I kid you not (link will auto play). I actually do believe that being fit makes one a better shooter, but doping in shooting? Really? I guess the Indian NRA is a lot more exciting, at least in this respect, than the American NRA — or even USA Shooting, which is the Olympic shooting sports association for the USA.
Apparently a person whose opinion I don’t give a rat’s ass about is in favor of some gun control, and this is news because he’s the brother of a minor celebrity whose opinion I also don’t give a rat’s ass about.
The powers that be in Colorado had Daniele Perazzi (yes, that Perazzi) arrested on suspicion of terroristic activities, because the cab driver apparently heard him talking all kinds of gun stuff. It’s not a good time in America to be a swarthy furriner talking gun stuff, I guess. And apparently we’re the ones who are racist and xenophobic. Yah, OK.
UPDATE: It would seem the veracity of this story could be in doubt. It may be a different Perazzi. It may not have happened at all.
Forbes outlines the five reasons the NRA won the recent gun control debate. I think it’s excellent, and well worth reading:
I’m going to share with you 5 reasons why the NRA won, and they have nothing to do with the often reported reasons like their PAC funds, their ability to turn out pro-gun voters in every legislative district, and the abundance of their skilled in-house and external lobbyists, although those are all true.
They simply execute the basics extremely well. As NRA volunteer Robert in Arizona told his fellow members about the basics, “Thanks for emailing your U.S. Senator, but you have to also write a letter or send a hand written postcard. No one ever tripped on a bag of email.” The good news is the tactics the NRA employed that no one is talking about are things that you can implement in your next persuasion battle. In addition, there were some mistakes made by gun control advocates that unwittingly aided the NRA.
I think she mostly gets it right, and it’s definitely one of the most serious looks at the dynamics of the pro-gun side of the issue I’ve seen from the traditional media in this late struggle.
One thing I think Ms. Showalter might discount a bit in her piece is that quite a bit of the grassroots power in gun rights comes through spontaneous and informal organizing, which makes me wonder whether she’s ever read Brian Anse Patrick’s The Rise of the Anti-Media. Patrick argues our success largely driven by the fact that we’ve constructed our own “horizontal interpretive communities.” I think that ought to be required reading for anyone trying to understand this issue.
One of the biggest mistakes the anti-gun crowd makes is to fail to understand their enemy. NRA is a manifestation of the gun rights movement, the gun rights movement was not created by the NRA. If the anti-gun folks could wish NRA out of existence tomorrow, we would quite quickly create an alternative. I believe the role the NRA plays, and has played in the gun rights movement has been supremely important, even if they haven’t always gotten everything right all the time.
I found this article a bit amusing, because I usually tend to think NRA as a whole, by which I mean to include its members and not merely leadership, is firing on maybe 5 out of 8 cylinders on a good day, though since Obama has started this latest push, I’d say we’ve been maybe 6 out of 8 in terms of our game. There’s still room for improvement. But many of our opponents really can’t grasp the depth of this issue; they think the NRA is the tip of the spear, when it many ways, it’s really the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes I wonder if the reason they think of gun rights as a spear, rather than an iceberg, is that in their more honest moments, they might wonder whether they are passengers on a political Titanic.
Off topic, but summer is coming, and try as I might, I couldn’t help but read a story Instapundit links to about how gross pool water can be, especially at publicly run pools. I used to spend a good deal of time at the swim club as a kid. It gave us something to do while my mother, who was a stay at home mom, gossiped with all the other stay at home moms. I’m glad to hear private swim clubs tested the best, at only 50% of pools being contaminated with fecal material. Maybe as a kid I got lucky. It’s one of those things you probably don’t want to know, but probably should. And if that’s not bad enough, there’s brain eating amoebas to worry about too.
Clearly we’re dealing with a bear who enjoys suburban living. I’m not going to be surprised if this bear swam across the Delaware from New Jersey and ended up downstream of where he put in. We’ll have to see if this bear exhibits the typical MO of Ursus americanus jerseyus and ends up mugging someone for a sandwich. These sightings are just about a mile from my house, by the way the crow flies, or perhaps the way the bear walks. He would seem to be living in the wooded parts along Neshaminy Creek. I’m thinking of doing some smoking this weekend, so I guess we’ll see whether Mr. Bear decides to come over for some ribs and beer later. I’m only half a mile up from the creek!
This isn’t good news for gun control advocates:
President Barack Obama has vowed to keep pushing for new gun control measures and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the failed gun vote in the Senate was “just the beginning.” However, the latest Reason-Rupe national poll finds just 33 percent of Americans feel the “Senate should debate and vote on gun control legislation again,” while 62 percent want the Senate to “move on to other issues.”
Yet we keep being told the public want these measures. No they don’t. As I read recently, people answer the background check question the way they do as a means of expressing disapproval criminals having guns. If you ask the question differently, you get different results, and more than several polls have shown the public has no real appetite for gun control.
h/t Instapundit
Well, it’s been a busy week for me, and I’m glad it’s over. I’ll end it on a news dump:
NY Sheriffs really do oppose the SAFE act. But I thought law enforcement was on their side? Also, an update on the SAFE lawsuit. SAFE has now been enforced on an otherwise honest citizen.
Why are anti-gun activists so violent? Really.
So much for pro-gun Democrats in North Carolina. In 2014, they all need to be reminded this is a losing issue.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signs the state’s sweeping gun control package. Beretta USA, headquartered in Accokeek, MD, responds.
Do you yourself H&K G36? Well, not quite. The G36 is probably the only H&K rifle I’d like to own, but not at that price tag.
Shut up, peon! Apparently New Jersey legislators don’t like citizens speaking out.
3D printing is the technology of liberty. But guns aren’t really what should scare you when it comes to 3D printing. (h/t Instapundit)
Biden is looking to churches for support on gun control. Well, when it comes to the national bodies, most churches are pretty anti-gun already. Congregations? That’s another matter.
The Bradys know where their media bread is buttered.
What’s your definition of an AR?
Not all gun owners are fanatics.
Dates are set on the Gun Blogger Rendezvous VIII, 2013. It is the oldest continuously operating gun blogger gathering. It’s unlikely I’ll make it this year. I don’t have the disposable income I used to, and Reno is an expensive city to fly to from the east coast.
Tim at Gun Nuts latest post on Open Carry.
TGIF everybody! Hopefully next week won’t be as crazy.
Looks like Legal Insurrection (a legal blog) and Judicial Watch think there might be gold in them thar documents. If David Gregory hadn’t been a celebrity, he’d be in jail already. It’ll be interesting to see if the DC OC marchers will see such displays of prosecutorial discretion in their favor. Yeah, I don’t think so either.
Kevin Baker’s blog turns 10. Kevin has been at this game longer than most of us, and he was one of the blogs I was reading before I blogged. How hard is it to blog ten years? Hard. There’s always dry patches, and times when you just aren’t feeling it, or times like this week, where you’re busy, and even if you weren’t, the news cycle is on some other topic that you don’t write about. So getting to 10, and still producing good material is quite an achievement.
