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

Category: Guns

  • Gunrunner causes furor

    On that whistleblower-fueled story that we’ve discussed several times in the past few months about the “Project Gun Runner” project of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives which allowed legally purchased firearms by suspect purchasers, ghost to Mexico to the grubby paws of the drug cartels. Fox News reports that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) grilled AG Holder pretty thoroughly over the subject.

    “We’re not looking at straw buyers, Mr. Attorney General, we’re looking at you,” Issa said. “We’re looking at you, we’re looking at your key people who knew or should’ve known about this.”

    Holder shot back.

    “The notion that somehow or another that this Justice Department is responsible for those deaths, that assertion is offensive,” Holder said, referring to the death of American Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

    “What if it’s accurate, Mr. Attorney General?” Issa responded. “What am I going to tell Agent Terry’s mother about how he died at the hands of a gun that was videotaped as it was being sold to a straw purchaser fully expecting it to end up in the hands of drug cartels?”

    So everything is “offensive” when Holder is confronted with actual facts.

  • The new phase of the war against terror

    War against terror

    We can probably all agree that there’s a new phase coming in the war against terror because of yesterday’s events and most of it will have focus on this country. We can probably also agree that the best deterrence to this domestic terrorism threat is vigilance. But I submit that Americans now have a responsibility to legally carry firearms – if we’re the first line of defense, we need to be armed.

    The places that need armed citizens, Chicago, New York, Washington, DC restrict firearm ownership and carrying concealed weapons – that’s their problem. The rest of us owe it to our communities, friends and families to arm ourselves and take advantage of local laws. If your State allows CCW and you don’t have a license, you really should get one.

    The jihadists take advantage of every one of our laws in order to attack us, it only makes sense that we take advantage of our laws to defend ourselves from them.

    And Congress needs to get off their collective ass and write a national CCW law so that I can take my handgun to the store 12 miles away. if I abide by the laws in my own State, why would I suddenly decide to be a criminal in the next one? 32 States accept my CCW license – why are the other 18 and the District of Columbia scared of me?

  • Fox News: Is the U.S. Arming Mexican Cartels?

    A Fox news article asks “Is the U.S. Arming Mexican Cartels?“. The answer seems to be that we are;

    According to leaked diplomatic cables, there are three sources.

    1. U.S. Defense Department shipments to Latin America, known and tracked by the U.S. State Department as “foreign military sales.”

    2. Weapons ordered by the Mexican government, tracked by the State Department as “direct commercial sales.”

    3. Aging, but plentiful arsenals of military weapon stores in Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

    Even though these facts were well-known by the Obama administration, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, it blamed much of the violence in Mexico on U.S. gun stores.

    Legal domestic gun sales always seem to be the target of this administration, despite the fact that they know better. Especially since apparently, the BATFE let weapons “walk” to Mexico as part of their investigations.

    Deflecting blame is not the way to solve the problem.

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.

  • Mexico wants to sue US gunmakers

    ROS sends a link to a CBS News report in which Mexico admits it’s planning a civil RICO lawsuit against US gun manufacturers because it’s”frustrated” about US government’s inability to stem the flow of weapons south.

    Christopher Renzulli of New York, who has represented U.S. gun makers for fifteen years, says he believes this would be a difficult case for the Mexican government to win. “The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act would bar that kind of lawsuit from the start. The law, passed in 2005 has resulted in several lawsuits against gun makers being dismissed.

    But sources familiar with the case say the law firm retained by Mexico – New York based Reid Collins & Tsai – believes the federal law won’t stand in the way of their case.

    If the courts allow this case to go forward, the US taxpayers ought to band together and counter-sue Mexico for their inability to stem the flow of Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and any other types of foreigners into our country illegally. They should be sued so we can recover the costs of trying to secure our border as well as the costs of caring for those criminals while they’re here.

    If US gun makers are responsible for the deaths in Mexico, Mexico is equally responsible for their citizens and the costs they inflict on the US taxpayers. Not to mention the crimes they commit after they illegally cross the border.

  • Brady Campaign’s newest skullduggery

    The special interest group named The Brady Campaign to Reduce Gun Violence has launched an advertisement to begin their latest assault on gun owners target large capacity magazines;

    Yes, the magazines are solely bought to kill a lot of people without bothersome reloading. But if a law abiding citizen is buying the magazine, it will probably be used against people who wish they had large capacity magazines. Some people need to be killed.

    The imagery of the little girl in pigtails silhouette is supposed to scare us into a kneejerk reaction to ban large capacity magazines, but how many incidences of mass killings involved large capacity magazines? Criminals already have these magazines, so why can’t law abiding members of our society?

    From the Huffy Post;

    In conjunction with the ad’s release, the group is deploying a powerful new congressional liaison. Kelly O’Brien, fiancee of Gabe Zimmerman, the Giffords’ staffer killed by Loughner, will be on the Hill Tuesday to endorse legislation sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.) banning high-capacity magazines.

    I’m waiting for the Brady Campaign to press the Obama Administration for enforcement of current laws rather than writing new laws. it seems to me that would be a more rewarding endeavor.

  • The concealed carry battle in Illinois

    As the Illinois legislature works to open the way for concealed carry permits, Mayor Daley, and Mayor-elect work to undermine the effort by law makers;

    Daley said the General Assembly shouldn’t impose concealed carry laws on municipalities.

    “If they wanna carry ’em, and they can get permits, they can carry ’em in DuPage County,” Daley said. “They wanna carry ’em in Lake County, McHenry, if they wanna carry ’em in Will County – in other words, if you’re here, and you wanna go there and get your guns, you can carry ’em in those counties. You can go to the malls, everything. Just carry weapons out there.”

    Daley said state lawmakers would be promoting violence if they pass the bill.

    I guess the bug-a-boo of increased violence overshadows the rights of Chicagoans to protect themselves from the violence that already happens there every day. Funny how people like Daley and Emmanuel are ready to have he federal government regulate guns in their state, but not their own legislatures. And it’s not places like Lake County, DuPage County and Will County where people need to protect themselves. Funny how places that least want concealed carry need it the most.

    “But [Daley is] becoming more irrelevant every day,” NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde said.

    Opponents of concealed carry concede privately that, if a vote were held this week, it probably would win a majority in both the Illinois House and Senate

    Meanwhile, Illinoisans are getting their concealed carry permits in other states.

    Even though Illinois is just one of two states that bans legal gun owners from carrying concealed weapons, gun experts say more residents are taking advantage of getting concealed carry permits from other states.

    Those permits are not legal in Illinois, but they are in dozens of other states with reciprocal agreements with Utah and Florida, two popular states for granting those permits.

    I’ve quit shopping and dining in Maryland because i can’t carry my handgun there. I drive further to go to West Virginia and Virginia venues just as my own personal protest against Maryland. There’s a twelve-mile-wide strip of Maryland I have to drive through to get to CCW-friendly Pennsylvania that I won’t make either.

    ADDED: In the meantime, New York City’s Mayor Bloomfield institutes a plan that will make certain that only the rich can afford guns in that city;

    The Second Amendment Foundation and the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association filed their lawsuit Tuesday in federal court. They say that the fee the city charges to keep a handgun is so high it conflicts with the Second Amendment.

    The fee is $340 plus a $94.25 charge for a fingerprint check.

    Yeah, that’s pretty steep – and that’s just a permit to keep the weapon in your home, cuz NYC isn’t going to let you carry it around. I’m pretty sure that’s above and beyond the state licensing costs. That’s more than the cost of the gun, in most cases.

  • Happy birthday, M1911

    A hundred years ago today, the John Browning-designed pistol was adopted by the US Army as it’s standard side arm which lasted until 1985 when they foolishly dumped it for the 9mm Beretta. I carried my own Colt Combat Commander in Desert Storm, a shorter version of the M1911. Everyone I know has an M1911 somewhere in their collection. It takes some practice to get accurate with it, but it’s as reliable as any other weapon.

    I shot on the XVIIIth Airborne Corps Pistol team for several months and we all used any old arms room .45 – after a few rounds, we were shooting over 800 points on a 900-point target. I just taught my daughter how to shoot with the .45 this last weekend (but she liked the Ruger Super Blackhawk).

    I think it’s reasonable to credit John Browning, as COB6 once said, as being the most deadly man in history. He’s been sending America’s enemies to their makers for a hundred years now.

  • Armed and gorgeous

    Former beauty pageant contestant, Megan Brown, makes the case for gun ownership when she ventilates 42-year-old Albert Franklin Hill with her pink .38 revolver while Hill assaulted her fiance`;

    Hill barged into the home at around 3 a.m. after Brown responded to a knock at the front door, according to a police report. He allegedly grabbed the 110-pound Brown around her nose and mouth and dragged her to an upstairs bedroom.

    The woman’s fiance, Robert Planthaber, said in an interview that he was quickly awakened by the altercation and ran to Brown’s side.

    “I attacked him and took a severe beating to the head,” Planthaber told FoxNews.com. “But I got him off of her long enough for her to scramble to the room where she keeps her pink .38 special.”

    Thanks to Old Trooper for the link.