U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- It’s the time of year when Americans are inclined to make resolutions. Some will try to lose weight, quit smoking, cut back on drinking, start an exercise program, go back to school, or find more rewarding employment. Those can all be worthy goals for gun owners to aspire to, but they neglect the preservation and restoration of legal recognition of the right to keep and bear arms. I submit that without unalienable rights, everything else is just the fine-tuning of privileges.
In years past I’ve come up with resolutions, each designed to highlight and further some aspect of RKBA. I’m going to share some of them again here, in no particular order, in the hopes that one or more of them will apply to the particular talents, interests, and/or inclinations of everyone reading them.
Attend an Appleseed or other skill-building event: None of us has “arrived” to where we couldn’t use more qualified training. I also include in this non-firearms self-defense training. It never hurts to be aware, capable, and conditioned, and to have some basic reactions reflexively hard-wired into us.
Know your representatives at the federal, state, and local levels. Know how to contact them and do so when appropriate (assuming it’s not a lost cause because you live in a Democrat hostage zone).
Write letters to the editor of your local paper to educate, to correct anti-gun misinformation, to support rare “pro-gun” pieces, and to bring their readership the truth. Read the paper’s submission policy, to know where to send it to (email or “snail” mail), and also to know what their editorial guidelines are, for instance, if they specify a 250-word limit and the like.
Join a deserving “gun rights” group. The left has shown us the power of “community organizing.” Join more than one if you can to cover national, state, and local issues. And be more than just a dues-paying member—get involved and help with time and effort. And meet new and like-minded friends.
Take a new person shooting. Be a true “commonsense gun safety” advocate. It’s fun, it’s rewarding, it doesn’t take up too much time or expense, and afterward, you should have a person who is receptive to learning more, including why guns are important for more than just sport shooting. Related to this, teach development-appropriate safety to your children.
Obtain and read Second Amendment books. All serious advocates should have a good understanding of the history behind the Second Amendment, and there is nothing better for providing one than some well-researched and authoritative books.
Support legal efforts to defend the Second Amendment. Federal, state, and local governments have virtually unlimited resources at their disposal with which to attack our rights and then drag things through the courts. Find one or more groups fighting battles you believe in and track records of results, and help them help you.
Share information not covered by the “mainstream press.” There is no shortage of anti-gun misinformation, and while sites such as this one do their best to correct that, comparative reach is often limited to an echo chamber. Do more than be just a consumer of such reports and articles, be a force multiplier and share links to those you find informative.
Support businesses that support us. There are plenty of “woke” anti-gun companies where supporting them is equivalent to giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It’s not always practical to “boycott” all of them (for instance, we don’t want to cut off our noses to spite our faces on some of the big tech stuff we rely on in our daily lives, like computers, phones, and the internet), but when possible, avoid businesses with “No Guns” signs, and patronize and spread the word about “friendly” places. Oh, and nobody “needs” Dick’s Sporting Goods or Disney.
Demonstrate for the Second Amendment. Even though “avoid crowds” can be a good rule of thumb, there is no “one size fits all” and sometimes public demonstrations for or against gun-related measures can be helpful, especially if organized by those who have earned your trust and support. If you do attend, make safety a priority—work out an exit strategy in advance for if things get shaky, and by all means, be on guard against provocateurs looking for low-hanging fruit to exploit.
This is just a limited sample of things to consider and is in no way all-inclusive. Perhaps you will think of things to add that aren’t addressed here, and if so, why not share them with the rest of us in the “comments” section, below?
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
Brownells Polymer80 Frames For Glock-Style Pistols
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The BATFE has released a letter to FFLs and the public, “clarifying” their new rules regarding so-called “80% receivers,” which were adopted earlier this year. The general understanding within the industry has been that the new regulation had the impact of requiring “unfinished receivers” to be treated as “firearms” if they were sold together with the parts and tools needed to turn them into functional firearms. The industry responded by separating the “unfinished receivers” from the tools and parts kits and selling them separately, with no jigs, tools, or any other parts needed to finish them. The regulatory changes were not authorized by Congress and are currently being challenged in court as an unconstitutional overstep by the BATFE.
This new letter moves the goalposts yet again. Now they are claiming that, with regard to “unfinished receivers” for striker-fired handguns, they consider these “partially completed receivers” to be “readily convertible” into functional receivers, and therefore they must be treated exactly the same as completed receivers. This means the manufacturers are now required to be licensed by the government to manufacture and sell guns and that each receiver be marked with a serial number and manufacturer information, sold only through licensed firearm dealers. Now purchasers will be subjected to identification and background checks.
The letter graciously invites anyone unsure whether the “unfinished receiver” they own or are manufacturing meets the nebulous criteria of being “readily convertible” into a firearm to send them a sample. They’ll be happy to let you know…eventually.
What they absolutely refuse to do, is publish a clear definition of exactly where the line is between a “receiver” and a “receiver-shaped object.” For several years they had a relatively clear standard, with people occasionally testing the borders of the standard.
It was understood that, as long as certain holes were not drilled, and certain sections weren’t machined to size and shape, the item was a paperweight, regardless of what tools, parts, or accessories might come along with it and regardless of how it might be advertised. Manufacturers who made “80% receivers” with drill hole positions marked were slapped down, as were those who manufactured their items with two separate colors and densities of polymer, which the BATFE said were too easy to finish. And some manufacturers loudly marketed their products as complete, do-it-yourself, “untraceable” gun kits, requiring no background checks or any registration – which really annoyed the control freaks.
The BATFE’s new regulations, adopted last April, threw much of the previously established understanding right out the window.
It cracked down on advertising that promoted the items as a way of avoiding gun control laws and required that “kits” be treated like guns, regardless of how complete or incomplete the receiver might be. But that wasn’t good enough for them, so now they have gone a step further, redefining “receiver” to include “unfinished receivers,” which they say are “readily convertible” into “receivers.”
The BATFE’s “reimagined” interpretations of the Gun Control Act of 1968 were already a serious overstep of their authority. The entire federal gun control regulatory scheme was unconstitutional from the get-go, not just for its violation of the Second Amendment, but for Congress’s failure to do their job of fleshing out the details of their legislation, instead delegating the lion’s share of that work to bureaucrats in the BATFE.
For the time being, this latest “clarification” of their regulations only applies to “unfinished receivers” for striker-fired handguns, like those made by Polymer 80 and Lone Wolf, but another “clarification” applying the same nebulous standards to “unfinished receivers” for other pistols and rifles, will almost certainly be forthcoming.
All of this nonsense is being challenged in court, but there’s no telling how long it might take for these matters to make their way to the Supreme Court for final resolution. Since the Bruen decision striking down New York’s arbitrary concealed carry requirements and establishing a clear standard for judging Second Amendment cases, it appears that some of the Circuit Courts of Appeal – particularly those that serve anti-rights-dominant areas like New York and California – are intentionally dragging their feet and doing their best to keep Second Amendment challenges from getting to the SCOTUS.
Are they hoping for Democrats to follow through on their threats to “stack the Court,” hoping for hard-line originalists like Justice Clarence Thomas to retire or kick the bucket, or just trying to allow the most damage possible before the eventual smackdown of their hubris? That’s all anyone’s guess, but while we wait for this BS to be rectified, companies like Polymer 80 and Lone Wolf are under the gun and at risk of being driven out of business, criminally prosecuted, or both.
Republican Representatives in Congress need to address this abusive, bureaucratic corruption as soon as the new Congress is seated in January, and not just with a strongly worded – and easily ignored – letter, but with real reform legislation. With Republicans holding a majority in the US House, they should be able to force a bill out of that body in pretty short order. Getting it through the Senate would be a challenge but not an impossibility, and even if they can’t get it through, the attempt would highlight the BATFE’s excesses and inconsistencies.
This type of bureaucratic overreach is a total violation of the process, ideals, and objectives of the founders and must be reined in by Congress. That’s not likely to happen unless your cowardly elected servants hear from you loud, long, and unequivocally. The Congressional Switchboard can be reached by calling 202-224-3121.
About Jeff Knox:
Jeff Knox is a second-generation political activist and director of The Firearms Coalition. His father, Neal Knox led many of the early gun rights battles for your right to keep and bear arms. Read Neal Knox – The Gun Rights War.
The Firearms Coalition is a loose-knit coalition of individual Second Amendment activists, clubs and civil rights organizations. Founded by Neal Knox in 1984, the organization provides support to grassroots activists in the form of education, analysis of current issues, and with a historical perspective of the gun rights movement. The Firearms Coalition has offices in Buckeye, Arizona, and Manassas, VA. Visit: www.FirearmsCoalition.org.
What the government has done to Albert Kwan, it can do to any gun owner. Hopefully, the people with the ability to help can be persuaded to see that.
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- Some years back, a Federal Firearms Licensee was falsely accused, arrested, held in jail, tried, and ultimately exonerated. Despite that, and in what seems a response motivated by revenge instead of any public safety imperative or moral authority, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives refuses to allow him to renew his license. And so far, no “gun rights group” has shown an interest in providing legal assistance to restore recognition of his rights.
It’s the case of Albert Kwan, a case both Jeff Knox of The Firearms Coalition and I (and very few others) have been following for years. One other source that did was Crime File News, now only available via the Internet Archive. It gives a general background on what precipitated Kwan’s falling out with ATF and also offers insights on why the gun groups may be afraid to attach their names to his predicament:
An anti-gun assistant U.S. attorney was murdered. FBI ballistics tests sent them on a search for an after-market replacement barrel for a Makarov pistol and that led them to Kwan, an FFL and collector, to test fire his gun. Since he wasn’t involved in that crime in any way (and that’s been subsequently proven), “Kwan refused the request because the gun was new and unfired. Kwan’s reasoning was that this would destroy the value of his property.”
The government response was typically heavy-handed and what we’ve outrageously come to expect. It resorted to “legal’ terrorism:
“They obtained a search warrant, kicked his door down and seized every firearm in his home. Kwan legally owned 100 machine guns along with some run of the mill semi-automatic firearms. The Agents took one of Kwan’s rifles, a Springfield, semi-automatic M-14 copy, remanufactured the receiver, and installed new parts turning it to a machine gun! Since that Springfield was not registered as a machine gun the agents charged Kwan for the federal felony under the National Firearms Act of 1934… What the agents really wanted was to ‘create’ a witness to testify against another suspect they’re trying to implicate in the Wales murder. Since they have no other evidence, the FBI set out to destroy Kwan’s life.”
Knox has documented the government’s prolonged attempts to do just that, including what it has cost Kwan in freedom while being arrested and incarcerated in solitary in a federal detention facility, time in fighting the charges, and money, including legal costs and seized and destroyed property, as well as:
“This exposure did serious damage to Albert Kwan’s reputation, destroying his commercial real estate business, costing him his Top-Secret security clearance, and causing him to be suspended from his position in the US Army Reserves.”
Knox adds additional clarification, at least as much as possible. The “rules” are arcane and malleable for a reason, intended to create confusion and be impossible to navigate without falling into traps along the way.
“As I understand it, they contacted Kwan and asked to look at his gun collection (housed in his home, along with his home-based FFL business),” Knox recalls. “In accordance with advice from his attorney, Albert told them they would need to talk with his attorney. He subsequently turned over his entire Makarov collection, through his attorney, including the gun with the aftermarket barrel installed, but the investigators were unsatisfied and felt that Albert was being ‘uncooperative,’ so they grabbed him at the airport as he was departing for a vacation trip, and held him in federal custody as a ‘material witness’ for almost a month. While they were holding him, they obtained a warrant and searched his home and collection, finding nothing. For the search, they invited a BATFE guy along, and after the Wales investigators came up empty, the BATFE guy got another warrant, based on what he had seen in the original search, leading to the charges on the M14 and the HK.
“As I understand it, the M14 was a real M14 that was a DEWAT/REWAT and fell into a unique category, as it had been remanufactured as a semi-auto and sold legally as such,” Knox continues. “Only a few of these ever made it into public hands, including a few that were sold by the CMP. The whole thing is very complicated, but the bottom line is that the gun was a semi-auto and the jury didn’t buy the BS that adding parts and milling and drilling the receiver constituted “readily restored.” On the HK, Albert owned a regular semi-auto civilian version of the pistol, as well as a registered SBR, full-auto version. He had two stocks for the SBR, and the BATFE claim was that since the extra stock ‘could’ be attached to the semi-auto pistol, that constituted ‘constructive possession’ of an unregistered SBR.”
As for the charges Kwan was brought to trial on, the first being illegal possession of an unregistered machine gun, as Knox notes, the jury decided it was a semiauto—but because ATF had converted it to fire full auto to try and convict him, there was no “legal” mechanism for them to convert it back and return his property. The jury did side with the government on the second charge, possession of an unregistered Short-Barreled Rifle (again, as noted, Kwan had an HK VP70Z pistol that “was capable of accepting” a shoulder stock, “but the judge learned that the BATFE had misrepresented several pertinent facts, and he reversed the jury verdict, declaring a mistrial.”
Despite being exonerated, ATF has rejected subsequent attempts by Kwan to reobtain his FFLs, and the courts have sided with the government. The “rationale,” per one of Kwan’s attorneys who replied to a query by AmmoLand:
“Mr. Kwan had a Federal Firearms License to manufacture guns and ammunition. The ATF found that he was doing neither and found that as a violation. They also found that he failed to cooperate with the inspectors. Those are the reasons his license was revoked.”
On the first point, Kwan held several FFLs (dealer, curio and relics, importer), not just manufacturing, and he tells AmmoLand he received an approved Form 1 (Application to Make and Register a Firearm) to establish compliance with “07” manufacturing requirements and was seeking to work with a qualified machinist because he is not one. On the second point, “cooperation” involves submission to inspection and records requirements related to his license. Once the government introduced a criminal homicide investigation into its inquiries, Kwan was well within his rights to refer them to his attorney for cooperation under the advice of counsel, which is exactly what he did. For everything else, as Regent Law Professor James Duane so expertly advises (and ignore him at your peril), “Don’t Talk to the Police.”
In siding with the government in denying Kwan his FFL, the presiding judge made a curious claim:
“In addition, as discussed above, Plaintiff provides no legal authority for his argument that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to deal in firearms and, as a result, cannot challenge the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 923 as it applies to his claim.”
That is written like a true slave to pre-Bruenstare decisis (precedent)…
It brings to mind a relevant observation from a motion to file an amicus brief by Edwin Vieira, Jr., submitted in the case of Kolbe v. Hogan, a challenge to Maryland’s “assault weapon”/magazine ban.
Per his online bio, Vieira “holds four degrees from Harvard: A.B. (Harvard College), A.M. and Ph.D. (Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences), and J.D. (Harvard Law School). For more than 30 years, he has practiced law with an emphasis on constitutional issues. In the Supreme Court of the United States, he successfully argued or briefed the cases leading to the landmark decisions…”
In short, when it comes to the Second Amendment, Vieira knows what he’s talking about. And this is what he says about the “right to deal in firearms” that the judge in the Kwan case disparaged:
“All militiamen (except conscientious objectors) were to be provided with ‘small arms’: long guns and pistols. Those who were financially able purchased their arms in the free market, then possessed them as private property in their homes at all times. Those with insufficient means were supplied with firearms the Militia or some other governmental body usually procured in the market, in most instances retaining possession of those arms whilst enrolled. This reliance on a permanent private market for firearms guaranteed that most militiamen, through their own efforts, could always obtain firearms suitable for both collective and individual self-defense, and forestalled tyranny by precluding rogue public officials from monopolizing the production, distribution, and possession of firearms.” [Emphasis added.]
And speaking of historical understandings, it’s interesting to note that when John Belton wrote to the Continental Congress in 1777 informing them he had privately developed “a common small arm, … maid to discharge eight balls one after another, in eight, five or three seconds of time, & each one to do execution five & twenty, or thirty yards, and after so discharg’d, to be loaded and fire’d with cartridge as usual, which I am ready to prove by experimental proof and can with equal ease fix them so as to discharge sixteen, or twenty, in sixteen, ten, or five seconds of time, which I have kept as yet a secret, thinking that in two, or three Months we might have an army thus equipt, which our enemy should know nothing of, till they should be maid to know it in the field, to their immortal sorrow,” no one sent shock troops to his door to haul him in and destroy his life over “licensing,” or over a “civilian” making “weapons of war.”
As noted, Kwan’s finances have been devastated by his decades-long battle for justice. Jeff Knox has been leading the effort to get legal assistance, but no surprise, without the resources and reach of the “big guns,” there’s no way sufficient funding will be obtained. My own efforts have similarly fallen short, with one notable organization head essentially admitting they didn’t want to take his case, presumably due to fallout vulnerability from association with the criminal case Kwan was proven to have nothing to do with.
Our intent is not to name names or embarrass anyone, it is to get Albert Kwan the legal help we can’t give him but those with national connections and resources can. To that end, Knox has written a letter to an attorney (purposely left unnamed) who is qualified to advise on all counts, embedded below.
What I am asking of AmmoLand readers is this: If you agree that Kwan has gotten a raw deal, if you see how that can undermine your rights, and if you think that’s in your interests to do something about, ask your favorite “pro-gun” group if it will help and encourage your friends to do the same. That’s it.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
New York – -(AmmoLand.com)- As one more year draws rapidly to a close in these first three decades of the 21st Century, the United States stands precariously at the edge of an abyss.
One Branch of the Federal Government, the U.S. Supreme Court, at least recognizes the danger and has prevented the Country from falling over the precipice.
After a century of sidestepping the issue, the U.S. Supreme Court established, in three precedential case law decisions, what had been visibly plain in the language of the Second Amendment itself all along if one would only look.
All three cases were handed down in the first three decades of the 21st Century. They include:
District of Columbia vs. Heller in 2008, McDonald vs. City of Chicago in 2010, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association vs. Bruen in 2022.
These three cases, together, stand for the following propositions, now black letter law:
The right of armed self-defense is an individual right unconnected with one’s service in a militia
The right of armed self-defense is a universal right, applicable to both the States and the Federal Government.
The right of armed self-defense applies wherever a person is, inside the home or outside it.
These three legal axioms are, together, the singular Law of the Land.
But for this Law, the Republic would have fallen into ruin, this Century.
There would be nothing to rein in a rogue Congress, a rogue Biden Administration, or rogue jurisdictions like those around the Country: New York, New Jersey, Illinois, California, Washington State, Washington D.C., Oregon, Hawaii, and several others.
The rot from those State jurisdictions and from the Federal Government would eventually infect many other states.
Forces inside the Government and outside it, both here and abroad—wealthy and powerful, malevolent and malignant—constantly machinate to destroy the right to armed self-defense. These forces will not tolerate an armed citizenry. The existence of an armed citizenry contradicts their end goal of a neo-feudalistic world government. The armed citizenry precept deviates from their plan of world conquest.
Their goal for the 21st Century is a return to the political, social, and economic feudalistic construct operating in the world of the 5th through 15th Centuries—the Middle Ages.
These ruthless elements have declared——
The United States can no longer continue as a free Constitutional Republic;
The American people must be subjugated; and
Any thought of an armed citizenry must be erased from the collective memory of the American people.
The ashes of a once powerful, respected, sovereign, independent United States are to be commingled with the ashes of other western nations.
The EU and the British Commonwealth Nations are a step in the direction of that world empire.
The neoliberal democratic world order is conceived as——
One devoid of defined geographical borders,
One absent national government; and
One bereft of any defining history, heritage, culture, ethos, or Judeo-Christian ethic by which the people of one nation may easily distinguish themselves from any other.
Bill of Rights
Will the U.S. fall victim to totalitarianism as have the nations of the EU and British Commonwealth, as have India and China, and as have most all countries in the Middle East? Let us hope not.
The U.S. need not fall victim.
The U.S. has something all other nations lack: a true Bill of Rights.
Our Bill of Rights consists of a set of natural laws: fundamental, unalienable, unmodifiable, immutable, illimitable, and eternal.
Within this Country’s Bill of Rights rests a Cardinal Truth. And, of this Truth——
The Founders were aware of it.
The Republic they founded is grounded on it.
The strength and power of our Country and the staying power of our Constitution is a testament to it.
All Americans should imprint this Truth on their collective memory:
“What isn’t created by man cannot lawfully be taken from man by other men, nor by any temporal artifice of man: Government, for the sanctity, inviolability of man’s Selfhood, his Soul, and his Spirit do not belong to the Government; they cannot be bestowed on man by Government; and they cannot be severed from man by Government.”
Government is a dangerous enterprise.
Our Federal Government is no longer reliable. It is entirely rogue. It has forgotten the people whose interests it was created to serve. It serves only its own interests, those special interests that fund the campaign coffers, and foreign, secretive agencies of whom the public has no inkling.
With this Federal Government, the American people have got “a tiger by the tail.” It is difficult to hold onto, but one daren’t let it go lest it bite the people. Best to destroy it if we can no longer hold onto it.
That “Tiger,” our Federal Government, is a creation of the American people and exists only to serve the people—the true and sole sovereign over the Federal Government.
The presence of an armed citizenry serves as both evidence of its sovereignty over the Government and the mechanism by which it may lawfully constrain it, contain it, or curtail it if the Government loses its way and turns against the people.
The Right to Armed Self-Defense is Natural Law, a God-given right bestowed on man by the Divine Creator.
Government cannot lawfully modify Natural Law, Ignore it, Rescind it, or formally Repeal it.
Since armed self-defense is a Natural Law Right, the U.S. Supreme Court—in Heller, McDonald, and Bruen—didn’t make new law. The rulings of the three seminal High Court cases simply make explicit what is tacit in the language of the Second Amendment.
Unfortunately, many jurisdictions have failed to recognize, or otherwise have failed to acknowledge and accept, the strictures of the Second Amendment.
That necessitated the intervention of the High Court. In one Second Amendment case after another—from Heller to McDonald and then to Bruen—the Court has ordered States to uphold the strictures of the Second Amendment. Yet, many refuse to do so.
Indeed, many jurisdictions reject Heller, McDonald, and Bruen outright. But no jurisdiction does so more emphatically, contemptuously, and openly than New York. And a recent ruling of the Second Circuit is disheartening and unnerving.
About The Arbalest Quarrel:
Arbalest Group created `The Arbalest Quarrel’ website for a special purpose. That purpose is to educate the American public about recent Federal and State firearms control legislation. No other website, to our knowledge, provides as deep an analysis or as thorough an analysis. Arbalest Group offers this information free.
Theodore Roosevelt is the president most associated with personal arms and with promoting that Americans should be armed and trained in the use of arms. He became the President after the assassination of President Mckinley, the youngest president in US history. He was an early adopter and user of silencers.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Smith & Wesson #3 revolver
The Smith & Wesson #3 was linked to President Theodore Roosevelt. From Rock Island Auction Company:
“Theodore Roosevelt was one of the most beloved and influential men in American history, and having documentation of the shipment makes this gun something incredibly extraordinary and valuable,” said Kevin Hogan, President of Rock Island Auction Company. “This is a crown jewel in fine arms collecting. Not only is it a rare chance to own a presidential firearm, but of a president who embodied the spirit of a nation. You don’t need to look further than Mt. Rushmore to understand his significance.
The Smith & Wesson New Model No. 3 revolver is chambered in a .38 Long Colt, the U.S. service cartridge at the time, but scarcely seen in this particular model. Roosevelt’s revolver also has distinct combat target rear sights – both features indicating that this revolver was intended to be carried into the war against Spain. Roosevelt instead famously carried a Colt double action revolver that had been salvaged from the wreckage of the USS Maine battleship, allowing this revolver to remain in excellent condition.
Documentation shows that the revolver was purchased from the descendants of James E. Amos, the bodyguard and valet of President Theodore Roosevelt. Amos was very close to Roosevelt and was by his bedside shortly before he died. He received the revolver as a present from Roosevelt’s wife Edith, after the former president’s death. According to Amos, “…while president, he often went armed. I have in my home now a large revolver that Mr. Roosevelt placed at the side of his bed every night while in the White House. It was given to me by Mrs. Roosevelt after his death.”
The pristine condition of Roosevelt’s Smith & Wesson New Model No. 3 revolver reflects the statement that the firearm served as a “nightstand gun.” The revolver would not have been used or exposed to natural elements, preserving its condition.
Rock Island Auction Company (RIAC) has become the premier auction house for firearms in the world. This is not surprising, as the United States is the premier country for firearms in the world.
President of RIAC, Kevin Hogan, believes collectible firearms are greatly undervalued in the United States compared to other collectibles. He cautions, however, that collectible firearms should be purchased to enjoy, as profits from collectibles are never certain.
Opinion:
Collectables are a way to hedge against inflation. With inflation roaring in the United States, smart money seeks ways to preserve value. If the republic is preserved, ammunition can always be used for recreation. If hard times ensue, there may be more dire uses of the product.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
The carjacking suspect was shot by his intended victim before being arrested by police. IMG iStock-486793682
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-– Shortly after midnight, in the early morning of December 13, 2022, the owner of a 2022 Dodge Charger Hellcat was parking the vehicle in a driveway in Eastpoint, Illinois, a part of the Detroit metroplex. He was approached by more than one suspect in an apparent carjacking attempt.
On December 13, 2022, at approximately 12:30 am, Eastpointe Police Officers were dispatched to the area of the 23 thousand block of Hayes on an attempt carjacking and shots fired complaint. The suspects approached the victim while he was parking his vehicle (2022 Dodge Charger Hellcat) in the driveway. During the attempted robbery, the suspects and victim exchanged gunfire. The victim was a CPL holder. The suspects then fled in a stolen Chevy Impala.
Shortly after the exchange of gun fire, it was reported that a male, who was later identified as one of the suspects, had checked himself into a nearby hospital with a gunshot wound to his leg. As Eastpointe Detectives were in route to the hospital, the suspect had fled.
After an exhaustive investigation, Eastpointe Detectives and Eastpointe Special Investigation Unit teamed up with the Detroit Police Organized Crime Unit and tracked the stolen Impala to Clinton Township. Eastpointe Detectives worked with Clinton Township Police and located the stolen vehicle. The suspect later exited a residence and entered the vehicle. After a brief vehicle pursuit, the suspect was arrested without incident.
Search warrants were executed at the residence and the stolen vehicle. Evidence of the crime was recovered. We are still working on locating the second suspect. We want to personally thank our Detroit Police and Clinton Twp. Police neighbors for their assistance.
ARRESTED
Damon Lamar Currie, 27 years old
CHARGES
Assault with intent to murder
Felony firearm
Bond was set at $750,000 with GPS tether-Currie was arraigned at the 38th District Court in Eastpointe.
Some of the comments on the Eastpointe Police and Fire Department site were illuminating:
Thank you for catching yet another thug, here trying to ruin our neighborhood! These people need to learn that our police officers don’t take too kindly to crimes of any sort and you will get caught ! Smarten up and learn to be a good human being…the world needs more of that !
Yo smooths, you might not be the master criminal you think you are. Perhaps you could should find another racket like actually working for a living like the rest of us.
When armed victims wound suspects, the police have a much easier job of finding and arresting them.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Readily available for photo ops at stores during non-emergencies, when looters ran wild during the recent blizzard, Buffalo cops were needed elsewhere responding to more critical demands. Meanwhile, their anti-gun boss is focused on attacking legal gun sellers and manufacturers. (Mayor Byron W. Brown/Facebook)
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Deadly blizzard conditions in upstate New York gave cover to local looters over the weekend as they robbed businesses while police were stuck elsewhere,” the New York Post reports. Mayor Byron Brown says he’s “astounded.”
“I don’t know how these people can even live with themselves, how they can look at themselves in the mirror,” he complained to the media. “They are the ‘lowest of the low.”’
“They’re not looting foods and medicines, they’re just looting items that they want. So these aren’t even people in distress,” Brown complained. “These are people who are taking advantage of a national disaster and the suffering of many in our community to take what they want.”
Nothing says “social justice,” like victimizing the helpless while plundering retail merchandise. Does it occur to them that if they take something of value from someone who has earned it, they have effectively enslaved him for the amount of time that it took him? Probably not, but if it did, do you think they’d care?
And talk about updating the old adage that “When seconds count, the police are minutes away.”
When seconds count, the police are nowhere to be found and won’t be. That’s always the case, especially in times of widespread emergency, when civil authority is concentrated and triaging to where directed, and everybody else is left on their own. In this case, with people dying, there’s no question police were desperately needed elsewhere. But it’s in these times of disaster when people left to protect themselves are most justified in doing just that against predators.
You don’t know what a lawless mob brazen enough to loot with impunity, with the implied threat that anyone who tries to stop them will be dealt with physically, will do should they perceive that you are keeping them from what they want. That threat is terrifying and real. Yet imagine who would be on trial if one or more of the hapless victims did what was both necessary and just.
Sorry. The people who invite violent anarchy tell us, “You loot, we shoot” is racist.
People like Mayor Brown, who has enrolled Buffalo as a member of Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Guns… (I left out “Illegal,” because it’s redundant. If these local tyrants had their way, they all would be everywhere, in Everytown.)
He’s the one leading a “first of its kind’ lawsuit against … manufacturers, distributors, and other local gun shops.”:
“‘Members of our community have suffered too much and for too long from gun violence. We must do everything we can to decrease gun violence. Enabling the possession of illegal guns destroys lives and deeply effects [sic] our neighborhoods, especially in Black and Brown communities,’ said Brown.”
It’s hardly a “first of its kind.” It’s why the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act was passed. As with all things “progressive,” it’s a recycled bad idea intended to solidify a totalitarian violence monopoly and further swindle citizens out of their rights
Which population is it in Buffalo that overwhelmingly possesses those “illegal guns”? Who is it who most needs protection from them? And how does making it more difficult (and expensive!) to legally own and carry them do anything but guarantee more victims in those communities?
Don’t bother asking the “astounded” Brown. He not only doesn’t have any answers, but his entire power shtick also depends on keeping anyone ignorant enough to vote for him from even considering such questions.
And in the meantime, they’d better pray they don’t need to call anyone for help at the time when they most need it.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
Mississippi takes Active Approach to Guard Against Mass Murder in Schools IMG iStock-884194552
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)-– On October 1, 1997, school principal Joel Myrick (a U.S. Army Reserve Major) stopped a shooting at the Pearl Mississippi High School by holding the killer at gunpoint until police arrived. A student had assisted by blocking the killer’s car with their car. The killer attempted to drive around the other vehicle but became stuck. At that point, Joel Myrick pointed his .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol at the killer, and the killer surrendered.
At the time, it was illegal for Joel Myrick to bring his personal weapon onto the school property. He had to retrieve it from his car. No one attempted to prosecute Myrick for breaking the federal gun-free school zone act.
Thirteen years later, in 2011, Mississippi passed a bill creating a shall-issue enhanced carry permit, which allows the possessors to carry in several otherwise prohibited locations, such as schools and colleges, places that serve alcohol, polling places, meetings of the legislature, airline passenger terminals (excepting federally secured areas) and churches. This effectively allowed carrying in schools by people with the enhanced permit.
In 1990, the board created a policy which prohibited weapons in schools, except in the possession of law enforcement officials. The policy also allowed districts to create additional rules about weapons in their district. But in 2012, when state lawmakers passed an enhanced carry law that allowed enhanced permit holders to carry weapons on school campuses, the board never updated its policy.
The board voted in July to adopt a temporary rule change to address this issue, and after receiving and reviewing public comment, the board made its temporary change permanent on Thursday. The new policy reads “each local school district shall have a policy concerning weapons on school premises.”
In the July meeting, the Mississippi Department of Education’s (MDE) general counsel referenced an attorney general opinion from 2013, which clarifies that possessing a gun on school property is a felony according to Mississippi law unless one possesses an enhanced concealed carry permit.
No mass murder at a Mississippi school has taken place since 1997. To further enhance Mississippi school safety, Republican Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi has recommended the creation of a school guardian program that would pay volunteers in schools to be armed and responsible for the defense of the students and staff. Volunteers would undergo training and be paid about $500 a month. From mcusercontent.com:
Enhance School Safety
There are few issues of higher importance than ensuring the safety of Mississippi children. When parents send their kids to school, they should be able to rest comfortably knowing that their kids will be safe and protected. Every child should be able to focus solely on learning, and Mississippi intends to provide the security necessary for that.
To better protect our kids, I propose creating the Mississippi School Safety Guardian Program. Guardians will be trained to provide armed intervention in the event of an active shooter threat. They will be employees of the school district and nominated by the district to be trained and certified by the Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Guardians will receive a monthly stipend of $500 dollars, be issued a firearm, a holster, and ammunition by DPS. They will graduate from a training program hosted by DPS and must recertify with the Department annually. I propose allocating $5 million to cover the cost of an initial rollout for the program across 450 schools, with the goal of ultimately expanding the program to every public school across the state.
Additionally, Mississippi should allocate a dedicated source of funding to identify and provide an annual threat assessment for every school across the state. I propose $1 million toward this effort.
School Resource officers cost about $100,000 a year. $500 a month per guardian would cost about $6,000 a year. About 16-17 school guardians can be trained and available for each School Resource Officer.
The enhanced permit in Mississippi costs about $115 dollars and can be renewed every five years for $72. There are reduced fees for retired and active duty military or spouse and law enforcement officers. Applications must be made in person, but people who have carry permits from other states may apply.
Republicans hold more than two thirds of the Senate and about 63% of the house seats in the Mississippi state legislature. It appears a bill supported by Governor Reeves has a reasonable chance of passage.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
Know your place in the food chain. There are “Only Ones,” there are “ATF Only Ones,” and there are “little people.” (ATF/Facebook)
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “A federal grand jury in Des Moines returned an indictment … charging Adair Chief of Police Bradley Wendt with unlawfully obtaining and possessing machine guns,” the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Idaho announced in a mid-December press release. “According to unsealed court documents, Wendt … exploited his position … to acquire 10 machine guns purportedly for the official duties and responsibilities of the Adair Police Department, but later resold several of those machine guns at a significant profit.”
He also, per the release, “acquired 13 machine guns for his Denison-based gun store, BW Outfitters, through false statements to the ATF that the machine guns were being demonstrated for future potential purchase by the Adair Police Department … sought to demonstrate or purchase approximately 90 machine guns for the Adair Police Department, which serves a town of less than 800 people [and, with an accomplice] hosted public machine gun shoots, where they charged patrons money…”
Nice work if you can get it. The problem is, without a badge, you can’t, and therein lies the crux of police as “Only Ones.”
That’s a term I started using (and trying to get others to adopt) after a DEA agent explained to a classroom full of school children that he was “the only one professional enough” to carry a Glock and then shot himself in the foot trying to re-holster it. As I explain to readers on my The War in Guns blog:
“[T]he purpose of this feature has never been to bash cops. The only reason I do this is to amass a credible body of evidence to present when those who would deny our right to keep and bear arms use the argument that only government enforcers are professional and trained enough to do so safely and responsibly. And it’s also used to illustrate when those of official status, rank, or privilege, both in law enforcement and in some other government position, get special breaks not available to we commoners, particularly (but not exclusively) when they’re involved in gun-related incidents.”
Over the years, and without particularly trying, that body of evidence just keeps growing, and growing, and growing. As the character Brant from the dystopian science fiction film Blade Runnernoted:
“You know the score, pal. If you’re not cop, you’re little people.”
They sure do make it tough to “Back the Blue” sometimes, don’t they? For those gun owners who wave that flag and insist it’s just “a few bad apples,” what percent would not obey orders to confiscate your guns? Show your work.
The Adair indictment also illustrates another danger, particularly in jurisdictions where police officials are either enthusiastically on board (or even driving) the citizen disarmament bandwagon.
“What Would Happen if ‘Battle of Athens’ Round Two Ever Becomes Necessary?” I asked back in 2014. That article looked at the militarization of police departments with surplus equipment from the feds. It focused on recent acquisitions by the McMinn County Sheriff’s Department and speculated on how the World War Two veterans trying to ensure election integrity against a corrupt sheriff and deputies would have fared had they been greeted by full autos, grenade launchers, and MRAPs.
Let’s keep working for freedom to reduce the need to ever have to find out. Let’s not forget that things may come down to resistance or surrender.
While the charges against Chief Wendt are just that, while he is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and while the Justice Department and ATF have given gun owners very little reason of late to trust any charges they bring as anything other than tyrannical overreach and/or in-your-face political rape, it’s not out of line to speculate that exploitation of the badge was going on.
“There is a solution to all of this, of course. Undo the infringement of the NFA, GCA and Hughes Amendment. Then no one will be able to enrich themselves this way by selling machine guns.”
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
Justice Sotomayor Gives New York One Week To Respond To GOA’s Petition, iStock-697763642
WASHINGTON, D.C.-(Ammoland.com)- Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor has given New York State until next Tuesday to respond to Gun Owners of America’s (GOA) emergency petition to SCOTUS to vacate the stay on a District Court’s preliminary injunction against the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA).
NY UPDATE
Justice Sotomayor has requested NY to respond to the GOF & @GunOwners emergency application asking to vacate the 2nd Circuit’s stay on NY’s unconstitutional concealed carry restrictions by 1/3 at 4 PM EST.
GOA and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF), GOA’s non-profit, teamed up with several plaintiffs to sue New York State to block the State’s CCIA in the Antonyuk v. Hochul lawsuit.
The CCIA was passed in response to New York Pistol Rifle Association v. Bruen. The landmark SCOTUS decision knocked down New York State’s “proper cause” clause in the Empire State’s concealed carry law. It also eliminated the two-step test in Second Amendment cases. Courts can now only use the original text and history to decide gun cases. Bruen also limited where states could ban guns. Only specific locations could be considered “sensitive.” These areas include schools and government buildings. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas stated that a state could not designate a place as “sensitive” because it is where people gather.
New York State quickly passed a new law in response to Bruen. “Proper cause” was replaced with “good moral character.” Anyone wanting a concealed carry permit must submit three years of social media posts for the State to review. Most of the State became a gun-free zone, including Time Square, because it is where people gather. The State also created the new term of “restrictive” locations. The new category applies to any business that does NOT post a sign saying that firearms are welcome. This category would have the same force of law as an area deemed “sensitive.”
The plaintiffs asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) until the court could rule on the coalition’s request for an injunction. A Western New York Federal District Court judge found that the plaintiffs would likely succeed on the case’s merits and suffer irreparable harm by the law. New York appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the TRO, which the Second Circuit did relent to the State’s request. Before GOA and New York State faced off in Circuit Court, the District judge issued a preliminary injunction against the CCIA, finding most of the law unconstitutional.
Once again, the State returned to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and asked it to stay the preliminary injunction against the CCIA. The Second Circuit, known for being anti-gun, sided with the state and issued the stay. GOA filed an emergency petition to the Supreme Court asking it to lift the stay. The gun rights organization claimed that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t give a reasoned analysis in their decision and issued a “knee-jerk” ruling.
Justice Sotomayor, who oversees the Second Circuit, granted GOA’s petition and gave New York exactly one week to respond. Even though Sotomayor is no friend of gun rights, she will not likely disregard the Bruen decision. Justice Sotomayor can do several things. First, she could vacate the stay herself, which seems unlikely. The smart money is on her referring the case to the full bench to rule, which would most likely side with the plaintiffs. The decision will have rippling effects across the country. States like New Jersey have similar laws and are being sued in multiple lawsuits by organizations such as the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Once New York State files its response, there isn’t a timeline for the next step.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Armed Defender Ends Attack on the Road, iStock-1354934183
U.S.A.–-(AmmoLand.com)-Crime happens anywhere and anytime. It was just before midnight Saturday when a man in his pickup truck was returning home with his two-year-old. He was almost home when he saw a woman walking on the side of the road. It was quite dark and cold on this rural road. The driver in his pickup truck stopped and offered the 49-year-old woman a ride. This is an uneventful good samaritan story so far.
The woman on the side of the road lived nearby. The individual in the pickup truck decided to drop his child off at home with his wife before he delivered the pedestrian to her home. The pickup truck had just pulled back onto the road in Elkrun Township, Ohio when it was struck from behind by a jeep. The jeep pushed the truck off the road. The driver in the truck looked in his rearview mirror and saw that the driver in the jeep had a handgun out the window with the gun pointed at the people in the truck. The vehicles stopped off the road in a wooded portion of this rural area.
The truck driver grabbed his firearm and got out of his truck. So did the driver of the jeep. Deputies reported that the jeep driver fired first before the armed defender shot his attacker several times in the torso. The attacker stopped shooting and fell on the side of the road. The defender stopped shooting and backed away. He called 911 and asked for help. The news reports don’t mention when the defender put his gun away, nor do they mention where he put it.
Sheriff’s deputies and emergency medical services arrived at the scene. The attacker was declared dead. The 49-year-old woman on the side of the road had been a passenger in the jeep. The 69-year-old driver of the jeep attacked her. She got out of the jeep and escaped by walking toward her home along the side of the road. The Sheriff said this incident started as a domestic assault and the driver of the pickup truck acted in self-defense. Sheriff Brian McLaughlin said,“I don’t foresee any charges being filed.”
The defender was shaken but not injured. He said he was glad that his child wasn’t hurt and that he was praying for everyone involved.
This story is one of many that goes underreported by the mainstream media because it shows a positive image of a law-abiding gun owner using that tool to defend their life and family. It is our responsibility at AmmoLand to report these stories to you the reader. While we will continue to report these stories, groups like theCrime Prevention Research Center, led by Dr. John Lott, are fastidious in studying the use of firearms for self-defense. Stay up to date with all news on self-defense by following CPRC and Ammoland.
As for a “counter-narrative,” what refutes the observable fact that in order to purchase a gun legally, Hunter Biden would have had to answer “No” on the ATF Form 4473. iStock-919659526
U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “Some Hunter Biden allies making plans to go after his accusers,” The Washington Post reports. “Hunter Biden’s friend and lawyer Kevin Morris … described defamation lawsuits the team could pursue against the presidential son’s critics, including Fox News, Eric Trump, and Rudy Giuliani.”
Morris held a meeting at his California home to assess legal strategies and highlight opposition research. At one point, Hunter Biden himself called in. And the attendance of another supporter tells us much about the company he keeps:
“They feel that there is a whole counternarrative missing because of the whole Hunter-hater narrative out there,” said liberal activist David Brock, who attended the meeting. “What we really got into was more the meat of it, the meat of what a response would look like.” Brock was planning for a new group, Facts First USA, focused on fighting the looming House GOP investigations.
Dismissing reports on Biden as a “Hunter-hater narrative” is a deliberate tactic used by a media pro who knows how to manipulate narratives. As for a “counter-narrative,” what refutes the observable fact that in order to purchase a gun legally, Hunter Biden would have had to answer “No” on the ATF Form 4473.
Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?
There’s no “Hunter-hater” motivation in wanting to see equal treatment under the law for all citizens or in pointing out the hypocrisy in the son of an anti-gun president getting both preferential treatment and administrative cover for what the government considers a serious “gun crime” felony. You would think all honest Americans would want that regardless of political affinities. You’d think so-called “commonsense gun safety” advocates would not want to see people who would otherwise be “prohibited persons” gaming the background check system. And you’d think that everyone interested in honest government would be demandingly curious about how the Secret Service is getting away with what appears to be false statements on an affidavit about its role in the case – with absolutely no media or political scrutiny or investigation.
That Brock is a major player on Team Hunter is particularly revealing. The founder of Media Matters, he first gained prominence as a “rightwing investigative reporter in the 1990s” before “he switched sides, aligning himself with the Democratic Party and in particular with Bill and Hillary Clinton.”
That he is now devoted to suppressing a Republican Congressional investigation and chilling criticism with the threat of lawsuits is hardly surprising to those of us who have observed his M.O. over the years.
Brock’s Media Matters reportedly coordinated spin with Eric Holder’s Department of Justice on stories about ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious “gun-walking” plot that resulted in the deaths of two federal agents and an untold number of Mexican nationals. Curiously, the same DOJ operative on point with Media Matters dismissed a bar complaint against Holder I had made with colleague Mike Vanderboegh as “specious” and “frivolous.”
They didn’t want that talked about, either.
It’s also unsurprising since we’re talking about an apparatchik for the party of phony inclusion and tolerance that Brock’s Media Matters CEO/henchman displayed his inner bigoted hatred. Can you imagine if a “conservative” had said that? Who thinks he’d be promoted instead of destroyed?
It also seems in “character” to recall employee assessments of Brock’s “volatile and erratic behavior and struggle with mental illness” and his abusive treatment of employees:
“Meanwhile, Brock became rigid and harsh with his employees — ‘viciously mean,’ in the words of someone who witnessed it. ‘He spent a lot of time ripping up researchers. It was abusive. I never understood why more people didn’t quit.’ One staffer recalls Brock saying he would like to fire a researcher for being physically repugnant. ‘David definitely does not like ugly people.’”
But what makes highlighting Brock’s involvement with Biden in this case especially relevant for an AmmoLand report is how both have reportedly flouted gun laws and evidently gotten away with it. From the above-linked report to The Daily Caller:
“Paranoid” Media Matters founder David Brock had bodyguards and an “executive assistant [who] carried a handgun to public events,” including in Washington, D.C. At the time of the report, that was illegal, meaning he could not have been “lawfully carrying.” Evidently, “progressive” elites believe “gun laws” they demand for the rest of us do not apply to them.
If Mr. Brock wishes to offer a “counternarrative” to anything reported here, unlike those who use their connections and influence to suppress information that does not serve their interests, I’ll do what I can to help him call attention to it. If he, Media Matters, or Kevin Morris want to take things further and try to put the chill on things with bullying legal threats, well, maybe that’s one way to get more attention for Hunter Biden and his problematic 4473.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
NY UPDATE 
