July 2018 NICS checks down 9.5%
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported that the July 2018 NSSF-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 821,260 is a decrease of 9.5 percent compared to the July 2017 NSSF-adjusted NICS figure of 907,348.
Montgomery cops pick duty firearm
Sig Sauer recently announced that the Montgomery, AL, Police Department has selected the Sig P320 as their official duty firearm. The Montgomery Police Department has a complement of more than 500 sworn officers protecting the second largest city in the state, with over 200,000 citizens.
The P320 is a modular, striker-fired pistol available in full-size, carry, compact, and subcompact sizing. The serialized trigger group makes the P320 adaptable to multiple caliber, size, and grip options. The P320 is available in 9mm, .357SIG, 40S&W, and .45ACP, with a choice of contrast, or SIGLITE Night Sights. The intuitive 3-point takedown requires no trigger pull for disassembly, and safety features include a striker safety, disconnect safety, and optional manual safety.
Judge denies request for injunction in GA campus carry suit
A Fulton County, GA, judge has denied an injunction request by six Georgia professors to prohibit the state’s contentious campus carry law, which allows licensed gun owners to carry a firearm on some parts of public college campuses.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams wrote in her ruling her decision had nothing to do with the merits of the complaint. Instead, she wrote, “because the State has not waived sovereign immunity, and, to the extent Plaintiffs claims could be sustained against Defendants in their individual capacities, official immunity would bar such claims.”
Sovereign immunity prohibits a government from being sued. It’s a legal doctrine rooted in the centuries-old English principle that “the king can do no wrong.”
The professors argued campus carry is dangerous and unconstitutional. The law has been long sought by conservatives and gun rights activists as a safety measure for students, faculty and administrators. Gov. Nathan Deal signed the law in 2017. He and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr were defendants in the case.r were defendants in the case.
Boston eyes vote for non-citizens
Voting rights may not be an exclusive badge of citizenship after all. For instance, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) announced recently that he will issue an executive order pardoning felons on parole in a move to restore voting rights to more than 35,000 New Yorkers.
Then, on July 7, the Boston City Council held its first hearing on a proposal to extend voting rights in local elections to non-US citizens living in the country legally, and idea advanced by Council President Andrea Campbell.
The council considered ways to make city elections more inclusive, including allowing immigrants with legal status in the country the right to vote in municipal races. That could include legal permanent residents, visa holders and those on Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
Campbell’s order for a hearing said Boston has more than 190,000 foreign-born residents, which represents 28 percent of the city population. It also said non-US citizens paid $116 million in state and local taxes and generated over $3.4 billion in spending according to a 2015 city report.
There was no vote on the issue at the first meeting, but who knows, in Massachusetts anything is possible. Still, the idea has a long road to action, requiring not only a vote from the city council, but also the state legislature, and ultimately the governor’s signature.
Major media backtracks the 3D printed guns issue
Major newspapers seem to be trying to apply fire control to stories about 3D printed guns. One of them is the Los Angeles Times, which has a well-earned badge as a pillar of the gun control movement.
“It’s rare in 2018 for even the most shocking news story to hold public attention beyond a 48-hour window, but it has been weeks since the State Department agreed to let Austin, Texas-based Defense Distributed resume hosting its digital firearms files at DEFCAD.com, and the media frenzy has yet to fully abate,” The Times noted.
Frenzy, and fear, are perhaps rational responses if you think the following summary is accurate: “Anyone can now download blueprints that enable them to 3-D print undetectable, untraceable, fully functional guns in the privacy of their own home.”
But every part of that sentence is either misleading or wildly exaggerated, The Times reported.
“Let’s start with the word ‘now.’ From skimming news stories, you’d think the State Department settlement had suddenly made available these digital source files. Actually, they have been legally obtainable on the open web for years via the Internet Archive, and in other digital media, like USB drives and DVDs. All the settlement did was allow Defense Distributed to host these files at its own URL.
“It’s also deceptive to suggest that criminals can take their homebrew guns through metal detectors. Only a fully plastic gun is undetectable; but a fully plastic gun is dangerously fragile and unusable after the first shot. And even an all-plastic gun requires metal bullets. (For what it’s worth, it has long been illegal to manufacture an undetectable gun.)
“Then there’s the assertion that 3-D printed guns are ‘untraceable,’ meaning they lack a serial number tying them to a specific manufacturer and retail transaction. But there’s no law against making such a weapon for personal use. Furthermore, the benefits of gun tracing have been vastly oversold. Canada shut down their national long-gun registry because it was too expensive and didn’t have a clear effect on crime rates.
“Finally, with the exception of the all-plastic single-shot Liberator pistol, the “guns” one would make from the DEFCAD.com files are not, in fact, ‘fully functional guns,’ but parts, which one must then combine with other parts that have long been freely available for purchase online. (Unlike the classic rifles and revolvers of the Old West, modern guns are designed to be taken apart and customized or upgraded by amateurs.)”
But that isn’t the end of the LA Ties correction article. The newspaper continues with the following:
“Most important, it has long been the case that anyone can drop $25 at Home Depot and pick up enough parts to fabricate a perfectly legal, serviceable shotgun. You can find examples of such tinkering all over YouTube, and if the maker isn’t prohibited from owning a gun, he or she isn’t breaking the law.
“The gun-control crowd is in a panic and is peddling its alarmist narrative because the facts outlined above reveal the absurdity of the so-called feature-based approach to gun control.”
The newspaper has it figured out. But the Bloomberg-Brady-Giffords crowd still doesn’t get it.
Ex-gun control Dem charged with murder
When Kellie Lynn Collins ran as a Democrat in Georgia, challenging Republican Congressman Jody Hice in the 10th congressional district, she pushed for more gun control laws in the interest of community safety.
It now appears she might have been a better talker than practitioner, because she has been charged with murder in the shooting death of former campaign finance director and apparent husband Curtis Cain. He was found when a wellness check was made to his residence because of a failure to show up at work. He apparently died from blood loss due to gunshot wounds.
Collins reportedly turned herself in to authorities in a different county shortly after Cain’s body was discovered.
As a candidate, she pushed for tougher gun regulation, according to WSB-TV News. She quit the campaign in 2017 for personal reasons, according to Fox News. In addition to murder, Collins also faces charges of grand larceny because Cain’s Subaru Legacy was reported missing.
Dallas official admits corruption, faces sentencing
Another anti-gun mayor goes down for the count.
Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, a long-time critic of the National Rifle Association and gunowners, has pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges, according to documents filed in Dallas federal court in August.
He has also resigned from the Dallas City Council, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The 66-year-old Caraway, who has also served as the city’s interim mayor, admitted to accepting $450,000 in bribes and kickbacks from two key figures in the scandal that last year brought down the school bus agency Dallas County Schools; Bob Leonard, who owned the stop-arm camera company that took millions from DCS; and Slater Swartwood Sr., an associate of Leonard’s, according to The News.
“Over the past several weeks, through a lot of prayer and soul searching, I have decided that I must take responsibility for my actions,” Caraway wrote in his resignation letter, addressed to City Secretary Bilirae Johnson. “I have dedicated much of my life to serving others, but have never claimed to be without sin. I am truly sorry that I must end my career as an elected official because I betrayed the public’s trust that I worked so very hard to earn.”
Caraway is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 14 and faces seven years in federal prison under his agreement.
Leonard also pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge. Court documents show Leonard cut his deal with federal prosecutors in June. Caraway’s plea agreement was signed Aug. 2.
Caraway, a longtime council member from Oak Cliff who grew up and still lives near Cedar Crest Golf Course, admitted to prosecutors that the $390,000 he took from Leonard for “real estate consulting” was “excessive.” Court documents show that “Caraway knew that some of the money was to secure his political influence due to his position” as a council member.
Maryland eyeing 3-D firearms ban
The Maryland General Assembly will consider legislation next year to ban access to 3D-printed guns after the federal government gave a Texas-based company the OK to distribute firearm blueprints, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Majority Leader Kathleen Dumais (D-Montgomery County) is reportedly drafting legislation that would ban the possession of 3D-printed guns and “ghost” guns, firearms that don’t have serial numbers.
The specifics of the ban and punishment aren’t known at this time as Dumais is still working on the bill.
Legislating the internet can’t be done, so at least Maryland can ban possession of the guns so police can confiscate them upon discovery, Dumais said.
“I haven’t heard a good reason on why people need to own 3D-printed guns and ghost guns,” Dumais said.
The state just spent millions of dollars to outfit schools with metal detectors and other safety measures, and these guns would bypass all that work, said House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Annapolis).
‘Bullet-proof’ backpacks for students
Back-to-school supplies appear to nowadays include something that would never have been considered a generation ago, because they didn’t exist: Bullet-proof backpacks.
According to USA Today, parents still worried about last Valentine’s Day’s shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, are buying the expensive backpacks, which reportedly will stop a bullet fired from a handgun, but not one fired from a rifle like the one used on Feb. 14.
KLFY news noted that Louisiana state lawmakers have “pushed for bulletproof backpacks in an effort to keep students safe.” But then the news agency asks, “Are they really worth it?”
The news station reported that most of the bullet proof backpacks purchased so far have been in Florida, but they are available elsewhere. KLFY said sales of bulletproof backpacks went up by 35 percent after the Florida shooting.
The report said these backpacks range in price from $175 to $500 and that some parents are opting for metal inserts that can be put into backpacks for about an additional $100.
Randi Rogers wins IPSC championship
Sturm, Ruger & Company announced that its professional shooting team member Randi Rogers has taken the divisional High Lady win at the 2018 US International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) National Championship held at the Universal Shooting Academy in Frostproof, FL. This marks Randi’s seventh win this year.
Rogers also claimed the top lady’s spot with her eleventh place overall finish. She was shooting the SR1911® chambered in 9mm Luger and finished with a final match score of 979.8011. The course of fire consisted of 16 challenging stages that required each competitor to engage paper and steel targets on the move while shooting around barriers, reloading and taking on moving targets.
