BLUF:
It’s time for the U.S. to quit the Programme of Action. And while we’re at it, we should quit the U.N. ammo group and make it clear that, no matter what the U.N. does about bullets, we won’t try to apply its foolish ideas here.

UN Gun Control Program Runs Amok Again

More than two decades ago, the United Nations created a program to curb the trafficking of small arms. It’s done nothing but fire blanks. So now, the U.N. wants to control bullets.

In 2001, the United Nations started the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. Its next meeting will be held in New York from June 27 to July 1.

The Programme isn’t a treaty. It’s a political gathering that’s meant to encourage voluntary cooperation. It meets every other year to produce an outcome document that’s politically (but not legally) binding.

It’s supposed to work by unanimous consent.

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The Programme has achieved very little, if anything. That’s not just my view. The U.N. secretary-general said so in 2008. New Zealand said so in 2012. Its supporters said it was “firing blanks” in 2014. In 2018, the Red Cross said that governments in the Programme talk a lot, but do nothing.

In practice, that suits most of the U.N. fine: All the nations get credit for participating in the Programme while actually doing nothing, while the Programme focuses on peripheral issues, such as 3D-printed guns.

This year, the rumor is that the Programme’s president wants it to focus on banning toy guns. (No more water pistols for your kids, says the U.N.)

If the nations in the Programme genuinely wanted to help control the illicit trade in small arms, it could in theory be modestly useful.

For example, it could seek to eliminate the “Chinese exemption,” under which Beijing is exempt from the requirement to put serial numbers on its firearms, which makes Chinese guns difficult to trace.

But instead, the Programme focuses on irrelevant distractions—and on breaking its own promises.

In 2018, the Programme broke its rule of unanimity to approve an outcome document that added ammo over U.S. protests. The Programme wasn’t supposed to include ammunition. And adding it serves no useful purpose.

The idea of putting numbers on, and trying to trace, individual rounds of ammunition is nonsensical. The resulting database would have trillions of entries.

Most of the Programme’s member nations can’t and don’t even meet their existing commitments. But that didn’t stop the United Nations from adding ammo.

The U.S. does most of the work of running traces on firearms, providing expertise, and giving aid to upgrade foreign recordkeeping through the Programme.

But if the U.S. is going to do most of the work and simultaneously going to have the Programme’s rules broken against it, there’s no reason for us to continue to participate in it.

There are now more good reasons than ever to quit. When the Programme voted to include ammo in 2018, it lined itself up with a U.N. working group. That group’s report came out late last year, and it’s a bureaucrat’s fantasy.

It calls for the negotiation of “a set of political commitments” to “concentrate on through-life ammunition management.” In other words, an entirely new Programme of Action, focused just on ammo.

“Through-life” ammo management may sound innocuous, but isn’t. Here’s what it means, in the U.N.’s own words:

States would reduce security risks by encouraging ammunition producers, where feasible, practicable and consistent with national legislation, to maintain effective accounting and record-keeping systems that permit the retrieval (by serial, batch, or lot number) of detailed sales and transfer records. Ideally, such records should be digital, easily retrievable, and held for as long as feasible.

Translation: The U.N. wants manufacturers of ammo to number their bullets. Then the U.N. wants to track where and to whom every bullet in the world is sold or sent. The U.N. also wants to track who sells to whom. And it wants all those records digitized, easily accessed, and kept forever.

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Interesting that the Oklahoma legisdlature ctually passed this crap-for-brains bill with this unintended? (or perhaps not so unintended) consequence

VETOED BILL MIGHT HAVE FACILITATED GUN SEIZURES

When Gov. Kevin Stitt recently vetoed House 3501, proponents of the bill claimed it would have simply allowed state police to address individuals convicted by tribal courts of drunk driving and similar offenses.

But the broad language of the bill could have also required state police to carry out other orders issued by tribal courts, potentially including orders to seize guns from Oklahomans who “annoy” Cherokee officials with online posts, based on an existing Cherokee Nation law.

That potential has grabbed the attention of Second Amendment supporters in Oklahoma.

“We’re always concerned at any restriction of Second Amendment rights, which includes the exploitation of ‘red flag’ laws,” said Don Spencer, president of the Oklahoma 2nd Amendment Association (OK2A).

House Bill 3501 would have required the Department of Public Safety to “recognize and act” upon a report of conviction from any tribal court in Oklahoma.

Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed the bill, saying it would weaken the sovereignty of the Oklahoma state government. The governor noted the bill would have required state law-enforcement officials “to carry out tribal court adjudications, no questions asked.”

Supporters of the legislation said it would address traffic-law violators convicted in tribal courts. But the language of the bill is not restricted to only that class of tribal court orders, leaving open the possibility that Oklahoma law-enforcement officers would be required to carry out a much wider range of duties on behalf of tribal courts.

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San Antonio-area school district will now allow qualified teachers to carry a concealed firearm on campus
Teachers who want to carry will have to complete 40 hours of training

A small school district about 25 miles east of San Antonio will now allow certain qualified teachers and staff members to carry a concealed firearm on campus.

The La Vernia Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously approved the Guardian Program on Monday.

In addition to already having a license to carry, staff members who want to become guardians must complete 20 hours at a firing range, 20 hours of classroom training, pass annual psychological exams, and take random drug tests, KSAT reports.

About 80% of La Vernia ISD staff supported the Guardian Program in a survey that was taken before the board approved it, according to the local news outlet.

Aside from the Guardian Program, Texas schools can also have one school marshal per 400 students who can carry a firearm.

1 killed, another hurt in alleged carjacking in Alexandria

One person is dead and another is hurt following an alleged carjacking at an Alexandria, Virginia gas station.

It happened just after 3 p.m. Friday on the 2300 block of Richmond Highway just south of Potomac Yard.

When police arrived, they found one male who was dead and another with serious injuries, Alexandria police spokesman Courtney Ballantine said.

“Initial investigation suggests that the incident began as an alleged carjacking involving five individuals,” Ballantine said. He did not say whether the people who were shot were trying to take the vehicle, adding that the investigation is ongoing and all people involved — “from victim to suspect” — are accounted for.

“There is no threat to the public,” Ballantine said.

It was reported earlier that the driver of the vehicle shot two people trying to take the vehicle.

Once again, just like Finestein’s ‘Assault Weapon’ ban.

Congressional Democrats introduce gun licensing bill

The state of Illinois requires every lawful gun owner to get a Firearm Owner Identification Card. You can’t have a gun without out and you have to jump through the hoops to lawfully get one.

They also have the city of Chicago, where violent crime is rampant. It seems gun licensing doesn’t actually help as some want to believe.

In fact, two Illinois Democrats believe it so hard that they want to make it federal law.

May 11, 2022 Press Release WASHINGTON — U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.) and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) reintroduced the Blair Holt Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act, today, to help reduce firearm violence in Illinois and across the country. This legislation would prohibit unlicensed firearm ownership and the transfer of firearms without a valid firearms license, as well as direct the U.S. Attorney General to establish and maintain a federal record of sale system and conduct fingerprint-based nationwide criminal background checks — which could have prevented the gunman who killed five people in Aurora, IL in 2019 from acquiring the firearm he used in the shooting.

Of course, it should be remembered that as I noted previously, it hasn’t done jack to stop the violence in Chicago.

Further, the shooter in the Aurora, IL case was a convicted felon who actually passed the FOID background check and NICS check

Whoops.

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Senators Threaten Court-Packing – Again – As Americans Embrace Their Second Amendment Rights

The unauthorized leak of a draft abortion opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court has Democrats up in arms (again) about packing the U.S. Supreme Court. This isn’t a new argument and one gun control advocates publicly pitched before.

Senators are openly calling for court-packing again and that’s before the Supreme Court has rendered a final opinion on New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen or finalized the opinion of the leaked abortion draft decision. Even before the nine justices heard arguments on the New York case challenging the states arbitrary and restrictive “may issue” concealed carry permit criteria, there were calls for court-packing.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) filed an amicus brief in NYSRPA v. New York supporting restrictive gun control but took arguments beyond supporting the law with threats to upend the court’s structure. That case was ultimately declared “moot” by the Supreme Court after New York City altered the law to avoid the Court striking down the law.

“Perhaps the Court can heal itself before the public demands it be ‘restructured in order to reduce the influence of politics.’ Particularly on the urgent issue of gun control, a nation desperately needs it to heal,” Sen. Whitehouse wrote.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) led a 2019 letter excoriating court-packing threats and urged the justices to render opinions based on Constitutional interpretations, not public opinion polls. The letter was signed by 53 Republican senators.

“It’s one thing for politicians to peddle these ideas in Tweets or on the stump,” Sen. McConnell wrote. “But the Democrats’ amicus brief demonstrates that their court-packing plans are more than mere pandering. They are a direct, immediate threat to the independence of the judiciary and the rights of all Americans.”

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The evidence keeps pouring in showing the utter failure of all COVID mandates.

Since March 2020 I have repeatedly written that the response to the Wuhan flu was an utter mindless panic that had little to do with the facts. Right off the bat, the facts, not the models, suggested the virus would resemble the flu most of all, a possible mortal threat to the sick and elderly but generally nothing more than a short sickness to the general population, with it being almost utterly harmless to the young.

Nothing that has happened since has really changed these early conclusions. I have compiled below a collection of recent studies and reports that illustrate what we have learned following the epidemic and the panic that accompanied it. Sadly, that panic did little to stop the virus, but it left us with destroyed businesses, a crushed economy, many uneducated and damaged children, and a broken Bill of Rights.

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Armed robber on a bike killed by man he was trying to rob in South Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA – Police say a robber is dead after being shot by the man he was trying to rob in South Philadelphia Wednesday night.

A 24-year-old man was smoking a cigarette outside his house on the 2200 block of South 6th Street when a man approached on a bicycle, according to police.

He told police he pulled his gun on the robber as he got off his bike and announced a robbery. Police say he has a valid permit to carry the gun.

One shot was fired, hitting the 30-year-old robber in the head.

The robber also allegedly pulled his gun firing one or two shots, which did not strike the victim.

Police say they found him lying on the sidewalk with a gunshot wound to the head.

Two semi-automatic guns were recovered from the scene, as well as the suspect’s bicycle. The robbery victim reportedly remained on scene after the shooting, and is cooperating with police.

Vermont: Suppressor Hunting Bill Passes Legislature

Read more: https://www.ammoland.com/2022/05/vermont-suppressor-hunting-bill-passes-legislature/#ixzz7T5bejBWa
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
Follow us: @Ammoland on Twitter | Ammoland on Facebook

[Yesterday] morning, the Vermont State Senate passed an amended version of S. 281 – legislation that includes a provision to make The Green Mountain State the 41st state to allow the use of suppressors while hunting. The suppressor hunting language, which was championed by Representatives Pat Brennan (R-Chittenden-9-2) and George Till (D-Chittenden-3), was added to S. 281 during the floor debate in the House of Representatives and subsequently passed on May 10th. The bill now heads to Governor Phil Scott (R-VT) for his signature. Once enacted, the new law will take effect on July 1st.

“It is my pleasure to announce that with today’s passage of S. 281, the legislature has taken a tremendous step forward towards expanding the right of hunters to use suppressors in the field,” said Rep. Brennan, Co-Chair of the Vermont Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus. “For the past seven years, law abiding citizens in Vermont have enjoyed suppressor ownership, but their use has been restricted to sport shooting at ranges only. With the passage of S. 281, Vermont outdoorsmen and women finally have the ability to protect their hearing and the hearing of the youth hunting community as well. This bill was a long time in the works, but it has finally come to fruition thanks to the cooperation of many, most especially the Department of Fish and Wildlife and its Commissioner.”

The American Suppressor Association has been fighting for suppressor rights in Vermont for a decade. Over the years we have helped draft legislation, provided written and verbal testimony, and hosted multiple live-fire suppressor demonstrations for legislators, law enforcement officers, and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. In 2015, legislation introduced by Rep. Brennan legalized the ownership of suppressors in the state, but not their use in the field. Today’s passage of S. 281 brings us one step closer to full suppressor legalization nationwide.

“What Representatives Brennan and Till have accomplished is nothing short of extraordinary,” said Knox Williams, President and Executive Director of the American Suppressor Association. “It highlights the value of hard work, persistence, and bipartisanship. There should be nothing controversial about protecting hearing. We could not have asked for better partners in the fight for your suppressor rights.”

Undercover journalist infiltrating far-right group beaten by Antifa in ambush

Leftist ‘journalist’ “I am going to expose violent Right Wing Domestic Terrorists™!”
Instead gets the ever loving crap beaten out of him by the real terrorist Antifagoons

Ahhh HAHAHAHAHAHAH.

BLUF:
They’re not a bad round to carry in a snubbie

PRMRRU-2021Ballistic-test-compressed

Snubnose Revolver Ballistic Gelatin Tests

When I was a kid back in the early 1980s, my parents had some rural land where we spent weekends hiking, hunting, and shooting guns.  A man up the road from my parents’ place was a well known “gun guy.”  He shot constantly and often offered to let young Greg shoot all his cool guns.  One day my Dad and I were visiting him and I saw a gun on his kitchen table that I hadn’t seen before.  I asked if I could look at it.

The man knew I was a safe gun handler, even at my young age.  He said “It’s loaded.  It’s a Smith and Wesson revolver.  You know how to unload it.  Point it towards the ground, unload it, and then you can check it out.”

I took it out of the leather belt holster and carefully unloaded it.  It turned out to be a two-inch Smith and Wesson Model 10 round butt.  It was loaded with target wadcutters.  I knew what the bullets were because I bought a $5.00 box of wadcutter reloads at the local gun shop to shoot in my Smith and Wesson Model 19 every weekend I visited my parents’ rural property.

Even at age 14, I knew that wadcutters were target loads.  My dad’s police revolvers were all filled with the “Treasury Load” 110 grain +P+ jacketed hollowpoints that were in vogue at the time.

The man explained that this was the gun his wife carried when she walked around in the woods on their property.  I asked him about why it was loaded with wadcutters.  He explained that most hollowpoint .38 ammunition didn’t expand well out of two-inch barrels.  He said that the wadcutters would penetrate deeply, would cut a sharp hole, and had mild recoil.

He then made the statement: “Out of a short barrel, the wadcutters perform better than the hollowpoints.”

Internally, I laughed.  Everyone knew hollowpoints were better for defensive use than target wadcutters.

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Actually, no, they’re targeting – exactly – who they want to, their political enemies.

Crime is soaring. The Biden administration targets the wrong culprit

In a country (and my home state) that is run under the Democrats’ one-party rule, civilians are being caught in the crossfire of soaring crime. Shootings of police officers have increased 63% compared to this time in 2020, and over 100 officers have been shot on duty so far in 2022. Last year, more police officers were killed in the line of duty than in any year since 1995, a 59% increase from 2020. In 2021, over a dozen Democrat-run “blue” cities across America set new homicide records. Defunding and demonizing police has dangerous consequences; crime is soaring.

Instead of addressing these shocking statistics, some of my more “progressive” colleagues continue to call to defund the police, while simultaneously spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on private security. They are benefiting from law and order themselves and leaving the people who voted them into office in danger due to their backward ideologies.

These deadly statistics prove an uptick in serious crime, committed by dangerous individuals and usually committed with illegal or stolen weapons. Unfortunately, President Joe Biden isn’t going after them. He’s turned his attention yet again to law-abiding citizens who wish to exercise their Second Amendment rights. Biden wants the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to ban privately made firearms, so-called “ghost guns.” These are predominantly a hobbyist option and require extensive time, special tooling, and dedication to craftsmanship to make them operate correctly — far more effort than criminals are willing to invest. A review of FBI statistics shows criminals typically steal firearms or get their weapons illegally on the black market. Adding more restrictions on responsible gun owners and hobbyists won’t prevent criminals from breaking the law.

The Biden administration has a record of going after law-abiding citizens instead of dangerous criminals.

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Comment O’ The Day
The gun-buying spree was a RESULT of the murder spike and a reaction to the demonstrated knowledge that if mostly peaceful pink-haired Antifa Zombies came crawling through your window, the police would not only be unable to help, but would refuse to do so if the opportunity arose.

The New York Times Uses a CDC Report on Homicides As an Excuse To Attack Private Gun Ownership

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday issued a report on the recent surge in the U.S. gun homicide rate, which rose by a third between 2019 and 2020, from 4.6 to 6.1 per 100,000 residents. The article, which was published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, notes that “several explanations have been proposed,” including “increased stressors (e.g., economic, social, and psychological) and disruptions in health, social, and emergency services during the COVID-19 pandemic; strains in law enforcement-community relations reflected in protests over law enforcement use of lethal force; increases in firearm purchases; and intimate partner violence.”

The New York Times predictably plays up that passing reference to “increases in firearm purchases.” The rise in gun homicides, the Times says, “corresponded to accelerated sales of firearms as the pandemic spread and lockdowns became the norm.” The Times explains that “Americans went on a gun-buying spree in 2020 that continued into 2021,” although sales have since returned to their usual level. It cites an estimate by gun violence researcher Garen Wintemute that “there remain roughly 15 million more guns in circulation than there would be without the pandemic.”

In 2017, according to the Small Arms Survey, American civilians owned more than 393 million firearms. Purchases in 2018 and 2019 added an estimated 27 million guns to that stock of weapons. If sales in 2020 had been similar to sales in the two previous years, they would have added another 13 million or so. Assuming Wintemute’s estimate is in the right ballpark, the “gun-buying spree” that worries the Times amounted to a further increase of about 3.5 percent. Although Times reporters Roni Caryn Rabin and Tim Arango seem to think that’s a plausible explanation for a 33 percent increase in the gun homicide rate, it’s not clear why.

It is demonstrably not true that more guns in circulation automatically results in more homicides. The number of guns owned by Americans rose steadily throughout the period, beginning in the early 1990s, when the U.S. homicide rate fell precipitously, a downward trend that has only recently abated. As the CDC notes, the reasons for the 2020 jump are unclear, although it is widely assumed that the massive disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic had something to do with it.

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The Trace is pushing to create a database of all gun owners nationwide.
For ‘gun violence’ research…yeah right

The NRA Knows It’s Impeding Gun Research

AS WELL IT SHOULD FOR THIS TYPE OF RESEARCH INTIMIDATION!

A year before gun rights groups sued to stop California from collecting information on firearms ownership, the NRA’s chief researcher acknowledged that its advocacy prevents accurate studies.

This story was published in partnership with the Los Angeles Times.

NICE OF THEM TO PROVIDE POSITIVE IDENTIFICATION FOR FUTURE USE

California has long played a pivotal role in the study of gun violence, maintaining a unique repository of detailed information on gun owners that it shares with researchers.
The National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups have filed lawsuits challenging that established practice. The lawsuits come as researchers confront an uptick in gun-related deaths, driven by a surge in homicides. They were filed a year after the NRA’s research director acknowledged at a private meeting that the group’s opposition to gathering such data has severely hampered gun violence research in the United States.
With narrow exceptions, all firearms transactions in California must go through licensed dealers, who relay information on purchasers that includes name, address, and date of birth to the California Department of Justice.
For over 30 years, the DOJ has shared this data with public health researchers, who have used it to try to untangle the connections between gun ownership and homicides, suicides, and other violence. They say this baseline information is key to understanding the risks and benefits of having a gun and, ultimately, to reducing injuries and deaths.
“California is special,” said David Studdert, a professor and gun researcher at Stanford Law School who focuses on the intersection of law and public health. “It’s not possible to do this kind of work elsewhere in the country. You need to be at the individual and household level to make the connection between the gun and a violent outcome. You can’t measure what you can’t see.”

THE REST OF THE ARTICLE IS STANDARD OPERATIONAL ANTI-GUN/ANTI CIVIL RIGHTS BS AND DOESN’T MERIT THE RESPECT TO POST IT.

I think Schumer did this thinking it would fail but then using that for political electioneering to ‘rock the vote’ for the elections this fall.
I think that’s a losing proposition and here’s why:
My Baby Needs Formula, And I’m Getting Scared She Won’t Have It.

According to analysis from Datasembly, 40 percent of top-selling baby formula products were out of stock at retailers across the United States as of April 24. That’s up from 11 percent in November of 2021. Six states — Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota — hit shortages of more than 50 percent. Why is this happening?

As in the previous post, economic issues – which includes food – will override cultural/philosophical issues every time. The party that screws that pooch gets kicked out of office

Schumer Show Vote on Radical Abortion Bill Goes Down in Flames

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has repeatedly shown his ineptitude when it comes to leading Democrats in the upper chamber, and he did so again in spectacular fashion on Wednesday afternoon. In what he seems to think was a grand gesture to prove his party’s commitment to a woman’s (birthing person’s?) right to kill her unborn child only put Democrats on the record supporting a bill that’s more radical than Roe ever was.

After the unprecedented leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion signaling that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, Schumer jumped into action and called for the passage of a bill to supposedly “codify” Roe in federal law. But he once again failed to do the math among his own caucus or the Senate as a whole before holding what became nothing but a failed show vote to prove Democrats support radical abortion rights that go beyond what even most pro-abortion Americans support.

The vote to break a Republican filibuster and move to the final vote on the “Women’s Health Protection Act” came down 51-49, with every Democrat but one voting to move ahead — Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined all the Republicans to block the legislation from moving forward.

Sixty votes were necessary to end debate on the bill and move ahead — but that threshold was never going to be met. Even if, somehow, enough Republicans agreed to vote with all the Democrats to move forward to a vote on the bill, Schumer didn’t have the 50 votes necessary to achieve a tie that would be broken by Vice President Kamala Harris to pass the measure after Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he opposed the Women’s Health Protection Act outright.

The legislative vehicle for Schumer and Democrats’ plan, which Speaker Nancy Pelosi previously passed through the House of Representatives, does far more than “codify” the right to abortion manufactured in the Court’s decision in federal law. That claim was thoroughly debunked by Guy here in a deep-dive on the “appalling and extreme departure from the current status quo” the bill Schumer pushed to a failed vote on Wednesday would be:

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Editorial O’ The Day

YES, IT’S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID:
President Galantamine tried his best to remember James Carville‘s infamous (and successful) 1992 Clinton talking point. But the poor man kept getting confused about whether inflation was a good thing (“It’s our strength” he babbled) before his handlers and a supplicant press corp glossed it over.

I’ve noted elsewhere that for all the sippy cups banging on the highchairs of America’s elite, Roe is simply not the high-salience issue that will re-elect Biden. Not when business news sites (even those run by Biden-friendly corporations) point out that as of right now:

“As of March, close to two-thirds, or 64%, of the U.S. population was living paycheck to paycheck, just shy of the high of 65% in 2020, according to a LendingClub report. “The number of people living paycheck to paycheck today is reminiscent of the early days of the pandemic and it has become the dominant lifestyle across income brackets,” said Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer.”

Yet, Democrats are still struggling to understand the importance of bread-on-the-table issues and keep whistling past that graveyard. One outfit, interviewing Democratic officials nervous about “electability,” said that:

“On Monday night, several left-leaning congressional candidates joined an emergency organizing call with activists reeling from a draft Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.”

When real America can’t pay its grocery bills, put gas in the car, or buy eyeglasses for their kids, all the screeching — and I do mean screeching — by Elizabeth Warren will not overcome Carville’s time-tested truth.

—-Charles Glasser