2008 – Page 118 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Looking for Ideas for Grassroots Organization

Bitter is looking for ideas as we’re looking to get some organization together in southeastern, PA just in time for the elections.Â The problem with southeastern PA is that no one is doing anything.Â We have gun owners here, but unlike the guys out west, who have their s%$t together, we don’t have a game plan.Â Head over to Bitter’s an offer some suggestions.

Bitter has been going through and looking to find all the gun clubs and shooting ranges in my county, and the number is astounding.Â There’s just no way that a guy like Pat Murphy should be able to win here.Â In fact, he did not win in Bucks County, he won by virtue of the fact that Pennsylvania’s 8th congressional district contains parts of Montgomery County and Philadelphia, which voted overwhelmingly for Murphy.

Patrick Murphy decided to sign on to a ban on many common semi-automatic firearms, and I have decided to organize the gun vote in Bucks county to defeat him.Â I will not stop until every gun owner in this county knows what HR1022 would do, and that their congressman favors it.Â In the intelligence community, this kind of reaction is known as blowback, but I think it works in politics too.

Clearing the Air on Heller

Alan Gura talks about the effect Heller is meant to have on DC’s registration system.

There are significant, practical limits on the number of arguments that can be put together in one lawsuit.Â In our case, we chose to focus on the handgun and functional firearms bans â€“ and that was plenty work for the courts to consider.Â Â Litigants do not have unlimited space in the briefing, or unlimited time in argument, and there is a significant strategic advantage â€“ as we have demonstrated â€“ in keeping constitutional litigation focused and narrow.

I’m hoping he’s not, but suspect he is, getting grief from gun people about how Heller should have fixed this whole thing.Â One thing Alan is going to learn about gun owners, if he hasn’t already, is that many of us are never happy, or grateful much.Â Be sure to read his whole post.

The Things You Find on YouTube

I played sideline mallets in high school band.Â Yep, I’m a band geek, and still have the jacket and letter to prove it.Â Someone must have put some video up on YouTube, because you can see me, 17 friggin years ago, in a high school band competition.Â I know it’s a competition because Nov 2 1991 was a Saturday, and Fridays were football games, and Saturdays were competitions.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-oxWrjAhZM[/youtube]

On the sideline mallets, I’m the second in from the right.Â The girl one in from the left I had a horrible crush on.Â The first song in our show was “An American in Paris” by George Gershwin, followed by “Take the A-Train” by Duke Ellington.Â I seem to remember the other one was the theme from Twin Peaks, then another bit called “Va Va Voom”.Â The funny thing is, I think if you put me in front of a set of mallets today, I could probably still play bits of that show.

From band geek to gun nut.Â It’s funny sometimes the directions life goes in.Â The really funny thing is, I still enjoy competition, even though I suck about as much at shooting as I did at sideline precussion.

Obama Exposed

I was pretty happy that the only thing about Barack Lonely Hearts Club Obama that’s being exposed here is his political negatives.

Stupid Cut and Paste Mistakes

It seems a few weeks ago I ended up calling the SAF/ISRA case that Gura is taking forward in Chicago a disaster.Â I didn’t realize it until I got an e-mail from one of the plaintiffs.Â The “other incorporation case” I had in mind was actually theirs, but I ended up pasting it into the link for disaster.Â A few weeks later, I can’t remember what the other incorporation case I was looking at that looked like a disaster, but this is one of those things that makes you think “I need to be more careful.”Â Copy/Paste mixups can be embarrassing.

Gunning for Levdansky’s Assembly Seat

State Representative David Levdansky has been talked about quite a bit on this blog, because he was the primary architect of the failed “Lost and Stolen” bill in the Pennsylvania General Assembly.Â We’re fortunate that we have an opponent running for Levdansky’s seat this November.Â Monica Douglas is a solid pro-gun candidate, but she needs help this election in order to successfully challenge the incumbent.

This may well be the most important race for Pennsylvania gun owners in the entire assembly this year, because if we can defeat Representative Levdansky, or even come close to defeating him, we will send a message to every other politician in the assembly that supporting gun control will cost them personally, and puts their seat in jeopardy.

This is how gun rights are won and kept.Â Please consider donating money, or if you’re in our near her district, donating time to help her campaign.Â If we can elect Monica Douglas to the General Assembly, we’ll be doing every gun owner in this commonwealth a great service.

Dick Heller Denied Registration

He didn’t trust the District not to jerk him around, so he did not bring his firearms with him as required.Â Given their actions lately, I can’t say I blame him.Â We need to get that preemtion of DC’s laws through Congress ASAP.

Chicks With Guns

Nope, neither of them look very trashy to me.

Not So Fast Bradys

Damon Root of Reason takes Dennis Henigan to task for suggesting Heller won’t ultimately mean much.Â If we get incorporation of the second amendment as applicable to the states, that is where it will likely have its greatest impact.Â There are precious few gun laws at the federal level I think are likely to be impacted in the short term.

If the thought of new pro-gun constituencies being created in cities like Chicago and New York City doesn’t scare the hell out of Dennis and his boss Paul Helmke, it ought to.Â What will happen to gun control when the latte elite of Chicago and New York *gasp* know people who own guns?Â Know people who shoot guns?Â Maybe even know people who carry guns?Â Dear god!

There are two major centers of political support for gun control: New York and Chicago.Â Oh, there are minor ones, like San Francisco, Boston, and DC, but what do all these areas have in common?Â They’ve all severely restricted access to handguns.Â No one in these cities likely knows anyone who owns or shoots a gun for recreation, and don’t think much about them for self-defense, because it’s not an option for non-criminals.Â Â That is about to change, and that should keep Paul Helmke and Dennis Hennigan up at night.

UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds and Brian P. Denning chime in with an article in the Northwestern University Law Review.

Law Abiding Car Owner

We have a case of another law abiding car owner that the American Automobile Association likes to tell us are the type of people who want to own and drive cars:

Colarulo says that just before 1am Wednesday morning, 19-year-old Shawn Bender rammed his Chrysler into another vehicle on the southbound outer lanes of theÂ Boulevard, near Adams Avenue, forcing that car into a concrete barricade,Â killing a 17-year-old man who was in the car and leaving the other three people in that car — includingÂ Bender’s ownÂ 12-month-oldÂ daughter and the baby’s mother — in critical condition:

“He was ramming the vehicle to the point where he was striking the vehicle numerous times and the vehicle was forced into a brick wall. And that’s what caused the injuries and the fatality at this point.”

Sadly, the child died.Â More children are killed by car misuse than any other cause of death.Â When will we realize that the only way we can prevent such tragedy is by restricting access to automobiles?