But wait, that’s not the whole story.

Governor Asa Hutchinson has informed the Arkansas State Police that he believes a 2013 law made open carry of hand guns the law of the land in Arkansas and they should act accordingly.

There is, as yet, no definitive court case that substantiates this view of the law. Ever since its passage, a debate has raged over the law’s meaning. Some contended it was merely meant to be a technical correction to Arkansas law that long had allowed the carrying of weapons on a “journey,” but not in all circumstances. Gun advocates argued that the wording validated open carry. Critics argue that such an expansive view might override some of the restrictions in law on where concealed weapons may be taken.

The governor’s letter comes as he faces a challenge in the Republican primary from Jan Morgan, a gun range owner who’s depicted Hutchinson (a former spokesman for the NRA) as somehow soft on guns (she was critical of some limitations added to the campus carry legislation, among others). His opinion carries no force of law, but the directive to an executive agency will have the effect of guiding state troopers, as indicated by a notice sent yesterday to troopers by Col. Bill Bryant, director of the State Police.

Context: An off-duty trooper in 2014 arrested a man who was carrying a weapon in a Searcy Walmart. He was acquitted of an obstruction of governmental operations misdemeanor charge, but lost a lawsuit at the circuit court level in which he sought to have his concealed carry permit restored. Judge Wendell Griffen rejected James Tanner’s argument that the 2013 law allowed open carry so long as no unlawful intent was present. The judge called that interpretation “senseless.” The judge ruled Tanner wasn’t entitled to get his license back because he openly carried a concealed weapon as a permit holder and refused to provide identification to an officer who asked for it. That case has not been appealed, court records indicate.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge issued an official opinion in 2015 that indicated open carry was legal in Arkansas, but she also commented that confusion about the 2013 law suggested clarification would be useful. Her predecessor, Dustin McDaniel, had opined the law was only a technical correction, not legalization of unlimited open carry.

Rutledge also enumerated these caveats about open carry:

* Law officers can freely question anyone openly carrying a weapon about their purpose.

* Other statutes prohibit open carry in certain circumstances — in government buildings such as the Capitol, for example.

* Private property owners are entitled to keep firearms off their property, and armed people who refuse to leave can be prosecuted for trespass.

* The law doesn’t affect concealed carry statutes. All carrying concealed weapons still must comply with permitting and other requirements.

By “soft on guns,” Morgan means that Asa isn’t the gun rights supporter he purports to be.

Hutchinson hasn’t been hard enough on the gays and the transgenders; he once took a meeting with gun control advocates; he wouldn’t sign a meaningless anti-Sharia law bill; he’s supported the continuation of the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.

Arkansas is in fact a stop and identify state, but only for loitering.  The judge that decided the case against the open carrier, Wendell Griffen, is clearly an idiot and communist.  Expect the police to ignore the governor’s edict and work towards their communist ends.

As for the governor’s race, I don’t know what will happen.  But Arkansas is as much a mess as every other state.

The Wichita Eagle:

Blue and red lights flashed outside of the McCormick Street house just after 6 p.m. on Thursday. Curious of what was going on – Andrew Finch, 28, opened the door.

“I heard my son scream, I got up and then I heard a shot,” his mother, Lisa Finch, said Friday morning.

Finch and other relatives invited reporters into their home Friday morning – more than 12 hours after Wichita police said an officer fatally shot a 28-year-old man, who was identified by family as Andrew “Andy” Finch.

“We want Andy’s side of the story to be told,” his mother said.

On Thursday, Deputy Wichita Police Chief Troy Livingston said a substation received a call that there was a hostage situation in a house in the 1000 block of West McCormick — and that someone had been shot in the head.

“That was the information we were working off of,” he said, explaining that officers went to the house ready for a hostage situation and they “got into position.”

“A male came to the front door,” Livingston said Thursday night. “As he came to the front door, one of our officers discharged his weapon.”

Livingston didn’t say if the man had a weapon when he came to the door, or what caused the officer to shoot the man.

Finch said her son, a father of two young children, wasn’t armed.

There are a number of misdirects in this report.  Let’s address two of the most prominent and important.  First of all, the blame will be placed on the illegal practice of Swatting, or calling the police and reporting an active shooting or hostage situation.  The perpetrator will likely be found and dealt with, and the blame will be placed squarely on him.

The second misdirect for the readers is the question whether the innocent man was armed.  We’ve dealt with this in detail before.  First of all, the Castle doctrine is based on Biblical precept and it’s moral standing is rock solid.  Home invasions, whether by criminals bent on evil, or police criminalds bent on soldier-boy impersonations, are all immoral in the superlative.

Furthermore, we’ve seen that even if the police announce their presence, there is no compelling reason to believe that it is the police.  Criminals have become savvy to the ways of the police SWAT teams and make a pretense of the same kind of entry procedure.  Men announcing that they are the police may be the police, or they may not be and may intend on rape or murder.

It doesn’t matter if he was armed, any more than it matters whether he was a gamer or if he was Swatted by another gamer.  While Swatting is illegal, the perpetrator didn’t do the shooting.  Being armed while answering the door isn’t illegal or immoral.  Gaming isn’t illegal or immoral.

While the media will present all of these misdirects as will the Sheriff when he finally presents his case to the public (the gamer did something illegal, my deputy thought he was armed, blah, blah, blah), the reality of the situation is that the shooter is a murderer, and the team that helped him is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.

The police in America have become the most dangerous hoodlums, thugs and murderers.  As I’ve said before, I feel more comfortable around gangsters who might threaten me than I do around goober cops who have no discipline or moral compunction about shooting innocent people.

And they’ll leave our bump stocks alone.

Gun Owners of America (GOA) is decrying the latest push from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for bump stock gun control, contending that part of the solution is to defund the ATF altogether.

The GOA’s statements come after the DOJ announced that the ATF is weighing whether to redefine the term “machinegun,” so as to include accessories that do not convert semiautomatic firearms into automatic ones. This would place firearm accessories like bump stocks on par with actually firearm conversion devices, therefore bringing an entire new category of firearm accessories under the auspices of the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). Placing such accessories under the purview of the NFA would require bump stock owners to pass a background check, be fingerprinted, photographed, and pay a $200 tax to the federal government.

GOA executive director Erich Pratt told Breitbart News, “Gun Owners of America will rally its members in opposition to any proposed restrictions on bump stocks by the ATF.  GOA holds that any such limitations are unconstitutional and would open the door to additional regulations, even while doing nothing to stop evil people from committing heinous acts.”

Well, of course that’s true.  The way to stop the unconstitutional infringement the mere existence the ATF poses is to entirely defund the ATF, forcing the bureaucracy to send all of its employees pink slips.  It won’t happen because the Senate and Congress believes in this infringement just like the executive does.

By the way, you’re aware, aren’t you, that the ATF is preparing to fold in bump stocks to the NFA?  The reddit link on this can be found here.

Hugh Latimer deals with nonpermissive carry, and does it in an interesting context.

The Bible has very little to say about dealing with a secular government. When it does talk about it, it is usually within the context of finances (Give unto Cesar…) or God’s punishment. We are expected to be good citizens because our faith demands moral decisions based upon the ethics that God lays out. Our citizenship is first with the Kingdom of God, though we participate in the worldly governments because they have direct bearing upon our lives. When there is a conflict between the two, we choose the heavenly kingdom without hesitation.

Romans 13

That being said, Romans 13 is probably one of the most misquoted scriptures that I know of. We must always look at the context of scripture because pulling it out of context is an easy way to get bad theology. Romans 12 is about the congregation and how they are to deal with each other. It is about the Body of Christ, and as individuals we all have our separate parts to play. Romans 14 is also about how believers interact with each other within the congregation, including the concept to not judge each other’s salvation over trivial things.

Why, in the middle of that conversation, would Paul suddenly start talking about obedience to a secular government? No, Romans 13 is about being submissive to church government and church discipline. The whole thing is about how Christians interrelate to each other, not how we relate to a secular government.

Ordained

While God can and does use secular governments to bring about judgment upon a disobedient people, He does not ordain sinful men to positions of authority. God does not ordain a secular government. He does, however, ordain church government and those who have been ordained speak with God’s authority. (Note that I’m talking about those who have been ordained by God, not those who have been through a seminary’s ordination process. You’ll know the difference because those ordained by God speak with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Those ordained by man speak only with knowledge, and usually not too much of that.)

Consequences

As to your question, SurvivalBlog cannot make any recommendation. Only you can make the determination. If you choose to carry when it is against the law, there will be consequences if you are caught. God does not often relieve us of consequences to our decisions. There are two risks that I can see:

1. If an incident occurs and your concealed carry saves lives, you will still probably face charges and your career as a teacher will be over, at a minimum. You might even go to jail for a long time. (But at least you are alive, as is anyone you saved.)
2. You may get caught and face those same consequences without the reward of having saved lives. Speaking as a teacher of high school students for eight years, I can tell you that there is very little that escapes the attention of students, and all it takes is one child to notice your illegal behavior and end your career.

Civil Disobedience

Civil disobedience has long been a part of U.S. history, but just because you stand for what you believe is no guarantee that you will be released from the consequences of breaking the law. Only you can make the determination of what your convictions are and whether you are willing to face the consequences of such a decision.

Okay, I’m not trying to steal Hugh’s thunder by citing at length, and you really need to read the entire post, including the letter for context, in addition to the very astute comments at SurvivalBlog.

That said, I quoted at length because you needed to have it above for reference because I intend to make some comments myself.

I highly respect SurvivalBlog’s work, including all of the authors.  They are a regular visit for me and I recommend that they be one of your daily stops as well.  I have to agree and disagree with Hugh.

First of all, I have engaged in nonpermissive carry before and I will do it again.  Most places in which I have done so have been places where the maximum punishment would have been being ejected (or asked to leave), although in a few places I might have been cuffed and carted off to jail for the night.  I’ve been very careful in nonpermissive environments, I might add.

What I don’t do is risk my livelihood, and so I am at maximum risk to my life when I am at work.  Everybody must make these kinds of decisions.  I would actually prefer that we home school our children rather than educate them in public schools, and that includes solidly, thoroughgoing Christian education in all subjects.  Or in other words, I prefer a Christian world and life view to be the guiding light for all subjects, all material and all context.

But I do understand that we have Christians (and other gun owners who may not be Christians) in public schools who might need sage advice.  Like Hugh, I cannot give legal advice.  But I do want to say a word about ordained authority and civil disobedience.

I am an unapologetic Calvinist.  With Calvin (who followed Pauline theology), I believe that God ordains “whatsoever comes to pass” (WCF), e.g., see Isaiah 46:9-10, Ephesians 1:11, and far too many other passages to outline here (I would have to pen an entire treatise on this subject to fully deal with it).  That means God has ordained wicked men to positions of authority at times and epochs in history.

It’s also no accident that the concept of covenant is the ruling concept for how God deals with men, and how He expects men to deal with men in life.  All men and all institutions are under covenant with God, including governments.  When governments of men have broken covenant with God, it is within the purview of the authority God has given men to overthrow said governments.

We’ve dealt with this many times, and as we’ve seen, the American war of independence was just such a war.  Civil disobedience under such circumstances is no mere social justice warrioring.  It is a holy endeavor which has God’s blessing.

However, whether nonpermissive carry in a school is just such a situation must be the call of the individual in the situation.  Rarely in history does an individual example rise to the level of needing revolution as an amelioration.  It’s usually a collection of situations, the weight of the evidence brought against a government.  Like Hugh, you must consider the consequences of getting caught in nonpermissive carry.  I’ve done it before, I’ll do it again, and there are circumstances where I won’t even consider it.

Thanks to Fred Tippens for the tip.

Good Lord!

How many of you think you could handle .450 Bushmaster in an AR pistol and regain sight picture after the first shot in – oh, I don’t know – under four or five seconds?

Via WRSA, Matt Bracken has given us another prescient fiction piece (or non-fiction, if you want to be honest) entitled Wolfophobia On Dog Island.

Supposedly that’s why they were put in charge of dividing up the dog food, keeping the water bowls filled, and things like that. And despite their silly fur, Standard Poodles can grow pretty big, so they are not pushovers. And of course the show dogs loved it that the Poodles were in charge, and gave them dog food even though they didn’t work. If you can believe it, the show dogs had almost everybody convinced that they should get fed just for looking so good and raising everybody’s morale. And the poodles agreed with this nonsense and kept the show dogs fed for doing nothing but looking good.

[ … ]

But now Apollo was trying to convince us to let one poor wolf who had been forced to flee his home island stay and live among us on Dog Island. Apollo said that all canines are equal, and we must not show prejudice toward our cousin the wolf. He did not choose to be a wolf, he was born that way, and conditions on Wolf Island have become unbearable.

Read it all, including the war at the end.  I’m not certain that the next story of Dog Island will turn out this way.  But I want it to.  One thing I am sure about though is that there will be another incarnation of the story of Dog Island.  Very soon.

As I alluded to in the remarks, this isn’t really fiction even though it’s dressed up that way.  Thanks to Matt for his wonderful writing.

American Rifleman quotes training material for 1911 operators from WWI.

Too much stress cannot be laid on the fact the pistol is an emergency weapon. The man who wants a stock on his pistol so that he can shoot it at a distance of several hundred yards has no understanding of the function of the arm. It is solely for the personal protection of the bearer when the enemy is within very short range and there is no possibility of accomplishing more with the other weapons with which the soldier may happen to be armed.

The member of an automatic rifle or machine gun squad who stops serving his rifle or machine gun to indulge in pistol practice at the enemy is wholly without a proper sense of his duty to his comrades. At the same time the stupid man who does not use his pistol when the enemy is on top of him and his gun is jammed or it is no longer possible to use it profitably, deserves no better fate than that which he will probably get, that is, immediate death.

When conditions are such that the opportunity for the proper use of the pistol in the near future appears probable, every man armed with the pistol should so place his weapon that it can be used in the minimum of time. What this position will be will depend on the circumstances. It may be on the parapet alongside the gunner, or on the flap of the carrier’s musette, or in the holster.

For the average man, 25 yards may be taken as the maximum range at which the pistol should be fired. To fire at longer ranges will usually result in no casualties for the enemy but only an empty pistol at the crucial moment. This does not apply to a very small percentage of expert shots, but a man should be quite sure that he can be classed as such before violating the general rule.”

Boy that sure is sage advice, and for all handgun operators, not just 1911s.  Things haven’t changed much in those many years.  I don’t mind being told that I’m not Jerry Miculek.  Because I’m not.

NBC Philadelphia:

Gareth Glaser could be seen as an optimist. After all, he believes gun owners will pay more to implement strong safety mechanisms in firearms.

He even believes gun owners might be willing to have chips implanted in their hands.

The implanted microchip would send a signal to a “smart gun” held in that person’s hand allowing for the trigger to operate, Glaser, CEO of Lodestar Firearms, told NBC10.

The implant is only one of a few ideas to improve the safety of guns. Glaser said a ring or watch could also be used as signal-bearers — if worn, a handgun could be fired.

It’s called “token recognition technology”: The technology keeps a gun from firing unless the “token” is within inches of the trigger. Glaser believes it’s the gun of the future.

“Our token is either going to be in a ring, in a bracelet, or quite possibly implanted right here between your thumb and forefinger,” Glaser said as he showed off a similar smart gun made in Germany. “I think law enforcement would go for that.”

As NBC10 reported in November for an initial story on smart gun technology and the impediments to their sales growth in the United States, an average of seven children shoot themselves each day.

That type of tragedy is exactly what spurred Glaser, of Radnor Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, to getting into the firearm manufacturing business. The former executive with 30 years’ experience in the energy and pharmaceutical industries was at a colleague’s party when the woman’s son shot himself accidentally with a shotgun.

Oooo … yep.  I’m sure law enforcement will go for that.  And I can’t wait for those chips to be surgically implanted in my hand.  I’m sure willing to double the cost of firearms, even though I will have to cut by half my purchases.

I encourage Mr. Glaser to spend, spend, spend, spend like a drunken sailor to make this smart gun technology.  It’s brand new.  No one has tried it before.  Please write me a note Mr. Glaser and let me know how it works out.  I want to meet those LEOs who are willing to use “smart guns.”

Prior: Smart Gun Tag

The Independent:

It is 9am on a Sunday, and a group of radical leftists are gathered at a shooting range in rural Long Island having target practice.

From a distance, it looks like a scene from any small, conservative town in America: A group of guys palling around in a snow-covered parking lot, taking turns firing down the range while swigging cups of hot coffee to ward off the cold.

Up close, however, it looks quite different. The guns are not American-made, but Russian; forged in the Soviet era. One has a hammer and sickle etched into the bolt. The men are genial but reserved, keeping their distance from the other groups around them. And one of them is complaining bitterly about his coffee. It came in a Styrofoam cup.

“What’s wrong with Styrofoam?” his friend wants to know.

“It takes, like, 50,000 years to decompose!” he replies.

The environmentalist’s name is Mike, a Long Island native and self-described Marxist-Leninist. He was born in conservative Suffolk County to a clerical worker and industrial maintenance technician. He says he grew up “dirt poor,” and was radicalised by a lifetime spent thinking: “There’s got to be an answer for why this is so shitty.”

So thus far we’ve learned that Mike from Long Island is an idiot and a gullible goober.  He’s a self described Marxist-Leninist, he’s apparently anti-capitalist because he believes that we harm the environment, and he conveniently ignores the fact that in order to electrify the Soviet Union, the communists utterly destroyed the environment, creating rivers of unpotable water that are harmful to health even after treatment.  So let’s continue with this and perhaps we’ll learn something about Mike and his buddies that will cause us to think that he can ponder things beyond a fifth grade level.

And yes, they carry guns.

So, one of two things has happened here.  Either Mike is a liar, because clearly he isn’t really carrying on Long Island since there are no gun permits issued to people like him, and the reporter with the British newspaper is too stupid to research this and press the point, or he really does carry and he just confessed to a felony.  So once again, Mike and his buddies are liars or idiots.  Things aren’t getting any better.

Indeed, Redneck Revolt may look like many other social-justice groups – its website contains frequent mentions of “trigger warnings” and “solidarity” – but it is far from it. The members of Redneck Revolt don’t want you to sit in a circle, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya. They want you to know you have an enemy – it’s just not who you think it is.

In an open letter that the group frequently uses for recruitment, it urges working-class white people to “look around” and wonder: “Who lives in the houses or trailers in the same neighbourhoods as us? Who works next to us in the factories, or cooks alongside us at the restaurants?”

“It sure as hell isn’t rich white people,” the letter continues. “It’s Brown people, Black people, and other working-class white people. They are the ones that are in similar situations to us, living paycheck to paycheck, stretching to feed their families like we do. So why then would we view them as so different from us that we literally view them as our enemies?”

Okay, so perhaps from a purely Machiavellian perspective, they aren’t so stupid.  They are manifestly inconsistent in their world view (white people are bad if they have money and racism divides us, but white people with money are the devil, at least until we have their money at which point we won’t be the devil), but they apparently want to go after idiots.  So they may not be the smartest folks on earth, but they know how to use people, at least a couple dozen idiots so far.

“I think it’s very cool that we can bring groups together that normally wouldn’t have anything else in common,” he told me. “And seeing a whole bunch of leftists with guns is cool.”

Not everyone thinks the guns are cool, of course. Redneck Revolt has gotten pushback from liberal groups who think the weapons sully their image. But the members maintain that the firearms are necessary to protect themselves, and the communities of colour they want to help serve.

And in two paragraphs the author explains why this is a self limiting endeavor.  The sons and daughters of hippies are hopeless statists and collectivists.  They won’t do anything en masse that would weaken the power of the state.  This may be a fun weekend project for these confused boys, but they will forever be just a few dozen strong.

The Redneck Revolt pitch is surprisingly simple: Both poor white people and poor people of colour are actually fighting against the same enemy – the rich.

And in one paragraph the author has explained to us why this is a self limiting endeavor.  There is no moral foundation, any more than there is currently a moral foundation in America.  I’ve said all along that the constitution isn’t the problem, and that no piece of paper can bring liberty.  It’s weakness hasn’t led to our decline, and its strength hasn’t aided our trajectory.  A country cannot stand long whose God is itself.  Marxism will eventually perish wherever it exists because it is lecherous and kills its host.  Just look at Venezuela today.

Indeed, if Redneck Revolt is the revolution, then the revolution is decidedly chill. Members of the Suffolk County branch shake off their Sunday mornings at the range with a weekly book club, where they sip home-brewed coffee and discuss radical texts like Caliban and the Witch. The evening is consumed by a planning meeting, where they decide which charitable projects to take on next.

What began with a bang is now at a whimper.  They can keep their “revolution” in Long Island.  I want no part of it.

Alex, an applied mathematics student at Stony Brook, played scribe, taking down the group’s suggestions from his perch on the couch. Under the “strategies” section of the mission statement, they agreed to focus on holding town halls, reading groups, and skill shares. They set a goal of working with the disabled population, the homeless population, and opioid crisis victims.

Uh huh.  Where is Alex getting that money for the applied mathematics degree?  I’m assuming that Alex will be happy to give all of his future earnings to the needy, right?

So I left out the best part for me earlier in the article.  Mike gives us the  wisdom of his gunsmithing and shooting expertise.

Mike says Russian-made firearms are the most ‘accurate and reliable’

Uh huh.  So there you have it.  It’s a wearisome and choppy article.  I want to take these folks seriously, but if they tried to sell this Long Island Marxism in my neck of the woods it would be laughable, and maybe even dangerous.  Go into small-town South Carolina and try to unionize the workers and tell me how that works out.  And make sure you do it with Long Island accents.  Take video, post, send link.

I encourage you to read it for yourself and let me know your thoughts.

The Hill:

The retiring head of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) warned ahead of his exit Friday about extremists’ ability to acquire lethal weapons in the U.S.

In a final briefing with reporters ahead of his departure, NCTC Director Nicholas Rasmussen voiced concern about the ability to protect from mass casualty attacks.

“We find ourselves in a more dangerous situation because our population of violent extremists has no difficulty gaining access to weapons that are quite lethal,” Rasmussen said, according to The Washington Post. “I wish that weren’t so.”

Rasmussen, who served as the NCTC’s director for three years, said he had no solutions to offer domestic law enforcement agencies working to prevent mass-casualty attacks, but said a link between the availability of guns and the potential for violence is a calculation for counterterrorism analysts.

“More weapons, more readily available, increases the lethality of those that would pick them up and use them,” he said.

Rasmussen said the U.S. should be focused on stemming the spread of violent ideologies, adding that anti-Muslim rhetoric has complicated that effort, according to the Post.

His “warnings” are all bullshit.  First of all, the Obama holdovers aren’t worried about Islam.  They don’t want white, middle class Americans to have them.  His warnings are a misdirect from his real fear.

Second, I feel about this kind of “warning” the same way I feel about it when I read that suicide is highest among white rural Americans.  They blame it on guns rather than drive to the root of the problem.

Finally, you learn all you need to know about the goobers Obama hired to captain the sinking ship of his administration when he tells you that “anti-Muslim rhetoric” has complicated the effort to stem the spread of violent ideologies.

As if violent Islam is a function of Western invective against it.  I believe he has his cause and effect mixed up, yes?