Category: Business

US trucker convoy coming: Joe Biden will ignore protests at his peril.

As hard as it is to imagine, President ’s political fortunes are about to get worse. The massive trucker convoy that crossed Canada to protest against that country’s new vaccine mandates will almost certainly be replicated in the U.S. and will bring with it huge headaches for the Biden White House.

Biden pretends to be the champion of the “little guy”; he claims to support blue-collar workers. Truckers are exactly the kind of folks Biden is meant to embrace, but he will not do that.

The drivers protesting the vaccine mandates have already been portrayed by the liberal media as right-wing zealots and science deniers, which is only one notch above climate deniers. A Facebook group organizing the U.S. convoy that had amassed 130,000 members has been tossed off the social media platform amid allegations that the movement was being promoted by right-wing extremists, which the organizers deny.

Biden will not dare stand up for the truckers. And yet, if he dismisses them as a “small fringe minority,” as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently did with the “Freedom Convoy” drivers up north, they could get mad.

They could, if pushed, call for a sick-out of America’s vital truckers. Whatever supply chain problems we have had would pale before the catastrophe that could unfold if tens of thousands of drivers simply walked off the job for a day or two. Imagine what would happen to transportation costs, and inflation.

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Get woke, go broke

Facebook suffers biggest one-day value drop of any US company in history.

Facebook parent company Meta shed more than $220 billion in market capitalization on Thursday, the largest such single-day decline for a U.S. company in history.

Meta’s stock closed down more than 26% on Thursday, an 85-point decline. The drop was largely driven by a quarterly earnings report that found the company was hemorrhaging daily users for the first time in its history. CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally lost about $24 billion.

Meta’s crash drove declines across the stock market, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite dropping by 3.74%.

The much-anticipated report said that daily Facebook users declined by about a half-million in the last three months of 2021, which many investors saw as a sign that the global reach of the social media company might be peaking or has already peaked.

Meta’s record-breaking crash smashed the previous single-day loss record set by Apple, which lost $180 billion of its market cap in September 2020. Microsoft, Tesla, and Amazon have all experienced single-day losses of more than $100 billion, all of which happened in the last three years.

Late last year, Zuckerberg announced that the company would rebrand itself as Meta in a nod to the “metaverse,” which is a term for a theoretical digital world. The company has recently focused more of its resources on furthering the metaverse and augmented reality.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Directs Millions to Funding State College’s Truck Driving Program

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is directing millions of dollars to truck-driving education at Florida State College in Jacksonville. The governor made his announcement to tap the state’s Job Growth Grant Fund on Thursday, in apparent light of the truck convoy that was making its way down to Ottawa, Canada at the time.

While the announcement may simply be a coincidence, DeSantis highlighted the supply chain problems and a desire to attract more businesses to use Florida ports, which have not experienced the same bottlenecks as ports in California and other parts of the country.
DeSantis said the $3.18 million will help the state school to establish the Nassau County Transportation Education Institute and build two commercial driving pads for training.

“This will provide people with an ability to have very marketable skills,” said DeSantis while at the college campus in Yulee. “And I can tell you, if you go through this program successfully, you are going to get hired in the state of Florida and be able to be hired elsewhere if that’s what you choose.”
In October, the American Trucking Association estimated that the industry is short by at least 80,000 drivers, and the demand for drivers will only increase with the growth of freight volumes.

As governor, DeSantis has the discretion to use money from the Job Growth Grant Fund for workforce education and regional infrastructure projects. In addition to funding the school’s truck driving program, DeSantis recently provided $6 million for transportation-related training programs at Lake Technical College and a further $2.8 million for a diesel-mechanic training program at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, the Jacksonville Business Journal reported.

“The fund received $50 million for the current fiscal year, and DeSantis has requested that lawmakers replenish it with $100 million when they piece together a 2022-2023 budget during the legislative session that begins Jan. 11,” the publication reported.

Wayne and his cronies, who appear to have made the NRA into nothing more than a cash cow for their benefit, must go.

More Looks Into the NRA 990 For 2020

We’ve posted before on the NRA IRS Form 990, for 2020. We recently found a the site where you can download those with the New York CHAR forms (which require disclosure of a nonprofit’s fundraising contractors) as well. That led to some startling discoveries.

The CHAR forms require disclosure of major outside fundraising companies and fundraising consultants (the consultants are defined to be a company that “does not solicit or handle contributions but limits activities to advising or assisting a charitable organization to perform such functions for itself.” A fundraising consultant is someone who doesn’t raise funds, just gives you advice about fundraising.

Up through 2013, NRA reported one outside fundraiser, Infocision (which was keeping around half of what it brought in), and no fundraising consultants.

In 2014, a fundraising consultant first appears: “Allegiance,” which starts off being paid $480,000 a year, on a two-year contract. In 2015, this becomes $790,000 on a seven-year contract, and in 2018, $1.07 million on a ten-year contract. In 2019 and 2020, $1.08 million. A million dollars a year for advice?

So what is this Allegiance, whose advice is worth millions? The New York form gives its address as 11250 Waples Mill Rd, Suite 310, in Fairfax — in other words, NRA’s own headquarters. Its phone number is given as (703) 267-1000, the NRA main switchboard. If its advice was worth a million a year you’d think it could afford its own phone number and receptionist. Maybe even its own office? Or webpage?

An internet search turned up little, beyond its Dun and Bradstreet listing — indicating it had one employee.

A timeline: In 2013, NRA had no fundraising consultants, in 2014 it had this mysterious Allegience. The next year, NRA suddenly hired a bunch of fundraising consultants. From 2015 to 2018, NRA paid a fundraising consultant called “HWS” between $265,000 and $710,000 a year. HWS turned out to be Wayne Sheets, former head of NRA Foundation. NRA also hired fundraising consultants “501(c)(3) Solutions” and “McKenna and Associates,” paying them together one to two million a year.

But what of this Allegiance? The 2020 CHAR form gives (for the first time) a clue: it describes the company as “Allegiance DBA [doing business as] Membership Advisors.” Hollywood producer David McKenzie, who lent LaPierre his yacht for vacations, owns a company named “Membership Marketing Partners,” which received $11 million from NRA in 2019. The Form 990 for that year shows “Membership Marketing Partners” address as — 11250 Waples Mill Road, suite 310, the same suite as this “Allegiance.” It appears that “Allegiance” is just an excuse to transfer another million a year of members’ money to Mr. McKenzie.

It looks as if NRA leadership — meaning LaPierre, or whoever was then pulling his puppet strings — in 2014 discovered that they could use “fundraising consultants,” which NRA had never before had, as a way to shovel millions a year to Wayne LaPierre’s friends and those who will do him favors.

Boom: 5.4M first-time gun buyers, 33% women, blacks up 44%.

First-time gun buyers continued to flood into firearms stores last year, broadening the once male and white market with women, blacks, Asians, and Hispanics.

Retailers reported that concerns about safety helped to drive 5.4 million first-timers into gun stores where many bought more than one gun, and a sizable number also signed up for gun handling classes.

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ATF to Treat Imports from Hong Kong the same as China.

Depending on who you ask, you will receive a different answer to the question: How many Countries are there currently in the World? Over the last 600 years, the concept of a country or state has also driven geopolitical events, as the milieu shifted from kingdoms to nations in the Western Hemisphere. In the 21st Century, the ramifications of the last decades of conflict have resulted in situations where some entities recognize a geographical region to be a country of itself, where others do not. Hong Kong has been one of these locations, where until recently the BATFE did not follow the same embargo on defense articles that it did with China.

As tensions rise between Taiwan and China, at the same time that Russia postures around Ukraine, so the BATFE has chosen to treat Hong Kong as if it were part of China in regards to the importation of defense articles, which could include components and optics. Although the BATFE is still waiting on guidance from the Department of State, they have chosen to delay requests from Hong Kong until clarification on the Arms Export Control Act has been made.

Both import and export laws apply to defense articles, which are defined as follows:

Defense Article means any item or technical data that is specifically designed, developed, configured, adapted, or modified for a military, missile, satellite, or other controlled use listed on the USML.  Defense articles also include things such as models, mock-ups, or other items, i.e. technical data related to items. Note that sometimes defense articles include items not listed on the USML.

https://www.tradecompliance.pitt.edu/manual-guidelines/guidance-documents/export-defense-articles-and-services-itar#:~:text=Defense%20Article%20means%20any%20item,technical%20data%20related%20to%20items. Accessed 1/25/22.

Many items fall under International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) related to firearms. While equipment such as night vision and suppressors are regulated, so can a trigger, upper receiver, or optic.

Companies or manufacturing that take place in Hong Kong face new challenges, now that the BATFE has chosen to bring up the concern over their import or export status.

You might say I have ‘a dog in this fight’ as I have a life membership, but
1. I won it in a raffle, and
2. I’ve never attended a course there and never planned to.

Members claim fraud in Front Sight debacle

Front Sight is a massive firearm training complex in Nevada. We’ve all seen the ads and many of you have taken training classes there.

For me, things always felt a little off about the marketing, but since I wasn’t likely to travel that far for training anytime soon, I never really worried about it. Besides, I’ve felt that way about a lot of marketing that turned out to be for legit goods or services.

However, a lot of people who became members of Front Sight are now feeling something is more than a little bit off.

The owner of a mega-firearms training center near Pahrump says he is restructuring following a lawsuit that’s left the business financially strapped amid a multi-million dollar expansion of the 550-acre facility that was set to include a hotel, food court, retail shops and more.

In a 15-page letter to its members on Saturday, Front Sight Firearms Training Institute owner Ignatius Piazza claimed a “con man” defrauded the company and is attempting to acquire the shooting range and academy, which boasts more than 250,000 members at several facilities across the U.S., and is purported to be the largest of its kind in the world.

“He represented that he was one of us, a pro-gun patriot who wanted to assist Front Sight in positively changing the image of gun ownership in our lifetimes by helping us complete the resort with low-interest money he would source from his vast pool of overseas investors,” Piazza said. “He promised he would raise all the funds needed to complete the resort and do it quickly if we covered all the administrative costs and some initial marketing costs.

Now, Piazza has been at this game long enough one might question how he fell afoul of a con man. Personally, a good con man can get anyone, but especially someone who has been doing something for a while and has a great deal of confidence in what they’re doing. Con men take advantage of that confidence.

But while some might accept the “con man” explanation, some of Piazza’s decisions since then aren’t sitting well.

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Of course, you know, this means that whatever component it is, when it gets a bit of wear on it…….the gun goes autoooooooooooooo.
Repeal 922(o) and I’d seriously consider shelling out $11000 for one that rocks, but not for this neutered version.

FN ISSUES MANDATORY SAFETY RECALL OF ALL FN M249S® RIFLES

FN 249S rifle facing right

FN America, LLC announces the mandatory recall of all FN M249S® semi-automatic, belt-fed rifles sold before January 1, 2022. An identified issue from a component in the FN M249S® fire control group may adversely affect the rifle’s standard operation, and under certain circumstances, a reset failure within the hammer group may cause an unsafe firing event. To correct this condition and restore consistent and safe operation of the firearm’s fire control group, it is necessary for FN to replace specific components in all FN M249S® rifles.

FN is instructing customers to discontinue use of these rifles immediately and return affected products to FN directly for installation of new components, at no expense to its owner.

JANUARY 2022 – FN M249S® SAFETY RECALL
Product Name Model Name(s) Product Numbers Color(s)
FN M249S FN M249S Standard,
FN M249S PARA,
FN M249S Limited Edition		 46-100028, 46-100030, 56460, 56501, 56509, 56502, 56435 (Limited Edition) Black, Flat Dark Earth (FDE)

All FN M249S® serial numbers sold before January 1, 2022, are affected by this recall. Therefore, FN M249S® owners are asked to please visit the FN M249S® Safety Recall webpage and input their serial number for detailed instructions on returning the FN M249S® for service.

Note: Please do not ship any affected product to FN until a shipping label has been generated by FN and sent to you. In the interim, FN asks that customers not operate their FN M249S® until FN has made the necessary repairs to your rifle.

FN is deeply committed to providing customers with the safest, most reliable firearms possible. As such, it is imperative that all recalled product is received back as soon as possible. Patience and cooperation is appreciated as we receive, inspect and service these firearms for a direct return to you. We will make every effort to return the rifles within 30 days of receipt at FN.

For questions about the recall or assistance in returning a firearm, contact the FN M249S® Recall Support team at 1-800-635-1321, extension 145, or by email at M249Srecall@fnamerica.com. Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday.

 

Now add that into the `8 million from 2020…………

NSSF RETAILER SURVEYS INDICATE 5.4 MILLION FIRST-TIME GUN BUYERS IN 2021

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the firearm industry trade association, revealed that at least 5.4 million people purchased a firearm for the first time in 2021. Nearly 30 percent of all firearm purchases last year went to new gun owners, based on NSSF’s retailer surveys and adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) background checks.

Retailer Sales Survey

That figure is a 10 percent decrease from the 40 percent of first-time gun buyers revealed in similar surveys in 2020. More than 21 million background checks were conducted for the sale of a firearm then, with over 8.4 million of those estimated to be for those buying a firearm for the first time.

“We welcome these new gun owners to the greater community of law-abiding Americans who choose to own a firearm for lawful purposes, including self-defense, recreational target shooting and hunting,” said Joe Bartozzi, NSSF President and CEO. “The surveys revealed that new gun owners are continuing to embrace their Second Amendment rights and nearly half of them are seeking out professional training. These trends show that not only is there still a strong interest in gun ownership but also that these new gun owners are interested in learning more about the safe and responsible handling, use and storage of firearms.”

Similar retailer surveys in 2020 showed a 58 percent increase of African-Americans buying guns in 2020 vs. 2019, with a 49 percent increase of Hispanic-Americans during the same time period and a 43 percent increase of Asian-Americans buying firearms in 2020 compared to 2019. Nearly 60 percent of retailers said the increase of these demographic groups of first-time buyers purchasing firearms remain unchanged from 2020 to 2021.

NSSF’s 2021 survey of retailers showed several other key findings:

  • Nearly 47 percent of first-time gun buyers in 2021 inquired about training and 43 percent signed up for training.
  • Nearly 23 percent of retailers indicated that first-time gun buyers in 2020 purchased another firearm in 2021.
  • Over 33 percent of first-time gun buyers in 2021 were women.
  • 44 percent of retailers saw an increase of African-Americans purchasing firearms in 2021.
  • Nearly 40 percent of retailers saw an increase of Hispanic-Americans purchasing firearms in 2021.
  • Over 27 percent of retailers saw an increase of Asian-Americans purchasing firearms in 2021.
  • Over 18 percent of retailers saw an increase of Native-Americans purchasing firearms in 2021.
  • Nearly 14 percent of retailers saw an increase of Native-Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders purchasing firearms in 2021.

WHERE’S THE AMMO? ANSWERS FROM VISTA OUTDOOR, NEW REMINGTON OWNER

The fact of the matter is simple. We’re well into the second pandemic year, and there’s still not enough of any brand, caliber, or type of ammunition on store shelves. Are manufacturers indeed still producing? If so, where has all the ammo gone? What better place to get real-world answers than from America’s powerhouse ammunition holdings company – Vista Outdoor.

The publicly-traded company not only owns Federal, CCI, and Speer but has recently also added both Hevi-Shot and Remington to the portfolio. The American-owned and domestically-loaded brands were on full display at SHOT Show 2022, showing off not only existing lines but more new rounds than expected as well. Guns.com got the lowdown.

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Ammunition plant to open near Texarkana
More than $100 million spent so far; owner says facility will employ more than 400 by 2023

HOOKS, Texas — Expansion Industries, an ammunition manufacturing company whose corporate offices are based out of Carrollton, Texas, is preparing to open a manufacturing facility here.

They have begun preparation work on the East Campus of TexAmericas Center, purchasing the main G Line of the former Lone Star Army Ammunition plant, and have begun preparing the site for operations.

Recently, they also have begun a recruiting drive, advertising an on-site job fair they have coming up Jan. 29. They plan on employing more than 400 by 2023 and have plans beyond that.

The facility will specialize in the production of primers, a key component in ammunition manufacturing, for the small arms industry.

“We have invested $100 million into the site so far,” said Richard A. Smissen, owner, Expansion Industries. “This is all about supply and demand. There is serious demand in the industry for this product and right now, for various reasons, the supply chain is falling woefully short. So we are getting ready to do our part to help out with that issue.”

Smissen describes the new facility as state-of-the-art, featuring a high level of automation. He said the site at the former Lone Star Army Ammunition plant is uniquely situated for what they will be doing.

“The manufacturing facilities at Lone Star were set up for ammunition manufacturing,” said Smissen. “Not only the way the facilities are laid out on the former base, but the facilities themselves are hardened to protect against possible accidents working with this material. What is here was ready for someone like us to come and set up shop. So we’ve had our people in there getting it ready for a modern manufacturing facility. We aim to be up and running in the first few months of this year.”

Besides getting the facility ready to go, Expansion Industries has already begun recruiting efforts for talent. Though touting modern automated manufacturing facilities, they still will have a sizable labor force, ranging from custodial to skilled labor and technicians, to their own force of truck drivers. They are looking at a wide range of talent.

“We will also need various engineers and skilled professionals,” he said. “Those guys will be at a premium and we want to see those resumes.”

Smissen says Expansion Industries picked the Hooks area for several specific reasons.

“This is a big asset that will do Hooks and the surrounding asset a lot of good,” he said. “Also, this is a key transport area, with easy access to highway and rail freight transport, right there on TexAmericas Center. When it comes time to start shipping, there is not a place better, both in set up and location. And we will be shipping everywhere, both in this country and many places globally.”

Smissen sees Expansion Industries as more than a manufacturing company, however. They have a core set of values that they emphasize with their products.

“Every box of our ammunition, we make it clear it is about freedom,” he said. “The first 10 Amendments of our Constitution lay it all out, our liberties. And the 2nd Amendment is about the freedom of an American to be armed, to defend against any who would seek to take away that freedom. And should our 2nd Amendment fall, there is nothing to prevent the rest of it from being taken. We are a faith-based company and we make that clear. We are doing what we can to take a stand for American freedoms, support shooting sports and with this facility, we will be taking it all to the next level.”

Smissen made it clear it was quite a maze of bureaucracy he had to navigate to get this facility up and running.

“Miles of red tape and mountains of paperwork, that I can tell you,” he said. “And we would not have gotten this done without the team supporting us at TexAmericas Center. Scott Norton, Eric Voyles, Jeff Whitten, Teresa Kemp, Devon McClosky, thank you all.”

Ammo makers at SHOT Show say demand still unprecedented

The good news for gun owners is that the ammunition industry is pumping out rounds just as fast as they can. The bad news is that it seems like the demand across the country is still outpacing the supply.

I spent several hours on Tuesday morning speaking with multiple individuals in the ammunition industry, none of whom wanted to go on the record but many of whom were willing to speak on background, and all of them shared different versions of the same story: they’re running at 100% capacity and looking to add more, but still haven’t caught up on the flood of orders that have been pouring in for almost two years now.

In fact, according to two industry officials from different companies who spoke to me on background, there’s been little to no let up in the demand for ammunition, even as firearm sales have declined slightly off their 2020 highs. That’s a double-edged sword for the industry itself, which has seen a surge in first-time gun buyers over the past two years. Turning those gun owners into folks who reliably head to the range on a regular basis is a multi-pronged effort, and if they find it too difficult to get ahold of the ammunition they need, there’s a portion of them that will eventually stop trying.

Even longtime gun owners have grown frustrated over the situation. A couple of weeks ago outdoor columnist Bill Ferris shared his thoughts on the state of the industry, and questioned whether its time for companies to make investments in expanding capacity.

I recently saw an interview with a manager for Federal, which now also manufactures Remington. He explained that his companies were working seven days a week and making ammunition 24 hours a day. They can’t make more without building new facilities, and if they guess wrong and shooters stop or slow down their buying, then they will have an over-capacity.

I’m not sure of the premise. Remington moved most of their gun making factory from New York to new factories in the south. Smith and Wesson announced they are leaving Massachusetts. Winchester had long ago moved from Connecticut and Ithaca moved out of New York 20 years ago.

All the gunmakers have moved to bigger facilities capable of manufacturing more guns in more “gun friendly” states from the traditional northeast. All except Connecticut Arms have moved, and for the most part, they only build traditional side-by-side or over-and-under shotguns.

Maybe it is time the ammunition makers built new facilities to accommodate all the new shooters who want to shoot their new guns before they lose to competition from the rest of the world.

Gunmakers have been moving out of blue states because of politics, not production capacity. And many large ammunition manufacturing facilities are already located in firearm friendly states like Arkansas and Idaho, so it’s not a matter of these companies needing to move before they can expand.

It really is more an issue of gauging whether today’s current demand is still artificially spiking because of the shortage caused by the Great Gun Run of 2020 (which is getting ready to enter it’s third year), or if the current demand represents a new normal. It’s also not a quick or easy thing to ramp up production lines in a factory setting, and like almost every other industry out there, many of these companies are dealing with a very tight labor market as well, which only increases the uncertainty surrounding a major expansion of production facilities.

So, as disappointing as the news is, I don’t expect any dramatic improvement in terms of ammo availability over the next few months. At best, I think we can hope for a gradual easing of the supply crunch, and it has gotten a little easier for me to find common calibers like 9mm and .223 in central Virginia over the past six months or so, but it’s still very much up in the air as to what I’m going to find on the shelves when I hit up my local gun stores, and I suspect that uncertainty is going to remain in place in the months ahead.

Current List of Anti-Gun Businesses You Should Avoid Giving Your Money

USA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Do you watch movies at AMC Theaters? Was the film produced by Bad Robot?

  • Do you eat at Chipotle, Shake Shack, Panera, Burger King, or Subway, or have a meal delivered by Door Dash?
  • Do you wear clothes from Levi Strauss, the Gap, or Gucci?
  • Do you watch CNN, MTV, NBC, HBO, MSNBC, or Showtime?
  • Do you browse Tinder, Yelp, eBay, or Pinterest on a Microsoft computer with Comcast internet?
  • Do you shop at Costco?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you have financially supported companies that want to strip us of our God-given constitutional rights.

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It’s almost like their ‘blind trusts’ has stock in the manufacturers

Meet The 2021 Gun Salesman Of The Year

It turns out President Joe Biden is seeing more guns being sold in his first year than his two White House predecessors. For all his intent to hobble the firearm industry and clamp down on lawful gun ownership, gun sales have been good. Really good. December’s NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check (NICS) figures for 2021 put the annual total over 18.5 million. That’s higher than any year that President Barack Obama was in the White House

Presidential Gun Sales

Law-abiding Americans purchased firearms in substantial numbers to finish out 2021. NSSF-adjusted NICS totals for December came in at nearly 1.8 million. That’s good for the second-highest December total, only 6 percent lower than 2020’s record final month. That figure also brings the total adjusted number to 18.5 million background checks for a gun sale. NSSF adjusts the total NICS numbers released by FBI to reflect only those background checks associated with the sale or transfer of a firearm.

The FBI’s unadjusted December 2021 total for NICS background checks landed just north of 3 million at 3,080,295. The December total means that over the 12-month span of President Biden’s first year in office, 38,858,429 NICS checks were run for law-abiding Americans, nearly dead even with the total for first-year NICS checks for former Republican President Donald Trump and former Democratic President Barack Obama, combined. That total was 39 million.

The most antigun presidential ticket ever has yielded the greatest gun sales first-year presidential term ever. It’s no surprise gun control groups are feeling disheartened.

Selling Control, Delivering Sales

That’s likely not the first year accomplishment on guns for which President Biden was hoping. He took office with a U.S. House of Representatives and Senate swinging to Democratic control. He sold a daring gun control agenda on the campaign trail. National gun control groups’ mouths watered and they had high hopes for big things.

The American people had other ideas. Americans took stock of their safety concerns as they witnessed first-hand the policy failures of defunding law enforcement and releasing or failing to prosecute criminals. That resulted in the decision of tens of millions over the past year to take responsibility for their own security and safety. This included more than 8.4 million first-time gun buyers in 2020 and more than 3.2 million in the first half of 2021. The dramatic shift in Americans’ Second Amendment beliefs, along with the growing reality that gun control doesn’t reduce crime, meant President Biden’s gun control agenda ran headlong into the reality of tens of millions lawfully buying guns.

The failures to enact a gun control utopia have led to national gun control groups voicing their disappointment and displeasure with the president’s track record, but it’s the American people who have rejected their gun control schemes.

New Normal

The confluence of several concerning trends in 2020 led to more than 21 million Americans buying a firearm, the highest yearly total ever. As 2021 came to an end, the total of 18.5 million was slightly lower, but that is over 5 million greater than it was in 2019. It’s also a figure that indicates Americans embrace their right to keep and bear arms.

Combined with the growing and diversifying gun-owning community, there are several reasons to believe the higher numbers from last year and 2020 are more indicative of a new normal, rather than outliers. There have been peaks before and the market settles out. A study of those trends over time shows that the new floor is usually higher than the ceiling was prior to the run-up to the peak. In this case, 2019 saw 13.2 million background checks for gun sales. The 2021 total of 18.5 million is a very strong number.

For President Biden, it likely means three more years of inability to restrict the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. It also means the president will watch as Americans reject his gun control agenda and vote with their wallets – tens of millions at a time.

Instead of ‘Turtles all the way down‘, it’s going to be ‘Injections‘.
And as I understand it, the vaxx companies get about $30 per dose.
Do some simple arithmetic on that number related to population.

Moderna CEO Says Fourth Vaccine Dose May Be Needed Next Fall

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said Thursday that individuals may need a fourth shot of the Wuhan coronavirus vaccine, CNBC reported.

Bancel reportedly made the remarks while speaking with Goldman Sachs at a health care CEO conference. In the discussion, he noted that the efficacy of booster shots will decline over time. Because of this, he said those who received a booster dose this past fall will likely need another come fall 2022.

“Bancel said people who received their boosters last fall will likely have enough protection to get them through the winter, when new infections surge as people gather indoors to escape the cold.

However, Bancel said the efficacy of boosters will probably decline over the course of several months, similar to what happened with the first two doses. The Moderna chief was interviewed by Goldman Sachs during the investment bank’s health-care CEO conference.

‘I will be surprised when we get that data in the coming weeks that it’s holding nicely over time — I would expect that it’s not going to hold great,’ Bancel said, referring to the strength of the booster shots.”

Bancel added in the discussion that governments in the United Kingdom and South Korea have already ordered doses in preparation.

CNBC noted that a study published by the U.K. Health Security Agency found that booster doses are up to 75 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infections two weeks after receiving the shot. However, the efficacy of the booster shot begins to decline after roughly four weeks.

“I still believe we’re going to need boosters in the fall of ’22 and forward,” Bancel said in the interview. He mentioned that a mutation of the virus could change the course of the pandemic again.

“We have been saying that we believe first this virus is not going away,” he added. “We’re going to have to live with it.”

It’s a rimless, lengthened .32 auto, so I bet it’ll have a delivery like a cinderblock through a plate glass window.

Federal introduces new 30 Super Carry

The .312-inch-diameter projectile used in 30 Super Carry delivers the same muzzle energy as 9mm Luger, with ballistic performance and penetration that far exceeds that of 380 Auto. The dimensions allow chambering in handguns with reduced grip circumference and smaller overall size, yet still offer more magazine capacity than 9mm Luger.

MORE ROUNDS

The 30 Super Carry’s slimmed-down dimensions result in a simple physical truth. A magazine the size of your standard 9mm Luger pistol’s will carry additional rounds — two more in initially available handgun models. You get the proven power of a 9mm Luger with added capacity that can make all the difference in a real-world self-defense scenario.

chart showing the extra two 30 super rounds that can find inside a standard 9mm Luger magazine

NSSF Sues New York AG for Violation of Constitution, PLCAA, and Due Process

On July 6, 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed SB 7196 into law. The law is specifically designed to overrule the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA).

On December 16, 2021, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and 14 additional plaintiffs (including, I am glad to say, a local gun store, Sprague’s of Yuma, Arizona) sued the Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, to stop implementation of the law, designed to violate the Constitutional rights of all Americans. From the lawsuit:

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Georgia quietly becomes a top gun-making state

When Remington Arms announced in November its decision to move its global headquarters to west Georgia, bringing 850 jobs, it became the latest in a string of gun-makers relocating to the Peach State.

Georgia has quietly become one of the country’s top 10 states for gun manufacturing, according to data from the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

The state is now home to 74 companies that make hunting rifles, shotguns, pistols, semi-automatic military style rifles, parts, accessories and ammunition, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.

It didn’t happen by accident.

The state’s business recruiters began aggressively courting gun-makers six years ago after noticing a trend: Firearms manufacturers were fleeing the Northeast, where some states have passed more stringent gun laws, and relocating to politically friendlier Southern climes.

“It has been good politics for red state governors to recruit these companies,” because it adds to their conservative bona fides, said Ryan Busse, a senior adviser at Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates for gun control.

In September, when Smith & Wesson announced it was moving its headquarters to Tennessee, executives said the company was relocating due to tough new gun manufacturing laws proposed in Massachusetts, where it had been since 1852. Democrats there introduced a bill to ban the manufacturing of certain firearms unless they are intended for sale to the military or law enforcement.

The gun-maker also cited Tennessee’s “unwavering support for the Second Amendment.”

The expansion into the South is also a sign of the times, Busse said. Companies are expanding. Since last year, gun sales in the U.S. have been at all time highs. Smith & Wesson reported last summer that sales had doubled to more than $1 billion compared to the previous 12 months.

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Again, this shows that 2020 was the anomalous ‘pig in the python’ that makes what would have been another record year (and nearly was) a second place finisher. However it wasn’t until June that the number of checks was less than those in ’20.