Shall Not Be Questioned

Thirdpower notes that they are playing up what they got as part of the concealed carry deal, trying to spin it as a much bigger victory than it really is. Specifically, private transfers in Illinois will continue to work as they have. The law specifically doesn’t apply any criminal or civil penalties for failure to comply. It’s all carrot and no stick.

This week is going to be rough due to some self-imposed deadlines I am determined to meet for work. I’m mostly in documenting mode, and while you might think someone who bangs out five or more blog posts a day can probably bang out documentation just as quickly, I’m slow with documenting, unfortunately, at least partly because it’s necessary but thoroughly joyless and uninteresting work. But one must plan for the proverbial bus (which always seems to run over the IT guy). With that, there is still some news:

Rubber band gun with functioning slide and ejector. Very cool.

The difference between Massachusetts and Florida. Our opponents really do seem to think that violence that isn’t gun violence is somehow preferable.

Bloomberg gets a press conference talking about how New York City’s gun problems are blamed on other jurisdictions. He wants everywhere to be as strict as New York, which essentially bans firearms.

The Myth of the Atomic AR. Something is fishy with that claim. Unless the bullet hit a propane bottle, I can’t see how the fire would get going that fast. Even a gas line would give you enough time to get out.

Piers Morgan’s Misstatement on Virginia murder rates. “This is a teachable moment, because this is what rabid gun control proponents are prone to do—to argue from emotion rather than reason and throw out numbers that have no basis in reality.”

Some interesting history regarding passing FOPA, on how we outfoxed Rep. Hughes to get the bill to the floor. Of course, Rep. Hughes had some last minute revenge waiting for the bill, which we are all familiar. Most people I’ve talked to in the FOPA fight think if it hadn’t been for that bill, they would have succeeded in killing off the gun culture.

Not gun related, but one of my favorites series on PBS (or Channel 12, as we called it) growing up was Connections, with James Burke. So I was delighted to find the whole thing posted online.

Illinois passes more gun control, including ending private transfers. Keep in mind you need to have a license in Illinois to own a gun, and to sell a gun to someone else, they also need to have a license. It requires a background check to obtain a license, and they revoke those licenses if someone commits a crime or otherwise becomes prohibited from owning firearms. It is, under any rational way of thinking, a perfect substitute for instant background checks.

However, that wasn’t enough. The background check issue is a total red herring. The gun control movement pushes universal registration under that rubric because background checks poll a lot better than registration. That’s their true goal. It goes back to what Pete Shields, founder of Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign to Save our Phony Baloney Jobs), said in 1976:

“I’m convinced that we have to have federal legislation to build on. We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily — given the political realities — going to be very modest. Of course, it’s true that politicians will then go home and say, ‘This is a great law. The problem is solved.’ And it’s also true that such statements will tend to defuse the gun-control issue for a time. So then we’ll have to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen that law, and maybe again and again. Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time. My estimate is from seven to ten years. The problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns sold in this country. The second problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition — except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors — totally illegal.”

Emphasis mine. Once upon a time, they weren’t so concerned about hiding their end game from the public. Background checks don’t really help them get anywhere. In fact, it probably helps take them backwards in the sense that it would destroy some of their most effective rhetoric without really giving them anything in return. The only things that prevents universal registration is the fact that guns can be bought and sold by people who are not Federal Firearms Licensees. If all transactions were to go through an FFL, we’d have de facto universal registration of all firearms within a generation.

UPDATE: See here. It would seem the private transfer provisions of this law are meaningless, and are being played up to make it seem like they actually won something.

Don’t go seeking help. We don’t have that luxury:

A.B., an honorably discharged combat vet, called a veteran’s assistance hotline for someone to talk to. While the VA hotline worker did the right thing by having the police come out and check the situation, the police went too far.  After he was taken in to custody and separated from his firearms, the police officers searched his home without a warrant or any exigent circumstance and illegally seized $20,000 worth of his firearms, bows, arrows, ammo, and first aid and protective equipment. Included was the Japanese Arisaka rifle that his grandfather brought back from WWII and the medical shears that this patriot used to cut two fellow Infantrymen from a HMMWV during an IED attack.

It’s not paranoia when they really are out to get you. The law be damned.