2A News: March 11, 2016 Newsletter by Jeff Pittman
Election
Ben Carson has endorsed Donald Trump. We don’t know why.
Hillary being Hillary (lying like a rug):
At the debate last week, Clinton said “And they said, ‘give us absolute immunity.’ No other industry in America has absolute immunity and they sell products all the time that cause harm.”
And, she wants you to believe it. Last October, she said “They are the only business in America that is wholly protected from any kind of liability. They can sell a gun to someone they know they shouldn’t, and they won’t be sued.”
That is what we call a bald-faced lie.
Clinton was referring to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gun manufacturers and sellers from being held liable when their nondefective, legal, lawfully-sold products are later used to commit crimes. The PLCAA expressly allows legitimate lawsuits based on knowing violations of federal or state law related to gun sales, or on the usual grounds including negligent entrustment or breach of contract. The law also allows product liability cases involving defective firearms. This act was passed in the wake of the gun-banners’ self-admitted strategy of suing gun makers out of business when they had done nothing wrong. The strategy was to break companies with lawsuits which the gun-banners didn’t even have to win.
Further, Congress has provided limitations on liability for other industries, including small aircraft manufacturers, internet service and content providers, and vaccine makers.
So it’s a lie, a whole lie, and nothing but a lie.
We also have a report about Hillary and President Obama arming Muslim terrorists in Benghazi. Where were their darling background checks? Is ATF going to be mad that they weren’t invited to the guns-to-terrorists party?
Gallup reports that when asked for the first word or phrase that comes to mind when Clinton’s name is mentioned, 40% of Americans say “dishonest,” “liar,” “don’t trust her,” “poor character,” “dislike her,” “criminal,” “crooked,” “thief,” “belongs in jail,” or “wouldn’t be good for the country.” Gee, I hope they vote.
Litigation
Last week the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed to reconsider its February ruling on Maryland’s stringent gun control law, which includes a ban on some semiautomatic firearms. The case is Kolbe v. Hogan.
A three-judge panel of the court decided last month that owning semiautomatic firearms such as AR-15s and AK-47s amounts to a “fundamental right” deserving the highest level of protection (strict scrutiny) under the Constitution.
“In our view, Maryland law implicates the core protection of the Second Amendment — the right of law-abiding responsible citizens to use arms in defense of hearth and home,” wrote Chief Judge William Traxler in the divided ruling.
But now the Circuit has agreed to rehear the case “en banc” (before the whole 15-judge court), on May 11.
Legislation
Rep. Jason Chafftez, R-UT, said he plans to introduce a bill next week to remove the guns and law enforcement authority from the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service and instead set up a system of block grants to states with a lot of federal lands within their borders to augment local law enforcement response. Chafftez says that “These agents are more Rambo and less Andy Griffith than I would like.”
It’s hard for me to imagine why these and many other agencies should have law enforcement authority in the first place, regardless of how “nice” they are. Instead, bureaucrats are supposed to go to court, get a court order/warrant/subpoena, and have it served by the sheriff/US Marshals, etc. Their employees do, however, have the right to bear arms just like we all do. But they shouldn’t be issued them by the taxpayers.
Petition the President
President Obama: Protect Our Second Amendment Rights
SEALs don’t have enough rifles. It’s not a money problem.
MS Church Security
Clyde Morgan has a new Church Security course, which should dovetail nicely with the upcoming MS church carry law. 12 hours at the church and 8 hours at Precision Shooting Center in Forest, MS.
Dept. of Idiocy
Scotland is licensing airguns now.
“Tactical Response will no longer be permitted to conduct training activities on our facility.” — Folsom Shooting Club/Sacramento Valley Shooting Center
Jamie Gilt, 31, a Florida pro-gun activist was hospitalized after she was accidentally shot by her 4-year-old son, who apparently accessed her .45 handgun while she was driving her truck with the child in the back seat, where the gun was. In Florida it is a misdemeanor for a person to store or leave a loaded firearm in such a way that a child could gain access to it. But everywhere, it’s good sense to not do that. This is one of the main reasons I do not usually advise off-body carry. Ironically, Gilt runs/ran a Facebook page called “Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense.” She should get some.
Liars
Sue Klebold, the mother of one of the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, CO, said the killings took place only because her son and his accomplice “secretly attended a gun show where they bought the shotguns they would use in the massacre and met a young man who sold them a TEC-9 semiautomatic pistol.”
But in fact, the two little perps were turned down at the gun show due to their ages, and later an adult female friend bought three guns for them, including two pump shotguns, the barrels of which the two boys then shortened in violation of the National Firearms Act. Separately and later, the pair illegally acquired a fourth gun from a friend of a different friend, both of whom were later convicted with illegally providing a handgun to a minor.
The Only Ones
- Mesa, AZ Police Officer Philip Mitchell Brailsford has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of an unarmed man at a hotel two months ago.
- Warren County, PA, Corrections Officer Blair Johnson was trying on a “tactical” concealed carry shirt last month at a Gander Mountain store in Erie, PA when he apparently tried fitting his gun in the shirt and pulled the trigger, firing through his sweat shirt on a fitting room bench, and then abandoned both items of clothing in another fitting room and ran away from the store. Johnson is now charged in Erie County with reckless endangering and criminal mischief. Prosecutors say he was also suspended without pay.
- The LAPD’s first openly gay officer, Retired Sgt. Mitchell Grobeson, 57, was arrested after a nearly four-hour standoff inside a West Hollywood home before he surrendered to a sheriff’s SWAT team. Grobeson is being held on suspicion of corporal injury to a “spouse” and was charged with assault with a firearm and criminal threats stemming from a domestic dispute with his “husband.”
- PD shooter incompetency, from Farnam.
DGUs
- A Kentucky woman was being stalked by John Ganobick when he followed her into a shopping mall elevator to the parking garage. He exited the elevator with her and chased her as she ran desperately to her car, held her at knifepoint and tried to beat her, when she pulled her Beretta from her purse and opened fire, striking him in the neck and butt. Ganobick is charged with with attempted murder, kidnapping and criminal mischief.But it might have been a lot better if she had just not gotten on the elevator with him….
- 3 male armed robbers vs. unarmed grandmother and her female friend. Spoiler alert — granny wins.
- The man killed during a home invasion in Vicksburg, MS, yesterday morning was Rafael McCloud, 33 or 34, a capital murder suspect who escaped the Warren County Jail by taking a jailer hostage last week. Police said the man tied the family of three up in the bathroom around 4:30 a.m. Around 7 a.m., McCloud allowed the wife to leave the bathroom and she returned with a family handgun, shooting McCloud once (she thinks she hit him). She then cut her husband loose, who then shot McCloud multiple times. McCloud was indicted by a grand jury in January for capital murder, kidnapping, burglary of a dwelling, rape, sexual battery without consent, attempted arson, larceny-motor vehicle and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. Maybe they should go back and make sure that he was shot enough.
- A 15-year-old boy has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder and Use of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony for killing a man who investigators themselves say was viciously attacking the boy’s mother inside their Virginia home this week. These charges are what is known as Problem Two (Problem One being staying alive and intact).
WWP update
Wounded Warrior Project’s Chief Executive Officer, Steven Nardizzi, and Chief Operating Officer, Al Giordano, were fired by the board of directors this week after their ongoing problems with misspending funds became too large for even them to ignore. CBS News found and reported that WWP spends 40 to 50 percent on overhead, including extravagant parties. Other veterans charities have overhead costs of 10 to 15 percent. Former employees told the media that the excessive spending began when Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009. In his defense, Nardizzi said, “If your only fixation is spending the most on programs, that’s feeling good, but not necessarily doing good.” (So we’re gonna have big-ass parties for the staff instead, eh Steve?)
WWP, and especially Nardizzi, have in the past firmly staked out anti-gun positions, refusing associations with gun groups for fundraising projects to benefit WWP — the same associations they make with non-gun groups. We will see if new officers change anything.
4 veterans’ charities that do better
Namibia bans hunting bans
Namibia Crushes Anti-Hunters By Banning All Hunting Bans
Second Annual Fashion and Firearms
Photo Gallery: Second Annual Fashion and Firearms… A Concealed Carry Extravaganza
My Rifle, Pony and Me
Music video by Heidi Feek (you may remember the Dean Martin version from Rio Bravo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc_zwhXZ904
About those electronic lockboxes
This handgun safe, the Gun Vault Minivault Biometric GVB1000, shares the same release-wire locking mechanism with the model GV1000S. The main difference between the two boxes is that this one also has a biometric fingerprint reader. In both boxes, the mechanical components of the locking mechanism are accessible through holes in the side of the safe.
One commenter notes, “This can also be done with a rare earth magnet in 1/10th the time it took with the paperclip. NEVER, EVER buy a gun safe with ANY electronics controlling the tumblers or bolts.”
Pistol recall needed?
We have a report of an accidental discharge of an FN-America NFS40 LS pistol while it was secured in a Baltimore County Police officer’s retention holster and both of the officer’s hands were full. Apparently this is not the first such occurrence.
Products
- We have a couple of reports that Henry Repeating Arms has no idea what pressures are appropriate for loads used in its firearms. That’s not very reassuring.
- Radical Firearms’ suppressors. As low as $200, plus tax stamp.
- Burris has a large selection of new riflescope reticles as well as new 1″ & 30mm rings for Tikka T3 rifles.
- Tikka’s improved T3 line, the T3x, includes 19 versions. The main change is a better/configurable synthetic stock and provision for Picatinny rail mounting. 1 MOA guaranteed. If you’ve never tried a T3, go treat yourself.
- Lightfield’s new shotgun slug load is called Bucks, Boars & Bears (LBBB) and is a 2¾”, 12-gauge shell with a 465-grain (1-1/16 oz.), pure lead slug at 1,600 fps. (2,643 fpe). The slug reportedly is shaped like a toadstool with its shank wrapped in an “Impact Discarding Sabot,” and a plastic post wad that goes up into the slug shank. Upon firing, the post wad seals the bore and presses into the soft lead shank, causing it to expand into internal grooves in the sabot, locking all three pieces together. Then when the slug strikes the target, the post wad drives further into the lead causing the lead to mushroom out of the top for controlled expansion. The slug is designed to break bone prior to coming apart, and to not exit a big game animal. Lightfield also says the LBBB will achieve one-hole accuracy at 50 yards with a good shooter and equipment.
Birchwood Casey has its nice LeatherLock Gun Cases for fine takedown shotguns. $145.80.
- Montana X-Treme claims to have the best cleaning rods you can buy. And their liquid products now come in aluminum bottles.
- Custom built armored furniture.
- Sweaty earmuffs? Try Cool Pads.
- Cell phone shaped gun. What could possibly go wrong?
Quote of the Week
“No matter what anybody else on board says or does, never get into an aircraft flying over enemy territory* without your pistol, AR, magazines, blade, compass, trauma kit, rations, water, hat, jacket, and boots!” — Brigadier General Chris Thirion, SADF
*It’s pretty much all enemy territory today, including your own yard. — JP
