Guns – Page 363 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Microstamping Passes New York Assembly

I’m wondering if The Freedom Group is regretting expanding and consolidating their manufacturing there yet. It was a foolish move to expand operations in a state where the legislature is outwardly hostile to gun rights and the gun business. The bill covers all guns manufactured or delivered in the State of New York. I have said a purpose of our opponents is to find ways to get gun owners like you and me thrown in prison. This bill is a treasure trove:

Section 4 of the bill amends subdivision 6 of section 265.10 of theÂ penal law to clarify that the existing class D felony offense ofÂ defacing a firearm includes the defacement of a microstampingÂ component or mechanism of a semiautomatic pistol.

And how, as a gun owner, am I supposed to tell whether the stamping face has worn? Research has demonstrated that microstamp faces naturally wear. Can the authorities make a distinction between defacement and normal wear? Is the burden on me, the gun owner, to show it’s wear? I can’t exactly see it. How am I supposed to tell if when I took my pistol into the gunsmith, he didn’t mismatch the part. If I order a new firing pin, how am I supposed to ascertain whether the marking is correct and true? Remember, if it’s wrong, I could be facing a felony rap.

This section also creates a new class A misdemeanor offense when a dealer in firearms sells, offers for sale, exchanges, gives, transfers or delivers a semiautomatic pistol knowing that the microstamping component or mechanism of such pistol has been defaced.

And how is the dealer supposed to know? Are dealers required to equip up like a ballistics lab so they can fire a casing, and examine it under a microscope? What if a stamp is worn? How worn is too worn? What counts as defacement? The dealer is facing a high level misdemeanor if he gets it wrong. If I were an attorney advising a New York gun shop, I’d tell him your safe bet is to cease operations, and get out of the business, or only deal in firearms manufactured before January 1st, 2014, which are grandfathered under this bill.

This bill will definitely help the gun control lobby achieve their goals of putting more gun owners in prison. It will also cost upstate jobs as Reminginton is forced to re-locate.

London Olympic Shooting Venue

I feel sorry for our Olympic shooters this year. They must suffer with this eyesore of a venue.

Pictures are from a walkthrough featured on Dezeen which adds:

The shooting galleries for the London 2012 Olympic games are covered in spots that look the suckers of an octopusâ€™ tentacles.

The rest of their description actually focuses on the function of the buildings, so go read the whole thing if you’re interested.

Florida MAIG Coordinator Stonewalling?

According to All Nine Yards, the MAIG coordinator there would appear to be stalling, when it comes to releasing documents. Taking a page from the Eric Holder playbook? I appreciate Mr. Caranna’s tenacity in going after these documents. She’s a public employee, and the public has a right to know.

Carrying Water for the Administration’s Gun Running

Dennis Henigan says it’s time to hold Congress in contempt, not Eric Holder. Josh Horwitz calls the the gun walking strategy “ill-advised.”Â Perhaps they don’t have as much ingratitude toward Obama as I said a few days ago. I love how the sky is falling if someone straw purchases an AK-47 clone from a gun dealer, but if they get it courtesy of a green light from our own government, that’s just “ill advised,” as long as there’s a lefty in the White House promising to work on gun control “under the radar.”

Intervening in Robberies

Generally speaking, I don’t think it’s a good idea. This guy in Texas tried to get out of the store, but found the doors locked. Once locked in, he drew and started a gunfight with the robbers, accidentally killing the clerk with a stray bullet.Â Without knowing the specific circumstances, I can’t speak on whether this was an unwise action or not. If the robbers saw his attempt to leave and attempted to claim physical control over him, he might not have had much of a choice. I would not allow an armed robber to exercise physical control over me if I were armed. A wise move might have been hiding in the aisles and forcing the robbers to come looking for you, which would distract their attention away from the clerk and give you an opportunity to engage without the clerk being in the line-of-fire. Even locked in a store, if the robbers are not trying to exercise physical control over you, I think the best option is to hunker down, call 911 if you can, and let things go down. Chances are the robbers are taking the till and running, and you don’t owe any store clerk what you’ll go through if you have to shoot someone.

Permit Numbers: Some Devil’s Advocacy

So it’s pretty clear now that the number of people getting carry permits is going upÂ (via SayUncle). I got some wicked deja vu when I started writing what I wanted to write about this subject, and sure enough I already did, and fairly recently too. So even if 99.95% of concealed carry permit holders are folks with good judgement, and can be counted on to be responsible, the overall number of morons with permits are going to go up, and those incidents are very likely to end up as media stories, and used by our opponents as examples of why no one should be permitted to carry.

UPDATE: It occurs to me that our opponents might have a better argument convincing people that society is safe enough that carrying just isn’t worth the hassle, rather than making the argument that the law must forbid nearly everyone from this behavior for their own good. But I don’t think the idea of gentle persuasion has ever entered their thoughts.

Still Winning

The Ohio House passes a major concealed carry bill:

It also would allow concealed-carry permits issued by other states to be automatically recognized in Ohio, and eliminate a prohibition on having a loaded magazine in a vehicle with a firearm.

I thought our opponents had stopped the evil “gun lobby” in its tracks. They were turning things around, and were in the process of creating a new and rejuvenated movement. The pendulum was swinging back. We were going to hear them roar.

The Rise of the Anti-Gun Blog

SayUncle links to a sputtering of one of the anti-gun blogs. Up until about a year ago, there wasn’t any such thing as this phenomena, but after Media Matters encouraged (possibly paid?) people to write about the issue, there have been a few. I always thought it would make things more interesting in the gun blog community if there was more anti-gun bloggers around challenging us, and helping to keep the conversation interesting. Boy was I wrong.

I’ve yet to see an anti-gun blog out there yet that’s not just spewing nasty attacks, arguing against positions none of us hold, or just rambling on incoherently at great length. This is still a one sided conversation. They have turned out to be masters of only the straw man.

And Where Did He Get That Idea From?

A Texas man ends up rightfully convicted of murder by a jury of his peers after asserting self-defense. Apparently the man in the case had some wild-eyed misconceptions about self-defense:

One neighbor testified that Rodriguez, who had a concealed handgun license, bragged about his guns and that he told her a person could avoid prosecution in a shooting by telling authorities you were in fear of your life and were standing your ground and defending yourself.

And where would he have gotten that idea? It certainly wasn’t in his CHL training. It certainly wasn’t from any of us, who are up front and honest about what self-defense actually is, and make an attempt at educating the public about it. No, he got that idea from the media, who got that idea from our opponents.

I’m not kidding here. Their misleading and deceptive characterization of self-defense laws, and the media’s willingness to help spread their dangerous meme throughout the land, and their own attempts to spread it, is at least partly responsible for this horrible incident. This guy believed their bull, and now one person is dead, and he’s rightfully in prison for the murder. When you lie about self-defense laws, when you mischaracterize them, suggesting that all anyone has to do is claim they were scared, you run the risk that some morons out there might actually believe it. We told you this was dangerous. We told you this would happen, and you did not believe us. Well, here it is. No doubt they will find it easy to wash the blood off their hands, cup them back over their mouths, and continue trying to convince the public the NRA has made it possible to shoot someone if you’re scared, no questions asked. At least until the next moron actually believes them.

A Brilliant Maneuver on Microstamping

The CalGuns guys have prevented microstamping from taking effect in California, by renewing the patent on it. The California law requires that the technology be unencumbered by patent before it goes into effect, and the patent was about to lapse. From the Paper of Making Up the Record:

â€œIt was a lot cheaper to keep the patent in force than to litigate over the issues,â€ said Gene Hoffman, the chairman of the foundation, adding that he believed the law amounted to a gun ban in California.

It even made Slashdot. Hats off to the brains behind the CalGuns Foundation for this. Gene is likely correct it would have amounted to a gun ban in California, since it’s unlikely most smaller gun makers would pay for the technology and assembly line changes just to make a gun for the California market. This would have a chilling effect on Second Amendment rights for Californians.