March 3, 2017 Newsletter by Jeff Pittman
MSFOA
We have received word that the annual Mississippi State Firearm Owners Association meeting will be held March 11 at the Pearl, MS Bass Pro Shops at 100 Bass Pro Drive, Pearl, MS. The meeting will be in the downstairs in the back room of the restaurant and will start promptly at 1 pm. Membership renewals and new memberships will be accepted beginning at 12 noon.
Bans repealed
President Donald Trump has signed H.J. Res. 40, the bill repealing Mr. Obama’s ban on certain Social Security recipients owning guns. The rule, finalized in December, would have resulted in 75,000 Social Security recipients who use a representative payee losing their Second Amendment rights without due process, and would have affected those on disability for conditions including eating disorders and anxiety.
New US Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, just hours into his first day on the job, used Secretarial Order 3346 to overturn former US Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe’s Director’s Order 219, passed on the final full day of the Obama administration, which called for the outright ban of the use of lead ammunition and fishing tackle on federal lands in five years. Zinke told senators in the Natural Resources Committee during his confirmation that for too long Washington, D.C., pushed out policy changes without input from states or local authorities and often without regard to the consequences of those changes. (One consequence is a change in administration. — JP)
Zinke’s Secretarial Order 3347 directs bureaus and agencies to immediately identify areas where recreation and fishing can be expanded and requests input from the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council and Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council to provide recommendations on enhancing and expanding access on public lands and improving habitat for fish and wildlife.
Zinke also rode a horse to his first day of work at the department’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, Thursday morning, wearing a cowboy hat, boots and jeans.
Things are already getting better.
Litigation
The US District Court for the Eastern District of California has ruled in Publius v. Boyer-Vine that gun owners’ rights advocates are free to publish the home addresses and telephone numbers of California state lawmakers who voted for firearms restrictions (also known as “enemies”), and issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of a state law prohibiting such publication.
“I’m reporting on this in my capacity as a lawyer…. With the recent anti gun, anti Liberty bills passed by the legisexuals in the State Capitol and signed into law by our senile communist governor, isn’t it about time to register these tyrants with gun owners?” — Eugene Volokh
The Florida Supreme Court has upheld 4-2 a longstanding state ban on people openly carrying firearms in public, saying that the state law “regulates only one manner of bearing arms and does not impair the exercise of the fundamental right to bear arms.”
Does this mean that the state can forbid reading a Bible in public, since one could still read it in private?
McKee & Ayoob on Triggers
Enemies
Rotary Club International, the service organization made up of 35,000-plus local clubs worldwide and over 1.2 million members, is made up of largely of business owners and executives of banks and local companies, and the clubs ostensibly strive to make their communities better. But at its January meeting the 18-member Rotary International board, which includes three Americans and is responsible for setting policy governing all clubs and more than a million members, adopted “revisions to the Code of Policies” that will prevent local clubs from: transferring ownership of “weapons,” conducting or sponsoring gun shows, “accepting sponsorships from gun/weapons companies or stores,” or allowing depiction of the Rotary logo in any visual that includes “weapons.” Emasculated clubs will still be “allowed” to conduct “sporting events that include guns,” such as turkey shoots, skeet shooting, and similar activities.
Already, Wisconsin State Rep. Bob Gannon (R-West Bend) has announced he was taking a leave of absence from his 23-year Rotary membership and likely quitting the group over the its policy on guns.
Mobile County, AL, Sheriff Sam Cochran says the Alabama bill to do away with the pistol permit requirement for carrying a gun “would be a terrible law.” Ah, I see. The Bill of Rights is “terrible,” according to Sheriff Cochran. Election, please?
Financial services companies recently reported to be declining business from gun-related shops:
- Intuit
- Google Adwords
- Square
The International Olympic Committee wants to do away with shooting sports. (Anybody wanna guess what the injury rate is for Olympic shooting competitions vs. other Olympic events?)
Kimbo
Meanwhile, six-time-consecutive Olympic medalist Kim Rhode Harryman also won the gold in Skeet at this year’s first World Cup stop in New Delhi, India. It is her 16th World Cup victory.
Dept. of Idiocy
Pocatello Police and Idaho State University’s Public Safety police essentially shut down the campus Monday to search for a gun after a student reported seeing a man carrying a case that “could have been a gun case.” It was pool cue stick case.
Because, stupid….
Liars
Active Killer Advice
Read This.
Counter Protest Driving
- From the Gabe Suarez Blog
Safety Discussion
- Safety Question from The Shooting Wire
Kids and Guns
Actual Headline: “Six-Time Felon Killed By 13-Year-Old During Home Invasion Shootout”
The Only Ones
Last week, Franklin Lakes, NJ rookie Police Officer David Blum shot himself in the foot after firing his duty weapon at two dogs when they attacked him. One of the dogs bit him in the leg. I think you’re supposed to shoot the dog before it bites you, and not shoot your foot.
An unidentified Warren, MI police detective accidentally shot himself in the leg Monday morning during training at a gun range.
Back in January, Las Vegas PD SWAT Sgt. Michael Booker “accidentally” fired his gun and struck a man who was driving in his car while the SWAT team was responding to a barricade nearby.
CHICAGO — Police are searching for a murder suspect who was mistakenly released from state custody (Illinois Dept. of Corrections) in an apparent case of miscommunication, Illinois officials said Monday.
An unidentified retired Detroit police officer has been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, and police believe he is also suspected of firing 20-30 rounds Monday morning on the city’s west side.
An unidentified French soldier serving as a sniper with a special platoon in charge of protection of the gendarmerie shot two civilians and and slightly injured himself when the safety catch on his gun is said to have failed. This happened while the soldier was in an elevated hide providing overwatch during a speech by French President Francois Hollande at the opening of the Paris to Bordeaux high-speed rail at Villognon. The dailymail.co.uk reported that “the soldier had left the safety catch off his service revolver and the gun went off my (sic) mistake.” Other reports indicate that it may have been his rifle that went off. Either way, the “expert” pointed a loaded gun at other people and pulled the trigger.
I think that qualifies as a mass public shooting under the anti-gunners’ criteria.
“I don’t think there is any reason for anybody to bring a gun into New York City.” – NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill
So Commissioner, you and your officers have disposed of your guns, in accordance with your opinion? Or do you think you’re not “anybody?” Or maybe you just don’t think.
“While more than a hundred police departments have signed a letter of interest in smart guns in the abstract, none were willing to try out existing models while on patrol.” Well, duh.
Meanwhile, 86.4% of US Chiefs of Police and Sheriffs “support nationwide recognition of state issued concealed weapon permits.” Of course, the media mostly interviews the other 14%.
Precision Shooting Center
Precision Shooting Center sent a reminder of the following:
The Mississippi Legislature last year passed and Governor Bryant signed HB 786, the Mississippi Church Protection Act, which allows any church to establish a security program for the protection of its congregation. This act provides immunity from civil liability for reasonable official actions taken by a member of the church’s security program, if all members of the team have enhanced carry licenses. To meet the expected needs of churches, Precision Shooting Center, Forest, MS, now offers a Church Security Team training program, in addition to enhanced license classes.
Turcotte Public Range
Article on the Turcotte public range near Jackson, MS
Army Pistol Contract Protested, Ammo Awarded
Glock Inc., filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office against the Army’s selection of the Sig Sauer P320 to become its new Modular Handgun System. The protest will likely delay the Modular Handgun System Program until June 5 when the GAO is expected to rule on the protest.
Winchester has been selected as the ammunition supplier for the Army modular handgun system (MHS) program, including Full-Metal Jacket rounds as well as more Special Purpose ammunition in the future. Previous reports indicated that the MHS pistol contract, which SIG won, included ammo (and maybe it does), but I also opined that SIG doesn’t have the capability to supply nearly enough. It turns out that Winchester, a current provider of ammunition to the US government, collaborated with SIG in supplying ammunition for the rigorous MHS testing, so maybe this collaboration is how SIG’s contract proposal aimed to supply sufficient quantities.
Browning’s BAR is 100 years old
The .17-50 BMG
Shotgun shell flag — spotted at SHOT Show
I want one. Could anything be more American?
The Right to Bear Arms, er, Leg
DIY Barrel Rifling
Products
- Chip McCormick’s Railed Power Mags for the 1911. Check out the feed lips. $36-39.
- Black Hills Ammunition’s new Honey Badger line uses the Lehigh Defense, LLC, solid copper, non-deforming, and non-fragmenting bullet with large machined flutes and a small frontal area — reportedly more effective than hollowpoints across the board. So far available:
- 60 gr. .380 ACP
- 100 gr. .38 Spl. +P (1000 fps)
- 125 gr. 9mm (1050 fps)
- 135 gr. .45 ACP (1325 fps)
- 160 gr. .44 Mag. (1800 fps).
- TarHunt now has a 20 gauge slug load called Schrifle using a non-sabot projectile loaded into a 20 gauge plastic hull with the bullet sticking out of the hull, designed for SAAMI-spec (1:24″ twist) rifled 20 gauge barrels. The projectile itself is a 260 grain hollow point lead-free slug called Raptor with a muzzle velocity of 2025 fps. $45/10.
- Grabagun.com has S&W M&P15 Sport rifles, with sights and telescoping stock, for just $533 shipped.
- A number of AR makers now offer the .22 Nosler
Quotes of the Week
“A revolver is a Jeep with a stick shift — just pure fun to go out and run.” — Tom Gresham
“If someone is shooting innocent people right in front of me, I am not going to discuss it with him.” — Tom Givens
