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Legislative Update: Virginia Gun Bills #2

Some more gun bills have been filed in Virginia. In addition to the ones I listed previously, they are:

  • HB 1506 – Reduces from 15 years to 10 years the minimum number of years that certain officers must serve in order to qualify to purchase their service handguns. [I don't see anything objectionable here.]
  • HB 1557 – Requires every school board in the Commonwealth to designate at least one qualified person for every school in the district who, upon application with the school board, may carry a concealed handgun on school property. Establishes required training for such persons. [This is a good thing, specifically requiring school boards to allow at least one person in every school to be armed. The list of people they can designate includes teachers, administrators, and volunteers with CHPs, so bad guys don't have to just "look for the cop". This allows greater protection for our children.]
  • HB 1582 – Permits any armed security officers, licensed by the Department of Criminal Justice Services, to carry firearms onto school property if such officer is hired by the school to provide protection to students and employees. The bill also prohibits the Board of Social Services from adopting any regulations that would prevent a child day center from hiring an armed security officer. [Like HB 1557, this allows greater protection for our children, though it is limited to hired security.]
  • HB 1604 – Prevents the applicable regulatory body from prohibiting locksmiths and employees of any electronic security business from carrying firearms if they have a valid CHP. [I'm all for limiting the state's power to prevent people from carrying.]
  • HB 1660 – Prohibits prisoners in state, local, or community correctional facilities from possessing or transporting weapons. A violation of this prohibition constitutes a Class 6 felony and may carry a minimum sentence if the violator was previously convicted of a felony. The bill also excludes such prisoners from the process whereby individuals may petition the circuit court for a permit to carry a firearm, stun weapon or explosives. [I assumed prisoners were already prohibited from having weapons in prison, but maybe its isn't actually a crime currently. I can't say I have any objections, unless it would be a redundant law.]
  • HB 1662 – Allows a locality to adopt an ordinance that prohibits firearms, ammunition, or components, or a combination thereof, in libraries owned or operated by the locality. [Pure anti-Rights cultist BS. I don't know why they have this obsession with guns in libraries, but it's just as stupid as any other victim-disarmament gun-free zone.]
  • HB 1679 – Adds another group of LEO’s to the list of people who can carry concealed without a CHP. [Yet another privileged class designated as better than the peasantry.]
  • HB 1693 – Repeals the section of current law that allows someone to possess a firearm on school property as long as it’s unloaded and in a closed container. [This is a step backwards. I don't believe there has been one single case where someone took advantage of that exception to facilitate breaking the law. More anti-Rights cult BS, trying to take advantage of a horrible tragedy.]
  • HB 1833 – Reorganizes the existing concealed carry law into separate, discrete sections. [This is purely a clarifying measure. I don't see any actual changes to the law, it just splits it up into separate and smaller code sections to make it easier to parse.]
  • HB 1866 – Removes certain weapons from the definition of weapons that require mandatory expulsion from school for up to one year. [If I'm reading it right, it removes knives, stun guns, etc., and limits the mandatory one year expulsion to firearms.]
  • HB 2025 – Requires a background check for any firearm purchase and requires the Department of State Police to establish a process for sellers to obtain such a check from licensed firearm dealers. [The anti-Rights cult's coveted "gun show loophole" bill. This bill MUST be opposed and killed.]
  • SB 965 – Another “lost or stolen” bill. [This one is far worse than the one I listed last time. That one required reporting within 48 hours and imposed a monetary "civil penalty". This one only allows 24 hours to report it, and makes failure to do so a CRIME. This bill also MUST be opposed and killed.]
  • SB 1012 – Prohibits the possession of a firearm in Capitol Square, including the Capitol and other buildings predominantly used to conduct the business of the General Assembly. [Of course, they exempt themselves from this law. Another one to oppose.]

I’ve put the bills that are more relevant to the average citizen in bold type, and critical bills are in red. Contact your Virginia state representatives!

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1 Comment
by Jake on January 11, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Civil Rights, Gun Rights, Legislative Update, Liberty, Local to me, Politics, Stupidity, The Bill of Rights, Tools of Liberty, Victim Disarmament Zone

Posted by Jake on January 11, 2013

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/legislative-update-virginia-gun-bills-2/

Legislative update: Gun bills in Virginia

The first wave of gun bills for Virginia’s 2013 legislative session have been introduced, and can be found here. They’re pretty much all bad, either being anti-gun or carving out exceptions for “special” groups. Here’s a quick summary.

  • HB 1326: Removes all hunter safety courses and all electronic/video/on-line courses from the list of courses that satisfy the requirements for a CHP, and requires any course taken to qualify for a CHP to specifically focus on “the use and handling of a concealed handgun”.
  • HB 1391: Prohibits the possession of weapons in legislative buildings except by any person who lawfully possesses a handgun. [So, I guess if someone wanted to kill someone in a legislative building, they would have to use a handgun instead of a rifle, shotgun, or knife. Oh, and people who can't lawfully possess a firearm can't carrying a handgun that they're prohibited from having into legislative buildings.]
  • HB 1410: Expands the list of crimes that prohibit someone from possessing a gun for 5 years. [This may be redundant, as they all seem to be crimes of domestic violence, and such people are already prohibited from possessing a gun for life under federal law. It does, however, provide a process for such people to petition for a reinstatement of their gun rights at the state level.]
  • HB 1411: Deals with hoax “weapon[s] of terrorism”. [I see some potential for abuse in this one, depending on how the courts or the legislature decide to define what is a "weapon of terrorism". I do not see any such definition, or a reference to any such definition, in this bill, so there's nothing to stop a court from deciding that "Terrorists use AK-47s, therefore, AK-47s are weapons of terrorism, and therefore using, selling, giving, distributing, or manufacturing anything that looks like an AK-47 is a felony.]
  • SB 703: Exempts retired correctional officers from the fee for a CHP. Also contains minor linguistic changes to the CHP statute. [Other than adding another group to a special class, it appears generally harmless. The linguistic changes do not appear to change anything in the meaning of the statute.]
  • SB 785: Creates a civil liability for a victim of theft if a gun stolen from them is used in a crime resulting in injury or death and “if it can be shown by clear and convincing evidence that the firearm came into the possession of the person who committed the crime because of the failure of the civil defendant to adequately secure the firearm from theft or unauthorized possession”. [In other words, blame the victim for the actions of a criminal, in order to make gun ownership a legal risk. These laws are dangerous, because no matter how well you secure your guns, if one was stolen it was, by definition, not adequately secured from theft or unauthorized possession. Because if it was adequately secured, it couldn't have been stolen.]
  • SB 786: A “lost or stolen” bill. Requires reporting a lost or stolen gun to police within 48 hours, and imposes a $250 “civil penalty” for failure to do so. [Again, punish a law abiding victim for the actions of a criminal, in order to make gun ownership a legal risk.]

Not one of these bills has a beneficial purpose, and most are just plain bad. HB 1326, SB 785, and SB 786 are particularly egregious to gun owners. We need to stop all of these, fast – preferably in committee. Call your state legislators, today.

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1 Comment
by Jake on January 4, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Civil Rights, Gun Rights, Legislative Update, Local to me, Politics, Stupidity, The Bill of Rights, Tools of Liberty

Posted by Jake on January 4, 2013

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/legislative-update-gun-bills-in-virginia/

Reminder: Watch Congress and your state legislature today.

Today is the start of the new legislative session, and Senator Feinstein has promised to introduce her anti-Rights “Assault Weapons Ban” today (here’s a Google search link – I’m not going to link directly to her site). Illinois is ramrodding an even worse bill through their legislature, and they already have passed it out of committee and expect to vote on it as early as tomorrow. Other states are moving or preparing to move on their own anti-Rights bills.

As I said, I won’t link to Feinstein’s page directly, but here’s a summary of what she says she’s going to introduce today, copied directly from her website:

    • Bans the sale, transfer, importation, or manufacturing of:
      • 120 specifically-named firearms;
      • Certain other semiautomatic rifles, handguns, shotguns that can accept a detachable magazine and have one or more military characteristics; and
      • Semiautomatic rifles and handguns with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10 rounds.
    • Strengthens the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban and various state bans by:
      • Moving from a 2-characteristic test to a 1-characteristic test;
      • Eliminating the easy-to-remove bayonet mounts and flash suppressors from the characteristics test; and
      • Banning firearms with “thumbhole stocks” and “bullet buttons” to address attempts to “work around” prior bans.
    • Bans large-capacity ammunition feeding devices capable of accepting more than 10 rounds.
    • Protects legitimate hunters and the rights of existing gun owners by:
      • Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment;
      • Exempting over 900 specifically-named weapons used for hunting or sporting purposes; and
      • Exempting antique, manually-operated, and permanently disabled weapons.

This bill is  worse than the ’94 AWB, and it’s extremely unlikely we’ll get a sunset provision this time. I fully expect that the anti-Rights cultists will, if there is resistance to the bill as proposed, drop individual provisions until they can force something through. They will most likely try to hold out for at least the ban on all private sales, and possibly a magazine restriction as well. There are rumors – and it is important to note that they are only rumors at this point – that the Republican leadership may be willing to cave on this issue, and they may be willing to cave to Feinstein and her ilk on those points as a way of showing that they are willing to “compromise”.

I’d like to point out a couple of things based on the summary of that bill:

  1. The magazine restriction makes no mention of grandfathering, and “Grandfathering weapons legally possessed on the date of enactment” does not specifically include magazines.
  2. It creates an NFA registry of all grandfathered firearms, making future confiscation easier. It isn’t clear whether or not this NFA registration would require the $200 transfer tax that applies to other NFA firearms, but it is likely.
  3. It requires all owners of grandfathered firearms to be photographed and fingerprinted like common criminals.

All gun owners need to pay attention. Contact your legislators – call, write, email – and let them know that we will not tolerate passage of any part of this bill, nor will we tolerate any ban or restriction on private sales. Contact them as soon after the bill is introduced as you can – a ramrodding similar to Obamacare, or what is currently going on with the bills in Illinois, is not impossible and I would not be surprised if they tried it. If we’re not vigilant, it is entirely possible that Obama could have this ban on his desk early next week.

Call. Write. Email. Make our voices heard.

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by Jake on January 3, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Civil Rights, Evil Bastards, Gun Rights, Guns, Liberty, Politicians, Politics, Stupidity, The Bill of Rights, Tools of Liberty

Posted by Jake on January 3, 2013

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/reminder-watch-congress-and-your-state-legislature-today/

On the subject of secession

In all this recent hullabaloo about the secession petitions going around, one important fact keeps getting overlooked.

An article from WKRC quotes a University of Louisville political science professor who explained that these petitions aren’t uncommon. Similar petitions were filed following the 2004 and 2008 elections.
[Note: The article in the quoted link actually says it was the 2000 and 2008 elections. Neither article actually directly quotes - or even names - the professor they claim to be citing, so take that for what it's worth.]

So, really, none of this is actually new. It seems to happen pretty much every election cycle. I bet if we looked back at 1996 and before, we’d see the same thing, but the internet has made it both more visible and caused more signatures to be collected.

So, basically, it’s not going to happen. Everyone can take a deep breath and relax now, it’s just the legacy media blowing a non-issue entirely out of proportion, yet again. Probably in an attempt to keep people distracted from the economy now that the elections are over.

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[Source: Yahoo! News blog post, retrieved 11/12/12]

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by Jake on November 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in It's the Economy Stupid!, Media Bias, Politics, Stupidity

Posted by Jake on November 13, 2012

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/on-the-subject-of-secession/

Well, THIS is ripe for abuse.

Voting in New Jersey, that is.

New Jersey will allow residents displaced by Superstorm Sandy to vote by email or fax.

Officials announced Saturday that registered voters can vote electronically. A resident must submit a mail-in ballot application by fax or email to the local county clerk.

How the heck do they expect to be able to verify any of those votes?

I doubt Romney had a chance in NJ, anyway, but holy cow! There’s no way that’s going to be an honest vote.

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[Source: AP article on Yahoo! News, retrieved 2012-11-03]

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by Jake on November 3, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Politics, Stupidity, Ugh., WTF?

Posted by Jake on November 3, 2012

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/11/03/well-this-is-ripe-for-abuse/

Quote of the Day – 2012-10-18

From Zermoid, in a comment at Sebastian’s blog “Shall Not be Questioned“.

There is something very wrong with America when you can have a serious discussion about “you won’t need to smuggle in a Big Gulp. You can buy one legally.”.

There’s really not much I can add to that.

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by Jake on October 18, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Food!, Liberty, Pet Peeves, Politics, Stupidity

Posted by Jake on October 18, 2012

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/quote-of-the-day-2012-10-18/

What government does.

Threatens to sue a man for cleaning up 40 tons of garbage from an abandoned lot. It was city property, see, and the city not only refused to do it themselves, but refused when he asked for permission to do it himself. So the city wants him to put it back.

But the Daily News reports that Feibush went ahead with his plans anyway, reportedly spending more than $20,000 of his own money not only to remove the trash but also to level the soil; add cherry trees, fencing and park benches; and repave the sidewalk.

[...]

However, the city agency was less excited, demanding that Feibush return the vacant lot to its previous condition and saying it is considering legal action against him.

Why would the city do this? After all, they got a free cleanup and significant improvements to city property, right?

“Like any property owner, [the authority] does not permit unauthorized access to or alteration of its property,” Paul D. Chrystie, director of communications at the Office of Housing and Community Development told the paper. “This is both on principle (no property owner knowingly allows trespassing) and to limit taxpayer liability.”

Hmmm. I smell bovine excrement in that answer. I bet the real answer is that he either made someone look bad, or that there was some backroom deal that he inadvertently interfered with. In the eyes of city hall, either one is an unforgivable offense that must be punished.

The “unauthorized alteration” of city property may be a legitimate issue, but it’s certainly a threadbare one. That trash-filled empty lot was very probably hurting his business. But, technically, the “proper” way for him to address that problem would be to spend thousands of dollars to take the city to court (costing the city money at the same time), suing them for the damage to his business, and tying the whole issue up in the courts for the next couple of years while trying to define the nebulous amount of any damages his business was suffering because of the city’s failure to properly maintain its property, with little to no chance of success.

Every city employee involved in this fiasco needs to be fired, publicly humiliated, permanently barred from public employment and office, and run out of town on a rail. Tar and feathers optional, but strongly encouraged.

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[Source: Yahoo! News article, retrieved 9/20/12]

4 Comments
by Jake on September 20, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Doing the Right Thing, Evil Bastards, Liberty, Pet Peeves, Politics, Stupidity

Posted by Jake on September 20, 2012

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/what-government-does-3/

A hint for our chief executive

Warning shots – like those being fired by the security forces at our embassy in Yemen – only work if the people being warned believe that there’s a chance you’ll actually shoot them if they don’t stop. So far, we have not given them any reason to believe this.

These “protests” are invasions of sovereign American soil, and are acts of war. Treat them as such, and shoot the bastards.

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1 Comment
by Jake on September 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Cowards, Evil Bastards, International, Lethal Force, National Security, Pet Peeves, Politicians, Politics, Stupidity, Terrorism, Tragedy, WTF?

Posted by Jake on September 13, 2012

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/a-hint-for-our-chief-executive/

Voter fraud IS disenfranchisement

SayUncle points us to a story about a small business in Chattanooga that was recently killed by excessive regulation. It’s an interesting story, and I encourage you to read it, but what I want to talk about comes from an off-topic subject in the  article’s comments, by user “happywithnewbulbs”, who says:

The amount of voter fraud is inconsequential. The effects of disenfranchisement? Admitted even by the proponents of these ID measures.

That stupidity irritated me enough that I actually went ahead and created an account there, just so I could respond to it. My response?

Voter fraud IS disenfranchisement. For every fraudulent vote, one legitimate voter who cast a ballot a different way has had his or her vote nullified – effectively disenfranchising them. So, no, voter fraud is NOT “inconsequential”, it has the exact same consequences as disenfranchisement. It’s just harder to pick a specific person who lost their vote.

It’s simple. Every invalid vote cancels an opposite valid vote, taking away that legitimate voter’s vote. That is, in fact, the entire purpose of voter fraud – to achieve the desires of the people organizing the fraud, in direct opposition to the desires of the legitimate voters.

That is far from inconsequential.

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1 Comment
by Jake on August 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Civil Rights, Liberty, Pet Peeves, Philosophy, Politics, Stupidity, The Bill of Rights, Tools of Liberty

Posted by Jake on August 24, 2012

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/voter-fraud-is-disenfranchisement/

Basic gun safety, lesson 2: Use a holster!

Otherwise, we see headlines like this one.

SPARKS, Nev. – Police say a man accidentally shot himself in the buttocks at a Nevada movie theatre during a showing of “The Bourne Legacy.”

Police in Sparks, Nev., say the 56-year-old man’s injuries are not life-threatening and no others were hurt.

Authorities say the man had a permit to carry a concealed firearm. The man told officers the gun fell from his pocket Tuesday night as he was adjusting himself in the seat and that it discharged when it dropped to the floor.

Pocket carry without a holster is a bad idea! Especially if your carry gun isn’t one designed to be drop-safe (and even with a good holster, you should upgrade to a gun that is drop-safe, because stuff happens).

Spending a mere $13 could have been enough to prevent this headline. This guy is lucky that his negligence didn’t kill anyone.

Don’t be That Guy. Use a holster!

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[Source: AP article on Yahoo! News, retrieved 8/15/12]

1 Comment
by Jake on August 15, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Concealed Carry, Gun Gear, Gun Safety, Pet Peeves, Stupidity, Ugh.

Posted by Jake on August 15, 2012

http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/basic-gun-safety-lesson-2-use-a-holster/

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