June 24th the birthday of rifle-toting abolitionist pastor Henry Ward Beecher. (Born 1813, died March 8, 1887.) He and his adherents from his church smuggled so many Sharps rifles to Bleeding Kansas that the Sharps rifles picked up the nickname Beecher’s Bibles. Wikipedia states: “Several of his brothers and sisters became well-known educators and activists, most notably Harriet Beecher Stowe, who achieved worldwide fame with her abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
—
Some Good News: Supreme Court Strikes Down New York Concealed-Carry Restriction [1]. This will force at least six liberal states to adopt “shall issue” instead of “may issue” CCW permitting. California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island have “may issue” laws, like New York’s. Those will most likely be changed within a year. Hooray!
Some Bad News: In a late-night session, after very limited debate, the U.S. Senate passed the “Bipartisan Safer Communities Act” (S. 2938) that I warned you about. This is the 80-page [2], fast-tracked, RINO “compromise” anti-gun rights legislation package. It passed with a 65 to 33 majority. It will now move to conference with the House of Representatives.
I could see that things were going badly, on Thursday morning. A cloture vote to block any possibility of a fillibuster passed with a rollcall vote of 65 to 34.
They ramrodded this Steaming Sack of Schumer legislation through the Senate before the public was informed and had much chance to speak up, in opposition. The last of the votes were recorded last night at 10:15 PM Eastern Time.
I sincerely hope that voters will remember the votes cast by the RINOs who stabbed us in the back. See the rollcall of that final vote [3]. Please print it out and refer to it, for the next three Senate elections–as their six-year terms in office come up for re-election at two-year intervals. Turn those Democrats and RINOs out of office!
SurvivalBlog Writing Contest
Today we present another entry for Round 101 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest [4]. The prizes for this round include:
First Prize:
- The photovoltaic power specialists at Quantum Harvest LLC are providing a store-wide 10% off coupon [5]. Depending on the model chosen, this could be worth more than $2000.
- A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate. This can be used for any of their one, two, or three-day course [6] (a $1,095 value),
- A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses [7], excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three-day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
- Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees [8] in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
- A $250 gift certificate good for any product [9] from Sunflower Ammo,
- American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses [10].
- Two sets of The Civil Defense Manual, [11] (in two volumes) — a $193 value — kindly donated by the author, Jack Lawson.
Second Prize:
- A Front Sight Lifetime Diamond Membership, providing lifetime free training at any Front Sight Nevada course, with no limit on repeating classes. This prize is courtesy of a SurvivalBlog reader who prefers to be anonymous.
- A SIRT STIC AR-15/M4 Laser Training Package, courtesy of Next Level Training, that has a combined retail value of $679
- Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord [12] (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).
- Two Super Survival Pack seed collections [13], a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
- A transferable $150 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company [14], toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun. There is no paperwork required for delivery of pre-1899 guns into most states, making them the last bastion of firearms purchasing privacy!
Third Prize:
- Three sets each [15] of made-in-USA regular and wide-mouth reusable canning lids. (This is a total of 300 lids and 600 gaskets.) This prize is courtesy of Harvest Guard (a $270 value)
- A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of [16] Directive 21 (a $275 value),
- A LogOX 3-in-1 Forestry MultiTool [17] (a $189 value) and a WoodOx Sling [18] (a $79.95 value), courtesy of LogOx [19], both made in USA.
- A transferable $100 FRN purchase credit from Elk Creek Company [14], toward the purchase of any pre-1899 antique gun.
—
More than $725,000 worth of prizes have been awarded since we started running this contest. Round 101 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail [20] us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how-to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.