Thursday, April 25, 2013

Victory in Hoosieropolis!

Shootin' Buddy posted on my Facebook page this morning:
Wookies rejoice!

HB1563, with amendments, passes Indiana House 77-20. 1563 not only legalizes suppressors for hunting but repeal's Indiana's West Side Story Law (switchblade ban). It is unclear whether the Speaker of the House is a Shark or a Jet as he could not be reached for comment.

That was a loooong fight and I did not think we could do it in a short session. We only tried for suppressors and short-barreled shotguns this year (that was the plan in December).

NRA Annual Meeting 2014 in Indianapolis is looking wookier and wookier. Come to Indianapolis, carry a dozen pistols in a bar, drink a microbrew while flicking two auto knives open and shut in your hands after a long day of looking at guns and glorifying the name of Wayne LaPierre. LOL!
Indiana passed the lifetime carry permit law right before I moved up here, and passed a strong preemption law, a parking lot bill, a bill that cleared up the law concerning handgun transport since I've been here...

Now we've picked up switchblades and the incremental step of being able to use cans while hunting. Next is the ridiculous ban on Short-Barreled Shotguns (AOWs are okay; your bitty little Form 4'ed 870 12 gauge is fine if it has a  pistol grip, but not if it has a buttstock?*) 

Then? Constitutional Carry, I reckon... But if the RKBA fight in Indiana were a WWII movie, we'd be smoking the last holdouts out of their bunkers with flamethrowers at this point.


*I blame John Dillinger; if anything's against the law in Indiana, it's probably because John Dillinger was doing it.

39 comments:

RevolverRob said...

Wish we could get the switchblade thing dealt with here in Texas. I've long enjoyed autos and balisongs, but both are illegal by state decree. For that matter, so are Bowie knives, daggers, and dirks. Yes...seriously...Bowie knives are illegal to carry in Texas. I think when Jim Bowie's ghost thinks about that, he rolls over in his grave outside the Alamo and thinks, "I gave my life, for this?"

-Rob

KM said...

The various state bans on automatic knives is really weird. Who GAFF how you open a knife?

Congrats IN residents who will be able to pick up Benchmade autos at the LGS. :)

Tam said...

"Who GAFF how you open a knife?"

State legislators in the '50s who were worried about hoodlums and greasers loitering with intent to wop.

The Raving Prophet said...

Indiana is like my own state of Missouri.

There's just not a long list of wishlist items left. Sure, there's always something, but for the most part we have it incredibly well, especially when you look at the rancid totalitarian meat in our freedom sandwich- the state of Illinois.

The anti gun folks in this state really seem like the Japanese soldiers who kept on fighting long after the surrender was signed. They haven't gotten the message and everybody just pities them and wishes we could spend the effort put forth to fight them on more useful endeavors.

Turk Turon said...

Congratulations to all my Hoosier Homies!

Anonymous said...

Sadly the gun banners here in Minne-snow-ta are dug in deep into the big city blue districts. You could not get them out of their almost lifetime, sometimes heriditary office with an actual flamethrower. But the out-state Dems and Reps know that they will be voted out if they get squirrelly with guns, so the idiocy does not get far.

Congrats to the people of Indiana!

Scott J said...

Good on ya! A pro-2A bill is working its way through the legislature here in Alabama.

The biggies for it are making us truly shall issue and doing away with the permit requirement to have a loaded heater stowed in your vehicle.

Several quisling county sherrifs are against it because it takes away some of their power.

Some compromise was reached today so we're getting closer to the governor's desk but I was too concerned about the disturbing number of case failures (6 out of 15) I got shooting my Polytech M1-A this evening to pay attention to the news on the televisor.

Frank W. James said...

I don't know if its a Hoosier Urban Legend or what, but I've always understood the state prohobition against 'Sawed off shotguns' was definitely a leftover from John Dillinger and to think he was really a "Thompson" kind of guy....

All The Best,
Frank W. James

Garrett Lee said...

The only problem with the "using the flamethrowers on the last of the holdouts" analogy is that that's only on your individual island. We still have to deal with Truk, Rabaul, and the other citadels we are passing in this island-hopping campaign. Maybe we'll threaten Congress enough that they will act as the Emperor and order NYC to surrender...

Even if that happened, though, we'd still be dealing with holdouts for the next 30 years, though, who refuse to believe the war was lost.

I like this analogy of yours!

Sebastian said...

Well, shit, we're used to being able to toss a few back here in PA while while carrying a dozen pistols in a bar, but doing it while flicking even one auto knife open and shut is too much freedom for us here in the Keystone State as things stand now.

I guess we have some catching up to do.

Joseph said...

*I blame John Dillinger; if anything's against the law in Indiana, it's probably because John Dillinger was doing it.

I didn't know Dillinger was known to buy cars and drink on Sunday. Huh, learn something new every day.

TBeck said...

I've been gone for ten years. Does Indiana still have a prohibition against using rifles for hunting? When I last lives here it was handguns, BP, and shotguns only.

staghounds said...

Apparently the 10% all live in Indiana.

Old NFO said...

Good news, and one more 'small' step for freedom! :-)

rickn8or said...

I'm jealous. All we've been able to get here in Tennessee after a long and ugly fight with our own Stupid Party supermajority is a parking lot bill that isn't a parking lot bill.

And it appears that Arkysaw is on the verge of Constitutional Carry.

paulinmordor said...

Y'all can legally carry weapons? Here in Mordor we've been told we'll have the wild west if we're allowed to carry. It's for the children and our own safety 'n all that.

Owen said...

Tbeck,

Rifles can be used for deer, but the cartridge has to meet certain requirements. Revolver cartridges like .44 mag are generally ok in rifles, as it .50 beowulf and .458 SOCOM. .30-30 and .243, not so much.

Anonymous said...

Feller next door got him a deer last week out by Iggle Crik. He used a Ford F-150.

Pakkinpoppa said...

Wow.
In OhioLand, we're still enforcing the "West Side Story" law (sort of...it's only illegal...to SELL...an automatic knife or a host of other things to anyone other than Law Enforcement...).

I still like Indiana's "permission slip" process. Ask, apply, and its good for a lifetime.

I apologize that it is not valid here. But recall we had Gubernator Taft get votes by campaigning for Concealed Carry...then flop after election, saying "the Highway Patrol and FOP are against it so I'm not in favor anymore...unless they approve..."
arse-hole.

Secret Code: "voicessm teaching"

Sounds like one of those loooong nights when one had a few extra adult beverages, conversations and words may include extra syllables...

Anonymous said...

>Feller next door got him a deer last week out by Iggle Crik. He used a Ford F-150.

Ah ye olde 4.69×10^7 grain subsonic projectile. I've been inadvertently successful with this load myself more than once.

Mine didn't even damage any meat. A one round kill without an entry wound, and got the meat tenderized to boot!

-SM

Jennifer said...

Congrats to you! The slope is slippery, but hopefully we can keep it slanted our direction.

Geodkyt said...

When I realized that under federal law, switchblades were "more illegaller" than NFA items, I just sat there in stunned shock for a few minutes.

Anonymous said...

Indiana's making "gun-nut Texas" look positively Chicagoan.

jf

Tam said...

TBeck,

"Does Indiana still have a prohibition against using rifles for hunting?"

Not at all. You can hunt squirrel or coyote with a .338 Win Mag.

Because deer were hunted to extinction in Indiana in the early 20th Century and then deliberately reintroduced, you must hunt them with one hand tied behind your back. Handgun, pistol-caliber rifle, bow, crossbow, muzzle loader only. For some reason, Cletus now believes this is because rifle bullets go a long way when shot at deer, but shotgun slugs turn into pixie dust after fifty yards, as do the aforementioned .338 Win Mag projectiles when fired at squirrel.

Matt said...

Congrats, Indiana is finally catching up with Arizona.

Tam said...

Matt,

"Congrats, Indiana is finally catching up with Arizona."

Really?

In Arizona, "No Guns Allowed" signs have the force of law and it is a crime to carry your gun past one. Not in Indiana.

Also, I note that y'all's Constitutional Carry doesn't apply in places that serve alcohol? If you want to carry into Applebee's, you need to take a class and pass a test and renew your permit every four or five years? Weird. And you can't carry into polling places?

On the other hand, we can't carry into schools or the state fairgrounds during the state fair, so there's that...

Sounds like Arizona's catching up with Indiana! :)

NotClauswitz said...

Go Wookies!

global village idiot said...

Makes a fellow proud to be a Hoosier, so it does.

The flamethrower analogy reminds me of a story I read a few years ago about a Japanese man who was a schoolboy at the time of the war.

The thing which stuck with me was how, even in such a bizarre nation as Imperial Japan, common-sense broke through...he would read of "Tremendous Victories!" and "Smashing Triumphs!" in the various islands of the Pacific. Being in school, where they have, y'know, maps and so forth, he couldn't help noticing that these Victories! and Triumphs! were getting closer and closer to the Home Islands.

Must be what it feels like to be a victim-disarmament activist nowadays.

gvi

Matthew said...

We just got knives added to our preemption and swithchblades decriminalized up here. But not if you're under 16. Only called out in statute weapon left is metal knuckles.

We can't drink when we restaurant carry, can't have a loaded gun in a bar, can't be impaired (no defined BAC) in possession, and we don't have campus carry on the state school campuses (though it's just an "invited to leave" situation like private property).

Oh, and we have duty to inform. We're getting closer to Indiana every year. ;)

Rob K said...

Onward to true constitutional carry!

Matt said...

My apologies, I forgot we are not supposed to carry guns in bars without a permit, or in places that have signs posted. I don't frequent bars, don't go where not trespassing signs are posted, and don't fret about not being able to spend money in places that don't want me. I do like seeing people carrying openly in public though and like not having to ask permission to carry concealed.

Bubblehead Les. said...

If only my wife's company would open a Branch in Indiana....

Tam said...

Matt,

" I do like seeing people carrying openly in public though..."

So do I! They do here in Hoosierland, too. :)

Matt said...

One of the things I enjoy about being able to 0openly carry is often you get to see and ask about interesting guns or holster. It is also amusing to see how it makes people from away nervous.

Anonymous said...

Every time I want to move west from New Hampster. I realize our open and concealed laws are pretty freaking good. Only Courthouses and posted places with invisible forcefields are prohibited. Of course carrying concealed how do they know, the forcefield only works pon open carry! Imagine that! And knives. Well We took the weapon out the law! Live Free or live in MA!

The Freeholder said...

Congratulations to you all. We here in California East are working on following your excellent lead.

Matthew said...

I think you're past the flamethrower stage.

More like just waiting for the anti's to RSVP to your shipboard formal dress lunch invitation.

Anonymous said...

So, are you saying you know whether the NRA Annual Meeting will allow firearm carry? I know the state allows it, but I wouldn't want to walk all the way back to a hotel if I had a gun, they didnt allow it, and they found out.

Tam said...

I haven't checked the venue's policies.

History would suggest that if the venue allows it, the NRA will.