Henderson Mayor Proclaims Nat'l Anti-Gun Day

Credit: Craig Taffeta/Freelance

 Local news will feature tonight and tomorrow small crowds of mostly dour-faced older women in orange t-shirts. Everytown has for its third year now to co-opt the hunter’s safety color orange as a symbol for its annual gun control holiday. My sources reported that the event at Sunset Park, attended by a small open carry counter rally, had the atmosphere of a funeral.

Two proclamations from Nevada politicians were presented, one from Congresswoman Dina Titus, and another by Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen, made under the authority of the city, not individually. His support of this day is essentially an insult to the Second Amendment. One wonders if he would sign a proclamation for “National Hate Speech Awareness Day.”

The proclamation is terrible and one has to wonder if its wording is a clever joke on gun control supporters. With a little curiosity, some research, and critical thinking the “arguments” in the proclamation can be easily debunked and show the ignorance of anti-gunners in framing their side of the debate. The information would only satisfy uncritical minds. It would have been just as effective to express support for the civilian disarmament holiday and filling the rest of the proclamation with “lorum ipsum” or similar non-sense.

Let’s take a look.

Credit: Craig Taffeta/Freelance

First, the violence statistics intended to portray America as an incredibly violent place. To arrive at these statistics, suicide must be included as violence. 93 Americans killed by “gun violence” equals 33,945 deaths annually; this is roughly the total number of deaths by firearms, including suicide. Only about 30 people a day, 10,945 annually, are murdered in the US; a third of the manipulated figure.

Next, "developed countries" allows the anti-gunners to remove the countries with the most homicides and criminal assault with guns to suit their narrative simply because the countries are poor ones. Here's what Gun Facts says about the use of this "statistic": "60% of American 'gun deaths' are suicides and the U.S. has a suicide rate 11% higher than international averages. This accounts for most of the difference." Once again, the key is adding suicides to inflate the stats.

Hafen then goes on to declare: "mayors and law enforcement officers know  their communities best, are the most familiar with local criminal activity and how to address it, and are best positioned to understand how to keep their citizens safe in line."

In other words, only politicians and police know what’s good for their subjects. Hafen is pretty obviously one of those cops who feels that only his badged buddies are the only people worthy and capable of possessing guns. The arrogance in this statement is incredible and unforgivable.

Hadiya Pendleton’s death tells the uncomfortable truth about American gun violence: in 2013, 90% of black murder victims were murdered by other blacks; about 77% of those were murdered by gun. Hadiya was an innocent bystander killed in what was presumably gang violence. Sadly, it’s considered “racist” to say that black America has a gang and violence problem. Without naming the problem, how can we properly address it?

The 15 year old black girl from Chicago (need I say more?), was murdered by two men, one who had been arrested three times and was on probation for a weapons violation. Probation officials even failed to inform court officials that the man had been re-arrested and violated probation. Both of the killers were black and were trying to kill another man, as NBC reported. “The shooter and confessed to police that Hadiya was not the intended target, police said. The shooting was allegedly meant to be a retaliation for Williams, who was shot last year.” Seems the problem is gang violence and a broken criminal justice, not guns.

The anti-gun crowd and liberal politicians cannot speak the truth that “gun violence” is largely inflated in the US by black-on-black violence. Instead of looking at a history of broken policies that destroyed the integrity of black families and lead to increase in homicide seen dramatically from the ‘60s to the ‘90s, they look at guns. Mental health issues in the crazy white guys that go on shooting sprees are ignored too. Going after guns is “easier” because Democratic power bases aren’t offended by it as they would if the real roots of murder were targeted.

National Gun Violence Awareness day isn’t about anything other than political theater; it’s an excuse to get photos of small groups of the hardcore of gun control supporters in the local news. The speeches at these rallies are all the same pabulum of generic statements about gun control, pity parties of victimhood, and mumblings of support by public leaders who can’t be bothered to actually show up. No one every looks happy or enthusiastic at these things. They feel like a mandated loyalty meeting to re-affirm one’s support to the cult.

My suggestion is that next year, no one should show up and counter protest these sad, deluded folks. Let them look like the pathetic fools that they are, alone in a park, celebrating their willingness to be easy victims.

A Message From Everytown About Early Voting

Don Turner, of NVFAC, shared a nice gem that Everytown, the supporters of the anti-gun Ballot Question 1, have been sharing with their ilk. The original is on Facebook, we're not going to paste it here, besides, you really should look at our page over there. Anyhow, we though you might appreciate the other message from Everytown. We suspect this version didn't get published earlier because it was written too honestly.  

“Early voting is happening in Nevada right now, which means our fight to make Nevada the next state to ban private gun sales and lock people up for lending guns to friends is already underway.

“It’s a fight we can’t afford to lose--and so we’re pouring millions of dollars into ads spreading lies about this incompetent initiative. And to make matters worse, gun control extremists have been videotaping gun rights supporters videotaping our volunteers breaking electioneering laws and intimidating voters.

“Defeating the NRA in Nevada is absolutely crucial to our success in spreading the forerunner to gun registration. It would deal a relatively minor blow (because let’s face it, the law is unenforceable unless you’re a total moron), and do nothing to stop their Second Amendment.

“This is one of two astroturf gun control fights of this election. If we win, Arizona,Florida, New Mexico, Virginia; you’re all next! It’ll prove we’ve got billionaires funding us and the deluded, dishonest, stupid, and crazy supporting us and eventually, we’ll ban all guns everywhere! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA.”

The "voter intimidation" they mentioned? That was a group of truly grassroots individuals, on their own initiative, standing outside the 100ft line, supporting gun rights. Apparently, prospective voters were so enthusiastic about voting no on question one, that after a while, the orange shirts had to walk away so they wouldn't hear it. So thank you Nevada for demoralizing the liars into making this (well, the real) desperate message. They're scared. Let's close the gap and VOTE NO ON ONE! Tell your friends!

Oh, by the way Everytown, we'll see you this weekend and everyday until polls close on Election Day. You might want to warn your volunteers to behave themselves and respect the electioneering laws. If we see them break the law, we'll film it and then we'll publish the footage. Heck, we might just even make a private person's arrest.

Gun Control Counter-Protest in Henderson

Supporters of gun-rights gathered to counter-protest a gun control rally (under the guise of 'gun violence') at Henderson's Cornerstone Park on Thursday, June 2. It was organized by Michael Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety/Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. The gun control groups self-proclaimed June 2 as "National Gun Violence Awareness Day" and perverted the hunting safety color orange for their purposes. The cabal that organized this stunt is the same that brought you Ballot Question 1, aka universal background checks, which will ban private gun sales.

On a days notice, about two dozen unpaid gun rights supporters arrived. Unarmed security guards were present to 'protect' the anti-gun rally. Pro-gun supporters were quiet and respectful, mostly staying in their own area.

Unfortunately, lesser numbers of gun rights supporters were present, although in contrast to the last such event, local media did extensively interview members of the Nevada Firearms Coalition and other supporters. The particulars became public in Wednesday's edition of the Review-Journal. It seems that the information was kept confidential (Everytown's website at last check requested one RSVP for details) likely to prevent a counter-protest from being organized effectively. After being outnumbered by pro-gun supporters last December the paid organizers who setup these 'grassroots' rallies don't want to embarrassed like that again.

Having seen some of the families that lost loved ones to murder and suicide, it's horrific to see a brazenly anti-gun organization co-opt these grieving families for their own sick, twisted disarmament purposes. Some supporters say that the guns aren't the problem, but people are, all while failing to acknowledge those killed by 'regular' violence. One wonders who advocates for those killed by knife, fist, blunt object, and vehicle violence and if they will have such a remembrance day.

One must question the purity of motives of an organization founded and funded by a billionaire and other billionaires which primarily works to enact gun control laws. The Bloomberg groups are a hydra-headed monster which includes the disingenuous gun reporting service The Trace, had frequently fabricated reports and massaged data, and consistently misrepresents its purposes. Interestingly, the associated group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has largely fallen by the wayside after lots of high-profile arrests of mayor for various crimes, including gun crimes.

A terrific under appreciated gun safety organization, one which avoid politics altogether, is Evolve Gun Safety. Their marketing of the gun safety message is unparalleled and speaks in blunt terms of the destructive and devastating consequences of improper firearm use and storage.

Fox 5's reporter Mike Doria demonstrated on Twitter once again that local media (and the mainstream media in general) is biased in favor of gun control and has little objectivity. By wearing the color orange and making such a statement, he has aligned himself with a side in the debate. Doria has clearly deluded himself into thinking that the Bloomberg groups' aim is not gun control and ultimately gun confiscation with their perverted holiday. As Somme Guy (that's really his Twitter name) shows, Doria demonstrated an absolute lack of knowledge about the Bloomberg groups. If he asserts that they support the Second Amendment, he is a either a liar, a fool, or incredibly naive. 

Doria states that the Bloomberg groups support the Second Amendment, when any such statements are a bald faced lie evidenced by their repeated and determined actions to undermine the right to keep and bear arms without infringement.

Doria opined that Mr. Guy and those like him complain that local media manipulates gun stories. Articles covered on that blog have shown several examples of selective editing and other deceptive tactics. Here is the Fox 5 evening news piece. Watch it and judge any bias or manipulation for yourself.

We here at Nevada Carry don't hide our bias. Even so, we do believe in honest reporting and objective analysis of the facts. For too long, local media has relished in reporting gang murders, drive by shootings, and horrific acts of violence for viewers and ratings helping drive violence by encouraging sick killers who want to see their acts on TV. Katie Couric's latest lie being exposed shows that at all levels of the media, dishonest reporting on guns is the norm. Supporting a farcical 'gun violence' day and failing to admit that the groups behind it have an agenda is wrong and abusive of viewers who don't know any better. However, as a few examples covered on this blog have already show, local Las Vegas media cannot be trusted to consistently report the truth about guns.

As Saint Paul said, we have renounced secret and shameful ways by setting forth the truth plainly (paraphrased and in a different context, obviously). 

Fake 'Study' by Everytown on Online Gun Ads

Everytown for Gun Safety, a former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg sponsored gun control group, issued a 'study' trying to smear Nevada’s online gun sale advertisements as a funnel for arms to criminals. Since they are heavily invested in the universal background check initiative to ban private gun sales, this kind of hyperbolic, weasel-worded, and tortured statistics ‘study’ is what we can expect of them. In fact, a similar study in Vermont, aimed at the same ends as in Nevada, was also discredited.

Nevada’s report is riddled with problems that would give a statistics professor’s red pen a field day.

Starting with dealer sales, over two years (2012-2014), there were 5,000 blocked gun sales, out of 400,000 background checks run by dealers. First, that means that 395,000 gun sales were approved. That’s a denial rate of 1.3%. Second, they used three years’ data to conflate the problem, meaning that, on average, 1,666 gun sales were denied per year out of 133,333 total sales per year. Did you also know that the largest category of denial reasons, fugitive from justice, can include those with simple traffic or bench warrants they may be unaware of?

The report then jumped into the false premise that “you can buy a gun online.” Incorrect. One can only advertise a gun for sale and arrange a face-to-face meeting or have the gun shipped to a dealer. There is no Amazon.com for guns. Everytown even admits that most sellers are ones

“who only offer guns occasionally or from their personal collections.” Sorta like people selling cars online, which also get sold to people who shouldn’t be driving and have or will kill people with cars.

They conveniently left out the fact that most guns tied to a prohibited person or a crime come from corrupt dealers or through straw purchases, not online advertisements.

Now here’s where we get into the really bad exaggerations. Of course, this doesn’t matter to Everytown. They are aiming at the low-information voters who won’t think about what they’ve read and their avid statist Kool-Aid drinking crowd.

Everytown found 1 in 11, 8.7%  shopping—not buying— were prohibited persons. Again, shoppers, not actual buyers. 8.7% of the people Everytown investigated did not actually buy firearms. Everytown supposes a rate of guns being supplied to prohibited persons—not guns that actually do wind up in the wrong hands, but supposedly could. So there goes that statistic out the window on to the pile of BS.

Look at how they then get confused about what they just said: 

“The share of prohibited online gun buyers [Didn’t they just say shoppers?]  is almost seven times higher than the share of Nevadans who try to buy guns at licensed dealers and fail background checks…” 

Criminals will get guns regardless of universal background checks or not. Everytown even admitted as much. “people who shot and killed law enforcement officers in Nevada between January 1980 and October 2015 showed that more than half were likely [emphasis added] prohibited from possessing guns. ” They couldn’t even get that right bit right. Notice how they qualify that the cop killers were only likely, no actually, prohibited persons?

Next, their sample size is laughably small. 

“Of the identified individuals seeking guns in unlicensed online sales in Nevada, 8.7 percent (20 of 229) [emphasis added] had been convicted of crimes that prohibited them from possessing firearms.” 

How can you gather any meaningful data from 229 people? That’s .00078% of Nevada’s population. And they admit these were only the people they could get (we're assuming) complete Facebook profiles on. On a side note, Facebook's new policy would have made this study impossible for Everytown. 

The ‘report’ goes on to list the most sensational stories about the prohibited persons they found, which serious statistical research does not do. This is agit-prop for the ill-informed and the choir members who want preached to. Did Everytown’s investigators report their findings about these criminals and what they were doing to law enforcement? Probably not.

Next, they bring up Colorado, which banned private gun sales just like the initiative in Nevada is proposing to do. In 30 months, 700 out of 40,000 private sales were denied in Colorado, giving a percentage of 1.75%, which is slightly more  than Nevada’s dealer sale background check denials. So tell me again, how would this law deter criminals from trying to buy guns if they’re dumb enough to go in for a background check anyhow?

Facebook may have caved in to pressure from the Bloomberg groups and the White House, but private gun sale advertisements will flourish elsewhere, where they are welcome. In fact, Facebook probably made it a lot more difficult for average citizens to do their homework on to whom they might be selling a gun too. But it’s not about safety or rights, it’s entirely about gun control.

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

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.