2A News: January 6, 2017 Newsletter by Jeff Pittman
Starting off the new year with a bang.
New Year’s Attacks
Mass killings occurred at the Reina Nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey (39 dead, 40-ish wounded) and in Brazil (11 dead). The Istanbul attack was reportedly carried out by a lone ISIS Operative, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle. The killer escaped the “heavily secured” club and is still at large. Witnesses report that the Istanbul attacker, once inside the club, fired at party-goers, at close range, more-or-less continually for twenty minutes.
Risk
Your chances of encountering a potentially dangerous criminal involved in a violent crime are about one in a hundred, PER YEAR. According to the USDOJ, the duration of the average interaction with a criminal during a violent crime is about 90 seconds, and the average urban police response time in the US is about 11 minutes (660 seconds, or about 9.5-11 minutes too late).
Legislation
HR 38, the National Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, has been filed again in Congress this year. We’ll see.
Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced HR 86, the Safe Students Act, which would repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990.
The Knife Owners’ Protection Act of 2017 (KOPA) now includes repeal of the archaic 1958 Federal Switchblade Act and has been again introduced in the US House of Representatives by Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05). KOPA will remove the irrational restrictions on interstate trade in automatic knives that are legal to one degree or another in 40 states, while also protecting the right of knife owners to travel throughout the US without fear of prosecution under the myriad patchwork of state and local knife laws.
Election
President-elect Donald Trump reportedly will nominate US Rep. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) for US Attorney General. Sessions is a solid, pro-gun conservative.
John Ross, author of Unintended Consequences (perhaps the best novel ever written), has volunteered to be Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for a salary of $1 per year.
2016 Sales Record
Due largely to the rise in reported terrorism and Hillary, sales of guns in America reached record levels in 2016, according to the FBI. Unadjusted 2016 NICS checks totaled 27,538,673, 4.4 million more than in 2015 and nearly double the number in President Obama’s first year.
Thomas Sowell nails it again: History shows the folly of disarming lawful people
Chinese immigrants in America
Eager to exercise an unfamiliar right: gun ownership
Just one suggestion: Move to Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida… not California.
New Study, Old News
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that cats and other invasive species pose a major threat to birds and other wildlife worldwide, estimating that cats have contributed to the extinction of 63 species, including 40 bird species — approximately double the number of extinctions previously attributed to these non-native predators. Combined with introduced rodents, such as Norway rats, “cats are major agents of extinction, collectively being listed as causal factors in 44% of modern bird, mammal, and reptile species extinctions,” the study found.
Chiraq
Chicago’s most violent year in two decades ended with 4,389 people shot and 780 people reported murdered citywide in 2016. Over two per day, more than New York City and Los Angeles combined. Approximately 9 of the deceased were reported to be the result of justifiable homicide in self-defense, and 11 as “police related.” Chicago’s clearance rate for these homicide cases is around 20%.
And it didn’t end with 2016: 28 people shot, 3 fatally, in the city on the first day of January alone.
There were 16 and 17 coalition casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively, in 2016. The highest number for any year in Afghanistan is 711 and in Iraq is 961. Maybe “Chiraq” is a slap against Iraq.
Enemies
- Waffle House waitress fires warning shot during robbery at Georgia restaurant; restaurant fires her.
- Democratic leaders of the California Legislature announced Wednesday that they had hired Eric H. Holder Jr., who was disgraced as US Attorney General under President Obama, to represent them in any legal fights against the new Republican White House. Holder was cited for contempt of Congress while he was AG during the investigation of his cover-up of the ATF’s Fast & Furious gun running scandal. Just lock his butt up.
- USFWS’ war on hunting
The Only Ones
An unidentified Weatherford, TX police officer who responded to a call for backup at a traffic stop, couldn’t subdue a suspect (who had an outstanding warrant) using a stun gun so he drew his firearm and fired multiple shots, striking the primary officer and the suspect. The injured officer was recovering Friday from surgery on his abdomen, while the suspect was in guarded condition at a hospital. Once he’s released, the man will be arrested on charges that include aggravated assault on a peace officer. No word on any aggravated assault charges against the officer who actually shot the other officer, but he has been placed on administrative leave while the Texas Rangers investigate.
Dept. of Idiocy
Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold, who previously did a story for the Post on the GOP candidates and their guns, now has a piece out including an item about a trip to the emergency room after he shot himself in the eye with a “party popper” glitter gun. It seems our Darwin candidate put the gun up to his eye, looked down the barrel, and pulled the trigger to see what would happen.
School officials in Manville, NJ, found a student’s flash drive containing satirical cartoon materials entitled “Gun Control for Dummies,” and responded by calling police and having the student report for psychological evaluation. It seems to me that the school officials are the ones whose psychological health should be investigated.
Liars
Will Hayden trial update
The Baton Rouge rape trial of former “Sons of Guns” reality TV personality Will Hayden has been postponed again, this time until April 3, 2017.
Hayden is charged with two counts of aggravated rape and one count of forcible rape in East Baton Rouge Parish, where he allegedly raped two preteen girls, one in the 1990s and the other more recently. He also faces separate sex charges in Livingston Parish, including a count of aggravated rape. An aggravated rape conviction carries a mandatory penalty of life in prison. If that happens, I suppose Mr. Hayden can appear on a different reality show.
Dept. of Intelligence
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOyPFdSgrCE/
DGUs
- Unidentified off duty Jackson, MS Fire Dept. Investigator shoots man burglarizing storage shed in the leg
- Why would you need a gun at Walmart? Why indeed.
- Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
Call 911 and die. Literally.
- “‘He’s busting into my window right now,’ a woman told a dispatcher. She was later found dead.”
- Note that South Carolina does not honor Mississippi CCW licenses.
Meanwhile in Portland, OR, over 18,000 calls to 911 last year were not responded to. Over 50 a day. Been going on for over 10 years.
- Oregon does not honor any other state’s CCW license.
A man armed with a kitchen knife stabbed 11 children at a kindergarten in southern China on Wednesday. No deaths reported. Gun free zone.
4384 yard shot reported in Australia
New Weatherby CEO
Roy Weatherby’s son Ed Weatherby, President and CEO of Weatherby Inc. for the last 33 years, has passed the day-to-day leadership baton to his son Adam.
NRA memberships on sale through TODAY
- Annual $30
- 3 year $85
- 5 year $125
- Life $1475
Sale taking place at MidwayUSA
Snowball machine gun. 1500 rpm. Build it yourself.
Products
The Law of Self Defense: The Indispensable Guide to the Armed Citizen, Third Edition
by Andrew Branca
Mr. Branca may be the world’s foremost expert in this area, and the information in this book is indispensable. Get it, read it (with a highlighter), keep it. Don’t think about it. Do it. Period. While you’re at it, get and read all those Massad Ayoob books on self protection.
- Kimber has 5 new K6s .357 revolver variants.
- The Ruger American Rimfire Target model rifle with a 0.860′ diameter, free-floated, cold hammer-forged, ½-28″ threaded target barrel is available in .22 LR, .22 WMR and .17 HMR, with a one-piece Picatinny rail. $500.
- Colt has a railed Delta Elite 10mm, and some “new” Combat (lightweight) Commanders in .45 and 9mm.
- Merkel’s MHR 16 bolt action rifle has a full-bodied bolt with three lugs and a 60-degree throw, a cold-hammer-forged barrel in a standard contour, and a direct trigger that breaks at just under three pounds. The rifle’s safety is located behind the bolt handle and acts directly upon the sear. It also features a separate chamber lock, which allows safe unloading while keeping the safety “on.” The detachable box magazine is removable by way of an innovative release built to surround the front of the trigger guard. Optics can be mounted with standard Savage mounts. Merkel offers the MHR 16 in two versions: a grade-one walnut stocked version and a fiberglass-reinforced, black synthetic-stocked version, both in .243 Win., 6.5×55, .270 Win., .308 Win., .30-’06 Sprg., 9.3×62, .300 Win. Mag. and 7mm Rem. Mag. The walnut MHR 16 weighs 7 pounds, 4.4 ounces, and the synthetic version weighs 6 pounds, 9.8 ounces. MSRP for the walnut MHR 16 is $899, and the for synthetic MHR 16 is $799.
