According to the LA Times, it’s because we’re winning. SayUncle says: “I find it amusing that the LAT felt it had to spin NRA’s success as a negative.” It’s hard to accept it when your agenda is going down the drain.
Month: June 2008
McCain Endorsement?
Dave Kopel talks about some inaccuracies the Brady’s have put forth in the ABC News article. Namely the statement:
“For John McCain to be the political candidate of the NRA shows how things have changed,” Helmke said.
First off, the NRA hasn’t endorsed McCain’s candidacy, and I don’t have any reason to believe that such an endorsement is forthcoming, though nothing would surprise me considering how stunningly bad Barack Wolfgang Amadeus Obama is on this issue. Secondly, as Dave points out, McCain on the gun issue is really no worse than Bush, who indicated in 2000 that he would sign a renewal of the assault weapons ban. Bush apparently has also supporting closing the gun show loophole. McCain at least opposes renewing the assault weapons ban.
The Pink Pistol Experience
Joe Huffman relays a funny story about working with the Pink Pistols in Idaho, and a fun sounding IPSC match meant to make fun of Fred Phelps . It just goes to show what a bunch of backward queer hating rednecks we all are doesn’t it? Joe says:
The big lesson I would like for people to learn from this story is that gun owners can get favorable press. Boomershoot with all the potential hazards of “assault weapons”, “snipers”, “sniper rifles”, and “bombs” has been successfully pitched to the public as what it really is. People from all walks of life who are, in essence, having an early 4th of July celebration of freedom. In the same way with all the hazardous of “vigilante justice”, “cowboys”, and “angry red-necked white guys” potentially associated with a pistol match where people shoot at human shaped targets we were able to get it portrayed, as it actually is, just ordinary people having fun and practicing to defend innocent life from bodily harm.
It wasn’t that hard, it didn’t take that much extra work, and the positive media coverage reached 100s of thousands of people.
It gets the message out, and hell, maybe people might even think it’s fun and give it a try. Be sure to read the whole thing.
Insights on Brady Concession
Dave Hardy has further insight into the ABC News article from yesterday that stated the Brady Campaign was bracing for a loss on the Second Amendment:
Brady Campaign goes on to cite what they could push for, and could hope to pass constitutional muster: universal (i.e., private sale) background checks, AW bans, “curbing large volume sales,” i.e., one gun a month.
Leaving aside whether those would pass muster … how does the Brady Campaign hope to survive on them? I’d wager that a LOT of its contributors give only because they believe those are stepping stones to things more significant, a “good start” rather than an end. If they faced a reality in which everything would stop with background checks, an AW ban, and one gun a month — that they’d never get beyond that — they might well bail out.
I would say a lot of their constituency is in it in order to ban guns. You might get people casually saying “Oh yeah, that sounds reasonable,” to a lot of their agenda, but the folks who care enough to send money and get involved either hate guns, or are scared to death of them. Either way, if the courts take their eventual goal off the table, I don’t see how they stay in it, unless the Brady’s want to start a movement to repeal the second amendment (good luck with that one).
If I were Peter Hamm or Paul Helmke, I’d be thinking there surely has to be other places in the D.C. establishment where they can put their skills and talents to more effective and creative use.
They Missed Snuffy
Apparently Father Snuffy was much missed at a recent gun control rally in Chicago. I guess gun control rallies in Chicago just aren’t that fun unless someone’s there to threaten to murder gun shop proprietors.
Exploiting Child Tragedy
SayUncle tells the Brady Campaign to stay classy. It’s for the children.
Gay Cooties
I don’t really get the objections to it either. The best arguments seem to be preserving a tradition that’s nearly as old as man. Seems to be that for most of man’s history we’ve also fed other human beings into live volcanos to appease some god or another, and held others as slaves. Tradition can be a poor reason to keep doing something.
New Jersey Gun Ban Passes Committee
By a vote to 5 to 1, the sweeping gun ban has passed out of the New Jersey Assembly judiciary committee. For those of you interested, here’s a list of the guns that are banned under this bill. But oh no, they aren’t out to ban hunting guns. No sir! It’s meant to target criminals, not collectors and sportsmen. You know, like criminals who use the Brown Bess as their firearms of choice, and who use Thompson Center Deer Hunter. What’s even more disgusting is there’s politicians out there who buy this nonsense hook, like, and sinker. And even worse are the ones who know this is crap, but do it anyway, because, well, who gives a crap about the constitution, and sportsmen. Wake up New Jersey, you’re losing your liberty. It’s time to take action.
See the firearms below that will be banned if this is signed into law (Source is Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs):
Bradys Admit Defeat on the Second Amendment
See this CBS News article, and this gem of a quote:
“We’ve lost the battle on what the Second Amendment means,” campaign president Paul Helmke told ABC News. “Seventy-five percent of the public thinks it’s an individual right. Why are we arguing a theory anymore? We are concerned about what we can do practically.”
Yep. Of course, this is to be expected if Heller wins. They go on to say that a victory in Heller won’t really mean much, and could, in fact, mean that the NRA no longer can stoke the fears of gun owners that gun control will lead to confiscation. That’s not a poor analysis, but if the second amendment actually means something, I don’t see how that’s going to end with the Brady agenda remaining in tact.
While I have no doubt the federal judiciary will not interpret the second amendment as broadly as we would like, I don’t think the Brady Campaign will be entirely happy with the outcome either. Plus, if The Courts more or less settle the issue politically, gun control groups stand to lose a lot more than the NRA. The NRA will continue to exist even absent the political debate. Not that I actually believe the debate will ever be settled, but the gun control crowd will have to regroup, lower their goalposts, and see what ways the federal courts will allow them to agitate us.
Everything Nice Must Be Hot Lead
The gun fearing folks out there are going to be cleaning out their pants quite a lot this week. First we have a young lady who can field strip an AR-15 faster than most of us could, and now Breda finds another one who is an aspiring young practical shooter. A Glock is a lot of gun for a girl that size. I would have recommended a Walther PPK/S or some other single stack small frame automatic.
UPDATE: Apparently they are both the same girl.