New York Post:

A conservative columnist who was suspended by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after she defended the National Rifle Association from comparisons to ISIS fired back with her resignation and a series of targeted tweets.

The newspaper on Friday suspended Stacy Washington after a column entitled “Guns and the Media” disputed an anti-NRA article that argued since more Americans die from guns than from ISIS, the Second Amendment advocacy group is the greater danger.

[ … ]

“Her active promotional activities and professional association with the National Rifle Association represented an unacceptable conflict of interest in her most recent column, which resulted in our suspension of her work,” Tod Robberson, the Post-Dispatch’s editorial page editor, wrote in a response to Washington’s suspension and quitting.

Robberson added: “Columnists are expected to fully disclose conflicts of interest when writing about topics where such a conflict might arise. We apply this standard regardless of the lobbying or advocacy group being written about in a column.”

[ … ]

“I’m not ashamed that I’m an NRA supporter, a Bible-thumper, that I love Jesus Christ. I’m all the way out there. There’s nothing else that I can do to articulate my perspective any more clearly on where I stand.”

So let’s get this straight, “Tod.”  Stacy wasn’t being paid by anyone but you.  Her views are simply that – her views.  You suspended her because of her views, and you know it.  You’re just a cowardly liar.  I have no respect for you because of that.  But since you suspend people who have views, I presume you suspended all Hillary Clinton supporters from the newspaper, right?  Oh, no, I see, you didn’t actually do that, did you?  No, because you’re a liar.

It’s an interesting commentary, though, in that Stacy, in addition to being a charming woman and one to whom you should listen, is more of a man than you are.  Good God.  What kind of metrosexual, effeminate, pathetic “men” do they raise in your neck of the woods anyway?

As for Stacy, don’t worry.  You’ll land on your feet and you’ll be better off without them.  They suck anyway.  I’ve noticed that after blogging for eleven years.

David Codrea:

It wasn’t much of a counterweight to the convention. Depending on who you listen to and which carefully-cropped photos you look at, the Astroturf Moms managed to attract anywhere from several dozen to a couple hundred supporters. For grassroots numbers, you’d need to go inside the 2017 NRA Annual Meeting, with attendance estimates exceeding 80,000.

To-to-toe, huh Shannon?  Is that sort of like when the moms tried to shut down Harris Teeter in Charlotte when “about 10 women, men and children held placards in the Harris Teeter parking lot, cut their customer loyalty cards in front of television cameras and carried a letter to the store manager?”

Is this all about the optics, Shannon?

Via WRSA, this from Z man.

“If there is any hope for a revival of French culture it will only come through total French humiliation and despair. Once a majority of Frenchmen no longer see any reason to support the status quo, to remain loyal to their betters, then things change and change rapidly. It will not happen through elections and political activism. Democracy is good at driving a country off a cliff. It is useless in pulling it back onto the road. France needs to vote itself off the cliff in order to clear the field for what comes next.”

I disagree, and vehemently so.  This analysis is dead wrong.  France has no future now for the same reason France had no future before this election cycle.  France lost its soul long ago.  They exchanged the “grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” for the existentialist philosophy of Sartre And Camus.  The Frenchman hates himself because he hates God.

No man or woman, politician or not, can fill that void.  And no constitution, political philosophy or war can save a country.  No man can replace God.  And France is the canary in the mine for all of Europe, including Britain.  I recall the experience some good friends had when they visited Britain recently, and took the C.S. Lewis tour.  The sad part is that the tour guide said that he only tours Americans now.  No one in Britain cares any more or even knows who C.S. Lewis was.

No they don’t.  All of Europe is lost.

I tried to warn everyone, but just like America has a cop-worshipping problem, it also has a special operator worshipping problem.  Abolish SOCOM, I said.  Distribute direction action capabilities among the units, get out of countries where we don’t belong, and whet our appetite for war-making.

No one listens to me.

The breakneck pace at which the United States deploys its special operations forces to conflict zones is taking a toll, their top commander told Congress on Thursday.

Army Gen. Raymond Thomas, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, called the rate at which special operations forces are being deployed “unsustainable” and said the growing reliance of the U.S. military on its elite troops could produce a dangerous strain.

“We are not a panacea,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We are not the ultimate solution to every problem, and you will not hear that coming from us.”

About 8,000 U.S. special forces are currently deployed in more than 80 countries, Thomas said. Many are at the forefront of advising missions in Syria and Iraq as well as counterterrorism missions in Afghanistan. There are about 500 special operators in Syria.

The origins of this problem are actually quite simple.  First of all, allow meddlesome rulers control over the military.  Second, create military leadership who agrees with all this meddling.  Next, fling the borders wide-ass open and allow anyone to come here for any reason under the sun.  The resultant witch’s brew of toxicity requires you to control everyone, everywhere, all of the time in order to try to ensure that the country doesn’t completely collapse.

Further, invite gays, transgenders, women and weaklings into the military.  The only way to accomplish warfare then is to rely on the only remaining bastion of capability, SOCOM and the U.S. Marine Corps.  The general purpose forces have become a jobs program, and it’s doubtful whether “big army” will ever be capable of fighting another major war.

Perhaps one good side effect of this is that we leave those 138 counties where we deployed last year and mind our own business.

The Morning Call:

Coopersburg resident Mary Ann Nord was looking for reassurance when one of her senators, Republican Pat Toomey, headed to the microphone Wednesday during a gun-safety advocacy event in downtown Washington.

Nord, a member of the Philadelphia chapter of Moms Demand Action, a nonpartisan group created after the elementary school shooting in Sandy Hook, Conn., is quick to praise Toomey’s work on his 2013 background check bill that stalled in the Senate.

Crafting and pushing that legislation took courage, Nord said. She recalled being in Toomey’s office and hearing the phones ringing with angry callers. But more recently, she’s been underwhelmed by his actions on the issue.

“Since then, it’s not been as clear if he was going to continue to be that kind of an advocate for the cause,” said Nord, who spent Wednesday lobbying Pennsylvania legislators and their staffs. “We have been a little bit discouraged that he hasn’t been more vocal.”

The Lehigh Valley senator told her and others gathered at the Grand Hyatt that he and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin — his cosponsor on the measure to extend background checks to gun show sales and online purchases — still support the bill and finding a path through Congress.

“We have not been successful yet, but my determination has not diminished and one day we’re going to succeed on this bill,” Toomey told the reception crowd, drawing applause.

The event was part of a two-day summit organized by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and Americans for Responsible Solutions, a group founded by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was severely injured in a 2011 shooting.

Giffords’ group endorsed Toomey during his tightly contested re-election fight due to his efforts on the 2013 gun background check bill. A gun-control advocacy group founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg aired pro-Toomey ads, highlighting an issue the senator emphasized as he sought to win over moderate, suburban voters.

He took criticism from gun-rights advocates as a result of the background check bill, and his A rating from the National Rifle Association dropped to a C last year.

His rating should have dropped to F.  He should have never had the A rating to begin with, and that was a function of bad judgment by the NRA, something we see time and again.

This goes a long way back with Toomey and Manchin, as it did with Eric Cantor and as it also does with Paul Ryan.  The fact that Ryan is House speaker tells us all we need to know about the judgment of other members of the House who supported Ryan’s candidacy for said position.

The gun controllers will never give up, and neither can we.  I’m not saying that it’s impossible to truly change, because God can save fallen men.  But the reliance on the state for safety and security is a demonstrable indicia of statism and thus fallen and pagan thinking.  Men live like the die, and they die like they live.  The thief on the cross was a stark exception, but he was just that – an exception.

Toomey and Manchin apparently are the standard, not the exception.  Fight them with all your breath, with every ounce of energy, with every cell of your body, and with every prayer in your soul.

The State:

A Senate bill that would clear the way for carrying firearms in South Carolina without a permit advanced from a panel on Tuesday with fewer than five days remaining in the legislative calendar.

It’s the beginning step for the bill that was first discussed in mid April. The bill – whose author is Sen. Shane Martin, R-Spartanburg – is different than one the House bill has already passed.

[ … ]

Like the House version, the Senate bill allows those who are legally permitted to own, carry or purchase a firearm to do so without having to obtain a permit. “Open carry,” which allows for a person to carry a firearm exposed on their person, also would be permitted …

As of Tuesday, however, there were no plans to schedule another hearing by the Senate Judiciary Committee during the last week of session, which is the panel where the bill is headed to next.

The bill, however, does not die; 2017 is the first half of a two-year session. When legislators return in January, they will be able to continue discussing the bill with the progress that has already been made.

I consider it a minor to moderate failure for this bill to sit stagnated while the legislators go home.  We lose momentum, and there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that they couldn’t have come to terms with the House and passed a bill to send to the governor’s desk this week.

The upshot, however, is that I was worried about whether the rapidity of this would prevent us from addressing the South Carolina state senators one by one in order to do what we can to ensure success.  Now we don’t have that problem.  We have time to single out the senators with directed and focused communications.  Sitting stagnated but in process is better than having completely died or being rejected by the senate.

I hate that the legislators are going home, but we can pick this up again and make it clear to the senators that they have to do this first thing.  They need to move apace on this.  So says we, the free citizens and men of good will everywhere.

David Reeder at Breach-Bang-Clear:

“I’d rather just come on out and get it out there. There’s nothing more to say about it. I came into the Marines as an intel guy, started working at the NSA, and got some deployments out of it. The deployments were national intelligence teams [three letter agencies, ed]. That’s all true. But I was never Recon. Someone called me out on it, and I copped to it. It’s nothing I didn’t bring to my own doorstep. I could easily have shut it down, and I didn’t. It’s a lie I’ve been living for twenty years.

This is a soul cleanse for me after looking over my shoulder all this time.

I apologize to the community, to everyone for misrepresenting myself. I don’t ask or expect forgiveness. I can’t make up for what I did, but I can try to atone for it.”

So let me get this straight.  Someone called you out on it, or otherwise you would have kept living with that false impression from your students and followers?

Okay, perhaps I’m being to harsh here.  Nathan had to point at David too, and say “Thou art the one.”  David engaged in true repentance at that point.  I don’t regularly follow Mr. Lamb so I have no dog in this fight.  I hope he benefits from this experience.  But I have this to say to him.  You do not atone for your own sins.  Only the sacrifice of Jesus does that, and if you have no savior, you aren’t saved.  It’s that simple.

Here is the thing, though.  It just isn’t necessary to embellish CVs like that.  I learn from people when I can, and when I can’t, I don’t.  I really couldn’t care less about their CV.  The question is always for me, “Is what they’re teaching valuable and meaningful for me, and am I physically capable of implementing and practicing it?”  If yes, then I try to learn from it.  If not, then I ignore it without any malice at all.

There is no shame in not being a recon Marine.  My son Daniel wasn’t a recon Marine.  He was an infantry Marine who saw heavy combat in Fallujah in 2007, earning the CAR.  He was a SAW gunner, and a designated marksman for his platoon.  He went through all of the shooting and sighting training that the Scout Snipers go through, but he told me he had no desire whatsoever to take the rest of the training and testing, i.e., stalking, egress, etc.

He also had no desire whatsoever to run everywhere, which is what the recon Marines had to do to be able to achieve a perfect score on their PT.  Mr. Lamb didn’t have to embellish his CV (or perhaps he did if Magpul would not have hired him, possibly leading to more difficulty in building his brand).  I don’t know what the future would have held for him had he killed this perception at the outset rather than live with it.

In the end, when you get enough years under your belt in your own line of work, you know you are the craftsman, expert and mentor when the kids come to you for mentoring, being able to choose anyone they want.  It is that choice that is confirmation of your life’s work, not your CV.

The initial reactions by Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms had convinced me that they didn’t grasp the gravity of the situation for their business.  This is similar, and even more troubling because of the power of these manufacturers, to the situation with Jerry Tsai and Recoil magazine.  Jerry lost his job over that.

Rock River Arms has an updated statement, released May 2, 2017, and it is shown below in full.  I think this begins to show wisdom from RRA over the “abandonment” to which they refer.

For immediate release:

May 2, 2017

After further review, Rock River Arms, Inc.® (RRA) is immediately severing all ties with the Illinois Firearms Manufacturers Association (IFMA).

We feel that IFMA’s integrity is compromised and we will not be a part of the organization. We trusted that contributions and resources provided to IFMA by RRA were being used to promote and uphold our 2nd Amendment values. IFMA’s actions have destroyed that trust.

For more than twenty years, RRA has actively opposed gun control legislation at the local, state, and federal levels. We have supported and provided monetary and product donations to multiple pro-gun organizations including NRA, NSSF, ISRA and countless others. We have attended rallies and spoken at educational events on be half of gun owners’ rights. Our employees have collect ed signatures, written letters and e-mails, called legislators’ offices, as well as attended events, meetings and hearings in Springfield, Illinois.

What we learned, however, was that we are better at manufacturing firearms and accessories than playing political games at the state capitol. So, we began to utilize the services of lobbyists, first through other organizations and then in 2009, we partnered with several other manufacturers to form IFMA.

Prior to our further review, we believed that the organization had accurately represented us. We feel that IFMA’s actions have compromised its integrity. While their actions may be standard practices at the capitol, backdoor politics and convoluted deal-making are counter to the way we do business and lead our lives.

I sincerely apologize for my lack of direct engagement in IFMA’s governance and subsequent actions, as well as the abandonment gun owners are feeling.

If you have any questions regarding, or need more information about, this statement or RRA’s position, please contact:

Sarah Larson, RRA General Manager at 309-792-5780.

Thank you,

Chuck Larson

President/Owner

Rock River Arms

Via Codrea, I learned about the recent IFMA FFL and firearms manufacturers licensing scheme, which basically does the following.

Earlier today, the Illinois State Senate passed bill SB-1657 by a one-vote margin. While its prospects are still unsure in the House, if signed by Governor Bruce Rauner, the new law will mandate state licensing for all Illinois gun dealers. It will also restrict all others in Illinois to nine firearm transfers per year.

The lobbyist for the Illinois FirearmsManufacturers Association (IFMA), Jay Keller, traded that group’s opposition to the bill in exchange for a carve-out, removing Prairie State firearms manufacturers from the licensing requirements.

Two companies provide the bulk of the funding for IFMA: Springfield Armory and Rock River Arms.

To be clear, the original version of SB-1657 did not exempt manufacturers from the licensing regulations. At the time, Jay Keller and IFMA opposed it.

At a March Senate hearing, however, Keller stated that IFMA would drop its opposition to SB-1657 and go neutral if legislators gave the state’s gun makers a pass. State Senator Don Harmon delivered on his end of the deal with an amendment exempting big box stores and manufacturers from this scheme.

With that amendment, IFMA dropped its opposition to the bill,going neutral on the witness slip. That serves as a very public position on a bill in Illinois politics.

Perhaps this is the whole story.  Or perhaps not.  From here it gets really confusing, with the Springfield Armory statement as follows.

Springfield Armory has always fought hand-in-hand with the NRA, NSSF, ISRA and many others for legislation that fiercely protects the Second Amendment, individual rights and the industry as a whole. Our fight continues today as some members of the Illinois legislature are pushing to overregulate the industry through Gun Dealer Licensing Act (SB1657).

“At the time of my initial statement to the media, I was ill-informed of the ramifications of this bill and its detrimental effects to the Second Amendment, which I have personally fought to protect my entire life. I can tell you now, we at Springfield Armory are unequivocally 100 percent against this bill and will continue to work with the NRA and others to ensure that it is defeated,” said Dennis Reese, Chief Executive Officer, Springfield Armory.

Springfield Armory, like Rock River Arms, was not aware of the actions taken by our trade association, IFMA, until after the fact. We take this situation very seriously and are looking into how this very unfortunate lapse in communication occurred.

Springfield Armory has fought and defeated legislation like this in Illinois for the past 15 years. We are wholeheartedly against this bill and will fight to see it defeated as the unnecessary and harmful overreach that it is.

Rock River Arms has responded thusly (so far).

RRA Moderator
Posted: Yesterday 4:38:04 PM EDT [Last Edit: Yesterday 4:43:02 PM EDT by RRAMODERATOR] RRA’s owner is at NRAAM in Atlanta, where he is meeting with a number of people about this. While many of the necessary people are in Atlanta, some are not which is complicating things. RRA has been opposed to this bill (and earlier bills prior to it for more than a decade) and is still in 100% opposition to it. Both our exemption and the change in our lobbyist’s position from “opposed” to “no position” were surprises to us. We found out after many of you, and have been trying to make sense of it since. A statement will be forthcoming as soon as it is possible to make one that is accurate and complete. It may still come out today. Thank you all for your consideration and to the many who have been willing to give us the benefit of the doubt. Steve/RRA

Perhaps the lobbyist for the IFMA acted on his own.  Or perhaps not.  We need to know the truth about this, as customers and their loyalty, and the health of two very good companies, and the lives of their workers, hang in the balance.

Look, I’ve got it.  Every company worries over things like a well-trained work force, retention of good employees, and forcing workers to relocate to far-away states which are much more gun friendly, leaving behind extended family, perhaps some with dependent care issues.  This is an absolutely sordid situation to be faced with.

On the other hand, some companies have relocated, such as Magpul and Remington.  Customers have rewarded Magpul, and the Remington plant in Alabama is reported to be doing very well.  Customers punished Smith & Wesson for their fornication with Bill Clinton and the gun controllers years ago, and with the situation as it is today, if this occurred again I seriously doubt Smith & Wesson would recover as it has.

Ruger makes fine revolvers and so we don’t need S&W if they were to go out of business, everyone makes a polymer pistol (so the M&P isn’t an absolute necessity), and many more manufacturers are making 1911s (although buyer beware, it’s much harder to make a quality 1911 than a plastic double stack gun).  There are too many AR-15 manufacturers to count now, with quality makers such as Daniel Defense, LaRue Tactical, Knight’s Armament, and Head Down.

I am a huge fan of RRA as readers know.  But if RRA and Springfield Armory were complicit in passing this legislation, they will suffer from it.  RRA distributors will stop asking for delivery and prices will plummet, although I expect RRA to survive.  If Springfield participated in support of this bill (or lack of opposition to it), I expect them to fold their tents.  They will not survive.  They don’t make anything unique enough to survive in the face of the competition.

I hate this for both RRA and Springfield, but you just simply cannot jump in bed with the controllers and be forgiven by the customers.  Gun owners won’t tolerate it – if you doubt what I’m saying, read the comments to this reddit/r/firearms thread.  If there is more to this story than we see, RRA and Springfield need to come clean and address the issues forthrightly – immediately.

UPDATE from RRA concerning IFMA.