America’s Gun Culture

The media and gun control advocates often talk about the US “gun culture,” as if those of us who own and appreciate guns are some sort of deviant cult.  The reality is, America’s gun culture is part of the dominant American culture; it’s the hoplophobes, with their irrational fear of firearms, who are out of sync with the social norms of most of the country.  America’s gun culture is as normal and mainstream as its belief in God.  Naturally, there may not be quite as many people going to church or the range as in days past, but God and guns are still part of everyday America, and are deeply ingrained in our heritage.  Those who retch in fear and disgust at the thought of a gun – who preach disarmament as a religion – are like the activist atheists who demand that every trace of God be removed from schools and all other aspects of public life. 

Polls and personal experience tell us that the vast majority of Americans believe in God.  Some are more active in their faith and some are less faithful in their acts, but most at least believe in something, even if they just call it spirituality.  The majority of those who doubt the existence of God – or even those who are sure that He doesn’t exist – still respect, appreciate, and accept others’ belief in God as normal and good.  They might not understand or agree with religious people, but they don’t see them as abnormal or harmful.  Typically the atheist’s or agnostic’s only conflict comes when others’ religious beliefs encroach on their own liberties.  Examples include “blue laws,” such as bans on hunting on Sundays or laws against personal, sexual choices.  Those types of disagreements can sometimes be intense, but even the majority of people involved in them are not advocating that religion or religious people be banished – that the “God culture” is somehow incompatible with American life.

Continue reading Guns in the United States →

Twenty Years of Brady Law Failure

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence is touting the 20^th anniversary of implementation of the Brady Law, requiring that buyers at gun shops pass a background check before every purchase.  They’re marking the anniversary with a “report” extolling the program’s success and promoting their current target: criminalization of private firearm transfers.  The catch phrase for that campaign is “Finish the job.”  The problem is that the job will never be finished.  The Brady’s solution for failed gun control laws is always additional restrictions on guns, and those “steps in the right direction” lead directly to bans, registration, and confiscation – as happened in the UK, Australia, pre-war Germany, the Soviet Union, etc., and as is currently happening in “baby steps” in California, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey.

The Brady Law is a dismal failure, despite the Brady’s loudly trumpeted claim of 2.1 million firearm purchases blocked over the past 19 years.  While that number sounds impressive, it is meaningless in real terms of reducing violent “gun-crime.”

Federal prohibitions on gun ownership are extremely broad.  Anyone who has ever been convicted of any felony – violent or not – is prohibited from ever possessing a gun or ammunition – or employing anyone who possesses a gun or ammunition – for life.  Same for anyone ever convicted of a violent misdemeanor against a domestic partner – like slapping a cheating boyfriend – even if the incident happened decades ago.  The lifelong ban also applies to anyone ever dishonorably discharged from the military.  People who legally, under state laws, use medical marijuana or marijuana-based extracts for treatment of pain or side-effects of chemotherapy are also prohibited from guns and ammunition.  Legal recreational marijuana users in Colorado and Oregon are also subject to the ban.

Continue reading The Brady Campaign →

California Forcing Guns Off the Market

California has long been on a sickening, spiral path toward flushing all individual rights down the toilet.  Few states have such a powerful and overreaching state government and nowhere is that overreach more apparent than in the state’s gun laws.

Back in 2000, California legislators instituted a system supposedly intended to protect the state’s citizens from cheap, poorly made, unreliable handguns – you know, the kind poor people can afford and that you would prefer criminals to have as opposed to accurate and reliable ones.  They called them “junk guns” and said they should be banned because they were disproportionately being used in crime.  Instead of trying to make a list of “evil features” like they’ve done with “assault weapons,” the legislature went the opposite route, creating a roster of approved, “safe” handguns, and banning as “unsafe” any handgun that is not listed on the roster.

In order for a gun to be included on the roster, it must be submitted to a panel of “experts” who test and evaluate it in accordance with a long, convoluted list of criteria.  Gun companies are charged for this “service,” and must pay thousands of dollars for evaluation of each model and variation they wish to sell in the state.  Even cosmetic features such as a gun’s color and finish are included in this requirement, resulting in idiotic situations where one gun is declared “safe” while an identical gun of the same make and model is listed as unsafe simply because it has a nitride, rather than a blued finish and the manufacturer didn’t pay to have the nitride version evaluated.  In the real world this would be called extortion.

Continue reading Where have all the guns gone? →

Anti-Hunting Extremists are Boneheads

On Thursday, November 14, the US government crushed nearly 11,000 pounds of raw and carved ivory seized over the last 25 years from smugglers and illegal dealers.  The value of the huge pile of ivory is inestimable as many of the carved pieces are works of art.  Nonetheless, it would be safe to assume that the collection was worth well over $10 million dollars.  Small ivory figurines routinely sell for around $500 apiece, and prices have been escalating due to stricter regulation and enforcement of ivory laws. 

Ivory is a tricky subject.  While walrus tusks and whales teeth are often called ivory, true ivory comes from only one source; the tusks of elephants.   Elephants are amazing creatures that roam the wilds of Africa, parts of Asia, and India.  In many areas, wild elephants have been driven to the brink of extinction by loss of habitat and poaching.  As the largest land mammals on the planet, elephants need a lot of space, food, and water.  Human encroachment on elephant lands means that the land can’t support herds of the same size that they once did.  During droughts and famine, when elephants would historically migrate to other ranges, they now often have no place to go because man has taken over their fallback areas, consumed the resources, cleared the forests, planted crops, or erected barriers such as highways or residential areas across travel routes.  As with all wildlife in conflict with humanity, elephant survival is dependent on humans finding a way to restore some semblance of balance.

Continue reading Anti-Hunting Extremists →

Every year about this time, the NRA sends out ballots to voting members to choose about 25 of the organization’s 76-member Board of Directors.  Each year I sift through the nominees and offer suggestions as to whom I believe will best serve the membership.  This year I am endorsing just two nominees: Anthony P. Colandro, an outspoken and colorful range owner and firearms instructor from New Jersey, and Tracie L. Hill, a leading expert on Thompson sub-machineguns and author.

The main reason I am endorsing Colandro and Hill, aside from their credentials, is because the official NRA Nominating Committee didn’t.  Both these candidates were nominated only by petition of the members.   While the Nominating Committee slate includes many worthy candidates, I think it’s good to throw an outsider into the mix now and then.

Let me say that the NRA Board of Directors is, for the most part, a stellar group of dedicated and impressive individuals with a broad range of backgrounds, interests, and abilities.  There are very few of them that I do not hold in the highest regard.  Most have solid backgrounds in support of the Second Amendment, impressive credentials in the shooting sports, and have proven themselves as diligent workers and supporters of the organization’s goals and the membership’s best interests.

There are, of course, a few who I just don’t get along with, many whom I wish would be more aggressive setting policy and leading, rather than being led by staff, and some who I feel are more focused on their own agendas than NRA’s.  I won’t call out specific individuals because I don’t see that as serving any useful purpose.  The fact is that NRA elections are essentially a closed course and there’s little chance of seriously impacting them. 

Continue reading Knox Endorses Colandro and Hill →

It has been suggested that Barack Obama is the greatest firearm salesman in history, and with good reason.  Gun sales have boomed under Obama’s watch.  Gun companies have reported record sales, and, contrary to the claims of the anti-rights crowd, surveys indicate that the growth isn’t just due to existing gun owners building bigger collections, but to many new, first-time gun buyers.

Of course Obama doesn’t deserve all of the credit; he had lots of help from fellow politicians, gun control organizations, and the media.  They place the “blame” for record gun sales on rights groups whipping gun buyers into a feeding frenzy of panic buying by making exaggerated claims of impending gun bans and restrictions. And, while there’s no doubt that pro-gun groups do sound the alarm at the slightest provocation, you’d think the anti-rights folks would figure out that it’s their provocation that instigates the alarms and the resultant buying – and voting – response.  As prominent rights leader, Alan Gottlieb, recently pointed out, if the real objective of the anti-rights crowd was to reduce the number of guns on the street, they have not only failed miserably, they are the root cause of their own failure.  Tens of thousands of Americans have bought guns – especially threatened “assault-style” guns – due to threats created by gun control proponents.

Continue reading Guns: A Bright Spot in the Economy →

On November 14, 2012, Kenneth Gonzales, who was then the US Attorney for New Mexico, was nominated by Barack Obama to fill a vacancy in the Federal District Court in that state.  The Senate failed to act on the nomination that year, but Obama renominated Gonzales in January of 2013 and he was confirmed by the Senate the following June.  A month later, in early August, 2013, Gonzales resigned from his position as US Attorney and assumed his seat on the federal bench.  His close friend and former subordinate, Damon Martinez, was appointed to replace Gonzales, but is currently awaiting confirmation by the Senate.  In the interim, Gonzales’ second in command, Steven Yarbrough, has been moved up to temporarily fill the position.  Gonzales holds court in Las Cruces, New Mexico alongside Judge Robert Brack.

All of this information takes on ominous significance when you consider the fact that as US Attorney for New Mexico, Gonzales and his staff have been accused of a pattern of intentionally withholding evidence and information which might have hurt their cases and helped defendants.  Those accusations come in the form of a Motion to Dismiss with Prejudice the four remaining charges in the Reese case.

We have been covering the Reese family for a couple of years.  Rick Reese and his family ran a gun shop next to their home in rural New Mexico, and were arrested back in August of 2011 on a raft of charges.  Rick and Terri Reese, and their sons Ryin and Remington, were thrown in jail and denied bail.  Virtually everything they owned of any value was seized, and forfeiture proceedings were started.  After six months, bail was finally granted for Terri (for medical reasons), but Rick and the boys remained incarcerated for over a year.  In the trial, Remington was acquitted of all charges and released, while the other three were convicted of making false statements in connection with the acquisition of firearms – one count each for Rick and Terri and two counts for Ryin.  They were acquitted of all of the other charges.

Four months after the trial, 18 months after being arrested, Rick and Ryin were still in jail awaiting sentencing when it was discovered that prosecutors had withheld information about a witness – a local sheriff’s deputy whose testimony directly conflicted with Terri Reese’s.  Turns out he was the subject of a ten-year federal corruption investigation.  The judge ruled that he “might have shaded his testimony to curry favor with federal prosecutors.”  The judge set aside the Reese convictions and ordered a new trial, stating that “there is no doubt the prosecution, intentionally or negligently suppressed the evidence.” 

Continue reading Courting Corruption →

As the new year dawns, just over a year after the atrocity at Sandy Hook, it’s time to look at what’s been done since that horror to add to the protection and defense of our children. 

First, it’s important to recognize the fact that mass murder attacks on school children are extremely uncommon, and the odds of your or my children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews being directly involved are incredible small – probably in the neighborhood of 1 in 100 million in any given year – so you’re more likely to win the PowerBall and MegaMillions lotteries – simultaneously – than to have a child involved in an attack like Sandy Hook or Columbine.  Of course that’s no comfort when tragedy does strike, and it’s the possibility – regardless of how unlikely – which demands that steps be taken to reduce the odds even further.

It’s clear that institutional lethargy, myopia, and political correctness have schools and their administrators virtually incapable of change.  In the wake of the worst school massacre in decades, the response of school administrators around the country was to double-down on the same emergency response strategy that failed at Sandy Hook; the Hide and Hope strategy.  Teachers are instructed to close their classroom doors, gather children in a corner, and hold them there until the “lockdown” ends.  Unfortunately, that’s where the planning ends.  There is rarely any planning for what exactly to do if the “bad guy” actually enters the room and starts hurting people. 

Continue reading Defending Children →