fashion. The House vote was 89-0 with nine not voting and the Senate vote was 29-5 with one not voting.

This bill, if signed by the Governor, would do two thing to preserve gun rights in the State of Arkansas. First, it clarifies the prohibition against any city, county, town, or other local unit from suing any firearms manufacturer, dealer, or trade association except for breach of contract or warranty.

Second, and more importantly, the bill would prevent any local body from enacting any emergency ordinance to regulate the the transfer, transportation, or carrying of a firearm or its parts.

Now if the North Carolina General Assembly would follow the lead of Arkansas and amend our laws regarding firearms during emergencies, I’d be a  happy camper.

Arkansas SB 115 – Regulation of Firearms by Local Governments

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If Utah And Arizona Can Adopt State Guns, Then So Should North Carolina

March 2, 2011 by 3 Comments

Both Utah and Arizona are moving to adopt State Guns. The Utah Legislature has passed a bill to make the John Moses Browning designed Model 1911 the official State Gun. This bill is only awaiting Gov. Gary Herbert.

Meanwhile in Arizona, the Arizona Legislature is considering adopting the Colt Single Action Army revolver as their official State Gun.

In this spirit, I propose that the Tar Heel State recognize the important contributions that one of its native sons, David Marshall “Carbine” Williams, made to the development of the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1 or, as it is better known, the M-1 Carbine by adopting it as the official State Firearm.

It is estimated that over 6.5 million M-1 Carbines including all variants (M-1, M-2, M-3, paratrooper) were made by military contractors. The U.S. military used these carbines in WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Manufacturers included GM (Inland and Saginaw Divisions), IBM, Underwood, National Postal Meter, Rock-Ola, Winchester, Irwin-Pederson, Commercial Controls, Standard Products, and Quality Hardware.

While there is some controversy about Carbine Williams contribution to the final product, it did include his short-stroke gas piston and was a scaled down version of an earlier prototype in .30-06 designed by Williams.

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Simple Addition Is Beyond Mayor Daley

March 2, 2011 by

Watching Mayor Daley at this press conference with Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) calling for more gun control reminds me of the Genesis song I Can’t Dance from their We Can’t Dance album. Just substitute “I can’t add, I can’t do math” for “I can’t dance, I can’t talk” and you have Mayor Daley.

Daley claims that 100,000 people are “shot and killed with a gun” every year on average. He makes this remark at the .25 mark of the video.

However, if you take the numbers from their own posters – 34 – and multiply that by 365, you only get 12,410. That is a far cry from 100,000. Even when you add in suicides and gun-related accidental deaths, the annual number has averaged 32,000 deaths for the years 1980-2006. This last number is from the University of Pennsylvania’s Firearm and Injury Center at Penn. FICAP has received $600,000 from the Joyce Foundation over that past few years to come up with that number.

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S. 34 – The Castle Doctrine – Passes NC Senate

March 1, 2011 by 4 Comments

The Castle Doctrine bill, S. 34, passed its Third Reading tonight by a vote of 35 ayes, 13 nays. The legislature’s website doesn’t have the full vote details yet but I will put it up as soon as it is available.

S. 34 passed its Third Reading with no new amendments which is good.

The bill now goes to the State House where its companion bill, H.52, has three primary sponsors and 26 co-sponsors. On a side note, the three primary sponsors are Democrats which shows that party label is not the key ingredient in support for gun rights – at least in North Carolina.

UPDATE: Here are the voting results with the roll call on S. 34.

ROLL CALL
Legislative Session Day 19 (02-28-2011)

SB 34 THE CASTLE DOCTRINE. 2nd Ed.
Sponsor: BROCK, D. BERGER, HARRINGTON
Third Reading Outcome: PASSED
Time: Feb 28 2011 7:15PM
Total Votes: 48 Ayes: 35 Noes: 13 Not: 0 Exc. Absent: 2 Exc. Vote: 0

Ayes: Senator(s): ALLRAN; APODACA; BERGER, D.; BERGER, P.; BLAKE; BROCK; BROWN; BRUNSTETTER; CLARY; CLODFELTER; DANIEL; DANNELLY; DAVIS; EAST; FORRESTER; GOOLSBY; GRAHAM; GUNN; HARRINGTON; HARTSELL; HISE; HUNT; JACKSON; MEREDITH; NEWTON; PATE; PRESTON; RABON; ROUZER; RUCHO; STEVENS; TILLMAN; TUCKER; VAUGHAN; WALTERS

Noes: Senator(s): ATWATER; BLUE; GARROU; JENKINS; JONES; KINNAIRD; MANSFIELD; MCKISSICK; NESBITT; PURCELL; ROBINSON; STEIN; WHITE

Exc. Absence: Senator(s): BINGHAM; SOUCEK

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Common-sense Measures – Depends On Who You Ask

February 28, 2011 by 2 Comments

The Brady Campaign put out a press release today commemorating the 17th anniversary of the effective date of the Brady Law. They claim almost 1.8 million supposed criminals, wife beaters, and mentally-ill persons were stopped by the Brady Law from purchasing firearms from FFL’s over this 17 year time period.

To commemorate the 17th anniversay, Paul Helmke has released a list of 17 “common-sense” gun control measures that he would like to see passed. They all can be “easily and quickly can be put in place to reduce gun violence.”

The List:

•Close the” Gun Show” Loophole: Extend Brady Background Checks to All Gun Purchases
•Close the Terror Gap: Prohibit Gun Sales to Suspected Terrorists
•Stop the Sale of Large Capacity Ammunition Magazines (aka Big Bullet-Blasting Boxes)
•Restore Justice to Gun Violence Victims: Repeal the Gun Industry Legal Protection Act
•Repeal Tiahrt Restrictions on Disclosure of Crime Gun Data
•Require Licensing of Gun Owners and Registration of Gun Purchases
•Strengthen ATF Authority to Regulate Gun Dealers and Crack Down on Corrupt Dealers
•Require Gun Owners to Report Lost or Stolen Guns
•Improve the National Violent Death Reporting System Date, and restore firearms research funding for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
•Restrict Large-Volume Gun Sales
•Require Licensed Dealers to Adopt Safeguards to Prevent Gun Thefts
•Require Licensed Dealers to Perform Background Checks on Employees
•Prohibit The Transfer of Gun Inventory Without Background Checks After a Dealer’s License Has Been Revoked
•Prohibit Gun Possession by People Convicted of Violent Misdemeanors
•Prohibit Gun Possession by Persons Convicted of Violent Acts as Juveniles
•Repeal the 24-hour Brady Record Destruction Requirement
•Support new technologies to help law enforcement more effectively trace crime guns and supporting development of safety features to childproof guns

Just reading through the list I learned new words. For example, I didn’t know that my standard capacity AR-15 magazines were actually Big Bullet-Blasting Boxes. Somehow I doubt the MidwayUSA catalog will have a category for Big Bullet-Blasting Boxes.

Moreover, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the Brady Campaign has taken upon itself to speak for NRA members. At least that is what the Brady Campaign claims:

Most Americans, law enforcement officials and a majority of NRA members agree with the Brady Campaign’s goal to keep deadly weapons out of the hands of criminals, domestic abusers, the dangerously mentally-ill and others who should not have them. None of these 17 recommendations would prevent or impede law-abiding citizens from owning firearms.

What the Brady Campaign forgot to report was how many battered spouses were killed by their abusers in the pre-NICS era of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act due to the five-day waiting period. I guess inconvenient details such as that don’t make for good PR.