American Defense Enterprises

The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) just sent out an update on AB962.  The bill was scheduled to be heard today in the Senate Public Safety Committee, but has been rescheduled for July 7th.  Please continue to send letters, emails and call the committee members to let them know that you oppose this bill.  It is important to stop bad legislation like this before it even sees a floor vote in the Senate or ends up on the Governor desk.

The NRA-ILA has done a great job staying on top of legislation in California.  You can sign up for their email alerts on the NRA-ILA webpage.

Contact the members of the Senate Public Safety Committee by Phone, Mail, and Email and tell them to vote “NO” on AB962 at the July 7th meeting.

SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE:

State Senator Mark Leno (D-3) – Chair
(916) 651-4003
Senator.Leno@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator John J. Benoit (R-37) – Vice-Chair
(916) 651-4037
Senator.Benoit@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Gilbert Cedillo (D-22)
(916) 651-4022
Senator.Cedillo@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Loni Hancock (D-9)
(916) 651-4009
Senator.Hancock@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Robert Huff (R-29)
(916) 651-4029
Senator.Huff@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Darrell Steinberg (D-6)
(916) 651-4006
Senator.Steinberg@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Roderick Wright (D-25)
(916) 651-4025
Senator.Wright@SENATE.CA.GOV

Outlook formatted emails

Senator.Leno@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Benoit@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Cedillo@SENATE.CA.GOV;Senator.Hancock@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Huff@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Steinberg@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Wright@SENATE.CA.GOV

Between Tamiflu resistant H1N1 and the world economic problems the future is looking pretty bleak.  How about some sprinkles on the turd sunday we Californians are being force fed?

Enter the California budget.  California is getting ready to start delivering IOU’s to its creditors this week unless a budget is passed.  Gov. Schwarzenegger has threatened to veto any budget that penalizes California residents by increasing taxes to close the budget deficit due to what he rightly calls Sacramento’s inability to live within its means.

Had the Governor not been complicit in the spending over the past 5 years I would have some sympathy, but he is just as bad having signed increasing budgets year after year with no regard for Californians.  What we really need in California and at the Federal level are fiscally responsible elected officials who don’t mortgage the future for their own political benefit.

Story on Financial Times

Story from Reuters.

Summary: first Tamiflu resistant strains of H1N1 have been found.  This is a big deal since it is pretty much our main anti-flu medication.  Oh well.

Elliot Firby is a postal worker, a father of five and a new gun owner.  Last year he purchase his first firearm to protect himself and his family.

A year later as Mr. Firby drove home from his job at the post office he saw a car following him.  When he got out of his car to open the gate to his driveway a man in the car behind him jumped out, pointed a shotgun at him and demanded money.  Mr. Firby, who has a CCW permit reached into his pocket, pulled out his gun and fired two shots at the armed robber striking him once in the abdomen.  Turns out the robber, who was later found by police at a local hospital with a gunshot, was a 15 year old kid.

Story and video

The two men involved in the robbery will certainly think twice about robbing anyone ever again.

Scores from the last two Warriors tests on February 21st and June 7th have been posted.  Thanks Steve.

Check out the American Warriors Test tab on the left or click here for the scores.

Per NLA-ILA:

Effective, July 1, Nevada will no longer recognize Right-to-Carry permits from Utah or Florida.  They have, however, added Ohio and West Virginia as recognized states.

Each May, the Nevada Department of Public Safety conducts an audit of states and their Right-to-Carry laws for the purpose of determining which states it will recognize.

The Nevada DPS dropped Utah because it does not have a live fire requirement, which is a part of Nevada’s training requirements.  When the Nevada DPS first began its state by state audit of Right-to-Carry laws in 2007, DPS admitted to NRA representatives that they overlooked the live fire training requirement.  After further review, they determined that Utah wasn’t similar enough to keep it on the list of recognized states.

Florida will no longer be recognized because its permits are now valid for seven years instead of five.

The Nevada DPS and the Nevada Sheriffs and Chiefs will be hosting their annual Right-to-Carry forum in Carson City in August with a teleconference feed to Las Vegas.  We encourage all members to attend this informational meeting.  Details will be forthcoming.

Grrr.  Seems BS’ish, since Utah does have a de facto live fire requrement…

We have posted about AB962 multiple times before.  This bill will prohibit the sale, delivery or transfer of >50 rounds of handgun ammunition to non-family members unless you are a registered ammunition vendor with the state.  This bill will essentially destroy the firearms classes that we enjoy taking with ADE since it would require students to purchase their own ammunition before class.  Keep in mind that most beginning students may not have ever fired a handgun before and probably do not own their own firearm yet, so buying ammunition is not an insignificant task for them.  The bill would also require ammunition vendors would also be required to keep records of ammunition sales and take a thumbprint of the purchasers.  Further, ammunition storage restrictions in the bill would make it impossible to sell ammunition to students on Burro Canyon class days.  Lastly, the State of California is on the verge of bankruptcy and issueing IOUs to bill vendors if they don’t pass a budget by the 29th of July when they run out of money.  The State simply does not have the money to spend on the databases and infrastructure to support the ineffective programs mandated by this bill.

Contact the members of the Senate Public Safety Committee by Phone, Mail, and Email and tell them to vote “NO” on AB962 at the June 30th meeting.

SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE:

State Senator Mark Leno (D-3) – Chair
(916) 651-4003
Senator.Leno@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator John J. Benoit (R-37) – Vice-Chair
(916) 651-4037
Senator.Benoit@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Gilbert Cedillo (D-22)
(916) 651-4022
Senator.Cedillo@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Loni Hancock (D-9)
(916) 651-4009
Senator.Hancock@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Robert Huff (R-29)
(916) 651-4029
Senator.Huff@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Darrell Steinberg (D-6)
(916) 651-4006
Senator.Steinberg@SENATE.CA.GOV

State Senator Roderick Wright (D-25)
(916) 651-4025
Senator.Wright@SENATE.CA.GOV

Outlook formatted emails

Senator.Leno@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Benoit@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Cedillo@SENATE.CA.GOV;Senator.Hancock@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Huff@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Steinberg@SENATE.CA.GOV; Senator.Wright@SENATE.CA.GOV

Legislative alert:

Issue: AMMO RESTRICTIONS (DeLeon)
Description: AB 962, as amended, De Leon. Ammunition.
Existing law requires the Department of Justice to maintain records pertaining to firearms transactions.
This bill would require the department to maintain additional information relating to ammunition transfers and licensed handgun ammunition vendors, as specified.
Existing law generally regulates the sale of ammunition.
This bill would establish a program administered by the Department of Justice for licensing handgun ammunition vendors, as specified.
The bill would establish a database maintained by the department to serve as a registry of handgun ammunition vendors.
This bill would require that commencing July 1, 2010, unless specifically excluded, no person shall sell or transfer more than 50 rounds of handgun ammunition in any month unless he or she is registered as a handgun ammunition vendor, as defined. The bill would also require employees of those vendors who would handle, sell, or deliver ammunition in the course and scope of their employment to obtain a certificate of eligibility, as specified. The bill would require the Department of Justice to maintain a registry of registered handgun ammunition vendors, as specified. The bill would provide that no vendor would be authorized to sell ammunition pursuant to a handgun ammunition vendor license unless the vendor is listed on the centralized registry.
The bill would also provide that no retail seller of ammunition shall sell, offer for sale, or display for sale, any handgun ammunition in a manner that allows that ammunition to be accessible to a purchaser without the assistance of the retailer or employee thereof.
Existing law generally regulates what information is required to be obtained in connection with the transfer of ammunition.
This bill would, subject to exceptions, commencing July 1, 2010, require certain ammunition vendors to obtain a thumb print and other information from ammunition purchasers, as specified. A violation of these provisions would be a misdemeanor.
This bill would provide that a person enjoined from engaging in activity associated with a criminal street gang, as specified, would be prohibited from having under his or her possession, custody, or control, any ammunition. Violation of these provisions would be a misdemeanor.
The bill would prohibit supplying or delivering, as specified, handgun ammunition to prohibited persons, as described, by persons or others who know , or by using reasonable care should know , that the recipient is a person prohibited from possessing ammunition or a minor prohibited from possessing ammunition, as specified . Violation of these provisions is a misdemeanor with specified penalties.
The bill would provide, subject to exceptions, that commencing July 1, 2010, the sale or other delivery or transfer of ownership of handgun ammunition may only occur in a face-to-face transaction, with the seller deliverer or transferor being provided bona fide evidence of identity of the purchaser or other transferee. A violation of these provisions would be a misdemeanor.
By creating new crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

Twitter has been in the news a lot lately because it is one of the main ways information about the Iranian election protests is getting out of the country.  Protesters are being beaten in the street and many have been shot and killed by the volunteer Basij militia which was called out to quell the protests.

Neda was one of those killed. This is what happens when a government has total control over firearms.  This is graphic.

I have been meaning to post this excellent essay by The Munchkin Wrangler for a while.  It is probably the most eloquent summation of why the Second Amendment and the right to self defense are important to civilized society.  Read it.

Why the gun is civilization.

Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.

In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.

When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force. The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gangbanger, and a single gay guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.

There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat–it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed. People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser. People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level. The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weightlifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.

When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation…and that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.

Looks like a lot of people in Iran are not happy with the recent election result.  I feel your pain.  In a hope to quell unrelenting protests in the streets of Tehran after an unrealistically fast and decisive vote count the Supreme leader of Iran issued this statement as part of his sermon laced with anti-western rhetoric.

Iran’s supreme leader sought Friday to end the deepening crisis over disputed elections with one decisive speech—declaring the vote will almost certainly stand and sternly warning opposition leaders to end street protests or be held responsible for any “bloodshed and chaos” to come.

Full Story

Let me translate that from Arabic to English for you.

If you don’t stop protesting the sham results then we will kill you and blam it on you.

That sounds like a pretty democratic country to me.  I do not know what the gun laws are in Iran nor could I find a reference that could give me a legitamate answer.  It seems unlikely that a government whose law enforcement kills protesters and whose supreme leader (unelected) threatens more violence is unlikely to have liberal gun laws.  These are the moments when the 2nd amendment makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.