The National Gun Victims Action council is one of dozens of small gun control groups founded by a grieving parent. In this case it’s Eliot Fineman [above] whose son Michael was gunned down in 2006. According to the org’s website, “This utterly senseless act was committed by a mentally ill man who had no legal right to a gun yet was able to buy it legally because of holes in the background check database.” At sentencing, the killer’s lawyer said his client’s mental illness went untreated. And even if the NICS check had stopped Ralph Garbarini from buying a gun, the madman might have acquired a firearm from another source. That said, I’m not a grieving parent who’s spent an eternity playing woulda coulda shoulda. Thank God. But it’s important to note that that trauma can lead to this . . .
Wayne LaPierre Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the NRA has been in the news a lot of late. He gave the NRA’s response to the massacre at Sandy Hook—never mentioning anything about the victims in his speech. He did speak of his proposed National School Shield Program but did not talk about a Shield program for theaters in Aurora, CO or shopping malls in Portland Oregon, or parking lots in Tucson, AZ. He has testified before Congress, has been interviewed extensively on T.V., radio, is often quoted in print, and was a speaker at the recent CPAC in Washington D.C.
He is taken as a serious commentator on issues related to guns. He assures us that the only reason we have any of our freedoms is due to the Second Amendment. That if we lived in a country without a Second Amendment we would be pitiless slaves—without any freedoms—under the rule of tyrants. Was he talking about living in countries like England, France, Italy, and Sweden? (A country to live in with no gun regulations—LaPierre’s dream—is Somalia.) Does he have a point? Are his rants sensible or are they, in fact, the rants of a psychopath?
Fineman’s blog goes on to share professional criteria for what constitutes a psychopath, clearly indicating that he believes the NRA Prez qualifies.
I know Wayne comes over a bit stiff. OK, a lot stiff. But Fineman’s ad hominem attack on the NRA jefe tells us more about Mr. Fineman than it does about Mr. LaPierre. It tells us that he’s looking for someone to blame for his son’s incredibly random, indeed senseless death. That man is in jail.
Mr. Fineman doesn’t see it that way. He believes the NRA, the gun industry and gun nuts are to blame for firearms-related death and injury. And so he wants to disarm civilians, people who fear the fate that befell Mr. Fineman’s son. And Mr. Fineman. That’s deeply misguided and not a little ironic. But it’s also sad. And dangerous.
According to his website, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, the United Church of Christ, the National Council of Churches (NCC), and the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) support the National Gun Victims Action Council. They would do well to see the hatred buried in Mr. Fineman’s heart and move away. No good can come of it.
I’ve read (in Jeff Cooper’s book, I think) that about 100 people a year escaped the eastern block. Mostly guards! Of course, they had mine fields and dogs and riflemen on towers. I don’t want that. The way things are going, I might one day want to escape.
I own 4 Hi*Points and have never had the problem you mentioned. Do you really know how to shoot a pistol? I can Put my shots in a 2.5 group at 9to 12 yards and have never had a jam or misfeed.I own a 9MM pistol,45 pistol 380 pistol and a 9MM carbine Hi-Poits
Why does he have a creepy, evil sh*t eating grin when he’s trying to share his pain about his son Michael being shot by a lunatic?
This is pretty rad, but why on earth did they not send you an FNS-9 Longslide instead of the standard 4″ barreled FNS? I would think they’d want to push their competitor to the G34, M&P Pro and XDM-Comp, but eh.
Regardless, it will be interesting to see how the FNS compares since there is no out of the box ready striker pistol for competition anymore. Glock has officially tarnished their rep for utter reliability and QC and are resistant to change, M&P 9mms basically require an Apex Trigger, and the XDM is, well, an XDM. Always good to see another competitor – maybe FNH’s guns, which always seem to suffer from a lack of exposure, can get properly competition tested and vetted since you’ve started blogging for them.
Homicide rate may not be the best measure. One thing to keep in mind is that medical science has improved dramatically since the peaks in the 1970’s and 1980’s. So given the same number of shootings, today fewer people would die than 20 to 30 years ago. It may be as much a triumph of medical science as a reduction in shootings. I’d be more interested in seeing the rate of “gun-related” violence overthe period as it would be a better measuring stick for these purposes.
Confession time: (i) I have an (expiring) subscription to Business Week; and, (ii) I have made some very unflattering comments about the NRA. The second has been well documented here at TTAG.
Business Week’s cover story hatchet job on the NRA has caused me to rethink my position and admit that I have been overly critical. As of tonight I am an NRA member. Any enemy of my enemy and all that.
Thank the Gods – noone’s deriding the liberal. Refreshing.
I hope their quality doesn’t suffer from branching out. Multiple locations may be harder to manage.
Would be pretty awesome to have an Ohio made pmag though, not that I think we’re on the short list.
Does anyone from CO think this will galvanize voters to vote these dems out in the next election?
I honestly couldn’t tell you. I want to believe it will but there are A LOT of leftists and druggies here now that come from leftists hell holes who brought their voting habits with them. Leftists are like locusts. They destroy their home states then move to red states and vote for the same policies. There might be a few pick ups across the state but Denver and Boulder pretty much pick the Governor for the rest of us.
Arkansas would be perfect; Walther and Umarex operate in Fort Smith, and I think Remington has a plant outside Little Rock. Plus, no gun grabbers.
I blame the gun control lobby for the gun violence. Instead of passing legislation that would actually prevent these sort of crimes, the anti-gun keep piling worthless regulations on top of another. In addition, the anti-gunners spread misinformation and outright lies about firearms, which further results in ignorant laws(and people). The pro-2A lobby then has to expend resources to deal with these unconstitutional, anti-freedom laws in addition to a misinformed populace swayed by the anti-gun demagogy. Knowledge and wisdom empowers, and if the anti-gun have to support their ideology through lies and appealing to the emotions, then they are in the wrong.
“Not only should there be complete liberty in matters of religion and opinion, but complete liberty for each man to lead his life as he desires, provided only that in so he does not wrong his neighbor.”
-Theodore Roosevelt
Well a couple things-
– There sure are a lot of people trying to point things out who appear to have no idea what they’re talking about.
– Cameras always make things appear further away, especially when they have wider fields of view to capture more of the scene, like almost all dashcams and helmet cams. Watch a russian dashcam vid and maybe you can realize how different it would look “in real life” compared to the video.
– Pretty much everyone can easily see a person 2-400m away and up to a km away in even terrain, with the naked eye, just go to a mall or something and look. Video resolution and field of view means that they look much smaller to the point of not being able to pick them out at all. I had thought that this was common knowledge.
– max effective range on an m4 is 500m on a man sized target, or 600m if you are attempting to suppress a group of enemies. 300m is simply the furthest distance in a standard rifle qualification fire, and is easily hit with iron sights. with an acog, i’ve hit a man-sized target at 700m, though that was in training on a well stabilized platform.
– this engagement was probably out to 400 or so m, maybe a bit more, it’s hard to tell with the camera. but if you couldn’t see the explosion (most viewers can), you probably shouldn’t be complaining about not seeing the people 🙂
– even outside the point range, you can still suppress. this isn’t hunting for doe, you know. the 5.56 is designed to penetrate a steel helmet at 600m, but that doesn’t mean it won’t screw up a dude past that range, and they know that. the 7.62 out of a m240b will mess you up out to 900m.
– oh geez, and i completely forgot – that snapping about midway through the vid was unmistakably incoming fire coming close to the camera’s position. so that should give you some indicator about range, seeing as they use AK’s.
A friend of mine works in school admin in area and said that killer went to high school first, saw security vehicle and so he went to next school down – which was Sandy Hook Elementary. Why wasn’t this reported?
I hope Magpul chooses only “Right to Work,” states.
I always have mixed feelings about training rounds that look like real rounds. Rule #1 is always treat a gun as if its loaded. Not knowing reinforces this rule – having to rely on colors or feel gives a false sense of security. On the other hand, there is certainly the potential for mix up – especially if you mix it up in a life threatening situation and put the dummy ammo in.
Okay not to sound a little fruity Nick… not that there is anything wrong with those who are born that way… but are you losing weight? It looks like you’ve really been hitting the gym.
As someone who was in great shape, then not-so-great shape, now getting back into shape, there is a tremendous difference in how you feel and fitness definitely will positively impact your shooting.
Keep it up!
The red dot sight is a game changer on a combat pistol. Ideally, you want a Trijicon RMR with backup irons cowitnessing the RMR between them. TSD Combat systems does this best. They modify Glock, M&P, and Sig slides, maybe a different make if you inquire.
First of all the Constitution has nothing to say about the difference between a 7-round limit and one of 10. Secondly, the joke’s on you. After haggling between 100- and 30-round allowances you were threatened with only 7. Now it looks like you’ll have to live with 10. Who wins?
Every 10 seconds a human dies on this planet so there’s no need to make a fuss over this one death as one day we all die.
Fineman is just another sick, little jew, who is as phony as that ridiculous smile. Pro gun people won’t even debate the pissant anymore because theres no point to it ! Why waste your time arguing with an idiot,or give him any undo publicity that he will just try to twist around with more lies and bullshit ? This little jew is totally and complete irrela
Typical of the fomenting, anti-gun crowd… Spout names and hysteria, but no substance or facts. On the other hand, you confront THEM with facts and substance, and they call you names, make us feel like degenerative diseases on society, and then walk away with their noses in the air. Goes to show that you can’t fix those who refuse to hear truth… See? No name calling here…