I could use this woman as an example of the .380s lack of stopping power, but considering it entered and exited her skull, I think she’s just extraordinarily lucky.
Month: April 2009
Machine Guns Found
Back last December, I reported on a Class III SOT who had 200 grand worth of inventory stolen while he grabbed a bite to eat. Apparently all but 8 of those guns have been recovered, and the guy who was involved in stealing and trafficking them is being indicted by the Feds.
I’m happy they are off the streets and back in the hands of collectors. Once they hit the streets, they become worth nothing, except to criminals. What you really pay for is that entry in the NTRFR that says it’s yours.
This Year’s NRA Election Is Over
The 2009 NRA Board Elections are now at an end. Today is the ballot deadline. Ballots received after today will not count. I would like to thank Senator Feinstein, President Obama and his Chief of Staff for helping remind NRA members to get their ballots in. I would also like to thank our endorsed candidates who took the time to answer some of our questions. We will find out the results of the election at NRA’s Annual Meeting, which I will dutifully report to you.
Blast From the Past
Time lists this article as being from 2001, but it’s clearly not. It’s from January 1990. It talks about J. Warren Cassidy being Executive Vice President of NRA, who resigned in 1991, and was replaced by Wayne LaPierre. Joe Foss is still NRA President. The best date for the article is it references the 1989 Stockton Massacre as happening “a week ago last year”.
Read the whole thing. It gives a snapshot in time of NRA, at a time when membership was declining, the inevitable passage of the Brady Bill and Assault Weapons Bans were on the horizon, and the future of NRA seemed more uncertain. In those days, there was plenty of infighting between, I guess what we today would call the “pragmatic” faction of NRA, and the more hard line “Knoxers.”
The NRA of today has considerably less infighting in comparison to those days, but the political climate is much better. That sounds crazy considering who controls Congress and who’s in the White House, but those were really dark days. The media pointed to declining NRA membership as evidence of its losing support among mainstream gun owners. The only people who suggest NRA is impotent now are the Brady Campaign, and my Governor. I don’t think anyone really believes them.
Castle Doctrine Introduced
In the Pennsylvania Senate, by Senator Alloway. I’m going to guess the Republican controlled Senate is an easier route of introduction. Gets it to the House without having to wrangle through Democrat controlled committees.  Chances are we can pass this, but Rendell can always veto it, and probably will. Still, it will force the issue, and make the Democratic nominee for governor, whoever that turns out to be, take a stand on that issue. We probably already know that Corbett, who is the presumed GOP nominee, will support its passage.
Lautenberg’s Gun Show Language
The language is now available Thomas for Lautenberg’s gun show bill. What’s interesting is that it doesn’t target private sales in general, but targets only gun shows. In my opinion, it is intended to destroy gun shows, or at least seriously reduce their numbers, and frustrate being able to put them on. Let’s take a look:
- A gun show, under this law, is defined as an event where more than 20% of vendors are selling firearms, where there are more than 10 people selling firearms, and when there are more than 50 firearms offered for sale.  This will probably cause flea markets and any place that’s not a licensed gun show to ban people from selling guns.
- Gun show promoters have to register with the attorney general according to regulations and fees defined by him. They could make the fee 100,000 dollars. The bill does not stipulate a fee. This is entirely unacceptable.
- Anyone selling a gun at a gun show would have to show photo ID, be entered into a ledger, and be required to sign off on their requirements under this chapter. This is true even if you’re just exhibiting a gun. You don’t have to be selling it. The promoter would keep the ledger, but would be required to keep it for as long as the attorney general stipulates.
- All transfers would be required to be transferred through a federally licensed dealer. It is a crime both on the transferors and transferees part for not doing so. Federal Firearms Licensees will be required to enter details about the transaction into a bound book of some kind. The bill also stipulates a separate form other than 4473, it seems. This new federal form will be reported to ATF. They won’t require any identifying information about the transferees. Multiple handgun purchase forms are required for these transactions.
- FFLs who transfer a firearm at a show will have to include a few transfer report form, separate from the current paperwork that records that a transfer has taken place. What?
- Penalties go up to five years for doing a private transfer at a gun show, that goes for promoters who don’t do everything right too.
- Penalties of up to five years in prison are also added on to dealers who knowingly make a false record.
This law is aimed squarely at making gun shows so legally burdensome that no one in their right mind would organize one, and creating new criminal penalties for dealers who keep bad records. This must be absolutely opposed. It looks like our opponents, rather than going for the whole private sale caboodle, have decided to specifically target gun shows.
Remember, in terms of organization, gun shows are for us what churches are to religious conservatives. If they shut down gun shows, or make them entirely too legally burdensome to operate, they shut down a key locus of our ability to politically organize. That’s exactly what the intent of this bill is. Our opponents may be on the ropes, but they aren’t stupid. It can’t be allowed to pass.
UPDATE: NRA offers its interpretation of this bill, saying it will do, among other things, make Camp Perry into a gun show. This is not an unreasonable interpretation of the law. Also:
If you are at home with a collection of fifty or more firearms, it would be a five-year felony to “offer” or “exchange” a single gun — even between family or friends — unless you first registered with the BATFE and paid a fee, the amount of which would be at BATFE’s discretion.
Checking back with the language of the bill, this is indeed the case. There is no exception for homes.
UPDATE: More from NRA:
Even talking about a gun at an “event” could be seen as an “offer” to sell a gun. Even if you are not a dealer, but you display a gun at a gun show, and then months later sell the gun to someone you met at the show, you would be subject to the same requirements as if you had completed the sale at the gun show.
This is true. It makes no distinction for venue. If you make an offer to sell at any “event” or “gun show”, then later transfer them somewhere else, you’re still a felon. Here’s the real zinger. If you went to a “gun show” and offered to sell an SKS to your buddy while at the guns show, then a month later went to an FFL and did the transfer, with background check, 4473, and everything else, sorry, you’re still a felon, because you didn’t fill out the extra gun show transfer paperwork!
Folks, Frank Lautenberg has been in the Senate a long time. He knows how to write legislation. This is meant to put gun owners, where, in his mind, we belong — in federal prison.
Music for the Weekend
I like music. Probably not something I share with folks often on here. From the time I was five years old, I took classical piano. Except for a few years in my pre-teens, I took lessons continuously through to almost being done college. I was told I was good. Last recital I gave was at 22, which if I recall, I performed Debussy’s Estampes, “Jardins sous la pluie.” and Chopin’s Military Polonaise.
One of my great regrets was not keeping up with it. It’s not like riding a bicycle. After a while, the muscles in your fingers forget how to play. You lose ability rapidly. On a day or so’s notice, I can relearn some simple pieces, like the first movement to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (used to know the third, but I’d be damned surprised if I could get through the first few bars today.). I still, in theory, know how to read music, but I doubt my fingers would work. But I’m still an avid listener.
Anyway, I thought I’d spend a few Fridays sharing some musical recommendations for the weekend with you all.  Today’s recommendation is Violin Concerto in B Minor by Edward Elgar, performed by Izhak Perlman, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, conducting.
Amazon sells it here
Elgar is an English composer probably best known for his work “Pomp and Circumstance,” which will be played at most graduations over the next two months, but though his Violin Concerto is lesser known, I think it’s one of his greatest works.
When Do You Not Own Your Property?
In DC, you don’t own your driveway or lawn. Now it’s finally coming to the attention of the press since the Congresswoman with no vote started getting tickets for parking in her own driveway.
My old office suffered from this problem. There were no warnings. One day officers just started ticketing all of the cars in the parking lot claiming that it was really public space and not a parking lot. Nevermind that it had been a parking lot since the building was zoned for business or that it was completely paved. We were told we had to preserve it as open space for the city, yet we were also responsible for maintaining it in bad weather. Several very expensive “tax” payments eventually resulted in special permission for us to use it. They had to be paid quarterly, so I wonder if changing this law will finally solve the problem for my old former employer.
Boomershoot Underway
Looks like Joe and a few other bloggers are busily mixing up explosives for the Boomershoot extravaganza that is to start on Sunday.  I really need to make it out there one year.
How Much Gun Ownership in England and Wales?
The Guardian went through all the police records for England and Wales and put them in a spreadsheet. Looks like there are about 129 thousand rifles, and about 549 thousand shotguns legally owned in those two countries. That’s a very low level of gun ownership considering the combined population of England and Wales is 53 million.
You also see this in states that have licensng of gun owners, such as New Jersey and Massachusetts, which have very low levels of gun ownership by American standards. Once you get that nose under the tent, it reduces our numbers, and thus reduces the constitutency willing to fight for more reasonable gun laws (reasonable by our standards, not theirs).
Try getting someone into shooting when it requires dealing with the police for months in order to get approved. You can do it, but it becomes a lot harder. We have one air gun shooter who’s been borrowing other people’s guns. He’s from New Jersey. To get one there, you have to go through the whole permitting process, including getting permission from the police first. It takes months, fingerprints, and a lot of paperwork and hassle.