Downrange TV has their coverage of our weekend at Blackwater with Todd Jarrett.
Month: October 2008
Lehigh County Has a Good Prosecutor
Second Amendment supporters need to get in touch with Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin, because he’s standing up for us in fighting Allentown’s violation of statewide preemption:
Martin reiterated his pledge to seek non-enforcement of the law, saying if someone is arrested, he will seek to intervene on the person’s behalf to get the case dismissed. “I certainly have the authority, based on the duties of the district attorney established by the state,” Martin said. “I control the keys to the courthouse.”
Martin also said that he is considering joining the National Rifle Association in its fight to get a similar law in Philadelphia tossed, as well as pursuing his own challenge of Allentown’s law.
“I will be proactive,” he declared.
If you want to contact the District Attorney to thank him for taking this stand, you can find his contact information here. It’s good to see an elected official in this area standing up for the law.
The VP Debate
I had to watch it on time delay because the club had our first Indoor Silhouette match of the year last night. Joe Biden delivered a stellar debate performance by Joe Biden standards, meaning he didn’t say anything stupid, outlandish, or at any point insert his foot into his mouth. He deserves a round of applause for that, and for putting up with the myriad of botox injections he looks like he received before his performance. That shit is painful.
But Joe Biden has been running for President for twenty years, and despite his experience at being on the national stage, Sarah Palin kept up with him pretty much every step of the way. Expectations of her set by the media were so low, I would actually be willing to argue she was the winner of the debate just by virtue of the fact that she showed the public she can play with the big boys. Say what you will, she’s deserves to be on that stage, and she’s every bit as qualified as Barack Obama.
We Have To Return to the Goldfish Standard
Gun Shows Don’t Cause Sky to Fall
This has to be a pretty awful thing for the Brady Campaign to read:
A new study finds no evidence that gun shows lead to substantial increases in either gun-related homicides or suicides.
The University of Michigan and University of Maryland study also shows that tighter regulation of gun shows does not appear to reduce the number of firearms-related deaths.
That makes sense, since most of the people at gun shows are people like us. Speaking of gun shows, I have the machine built with Ubuntu 8.04 that will run our touchscreen version of O-Match at the Allentown Gun Show this weekend. It’s unfortunate, but the O-Match application phones back to the mother ship in order to download the questions. I’m guessing NRA set it up this way so that if Obama said anything else stupid, it could be added to the mix. Hopefully they have a standalone shockwave version that could run on my machine without a network connection. If not, I’ll have to figure out how to tether the machine through a cell phone connection, and hope they have cell phone reception in the hall.
Back to the original topic, I’ve been convinced that the reason the gun control people target gun shows, is because it’s one of our cheif organization and outreach tools. They have to know that very few crime guns are traced to shows. They can read the statistics as well as we can.
The Blogging Community
Bitter thinks more hook and bullet writers who are trying to break into blogging need to be reading other blogs, and participating in the community as a whole:
If you click through, it’s to a NewsMax article about Obama trying to get NRA ads booted off the air. Petzal is not clear if he’s questioning the existence of the threatening letters, the accuracy of NRA, or NewsMax. I was a little perturbed by this when I left a comment outlining numerous sources that link the letters and responses.
But then I realized that I was actually a little short because of a slightly related beef with the outdoor media and the blogosphere. I applaud these forms of dead tree media for encouraging their writers to blog. However, I’m not sure that they really understand what a community the blogosphere is, and how that community makes the blogosphere as great as it is, especially in the gun world.
I would agree. Read the whole thing.
My Blog Forces Biden’s Chopper Down!
I got excited when I read this headline. But then I realized they were talking about real snowflakes. The article goes on to detail Biden’s pathological lying. I still can’t believe that Obama picked this guy. He’s lucky the media is in the tank for him.
Quote of the Day
From Clayton Cramer, describing the fact that the Senate bailout plan contains an excise tax exemption for wooden arrows:
I suppose that we can more cheaply train our kids to become a nation of bowmen this way, so as to overthrow this corrupt and foolish government in a carbon-neutral way.
Clearly the nations economic health would have been imperiled if it wasn’t for this much needed stimulus for the wood industry.
Allentown Passes “Lost and Stolen”
Following on the footsteps of Philadelphia, Allentown City Council passed legislation requiring residents or report stolen firearms to police within a certain period of time or face prosecution. Preemption is a bedrock principle for maintaining our rights in any meaningful form. This is a regulation on the possession of firearms, and is thus the exclusive domain of the state Legislature. It is clearly unconstitutional under Pennsylvania law. Unfortunately, someone will have to get cited before there can be a challenge. Allentown isn’t the only one:
Pawlowski met in Reading earlier this month with seven other mayors — including Easton’s Sal Panto Jr. and Bethlehem’s John Callahan — to announce that they were introducing the legislation, which they consider to be least in conflict with current state laws.
Least in conflict? So they admit it is in conflict then? Good, then it’s illegal. You can see how if cracks in the foundation of preemption are allowed to form, pretty soon the whole structure weakens and comes tumbling down. There is a slippery slope here, and if we allow this stuff to stand, pretty soon you wouldn’t be able to transport a firearm through the Commonwealth without running a very serious risk of arrest and prosecution.
Media Bias Has Disappeared
Because it’s no longer bias. As Glenn Reynolds pointed out yesterday, the media is in the tank for Obama:
I promised some thoughts on what to do about the news media’s outright campaigning for Obama. (And that’s what it is. Media bias used to mean that they would slow-walk stories that reflected badly on their candidate; now they just flat out ignore them, or even try to shoot them down. They’re not just in the tank, they’re functioning as arms of the campaign, and Obama’s strategy shows that he knows that and is relying on it.)
Just this morning I had to turn off the radio, because the local propaganda mouthpiece of the Obama Campaign ran coverage which started out with an Alaskan commenting that she is not to be underestimated, and then following up with the various ways people think she’s not qualified, including polls showing that only 25% of voters think she’s qualified. Even though she’s, you know, about as qualified as Obama is. Prof. Reynolds talks about solutions:
There’s a vast underserved population out there, for news, entertainment, movies, etc., and if people start serving it, the current “mainstream” media won’t be so mainstream anymore. So if you’re unhappy with current offerings, put your money where your mouth is.
And if you’re one of the people with creative interests, start making alternative stuff. Not just news and punditry, but entertainment, documentaries, etc. If An American Carol does well this weekend, it’ll make it a lot easier for the next film of its type to be made. If Evan Coyne Maloney’s documentary work does well, it’ll encourage a lot more of that kind of work.
Think of it like cultivating a garden: Starve the weeds, feed the flowers. Like gardening, it’s work. But like gardening, if you do the work you’ll see results.
I agree. Make sure you get out to see An American Carol this weekend. Even though we’re booked solid this weekend with election volunteer stuff, Bitter and I are going to make time. We need it to do well. That sends a powerful signal to the market.
This morning Glenn linked to a piece showing that the Boston Globe is still spreading lies about Sarah Palin that have been repeatedly debunked. This is the worst I’ve ever seen a media. We honestly don’t have a functioning Republic as long as these people continue to peddle their shameless propaganda as legitimate journalism. Perhaps this will be the election where the voting public realizes the emperor has no clothes. I certainly hope so.