Blog
U.N. Treaty
Assessing the Risks of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty
On September 25, 2013, Secretary of State John Kerry signed the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty in New York . The following video was produced by the Heritage Foundation shortly before the actual signing of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, but it presents a good perspective on the politics and economics of the treaty, and the treaty's effect on both the international and intranational arms trade. The audio in this presentation is a little weak, but the content makes it worth watching.
The Obama administration’s decision to sign a global conventional arms trade treaty despite deep misgivings on Capitol Hill and among Second Amendment advocates drew strong reactions from lawmakers on Wednesday, underlining the ratification battle ahead.
It's time to list your Senator's phone number on speed-dial, if they are not already there.
Remembering, freedom is not free!
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Violence
Shooter Picked Victims By Race
CBS Charlotte is not too timid to publish the reason behind the recent wave of random violence.
A man who shot four people near a Greenville Wal-Mart in June picked out his victims because they were white, according to several indictments handed down against him...
Faust, who is black, picked out his victims based on their race, according to the indictments...
Faust’s first victim was an insurance adjustor in the parking lot of a law firm. He then crossed a five-lane highway and shot three more people in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart...
Police seized computers and documents from Faust’s home that showed he had a plan for the attack and wanted to shoot a large number of people.
The victims in this case were going about their daily lives in a normal, routine manner and were chosen randomly by their attacker. But, this activity is not random—as verified by the police who searched the outlaw's residence.
Stay alert—stay safe!
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Buzzzzz
Zap?
I know, there's an iPhone application for everything these days, but this one reminds me me of the 'Fire Extinguisher In a Pen' that came with a supply of burn ointment—except this gizmo doesn't come with ointment.
The better Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) pepper sprays can buy you some precious time to get away—but you have to stay in contact with the attacker for this thing to work. What then? You might wish that you had some ointment!
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Ammunition Choices
The caliber of success
A few years back, there was a saying going around that "there's a couple of American made products that you'll be able to find parts for anywhere in the world: a 350 Chevy, and a .308 Winchester. Due to the numbers produced and the utility of those two items, it may still be true. Anyway, the .308 is the topic of discussion over at the Living Ready website.
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The Armed Citizen
Wild West
This video reveals how wild and dangerous a public restaurant can be when virtually everyone present is packing a concealed firearm and/or a knife.
Would you take your family to a place like this? I would.
Tail wags to The Nutnfancy Project and all of the law-abiding citizens who joined TNP for their dinner party in Stockton Utah.
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Zoned Out
In the town that Billy Sunday couldn't shut down...
Police say at least one gunman walked up to the [Chicago] park's basketball court in the 1800 block of West 51st Street around 10:15 p.m. Thursday and opened fire. Thirteen people who were on the court or were watching the game were hit, many of them in the arms or legs.
Before Thursday night's shooting, eight children under the age of 8 had been shot in Chicago over seven weeks. Police listed the victims as:
A 3-year-old boy, shot in the ear, in critical condition at Mount Sinai
• A 17-year-old girl, shot in the foot, condition stabilized at Holy Cross Hospital
• A 15-year-old boy shot in the arm, stabilized at Holy Cross
• A man, 27, shot in the leg and wrist, serious condition at Mount Sinai
• A man, 24, shot twice in the stomach, serious condition at Mount Sinai
• A man, 21, shot in the leg, serious condition at Mount Sinai
• A man, 41, shot in the buttocks, serious condition at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital
• A woman, 33, shot in the shoulder, condition stabilized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital
• A man, 31, shot in the buttocks, condition stabilized at Northwestern
• A woman, 23, shot in the foot, condition stabilized at St. Anthony Hospital
• A man, 37, shot in the leg, in good condition at Stroger
• A man, 25, shot in the knee, in good condition at Northwestern
• And a man, 33, who drove himself to Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park with a gunshot wound to the leg and who was treated and released.
With all these shootings in a "gun-free zone", you'd think that they would wise up to the fact that the problem might be something besides guns.
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When Seconds Count
Navy Yard: Swat team 'stood down' at mass shooting scene
If this story is true it makes the responders at Columbine High School look like Seal Team 6.
About 8:15 local time (12:15 GMT), Alexis entered Building 197, headquarters for Naval Sea Systems Command, which builds and maintains ships and submarines for the Navy, and opened fire....
[A] highly trained and heavily armed four-man Containment and Emergency Response Team (Cert) was near the Navy Yard when the initial report of an active shooter came in about 8:20 local time. The officers, wearing full tactical gear and armed with HK-416 assault weapons, arrived outside Building 197 a few minutes later....
When the Capitol Police team radioed their superiors, they were told by a watch commander to leave the scene.
The gunman, Aaron Alexis, was reported killed after 09:00.
From the story, it appears that the decision makers let Alexis run his guns unabated for 40 minutes in a "gun-free zone"...
Please excuse me for shouting, but THE BEST HOMELAND SECURITY IS THE ARMED CITIZEN.
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Self Defense
Older Americans Getting Concealed Handgun Licenses
The increasing, sometimes prohibitive, cost of health care has compounded the already devastating effect of getting roughed up by a thug. More and more older Americans are coming to realize that there is something that they can do to protect themselves from random violence.
“Older folks are more concerned with their safety, recognize the dangers around them more, have more to lose and are less capable of dealing with threats by running and avoidance,” said Alan Korwin, author of 14 gun law books, including Your First Gun — Should you buy one and join 60 million safely armed American homes?
Texans in their 50s and 60s are leading the pack in getting concealed handgun licenses, the Star-Telegram reports. The newspaper reports that as the number of concealed handgun licenses continues to increase in Texas, the top age group seeking concealed handgun licenses in the past five years has been over 50.
Violence
The new paradigm
We have more than enough empirical knowledge to postulate that 1.) murderer's who use a gun will likely choose a "gun-free zone" to carry out their mayhem, 2.) we cannot believe anything that the media says about it for at least 24 hours, and finally 3.) the Liberal's will use the event to push for the diminution of 2nd Amendment civil rights.
It's been said before, the way to stop a murderer with a gun is with a gun; you suppose that's why murderer's always seem to choose a gun-free zone?
Amazing!
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Education
Preparing for the worst
I just came across another clue as to why our public schools are doing so poorly; some of the textbook authors can't read!
For example, in one book, this is how the 2nd Amendment in the "Bill of Rights" is listed:
Second Amendment. The people have the right to keep and bear arms in a state militia.
Not even close to the real thing. The above quote appears in a textbook that is titled United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination.
I know that this has been said before, but parents, teachers, and school board's need to start paying closer attention to what is being fed to students.
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Survival
Survival Firearms
stop•gap |ˈstäpˌgap|
noun
a temporary way of dealing with a problem or satisfying a need
Most of us are familiar with, and appreciate, the corollary between having a fire extinguisher and having a handgun. Both items can be considered a stopgap in dealing with an emergency. But, what happens when the contents of the items are depleted? Something to think about. For those who like to read about such matters, James Nowka has prepared a list of Five Reasons to Own Survival Firearms.
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Random Violence
17-Year-Old Arrested For Murder
An Opa-Locka teenager is being held without bond after a court hearing and after Miami-Dade Police arrested him for shooting and killing a 71-year-old man.
"My husband was a hard-working man. He was just going to get groceries," said Aleida Pilotos
Police say the gunman rode up to Pilotos’s car on a bicycle and pulled out his weapon and shot him. It happened in the parking lot of the supermarket...
The police cannot protect everyone from this kind of random violence. But, it is possible for you to protect yourself.
The sites of incidents like this one have been random, but the behavioral pattern is not random. The risk of becoming a victim may be increasing, but the legal risk associated with a proactive defense is effectively being reduced with each event.
Stay armed, stay alert, stay safe.
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One for the show
Majestic Moments
You know what they say; the older we get, the more it takes to impress us.
All these years looking at the green flash, and that show just seems so blasé when compared to 13.5 grains of Winchester 296 pushing a 180 gr. hunk of lead downrange from a 3" bbl. .357 Magnum revolver. Maybe it's the noise!
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Politics
Bumping The "Hot" Button
The seating in office of politicians like Colorado's John Morse and Angela Giron are evidence of laissez-faire politics; some call it the result of "uninformed voters." The un-seating, on the other hand, is evidence of an awakening of the electorate; a healthy sign.
What does it take to wake up the electorate? In this nation, an issue that strikes at the heart of freedom will do it. A hot-button topic like the 2nd Amendment will wake up those who value freedom—those who know that freedom demands responsibility.
Besides blaming the NRA, Angela Giron complained about the fact that the voters in the recent recall election had to put some effort into what they were doing—a profound statement. Apparently, in Giron's mind, that was the reason that she lost.
While it takes extra effort to clean up their mess, a little effort on the part of the electorate is the key to employing sound public servants.
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Gun Control
The Fast and Furious contempt case
Mexican bandits killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010 using guns sold in a U.S. government gun-running operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. After a lengthy investigation and contentious hearings on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives held Holder in contempt. President Obama stepped in and claimed executive privilege over the documents, but House lawyers went to a federal judge seeking to force the administration to turn over records they believe show a cover-up.
[L]egal scholars expect a decision soon in a potentially landmark case in one of the federal government's most damaging scandals -- Operation Fast and Furious.
Colorado Recalls
The Colorado Recalls Explained
By David Kopel
[On Tuesday September 10, 2013] voters in Colorado recalled two State Senators. One result was not a surprise, and the other is a shock. Of course the votes are Second Amendment victories for the right to arms, but more fundamentally, they are Fourteenth Amendment victories for Due Process of Law.
Former State Senate President John Morse represented Colorado Springs, plus the somewhat hipster mountain community of Manitou Springs. While El Paso County is strongly Republican, the interior city of Colorado Springs has been center/center-left for years. Senate District 11 was carved to make the election of a Democrat possible, and it worked. Voter registration in SD 11 is about a third, a third, and a third among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, with Democrats having the largest third and Republicans the smallest. Morse barely won re-election in 2010, and might have lost if not for the presence of a Libertarian on the ballot.
As the conventional wisdom expected, voter turn-out was relatively low. Morse was recalled by 51-49%. The conventional wisdom of Colorado politics had been that Morse would probably lose, but that the election would be tight, and there was a chance that he might win. As things turned out, Republicans turned out greatly in excess of their registration percentage, and that was probably the difference.
Both sides had hard-working GOTV programs, but apparently the Democrats did not succeed in convincing enough of their less-enthusiastic voters to vote. This is in contrast to 2012, when Obama won the district by 21%.
Pueblo, the largest city in southern Colorado, delivered the result that stunned almost everyone. For more than a century, Pueblo has been a Colorado stronghold of working-class union Democrats. Like most of southern Colorado, it has a large Hispanic population. Obama won Senate District 3 by 19% in 2012. In 2010, Democratic Senator Angela Giron won her race by about 5:4. This year, Giron chaired the Senate’s State Affairs Committee, helping to shepherd gun control bills to the Senate floor.
Pueblo’s Senate District 3 typically has a much higher turnout rate than SD 11 in Colorado Springs. The same was true today: about 36,000 votes cast in Pueblo, compared to 18,000 in Colorado Springs.
Based on the latest campaign disclosure reports, Morse/Giron enjoyed an 8:1 spending advantage over recall advocates, in terms of direct contributions to campaigns. Michael Bloomberg contributed $350,000 to fight the recalls, about equal to the $361,000 contributed by the NRA, which is probably about $3 per NRA member in the state. Another wealthy contributor gave $250,000 to oppose the recalls.
When early voting began in Colorado Springs, Republicans quickly developed a lead of several hundred voters over Democratic turnout. Democrats outperformed Republicans on Monday, and also today, but not by enough. Morse lost by 343 votes.
Meanwhile in Pueblo, Democratic turnout in early voting was ahead of Republicans by several thousand. Although Republicans were outperforming their registration percentage, they never came close to closing the large Democratic lead. The Colorado conventional wisdom was that Giron was probably safe, and was certainly relatively safe compared to Morse. While the Colorado Springs results started coming in soon after 7 p.m., Pueblo results were delayed. With only one precinct reporting, Giron had a 69-31% lead. Things seemed to be going as expected.
But about the same time that Senator Morse was delivering his concession speech, a landslide of Pueblo results started coming in. Giron quickly fell very far behind. She was recalled from office by 56% to 44%.
It’s one thing for a deliberately polarizing legislator like Morse to lose a close race in a swing district. It’s quite another for Giron to lose by 12 points in a district that is 47% Democratic and 23% Republican. One reason is that in blue collar districts like Pueblo, there are plenty of Democrats who cling to their Second Amendment rights. As the Denver Post noted, 20% of the voters who signed the Giron recall petitions were Democrats.
The Colorado Senate is now 18-17 Democratic, and 19-16 pro-Second Amendment. On gun issues, and on many others, the balance of power is now held by moderate Democrats, rather than by the hard left faction formerly led by Morse.
The Republicans (for a change of pace in Colorado) ran near-flawless campaigns with strong candidates: new Senators Bernie Herpin (Colorado Springs) and George Rivera (Pueblo). I’ve long known Herpin for founding and leading the Pikes Peak Firearm Coalition, and I have high respect for him. He has dedicated a quarter century of his life as a civic volunteer to defense of the Second Amendment. At the same time, he has a sense of what is politically realistic in a given situation, and does not press issues for the mere emotional satisfaction of being “hardcore.” Thus, in the Republican nomination process, he was opposed by Dudley Brown’s fund-raising organization Rocky Mountain Gun Owners. Brown’s preferred candidate, a believer in the nutty legal theories of “sovereign citizens,” would certainly have lost the recall election.
In Pueblo, the new Senator is George Rivera, a retired police officer, and former Democrat who left the party during the Clinton administration.
While both races became nationalized and attracted lots of outside money (an economic boon that far exceeded the expense of holding special elections), the recall movement was created by citizen activists making their first ventures into politics. The recall group Pueblo Freedom and Rights was led by Victor Head, who runs a family plumbing business.
It would be accurate to say that the recall campaign was driven by opposition to the anti-gun bills which Morse and Giron pushed through the legislature. But this is only the first part of the story. As it turns out, Morse and Giron sealed their fates on March 4, the day that the anti-gun bills were heard in Senate committees. At Morse’s instruction, only 90 minutes of testimony per side were allowed on each of the gun bills. As a result, hundreds of Colorado citizens were prevented from testifying even briefly. Many of them had driven hours to come to the Capitol, traveling from all over the state.
That same day, 30 Sheriffs came to testify. They too were shut out, with only a single Sheriff allowed to testify on any given bill. So while one Sheriff testified, others stood up with him in support.
Admirably, Morse had urged his Committee Chairs to be polite and courteous to all witnesses, and they were. But President Morse did not follow the standard practice of the Colorado legislature, by which any citizen who wishes to testify is allowed to be heard, at least briefly. The patient endurance of Colorado legislative committees which have heard hour upon hour of testimony on bills about gay rights, motorcycle helmets, and other social controversies is a tribute to our republican form of government.
When Morse shut that down, and Chairperson Giron went along, they crossed the double-red line of Colorado government. Had the seven gun control bills (one of which I testified in favor) been heard on March 4-6, instead of being rammed through committees on March 4, the recall might never have happened. It’s one thing to lose; it’s another to thing to lose when you didn’t even have the opportunity to present your reasoning. While the gun control bills were before the Senate in March, President Morse urged his caucus to stop reading emails, to stop reading letters from constituents, to stop listening to voicemails, to vote for the gun bills and ignore the constituents. Giron, presciently following this strategy, had allowed citizens to raise Second Amendment concerns at a single town hall meeting, and thereafter refused to discuss the issue at public fora.
If an 8:1 Bloomberg money advantage can’t buy an election, then elected officials will be more reluctant to support repressive gun bills. As Giron told The New Republic, “”For Mayors Against Illegal Guns, if they lose even one of these seats, they might as well fold it up. And they understand that.”
There were other issues too, including the dubious claim the Republicans Herpin and Rivera would take away women’s birth control pills, as well as discredited financial ethic charges against Morse.
The Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was the secondmost important reason why Morse and Giron were removed from office. The first reason was the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment principle of Due Process of Law. The opportunity to be heard is the fundamental to Due Process of Law, and not solely in adjudications. When Morse and Giron squelched the testimony of law-abiding citizens and of law-enforcing Sheriffs, they grossly abused their constitutional office of being law-makers. And so, for abuse of office, John Morse and Angela Giron have been recalled from office by the People of Colorado, to be replaced by legislators who will listen before the vote.
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Tail wags to David Kopel and http://www.volokh.com/2013/09/11/colorado-recalls-explained/
2nd Amendment
People v. Aguilar (Ill. Sept. 12, 2013)
As the Seventh Circuit correctly noted, neither Heller nor McDonald expressly limits the second amendment’s protections to the home. On the contrary, both decisions contain language strongly suggesting if not outright confirming that the second amendment right to keep and bear arms extends beyond the home. Moreover, if Heller means what it says, and “individual self-defense” is indeed “the central component” of the second amendment right to keep and bear arms, then it would make little sense to restrict that right to the home, as “[c]onfrontations are not limited to the home.” Indeed, Heller itself recognizes as much when it states that “the right to have arms *** was by the time of the founding understood to be an individual right protecting against both public and private violence.”
Kicking and screaming, Illinois was the last of the 50 states to "officially" accept the fact that the concealed carrying of firearms by its citizens is a guaranteed civil right. The pendulum swings slowly, but it appears to be swinging in the right direction—for the moment.
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2nd Amendment Documentary
Infringed—The Movie
Producers Peter Gould & Gary Theroux were on Armed America Radio Sunday to talk about their new documentary film. Here is a video of Mark Walters' interview:
Victory for freedom
A Famous Victory in Colorado
A grassroots effort delivered an unprecedented blow to gun-control advocates.
So anxious were the opponents of the recall that they felt compelled to rely heavily on Michael Bloomberg, who sent $350,000 to Colorado to fight the threat; members of Obama’s ground team were brought in to boost turnout, and even former president Bill Clinton was wheeled in at the last minute to try to tip the scales.
None of it worked.
And, from John Nolte at Breitbart:
The media literally spent months pushing for gun control laws; and now the voters of the more-blue-than-red-state of Colorado have handed the Chuck Todds, David Gregorys, Piers Morgans, and Joe Scarboroughs another bitter defeat.
...these Bubble Zombies from Hell will rise again. No question. But if lawmakers in a bluer-than-red-state like Colorado can't get away with stripping bluer-than-red-voters of their Second Amendment civil rights, this round goes to Liberty.
CMP
Still Around
Recent news articles and references to the demise of the Civilian Marksmanship Program are erroneous. Business and programs continue as usual. We appreciate the continued support of all our customers.
Contrary to some rumors that have been adrift recently, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is still doing "business as usual."
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The Syrian dilemma
You Want to Help Syria’s Christians? Send Guns
While our government should stay out of the Syrian war altogether, the private energies of those of us concerned for the well-being of the remaining Christians of the Middle East should not be directed toward appeals to the “international community” and similar non sequiturs. Instead, they need guns, to be able to form their own militias.
This article illustrates the reason why our right to bear arms in this country is so important.
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Boat Handling
A day in the shadow of Watergate
Now that we know about their boat handling ability, the question is "what about their gun handling skill?"
Politics
Colorado’s new gun laws
Next Tuesday will reveal whether freedom, or fear, is the prevailing force in Colorado. There is no doubt that evil is all around us; Colorado has no monopoly on evil.
Colorado’s prisons contain thousands of “active” gangsters who violently “target” each other while in prison. One of these gangs is the 211 Crew, a group of violent white supremacists that included Ebel, that sent a Colorado judge into hiding, and that likely ordered the murder of Clements—the head of the Department of Corrections. Even though Ebel violently assaulted a prison guard—a crime for which he was supposed to serve an additional four years—the government’s “clerical error” released him from prison early. After Ebel broke his ankle bracelet and went on the run, the government did nothing about it. Two days later, Ebel murdered a pizza delivery man for his uniform. Two days after that, Ebel murdered Clements at his home. Two days after that, Ebel nearly murdered a Texas law enforcement officer and attempted to murder many more.
Liberal politicians seem to think that disarming citizens, and hampering the law-abiding citizen's ability to defend themselves from thugs like those mentioned above, will make society a safer place. See what Kimberly Weeks has to say about their disarming citizens. That is the reason why we are witnessing a recall election in Colorado.
Tuesday's election will reveal a lot about Colorado.
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Home Invasion
Armed Homeowner Halts Crime Spree
Another example where the conventional "system" was not capable of dealing with the threat.
A Kansas City homeowner fatally shot a man who broke into his home early Wednesday morning. Apparently the suspect had been on an early-morning crime spree, which included vehicle theft and assault, before he kicked his way into his last home....
...the homeowner discovered that the suspect, 30-year-old Christopher Robinson, had kicked his way in through a door in the garage.
Robinson was no newcomer to criminal activity either. In fact, he had been arrested at least 28 times in Kansas City since 2002 for charges that include aggravated assault, criminal damage to property, resisting arrest and battery of a law enforcement officer.
Robinson’s father said that he had always hoped that his son’s run-ins with the law would garner enough attention to help him break the cycle of addiction, but it didn’t.
“They could see he was a problem,” he said. “It was a revolving door, and there wasn’t nobody doing nothing.”
The police, the courts, and the penal system supposedly did their best, but when the revolving door swept Christopher Robinson out on to society for the last time, it was just a matter of time until he received justice in the most basic form—proving that the armed citizen is a vital element in the U.S. system of justice.
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