Guns – Page 352 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Beware of Cheap Gun Safes

Forbes does a report on gun safes, and shows many common, cheap gun safes are way too easy to circumvent. In some cases the child here was told by an adult how to circumvent, but there are several cases where a a kid could pretty easily do some of this stuff just being a kid.

Some of these problems could probably be solved by securing it to a floor, wall or heavy piece of furniture, but parents who own guns should be aware that not all safes are created equal. Generally speaking, good security costs some bucks.

Redefining Insane

We’ve highlighted quite a bit of rhetoric from anti-gun advocates who view Second Amendment supporters as less than human, or at least as people who deserve less respect than they do as citizens. They want us thrown out of the political debate, our rights to petition our government officials stripped, our right to organize taken away, and our First Amendment right to even speak out with our opinions on what various government entities are doing in regards to firearms policy restricted.

With the Aurora shooting bringing more attention to the issue of mental health qualifications for gun ownership, I couldn’t help but notice a trend in quite a few pieces written by those looking for more gun control. (Emphasis added below.)

“US gun laws: Guilty by reason of insanity” – Laramie Boomerang: “Perhaps, if sane laws on gun control, including the ban on high capacity magazines, were in place, many in Aurora who are now dead or seriously injured would be alive and well today.”
Washington Post: “The gun lobby barely had to say a word before the media sent advocates of saner gun regulation shuffling off in defeat.”
New York Times: “The fact that Congress found it impossible to extend the law against guns that allow you to shoot off 100 bullets in a couple of minutes is simply insane.”
“NRA’s definition of ‘sane American‘ sure has changed” – St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Today, sane Americans can’t even talk about guns.”
“Gun Sanity” – The Record: “Stop the insanity. It is that simple. The Second Amendment does not give Americans a constitutional right to weapons of mass destruction.”
“Gun Insanity” – Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus: “The Luntz poll suggests that gun owners are saner than our leaders think. Responsible gun owners donâ€™t need access to assault weapons.”

They want to define their political opponents down. See, you can’t possibly be sane if you have a different opinion on public policy. If you’re not sane, well, we can’t trust you with firearms. It’s as simple as that…

Don’t Expect Transparency on Gun Policy from the White House

I love going back to look at some of President Obama’s promises about transparency in government. We gun owners and Second Amendment supporters shouldn’t be shocked that the administration’s dedication to keep public policy secrets is likely to be used against us. I mean the guy violated a key transparency promise to share all non-emergency bills with the public for five days before acting on them only nine days into his term. Nine days for the first transparency lie, is it any wonder that we still can’t get his administration to turn over documents about Fast & Furious? They’ve had three years now to perfect the ways they will violate the transparency pledges.

Remember last year when the White House promised to work on gun control secretly so that voters won’t know what he’s doing?

[Sarah] Brady, for whom the law requiring background checks on handgun purchasers is named, then met with White House press secretary Jay Carney. During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said.

“I just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

Obama’s buddy Mike Bloomberg already made sure that the White House has a blueprint for how he can enact more gun control without the oversight of Congress. Certainly, it sounds like the White House could be dusting off those plans from Bloomberg.

A day after President Obama vowed in a speech to â€œleave no stone unturnedâ€ in his quest to reduce gun violence, his spokesman said the presidentâ€™s efforts wonâ€™t include any new gun-control proposals.

â€œThere are things that we can do, short of legislation and short of gun laws, as the president said, that can reduce violence in our society,â€ White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

And another report:

President Obama suggested Thursday that he isn’t backing away from talking about gun policy.

“I’m sure we’ll have more opportunity to talk about this,” he said to a reporter’s question after he made brief remarks pressuring the House of Representatives to pass the middle class tax cut extension that cleared the Senate on Wednesday. …

Earlier Thursday, White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president was focused on gun control measures “short of legislation.”

Even the DC political press is outlining ways for Obama to enact more gun control while skirting the accountability to the people that typically comes with pushing it through Congress first. They note that we probably shouldn’t expect to hear much on what actions Obama might take:

Obama is no stranger to dipping deep into the murky waters of executive powers and finding ways to achieve policy goals that Congress has thwarted. Proponents of gun control say that the president has crystal clear and uncontested powersâ€”some used by an NRA card-carrying GOP president (Bush resigned from the group in 1995)â€”to deal with assault weapons.

Yet the White House remains stonily silent on Obamaâ€™s intentions even to reevaluate whether to exercise these powers.

I would not be surprised if shortly after election day – regardless of the outcome – we start learning about all sorts of actions by various agencies to more tightly regulate guns in a way that circumvents the legislative process. You cannot expect transparency from this administration, so it’s probably best to prepare for the worst given the resources Bloomberg has provided and the promises the White House made to Brady in a closed meeting.

Schumer Attempting to Attach Magazine Ban to Cybersecurity Bill

In a way I’m glad for this. I could stand a good fight to all this sneaking around:

S.A. 2575 would make it illegal to transfer or possess large capacity feeding devices such as gun magazines, belts, feed stripes and drums of more than 10 rounds of ammunition with the exception of .22 caliber rim fire ammunition.

The amendment would only affect sales and transfers after the law took effect.

So there we have it folks. Our opponents have made their move. Now we have to counter.

Another Illegal Mayor?

It looks like there’s a potential opportunity to add to the list of criminal mayors in Bloomberg’s anti-gun group.

In a CBS 21 News exclusive into the Harrisburg financial crisis, CBS 21 News has learned that the United States Justice Department is conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation into financial transactions during the administration of former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed.

Multiple sources have confirmed that a secret federal grand jury has convened in Williamsport to investigate Harrisburg’s financial mess, specifically financial transactions involving current and former city officials, including former Mayor Stephen Reed. …

Now, sources tell CBS 21 News the grand jury is looking at evidence concerning campaign contributions and if former Harrisburg officials personally profited from city business.

While Reed is not currently a member of MAIG, he was part of the organization before being ousted from office.

Brady Out of Politics?

The National Journal reports:

The nation’s largest anti-gun violence lobby is taking a step back this week in the wake of the Auoroa, Colo., shootings. No aggressive pushes for specific policy fromÂ The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Instead, they’ve launched the “We Are Better Than This” national campaign to get the public talking about gun violence.

They believe they are in hearts and minds territory, and they are correct. This is a good place to have them.

A 3D Printed AR-15

Gun control is fast becoming impossible, whether our opponents in the gun control movement want to admit it or not. This was printed on a plastic 3D printer:

In short, this means that people without gun licenses â€” or people who have had their licenses revoked â€” could print their own lower receiver and build a complete, off-the-books gun. What a chilling thought.

Just our brief experiments with 3D printing magazines and CNC milling an AR15 and a CNC 1911 have shown the technology is already there, pretty much. All it would take is the gun control crowd getting their way to create the proper underground market. You’ll have less luck locating clandestine build shops than you will marijuana grow operations. It’s also likely only a matter of time before criminals get wise to this tech regardless.

He’s Going For It…

President Obama is going for gun bans and sale restrictions:

President Obama touched the third rail of guns here on Wednesday, pivoting off last weekâ€™s Colorado movie theater shootings to call for a â€œconsensus around violence reduction” in the country.

With the last public event of a four-day trip that started with a visit to the Aurora, Colo., hospital where almost two dozen victims were brought after the shootings, Obama threw his weight behind measures to strengthen background checks at gun shows and other efforts to keep weapons out of the hands of mentally-ill people.

â€œThese steps shouldnâ€™t be controversial, they should be common sense,â€ Obama said during the National Urban League conference. …

â€œBut I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldier and not in the hands of crooks. They belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities,â€ he added. …

â€œThereâ€™s talk of new reforms. Thereâ€™s talk of legislation. And too often those efforts are defeated by politics and by lobbying and eventually by the pull of our collective attention elsewhere. But what I said in the wake of Tucson is weâ€™re going to stay on this persistently.â€

Obama said he’d “continue to work with members of both parties and with religious groups and with civic organizations to arrive at a consensus around violence reduction.”

And with those comments, AK-47s will be backordered until the election.

UPDATE: Sean has the video.

CSM on Post-Massacre Gun Sales Spikes

The Christian Science Monitor talks to a few gun shop owners, and concludes that it’s largely fear of gun control that drives the spikes in sales after mass shootings, and not people rushing to gun shops with a desire to protect themselves. Clayton Cramer pins this increase in sales on the gun control crowd, and notes:

So gun control advocates, when you keep talking about gun control, remember that when at least some of these reactionary purchasers do something stupid or tragic, it is because you panicked them into it.

What makes us evangelize firearms so much, other than the fact that as people who enjoy a hobby and lifestyle, we want to share it with other people, is that we need more political allies to defeat the likes of Brady, CSGV, MAIG, and VPC. Sometimes I think the gun control groups have done more to create new shooters than the NRA has.

Another thought is, if these post-massacre spikes are being driven by people worried about new gun control, it goes to show that rational political ignorance is alive and well among gun owners too. Even in a hostile political environment, it’s rare that legislation pass so quickly one needs to run out the next day. I wish some of them would get seriously engaged with the political fight, rather than engage in panic buying.

Should You Be Sued for a Murderer’s Actions?

One New Yorker tells the Daily News that he would like to see the National Rifle Association sued for the actions of criminals and for daring to have different policy ideas than he might prefer.

Flushing: The National Rifle Association cannot be defeated in the political arena. But what if the victimsâ€™ families sued the NRA for creating laws that allowed this tragedy to happen? What if Mayor Bloomberg and Mayors Against Illegal Guns sued the NRA as an accessory to gun deaths and injuries in their cities? If even one lawsuit succeeded, it would establish a precedent for holding the gun lobby accountable. Plus, defending against a blizzard of lawsuits would cripple the NRAâ€™s finances. Richard Reif

Mr. Reif considers it perfectly acceptable that the American citizens who support the Second Amendment should see any attempt they make to organize to petition their government silenced by frivolous lawsuits. I am curious to know if Mr. Reif also wonders just why many people believe the political atmosphere is less civil these days.

You can also take your choice of comments from other New Yorkers and readers:

The right to bear arms should be limited to a simple, single-shot handgun for protection in the home or a single-shot rifle to be used during hunting season. No normal citizen needs anything more than that. Irene Goldsmith

I guess Dick Heller and Otis McDonald aren’t considered “normal citizens” to Irene. Perhaps she believes that the only people who should be deemed “normal” are those who think and live exactly like her – so much for tolerance.

To imply that President Obama is responsible for the Colorado tragedy and the proliferation of guns is disingenuous. Place blame on the NRA, where it belongs. James P. Hetzel …

The NRA is a group of unprincipled thugs who threaten any elected official who tries to limit its power; witness the cowardice of both Obama and Romney on gun control. Thanks for giving voice to the obvious and having the will to say what should be said. Suzanne Tenney Sutter Augur

Merely belonging to an organization that supports lawful gun ownership and use is enough for James to convict you of ties to the Colorado murders. Suzanne thinks you’re an unprincipled thug who shouldn’t have a voice with your elected officials anyway.

It’s just another glimpse in the world where anti-gun advocates don’t even believe that you should be allowed to participate in the political sphere because you don’t believe the very same things.