2013 – Page 51 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Monday News Links

Posting will be a bit scarce this week because of the approaching holiday weekend, and my impending office move that will go along with it. But I do have some news links.

Even after Sandy Hook, Maine’s gun laws remain unchanged.

Manchin is upset that Beretta played their hand very well, and made him look like a chump.

Democracy and distrust.

Canadians can sometimes get guns we can’t. Our importation laws are more strict than Canada’s.

Quite a crowd showed up in Colorado for Magpul’s magazine event. The Daily Caller has more.

A British couple freaks out over ammunition in their garden.

New Jersey appeal over permits to carry has a poor result.Â This is a state court decision, and New Jersey State courts have long been hostile to civilian firearm ownership.

Government at work with guns.

More Illinois towns are preparing for gun control.

Two of Bloomberg’s pet projects are battling each other over Marco Rubio.

SAF is filing a FOIA request for all information in regards to MAIG’s activity with taxpayer money. This should be interesting, but do think they ought to talk to FloridaCarry, who has already done some work in this area.

Keeping the world safe from bottled water, with guns drawn. Even if it was alcohol, guns drawn? Seriously?

It looks like one mid-state Pennsylvania Republican is putting in a request for some state economic investment dollars to go for luring gun companies to the Commonwealth from anti-gun states. Back in February, several lawmakers at the state level started writing letters to gun companies in unfriendly states asking them to consider Pennsylvania.

I’m not really going to comment on the use of millions of taxpayer dollars to bring gun companies in since I don’t know much about the program. In the article, the third paragraph describes the $38 million as matching grants that sound like handouts, but then eight paragraphs later, the program is described as a loan program.

Kahr has already signed a contract with Pike County, PA authorities as of mid-June to start the process of getting permits and engineers out to a 620-acre business park that they can snatch up for $2 million. They’ve apparently already hired many of the firms needed to seal the deal, and they started a search for someone to oversee the process. (Oddly, even though the company was already starting the process of securing the Pennsylvania property, they apparently had a contest on Facebook asking fans what state they should move to.)

Colorado Officially Moves into the Anti-Gun Column

As of midnight last night, it’s become the new Maryland. But unlike Maryland, perhaps Colorado can be turned around. Michael Bane offers this useful advice:

If you must travel through Denver and Boulder, I strongly suggest that ALL magazines of greater than 15 round capacity, including grandfathered magazines, beÂ LOCKED IN A CASE! If stopped by law enforcement in the Denver/Boulder area, under NO CONDITION agree to a search of your car, the car’s trunk or any locked cases in your car or truck. Under NO CONDITION answer any questions about the content of the cases. If the heads of the IRS can take the Fifth in front of Congress, you can certainly do so with the local police. Under NO CONDITION leave a magazine with a capacity of greater than 15 rounds visible in your car or truck, or you’re fair game for a search. Be polite, but be firm…in the absence of probable cause, police can’t go on a fishing expedition in your car unless you let them.

RTWT. It’s a sad state of affairs, but until Colorado is freed, this is the protocol.

Happy Canada Day

This weekend Bitter and I attended a wedding of a friend of mine in Ottawa, Ontario. I’ve been to Montreal and Toronto several times, but I had never been to Ottawa. It’s not unlike our own capital in look and feel, except their Parliament building is in the gothic style.

But many of the Canadian government buildings which house the large bureaucracies don’t look much different than our own. Showing left is Canada’s parliament building, which was unfortunately blocked from the front by the stage for the Canada Day activities beginning today. We decided to get back to the US before Canada Day, since the locals told us things could get pretty crazy. I’m sure Canada’s definition of crazy is probably pretty mild and polite, unless it involves losing a hockey game, in which case it only gets sad. I managed to snap a picture of the Supreme Court of Canada which will soon be hearing the case involving Quebec’s challenge to the destruction of the federal long gun registry.Â As the article mentioned, Quebec suffered a devastating loss in the Court of Appeals, not only losing the case, but having to pay court costs. Quebec wants to retain a copy of the registry to use in order to form the basis of a planned provincial registry. The entire capital area is under quite a lot of construction. Probably the best capital improvements a shale oil an gas boom can buy. Canada’s economy has weathered the financial crisis quite well. Ottawa is also the entrance to the Rideau Canal system, which was constructed in the 1830s as a means to move goods from Ottawa to Kingston on Lake Ontario in the event a war with the United States. Now it’s mostly used for pleasure boating, and operated by the Canadian park service as a historic landmark:

It’s a nice city. If you ever have an opportunity to go sometime, I’d recommend it. I’ll be getting back to regular blogging shortly, but it’ll take me a while to catch up. I also have a number of other things going on which require my attention.

West Virginia Lost Jobs Due to Joe Manchin

Remind me that the next time I’m at an event with Jeff Reh from Beretta that I just need to go hug him and tell him he’s awesome. Hell, maybe I need to convince Sebastian to treat me to a Beretta firearm as a reward. He’d probably find that less creepy than a hug from someone he doesn’t really know at all well.

Why am I lovin’ on Beretta tonight? Because of this incredibly awesome letter Jeff Reh, Beretta’s general counsel, wrote to West Virginia officials citing the actions of Sen. Joe Manchin as the reason they will not consider any expansion into the state–an expansion that would bring with it more jobs.

In a letter to the Hardy County Rural Development Authority, Reh wrote that Beretta analyzed each state that offered the company a new home to determine its stance on Second Amendment rights.

“As a consequence of that analysis and especially due to Senator Manchin’s recent legislative choices we have decided not to consider your State for our future plans of expansion,” he wrote.

“We know that anti-gun sentiments are not shared by everyone within your State but we are looking first and foremost for a widespread and stable place of political support in any potential location.”

This is a gift to the next challenger to Sen. Manchin, and the headlines it is producing put into direct context the consequences of Manchin’s actions in Washington.

Groupon Responds to Markets

Perhaps in an effort to save their stock value that has been falling almost since they went public, Groupon has decided not to run their business based on politics anymore. They have recently started offering shooting sports & training coupons again in areas where there was strong interest from both consumers and businesses.

The funniest part of the article is from Coalition to Stop Gun ~~Violence~~ Ownership who decried that Groupon didn’t put out a press release in advance of the change. Ladd declares such policy changes without notifying ~~him~~ the media to be “wrong” and “underhand[ed].”

Lost & Stolen Reporting for Us, Not Them

I find it interesting that not a single city in Pennsylvania with officials who claimed “lost & stolen” reporting criminal code was absolutely vital to fighting street gun crimes has ever charged anyone with violating the law. (They largely don’t do it because then it gives standing for us to sue.)

But it looks like any city with one of those laws on the books might want to take a closer look at any U.S. Park Police personnel working armed in their city limits. It turns out that federal government employees have a special talent for losing guns.

According to the report, investigators discovered 1,400 guns that were supposed to have been destroyed. An additional 198 handguns donated to the Park Police by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that are not reflected in official records are being housed in a building in Southeast D.C. There is no evidence that the wayward guns have found their ways into the hands of criminals, but the report noted that the Park Police might not be aware if they had.

They are so careless that they wouldn’t even know if they lost a gun and it ended up in criminal hands. Though one might not want to call it careless since their entire system of firearms management is apparently described as “conditions that would allow for theft and misuse of firearms, and the ability to conceal the fact if weapons were missing.” The report says that the attitude of not giving a damn where guns end up isn’t just a low-level employee thing, it apparently goes all the way up to the chief.

What Checks & Balances Really Means…

Since when did the concept of a three branch system of government end being defined as “whatever one guy wants to do”? I’m just curious about the understanding of checks and balances in Illinois after reading this article on the status of their concealed carry bill.

Many lawmakers expect Quinn to use the issue to try to help himself politically, taking advantage of his amendatory veto powers to rewrite the bill to make it more stringent. On Thursday, Madigan said she agreed that the governor would rewrite the bill.

The comments came at a luncheon where she encouraged female politicians to use their children as political props to create a “soft” image, but to be careful not to be so blatant about it that voters can actually see that they view their offspring as political tools.

Is That a Gun in Your Pocket Underwear…

It seems that one Pennsylvania police officer may have taken the joke about having a gun in one’s pants a little too seriously and actually confused underpants for a gun.

I’m not even going to attempt to judge the merits of the shooting or the lawsuit by the man who was shot against the city. I’m not sure where you begin when the situation begins with a man was standing in a dark alley holding a pair of black underwear.

Charges Against WV NRA T-Shirt Teen Dropped?

According to a very initial report from WOWK, it seems the criminal charges against the West Virginia teenager who wore an NRA t-shirt to school have been dropped.

As Sebastian said when I informed him of this update, the news of the dropped charges should have come with an apology letter that acknowledges they never should have brought them in the first place. Obviously, that’s unlikely.

I was hearing reports about attempts to organize rallies, and I’m sure we’re not the only ones who highlighted that the judge who banned the media from the courthouse in this case and the district attorney who oversees the two prosecutors who not only brought charges, but then tried to silence the boy and his family, are elected. They can still be sent home during the next election.

Year: 2013