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NRA corruption verdict.

You’ve undoubtedly heard that the 6-member New York civil trial jury found the NRA and its leadership liable for mismanagement:

• The jury found against NRA, the corporation, on all counts, from failure to properly administer, to properly manage its assets, to whistleblower violations. This makes appointment of a monitor almost certain.
• Against former Executive Vice President LaPierre, breach of fiduciary duties, $4.4 million, cause for removal, yes, was his post-employment contract a related party transaction, no. Against General Counsel John Frazer, breach of fiduciary duties, yes, but no damages, cause for removal, no, false filings with NY, yes. Against former Treasurer Woody Phillips, breach of fiduciary duties, yes, damages $2 million, post-employment contract a related party transaction no.
• In addition, the NRA spent (by John Frazer’s estimate) $100 million in legal fees to get here, lost over a million members, and spent millions trying unsuccessfully to go bankrupt. And it ain’t done.
• The jury’s findings now dictate a bench trial before Judge Joel Cohen, who will determine such things as other remedies, reorganization, appointment of a special master to oversee the NRA, and whether the individual guilty defendants will also be banned from all future roles with any New York based nonprofit organization. Those decisions could be made as early as July.

NRA Board Election

Voting members should now have your ballot in hand in your most recent (March) NRA magazine. I recommend you vote for – and ONLY for – Phil Journey, Rocky Marshall, Jeff Knox, and Dennis Fusaro. There are other “good” candidates on the ballot, but they do not need your vote – they will win anyway. Further, the incumbent NRA Directors on the ballot are the people who have shirked their duty and allowed this NRA mess to develop. They are the only ones short of the court who could have stopped the train wreck. And they didn’t. The four named above need your “bullet” vote. The fewer people you vote for, the more your vote counts.

• However, even these “good” guys are not perfect, as are none of us. To my knowledge, none have ever answered David Codrea’s or a similar enlightening questionnaire.

There is also a ballot for bylaw changes to create a Chief Compliance Officer position untouchable by the EVP and answerable only to the Board. It’s a good change and I absolutely recommend it, though it doesn’t do as much as we need.

• Extra reading: A good synopsis of how we got to this point.

Litigation

This week, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments from the Biden administration that the government’s 2017 ban on bump stocks is legal and should be upheld. The ATF – with NRA’s blessing – administratively reclassified bump stocks as machine guns. This is the Cargill case in which Michael Cargill sued, arguing that the ATF’s ban violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how agencies create, issue and enforce regulations, and argued that only Congress – not the ATF – can ban bump stocks, because the definition of a machine gun is in federal law (26 U.S.C. 584(b)), and is not delegated to ATF regulations. Cargill lost in federal district court, appealed and lost to a Fifth Circuit panel, appealed and won at the Fifth Circuit en banc, and now the government has appealed, bringing the case to where we are at the Supreme Court. SCOTUS – which unsurprisingly appears divided on this case – might issue a ruling addressing only the details of the procedural rules and punt the case back to the lower courts, avoiding the issue entirely. After all, this is a rules case, not a Second Amendment case.

US District Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California has struck down on Second Amendment grounds that state’s ban on the carry or mere possession of billy clubs, in the case Fouts v. Bonta (pdf link). The law bans the possession, manufacture, importation or sale of “any leaded cane, or any instrument or weapon of the kind commonly known as a billy, blackjack, sandbag, sandclub, sap, or slungshot.” Benitez declared in Sept. 2021 that the ban qualified as “longstanding” and therefore did not violate the Second Amendment. But while that ruling was under appeal, the US Supreme Court issued the Bruen decision that altered the legal analysis for Second Amendment regulations. The billy club case was sent back to Benitez to review under the new Bruen standard. He decided that California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, which is defending the case, failed to provide evidence of any historically similar prohibitions, leading to Benitez’s reversal. We note the obvious fact that California and Bonta literally want to take your sticks away. Sticks. They banned sticks. Stones are next I suppose.

US District Judge James Donato of the Northern District of California has granted summary judgment to three individuals in a lawsuit known as Linton v. Bonta, challenging that state’s Penal Code which permanently denies Second Amendment rights to people who have had felony convictions vacated, set aside, or dismissed, and their rights to possess firearms fully restored. But the state – without authority – didn’t honor the plaintiffs’ cases’ dispositions. The three individual plaintiffs were all convicted of non-violent felonies in other states decades ago. None of the convictions involved a weapon, drugs, or violence, in the ordinary meaning of the word. Each of the plaintiffs had their conviction vacated, set aside, or dismissed, and their right to possess firearms restored by the jurisdiction in which they were convicted. One even legally served for 30 years as a California LEO, AFTER his conviction.

US District Judge Edward M. Chen of the Northern District of California has ruled that “ATF acted arbitrarily and capriciously with respect to its categorical determinations that AR-type partially (80% – JP) complete receivers that are not indexed or machined and not sold with, e.g., a jig or tools are not firearms for purposes of the GCA.” In other words, 80% “ghost gun” receivers should have been classified as firearms. The decision declares certain relevant subsections of ATF’s rule and related agency actions to be unlawful or vacated and prohibits ATF from enforcing them. The case is California v. BATFE (pdf link).

The Hawai’i case Grell v. Lopez, US Ct App, 9th Cir, August 7, 2023, held the state’s butterfly knife ban violated the Second Amendment as binding on the states through the 14th Amendment. Last week the 9th Circuit ordered the case reheard en banc. Another “Aloha devil spirit” case.

New York is still screwed up as always.

Connecticut resident David Nastri has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the law that bans carrying a firearm into US post offices for self-defense. Nastri is also seeking a nationwide preliminary injunction barring USPS officials and federal officials from enforcing the current law, which prohibits people from carrying a firearm into a post office for the purpose of self-defense.

Alec Baldwin’s New Mexico manslaughter trial is scheduled for July 10-19. Baldwin faces up to 18 months in prison if convicted.

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ATF whistleblower writes book about agency gunwalking.

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State & Local Elections

• Everytown tells us who NOT to vote for.

Legislation

The Louisiana Legislature has passed a permitless carry law, which will “allow” anyone 18 and older who is eligible to own a handgun to carry it concealed in public without a government-issued permission slip. Louisiana will soon become the 28th to allow legal gun owners to carry concealed without a permit.

South Dakota has passed a bill that “allows” an individual with an enhanced concealed carry government-issued permission slip and written permission from a school principal or individual with control of supervision of the grounds (and a note from their mommy), to carry at public primary or secondary schools.

Enemies

Trevon Gardner (aka Skilla Baby), a Detroit native and Geffen Records (c)rap artist – whose lyrics include poetry like “Let a n***a run up on me/he gon’ get his head blown/ All my opps, calm down/ all my opps get a headstone/ Quick to get a n***a smoked, my temper short, but my bread long” – has gotten in bed with the Washington, D.C., Brady Bunch and city officials to sponsor a no-questions-asked gun “buyback.” Gardner said he “recognizes the Second Amendment right to own firearms, but…” The event will also include what’s billed as a felon-friendly job fair. Draw your own conclusions.

David Hogg, who was a student at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school during the massacre and is a founder of March for Our Lives, was responsible for the use of AI-generated voices of deceased children to make tens of thousands of calls to Congress, demanding tougher gun laws. But the FCC says that calls made with AI-generated voices are considered artificial under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and are illegal. With a fine of $1500 per call, they’re gonna owe over $100 million. That’s according to the rule and the math, not according to the Biden administration.

Numbers

Pop quiz: How many mass shootings were there in 2020? Choose:

• 648
• 636
• 50
• 42
• 12
• 7
• 73 (2024)

Confused? Here’s why.

Friends

After NY Attorney General Letitia James, on behalf of 19 states and the District of Columbia, sent a letter in January to Stefanie Feldman, Director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, essentially saying that the Lake City Ammunition plant should not be allowed to sell ammunition to civilians, 28 other states responded with their own letter for the right side. You can see who’s on each side at the link.

DGUs

(Note: I don’t post these just for your entertainment. Use them as examples when discussing the issue with those folks not-so-firmly on our side. Note that this is ALWAYS happening, to the tune of millions of incidents annually in the USA.)

• The Armed Citizen
  • America’s 1st Freedom – February 23, 2024
  • American Rifleman – February 23, 2024
  • American Rifleman – February 26, 2024
• Armed civilians shoot terrorists, save lives in terror attack near Jerusalem.
• Gun vs. hammer

You’re (still) On Your Own

• Act Accordingly: Even If They Can, Police Have No Duty to Protect You

FEMA generator funding

The good folks at Kohler advise that partial or full funding for your emergency home generator purchase may be available through FEMA if your home is in a federally declared disaster area. If you rely on constant power to support a medical device, your generator purchase may be tax-deductible. In most cases, documentation from a medical practitioner stating that the generator is medically necessary is required. If your generator was damaged or destroyed during a disastrous event, FEMA may cover the cost of repairs and even total replacement. Plus, generators used exclusively for backup power and damaged during a federally declared disaster may qualify as tax-deductible.

Tactics & Stuff

• Defensive shooting ruminations. Farnam.
• Ayoob on post-incident statements to the police. 14 mins. Watch it.
• .22 Defense. Read down to the third item for another example of why I don’t recommend .22s for defense.
• Hollowpoints for self defense. Ayoob.
• Seven of the most common concealed carry mistakes.
• Thoughts about colleges. True. Farnam.
• Tropical Mexican resorts popular with Americans no longer “off limits” for cartel killers: “The rules have changed“

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico has issued a spring break travel warning for Americans planning to visit the country, listing a range of potential safety threats in the popular destination like crime. The warning states that “U.S. citizens should exercise increased caution in the downtown areas of popular spring break locations including Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum, especially after dark.” The U.S. State Department’s travel advisory for the country notes various warning levels for different states, ranging from Level 1 (“exercise normal precautions”) through 4 (“do not travel”). I strongly suggest the latter.

Minutiae

• DA pistol history. Ayoob.
• Did you know? During WWII, the military produced double-sized small arms for training/familiarization purposes. Perhaps that’s the real reason for the Big Yellow Safe?

Industry News

The Bergara Academy Long Range Shooting School has an additional new location in Wyoming at the Queen Mountain Ranch outside Evanston. It joins the existing location in Montana. Bergara will offer a series of 2-day “Beginner Western Hunter” classes running from May through August.

FN America, LLC, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, has joined SAAMI as an Associate Member. I don’t know much about SAAMI vs. other standards organizations, but am aware that FN has made LOTS of military arms that are used with non-SAAMI military ammo, commonly of higher pressure. This could be interesting.

Black Hills Ammunition beat out five other ammunition makers to supply 9mm ammo to the Navy and Marine Corps. The $30,885,083 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract covers the procurement, manufacturing, testing, inspection, and packaging of 9mm barrier blind cartridges to the Navy and Marine Corps. These will be for use in the services’ front-line 9mm pistols including the Beretta M9 and SIG Sauer M17 and M18.

Recalls

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled four different brands of biometric gun safes are being recalled because of faulty locks that allow unauthorized people to open the safes. The brands include Bulldog Biometric Firearm Safes, Machir Biometric Personal Safes, BBRKIN Biometric Gun Safe, and Awesafe Biometric Gun Safes.

Smith & Wesson has announced a safety alert for all Response rifles manufactured before Feb. 12, 2024. The company has identified a condition in which an out-of-battery discharge may occur on certain Response rifles if the bolt fails to fully close and the trigger is pulled.

Products

• Smith & Wesson’s UC – “Ultimate Carry” – revolvers have excluded the unpopular frame lock. Now if they will address the rest of their revolvers.
• Federal 12 ga. #1 Buck update.
• The new Warne Shotgun Rib Mount features an adjustable design that seamlessly fits most shotgun vent ribs. The proprietary clamp ensures effortless installation, securely attaching directly to vented rib barrels without the need of drilling or tapping the shotgun. This provides a low-profile universal mounting plate compatible with most popular red dot sights, including reflex, MICRO® and ACRO® interfaces. $62.
• Amend2 magazines and accessories
• Did you know? Cerakote offers an air-cured version.

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“Always remember: many people have been killed by people they have killed, but who haven’t died yet.” – Clint Smith

“Most people will work harder to win a trophy than they will work to save their own life in a real fight.” – Jeff Cooper

“No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He, who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; else he lives precariously, and at discretion.” – James Burgh, Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses [London, 1774-1775].