Sebastian – Page 102 – Shall Not Be Questioned

My Apologies for the Server Hiccup

I had to do an unplanned upgrade of Ubuntu on the system that runs the blog for reasons unrelated to the blog. My home server does other chores, and I had something break that required an upgrade to fix. Sadly it was a more urgent priority. I debating waiting until late tonight to do the fix, but not being able to decide, I tossed a coin six times, and sorry to say the blog lost all six times. Don’t know how that happened. Must have been an Iowa quarter.

I’ve gotten spoiled since all the other machines I work on have SSDs or RAID arrays with nice big battery backed-up caches. The blog server at this point is six years old, and still runs on spinning platters. I had forgotten how slow software mirrored platters really are. At some point it’ll be time for a new server.

Could The Administration Sic OSHA on Gun Friendly Employers?

Joe Huffman wonders if this is going to be our next fight. I don’t see this as being off the mark, in terms of being something they could do. Recall that his original executive orders asked every agency to have a good hard look at where they could screw us. Joe is right to point out the complications, but they could easily overcome that by allowing business to apply for exemptions, which would of course only be granted to companies in “appropriate industries.”

Of course, there’s a part of me that thinks, “Maybe we shouldn’t give them ideas,” but that conflicts with the part of me that thinks we do ourselves a favor in trying to think of ways they could come after us. That might allow for preemptive measures to remove the topic of firearms in the workplace from the purview of OSHA.

The McAuliffe Deal is Better Than I Thought

When the deal between the GOP controlled Virginia legislature and Governor McAuliffe was announced, it seemed that the deal was to leave the agreements in place, rather than reminding them, but this article indicates that the deal is an exchange for near-universal reciprocity in Virginia. This article has some details:

The deal also pushes back the attorney generalâ€™s reciprocity deadline from Feb. 1 to March 1 and will require the attorney generalâ€™s office to enter into any reciprocity agreement offered by any other state, removing the discretion that allowed Herringâ€™s unilateral action.

It was argued by some that this wasn’t really a win, because we maintained status quo, while they got something, even if it was miniscule. This article seems to indicate we’ve traded that trifle for near-universal reciprocity, and removal of the AG’s discretion in the matter. Given how pissed off the antis are about this deal, I think this has to be viewed as a net win.

They do note that negotiations are still ongoing, so keep the pressure up.

The Old Gun Culture Asserts Itself

Dave Petzal of Field And Stream didn’t like SHOT show this year.

Range Day is the Monday prior to the Showâ€™s opening when manufacturers demonstrate their wares. People like me are bussed out to handle the goodies. This year, Range Day sounded like the Battle of Dak To, or perhaps Fallujah, with the distinctiveÂ pop-pop-popÂ of full-auto fire, which was extremely popular amongst all the SEAL wannabes. Indeed, this was symbolic of the whole show, which has now become so heavily militarized that you have to look fairly hard for something designed to kill animals instead of people.

Why do people like machine guns? Because they are fun. I mean, I get it to some degree: after you’ve been into guns and shooting for a while, everything that’s new is old again, or derp. I wish I had gone to SHOT back at the beginning of my blogging career, because now all the new stuff out there makes me go, “meh.” But I still smile when I get to shoot machine guns.

And “designed to kill animals instead of people” sounds like something straight out the anti-gun playbook. I’m sure it will be news to high-power shooters, or 3-gun shooters, that their tools of the trade are “designed to kill people.” Every gun is designed to kill people if you put one in the hands of someone interested in that. Remember, that’s not a deer rifle you have in your closet or safe, that’s a high-precision long range sniper rifle. A real man killer. So careful adopting the rhetoric of our opponents, Mr. Petzal.

h/t to KevinC

Terry McAuliffe Backtracks on Reciprocity

The Washington Post is reporting that a deal has been struck between Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe and Republicans. The deal breaks down to this: reciprocity with the 25 states will not be rescinded. In exchange, the GOP controlled legislature will agree to pass a bill with the following provisions:

If someone’s Virginia permit is revoked, they can’t use another state’s permit to continue to carry in Virginia. OK, fair enough. I’m not going to sweat that.
State Police will be made available at gun shows to run background checks. The checks will be voluntary, not mandatory, so fine by me.
Anyone subject to a permanent protective order (PPO) is barred from carrying for two years the order remains in effect. By federal law someone with a PPO can’t have a gun anyway, so I don’t see what the issue is here.

It makes me wonder if holding reciprocity hostage in an effort to get concessions was the plan all along, but McAuliffe didn’t get much of anything here in return, so I suspect they were made to feel their move on reciprocity was… ill considered. I don’t think the plan was to hold reciprocity hostage to get concessions, I think they realized they made a major political miscalculation and McAuliffe was looking for a face saving way out.

If you’re a Virginia gun owner, and were part of the noisemaking operation down there, pat yourself on the back, your governor and attorney general just blinked. They always underestimate us.

Oregon Situation Developing

It’s not clear yet all the details, and there’s a lot of conflicting stories, but it would appear the feds have arrested the leaders of the occupiersÂ of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, killing one in the process, after the man charged police, or was peacefully surrendering, with his hands up, depending on whose story you believe. I hope there is dash cam footage so the truth can be ascertained. The feds need to be very careful about the remaining protesters.

OregonLive has pretty timely coverageÂ of what’s going on. Glenn Reynolds spoke about this issue a few days ago, noting “I believe thatÂ Baker v. CarrÂ was incorrectly decided.” Of course, this is a federal problem, where we do still have geographic representation in the higher house.

Cleaning Up Illegal LTCF Requirements

In Pennsylvania, there have traditionally been a lot of extralegal requirements for Licenses to Carry Firearms (LTCF) implemented by county Sheriffs, with the City of Philadelphia being the most notorious of the offender. The rest of the ring counties were often pretty non compliant as well. Bucks County had a number of extralegal requirements. I want to say there was a psychological evaluation (or something pretty draconian like that) imposed at one point (this is before I lived here), until a local activist challenged the requirement. Up until pretty recently, the county was overcharging for LTCFs. Bucks County is now following the law. Delaware County used to illegally call references, including employers, until it was pointed out to them that disclosing information about an LTCF application crime, and my understanding is that they no longer do this.Â Montgomery County has continued with extralegal requirement to get local police sign-off, but now it seems that may be at an end too.

We’re slowly getting there.

Denmark Woman Charged After Fending Off Rapist With Spray

There is technicallyÂ self-defense law in Denmark, as long as you don’t use something effective, like pepper spray. I can’t imagine any rationale by which a free society can tell someone they can’t carry and use even a defensive spray. Especially with this rape culture spreading throughout Europe. Denmark isn’t the only country. Even our neighbor to the north, Canada, bans defensive spray. Bastions of freedom, the countries of Saudi Arabia and Russia allow it. You can see the whole list of ridiculousness here.

The right to defend life and limb, and to have access to effective tools for doing so is not an American right, it is a human right. I would argue it is perhaps the most basic human right there is. It is a shame there are so many countries in the world that don’t recognize and protect it.

Weekly Gun News – Edition 24

Gun news is actually getting kind of scarce out there. I do not wish that to change. I have learned my lesson in regards to “careful what you wish for.” I do have enough to do a good tab clearing.

One Guam lawmaker is trying to ease the island’s gun laws to bring them into compliance with the Second Amendment.

Ted Strickland, former NRA A-rated Democratic governor of Ohio has flipped 180 on the gun issue. Doesn’t look like it’s working out too well for him.

I blame Trump: Jenn Jacques at Bearing Arms says the piggish male is back at SHOT.

Uncle takes a look at the scariest product at SHOT.

Three pro-gun bills in Colorado. I don’t know if they have a chance, but it’s important to keep trying.

Is open carry backfiring in Texas? You guys need to get rid of that 30.06 and 30.07 stuff and just let trespassing law take care of things.

One town in Massachusetts is now demanding applicants for Class A LTCs write an essay. Heller and McDonald are effectively dead in the First Circuit, having been effectively overturned by the lower courts, with SCOTUS refusing to do anything about it.

Chris Christie is still proud of his “law and order” record of denying people fundamental rights based on someone’s presence on a secret government list. Well, then I’ll be proud not to vote for him.

Tam opines on the gun business in the way only Tam can.

Mike Rowe may not be an NRA member, but he seems to know the issue pretty well.

Looks like a new venue for the Lancaster Friends of NRA dinner, the largest in the state, I believe, decided to jerk the committee around on open carry.

Happy 161st birthday to John Moses Browning.

They say that like it’s a good thing: “Michael Bloomberg is more than just the billionaire former mayor of New York â€” he’s a leading voice on gun control.” His money, plus Obama’s bully pulpit, is pretty much the only reason the gun control movement still exists.

We’re not doing too well in Florida this session.

Of course she doesn’t: “Clinton Doesnâ€™t List Self-Defense As Valid Reason to Own a Gun.”

Yeah, whatever Baghdad Bob: “Gun fantaticsâ€™ refusal to bend ensures they will be toppled.”

Brilliant: A lawmaker in South Carolina proposed a bill to register journalists, which met with the expected reaction. Now you boneheads know what it feels like to be a gun owner.

It probably makes me a bad person, but articles like this just make me smile. They need to go back to their safe space and stay there.

A Reminder: Comcast is Evil and You Shouldn’t Give Them Money

As if NRA didn’t have enough problems with the Great American Outdoor Show, with the Mayor of Harrisburg, Eric Papenfuse, trying to shake NRAÂ down, Comcast Corporation, which owns NBC, MSNBC, and whose CEO is a huge Obama bundler and Democratic insider, decided they didn’t want to miss out on jerking NRA around either, because their ad showed pictures of the air gun range they run for the kids.

If I were Republican lawmakers in the area, I’d start to look into Comcast’s monopolistic practices. I’m thinking they might need a few more regulations. If they want to run their company in a partisan manner, they are free too. We should also regulate them in a partisan manner, in that instance.

I cut the cord years ago, and I’m glad I’m no longer forking over more than a hundred bucks a month for their shitty product. I get that for a lot of people, there’s no other choice for high-speed Internet, but if you can swing it, cut the cord! Stop giving money to a partisan hack of a company everyone hates and who frankly hates you too.