I-1639: Bad for Washington – Bad for America

Tyranny is alive and well in the State of Washington.

No, it’s not the typical form of tyranny employed by some of history’s most notorious despots like Stalin and Hitler. It is much more insidious than that. It is the covert tyranny being fostered upon us, cleverly disguised as the will of the people, by a merry band of west coast billionaires who are using their fat checkbooks in an attempt to create a utopian state in which the Second Amendment will be grossly infringed by extreme and unconstitutional gun control measures.

Their variant of this modern day tyranny takes the form of a citizen’s Initiative to the People of Washington State known as I-1639. If approved by the voters on Election Day this November, it will severely restrict our ability to keep and bear arms, contrary to the Constitutions of the State of Washington and the United States of America.

And in the final analysis, the Liberty First Foundation wants you to know that these proposed laws and regulations won’t make anyone safer, but they will create an unnecessary governmental boondoggle of  legal compliance for honest, law abiding citizens.

Among some of the crazy rediculous attributes of this proposed legislation are:

• Classifying all semi-automatic rifles as “assault weapons”! An emotional term created by the authors of this initiative which is deliberately misleading, intended to stigmatize gun owners and strike fear into the hearts of voters who know little or nothing at all about firearms.
• It forces those who want to buy or borrow a semi-automatic rifle to seek the permission from the local Police Chief or Sheriff only after undergoing a government run safety course first and every 5 years thereafter.
• It requires law enforcement officials to keep detailed registration records, including the serial number, make and model of every semi-automatic rifle that is sold or lent with their authorization, as well as information about the buyer……but only if you were over 21 years of age to begin with! Those who are between 18-21 years of age are flatly prohibited from possessing one.
• Semi-automatic rifle owners would be subject to continuing reverification of their eligibility to possess firearms. According to the initiative, the verification must take place “on an annual or more frequent basis.” So your medical records are no longer private and confidential.
• Once a person becomes eligible to purchase a semi-automatic rifle, he or she, still has to wait 10 business days before they can take possession of it and if background check records are incomplete, local officials can place a 30-day hold on the sale that can be renewed indefinitely by a court. And then there is the $25.00 fee one must pay to buy, sell or loan a rifle, with permission of course!
• Safe storage is another concern. If somebody steals your lawfully possessed semi-automatic rifle and they use it to break the law, you could be charged with the felony crime of Community Endangerment!

The senseless and needless bureaucracy created by this initiative is nothing more than an outrageous governmental overreach into the privacy and liberty of hard working, law abiding American citizens. It is simply magical thinking to believe that somehow we will be miraculously safer as a result of this “big government” program. Clearly, it’s illustrative of the short-sighted mantra of the gun grabbing politicians which can be summed up as follows; “We have to do something, even if it’s wrong!”

And this proposed legislation is very, very wrong! There is not one other enumerated right protected by the Constitution where a law abiding American citizen has to pay a $25.00 fee and prove he is worthy before he or she is allowed to exercise it! Can you imagine having to call the Sheriff to ask his permission to go to church on Sunday or post a comment on Facebook?

So, just who are these wealthy billionaires and moneyed do-gooders who seek to suppress our constitutional rights? They are the Bloombergs, Ballmers, Allens, and the Hanauers. They have contributed a combined $4.3 million dollars to the committees called Safe Schools Safe Communities, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. The Alliance is organized into 3 separate parts, one of which is their Foundation, an IRS approved 501 (c) (3) charitable group. And, when they channel their contributions through the Foundation, they give themselves a giant income tax deduction as they trample on our Second Amendment rights!

Let’s take a closer look at Nick and his wife, Leslie Hanauer. He is a venture capitalist and each of them has contributed $613,018.00 to I-1639. They reside in Washington, but in 2016 Nick interfered with and meddled in the governmental affairs of Maine, where he contributed $125,000 in support of Question 3 which failed, and of Nevada, where he contributed $275,000 in support of Question 1, which passed by a slim margin but was not implement for technical reasons.  In all three states the language, goals and objectives of these initiatives was similar; background checks, transfer taxes and gun registrations.

According to Ballotpedia.org, Mr. Hanauer serves as director of the Democracy Alliance, a network of progressive donors that aims to achieve progressive reforms in public policy. He also co-authored a book entitled The Gardens of Democracy, which argues that “fundamental American assumptions about citizenship, society, economics, and government need updating for the 21st century.”

He also operates a personal website which can be found at nickhanauer.com. There you will find a blog appropriately named Civic Skunk Works. Don’t bother to look any farther unless you enjoy the skunky stench of liberal progressive policy ideas. But his website does open a small window into his psyche which allows the reader to plainly see how he views life in America. Undoubtedly, he would prefer to live in a place where the Constitution would be malleable and could be reshaped to fit his progressive ideals, and not in a place where individual rights and liberties are guaranteed and government is restricted from intervening into the private lives of its citizens.

Some in the media have referred to these Bad Boy Billionaires as philanthropists, but I prefer to recognize them for what they really are; unelected political radicals in subversion of our state and federal constitutions, roving throughout the country and acting like hitmen with an open contract on the killing of the Second Amendment!

They are gleefully taking unfair advantage of the citizen initiative process which is found in the Constitutions of 26 states throughout the nation. These so-called civic-minded community leaders and their well-funded grassroots organizations, with names that sound welcoming and nonthreatening,  are attempting to trick the citizens of Washington and other states into voting for laws that they could not pass through the normal legislative process.

Their message and slick marketing is nothing more than beguiling propaganda intended to fool voters into becoming their own tyrants, when in reality, their message is nothing more than empty promises and platitudes. Self-tyranny is a new phenomenon. It is an extraordinary and remarkable condition that can only be explained by understanding that a significant portion of the electorate is totally and completely unaware of the founding documents of this country, in particular, the Bill of Rights. Without recognizing the disingenuous and subliminal implications of these initiatives, people are inclined to vote for the so called “common-sense gun laws” because if they don’t, they may feel like they don’t have any common sense, and nobody wants to admit that!

Washingtonians must be made aware that I-1639 does nothing to address crime. Rather, it is a conglomeration of incremental provisions that, inch by inch and step by step, are intended to disarm the population over time! If safer schools was truly the objective of I-1639, the money contributed to the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, could have been much better spent by donating it to Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. There, it would have gone a long way towards providing the funds for metal detectors, school resource officers and video surveillance systems!

Additionally, I-1639 also demonstrates that the well-healed intellectual elites in Washington State and around the nation will persistently attempt to use their wealth to nullify the Second Amendment while searching for another a tax deduction!

Today, we have more information available to us than ever before, yet the questions regarding life, death and suffering go largely unanswered. Unquestionably, while there is good and evil in this world, one thing remains abundantly clear. No law, no waiting period or background check can stop evil. But they can stop the good people of America from defending themselves and their families.

Please Vote No on I-1639! It’s bad for Washington and bad for America! Repeated sharing of this essay will make more people aware of the farce that’s about to be perpetrated upon them! We cannot let the wealthy treat us like serfs!

Where’s My Gun?!?!(Holster Review)

A couple of weeks ago, the Liberty First Foundation/Religion of Arms was approached by Douglass Kahlstrom, the owner/operator of Tactical Measure, a holster manufacturer in Lampasas Texas.  Douglas found us on Facebook and appreciated the work we are doing so much that he volunteered his time to help us with our organizational efforts when it came to opening State Chapters of our group. Through the course of our interview with him, and after he had already been approved to be a leader in the Great State of Texas, it was soon learned that he manufactured custom-made holsters and volunteered to help out our members by offering discounts for his hand-made products. Not having any of his products to have a look at, Doug said “Name a gun, and I’ll send you a holster for you to have a look at…I don’t want you referring my company without you knowing how good my holsters are”.  Douglas was right. Before the L1F/ROA gives the “stamp of approval” for a given product or company, we give the item in question a good going over beforehand.  We don’t want anyone spending their hard-earned cash on something if it is going to be substandard.  With that being said…Here is what happened next.

I asked Douglas to send me a sample of an inside-the-waistband holster for a Springfield XDS 3.3 9mm, for a right-handed shooter. I figured that would be enough information for him…it wasn’t.

Douglas wanted all of the following information…

Do you want  to be able to tuck in a shirt?

Do you like your holster to be have a specific cant angle or adjustable?

What is your most common belt width?

How close to your body do you like the holster to ride?

Pre-set or adjustable retention?

What color?(then gave me a list of options)

Do you carry extra magazines, and how many?

Do you carry your spares on your strong side or weak?

Do you carry your mags bullets forward or backwards?

Douglas asked me all of the questions I would have asked myself had I been shopping for a holster…and some questions I probably wouldn’t have. After giving him the few pieces of information he requested, he said “Very good, I’m on it”. The very next morning, August 28th,  I get an e-mail with 2 pictures and a note…”They’re on their way…pull no punches”.

Friday…I get this in the mail. (minus the gun, mags, and ears)

What I got was a hand-made Kydex holster with an offset belt hook, with adjustable cant and retention screws.  I also received a dual magazine pouch, which was also fully adjustable.

Here is what the XDS looks like while holstered in the Tactical Measure holster.

Here’s what the XDS looks like in a competitors holster that I’ve been using for 3 months.

The competitors holster, while having very nice lines, is only adjustable for retention, and is fitted with a “press-fit” belt loop that mildly secures to the underside of the belt.  With each holster adjusted for maximum retention, the competitors holster had a 4 in 10 chance of unhooking from the belt with the draw, and a 6 in 10 chance of releasing from the holster while in a seated position.  The TM holster, while set to the maximum retention did not release from the belt one time. The thinner width profile of the TM holster belt clip and deeper cut hook allowed a tighter, firmer grip on the belt than that of the competitor.

However, even when set to the maximum tension, the TM holster did not give an audible “click” when re-holstering the sidearm, whereas the competitor gave a loud audible note. Upon examination, we figure out that the competitors holster was only giving tension to the sidearm at the foremost part of the trigger guard, explaining the snapping sound when holstering.  The TM holster applied tension, not only to the trigger guard, but to the entirety of the XDS frame, giving it more surface area to hold on to.

The one advantage that could not be overcome by the Tactical Measure Holster Design was the ability to remove the firearm from the holster with one hand while not connected to the belt.  The Higher rising edge of the competitors holster allowed me to place my thumb on the edge, push down, therefore releasing the firearm. The lower interior edge of the TM holster forces you to grip the butt of the gun with one hand and the holster with the other in order to remove it.(height difference shown below)

(Tactical Measure Holster)                                         (Competitors Holster)

However, you can also see from the photos above that the Tactical Measure Holster, still provides more than enough room to get a solid purchase for your draw, as well as providing a bit more coverage for the slide. Also worth noting is that the TM holster gives a generous amount of room for High-Rise or Competition sights as well.

One of the other differences we noticed was the texture of the Kydex itself.  The TM holster has a look and feel of a stiffened leather, almost reminiscent of “Shark Skin”.  That surface, while having a good visual note, also provided an unexpected level of “grip” to the inside of the denim jeans, while the smoother, more plastic look and feel of the competitors model made it very easy for it to slide around, and worse…up.  Having a holster that remained in the same position regardless of movement is, in itself, a Tactical Measure.

Then there is Comfort. The easiest way to describe what it felt like to wear this holster is in the title of this review. “Where’s My Gun?!?”.  For the last few months, I have not had to ask myself that question as I ALWAYS knew exactly where my holster was…mostly because I had to keep readjusting it, re-hooking it to my belt, or sliding it back to where it was comfortable.  With the Tactical Measure holster, I kept finding myself reaching for my hip to verify that I hadn’t forgotten it behind.  Even while driving, the thought of “Where’s my Gun?” kept popping into my head. After checking once or 10 times, I finally got used to it, not because I could actually feel the holster, but because I could feel the  weight of the gun on my hip.

So as for my grade on the Tactical Measure Holster, on a 1-10 scale, I am going to give it a solid 9.5.  If Doug were to just make that one interior portion come up about a half-inch higher, it would be a perfect complement to a fine sidearm.

Now, as for the Magazine Pouch….

This thing is a work of art.  Not only could I NOT feel it after putting it on, when I removed it, I searched for over an hour and could not find one single edge that had not been hand scraped and polished smooth.  There was not one edge to catch on anything  once I had it in place.  The ONLY thing that I can say is that I had to load my magazines into the pouch before putting it on, rather than afterward, as finding the mag wells was difficult due to it riding below the elevation of my belt. Sadly, I believe that that is more the fault of my girth than it is the Tactical Measure design.

Now the big question…..PRICE.

After speaking with Douglas, I asked him what the retail value on these two items would be and he told me that the price of this holster design, with the features I requested retailed at $43, and the Mag Pouch was $40.

Given that I paid $37.50 for the competitors holster at an LGS, and was unable to find a double mag pouch on the shelf at 5 other places, I think the price is more than reasonable….in fact, I would say that it’s a bargain given the fact that it’s hand-made, custom ordered, and made in the U.S.A.

And if all that isn’t enough, Tactical Measure is offering a Coupon Code for any and all members of the Religion of Arms, The Liberty First Foundation, and all of our State Chapters.  Just use the code ROA1 when ordering.

You can find these holsters, as well as choices for over 200 other model handguns at WWW.TacticalMeasure.com  or find them on Facebook under Tactical Measure.

Footnote…As a Certified Firearms Instructor, there is NOTHING more important to me than the safe handling of firearms, and that includes the equipment we use to house, store, and access them.  If a product, regardless of price, or manufacturer, does not meet the standards I would set for myself, I would NOT recommend it to anyone under ANY circumstances.  If something has a shortcoming, or does not meet my own standards, I would not only tell you, I would warn you against it.  I can say in confidence that the review above was made in accordance to those standards, and the product reviewed therein met those standards based entirely on the its own accord.