Category: Gun Rights

Looks like the amendment forcing Amtrak to allow transportation of firearms going to become a reality. Amtrak will be sure to give us their best Chicken Little impression soon.

A criminal justice instructor in Harrisburg managed to stop a stabbing in progress, but you know, guns in schools by LTC holders is just crazy!

Criminal justice instructor Michael Minto was leaving the Kaplan Career Institute in Swatara Twp. on Monday night when he spotted a man being stabbed, police said.

Minto pulled his gun and ordered the attacker to drop his knife, police said. The attacker fled, and authorities said Minto’s actions likely saved the life of Dillon Mitchell, 30, of Harrisburg.

If Minto had not intervened, “We might be talking about someone who died,” said Deputy Swatara Twp. Police Chief Jason D. Umberger. “There are not many citizens out there that would have the courage to take that action.”

How is this possible? I thought only trained police officers were capable of this kind of thing? And at a school? The devil you say! Granted, this is a private post-secondary vocational institution, so carrying is legal there. In Pennsylvania, schools are a grey area. They aren’t explicitly forbidden by the Uniform Firearms Act, but weapons in primary and secondary schools are forbidden with an exception for “other lawful purposes,” which would presumably cover self-defense, but I don’t think anyone wants to be the test case there. It’s legal to carry on college campuses in Pennsylvania, but most universities forbid the practice by policy, much like employers do.

UPDATE: I should point out that licensed carry is a grey area. While it is legal to open carry in Pennsylvania, it is not legal to open carry within 1000 feet of a school without an LTC because of the federal Gun Free School Zones Act, which makes an exception for state permits, but does not make a general exception. It’s my opinion that the Gun Free School Zones Act is unconstitutional on both Tenth Amendment grounds and Second Amendment grounds, and was thrown out on the former previously, but Congress rewrote it. Want to be the test case?

A key Second Amendment case is now being heard in US District Court in the DC Circuit. Looks like the Obama Administration is working to get the case dismissed for lack of standing. Basically, the case is brought by American expatriates, who wish to buy a gun for when they visit back home, but GCA ’68 makes this unlawful, because you can only buy as a resident of a state.

Apparently some members of the club he used to try to pull the wool over hunter’s eyes about his record are pissed. Members of Illion Fish and Game probably ought to think about changing their club leadership, since I can promise you they knew about it. If a member, or group of members, let Schumer and his people, and the camera’s in without board approval, that should be grounds for kicking them out of the club. Either way, those folks have some internal difficulties to work through. We can’t afford mistakes like this.

The medical profession seems to be butting their noses once again where it does not belong. Ed Friedman of Guns and Hunting takes them to task for it. I don’t really have a problem with doctors offering some general advise to parents about dangerous objects in the house, and including guns, but I do have a problem with prying, and speaking on subjects for which they have no real expertise. I applaud JAAPA for suggesting doctors become familiar with the issue, but I think no more advise is needed short of “If  you have guns in the house, make sure you keep them stored in a manner the children don’t have access to it.” along with things like “Make sure Drano and other household chemicals are stored away from kids.” (poisons kill approximately 3x as many children under 5 as gun accidents) and “Make sure you don’t leave buckets of water laying around.” Buckets of water kill more kids under the age of 5 than gun accidents do. Not as lethal as bathtubs and pools, but buckets of water are far more dangerous to young kids than guns. If a physician wouldn’t give the advice to parents not to remove buckets from the house, they shouldn’t give that advice for guns either. Even for older children, drowning has approximately four times as high an occurrence. Would they advise patients to fill in their pools?

This article from the Wisconsin State Journal hints at some more details in the Wisconsin microstamping bill.  You can find the actual bill here. It’s pretty bad. One of the worst bills I’ve seen so far. Here’s what it’ll do:

• Requires a stamp to be on two places on the spent casing. We don’t really know how to do this effectively. There are technologies that can imprint on the primer cup, but a chamber marking may weaken brass and make it unsuitable for reusing.
• Ban manufacture of handguns in Wisconsin that do not produce micro stamps, even if that handgun is destained for sale outside of the state. I would imagine this will mean no manufacture will ever seriously consider locating in Wisconsin as long as this bill is up for consideration. What a great jobs program this will be.
• Dealers are required to certify that a gun manufactured after 1/1/2011 produces microstamps before they transfer it. Being wrong is a crime. How are dealers to certify this?
• Confusing grandfathering. Pistols made before January 1st, 2011 are grandfathered. But most pistols don’t have a date of manufacture on them. You have to call the manufacture and give them the serial number to find out. If new residents move into the state with new pistols that don’t microstamp, they aren’t permitted to sell them in the state except to a dealer. Presumably, though, if you have a post-microstamp handgun that doesn’t imprint, you’ll probably just be presumed guilty until you prove your innocence.
• Fixing a broken pistol is now a misdemeanor, unless you get parts that make the correct microstamp. No replacing firing pins or barrels.
• Guilty for normal wear? All microstamping technologies have the stamp degrade over time. Will gun owners end up prosecuted because their microstamps have worn out? How will the authorities distinguish between worn markings and deliberately altered markings?

This is not an anti-crime measure, as the bill states. This is just a means to harass gun owners. It’s time for gun owners in the badger state to start getting angry, but don’t forget they are also pushing a “Lost and Stolen” bill as well. It’s been a tactic, it would seem, to introduce more than one bill, in the hopes gun owners focus on the really bad one and ignore the lesser evil. Don’t fall for it.

This crap will come to other states. It’s already on the table in New York State as well. I would note the Wisconsin bill has no exemption for police officers, so if I were manufacturers, I would make it clear they will not sell guns in Wisconsin, including to police agencies, if this law goes into effect.

Looks like we have another state considering this technology. The main problem with the technology, other than it being trivially easy to defeat, is that it won’t affect the existing stock of guns on the streets. If you look at ATF’s time-to-crime numbers, it shows that most crime guns have been on the streets for a long time. A lot of gun control proposals are, unfortunately for the other side, going to be rendered useless by the fact that the United States has had widespread firearms ownership for a long, long time.