Articles by Herschel Smith

On Instagram, Aero Precision posts this.

They also issued a statement of disagreement, of course, and intent to fight this in court.

This gun ‘toober predicts the end of Aero Precision.  I don’t think so.  Here is the law.  It doesn’t prevent Aero from continuing to manufacture rifles, just from distributing them within state.  Here is the relevant part.

The manufacture, importation, distribution, offer for sale, or sale of an assault weapon by a licensed firearms manufacturer for the purposes of sale to any branch of the armed forces of the United States or the state of Washington, or to any law enforcement agency for use by that agency or its employees for law enforcement purposes, or to a person who does not reside in this state;

That’s an exception to the law.  Having said that, I think it was a mistaken for Aero Precision to relocate and stay within the state.  They should have moved South a long time ago.

This is the case for now.  It’s already being challenged in federal court.  Judge Benitez has yet to issue his ruling in the state of California.  I’ve told you what I think will happen.  Judge Benitez will strike down any ban in California.  If a federal judge in Washington upholds the law, it will go to the Ninth Circuit to handle the split.  If the Ninth Circuit strikes it down, it’s finished.  If the Ninth Circuit upholds the law, it will go to the supreme court.

This isn’t over yet.  But it’s a loss for the good folks left in Washington.

Source.

Let’s face it: Many armed Americans are deathly — and irrationally — afraid of others. And so they have become a menace to the rest of us.

According to a 2021 Gallup Poll, as many as 88 percent of gun owners are apparently terrified of being harmed, since they say the guns are for self-defense.

His link is used to justify his assertion that gun owners are “apparently terrified of being harmed,” but the link doesn’t say anything of the sort.  The link is a rundown of how many weapons have been purchased for self defense.  He just inferred that last overly-emotional part.  Normally, good writers don’t do things like that.  I’d probably respond that gun owners are the least scared of all home owners, given that they have means of self defense.

Yet very, very few gun owners end up defending themselves and their families from the sort of random crime they fear. According to The Trace, fewer than 3 percent of gun owners ever use a weapon in self-defense, and apparently some of those involve misrepresentation of what actually happened in order to paint the shooter in a good light.

Of course, the media — especially, but certainly not only, the likes of Fox — have played a large role in convincing an element of our society that they are in constant mortal danger. It’s totally false, but if all you do all day is consume random horror stories, your grip on reality becomes distorted. That is one reason for the current insanity, and we in the media need to acknowledge that and fight against it.

And of course the GOP probably would not hold any significant power in this country if they did not psychologically terrorize their base.

That metric doesn’t include harm that didn’t obtain because of the very fact that the potential victim had a weapon.  But it doesn’t matter.  Would it make any difference if the value was in reality 0.00005%?  Does Mr. Russ Baker have health insurance?  If so, why?  Does he have life insurance?  If so, why?  Does he have fire insurance?  If so, why?

He’s got it all wrong on the GOP, whose hold on power in Washington, along with the democrats, constituting the uniparty, is the subject of loathing and hatred among most conservative voters who believe they are cowards and sellouts.  He imagines that conservatives are led by leaders who tell them what to think, sort of like collectivist voters.

Just to round out the most recent toll, we had a shooting in North Carolina. Some children were playing in the street when their basketball rolled into a man’s yard. When they tried to retrieve the ball, a 24-year-old man went into his house, got his gun and came out firing indiscriminately at various people, wounding some only slightly, but a father and his six-year-old daughter were seriously injured. The shooter ran away and is being sought. And two teenage cheerleaders were shot when one accidentally tried to open the door of the wrong car in a Texas parking lot.

With such horrific assaults, our entire society is endangered — as is our mental wellbeing.

The other day, I was speaking with a doctor — Black, as that seems to matter to gun owners, many of whom apparently have a statistically unrealistic fear of Black people coming to harm them — and she said to me, “I can’t believe that the only solution is to train our kids like they’re going to die — which causes anxiety and depression.” She mentioned the incalculable toll on upcoming generations, who are basically told to prepare for gun violence at any time.

The racial component is undeniable, although gun violence affects all races as both perpetrators and victims. In the Kansas City incident, the shooter was white, and the victim was Black. In upstate New York, both the shooter and the victims were white. In the Texas parking lot, the shooter was Hispanic, the victims, white. In North Carolina, the shooter was Black, the victims, white.

Meanwhile, one of our editors at WhoWhatWhy said he loves to swim but goes to the neighborhood pool with what he knows is a statistically irrational concern that it might be the next “cool” target. He wanted to write about the psychology of his fear of an unlikely event with catastrophic consequences, but is concerned that it might “inspire” someone to target a pool.

What?

That’s one oddball string of words.  The shooter in N.C. was black, shooting a white kid for retrieving a ball in his yard.  But this example leads into a yelling session how race matters mostly to white people, I think.  And then tells me that I should care about his doctor being black.  Why I should care about him or his doctor is quite beyond me.

I simply cannot parse the word salad well enough to offer intelligent commentary, especially on the last paragraph.  But I leave it to you to ask the question, “Was this writer drinking when he wrote this?”  This is some of the most stilted, horrible writing I’ve ever witnessed.

We all feel this mounting dread, yet the Republican Party keeps making it easier for people to buy deadly weaponry, and the Democratic Party and many gun reform advocates still propose only marginally ameliorative measures, like more effective registration and so forth.

How on earth is the republican party making it easier for people to buy deadly weaponry?  Tell me one thing they’ve done for the second amendment in the last forty years?  Is hearing protection like suppressors off the NFA?  Nope.  Have they been true to their calling and appointed only judges who honor the second amendment?  Nope.

I think what Mr. Baker probably should have meant is that the supreme court is increasingly siding with the founders in Heller, McDonald, Caetano and Bruen (I know, they waffled on a number of things, but they’re gradually coming around, and eventually we may rid ourselves of the “common use” test and replace it with outright respect for the 2A).  So Mr. Baker might have pointed the finger at the founders, knowing that the supreme court would strike down most or all of the gun control measures he wants to see passed.  Surely he isn’t stupid enough to believe that if Congress passes an AWB, it would stand when the supreme court hears it?  There are some 30 – 40 million ARs in use for lawful purposes.  Under Heller, if a firearm is in common use for lawful purposes, it cannot be banned.  Heller dealt with the keeping part of the RKBA, Bruen dealt with the bearing part of RKBA.  Full stop.  End of discussion.  I’d call 40 million common use.

Why is he looking to mankind as his savior anyway?  And the worst of the worst of the dregs of society at that, i.e., beltway politicians.  What sort of sad existence obtains in life when a man has to turn to other men as his savior?  What sort of dark clouds engulf a man who believes that a body of pit vipers, gargoyles and demons will save him?  From what does he need to be saved?  Has he given that question much thought?

If others won’t say it, I will: We do not need 400 million guns in our society — and there are very strong reasons to get rid of almost all of them. None will actually defend us against our military or other militaries. Guns in the hands of untrained, unvetted, potentially irresponsible users do much more harm than good. Period

[ … ]

Obviously, law enforcement, the US military, and members of those “well-regulated” militias would be exempted.

We could start with something like this: Civilians have three months to surrender (for generous buyback with full amnesty) every assault weapon (AR-15, AK-47, Kalashnikov, etc.) in their possession. After that, anyone convicted of possession receives a mandatory sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

So there you go.  Mr. Baker isn’t against guns.  He’s very much in favor of guns – just not in your hands.  He advocates that government have a monopoly on power.  But he ignores that in the twentieth century alone, mass shootings at the hands of the state have caused at least 170 millions deaths.  Or maybe he doesn’t really ignore it.  Maybe Mr. Baker is okay with mass deaths as long as it is all inflicted by agents of the state.  Perhaps he even prefers to see mass shootings as long as they are approved by the very people who stand to benefit from those shootings by the concentration of power in a single body of horrible people.

As to that little thing about “None will actually defend us against our military or other militaries,” that’s amusing.  Try telling that to the guys who fought and lost in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the last example where goat herders ran the most powerful country on earth out of their land – not once, but twice, once with the Soviet Union and then with the U.S.

He isn’t interested in the second amendment because he doesn’t see the constitution as a covenant between men, with blessings for obedience and curses for breakage.

He may find out soon enough though.

I assume Mr. Baker will be among that crowd that confiscates all of those ARs and AKs?  Have you volunteered to lead the stack into the first house, Russ?  Or, like a coward, are you volunteering others to do this dirty work for you?

Source.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A man was accidentally shot by police with his own gun in Philadelphia’s Germantown section earlier this week.

It happened around 4:14 p.m. Monday on the 5700 block of North 21st Street.

Police say a 62-year-old man was walking his dog on a leash near 20th and Chew streets when one of two loose pit bulls began to attack his dog.

The man reportedly tried to pull the dogs apart but was unsuccessful. That’s when police say the man shot and killed the attacking dog.

The man, who was licensed to carry, then walked home to the 5700 block of North 21st Street to take care of his injured animal.

At some point after the gunfire, the man was able to flag down a 14th District officer to report the incident.

According to police, the man told the officer that he had just shot the dog around the corner and that his gun was in a holster on his side.

The officer told the man that he would have to secure his weapon, and the man placed his hands above his head so the officer could gain access to the weapon, authorities said.

While trying to remove the weapon, authorities say the officer accidentally shot the man in the leg.

A firearm could be SAO, DAO, SA/DA, hammer fired, striker fired, with a frame-mounted safety or without, carried with one in the chamber or not, half cocked or fully cocked, or not cocked at all, with a modified competition trigger or factory trigger, among many other idiosyncrasies and differences.

It is a stupid policy to disarm someone by handling their weapon unless there has been a crime.  Touching another man’s weapon is the dumbest thing a police officer could do in just about any situation.  I honestly cannot think of an exception to this rule.

I’ll reach out to the police commissioner’s office to see if that’s formal policy for the Philadelphia Police Department, but I probably won’t hear back.

And remember boys and girls, “You’re never in more danger than when the police are around.  Get away from them as quickly as possible.  No situation is so dangerous that it cannot be made worse by the presence of the police.”

I found it somewhat amusing that he couldn’t believe the muzzle velocity data he was getting.  Am I the only one who knew that they would publish the ballistics based on wheel gun muzzle velocities – probably from a 6″ barrel?

But the main takeaway for me, and the reason for posting this, has to do with the degree to which the bullet just disintegrates in tissue.

It’s behavior is similar to what we saw with PatRMG testing the .45-70 LeverEvolution,  Jacket came off, lead shards went everywhere, tissue damage was extensive, and probably meat damage was so severe that it could not be processed and consumed.

If this is the performance of this round, then it’s great for personal defense in the bush.  It penetrates AND expands, causing massive damage.  But it’s no good as a hunting round.

It seems to me a better hunting round would be the monolithic copper bullets which open quickly but stay completely intact.

Source.

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats advanced seven of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees through committee on Thursday with Republican votes, shelving others that lack bipartisan backing with Sen. Dianne Feinstein absent.

The move by Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., marks a change in course after he had repeatedly delayed meetings since early March to advance a package of judges, lacking the decisive vote of Feinstein, D-Calif., who is out indefinitely on medical leave.

[ … ]

Democrats unanimously voted for all of them. They received varying degrees of Republican support, most notably from Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the ranking member.

“I hope Senator Feinstein returns quickly. I hope she recovers,” Graham said, adding that the committee can still operate without her. “Sometimes we just can’t agree, and that’s just part of life.”

Since they were Biden nominees, I’m absolutely certain the list included judges who would strip citizens of their RKBA.

Hey S.C. voters – remember that the next time Ms. Lindsey Graham trots out his AR-15 for people to look at during the next primary.

Via WiscoDave.

They couldn’t have cared less about the man’s legally obtained firearms.

New York citizen with 0 criminal record posts photos of a 3D printed AR lower on Reddit. NYPD (and presumably other agencies) magically have all of his credit card records and internet history within days showing "parts" purchases to complete the receivers. NYPD costume… pic.twitter.com/03EBzeeS0n

— Mrgunsngear (@Mrgunsngear) April 21, 2023

This decision by a federal district judge justifies a magazine capacity ban in D.C.  In it he plays word games, kicks the can down the road, ignores the very real issue of multi-man home invasions, ignores the very real involvement of the second amendment in the militia and amelioration of tyranny, misapplies Heller, and uses historical analogues that are too late to be useful (from the 1800s).

This federal district judge in Illinois seems not to like magazine capacity bans very much and himself makes arguments against them in the very case he is presiding.

Prediction: there will be split in the district courts, and in the appeals courts.  So-called “assault weapon” bans (which are simply bans against semiautomatic firearms) and magazine capacity bans will end up at the supreme court because of the splits.

UPDATE: Zelman Partisans observes the following.

Oddly, Contreras cites HELLER in making that point. I can’t find that argument in HELLER, which was largely about whether non- military weapons could be regulated, and how, but there is this.

It may be objected that if weapons that are most useful in military service—M–16 rifles and the like—may be banned, then the Second Amendment right is completely detached from the prefatory clause. But as we have said, the conception of the militia at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification was the body of all citizens capable of military service, who would bring the sorts of lawful weapons that they possessed at home to militia duty. It may well be true today that a militia, to be as effective as militias in the 18th century, would require sophisticated arms that are highly unusual in society at large.

Rather the opposite of Contreras’ weasel-wording, eh?

Via Ken.  Yes.  As I said, the ruling plays word games.  I suspect those word games will come to an abrupt end at the supreme court.

Epoch Times.

Texas secretly gives its citizens’ incomes to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Documents show this has led to at least one person being monitored by the feds without a warrant through the federal gun background check system. The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) told The Epoch Times that it has written contracts with ATF  for “sharing income information” for criminal investigations. The revelation may lead to oversight by the legislature.

Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican, is “deeply troubled” about this coordination with the state’s unemployment agency and federal government.

“My office will be looking into whether the Texas Workforce Commission is assisting the ATF in the Biden Administration’s mission to violate the constitutional rights of law-abiding Texans,” Cain told The Epoch Times after reviewing the emails obtained by Gun Owners of America (GOA) as part of its ongoing FOIA lawsuit.

This is the third part in an exclusive Epoch Times series on the ATF giving information on innocent suspects to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for daily monitoring through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The FBI uses NICS as a database of people who are prohibited from possessing or buying guns.

In one of the documents, an ATF agent emailed the FBI that a person suspected of straw purchasing or firearms trafficking needed to be put into the gun background check database. The agent wrote that “per TWC,” the man’s “reported wage earnings with the State of Texas do not appear to supply the financial means to afford the firearms purchased.”

Isn’t that nice?  The FedGov is making decisions on what you have the money to purchase based on income level.  Here is the kicker.

A spokeswoman for TWC said in a statement: “Federal and State law provides a path for sharing income information with a federal governmental agency if the federal agency can establish a purpose that is permissible under law and enters into a written agreement which sets forth legal requirements regarding allowable use and protection of the information.” She also said a warrant to release salary information is not required by law.

They’ve been caught and they’re proud of their cooperation with the FedGov.  Proud of it.

The road to disempowering the FedGov starts right there in your own city, county and state.  I don’t want to hear another word about how big Texas is, how they are a 2A sanctuary, and how they respect gun rights, until they clean house and get rid of the controllers in their own midst.  Next up should be passing state laws against this sort of thing, with heavy penalties for violation (such as prison time).

Oh, and where is the governor in this?  Someone near him should ask him if he supports the actions of his employees in cooperating with unconstitutional infringements of the second amendment.

Source.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Nebraska’s permitless concealed carry bill will be heading to Gov. Jim Pillen’s desk.

On Wednesday, state senators voted 33-14 to pass Legislative Bill 77, which would allow Nebraskans to carry a concealed handgun without a permit.

State Sen. Tom Brewer, who introduced the bill, says the measure guarantees the right to bear arms in Nebraska.

“What we do in this body sometimes is trying to follow through with the will of the people and give them the rights that they have in the Constitution,” Brewer said. “And sometimes we go out of the way and twist those rights and keep people from having them, and I think (the concealed carry permit) is a case of that.”

In previous legislative sessions, Brewer has made the bill a top priority.

Early on in the final reading, State Sen. Jane Raybould filed a motion to place the measure back into the Judiciary Committee.  That motion failed 5-40.

“This bill is not ready for us to pass or approve,” she said. “There is way too much at stake.”

Opponents of the bill, including Lincoln Police Chief Teresa Ewins, have said the proposed law could put lives at risk.

“You have heard from law enforcement and the chiefs of police on how insistent they are to keep concealed carry permits in place for the protection of their officers and communities, and how important it is to kill this bill,” Raybould said.

Lincoln Police released a statement after the vote:

“The chief is disappointed in the legislature’s decision because the most important factor in making these decisions should be public safety and the men and women who serve our community.”

Of course the police are against it.  Blood will run in the streets.  Except it never happens.  Someone ought to tell these idiots to put up or shut up, proving that blood will run in the streets based on other constitutional carry states.  And notice that she puts the alleged safety of officers above constitutionally guaranteed rights.  Of course she does.

Nebraska is already an open carry state, so they did this the right way.  Florida is too scared of falling support for tourism to let that one go.  The “only ones” are the only ones who can carry openly.

Watch the entire video.  Furtive movement.  That’s their excuse for arresting and throwing a man in prison for a year after they had let him go.

This is the stuff of school yard bullies, whether they bullied little boys and girls, or got bullied, they learned it without learning that you don’t do that.

They’re learning this somewhere – probably in police academy, or perhaps from the public prosecutors.  A furtive movement is reasonable excuse for beating someone up, or illegally detaining them, or throwing them in prison.

This is the same category as the cops in NM who shot an innocent homeowner dead after going to the wrong house.

An experienced investigator in officer-involved shootings who viewed the footage said he understands why Mr Dotson would have a gun ready after getting a knock unexpectedly late at night.

However, the officers believed they were going into a domestic violence situation and they are taught domestic violence calls are among the most dangerous, said Edward Obayashi, who is also deputy sheriff and policy advisor for the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office in California.

He said officers on domestic violence calls can find themselves facing people “hell-bent” on killing officers or being killed by officers themselves.

“I’m not saying this is the situation here,” Mr Obayashi said.

“But the officers definitely — based on their training and experience nationwide — are taught this. As soon as they saw the gun, instinctively that’s exactly what went through their mind.”

They’re a gang, and the gang leaders are teaching them all the wrong things.  I’ll say it again.  My son did room clearing in Fallujah for seven months, and never shot any innocent people.  It’s possible to be a man, not to be so timid and scared, and to do this the right way.  Unleashing cops who have been trained to be unaccountable monsters has ruined their reputation.  And properly so.

Don’t talk to cops.  Don’t open the door for them.  Get away from them as soon as possible.  “You’re never in more danger than when the police are around.”  Calling cops to a scene only makes it more dangerous by orders of magnitude.