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

Category: Guns

  • The Thought Police are coming

    Maybe I should say Here Come The Thought Police AGAIN?

    A Second Amendment related decal is causing a bit of an uproar in Baltimore.

    “….while the individual who is displaying the symbol may not be armed, the presence of the symbol provides an early warning indicator that you MAY be about to encounter an armed individual.”

    I’ll posit that common sense should dictate that ALL LEOs should be careful in ALL circumstances?

    It was about a year or so ago when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano suggested that combat vets ‘might’ become a threat.

    Seems it’s okay to profile gun owners and vets, but not certain others?

  • Obama coming for our guns

    ROS sent us a link from Fox News, and VTWoody sent us a link from Hot Air (see how I did that linking thing, Hot Air?) about the Obama Administration “working on gun control ‘under the radar’”;

    During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said.

    “I just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

    Of course, we reported months ago that this administration has decided that instead of wading through a messy legislative process in Congress, they’ll try to legislate from the Oval Office by presidential fiat. Hot Air confirms that;

    Ever since the Clinton years, they have avoided gun control like the plague, and the courts have taken a libertarian view of the Second Amendment. How many of the incumbent Democrats in the Senate want to defend Obama on his power play to impose gun control by executive fiat in the dark? How will that fly in places like Missouri, Nebraska, and West Virginia? How about in open seats like Virginia’s, which Democrats hope to hold?

    Yeah, gun control was a deciding issue in the 2000 and 2004 elections, so I really hope they try this.

  • Sweden’s rising gun smuggling problem

    From everything I’ve read about Swedish gun laws, they’re very restrictive. The purchaser must join a gun club, take a training course, have five years clear of an arrest record, present a certificate from the gun club of their training and a year of experience to the police department who will eventually give a permit. Then you have to store your weapon at home in an approved, secure cabinet – the police can enter your home to inspect your weapon storage without a warrant and revoke your permit and confiscate your weapon with no compensation on the spot.

    So with restrictions like that, they should have no problems with weapons, right?

    Not really. Apparently they have a smuggling problem;

    While only 12 weapons have been seized by Swedish customs to date this year, the problem is far more extensive with a large number of unrecorded cases, according to a report by Sveriges Radio (SR).

    “We are talking about the post, containers, rail goods, trucks and commercial vessels. There is a huge flow. There are many channels and we are not even close to being able to control everything,” said Lars Bäckström at the Swedish customs to SR.

    Swedish cities, primarily Gothenburg and Malmö, have been the scene of several shootings in recent months.

    Witnesses to a shooting in a Malmö car park on May 11th described the killing as an “execution” in what was apparently a hit with links to organized crime, an increasing problem in both cities.

    Police fear that the greater availability of illegal weapons could be behind the rise in gun crimes in Swedish cities with the number of weapons seized increasing from year to year.

    Are you kidding me? Do you mean that the criminals aren’t abiding by the draconian gun laws? I find that hard to believe. What’s harder to believe is that Sweden doesn’t share a border with the US yet still have a smuggling problem. I thought it was only those cowboys in the US who export firearms illegally to poor underdog nations which are only trying to be peaceful.

  • Big, Bigger, Biggests Holes…

    The Sniper has a video up that helps define “Make My Day” in several ways.

    I can’t add anything much other than I enjoyed the hell out of it… and I wish I’d found it first.

    Now if I could only get my pool ready, my grass mowed, etc, I be back on my range at least making holes in targets.

    Aside: Anyone got a bunch of blue barrels and a Barrett they aren’t using?

  • College must release Loughner’s emails

    Tucson assassin Jarod Loughner’s former community college has been ordered to release the 250 email communications about him while he was a student according to the Huffington Post;

    Pima County Superior Court Judge Stephen Villarreal rejected the Pima Community College’s argument that the emails were part of Loughner’s official school record and protected from disclosure under a federal privacy law.

    The Arizona Republic sued the college over the records, arguing that the records could help the public determine if the college took appropriate steps in dealing with Loughner after a series of run-ins with campus police.

    Yeah, I’m pretty sure the college isn’t at fault here any more than the local Army recruiting unit. The college was in the same position as the Army…anything they had done to warn the community would have been construed as a violation of Loughner’s privacy rights.

    If there’s any culpability, I’m pretty sure it lies with law enforcement who actually had the authority and means to get his bad behavior on the record which would have prevented him from purchasing a gun.

  • The case for concealed carry

    A Philly man, Mark Fiorino, gets arrested for open carrying his .40 caliber Glock legally. I read the article first and was outraged until I listened to the audio. The guy was a bit of a smartass and when a cop tells you to get on the ground, just do it. Tell your story from down there.

    Old Trooper who sent us the link had the same experience that I did in my concealed carry block of instruction. The instructor is a state trooper who told the class that if he saw one of us walking down the street with an open carried weapon, he’d stop us and check us out.

    This guy, Fiorino, was a dick to police, though. I don’t blame the police for treating him like they did until they verified his intentions…but quoting laws and acting like a general prick doesn’t win him any points.

    Anyway, the district attorney has charged the guy;

    A new investigation was launched, and last month the District Attorney’s Office decided to charge Fiorino with reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct because, a spokeswoman said, he refused to cooperate with police… He’s scheduled for trial in July.

    If he had been carrying his weapon concealed, all of this could have been avoided. Pennsylvania is a “shall issue” state.

  • Concealed carry news

    Wisconsin moves towards allowing their citizens to legally conceal and carry firearms reports the Sheboygan Press;

    Wisconsin and Illinois are the only states that prohibit concealed weapons. Republican legislators have been trying for a more than a decade to lift the restrictions, but former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle twice vetoed bills that would have permitted the practice.

    Now, though, Republicans control both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office, clearing the way for easy passage. GOP lawmakers, backed by the National Rifle Association, are advancing two measures allowing concealed carry. One version requires permits. The other requires nothing.

    Not everyone is happy about it;

    If more guns equal more protection, then let’s go for it and quit watering down the rules. Maybe we can even start handing out firearms like we do bike helmets and smoke alarms.

    It’s time for Wisconsin to join the rest of America and allow us to walk around with powerful guns in our pants. We may need to change the license plates to America’s Carryland.

    Republican legislators are moving quickly to make it happen, and this time they don’t have to worry about Jim Doyle getting all prudent and reasonable and vetoing the thing. Lawmakers pretended to care what the public thinks at two hearings on the issue Thursday.

    Meanwhile the Ohio Legislature moved to simplify their rules for concealed carry;

    House Bill 45, which was jointly sponsored by Johnson and Rep. Danny Bubp, R-West Union, related to the carrying of firearms in vehicles. According to Johnson, the bill would eliminate the micromanaging provisions that dictate where a gun must be stored in a vehicle. “which allows law-abiding citizens to avoid accidental violations. It retains the current procedures that are followed when a licensee is pulled over and approached by a law enforcement official.”

    Johnson said the legislation would also permit license holders to carry in establishments that serve alcohol provided the individual is not consuming alcohol. He said it does not change the current law prohibiting an individual from possessing a firearm while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Also, establishments would still have the authority to prohibit concealed carry.

    In Minnesota, Old Trooper sends that cops and prosecutors oppose citizens’ right to use deadly force there;

    They ramped up their opposition on Thursday to a bill moving through the Legislature that would dramatically expand Minnesotans’ ability to use deadly force in self-defense without facing prosecution.

    Flanked by police chiefs, prosecutors and DFL legislators, Sen. John Harrington, DFL-St. Paul, said the bill “will increase danger to the public and increase danger to the police.”

    Harrington, a former St. Paul police chief, also called the bill “a broadly misguided piece of legislation that should be pulled.”

    The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Good Thunder, said he “was totally aggravated to see those chiefs stand up there to violate people’s rights. They’re just scaring the public.”

    When he was a beat officer “chasing bad guys,” Harrington said, “I didn’t have to look over my shoulder to find out whether the homeowner had me in their sights, too.”

  • Officer wounded on range

    We were talking about police officers and their firearms training the other day. Now this happens; an officer was shot in the stomach during training on a range.

    “It’s quite rare. I’m not aware in my 23 years of any sort of incident like this occurring so that’s why we need to get to the bottom of it, and maybe there’s something we can learn from it,” said Sgt. Tom Hawley of the Coon Rapids Police Department.

    Here’s my advice; Learn to keep your weapons up and down range. Amadou Diallo had 41 shots fired at him by police officers in NYC and 22 rounds missed him, but this officer gets hit accidentally on the one stray round fired? Sounds fishy.

    I fire on a range which is sometimes packed with Marylander civilians and no range master in sight. I’ve never seen an unsafe act on the range, certainly we’re not shooting at each other.

    Certainly many police officers aren’t like the three who are suspected of shooting their fellow officer, nor are they poor shots like the NYPD officers who killed Mr. Diallo, but that range master should be investigated.

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.