2008 – Page 78 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Pigeon Shooting Ban Up for Vote

The bill that would ban pigeon shooting is up for a vote in the PA house tomorrow.Â Now is the time to call and express your opposition.Â As someone who doesn’t do pigeon shooting, I still respect people’s right to do it.Â And let’s face it, pigeons are rats with wings.Â They can shoot as many of them as they want as far as I’m concerned.Â The bill in question is HB1543.

Lets take this bill and shove it right back down HSUS’s throats.

UPDATE: What’s up tomorrow is a vote on amendments to this bill which will ban pigeon shooting.Â The amendments are sponsored by representative Daylin Leach.

Is New York in Play?

Obama is falling in the polls in New York State.Â I would imagine this latest financial crisis should help Obama’s numbers.Â We’ll have to see.Â Really, there’s no reason to vote Obama for economic reasons — he’ll ruin the economy with his tax and big government policies — but to be honest, McCain’s never particularly impressed me with his economic acumen either.

Going to Have To Bail from GBR

As much as I would love to be able to attend this year’s Gun Blogger Rendezvous, I will not be able to.Â I went last year, and had a great time, and was hoping to get to go again this year.Â But it’s just not in the cards for a few reasons:

I’m short on vacation time with work, and I will need to take some more because of election activities.
Flights to Reno are expensive, and that whole baggage fee thing really pisses me off.Â I got hit with a $5000 house repair I wasn’t expecting.
The election in Pennsylvania has come down to the wire.Â Close enough that getting a few hundred extra votes could make a difference.Â In October I’ll only be a few weeks out from election day.
The Association and New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs has their annual banquet on the same weekend, and it would be beneficial for me to go to that, considering my district shares a lengthy border with The Garden State.

EVC doesn’t have to be a lot of work, but I took this job pretty late in the game, when it looked like Pennsylvania was tried and blue for the Democrats, but now that it’s narrowing up, I want to make sure if we lose, it won’t be because I didn’t do everything I could.Â I do hope to make GBR-IV.

It’s Reasoned Discourse Time

The Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate for Governor of Delaware, who’s a dyed in the wool gun hater, has a blog that allows comments.Â Be polite.Â Be concise, but let’s put some pressure on.Â Let him know gun owners are watching.

Hat tip to Mike W of Another Gun Blog

D.C. Council Revises District Gun Laws

No doubt this is an attempt to head off H.R.6691:

On the most significant day of legislative activity since the Supreme Court struck down the city’s 32-year-old handgun ban in a landmark Second Amendment decision June 26, the council unanimously passed emergency legislation to end safe-storage requirements for firearms and to permit ownership of semiautomatic pistols.

Except these are only temporary, while they work on the real solution, which is coming along any day now, you see.Â We still need Congress to fix this problem.Â Pretty obviously they can pass reforms if they want to, the problem is, they don’t want to.

Quote of the Day

From Dave Hardy, quoting Mary Ester of the Brady Campaign:

Seven years later, we still use [Handgun Control Inc.] on the outer envelope of our mailings because responses drop when we donâ€™t.

That tells me that most of Brady’s donors want to ban guns.Â Now that a handgun ban is off the table, how does the Brady Campaign propose to survive?Â Brady has survived being the voice for reasonable gun control, but if there’s no passion in that, what do you do?Â I’d say they’d have to go radical, but Josh Sugarmann isn’t raising much money these days either.

New Direction for the Libertarian Party?

Bitter asks whether Bob Barr is taking them in a new direction, to be spoilers for the major party candidates rather than being an outlet for the libertarian viewpoint?Â I’m pretty sure Barr’s own interest in the race is that of a spoiler.Â But will that make the LP faithful happy?Â Doubt it.

Fake To Hide The Ball

Ray Schoenke is running ads for Barack Obama, saying McCain’s plans are a “Fake to Hide the Ball”.Â Well, Schoenke is certainly an expert on that topic!Â Here’s the entire text of the ad:

This is Ray Schoenke.Â I played football with the Washington Redskins.Â Now I’m president of the American Hunters and Shooters Association.Â It’s important to me that our next president protects our Second Amendment rights to own guns, and to defend ourselves.Â Barack Obama and John McCain will both make sure we keep our guns.

But what about keeping our jobs?Â Barack’s got a real plan that invests in creating jobs here at home and cuts taxes a thousand bucks for working families.Â John McCain?Â I saw a lot of cheap shots in my day, but McCain’s false attacks on Obama are just a fake to hide the ball.Â His plans sells out American workers.Â McCain will keep giving tax breaks to companies that ship our jobs overseas.Â And he’ll look the other way, while China breaks our trade deals.Â It’s the same old Bush playbook.Â Look, when the coach loses eight years in a row, you don’t bring him back for a ninth season.Â We just can’t afford more of the same.

Sounds to me like the Obama Campaign was more interested in Ray Schoenke’s professional football credentials than they were about the message of American Hunters and Shooting Association.Â But this speaks to AHSA’s lack of seriousness as an organization representing hunters and shooters, that their president would go on the air shilling for a candidate on issues that are completely unrelated to their core mission.

Schoenke and AHSA are basically shills for the Democratic Party.Â Nothing more, nothing less.Â This ad should prove that to anyone who thinks otherwise at this point.Â Be sure to tune in to Caleb’s show this evening for what I’m sure will be a lively discussion.

UPDATE: Bitter has more here on political surrogates.

God Bless Texas

A friend of mine was in the path of Ike.Â Their apartment complex suffered some bad damage.Â She’s safe at home with her parents now, but wants to head back to get her stuff, despite police advisement to stay out of Houston.Â She does not have a license to carry (we need to change that), but I’m glad that Texas law lets her to what she needs to do while armed:

Sebastian: Is your area a bit lawless right now?
Carrie: Things seem to be ok
Carrie: In Pasadena where my folks are is fine, I think.Â but they have power
Carrie: In the places without power and water, it’s not so good and will only get worse until everything is restored
Carrie: They’re arresting people right and left for looting though, and citing people for breaking curfew
Carrie: so that’s good
Sebastian: Well, make sure if you go you either take your dad with you, or carry.Â I doubt in a lawless area the cops are going to give a single woman a hard time.
Sebastian: Do you know whether your stuff is OK?
Carrie: Yeah we went over there yesterday and everything was fine
Carrie: We’re going this afternoon and taking a bunch to my folks’
Sebastian: Can your dad go with you?
Carrie: I think we’ll be ok
Carrie: But we’ll probably call him to meet us there and bring the truck
Carrie: What’s the penalty in Texas for carrying concealed without a permit?
Sebastian: It’s legal to have a gun in your car in Texas without a license
Carrie: hmm
Sebastian: It’s perfectly lawful for you to carry a firearm concealed in a vehicle, and to carry it to and from your place of residence from your car.
Sebastian: So you can carry, just don’t wander around with a concealed gun
Carrie: What do you mean, wander around?
Sebastian: Basically you’re allowed to carry the gun back into your house
Carrie: ah
Sebastian: And when it’s in a vehicle, it should not be in plain view.
Carrie: nod
Sebastian: If you go wandering around, it’s a Class A misdemeanor, which is a serious misdemeanor
Carrie: All right
Sebastian: What pistol do you have?
Carrie: I’ve only got that tiny .22
Carrie: It’s at my house
Sebastian: We need to get you a real gun :)
Carrie: And my dad has this massive .38 revolver
Carrie: I know
Sebastian: Can you borrow that?

Does someone from one of the gun control groups want to come on and tell me how much safer my friend Carrie would be if she were completely disarmed in the wake of a hurricane?Â Can someone say whether in this circumstance it ought to be illegal for her dad to lend her a firearm?Â Should it be a felony for me to lend her one?Â Is that reasonable gun control?

Hook, Line and Sinker

You know, we in the gun blogosphere tend to snicker at the Brady’s over the top fear mongering.Â I have to admit, it would be a lot more funny if there weren’t a lot of folks in the media buying it.Â Look at this article from Homeland Security Today:

Even more seriously from the standpoint of homeland security according to the report, H.R. 6691, the report claims, would even allow open carrying of .50 caliber sniper rifles, capable of destroying armored personnel carriers, aircraft and bulk fuel and ammunition sites. These guns can penetrate several inches of steel, a three and a half inch storm sewer cover, or a 600-pound safe. They are accurate at up to 2,000 yards, and can inflict effective damage to targets over four miles away.

Except the Marine Corps demonstration video that showed a .50BMG shooting through a safe, and several inches of steel, was with a special high explosive armor piercing round that’s only available to the military, and rounds that aren’t .50 can penetrate a half inch of mild steel (which is what manhole covers are made from).Â Reporters don’t know this, so they are fooled.Â The Brady’s may have gone way over the top with this, but most of the media is too ignorant to question it.Â It may be dishonest, but it works.