Gun Free Zone

Let me preface this post stating my renewed admiration for the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a group I have posted about and considered the smartest State Pro Gun group in the nation.

With that out of the way, I want to give my opinion about the Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement: It should have never come to this and although I am not knowledgeable about Virginia, I am willing to bet that Gun Owners fell asleep at the switch when election time came around. Suddenly Gun Rights in Virginia are floundering in a sea of Democrat Blue and let’s face it: 2A Sanctuaries are people trying to bail water out of a sinking ship or a tourniquet being applied to a fast-bleeding limb.

I am being this harsh about Second Amendment Sanctuaries because I am unfortunately seeing many people in Florida admiring the gesture as something to be followed here in the Sunshine State. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is the stupid and easy way out (if it is a way out at all). It is stupid because we are asking to apply a temporary emergency solution to a festering problem that could be avoided altogether by other means. Yes, those means are more labor intensive, but if you are in this fight because you thought it was easy, you hitched into the wrong train.

We avoid these grand gestures by being proactive, going to the Legislature, sit in the committees and voice our opinions. We do it by calling, and writing our Representatives and Senators and above all, we participate in every election and we make the candidate know what we have done.  And we do this constantly, year in and year out.

We do not know if the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement will actually hold legally. It may or it may not, but the reason they are popping all over the place is because Gun Owners are showing up and addressing the elected officials into doing the change. People moved and had other move to achieve a desired result and it worked! Do I have to wonder if this was something it did not happen in the last election?

The inescapable fact is that the Democrats have Virginia Gun Owners by the short and curlies and I doubt there will be able to stop the onslaught in its totality.  We in Florida are just a little bit better and have still a chance to avoid using the emergency measures. But for that to happen, we need to get our efforts concentrated in legitimate political “targets” and stop wasting efforts on posing and fake bravado. At time of posting, there were 43 gun-related bills in the Florida Legislature:  Three (3) Pro Gun bills, One (1) Neutral bill and Thirty Nine (39) Gun Control bills ranging from bad to totalitarian bad.

Let’s avoid having to use the “Doomsday Protocol” and actually do some hard work to save the Gun Rights in the Sunshine State, shall we?

I had already posted about SB 1524 and did not realize it till I went to update the list page.

I need a vacation, I swear.

Here, a funny for your troubles.

You should know how to use it. Stolen from Wirecutter.

Virginia Gun Owners at the Capitol standing against Gun Control.

This was us last year:

Obviously not Moms Demand, but the empty seats.

I see so little in the way of an energized base here in Florida. I am so hoping I am wrong, but fear I am not.

PS: If you are a Floridian posting in social media how ready are you top go Boogaloo in Virginia, but won’t go to Tallahassee, do us all a favor: shut the hell up and open the basement of your mom’s basement to let some fresh air in.

General Bill by Powell
Use of Deadly Force in Defense of a Person: Repealing a provision relating to home protection and the use or threatened use of deadly force, which creates a presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm in certain circumstances and provides that a person has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force in certain circumstances, etc.
Effective Date: Upon becoming a law
Last Event: 01/13/20 S Filed on Monday, January 13, 2020 8:20 AM

Read the Text of the Bill.

This senate bill at first read seems very similar to the one in the House: HB 6049.

Section 776.013 Home protection; use or threatened use of deadly force; presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm.—

Once again: Your divine right to defend yourself and your loved ones will be illegal if these bills become law. Self defense will become a privilege in the State of Florida. If you are unlucky enough to have to resort to deadly force because you were afraid for your life and/or the life of your family, it will be in the hands of people who were not there (and may have political aspirations) to determine if you can partake of the government-issued privilege and remain free or be sent to jail because they thought you had other options…like dying.

Florida Gun Rights 2020 – SB 1846 – Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground are to be illegal (Senate Version) – VERY BAD BILL

From Bearing Arms:

Virginia Democrats have introduced a revised ban on so-called “assault weapons” that requires existing gun owners to register their firearms with the state, and also bans outright the possession of magazines that can hold more than ten rounds as well as a ban on suppressors and “trigger activators”.

According to the legislative summary by Delegate Mark Levine, HB 961:

The bill makes it a Class 6 felony to import, sell, transfer, manufacture, purchase, possess, or transport large-capacity firearm magazines, silencers, and trigger activators, all defined in the bill. Any person who legally owns an assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator on July 1, 2020, may retain possession until January 1, 2021. During that time, such person shall (i) render the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator inoperable; (ii) remove the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator from the Commonwealth; (iii) transfer the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator to a person outside the Commonwealth who is not prohibited from possessing it; or (iv) surrender the assault firearm, large-capacity firearm magazine, silencer, or trigger activator to a state or local law-enforcement agency.

Under the terms of this bill, every ammunition magazine in the state of Virginia that can accept more than ten rounds would have to be permanently modified to only hold ten rounds, destroyed, turned over, or removed from the state. This language is very similar to the language of New Jersey’s magazine ban, which is currently being challenged by residents in court.

Suppressors would have to be turned in, destroyed, or removed from the state of Virginia as well. No compensated confiscation here, just “Mr.-and-Mrs.-Virginia turn them all in.”

As Governor Ralph Northam promised, the revised gun ban contains a grandfather clause that “allows” Virginians to maintain possession of the firearms they legally own, but at a cost.

A. Any person who legally owns an assault firearm on July 1, 2020, may apply for a permit to possess such assault firearm. The application shall be on a form prescribed by the Department of State Police and shall include a certification statement to be signed by the applicant under penalty of perjury certifying that the applicant is the lawful owner of the assault firearm and that the information presented on the application is true and correct. Upon receipt of a complete application for a permit, the Superintendent of State Police or his designee shall issue a permit to the applicant. The Department of State Police may charge a fee not to exceed $50 to cover the cost of the issuance of the permit.

B. The permit shall contain the name, address, date of birth, gender, height, weight, and color of hair of the applicant and a description of the assault firearm, including the make, model, caliber, and serial number of the assault firearm and any other information as required by the Department of State Police. Except as provided in subsection E, the permit shall not be transferable to another person. The permit shall remain valid as long as the applicant issued the permit remains the owner of the assault firearm unless during the time of ownership the applicant is found not to be in compliance with the conditions set forth in subsection D or the applicant no longer satisfies the requirements for the issuance of a permit. A person issued a permit shall notify the Department of State Police of any change in the person’s address on a form provided by the Department of State Police within 30 days from the date of the change in address. Upon receipt of such notification, the Department of State Police shall issue a replacement permit to the person.

This bill is a whole bunch of anti-gun horse-shit, borrowed from the NY SAFE Act and California, with some homegrown bullshit thrown in as well, like bans on lead-free ammo.  Seriously.

This is par for the course for Democrats with monopoly control.

What stuck out is this, the bill was drafted by Mark Lavine.  According to his biography, he was a Nazi hunter and Jewish historian.  You’d think that he would have figured out that big government and disarmament is bad for the Jews.  That’s a universal rule.  It doesn’t matter where in the world that happened, disarmed Jews end up dead or expelled.

Nope.  The conclusion that he came to is the same as ever college socialist who says that “real socialism has never been tried.”  That the problem isn’t endemic to big government, it’s that he has never been in charge of big government.

Of course, that is a load of shit.  A guy who hunted Nazis should have an aversion to creating a list of names of citizens with undesirable traits, but that is what Progressivism always does.

If you think the lesson of history is that the problem with big government tyrants is that other big government tyrants were wrong and you can do it better, you are an asshole and need to study history better.

Mark Lavine is most definitely an asshole, a Progressive one at that, and has learned nothing good from his experience studying history.

A buddy sent this to me:

Police: Attack on Trump supporter sparked active shooter scare at mall

A dispute over a man’s open support for President Donald Trump led to last week’s active shooter scare at the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre Twp.

Police say a Trump supporter wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat pulled a gun on a man who threatened to assault him and then swatted at him to knock the hat off his head.

After the Trump supporter pulled the gun, the suspect fled, police said.

I think this is the first recorded case of an anti-Trumper trying to get violent with an armed Trump supporter.

News of the incident, which caused mall patrons to panic and flee as well, spread quickly online and sparked fears of a mass shooter at the shopping complex.

Not good.

Wilkes-Barre Twp. police were quick to post on social media that there was no active shooter and the Trump supporter, who holds a concealed carry permit, appeared justified in pulling his gun in self defense.

Given the details below, it seems that the cops were being both open-minded and generous with the Trump supporter.

Chief Will Clark on Tuesday indicated the Trump supporter was the victim and police are still looking for the person who attempted to assault him.

“The individual was wearing a hat in support of Donald Trump,” Clark said. “Apparently, the man told him to take the hat off. He refused. The individual threatened to assault him. The actor then took a swipe at the hat to knock it off his head. At that point, the victim backed up and drew his weapon and pointed it at the ground. The guy took off.”

The bolded text is why I said the shoot was dubious in the title and that the cops were being generous.

This was a DGU that ended without a shot fired because the attacker saw the gun and ran.

My issue is that the man backed up and pointed the gun at the ground.  That seems a lot less like he was in immediate danger and more like brandishing.  The police could have easily come down on the Trump supporter harder than the guy that took a swing at him.

In my personal opinion, I think that anti-brandishing laws are stupid.  The law should make more room for, lack of better phrasing, “defensive gun displays.”  I come down on the side of Michael Strickland.  He was being stalked by a group of aggressive protesters and masked Antifa back to he car as he was trying to leave a political protest and he drew he gun and told the people stalking him to back off.  Given the previous violent history of Antifa, his fears were justified.

To me, it’s like the rattle of a rattlesnake.  A warning that if the aggressor doesn’t back down and fast, it won’t end well for him. A law-abiding citizen shouldn’t have to wait until the last second before he can rely on a gun to save himself, considering how quickly some of these punks turn tail at the sight of a gun.  When a group of punks surrounds you and menaces you, it’s already too late, the law shouldn’t make you keep it holstered until they take a swing at your head  

BUT…

The law doesn’t allow that so carry permit holders need to be double sure what they do is legal and on the up-and-up.

Wilkes-Barre Township is in Luzerne County, which went 58% for Trump, so is probably a little more gun-friendly, and given the situation more likely to side with the permit holder over the attacker.  Had this happened in Philadelphia, I’m sure the guy in the MAGA hat would be going to jail for this.

Still, we got very close to a punk with TDS catching a bullet for attacking a Trump supporter.  I’m sure it will happen before the election.

Be careful out there, and be sure that if you have to draw, you do it according to the law.