Month: March 2013

NRA is alerting on HB 35, which passed the Delaware House by a 24-17 vote. Again, this bill isn’t just about firearm sale, it stipulates sales or transfers, defined as:

(3) “Transfer” means assigning, pledging, leasing, loaning, giving away, or otherwise disposing of, but does not include:

(A) the loan of a firearm for any lawful purpose, for a period of 14 days or less, by the owner of said firearm to a person known personally to him or her;

(B) a temporary transfer for any lawful purpose that occurs while in the continuous presence of the owner of the firearm, provided that such temporary transfer shall not exceed 24 hours in duration;

(C) the transfer of a firearm for repair, service or modification to a licensed gunsmith or other person lawfully engaged in such activities as a regular course of trade or business; or

(D) a transfer that occurs by operation of law or because of the death of a person for whom the prospective transferor is an executor or administrator of an estate or a trustee of a trust created in a will.

Again, if you’re cohabiting with someone, say, in a gay relationship because you can’t get married, if you leave town for three weeks and leave your firearms in the care of your significant other, you’re making an unlawful transfer. Why the need to restrict the duration in section (B) to 24 hours? If I invite someone on my land to shoot, and loan him a gun for the weekend trip, should I be charged with a misdemeanor?

The bill also exempts people who hold Delaware Concealed Deadly Weapons Licenses, but it should be noted that Delaware is technically may-issue (though unlike a lot of other states, it’s not impossible to get a CDWL in Delaware if you jump through the hoops).

Also, this amendment brings up an interesting point on banning private transfers: if you transfer your gun into the dealer’s inventory, and the prospective buyer flunks the check, what then? Are you out the transfer fee to get your own gun back? Delaware’s bill says no, but that’s another nail in the coffin of the proposed federal bill I hadn’t thought of. Currently, the answer would likely be yes, you’d have to pay and go through the 4473 and whole deal to get your own gun back. I think you still would in Delaware too, except the dealer couldn’t charge you for it. This also will make it less likely dealers will want to process third party transfers.

This is what “universal background checks” mean folks. It’s one of those things that sounds dandy until you start thinking about how it would need to be implemented. This bill still has to pass the Delaware Senate, and NRA is asking Delawareans to contact their State Senators.

I guess we’ll see:

NRA President: Gun control advocates were ready for Newtown. Once Obama had won re-election, a gun control push was a fore drawn conclusion. Newtown was merely the pretext.

Another illegal mayor?

Mike Bloomberg, best thing to happen to the GOP since Citizen’s United? That all depends on the GOP. Before they can take advantage of the opportunity Bloomberg presents, they have to first stand up for Second Amendment rights. So far, they’ve been doing well, but that needs to hold.

A man breaks into someone’s home, gets shot dead, and his family claims he was a victim. Thirdpower found the guy’s rap sheet.

That .323 caliber Enfield. What’s scary is that it would seem the Connecticut State Police know next to nothing about guns. That check for the C183 I mentioned yesterday came straight from the police report. It was the cops that assumed that was a firearm.

Sean crashed one of Bloomberg’s pressers, talking about what Bloomberg’s “background check” bill would actually do.

Mr. C and Keewee are OK after a big land slide on Whidbey Island. Didn’t happen near them. We’re glad to hear that. Mr. C organizes postal matches for gun bloggers and readers. If you have any ammo to spare, they are fun.

Big Democratic donors are demanding some action on gun control, or screw those Dems who hold office in cousin humping redneck states. Have it your way. I’ll be happy to contain the Democratic Party to the Northeast and West Coast.

The biggest gun banning states have the lowest rates for actually prosecuting crimes involving guns. Pennsylvania bans private transfers, and it’s a well established fact that Philly prosecutors rarely use these laws to go after criminals. So why have them?

Clayton takes a look at some of the claims made about background checks working, and is skeptical of the evidence presented. I’ve always thought this BJS survey of criminal gun use, including where criminals were getting their guns, shows pretty clearly that all background checks have accomplished is shifting the source from retail, or lie and buy, to street sources which are more difficult if not impossible to regulate.

The latest language of S.649 can be found here. This is the bill that will be bought up for a vote. The “background check” language is identical to the language I analyzed in S.374. The rest of the bill is the same as S.179, Gillibrand’s trafficking bill. It’s essentially those two bills combined together into one bill. Needless to say, this bill is unacceptable and needs to be opposed, unless you want to have it be a felony in many conditions to hand a gun to a friend, such as plinking on your farm.