Guns – Page 194 – Shall Not Be Questioned

It’s Working in Illinois

Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to impose mandatory minimum sentences for illegal gun possession was pulled from a House panel’s agenda Tuesday for further negotiations after it faced almost certain rejection from state lawmakers.

The Chicago Police chief makes an appeal to prosecutorial discretion, “contending that prosecutors would have discretion on the charges they level,”Â when faced with pushback about otherwise law abiding people getting ensnared by Rahm and Bloomberg’s trap. Don’t ever believe that. If there’s one thing we know it’s that prosecutors only discretion is whether they think they have a chance at a conviction, and when it comes to guns in Chicago, it’ll be the law abiding who end up with the book thrown at them, because they don’t have anything else to bargain away.

Increase Cost of Carry Permits

Luzerne County Councilman Rick Morelli wants to raise the concealed carry permit to $150 dollars in order to close a budget gap. This is why the law does not give counties the power to set the fee. If they actually go through with this, they need to be sued. You’ll also love this gem:

“Please note I very much support the second amendment where people have the right to keep and bear arms from impingement,” he wrote. “I also believe that we need tougher gun control laws. Since owning a fire arm (sic) is a privilege, I believe the people who want a permit will pay for it even at a higher rate.”

You support the Second Amendment, but owning a firearm os a privilege? It’s like they are parrots who just mimic the words and have no idea what they are saying. The really sad part is that, as best as I’ve been able to tell, Councilman Morelli’s views on the Second Amendment have the full support of our nation’s court system.

Big Anti-Gun Money in Virginia

I already saw comments and photos from friends in Northern Virginia that the Gabby Giffords PAC has spent lots of money on a constant stream of campaign mailers that practically accuse gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli of wanting to give away free guns to babies, terrorists, and domestic abusers.

Then word broke yesterday that Michael Bloomberg is dropping another $1.1 million in advertising into the state in just the final two weeks of the race. Politico notes that if Terry McAuliffe wins, he is a guarantee to be a very big Bloomberg ally on gun control.

They will always try to outspend us, and with someone like Bloomberg behind them, it will sometimes work. Fortunately, Colorado showed that sometimes we can also counter their big money by motivating voters in a big way. In fact, I would argue that the Colorado losses and the continued threat of more recalls there is why the gun control groups are going so big into the Virginia governor’s race. They can’t afford to lose something so high profile in another purple state, and they know it. Unfortunately, the polls look like they just might get that win they so desperately need to remain relevant unless Virginia voters really step up and turn out.

California Court of Appeals Rejects Assault Weapon Challenge

The decision is here. It’s important to note that this is a California state court and not federal court, but since the McDonald decision, the Second Amendment is applicable to the states and state courts are bound to consider it. Well, consider it the California Appeals court did, and decided the right was essentially meaningless, and because an AK-47 is at least as dangerous as a short barreled shotgun, it could be banned, since Heller agreed short barreled shotguns could be banned. Dave Hardy notes:

The inclination of the court is obvious. The situation probably indicates how essential it is to “develop a record” at the trial level. What proportion of firearms are “assault weapons”? One of the answers is that over 20% of current rifle production is by manufacturers who make nothing but AR-platform rifles.

Trial courts are finders of fact, so having trial evidence that these are, in fact, weapons in common use and not unusual (I’d note that Heller says dangerous and unusual, not dangerous or unusual), could help on appeal. I also don’t think one can single out a single model of firearm. I could find plenty of handguns by model or description that are unusual, but few would argue ought to be banned because they fit inside a broader type of gun that’s common. I think you have to consider firearms by functional class, in other words, can you ban or restrict semi-automatic rifles? Bolt action rifles? Lever action? Machine guns? Not by singling out a single model by name, or some obscure feature that doesn’t have any real bearing on how people normally classify firearms.

But then again, I don’t really think the courts give a crap, to be honest. I’ve gotten little indication that most state and lower federal courts, and even most federal circuit court show much interest in seriously evaluating the current state of the law, and making an honest attempt to construct a meaningful right.

Interpol Secretary General Says We Need to Talk about Armed Citizens

The current Interpol Secretary General, the first American to hold the post, says that after the Westgate Mall act of terror, it’s time to start having a serious conversation on the value of armed citizens. He basically highlights that to minimize the risk of these kinds of attacks, we can go to a police state where you need exceptional security to go into any building or there’s the option of an armed populace:

“Societies have to think about how they’re going to approach the problem,” Noble said. “One is to say we want an armed citizenry; you can see the reason for that. Another is to say the enclaves are so secure that in order to get into the soft target you’re going to have to pass through extraordinary security.”

He notes that these terrorists didn’t go to a place like Texas to find victims. They went to a place where citizens are largely unarmed.

Looking up his story, this is a complete break from so many things you would expect about a man with his background. He was born in New Jersey and went to New England for college. He’s a tenured professor, and he served in the Clinton Administration as Undersecretary for Enforcement at the Department of the Treasury. That means he was also involved in the “review” of ATF’s actions at Waco. He has previously been so well liked by his colleagues in the international law enforcement world that his last two elections as Secretary General have been supported unanimously.

The Remington 700 Controversy Continues

Someone is calling for criminal charges against Remington execs because he claims the Remington 700 trigger system is dangerous.

The Aleksich lawsuit was over a 1988 incident similar to the one that killed Barberâ€™s son. Fourteen-year-old Brent Aleksich was shot through both legs by his brother, Brock, when the Remington 700 Brock was holding fired after he released the safety, the lawsuit said.

Of course, the question I would have is why you were pointing a rifle at your brother’s legs? This is why we have the four rules. I don’t know enough about the Remington 700 to have an opinion as to whether the trigger is flawed, but this is why we don’t point guns at people.

Campus Carry on the Hot Seat in Pennsylvania

There are currently fourteen Pennsylvania State Universities that are looking at their concealed weapons policy, citing recent court decisions, and a concern for being good neighbors. I tend to think that the regents of state universities are political subdivisions of the state, and therefore preemption should apply to them. Currently, there’s no law in Pennsylvania that prohibits someone with an LTC from carrying on a college campus. Most colleges and universities ban firearms from campus by policy rather than law.

Some 5.7 Myths Busted

There’s a lot of talk in the gun world about the FN-Five-Seven. It’s regularly demonized as a cop killer. The folks at The Firearms Blog put some of the claims to the test with both the sporting ammunition, and with the S190 armor piercing ammunition that is not available to civilians. Their conclusion?

SS197 sporting ammunition from a handgun will not penetrate IIIA armor
SS190 armor piercing ammunition from a handgun will defeat soft body armor
5.7 from a 16â€³ barrel will slice through body armor, but only FMJ will defeat stronger stuff
Surplus German helmets are really, really strong

Read the whole thing. Without the special SS190 armor piercing rounds, which are restricted to government and law enforcement only, the Five-Seven won’t penetrate soft body armor, and won’t penetrate tougher armor even with SS190 unless it’s fired from a rifle.

On Revolvers

Caleb caused quite a stir when he noted that wheelguns are obsolete. Tim followed up, noting that the issue was capacity. Tam notes that the correct word is “obsolescent.”

Any bets on how long it takes for the first commenter to say “If’n my revolver’s so obsole… obsolecs… obso-whatever, why don’t you stand over there and let me shoot it at you?” Hey, a Model A is obsolescent, but I wouldn’t bet you couldn’t drive one to New York.

I used to carry an N-frame sometimes when I hiked, mostly because it’s a cheaper and more reasonable option over a Desert Eagle, if you want a pistol capable of firing a cartridge that can top 1000ft-lbs of muzzle energy. I’ve never had much interest in revolvers other than as a trail gun and for IHMSA competition, back when I had time for that.

Meetings, Meetings, and News

As you might be able to tell, Friday posting is getting more difficult for me, since Friday is basically wall-to-wall meetings for me these days at work, and I’ve been busy enough with other work things to not really have time to do post-aheads the night before. Technically we have launched our new product that I have been working on since starting the new job nearly two years ago, but things don’t really get started until we make a sale. We’re getting pretty close, but it’s still crunch time. But with that, here’s the news for Friday, even though it’s Saturday.

Celebrate diversity. Wait, aren’t they pacifists?

Jim Geraghty has been pretty pessimistic about Ken Cuccinelli’s electoral prospects. McAullife has been throwing the standard “War on Women” playbook against Cuccinelli, who is a darling of social conservatives. Why does this tactic work so effectively in swing states? This is a question the GOP needs to ask itself.

What caliber for giant killer hornets?

JayG has landed a job as a professional gun writer! Congrats! Also in the “Congrats” genre, Weer’d is now father to a new baby girl.

Crushing dissent mercilessly. But hey, we’re told nothing like that could ever happen here by the same kinds of people.

People are upset Magpul hasn’t up and moved yet. Our company is currently looking to move, because we’re running out of space at our current location. We’re only a 25 person company. Trust me, even finding the right space takes a good bit of time. I would advise patience among gun owners.

“Common sense” used to involve banning guns.

I hope the Supreme Court puts the smack down on this practiceÂ among federal prosecutors, because it’s egregiously wrong.

Bloomberg has his fingerprints all over Rahm’s push for new gun control laws.