May 17, 2019 Newsletter by Jeff Pittman
NRA
We have more info coming out about the NRA’s underhanded antics regarding how the organization is run. Some details linked below. Like I’ve been saying — it’s time to clean house and elect a new board. The only way to do that is to vote in the NRA election only for candidates nominated by membership petition. The fewer candidates you vote for, the more likely yours are to be elected. 1/3 of board positions are up for election each year, so it will take years to clean ’em out. It is our mission to do that, thereby saving the NRA and in turn, our Constitution and rights. (I usually post a couple of board candidate recommendations each year.)
DON’T give up on the NRA. DO help clean house and fix the problem. You can’t do that by running away. There is NO other viable option.
- NRAAM 2019, Full of Sound & Fury, Signifying Nothing? Recap for the Record [Firearms Coalition]
- The Resolution from the NRA Meeting of Members [No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money]
- NRA Documents Reveal Brewer Law Firm Spending, LaPierre Expense Details [The Truth About Guns]
- State of the NRA Update [Tom Gresham’s Gun Talk]
Litigation
The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that the victim of a shooting can’t sue the Ohio gun dealer who sold the weapon used in the crime, because the handgun was legally sold in Ohio to an Ohio resident and the seller had no control over where the weapon eventually ended up (it was sold by the original legal buyer to another person who illegally resold it in New York).
Judiciary
The US Senate confirmed Michael Park as a judge on the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals last week, and Kenneth K. Lee to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals this week, making Lee the 40th circuit court judge to be confirmed under President Trump. There will be two more 2nd Circuit vacancies by this summer as judges take senior status (retire), giving Mr. Trump a chance to “flip” the circuit, which currently has seven Democratic appointees. However, history tells us that a conservative president doesn’t ensure decent justices, and vice versa. The Senate has confirmed 100 or so federal judges so far during the Trump administration. More nominations are coming. About 133 Article III judicial positions (lifetime appointments) are vacant, with 55 nominations pending before the Senate. In Mississippi, 3 federal judicial vacancies exist, with no nominations to date.
Legislation
The Natural Resources Management Act (Public Law 116-9, introduced by US Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-MS), which includes new duck hunting provisions based on the Migratory Bird Framework and Hunting Opportunities for Veterans Act (S.2942), has been signed into law by President Trump. The MDWFP has responded by setting Mississippi migratory bird hunting season dates that extend to January 31 and to establish special duck hunting dates for youths, veterans, and active duty military.
Alabama’s SB 392, which is winding through the legislature, would create a new lifetime carry permit issued by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) to state residents. Under the bill, after a background check from the local sheriff, a resident can apply to any ALEA driver’s license office, pay a one-time fee of $150, and after submitting a completed application and favorable background report, receive a non-expiring permit. Applicants have the choice of having a lifetime permit endorsement placed on their driver’s license or state identification card, or they can choose to have a separate card issued by ALEA. We wonder if a non-expiring permit will work for bypassing the NICS check for FFL gun sales.
Dems attack poor, minorities
- John Lott: Gun controls backed by Dem presidential candidates would hurt poor and minorities [FOX News]
Enemies
Make no mistake — CNN and the rest of the lamestream media are our enemies.
The Rancho Cucamonga (CA) High School’s district suspended a police officer from his teaching job for legally carrying a gun on campus without their permission. I’m just guessing they haven’t given any cops permission, with the possible exception of a few assigned school resource officers. So when they need them, the cops will be expected to show up unarmed?
We have a Reuters report that 40% of trauma surgeons themselves showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and 15% met the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis, according to a 2014 survey by the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. And these sick doctors are trying to outlaw your guns.
Taran Tactical. I haven’t heard Mr. Butler’s side of this issue, but the post here seems pretty accurate.
Oregon State Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick (D) has promised that gun grabbing bills would fail “over my dead body.” OK.
US Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), chairman of the House Resources Committee, has introduced legislation that would ban the hunting of grizzly bears anywhere in the country except for Alaska.
Pennsylvania State Rep. Todd Stephens (R) has proposed a bill that would consider the recent, legal purchase of a gun to be “troubling behavior” to be considered as evidence of the need for a “red flag” order taking away someone’s guns.
US Sen. and presidential candidate Cory Booker (D-NJ) repeatedly says toy guns are more regulated than real ones. In other words, he’s a serial liar.
The City of Jackson, MS, is donating two Spanish-American War era cannons from Battlefield Park on Hwy. 80 to the Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby near Hattiesburg, which plans to spend $250,000 to restore the badly deteriorated cannons and put them on display. Battlefield Park was the site of Civil War action during the Battle of Jackson in 1863. We suspect the city will eventually rename the park because “Battlefield” isn’t politically correct, even though gun battles are still fought there from time to time.
Two enemies here: The Mississippi state College Board has granted tenure to the University of Mississippi assistant professor who once encouraged illegally confronting Republican US senators at restaurants as political protest against Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS nomination. Last fall, assistant sociology (sociopathic) professor James Thomas tweeted, “Don’t just interrupt a Senator’s meal, y’all, put your whole damn fingers in their salads. Take their apps and distribute them to the other diners. Bring boxes and take their food home with you on the way out.” Board trustees indicated they decided in favor of Thomas’ tenure largely due to the university’s support of Thomas, who said he has “absolutely no regrets about anything I said.”
Gabe Suarez’s Flowchart of Deadly Force Use
PD response time reminder
We hear that, as of 2013, the average 911 response time for law enforcement nationwide is 11 to 18 minutes. But we also hear the average gunfight lasts three seconds, while a mass shooting incident lasts approximately 12.5 minutes. You do the math.
Vegas follow-up
Documents released to a FOIA request concerning the bump stock ban included information about the Las Vegas massacre. Apparently the killer was previously reported as having access to or possession of “converted” fully automatic machine guns. If you were him, why would you voluntarily choose to shoot an AR-15 with a bump stock in a mass shooting crime you intended and planned to perpetrate when you could instead use a fully automatic machine gun? We also hear from an earwitness with extensive machine gun experience who says the killer used a machine gun. Also ask yourself, why did the FBI refuse to allow the ATF to examine the crime scene weapons? What did they not want ATF to find, and why?
Debrief of Highlands Ranch (Colorado) STEM School shooting
Language warning. We also have a report that the father of one of the suspects is a twice-deported illegal Mexican national and serial felon.
Armed teachers. Safe.
“There hasn’t been a single mass public shooting in any school that allows teachers and staff to carry guns legally. Since at least as far back as January 2000, not a single shooting-related death or injury has occurred during or anywhere near class hours on the property of a school that allows teachers to carry.”
Should have been a DGU
- James Jordan arrested in deadly machete attack on Appalachian Trail [New York Post]
“The male victim, who later died, managed to trigger an SOS signal on his phone…”
He probably should have triggered something else. Then the responders might not have found him dead.
John Farnam notes that in a subsequent publication entitled “After Appalachian Trail attack, here’s what can hikers do to be prepared,” that “Not a single one of the ‘advice’ and ‘tips’ enumerated would have made the slightest difference during the attack. In fact, the subject of encountering violent criminals while in isolated places is carefully (and dishonestly) avoided!”
The Only Ones
The Hawaii Department of Public Safety is in trouble for issuing guns and ammunition to law enforcement officers for years in violation of its own policy. Hawaii is known for some of the strictest gun laws in the country.
The Detroit (MI) PD is paying out a LOT of money in lawsuits for executing folks’ pet dogs.
Also from Detroit, police detective Noe Garcia was arrested earlier this month for drunken driving while in possession of two pistols. Garcia had a blood-alcohol level of .14 percent, nearly twice Michigan’s legal limit of .08 — and seven times the limit of .02 percent allowed while carrying a firearm.
Houston (TX) PD murder follow-up
Equipment fail?
Cop shot in leg by suspect who got a finger into the cop’s holster.
More on tourniquets
It seems the North American Rescue Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT) is presently the gold standard. That’s the one I have. Around $28 at Amazon.
Reminder on clearing double feeds (video)
Don’t be stupid
An 8-year-old boy found a gun in a car near a college baseball game between Memphis and UT Martin in Millington, Tennessee and accidentally shot his mother while thinking that it was a toy. The game was canceled and the stadium was evacuated because it was an “active crime scene.” The mother was last reported in stable condition.
The boy found the unsecured weapon in an antique World War II Jeep on display as part of a Veterans Appreciation Day at the stadium. The owner of the gun has been charged with reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon.
More stupid
A City of Seattle (WA) funded anti-gun study by the University of Washington on “firearm violence” found that the recidivism rates for hospitalized “victims” of “gun violence,” were extremely high. “Compared to other hospitalized patients, we found that those individuals who were shot and released from the hospital were 21 times more likely to get shot again,” Prof. Rowhani-Rahbar said.
And the result of the study? Helping Individuals with Firearm Injuries (HiFi), was created. HiFi is another study conducted by UW researchers at Harborview Medical Center which aims to test the effectiveness of intervention on the overall well-being and health of “gun violence victims.”
They want to improve and protect the lives of criminals, instead of figuring out how to get them to stop their behaviors which result in them getting shot. Maybe the real answer is to shoot them better.
For engineers, physicists and terminal ballistics geeks
Empirical models for the relationship between peak ballistic pressure wave magnitude and incapacitation times in the Strasbourg goat test data (pdf document). Circa 2007.
Bottom line: This analysis has shown that the Strasbourg test incapacitation times are highly correlated to peak pressure wave magnitude. All other factors being equal, bullets that produce pressure waves of greater magnitude incapacitate more rapidly than bullets that produce smaller pressure waves. The Strasbourg test data convincingly supports the pressure wave hypothesis and allows the fast response time to be modeled as a function of peak pressure wave magnitude.
New MS deer hunting regs
- New deer hunting regulations are in place to combat CWD. Here’s what you need to know [Clarion Ledger]
Products
Grabagun.com has the Remington 870 TAC-14 “not a shotgun” for just $279 in 12 ga. and $299 in 20 ga.
Federal Premium is offering its excellent Hydra-Shok bullets as handloading components:
- .451 – 185 & 230 gr.
- .400 – 180 & 165 gr.
- .357 – 129 gr. (.38 Spl.) & 158 gr. (.357 Mag.)
- .355 – 124 & 147 gr.
We still do not recommend handloads for use in self-defense.
Window-breaker wristband/slingshot
It’s graduation time. Charlie Daniels said it very well.
