Yesterday was the annual Congressional Shoot-Out by members of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. I haven’t seen an official report yet, but word of somewhere around 3 dozen members of Congress took time out to hit the gun range.
Interestingly, not a single member of Pennsylvania’s delegation mentioned anything about attending on Twitter or Facebook. This is a shame because Pennsylvania native Olympic gold medalist Jamie Gray attended, and members of Congress from other states bragged about getting a photo with her.
It’s such a disappointment to see so little support outside of the House chamber for our sports. We’re not even talking a politically contentious side of the issue. With multiple Olympians in attendance, including a Pennsylvania gold medal winner, there are ways to make this event a completely positive photo opportunity that gets a few points with gun owners while creating no media headaches.
However, I’m tempted to give Rep. Glenn Thompson a pass since, during my search this morning to confirm the lack of Facebook posts about attending, I did stumble across an announcement for a trap shoot fundraiser on his campaign page.
UPDATE: Well, good news for some Pennsylvania gun owners. According to a comment, Rep. Glenn Thompson was actually in attendance. It just hasn’t been promoted by his office as of today.
Current CSC Co-Chair and team captain Representative Bob Latta (R-OH) was joined by his co-captain, CSC Vice-Chair Representative Rob Wittman (R-VA) as they accepted the trophy on behalf of team Republican, who edged out the Democrats by a score of 242 to 201 to take the Member Trophy for a second consecutive year. Team Democrat was lead by current CSC Co-Chair, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Vice-Chair, Representative Tim Walz (D-MN). …
In the individual category, Representative Jeff Duncan (R-SC) was named the overall Top Gun Member of Congress. The Top Gun from team Democrat was Representative Collin Peterson (D-MN) and the Top Gun from team Republican was Representative John Kline (R-MN). The Top Skeet shooter was Representative Bill Huizenga (R-MI); Representative Steve Southerland (R-FL) won the Top Trap competition and Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM) won Top Sporting Clays.
Here in Pennsylvania, our governor is just terrible. I mean terrible. His administration directed publicly funded colleges to review their rules and regulations and–gasp–make sure they are all constitutional! Oh, the horror of making sure that government agencies/departments/institutions aren’t violating the state constitution!
The directive that prompted Kutztown University to allow people to carry guns on campus came from Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration.
Corbett’s office of General Counsel directed all 14 state-owned universities to review their policies restricting guns on campus to determine whether the policies would withstand constitutional muster, said Kutztown University spokesman Matt Santos.
If I see an attack ad on this issue next year, I’m going to probably hit my head against a desk. I don’t care what side of the aisle you’re on, you should support a directive to make sure that the government isn’t violating rights. If anything, from a liberal perspective, it makes it less likely that these institutions will be sued.
This is a great example of why states need preemption laws. Morrisville, PA has an ordinance that bans possession of firearms in their public parks unless a distinct permit has been issued.
The activities listed below shall not be permitted in any park or playground unless a permit has been secured for such activity from the Borough Council, or its agent, the Borough Manager. No permit shall be issued unless an application therefor shall have been made at least 24 hours before the time of the activity. In the case of seasonal activities, a permit may be issued for the entire season.
(a) Groups or parties in excess of 12 persons.
(b) Placements of placards, advertisements or public notices.
(c) Fires, other than in a fireplace or other equipment provided for cooking purposes, or for a bonfire or campfire as part of an authorized event.
(d) Firearms or the discharge of firearms or other weapons.
(e) Soliciting of alms or subscriptions.
(f) Selling or exposing for sale any articles.
The language that “firearms” “shall not be permitted” “unless a permit has been secured for such activity from the Borough Council, or its agent, the Borough Manager” that must be submitted “at least 24 hours before the time of the activity” seems to make it pretty clear that they issue their own permits to possess firearms in parks at least 24 hours in advance of your planned time to be in the park. I wanted to know more about this little gem of an ordinance.
In trying to find out more about that permit, I called the borough, found myself transferred to three different people in Borough Hall in my first call, put on hold for nearly 10 minutes, and still couldn’t tell you anything about the process. I was then told to contact the Police Department for the permit information, including cost, but the Police Department said that any and all permitting in regards to parks happens through Borough Hall and sent me back to the third woman with whom I spoke. She eventually transfered me to a gentleman who said that the Borough doesn’t actually issue permits, but they require that state licenses to carry in order to possess firearms in any way in public parks. I very specifically asked if that applied to open carry as well, and he said that all carry in parks required the state license to carry. (This is illegal for them to demand.)
What’s interesting is that this borough has already been warned off of violating Pennsylvania’s preemption law in a letter sent by firearms attorney Joshua Prince just four days ago. It would appear that instead of requiring you to notify them at least 24 hours in advance of any trips to the park and securing a permit at an unknown price with, what I was told, an application that apparently never existed, they are continuing to violate state law by demanding licenses to carry concealed for any possession at all – concealed or not.
This why we need preemption with some teeth. A good start is Sen. Rich Alloway’s SB 876. It does at least makes local governments pay for the cost of challenging their abuses of power. It would certainly improve the situation in Morrisville since, in all likelihood, the problem ordinance never would have been passed in the first place. Even if it was on the books, the borough itself would be on the financial hook for their illegal ordinance and certainly wouldn’t feel like it is acceptable for their leaders to give out illegal advice without consequence.
There’s a fine line between being seen or heard and shoving your politics so much in someone’s face that they get utterly turned off and it works against you. Make your voice heard doesn’t mean piss off everyone around you. That doesn’t help a cause.
This editorial doesn’t just condemn a rinky-dink anti-gun group. The speakers at the event they say should have been canceled are a former governor and a current state lawmaker. Good for the media for calling out the appropriate party for their desire to get up in everyone’s faces where it is rather inappropriate.
We already know that the Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show was a multi-million dollar event for Reed Exhibitions, and they lost it because of poor execution and dismal communication with their vendors and customers. Today, they lost another show with NSSF announcing that Reed will no longer manage SHOT.
What surprises me the most is that the contract is terminated immediately. I figured they would at least ride out the issue until 2014 is wrapped up since events of this scale are not something you pull together in a day.
We certainly wish NSSF luck in pulling together a successful SHOT Show in 2014, and we take a little joy is knowing that while this is ultimately no big deal to Reed’s overall bottom line, losing a millions over their anti-gun positions is still a bit of a victory.
As much attention as the downloadable plans for a 3-D printed gun are getting online, I chuckled when I read over the benefits to joining the Miniature Arms Society. One of the perks to membership is: “Access to a library of plans for making miniature arms.”
They have been around since 1973, so the idea of sharing plans for guns a serious hobbyist could make at home with the right equipment isn’t anything new. The previous versions are just…tinier.
With media rumors going around that Jeff Flake was going to switch his vote and support gun control, he is speaking out on the issue:
It was reported by some media outlets today that I am changing my vote on Manchin-Toomey, and that I am somehow linking this vote to a vote on the internet sales tax.
Neither is true. I am not changing my vote on Manchin-Toomey (I voted against it). I voted against the internet sales tax as well. There is no connection between these two votes.
Arizona gun owners should definitely let his office know that they appreciate his stance. (h/t Great Satan, Inc.)
CSGV must be absolutely giddy for tomorrow. They are on the short list of groups selected by the President’s organization to present OFA’s gun control petitions to the Senate & House along with MAIG & Protect Minnesota. This is almost relevancy!
I think it’s quite funny that OFA spent quite a bit of time on their conference call with supporters tonight highlighting how many pieces of paper they plan to print and how many cars they plan to fill with these dead trees to drive in their pollution-generating cars to Capitol Hill to be delivered to all of those Senators who voted against them. Yet, CNN highlights how it is all a silly PR stunt.
Rules prevent the boxes of paper from being delivered directly to lawmakers, so names will be sent digitally…
According to the call leaders, their target states are New Hampshire, Arizona, and Nevada. They also touted the 1.4 million button clicks for the online petition were “unprecedented,” but oddly enough, didn’t let their supporters know that NRA now has 5 million dues-paying-members.
OFA’s only meetings that they announced for tomorrow are with California Democrats – Nancy Pelosi and Mike Thompson. But, you know, bipartisanship. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want Republicans to take their calls, but I do think it makes their claims about being bipartisan just a tad false–a pretty common theme in tonight’s phone call.
OFA is claiming that Sen. Ayotte is a success story of their gun control push because she is supposedly being hit on the issue from both the left and the right. Do any New Hampshire readers have any evidence of the right attacking Ayotte for her gun control vote? I think that may be an outright lie. They also claim that Ayotte has changed her mind on the vote, which is not at all what I have seen.
In the greater scheme of things, their leading topic tonight was immigration. The other big topic was climate change. The first two questions were also about those issues. The single question on gun control was best paraphrased as, “Does all this organizing on gun control actually work or are we wasting our time?”
If you’re a New Hampshire gun owner, the last few weeks and even coming weeks have been a great time to write letters to the editor of local newspapers. It’s a huge help when locals stand up for their own lawmakers supporting their rights.
NRA has gone to air in at least one $25,000 ad buy on WMUR with this ad in defense of Ayotte:
But supplemental letters always help. There’s still time to make a thank you phone call to her offices, too.
With so many anti-Second Amendment groups rebranding as being for gun safety or for preventing accidents in recent years, you’d think they would have figured out how to be consistent on this front. That should have been part of their initial strategy meetings on the issue.
It’s funny that these same people probably would not promote abstinence-only sex education because they would say it does not work. Yet, it magically works on kids when it comes to guns.
One of the protesters actually talked about keeping a shotgun unsecured under his bed while refusing to teach his children how to handle it safely. He’s part of the problem, but it was easier for him to blame NRA instead of taking responsibility and being a parent.
