May 31, 2019 Newsletter by Jeff Pittman
Military
I couldn’t have said it better.
“Only two things protect America…the grace of Almighty God and the United States Military”
Every day, all year long, active and retired military members — as well as first responders — receive a 10% discount at all locations of 84 Lumber Company. Just show your credentials at time of purchase.
Most massacrists black?
Nearly three-fourths of victims and suspected assailants in mass shootings (in which four or more people were killed or wounded, including attackers) whose race could be identified were black, according to this research. Read the whole thing, not just the “black” part.
NRA plot thickens
The NRA now claims that its former PR firm, Ackerman McQueen, Inc., stole a confidential PowerPoint presentation detailing its courtroom strategy which was presented in an April 29 executive session at the NRA’s annual meeting in Indianapolis. During the presentation, outside attorney William Brewer used PowerPoint slides to brief NRA directors on his firm’s strategy for pursuing a pending lawsuit against Ack-Mac. Then an employee of Brewer gave a thumb drive with the PowerPoint file to an audio-visual assistant at the meeting so he could load it onto a laptop computer to display. That AV man was an Ack-Mac employee who allegedly later “absconded with a digital copy of the presentation.”
Brownells CEO Pete Brownell has been a member of the NRA Board of Directors for about a decade and served as NRA president from 2017 to 2018. Now Mr. Brownell has announced his resignation from the board, claiming too much work at his company. Right. This ain’t gonna help with the cleanup.
Meanwhile the NRA’s annual report showed a sizable increase of both membership dues and contributions in 2018, with membership itself at a record level of about 5.5 million. Keep it up.
Litigation
A former student at First Coast Technical College has filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Jacksonville, FL, alleging that the college violated her constitutional rights when she was suspended based on a post on social media. The student says she was suspended from the school indefinitely because another student reported to the college’s administrators that a photograph of the plaintiff and her fiance holding legally purchased and lawfully possessed firearms at a gun range was posted on Facebook. Two days after the photograph was posted, the girl was informed by the college’s assistant principal that she was being suspended indefinitely for appearing in a picture holding a firearm.
Holes in the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Firearms Act?
- The Law Protects….Until It Doesn’t [The Outdoor Wire]
BATman = badman?
President Trump has announced his intention to nominate Kenneth “Chuck” Canterbury Jr., president of the National Fraternal Order of Police, to head the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Mr. Canterbury, of South Carolina, has worked as president of the National FOP since 2003 and has served on its executive board for more than two decades, and previously spent 26 years in the Horry County, SC, Police Department. We note that the FOP has been considerably anti-gun in the past, though that has reportedly changed in recent years. But it appears that at least some of that time, Mr. Canterbury was in a position of leadership at the FOP.
In fact, some pro-gun groups note that Canterbury has a long history of publicly supporting and endorsing anti-gun policies, anti-gun Supreme Court nominees, and anti-gun high ranking government officials and that as President of the National FOP, Canterbury has supported anti-gun Supreme Court Justices like Sonia Sotomayor and felonious former Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as the expansion of the federal government’s gun unconstitutional registration schemes. Further, his FOP reportedly is currently lobbying against Constitutional Carry.
But Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation says Mr. Canterbury is pro-gun. It turns out that the issues Keane uses to illustrate that position reveal that Canterbury has a history of circling the wagons to help cops, not citizens.
You can take action here.
NY Knife Ban Repealed
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed legislation repealing New York’s longstanding ban on gravity knives this week. A gravity knife had been defined as “any knife where the blade folds and locks into the handle and can be opened with one hand.”
Lamestream media
You may have seen reports claiming that Texas legislators defied the NRA/TSRA with a last-minute approval of a bill requiring “safe” gun storage in the home. Apparently an Associated Press reporter got carried away with his/her desire for gun control, but the budget bill in question actually included an appropriation for DPS for a public information campaign promoting safe gun storage, and the language of that section specifically states, “The public awareness campaign may not convey a message that it is unlawful under state law to keep or store a firearm that is loaded or that is readily accessible for self- defense.”
Enemies
After a clerk at a Plaid Pantry convenience store in Clackamas County, OR, pulled a gun do defend himself from a robber threatening him with a hatchet, he was fired from the store, which has “a zero tolerance for weapons.” So, this Plaid Pantry store literally would prefer its employees to be chopped up than to go legally armed.
Houston, TX, Police Chief Art Acevedo opposes legislation passed in Texas which would allow Texans to carry a handgun openly or concealed without a permit for one week after a natural disaster is declared in the state, because Acevedo believes it would “embolden” gang members. What is this “allow” of which you speak?
Former Vice President “Shotgun” Joe Biden pledged on Tuesday to “defeat the National Rifle Association” by supporting legislation that bans “assault weapons” and “high-capacity” magazines as part of his 2020 presidential campaign.
Business-software giant Salesforce instituted a new acceptable use policy barring retail client from using its technology to sell semiautomatic guns and some other firearms. Salesforce co-chief executive Marc Benioff had previously said, “The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in America. Ban it.” Benioff also pledged $1 million to a gun ban group. It turns out that the timing of this “virtue signalling” by Salesforce conveniently distracts from a lawsuit against the company filed by 50 sex trafficking victims who claim that the company facilitated “sex trafficking, negligence, and conspiracy” by providing tools to support the growth of a popular sex trafficking website.
“The push to arm teachers isn’t, at its root, about keeping kids safer. It’s about selling more guns.” And… “replenishing the coffers of gun manufacturers and, in turn, the NRA.” — Head Demanding Mommy Shannon Watts
The Center for Consumer Freedom has filed a complaint with the IRS and FBI against People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Direct Action Everywhere, and Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation alleging abuses of the federal tax code and/or criminal activity by the groups.
Local election (Aug. 6)
Jody Owens is a major candidate in the Hinds County, MS, District Attorney’s race. He recently had the following to say:
“…at the Southern Poverty Law Center, we work to understand why people are the way they are… I don’t think there are bad people.”
MS AG opinion on armed MS National Guardsmen with felony convictions
Nope (.pdf link).
“[Armed] Guardsmen with felony convictions serving on state duty under Title 32 (USC) or State Active Duty would be subject to prosecution under Section 97-37-5.”
Cops
Mas Ayoob tells us that as little as 10% of sworn LEO personnel go armed on their own time, and apparently no major department requires officers to carry off-duty.
Why?
Judges
Cook County (Chicago), IL, Sheriff Tom Dart said that 51 people who have been charged with first degree murder by his department are now out of jail on home confinement pending trial. Judges matter.
“Just call 911”
Nope. Arm yourself AND call 911.
A Kaufman County, TX, woman was on the phone with 911 reporting a burglary in progress at her rural home when she was confronted by the intruder and fatally shot the man.
Criminal?
A 64-year-old NY man interrupted a couple burglarizing his home and fatally shot them both. The homeowner was then charged with with criminal possession of a firearm, a class E felony, because investigators believe he used his deceased father’s gun, which he never registered to himself, to kill the two suspected intruders.
School massacres study
“These shootings have been carried out by all sorts of people from students to total strangers,” Mr. Reidman said. “They’ve happened in any part of the country and they’ve happened for just about every reason, and that makes prevention very difficult. There can’t be any one single or simple solution that’s going to address this problem.”
Ballistic gelatin penetration
Rhode wins again
Kim Rhode earned a gold medal in the Women’s Skeet event at the most recent World Cup in Changwon, Korea. Rhode set a record as the first International Shooting Sports Federation competitor to win gold in four consecutive World Cup events. On top of that, she has now won the World Cup 21 times — which is 10 more than anyone else.
The Left Coast
Effective July 1, 2019, hunters in California are required to use certified non-lead ammunition when harvesting any game with a firearm, anywhere in the state.
137-year-old Winchester rifle found in Nevada has new home
A 137-year-old Winchester Model 1873 rifle found five years ago leaning against a juniper tree in Great Basin National Park in Nevada is now part of an exhibit dedicated to the “Forgotten Winchester” at the park visitor center near the Utah border.
Had a dream….
Remington
Remington Arms will furlough up to 500 employees at its Ilion, NY plant and up to 199 employees at its Huntsville, AL plant for over two months this summer.
Products
Real Avid AR15 Armorer’s Master Kit. $250.
We see that Schrade and its Uncle Henry knife brands have/had some models available in D2 steel. Interesting.
SlapShot USA’s new 12 gauge high-velocity buckshot load uses 9 pellets of special, very lightweight single aught (#0) buckshot at a muzzle velocity of 2,800 fps.
Environ-Metal’s HEVI-Shot has some new/improved products:
Magnum Research now offers its single-action BFR (Biggest Finest Revolver) chambered in .500 Linebaugh. $1300.
SIG Sauer now offers extended capacity 15 round magazines for the P365, as well as a P365 version with an ambidextrous frame-mounted manual safety. $600.
Ruger has a standard BX-1-1 rotary magazine that holds only one .22 LR round for training purposes. It works with any factory original 10/22 Rifle, SR-22 Rifle, 22 Charger Pistol, .22 LR Ruger American Rimfire Rifle and .22 LR Ruger 77/22 Rifle. Excellent idea. You can effectively get your kid a single shot and then move him/her into a repeater for an incremental cost of only $22.
Quotes
“Optimists study English; pessimists study Chinese; and realists learn to use a Kalashnikov.” — Russian Proverb
“If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.” — Niccolò Machiavelli
“That city is well-fortified which has a wall of men instead of brick.” — Lycurgus, the legendary Spartan law-giver
“Pistols put holes in people, rifles put holes through people, shotguns, with the right load and the right distance, will put chunks of people on the floor.” — paraphrasing Clint Smith
