NRA
The 2021 NRA annual meeting has been canceled (more details here). It was scheduled for next weekend. Although probably the best decision, this not only hurts the NRA, but also a majority of the vendors and participants who depend on the event to generate donations and sales. Be sure to do business with those good folks anyway. Get online and look up some new products and buy something.
The unofficial election results for the NRA Board of Directors have been released. No write-in candidate was elected, meaning that neither Frank Tait nor Rocky Marshall gathered enough votes. Everyone who was nominated and didn’t drop out was elected to either three year or one year terms, and the list does not impress me. More of the same I suppose.
More on the NY Attorney General’s amended complaint against the Association. This is likely the real reason for the meeting cancellation, as members who are aware of these shenanigans would likely have something to say about it. It’s really bad. Should these allegations be proven in court, I would expect Wayne LaPierre & company to do prison time.
Gun bans & such
The U.S. State Department is denying import permits for guns and ammo from Russia. This is supposedly to punish Russia for an alleged political assassination (by poison, not guns), and is apparently about the only punishment. Of course, it’s really about beating up on U.S. gun owners. Meanwhile, Russia’s RIA news agency is reporting that the Kremlin stands “ready to deliver weapons and equipment to central Asian allies that border Afghanistan.” Further, RIA cited top officials who said these large deliveries would be done “at special low prices.”
The man who confessed and was convicted of assassinating U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 is seeking parole and sources say that prosecutors will not oppose his release. I suppose that means the government will also repeal the Gun Control Act of 1968…
Meanwhile, ousted anti-gun NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been granting clemency, sentence commutations, and pardons for convicted felons, some of whom committed murders with guns. So I guess y’all can repeal all those New York gun laws too.
At least one commenter has noted that U.S. military service members who fail to comply with Pentagon orders to get a Covid vaccination may be tried in court. IF the case reaches the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and a service member is convicted in this court, they would likely receive a dishonorable discharge, a bad-conduct discharge, or, in the case of an officer, a dismissal. This presumably would make them “prohibited persons.” Which is why you follow lawful orders in the military, even if you don’t like them.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a new rule this week on the Federal Duck Stamp contest, dropping the requirement to include a hunting-related aspect in the art. Waterfowl hunters are the only ones required by law to buy the stamps.
Afghanistan
That’s five times the number of machine guns that are in the hands of U.S. citizens here in the states. And the feds are worried about your one little dinky .22 rifle? Evil morons.
I’m gonna say it: It appears to me that President Biden has committed treason with his actions in Afghanistan.
Litigation
A felony conviction in another state does not preclude someone now living in Arizona from getting the right to own a gun, the state Court of Appeals has ruled. In a new ruling, the judges concluded that state courts do have the power to restore an individual’s right to possess or carry a firearm, regardless of where a prior conviction occurred. It is not automatic.
In the case Maryland Shall Issue (MSI) v. Hogan, this week a federal judge upheld a Maryland law requiring anyone seeking to obtain a handgun to first acquire a Handgun Qualification License. The law, enacted in 2013, requires those seeking to obtain a handgun in Maryland to first obtain a license, a process that involves potentially hundreds of dollars in fees, various sorts of red tape, mandatory training, a waiting period of up to 30 days, and a background check. This case has already bounced back and forth between the U.S. District Court for Maryland and the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Presumably it can now be appealed again back to the Fourth Circuit. We note that there is at least one other unrelated case involving MSI v. Hogan, so don’t be misled.
The Only Ones
Cleveland, Ohio, Police Detective Christopher Ereg was arrested early Saturday morning by Cuyahoga Falls police on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct while intoxicated and using weapons while intoxicated, and a felony charge of illegal possession of a firearm in a liquor permit premises.
NYPD Glock Triggers
The nation’s largest police department, NYPD, has been mostly using G19s since the 1990s, all equipped with department-mandated “NY Triggers,” which boosted trigger pull weight to a nominal twelve pounds. Now the department has decided to reduce trigger pull-weight back to five/six pounds, which is the way most Glocks come from the factory, and which will result in significant accuracy improvement by the shooter. I guess they figured out that the way to not have a negligent discharge is to not pull the trigger, regardless of pull weight.
Thunder Ranch
The 877-acre Lakeview, Oregon property of Clint Smith’s iconic Thunder Ranch is up for sale for $6.5 million. This for the property/facilities only, not for the shooting school business. The school will apparently be moving to a less remote location to which it would be cheaper for students to travel.
A reminder
The word is “binocular,” not a “pair of binoculars,” which means two binoculars. The prefix “bi,” from the Latin bini, means double or two. Add it to “ocular,” from the Latin oculus, meaning eye, and you’ve described a two-eyed instrument. A binocular. Same reason you don’t call a bicycle a pair of bicycles.
Products
We note that counterfeiting of nice weapon optic systems like holographic and red dot sights, Eotech products, Leupold scopes, etc. continues to be big business. Be sure of what you’re buying.
Bushnell has announced the reintroduction of its Elite 4500 lineup of scopes with three new and improved and affordable Elite 4500 4X riflescopes. The 4X stands for a 4 times magnification RANGE, not just a 4x magnification. I have an older Elite (a 4200 I think) and it is a VERY nice scope.
Federal Premium’s new High Over All competition plastic shotshell line offers more reloads per shell, hard, high-antimony lead shot and exclusive one-piece Podium wad for consistent patterns, while the solid brass head and tapered, one-piece hull make reloading easier than ever. Initial offerings include sixteen 12-gauge, 2-3/4″ loads with sub-gauge products set to follow in 2022.