Category Archives: Gun Rights

They, in the Form of the State, are God.

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The claim leftists make that their policies work for the ‘greater good’ requires a godlike perspective that views all ends and weighs all outcomes.

It’s a claim to divinity that the left are very comfortable with.

They, in the form of the State, are God.

Alice Smith (@TheAliceSmith)
Tweeted on September 23, 2022

You can see the truth of this in the actions of Stalin and other communist dictators. But you don’t need to look that deep into history or to other continents. This is Bill Clinton:

In a post-State of the Union speech in Buffalo, NY on January 20, 1999, Bill Clinton was asked why not a tax cut if we have a surplus. Clinton’s response:
“We could give it all back to you and hope you spend it right… But … if you don’t spend it right, here’s what’s going to happen. In 2013 — that’s just 14 years away — taxes people pay on their payroll for Social Security will no longer cover the monthly checks… I want every parent here to look at the young people here, and ask yourself, ‘Do you really want to run the risk of squandering this surplus?’ “
Source: Washington Times, January 21, 1999

They sincerely believe they know how to spend your money better than you do. You see it not only in the banning of the most popular type of guns in this country. You see it in the regulation of healthcare, transportation, industry, and even the toys of your children.

Also, FYI, I can find enough material in one day of Smith’s X feed to supply my QOTD posts for a week.

We Need to Raise Awareness and Respect

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The prohibited person’s access to the firearm was obtained as a result of an unlawful entry, provided that the unauthorized access or theft of the firearm is reported to a local law enforcement agency in the jurisdiction in which the unauthorized access or theft occurred within five days of the time the victim of the unlawful entry knew or reasonably should have known that the firearm had been taken.

HOUSE BILL 1152
State of Washington 69th Legislature, 2025 Regular Session
January 2, 2025

See also: Gun owners could be charged with felonies if firearm gets stolen under new proposed bill.

These criminals* are trying to remove the above “does not apply if” clause from the safe storage law. The safe storage law is already bad enough and probably going to be struck down as being unconstitutional. But now, if a prohibited person unlawfully enters your home or vehicle, steals your firearm(s), then you become a criminal. You have committed a misdemeanor as soon as the criminal gains access. If they use them in a felon crime, you can also be changed with a felony.

If you have the firearm(s) “properly” stored in your vehicle then that does not apply. But “properly stored” means:

(a) A person shall not store or leave a pistol in any vehicle unless (i) the pistol is stored unloaded in a container that is opaque, locked, hard-sided, and affixed within the vehicle, (ii) the container is concealed from view from outside the vehicle, and (iii) the vehicle is locked.

(b) A person shall not store or leave a rifle or shotgun in any vehicle unless (i) the rifle or shotgun is stored unloaded in a container that is opaque, locked, hard-sided or soft-sided, and affixed within the vehicle, (ii) the container is concealed from view from outside the vehicle, and (iii) the vehicle is locked.

(c) A rifle or shotgun stored in a soft-sided container in a vehicle in accordance with this subsection must also have a trigger lock or similar device that is designed to prevent the unauthorized use or discharge of the firearm installed on the rifle or shotgun while the firearm is stored in a soft-sided container.

(d) For the purpose of this subsection, a hard-sided container excludes a glove compartment or center console but includes a console vault or other container specifically designed to securely store firearms.

So, they want to make is so you must have handgun and long gun cases affixed in your vehicles. Otherwise, you could not stop to pick up some ammo as you left town on a hunting trip. And unless you carry your competition gun into the store to grab a case of water on your way to a match you risk becoming a criminal.

They have zero concern for this blatant violation of the Second Amendment. We need some prosecutions to raise awareness and respect.

I look forward to their trials.

* Representatives Doglio, Walen, Ryu, Ramel, Farivar, Berry, Leavitt, Alvarado, Mena, Duerr, Reed, Parshley, Fitzgibbon, Callan, Macri, Cortes, Obras, Gregerson, Simmons, Peterson, Rule, Street, Goodman, Wylie, Pollet, Nance, Berg, Davis, Ormsby, Lekanoff, Fosse, Salahuddin, Hill, and Tharinge.

A Cure for My Nightmares

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Despite Congress not funding removal of disabilities for over three decades, ATF’s regulation (27 C.F.R. § 478.144) remains on the books with the procedure for filing and processing a petition to remove disabilities. (The regulation states that relief will not be granted if the applicant is prohibited from gun possession by the state law where he resides, but that is invalid because § 925(c) imposes no such condition for relief from the federal disability.) If the petition is denied, § 925(c) entitles the applicant to file a petition for judicial review in which new evidence may be admitted. That provides a check on abusive agency action.

The ball is in Congress’s court to restore funding. Otherwise, given the circuit split, it is likely that the Supreme Court will step in to resolve this issue soon.

Stephen Halbrook
January 13, 2025
Second Amendment Roundup: Circuit Conflict in Felon Gun Ban Cases

Having a path for convicted felons to regain their gun rights is not something I consistently advocate for. But it is important. Three Felonies a Day comes to mind.

Beyond that is the GCA 68 definition of a prohibited person includes those, “.. Under indictment for, or has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” This includes people were convicted as a juvenile.

One of my nightmare scenarios is that small children are convicted of a “felony.” This happens routinely. It could occur for crying in public or some such thing. Then, because everyone is a convicted felon, the Second Amendment does not have be repealed. A total ban on individual gun ownership is achieved without infringing the Second Amendment.

Yes, it is ridiculous, but nightmares are not constrained to reality. And then look at the “Red Flag” laws and domestic abuse restraining orders being used to nullify Second Amendment rights. Reality and nightmares are not that divergent.

The Range v. Attorney General case is a good first step to eliminating a large set of my bad dreams.

A Sporting Purpose Baby Step

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U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) today introduced the Sporting Firearms Access Act to stop the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) from arbitrarily blocking imports of firearms and ammunition.

The Sporting Firearms Access Act clarifies the definition of “sporting purposes” used by the ATF to regulate import of firearms into the U.S. The new definition would recognize firearms and ammunitions used for activities such as hunting, target shooting, and competitions. Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, firearms and ammunition can only be imported if the ATF recognizes it as being suitable for “sporting purposes.” Ambiguity in the law has allowed the ATF to arbitrarily deny imports of firearms by U.S. customers and businesses.

James E. Risch
January 4, 2025
Risch Leads Bill to Block ATF’s Ability to Deny Firearm, Ammunition Imports – Press Releases – James E Risch, U.S. Senator for Idaho

While I think this bill does not go nearly far enough, it is an unexpected gift.

What I want to know, is where does the 2nd Amendment say only sporting firearms are protected? At a minimum, firearms used for self-defense should be protected. And the real threshold for protection should be, “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!“

Yes, the ATF have been running roughshod over imports. Their absurd definition of “sporting” means little more than hunting rifles and shotguns. So, this is an improvement. I’ll clench my teeth a little. Nonetheless, I will thank Senator Risch for a baby step in the correct direction.

A Step Toward Machine Gun Competitions in High Schools

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Mr. Burlison is also introducing legislation to repeal the 1934 National Firearms Act, which taxes, registers, and restricts gun owners.

Kerry Picket
January 7, 2025
GOP lawmakers introduce legislation to abolish ATF – Washington Times

See also GOP Congress Targets ATF, Even Introduces Legislation to Make Machine Gun Ownership Legal Without Special Paperwork.

The headline is concerned with abolishing the ATF. Slinking into view with a single low-key sentence is a WMD against Federal gun laws.

I think it is unlikely to pass on its own this year and or even the foreseeable future. But if Musk and Ramaswamy trim two trillion from the budget via the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), then I could see the ATF and the NFA as part of the eliminated waste.

This would result in my vision of seeing machine gun competitions in high schools by 2032 being realized.

Yes, They Really are that Stupid and/or Evil

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How about this? You can have any gun you’re willing to be shot with.

“Excellent choice, sir. Before I ring it up, just one small formality.  Please go and stand in front of that wall…”

Gethsemane Tilset (@djapn)
Tweeted on September 26, 2022

As if guns were designed to be harmless when they hit their target. They really are that stupid. Or they are pushing a mindset intended to make effective self-defense nearly impossible? Nerf and Airsoft guns are all you need, right?

I find it interesting this user still exists on X but has zero followers and has no posts. Draw whatever conclusions you want from that.

Ninth Circuit Court Scolded by One of its Own

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And to paraphrase James Madison, if judges were angels, nothing further would need be said. But unfortunately, however else it might be described, our court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence can hardly be labeled angelic. Possessed maybe—by a single-minded focus on ensuring that any panel opinions actually enforcing the Second Amendment are quickly reversed. The majority of our court distrusts gun owners and thinks the Second Amendment is a vestigial organ of their living constitution. Those views drive this circuit’s caselaw ignoring the original meaning of the Second Amendment and fully exploiting the discretion inherent in the Supreme Court’s cases to make certain that no government regulation ever fails our laughably “heightened” Second Amendment scrutiny.

…

Until the Supreme Court forces our court to do something different than balance our view of the utility of some firearm product or usage against the government’s claimed harm from its misuse, the Second Amendment will remain essentially an ink blot in this circuit.

Lawrence VanDyke
Ninth Circuit US Circuit Judge
November 30, 2021
DUNCAN V. BONTA No. 19-55376

Via Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras -> Kostas Moros @MorosKostas -> Google…

SCOTUS needs to exercise force.

Their Goal is not Public Safety.

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The slim ball politicians in Washington State are continuing their assault on gun owners and dealers with HOUSE BILL 1132 which reads in part:

A new section is added to chapter 9.41 RCW to read as follows:
(1)(a) A dealer may not deliver more than one firearm to a purchaser or transferee within any 30-day period.

(b) A dealer may not deliver more than 100 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition or more than 1,000 rounds of any other caliber of ammunition to a purchaser or transferee within any 30-day period.

(2) Subsection (1) of this section does not apply to any of the following:

(a) Any general authority Washington law enforcement agency or limited authority Washington law enforcement agency as those terms are defined in RCW 10.93.020;

(b) Any correctional facility as defined in RCW 72.09.015;

(c) Any private security company as defined in RCW 18.170.010;

(d) Any federal peace officer, general authority Washington peace officer, or limited authority Washington peace officer who as a normal part of the officer’s duties has arrest powers and carries a firearm, as those terms are defined in RCW 10.93.020, and is obtaining firearms or ammunition for law enforcement purposes;

(e) The criminal justice training commission;

(f) Any federal firearms dealer, federal firearms importer, or dealer, as those terms are defined in RCW 9.41.010, who is obtaining firearms or ammunition for resale;

(g) Any person who may, pursuant to RCW 9.41.113(4), claim an exemption from the background check requirements of RCW 9.41.113;

(h) The exchange of a firearm where the dealer sold that firearm to the person seeking the exchange within the 30-day period immediately preceding the date of exchange or replacement;

(i) The return of any firearm to its owner;

(j) The receipt of firearms by a person who acquires possession of the firearms by operation of law upon the death of the former owner who was in legal possession of the firearms, provided the person in possession of the firearms can establish such provenance. Receipt under this subsection is not “distribution” under this chapter;

(k) Any private party transaction where the seller is, at the time of the transaction, required under state law or by court order to relinquish all firearms;

(l) Any private party transaction where the seller is any of the following:

(i) The personal representative of a decedent’s estate who is transferring the firearm to one or more heirs or beneficiaries of the decedent’s estate pursuant to the decedent’s will or the laws of intestate succession;

(ii) The holder of the decedent’s property who is transferring the firearms pursuant to RCW 11.62.010 to the successor of the decedent, as defined in RCW 11.62.005, or the surviving spouse of the decedent pursuant to RCW 11.04.015; or

(iii) The trustee of a trust who is transferring the firearms to one or more trust beneficiaries upon the death of a settlor of the trust; or

(m) Any person who is a licensed collector as defined in 18 U.S.C. Sec. 921 and the regulations issued pursuant thereto, and who has a current certificate of eligibility issued by the department of justice.

(3)(a) Any person who violates this section commits a class 1
civil infraction and shall be assessed a monetary penalty of $500.

(b) If a person previously has been found to have violated this section, then the person is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable under chapter 9A.20 RCW for a subsequent violation of this section.

(c) If a person previously has been found to have violated this section two or more times, then the person is guilty of a gross misdemeanor punishable under chapter 9A.20 RCW for each subsequent violation of this section.

Who are they targeting with this law? It is just the dealer. A person purchasing ammo can go to a different seller every other day. They can then purchase 15,000 rounds in a month without running afoul of this proposed law. They can even buy any number of rounds from a friend.

Via email, Rolf proposed a motive for this seeming absurdity:

Depending on the enforcement regs, I think I may see its primary purpose.

It a limitation on FFLs selling you more than X. Not a prohibition on you buying more than X.

That means the DEALER must track by ID all purchases and maintain those records.

If they don’t, then a government informant walks in 29 days apart as part of a sting operation…..

Constant harassment of dealers is the only goal.

This is plausible. But I think it is just as likely that they really are that stupid. The law doesn’t have to make sense. It is just (what they want to be) the law.

If you insist this has to make sense in some way, then Rolf has a decent hypothesis. Think about it this way. Excluding the Las Vegas music festival shooting a few years ago, where over 1,100 rounds were fired, can you name a crime that utilized more than 1,000 rounds? And even in that incident, Purchases from just two dealers would have supplied more than enough ammo.

This makes it crystal clear their goal is not public safety.

These criminal need to be prosecuted. I hope they enjoy their trials.

The First and Second Amendments Cannot Coexist

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We don’t make this statement lightly, but the folks over at Giffords and Brady have filed an amicus brief in a matter, challenging all of Maryland’s new sensitive places, that actually argues that the First Amendment and the Second Amendment cannot coexist, and because of that, the 2A will always take a back seat to the 1A.

William Kirk
December 30, 2024
The Most Dangerous Gun Control Argument You Will Ever Read

What other rights must you only exercise one at a time? If you exercise your right to freedom of religion, do you forfeit your Third Amendment rights and you will be required to quarter troops in your house? Or how about, if you insist on a warrant before your house is searched, you then forfeit your “privilege” to a lawyer when being questioned by the police.

I don’t say “privilege” lightly, because this is what they are demanding. The government gets to decide when, where, how, and if you get to exercise a specific enumerated right. Their demands change the exercise of a right into a privilege.

I don’t think the courts will buy this argument. I would like to think the lawyers writing this brief know it too and are doing this just for the money.

I hope they get slapped down with extraordinary harshness.

Disregard for Court Rulings Must Be Soundly Rejected

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from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings. These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected.

John Roberts
Supreme Court Chief Justice
December 31, 2024
Roberts warns against ignoring Supreme Court rulings as tension with Trump looms

One has to wonder if there are specific cases he has in mind when he says this. More importantly, what actions will the court take to enforce their decisions?

It is About Bullying, not Crime Reduction

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“Stupidity” may apply in terms of whether they honestly believe such restrictions will reduce or prevent crime, but rights-hating Democrats know such measures infuriate and frustrate gun owners, which is exactly what they want to do. Were they in elementary school, one might argue, this would be called bullying, because they know they can get away with it.

Dave Workman
December 30, 2024
WA Lump of Coal: Dems File HB 1132 Limiting Gun, Ammo Buys

They have been bullying us for decades. I expect it will get worse before it gets better. It will only get better when they start paying a price. I don’t know when or if that will happen, but I know it should happen.

There are at least two ways this can come about legally. 1), they are prosecuted; or 2), the court assigns a monitor to them. The monitor would report to the judge periodically.

I would like to see the politicians and activists supporting this crap spent time in prison. I’m thinking the sentence length should he double the number of days the offending law was in force.

Never Underestimate the Power of Human Stupidity

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If you need a license to kill deer why don’t you need one to kill humans?

David Hogg 🟧 @davidhogg111
Tweeted on April 2, 2024

This is so mind warping stupid I started wondering if he knew it was stupid but thought he would manage to sell it to the general population as something profound.

Looking further in the thread I found the answer 75 minutes later:

Plenty of people will think this is dumb- good for you. I’m not looking out for an election and I’m entitled to my own opinion no matter how much you disagree.

David Hogg 🟧 @davidhogg111
Tweeting on April 2, 2024

Yup. He is that stupid. He really thinks it is something profound.

It is people like this that we are up against. And yet, we came close to losing the war.

Gun control is Icarus

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Gun control is Icarus…and it got too greedy, arrogant, and flew too high. There’s only one ending to this story and looking at cases around the country…fantasy is almost up. Enjoy losing.

Johnny Silverhand @MegaManX1984
Posted on X on December 21, 2023

A little something is lost without the entire context, but I wanted to have the above in case any of the below disappears. Here is the entire context:

Restricted Weapons

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Via mNich @mNich_1138 and Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras:

If anything, as public servants our law enforcement should be restricted from using all the weapons available to those whom they serve.

Who Will Scream Into the Void?

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Why do I have to keep telling these rabid gun humpers to eff off? I don’t GAF about their gunsplaining.

I want stricter #gunregulation and #AR15s off the street. I don’t GAF they aren’t automatics and y’all are all muted. I SUPER DON’T GAF.

Scream into the void, donuts. SCREAM.

ToutdeSuiteLaSinner @ToutSuiteSinner
Tweeted on June 5, 2022

It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday; it is another science denier (see also here)!

It is very telling that she thinks her ignorance is nothing to be concerned about. Her willful ignorance will only cause her more pain.

After the Heller, and especially the Bruen decision, the only screams we will be doing are victory screams. The long-term screaming into the void will be by the likes of ToutdeSuiteLaSinner.

Schadenfreude can be so sweet.

Washington State Hazards

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From: New map shows where damaging earthquakes are most likely to occur in US 

Volcano’s, high taxes, high crime, and a high probability of damaging earthquakes. Seattle is not nearly as attractive as it was when I first moved here just out of college.

I knew about the occasional earthquakes and was thrilled to experience three of them. Now that I’m older, I know just how serious they can be. I would rather not wait around for “the big one.”

The nearest volcano, Mount Rainier, was sort interesting in an abstract way when I arrived. And it is an incredible mountain. It is awe inspiring to go hiking on it. And it seemed to be dormant enough to not worry about.

Mount St. Helen’s blowing up a little over 100 miles away made volcanoes much more real. It obliterated everything within a six-mile radius. And that is just the complete destruction area. There was more:

The deadly pyroclastic surge—a fast-moving, super-hot cloud of ash, rock, and volcanic gas—traveled as much 18 miles away from the blast. The hot lava, gas, and debris mixed with melting snow and ice to form massive volcanic mudflows that surged down into valleys with enough force to rip trees from the ground, flatten homes, and completely destroy roads and bridges. Rivers rose rapidly, flooding surrounding valleys. Ash fell from the sky as far away as the Great Plains. Two-hundred-and-fifty miles away, ash blanketed Spokane, Washington, in complete darkness.

Mount Rainier is about 50 miles to the south from where we live now. Previous mud flows from Rainier have traveled several miles north of where we live. Those flows were in the valleys. We live part way up the side of a mountain. Therefore, I’m not too worried about being directly and immediately impacted by the blast and mud flows.

But even with only some mild ash at our house, the infrastructure issues would be catastrophic because of mud and pyroclastic flows destroying roads, power lines, water lines, and sewage lines. The people issues resulting from a major Mount Rainier blast following the infrastructure destruction would affect everyone for hundreds of miles around. I would rather not have to directly deal with that.

The politics, and especially the gun laws, have gone from benign to oppressive. I can avoid a lot of the pain by leveraging my Idaho connection. But it is a constant source of irritation.

Living in the “Bellevue Bubble”, as Barb and I like to call it, certainly has its advantages. But I really need an option to bug-out if things become an imminent hazard.

Don’t be a Science Denier

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Thousands of gun shows take place in the U.S. each year. Gun control advocates argue that because sales at gun shows are much less regulated than other sales, such shows make it easier for potential criminals to obtain a gun. Similarly, one might be concerned that gun shows would exacerbate suicide rates by providing individuals considering suicide with a more lethal means of ending their lives. On the other hand, proponents argue that gun shows are innocuous since potential criminals can acquire guns quite easily through other black market sales or theft. In this paper, we use data from Gun and Knife Show Calendar combined with vital statistics data to examine the effect of gun shows. We find no evidence that gun shows lead to substantial increases in either gun homicides or suicides. In addition, tighter regulation of gun shows does not appear to reduce the number of firearms-related deaths.

Mark Duggan, Randi Hjalmarsson, and Brian A. Jacob
September 2008
The Effect of Gun Shows on Gun-Related Deaths:
Evidence from California and Texas

Don’t be a science denier. Support deregulation of gun shows!

Planning Against the Poor Planners

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If you survive the blast, and you survive the fallout, you’re going to have to survive the constant threat of mass home invasion from those whose disaster planning is just 3 days.

Tirno
December 19, 2024
Comment to Evidence of the Idiocracy

This is an excellent point. But once made, you realize there are going to be some exceptions. Maintain a large buffer zone between yourself and the hordes with poor planning. Doing this can minimize your risk of contact. The risk can be driven to almost zero.

Let time, distance, and others “thin the herd” before the Seattle hordes reach your underground bunker in Montana. Give yourself some good alarms and a thousand yards of open space in every direction. Then, with the right guns, ammo, optics, and shooting partners, you should not have a problem against the low life.

Of course, this is far easier said than done.

Can’t You Read?

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Via Rachel Alexander @Rach_IC:

And the masked man’s response might well be, “Hey, you must be so stupid that you won’t miss your brain. BANG!“

“Gun free zones” just disarm the potential victims. We must get rid of them in all but the most obvious of sensitive places. I’m thinking of places like those with extreme fire hazards, prisons, extremely strong magnetic fields, etc.

Cut and Paste from the Playbook

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With just over one month remaining in his disastrous term, Joe Biden just couldn’t restrain himself from once again rolling out his one-size-fits-all gun control wish list in his statement from the White House. Demanding that Congress quickly pass universal background check (registration) legislation and ban so-called ‘assault weapons’ and ‘high-capacity magazines’ in response to this terrible crime is one of the stupidest, but expected reactions from a career gun prohibitionist whose history of gaffes is legendary.

Joe Biden knows 15-year-olds can’t legally buy handguns anywhere in this country, so a call for background checks is irrelevant. Police have recovered a handgun which was used in the shooting, so calling for a ban on semiautomatic rifles and their magazines is also irrelevant and dishonest. Indeed, such demands underscore just how irrelevant Joe Biden and his gun ban agenda have become.

Alan Gottlieb
CCRKBA Chairman
December 7, 2024
CCRKBA BLASTS BIDEN’S REACTION TO WISCONSIN SCHOOL TRAGEDY | Citizens Committee For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms

To be fair, I doubt Biden had any input into that statement. It is most likely some intern. Someone who does not know the difference between an AR-15 and a Glock 17. Of course, they know even less about the law. They just did a copy and paste from the “School Shooting” page in their playbook.