September 2009 – Page 17 – Shall Not Be Questioned

I Can Sympathize

It’s getting harder and harder this day to navigate through the noise, Michael Silence quotes another blog post:

What was once this great way to connect with others, has become this never ending loop of barely keeping my head above the social media water line. I’ve literally lost sleep over the fact that I haven’t ever visited some of the my most loyal commenters or that I didn’t answer a question left in my comments section or that I have at all times at least two or three need-to-be-answered emails. My close friends’ blogs, I hardly have time to read those and when I do, my comments often amount to “great post,” which is apparently the “wrong” way to comment.

I can sympathize with new media overload. I find Facebook, for instance, absolutely impossible to keep up with. I check in occasionally, but no doubt I’m missing a lot. Twitter I actually enjoy and find useful. Â For activism, I think it’s far and away a superior tool over Facebook, and I’ll even say over blogs in many respects.

Back in the beginning days of my blogging career, I used to follow a prodigious number of blogs on a daily basis. Â Now I read some here, some there, during the week. Â The list of blogs I hit every day is less than ten now. Â In terms of finding out what other blogs were talking about, it’s easier to just follow a few aggregators, and use their editorial sense to find out what’s going on. Â The more you continue in blogging, the harder and harder it seems to get to keep up.

Explosion at Prvi Partizan

This is the last thing we need with ammo supplies just starting to recover. Â Last time I got PP ammo though, the cases showed signs of being over pressured.

Sad Pandas

Josh Sugarmann and Ladd Everitt don’t seem to be too happy that the Washington Post ran a story about guns in the District of Columbia, feeling the need to point out that guns are dangerous, and you’re really better off without one.

Challenge to Campaign Finance Reform

Dave Hardy offers some detail on a challenge to the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Act that’s heading before the Supreme Court. Â Given that O’Conner was the swing vote the last time this came up, maybe the Supreme Court will be in the mood to overturn, or at least vastly weaken this law that never should have happened. Â Both NRA and the ACLU have submitted briefs in favor of the plaintiff (and against the Government’s position in favor of the campaign finance reform law). Â CNN also has some further analysis that quotes from NRA’s brief:

“Overturning these well-established laws would turn our elections into free-for-alls with massive corporate and union spending,” said David Arkush of Public Citizen, “and would make officeholders beholden to the deep pockets that promote them.”

On the other side are groups like the ACLU and the National Rifle Association, now best buddies in their call for nonprofit corporations to speak out.

“For like-minded individuals lacking great wealth, pooling their donations to fund a political message is, in a real sense, the only way for them to find meaningful voice in the marketplace of ideas,” the NRA said in a brief to the high court. “There is nothing pernicious, problematic or distorting about individuals banding together in this fashion to express shared political values and make themselves heard.”

Unfortunately George Soros and Michael Bloomberg are also joining NRA’s position, but ultimately I think this law is an unconstitutional restriction on free speech, so Soros and Bloomberg just happen to be on the right side of this debate. Â I’ll gladly join them on this one. Â If you want to read the actual briefs, I’ll steal the link from Hardy for here.

UPDATE: Given that this case was heard back in March arguing on narrow grounds, and that the Supreme Court has asked that it be re-briefed and reheard on broader grounds, we may soon see the Supreme Court overturn its own precedent, and nullify a large part of the McCain-Feingold Act. Â This would certainly be welcome.

Dove Murderer!

SayUncle keeps the right wing propaganda machine going by suggesting that he’s going to eat the doves he so wantonly slaughtered. Â Wayne Pacelle will tell you that’s a lie, and that no one eats dove. Â Plus, it’s the bird of peace. Â Why would you want to kill the poor little bird of peace? Â Murderer! Â It’s because of SayUncle there is crime and war.

UPDATE: More hunter death cult propaganda about dove hunting.

On the Straw Purchase Problem

We thank MikeB for answering in the comments, on my challenge to show me how to solve the straw purchase problem without making guns illegal:

Iâ€™d say better record keeping which is not limited to the individual FFL guys, and a system of licensing gun owners and registering guns. As was pointed out on my blog by yourself, these things are not objectionable because of the inconvenience. Youâ€™ve helped me to understand my position better. Your objections are two things really, government involvement, the libertarian objection for lack of a better term, and the possibility that such initiatives will eventually lead to gun confiscation. I say if we want to do something about the gun flow into the criminal world, gun owners would have to accept both of those.

Understanding that if police recover a gun from a crime scene, we already have enough registration to trace the gun to the last legal purchaser within a matter of hours, typically. Â The Pennsylvania State Police have made a computerized database of all the gun purchases conducted in the state going back to the mid 1990s. Â They can look up in a second to see all the pistols I own. Â And yet, I’m told we have a huge straw purchasing problem in Pennsylvania, such that I have to acquiesce to rationing and reporting requirements to fix the problem. Â Pennsylvania passed handgun restrictions, including a waiting period, in the 1930s. Â That didn’t fix the problem. Â In the 90s, we computerized the system, and overhauled the prohibited person statutes, and gave law enforcement additional tools. Â That didn’t fix the problem. Â The the state police created a database of all gun purchases. Â We took them to court because that was supposed to be illegal in Pennsylvania, and we lost. Â And that didn’t fix the problem.

California has a registration requirement, and California is still, overwhelmingly, the largest source of traced guns recovered in California.Illinois has a licensing requirement, and Chicago a registration requirement, with handguns just being plain illegal, and Illinois still is the largest source, over 50% of its own traced guns.

So no, we don’t have to accept both of these, because they don’t work. Â If they did, California wouldn’t be clamoring to enact ever greater restrictions in a futile attempt to fix the problem, and Chicago wouldn’t be desperately and bitterly clinging to their unworkable gun ban. Â Marko even had a great post this week about why even prohibition won’t really work. Â So you don’t really get to tell us we have to accept certain things when you can’t offer evidence that they work, and we can offer plenty of evidence that they do not.

The Commie Has Resigned

Van Jones has resigned from the Obama Administration. Â You know, if the guy had been a communist in the 50s or 60s, I might have been able to look past it. Â People can grow, and accept different ideas. Â But he was an avowed communist in the 1990s. Â The 1990s! Â After everyone knew it was a failure. Â Murderous failure.

No, you sir have no place in the Government of the United States, and I’m glad you realized it, albeit belatedly. Â The Obama Administration should be ashamed it to even allow him in his cabinet.

I Will Be There – At GBR IV

Kind of a last minute thing, but I will be attending the Gun Blogger Rendezvous IV next week out in Reno, Nevada. Â So last minute I’m worried my registration won’t make its way through the postal system toÂ Mr. C before he actually heads out there. Â My job situation has been less than secure (who’s isn’t these days?), so I’m reluctant to make big commitments of money far in advance. Â But it looks good for now, so I can go.

BTW, the raffle for the Para GI Expert ends today, so if you want a chance to win the gun, you have to buy a ticket before midnight. Â You don’t have to be going to GBR to win. Proceeds benefit Soldiers’ Angels.

Nebraska Reciprocity

Looks like today is link to Clayton day. Â Or it’s just that it was a busy week, and am now just getting caught up with my RSS feed to find out what I missed. Â Apparently one of the things I missed was Nebraska releasing a list of reciprocal states. Â Florida is on the list, and they recognize non-resident licenses, so I can carry there now. Â That’s good news considering I recently lost the ability to carry in Nevada.

California Still Has Good Self-Defense Laws

Clayton also points out that the finger eating Obama supporter, who is charged with mayhem, could have been legally killed by the man he was attacking. Â Seems California allows people to use deadly force to stop felonies, even arrest felons. Â They have crappy gun laws, but their self-defense law is still Western in its roots.

I know that a lot of liberals have some trouble controlling their emotions–that’s part of why liberals are generally supportive of restrictive gun control. They are convinced that everyone is as out of control as they are, prone to fly off the handle and kill someone for no particularly good reason. If you can’t control yourself enough to notbite someone’s finger off, then you should stay away from political demonstrations.

Sounds familiar. Â Much like what I was arguing in the post below about violent criminals not being ordinary people who just snap. Â But I think perhaps we can come together with the Brady Campaign and agree that there ought to be no baring of teeth at political demonstrations. Â Lest someone be too intimidated to speak out.