Legislation
Thank or spank your Senators for their vote on the federal omnibus spending/gun control bill. Of the 12 gun control items hidden in the omnibus, these are among the most egregious:
- Massive 14.1% ATF budget increase to facilitate Biden’s Pistol ban 
- 50% increase for the ATF part of the budget that maintains the illegal near-billion record gun registry 
- $700+ million in funding available to bribe states to pass “Red Flag” Gun Confiscation Laws 
- Money for anti-gun CDC research while the agency suppresses self-defense statistics.
You can edit the messages as you see fit.
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It all depends on what the definition of “is” is.
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Litigation
U.S. District Judge John Sinatra of the Western District of New York, has AGAIN found the state’s ban of licensed CCW in churches unconstitutional, siding with the pastor of a church in his challenge against the state’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA) in Spencer v. Nigrelli. He ruled the ban violated worshipers’ gun rights and infringed on the free exercise of their religious beliefs. Well, duh. It is the third ruling to find the provision unconstitutional.
A group of gun owners backed by Gun Owners of America has asked the Supreme Court to take up its case against New York’s new, post-Bruen, unconstitutional gun carry restrictions.
Another federal lawsuit (pdf link) supported by the Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenging that state’s ban on so-called “assault weapons.”
Texas has asked the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to withdraw the state’s appeal of the district court order that struck down its ban on handgun carry by young adults aged 18-20 in the case Andrews v. McCraw.
However, in the Reese v ATF case challenging the portion of the 1968 Gun Control Act that prohibits sales of handguns and handgun ammunition to adults under 21, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Summerhays has since ruled that the federal prohibition on sales to 18- to 20-year-olds is sufficiently supported by historical analogues.
The California Court of Appeal has decided that Gun Violence Restraining Orders can be issued based on hearsay evidence.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss threw out a challenge to Washington, D.C.’s concealed pistol law after four D.C.-area residents failed to show that they had been – or ever would be – personally affected by the statute, because they hadn’t broken the law in question and hadn’t been arrested or prosecuted for breaking the law. Apparently Washington requires law-abiding guns owners to actually commit crimes in order to challenge an unconstitutional law.
A couple of yankee cities are suing several gunmakers, accusing them of creating gun violence that constitutes a “public nuisance,” even though all of their business practices are completely legal, ATF-approved, and FBI-checked at the retail level. I suggest we sue those cities for being a public nuisance.
Franklin Armory and the Firearms Regulatory Accountability Coalition, Inc. have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the ATF for alleged Administrative Procedures Act violations concerning the wrongful classification of firearms and regulatory delays. Apparently ATF still can’t figure out the difference between a shotgun, a rifle, and a firearm that isn’t either one. Further, the ATF has delayed creating a statutorily required process for manufacturers and federal firearms licensees to seek authorization to sell, deliver, and transport short-barreled shotguns under the Gun Control Act across state lines.
Mississippi AG opinion on sale of whitetail deer
The House
NRA
Crazy Killers
- The “Crazy, Right-Wing Shooter” Myth, by Dr. John Lott
Colorado Judge Robin Chittum, who dismissed a 2021 kidnapping case against the Colorado Springs gay nightclub shooter, warned last year that the defendant had been stockpiling weapons and planning a shootout, and needed mental health treatment or “it’s going to be so bad.” Perhaps the judge should have held some sort of mental competency hearing or ordered a psych exam of the defendant instead of simply dismissing the charges.
Reasoning
- Analogical Reasoning and the Second Amendment, by Stephen Halbrook
Protective Orders
- Pieces of paper make pretty good targets, but aren’t so useful to keep you alive.
Uvalde
Enemies
We have a report that in a clear violation of the First Amendment the Federal Bureau of Investigation regularly leaned on Twitter’s content moderators and then-Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth to remove tweets, suspend accounts, and even share the location information of ordinary Americans.
USA Today writer Jeanine Santucci has discovered (gasp!) mail-order “bullet” sales. Yeah Jeanine, that’s been going on since ammo was invented. Perhaps next she will discover newspapers.
“The New York City gun licensing authorities see anyone with a strong interest in guns as a potential danger, and NYPD police recruits are taught that if they encounter a person who owns more than one or two firearms, the person should be assumed to be some kind of nut.” – Jerold E. Levine, Esq., NY lawyer
The Southern Poverty Law Center. In case you forgot.
Government
DHS failed to submit 6.4 million cases of criminal disposition data to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) that is required for background checks for gun sales. Fortunately, background checks make little difference in criminal violence. In addition, for the fourth time since 2007, an internal audit shows the Department of Homeland Security isn’t deactivating access cards in the hands of ex-employees.
The Only Ones
Adair, Iowa, Chief of Police Bradley Wendt has been indicted on federal charges of making false statements to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to obtain numerous machine guns over a four-year period on behalf of the Adair Police Department, but then converting the guns to personal use or illegally selling them. Prosecutors say Wendt sought to purchase or demonstrate approximately 90 machine guns between July 2018 and August 2022 and are seeking forfeiture of at least 35 machine guns involved in the case.
We reported back in 2019 that Ft. Worth, Texas, Police Officer Aaron Dean, 34, while responding to a neighbor’s non-emergency “open door welfare check” call at a residence, fired from outside the house through a window at a resident inside, killing her. Dean has now been convicted of manslaughter in the case and has been sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.
Austin Lee Edwards, a deputy sheriff and former state trooper from Virginia, drove across the country, kidnapped a 15-year-old Riverside, California girl, killed three members of her family, set fire to their home, then fatally shot himself during a shootout with the cops. Virginia State Police and the sheriff’s office he had recently started working for said they found no warning signs during background checks before he was hired. Edwards was hired as a deputy sheriff in Washington County, Virginia, just nine days before the killings in California.
During the week of Dec. 15-22, three Chicago police officers died by apparent suicide in separate incidents. That makes over a dozen since 2018.
Kyle Lobo, who was “voluntarily” resigned from the San Marcos, Texas Police Department in October after head-butting his wife and punching and kicking an 11-year-old child, was fatally shot by officers responding to yet another domestic violence call at his residence on Christmas Eve. Drunk.
DGUs
A man was shot and killed after walking into the headquarters of the Dearborn Police Department just outside of Detroit, Michigan, on Dec. 18 and pointing a gun at an officer, who shot him first. So much for gun free zones.
GFZs
Five teens have been charged with murder after a Christmas weekend shooting at the “gun-free” Mall of America. During/after the incident, the mall went into “lockdown,” presumably trapping a ton of potential victims inside with the killers.
Tactics & Gear
- Anatomy of a Traffic Stop. Not all cops are good ones.
CCW
- Big Man’s Concealed Carry
- Appendix Carry (has never worked for me)
Police pistol ammo
- What the big departments use. Any of these would be an excellent choice, though there are others. Outstanding ammo of yesteryear’s design is still as good as it ever was.
Safety
Newsletters
- The January ACLDN and Rangemaster (pdf link) newsletters are out.
I am a member of ACLDN. If you decide to join the ACLDN, be sure and tell them I referred you.
Industry news
The famous Bill Laughridge closing his Cylinder & Slide shop in Fremont, Neb. and retiring after 44 years. He has a lot of inventory, fixtures, equipment, factory parts, etc. available for sale. If you have any potential interest, they are accepting email inquiries only; [email protected].
Last year saw the third-most annual background checks on U.S. gun sales in history. The FBI ran 16.4 million gun-related checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in 2022, according to an industry analysis.
Products
Reminder about scam gun-related websites.
I received a Streamlight Pocket Mate USB keychain flashlight for Christmas. I am so far very impressed. It is brighter and much smaller than the Surefire Sidekick, has a metal frame, a charging indicator, a (too tight) hat clip, and offers 325 lumens! It sells for around $20-25.
Colt CZ Group is the first small arms manufacturer in the world to offer the combination of the purchase of its products and non-fungible tokens (NFT) based on the blockchain technology. The NFT will offer customers a new standard of authentication, security, and trust in form of a digital proof of ownership of the CZ and Colt firearms. No word on what happens when the hard drive crashes or when the associated gun is privately resold without going through some sort of digital process.
Savage Arms is the latest manufacturer to jump on the bandwagon and produce 1911-style pistols in .45 and 9mmP. $1350-$1500.
The “new” Glock 47, originally introduced in 2019 as a contract-only gun for Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection agents, is a full-size 9mm pistol with a 17-round capacity and the Glock MOS optics mounting system. Very similar to the Glock 17 MOS, the Glock 47 features a Glock 45 frame with the ability to also accept Glock 19 slides. The Glock 47 slide is also compatible with Glock 19 frames, so you can mix and match.
Ruger’s Wrangler single-action rimfire revolver is now available in three new barrel lengths – 3.75″, 6.5″, and 7.5″ models join the 4.62″ (4-5/8″) lineup.
The Dan Wesson DWX amounts to a 1911 with a CZ75 grip and magazine. Kinda cool. $2100.
Hi-Point’s new Model JXP is a very large and very ugly 10mm pistol with a 5.2″ barrel, 10-round magazine. 49 oz. It has a lifetime warranty and retails for just $225.
POF-USA Phoenix offers their new Tombstone lever action, box-magazine-fed, 9mm rifle. 3.5 lb. trigger. 16.5″ railed barrel. 36″ OAL. 5.75 lbs. Around $2000.
The new Rock Island Armory RIA 5.0 pistol is interesting if only for its square-profile barrel. $1000.
EAA Corp has announced the Girsan Witness2311, a double-stack 1911 pistol chambered in either 9mm (17 rounds), 45ACP (11 rounds), or 10mm (15 rounds). Made by Check-Mate Industries. $1000.
Girsan is also producing the MC PC35 PI, or “Private Investigator,” a short-barrel Hi Power, which is being imported into the U.S. by EAA. The pistol uses a traditional size Hi Power frame, but with a 3.88″ long barrel vs. the traditional 4.87″ barrel. OAL is 6.25″. It comes with a Mk III style ambidextrous thumb safety, similar type stocks and a Commander-style “ring” hammer.
In Closing
Last week there were 11 million people running around in the woods with high powered rifles. NO mass shootings.
Since I can’t fly, I guess we are stuck with the fight response.
