2009 – Page 134 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Filling In

Sorry for the light blogging last night, especially given what was in the news.Â I’m currently filling in as Recording Secretary for my club, since the actual Recording Secretary is on an extended vacation, and last night’s Board of Directors meeting was a long one. I’m the one who has to take minutes for the meeting.

Just to give you an idea of some of the issues clubs tend to face, a few months ago someone found some shotgun wads on the indoor range.Â For safety reasons, we don’t allow shotguns on the indoor range.Â But on the video, we couldn’t make out a shotgun.Â Must have been a Taurus Judge.Â Is it a shotgun, or a pistol?Â Some argue when you put a shot shell in a pistol, it becomes a shotgun, and thus it’s already against the rules.Â My argument, joined by a few others, was that the federal and state governments will tell you it’s a pistol, and it’s a pistol even if it has a shot shell in it.Â At the very least, it seems we have a deficiency in the rules, so a new rule was adopted to prohibit shot shells in the ammunition rules, in addition to prohibiting shotguns in the rules limiting types of firearms.

Clean Shoot

Looks like the South Carolina man who shot an armed robber at an AA meeting won’t be facing charges.

We Knew It Would Happen

They are already using the shooting at the Holocaust Museum as a political tool to try to beat down the amendment on the D.C. Voting Rights bill:

â€œCongress needs no more evidence than todayâ€™s tragedy, which occurred blocks from the White House, for the justification of the Districtâ€™s strict gun laws, which protect the President, Members of Congress, D.C, residents, and millions of tourists who travel to Washington, DC each year to visit monuments and other sites like the Holocaust Museum,â€ said D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson in a statement.

The gunman in the Holocaust Memorial shooting was a prohibited person.Â It was illegal for him to possess a firearm anywhere.Â Gun control laws don’t protect anybody, and if this is a case for anything, it’s the ineffectiveness of D.C.’s existing laws.

Ladd Everitt Has Lost His Mind

CSGV issues a press release blaming the holocaust shooting in Heller:

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has repeatedly warned of the ascendancy of the insurrectionist idea, which was recently embraced by the Supreme Court in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. We believe that this yearâ€™s string of shootings is not a series of random occurrences but part of a new, loosely-knit political movement characterized by the slogan â€œthe guys with the guns make the rules.â€ This is an incredibly dangerous idea that has real consequences for our democracy and society.

I’m in awe of the audacity of this.Â Heller, which let people jump through tons of hoops in order to register handguns, and had nothing to do with rifles, is responsible for a man illegally bringing a gun into DC, illegally carrying into a federal facility, within a National Park, no less.Â And somehow Heller and gun rights people are responsible.Â And they wonder why no one takes them seriously anymore.Â This is more not being able to talk to real people.

Reasoned Discourse Strikes Again

Over at Joe Huffman’s.

Pennsylvania to Have State Gun?

Apparently so:

Sen. Pat Browne, R-16, Allentown, has sponsored a bill designating the Pennsylvania Rifle as the official firearm of the state. Every time you think lawmakers have drawn the well dry on these designations, a new one comes along.

How many states have an official state gun?

Lancaster Passing Lost and Stolen

Lancaster adds itself to list to become the eighth municipality violating statewide preemption.Â I have to hand it to Joe Grace, his campaign might not result in Harrisburg passing the legislation he wants, but I wouldn’t call it ineffective.Â The trick for our side, is going to be ripeness and standing, in that we might have to find someone who’s actually charged under one of these ordinances.Â We’ll want it to be a clean case; someone who is charged that will be sympathetic to the courts.Â We’re not going to want someone charged who’s got, say, a long string of drug convictions, or is otherwise unscrupulous.

Blogs in the Shooting Wire

Looks like blogs got a mention in the shooting wire, in an article about Cerberus in the gun industry:

That aversion was one that led gun bloggers, some of the new power-brokers in the gun world, to run an anti-campaign against a senior Cerberus member’s campaign for a position on the NRA board. After he failed to get elected, one blogger laughingly told me “maybe now they’ll realize if you don’t talk to us, we don’t have any use for you.”

I wouldn’t say we ran an anti-campaign against Kollitides, but we definitely aired concerns, and asked questions.Â I agree with Jim that he needs to talk to people if he wants the grass roots support.Â I’d be reluctant to suggest blogs are serious power brokers, but we definitely reach an audience, and in that sense can be a useful way for organizations and people to communicate with opinion leaders in the issue.Â If George Kollitides ever wants to avail himself of that, he knows where to find us.Â I think you’d find from talking to some of our other board candidates that we’ll be fair, and respectful of personal circumstances.

The goal in issuing endorsements isn’t really to broker power, so much as to make the board election process more transparent and available to members.Â I think this is good for members, and good for NRA, as a whole.Â Members benefit from the extra information, and NRA benefits from having a way to communicate with its membership in a more casual manner.Â It helps both parties establish more credibility and trust with each other.

Palin Stiffing Supporters?

At least that’s what US News is reporting:

After several false starts, when it was unclear to the organizers whether or not she would attend or agree to speak, Palin decided to show up at the dinner but wasn’t assigned to the head table and wasn’t given an opportunity to address the group. She was seated in the first row, however, and drew a big crowd of well-wishers even though, privately, there was a debate about who had snubbed whom in arranging her appearance.

She kind of did the same thing to us in Phoenix, which they mention here:

Prominent GOP strategists don’t understand why Palin has avoided appearances at events that could bolster her standing among conservatives who will be instrumental in the 2012 GOP presidential primaries, such as gatherings of the National Rifle Association and state parties in California and Texas. “She’s getting a reputation for being on-again, off-again,” says one conservative activist. “People aren’t even sure how to get in touch with her and whether their messages are getting through.”

Maybe she’s just not all that interested in national office.Â I can’t say I blame her after the way she was treated.

Quote of the Day

This should serve as both an omen, and a warning to Republicans:

But Virginia voters now have the luxury and being able to simply not worry about our 2nd Amendment rights in this years gubernatorial election.Â Its tough to say which candidate is actually better than the other on gun rights.

Which means, for once in a long time, we can actually focus on issues like transportation, and taxes, and education, and whether Pat Robertson will be allowed to monitor who and in what positions we choose to fornicate.

Take an important issue away from Republicans, and you might be surprised as to which issues motivate us.