Paul Ryan Gets a New Gun

He went shopping for camo hunting gear the other day, and now Paul Ryan has a new gun to go with all of that new gear.

David Dlubak, owner of the Ithaca Gun Company, presents Republican vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., with a special edition Romney/Ryan Ithaca shotgun before Ryan speaks to the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance annual banquet Saturday in Columbus. A Romney/Ryan logo was engraved on the stock of the gun.

Greetings to all the GPRCers

Gun Rights Policy Conference, put on by the Second Amendment Foundation, is in Florida this year, in the Orlando Airport Hyatt. One of these days I’ll make a GRPC, but these days I don’t have as much spare money to fly all over the place for the gun issue. One day I will go.

Miguel is there, and has an excellent illustration to show just how ridiculous Florida’s application of the law in this instance can be. Also at GRPC this year? Sounds like Robb, Joe Huffman, Dave Hardy, and John Richardson are also attending. I offer my regrets, but perhaps next year (which I say every year).

Phony Baloney Fact Checkers

I’m not sure how you can maintain credibility, when you investigate a claim like “NRA attacks Bill Nelson for voting to confirm Sonia Sotomayor to Supreme Court,” which is pretty much a yes or no proposition, and a matter of public record, and then rate it as “Mostly True” instead of absolutely and irrefutably true. So why the “Mostly?”

What’s missing from this attack is the context that Nelson voted to confirm Sotomayor before she signed the opinion in McDonald. That context slightly dulls the connection between Nelson and Sotomayor’s position.

Um, no it doesn’t. Sotomayor had already ruled on a Second Amendment case in her capacity as a Judge sitting on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. That case was Maloney v. Rice, the well-known Ninchaku case. In the opinion she joined, the 2nd Circuit refused to recognize the Second Amendment as applying to the states:

The Fourteenth Amendment similarly provides no relief for Appellant. “Legislative acts that do not interfere with fundamental rights or single out suspect classifications carry with them a strong presumption of constitutionality and must be upheld if `rationally related to a legitimate state interest.'”

So she ruled the Second Amendment was not protecting any fundamental right, essentially. This is what NRA’s opposition to her confirmation was based on. This is not a mostly true proposition, it is completely true, and there was ample basis for belief that Sotomayor was not friendly to the Second Amendment. This is just a hatchet job on the part of the media, and it’s not surprising.

Don’t Be Offended if I Don’t “Friend” You

I sometimes get friend requests from people I don’t know, but who have mutual friends that indicate they may be readers. Back when I started that Facebook thing, I pretty much friended anyone who friended me, but now I have a pretty strict policy of not friending anyone I don’t know from Adam. I don’t do politics or guns on Facebook (except for, you know, when I actually go shoot). It’s strictly boring personal stuff.

So it’s nothing personal if I don’t friend you. Most of the gunny and bloggy people I’ve friended I’ve met in person, and those that I haven’t I added back before I thought very much about this Facebook thing. I’m very careful now with Facebook, lest our opponents find out where I work, who my coworkers and family are, or discover details of my remodeling plans, and start up whole new themed blogs called “Colors Gun Nuts Can’t Coordinate” and “Landscaping Disasters of Insurrectionists.”

It’s Time to Play, “Look at the Crazy Americans”

The foreign press often has a field day with our culture, and the Daily Mail in the UK is no different. But they are worse than our media about getting things right:

Daily Mail Gets the AR-15 wrong

That looks like a .22 AR to me, rather than being an M16A2. The real irony is if the authors are thinking Americans are crazy for allowing ownership of guns like this, provided one obtains a Firearms Certificate, that firearm is perfectly legal to own in the UK. The UK did not ban semi-automatic firearms chambered in .22LR, and they have no “Assault Weapons” nonsense in their gun laws.

I won’t even get into the fact that even if that was an M16, it couldn’t have been an A2, since the A2 did not have a removable carry handle, and that the US Army has largely abandoned the M16 in favor of the M4 carbine. If they had said US Marines, that would have been correct, but they use the M16A4, largely.

Blogs & The 2012 Election

No one who reads or contributes to blogs really ponders the impact of blogging on elections anymore. We’ve known it can make an impact for many years at this point. I’ve seen two great examples of blogging that can make an impact in a race so far this year.

One is Prof. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection and his reporting on the Elizabeth Warren law license problem. His top notch reporting on the issue got this comment from an initial Warren defender:

…I wanted to let you know ASAP that I concede that your discovery this morning answers all of my arguments and is a gamechanger. Your diligence in investigating this matter is commendable.

If you haven’t been following the story, Prof. Jacobson has basically uncovered the Elizabeth Warren has likely been practicing law in Massachusetts in violation of Massachusetts law. Rather than clearing the air, the campaign is refusing to answer any questions about the matter which leaves many wondering if she is, in fact, hiding from a possible crime admission. Talk about a huge piece of original reporting that could very well end up leading to an October surprise moment.

Yes, this is the thorough vetting of the Massachusetts Democratic Party – and the White House for that matter, since she served in the administration. If the Dems blow this race twice with terrible female candidates, it will not reflect well upon female candidates in the future of politics there. I admit being embarrassed for Jane Swift when she started crying during her concession speech.

The second bit of good election-related posting I noticed today stood out because it’s a thoroughly local take on a local race targeting a specific demographic. Great Satan, Inc. attended the NRA endorsement event for Jeff Flake who is running for the open Arizona Senate seat. But what I appreciate is that they highlighted not just that Jeff Flake is backed by NRA, but just how far his opponent would go in pushing gun control. They feature a quote from Richard Carmona that notes his support for training mandates to own firearms. Considering we saw the nightmare of training requirements through Emily Miller’s experience in DC, this is a big deal that isn’t just a happy talking point on safety and education. It can be a true roadblock to owning a firearm, and that has nothing to do with the owner’s ability to shoot.

So, in conclusion, reporting by bloggers is still relevant to elections. And you owe to yourself to check out both of these examples.