Category: RKBA

A Biden minion blames America’s crime spike on the NRA.
Well, I’ve never yet found a demoncrap that made sense anyway, so…

What a Top Biden Staffer Said About the NRA and the Spike in Crime Makes No Sense

As Katie wrote yesterday, the Biden gun grab is coming. They’re prepping it. They’re doing a test-run with this regulation tweak on pistol stabilizers that will place 10-40 million law-abiding Americans in legal jeopardy. These people did nothing wrong, but the firearms they own must be registered, disassembled, or turned over to authorities to avoid legal action. It will be the largest gun confiscation and registration effort ever. And now, Biden announced new initiatives for gun dealers concerning background checks. It’s not new, by the way. It’s already illegal to conduct straw purchases, falsify your background check form, and knowingly sell to criminals or other prohibited persons.

And now, top Biden adviser Cedric Richmond went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to blame the National Rifle Association (NRA) for the spike in violent crime. Well, first, he picked the right network because MSNBC is only meant to stroke the fragile egos of liberal America. It does well to keep their moral superiority complex well fed. Second, he said that the NRA has governed the country for too long. Uh, what? As Chris Martin of America Rising notes, Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress. What the hell is he talking about?

It’s the same old tired game. With the NRA in serious legal and financial trouble, Richmond is doing his part to drive the stake into the heart of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.

Just look in the mirror, man. Your party’s embracing of defunding the police, passing disastrous bail reforms, and letting hundreds of rioters, looters, and arsonists from last summer go is what’s causing this crime spike. You’re telling them they’ll get away with it. This isn’t hard, sir. When a major party decides to adopt a pro-crime stance, mayhem will ensue in the areas this party dominates politically, which would be the cities.

 

 Senate Judiciary Committee Deadlocks On Chipman Confirmation Vote

On Thursday morning the Senate Judiciary Committee split evenly on advancing David Chipman’s nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

11 Democrats voted for him with 11 Republicans opposed.

Reuters notes this puts the Chipman nomination in a tough spot, but suggests “it is not an insurmountable roadblock.”

President Joe Biden nominated Chipman, a long-time gun control advocate and affiliate of Gabby Giffords’ gun control work, to lead the ATF.

During May 26, 2021, confirmation hearings, Chipman affirmed his support for a ban on AR-15s and other firearms the Democrats label “assault weapons.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) asked Chipman to define “assault weapon,” but Chipman demurred, choosing instead to say, “An ‘assault weapon’ would be, in the context of the question you ask, whatever Congress defines it as.”

The Washington Post reports that a floor vote is the next stop for Chipman’s nomination, as that is the means by which Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) can “discharge the nomination from committee.”

Chipman is not expected to receive any Republican support if his nomination reaches the Senate floor for a vote.

Biden’s Gun Control Speech Was A Mistake

Joe Biden had one real goal in Wednesday’s speech announcing a five-point plan to address the rising violent crime rate in many American cities; reassure voters that Democrats have a strategy that will reduce the increasing lawlessness and reverse the spike in crime that began last year.

Instead, the big takeaway from his rambling and semi-coherent remarks was his off-topic warning to Americans that if they want to take on the government, they’ll need F-15s and nuclear weapons. An address that was supposed to show that the president was focused on violent crime turned into a half-hearted stump speech for gun control, and maybe cannon control as well.

Recent polls have shown that Biden isn’t trusted to handle the crime issue, and I can’t imagine that yesterday’s disastrous turn at the podium made voters feel any better.

Polls signal growing unease over crime, a potential liability for Biden and Democrats in next year’s midterm elections. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll released in May found that nearly 50% of respondents said crime is a very big problem in the U.S. About 36% of respondents at least somewhat approved of Biden’s handling of crime, while 44% at least somewhat disapproved.

Republicans have accused the president of being soft on crime, saying he has not done enough to rebut some liberals who call for cutting spending on police departments. Biden has repeatedly said he does not favor defunding the police.

It’s true that Biden announced that cities can use hundreds of billions of dollars in COVID relief funds to spend on law enforcement efforts, but the officer shortage in many cities can’t simply be blamed on budget issues. Instead, as the New York Times reported a few days ago, officers are retiring, resigning, and joining suburban agencies because of the hostility towards law enforcement shown by many Democratic politicians and elected officials in cities from coast-to-coast.

“We have lost about one-third of our staff to resignation and retirement,” said Chief David Zack of the Asheville Police Department in North Carolina — more than 80 officers out of a full complement of 238. “Certainly with the way that police have been portrayed and vilified in some cases, they have decided that it is not the life for them.”

Those reductions in Ashville echo a nationwide trend. A survey of about 200 police departments indicates that retirements were up by 45 percent and resignations by 18 percent in the period between April 2020 and April 2021, when compared with the preceding 12 months. The percentage of officers who left tended to be larger for departments in big or medium-size cities, according to the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington policy institute that will release full data next week.

“It is an evolving crisis,” said Chuck Wexler, the organization’s executive director.

Biden could have engaged in a full-throated attack on the Defund the Police movement, but he can’t risk alienating the Democrats’ base, so instead he pilloried gun owners. He could have issued a stark warning to violent criminals that the Department of Justice is going to be coming after them, but instead he warned “rogue gun dealers” that the ATF will have a zero tolerance policy on violations of agency rules and regulations.

A speech that was ostensibly designed to make Americans feel better about Biden’s handling of violent crime instead left many of us scratching our heads. Even Biden defenders like Geraldo Rivera were less than impressed by the president’s remarks.

“Compassion aside, where was the passion? That speech was as laid back as the program he is proposing,” said Rivera.

The longtime journalist, who has reported on violent crime and other major issues throughout his career, said that Biden’s allocation of resources toward summertime social programs for urban and endangered youth and stemming illegal firearm sales will not go far toward solving the problem.

“This is the civil rights issue of our time, murder has become the leading cause of death, if this is not an emergency, what is it?” he later asked.

Now, Geraldo is wrong about murder being the leading cause of death in the United States (heart disease, cancer, COVID-19, accidents, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and suicides are each responsible for far more deaths than homicide), but he’s right that Biden’s speech was “laid back.” I’d actually call it somnambulate, but seeing Sleepy Joe at the podium isn’t exactly a new phenomenon either.

The biggest problem for Biden is that he can’t actually acknowledge why we’re seeing a rise in violent crime. Biden wants to blame legal gun owners and federally licensed firearm dealers, when we know that the vast majority of gun owners will never commit a violent crime and that criminals are getting their guns on the illicit market or through family and friends. The White House refers to an 18-month increase in violent crime, when we all know that shootings and homicides really increased a year ago, after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the riots and destruction that followed in many cities.

Biden’s address on Wednesday may have checked a box, but I doubt it moved the needle in terms of public opinion on his handling of violent crime. By continuing to call for more restrictions on legal gun owners at a time when millions of Americans are embracing their Second Amendment rights for the very first time and his unwillingness to get tough on those actually responsible for violent acts, the only people Biden really reassured were his gun control allies. When it comes to everyone else, Biden would have been better off politically saying nothing at all.

BLUF:

In my humble opinion, the Biden/Harris administration, the legacy media and the folks at The Trace and other anti-rights groups are scared witless by the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement…..
As the movement grows — and it is growing by leaps and bounds — we will see more attacks from politicians, which will then be parroted by their staunch supporters in the legacy media, assuming, that is, they can break a reporter loose from their hard-hitting, investigative coverage of Joe Biden’s ice cream cone du jour.

No, NPR, there aren’t 400 Second Amendment Sanctuary counties in the US — there are 1,930

Taxpayer funded National Public Radio tries to downplay and trivialize the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement, without letting the facts get in their way.

To be clear, there are 1,930 counties that have now become Second Amendment Sanctuaries, which is more than 61% of all the counties in the United States.

Of these counties, 1,137 made the decision to protect the Second Amendment on their own. The rest are located in the 15  states — the most recent being Texas — that declared themselves Second Amendment Sanctuaries, according to Noah Davis of sanctuarycounties.com and its companion site constitutionalsanctuaries.com.

Davis has the most up-to-date maps and data available on the topic. He has tracked the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement since its inception in his home state of Virginia.

The fact more than 61% of the country has chosen to protect the Second Amendment rights of their citizens has largely been ignored by the legacy media. If they have bothered to do a story on sanctuaries at all, their goal has been to downplay if not belittle the movement. Of course, that, friends, is what we call spin.

Taxpayer subsidized National Public Radio is the latest to try to torpedo the movement, which is growing every single day.

On NPR’s June 21 edition of “Here & Now,” the host falsely states there are only 400 counties that have become Second Amendment Sanctuaries, not 1,930. This is a common error among the legacy media. Davis has said it stems from a story originally published more than a year ago by Bloomberg’s anti-gun propaganda factory — The Trace. The story keeps rebounding around the internet, even though the numbers have increased significantly, because of lazy reporting and shoddy research.

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F-15S & NUCLEAR WEAPONS: BIDEN SHRUGS OFF 2A IN GUN CONTROL SPEECH

Just over a week before the country’s Independence Day celebrations, President Biden delivered a speech on gun control in which he ridiculed the meaning, feasibility, and intent of the Second Amendment.

In an event meant to be the kickoff for another round of anti-gun legislation and executive actions for an Administration just 155 days in the White House, Biden tried to frame the Constitutional gun rights argument to justify his proposed efforts.

“The Second Amendment, from the day it was passed, limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own. You couldn’t buy a cannon,” he said.

While the first part, about the Amendment “limiting the type of people,” is somewhat true– for example, the gun rights of enslaved and in some cases even freed blacks were often denied in the Southern States from the earliest days of the Constitution despite the Second Amendment– Biden fails the fact check on cannon ownership. As we have covered before, anyone with the desire and extra cash could acquire their own battery of fully functional cannon without any government paperwork or permission until 1968. 

With that being said, modern breechloading artillery is still available in the “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave,” provided it is registered with the federal government and properly taxed. Still, legacy artillery systems such as muzzleloading black powder field guns, do not require tax stamps.

Biden also went further into the woods against what the Second Amendment protects, arguing the enumerated right had something to do with hunting, although many in the gun rights community point out that Washington didn’t cross the Delaware to get to a duck blind.

“No one needs to have a weapon that can fire over 30, 40, 50, even up to 100 rounds unless you think the deer are wearing Kevlar vests or something,” he said, although magazine capacity restrictions have only been adopted in nine states– and have been recently found to be Constitutionally suspect by a federal court. Further, industry data suggests consumers in the U.S. own at least 230 million detachable magazines, with about half of those able to hold more than 10 cartridges, the traditional threshold for a “large-capacity magazine” in restricted states.

Then, Biden seemed to paint the Second Amendment’s potential check against tyranny, a concept that dates to the days of Constitutional framer James Madison, as ludicrous in the days of modern warfare, notwithstanding the realities of multi-domain modern insurgency.

“Those who say the blood of lib- — ‘the blood of patriots,’ you know, and all the stuff about how we’re going to have to move against the government. Well, the tree of liberty is not watered with the blood of patriots. What’s happened is that there have never been — if you wanted or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons,” he said.

The quote Biden ramblingly alluded to, drawn a 1787 letter from Founding Father Thomas Jefferson– author of The Declaration of Independence and later third U.S. President– to William Smith, John Adams’ secretary, can be argued to be directly related to the right to keep and bear arms and was penned at the time of Shays’ Rebellion in Massachusetts.

We have had 13 states independent 11 years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is its natural manure.

It is not the first time that Biden trotted out the Jeffersonian quote in relation to his view on gun policy. In February 2020, while on the campaign trail for the Democratic nomination for President, he argued at a town hall event in New Hampshire that, “Those who say ‘the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots’ — a great line, well, guess what: The fact is, if you’re going to take on the government you need an F-15 with Hellfire Missiles. There is no way an AK-47 is going to take care of you.”

No, the military has nukes. The goobermint merely funds them and only one man has the power to order their use.

Biden Reminds Gun Owners the Government Has Nuclear Weapons

Speaking from the East Room of the White House Wednesday afternoon, President Joe Biden re-introduced his extreme gun control agenda, advocating for a ban on modern sporting rifles and reminding lawful gun owners that the federal government has nuclear weapons.”Those who say the blood of Patriots, you know, and all the stuff about how we’re gonna have to move against the government,” Biden said. “If you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons.”

Biden also falsely stated that the Clinton era ban on modern sporting rifles, better known as the assault weapons ban, reduced crime. A 2004 Department of Justice funded study from the University of Pennsylvania Center of Criminology concluded the ban cannot be credited with a decrease in violence carried out with firearms. The report is titled “An Updated Assessment of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban: Impacts on Gun Markets and Gun Violence, 1994-2003.”

“We cannot clearly credit the ban with any of the nation’s recent drop in gun violence. And, indeed, there has been no discernible reduction in the lethality and injuriousness of gun violence, based on indicators like the percentage of gun crimes resulting in death or the share of gunfire incidents resulting in injury,” the summary of the report on the study’s findings states. “The ban’s impact on gun violence is likely to be small at best, and perhaps too small for reliable measurement. AWs [assault weapons] were used in no more than 8% of gun crimes even before the ban.”

Another study from Quinnipiac University shows the same.

“The purpose of the present study is to determine the effects of state-level assault weapons bans and concealed weapons laws on state-level murder rates. Using data for the period 1980 to 2009 and controlling for state and year fixed effects, the results of the present study suggest that states with restrictions on the carrying of concealed weapons had higher gun-related murder rates than other states,” the study concluded. “It was also found that assault weapons bans did not significantly affect murder rates at the state level. These results suggest that restrictive concealed weapons laws may cause an increase in gun-related murders at the state level.”

Biden also falsely stated that cities with the highest crime rates, like Chicago, Baltimore and New York, don’t already have strict gun control laws. They do.

Throughout his remarks, Biden failed to hold the defund the police movement accountable for skyrocketing violent crime rates but vowed to bailout Democrat mayors with federal tax dollars to hire more police.

Feds Can’t Force States To Enforce Federal Gun Control

From the moment he took office, President Joe Biden wanted to pass gun control. The problem was that he didn’t have quite enough seats in the Senate to force it through no matter what.

However, the Senate is in a precarious position. It doesn’t take all that many Republican lawmakers to cross the aisle to make gun control a reality. It’s concerning, especially since some senators are less than trustworthy, in my opinion. Thus far, though, everyone has held firm. That’s good news.

Many states aren’t willing to bet on it. They’ve passed laws saying that state and local officials cannot enforce federal gun control laws.

Unsurprisingly, this has many in an uproar. How dare they! I mean, sure, there are governments refusing to enforce immigration law, but this is totally different. They argue that states can and should be compelled to enforce gun control.

Well, it sucks to be them, because the federal government can’t force them to do anything.

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White House Doc Shows Plan To Use Threat of “Domestic Terrorism” For Gun Control

Is the White House using the threat of “domestic terrorism” to institute gun control? According to a White House document titled the “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” gun control is a crucial component of Joe Biden’s plan.

The document says there is a rise in domestic violet extremists (DVE). It highlights the biases against minority populations as one factor of the growth of DVEs. It also states that those that believe that the Federal government is overreaching its power are at risk for becoming extremist, and the “perceived government overreach will almost certainly continue to drive DVE radicalization and mobilization to violence.”

While left-wing groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter are not mentioned in the document, patriot groups are referred to as militia violent extremist (MVEs). Last summer, left-wing riots caused havoc across the country, causing millions of dollars of damage to properties and cost several people their lives.

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BIDEN MOVES TO SHARE FFL INSPECTION DATA, UP ‘ZERO TOLERANCE’ ON DEALERS

The Biden-Harris Administration on Wednesday is delivering another gun control push from the White House, blaming last year’s violent crime spike on guns.

Just prior to an expected speaking event by President Biden about being tough on crime, the Oval Office released a fact sheet to the media largely focusing on just being tough on guns instead.

In addition to a repeated call to ban “assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” the briefing details how ultimately billions of taxpayer dollars authorized by the American Rescue Plan for COVID-19 and economic relief will be funneled “to reduce gun violence exacerbated by the pandemic, including prosecuting gun traffickers, rogue dealers, and other parties contributing to the supply of crime guns, as well as collaborative federal/state/local efforts to identify and address gun trafficking channels.”

Mentioned in the plan is that the ATF will, for the first time, publicly post more detailed information about regulatory inspection findings of, and enforcement actions stemming from, visits to federal firearms licensees. The rate of such visits to FFLs is likely to jump as the Administration continues to call on Congress to increase funding for ATF to hire additional personnel in every field division around the country.

Getting more muscular with violations found during inspections or investigations into FFLs, the Department of Justice is set to announce this week a zero-tolerance policy that will seek to revoke the license of dealers on their first violation for such things as failing to respond to an ATF tracing request or refusing to permit ATF to conduct an inspection.

In the meantime, the ATF will begin sharing inspection data with 16 states “so that officials there can determine whether to take their own steps to shut down dealers that fail to live up to their obligations under state law.”

Besides the added pressure on the country’s legal firearms dealers, the White House reiterated its call to take controversial “red flag” gun seizure laws nationwide, and repeal protections for the firearms industry against frivolous lawsuits designed to run gun makers and sellers out of business.

the latest demoncrap gambit.

Gun Rights Imperiled As State Preemption Laws Face Challenges

Firearm preemption laws across the country currently face legislative and judicial challenges as local governments seek to regulate guns, a trend which threatens Second Amendment rights, a National Rifle Association spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Preemption provides residents with a uniformed set of rules when it comes to owning, carrying, and using a firearm throughout the state,” NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide told the DCNF. Preemption laws remove the power of local governments to regulate firearm ownership, according to gun control advocacy group Giffords, which the group says prevents local officials from protecting their communities from gun violence.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis repealed the state’s preemption law Saturday, signing into law SB21-256 which allowed cities and counties to enact laws governing or prohibiting “the sale, purchase, transfer, or possession of a firearm, ammunition, or firearm component,” The law was proposed following a mass shooting in Boulder earlier this year that had prompted Democrats and activists to call for further gun restrictions.

“Colorado has been and will continue to be a national leader in firearm regulation,” a spokesperson for Polis told the DCNF ahead of a number of legislative and judicial challenges to preemption laws across the country.

Gun rights organizations, such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), argue that preemption laws are essential in preventing localities from violating citizens’ Second Amendment rights, as well as eliminating confusion over the particular laws to which a citizen is subject as they travel throughout the state.

“Dismantling that system creates a confusing patchwork of laws that place law-abiding residents in legal peril just for exercising their constitutional right to carry a firearm or to defend themselves and their families,” Dalseide said.

Gun control groups have focused on preemption laws in recent years, with the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence making the issue a central piece of their Safer States Initiative. Giffords has stated that one of its key policy goals is to “repeal preemption laws in states that already have them and resist their enactment in states that do not have them.”

With the passage of the new law, Colorado joins New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Hawaii as states without preemption laws, according to the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. However, that number may soon grow as a number of legislative and judicial challenges to preemption laws are resolved.

Virginia, for example, enacted legislation gutting its preemption laws last year, allowing localities to pass laws regulating firearm possession in public buildings, parks and public roads when used for certain purposes. One such regulation is currently being contested in a lawsuit, LaFave v. County of Fairfax, filed by Virginia citizens along with the NRA.

Similarly, the Illinois state Supreme Court will hear a case later this year over a decision by Deerfield to ban civilian use of “assault weapons” and high capacity magazines, Capitol News reports. The plaintiffs, advocacy groups Guns Save Life Inc. and the Second Amendment Foundation, argued that the ban is preempted by Illinois state law, though an appellate court ruled in favor of Deerfield this March.

Oregon successfully amended its preemption laws earlier this month, enacting a law that permits certain local authorities to regulate firearms in public buildings. Lawmakers in Maine attempted to gut preemption laws this spring, with a bill allowing municipalities to create gun-free zones near polling places failing to pass.

Moreover, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court took up a lawsuit challenging preemption laws in June, in which the city of Philadelphia sued for the right to enact its own gun laws. The city alleged that preemption laws infringe on residents’ rights to “life and liberty.”

Florida’s preemption laws withstood a challenge this April, with a state appellate court ruling against local governments in a reversal of the lower court’s decision. However, local governments filed notices last week asking the Florida State Supreme Court to take up the case, according to CBS Miami.

Gun rights advocates worry these local challenges will imperil gun owners and citizens alike. Dudley Brown, president of the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, told The Wall Street Journal that repealing preemption laws will “open up the floodgates for woke city councils to disarm their citizens.”

“Repealing preemption laws is reckless, irresponsible, and will have no impact on reducing crime because the simple fact is that criminals don’t follow the law in the first place,” Dalseide told the DCNF.

As bills are voted on and lawsuits are decided, further gun restrictions may result as local governments assume more regulatory authority.

 

Nevada Governor Sued By Gun Owners Over Unconstitutional Ban On Firearm Modifications And Self-Manufactured Firearms

The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) has filed a motion for preliminary injunction in its federal Second Amendment lawsuit challenging Nevada’s unconstitutional statutes enacted in Assembly Bill 286, which established a new, confiscatory ban on all unserialized, self-manufactured firearms as well as all “unfinished frames or receivers.” The injunction is part of the FPC’s ongoing lawsuit, Palmer v. Sisolak, in which gun owners are suing the government for their right to keep and bear self-manufactured arms as outlined in the Constitution.

Along with the request for a preliminary injunction, a separate motion was filed for the gun owners who were suing the state government which was “for Expedited Briefing Schedule and Determination.” This argues that it “is necessary [to fast-track the case] so this Court can determine the matter and issue an injunction with enough time to prevent enforcement of the challenged laws and the dispossession of Plaintiffs’ property, or, alternatively, should the Court deny Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction, allow Plaintiffs sufficient time to seek relief from the Court of Appeals, and should it be necessary, seek relief from the Supreme Court.”

Firearms Policy Coalition explains the injunction:

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Susan Collins Delivers a Blow to Controversial Biden ATF Nominee’s Confirmation

The confirmation of President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), David Chipman, received another blow on Tuesday. GOP Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), who has voted for some of Biden’s nominees, announced that she will not support Chipman’s controversial nomination.

“After meeting with Mr. Chipman, listening to Mainers, and reviewing his record, I have decided to vote against Mr. Chipman’s nomination to serve as the ATF Director,” Collins said in a statement, per Fox News. “In recent years, Mr. Chipman has been an outspoken critic of the firearms industry and has made statements that demean law-abiding gun owners.”

The senator went on to criticize Chipman as a “divisive” pick who has potential to infringe on Second Amendment rights.

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Standard operational, and expected, court procedure

U.S. appeals court blocks judge’s decision to overturn state’s assault weapons ban

A federal appeals court decided Monday to put on hold a judge’s decision to overturn California’s 30-year-old ban on assault weapons, but the legal fight could continue for months and may be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a brief order, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of Judge Roger T. Benitez’s June 4 decision, in which he likened an AR-15 semiautomatic to a Swiss Army knife and called it “good for both home and battle.”

Benitez’s decision overturning the California ban gave the state 30 days to challenge the decision. The 9th Circuit, acting on a June 10 appeal filed by Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, put Benitez’s ruling on hold pending decisions in other gun cases that are now before the court.

“This leaves our assault weapons laws in effect while appellate proceedings continue,” Bonta said in a tweet. “We won’t stop defending these life-saving laws.”

The 9th Circuit judges on the panel issuing the stay were Barry G. Silverman, an appointee of President Clinton; Jacqueline Nguyen, an Obama appointee; and Ryan D. Nelson, a Trump appointee.

The order said the stay would be in effect until the 9th Circuit ruled in another case challenging California’s assault weapons regulations. That case also has been put on hold pending a ruling in a lawsuit over California’s ban on large-capacity magazines.

An 11-judge 9th Circuit “en banc” panel is scheduled to hear arguments in that case Tuesday, and the ruling is likely to determine the future of the state’s assault weapons ban. A majority of the judges on the panel are Democratic appointees.

Benitez also was the judge who struck down the voter-approved 2016 ban on large-capacity magazines. A three-judge 9th Circuit panel upheld his decision, but the state successfully sought review by a larger en banc panel. Gov. Gavin Newsom authored the ballot measure banning the magazines when he was the state’s lieutenant governor.

Benitez, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, said the assault weapons ban unconstitutionally infringed on the rights of California gun owners and “has had no effect” on curtailing mass shootings.

California is one of seven states and Washington, D.C., that ban assault weapons. The California case is expected to go to the Supreme Court, where a majority of justices are conservative and some have been highly critical of gun regulations.

Twenty-two states, led by Arizona, which is under the 9th Circuit’s jurisdiction, asked the appeals court to uphold the order against California’s law.

“Calling modern rifles ‘assault weapons’ is a misnomer— they are most often used by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes like personal protection or target and sport shooting,” the states argued. “There is nothing sinister about citizens keeping or bearing a modern rifle.”

Joining Arizona were Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

The Firearms Policy Coalition, which challenged the assault weapons ban, criticized the 9th Circuit for putting Benitez’s decision “on ice” and choosing “government tyranny over human lives and rights.”……………

North Carolina Governor Vetoes Church Carry Bill

A bill that would have allowed individuals with concealed carry licenses to carry inside of churches that have schools on the same property was vetoed by North Carolina Roy Cooper a couple of days ago, despite the fact that the legislation was approved in a bipartisan vote that garnered the approval of several Democratic legislators.

In his veto message, Cooper chided lawmakers for sending the bill to his desk, claiming that “for the safety of students and teachers, North Carolina should keep guns off school grounds.” Cooper’s argument doesn’t make a lot of sense, however, given the fact that the bill had been amended to limit concealed carry to those hours when schools on church property are not in session.

.Paul Valone with the gun-rights group Grass Roots North Carolina said “there is no rational reason” for the veto, especially since concealed weapons holders have been able to carry in many churches for 25 years due to state law. He urged lawmakers to override it.

“I didn’t think after the violent attacks in churches across the nation that it would be controversial to allow our citizens to protect themselves in church on Sundays, but the governor’s blind opposition to the Second Amendment seems to outweigh common-sense legislation,” said the bill’s chief’s sponsor, GOP Sen. Danny Britt of Robeson County.

Many church leaders across the state were supportive of the legislation, pointing out that houses of worship that don’t have schools on the same property are already open for concealed carry. Why, they wondered, should congregants be unable to protect themselves on a Sunday when school isn’t in session and the only students around are in church pews and not classrooms?
In response, Democrats and gun control advocates channeled their inner Marie Antoinette, claiming that anyone concerned about church security should simply bring on armed guards.

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Mark McCloskey, Who Pulled Gun on St. Louis BLM Protesters, Shows Off New Rifle

Mark McCloskey shows off new gun.

The gun-toting St. Louis lawyer who pleaded guilty to pulling a gun on Black Lives Matter protesters is flaunting his new rifle.

Mark McCloskey picked up a brand new AR-15-style gun — after surrendering his old one last week as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

“Checking out my new AR!” the controversial attorney, who is running for Senate, boasted on Twitter in two photos, one with his wife Patricia, giving the thumbs up inside a gun store.

Well, he is constantly absurd and appalling, so……….

Biden’s Gun Schemes Illustrate the Foolishness of Firearms Regulations
Rules range from absurd to appalling without respect for civil liberties or basic logic.

As expected, the Biden administration released proposed new rules for pistol braces and model legislation for “red flag” laws that make it easier to confiscate privately owned firearms. Also as expected, the proposals are ludicrous. On the one hand, they are pointless and nitpicky rules that are ultimately unenforceable, and on the other hand they are dangerous end-runs around due process that threaten fundamental rights. Taken together, they illustrate the unserious nature of gun regulations which are crafted more to appeal to political audiences than to achieve positive results.

The silliness inherent in this sort of rulemaking is apparent from the Department of Justice’s announcement of “a notice of proposed rulemaking that makes clear that when individuals use accessories to convert pistols into short-barreled rifles, they must comply with the heightened regulations on those dangerous and easily concealable weapons.”

For those new to this controversy, stabilizing braces were developed to help disabled veterans more accurately shoot pistols (usually those built around AR-15 receivers) one-handed. The “problem” is that many resemble shoulder stocks and can be used in that role. By no means does an attachment that lets a pistol be fired from the shoulder make it especially “dangerous and easily concealable.” Instead, it makes it less concealable since it has a brace sticking off the back. Braces do render pistols more accurate, which could be interpreted as dangerous if you’re upset by shooters hitting where they aim.

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The gun revolution

That was then.

This is now.

 

 

Without firing a shot (except at the firing range), Americans have won a revolution — state by state.

Texas is the latest to join the freedom coalition. The Texas Tribune reported to its dismay, “Texans can carry handguns without a license or training starting Sept. 1, after Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday signed the permitless carry bill into law………..

That is a big victory in Texas, and another notch on the gun handle nationally. 35 years ago, it was illegal in 16 states (including Texas) for a civilian to carry a concealed weapon. Only Vermont did not require a pistol permit.

Working through the slow process of going state to state to change the law, the revolution happened.

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