Month: July 2017

Lawyers oppose reciprocity bill

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The American Bar Association has come out in opposition to reciprocity bills H.R.38/S.446:

“… ABA President Linda A. Klein calls the legislation “a dangerous proposal” that would tie states’ hands in setting concealed-carry standards. All states allow some form of concealed carry, but standards vary, Klein said. The reciprocity requirement “offends deeply rooted principles of federalism where public safety is traditionally the concern of state and local government,” Klein says in the letters (PDFs) here and here. If the proposal were to become law, “a state’s ability to consider safety factors—such as age, evidence of dangerousness, live firearm training, or criminal records—would give way to other states’ less stringent requirements,” Klein said. “Unlike some efforts of Congress to create minimum safety standards, this bill could lead to no safety standards as more states enact laws to allow persons to carry concealed firearms without a permit.” …”

Someone’s been getting talking points from Bloomberg & Company.

It is also safe to speculate that antigunners in Congress asked for the ABA’s help in defeating this proposal.

White House petition for H.R.38

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There is a online petition National Reciprocity for the Nation’s 17 Million Concealed Handgun Permit Holders! worth a few moments of everyone’s time.

Normally I don’t care about online petitions, but since this is on whitehouse.gov if it receives 100,000 signatures, there will be an official acknowledgement from the White House.  Since The Donald’s legislative agenda on healthcare and taxes hasn’t been going so well, perhaps this will motivate him to move on 2A.

Curran leading Martins in campaign cash

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The Island Now reports that Laura Curran leads Jack Martins in fundraising:

“Democrat Laura Curran has a cash advantage of nearly $250,000 over Republican Jack Martins in the Nassau County executive race … Curran raised more than $718,000 from January to July 13, more than twice the roughly $357,000 Martins took in after launching his campaign in April. Curran closed the six-month reporting period with $577,644 on hand to Martins’ $338,953. County Comptroller George Maragos, Curran’s Democratic primary opponent, still has the largest war chest of the three candidates, leaving $1,288,023 in the bank as of last week after spending $235,274. Maragos previously loaned his campaign $1.5 million and is not taking contributions from special-interest donors. He raised only $3,406 from January to last week …”

Maragos twice ran for Senate as a Republican before switching to the Democrats to run for Comptroller.  I have doubts as to how much actual support he would have in a Democrat primary.  Although he has not made any solid position statements one way or another on 2A rights, gun owners should support him in a primary based upon Curran’s past support for gun control.  He’s probably going to lose, but this is the only way to register an opinion.

That leaves Curran v. Martins in the general election and both of them stink.

In spite of that, gun owners should hold their nose and vote for Curran.  Her one (and only) positive aspect is that she is not Jack Martins.  Giving Martins the finger for voting for the SAFE Act is all that is on the table for Nassau Co. gun owners this fall.

Victory for due process

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The New York Law Journal reports:

“A federal appeals court said there is “no clear reason” why a Nassau County woman whose rifles and shotguns were taken away as part of a now-expired order of protection should not receive a hearing to determine if her weapons should be returned. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed Eastern District Judge Joan Azrack’s 2015 decision to order a hearing on returning plaintiff Christine Panzella’s two rifles and two shotguns, which were seized as part of an order of protection filed by her ex-husband … Holding a “prompt” post-deprivation hearing would provide Panzella with a “timely and inexpensive” forum to challenge Nassau County’s retention of her weapons, the judge said …”

This could impact antigun efforts to enact laws which allow the “emergency” seizure of firearms when a family member complains because some police departments which take guns don’t want to return them.

Six million dollar man

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Governor Cuomo raised $5 million in the first half of this year for his 2018 re-election campaign bringing the total in his bank account to $25.7 million.

He raised an additional $1 million to be used to oust New York House Republicans.

New Yorkers don’t want him to run for President, but I see him doing a repeat of 2014 where he threatens to use this money against Republican Senators and the GOP essentially gives him a pass on a 3rd term as Governor.  I have not even heard anything recently about potential GOP gubernatorial candidates.  There’s just nothing.

Made in New York City?

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Kimber announced they will produce a limited run of “Royal II (Texas Edition)“ 1911 pistols in .45 ACP.  The guns will feature a deep blue finish with engraving on the slide and mainspring, match grade components, special serial numbers and ivory grips with the Texas flag and state motto on them.  They are nice looking guns sure to appeal to Texans.

What I find most amusing is they are made in New York.  Like the old Pace Picante commercials, “This stuff’s made in New York City?!”  Actually a few miles north in Yonkers, but that is close enough.  The company should hire some marketing genius to produce advertisements which play off those commercials.  A bunch of guys sitting around a fire eating, passing around a bottle of salsa with a conversation that goes like this:

Cowboy 1: Can I see your new gun?

Cowboy 2: Sure.

Cowboy 1: A Kimber Texas Edition.  That thing is made in New York?!

Cowboy 2: Yes, yes it is.

New York is even helping Kimber to manufacture these guns.  A few years back they received a $700,000 state grant to expand their Yonkers plant along with local tax credits.

Kimber makes a number of colorful 1911s that I would not have thought would be big sellers, but apparently they are.  They include brushed gold/copper, baby blue, electric blue and purple.  This too is amusing considering then Mayor Bloomberg’s efforts to ban handguns colored anything other than blue/black or silver.  Thankfully that issue appears to have gone away after a lawsuit successfully challenged a Nassau county prohibition on brightly colored handguns on the basis of state law preempting such action.

You can purchase Kimber products online at Grab A Gun for shipment to a local dealer.  They even offer a financing program for gun purchases.

Donovan’s new gun bill

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RINO Rep. Dan Donovan introduced a new gun control bill:

“… The Zero Tolerance for Domestic Abusers Act … would bar convicted stalkers from owning firearms and require that people found to have abused dating partners are blocked from purchasing or possessing firearms as well … The proposed legislation would also clarify existing law to ensure that convicted stalkers are prohibited from legally purchasing a firearm. Current federal law does not prohibit persons convicted of misdemeanor stalking from owning a gun …”

I doubt this is that much of an issue.

They want to lower the bar for ways to prohibit gun ownership.  Trying to make gun control a “women’s issue” is something that has been going on for some time in Albany.

From Donovan’s press release:

“… “Guns and domestic violence are a deadly, tragic mix. Every 16 hours a woman is fatally shot in our country by an ex-spouse or intimate partner. As a nation, we should be outraged,” said former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, co-founder of Americans for Responsible Solutions. “This bill won’t stop every act of violence, but it does represent a major step forward that will help make women and their families safer …”

The caveat is for when this scheme fails and they need an excuse for even more restrictions.

Text of the bill is not yet online.

Federal legislative update

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Update on the latest Congressional gun bills:

  • H.R.38 – Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 – 204 co-sponsors, up 4 in the past week
  • S.446 – Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 – 37 co-sponsors, no new action
  • H.R.367 – Hearing Protection Act of 2017 – 157 co-sponsors, up 3 in the past week
  • S.59 – Hearing Protection Act of 2017 – 17 co-sponsors, no new action
  • H.R.2620 – Lawful Purpose and Self Defense Act – 55 co-sponsors, up 6 in the past week
  • H.R.3139 – Hearing Protection Act of 2017 – 7 co-sponsors, up 2 in the past week
  • S.1505 – A bill to provide that silencers be treated the same as firearms accessories – 1 co-sponsor, no new action

Failed protest

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Organizers of the so-called Women’s March held a protest at NRA headquarters Friday.

Despite being organized by professional agitators with the backing of national organizations worth millions of dollars and with professional public relations operations, and having received encouragement from politicians across the country, and having received plenty of pre-event media attention, only 300-400 people showed up.

By any measure it was a complete joke.  I’d even go so far as to saying the pathetic turnout damaged the credibility of the organizers and the gun control movement in general.