Editorial

By the time you read this, the midterm elections will have already happened, and we'll know if more federal regulations and laws restricting our civil rights are on their way. I would like to say that the congressional outcomes don't mean anything for two years, as long as President Trump is in office. But that's simply not true. PDT has shown an irresolute streak on publicly considering more gun regulations, though, to be fair, we haven't seen any new laws at the federal level.

One of the changes I've seen in the firearms industry over the years is the timing of new-product introductions. Formerly, most companies rolled out their new lines at the end or the very beginning of the calendar year, in both cases to time with each year's Shooting Hunting & Outdoor Trade Show, better known as SHOT Show, generally held in January. That always seemed odd to me because it guaranteed new-product coverage would get trampled by the volume of similar coverage.

I honestly thought that once Donald Trump became president, we'd see fewer onerous gun regulations being rolled out - and, perchance, a rollback of some existing regulations, or even an expansion of gun rights. Silly me. President Trump did make it a campaign pledge to delete two regulations for every new one installed, but that effort hasn't been extended to gun regulations, at least that I've heard of. Moreover, while wide-ranging federal efforts to restrict gun ownership and simply make it harder to own, buy, and transact firearms have stalled at the national level, that doesn't mean that the inalienable right to self-defense with guns isn't being challenged across the country. In fact, the new challenges to 2A rights are especially pernicious.

We recently published a news item that updates our readers on legal troubles the SIG Sauer P320 is encountering. Most recently, the Loudoun Times-Mirror website is reporting that a Loudoun County (Virginia) deputy has filed a lawsuit against SIG Sauer alleging that her fully-holstered P320 duty weapon discharged and sent a bullet into her leg. According to the newspaper's account, the incident occurred this year on Feb. 7, "… when 37-year-old Loudoun County Deputy Marcie Vadnais went to the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy to attend a general instructor course." The Times-Mirror further reported, "In accordance with academy policy, Deputy Vadnais began removing her firearm from her belt when she arrived." According to the lawsuit, as she fed the belt through the holster's first tooth, her SIG Sauer P320 somehow "fired one nine millimeter bullet, which hit her in the upper right thigh."

The NRA-ILA website had an interesting news item looking into why it might be that gun owners hesitate to share their status as gun owners in surveys. I have to agree with the sentiment expressed in the NRA item: "It makes perfect sense, particularly in times of heightened concerns that anti-gun politicians are plotting to restrict our 2nd Amendment rights and the routine vilification of law-abiding gun owners by politicians, celebrities, and the media." Okay, that's the why. Here's the what.

Remington Outdoor Company announced that it has emerged from Chapter 11 after successfully implementing its plan of reorganization previously confirmed by the Delaware bankruptcy court on May 4, 2018. The plan provides a comprehensive balance sheet restructuring of the company and converts more than $775 million of the company's debt into equity. The plan received support from more than 97% of the voting lenders and noteholders.

Smith & Wesson has launched a "consumer advisory" notice for owners of the M&P 380 Shield EZ Manual Thumb Safety pistol, a common concealed-carry sidearm. It seems the function of the M&P 380 Shield EZ Manual Thumb Safety pistol can be influenced by the type and quality of ammunition used with the pistol. In the case of the M&P 380 Shield EZ Manual Thumb Safety, the company has found "that in very rare circumstances," ammunition that produces a high level of felt recoil can cause the manual safety to move from the Fire position to the Safe position during firing. That means your Shield unexpectedly might not go bang after it's fired. That could be very bad for a concealed-carry gun owner who's depending on the EZ in a self-defense situation.

Did you know that a retired associate justice of the United States Supreme Court had penned a New York Times op-ed entitled, "John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment"? In his op-ed, Stevens (nominated by a Republican president) praises the work of the March for Our Lives organizers and urges the group to "seek more effective and more lasting reform" via a "repeal of the Second Amendment." He calls the Second Amendment a "relic of the 18th century."

We also posited that it's up to us to be sufficiently aware of our environment and the people around us - to be on the alert for people who might commit these horrible acts of violence against innocents. Following the Parkland massacre, there have been many discussions about how, and even if, we can spot those sufficiently deranged who might be capable of committing mass murder. But we have to try - like the grandmother in Everett, WA, who led police to her violence-prone Aces High School grandson and probably stopped another mass killing.

I hate to be a downer in these pages, but there's crazy anti-gun stuff going on all over the country. It seems that because gun owners don't have much to fear federally, gun-restrictive states are going their own way with new regulations, fees, and other infringements on the right to keep and bear arms. Here's a sampler of a few things that you might devote a couple of brain cells to.

We're already into the second month of the year, and 2018 is looking like 2017 regarding gun legislation. To see how far gun legislation advanced, I checked the January 2017 "Downrange" column, which had a wish list of efforts for gun owners — and saw that not much is moving, or what is moving continues at a glacial pace.

The FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has been getting a lot of attention recently. If you'll recall, a court-martialed Air Force veteran purchased a rifle illegally and used it to kill 25 people inside a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church on Nov. 5. Turns out that the Air Force had not provided the FBI with details of the court martial. The Air Force also missed the shooter's initial arrest on domestic-abuse charges and his 2012 escape from a New Mexico behavioral health facility. Had NICS been properly updated, it's likely the system would have blocked the sale of the murder weapon to the shooter.