And, yes Jimmy Buffett fans, coffee is strong at the Cafe Du Monde, and the "donuts," a.k.a. beignets, are too hot to touch, and just like a fool when those sweet goodies cooled, I ate 'til I ate 'way too much!
But it's back to the War. First, a little house-cleaning.
RE: the Internet rumor that we're headed to an outdoor media apocalypse, yesterday afternoon I spoke to the CEO of OUTDOOR CHANNEL and Jim Shepherd spoke with my old friend Jeff Paro, top guy at InterMedia. It is just that, an Internet rumor. Note that it was promulgated by an unnamed ex-employee...cops would call that a "clue." Simple truth, we're always under hellish budget pressure...can we make 'em faster and cheaper? That's television these days, and we all live with it.
I spent yesterday at the Colorado Legislature. We had what may be a productive meeting with the Governor's legal rep. We're talking hard economic numbers and presenting legal opinions on these laws unintended consequences. Am I optimistic about next week? Honestly, no. But I will be at the Legislature all day Monday testifying against the magazine restriction ordnance and anything else I can testify against.
And you all need to keep the emails and phone calls coming! I've pasted the NRA Alert at the bottom of this post. I can tell you we ARE having an effect!
PLEASE, be brief and courteous in your contact with this people! Yesterday they were successful in shifting the narrative to the "hostile" communications being received by Democratic lawmakers. Interestingly enough, the worst so-called "threat" received by Rep. Fields, who is Bloomberg's cat's paw in these bills, was quite appropriately turned over to the Feds, who yesterday rules that the comments fell under the First Amendment. In short, the Democrats seem surprised that the majority of Colorado citizens hates them for this. I said on Fox News last night that these people will pay in spades in the 2014 elections.
RE: Gun Trusts...here's the post from the NFA Gun Trust blog. My trust attorney, Doug Turner, and I decided on a Revocable Trust not to protect the guns and accessories such as magazines from confiscation, but to clarify ownership in the face of the horribly drafted Bloomberg legislation being considered for Colorado. Under the proposed Colorado law, your grandfathered standard capacity magazine can NEVER leave your possession. Let's say you're at the range shooting with your kids, and you drop a Ruger 25 round 10/22 magazine on the ground. You son picks it up to hand it to you...THAT WILL BE A CRIME FOR BOTH YOU AND YOUR SON UNDER THE NEW LAWS. That is worse that California statutes!
Should you create a Firearm Trust that includes all the members of your family as trustees, all the members of the trust have equal access to the firearms and accessories. KEEP IN MIND THAT I DO NOT GIVE LEGAL ADVICE! Frankly, none of us can say whether the Trust is enough to protect us...it'll be up to the courts to make the final decisions.
RE: Hunting boycott...is picking up steam. If these laws take effect and you plan to hunt Colorado, DON'T! These laws are designed from the ground up to make hunters and shooters into criminals, and you will be risking your guns, your money, your lifelong gun rights and ultimately your freedom by hunting or shooting in Colorado. DO NOT spend your money here if these laws pass!
More as we put this together...
RE: Things Coloradans need to do right now...first, talk to your personal attorney about your exposure to these laws...we are all at risk here. Secondly, buy standard capacity magazines! As many as you think you'll need for the rest of your life. I believe the magazine capacity bill would go into effect 1 July if it is passed, so you'll have a window to stock up.
Even if you don't have an AR, but you think that at some point in the future you might want one, buy the mags...think a minimum of 10. I strongly urge you to buy through the MagPul "Boulder Airlift" program or the One Source Tactical "Colorado Special." AR mags are coming back into the market; CDNN is listing Israeli steel 30-rounders for $19.99, and they're pretty good magazines.
Don't forget pistol magazines for those guns with a standard capacity of greater than 15 (standard Glock 9mm G17 magazines are as scarce as hen's teeth, but a few are out there...don't expect Glock magazines to loosen up anytime soon...my cherubs and seraphim tell me the backorder situation on Glock mags is...historic). Think about guns you may want to own in the future...an example would be one of the flawless STI competition pistols...consider buying magazines or magazine tubes for that gun you may want to purchase.
Remember shotgun magazine tubes...the Colorado law caps shotgun capacity at 8 rounds. If you're a 3-Gun shooter, you want as much magazine capacity as you can get. The law is so poorly written, BTW, that it bans 90% of all pump and semiauto shotguns because they can be "readily converted" to accept more than 8 rounds...supposedly there will be an amendment on this, but God only knows at this point. As David Kopel noted, these laws were written by people who know exactly nothing about firearms — that would be Michael Bloomberg's shills in New York — and the unintended consequences are huge.
If you're a prepper, and you know who you are, concentrate on making sure your primary systems are covered! That is, your rifle-pisol-shotgun basic self-defense module. If you're not in Colorado or any one of the other states in the Occupied Zone, thank your lucky stars and START PREPARING NOW! The War will be coming to you, too.
That's all I can think of for now. I'm shopping for 10/22 25-rounders from Ruger or the steel-lipped Butler Creek versions. I also go caught out on my Sweetie's FNH FNP 9mm...the gun was never that popular and, as is typical with FNH, the magazines don't interchange with their other 9mm pistols (at least I don't think they do).
Meanwhile, read this article in the Business Insider, Americans Don't Want Gun Control Enough:
If new gun laws aren't passed this year, then they likely won't be passed at all. Past history indicates that the current tide of opinion in favor of gun control will ebb over the course of the year. After Columbine, the only event in recent history with a comparable increase in favor of gun control, the high-water mark dropped after a year.
The reasons are twofold. First, the movement in favor of gun control has been driven mostly by media coverage. The media has yet to abandon stories about gun control, but time and a business imperative will eventually take their toll. Newer and more compelling news stories will fill the headlines, and most people will follow where the news coverage leads.STAND AND FIGHT!
This weekend I'm conditioning a Spanish cazuela clay pot for cooking and spending some time on the Internet in the probably vain hope of finding a box of .458 Socom ammo...
--------------------------------------------------------
Please note: The times of these committee hearings have recently changed and both will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Monday
Please attend these important committee hearings, and testify in opposition to the following bills:House Bill 1224 – Bans magazines with a capacity greater than fifteen rounds. (Passed by a 34-31 vote in the House)House Bill 1226 – Repeals current law allowing individuals with a concealed carry permit to carry a firearm for self-defense on a college or university campus. (Passed by a 34-31 vote in the House)House Bill 1228 – Imposes a “gun tax” for a background check when purchasing a firearm. (Passed by a 33-32 vote in the House)House Bill 1229 – Criminalizes the private transfer of a firearm. (Passed by a 36-29 vote in the House)Senate Bill 196 – Holds gun manufacturers of certain semi-automatic rifles liable for crimes committed with their firearms. This is a direct violation of the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
If you are unable to testify in person, please contact your state Senator and respectfully urge him or her to vote NO on these bills. For help identifying your state Senator and their contact information, please click here..
Details for testifying on Monday, March 4:
- At 10:30, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear the following bills in the Old Supreme Court Chamber (Room 220) of the state Capitol:
HB 1224 and SB 196
- Also at 10:30, the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee will hear the following bills in Senate Committee Room 356 on the third floor of the state Capitol:
HB 1229, HB 1228, and HB 1226
- Please make plans to arrive at the state Capitol in Denver no later than 9:45 a.m.
- Once you arrive, please make your way to the respective committee rooms so you can sign up to testify in opposition to these measures. You will be assigned a number indicating the order you will be able to testify. This will allow all interested parties the opportunity to testify before both committees.
- Please note, you will be limited to three minutes of testimony in each committee to address all of the bills.
Please also contact members of both committees in opposition to these measures:
Senate Judiciary Committee:
Senator Lucia Guzman (Chair)
303-866-4862
Lucia.guzman.senate@state.co.us
Senator Jessie Ulibarri (Vice Chair)
303-866-4857
Jessie.ulibarri.senate@state.co.us
Senator Irene Aguilar
303-866-4852
irene.aguilar.senate@state.co.us
Senator Steve King
303-866-3077
Steve.king.senate@state.co.us
Senator Kevin Lundberg
303-866-4853
Kevin@kevinlundberg.com
Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee:
Senator Angela Giron (Chair)
303-866-4878
Angela.giron.senate@state.co.us
Senator Matt Jones (Vice-Chair)
303-866-5291
senatormattjones@gmail.com
Senator Ted Harvey
303-866-4881
ted.harvey.senate@state.co.us
Senator Evie Hudak
303-866-4840
senatorhudak@gmail.com
Senator Larry Crowder
303-866-4875
larry.crowder.senate@state.co.us
16 comments:
For all your FN pistol magazine needs: http://www.midwestgunworks.com/page/mgwi
Yes, I've ordered from them, their inventory is what the site says, and they ship right away. Hope it helps!
Michael,
Thanks for your dedication to the "cause" AND to all of us out here in viewer-land, in the field, on the ranges and on the streets and back roads. You have shown that you will not let us down AND you will not let our country down!
It takes a lot of work to put all of this together, including the fight. We're glad that you're also go-getter enough to include time with your Sweetie.
Many Thanks!
Life Member
Ah, real coffee..I first visited in 62-63 (stationed in Biloxi). I learned "street smarts" there, as well as Juarez back in the day! Your efforts are appreciated. I visit Colorado fron time to time, KEYSTONE but for now I'll stop spending money there. We are still free, for now, here in Va. but those who have "sold their soul to the devil" abound! Come on over and we'll occupy Thomas Jefferson's home and MAKE OUR STAND together !!! Woody
I understand that you would have an inside line to Intermedia, but it is still unnerving when articles like this creep up from the Daily Caller, they do not make it a habit to being this far off base.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/28/anti-gun-politicians-benefit-from-pro-gun-media-sportsmans-programming-threatened/
Charles Cherry
Michael,
In your conversations with your Legislators (everyone else too), please remind them that as you speak, our neighbors to the north, Canada, are in the process of dismantling their Gun Registration Program. Now that conservatives have regained offices in their government, they have come to conclude that the registration program that was implemented some years ago after a college campus shooting there, has accomplished NOTHING, other than cost $2 billion-Canadian. They have also not been able to finish it. It resulted in no reduction in crime, just as many predicted. It only harassed law-abiding citizens. They have already passed the necessary bills to abolish it, but also predictably, their liberal party members are resisting.
The national press here has also avoided this story.
Life Member
Yes, unfortunately the FNP 9MM does not interchange with the new version, the FNX.
I think I've said this before, but if not next time in Nawlins you have to go to Mid-City and get a muff from Central Grocery. It is the standard by which all other mufalettae (sp?...thought it cute not to put an 's' at the end) are judged.
Thanks for going to bat for us all.
Now a shameless plug. If Magpul should leave Tulsa would be a good environ...industrial complex adjacent to USSA has empty buildings and USSA is for sale. Tulsa County is buying the Rogers Range, PPC, shoot house, etc and dividing the property effective date April 1....dang it...Magpul Dynamics could stop that sale....I'm just sayin'.
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/samwiches/muff.html
I had to do it. A listing for mufalettas in New Orleans. A good, matter-of-fact webpage for your next visit.
For our out of state friends:
Please boycott the state of Colorado. Let the legislators and governor know of your boycott; better yet, let the businesses you'll no longer patronize know it, and have THEM let the .gov know.
C'mon Colorado, show the rest of the country how to fight the bastards!
I wish we had this same fight in New York where I USED to live. NY'ers rolled over like little puppy dogs and peed on themselves when the first AR ban was put into effect. The new madness from Cuomo at least stirred some opposition, but too little too late. Once they get one law they will not stop.
Don't let them succeed, the free world is watching.
Oh my gods, mufalettas are WAY off my diet and now I want one SO BAD. Thanks guys! :\
LOL
Michael,
what makes you think the bills were "poorly written" and that the consequences are unintended? Not everyone on the enemies side is stupid. Warped, maybe.
Keep in mind, they are attacking our culture.
Here is an excellent post by a blogger on the subject. She is really good!
http://limatunesrangediary.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-anti-gun-crowd-is-winning.html
I e-mailed all the Senators on both committees early this morning. I just received two replies supporting the Second Amendment. One was a prepared response stating unequivocably that he would vote NO on the amendments. The other was a personal response directly from the Senator directly addressing statements I made. Unprecedented considering the amount of mail they must be receiving. He also stoutly defended the 2nd amendment and said he would vote to support it. I hesitate to include names for privacy reasons, just wanted to give them public thanks.
game on
www.boycottkolorado.org
I wrote this, feel free to plagiarize me if it helps stop the madness in the Colorado legislature. I'll address the other bills separately.
Dear Senators,
As a Husband, Father, Father-in-Law and Grandfather,
I’m appalled that the Colorado Legislature is apparently willing to take away a woman’s right to defend herself simply because she’s on a Campus in the State of Colorado.
Such a thing is beyond comprehension. Your colleagues have suggested that a whistle or a telephone in a box is sufficient protection, or that having a gun means having a gun taken away by a rapist…those are absurd statements by individuals who clearly have put no real thought or planning into actual self-defense…it’s just an armchair exercise for them.
I strongly urge you to vote NO on HB 1226, and please allow adult females on Colorado Campuses to defend themselves with firearms, as they are allowed to do almost anywhere else in the State…
Do you not feel that women are capable of discerning a threat, and being able to understand the consequences of using a firearm inappropriately? Why do you feel that adult women (or men) cannot be trusted in matters of their own self defense?
Campus police cannot be present for all students at all times. Their job is to pick up the pieces after a crime and try to solve it, not to protect every person on Campus at all locations, at all hours of the day or night.
Clearly there is also no logical reason to disallow mature male or female faculty, staff or graduate students who meet the age requirements and have already undergone background checks, met training requirements, been photographed and fingerprinted, and been issued concealed carry permits from defending themselves and those around them, just because they are on a College campus...
If Gun Free Zones work so well, why are there so many mass shootings in them…? Why didn’t the State of New York declare Staten Island a Hurricane-free zone?
The mere possibility that there can be firearms in responsible hands on campus unquestionably acts as a deterrent to armed violence.
Vote as if your daughter’s life and dignity might depend on her being able to defend herself, or on her professor’s ability to defend his class from a disturbed individual.
(your name here)
Kalashnikat.
I also urge you to give this matter some serious thought, and to use your God-given wits, not just your emotions...
I write to protest most strongly against your entirely unjustified assault on law abiding Colorado gun owners. Of the various bills you are presently rushing through committee, none of them will have any appreciable impact on preventing future shootings like the Aurora theater or Newtown tragedies, which were clearly and undeniably the work of disturbed individuals.
On what possible basis can you imagine that the hundreds of thousands of lifetime-law-abiding gun owners should be treated and weighed in your decision making as of less consequence than a tiny handful of clearly deranged murderers with a pattern of increasingly irrational behavior? And on what basis do the wishes of out-of-state gun control organizations outweigh the wants and needs of your lawful constituents?
This slate of Democrat-introduced gun control bills are entirely unjustified and are clearly more about controlling the behavior of honest law abiding gun owners than preventing the vanishingly-rare mass slayings that are less likely to cause deaths than lightning strikes are. More people are killed with carpenter's hammers each year than with rifles of all types, let alone Modern Sporting Rifles like the AR.
Please reconsider this reckless course the legislature has embarked on.
Over the past several weeks there have been numerous and apparently increasingly frequent home invasions reported on the radio, and the most common pattern to them is multiple assailants (often three to as many as five), involved with methamphetamine or other drugs, seeking anything of street value, breaking into homes of total strangers, often threatening women or the elderly or disabled. A five shot small caliber revolver in the nightstand is no longer a guarantee of either effective deterrence or successful defense in circumstances like these.
If you choose to punish, restrict, and harass the innocent, and to criminalize the law-abiding, you will neither be forgotten nor forgiven for this unconscionable breach of your oath to uphold the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Colorado and protect the rights of the individual. You will be setting the scene for massive civil disobedience on a scale unseen since the days of the Viet Nam war, and you will be making artificial felons out of respectful and respectable citizens of this State.
When you hear someone ask, "why does anyone need an AR-15 or a magazine" of whatever size, ask yourself this:
Why did Rosa Parks "need" to ride in the front of that bus...both ends of the bus get to the same destination at the same time...
It was her civil right as an American citizen to be treated with equal dignity, ...just as, and even more importantly, it is the Constitutionally-confirmed and God-given right of every American citizen to defend his or her life, dignity, home and family with the most effective commonly available arms, ...not just what you, or someone else with no real knowledge or experience or genuine objective study, thinks they "need."
Consider also that if your legislative actions deprive even one innocent person in Colorado of the means to defend their own life or the lives of their children, you personally will have had more of a role in the victimization of that innocent person than any law-abiding gun owner has had in the deaths in the Aurora theater or Sandy Hook School or any other mass shooting.
NO Magazine Bans, unless you really want the law abiding to be outgunned by the criminals. Home invasions here lately have involved three assailants, one or more with guns, and in those circumstances a five shot snubby revolver in the nightstand is not sufficient defense. NO on HB 1224
NO ban on private firearms sales…universal background checks by way of licensed dealers, by definition only harasses the law abiding…illegal sales by criminals to criminals will continue the same as ever. NO on HB 1229
NO Gun Tax on gun purchases …how would that be different from a poll tax? He poor need self defense to, and have the same rights as the rich. NO on HB 1228.
NO universal background checks/gun registration…Canada spent $2 Billion on a registry that did nothing to solve crimes, because the law abiding don’t use their guns for crime and the criminals don’t register….they are dismantling it now. That’s one of the few instances where registration hasn’t yet led to attempts to confiscate lawfully owned guns.
NO made-up "Mental health" database to deny gun rights…improve mental health care so that a person who is a danger to themselves or others can be taken off the street, properly assessed, and treated or housed, and let existing background check systems have the information when they are properly medically assessed.
NO Backdoor "Assault Weapon" bans…more people are killed each year with carpenter’s hammers than with rifles of all types combined, per FBI statistics. …and no, “if it saves one life” it’s still not worth it…on that basis you’d have to ban cars, airplanes, hammers, baseball bats, fists, feet, and all kitchen knives with a point…it’s NOT worth it to disarm the law-abiding when over a million time a year the simple showing of a weapon by a potential victim averts a violent crime, again, per FBI statistics and multiple other academic studies. NO on SB 196
NO ban on on-line CCW training…if someone is going to carry lawfully, why would you NOT want them to have as much training as possible, whenever it’s available? No on SB 195
Please vote with Colorado gun owners, not with the anti-gun lobbyists from New York.
Sincerely,
Post a Comment