Category: Gun Rights

The other deflection seems to be to try to tie Mike Vanderboegh around the neck of Fast and Furious and hope it sinks. The most telling example of this comes to use courtesy of Rachel Maddow (h/t Kurt Hoffman), who would have you believe that this scandal was cooked up in Mike’s tinfoil hat, and was latched on to by the Republicans in Congress. In Maddow’s world, there was never whistles blowers. There were never mainstream media outlets that found Fast and Furious to be credible. Maddow isn’t the only example of this tactic, however. It can also be found in the Baltimore Sun and the Los Angeles Times.

The idea that this whole scandal depends on the credibility of one person is, well, incredulous. There have been whistleblowers, there have been documents that point to other documents that are not in possession of Congress as they should be. It’s been no big secret that Vanderboegh and I are not exactly fond of one another, but the media really is reaching quite a bit with these ad hominem attacks on him to attempt to discredit the scandal. His role in this, of connecting whistleblowers to media contacts and Congressional officials, discredits the scandal exactly how?

These people in the media, who are ordinarily just soooo concerned about “gun violence”, seem perfectly willing to make excuses for our government actively facilitating it, rather than trying to prevent it, in the name of getting Obama re-elected.

By maybe, or maybe not, appealing the decision by a Federal District Court tossing out gun prohibition in Chicago for non-violent misdemeanants. The fact that he’s making such noise about protecting Chicago’s gun laws tells me his office is seriously considering not appealing. This particular issue might not be a hill the Mayor’s Office wants to die on.

Dave Kopel asks whether Obama’s assertion of executive privilege is valid. Instapundit has a few links on the scandal, including one from the Washington Post. Investors Business Daily has run an article stating that the Executive Privilege has the stench of cover-up. Wall Street Journal is running an op-ed. More from the Washington Post. Of course, the WaPo is also offering up some apologia on behalf of Eric Holder.

The only thing I can figure in all this is that Obama thinks taking this up a notch will result in him ending up the victor in the court of public opinion. This scandal was quite easily explained away as incompetence, but the invoking of executive privilege could lead many to question what the White House and Holder have to hide. If this was hatched by the Phoenix office, and everyone involved fired or relocated, then there shouldn’t be an issue with a document release to Congress.

The letter indicating as much can be found here. John Richardson has the excerpt.

UPDATE: Joe has a few words about Eric Holder’s “Extraordinary offer.”

UPDATE: The Belmont Club on Obama invoking Executive Privilege:

Invoking executive privilege was probably a bad move. It won’t be evident right away. But it will be as time goes on. The President has taken the political combat into very expensive territory in energy management terms.  He has neither the altitude nor the fuel to protect either Holder or himself in the long run.

Here’s hoping this backfires. His invoking of Executive Privilege seems to be making Fast and Furious a bigger story, which will get more eyeballs on the scandal. A real good question is what the White House is hiding. If this really was just a botched operation hatched by a field office, why the stonewalling?

I’m wondering if The Freedom Group is regretting expanding and consolidating their manufacturing there yet. It was a foolish move to expand operations in a state where the legislature is outwardly hostile to gun rights and the gun business. The bill covers all guns manufactured or delivered in the State of New York. I have said a purpose of our opponents is to find ways to get gun owners like you and me thrown in prison. This bill is a treasure trove:

Section 4 of the bill amends subdivision 6 of section 265.10 of the penal law to clarify that the existing class D felony offense of defacing a firearm includes the defacement of a microstamping component or mechanism of a semiautomatic pistol.

And how, as a gun owner, am I supposed to tell whether the stamping face has worn? Research has demonstrated that microstamp faces naturally wear. Can the authorities make a distinction between defacement and normal wear? Is the burden on me, the gun owner, to show it’s wear? I can’t exactly see it. How am I supposed to tell if when I took my pistol into the gunsmith, he didn’t mismatch the part. If I order a new firing pin, how am I supposed to ascertain whether the marking is correct and true? Remember, if it’s wrong, I could be facing a felony rap.

This section also creates a new class A misdemeanor offense when a dealer in firearms sells, offers for sale, exchanges, gives, transfers or delivers a semiautomatic pistol knowing that the microstamping component or mechanism of such pistol has been defaced.

And how is the dealer supposed to know? Are dealers required to equip up like a ballistics lab so they can fire a casing, and examine it under a microscope? What if a stamp is worn? How worn is too worn? What counts as defacement? The dealer is facing a high level misdemeanor if he gets it wrong. If I were an attorney advising a New York gun shop, I’d tell him your safe bet is to cease operations, and get out of the business, or only deal in firearms manufactured before January 1st, 2014, which are grandfathered under this bill.

This bill will definitely help the gun control lobby achieve their goals of putting more gun owners in prison. It will also cost upstate jobs as Reminginton is forced to re-locate.

So it’s pretty clear now that the number of people getting carry permits is going up (via SayUncle). I got some wicked deja vu when I started writing what I wanted to write about this subject, and sure enough I already did, and fairly recently too. So even if 99.95% of concealed carry permit holders are folks with good judgement, and can be counted on to be responsible, the overall number of morons with permits are going to go up, and those incidents are very likely to end up as media stories, and used by our opponents as examples of why no one should be permitted to carry.

UPDATE: It occurs to me that our opponents might have a better argument convincing people that society is safe enough that carrying just isn’t worth the hassle, rather than making the argument that the law must forbid nearly everyone from this behavior for their own good. But I don’t think the idea of gentle persuasion has ever entered their thoughts.

The Ohio House passes a major concealed carry bill:

It also would allow concealed-carry permits issued by other states to be automatically recognized in Ohio, and eliminate a prohibition on having a loaded magazine in a vehicle with a firearm.

I thought our opponents had stopped the evil “gun lobby” in its tracks. They were turning things around, and were in the process of creating a new and rejuvenated movement. The pendulum was swinging back. We were going to hear them roar.

The CalGuns guys have prevented microstamping from taking effect in California, by renewing the patent on it. The California law requires that the technology be unencumbered by patent before it goes into effect, and the patent was about to lapse. From the Paper of Making Up the Record:

“It was a lot cheaper to keep the patent in force than to litigate over the issues,” said Gene Hoffman, the chairman of the foundation, adding that he believed the law amounted to a gun ban in California.

It even made Slashdot. Hats off to the brains behind the CalGuns Foundation for this. Gene is likely correct it would have amounted to a gun ban in California, since it’s unlikely most smaller gun makers would pay for the technology and assembly line changes just to make a gun for the California market. This would have a chilling effect on Second Amendment rights for Californians.

Veterans with distinguished service history end up with SWAT teams called on them:

He saw about 25 officers in full body armor and Kevlar helmets, carrying M4 assault weapons. SWAT and explosive ordinance disposal teams were on all sides. Streets were barricaded for blocks. The veteran knew how to surrender with the least chance of being hurt. He put his hands over his head and spun around so they could clearly see he was unarmed. “I looked down and saw 10 jiggly red dots all over my chest,” he said, appearing afraid at the memory. “I crumbled.”

All for the crime of having three pistols in the District of Columbia, an act that in the rest of America, is not remotely a crime, and is supposedly constitutionally protected.

“They immediately zip-tied me tighter than I would have been allowed to zip-tie an Iraqi,” Sgt. Corrigan said, pulling up his dress shirt cuff to show his wrist. “We had to check to fit two fingers between the tie and the Iraqi’s wrist so we weren’t cutting off circulation. They tied mine so tight that they hurt.”

Read the whole sad thing. This is going to be a multi-part series from Emily Miller. Got anyone in the office or a family member who loves themselves some gun control? Show them this article and ask them if this is the America they want, because what happened to Sgt. Corrigan is what gun control is. This is exactly what it boils down to.