Guns – Page 327 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Our Friends of the NRA Raffle

For those who bought tickets for our Bucks County Friend of the NRA 1911 raffle (and we thank each and every one of you who did), we did have our drawing last night for the three 1911s, and I am pleased to report that someone who got their ticket through our blog won the Kimber. This makes sense since we sold about 1/3rd of the 200 tickets in the raffle though the blog. In the interest of privacy, we won’t announce the winners names, but we will announce the winners had ticket numbers 25, 87, and 129. I thank everyone who played, because you really made an impact. As a new Friends of the NRA Committee, we have certain fundraising goals each year, and because of you all who entered, we exceeded that. Without you, we would have come in under our goal.

Our dinner, plus this raffle, allowed us to raise approximately $7600 for the NRA Foundation, half of which will stay in Eastern Pennsylvania, where it will be used to fund grants, most of which are related to youth shooting programs. Remember that every kid who learns to shoot, and learns proper and safe gun handling makes the anti-gunners cry, and that’s worth the price of entry even if you didn’t win.

We may do another raffle next year, or possibly one head of our dinner in spring. It has yet to be determined by our committee.

Shedding More Heavy Weights at the Brady Campaign

Today’s background “music” for Sebastian and I is listening to the C-SPAN airing of the Brady Center’s lunch with retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. I noticed an interesting tidbit when Dan Gross introduced Jonathan Lowy as their legal rockstar. I couldn’t help but think that was a bit disrespectful to the organization’s top lawyer – Dennis Henigan.

Then, I realized that we had not heard from Dennis in quite a while. His HuffPo blog hasn’t been updated since August even though he typically updated it about once a month. More importantly, when I did things like click on the name “Dennis Henigan” on the Brady Center site, it went to a general news page with no articles by or about him. He also wasn’t on the biographies page even though the Brady Center certainly his domain since he worked on legal issues as opposed to legislation.

A little Googling later, and I see that Dennis Henigan has left his employer of 23 years without so much as an announcement from the organization thanking him for his contributions. He’s now working with Peter Hamm at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

So, it’s very interesting to see these changes given what Dave Hardy posted about their finances of recent years.

PLCAA in New York Courts

Earlier this month a New York appeals court overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit against Beemiller, Inc, the maker of the Hi-Point 9mm, which is being sued because of criminal misuse of their product. The lower court, correctly, cited the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. Law.com has a very good article with some background. John Richardson has more, including an NRA News interview with Steven Halbrook. The actual opinion cites the exceptions to the PLCAA as a reason for allowing the case to go forward, particularly the text which allows, “an action in which a manufacturer or seller of a qualified productÂ knowingly violated a State or Federal statute applicable to the sale or marketing of the product, and the violationÂ was a proximate cause of the harm for which relief is sought.”

The complaint is against the dealer, the distributor, and the manufacturer. The case is actually quite interesting. The dealer in this was licensed from his home, and did business at gun shows. There’s nothing unlawful about this arrangement, but it’s alleged that the dealer knowingly facilitated straw purchases in violation of federal law, which, if true, would indeed put the suit outside of the PLCAA. Where it gets interesting is that the dealer in question was a high level officer, and is now the President of the distributor that’s being sued as well. Said distributor is the sole marketer and distributor of Hi-Point firearms. The court essentially ruled that the plaintiffs are entitled to discovery, given these facts.

The Brady Center is touting this as a major landmark victory. They have been attempting to poke holes in the PLCAA virtually from the moment it passed, since it has effectively ruined their strategy to sue firearms manufacturers, distributors, and dealers out of existence. I haven’t been able to find all the pleadings in this case to know for sure, but the circumstances here look fairly unique and narrow, with someone who is a dealer and also part owner of the sole distributor of a firearms manufacturer. Nonetheless, the Bradys would love to carve a PLCAA exception wide enough such that any firearm sold by a dealer to a straw buyer can result in a potential lawsuit at least reaching the discovery phase. All it takes is for this to happen in a single jurisdiction, and it’ll be open season on firearms dealers.

Endorsing Concealed Carry in California

Wow, check out this incredible editorial by a California paper against a concealed carry ban – for the specific reason that good people should be able to defend their lives. The mind boggles.

CARRYING CONCEALED WEAPONS.
Senator Roberts has introduced a bill to repeal the law making it a penal offense to carry concealed deadly weapons in this State. It may not sound well in theory to defend the repeal of this law; but we think the movement practically a good one. The old law was always a dead letter among the very class it was designed to restrict â€” the robbers, assassins and desperate characters. It was never needed as against civil citizens, for these never kill or wound save in self-defense. But the effect of it has been to give the worst men in the country greater advantages over the peaceably disposed than they had before; since the law, which is generally respected by the latter, never was regarded by the desperate and evil disposed. These have carried pistols, knives and slung-shots, just the same as if there were no law against it; and the police, always ready to make a dollar or win a little cheap reputation by arresting quiet citizens found by accident with concealed weapons, are very shy of the desperadoes and careful not to run the risk of their displeasure. The law by these means virtually disarmed the good citizens so that the wicked and outlawed portion have them completely at their mercy. It has become worse than a nuisance, and ought to be repealed without delay.

Which paper finally sees the issue so clearly? The Sacramento Daily Union of December 13, 1869.

I learned about a resource of historical newspapers from Clayton Cramer‘s speech at the NRA Second Amendment Symposium. He jokingly ended his speech with the comment that it only took what – 140 years – for the Supreme Court to catch up with newspaper editorials in California.

We Were Protested

Back from the legal seminar. Heeding God’s Call apparently decided they were going to protest, since I guess God doesn’t like Second Amendment law seminars. Throngs of people showed up, with tons of enthusiasm and energy. We were overwhelmed by their presence. Or not:

One woman is wielding a sign that says “Stop Shooting People,” which is a serious problem when you bring academics and lawyers together in one place. Perhaps they thought the seminar happening in the Ormandy Ballroom was just a clever cover for the arms bazaar that was no doubt occurring in the Mogadishu Ballroom on the next floor. But what was going on inside?

Clayton Cramer talking about the history of California’s Concealed Weapons laws. Seated to his right is Professor Nick Johnson of Fordham University, who had just given a talk on firearms and the black experience. Seated to the right of Professor Johnson is John Frazer, Director of Research for NRA-ILA who spoke himself, and also moderated the forum. Clearly very dangerous people who’d make a regular habit of “shooting people” if not for protesters holding signs.

Law Seminar in Philadelphia This Weekend

NRA is hosting a legal seminar this weekend in Philadelphia, which Bitter and I will be attending. There are people coming in from all around, so if you’re going to be there, we’ll see you there. I don’t know who is and who isn’t coming, but later tonight I’ll be giving Clayton Cramer a lift from the airport to the hotel where the seminar is hosted, so I know he’s coming at least.

Also, sorry for the light posting the past several days. I’ve been in the office, which kills two to three hours of my day on the commute, and because I’m not in the office all the time, I have to use my time here judiciously when there’s things I have to get done on site. We will return back to our normal schedule shortly.

Two Wolves and a Sheep

Shorter CSGV: As long as the wolves vote on who to have for dinner, the sheep needs to quit complaining!

A Different Democratic Message on Jobs

An A rated endorsed Democrat from Northeast Pennsylvania is taking up a different kind of jobs message than most members of his party.

State Rep. Gerald Mullery has asked three gun manufacturers to relocate to Northeastern Pennsylvania because lawmakers in states where they currently have plants are considering enacting costly regulations on their businesses. …
Mullery, a member of the House Game and Fisheries Committee, recently sent letters to the chief executive officers of Remington Arms Co., Colt’s Manufacturing Co. and Kimber Manufacturing Inc. detailing the benefits of a move to Northeastern Pennsylvania. Remington and Kimber have factories in New York, and Colt has a factory in Connecticut.

Somehow, I don’t see too many national stage Democrats lining up behind this jobs plan. In fact, neither one of his party colleagues running to represent the Rep. Mullery’s county (it’s in two districts) was even willing to answer questionnaires from gun owners.

Is Bloomberg Funding the Whole Gun Control Movement?

Dave Hardy has some excellent reporting on how Bloomberg may be secretly funneling money into the gun control movement. Dave mentions a reason for this could be so that Bloomberg can fund other more radical projects, but continue to appear to be moderate on the issue. Dave posits that the reason Joyce hasn’t donated much to the Brady Campaign is because they are too moderate. If that is indeed the case, it might explain why they’ve been turning up the crazy lately. It could be the Joyce mothership, and Bloomberg, not only dig the crazy, but benefit from it.Â Dave also notes that the Brady organization has been hemorrhaging money. This has been going on for a while now, actually, and I’m surprised they can still function. Not only function, but they felt they had the money to hire a new President, rather than just continuing with Dennis Henigan. It’ll be interesting to see if all the crazy talk coming out Brady these days is intended to signal to mama Joyce that they’re as serious about lunacy as all the other gun control groups.

And if Joyce is really looking for crazy, why? It’s a reasonable question to ask, so put yourself in Bloomberg’s shoes. He has his Mayor’s organization. They are the moderate face of gun control, when their members aren’t busy getting arrested, indicted or sent to prison. They are the ones proposing serious policies and trying to move the middle. But moving the middle is tough, because you run into the problem of the NRA, and people who are active in the gun rights community. In fact, if there’s one thing Media Matters and CSGV have in common it’s an attempt to discredit the National Rifle Association, and harass and intimidate those who support them. The CSGV outing of gun bloggers, along with taking our quotes out of context and spinning them as racist, lunatic, or worse, may actually be part of a coordinated strategy funded largely out of Bloomberg’s pockets. This way he has the lunatic groups, who have no bearing on the policy debate anymore, do his dirty work for him. If he were to do this directly with the MAIG organization, we’d use it to attack his mayors, and destroy his credibility when he tries to move the policy debate, and he knows that.

I could be far off base here, and giving the gun control groups way too much credit, and the lunacy we’ve witnessed the past few years might only be anger and resentment as they slip farther and farther into irrelevancy. But I don’t think Bloomberg is to be underestimated. I could easily see a cohesive strategy here at work that would make perfect sense. Bloomberg can’t move the issue without discrediting NRA, and too a much lesser degree other parts of the new media and horizontal interpretive communitiesÂ established in the gun rights movement. MAIG will do that (with the help of Frank Luntz) on the up-and-up, and the Joyce grantees, funded indirectly with Bloomberg money and with no credibility left to risk, get to do the dirty work.

Josh Horwitz’s Wookie Suit Allergies

You have to know Cody Wilson, of the WikiWeapon Project, is doing something right if Josh Horwitz is writing an entire article which is nothing less than an anaphylactic reaction to the thick and luxuriant fur on Cody’s wookie suit. The more I look at the WikiWeapon, the more I think this looks like Reagan’s “Star Wars” program strategically. The “Star Wars” program was about as much of a technological pipe dream as a pistol you could make on a 3D printer, but it scared the Soviets enough that they were forced to spend a lot of time and energy thinking of ways to counter it; money they could ill afford to spend. The fact that our opponents are having a cow over it is good enough reason to push the technology and continue to democratize it. Gun control has always been ineffective, but now it is to be obsolete as well, as we’ve demonstrated on our blog.