2012 – Page 110 – Shall Not Be Questioned

NSSF Is Not Advocating Expanding Classes of Prohibited Persons

It seems every time mental health issues come up in relation to gun laws, folks suggest that the class of prohibited persons is being expanded. That’s probably because mental health prohibitions are among the most poorly understood aspects of federal gun laws. NSSF stepped in it when they announced support for sharing of mental health records, since I’ve noticed at a number of blogs, folks suggestingÂ NSSF is selling out. This isn’t really the case, but to understand why that is takes a bit of an explanation on federal law. States often have their own prohibitions, which can be stronger or weaker than federal law, but I won’t dive into that here. I’ll concentrate solely on federal law, which is what most states generally follow in their own laws.

A mental health adjudication only occurs when a person is involuntarily committed, or held to be mentally ill by a competent judge, board or other lawfully composed body in an adversarial hearing. They cannot apply because someone sought mental health treatment on their own, or if they are suffering from depression, PTSD or what have you. The law very specifically requires an adjudication.

Now, that said, there have been cases in the past where some federal agencies, particularly the VA, entered veterans records into NICS who were deemed unable to manage their own affairs. This issue has been fixed, however, and the VA can no longer legally do such a thing unless there’s been a hearing. In addition, there is now a mechanism for restoration of rights from someone who has been adjudicated or committed in the past, but is now no longer a danger to themselves or others.

As to the issue NSSF is advocating for, which is that state mental health records in regards to commitments and adjudications be shared with the federal system. Many states currently don’t do this, either because they can’t be bothered, or they have legal issues that prevent it.

So why do we care? Because a number of states operate as what is known as a “Point of Contact” states, meaning they maintain their own background check system. Pennsylvania is one such state. The states have fairly mixed records when it comes to maintaining their own systems. Pennsylvania’s is atrociously unreliable, as we have a recent example of here. In contrast, the FBI has done a rather good job at running the federal system in a professional manner, and it works much more reliably and cheaply than the POC systems in the states that have them. Additionally, if everyone used the federal system, we’d only have one leviathan to worry about. The federal system has had more protections put in place recently to prevent the kind of abuse that happens in POC systems, such as using the system to compile a backdoor registry, as has happened in Pennsylvania.

It would be beneficial if we could get rid of all the POC systems and put everyone on the federal system. It’s not perfect, but a step in the right direction. The lack of mental health records in NICS is going to be a big club for our opponents to defeat anti-POC bills, as the lack of sharing is an issue that politicians are going to be inclined to listen to. If the federal system and state systems contain the same data, it’s much easier to make a cost saving argument to the powers that be, which helps give some softer legislators some cover to vote for an anti-POC measure as a bill that merely eliminates redundancy and saves taxpayer money. In addition, that can also be used as justification for eliminating restrictions on buying firearms out of state. If we’re all using the same system, and it has all the same data, what can be the justification for now allowing FFLs to make transfers to residents of another state?

So what NSSF is advocating is not in any way an expansion of who is and who isn’t a prohibited person. As I stated last time this issue came up, just because NICS didn’t have a record, and cleared you, doesn’t mean you have a get out of jail free card on being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm if you are under a mental health prohibition. There’s relatively little harm in what NSSF is advocating, in terms of mental health records, with the potential of a lot of ground that could be gained if lawmakers feel good that the federal system has all the records it needs to determine if someone is under a mental health prohibition.

Cozying Up to the Wrong Group?

Senate hopeful Don Stenberg seems to have put his faith in Gun Owners of America:

Stenberg had hoped to discuss the Fast and Furious investigation and Attorney General Eric Holder at the forum sponsored by Gun Owners of America, the Grand Island Independent reported.

A noble goal, but GOA doesn’t have the turnout machine to fill rooms. and as I’ve shown have questionable grading standards. Either way it goes, this ends up looking bad for gun owners. Sometimes I wish a lot of these smaller groups would understand their own strengths and weaknesses, and work within those. You should have some idea, if you’re a group like GOA, what you can accomplish in terms of turn out. If you fail, as has happened here, it just makes the movement as a whole look bad.

On the Greek Elections

I was using the recent example of the Greeks electing 25 members of what is essentially a Nazi-like party to the Greek ParliamentÂ in a conversation with CSGV, as further refutation of their notion that sometimes democratic republics fail. Here’s what they had to say:

I don’t know if Skippy the Intern is running the Twitter feed here, but there’s somewhere on the order of 50,000,000 people, and about 6 million jews, who would take exception to the notion that far-right participation in European governance has never lead to catastrophe. That is, they’d take exception if they were still alive. But they aren’t alive, because the far-right governance in Europe decided to kill them all in a bit of a catastrophe the rest of us call the Second World War. They continue digging:

Yes, and if only the Weimar government had instituted strict gun controls, perhaps World War II never would have happened, since we all know gun control is quite effective at stopping National Socialists from arming themselves.

Our opponents are poor students of history, and naive in regards to human nature. The perfectibility of man has always been a conceit of the left. The Judeo-Christian tradition of viewing mankind as fallen is probably the more accurate way to approach questions of human nature. Civilization is a very thin veneer, easily scratched off, and what’s under the veneer is very very ugly. The disarmed Germans found that out the hard way.

CSGV Taken to Task by Daily Caller

Looks like Coalition to Stop Gun Ownership Communication Director Ladd Everitt is continuing his very best Baghdad Bob impersonation, this time denying to the Daily Caller that Fast and Furious has had all that much impact on people’s lives.

Coalition spokesman Ladd Everitt argued that there was no evidence for The Daily Caller to report that â€œ[t]here are hundreds of Mexican citizens who were murdered with weapons the Obama administration gave to cartels through Fast and Furious and two American law enforcement officers â€” Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata â€” were killed with Fast and Furious guns.â€

Everitt argued that he didnâ€™t think there is â€œactual trace and ballistics evidence to prove that conclusively.â€

So we can count on the National Coalition to Ban Handguns to drop its support for ballistics databases then? I mean, since it doesn’t work and all. But this is further proof that their phony baloney concern for gun violence is nothing but a ruse. I never thought I’d see the day when “gun violence prevention” groups covered for an administration aiding and abetting illegal smuggling of firearms. I always knew they were dishonest, but I did not believe they would stoop that low.

USS Olympia, C-6

Philadelphia happens to host the oldest steel warship still afloat (for now). Bitter had never seen it, and since this weekend they were having special tours of the engine room (which in my several visits, I never had the opportunity to see), I decided now was time. She is a grand historic ship. Originally laid down in June of 1891, Commissioned in February of 1895, and finally decommissioned in December of 1922. She is a hero of the Spanish American War, having cruised into Manila Harbor and crushed the Spanish fleet. Her last active mission was to bring the remains of the Unknown Soldier from France to Arlington National Cemetery in October of 1921.

The Dentist Chair abord the USS Olympia.

Dental Instruments, USS Olympia. Late 19th Century Dentistry is scary.

The Dispensary. USS Olympia. This is where you could get your opium and whiskey, with a dash of mercury.

What's the Scuttlebutt at the Scuttlebutt? USS Olympia

Admiral's & Captain's Quarters, USS Olympia

Out the Portal in the Captain's Quarters, USS Olympia

USS Olympia, Admiral's Quarters, With Fireplace

USS Olympia, 5in gun, Primed, Ready to Fire

Mark 7, 6 lb breech loaded gun, dated 1898

Steam Pressure Gauge, USS Olympia, 7/21/1922

USS Olympia, Engine Room, Connecting Rod to Piston

USS Olympia, Engine Room, Connecting Rod to Crank Shaft

USS Olympia, Engine Room, Auxiliary Engine

USS Olympia, Engine Room, Cranks and Cams

Manila Bay, Where the USS Olympia Made Her Name

Built by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, 1893

It was both a big disappointment and delightful for me to see the engine room. I had always looked down into it, but had never actually been in it, since it was not an area of the ship that often was open for tours. It was delightful to see it was actually in remarkable shape. But it was a disappointment to know, at the end of the day, it was still a dead museum ship.

While I like the fact that Olympia is a museum ship, and hope she finds the funds to continue being such, there is a large part of me that wishes I was wealthy enough to buy this ship outright from the Navy, and not only restore her to top notch museum quality ship, but enable her to once again steam under her own power. I think she could do that. I asked our naval tour guide about this, and he mentioned that many of the auxiliary steam engines can still turn easily by hand, and demonstrated such. I was surprised this would be the case on a 120 year old ship, where the boilers have been offline since 1922. But I saw it. I think I’d almost feel better if her engines were rusted hulks, which is where the disappointment comes in. It feels worse to consider some steam engines on a 120 year old ship, the oldest steel ship still in existence, can still be turned by hand, and yet she may still end up being fish habitat in a few years without proper funding.

Could you get a head of steam on the boilers? Could the system still hold steam? The screw’s main bearing still push a ship? If there was a problem, where would you get parts? I wish I was rich enough to find out.

I am not the kind of guy who is very much interested in taking a cruise, but I’d pay a lot of money to be a fly on the wall on Olympia under full steam. I’d love to try my hand at some of the guns. Could she be restored to full glory? Would it require too much replacement of vintage with modernity? I don’t know. But she deserves better than an uncertain fate, and possibly as a sunken marine habitat off Cape May, New Jersey, which is her fate if funds can’t be raised to save her. I’d hate to lose this unique bit of history.

Happy Cinco de Mayo

I think the holiday is now celebrated more in the United States than in Mexico. But that is probably appropriate. The day celebrates the defeat of the French Army against a numerically inferior and more poorly equipped Mexican Army. The geopolitical consequence was to keep Napoleon III out of North America, and also prevented the French intervening on the side of the Confederacy. So it is no small irony that the reason the Union remained intact is thanks to 4,000 Mexicans who never considered, on May 5th, 1862, that they didn’t stand a chance against a French army twice its size.

Nevertheless, the French ultimately prevailed in installing a puppet government in Mexico, but after the end of the American Civil War, the United States was able to provide assistance to the Mexican liberals to expel the puppet government, thus ending monarchy in Mexico. So today is a day you can drink to Union, the eventual end of monarchal rule in Mexico, and a French military defeat. I can drink to that.

SPLC Double Standard on Domestic Terrorism

If you’re a huckster like Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, only some kinds of domestic terrorists are worthy of following closely. Others, not so much.

â€œWeâ€™re not really set up to cover the extreme Left,â€ they admit when, after several occupiers were busted in a plot to destroy a bridge, they are confronted with whether they plan to follow the Occupy movement.

A more honest answer would be that the people who bankroll the SPLC are far lefties, and “not really set up to cover the extreme Left,” means they don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them. But at least you know what SPLC is all about.

Ted Nugent Says Mitt Backed His Rhetoric

The media doesn’t seem to want to let this issue die, but then again, it would seem that neither does Ted Nugent. Is it good for Romney, or bad for Romney? I tend to think that Romney is better off without the controversy, but Romney also has a hard time reaching the kind of people Ted Nugent reaches.

OC Fail in California

Now they are looking to ban open carry of rifles.

Constitutional Carry in Pennsylvania

It would seem that we have a bill introduced, HB2176. It does not, at this point, have many cosponsors, and has yet to be scheduled for a hearing. It would be worthwhile to put pressure on the members of the House Judiciary Committee to try to get this a hearing.

It is no doubt an uphill battle, and I expect this time around, it won’t even get a hearing. But it’s worthwhile to get it on legislator’s radar screens.