The Pumpkin Cannon

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Deep Thinking On The Austin Gun Show Debacle

So a question.

Assuming the "agreement" between law enforcement authorities, BATF and the show promoter agreeing to prohibit private transfers are true, under what authority, local ordinances, or code (state or federal) does law enforcement have a right to enforce a PRIVATE AGREEMENT?

You can't get police to take a police report on a private parking lot if there is a car accident.

At worse, I think all they could do would be eject you from the show. I'm not an attorney, but I cannot think of a single precedent that would allow BATFE or Austin Police to be the enforcers of a promoter's new "rule."

Thoughts anyone????

Quote Of The Day

"I don't think its only those of us who shoot in the city who realize how much freedom we have lost. But its amplified and seen in our anger, our frustration and hopelessness about gun rights. Anger, fear and hopelessness are three of the reasons that people like you and me fall for the crap we read about. And our neighbors hear about. About gun violence, which always allows those terrible laws to be passed. We are conditioned to believe this crap. Conditioned, like a baby elephant in the circus. Did you know that if you chain up an african bull elephant at birth to an extremely large chain, that after a while this full adult, the largest animal in the jungle, will be conditioned not to pull on its tether. That after time it can be tethered to a dog leash? That it will not resist? Conditioned. Thats what Americans are becoming. Conditioned."

-- Kenn Blanchard, host of the Urban Shooter Podcast and the author of Black Man With A Gun

In Austin, Texas Of All Places, Private Party Transfers Banned (For Now)

In case you didn't know it, there is much fur flying in Austin, Texas these days.

What gives? What at first appeared to be a flagrant violation of the law by the BATFE and the Austin, Texas police department arbitrarily banning the transfer of private property between one person and another in the Lone Star State. That private property being the lowly firearm, and the new "restriction" taking place at the long-running Austin Gun Show?

Now comes word that the ban on private transfers is the apparent result of an agreement between BATFE, Austin PD, certain "property owners" and the operators/managers of the gun show.

Are they nuts? My question is what did the PD or BATFE have on the gun show promoters to have the latter enter into such a ridiculous agreement to begin with?

A Day Out With The Governor

. . . the governor of Texas that is!

Texas Gov. Rick Perry hosted a Texas blogger meet-up in Austin, Texas this past weekend. And on Friday night, 20 of the 90 or so attendees met at Red's Gun Range with the Governor. He spent a lot of time chatting, and showed a handful of bloggers how to shoot his personal laser-sighted Ruger LCP .380.

Guess what? There's video, courtesy of PJTV. What could be better than to spend a few hours at the range with a gun friendly governor?

I am envious . . .

Ohio's Attorney General Mess

I hate it when the political parties move candidates around like so many chess pieces. But then politics -- and policy -- is a giant chess game. What you are doing today and tomorrow is based on the five or six moves you planned out months ago.

While it may be for the good of the party, and perhaps the people of a given state, it just looks bad. Even if the motivations are well intentioned.

Case in point. Yesterday, pro-gun Ohio attorney general candidate David Yost, a prosecutor in Delaware County, announced he is dropping his candidacy for that post to run for state auditor. He is a former county auditor and would do well in that post. But he was asked to move because GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich -- squishy on the 2A (when in Congress he enthusiastically voted FOR the 10-year, 1994 ban on so-called "assault weapons) -- has tapped current Ohio Auditor of State Mary Taylor as his Lt. Gov. running mate.

Dave Yost (for disclosure reasons I once again note that he and I have known each other since college) would have been an excellent attorney general. But he is doing something good for the party, if not the state. But the way it was orchestrated . . . . well? . . . . it all kind of starts out with an aftertaste.

Which leaves the Buckeye State attorney general's race one of concern. The incumbent, democrat Richard Cordray, was anti-gun for years, then suddenly changed stripes when he ran for Ohio treasurer, claiming his rural upbringing and his love of hunting made him a solid pro-gun choice for voters. He signed on as a co-sponsor of statewide outdoor sports and shooting-related events. He was elected, then tapped to fill the remaining term of disgraced former attorney general Marc Dann. Cordray since has been mostly silent on the gun issue, and he raised even more eyebrows when he chose not to join in a letter with 23 other state Attorney Generals asking the Federal government not to re-impose the “assault” weapons ban.

So where does Cordray stand on the Second Amendment? When he screened for office with various groups some 20 years ago, he was unhesitatingly hostile to private gun ownership. In an interview with RightOhio last year, however, Cordray said he would not support a new ban on competition rifles. Will he go farther with such thinking? Perhaps he truly has changed his position on civilian ownership of firearms. I hope so.

Cordray's republican opponent is none other than anti-gun Mike DeWine, the only republican U.S. senator ever to be endorsed by the Brady Campaign (formerly Handgun Control Inc.) He has never renounced this endorsement. And his milquetoast, timid, unassertive, wishy-washiness on most issues, combined with his lack of support for conservative causes is what led to his defeat in his last re-election bid by democrat Sherrod Brown, who is just as anti gun as DeWine, and generally, just as liberal.

There are some who suggest DeWine was endorsed by the Bradys in a strategic effort by the left to cause him to lose his seat. If so, and he knew it could be damaging, why didn't he decline the endorsement? Why didn't he say he does not agree with them? Because he does, that's why! Most likely, conservatives in Ohio decided to make an example of DeWine, to send a message, and he lost his seat. While Sherrod Brown became part of the new majority of The Left, Ohio republicans (we had thought) learned a valuable lesson. But with the push for DeWine toward AG, and Yost being "asked" to switch races, I wonder if the lesson was lost . . .

DeWine is highly poisonous to most right-leaning and many moderate voters. Many on the right were stunned when republican John McCain (not my first choice of prez candidates) had Sarah Palin on a bus criss-crossing Ohio, and her chaperone/tour guide was none other than Mike DeWine. I wrote a letter to Palin and her campaign telling her what mistake it was to be touring with DeWine, who is distrusted by pretty much any thinking voter who incorporates the 2A into their decision process.

One might wonder why a former U.S. senator would want to run for state attorney general. Its easy. What he really wants is the governor's chair. But DeWine is a poor candidate for such, and the party knows it. Today, DeWine has noted in a couple of interviews that he believes he should not be judged by votes that appeal to the the Brady Campaign, or Violence Policy Center, but that voters should look at his entire record. I have looked at it. DeWine did little of import during his tenure in the U.S. Senate. But I firmly believe his anti-gun actions, and left-leaning voting record cost him his seat in that most exclusive of clubs.

So the AG's race here in Ohio pits someone who is virulently anti gun, vs. someone who used to be and seems to have become informed, even enlightened, on the issue. For those readers outside Ohio, adding to the points that make you shake your head is the fact that the head of the Ohio GOP, Kevin DeWine, is a second cousin to Mike DeWine. Some are saying its about family. While moving Yost over to the auditor's race helps the republicans have a better shot at influencing the State Apportionment Board, for policy wonks like myself who watch this stuff every day it more than smacks of nepotism

Of course, Buckeye State voters will be electing or re-electing a governor this fall. Solidly pro-gun incumbent Ted Strickland, a democrat, had a commanding lead last summer in early polling but has lost much of that momentum due to the lousy economy. Now, to be intellectually honest, he inherited much of the mess, which worsened due to national influences, from anti-gun republican Gov. Bob Taft who left office three years ago at the end of his term due to numerous ethics violations. But Taft was wishy-washy as governor, did nothing to improve the business climate or grow jobs, and was incredibly anti self defense. Taft went so far to veto a CCW improvement bill, only to have his veto overturned by the members of the Ohio General Assembly.

So Strickland inherits troubles, and they multiply through no fault of his. Strickland's opponent is republican John Kasich, who, wisely, is using the economy and jobs issues to beat up Mr. Strickland.

Kasich, as I mentioned before, was instrumental in getting the 1994 "assault weapons" ban passed while he was in the U.S. House of Representatives. While in the Ohio Statehouse, he was largely counted as being one of the least effective members of the legislature. Further, I find it strangely curious that Mr. Kasich says the state's problems, which he lays at the feet of Strickland, are a plague of higher taxes and unemployment. Missing from his argument is that his own party, the republicans, were in charge of state government for the vast majority of the past 25 years.

Have I mentioned that I am a conservative who has often (not always) voted with the republicans, and this is stuff with the potential to make one's brain explode?

In what is viewed as "a wash," Gov. Strickland's current Lt. Gov will not be running with him the second time around. Lee Fisher, a former national board member of Handgun Control Inc., was just a heartbeat away from the Big Chair, which is why I wrote several years ago that I hoped Ted and family were eating healthy foods, thereby keeping the governor's stress, cholesterol and blood pressure in check. Of course, pro-gun Strickland was forced by his party machine to add the anti-gun Fisher, a proven vote getter in northeast Ohio, to his ticket.

Replacing Fisher on the dem ticket this time around is Yvette McGee Brown, an equally anti-gun former domestic relations judge from Franklin County. She currently is a child and family advocacy executive with a central Ohio foundation. Instead of recognizing firearms' place as a defender of families, Judge Brown views guns and so-called "gun violence" as a scourge of families. So no change there. If Gov. Strickland is re-elected, I urge him to continue to eat the high-fiber, low-fat diet, ensuring he isn't replaced with someone far less self defense friendly.

Thankfully, though we started with a horrible CCW law in the beginning, it has been improved dramatically over the years. But Ohio gun owners, at the polls in November, will face these many tough choices.

Questions are being asked of all these candidates by a number of 2A entities. Politics, once again, is trumping statesmanship.

With the possible exception of Messrs. Strickland and Yost (the latter of whom is begrudgingly being a team player, despite his likely (I have not talked to him about it) disgust at this turn of events , it appears all the players -- left and right -- are political pawns and playing a game. Whichever the way the wind blows, they blow with it.

Yost at the AG post would have been a refreshing change, for Ohio republicans at the executive branch have not been firearms friendly (Voinovich, Taft, et al). Just last summer, Voinovich, who blocked CCW legislation the entire eight years he was Ohio's governor, cast a vote against national CCW reciprocity in one of his final important votes in the U.S. Senate.

Even Ken Blackwell, an effective Ohio secretary of state, stubbed his toe when he took for granted with voters his life membership in the National Rifle Association. Democrat Strickland sent out teams to local conservation clubs, shooting clubs and gun shows to drum up support for the candidate, who when he was in Congress, the Ohio legislature, and now as Ohio's chief executive has been a staunch defender of the rights of moms, grandmas, dads, uncles, and you and me, to possess and use a firearm for all lawful purposes.

Firearms owners, and supporters of the basic human right to self defense, have a lot at stake in this November's general elections.

More to come . . .

Gun Definitions For The Pessimist

I don't know who wrote this but it is a howler. Everyone has their particular favorite when it comes to shooting tools. And we all have our biases when it comes to those firearms we don't care for.

Someone took some time to craft bugaboos about many popular handguns and long guns. I'm thinking it was a Barrett 50 fan, since that big boomstick is not mentioned. Bottom line: there is something to offend everyone here.

On a serious note, as a fan of John Browning I take offense at the description of the 1911. On that one the writer is just stupid. I'm just sayin' . . .

Gun Definitions

M14/M1A: Clunky, heavy, and overpowered. Essentially a Garand tarted up with a removable magazine, in a half-baked attempt to adapt a 19th century rifle design philosophy to the mid-20th century. Most often named as favorite infantry rifle by people who never had to hump a 10-pound wood-stocked rifle with lots of sharp protrusions and no collapsible anything on a three day exercise, or try to make it through a firefight with the standard battle load of five 20-round magazines.

AK-47: Crude and inaccurate bullet thrower designed by and for illiterate peasants. Chambered in a caliber that manages to cut the ballistics of a proper .30-caliber battle rifle in half without passing on any weight savings to the grunt. Ergonomics only suitable for Russian midgets. Archaic cable trigger spring, crummy sights, no sight radius to speak of, no bolt hold-open device, and a clumsy safety. Favorite infantry rifle of Middle Eastern goat herders, guys named Abdullah, and backwoods militia types who like the fact that it shoots cheap ammo and has ballistics like their
familiar .30-30.

H&K G-3/HK-91: Ergonomics of a railroad tie. No bolt release, and a locking system that requires three men and a mule to work the cocking handle. Fluted chamber that mauls brass, and violent bolt motion that dings the brass that didn't get mauled too badly by the chamber. Stamped sheet metal construction, yet just as heavy as a milled steel M14. Safety lever that requires unnaturally long thumbs, and a trigger pull that feels like dragging a piano across a gravel road with your index finger. Favorite infantry rifle of Cold War nostalgics and third world commandos.

M-16/AR-15: Underpowered varmint rifle burdened by a crummy magazine design. Nasty direct-impingement gas system that poops where it eats. High sight line, flimsy alloy-and-plastic construction. Generally favored by range commandos, tactical disciples, military vets who have never fired anything else for comparison, and Brownells addicts who a.) enjoy spending three times the cost on the rifle on bolt-on accouterments, and b.) never have to use their rifle away from a dry, sunny
range.

G-36: Flimsy plastic rifle with non-user adjustable fair-weather optics that fog up when a gnat breaks wind in front of them. Magazines that take up twice as much pouch space than others in the same caliber because of the "clever" coupling nubs on the magazine housing. Skeleton folding stock that is about as suitable for butt-stroking as a plastic mess spork. Twice as expensive as other rifles in its class because of the "HK" logo on the receiver. Preferred infantry rifle of SWAT cops, and soldiers whose militaries haven't been in shooting conflicts since the 1940s.

Glock: Butt-ugly plastic shooting appliance with the ergonomics of a caulking gun. Five-pound trigger with no external safety makes it ill-suited for its target market (cops who shoot a hundred rounds a year for qualification). Favored by gangbangers because the product name is short and rhymes with other short, rap-friendly words.

Beretta 92F/M9: Clunky and overweight rip-off of a clunky and overweight German design from the 1930s. Shear-happy locking block, ergonomics that are only
suited for linebackers, barely adequate sights that are partially non-replaceable, and low capacity for its size. Favored by Eighties action movie fanatics and John Woo freaks.

1911: Overweight and overly complex piece of late 19th century technology. Low capacity, useless sights in stock form, and a field-stripping procedure that requires three hands. Favored by people who are at the cutting edge of handgun technology and combat shooting . . . of the 1960s.

H&K P7: Wildly overpriced, heavy for its size, low capacity in most iterations, and blessed with a finish that rusts if you give the gun a moist glance. Gas tube has a tendency to roast the trigger finger after a box or two of ammo at the range. Favored by gun snobs who think that paying twice as much for half the rounds means four times the fighting skill.

SIG Sauer: Top-heavy bricks with the rust resistance of an untreated iron nail
at the bottom of a bucket of saltwater. Ergonomically sound, if you have size
XXL mitts. Some minor parts made in Germany, so the manufacturer can charge 75% Teutonic Gnome Magic premium. Favored by Jack Bauer fans and wannabe Sky Marshals/Secret Service agents.

S&W Revolvers: Archaic hand weapons from a bygone era, the missing link between flintlocks and autoloaders. Low capacity, and reloading requires a lunch break. Heavy for their capacity, unless you're talking about airweight snubbies, which hurt as much on the giving end as they do on the receiving end. Rare stoppages, but few malfunctions that don't require gunsmith services, which are hard to come by in a gunfight. Favored by crusty old farts who just now got around to trusting newfangled smokeless powder, and Dirty Harry fans with unrealistic ideas about the power of Magnum rounds vs. engine blocks.

SMLE/Enfield: Refinement of a 19th century blackpowder design. Weapon of choice for militaries who either couldn't afford Mausers, or had ideological hangups about Kraut rifles. Rimlock-prone cartridge that only barely classifies as a battle rifle round because of blackpowder derivation and insufficient lock strength of the platform. Favored by Canadians with WWII nostalgia, and people who think that semi-auto rifles are a passing fad.

Browning HP: Fragile frame designed around a popgun round. Near-useless safety in stock form that's only suitable for the thumbs of elementary schoolers. Strangest and most circuitous way to trip a sear ever put into a handgun. Favored by wannabe SAS commandos, wannabe mercenaries, and Anglophiles who think that hammer-down, chamber-empty carry is the most appropriate way to carry a defensive sidearm.

Benelli shotguns: Plastic boutique scatterguns made by people with the martial acumen of dairy cows. Hideously expensive, and therefore popular with police agencies that get their equipment financed by tax dollars.

FN FAL: Long and lightweight receiver that's impossible to scope properly. Overpowered round, twenty-round magazines that run dry in a blink, and an overall weapon length that's only suitable for Napoleonic line infantry, but utterly useless for airborne and armored infantry. Made by Belgians, a nation with a military history that is limited to waving German divisions through at the border. Favored by Falklands veterans, Commonwealth fanboys, and people who think that dial-a-recoil gas systems are the epitome of infantry technology.

9mm Luger: European popgun round that's only popular because the ammo is cheap for a centerfire cartridge. Cheap ammo is a good thing for 9mm aficionados,
because anything bigger and more dangerous than a cranky raccoon will likely require multiple well-placed hits. Wildly popular all over the world, mostly in
countries where people don't carry guns, and cops don't have to actually shoot
people with theirs.

.45ACP: Chunky low-pressure cartridge that hogs magazine space and requires a low-capacity design (if the gun needs to fit human hands) or a grip with the circumference of a two-liter soda bottle (if the gun needs to hold more than seven rounds). Disturbingly prone to bullet setback, expensive to reload, fits only into big and clunky guns, and a recoil that has an inversely proportionate relationship with muzzle energy.

.40S&W: Neutered compromise version of a compromise cartridge. Even more setback-happy than the .45ACP, and setbacks are much more dangerous because of higher pressure and smaller case volume. Manages to sacrifice both the capacity of the 9mm and the bullet diameter of the .45. Twice the recoil of the 9mm for 10% more muzzle energy.

.357SIG: Highly overpriced boutique round that does the .40S&W one worse: it manages to share the capacity penalty of the .40 while retaining the small bullet diameter of the 9mm. Noisy, sharp recoil, and 100% cost penalty for ballistics that can be matched by a good 9mm +P+ load. Penetrates like the dickens, which means that the Air Marshals just had to adopt it...only to load their guns with frangible bullets to make sure they don't penetrate like the dickens.

.38 Special: Legacy design with a case length that's 75% longer than necessary for the mediocre ballistics of the round due to its blackpowder heritage. On the plus side, the case length makes it easy to handle when reloading the gun. This is a good thing because anyone using their .38 in self-defense against a 250-pound attacker hopped up on crack will need to empty the gun multiple times.

.32ACP: Inadequate for anything more thick-skinned than Northeastern squirrels or inbred Austrian archdukes. Semi-rimmed cartridge that is rimlock-happy in modern lightweight autoloaders. Doesn't go fast enough to expand a hollowpoint bullet, and it wouldn't matter even if it did, because the bullet would only expand from tiny to small-ish.

.44 Magnum: Overpowered round that generates manageable recoil and muzzle blast...if you're a 300-pound linebacker with wrists like steel girders. Often loaded to "Lite" levels that turn it into a noisy .44 Special while retaining the ego-preserving Magnum headstamp. Considered the "most powerful handgun cartridge in the world" by people whose gun knowledge is either stuck in 1960, or who get their expertise in ballistics from Dirty Harry movies.

10mm Auto: Super-high pressure cartridge that beats up gun and shooter alike. Very brisk recoil in anything other than all-steel S&W boat anchors, with a shot recovery that's measured in geological epochs for most handgun platforms. Often underloaded to wimpy levels (see ".40 S&W"), which then gives it 9mm ballistics while requiring .45ACP magazine real estate.

.380ACP/9mm Kurz: Designed by people who thought the 9mm Luger was a bit too brisk and snappy, which is pretty much all that needs to be said here. Great round if you expect to only ever be attacked by people less than seven inches thick from front to back.

.357 Magnum: Lots of recoil, muzzle blast, and noise to drive a 9mm bullet to reckless speeds in an attempt to make up for its low mass and diameter. Explosive fragmentation and insufficient penetration with light bullets; excessive penetration and insufficient expansion with heavy ones. Still makes only 9mm holes in the
target.

5.7×28mm: Ingenious way to make a centerfire .22 Magnum and then charge quadruple price for the same ballistics. Awesome chambering for a police firearm . . . if you're the park ranger in charge of the chipmunk exhibit at the zoo, and you want to make sure you can take one down if it turns rabid on you.

.25ACP: Direct violation of the maxim "Never do an enemy a minor injury." Designed by folks who wanted to retain the bullet diameter of the .22 rimfire round, but take a bit of the excessive lethality out of it. Favored by people who don't feel comfortable carrying anything more dangerous than the neighbor kid's rusty Red Ryder pellet gun.

h/t to Jonathan O'Conner via Randy Van Fossan

California School Board Expulsion Over Shotguns Overturned

Gary Tudesko will be finishing his junior year in high school. He had been duck hunting. He had left shotguns in his pickup truck parked on a public street on the other side side of tennis courts away from his high school.

The school principal got word that the firearms were in the automobile, brought it to the attention of the Willows Joint Union School District in California. Tudesko was expelled late in October last year. This week, the Tudesko family and the Willows community got their wish. The Glenn County Board of Education voted unanimously to overturn the school board's expulsion order after a coalition of firearms rights groups sued.

Though the principal of the school disagrees with the decision, but the community is relieved. The judge also ordered that the school district needs to expunge his record so that it does not reflect the incident.

IMHO, the principal is a wuss. Afraid of his own shadow. He fears for the safety of the community, the safety of the school kids and his own safety? He and the school board overstepped what authority they have . . . and he doesn't seem to care!

Idiocy. At least the system worked this time.