American Defense Enterprises

In a classic case of love/hate relationship, Pakistan is again publicly interested in having the U.S. carry out predator drone operations over their territory.  Hey, wait Mr. FlipFlopper Pakistan, weren’t you just saying that the U.S. should respect Pakistan’s sovereignty?

Well I guess when you have enemies of the government to eliminate at the same time you will cooperate or turn a blind eye to the targets the U.S. wants to take out.  Whatever the reason I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth … unless that is where Osama Bin Laden is hiding.

NRA-ILA California news website

For those not familiar with the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) they are the lobbying arm of the NRA that helps get our feelings about gun control and the right to bear arms to our legislators in Washington D.C. and here at home in California.

As the legislative session is getting into full swing we need to keep a lookout for bills that seek to limit our rights protected by the 2A or for those few bills that seek to protect them.

Another good place to keep up to date on bills and their status is the NRA members council of California

The Good Stuff:

I have already posted about AB357 which would make California a “Shall Issue” state.  It is sitting in committee now, so keep sending letters to your Reps and the committee members to tell them you support this bill.

A similar bill is Assembly Bill 1167 which would grant CCW reciprocity to CCW holders form other states and visa versa.  I don’t know if California residents who have a Utah or Florida or other CCW permit would benefit from this bill, but it is a step in the right direction.

SECTION 1. Section 12058 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
12058. (a) Persons holding a valid permit or license to carry a
concealed handgun from any state or a political subdivision of a
state shall be deemed a licensee under subparagraph (A) of paragraph
(1) of subdivision (a) of Section 12050.
(b) The Department of Justice shall enter into reciprocity
agreements with all other states that have the legal authority to
enter into those agreements so that licensees under Section 12050 may
carry firearms in those states pursuant to the conditions imposed by
Section 12050. The department shall each month maintain and publish
a list of those states with which this state has established
reciprocity.

The last bill, AB225, is a spot bill (place holder) that seems like the intent will be to define “Good Cause”.  This is a great concept.  Currently there is no firm definition of “Good Cause” that is universally accepted or published statewide.  Basically the standard for “Good Cause” varies from county to county and Sheriff to Sheriff.

Now the Bad Stuff:

AB962 – The ammunition ban bill by DeLeon.  Basically AB962 will limit you to purchasing 50 rounds of ammunition a month if it passes.  Every legislative session DeLeon submits this bill.  I don’t know how he gets away with it since bills that are not passed out of committee are not allowed to be resubmitted the next legislative session.  Anyways, write you legislator a letter telling them you want them to oppose this bill.

AB697 – “Smart guns” = Dumb law.  Yet another silly bill that wants guns to only fire if the user is authorized.  Someone with fingerprint recognition technology is probably prodding State Senator Mark DeSaulnier to submit this every year.  Note to self … never vote for someone withe a “DeSomthing” last name.

There are several more to be posted later.  Write you Reps to tell them to support or oppose these Bills!

Eureka Alert!

The world is a small place these days.  Our computers and cell phones keep getting smaller, more powerful and more functional.  If you take just a couple of the many functions that these devices can do you can put them in a tiny package called Motes.  Tel Aviv University Professor Prof. Yoram Shapira is trying to market these devices as high tech security systems.  So how do motes they work?  Due to their small size and extremely low cost (25 cents per sensor) many of these small sensors of various types (sounds, vibration, light, humidity, magnetic, temperature, etc.) could be placed around a large facility to relay information to a central system via an ad hoc network that the sensors facilitate.  Since they are so small and can be place almost anywhere they can avoid easy detection and it is unlikely that all the sensors could be located in a reasonable matter of time.

This is not new technology, but rather an interesting new application.  DARPA has been investigating the utility of motes for a while.  On a modern battlefield an array of motes can be placed by personel or dropped from an airplane.  Magnetic and vibration sensors would allow information about troop and armor units to be relayed back to a central computer to be analyzed for action or follow up analysis.

On Tuesday, a Florida CCW holder shot and killed armed Burger King robber.  Apparently the masked robber entered the Burger King and asked for a King’s ransom.  An armed patron with a CCW license confronted then shot and killed the robber while taking several shots himself.  The CCW licensee is in stable condition at a Florida hospitol.  I applaud the CCW holder for doing what was necessary to protect everyone in the restaraunt.  There was no video of the incident so they are relying on witnesses to detail what happened.  It would have been nice to see what actually happened so we could learn from it.

This is a very favorable article and video of the CCW holder.

Miami Police say a Good Samaritan confronted a would-be robber and killed him before he was able to rob a Burger King Restaurant on Biscayne Boulevard Tuesday afternoon.

Police and fire rescue responded to a double shooting call at the restaurant located at 54th Street and Biscayne Blvd., and when they got there they found a man injured, transporting him to Jackson Memorial Hospital. That man was the Good Samaritan who they say confronted the ski mask wearing suspect with a gun of his own. Gun shots were exchanged between the two as a result …

More Story and Video on the Jump.

 The White House website has a page devoted to the Constitution.

If you keep reading, you will get to the section on the Bill of Rights…. Where the 2nd amendment is clearly listed as follows:

“ The Second Amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms.“

Awesome!  I guess keeping them isn’t a right…  Just bearing them, you know, like having an armed police force — the Constitution guarantees the right that if the government gives somebody a gun they are allowed to use it!  If course, keeping them yourself would be silly and something not intended by the forefathers.  Clearly a typo or oversight, but, still tremendously funny for the moment.

(thanks waronguns for catching this)

UPDATE: The City Council has decided not to draft an ammunition sales registration ordinance.

For a little over 2 years the City Council of Long Beach has been discussing drafting a City Ordinance that would require ammunition retailers to keep records on the identity of every person that purchases ammunition and what they purchased.  This data is then to be used by the Long Beach Police to identify persons who are prohibited from purchasing or possessing ammunition.

Well they appear to be set for a final vote this Tuesday, March 24th.

Read about it on Breaking News from CalGunLaws.com

Several other cities have implemented similar ordinances only to repeal them later.  Los Angeles still has their law in place, but it has proven to be useless at reducing the crime rate.

Rand Study On Ammo Sales Confirms Ammo Sales Records Useless

The study shows that because of the tremendous manpower involved in monitoring the records and doing background checks, the Los Angeles Police Department is largely not doing so.

Significanly, the Rand study does not conclude, nor claim to prove, that violent felons or other dangerous criminals typically purchase ammunition from firearms retailers.

What the Rand study actually did uncover is the state of confusion that exists concerning when a person is legally prohibited from possessing firearms.

Similarly, the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986 repealed the federal requirement to show I.D. when purchasing ammunition because it was found to be ineffective at reducing crime.

So basically what we have is yet another push by anti-gun orginizations to try and prevent law-abiding citizens from exercising their rights specifically protected by the Second Amendment.

If you live in California it behoves you to make your voice heard and contact members of the Long Beach City Council and let them know that you oppose any Ammunition Sales Registration.

Contact emails for the Long Beach Mayor and City Council can be found at this link.

Your letters do not need to be long.  A simple letter stating something like the one below is sufficient.  Copy and Paste if you like, but please change the name of the addressee and add your name to the end.

Mayor Bob Foster,

I am a resident of California and I urge you and the City Counsel to oppose the Ammunition Sales Registration ordinance.  Similar ordinances have been shown to be ineffective at lowering crime and have been subsequently repealed. Again, I urge you to oppose this ordinance.

Sincerely,

Your Name

If you train with ADE, then you are obviously a man (or woman) of wealth and taste. At the next suit-worthy event, be sure to consider these modified Winchester shell cufflinks… guaranteed to boost the power in your power suit and let others know you are not to be trifled with. 

San has a birthday coming up…  Available HERE

Congratulations are in order for the UK as they continue their efforts to remain #1 Nanny State of the World.

You know guns are illegal, you know you have to be 18 or older to buy kitchen knives and when that wasn’t enough, their was a call to outlaw pointy kitchen knives altogether (BBC).  Of course, it is illegal to carry a knife at all in the UK (“…emasculated citizens tearing at vending machine packages of potato chips with their teeth or their car keys.)

Now,  as seen in this AP story at Yahoo, the Advertising Standards Authority at the UK has taken a stand against TV ads that show firearms:

“LONDON – A TV ad showing actress Angelina Jolie firing weapons must not be shown because it could be seen as condoning gun violence , Britain’s advertising watchdog said Wednesday.“

Well…  I guess this makes sense, after all the UK is very proud of their gun control..  Further quoting:

“The ruling underlined Britain’s sensitivity to gun crime.

There were 59 firearm-related homicides in England and Wales in 2006-2007, compared to the more than 10,000 gun-related killings reported by the FBI in the United States in 2007.“

Apparently Britain is also proud of their statistical analysis techniques.  So, the authors of the article would like you to believe that you are 170x more likely to be killed with a gun in the US than Britain.  Of course, there is a bit of a population difference.  What are the true numbers?

Drudging through NationMaster, I was able to get the following information:

Murder by firearm:

Pretty darn good…  So, it does look like, according to real numbers, that you are indeed 28x more likely to be killed by a firearm in the US.  So, I guess since guns are the only way people die, that you are 28x more likely to be killed in the US vs the UK.. Except,

Murder (all causes)

Hrm.  Apparently, the Brits are pretty damn good with their knives and clubs.  You are still more likely to be killed in the US vs the UK by a factor of 3, but, that isn’t quite the factor of 170 they wanted you to believe.  No wonder they want to outlaw clubs and knives! I assume the silk handkerchiefs and neckties will be next…

Being a gun enthusiast I often find myself reading about or handling firearms (thank you Martin B. Retting) that I would like to shoot.

Well today I want to shoot the Barrett 98B.  It was on the cover of this months American Rifleman.  Join the NRA.  Its big, black, scary to hoplophobes and uses big scary bullets.  Since we in California do not have access to the the uber scary 50 cal. BMG rifles the .338 cal. Lapua Magnum is really the next best thing.  This is not a rifle for shooting 100 yard bullseyes at the local range.  I am sure it can do that with no problem, but you could do that with your 22 cal. rifle and $20 scope.  If you want to shoot things that are so far away they are small even in your really expensive 20X scope then this is the way to go.  The maximum effective range is about 1750 meters compared with the 50 BMG’s 2430 meters (longest confirmed kill).  Very respectable when you consider it fires a bullet that is one third the weight of the 50 cal.  The 98B also weighs about one third the weight of the 30 lb. Barrett 50 BMG 82A1. I doubt that too many of us would ever have to hump this anywhere on foot except from our cars to the shooting bench, but for those that may have to lug a large rifle around the reduced weight of this rifle is likely much appreciated.

I would say more, but this guy pretty much sums it all up.

Well President Obama appeared on the tonight show … uh … tonight.  His main objective was to convince us that his desire to spend the country into the poor house while giving us all free heathcare (uh … tax increase supported) was a good idea.  Apparently he was also a little jealous of Joe Biden’s ability to not use the teleprompter during his appearances and say things that are completely … uh … retarded.

During the segment where Jay and Barak talked about personal topics, Barak claimed to have bowled a 129 on the White House bowling lanes.

Leno sarcastically responded “That’s very good, Mr. President.”

To which the president replied “It’s like the Special Olympics or something.”

Story

I think Obamas telepromter needs to spend less time with the iMacs and more time on stage.