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A Man after my own Heart!!!!!!

Man exchanges 3D printed guns for $21,000 at New York gun buyback program

At an event held in Utica, NY in August, one man allegedly gamed the system, walking away with thousands of dollars after turning in over 100 guns he made using his 3D printer.

Since 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James has been encouraging residents of her state to participate in her office’s gun buyback program, wherein the government offers money for firearms, “no questions asked.”

At an event held in Utica, NY in August, one man allegedly gamed the system, walking away with thousands of dollars after turning in over 100 guns he made using his 3D printer.

According to WKTV, the man, known only as “Kem,” had seen posts online about people pulling off such stunts, and decided to try it for himself.

Using his $200 3D printer, Kem quickly birthed a battery of plastic firearms, and drove six hours from his home to Utica, where the buyback program was holding an event.

“I 3D-printed a bunch of lower receivers and frames for different kinds of firearms,” said Kem.

Kem explained that upon arriving in Utica, he was asked how many guns he wished to turn in, to which he replied, “110.”

After spending the rest of the day negotiating with staff, Kem was presented with 42 gift cards, each worth $500, making the total payout $21,000.

“I’m sure handing over $21,000 in gift cards to some punk kid after getting a bunch of plastic junk was a rousing success,” Kem told WKTV, adding that, “gun buybacks are a fantastic way of showing, number one, that your policies don’t work, and, number two, you’re creating perverse demand.”

He argued that programs such as James’ “don’t actually reduce crime whatsoever.”

According to James’ office, the August 27 buyback event “resulted in the collection of 296 guns, including 177 ghost guns, 42 long guns, 41 handguns, 33 non-working guns, and 3 assault rifles.”

Ghost guns are firearms that are unregistered and unregulated, often built by users themselves. Kem’s 3D-printed weapons would fit into this category.

Since 2019, James’ program has resulted in the buyback of 3,500 guns, and she has no intention of stopping any time soon.

In a statement to KWTV, her office slammed Kem for his actions, and explained that they have “adjusted [their] policies to ensure that no one can exploit this program again for personal gain.”

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ATF ‘Brace Amnesty’ Is an Unworkable Entrapment that Dictates Terms of Surrender

The ATF “brace amnesty” is a study of how a bureaucracy can maneuver around elected officials, in this case, to ban and register pistol-braced firearms. You either cough up all data on yourself and your gun or face jail and exorbitant fines.

ATF 'Brace Amnesty' Is an Unworkable Entrapment that Dictates Terms of Surrender

“The Biden-Harris Administration and the ATF are cracking down on your right to own a pistol,” Gun Owners of America declares. “The upcoming ‘Amnesty Registration’ rule for pistol braces will facilitate the banning and registration of millions of pistol-braced weapons.”

Owners will be faced with two choices, GOA warns, “Give the ATF your name, Social Security number, address, phone number, email, payment information, FINGERPRINTS, as well as the make, model, and serial number of your firearm – and provide photographic evidence of your compliance OR Face jail time and pay a $250,000 fine.”

Our Story Thus Far

How things got to this point is a case study in the Bureau usurping powers to effectively “legislate” through often contradictory rule changes. Nowhere has this been more apparent than with braces, and ATF’s on again/off again reversals on their “legality.”

“ATF initially welcomed the advent of pistol arm braces,” Rep. Matt Gaetz noted in a June 2020 letter cosigned by half-a-dozen Republican colleagues and sent to ATF, to then Attorney General William Barr (see Firearms News, Aug. 2020, Issue #15). “In 2012, ATF correctly determined that the attachment of arm braces to large pistol platforms does not constitute the manufacture of a short-barreled rifle … subject to registration requirements under the National Firearms Act…”

They repeated that assessment in a 2014 advisory to a Colorado police department, noting “certain firearm accessories such as the SIG Stability Brace have not been classified by [Firearms Technology Branch] as shoulder stocks and, therefore, using the brace improperly does not constitute a design change.” Then in 2015, everything changed.

“Any person who intends to use a handgun stabilizing brace as a shoulder stock on a pistol (having a rifled barrel under 16 inches in length or a smooth bore firearm with a barrel under 18 inches in length) must first file an ATF Form 1 and pay the applicable tax because the resulting firearm will be subject to all provisions of the NFA,” ATF declared in its “Open Letter on the Redesign of ‘Stabilizing Braces.”

Not so, a 2017 press release from SB Tactical asserted. “To the extent that the January 2015 Open Letter implied or has been construed to hold that incidental, sporadic, or situational ‘use’ of an arm-brace (in its original approved configuration) equipped firearm from a firing position at or near the shoulder was sufficient to constitute ‘redesign,’ such interpretations are incorrect and not consistent with ATF’s interpretation of the statute or the manner in which it has historically been enforced.’”

“Unbeknownst to the general public, ATF has ordained in private determination letters that it considers ‘any firearm with a length of pull over 13-1/2 inches to be designed to be fired from the shoulder,’  thereby making it a short-barreled rifle,” Gaetz continued in his letter. “However, ATF has also privately proclaimed that even firearms under this length of pull can be classified as a short-barreled rifle, if ATF identifies other (and often unspecified) applicable ‘indicators.’”

So why all the back-and-forth, and why is ATF getting ready to pull this new and unheard of “amnesty” now? Recalling the vulgar joke about why a dog licks itself, the answer here seems to be the same: Because they can.

But Can They? Really?

“NFA Division personnel will use the information collection on ATF Form 1 to determine the legality of the application under Federal, State and local law,” ATF states in its Office of Management and Budget Justification.

“Oh my, this may break the NFRTR [National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record],” a friend and colleague responded in an email group of firearms and firearms law advisors I regularly corresponded with. We’re basically a group that compares notes, offers insights and occasionally acts in concert, prompting U.S. attorneys defending ATF against one of our Freedom of Information Act requests to disparage and dismiss us as “a tangled web of connections between a small cadre of firearms activists…”

My fellow “small cadre” member is not far wrong.

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ATF’s OMB Supporting Statement assumes its “total annual IC [information collection] burden is 102,808 hours.”  That’s 2,570 40-hour weeks.

“In fiscal year (FY) 2020, ATF had 5,082 employees, including 2,653 special agents and 760 industry operations investigators,” ATF notes. How many of those will be put on Brace duty to clear out the backlog is unclear, especially since before this all the rage has been to complain about how they’re understaffed and take forever to perform traces because the mean old Republicans won’t let them put everything into one big registration database (allegedly necessitating some creative cellphone camera work by lawbreaking inspectors caught on video snapping bound book pics).

Is Help on the Way?

“The President has already proposed to increase funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) by 13% so ATF can hire new agents and investigators,” the White House announced in July as part of its “The Safer America Plan.” So, what are we really talking about in terms of making all this doable?

“Currently, there are at least four million braced pistols in the United States,” investigative journalist John Crump writes on AmmoLand. Crump is the reporter who broke this story after he uncovered and analyzed ATF’s budget request. His number estimate comports with ATF’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which claims “Anecdotal evidence from the manufacturers of the affected ‘stabilizing braces’ indicates that the manufacturers have sold between 3 million and 7 million ‘stabilizing braces’ between the years 2013 to 2020 or over the course of eight years. For the purposes of this analysis, ATF uses 3 million as the low estimate and primary estimate of affected ‘stabilizing braces.’”

“It remains to be seen if the system can withstand millions of additional form submissions,” Crump observes. “This influx of millions of new applications for the ATF Pistol Brace registration would also backlog any other forms submitted through the same processing.”

GOA, for its part, kicks that number up by an order of magnitude, noting “According to the ATF itself, completing a Form 1 takes approximately four hours. That means, the owners of up to 40,000,000 braced weapons will spend up to a collective 160,000,000 hours registering their lawfully acquired firearms … “

“The ATF reportedly processed 512,315 National Firearms Act forms in 2020,” GOA relates from ATF’s OMB statement. “At that rate – assuming no further backlog and assuming all affected gun owners comply with gun registration – it would take the ATF over 78 years to process all the pistol registration forms.”

Curious as to why there is such a huge difference between GOA’s and other estimates, Firearms News contacted Director of Federal Affairs Aiden Johnston, who cited Congressional Research Service’s “Handguns, Stabilizing Braces, and Related Components.”

“While there are no available statistics to gauge authoritatively the number of stabilizing braces already made and sold in the United States, unofficial estimates suggest that there are between 10 and 40 million stabilizing braces and similar components already in civilian hands, either purchased as accessories or already attached to firearms made at home or at the factory,” the report states. Since CRS is the Library of Congress’ official research group working “primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff,” GOA chose to use the same data lawmakers rely on.

Noting how the citizen disarmament powers-that-be operate, it’s not out of line to anticipate worst-case scenarios where what they can get today metastasizes into “everything” tomorrow.

But There’s a Bigger Issue at Play

“MAYBE what it will do is get some Member(s) of Congress to request GAO to do a forensic audit of the NFRTR to determine its accuracy and reliability,” another one of my “small cadre” advisors chimed in, pointing out the elephant in the room that “amnesty” proponents don’t much want to talk about.

There is much to talk about, but there’s much to read about first. One data-and history-rich resource is the  NFA Owners Association website, and for the purposes of this article, a new entry titled “Amnesty: Documents and ATF activities relevant to §207(b) and § 207(d) of the Gun Control Act of 1968” offers many relevant insights. Foremost among those is a 2005 CRS report (the research group discussed above) by analyst William J. Krouse titled “ATF’s National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record: Issues Regarding Data Accuracy, Completeness and Reliability.”

Or to put it in the vernacular: Garbage In/Garbage Out. And it’s been that way for a long time.

“We continuously discover discrepancies and inaccuracies in the registration file which, if discovered during trial, would destroy the future credibility of such evidence,” the then-NFA Branch Chief admitted in a 1975 internal memorandum. “If the court should discover that our negligence caused an unwarranted arrest and trial, the resultant loss of public trust would be irreparable.”

Things had not improved 20 years later when another NFA Branch Chief made a telling admission in an ATF “roll call” training session.

“Let me say that when we testify in court, we testify that the database (NFRTR) is 100% accurate. That’s what we testify to, and we will always testify to that,” he declared. “As you probably well know, that may not be 100% true.”

There’s a word for that, isn’t there? A legal term that starts with “p”…?

“Stephen Halbrook – an attorney who specializes in firearms law – has advised that in NFA-related criminal proceeedings the defense should file discovery motions for U.S. government documents… that he maintains cast a reasonable doubt as to whether the NFRTR database is accurate, complete, and reliable,” the CRS report noted.

Halbrook’s not the only one.

“In a major victory for those of us arguing that the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) is insufficient for criminal proceedings, Dr. Fritz Scheuren, ‘the’ statistician in the United States (possibly the world), today informed the United States District Court, Western District of Oklahoma … that the NFRTR is insufficient for criminal proceedings,” Prince Law Blog reported in 2008. “[T]his is a MAJOR defeat for the BATFE, who, over the years, has argued that although the NFRTR is flawed, it still can be used in criminal proceedings.”

That was the case of US v. Larry Douglas Friesen, pitting the feds against an Oklahoma City attorney and concealed carry course instructor accused of illegal machinegun possession and lying to authorities, with five counts returned by a grand jury and Friesen facing serious prison time if convicted.

The lies and inaccuracies cited above were brought to bear in the “Defendant’s Motion in Limine to Prohibit Government’s Introduction or Reference to Records Maintained in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.”

For those unfamiliar with the term, Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute tells us a Motion in Limine is “A pretrial motion asking that certain evidence be found inadmissible, and that it not be referred to or offered at trial.”

It worked, and an interested private citizen who had filed a FOIA request yielding much of the documentation the successful motion relied on  — and incidentally, a “senior founding member” of our “small cadre” – tells Firearms News “Here’s the Motion in Limine that got four felonies plea bargained down to a single $25 misdemeanor.”

The government really doesn’t want this widely known.

It’s a Trap!

Admiral Ackbar’s famous epiphany from Star Wars is echoed by Washington Gun Law President and attorney William Kirk in a YouTube video asking “Is Pistol Brace Amnesty About to Become the Biggest Trap Ever Set?”

“When examining the plain language used by the ATF on three important ATF documents, we’ve come to not only a conclusion that many of you have arrived at already, but we think we know how the trap will be sprung,” Kirk claims in the video description. “If true, this will be one of the greatest acts of deceit by any modern government.”

How?

“The dots are connected from three documents,” Kirk explains, identifying the ATF Budget Request, ATF Form 1, Application to Make and Register a Firearm, “as it currently exists and what could be added to it,” and ATF “worksheet” Form 4999 (FACTORING CRITERIA FOR RIFLED BARREL WEAPONS WITH ACCESSORIES* commonly referred to as “STABILIZING BRACES”).

“That is the form that ATF is going to be used to score an AR pistol to determine is it really an AR pistol or a federally-regulated short barrel rifle, buying you a $200 tax stamp,” Kirk elaborates, noting how photos and fingerprints will be used in the determination of if a weapon qualifies for amnesty registration, and anticipating modification of Form 1 to accommodate the new requirements.

“When you submit all that information to ATF on what will clearly be the new and improved Form 1, ATF is going to run that firearm through its 4999 checklist, and if – and trust me, most of you will be in this category – if you score four points or more on the 4999, you are going to receive a letter from ATF saying ‘your firearm does NOT qualify for amnesty registration, you OWE us a $200 tax stamp, otherwise, you can forfeit the weapon.’”

“That, my friends, is the great trap that is being set by amnesty registration,” Kirk concludes, noting that rather than being “a wild conspiracy theory,” he is “taking the language directly form ATF’s Budget Request … taking language directly form ATF’s Form 1 and … taking the criteria directly from ATF’s 4999.”

After the trap is sprung, what then? By now, all informed gun owners have seen the reports and videos of ATF showing up at people’s houses without warrants asking to see guns they have records on. Look for that to increase and look for warrants going out on people they figure they now have “probable cause” to investigate.

Remember we are dealing with enforcers of infringements who are not above entrapment, and as we see from the history of NFRTR administration, cover-ups and outright perjury. If they do show up at our doors, let’s not forget the advice of Regent Law Professor James Duane in his video presentation wherein he gives probably the most important piece of legal advice a citizen approached by law enforcement will ever hear:

“Don’t talk to the police.” (See this video on YouTube by the Regent University School of Law.)

 

About the Author

Columnist David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. In addition to being a regular featured contributor for Firearms News he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter @dcodrea and Facebook.

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Texas judge busted for having loaded gun in carry-on bag at airport By Cam Edwards

AP Photo/Michael Dwyer
According to the TSA, the number of Americans accidentally bringing their guns with them to the airport has been rising in recent years, and this year could see a record-high number of firearms seized at airport security. Already more than 4,600 firearms have been discovered at airports around the country, compared to about 6,000 over the course of 2021, and while those found with a gun in their carry-on don’t face federal criminal charges, they can have fines of up to $14,000 imposed on them for their mistake. Additionally, depending on where the goof took place, they can still have state-level charges levied against them as well.

One of the latest gun owners to find herself in this embarrassing and potentially pricey situation is Bexar County Court Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, who recently realized the hard way that she had left one of her pistols in her carry-on bag as she was going through security at the San Antonio airport on her way to a conference in Miami.

In her chambers behind County Court 13, Judge Gonzalez showed us the case she had at the checkpoint and the handgun that was in one of the pockets.

According to the police report, the handgun was “chambered with five bullets in the magazine.”

“I had a flight scheduled to go out to Miami, I had to make sure I caught the flight and it was a complete oversight on my part and I hope it serves as a lesson for people that carry to be that much more diligent in going through their things before they board a plane,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez says police allowed her wife to come pick up the gun. A San Antonio Police spokesperson said in an email that is the usual procedure.

Gonzalez was asked if she could face further repercussions.

“I think I could. I believe that the incident report has been forwarded to the district attorney’s office. I was told by the officer that TSA may follow through with a fine of some sort,” Gonzalez said.

The judge says that she owns and carries a firearm because of her work, which often puts her in contact with those accused of violent domestic abuse. Gonzalez told reporters that over the years she’s received a number of threats, likely from former defendants, and so she decided that she wanted to be able to protect herself.

I applaud her for thinking about her personal safety, but I’m sure she’s also kicking herself for not making sure she knew where her gun was before heading to the airport.

As I’ve written here previously, I’m downright paranoid when it comes to checking my bags before I travel, even though I don’t store my luggage with my guns. I guess I’m worried the Ammo Fairy is going to drop a couple of rounds in my carry-on, even though I really have no reason to be concerned.

Still, every time I fly I end up checking every pocket of my bag beforehand, just to be on the safe side. It only takes a couple of minutes but it saves me the potential headache, embarrassment, and potential fines or criminal charges that could result from being caught with a gun or ammunition while going through airport security, and I encourage all gun owners to do the same. Mistakes can happen to the best of us, even judges, but a little time and attention is all that’s need to prevent this particular misstep.

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The best 1911 .45ACP pistol shot. . . EVER by Phil Bourjaily

While compiling the timeline for “Pistol of the Century,” our tribute to the 1911 in the June issue of Field & Stream, I read through many accounts of the 1911 in combat. The most unusual shot,(and possibly the best ever) made in wartime with a 1911 pistol had to be the one fired by a USAAF B-24 co-pilot named Owen J. Baggett in March, 1943 in the skies over Burma. Of course, I am biased toward this one as it involves a flying target . . .

On a mission to destroy a railroad bridge, Baggett’s bomber squadron was intercepted by Japanese Zero fighters and his plane was badly damaged. After holding off the enemy with the top turret .50s while the gunner tried to put out onboard fires, Baggett bailed out with the rest of the crew. He and four others escaped the burning bomber before it exploded.

The Zero pilots circled back to strafe the parachuting crewmen, killing two and lightly wounding Baggett, who played dead in his harness, hoping the Japanese would leave him alone. Though playing dead, Baggett still drew his .45 and hid it alongside his leg…just in case. A Zero approached within a few feet of Baggett at near stall speeds. The pilot opened the canopy for a better look at his victim.

Baggett raised his pistol and fired four shots into the cockpit. The Zero spun out of sight. Although Baggett could never believe he had shot down a fighter plane with his pistol, at least one credible report said the plane was found crashed, the pilot thrown clear of the wreckage with a single bullet in his head.

If Baggett really did shoot down a fighter with his 1911, it has to count as one of the greatest feats ever accomplished with a .45.

Baggett survived two years in a Japanese prison camp in Singapore and eventually retired from the Air Force as a colonel.

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Well I was amused by it!

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Minute of Mae: S&W No.3 Russian 3rd Model

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Ulysses S. Grant’s Remington Revolvers By Seth Isaacson

At Rock Island Auction Company, we are no strangers to historic weapons owned by some of the biggest names in American and world history. Just last year we sold the Napoleon garnitureAlexander Hamilton’s Revolutionary War flintlock pistols and epauletsa pair of Remington revolvers attributed as presented to “The Great Liberator” Alexander II of Russia, and John Wayne’s Colt Single Action Army to name just a select few.

A-pair-of-American-Treasures-presented-to-the-future-18th-President-of-the-United-States

These timeless pieces are always an absolute thrill to work with and research, but while we all get very excited to see what they bring, it can be hard to watch them go too. My grief, however, is soon quashed by the next round of legendary artifacts to come through the door, and today’s topic presented a real historical treat: an astoundingly beautiful pair of Remington New Model Army revolvers with raised relief carved grips featuring busts of General Ulysses S. Grant that were presented to him during the Civil War. This cased set has it all: condition, rarity, artistry, and fascinating historical connections. It is sure to turn heads and is certainly expected to set a new record for the most expensive Remington revolvers ever sold

Given Grant’s immense significance as a Civil War commander and later as president from 1869 to 1877 during Reconstruction, items owned by Grant are naturally among the most desirable 19th century American artifacts, particularly those from the Civil War. They are tangible connections to one of the United States’ most iconic military leaders and to the Union cause. Ulysses S. Grant’s historic presentation engraved Remington New Model Army revolvers available for sale in Rock Island Auction Company’s May 13-15, 2022, Premier Auction are arguably the most historically significant and valuable Remington firearms of all time and certainly must be considered a “Holy Grail” for Civil War collectors.

American-treasure-Grant-Presentation-revolvers-Rock-Island-Auction-May-PremierUlysses S. Grant’s beautifully engraved presentation Remington New Model Army revolvers are available in Rock Island Auction’s May 13-15 Premier Auction.

These revolvers were presented to Grant in the latter half of 1863 or early 1864 and were hidden from public view for over a century and a half until they surfaced only a few years ago when put on display at the Las Vegas Antique Arms Show in January 2018. The set and their history were discussed in detail in the article “General Grant’s Magnificent Set of Lost Remingtons” by the late firearms author S.P. Fjestad published in the National Rifle Association’s American Rifleman. Fjestad wrote, “Without a doubt, these cased Remingtons constitute the most elaborate and historically significant set of currently known revolvers manufactured during the Civil War.”

“Unconditional Surrender” Grant

In terms of famous 19th century Americans, you can’t do much better than Ulysses S. Grant, and as a man with Illinois ties, he is particularly exciting for those of us here at Rock Island Auction. Grant rose from relative obscurity to the heights of power and international fame. He was the second American after only George Washington to become a lieutenant general and the first American to become General of the Army, and his success on the battlefield propelled him to the White House as the 18th President of the United States.

His birth name was actually Hiram Ulysses Grant, but Representative Thomas L. Hamer incorrectly listed his name as Ulysses S. Grant when he nominated Grant for West Point. There his new “U.S.” initials earned him the nickname “Sam” after Uncle Sam. After graduating in 1843, he was assigned to the 4th Infantry stationed at St. Louis, fought in the Mexican-American War, and earned a reputation as a man who was brave and could fight.

US-Grant-in-the-Civil-WarA pensive moment for Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

After the Mexican-American War, Grant hit hard times and resigned in 1854 because he had taken up drinking to console himself while separated from his family. He lived in his “Hardscrabble” cabin near St. Louis and attempted to get by as a farmer. He had a slave named William Jones that helped out on the farm, but the Grant family did not support slavery, and he manumitted Jones in 1859 despite his own desperate finances. After other failed business ventures in St. Louis, he finally accepted his father’s invitation to work at the family’s tannery in Galena, Illinois, in 1860 on the eve of the Civil War.

The “War Between the States” propelled Grant to national fame, but he did not begin the conflict as a well-known figure outside of those that knew him from West Point and the Mexican-American War. Many of his former comrades were fighting against the Union. One of them, Confederate General Richard Elwell, is quoted as saying, “There is one West Pointer, I think in Missouri, little known, and whom I hope the northern people will not find out. I mean Sam Grant. I knew him well at the Academy and in Mexico. I should fear him more than any of their officers I have yet heard of. He is not a man of genius, but he is clear-headed, quick and daring.” The North found Grant thanks to his service in the Western Theater of the war. He was initially the colonel of the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, hardly a position to make a name for himself, but that soon changed.

Grants-revolvers-in-prestine-conditionThe presentation case and accessories for the Remington New Model Army revolvers received by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant displayed remarkable leadership from the beginning of the war and a real willingness to fight and secure victory. At Fort Donelson, in Tennessee, Grant defeated the Confederates and informed Confederate commander John B. Floyd that “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.” Floyd agreed, and Grant earned the moniker “Unconditional Surrender Grant” and secured arguably the first significant Union victory of the war. Grant gained national attention, including that of President Abraham Lincoln, for his victories in the West, and he became Lincoln’s hand-picked commanding general of the U.S.

Grant was not everyone’s pick to lead due to accusations of drunkenness and the cost in blood of his tactics, but Lincoln liked Grant as a commander because he was aggressive. The president felt other Union commanders were too cautious and thus failed to secure victories and destroy the Confederate armies. When other Union generals called for Grant’s removal as commander of the Union Army of the Tennessee, Lincoln is famously reported to have remarked, “I can’t spare this man; he fights.”

L.D. Nimschke’s Masterpieces

The revolvers Grant received are true works of art on “steel canvases” and excellent examples of the idea that “not all art is framed” as you often hear at Rock Island Auction Company. Without any connection to Grant, these revolvers would still be among the most desirable of all Remington revolvers. While no signature has been found on this pair of revolvers, the author is confident in the identity of the engraver: iconic 19th century Master Engraver Louis D. Nimschke of New York. This has been confirmed based on comparison to another pair of historic Remington revolvers recently sold at Rock Island Auction Company in the May 2021 Premier Firearms Auction: the pair identified as made for presentation following the visit of the Russian fleets to the United States in 1864 (special serial numbers 8 and 11 while Grant’s are 1 and 2). That pair was signed by Nimschke, with his trademark “N,” and is recorded in his famous pull-book in detail. The patterns on both Grant’s revolvers and the Russian presentation pair are extremely similar overall.  The barrel engraving on Grant’s revolvers also matches other designs from Nimschke’s pull-book providing further proof.

US-Grant-historic-Remington-Revolvers-Rock-Island-Auction-May-Premier-2022

The majority of the exceptional engraving on these revolvers consists of Nimschke’s iconic scroll engraving patterns with punched backgrounds and floral accents. The top straps have twisted or entwining rope patterns along the sides of the sighting grooves where the Russian presentation pair featured chain designs. The Columbia’s patriotic stars and stripes pattern shield is located behind each hammer followed by “FROM YOUR FRIENDS/O.N. CUTLER. W.C. WAGLEY.” down the back straps. The left grip of the first revolver and right of the second revolver features an excellent raised relief carved eagle, flags, and Columbian shield patriotic motif that was also used on the grips of the Russian presentation revolvers. The opposite sides feature the significant and beautifully executed raised relief carved busts of General Ulysses S. Grant. This historic set comes in a deluxe rosewood presentation case with a suite of accessories.

Remington-Revolvers-Ivory-Carvings-of-General-GrantThe carved grips on the Remington New Model Army revolvers presented to Ulysses S. Grant each feature his likeness.

Grant’s uniform on the carved grips displays the insignia of a two-star general (major general). Grant attained this rank in the volunteers in 1862 after he captured Fort Donelson and then became a major general in the regular army in the fall of 1863 after he secured Vicksburg. Grant was again promoted on March 2, 1864, to three-star general (lieutenant general). These ranks and dates, plus the introduction of this model in 1863, suggest the revolvers were presented to Grant in the latter half of 1863 or early 1864 after he captured Vicksburg on the Fourth of July in 1863 and thus secured the length of the Mississippi River for the Union. The exact date, location, and circumstances of the presentation of the set remains unknown; however, the inscriptions on the back straps match the inscriptions on a pair of Colt Model 1861 Navy revolvers (11756 and 11757) also manufactured in 1863 and presented to General James B. McPherson. Together, these inscriptions provided clues about the revolvers’ history.

Grant and the Cotton Trade

The pair was presented by Otis Nelson Cutler and William C. Wagley. Fjestad concluded this incredible cased pair was “a ‘thank you’ for a wartime cotton-smuggling scheme,” and that Cutler and Wagley most likely ordered these revolvers through Schuyler, Hartley & Graham of New York City and that they then contracted Nimschke to execute the remarkable embellishment.  While period sources, including newspapers, Senate records, and Grant’s own papers, definitely link Grant and McPherson to Cutler and Wagley via the cotton trade in 1863, Grant’s participation is likely not as nefarious as Fjestad’s comments imply, but such an incredible pair inscribed from businessmen working in Union controlled territory in the South certainly sounds like a bribe. Like the claims of corruption that dogged Grant as president, the truth is more complicated and unlikely as dark as his detractors suggest.

The-Battle-of-VicksburgIn 1863, Grant’s eyes were focused on taking the fortified city of Vicksburg and solidifying Union control of the Mississippi River.

By 1863, Grant was already a Union hero following his famous victory at Fort Donelson in February of 1862 along with the triumph of the Army of the Tennessee over the Confederacy at the bloody Battle of Shiloh in April of 1862. His victories gave the Union control of the northern stretch of the Mississippi River, and the capture of New Orleans on May 1, 1862, gave the Union control of the mouth respectively. However, the Confederacy still retained control of Vicksburg, disrupting Union use of the river. The fortified city on a bend in the Mississippi became the main target for Grant, and its capture had the potential to end the war.

The river was the crucial mode of transportation for the region, including for the lucrative trade in cotton. While cotton was a leading cash crop in the South, it was also a vital raw material for northeastern industry. Grant established programs putting runaway slaves to work in camps picking cotton that could be shipped up river and sold to fund the Union war effort and to produce needed supplies. This plan, approved by President Lincoln, for moving the cotton out of the South under Union contract was also designed to help prevent the South’s most valuable cash crop from being used to fund the Confederate war effort. The workers were compensated for their work, and some of the proceeds were also used to provide them with food, clothing, and shelter.

US-Grant-cased-pair-of-Remington-New-Model-Revolvers-Serial-Number-1-and-2The engraving likely by L.D. Nimschke on this pair of presentation pistols to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant is magnificent.

The legal trade provided cover for illicit trade, and there were widespread reports of bribes and corruption. Cotton in Union controlled territory was regulated by Union officers and agents of the U.S. Treasury. Grant and his officers were in charge of granting licenses for his district. The Secretary of War was told, “Every colonel, captain or quartermaster is in a secret partnership with some operator in cotton; every soldier dreams of adding a bale of cotton to his monthly pay.” Though many Union officers were corrupt and profited through involvement in both legal and illegal trade in cotton during the war, evidence shows that Grant found the whole business to be an annoying distraction from his primary military objective: capturing Vicksburg.

Grant’s own father actually came down river with two businessmen intent on getting a contract for cotton and splitting profits. Had Grant been inclined to corruption and self-dealing, he certainly could have played along. Instead, he was furious and sent the men back north as soon as he learned of their plans. In response to all of the corruption surrounding cotton in his district, Grant also gave his most controversial order in late 1862: General Order No. 11. Under this order, Jewish residents were expelled from Grant’s district because he blamed them in part for the illicit cotton trade. The two men that had travelled with his father happened to be Jewish. Lincoln eventually reversed the order after outcry, but not before many Jewish residents had been expelled. Frustrated with dealing with the cotton trade, Grant moved to significantly curtail it all together.

News reports from the period provide important evidence for both Grant’s efforts to limit the cotton trade and his connection to the men who presented the revolvers in early 1863. The Daily Missouri Republican on February 18, 1863, noted: “It is unfortunately too true that many of our officers have been unable to resist the wonderful temptation of the cotton trade. The demoralization has been well nigh checked below by the orders of Gen. Grant, which will not allow any cotton to be shipped North, nor even bought, until Vicksburg is taken.” Coincidentally, this article appears next to one of the advertisements for “Remington’s Army & Navy Revolvers.”

Remington-Army-Navy-revolversAn advertisement for Remington Army and Navy revolvers next to an article about the cotton trade in “The Daily Missouri Republican.”

Who were Cutler and Wagley, the men who presented these revolvers? Both Cutler and Wagley were Mexican-American War veterans: Wagley was a 2nd lieutenant in the 3rd Dragoons, and Cutler was an orderly sergeant and captain in the 1st Massachusetts Volunteers. After the Mexican-American War, Cutler formed a company of men to explore for gold in California and then built a home on the family farm in Lewiston, Maine. He was later contracted for the building of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad in Missouri and moved to Hannibal where he became the superintendent of the railroad. Cutler was assigned as a special treasury agent stationed at New Orleans at the end of the Civil War, and Wagley was active in the river trade in Louisiana and continued captaining steamboats running to Mobile and Montgomery in at least 1865 and 1866.

The Nashville Daily Union on April 25, 1863, in an article from “Correspondence of the Cincinnati Gazette. Young’s Point, LA., April 7.” about “King Cotton” directly references both Grant and Wagley. The article notes that Grant had announced he would not allow cotton to go upriver until Vicksburg was taken but that some cotton was being shipped nonetheless. “A Breckenridge Democrat, whose loyalty is like that of the Enquirer, has had a contract for picking and bailing cotton in the vicinity of Lake Providence (Louisiana), – This gentleman, Wagley by name, who hails from Warsaw, Ill. Has most emphatically ‘struck ile.’ How much cotton he has sent North, I do not know, but I do know that five hundred bales are now awaiting shipment at Lake Providence and Berry’s Landing. It is a matter of comment that his cotton has been gathered already baled, from the plantations in the vicinity, and that not one-tenth of it is really picked and ginned under his superintendence. Another individual of the same stripe had nearly succeeded in getting a similar contract for the region in the vicinity of Gen. (John Alexander) McClernand, but his plan was overthrown by that officer himself. He is now endeavoring to obtain an order from Gen. Grant over Gen. McClernand’s head, and it is feared that he will succeed.”

Grant’s own papers provide more details of direct cooperation with McPherson and Wagley: “On April 1, [Grant] wrote to Capt. Ashley R. Eddy. ‘The cotton detained by you one half of which was for Government and the other for Mr. Wagley is a part of some cotton abandoned in the field and picked by Mr. Wagly [sic] under an arrangement made with him by Genl McPherson. The one half can be released to Mr. Wagley.’…When William C. Wagley wrote that Col. William S. Hillyer, provost marshal at Memphis, threatened to seize his cotton, (Lt. Col. John) Rawlins endorsed the letter. ‘This contract was made by with Mr. Wagely [sic] in the utmost good faith and must be respected. You will therefore not interfere with shipment of cotton by seizures or otherwise, unless you pass satisfactory evidence of a violation of the contract on Mr Wagely’s [sic] part, mere suspicions will not suffice.’”

US-Grant-Remington-Revolvers-presented-in-1863This pair of Remington New Model Army revolvers presented to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant are a national treasure.

This provides a clear link between Grant, McPherson, and Wagley’s role in the cotton trade, but what about Cutler? Senate documents include an additional important report for the context of this cased set that ties all of the men together: “The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the claim of O.N. Cutler, have examined the same and submit the following as their report:” It states that William C. Wagley later identified as a citizen of Illinois had a March 5, 1863, contract signed by Assistant Quartermaster John G. Klinck “for picking, ginning, and bailing of cotton then growing on the lands about Lake Providence, in the State of Louisiana, which had been abandoned by the rebel owners and occupants, and then lately brought within permanent Union lines by the advance and occupancy of the federal forces. This contract was approved by Major General McPherson, commanding that district.”

The report notes that half of the cotton was to be government property and the other half Wagley’s and that Wagley would be allowed to have his cotton shipped by the government to Memphis. On April 3, Wagley assigned his interest over to O.N. Cutler of Hannibal, Missouri. Cutler then delivered “a large amount of cotton” at Lake Providence and took his assigned half. General Grant had his quartermaster seize Cutler’s cotton to use it to protect the machinery on the steamer Tigress for a run of the Confederate blockade at Vicksburg. Captain Benjamin F. Reno recorded this amounted to 268 bales. Cutler claimed they weighed 113,900 pounds in total and had a total value of $62,645. The report concludes with a recommendation that $50,000 be appropriated by Congress to pay for this seized cotton in 1868.

This evidence clearly demonstrates that Grant and McPherson were involved in at least one valuable contract for southern cotton that served to net Wagley and Cutler considerable profits. It also shows that Grant actually seized at least one shipment of cotton as part of his efforts to capture Vicksburg. Grant’s revolvers may have been specifically presented in response to his capture of Vicksburg which gave the Union essentially full command of the Mississippi River and would have opened the river up to more trade and reduced the risks for men like Wagley and Cutler shipping cotton and other goods up and down the river. While no documentation has been found detailing when and where Grant and McPherson were presented their sets of revolvers, the information at hand certainly suggests that Wagley and Cutler presented the Union generals their respective pairs as a thank you for their assistance in the cotton trade.

Grant-Recieves-Civil-War-Appointment-to-Major-General-After-Ford-Donelson-1After serving in the Western Theater, Ulysses S. Grant was elevated to major general and was on his way to defeating Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Click on the photo to read about his appointment to major general.

On the Fourth of July, 1863, Grant’s forces captured Vicksburg and General John C. Pemberton’s approximately 30,000 strong army. The day prior, Pickett’s charge had been repulsed at Gettysburg, and Robert E. Lee’s army limped back to Virginia. Together, the Union victories in the East and West marked the ascent of the Union’s fortunes and the decline of the Confederate cause. Grant was promoted by President Lincoln to major general in the regular army and given command of the new Division of the Mississippi on October 16, 1863. His decisive victory in the Chattanooga Campaign in November opened the South up for attack. On March 2, 1864, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general and given command of all of the Union armies. Grant was formally commissioned by Lincoln on March 8 in a Cabinet meeting and worked more closely with the president for the remainder of the war. With Grant in charge, Lincoln expected Union forces to relentlessly pursue and defeat the Confederacy and finally bring the bloody war to a close.

Ending the War and Reuniting the Country

Grant directed the Union armies in pursuit of Robert E. Lee into Virginia and worked towards capturing the Confederate capital at Richmond and Petersburg to the South. He kept his men in near continual contact with the Confederate lines and slowly wore them down at a great cost in blood on both sides. Petersburg and Richmond finally fell into Union hands on April 3, 1865. Lee retreated with part of his army to fight another day, but Union victory in the war was close at hand, and Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House less than a week later on April 9. Grant’s terms of surrender were rather lenient for Lee and his men, including parole and a guarantee that the men were “not to be disturbed by U.S. authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.” Grant saw this as the end of the war. As such, the former Confederates were now their countrymen again, not the enemy. He even allowed the Confederates to keep their sidearms and horses and helped provide Lee’s bedraggled men with much needed provisions.

Most of the remaining Confederate resistance ceased by the end of the month with Joseph E. Johnston’s surrender on April 26, 1865. The final surrenders were completed a month later. By securing victory for the Union, Ulysses S. Grant provided the basis for reunification and established himself as a national hero. He remained commander of the armies as the country began reconstruction. Grant was further honored on July 25, 1866, when Congress promoted him to the newly created rank of General of the Army of the United States. Grant broke with President Andrew Johnson over the latter’s “Presidential Reconstruction” policies that were soft on former Confederates and did not protect the rights of African Americans and Republicans in the South, but Congress stepped in and guaranteed Grant’s control of the U.S. Army by passing the Command of the Army Act. After Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was illegally fired by Johnson, Grant was briefly appointed as interim Secretary of War but stepped aside when Congress reinstated Stanton, and Johnson was soon impeached in relation to the whole affair and narrowly escaped conviction.

great-american-tannerGrant was the subject of many political cartoons. This one from the election of 1868 plays off his family’s tannery in Galena and highlights his victory over the Confederacy and the Democratic ticket.

In 1868, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican National Convention as the party’s candidate for president and won the election. As president, he oversaw “Congressional Reconstruction” and the ongoing Indian Wars in the West. He sought to aid southern Republicans and African-Americans through additional legal protections and by deploying the cavalry back into the South to counteract the Ku Klux Klan and other lawless groups. Though he succeeded in winning a second term in office, claims of corruption and other scandals diminished Grant’s power in the South. Renewed conflict with Native Americans following their mistreatment also undermined his earlier peace efforts in the West. He initially declined to run for a third term and instead returned to civilian life in 1877 for the first time since the outbreak of the Civil War, but he made an unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination in 1880.

In 1884, Grant’s wealth was destroyed by a scheme executed by his business partner Ferdinand Ward. Grant had risen from poverty and obscurity once before, but his time was running out: he was diagnosed with throat and tongue cancer that fall. He sold many of his valuable Civil War relics in the 1880s to pay his debts. However, these incredible Remington New Model Army revolvers remained with the Grant family for decades. Grant may have already given the pair to one of his sons. Though destitute, Grant remained a popular figure, and his friend Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, pushed him to write his memoirs. Grant poured all of his energy into writing his autobiography while he could to ensure his wife was not left a destitute widow and very likely also to restore his name. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant was completed in 1885 just before his death and was published in two volumes through Clemen’s new publishing firm Charles L. Webster & Company. The company also published Adventures of Huckleberry Finn the same year. Grant’s autobiography became an instant American classic and is certainly worth the attention of any student of Civil War history. The proceeds of the book benefitted the Grant family, and the publication’s success also helped solidify Grant’s enduring legacy as the hero who led the Union to victory. In his memoirs, Grant wrote that the Confederate cause was “one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse,” but he also noted that he believed the Confederates truly believed in their cause and recognized their bravery and suffering in the long fight for it.

The-Last-photograph-of-US-Grant-ever-takenThe last photo taken of Ulysses S. Grant before his death in 1885.

This phenomenal pair of revolvers are believed to have been brought to California in the late 19th century by either Ulysses Grant Jr. or Jesse Grant II. The two brothers ran the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego together in the early 20th century. Jesse Grant II was the last surviving child of General Grant and died in 1934. His second wife, Lillian Grant, saved many of the Ulysses S. Grant artifacts and passed them on to Ulysses Simpson Grant V, likely including the cased pair. The cased set left the family’s possession when it was reported to have been given as payment by U.S. Grant V to a handyman who worked on the Jesse Grant II home (also known as the Julia Grant home since his mother also lived there). The handyman kept the revolvers for many years before his family was eventually convinced to sell the revolvers in 1976 to a collector. Documentation from the sale of the revolvers by the Reynolds family to Frank L. Hatch are included with the revolvers, and an affidavit from Richard Hatch, the former’s son who was present for the sale, is also included stating that the revolvers had been received as payment by Bill and Mel Reynold’s father for work on the “Grant House” in San Diego. He identified the house as the Grant house at 6th and Quince.

When these revolvers were sold in 1976, none of the individuals involved would have known who the men on the back straps were or that they were connected to Ulysses S. Grant via the cotton trade in Union controlled territory in the South. Their new owner began researching his carefully guarded treasures and had found some evidence of the cotton traders’ connections to Grant by the time of his death in 1987, but the revolvers and their connection to the great Union general remained hidden from the public. After his passing, the revolvers remained with his wife. Their son Richard inherited the pair upon her death in 2013, but the pair remained concealed for another five years. In 2018, they finally saw the light of day when they were put on display in Las Vegas.

Pistols-crossed-on-Vicksburg-paintingThis magnificent presentation pair of engraved Remington New Model Army revolvers is on offer in Rock Island Auction Company’s May 13-15 Premier Auction.

Now, for the very first and possibly last time, this pair of incredible Civil War presentation Remington revolvers with beautiful engraving by L.D. Nimschke and grips carved with busts of General Ulysses S. Grant are publicly available in our upcoming May 13-15 Premier Firearms Auction where they are estimated to sell for $1 million to $3 million.

Sources:

S.P. Fjestad, “General Grant’s Magnificent Set of Lost Remingtons” https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/general-grant-s-magnificent-set-of-lost-remingtons/

H.W. Brands, “The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace” (New York: Anchor Books, 2013), 188.

Rock Island Auction Company, Rock Island Auction May Premier Auction Volume II (Rock Island: Rock Island Auction Company, 2021), 122-127.

R.L. Wilson, “L.D. Nimschke: Firearms Engraver” (Rochester, NY: Rowe Publications, 1992), 19 and 25.

Letter from Charles A. Dana to Edwin Stanton on January 21, 1863, printed in “The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies,” Series I, Volume LII, Part I – Reports, Union Correspondence, Etc. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1898), 331.

Grant’s controversial order and his reaction to his father’s plans have been discussed at length in many articles and books, including Jonathan D. Sarna’s New York Times “Opinionator” piece “General Grant’s Infamous Order” from December 19, 2012.

Nahum S. Cutler, “A Cutler Memorial and Genealogical History…” (Greenfield: E.A. Hall & Co., 1889),461-462.

Ulysses S. Grant, “The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant Vol. 7: December 9, 1862-March 31, 1863,” ed. John Y. Simon (Carbondale and Edwardsville: University of Illinois Press, 1979), 328-329.

F. & J. Rives and George A. Bailey, “The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Third Session Fortieth Congress…”(Washington, D.C.: Office of the Congressional Globe, 1869), 1592-1593.

Ulysses S. Grant,” Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant Volume 2” (New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1886), 488-489.

Categories
All About Guns Fieldcraft Well I thought it was funny! Well I thought it was neat!

One more Month by BY DAVE WORKMAN

GEAR READY FOR HUNTING? GOOD, REMEMBER TO VOTE

Got your hunting gear together already? Great, because now you’ve got plenty
of time to study your voter’s pamphlet, get an absentee ballot if necessary,
and make sure you vote on or before Nov. 8.

 

Traditionally, I’ll be in the midst of an elk season one month from now, and I’ve got all of my hunting gear together, the truck is gassed up, my rifle is clean, got gas for the camp stove, which means I’ve got plenty of time to fill out a ballot and vote.

Around the rest of the country, many of you may be just getting into whitetail deer seasons, or waterfowl and upland bird hunting is heating up. So, since this is a reminder, there’s no excuse for not voting. If you’re going to be in the field, now’s the time to get an absentee ballot, fill it out, and stick it in the mail or a drop box.

It’s pretty easy to get an absentee ballot. Contact your local city or county election office and get the details on applying.

So, consider yourselves reminded. There is no excuse for not voting, especially this year, when much is at stake, including Second Amendment rights.

That said, this column’s readers seem to like numbers, and this week we’ve got a bunch of them.

 

Self-Defense Incidents

 

major report in Reason last month revealed what it called “the largest and most comprehensive survey of American gun owners ever conducted.”

This report “suggests” people use firearms in self-defense “about 1.7 million times a year,” and that AR-15-style rifles and magazines holding more than 10 rounds “are in common use for lawful purposes.” The study “was based on a representative sample of about 54,000 adults, 16,708 of whom were gun owners.”

 

A major survey reported last month estimates armed citizens
use firearms for self-defense about 1.7 million times annually.

 

The survey was commissioned by William English, a political economist at Georgetown University, as part of a book project, Reason said.

The research estimated there are some 415 million firearms in private ownership, including an estimated 171 million handguns, 146 million rifles and 98 million shotguns. Pretty impressive, huh?

Well, check this out: “The survey suggests that up to 44 million AR-15-style rifles and up to 542 million magazines with capacities exceeding 10 rounds are already in circulation,” the Reason report revealed.

Speaking specifically of “assault rifles,” Reason said the survey found that two-thirds of survey respondents who acknowledged owning a semi-auto long gun used them for “recreational target shooting.” Fifty percent “mentioned hunting,” refuting claims by the White House and Capitol Hill anti-gunners that nobody hunts with an AR-15. And one-third “mentioned competitive shooting.” This might include high-power matches, 3-gun competitions or some other rifle discipline.

A whopping 62% said their rifles are also used for home defense, and 35% “cited defense outside the home.”

No question about it, we own a lot of hardware, so if Congress were to somehow pass legislation banning so-called “assault rifles” and “high capacity magazines,” they’ll have a heck of a time enforcing it.

Keep this in perspective: Long before anybody tried to collect any of those firearms, there would be a herd of attorneys lining up to file so many civil rights lawsuits, it would jam the federal courts for years.

 

Homicides Up in ‘21

 

Just as this column was being written, a publication called Grid published a report stating “provisional data” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimating 48,000 deaths from “gun-related suicides, homicides, accidents and other incidents” in 2021.

It’s an 8% increase over the firearm-related fatalities in 2020, which was a fairly violent year with urban unrest and outright riots. According to the Grid article, “The death rate per 100,000 residents climbed to 14.8 last year, eclipsing decades-old rates of high gun violence, according to the CDC.”

By now, the FBI has released its Uniform Crime Report for 2021, which was to have been available just a few days ago. Insider will have some interesting data to share shortly, once we’ve had a chance to digest the report.

One thing the Grid story acknowledged is “Suicides are still the most common gun death in the United States.” In 2012, the ration was 62% of gun-related deaths were suicides and 35% were homicides, with a handful of deaths being presumably accidents or justifiable shootings. By last year, the ratio had narrowed, with 55% being suicides and 43% homicides.

Source of the data, according to the Grid article, is ‘CDC Wonder,’ a collection of online databases.

 

Gun sales may change dramatically now that three credit card firms have
adopted a new merchandising code to isolate and identify gun and ammunition purchases.

Cash and Carry

 

When news broke recently about a decision by Visa, MasterCard and American Express to create a new “merchant category code” (MCC) to help isolate and identify gun-related charges, the firearms community was justifiably peeved.

These financial institutions were under pressure from the gun prohibition lobby and a pair of anti-gun politicians, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA), to institute this scrutiny. Warren and Dean issued a press release touting their effort. They refer to “suspicious activities including straw purchases and unlawful bulk purchases” as a reason for credit card transactions to be weaponized against gun owners.

When this story first broke, a phone call from an old colleague offered an interesting suggestion: Cash-only gun purchases. If you don’t have enough cash to pay for a particular firearm, maybe put some money down and come back with more greenbacks when available to settle the balance. No credit card record, no foul.

This started with an early-September decision by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to create the new MCC for firearms retailers. While on the surface, proponents describe this scheme as an effort to prevent mass shootings by monitoring credit card activity, but some critics in the gun rights movement think this could be a backdoor registration scheme.

Jim Shepherd, a colleague and editor of The Outdoor Wire, called it “a calculated move to circumvent regulations preventing federal tracking of gun sales.”

 

Rep. Karen Bass, an anti-gun California Democrat, lost two handguns from her
Los Angeles home to burglars. (Official image from Bass’ congressional website.)

Call it Karma, Karen

 

U.S. Representative Karen Bass (D-CA), who has been representing California’s 37th District and is now running for the office of Los Angeles mayor, is an anti-gunner based on the “F” grade she recently received from the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

So, when Bass reported a burglary at her Los Angeles home, she wound up with egg on her face because two guns were part of the loot taken. Bass claimed the guns were safely stored.

According to various published reports, the perps took nothing else, even though they could have taken cash, electronics and “other valuables.”

Bass told reporters the guns had been purchased years ago. According to a Fox News affiliate in Los Angeles, Bass said the guns had been for personal protection, a right her voting record suggests she wasn’t concerned about for her constituents.

 

Don’t Rob Cops

 

Here’s a bit of advice to would-be robbers: Don’t try ripping off undercover cops because it will not end well.

This is a lesson learned the hard way by a 19-year-old suspect in a drug deal gone really bad in Prince William County, Va., according to The Washington Post. The newspaper said a man identified as Jaiden M. Carter was one of three people involved in the caper, which an attorney for the Carter family quickly declared was “another example of unnecessary police brutality.”

Carter and another man, identified as Jalil M. Turner, were allegedly involved in a drug buy, but instead tried to rob the undercover cops of their buy money. They allegedly took the money and “additional property,” before returning to their own car. About that time, backup officers arrived and “converged on the car.” There was “an exchange of gunfire,” the newspaper reported. Carter was fatally wounded.

The Post quoted a statement from police, which said two handguns were recovered at the crime scene and one of the guns had been “illegally modified to be fully automatic with an extended magazine.”