February 2014 – Page 6 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Empty Brass in Your Home is a Crime

When I lived in Massachusetts and took women who had never shot a gun before to the range, they would frequently ask me if they could keep an empty piece of brass as a souvenir from their first trip to the range. I hated to tell them that possession of that brass without a license was a crime. I did tell them, and they usually opened up to the idea that maybe the extreme gun control measures of Massachusetts were not actually serving the public good.

Unfortunately, a DC man is headed back to court for at least the eighth time to defend himself against the charge that he possessed an empty shotgun hull.

Nick Johnson on NRA News

Sorry for somewhat of a prolonged absence. While we recovered from the ice storm fine here, our office was not so fortunate, and so we had to relocate a lot of equipment to get things up and running again and the business functioning. That takes a few long days. Our Internet finally came this Sunday, just in time for me to come down with a stomach flu. I can’t seem to win this winter. Here’s an interview between Nick Johnson and Cam Edwards I thought you’d enjoy:

I’ll try to post a few things later, if I have the energy.

NRA’s Sportsman’s Show “Way Over Reed’s Head”

“This is way over Reed’s head.” – Woman who worked with Reed to put on the Eastern Sports Outdoor Show & now works with NRA to put on the Great American Outdoor Show

Reading this article that talked to vendors from gun shops, fishing lure retailers, boat dealers, hunting outfitters, and more, the overwhelming response appears to be that NRA knows how to put on a bigger, better sportsman’s show than what Reed put on previously.

I find it interesting the vendors who attend other shows said this is one of the best they have attended, and NRA plans to release exact numbers on how many people attended which is something that Reed was never willing to do. Perhaps the end of the old show will really end up being better for everyone in the community.

Good News for Hunting & Ultimately Guns

I realize that most readers of this blog aren’t hunters. But, if you’re like Sebastian, you may have been invited to go hunting once or twice, but couldn’t give it a try alongside the experienced hunter who invited you because you didn’t pre-plan and sit through an 8+ hour hunter safety course in order to get a license.

Pennsylvania was an early adopter of an apprentice hunting program that allowed experienced hunters to take children out to the woods on a limited license that didn’t require the pre-planning hassle of finding an available hunter ed class. It was wonderful, but it didn’t solve the problem for those who were over 18 and would like to give hunting a try. Recently, the legislature and the Game Commission have set out to fix that problem, and final approval to new regulations is scheduled for April.

It’s great to see some roadblocks to growing the sport coming down, especially when you add in that the Game Commission has been rolling out online hunter ed with only a few hours to do in an actual classroom.

Stories like this don’t just make me think about great news for hunting, but they should get all gun people thinking about barriers to entry for any of their favorite shooting sports and what they can do to help knock them down.

Anti-Gun Advocate Arrested for Gun Felonies

An outspoken New York advocate for gun control laws that made it a felony to possess a firearm on school property (instead of the misdemeanor it was prior to the SAFE Act) decided to carry his gun to an elementary school this week. It ended with him walking out in handcuffs and facing two counts of criminal possession of a weapon that may carry up to four years in prison thanks the law he so publicly supported. Oops.

More Magazine Circulation News

I’ve covered the positive news about gun magazines here before, but this is quite a shocker. American Rifleman is now in the top 25 of publications in the US, and it knocked Maxim out of the list of top magazines.

Bearing Arms

Last fall, the National Constitution Center proposed an idea to repeal the Second Amendment and replace it with a version that assures “public safety departments” could use firearms in the course of their job. They took a beating in the associated poll.

It seems they just might have learned a little something from just how off base they were from mainstream thinking because now they are running a blog post reporting on the issue of bearing arms, as opposed to simply keeping arms. The post really focuses on reporting the issue rather than calling for more drastic restrictions as they did before, but that may only be due to the fact that they have Lyle Denniston from SCOTUSblog contributing on the topic.

Firearms Shopping on a Budget

Exurban Kevin writes that he wanted to do a blog post about inexpensive guns for carry. Unfortunately, none of the online retailers will allow price sensitive customers to sort by price.

It’s interesting to think about that problem since the vast majority of retail websites, even for other major items that you will use every day, typically have a sort by price feature. Is the industry potentially losing sales by people who are price sensitive, but also may not have the time to learn everything they can about all possible pros and cons of the guns in their price range. Can they even easily figure out what models are in their price range without a trip to every gun store in half a day’s drive?

SHARE Act Passes House

SHARE orÂ Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement. While there’s a lot of pro-hunting stuff here, it’s also by virtue a pro-carry initiative. You can find the text here. Key point:

Title VI: Access to Water Resources Development Projects Act -Â Recreational Lands Self-Defense Act of 2013Â -Â Prohibits the Secretary of the Army from promulgating or enforcing any regulation that prohibits an individual from possessing a firearm at a water resources development project administered by the Chief of Engineers if: (1) the individual is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing the firearm, and (2) the possession of the firearm is in compliance with the law of the state in which the project is located.

That’s basically the same language that was inserted into the 2009 Credit Card Bill to force the NPS to allow carry in National Parks. This is a good victory, but will the Senate take it up? It’s an election year. A “yes” vote on this would help a lot of troubled Democrats who are up in 2014, and Obama, as a lame duck, no longer needs to be protected. It would be interesting to see whether this could get sent to Obama, and what he’d do.

Local Improvements in Gun Laws

Firearms attorney Josh Prince recently sued Erie, PA when they enforced a local ordinance banning guns on some of their town property in violation of the state’s preemption law. While it may seem like a small effort for gun rights, it did apparently scare the leaders of a town 432 miles away into not only stopping a march toward banning guns on government property, but also repealing old laws in violation from the books. (h/t to Josh Prince)