Category: Guns

Standard Capacity Ban Overturned

August 19, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Last Friday, the news came down that a three-judge panel appellate hearing overturned California’s standard capacity magazine ban on strict scrutiny. I’ve read that the ban is still technically in place due to an earlier injunction, but I also saw Brownell’s loudly proclaim they’re going to flood California with as many standard capacity magazines as they can. Much as they did during that glorious few days the last time the ban was overturned. More power to the Brownell’s, Midway, and anyone else trying to flood California with real magazines.

The case is expected to go to an en banc hearing, but that’s not the assured win for California as it was a few years ago. Trump and McConnell have been ramming a bunch of new judges into the Ninth to the point that it’s been pulled back closer to the center. Which, if the en banc sustains the panel’s findings, would mean the Ninth is conflicted with several other circuits. If what happened this summer is any indication, there’s no desire from SCOTUS to pick up any Second Amendment cases and clear up any of these circuit conflicts. Which, while infuriating, may actually be in our long-term interest.

It Can Be Both – NY NRA Lawsuit Edition

August 12, 2020 / / 2 Comments

The Attorney General of New York is using all of the powers of her office to take down the National Rifle Association. Particularly those surrounding non-profits (which the NRA is) chartered in New York (where the NRA was chartered). And it looks like the DC Attorney General has launched a second front on the NRA Foundation. No, this wasn’t coordinated at all.

Larry Corriea (the International Lord Of Hate) posted a gorgeous rant on the subject, which I’m going to excerpt here. Hat tip to Arizona Rifleman, who I was very happy to see show back up in my RSS feed.

Quoteth the ILOH:

1. Wayne LaPierre is super corrupt, so every negative thing he is accused of is probably accurate. He was past his expiration date a decade ago.

2. There was a fight in recent years to keep the NRA to its mission and not just be the WLP slush fund, but Wayne won.

3. However, the narrative of “New York politicians try to destroy the NRA right before election” is probably going to be the biggest political fund raiser in history.

4. Because gun owners mostly don’t know who WLP is, don’t really know what the NRA does good or bad, but they are loyal to the IDEA of what the NRA does.

5. Which means that even if they dissolve the NRA, all those gun owners, their money, and gun rights activists aren’t going to suddenly vanish (sorry, libs). They’ll go to other orgs, some of which are more focused and dedicated to the mission than the NRA is. (however, some of these can/will be just as inept/corrupt).

6. Even with the WLP and Ack/Mack clown show, the NRA is still the 800 pound gorilla with the clout, reach, and contacts, so ideally WLP gets burned at the stake, the NRA cleans house, and refocuses on its actually mission.

7. If #6 doesn’t shake out, expect to see one of the current smaller orgs turn into the new NRA.

8. After a year of record gun sales to newbs thinking we are on the verge of societal collapse, with blue flu and mayors letting chaos reign, the whole “only the police should have guns” argument falls flat. Even the usual gun control parrots are remarkably silent about “assault weapons” while Black Lives Matter is carrying them. Nobody wants gun control right now, so this might actually be a good time to shake up the NRA.

9. That said, we had better get our shit together FAST, because the left’s moral compass is a wind sock, and though they hate the police and love them some AR-15s today, they’ll be happy to go back to banning guns tomorrow and bragging about how they’ll send the police to kill you if you refuse to turn them in.

10. NRA leadership can suck AND New York can be a bunch of hypocritical douches for only going after the non-profits they don’t like. These two things aren’t mutually exclusive. Just because New York consistently sucks doesn’t mean WLP is an innocent victim here

That last point is key. If the eighteen months have shown us anything, it’s that the NRA has become corrupt, forsaking its core mission for pandering to what it assumes is its core audience and milking them for every penny they can.

I’m still a dues paying member, because that gives me voting rights. They are not getting another cent from me until the executive leadership is removed and a new team is brought in to re-focus the NRA on its core roles as a firearms safety and advocacy organization.

Fun Show Time!

July 30, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Last weekend, my brother-in-law and I went to the local gun show. This was his first gun show since diving into the gun world about nine months ago. This was my first gun show in a long while, and the first in my new town. It was much more sparsely attended than the last one I was at.

The crowd density was more pre-COVID Walmart instead of pre-COVID mosh pit. Masks were required, but proper usage wasn’t really enforced. Guns were more plentiful than I expected, but prices were running higher. Ammo prices were through the roof. A box of Speer Gold Dots were $60. I did end up picking up a couple of short magazines for my grandpa’s M1 carbine. Now, I need some more .30 carbine ammo.

I’m convinced I want three more guns before I would consider my safe to have the essentials.

  1. I want a better AR than my M&P-15 sport. Maybe a non-AR AR. I’d like an AUG, but I want something that runs AR mags. Maybe an MCX. A friend of my suggested getting a SCAR, but I don’t have the money his employer has to throw around.
  2. A carbine running M&P magazines. Maybe an AR pistol with brace. I’ve gots me lots of M&P mags. This one I’m really tempted to get a can for it.
  3. A double action .22 revolver. For training and plinking purposes.

Once the niece and nephew turn 21 (thanks Rick Scott!), I’ll need to add a .22 rifle.

Which reminds me. I need to take a couple of days off and take them to the range.

I’m Disinclined to Acquiesce To You r Request

July 29, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Since the riots started, I’ve been seeing articles asking where the gun owners are to defend the people against the police.

You want me to put my life, liberty, and family fortunes on the line for you? Hmm. Let’s see. How many times did you call for me to be disarmed when it suited your worldview. How many times did you wish death on me because I disagreed with you?

I’m sorry Scorpion, but I know your nature. I’m not going to carry you across the river for you to sting me in the back.

If you want guns to defend yourselves, go put down the money. Unless of course you can’t. You know, because of all those “common sense” gun control laws you demanded right before the cops came for you.

Gun Rights Policy Conference 2020 Is Virtual

July 23, 2020 / / 0 Comments

GRPC is going to be online only. I was disappointed because it was supposed to be in Orlando this year. Yeah, I can still watch the panels, but that’s not the big draw for me. It’s the people I meet, the almost “family reunion” atmosphere, and the interesting side conversations. None of which can be reasonably replicated.

John over at Only Guns and Money relates an idea to help out the Second Amendment Foundation.

Since there’s no in-person Gun Rights Policy Conference this year, take some of what you would have spent there and donate it.

Friday Quote – Jeff Cooper

July 3, 2020 / / 0 Comments

The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely on the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized.

Derek’s Mildly Useful Movie Reviews – Tread

July 2, 2020 / / 0 Comments

The Wife and I decided on this film for our movie night viewing. I knew of the Killdozer story from the growing internet folktale of the event. I was curious to see how it was portrayed.

The documentary uses audio tapes made by Marv Heemeyer in the months leading up to the Killdozer event and interviews with his friends in the first act to bring Marv to life. The filmmakers use this time to help Marv build his case against the authorities in the town of Grady.

Then, the second act feeds in the counter narrative with interviews from members of the local government and parts of Marv’s tapes that were more, shall we say, ranting. By the end of the second act, I was a bit more ambivalent on whether Marv was fucked over by the town or Marv just had a persecution complex.

The third act was the Killdozer rampage. I learned a lot of details about how Marv built, armed, and drove the Killdozer. The last act is going to be shaded by how you come out of the previous two acts. Since I was feeling more ambivalent already, the rampaging done made me more ambivalent.

Summary – I thought this was a well-done documentary. I think anyone who champions the Killdozer as a myth of the common man against corrupt government should watch this. Then, after seeing this, do you think if the folktale holds, or should we discard this?

Friday Quote – W.E.B. Dubois

June 5, 2020 / / 0 Comments

A mob had raged for days killing Negroes. I bought a Winchester double-barreled shotgun and two dozen rounds of shells filled with buckshot. If a white mob had stepped on the campus where I lived, I would without hesitation have sprayed their guts over the grass.

Unpopular Opinions – May Riots Edition

June 3, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Time for another round of unpopular opinions:

  1. If that police officer isn’t guilty of at least manslaughter, then that was some weird deep-fake shit.
  2. If after watching that, you can’t understand why Black Lives Matter exists, you are too far up your own team’s ass to see clearly.
  3. If after watching that video, you don’t understand why the current qualified immunity standard leads to a horrific “only ones” attitude, then you’re too far up either Blue Lives Matter or the police union bullshit.
  4. If after watching that video, you don’t see how horrific it is for police unions to protect bad officers, then you are also too far up your own ass to see clearly.
  5. There’s part of me that wishes someone had been able to forcibly stop the cop, but I know that person would have been crucified. I think it’s high time that there should be a doctrine and cultural practice that if the populace witness the police performing an illegal act, we should be able to stop them. With all applicable force ladders.
  6. I understand and condone people gathering and protesting unjust actions to call attention to their plight. I may not agree with their assessment or opinion, but I fully sympathize.
  7. I can sympathize, but not condone, with attacks on government buildings by people outraged by atrocities committed by government agents.
  8. I will not sympathize or condone attacks on private businesses and homes. It don’t care if someone looting a store, throwing a fire bomb, committing arson, or even smashing a window during the course of a riot catches a bullet. Or multiple bullets. Or however many bullets it takes to stop them.
  9. It has been terrifying to watch how fast the narrative that the violence was mostly caused by white supremacist and fascist instigators and provocateurs spread across the inter webs. For fuck’s sake, if you’re correctly calling out the other side for their bullshit, at least have the common decency or consistency to call out the assholes on your own.
  10. If after watching how fast the riots – not the protests, the violent riots – spread to other cities, you do not understand why it should be normal for every willing citizen to have an AR-15 with a thirty-round magazine, then either you are too far up your team’s ass, or you do not want to get shot when you’re busy causing property damage.