The Cook County Board has a proposed ordinance before it which will attempt to restrict the 2nd
Amendment rights of all law-abiding citizens in Cook County. The
ordinance calls for the “prohibitions on the sale of firearm to, and
purchase of firearm by, a person not covered by appropriate liability
insurance.”
This means Cook County residents would not be able to
purchase and own a firearm without first acquiring firearm liability
insurance.
The sponsor and others would like to compare firearm
liability insurance to having car insurance, which is like comparing
apples to oranges. A right granted by the 2nd
Amendment allows United States citizens to possess and own a firearm.
Driving a motor vehicle is a privilege granted by state law, not a right
covered under the United States Constitution.
The intention of the ordinance’s sponsor is to have a major
impact on gun violence. An admirable thought, however you must ask how
will this ordinance have any impact on gun-wielding criminals? The
truthful answer is it won’t. It’s a false notion to think that violent
criminals who are already breaking the law will stop and contemplate the
purchase of firearm liability insurance before committing their next
crime. Moreover, nearly all insurance policy coverage excludes criminal
acts from their coverage obligation.
If this ordinance were passed, litigation would certainly
follow in opposition to its constitutionality, which would mean a long
and costly legal defense for Cook County taxpayers. There is a reason
why this type of legislation has failed nearly everywhere it has been
introduced across the country.
This ordinance would not address violent criminal behavior,
but would instead restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding
citizens. I believe this is an unconstitutional overreach by government
which I strongly oppose.
We need to focus our efforts on preventative measures that
are truly substantive in nature and that will deter individuals away
from crime. We can do so by beginning to promote strong family
structure, by supporting the concept of community members turning in
known criminals and through increasing educational and employment
opportunities. Preventing criminal behavior must be the driving force to
addressing violent crime, rather than ineffective legislation placed
upon the citizen taxpayer without regard to consequence.
Sean M. Morrison Cook County Commissioner 17th District
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — The surge of criminal background checks required
of new gun purchasers has been so unrelenting in recent months that the
FBI had been forced to temporarily halt the processing of thousands of
appeals from prospective buyers whose firearm purchase attempts have
been denied.
Since October,
the bureau’s entire cadre of appeal examiners— about 70 analysts — was
redeployed here to help keep pace with waves of incoming background
investigations that continued through December when a record 3.3 million
firearm sales were processed.
The transfer of examiners, which had left a backlog of 7,100 appeals, is only part of a makeshift reorganization that FBI Assistant Director
Stephen Morris said has become necessary to handle a burgeoning
workload that expands in the wake of every mass shooting and call for
increased gun control that invariably prompt firearms sales binges
across the country.
“The last several months, we've kind of found
ourselves in a perfect storm,’’ Morris said in an interview with USA
TODAY. In each of the last six months, the number of background checks
has risen steadily, according to FBI records, ending with December's
record with more than a half-million over the previous monthly
high posted in the aftermath of the 2012 Newtown, Conn., school massacre.
Since before Thanksgiving weekend,
all annual leave for the more than 400 employees of the bureau’s
National Instant Criminal Background Check System has been canceled.
That Black Friday, the system was swamped with 185,345 background check
requests on new firearm sales, a new single-day record. Morris said
temporary background check examiners also are being pulled from internal
construction projects and bureau divisions that oversee the gathering
of crime statistics across the nation.
The near-constant frenzy of
activity within the FBI’s sprawling complex, four hours away from the
nation’s capital, may represent the most compelling argument in favor
of at least part of President Obama’s
recent executive actions aimed at reducing gun violence: the addition
of 230 examiners to the NICS operation and 200 more agents for nation's
chief gun enforcement agency, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms.
The
new positions are desperately needed, authorities said, to support the
seriously stressed NICS system and to prepare for an even heavier
workload as a consequence of the central provision of the
administration's executive actions. That directive would require an
increasing number of private firearms dealers to be licensed, subjecting
their customers to scrutiny under the federal background check system.
Some
of the administration's most vocal opponents on gun policy, including
those who offered initial skepticism or outright opposition when the
executive actions were unveiled earlier this month, now appear open to
potentially adding the hundreds of requested positions that would
require congressional approval.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, acknowledged in a written statement to USA TODAY that more NICS examiners “might be necessary.’’
Even the National Rifle Association,
which assailed the administration's overall gun plan as "political
exploitation,'' said that they would "have no objection'' to proposals
that would both bolster the ranks of the ATF and the NICS system.
The
group, however, remained critical of the plan's call for private gun
sellers to obtain federal licenses so that buyers would go through
background checks.
"If
the addition of these agents are used to apprehend criminals — not to
harass law-abiding gun owners — and (the examiners are used) to improve
the broken NICS system, we would have no objection,'' NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker told USA TODAY.
'Delay queue is growing'
Burrowed
in the rolling hills of the West Virginia countryside, the idyllic
setting for the NICS operation masks the fraught, politically charged
debate that has engulfed national gun policy.
The NICS system, mandated by Congress as part of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act,
has for nearly 20 years been a centerpiece of the government's effort
to block criminals from obtaining firearms. Yet the operation has
largely struggled to keep pace with a steadily increasing number of
firearm transfers, while maintaining databases of criminal and mental
health records that rely solely on voluntary contributions from state
and local authorities. Those records are crucial to determining whether
prospective gun buyers are eligible to purchase firearms.
"We live
off those records,'' Morris said. "That is our bread and butter. ...The
misnomer is that FBI has everything that exists on criminal history
records in some big repository, and that's simply not true. A lot of
data sits out in state and local systems. Being able to reach out and
get that information can be very, very challenging.''
Morris said it is impossible to estimate how many records could be missing from the system.
"You don't know what you don't know, right?''
Earlier this month, Attorney General Loretta Lynch,
in letters to the nation's governors as part of the administration's
executive actions, urged states to provide additional information,
saying the existing NICS databases were "far from complete.'' The
letters also contained subtle warnings that the FBI intended to publish
each state's contribution in the coming months.
"The NICS is a
critical tool in keeping firearms out of the hands of prohibited
persons,'' Lynch wrote, "but it is only as effective as the information
entered into the databases upon which it relies.''
While slightly
more than 70% of firearms transactions are allowed to proceed within
minutes after buyers appear at the counters of licensed dealers,
according to the FBI, the records are especially key to quickly
reconciling the remaining transfers that require deeper reviews of state
and local data before decisions can be issued on whether guns can be
sold.
Depending
on the volume of gun sales, at any one time the queue of pending
cases — which by law must be resolved within three business days
— generally ranges in the several thousand. Recently, those numbers have
ballooned as high as 13,000. If the cases, some of which depend on
local law enforcement agencies finding paper records to satisfy an
examiner's search, cannot be resolved within the three-day period, gun
dealers are generally free to complete the sales.
"Some (cases)
aren't being looked at until the third day,'' Morris said, referring to
the increasing volume and limited staffing.
"That delay queue has grown ... that meter is running.''
Morris
said that he would like to limit examiners' caseloads to two reviews
per hour to ensure accuracy. But that number has nearly doubled to
nearly four cases per hour.
Roof serves as cautionary tale
The
enormous stakes are not always apparent, until the first reports of a
new mass shooting echo across social media or cable television.
No
one recent case underscores the sobering nature of the work here more,
officials said, more than an April transaction in South Carolina,
reviewed by a veteran examiner at the West Virginia facility.
In that case, which could not be resolved within the three-day period, Dylann Roof
was mistakenly allowed to walk away with the .45-caliber handgun
allegedly used two months later to kill nine people during an evening
Bible study session at the iconic Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston.
During the background check, Roof's March arrest on felony drug charges was mistakenly attributed to the Lexington County, S.C., Sheriff's Department, not the Columbia, S.C., Police Department, which actually made the arrest. The sheriff's department operates the jail where Roof had been detained.
The
Columbia police report included information that Roof admitted to drug
possession, which would have triggered an immediate denial by NICS,
according to bureau guidelines. But that information was never seen by
the reviewer because the FBI's database did not include Columbia police
contacts in its list of agency contacts for Lexington County purchase
reviews. The reviewer did attempt to reach the Lexington County
prosecutor's office, which was handling the drug case at the time, but
received no response.
"We are all sick about what happened,'' FBI Director James Comey said during a July briefing when the error was disclosed.
Morris said the Roof case continually "humanizes the process,'' which mostly churns on far outside the public spotlight.
"These
are people who are making life-and-death decisions,'' Morris said,
adding that analyst in the Roof case remains on the job working new
cases every day. Given the information available at the time,
authorities have said the examiner did everything possible to
appropriately vet the purchase.
"She's a great examiner, too. I'd love to have 230 more of them.''
Fairfax, Va. – The executive director of
the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, Chris
W. Cox, released the following statement on Tuesday regarding President
Barack Obama’s Executive Gun Control Order:
Once again, President Obama has chosen to engage in
political rhetoric, instead of offering meaningful solutions to our
nation’s pressing problems.Today’s
event also represents an ongoing attempt to distract attention away
from his lack of a coherent strategy to keep the American people safe
from terrorist attack.
The American people do not need more emotional, condescending lectures that are completely devoid of facts.The men and women of the National Rifle Association take a back seat to no one when it comes to keeping our communities safe.But the fact is that President Obama’s proposals would not have prevented any of the horrific events he mentioned.The
timing of this announcement, in the eighth and final year of his
presidency, demonstrates not only political exploitation but a
fundamental lack of
seriousness.
The proposed executive actions are ripe for abuse by the
Obama Administration, which has made no secret of its contempt for the
Second Amendment. The NRA will continue to fight to protect the
fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms as guaranteed under
our Constitution.We will
not allow law-abiding gun owners to be harassed or intimidated for
engaging in lawful, constitutionally-protected activity – nor will we
allow them to become scapegoats for President Obama’s failed policies.
The Second Amendment does not protect an individual's right to own a
firearm. This narrative was developed by the National Rifle Association
in the late 1970s, out of fear that further gun control laws would
eliminate private ownership of firearms altogether.
For 200 years following the ratification of the Second Amendment, federal judges understood that
the Second Amendment safeguarded the right to keep and bear arms when
serving in a state militia. This view was widely held until the 1980s
when pro-gun organizations began claiming that federal regulation of the
individual use of firearms violated Americans' Second Amendment rights.
Initially, the National Rifle Association dealt more with sport than politics.
"I do not believe in the general promiscuous toting of guns," said
Former NRA President Karl Frederick in 1934. "I think it should be
sharply restricted and only under licenses."
In response to increasing crime, a 1968 federal law
prohibited interstate firearms transfers except among licensed
manufacturers, dealers, and importers. The NRA became scared that more
restrictions would ultimately result in government seizure of all
personal guns. That's when, in 1977, the group reorganized to launch an
aggressive anti-gun control movement based on a fabricated understanding
of the Second Amendment. Those who invoke the Second Amendment as an
absolute reason why the United States can't act like Great Britain, Australia, Japan and other countries to reduce staggering gun violence don't understand the amendment at all.
When the thirteen colonies broke away from tyrannical Great Britain
to form the United States of America, the concern that this new
government would become corrupt was very real. The ultimate check on a tyrannical government, the Framers of the Constitution believed, was an armed population.
The
Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to
the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear
Arms shall not be infringed." Since militias are made up of citizens
bearing arms, gun proponents argue that the right to keep and bear arms
naturally extends to each citizen, who may use a firearm for
traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
For the first time in history, this perspective was supported in
the 2008 Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller. A civilian,
the Court ruled, has a constitutional right to keep a handgun in his or
her home for purposes of self-defense.
Nowhere in the text,
however, is it stated that an individual right to keep and bear arms is
preserved. More overtly, the text refers to the collection of people who
would make up a militia if the federal government were to abuse its power.
by David E. Petzal
Although the late (and much missed) Jeff Cooper was primarily a
handgunner, he devoted a good deal of thought, experimentation, and
writing to the development of an all-around rifle which he called the
Scout. Not because it was trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly,
courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and
reverent, but because it was highly portable, handy to use under all
conditions, accurate to 300 yards and a bit, powerful enough for
anything short of dangerous game, and light kicking. He envisioned it as
something that a highly mobile Marine or soldier would carry if he had
to move a lot, and quickly.
The first company to produce a Scout was Steyr. Their rifle debuted
in 1998 and was an odd-looking duck with a synthetic stock and a hefty
price tag. I got to shoot one. It was very, very accurate, and more or
less everything Lt. Colonel Cooper claimed it was.
By the time he went to that great range where the wind never blows
and there is no mirage, the Scout concept was well established. But it
was Ruger that really picked up the Scout and ran with it. In 2011 they
introduced a version that was developed in conjunction with Gunsite
Academy, which Cooper founded.
That Scout took off. It’s essentially a .308 carbine, but with bells
and whistles, mostly of a tactical nature. There are now ten variations
on it, including left-hand, .223 (which would have given Jeff Cooper a
seizure), stainless, synthetic-stocked, flash hider or recoil
suppressor, two barrel lengths, and steel or synthetic magazines of 3-,
5-, or 10-round capacity.
What follows are some random observations on the rifle, based on
mine, which is one of the early versions, a blue-steel, .308, southpaw
gun. Ruger is now advertising the Scout as the one rifle that will do it
all, and they are pretty much correct. The .308 is one of the most
highly developed and popular cartridges around. There’s a literally
endless variety of ammo available for it, and components if you’re a
handloader. So:
While the Scout’s short barrels (16.10 and 18.70 inches) are a big
convenience in many ways, they cause you to lose velocity. In my rifle,
which has the 16.10, I see speeds in the 2,450 fps range with 150- and
165-grain bullets. The real-world velocity of a 150-grain .308 slug in a
24-inch barrel is 2,700 fps, and if you chop 8 inches off the barrel
you’ll lose about 25 fps, per inch, or 200 fps.
If this concerns you greatly, you can get a Scout with an 18.7 inch
barrel, which will put some speed back, or you can handload. I’m able to
get 2,700 fps out of 150-grain Barnes X-Bullets via handloading, and
there are no pressure signs at all.
The Scout is a very mild kicker, and I don’t see why people would
want a recoil reducer. Maybe it has something to do with the Millennial
Generation, which also feels the need for Safe Space, whatever that is.
In any event, I much prefer the flash suppressor. In case you feel the
urge to remove it and replace it with a cap, don’t. Because of the short
barrels, you are bound to get considerable muzzle flash, and even if
you’re not using the rifle tactically, that doesn’t help your shooting.
Ruger’s flash suppressor works; leave it alone.
