Month: June 2015

We didn’t manage to get out a gun news post last week, so I thought I’d start the week off with one. At the beginning of last week, there wasn’t much news, and then at the end a flurry. But I have to admit, almost 7 years into the Obama Administration, news about gun control and Obama bores me; a dog bites man story at this point. It was pretty clear once we dealt him an embarrassing defeat after Sandy Hook he was going to send the rest of his Administration trying to stick it to us any way he could, and he’s performing as expected.

First, the big news: Texas passes licensed open carry and campus carry. There’s no doubt Abbott will sign both. Looks like the campus carry bill still offers flexibility to private institutions. The important thing, in my opinion, is that the “off limits” restriction in the carry law is removed. Anything beyond that is just school policy.

Trouble is afoot in New Jersey today. Looks like Gun Violence Restraining Order again.

Big crowd in Oregon promising to ignore the states new private transfer ban. Seems to be a lot of that going around these days. It’s almost like gun control breeds contempt for the law. Who knew?

The media still does not understand “stand your ground.” Probably because distorting what it really is fits their agenda.

Here’s a map of Salem Oregon, if they were to follow the five mile rule we talked about earlier.

Charles C.W. Cooke: Vince Vaughn is right on guns.

Some gun business needs to take out an ad on a SEPTA bus and then sue them for refusing it. I don’t think they get what content neutral really means.

Clayton Cramer and Joe Olson have a new paper out looking at the commercial history of firearms. Important groundwork for developing court doctrine around what commercial activity with arms is protected by the Second Amendment.

Mapping out networks. Interesting.

Constitutional Carry is dead in South Carolina for now.

Constitutional Carry headed for a House vote in Maine.

The Arizona Republic promotes some common sense when it comes to lead ammunition. Persuasion rather than force? Now there’s a new idea.

We often say that the First Amendment can be more dangerous than the Second. Well, there’s at least one college in Texas that thinks using the First to advocate for the Second is the height of danger. If I were the Republicans, I’d cut any and all federal funding to any school that enacts a speech code.

Speaking of schools and crazy, a New Jersey school suspended a student for having a nerf dart in his pocket.

D.C. fails to get a stay, and will have to start issuing licenses.

Women are driving the shift on gun rights. In my experience, women tend to get more involved than men do in the political fight.

Tomorrow is “wear orange” day. Miguel reminds us that many people who were part of Bloomberg’s last failed group are wearing orange daily.

Bloomberg’s outfit is getting in on the celebrity business. This used to be Brady’s strength, now I guess no longer. It’s hard for me to see how the Brady organization is going to survive, unless Bloomberg chooses to keep it alive to avoid the bad press for gun control as a whole.

Speaking of the Brady Center, looks like more legal trouble. Smacks of desperation to me. I have to believe they are nearing the end of their rope.

Bloomberg News is catching onto the whole abolish ATF meme. They’re all starting to figure out that the FBI would be a far better advocate for more gun control than ATF.

Dog bites man: Vivek Murthy to use his position as Surgeon General to promote gun control. It was a fore-drawn conclusion as soon as he was confirmed.

SayUncle says we need a new catchphrase for people who leave guns in bathrooms: “After you’ve shat, secure your gat.“

You remember that fake gun store that was set up in New York City? David Codrea notes that even the people who went into the store were fake. All actors.

What legal self-defense products can you legally use in Britain? None.

Carolyn Maloney floats her gun control bill that will go nowhere, calling for all gun owners to keep insurance.

Off Topic:

Segregation in the 21st Century? I thought we had tried this once, and all were pretty much agreed it didn’t work out very well.

Just a reminder, New Jersey is an extremely corrupt state with a judiciary that has almost no regard for the rule of law.

Looks like Chuck Schumer is about as intent on useless regulation of drones as he is useless regulations of guns.

The Obama Administration is preparing new gun regulations. This news is all the rage, but the article is short on details, so we don’t really know exactly what’s coming. In my opinion this action by the Administration is about two things. The first is revenge, because we dealt the them a high profile and embarrassing defeat after Sandy Hook. Two, it is about keeping the issue alive into the next Administration. I believe ATF will write new regulations that will be difficult for a future President to reverse without provoking a backlash from the media and gun control advocates (but I repeat myself).

I believe it will be about subtly expanding the pool of prohibited persons and broadening the definition of “adjudicated.” It’ll impose new regulations on FFLs about storage requirements, and reporting requirement. The question is whether it ends up being very audacious, going far beyond what the Gun Control Act allows. I think the smart move would be subtlety, but this Administration is rather unpredictable. If it’s bold regulation that greatly expands the power beyond what the Gun Control Act will allow, we’ll fight it in the courts and probably win.

What Obama should want is new regulations that looks quite reasonable on the surface, but screw us in subtle and not so subtle ways that are hard to explain to the average low-information voter. Regulations that we have to convince another President to re-examine under risk of a media frenzy. If the Administration doesn’t push us back as far as they can, we’ll be on a tear if there’s a Republican in the White House in 2016. Far better, they would think, that we spend all of our capital having to undo the mess the previous Administration made, rather than spending it to move forward.