Uncategorized

Ruger Buys Kentucky’s Anderson Manufacturing

July 1, 2025 by

Sturm, Ruger just announced that they were buying Hebron, Kentucky based Anderson Manufacturing. As I read their press release below, it appears that while they will discontinue the Anderson brand and the associated products Ruger will use the plant and its employees to expand their manufacturing base.

Neither party has released the terms of the agreement or the amount of monies involved in the purchase.

From the press release:

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR) is pleased to announce the asset purchase of
Anderson Manufacturing, a manufacturer of firearms and firearm accessories based in
Hebron, Kentucky. This strategic purchase includes Anderson’s manufacturing facility
and machinery and will provide Ruger the opportunity to work with a skilled and
experienced workforce, strengthening its production capabilities and expanding its
product offerings.


Located in a firearms-friendly region, the facility brings valuable expertise in the
production of both firearms and aftermarket parts and accessories – areas that
complement and enhance Ruger’s existing offerings.


“This acquisition is an incredible opportunity to advance our long-term strategy and
expand Ruger’s capacity,” said Todd Seyfert, President and CEO of Ruger. “We’re excited
to welcome members from the talented team at Anderson Manufacturing and leverage
their knowledge and infrastructure to better serve our customers. This move reinforces
Ruger’s position as a leader in the industry, and reiterates my focus on continued
growth, even as others scale back.”


Ruger will not continue the Anderson Manufacturing brand or its firearms products.
Instead, the Company will integrate the facility’s capabilities into its broader operations,
with a focus on launching new products, expanding Ruger’s popular product lines and
growing its established accessories business.


Customers, distributors, and partners can continue to expect the high standards of
quality, reliability and service that define the Ruger brand. This acquisition underscores
Ruger’s commitment to American manufacturing and its mission to deliver innovative,
reliable products to the firearms community.

Uncategorized

Canada Day

July 1, 2025 by

July 1st is Canada Day. Personally, I prefer its older name of Dominion Day which was only changed in 1982 to the newer Canada Day. The day is meant to commemorate the confederation of Canada that occurred on July 1, 1867. That was when the Province of Canada (Upper and Lower Canada), Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick formed a confederation. Other provinces such as Manitoba and Prince Edward Island joined in later years.

There are many things I love about Canada. This includes its natural beauty and most of its people. Indeed, my first girlfriend, Pat, was a Canadian who I met at a camp put on by the National Wildlife Federation. She was from the Niagara Escarpment area of Ontario.

There are also many things that I detest about Canada. This would include their gun control regime, their approval of euthanasia, their former Prime Minister, and much of the Liberal Party apparatchiks.

Despite President Trump’s desire to see them as the 51st state, real or not, I am not much in favor of a union of the two countries. That said, I would agree to make Alberta the 51st state if they were to secede as they are more conservative, have great hunting and fishing, and, of course, oil. As to the rest, no.

Could you imagine trying to integrate the Quebecois? That is, a bunch of grumpy, never satisfied, Canadians (or Canadiens as they would demand you spell it) who speak an antique version of French.

Non!

I think I shall celebrate Canada Day by either watching John Candy’s Canadian Bacon or re-runs of The Red Green Show.

Uncategorized

Plan B

June 28, 2025 by 3 Comments

Now that Senate Majority Leader John Thune has kowtowed to the Left’s Deep State Operative aka the Senate Parliamentarian on needed reform to the National Firearms Act, it is time for Plan B.

According to a text I received this morning from John Commerford, Executive Director of the NRA-ILA, the tax on silencers, short barreled rifles and shotguns, and any other weapons has been lowered to zero dollars in the text of the bill. Additionally, they will be exempted from the excise taxes of the Pittman-Robertson Act. However, all of these items will still be subject to all the laws and regulations of the National Firearms Act including registration. This also means you have to ask ATF for a “mother, may I” permission slip to cross state lines even temporarily with your short barreled rifle or shotgun. Silencers and AOWs are exempt from that requirement.

As my friend Miggy Gonzalez said on Facebook, “We were hoping for a free steak dinner, but we are getting a side of large fries for a Happy Meal instead.”

A coalition of the groups fighting for NFA reform which included the NRA, the American Suppressor Association, GOA, SAF, FPC, and others released this statement yesterday.

The bottom line is ain’t nobody that happy on our side of the fence while the other side is enjoying the fact that their Deep State Operative came through for them. That, and as Diamondback notes, John Thune is a “Temu knockoff of Mitch McConnell.” You would think that with how Elizabeth McDonough just dissed the entire GOP majority of the Senate Finance Committee that the Republicans might show more spine and less squishiness. A guy can dream, right?

Uncategorized

Lasswell, Animal House, Oliver Twist, And The Big Beautiful Bill

June 27, 2025 by 17 Comments

Harold Lasswell was one of the icons of political science of the 20th century. Not content to be one of the founding fathers of political psychology and policy sciences, he was one of the earliest to recognize that mass communications was worthy of scholarly study. Long before modern political science devolved into trendy genres like feminist theory, queer theory, and fill in the blank theory, Lasswell was studying propaganda and had invented content analysis to search for patterns within it.

Lasswell wrote over 30 books and somewhere near 250 scholarly journal articles. This is a massive output by any measure. That said, the one book that always caught my attention was an early work entitled, Politics: Who Gets What, When, and How. (#commission earned). This is because I have always had a Lasswellian view of politics at its most basic. It is about the fight by both the elites and the masses to see who gets the spoils along with the countervailing fight by their opponents to keep the spoils for themselves. You can gloss up politics with all sorts of theories but it always comes back to power and the spoils that come with it.

This morning we learned of the infuriating ruling by the Senate Parliamentarian, an appointed and not elected official, that the inclusion of parts of the Hearing Protection Act and the SHORT Act violated the so-called Byrd Rule. This was notwithstanding that the US argued that the National Firearms Act did not violate the Second Amendment because it was a “revenue measure” in US v Miller. The Parliamentarian, Elizabeth McDonough, argued the NFA was a regulation and not a tax which is utter bovine manure.

Making matters worse, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) who controls McDonough’s appointment has indicated he does not plan to challenge her ruling.

I see Thune as acting like Kevin Bacon’s character in the movie Animal House. What Thune seems to forget that he would not even be Senate Majority Leader if gun owners had not provided the margin of victory in key Senate races in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Montana.

The question is what to do now as well as what not to do. Gun owners should not do is be like Oliver asking for more. It is time we stop groveling!

The first thing we should be doing is calling our US Senators and letting them have it for kowtowing to the parliamentarian appointed by none other than Harry Reid. Call 202-224-3121 and ask for the offices of your two senators. Keep the pressure up and let them know that merely stripping the NFA reform provisions out of the Big Beautiful Bill is not going to cut it. Here is the list of those up for reelection in 2026. They should be the first targets of your call.

Here are the options as I and others see them:

  • Do nothing – definitely possible given the Senate
  • Fire Elizabeth McDonough – probably not going to happen
  • Have J. D. Vance overrule McDonough as President of the Senate – possible
  • Leave the regulatory aspects of the NFA in place and lower the tax to zero or $1 – wimpy but likely
  • Rewrite the provisions to try and get past the parliamentarian – maybe
  • Set the tax at $1 and preempt all the state’s that ban NFA items – suggested by Kostas Moros

Stephen Gutowski of The Reload thinks that McDonough will neither be fired nor overruled. His argument is that doing so may endanger the sacred tradition of the fillibuster.

While the Majority Leader can fire the parliamentarian or the Vice President can overrule their decisions, there are good reasons that’s happened so rarely. It all has to do with the filibuster. Since reconciliation is a special Senate process designed to allow budget bills to avoid the 60-vote filibuster threshold–but only budget bills. So, the process is designed to root out anything that doesn’t primarily have a budget impact.

In other words, the process is designed to protect the legislative filibuster.

He very well may be correct. Stephen goes on to add that if McDonough is overruled or fired by the Republicans it will be due to other items stripped out of the bill and not the NFA items. In other words, no matter how important these items are to the gun community – and they are – they just don’t seem that important to the Republican senators.

That is a perception that needs to be changed. The time for going before Congress on bended knee is over. Every 2A organization from the NRA to state level groups needs to mobilize their members to say hell no. As I said in the beginning referring to Harold Laswell, politics is who gets what, when, and how.

We know what we want and we know we want it now.

Uncategorized

Rob Beckman For NRA Board

June 25, 2025 by 1 Comment

Trainer, podcaster, social media influencer, and IT professional Rob Beckman is running for the NRA Board of Directors by petition. I fully support Rob and consider him just the sort of well-qualified reformer that we need on the Board.

If you are a Life Member or a 5-year continuous Annual Member, I would urge you to sign Rob’s petition.

You can find it here.

During my run for the Board, Rob interviewed me on his Firearm Trainer’s Podcast. He stood solidly on the side of reform and electing reformers. He is a strong believer in using education and training as way to both get back to the NRA’s roots and to rebuild our membership. Further, he believes as I do in effective and proper governance is the way to restore the faith of the members in the NRA.

If you look at Rob’s LinkedIn profile and biography here are some things that jump out at me.

  • Business experience – Senior Project Manager for a global industrial company
  • Non-profit experience – currently VP & Hunting Director of Ohio Rifle and Pistol Association and former Board of Directors of Dan Beard Council, Scouting USA
  • NRA Training Counselor
  • Social Media experience – Firearm Trainer’s Podcast
  • Hunter – Not only hunts but is a hunting safety instructor

This is the type of person we need on the Board of Directors and I would urge you to sign his petition.

Uncategorized

Town Hall With Doug Hamlin

June 24, 2025 by

This Thursday, June 26th, NRA EVP Doug Hamlin will be holding an online town hall at 8pm EDT.

Use this link to register for the town hall: nraorg.webex.com/weblink/register/r312f0632a0597fdd15f19ab91332807c

I can tell you from personal experience that Doug listens to both the members and the Board of Director. Contrast that with Wayne LaPierre who only listened to his personal clique and treated the rest of the Board like vassals seeking the king’s blessings.

This is your chance to ask questions. Use it.

Uncategorized

“Allegedly Plotting to Overturn” Stein’s Veto Of Permitless Carry

June 23, 2025 by 2 Comments

The hyperbole used by the anti-rights forces is always amusing even if it is downright disingenuous.

My case in point. I received a press release about an hour ago from an Olivia Eguia representing a trio of Bloomberg organizations. They included Everytown, the Demanding Moms, and the Demanding Students (or is it petulant Gen Z’ers).

Included in the press release is a quote from a Mary Lahr Cain who reportedly is a volunteer with the Demanding Moms. Ms. Cain, if her LinkedIn profile is to be believed, was the editor of a defunct weekly newspaper out of Fuquay-Varina called the Cleveland Post.

“After Governor Stein stood up for public safety and the will of North Carolinians, extremist Republican lawmakers are allegedly working behind closed doors to override his veto last week and make this dangerous bill law before their constituents even know what’s happening,” said Mary Lahr Cain, a volunteer with North Carolina Moms Demand Action. “I’m outraged that our legislators would do this in secret instead of listening to the people they were elected to represent. Our families deserve transparency and laws that keep us safe — not political games and backroom deals that put lives at risk.”

OMG! Those evil Republicans are working behind closed doors to carry out their constitutional duties under Section 22 of the North Carolina Constitution. I would go on to note that the committee hearings on SB 50 – Freedom to Carry NC – were open to the public in both houses of the General Assembly. Moreover, the votes on the bill were done in public and a roll call vote was held.

What the anti-rights forces are calling “the will of North Carolinians” is nothing more than a poll, which with the right wording, can be made to favor any position you want.

In his veto message, Gov. Josh Stein (D-NC) said, “authorizing teenagers to carry a concealed weapon with no training whatsoever is dangerous.” I am all for training regardless of whether a permit is required or not and for people of all ages However, teenagers age 18 and older can currently carry a weapon with no training whatsoever. They just are required to do it openly and that is their constitutional right per State v. Kerner (1921) Those with criminal intent already ignore the law and will carry in whatever manner they choose. Seriously, what is a misdemeanor penalty of 30 days for a first offender when compared to 17 years for armed robbery?

Lest anyone forget, a majority of the states in the US currently allow permitless concealed carry. The addition of North Carolina would bring the total number to 30 with five out of the 10 largest states allowing it.

Cherry-picking statistics to bolster your argument is not a convincing way to win. Looking at what has not happened in the states that have adopted permitless concealed carry is more instructive. That is, blood has not run in the streets.

To conclude, sure there are politics involved with any bill. It was political that the General Assembly passed SB 50, it was political that Gov. Josh Stein vetoed the bill to appease his constituency, and it will be political how and when the Republican leaders choose to hold an override vote.

Uncategorized

Suppressor Steve

June 22, 2025 by 7 Comments

The Senate Finance Committee amendments are the best as they remove suppressors, short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, and any other weapons from the NFA. In addition, there is language that will satisfy state requirements requiring registration or licensing under the NFA.

 Call the U.S. Senate switchboard operator at (202) 224-3121 to connect with your state’s U.S. Senators – tell them once again to pass the Finance Committee’s firearm and related tax reforms in full.

As I have said from the beginning, you don’t get what you don’t ask for – or in this case, demand. While it may be more that we expect to get, we still should get something if only the suppressor portion.

PS: Regular blogging will resume. The Complementary Spouse and I just spent 9 days in Alaska seeing the sights and visiting my cousin Ginny.