The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Asked if he has publicly changed his mind like Sen. Bob Casey on the topic of banning semi-automatic firearms, Governor Tom Corbett spoke out and made clear that his position is that mental illness is the underlying common issue in many mass attacks.
He made clear that he does not support state action on banning semi-automatic rifles, but acknowledges that the main debate will be at the federal level. He says flat out that banning guns won’t make people safer.
See this from Brownells. The panic buying is good, I think, because it’s encouraging manufacturers to run flat out as fast as they can. If there’s a ban with grandfathering, it’ll be essentially meaningless because there will be too many of them out there. If there’s no grandfathering, there will be so many of them out there, it’ll be hard to argue they aren’t in “common use.” If the Court was serious about that test, none of what we’re threatened with should stand. But it could be years before we get to the Supremes, and who knows if the Court will change.
Most people think increasing police presence in school and better mental health services would be the most effective. The spin from our opponents is going to be that 63% of those polled thought banning semi-automatic firearms would be effective, ignoring the fact that arming teachers and principals is a point ahead at 64% if they want to look at it that way. Banning semi-automatic firearms also has the second highest negative opinion, behind only news media refusing to print or read the names of the person responsible.
(If I owe someone a h/t for this, I’m sorry, I forgot to note my source on this.)
For school security. I think the Senator means this to be a lesson on why gun control would be a better option. But it probably would be a hell of a lot more effective than new gun control laws. Me thinks this might not have the rhetorical effect the Senator desires.
I had to check out this video of two male Wall Street Journal reporters talking about how Smith & Wesson will need to go back to the drawing board on their new marketing efforts because those efforts included outreach to female NRA members.
The logic here astounds me. Their assumption that Smith & Wesson will need to give up their women’s advertising is based on the idea that women who are already involved in the gun culture enough to join NRA and follow NRA’s Women’s Network channels will suddenly no longer be interested in guns.
But, then they show a picture of a man browsing Smith & Wesson products and say that those core customers probably haven’t changed their attitudes. I guess we women can’t be relied upon, we’re too flakey or wishy washy. These two apparently think that we’re simply not as principled as men. *ahem*
Boys at the WSJ, let me give you a little lecture on females with strong views rooted in constitutional principles and concern for self-defense and that of our homes. We’re dedicated. We’re the biggest advocates and loudest supporters of efforts like the Friends of NRA to raise money for advancing the Second Amendment through safety programs and legal programs. We’re the ones who, when we get involved, bring the entire family along with us. I see more women – even those who aren’t NRA members – share images promoting the Second Amendment on Facebook than I see from men. When we come on board to the cause, we’re vocal. We don’t sit back and listen to men tell us what they think we “should want” to hear. We’ll make up our own minds about messages that resonate with us.
I’m going to be out of pocket soon, as we head into the holidays and I need to crunch work stuff. I’ll still be blogging, but for news I might be missing, SayUncle has been doing a pretty bang up job of covering these trials and tribulations as well. Signs are starting to indicate our efforts are working, but as I mentioned in Uncle’s comments:
I’ve been feeling better since Obama’s Presser, because I too thought it didn’t signal seriousness. But we still need to continue to mobilize. Obama is still throwing down, and we need to remind them that we can still mobilize a hoard if the people in DC signal they are thinking about f***ing with us.
This reminds me of a somewhat famous letter of Thomas Jefferson’s:
The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?
Jefferson was speaking in the context of Shay’s Rebellion, but even for a political threat like the President has made, we still must show that we “preserve the spirit of resistance” to lawmakers.
Some of the guns turning up in Mexico are tracing back to 4473s filled out by ATF Assistant SACs, using a false address. I’m surprised people aren’t going to jail. But hey, the I guess the Administration is too busy trying to ban our guns to clean up his own house before soiling mine.
Larry Pratt, head of GOA, does a pretty bang-up job of handling Piers Morgan:
I think every time you get discouraged, or think this struggle is too difficult, or too time consuming, just watch yourself some Piers Morgan. He’ll fire you right back up.
UPDATE: Dave Weigel on Twitter: “Piers Morgan is doing Mike Bloomberg a favor by becoming the new most insufferable gun control advocate.”
Yeah, really.
Cleaning the shelves dry of guns and ammunition is something that apparently brings red states and blue states together at the moment. My mother was checking up on the gun situation in her new home state, and she read me the report that Tennessee has likely set gun sales records – at least they did set a record for the number of gun sales background checks.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kristin Helm said in an email that the agency performed 9,772 background checks over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That’s 500 more than the second biggest weekend on record — Black Friday and the two days that followed in November. …
At the Goodlettsville Gun Shop, outside of Nashville, sales continued to be brisk on Wednesday.
Owner Phillip Arrington said in a phone interview that the store was packed and he had five check-out lines going.
He then cut the reporter short saying that he was too busy to talk. Ha!
I find it amazing that anti-gun groups still try to use the line that the only people lining up to buy guns are people who already own guns. If that was the case, we wouldn’t see the same surges in something like concealed carry permits that aren’t something you buy multiples of in your home state. Gun sales and permits in the Keystone State are surging in the last few days.
Joe Staudt of Staudt’s Gun Shop in Harrisburg was sold out of his usually large stock of AK-47 and AR-15 semi-automatic weapons by Wednesday. … The store Staudt opened in the spring of 2011 had record sales Monday, but Tuesday “is now our new record day,” he said. …
At Grice Gun Shop in Clearfield, which bills itself as Pennsylvania’s largest gun shop, the phone was busy much of the day. A recording asked callers to be patient and said the store was swamped because of the holiday season and “the recent gun-ban rhetoric.”
The article notes that the surge isn’t just for guns, but concealed carry licenses, too. They report that applications are up all over the state. They interviewed the Greene County Sheriff who reported that their previous record was to process 110 applications in one month. Yesterday alone, they had 40 applications in hand hours before close of business. He reportedly told the reporter that as people drop them off, they pick up new applications for friends and family who are convinced to get a permit, too.
(h/t to commenter DannytheMan for the link!)