CNBC:

A landmark class action settlement involving some of Remington’s most popular firearms has officially gone into effect, after critics of the agreement declined to take their case to the Supreme Court by a Tuesday deadline, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

That means that millions of owners of the iconic Model 700 rifle — and a dozen Remington models with similar designs — have 18 months to file claims for a free replacement of their guns’ allegedly defective triggers. The guns have been linked in lawsuits to dozens of accidental deaths and hundreds of serious injuries, though Remington still maintains they are safe.

“Anyone with one of these guns should take advantage of this opportunity to get the trigger fixed,” said Eric D. Holland, a lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the class action case. “I’ve encouraged everyone to put these guns away. Don’t use these guns. Make the claims now.”

A special website has been set up with information on how to file a claim, and there is also a toll-free hotline, 1-800-876-5940.

[ … ]

The effective date of the settlement comes almost exactly eight years after CNBC first explored allegations that Remington engaged in a decades-long coverup of a defect that allows the guns to fire without the trigger being pulled.

Remington said the guns have been safe since they were first produced. But the 2010 documentary “Remington Under Fire: A CNBC Investigation” uncovered internal company documents showing engineers warning of a “theoretical unsafe condition” even before the trigger design went on the market in 1948. The company repeatedly decided against modifying the design or launching a recall, even as accidents and customer complaints continued to pile up.

It’s more complicated than simply the rifle firing when the trigger isn’t pulled.  The rifle would discharge at times when the cartridge was sent into battery, and Remington engineers knew it and had data from their own testing that showed it.

How sad.  After all of the pain, suffering, money, lawyers and loss of reputation to the company, this is apparently the end.  All of it could have been avoided by simply doing a recall when the engineers found it.  The world is almost always a worse place when people don’t listen to engineers.

Prior: Remington 700

From a reader, see AR-15.com for the scoop.

I titled this with a question mark at the end.  It’s not clear, and there is conflicting information at the link, but it appears to be retailer-specific and not related to Federal.

If you have any more information please drop a comment. Either way, this isn’t a good way to win and keep customers.

Personally, I have a number of boxes of PD ammunition of different brands, but it occurs to me that John Basilone and his fellow Marines all shot ball ammunition and did just fine.  I believe that his storied battle involved a lot of action with his 1911.

News from Washington.

“I’ve lived in Tacoma for 20 years. We’re experiencing definitely more activity,” said Sierra.

[ … ]

Fish and Wildlife suggest if people run into an aggressive coyote, make yourself look big, put your hands in the air and throw things at the animal if they get aggressive.

How about shooting them?  Oh, I see, you can’t discharge a firearm within the city limits without being considered a criminal by the cops.  Well, maybe there’s the answer to the question, yes?

You’d think I was talking about New York, yes?  The context is that there is no state law against it in Mississippi.

The Fourth Amendment protects United States citizens against unlawful searches and seizures. In response to Hyde-Smith’s attempted gun grab, the State Attorney General’s office advised her that random searches and seizures were a matter of federal law too complex for them to assess.

This comes via TCJ reporter Fred Tippens.

No, it’s not too complex to assess.  Random searches and seizures is illegal under the constitution of the U.S.  That answer was a cop out.

News from dystopia:

We listened to people talk about the longstanding disproportionate struggles they continue to face. Much of it I agreed with. And in “Any City, USA,” we should focus on our most impoverished communities and work to transform them. But we can’t transform them by simply flooding money and programs in with no oversight or accountability. The investment should include a significant focus on schools and education, community beautification projects, the demolition of dilapidated housing, reinvestment in affordable housing with first right of refusal to those who currently reside in the community and in good standing, green space, accessibility to public transportation and accessibility to fresh foods.

While capitalism is the American way, we must limit the number of unhealthy options in impoverished communities. Imagine a community that has better access to a library, fitness center, community center, grocery store and good schools compared to one in which every other home is boarded up, trash lines the streets and the four corners of the intersection consist of a phone store, carry-out, liquor store and a mini-mart that also sells drug baggies and acts as a safe haven for drug dealers. It’s not impossible to fix, but it requires a focused investment, courage, oversight and follow-up.

We can’t expect a law enforcement solution alone to solve these catastrophic, systematic socioeconomic failures. Flooding an underserved community with law enforcement only serves to further exacerbate the already strained police and community relationships. The only way we can effectively “pull back” from the law-enforcement-only approach is to transform the communities from the historic failures that put them in that situation in the first place.

I agree that policing along can’t fix their problems since I don’t believe that policing fixes anything at all.  But make sure you hear his solutions.

Capitalism is the American way, says he.  Instead of saying “but,” he says “while,” which is a difference without a distinction.  We must rectify the problems that put them where they are to begin with.

Meaning, distribute more money, goods and services to them.  Never mind the destruction of the family unit this approach has wrought, bring it on.  We need more of the same thing.

This all says absolutely nothing about Baltimore or poverty and crime, but everything about the world and life view of those in positions of power and authority and their lack of understanding of the destruction of the moral foundations of the country.

News from the Northwest:

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – A 48–year–old physician died when his rifle discharged after he returned to Helena from a hunting trip.

Lewis and Clark County Coroner Bryan Backeberg tells the Independent Record that Eugene “Buzz” Walton was retrieving the rifle from the back of a pickup truck in the old Kmart parking lot at about 12:30 p.m. Sunday when it went off.

Lt. Brett Petty says officers responded to a report of shots fired, found Walton outside the truck and began giving him medical aid. He died shortly after being transported to the hospital.

Folks, unload your guns after a trip to the range or hunting.  We want our readers around for the long haul.  I’m sure the gun didn’t “go off” by accident or spuriously.  No offense is intended.  I feel sure he grabbed the trigger.

Recall I said this?

To point to Roman Catholicism and claim that Hispanics will vote GOP because of socially conservative viewpoints misses the bigger picture of the state of Catholicism in South and Central America.  It is a synthesis, or a hybrid mixture, of Catholicism, superstition, Marxism, and in some cases evil “patron saints” for the cartel criminals.”

Or perhaps you don’t.  Read it again.  And perhaps you recall this?

Father José Antonio Fortea, a leading Mexican exorcist, who once ordered the mass exorcism of the whole country, has warned of an increase in satanic ritual killings.

Brace yourself, and read this very carefully.

Edgar is a young man of twenty-six years, and he is doing a ten-year sentence for illegal possession of firearms and kidnapping. He says he has killed nearly sixty people working as a sicario for the Juárez Cartel, but since there is no proof—he is not sharing the details—he cannot be convicted for these murders.

Edgar was born in Juárez, but his mother separated early from his father and when Edgar was two, they moved to Kansas City. His mother was involved in dealing large quantities of cocaine, which the young Edgar discovers. When she runs into trouble, she has to flee back to Juárez. Edgar, at that age around eleven, is shocked by the poverty and filth of Juárez. His mother starts to work as a hairdresser but they cannot afford the rather comfortable lifestyle they had before. Edgar is a good student at school, but he starts to hang out with ‘bad people’ and gang members. He starts to deal weed and is caught when he is thirteen years old. A juvenile offender, he was still convicted to six months, but managed to pay his way out. At age fourteen, he hangs out with friends and gets into a fight. He hits one of his attackers with a big stone and the boy actually bleeds to death. This is Edgar’s first kill. He says he did not mean to kill the person and runs away from the scene of the fight, feeling afraid, guilty, and nervous at the same time. This unintentional murder will haunt him for half a year. His second murder is a drive by shooting he carries out with a gang. He does not know if his bullets actually killed someone during that drive-by, but there were deaths.

Being in a gang selling drugs, he goes down a slippery slope. He learns shooting from his stepfather, who is a private detective. At one point, he starts to work for the Juárez Cartel as a sicario. He is not too specific as to how he started to work for a cartel. But he says the cartel seeks people out, and it is not people who seek the cartels out. He sees killing strictly as work. He receives orders and he carries them out. Saying no is simply not possible. Still, he does not shift moral responsibility onto the boss, it is still him who carried out the orders, who pulled the trigger. Edgar manages to separate work from private business. ‘I love persons, I kill persons.’ ‘No tiene que estar mezclado. el amor a mi familia es muy diferente a lo que hago’, Don’t mix things. The love for my family is very different from my work.’ He realizes he kills people who have a mother or a wife, even more since he has children himself. Still, he does what he has to do, ‘it is either them or you’.

He talks with professional pride about his work. ‘I do it quickly.’ He does not like to waste many bullets. A few in the body and a final shot in the head. Sometimes they work with teams of two or three people. Edgar says he once stopped an ambulance to finish his victim that had not died. He mentions bystanders and witnesses, in that they are too shocked to absorb what they see or they are too scared to testify. Still, he has an honor code; he never kills women and children. He says other cartels do this, like Los Zetas and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Edgar believes God exists, but says it is not his god. Satan is his God, and he prays to Santa Muerte. Ever since Santa Muerte appeared to him in a dream and gave lifesaving advice, he worships her. Edgar also has a bruja, or a witch, that functions as his personal spiritual adviser. Before a hit, he prays to Santa Muerte that all goes well. ‘I actually sacrifice people for my Santa Muerte. The thing is that I kill for ordering, but I talk to her and say, hey, I go to a job. Just make me hit, I am gonna give you that life, it is for you.’

Santa Muerte actually whispers to him to carry out killings. Edgar is honest and admits he actually enjoys killing. ‘I feel powerful. My god always tell me to do it. I don’t know why, but I could hear, “hey, hey, do it, do it.” I am not crazy, ‘cause I know I ain’t crazy. I still could count I still could eat. I still could sleep’. Edgar admits he has developed an addiction to killing. ‘It gives me a feeling of power. But that moment last only for the moment. There were days that he felt ‘I need to kill somebody. I feel that I need it.’ At the prison, there is an Adictos Anonymous group that handles all sorts of addictions, including addiction to killing.

But be of good cheer.  I’m certain that we’re vetting the good, hard working folks coming across the border so that the masses don’t include people like this, and I’m certain that there is no corruption of border patrol or local LEOs with money or intimidation.

Or perhaps that’s not the case and you should be prepared for this.  You be the judge.

News from Florida:

A group of open carry gun enthusiasts had a well-armed visit to Miami Beach on Saturday.

The group calling itself “Florida Carry” caused a disturbance when they showed up on the South Pointe Park Pier in June.

At that time, six members of the group startled fishermen and visitors, some of whom notified police.

Officers temporarily detained and disarmed the group, but determined that they were within their rights to carry weapons.

This time, the group announced it’s intention to show up at the pier on a Facebook page, and police were ready and accommodating.

The group walked to the pier and proceeded to fish, gathering several double-takes from other fishermen and tourists.

Open Carry Advocate Steven Merrette said, “This is our statement to come out here and try and educate not only the law enforcement officers but the general public as well. We are not the problem. We’re out here peacefully fishing, we’ve got our wives, our kids with us, we’re out here having a good time, nobody’s causing any problems.”

I support their efforts.  As I’ve said before, the shame must end.  I agree wholeheartedly with the notion of open carry to prove a point.  Other than that, we learn absolutely nothing interesting or actionable from this stupid report, except that the police are criminals.

It’s legal to open carry while fishing, and this wasn’t a Terry stop.  There was no suspicion of a crime, and the police didn’t need to detain the men and verify that they were within their rights.  Here’s a scoop, cops.  There is no law against it, so they were within their rights, just as much as walking down the street is within my rights, and you have no right to detain me for walking down the street.

As for disarming the men, I’ve pointed out before that this is the stupidest, most ridiculous, most unsafe act you can take.  Do … not .. touch .. another … man’s .. weapon.  If you do that, you are an imbecile, and your procedures are faulty.

So here’s a suggestion for the write of this silly article (” … and police were ready and accommodating”).  Find out and report for us what right the police had to detain and disarm the men, and give us the court precedents that support such action, if you can find any.  More to the point.  Give us court precedents that demonstrate that the police can detain you for no reason whatsoever?

Here’s another idea.  Give us the data on whether blood really runs in the streets like the wild, wild west in open carry states.  Or not.  Hey, “journalist.”  Do you even know how many states are open carry states?

Prior: Miami Beach Police Draw Down On, Detain, Disarm, And Throw Around Lawful Open Carriers

News from Texas:

PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) – A decorated Vietnam War hero from Plano is going to prison for a crime he committed decades ago.

Alfred Pick was sentenced by federal judge District Judge Marcia A. Crone to seven years in prison for a mistake he made nearly 40 years ago — buying a fully automatic gun that’s illegal for citizens to own. The rifle was similar to the one Pick had in the Army where he served as a lieutenant.

“This gun was very rare at that time it was rare to see one so he instantly had a connection to it,” said Pick’s attorney Ryne Sandel. “Over the course of his life he and his wife and collected about 14 weapons, many of them were collectors items.”

Pick lived in Plano’s Air Park neighborhood along with other pilots who enjoy a runway right outside their homes. The 70-year-old Vietnam veteran even served as the president of his homeowners association. Thus,  when the ATF raided his home last year it came as a shock to friends like Mark Shackelford.

“He’s always been a good person to me,” Shackelford said.

Shackelford learned later that authorities were looking for and seized an M14 rifle that Pick had bought at a Fort Worth gun show in the early eighties.

“He was a gun collector and it was probably the piece de resistance of his collection… he had shown it to me. I’ve never seen it taken it out of the case,” said Shackelford.

The raid and arrest on Pick’s Plano home came two weeks after his wife of 40 years died of cancer. They were using marijuana, which authorities found and added another criminal charge.

Friends of the vet showed up to support him after he pleaded guilty in a Plano federal courtroom and was sentenced to 87 months in prison by a judge.

“He’s had it all these years never robbed a bank or done anything with it,” said Shackelford. “Somebody that made one mistake and now 50 years later, he’s paying a really big price for it.”

More than 40 years ago, Pick was awarded the military’s third highest honor, the Silver Star, after more than 100 combat missions and for a short time he was a POW.

Factors that his friends and attorney say should have led to a lighter sentence.

“He’s a really remarkable man to be honest,” said Sandel. “I do think it’s unfortunate for a gentleman like Alfred that’s had such an outstanding life to have it mired at the age of 70 by this federal felony.”

“The man is a Silver Star winner, he saved lives, he took care of his wife, he’s been in custody for a year, I would think that when a man turned 70 and is an American hero you don’t destroy the rest of his life for one mistake,” said Shackelford.

Some Vietnam vets in Plano were not as sympathetic.

They said Pick should’ve known better especially since the serial number on the rifle was scratched out.

I say auto-sear rather than machine gun because the only difference between this and the one that you perhaps have in your gun safe if a small piece of metal called an auto-sear.

Hey, he can have one if he’s doing his killing for the FedGov.  If not, he’s just a peasant.  As for those other Vietnam Vets who weren’t sympathetic, they still belong working go FedGov.  That’s where their heart is, so why consort with the peasants?

As for the ATF, boy, I’m glad sure they are Johnny on the spot.  I feel better and safer that they have this guy behind bars.  I’m just glad they went home safe at the end of their shift.