Guns – Page 488 – Shall Not Be Questioned

New Gun Owner

Came down to Roanoke this weekend because Bitter’s mom, who has previously not been a gun owner, decided that, being a woman living on her own, it was time to take the plunge. Since she was looking to save money getting a used gun, I decided to tag along to check it out before she bought it. The first shop we went to was Trader Jerry’s in Salem, Virginia. We had planned to visit several shops to do a bit of comparison shopping, but first stop we ran into this:

I know the stereotype of getting the little lady a snub-nose .38, but in her basic pistol course, and after trying a lot of guns, she prefers the shorter barreled revolvers to heavier revolvers or semi-autos. This is a Smith & Wesson Model 36 Chief’s Special. The reason this was such a great find was that we were looking for a used J-frame in .38 Spl. This is a used gun. It was bought by a guy who returned it because he didn’t like the grips, and had not been fired. It looked brand spanking new, based on everything I could see. The price was a good bit less than new. I think it was actually a great find for her.

Trader Jerry’s seemed to be a pretty good shop. Her experience was very pleasant, and comparing to prices back home, they were pretty good in that area too. She had to fill out her 4473 twice because of making a mistake on the first one. After filling out all three forms, she commented “My, this is worse than doing my taxes!” A quick call to the Virginia Instant Check System, and the gun was hers. I got her some .38 Spl Low Recoil Hydrashocks and some snap caps to refresh her on loading and unloading.

Next step for her will be a refresher pistol course, then some range time. Then she wants to do a concealed carry course and get her license to carry.

An Evil Plot Uncovered

Miguel notices CSGV has busted one of NRA’s most closely guarded secrets wide open

NRA Suit In Illinois

NRA is filing suit against Illinois’ total prohibition on carrying firearms. I have not yet read the complaint, but will take a look at it as soon as I have time. It’s worth noting that the Concealed Carry bill was pulled before all the votes were in, so it’s still alive. This presents a cash strapped state with two options. One option is to spend a lot of money fighting a lawsuit in the courts, the other is to pass the concealed carry bill, which will be a source of revenue. The choice is theirs.

Restoring Right-to-Carry on More Federal Land

Representative Bob Gibbs (R-OH) has introduced new legislation that would open up more federal land to lawful carry. Specifically it would legalize carry on lands controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. There a number of such federals lands in Pennsylvania. To be honest, I didn’t even know carry was an issue on these lands until a few years ago.

Luzerne County Lowers Permit Fee

The new Sheriff of Luzerne County is lowering the fee for License to Carry from $31 to $20. This is good news, because overcharging for LTCs has been a persistent problem among PA Sherrifs. It’s good at least one is doing something about it.

Tactical Blackberry Case

Over at the Exurban League, they find some creative uses for an old blackberry case. The only problem with this method is that I actually have this appendage on my belt and it carries an iPhone. The other side, where I’d keep a reload, currently houses a Leatherman multi-tool, which I can’t really live without. But it’s an interesting idea I may have to consider.

Constitutional Carry in Pennsylvania

As much as I’d love to see Constitutional Carry happen in Pennsylvania, there are a few problems associated with getting it done. The chief problem, that I see, is that Senate Judiciary is headed by Stu Greenleaf, who only tends to be pro-gun when he really feels like it. In addition to Greenleaf, there are a number of other weak kneed Republican Senators who would make passage of such a bill problematic. Remember that last year, we did not have the votes on Judiciary to even keep the silly Florida Loophole amendment off HB40.Â There are ways around the committee, but they can be problematic avenues.

What makes Pennsylvania problematic for Constitutional Carry is that the southeast is becoming less pro-gun. The Democrats here are almost uniformly anti, and the Republicans are precarious enough they don’t want to stake out strong positions on contentious issues. If suburban legislators start voting along with their urban counterparts, it’s over for this issue, and there are a lot of suburban GOP legislators that don’t think there will be much pro-gun cover for their votes in this decidedly anti-gun media market. Just as an example, we tried to knock off Steve Santarsiero this past election by backing the campaign of Rob Ciervo, and failed by a few hundred votes. It’s tough to unseat even the anti-gun politicians around here, let alone unseat the softies. Without some more solid representation on the gun issue in the suburbs, I’m afraid Constitutional Carry is going to be a serious uphill battle in the Keystone State.

When Commenting on Hunting is Just a Comment on Hunting

This was originally going to be a comment over at No Lawyers, but I really hate having to register with new accounts to comment. John posted about the annual Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation Congressional Shoot-Out, and he noted some of the press release quotes that caught his attention:

It is good to see both Democrats and Republicans supporting the shooting sports. However, judging from some of the comments by the co-chairs, many of these legislators still confuse supporting duck hunting with supporting the Second Amendment.

I don’t think it’s fair to criticize them for making hunting-related comments in a press release from an organization focused on hunting & fishing policy representing a caucus dedicated to hunting & fishing legislative topics.

Considering that Rep. Mike Ross is leading the “Second Amendment Task Force” in Congress and has a consistent A+ NRA rating, I don’t think it’s fair to say that he truly believes the Second Amendment is just about hunting. The same goes for Rep. Jeff Miller who has been a member of the Second Amendment Caucus and has an A rating from NRA.

It’s a shooting event to support a caucus that focuses on hunting policy. A press release quote on that very topic doesn’t show any kind of bias against their understanding of gun rights.

Since I’m making this a full post, I’ll also address one of his other suggestions with a dose of DC-practicality.

Next year I’d propose a little different shooting competition. Instead of trap, skeet, and sporting clays, why not make it a 3-gun competition? You’d still have the shotgun involved but would add both rifle and pistol to the mix. Now that would be interesting! It would also show the ATF Shotgun Study team that 3-gun competition is a sporting use.

As an alternative since so many Members of Congress announced after the shooting of Gabby Giffords that they had a concealed carry permit and planned to use it, make it an IDPA pistol competition. That would let us see how serious they are about self-protection and what level of real training they have.

My standard response to this is similar to what I say to people who think that the NRA meeting should be in their backyard: Where would you propose doing all of this? The PG County Trap & Skeet Center only has shotgun ranges. It is chosen as one of the closest ranges to Capitol Hill. The reason why? It’s tough to line up to two dozen members of Congress at the same time to shoot three-different shotgun events that can all happen on the same range. If you waste hours fighting traffic to get members out to a facility that could host any of those events, they won’t come. And then you don’t have any members of Congress participating in any shooting sport.

The other reason is that sporting clays, trap, and skeet are closely related to hunting, one focus of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. Instead of lamenting that the hunting caucus is doing hunting-related shooting, perhaps these suggestions might go to the Second Amendment Caucus instead.

Debate Over Minnesota Castle Doctrine

Good debate over the Castle Doctrine debate in Minnesota. This would also open up reciprocity in the North Star State to recognize all other state licenses. I’m particularly keen on that provision because Minnesota, otherwise, is a tough state to get a reciprocal license for. The language of the bill can be found here.

Of course, the best reason to get this passed is because it’ll really upset Joan Peterson, who has been cheering on CSGV’s campaign of releasing personal information of gun bloggers.

Constitutional Carry Veto in Montana

Very disappointing. I don’t see what the big deal is, since in the majority of Montana, I believe carry without a license is already the law, and it’s only incorporated areas that require a permit to carry.

UPDATE from Bitter: You don’t need a permit in most of the state, and it’s an issue that NRA’s guy made last night with Cam when discussing the mystery of this veto.