2011 – Page 14 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The Empire State Strikes Back

No doubt looking to give gun owners a giant black eye, the New York AG is busy going after gun show promoters, blaming them for the actions of criminals. Jacob has video of the ~~press conference~~ dog and pony show. He notes:

This whole thing smells of a setup.

First off, when was the last time a State Attorney General put on a full court press for a bunch of misdemeanor appearance tickets? Second is the timing.Â H.R. 822Â will be going to theÂ SenateÂ soon for a vote. This has to be an attempt to derail that bill.

Sounds about right. Also, look at these dangerous guns they’ve gotten off the street:

3 AR-15 (Assault Rifles)
1 semi-automatic rifle called a “Mauser” (from Czech Republic)
1 Savage 7mm Rifle
1 Remington Model 710
1 Colt 7.72 x39
1 Enfield Military rifle
1 Browning .22 cal, model 235
1 Ithaca .22 gauge
1 Remington 25.06

Semi-auto Mauser? Really? Either way, I’m glad that gang members won’t have access to an “Ithaca .22 gauge” or a collections of various deer rifles in calibers no one has ever heard of (because they don’t exist). Looks like some hardened criminals Schneiderman is going after here. This isn’t justice, it’s revenge. When you go after otherwise good people for technicalities like this, all to make a political point, you aren’t a public servant, you’r a thug.

The ploy it not going to work anyway. We are going to lay waste to New York’s gun laws bit by bit, and restore the Second Amendment. I savor that even more than New Jersey, because there will be a lot more or the right kind of people in New York unhappy with it, starting with this asshole of an AG, who apparently doesn’t have any real criminals in his state worth going after. He also apparently does not have anyone on staff who knows about guns.

Media Use Guns from Game “Halo”

Well, the term “assault weapon” was largely made up, so I don’t see why it should be so wrong that a media outlet decided to use made up guns to illustrate assault weapons. I wonder if there are any models in there that shoot that dangerous armor piercing 10mm caseless ammo.

Flash Hider Designed by Bandage Manufacturers?

SayUncle links to a Zombie Edition rifle that has a flash hider that looks rather hazardous. “You’ll poke your eye out kid!” I’m just thinking you’re going to want to brush out that barrel from the other side. I’d hate to push stiff brush, have it go through, then stab myself! A bayonet is one thing, because you can take that off, but this just looks like an injury waiting to happen.

Holder Retaliating Against Whistleblowers

You really have to wonder, if this whole thing really was cooked up in the Phoenix Office, what is Holder trying to hide? And why is he getting so defensive, and trying to deflect blame? You’d think if you were in Holder’s position, you’d just throw the Phoenix office under the bus and wash your hands of it. I think it’s unbelievable, the idea that he didn’t know what was going on.

Astroturfing HR822 Opposition

I’m always skeptical any time I see a letter to the editor in the paper from someone appearing to be a concerned citizen, yet appearing to hit all the right talking points. While there are certainly anti-gun people in New Jersey, I don’t think most of them pay enough attention This is the case with Sharon Ransavage’s letter against HR822. Ransavage is a former prosecutor in Hunterdon County, but more importantly, she’s co-chair of the Hunterdon Peace Coalition, which is a subset of Coalition for Peace Action, which, as you may remember, absorbed CeaseFire New Jersey. So she’s one of Bryan Miller’s buddies. They say it’s a small world, but I’m always surprised how small a world it really is when it comes to anti-gun activism.

If we’re a tiny minority, exercising influence beyond our number, what do they think they are?

Things You Don’t Want on Your OSHA Incident Report

Apparently there was a death in the workplace at New Berlinville, PA environmental services company back in 2008. Normally this would not be news, except for the “Accident Investigation Summary:”

At approximately 12:35 p.m. on January 3, 2008, Employee #1 picked up a functional test box assembly and hooked the two alligator clips of this tester to his nipple rings. He turned on the power switch, which caused up to 2 amps of current at 110 volt AC to flow through the alligator clips. Employee #1 fell to the ground. The supervisor and coworkers rendered CPR, and outside emergency medical services utilized an AED. However, Employee #1 died a short time later at the hospital.

His occupation is listed as “Painting and paint spraying machine operators,” which makes you wonder if he was sniffing too much of the fumes when he was overcome by a desire to spike 110VAC across the really important part of his cardiovascular system. I think what’s interesting is that it looks like OSHA fined the employer. Is there really any workplace safety regulation that can prevent stupid?

Obama Not to Push Gun Control

Expect to see a lot of article like this over the next few months as we get into the silly season:

Harry Wilson, author of a book on gun politics and director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in Virginia, summed up the landscape, telling Werner: “Gun control is a fight that the administration is not willing to pick. They’re not likely to win it. They certainly would not win it in Congress, and it’s not likely to be a winner at the polls. … It comes down to one pretty simple word: Politics.”

I agree that Obama is not likely to push gun control overtly, but the best thing he can do for our opponents is to keep putting people on the Supreme Court who will vote against the Second Amendment every time. I know there’s a lot of skepticism out there if Romney is the eventual nominee, but also keep in mind Romney is going to be beholden to very different interests than Obama is. When it comes to judicial nominations, he will be expected by the GOP to pick from the pool of conservative judges. Presidents don’t have as much leeway as you might think on these matters, which is why Harriet Meyers is not currently a Supreme Court justice. In the pool of folks any GOP President is going to have to choose from, there’s a much stronger likelihood of finding a justice who will back the Second Amendment than the almost non-existent likelihood that will be the case in the pool Obama has to choose from.

Remember, for higher court positions, Obama will have to choose pretty exclusively from Clinton appointed judges. His own choices for the lower courts are not likely to be much better, given the pressures he faces to put left-leaning urbanites on the Court. Any GOP candidate, even if it’s Romney, is going to be facing a vastly different political calculus when it comes to court nominations.

Interesting HR822 Legal Questions

Andy from the comments asks, “Does HR 822 allow me to take my â€œhigh capacityâ€ magazine to New York? Hmmâ€¦ hadnâ€™t thought about that.”Â That’s a good question. From my reading of the language of HR822, That’s rather questionable. Also, it would be questionable whether it would be legal, for instance, to carry hollow point ammunition in New Jersey under HR822. My feeling on both counts is that no, that you would have to abide by both the magazine limits and rules regarding hollow points, as would a resident of Â both those jurisdictions.

The other side of that coin would be an argument that the law authorizes the carry of a handgun, regardless of “eligibility to possess or carry” the state may require, provided that you are not prohibited by federal law from gun possession, and have a valid license to carry. Therefore the language makes you qualified to carry a handgun, which would also, naturally, include magazines and ammunition.

I think the argument that you have to abide by rules on magazines and ammunition type is much stronger than the latter argument. If HR822 does pass, you might want to stick with New York, California, and New Jersey law on magazine capacity, and also New Jersey’s law on hollow-point bullets.

The Battle in 1968

Extranos Alley looks at the battle over the Gun Control Act in 1968. Here, Franklin Orth, NRA President at the time, speaks out against it. One of the best articles I think that can be found on GCA ’68 resides here:

The shift, by the leadership of the National Rifle Association (NRA), from cautious support for the original Dodd Bill to modest opposition of Senate Bill 1592 foreshadowed the most significant and lasting change in the dynamics of gun control policy to occur in the twentieth century. The NRA and firearms [Page 81] manufacturers had supported Dodd’s original bill and the subsequent addition of interstate controls on long guns.[18] Although the official organ of the NRA,Â The American Rifleman,Â indicated otherwise, the NRA leadership displayed some willingness to compromise with Dodd as late as 1965.[19] Negative response by the membership precipitated a subsequent reversal of direction by the NRA leadership.[20] This uprising by a significant portion of the NRA membership owed much to the development of a specialized gun press that catered to the most avid of gun enthusiasts.[21] The editorial staffs of magazines such asÂ Guns, Guns and Ammo, andÂ Gun WeekÂ inalterably opposed gun control in any form and benefited from heightened interest in gun issues.[22] By 1965, the leadership and membership of the NRA divided along a fault line separating those tolerant of moderate increases in gun control from those opposed to any significant change in the law.[23] Although the NRA leadership responded to this internal pressure with increased opposition to new legislation, their policy shift failed to satisfy a powerful segment within the membership. This internal dissatisfaction within the NRA provided the impetus for a 1977 coup by the libertarian faction within the organization and the ouster of the more moderate old guard.[24] Although the relations between Chairman Dodd and the NRA witnesses remained marginally cordial during the 1965 hearings, the atmosphere had begun to chill. Any hope of compromise between advocates of stricter gun control and the NRA ended after 1965.

My understanding is that a big portion of what drove the 1977 Cincinnati Revolt was the fact that NRA leadership was planning to move NRA Headquarters from Rhode Island Avenue in Washington DC to Colorado Springs, not far from a new deluxe shooting facility that would later become The Whittington Center, where it would get out of politics and focus mostly on sports, recreation and conservation. Maxwell Rich was NRA’s Executive VP at the time (Wayne’s job now), and I’ve always been amazed our opponents never made him an honorary Brady Campaign Board Member. If he had succeeded, they probably would have won.

Challenge to Post Office Ban Moving Forward

I don’t expect this to end well. Even though the Post Office is a quasi-governmental organization, the dicta in Heller about “government buildings and sensitive places,” I’m afraid will mean this suit goes no where. I’d like to be wrong though.