Chris from Alaska talks about recent bear encounters in National Parks, and steps you can take to mitigate that risk. I’ve been to Yellowstone, and there are few places I think you can go on earth to see more people doing more stupid things with wildlife. A lot of folks seem to come pretty close to treating some of our National Parks like petting zoos.
Category: Guns
Fast & Furious and the Arms Export Control Act
Dave Hardy has an analysis. It looks like this statute may have indeed been violated in Fast and Furious, but I doubt you’re going to see charges unless a special prosecutor is appointed in this investigation.
Bozo
Just because she votes the right way doesn’t make her any less of one. These are people I’d rather not have on my side. The media seems to keep harping on the gun not having a safety. I don’t care whether it has a safety or not, you don’t point it at people. I also don’t care whether the the reporter, as Klein claims, sat in front of her line of sight. If someone walks in front of the muzzle, you point it in a safe direction immediately. It’s hard for me to imagine a scenario where I let someone walk in front of my muzzle. It’s also, equally hard, to imagine a scenario where I agree to show off my loaded pistol to a reporter, or anyone. If someone asks to see the gun you’re carrying, the responsible answer should be “NO,” and the next question is how the person knew you were carrying in the first place.
UPDATE: SayUncle notes that her side of the story is different, namely that she cleared the pistol first.
Some Confusion Over Who Elects Officials
Miguel does the math. I hate to always pick on CSGV, but, unfortunately for them, they are the group that really fails to heed at all the advice of one of our great Presidents.
CSGV Continues to Deteriorate
The form 990s for Coalition to Stop Gun Violence are now available for the year 2009, so that presents some opportunity to do some comparisons. For those of you following along at home, here are the relevant IRS documents:
- Form 990 for 2008 for Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
- Form 990 for 2008 for Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
- Form 990 for 2009 for Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
- Form 990 for 2009 for Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
The good news is that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is continuing to hemorrhage money. The bad news is that CSGV has shifted almost all of their operations into their 501(c)(3), the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. This trend is following all gun control organizations that we’ve been tracking. I say bad news only because I’d prefer all of them having to file for unemployment, but when it comes to political reality, it’s good news. So what are the trends?
CSGV continues to lose money. In 2008, they took in $224,887, and in 2009, they took in $207,066. At the same time, CSGV increased their program expenses from $94,426 in 2008, to $110,061 in 2010. As a result of that, CSGV’s net assets dropped from $21,706 in 2008 to $14,335. Â No one has technically been on payroll at CSGV since 2007, and that was when they were paying Michael Beard $35,306 to act as Secretary of the organization. In fact, even going back to 2004, Beard has essentially been the only person making any money off CSGV.
But the story of CSGV is not the entire story of this anti-constitutional rats nest. You also have to consider the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, which is the 501(c)(3) organization of the same bunch of rats. If you look at EFSGV, it paints a different picture. EFSGV has actually managed to boost revenue, to $372,600 in 2009, from $346,139 in 2008. Despite this boost in revenue, they have cut program expenses from $413,381 in 2008, to $319,321 in 2009. This had the effect of taking their 2008 net assets of $33,128 in 2008 to $86,407 in 2009. In my analysis, this was out of utter necessity. Despite the increase in revenue, they needed to squirrel away money to avoid complete ruin.
CSGV’s public support percentage dropped from 90.6% in 2008 to 87.2% in 2009. Why? Because 2009 was the year the Joyce gravy train started to deliver. In 2009, the Joyce grant was $85,274.00. Â You can see that the Joyce grant more than made up for EFSGV’s shortfall. Had it not been for that money, they would have reduced their revenue an additional $26,461 that same year. In 2010, and 2011, Joyce upped their grant to $125,000. I suspect this grant is largely what is going to keep EFSGV afloat at all since then. In short, the Joyce Foundation has the gun control movement on life support.
So what can we use as a proxy to figure out how the size, in terms of number of employees, of the organization is faring? Leasing expenses are a good proxy for that. So how is what’s left of the National Coalition to Ban Handguns doing in that arena? In 2009, CSGV reduced its leasing expense to $9,465 from $20,149 the previous year. Looking at EFSGV, it’s leasing expense in 2004 was $63,141. In 2008, leasing expense was $45,783. In 2009, it was $43,267. This is an organization that has been shrinking, not growing, since I doubt it’s getting a break on D.C. office space leasing rates.
The picture painted is an organization shifting a great deal of its expenses over to its 501(c)(3). Think of the 501(c)(3), in this case, as a leaking lifeboat, that’s only staying above the waves because someone is expending effort to continuously bail water. At some point, the Joyce people might just get tired of bailing, and decide it was a good effort, but that it’s time to go down with the ship. We’ll continue to track their finances, and report how they are doing, along with all the other gun control organizations.
Issa and Grassley to Holder
Burgers and Boomsticks as a copy of the letter. Worth a read.
Only Some Kinds of Gun Violence are a Laughing Matter
Miguel has another example. Gun violence prevention advocates my ass. Any gun accident is a tragedy and should be taken seriously right? And self-inflicted gunshot wounds are a tragedy as well, right? RIGHT?!?!?
Multi-Rifle Reporting Requirement
John Richardson has the details about the Obama Administration’s move to require multiple rifle sales to be reported along the southwest border. The move is patently illegal, and I suspect will be successfully challenged. The relevant section of US Code is Title 18, Section 923:
(3) (A) Each licensee shall prepare a report of multiple sales or other dispositions whenever the licensee sells or otherwise disposes of, at one time or during any five consecutive business days, two or more pistols, or revolvers, or any combination of pistols and revolvers totalling two or more, to an unlicensed person. The report shall be prepared on a form specified by the Attorney General and forwarded to the office specified thereon and to the department of State police or State law enforcement agency of the State or local law enforcement agency of the local jurisdiction in which the sale or other disposition took place, not later than the close of business on the day that the multiple saleor other disposition occurs.
You will not that a long gun is not a pistol or revolver, by terms of the Gun Control Act. Combine with:
(g)(1)(A) Each licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, and licensed dealer shall maintain such records of importation, production, shipment, receipt, sale, or other disposition of firearms at his place of business for such period, and in such form, as the Attorney General may by regulations prescribe. Such importers, manufacturers, and dealers shall not be required to submit to the Attorney General reports and information with respect to such records and the contents thereof, except as expressly required by this section.
Emphasis mine. I would say the Obama Administration is skating on thin ice, but in this case the Administration is apparently trying to skate on liquid water. There is just no possible interpretation of the Gun Control Act, with modifications from FOPA, that this move is legal.
Reclassification of .223, 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 SPC?
SayUncle is reporting ATF is reclassifying these rounds as handgun ammunition, which means they need to meet the federal definition of not being armor piercing. This would mean a round made of 100% copper would be so classified. This is coming from one company, who was apparently raided, so it’s hard to assess its validity. I believe classification of ammunition as handgun or rifle is a matter of policy, rather than being part of the Code of Federal regulations, but I still believe a policy change has to be printed in the Federal Register, and I can’t find such a policy change being published. Here’s the federal definition of armor piercing ammunition:
Projectiles or projectile cores which may be used in a handgun and which are constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or full jacketed projectiles larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile. The term does not include shotgun shot required by Federal or State environmental or game regulations for hunting purposes, frangible projectiles designed for target shooting, projectiles which the Director finds are primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes, or any other projectiles or projectile cores which the Director finds are intended to be used for industrial purposes, including charges used in oil and gas well perforating devices.
So the standard is “may be used in a handgun,” not primarily used in a handgun. I’ve always wondered under this definition why Corbon DPX is legal, but I always figured they had a determination that said it did not fall under the definition, since the AG can issue exceptions. It’s possible that Barnes, Corbon and other manufacturers got exception to manufacture their product, and Elite Tactical did not.
UPDATE: I missed the lack of comma between beryllium, and copper. Beryllium copper is a specific alloy.
UPDATE: Looking more at the actual bullets, it would appear they are turned brass. Brass is a no-no alloy. Barnes makes these bullets too, but they are marketed by Barnes as hunting rounds. Possibly Barnes received an OK from ATF to sell these under the sporting purposes exception. ET seems to be marketing them differently. It’s also possible Barnes doesn’t use enough Zinc to be considered brass. Also possible ATF is being completely arbitrary, which would not be the first time.
Stopped Clock is Right Twice a Day
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence loves to see racism where there is none, so I was quite skeptical when I noticed them tweet about pro-gun activists fantasizing about killing young black men. While do believe this mischaracterizes the nature of the link I followed, I’m hard pressed to argue that the article by Gabe Suarez, passed along in an informational e-mail by VCDL, isn’t racist, or is at the least injecting race into a situation where it does not need to be injected:
Nor where everyone gets along. You may in fact be totally color-blind in a socio-ethnic sort of way, but not everyone is. So even if your liberal sociology professor thinks it is a cool thing to take a stroll at midnight through a ethnically homogenous part of town (different ethnicity that you), it is still a stupid idea.
The problem here is that many of the flash mobs in Philadelphia are not taking place in “ethnically homogenous” parts of town. Some of them have taken place in parts of the City I would not ordinarily be afraid to walk. This not only injects race into an equation where it is not relevant, it detracts from the quality of the advice.
Avoid if you can. If you are standing around and see a group of twenty young urban thugs about two blocks away yelling, “kill whitey”, and lookin at your reflection in the store window, realize that you have not been in the sun in a while, here is my advice – “RUN”. If it looks like trouble, it probably is. The gang is not there to debate the effects of american corporate expansion on the development of the urban neighborhoods with you.
And who, exactly, would be yelling “kill whitey?” I seem to recall a number of victims of these flash mobs have been African American. These mobs aren’t going out and targeting whites. They are groups of feral teenagers targeting anyone who happens to look like a good targets for beating or robbing.
Suarez also suggests breaking the law if need be. While I don’t have any particular problem with Suarez offering this advice, I don’t think it’s wise for a high-profile group that’s as well-respected as VCDL forwarding on such advice to members. Whether a law is immoral enough to offer no consideration by a citizen is, in my view, a personal matter, as only an individual is capable of weighing the consequences of breaking the law versus that of obeying it. I believe gun rights groups should be wary of treading on this ground in areas where our opponents, the media, and lawmakers are watching.
And that’s really my issue with this. Suarez is certainly free to write racially laced and colorful narratives on how to deal with flash mobs. His choice of language and flashy style aside, I’m not sure there’s all that much fundamentally wrong with the advice. But I believe VCDL should have known better than to send this out to members. It’s certainly not out of line to speak of advice on how to deal with violent flash mobs, but in the entire world of self-defense training, I have a hard time believing this was the best anyone could come up with.
Like a stopped clock that’s right twice a day, CSGV is correct that Suarez’s article is racially charged, and VCDL never should have sent this out to members.
P.S. – If anyone can tell me what a “panga swinging killer” is, I’d be grateful. A Panga seems to be a fish, and urban dictionary was no help if it’s slang.