Month: May 2009
Memorial Day
It’s Memorial Day, and CNN is educating people about the holiday.  Good. I note that Google once again doesn’t see it as a holiday fit for noting.
Dissing James Watt
The EU is looking at changing how lights are measured from Watts to Lumens. Really, you need both to be able to make informed lighting decisions.
Careful With That Half-Cocked Thing
I love the Fark headline for this story: “Gun goes off half-cocked, leaves man half-cocked.” I’m going to guess that either the reporter got the definition of “half-cocked” wrong, or perhaps we have a mistranslation. Unless he was packing a Colt Single Action Army, which would be kind of hard to fit in the pocket, the gun was probably just cocked, and apparently aimed at the same.
Frustrated Gun Control Activists
According to the AP, they are asking how they lose. Lots of sad pandas to go around:
“We’ll probably end up passing more gun bills” that expand owners’ rights “than we did during the Republican administration,” said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a leading gun control advocate. “That is what surprises me.”
You know, that’s surprising me too. It must be that shoulder thing that goes up. But how about that Congressman David Price’s snub to the Brady Campaign here:
“People do not want to be on the wrong side of this particular cultural divide,” said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., who supports tougher gun controls. “It’s too bad there’s not a more responsible national organization” to counteract the NRA, he said.
Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. Even I wouldn’t be that harsh. The Brady’s were worthy opponents in their heyday, it’s just that once the grass roots gun owners got pissed off and fired up, they had nothing to counter it.
Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California is another Democrat frustrated by the gun debate. When she asks colleagues why they don’t support tougher restrictions, she said, they reply, “You just don’t get it, Woolsey. You don’t have our districts.”
Woolsey doesn’t get it because she’s from one of the few areas in the country where there isn’t much in the way of gun rights activists to make her life difficult. As much as it’s tempting to say we’ve lost six or so states to gun control, it’s not really true. There’s only a few metro areas making California anti-gun, but those districts represent a lot of people, and in those districts, it’s probably more important that their rep makes a peace statement on memorial day, than honoring our veterans. We lost New York City in 1911, and people took their cultural attitudes on guns with them when there was the mass exodus from cities in the late 20th century. What gun control advocates are finding is that controlling a few legacy metropolitan areas isn’t enough, and the ripples being created by Heller are likely to undo even that. It has to be frustrating, but I can’t say I feel sorry for them.
Bad Ads for Gun Ranges
This is probably one of the worst I’ve seen. Did they hire the Mario Cuomo advertising agency for that one? You remember Mario’s famous quote right?
“Hunters who drink beer, don’t vote and lie to their wives about where they were all weekend.”
Handgun Podcast
I should direct your attention to Eric Shelton’s Handgun Podcast. He was one of the attendees at the 2A Blog Bash last weekend, and has some coverage of the NRA Annual Meeting here and here. Go have a listen. His podcast has around 3000 downloads in the week, and it’s of very high quality.
Obama Signs National Park Carry Reform
Those are words I never thought I’d ever write, but it’s been signed. Unfortunately, the text of the credit card bill says its provisions and amendments don’t go into effect for another nine months, but I don’t yet know whether or not that applies to this as well. I suspect it does. So we’ll have to wait until February 22nd, 2010.
UPDATE: PSH already coming in. People will carry guns on the White House lawn! Quick, hide the water dog!
UPDATE: Obama’s signing statement contained no mention of guns, though it was briefly mentioned beforehand.  Sorry Bradys!
UPDATE: NRA’s presser is here, and confirms this does not go into effect until February 22nd, 2010.
Thirdpower’s Blog Bash Thoughts
Thirdpower offers his perspective on the NRA Annual Meeting / Blog Bash of 2009. He was also one of the Bash sponsors, since he donated a bunch of the stickers and patches he’s been hawking.
PSFC News
Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs‘ Executive Director, Melody Zullinger, resigned her position effective at the end of May. Today was her last day on the job. She and her husband are moving to Alabama. PFSC has done excellent work in Pennsylvania, and I wish Melody all the best in the future. They will have a difficult time finding someone to replace her.