January 2014 – Page 7 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The 7th Circuit Continues to Please

By now most of you have probably seen the news about the ruling in the 7th Circuit tossing Chicago’s ban on gun transfers and sales within city limits. I think the result in the 7th Circuit speaks in favor of taking this issue to the federal courts. I get pessimistic and gloomy sometimes about our prospects of real protections out of the federal courts, but the 7th circuit rulings stand against my pessimism. They’ve been willing to take the right more seriously than other federal circuits. The Court here reasoned that Chicago could not claim to be discouraging criminal acquisition when it likewise discouraged ordinary acquisition:

But these transaction costs are also borne by law-abiding residents of these neighborhoods, who are equally parochial and may suffer many of the same dangers by crossing into gang-infested territory. So whatever burdens the City hopes to impose on criminal users also falls squarely on law-abiding residents who want to exercise their Second Amendment right.

It’s great to see a federal court calling BS on the longstanding argument that it’s just fine to generally discourage exercise of the right because it also discourages criminals.

Local Gun Bans Still Illegal

There’s good news for Erie, PA gun owners this morning with the Commonwealth Court finding that an Erie trial court was in the wrong for not issuing an injunction against the city when the city’s solicitor threatened enforcement of their (illegal) ban on guns in city parks against gun owners looking to have a rally.

Local Sheriff Resignation

I forgot to blog this over the holidays, but a local sheriff resigned her position to accept a job at a local university. I’m sure the pay is comfortable, and she doesn’t have to run a re-election campaign. However, this is relevant to Montgomery County, PA gun owners because she did actually announce at public events that she “signed licenses,” something he predecessor did not do.

What kind of licenses did she mean while talking about the kind that her predecessor wouldn’t sign? Form 4.

The replacement sheriff has to be a Republican, according to this article, and will be appointed by the Governor. Hopefully, law abiding gun owners will be able to continue to count on the successor to keep the policy of approving Form 4s. Even local elections matter when it comes to your rights, though they are often overlooked by many voters.

Monday Pre-Freeze News Links

This winter is really shaping up to be a bear. We got stuck out at my dad’s in central Pennsylvania with freezing rain, waiting for the predicted temperature increase that didn’t come until well after midnight. I stopped by the office in the way back, but we only have a few hours until it goes from warm and rainy to arctic cold. So until I get home, here’s some news links:

Only government officials are responsible enough to possess and carry firearms.

Detroit’s police chief is calling BS on the whole gun control fraud. If more inner city chiefs decide to stop parroting the lies from their political overlords, it’ll be over for the gun control movement.

Gun control is another job killing program from the left. These are manufacturing jobs that require skilled labor. It’s good for the economy to keep them.

Why are anti-gun advocates so violent? Notice they don’t delete this stuff, only calmed and reasoned disagreement from our side gets deleted.

In some states, carrying a concealed firearm is reason for the cops to check your papers.

Uncle also notes that Tennessee could use some better preemption. I noticed a park when I was visiting over the holidays that was off limits. I didn’t realize that hadn’t been totally preempted.

When seconds count, the police are only 74 minutes away.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible.

Getting guns right at the New York Times. The problem is, their mistakes which are pointed out don’t even make math sense. I know a lot of firearms knowledge is pretty esoteric, but but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know .9mm is an awfully small hole.

Strategery!

A look at the 2013 ammo stats from Lucky Gunner.

Tam shakes the ant farm with an open carry post that I kept in my tabs because I thought I had more to say, but I don’t really. The takeaway is this: “There’s a difference between just carrying a gun, and carrying a gunÂ at people.” And here’s another thing: when you find yourself questioning whether Tam is pro-gun, it’s time to ask another question.

A look at the Glock 41 and the Glock 42.

Robbing Gun Shops is Hazardous to your Health

Two young individuals with a reckless disregard for their own well-being woke up and decided to rob a gun shop in Collingdale, Pennsylvania. Collingdale is kind of my second home town. It’s where my parents were born, raised, where they married, and where my maternal grandmother lived until she died ten years ago. It was a small suburban borough. Still is, actually. But by the time my grandmother was getting up there in age I was concerned about the state of her neighborhood. It wasn’t dangerous, per se, but emigrants from the City were starting to turn it. I usually visited with a Glock 19 strapped to my hip, which probably would have been much to her horror if she knew. I was surprised Suburban Armory is still around, but in truth the residents there probably need them more than they did when I was growing up.

h/t to Tam for the pointer.

New Executive Orders on Background Checks

So far it’s not looking like anything worth getting upset about:

One proposal would formally give permission to states to submit “the limited information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands,” without having to worry about the privacy provisions in a law known as HIPAA.

I believe it’s already the case that HIPPA doesn’t apply to records reported for the purposes of NICS compliance.

The other proposal would clarify that those who are involuntarily committed to a mental institution — both inpatient and outpatient — count under the law as “committed to a mental institution.”

I believe most states are already counting OITs and reporting them to NICS. Outpatient Involuntary Treatment is still an adjudication, it’s just that instead of institutionalizing the person so adjudicated, they are put on medication and supervised on an outpatient basis. So far I don’t think either of these EOs does anything that wasn’t already existing practice. It basically only makes the existing practice “official.”

Still, it’s worth keeping an eye on. The Clinton Administration did quite a lot of damage in this area by reporting a lot of veterans records to NICS, with those individuals having no further recourse, and many of whom were not any danger to themselves or anyone else.

Want!

Just when I think there’s no new gun that could hit the market that would get me buying again, Remington comes along and proves me wrong. I’d have to put it through the paces before deciding whether it’s worth carrying or not, but something about it speaks to the lizard part of my brain that makes me want to add it to the collection.

The White Menace

Posting will resume once I dig my vehicle out of the snowstorm that came through last night. The Weather Channel likes to call it Hercules, but naming winter storms is among the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard of so screw the Weather Channel. Normally I’d just wait out the melt in my home office, but I wasn’t expecting to have to start building a data center this weekend, and I need to go to New Jersey to pick up a piece of equipment I need to get started. I hope the bridges are clear.

The Science is In: More Guns Really Does Equal Less Crime

You’d think this should shut up the anti-gunners once and for all, but both you and I know that will never happen:

The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects of state-level assault weapons bans and concealed weapons laws on state-level murder rates. Using data for the period 1980 to 2009 and controlling for state and year fixed effects, the results of the present study suggest that states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states. It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level. The results of this study are consistent with some prior research in this area, most notably Lott and Mustard (1997).

You can’t argue with science!

Liberals Who Don’t Care About Their Gun Rights

I can completely understand why folks like this wouldn’t really appreciate the GOP:

Itâ€™s theÂ Liberal Gun Club, the left-leaning version of the National Rifle Association.

The groupâ€™s members share the same fascination with guns that many assign to NRA members, but Liberal Gun Clubs members eschew the NRAâ€™s notoriously right-leaning politics.

I don’t care how sick you are of hearing about the “Kenyan Muslim socialist,” the fact is that this Administration is outrightly hostile to your right to keep and bear arms. That is an unarguable fact just a year into his second term. NRA endorsed quite a number of Democrats in the 2010 elections, a number of whom were facing tea party backed Republicans. Where were all of you liberal gun owners then?

The group, like the NRA, supports the right of American citizens to own and carry a wide array of firearms. Most members of the Liberal Gun Club even think recent calls for expanded background checks on gun owners go too far.

Great. I agree with you. But if you’re going to vote for people who are against every single one of those concepts, what use are you? Give me a list of anti-gun Democrats you’re going to try to primary with pro-gun Democrats. Let me know how you’re going to work for gun rights within the Democratic party. Forming a shooting club doesn’t mean jack. If you’re not voting your gun rights, to be blunt, you don’t really care abut gun rights, and no one will ever give a crap about what you think on this topic. If all you’re doing is saying you love guns, but keep voting for people like Obama, DiFi and Boxer, you’re part of the problem rather than part of the solution.