Sign Of The Times

My sister-in-law saw this flyer posted just inside the doorway of Crown Candy in St. Louis yesterday. Cindy, who will be a special correspondent for the blog at the upcoming NRA Annual Meeting, knew I'd be interested. She also said she saw her first billboard for the Annual Meeting.

If you have ever watched that quintessentially American show, Man Versus Food, then you may have heard of Crown Candy. In their Five Milkshake Challenge, you have 30 minutes to drink all five milkshakes. On this challenge, Adam failed.

I take it as great sign that you see flyers like this in a place like Crown Candy which usually has a line outside waiting to get in.

Alan Gottlieb Takes On Chris Matthews Over Florida's Stand Your Ground Law

I don't think MSNBC's Chris Matthews felt any tingles up his leg in his exchanges with Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation today. Gottlieb and anti-gun Florida State Sen. Chris Smith (D-Broward/Palm Beach County) were guests today on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. The topic of discussion as one might expect was the State of Florida's Stand Your Ground law.

Gottlieb made a very good point early on when he said "indict the person, not the law". He went to say that it didn't appear to him that the law applied here as, in his opinion, Zimmerman didn't stand his ground. Rather he pursued Trayvon Martin. This is the same point that Sebastian and others have made repeatedly.

Text Of Thune-Vitter National Reciprocity Bill

The full text of S. 2213, the Respecting States' Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2012, as introduced by Senators John Thune (R-SD) and David Vitter (R-LA) is now available. This bill currently has a total of 29 co-sponsors in the Senate. It seems to be more expansive that a similar bill, S. 845,  introduced in the 111th Congress by these two senators. It does take into account Constitutional Carry as practiced in Arizona, Vermont, Alaska, and Wyoming.

A BILL

To allow reciprocity for the carrying of certain concealed firearms.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Respecting States' Rights and Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2012'.

SEC. 2. RECIPROCITY FOR THE CARRYING OF CERTAIN CONCEALED FIREARMS.

(a) In General- Chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after section 926C the following:

`Sec. 926D. Reciprocity for the carrying of certain concealed firearms

`(a) In General- Notwithstanding any provision of the law of any State or political subdivision thereof to the contrary--

`(1) an individual who is not prohibited by Federal law from possessing, transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm, and who is carrying a government-issued photographic identification document and a valid license or permit which is issued pursuant to the law of a State and which permits the individual to carry a concealed firearm, may possess or carry a concealed handgun (other than a machinegun or destructive device) that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce in any State other than the State of residence of the individual that--

`(A) has a statue that allows residents of the State to obtain licenses or permits to carry concealed firearms; or

`(B) does not prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms by residents of the State for lawful purposes; and

`(2) an individual who is not prohibited by Federal law from possessing, transporting, shipping, or receiving a firearm, and who is carrying a government-issued photographic identification document and is entitled and not prohibited from carrying a concealed firearm in the State in which the individual resides otherwise than as described in paragraph (1), may possess or carry a concealed handgun (other than a machinegun or destructive device) that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce in any State other than the State of residence of the individual that--

`(A) has a statute that allows residents of the State to obtain licenses or permits to carry concealed firearms; or

`(B) does not prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms by residents of the State for lawful purposes.

`(b) Conditions and Limitations- The possession or carrying of a concealed handgun in a State under this section shall be subject to the same conditions and limitations, except as to eligibility to possess or carry, imposed by or under Federal or State law or the law of a political subdivision of a State, that apply to the possession or carrying of a concealed handgun by residents of the State or political subdivision who are licensed by the State or political subdivision to do so, or not prohibited by the State from doing so.

`(c) Unrestricted License or Permit- In a State that allows the issuing authority for licenses or permits to carry concealed firearms to impose restrictions on the carrying of firearms by individual holders of such licenses or permits, an individual carrying a concealed handgun under this section shall be permitted to carry a concealed handgun according to the same terms authorized by an unrestricted license of or permit issued to a resident of the State.

`(d) Rule of Construction- Nothing in this section shall be construed to preempt any provision of State law with respect to the issuance of licenses or permits to carry concealed firearms.'.

(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections for chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 926C the following:

`926D. Reciprocity for the carrying of certain concealed firearms.'.

(c) Severability- Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, if any provision of this section, or any amendment made by this section, or the application of such provision or amendment to any person or circumstance is held to be unconstitutional, this section and amendments made by this section and the application of such provision or amendment to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

(d) Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall take effect 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act.

The Stock Market Is Down Today

The headline from the Wall Street Journal at midday is "U.S. Stocks on Track for Third Decline."

U.S. stocks fell after weak economic signals from the euro zone and China raised fresh concerns about slowing global growth.

After rising to multi-year highs in recent days, major benchmarks extended their retreat into a third session on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 65 points, or 0.5%, to 13060 in midday trade.

Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 9.4 points, or 0.7%, to 1393. FedEx FDX -4.29%was among the biggest decliners, after delivering a disappointing earnings outlook and cutting its economic growth forecast. The Nasdaq Composite slid 13 points, or 0.4%, to 3062.

However, you would never know that the stock market was down if you were following firearms manufacturers Ruger and Smith & Wesson.

From Active-Investor.com on Ruger today:

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE:RGR) is up 8% today at $45.68. RGR has traded 428 thousand shares this morning, about double its average volume. RGR shares are up this morning after the company announced it was not taking any new orders at this time due to overwhelming demand. The company added that it will begin taking new orders again sometime in May. The company has a market cap of 873.65 million.

And this on Smith and Wesson Holding Corporation from Active- Investor.com under the headline "Market Down Despite Jobless Claims at Four-Year Low, NASDAQ Stocks to Watch":

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:SWHC) is up 10.85% this morning at $7.65. SWHC is up on heavy volume today with 2 million shares traded so far, well above its daily average of 931 thousand shares. Smith & Wesson shares are rallying alongside its rivals today after Sturm, Ruger & Co. announced it has stopped taking new orders due to overwhelming demand. The company has a market cap of 503.52 million.

Investors seem to be pushing up RGR and SWHC while ignoring CSGV and VPC. Go figure.

More Confirmation Of The Vitality Of The Firearms Industry

Sturm, Ruger announced today that they were suspending the acceptance of new orders because they had already had orders for the first quarter of over 1 million units. If one needed more confirmation that gun sales are strong and that gun ownership is expanding, this is it. While there is no breakdown of the orders, sales of Ruger's pistols for the concealed carry market such as the LCP, LCR, and LC-9 have been strong. As Michael Bane has noted many times, these pistols are very popular with Gun Culture v. 2.0 who want a pistol for personal protection.

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Reports Strong First Quarter Bookings

March 21, 2012

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR), announced today that for the first quarter 2012, the Company has received orders for more than one million units. Therefore, the Company has temporarily suspended the acceptance of new orders.

Chief Executive Officer Michael O. Fifer made the following comments:

The Company's Retailer Programs that were offered from January 1, 2012 through February 29, 2012 were very successful and generated significant orders from retailers to independent wholesale distributors for Ruger firearms.

* Year-to-date, the independent wholesale distributors placed orders with the Company for more than one million Ruger firearms.

*Despite the Company's continuing successful efforts to increase production rates, the incoming order rate exceeds our capacity to rapidly fulfill these orders. Consequently, the Company has temporarily suspended the acceptance of new orders.

*The Company expects to resume the normal acceptance of orders by the end of May 2012.

The Company will announce its results and file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2012 on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, after the close of the stock market.

I know it borders on rudeness to keep poking the gun prohibitionists in the eye with the truth but I hope Josh Horwitz chokes on this press release.


(In the interest of full disclosure, I am a very happy shareholder in Sturm, Ruger and Company)

You'd Think They Would At Least Get One Thing Right

You'd have to be deaf and blind not to know that the Trayvon Martin shooting has gone big time in the media. As such, it is playing everywhere including a site called The Root. I wasn't familiar with The Root so I checked its "About Us" page.

The Root is the leading online source of news and commentary from an African-American perspective. Founded in 2008 under the leadership of Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University, The Root offers a unique take on breaking news, provides solid analysis and presents dynamic multimedia content. The Root raises the profile of black voices in mainstream media and engages anyone interested in black culture around the world. The Root is owned by the Washington Post Company.

Prof. Gates you may remember was part of the Rose Garden Beer Summit involving Gates, President Obama, and the Cambridge policeman who had arrested Gates. Nonetheless, given the The Root is owned by the Washington Post Company you would expect that they would employ a fact checker or two. Alas, it is not to be.

In an op-ed by Steven Gray which combined discussion of the Trayvon Martin affair with a call for a discussion of gun policy in the United States, there was this tidbit. It is referring to S. 2188 - the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2012.

Here's some contrast: On March 13 a trio of Republican senators, led by Alaska's Mark Begich, introduced a measure to allow people to carry concealed weapons across state lines -- even into states like New York and New Jersey, which don't recognize out-of-state permits.

It gives the impression that those evil Republicans are cramming concealed carry down America's throat right after a black teenager was shot by a concealed carry holder. But wait you say, isn't Alaska's Mark Begich the Democrat who beat Republican Ted Stevens? And you would be correct. Moreover, that trio of Republican senators is actually one Republican, Sen.Mike Crapo (R-ID), who is no longer a sponsor of the bill. The real sponsors of the bill are actually Democrats Joe Manchin (D-WV), Max Baucus (D-MT), and Jon Tester (D-MT) along with the aforementioned Mark Begich.

If Steven Gray is going to attack gun rights in the United States and is calling upon President Obama to veto S. 2188 if it ever gets to his desk, as a journalist he has the ethical responsibility to get his facts right. The party affiliation of Begich, Manchin, Baucus, and Tester is a fact and not an opinion. Mr. Gray can have whatever misguided opinions he wants and that is his right. However, he has no right to mislead on the facts.

So Riddle Me This, Josh Horwitz

Josh Horwitz, the head of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic), is on this campaign to have you believe that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, gun ownership is declining.

The gun lobby is desperate to perpetuate its image as The Lobby That Cannot Be Crossed by Politicians in the face of a very harsh reality: Declining gun ownership in the United States.

As The Riddler used to say in the old Batman shows, "So riddle me this". I think we can all agree that the economy is in recession. Moreover, small businesses are closing right and left due to the poor economy. So given that, why have the number of Federal Firearms Licensees been on the increase since January 2010?

According to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the number of 01 FFLs - dealers in firearms - has increased from 47,411 in January 2010 to 48,987 in February 2012. This is an increase of 1,576 dealers or a 3.3% increase during that time period. The days of the kitchen table FFL are, for the most part, long over due to the Clinton Administration. Thus, this means that 1,576 people thought the growth in the market for firearms was strong enough to invest their time and money into a storefront business.

You can see this in graphic form below.

So riddle me this Mr. Horwitz, if as you claim the number of gun owners is declining and that the new sales are only going to existing gun owners, why would anyone in their right mind open a new gun shop in a bad economy? The answer is that they wouldn't. So either those 1,576 people getting new dealer licenses are delusional pawns of the gun industry or you are deliberately trying to minimize the real growth in the number of gun owners to mask the ineffectiveness of your arguments.

I vote for the latter.

Hatchery-Supported Trout Waters Open April 7th In North Carolina

I know this has nothing to do with guns or money but I was the President of the Land O' Sky Chapter of Trout Unlimited for a couple of years and love fly fishing. It reminds me I need to renew my license and do some more fishing this year. Given that a nice trout stream runs through the middle of The Town (My The Town), I really have no excuse other than the town father's might consider it an athletic facility.

From the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission announcing the opening of trout season on hatchery-supported streams:

RALEIGH, N.C. (March 20, 2012) — The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will open approximately 1,100 miles of hatchery-supported trout waters in 25 western counties at 7 a.m. on April 7. The season will run until March 1, 2013.

While fishing on hatchery-supported trout waters, anglers can harvest a maximum of seven trout per day, with no minimum size limits or bait restrictions.

Hatchery-supported trout waters, marked by green-and-white signs, are stocked from March until August every year, depending on the individual stream. A list of numbers and species stocked by month and county can be found on the Commission’s website. Many of these waters are stocked monthly, although some heavily fished waters are stocked more frequently.

Balsam Lake, which was drained by the U.S. Forest Service to repair a leak in the spillway, remains closed and will not receive stockings this year.

Commission personnel will stock nearly 877,000 trout, with 96 percent of the stocked fish averaging 10 inches in length and the other fish exceeding 14 inches.

Stocked trout are primarily produced in two Mountain region fish hatcheries operated by the Commission and are distributed along hatchery-supported streams where public access for fishing is available. While hatchery-supported waters are open to public fishing, many of those miles are privately owned.

“Opportunities to fish on many of these hatchery-supported trout streams are only available through the support and generosity of landowners,” said David Deaton, fish production supervisor for the Wildlife Commission. “It’s important for anglers to respect the property that they’re fishing on and remember that landowners can take away access if they feel their property is being misused.”

Deaton said that anglers can help prevent the loss of public access to fishing by:

• Respecting private property and landowners at all times;

• Removing all trash and litter from fishing and parking areas;

• Parking only in designated areas and leaving driveways open for pass-through traffic;

• Closing and/or locking gates after use;

• Reporting wildlife violations by calling 1-800-662-7137.

For a detailed list of all hatchery-supported trout waters and regulation information, as well as trout maps and weekly stocking summaries on hatchery-supported trout waters, visit the Commission’s website, www.ncwildlife.org/fishing. Weekly stocking information appears online for seven days, and updates are posted on Fridays after fish are stocked.