A Geek With Guns

Well it appears the open-carry ban and long-gun registration bills were finally killed and buried in California. Good work California gun owners at working to keep what little rights you have remaining.

I was really curious though how that state was planning on paying for a long-gun registry when they don’t have any money. That would have made for some interesting logistics.

Unless you’re the National Rifle Association (NRA) apparently. The Gun Rights Examiner has a piece talking about how the NRA is taking credit for the recent McDonald vs. Chicago case that incorporated the Second Amendment. The case was bankrolled and petitioned to the Supreme Court by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) but the NRA seems to ignore that fact when they talk about it. Both the NRA and the SAF had a case to bring to the Supreme Court and the head honchos of judiciary chose the SAF case. The NRA then petitioned and were granted shared time in the SAF case.

Needless to say in the NRA-ILA article that the Examiner was talking about didn’t both to mention SAF once. That is pretty dickish if I do say so myself. I think it’s about time I went and practiced my other privilege of being a member of the NRA, complain to the organization when they aren’t doing what they should be doing.

Via to the NRA-ILA I learned that the California Senate voted down the open carry ban. Of course the vote missed the majority needed by one and this is only a temporary victory:

Monday’s 20-16 vote fell one short of the majority needed, but the Senate will reconsider the measure Tuesday.

I very liberal friend sent me this article. It’s titled Why Liberals Should Love the Second Amendment and goes through five basic reasons why self-proscribed liberals should fight for the second amendment.

Basically it boils down to the fact that liberals like to think of themselves as the ones who fight for civil rights and the right to keep and bear arms should be treated equally to every other right. It also presents to good counter arguments to the standard anti-gun rhetoric often spewed. I think it’s a really good read for liberals for obvious reasons and a good read for conservatives because it gives good argument points. It also shows that gun rights is not a single partisan issue.

I mentioned that the Minnesota Legislators had a rather misleading gun related question on their questionnaire at the State Fair this year. I went to the State Fair yesterday and just thought I’d have you some time. The questionnaire is located in the back of the Education Building (if you take a right when entering the fair through the Snelling Avenue entrance it’s something like the second or third building). It’s pretty easy to spot since it’s on the center of the back wall with a big sign that says Minnesota Representatives or something along those lines.

Anyways have fun at the fair and remember to take a few minutes to find that questionnaire and fill it out.

It seems the Center for Biological Diversity didn’t get what they wanted. The EPA denied their petition based on legal issues that were brought up by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF):

Steve Owens, EPA assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said, “EPA today denied a petition submitted by several outside groups for the agency to implement a ban on the production and distribution of lead hunting ammunition. EPA reached this decision because the agency does not have the legal authority to regulate this type of product under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – nor is the agency seeking such authority.”

Good work everybody who wrote the EPA.

According to The Firearm Blog Chiappo has begun shipping the 2″ version of their Rhino revolver. The Rhino peaked my interested because it’s one of the rare revolvers that fires from the bottom cylinder.

The idea is pretty simple, the lower the bore axis on a handgun the less muzzle flip you have to deal with. Glocks are noted quite often as having a very low bore axis while XD pistols are known for having a higher bore axis. Frankly I own both and can’t tell the difference but still I have to say the Rhino Revolver is on my hopefully-get-somebody-maybe list just because I would like a revolver that shoots from the bottom cylinder.

I don’t know much about Chiappo (in fact I never heard of them until this revolver came up some months back) so I don’t know if they have a reputation for making shit or not. I do know that the Rhino appears to have no real rear sight to speak of which kind of turns me off. But the gun in unique enough where I’m certainly interested.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has public comments open on a petition submitted by some jackasses Center for Biological Diversity. The petition is to ban all lead ammunition from the United States under the Toxic Substance Control Act, which had a specific exemption for ammunition contained within it.

A lot of people are jumping onto the fact that the EPA is the bad guy here. They very well could be but from what I’ve gathered they are required to hold public comments on any petitions they receive. I could be in error on this but that’s what I’ve determined from what little research I’ve put into this so far.

The good thing is comments are being taken and you can submit your input here. We have until October 31^st to submit comments so let’s inform the EPA why this petition is a bad idea wrapped in a worse idea.

You have to give the anti-gunners credit for one thing, they’re relentless. Now that the right to bear arms has been incorporated they are going after ammunition. If they can’t get the ammunition they’ll probably go after springs because somebody could poke their eye out with one. Oh and they happened to be used in firearms.

This just came across the wire (yes I have a telegraph which is the true source of all my news). It’s a notice of this years Minnesota House of Representatives questionnaire [PDF] for suckers attending the State Fair. The first question is, ”When someone wants to purchase a firearm at a gun show, should a background check on the buyer be required prior to the sale?”

A certain “representative” here in Minnesota by the name of Michael Paymar has been trying to pass a law that would bar private sales of firearms in the state. Even though the bill has not once made it out of committee he keeps trying and trying again. The question as stated on the questionnaire is misleading and incorrectly written. It should state, “Do you believe people should be barred from selling their private property without government permission?”

Anyways if anybody is going to the State Fair make sure you get a copy of this and let the legislators know we don’t want a ban of the sale of private property in this fine state.

Since the state of Minnesota has preemption over firearms laws the Moorhead is unable to ban the real thing. So what’s are a bunch of whiny anti-gunners to do? Try to ban replicas of course!

By whiny anti-gunners I mean the Moorhead police:

Police chief Dave Ebinger told the city council it’s hard to tell whether the gun is a real firearm or not and that officers are forced to treat the replicas as though they are real.

Sorry that doesn’t add up in this state. So long as a person has a valid carry permit they can openly carry a firearm. Therefore the question for police isn’t whether or that firearm being carried by John Doe is real, but whether or not Mr. Doe has a valid carry permit (which sadly matters in this state). Ultimately none of it matters unless the gun or replica in question is being used to threaten or harm another person. When things get to that point it matters now if the gun is fake or real if the person being threatened believes it to be real (as they then have justification to defend themselves).