Category: Weekly Gun News

Sorry for the dead air yesterday. I’m in the process of bringing in a new project for our company, and trying to get a new consultant configured and set up. Yesterday I realized the spare laptop I gave the new guy really should have been nuked from orbit. I ordered a new machine, but in the mean time, I don’t want to delay him from billing. Unfortunately, paying the mortgage comes first, but this edition of the Weekly News goes to eleven!

NRA comments on the proposed ITAR regulation. The State Department got 12,000 comments. That’s a pretty good showing. I’m sheepish to admit that I was too busy, and the deadline passed before I realized it. So I unfortunately did not submit a comment.

This July was the best month on record for NICS. It’s looking more like this represents a fundamental cultural shift than a trend driven by fear of gun control. We’ll have to see what happens when Obama is no longer in the White House.

Seattle has adopted their “Gun Violence Tax.” It almost certainly violates Washington State’s preemption law.

Charles C.W. Cooke: “Amy Schumer is Wrong on Gun Control.” So is her cuz, but that hasn’t stopped him.

The Polite Society podcast is looking to live stream the 2015 Gun Rights Policy Conference, and are looking for people to help out their GoFundMe campaign. If I had any money to give them, I’d kick some funds over.

Cody Wilson has been denied an injunction against the State Department. This is bad news. The denial is being appealed to the 5th Circuit.

Idaho veteran assigns a fiduciary and has his guns banned. S.2002 would help him.

Apparently an FNX can go all wobbly in the heat. Something tells me they should have gone with a more heat-resistant thermoplastic.

Yes, next question: Are stun guns protected by the Second Amendment?

A retired U.S. Magistrate Judge says of voter ID laws: “At no time in our history would Americans have countenanced similar restrictions on the rights protected in the First or Second Amendments.” Cleary Judge McPherson has never tried to buy a firearm in this country.

Background check law in Oregon is off to a rough start. The law is useless and unenforceable, but that’s not going to stop Bloomberg from pushing it elsewhere.

John Lott, get your Panama hat ready! Panama is loosening its gun laws in response to rising crime. This will be a good opportunity for interrupted time-series analysis.

Tam has been putting a Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 380 through its paces with a 2000 round test. The BG380 has been on my short list for a while.

John Richardson: “Why State Preemption Matters.”

Finland is going to keep using the 7.62x39mm Rk. 62. They were originally looking to replace it with a 5.56x45mm rifle. I’m wondering if they are announcing this now to quell Russian fears they plan to join NATO. Or they figure they’re better off scrounging ammunition from dead Russians.

John Stossel vents about New York City’s gun laws, and the special exemption they gave to an anti-gun group.

The League of Leftist Women Voters is going to spearhead opposition to campus carry.

Governor Wolf has appointed failed State Police Commissioner Marcus Brown to head up Homeland Security. It pays more than the State Police commissioner, and does not require Senate confirmation. Politically, Wolf owed Brown, but this is pretty clearly a middle finger to the Senate on Wolf’s part.

There are unfortunately plenty of Americans who will happily hand over their privacy and freedom for the illusion of safety.

Glenn Reynolds on jury nullification. I heard someone argue the problem with this idea is that juries aren’t accountable. Well, that’s the idea. The people are sovereign, and don’t have to be accountable.

On the passing of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this essay from the 1980s is a useful reminder of why we used the bomb.

Glenn Reynolds again: “Trump indicts America’s ruling class.”

Sen. Claire McCaskill in Politico: “How I Helped Todd Akin Win — So I Could Beat Him Later” I think as Republicans read this, they should think “Bernie Sanders.” The tables can be turned.

Today looks to be a slow news day for guns, so hopefully this tab clearing won’t leave me high and dry for the rest of the week.

NRA and Planned Parenthood are both more popular than any of the Presidential candidates.

Vapid celebrities teaming up with slimy politicians to push gun control? OMG! We’ve never seen anything like this before. Surely they will have us on the ropes any day now.

More on the effort to legalize hunting with semi-automatic firearms in Pennsylvania.

More efforts by medical professionals to undermine Second Amendment rights. I’d note that the National Physicians Alliance is a left-wing group that supports gun control, and who receive funding from the Joyce Foundation and Tides Foundation.

Bear hunting targeted in Florida. If there’s one thing the Cecil the Lion fiasco should teach us it’s that hunting is in serious trouble.

Delta and American are giving in to the hysteria and banning safari hunting trophies.

Lawmakers are joining Bloomberg in an attempt to bully Cabela’s and Bass Pro to stop doing default proceeds.

If you negligently shoot your daughter when you’re teaching her gun safety, you’re doing it wrong.

This video of Ted Cruz is making the rounds. I’m not a fan. Not only wouldn’t I want to eat anything that’s touched my rifle barrel, but I don’t like perpetuating public confusion over the difference between a semi-auto and a machine gun.

Gizmodo: Lion hunter has done more for conservation than most of the people bitching.

TownHall looks at the story about what happens when you put untrained people in a police simulator. I’m wondering if they even explained to them how the thing works. Otherwise, it’s like watching a movie, which people are used to doing passively. Very different than fighting for your actual life.

Hunting making a comeback in the UK? In other news, it looks like the Tories have bigger nuts than the GOP.

John Lott repsonds to a hit piece from Mother Jones.

Even some of CSGV’s mouth foaming supporters can’t stomach their cartoonish views.

British Police discover deadly bike wheel on weapons sweep. A quick search online shows this isn’t so crazy after all!

I don’t know about you, but days where the mercury tops 90 degrees, well, screw those days. This Friday, we have the annual company outing to Hershey Park, where highs are predicted to be in the mid-90s, with a heaping dose of humidity. I have no plans to visit the water park, but you won’t be able to tell, because I’ll either be covered in sweat, passed out, or both. I’m thinking I’ll be playing a lot of Skee Ball in the air conditioned arcade, and watching the sea lion shows. But enough about the weather, here’s some gun news:

Miguel on CSGV’s protest at the White House: “I have seen bigger crowds at hot dog stands.”

Does MAIG even still exist? I thought Bloomberg deep-sixed MAIG because too many of its members were getting indicted?

Bernie Sanders is under pressure to cave completely on guns. If you look at polling, this would be a bad idea. Even though a majority of Democrats like them some gun control, it’s not an important issue, while about 20% of Democrats own guns, according to polling. The real number is probably a lot higher.

Los Angeles has banned “large capacity” magazines outright. Unfortunately the 9th Circuit already endorsed this.

I have to agree with Tim at Gun Nuts Media that “senseless violence” is a misused term.

WaPo: “Guntry Clubs Target a new Breed of Shooter.” I think we could use a “Guntry Club” here in Southeastern, PA. There are a lot of affluent shooters in the area. We also have a lot of clubs, so perhaps there isn’t the market I would think, but a lot of clubs have hopelessly broken cultures.

Shannon Watts doesn’t think it’s ever too soon to politicize a shooting. They have to reach people when emotions are still raw. Once they start thinking, support for their position drops.

Anti-gun politician shoots home invader. Laws are for the little people.

Eugene Volokh has another take on the ‘Docs v. Glocks’ law. I’m perfectly willing to cut a deal with doctors groups: I’ll respect their 1st Amendment rights if they agree to respect my 2nd.

Business Insider article paraphrased: “Cheer up, gun control people, it’s not as bad as it looks.” No, it’s as bad as it looks.

I see the old home town liberal rag hasn’t changed a bit.

Kurt Schlichter: “American gun owners are beginning to respond with a fresh, powerful argument when facing anti-gun liberals. Here it is, in its entirety. Ready? ‘Screw you.’ That’s it. Except the first word isn’t ‘Screw.’” We’ve won because we’re persistent. The rest of the center-right coalition could learn a lesson from that.

Second Amendment advocates “cowardly” and “soulless” according to anti-gun group. Even the media can’t understand that a person can both have sympathy for victims of a mass shooter, while also believing in a strong and robust Second Amendment.

An appeal has been filed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to try to save Act 192, the enhanced preemption law.

Austin Bay: “To Counter Domestic Terror Attacks, Selectively Arm Military Personnel”

NPR: “Flouting The Law, Some New Yorkers Won’t Register Guns.” Some? From the statistics I’ve seen, it seems it would be more accurate to say nearly everyone won’t.

Obama isn’t done with guns yet. I guess we could use another hundred thousand NRA members, and putting a few hundred thousand more ARs in civilian hands. Some extra motivation in 2016 couldn’t hurt either.

In other news, it’s Thursday.

Joe Manchin doesn’t think his bill has a prayer.

Here we go again with the tired and thoroughly debunked “Why don’t we treat guns like cars” argument again. One reason blogging gets tiring is the antis haven’t come up with any new arguments in like two decades.

TrackingPoint looks like it may be hackable.

SayUncle notes that the most segregated place he ever lived was South Jersey. That’s definitely true in the northeast. I’ve never heard of a Catholic neighborhood though, but if a neighborhood was an Italian or Polish neighborhood, it was pretty much Catholic by default.

Summers are usually kind of brutal for blogging, since the news cycle gets slow and people are focused on other things. But I probably have enough for a news link post.

NRA was making waves pretty quickly demanding an end to a ban on carrying defensive firearms for our military men and women. Everytown’s position on this issue is turning off even some pro-gun-control people I know.

Shannon Watts has never let a lack of facts get in the way of her propagandizing before, so I don’t know why she’d start now.

This is the particular lack of facts she was speaking over.

Baltimore anti-violence group caught with illegally acquired guns and drugs.

Dave Hardy has more on the “police loophole.”

Self-defense myths that just won’t die.

How’s that SAFE act working out for ya? Shootings are way up in Syracuse.

The DOJ is denying gun dealers were targeted by Operation Choke Point. I thought it was the FDIC that was the agency weaponized against gun dealers?

The struggle continues in Colorado. The recalls were wonderful at cooling the hells of gun control supporting politicians, but not getting Hickenlooper was a big problem.

Can I get an Amen?: “I’d mind my own fucking business. This world needs more of that.”

I’ve been seeing the “40% of all guns sales…” lie going around in the media once again. We know from states who’ve listened to this BS that either there are very few private transfers occurring, or no one is complying with the law. Either way, the law is useless.

Chicago Tribune: Hillary should stay on the gun control bandwagon because the gun vote is already baked into the numbers.

Judge agrees California ban on gun store advertising violates the First Amendment, but won’t give an injunction.

The total failure of gun control captured in one photo.

I’m sorry to tell you that it’s been a pretty slow week for gun news. I didn’t post anything on Monday, not because I was pressed for time, but because I just didn’t find anything interesting to write about. It’s that slow. But I’ll give a gun news post a try and see how it goes. Hopefully this won’t leave me dry tomorrow:

Clayton Cramer: “Close the Police Car Loophole!” It’s more common than people think. The San Francisco shooting was just a particularly high-profile case.

Miguel: CSGV hits every branch of the bigot tree on their way down. It’s not Markley’s Law Monday, but plenty of dick jokes in there. Though, it does seem that becoming a hate group has been more successful for CSGV than being a gun control group. I just wonder what their religious peace-loving coalition partners would think if they knew?

Joe Huffman thinks I was a little off using Gladys Kravitz as a patron saint for the gun control movement, because Gladys was honest, and everyone around her thought she was a nutcase. Not so with the gun control movement. A valid point!

Winning the Culture War: The return of High School shooting sports.

Dave Hardy is celebrating diversity. 14% of Illinois carry permits are issued to women, and in many minority neighborhoods. Imagine what it would look like if costs weren’t driven up beyond what many poor folks can afford? This was a big enough issue, Bloomberg’s mouthpieces felt the need to pooh pooh the article.

Looks like Cuomo has been experiencing difficulty implemented his beloved SAFE Act. Plus, this.

I love people who claim to be NRA members, but have no idea what the organization does. Hint: it already has a substantial training program, and it even puts out “video discs,” or whatever it is the kids are using these days.

The UK Daily Mail: African-Americans still favor gun control, but views are shifting. The other side is terrified of this.

Charles C.W. Cooke: “‘Better Ideas’ Are Nothing without Guns to Back Them Up, Mr. President.”

New Jersey’s draconian gun laws strike again.

Gun control advocates are extremely butthurt over the fact that we’re successfully using the budget process to thwart executive gun control. I sincerely hope NRA’s lobbyists can keep disappointing them. They have gotten pretty good at playing this game.

The Washington Post throws down on Hillary and her gun position. It’ll be very important for us that Sanders gives Hillary a run for her money. Sanders is far from perfect on the gun issue, but the bet among progressives is that the gun issue will hurt him.

Glenn Reynolds: The Donald and Bernie Show. Both candidates are entirely a result of the establishments of both parties not listening to their voters.

You know the old retort that the attacker will just take the gun away from you? Well, it finally happened.

The Rifle that almost became the M1 Garand.

Apparently you collect firearms and drive to Canada at your own risk. Note how ATF spend resources going after a collector. Probably because real criminals might shoot back.

Funny: Fast and Furious ain’t just a movie anymore.

Kids today! In truth people have always been ignorant, but I think the difference is this generation seems to combine profound brilliance without profound ignorance in a way my generation didn’t.

Apparently another SYG fight is coming in Florida.

Pretty clearly I need to do a better job of keeping this feature a weekly one, or I’m going to have to change it to biweekly gun news. So what gun news is there? Let’s clean out the tabs!

A reasonably balanced article in Jezebel about moms and guns.

NRA directly addresses the impact of Obergefell on concealed carry reciprocity. I really hope no one ends up going to jail because they believed this.

CNN’s Lynne Russell: “If you don’t want to carry please don’t. Then, shut the f–k up about it. Make your own decisions.” Good for her. Minding other people’s business has become an epidemic in this country.

Are school shootings contagious? We in the gun blogosphere have been saying for a while that the media attention the killers get are the prime mover for mass slayings. Not that they should, but no one will speak of restricting the media from glorifying the killer, because of the First Amendment. A shame the Second doesn’t draw as much respect.

Jacob Sullum: “‘If Congress had passed some common-sense gun safety reforms after Newtown,’ President Obama said on Friday, ‘we don’t know if it would have prevented what happened in Charleston.’ Actually, we do know:”

NRA a hate group? Yes, says gun control group.

A review of the Walther CCP.

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy is trying to shut down the nation’s largest FFL, arguing that Walmart can’t possibly sell guns responsibility. Remember folks, they aren’t after your guns, only trying to ensure you don’t have anywhere to buy one. Common sense gun laws!

Of course, the gun ban lobby, much like our President, is lately enamored with Australia’s gun laws, which conducted a forced confiscation.

Positive coverage of the gun issue in…. the Boston Globe?

Chris Christie is trying very hard to ease his problems with gun owners, but he’s got a few other bills he’ll be expected to veto coming up. I just don’t see how he’s going to get through the primaries as a blue state Republican governor. But then again, I never would have expected Donald Trump to jump into the number two slot, ever.

Leland Yee takes a plea deal on racketeering charges.

Top three contenders for the XM17 modular handgun program.

Remember, gun control groups claim that guns are less regulated than teddy bears.

There is an effort in New Jersey to recall Stephen Sweeney. As a wise man once said: punch back twice as hard.

Hey, Uber, how’s that anti-gun policy working out for ya?

Off Topic:

Greeks vote for free money to fall from the skies. Eventually socialism runs out of other people’s money. The Germans have snatched back their credit card and probably aren’t giving it back. This will not end well. Take a hard look though, because this will be us eventually, if things don’t change. It’s already partly here.

On that George Takai thing calling Justice Thomas a “clown in blackface,” I couldn’t agree more with Ace. I was surprised he apologized. Who was going to force that? Certainly not the media, and certainly not the Social Justice Warriors.

I know we missed the gun news last week, but this week we have some tabs to clear! I’ve also been busy with extreme home brewing. I’ve been wanting to make more lagers. The problem is, I still won’t them very often, and I don’t want to have to buy a whole refrigerator just to lager the occasional lager, nor do I want to use my kegerator and then not have beer on tap for eight weeks while it ages. So what about using one of those big gatorade coolers (which I already have in my equipment inventory) to jacket water around a carboy fermenter? Then cooling the water with a Peltier cooler? Turns out it works, but thermoelectric coolers are a pain in the ass because they a) take up a lot of DC current and b) don’t like being controlled by ordinary thermostats. They need PID control with the output filtered to smooth out the pulse-width modulation. They also don’t like being wired in parallel, which is a problem when you’re dealing with a 15VDC 6A device. So I’m trying to decide between driving the 3 TECs with 3 of these, or one of these, with the TECs wired in series. Or maybe just build my own current source, which is the ideal way to drive TECs. Anyways, enough of that. Here’s the news:

Obama backs Australian gun laws. Remember that Australia engaged in mass confiscation of all semi-automatic rifles and pump-action firearms. At one time, this was considered a losing issue for Democrats. He also condemned the big gun rushes that follow his pronouncements. I would encourage readers to go to your local gun store and disappoint the President.

Add Uber to your list of anti-gun companies. They banned guns for drivers and passengers. I’m sure the criminals will be the first to comply!

John Lott points out what the VPC doesn’t want you to know about justifiable homicide statistics.

Joe Huffman refutes one of the big straw men built up by gun control advocates.

The judge who awarded attorneys fees to Lucky Gunner explains his ruling. LG will donate all the money to a gun rights charity. Please go and vote for a responsible gun rights group. I think it would be a real shame if GOA were to get that money. Might as well burn it.

A surprise to no one, it turns out that compliance with New York’s SAFE Act is practically non-existent. They can erect their utopian laws, but it doesn’t mean we have to go along with their scheme. Even when registration was tried in Canada, the compliance rate was low.

It’s be awfully nice if we could convince people that walking around a Wal-Mart racking a shotgun is, frankly, just being a jerk for the sake of getting people to pay attention to you. One of these days, one of these clowns is going to get his ass shot, and I’m not going to feel sorry for them.

More carrying guns at people.

The killer in Charleston looks to have purchased his firearm at retail and cleared a background check, despite the fact that he shouldn’t have. Our opponents are wringing their hands demanding to know how this happened. Well, you know, government is mostly incompetent even on a good day. Do you wonder why we don’t like relying on the government for our personal security? If they want to do that, fine. But don’t force that choice on me!

It’s open season now that the Supreme Court has basically given the lower courts free reign to ignore Heller. The bill in New York has passed the Assembly.

Puerto Rico has gone constitutional carry, and for purchase, federal law is now what’s controlling, since a court tossed their gun control laws. SAF took this case through Puerto Rico Commonwealth Courts. I don’t know how long this will last, but it’s an interesting development.

Are New York Republicans the biggest impediment to getting New York’s ridiculous knife laws repealed? I can totally believe this. Remember, without Republican cooperation, SAFE would never have passed.

Speaking of Delaware (linked in the previous article), it’s in trouble. The truce is off, and it’s a blue state. Once the blue establishment becomes convinced the gun vote can’t hurt them, you have nowhere to go but down. I hate to be a pessimist, but we are fast becoming two Americas, and the courts aren’t going to do anything to stop it. Worse? Their America is growing.

Meanwhile, in Oregon, activists are trying to show the gun vote can still hurt.

Remember, the media are the enemy. They are bitching about losing access to permit data. Given what happened in New York, they have no room to complain. The media has shown nothing but contempt for gun owners.

Martin O’Malley is still a git. I think Bernie Sanders is probably a bigger threat to Hillary.

Bill Clinton: “You can’t have people walking around with guns.” Does that include his armed security detail? No. Of course it doesn’t.

An old lady who worked Intelligence in WWII died, and they found she was still keeping a Sten submachine gun in her house.

Charles C.W. Cooke takes Obama to task for his gun control proposals, none of which have a thing to do with the Charleston shooting.

Colt: Free to a good home! Only comes with hundreds of millions of dollars of debt!

Ace on NRA’s “Extremely Strong Grip” on Congress: “Obama’s real enemy is now, as it as always been, a powerful special interest lobbying group called The Majority of American Citizens.”

In New Jersey, if your spouse is a prohibited person, you are too.

Off Topic:

Is the New Deal in trouble? We can dream, can’t we? The Supreme Court has done the right thing for raisin growers.

Ace describes Obama’s technique of trying to channel “stray voltage.”

I wanted to get this out yesterday, but time did not permit. Sorry for the dead air. It was more busy rather than lack of things to talk about. Let me gather up all the news:

Wisconsin is about to be rid of its waiting period to buy a handgun, among other improvements.

Eugene Volokh: “If you openly carry a gun, don’t do it while loudly singing Hakuna Matata.” Probably good advice. As open carry becomes more ordinary, expect people who do it for the wrong reasons to get more and more outrageous in search of attention.

Major management shakeup at Remington.

Ed Peruta is a colorful character, to put it mildly. Mother Jones somehow manages to do a fair article on the man.

Professor Glenn Reynolds notes “The TSA can’t spot ordinary guns. So what’s the response?” Ban the plastic ones, of course (even though undetectable plastic guns are already banned).

The Daily Beast questions the effectiveness of Wear Orange Day.

Newsweek thinks campus carry passing in Texas is a victory for gun control, since we didn’t get everything we wanted. Don’t you worry, Newsweek. We’ll be back for the rest later.

Charles C.W. Cooke writes about the proposed ITAR regulations.

Wired: “I made an untraceable AR-15 ‘Ghost Gun’ in My Office — And It Was Easy.” I hope he used a bullet button, otherwise that AR-15 is illegal in California.

Bloomberg View: “When Tech Kills Gun Control.”

Michael Pfleger: NRA “will pay pay for the murder of our children.” I thought for a minute he was saying NRA was doing a whole murder for hire thing in Chicago. Pfleger is a world class nut job. I could believe anything from him.

You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. If Ted Cruz had gone on a shoot with a prohibited person, the media would have torn him apart and his campaign would be over. Instead, they criticize the campaign for running background checks on prospective shooters.

You know the whole “mass shootings on the rise” meme started by an FBI report? Yeah, the characterization of the report was bullshit. The FBI researchers admit it. This was all ginned up by the Administration to support its gun control agenda.

Hey, I just want to be able to carry if I choose without having to carry a rule list of where I can and can’t go around with me. These are the people who are truly obsessed.

Oregon may be getting some reciprocity, since apparently a lot of Dems are worried about their votes on banning private firearms transfers.

Musical targets! I guess you’d need three or more shooters to do chords.

Colonial Williamsburg to open public musket range.

Off Topic:

Only sort of off topic, since I allow comments too: Reason gets hit with a federal subpoena to uncloak nasty commenters. Popehat takes the feds to task over it in a way that only Popehat can. Apparently this is legal, but it’s clearly abuse, and meant to intimidate.

The Fallen of World War II. I saw this floating around on social media on the D-Day anniversary. Really well done.

Note to Chris Christie: Debate is a healthy thing. I’ve had about enough of people shutting down debate.

Yesterday was mostly a bevy of clients demanding attention, then later in the day, the weather was just too nice not to do some work I’ve been putting off in the backyard. So I didn’t get much in the way of posting done until late yesterday evening. I thought today would be a good day to have the weekly gun news, and hope for more worthy news later in the day.

Hey gun control folks, how’s that campaign using the Waco biker gang shootout to derail open carry in Texas going? The good news is that’s pissing off the right people. The people who are trying to use this to stop open carry should have to explain how open carry would have made a difference, given none of the bikers were open carrying.

Speaking of pissing off the right people, that seems to have happened with our recent court victory in DC.

It’s difficult to stand up for due process when the media can savage you like this. This is not the only article I’ve seen along these lines.

Of course they are: Obama Administration against CMP 1911 sales.

Dave Hardy’s “Of Arms and the Law” is three years ahead of the mainstream media news cycle! Apparently some Dem insiders were worried back in 1994, when Clinton decided to do gun control, that it might lead to Majority Leader Bob Dole. So one of them wrote George Snuffaluffagus, or however you spell it. Well, short of it is, they didn’t listen, and Bob Dole did become majority leader.

Another long time traditional gun blog bites the dust. It’s a rough climate out there for non-professionals. Everyone with a dime to gamble on new media ventures wants in on the gun thing, and who can blame them? Guns are the only “right leaning” issue coming out of the Obama years better off than when it went in. Of course, that’s largely because it’s not really a strictly right leaning issue.

The Supreme Court of the United States is weighing another gun issue in regards to San Francisco’s safe storage laws. Safe storage, of course, meaning it has to be stored in a manner that renders it useless for self-defense.

The key word here is that the man had a license to carry firearms. Warning shots are never a good idea.

NRA is planning  major voter outreach effort in 2016. Polls show approximately 1/5th to 1/4 of Democratic voters are inclined toward gun rights. If NRA really wants to be able to continue to target wayward politicians, they need to target those voters.

Tam notes that the media discovered there was, brace yourselves here, a cache of gun parts in a gun factory. Scarebleu!

Hey, maybe gun control can do great things for America, like it has for Brazil.

Well, that was mighty nice of them, given that’s what the law says: ATF rules that FFLs can rent handguns and ammunition to 18-20 year olds.

Progress in Minnesota. Unfortunately, it looks like Dayton has found his excuse to veto the whole ball of wax, without having to make it look like it’s all about guns. Omnibus Bills can work both ways when dealing with an intransigent executive.

Ace of Ace of Spades on Dems and gun control: “A religious devotion? An offering to the God of Government? The Democrats’ proposed laws increasingly look like prayers in legislative language.”

Pressure mounting to pass National Reciprocity. It would be fun to try to get this done under Obama, by attaching it to some Bill That Can’t Be Vetoed. But he could always throw a hissy fit, like Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota. But if things go well for the GOP in 2016, it would be nice not to leave this as their, “Well, we did this for you, so shut up and keep voting,” issue.

Off Topic:

As someone who, as a kid, watched Letterman in his prime, I have to agree with Ace on this one: “Tonight, Dave Letterman retires. But he quit a long time ago.”

Richard Dreyfuss: “Election Coming: Nobody Knows Anything.” I’m not one to pay much attention to celebrities, but I don’t think this is a partisan issue. We don’t teach civics anymore. The generation coming up is woefully uneducated in civic life, civic matters, and history. I don’t think this is just me getting old.

This is a good piece on Elon Musk’s space dream. Oh, if only I had enough money in my 20s to be negotiating with cigar smoking drunk Russians to buy an ICBM. Even better if I could figure out I could build it cheaper myself!

How to take over a small country in 10 easy steps. This was a great laugh reading during a car ride over the weekend. Hat tip to Dave Hardy.

It’s a pretty slow news week on the gun issue, but I think I have enough for the weekly gun news.

Lower Merion Township was denied a stay in its lawsuit over it’s illegal ordinances.

In Oregon: punching back twice as hard.

A New York judge has ordered the state police to quit trying to cover up how dismal the compliance rates are for the SAFE act.

North Carolina is working on a bill to get doctors out of the business of badgering their patents about guns, unless, you know, you come in with a gun shot wound, or you say something that indicates you may be suicidal. I don’t like these bills, but the SJWs that run the medical societies have made it necessary.

North Carolina is also working to get rid of its racially motivated gun control law, and is ironically being fought by gun control advocates who want it to stay in place. Of course, they don’t have much game in North Carolina.

Oregon’s new background check bill won’t make anyone any safer, says the Albany Democrat Herald. Also, buying legislation isn’t cheap.

Campus Carry will be back on the agenda next year, says Marion Hammer, NRA’s Lobbyist in Florida.

The 2015 Boomershoot Fireball

Blood dancing isn’t just for gun control activists anymore. Never let a crisis go to waste.

The proper response to DEA agents coming onto to a train and asking where you’re going: “Apparently Russia, officer. Because I didn’t think in America is was any of the government’s damned business.”

Jews and Guns in Northern Virginia.

A mother is suing her son’s school because they wouldn’t let him wear an NRA t-shirt. Good.

Oklahoma’s governor vetoes more pro-gun bills.

Dems pushing to ban online ammo sales. I doubt this is going anywhere.

Don’t forget we have an election coming up in Pennsylvania, and it includes Supreme Court justices.

The Republicans talk a good small government game, but when the chips are down, pleasing social conservatives is more important.

I’ll be wearing black on June 2.

Peirs Morgan is still a jerk, but at least a jerk over there, where maybe we’ll get lucky and Jeremy Clarkson will punch him again.

The Gun Blogger Rendezvous X is being run by Lucky Gunner. I’d love to go again, because it was always a good time. But it’s difficult and expensive to get out to Reno from the east coast. LG is giving away a 150 dollar ammo voucher to attendees, which is tempting, but it’s a $500 plane ticket.

Chuck Schumer isn’t an idiot, but he does grandstand on behalf of idiots.

Why are gun control activists so violent?

Instapundit: Operation Choke Point Strikes Again.

Are New Jersey’s lawmakers wising up on smart guns? The Bergen Daily Record can’t resist flinging childish insults at Second Amendment advocates, but perhaps they are angry things aren’t working out the way they had hoped.

I’m not sure what NSA’s program has to do with gun rights, to warrant NRA’s involvement, but it did occur to me that if such a program could be weaponized by a hostile Administration. They could use it to target NRA’s grassroots network and lobbying efforts. This would make the opposition’s efforts MUCH more effective if they were coordinated with the White House. But weaponizing a program for political purposes? That’s crazy talk. This is the most transparent administration ever!