North Las Vegas Police Lie Again About Gun Laws

North Las Vegas police continue their old tricks of harassing and lying to open carriers. On Facebook, a citizen reported that he was pulled over by NLVPD. The officer gave him a warning, telling him that it was illegal to have a round chambered in his revolver.

This is not true. Only long-guns (rifles, shotguns) must not have a round in the chamber in a vehicle (NRS 503.165). As our readers know, no local laws regarding firearms, except unsafe discharge, can be made or enforced by any local authority. Only the legislature can make such laws.

The City of North Las Vegas ordinance the officer mentioned was referring to was repealed this fall. So the officer was derelict in his duty for not knowing the law or is simply a liar.

With the widespread reporting of SB 175/240 doing away with ‘blue cards’ and enhancing local preemption, no local police officer should be ignorant of the law, and all patrol officers likely sat through a briefing and even probably saw an email or two on the subject.

North Las Vegas has a nasty reputation for unlawfully harassing armed citizens, particularly armed minorities. Despite assurances from the chief of police and such measures as SB 175/240, officers continue to lie, harass citizens, abuse their authority, and engage in misconduct. Granted, it is not as widespread in years past or something that an armed citizen needs to worry about, but it still does happen. North Las Vegas police have absolutely no excuse for lying to citizens or not knowing the correct laws.

So what can you do? If this happens to you, be sure to get the officer’s name and identification number. It’s recommended that you record your encounter as well. If the officer gives erroneous information, harasses or threatens you, or outright lies about the law, file a citizen’s complaint against the officer. If you are cited or arrested, contact an attorney. The city can face enhanced civil penalties for violating state preemption laws. Please also contact Nevada Carry.

In the mean time, I urge all my readers to contact the chief of police and the city council to let them know this behavior will not be tolerated and of the need to educate and discipline their employees.

Chief Alexander Perez (pereza@cityofnorthlasvegas.com)

City Council

Mayor John J. Lee

Councilman Isaac E. Barron

Councilwoman Pamela A. Goynes-Brown

Councilwoman Anita G. Wood

Councilman Richard Cherchio

Click link for the Car Carry Page

Past articles:

North Vegas Police Still Discriminates Against Open Carriers

Chief of NLVPD Responds to Open Carry Rights Violation

Illegal Open Carry Detention in North Las Vegas

White House Announcement on LV Strip Crash

Photo: ABC News

In light of Sunday night’s tragic incident on the Strip, where a woman intentionally drove into crowds on the sidewalk, killing one and injuring 30 others, President Obama is set to announce ‘common sense’ car control measures. Josh Earnest, White House Press Secretary said: 

"Local law enforcement and the NTSB are investigating the accident. While it was an intentional act, it was not an act of terrorism. Police are working to identify the buyer of the car, as it is believed the vehicle was purchased online without a DMV background check. 

The president firmly believes that background checks for car buyers is vital to identifying drunk drivers, unlicensed drivers, and those with suspended or revoked driving privileges. Unfortunately, the Republicans in Congress defeated a bill to require all private call sales be facilitated through a local car dealer, who must call the state DMV to confirm license status and history.

The president is working with industry leaders and experts to find technological solutions to prevent these kind of tragedies from re-occurring. Among other things, we’re looking into horsepower restrictions, limited capacity fuel tanks, hybrid and electric only restrictions, safety bumpers, and cars that can automatically detect and avoid pedestrians are also in the works. 

Walk-ability studies to prohibit vehicle traffic in busy city centers and mandating public transportation is at the forefront of our efforts. 

In the future, we hope to implement ‘smart cars’ that self-driving, requiring no input from a human driver at all to get from destination to destination. Together, by implementing car buyer background checks, enhanced training, and limiting the abilities of these cars to do damage, we can end these senseless mass crashes." 

 

Local Nevada group, Nevadans For Car Safety, are calling for institution of 'car free zones' on sidewalks.

In case you couldn't tell, this was satire. 

Nutshell: A Civilian Disarmament Poem

This is intended as light-hearted fun. Any serious attempt to explicate the poem means you're taking it far more seriously I did when I wrote it on a boring Friday afternoon.

While sitting on a fence,

I pondered a problem that was immense.

How can I be sure

That my gun buyer’s intentions be pure?

By looking deeply into his eyes?

(Though they often tell lies).

If is his voice does shake,

Was it the law he did break?

But what can be a guarantee?

I know, I found the key.

I’ll check his history!

Quickly, the computer spat out the answer to my mystery.

His name came back shining and clear,

So I had nothing to fear.

Of felonies and misdemeanors there were none,

So clearly he was not scum.

All the records they did check

And found not even a speck!

With no more than a phone call,

Thanks to that law we did install,

My suspicion it did allay

With scarcely a delay.

All that time I pondered in suspense,

When it’s just common sense!

Happily we departed with a smile.

How was I to know that I he would beguile?

Murder the stories in the papers said,

That filled me full of dread.

It was with the latest tech,

That we ran that background check!

Never did it enter my head,

That his ex-wife he soon would make dead!

Oh how the reports grew worse!

All these killings were perverse.

His shootings at work did abound,

If only something was in his background,

None of those people would have been shot

And perhaps his evil plans we would have caught.

According to the initiative,

The results should have been definitive.

I could not understand why the process didn’t work,

As I trusted the man from New York.

A detective said the past we could only chart,

And not see the intent of the heart.

For the gun violence delusion,

It seemed like such a solution.

Should all gun sales go through a dealer,

Our streets would grow less meaner.

Still those terrorists didn’t listen,

Even though our laws began to stiffen.

With many guns they did rampage,

Though the victims’ lives the police did assuage.

Background checks terrorists ignored,

For laws and America they abhorred.

By checking to whom guns were sold,

Murder we assumed we controlled.

Crime we thought we fought,

Only to find it was for naught!

Guns bad guys did acquire,

Just no one checked the buyer.

The smugglers ran no checks,

And stolen guns continued to vex.

How did guns get into the hands of crooks?

Easy, they bought them off the books.

On purchase forms girlfriends lied,

It was their boyfriends they supplied.

At gun owners Washington was upset,

Sure that criminals we did abet.

Because murders and guns they couldn’t stem,

Citizens they did condemn.

“You’re still selling them behind our backs

And making possible these attacks!

We don’t know where from the guns came

So we can’t apportion the blame.

Illegal sellers we must identify

And thereby end the killers’ gun supply.

So we’ll turn to legislation

To mandate registration.”

Good intentions pave the road to hell,

And that's gun control in a nutshell.

So a gun registry they did undertake

And tread upon a rattlesnake.

Crime and mass murder they did not end,

But civil rights they did upend.

The least of their worries was re-election;

For safety they feared due to disaffection.

Their only reply was a decree;

“Confiscation must proceed!”

Off the job did many cops walk.

Marching troops came as a shock.

Our guns they wanted for collection,

So we contemplated insurrection.

What other option did they give us?

In the face of death they left us helpless.

Streets did the soldiers occupy

When we refused to comply.

Criminals we now became,

Leaving our cities aflame.

None of us wanted war,

But freedom we did adore.

They pushed us to the brink,

So tyranny we made them rethink.

                    

Once again we learned about reality,

When they challenged guns’ legality.

We should have known better

To read the initiative’s every letter.

On deception they sold us gun control

To close every loophole.

If they had only stopped at that!

In the end, our only redress was combat.

When it was all said and done,

We finally knew the power of the gun.

Once civility had returned,

We understood the costly lesson we learned.

So gullible were we,

We had traded liberty for security.

 -G. C.

Pro-Gun Supporters Overwhelm Anti-Gun Rally

Pro-Gun supporters

Pro-gun supporters rallied to counter-protest a planned ‘orange walk’ by supporters of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Everytown for Gun Safety on Sunday in downtown Las Vegas. A rally, hosted at the Ramirez Group offices on 7^th and Bonneville, culminated in a walk down 7^th Avenue around the Container Park. The highlight of the sunset walk was the fire-breathing preying mantis sculpture that spat fire accompanied by staccato machine gun bursts. The ‘shooting’ was followed by a clip from the infamous “say hello to my little friend” scene from the film Scarface. Pro-gun supporters outnumbered the anti-gun crowd by about a third; about 120 to 70-80 respectively.

Orange walks are a hallmark of former New York Michael Bloomberg’s affiliate groups, one of which, Nevadans for Background Checks, is leading the charge for banning private gun sales in a 2016 ballot initiative. Supporters dressed in orange clothing, mostly t-shirts bought from online from Bloomberg group web stores. The bright orange color was chosen as it is used to denote safety items, such as live preservers. The various groups believe that gun control can promote safety and such ‘orange walks’ are intended to raise awareness of their cause. The orange walkers were clad mostly in pre-printed shirts from Everytown, along with pre-printed signs and orange candles.

Many of the supporters prattled on about "gun violence", mentioned relatives shot or killed, and spoke about tragedies like the Sandy Hook massacre. None offered any solutions to actually stem crime and violence. Media reports and statements made by the orange walk participants were vapid and limited to talking points. Statistics given to curious attendees was laced with misleading statistics and bad information.

Supporters of the universal background check initiative used the term "unlicensed person" without defining the term, leading some to believe that buyers may not legally own a firearm without a license. In reality, the license is a federal firearm dealer's license; a license for those conducting the business of buying and selling firearms. Nevadans may legally sell firearms to each other privately as they may any other private property. None of the recent high profile shootings involved firearms that universal background checks would have stopped.

Despite virtually all of the pro-gun supporters being armed, there were no incidents of violence and no police response. When the crowds did mix, organizers quickly separated them. The cold weather and late afternoon schedule kept many of the pro-gun crowd away, yet even so, respectable enough numbers attended the counter-protest to mark the hard fight gun control supporters will have in Nevada.

On the pro-gun side, supporters included women, parents with their children, and members of every major demographic group. Mothers held signs like “Moms Demand Defense” while children held signs proclaiming “My parents are my first responder.”  Battlefield Vegas’ promotional Hummvee drove by, causing the pro-gun crowd to erupt in cheers for the machine gun range.

Pro-gun protest organizer Earl Loewen of Nevada Nevada 2A, a group which is opposing the 2016 ‘universal background checks’ ballot initiative, said:

“Nevada 2A would like to thank everyone for coming out to show support for their Second Amendment rights. We also want to spread the message that peaceful, law abiding gun owners want to end violence but we don't feel disarming the law abiding will accomplish this. Instead we encourage people to stay armed, vigilant and train to be their own first responders.”

NBC 3's cameraman 'coincidentally' wearing orange

Interestingly, NBC 3 Las Vegas sent a cameraman to film the Everytown/Moms event. While they gathered some footage of the counter-protest, which outnumbered the original rally participants, the pro-gun side was not covered. Nevada Carry believes that NBC 3 was invited to the Everytown/Moms event because their station, KSNV, is sympathetic to their cause. NBC 3 previously aired a segment on the background check initiative that was widely criticized online for being biased and inaccurate.

The cameraman showed up wearing an orange Denver Bronco’s sweatshirt, which he denied was meant to show support for the anti-gun rally. He also refused to answer any questions on how and when he received his assignment. For a news organization which claims to be objective (Nevada Carry does not pretend to be), it seems inappropriate for their staff to be dressed in such a way that would lead the reasonable person to assume NBC 3 was endorsing one particular viewpoint. The camera crew also spent an inordinate amount of time covering the private rally on the Ramirez Group’s property while none of the pro-gun supporters were interviewed by their reporter.

NBC 3 did deny matching shirts was intentional, however, for a news organization which prides itself on being objective (and under heavy accusations of pro-Bloomberg bias), any appearance of impropriety should have been avoided. NBC 3 has made no effort today to correct the deficiencies in their coverage.

On the anti-gun side, the rally and walk had a distinctive air of being more about publicity and media exposure, rather than a meaningful way to stem violence and promote domestic security. Nevada Carry did not feel it was appropriate to attempt to cover the private rally of the Moms/Everytown supporters, but will debunk any erroneous or misleading claims made in other media outlets.

The 2016 ‘universal background check initiative’ will ban all private gun sales and require all gun sales or transfers to be conducted through a federally licensed dealers. It will also require that those dealers conduct their background checks through the federal system rather than through the Nevada Dept. of Public Safety clearinghouse, which has access to in-state records the FBI center does not. Nevada currently has free, voluntary background checks for private firearm sales. Nevada Firearms Coalition president Don Turner has called the initiative an infringement “on Nevada’s private property rights.” 

Updated: 12/14/15 3:43PM

Obama, Terrorists, and Gun Control

The president, in both Sunday night’s speech and his weekly address, sullied the memories of the victims by beating on the gun control drum. At least he finally one of these attacks by Muslims terrorism, though he watered it down by referring to ‘radicalism.’ In seven years, this was probably the first time President Obama explicitly admitted Islam has a terrorism problem. Gun control, as Obama has admitted, is a priority in his final year of office. In light of this latest Islamic terror attack, Obama is trying to change the subject away from the real issue and push his leftist agenda.

‘Terrorist Loophole’?

There seems to be hidden blueprint for further infringing upon the Second Amendment. After the 2012 Sandy Hook shootings, the call was, among other things, to ban the so-called “gun show and internet loopholes” by banning private sales. After the federal ban failed in Congress, anti-gunners took their show on the road and states, like Nevada, have are facing an onslaught of ‘universal background check’ initiatives and laws.

Each of these infringement offensives have a unique goal to tighten the noose around Second Amendment without addressing the underlying causes of tragedy supporters are tying their efforts to. With universal background checks, all recent high-profile shooters passed a background check or otherwise got their guns in a way that a background check would not have been required (the Sandy Hook murderer killed his mother to get her guns, for example).

Between the Paris attacks and the San Bernardino attacks, leftists began bandying about the term ‘terrorist loophole’ because people on the ‘no-fly list’ of suspected terrorists can legally buy a gun. The ‘boyfriend loophole’, which has less panache, was floating around before that. Interestingly, felonious boyfriends and husbands often get their girlfriends/wives to buy a gun for them in a straw purchase. Leftists see freedom as a series of loopholes. Being consumed by loophole mania, they probably complain about Swiss cheese not being a solid block. One day, they’ll be complaining about the “Melvin M. Johnson loophole” because he’s the last person who can legally buy a gun.

One would suspect that if someone was on a terrorist watch list, then the FBI would have them under surveillance and know if they bought a gun. Or the components for a pipe or pressure cooker bomb. The lunacy of this working is lost on the leftists. Buying ephedrine when a cold has reduced you to mouth-breathing is about as intensive as buying a gun, but meth still gets made.

The cornerstone of American jurisprudence is due process of law.  Without it, we are subject to the whims and Byzantine workings of bureaucracy. All other categories of prohibited persons have been adjudicated in some fashion; the checks and balances of a day in court ensuring that someone isn’t being capriciously deprived of their rights.

"What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon?" —@POTUS pic.twitter.com/sfmJiitjZd

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 7, 2015

Last time the Democrats, used a list to round up citizens and stripped them of their rights. @WhiteHouse @POTUS pic.twitter.com/p4mAJi3xDZ

— Ryan B. Leslie (@RyanBLeslie) December 7, 2015

The no-fly list, a subset of the Terrorist Screening Center’s list of surveillance targets, lists nearly 50,000 people, though the actual numbers are secret. Wikipedia has a small list of notable cases of persons, not actually terrorists, who have been stopped from flying, including some who were apparently added to the list in retaliation for something the government didn’t like.

The ACLU calls the process “[…] to challenge their blacklisting is grossly insufficient and violates the U.S. Constitution’s due process guarantee.” It goes on to describe the challenge process, which is an entirely bureaucratic process without court review. 

“If you are a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, and the TSC determines that you are on the No Fly List, DHS TRIP will send you a letter informing you of your status on the No Fly List and providing the option to submit and receive additional information. If you choose that option, DHS TRIP will provide a second letter identifying the general criterion under which you have been placed on the No Fly List and possibly including an unclassified summary of the reasons for your inclusion on the List. You should know that the government’s summary likely will not include all of its reasons for your placement on the List, and in some cases the government will choose not to provide any summary at all. The government also will not provide you any of the evidence it relied upon in deciding to place you on the List, and it may also withhold information in its possession that undercuts its basis for putting you on the list. Finally, the government does not provide a live hearing at which you could testify, or give you an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses against you.” 

One still could file a lawsuit, but only after the fact. Most citizens learn of their status on the No Fly List by attempting to board a flight. Imagine going to gun store, only to be denied the ability to purchase a firearm. You would have first find out why you were denied, then begin the appeal process with the FBI, which you couldn’t do until the Dept. of Homeland Security removed you from its terrorist watch list. It’s a Kafkaesque nightmare meant to ensnare people. With the IRS targeting conservative groups illegally, one can imagine a rogue government agency or bureaucrat (or even under direction from President Obama or another leftist president) actually considering some gun owners (such as we of Nevada Carry) potential domestic terrorists.

Placing names on a list to restrict rights that is established by arbitrary criteria, secret information, and nearly impossible to challenge is un-American. If the ‘no-fly’ list didn’t have problems such as government security workers on it or listing children and people with similar names by accident, the argument might be valid. However, as we saw today, the San Bernardino terrorists committed their atrocity without going through a single so-called loophole. In fact, despite coming from countries that are rife with terrorism and radicalization factories and communicating online with suspected terrorist sympathizers, the California jihadist went unnoticed by law enforcement.

As with background checks, the ‘terrorist loophole’ non-sense is coming to the states. California Assemblyman Mike Gatto told the Sacramento Bee “It’s safe to say that if people who are under a mental-health hold cannot buy a weapon, then I think it makes sense that people who have been deemed so dangerous that they can’t board an airplane should be in that same category.” It’s just not that simple, unless Gatto approves of using an inaccurate database and trampling on the Fifth Amendment right to due process. Of course, since it involves guns, the Democrat doesn’t mind. Surely the legislature which banned open carry in 1967 because black people were doing it will easily pass this law.

Chris Cox, executive director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action gave the best reaction to President Obama’s rhetoric earlier this week. 

“The National Rifle Association is not to blame. Neither is our Second Amendment freedom. An act of evil unfolded in California. President Obama used it not as a moment to inform or calm the American people; rather, he exploited it to push his gun control agenda. Policy discussions should be intellectually honest and based on facts, not politics. And the fact remains that California has already adopted President Obama’s gun control wish list: "universal" background checks, registration, waiting periods, gun bans, magazine bans and an expansion of prohibited gun categories. But those laws did nothing to prevent this horrific crime from taking place. Nothing.” 

Obama and the leftists push the ‘terrorist loophole’ because it narrows who can buy guns. It sounds great and they think it can pass in the aftermath of this tragedy. What they are really doing is broadening the definition of who is prohibited from possessing firearms. The terror watch lists have no real criteria. If the Obama Administration decides that those who read this blog as potential terrorists, you could wind up on the list. It’s not far-fetched.

Quit with the Gun Control Already

Leftists and politicians do not understand that laws and disarming the law-abiding will result in safety. They are so deluded by their hate for guns, and some salivating over a disarmed populace, helpless to resist their agenda, they will use any tragedy, any excuse, fabricate any data, manipulate any statistics, and make any lie to promote their evil. Under President Obama’s administration, we’ve seen more true high-profile mass shootings than under any other recent president. Knowing that the media and the White House is behind them, those that would rob you of your rights have gun into full-battle mode. At no time in American history has the Second Amendment been under such.

Anti-gunners like the president are hecklers; they ask only rhetorical questions that ignore truth and facts. They rely on hyperbole, logical fallacies, and capitalizing on crises. They offer no solutions, only restrictions.

Leftists, who have asserted that their policies hold all the answers for life's problems, do not have the humility to admit that they are on the wrong side of the issue. Maybe in the '60s and '70s, we could have forgiven their ignorance, but waves of evidence show guns aren't the problem and leftists are so far gone the truth has lost all meaning to them. Lies and distortions have become such a part of their daily life that their capacity for rational thought has been destroyed.

Any attempt to confiscate or infringe any further upon the Second Amendment is likely to result in revolution. President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the establishment Left is pushing America to the brink of armed resistance to the trampling of our rights, our faiths, our freedoms, and our way of life.

It is said that Social Security is the third-rail of a American politics. For those unfamiliar with the term, the third rail is a electrified rail that subways and trams (usually in the East), draw power from. Touching it will kill you. The Second Amendment is the hangman’s rope in American politics and politicians are busy pulling the noose over their heads.

Although it is stems from the most unfortunate of circumstances, the reaction of the American public rejecting gun control and supporting citizen’s carrying guns for self-defense is most heartening. This nation is waking up to the reality that criminals and terrorists cannot be stopped by laws and to save our own lives in the face of death, we must have a gun and be willing to use it.

-G. C.

California Number One Supplier of Crime Guns to Nevada*

California Governor Jerry Brown criticized states like Nevada and Arizona for having so-called ‘lax’ gun laws. “California has the toughest gun control laws of any state and Nevada and Arizona are wide open. So that's a gigantic backdoor through which any terrorist can walk.” Governor Brown apparently missed the fact that a whole host of California laws were broken by the terrorists in San Bernardino. His state’s draconian gun laws did not prevent this tragedy, but instead reduced the victims to cowering in the face of Islamic terrorists. Hero Shannon Johnson was killed bravely shielding Denise Peraza with his own body.

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey said: 

"All of Arizona mourns for the victims in California. To politicize a tragedy of this magnitude and use it as an opportunity to attack our state is out of bounds. Not only will we be ignoring Gov. Brown's advice, but I call on him to retract his incredibly thoughtless and ill-advised comments.” 

In regards to the Paris terrorist attacks last month, Gov. Ducey said, “These acts serve as a reminder that the world remains at war with radical Islamic terrorists. Our national leaders must react with the urgency and leadership that every American expects to protect our citizens.” Gov. Brown did not shy away from acknowledging the threat of Islamic terror. At least Gov. Brown got one thing right. 

“At the same time, I don’t minimize the significance of this terrorist attack. […] It’s a very clear indication that this is a global phenomenon and that people who are committed to this jihadist doctrine are going to be killing people in very unexpected places. So we have to be, as I said, we have to be on our guard and we have to do whatever we can do.”

Nevada's governor's office, issued a statement Sunday afternoon.

"Nevadans share California's grief during this time of tragedy following the horrific events in San Bernardino. However, Governor Brown’s assertion that our state laws create an opening for terrorists is wrong and irresponsible. This type of political rhetoric is discouraging to hear at a time when all Americans are looking for thoughtful, honest leadership. Governor Sandoval’s top priority has always been the safety and well-being of Nevadans and the millions of tourists who travel to our state annually."

Nevada, California’s Criminal Arms Market?

Everytown Research, the discredited research arm of former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's anti-gun organization Everytown for Gun Safety, has published 'research' (really just statistics explained in a way that makes Nevada look bad) supposedly drawing the conclusion that Nevada is some sort of arms bazaar to California criminals. The reality is quite the opposite.

Everytown says: “[...]  since 2006, the number of Nevada guns recovered at California crime scenes has increased 94 percent.” According to an ATF firearms trace data (cited by Everytown), in 2006, 361 guns traced, came from Nevada, versus 2013, where the number was 699 guns. Saying the guns were recovered from a crime scene is a lie. The stats used are for all guns traced by the ATF, which includes not just guns from crime scenes, but guns confiscated from felons, for instance. Of course, California itself was the largest source of firearms recovered from criminals or at crime scenes.

The actual sources of the guns are never mentioned. For this to be an accurate comparison and used as evidence for universal background checks, how the guns got into the hands of California criminals is vitally important.

• How many of these guns were actually bought in sales which would be prohibited by the universal background check initiative?
• How many of these guns were bought/transferred illegally under existing laws (Straw purchases, illegal street dealers)?
• How many of these guns were legally brought in or sold/transferred to Californians?
• How many of these guns were stolen? 

Everytown isn’t interested in answering these questions, only presenting the appearance of a problem where there is none. Now here’s the kicker. The largest out-of-state source for traced guns in Nevada (again, using the same source and definition as Everytown used) is: California!

https://www.atf.gov/file/55016/download

https://www.atf.gov/file/3286/download

Yes, Nevada does have private gun sales that a criminal from California could abuse. However, the onus is on California for infringing upon the Second Amendment rights of its citizens. California is also responsible for an influx of felons. “California’s two-strike felons often come to Nevada to avoid their third felony, and thus a potential 25-to-life sentence, and continue committing their crimes. Nevada’s three strike law doesn’t count out-of-state convictions,” Nevada Carry’s anonymous law enforcement source told us.

California’s Gun Laws Just Don’t Work

An effort, lead by California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco, seeks to confiscate all grandfathered 10 round plus magazines, among other ineffective measures. California started the ‘assault weapons’ ban back in the 1980s after a mass shooting at McDonalds, later copied at the federal level for ten years. Clearly this ban had no effect on the terrorists. Brown and Newsom, along with Senator Barbara Boxer, who foolishly praised California’s gun laws after the terrorist attack. Boxer, whose brain must be malfunctioning after years of drinking the liberal Kool-Aid, liked the guns law working to speeding law working after illegal street racers plowed into a crowd.

In California, all ‘assault weapons’ must have been registered by 2001 or altered so that they no longer meet the state’s arbitrary criteria. The ‘assault weapon’ ban is predicated on mostly cosmetic and inconsequential features, such as a pistol grip, flash suppressor, detachable magazine, and collapsing stock. It was alleged based upon specious logic that such features make the weapon more deadly.

Media reports are stating that  the rifles used in the attack were purchased by a friend Enrique Marquez. Police have not released any further details on how the weapons were acquired. They may have been solid in a private party transfer, using a gun dealer as California has banned private gun sales without going through a licensed dealer. Or, Marquez may have bought the weapons as a ‘straw purchase’ where they were intended for suspect Sayed Farook the whole time. Another option, most disconcerting to proponents of universal background checks, is that the law didn’t stop Marquez from illegally selling the weapons to Farook.

Media is also mistakenly describing the weapons as having been modified to be more powerful. An AR-15, like most rifles, is capable of penetrating soft police body armor, walls, and vehicles. Nothing was done to enhance the physical ‘punch’ of the weapons. Only modifications to the weapons functionality were made and illegal 10+ round magazines were used.

Under California law, if you took an AR-15 that was legal to possess in Nevada, removed the standard magazine release, and put one on there that needed a ‘tool’ to release it, such as the tip of a bullet, the weapon, though functionally identical to the prohibited ‘assault weapon’ would then be legal. Swapping out the bullet button for a proper magazine release takes about two minutes or less and requires no tools. At least one of the rifles was modified in attempt to make it fully automatic, but it was done improperly and it failed.

Law enforcement hasn’t said yet how the weapon was modified. AR-15 style rifles are distinctly different in semi-automatic and fully-automatic form. The conversion from semi-to-fully auto is not easy. Semi-auto ARs have a ‘denial hump’, or simply an area of the receiver that hasn’t been milled out. This is to deny the room needed for installing the auto-sear, which holds the hammer from hitting the firing pin and detonating the cartridge until the bolt is locked, preventing an explosion. The rifle would also need several different parts—a full-auto hammer and trigger disconnector, a three position safety catch, and a full-auto bolt—changed to function properly.

A “Lightning Link” could also have been made and installed. This is basically two pieces of metal which basically forces the semi-auto trigger to work in full-auto mode while delaying the stroke of the hammer as described as above. Truly modifying a weapon to be an illegal machine gun (under federal law) requires advanced gunsmithing and mechanical knowledge. Simpler solutions, like the SlideFire stock that moves the trigger finger to rapidly pull the trigger nearly as fast as full-auto fire, are already banned in California.

Another so-called modification was using 30 round ‘high capacity magazines’, which in reality are standard capacity. AR-15 designed Eugene Stoner’s original rife was designed to take 20 round magazines, increased to 30 rounds in 1969 for the M16 variant used in Vietnam. Supporters of restricting magazine capacity erroneously believe that ten round (or fewer) magazines will necessitate more frequent magazine changes. Sheriff Campbell of Boone County, Indiana, demonstrates how magazine capacity makes virtually no difference whatsoever in reloading speed, thus negating any alleged safety.

It's Really Islamic Terror and No, We Don't Need More Gun Control

The New Face of Islamic Terror in America

We now know that the terrorists in Wednesday’s attack in San Bernardino were identified as Middle Eastern Muslims, Syed Farook, his wife Tashfeen Malik, and Qatari-born Tayyeep Bin Ardogan. This was Islamic terrorism. The denial of this fact by the government and media is absolutely sickening. Because there is no smoking gun, such as social media posts (they were scrubbed the day before the incident) and the terrorists didn’t shout “Allahu ackbar!”, the government, leftists, and the media can only ‘guess’ at the motive. Other than the fact the perpetrators were all Muslims, their verified ties to suspected radicals and preparation indicates this was not random workplace violence.

It’s becoming apparent that ‘lone wolf’ attacks, not directed by a country or larger terrorist organization like Al-Qaeda, are the new threat. For the first few years of the last decade, America was focused almost solely on major terrorist attacks. Our airplanes got hardened cockpit doors, our pilots got guns, TSA stripped us virtually naked and made us take off our shoes. Lady Liberty closed, barricades sprung up around you local federal offices, and we held out breaths when we were warned to buy plastic sheeting and duct tape. WMDs, dirty bombs, suitcase nukes and sleeper cells were the stuff of nightmares.

FBI agents worked around the clock trying to prevent the next attack. Thankfully, the wars in Afghanistan and later Iraq drew the jihadi’s like moths to flame and they were slain overseas rather than in the United States. It was far easier for a riled-up young Saudi to travel across the border to Iraq and bomb Americans than it was for them to somehow infiltrate our country. Many, many would-be homeland terrorists instead died at the hands of our soldiers and Marines in the desert.

Al-Qaeda, the global terrorist organization dedicated to destroying the United States, was broken, leaving us without a Number One enemy in the War on Terror. It’s fair to mention that it never was some sort of James Bond-esque SPECTRE type organization. Once President Obama withdrew most troops from Iraq (and ended Bush’s War on Terror), a huge vacuum of power was left in the region and was filled with violent jihadists from Syria. ISIS is still only a small regional force. It does not have the power or organization to lead mass attacks abroad like the Bin Laden funded and led Al-Qaeda could. However, its powerful social media has duped thousands.

Despite the rather pedantic and naïve way the political dilettantes fought the Taliban and George W. Bushs’ misguided revenge on Saddam Hussein, there was a benefit to it all. We did not see a single Islamic terrorist attack in the United States until Barack Obama’s presidency in 2009 when a Muslim psychiatrist shot up Fort Hood. ‘Lone wolf’ terrorism was the new wildcard.

Israel’s experiences were the model for the fears of the kind of attacks that were (and still are) expected: suicide bombers and machine gun armed terrorists attacking buses, malls, and pizza shops. Paris’ two attacks this year are a good example of the extreme of non-directed attacks. In America, we had the two brothers  who bombed the Boston Marathon despite any orders from Chechen groups.

Fed by disgusting videos and violent rhetoric, ISIS has encouraged many to travel to Syria and Iraq to swell its ranks. It has claim to have infiltrated Western society with hundreds of terrorists willing to wage jihad. Time will soon tell if we have a rag-tag army among us or just random whack jobs radicalized online.

Americans will now have to worry about being shot in our workplace by our friends. A Muslim turns his hatred of the Western lifestyle against his friend and co-workers. This soft target wasn’t a mall, but the mastermind’s workplace. We expected schools, shopping malls, churches to be shot up—not a Christmas Party at work. Look around at your co-workers. Sure, we joke about someone being the type to go postal and blast the office when they have a bad day, but we don’t actually imagine that our dependable Muslim colleague is going to practice the parts of the Quran that call for jihad. Literally anywhere can become a target for terror, not just the obvious targets like malls, casinos, crowds, and high-profile attractions.  Being California, none of the employees could be armed (same story in most Nevada government offices).

Denial of Islamic Terror

Federal and local law enforcement delayed and prevaricated in placing the blame of this attack squarely where it belongs; Islam. This was a pre-planned attack, not a case of sudden rage from a disgruntled co-worker. Not even the most irrational people who decide to commit a sudden act of murder stock up body armor, weapons, and pipe bombs ‘just in case’ they want to go off on a particular day. The media took forever to confirm the information, despite it being available for half the day.

CAIR, the Council on American Islamic Relations, jumped out in front of the press Wednesday night trying distance Islam from this Islamic terrorist attack. CAIR has been tied to Palestinian terror group Hamas. CAIR is the group that comes out every time Muslims are implicated in an Islamic terrorist incident to lie about Islam being a religion of peace. Interestingly, the Arabic root work that Islam is derived from means ‘surrender’ and not surrender of the self, but surrender as give in to Islam (or die). Islam didn't spread across the Arabian desert through missionaries, but by war and slaughter.

Make no bones about it; Islam calls for the death of those who will not convert (kaffirs, or unbelievers). Islamic end-times prophecies hold that Isa, the Muslim incarnation of Jesus, will finally slay all remaining unbelievers on behalf of the Muslim messiah, the Mahdi. I’m not getting too much into how Islam is an existential threat to the west or how the Quran really is violent. I’ve done that in a previous post and you can find better articles online yourself. Thankfully, most Muslims in America aren’t going to kill you even if their more religious kin might.

Excuse for Gun Control

Even before any substantive details were out, politicians were calling for gun control and the media lamenting gun violence and mass shootings in America. I predicted this. You know, the same old story that helps push the narrative that guns are bad and need to be banned. Capitalizing on the crisis, senators attempted to ram universal background checks down the throats of Americans, but the measure was defeated.

Unfortunately, Democrats have lately been calling for closing the so-called ‘Terrorist Loophole’ by adding anyone on the terror watch-list to the roles of prohibited persons. This is at the same time when it has become fashionable for anti-gun leftists, who are calling the NRA a terrorist organization and its members terrorists. I don’t think any of the terrorists in San Bernardino were NRA members, nor has Wayne La Pierre called for murdering anyone. Can you imagine giving these mentally unbalanced individuals the power to put average American gun owners on a terror watch-list?

It could very well happen. TSA agents, innocent grandparents, people with a name similar to actual terrorists have wound up on the list, without due process, lost their right to fly, and had to endure a Kafkaesque process to get their name off the list. If people can wind up on the list by accident, for stupid reasons, or even protect airplanes from terrorists, and yet be on a list of suspected terrorists, do we really want to trust that kind of source?

No one wants terrorists to buy a gun, but the whole ‘terrorist loophole’ bullshit it just that. First, innocent until proven guilty. No one should have a right taken away until they’ve had their day in court, first. Second, the FBI or other law enforcement should be paying attention to anyone on the list if they buy a gun. Third, true terrorists, like in San Bernardino, will find another way to get guns, such as smuggling them as was done in the Paris attacks.

Never mind the fact that Wednesday’s terrorists bought their weapons legally in a state that has universal background checks and some of the strictest gun control laws in America. Those gun control laws deterred the terrorists as much as the laws against murder did.

Last, going back to the idiots who consider the NRA to be terrorists for using their right to free speech and democratic political action, just who constitutes a ‘terrorist’ is up for grab. Imagine the Obama administration finding a way to declare all gun owners who support the Second Amendment unfettered terrorists. “Those who believe they have the right to own guns to overthrow a government they disagree are a clear and present threat to the government of the United States.” Imagine your ‘Molon Labe’ or ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ bumper stickers being used to justify your support for a 'terrorist' civilian militia movement. Just take a look at the demonization of gun owners; it’s plausible and very frightening.

-G. C.

Evil Can Strike Anytime, Anywhere

“No one needs a gun at a library.” Well, until yesterday (Dec. 2), no one in San Bernardino thought that they would need a gun at the Health Department Christmas party. Evil can strike anytime, anywhere, for any cause. We can’t delve into the California issues here, but we can discuss ‘gun-free zones’ in Nevada and potential similar circumstances.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District have insisted that the library is a special place that should be allowed to prohibit firearms. Their legal justification is dubious and their logic that ideas need protected from intimidation holds no water. A library holds no special, intrinsic value that serves as a deterrent to violence. Churches, the most sacred of spaces, don’t even have that benefit.

The vast majority of government facilities where large numbers of people, especially the general public, congregate do not have armed security. Armed security is also generally inadequate and the guards are not intended to lay down their lives to end or spoil a terrorist attack. The armed private security guards have guns for their protection, not for the public’s benefit. The intention is that a guards can defend themselves, if someone they’ve confronted becomes a threat to life. A $15/hr employee is not going to be expected to try and intervene in a terrorist attack.

Citizens do not deserve to be unarmed sitting ducks. State law and both the Nevada and federal constitutions guarantee the right to armed self-protection. This is not to say that the attack yesterday could have been thwarted by a citizen carrier. Perhaps knowing several armed people would be present may have dissuaded the attackers or saved a life or two.

The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Excepts from Allied Barton's armed security policy from a Open Records Act request.

San Bernardino Shooting: The One Thing We Do Know UPDATED

I refuse to accept this as normal. We must take action to stop gun violence now. -H https://t.co/SkKglwQycb

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) December 2, 2015

As I write, we don’t know much about the horrific shootings at the center for developmentally disabled adults in San Bernardino, CA. We don’t know how many shooters there were, what the motivation for the attack was, or how bad the casualties are. What we do know is what the reaction from President Obama and his liberal cadre will be.

President Obama will say, as he as often repeated, that “this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.” Just taking the last 5 years from so-called “advanced countries”; predominately white, European countries with strict gun control laws (so no one can question the definition), evidence shows Obama to be a liar. 

• England, June 2, 2010. A gunman killed 12 and injured 11 more during a rampage in Cumbria (NW England).
• Germany, September 20, 2010. A woman killed 4 and wounded 18 by shooting and stabbing.
• Norway, July 22, 2011 Anders Behring Breivik murdered 69 people, mostly teenagers at a youth camp, and killed 8 more in a diversionary bombing.
• Moscow, November 7, 2012 Six people were killed by a gunman in warehouse.
• Paris, January, 7, 2015 Muslim terrorists killed 12 because magazine Charlie Hebo mocked Mohammed.
• Sweden, March 19, 2015 15 were wounded and 2 killed when two unidentified gunmen entered a pub in Gothenburg.
• Paris, November 13, 2015 ISIS terrorists killed 130 in multiple shootings and bombings. 

Going further back, we can see this has been happening internationally for a while. The Port Arthur massacre of April 1996 in Australia lead to draconian gun control laws, including mass confiscation, which President Obama and Democratic nominee hopeful Hillary Clinton would like to emulate. This didn’t prevent the Monash University Shooting years later.

In the UK, in 1987 Hungerford Massacre pre-dated many of the notorious American mass shootings.  The Dunblane school massacre of the 1990s claimed 18 lives and led to increased British gun control laws, which did not prevent the later shootings in Cumbria.

Guns are not the problem, as a litany of mass stabbings in China show. A 2014 attack in Kunming with knives left 33 dead and 143 injured.

The media is already recounting the mass shootings in recent history and reporters regurgitating the president’s opinion on how we need more gun laws. “Common sense” gun laws, which aren’t. “Close the terrorist loophole,” despite ordinary people ending up on the terror watch list by accident (which also includes TSA employees). As Rahm Emmanuel, the president’s former

advisor said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

On gun control, California has enough laws. ‘Assault weapons’ are banned (but easily and legally circumvented), the legal carry of firearms nigh impossible, and magazine capacity is limited to ten rounds. Gun control doesn’t stop mass shootings, but politicians are too stupid to understand this. In fact, they make it more difficult. California governor Jerry Brown recently signed a bill to prohibit concealed weapon permit holders from carrying firearms on school/university campuses.

Politics aside, what is the real story? Why are there many reports of multiple shooters, getaway vehicles, and reports of the shooter(s) being well-armed and dressed in combat gear? Update: Is this a deranged individual, a disgruntled and sick employee, or something far worse, like ISIS? Many media sources are now reporting that the shooter has a Middle Eastern name that one would expect if this were Islamic terror.

If this is confirmed to be any sort of terrorism, especially Islamic terrorism that the president can't bush off as 'workplace violence' like at Fort Hood, I'm sure there will be calls to close the 'terrorist loophole.' Obama and the leftists, and some of the freedom hating Republicans, would love to make anyone who's name shows up on the inaccurate terror watch list a prohibited person, due process be damned. Forget the fact that TSA employees are on the list and that names get added on by mistake. What if your name gets added on because you own guns and oppose government tyranny? What if the NRA names on the member list is one day declared to be terrorist suspects?

Only time will tell, but this is not a time for a conversation on more gun control. We have too much.

-G. C.