We Win One...

...but we lose some others.

On the plus side of the board, the courts struck down San Francisco's voted-in handgun ban; this from the SF Chronicle:

A judge struck down San Francisco's voter-approved ban on handgun possession Monday, saying local governments have no such authority under California law.

Proposition H, which passed with a 58 percent majority in November, would have outlawed possession of handguns by all city residents except law enforcement officers and others who need guns for professional purposes. It also would have forbidden the manufacture, sale and distribution of guns and ammunition in San Francisco.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren agreed with the National Rifle Association, which argued that Prop. H exceeded the powers of local government and intruded into an area regulated entirely by the state. The NRA sued on behalf of gun owners, advocates and dealers the day after the measure passed. Enforcement of the measure was suspended while the suit was pending.

Yes, this is a good thing. A better thing would be selling San Francisco to Singapore as long as they agreed to let the SF restaurants continue to take dollars. It's hard for me to grasp why any person would willingly vote to be disarmed and helpless, especially in a city that has seen its share of violence against racial/sexual minorities. I think it once again points out the distance between us and the antigun minority — not only can we not communicate, but we are so far apart in world views that we might as well be from different planets.

I mean, we know where this ends, right? Look at my ancestoral Scotland, now officially the most dangerous country in the developed world:

A United Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America.
[...]
The study, based on telephone interviews with victims of crime in 21 countries, found that more than 2,000 Scots were attacked every week, almost ten times the official police figures. They include non-sexual crimes of violence and serious assaults.

Violent crime has doubled in Scotland over the past 20 years and levels, per head of population, are now comparable with cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and Tbilisi.

This is from today's news in the Scotsman:

Guns are replacing knives as the "fashion accessory" weapon of choice among Edinburgh gangs, senior police officers have warned.

Criminals involved in the city's drug trade are among those carrying firearms as status symbols, police said yesterday.

The warning comes as it emerged that Lothian and Borders Police firearms officers are now authorised to draw their weapons on the streets an average three times a week.

Apparently that rich blowhard Bloomberg doesn't read the papers. The Scots, BTW, who virtually ban all weapons, are bleeting for more laws. Yeah, that'll work! What a pathetic end for a country that produced a William Wallace and invented the claymore!

The issue with the BATFE and the question of who is or is not a manufacturer of firearms is not going away. Apparently — and I say apparently because I don't have any direct information except what's all over the Internet — the Feds raided KT Ordnance, a manfuacturer of the so-called "80% frame kits," that is frame kits for 1911s, a SIGARM 228 clone and various and sundry AR products that are machined to the 80% finished level, with the customer doing the final work. KT's website is down, but here's an archives version from The High Road forum.

Here's the JPFO link, and I suggest you do a search for additional info. Frankly,. I am tiptoeing around this one until I can get some hard information. I think it's fairly obvious that the "manufacturing a firearm" issue is the new battlefield, but I'm totally unsure (as were my NRA contacts) as to where the battle lines are drawn.

More as this develops...