Category: Gun Grabbing Fascists

The Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, doesn’t like guns, more accurately, he doesn’t like that you have guns. He likes to tell his constituents that he grew up on the Eastern shore, so that means that he’s just like you – he hunts, so guns are his friends. But he hasn’t seen a gun control measure in the legislature that he won’t vote for.

His favorite line when talking about gun control is explaining to people that he treated “assault weapon” victims as a doctor in the Army during Desert Storm.

As an Army veteran and a doctor—and an Eastern Shore native who grew up hunting—Ralph knows the damage weapons can do. That’s why he’s been a staunch advocate for commonsense gun safety laws since his time in the state senate.

I witnessed the damage these guns can do firsthand as an Army doctor during the First Gulf War.

Well, he was indeed a doctor during Desert Storm, according to the NPRC;

I’m not sure how many wounded soldiers he treated though. He was a child neurologist working at the Army’s Landstuhl Hospital in Germany. The way I understand neurologists, they treat brain diseases not gunshot wounds. It looks like he specialized in child neurology before, during and after the time he was at Landstuhl.

I know that Landstuhl played an important part during the latest wars in the Middle East as the hospital that treated casualties evacuated from Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, etc… At the time of Desert Storm, however, the 97th General Hospital in Frankfort was the primary hospital for evacuated casualties. The 97th closed in June 1992.

Now, he didn’t exactly lie about his service, he was a Major, he was a doctor, he served during Desert Storm, but I’m pretty sure a child neurologist wouldn’t be treating wounded soldiers, except in emergency circumstances – extreme emergencies.

He can be against the private ownership of guns, that’s fine, everyone has a right to their opinions, no matter how misinformed that opinion might be…but he should leave the Army out of it. He comes off as another elitist asshole who is holier than thou.

There has been a movement in state legislatures to do away with concealed carry permits, CCW in the parlance. Some states, like West Virginia, have been successful in that endeavor. McClatchy reports that the gun control fascists are freaking out;

“We watch [the National Rifle Association] very closely, that’s what we do,” Peter Ambler, executive director of Americans for Responsible Solutions, said in a recent interview.

“What’s most important is that permitless carry does not become law,” Ambler said. “… You don’t want folks carrying around an incredibly dangerous consumer product like a firearm without knowing how to use it. That’s not only common sense but a part of the ethos of responsibility in this country that’s accompanied the traditions of gun ownership, that unfortunately the gun lobby is getting away from.”

[…]

[F]ormer Rep. Gary Pendleton, a Raleigh [North Carolina] Republican…describes himself as a hunter, gun collector and 43-year member of the NRA. But he strongly supports the current permitting system because it ensures people carrying concealed handguns are trained and their backgrounds checked out, which protects the public.

“I’m in favor of that,” Pendleton said Monday. “I don’t want to make it easier for criminals to conceal pistols.”

I don’t know how CCW permits make it harder for criminals to conceal weapons. They’re criminals, they don’t follow laws, they don’t apply for permits, they just carry a concealed weapon. It’s not like the gun on a criminal without a permit sends out a warning signal to potential victims and responding police officers.

In West Virginia, there is still an advantage to having a permit – CCW permit holders don’t have to go through background checks when they purchase a gun – they get a very thorough background check when they apply for the permit and they go through the process every five years. If they want to cross state lines with their gun, they’ll need a permit to do that. I’m sure both of those advantages would make the gun grabbers cringe anyway.

The West Virginia legislature had to over-ride the governor’s veto last year in order to get this win for West Virginians and believe it or not, our streets aren’t soaked in blood. I’m sure there are criminals roaming around West Virginia with guns tucked in their waistbands, but forcing a permit system on them won’t stop that. They were doing it before the permitless system started.

And, oh, by the way, if the people didn’t want permitless carry in their states, their legislatures wouldn’t pass it – NRA or no NRA.

Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.

ABC News reports that disgruntled Bernie Sanders supporter and terrorist James T. Hodgkinson used a legally-purchased “SKS 7.62 assault-style rifle”. The only feature of the SKS that is consistent with assault-style rifles is the fact that it is semi-automatic.

The SKS rifle and it’s variants have virtually none of the features that scare gun-grabbers when they craft laws to ban what they call assault weapons – it doesn’t have a detachable box magazine, there is no pistol grip, most don’t have a bayonet lug, there is no flash suppressor and there is no barrel shroud.

The stripper-clip-fed fixed magazine only holds ten rounds. There’s no “thing in the back that goes up”. It’s not even scary black. It’s legal in most states, including those that have “assault rifle bans” like California. It’s a World War II-era rifle – designed in 1943 and first issued to Soviet troops in 1945. It was out of service in the Soviet Union by the 1950s, replaced by the AK-47.

If we’re going to have a discussion about gun control, we need to be consistent in the language we use in that discussion.

Last night, our buddy, Dan P. Eldridge who owns Maxon Shooter’s Supplies & Indoor Range in Des Plaines, Illinois sent us a link to an opinion piece he wrote for the Chicago Tribune. Dan was the fellow who prevented Sun Times journalist Neil Steinberg from buying an evil scary black rifle last year. It seems that the Illinois Senate thinks that there aren’t enough gun regulations to prevent legal gun owners from buying guns, and they passed SB 1657 which burdens the few gun dealers left in Illinois with more regulations under the guise of making Illinois safer from criminals. From Dan’s pen;

Federal firearms licensees, or gun dealers, are already licensed and supervised by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF agents conduct extensive background checks and periodically audit every licensee. Most gun shops are staffed like mine: Every employee has a firearm owner’s identification card and most possess a concealed carry permit. Both credentials require comprehensive background checks. Adding another level of state background checks simply wastes scarce law enforcement resources.

Bill sponsor Sen. Don Harmon’s obfuscation of “trace” data has been truly appalling. Harmon, D-Oak Park, waited for the TV cameras to announce that 17 percent of crime guns are traced to just three gun shops in Cook County. Harmon’s implication is that these shops sell guns to criminals, but that’s not what a trace identifies, and he should know it. Law enforcement may trace a gun because it was lost, stolen, recovered by police in a benign setting or recovered at a crime scene. The only thing a trace tells investigators is where a gun was first legally purchased. He also doesn’t explain that the average time from first sale to trace is nine years, or that the overwhelming majority of Chicago’s crime guns are either stolen or bought on the black market. That’s because those revelations won’t support his campaign to drive Illinois gun stores out of business.

Among the restrictions, permission from the State to operate a business, is review by a 5-member board. The membership includes one “public safety advocate” – you know an anti-gun fascist. How many licenses do you think Michael Bloomberg would approve? Also, according to the text of the bill is this useful requirement;

A licensee shall post in a conspicuous position on the premises where the licensee conducts business a sign that contains the following warning in block letters not less than one inch in height:
“With few exceptions, it is unlawful for you to:
(1) store or leave an unsecured firearm in a place
where a child can obtain access to it,
(2) sell or transfer your firearm to someone else
without receiving approval for the transfer from the
Department of State Police, or
(3) fail to report the loss or theft of your
firearm to local law enforcement within 72 hours.”

Because signs stop criminals dead in their tracks. I wonder if the legislature will require back-alley gun dealers to display that sign in the trunk of their cars or the parking lot lamp pole.

Basically, the bill just an attempt by the legislature to do what they do best – write laws that burden the law abiding and do nothing to solve the problems they’re supposed to solve.

There is absolutely nothing in the bill that will end the gun violence in Illinois, but that doesn’t stop the legislature from pummeling lawful consumers and dealers with more useless regulation. Because gun control is mostly about control.

The Illinois House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on SB 1657 next week Tuesday, so spread Dan’s opinion piece far-and-wide.