Topic: Legislation
Free 1-year NRA memberships:
https://www.nrahq.org/nrabonus/accept-membership.asp
I know all of you are members, so sign up your friends, coworkers, church members, family, etc.
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A local TV station here (WLBT Channel 3) aired a "news" story this week about the run on guns and ammunition, and particularly the local ammunition shortage. It only took them six months to figure out the news - just in time for the six-o'clock report.
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Sportsman's Warehouse has now filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, after announcing the closure twenty-three stores, layoff of nearly 2,000 employees and the exchange of fifteen other stores to Canada's United Farmers of Alberta cooperative as repayment of a late-2008 cash infusion.
Chief Financial Officer Rourk Kemp said the company was "another retailer victim of the worldwide global recession." Industry observers, however, say the company was victim of an overly aggressive and fatally-flawed business model.
A Chapter 11 filing is not a liquidation proceeding. It gives a company a chance to reorganize itself going forward. During that process, the company will keep its twenty-nine remaining stores open, continue to pay employees' wages and benefits and honor customer returns and exchanges and gift-card programs.
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We have an unconfirmed report that the U.S. military surplus empty ammo can supply is drying up.
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Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) program not on the skids?:
Back-pedaling from last week's report, some government spokesmen say the Obama administration has no plans to end the Federal Flight Deck Officers (FFDO) program and is instead seeking to expand resources.
Comments came from Robert Bray, director of the Federal Air Marshal Service, which oversees the program, and Capt. John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the largest pilots' union in the U.S. and Canada, with 53,000 members. They disputed a March 17 editorial in The Washington Times entitled "Guns on a plane: Obama secretly ends program that let pilots carry guns," which suggested that recent discussions about spending some of the program's money for supervisory jobs amounted to killing the program. The editorial cited information from pilots it did not name, claiming that the approval process for letting pilots carry guns on planes has "slowed significantly" and that the "approval process has stalled out."
The Times' editorial pages recently were brought under new management and operate separately from the newsroom. Editorial writers produce content that is not reported or overseen by newsroom employees. The Times has admitted error. "The Editorial Department has been in transition these last few weeks. We're aware of the error and are investigating what happened so we can learn from the mistake and not repeat it," Associate Publisher Richard Amberg Jr. said.
Even if true, do not let this report mislead you into thinking that the administration or the FAA like or want the FFDO program, which was forced upon them by Congress, acting upon the will of the people.
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Terroristic Tractor Attack:
March 5, 2009:
Jerusalem, Israel had its third "tractor attack" in two days. The initial target was a police car, with two officers in it, stopped at a stoplight. The attacker rammed his tractor bucket into the vehicle and succeeded in flipping it over, twice. The terrorist then went after a passenger bus. A passing taxi driver stopped, got out, and shot the terrorist several times. That heroic act ended the attack, and saved the cops.
That's not a likely occurrence in the U.S., since so many cabbies aren't armed.
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"Modern campus security," from a Defense Training International student:
"Last August, I transferred down here to the University of Arizona, in Tucson.
The first thing you notice on campus is all of the 'Weapon-Free Zone' signs. Then, there are the equally ubiquitous 'Campus Watch Alerts,' posted on bulletin boards. You can find new reasons to be terrified each week.
One caught my eye: A pair of thugs, armed with a pistol, recently robbed three students on campus. They somehow missed all the WFZ signs. Imagine that! We obviously need more, maybe in several languages.
In the 'Robbery Safety Tips' at the bottom of the page, we are treated to this advice: 'Never resist an armed robber; there is a chance the suspect is acting under the influence of drugs and may not act rationally.' Apparently, all we can do is hope God will bless us with 'rational' robbers! Wow! All one has to do is 'not resist,' and his next experience with an armed robber will be a pleasant one, guaranteed by the university administration. And, when the robber demands your right eye, you should just pluck it out and hand it to him, lest he become, heaven forbid, 'irrational!'
In any event, all students in my group disdainfully ignore this self-serving, intelligence-insulting, bureaucracy-generated rubbish, and carry concealed pistols, and blades, and OC [pepper spray], and flashlights, every day, on campus, in blatant, contemptuous defiance of their stupid 'rules.'
We proudly claim our own magnificence, per your advice. VBCs, [victims by choice] a category which includes the entire university administration, can run scared. That is their choice. Not us. We're Americans!"
Note that campus carry is a violation of law in Arizona. - JP
"I am a Free Man, regardless of what set of 'rules' surround me. When I find them tolerable, I tolerate them. When I find them obnoxious, I ignore them. I remain free, because I know and understand that I alone bear full responsibility for everything I do, or chose not to do." - R. Heinlein
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Another story from a gun school student (why we carry at home):
"Two things [from training] stuck with me most: (1) Spin your OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide and Act) Loop quickly, and (2) when a fight is unavoidable, be stitching and moving! Thank you! That philosophical shift saved my life this last February!
Late on a weekday afternoon last month, two home-invasion suspects kicked in the front door of my home, as I sat watching television. I was alone in the house at the time. There was no warning, nor did I have any reason to suspect such a thing would happen to me that day, or any day. I remember being astonished as I saw the bottom of a foot still raised as my door lurched open, amid a shower of splinters!
The door-kicker and an accomplice, burst in, and, seeing me, rushed toward me. I was wearing my Glock Model 38 (.45GAP) in a Comp-Tac holster. It was loaded with WW 230gr Ranger ammunition. I sprung to my feet and drew my pistol simultaneously. At a distance of less than eight feet, I found my front sight and began firing at the closest suspect, while I was still in motion.
As it turns out, I fired seven shots. All seven struck the first suspect (the door-kicker). His accomplice was behind him and immediately fled, unharmed as far as I know. In fact, he fled in such haste that he abandoned his getaway car, leaving the engine running! Police subsequently found much stolen property in the car.
The suspect I shot stumbled backward and fell in the doorway, never moving after he went down. I scanned, reloaded, took cover behind a corner, and checked myself over. When police arrived, they found the suspect I had shot, DRT [dead right there - sorta like DOA, only faster]. The second suspect has not been arrested as far as I know. I was unhurt.
Of the seven hits on the first suspect, one in the neck and one in the chest proved fatal. I was told that either of those two shots would probably have been fatal by itself. Being cold at the time, both suspects were wearing heavy clothing, and multiple layers of clothing frustrated expansion, and penetration, of the other five. They may have been effective, but I'll never know.
Here is what others among your students can learn from my experience:
(1) When at home, stay armed! If my gun had been locked in a safe, or even in a drawer and unloaded, I never could have reacted effectively in time. Be armed all the time, no matter where you are!
(2) Multiple shots from your pistol will probably be necessary to stop any fight decisively, no matter what caliber or brand of ammunition you're using. As a category, pistols are poor fight-stoppers. Accordingly, pistols that hold lots of ammunition, and that can be reloaded quickly, represent a real advantage!
(3) Be prepared to react instantly! Sometimes, there are warning signs. Sometimes, there are none! In order to live through your next lethal encounter, you'll have to be able to spin your OODA Loop fast.
(4) Finish the fight! Don't relax too soon. Scan, reload, get distance, get cover. Be prepared for anything!
(5) Whatever you do, it won't be perfect! Don't worry about being perfect. Just act decisively, without hesitation. Do what has to be done, with grace and enthusiasm. Don't look back, and don't worry about what might have been!"
Comment:
(6) Use ammunition that penetrates adequately. Your bullets may have to plow through many layers of clothing before ever reaching flesh, as was the case here. There are many fine, high-performance rounds available, but Cor-Bon DPX reportedly tops the list, because it penetrates and expands, without fail.
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U.S. Gun Registration
Although we're assured by our trustworthy government officials that the electronic 4473 form would never be used to create a centralized registry of gun owners, its ability to do that is enormous. The shortage of paper forms (by the millions), and the burden shift to dealers to make their own, has the fringe benefit of slowing down the database the government says it isn't making (but which it has repeatedly tried to make in the past).
Further, the Bradys and the new Obama officials are working on a new centralized gun registration scheme. It would avoid existing legal safeguards and allow the dangerous first step toward gun-confiscation. Currently, the federal government is explicitly banned by law from centralized gun registrations, historically the precursor to confiscations.
The plan involves having all retail gun sales reported to and recorded by the gun's manufacturer. This would defeat the ban against central government registration, while giving full access to the records to BATFE and FBI officials with little control of any kind. The unpaid burden this places on firearms makers and dealers would be overlooked. Tucked deeply in the Brady's proposal to Obama is, "ATF should require dealers to report details to manufacturers about all guns sold. This action can be taken without additional statutory authority." (emphasis in original)
The Brady Law (1994), and the McClure-Volkmer Firearm Owner's Protection Act (1986) both outlaw collecting gun-sale information by the federal government, to prevent gun confiscation programs. Historically, such record collecting preceded every major genocide in the past century. Both California and New York have already used such lists, after promises of confidentiality and safety, to demand forfeiture of targeted firearms from gun owners who had listed themselves.
The Brady Bunch is convinced that requiring every licensed dealer to send all transaction information to the manufacturers would not only sidestep the legal safeguards, it could be done by the Attorney General without the need for congressional action or oversight. The Justice and Treasury departments control gun makers and dealers, largely through regulation instead of statute, which conceivably could allow them to institute the plan on their own. Manufacturers and dealers would have no choice but to comply if they wish to remain in business.
New and used guns would be included in the new government-accessible databases, ostensibly for "tracing" purposes. The inclusion of private gun-sale data, omitted in this scheme, would be part of step two of the plan. There is no cost estimate for the scheme.
The most radical bill, HR45, (that you've all heard of) with no cosponsors and little current chance of passage, proposes repealing the record-keeping ban altogether. It's proponent, Bobby Rush of Ill., also proposes rewriting the Constitution by statute.
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Congressman moves to protect Veterans' gun rights:
In a reaction to recent federal moves abrogating veterans' civil rights, North Carolina U.S. Senator Richard Burr and 14 other cosponsors have introduced legislation to end an unconstitutional and arbitrary process by which the government strips veterans and other Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) beneficiaries of their Second Amendment rights. The bill is supported by The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, AMVETS, and the Military Order of the Purple Heart.
Currently veterans who have a fiduciary appointed to act on their behalf are deemed "mentally defective" by a VA bureaucrat and are reported to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), to prevent them from purchasing firearms in the United States. A fiduciary is assigned to handle disability compensation, pensions, survivors' compensation, and other VA payments on behalf of a veteran, surviving spouse, dependent child, or dependent parent. The Federal Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits certain individuals who have been deemed a "mental defective" from purchasing a firearm. VA's review process for assigning a fiduciary is meant to determine one's ability to manage VA-provided cash assistance. The process does not determine whether they are a danger to themselves or others, or whether they are mentally defective. More than 116,000 people who receive VA benefits have been reported to NICS since 1999, stripping them of their constitutional rights simply because VA appointed a fiduciary to act on their behalf in VA fiscal matters.
Burr's Veterans' Second Amendment Protection Act would require a judicial authority to determine that VA beneficiaries pose a danger to themselves or others before VA may send their names to be listed in the FBI's NICS. Ironically, our veterans took an oath to uphold the Constitution, something that apparently cannot be said of VA officials.
