This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Guns

  • Feinstein’s onerous gun ban

    Yup, gun control writ large is coming to the Senate floor, boy-os. Feinstein has published on her website what she intends to present to the Senate come January. She wants to specifically ban 120 weapons and reduce the “military characteristics clause” from the 1994 bill from two to one – in other words just having a bayonet lug, flash suppressor or pistol grip by themselves will get a gun banned. And she’s including “thumbhole stocks” for the first time.

    Handguns are included in the ban, specifically if they’ll accommodate a magazine larger than ten rounds.

    Think you’re grandfathered? Yep, you are. But;

    Requires that grandfathered weapons be registered under the National Firearms Act, to include:
    o Background check of owner and any transferee;
    o Type and serial number of the firearm;
    o Positive identification, including photograph and fingerprint;
    o Certification from local law enforcement of identity and that
    possession would not violate State or local law; and
    o Dedicated funding for ATF to implement registration

    In other words, they’re coming for your guns – why else register them? And what sheriff wants to sign a piece of paper certifying that you won’t commit a crime at some point in the future? I’m pretty sure that I went through a background check when I purchased my guns. And then again when when I applied for my CCW license. Fingerprint? You mean like a criminal gets fingerprinted? Like that?

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.

  • No “assault rifle” used in Newtown

    My mistake. The NBC link says it aired on Dec 15th, so it’s not really news.

    NBC is reporting that police are admitting that initial reports that Adam Lanza used four of his mother’s handguns in the shooting and that the semi-automatic rifle was in the trunk of his mother’s car. They continue that he tried to buy a semi-automatic rifle and was deterred by the waiting period gun law.

    Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

    So guns laws worked in deterring Lanza, but somehow we need more laws. Thanks to one of my ever-vigilant ninjas for the link.

  • Utah teachers to pack gun training seminar

    The Washington Post reports that about 200 teachers will pack a free six-hour seminar so that they can arm themselves and protect the children who are in their charge;

    The Utah Shooting Sports Council said it normally gathers a dozen teachers every year for instruction that’s required to legally carry a concealed weapon in public places. The state’s leading gun lobby decided to offer teachers the training at no charge to encourage turnout, and it worked.

    Organizers who initially capped attendance at 200 were exceeding that number by Wednesday and scrambling to accommodate an overflow crowd.

    Of course, because it’s the Post, and the Post is vehemently opposed to guns, they have to find the best opposition they can find to finish their article;

    Utah educators say they would ban guns if they could and have no way of knowing how many teachers are armed.

    “It’s a terrible idea,” said Carol Lear, a chief lawyer for the Utah Office of Education, who argues teachers could be overpowered for their guns or misfire or cause an accidental shooting. “It’s a horrible, terrible, no-good, rotten idea.”

    Carol Lear is brilliant and gives such a good explanation for her position that I can’t help but agree. That was sarcasm, by the way.

  • Kalashnikov hospitalized

    Mikhail-Kalashniko_1511890c

    Defense News reports that Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the Kalashnikov rifle, known popularly as the AK-47, is in the hospital;

    The 93-year-old father of the AK-47 has been having heart problems and feeling poorly since March, when he stopped showing up for work, his aide told the RIA Novosti news agency.

    “When I visited him at home last week, he told me that nothing seemed to hurt, but that he simply had no strength left,” his assistant, Nikolai Shklyayev, was quoted as saying.

    “It seems that this is just his age showing,” Shklyayev said.

    Really? He’s a little bit tired after working all of his life, outliving the Soviet Union.

    I’ve never been a big fan of the AK-series. They’re dependable and I guess that’s all you need when you’re arming some third world shithole to kill each other. I’m sure there are some fans out there, but I’m not one, being an American who appreciates marksmanship over spray and pray.

  • Teen defends home with *gasp* “assault rifle”

    Hack Stone sends this video from Houston about a 15-year-old who defended his home and his 12-year-old sister from home invaders with his father’s AR15 rifle, what some people would call an assault rifle. The news team called his father a “constable”;

    I guess it happened a week or so ago. Apparently it got buried in some other things that were on the media’s mind.

    Oh, the home invaders fled scene, trailing bodily fluids which led to their arrest.

    Yep, no one needs a large capacity magazine for hunting.

  • Christmas Eve feel good story

    Folks in Atlanta are marginally safer today according to a link sent to us by Bubblehead Ray from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which reports that an intended victim there thwarted two men who tried to rob him;

    Police were alerted to the shooting about 10:30 p.m. Monday when a deceased male was dropped off by a private citizen at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones said.

    “At the same time, Zone 6 officers responded to an attempted robbery at 20 Jackson St.,” Jones said in an e-mail.

    “The investigation revealed that the deceased male and another male attempted to rob a subject,” Jones said. “The intended victim pulled his own weapon to defend himself and shot one of the would-be robbers.”

    So, the guy who took the poor soul who was ventilated by the not-so-victim to the hospital was also arrested. Two down in Atlanta.

  • Those gun owners next door

    The Journal News compounded their idiotic posting of gun owners’ personal information on their interactive website this weekend by trying to explain it;

    In May, Richard V. Wilson approached a female neighbor on the street and shot her in the back of the head, a crime that stunned their quiet Katonah neighborhood.

    What was equally shocking for some was the revelation that the mentally disturbed 77-year-old man had amassed a cache of weapons — including two unregistered handguns and a large amount of ammunition — without any neighbors knowing.

    “I think that the access to guns in this country is ridiculous, that anybody can get one,” said a neighbor of Wilson’s who requested anonymity because it’s not known whether the gunman, whose unnamed victim survived, will return home or be sent to prison. “Would I have bought this house knowing somebody (close by) had an arsenal of weapons? No, I would not have.”

    Now, wait a second, the killer “amassed” a cache of unregistered weapons, but somehow that justifies publishing the names and addresses of people who have legally acquired their firearms? How, exactly does that work?

    Combined with laws that allow the purchase of rifles and shotguns without a permit, John Thompson, a program manager for Project SNUG at the Yonkers Family YMCA, said that leaves the public knowing little about the types of deadly weapons that might be right next door.

    “I would love to know if someone next to me had guns. It makes me safer to know so I can deal with that,” said Thompson, whose group counsels youths against gun violence. “I might not choose to live there.”

    Well, then go to the town clerk’s office and find out, dimbulb. In fact, make sure your name gets on the list of people easiest to victimize, but don’t demonize people who don’t see themselves as potential victims.

    In the wake of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and amid renewed nationwide calls for stronger gun control, some Lower Hudson Valley residents would like lawmakers to expand the amount of information the public can find out about gun owners. About 44,000 people in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam — one out of every 23 adults — is licensed to own a handgun.

    And 100% of those 44,000 people didn’t commit any crimes with their legal handguns yesterday, so what’s your point?

    The blog, For What It’s Worth, posts the public information available for Dwight R Worley, the fellow who wrote the article, I’m sure he doesn’t mind that everyone knows where he lives, since he has a gun permit, too.

    By the way, I didn’t link to the LoHud story on purpose because they’ve set up some BS subscription thingie since early this morning that won’t let you see the article until you subscribe. But I found a cache copy of the article.

  • The Bushmaster in New York

    Apparently, I was wrong when I said in a previous post that the Bushmaster was illegal in New York. Some Bushmasters are illegal in New York, but Bushmaster makes a state-compliant version. Two variants in .223 caliber, according to their website;

    Bushmaster State compliant

    The Predator and the Varminter don’t have a folding/collapsible stock, a bayonet lug or a flash suppressor which makes it legal to sell in New York. Gallagher Fan sent this link to the Hudson Valley’s Times-Herald Record which laments that that Bushmaster made a weapon that complied with New York State Law;

    The Bushmaster M4 semiautomatic rifle has a pistol grip and detachable ammunition clip, which are two criteria for the sort of firearms state law prohibits. Yet an ordinary citizen can still buy such a gun because it lacks any other feature that meets the definition of an assault weapon.

    Indeed, a flier for the outdoors retailer Gander Mountain recently advertised a version of the Bushmaster rifle on sale for $900. That gun comes with a magazine that holds up to 10 bullets; the gun used in Connecticut reportedly had a 30-round magazine.

    State Assembly Democrats have been trying in vain since 2004 to expand New York’s definition of assault weapons. The Democratic-dominated chamber has overwhelmingly passed the proposal five times since 2005, but it has died each time because no senator — Democrat or Republican — has even introduced the same measure in the Senate.

    Their article is accompanied by this photo;

    AP Bushmaster photo

    The Bushmaster M4 would be considered a banned assault weapon under that bill.

    The Bushmaster M4 IS a banned assault weapon under current New York law.

    That weapon in that photo is NOT legal for sale in New York, despite the caption that claims otherwise. It has a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, a bayonet lug and a flash suppressor – that’s four things, coupled with the box magazine which make it illegal in New York. Not to mention the 30-round magazines and what’s with the box of pistol ammunition in the photo? Of course, that picture was meant to mislead readers because that weapon looks more scary than the weapons that are legal to be sold in New York. The rifle in the Record’s picture also has what looks like a 16 inch barrel, while the rifles made for New York State have 20 & 24 inch barrels.

    I’m not saying that a collapsible stock, a pistol grip, a bayonet lug or a flash suppressor make the weapon more deadly, that’s the emotional Left who thinks that appearances count for something.

    Of course, Gallagher Fan’s point was that I don’t do my homework like I accuse the media of doing. But, this Chris Mckenna didn’t do his homework when he included that picture with his article, either.

    So I’ll concede that a variation of the Bushmaster rifle can be sold in New York State, but not the one that we’ve seen from the media in regards to the Connecticut and the Webster, NY murders.