2009 – Page 107 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Vote Coming at 11:30

The voting on the Thune Amendment will begin at 11:30.Â This will let us know who our real friends are in the Senate.Â I will update as the voting proceeds.

UPDATE: DiFi was heard on C-SPAN talking about how strict the California licensing process is.Â She would know, since she’s been through the process.

UPDATE: Thune is calling the Democrats out for using a VPC study which is largely crap.Â Some of the alleged killers did not have permits, and one of them who did was never charged because it was self-defense.

UPDATE: Barassso just whipped out his Wyoming concealed carry license on the floor of the Senate.

UPDATE: Coburn just said he would support the Dems in the states right argument if they’d agree to a bill on enumerated powers and restoring the 10th Amendment.Â Think there will be any takers?

UPDATE: I think the vote will be at noon.Â Someone said 11:30.Â Can’t remember where I saw that.Â High Noon on the Senate floor… ha!

UPDATE: Barbara Boxer claims she’s never seen the phones in her office ring off the hook.Â That sounds like a dare to California gun owners if you ask me.

UPDATE: Boxer just acknowledged DiFi’s personal experience with the California permitting process.

UPDATE: Webb and Warner were both yes votes.Â Both Virginia Democrats.

UPDATE: Indiana Republican Dick Lugar voted no.Â Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, voted yes.

UPDATE: Democrat Bob Casey voted with us.Â Former Republican and now Democrat Arlen Specter voted against us.

UPDATE: Gillibrand is a no too, but I gave up on her a while ago.Â She’s switched sides.

UPDATE: Udall of Colorado voted yes.Â We might break majority.Â Holy crap, Bennett too!

UPDATE: Why did Specter vote no when a lot of fellow Democrats didn’t cave?Â Â Webb & Warner were targeted with full page adds yesterday.Â Bennett hasn’t had to face the voters yet and will in 2010.Â Udall was never alll that reliable in the house.Â They voted yes.Â I think Specter made a mistake.Â A big mistake.

UPDATE: Last call for vote changes.Â Arlen?Â Come on man.Â We just picked up Pryor from AK.

UPDATE: Final vote 58-39.Â The bill is defeated, as it needed 60 votes under the rule.Â I told Bitter this morning I expected majority, but no passage.Â We have done better than I would have anticipated, and this was a major piece of pro-gun legislation that would have altered the landscape significantly.

UPDATE: Expect gloating from the anti-gunners, but we came very close.Â We will be back with this bill, or another like it.Â They can take that to the bank.

Carrying Defensive Sprays

Brillianter looked at the results of his private citizen survey, and was surprised more people aren’t carrying defensive sprays.Â He makes a case for it.Â When I was spending more time in Philadelphia, and more likely to run into drunk assholes than I typically am in the burbs, I carried OC.Â Once I talked to someone who was on a grand jury over in New Jersey, who deadlocked over the issue of “Why did the nice police officer shoot the guy with a knife when he could have used pepper spray?”Â Ultimately they ended up no billing him, but a several folks on the jury were not happy about it, but it was the law, and the guy I talked to ultimately blamed the training that teaches officers to shoot people charging at them with knives.Â Apparently he expected kung-fu moves with the officers night stick, and thinks pepper spray drops a deadly threat as reliably as a pistol.Â I figured I didn’t want to end up in a similar situation, so I solved the problem by not carrying a spray.

I think Brillianter makes a good case.Â You’re a lot more likely to end up facing a non-lethal force situation than you are a lethal force situation, so it makes sense to carry a spray.

Specter is Opposing the Thune Amendment

From Specter’s Office:

â€œFrom my own experience growing up in Kansas and being District Attorney of Philadelphia, I know states need to prescribe their own rules for carrying a concealed deadly weapon. This is the essence of federalism. My vote against the Thune Amendment will not limit the constitutional rights of hunters and gun owners. Pennsylvania already recognizes concealed carry permits from 24 other states where their laws are similar.â€

And only one of those states borders Pennsylvania Senator!Â You have to go to West Virginia, in the Southwest Corner of the state, to be able to legally carry a firearm to protect yourself out of this state with a Pennsylvania License to Carry.Â There are over 600,000 of us, and we will remember this in 2010.Â This was a dumb move on Specter’s part, who is already facing an uphill battle from both the right and left.

Call Specter now.Â Flood his switchboard, and let him know you are pissed.

Clarification

Earlier today, someone from NRA contacted me re my post here, saying they were aware of the problem with the dealers that’s inherent in the One-Gun-a-Month bill, and presented it to legislators, had their concerns dismissed.Â Evan Nappen is now on Cam and Company saying basically the same thing.Â Legislators who advocated for this bill were told, and just did not care.Â Corzine was going to ram this turd through, and consequences to gun owners be damned.

What Jon Corzine Thinks of Us

Scott Bach goes over the details.Â Apparently we’re a threat to public safety and potential criminals, in regards to the Thune Amendment.Â Call your Senators, even if you’re in New Jersey or New York.Â Don’t let the Lautenbergs, Menendezs and Schumers of the world feel confident they don’t have constituents they are upsetting with the crap they are spewing about gun owners.

A Brief History of Immigration in the United States

From Marko, who is a German immigrant:

For most of this countryâ€™s history, our immigration policy has been â€œCan you hop off the boat under your own power?â€Â Itâ€™s only when the folks in charge decided that the wrongly-hued or wrongly-believing people were getting too many, that the gangway was pulled up, and the cries of â€œThe boat is full!â€ started sounding.Â It seems to be a tradition that every group of immigrants, once settled, spent a lot of time and effort keeping the next group of immigrants from contaminating the American Stew.Â The Irish faced their share of discrimination, for example (â€œNo Dogs Or Irish!â€), and when folks were mostly satisfied that the Micks werenâ€™t going to turn our WASPy paradise into an outpost of rampant potato-munching and whiskey-swilling Popery, the Irish joined forces with the rest to keep the swarthy wops out.Â When the Italians were in, everyone turned against the Chinese and Japanese, and so on.

Read the whole thing.Â I’ve heard more immigration horror stories from various people that defy belief.Â While I am in favor of cracking down on illegal immigration, I think that has to be done in conjunction with liberalizing immigration laws so that people who have skills we need can come here legally and work.Â Race or national origin should not be a factor.

Dismissed

NRA’s suit against the City of Pittsburgh has been dismissed due to lack of standing.Â It’s interesting that the Brady Campaign is pleased to preserve a gun law on the grounds that it hasn’t been enforced against anyone yet.

Commentary on New York Centered Hysterics

First, Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel:

â€œWhatâ€™s good for Nevada isnâ€™t good for New York,â€ said Schimel, a Democrat, adding, â€œWe have rules specific to New York for a reason.â€

Jacob notes:

Yep, and that reason is because the Irish and Jewish mobsters running Tammany Hall in the late 19th/early 20th century did not want to compete with new Italian mafiosi immigrants who were moving into NYC at the time. So â€œBigâ€ Tim Sullivan created the current â€œmay issueâ€ system of discretionary pistol licensing to keep anyone Tammany Hall deemed undesirable (i.e. average citizens) from legally having handguns for self-defense against criminals, including the criminals running Tammany.

The Latest on National Reciprocity

I called both Senators Casey & Specter. (If you follow my Twitter feed, you’ll have read my frustration & praise.) Shortly thereafter, our phone rang and it was a phone bank system. NRA ordered up a phone bank here in Pennsylvania calling for action for both Casey & Specter on the Thune/Vitter amendment.

If you haven’t called yet, call tonight and tomorrow morning!

Just because I know you guys will be interested, I’ll tell you about my fun exchange with Sen. Specter’s office. This isn’t word-for-word, but the information is all accurate.

Intern: Sen. Specter’s Office, please hold.
Bitter: *holding* *holding* *holding* *holding* Phone dies after 10 minutes on hold. *redialing from landline* busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy
Intern: Sen. Specter’s Office, please hold.
Bitter: Actually, you left me on hold so long before that my phone died. I’d rather not, thank you.
Intern: Uh…One second please.
Chipper Staffer: Sen. Specter’s Office, how can I help you?
Bitter: Can you tell me how the Senator plans to vote on the Thune Amendment for national reciprocity of concealed carry licenses?
Chipper Staffer: I’m sorry, the Senator hasn’t issued a statement on that topic yet.
Bitter: The vote is tomorrow.
Chipper Staffer: I can take a note for how you’d like him to vote.
Bitter: We’re two active NRA members, and we have been in touch with many sportsmen’s clubs around Bucks County about political issues. We want him to vote yes. If he does, regardless of political challenges he may be facing next year, it would make it more likely we can stand behind him.
Chipper Staffer: Okay, thanks!
Bitter: Um, I’d like a written response, please.
Not-Quite-as-Chipper Staffer: I’m sorry, we don’t offer written responses to phone calls. We just have no way to track them.
Bitter: I’m a constituent who happens to have done the Congressional internship thing a few years ago. I know you have software to do it. I know how it works.
Really-Not-as-Chipper Staffer: It’s office policy that we don’t respond to phone calls. You can mail us a letter if you want one.
Bitter: I’m a constituent, and the rest of my household would appreciate the courtesy of a response.
Definitely-No-Longer-Chipper Staffer: Look, it’s just office policy. We don’t respond to constituents who call. You’ll have to write in order to receive a written response.
Bitter: Thanks, I’ll make sure and let the other constituents know that. I appreciate the information.
Uh-Oh Staffer: Wait, I’m sorry, it really is just office policy. We just get so many phone calls. It’s very busy and we just don’t have time.
Really-Sneaky-Sounding Bitter: Well, thank you for the information about responses, I’ll make sure to share the information.
Unsure Staffer: Have a good day!?!?

I cannot believe that he set an office policy not to respond to constituents who call! The software I used when I did the internship was so easy to use. It didn’t take more than a couple of minutes to get the topic, ask if they had a bill number, get the up or down vote information, and take notes on the caller. At the end of the day, the information input from phone calls and letters was printed out, sorted, and handled as appropriate. If it was a simple “vote yes” kind of request, the staff had typically already done form letters on the relevant topics of the day for both sides. If they had, the letter was sent. If not, they would then create one. It’s really not that hard. Not to mention, it weeded out the constituent calls from the non-constituents.

On the contrary, when I called Sen. Bob Casey’s office, it was tough to get in touch. I tried DC, but the voicemail was full and there were busy signals. I tried his Philly office, but their phone line seemed to be acting up. I tried the Harrisburg office, and the staffer was friendly and helpful. She checked to make sure he hadn’t said anything on the topic during the afternoon, she said they didn’t have an easy process for responding by letter to phone calls, but she was more than happy to take my name and address to have someone get back to me. I told her that I appreciated it, and that it was a stark contrast to the other PA senator’s office. I also thanked her and also let her know that a member of our household was active in a large gun club, and hoped we looked forward to reporting good things about Senator Casey in the future. She also said she would look into the problems with the Philadelphia office phones. At the very least, that’s constituent service, even if I disagree with his vote.

Quote of the Day

Tam had a German guy link ot one of her posts about a Smith & Wesson revolver, and explains German gun laws thusly:

Now, the German government does everything but probulate you before letting you buy a gun; it’s a less-involved process to buy a tripod-mounted belt-fed machine gun in most states in the US than it is to buy a deer rifle in Germany. Further, they have stricter storage requirements for skeet guns and .22 ammo than the IAEC has for Iranian weapons-grade plutonium. Yet apparently if this guy gets a hold of the little commie vest-puncher, he will be driven slowly mad by its mind-control rays and then run around popping gendarmes until they put him down like a mad dog, kind of like you or I would do if we took an extra inch off our shotgun barrels.