Category: The Media

I guess this isn’t really too surprising:

Another loophole being exploited is the provision of the law that says the assault weapons ban only applies to those semi-automatic rifles with magazines one can remove with a push of a button. Rifles requiring a “tool” to remove the magazine are exempt from the ban.

A device known as a “bullet button” allows use of the tip of a bullet or a similar small object to press a button that releases the magazine, making the weapon legal, and it’s only slightly more difficult to swap magazines.

The time difference between swapping a magazine with the bullet-button and the traditional finger-operated magazine release is “three-quarters of a second,” Paredes said.

I would challenge the anti-gunners to come up with a legal framework that would prevent this from happening.  I think they could, but it would look very much like a ban on all semi-automatic firearms.  Or they could try it like New Jersey, and ban all guns first, then work back from there.

Either way, the Second Amendment applies to California now.  So you can bet we’ll be in federal court with that kind of scheme faster than you can say “loophole.”

Apparently Dave Zweifel at the Madison Capital Times believes it is so:

But it has left a bad taste in the mouths of not only many members of Congress, but citizens who believe this isn’t the way democracy ought to work. If you want to allow guns in the parks, then vote on it. If you want credit card reform, vote on it. What kind of parliamentary system allows two completely unrelated matters to be joined?

Cry me a river.  Progressives have used this tactic since the early 20th century, and now when we turn the tables on you, you’re going to cry foul?  Please.   First off, we’re not a Democracy, we’re a Republic.   Secondly, there was a vote on it, and if you’ll pay careful attention, you’ll notice that both Feingold and Kohl voted yes.  Rather than whine about the big bad NRA, and being cynical, why don’t you take it up with them?

This is how the system is supposed to function.  Don’t get snippy about it when you lose.

The South Dakota Argus Leader seems to have its facts mixed up:

On the front of the National Rifle Association building in Washington, D.C., you will not find the entire Second Amendment. Instead, you will find only the phrase: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

I’ve been to NRA Headquarters, and I don’t recall seeing the inscription.  Also, NRA Headquarters is in Fairfax, Virginia.  They left the offices at 1600 Rhode Island Ave a long time ago.   The only thing I can recall seeing on the NRA building is “NRA Sports.”  Maybe I didn’t look hard enough.

Sixty percent of American citizens mistakenly believe they have a constitutional right “to keep and bear arms.” That is a myth perpetrated on the American people by the NRA.

No, now it’s a fact of law perpetuated by the Supreme Court.  You wrote this a year too late, my friend.  It’s amazing to me that they are still bitterly clinging to the old notion that it’s not an individual right.  That’s settled.  Time to move on.   Even the Bradys have put Heller behind them, and are busily fighting the next battle.

This writer grew up on a farm, enjoying hunting for ducks, geese and pheasants, and in adulthood, shot deer while a pastor in Spearfish. No one ever has threatened to take those guns from me. I was an expert marksman in the service during World War II.

However, I am filled with anger by the way the NRA uses false advertising to bully our people and our politicians into supporting the insane practice of keeping all manner of assault weapons available to everyone in our society.

I guess this more of the “I’m a gun owner, but…” meme.  I’m very sorry this man doesn’t value the freedoms he fought for, and no doubt some of his comrades died for, more than he does.  I appreciate his service in defense of freedom, it’s a pity we can’t agree on what that freedom is.   But what’s more disturbing is that the Argus Leader chose to publish an op-ed that grossly distorts basic facts, and is ignorant of the development in the last year of constitutional law.