The Associated Press got their facts wrong on yet another firearms-related story today, something I know that readers will find absolutely shocking.

In this story about Moscow, Idaho gunman Jason Hamilton, they made two glaring fact errors regarding the firearms used in Hamilton's deadly Sunday rampage.

They waste no time, blowing the facts in the lede.

A man who went on a deadly shooting rampage with two high-powered assault rifles was supposed to have surrendered his firearms after being convicted of domestic assault, authorities said Wednesday.

By definition, "assault rifles" are not high-powered.

Further, they are selective-fire, meaning they can be fired semi-automatically (one bullet at a time for each trigger pull) or automatically (multiple shots per trigger pull), with the mode of fire determined by a selector switch on the weapon. Neither of these firearms had that capability.

And what were the firearms used?

Hamilton used an AK-47 assault rifle and a Springfield M-1A rifle, both bought legally before he was convicted of assaulting his girlfriend in 2006, Duke said.

I'll state that the Associated Press flatly blew it here.

AK-47s are heavily regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934 (requiring an extensive, nearly prohibitive background check), and none have been imported or manufactured for civilian sale in the United States since 1986. Because demand among collectors is much higher than supply, a true AK-pattern rifle would probably cost between $16,500-$20,000, using this site as a guide.

A janitor, Hamilton would not likely be able to afford such a firearm.

He carried out his attacks with a rifle that looked like an AK-47, but it is no more an AK-47 than this 1987 Pontiac is a Ferrari.

New let's refer back to the lead for one second.

If you recall, it said two "assault rifles" were used. We've already established the fact that neither weapon fit the definition, and that one of those firearms could only be termed an assault rifle based upon how it looked. The other firearm doesn't even look like one.

This is the Springfield Armory M-1A.

Even by the most tortured media definition, the M-1A is no assault rifle or assault weapon. It is most properly categorized as a battle rifle, and it is typically valued in both military and civilian shooting circles for it's long-range precision. As such, it is very popular in target competitions.

Once again, the media blew the facts in a firearms-related story.

Surprising, I know.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:14 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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In New Jersey:

New Jersey moved yesterday toward becoming the second state to outlaw the powerful .50-caliber rifle that critics contend could potentially be used in terrorist attacks.

The guns, which resemble large hunting rifles, are accurate up to 11/2 miles, and opponents contend that they could be used to penetrate an airliner or ignite chemical plants, rail tank cars and refineries.

California is the only state with a similar law.

Legislation that would make New Jersey follow suit was released yesterday by an Assembly committee and can now be considered by the full Assembly.

The proposed ban is getting renewed attention after federal investigators announced this week that they had foiled an alleged terrorist plot by six men who were planning to attack Fort Dix.

"As unnerving as the Fort Dix terrorism plot was, it could have been all the more worse if the weapons of choice for alleged assailants had been .50-caliber assault guns instead of AK-47s," said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D., Mercer).

This is a man holding a .50-caliber rifle (source).

You'll note that the rifle in question is a Steyr HS50, a 28.5-pound, single-shot rifle that weighs roughly 30 pounds with a scope and one cartridge in the chamber. Because of its weight, I assure you he did not hold this pose for very long.

This is what that rifle looks like with a scope.

Let's fisk this anti-gun tirade on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis.

New Jersey moved yesterday toward becoming the second state to outlaw the powerful .50-caliber rifle that critics contend could potentially be used in terrorist attacks.

Lets go past things that "could potentially be used in terrorist attacks," and actually look at thinks that have been used in terrorist attacks:

• shoes
• electrical tape
• fertilizer
• all fuels
• hydrogen peroxide
• and on, and on, and on...

There has never been any sort of documented crime committed in the United States with a .50 BMG rifle.

The guns, which resemble large hunting rifles, are accurate up to 11/2 miles, and opponents contend that they could be used to penetrate an airliner or ignite chemical plants, rail tank cars and refineries.

Actually, they are large hunting rifles, as this Field and Stream article attests. Mechanically, they are no different than any other rifles, other than scaling to match size of the cartridge they use.

Yes, opponents do contend that .50 BMG rifles could be used to penetrate an airliner, but the simple fact of the matter is that virtually any bullet, from the lowly .22 long rifle to all handgun and rifle cartridges will penetrate the very thin aluminum skill of an airliner.

As for the size of the hole such a bullet would cause, here is a high-tech rendering of the size of the hole a .50-caliber rifle would make (left) versus the extremely common .30-caliber rifle (right).

You'll note that if you hold your thumb up next to the .50 "hole" that it is roughly the size of your thumbnail. By comparison, most broadhead arrows have a cutting diameter of more than one inch.

.50 BMG bullets carry far more energy than most rifle bullets, but commercially available bullets are not explosive, and military API (armor-piercing incendiary) cartridges do not function well in these precision rifles. Combine those facts that with the near impossibility of being able to hit a distant moving aircraft with a single bullet from a 30-pound single shot rifle, and the case made by hysterical and ignorant gun control advocates is laughable.

Chemical plants and rail cars?

Not a chance:

When asked about the alleged threat of .50cal rifles to his railcars, Mr. Darymple said that they have long tested their cars against almost every form of firearm, to include .50BMG and larger. When asked what happens when a .50 hits one of his tanks he said with a shrug "It bounces off." He went on to point out that railcars are designed to survive the force of derailing, and collision with other railcars at travel speeds. By comparison the impact of a bullet, any bullet, is like a mosquito bite.

Refineries? Perhaps possible, but nearly any other form of weapon would be far more concealable, far cheaper, and far more effective.

California is the only state with a similar law.

Legislation that would make New Jersey follow suit was released yesterday by an Assembly committee and can now be considered by the full Assembly.

And how well is that law working?

To date, both the .416 Barrett and .510 DTC Europ have been developed to completely invalidate the ban California passed and New Jersey is trying to implement. There is an upside: these cartridges are said by some to be even more accurate than the .50 BMG they replace.

The proposed ban is getting renewed attention after federal investigators announced this week that they had foiled an alleged terrorist plot by six men who were planning to attack Fort Dix.

Irrelevant, anyone?

New Jersey is also overrun by the mentally ill. Quick, ban moose hunting!

And the closing quote from the article, provided by one of New Jersey's mentally ill:

"As unnerving as the Fort Dix terrorism plot was, it could have been all the more worse if the weapons of choice for alleged assailants had been .50-caliber assault guns instead of AK-47s," said Assemblyman Reed Gusciora (D., Mercer).

Mr. Gusciora, most .50 rifles sold in the United States are single-shot rifles, and because of their excessive weight, are almost always fired prone. Perhaps a New Jersey Democrat would rather our soldiers be attacked with a lightweight, far more concealable fully-automatic weapon capable of firing hundreds of rounds per minute as the terrorists intended, but I promise, that to a man, any knowledgeable soldier would rather be attacked with a ponderous .50-caliber single-shot rifle than an AK-47.

Thus ends today's lesson.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:46 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Last night, Vernon Pardue fulfilled a promise he made to me in late 2005. Shortly before 10:00PM, I got an email from him:

Hello Bob

Can you give e a call ASAP
I need to talk to you.

On October 19, 2005, I wrote one of the most difficult blog entries I've ever had to write, Torn.

I wrote then:

Law enforcement officers, like members of the military, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders are the sheepdogs that keep the wolves at bay. These men and women and their families make sacrifices every day that those of us they protect will never fully understand.

Because of all that these families do for us, when I find myself squaring off against the bereaved widow of a law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty, I do not enter into such opposition lightly.

On February 12, 2004, Wake County Sheriff's investigator Mark Tucker was gunned down by Matthew Charles Grant, a felon who didn't want to go back to prison for being the possession of a weapon. Deputy Tucker's widow, backed by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, filed suit against Cary Jewelry & Pawn in October of 2005, alleging that:

...Cary Jewelry & Pawn, of Cary, North Carolina, negligently and illegally sold the murder weapon to an obviously dangerous person.

In November 2003, Van McQueen and Matthew Grant went to Cary Jewelry & Pawn to buy a firearm. McQueen planned to purchase a firearm as a straw buyer for Grant, because Grant was a felon prohibited from buying guns, and in return Grant promised to buy McQueen a beer. McQueen was mentally deficient and was obviously intoxicated, and the shop's clerk refused to sell him a gun. Three days later, McQueen returned to the pawn shop with Grant, again wanting to buy a firearm. Although his home address was a local mission, McQueen had $120 in cash to buy the weapon. This time, even though the same clerk who had seen McQueen intoxicated three days earlier was on duty, the shop completed the all-cash sale. McQueen then transferred the shotgun to Grant, who used it to shoot Investigator Tucker in the face, killing him. Grant was arrested, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Investigator Tucker.

"The evidence in this case clearly shows that the gun dealer irresponsibly and illegally sold a shotgun to a man it knew to be dangerous," said Daniel R. Vice, Staff Attorney with the Brady Center. "The gun dealer chose to make a quick buck rather than protect public safety; greed and recklessness caused the death of a brave law enforcement officer."

That was according to the Brady Press release.

I questioned the Brady Center's claim, and then did a bit of investigative journalism, publishing my findings several weeks later in a post called Lawyers, Guns, and Money. My investigation showed that several of the allegations made by the Brady Center against Cary Jewelry and Pawn and its owner, Vernon Pardue, in their civil case, were falsified.

Vandorance McQueen was not mentally deficient, did not live in a mission, and did not buy the firearms three days after being turned down.

After I spoke with Pardue about this case in November of 2005, he promised he'd get back in touch with me with any major developments. He made good on his promise.

Last night, Mr. Pardue let me know that Brady has decided to drop its civil suit against him. He perhaps gives me too much credit in thanking me for my writing on the case. It was the blatant falsehoods of the Brady Center case, and the opposition of Sherrif Tucker's blood relatives, that probably had far more influence on the decision to drop the case, as Dan Tucker, Sheriff Tucker's youngest brother, noted in a comment on November 22, 2005:

Hello CY, I am really glad I finally found a website that has been following this nonsense and has made sense from it. I am the youngest brother of Mark Tucker. I would like to publicize the fact that Mark's immediate famiy (by that I mean blood family) have absolutely nothing to with this frivilous law suit against Cary Jewelry and Pawn. We found out about it the same way most of Wake County did, via the local news. I was in the courtroom last year everyday of the trial. I know for a fact that if the pawn shop had done anything wrong, the DA's office would have charged them with criminal charges. I have personally been to see Vernan Pardue to apologize for what he is going to go through and to let him know that I hold no grudges. I would stop this if I could and believe me I've tried. And I am sure Mark would not go along with what is happening in this case. In my opinion this lawsuit is purely for publicity and exposure.

I held then, and still believe now, that the Brady Center was not interested in anything remotely like justice for the murder of Sheriff's Investigator Tucker. Justice was served by a court of law. Matthew Charles Grant is in prison. I strongly suspect that the Brady Center and its lawyers were cynically using the death of a brave law enforcement officer and the grief of his family to push a political agenda. It is a cruel, callous organization that would pursue such a manipulative course of action.

My heart goes out to the Tucker family. They will never be whole again. But I am thankful that Vernon Pardue can finally put this politically-generated nightmare behind him. If I did indeed play a small role in stopping this frivolous case, I'm thankful. Creating more misery and destroying more lives because of tragedy is not justice.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:20 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Where did AFP dig this up, the Smithsonian?

While the blurred edges and inadequate lighting make a positive ID very difficult, it certainly appears that AFP might be using a century-old 1903 Colt Hammerless pistol in this obviously and admitted staged photo related to the Virginia Tech massacre.

Update: Speaking of guns lost in time, an eagle-eyed Glennstapundit links to a gun control article at the Huffington Post, noting that the guns in the photo aren't real; they're Airsoft.

You would think that some subtle clues would encourage the HuffPuffers to question the authenticity of the weapons pictured--perhaps the grenade launcher component slung under the barrel of the gun held by the guy in the white shirt might have clued them in, or the fact that the rifle in question was a prototype cancelled in 2005--but apparently these little details slipped through the cracks.

They do give the Associated Press photo credit, however, and I wonder if the AP might have botched it as well.

Update: According to Canada.com, the AP photo shows firearms on display at an NRA convention in Pittsburgh, PA. A quick Google search indicates that the convention was held in April, 2004. The firearms in question appear to be part of a "hands on" display focusing on next-generation military combat rifles.

They are decidedly not for sale in Virginia, as the Huffington Post article seems to imply, and could not be sold to civilians under federal law, as all of the firearms displayed are automatic weapons manufactured after 1986.

The Huffington Post is lying with pictures, just not in the way we originally thought. Thanks to SayUncle's "Quack" for catching the photo's origins.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:13 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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An officer tentatively identified as Pc Richard Gray was killed by a gunman who turned the weapon on himself:

The armed response unit officer has been widely named as Pc Richard Gray.

The gunman is said to have killed himself following Sunday's shooting in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, which was reported to have come after a row.

West Mercia chief Paul West said the PC's family was "understandably devastated". He was reportedly praised recently after tackling a gunman.

As noted above, the dead officer was recently praised for tackling another suspect armed with a semi-automatic pistol.

It has been said thousands of times, but bears repeating: criminals that ignore other laws will also ignore firearm laws. The end result is that only law-abiding citizens will be disarmed.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Details are posted on the Fresno State web site.

The shooter, Jonquel Brooks, is a student, as it one of the wounded victims. The person killed and the other injured person are not students according to the University, but KESQ reports that the deceased is a former student. Neither of the two wounded sustained life-threatening injuries in the shooting that occurred late last night. Brooks has been surrounded in an off campus apartment by a Fresno PD SWAT team, and they are attempting to get him to surrender.

The incident is viewed as isolated, and Fresno State remains open.

Though California already has among the most restrictive gun laws in the United States, expect the usual suspects to use this shooting to push for more gun control.

Update: Not such a great perimeter. The shooter slipped away.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:36 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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