The first veto from Virginia’s Governor McAuliffe was on a gun bill that sought to clarify wording on transport by gun owners without concealed carry permits. Even the media notes that this veto is meant to signal to gun control advocates that he’s taking a hardcore anti-gun line rather than addressing some legitimate concern on gun possession.
Category: Politics
Assembly Vote on Magazine Ban Today
From ANJRPC:
[Today] (March 20) beginning at 1:00 p.m., the New Jersey Assembly is scheduled to vote on A2006 (gun ban / mag ban) and A2777 (reasonable deviations in firearms transportation). There will be no testimony taken, so it is not necessary to attend in person. You can watch online (scroll to middle of page and click “view or listen to live proceedings”).
They are asking people call their Assembly critters and demand they vote NO on A2006, and that they FIX A2777 to restore judicial discretion in regards to allowed deviations when transporting firearms.
I think this will probably pass. The reason is because I think its purpose is to try to stick it to Christie and put him in a difficult position. We’ll find out how seriously he wants to run in 2016. If he signs a bill that bans the Marlin Model 60 yet again, his national ambitions are over.
Celebration & Nervousness
Reader Adam Z. sent along the news that one of Pennsylvania’s open Congressional races where the current A rated congressman is retiring got a little more interesting with the announcement that the perceived more moderate candidate with no record has dropped out of the race. He didn’t want to fight it out in a Democratic primary against his farther left opponent who is running for the same seat for a third time after already losing twice.
This is one of those cases where it’s great news that the race seems more promising for the candidate who will likely (though far from assured) have the better Second Amendment positions in a tight district. On the other hand, the fact that a more radical candidate is now the only opposition makes it a bigger nail-biter.
Needless to say, it will be interesting to see polling when this race gets closer to election day.
Administrative Procedures are Important
ATF has a habit of ruling by letter, instead of the method Congress prescribes through the Administrative Procedures Act. Dave Hardy notes that in the case of 80% lowers, which are all over the gun news because of the raid on Ares Armor. It would be possible to do rule making on what a receiver is and is not, and have it be clear in the Code of Federal Regulations.
I don’t know how much you all know about these EP Armor polymer lowers, but it looks to me like they mill out the space for the trigger group, and then backfill it with a different color polymer so the customer knows exactly how much to machine. ATF argues that the milling process constitutes manufacturing a firearm, with all that it entails, regardless of whether you backfill it later. They have an argument to be made there.
But it’s quite disturbing that ATF was fishing for Ares customer list. What crime have the customers committed? Violating a determination letter? I know the courts have a habit of deferring to agency determinations, but how long is ATF going to be permitted to get away with ruling by letterhead instead of federal regulations like agencies are bound to?
I’d say good advice is, if you buy an 80% lower, cash and carry is the watch order of the day.
An Example of “Compromise”
In New Jersey, anti-gun lawmakers are dismissing all gun owner concerns about reducing magazine capacity limits, but they want the media to highlight just how generous they are willing to be this legislative season. They are offering up a bill that will allow gun owners who are running out of gas in their car on their way home from the range to stop and get some. Isn’t that nice?
Pennsylvania Gun Rights in 2014
It has started. Petitions have been filed and the campaigns are officially launched with a place on the ballot for the primary, and possibly, general elections.
With that deadline passing, a new post just went up at PAGunRights.com looking at all 18 Congressional races in Pennsylvania for this year.
There’s the candidate who wants to force all gun owners to carry liability insurance that doesn’t exist (that’s in our district – yay), and there’s a candidate who tells the media that gun control laws will be one of her top priorities if she’s elected. Then you have a Bloomberg-ally gun control-supporting former mayor running for Congress who holds the distinction of leading her city to the first ever municipal SEC securities fraud charges for misleading investors on the state of public finances.
Future posts, which I’m sure I’ll link here, will focus on the statewide races and state legislative races which feature quite a few retirements of pro-gun votes.
Quote of the Day: Rand Paul
Yeah, I pretty much feel the same way:
I want to like Rand Paul but he just makes me nervous. It’s hard to shake the feeling that if you just scratch the surface enough his dad’s craziness will be there.
Absent Paul, Bitter and I kind of like Scott Walker, but I have no idea whether he’d be a strong candidate for President. But I’m willing give either Paul or Walker real consideration. Most of the candidates I like never make it all the way to Pennsylvania anyway.
ANJRPC Alert on Magazine Ban
From ANJRPC:
GUN BAN / MAG BAN
& TRANSPORTATION BILL
AT ASSEMBLY HEARING THURSDAY
Hearing Time Changed to 1:00 p.m.Â
Gun Owners and Sportsmen Need to Pour it On
Between Now and Thursday!
The rescheduled hearing of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee that was cancelled due to winter storm Titan will take place on Thursday, March 13.  The hearing time has been changed to 1:00 p.m. Please plan to attend and testify in person if you are able.
The hearing is scheduled to take place in the State House Annex, 125 West State Street, Trenton, New Jersey 08608, in
committee room 12 on the 4th floor. The committee room is subject to change without notice (please inquire when you arrive).
Between now and Thursday, it is extremely important that gun owners sustain their efforts to urge members of the committee to oppose A2006 (gun ban / magazine ban), and to amend A2777 (transportation of firearms) to make a one-word amendment to restore judicial discretion on reasonable deviations in transport.  Contact information for committee members is at the bottom of this alert.
Committee members have already been overwhelmed with calls and correspondence from gun owners over the past two weeks, and that needs to continue throughout this and every upcoming phase in the life of this legislation. Legislators who won’t see the light need to feel the heat. (Note: one legislator, Assemblyman David Rible (R-30), has responded to each of the thousands of gun owners who have contacted him, indicating his opposition to the A2006 gun ban/mag ban. We will have a further update on those who support the Second Amendment after the hearing).
A2006 IS AÂ GUN BAN
NJ Dems Saving the World From the Scourge of .22 Rifles
Emily Miller notes they are at it again:
Thus, the experts found that at least 43 common rifles would suddenly be considered a prohibited “assault firearm,†such as the .22 caliber Marlin Model 60, Remington Nylon 66 and Winchester 190.
When New Jersey instituted its original Assault Weapons Ban back in the 90s during the Florio Administration, the Model 60 had a 17 round tube magazine standard. There were tons of these weapons in the hands of New Jersey gun owners, with their owners completely unaware they had an assault rifle that had to be registered. You still hear stories every once in a while of some poor fool getting pinched for having an unregistered early Model 60.
Marlin modified the rifle to only hold 15 rounds, but now it appears all those people who have compliant guns would be forced to register them as assault weapons, which most won’t because they would never imagine they own an “assault firearm” as they are classified in New Jersey Law. This will instantly create more felons, which is probably the idea.
If we can’t get a veto out of Christie for this, he might as well just decide not to run for President right now.
Hope is Not Lost
I’m surprised by how many people think a sellout by Chris Christie is preordained. Remember that he vetoed the worst of the post-Newtown package, including the 50 caliber ban. He did sign a bill regarding the terrorist watch list that turns out can’t be implemented, however. While I don’t exactly trust Christie on the gun issue, it does seem to me that there’s at least reasonable hope that with sufficient pressure from the gun community, you might be able to muster another veto out of him. If Jerry Brown can veto a few gun control bills, so can Chris Christie.