Harley Davidson of Bloomington stands up for gun owners

From Bloomington, Indiana – home of the Herald Times’ gun owner database comes the following great news. The local Harley-Davidson dealership, one of the advertisers on the Herald Times’ website has decided to put their money where their mouth is:

“Harley-Davidson of Bloomington believes in freedom and is a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights … We believe the decision of the Herald-Times, a valued business partner, to publish a searchable database of gun permit holders in the state of Indiana by street, is an unnecessary and dangerous practice.”

The condemnation in itself is great, but here’s the part that makes me proud…and that makes me want to head down to Bloomington and pick up a 2009 Sportster Iron 883.

Update: if you saw this post when it went up yesterday, it mentioned a promotion that the Harley dealership was going to run with a local gun shop, where if you bought a Harley, you’d get a free gun. That promotion was cancelled by Harley corporate, but not because it was firearm related. Rather, Harley doesn’t allow cross-brand promos of any type.

Harley-Davidson of Bloomington is taking a stand for gun owners in Indiana. Regardless of the actions of HD corporate, the Bloomington dealership understands and respects the rights of American citizens to keep and bear arms.

My hat is off to Harley of Bloomington for standing up for their employees, and for gun owners across Indiana.

If you missed

Armed American Radio last night, have no fear – it’s available for download!  I was on in hour 2 and 3 of the show with the host Mark from US Concealed Carry Magazine as well as Rob Pincus, former Gun Nuts Radio guest and host of The Best Defense and (starting next week) Swat Magazine TV!  Download Hour 2 here, and here’s Hour 3 of Armed American Radio.

We obviously talked about the whole thing with the paper in Bloomington, and my appearance on Fox News opposite Dennis Henigan.  Dennis earned the coveted Bonehead of the Week Award for his less than inspiring performance comparing gun owners to criminals and sex offenders.

Rob spent some time talking about his new show on the Outdoor Channel which I’m very excited for: SWAT Magazine TV.  SWAT Magazine is one of the best gun rags out there and from what Rob was saying about the show in hour 3 of last night’s Armed American Radio, it’s going to be good.  They take a look at tactics and training for America’s high-speed low-drag teams and how they apply and don’t apply to the armed citizen.  It will also feature profiles of their guest instructors, giving you an insight into what makes the Louis Awebucks and Ken Campbells of the world tick.

Again, if you’d like to hear hour 2 and 3 of Armed American Radio, hit those links people!

Flawless victory!

Why in the world would we want to wait till the government does it to protest? It’s way to late by that point, so lets stop it while it’s still at the “opinion makers” stage, and go after it aggressively before it gets to the yellow stars.

In comments here.  Backstory: Joanna disagrees some of the rhetoric and hyperbole that’s been used during this whole kerfluffle with the Indy news establishment getting their database on.  She’s right in that to some people comparing this to printing a list of Jews or Muslims may seem hysterical, however at the same time is quite the apt comparison.

The Constitution makes no differentiation between freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms.  They are all equal rights, equally enshrined in the bill of rights.  So printing a database that infringes on any of those rights is equivalently bad, regardless of which right it infringes upon.  However, the quote from Anonymous above really hits it for me – right now, the government isn’t doing this.  It’s the media, it’s private parties.  So we should protest it loudly now, because when the government starts printing lists of gun owners, we are already screwed.

Oh frabjous day

It appears that Obama will get his wish of a health care bill, even as some hard left and the media (redundancy alert) are decrying the bill for having the single payer health care stripped out of it.  Apparently, the Chosen One is on TV right now gloating about this.  If you’re wondering just how stupid this bill is, well here’s the first one: it includes a tax on tanning salons.  I kid you not, tanning salons are being targeted with like a 10% national tax.  I hope small businesses like having the government come after their wallets.

In other news, here are some gift ideas for after Congress passes this stupid bill!

Armed American Radio!

Don’t forget to listen to Armed American Radio tonight at 9pm Eastern time.  I’ll be joining the show to talk about Bloomington’s permit database and whatever else may come up.  That’s tonight, live on the radio in several cities, and always live at www.armedamericanradio.org!  It should be a great show, Mark (the host) is a good guy, Rob Pincus will be on to talk about SWAT TV – check it out at 9pm Eastern time!  http://armedamericanradio.org/

New Mini-30 in 2010

Neat! In 2010 Ruger is going to be offering the Mini-30 with factory 20 round magazines. From the Ruger blog:

The popular Ruger Mini Thirty® rifle is now available with 20-round magazines. Chambered for 7.62×39, the Mini Thirty is an ideal autoloader for deer-sized game. Featuring the reliable action of the Ruger Mini-14® series of rifles first introduced in 1974, the Mini Thirty is simple, rugged and reliable, hallmarks of all Ruger firearms.

I like the Mini-etc line of rifles, and factory 20 rounders would go a long way towards making the 7.62 version a legit home defense gun.

No clear national policy?

The new Director of Public Safety for Indianapolis is an import from New York city, and he’s also apparently illiterate. Why do I say that?Because he erroneously believes that there is no clear national policy that governs personal ownership of firearms. Now, I don’t know how they do things in New York, but around here the “national policy” is understood to be “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”. It’s also in the Indiana state Constitution, and well establishe in Indiana case law.

Thankfully, Indiana also has preemption, which means that no matter how much our new import-from-New-York whines and cries about it, he cannot pass new gun control for Indianapolis/Marion County without directly violating state law.

I’m not at all pleased with Mayor Ballard right now – at this rate he’s going to end up joining Mayors against Guns or something else stupid. And let’s not forget that Indiana has a spotty track record for allegedly “Republican” mayors going to be major players in national anti-gun organizations.

Shape up, Mayor Ballard.

XDM KaBoom

This is the kind of thing that just creeps me out. Steve’s got pictures of an XDM in .40 S&W that just blew right the hell up. The worst thing is that they don’t know what caused it, but they suspect a round firing out of battery. I will say that it’s interesting how the pistol failed, look at the parts are missing or damaged. It’s a weird damage pattern.

The shooter is okay, other than being rattled and needing a new gun!

Precision Delta Backs Youth Shooting

From USPSA/Steel Challenge:

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. — The Scholastic Steel Challenge (SSC) has picked up another prominent industry partner who will be supporting the program though an exclusive product discount for SSC shooters. Precision Delta Corporation has announced it will provide SSC teams with a 20% discount on new or reloaded 9mm ammunition.

“We are proud to be an SSC industry partner,” said Joe Tranum, president of Precision Delta. “Since our founding in 1982, we have grown to become one of the largest manufacturers of remanufactured pistol ammunition and we recognize how important it is for companies like ours to give back to the shooting sports. That’s why we are thrilled to provide SSC teams with a 20% discount on the ammunition they’ll need, not just to train and compete, but to win.”

The Scholastic Steel Challenge is a national team-oriented youth shooting program developed by the Steel Challenge Shooting Association (SCSA) and funded in part by a grant from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. The program is open to young men and women ages 12 to 20 and offers them the opportunity to compete as a four person team for a national title in the action pistol discipline of speed shooting.

Already the program has received support from the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Smith & Wesson, the Outdoor Wire Digital Network, Glock, Action Target and EOTAC which have committed over $150,000 in funding and product.

“I appreciate Precision Delta coming on board with SSC in these trying times for ammo buyers” said Scott Moore, director for the Scholastic Steel Challenge. “Giving teams ready access to high-quality ammunition at a special discounted price will be a big boost to the SSC program and help insure the growth of the sport of Speed Shooting.”­

For more information on the Scholastic Steel Challenge and the Steel Challenge Shooting As­sociation please visit www.steelchallenge.com.­