Guns – Page 454 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Putting the Blame Where it Belongs

Bob Barr, who sits on the NRA Board of Directors, notes that it’s time to get some real leadership at ATF, but unlike the gun control groups, puts the blame where it really belongs:

Only after last yearâ€™s midterm elections did the president rise from his lethargy and submit a name to the Senate. It was a name certain to raise the ire of the firearms community; and not surprisingly, it did. Andrew Tarver, former head of the ATFâ€™s Chicago Field Division, has met with serious opposition from the GOP and the National Rifle Association because of his anti-firearms bias.

Yet, rather than working with his opponents to find a candidate on which both sides might agree, Obama has simply ignored the matter and allowed ATF to drift leaderless for nearly three years.

We’ve said Traver is unacceptable, but that seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Our opponents think ATF needs a solid director. I don’t think the rest of us disagree. But that requires a bit of give and take, and so far the Administration, and its allies in the gun control movement, only want to take. This is typical of their attitude, but it’s not helping ATF get adult supervision. Why is it so hard to find another nominee, who’s more acceptable?

Get Your Blood Dancing Shoes On …

… it’s another Tragedy Hoedown! Our opponents have been busy since yesterday using the latest mass shooting in Carson City to promote their political agenda. CSGV wants to know how the mentally ill individual got an AK-47. If I had to wager, the guy has a history of mental illness that has gone unreported by his family and by the authorities, if he’s had run-ins. But rather than our opponents focusing on what’s wrong with our mental health system, that so many people who need help are not getting it, they’ll push the gun control agenda, because that’s what they are about. The gun violence thing is just a nice candy coating to help the policy prescriptions go down, and make everyone else thing they are just such nice and caring people. I believe they are caring people. They care a lot about getting those icky guns out of our society.

But there is, so far, some lessons for the gun community in this.Â We know that there was an armed person at the scene:

“I wish I had shot at him when he was going in the IHOP,” said Swagler, who owns Locals BBQ & Grill. “But when he came at me, when somebody is pointing an automatic weapon at you â€” you can’t believe the firepower, the kind of rounds coming out of that weapon.”

I don’t blame the guy for not running in and being a hero, but this is a pretty typical fear reaction. The solution to this is training, and lots of it. I will admit this is a case where I should follow my own prescription more than I do, because I don’t feel I’ve been training enough these days. I haven’t been to a practical shooting competition in quite a while. Competition is the best way I’ve found of learning to shoot under pressure. Most importantly, it lets you know what you can and can’t do under stress, and conditions your reactions. A lot of people who carry a gun regularly are honestly just pretending. They aren’t really serious about being prepared to use it. It’s not a talisman, it’s a tool, and if you’re not confident in using it, this is probably how you’re going to react.

UPDATE: Another report has him taking cover in his restaurant. If that’s the case, he did not have a shot he failed to take. The report I linked made it sound like the shooter was coming toward him, and he did not take the shot out of fear. Like I said, I don’t blame the guy for not charging in to be the hero; that’s what SWAT teams with rifles and body armor are for.

Momentary Setback

No Lawyers, Only Guns and Money is reporting on a loss in District Court. I think we’re probably going to lose in District Courts a lot. What matters is losing in higher courts. This will be appealed. Even if, on appeal, the case loses, it may still create a circuit split that will force the Supreme Court to make a final decision.

Grenadewalker

This scandal is getting stranger by the day, as it’s revealed that the US attorneys released a man who confessed to making IEDs from black market grenades and converting semi-auto weapons to automatic weapons.. As Mad Saint Jack says, clearly we have to close the Grenadeshow Loophole.

Bloomberg Blaming the Feds

It should be no surprise that Bloomberg’s response to 24 shootings in 24 hours was to blame Washington for a lack of federal gun controls. Kate Pavlich notes:

Note to Bloomberg: guns don’t shoot themselves. As shown above, the shooter had an extensive criminal history. This isn’t an issue of gun control, this is an issue of criminal control.

We’ve noticed Katie Pavlich writing on our topic often, as well as appearing in studio at NRA News. We’re hoping this continues. It should be noted the shooter’s extensive criminal history that made him federally disqualified to even so much as touch a firearm, let alone carry one. What federal gun control that does Bloomberg think would have disarmed him? Make it illegal for him to transport a gun back to New York? Sorry, already illegal. Make it illegal for him to purchase a gun? Sorry, already illegal. And how much do you want to bet the shooter in this case didn’t get his gun from a gun show, which still would have been illegal even if he had done it.

21 Year Old Temple Student Wins Gunfight with Armed Robbers

A Temple student got into a gunfight with two would be armed robbers:

Sophomore Robert Eells, 21, of Chalfont, Bucks County, was sitting with at least one friend in front of their home in the 2300 block of North 12th Street shortly before 2 a.m. when three assailants approached and demanded money.

When Eells failed to comply, the assailants opened fire, police said. Eells, struck in the stomach, fired a couple of rounds toward the would-be robbers, wounding one suspect, a 15-year-old boy, in the chest and a leg.

So not only did he act appropriately, but continued the fight even after being shot. Two people were shot in the confrontation, and the guy landed those hits while being shot himself. Campus carry is not a crime in Pennsylvania, but the schools are free to set policy. Sounds like this happened off campus, so the school shouldn’t have anything to say. But this is one anecdotal tale that suggests college students are plenty responsible to exercise their right to bear arms. The police spokesperson said the student is not likely to face charges, and the two robbers are being charged with simple assault, robbery, and attempted murder.

The History of the Collective Right

Dave Kopel has a recent article that talks about how the collective rights theory of the Second Amendment sprang into life and then was eventually abandoned. The short of it was that collective rights theory didn’t really exist until the 20th Century, being created by a 1905 Kansas Supreme Court case, Salina v. Blaksley. It made its way into the federal court system in 1935, by a judge who was later impeached and removed from office by Congress.

Yet the collective-right theory itself contained the seeds of its own destruction. Emboldened by the collective rightâ€™s negation of the Second Amendment, politicians and gun-ban lobbies intensified the pressure for draconian gun control, and so scholars began looking into the actual legal history of the Second Amendment. One such scholar was a University of Arizona Law School student named David Hardy. His 1974 article in theÂ Chicago-Kent Law Review, â€œOf Arms and the Law,â€ marked the beginning of the historical rediscovery of the Second Amendment.

For a while, the legal academy tried to ignore the mounting historical evidence that the Second Amendment protects an individual right. But in 1989, left-leaning University of Texas professor Sanford Levinson penned â€œThe Embarrassing Second Amendmentâ€ for theÂ Yale Law Journal.

His article also speaks about the other side of the coin as well

WhileÂ Verdugo-UrquidezÂ was working its way through the appellate courts, Handgun Control Inc., (which later renamed itself the Brady Campaign) hired attorney Dennis Henigan. In a 1989 article for theUniversity of Dayton Law Review, he recast the (untenable) collective right cases as actually standing for a narrow individual right: â€œIt may well be that the right to keep and bear arms is individual in the sense that it may be asserted by an individual. But it is a narrow right indeed, for it is violated only by laws that, by regulating the individualâ€™s access to firearms, adversely affect the stateâ€™s interest in a strong militia.â€

This would be the theory later adopted by Justice Stevens.

Read the whole thing. I think it’s important to put this bit of our movement’s history in context, as well as understand how our opponents fit in.

A Gun in Every Room

The Firearms Blog has a post that shows the lengths some people will go to in order to secure their firearms in inconspicuous places. I think if you’re that worried, the easier solution is to just carry it around with you. There’s a gun in every room that I’m in too, because I generally keep the Kel-TecÂ holstered in-pocket, even around the house. It’s a good idea, even if you aren’t that paranoid, Â because you want to remain conditioned not to stuff other objects into the gun pocket. The other issue I have with the stash method is, in homes I’ve seen that have been broken into, they’ve been ransacked. They are likely going to find your stashed guns, and then just steal the cases. They can break into the cases somewhere else at their leisure.

We have a few quick opens that we don’t currently use. I think quick opens are ideal for childproofing your self-defense guns, and we don’t have children. To prevent theft, a floor safe is the best option.

Lesters Ammo: Works Sometimes

I have to admit, I laughed.

We’re Winning: Positive Press on Suppressors

Who would have thought, even five years ago, you’d have mainstream media articles being written about the utility of silencers.