Archive for February 2012

Open letter to Scott Sunde **Updated**

By on February 7, 2012
This entry is filed under Commentary and tagged .

An open letter to Scott Sunde from the Seattle PI. Let’s see if I get a reply…

First, read this article: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Komen-said-no-to-Planned-Parenthood-but-yes-to-2990641.php

Here is the email send to Mr. Sunde. There is a reply below from Mr. Sunde as well now.

Mr. Sunde,

I read your article on the Susan G. Komen foundation and guns. There are several things in your article that I have a problem with. The first is that women with breast cancer come from all walks of life from house wives to hunters. People that support these women that get breast cancer also come from those same circumstances. But you writing an article that demonizes a pink firearm that gives to the foundation is just as bad as demonizing that pink spatula that you find in your local grocery store. Because I would hope that journalistic integrity is important to you I am positive that if there was a notorious spatula killing your article would have read much differently.

Just because a Walther P-22 was used in the Virginia Tech shootings doesn’t any less demonize the firearm. That is like saying that a majority of accidents on the roadways involve Toyota Camery’s, so it must be the fault of Toyota right? The make and model has nothing to do with actual collision in 99% of the cases out there. Saying that a certain make and model firearm is at fault for a shooting sounds just as silly. Fact is that the human element is the commonality in both of our scenarios. But you leave this part out even though it is the most important part. Why is that? A human being makes decisions to pull out a firearm and use it just as much as a human being makes the decision to merge into another vehicle or run a stop sign. That decision making process is the most important part here, because without an operator, a car just as much as a gun would cease to function.

You also make it sound as if just because the weapon was used at Virginia Tech that SGK Foundation should run screaming from it is also just as silly as the car scenario. Should they, hypothetically, not make a pink Toyota Camery because they are in more collisions then any other car? Or should they do it because the act of one person should not outweigh the benefit to the group.

While I may not entirely agree with how the SGK foundation functions, the fact remains that they do good work in funding research for breast cancer. The ability for anyone, from any walk of life to purchase something that supports a cause that may or may not directly affect them should be a moot point. If someone wants everyone on the range that day to know that they support breast cancer, why should that be taken away from them? Who are you, as a journalist, to judge them for what they want to label and the people that want to support the cause?

I would think that you would be in support of them getting every dollar they can to fight such a horrible disease. While I disagree with them pulling the funding from planned parenthood, I wholeheartedly agree with them making anything pink they can to get as much support as they can for their cause. I am glad you don’t like support a cause. What other causes do you not support?

I really would appreciate a response to this email.

Thank You,
Samuel B. Cadle
wagunrights.net

 

So I have now heard back from Scott Sunde at the Seattle PI… Below is his response…

 

Thanks for your note. I wrote the short story because of the context. The Planned Parenthood controversy. Plus, it was a Seattle company.

I never said firearms are wrong or that the foundation shouldn’t lend its name to them. I own some myself.

Firearms, like abortion, is controversial. And owning a gun or having an abortion is also constitutionally protected.

I mentioned Virginia Tech because I did a search on “Walter P-22” and found that link.

He didn’t use any form of salutation, or even put his name on it.  This is the kind of people we call journalists now?  He could not even form a proper email, uses grammatically incorrect English and doesn’t even complete a sentence or thought.  Just WOW………………..

You throw something in an article because you goggled a Walter P-22 and that is what came up?  If I believed everything I read on the web, or took out of context I would never get anything done.  The internet is notorious for inaccurate and erroneous information that is totally pointless.

I put a call into Discount Guns for comment and they pointed me to their open letter and had no comment. But it did sound like they have been receiving a lot of calls on the matter because they definitely sounded like their answer has been rehearsed and used many times.  Their open letter can be found here: http://www.discountgunsales.com/SGKF.pdf

 

Recipe for a Revolution

By on February 1, 2012
This entry is filed under Uncategorized.

From StormCloudsGathering’s channel.  While I may not agree with all of the information, it is still a reminder that we are in charge, and can still change the course that we are headed down.  As someone who could be called an “enemy combatant” because of my views and the fact that I own weapons, I implore you to at least listen and judge for yourself.  When Senator Graham stands in front of the senate and says “when they say I want my lawyer, you tell them shut up, you don’t get a lawyer, you’re are an enemy combatant.” people need to listen, understand and start taking action before they too are declared an “enemy combatant” and disappear.  This video has been re-uploaded to my youtube channel, found here.

Common Misconceptions on WA Gun laws [Part 1]

By on February 1, 2012
This entry is filed under Uncategorized.

    There are several misconceptions that I hear every day from people who own guns in Washington State. They range from understandable to wildly dramatic to wanting to straight up smack someone. I am going to attempt to answer some of those questions here. I feel that it is important to not only educate people, but give them the best information possible. First and foremost, working in the firearm industry, and dealing with people that carry on a daily basis I run into a lot of people that don’t even know where they cannot carry a firearm in public. This one always makes me stop and wonder, then how are they carrying and are they not carrying in places that they can, or worse carrying in places off limits by law.

  1. Where Can/Can’t I carry a firearm

This question is easiest to answer by covering the “cannot” side of things. Places that are off limits to a firearm are pretty black and white here in Washington State. The RCW for this is 9.41.300 and it covers all the places that you are prohibited from carrying a weapon, with the exception of one.

  • Restricted access portion of a jail or police department.
    • Anyplace used for the confinement of a prisoner. These are not common access areas.
  • Court Houses, which defines any place there are court proceedings and areas used to conduct court business.
    • Courts are supposed to, by law, have lock boxes or a means of checking a legally carried firearm.
  • Restricted areas of mental health facilities.
  • Any place that is posted with liquor control board signage prohibiting minors.
    • This does not include restaurants that serve alcohol, just the bar portion. You may carry a weapon into someplace like Red Robin or Applebee’s and sit in the restaurant portion.
  • Secure area of airports. So any place past the screening point is a no-go. Anyplace before the security checkpoints is ok, like check in area, baggage claim, parking garage etc….
  • Schools buildings or places designated solely for a school function.
    • So if the school rents out the aquarium for a dance, and the general public is excluded from entry, then carry would be prohibited. If there is just a field trip and the aquarium is still open to the public, carry would be allowed.
    • With a valid Washington State CPL you can carry while dropping off a student at school, and lock a firearm in your car (glove box, lock box) out of sight on school grounds.
  • Federal Buildings.

These are the places that you cannot carry a firearm. Any place else that you come across is ok. Parks and municipal buildings sometimes will have no firearm signs, but because of 9.41.290 (State Preemption) you can carry a firearm there without breaking any laws, as long as they are not one of the prohibited places. Private business will also put up no-firearms signs, other times they will not put up signs, but make policy on the fly. A private business in Washington State can only ask you to leave if you are discovered to have a firearm. At that point, if you refuse you can be trespassed and charged, with trespassing, not a weapons violation. I will delve into state preemption soon, as it will take up its own blog post or two. Stay tuned if you are looking for more information on state preemption.

 

  1. A gun purchased is registered to me! If I buy a firearm from someone I need to register it!

This is a pretty common misconception. First, let me put it like this. WASHINGTON STATE DOES NOT HAVE A REGISTRATION. There, now that’s out there. This really end up being a two prong misconception. If you buy a hand gun from a Federal Firearms Licensed dealer, you will fill out a pistol transfer form. This form is required by the state to transfer the pistol to you. It is not putting the gun in your name. It is not a registration.

Many times I also hear people say “if my gun is stolen, it’s tied to me if the commit a crime.” While this is not only untrue, it is a misconception that the gun is tied to you. Yes, if the ATF can look up the serial number it will show as sold to you by a FFL because your name and the serial number are on the Form 4473. If you had a gun stolen, I would hope that you would have filed a police report stating that. This is your best defense against the ATF if they were to knock on your door. The best way to deal with that is to step outside, shut the door to your house. Advise them that you can talk to them outside, and they are not welcome to come in without a warrant. At that time tell them the firearm was stolen on ____ date. Advise them you have a police report stating as such. Go back inside, ALONE, get the police report and produce it for them. Do not let them take it, if you have the ability, make them a copy. If not, they can write down the case number and get their own copy of the report. Giving them your copy means that you will now have to get another copy, which can take time and during this time you have no report showing the firearm was stolen. This will satisfy their inquiry into the weapon, and will not hear from them again about the matter.

On the other side of this is selling and purchasing firearms private party. In Washington State you can sell a firearm to anyone that is legally able to possess a firearm at any time, for any amount of money. So that shotgun you bought last year and never used? You can sell that to someone and make some money out of it. The easiest way to do this is to ask them to see their CPL if they have one. While not required, it will give you peace of mind that they are allowed to possess a weapon. Many people will also do a bill of sale with the seller’s info, buyer’s info and firearm info. This will go into their records just in case the ATF was ever to knock on their door about the firearm. Again, this is not required to sell a firearm to a private party. Once the firearm is sold, you are done. Keep in mind here, you cannot go to a police station to have them transfer the weapon. The police will not run the other person or the firearm for you. Not only is it a waste of their time, it is also illegal for them to do. Another thing to keep in mind is that a gun store will not do the paperwork for you. They have a business to run, and are not interested in getting involved in private party transfers.

While not something that I advocate, there is a Washington Department of Licensing form that you can fill out that is called a Pistol/Revolver Private Disposition/Transfer. You can fill this out, have both partied sign it and mail it is. This form is voluntary, and does not need to be filled out as there is not necessarily a record of you buying the handgun in the first place. Many people that deal in firearms choose to keep the government out of their lives and gun safes. I will never buy a firearm from anyone that will be requiring a transfer form to mail in, period…end of story. There are plenty of other guns out there with reasonable people selling them that don’t need to get everyone and their cousin involved with the sale of a firearm.

Stay tuned for more WA State firearm myths that I see and deal with quite often…. Including open carry, carrying a firearm in your car and state preemption as well as many more! If you have a topic or question or misconception that you get send it my way and I will research and put up a blog post about it!

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