tab clearing

It’s summer and I’ve gotten a little lazy when it has come to blogging. Sometimes it is just preferable to sit out on the front porch, sipping a drink, and reading a bit of this and bit of that. There have been some things I’ve been meaning to comment on but never got around to it.

First, regarding Charlottesville, “white nationalists”, the Klan, Nazis, Antifa, and the violence that happened yesterday:  when two groups filled full of hateful, violent people that I disdain go at hammer and tong, I say a pox on both their houses. It was the same feeling I had after the “Greensboro Massacre” back in 1979 when the Klan and American Nazis shot it out with the Communist Workers’ Party at a “Death to the Klan” rally. I’m with Miguel on this when he says he doesn’t care much about what happens to either group.

Leaving the sensationalism of the mass media behind, one of the bigger stories in the gun community has been the issue of Sig P320s accidentally firing when dropped in a certain way. Sig has issued a voluntary “upgrade” to fix this. If I owned one of these pistols, I’d send it in for the retrofit with the military trigger. It only makes sense from a civil liability standpoint. You can just imagine the questions that a plaintiffs’ attorney would be asking if you dropped your firearm and someone was injured. It wouldn’t be pretty. This post in The Firearm Blog has more on the story along with a ton of links.

While on the subject of recalls, Ruger has issued a recall on some of their Ruger Precision Rifles with the aluminum bolt shroud. The issue is the potential for interference between the bolt shroud and the cocking piece. This safety recall only pertains to those rifles with an aluminum bolt shroud and within serial number ranges of 1800-26274 to 1800-78345 and 1801-00506 to 1801-30461.

In legal news, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled 8-1 on Thursday that the Seattle “gun violence” tax did not violate that state’s firearms preemption law. The lawsuit against the tax was a joint effort of the Second Amendment Foundation, the National Rifle Association, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation along with two businesses, Philip Watson, and the late Ray Carter aka GayCynic. Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation called the decision a “slap in the face to the Washington Legislature.” He also correctly noted that gun owners need to get more involved in Supreme Court races (where the justices are elected).

Dave Workman, editor of The GunMag, has done superb reporting on the issue at Liberty Park Press and Conservative Firing Line. His posts on the court decision can be found here, here, here, and here. I think Dave is correct when he says that the Washington State Supreme Court may have opened a Pandora’s box. I can see these sort of taxes being implemented up and down the West Coast as well in other gun control paradises.

Sebastian had a very thought provoking post on his blog regarding suicide and the unintended consequences of universal background checks. Research conducted at Oregon State University-Cascades found that gun owners were more receptive to suicide-prevention messages if they respected gun rights than if they were neutral. However, as Sebastian notes, universal background checks make it harder for a person to have their family hold their guns if they experience a mental health crisis.

Except Bloomberg has been going state-to-state trying to make that a crime. I have a standing order with family to remove my access to firearms if I ever have that kind of mental health crisis, but in states like Washington, where Bloomberg has been successful, that is a crime if you don’t first get the person in crisis to an FFL to pay hundreds of dollars to transfer the collection to the “trusted individual,” and then pay hundreds more once the crisis ends. The Oregon legislature was smarter, and made an exception to its laws, but there is a factor of “imminence” in the exception. Generally speaking, transferring a firearm to a “trusted individual” in Oregon is a crime. In Pennsylvania, this is also the case for handguns, unless the “trusted individual” has an LTC.

So don’t give me this bleeding heart shit. If gun control people gave a crap about suicide they wouldn’t be pushing for laws that criminalized gun owners for helping out friends.

Hat tip to my friend and podcasting co-host Rob Morse for pointing me to a success in court by NY gun rights attorney Paloma Capanna. Her case, Robinson v. Sessions, is on appeal to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The lawsuit involves the sharing of information on the Form 4473 for purposes other than purchasing a firearm. The issue before the 2nd Circuit is whether the plaintiffs have standing to sue. In an answering brief, the Department of Justice lawyers acknowledged that the FBI has been running all NICS checks through the Terrorist Screening Database since 2004.

The error below arises from more than 15 years of litigation conducted by the ACLU, Amnesty International, and other groups, seeking to halt civil rights violations for those who are interrupted during travel because of a suspected match of the passenger to the “No-Fly List.” (The “No-Fly List” is a subset of the TSDB.) In those cases, the unlawful search and the invasion of privacy doesn’t begin until the person is pulled out of line and treated differently than other airline passengers going through open and obvious TSA screening procedures.


Plaintiffs in the Robinson case state that the violation of their civil rights begins the moment the FBI secretly uses their personal information from the ATF Form 4473 for the unauthorized purpose of checking them against the TSDB. Yes, a person who gets matched to the TSDB during a gun purchase at an FFL might have greater damages, but the harm hits every American attempting to make a lawful purchase at an FFL.

My friend Laura Carno has brought the FASTER training program to Colorado. The program involves intensive firearms, defensive, and medical training for school personnel in an effort to protect the students in the case of an active shooter event. FASTER was the brainchild of Buckeye Firearms Association and Tactical Defense Institute. She was interviewed about the program and their successes by Cam Edwards of NRA TV this week.

Is firearms training a religion? Regardless of whether it is or isn’t, Kevin Creighton thinks it should be.  Looking at the great martial arts, they tend to include an element of religion in them according to Kevin. They helps inspire practitioners to rise about themselves in extraordinary situations. Situations like a gun fight which is definitely an extraordinary situation. Kevin concludes, “A religion of CCW isn’t going to save your soul, but it just might save your life.”

Finally, attorney and Second Amendment scholar Dave Hardy has a new book coming out. The book entitled, I’m from the Government and I’m Here to Kill You: The True Human Cost of Official Negligence, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. I have pre-ordered my copy and would suggest that you might want to do so as well. Dave reports that the official release date is October 10th but it could actually ship earlier. Some of the events covered in the book include Waco, Ruby Ridge, Operation Fast and Furious, and the fallout from atomic testing. As Dave notes in the introduction which is available online:

One might have thought the premise “the King can do no wrong” would
have no application in a nation with no king, but that is not how things
turned out. Indeed, by the time our courts finished, they had immunized
government officials high and low from liability for any wrongful injuries
they inflicted upon the citizens who paid their salaries….

Federal officials have, as we
shall see, blown up hundreds of people, spread radioactive waste over enormous
areas, and ordered their subordinates to commit murder, all with
legal impunity. When the government’s misdeeds were challenged in court,
attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice did not hesitate to conduct
cover-ups, defraud the courts, and intimidate witnesses—all without worries
about disbarment or other discipline. (In this book’s concluding chapter,
we’ll examine how we can deal with these problems.)

When federal civilian employment was small, the risk of being injured
by a negligent governmental employee was trifling. Today, there are over
two million federal civilian employees, a workforce that dwarfs those of our
largest corporations. This enormous workforce has almost complete legal
immunity, no matter how lethal its transgressions.

The weekend started out with a shooting at Arapahoe High School in Colorado. That it just happened to be on the eve of the first anniversary of the Newtown shootings may be just a coincidence. But like Tam, I doubt it.

The shooter turned out to be a disgruntled student who had a beef with the debate coach. Like all rampage shooters, he intended to wound or kill as many as possible. Again, like many rampage shooters in the past, when confronted by an armed school resource officer, he killed himself after severely wounding Claire Davis.

And the shooter’s firearm of choice? A pump-action shotgun legally purchased on December 6th after the shooter went through a background check.

The media has stepped up and performed its usual role of publicizing everything about the shooter. The only thing that they scrubbed from their description of him was a classmate’s characterization of the shooter as “a very opinionated socialist.” It became just “very opinionated“.

With Saturday being the first anniversary of the Newtown shootings, the gun prohibitionists were out in force. It started at the top with President Obama’s weekly address calling for more gun control.


So-called stay-at-home mom Shannon Watts and her group of demanding moms were out in force with their No More Silence events. North Carolina wasn’t immune to their events. I know we had one in Asheville and one in Durham. At the latter event, Sean Sorrentino was denied entry to Holy Cross Catholic Church by their state director Kaaren Haldeman who didn’t want his sort at their event. As Miguel says, once again we are the new negroes.

One of the words we keep hearing is consensus. As in a national consensus for universal background checks or a national consensus to do more to prevent “gun violence” (sic).  The other words are “common ground”. This is the line that Richard Feldman of the Independent Firearm Owners Association and Arkadi Gerney of the Center for American Progress are pushing in an op-ed in today’s LA Times. In exchange for us giving up on universal background checks, we might get a national carry law – a carry law with nationally-mandated training, etc.

Michael Bane does an excellent job at taking apart this “grand bargain”.  As for me, I am immediately suspicious of anything coming from Gerney who is the former executive director of Mayor Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors. Mr. Feldman may have done things to advance gun rights in the past when he was a NRA lobbyist but now seems just to be clinging to anything that will give him relevance.

What Mike Bloomberg cannot achieve at the national level, he plans to try to do at the state level. We saw what he did in Colorado. Kurt Hofmann reports that Mark Glaze considers the $15 million spent previously just dipping a toe in the water and that we should watch what a whole foot will do. David Codrea expands on Kurt’s report to discuss efforts by Bloomberg in the states.

An off the wall article in Salon, accuses those of us who believe in gun rights of having a “sick gun fetish” and and “Tea Party fantasies”. The article also accuses us of misreading the Second Amendment. I guess the “bitter clinger” here is the author who clings to a definition of the Second Amendment that the Supreme Court said was erroneous in the Heller case.

With the recent death of Nelson Mandela, I guess it isn’t surprising that the gun prohibitionists are starting to wax nostalgic about the anti-apartheid divestiture movement and wondering if it could work again. They cite Cerberus and its goal of selling Remington Outdoor aka Freedom Group due to pressure from pension funds. In the meantime, Remington’s Ilion, New York plant can’t make guns fast enough because sales have surged.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is coming under fire from The ARC who works with intellectually and developmentally disabled people. This is due to the BATFE’s use of mentally challenged persons in their sting operations. The ARC is calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to stop this practice and to have the DOJ Inspector General to start an investigation into it.

And finally, NPR did a report on Thursday about the Maryland Tenth Cavalry Gun Club. They are an organization of African-American shooters who seek to introduce black youth to responsible gun use along with a dose of history. The club takes its name from the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments and the black cavalrymen known as the “Buffalo Soldiers”.

There are a more than a few stories that have accumulated since the middle of last week when I went to New Orleans for a business conference. I’m still getting caught up here at home with my regular work and teaching. Anyway, here goes…

Reports on the open carry protest in San Antonio at the Alamo here, here, and here.  A guy I know spoke at the event. It looks like it went off without a hitch and without anyone being arrested.


DC Metro Police Chief helps gun prohibitionists break DC gun laws. Why am I not surprised? Chief Cathy Lanier has been consistently anti-Second Amendment from the get-go.

About that shooting requirement for a pistol purchase permit in Maryland? Private ranges might not cooperate by opening themselves up to all comers. The end result is that gun ownership in the so-called Free State will suffer.

Army licenses Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern (OCP) from Crye Precision. This is also known as MultiCam. The Army is still evaluating new camouflage patterns to replace their Universal Camo Pattern and is, I believe, down to the four finalists.

JayG announced on Friday that his new gig in Virginia is going to be as the Associate Editor for the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated. So not only is he leaving the anti-gun Volksrepublik for Virginia, he will have completely gone over to the “Dark Side”. In celebration of that, I think he should invite our dear friend Ladd Everitt to a day of shooting at the NRA’s range in Fairfax to see if Ladd’s head really would explode being around all those guns and ammo.

And speaking of JayG’s new commonwealth, it looks like Mayor Bloomberg and Mr. Gabby Giffords are sinking a lot of money into the gubernatorial election in an effort to get the Clinton’s best bud Terry McAuliffe elected governor of Virginia. Unfortunately, McAuliffe is in the lead over Republican VA Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. McAuliffe has already announced his support for Colorado style gun control. If there is a saving grace in all of this it is that the governor of Virginia is limited to one term.

Finally, the judges on the California Court of Appeals, Four Appellate District, Division One don’t believe the Second Amendment extends to the AK-47. They think it is “dangerous and unusual” and equate it to the sawed off shotgun. The opinon of the court is here. Dave Hardy comments on the case here and Sebastian weighs in on the case here. It is a crappy decision that I hope will be appealed.

Need a new Smith & Wesson revolver? Here is one for sale at auction.

This is not just any Smith & Wesson Revolver. It is No. 2 Old Model Army revolver owned by Wild Bill Hickok and carried by him when he was slain in Deadwood, SD. According to the auction company, Bonham’s, the provenance is proven and the revolver is expected to fetch somewhere between $300,000 and $500,00.

An appeals court in Florida has determined that the state’s stand your ground applies to middle school students in Florida. The case involved a male student in Broward County who had been attacked on a school bus by a female student, defended himself, and ended up charged with battery. The school bus driver corroborated the student’s story as being the one attacked. The  4th District Court of Appeals ruled that:

“In this case, T.P. (the male student) had the right to assert a defense under Stand Your Ground. He was not engaged in an unlawful activity, and he had the right to be on the bus going home from school. He had no duty to retreat and, despite the trial court’s misgivings, had the right to ‘meet force with force.’”

There is no word yet if the Reverends Jackson and Sharpton plan demonstrations nor has there been any comment from Attorney General Eric Holder that DOJ is looking at the case for violations of civil rights.

If you want to get a concealed carry permit in Maine, you better be prepared to wait. There is a 5 month delay in processing the requisite background checks. The Maine State Police are supposed to permit applications for those who have resided in the state for over 5 years within 30 days. It has gotten so bad that the legislature is planning hearings to discuss the matter.

The DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working on a nanotechnology  that can destroy guns.

The technological system, known as a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS), utilizes tiny devices that are implanted in guns and other weapons. These devices are more than chips; they are actual mechanical processes created by precision engineering that can affect the weapon’s operations. Media reports reveal the devices include miniature GPS systems designed to make guns easier to track and self-destruct systems that could cause them to explode if they receive a wireless signal.

MEMS is intended for weapons given to groups like the Syrian rebels in their fight against the Assad regime. That said, I’m sure the gun prohibitionists are studying this very closely.

Smith and Wesson employees pack Massachusetts hearing on proposed gun laws held by the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security. You have to wonder if they will be listened to any more attentively than the Connecticut Legislature listened to the employees of Colt, Stag, Mossberg, and Ruger. While one would hope so, I’m not holding my breath.

I got caught up on my email over the weekend and bookmarked a number of items that I planned to blog about. However, other things got in the way as usual for most of us. Stuff like watching the Complementary Spouse’s nephew and his team Requiem win a Halo 4 tournament. I don’t understand half of what they are doing but it is fun to cheer family on to victory.

Earlier in the month Hornady announced that they were suspending production of 150 bullet types and 150 finished ammo types for the rest of 2013 in order to focus on demand for the most popular items. AccurateShooter.com has the list here.

The FAA is being spoil sports. You may have heard about the small town of Deer Trail, Colorado which is offering “drone hunting licenses” for $25. You are limited to a 12 gauge shotgun max. The town is doing it as a humorous way to raise some money. The FAA is not amused and is warning of “criminal and civil liability” if you do shoot one down.

Some Democrats in Florida are calling for the repeal of that state’s Stand Your Ground law.

Shooting Illustrated has an interesting article on an easy way to level your rifle’s scope without special equipment. It shows how to level your scope using only low-cost spirit levels instead the special kits sold by MidwayUSA or Brownells.

Guy Sagi has an interesting post up on a recent break-in at his house. He goes into detail about all the things he did wrong as well as what he did correctly. Guy writes the Fear & Loading Blog for the American Rifleman. It is a short article that is well worth the read.
A report on efforts to hasten the implementation of concealed carry in Illinois.

A humorous look at the rationale for owning a number of firearms from the CityWeekly of Salt Lake City. My favorite is No. 2 – “Because shut up – this is Utah, hippie.”

Finally, a post from Jeff Knox of the Firearms Coalition on why Stand Your Ground laws must stand.

It’s time to do a clean-up on some of the items I’ve bookmarked for which I don’t have time to do a full blog post.

Project Gunwalker or Operation Fast and Furious has been out of the public eye for a while now. Unfortunately, one of the firearms walked in the ATF’s program has now been used to kill a police chief in Mexico back in January. As David Codrea notes, the media is still calling it a “botched operation”. I believe it was ATF Senior Agent John Dodson who said these weapons would be killing for decades. It seems he is being proven all too correct.

Kahr Arms has announced that they will be moving their headquarters from Pearl River, NY to Blooming Grove, PA. They had considered expanding in Port Jervis, NY but canceled those plans when the NY SAFE Act was passed. Kahr Arms will also be building a new plant in Blooming Grove that it expects to employ 80 people. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) said he didn’t believe the SAFE Act had anything to do with Kahr’s relocation.

Speaking of arms manufacturers leaving states who have passed draconian gun control laws, South Carolina is putting on a full-court press to win Stag Arms. Mark Malkowski was in the Myrtle Beach area the last week of June to look at sites. If South Carolina uses the same personal touch that they used to win PTR Industries, Stag Arms may just end up there instead of Texas.

In the context of the Arlington (MA) Police Department demanding entry to TJIC’s home on the 4th of July because he had applied for a gun permit, I found this rewriting of Lexington and Concord quite relevant.

The Violence Policy Center likes to portray concealed carry holders as Wild West cowboys who can be trusted to carry in public. Clayton Cramer examined their database and found it less than it appears. His analysis can be downloaded from here.


Gov. Jay Nixon (D-MO) vetoed one gun rights bill but signed another one that allows state employees to keep firearms in their cars while on state property. The bill also allows fire chiefs with concealed carry permits and special permission to carry while on duty. The bill would also barred municipal gun-buyback schemes unless the firearms are later offered for sale to the public. The bill that Nixon vetoed would have declared some Federal gun laws void and would have made it a crime for Federal officials to try to enforce them in the State of Missouri.

In what can only be considered a horrible accident if true, the San Francisco Fire Department is saying that one of the two Chinese girls killed in the Asiana Boeing 777 plane crash may have been killed when she was run over by a fire department emergency vehicle. Ah, jeez.

A New York State intermediate level appellate court has denied a preliminary injunction of the NY SAFE Act on July 3rd. This denial of a preliminary injunction could be appealed to the NY Court of Appeals which is that state’s highest court.

Finally, the Farewell to Arms festival last weekend in Colorado raised over $85,000 for the recall effort against Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and Sen. Angela Giron (D-Pueblo).

I’m on vacation this week and in between eating tons of boiled shrimp and playing games with the nieces and nephews I really don’t have time to post on all the stories I’ve bookmarked. I know its tough but someone has to support the fishing industry of South Carolina!


The City Attorney’s Office for San Francisco is warning the Board of Supervisors against their plan to ban possession of standard capacity magazines. These would included ones that have been grandfathered under California law. They said there was a “significant litigation risk” and warned that attorneys’ fees of upwards of $1 million could be awarded plaintiffs if the city lost. However, since the fees would be paid for with taxpayers’ money, they might not care.

At the end of last week, the House of Representatives adopted the Kelly Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2014. This amendment would prohibit any Federal monies for the implementation of the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty for the next year. The amendment was introduced by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA). The House adopted the amendment by unanimous voice vote.

Under the heading of just because you have a Ph.D. it doesn’t make you smart comes this op-ed from a professor of history at SUNY-Geneseo. Prof. Michael Leroy Oberg says the we should just rescind the Second Amendment. He calls it an “antiquated and blood-drenched amendment.” I’m sure those who would like to rescind the 1st and 4th Amendments would agree with him as then there would be nothing to restrain their authoritarian urges.

Fortunately there are some in the professoriate who are not so obtuse and actually do know their history. I would point you to this essay by Prof. Edward Erler entitled “The Second Amendment as an Expression of First Principles.”

And we must be clear—the Second
Amendment is not about assault weapons, hunting, or sport shooting. It is
about something more fundamental.
It reaches to the heart of constitutional
principles—it reaches to first principles.
A favorite refrain of thoughtful political
writers during America’s founding era
held that a frequent recurrence to first
principles was an indispensable means of
preserving free government—and so it is.

Finally, here is a word of warning – never throw BBQ at a bear. Seems that a man in Alaska didn’t heed this and ended up getting mauled by the bear. As you might expect, alcohol was involved.  The bear probably wanted a beer and not some burnt meat.

The attendance of Bitter and Sebastian at the NRA’s legal seminar in Philadelphia has attracted protesters from Heeding God’s Call. Or maybe it is just because the organization doesn’t like the Second Amendment. Whatever.  Sebastian has pictures of the massive number of gun prohibitionists protesting at the event.

DVDs, magazines, and internet gun forums are not a substitute for actual firearms training. Intuitively we know this but most of us procrastinate and/or make excuses. Trainer Rob Tackett in a post entitled “Less than 1/110 of a %” examines the excuses and issues this challenge:

Save.  Don’t work on instant gratification and move forward with training instead of buying.


Stop Using Excuses


Its time folks.  Its time for all the internet time to be turned into
training time.  Everyone is releasing their 2013 schedules this month
and next.  I challenge you to take the first step to better yourself.
 Take a class. Find out more about yourself and your true capability.


Stop living as a Tactical Teddy and become a shooter.

 Tam has her usual trenchant observations about the Glock factory sights and the process to replace them.

Linoge has now created a table of contents to the uber-post about TTAG. It makes it much easier to read the individual sections.

Thirdpower has a good post up about those who claim that Obama really hasn’t moved against gun rights in his first term.

Ron Larimer at When the Balloon Goes Up opens his store tomorrow which will carry EDC gear, preparedness items, and range gear. The store is meant to complement the stuff he has been writing about on his blog.

Speaking of stores, Average Joe has posted his suggestions for newbies (and not so newbies) with regard to gun shop and range etiquette. It puts on paper what he discussed with Doc Wesson on a recent Gun Nation Podcast.

Finally, keep Mike Vanderboegh in your prayers. David Codrea has an update here and Mike reported he entered the hospital on Friday due to minor strokes in his cerebellum as well as brain stem. At the link David provides an address where you can send Mike a get well card.

I have been too busy this week to be able to post on some of the stories I’ve been following. Three day weekends are great until you realize you have to cram five days of work into four days.

On the Project Gunwalker front, Mike Vanderboegh reports in a pair of posts that Speaker John Boehner is being lobbied by Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights & The Leadership Conference Education Fund to back off on a contempt citation for Attorney General Eric Holder. He has their letter here. You do have to wonder why a group like the National Association of Social Workers National Center for Transgender Equality is involved in this when their focus should be LGBT issues.

And speaking of “human rights”, the United States was criticized by the People’s Republic of China aka Red China over gun ownership which the ChiComms consider a human rights violation. Other than being worried about armed resistance if they ever tried a Red Dawn II on the US, what business is it of theirs? As Tam says, you’ve got to be kidding me. David Codrea has more on it here.

Over at God, Gals, Guns, Grub, there is a feature on the Ruger SR9 and SR9c. His family standardized on it a while back and he discusses why. I have both the SR9 and SR9c and like them both. I shot both training classes I’ve taken with the SR9 and had nary a misfire. I might mention that if you want some precision parts for your SR9 or SR9c, check out Galloway Precision. They are a local company which makes a number of improvements for the SR9 similar to what Apex Tactical does for the M&P.

Finally, Paul Valone, the Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner and President of GRNC, has a post on the involvement of a Bloomberg supported group in an effort to overturn North Carolina’s Stand Your Ground/Castle Doctrine laws. I outlined the new bill introduced into the NC General Assembly that is intended to do that earlier this week.