A few days ago I mentioned that Obama’s troubles were good for our gun rights, because it meant the Administration had less clout and capital to push for his gun control platform. It would seem that is bearing out, though not quite in the way I expected.
Kansas isn’t exactly a hotbed of activity for Bloomberg’s merry band of illegal mayors, but this looks like a shot across the bow to MAIG:
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are close to approving restrictions favored by the National Rifle Association on the use of state tax dollars to promote or oppose gun-control measures or to lobby local, state or federal officials on the issue.
Remember last year that it was discovered that MAIG was using taxpayer money for paid city positions to promote MAIG’s gun control agenda. This would put the kibosh on that practice. Hopefully Kansas is just a start. I’d like to start striking back at Bloomberg and making him pay for what he’s put us through this year.
Slate has a picture of Eleanor Roosevelt’s carry permit issued by Dutchess County. Of course, being well connected and wealthy, I doubt Eleanor would have had any issue getting a carry permit from the City of New York. Average joe’s? Not so much.
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.
UPDATE 2: According to Perazzi, this story is “devoid of any foundation and the news is completely fabricated.”
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.
Kevin notes that with so many folks talking about the $600 million lottery jackpot tonight, it’s a great day to dream. With that in mind, he asks people about the top 5 guns they would buy if they woke up discovering they managed to be that 1 in 175 million odds winner.
What would you guys buy?
I can’t really make a list since my primary motivation for buying guns is whether or not they are “pretty.” Chances are that you’d find me at some gun auctions looking for crazy beautiful antiques. Oh, and I’d get a Browning Cynergy since I have always considered that a lovely shotgun. It might take me a while to get around to shooting it since I’d be quite content to simply admire it. Ask Sebastian, my first stop at any NRA Annual Meeting is to go admire the Cynergy wall at the Browning booth.
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!
