The Mayors Against Illegal Guns seems to remain clueless about what causes the major increase in the murder rate in America’s largest cities. These people cannot seem to grasp the idea that if you don’t punish criminals, let criminals out of jail and let murderer’s walk out of jail with small bonds or no bond at all, the murder rate will increase. Dumb as a box of rocks is the phrase that comes to mind, or are they? The Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a cover. I believe their aim is your guns and my guns. I believe their real goal is to make the uninformed ones believe that all guns are the problem. When criminals are stopped by law-abiding citizens defending themselves, the media doesn’t cover it or if they do, the story disappears in a matter of hours. Thieves are getting bolder and bolder. In Chicago, Joe Perillo who owns Gold Coast Exotic Motor Cars, stated that criminals made off with $2,000,000 worth of watches. Some of those people who live on the Gold Coast believe crime won’t affect them. Of course, they have armed security in their Gold Coast high rises. This might be a wakeup call to them, eh maybe, possibly, ok, maybe not.
In the meantime, those of us who live in the real world are continuously preparing to defend ourselves. The November NICS background checks were the second highest in history for the month of November. There were 2.69 million background checks in November which resulted in approximately 1.51 million firearms sold.
Vista Outdoors, makers of CCI, Remington and Federal Ammunition has announced it is hiring 1500 new employees to make ammunition. Remington has announced they will be making Peters Blue again. In 1934, Remington purchased Peters Cartridge Company and the new name became Remington Peters. The new Peters Blue shells are designed to shoot skeet, trap, and sporting clays.
Recently, I have received several letters and phone calls from people who were admitted to the hospital and signed paperwork; they either did not read, did not understand, or did not have their glasses so they could not see what they were signing which resulted in them losing their FOID or ICCL. Do not go to the hospital without someone to watch out for you and be an advocate for you. Do not sign anything or consent to anything if you do not understand it.
In a little more than a month, the Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT SHOW) will take place in Las Vegas, NV. It has been two years since we have had a SHOT SHOW. The last two were canceled because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It will be interesting to see the changes that have occurred over the last two years. With the demand for firearms and ammunition going through the roof, I will be particularly interested in what the various manufactures say about all of that.
The anti-hunting Center for Biological Diversity is once again trying to stop hunting on public lands. They have filed a lawsuit to stop the use of public lands for hunting. The fact is they want to stop hunting all together. This law does not include fishing but that is where they intend to go in the future. I know, just what we need, another bunch of crack pots. Their excuse is to protect endangered species which no one hunts anyway.
I regret to inform everyone that Lyle Robert (Bob) Leckrone passed away. Bob was the leader of the Egyptian Gun Collectors and the largest promoter in central Illinois. Bob was always a friend to the ISRA and to me personally. We will miss him greatly. He passed away at the age of 87.
Sunday morning, I was sitting in my mother-in-law’s kitchen gazing out the patio doors at the huge hard maple tree that dominates her back yard. There were only two leaves still hanging on the tree. A few minutes later a cold December rain began pattering against the doors and windows and the last two leaves that were on the maple tree floated to their final resting place on the ground. Mother Nature had officially informed me that Fall was over, and winter was on its way.
I am pleased to inform everyone that the Illinois State Rifle Association has leased a space on Commercial Row at the World Shooting Complex in Sparta, Illinois. We will be in units 502-503 in Building Five on the west end of Commercial Row. All the paperwork is not completed yet, but we have the commitment from the IDNR. We will keep you updated.
The Illinois State Police (ISP) has announced further progress in reducing the FOID card backlog. According to the ISP, they are currently processing FOID card renewal applications in 38 calendar days. The FOID card renewal backlog was 138,722 in November of 2020, 28,648 in September of 2021 and is currently at 7,800.
I am sure these numbers include those FOID card applications that are without problems. I imagine those that have missing, or incorrect information will take a little longer and have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. On an encouraging note, ISP Director, Brendan F. Kelly, stated “The Illinois State Police Firearms Services Bureau is committed to a firearms background check system focused on safety, not bureaucracy. We want to make it easy on the good guys and hard on the bad guys. We continue to improve our workflow and these updated numbers show we are definitely headed in the right direction.”
A couple of weeks ago, I was in my favorite shoe and boot repair shop and another customer was having a discussion about why people need high-capacity magazines. I did not chime in because the other customer was doing a fine job. For those who are unaware, or worse, don’t want to be aware, few attacks involve just one person these days. In fact, 5% percent involve five or more people. Moreover, they have no qualms about killing you or anyone else. In Oceanside, California, this week, there was a home invasion at 1am that involved six assailants. At least one was armed with a firearm but when you are outnumbered six to one, it doesn’t make much difference. Remember, the leading cause of murder is still hands, fists and feet, not firearms. Fortunately, the homeowner had his firearm ready. One assailant was Dead Right There (DRT), another was wounded laying in the yard and the other four were eventually rounded up. If the homeowner had not been ready with a high-capacity magazine, this story, most likely, would have had a different outcome. Multiple attackers have become the way of the world. In your practice session, you need to consider practicing engaging multiple targets.
From time to time I get calls from varmint hunters regarding night vision and thermal imaging scopes. I will tell you up front I am no expert on these things, but I do keep an eye out for items that might be of interest. Burris Optics has come out with a new “Click On” thermal imaging scope. Night vision and thermal imaging scopes have required a dedicated rifle for the most part unless the hunter was willing to change scopes on his rifle which would require re-zeroing the rifles each time. The Burris “Click On” mounts on your regular rifle scope and can be added or taken off without the need to re-zero or buy a different rifle. For those varmint hunters who are interested in thermal imaging, this might be a solution for you.
There are a couple of things that are giving the left wingers and their media partners heartburn. The first of these is the Kyle Rittenhouse verdicts. They are still stumbling all over trying to twist the story to be anything but what it is, which is the fact that individuals have a right to defend themselves and it was upheld in court. The second fact that is giving them heartburn is the Waukesha incident where the suspect ran down and killed several people and injured many others. The left-wing media either doesn’t talk about it or they blame the SUV. They do not want to hold the driver, Darrell Brooks Jr, responsible. Brooks was let out on $1,000 bail a couple of days before he murdered six people with his SUV that he was driving. Brook’s previous convictions include, sex offenses, resisting arrest, strangulation, and running down a woman with a vehicle, and the list goes on and on. This is what you get with the no bail or low bail laws. Innocent people get killed by hardened criminals who know how to work the system. The lame stream media is fishtailing and, in my opinion, are a large part of the problem. Grrr.
Anti-gun leftist students at Arizona State University are trying to stop Kyle Rittenhouse’s admission to the university. They, of course, think they are smarter than the jury, they are not. This is just another example of the bigotry on the left. As of yet, Rittenhouse has not filed an anti-defamation suit, but I wish he would.
The Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco, California, has upheld California magazine bans. The decision in Duncan v Bonta stated that the 10 round limit only minimally interferes with a person’s right to self-defense. Any interference with a person’s right to self-defense is too much. All the Ninth Circuit Court had to do was look out the window and see 60 to 100 rioters (some armed) destroying shopping areas, to know that 10 rounds are not enough in self-defense in many situations. This will be appealed to the United States Supreme Court.