The Tally?

Six amendments offered in Reid's bill, S 649 and thus far all have failed.  Some more spectacularly than others.

*Coughfeinsteinbancough*

The last one up is Laughtenburg's perennial magazine capacity ban.  Vote total is 54 against, 46 for.  He can't win for losing with his bill.  You'd think he'd learn, but you and I both know that's just not gonna happen, now is it?

Assault Weapons Ban, v2.0

Debate starting on AWB v.2.0 beginning.  The Sea Hag is speaking now, we've had enough blah blah blah...

Complaining about needing 60 votes to pass..Cry whimper piss and moan.

Chuck Grassley (R-IA) speaking against right now.  Passion, I like it!

And the voting begins at 5:23 PM EDT...

And ends at 5:40 PM EDT, it goes down in flames.  60 voting against, 40 voting for.  That's got to sting.

What They Really Think Of Us

By now, it's pretty common knowledge that Sen Ted Cruz of Texas got into a little spat with Diane Feinstein of California over the Constitutionality of her exhaustive list of guns us little people are allowed to own or not.

What I haven't seen covered, is the fact that the Sea Hag of San Fran, Ms Feinstein, evidently thinks so highly of us semi-auto weapon owners, she willing to equate us to the most distasteful, reviled group of people on the planet: pedophiles.

At the end of her exchange with Sen Cruz, after repeatedly being asked why her bill is Constitutional, she had this to say:

“Assault weapons” are kind of like child pornography. She argued that although we have a First Amendment right to free speech, that doesn’t mean child pornography is protected by the Constitution. Likewise, she continued, so-called “assault weapons” can be legally banned.

So there you have it.  Owners of semiautos are no different than child pornographers.

Something Don't Smell Kosher Here

Doing a little Google news wandering this morning and came across this.

A couple members of the local 5-0 are suing a gun store because someone bought a gun legally from them, that was then used to try to kill said officers.

Now, I'm not from WI, so I'm not all up on their gun laws like I am here in SD, but it would seem to me that this shouldn't get out of the starting blocks and here's why.

When the store made the sale, they did so pursuant to the applicable laws of the state of WI, and under GCA 68. Meaning, they did all the paperwork required under federal law (filling out the old Form 4473, which lying on could be a felony punishable by prison time) and from other sources waited the appropriate time also required under WI law.

Reading up on this, I found this little gem by Dennis Hennigan of the Brady Bunch. Now, I'm no scholar on things legal, but it would seem that if the gun in question was purchased from the store, and the buyer was a prohibited person, then either one of two things occurred. First, the buyer lied on the form, which in itself is illegal. The other is that the NICS check was delayed and after the mandatory 3 day wait, the sale was allowed to proceed per federal law.

(See also in the above linked piece the part about the 'assault weapon, high capacity mag, and *GASP* flash suppressor! A masterful piece of scare tactics I must say....NOT!)

Either way, I can't imagine a store with the issues that are purported to follow this one around, there would be a case where the store owner knowingly sold a gun to a prohibited person.

Like I said, something don't smell kosher on this, especially when the Brady Bunch is involved.

My BAG Day Gun

Not really a gun, but it's a Bulgarian AK 74 parts kit. So, while not a real BAG Day gun, it soon will be!

Fun With Idiots

Over at the Observer-Reporter of Washington, PA, their crack editorial staff is all worked up over the "availability" of 'assault weapons'. Putting aside the horrendous murder of the cops int he piece, tragedies all in their own right, I want to focus on the crux of the argument.

The piece bemoans the lapse of the Violent Crime Act of 1994 in 2004. What this piece doesn't tell you is that this law did nothing to stem the flow of alleged 'assault weapons'. They were, and are, still available for sale in most areas of the country. What changed in 2004 was that what was banned in '94 was now allowed; namely bayonet lugs, threaded muzzles, and folding/telescoping stocks.

When the Department of Justice and National Institutes of Justice studied the effects of the ban, they found that while these weapons uses in crime were a virtual statistical anomaly before the ban, the resultant decrease in crimes committed with them during the ban wasn't even calculable.

Another part of the ban that went away was the ban on standard capacity magazines, capping them at 10 rds for pistols and rifles, and 5 rounds for shotguns. Now, depending on where you're at, magazine capacities are limited to 5 rds in rifles, like here in South Dakota for instance. While across the state line in Wyoming, there is no such restriction. One can hunt with a 30 rd mag or a 75 rd drum if they're so inclined. (I must add that I have hunted in WY with a 30 rd mag, unfortunately, I wasn't able to bag anything, much to the delight of the anti-gun/hunting forces out there.) In those states that have magazine restrictions, they do make 5 rd hunting mags specifically for that purpose, so you can go out and hunt with your SKS, Saiga, AK, FAL, or heavy caliber AR without getting into trouble.

Sometimes, you can't make this stuff up.

Somebody Fogot to Tell Him His Side Lost

Seems the Bangor Daily News employs an intellectual power house by the name of Ken Horn. Mr. Horn's big complaint with the second amendment is that it doesn't apply to the little people, but only those who fall into that golden category of "Only One" (h/t to David Codrea for his ever expanding 'database').

His piece is a vertibable cornucopia of anti-gun memes. National Guard is the militia? Check. Less guns equals less crime? Check. Restricted access to certain scary looking rifles? Check. Law-biding gun owners responsible for arming criminals? Check.

I won't go through the piece, the fine Mainers who frequent the BDN already beat me to it. Pay particular attention to commenter 'PECRockland'. He does a pretty decent job of hamstringing the "intellectual" Ken Horn all by himself.

A New Yorkers View On Us Little People

There are soooooo many things wrong with this article I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start out at the beginning and go from there.
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Our New Yawker starts off with what seems like a tribute to veterans and then devolves into the War on Terror (clue to Mrs Rubin, there's no more War on Terror, it's an overseas contingency operation, didn't you get the memo?) and telling everyone the NRA is in the midst of it's own 'War of Terror'. I'm sorry, did you just assert that a specifically enumerated Constitutional right is the source of 'terror' in the United States? Did I read that right?
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"This Veterans Day, above all, has demonstrated that the US War on Terror and the NRA's War of Terror have consequences."

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Yup, I guess I did. She then goes on to equate being a veteran with being a mass murderer. So I guess, myself and the MILLIONS of men and women who have served this country for periods from 2 yrs to 40 yrs are now murderers in the making. I mean Timothy McVeigh was a vet right? So was the DC Sniper. I guess that seals it, doesn't it.

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Then we find out that on any given night, 130,000 veterans are homeless. After going from the Iraq/Afghanistan war to all veterans is a bit of a stretch. I'm pretty sure that most of the personnel who have deployed in support of OIF/OEF are not homeless by any stretch of the imagination. But hey, if it helps get your point across, who am I to get in the way, right?

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"At least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been charged with a killing after returning from the war.

On any given night says New Jersey Senator Menendez, 131,000 veterans are homeless, of which 10,000 are in New York City and northern New Jersey. Indeed, one-fourth of all homeless in America are veterans "home" from the war."

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But now we get to the meat of this hit piece. See, we can't blame the Muslim terrorist who shot the hell out of Ft Hood, no we have to blame everything and everyone else except the turd who did the shooting. See, it can't be his fault because he had 'secondary post traumatic stress disorder' From Charles Krauthammer:

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"After all, secondary PTSD, for those who believe in it (you won't find it in the DSMR-IV-TR, psychiatry's Diagnostic and Statistics manual), is known as 'compassion fatigue'."

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It seems Mrs Rubin thinks this shooting was the result of a failure of policies, namely 'gun control'.

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So the shooter walked into a gun store, after the investigation of him by the federal powers-that-be decided not to investigate him further, and bought a Fabrique-Nationale Herstal 5.7x28mm pistol. Which is still a perfectly legal action in every state in the union (although it's becoming a major PITA in some, namely New Joisey). A pistol, our intrepid editorialist assures us is a 'cop killer'. Never mind that not one single cop has been killed with it, that the ammuntion that made it a 'cop killer' is not legal for any civilian to own, and the 5.7x28 is ballistically comparable to a .22 mag, but the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership says so, so it must be true. Don't believe me? Just ask them, they'll tell you.

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She also goes on to draw the line that this bloodbath would have been averted if that stupid George Bush and that dastardly Republican congress hadn't allowed the 1994 assault weapons ban to expire. Because as we all know, the pistol used by the shooter would have been illegal, right? Well, maybe the 20 round magazine would have, but not the pistol itself. According to her, all these mass shootings since 2005 can be laid directly at the feet of the expiration of said ban.

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The rest is typical screed from tired old talking points. At this point, I've given more attention than I probably should have to begin with. If you want, go on over and check out the rest. But I'm warning you, don't have anything light and easily throwable or had anything to eat. You're liable to throw something or lose your lunch after you read it.

Wow!

One has to wonder what they hell is going on around here. First, we have the WH telling everyone that carrying firearms at presidential events is hunky-dory. Now, we've got the NYT itself actually carrying a decent piece on semi-automatic weapons on their "At War" section.

Pretty good piece that actually is devoid of the usual pants-sh**ting hysteria that is so common in their op-ed pages. Of course, the comments don't disappoint in that regard. Some of them still need to come in from barking at the moon.

As a proud owner of one of their products (SA-M7 carbine), I think what they're doing is noble. They just need to keep on top of some of their recent quality control issues.

Another Who Just Doesn't Get It

Well, it looks as if a retired preacher from Sewer Falls has his knickers in a knot over the NRA, the ban on scary looking semi-automatic rifles, and the 2A, all at the same time.

He editorializes about the true meaning of the 2A, telling you the reader, that 60% of you are wrong and have been duped by the evil gun lobby into believing the 2A protects an individual right. The good reverend would also have you believe all would be right with the world if we would just get rid of those "evil assault weapons" and make civilian ownership of all firearms impossible. What he doesn't get is gun control is a failed experiment that doesn't work. The CDC thinks so, as they couldn't find a single benefit or desired outcome of a single gun control law. The British and Australians are finding out that virtual bans on civilian gun ownership are having a negative impact on their crime rates (violent crime is going UP in spite of what the antis have promised, but gun crime is low-whoopee!)

One thing he does do is go on about how the expired '94 ban would protect us if only it was extended. The ban did nothing to reduce crime, especially use of those dreaded baby-killing machines. Hard to reduce that which wasn't even a statistical blip on the radar either before the ban went into effect in '94, or after it's expiration in '04. The ban didn't do anything other than ban cosmetic features, and manufacturers complied with the law by removing the offending features and renaming their products (also known as a loophole to anti-gunners). The exact same rifle available before the ban was available during the ban, albeit with some features removed to keep them "readily adaptable and useful for sporting purposes".

He also goes to on whimper about a statistic flopped out there by the Brady Bunch telling us that 15 kids die everyday from gun violence. What he (or the Brady Bunch for that matter) doesn't tell you is that bulk of the "kids" in their figures are between the ages of 17 and 21. Guess which age group makes up the bulk of those killed in gun violence and what those "kids" are engaged in when they become "victims"? Kind of like the kid he laments about in the editorial. Shot while breaking in to someones home, I'm betting the "victim" was an angel.

Yes, the ability of the anti-gunner to string together so much hysteria over the fact that close to 100 million gun owners did not kill anybody today can sometimes be breathtaking.

Ruminations on AWB 2 and Other Nonsense

I've been 'into' semi-automatic weapons for as long as I could remember. I've always liked the looks of the sleek M-16s carried by the military when I was a kid. I mean what kid doesn't, right? When I joined the service, I actually got to shoot one. Wow, you know? A childhood dream come true. I also found the look of the AK alluring. It was the forbidden fruit, the 'preferred weapon of our enemy' as Clint Eastwood put it in "Heartbreak Ridge".

I'd always wanted one when I got out on my own, it was just that I never had the money, or a place to keep them, or they couldn't be found (or so I thought at the time). Then, in the winter of 2004, I found one. I had the money. I had a place to keep it. The stars, the sun, the moon, and the planets all lined up. That night, I came home from the gunstore with a Maadi MISR S/A. Not the greatest AK variant on the market, but it was an AK nonetheless. I couldn't believe I had one. I couldn't stop staring at it. I couldn't put it down.

Owning an AK is a lot of work. Not just the old elbow grease one puts into cleaning it, but research into the legalities surrounding possession of such a weapon. It didn't take me long to learn about the "Assault Weapons Ban" of 1994. Reading the text of the law, I couldn't believe the things that were illegal. You could have a pistol grip and a standard capacity magazine, but no bayonet lug. Or threaded muzzle. This was ridiculous. And I waited, with baited breath, for that fateful day in September when this ridiculous law would expire. Oh, there were attempts to reinstate it. But they failed. And on September 13 2004, it went the way of the Edsel. A waste of time and taxpayers money. From that day on, I haven't looked back.

Since that fateful day in 2004, I have purchased almost two dozen AK rifles of different chamberings. Sold a few, and have built a few. Since 2006, there have been two bills introduced in Congress that should put gunowners on edge. The first, H.R. 1022 would reinstate the 1994 ban, but with teeth. Not only would this bill ban the "assault weapons" listed in the old ban, but it would increase those weapons to include ones not covered originally. Standard hunting rifles such as the Browning BAR, Remington 7600, classic military rifles such as the M-1 Garand and M-1 carbine would fall under this new ban. Shotguns like the Benelli M-4, Remingtons 1100 and 1187 would all go away. It would also place in the hands of the Attorney General, the power to regulate which rifles, shotguns, and pistols would be affected and which ones wouldn't. Even use of one of these rifles, shotguns, or pistols in sporting competitions wouldn't exempt them from regulation.

The other bill that should scare all gunowners to their very core is H.R. 45. The Blair Holt Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009. The intent of this bill is to require owners of handguns and semi automatic rifles (regardless of whether they are "assault weapons" or not) that accept detachable magazines to register them with the government. This bill would require a passport photo, a thumbprint, passing a test deemed appropriate by the AG, and a fee to keep or acquire any pistol or semi-auto rifle. What this bill would do is create a registration database. Of all the things to come out this Congress so far, in my opinion, this is the most unAmerican one to date. And this includes what they have done with the so-called 'Stimulus Bill'; the largest single appropriations bill ever introduced in Congress.