Category Archives: Gun Rights

AR-15 Ban Ruled Unconstitutional

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Another small step:

N.J.’s ban on AR-15 ‘assault’ rifles is unconstitutional, federal court rules – nj.com

A federal court judge on Tuesday ruled New Jersey’s ban on AR-15 rifles is unconstitutional, a decision that could force the state to lift its decades-old prohibition on certain semi-automatic weapons.

The judge’s ruling was limited in scope — it applies only to one type of firearm, the Colt AR-15, and allows “for use of self-defense within the home.”

The same ruling says the ban on normal capacity magazines is constitutional.

But this is New Jersey. Any step in the correct direction is welcome. And it may create a circuit split which makes it more likely we get a ruling from SCOTUS.

We Need Common Sense Knife Laws

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England is reaping what you would expect with their gun ban:

Taylor Swift ‘in shock’ after horrific UK stabbing, as police say 3rd child dies – ABC News (go.com)

LONDON — A third young girl has died following a stabbing spree at a children’s Taylor Swift-themed event in the United Kingdom, police said Tuesday, as the pop star reacted on social media saying she was “in shock.”

Officers responded just before noon on Monday to reports of a stabbing at a property in Southport, a seaside town about 20 miles north of Liverpool, according to Merseyside police.

Two girls, 6-year-old Bebe King and 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe, were killed, and nine other children were injured, police said.

Expect demands for more knife control.

Don’t laugh! The U.K. does have restrictive knife laws. And theirs are nothing compared to that in some parts of China:

In locked-down Xinjiang, China is tracking kitchen knives with QR codes – Fast Company

In China’s tightly controlled Xinjiang region, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur ethnic group, commonplace purchases from knives to gasoline are strictly controlled with ID checks amid a growing high-tech surveillance push, the Wall Street Journal reports this week.

A knife shop owner in the midwestern city of Aksu told the Journal he had to spend thousands of dollars on a machine that turns every “customer’s ID card number, photo, ethnicity and address,” encodes the data as a QR code and lasers it into the blades of even the kitchen knives they buy. The Aksu policy, which was previously reported by Radio Free Asia, is intended to trace a knife back to its owner in the event it’s used to commit acts of violence.

See also here.

The Consequences of Government Harassment

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Quote of the Day

Waiting periods were always in bad faith, and never intended to stop violence.

Back in the 80s I would have been fine with a 10 day waiting period and background check for machineguns.

Senseless harassment by government has gotten me to the point of vending machines with them.

skeptical american @skepticalone44
Posted on X, July 28, 2024

+1

Correlation Does Not Mean Causation

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Via Holz10: Ho Bot Whisperer @HolzRevivified:

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Correlation does not mean causation, but no, or negative, correlation means there can not be causation.

Democrats Increase Murder Rates

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Sounds close to correct. The gun control laws aren’t much, if any, stricter in the cities than outside most of those cities. And there are other states and cities with stricter gun control. New Jersey and Hawaii are examples.

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Via Armed FL Guy @sigmakmb.

Also, note that Jail survey: 7 in 10 felons register as Democrats. This means that twice as many people in prison register as Democrats as all other affiliations combined.

Whistling Past the Graveyard

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Quote of the Day

The NRA’s legal turmoil is welcome news for the millions of Americans clamoring for solutions to America’s gun violence epidemic — and a four-alarm crisis for the gun industry. For the last 30 years, the NRA has served as a suit of armor for the gun industry, one that was big enough to hide the corporations that profited from the organization’s “guns everywhere” agenda, and intimidating enough to keep Washington lawmakers in line. Lately, however, that suit of armor has been losing limbs faster than a knight in a Monty Python movie.

John Feinblatt
President of Everytown for Gun Safety
April 20, 2024
Opinion: Another legal loss for the NRA — and another warning sign for the gun industry (msn.com)

Feinblatt is just whistling past the graveyard. It is not the NRA he needs to be concerned about and he knows it. It is the GOA, FPC, SAF, and SCOTUS that are ripping his world apart.

Toxic Cult of Individualism

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Quote of the Day

It is hardly far-fetched to argue that America’s toxic cult of individualism might on some occasions lead folks to believe that the only way to accomplish anything is by taking matters – and guns – into their own hands.

Following Trump’s own brush with death, one wonders whether he’ll think back on his advice to Iowa residents devastated by a January school shooting: “Get over it”.

As they say, you reap what you sow. And if there is one thing the US needs to get over, it is the “right to bear arms”.

Belén Fernández
July 15, 2024
Is America’s gun fixation backfiring on its pushers? (msn.com)

This is what they think of you as an individualist gun owner.

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.

If individualism is a “toxic cult” you have to wonder what socialism and communism are. I’ve always thought of them as death cult. But with this new calibration of individualism as a “toxic cult” I’m thinking socialism and communism must be something like an existential threat to the solar system.

Racist and Out of Touch

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Quote of the Day

Okay, I just want to add that the shooter was a 20-year-old kitchen worker from nearby Bethel Park in Pennsylvania. According to a CNN report, a senior law enforcement official said that he bought 50 rounds from a local gun store hours before the rally.

Shouldn’t that have been reported? Somebody buys…a 20-year-old white guy? I mean we’ve seen that many times now. Young white men with guns and nobody reported that he bought 50 rounds of ammunition?

Joy Behar
July 15, 2024
Lefties Horrified Young White Men Can Buy 50 Rounds of Ammo Without Triggering a SWAT Raid – Shooting News Weekly

“white guy”? Racist much?

“50 rounds of ammunition”? Out of touch with reality?

I wonder what she would think if she knew it is nothing special when this white guy buys buys 5,000 rounds of ammunition and/or assembles 2,000 rounds.

Stupid and/or Desperate?

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Quote of the Day

Minnesota cites common law evidence that (as minors) 18 to 20-year-olds did not have full rights. Minnesota, however, does not put forward common law analogues restricting the right to bear arms. Instead, Minnesota points to statutory law, such as the Militia Act of 1792 that required 18 to 20-year-olds to acquire firearms, as evidence the common law was the inverse. See The Militia Act of 1792, ch. 33, 1 Stat. 271, § 1. A mandate to acquire a firearm is hardly “evidence” that one was previously prohibited from owning one.

Duane Benton
Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
July 15, 2024
Worth-Opinion.pdf (saf.org)
Kristin Worth; Austin Dye; Axel Anderson; Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus; Second Amendment Foundation; Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc.

v.

Bob Jacobson, in his individual capacity and in his official capacity as Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety

Kyle Burton, in his individual capacity and in his official capacity as Sheriff of Mille Lacs County, Minnesota; Dan Starry, in his individual capacity and in his official capacity as Sheriff of Washington County, Minnesota; Troy Wolbersen, in his individual capacity and in his official capacity as Sheriff of Douglas County, Minnesota Defendants

Judges, Smith, Benton, and Stras unanimously held that Minnesota’s law banning 18-year old’s from carrying arms in public is unconstitutional. I found it amusing Minnesota would cite a law requiring 18-year old’s to acquire a firearm in support of their insistence that 18-year old’s can be denied the right to carry arms. Are they really that stupid? And/or that desperate?

Related:

SAF SEEKING PLAINTIFFS –
ATTENTION MINNESOTA RESIDENTS!

Are you – or someone you know – a young adult 18-20-years-old, have a clean background and want to exercise your right to carry a firearm for self-defense? If you fit the criteria above, please email Legal@saf.org with your contact and background information, including the county in which you reside. Sign up here!

They Don’t Trust the Science

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Quote of the Day

Duke University researchers embarked on a comprehensive journey to dissect the effectiveness of gun laws across the United States.  

Their focus? The relationship between stringent gun regulations and homicide rates. The results were unexpected—they found “no difference in homicide rates” between states with tough laws and those with more lenient ones.

Georgia Mckoy
July 12, 2024
Bombshell Study Finds Gun Restriction Laws Do Not Lead to Homicide Decrease Nationwide

See also the media release.

Anyone paying attention knew this decades ago.

But do they trust the science? See for yourself:

Gun ownership in America has surged, with over 82 million Americans now owning at least one firearm—a 28% increase since 1994.    

This uptick illustrates the growing urgency for effective gun regulation to keep pace with rising ownership rates.

In other words, “Gun ownership is increasing! No harm done! We must do something!”

These people are members of an evil, religious, science denying cult with an unshakable faith in gun control and the benevolence of government. They belong in the dustbin of history.

Emotion and Violence, it is What They Do

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Quote of the Day

We still do not know about the shooter in this assassination attempt. However, we know all too well how unhinged people can find justification in the incendiary rhetoric of our politics. This moment did not occur in a vacuum; it occurred in a time when our leaders long abandoned reason for rage.

Jonathan Turley
July 13, 2024
Opinion: The attempted assassination of Trump is not nearly as surprising as it should be (msn.com)

It is not just the “leaders”. Rationality, if it exists, is just a thin veneer over the emotions in nearly everyone. The political currency of the left is almost nothing but emotion and violence. It is what they believe in and what they do.

As I have said before:

The Second Amendment isn’t only not about hunting–it’s about protecting us from liberals.

Further evidence:

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Predictable Cliches

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Quote of the Day

These emotional dorks are such predictable cliches. Bitchface dirty deleted but the internet is forever.

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Larry Correia @monsterhunter45
Posted on X on June 21, 2024

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

Yup. It’s totally predictable. That is why we call it Markley’s Law.

Call for Calm

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Appropriate:

CCRKBA CONDEMNS ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, CALLS FOR CALM | Citizens Committee For The Right To Keep And Bear Arms

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms condemns Saturday’s attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump during a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania and praises the quick action by the U.S. Secret Service to protect Mr. Trump and neutralize the suspect.

“We offer prayers of thanks that Donald Trump is safe, and we mourn for the innocent person who was killed during the incident,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “We condemn this act of insanity, because violence of any kind can never be tolerated as part of the political process in a free country.

“Furthermore, we condemn the political vitriol which has been directed toward the former president, creating such an atmosphere of irrational hatred,” Gottlieb continued. “It is despicable that Donald Trump has been vilified for many months as a ‘threat to democracy.’ What has become clear is that the level of hateful rhetoric directed at the former president is the real threat to democracy, which is underscored by the Biden campaign’s suspension of political advertising.

“The whole world is watching how the American people respond to this deplorable attempt on the life of the former President,” Gottlieb added. “In America, we settle our political differences at the ballot box. We cannot allow those differences to reach the level of volatility which results in this kind of dangerous extremism. We call for calm on all sides. We are a nation of rational debate, not political derangement.

“There is no room for the sort of vile rhetoric which has been rampant so far in the campaign to demonize Mr. Trump and prevent at all costs his possible re-election in November,” Gottlieb observed. “We expect a thorough investigation and full public disclosure of the facts surrounding this horrific act.”

They are Getting Off Easy

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Quote of the Day

Nowadays, it is difficult to be an informed news consumer, especially if you value the right to keep and bear arms. When a story involves guns or the Second Amendment, what passes for news is usually propaganda – finely honed and served up with a purpose.

Many Americans have found alternative news sources. This is the main reason why the Associated Press and other corporate media sources are hemorrhaging readers and viewers. The legacy media’s decline is self-inflicted. Their continued adherence to pushing false narratives did them in.

Lee Williams
July 11, 2024
Associated Press Refuses to Correct Anti-gun Story – Another Symptom of its Decline

If they go bankrupt and every single person involved in this long term conspiracy to infringe upon the right to keep and bear arms can’t find work for years, they are still getting off easy. They should be prosecuted.

The VPC Must Want Them Dead

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Quote of the Day

The firearms industry, looking to expand beyond its shrinking base of white male gun owners, has focused its marketing efforts on Black, Latino, and Asian Americans. If successful, such efforts can only increase gun death and injury in these communities.

Violence Policy Center
July 9, 2024
Nearly 90 Percent of Black Homicide Victims Killed With Guns, Study Finds | Violence Policy Center (vpc.org)

Interesting. The VPC is claiming the “gun death and injury” rates in non-white communities will increase if their gun ownership rates increase. And that most guns are currently owned by white males… who happen to have much lower “gun death and injury” rates than the black males. That doesn’t make any sense. One would expect that since white males have low “gun death and injury” rates we should encourage other to look to them for clues as to how to obtain those same low “gun death and injury” rates. Such as owning guns and learning how to use them to defend yourself.

Logical thinking is not what gun control people are known for. This is just another data point demonstrating they have crap for brains and/or they are evil and deliberately lying because they want those non-whites to continue having high “gun death and injury” rates.

Application to Private Arms Builders?

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I am not a lawyer. But it would see this bolsters the case for building your own machine guns, mortar’s, grenades, etc..

Federal court declares federal ban on at-home distilling unconstitutional – Competitive Enterprise Institute (cei.org)

Late last night, after months of litigation, a federal court in Texas decided the federal ban on at-home distillation of beverage spirits is unconstitutional. The district court’s decision is fair; it is correct on the law; and it is historic.

Lawyers at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) represent several amateur home-distilling enthusiasts who want to pursue the essentially harmless hobby of at-home distilling of beverage spirits for personal use without the looming threat of legal sanctions. Under federal law, distilling in one’s home or backyard can result in a $10,000 fine and a five-year imprisonment.

The court found that:

  • The federal ban on home distilling exceeds the scope of the federal government’s limited powers.
  • The Constitution’s tax power does not allow the federal government to ban home distilling, largely because the ban does not add money into the federal treasury or protect federal tax revenue.
  • The Constitution’s power to regulate interstate commerce does not allow the federal government to ban home distilling, largely because the ban neither regulates interstate commerce directly nor is it related to any larger regulatory scheme.

I didn’t read the actual ruling but I suspect what the judge said can be applied to almost anything not involved in Interstate commerce. Hence, when applied to homemade grenades at a Boomershoot side event the courts would be inclined to say the Federal government can’t ban them either.

Gun Registries Are Only Effective for One Thing

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Quote of the Day

I think it is a wonderful idea to have a registry of every gun that is owned by a civilian in the United States of America. Because then we could have perhaps less killings in our neighborhoods. Less killings at our supermarkets. Less killings at our concerts. Less killings period in the United States of America.

Bonnie Watson Coleman
US Representative (D-NJ)
July 2024

This is all in response to the ATF spending 10s of millions on digitizing nearly a billion* 4473s from out of business FFLs:

Even if you ignore the fact gun registries are only effective for one thing, a gun registry maintained by the U.S. government is illegal.

Addressing congresswoman Coleman claim: she should do some research. Then, try to answer just one question. Registries are not associated with “less killings” of the type she refers to. The only thing registries are good for is gun confiscation. 

I hope these people enjoy their trial.

* A bit of good news in this is that nearly a billion records means it’s going to take a lot of people a lot of time to find and confiscation the guns referenced by those 900+ million records. The workers will become fewer and time required even longer as I expect they will become lead magnets.

Ammunition Vending Machines

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Quote of the Day

Supermarkets in gun-friendly red states are now selling ammunition out of vending machines that use artificial intelligence and facial recognition technology to verify the buyers are of legal age.

Eric Mack
July 7, 2024
Oklahoma, Alabama Selling Ammo in AI Vending Machines | Newsmax.com

I’m still looking forward to blister packs of a half dozen Glocks being available at Costco.

Memes

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From Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it harder for sober people to own cars. (bookey.app):

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From David Thompson @DBThompsonUS:

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From Josh Boehm @BaronBoehm:

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From Planet Of Memes @PlanetOfMemes:image

From Liberty NH @NHpilled · Jul 5 Chad energy:

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From Planet Of Memes @PlanetOfMemes:

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That last one has its humor but we all know it is false. After seeing that, they would burn your house down with you in it, destroying the list, and the claim they did it for your children who were in the house with you..

False Ideas of Utility

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Quote of the Day

A principal source of errors and injustice are false ideas of utility. For example: that legislator has false ideas of utility who considers particular more than general conveniencies, who had rather command the sentiments of mankind than excite them, who dares say to reason, “Be thou a slave;” who would sacrifice a thousand real advantages to the fear of an imaginary or trifling inconvenience; who would deprive men of the use of fire for fear of their being burnt, and of water for fear of their being drowned; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it.

The laws of this nature are those which forbid to wear arms, disarming those only who are not disposed to commit the crime which the laws mean to prevent. Can it be supposed, that those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity, and the most important of the code, will respect the less considerable and arbitrary injunctions, the violation of which is so easy, and of so little comparative importance? Does not the execution of this law deprive the subject of that personal liberty, so dear to mankind and to the wise legislator? and does it not subject the innocent to all the disagreeable circumstances that should only fall on the guilty? It certainly makes the situation of the assaulted worse, and of the assailants better, and rather encourages than prevents murder, as it requires less courage to attack unarmed than armed persons.

Cesare Beccaria
An Essay on Crimes & Punishments, translated from the Italian with a commentary, attributed to M. de Voltaire, translated from the French
(New York: Stephen Gould, 1809), 124-25.

Emphasis added.

Via Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…(Spurious Quotation) | Monticello.

This has a lot of truth in it, assuming the legislator actually believes the utility of arms restrictions will make the general population safer. I suspect some do. But I am completely convinced many know this is not true and have evil intent in disarmament of the people. They want subjects to rule rather than be a servant to the public.