Gun Nut Roundup Dec. 2010

ATF To Track Sales of Sport-Utility Rifles

The two most bullshit words in the government's lexicon are "temporary" and "limited" when discussing proposed powers for itself.  According to the NRA: "The [BATFE] has proposed that it be given emergency authority for six months, beginning January 5, to require about 8,500 firearms dealers along the border with Mexico 'to alert authorities when they sell within five consecutive business days two or more semiautomatic rifles greater than .22 caliber with detachable magazines.'  A Washington Post story reporting on the BATFE proposal described that definition as being applicable to 'so-called assault weapons,' but it would also apply to many rifles that have never been labeled with that term."

This is supposedly to stem the flow of Chinese and Russian machine-guns, rocket-launchers, and even armored vehicles that Mexican drug lords can obviously only be getting from Gander Mountain outlets north of the Rio Grande.

SAF Sues New Jersey Over Gun Permits

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is continuing it legal carpet bombing campaign against state gun laws after its victory in McDonald v. Chicago.  SAF is currently going after a state with some of the most onerous gun laws in the country: New Jersey.  At issue in the suit is NJ's permit to carry law, which requires citizens to show a "justifiable need" to carry.  Apparently you have to actually be being chased down an alleyway by a Sasquatch with a chainsaw at the exact moment you're filling out the permit application to demonstrate a "justifiable need" to the state's satisfaction.

The SAF press release states: “Law-abiding New Jersey citizens have been arbitrarily deprived of their ability to defend themselves and their families for years under the state’s horribly-crafted laws,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The law grants uncontrolled discretion to police chiefs and other public officials to deny license applications even in cases where the applicant has shown a clear and present danger exists.  [...] If being a kidnap victim, or part-time law enforcement officer, or the potential target of a known radical group does not clearly demonstrate a justifiable need,” he continued, “the defendants need to explain what would. Do citizens need guns to their heads or knives to their throats before the state considers their need to be justified?"

Switzerland Has Buttholes Too

In America whenever bans on so-called "assault weapons" were debated, gun rights supporters often pointed to Switzerland where it was common for army-issue assault rifles to be kept in the home, yet violent crime was lower than elsewhere in gun-banning Europe.  There are signs that things may be about to change in the Alpine republic, however.

According to a swissinfo.ch article, "a broad alliance of human rights groups, churches, women’s organisations, trade unions and centre-left political parties has succeeded in forcing a nationwide ballot on an anti-gun initiative," which would "set up a national arms register and ban army-issue firearms from private households."  Hopefully this initiative will fail and the Swiss island of sanity won't sink into the statist swamp that is Europe.