Category: Gun Rights

Go see over at Michael Bane’s. It doesn’t help make me feel any better. Especially this:

We are supporters of the Second Amendment and are not against people exercising that right. We also believe that every Right has a corresponding Duty. We believe training may very well be a key factor in retaining or losing the very right our Second Amendment provides. We applaud those who have willingly sought out training on their own to become educated on gun ownership.

That being said, as firearms instructors we see many students come into our courses for training who have no clue or idea what the laws (both State Statutes and case law) are in regards to owning or using a firearm in self defense or any other purpose, let alone how to safely and properly handle or store their firearms. We feel that it is the informed and knowledge gun owners who will play an important role in allowing us to protect our Second Amendment Rights, not those who choose to remain ignorant of the responsibilities that come with that right. It¹s sad to say, but there are many in our society who will not seek appropriate training on their own. It¹s those who choose not to get training, act negligently and make stupid careless mistakes, who are the greatest threat to protecting our Second Amendment Rights. Mandated training is not the enemy, yet, it could play a very important role in saving our rights in the long run. Therefore in order to protect our rights we will support mandated training whenever it is available.

This is like a love letter to the Brady Campaign. They support making exercising of your right conditional on training. How much training is enough? Do I have to take four hours? If four hours is great, twelve would surely be fantastic. If twelve is fantastic why not forty? Why not limit the right to anyone who hasn’t gone thorough police academy? Why not require it for every gun you buy, just to make sure you stay fresh, and all.

Insight wants to make sure no one bothers to become a gun owner. They do not want the option of gradual introduction into the culture. What they propose will destroy our numbers and our political power right along with it. Once you make gun ownership a priestly class, it will cease to exist as a right issue, and as a political issue. There will not be enough gun owners left to prevent tightening the ratchet. In effect, Insight are slitting their own throat, and ours along with it, by signing on to this. If you live in Arizona, and need training, I would take your business elsewhere.

I am not against training. I think it’s valuable. But if it had been a requirement prior, I would not be a gun owner today, and you would not be reading any of this. I was not unfamiliar with firearms when I bought a gun. I was introduced, or reintroduced into shooting in my mid-20s by a friend who took me out shooting, and I used his firearms before I bought my own. After some initial guidance to break a few bad habits I had, I decided to buy my own guns. I enjoyed my time on the range, but I was not committed to getting back into shooting at this point. If there had been hoops to jump through, I doubt I would have.

Once I got my own guns and started practicing, I started to really enjoy it, and got more committed to the sport. But I did not seek out formal training until I started carrying. Though it is not required in Pennsylvania, training is a good idea. But it’s not the end all be all, and the reason is because of the kind of skill shooting is. I’ll explain that later.

Don Kates says he’s a good choice for California, and tells us some details we wouldn’t have known otherwise:

In contrast, I do know Jerry Brown. We went to law school together though we were not big buddies. And when I contacted him about supporting the pro-2d Am position in the McDonald case, he filed an influential pro-2d Am brief w/ the S Ct. I know that he personally made the decision to do this, overruling his staff; and he wrote the brief himself. (He is an able lawyer.) When he was assailed by anti-gun forces, his response was that the 2d am is a “civil rights issue.”

This is not to say that Brown is “pro-gun.” He just thinks – as does everyone rational and informed on the issue – that gun control does not help reduce crime; indeed, that it has nothing to do w/ crime.

I’d sure like more than lukewarm support, but it’s not like Ahhnold has worked out too well for California Gun Owners, has he?

Dave Hardy points out something about the NFA and shotguns over at CleanupATF.org that I think might be incorrect. Dave says:

ATF has consistently taken the position that a shotgun that leaves the factory with a pistol grip and no buttstock, and is kept in that condition, is a pistol rather than a shotgun.

Except I don’t think that’s the case that they consider it a pistol. A pistol grip shotgun is still a shotgun [UPDATE: It’s not a shotgun either] as long as its overall length is greater than 26 inches. The National Firearms Act’s definitions are highly convoluted. If you check the ATF NFA Handbook a few of their footnotes on page eight explain their view of the law. It rests in the definition in 26 USC 5845 of firearms and shotguns. See here:

(a) Firearm The term “firearm” means (1) a shotgun having a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length; (2) a weapon made from a shotgun if such weapon as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches or a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length […]

(d) Shotgun The term “shotgun” means a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed shotgun shell to fire through a smooth bore either a number of projectiles (ball shot) or a single projectile for each pull of the trigger, and shall include any such weapon which may be readily restored to fire a fixed shotgun shell.

So I believe ATF still considers a pistol group shotgun to be a shotgun [See UPDATE below, they consider it to be a ‘pistol grip weapon’], provided its overall length is greater than 26 inches. It is considered to be a weapon made from a shotgun, but because of its overall length, not subject to the provisions of the National Firearms Act. I believe if you were to saw off a shotgun with a pistol grip, it would fall under the definition of “Any Other Weapon” or “AOW” rather than a short barreled shotgun.

The interesting thing about shotguns is they would be subject to the NFA provision that regulates destructive device, except for language in the definition thereof which reads:

any type of weapon by whatever name known which will, or which may be readily converted to, expel a projectile by the action of an explosive or other propellant, the barrel or barrels of which have a bore of more than one-half inch in diameter, except a shotgun or shotgun shell which the Secretary finds is generally recognized as particularly suitable for sporting purposes

In 1994, this definition was used to reclassify the “Street Sweeper” shotgun as a destructive device under the National Firearms Act, since it was deemed by the Clinton Administration to have no sporting use. The same thing could be done with pistol grip shotguns, if the Obama Administration were so inclined. Definitions in the NFA are screwy, and there’s a lot of room to stick it to gun owners with nuance. This is something we should look at cleaning up at some point if we ever have the political opportunity.

UPDATE: A commenter points out this bit from ATF:

Pistol Grips and Shotguns Firearms with pistol grips attached: The definition of a shotgun under the GCA, 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(5), is “a weapon designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be fired from the shoulder and designed or redesigned and made or remade to use the energy of an explosives to fire through a smooth bore either a number of ball shot or single projectile for each single pull of the trigger. Under the GCA, 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(29)(A), handgun means “a firearm which has a short stock and is designed to be held and fired by the use of a single hand.” Federal law provides under 18 U.S.C. 922(b)(1), that if the firearm to be transferred is “other than a rifle or shotgun,” the purchaser must be 21 years of age or older. Certain commercially produced firearms do not fall within the definition of shotgun under the GCA even though they utilize a shotgun shell for ammunition. For example, firearms that come equipped with a pistol grip in place of the butt stock are not shotguns as defined by the GCA. A firearm with a pistol grip in lieu of the shoulder stock is not designed to be fired from the shoulder and, therefore, is not a shotgun. Since it is a firearm “other than a rifle or shotgun,” the purchaser must be 21 years of age or older. Additionally, interstate controls apply. The licensee and transferee must be residents of the same State. Other questions raised pertain to entries made in the licensee’s required records with respect to firearm “type.” These entries should indicate the firearm type as “pistol grip firearm.”

Clear as a bell. Remember that next time Brady or some other group says firearms are unregulated. So they don’t mention that that it’s a “handgun” but they also don’t mention that it’s a “shotgun” either. It’s some other weird category called “pistol grip firearm” even though it’s treated the same way as a handgun for purposes of 922, since it’s not a rifle or a shotgun. Got that? I think my brain is going to explode.

As I’ve mentioned before, Daryl Metcalfe is a great supporter of the Second Amendment. But he’s also, we believe, a bit off his rocker. First the a house resolution on domestic violence turns into part of the gay conspiracy. Then soliders who exercise their rights as citizens are traitors? Not wanting to give anyone the impression that Rep. Metcalfe might be coming back into the mainstream of Pennsylvania politics, now he’s finding the gay agenda in teaching high schoolers about dating violence:

Specifically, they wanted dating relationships defined as relations between heterosexual couples. Right now, the bill — reflecting the real world that kids actually live in — makes no distinction as to gender.

During floor debate, Metcalfe warned his colleagues — and we swear we’re not making this up — that “a rogue teacher could introduce homosexual relationships into the conversation. And a lot of students could be offended.”

Rep. Metcalfe is curiously concerned about the gay agenda above and beyond your average citizen. While I know that many gun owners are socially conservative, as a lot we’re very tolerant people. For instance, Larry Craig still managed to get approved by the NRA Board Nominating Committee despite his wide stance. I think Rep. Metcalfe would do better to focus on restoring fiscal sanity to Pennsylvania, and continuing to protect the liberties of residents of this Commonwealth, whether they are gay, straight, or otherwise. Give up the witch hunt. That crap is killing the Republican brand with younger voters, and it’s time to move on. This country and State have far bigger problems than this.

The Washington Post is doing a bang up job of trying to push the idea of banning private sales of handguns. I think there’s a solution to this kind of problem, but it’s not liable to please the gun control groups. We could have background checks for private transfers, without banning them. But it would require a lot of changes to the current system to deal with our concerns, including opening the system up for everyone to use, full transparency, and anonymized transactions. I don’t see any of the anti-gun groups agreeing to negotiate from that as a starting point. Come to think of it, I don’t see the government agreeing to that level of transparency either.

Chicago area gun stores are preparing for a huge surge in sales. I think they may be underestimating how many obstacles Daley is going to throw in the way of residents who want handguns. Technically it’s legal in DC to get a handgun if you jump through all the hoops, but my understanding is that very few people have. Even if McDonald is a win, it’s not going to be like Chicago residents will be able to head out to the gun shop and pick up a heater. There will still be a process, and it’s probably not going to be easy.

We probably stand a good chance of getting many of those obstacles removed in later cases, but it’s going to take a while.