Gun Rights – Page 375 – Shall Not Be Questioned

BBC Article

Both War on Guns and Armed and Safe have offered their takes on this BBC article.Â Â I have one as well:

Police commander Michael Anzallo says the capital has seen an influx of handguns from neighbouring states where there are fewer controls.

“The police department recovers more than 1,000 guns a year,” he says.

“The problem is easy access to firearms. Most of the motives for homicides are arguments or robbery related and the quick pull of the trigger means somebody’s life.”

This seems to be a common tactic; blaming the neighboring states.Â The way this is always presented suggests the gun law of the controlling jurisdictions are strict, and effective at keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, but that criminals can just cross over into another state and buy a firearm because of the lax laws there.

Given that most people aren’t aware of what current gun control laws actually are, this is an effective tactic to deflect the criticism that gun control will never work.Â Most people don’t know that it’s illegal to buy a handgun out of state, or that someone with a criminal history will fail a background check, and aren’t aware of the current laws about straw purchasing.

It’s effective to evoke images of a criminal heading to a Maryland gun store and picking up a gun because of the “lax” gun laws there, rather than explain the existing laws, or the black market networks through which criminals obtain firearms.

Private Security Contrator NFA

Armed and Safe expresses some concerns about the contractor provisions on HR4900.Â One thing I’d urge folks to consider is that if security contractors don’t have to compete for very limited transferable Title II firearms, it should take some pressure off prices.Â I think it’s good to keep transferable Title II firearms in the hands of collectors, rather than having security firms gobbling them up.

Our Friends at ATF

Looks like they’ve been busy.Â Joe says they are misleading the public on several fronts with a story he points to.Â Agents also appear to be harassing homeowners who lawfully store things that can go bang in their garages.Â Let’s not forget Bill Akins either.

Evan Nappen on HR2640 Passage

Evan Nappen has another editorial defending against attacks by folks less than happy with the passage of HR2640. For those of you who don’t know, Evan is probably the foremost legal expert on New Jersey’s gun laws; not a simple task, they are monstrously complicated, and even the lawmakers don’t really understand that body of law.

More Criticism on Sullivan

Over at Red’s:

This is one of the Judge’s that has criticized Sullivan in the past and at one point threatened to send a US Marshall to pull Sullivan out of a Dentist chair and bring him to court. Then earlier this year filed a complaint against Sullivan’s office citing “extraordinary misconduct by the Department of Justice”.

Read the whole thing.

Americans Divided Over Gun Control?

According to this Canadian news article:

People in the United States are almost evenly split between those who want tighter firearm legislation and those who believe this is unnecessary, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 42 per cent of respondents believe their country needs stricter gun control laws, while 44 per cent disagree.

Considering that most people have no idea what the current gun laws are, this is pretty striking.Â It’s not a majority, but it’s a plurality.Â Most importantly, it also says the recent shooting have had little effect on people’s perceptions on gun laws.

How People Think in Erie

They don’t much like being punished for Philadelphia’s inability to control its own crime.

Two New Bills

Just to give you folks some idea of what the Philadelphia politicians are up to these days, we have two new bills introduced into the Senate here in Pennsylvania. They are:

SB 1217 By Williams, A. Amends Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) further providing for firearms not to be carried without a license by adding the procedures for which any vehicle or vessel used to transport a person unlawfully carrying a firearm may be deemed contraband and forfeited.

So if you have someone in your vehicle who is, perhaps mistakenly, under the impression his license is a reciprocal one, when it is, in fact, not, you lose your car. If you don’t have an LTCF, and you’re transporting a handgun, and stop to pick up your friend to head to the range, you could lose your vehicle.

Pennsylvania’s laws on transporting handguns are already draconian if you don’t have a license. There’s not any good reason to add to the hazard, especially when the driver may not know his passenger is illegally armed.

SB 1228 By Williams, A. Amends Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) further providing for licenses. In a city of the first class, a license shall be issued only if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear an injury to the applicant’s person or property or has any other proper reason for carrying a firearm and that the applicant is a suitable individual to be licensed.

This would turn the clock back in Philadelphia to the days prior to Act 17 when the City of Brotherly Love was may-issue. Watch out for this one folks! I think this could be their next big push. They won’t be able to show any evidence that any of the city’s 32,000 license holders are being arrested for violent crimes, but they will make those people the scapegoats, and make them pay. Why? Because deflecting blame for their own failures if what Philadelphia politicians do best.

UPDATE: I should note that these have been referred to the judiciary committee.Â Politicians introduce a lot of very bad bills every year that get referred to committee and then never get a hearing.Â It’s very likely that these bills will die quietly in committee, but it’s worth noting what the Philadelphia politicians think of gun owners.

Getting Hunters on Board

Conservative UAW guy is displaying a fantastic poster by Oleg Volk that I think is one of the best ways I’ve seen to help explain to hunters the importance of this fight.Â Â I hadn’t seen this one before.

More on New Jersey Bills

Looks like we’ve managed to make a these bills a bit less onerous, but it’s still critical to defeat them.Â One thing I’d like to point out:

S2470, sponsored by State Senator Shirley Turner (D-15), as originally written, would have criminalized the transfer of any ammunition to anyone who does not have a valid firearms purchaser identification card, a copy of a permit to purchase a handgun or a valid permit to carry a handgun. While intended to prevent criminals from obtaining ammunition, the legislation would only impact honest gun owners, since criminals are unlikely to purchase ammunition in New Jersey because of the mandatory reporting of all ammunition sales as required by state law.Â

Emphasis mine.Â Whoever drafted this has my thanks for helping feed the “Pennsylvania is to blame for our gun crime” monster that folks like Bryan Miller like to push.Â I doubt there’s a study that shows criminals are buying ammo out of state, so let’s just leave it at “criminals buy much of their ammo on the black market, and New Jersey already has this reporting requirement.” Â Those of us in Pennsylvania would appreciate it.