Action item.
Litigation
First person charged for violating unconstitutional bump stock ban. Of course out of the thousands of “criminals” out there, the government picked a prohibited schizophrenic person to make their case. Bad cases make bad law.
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NRA sues San Francisco over “terrorist” allegation. But not based on libel/slander.
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SCOTUS cases article. Nothing to do with guns, though there are implications. However, they are interesting.
U.S. Courts Are Failing to Uphold the Second AmendmentÂ
Big Brother
The government has applied for a court order to make Apple and Google (already under a 50-state investigation into its business practices) supply names, phone numbers and other identifying data of at least 10,000 users of the Obsidian 4 rifle scope app. The app allows riflemen to get a live stream, take video and calibrate their scopes from an Android or iPhone device.
MS Election
Radical Liberal Stacey Abrams Working to Elect Jim Hood
Hood’s also a Hillary man.
Still getting Hammered
NRA director and LaPierre acolyte Marion Hammer apparently gave herself illegal loans from her Unified Sportsmen of Florida nonprofit group.
More NRA
Under Wild Skies Inc. (UWS) has filed a lawsuit against the NRA, in which UWS claims NRA owes it $17.1 million for breach of contract after the gun-rights group stopped paying agreed-upon fees to sponsor the program and advertise on it.
Under Wild Skies is hosted by Tony Makris, who also is a top executive at the NRA’s former advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen Inc. In the lawsuit, UWS said “prominent NRA figures,” including Wayne LaPierre and his wife, had appeared in destination hunts in exotic locations on the TV show, and that “UWS paid for the safaris and hunts of these NRA officers, spouses and board members.” (And of course UWS was undoubtedly reimbursed the costs of those LaPierre hunts by the NRA through its Ack-Mac PR budget. — JP)
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How the Board meetings are being run
Legislation
US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and members of his caucus are tiptoeing toward legislation addressing gun violence amid deep anxiety over eroding GOP support in suburbs across the country, because, as an aide put it, “the suburbs are key” in describing the dynamics on gun legislation. “House Republicans got rocked in the suburbs in the last election.” McConnell also said “If the president has signaled a willingness to sign a specific piece of legislation, then I think the leader sees a benefit in taking that up.”
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US Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) selling out on gun control?
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Why are Democrats backing away from an “assault weapon” ban? Because “This is the one piece of legislation that keeps a particular weapon out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”
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“Assault weapons” ban: A walk down memory lane.
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The European Union in tandem with the ECHA – the European Chemicals Agency – is once again attempting to push through an all-out lead ammunition ban.
Enemies
Fifteen US senators, all Democrats, sent a letter to anti-gun Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg demanding more information regarding the under-the-radar sale of firearms facilitated by Facebook Marketplace, a practice the company called a “clear violation” of company policies. Senators also called on Facebook to monitor and shut down any firearm sales that are “slipping through the cracks.” Facebook users were selling guns using the website’s second-hand shop feature, Marketplace, against Facebook policy by listing gun cases or boxes for the price of actual guns. Buyers would allegedly privately message sellers for more details not listed on the public Marketplace postings and learn about the alleged firearms in question. None of this appears to be in any way illegal on the face of it, assuming the transactions themselves conform to applicable laws. Yet senators want Facebook to prohibit what federal law itself allows.
The senators are (*presidential candidate):
- Robert Menendez
- Michael F. Bennet
- *Kamala D. Harris
- Richard Blumenthal
- Edward J. Markey
- Mazie K. Hirono
- Robert P. Casey, Jr.
- Richard J. Durbin
- *Amy Klobuchar
- Chris Murphy
- *Cory A. Booker
- Kirsten Gillibrand
- Sheldon Whitehouse
- Jack Reed
- Chris Van Hollen
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A Washington Times hit piece revealed that most mass shooters in the US acquired the weapons they used legally because there was nothing in their backgrounds to disqualify them, according to James Alan Fox, a criminologist with Northeastern University who has studied mass shootings for decades. But the misleading headline of that same article was “US mass shooters exploited gaps, errors in background checks.”
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Jasiel Correia II (27), the mayor of Fall River, MA, was arrested last week on new federal extortion charges for allegedly operating a scheme to help marijuana vendors get approval to operate in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. This is the second time in less than a year that Correia has been indicted — he was arrested in October on fraud charges. He now faces 24 total charges — 13 from last year’s arrest and 11 new ones — including bribery, extortion conspiracy, extortion and aiding and abetting, wire fraud, and filing false tax returns. Why am I telling you this? Correia is a member of Bloomberg’s illegal mayors against guns group.
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“Background checks are the base from which we must do anything.” US Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), this week
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US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had no patience Wednesday when a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle asked her a question about gun control, saying “I’m getting very angry about the silliness of these questions.” (Our job is to make sure that her side is the angry one. — JP)
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“…if the Bill of Rights the first 10 Amendments of the United States Constitution, were put before the public today, I’m not too sure we’d hold onto the Bill of Rights.” — US House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) [Which is precisely why our government was framed as a constitutional republic, not as a democracy. — JP]
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“Credit cards have enabled many of America’s mass shootings in the last decade — and with Washington unwilling to act, they need to cut off the sales of weapons of war today.” — Francis “Beto” O’Rourke
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Francis, who was warned earlier about his more vulgar language, also shouted during this week’s debate, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” You and who else, Francis? You keep saying that but not doing anything. Come and take them, you little flyspeck. I don’t think you’re capable of taking a sucker from a 3-year-old. How many US citizens are you willing to kill to do it? Waiting for your answers.
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Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri called on Muslims to attack civilian US, European, Israeli and Russian targets in a speech on the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 US terror attacks. Stay vigilant. Remain prepared.
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145 company CEOs (most of whom apparently employ armed guards) have sent a letter to the US Senate asking for more unconstitutional gun control laws (no-due-process “red flag” and “universal” registration and background check laws) for the rest of us. They are:
Organizations with more than 500 employees (*S&P 500 company):
- Brian Chesky, Co-Founder, Head of Community and CEO, Airbnb
- Keith Mestrich, President and CEO, Amalgamated Bank
- John Connaughton and Jonathan Lavine, Co-Managing Partners, and Josh Bekenstein and Steve Pagliuca, Co-Chairmen, Bain Capital
- Ethan Brown, Co-Founder and CEO , Beyond Meat
- Peter T. Grauer, Chairman, Bloomberg LP
- Ric Clark, Chairman, Brookfield Property Group
- Fritz Lanman, CEO, ClassPass
- Roger Lynch, CEO, Conde’Nast
- Ken Lin, Founder and CEO, Credit Karma
- Edward Stack, CEO, DICK’S SportingGoods
- Tony Xu, Co-Founder and CEO, DoorDash
- *Doug Baker, Chairman and CEO, Ecolab
- Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman
- Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO, Eventbrite
- *Art Peck, CEO, Gap Inc.
- Eddy Lu, CEO, GoatGroup
- Ben Lerer, Co-Founder and CEO, Group Nine Media
- Yannick Bollore’, CEO, Havas Group
- Bill Koenigsberg, President, CEO and Founder, Horizon Media
- Patrick O. Brown, MD, PhD, Founder and CEO , Impossible Foods
- *Michael Roth, Chairman and CEO, Interpublic
- Rob Frohwein, Co-Founder and CEO, and Kathryn Petralia, Co-Founder and President, Kabbage Inc. and Drum Technologies
- Chip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co.
- Logan Green, Co-Founder and CEO, and John Zimmer, Co-Founder and President, Lyft
- Dev Ittycheria, President and CEO , Mongo DB, Inc.
- Howard Marks, Co-Chairman, Oaktree Capital Management
- Todd McKinnon, Co-Founder and CEO, Okta
- *John Wren, Chairman and CEO, Omnicom Group
- Ben Silbermann, Co-Founder and CEO, Pinterest
- Bastian Lehmann, Co-Founder & CEO, Postmates
- Hamid R. Moghadam, Chairman and CEO, Prologis
- Arthur Sadoun, Chairman and CEO, Publicis Groupe
- Steve Huffman, CEO, Reddit
- *Richard Fain, CEO, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
- Scott Rechler, Chairman and CEO, RXR Realty
- Jon Oringer, Founder and CEO, Shutterstock
- *Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square and *Twitter
- Anthony Casalena, Founder and CEO, Squarespace
- Zander Lurie, CEO, SurveyMonkey
- Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO, Thrive Global
- Blake Mycoskie, Founder and Chief Shoe Giver, and Jim Alling, CEO, TOMS
- Jeff Lawson, Co-Founderand CEO, Twilio
- Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber
- Mark Read CEO, WPP
- Jeremy Stoppelman, Co-Founder and CEO, Yelp
Organizations with fewer than 500 employees:
- Kevin P. Ryan, Founder and CEO, AlleyCorp
- Travis Truett, Co-Founder and CEO, Ambition
- John W. Rogers, Jr., Founder, Chairman and Co-CEO, and Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO & President, Ariel Investments, LLC
- Mike Steib, CEO, Artsy
- Sean Knapp, Co-Founder and CEO, Ascend
- Andrei Cherny, Co-Founder and CEO, Aspiration
- Abdur Chowdhury, CEO, Aura
- Fahim M. Aziz, Founder and CEO, Backpack
- Abrams, Chairman and Co-CEO, and Katie McGrath, Co-CEO Bad Robot
- Ari Paparo, CEO, BeeswaxIO Corporation
- Ryan Block, Co-Founder, Begin
- John Borthwick, Founder and CEO, Betaworks
- Raphael Crawford-Marks, Co-Founder and CEO, Bonusly
- Darren Lachtman, Co-Founder, Brat
- Trevor McFedries, CEO, Brud
- Sameer Shariff, Co-Founder, Cambly
- Analisa Goodin, Founder and CEO, Catch & Release, Inc.
- Andrew Feldman, Founder and CEO, Cerebras Systems
- George Favvas, CEO, Circle Medical
- Alex MacCaw, CEO, Clearbit
- Tyler Bosmeny, CEO, Clever
- Matt Martin, Co-Founder and CEO, Clockwise
- Othman Laraki, Co-Founder and CEO, Color Genomics
- Jager McConnell, CEO, Crunchbase, Inc.
- Apu Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, Curalate, Inc.
- David Oates, Co-Founder and CEO, Curtsy
- Brian Ree, Founder and CEO, DAILYLOOK
- Saurabh Ladha, CEO, Doxel, Inc.
- Andy Coravos, Co-Founder and CEO, Elektra Labs
- Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective
- Pradeep Elankumaran, Co-Founder & CEO Farmstead
- Desiree Gruber, CEO, Full Picture
- Jared Hecht, Founder and CEO, Fundera
- Jude Gomila, Founder and CEO, Golden
- Rick Nucci, Co-Founder and CEO, Guru
- Kara Goldin, Founder and CEO, Hint, Inc.
- Jeff Sellinger, Co-Founder and CEO, HipDot
- Prerna Gupta, CEO, Hooked
- Cyrus Massoumi, Managing Partner, Humbition
- Kristin Savilia, CEO, JOOR
- Pierre Valade, CEO, Jumbo Privacy
- William Martino, Founder and CEO, Kadena
- Jake Perlman-Garr, CEO, Kanga
- Warren Shaeffer, Co-Founder and CEO, Knowable
- Jack Altman, CEO, Lattice
- Aaron N. Block, Co-Founder and Managing Director, MetaProp
- Afton Vechery, Co-Founder and CEO, Modern Fertility
- Dan Parham, Founder and CEO, and Tee Parham, Founder and CTO, Neighborland
- Shafqat Islam, CEO, NewsCred
- Sarah Friar, CEO, Nextdoor
- Athan Stephanopoulos, President, NowThis
- Varsha Rao, CEO, Nurx
- William E. Oberndorf, Chairman, Oberndorf Enterprises
- Steven Rosenblatt, Co-Founder and General Partner, Oceans
- Nick Huzar, Co-Founder and CEO, OfferUp
- James Segil, Co-Founder and President, Openpath
- Jordan Husney, CEO, Parabol
- Doug Aley, CEO, Paravision
- John Milinovich, CEO, Plato Design
- Rajat Suri, CEO, Presto
- Christopher Gavigan, Founder and CEO, Prima
- Adam Regelmann, Founder and COO, Quartzy
- Nate Maslak, Co-Founder and CEO, and Nate Fox, Co-Founder and CTO, Ribbon Health
- Zachariah Reitano, Co-Founder and CEO, Ro
- Gary Beasley, Co-Founder and CEO, Roofstock
- Stephen Ehikian, Co-Founder and CEO, Ruist
- Brian Schechter, CEO, SelfMade
- Olga Vidisheva, Founder and CEO, Shoptiques Inc.
- Dan Doctoroff, CEO, Sidewalk Labs
- Jason Tan, CEO, Sift
- Matt Cooper, CEO, Skillshare
- Grant Jordan, CEO, SkySafe
- Josh Guttman, Co-Founder and CEO and Florent Peyre, Co-Founder and President, Small Door
- Michael Carvin, Co-Founder and CEO, SmartAsset
- Aaron King, Founder and CEO, Snapdocs, Inc.
- Neil Capel, CEO, Solve.io
- Ben Hindman, Co-Founder and CEO, Splash
- Evan Beard, Founder and CEO, Standard Bots
- Stanlee R . Gatti, Founder, Stanlee R. Gatti Designs
- Bradford Oberwager, CEO, Sundia Corporation
- Ross Feinstein, CEO, Sunlight Health
- Paul Budnitz, CEO, Superplastic
- Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel
- HeidiZak, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, and David Spector, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, ThirdLove
- Yashar Nejati, CEO, Thisopenspace Inc.
- Joshua Kushner, Founder and Managing Partner, Thrive Capital
- Chris Wang, CEO, ThunderCore Inc.
- Corbett Kull, CEO, Tillable
- Meghan Jewitt, CEO, Uniform Teeth
- Nicholas Goldner, Co-Founder and CEO, and Christopher Bulow, Co-Founder and COO
- Viosera Therapeutics
- Ken Chong, CEO, Virtual Kitchen Co.
- Irv Remedios, CEO, Voxer
- Oliver Cameron, Co-Founder and CEO, Voyage
- Chase Adam, Co-Founder and CEO, and Grace Garey, Co-Founder and COO, Watsi
- Liz Wessel, Co-Founder and CEO, WayUp
- NeilWaller, CEO, Whalar
- Bismarck Lepe, CEO, Wizeline
- Dennis R. Mortensen, Founder and CEO, X.ai, Inc.
- Geoff Ralston, President, Y Combinator
- Shan-Lyn Ma, Co-Founder and CEO, Zola
More on those anti-gun stores
Gun policies for the 30 largest US retailers (based on overall sales).
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Meijer and Publix say no open carry.
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Thoughts from the Virginia Citizens Defense League
Note that although VCDL claims that the companies “will not be posting their stores,” undoubtedly some stores will (or do) have signs posted. We also have conflicting reports on Walmart’s intent to post signs. Depending on the jurisdiction and the particular sign, that may make it illegal to carry/open carry. Pay attention.
VCDL also took note of the incident at a Walmart in Kentucky (see next paragraph) where someone open carrying a handgun was approached by police and asked to sign a trespass document saying he acknowledges being permanently banned from Walmart property anywhere in the US, which contradicts the official policy as laid out by Walmart’s CEO. Meanwhile, Open Carry Texas says thousands of people have been able to openly bring their guns into Walmart without incident even though the retailer is now asking people to stop open carrying in its stores, and that Walmart is ducking the issue, and “trying to get the gun haters to leave them alone, while at the same time leave us alone when we carry in their stores.”
In my view, openly carrying onto private property where the owner doesn’t want you to is at best counterproductive, legal or not (especially folks carrying long guns, AR pistols, etc. into the local supermarket “to make a point.” If you’re trying to make a point, it’s probably the wrong point to make that you’re not respecting the right of a private property owner to run his own business. That ain’t gonna win them over. (Like this.) And why are you shopping there? Shop elsewhere and communicate why, in a pleasant, non-confrontational manner, to the owner. (Like this.) You may want to listen to the first 20 minutes of the 9/8/19 Gun Talk radio program.
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The ONLY significant “department” store in my local area is a Walmart. I almost never go there. Tiger says it well.
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“As long as there is a Hornady at Hornady, we will never sell Walmart direct. They don’t support our industry.” — Jason Hornady, 2007
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And Brownells weighs in.
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Meanwhile, in a tweet last weekend, JOANN Fabric & Craft clarified, “Hi! JOANN prefers that guns are not brought into our stores, to help foster a comfortable shopping environment. However, if a customer lawfully brings a gun in, and is not disrupting other customers or is not perceived as a threat, then we generally will allow it. — Rachel.”
Civics Survey: 1 In 5 Americans Can’t Name A Single Branch Of US Government.
But they can vote.
The Trayvon Hoax
Dr. John Lott on anti-gun bias (short video)
He has a whole book on it.
The Impact of Mass Shootings on Gun Policy
A research paper by Michael Luca, Deepak Malhotra, & Christopher Poliquin, published last month in The National Bureau of Economic Research, revealed three things:
First, mass shootings evoke large policy responses. A single mass shooting leads to a 15% increase in the number of firearm bills introduced within a state in the year after a mass shooting. This effect increases with the extent of media coverage.
Second, mass shootings account for a small portion of all gun deaths, but have an outsized influence relative to other homicides.
Third, when looking at bills that were actually enacted into law, the impact of mass shootings depends on the party in power. The annual number of laws that loosen gun restrictions doubles in the year following a mass shooting in states with Republican-controlled legislatures. We find no significant effect of mass shootings on laws enacted when there is a Democrat-controlled legislature, nor do we find a significant effect of mass shootings on the enactment of laws that tighten gun restrictions.
Why more massacres?
The percentage of US homes with guns has not increased from where it was decades ago. We have more restrictive gun laws than ever before. Maybe guns aren’t the reason.
A man she didn’t know asked her for the time. When she was getting out her phone to answer, he attacked. (Insert snarky opinionated comment here.)
Why do I carry a gun?
Start listening at 11:10. Takes one minute.
The 21-foot “rule” is back in the news.
Maybe it should be a 37-foot rule.
Did you know?
A terrorist or criminal needs only to fill out a Form 4473 and submit to a NICS check for a potential retail gun sale in order to be tipped off that he has been “made” when the dealer tells him that the feds won’t allow his firearm transfer to proceed. They don’t arrest anyone for that, they just deny the sale.
Don’t be stupid
We have a report that some insurers in the UK are rejecting burglary claims if the homeowner posted he was away on a trip on social media. I would expect competent insurers here to do the same thing.
About Hearing Protection Noise Reduction Ratings
Shotgun clay bird record. 160 yards. Winchester Rooster XR Elite Pheasant Load. Improved-Modified choke.
Ammo Recall
Olin Winchester, LLC is recalling two (2) lots of 17 HMR 20 Grain Jacketed Hollow Point Rimfire rifle ammunition.
- Symbol: X17HMR1
- Lot Numbers (last four characters): NB51 and NB61
No powder.
Products
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Grizzly Cartridge has some hot .300 Win. Mag. ammo. 180 gr. at 3200 fps.
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Sig Sauer has a P365 version (P365 SAS) that is slicked up with no bumps or protrusions and no iron sights. Instead, there is a rear “submerged” green-dot (and circle) fiber optic/tritium sight below where the rear iron sight would have been. S’posed to be very fast. Seems to me that target occlusion by the gun might be an issue.
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Grabagun.com has Rossi RS22 Semi-Automatic .22 LR rifles for just $109. You can buy one for every grandkid.
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AR15 80% lower receiver blems for $25.95.
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Federal Premium recently presented its “Shorty Shotshell” 12-gauge 1¾-inch Smooth Bore Barrel cartridge and chamber designs to the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute to be voted on for standardization. The specifications were approved and accepted as an official new cartridge recognized by the organization.
Quotes
“9/11: if you had told me that 18 years later, Jew hating Muslims would be sitting in Congress, I would have said, ‘That is not even remotely possible.’ But when the American haters control the media, what is not possible?” — Clayton Cramer
“Your right to feel (sic) safe and my right to carry a gun are not mutually exclusive.” — Clark Aposhian
“If you are being attacked and you call the police, do you think they will get there in time to stop the attack?” — Tom Gresham
“He that suffers his life to be taken from him by one that hath no authority for that Purpose, when he might preserve it by Defence, incurs the Guilt of self-murder since God hath enjoined him to seek the continuance of his Life, and Nature Itself teaches every creature to defend itself.” — from a sermon by the famous Presbyterian Rev. Gilbert Tennent
“The more corrupt politicians are, the more afraid of armed citizens they become.” — Keiichi Sigsawa
