If you do nothing else today, go watch this, because it is excellent.
Author: Sebastian
Remington Golden Bullets
Tam speaks the truth. I bought several boxes because they are cheap, and I still have most of them. They take the joy out of shooting because they jam up my 10/22, Mk.II and Mk.III. It’s worth it to pay a few extra bucks for quality ammo.
Have Gun, Won’t Shoot
Obama just put a big sign on this country that basically tells all the criminals that we might have a gun, but don’t worry, we won’t use it. Â Our nuclear arsenal is a deterrent, and part of its power of deterrence is your enemy not really being sure under what circumstances you would and wouldn’t use it. The irony is it would actually make the need to use nuclear weapons more likely, rather than less. I wonder whether President Obama makes a habit of walking into poker games, announcing beforehand which hands he will and will not play.
UN Filing Trace Requests?
According to NSSF, apparently the UN believes they have lawful authority to demand manufacturers turn over information about guns they have sold. Manufacturers and Dealers are required to run trace requests at the request of their regulating agency, which is the ATF. The UN is not the H&K USA’s regulating agency, last I checked; all they can do is ask nicely. If you look at the PDF of the UN request, you will note in the bottom right corner a request to “Please Recycle” which is exactly what I’d do with this “trace request” if I were the manufacturer.
More L&S Ordinances
NRA is alerting on Baldwin Borough as the next jurisdiction considering Lost and Stolen, which is in Western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. CeaseFire PA and MAIG had concentrated their resources here in the Southeast recently, so now it looks like we’re seeing some action in the western part of the state again. It should be noted that the Mayor of Baldwin Borough is a member of MAIG, which has been the case with most towns that take up these illegal ordinances.
The Gun Culture
Michael Bane has a very excellent post on where the shooting culture has gone, and how the industry has consistently still remained stuck in a hunting mentality. He talks about a suggestion he made here:
In a white paper several years back I argued for a 2-tier recruitment and retention system for the industry and the culture. My argument was that for newcomers participation in formal and informal shooting sports faced 1 major barrier, purchase of a firearm, while participation in hunting had 2 major barriers, purchase of a firearm and killing an animal. Rather than pour huge amounts of money into a 2-barrier jump hunter recruitment with what amounted to very low success rates, I suggested we put the lions’ share of the money into recruitment for target shooting (both formal and informal), focusing on self-defense as the primary driver, and get them past Barrier 1. THEN create a mentoring system — which has been repeatedly shown to work very well — to introduce newcomers who got past the first barrier to the sport of hunting.
I think he’s essentially correct in this, and my experience, the second barrier to get into hunting is far far higher than the first. I am someone who would be willing to go exactly the path Michael is describing. I got into the shooting culture through the first path, and would be willing to make the second jump to hunting. The problem? You have to take hunters education to obtain a hunting license in most states, and hunters education is a multi-day course. Generally speaking you have to be willing to give up a weeknight and weekend day to complete it.
My time is not exactly plentiful, and this represents a fairly significant barrier for me, all things considering. Sure, maybe if I disrupting the blogging schedule for a few days, or took a few days off work, I could get it done. But my interest in hunting is pretty peripheral. I would like to try it, but I’m not driven to try it. But I can tell you for sure if I had not come into the shooting culture at all my interest would be pretty close to zero.
I could be pushed over the number two barrier, given sufficient motivation, which perhaps I will get at some point. I think Michael’s two part strategy is a reasonable one if the industry wants to keep hunting alive.
Newark’s Murder Free Month
I figure there will probably be some dopey gun control folks that will credit one-gun-a-month for Newark’s drop in crime, but this article from NJ.com suggests it was improved police methods that are responsible. Imagine that.
Happy Easter
Happy Easter everyone. I hope everyone gets to spend time with their families this holiday. I am unfortunately either battling a nasty cold, or a mild flu, so hopefully you’ll holiday will be better than mine. Even if I had an Easter Ham, I’m so stuffed up I couldn’t taste it anyway.
Kookery on Parade
Capitol Ideas is reporting that Governor Rendell is getting a letter demanding he restore the Constitution from a fringe group, or be removed from power. Restoring the Lost Constitution is the title of a pretty good book, and a subject I’m generally very much sympathetic to. But a look at this issue by Salon, and a visit to the group’s page by me has convinced me this is the kind of kookery America would be a very dull place without. I mean, all you have to do it go down to the copyright section in the footer:
Private non-negotiable freeholding, Guardians of the Free Republics. Private web site under non-corporate venue. This seal conveys immunity from public scrutiny, discretion, regulation or trespass. Trespassers beware. Co-claimant fee applies to impairment. By using this site agree to the Terms of this site.
That’s 100% pure Grade A crazy there folks. Go take a look at their youtube video. This sounds a lot like the admiralty court fun from tax protesters. The FBI is investigating, but I doubt they have much to worry about. This kind of thing has been around a long time, and these groups are mostly interested in drawing attention to their kookery, in hopes of finding fellow travelers, than they are about actual action.
Much of their language about “Federal Corporation of the United States” seems to hinge on this definition in the Judicial Procedure Code, which is in the chapter on collecting debts owed to United States. For purposes of debt collection, “United States”, which usually refers to the Federal Government in other contexts, is redefined to include Federal Corporations. They take this to mean that the United States is a corporation, acting unlawfully as the Federal Government. This isn’t a new idea, but it’s utter nonsense. An example of a federal corporation is Amtrak, and this section defines how Amtrak, as well as the Federal Government, may collect its debts.
Reading statutory language is a bit of a skill. It’s difficult for people with no legal training to figure out. I can’t say I understand it 100% of the time, but knowing computer languages is a pretty good basis for understanding law. In fact, that makes for a pretty good analogy. It would be kind of like if you handed someone who’s barely literate in computers some technical specifications, some 6502 assembly code, and told them they had to debug all this code because their lives depend on it. Some folks may actually be able to figure it out, and fix things. Others will never really understand it, but they will keep trying and stay in the game. Others are just going to get angry at the whole thing and proclaim the program and specs are rigged, and it’s only through “du jure” specifications and new assembly that we can make everything the way God intended it to be. I think a lot of this phenomena is exactly that kind of thing. These folks know the law has an important impact on their lives, so they try to understand it. Failing, they become angry and blame the system.
West Virginia Guv Vetos NRA Bills
Governor Manchin of West Virginia has vetoed two NRA backed bills. I have to give him credit, at least for principled opposition on the bills. The one, which was a tax free holiday on guns, he’s opposed to because it would undermine revenue for the state at a time when the state was struggling to make ends meet. As a person who’s fairly neutral on these tax holidays for guns, this doesn’t particularly dismay me. The other bill the Governor vetoed is the Bloomberg Bill, which would have make his “stings” illegal, and his opposition to this is far more interesting:
“I am in full support of this legislation,†Manchin said of SB515, “However, I must veto the bill for technical reasons. There is a faulty cross-reference in the bill that would purportedly penalize violations of an unrelated code section.â€
I’m not one to trust a politician at his word, but sure enough, you go into the bill and you have a drafting error:
(5) A person who knowingly solicits, persuades, encourages or entices a licensed dealer or private seller of firearms or ammunition to transfer a firearm or ammunition under circumstances which the person knows would violate the laws of this state or the United States is guilty of a felony. A person who willfully procures another to engage in conduct prohibited by this subsection shall be punished as a principal. This subsection does not apply to a law-enforcement officer acting in his or her official capacity. Any person who violates the provisions of section five of subsection (5) of this section is guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $5,000, imprisoned in a state correctional facility for a definite term of not less than one year nor more than five years, or both fined and imprisoned.
Emphasis mine. Section five is relating to revocation of permits, and it’s not part of any subsection. In fact, it’s not really possible to have a section of a subsection, and section 5 doesn’t have a subsection 5 regardless. This is completely nonsensical if you look at the layout of West Virginia’s statutes. I’m not sure I agree with the Governor that it criminalizes an unintended section, but it’s definitely wrong and needs to be fixed. It can easily be fixed by replacing the bolded portions with “this subsection.” Â Hard to believe this made it all the way to the Governor without anyone noticing.