Fisking Truscott

Lucian K. Truscott (the IVth, no less) is an effing moron. This was in Salon, so I’m not going to link to it and give them traffic. If you want to see it, search the headline:

Youuuuu might be a gun nut if . . .
Woe be unto the innocent bystander, or even the less-than-innocent liberal wuss Salon columnist, if you raise your hand and say something . . . anything . . . about guns and gun ownership. Boy, are the gun nuts ever ready for you!

Especially if your column is chock full of false statements.

    • “The first thing they accuse you of is wanting to ban guns, all guns.”
      No. We save that for the multitude who do call for bans. Like Duke Nukem Swalwell or Alison Airies or Dianne Feinstein or all of these.Or… Lucian K. Truscott IV:

      • “New Zealand came to its senses and banned them. When will we?”
      • “Ban the sale of gas operated weapons.”

       

    • “I mean, look at the reaction of the NRA to something as sane as the recent ban on bump stocks”
      Reaction to the ban? The VNRA came up with the idea. Their “reaction” was to their members’ reaction to the ATF actually doing what the VNRA called for.
    • “it’s an utterly defensible ban on a device that converts a legal gun into an illegal weapon of mass destruction.”
      WTF? Even the lunatics at the ATF never claimed that. Do you know what a weapon of mass destruction is?
    • “If you listen to the NRA, you would think that banning bump-stocks is the first step on a slippery slope to disarming America.”
      Or if you listen to Pelosi, who hopes it is. Or the Parkland Pussies.
    • “I was raised to understand that guns are designed and manufactured to kill. I was trained in the Army on multiple guns, and I was trained to use them to kill.”
      Oh yes; let’s talk about Truscott’s military experience:

      Truscott attended the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1969. […] He was threatened with being sent to Vietnam, so he resigned his commission about thirteen months after graduating, receiving a “general discharge under other than honorable conditions.”

      Lots of relevant military experience there, huh? Here is more detail if you want it. Charge: “Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.”

  • “The shooter in Las Vegas had bump stocks on nearly all of the 24 guns that were found in his room”
    14 of 24 firearms were equipped with bump-fire stocks. However, no state or federal report on the incident has said bump-fire was used.
  • “Then they go after you for mis-using, or mis-interpreting gun language.”
    Yes. Because terminology matters. If you get it wrong, you confuse semi-auto AR-15s with military assault rifles, or cars for main battle tanks. Or, like McCarthy, you file a bill to ban the wrong item because you didn’t know the correct word.
  • “Define an “assault weapon!” AR-15 style rifles aren’t “assault weapons” because they don’t have “select fire.””
    No, dumbass. “Assault weapon” is a political term used to confuse the ignorant. An assault rifle is the select-fire weapon. Assault rifles are used by virtually every army in the world. No nation generally issues semi-autos to its regular troops.
  • “It is, of course, sold on the open market to any civilian who walks in with the scratch to buy one.”
    Not quite. It’s sold to anyone with the cash, who passes a background check. And the particular pistol pictured has a suppressor, which is an NFA item requiring a tax, and federal permission to possess, which is another background check.
  • “a .177 bolt action rifle my brother gave me.”
    Got me there. Could you be more specific? I don’t know of any firearm chambered in .177. Is that actually an air rifle? Or, perhaps, it’s .17 HMR.
  • “I was raised to understand that guns are designed and manufactured to kill.”
    You were raised wrongly. Firearms are designed to propel a projectile at a target. Intent is in the mind of the user. A soldier is trained to kill the enemy. A kid plinking at cans has the intent of knocking them over, not killing.
  • “Guns like the assault rifles used by the Las Vegas shooter”
    According the the final investigative report, he used semi-auto rifles, a bolt-action rifle, and a revolver. None were assault rifles.
  • “or the shooter in Parkland”
    No assault rifles there either. Semi-auto with 10-round magazines.
  • “Sandy Hook”
    Nope.
  • “Pittsburgh”
    Wrong again. Semi-auto rifle and three semi-auto pistols.
  • “New Zealand”
    No. Semi-auto rifles and shotguns. You aren’t very good at this.

I’m a bit puzzled by this statement. Perhaps someone familiar with Vietnam-era Army policies can explain it.

“The last one [semi-auto] I shot was an M-14 in the Army in 1965.”

That would seem to have been his first year at West Point. I would have thought that there’d be a little more rifle training during the four years, and certainly I’d have expected him to qualify once on active duty. Did they not trust him with firearms?

Hey, let’s look at another Truscott column:

Assault rifles are insane: New Zealand came to its senses and banned them. When will we?

Oh, I can hear them now. The NRA and its ilk will tell you that this military-style assault rifle is just the thing to use hunting deer, or elk, or some other poor creature. But it’s really a killing machine, a thing you can buy that is designed for one purpose: to kill a “soft target” from up to a mile away. That is insane.

He’s ranting about the Victrix Armaments Scorpio, which he thinks is “a rifle very similar to “ the “POF USA P-308 AR 10.”

The Scorpio is a bolt-action rifle. Just like his grandmother’s heirloom .22. Standard 5-round capacity; probably less than his .22, or his revolvers.

Oh, well. His market has always been anti-rights lefties, so I guess he’ll continue to play well there. Not so much in the real world where people take time educate themselves. I expect you could slip a drive belt around his grandfather’s rotating body and power a small city.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

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NZ: Why wait for a piddling thing like the law?

Per NZHS forum members, New Zealand police are jumping the gun.

Caution: I have found no news reports confirming this, but the claims strike me as credible.

It is important to note that, as best I can tell, at this time, the only “ban” is on sales. Possession is not yet banned, although it is planned.

Got suggested I pop this up but whilst at work this morning, I hear a voice ask for me by name. I turn around and there’s 2 police officers.

Needless to say workmates were shocked too see me taken into a room for a chat and these guys were quite nice about it but wanted to know what my partner and I have.

Was polite and freely told them plus we were waiting on further buyback details and advice at this time. Also let them know due to having been days away from both of us submitting our E cat application our E cat safe is installed and floor plated as per the reccommendatons. (So stored legally in an odd stroke of luck)

It seems to depend on the officers, but they are reportedly not stopping with gathering data.

A Mate of mine had the cops turn up at his house on sat after an image a friend of his had posted on Instagram holding his a cat ar15 got reported. They asked to see his safe and he complied. They confiscated his ar15 as well as his semi 22 although they Admitted they werent sure if that would be effected under the new law and suggested he may get it back. They gave him a police property form with all details of what they were holding and took the guns with them

And if they can’t reach owners, they attempt to get other people to rat them out.

This is second hand from someone who attended their 2 day shoot over the weekend. Wairarapa gun club had a talk on the weekend about firearm security whilst on club grounds. Locked vehicle etc. It was also mentioned that there evidently have been instances of police turning up at clubs wishing to inspect firearms and licences. NZCTA evidntly recommend politely refusing as under current legislation without a warrent this is illegal. Questions have also evidently been asked “do you know what guns other members have” it was pointed out that it is liiegal at present to divulge what firearms another person holds.

The fact that the police are attempting to discover what people have is interesting.Depending on the news report, the coming ban is anything from “military-style semi-automatics” (an NZ legal term roughly equating to a California “assault weapon”) to all semi-automatic firearms.

MSSA’s must be licensed and registered (roughly equivalent to the American NFA). But the police don’t seem to know who has them. It sounds like their registration system is working about as well as California’s.

Unofficial reports have it that NZ is running short of PVC pipe. And gun stores are running out of A Cat semi-autos. The police are going to need metal detectors and ground penetrating radar to document those.

Sadly, this hasn’t stopped with unlawful searches and seizures. There are news reports of a fatality. The police say it was suicide. But they also say:

“Members of the public who heard what they thought were explosions were hearing police deploying gas at the scene.

What brought this on? The official version is that the man’s son posted a years-old picture of an Airsoft gun on social media. That necessitated a raid on his home.

After a stand-off with the man in his truck, he was found dead of a stab wound or wounds.

So far, NZ gun owners say they intend to be polite when dealing with police. But the sense I get is that may change with more unlawful seizures, or another convenient suicide.

(Hat tip to The Truth About Guns)

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

 

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The Rule of Whim

I warned you. More than three years ago, I warned you.

Today, Chief Justice Roberts denied a motion to stay the bump-fire ban rule pending a final ruling by the courts. If you possess a bump stock, you are now a felon.

When Trump announced his intent to ban bump-fire stocks, Kool-Aid swigging idiots laughed it off. Nah; he’s posturing for the press.

When he sent his memo directing DOJ to begin crafting the rule, it was, Nah, they’ll ‘research’ it and ‘decide’ it isn’t called for.

When the ATF published the ANPRM, morons said, Nah; it’s a trick. They’ll take comments and ‘decide’ it’s unjustified, but Trump still gets to pretend he tried.

When the NPRM came out… rinse, lather, repeat.

When the final rule was published, the sandy-eyed ostriches declared, Don’t worry. Trump is a four-dimensional chess master; he knows the courts will overturn it. He’s gaming the system.

As the ban deadline approached without a favorable ruling from any court, the bird-brains nervously added, Um… the courts will temporarily stay the ban. Right?

When stays were issued on appeal, for the named plaintiffs ONLY, some folks optimisticallythought that was a blanket stay, and sighed in relief. It wasn’t.

When Guedes et al was appealed to the Supreme Court, the Pollyannas were sure they’d issue the stay, or at least remand back to the lower court to do so.

So here we are. I was never terribly hopeful about this because I lost faith in the courts a long time ago.

But… we are screwed.

The lawsuits challenging the ban continue. I’m sure people in denial are sure reality will win out. Look again: the lower courts have stated will every denial of a stay that the plaintiff are unlikley to succeed. That is, they are signalling that the ban will be upheld and they are going through the motions (no pun intended) merely for the sake of appearances.

And today, by refusing a stay, Roberts just said exactly the same thing: “You lose.” We lose bump-fire stocks. And remember my warnings about those semi-autos “easily converted” to machineguns with bump-fire stocks.

And anything and everything else that some bureaucrat decides he doesn’t like. Because all this hinged on a single point: Can unelected bureaucrats redefine common language to create law all by themselves?

Now we know the answer is yes, and the ATF declared hundreds of thousands of people to be felons. And that was a signal to every other bureaucrat in every other federal agency and department: Do whatever you want.

Today, Trabants became M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tanks, on the whim of a bureaucrat, on the suggestion of a man with no respect for the Constitution and rule of what used to pass for law.

Added: Despite my pessimism, this still a battle worth fighting. Help the FPC help you.

[Permission to republish this article is granted so long as it is not edited and the author and The Zelman Partisans are credited.]

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with truck repairs (too late; I’m selling the truck) and recurring bills. And the rabbits need feed. Truck insurance, lest I be forced to sell it. Click here to donate via PayPal.
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Bump Stock Compliance

I did my bit.

If you can’t read that (the rubber bands interfered with scanner focus):

To whom it may concern,

Please find enclosed 1 “baker’s dozen” (representing the 13 colonies which rose up in armed rebellion in response to an attempted confiscation) potential bump-stock-type devices (BSTD).

While I realize that you have argued that rubber bands are not BSTDs, I choose not to take the chance, since rubber bands can provide the same spring effect of an Akins Accelerator-type device, and the ATF has a history of pseudo-random changes of mind (shoelaces coming to mind).

Please be assured that I am not in possession of any device you do consider to be a BSTD “machinegun,” unless you change your mind about belt loops which can operate in the same fashion as a springless BSTD.

 

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with truck repairs (too late; I’m selling the truck) and recurring bills. And the rabbits need feed. Truck insurance, lest I be forced to sell it. Click here to donate via PayPal.
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Ed. note: This commentary appeared first in TZP’s weekly email alert. If you would like to be among the first to see new commentary (as well as to get notice of new polls and recaps of recent posts), please sign up for our alert list. (See sidebar or, if you’re on a mobile device, scroll down). Be sure to respond when you receive your activation email!

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POLL: What to do with Bump Stocks

The deadline approaches: On Tuesday, March 26, 2019, those still holding bump stocks (with a bare few exceptions) will magically become felons as inert chunks of plastic mystically morph into post-’86 machineguns.

Hypothetically speaking (because none of TZP’s regular readers could possibly mean to become malum prohibitum criminals), what will/are you doing with your “bump-stock-type device?

 

Perhaps we’ll be seeing reports of “compliance”, especially the rubber band sort.

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Addressing Myth and Misinformation Part 1

Imagine the deaths if the shooter [Las Vegas] had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get. Our grief isn’t enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”

Hillary Clinton1

Durn tootin’, great shootin’. Cool dude sertin’ he’s 2nd Mendment rahts. Hell yeah! Every country has its psychopaths. In US they have guns.” [Mocking misspellings in the original].2

Richard Dawkins, author and famous atheist.

The NRA, a vile organization with a sinister, deadly grip on America’s lawmakers, bought Trump’s silence when they backed him during the election campaign.”3

Piers Morgan

After Sandy Hook and Las Vegas, what is the rationale for any civilian owning an assault rifle and high capacity magazine?”4

Barbara Streisand

How long do we let gun violence tear families apart? Enough. Congress & the WH should act now to save lives. There’s no excuse for inaction.”5

Joe Biden, former Vice President

I’m not an ordained minister; I’m not a theologian, but these guys [NRA] are going to hell.”6

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, sixth grade teacher, Utah, and Vice President National Education Association [NEA] the nation’s largest teacher’s union.

Television news reporters often refer to semiautomatic rifles as “assault weapons,” say guns “go off accidentally,” infer AR15s are capable of full-automatic fire, employ the phrase “gun violence,” and display background screen icons (Browning High Power for example) in reports on violent assaults even when the weapon used was a knife. If journalists are going to bang on authoritatively about something, shouldn’t they know what they’re talking about? Considering network news is for many people their sole source of information, isn’t it important for journalists use proper terminology? Improper use of terms can confuse and mislead the public with respect to laws, regulations, and the types of firearms owned by citizens. I’ve dropped notes to journalists apprising them of proper terms when they used them incorrectly and all responses were cordial. Scott Goldberg of ABC News who incorrectly claimed bump stocks turned semiautomatic rifles into machine guns, refused to respond. Chris, a reporter in the Kansas City news market, agreed that news reports employ biased terminology. He revealed when discussing firearms, incorrect terms are actually provided through press releases issued by Police Public Information Officers relative to a crime under investigation and in scripts written by producers. Journalists are also guided by playbooks listing approved vocabulary that reflect political bias. For example abortion supporters are called “Pro-Choice” even though the choice promoted is abortion and opponents, who call themselves Pro-Life, are instead labeled “Anti-Abortion” or “Anti-Choice” hardly neutral or objective. Chris revealed he was chastised by his boss for saying “illegal alien” instead of the approved term “undocumented immigrant.” Job security enforces compliance.7

Perhaps at no time in American history has the meaning of words mattered more. Consider how for the past 50+ years the Left’s agenda driven political ideology has shaped America. Their control over public education is monolithic, they own pop-culture, the movie, music, and entertainment industries, dominate print and broadcast journalism, influence Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish denominations, and have invaded professional sports. In public education, they write the narrative and point of view allowed to be taught to such a degree, classrooms are little more than indoctrination centers. As a teacher I came up against the Liberal’s hegemonic sway over what kids are taught and their ‘Edstapo’ goons on constant prowl for heretics and dissenters (especially true in SocialIST studies departments). There are ways of being burned at the stake without using fire. Spoon feeding a biased curriculum to an unknowing gullible captive audience is bad enough but perhaps worse is what they leave out. Political Correctness, invented by Stalin,8 dictates what kids are taught on every issue from global warming, immigration, economics, the Constitution, and gender bending, to the meaning of the 2nd Amendment. Not taught the other side? They don’t even know one exists!

For years I’ve warned regardless of how many 2nd Amendment victories are won, America is always a mass shooting and Supreme Court appointments away from losing everything. Fewer Americans than ever today grow up exposed to firearms whether through hunting, target practice, or competition. Their source for information on firearms comes from pop-culture, news and social media, and public education all dominated by liberals hostile to the 2nd Amendment. At some point in their life, an individual is responsible for searching out the truth on any issue. But it doesn’t work that way. Americans are too intellectually lazy to bother. Rather than the rebuke so richly deserved for indolent self-inflicted ignorance, with patience and perseverance the great-unwashed must be educated. Hence this primer. Based on statements in the news and social media, to some degree non-gun owners seem to believe anyone can walk into a gun store, hand over cash, and walk out a few minutes later with a firearm. Is this true?

Only those legally eligible can purchase firearms and only in the state of their residence. Age requirements apply; 18 for rifles and shotguns, 21 for handguns, and they must present a valid drivers’ license. If expired, suspended, revoked, or they moved without updating the address on their license, purchase is denied. Everything is in order, can they now buy a gun? No. They must complete federal form 4473 providing identifying information; name; date and place of birth, social security number, and so forth. Next they’re required to answer a series of questions including who is the actual purchaser of the firearm. Buying it for someone else, a “straw-purchase,” is prohibited. Additional questions include; are they a convicted felon, under felony indictment, a fugitive from justice, drug user, dishonorably discharged from the military, renounced their citizenship, in the country illegally, not a U.S. citizen, subject to a restraining order, or if they have been convicted of domestic violence, misdemeanor or not. A yes answer to these questions means they cannot buy a firearm. An untruthful answer is a felony punishable by federal prison, fines, and loss of the right to own firearms, vote, and hold state or federal jobs…forever. Suppose they lie?

Once form 4473 is completed and signed by a customer, gun stores must call the F.B.I.’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Police agencies and the military are required by law to provide information on prohibited individuals to the F.B.I. who, in turn, enter it into a centralized data base. Upon receiving a request for authorization to sell a gun from a Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder, the F.B.I. searches its data base determining if the intended purchaser is not legally prohibited. It’s the F.B.I. who authorizes or denies sales. Suppose a buyer has no criminal record but is mentally unstable? Information on those adjudicated through a legal process as “mentally defective” or having been institutionalized, is also entered into the F.B.I.’s data base and they will be denied purchase. Can’t an FFL just skip all this?

Commercial gun sales can only be made by FFLs. Information on each firearm they receive through purchase, trade, and so forth, must be entered into a logbook along with information as to whom it is ultimately sold. Logbooks are subject to random inspection by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, and Firearms [BATF]. Whether storefront or homebased, FFLs must be able to account for every gun taken in and or sold. Data entry discrepancies may lead to revocation of the FFL and felony prosecution. If the business is sold or closes, logbooks and all 4473 forms are transferred to the BATF, a form of registration. If denied purchase at a gun store, can’t prohibited persons buy firearms at gun shows through some kind of “loophole?”

Gun show promoters lease venues for their events in turn renting space to FFLs, often gun stores. All laws and requirements with respect to buying and selling guns apply at gun shows. Private sales may occur but typically comprise hunting rifles, shotguns and relics. Police officers and AFT Agents are often on hand supervising compliance. Only a miniscule number of criminals purchase firearms at gun shows. Typically they obtain them through burglary and theft. But what about these machine guns we keep hearing about. Can’t anyone walk in and out of a gun store with machine guns?

In 1934, Congress passed the National Firearms Act [NFA] regulating various firearms and devices commonly known as “silencers,” but its main focus was submachine guns, those capable of firing continuously with one pull of the trigger. Submachine guns were not banned. Instead, owners paid a $200 stamp tax and registered the firearm with the federal government.9 The Gun Control Act [GCA] of 1968 was interpreted by the BATF to prohibit the importation of fully automatic firearms by civilians. In 1986, the GCA was amended by the Hughes Amendment (Representative Charles Hughes, Democrat New Jersey) prohibiting civilian possession of full-automatic firearms manufactured after 19 May, 1986. To sell and or purchase firearms covered by the GCA, individuals apply for and obtain a special license from and register the firearm with the federal government paying required fees.10 Title I FFL’s pay a Special Occupation Tax to sell full-automatic firearms. This elevates them to title III hence the common but inaccurate term “class III license.” GCA applicants must meet all legal requirements for ownership, submit to a 6 to 12 month BATF criminal background investigation, provide finger print cards and passport sized photos, pay a $200 stamp tax, and register the firearm with the BATF. Because no full-automatic guns produced after May of 1986 may be sold to civilians, their pool is extremely limited translating into stratospheric prices.11 The idea, as my son says, that “some edgy teenager” can afford one is preposterous. Although not an edgy teenager, add me to the preposterous list.

Yes, the sear portion of an AR, and other semiautomatic rifles, can be cut and modified to allow for full automatic fire. But, there will be no selective fire option. It can now be fired only fully automatic. Anyone caught with such a modified weapon faces 10 years+ in a federal prison, loss of the right to ever be in possession, let alone own, firearms, loss of the right to vote, and hundreds of thousands in fines. May I make a recommendation to anyone considering this modification? Don’t. You will get caught. It’s possible to modify or buy an already modified sear. It’s a small piece of metal and, as long as it’s not installed in a rifle, no problem, right? Wrong. Mere possession of a sear, modified to allow fully automatic fire, is considered the same as possessing a fully automatic rifle with all the same penalties. You will get caught. Once again, don’t do it. If you must fire one, patronize a gun range that rents these rifles. They’re fun but you’ll probably leave realizing how impractical they are for self-defense. Sustained controlled accurate fire? Yeah, sure.

Not every gun owner in America supports let alone belongs to a pro-2nd Amendment organization or gun club, not even close. Nevertheless, when the Left attacks and besmirches these organizations, they serve for liberals as surrogates for all gun-owners and that means you. The Left works off an old and well established ideology and doctrine; the will of the individual must be bent to and subordinated to will of the state. Private ownership of firearms has no place in such a world view and neither do inalienable rights. It’s our job to educate family, friends, and neighbors about the truth because it will not happen in tax payer financed public schools and universities.

Single choice

22 Emily Zanotti, 2 October 2017, “Insane: The Worst Twitter Responses To The Tragedy in Las Vegas,” The Daily Wire, at www.dailywire.com/news/21/02/10/2017.

33 Peter Hasson, The Daily Caller, “All-Out War Against The NRA Begins After Las Vegas Massacre, 2 October 2017, at http://dailycaller.com/2017/10/02/the-left-is-using-the-vegas-massacre-to-wage-all-out-war-against-the-nra/

44 Breitbart.

55 Alexander Kacala, “From Lady Gaga to Taylor Swift, Celebrities Respond to Yesterday’s Las Vegas Attack,” at http://hornetapp.com/stories/las-vegas-attack/amp/

66 Todd Woodward, Editor, “Downrange: “Teacher, Leave Gun Guys Alone,” Gun Tests 8 (August, 2013), 2. Lily Eskelsen Garcia is the vice president of the National Education Association, America’s largest teacher’s union which is also a major donor and supporter of the Democrat Party. She was speaking before a Netroots Nation Conference attended by 3,000 “progressive activists” leaders in the drive to forge a Leftwing consensus in public education curriculum in the classroom and political activism without.

77 Email from Chris, “AK-47 ‘Assault Rifle,” KCTV 5 News, 6 December, 2007 to the author.

88 Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, The VENONA Secrets (Washington, D.C., Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2000), 58.

99 David Higginbotham, “Gun Laws 101: Nations Firearms Act of 1934,” Guns.com at ww.guns.com/2013/01/03,

1010 NRA-ILA, “Fully Automatic Firearms” Thursday July 29, 1999, at http://www.nraila.org

1111 NFA Class II Weapons at http://www.oldglorygunsandammo.com. A brief online check found average prices for used pre1986 Colt M16s going for $31,000 to $39,000 thousand dollars. Others were; Price On Request, Yeah, that’s right. Only The Best Guns at http://www.onlythebestfirearms.com/nfa1.html.

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New Jersey seems to be annexing California through the courts

In a sane world, this suit would be dismissed instantly, with prejudice.

New Jersey Sues California Company Over ‘Ghost Guns’
New Jersey’s attorney general has sued a California company that sells gun parts that can be turned into working firearms.

The suit announced Friday alleges that U.S. Patriot Armory violated New Jersey’s consumer fraud laws when it advertised and sold gun parts to an undercover investigator last month.

The investigator bought parts for an AR-15 assault rifle.

New Jersey bans purchases of gun parts for use in making firearms with no serial numbers, called “ghost guns.” It’s also a crime to possess an unregistered assault firearm in the state.

First off, a nonfirearm transaction in California is subject to New Jersey law? I don’t think so.

There are a couple more problems. Let’s take a look at the law. The relevant section is this:

Purchasing firearm parts to manufacture untraceable firearm. In addition to any other penalty imposed under current law, a person who purchases separately or as a kit any combination of parts from which a firearm may be readily assembled with the purpose to manufacture an untraceable firearm is guilty of a crime of the third degree. Notwithstanding the provisions of N.J.S.2C:1-8 or any other law, a conviction under this subsection shall not merge with a conviction for any other criminal offense and the court shall impose separate sentences upon a violation of this subsection and any other criminal offense.

Fine; it’s unlawful for someone in New Jersey to purchase the parts. Sort of. It says nothing about the seller.

But the intent counts, too. The intent of the purchaser must be to assemble an assault firearm. Was it the intent of the undercover investigator to assemble such a firearm? Please say, “Yes,” because for once they didn’t include a law enforcement exemption. The investigator should be charged.

Ah, but what if the purchaser of parts lawfully own a firearm, and he wants to stock replacement parts for repairs? At least in this law, that’s perfectly lawful. Intent matters; mens rea.

For this to fly at all, the investigator would have had to specifically tell U.S. Patriot Armory that he was buying the parts with the intent of violating New Jersey law, making it a co-conspirator. Otherwise, for all the company knows, it was selling to a licensed individual building a lawful serialized gun, or repairing one.

Sadly, this is no longer a sane world, and the courts exemplify that.

 

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with truck repairs and recurring bills. And the rabbits need feed. Truck insurance, lest I be forced to sell it. Click here to donate via PayPal.
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Chag Purim Samach 2019

Today is the 14th day of Adar, a month of joy. I would add a month of triumph as well. The story of Esther is interesting for many reasons, one of them is there are no open miracles, in fact the name of G-d doesn’t appear in the story at all. The miracles of the story are evident only in hindsight. It can be that way in our everyday lives as well. Things that are absolute miracles are only seen clearly when we look backwards.

The Shabbat before Purim is known as Shabbat Zachor, and after we heard our regular lesson on Parashat Vayikra, we then read how the Amalekites attacked us as we left Egypt. Devarim/Deuteronomy 25:17-19

17You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt,

18how he happened upon you on the way and cut off all the stragglers at your rear, when you were faint and weary, and he did not fear God.

19[Therefore,] it will be, when the Lord your God grants you respite from all your enemies around [you] in the land which the Lord, your God, gives to you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. You shall not forget!

The morning of Purim service also includes a special reading from Shemot/Exodus 17:8-16

8 Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

9 So Moses said to Joshua, Pick men for us, and go out and fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand

10 Joshua did as Moses had told him, to fight against Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur ascended to the top of the hill.

11 It came to pass that when Moses would raise his hand, Israel would prevail, and when he would lay down his hand, Amalek would prevail.

12 Now Moses hands were heavy; so they took a stone and placed it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one from this [side], and one from that [side]; so he was with his hands in faith until sunset.

13 Joshua weakened Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

14 The Lord said to Moses, Inscribe this [as] a memorial in the book, and recite it into Joshua’s ears, that I will surely obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens

15 Then Moses built an altar, and he named it The Lord is my miracle.

16And he said, For there is a hand on the throne of the Eternal, [that there shall be] a war for the Lord against Amalek from generation to generation.

So what’s the deal with Amalek? They hated the Jews, a senseless, baseless hatred. And, Haman the minister who wanted the Jews annihilated was descended from Amalek. Shocker that eh?

I would maintain the spirit of Amalek is alive and well these days. The picture are the right are from a parade in Belgium a week or so ago. The ones on the left?

Belgium 2019

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And despite the outcry, the mayor of the town of Aalst (that’s not how I spell asshat, must be a Belgium spelling) defended the display of Jews atop bags of money, one holding a white rat, one with a white rat on his shoulder.

The mayor of the town defended the display. Of course. It was followed by a couple of floats with dancers dressed the same. One thing that I noticed is many of the “dancers” appeared young, grade school or junior high perhaps. So, they thought this up? The hitler youth is alive and well? The kids were raised by Ilan Omar? What?

The annual carnival where the display appeared was added in 2010 to the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO. The organization has not replied to numerous critical questions about the Aalst event on social media and on Tuesday had not issued any statement on the subject.

Ahhh, UNESCO, of course. The UN group that says Jews have no connection to Jerusalem. UNESCO is an Immoral, Anti-Semitic Organization, Decent Countries Should Leave

At this parade in 2013 a different group made a float entry of a nazi railway car, with nazis and Ultra-Orthodox Jews.

Nope, no UN condemnation, although back then UNESCO did harumph about the poster of the Belgium politicians holding cans of Zyklon B.

Perhaps Belgium, and the mayor of asshat Aalst should remember the magnificent ending of the Purim story. Purim means lots, and that’s how the wicked Haman chose the day to exterminate the Jews, he threw lots. The 13th of Adar was the day that all the Jews were to be exterminated. Didn’t go as Haman planned.

“How can I endure to see the evil that will come unto my people? How can I endure to witness the destruction of my kindred?” Esther cried in anguish.

The King was deeply moved, and he wanted to allay her grief. Unfortunately, it was not so easy to rescind the decree, for it was sent out by order of the King, in his name, bearing the King’s own seal. Such a decree was irrevocable.

Finally, a plan was hit upon. A new decree was to be issued in the name of the King, declaring that Haman had abused the King’s confidence by issuing falsified decrees. Instead of issuing decrees to do away with the persecution of the Jews throughout the vast Persian empire, as was the King’s intention and desire, the treacherous Haman had ordered the extermination of the loyal Jewish subjects! A further proof of the King’s displeasure with Haman was the fact that Haman had been executed by the King’s express command.

Once again the King’s scribes were called, and the new decrees were prepared, this time dictated by Mordechai himself. The documents were immediately dispatched by royal couriers riding on swift steeds to all the governors and princes of the 127 provinces of the Persian Empire, from India to Ethiopia. By these royal decrees, permission was granted to the Jews to gather on the thirteenth day of Adar and defend themselves against their enemies, and to attack and slay all those who would assault them.

The news of the great salvation of the Jews spread like lightning to the remotest comers of the Persian Empire, and the Jews were now treated with respect.

When the thirteenth day of Adar arrived, the day on which the Jews were to be slain and exterminated by Haman and his evil forces, the Jews gathered in the public places of each town and hamlet. By order of the King, they sentenced to death all those who had revealed themselves as enemies. Throughout the kingdom of Persia, seventy five thousand would-be murderers were executed, and five hundred more in Shushan. All ten sons of Haman were likewise executed.

The King brought the news to Esther. “I have but one more request to make,” she said. “There are still many dangerous enemies at large in Shushan. They must be executed or there can be no peace in the land. Let tomorrow also be set aside for a day of judgment in Shushan over the enemies of our people who are also the enemies of all mankind. And may the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be hanged on the gallows.”

Esther’s request was immediately granted.

And so while the Jews outside Shushan celebrated their victory on the fourteenth of Adar, the Jews of Shushan were still grimly engaged that day in the task of ridding the city of the villains and murderers. Only on the following day did they celebrate the great and miraculous salvation.

Mordechai, now dressed in magnificent royal robes, became the King’s viceroy and closest advisor. He served the King and his own people with humility and devotion.

From that time, the fourteenth day of Adar was consecrated as the festival of Purim, to commemorate the great miracle of our people’s salvation, and the downfall of the wicked Haman.

Today we do not need a King’s permission to defend our lives. We have the King of the Universe who gave us life, and he says we are to defend it. Perhaps Belgium should remember what happened to Haman and his sons.

As with many holidays, They tried to kill us, we won, let’s eat.

Would someone please pass me that plate of Oznai Hamen? Haman’s ears? Yeah, the chocolate ones with the peanut butter.

Chag Purim Samach Haveriem

חג פורים שמח חברים

I know who really runs the show.

 

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If they can get you to ask the wrong question

They think they can control the discussion.

New Zealand is bringing in gun control after one mass shooting. Why doesn’t America value its citizens in the same way?

Obviously the only possible reason to oppose control is because we hate people. It couldn’t possibly be that we want the ability to defend our families and ourselves. Neat trick; demonizing gun owners as unfeeling bastards who don’t value life, while virtue-signalling his own “concern.” Qasim Rashid is a human/civil rights-violating piece of… work, who tries to steer the argument by taking his — entirely unfounded —assumption as fact.

And oh-so-well informed.

I still remember when my older brother wrote to us from US Marine Corps bootcamp to tell us that he’d earned the expert rifleman badge for his firearm. It was the highest possible award that the Marines offered.

The Marines might disagree with that, unless he was attempting to say — rather poorly — that it is the highest rifle marksmanship award.

Rashid also appears fond of another common gun people control tactic: The strawman argument.

Those who oppose responsible gun legislation claim that gun laws won’t work because criminals will still find a way to get guns. By such logic we shouldn’t have any laws at all because, after all, criminals will break them.

That’s comparatively clever, because uses part of the truth, to tell a lie of omission. In fact, we note that criminals will still get guns because the laws his slimy ilk propose always target honest gun owners, not the actual criminals. That last part is rather important. It’s particularly important for victim disarmers to ignore: Never once has any anti-gun legislator (or wannabe like Rashid) ever even attempted to answer the question of how [insert dumbass infringement imposed on honest people] will adversely impact criminals who already obtain arms through unlawful channels.

That question is always guaranteed to result in silence.

More strawmen.

Who can honestly claim that domestic abusers and violent felons deserve easy access to firearms?

Is Rashid proposing that? Because I don’t know any pro-Second Amendment people arguing to arm violent criminals.

Half-truths are another standby for scumbags like Rashid. Let’s see what else he trots out.

After the 1987 Hungerford mass shooting left 16 dead, England enacted meaningful gun reform. England has experienced one mass shooting since.

And 89 dead in vehicle, bomb, and knife attacks. And there were zero mass shootings in the 20th century prior to the Hungerford incident. Based on the fact that the next came after those “meaningful” reforms, you could as easily argue the reforms contributed to the second 20th century occurrence.

But we have to disarm the people, because only government agents can be trusted… Uh oh.

If we go back to 19th century England, all the mass shootings were committed by the government. 18th century: all by government. 17th: government forces again.

After the 1995 Port Arther [sic] mass shooting left 35 dead, Australia enacted responsible gun legislation. Australia has experienced zero mass shootings since.

Wrong. At least 8, since Port Arthur,and sixteen more massacres by other means, accounting for more deaths than the shootings.

Here’s a meaningless “factoid” that sounds impressive, if you don’t actually know a damned thing about the topic.

And after the 2009 Winnendon school shooting left 16 dead, Germany enacted responsible gun legislation. Germany has experienced only one mass shooting since.

Let’s examine that. In post-reunification Germany, there have been 5 mass shootings. From unification to Winnenden, there was an average of 5.6 years between those, with the longest gap being 9.5 years. From Winnenden to the 2016 Munich shooting was 7 years. I really don’t think there’s a trend supporting his alleged point, since the greatest period between shootings was before his “responsible” laws. As with the English “example,” a pedant could easily argue that the changes in German laws made mass shootings more common, on average.

Gaming the assumptions, lies, half-truths, and strawman arguments. It’s as if Rashid were trying to create the ultimate victim disarmament fable. All he left out was bogus “research” with synthetic control groups.

 

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with truck repairs and recurring bills. And the rabbits need feed. Truck insurance, lest I be forced to sell it. Click here to donate via PayPal.
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Creating the enemy

Last year, TZP posted a poll, Would military personnel deploy nuclear weapons?.

“As a military servicemember, would you exercise illegal force against American civilians to enforce an “assault weapon” ban?”

Commenting continues, and two individuals debated military intervention.

One said that military personnel might be willing to act against civilians.

“It can’t happen here!” Go to Sand Creek and tell that to the tormented spirits there. (The 154th anniversary is a mere ten days away.)

The Sand Creek Massacre was an action by the United States Volunteers in which as many as 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho were slaughtered, mostly women and children.

Another commenter noted that Sand Creek was a poor analogy to confiscating firearms from Americans.

Sand Creek was done by militia, with about as much training as we give a first-year JROTC cadet (freshman in high school) today, if that. And they were NOT attacking their own people: they were attacking “savages” who were considered even less human by the average gold miner or saloon bum than them darkie slaves down South in 1864.

Give that man a cigar: “they were NOT attacking their own people: they were attacking “savages” who were considered even less human.”

One reason I hope/suspect that a majority of military personnel would decline to participate in Presedential-hopeful Eric “Duke Nukem” Swalwell’s wetdream of deploying troops and nuclear weapons against gun owners is that we aren’t outsiders like those Native Americans were to the murderous militia in 1864.

Yet.

But victim-disarmers are working on it. They are working to demonize honest gun owners.

Lunatic Bernie Sanders supporter — but I repeat myself — attempts to assassinate Republicans? It’s the VNRA’s fault.

Sheriff, school system, and FBI let a known criminal shoot up a school? Gun owners want dead children.

Demonization isn’t enough. They need to eradicate any positive depiction of gun ownership, leaving only criminal violence. If you only ever hear about criminal misuse, of course you’ll think that’s the only use.

So Democrats shut Steve Scalise out of their gun control hearing, allowing only victim-disarmers to testify.

Facebook essentially bans any positive mention of guns. You can’t even advertise a gun safe, because it wouldn’t do for folks to realize that honest gun owners are actually interested in properly storing firearms (not “safe storage, which is code for “successfully disarmed”). “Everyone knows” that gun owners are irresponsible rednecks who have to be forced to be safe.

But if you really want to eradicate the “gun culture,” you have to make it a crime for children to post pictures of themselves with firearms, BB guns, or toy guns. Expunge any evidence of the idea that responsible firearm handling, and family tradition, is even possible. Don’t let kids see their friends having fun with anything gun-like. “Pictures, or it didn’t happen” takes on a whole meaning.

Another way of making gun owners look bad is to make us look out-of-sync with other Americans. Polls and surveys. The classic “90% of real Americans want universal background check,” when no public referendum has actually cracked 60% even where it has passed.

Some years back, the University of North Massachusetts New Hampshire claimed a survey of NH residents showed 96% percent. That seemed unlikely so people asked to see the raw polling data. UNH refused to share it. I was unable to locate anyone — pro- or anti-RKBA — who admitted to participating in the survey.

And in the next election, voters ousted the Democrats who tried to impose UBCs. Fake data, to convince people that gun owners are just wrong.

Sometimes the polling data is so obviously fake as to be laughable. Pew(ie) Research did a survey that purported to show that the VNRA has 14,125,392 members, more than half of whom want UBCs. That’s just 2.35 times as many as the VNRA’s most inflated claim.

But the lies stayed out there, serving the purpose.

Worse yet, are the claims that gun owners are actively meddling to prevent “making this a safer state.”. Gun owners are an active danger to everyone else, see?

The message: Gun owners must just be a few strange, dangerously weird people if they oppose common sense and safety. Gun owners aren’t like real people. They don’t matter.

It’s working. Thus a college professor was astonished to discover…

What about those close to me? I took an informal family poll that left me reeling. I learned my relatives have guns. They store weapons in hidden chambers inside homes where we gather; they possess permits to carry concealed weapons and take target practice; they have friends who bring guns to church in case the congregation should need shielding; they are prepared to “protect my family no matter who comes through the door” and readying themselves for a “major environmental act.”

Gun owners are so marginalized that this woman was shocked to discover her own family had guns. For sensible reasons. Only white oppressors (and gangbangers and other murderers) have guns. To think otherwise leaves her “reeling.”

At least she was only left stunned. The “gun owners aren’t human” indoctrination has taken so strongly in others that they openly advocate or plan to kill people. The Washington punk who threatened to kill sheriffs to enforce gun control. Alison Airies, who wants summary public executions. Gun controllers SWATting gun owners. An anti-gun activist threatening to kill pro-gun people, including a legislator, in a hearing (and note that she was only ejected, not arrested… because threatening evil gun people’s live doesn’t warrant arrest anymore).

Second Amendment supporters are just “terrorists” to be doxxed.

Representative Duke Nukem’s threat was neither hyberbole nor joke. It was trial balloon to determine if the marginalization of gun owners was complete yet, to the point that they can begin to “Sand Creek” us.

Jews have experienced this before. Jewish gun owners should expect the worst.

Carl is an unpaid TZP volunteer. If you found this post useful, please consider dropping something in his tip jar. He could really use the money, what with truck repairs and recurring bills. And the rabbits need feed. Truck insurance, lest I be forced to sell it. Click here to donate via PayPal.
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