More Feigned Easement of Draconian Laws

In Puerto Rico. Their easement looks more like Chicago’s:

Torres said the measures will include a requirement that shooting ranges keep logs of how much ammunition their members use and cap the number of bullets each client can fire in target practice at 500 per year.

I’d say that’s still pretty unambiguously unconstitutional to place limits such as that.

The House legislation under analysis would require gun clubs to maintain logs that include information relative to the quantity and caliber of the ammunition that shooters use onsite. It would revoke licenses from any such business that does not comply with the legislation.

Puerto Rico might end up being a pretty good place to get some lawsuits going, considering it’s restrictions are even more onerous than Massachusetts’, and it resides in the same federal Circuit as a Massachusetts. Defeat licensing there, you defeat it in Massachusetts and Rhode Island as well.

9 thoughts on “More Feigned Easement of Draconian Laws”

  1. First: only 500 rounds per year?!? How the heck is someone supposed to get proficient with their arms? Trick shooters shoot about 100,000 to get proficient, and then 70,000 per year to maintain their proficiency. While most of us will never get into trick shooting, even 1,000 or 2,000 in a year would seem reasonable.

    Second: Puerto Rico is in the same district as Massachusetts? Yikes! It would be terrible to be indicted for a federal crime there: your defense could be far more expensive than if you lived in Massachusetts or Rhode Island, if you had to appeal up to too many levels. (I don’t know where the main Circuit Court is held, but I have a feeling it isn’t Puerto Rico.)

    Third: having said all this, I’d have to add that, yeah, it would be very nice to see some of these gun laws go down!

  2. If I’m not mistaken, the current government of Puerto Rico is Republican. Since Republicans are so concerned about the NRA endorsing Democrats, why not, instead of throwing a fit, doing something to farm the NRA’s loyalty? Specifically, announce that the national GOP will no longer endorse nor financially support anti-gun candidates. Them follow it up with a formal apology for all the years the GOP played the part of a junior partner to the Democrats on gun control issues. Maybe we can get Newt Gingrich, who forced the Lautenberg Amendment through without even letting the Congressmen read it, to actually give the apology. Until then, the cries of “betrayal” from a party that not only picked Mike Castle to run for Senate, but also deliberately undercut the pro-gun candidate who beat him, ring hollow. (I still oppose the narrowly avoided Reid endorsement, but as I stated at the time, that was a special case).

  3. That should have been “earn the NRA’s loyalty.” (It’s my word-recognition app at work).

  4. “While most of us will never get into trick shooting, even 1,000 or 2,000 in a year would seem reasonable.”

    What? Are you excusing the limit if it were just a little bigger? How about we have a 2000 word limit on blogs in a year?

    I shoot around 500 rounds a month just in matches, plus practice, and I’m not an ultra serious competition shooter.

  5. @Jeff: No, I am not trying to justify any limits. My point is that the 500 round limit is absurd…indeed, my point is, or rather ought to be, that any one of us ought to be free to shoot as many rounds as we would like, because proficiency is important, and every one of us ought to be free to be a trick shooter if we wake up tomorrow morning determined to become one.

    I apologize for my wording, though, because you’re right: it implies that the limit ought to be just a little bit bigger, rather than there should be no limit at all.

    “I shoot around 500 rounds a month just in matches, plus practice, and I’m not an ultra serious competition shooter.”

    Unfortunately, and I sort-of expected this to happen, I hit way below the mark. I have no experience with practicing pistol or rifle shooting (which is yet another issue: what happens to those who want to be proficient using more than one gun?), but I really wish I had the time and money to pursue such a thing…especially the money, because it would be much easier to find the time if I had the money :-).

    Having said all this: As I read and re-read my post, I can’t quite remember what I meant…but I think I meant “unreasonable” where I said “reasonable”; and at the very least, I was thinking about a bare-minimum “I can barely get to the range once or twice a year to practice for self-defense” standard. I’m really glad you called me out on this, because I’d hate to see my poorly-worded reaction stand.

  6. Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Sorry I was snappier than I should have been in my initial comment.

    Here’s some more of my perspective on round count. This is coming from someone who trains for self defense and is an avid but not extreme action pistol competitor.

    The bare minimum I’d expect of someone who took carrying for self defense seriously is probably 1500 rounds a year of live fire, supplemented with some dry fire. Say a 100 round practice session once/month, an hour of dry fire once a week, and a 300 round 1-2 day class once a year.

    The average occasional competitor I know probably shoots 200-300 a month.

    The slightly more serious competitor (I fall in this category) probably shoots between 5k and 10k per year. This is 3-4 matches per month plus some practice sessions.

    Competitors serious enough to travel to matches outside of driving range probably shoots 10k-20k / year or more. The guys you see shooting on TV might be a few times that.

  7. I fire about 500 autoloader rounds a week, and another 100-200 in rifle rounds… This is insane!

  8. One of the reasons I will not be returning to my homeland (though I haven’t been able to escape Mass). The government in PR is NOT Republican, the parties in the island don’t match up with Dems or GOP. There are no conservatives, everyone is on the dole or looking on how to get on it.

    Pretty sad what the welfare state brought to the place. Drug running and trafficking are what drive the gun violence. You can’t even get a carry permit unless you’re connected and go in front of a judge to plead your case and have a “good” reason to get one.

  9. @Jeff: There’s no need to apologize. When I re-read my first post, I thought “Eeek! Did I write that?!?” so a clarification was indeed needed.

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