Gun Watch

NY: Gillibrand Believes the Impossible; Making Gun Sales Illegal Will Work

July 25, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

New York is an anti-gun dystopia. IMG iStock-884181314
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Those who wish to disarm other people have a disconnect with reality. They refuse to believe some things are not possible. This creates problems.

One of the reasons people push to disarm others is they refuse to arm themselves. Having made that decision, or, having had that decision made for them; they personally see no cost to their disarming of others.

Disarm that guy over there. He is not me. It doesn’t hurt me.
This is how ideologues who refuse to accept reality get elected again and again. Consider Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Senator from New York. From the nydailynews.com:

A measure to create a federal gun trafficking crime failed to make it through the Senate in 2013, on the heels of the devastating shooting that killed 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn. Still, Gillibrand said she was “very hopeful” the legislation will pass this time around.

“Guns travel up the iron pipeline along I-95 from states like Florida or Georgia or Pennsylvania where gun laws are far less strict,” Gillibrand said in the news conference. “The percentage of illegally trafficked guns in New York State has continued to grow in recent years, but I refuse to believe that we can’t stop these illegal guns from coming into our state.”

She plans to reintroduce the legislation this week, according to her office. Adams praised Gillibrand for her dogged decade-long effort on the bill.

It is already illegal to buy a gun outside of New York, bring it to New York, and sell it in New York, without going through a federally licensed dealer. It is a felony in both federal law and New York State law. Gillibrand seems to think making those actions somehow more illegal, with more law, will work where the current laws do not.
Consider her self-admitted mindset:
I refuse to believe that we can’t stop these illegal guns from coming into our state.
The laws have been in place for more than 50 years. It is part of the framework of the 1968 Gun Control Act. Homicide skyrocketed after the 1968 GCA was passed. The legal restrictions have not worked the whole time. In New York, in 1967, the murder rate was 6.5 per 100k. It was rising rapidly. It reached a peak of 14.5 in 1990. Then it started falling. the current rate, 2.9 is the lowest since 1965. Gun laws in the rest of the nation became less and less restrictive since 1987.
You cannot have a free republic, with the limits and checks on government which we have, and do what Gillibrand wants done. Nor is there any evidence what she wants done would have any effect on the number of people murdered.
The latest numbers, from 2019, show 7,363 guns were traced in New York State in 2019. The largest category was taken simply for illegal possession (3,395), some may have been from gun “buybacks” (Orwellian speak for gun turn-in events). Of the guns whose state of origin could be determined, New York was the largest number, 1,048 of 4,974, or 21%. At most, 6315 guns of all types came from outside of New York.
That is an average of about 17.3 guns a day from outside of New York. It is a tiny amount of guns. Only 18 guns would be required to be smuggled per day into New York, in the millions of vehicles that enter New York every day, to keep up this number. The time from when the guns were purchased, until they were traced in New York averaged 11.25 years.
Consider the guns traced from Mexico. In 2019, there were 13,387 guns from the United States traced from Mexico. The border with Mexico is much more tightly controlled than the border with New York. There are many more people in Mexico than New York. Gun control in Mexico is much more intense than it is in New York. The homicide rate in Mexico is much higher in Mexico than in New York. In 2019 it was Mexico 29 per 100K population. In NY it was 2.9, only 10% of that in Mexico.
There is plenty of evidence the number of legal guns in a population does not affect the murder rate.
Brazil, India, and China all have roughly the same number of illegally owned firearms per 100 people. The homicide rates vary from six times the rate of the U.S. (Brazil) to 2/3 the rate of the U.S. (India) to one eighth the rate of the U.S. (China).
These numbers verify the research of John Lott, which shows there is no correlation between homicide numbers and the number of guns owned per 100 people. Lott’s study compares all the countries in the world he could obtain data from. (from 2014)
There is plenty of evidence the number of guns does not affect the overall suicide rate.
They may have some small effect on the number of murders with guns, or the number of suicides with guns, but they do not change the overall numbers.
Why push the obviously flawed concept of controlling the gun flow, in order to reduce violent crime and homicides, when it demonstrably does not work?

For Gillibrand, this is a brand. It is what won her the Senate seat, and placed her in a position of power and authority, one of the most influential and powerful people in the world. That is plenty of reason enough.
It costs her nothing. It is important to understand, the people who want others disarmed, assume such policies cost them nothing. They may be wrong in the long-term analysis. They may also be dead long before any adverse effects would impact them.
The adverse effects may take generations. Then again, the adverse effects of generations of undermining the rule of law and ignoring the Constitution of the United States appear to be having a significant adverse effects right now, in 2021.

About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

IN: State Police Overwhelmed by Response to Free Lifetime Carry Permits

July 23, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

IN: State Police Overwhelmed by Response to Free Lifetime Carry Permits
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- As a compromise in the debate over Constitutional Carry, the Indiana legislature passed a firearms reform bill that eliminated the fee for an Indiana lifetime carry permit. The fee for the 5-year permit was eliminated in 2019. That law went into effect on 1 July 2020. From the Crime Prevention Research Center, Indiana had 967,061 permits as of July 1, 2020. At that time, 18.73% of the adult population had an Indiana carry permit.

On 1 July of 2020, when the five-year permit fee was eliminated, about 8,000 applications for permits were received. From indystar.com:

State Police received 2,259 handgun permit applications from July 1-7 last year compared to 20,647 in 2020.
On July 1 alone, the day the fees were eliminated, Galaviz said the state received about 8,000 gun permit applications.
The data includes all handgun permit applications, which include lifetime permits that still have fees. About two-thirds of last week’s applications were for the no-fee five-year permits, Galaviz said.
As of 1 July 2021, the number of total active licenses had increased to 1,120,144. Those numbers translate into 21.69% of the adult population, a nearly 16% rise in permits, equal to 3% of the adult population. 69.9% of those with permits are males, 31% are females.

The elimination of the lifetime permit fee went into effect on 1 July 2021. The number of applications for permits showed an increase similar to the increase a year ago, on 1 July 2020. From fox59.com:
GREENWOOD, Ind. — There is no longer a fee to obtain a lifetime permit to carry a gun in the state of Indiana. The response from Hoosiers has been so overwhelming that it’s bogging down Indiana State Police’s firearms licensing website.
“As expected, we’ve had an influx of applications on our website. We’re asking folks that want to apply for that to be patient,” said ISP public information officer, Sgt. John Perrine.
Perrine confirmed that ISP received 7,136 applications through the site in the first 24 hours after the permits became fee exempt.
If the same pattern happens as last year, the total number of active permits will rise to 24% of the adult population in Indiana. Nearly all those permits are Indiana residents. Only a few people qualify for a non-resident permit. From ariesportal.com:

If I do not live in Indiana, can I still have an Indiana firearm license?

If you are a resident of another state and have a regular place of business or employment in Indiana, you qualify for a 5 year personal protection firearm license. Your local agency will be the sheriff of the county in which you have a regular place of business or employment. You will be asked to upload the following documents on your application: 1. Print, complete, sign and notarize the Out-of-State Affidavit form stating you meet out-of-state residence requirements. 2. Provide a proof of employment on company letterhead.

Constitutional Carry was very close to passing in the Indiana legislature in 2020. If nearly a quarter of the population of voters in Indiana have carry permits, it seems very likely Constitutional Carry will pass in the next Legislative session.
It is the pattern we have seen in 20 other states. First, shall issue carry permit legislation is passed. Then, the permit numbers rise, and the restrictions on permits are reduced. Finally, Constitutional (permitless) Carry is passed.
It is likely a majority of states will have Constitutional Carry by the end of 2022.

Kelly Bear Attack and the Myth: Combination Defense Against Grizzly Bear

July 22, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

Grizzly bear by Troy Nemitz, with permission
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- While searching for events where pistols were fired to defend against bears, I came across several references to an event that happened to Larry Kelly of Magnaport fame, in Alaska. The event was described by him in full, first-person detail.

There were several variations online. Some claimed the event showed how ineffective pistols were for defense against bears. Several claimed the ammunition was at fault. Here is an example from thefiringline.com:

Several years ago I read a story about Larry Kelly, owner of Magna-Port and hundgun hunter Hall of Famer, has told a story about having to share a hunting cabin with his guide and temporarily with a not overly-large grizzly near an Alaskan river. The bear apparently decided to get out of the rain and like the hunters choose to use the 10′ by 12′ cabin. When it entered, Kelly shot it 6 times with a .44 Mag loaded with Remington’s 240 SJHP’s as he back pedalled onto the stove. All six shots flattened out on the breast-bone, since the bear was on its hind legs at the time. Not one of his shots made it into the body cavity much less damaged the vital organs. While Kelly was doing this his guide was busy with his .375 H&H mag. The guide short stroked his rifle and it jammed. I always thought that scene was from a nightmare. A big brownie stuck in the doorway, men hollering, a .44 Mag going off six times in the dark with no ear protection, muzzle flash, the bear popping his teeth and growling. Well in the long run the bear decided he did not want to come inside and lumbered off before they got the rifle un-jammed. Later one the guides killed the bear nearby as he attempted yet another break in. Kelly reported that it taught him the value of penetration and that HP’s are way over touted for hunting heavy game. I might add that Larry has since killed coastal brown bears with the same revolver using hard cast solids over 300 grains.
Human memory is fallible. The author of the above account relied on memory. The story was published 20 years before the writer wrote the above account. The story involved the use of a handgun to defend against bears. One of the policies of our project to accurately describe how effective handguns are to defend against bears is to include all of the events we can document. It was necessary to investigate the Larry Kelly event and include it in the database. The writer at thefiringline was not involved personally. He worked from his memory of a story he read several years previously.

This correspondent located the original article. It is a first-person account by Larry Kelly, as part of Chapter 14 “Big Bores for Big Game”, in the book “Hunting for Handgunners”, published in 1990, by DBI books. The hunt happened in late October of 1981, from the dates and days accounted for in Chapter 14.
The book is out of print. This researcher was able to obtain a used copy.
To put the account in context, at the time of the attack, the hunters had been holed up in “visqueen and driftwood shack” on the beach of the ocean near Cold Bay, on the Alaska Peninsula, because of strong winds prevented their pickup by bush plane.
Larry had already killed a trophy bear with one shot from a .44 magnum Ruger revolver. He had filled his tag and was not legally able to kill another bear, except in defense of self or others. The hunters had been in the camp for four days.
Larry stepped out of the shack for a bathroom break. He sees the bear coming down a nearby creek toward the beach. The guide, Bob Gerlack, gets a camera, puts a telephoto lens on it, and starts taking pictures. A 40 mph wind is blowing from the bear toward Larry and Bob.
When the bear reaches the beach, it turns toward the shack and starts running at them.
The shack is on an embankment above the beach. Larry is armed with a holstered Smith & Wesson .44 magnum. Bob has a .375 H&H rifle. As the bear gets closer, it starts running up the embankment, directly at the shack. Larry draws his pistol. Bob fires two warning shots from the .375 H&H rifle.
Here is the original, first-person account in the words of Larry Kelly, from Hunting for Handgunners by Larry Kelly and J.D. Jones, p. 225, 1990.
At the shot, the brown bear then came full-bore right at us. Bob fired a second shot in the sand in front of him as we backed into the shack. He kept telling me not to shoot.
We backed into the shack and when the bear was in the doorway, head and shoulders inside the shack, I shot.
Bob was having trouble with his gun and had backed up into the table, knocking everything over. I had backed into the stove, knocking that over. I pointed the .44 at the bear’s chest from three feet away and fired. I expected the mighty .44 to blow the bear right out of the doorway, or at least to do a little more than get his attention. He only turned his head and looked directly at me as if the muzzle blast had bothered him.
Bob fired, then I fired again. The bear turned and I fired two more shots in his shoulder. Bob fired at his shoulder again. I put my last two in his rear as he turned around and started running. Bob stepped out of the door and fired as the bear went bellowing down the beach.
My Model 29 was empty and so was Bob’s .375 H&H. I ran to my cot and quickly grabbed my T/C .375 JDJ and fired my last shot into the bear. He went down.
The original differs from what has become the myth in several important ways.
The bear never fully entered the shack but was stopped in the doorway by gunfire. The gunfire was obviously effective. There is no information indicating the bullets did not penetrate or have deadly effect.

What happened is what often happens when bears or other big game are shot in the chest cavity. It takes many seconds to minutes for the mortal wounds to kill the animal. This is a common occurrence for everything from deer-sized animals on up. Caliber does not seem to make much difference, especially if the animal has been running or has other reasons to have high adrenaline and oxygenation levels in its bloodstream.
Both Larry Kelly and the guide, Bob Gerlack, appeared to be in the “Trophy Hunter” mindset. Even though the bear is extremely close at “three feet”, Larry Kelly does not go for the obvious instant kill shot to the bear’s brain.
The kill shot should be an easy shot at a stopped, pint-sized object, from three feet away. Instead, Larry fires at the bear’s chest. Bob Gerlack, the guide, makes the same choice. From just a few feet away, with a rifle, he shoots at the shoulder. He has likely programmed himself to do so. To shoot the brain of a bear with a high-powered rifle is to destroy the trophy.
After being shot, the bear quickly turns and retreats. More shots are fired at the retreating bear. At the last shot, the bear goes down and expires. Very likely, from the first shot when the bear’s head and shoulders intruded into the shack until it went down for the last time, was less than 30 seconds. 30 seconds is reasonably quick for chest shots to take effect on a large animal. Perhaps the last shot broke the spine or other bone. It is not mentioned in the account. In the account, six .44 magnum shots were fired at the bear, three .375 H&H shots, and one .375 JDJ (pistol) shot. The brass picked up afterward does not match that number; so it is possible there were more shots fired than were counted in the write-up.
This is a combined rifle and pistol stop of a bear attack. When shot, the bear left and then died. Neither hunter was injured by the bear.

Black Rifle Coffee Co. Painted as Anti-Customer by NYT Magazine

July 21, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

Black Rifle Coffee Co. Painted as Anti-Customer by NYT Magazine
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The Black Rifle Coffee Company (BRCC) has been a rising star in the conservative constellation. It has been becoming a center for conservative networking and interaction. There appears to be an effort to stop the rise, at least at the New York Times. A recent New York Times (NYT) Magazine article (14 July) has painted the BRCC executives as, at minimum, moderates who despise their base but see them like sheep to be fleeced.

Anything from the NYT is viewed with extreme suspicion by conservatives. There have been too many times where the NYT has lied, been slow or unwilling to retract obvious errors, and unwilling to tolerate the slightest dissent from far-left orthodoxy within their writing staff.

It is a mistake for anyone who considers themselves conservative to give access to the NYT.
Their words will be twisted and taken out of context. The NYT is not a news organ. They are part of the propaganda machine of and for the far left/deep state/Democrat party.

The writer from the NYT Magazine, Jason Zengerle, takes care to set the stage by repeating the narrative the rowdy protest at the Capitol on 6 January was an “insurrection” and there was no “sweeping” fraud in the 2020 election. He claims Evan Hafer suspected fraud at first but was convinced there wasn’t any by the statement of the U.S. Attorney General, Bill Barr.
There is information from a former US attorney claiming Bill Barr told him not to look for evidence of fraud.
Zengerle then focuses on two incidents where he tries to show the BRCC as being tied to people the Left disapproves of. Those people were wearing clothes with BRCC insignia on them. These include Kyle Rittenhouse and Eric Munchel, described as the “zip-tie guy” in the Capitol by Mat Best, the BRCC executive VP.
Zengerle goes out of his way to identify Hafer as Jewish. Zengerle writes this paragraph, which seems misleading at best:
“I would never want my brand to be represented in that way, shape or form,” Hafer said, “because that’s not me.” And yet Black Rifle has made conspicuously little public effort to separate itself from Munchel. This is a sharp departure from its handling of the Rittenhouse incident: Following pressure from the company, Schaffer deleted his tweets, and Hafer released a video statement in which he clarified that while Black Rifle believed “in the Constitution, the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms,” and “that a person is innocent until proven guilty,” the company didn’t sponsor Rittenhouse; “we’re not in the business of profiting from tragedy.”
Munchel was never connected with an ad campaign and a product code, as Rittenhouse was by Blaze TV. It is hard to see how BRCC stating they had not sponsored Rittenhouse and did not want to “profit from tragedy” in the Rittenhouse incident, can in any way, be similar to a protestor wearing some BRCC promotional gear, who has not been tried yet.
Here is a link to the video where Hafer is talking about the Rittenhouse incident.
At the end of the article, Zengerle cements his case for Best and Hafer as detesting their customers.
It is cleverly done. Here are two paragraphs from the NYT Magazine article:

“You can’t let sections of your customers hijack your brand and say, ‘This is who you are,’” Best told me. “It’s like, no, no, we define that.” The Rittenhouse episode may have cost the company thousands of customers, but, Hafer believed, it also allowed Black Rifle to draw a line in the sand. “It’s such a repugnant group of people,” Hafer said. “It’s like the worst of American society, and I got to flush the toilet of some of those people that kind of hijacked portions of the brand.” Then again, what Hafer insisted was a “superclear delineation” was not too clear to everyone, as Munchel’s choice of headgear vividly demonstrated.
“The racism [expletive] really pisses me off,” Hafer said. “I hate racist, Proud Boy-ish people. Like, I’ll pay them to leave my customer base. I would gladly chop all of those people out of my [expletive] customer database and pay them to get the [expletive] out.” If that was the case, I asked, had Black Rifle — which sells a Thin Blue Line coffee — considered changing the name of its Beyond Black coffee, a dark roast it has sold for years, to Beyond Black Lives Matter? Surely that would alienate the racists polluting its customer base.

Notice that Zengerle interweaves quotes from Best and Hafer, and implies they are talking about Rittenhouse supporters. The two quotes are separated by the sentence:

The Rittenhouse episode may have cost the company thousands of customers, but, Hafer believed, it also allowed Black Rifle to draw a line in the sand.
Zengerle does not give a transcript, so we cannot know what might have been said in between, or exactly what the context was. We know the NYT has a reputation for taking quotes out of context and weaponizing them.
Hafer, in a responding video, says he was exclusively referring to racists and anti-Semites. The comments were not directed at anyone else.
Link to the BRCC responding video. Here is a partial transcript from BRCC Evan Hafer:

There is a significant amount of misinformation being put out about Black Rifle and about statements that I have made. And I think it is really important to get this directly from me.
Number one: the first and probably most important inaccuracy in any story published, is that I somehow made derogatory statements toward my customers, or conservatives. I will give you the context about this.
The actual conversation was taking place around antisemitism and racism in America. And then, our attack, because we were attacked last year by a group of very organized anti-Semites that we did not know and they were targeting me because of my last name and because of my heritage.
We were purely discussing that. I said anti-Semites and racists do not have a place in my company, and I would gladly tell them to leave; and pay them. So, that is what I was referencing, the context of the conversation was only about that. And I was never referencing conservatives or putting those groups together with conservatives, which I think is very important.

It is likely the writers at the NYT Magazine consider any Trump supporters, or customers of BRCC as racists, by definition.
This shows the futility of attempting to beat the NYT at its propaganda game, written by its own writers, published in its organs.
Prudent people would at least make sure they have a recording of everything which was said during interviews. It appears the BRCC did not do that. It may have been a series of conversations lasting hours, if not days.
Later, in the response video, Hafer says
“We’re not conforming to either side. We are conforming to Black Rifle.”
(snip)
“We celebrate this country. We celebrate the people who have served and sacrificed for this country.”
This shows a dangerous naivete. The very name of “Black Rifle Coffee Company” is a gauntlet slapped across the face of the “woke”. The management of the New York Times appears offended by anyone who supports and defends traditional American values. Hafer and Black Rifle Coffee Company were picked aside by their existence. They need to realize it and accept it. They need to celebrate it and embrace it. They have done so in the past.
It isn’t about “conforming”, at least not to conservatives. It is about not surrendering to the Left and protecting conservative values.
Trying to play the middle will not work. Not when you are directly appealing to conservatives.
I suspect Hafer is very smart. He was a Green Beret, and a CIA contractor. He may expect to be the smartest person in the room. He might have thought he could play footsie with the New York Times and come out on top. Now he knows better.
At a minimum, he needs to be more careful of where he is getting his information flow. Accepting AG Barr’s word there was no significant voting fraud (if that is what he did) was a mistake.
This correspondent left a message with BRCC, asking to hear their side. There has not been a response in three days. No doubt, BRCC, and exec Hafer are very busy.

NICS Data: Gun Sales Drop Significantly in June of 2021

July 19, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

NICS Data: Gun Sales Drop Significantly in June of 2021
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The National Instant background Check System (NICS) numbers are in for June of 2021. There has been a significant drop from the numbers for June of 2020, a year ago. Total background checks have declined 29%, and total gun sales have declined 47% from last year. June of 2020 was a record-setting month.

If we look back to June of 2019, the 2021 numbers are 40% higher for gun sales this June.
Looking to 2016, the previous record year before 2020, gun sales in June of 2021 exceeds those in June of 2016 by 12%.

Even though June gun sales in 2021 are only 53% of the firearm sales of June of 2020, they are still the second-highest number of June gun sales since NICS started keeping records in 1998.

Historically, June gun sales are one of the three lowest months in the year for gun sales. May, June, and July are the “Summer Doldrums” for gun sales, with June and July tending to be a little lower than May.
The total NICS checks are becoming less and less representative of the total number of firearm sales.
NICS Data: Gun Sales Drop Significantly in June of 2021
There always was a disconnect, because there can be multiple gun sales on one NICS check. There are 20 million or more people with carry permits. There were 19.48 million carry permits over a year ago.
In 25 states, the carry permit is used as a NICS check for gun sales. Those sales are not recorded in NICS.
With the enormous numbers of people with carry permits, some states are doing monthly or even daily NICS checks on people with permits. The federal government does not charge the states for NICS checks.
Illinois permit rechecks accounted for over 715 thousand NICS rechecks in June of 2021; Kentucky over 301 thousand NICS rechecks; Utah had over 72 thousand. Total permit and permit rechecks for the nation were over 1.79 million of the total 3.05 million or about 59% of the total checks.
Most of the NICS checks are no longer involved in gun sales. There are more carry permits, more carry permit rechecks and more gun sales not tracked by NICS because they are done using the carry permit instead of another NICS check.
Gun production appears to be meeting demand. More guns are becoming available and prices are dropping. The supply of ammunition seems to be meeting demand as well. Prices are dropping and more ammunition is being seen in stores.
The nation is coming out of the COVID crises, and the Biden regime is meeting resistance to its extreme anti-Second Amendment policies. Both circumstances may contribute to lower demand for guns and ammo.
A large number of new gun owners and a large number of people with carry permits appear to be having a political effect. Contrary to the claim by those who want a disarmed population, the number of gun owners seems to be growing. The number of people of carrying guns has been growing spectacularly. Yet, the number of people who are using guns to illegally commit violence against other people does not track with the increase in gun ownership or with the increase in the number of people legally carrying guns.

The primary stated premise of the push for more restrictions on gun ownership and gun carry is “more guns, more crime”. As that premise is proving false, the backup premise is “more guns more suicide”. That premise is also proving false.
More guns do not create more violent crimes or more suicides. If they do, the numbers are too small to measure.
The fact of record gun sales, record numbers of new gun owners, and millions of carry permits tells us very large numbers of Americans believe the utility of guns outweigh the risks, especially in uncertain times.

Mexican Bandits Steal 7 Million Rounds of Ammunition

July 19, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

Mexican Bandits Steal 7 Million Rounds of Ammunition (Dave Workman photo)
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On 10 June, 2021, it was reported that 7,114,500 rounds of sporting ammunition was stolen in the state of Guanajuato. The value of the ammunition was reported to be over 2.7 million dollars. This correspondent checked the reported value with market conditions in the United States. The value falls within retail prices during the current ammunition bubble.

The event took place near the town of San Luis de la Paz, according to Milenio, here is the translation:

In an unprecedented event, criminals in Guanajuato managed to steal such a quantity of ammunition when they attacked two cargo units that were circulating on Highway 57 near the municipality of San Luis de la Paz, according to information provided by the delegation of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic in the entity.
The ammunition was being transported inside two semi-trailers, as partial loads in each vehicle. The weight of the ammunition was about four or five tons. A semi-trailer can easily carry 10 tons. Some sources claimed 98.5% of the ammunition was .22 rimfire cartridges. A detailed list from a later source showed about 89% of the cartridges were .22 rimfire.

A Mexican source, regeneracion.mx reported the following quantities of Ammunition were stolen:

4,872,000 rounds of high velocity Long Rifle cartridges, solid point
1,230,000 rounds of high velocity Long Rifle hollow point cartridges
295,000 rounds of .40 S&W pistol cartridges
215,000 rounds of .22 caliber L.R. Super Colibri garden loads
117,000 rounds of .45 auto cartridges
100,000 rounds of .38 special revolver cartridges
99,000 .410 7.5 shot cartridges
87 thousand 7.62×51 NATO fmj cartridges
71,500 12 gauge mini-shells
25,000 .38 super +p handgun cartridges
3,000 12 gauge mini-shell slug loads

According to AP, a spokesman for Tecnos, which owns the Aguila brand, said the Mexican drug cartels are unlikely to use .22 rimfire.
“These will be of no use to them, given that they don’t use these weapons,” said security analyst Juan Ibarrola, who also acts as spokesman for the Tecnos Industries company
All of the cartridges listed are in high demand on the black market in Mexico, and in the legal market in the United States. With the ammunition bubble ongoing in the United States, it is not clear if the ammunition will be smuggled north of the border or sold on the black market inside of Mexico. As in the United States, the .22 rimfire cartridges are the most common, as they are the least expensive for target shooting, small game hunting, and pest control.
They are powerful enough to be used for defensive purposes but are not the primary choice for self-defense.
Both .22 rimfire and 12 gauge shotguns are commonly used by the spontaneous militias which have been formed in some Mexican states to battle with forces of the various drug cartels.
The theft of the ammunition may have been based on inside information. The thieves seem to have known what they wanted and where it was located. No shots were fired during the encounter, and no one was killed.
Aguila has become a major player in the global market. During the .22 ammunition bubble from 2012 to 2016, Aguila doubled its production to take a greater share of the market, especially in the United States.
Industry insiders have told me the regulatory environment inside the United States was a major obstacle that prevented the expansion of American production of rimfire ammunition.

.22 Ammunition Spotted at Yuma Walmart 9 July 2021

July 12, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

.22 ammunition available at Yuma Walmart on 9 July, 2021
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- This correspondent was in a Walmart in Yuma, Arizona on 9 July 2021. Visits to Walmart have been regular, but sparse, about one every two to three weeks.

When in Walmart, a quick look at the ammunition display is taken to see if there are any significant changes. There has been very little ammunition displayed for over a year. Common calibers have been in short supply, especially .22 rimfire.

It was with considerable surprise these four boxes of .22 ammunition, 2 – 325 round boxes of Federal and 2- 333 round boxes of Winchester Long Rifle bulk packs, were available.

There was a larger amount of 12 gauge shotgun ammunition on the shelf than seen in months; there was a smattering of centerfire rifle cartridges, in 20 round boxes. There were 4 boxes of .270 Winchester cartridges, 4 boxes of 243 Winchester cartridges, 2 boxes of .30-30 cartridges, and 6 boxes of .350 Legend cartridges.
Online, it appears ammunition prices have been dropping a bit from the highs experienced over the last year.
The Federal . 22 LR cartridges are the 40 gr Automatic, at $18.73 for 325 rounds, or 5.76 cents per round. The Winchester bulk pack is the 36 grain hollow point, at 18.88 for 333 cartridges, or 5.67 cents per round. This is a significant price drop from Internet prices which were often seen at 25 cents per cartridge, or more.
The cartridges had been there for at least a few hours. The lady behind the counter said it was the most ammunition she had seen displayed for months.
It is too early to be sure if this is the start of a return to “normal” pricing, or if it is a fluke of the delivery system and local variation in the supply chain. It may be an early indicator that supply is starting to meet the demand. .22 cartridges from all over the planet have been coming to the United States to meet the exceptionally high demand.
A “bubble” in cartridge prices can easily happen if demand suddenly exceeds the supply. Commodities which have expensive capital requirements to produce are especially vulnerable, as seen recently with toilet paper and ammunition.
The largest producer of .22 rimfire ammunition in the United States (and the world) is Vista Outdoors, with its Federal and CCI brands. Stock in Vista Outdoors plunged during the Trump administration, as the .22 ammunition bubble from the Obama years finally collapsed. In 2018, .22 rimfire ammunition was selling for as low as 2.5 cents per round.
A new bubble inflated in 2020, with the uncertainty of the Presidential election, COVID-19, and BLM and Antifa riots in the cities.
With its expansion of production capacity validated, Vista Outdoors is producing and selling all the ammunition it is capable of. The total .22 rimfire ammunition for the United States Market has been in the neighborhood of 5 billion rounds per year, increased from a base of about 4 billion rounds per year in 2012.
Total ammunition for the United States Market has been estimated at 9 billion rounds per year in 2020, including all centerfire and rimfire rounds for the non-military market.

That bubble may be leaking. Unrest in the United States and uncertainty in future stability around the world may re-inflate the ammunition bubble at any time.
Readers are invited to comment on ammunition availability in their local area. The availability of .22 ammunition has been shown to be highly variable by geographical location in the last .22 ammunition bubble.

Iowa and Tennessee Constitutional Carry Laws Effective on 1 July, 2021

July 9, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

Iowa and Tennessee Constitutional Carry Laws Effective on 1 July, 2021, iStock-602335156
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Iowa and Tennessee are two of the five states which have restored Constitutional Carry so far in 2021. In both states the Constitutional Carry (permitless carry) bills took effect on Thursday, 1 July, just ahead of Independence Day, July 4th.

Constitutional Carry is a reasonable facsimile of the state of the law when the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791. At the time, no state or federal law required government permission in order to carry personal weapons, either openly or concealed.

In Iowa, the Constitutional Carry bill contained other reforms. The bill was signed into law on 2 April by Governor Kim Reynolds. It removed the Iowa requirement for a permit to purchase a pistol, which was separate from the federal National Instant background Check System (NICS). From kpvi.com:

Effective July 1, Iowa no longer requires certain residents to have a permit to acquire or permit to carry to purchase handguns from federally licensed firearms dealers.
Iowa has moved from a relatively restrictive state, where you had to ask government permission to purchase or carry a handgun, to a state where the Second Amendment is honored most of the time in most places. There have always been a few places where the carry of weapons was regulated, such as in prisons and powder houses. Private property owners could exclude armed people if they so desired.
In Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee signed the Constitutional Carry (permitless carry) into law on 8 April, a week after Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa signed their Constitutional Carry bill into law. From wsmv.com:
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) – Several new laws will go into effect today in Tennessee.
Among them, the controversial constitutional carry bill, which allows Tennesseans 21 and older to carry a gun without a permit.
The legislation, signed into law by Governor Bill Lee earlier this year, removes the permit process required for Tennesseans to carry a handgun.
The bill in Tennessee has some controversial provisions. Some of these are:

If a person leaves a handgun in a motor vehicle, it must be locked up and out of sight.
People are prohibited from carrying a handgun if a Tennessee citizen has had two convictions for Driving under the influence (DUI) in the last ten years or once in the last five years.

The three other states who have restored Constitutional Carry in 2021, so far, are Utah, Montana, and Texas.
Most portions of the Montana Constitutional Carry bill became effective with Governor Greg Gianforte’s signature on 18 February. The university carry provisions were to go into effect on 1 June. They are being challenged in court.
The Utah bill became effective on 5 May 2021. The Texas law becomes effective on 1 September.
As of this writing, Louisiana is likely to hold a veto override session, where Governor Bel Edwards’ veto of the Louisiana Constitutional Carry bill may be over ridden. 20 states have restored Constitutional Carry. Vermont has always had Constitutional Carry, making 21 Constitutional Carry states at this time.
Those states are:

Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
Idaho
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Maine
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
New Hampshire
North Dakota
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wyoming

The 21 states cover 56% of the land area of the United States of America.

NY: Cuomo “Gun Violence” Emergency Less than it Seems

July 8, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

Gov. Cuomo’s hypocracy is on full display with comments condemning alleged Trump tyranny.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The latest example of misuse of “public health emergency” as an Orwellian phrase is by Governor Cuomo of New York. Governor Cuomo declared a First-in the Nation “Gun Violence Disaster Emergency”.

Big government proponents love “emergencies” because “emergencies” give them the power they otherwise do not have. This is why we see the ever-expanding use of “emergency” or “disaster” to apply to otherwise ordinary events.

Leftists have successfully used the term to expand their power to override nearly all Constitutionally protected rights. Progressives’ “public health” power was the start of their successful degradation of the checks and balances in the Constitution. Emergency War powers may be the only thing that is used to override Constitutional protections more than “Public Health Emergencies”.

From the news release of the office of the governor.ny.gov:
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today declared the first-in-the-nation gun violence disaster emergency as part of a new, comprehensive strategy to build a safer New York. This new strategy treats gun violence as a public health crisis, using short-term solutions to manage the immediate gun violence crisis and reduce the shooting rate, as well as long-term solutions that focus on community-based intervention and prevention strategies to break the cycle of violence. The disaster emergency allows the State to expedite money and resources to communities so they can begin targeting gun violence immediately.
Governor Cuomo is using the emergency powers to shift “gun violence” away from law enforcement to public health agencies. The new Office of Gun Violence Prevention will be overseen by the New York State Department of Public Health and will be lead by an appointee of Governor Cuomo.
Cuomo will be using the “emergency” to send $138.7 million dollars to his political allies. None of the money appears to go to the police, especially not to the local police. $76 million will go to a “jobs” program. The “jobs” program is another way to give money to political allies to dole out to buy votes. It is classic machine politics.
The plan includes some possibilities for actual homicide reduction. The plan acknowledges only a small number of individuals are responsible for most homicides. From the press release:
As with COVID, the State will use a cluster-based strategy to contain and combat the epidemic and identify gun violence hot spots where clusters of shootings are driven by small numbers of people. Initial hot spots identified in New York City, Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse, and Long Island include just 4,090 young men aged 18-24 but account for 48.5 percent of recent gun violence in those communities.
Concentrating on the small number of offenders has had success in reducing homicides. It remains to be seen whether the Cuomo plan will utilize what has been learned from past successes.
There is very little emphasis on crime in the plans. Governor Cuomo says a “Gun Trafficking Interdiction Unit will be created within the New York State Police. From the press release:
To combat the flow of illegal guns onto New York streets, the State will create a new Gun Trafficking Interdiction Unit within the New York State Police. New York State will also work with other states in the region to share gun tracing data that can stop inter-state gun traffickers and straw purchasers from introducing illegal guns into New York communities.
Notice the false assumption built into the statement.
gun tracing data that can stop inter-state gun traffickers and straw purchasers from introducing illegal guns into New York communities.
No, it can not. Gun tracing data simply does not do this to any significant extent. A few people smuggling guns into New York may be prosecuted. Just as with bootleg liquor, marijuana, and other drugs, the effect will not be measurable. Gun tracing, as a crime prevention feature, has been a colossal failure.
In all of 2019, (latest data available) only 7,363 guns were traced in all of New York State. About half of those were in New York City (3,495). The vast majority of those traced were almost certainly for simple possession, not for violent crimes.

There were about 300 homicides with guns and about 3,000 robberies with guns in 2019, In New York according to the FBI UCR.
All the guns traced by the ATF in New York in a year can be replaced with a mere 20 guns smuggled into the black market a day. This does not require extensive smuggling networks, just a few informal networks smuggling in guns one or two at a time. Guns are common and easily and legally available throughout the United States. Millions of vehicles move into and out of New York every day. The average time between when a gun is purchased, and when it is traced by New York police, is 11.25 years.
Only tiny numbers of guns are used in criminal shootings. 20 guns a day, smuggled a few at a time in private vehicles, is simply impossible to stop, or make a significant dent in. One gun can be used in multiple shootings. Guns are often shared among gang members.
There are over 470 million private guns in the United States. More than a million are being added to the private stockpile each month.
Governor Cuomo is mired in corruption, sexual harassment, and the investigation of his complicity in causing tens of thousands of deaths of elderly people by his irrational and irresponsible decisions in the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is to be expected he will use every device at his disposal to hang onto power.
The Biden Administration has used its power to send New York (read ally Governor Cuomo) tens of billions of dollars to make up for decades of bad government by the state.

Missouri Passes No-Commandeering Second Amendment Protection Act to Governor Parson

July 5, 2021 by contrib1 Leave a Comment

Missouri Passes No-Commandeering Second Amendment Protection Act to Governor Parson, iStock-884171048
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- The Missouri legislature has passed HB 85, “Second Amendment Preservation Act”. The bill passed the Senate 22 – 10 and the House 107 – 43.

The bill is a stringent anti-commandeering act that forbids Missouri officials from enforcing or aiding in the enforcement of laws inimical to Second Amendment rights. From mo.gov:

(1) Declares that laws,rules,orders,or other actions that collect data, restrict or prohibit the manufacture, ownership,and use of firearms, firearm accessories,or ammunition exclusively within this state exceed the powers granted to the federal government except to the extent they are necessary and proper for governing and regulating land and naval forces of the United States or for organizing,arming,and discipling militia forces actively employed in the service of the United States Armed Forces. Infringing actions would include any registration or tracking of firearms, firearm accessories,or ammunition or any registration or tracking of the ownership of firearms, firearm accessories,or ammunition;
The law goes much further and allows entities who have been harmed by enforcement of the federal law to sue anyone who violated their Second Amendment rights.

I do not recall seeing this approach used before, although it is somewhat similar to what is being proposed in a recent Texas bill. Both bills are awaiting signature by the governors of the respective states. Both governors have said they will sign the bills. Governor Mike Parson has set a date: 12 June at 2 p.m. Governor Abbott of Texas has not set a date. He has until 20 June to sign the Texas bill. Several other states have passed similar bills, including Arizona.
The bills are a refreshing part of a revival of federalism. Federalism was designed to curb federal power, in order to keep governance closer to the people.
With the rise of the Progressive philosophy, the administrative state found a way for all branches of government to increase their power at the expense of the people governed.
Both bills are firmly founded in the doctrine of anti-commandeering. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled the federal government may not command the states to use state resources for federal purposes.
Senator Burlison of Missouri is quoted as saying the Missouri bill does not prevent the federal government from enforcing its law. From missourinet.com:
“Gun bans directly, magazine bans, attacks on private gun manufacturers, red flag laws and restrictions on individual citizens from buying firearms,” Burlison testified in January. He emphasized that day that his bill does not try to prevent the federal government from enforcing federal gun laws in Missouri.
The left cheered this doctrine when “sanctuary states” refused to aid the federal government in enforcing immigration laws. Now the left claims no such doctrine applies to states who resist laws infringing on Second Amendment rights.
Missouri is one of 28 states which have laws that mirror the ban on weapons listed in the National Firearms Act. Short barreled rifles and shotguns, machine guns and silencers are all banned under Missouri law, with possession only allowed if permitted and licensed under Federal law.
In addition to the sanctuary state law, Texas has passed a law removing the state prohibition on silencers. The silencer or suppressor bill is also awaiting signature by Governor Abbott.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.