2A News: August 12, 2016 Newsletter by Jeff Pittman
Election
If Donald Trump loses, it will mostly be because he beat himself. It seems like he says more stupid stuff than VP Joe Biden, which is a lot. Of course the fact that Biden isn’t running says a lot about his party.
A former paid worker for Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a civil lawsuit in a North Carolina court against the Trump campaign and recent Trump NC state director Earl L. Phillip. The lawsuit alleges assault and battery, seeking monetary damages for emotional distress, after Phillip and the worker allegedly were traveling by car in South Carolina when Phillip suddenly pulled out a 45 caliber handgun, the safety off and his finger on the trigger, and pressed the barrel to the plaintiff’s kneecap. But this smells pretty fishy to me. If the incident happened in South Carolina, why is the suit in a North Carolina court? And why is there no report of any criminal complaint?
Make no mistake, a Trump presidency will be a disaster. But not nearly as bad as the alternative.
We have reports that the Libertarian POTUS and VP candidates are supporting gun control and groups that support lawbreakers. Apparently they don’t know their own party’s platform.
The Orlando massacrist’s father is supporting Hillary.
Judicial Watch released 44 more Hillary emails totaling 296 pages this week, which it says provide evidence of an inappropriate relationship between the State Department and Bill Clinton’s “philanthropic” organization, the Clinton Foundation.
MS State Supreme Court race
Speech from candidate Kenny Griffis. Kenny and I were school classmates in Meridian. He’s a good guy.
Olympics
19-year-old rookie Olympian Ginny Thrasher won the first gold medal of the Rio Olympics and set an Olympic record of 208.0 in the 10-meter air rifle event. USA Shooting. NCAA Champion. Biomedical engineering major.
USA shooter Corey Cogdell-Unrein won the bronze in women’s trap.
Kim Rhode is there competing for a sixth consecutive Olympic medal in six consecutive Olympics.
Tom Gresham notes that colleges don’t offer full scholarships in shooting, because all the shooters are smart enough to get academic scholarships. Go figure.
Don’t look for any Olympic shooting coverage on NBC.
Litigation
Waller County, TX (Houston) has filed suit against Terry Holcomb, Sr., the executive director of a gun-rights organization called Texas Carry, who has complained that county officials were unlawfully barring firearms from being brought into a public building and has sent letters to more than 75 local governments and other public entities across the state complaining of restrictions placed on license-holders from bringing a firearm into a public arena. The county’s suit seeks up to $100,000 in damages from Holcomb. Holcomb has counter-sued. Even if the county wasn’t doing anything wrong, he still has a First Amendment right to erroneously complain (petition the government).
Apparently incompetent federal judge John C. Coughenour of United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (state) has upheld a decision by the ATF to ban ammunition originally designed for AK-47 rifles. P.W. Arms Inc., had obtained permits to import more than 100 million rounds of the Russian- and Eastern European-made ammunition known as 7N6, but after some of it was received stateside in 2014, the ATF apparently erroneously declared the bullets “armor-piercing” and barred their importation for civilian resale. P.W. Arms then filed suit against the ATF. Coughenour is a Reagan appointee.
In Ohio, concealed carry instructor Mark Montgomery was indicted this week on one count of felony reckless homicide and his daughter Katie Dunham was indicted on one count of misdemeanor negligent homicide after a student in a class they were teaching in June fired a round that went through a wall, fatally striking the gun shop owner in the neck. Apparently they were working on malfunction drills with dummy ammo, but a live round somehow got in the gun, and the gun was then pointed and fired at the victim.
Rules 1 and 2.
Massacre study implicates media
The media likes to claim that mass shootings are an epidemic caused by guns. Nope. Spread by the media themselves. Maybe we should ban “assault media.”
Federal Government Spends $1.1 Billion ($1,100,000,000) a Year on Gun Law Enforcement
Gun owners’ rights not dependent on training level (True, that.)
Chamber Empty = Suicide
Page 62.
CCW permits up
According to John Lott’s new report, more than 14.5 million Americans (over 6% of the population) are now licensed by states to carry a concealed handgun for personal and home protection, an increase of 1.73 million in the past 12 months. Apparently the biggest increases are among female and black Americans.
The actual number of persons who actually carry handguns on a regular basis is likely higher, as 11 states no longer require a permit, according to Lott. (We don’t know if any estimate was made of how many licensed folks don’t regularly carry, or of how many unlicensed folks carry illegally but not to commit any other crime.)
CCW permit holders most law-abiding
A new study’s findings are consistent with past studies — CCW license holders are pretty much the most law-abiding group there is, committing crimes at 1/6 the rate of police officers.
Note that most gun laws don’t apply to cops — they get to have guns and carry guns where the rest of us can’t. Because they can be trusted and you can’t. Except that’s a false assumption. So when a business or government agency says it doesn’t want you there, you might want to ask why. Do they prefer a lower, more criminal class of client? Because that is exactly what they’re saying.
University of Chicago: Gun Control Laws Don’t Work
http://www.americanpatriotdaily.com/latest/university-of-chicago-accidentally-proves-that-gun-control-laws-dont-work/#disqus_thread
DGUs and “should have been” DGUs
In Laurel, MD, an off-duty Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission police officer shot a home invader armed with a knife. The officer was not injured but has been placed on routine administrative leave.
Two questions:
- Why does a “sanitary commission” need cops? Sewer and landfill defense?
- Why did they put him on leave for a shoot at his home, off duty?
The hooligans are out in force during the Rio Olympics, including shooting police officers/soldiers.
A Belgian olympian who won the bronze medal in JUDO this week was beaten up and robbed while celebrating the same day in Rio. I guess he doesn’t read the 2A News. Or maybe it was the gold or silver Judo guy who beat him, again.
And in spite of “extreme security,” the (unarmed) Olympic “security chief” himself was attacked by four knife-wielding armed-robbery suspects immediately after opening ceremonies. He survived only because armed police officers arrived in time to fatally shoot one of the suspects before his impending murder. The other 3 are still at large, as is the foolish chief.
Enemies
United Way Worldwide has threatened a local United Way chapter with revocation of its United Way affiliation if the chapter did not terminate a legal fundraising raffle and remove any mention of it from their webpage, because some of the prizes were guns.
We have a report of at least the fifth armed robbery of a Jack In The Box restaurant since the chain asked law-abiding customers to refrain from carrying guns into its stores a little over a year ago.
FOX is producing a new TV series titled “Lethal Weapon,” based on the movies of the same name. But there will be no guns in the posters or advertising for the cop action series. Lethal What?
Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless and Black Lives Matter say that a Cincinnati police officer was wrong for defending himself with a gun when a mentally ill robbery suspect viciously attacked him with a knife, crawling into the police SUV on top of the victim officer.
Democratic Senate candidate Ted Strickland, the former governor of Ohio, said during a campaign event in Cleveland this week that former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death “happened at a good time” because of pending court decisions.
Apparently if you’re on spacebook, the White House wants to know what you think of them. Tell ’em. (no threats, please)
Dept. of Idiocy
The unarmed man who stood up to the Munich massacrist and threw a beer bottle at him from a balcony after he killed nine people is now being investigate for possible charges by a German prosecutor for insulting the killer.
You can’t make this stuff up. Well, Mr. Prosecutor, [insert insult of your choice here]. Now, you gonna come get me for insulting a fool?
Church carry in MS
Revisiting the basics of Mississippi law regarding carrying in a church, as best I can decipher it. I deduced the following from reading the law, not from asking Barney Fife. This presumes state law applies (not on federal property, etc.) and no other circumstances (like being a prohibited person) apply. Attorneys, please weigh in.
1. OPEN CARRY of a handgun is generally legal without a license anywhere state law applies.
2. I know of no state law generally restricting LONG GUN carry other than some regarding hunting, assuming no brandishing or threatening gestures. There may be an issue with concealed long guns.
3. The MS “PURSE (and holster) CARRY” law does NOT allow unlicensed CONCEALED carry of handguns in churches.
4. Carry of a CONCEALED handgun with the REGULAR MS CCW license, without being a designated armed church security team member (discussed below), is NOT legal in churches.
5. Carry of a CONCEALED handgun with the MS ENHANCED CCW license IS legal in churches, regardless of any church security program/team involvement.
6. BASIC CHURCH ARMED SECURITY WITHOUT IMMUNITY. Carry of a concealed handgun while “on duty” as part of a designated church security program/team, in accordance with the MS Church Protection Act (simply a written list by the church of designated armed members) IS legal. The law appears unclear to me regarding whether ANY state license is needed to be legal under this circumstance, but clearly the ENHANCED license is NOT required, and my take is that no license is required.
7. ENHANCED CHURCH ARMED SECURITY WITH IMMUNITY. Carry of a concealed handgun as part of a church security program/team, in accordance with the MS Church Protection Act and with the MS enhanced CCW license IS also legal, AND
This method ALSO provides for IMMUNITY of the individual from CIVIL liability (lawsuit) for any action taken by him/her for actions taken on church premises during the reasonable exercise of and within the course and scope of his/her official duties as a member of the security program for the church.
Apparently under this enhanced permit + church security team scenario ONLY, the written list of program members must be made available to law enforcement upon request during the course of investigation after an incident in which the member used a firearm while acting as a member of the security program, IF the member is claiming civil immunity under the law. (Why law enforcement rather than plaintiffs’ attorneys need the list for civil immunity is unclear.)
8. CRIMINAL DEFENSE. A person indicted or charged with a CRIME (including the crime of illegally carrying a concealed weapon) while acting as a church security team member may assert as an additional defense (not an immunity), that at the time of the action in question, the person was a member of a church security program, was then actually engaged in the performance of his/her duties as a member of the program, and had met the legal requirements thereof. This criminal defense appears to apply whether or not the person has the enhanced license qualification.
9. JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE. MS law also states that homicide is justifiable “when necessarily committed in the performance of duty as a member of a church or place of worship security program.” (No stipulation of what type, if any, CCW license is required.)
10. NO ENHANCED LEGAL PROTECTION FOR CHURCHES. I find no immunity or defense provisions in any of this for the churches themselves, only for individual team members.
http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2016/pdf/HB/0700-0799/HB0786SG.pdf
Wild animal attacks
In California, several coyote attacks recently in the area of Montebello Park (near LA) have triggered indefinite closure of the park, while a mountain lion has been spotted several times over the last few weeks at the North Pole amusement park near Colorado Springs, CO.
The Only Ones
In a restaurant in Anderson, IN, last week, Madison County, IN, Prosecutor and former cop Rodney Cummings “accidentally” fired a handgun that was in his pocket. No injuries, no arrest, no nothing. Because some people are more special than others.
Baltimore Police officer Wesley Cagle was found guilty last week of first-degree assault and a handgun charge in the 2014 shooting of an unarmed burglary suspect in the groin as he lay in the doorway of a corner store. The suspect had already been shot by two other officers but survived to testify for the prosecution. The two other officers also testified against Cagle and were cleared of all wrongdoing. Cagle was acquitted of attempted first- and second-degree murder charges, and is facing up to five years in prison.
In New York City, an unidentified 52nd precinct police officer was “escorting” a man from a deli after a dispute when the man grabbed the officer’s gun from his holster and repeatedly fired, killing another man involved in the dispute. Another officer fired three shots at the suspect, hitting him twice and sending him to the hospital. (The NYPD was already in the process of transitioning to a new, more secure retention holster, but the officer in question still had the old holster, which requires unsnapping and rocking the gun forward.)
A Citizen Policy Academy event hosted by the Punta Gorda, FL, Police Department included a student exercise involving a mock “shoot/don’t shoot” scenario, in which they made decisions on whether or not to use lethal force in a live role play. A 73-year-old participant was fatally shot with a live round from a revolver — one which they’ve apparently been using for this training for years. This is why they make nonlethal training weapons. Officer Lee Coel, 28, has been placed on administrative leave. We understand that the lady was playing the “victim” to the officer’s “bad guy.” Rules 1 and 2, again. Chief Tom Lewis said the department will no longer use real guns in citizen academy training, but could not explain what safety protocols were in place for the exercise. Officer Coel formerly worked in Miramar but was forced to resign from his job at the end of his rookie year for violating policy after being twice accused and cleared of using excessive force, and has been sued in Punta Gorda for allegedly ordering a vicious K9 attack on a non-threatening bicyclist.
Obituary
Patriot movement activist and self-described “citizen journalist” Mike Vanderboegh of Pinson, AL, who was instrumental in the initial revealing of the Obama administration’s Operation Fast and Furious scandal of running guns to Mexican drug cartels, passed away Aug. 10 following a five-year battle with cancer, during which he did more for freedom and gun rights than 99% of able-bodied citizens do in a lifetime. He also ran the Sipsey Street Irregulars website. Vanderboegh was 64.
His “official” obituary read in part: “An adamant enemy of collectivism of all kinds, he was denounced by Bill Clinton on CNN, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, as well as the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nations and various racists and anti-Semitic groups. He was also very unpopular with the ATF and the FBI.”
Pretty hard to beat that. Tyrants breathe easier today.
- “Longtime militia and ‘Patriot’ leader Mike Vanderboegh dies at 64“
- “Freedom Movement Loses Important Voice with Passing of Mike Vanderboegh“
MS Gun Range
OFP Match Worx, the new range in Leake County, MS, is scheduled to open next month.
Products
- More on the handheld minigun
- You know that the Ruger American bolt rifle is available in .223 Remington. But did you know that the “Ranch” version is instead listed as available in 5.56 NATO? (It’s generally considered potentially unsafe to fire 5.56 ammo in a rifle chambered for .223 Rem., but safe to fire .223 ammo in a 5.56 chambered rifle. Lots [most] ARs and many other MSRs are chambered in 5.56 or “5.56/.223”, but you don’t see many bolt rifles in 5.56.)
- Ruger has also announced models of its American pistol with an ambidextrous manual safety.
- Remington has introduced the R1 10mm Hunter LS (long slide), a 6″-barreled 1911 with an accessory rail, adjustable sights, stainless steel frame and slide with a PVD finish. $1310.
- Winchester’s new 12 ga. Varmint X predator and varmint shotgun load is a 3″ magnum with 1½ ounces of plated BB size lead shot encapsulated in Winchester’s Shot-Lok Technology, at 1,300 fps. About $1.70 per round.
- Federal Premium’s new Power-Shok Copper lead free loads use a hollow point copper bullet and are available in the following calibers:
- Part No. / Description / MSRP
- 24385LFA / .243 Win. 85-gr. copper / 6-04544-61734-4 / $32.95
- 270130LFA / .270 Win. 130-gr. copper / 6-04544-61735-1 / $33.95
- 308150LFA / .308 Win. 150-gr. copper / 6-04544-61736-8 / $33.95
- 3006150LFA / .30-06 Spring. 150-gr. copper / 6-04544-61737-5 / $33.95
