Year: 2014

SayUncle hilariously notes that the new American State Legislators for Gun Ownership Prevention (ASLGVP) won’t release the names of their members because they fear a political backlash. You’d think at least some of them would be like Dwight Evans, and serve in districts so safe they could have a campaign rally strangling a basket full of live puppies on stage, and still win re-election. And here I thought the NRA was losing, the gun control movement was on the ascendancy, and we didn’t have to worry any longer what those toothless cousin-humping rednecks thought?

Our opponents just don’t want to let go of the lie about background checks:

Indeed, according to a recent poll from Quinnipiac University, 92 percent of gun owners and 86 percent of Republicans, support background checks prior to all gun sales. It was widely known that the NRA was responsible for the demise of this bill, a common sense measure that was overwhelmingly supported by its own members.

The 92% number can retire into history with every other lie these people tell. Why? Because we know now that in a deep blue state, with billionaires outspending the pro-gun message 10:1, the best they could do was 59% of the vote, and it outright LOST in all the counties outside of the puget sound area (except for one eastern county). Those counties are where all the NRA members and gun owners are that supposedly support this 92%. What people tell pollsters is not necessarily what they’ll do at the voting booth, especially when it comes to opinions on guns. I also, in my response, took issue with the claim about background checks:

This is not about background checks. After Sandy Hook, we put a background check compromise on the table, lead by Senator Tom Coburn. I would have implemented Universal Background Checks in a manner that was satisfactory to gun owners and probably the NRA. Schumer laughed it out of the room, then introduced his own measure which would have criminalized handing a gun to someone else to look at, among other things. It was a trojan horse.

The problem is, the gun control groups have been trying to slip a lot by in these background check initiatives. For instance, in the Manchin-Toomey amendment, it would have stripped the safe travel provisions we fought hard for in the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986. This was only the tip of the iceberg of garbage Schumer was trying to get passed under the guise of background checks.

Again, we saw the same deceit in Washington State, where I-594 bans mere TRANSFERS of firearms, e.g. giving a firearm to someone else to shoot anywhere that’s not an “authorized range” a term which I-594 conveniently does not define. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife had to restructure it’s hunting education program to deal with this nonsense, since as it was structured presently would be illegal under I-594. They did this by deputizing the instructors, so they would fall under the law enforcement exception, in order to be able to hand a firearm to a student to teach them. Ordinary NRA instructors don’t have this option.

This is what is defined as reasonable? They know it’s unreasonable. What they are hoping for is that no one else notices these are radical measures couched in language that trick most people into believing they support it.

Well, the NRA loves themselves a good villain, given that it’s good for fundraising letters. While I doubt anyone can top Bloomberg in the category of juicy villains, I have very little doubt that Surgeon General Murthy will not disappoint. He eked by the Senate with 51 votes. Remember that Reid had changed the rules so that confirmations don’t need to reach the 60 vote majority to overcome a filibuster.

NRA scored this vote, but with enough Democrats getting the boot this cycle, that unfortunately doesn’t carry as much weight as it would have before the election.

Everyone ready for the holidays? I’m not. Too much to do. The good news is that I’m done with my client that kept me very busy. The bad news is I have a backlog of work with my other engagements; mostly stuff I’ve been ignoring or pushing off because I didn’t have as much time to deal with. I also managed to get a hold of a newer MacBook Pro, but am disappointed it’s mysteriously rebooting every few days. It passes Memtest86, but I still suspect memory. It’s a late 2011 model, which is a step up from my older 2009 model. I won’t bore you with the details, so here’s the news:

Bloomberg got beat up by the media for his previous school shooting lie, so the smart thing to do, of course, is to double down on it.

Remember that ex marine who got busted in New York for having a gun? He took a plea deal. The article also talks about the disposition of some other notable gun possession cases in New York.

Emily Miller looks at getting a carry permit in Washington D.C.

If at first you don’t succeed, fail fail again. For years the Dems were convinced gun control was a loser issue, and then the blue dog was born. Then Obama ate the blue dogs. Now gun control is cool again.

Again, the Internet has devolved into arguing with rude children. Sorry Cliff, Bloomberg and his billionaire buddies outspent us 10 to 1 in Washington State to get less than 60% of people to vote for a measure he claimed 92% of people wanted. In a deep blue state.

Why are anti-gun activists so violent?

Good news for C&R licensees. It looks like ATF is not planning to require fingerprints and photographs.

NBS News, Like you and me, only better.

The news that more people now support gun rights is welcome, especially the shift among women and African Americans. But the fact that this only just now flipped shows how slow things can be to change, and what an uphill climb our success as a movement really has been.

To be fair to Illinois politicians, it’s understandable why criminals don’t want people filming their misdeeds.

Shocker: Reasoned Discourse breaks out at Media Matters. I’ve come to the conclusion over the years that the reason they don’t want debate isn’t because they are worried they’ll lose. The reason they don’t want to debate is because they are incapable of debating.

Tam: “There’s no sport in mocking Mark Morford. It’s like beating up the 60-lb. asthmatic kid with the coke-bottle glasses or hunting dairy cattle with a scoped big game rifle; he’s the bunny slope of snark targets. Still, sometimes one has to at least go through the motions for form’s sake.”

People in Belize are starting to question gun control.