Tag: Minnesota

Revocation Rate of Minnesota Carry Permits

An interesting post over on the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance (GOCRA) website has been published. It’s a listing of the revocation rate of carry permits in Minnesota. I figured it would be low but I didn’t realize how laws it was:

2006: 37,000 permits held, 3 revoked, .0081%
2007: 46,000 permits held, 0 revoked, 0%
2008: 53,000 permits held, 4 revoked, .0075%
2009: 63,000 permits held, 1 revoked. .0016%

Revocation of a carry permit can occur for several reasons included improper use of a carry firearm (outside of self-defense situations for example) or a change in status from an eligible gun owner to an ineligible person. Minnesota’s rate is far less than one percent which goes to show most permit holders are law abiding citizens who continue to remain law abiding even after they receive a carry permit (so much for that whole “blood in the streets” argument the anti-gunners like to parrot).

I Don’t Think That Argument Will Work

Today is logical fallacy day. This is a day where the logical arguments made by anti-gunners are brought to light. First we had Josh Horowitz claiming the gun confiscations in New Orleans were a conspiracy theory that never happened and now we have another idiot spouting off statements that are quite questionable. Arma Borealis called out a local (to me) Minnesota anti-gunner for the following statement (I’ll not link directly to the anti-gunner post as I have a strict policy against doing exactly that):

I give you the argument of the guys with the “man pants” on ladies and gentlemen-” We’re saying that we’d rather have more gun deaths and lower overall violent crime, than zero gun deaths and higher rates of violent crime if given the choice” And there you have it. Nothing more to say here except “Wow” and “unbelievable”

See an increase in violent crime is perfectly OK so long as guns aren’t used. If more women are raped that’s OK so long as there are less gun related deaths. If more people are murdered it’s OK so long as those murders were committed with weapons besides guns. The main thing needed according to these people is lowering gun related deaths at any cost including lives. I’m apologize for the fact I lack the cognitive dissonance required to make this argument seem like it makes sense.

It’s also interesting that I’ve found somebody who appears to be my opposite right here in my own state. I’d certainly enjoy a debate on guns with this person but it would likely devolve into her inserting fingers into her ears and yelling “LA LA LA” at the stop of her lungs until I left.

PK-01 V Field Test

The weather here in Minnesota has taken a turn of the warmer. Sunday it was a balmy 45 degrees out making it practically summer here. I decided to venture out and enjoy the fine weather by taking a trip to the range to test out my new PK-01 V red dot optic.

First off sighting it in was dead simple thanks to fact it co-witnesses with the iron sights. If you’re looking down the iron sights you just have to line the dot up with the stop of said iron sights and you’re most of the way to your goal. From there you just have to make slight adjustments to finish up.

The optic returns to zero perfectly when you remove and reattach it to the side rail. Some people like to attach a rail on top of the AK’s dust cover. The unfortunate side effect of doing this is there is a chance any sight attached to the rail will not return to zero when you remove and reattached the rail for cleaning. The AK’s built-in side rail greatly alleviates that.

Due to my very poor red affinity the dot practically vanishes when placed over white paper on a bright day. Thankfully in those situations I can just use the iron sights. For most people this shouldn’t be an issue though as most people probably see red better than I do.

The optic has a 1.5 MOA red dot meaning you won’t be completely eclipsing your target at 100 yards or more. Beyond that it’s a typical red dot optic. Once sighted in your rounds hits whatever the red dot is covering. I don’t know what else to say about this thing at the moment but long term testing many reveal either problems or praises. So far I like it.

Why Minnesota’s Economy is in the Tank

I’m sure many of you have heard of Surly Brewing Corporation. They are a local Minnesota brewery who makes some might find beer. Yesterday they announced plans to for a $20 million expansion that would include a restaurant and beer garden. This sounded great to me as it would create some great private sector jobs in this state which are sorely needed.

Well it would be great except for the fact that Surly can’t start construction because of currently existing legislation. Once again the government is getting in the way of private enterprises. So what is this legislation? Well, in Minnesota, only small breweries are allowed to sell beer for on-site consumption. Once you get beyond an arbitrary size you are no longer allowed to run a restaurant and a brewery because that would just make too much sense (you know there was a special interest bar lobby that pushed this to avoid competition with local breweries).

Once again instead of just being able to go about legitimate business a private company has to hire a lobbying firm in the hopes of getting a stupid law repealed. If the law can be repealed then said the legitimate business can actually go about helping the local economy by creating new positions for the currently unemployed. No wonder Minnesota’s economy is in the tank, legitimate businesses aren’t allowed to actually do business.

The Evolution of Attempting to Repeal Minnesota’s Permit to Purchase Law

I’ve been following the progress of the bill to repeal Minnesota’s redundant and ridiculous permit to purchase law. What I think is interesting is how this bill has evolved. The bill first started off as HF 161 which would have extended the validity of permits to purchase to five years [PDF].

This would have made sense in that you’d only have to renew the purchase permit as often as a carry permit. In Minnesota a permit to carry also works as a permit to purchase so those of use with carry permits never have to obtain separate permits to purchase. Likewise permits to carry are good for five years before you have to retest. Nobody could ever give me a good reason why a permit to purchase was only good for a year while a permit to carry was good for five years, they should have both been good for five years.

Well apparently HF 161 was amended with the following [PDF] which just eliminates the stupid permit to purchase all together. I’m not sure how this bill went from simply extending the validity period of a permit to purchase to eliminating it completely but I’m glad it did.

A few law enforcement organizations are opposed to repealing this requirement and cite claims of the state background checks being more thorough. I believe this has more to do with the fact that they like having the authority to tell who can and can not exercise their right to bear certain arms (you don’t need a permit to purchase for shotguns or “sporting purpose rifles” just handguns and “assault-weapons”).

If the state background checks actually caught anybody that would have been missed by a federal background check I can guarantee you that the law enforcement organizations would be touting out each and every instance to prove their point. The fact that they haven’t brought out a single instance leads me to believe it’s never happened or has happened so rarely that bringing up the numbers would be embarrassing considering the cost of doing these additional background checks.

There are Lies, There are Damned Lies…

And then there is this fucking idiot. Yes I found more things to write about in the Red Star’s Letters to the Editor section. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. It seems the intelligence of the average people who write to the Red Star is lacking. Let’s take a look at what A. Gail Bier of Duluth, MN wrote in regards to repealing Minnesota’s Permit to Purchase requirement:

Let us be clear about what a repeal of the state handgun purchase law would really mean.

Yes let’s be clear on what this will mean:

It would allow people with histories of stalking, domestic violence, mental illness and drug abuse to buy an automatic weapon with less review than one needs to obtain a driver’s license.

Um… I… I don’t know how to address such blatant lying. I believe Mrs. Bier is a politician with the type of lies she’s spewing. Criminals who are ineligible to purchase firearms are taken care of by the FBI’s National Criminal Instant Background Check System (NICS). Whenever you purchase a firearm the dealer makes a phone call to the FBI’s NICS hot line where your information is given to operator. The FBI then tells the dealer whether the sale is a go, no-go, or delayed (in which case you have to wait for up to three days for a decision).

The Minnesota system is purely a redundant waste of money as it performs the same thing as the FBI system which has to be performed every time you purchase a firearm from a dealer. Personally I’m sick of paying for redundancies which do nothing but inconvenience lawful citizens.

Repealing this law also won’t allow you to buy an automatic weapon, also know as a machine gun. This total fabrication makes me wonder if Mrs. Bier is really this stupid or has malicious intent. Here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota you can’t buy any automatic firearm unless it’s on the curio and relics (C&R) list (basically the machine gun has to be 50 years or older). If the the machine gun you want is on the C&R list you have to then get approval from the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as well as the approval of your local sheriff. Upon receiving approval from both agencies you need to pay a $200.00 tax stamp to the ATF and then when you receive your paperwork you can finally purchase your 50 years or older machine gun.

Repealing Minnesota’s permit to purchase requirement will not loosen the restrictions on purchasing a machine gun and most certainly will not allow you to do so “with less review than one needs to obtain a driver’s license.” You know how many federal checks I needed to be performed in order for me to get my driver’s license? Zero. You know how many federal checks I needed to purchase a firearm? One every time I go to purchase one.

But little miss Malice didn’t stop her lies there:

It would actually increase law enforcement costs by substituting homicide investigations and protection for law enforcement officers for the much less expensive and preventive measure of checking existing databases.

Really? How so? Every firearm purchased from a dealer will still require a NICS to be check be performed. Private sales between two resident Minnesotan’s doesn’t require a permit to purchase. Likewise the permit to purchase only applies to handguns and “assault weapons.” There also hasn’t been any state so far that has noticed an increase in homicide rates after repealing a gun control law. So how the Hell does Mrs. Bier come to her conclusion? Oh that’s right she’s an anti-gunner which practically guarantees she knows nothing about firearms. She doesn’t stop there though:

It would mean ignoring valuable state databases that contain information that does not exist at the federal level.

Such as? What valuable information is in the state database that also isn’t in the federal database? So far nobody has been able to tell me that. If you can’t tell me exactly what valuable information is in the state database then it can’t be that valuable. Likewise she mentions the federal system meaning she has some knowledge about NICS. This leads me to believe her entire letter was written with malicious intent as her previous statements lead readers to believe there were no checks on domestic abuses, the mentally ill, or other ineligible person.

I encourage lawmakers to support responsible gun ownership and the safety of Minnesotans by voting against the repeal.

And I encourage you educate yourself on subjects before you write letters for public display that make you look like an idiot. I’m also getting sick of the term “responsible gun ownership.” The way it’s always used seems to imply the only responsible gun owner is one who doesn’t own any firearms. I’m a responsible gun owner and a tax payer so support me, and yourself as a fellow tax payer, by repealing this expensive and redundant law.

We Dodged that Bullet

Minneapolis/St. Paul have been under a major looming threat for a while now. The Democratic National Convention (DNC) has been threatening our fine metropolitan area by claiming they may hold their event here. Thankfully they decided to fuck over Charlotte instead.

Why do I say we dodged a bullet? Well the last time we had a national convention the only things that came of it were police abuse and protesters busting up private property. The Republican National Convention (RNC) was a fiasco. The police donned their riot gear, turned the area surrounding the RNC into a militarized zone, rounded up and arrested people planning peaceful protests, and illegally performed mass arrests of peaceful protesters. On the other side we had groups of protesters who decided it would be a good idea to smash in storefront windows, threaten the lives of Republican delegates, and do everything they could to not be peaceful. We don’t need that shit happening again.

Before somebody posts in the comments and claims that would never happen if with DNC all I have to say is do some research. The RNC itself wasn’t the problem, the problem was external factors. These external factors were completely oblivious to what party was in town (most of the protesters hated both parties). The exact same shit would have happened again and frankly I don’t want to put up with it. Seeing a police state in my neck of the woods once is enough for my lifetime.

Minnesota Looking to Repeal Permit to Purchase Requirement

It looks like some rare good news is making it’s way through Minnesota’s legislature. Apparently the Republicans want to earn their keep here right away and have proposed legislation to eliminate Minnesota’s permit to purchase law.

For those of you not familiar with Minnesota’s permit to purchase system it goes something like this. If you want to purchase a handgun or an “assault weapon” you need to either have a permit to carry or obtain a permit to purchase. A permit to purchase is a piece of paper you obtain from your local police headquarters. When you want to purchase a handgun or an “assault weapon” you need to go to your local police station and apply for a permit to purchase. After turning in your application there is a seven day waiting period while the police pretend to run more than a National Criminal Instant Background Check System (NICS) check on you. After seven days you return to the police station and they hand you a piece of paper that says it’s OK for you to have more than a shotgun or “hunting rifle” (unless you’re a prohibited person of course). Of course the permit is only good for a year after which you have to repeat this entire process.

This system is a huge pain in the ass and has needed the boot for a long time. Why does it need the boot? Well because you can’t get these permits outside of weekdays during normal business hours. I’m going to use a little example here to explain the problem with such a system. I have a friend who is unable to drive and works full time. This person is also a strong supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. In order for this person to purchase a handgun or an “assault weapon” a trip to the police station is required. This is quite the pain in the ass when you can’t drive and work during the same hours the police station is open. How does such a person obtain a permit? Well it usually involves having somebody else give them a ride which results in two people having to take time off of work, twice (the permit has to be picked up a week later as they won’t mail it to your home).

Although the story in the Red Star I liked to has people who claim the system prevents violence such claims haven’t been demonstrated in any way. The police are also against repealing the law:

The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association and the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association both testified against the bill, saying it could strip them of their ability to do proper backgrounding.

Of course this has nothing to do with background checks, one is performed every time you purchase a firearm through the FBI’s NICS system. The police don’t want this repealed because it takes away something they desire, power over the peasantry. Some common sense did come out of the debates:

At one point, as legislators debated the recent Arizona shootings that left six people dead and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords severely wounded, Cornish said that the “bald-headed goon” arrested for the shootings probably would not have been stopped from buying a gun under the Minnesota law.

Exactly. The Minnesota system wouldn’t have helped catch that asshole. The seven day waiting period can’t detect crazy any better than other background check systems (which is to day background checks don’t detect crazy). I’m glad to see the new legislature is moving to repeal this worthless law. The law (which I’m not sure of the name of so can’t look it up, thanks Red Star) made it out of committee and will be moving through our legislature.

I hope to see more restrictions against our right to keep and bear arms repealed. Heck get rid of the Minnesota prohibition against suppressors and allow us to purchase machine guns with the requirement they be on the curio and relic list and I’ll most likely work to reelect you guys.

Authoritarian Falsifies Information to Gain More Authority

Here’s something that will be a shocker to nobody, an authoritarian made up information in order to gain additional funding so he could increase his authority over his subjects. It seems the previous Ramsey County sheriff, Bob Fletcher, made up information about terrorist organizations that threatened Ramsey Country:

Just weeks into the new Ramsey County Sheriff administration, we finally know why former sheriff Bob Fletcher ignored Minnesota Data Practices requests for the 78 Terrorism Information Briefs he boasted about preparing and disseminating since 2005.

“They never existed,” Randy Gustafson, the new public information officer for Sheriff Matt Bostrom, said in a telephone interview on January 19. “It is a very big lie.”

Oops. But hey that’s not even all of it:

While Gustafson was looking for answers to the Daily Planet’s October 20 Data Practices Act request, he discovered that some of Fletcher’s most shocking figures, such as his claims that Ramsey County citizens were threatened by 22 domestic and 11 international terrorist groups in 2009, had been made up, too.

I think this is yet another great example of the fact your government doesn’t love you. Many people in positions of power are lying in order to gain more power and increase their salaries.