May first in Seattle is always a pain in the fourth point of contact. Traditionally (so to speak) the pro-illegal immigrant faction has shown solidarity and tried to win hearts and minds by blocking rush hour traffic on Interstate 5. Here's a report from last year: Seattle May Day protests marred by violence - CNN.com
"I barely believe that the anarchists are going to be barely a blimp in
the whole process," said Juan Jose Bocanegra, Co-chair of the May 1st
Coalition.
What does that even mean?)
I'll be at work, and I try to avoid Seattle in any case, but I suspect things will get sporty at this event: Stand Against Communism
And, once again they (Washington State Legiscritters) fail to do their job and come up with a budget on time.
Of course, that's partly because the Progressives running the state really, really can't stand the fact that they aren't allowed to impose an Income Tax on those they deem to be earning more than their fair share. As a side note, IIRC Federal income tax as it was originally imposed under Woodrow Wilson was something like a 2% rate on earnings over $250,000, which meant that at first it was only on "The 1%." Sounds reasonable to "the 99%", but, well, it's government, so look how that worked out. Anyway. It occurs to me that perhaps I should make it clear (again) that Joe Waldron sends this out in an email, and I just re-transmit it as a blog post, in accordance with the guidelines at the end of every post. Sometimes I make slight formatting changes, but the only "textual" changes I make are to fix spelling or punctuation. I've been doing this for years, and they haven't said anything yet, So I guess I'm OK... Finally, and congratulations to my friend Boyd Kneeland for his new position as Projects Director with the Citizen's Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
GOAL POST WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE SPECIAL SESSION
The reason for the long (105 day) session is to give
legislators time to develop an operating budget for the state. Since 2010, they
have not been able to finish this work on time and have had to go into special
sessions of 30 days (maximum) each. The major problem here is split control of
the legislature – Majority Coalition Senate and Democrat House. One presents a
balanced budget, the other wants major tax increases – I’ll let you guess which.
(Interesting to note that back in the late 1990s, the Republican Congress and
President Bill Clinton worked together to pass balanced budgets. That’s when
you had a pragmatic chief executive that was willing to work with Republicans.)
Whether the legislature drags it out until Sunday night
(Day 105) or shuts down earlier is irrelevant as far as the gun issue is concerned.
The governor says he will call a special session to start Monday, 24 April to
resolve the budget impasse. Let’s hope they can solve it in 30 days.
HB 1100 (CPL renewal notice) was signed by the Governor
on 19 April – Patriot’s Day. If a bill reaches the governor’s desk more than
five days before the end of the session, he has five days to sign it. If it
reaches him with five days or less, he has 20 days after the end of the session
to sign.
SB 5268 was rendered moot as HB 1100, it’s House
duplicate bill, went to the Governor’s 1612, 1501 and SB 5552 await the
governor’s signature.
I’ll continue to publish GOAL Post through the special session.
Remember, when the new session convenes, it is not limited to the reason for
the session – in this case passage of an operating budget – but any bill from
the previous session may be called up. So once again your gun rights are at
risk.
I’ll be at the NRA annual meeting and convention in
Atlanta 27-30 April. I’ll probably publish GOAL Post upon return.
Appropriately for the 242nd anniversary of the start of the American Revolution, the Wrongthink Sci-Fi Giveaway is giving away works of Science Fiction by authors who have been marginalize by the Social Justice Warriors who think fiction should be ideological agenda driven.
I have a t-shirt, black with red lettering saying "D.A.R.E"! It looks familiar, except in small letters it says "Derp Abuse Resistance Education". It was a limited edition at SKD Tactical, a Todd L Green memorial of sorts, raising money for Tod's Rampage For The Cure. I wore it at MAG40 last summer, and at the Langdon Tactical class.
Holster Derp
You still see people using Serpa holsters,
or imitations. I have a couple myself. I bought them because they're
reasonably priced, and retention seemed like a Good Idea.
Then
I learned that there were reports of the locking mechanism getting
jammed. "Well", I says to myself says I, "I've heard Internet rumors
about this problem but not met anyone who saw it happen, and I'm not
planning on wearing these things on a deployment or rolling around in
the dirt while wearing them..."
Well, apparently it
doesn't take rolling around in a bear pit to jam the mechanism, and I've
now read too many eye-witness accounts of having to retrieve a gun from
one of these with a pair of tin snips to want to risk it.
Plus, there's the whole "Using your trigger finger to activate the release" thing.
Now,
when I first heard these particular concerns raised I did some "dry
practice" draws, and concluded that the Serpa locking mechanism
positioned my trigger finger along the frame of my Combat Commander
where it belongs.
Trouble is, well, here's a video:
Note
that Mr. "Only a fool can't use a Serpa safely" has his trigger finger
inside the trigger guard pretty much during the whole draw stroke.
So in last week's Weekend Knowledge Dump Greg Ellifritz linked to a post Why NOT SERPA | Stuff From Hsoi
which included a video of a Serpa jamming up hard during a self-defense
training session. (Which also links to a Facebook post that includes
the video I just embedded.)
Holster Non-Derp
Last week I found myself trying to explain why you really do need to expect to spend more than a Jackson* on a holster. All too often we see someone dropping five hundred or more on a pistol, just to carry it in what Tamara calls a "sausage sack"; a soft nylon holster that collapses on the draw and that might, even if it covers the trigger guard, might not do a good job of protecting it.
Fortunately, Kathy Jackson (smooth segue, huh?) has just completed a six-part series on holsters:
If one has questions about what round to carry, the standard advice is to carry whatever the local constabulary carries. If one still has questions, the best bet is to start your research with the "sticky" threads on this page: Ammunition -- Pistol-Forum.com. Note that a couple of those stickied threads have to do with ballistic gelatin testing and wound ballistics. Minimal research will tell you that one does not simply walk into one's local Safeway and buy ballistics gelatin (do we need a Boromir meme for that...?) so when that YouTube celebrity says he was using clear Knox gelatin for his test, well...
Guns
You get what you pay for. The $500 (new) gun is better than the $300 (new) gun, and the $1000 (new) gun is better than the $500 (new) gun. (Granted, there may be exceptions, including lucking into a Steal of a Deal.)
Mind you, the qualitative difference between the three Franklin gun and the five Franklin gun may be greater than between the five and the ten. All other things being equal, an all-metal gun is almost certainly going to cost more than a polymer gun of equivalent size and quality. Do your research, and determine what you are giving up by going with, say, the Kel-Tec P3AT versus the Ruger LCP, S&W Bodyguard, or Glock 42.
Ideally, read those ammunition threads I just linked to and buy a 9mm instead of a .380...
Training
"Derp Abuse Resistance Education"...
Since I mentioned Pistol-Forum.com, one of the members has put together what is shaping up to be a pretty useful tool, which he calls the Firearms Training Hub. Looking for a specific type of class? Or classes in a specific area? Here you go. Mind you, the trainers have to let him know that they're available to include, so it is not necessarily 100% as to what is scheduled where, but it's certainly a good place to start.
Archives
I've written a few posts on the subject of derp, using the tag Derpitude
*AKA an "Irony". If that puzzles you, research Andrew Jackson's relationship with the US Bank, and extrapolate to the concept of the Federal Reserve. One must assume that Andy J would be fine with having someone else's face on the $20, although how he would feel about being replaced by Harriet Tubman I refuse to speculate.
For most bills, the legislative session effectively ended
Wednesday at 5 p.m. The remaining two weeks focus on budgets and reconciliation
between differences in bills as passed by each chamber (e.g. House bill amended
in the Senate or vice versa).
HB 1612 passed out of the Senate and SB 5268 passed the
House.
And then there is HB 1501, reporting of NICS denials. The
bill died in the Senate on Wednesday, but apparently the plan is to amend it
into one of the budget bills, which are still open to amendment. Under
Washington law, bills must be limited to a single subject and amendments
outside the scope of the bill cannot be made. This is the excuse they used to
block the CPL transfer amendment to SB 5552. So I don’t see how HB 1501 fits a
budget bill. We’ll know in a week or so.
(Let me throw in here what happened to the Koster Amendments
to SB 5552, that would have added CPL holders to the exemptions in I-594. The
amendments were offered on the floor, but ruled out of order by House Democrat
leadership. In no way were the amendments out of order. But “leadership” makes
the final decision. The House Democrat leaders weren’t about to allow us to
make a mediocre bill into a solid pro-gun bill.)
We are essentially down to four bills at this point: HB 1100
or SB 5268, the CPL renewal notice bills. Both bills were amended in the second
chamber so one of the two must gain concurrence vote) in its original chamber
before it goes to the Governor.
HB 1612, suicide prevention, was amended in the Senate, so
we’re awaiting a House concurrence vote.
SB 5552 was amended in the House, so must pass a concurrence
vote in the Senate.
Two bills passed out of their respective chamber this
week.HB 1100 passed out of the Senate. We’re waiting to see if the counterpart
bill (duplicate) passes out of the House. One way or another, unless the
governor vetoes either bill, you can expect a postcard or e-mail renewal notice
90 days before your CPL expires.
SB 5552 passed out of the House but must go back to the
Senate to have them concur (or non-concur) in the House amendment. The bill
slightly relaxes a few of the I-594 background check requirements. We tried to
amend the bill to authorize direct transfers between CPL holders, both of whom
have passed a more stringent background check than that required by I-594.The
amendment was blocked in the Democrat House.
HBs 1501 (NICS denial reporting) and 1612 (suicide
prevention) and SB5268 sit in their respective Rules Committees awaiting a
floor vote. They must pass by next Wednesday, 12 April.
After next Wednesday, the focus shift to bills that approve
and implement the budget. The only non-budget bills that may be voted on are
those that were amended in the second chamber and need to be sent to a
conference committee (both House and Senate members) to reconcile and then get
an up-or-down vote.
The long session years (odd-numbered years) are general
budget adoption years. If a budget has not been adopted by the constitutional
end of the session (midnight, 23 April this cycle), a special session of up to
30 days must be called. While the principal focus of the special session may be
the budget, ALL bills not passed during the regular session may be
reconsidered. So special sessions can be sneaky and dangerous.
And, as we have seen in the last two budget years (2013,
2015), with split control of the legislature, it may take more than one special
session to agree on a budget. Two special sessions may be necessary, possibly
three. The whole idea with the Inslee administration is to squeeze as much tax
money blood out of the productive population base rock as they can to fund
their pet projects (like sanctuary state support of illegal aliens).
BILL NUMBER
SUBJECT
SPONSOR
STATUS
GOAL POSITION:
SHB 1100
CPL renewal notice
Blake (D-19)
Passed
SUPPORT
HB 1501
Illegal purchase of firearms
Hansen (D-23)
S. Rules
SUPPORT
2SHB 1612
Suicide prevention
Orwall (D-33)
S. Rules
SUPPORT
SB 5268
CPL renewal notice
Takko (D-19)
H. Rules
SUPPORT
SB 5552
Certain exemptions to I-594
Pedersen (D-43)
Passed
SUPPORT
L&J = Law & Justice, Jud = Judiciary, HumSer = Human
Services, Aprop = Appropriations, Fin = Finance, W&M = Ways & Means“S”
before a bill number indicates Substitute (amended).
PUBLIC HEARINGS SCHEDULED: None
LEGISLATIVE HOT LINE: You may reach your Representatives and
Senator by calling the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000.Toll free!!!The
hearing impaired may obtain TDD access at 1-800-635-9993.Also toll free!!!
1-800-562-6000TDD 1-800-635-9993
OTHER DATA: Copies of pending legislation (bills),
legislative schedules and other information are available on the legislature's
web site at "www.leg.wa.gov". Bills are available in Acrobat (.pdf)
format. You may download a free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader from Adobe's
web site (http://www.adobe.com).You may also obtain hard copy bills,
initiatives, etc, in the mail from the Legislative Bill Room FREE OF CHARGE by
calling 1-360-786-7573.Copies of bills may also be ordered toll free by calling
the Legislative Hotline at (800) 562-6000.You may also hear floor and committee
hearing action live at http://www.tvw.org/ (you need "RealAudio" to
do this, available free at the TVW web site). Each bill’s web page contains a
link to any public hearing at the bottom of the page.
By reading the House and Senate "bill reports"
(hbr, sbr) for each bill, you can see how individual committee members voted. By
reading the "roll call" for each bill, you can see how the entire
House or Senate voted on any bill. The beauty of the web site is that ALL this
information is available, on line, to any citizen.
GET THE WORD OUT: If you want to subscribe to the GOAL Post
by e-mail, send a message to "jwaldron@halcyon.com". Please pass GOAL
Post on to anyone you believe may have an interest in protecting our rights. Better
yet, make a couple of copies of this message, post it on your gun club’s
bulletin board, and leave copies with your local gun shop(s). PERMISSION IS
HEREBY GRANTED TO DUPLICATE OR REDISTRIBUTE GOAL POST PROVIDED IT IS REPRODUCED
IN ITS ENTIRETY WITHOUT TEXTUAL MODIFICATION AND CREDIT IS GIVEN TO GOAL. I can
be reached at "jwaldron@halcyon.com" or by telephone at (425)
985-4867.Unfortunately, I am unable to mail hard copy GOAL Post to individuals.
Limited numbers of hard copies MAY be available at the Second Amendment
Foundation book table at WAC gun shows.
If you believe you have received this e-mail in error,
please e-mail me at "jwaldron@halcyon.com" with the words
"Unsubscribe GOAL Post" in the subject line. I will remove your name
immediately. Keep in mind GOAL Post is also published on several gun lists. If
you received GP via a list, you must contact that list's admin to unsubscribe.
Upcoming WAC gun show(s):
Puyallup 29-30 April
Monroe 6-7 May
"The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in
defense of himself, or the state, shall not be impaired, but nothing in this
section shall be construed as authorizing individuals or corporations to
organize, maintain or employ an armed body of men."
