Prof. Joe Olsen Expressed Concern About St. Anthony Police

This was prior to the Castile shooting:

Instead, the stop was so troubling that he later went to the then-St. Anthony police chief to tell him he may have a serious problem with how the department conducts traffic stops. But the chief, Olson said, dismissed his concern.

“I told him that if you don’t fix this, you’re going to have an even bigger problem,” Olson said. “And that’s apparently what happened.”

Read the whole thing. Joe Olsen is one of the academics responsible for the Heller and McDonald decisions, and has been a RKBA activist for a long time. Longer than I’ve been alive.

The Big Contradiction

Cam Edwards latest column:

Have you noticed the cognitive dissonance that many supporters of “common-sense” gun control have been exhibiting as of late? I’m not sure it’s possible to support more gun-control laws and oppose “mass incarceration” or “excessive policing” policies. How can someone argue that young men of color are overpoliced, while at the same time calling for more non-violent-offender gun laws to be placed on the books?

Cam goes on to ponder why the media was quick to jump on NRA’s lack of commentary, then cautious commentary on the Castile shooting, but isn’t asking Bloomberg about his “stop and frisk” policies that he promoted as mayor, which even he conceded disproportionally jailed minorities for non-violent offenses.

One in Five Dems Think Guns Should be Illegal

Both Joe Huffman and Gun Free Zone are writing about Vox survey which asked people whether certain guns should be banned by sight. Twenty percent of Democrats, that’s one-in-five, think even flare guns ought to be banned, and all surveyed folks are dead split on whether the Remington 700 ought to be banned. I haven’t seen the survey methodology to suggest whether it’s any good, so I’m not going to take this too seriously. But I keep saying we’re heading into heap big trouble if gun owners keep sitting on their collective posteriors.

I do think the other side is succeeding in building their movement back up again, and I believe this election has the potential to lay waste to gun rights. It’s gloomy, but I have a lot of reasons to feel gloomy about our prospects. I think a lot of people don’t believe we can end up back where we were in the 1990s. We absolutely can.

Dems Introduce HEART Act

No teaching your kids shooting with scary looking rifles, because they just HEART you and your kids, you see… totally more than you do, so they get to make the calls.

“Even at a shooting age and under professional guidance, a semi-automatic rifle in a child’s hands is a tragedy waiting to happen,” Mr. Markey said. “These weapons are not toys and children should not be allowed to play with them. They are simply too powerful and too difficult for a child to control.”

What the hell does Ed Markey know about firearms training? The purpose of this is to prevent us from passing the culture on to future generations so they have better odds of killing off the hunting and shooting culture off in the future.

Real Controversy? Or Ginned Up by the Media?

There’s been articles in both the Washington Post and The Guardian about how NRA is split over the whole Castile police shooting. Personally, I think it’s better for NRA not to go off half-cocked at events like this until all the facts are in. For events like this, it’s often good to look at what NRA News is saying, since they are NRA’s official unofficial spokespeople (meaning they say things NRA can’t since they don’t officially speak for the NRA):

NRA is always going to be reluctant to risk coming across as anti-cop because a) police and former police compromise a decent percentage of the membership, and b) when NRA has gone up against law enforcement in the past, NRA has lost. You can lament that state of affairs, but it is the state of affairs.

NRA is never going to have a knee jerk reaction to events like this, and to be honest, they shouldn’t. The Civil Rights Defense Fund often takes cases involving people, and yes, even black people, who’s civil rights were unjustly violated, but they are very careful about which cases they back. Again, they should be.

I think the division is not necessarily ginned up by the media, but is real. NRA is a coalition, just like any other movement, and we don’t all come to this issue from the same set of principles. There are libertarian NRA members, like myself and I suspect a lot of readers, who are very concerned with civil liberties and police overreach. But there are also a lot of NRA members who are populist and think the police can do no wrong. The folks in Fairfax have to be concerned with keeping these people focused on the issue and not at each other’s throats. That’s not an easy job.

Wayne LaPierre SWATed?

According to this article, about the conviction of the man who reportedly did this to several celebrities:

Islam’s conspiracy made a fake call to police, leading police to the NRA head’s Virginia home and leading them to “briefly detain” him, LaPierre’s lawyer said.

The dude’s last name is Islam, just to be clear. Sounds like he was a recluse and probably a bit off his rocker. He also published Mike Bloomberg’s Social Security Number, so it doesn’t seem like he’s just picking sides here. Sounds like a loser who needs to feel powerful.

Either way, he got two years.

Ladd Everitt Leaves CSGV

He’s joined George Takei’s new gun control group “One Pulse for America,” as Director. I’d ponder whether this represents rats off the sinking ship, but given that going from Communication’s Director of a small gun control group to running a whole new group which may end up being more successful represents a promotion, and it’s probably something I’d take (were I in his shoes) even if CSGV isn’t headed down.

Takei doesn’t have the coin to fund a group at nearly the level Bloomberg does, so it will be interesting to see how this works out. One thing is for sure, Pink Pistols and Operation Blazing Sword just got a lot more important. Have it it folks! Ladd Everitt is now your new arch nemesis.

Media Goes After C&R? Really?

Yellow Journalism Ahead

CBS News reports, or rather misreports, because they don’t know what they are talking about:

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives calls the SKS rifle Micah Johnson used to kill five Dallas police officers on July 7 a “Curio or Relic.”

Due to this status, which the SKS shares with many other models of Berettas, Colts, Remingtons, Rugers and other firearms that are at least 50 years old, gun dealers said that in some states and jurisdictions the Soviet-era rifle can be purchased online and delivered to your door without securing a permit.

Um, you can only have one of these “delivered to your door” if you apply for a Federal Firearms License. So you do indeed need to secure a “permit,” whatever the fuck they think that means.

Yes, old technology can still be pretty effective in the hands of a well-trained shooter. Yes, having a ten round fixed magazine is not really much of an impediment to a well-trained shooter either. This is why we keep saying that assault weapons bans are stupid. The SKS is legal even in California, with it’s very severe Assault Weapons Ban. Even the new ban allows the SKS.

I also love how in these articles, they always talk about how quickly you can apply for a license. How long should it take? There’s only so much information they need to know to run a background check. You half expect if they aren’t asking you the name of your pet hamster when you were a kid, then it cannot, of course, be very thorough.

It sure would be nice if they actually took the time to understand how all this stuff works before writing about it.

Weekly Gun News – Edition 42

I hate to start a week with a news links post, but I have too many tabs, and they need a clearin’. This is a mix of old and new news.

NPR is forced to issue a correction that Shannon Watts isn’t just some stay at home mom that decided to stand up and do something about gun control.

Three Strategies to Beat the NRA. None of these will work because they still don’t get what really makes us successful. Hint: it’s not a top down movement.

Why are anti-gun people so violent? I hope the good professor here knows that NRA HQ being a gun free zone is a myth perpetrated by gun control groups.

Uber is and remains an anti-gun company.

Hawaii puts gun owners into FBI Database. Expect other states to follow this.

Forbes: “Law Professor Demands Repeal Of ‘Outdated’ Second Amendment, Makes Very Weak Case

This reporter schools New York Daily News Reporter Gresh Kuntzman.

A way around California’s new AWB.

Gun Control groups target Rubio (R-FL), Ayotte (R-NH), and Johnson (R-WI). Good to see Ayotte’s capitulations paying off for her.

Charleston Church victim sues FBI over gun buy.

Fifth Circuit: No Second Amendment Right to a Machine Gun. In truth, we’ll be lucky to get protections against semi-auto bans.

Jim Geraghty: “We should all be afforded the time and space to mourn, to process, to cope. But it’s hard to take a deep breath and reflect when your Twitter feed blows up with complete strangers insisting “YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!” for the actions of a madman.

Joe Huffman: Gun Access Makes Women Safer.

York Dispatch: A surprisingly positive article about gun shows.

Slate: “Whatever Happened to Michael Bloomberg’s Anti-Gun Crusade? It still exists—and it’s starting to work.” They don’t hate money in politics. They just hate your money in politics.

Times Union: “Second Amendment not an unrestrained license to kill.” Who argued that it was? It sure would be nice if they argued about things we actually believed.

Shocker: “Study Learns Chicago Criminals DON’T Buy Their Guns Legally.

Non Gun:

The New Censorship: “How did Google become the internet’s censor and master manipulator, blocking access to millions of websites?

City Journal: “Elected on themes of hope and renewal, his very ascendancy a powerful statement about the country’s racial journey, he chose to use the White House as a vehicle to introduce a new era of racial grievance into our national discourse. Unfortunately, he succeeded in this effort—and failed America.” I’m seeing a lot more articles along these lines, and not just from conservative media.

Why No One Should Trust The Media

This Fox News bit is just rambling ignorance by three people who have no idea what they are talking about. There’s a bit where she talks about getting DNA off the casings. This woman is being sold as a forensics expert:

I’d say she ought to seek out a decent firearms class, but I’m not sure she’s the kind of person who is suitable to have a firearm.