Why do firearm fetishists always conveniently forget the first part of the Second Amendment (“A well regulated Militia”)? Those intent on packing heat everywhere are not members of a militia and are clearly unwilling to be well regulated.
First off, well regulated, when the Second Amendment was written, meant well disciplined. With few exceptions, gun owners are disciplined enough to not indiscriminately fire their weapons in an unsafe manner. Second, if enduring Brady background checks, seeking permission to conceal a weapon upon one's person, and having fingerprints taken when buying ammunition, is not regulation, I don't believe I can define it then. And we willingly endure those things to exercise a right. - TotC
Yesterday, I finished up my Christmas holiday shopping and bought groceries for the next two weeks. (I hate going grocery shopping and plan out a two week menu.) Celebrating Christmas with my family will come next week, due to my nephew and his wife spending Christmas with her family this year.
I bought fixin's for a Christmas dinner, including ham and stuffing. I forgot a few things and the guy I live with went back out for the last of it. He wanted ham and all the trimmings so I obliged. I fixed it all and have in and out of the kitchen for the better part of the afternoon.
He hasn't come downstairs out of bed, once. He was supposed to clear off the kitchen table so we could eat a meal there. Fat chance of that happening. I fixed it, ate my fill of it, in front of this computer in my bedroom. Never. Ever. Again. I want to eat dinner at a regular table.
This year, the Gunblogger Conspiracy decided to do a Secret Santa. Whitebread drew my name. He sent me two fully loaded Pmags and a box of Speer Gold Dot ammunition in 9mm.
Thank you very much Whitebread. It is most appreciated and will definitely be put to good use.
BATFEIEIO decided to quack a little over the Mexican Gun Canard via Ken Melson.
Transcript of ATF Acting Director Melson — Webcast December 20, 2010
Acting Director Announces Demand Letters for Multiple Sales of Specific Long Guns in Four Border States Hello, I’m Ken Melson, the Acting Director of ATF.
A recent initiative by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has caught the attention of national media outlets. I wanted to make sure everyone heard from me about this law enforcement initiative so there isn’t any confusion.
Recently, ATF announced through the Federal Register our intent to initiate a new Demand Letter requiring the reporting of multiple sales of certain long guns by Federal Firearms Licensees, known as FFLs, in the four Southwest Border States. We took this step as a way to help gain actionable law enforcement intelligence which we believe will help reduce criminal firearms trafficking along the Southwest border.
Before we can actually issue the Demand Letter we must receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget for purposes of the paperwork reduction act. We expect to receive that approval in early January, 2011.
As many of you already know, the goals of ATF’s Southwest border firearms trafficking strategy are:
•: To prevent violent crime; •: Ensure the safety of the communities and law enforcement situated along the Southwest Border; •: And to disrupt and dismantle the firearms trafficking networks responsible for the diversion of firearms from lawful commerce into the hands of the Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs) Since 2006, there has been a significant increase in drug and firearms-related violence in Mexico and along our Southwest border. In response to this increased violence, ATF has deployed focused resources nationally to prevent the firearms trafficking along the Southwest Border and into Mexico.
According to ATF trace data, investigative experience, and Mexican law enforcement officials, a large number of rifles are being used in violent crimes in Mexico and along the border. Our new Demand Letter will implement a limited reporting of multiple sales of certain long guns that functions similarly to the current practice of reporting on the multiple sales of handguns. Currently, all FFLs in the country are required to submit a report of multiple sales to the National Tracing Center when an FFL sells two or more handguns to the same purchaser within five consecutive business days.
The proposed Demand Letter, which is narrowly circumscribed to meet our objectives, will apply a similar reporting requirement to certain long guns, but with these distinct differences:
First, the reporting requirement will apply only to FFLs doing business in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, which are major source states for crime guns seized in Mexico and traced to federal firearms licensees.
Secondly, the reporting requirement applies only to those rifles having all of the following characteristics:
•: A semi-automatic action; •: A caliber greater than .22; and •: The ability to accept a detachable magazine. These specific characteristics subject a very narrow group of long guns that have been identified by ATF and the Government of Mexico as being involved in violent crimes in Mexico to the reporting requirement.
This reporting requirement would apply to the disposition of all rifles in the inventory of the FFLs exhibiting these characteristics, both new and used.
Third, we propose to implement this initiative as a pilot project for a period of one year.
Taken together, limiting the geographic scope, impacting a limited number of licensees, affecting a specific group of rifles, and limiting the duration of this reporting requirement, form a tailored, discreet, responsible and proactive response to a significant law enforcement issue.
Let me be absolutely clear. The purpose of requiring FFLs to report the specified multiple long gun sales in these four source states is to identify criminal firearms traffickers, not to prevent the full and free exercise of our Second Amendment rights, or to encumber the FFLs with burdensome paperwork.
These reports will give ATF real-time leads for the investigation of gun trafficking. ATF’s experience in these source states proves that multiple purchases of the described rifles are strong indicators of firearms trafficking to Mexico. By obtaining information about these multiple sales, ATF increases the likelihood of uncovering and disrupting trafficking schemes before the firearms make their way into Mexico.
I know that FFLs are good citizens who share ATF’s interest and commitment in keeping guns out of criminal hands. Working together we can do that without infringing on the rights of law abiding Americans.
On the one hand, I am glad to read that freedom loving Chicagoans are purchasing handguns. That they have the McDonald decision to enumerate for them what is a natural right to self defense, I am thankful for. But stupid statements like this make my blood pressure start to rise.
Chicago residents remain under a handgun ban but Tropino says residents have visited his store to see what is available.
No, they DO NOT remain under a handgun ban. Oh, Dick Dailey would like that to be, but the fact remains that as long as you jump through all of their hoops, you can now legally own a handgun in Chicago.
Is it just me, but shouldn't a sportsbar, I don't know, have the accompanying sound to a game? Rather than 70's butt rock. The sportsbar is Hot Shots in St. Charles.
These two videos are quite hillarious and most definitely NSFW. The first explains IDPA. The minutia involved with it would drive a Philadelphia lawyer apeshit crazy.
The second video takes a look at every question and answer on a gun forum. The truth does sting a little, so if you're an Arfcommer, well, just watch the video.
Dr. Phillip L Kauffman has been playing Burgermeister Meisterburger has surveyed toy stores since 1977 in an attempt to take the fun out of Christmas.
At the top of Dr. Meisterburger's...errr Kauffman's list is an "open barrel cross bow for 12 year olds." Ahh, those layers and layers of editorial oversight there. I wouldn't have been surprised to see the phrase, AK-47, somewhere in that description.
I betcha this killjoy is partially responsible for banning my lawn darts.
Kurt Hoffman brings us up to date on an NRA-ILA alert. This is all in relation to Mexico's assertion that many of the guns used by drug gangs in Mexico originate here in the U.S. For more history on this, go here.
Of course, the BATFE is trying to enact this new regulation bereft of congressional input at all. Currently only multiple handgun purchases are required to be reported per the Gun Control Act of 1968.
They are trying to sneak this past without passing a new law. I can't think of a better time for them to attempt this, than right now, with Congress' collective attention on another Omnibus spending bill that has the nations undivided consideration.
Dave Kopel has a great piece on the Obama administration's subtle push for stricter gun control. And while CIFTA has not been brought to the Senate Floor for ratification, the UN Small Arms Treaty when completed by 2012, will most assuredly be.
This particular piece of UN garbage is ostensibly designed to fight against 'insurgency' 'terrorism' and 'criminal syndicates.' What it will actually do is toughen up licensing requirements where such exist. Any unauthorized weapons will be confiscated and destroyed. Finally, it will create an international registration that will lead to confiscation.
The anti freedom forces are marshalling their hosts for an all out assault on our liberties. Let's make sure we give em hell and make them pay for their evil.
Out in Goodland KS, a momma didn't particularly care for the never do well choir boy, intent on dating Karen Vondemkamp's 16 year old daughter. So she grabs her bolt action varmint gun and points it at said choir boy's tires, more than likely demanding that he let the daughter out of his car. Somewhere in this whole incident, apparently, Ms. Vondemkamp's trigger finger decides to take matters into it's own errr... hands? knuckle joint? fingerprint?
"As I aimed at his tire ... I just decided not to go ahead and fire at the tire. I thought 'what if I missed' ... I thought this probably isn't the right thing to do, so I lowered the gun, and my finger still pulled on the trigger more out of frustration than anything."
Gee whiz, you think it's not the right thing to do. I understand that he's become physically menacing with you prior. However this time, he was not. This time you decided to back up your anger with a firearm.
Remember folks, you are responsible for the administration and function of your firearms.
Wherein we go out, engage in making fun of some politician, throw some lead downrange, tell the redcoat that they can't sleep in your bed and when the police show up, you can tell them to get bent until they have a proper warrant.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has come out with a book titled Making Our Democracy Work. The title itself is misleading in that America is not a democracy, despite what statists and socialists would have us believe. It is in fact, a constitutional republic.
In an interview with Christopher Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Breyer states that the Second Amendment was meant to place a restriction on the right to keep and bear arms.
In the interview, Breyer goes on to talk about how the court should take a pragmatic view. His judicial philosophy is to view the Constitution as a core set of values that must be applied according to the moment.
Of course, values are flexible and can be changed. One might value a seemingly rare item, and once that item has outlived its usefulness, it's value would decline.
A judge, a politician, the average citizen that adheres to a set of core principles is much more interesting and is the answer to restoring the republic. Allowing democracy to take hold is a recipe for disaster.
It appears the Brady campaign has injected itself into a lawsuit against Badger Guns. Where does the money come from? I know the Brady campaign is but a shadow of its former self.
Both Roberta X and Tam remind us that today marks the end of Prohibition.
The twenty first amendment nullified the eighteenth. This was the first time that something was prohibited specifically by the constitution in regards to an individual.
Learning from the pitfalls and building on achievements of the past, the Obama administration can make progress on the gun issue with a strategy that emphasizes the compatibility of gun rights and sensible gun control.
- Allen Rostron
William R. Jacques Constitutional Law Scholar and Associate Professor of Law
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law
There is no compatibility between gun rights and sensible gun control. Since the National Firearms Act of 1934, we've been exploring that compatibility. It's like the vegetable your parents made you eat as a child. You did it, because it was put in front of you. Now that you're an adult, that vegetable is no longer on your menu.
