The dinosaurs didn’t have guns. How’d that work out for them?

Action item

• Add your name to tell your two US Senators to pass H.R. 615 to END President Biden’s backdoor attempt at banning lead ammo. Editable letter.

Litigation

• The big news is that the US Supreme Court in the case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overturned the expansive doctrine of Chevron Deference, which was established by the Court four decades ago. Under this precedent, federal agencies were given deference by the courts when their rules interpreted vague or ambiguous statutory language from Congress. Under the new precedent it shall be solely the role of the courts to resolve questions related to agency interpretation of law. Chief Justice Roberts explained in his opinion for the Court, “agencies have no special competence in resolving statutory ambiguities. Courts do.” Now, judges will substitute their own best interpretation of the law, instead of deferring to the agencies. Although this is a big win with special significance for ATF and other law enforcement agencies, I’m not at all convinced that the federal courts are the best place to resolve such things. Mostly the courts should say they’re ambiguous and therefore unenforceable and tell Congress THEY should fix it if they want it used. The courts, or the agencies, shouldn’t be fixing it for them.
• Rahimi Decision: The Clarence Thomas Dissent
• Related: The Supreme Court held in SEC v. Jarkesy that individuals have a right to seek trial by jury before an administrative agency imposes civil monetary penalties “designed to punish or deter the wrongdoer.”
• SCOTUS Issues Orders On Major Gun Rights Cases. The High Court released its final orders list for the term last week. The Court decided to grant, vacate, and remand (GVR) seven cases dealing with laws prohibiting specific people from having guns back to the lower courts for new decisions.
• The case Yzaguirre et.al. v. District of Columbia et.al., was filed in the US District Court of the District Of Columbia on June 25, 2024. The complaint seeks to enjoin the District from enforcing its “total and complete prohibition on a substantial set of semiautomatic firearms, a common and popular category of arms.” The District erroneously calls the banned guns “assault weapons.”
• A similar case, Clemendor v. District of Columbia, was filed by the FPC in the same court on July 3.
• The SAF, CRPA, NRA, FPC and two private citizens have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn California’s recently-adopted 11% excise tax on the sale of firearms, gun parts and ammunition. The case was filed in San Diego County Superior Court. “We are challenging the constitutionality of the tax, as adopted by Assembly Bill 28,” explained SAF’s Alan M. Gottlieb. “We contend in the lawsuit that this 11 percent tax is unconstitutional because it literally taxes conduct protected by the Second Amendment. There is no analogous evidence such a tax was ever applied at the time of the Founding era, as required by the 2022 Supreme Court Bruen ruling.” Well, duh. Now where’s your lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of excise taxes imposed by The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937 (Pittman-Robertson Act, no relation) on guns, ammo and fishing and archery tackle? The case is James v. Maduros.
• The Firearms Policy Coalition has filed a new federal Second Amendment lawsuit in the Western District of New York, challenging New York’s body armor ban. The case is Heeter v. James.
• Also in New York, a retired Army sergeant and Purple Heart recipient is suing NYPD for discrimination after being arrested for legally carrying his own gun.
• More on that Sig Sauer liability verdict. Interesting.
• A deeper dive into the Rahimi decision.
• Update on Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against US gun manufacturers for allegedly flooding that country with firearms.
• A Gulfport, MS, man pled guilty to brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence after he brandished a firearm on October 20, 2022, at a USPS employee mail carrier when she was delivering mail to a home in Gulfport.
• Drones. Don’t shoot at them unless they’re shooting at you.
• Alec Baldwin’s New Mexico “Rust” manslaughter trial is now underway. So far it appears that Baldwin’s primary defense is that gun safety rules don’t apply on movie sets. I suggest: real guns = real rules. It was a red flag that Baldwin was handed the gun by the film’s assistant director and not armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed herself. “If Mr. Baldwin is a seasoned actor, he should have refused that from anyone other than the armorer.”

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• Update on the United Nations’ Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons In All Its Aspects (PoA)

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• Legal defense of self defense. Ayoob.

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NRA

• The NRA’s former CFO, Wilson “Woody” Phillips, via a court settlement, has been banned for a decade from managing money for any New York nonprofit company and will require training before returning to any such position. Only in New York. He also owes the NRA $2 million in damages, which is likely far short of what he cost us.
• The NRA, LaPierre, And Frazer Appeal
• Hopes for reform at NRA dashed.
• Phil Journey requests intervention.
• Still More Defeats

Liars

• The continued false claim that firearms are the leading cause of death for children or teens, now from the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy.

Enemies

• ATF-Troop. I can’t wait for the ATF’s gunrunning agents to start showing up in those reports.
• FBI. A new report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documenting the common factors relating to active shooter incidents completely excludes psychiatric drugs, psychotropic drugs, mental health, mental health records, behavioral health and medications. That’s so they can blame guns.
• US Department of Veterans Affairs. Kevin J. Friel, the DVA Deputy Director of the Pension and Fiduciary Service, told Congress that the Department of Veterans Affairs would not comply with the law if the Veterans 2nd Amendment Rights Restoration Act was enacted.
• New Orleans. After New Orleans city officials were unsuccessful in their attempts to get state lawmakers to designate vast swathes of their city’s popular tourist area as a gun-free zone before Louisiana’s new permitless carry law went live July 4, the New Orleans Police Department designated their Eighth District police station – which is located in the middle of the French Quarter – as a vocational technical school. That means everything within a 1,000-foot radius of the “school” is a gun-free zone.
• CitiBank. I terminated my Citi accounts years ago. This is why.
• Kevin Costner
• GOP
• Idaho Central Credit Union. Oops.
• FedEx? FedEx is using AI-powered cameras installed on its trucks to send surveillance feeds to police. I’m guessing that may be illegal in some jurisdictions on private property not belonging to FedEx.

Failure to observe the Rules

• A 50-year-old grandfather was killed in a Kentucky gun store when an unidentified customer “was viewing a firearm for sale and manipulating it” before a single round discharged.

The Only Ones

• SCOTUS Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s bodyguard shot an armed carjacker outside her home. Yeah, the same Sonia Sotomayor that doesn’t want anyone else to have guns.
• An unidentified Phoenix police officer was in the back parking lot of the South Mountain Precinct two Mondays ago when he “had an accidental discharge of his duty weapon,” resulting in a non-life-threatening gunshot wound below his torso.
• An unidentified Navy SEAL negligently shot a comrade during a training exercise in 2022. It was covered up until now.
• US Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) was charged with a weapons violation at Dulles International Airport outside Washington after officials found an unloaded Kel-Tec .380 pistol in her carry-on luggage.
• A grand jury has indicted two former Uvalde school police officers in the botched law enforcement response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo was booked on 10 counts of felony child endangerment and known criminal negligence, according to the indictment. and former school police officer Adrian Gonzales faces felony charges of abandoning and endangering a child.

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• The ACLDN and Rangemaster July newsletters are out.
• Season 12 of First Person Defender has started.

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• YOYO

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DGUs

• From Colorado Center for Healthcare & Environmental Data:
  • 24.7% (ONE FOURTH) of Colorado firearms homicides 2016-2021 are Justifiable Self-defense. We also note that in 29% of the events the victim used a weapon. If we assume that 100% of the victims’ weapons were firearms, they killed their attackers 85% of the time. I can’t wait to see what that does to the leftist statisticians.
  • See figure 4.
• Protective order or defensive firearm? Pick one.
• IT HAPPENED TO HIM: U.S. LawShield Rides to the Rescue in Chicago Self-Defense Triple Shooting
• Ex-boyfriend killed after breaking into Petal woman’s home, police say
• Homeowner Uses Shotgun on Man Who Refused to Leave
• The Armed Citizen:
  • American Rifleman – June 28, 2024
  • American Rifleman – July 1, 2024
  • American Rifleman – July 5, 2024
  • American Rifleman – July 8, 2024
  • America’s 1st Freedom – July 5, 2024
• No DGU here, but I had to include this story for obvious reasons. Blake Robinson, a 29-year-old Florida man, got his butt whupped by the 66-year-old man whose truck he was trying to steal. Robinson was then charged with felony battery of a person over the age of 65.
• Handgun DGUs against bears.

• • .45 ACP.
  • .357 Magnum.
  • 10mm, .41 Magnum, and .45 Super.
• Should have been a DGU. The three perpetrators, 17-year-old Tren Wooten, 17-year-old Zaylan Norton, and 16-year-old Cadarius Choan, allegedly attacked the security guard at a posted “gun-free” convenience store, took his weapon, and fatally shot him. They have been arrested and each charged with capital murder. Bond was denied.
• “Just give them what they want.” No. Give them what they have coming.

History

• “Shot Heard Round the World” musket balls recovered from site of famous first-day Revolutionary War battle.

Tactics & Stuff

• Article on church security.
• Scope mounting 101.
• Pistol Red Dot mounting.
• .45 ACP. Read it.
• Dressing for CCW. Including the ladies.

“So-called post-shooting trauma was first defined as a separate and distinct subset of PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, back in the 1970s by Dr. Walter Gorski, a police psychologist in California. I had the good fortune to study under him in the early 1980s. It’s something I’ve always taught my students to be prepared for, psychologically and emotionally.

The years have taught me that these aftermath issues are less a reaction to having had to use deadly force, than a reaction to society’s reaction to the act. You will be treated differently by friends, family and co-workers after the incident, and if it becomes a highly publicized cause célèbre, even by strangers.”

– Massad Ayoob

Obit

• Mark Hampton, 68, former public servant and famous handgun hunter and author of several handgun hunting books and hundreds of magazine articles, passed away suddenly while on his latest African big game hunt, likely from a heart attack.

Industry News

• The purchase of Vista Outdoor’s ammo business by Czech company CSG Group is under national security scrutiny, AND is getting attention from DOJ antitrust lawyers over allegations that the sale will also cause too much concentration in the manufacture of primers. The deal received final approval last month from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
• The Delta Waterfowl Duck Hunters Expo will take place July 26 to 28 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• It’s about time…
  • Oops, spoke too soon…
  • Alabama is a preemption state, so if the city is trying to prohibit these machines, they are likely in violation of state law.
  • These machines exist in stores in Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas, with others to follow.

Products

• I wonder if anyone is going to make a spring-loaded pop-up pistol reflex sight that folds down for pocket carry?
• New ammo company, First Breach.
• Troy Ammunition has a couple of interesting 2-3/4″ 20 ga. loads:
  • 30 pellets of #4 Buck (1 oz.)
  • 15 pellets of #00 Buck (3/4 oz.) NOTE: The manufacturer labels this product as 00 buck but it is comparable to the US standard 3 buck shot load.
  • Available at outdoorlimited.com
• Guns.com has a new e-gift card program with secure, protected, and convenient digital gift cards. You can send them to me here.
• Guns.com also has ET Arms Plumcrazy Firearms GEN II complete AR-15 lower receivers w/M4 stock on sale for just $65.99.
• Medical supplies.
• So you like nice wood on your gun? Try this one.
• BK Grips Revolver Grip Adapters
• FIRST TEST: Burris BTC35 V3 Clip-On Thermal Optic
• Smith & Wesson now chambers its new Model 1854 lever action rifle in .45 Colt (also available in .44 Mag.).
• Ed Brown’s Kobra Carry Dual Caliber comes with a .45 ACP upper equipped with fixed sights and a 9mm complete EVO upper with red dot sight.
• The S&W M&P9 Carry Comp series of pistols is available in Shield Plus, M&P 2.0 Compact, and M&P 2.0 Full-size models and features a ported barrel, optics-cut slide, tritium sights, and other details.
• 1791 Gunleather has the U.S. Military G.I. Hip Holster and the M3 Tanker Holster that are faithful replicas of the classic military leather holsters, are made from thick, full-grain, tanned leather, and feature the iconic “US” embossment. Available in brown or black. $100.
• New Kevlar EXO body armor. Coming soon.
• Sig’s new upgraded MCX SPEAR models chambered in 6.8×51 (277 FURY) for the civilian market.
• The Charter Arms Target Mastiff Series DA revolvers: 6″ barrels, optics rail w/optics, 3-point cylinder lockup, 5-round cylinders. 9mm, .357 Mag. or .44 Spl.

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“Donald Trump is the guy who put some 300 constitutional judges and justices on the federal benches, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Joe Biden is the guy who infamously told a CNN Townhall three years ago he was determined to prevent the sale of modern semi-auto rifles and 9mm pistols.” – Dave Workman

(But I just might vote for Biden in the Democrat PRIMARY to help keep the worse Dems off the ballot. In fact, Biden may just be the best possible Democrat for us to put up with, since he’s so feckless and will be so distracted. – JP)

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