2012 – Page 57 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The Big Tent

This is why I’m not opposed to coalitions for advancing a political agenda. At the RNC, GOProud had one helluva party from the descriptions and pictures. And they found that there are plenty of true Republican believers in the quote attributed to Ronald Reagan that someone who is with you on 80% of your issues isn’t your enemy.

I love the shirt logos – Freedom is Fabulous. Why? Because freedom is fabulous.

And to tie this into the main theme of the blog, there are allies on the gun issue who also stand up for GOProud.

Go-go boys and ladies wearing “freedom is fabulous” T-shirts and disco ball party favors were features of the party, which was attended by conservative players Dana Loesch, S.E. Cupp, Grover Norquist, Will Cain, Margaret Hoover, Roger Stone, Roger Simon and Richard Grenell, along with more than 600 others â€” including more than a handful of members of the media covering the party. …

In addition to De Pasquale, [David] Keane had signed on as a supporter of the party.

In that list are the NRA President and an NRA board member. That’s good news.

I also think GOProud’s presence in Tampa can serve as a learning opportunity for gun rights activists. When I saw this picture of the head of GOProud, I really only thought one thing: Who would want to hang out with the angry people? There’s not a single anti-gay protester in that shot who looks like they are happy in life or like they are excited to be out standing up for their cause. At the same time, the guy who is being insulted and called a singular threat to national security looks like he’s having a great time. The lesson? People are attracted to those who look like they are having fun and enjoying life. The way to get someone to the range so they can become your local pro-gun ally isn’t by being the grumpy dude bitching about everything that’s horrible in this country.

RAND Study on NYPD Firearms Training

Chris in Alaska has a link to a RAND study on the NYPD which confirms much of what was said here. From Chris’s conclusion regarding the RAND study:

As for the competency ofÂ civiliansÂ vs. police… Â It looks like best case a NYPD police recruit gets around two to four days at the range plus maybe up to 33 hours of classroom academics that could relate in some manner to weapons. Â Every six months they get one day at the range and 95 rounds of ammo for practice on a scripted known-distance target practice style range.

Alaska Tactical’s Defensive Handgun IÂ course is 24 hours of instruction over three range days. Â It also has pre-requisites, so applicants probably have some previous experience bringing them up to match or exceed the 33 hours at NYPD. Â Finally, the class size is small with a good coach to student ratio. Â Front Sight’s basic defensive pistol course is 4 days with 32 hours of instruction. Â That is clearly at least on par with if not exceeding the NYPD police academy requirements.

Furthermore, any civilian who attends IDPA or USPSA matches once every six months or more is getting more refresher training than NYPD. Â Heck, the civilian who goes to the range once every few months and puts a box or two of ammo through their pistol, alongÂ withÂ maybe a little dry fire at home, is doing WAY more than NYPD.

This is not to pooh pooh the profession, but to dispel the myth that a badge imparts magical gun handling competence. I think the officers in the NYPD case were correct to use lethal force, and everyone knows that firing under stress makes your groups go to shit. But a great way to inoculate against that effect is competition. Anyone know of any IPSC or IDPA matches run in New York City? I’d bet there’s not a one.

ATF Given Expanded Forfeiture Powers

Apparently Holder thinks it’s fine for ATF to try out being able to seize large amounts of cash under the assumption that it’s clearly to be used for an illegal transaction. What could possibly go wrong? Are gun owners who take their money out of the bank and stuff it under the mattress going to find it at risk now? I mean, clearly they were going to use it to buy guns illegally.

Great Social Commentary on Ammunition

Over at Joe Huffman’s. I will excerpt a portion:

Hollow points are evil because they’re made to inflict maximum damage upon soft flesh. Jacketed rounds are evil because they’re designed for military use, and penetrate armor. Lead rounds are evil because they poison our beloved vultures. Non-lead rounds are evil because they start fires and/or penetrate armor.

In response to concerns over the innate evilness of so much of their product line, in January of this year ammunition manufacturer ATK/Teksystems began investigating the possibility of crafting bullets exclusively from puppy love and rainbows, to be dubbed their new PLRB line of politically sensitive ammunition.

RTWT. I have nothing to add either.

On Gun People

There are a lot of different gun rights advocates that I’ve run into in my life, but if there’s one thing that I’ve found that’s absolutely true is that there are a lot of jackasses in this issue, and they are loud. Here’s an example:

Ready to defend the Second Amendmentâ€™s guarantee of the right to bear arms, gun lovers packed the council meeting, only to find a different tradition they didnâ€™t like. Corrales, a 300-plus-year-old village, pays tribute to its roots by saying the Pledge of Allegiance in both Spanish and English before each meeting. Itâ€™s been an unremarked-upon custom until the gun restriction meeting earlier this month. At that point, crowd members in love with the Second Amendment went to town to upend the First Amendment. According to news reports, the crowd began drowning out the Spanish pledge, shouting the words in English. The mayor stopped and invited people to use the language of their choosing, and the Spanish pledge began again. The shouting continued. No Spanish could be heard.

Personally, if a village whose history predates New Mexico as part of the United States wants to say the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish as well as English, what’s it to you? But even if you want to object to the practice, the polite way to do it would be to take it up with the Town Council, in addition to your other issues, not to engage in jackassery and just drown out the Spanish speaking people. Because, you know, that just might make gun owners come off as xenophobic boobs. The fundamental truth is that if we do not convince our new immigrants into this country the importance of the Second Amendment, and other American values, we will lose them. If they are easier to reach in Spanish as opposed to English, so be it. They certainly aren’t the first group of immigrants, and certainly won’t be the last, to prefer their native language, and want to celebrate their ethnic heritage.

If these people had responded to a GOA alert, it would be one thing, but behavior like this makes me ashamed that they might also call themselves NRA members.

Anyone Else Tired of This Editorial Meme?

You see this a lot from vacuous editorial writersÂ that basically state, “Something Must Be Done!” No details, no policy prescriptions, just that we clearly have to do something, America, because before this editorial, pretty clearly we’ve done nothing.

It is time to do something. The hard fact is that too many guns land in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Each case is different, we know. Each one can somehow be explained away: He got the gun illegally; he stole it from his father; the weapon is legal but the shooter is crazy, and on and on.

Wait, wait… I have an idea… Maybe we should make it illegal for certain kinds of people to own guns, like felons and crazy people. We could also make stealing guns a serious crime. Hell, let’s just go whole hog here and suggest stiff federal sentences of up to 10 years for committing gun crimes. Juveniles should likewise be banned from possessing guns, and it should be a federal crime for them to take guns to school, with stiff penalties. You know what else might help? Background checks for people buying guns from a retail dealer. All that should clear this problem right up!

Campus Carry: The Horror

The New York Times has found a policy on segregated housing that it’s willing to endorse, it seems:

Gun-toting students 21 or older will be assigned to special housing on the Boulder and Colorado Springs campuses, where they must have safes to store their weapons when they are not carrying them. Or they can check them with the local police, Dodge City style.

I’m not OK with public universities interfering with the Second Amendment rights of adults, but I’m fine with requiring students who will keep firearms in a dorm to have a locking safe or cabinet. I think it would also be reasonable to mandate some kind of clearing station, even if it’s just a bucket of sand. The segregation is not OK. If a dorm mate objects to the presence of a firearm, then reassign them, and find them someone who doesn’t object. It’s not a hard solution.

Anyone Watching the Convention?

I’m a cable cutter, so it’s hard for me, but I found Fox had the best HD feed over the Internet. The conventions are pure political theater, and they are meant to be, but political theater can have its place as long as you’re putting on a good show. I only saw part of Ann Romney’s speech, which was pretty good. She’s pretty polished as a public speaker, and the speech was well written. Chris Christie is better off the cuff, I think, than he is scripted. For a while I was concerned they put him up there to give a fluff speech with no meat in it. There was some meat, but more fluff than I think was suitable for his personality.

One thing is for sure, with the convention going on, there’s not going to be as much happening on the gun news front, but we’ll try to cover. Especially if the Republican manage to say something about guns at their convention. For once, all I really want from the GOP is a good Supreme Court justice to make the votes 6-3, so we can afford to lose a justice and still win.

NY Police Officer on NYPD Training

A reader sent this along, from a NY cop detailing how much training the typical New York Cop receives. Someone in the comment section brought up citizen concealed carry holders, and he remarks:

Any average CCW citizen who practices more then twice a year pretty much has most of the department beat in terms of training.

That’s scary. I’m also struck by this admission:

The NYPD offers once a month training for members to use, on their own time. However, all that is done during these sessions are the same basic dumbed down qualification exercises. You will only receive real help if you outright fail. Missed 12 out of fifty @ 7 yards? GOOD ENOUGH!

MOST NYPD officers fire their FIRST gun, ever in their entire lives, at the police academy, some as young as 21 to as old as 35 shooting for their very first time, and on a DAO pistol.

As I mentioned, when you destroy your civilian gun culture, you have nothing to draw from when you need a cadre of men proficient at arms, and bureaucracies are very very bad at providing this kind of training. This is merely dangerous when you can’t hire competent gunmen to be police, when you can’t find them for military purposes, it represents an existential threat to national security.

This would have been no surprise to William Church, New Yorker, Civil War veteran, founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Journalist for the New York Times, and founder of the National Rifle Association. Nor would it have been any great revelation to General George Wingate, New Yorker, Civil War veteran, and also a founder of the National Rifle Association. These men started the NRA to address the very problem Bloomberg now faces today, who believed the solution was a healthy civilian shooting culture, even in New York City. Indeed, the NRA’s first range wasn’t far:

The first President of the “National Rifle Association,” as it was called, wasÂ General Ambrose E. BURNSIDE, who made a very good figure-head, but under whose leadershipÂ nothing was accomplished. It was not till the second year of its existence that any realÂ progress was made. Then, by the efforts of the new President, Colonel CHURCH of theÂ “Army and Navy Journal,” and the Secretary, Mr. George W. WINGATE, the New York LegislatureÂ of 1872 was induced to appropriate $25,000 for the purchase of a range near New York city,Â the Association agreeing to raise $5,000 on its part.

Can you imagine the State of New York helping NRA build a range near New York City today, and allocating money for its construction? Witness Chicago doing everything it possibly can to keep ranges out of its city. Witness New York City, whose Mayor goes into fits any time we dare to speak of restoring the Second Amendment for New Yorkers, including for its police officers. Other, more sensible New Yorkers, from an earlier time when people did not recoil at the thought of firearms, knew the solution. It’s a pity Bloomberg never will.

French Army and the FAMAS

A guest post by someone who has been in the French Army detailing the issues surrounding the FAMAS and its eventual replacement. Personally, if I were calling the shots for the French Army, I’d go with the French made AR variant, rather than buying replacements from the Austrians or Germans. It’s kind of amazing how some of the world’s major militaries are fielding assault rifles that are less than stellar. I understand the SA-80 used by her Majesty’s armed forces is less than wonderful, the FAMAS has it’s set of known problems. The Italians field the AR70/90, which I don’t know much about function wise, but it’s a heavy beast at close to 9 lbs, not much lighter than an M1 Garand. The Styer AUG is popular, adopted by several armed forces around the world, but I just don’t think the ergonomics of it have ever looked that great to me (not really a huge fan of bullpups).

For all the faults the AR platform may have, compared to what some other NATO countries are fielding, I’m not sure I’d want to trade.