Advice on weaponry

House looks to expand right to carry concealed weapons as gun-control advocates hold vigils

Nicole Gaudiano
USA TODAY
Published 3:31 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2017 | Updated 7:21 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2017

WASHINGTON — The House is expected to take up gun legislation this week to expand concealed carry rights, the National Rifle Association’s top legislative priority, as gun-control advocates hold vigils across the country for victims of gun violence.

The move comes a week before the fifth anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that killed 26 people in Newtown, Conn., and follows two of the deadliest shootings in modern U.S. history. In October, a gunman killed 58 people and wounded more than 500 in Las Vegas. A month later, another gunman opened fire in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 25 people including a pregnant woman whose unborn baby also died.

“They are being insensitive and basically irresponsible for moving forward with the NRA’s No. 1 bill,” said Po Murray, chair of the Newtown Action Alliance. “We’re not shocked and we’re not surprised by their actions but we’re pretty outraged.”

The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act would require each state to recognize concealed carry permits from every other state — as they would a driver’s license — regardless of different permitting standards. Residents of states that don't require permits to carry a concealed weapon would be able to carry their weapons in other states that allow concealed carry, as long as they abide by local laws.

The NRA says the bill would eliminate a confusing patchwork of state concealed-carry laws and reciprocity agreements that can cause a law-abiding gun owner to unwittingly break the law while traveling out of state. Gun control advocates object to the bill on its merits, saying it endangers public safety and makes it harder for police to enforce gun laws by forcing states with strong permitting standards to honor permits from states with weaker ones.

But Murray said it’s also “egregious” that the bill could get a floor vote as early as Wednesday, the day of the fifth annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence in Washington, D.C. Murray said the national vigil is the anchor for 230 other local vigils in 40 states during December. It commemorates the Dec. 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, along with honoring 500,000 Americans killed or injured by guns since then.

The Newtown Action Alliance and other gun-control groups hosting the vigil have been planning for it since last year’s ended, Murray said. All members of Congress received an emailed invitation months ago, followed up by a printed invitation on Tuesday, she said.

“They are certainly aware that we are holding this vigil,” she said.

A spokesman for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-N.C., who sets the floor schedule, did not respond to a request for comment.

Tatum Gibson, a spokeswoman for the bill's sponsor, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said in a statement, "We have nothing but heartache and compassion for the victims of Sandy Hook, but concealed carry reciprocity has nothing to do with this tragedy and the congressman had Sandy Hook in mind when he helped pass the largest mental health reform in a generation last year."

The concealed carry bill is expected to be combined, when it goes to the House floor, with another measure to boost authorities' reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, NICS. The bill, called “Fix NICS,” is less controversial and came as a response to the Texas shooting, which might have been prevented if authorities had reported the gunman’s violent history.

Other measures proposed by gun-control advocates in the wake of the shootings, including the expansion of background checks or a ban on rapid-fire devices such as "bump stocks," remain stalled. However, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on firearm accessory regulation and enforcement of federal and state reporting to NICS.

Concealed carry is expected to easily pass the House but it likely would have a tougher time in the Senate, where it would need Democratic votes to pass.

Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, lead sponsor of both the concealed carry and Fix NICS Senate bills, told reporters on Wednesday that it would be a “mistake” to combine the two measures, according to The Daily Caller.

“We have good bipartisan support for that,” he said of the Fix NICS bill. “It’s really important and it will save lives, but if we start trying to add other things to it, then I think we risk not doing anything which has sort of been the fate of a lot of the legislation we’ve tried in the past. So, I’d like to do the fix NICS and then we can move on from there.”

Lucy McBath, faith and outreach leader for Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, said concealed carry is a “poison pill” for Fix NICS.

“You’re going to doom the good part of the proposal because you’re attaching it to something that’s so egregious,” said McBath, whose son Jordan Davis was shot and killed in 2012 during an argument over loud music at a gas station. “We can’t overlook the dangerous part of this proposal.”

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Uwe said:

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Gun maker's exploding rifle leaves trail of injured hunters

RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
December 5, 2017

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — It was the opening day of deer hunting season, and Ronald Hansen says he loaded his rifle the same way he had countless times before, aimed at a target and fired a shot.

This time, the gun barrel exploded, knocking the farmer from Hampton, Iowa, backward, severely damaging his right hand and ear and burning his face.

Unknown to Hansen, the manufacturer of the rifle that injured him in 2014 had received other complaints of explosions and injuries over the prior decade. Customers repeatedly reported that the barrel of the stainless steel 10 ML-II muzzleloader exploded, burst, split or cracked, according to thousands of court documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Lawyers for the company, Westfield, Massachusetts-based Savage Arms, were expected to appear Wednesday in federal court in Iowa to defend against a lawsuit filed by Hansen. He is seeking damages for his injuries, alleging the company failed to warn customers about the alleged defect and seeks damages for his injuries.

It's one of several lawsuits that have claimed the company recklessly kept the muzzleloaders on the market even as they kept occasionally mangling hands, damaging hearing and burning faces. At least three have been settled on a confidential basis since last year.

Martin Crimp, a Michigan State University metals expert who examined a 10ML-II that exploded and caused a hunter to lose multiple fingers in 2009, told the AP the barrel of that gun was "metallurgically defective."

An expert hired by Hansen's lawyers came to a similar conclusion, saying the steel used to make the rifle was prone to catastrophic failure after repeat firings.

Anthony Pisciotti, an outside lawyer for Savage Arms, said he wasn't authorized to comment. A spokesman for its parent company, Vista Outdoor, didn't return messages.

Savage Arms, which discontinued the gun in 2010 after thousands were on the market, has insisted it's safe when used properly, has no defects and was designed in accordance with industry standards.

Savage Arms has argued that operator error is to blame for the explosions, saying users must have created too much pressure inside the barrel either by loading two bullets or using the wrong amount or type of gunpowder. It has issued a safety notice on its website warning owners to "carefully follow the safe loading procedures" in the product manual to avoid injuries.

Hansen's case highlights how gun makers, unlike manufacturers of other consumer products, have the sole discretion to decide themselves whether to recall potentially dangerous weapons. In 1976, Congress blocked the newly-created Consumer Product Safety Commission, which has broad authority to regulate everything from toasters to toys and BB guns, from restricting the manufacture or sale of firearms.

"It's an example of an industry that can essentially do whatever they want and there's no consequences other than being held accountable in a civil liability context," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center in Washington D.C.

Other companies have faced allegations that they allowed unsafe guns to stay on the market. Remington agreed to replace triggers in its popular Model 700 rifles — only after several lawsuits claiming that they were prone to accidentally discharging. Ruger was accused of marketing revolvers for decades that could fire when dropped.

Savage Arms recently agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Trent Procter, who was on a hunting trip with friends in October 2009 when the 10 ML-II he'd owned for years "just blew apart" when he shot at a target.

Procter, 48, missed nine months of work from his job as a power company lineman as he endured surgeries on his left hand and rehabilitation. He had to move to a different job and still experiences numbness due to nerve damage in his hand, where he's missing parts of his thumb and middle finger.

Photos of Procter's hand were shared on hunting websites after the explosion, and he said it was insulting that some suggested he and not a defective product was to blame.

"I'm surprised it was never recalled or a warning was put out that this was actually happening," he said. "It's quite scary when you think about it."

Last year, the company also settled a case brought by Michigan hunter Rodney Palatka and his wife, who was pregnant with twins and suffered a miscarriage after witnessing her husband's injuries.

James Putman of North Carolina alleges in a pending lawsuit that his Savage 10ML-II burst as he hunted last year in the George Washington National Forest, blasting his thumb off and forcing his early retirement as a firefighter.

Savage Arms started making the 10ML-II in 2001. It was designed to withstand the use of smokeless powder, which appealed to some shooters because it didn't require the same messy cleanup as black powder.

The company's knowledge of the barrel problems is becoming clear after years of lawsuits.

In Palatka's case, a federal magistrate in 2015 sanctioned the company for a "purposeful record of obfuscation" that included falsely claiming that it was aware of only two prior explosions while withholding information that showed otherwise.

The company acknowledged in Hansen's case that it received 45 legal claims related to burst or split barrels dating to 2004. Hansen's lawyers say documents show Savage Arms created a special "muzzleloader return team" and faced hundreds of warranty and service claims.

Some hunters were offered free replacement rifles after they were told their errors caused the damage.

Hansen, 50 and a lifelong hunter, testified in an August deposition that he followed the recommended procedures when he loaded his 10ML-II, which he bought in 2010 and had shot 200 times. He said he weighed and loaded 43 grains of the recommended powder and one bullet. He set a target at 50 yards, laid on a dirt pile, aimed and fired.

Hansen, who was rushed to the emergency room after the explosion, testified he still struggles to hear even with a hearing aid and cannot perform some farm chores due to his hand injury.

Savage Arms has suggested that Hansen used an improper mix of powders that caused too much pressure. Trial is set for next year.

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vreihen said:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gun-makers-exploding-rifle-leaves-183639208.html

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vreihen said:

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vreihen said:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/guns-ganja-firearm-owning-pot-fans-face-choice-164203955.html

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vreihen said:

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Beleaguered Gun Maker Remington Points to Bankruptcy Court
Remington reaches financing deal that'll allow it continue operating as it seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Feb. 12, 2018, at 11:40 a.m.
The Associated Press

MADISON, N.C. (AP) — Remington, the gun maker beset by falling sales and lawsuits tied to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, has reached a financing deal that would allow it to continue operating as it seeks Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The maker of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the Connecticut shooting that left 20 first-graders and six educators dead in 2012, said Monday that the agreement with lenders will reduce its debt by about $700 million and add about $145 million in new capital.

The company was cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting, but investors repulsed by the massacres distanced themselves from the company's owner, investment firm Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus acquired the gun maker in 2007, just when gun sales began to skyrocket.

Firearm background checks, a reliable barometer of gun sales, had risen steadily for at least a decade.

That changed last year with the election of President Donald Trump, and it has taken a toll on the gun industry.

Gun sales spike on the election of candidates who are perceived to be more likely to pursue more stringent gun control laws, whether or not there is any truth in that perception.

The opposite has occurred since Trump was elected. He became the first sitting president to address the National Rifle Association in three decades, telling members at their annual meeting last spring that "You have a true friend and champion in the White House."

Firearm background checks declined faster in 2017 than in any year since 1998, when the FBI first began compiling the data.

While Remington is not a publicly traded company, shares in rival Sturm, Ruger & Co. slid almost 3 percent Monday. It's shares have fallen almost 14 percent this year.

Remington Outdoor Co., the nation's oldest gun maker, will attempt to file a prepackaged reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code.

The company, based in Madison, North Carolina, did not respond to attempts by The Associated Press to contact the company about the timing of bankruptcy procedures.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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