Category: Gun Rights

Otis McDonald is the McDonald behind McDonald v. City of Chicago. His family is reporting on his Facebook page that he’s battling metastatic cancer, and could use thoughts and prayers:

Mr. Otis McDonald, a man who stood tall for full citizenship rights of all Americans. He stood victoriously at the Supreme Court for the right of every American to protect and defend their family. He stood for us to be safe in our homes. A courageous man who made us proud.

Mr. McDonald is currently in a fight for his life as he battles metastatic cancer. Today, he needs us to unite and stand for him. We are requesting your prayers for Mr. McDonald and his family during this time of his serious illness.

I take their statement as a request to help maintain the family’s privacy, so I did not include contact information, but it’s on the Facebook page.

Once again, I want to thank everyone for their patience on Fridays when I am not really able to easily keep up with the blog during the day. The New Jersey Assembly passed the magazine ban, which means the fight is now on in the Senate. From ANJRPC:

The agenda for Monday’s Senate Law and Public Safety Committee meeting is out, and S993 (gun ban / mag ban) is not on it.  While that could change at any time, reliable sources in Trenton tell us that an “issue” has arisen that is prompting the legislation to be held until after the budget recess in April.

Whether the “issue” is the outrage of thousands of gun owners, hunters and sportsmen,the realization that the legislation and its amendments are fundamentally flawed, or something else, reports of the reprieve, if accurate, would represent a significant break in the momentum of this legislation.  Anti-gun lawmakers have been on a full court press since February to get this legislation to the Governor’s desk, and great pains were taken to reschedule an Assembly hearing (after it was cancelled due to winter storm Titan) so the bill could be delivered to the Governor this month.

While gun owners should remain prepared to come to Trenton Monday morning if something changes over the weekend, as of this afternoon it does not appear that will be necessary.  Should we receive contrary information over the weekend, we will issue a follow-up alert.

In the meanwhile, there should be no break in the momentum from our end.  Gun owners, hunters and sportsmen must continue to weigh in by email with every State Senator, and by phone and fax with their individual State Senator.  Tell them to oppose S993 (gun ban / mag ban).

This should be a no-brainer veto for Christie. Hell, if I were him I’d hold up a Model 60 in the presser and tell the world this is what the New Jersey Democrats wanted to ban. “You probably had one of these when you were a kid.” The messaging practically writes itself. That might not be a true statement in New Jersey, but it sure is in New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and some of the other early key primary states.

Newtown has changed the conversation on guns in this country so much, authorities in Massachusetts are aghast at the number of people who are trying to exercise their rights.

The local increase in licenses is a trend reflected statewide. The number of people in Massachusetts with Class A licenses rose by nearly 5 percent, from about 271,000 in 2012 to 284,000 last year. The latest number represents an increase of more than 20 percent since 2009.

Of course, to many lawmakers, this is a problem about which something must be done, and they are looking to also issue FIDs, which is what you need for grandpa’s deer rifle and shotgun, on a may-issue basis.

A panel to consider changes was appointed by House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo following the Newtown, Conn., school massacre in December 2012. It developed a list of 44 recommendations, which included giving police chiefs the power to block potentially dangerous people from buying rifles and shotguns, broadening background checks, and strengthening gun safety courses. A bill is now being drafted, according to the speaker’s office.

How long before the federal courts start recognizing that the vast majority of gun laws out there are motivated almost exclusively by an animus toward the idea of the common people being armed?

The New York Daily News is running an article on the troubled nomination Dr. Vivek Murthy for the post of Surgeon General, which has a Reid staffer suggesting that “MAIG and other gun control organizations failed to meet his request to provide political cover Democrats needed to take tough votes on Murthy.” Well, you know, that’s because they don’t have any cover to offer. Mark Glaze is quoted in the article noting that his group has “emailed its more than 1.5 million members to tie the Murthy attacks to what it says are other instances of the NRA trying to ‘get between us and our doctors.'” The problem is, their members haven’t really done anything except get themselves on a mailing list. They don’t have a dog, or a gun in the fight. All of NRA’s members either pay annual dues or have paid hundreds and sometimes thousands for life memberships. It’s not too surprising, in that instance, that MAIG doesn’t have the juice to cover skeptical Democrats on a controversial nominee.

Harry Reid has certainly abandoned any semblance of supporting gun rights, but that jab at MAIG and MDA from one of his staffers made my day.

Struggling to find much to say about any of the tabs that have built up over the past few days, so that means it’s just time to do a link dump.

There are pro-gun bills up in both Tennessee and Georgia. Also, in Florida, the threat of force bill is getting a floor vote. This is the bill that was mistakenly called the “warning shot” bill. Floridians also continue to approve of the Stand Your Ground law. Remember, Newtown totally changed the national conversation about guns.

The fight is back in Rhode Island, as they are talking about banning scary looking guns again.

Prince Law takes a look at the sanctions against Russia, and notes that the consequences are still up in the air. Also, the Hill is reporting on this as well. I think this is more “something to keep and eye on” rather than “you may now panic.”

Drake v. Jerijian is a case to watch, which challenges New Jersey’s de facto no-issue.

The City of Durango, CO is blackmailing a 100% NRA club to drop the requirement or lose its lease with the city. I think there might be some First Amendment issues going on there if the city can’t articulate a neutral reason why the club can’t require NRA membership. Bitter has written about this club previously.

Bob Owens has more on 80% lowers.

A 911 dispatchers view on weapons and self-defense.

Questioning whether Open Carry is the right tactic in every situation is beginning to feel like questioning whether Ron Paul was really the right candidate to carry libertarian ideas forward. For some the answer is always OC, or Ron Paul. For new readers, the official position of this blog on OC is best summed up in this post.

Russian troops using AR-10 rifles? They are not Spetsnaz, comrades. They are just armed enthusiasts for ethnic Russian speaking peoples!

Off topic:

Tam: Top. Men. “You don’t put the junior varsity in against the Strategic Rocket Forces.” I think the worst part of all this is when Putin is mocking Obama, I snicker and have to concede the point. Putin has Obama’s number. He knows what kind of chump he’s dealing with in the White House.

An article on food and energy inflation, courtesy of Instapundit. I can definitely attest that food and energy is a much much larger component of my budget than it was five years ago.

 

In the context of screening to determine eligibility to exercise a fundamental right, background checks are vital, and we don’t concern ourselves with whether it might be a racist policy that disproportionately prevents minorities from exercising their right to keep and bear arms. But in the context of employment, the Obama Administration is very concerned about background checks preventing minorities from being hired:

The Obama administration continues to warn employers about doing criminal and other background checks that could disparately impact minorities and other groups protected by discrimination laws.

Oh, so now that it’s in a context the left disfavors, background checks are bad. I see.

Civil right advocates also worry about employers ruling out minority candidates because of arrest records and not necessarily convictions.

And how many Blacks in Philadelphia have been denied their right to bear arms under the Second Amendment and Section 21 of the Pennsylvania Constitution because of just an arrest record? We’ve been bitching about this stuff for years, but because it’s a concern the left does not view as legitimate, nothing changes. If you want to be a “civil rights advocate,” you should care about all civil rights, not just the ones you like.

I can actually agree that employers are getting a little nuts when they are counting arrest records against applicants, but you don’t then get to turn around and dismiss concerns when they are presented in a context you don’t favor.

The Washington Times is reporting California Sheriffs are getting deluges with applications for concealed carry permits since the ruling in Peruta. Right now Peruta is stayed, though both San Diego and Orange County have decided to start issuing on a shall-issue basis anyway. Sheriffs in other counties can still take very narrow reading on “good cause,” at least until the court issues a final mandate. Still, it’s good to see there’s pent up demand in the Golden State. It is through this that perhaps a foundation can be built that would start turning the state’s gun laws around.

Bob Owens has a nice snap of a group of New Yorkers burning their registration forms. Rates of compliance for registration schemes have historically been very low. I seem to recall reading that even California’s Roberti-Ross ban in the late 80s had a compliance rate only a fraction of the estimated number of “assault weapons” in civilian inventory. It’s worth noting that post-Newtown, a proposal to confiscate all the registered firearms was floated in California, and it’s happened in New York and is about to happen in CT for those who foolishly filed late.

I also wonder how many of the registered firearms were considered “throw down guns”, kind of like a “throw down wallet” you’d use on a mugger. In other words, you register one, leave the unregistered ones as safe queens, bury them, or do whatever, and if they ever come for the registered one, you can sacrifice it because they don’t know about the 10 other rifles. Meanwhile you can shoot the registered one without worry you’ll get picked up by the authorities and charged. It wouldn’t be my plan, but I could see a lot of people who are “complying” are only making a show of it.