Category: Guns

Open Carry Loss in Court

Looks like the guy who got arrested open carrying at an Obama rally is going to trial:

District Judge Douglas Loughner ruled in Beaver County Court Monday that John Noble, 50, of 1063 Willowbrook Drive should stand trial on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and disrupting a public meeting, stemming from the Sept. 29 rally for Democratic presidential running mates Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The stakes are high on this.  If the state prevails in court here, people who open carry in a public place will be risking being arrested for disorderly conduct.  This is a big part of the reason I’ve been a pain in the ass about not provoking confrontations unnecessarily.  It was entirely predictable that trouble was to be found going to an Obama rally openly armed.  I think there’s no ground for the charges brought.  I really hope a judge agrees with that, or we’re all screwed.

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Sporting Purposes

Blackfork relays to us a video of the Panola County Club Championship for 2008.  Sounds like this club is lucky enough to have several high masters.  You will notice which types of rifles seem to be preferred; exactly the type our local congress critters Patrick Murphy and Alyson Schwartz have signed on to ban:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsZq8laE390[/youtube]

These matches don’t just happen in Texas.  They happen all over Pennsylvania too.  My club isn’t lucky enough to have a 600 yard range, but we make due at 200 using reduced targets to approximate distance.  This language in HR1022 should tell you exactly the kind of underhanded gun banners Schwartz and Murphy really are:

A semiautomatic rifle or shotgun originally designed for military or law enforcement use, or a firearm based on the design of such a firearm, that is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General. In making the determination, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that a firearm procured for use by the United States military or any Federal law enfocement agency is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes solely because the firearm is suitable for use in a sporting event.

You can forget about your M1 Garand too.  There are plenty of other semi-auto rifles that have their roots in a military design.  Note the last part, which says that just because a firearm actually is used in sport doesn’t mean it’s for sporting purposes.  In fact, it demands the US Attorney General presume as much.

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MSNBC Tries To Do a Good Gun Article

I’m always amused by the lack of knowledge of reporters:

But the semi-automatic ammunition used in one of the weapons would have been illegal under an assault weapons ban that expired in 2004

Semi-automatic ammunition?  What’s that?

That question, debated for almost 200 years, was first directly addressed by the Supreme Court in June 2008, when the court ruled in a 5-4 decision that the Second Amendment refers to gun ownership as an “individual right,” affirming in the District of Columbia v. Heller case that a citywide ban on handguns was unconstitutional.

Except it hasn’t been debated for 200 years.  Not even really 100 years.  You won’t find any piece of writing from the 18th or 19th century that speaks to the Second Amendment as a collective right.  That notion didn’t come about until the 20th Century.

The proposals put forward by Obama, on the other hand, indicate a preference toward government restrictions intended to curb crime. During a debate on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, Obama described the right to bear arms as parallel to the right to own private property. In both cases, he said, local governments can regulate how the right is used, as with zoning laws in the case of property.

A preference to control crime, or control guns?  Controlling guns doesn’t control crime.  Didn’t you just admit in a previous paragraph that DC was the Murder Capital of the U.S. despite the ban?

But I’m mostly nitpicking.  Overall, it presents both sides of the issue well.  I just wish reporters would speak to experts more often to try to clear up facts.

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Blue Trail Range Fundraiser

The Blue Trail range fundraiser, to help raise money for their mounting legal bills, was a great success.  One of the gun bloggers managed to attend:

One thing of note that concerned me. (And I apologize if this offends anyone.)  But I was rather distraught by the general age of the attendees. Many being what I’d label as either elderly or Vietnam vet age. I do not say this as insult, I greatly respect both groups.  But the twenty and thirty year olds were in very low quantity in comparison.  This put a chill down my spine…

I’ve seen many churches with similar demographics, and many churches that are now condominiums because once those demographic groups pass; the church no longer has enough members to sustain it.

There are plenty of young shooters out there.  Go to any gun show, you’ll see a mix of the young and the old.  Go to any club or community event, and you’ll see only old people.  Young people are not involved in the issue politically.  There are a few reasons for this:

  • Young people are eschewing civic organizations as a whole.
  • Young people have less time to devote to civic engagement.
  • Young people seem to be less interested in competitive shooting.
  • A lot of these guys don’t know defeat.  I was nineteen when the Brady Act passed.  I was twenty when the assault weapons ban passed.  A lot of these guys in their twenties don’t realize that gun control will come for them.  I see the guns these guys check out at the shows.  They really don’t know they are a target and can lose their rights.

He’s observed something here that I do think is a real problem.  If we don’t create a new generation of gun leaders, when the existing generation gets too old or dies off, were screwed.  People have to get involved if we want to keep this right.  There really is no other alternative.

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“I’m An NRA Member, And I Support Obama”

You have to admit, it takes a lot of guts to get up in front of a whole country, and admit that you’re a fool.

UPDATE: This guy isn’t fooled:

You know, I’d love to believe that Obama is cool with guns and hunting, but when the nation’s largest and most radical group that wants to ban hunting thinks he’s peachy, it makes this middle-aged redneck think that maybe Barack is full of B’crap and his “pro gun/hunting” spiel is just another con job spun by the King of Obfuscation. But that’s just me.

Any hunters who trusts a Chicago politician from Hyde Park to look after his interests is nuts, to say the least.

UPDATE: Of course, that’s not stopping Ray Schoenke from trying to convince hunters that cuddling up with the environmental lobby that wants to ban their ammunition is the way to go.  Let’s not also forget that AHSA has endorsed Obama, who is also endorsed by HSUS, who want to ban hunting.  Some hunting group eh?

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NRA is Expanding Anti-Obama Ad Campaign

From the Political Victory fund, which is NRA’s Political Action Committee:

Fairfax, VA-Today the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF) expanded its advertising campaign with the release of additional commercials further detailing Sen. Barack Obama’s long anti-gun record in battleground states across the country. The NRA-PVF commercials began airing Monday in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan.

These ads, which expose the truth about Obama’s record opposing the rights of law-abiding gun owners, are currently running in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Colorado. The media spots feature a variety of people from all walks of life, including war veterans, hunters, families and former law enforcement officers criticizing the many  anti-gun and anti-hunter votes cast by Obama as a state and as a U.S. Senator. NRA-PVF is also running Spanish-language commercials in several states.

No doubt that will keep the Obama’s campaigns lawyers busy sending out more threat letters to keep his record on gun control from getting out there.

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Stun Guns

The Arizona Rifleman talks about problems with stun guns.  I agree, they don’t even beat a well placed fist, knee or elbow in a lot of situations.  A friend of mine who reads, and can perhaps comment, had a similar experience where he volunteered to get zapped by one of these devices.  He felt it was only mildly painful, and would be easy for a determined attacker to fight through.  Even the taser type guns, which are far more useful, are only effective while they are actively zapping the person, and that’s only if the electrodes find their mark.

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