The Firearms Blog is reporting a rumor that Cooper Firearms of Montana has been sold to Wilson. I wish all the employees of Cooper the best of luck with the new owners. They were unfortunate pawns in the election scandal last year. Hopefully the buyout will let these folks put this unpleasantness behind them, and go back to focusing on making great guns.
Author: Sebastian
Reconsidering Blackwell
Ken Blackwell has gotten himself into some trouble over some remarks he made about gay people.
Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a leading candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee (RNC), is coming under fire Monday for making remarks this summer that gays and lesbians suffer from a “compulsion” that can be “restrained.”
Can we please get some Republican leadership who don’t talk about gay people like they belong in a leper colony? Seriously. There are bigger things to worry about than what’s going on in other people’s bedrooms. One wonders whether Ken Blackwell considers how he would feel if someone suggested his attraction to his wife was a “compulsion” that must be “restrained”
This whole chairmanship race is turning out to be all the worst problems with the Republican Party on parade.
Letter to Specter
Today is the day of the Holder confirmation hearings, so I thought I’d share the message I sent to Senator Specter:
Dear Senator Specter,
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for being one of the few senators willing to raise serious questions on the nomination of Eric Holder for Attorney General of the United States. As a competitive shooter and gun owner, I am very concerned about Mr. Holders stance on the Second Amendment, and I would urge you to vote “no” on his confirmation. In addition, I hope that you will stand up for our Second Amendment rights in the 111th Congress by opposing bills that infringe on Second Amendment rights, particularly bills that ban certain classes of firearms.
Sincerely,
[Sebastian]
I never believed contacting your Senators was a waste of time. It does help the politicians to know we’re out here. Even Specter is softning his language on Holder a bit, as I suspect he sees the writing on the walls. By the end of the day, Eric Holder will likely be confirmed as Attorney General. God help us.
The Colosimo 5
Based on the criminal dockets of our five clergy, who are by now certainly hoping to be forgiven for their trespasses, some are being charged with more than defiant trespass. Let us now open to the book of “court”, chapter “docket”, verse “summary” and read the great words:
Going a bit far? Maybe. But consider these people set out for headlines, in order to smear a man’s reputation and destroy his business. They are trying to intimidate him into turning on his customers. So for these five, I am happy to lend my Google-fu to making sure anyone who searches on them finds their arrest record.
Yitzhak Nates, Melissa Delong, and and Isaac Miller are being charged with three counts.
- Defiant Trespassing Posted, Third Degree Misdemeanor
- Criminal Conspiracy to engage in Defiant Trespass, Third Degree Misdemeanor
- Disorderly Conduct, Third Degree Misdemeanor if defiant, Summary offense otherwise.
Mimi Copp and Phil Jones are only being charged with Defiant Trespassing. I guess sometimes it pays to be a follower rather than a leader. Now, I would note these folks are innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, but is Colosimo really enough of a bad guy to defecate on his property rights in such a manner? Generally it’s a bad idea to provoke a confrontation with police when the police are customers of the guy you’re protesting.
5 Arrested Outside of Colosimo’s
The clergy group that was lead the other day by Right Reverend Bryan Miller apparently heeded God’s call to defiantly trespass on the property of another:
Supporters outside the store’s entrance applauded and thanked protesters as police carted them off, one by one, in handcuffs.
“You couldn’t talk them out of getting locked up,” said Lt. Joseph O’Brien, of the Civil Affairs Unit. “Usually you could talk them out of it.”
Others weren’t so impressed.
“It’s trespassing,” said Capt. William Fisher. “I gave them three warnings to protest on the sidewalk.
“They feel they have an issue and they feel this is how they can get the most attention,” he said.
The demonstrators spent the night in jail and are facing charges of defiant trespassing.
You know what me, the evil gun owner has never been arrested for? If you guessed a third degree misdemeanor, you’d be correct. Here’s an interesting thing, the headline says five were arrested:
Other activists who were arrested and charged yesterday include the Rev. Isaac Miller, of the Church of the Advocate, Rabbi Yitzhak Nates, of Narberth Havurah, Mimi Copp, 34, of the Circle of Hope Church and Melissa DeLong, 28, of Camden.
Let me see, that’s one, two, three, four. Who was the first activist arrested? Did I miss something? Was it Bryan Miller and they conviently forgot to tell us? I doubt Bryan is that stupid, but we’ll look into this for sure!
UPDATE: Nope… Not Bryan Miller. That would have been too good.
Another Bloomberg Mayor In Trouble
Mayor Gary Becker of Racine, Wisconsin has been arrested. Seems he is alleged to enjoy touching children. Maybe we should require background checks and video surveillance on Mayors before they join Bloomberg’s organization. Pretty clearly there would be some significant public benefit to this move.
The High Ground
Kurt Hoffman has been among the bloggers doing an admirable job presenting the other side of the coin when it comes to political action against Holder. Regarding NRA’s letter to Congress opposing the nomination, which mentioned Project Exile, he had this to say:
Every time the NRA advocates “enforcing existing gun laws,†they surrender the Constitutional high ground. How can they, with a straight face, argue that the Constitution prohibits all federal gun laws, except the ones that they endorse? How does that differ from rank hypocrisy? Finally, how dare they demand that the citizen disarmament advocates have any more respect for the Constitution than they do themselves?
If that’s an example of the (dare I say it?) pragmatic approach, I’ll stick to tilting at windmills.
I don’t think NRA has ever taken the position that every federal gun law is unconstitutional. Even I don’t agree that every single one is unconstitutional on its face. No constitutional provision in the Bill of Rights has ever been held to be absolute. Even the First Amendment, which is fairly broadly protected, probably more broadly these days than the founders ever envisioned, has exceptions (not all of which I agree with).
Even if you argue that the commerce clause doesn’t give the federal government the power to regulate, say, possession of arms by convicted felons, which I would agree with, the commerce clause isn’t NRA’s issue, and do you really want NRA to come out and say that they support gun rights for felons? I doubt even most NRA members would be happy with that.
There seems to be a constant desire among some in the movement, to continue using the belabored combat metaphors, to plan for the sack Rome when we haven’t even pushed Caesar out of Gaul yet. With Ceasar’s legions regrouping to come at us yet again, I would rather focus on defending against the main attack, rather than getting distracted by diversions, or dreaming of sacking Rome. Rome might be the prize we seek in the end, but for now there is a battle coming.
Gun Show Recommendation in Virginia
Looks like they managed to stop a recommendation of banning private sales. Very good. What they got was this:
Despite some opposition Tuesday, the commission recommended that lawmakers consider requiring Virginia State Police to be on hand at some gun shows to help monitor firearms transactions. The cost of the troopers’ presence would be borne by gun show promoters.
What exactly are they going to monitor here? I would say no harm in this if the cost wasn’t pushed to the promoters. Not all shows are large, and profitable enough to cover this. I have no problems with law enforcement being present at gun shows, in fact, I think they should be. But if the people arguing for this suggest it’s a public good, the public should bear the cost.
NPS Struggling With New Regulations
It’s funny, because law enforcement agencies around the country don’t seem to have any problem dealing with this issue. I can see where there might be some problems though, in that state boundaries inside the park might not be well delineated everywhere, but that problem certainly isn’t unique to National Parks. There’s also issues with federal facilities:
Not only that, but the feds have their own rules and regulations. One prohibits guns in federal buildings or facilities, but just what constitutes a federal facility isn’t clear.
“A visitor center is an easy one,†Nash said. “Our administration building is another easy one. It’s not clear to us at this point … [if] every structure would be classified as a federal facility even though we own it.â€
The uncertainty extends to concessionaires too. Is a building still a federal facility if it is run by a private company?
Actually, this is something that should be deflined more clearly across the board, but what constitutes a federal facility is pretty clearly defined in 18 USC 930:
The term ”Federal facility” means a building or part thereof owned or leased by the Federal Government, where Federal employees are regularly present for the purpose of performing their official duties.
So if the concessionaires are not federal employees, they aren’t federal facilities. Outhouses, under this guideline, would also not be considered federal facilities, because federal employees are not regularly present. Of course, the law also says:
(h) Notice of the provisions of subsections (a) and (b) shall be posted conspicuously at each public entrance to each Federal facility, and notice of subsection (e) shall be posted conspicuously at each public entrance to each Federal court facility, and no person shall be convicted of an offense under subsection (a) or (e) with respect to a Federal facility if such notice is not so posted at such facility, unless such person had actual notice of subsection (a) or (e), as the case may be.
So they have to post, or notify you in some other way, in order for them to convict you. But I can see the confusion. Most other agencies wouldn’t have to deal with this problem, since their facilities are more cut and dry.
Bianchi Cup: NRA Action Pistol
Caleb and Breda did a pretty good interview last night with Tom Hughes, the Action Pistol coordinator for the National Rifle Association. Action Pistol culminates every year with the Bianchi Cup. Go have a listen.