Guns – Page 756 – Shall Not Be Questioned

New ATF Rules on Receivers

Seems they are trying to come up with some sensible way of regulating receivers.Â I think they are failing.Â Pretty obviously they are a firearm, but it seems ATF wants to treat them as a pistol in some cases, but a rifle in another.Â ATF often gets accused of making things up as they go, and that criticism is not without justification.Â But don’t forget that Congress really holds much of the blame for drafting a body of law that’s poorly written and incoherent when taking as a whole.Â Federal bureaucracies have to make sense out of incoherent and poorly drafted bodies of law through regulations.Â Anyone who works in a heavily regulated industry, as I do, knows that guns are hardly the only product this applies to.

To me the real outrage is that Congress has basically conceded that it has no idea what it is doing when it makes law, and has to abrogate a great deal of lawmaking ability to “experts” in the executive branch.Â It shouldn’t be costitutional, but I have to admit that quite often the “experts,” and I use that in quotes deliberately, still know a hell of a lot more about the subject matter subjected to the laws and regulations than your average congress critter.

In the Mail

I’ve decided I want to compete in Silhouette Air Pistol “Any Sight” category, so I’ve placed an order with the Crosman Custom Shop for a .22 Caliber CO2 pistol, showing here:

One of the guys I shoot with uses a .22 caliber CO2 pistol, similar to the one I’m getting, and when I’ve tried it, I’ve consistently been able to hit animals with it, despite the fact that the triggers on Crosman’s pistols kind of suck.Â The heavier weight of the .22 barrel, plus the weight of the scope make a difference, I think.Â Rowland even threaded a nut on the end of his model, and even though it creates some jokes about which end of the gun the nut is really on, I think it does help with it’s balance of the pistol.Â Mine will have a brake on the end, which should, hopefully, closely approximate.

The big disadvantage with a .22 air pistol is that you go through CO2 a lot faster.Â Getting 40 shots out of a .22 is about the best you can hope for, whereas 80 shots isn’t too much to ask of a .177 air pistol on a good day.Â In the winter, CO2 is a real bear.Â But I still plan to get an IZH 46 at some point.Â For now I want to be able to shoot in two categories, and you can’t beat 155 dollars as a price for getting in the game.

Oh, one thing Crosman’s Custom shop will do for you is laser engraving.Â No extra cost.Â You know all those stories about how the FN Five-Seven is supposedly known in Mexican drug cartel circles as “Mata Policia?” In Spanish, this means “Cop Killer.”Â Much like the cop killer bullet hysterics from the 80s, this is another bunch of overblown nonsense from the anti-gun crowd, as the armor piercing rounds for the Five-Seven are unavailable to civilians.Â In honor, or perhaps in jest, of the hysterics, I am having Crosman engrave my air pistol with “Mata Gallina” which translated means “Chicken Killer.”Â You see, these fearsome weapons are not only known to kill the chickens, but hurl them back several yards, making them hard to find in the grass.Â It is truly devastating.

On Sporting Purposes

Eugene Volokh has a very interesting post about a San Francisco ordinance that essentially considers only “sporting use.” Professor Volokh says:

So long as gun control proponents talk solely about “sporting purposes,” and don’t even acknowledge the legitimacy of defensive purposes, it’s hard to take seriously the claims that law abiding citizens’ rights to own guns in self-defense are safe, and that the only goal is supposedly “reasonable gun control” rather than broad gun bans.

I agree.Â Interestingly enough, one reason you can’t get a lot of imported guns in this country is due to the “sporting purposes” language in the Gun Control Act of 1968.Â It would be a great victory of we could get this provision of the Gun Control Act of 1968 invalidated.Â Heller just might lend some language that could provide a basis to argue this.

And They Say We’re the Ignorant Ones

Robb Allen points out something pretty amazing on Examiner.com.Â Irrefutable proof the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right, and thinks there’s no issue with Sotomayor’s position on guns.Â But remember, we’re the ignorant ones.

Yes.Â Keep fighting yesterday’s battles.Â Please.Â It only makes our jobs easier here in the pro-Second Amendment community!

A Revealing Quote

Bryan Miller is decrying Vince Fumo, who, despite being a corrupt Philadelphia machine politician, was supportive of gun rights.Â But that’s hardly news.Â What interests me is this quote from the letter:

Fumo can brag about the dollars he brought to Philly, and his political pals may praise his prowess. But they ignore the untold millions spent on law enforcement, emergency care, long-term rehabilitation, incarceration, and more – on both sides of the Delaware – to combat Philly’s overactive illegal handgun trade.

So money spent on law enforcement and incarceration won’t have to be spent if we just pass more gun control?Â The criminals are just going to go “Oh well, they made guns illegal.Â I guess I’m going to need to put in the application to work in that Day Care Center.”Â No, sorry.Â Criminals will ply their trade with or without guns, and given that the most violent among them already deal in drugs, which are completely contraband, I find it difficult to believe they won’t acquire guns anyway.

Plus, I don’t know what Miller’s complaining about.Â We’ve already well established on this blog that Philadelphia is spending virtually no money on incarceration when it comes to people who violate the gun laws this Commonwealth already has.Â Does Miller want to advocate that creating more gun laws doesn’t mean we have to spend money for police to administer those laws, and spend money to arrest and incarcerate people who violate them?Â If that’s what he thinks, what’s the point?Â I think we all know the answer to that question.

One Way Not to Deal with Ammo Issues

It would seem that a Washington woman is taking the ammunition supply problems a little too hard.

Clallam County Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said Teresa Nadine Dumdie of Port Angeles threatened four other customers with a .22 caliber handgun at 4:54 p.m. Friday outside the store at 3500 E. U.S. Highway 101.

No one was injured.

Peregrin said Dumdie had argued with customers in the store after they had asked her to stop cursing and yelling at an employee.

He said she was upset with the employee, saying she had sold her the wrong kind of ammunition.

After she received her refund, she walked out to the parking lot, removed a gun from her car and confronted the customers she had argued with earlier inside the store, Peregrin said.

Threatening staff and customers is generally not the best way to resolve customer service woes. It’s also likely to be a fast track to losing that gun so you’ll never have to worry about buying ammunition again.

Gun Women in New Jersey

Scott Bach and the rest of the crew at ANJRPC appear to have put on quite an event this weekend. They taught about 300 women how to shoot everything from handguns to ARs.

Women’s Day at the Range has been a tradition at the Cherry Ridge Range off Canistear Road in Vernon for about 10 years, said Scott Bach, president of the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs.

The event is one of several outreach programs the association hosts to promote shooting sports and the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Organizers said they initiated the free program to give women a fun day without male interference, especially since women are taking up shooting sports at a record pace.

Everyone has a different reason for attending the program, Bach said.

“Shooting is fun,” he said, adding, “It’s a skill that can save your life.”

Ireland Effectively Bans Handguns

Story here.Â The reason for the ban?Â There’s been an uncomfortable increase in the number of people seeking pistol licenses:

Since 2004 there has been a dramatic increase in the number of handguns licensed in this country. The cumulative number of licensed handguns increased from zero in 2003-04 to 305 in 200405, 946 in 2005-06, 1,367 in 2006-07 and to 1,701 in 2007-08.

Deputy Deasy, who has been the guiding force in having the laws relating to handguns changed, paid tribute to senior GardaÃ in Waterford for their help in bringing the Bill to the ultimate stage.

â€œThey were under no illusions about the dangers involved in allowing this situation to go unchecked and filled me in about the loopholes in the old system.

Of course we have to keep the numbers down.Â If you let increase the number of people participating in the shooting sports, and keeping guns to defend their home, pretty soon there might be voters who care about preserving their rights!Â There might be politically powerful organizations to promote it, right here in Ireland.Â What’s worse, they might start taking part in this blood sport known as practical shooting.

So from now on Olympic pistol shooting sports will be the only shooting sports allowed in Ireland.Â And Olympic shooters will still have to jump through more hoops to be able to keep their guns.Â It’s a better situation than pistol shooters in the UK face, but it’s still wrong.

Glock Foregrip Dangers

Brillianter links to a video of a guy who ends up shooting himself in the hand with a Glock 18 when the foregrip he’s using comes off. Another good reason not to use them on Glocks is the fact that it makes it an AOW by ATF rules, because it’s no longer “designed to be fired by a single hand.”Â On a Glock 18, which is already a machinegun, it’s fine, until you shoot yourself in the hand.

Feasibility of Armed Revolt

Clayton Cramer has an article that examines the question, in relation to some snark from the Politico about Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio’s remark that the Iranians could stand to be armed:

If Rubio had said â€œthe Iranians would benefit from having a right to own pianos right now,â€ that would be odd or illogical. But whatâ€™s so odd or â€œquestionableâ€ in suggesting that a population confronting a corrupt, dishonest, thuggish government would benefit from being armed?

Read the whole thing.Â While I don’t think armed revolt is a feasible or desirable means to redress grievances against a legitimate, elected government, against a government like Iran, it would have utility.Â The Second Amendment is an insurance policy against petty despots, and motivated minorities who might gain enough support to take over a government.Â But along with that has to come people’s willingness to resist, in large enough numbers to make a difference.