Who's Buying These Things? One Guess

TYWIKIWDBI

As reported by Ars Technica:

Business is skyrocketing higher than ever due to the discussion on prohibition," Chris Byars, the CEO of the Ion Productions Team based in Troy, Michigan, told Ars by e-mail. "I’m a huge supporter of personal freedom and personal responsibility. Own whatever you like, unless you use it in a manner that is harmful to another or other’s property. We’ve received a large amount of support from police, fire, our customers, and interested parties regarding keeping them legal."

Byars added that the company has sold 350 units at $900 each, including shipping, in recent weeks. That's in addition to the $150,000 the company raised on IndieGoGo.

The Ion product, known as the XM42, can shoot fire over 25 feet and has more than 35 seconds of burn time per tank of fuel. With a full tank of fuel, it weighs just 10 pounds...

Shockingly, there are no current federal regulations on the possession, manufacture, sale, or use of flamethrowers.

"These devices are not regulated as they do not qualify as firearms under the National Firearms Act," Corey Ray, a spokesman with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, told Ars by e-mail.

At the state level, California requires a permit while Maryland outright bans them—Ars is not aware of any other state-level regulation. The Inhumane Weapons Convention, which the United States signed in 1981, forbids "incendiary weapons," including flamethrowers. However, this document is only an agreement between nation-states and their militaries, and it did not foresee individual possession...

Refusal Based on Religious Convictions

For TS and Kurt, who had such difficulty understanding my post about Kim Davis

What About that 3-Day Rule?

Nola

"The gunmen who committed the callous attacks in Charleston, Chattanooga and Lafayette should not have been able to acquire firearms," said Jim Johnson, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, a coalition of police organizations that includes the Major Cities Chiefs Association. "Yet, reports indicate that the three alleged perpetrators were able to buy guns either through federally licensed gun dealers or through an online website listing firearms for sale, demonstrating the need to both strengthen and expand background checks."

It makes three recommendations.

1. Background checks should be expanded to cover both purchases from federally licensed firearms dealers and private sellers. Currently, only sales from licensed dealers are included in the background check requirement.
2. As proposed by the Shooting Sports Foundation, states and federal agencies should share all disqualifying information to the background check system.
3. Gun sellers shouldn't sell a gun until the transaction is cleared by the background system, even if it takes more than the currently permitted three days.

"Last year, the FBI reported more than 2,500 guns were sold to people who should have been barred, but sales proceeded nevertheless," said Johnson, the Baltimore County (Md.) Police chief. "As the Charleston shooting rampage painfully shows, there are some cases where more time to investigate before a firearm is transferred would mean more lives saved."

The Big Shift in How 2016 Republican Candidates Talk About Their Personal Guns

The Trace

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is whatever gun-policy advocate you need him to be. On Sunday, in the aftermath of the Lafayette movie-theater shooting by John Houser, a 59-year-old man with a history of violence and instability, Jindal took to the talk shows to position himself as strict on gun access. “Here in Louisiana, we actually passed tougher laws a couple of years ago, so that, for example, if Houser had been involuntarily committed here in Louisiana, that information would automatically — we would have reported that to the national background check system,” Jindal said on Face the Nation, adding that “every state should strengthen their laws.” He didn’t mention that his administration had gutted Louisiana’s already abysmally low mental health funding, how the state continued to top most of the nation in gun deaths, or how Houser could have avoided a Louisiana background check altogether by buying his guns from a private seller or gun show.

Here’s a prediction: Calling for valuable but limited expansion of information that’s available for background checks on (some) gun purchases is likely the high watermark for action that Jindal and fellow conservatives will brook in the aftermath of the latest fatal shooting spree. The clues are in the way they talked about guns, and especially their personal firearms, leading up to this summer’s outbreak of high-profile shootings.

Guns on Campus - Not a Good Idea

College students respond to laws that would allow guns on campus. Spoiler alert: They don’t like it. At all. (via Brave New Films)

Posted by Upworthy on Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Kim Davis, The Kentucky Clerk Who Refused to Marry Gays

Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, Ky.

NYT

Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky who has defied court rulings by denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples, has vaulted suddenly from being one of the state’s thousands of little-known local officials to being a national symbol.

Since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in June that legalized same-sexmarriage, Ms. Davis has refused to issue marriage licenses to any couples, gay or straight. She has sued on the grounds that granting licenses to same-sex couples would violate her Christian beliefs.

Sacramento Community College Shooting - 1 Dead, 2 Wounded

Fox

California law enforcement officers searched for a gunman early Friday after one man was killed and two others wounded in a parking lot near a Sacramento community college campus, officials said.

The suspect fled the scene after the shooting near a baseball field Thursday afternoon, and was not found in a sweep of the campus and surrounding neighborhood, Sacrament police Sgt. Doug Morse said.

One victim was declared dead at the scene, and another was hospitalized and expected to survive. The third victim was only grazed by the bullet and was being questioned by investigators, authorities said.

The shooting started as a verbal dispute between the group of men, one of whom pulled out a gun and fired, said Dustin Poore of Los Rios police, who patrol Sacramento City College.

"A preliminary investigation revealed that a physical altercation between two groups of subjects, further escalated when a knife and gun were produced by the involved parties. It is believed that the victim of the fatal shooting was involved in the altercation," police said in a news release late Thursday. "The involvement of gang activity is not being ruled out."