Gun Rights – Page 17 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The “Yes” Vote Heard Round the World?

LA Times: “If California voters approve stronger gun control, the message sent at the ballot box will be heard across the U.S.” That’s the whole idea. They are trying to send a message to politicians that the people want more gun control, and they are being successful at doing so. It won’t matter that the only reason they are being successful is because Bloomberg is willing to spend big money. You can lament the ballot all you want, and I certainly don’t believe in lawmaking by referendum, but Bloomberg picked a strategy where money is king, and he’s executing on it very well. He is exactly what I long feared: someone with the both the money and strategic thinking to understand where and how to fight.

The reality is this: the one thing that correlates strongly to whether or not you reflexively do or don’t support gun control (and for most people, who don’t spend 10 minutes thinking about political issues, it’s reflexive) is whether you own a gun. California Democrats have been using red tape to frustrate people out of owning firearms for the past 30 years, and they’ve largely succeeded. Those who were most passionate have, by now, left the Golden State for more permissive states. With each encroachment, it becomes harder and harder to stay and fight.

They are trying to repeat this in more and more states. They’ve likely succeeded in tipping Colorado. They are tipping Washington State. They’ve started tipping Oregon. They are now trying to tip Maine and Nevada this election. Who will be next? When will our people abandon the cartoon reality pushed by conservative media and actually get serious? I suppose we shall see.

Amratix to Release Second Smart Gun?

According to ComputerWorld, the company is planning to introduce the iP9, a 9mm pistol. This company couldn’t even make a reliable .22 pistol.

The iP9 is expected to retail for about the same suggested retail price as the iP1 — $1,365, which is more than twice the price of many conventional 9mm semi-automatic pistols. While smart gun technology will always bring with it a price premium, Tweraser said that’s to be expected, and he compared it to a Tesla electric car.

You could get a decent defensive pistol and a quality quick-open safe with that kind of money, and that would be a far better option. As long as politicians are interested in smart-gun mandates, there’s no way they are going to get any retailers to sell this thing, because we’ll ruin any retailer that cooperates with Armatix and thus cooperates with the politicians looking to pick smart guns as the winner out of the gate.

I have no issue with smart gun technology per se, if it were allowed to succeed or fail in the open marketplace, but politicians who hate guns are never going to allow that to happen. If this ends up on the market, it will be mandated, as is already the case in New Jersey. So screw Armatix: if they think you’re getting back into the US market without a fight, they’re dreaming.

Enhanced Preemption Passes Senate

Passed by a 30-19 vote. Unfortunately, that’s not a veto-proof majority. It takes 33 votes to override a veto, and it’s hard to see which votes there could be switched. NRA is asking folks to reach out to their State Reps to try to get this passed in the House. It’s worth at least sending to Wolf and making him take a position on it, which unlike Republicans in Congress, PA GOP lawmakers have shown a willingness to do.

Sandy Hook Lawsuit Dismissed

This is old news by now, but I wanted to report on it anyway because it’s big news: the lawsuit against Remington has been dismissed under the PLCAA. I was perhaps too quick to pass judgement on Judge Barbara Bellis when this story originally came to light. I corrected later that day after reading the opinion more thoroughly. Now it appears that Judge Bellis has done the right thing under the law:

Although PLCAA provides a narrow exception under which plaintiffs may maintain an action for negligent entrustment of a firearm, the allegations in the present case do not fit within the common-law tort of negligent entrustment under well-established Connecticut law. A plaintiff under CUTPA must allege some kind of consumer, competitor or other commercial relationship with a defendant, and the plaintiffs here have alleged no such relationship.

Remember that their theory was that selling AR-15s to civilians at all constituted negligent entrustment. If this novel theory of that concept had been allowed to proceed, it would have rendered the PLCAA effectively meaningless. It’s a good thing for us the Judge in this case wasn’t buying it.

This is Why We Need Constitutional Carry

BecauseÂ protections built into the law mean nothingÂ to the Pennsylvania State Police. They apparently have illegally linked the LTCF information to our Drivers’ Licenses so that when you’re pulled over at a traffic stop the officer can see all your information related to the LTCF. It may not just be cops either:

Furthermore, even if there was, it is illegal to disclose this information to individuals other than a law enforcement officer acting in the scope of his/her duties. As I understand the new system, it is being relayed to emergency responders, which may even include tow truck drivers that are part of the system.

I’m very uncomfortable with this state of affairs. This essentially makes Pennsylvania a duty-to-inform state. How long before they link this to the plate readers the cops use these days? Bullshit. This information was supposed to be private and increasingly we’re seeing state officials violate the law when they feel like it. What’s worse? Most of the time they get away with it.

Preemption Enhancement Back in Action

The new pre-emtiion enhancement bill, HB 2258, is now going before the Pennsylvania House floor, having been voted out of committee by a 21-6 vote. I’m curious to see if we can pass this with a veto-proof or near veto-proof majority. The GOP controls the House and Senate at levels in this state that have not been seen for decades, and there are still some pro-gun Democrats out there, so I’m hopeful we’ll get a good vote tally.

When this bill was briefly law before it was invalidated by the courts for violating the single-subject requirement of our state constitution, it did a lot of good. Most municipalities folded like a cheap deck of cards once challenged under it. The only holdouts were the big cities, which fought the law using the single-subject argument.

Follow this linkÂ to go to NRA’s handy app that will help you write your rep. Let’s get this done.

Constitutional Carry Veto Override Successful

NRA is reporting that the Missouri legislature has successfully overridden Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of Constitutional Carry, among other pro-gun measures. This makes Missouri the 11th state to adopt Constitutional Carry. This has been a good year for the movement, and Missouri is a decently sized state with a reasonably large city (St. Louis). It’s a good state to have under our belt.

My only fear is that we’re making red states better, and meanwhile Bloomberg is showing a willingness to spend $600 grand a week to get what he wants in Nevada, and $200k to get what he wants in Maine. We have to punch him in the nose in purple states in a big way. Otherwise this is going to end up in bifurcation of the country, where the Second Amendment means a lot of different things depending on what jurisdiction you’re in. Bloomberg is willing to spend big money to make that a reality! What are you willing to do to fight him?

VCDL Sues Katie Couric

Bearing Arms is reporting. I don’t honestly think they have a case, and expect it will be quickly dismissed.

The Defendants manipulated the footage in service of an agenda: they wanted to establish that there is no basis for opposing universal background checks by fooling viewers into believing that even a panel of pro-Second Amendment advocates could not provide one.

Yeah, I’m not sure that’s legally defamation. Additionally their claims of harm are somewhat dubious. One claim is that an FFL holder lost business for being thought a fool, and the same for the attorney.

Sadly, this is freedom of the press. The recourse we have as gun owners is to not watch or subscribe to their content, and not to agree to be interviewed by hacks like Couric.

Primary & Secondary School Weapons Ban to be Reconsidered

Good news from Firearms Attorney Joshua PrinceÂ regarding the Pennsylvania Superior Court case that ruled “other lawful purposes” language in the Pennsylvania school weapons ban didn’t include legally carrying a firearm, but instead meant that lunch ladies could have knives in the kitchen, or other such school related activity:

After the decision, Mr. Goslin contacted me and we,Â pro-bono, filed a Motion for Reconsideration/ReargumentÂ en banc,Â wherein,Â inter alia,Â we argued that the Superior Court should permit new briefs to be filed and oral argument, after vacating the courtâ€™s July 6, 2016 decision. Today, the Superior Court GRANTED the motion, withdrew the July 6, 2016 decisions and scheduled re-briefing and argument.

That’s definitely good news. Hopefully we can get a better result on appeal. If this case loses, it would technically be a serious violation to drop your kid off at school with a firearm in the vehicle, or even to turn around in a school parking lot on the way to the range. What about a sidewalk that transits school property? The “other lawful purposes” was what prevents this law from applying to ordinary people, rather than only to people who don’t have lawful intent.

A Lesson for Gun Voters

Could gun owners suffer the fate of black voters who are loyal only to one party and thus taken for granted?Â It could be argued this has happened to us.:

The captured group theory was put forward by Princeton political scientist Paul Frymer in a book first published in 1999, â€œUneasy Alliances: Race and Party Competition in America.â€¹Â He argued that politicians focus their attention on white swing voters, and that the two-party system is structured to push aside the concerns of black voters²Â because they consistently and overwhelmingly favor one party.

Eventually, if there is no pro-gun insurgency within the Democratic Party, we’ll just get baked into the election numbers for the GOP and there won’t any good reason for the Dems to improve their standing with gun voters, and the the Republicans won’t have to work very hard to please us.