Though Virginia defeated a similar bill last week, word comes from Arizona that they are moving forward on a bill that would require the chief law enforcement officer to sign off on certifications from BATFE relating to firearms if the applicant is not prohibited from owning firearms or currently under any kind of investigation that could result in them being prohibited. If the CLEO denies it, they must notify the applicant in writing and spell out the reasons they are denying the certification.
Author: Bitter
Harrisburg Sportsmen’s Show Success by the Numbers
The local tourism authorities were quick to promote the success of NRA’s Great American Outdoor Show by the numbers that could be tallied.
Unfortunately, a hard attendance number is apparently impossible to say with accuracy because the barcode scanners used to track ticket holders actually entering the show had technical problems early in the show.
However, using other measures they regularly track for events at the venue, they were able to get an idea of how well it did.
- 42,784 cars were parked on site and in off site parking lots designated for the show.
- Using the same formula for approximate number of people in a car that they used with previous attendance, this means 23% increase in attendance in 2014 vs 2012 under Reed.
- Nearly 4,800 NRA memberships sold on site.
- 10,033 more room-nights were sold in 2014 vs 2012 under Reed’s management, and this is with fewer junky vendors coming into town to sell their wares & stay in the region.
- $35 million in direct spending by attendees & vendors using conservative calculations that only 10% of attendees were staying the night in the area.
Also in their report include facts like many more hotels were willing to participate in the room block programs than under the old show and that the new mayor was actually a gracious host to NRA and met with them several times during the final planning stages.
Missouri Legislative Problem Solved
It looks like the problem of having anti-gun language tied on to a nullification bill in Missouri may now be resolved with a few phone calls from unhappy voters.
Deaths in the Gun Movement
Most of the time that I spot an obituary in my Google alerts that reference a pro-gun organization, I almost always take a look at the site. I don’t know these people, but they stand out to me as someone I probably would have liked to know because they cared about the Second Amendment and did enough to stand up and defend their rights that their family thought that it deserved recognition in the few sentences granted to sum up an entire life of achievements. I respect that about those men and women.
I also think it’s important when membership in a pro-gun group is mentioned because it drives home a narrative that normal people are gun owners who will defend their rights. This isn’t about a bunch of unknown lobbyists in some far off corner of the country, it’s about real Americans who are your neighbors whether you live in New York or Arizona. People who don’t talk to many moderates who don’t really have strong opinions on the issue don’t realize how much that makes a difference.
I just thought about that final chance to send a positive message about gun ownership one last time with last night’s news that Dick Cabela died and also a google alert hit today for a father named Rick Daily. You’ve probably heard of one and haven’t heard of the other. Regardless, both men were clearly very big supporters of the cause.
Remington Heads to Alabama
It’s kind of old news now about the Remington shift to Alabama. It is great that it’s causing Andrew Cuomo all sorts of political headaches in New York with the head of the union piling on that it’s the fault of anti-gunners that those jobs aren’t coming to New York.
However, I just had to link to this photo of the press conference attendance. Look at how many cameras are eager to be there so they can get coverage for their stations. Look at how many people are standing around waiting to take seats blocked by cameras so eager to cover the news. I can’t think of too many “we’re opening a new factory” announcements that get this much attention.
It must really frustrate the anti-gunners to see just how many people are excited by this news and that it’s really just causing headaches for their allies who pushed the extreme gun control bills.
Remington Leaving New York for Alabama?
According to a local source, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley is reportedly going to announce on Monday that Remington plans to move most of the jobs currently in New York to the southern state.
They claim that the historic Ilion plant will remain open, but with a reduced workforce.
Guns in European Schools
The next time you hear an anti-gun advocate promoting gun laws around Europe, let them know that Italy has an official program that allows gun owners to promote the shooting sports to school children.
Perazzi posted photos of a lecture from a program organized by the Italian Olympic Committee.
Perazzi shooter Maria Sole Santasilia and Sergio Carella, FITAV representative for sports in schools, have lectured a delighted audience of young students about shooting sports at the Municipal Teatre at Sant’Oreste, today.
The photo set not only shows her lecturing to the room full of students, but she also had her shotgun there and allowed students to pose with it, too. Yes, the children were allowed to handle her shotgun. It also appears that some of the girls lined up to get an autograph from the female world champion shooter.
Shooting Sports Scoring Challenges
I’ve seen quite a few competitive shooters praising this column in today’s Shooting Wire about the methods of scoring that contribute to making watching a shooting competition about as exciting as watching paint dry.
It’s an interesting thing to consider because as much as the Olympic shooting sports are criticized from many shooters of the more modern shooting competitions as boring because of the shooting style, they do real-time scoring with graphic representations of the targets on screen during the television coverage. You get to see that pulled shot within seconds or stand amazed at the accuracy of a shooter you’re cheering. It makes it much easier to get involved as a spectator.
It’s an interesting challenge to think about for the various shooting sports. The beauty of having so many different types of sports at so many different levels of competition is that maybe this column will spur some clubs to try out different methods of sharing scores to see what works to improve the sports for spectators and even other shooters.
Lineage & Guns
As most of you know from occasional posts, Sebastian & I have been into studying family history since last summer. I joined Daughters of the American Revolution last fall based on the research, and I’m finding even more patriots with practically every family line that I open up. But just this morning, I found I have a new goal. I want to find a gunsmith in my family tree. Why? Because of this qualification for designating a patriot in DAR:
Those who rendered material aid such as furnishing supplies with or without remuneration, lending money to the Colonies, munitions makers, gunsmiths, etc.
I’ve found a politician (state representative from Kentucky in 1800) who is the grandson of a sometimes hard-to-prove female patriot, several refugees fleeing religious wars whose families ended up supporting independence, and a patriot documented as supplying whisky to the troops, but no gunsmiths or munitions makers for the Revolution yet. And you know I want one if I can find one.
So, this is a bit of a bleg to anyone who knows about quality historical research. Where is one likely to find sources on gunsmiths & munitions makers from that era? I assume my best bet is to try and find wills and other legal records that may make mention of an occupation, but I wanted to ask if there were potentially other sources since I know this is an audience that loves guns, gun rights, and history.
I’ve got known patriots and family lines in Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina during the war. Afterwards, some ended up in Kentucky simply because that’s the county they were in when it was divided and then those broke off to become a state, so gun makers in those areas are more likely to be of value for this purpose.
Empty Brass in Your Home is a Crime
When I lived in Massachusetts and took women who had never shot a gun before to the range, they would frequently ask me if they could keep an empty piece of brass as a souvenir from their first trip to the range. I hated to tell them that possession of that brass without a license was a crime. I did tell them, and they usually opened up to the idea that maybe the extreme gun control measures of Massachusetts were not actually serving the public good.
Unfortunately, a DC man is headed back to court for at least the eighth time to defend himself against the charge that he possessed an empty shotgun hull.