Another reason to love Arizona: Arizona law bars destroying guns from buybacks.
Published April 30th, 2013 by Steve
It is being reported that the Government Accountability Office is now investigating the 1.6 billion round ammunition buys being made by the Department of Homeland Security. DHS claims that these purchases are just to provide ammo for normal training and that they’re spaced over several years. However, there is an undeniable effect that such large purchases will have on the market. US ammo manufacturers are already running at capacity, but this has done little to re-stock retailers’ shelves; as anyone whose eyes have about popped out of their skull at the sight of $100 bricks of .22LR can attest to!
Published April 29th, 2013 by Steve
And by “far left”, I don’t mean “Anti-gun far left”. Just as there is no shortage of anti-gun conservatives in the world, there are pro-gun leftists out there as well.
In the days since Obama’s gun control bill augered into the ground like a stone-cold, dead mallard, there have been dozens of op-ed and analysis pieces by fretful liberals trying to understand what went wrong. Most focus on the Administration’s tactical errors. This analysis by blogger Kontra looks at the strategic blunders that anti-gun Democrats made and are still making. This piece doesn’t make suggestion about what to try next. Anti-gun Democrats hoping for a new game plan will be disappointed by it. Instead, it should cause anti-gun Democrats to ask themselves if they, as Tony Canales likes to put it, “have the mandate of Heaven” when it comes to gun policy. It’s a long read, but well worth the time.
Published April 28th, 2013 by Steve
Remember, there are multiple anti-gun bills either being voted on or being heard by committees in Sacramento this week. (Here and here) We need you to contact legislators in Sacramento, especially tomorrow, and tell them to OPPOSE these bad bills.
You can finds loads of useful information and contact tools here.
Published April 28th, 2013 by Steve
Crazy Ol’ Joe was in Sedona Kissing up to Crazy Ol’ John McCain the other night. The subject of gun control came up and Crazy Ol’ Joe had this to say…
On gun control, Biden said it’s never been a simple issue, but that Congress has miscalculated how deeply the public feels about it and has failed to stand up to groups like the National Rifle Association, particularly after the shootings in Newtown. He said the public is looking to Congress to be mature enough to figure out a way to diminish the chance it will happen again.
“For the first time ever, you have people who are for gun safety, for increasing background checks,” Biden said. “Two out of three of them say it will be a major determining factor in how I vote. That’s the political dynamic that has changed. So I think we’re going to get this anyway. I think this will pass before the year is out, within this Congress.”
The miscalculation that was made was made by people like Joe Biden. There is deep public feeling on the issue, but not the way he imagines.
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’re an anomaly. You and I aren’t like our neighbors. They simply don’t care all that much about gun control. They haven’t studied the issue like we have. They lack the passion we have. So while a majority might favor gun control in a telephone poll, they aren’t going to get worked up if a particular bill doesn’t pass. Support for gun control is thus a mile wide, but only an inch deep. The pro-gun rights side, on the other hand, is extremely passionate about the issue.We do get worked up when a gun control law is proposed. We fight it tooth and nail. We remember a legislator’s votes in Congress. (I’m lookin’ at you, Arlen Toomey!) Pro-gun voters are far more likely to be single issue voters. They are far more likely to call or write their legislators. The other side is more interested in street theater than doing anything that would actually hurt a Congressman’s re-election chances. The Democrats who declined to support Obama and Biden knew exactly how to make a correct political calculation.
Published April 27th, 2013 by Steve
You can’t get toothpaste back into the tube.
You can’t get the genie back into the bottle.
You can’t uninvent things. (Well… Perhaps if you had access to a madman in a blue box… But even then it would be dicey.)
As we’ve mentioned before, the technology to use modern 3D printing technology is advancing the science of firearms production. Defense Distributed has already demonstrated printed magazines and AR-15 lower receivers. Now Defense Distributed is in the verge of taking the next logical step in this technological evolution: The fully printed gun.
The approach to gun control that has been taken since its earliest days relies on the targeted class being unable to independently access the technology necessary to produce a firearm. Poor Blacks, Indians, Catholics, Jews… Gun control has historically sought to keep guns out of the “wrong hands” for centuries. It’s worked largely because these groups really didn’t have access to the technical infrastructure needed to make a gun. 3D printing changes that. For considerably less money than a CNC mill would cost, the average Joe can make his own versions of banned guns and components. This is something that the legal system hasn’t a prayer of stopping.
Published April 27th, 2013 by Steve
It’s time to re-visit the “smart” gun thing again; a dumb idea that just won’t go away.
A “smart” gun is one that supposedly limits access so that someone who isn’t an authorized user can’t use it. The gun automagically determines whether or not the person holding it is allowed to use it. Sounds great, right? And I suppose that it is, except for the part where it won’t work. The latest call for this bad idea in California is SB293.
This law, and the proposals before it, are essentially requirements to add a gizmo to a gun to make it safe. Again, that sounds great; except that like all other mechanical devices, the gizmo can fail. No matter what its guts are made of, or what its operating principle is, the “smart” gun can fail and this is dangerous. There are two different types of failure: The gun discharges when it shouldn’t, or the gun fails to discharge when it should.
The consequences of the first failure mode should be obvious. A gun owner comes to rely in the gun’s brains more than his own and leaves the gun unsecured. A child, for example, picks up the gun also thinking that it’s safe. The child pulls the trigger. The smart gun either fails to recognize an unauthorized user, or the safety fails to engage, and the gun discharges. If the gun owner is blessed by God at that moment, the only damage is to the drywall. However, should He decide that the gun owner is failing to heed the lesson of Deuteronomy 6:16…
The consequences of the second failure mode may be less obvious. The gun owner needs the gun for self defense right now and the “smart” part of the gun has just turned the thing into a paperweight. Or, the owner of the gun has been disabled and a family member needs to pick up the gun and use it for self defense. The gun’s owner would probably want the gun to work at the moment, but it won’t. The problem, you see, is that the gun isn’t really smart. It cannot comprehend such a situation and cannot rewrite its own rules of operation at that critical moment.
There have been many “safety innovations” in the past that have cost lives. Users often do not possess the technical education necessary to understand the device or how it works. When airbags were introduced in motor vehicles, there was an increase in injuries to drivers and their passengers. The problem was that many of these users didn’t understand that the airbag was intended to work with the seat belts. They were injured because they believed that the airbags replaced the seat belts. Likewise some gun owners, especially new ones, might come to think that a “safe” gun doesn’t require safe storage. Or these “newbies” might think that the normal rules of safe gun handling don’t apply to their shiny, new “smart” gun. And the result will be deaths and injuries that shouldn’t have happened; far more than the “smart” gun could possibly prevent.
Published April 27th, 2013 by Steve
From NRA-ILA:
California: More Anti-Gun Bills to be Heard in Sacramento This Week |
| Posted on April 27, 2013
Contact your state Legislator! The state Senate Appropriations Committee is not the only committee hearing anti-gun bills this week. On the House Floor on Monday: Assembly Bill 169 (Dickinson) is expected to be voted on in the state Assembly on Monday. AB 169 BANS the sale of handguns not on the state-approved roster. The proponents of AB 169 are pushing this bill as an answer to California’s crime problem. This legislation, however, would have no impact on violent criminals or gun violence. Instead, AB 169 would prohibit the transfer of millions of lawfully-owned handguns and jeopardize the continued ownership of these constitutionally-protected firearms. Please call AND e-mail your state Assemblyman today urging him or her to OPPOSE AB 169. Contact information and help identifying your state Assembly Member can be found here. In the state Assembly Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, May 1: Assembly Bill 231 (Ting) expands the law for Criminal Storage of Firearms and child access. Another bill that will do nothing to reduce California’s violent crime problem and only turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals whether or not anything harmful actually happens, and regardless of whether there was any misconduct on the part of the gun owner. Ultimately, AB 231 is an ill-conceived proposal that places drastic and unprecedented liability on those who choose to exercise their fundamental rights to keep and bear arms. We MUST continue to fight. Don’t forget to forward this alert to your family, friends and fellow gun owners across California and urge them to do the same. We need all of California gun owners and Second Amendment supporters to continually call AND e-mail state legislators opposing all anti-gun legislation. The California Legislature needs to know that these egregious attacks against law-abiding citizens must stop. You can write your representative here urging them to OPPOSE the anti-gun bills listed above. Please feel free to also copy and paste all the bill information to ensure your state legislators know which bills to OPPOSE. You can also send a letter to all elected officials in California here. Please feel free to copy and paste all the bill information above to ensure the elected officials of California know which bills to OPPOSE. You can also find information about anti-gun and pro-gun legislation in California at www.calnra.com. Help NRA Get Californians Connected With NRA’s California Resources Help the NRA expand its California network to keep all pro-Second Amendment Californians better informed about legislation in Congress, Sacramento, and locally that threatens your right to keep and bear arms, as well as developments in Second Amendment litigation and regulatory enforcement actions. Please forward this email to your family, friends and fellow gun owners, whether they belong to the NRA or not! Encourage them to sign up for California NRA’s Stayed Informed e-mails here. And follow NRA through these additional connections: Websites: NRA-ILA, NRA-ILA California, NRA – ILA Legal Update, CalNRA.com, CRPA.org, CalGunLaws.com,HuntforTruth.org Facebook Pages: NRA’s Facebook page, CalGunLaws.com Facebook page, NRA Members’ Councils’ Facebook page, Hunt for Truth Facebook page LinkedIn: NRA’s LinkedIn page, YouTube: NRA YouTube, Twitter: NRA Twitter, NRA-ILA Twitter,CalNRATwitter, CalGunLaws Twitter The NRA recognizes that California is one of the most active Second Amendment “battleground states,” so for decades NRA has devoted substantial resources to fighting for the right to keep and bear arms for Californians. The NRA has full-time legislative advocates in its Sacramento office fighting ill-conceived gun ban proposals. NRA coordinates a statewide campaign to fight ill-conceived local gun bans and regulations. And NRA has been litigating cases in California courts to promote the right to self-defense and the Second Amendment for many years. NRA’s California legal team continues to work pro-actively to strike down ill-conceived gun control laws and ordinances, and to protect the Second Amendment rights of California firearms owners. For information about NRA’s litigation efforts, see www.nraila.org/legal/litigation.aspx To donate to help support the NRA’s California efforts, please click here. |
Published April 27th, 2013 by Steve
Sometimes you just want to tap on the Internet’s microphone.
If only it had one.
Published April 27th, 2013 by Steve
Your SF Valley MC is now on Facebook with the oh-so user friendly address http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-San-Fernando-Valley-NRA-Members-Council/129926670532870. I’m sure that there’s a way to make the URL less… well… less. I’m guessing that someone at FB really like random number generators.
Now I just gotta get the settings right so that this isn’t a waste of disk space!