gun control

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Smart Move On GOA’s Part

July 11, 2018 by

My friend and fellow co-host of the Polite Society Podcast Rachel Malone was fired last month as Operations Manager of the Texas Republican Party. It seems a certain elected official took offense to her criticism of his 40 point “school and firearm safety” proposals especially since it contained a red-flag law proposal. As a result of Gov. Abbott’s complaint as conveyed by his henchman, the Texas GOP Chairman was forced to fire Rachel.

Stupid move, Greg.

If you want to control someone it is much better to keep them under your employ. Firing them allows that person to become a free agent and return to the grass roots firearms activism for which she is known.

While I’ve known it since Monday, it is now public that Rachel will be the new Texas Director for Gun Owners of America. In that role, she will lobby the Texas legislature directly on gun rights. I know Rachel’s ultimate goal is to bring constitutional carry to Texas.

From GOA:

Springfield, VA – Gun Owners of America (GOA) announces today the hiring of Rachel Malone as Texas Director. This signifies a new focus on GOA’s advocacy within the Texas State Legislature.

Texas is a key state for GOA’s work to advance gun freedoms. Texas is known for its rich heritage of gun owners, and it deserves strong advocacy for gun rights. Knowing this, Gun Owners of America is delighted to establish a permanent presence within Texas to preserve and defend Texans’ right to keep and bear arms.

Erich Pratt, Executive Director for Gun Owners of America, stated: “Texas is facing a battle, and GOA intends to be on the forefront. As the no-compromise gun lobby, GOA looks forward to working with grassroots activists all across Texas for victories in their state.

“I’m thrilled that Rachel Malone is serving as Texas Director for GOA. She has a strong background of fighting for firearms freedom, connecting with grassroots, and advocating within the Texas Legislature. I am confident in her ability to represent Texas gun owners in protecting the essential freedom of the right to keep and bear arms.”

 By the way, the picture above of Rachel was from the recent MAG-180 held in Wisconsin where Rachel passed everything with flying colors.

Congrats to Rachel on her new position and kudos to GOA for recognizing the gem that is Rachel in hiring her as the Texas Director.

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We Don’t Want To Be California

June 3, 2018 by 2 Comments

With apologies to my good friends in the gun rights movement from California, we don’t want to be you. You have things we in North Carolina just don’t want and this includes your California Handgun Roster. This should be patently obvious to every legislator, Democrat or Republican, in the North Carolina General Assembly but sadly it is not.

Representatives Verla Insko (D-Orange), Pricey Harrison (D-Guilford), and Marcia Morey (D-Durham) have introduced HB 1060 which would establish a handgun roster for North Carolina. Actually, it goes further and straight out adopts the California Handgun Roster in its totality.

Development; Prohibition. – The Department shall develop a roster of handguns
determined not to be unsafe based off the California Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale.
Except as provided in subsections (d) and (e) of this section, it is unlawful for any person, firm,
or corporation to (i) manufacture, sell, give, loan, import, or otherwise transfer a handgun that is
not listed on the roster as of January 1 of the calendar year in which the handgun is to be sold,
given, loaned, imported, or otherwise transferred or (ii) own or possess a handgun that is not
listed on the roster as of January 1 of the applicable calendar year, unless the person, firm, or
corporation lawfully owned or possessed the handgun prior to that date.

It goes without saying that this is nothing but a political stunt by these anti-gun Democrats as the General Assembly has a Republican super-majority. While I am pissed at the Republican leadership for dragging their feet on permitless concealed carry, I am reasonably sure that they won’t let any gun control bill like this see the light of day.

Of the three representatives, only Pricey Harrison is a North Carolinian born and bred. Insko was born in Arkansas and grew up in California while Morey is from Illinois and educated there. Morey, it should be noted, was appointed and not elected to the House as she replaced a representative who had died. Of note about Harrison, she is the great-granddaughter of Julian Price who founded the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company which through mergers is now known as Lincoln Financial. Her grandparents were well-known philantropists in Greensboro. My point is that Harrison grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth and somewhere along the way adopted the leftist orientation that many of those who never had to struggle seem to adopt.

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Boulder City Council Sued In Federal Court

May 17, 2018 by

Tuesday, May 15th, the Boulder City Council unanimously passed a ban on semi-automatic rifles with cosmetics they didn’t like, a ban on standard capacity magazines, and bump fire stocks.

As the Denver Post reported:

The ordinance prohibits the sale and possession of assault weapons, as defined by the city. Also outlawed are magazines with high-capacity magazines and bump stocks.

Owners of the latter two items will have until July 15 to dispose of or sell them. Assault weapons will be grandfathered in; those in possession of such firearms have until the end of the year to receive a certificate proving prior ownership.

The grandfather clause was an olive branch to gun owners, said Councilman Sam Weaver, as was the abandonment of an early proposal to establish a registration system for assault weapons in the city.

Colorado has a state firearms preemption law that, on the face of it, forbids cities from adopting regulations which “prohibits the sale, purchase, or possession of a firearm that a person may lawfully sell, purchase, or possess under state or federal law.” Firearms law is considered a matter of state concern. Denver, so far, is the only city in the state whose firearm regulations were upheld because it was considered a “special case” due to its size.

At the meeting where the Boulder City Council adopted their ban, representatives from the Mountain States Legal Foundation vowed that they would oppose the measure in court. They have kept their word.

In a release sent out late last night, the Mountain States Legal Foundation announced that they had filed suit in US District Court for the District of Colorado. The lead plaintiff is Jon Caldara who is a member of the Boulder Rifle Club. In addition, Caldara is the president of the Independence Institute, a libertarian think tank, based in Denver.

More on the lawsuit including a link to the complaint is below:

May 16, 2018 – DENVER, CO.  A group of
Boulder residents who face heavy fines and jail time for the mere
possession of firearms that are legal throughout Colorado and the United
States filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging the Boulder City Council’s
actions.  Represented by Mountain States Legal Foundation, the
plaintiffs are taking a stand against the city council’s
unconstitutional passage of a broad-sweeping ban of the most popular and
widely-owned firearms and magazines in America.  In a blatant act of
discrimination against a political minority, the city council also
unconstitutionally raised the minimum age for firearm possession in
Boulder city limits to twenty-one.  The lawsuit was filed in federal
district court in Denver, Colorado.
Jon Caldara, a well-known, pillar of the
community; the Boulder Rifle Club, which has been in existence since
1889; Bison Tactical, a small business in Boulder city limits; and Tyler
Faye, a member of the University of Colorado Shooting Team, all seek to
defend their rights and the rights of their fellow Boulder residents
against the illegal, unconstitutional, and discriminatory actions of the
City of Boulder.
“This ban is tantamount to Boulder
attempting to stop drunk driving by banning Subarus,” said Cody J.
Wisniewski, attorney with Mountain States Legal Foundation representing
the plaintiffs.  “It accomplishes nothing other than making criminals of
law-abiding citizens.”
“The West wasn’t won with a registered
gun,” said William Perry Pendley, Mountain States Legal Foundation’s
president.  “Colorado is not California; these laws have no place here.”
On May 15, 2018, the Boulder City Council
passed Ordinance 8245, amending the Boulder Revised Code to ban many
rifles, shotguns, pistols, and standard-capacity magazines, as well as
raising the minimum age for firearm possession to twenty-one, within
Boulder city limits. The ordinance was passed by a unanimous vote
despite an overwhelming number of public comments, telephone calls, and
emails expressing concerns with and opposition to the ordinance. 
Mountain States Legal Foundation will be seeking a preliminary
injunction to suspend enforcement of the ordinance pending the outcome
of the litigation.  Without such an injunction, Boulder residents may be
subject to up to $1,000 in fines and ninety (90) days in jail per
violation.
Mountain States Legal Foundation, founded
in 1977, is a nonprofit, public-interest legal foundation dedicated to
individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and
ethical government, and the free enterprise system. In 2012, Mountain
States Legal Foundation, on behalf of its clients, prevailed in the
Colorado Supreme Court in Regents of the University of Colorado v. Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.
The Court’s unanimous decision in that case confirmed the right of
concealed carry permit holders to possess concealed firearms on the
public university’s campus.
For more information:  Caldara v. City of Boulder
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Illinois Governor Issues Amendatory Veto Of Assault Weapons Bill

May 15, 2018 by 1 Comment

Gov. Bruce Rauner (R-IL) issued an amendatory veto of Illinois HB 1468. An amendatory veto is when the governor replaces language in a bill passed by the Illinois General Assembly with his own language. The General Assembly has three options. First, do nothing and the bill will die. Second, override the veto with a three-fifths vote in each house and the original language becomes law. Finally, pass the law with the amended language with a simple majority.

IllinoisCarry has an extensive post on the amendatory veto which I am posting below. It does contains things that would be objectionable in a more pro-gun state but are seen as a compromise in Illinois. This would include things like a bumpstock and trigger crank ban as well as 72 hour waiting period on all gun sales.

From IllinoisCarry with links to their discussion forum and Gov. Rauner’s veto message:

Gov.
Rauner issued an amendatory veto yesterday of HB1468. The bill sent to
the Governor’s desk 60 days ago with a veto proof majority would have
codified into law, for the first time in IL history, a broad brush
definition of ‘assault weapons’. As we had hoped, he stripped the
‘assault’ language out of the bill and instead opted for a 72 hr.
waiting period on all gun sales rather than risk law abiding gun owners
getting caught up in a felony trick bag set up by anti-Second Amendment
democrats. In a surprising move, the amendatory veto also included
instituting the death penalty for mass killers, freed up local revenue
to fund resource officers and mental health workers in our schools, a
ban on bump stocks, and set the framework for limiting people who are a
danger to themselves or others from having access to firearms. 
With
the veto, the Governor protects Illinois gun owners from a  gun
grabbing scheme which would have made firearm restraining orders easy to
obtain, virtually no-penalty for false testimony, and taking firearms
away from nearly anyone by almost anybody for any reason. With the
amendatory veto, it becomes a roadblock with a  felony penalty for false
testimony,  prevents vindictive grudges being used to take firearms
from lawful gun owners while providing a process to curb mentally ill
respondents – like the Parkland High School and Waffle House killers –
who are a danger to themselves or others from legally possessing
firearms . It also provides a clear and timely process for restoration
of  rights when a person is no longer a danger.
The full text of the veto can be viewed here.  Discussion of the veto can be found on IllinoisCarry’s discussion forum.
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Backdoor Gun Registration?

May 1, 2018 by 2 Comments

While some states such as Illinois, New York, and California have registration of either gun owners or firearms, there is no such registration at the Federal level. Indeed, Congress has passed legislation forbidding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives from even computerizing the paper records of out of business FFLs.

The Wall Street Journal ran a story today regarding preliminary discussions by banks and credit-card companies to identify purchases of firearms, ammo, and accessories.

The financial companies have explored creating a new credit-card code for firearms dealers, similar to how they code restaurants or department stores, according to people familiar with the matter. Another idea would require merchants to share information about specific firearm products consumers are buying, some of the people said.


Such data could allow banks to restrict purchases at certain businesses or monitor them. The talks, which are informal and might not lead to any action, have occurred against the backdrop of the national debate around guns in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., high-school shooting, which left 17 dead.

The move has the support of Everytown for Gun Safety (sic) whose spokesman Nicholas Suplina said to the Journal:

“Knowing where the customers are shopping isn’t a slippery slope to anything, it’s just one data point. I don’t think anybody’s asking financial institutions to determine whether a transaction is good or bad, but it may very well be a good idea for them to understand risks inherent in firearm sales.”

It may be merely a data point to Mr. Suplina but the implications to privacy and government intrusion are much more serious. You would have non-governmental agencies using their financial might to interfere with a constitutional right enumerated in the Bill of Rights. Moreover, what is to prevent financial regulators from passing data from these transactions to other government agencies. Public policy which impacts everyone should not be set by private actors. It is a legislative matter that should be conducted in broad daylight where everyone concerned has their say.

One of the rationales for this potential move is to remove the anonymity from “online” transactions. My friend Dave Cole of Black Man with a Gun pointed out the fallacy of this in a post yesterday on Facebook.

This is actually pretty funny when you think about it. On one hand, the antis want to end online purchases of guns and ammunition, because it’s too “anonymous.” And now they want to make it more difficult to use credit cards for those purchases?


You think it’s hard for Big Brother to monitor sales of guns and ammo now, just wait until they reduce us to having to walk into a brick-and-mortar gun shop and pay cash. If they really want to track this stuff, they ought to be encouraging people to buy all their gun stuff online with credit cards. Hell, they ought to have a rewards/points system for all your gun purchases with your BoA/Citi “Gun Nut” branded Mastercard.

Dave is correct. Many will return to paying cash at their local gun stores. Moreover, postal money orders might take longer to get to a non-local dealer but you are the one to put the payee on the face of it and not the postal clerk. Again, privacy.

If your senator is on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, you might want to contact him or her regarding this. Likewise, if your representative is on the House Financial Services Committee, do the same. I’d go even further and say contact your representative and senators even if they aren’t on the committee. Even if they are a gun-hating lefty, you can still hit them with the privacy angle and make some logical extensions to other products such OTC birth control, LGBTQ publications, etc. Privacy is privacy.

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We Forget The Lessons Of Lexington And Concord At Our Peril

April 19, 2018 by 1 Comment

Today marks the 243rd anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The impetus for the battle was the attempt by the military governor of Massachusetts, Gen. Thomas Gage, to seize the arms and ammunition of the militia. Gage had been ordered by Lord Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, to disarm the militia.

As I noted on the 242nd anniversary, the colonists were fighting to preserve the right to keep and bear arms that was one of their rights as Englishmen since at least 1689. Since the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, our right to keep and bear arms has been under continual attack. Moreover, some of these attacks have been led by our ostensible friends such as Gov. Phil Scott (R-VT) and Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL).

It doesn’t matter if it is raising the age to 21 to purchase a firearm, bump stock bans, restrictions on standard capacity magazines, extreme violence protection orders, universal background checks, or what not, these laws and regulations are intended to destroy our rights and to destroy the gun culture in America.

Ensign Robert Munroe, Issac Muzzy, Samuel Hadley, John Brown, Jonas Parker, Jonathan Harrington, Caleb Harrington, and Asahel Porter did not die on or near Lexington Green to see modern day Americans just toss their rights away.

Nor did John Robbins, Solomon Pierce, John Tidd, Joseph Comee, Ebenezer Munroe Jr., Thomas Winship, Nathaniel Farmer, Prince Estabrook, and Jedediah Munroe suffer grievous gunshot and bayonet wounds to have modern day American politicians push safety over freedom.

I imagine the men of Captain Parker’s Company of Militia were scared as they assembled on Lexington Green. There were only 80-some of them facing about 700 or so British regulars and Royal Marines. Nonetheless, they were willing to face off against the greatest army of its day. If we can’t stand up to a coterie of freedom-despising billionaires, their PR flacks, their media allies, and their trained-bear-act teens, it is a sad day for America.

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Witness Slips Need In Illinois – III

April 17, 2018 by

Illinois State Rifle Association issued this alert regarding the elimination of state preemption with regard to “assault weapons”.

To read the particular bill, click on the link SB2314 below, click on Full Text.
 
OPPOSE THE FOLLOWING BILLS :

Scheduled Date 4/17/2018 – 4:00 PM
SB2314    Julie A. Morrison    ASSAULT WEAPONS-MUNICIPALITY

Synopsis: Amends the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act. Provides that the regulation of the possession or ownership of assault weapons are exclusive powers and functions of each municipality (rather than this State) . Eliminates existing preemption provision concerning the regulation of assault weapons.  This provision would mean, if passed, that a person maybe fully legal in one municipality but if transporting a particular firearm to another municipality be in violation of that municipality’s law.  The ISRA’s view is that this should remain the purview of the State and NOT individual municipalities.

TO CREATE A WITNESS SLIP 
 

Click on the following link Create a WitnessSlip

 
I. IDENTIFICATION: Enter your personal information. Enter “NA” for the Firm/Business or Agency and Title fields unless you are officially representing an organization.
 
II. REPRESENTATION: Enter “Myself” unless representing an organization.
 
III. POSITION: Select Original Bill and choose Opponent.
 
IV. TESTIMONY: Select the “Record of Appearance Only” radio button.
 
If filing manually, complete the Captcha challenge and agree to the ILGA Terms of Agreement.
 
Then click Create Slip.

TO VIEW A WITNESS SLIP 

Click on the following link View a Witness Slip 

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Witness Slips Needed In Illinois – II

April 17, 2018 by

Illinois Carry issued a more extensive alert yesterday.

The Wolves Are at The Door
Witness Slips & Legislator Visits Needed!
Our last Call to Action asked your help opposing SB2561 Prepackage Explosive Component in Senate Committee. Unfortunately the bill passed out of the Senate and is now scheduled to be heard in the House Judiciary Committee on April 17. Your help is needed to prevent this once vetoed bill from reaching the Governor’s desk again. Join us in opposing Senator Morrison’s repeated attack on our rights.
Another, more venomous attack by Ms. Morrison is her SB2314 Assault Weapons – Municipality, an attempt to repeal the State’s sole authority to regulate “assault weapons”. This bill, when inserted into an earlier attempt to ban bump stocks, was described by a rabidly anti-gun House Member as a “poison pill” that killed his own work against us. We must fight an increasing patchwork of laws from one town to another.  Your witness slips opposing SB2314 will be the antidote to this legislative poison.
Also in the Senate, SB2247 Ban Bump Fire Stockrepresents the work of a bizarre, newly formed coalition of anti-gun legislators who once stood with us. Make no mistake, we oppose SB2247 as much as we oppose any proposals made on behalf of the gun control groups vying for control of this state. We ask that you do the same.
More critically, while your phone calls and witness slips are important, we must up the ante by making personal visits to our legislators’ offices. Groups who oppose our rights have been making headway with this approach – an approach we must ourselves adopt in order to neutralize their work.
Take the time to establish personal, face to face communications with your State Senators and Representatives. Together, we can counter the anti’s lies with our truths.
Join us in opposing these bills by filing witness slips today!
Remember to log in to your account first, if you have one!
File Witness Slips Now!
In order to avoid completing each field manually, at the top right  Log on  to your ILGA Dashboard or  Create a New Account  if you haven’t already created one, then return to this email and click on the links for each witness slip.
Witness slips can be tracked here:
Senate & House – Sustain the SB1657 Veto!
Continue to call your State Senators and State Representatives in their Springfield offices. Remind them that you oppose SB1657 Gun Dealer Licensing, described by the Chicago Tribune as “government overreach”.
Ask them to sustain Governor Rauner’s veto.
House – Oppose Concurrence Votes!
While speaking with your state representatives remind them to oppose the changes made in the Senate to HB772 Lethal Violence Order of Protection, HB1465 “Assault Weapon Age 21, and HB1467 Preemption Repeal.
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Witness Slips Needed In Illinois – I

April 17, 2018 by

Both Illinois Carry and the Illinois State Rifle Association have issued alerts for anti-gun bills that are coming up this week in the Illinois General Assembly.

From Illinois Carry:

Emergency Action Alert!
Witness Slips Needed!
Moments ago, HB1470 Criminal Law Tech was added to the House Judiciary – Criminal Committee Schedule for the April 17 hearing.  Amendment 1 (HFA1) prohibits transfers of more than one gun per month, and establishes penalties for possession with intent to transfer.
Please express your immediate disapproval of  this bill and amendment by filing witness slips opposing it.
Remember to log in to your account first, if you have one!
In order to avoid completing each field manually, at the top right  Log on  to your ILGA Dashboard or  Create a New Account  if you haven’t already created one, then return to this email and click on the links for each witness slip.
Witness slips can be tracked here:
Senate & House – Sustain the SB1657 Veto!
Continue to call your State Senators and State Representatives in their Springfield offices. Remind them that you oppose SB1657 Gun Dealer Licensing, described by the Chicago Tribune as “government overreach”.
Ask them to sustain Governor Rauner’s veto.
House – Oppose Concurrence Votes!
While speaking with your state representatives remind them to oppose the changes made in the Senate to HB772 Lethal Violence Order of Protection, HB1465 “Assault Weapon Age 21, and HB1467 Preemption Repeal.
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There Oughta Be A Law

March 28, 2018 by 4 Comments

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The realists among us realize that no new law and no new prohibition will ever stop the evil, the criminal, and/or the deranged from perpetrating evil, criminal, or deranged acts. Laws only impact the law-abiding among us. Moreover, if you enact enough laws and criminalize enough things, we all become law breakers. Harvey Silverglate covered this in his book Three Felonies A Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent. Likewise, the Instapundit, Prof. Glenn Reynolds, wrote a paper on this called Ham Sandwich Nation which plays off the remark by Judge Sol Wachter that a grand jury could be convinced to indict a ham sandwich.

Examining this in the context of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, we have seen innumerable calls for new gun control laws along with calls for destruction and confiscation of certain firearms. I wrote yesterday about the introduction of a bill by Sen. Richard “I served in Vietnam (not!) Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) that would close the so-called ammo loophole. None of these proposed laws will or would have stopped a determined person intent on harming school children or anyone else. One need merely look to the recent spate of bombings in Austin wherein an individual using readily available ingredients and information gleaned from the Internet killed and maimed a number of people. Homemade explosive devices are already illegal as is murder.

Science fiction novelist and commentator Sarah Hoyt penned a very interesting piece on PJ Media yesterday entitled Of Laws And Men. She examined this whole notion that a new law will actually change behavior. It is part of the whole fanatical belief in a society organized by the numbers from the top-down. She points out that this is the way that society was organized in Communist countries but yet you still had black markets as people needed to survive.

Looking at all the new laws being proposed post-Parkland, she concluded:

They’re by and large decent people – the followers, not the leaders – who really want everyone to live in harmony, and since they wouldn’t dream of breaking laws, then it must be a matter of finding the right law to fix everything.

Only the world is not full of people who are terrified of breaking laws, and all their piling on of laws against gun owners does is leave the law-abiding defenseless before the lawless.

To have these people learn the error of their ways in a practical fashion will only destroy the world for the rest of us. And besides, judging from Europe, they’ll never learn. They’ll just refuse to admit their plan failed and pile on more laws and more regulatory bodies, till someone’s whole job is regulating the curvature of a banana. (You only wish that were euphemistic.)

So we need to educate them. We need to educate them better when they’re younger. We need to teach them history and psychology. Not the stuff edited by their own luminaries, who are as blinkered as they are, but real history and real psychology. And we need to teach them how humans are now and have always been lawless animals. We can’t be tamed, we can’t be domesticated, and even in the most oppressive regimes devised there will never be enough to make everyone obey. There are dissidents even in places where dissidence costs you your life. There are black markets where the regimes punish them and spend most of their time suppressing them. Because when the alternative is death, humans are really good at breaking the law.

So all laws passed, everywhere affect only the law-abiding. And even the law-abiding stop being so when life is at stake.

The answer to “Your gun is now illegal” is always, in practicality “Says you and whose army?” and “Come and get it!”

She’s right. We need to educate them. I suggest it would be five minutes of your time well spent to read her entire essay.