I engage Paul Helmke in some reasoned discourse, guest blogging over at SayUncle.
Category: Guns
SacBee: Blame Congress
Even though federal law currently makes:
1. Straw purchases a felony
2. Unlawful to purchase a handgun outside of your state
3. Unlawful for felons to possess or purchase firearms at all
4. Requires firearms dealers to report multiple sales to the BATF
5. Requires dealers to run background checks on gun buyers
I could go on, but I don’t have room to list the many and numerous federal gun regulations that criminals ignore on a daily basis.  Yes, despite all this, the SacBee still thinks that Congress isn’t giving police the tools they need to fight crime. They blame the Tiahrt Amendment, which does not restrict police for accessing trace data in criminal investigations, but they seem to imply that it does. The facts are inconvenient when you’re trying to mislead the public to make your point.
Hat tip to AceÂ
Carry at all Times
Here’s another reason if you have an LTC in Pennsylvania, and somewhere around six to seven hundred thousand of us do, you ought to be carrying all the time.  Robberies are always a sticky issue, because often it’s just better to let them go down.  But when you have nervous people pointing guns at other human beings, there’s always a chance for tragedy.
PSH From Across the Pond
The amount of pant shitting hysterics in this Guardian piece would be sufficient to fertilize an entire field of soybeans. It’s about Florida’s castle doctrine law.
Uniform Firearms Act: Act 158 – Right to Carry
We will start this continuing series with Pennsylvania going from a “may-issue” discretionary issue state, to a shall-issue state. Prior to Act 158, the law read something like this:
Issue of License.–The Chief or Head of any police fore or department of a city, and elsewhere the Sheriff of a County, may, upon the application of any person, issue a license to such person to carry a firearm in a vehicle or concealed on or about his person within this commonwealth for not more than five years from the date of issue, if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear an injury to his person or property, or has any other proper reason for carrying a firearm, and that he is a suitable person to be licensed.
Act 158 was actually a child welfare bill, that had right to carry attached to it. It fundamentally altered the licensing language to say:
Grant or Denial of License.–Upon the receipt of an application for the license to carry a firearm, the sheriff shall, within 45 days, issue or refuse to issue a license on the basis of the investigation under subsection (d) and the accuracy of the information contained in the application. If the sheriff refuses to issue a license, the sheriff shall notify the applicant in writing of the refusal and the reason. The notice shall be sent by certified mail to the applicant at the address set fourth in the application.
This basically made the state shall issue. Subsection D spells out the conditions that one must meet to qualify for a license, and they are objective, for the most part.  But, there was a catch:
 (2) In a City of the First Class, a license shall be issued only if it additionally appears that the applicant ahs 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.
Philadelphia is the only city of the first class in the Commonwealth. Act 158 specifically exempted Philadelphia from the right-to-carry requirement, and allowed the city to continue to refuse to issue gun licenses to anyone they didn’t sufficiently like.
Act 158 also made provision for sportsman’s permits, for carrying a firearm while hunting, in addition to strengthening the state’s preemption to include ammunition and ammunition components.
Nuge News
I’m really glad to hear that Ryan got to talk to Ted Nugent for a bit while he’s in town. I voted for The Nuge for the NRA board, and I’m glad to see he’s holding up his end of the bargain.
Light Posting
I’m having to split stuff I find between here and SayUncle, so posts on here won’t be as heavy for the week. Later today, my series on Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act will continue.
The Awkward Phase
I have to admit that I chuckled reading Robb’s post here, because it’s true. I think it’s because we all go through that awkward phase when we first start shooting, where we’re trying out a lot different things and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.  Perhaps some people never really get beyond that awkward phase.
I myself have a tricked out HiPoint 9mm Carbine that I never shoot anymore. I’ts from the awkward phase, complete with all the things Robb mentions, except that it doesn’t have particularly good optics. I quickly figured out all the gadgety crap didn’t really help with the fundamentals of shooting, so I shed it. I couldn’t shoot for shit then, and sometimes I can’t shoot for shit now. But I’m better than I was. I have a few guns I shoot regularly with optics, but I generally stay with iron sights.
This past Friday I took the PSL out to the range to shoot some 7.62×54 goodness at 100 yards. The target was a standard 100 yard large bore rifle target. I landed 3 in the 10 ring, 3 in the 9, two in the 8 and 2 in the 7, for a total of 87/100. I’m not one to be satisfied with a B when I’m shooting a rifle with optics! I’ve never been able to shoot the PSL all that well. I do much better with small bore shooting, which means I need to learn to be better at managing recoil. The PSL dishes out recoil in spades. It’s also difficult to shoot if you wear glasses, because of the rubber eyepiece on the Soviet era optics doesn’t fit nicely over glasses.  I have a tendency to wince or flinch when shooting the PSL. The flash from the mighty 7.62x54R fills the entire scope if you shoot it right. Good rule of thumb is, if you see flash, you probably didn’t flinch. I’m getting better at shooting this rather large rifle, but I won’t be happy until I can get all my shots in the nine and ten ring.
A Challenge from Brady
This weekend I learned from David Codrea that the Brady’s have recruited Comedian Lewis Black to encourage people to make videos in regards to how they feel about gun violence. I think David is correct that just submitting pro-gun videos to them wouldn’t do anything useful other than maybe making us feel better.
David suggests that he has some videos he made a while back, that he’d post online. I think it’s a great idea for us to make some video footage ourselves to make our own version of this. If anyone wants to submit a video to YouTube, send me a link and I’ll build a collection of them.
The Brady’s have been trying out new media. We’ve all seen their mistakes with their foray into blogging. Now they are playing to their more traditional strengths, using celebrity notoriety to mobile supporters, but with a new media twist. I think we ought to be showing we can match the Brady’s in the new media every step of the way.  What say you all?
By the way, I once attended a concert by Lewis Black in Upper Darby. I thought his bit on candy corn was really amusing. I was also legally concealing a 9mm pistol, and yet somehow didn’t manage to cause mass hysteria. Lewis Black may be a talented comedian, but he needs to understand that firearms can be used for good or ill, it depends on the person that’s possessing it.
Nice Shootin’ Tex
Check out this article at MSNBC. In short, two officers show up at the scene of an accident. Find two gunshot victims yards apart on the side of the highway. Police try to help gun shot victims, and are fired on themselves. Officer gets wounded. Passers by show up, and are also are fired on. One passer by retrieves a pistol from his car, shoots gunman dead.
You gotta love Texas. Hat tip to Syd of Front Sight, Press
UPDATE: The article updated to say the suspect shot himself.