Issa Threatens Contempt Proceedings Over Gunwalking

I would say that The Honorable Representative Darrell Issa has just about had it with Department of Justice and Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, and Tobacco stonewalling, according to this letter obtained by The Daily Caller.

“We are not conducting a concurrent investigation with the Department of Justice, but rather an independent investigation of the Department of Justice,” Issa says in his April 20 letter, citing three historical examples of congressional oversight of Justice Department investigations, including during the Teapot Dome scandal in 1922.

He’s threatening contempt proceedings if the documents aren’t forthcoming soon. I daresay he’ll follow through on that threat, too.

Defensive shooting.

First off, once again, let me apologize for my long absence. I have no excuse for it, but I will say that my wife often times reminds me of the Congress. Attempting to live like you make a seven figure income when you only make six figures can be difficult.

Anywho. Obviously I am an avid shooter, and as some of you know I am a NC CCW instructor. In a recent attempt to make it known that simply plinking a target does not make you ready for a defensive shooting I decided to make an offer to anyone taking my class. At the end of the eight hour course, if you are able to out shoot me then your class becomes free and I give you your hundred and twenty bucks back. However, if you accept the challenge, and fail you have to pay a fine of sixty dollars.

The course of fire for your CCW qual here in NC is not that difficult, and does vary from instructor to instructor. The legislation only says that you must demonstrate proficiency with your chosen firearm. Back in the day instructors actually had a some what difficult qualification course, but quickly found out that if they make it too difficult then fewer people will take the class, and as such, fewer dollars end up in their pockets.

Well. By offering this challenge I am able to demonstrate how important training is to saving your life, while giving added incentive to my students.

Typically only one person per class actually takes me up on it. But the other students tend to stick around and watch. Which is the actual intent. To educate the masses.

I will admit, I do have an advantage. I made the course of fire. I get to practice it regularly. So, I do take it easy on those who accept the challenge.

For starters I use a homemade target instead of the typical silhouettes that the students purchase from the front counter of the range we use. I don’t like the ones they have up there because there is a little red x in the center that everyone always aims for. Problem is, the X is lower than it should be, so they train themselves via muscle memory to hit this spot instead of the important things in the bad guy’s chest.

So I took an idea from one of the target makers, and do it on my own.

Realistic

The scoring system is simple. The more damage done to the target, the lower the score. If you hit them in the CNS, that bullet is worth zero, a hit to the rest of the brain, or the heart is worth one, upper lung area is worth three, lower lung area worth five, the chest area outside the lungs is worth seven. I guess it is kind of self explanatory.

The course of fire is simple. Five strings of fire, at fifteen yards. Shoot until the target stops coming at you.

Here comes the difficult part. Instead of simply standing there and firing at the target completely calm, we stress our bodies.

I require that the student shoots first, that way I know how hard I have to try to beat them. Don’t want to beat them too bad or word might get out, and no one would take the challenge.

So, before every string of fire you back away from the firing line and thrash yourself. Push ups, sit ups, run in place etc until you are breathing hard.

You then immediately go to the firing line and shoot the string.

To date, I have had five challengers, no one has beat me. Not bad.

I have however recieved numerous requests to teach an advanced course that includes this type of training.

Cass Sunstein Confirmed By The Senate

Well folks, it’s official. With absolutely no consideration of his background or debate on his nomination (thus the cloture vote), Cass Sunstein has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new director of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs [Article - Cass Sunstein confirmed in 57-40 vote].

Six Republicans voted for Mr. Sunstein’s confirmation [Reference - U.S. Senate Cass R. Sunstein Confirmation Roll Call Vote]. They are:

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), one of the seven Republicans who voted for cloture on Mr. Sunstein’s nomination, did not vote for Sunstein to be confirmed.

If you want to know more about Cass Sunstein, please refer to this ACW post:

Cass Sunstein Passes Senate Cloture Vote

While America is distracted by health care reform, cap and trade, “stimu-less”, etc., another Obama nominee slips through the cracks. Cass Sunstein, another radical leftist advisor of Barack Obama, will now go through the Senate confirmation process [Article - Democrats push Cass Sunstein nomination]. A cloture vote was pushed through today and unfortunately, seven Republicans voted “Yea” [Reference - U.S. Senate Cass R. Sunstein Cloture Roll Call Vote]. Those Republicans are:

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH)

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH)

It is not surprising that Senators Collins and Snowe would vote against their own party’s interests because they have consistently done so. One has to wonder why they even remain Republicans. Although they don’t consistently vote against their own party like Snowe and Collins, Senator Gregg’s and Senator Lugar’s votes are not incredibly surprising. However, it is more alarming that Senators Bennett, Hatch and Voinovich would vote for Mr. Sunstein. I can only venture a guess as to why they voted for the man. Perhaps resulting from sheer ignorance of who Sunstein is?

Okay then, who really is Cass R. Sunstein? Glenn Beck of Fox News gives us some insight: Continue reading →

State Attorneys General Disagree On Second Amendment

A bipartisan group of 33 of the nation’s attorneys general have filed a “friend of the court” or amici curiae brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case of NRA v. Chicago and hold that the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments through the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Amicus Brief from 33 State Attorneys General

The 33 attorneys general agree with the NRA’s position that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms in the home for self-defense. This is in disagreement with the recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

The Seventh Circuit claimed precedent bound it from holding in favor of incorporation of the Second Amendment. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Nordyke v. King found that those cases don’t prevent the Second Amendment from applying to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. The Seventh Circuit opinion enables the bans on the possession of handguns in Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois to remain in place.

California attorney general Edmund G. Brown Jr. is filing a separate brief arguing that the Supreme Court should take up the NRA’s appeal and hold that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the states.

California AG Amicus Brief

Let’s see if leftist gun-grabbing politicians supported by their anti-gun special interest groups choose to ignore state attorneys general and the will of the American people in this instance. They have been running roughshod over our rights, freedoms and liberties, ignoring constitutional law on any whim. I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Letter To U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder From State Attorneys General

For the record, attorneys general from 23 states issued a signed letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder affirming their position on the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and the right to bear arms [Document (.pdf) - June 11, 2009 Letter From 23 State AG To USAG Eric Holder]. When President Obama and his bevy of anti-gun, Constitution-skirting henchmen decide to get another gun control or gun ban measure or set of gun control measures enacted, on top of 65 Congressional Democrats and almost all Congressional Republicans, twenty-three state attorneys general can be added to the list of the anti-gun lobby’s and President Obama’s opposition.

Gun Saves College Students

Wonder if this story will be promoted all over the leftymedia the same way an out-of-control gunman would be (and has been many times in the past):

“Apparently, his intent was to rape and murder us all,” said student Charles Bailey.

Bailey said he thought it was the end of his life and the lives of the 10 people inside his apartment for a birthday party after two masked men with guns burst in through a patio door.

“They just came in and separated the men from the women and said, ‘Give me your wallets and cell phones,’” said George Williams of the College Park Police Department.

Bailey said the gunmen started counting bullets. “The other guy asked how many (bullets) he had. He said he had enough,” said Bailey.

That’s when one student grabbed a gun out of a backpack and shot at the invader who was watching the men. The gunman ran out of the apartment.

The student then ran to the room where the second gunman, identified by police as 23-year-old Calvin Lavant, was holding the women.

“Apparently the guy was getting ready to rape his girlfriend. So he told the girls to get down and he started shooting. The guy jumped out of the window,” said Bailey.

I imagine those would-be rape victims are glad that student had a gun handy.

Another Falsehood On Guns

Bumping this post: Since the President repeated this lie (yes, I said lie) yesterday, I figured it was time to remind folks of the truth. It was originally posted 4 April 2009.

While we’re on guns…

You’ve heard this shocking “fact” before — on TV and radio, in newspapers, on the Internet and from the highest politicians in the land: 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the United States.

Well, as the Gipper once said, the problem with liberals isn’t that they’re ignorant, it’s that they know so much that isn’t so.

The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

What’s true, an ATF spokeswoman told FOXNews.com, in a clarification of the statistic used by her own agency’s assistant director, “is that over 90 percent of the traced firearms originate from the U.S.”

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

“Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number on it that would make it traceable, and the U.S. effort to trace weapons really only extends to weapons that have been in the U.S. market,” Matt Allen, special agent of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told FOX News.

See how it changes when you add the context? But you can’t remake all of American society if you tell them that we’re responsible for 17% of the guns used in Mexico.

Here’s the math, for you skeptics out there:

In 2007-2008, according to ATF Special Agent William Newell, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. Close to 6,000 were successfully traced — and of those, 90 percent — 5,114 to be exact, according to testimony in Congress by William Hoover — were found to have come from the U.S.

But in those same two years, according to the Mexican government, 29,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes.

In other words, 68 percent of the guns that were recovered were never submitted for tracing. And when you weed out the roughly 6,000 guns that could not be traced from the remaining 32 percent, it means 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced to the U.S.

So where to the guns come from? Well, there’s lots and lots of places that manufacture guns… including nations like South Korea, China, Spain, Israel, Russia, Belgium, Columbia, and Guatemala. But the lefties never let the facts stand in the way of their plans to turn the USA into the USSA.

This Is Why Citizens Need The Right To Own A Gun

From the Binghamton shooting:

Police heard no gunfire after they arrived but waited for about an hour before entering the building to make sure it was safe for officers. They then spent two hours searching the building.

Get that? Despite there being no gunfire, they waited an hour before going in. How long would they have waited if there had been gunfire? An hour after the last shot? Two hours?

The lefties who want to take away our guns tell us that the police will keep us safe, so we don’t need our own firearms. Tell that to the people who died in Binghamton.

Conservative Wanderer

Category Archives: Gun Control