Call me Ahab

posted by Caleb on Sep 29

Are black powder firearms subject to the NFA laws?  For example, say I hypothetically had a double barreled 10 gauge muzzleloading shotgun that I wanted to chop down into a replica of a Wells Fargo coach gun.

Obviously, I don’t want the ATF climbing up my ass, and before I go wading through the NFA for an answer, I figured I’d ask the intertrons.

So, any answers?

posted by Caleb on Sep 28

Then you have to appeal to emotion. The problem is that you know that if you call it an “appeal to emotion”, you’ll be verbally castigated from one end of the internet to the next by people like me. So, you need to come up with a new term. The term you come up with is “values-centered discussion”.

Same game, different name.

Values-centered conversations will embrace a strong sense of citizenship and a concern for the common good; if we frame questions around those kinds of values first and then around the issues we need to resolve, we may begin to get somewhere.

You see, and there is where the whole “values-centered” line completely breaks down. The people on opposite sides of this issue have completely different definitions of “good citizenship” and “the common good”. The “common good” as defined by the anti-gun crowd is essentially “get rid of all the guns”; they appeal to your emotions by saying that everything would “better” and “safer” if there were no gun.

You can use all the different buzz-words that you want, but none of it changes the simple fact that gun control arguments are based on emotion, and not reason.

Robb at Sharp as a Marble has a more in depth look at the article.

posted by Caleb on Sep 28

HR 2640 stalls (again) and Mayor Bloomberg of New York is an idiot.  Both fascinating topics in one article.  On the first issue, it seems that the passage of HR 2640 has been stalled in the  Senate (again), but this time it’s for a decent reason.

But Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) questioned the $5.5 billion the Senate bill would funnel annually to help states automate their reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.  “This bill authorizes more than $2 billion in new spending that is not paid for with reductions in other lower-priority areas of the budget,” Coburn said in a statement.

I suddenly like Sen. Coburn, because he’s doing exactly what an elected official should - question additional government spending.  Sen. Coburn’s objection is the first good reason I’ve seen that we should take a good hard look at HR 2640.  Not because I think it’s going to strip veterans with PTSD of their gun rights (because it’s not), but rather because it appears that it’s going to add even more expenses to the already bloated federal budget, without a clear method of paying for said expense.

I am in favor of this legislation on terms of principle - I don’t subscribe to Larry Pratt’s outrageous lies about this bill - but I don’t want to see additional financial costs without a method for covering those costs.   I still want the bill to pass, but I want it to pass correctly and be properly funded.

On to the Bloomberg issue: during his confirmation hearing for Director of the ATF, Michael Sullivan said that he does not believe that federal law does not bar him from sharing trace data with local law enforcement.  He is correct, inasmuch as the Tiahrt Amendment has never prevented the ATF from sharing trace data with local law enforcement.

…the acting director of the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told the Senate Judiciary Committee he does not believe federal law bars him from sharing gun trafficking data with local police agencies.

Of course, because Mayor Bloomberg is an idiot, he has to try and spin this his own way.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been critical of the ATF, saying it has impaired New York police investigations of the flow of illegal weapons into the city by refusing to share information on Virginia “gun mill” dealers.   “We welcome the policy shift by the ATF and hope they will commit to sharing this kind of information, which mayors and law enforcement have been calling for,” said Lindsay Ellenbogen, a Bloomberg aide.

See, it’s apple and oranges.  The ATF didn’t share data in those cases because there weren’t any crimes being committed; Bloomberg was trying to build up his lawsuit against certain gun shops.  The ATF has always been allowed to share trace information on crime firearms with local agencies.  Cops know that, which is why the Fraternal Order of Police supported the Tiahrt Amendment.

posted by Caleb on Sep 27

You know how they say money is power?  The Gun Shots make an excellent point about the power behind America’s Hunters.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what hunters spent last year:

Firearms: $2.4 billion
Optics: $203 million
Decoys and game calls: $187 million
Hunting apparel: $459 million
Ammo: $696 million

I doubt that those numbers include sport shooters such as myself, either.  But in case you blinked, that is 2.4 billion, with a “b“.  We talk a lot about political power, but I think that sometimes we ignore the tremendous economic power that hunters and shooters wield.

posted by Caleb on Sep 27

So, you’ve probably heard about the student at St. Johns that was arrested while wearing a George Bush mask and carrying a .50 caliber deathray sniper rifle muzzleloader in a gym bag.

The university had a good response, and no one was hurt. Good job for them. Now here’s the funny part (aside from the George Bush mask - Point Break, anyone?) is that I read a whole bunch of articles from different sources about this, and I could only find one source that actually correctly identified the rifle as a .50 caliber muzzleloader. Although, according to the NYPD, it was a breach-loading black powder rifle. Now, refresh my memory, but I don’t think that anyone makes a breach loading, modern design, inline black powder rifle. In fact, in the picture in this article, it appears to be a modern, inline muzzleloader.

Of course, I predict that there will be calls to have background checks placed on muzzleloaders in the 3…2…1…

As a side note, a Bravo Zulu goes out to police cadet Christopher Benson for subduing the masked man.

Update 9/28: I told you so.  I knew the media would go loco over this and start in with the PSH. Uncle and Sebastian have their say.  Someone says “.50 caliber”, and the media starts freaking out.  Additionally, it’s not a loophole.  It’s a muzzleloader.  Any gun that takes 60 seconds to reload is not going to be your weapon of choice for a shooting spree.  Especially since that same gun leaves a huge smoke cloud when you pull the trigger.

Of course, I really shouldn’t have expected too much from the media.

posted by Caleb on Sep 27

And I wish that said baseball bat had magical powers, and the magical power of my baseball was to teach people about economics.  Then, I would ride merrily around the country, pummeling people senseless with my Economics Bat, and though they would be bruised and battered, they would limp away from their beating with a newfound knowledge of economics and how that works.

Then I could prevent idiots from posting things on their blogs that other people will read; and because those readers are not so bright, will believe.  I would be like a superhero, riding through the countryside dispensing swift Economic Violence and Justice.

My first stop would be Washington, DC.  My second stop would be Texas.  Mostly because there are some Texans than need a good clubbing.

I guess I would need a horse or something.

posted by Caleb on Sep 27

Two of the common gun terms that you may encounter are “Accidental Discharge” and “Negligent Discharge”, which refer to the action of firing a weapon when you did not intend to.  For some reason, I have seen these terms used interchangeably, and that is something that should not be.

A Negligent Discharge is when your firearm goes off because you were breaking one of the rules of safe firearms handling.  An example from own personal life goes as follows: as a cadet at the Academy, I competed in Free Pistol.  During a practice, I had loaded my single shot pistol, and while raising it to the target I sneezed.  Because my finger was in the trigger guard and on the very light trigger, the gun went bang.  This was a classic ND, because my finger was on the trigger even though I was not ready to fire.  If had exercised proper trigger safety, the results of my sneeze would have not ended with a gunshot.

An Accidental Discharge is when a firearm goes off due to mechanical failure or defect, not operator error.  For example, a slamfire in a CZ-52 would classify as an accidental discharge.  Because the firearm itself experienced a mechanical failure, the fault for the gun “going off” does not rest on the operator.

Accidental Discharges are extremely rare; modern guns are generally well made and durable, and in most cases are designed specifically to not experience an AD.  Don’t take that to mean that the possibility of an AD should be ignored; indeed the mere possibility that an AD might even happen is why we have rules for safe gun handling, especially the rule about not pointing guns at things you don’t want to see full of bullets.

Most of what are termed Accidental Shootings are in fact Negligent Shootings; operator error.  So the next time someone is complaining that guns “just go off” explain that they actually don’t, and that the bulk of “accidental shootings” would have been prevented if proper safety precautions were observed.

posted by Caleb on Sep 27

But apparently, Utah will stop issuing CCW permits to non-residents of the US.

A legislative committee learned Tuesday that about 1,000 citizens of foreign countries have earned Utah’s wallet identification card signifying they can pack a gun out of sight in Utah and any of 30 U.S. states that have a reciprocity agreement with Utah. 

The fact that they were issuing CCW permits to foreign nationals itself isn’t really a problem to me; however their new policy appears to effectively cut off the permit process for non-resident foreigners.  The emergency ruling effectively ends it; however they may place additional rules to allow for Canadian citizens.

The reason they started denying the permits is that someone realized that other countries weren’t sharing criminal records with Utah, so when the State Police would run a background check, it would come back with “no record”.  Now that’s not true for Canadian citizens, because the US and Canada share criminal records.

Approximately 1,000 permits were issued, and of those about half went to Canadian citizens.  Personally, I hope that Utah makes rule changes so that they will continue allowing permits to foreign nationals, but only if those people are from a country willing to share crime database information with Utah.  If you want to play the game, you’ve got to play by the rules.

posted by Caleb on Sep 26

That someone openly admits on the internet that they’re afraid of toys.  I had this story emailed to me by Sue, then I saw that Uncle had already beaten me to the punch (figures).  Anyway, the gist of the entry is that this woman was cruising around the Farmer’s Market in Palo Alto, CA and saw a family with a child.  That in itself isn’t really remarkable, but the child had a (gasp) toy gun  and was pretending to use it!  SHOCK AND HORROR.  Thankfully for me, her nigh hysterical blog entry is full of gems.

Or maybe you tell him that guns are not appropriate for a four year old to be carrying around, and focus him on something else, like Lego’s.

You know, funny story about that.  When I was a young warthog, my mother (initially) did not want us playing with toy guns, and instead directed our attentions to Lego and Construx.  You might be able to guess what happened from there.  My brothers and I, being the boys that we were, fashioned toy guns out of Lego and Construx (note: including a sweet-ass home made M-16), effectively circumventing the rule.  While that story provides a microcosm of why gun control doesn’t work, it’s also worth noting for the hysterical mom as well.

But when I saw your four (maybe five) year old son on your shoulders, carrying a toy gun (gosh, I certainly hope it was a toy gun, and not REAL!) and pretending to shoot everyone in the crowd, I just had to judge you.

…

Cause Parents of this kid, I was not the only one staring at (and judging) you and your kid.  I am just the only one blogging about it.

This is what was so awesome for me about this blog entry.  The author, a self describe Silicon Valley Mom basically admits that she’s close minded and judgmental.  The mere sight of a toy gun is enough to send her into hysterics and start judging people who weren’t doing anything dangerous, illegal, or immoral.

Good job there, lady.  Who needs to see a psychiatrist?

posted by Caleb on Sep 26

But I thought that armed citizens with guns would only escalate robberies into bloodbaths?  Does that mean that the Brady Bunch lied to me?

A grocery store clerk in Framingham had a surprise Monday night for a would-be robber who flashed a .22-caliber Ruger and demand cash, police said.

The grocery store clerk pulled out a more powerful gun.

After looking at the .22, the clerk at A & J grocery on Kendall Street grabbed a .45-caliber semi-automatic gun

Now, I don’t actually recommend that you read the rest of the article, because in typical Masshole fashion, it’s written in this sort of breathless hyperbolic manner which makes the article nearly unbearable.

“After the suspect was shot at, he proceeded to flee on foot toward Freeman Street,” said Lieutenant Paul Shastany of the Framingham Police Department.

So, let’s see.  Badguy produces firearm, and shop owner produces own firearm, takes a shot at the badguy and misses, badguy flees.  Shop owner not charged for defending his life and property.

Apologies to Unc for stealing his line.