Progress

I have been battling depression for several weeks; the downside of my usual hypomanic state.  I'm feeling better and more energetic today.  It doesn't hurt that Geenwood Publishing, who published books 2, 4, and 5, are asking for chapters from my book on early gunsmithing.

Nice National Review Piece About Constitutional Carry

In particular how fast it is spreading.

ScopeRoller Price Increase Seems Not to Be a Problem

Orders coming in at the new higher prices.

Please, President Obama, Don't Help Me!

1/25/17 Yahoo News:

A former gang member saw his prison sentence commuted by then-President Obama in November—only to be killed almost exactly two months later. Demarlon Thomas, 31, was transitioning out of the federal prison system in a Saginaw, Mich., halfway house after having his sentence commuted Nov. 22. Two masked gunmen brandishing assault-style weapons sought out and killed Thomas, a former member of Saginaw’s Sunny Side Gang, at that halfway house Monday night, reports MLive.

A Wealth of Data

One of the insane tasks that I took on when writing Armed America (2006) was compiling a spreadsheet of all the gunsmiths that I found in primary and secondary sources, working  before 1840, at least in part to refute the Bellesiles/Haag claim of a lack of early gun culture.  I ended up with 2445 entries for which I could establish dates and location.  I started searching a resource that was not available in the 2000s: books.google.com and what an overwhelming wealth.

While revising this chapter, I took advantage of the dramatic expansion of searchable online books and soon realized that examples such as the following have expanded the available data to a level that would enlarge this book dramatically were I to include all: An 1831 request from the War Department to Maj. F.W. Armstrong requests that he repair all the old rifles belonging to the Choctaws, authorizing him to hire “an additional gun-smith” if needed.[1]  Similarly, War Department instructions to Lewis Cass specify maximum wages to be paid to gunsmiths providing repair services to the Indians.[2]

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[1] Commissary General of Subsistence, Correspondence on the Subject of the Emigration of Indians, Washington: Duff Green, 1835), 2:372-3.

[2] Ibid., 2:848.

Trump Plans to Embarrass the Left About Sanctuary Cities

His executive order directs that sanctuary cities are not eligible for federal grants, and provide a weekly report of crimes committed by illegal aliens in sanctuary cities.  I wonder how much the leftists are going to love what they find out about their illegal "guests."

Progressive Dishonesty About Supremacy of Federal Law

Behind the sanctuary city idea is the notion that cities and counties can ignore federal law, like this 1/24/17 story about Texas Gov. Abbott threatening to cut off state funding to Austin's sheriff because she refuses to inform ICE that they are releasing illegals from jail.  Now, if a Republican invoked states' rights to refuse to follow Supreme Court rulings on gay marriage or transgendered bathrooms, the left would suddenly remember Art. VI, sec. 2:

2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Now Trump is telling these locality rights governments, federal law is supreme.