How to Tell the ATF to Step Off Bump-Fire Regulation

Well, despite admitting that the ATF didn’t have the ability under the standard use and meaning of the English language and the use of a former mental tool known as “logic,” which disappeared from existence recently, they want to classify bump-fire stocks as machine guns. They want comments, and some answers. So give them answers, but also politely tell them “shall not be infringed.”

Skip below if you want to write a letter. I’ve included my thoughts on suggested responses to made the ATF attempt to ban these item harder without providing the hoplopaths any ammo. Please take the time to send a letter.

Here’s the original determination letter. An extremely butthurt “batfucker” (old term for the much derided BATF, which added “E” for “Explosives” once that word got out there) wrote a letter to Congress bitching (or defending, you decide) that the ATF simply didn’t have the ability to make bump-fire stocks into “machine guns.”

As much as we are disgusted by the man’s bootlicking attitude towards firearms restriction and the cries to regulate inanimate objects, we give the man and his colleagues a point for steadfastly admitting the law means what it says. “Machine gun” is defined as one shot per pull of the trigger; bump-fire stocks are a stock-and-pistol-grip that slides freely, as if in a track. The shooter must pull the gun forward with their non-dominant hand while holding the pistol grip, pulling the trigger, and tucking the stock into the shoulder normally with their dominant hand. This allows the trigger to push itself against the finger that is held stationar.

Bump-fire probably actually saved lives, versus an actual belt-fed machine gun, in Vegas. Imagine continuous strings of 100-250 rounds, with a quick barrel and magazine change. If Paddock had been planning his attack since around the November 2016, he would have had time to legally purchase any machine gun he wanted. He had the money and the clean record.

And if he had, so what? Criminals are always going to be criminals. These kind of crimes are relatively rare and NFA-item crimes even more so. Frankly, I’m more worried about an out-of-control government, be it federal, state, or local, or a rampaging racist mob, trying to kill me than I am about some absolutely batshit rich guy going nuts. At least the Clark County Commission acted ahead on the threat of Muslims with Trucks® and is installing bollards on the Strip.

So what if this was designed to get around NFA restrictions? Machine guns should be legal and unregulated. In about a decade, the National Firearms Act and most other function/designed based gun control regulations will be impossible to enforce when anyone can print up a machine gun at home. They can’t prosecute everyone. Just imagine if the government tried to regulate free speech because the Internet is destroying the long-standing political and mainstream media monopoly on ideas.

Manufacturers

“6. For what use or uses have you marketed bump stock devices?”

Bump-fire stocks are designed and intended to increase the rate the firer’s finger to pull the trigger in order to increase the cyclic rate. This weapon is intended for recreation and weapons controllability training. Bump-fire stocks rely on the coordination and dexterity of the firer to operate properly, thus building general shooting skills and those applicable to military or militia service.

“9. What costs do you expect to be associated with the disposition of existing bump stock device inventory?”

Our costs are expected to be our entire unsold inventory of _____, a cost of _______. Also, our equipment, facilities, and other logistic, production, and business costs and investments would amount to a loss of __________. We expect the United States Treasury to fully compensate us for our losses.

“10. If ATF classified bump stock devices as “machineguns” under the Gun Control Act of 1968, as amended, and the National Firearms Act of 1934, as amended, do you believe that there would be a viable (profitable) law-enforcement and/or military market for these devices? If so, please describe that market and your reasons for believing such a viable market exists.”

No such market would exist precisely because the price point between an actual machine gun versus a semi-automatic rifle and bump-fire stock would favor the machine gun, without the drawbacks inherent to bump-fire systems. Law-enforcement and the military is not restricted to an arbitrarily limited pool of firearms nor a Draconian purchase approval (registration) process. Additionally, we dispute that bump-fire stocks need to have a law-enforcement or military market in order to be available to the general public without infringement.

Bump-fire systems have application for military training of the public, i.e. the unorganized militia, as machine guns are generally unobtainable for most of the general public. While we do not conceive that any rational person could believe that the definition of “machine gun” covers bump-fire stocks, as the ATF has previously admitted, such devices allow high cyclic rates. This can be used by the unorganized militia as weapons controllability training should they be called into military service or needed to secure a free state.

Retailers

“15. For what use or uses have you marketed bump stock devices?”

Our costs are expected to be our entire unsold inventory of _____, a cost of _______. We expect the United States Treasury to fully compensate us for our losses.

“19. What costs do you expect to be associated with the disposition of existing bump stock device inventory?”

See 9. above.

Consumers

“23. For what purposes are the bump stock devices used or advertised?”

Choose your answer carefully. Do not answer anything along the lines of “because I can’t get a machine gun.” Those who would ban bump-fire stocks want to point to comments that indicate the stocks are used in place of machine guns, which they have made unobtanium for most of us. Comments that state bump-fire “is essentially a machine gun” is music to hoplopaths’ ears.  High rates of fire can be described as “simulated high cyclic rates” rather than “simulated machine gun fire” or “simulated automatic fire.”

A nice little (and polite) statement along the lines of “don’t cave into political security theater, you admitted yourself you don’t have the authority to regulate these as machine guns, the NFA is unconstitutional, and quoting the Second Amendment,” would be appropriate. Let them know we aren’t going to take this sitting down.

The ATF wants an address and your name. The records will be made public, although few will see them. Nothing is wrong with using your initials, a pseudonym (like G. C. Gates, not Shallnot B. Infringed), and giving your address as the nearest post office, general delivery. Such as:

John M. Browning

General Delivery

Ogden, Utah

84401

Your letter must be signed and reference: Docket 2017R-22

Fax your letter to: (202) 648-9741

Attn: Docket 2017R-22

The full notice is here, with instructions to use the online submission portal.

Flush the NRA Over Bump Fire

NOTE: They care called "bump fire stocks," not bump stocks.

Remember after Sandy Hook and the media waited on baited breath for the NRA’s big announcement, which turned out to be them recommending armed teachers in schools? The media was hoping that the NRA in 2012 was going to announce support for draconian gun control. It took almost five years, but the NRA finally turned tail and ran.

Many are defending the NRA, calling it a “tactical retreat” to avoid getting crucified by the mainstream media. Given that the stocks are just range toys and have no real practical purpose (unless you are psychopath), in the highly emotional charged atmosphere there is little to defend about them.

The other alternative is that offering up bump fire on a platter is a way to avoid something worse, like an “assault weapons” ban or magazine ban (or even worse), betting the ATF makes an administrative ruling that gives political cover to everyone and frustrate the Democrats. No doubt in the following American Rifleman they will call a reclassification a “victory.” An “eat Peter to save Paul” strategy won’t work when the wolves have an insatiable hunger. Look at California; just when it looks like they’ve taken it all, there is more for them to ban. If you give a mouse a cookie…

Or what if they are doing this as a bargain to get national reciprocity and suppressors/silencer deregulation passed? Again, the idea of bargaining with the Devil is a terrible idea when all you have to trade is the moral high ground and something they are taking away anyhow. You can have bump fire after I can carry in California and buy a can over the counter. All such belief in “strategy” is mere hope, and hope is not a plan.

When Samuel Johnson (the Oxford English Dictionary guy) learned he was dying, he supposedly said: “I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.” He would eventually die, but he would not simply give up right then and there. We were going to lose this once the media and the left latched on to it, seeing as how we’ve filled Washington with Republicants. If we would lose anyway and be demonized as usual, why what does the NRA gain by yielding the moral high ground?

Gun owners are willing to give up on bump fire stocks in order to save whatever else anti’s might be after and/or get this supposed bargain in return. They are sadly mistaken that this strategy is a good one and display a level of misunderstanding about the left that will one day doom them.

Kurt Schilchter wrote: 

"We only lose our rights if we allow ourselves to be shamed, threatened, whined, and lectured into giving them up by skeevy tragedy-buzzard pols, mainstream media meat puppets, and late night chucklemonkeys whose names and faces all blend together into one unfunny, preachy blur." In the darkest of times, we must stand on principle even if the whole world calls us fools. Australian gun confiscation came about because gun owners acquiesced to sacrifice one thing to save another, only to ultimately lose both. 

If we should take away a "unnecessary" item like bump fire stocks, then to save lives we need to take away unnecessary items like alcohol and cars that can go faster than the speed limit. I don't feel guilty for having or enjoying bump fire because I'm not a murderer.

Almost immediately, the shit hit the fan and the NRA took much heat from their members, so they went on Fox News to explain themselves. 

“We didn’t talk about banning anything. We talked about ATF going back and reviewing whether or not these are in compliance with federal law," Chris Cox said to Tucker Carlson. Not so. Whatever the words, whatever the secret strategy, the NRA has thrown bump fire stocks to the wolves. They have surrendered and signaled their critical weakness to the left; the NRA care more about appearances and feelings that rights. 

This announcement was a disavowal of bump fire and tacit approval for whatever the US government wants to do. Wayne LaPierre told Sean Hannity as much. "What the NRA has said is we ought to take a look at that, see if it’s in compliance with federal law and if it’s worthy of additional regulation." One wonders what Wayne would have done if the multimillionaire took the time to legally buy a machine gun. The Oregon Firearms Federation said on Facebook: 

"While LaPierre will be all over the place on this, ultimately what he has called for is for them to be treated like machine guns or be banned, and no amount of doublespeak is going to change that. Keep in mind, the reason full auto firearms are so expensive is because of a deal NRA made in 1986 to ban their sale to civilians if they were manufactured after that year. So now, in addition to having to deal with all the Federal red tape and costs, you also have to be very wealthy to own one." 

Bump fire stocks were reviewed and approved by the ATF; they are in compliance with federal law. Hell, even Dianne Feinstein thinks so (which is why she wants them made illegal). "The term 'machinegun' means any weapon which shoots ... automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger." 26 U.S. Code § 5845(b) Each time the bump fire stock recoils, the finger contacts and pulls back the trigger. Of course, the ATF has jumped through bigger hoops before and will probably do so this time.

The NRA compromised in 1934 when the National Firearms Act originally sought to ban register and tax pistols along with machine guns, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and other funs. This was entirely an anti-crime bill masquerading as a tax bill, intending to curb the Depression and Prohibition Era crime of gangsters. Concealed weapons (and handguns in general) had also been demonized for decades at this point because of profligate use in the South and Old West.

Back then, NRA President Karl T. Frederick stated he did not approve of carrying guns for self-defense (a viewpoint that was shockingly prevalent in America). 

“I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons. I seldom carry one. I have when I felt it was desirable to do so for my own protection. I know that applies in most of the instances where guns are used effectively in self-defense or in places of business and in the home. I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns. I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses.” 

On May 16, 1934 the NRA agreed to withdraw its objections if pistols and revolvers were removed from the National Firearms Act. This appears to be the work of dedicated pistol marksmanship competitors lobbying both Congress and the NRA. Despite a lack of popular support among the American public, there was enough hatred of handguns by those in power to have enacted such a ban.

The NRA also refused to stand firm in 1986, allowing the Hughes Amendment to ban post-’68 machine guns, thus driving up the price via limited demand of registered guns. In 1994, they did nothing to stop the Assault Weapons Ban. Republicans and conservative organizations need to grow balls and not give in to the left because emotion is involved. Tragedies are exploited by the left precisely because conservatives give in almost each and every time. "Shall not be infringed" does not mean give up a range toy because it makes weak-willed politicians and lobbyists look bad. Today it's bump fire, tomorrow it is semi-automatic rifles.

Many say, “But who else is fighting for your rights?” If it cannot lobby a full Republican government to de-regulate suppressors and concealed carry reciprocity, but infringes on the Second Amendment because of feelings, we don't need them in Washington or the statehouse. We have a friggin’ Republican-controlled Congress and Republican President; why wasn’t this stuff rushed through right away? Why wasn’t the NRA raising holy hell with the Republicans? If what I’ve seen from the NRA this year is fighting for my rights, they aren’t worth it to me.

Other organizations can provide lobbyists. Heck, lobbyists aren’t even really needed in an age when mass communications make it easy for citizens to reach their representatives or heckle them. At the local level, only when Question 1 came up did the NRA make a significant investment. Nevadans on an individual basis have done more to stop bad legislation and pass good state bills than the NRA has. The NRA freak out when they realized that Nevada Carry is more influential in this state than they are.

The NRA no longer deserves your money. Support the NVFAC instead and get involved on your own; don’t expect some dude in a suit to do all your fighting for you. No compromise. The Left doesn't.  They will push and push until they disarm us and then they can do what they want to us. The hour we need the Second Amendment for its indented purpose is drawing ever closer. If you cannot expect the NRA to stand-up against a pointless ban, how can we expect them to stand for us when we must fight the civil war on the horizon?

When the Unthinkable Became Real

On my computer there sits a half-finished article wondering why we haven’t quite seen criminals and terrorists who rise to the level of Hollywood’s nastiest villains. I wondered why 9/11, the North Hollywood Bank shootout, the DC snipers, etc. were not commonplace. I mean, if a sane writer can think up this stuff for a plot, what about the crazy and depraved criminals out there? Why don’t they craft evil that our most terrifying fictional nightmares would envy?

Before Sunday night, the idea of a crazed sniper mowing down concert-goers from a makeshift machine gun nest would only be plausible in the pages of a comic book. Somehow, a caped crusader would save the day and all would be well. Not so. While many marvel at the numbers or rage over gun control, I am shaken by the utter fiendishness of this attack. Murder requires an abandoned and malignant heart. I’m not sure what evil is required to do so in the manner and amount we saw on the Strip, but it is heretofore unimaginably bad.

To put this in perspective, here in America such well thought out gun attacks have been the province of fiction, not reality. Even 9/11’s planes-into-buildings seemed like a dramatic ending when Tom Clancy forecasted something similar in one of his novels before it happened. At sundown on Sunday, hundreds of casualties shot from the sky didn’t seem plausible except in books or on the silver screen.

Author and former Navy SEAL Matt Bracken wrote in his novel Enemies Foreign and Domestic of a similar attack at a sports stadium with a sniper “lobbing” rounds into the crowd creating just as many awful casualties. In his book, at the time, it was unthinkable that any one individual would do something like this, so he had to blame it on a conspiracy by an out-of-control government, thus spurring on the plot.

Everyone looks for an explanation because it is hard to imagine that without sufficient cause, men just do things like this. Conspiracy theories are popular to explain events of this consequence because it is utterly terrifying to believe that it can happen anywhere, anytime, for essentially no reason. That is a fact of life that is too uncomfortable for many to face, thus the government or the Illuminati must have done it. Evil doesn’t need a conspiracy, it merely takes advantage of what is already at its disposal.

Reality is often stranger than fiction, but we are still surprised when horror leaps off the page. Author Morgan Robertson predicted both the Japanese lead Pacific war, lasers, and in his 1898 novella, The Wreck of the Titan, a superliner just like the Titanic sinking under similar circumstances. Just like 9/11 was an event that was beyond imagination, an attack like this could only be conceivable in fiction. At least until it happened.

Take The Dark Knight for example. The Joker dresses up hostages with masks and guns taped to their hands to be shot by the SWAT team. This is the kind of evil thinking we are facing; maximum casualties with minimum interference. Even the comparatively bad shooting in Aurora at the screening of The Dark Knight, relying on darkness and mistaking the shooter for a costumed movie-goer, wasn’t this demonic. Meticulous, but thank God the killer there chose a fairly limited venue that was easy for police to get to.

What happened last night was a worst-case scenario of tremendous proportion. Think of all the really evil bad guys in film, like in Swordfish where the “bad guys” or whatever put explosive belts on the hostages. Stuff like that is rare. It is highly unusual to see this level of intricate planning and dedication to pull it off. Without minimizing the humanity of the losses, events like Orlando were so deadly because of luck, not planning on the part of the shooter. We have been blessed.

Comparing the events of fiction to this event are the only to really contrast just how nefarious the killer was. We see movie villains like Lex Luther, the Joker,  or Bane and think “no one could be that evil.” Yes, they can. It is new experience to see, on our streets, an American who stops and plots out a massacre that would make a screenwriter ill to conceive of. Imagine if every high profile killer took the time to do what this monster did? Imagine if this was a normal occurrence? It would be our collective dread, hurt, and fear magnified many, many times.  

The concert plot was so diabolical, it exceeds the comparatively slap-dash and amateur events in Orlando and San Bernardino. The killer thought big; something that gives terrorism experts nightmares. This was deliberately intended to be very bad and horrific on a magnitude we have rarely seen. The circumvention of possible “failure points” was what took this far beyond what we have seen before. It was all coldly planned by an intelligent mind to maximize destruction and eliminate interference.

Let’s look at what he did to make this so awful:

• The shooter chose an elevated position facing a large crowd where gravity would assist his shooting.
• No one would think shots would come from sealed hotel windows (balconies or the roof more likely).
• Few in the crowd would really know where the shots were coming from.
• Cover from bullets at the concert would be scarce and stampedes likely.
• No one could shoot back (unlike many other shootings where an armed citizen could make a difference).
• On the 32nd floor, there was no risk a patrol office would run across the shooter and interrupt him and it would take a long time for police and SWAT to assemble and assault the building.
• The killer had many weapons and two shooting positions prepared.

This wasn’t an angry kid with a half-baked plan or a terrorist who got lucky the SWAT team didn’t storm the building. This was an event so appalling, that the only planning that could truly save lives was the medical response. Let that sink in. No law could have stopped this. No police response plan could have countered this. No armed citizen could end this early. Only after the shots were fired and SWAT arrived did the killer chose to end his life. He was a real-life supervillian carrying out his maniacal plot.

Just as the attack showed the worst that humans are capable of, the online and political response are showing that many politicians, “journalists”, and celebrities, plus your average Internet user, are insensitive. The trolls are pouring out of the woodwork, blaming Nevada Carry and anything and everything related to our sacred right for Sunday night’s tragedy. Many from the UK have sent emails laying personal blame at our feet or suggestions that show a tragic lack of knowledge about guns, violence, and evil.

One ghoul insisted that our liberal gun laws (intended to maximize where you can protect yourself) were at fault. “Hey, look at Nevada. You can open carry in a bar!” Totally not germane to this incident, tasteless, and frankly, it could have helped in Orlando. When you have no argument, but you have an agenda, you take cheap shots. Open carry is not at issue here. No reasonable measure, legal or otherwise, could have prevented this. All the gun control, mag cap bans, and assault weapon regulations didn’t help in California.

Many people are unable to process how such evil can exist and to console themselves, lash out angrily at any available scapegoat. How do you understand the complex? How can you fathom bottomless evil? These emotional eggshells need to vent the sadness they cannot fathom because they have no other internal mechanism to deal with what they are feeling. Guns and gun rights advocates take the brunt of this pain because we support the right to own dual-use items. Items that can be used by evil men, true, but have also safeguarded individual lives and national freedom.

I understand.

Things like heated political rhetoric in the media, the violent ideology of Islam, mental illness, acid, trucks, or immigration are harder topics to personalize and relate to the cause of terrorism and violence. Unable to understand the nuances, these emotionally fragile individuals go after those who “everyone” says it is okay to blame; gun owners. It’s okay, we can take it. We just feel sorry for them. We all hurt in different ways.

The media should know better, however. Every request for an interview I have gotten was about Nevada gun laws; specifically machine guns and magazine capacity. Wrong track entirely; this was about the evil in a human heart, not machinery. In Europe, since guns are banned, we see truck/van attacks, acid assaults, and knife sprees. But even there, the Paris terrorists who massacred the crowds inside the Bataclan theater obtained illegal weaponry. Where there is a will, there is a way. Talking about limiting the amount of acid that can be purchased to stem acid attacks is dumb.

But it’s not about gun laws or “understanding” them. Many Europeans have written me to tell me that guns are the problem (in not so nearly polite or succinct terms). No, like Muslim terror in Europe which is seeking murder by any method, the problem is human. One outlet asked me to “debate” Nevada gun laws; no thank you. Screaming at each other is not how a Briton understands American gun laws and that nothing could have prevented this. We’re happy to inform, but not to argue or provide scapegoats. The media has not been responsible when it comes to fairly representing gun owners.

Countless examples of the media being insensitive are all over Facebook and Twitter. Politicians immediately jumped on the gun control bandwagon. It’s too early to know for sure, but no amount of gun control could have prevented this. Literally nothing reasonable could have stopped this from happening until the SWAT team forced the killer to end his life. Using this to politicize and market gun control is despicable. Politicians have no shame and few actually care about your safety. We don’t need to talk about this, we know the truth already.

For those who still wonder, particularly inquiring international minds that truly want to know, we’ll answer a few questions/statements.

What if he used a suppressor/silencer, as Hillary Clinton tweeted shamefully? Did anyone ask Hillary how our laws against murder prevented this?  People would still have noticed the massive amount of gun fire pouring down on them and heard the bullets’ impact. Also, suppressors only moderate the sound by about 30db, meaning the shots would still be 100db plus. Where can you run when there is nowhere to run?

Machine guns are legal in the United States and anyone eligible to own a firearm can obtain one, if they have the money. True military assault rifles cost tens of thousands of dollars. All legal machine guns are registered and require a background check (with photo and fingerprints) that currently takes six months to a year to pass before one obtains the gun. A $200 tax is required as well. Any competent machinist can modify a weapon, or build one outright, to be fully automatic. Even pulling a trigger rapidly can result in a 300-400 rounds per minute rate of fire.

“No concealed carrier could have prevented this.” In many other events, had an armed citizen been present, the shooting may have been stopped early. This was certainly the case at the Kentucky church last weekend where an usher ran to his car, grabbed his gun, and held the killer at gunpoint. Consistently, we see armed citizens stopping these events or the killer committing suicide when police arrive. Even Sunday’s monster killed himself when SWAT arrived. Not in this event, but in some, citizen carriers can and have saved lives.

“The gun helped.” Yeah, no s---. We accept the trade-off in America. At least 100,000 Americans every year use guns to stop or prevent a crime. I bet lots of people would be alive in Marseille if France had outlawed and confiscated anything larger than a Mini Cooper. How many people would howl if commercial trucks were banned for safety’s sake?  Unless we want to ban every harmful substance (including alcohol) and bubble-wrap the world, everything is dangerous.

More metal detectors and security theater aren’t the answer. Casinos actively banning or throwing out concealed carriers just makes it more dangerous for people on the Strip, where tourists, workers, and residents are regularly targeted by criminals for more pedestrian crimes. Keeping self-defense pistols out of the hands of ordinary, law-abiding citizens to seem like one is “doing something” will help nothing. This wasn’t a guy with a pistol, this was a man who turned a hotel room into a killing center. Open carry and average folks with guns aren’t the problem. Evil happens and we are often powerless to prevent it.

What does 10 rounds or 30 rounds matter if the death penalty or execution aren’t a deterrent? Machine gun killers are as rare as the guy with armored bulldozer who went on an unstoppable rampage. Men smart enough to plan this kind of atrocity can find ways around restrictions. More gun control won’t do a thing. In Australia, the Port Arthur massacre spurred gun control laws, but the Monash University still happened. In the UK, the Dunblane massacre brought more laws, but in 2010, Cumbria faced a similar situation. Again, what did California’s laws do to mitigate the losses in San Bernardino?

The only sensible precautions are to avoid large events like this and to get medical training. First-aid skills and equipment specifically to treat traumatic injuries like gunshots is vitally important in events like this. We will no doubt hear stories of off-duty EMTs, nurses, doctors, etc. treating victims with whatever was at hand like belt tourniquets. Carrying an Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) everywhere on your body isn’t paranoia after this.

Las Vegas has faced mass horror like this before. When the original MGM burned, we survived as a city, an industry, and a people. There is not much that can be done about a psychotic sniper, but perhaps, as humans and as a nation, we can learn something about evil and how to respond and react during a tragedy like this.

What can you do? Give blood and continue to give blood. I donate regularly, do you?

Get first-aid and advanced medical/EMT training. Don’t just learn to shoot.

Love your family, friends, neighbors, and countrymen. We’ve got a heart problem and hate and divisiveness will only make things worse.

Long Awaited Terrorism Comes Home

UPDATED This is not the time to talk about gun control. This was the terrorist attack we have long feared coming to Las Vegas. As the investigation progresses, we will learn more.

This was a diabolical, nightmare attack and not just because of the number of dead. The nature, scale, and plan of attack was unthinkable except in the mind of a monster or thriller writer. Thank God such events of this magnitude are so rare. For sixteen years now, we have been blessed that we have not seen such wholesale killing in our state. No dirty bomb, no suicide bombs, no car bombs, no European style truck attacks. But now it has come home.

Millions of people upon learning that Nevada is an open carry state probably assumed that the killer carried his rifles through the casino floor and up to his room slung over his shoulder. Being America or out west (depending on where the person is), this seems totally normal. Casino and hotel guests probably just shrugged off the guy with twenty-odd rifles in the elevator as normal. Not so. Open carry is not to blame.

The shooter carried the guns up to his suite in several suitcases. Casino security will ask anyone they know is carrying to leave or disarm and store their weapon. Walking through a casino with a rifle on your shoulder, on the Strip, or in any heavily trafficked area in Las Vegas will cause alarm and a police response. No one legitimately carries a rifle in public here, despite what hysteria and anti-gun memes try to say.

In the past two days, many open carriers have said that others remarked to them that the sight of a holstered pistol made them feel safer for being around. Imagine that. Open carriers making unarmed folks feel safe instead of afraid. That is not something that these editorial writers and so-called journalists quoting our website for filler material will report. Not in this case, but in many others, one armed and brave citizen can and has stopped mass shootings. 

Banning this or that gun would not have prevented this. Even carrying for self-defense would not make a difference. Those poor people were sitting ducks. Only the quick work of the SWAT team forced the killer to do the same think most mass murderers do when confronted by cops or armed citizens; kill themselves.

Sunday’s killings were eerily forecasted in Matt Bracken’s novel Enemies Foreign and Domestic where a killer fired into a stadium crowd from a distance (I am not implying some sort of government plot here. The Titanic disaster was foretold in fiction years before). A single depraved mind could indeed have come up with this on his own.

The security theater from hotels on the Strip, checking for CCWs and examining luggage, will not help avert a future crisis and is more likely to alienate casino guests than anything else. At this moment, it is only for the appearance of "doing something." Next time, terrorists will target the lines or other soft targets, just like how the killer chose to bypass concert security and shoot from above and far away.

Expect more anti-gun legislation (magazine bans and assault weapons) coming out of the legislature in a special session or in 2019. Politicians are already calling for banning "bump fire" stocks, even though bump fire can be done by hand. This will be used as an excuse to get more gun control, something the leftist killer probably would have liked. Don't give him what he wanted.

Take as an example the thoughtful folks who came to the Strip in the middle of the night with water for the victims and responders. All Nevadans’ thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families in this tragic time.