Good Stories

Lots of gun owners have good stories, but not many tell them, and definitely not to reporters. This guy did, and got his story in front of the City of Denver. It’s a story how a man came to own a gun after the justice system repeatedly failed his family, and he needed to protect them. The other side wants to inflate the risk, and they have no shortages of anecdotes to make people who carry firearms for self-protection look like idiots, criminals or worse. But they never have an answer for Sam Myrants of the world, other than call 911 and hope for the best.

Is Reapportionment Good for Gun Owners?

I put up a quick hits post this morning on PAGunRights with various federal election stories that will impact Pennsylvania gun owners, including this piece that notes the Keystone State has lost more Congressional seats than any other state in history. An astute reader took note, and made a compelling argument that even though we might lose a seat, it may not be bad for gun rights.

States like Texas, Arizona, Utah, Florida, Georgia, etc. are usually (not always) sending pro 2nd Amendment representatives to the House and states like New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, etc. are quite the contrary. …

Some of the other states that are losing a Rep are mixed bag of ratings but in general, it seems as this reapportionment would be a good thing for pro 2nd Amendment issues.

He noted that this is a theory, and it is correct as a theory. But damn it, real life may get in the way, or it could make his observation 100% spot on. The unknown factors will be state elections.

The Pennsylvania Concern
We’re most likely to lose a pro-gun seat. Regardless of which party controls the state House & Governor’s Mansion, the logical elimination in Pennsylvania is Murtha’s old seat. It doesn’t matter which party wins the special election to replace Murtha, they won’t be an entrenched incumbent. It’s also probably easier to absorb that corner of the state into the various district around it – it touches 4 other districts & is close to 2 more. That would allow the suburban districts around Philadelphia to simply “grow” west since we are likely the source of any growth in population.

Murtha’s seat is pro-gun, regardless of party, so that’s a loss right there. The expansion of seats in suburban Philadelphia will make it harder to hold on in close races, especially for two pro-gun votes in Reps. Charlie Dent & Jim Gerlach. But since it’s all politics, the logical thing to do might be ignored, and my assessment could be 100% opposite of what they actually do during reapportionment.

Those Other States
While culturally, many of the states slated to gain seats are pro-gun, most have portions that are most decidedly not friendly to our rights. Texas will likely see the most growth around Houston because of all of the Katrina evacuees, and those votes will not be in our favor. Arizona could be good for us, but even it has some anti-gunners in office. I am venturing to guess that their growth is mostly around Phoenix which has also been the source of many state lawmakers who get in the way of a pro-gun agenda.

Georgia’s growth, I assume, is probably centered around Atlanta which may be hit or miss depending on where the seats go. Nevada and Utah should, generally, be pretty safe. Though it really depends on where the transplants to Nevada are coming from – if it’s a bunch of Californians, that may not be good for us. Florida also produces as many anti-gun votes as pro-gun votes. Again, it depends on where their growth has been during the last 10 years.

The Solution
Voters in all of the states slated to gain a seat have to put pro-gun majorities in their state legislatures this year. Whoever has control of state houses after the November elections will decide who has power for the next decade. Gerrymandering is never a pretty sight to see, but it will happen. The question is whether we’ll have any kind of say in the process.

Here in Pennsylvania, we’ll benefit more by putting Republicans in power. The voters in Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Utah, and other states will need to examine their own states to see which seats need to flip to seal majorities in their legislatures for pro-gun lawmakers.

My other tip is to not get lost in the federal battles alone this year. While it is important to flip Congress, because of reapportionment, you cannot afford to ignore your state representative and senate seats, either. This is not a year to sit on your ass. Write checks or start walking precincts.

More Dead Coyotes in Urban Areas

This time in Pittsburgh, and definitely not Ed Rendell as the triggerman. But what makes this interesting is the City’s insistence on local hunting laws. Hunting laws are preempted by state law, so if it’s legal for you to hunt Coyotes, and you follow the state hunting laws, you’re clear to shoot. I suspect as long as this guy has a valid hunting license, and all the game regulations were followed, he’s not going to suffer any repercussions because he violated a local ordinance banning hunting.

NRA Introduces Separate DC Gun Rights Bill

SayUncle reported this morning on this NRA press release, about the introduction of a separate bill to repeal DC’s gun laws. I don’t have the details on this, but it looks like it hints that it may fix DC’s carry laws, saying it will “repeal the District’s burdensome gun registration requirement and ensure that firearms may be transported and carried for legitimate purposes”

I’m guessing NRA wouldn’t introduce a separate bill if DC Voting Rights Act weren’t well and truly dead. Perhaps NRA overestimated the degree to which the anti-gun Democrats were willing to roll over to get their pet bill through. We probably have a pretty good chance in the Senate to get something through, but as a separate bill, I don’t give it good chances of passage. I doubt Pelosi would allow the vote in the House. Even if Nancy Pelosi were willing to roll over so some of her blue dogs can get at least a little cover from NRA, you still have to get passed Obama’s veto.

CeaseFire Caught Lying

This whole CeaseFirePA effort to become politically relevant is turning into comedy. Apparently, the reason Tom Corbett didn’t bother responding to the questionnaire was because he didn’t care for the endorsement. His campaign said the questionnaire was to be used for endorsement purposes. But CeaseFire is all about education, right?

In a follow-up interview, Grace said he’d made repeated overtures to Corbett’s campaign over the phone, through e-mail and in-person at a March debate at the National Constitution Center in Philly, to get the AG to play ball on the questionnaire.

At no time did the question of an endorsement come up, Grace said.

“It was clear as could be,” he said. “We were seeking that the Attorney General, as with all the candidates, respond to the questionnaire.”

At no time! Never did any talk of endorsement every come up. Not at all.

Except, when it did. John Micek noted that the cover letter of the questionnaire does specifically say that the questionnaire is about earning the anti-gun group’s endorsement.

What muddies the waters, however, is language on the cover letter of the questionnaire which reads thus:

“To be considered for endorsement by CeaseFirePa, please complete the questionnaire and return it to CeaseFirePA no later than February 26, 2010.”

In standard anti fashion, now they swear that it’s not what they meant. And they promise that even though they did talk about an endorsement, they didn’t really mean it.

It sounds a lot like how they jump around on the issue of gun bans, too. “We’re not for taking people’s lawfully owned guns! Except for anything we don’t like. And we don’t like rifles, shotguns, or handguns.”

Tip to Joe Grace & his anti-gun friends: It’s a lot easier to cover up your lies when you don’t lie in the first place.

Last Night’s Lost

We were absolutely exhausted by the time we returned home last night after the lobbying all day at the Capitol. But I was so happy to find out that we were back in time for Lost. Until I turned it on and found out it was a repeat. Now I know that I should have watched the entire thing because it was really so much more than that. Les Jones explains:

It was just like an earlier episode. Freaky.

It’s sort of like the audience is now time-traveling. We time-traveled back to a previous “Lost” episode. That episode had died in an alternate timeline (the Smoke Monster probably killed it), but in the new timeline it was brought back to life after bathing in the spring at the temple.

Rather than having to wait week after week and season after season, I watched all 6 seasons in fairly rapid succession given that we started from the beginning right around Christmas with our subscription to Netflix. This waiting thing, especially when they pull a repeat stunt, is for the birds. I’ll be so damn glad when this show is over.

So, who read the spoiler call sheet? (We didn’t. I just read about it.)

How One Person Can Make a Difference

One thing that I wish to get across to every gun owner out there is just how easy it is for one person to make a difference in this issue if they are just willing to get a little involved. Such is the case with Adam, who is a new volunteer Bitter has been working with, and who has managed to get several of our candidates for governor on the record with respect to issues which are important to us, most recently having asked Tom Corbett about castle doctrine, to which he was non-committal.

It was noticed yesterday that Wayne, and a few other NRA higher ups, including the PA lobbyist, went off following a Corbett staffer, which I presumed was to chat about our issues. Well, Tom Corbett is now saying he’s likely to sign the bill.

Now, I don’t know if NRA read the response to the question posed by Adam or not, but it’s not inconceivable that they did. It’s quite interesting that now Corbett is saying he’s likely to sign after what would appear to be a meeting with NRA. I think any way this went down, however, Adam has played a role. At the least, it helped tremendously for Corbett to hear that concern from an actual gun owner and potential voter, which helps to reinforce NRA’s message when they go to speak to politicians.

This didn’t take much time or effort either. It just took Adam deciding to get involved, and asking what he could do to help, and then doing one small thing. Because of that we just affected a statewide Governor’s race. One person just positively affected 12 million people’s right to bear arms. It really doesn’t take much to make a difference.