The Pentagon plans on shooting down a spy satellite before it hits earth. If they need a 50 caliber sniper rifle capable of shooting down satellites, I think Josh Sugarmann can get it for them.
Year: 2008
Idiots With Guns
In this case, an idiot who doesn’t think you should be able to have one.
The photograph has pervaded talk radio and cyberspace, creating blog chatter and a forum for public opinion. Many pundits, bloggers and forum-poster took aim at the mayor. The shot was taken at a public unveiling of new additions to the New Orleans Police Department’s arsenal.
“When most saw it, they were horrified,†Loyola University professor of communications Dr. Robert Thomas said. “The way people feel about guns, with the murder rate here, it’s something we have to deal with.â€
All the better to arm the NOPD for the next time they unlawfully invade people’s homes and steal their property. Can’t have the uppity townspeople outgunning the “good guys” can we?
Compromises
I know some of you might be shocked to hear an NRA board member say Compromises Do Not Work, but that’s what Tom King is trying to do with one guy that goes by the alias “Gman”. Gman is one of the disenfranchised souls that is disappointed Harlan Carter managed to wrest control of the NRA in the 1977 “Cinncinatti Revolt”.
It’s generally been my experience that, unless you’re the type that thrives on politics, the more understanding of the process that you have, the less you trust it. Gman says this, in regards to Tom’s last post on ballistic imaging and microstamping:
Don’t be shocked, but I happen to agree 110% with you on this one…and would like to take a step back to my post on microstamping. Because it would seem to me to be pretty much the same logical principle; that it really does not aid in apprehending a criminal, even if the gun is ID’ed. It just adds expense. The new evidence on imaging should help make the case for microstamping moot up in the Capitol.
It really seems to me to be a no-brainer. And I would think that it would be one of those issues that would be fairly simple to head off early in the legislative process by a fairly clear explanation; that is, an issue that the legislative liaison folks could take care of, alleviating the information overload on Joe Sixpack gun owner.
My response to that is one should never assume the legislative process involves a bunch of smart, well meaning people sitting around trying to fix real problems with real solutions. Think of the opposite of that, and you have the legislative process. This isn’t about the utility microstamping has in crime solving, it’s being pushed by the gun control groups because it will drive the cost of guns up, and drive some manufacturers who won’t be able to afford to add this to their production process to either close shop if they manufacture in-state, or sacrifice the market in a large state (like New York and California). The gun control groups don’t give a whit if it never solves a single crime, beause it’s about increasing the regulatory burden on the gun industry, driving prices up, and putting a damper on the market.
Politicians will go along with this if they think they can go back to their constitents, and talk about all the wonderful things they are doing to fight crime. This is why you can’t rely on liasons, you have to educate people, tie these issues together, so that gun owners understand what they are up against, and will tell their legislators that they want none of this nonsense.
VPC And Gun Laws
A few things about SayUncle’s quote of the day. I’ve long beleived that while Brady Campaign (and HCI before the name change) was more strategically savvy, in that they realized that politically, they had a long way to go before a total ban on handguns, and thus decided on an incrimental approach, VPC was much better at tatical political battles. The Brady Campaign might have realized that assault weapons were a great bit of incrementalism, but it was Sugarmann who understood what “assault weapons” really were, and came up with the strategy to decieve the public make the ban happen.
For the most part, I think the Brady Campaign is often generally clueless about guns and in many cases our guns laws. I’ve actally always been somewhat impressed by Sugarmann’s depth of understanding of the issue, that I haven’t seen an analouge for on the Brady’s side. Dr. Strangegun is correct; the VPC knows what’s it’s doing, and I’m sure believe that the ends justify the means.
Seriously?
Bloomberg joined the NRA? They say that Jesus must be in prison, since so many people find him there. It would seem that analogy would apply to gun rights, and Mayors of New York City who decide to run for president. We’re not going to be fooled, though.
Interesting Heller Development
From the docket for DC v. Heller:
Feb 11 2008    Motion of the Solicitor General for enlargement of time for oral argument, for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument filed.
Feb 11 2008    Motion of Texas, et al. for leave to participate in oral argument as amici curiae and for divided argument, and, in the alternative, for enlargement of time for oral argument filed.
So the Solicitor General is asking for oral arguments to be extended, so he has a chance to present the Administration’s position. I asked Dave Hardy what this meant, and he replied:
[An] enlargement of time, which probably means neither side was willing to give him theirs.(Understandable, when you’ve only got 30 minutes, and this guy is only half on your side).
The plot thickens. I’m going to hope The Court denies the motion, but I suspect the SG will get to present his position.
Happy Valentine’s Day
Bitter won’t be around until very late tonight, so I am off the hook for this year, pretty much. I am told we’ll be celebrating tonight at Silhouette by painting all the animals pink, which should make things interesting with the red dot sight on my pistol.
Dr. Helen tells us why women like expensive gifts:
I never understood the whole concept of a woman wanting jewelry from a man, especially diamonds, until I read the book Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters.
In the book, two evolutionary psychologists explain why people do what they do. Why are diamonds a girl’s best friend? The authors conclude that women have to discriminate between “dads” and “cads” among male suitors. In order to find the guy that will stay with her and help her with children, she looks for two qualities: “the ability to acquire and accumulate resources, and the willingness to invest them in her and her children.”
Now it should be noted that Bitter is much cooler than your average girlfriend, but that is not to say that she’s immune from female evolutionary programming! So I guess Bitter’s primitive human female brain is telling her “He better be willing to buy guns for the kids.” “No problem!” says I.
Employers and Guns
Clayton has some thoughts up. I tend to agree with the approach of using liability laws to try to change these practices. Companies institute these policies in the first place to avoid being sued in the event someone goes postal. “Hey, we had a policy, it wasn’t our fault!” kind of thing. Yes, to employers that do this, not being sued is more important to them than your personal security. Altering liability laws changes that equation for them, without outright forcing employers to accept certain practices on the part of employees.
The Shrinking Tent
Uncle has a small tome up about how the Republicans managed to shrink their tent, and places the blame on George W. Bush. That is, I think, a quite an appropriate place to put the blame. Bush has not been a good thing for the Republican coalition, and as Mike Huckabee can tell you, you can’t win with just evangelicals. The interesting thing about McCain is that it wasn’t the economic conservatives that are turning out and voting for him, it’s former veterans and hawks. The economic conservatives liked Romney, which should tell you how beat up they felt under Bush.
I don’t think there’s any part of the Republican Party that doesn’t feel stepped on, except for the peace through strength crowd, and they seem to be the ones putting McCain over the top. Even Huckabee was an act of dissatisfaction among evangelicals, because other than lip service, what did Bush really accomplish for them? Of course, lip service is better than we small l libertarians got.
While it is sometimes necessary to remove gangrenous limbs, Bush seems to think a nice prescribed blood letting was a better treatment, and we’re seeing how well that has healed the patient.
A Bit on 501(c)(3) and VPC’s FFL
There seems to be a meme going around the VPC is somehow violating its status as a 501(c)(3) organization. I would encourage everyone to examine the IRS requirements in this regard:
To be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3), and none of its earnings may inure to any private shareholder or individual. In addition, it may not be an action organization, i.e., it may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candidates.
What are exempt purposes?
The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals. The term charitable is used in its generally accepted legal sense and includes relief of the poor, the distressed, or the underprivileged; advancement of religion; advancement of education or science; erecting or maintaining public buildings, monuments, or works; lessening the burdens of government; lessening neighborhood tensions; eliminating prejudice and discrimination; defending human and civil rights secured by law; and combating community deterioration and juvenile delinquency.
VPC is in no way jeopardizing it’s tax exempt status by merely holding a Federal Firearms License. If VPC were selling firearms at retail, which one can be pretty sure they are not, then they would be engaging in a non-exempt activity which would draw their tax status into question. If they hold a federal firearms license for purposes related to one of the exempted activities, then that is just fine by the IRS.