Sebastian – Page 176 – Shall Not Be Questioned

CeaseFirePA Digging in My Backyard

I know I have some local folks who are readers, so I just want them to be aware that the Bloomberg funded group,Â CeaseFirePA, is planning a rally outside the local district office of Frank Farry, one of our NRA endorsed State Reps in Bucks County. They in particular are incredulous that he is supporting eliminating PICS and relying on the federal NICS system.

If you are in the area, please see if you can stop by his district office today at 4PM. His office is atÂ 370 E Maple Ave, Langhorne PA. I appreciate anyone who can come and showÂ their support, especially on such short notice.

FOAC/CGOPA are asking people not to OC long guns, which I think is a wise decision. We need to show CeaseFirePA, and more importantly Rep. Farry, that they can’t outmuscle us.

NJ Smart Gun Law of Unintended Consequences

New Jersey lawmakers are offering to repeal their smart gun law if “the NRA agrees to stop standing in the way of smart gun technology.”Â John Richardson notes they misunderstand the nature of this movement, and I think he’s correct, but the fact is that opposition to this technology has only become fierce because lawmakers have chosen to mandate it. Lawmakers in New Jersey should repeal the law because it’s the right thing to do, not because we agree to any “deal.”

Now that we know lawmakers are eager to mandate the technology, they have forever soiled the idea. How do we know as soon as the technology becomes “available,” and the community doesn’t pound them, that New Jersey, California, or any of the other states with legislatures innately hostile to Second Amendment rights, won’t just re-manadate them with new legislation?

Forbes’s cyber-security writer ran a very good article over the weekend describing the inherent problems with Smart Gun technology. I am an electrical engineer by training, and I can confidently say that with current technology, it would be impossible to make a smart gun that would be even close to the reliability of a mechanical firearm. Armatix’s solution, or similar solution, is probably the most reliable, but it requires a watch, ring, or implant or some sort, and would also be very susceptible to jamming. There’s also the political problem, brought up in the Forbes article:

AsÂ I described in another previous article, smartguns may be susceptible to government tracking or jamming. How hard would it be for the government to require manufacturers to surreptitiously include in computer-enhanced weapons some circuitry that would allow law enforcement to track â€“ or even to disable â€“ the weapons? Before dismissing such a fear as silly paranoia, consider that the US government is alleged to have secretly installed malware onto thousands of networks and placed spy chips into computers, it has admitted to spying on its own citizens, is believed to have prohibited technology companies from divulging its spying on US citizens, and is known to have lost track of weapons whose locations it intended to monitor. Should private citizens really be confident that such a government will not want to keep tabs on their guns?

How long before Smart Gun technology is introduced, will it not only be mandated, but the next “common senseÂ gun safety law”Â is to allow a means for government or law enforcement to disable them at a whim? How long before the smart technology mandates that it broadcast its presence so police know when approaching someone whether they are armed? This is all just “common sense.”

Sorry, but the subject has been ruined because we know what the end game is. It would be smart of us to keep fighting smart gun technology, now that they’ve revealed they have a desire to mandate it. Regardless of what kind of deal New Jersey legislators think they can cut now, they’ve forever ruined whatever trustÂ might have existed within the firearm community. Smart guns are now viewed as a bad thing, and nothing will be able to undo the damage done by anti-gun activists and legislators who gave us a reason to kill this technology in its infancy.

ATF 41P on NFA Trusts Moved Beyond Election

Dave Hardy is reporting a decision is being pushed off until 2015. I tend to think nervous Democrats are, well, nervous about doing this so close to an election year. ATF will also no doubt want to be sure all its Is are dotted and Ts crossed, because they are nearly certain to face lawsuits over whatever is decided. I don’t think this represents a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Administration for getting this rule in place. Getting paybacks against those who oppose him is important, after all. But it does represent the reality that they know they can’t just throw caution to the wind. Any other issue would have been steamrolled already.

Friday Mini-Links

This weekend there are a few posts I want to do about the Annual Meeting, so things won’t be so dead around here. Today is always difficult though, because it’s my office day, and when most of our meetings happen. But here are some mini links. The links are not small, but there’s not as many of them:

Looks like the Armatix Smart Gun almost got another vendor, but backed down after a backlash. It would mean the death of Second Amendment rights for everyone in New Jersey. The only problem I have with Smart Gun technology is that our opponents mean to mandate it, rather than letting the market decide.

The limited Constitutional Carry bill is dead in Florida. It’s hard to pass, especially in big states with politically diverse populations.

Polling shows Vermonters want stricter gun laws. Vermont has practically zero crime. This is a solution in search of a problem, but the default position of many people is that there has to be controls.

The ultimate M-11 conversion!

I thank the other side for this tool, which lets you know whether your 401K investments have made the wise decision to invest in gun companies. I want my investments making decisions based on their return, not based on PC garbage.

Some movement in Peruta.

The Second Amendment in South Africa.

Tom Ridge may have quit Bloomberg’s group, but he’s still no friend.

John Richardson paid a visit to the H-S Precision booth.

Preemptive Surrender is Never a Good Strategy

I really wish Alan Gottlieb would stop engaging in preemptive surrender on the background check issue:

From Gottliebâ€™s perspective, the Manchin-Toomey Amendment â€” which contained several pro-gun measures, including an outright ban on a national gun registry and background check exemptions for friends, neighbors, family members â€” was certainly the lesser of two evils, i.e. a compromised bill sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA), both A-rated NRA members, versus one written solely by the Schumer, Feinstein and other staunch pro-gun control supporters.

No it was not. The problem with Manchin-Toomey was several fold. First, it wasn’t very clear when you would or would not be subject to the background check requirements. Second, none of the measures, including the ban on the national registry, were worth spit. Who’s going to enforce it? Is Eric Holder going to prosecute himself for violating the prohibition? Some of the things offered up to us, like the FOPA travel enhancement would have actually stripped the FOPA travel provision entirely. Manchin-Toomey was a farce of a deal, which is why it needed to be killed.

Every time I think it’s time to forgive SAF, because I really do believe they are doing good work for the issue in the Courts, Alan Gottlieb opens his mouth again about Manchin-Toomey and I get pissed off all over again. This kind of thing doesn’t help, and it’s going to give the other side cover to shove something down our throats. Why do we want to bring this issue up again anyway? We won, they lost. If the momentum suddenly shifts, then we can assess the situation at the time. After all, there looked to me like there was a “break glass” provision in all this mess that no one paid attention to. So I think some people, at least, were thinking ahead. By offering to preemptively concede ground, the next time we’re in a tight spot, they are going to want ground we’re not willing to concede. It only puts us in a worse negotiation position.

Andrew Branca’s Presentation to Law Seminar

The audio isn’t all that great, but here’s defense attorney Andrew Branca’s presentation at the 2014 Firearms Law Seminar for anyone interested:

You can read about his appearance over at Legal Insurrection, as well as see his Hitler parody. Also note that he has a book out on self-defense.

Another “Castle Doctrine” Case That Isn’t

If there’s anything that the European media likes to do, it’s make Americans look like violent whack jobs with our crazy gun laws. Such is the case with a German student killed in what the BBC is calling a castle doctrine case:

Mr Kaarma, a 29-year-old firefighter, has told investigators his home had twice been hit by burglars, and he told a hair stylist he had waited up at night to shoot intruders, prosecutors said.

On the night of the shooting, Mr Kaarma and his partner Janelle Pflager left their garage door open, and Ms Pflager left her purse in the garage in order to bait intruders, she told police.

They set up motion sensors and a video monitor, prosecutors said.

When the sensors went off just after midnight and they saw a man on the monitor screen, Mr Kaarma went outside and fired a shotgun into the garage without warning several times.

The law in Montana still requires that you be in reasonable fear of death or grave bodily injury. “Castle doctrine,” simply means that you have no duty to retreat from your home. In most states, there’s either a statutory or common law presumption that someone unlawfully entering your home amounts to that reasonable fear. But setting up in ambush? That looks an awful lot like this case to me. I think prosecutors in this case probably feel the same way, or they wouldn’t have charged him. So this is another incident that really is not a “castle doctrine” case. This is going to hinge on whether or not the homeowner was in reasonable fear of life and limb, which given the circumstances, it seems pretty obvious he was not, and his planning the ambush establishes a very different frame of mind than the one required to claim self-defense.

This is a pretty run-of-the-mill murder case where the defendant is claiming self-defense. It’s baffling to me the media’s reaction. How do they handle self-defense claims in Europe? Do they just give them a “go straight to jail” card if a homeowner shoots an intruder? No trial? Are people not permitted to defend themselves against murder charges in Europe?

Leadership Changes at MAIG/MDA/Everytown

Mark Glaze is announcing that he’s stepping down in June:

The executive director of the gun control group founded by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which has emerged as a leading counterweight to the National Rifle Association, said on Wednesday he would step down from the organization in June.

Mark Glaze actually works for a DC-based PR firm called The Raben GroupÂ (which you can find out from the poorly redacted E-mails from the NYC FOIA dump). My guess is there isn’t a whole lot to read into this. The Bloomberg organizations have been staffing up, and my guess is they want their own hired staff doing most of the day-to-day work. It almost never makes financial sense to keep using consultants for long term needs, unless they have knowledge so specialized you can’t really hire in for it.

I would imagine another client would be a welcome change of pace for Mark Glaze, regardless of what’s going on. If I had Bloomberg as my client, talking about how his ticket to heaven was assured, and various other missteps, I’d probably quickly develop a serious drinking problem. It’s not just Bloomberg either. Shannon Watts is a walking PR disaster in her own right, as her very ill-considered response to Slide-Fire over the photobomb indicates. Her smartest option was to shrug it off, and she chose to go 180 degrees in the other direction. There’s just a lot of bullshit that goes along with being high-profile in any controversial issue.

As much as I might oppose Bloomberg organizations, they haveÂ displaced our previous opponents and set themselves up as the leading opposition in a very short amount of time, which is no easy accomplishment. When Glaze says he “planned to do some consulting,” I’m guessing he’ll be working for another client. As we always do with our opponents who decide to move on, we wish him the best of luck in future endeavors.

Holder Shaking Down Banks to Kill Gun Industry?

The details of Operation Choke Point came out in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago, but now more details are coming out suggesting that the DoJ may be pressuring banks to cut access to the financial system to gun shops as well, citing this article from a few days ago:

The Libertis’ battle with BankUnited began last month. For seven years, they say, they had no problem with the Miami Lakes-based bank. T.R. had run a gun store in the Garden State, and when he opened Top-Gun Firearms on Calle Ocho, BankUnited operated the account.

But when T.R. decided to retire and let Elizabeth take the store online — under the new name Discount Ammo-N-Guns — the Libertis found themselves suddenly under fire.

A March 12 letter mysteriously informed them that BankUnited was closing their checking account “pursuant to the terms and conditions listed in our Depositor’s Agreement.” It gave the Libertis three days to transfer their cash elsewhere. When the Libertis called BankUnited for an explanation, they were politely informed that none would be forthcoming.

Stories like this often come out and there is often more going on than the parties are saying, but even the original Wall Street Journal article noted that ammunition sellers were among the targets. It’s not much of a stretch to assume that Holder wants to go after gun dealers as well. This certainly merits concern and further investigation.

Via SayUncle, who also notes they are going after porn. They told me if I voted for Mitt Romney, dour puritans would go after guns, drugs and gambling, and they were right!

Wednesday News Links

Some of the links for today might be a bit old. Sorry if that’s the case, because I didn’t have time to really do much hunting while at Annual Meeting, so there’s a bit of a gap. But here’s a try:

This .223 pocket pistol has to be the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a long time. The .223 is a rifle cartridge. It uses slower-burning rifle powder, meaning it needs a rifle-length barrel to build up speed. Maybe you can stun and confuseÂ your attacker with the massive fireball that will result from all that unburnt powder exiting the barrel, but I doubt a 55 grain .223 bullet fired from a pistol-length barrel will do all that much to stop him. I’d wager you’d be better off with a single shot .45ACP.

Bloomberg’s dollars just aren’t enough, pointing out that $50 million isn’t actually a whole lot of money. Maybe so, but how much more is he going to put in? Money in politics matters. It is possible for someone like Bloomberg to buy legislation. Don’t believe it isn’t.

Dave Kopel: First Amendment Guide to Second Amendment. How the First Amendment can be a guide to interpreting the Second.

Some questions don’t make sense in a free society.

West Side Last Shift takes a look at the insurance anti-discrimination bill in Florida. I had a coworker who told me she was turned down for homeowners insurance because of gun ownership. Much like the parking lot bills, I can’t get too enthusiastic about this either, because it is anti-free-market. But insurance is already pretty regulated, and we’d never tolerate discrimination like this in other contexts.

John Lott: Bogus Gun-Control Numbers.

NRA’s Worst Nightmare is America’s Moms, says the Daily Beast. Yeah, because we’ve never had to deal with that phenomena before. No. There was never a failure of a previous incarnation of this idea. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Meanwhile, 18,000 women, many of them moms, came to NRA.

Why are we so conflicted about manhood in the modern age? Long read, but very insightful.

MDA would seem to stand for Moms Doubling Attendance.

Our opponents continue to misunderstand the nature of conflict. Most of the time the powers that be don’t want you dead, they want you compliant. It’s like a kid that doesn’t want other people to play with his toy. He can accomplish that by breaking the toy, but then he doesn’t have the toy anymore.

I didn’t even know there were rocket companies that made gun stuff.

West Chester University looking to revise its weapons policy. A step in the right direction.

Military to destroy 1.2 billion worth of ammo. What a waste.

Oligarchy in the 21st Century.

A graphic example of the failure of gun free zones.