Guns – Page 426 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Congresswoman Maloney: F&F GOP Manufactured Scandal

Congresswoman Maloney, a top supporter of gun control, calls the Fast and Furious “scandal” a “Republican red herring.”

Yes, this operation was ill-conceived. Americans who are outraged at Terryâ€™s death rightly want to know whether it has been scrapped and whether Attorney General Eric Holder, who oversees ATF, is aggressively investigating Fast and Furious. I can report that the answer to both of those questions is a resounding yes.

But for Republican congressional leaders, one botched operation is not enough to serve their political goals. They need a scandal â€” and are desperate to create one.

When you have a dead Border Agent, killed with a gun that was deliberately allowed into criminals hands by the DOJ/ATF, I don’t think there’s anything manufactured about that controversy. I can’t tell you how much I find the “Bush did it too” excuse to be pathetic. It’s pretty clear at this point high level DOJ and Administration officials knew about the plan, knew what it was doing, and did nothing to stop it. This has done quite a lot to convince me that for people like Maloney the concern about gun violence is really baloney. All they really give a crap about is restricting guns as much as they can.

Mexican Carrying a Glock

Bad idea.You’d think Plaxico Burris would have taught people it was a bad idea, but fools keep doing it. Fortunately for us, this guy has removed himself from the gene pool. Guns need to be carried in holsters. This goes to show that mandatory training requirements can’t cure stupid.

Anyone Had an Issue with Dick’s Sporting Goods?

From PAFOA, it would seem that they are enforcing New Jersey law over here in Pennsylvania. Some of our club members had an issue with Dicks in the same vein a while back, and they clarified this was not their policy. But it seems they are doing it again. Dicks is under no obligation to enforce New Jersey law outside of New Jersey. They are under obligation to obey federal law, but federal law only demands the person be 18 for “rifle or shotgun ammunition” and 21 for “handgun ammunition.” That might justify a license check, at most.

So the question them becomes why Dick’s is enforcing New Jersey law in Pennsylvania? The only thing I can figure is their corporate General Counsel is paranoid. But is his paranoia justified? This is New Jersey we’re talking about.Â Since Dick’s holds a license from the State of New Jersey for dealing in firearms and ammunition, I suspect the concern is that New Jersey authorities could dick with their license (no pun intended) if the powers that be become upset with their policies. It’s worth noting that dealer licenses in New Jersey are comparatively may-issue compared to other jurisdictions. A license can be revoked or denied if the State Police feel the dealer would “pose a danger to the public health, safety or welfare.”

But I’m not aware of any other big box retailers, like Wal-Mart being concerned enough to card New Jersey residents. But Wal-Mart wields a bigger stick than a smaller retailer like Dick’s. Has anyone else noticed this problem with retailers? I make a policy to buy ammo from sources that are known to support gun rights. Dick’s is not among them.

Making Fun of the AR

Miguel has a graphic reminder that it’s not a perfect platform. However, I’d note the AK-47 has the ergonomics you’d expect from a rifle fielded by a brutal communist regime. One reason I prefer the AR platform is the ergonomics is just a lot better. Think about changing a magazine on an AR and an AK, and you’ll see what I mean. I can shoot my AR all day and enjoy it. I’ve just never felt the same way about the AK platform, and I have both an AK-47 patterned rifle and an AK-74 patterned rifle.

New York Times Misses the Mark

A mental health awareness group has taken the New York Times to task over their article on Felons and Guns:

It is easy to attribute tragedies to inadequate gun control, but doing so overlooks the pronounced link between nontreatment of mental illness and violent acts.

Read the whole thing. I had never heard of the Treatment Advocacy Center before, but they look legit, and don’t appear to be part of the conservative DC establishment. Quite the opposite. So I’m going to suggest the gun control groups aren’t going to be able to legitimately complain these folks are just a bunch of right-wing insurrectionists.

Winning

More women taking up shooting for fun and self-defense. Clearly they must be compensating for something.

More on the New Funding Riders

Dave Hardy has the details on some of the other provisions. Evan Nappen has more details on the shotgun regulation, including the language of the appropriations restriction in that regard:

SEC. 541. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to pay the salaries or expenses of personnel to deny, or fail to act on, an application for the importation of any model of shotgun if–

(1) all other requirements of law with respect to the proposed importation are met; and

(2) no application for the importation of such model of shotgun, in the same configuration, had been denied by the Attorney General prior to January 1, 2011, on the basis that the shotgun was not particularly suitable for or readily adaptable

It doesn’t completely eliminate enforcement of “sporting purposes” for shotgun importation, it basically just kills ATF’s proposed rule. If a shotgun has already been determined to be not particularly suited to sporting purposes, ATF will still be able to keep it out of the country. They just won’t be able to do any reclassification on the basis of a sporting purposes test.

This has now been signed into law, by the way. I have to say that NRA has gotten very good at playing this game. While everyone was busy getting themselves all worked up about HR822, and Bloomberg and Menino were having their dog and pony show in the Senate, NRA was quietly pushing funding riders that would go unnoticed by our opponents until it was too late. I consider getting Congress to take a whack at the Gun Control Act’s “sporting purposes” language, even if it’s just a modest funding restriction, to be a significant achievement, and certainly a step on the road to possibly getting that provision removed at some point in the future.

Now that we’re no longer going to be there, I guess they want to be able to impose whatever government they can get away with on the Iraqi people. That’s a lot easier if you don’t have to worry about them shooting back. Under US occupation and provisional government, Iraqis were permitted to have one AK-47 and a reasonable amount of ammunition for personal defense.

I don’t think this will end well.

Category: Guns