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Month: July 2008
Patrick Murphy Signs on to National Concealed Carry
Patrick Murphy has cosponsored H.R. 861, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act. According to Thomas, he signed on as a cosponsor on July 22nd. That’s a few days after we got a visit from one is his perky volunteers. I should note that Congressman Murphy has used his concealed carry license as political cover on this issue before. Hell, even I bought it before I had idea what his record would be.
But the fact of the matter is the guy signed on to a pretty serious and draconian ban of most semi-automatic firearms, including the most popular target rifles that are sold in the US today. He also is conspicously absent from the Congressional Amicus Brief supporting Mr. Heller in overturning the ban on guns in Washington D.C. Patrick Murphy was one of only six members of the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation who did not sign on to the brief.
One wonders how Congressman Murphy thinks we’re supposed to carry guns, when he doesn’t seem to have any issue with guns being banned.
Home Ownership Joys
My patio awning is all rotted to hell. Both the roof and the fascia board were put on wrong, causing the roof to curl up at the lip, making a pool of water looking for some place to go. Well, it found a place
I’m home from work today because we have some contractors coming over today to give us estimates. I thought about doing it myself, but I think I would probably take too long.
EVC Site
We have established a web site for our EVC activities in Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District. Obviously one of the main things we wanted to highlight was Congressman Patrick Murphy’s record on guns. We will be developing fliers to distribute to clubs, ranges and gun shops, to make sure folks know that Patrick Murphy would like to make sure folks like this find it difficult or impossible to compete in their chosen sport. No doubt that many clay shooters and bird hunters would be interested to discover the poor wording in HR1022 bans all semi-automatic shotguns as well.
We will be as ready as we can hope to be once the endorsements come out.
The .223 of Beer
I asked Bitter to head out and obtain, for our sacreligious three bean chili, some cheap beer. I said “Maybe a 12 pack of Rolling Rock or something.” What she got was an eight pack of Rolling Rock, since the local bar (thanks to Pennsylvania’s byzantine liquor laws) only has limited 12 pack selection. Well, eight pack would be fine, except that they are bottles of beer apparently marketed to midgets, at seven whole ounces a piece. So really, the eight pack is like a four and a half pack. I told Bitter:
“These are the .223 of beer. I mean, sure, it’s beer, but it takes twice as many to knock a man down.”
I’ll be sticking to my full house Victory Hop Devils from this point forward. It might not be the prototypical “cheap beer” but it’s cheap enough, and it’s a hell of a lot better than Rolling Rock.
Quote of the Day
The Mrs. often asks why I carry to church. It’s because shootings keep happening at churches.
It’s often the places you least think you’d need a gun that you most need one. I’m going to bet the Mrs. doesn’t ask this particular question anymore.
Thunderstorms
Well, I was getting ready to head to the range to get some chrony readings for a .223 load I wanted to try, and then some thunderstorms rolled through. Damn. Took the power out, which is why the blog was down. Power is back on now, and I’m making a three bean chili. At least the parts of it that didn’t end up on the floor.
See, Bitter opened up the cans for me, but I didn’t know she had one of those safety can openers. You know, the ones that open the can from the side rather than from the top. So about and hour later, I go to pick up the can of crushed tomatoes, and my brain failed to register “open can!” so I proceeded to spill the contents all over the floor, the stove, and myself. Ooops.
Anyways, for dinner tonight, Chili, Texas toast, and cheap beer.
UPDATE: I loved the Chili, beans and all. Bitter considers beans in Chili to be sacrilidge. To avoid reigniting The Civil War, we decided that we could cut out some of the beans and add more meat. It’s a compromise we can hopefully live with.
More Heller Dominoes
Looks like we can expect a few more communities around Chicago to join Wilmette and Morton Grove:
But Wilmette threw in the towel earlier this week. Evanston plans to repeal its ban Monday, and so does the village of Morton Grove, which passed the first ban in the country 27 years ago.
We look forward to Evanston rejoining these United States. Welcome back. But this is an interesting development:
The city of Chicago is modifying its ban on handguns slightly but maintaining the teeth in the ordinance as the Daley administration prepares to fight the gun lobby all the way back to the Supreme Court. And they’ll be joined by the village of Oak Park, which appears to be the only suburb that’s not throwing in the towel, despite the Supreme Court ruling and the potential legal bills.
I’m wondering what “modifications” Daley is planning to make. No doubt he wants to differentiate his ban from Washington DCs to make it a bit harder for us. I thought he said that was out earlier in the week, but I guess it’s back in.
How Far is Too Far?
Based on the poll I took a few days ago, there seem to be some people who believe registration is the line in the sand, but it’s not a majority. Only about 11% of people who answered the poll. I don’t disagree with folks on this for two reasons. For one, if the reason we hate registration is because it enables confiscation, we already have that. For all intents and purposes, 4473 is registration. All a government would have to do is call in all those forms and scan them into a computer, or just keep going down the list. Sure, it would be incomplete, but it’s probably complete enough for most of us. Second, registration depends on voluntary compliance. Unless you’re going to go around searching people’s houses door to door, in which case we have bigger problems than the registration law itself, if people don’t comply, there’s not much the government can do. This is a good candidate for civil disobedience, which has worked very well in Canada.
But how far is too far? Has California gone too far? Chicago? DC? New Jersey? Would someone there be morally justified in shooting it out? I tend to think that as long as firearms of reasonably modern lineage are available to people for purchase and use, then the line hasn’t yet been crossed to the point where we’re ready to start thinking about the exercising the second amendment’s true purpose.
I hate California’s assault weapons ban, but it does regulate cosmetic features. It’s what makes the ban silly, but it also doesn’t do much to prevent people from carrying out the purposes of the second amendment. Are you really that badly downgraded with an M1 Garand, or a Mini-14 ranch rifle than an AR-15? The ban is annoying, and yes, I do believe it infringes on the second amendment, but in terms of it’s practical significance in preventing the execution of its purpose, California’s laws frustrate the second amendment, but do not entirely destroy it.
I’m also skeptical about resorting to the doomsday scenario in response to local laws. There is a fine tradition in America of saying “f^*k this!” and voting with your feet. People have been fleeing Massachusetts and New Jersey by the droves. New York, particularly upstate, has also been depopulating. No doubt this is not all over gun laws, but it would seem that when governments stop respecting their citizens, and start over-taxing, regulating, infantalizing them, they get sick of it and seek out greener pastures. Who would have known? I think gun owners can get a lot of mileage out of moving to states that repsect their rights. I think you can even make a plan out of that. Sure, picking up your life and moving it is a big commitment, but a far less so than pulling the trigger.
That said, I do think we need to keep the government from destroying the second amendment. That’s a line that can’t be crossed, because if it is, you can bet others will be. Fortunately, the government seems more interested these days in saying that it means something, rather than looking for ways to undermine it (Fenty and Daley’s turds in the pool notwithstanding), but if we do start heading down the path to destruction of that right, my attitude will not remain so moderate.
Original Letter to the Editor
For anyone who’s interested, this is the original Letter to the Editor Mike was responding to. Tamara probably had the best all time response to fools who believe in this:
Okay, this pen is a gun. The paper I’m holding is my license and the paper you’re holding is the registration. Using only these two pieces of paper, explain to me just how you are going to keep me from shooting someone?