Category: Guns

I voted for Joe Manchin in 2012 for US Senator from West Virginia. The first Democrat that I’ve voted for national office since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Mostly I voted for him because he introduced a National concealed carry bill to the Senate. I’d hoped that he would be good on guns. A few months after I cast that vote for him he tried to run a gun control bill through the Senate in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy.

Now the West Virginia legislature voted overwhelmingly for permitless concealed carry for law abiding West Virginians. Manchin “strongly opposes” this legislation;

In a news release Thursday, Manchin noted that he is a member of the National Rifle Association and considers himself an advocate of the Second Amendment. However, Manchin said allowing a person to carry a concealed weapon without a permit or training is “irresponsible” and “dangerous.”

“There is not one West Virginian whose Second Amendment rights will be infringed without this bill.With the right to bear arms comes the responsibility to use it in a safe and reasonable manner,” Manchin said in the Thursday news release.

There are still some reasons to get a Concealed Carry Weapon permit (I have one, by the way). 32 other states recognize West Virginia CCW permits, so, you’ll need one to cross state lines with your weapon. Last year, the legislature changed state laws so that anyone with a current CCW would not have to subject themselves to background checks every time they buy guns. Once every five years to renew your permit is good enough. So, see, it benefits a gun owner to have a CCW permit, but this way, it’s a choice, not a requirement.

I also don’t see Manchin putting his name on that new National CCW bill in the Senate, you know, even though he was for it before his election.

But, this Joe “I’m a member of the NRA” Manchin is not the fellow for whom I voted in 2012, so I won’t be making that mistake again.

The Hill reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has withdrawn plans to ban the 5.56mm M885 “green tip” ammunition for the time being;

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) said it will not seek to issue a final framework for the rule “at this time” after receiving more than 80,000 comments on the proposal, the “vast majority” of which were negative.

“You spoke, we listened,” the ATF tweeted.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun-rights groups assailed the proposal, and were joined by Republicans in demanding that it be withdrawn.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he is “pleased that the Obama administration has abandoned its attack on the Second Amendment.”

I guess that whoever had invested in ammo manufacturers figured they had made enough, what with some sellers gouging gun owners of the popular AR-style rifles that fire that ammo which was still expensive from the last ammo scare early last year. The Hill still refers to the ammunition as “armor piercing” even though it has no more armor piercing qualities than any other ammunition.

Our buddy, Emily Miller, got her gun permit to carry a handgun in the District of Columbia. You might remember that she walked us through the process of qualifying for owning a gun in the nation’s capital while she was a reporter at the Washington Times, and in her book “Emily Gets Her Gun. Now she works at WTTG Fox5 and she navigated the hoops for a permit allowing her to take her handgun on the streets of DC.

DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG

Keep in mind, any American can apply for a D.C. gun permit. But so far, only 76 have done so. Thirty-one were denied. Five cancelled their own applications. And 16 were approved.

I was shocked to hear that I am the 15th person the police chief approved for a carry permit.

Why me?

[…]

I have only received preliminary approval. To get the permit, I have to take 18 hours of classes with an instructor certified by the police within 45 days. I’m taking the class, but my decision whether or not to carry a gun in public is a personal one and will remain private.

No one could legally carry a gun in D.C. a year ago. Today, there are 16 of us who may exercise our Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Emily was the victim of a violent crime a few years ago in DC, but so are many DC residents. I was assaulted a few times myself in the ten years I lived in the city. So, I’m sure there are many who will qualify, eventually. It’s a slow start, but it’s a good start.

We’ve featured several posts here about Emily Miller who did a series of articles about her trials and tribulations while she tried to arm herself in the District of Columbia which appeared in the Washington Times. Since then, she’s gone to work at WTTG, the DC Fox affiliate and not surprisingly, she has carried on with her work in regards to 2d Amendment issues. The other day, she spoke at a rally of pro-gun supporters who gathered at the Maryland Statehouse for their cause, and, of course, she’s being criticized by the Left, most notably Media Matters;

Emily Miller, a reporter for Washington, D.C. Fox affiliate WTTG (Fox 5), is facing strong criticism from journalism experts over her outspoken advocacy for gun rights, with one journalism professor suggesting her conflict of interest is a fireable offense.

Miller, Fox 5’s chief investigative reporter, has openly advocated on behalf of gun rights groups, most recently speaking at a rally in Annapolis, Maryland on Tuesday that was organized by the National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm and local gun rights groups.

Journalism experts, huh? I guess they mean the people around their corporate water cooler. Piling on is Washington Post‘s Eric Wemple (with whom I have my own problems);

A bio on the Fox5 site lists Miller as the station’s chief investigative reporter, though a more accurate title would be chief investigative reporter-cum-gun activist. As reported by Media Matters, Miller recently addressed a gun-rights rally in Richmond, where she said, “It’s great to be in Virginia, which is part of America where you recognize the Second Amendment. I came from D.C. this morning, which is not part of America, because they don’t recognize the Second Amendment.”

Aside from the gun issues that Miller has addressed in the short time she has been at WTTG she’s also investigated the police department’s breast feeding policies, she’s written about how DC politicians skip out on answering for their traffic and parking tickets, also she has uncovered malfeasance with the E-Z Pass system around the District. She’s also tried to get a carry permit for her gun and she reports on her progress in that regard. I should mention that Miller became a supporter of the 2d Amendment when she became a crime victim a few years back while living in the District.

My point, I guess, is that she has worked as a journalist and she’s investigated several areas other than guns. I don’t see anyone calling her a breast-feeding advocate. I also don’t see anyone calling out the Washington Post for their advocacy of gun control, either. In fact, I’m so anal about this subject, here’s a bit from the New York Times on Washington Post columnist Carl Rowan back in 1988;

Mr. Rowan, a longtime advocate of tougher gun controls, is expected to be arraigned Monday, said his attorney, Raoul L. Carroll. He said his client would plead not guilty to the misdemeanor charges, which call for a maximum penalty of two years in jail and a $2,000 fine on conviction.

The .22-caliber pistol used in the incident belonged to Mr. Rowan’s son, Carl Jr., a former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who had given the gun to his father. It was not registered with the District, which has a 1976 ordinance mandating that all such weapons be registered.

I guess that was fine that a Washington Post journalist was known as a “gun control advocate”, never mind that he was in possession of an unregistered gun, as opposed to Emily Miller who went through the mind-numbing process of actually registering a gun in the District. In 1981, Rowan wrote that “a law that says anyone found in possession of a handgun except a legitimate officer of the law goes to jail—period.” In a 1985 column, Rowan wrote that there should be a law that restricts gun ownership to police and the armed forces. As a side note about Rowan, the jury was deadlocked at his trial and the judge declared a mistrial. The prosecutor didn’t bother taking him back to court, because…reasons.

Back to the Media Matters link;

Patrick Pexton, a former Washington Post ombudsman, offered a simple answer to whether Miller should be advocating for gun rights while still a reporter: “She shouldn’t. Period.”

He later said, “To call her a reporter is a stretch. She’s more like an activist; there’s no pretense of objectivity here. Emily Miller can call herself whatever she wants, it’s a free country. Free enough that we can see right through her.”

Anyone care to prove to me that the Washington Post doesn’t advocate for more gun control? Anyone? With headlines like these;

Guns sales spiked after the Ferguson unrest. Will gun crime rise as well?

Gun happy men are leaving weaponry under the tree – and women are loving it.

Bang: The troubled legacy of toy guns

Two years after Sandy Hook, the gun control movement has new energy

Stop blaming mental health for gun violence. The problem is guns.

How guns make police less safe, their jobs more difficult and communities less trusting

Two years later, Newtown has meant almost nothing to the gun debate
Gun control hits a new low.

As you can imagine, I could go on – the Washington Post doesn’t have any gun-advocates on their staff, but their ombudsman doesn’t like someone who is open about their pro-gun position.

The Republicans have submitted a bill that would allow US citizens to carry weapons concealed in all 50 states if they had complied with the laws within their own state, according to The Hill. Once again. My Senator, Joe Manchin, submitted the same bill before the 2012 election – it went no where. After the election, Manchin tried to help Chuck Schumer and the rest when they tried to do a backdoor federal firearm registration bill. So, I’m not real hopeful for this bill, which will probably be vetoed at the White House if it gets through the legislative process;

Gun control groups say the bill poses a significant danger for society at a time when lawmakers should be strengthening background checks to address recent shootings.

“Federally imposed concealed carry laws interfere with states’ fundamental right to determine who is too dangerous to carry hidden, loaded guns in public,” Everytown for Gun Safety President John Feinblatt told The Hill.

In that case, each state should test drivers from out of state who try to pass through. Same concept. If my state has determined that I’m a law abiding member of society, who is, Maryland, for example to say I’m not. I live ten miles from Maryland, so I guess as soon as I pass over the Potomac, I get the urge to shoot up some public assemblage of poor innocent Marylanders caught unaware.

By the way, Maryland also has pretty stringent driver testing standards compared to West Virginia, too. You have to wait nine months after you pass the written test to take the driving test and you have to take a driver’s training course and show proof of your training. In West Virginia, you take your written test and then wait a month to take the driving test. So, how does Maryland get away with letting me drive in their state since I didn’t meet their driving test standard.

I don’t carry a weapon in Maryland, by the way, because they’d punish me as if I were a real criminal if they caught me. Since I don’t go anywhere without a firearm, I don’t go to Maryland and spend my money, either. I can carry a weapon in Virginia, so I drive 50 miles to do my shopping rather than the more convenient ten miles. Maryland’s loss. Oh, yeah gas is about $.25/gallon cheaper in Virginia, too.

In October 2013, Joshua Cavett shot and killed his 27-year-old wife, Jesse Doyle Cavett, in front of his children when he couldn’t get the visitation rights he wanted in their divorce. Cavett was a previously convicted felon and was in illegal possession of a gun when he killed his ex. He was convicted late last year.

So, this group of gun grabbers, Everytown for Gun Safety, hoping to make some hay from the tragedy, contacted the victim’s sister, Jennie Cochran, for her cooperation in that endeavor. I guess the were surprised by her reaction;

“I’m very pro-gun, as is Jessie, so I would really hope that you guys don’t use her story for anything,” Cochran responded. “Because the only thing that would have saved her was a gun.”

On “Fox and Friends” this morning, Cochran explained that there’s no way the police would have been able to respond in time to prevent her sister’s murder.

“[Cavett] is a felon. He’s gonna have a gun, and the only thing that would have leveled it out is if she had one too,” she said.

“It was already illegal for him to have a gun. He was a felon … they’re gonna get them. There’s a black market out there and they’re always gonna have them.”

So, I guess that’s a “no”.

GruntSgt sends us a link from WatchdogVermont which reports that one Democrat state senator in Vermont, Dick Sears, D-Bennington, figures that Vermont has the proper amount of background checks for legal gun owners that they don’t need anymore;

“If I want to give a neighbor my gun, and I’m not hunting anymore, I shouldn’t have to go to a gun shop in order to do a background check on my neighbor, who I’ve known for 30 years. And if I give my gun to some felon, that’s my own fault, and I can already be held accountable for that under various laws in civil court,” he said.

[…]

“A lot of people don’t realize there’s a section in the Vermont Constitution regarding the ownership of firearms that, as I read it, is much more liberal towards the gun owner than the U.S. Constitution,” Sears said.

“People say, ‘It’s a violation of the Second Amendment.’ I think the 16th Article of the Vermont Constitution also needs to be read in any of these decisions we make.”

The article to which Sears refers is unambiguous: “The people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves and the State.”

The article continues that even though Vermont has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the country, it also has one of the lowest violent crime rates. That 42% of households contain firearms while only 115 people out of a hundred thousand people are victims of crime – about half of the national average.

Of course, the gun grabbers don’t see it that way. They still want to close that so-called “gun show loop hole” and forbid folks from private sales without background checks although less than 1% of criminals admit that’s how they came into possession of the firearms they used in crimes. And that’s why gun grabber Michael Bloomberg is pumping tens of millions of dollars into state campaigns to rein in gun ownership by law abiding Americans.

Clarence Daniels, 62 years old, put his gun in his holster at his car in the Walmart parking lot when he went to pick up some coffee creamer. 43-year-old vigilante Michael Foster saw him and decided that there was no legal reason a Black man should be concealing a handgun. Foster followed Daniels into the store and tackled him at the front doors, yelling “He’s got a gun”.

Well, Mister Daniels has a permit to carry a handgun concealed in public, but I guess that never entered Mister Foster’s narrow mind. Here’s the video of the assault;

Mister Foster was arrested for assault according to the Tampa Bay Times;

The Sheriff’s Office recommends that vigilante-inclined citizens refrain from taking matters into their own hands, especially when an incident is gun-related. Call 911 or alert security, McKinnon said, before taking any drastic measure.

“You better make sure there’s a good reason,” he added. “Otherwise you might be confronting a guy that is legally permitted to carry a gun.”

Foster was lucky that Mr. Daniels was a responsible gun owner or Foster might be full of new orifices now.