2009 – Page 58 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Cases Progressing to Massachusetts High Court

Massachusetts’ gun licensing scheme is being challenged all the way to the Supreme Judicial Court. You need a license to own a gun in Massachusetts, and for pistols, the license is discretionary issue, meaning the police can say no just because they don’t like the looks of you, and they often do. It’s common in Massachusetts for people in one town to be able to get a license to carry a handgun, and someone the next town over can’t even get a license to own one.

UPDATE: Speaking of Massachusetts. I wish more people were this on the ball with Letters to the Editor.

UPDATE: This Massachusetts police forum is raising concerns about the suitability of the plaintiff in this Second Amendment case. That is indeed a legitimate concern. Interesting though, that even in Massachusetts you have cops supporting the Second Amendment for the most part. So much for law enforcement standing behind the gun controllers eh?

Madison Capital Times Not Up On Nomenclature

It’s only an assault rifle when one of us neanderthals wants to have one. When the police want to carry them they are “patrol rifles” or “patrol carbines.”

Lessons in Gun Control Politics in New York

Jacob says the defeat of Richard Aborn and David Yassky has some education value. He raises some very good points.

All Existing Gun Owners My Eye

This Thursday at Silhouette I dropped my electronic ear muffs on the pavement while trying to open the door to the range. It killed one ear. So looking for a new pair on Midway, I notice there’s quite a lot that’s backordered. That’s what I would expect if a lot of people were just getting into shooting. But, you know, the anti-gun groups were busy telling us it was just paranoid us loons that were buying guns, not first time gun owners. I can’t believe we’re all busting electronic muffs on the pavement.

Hypocrisy Much?

Via Glenn, an anti-gun State Senator in North Carolina shoots an intruder in his home. Maybe he wants to reconsider his position.

UPDATE: It seems this is a mistake. This Democrat is NRA A-rated an is endorsed. People should check shit before saying crap, and I should know better than to link to forums without following the old mantra of “trust but verify.”

UPDATE: Instapundit has corrected the record, and for the record, I meant folks on forums should check their facts before jumping the gun. I understand how easy it is for bloggers to get sucked in by the rumor mill. It’s happens to all of us at one point or another. I should note no one on the forum has corrected the error.

MAIG Calls for Broad Gun Reforms

Mayors Against Illegal Guns is calling on the Obama Administration to push for a 40 point “reform” on federal gun control laws. Notice MAIG still claims 450 members, even though we dropped them to under 400. I will endeavor to find you all a copy of these “recommendations.” It’s very interesting that MAIG isn’t publishing them on their web site.

Keep Up the Pressure

The Pocono Record has run another glowing op-ed on Mayor Baughman of Stroudsburg, praising his membership in Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Tunnel vision gun owners, spurred by the powerful National Rifle Association, have been sending hostile messages to Baughman urging him to resign from MAIG. The NRA and groups like it hold tremendous sway over gun owners and elected officials.

Hear that? You have tunnel vision. You’re too stupid to think for yourself, according to The Record. They, of course, can see the big picture. But they wouldn’t be running this op-ed, once again today, if Baughman wasn’t continuing to be pressured by his constituents. Hopefully we can keep it up and get him to leave MAIG.

A Good Day at the Gun Show

There was a gun show in Lebanon, PA today, not too far from where my dad lives, so we decided to go. I was looking for .22LR, small rifle primers, and if the hunting was good, an AR-15 lower receiver. I like a show where I can find everything I’m looking for. Picked up two bricks of 22, which should keep us shooting for a few months. Same vendor had small rifle primers. I also picked up this:

It will eventually become the lower to fit the 6.8 SPC upper I have which has never had its own lower. I had to fill out the Pennsylvania State Police form that is normally reserved for pistols. A few months ago the PSP made a determination that because a lower can be made into a pistol, it’s a pistol, and is subject to the record of sale requirements, meaning it’s in the State Police registry. Even if I make it into a rifle, does this mean that I can’t transfer it without going through an FFL? Does it mean I need an LTC to carry it? Personally, I don’t think the State Police have any statutory authority to make this requirement at all, if you look at the UFA definition of a “firearm”:

“Firearm.” Any pistol or revolver with a barrel length less than 15 inches, any shotgun with a barrel length less than 18 inches or any rifle with a barrel length less than 16 inches, or any pistol, revolver, rifle or shotgun with an overall length of less than 26 inches. The barrel length of a firearm shall be determined by measuring from the muzzle of the barrel to the face of the closed action, bolt or cylinder, whichever is applicable.

Except in its form, it’s not a pistol, rifle, revolver or shotgun, because it has no barrel. My assertion is that it is a “firearm” under the actual definition, which subjects it to the PICS check, but is not a “firearm” under the UFA definition, which subjects it to the reporting requirement, and requires an LTC to carry. For some reason, the PSP changed their mind. Probably because we have an anti-gun PSP commissioner, appointed by our anti-gun governor.

State Budget Passes House

Capitol Ideas is reporting that the Pennsylvania State Budget has passed the house. One thing of note for our issue:

But Democratic leaders balked after getting an earful from rank-and-file Democrats earlier in the week. And they moved to drop unpopular proposals to impose the state sales tax on arts and theater tickets, as well as a proposal for a 20 percent levy on small games of chance operated by private clubs and fraternal organizations.

Most shooting clubs that I know of run small games of chance, and would typically qualify as private clubs or fraternal organizations. These are critical fundraising tools for many of those types of organizations, so this might be something we need to get involved with. I will try to report on this further.

BTW, Capitol Ideas has been doing a bang up job of covering the Pennsylvania budget fiasco in Harrisburg. Both on the blog and on Twitter. For those of you not in Pennsylvania, we are the only state without a budget currently. This has been dragging out for weeks, with both sides unable to come up with a deal. Rendell was late delivering the budget to begin with, and has been a constant wrench in the works. At this point I think the Dems just want to pass a budget and move on. The question is whether the Republican controlled Senate will feel so obliged.

Protesting Joe Biden

The Vice President was in town tonight, to attend a fundraiser for Arlen Specter. Word on Twitter spread there was going to be some protesting across the street at our local supermarket, so we hopped in the car and drove on down.

Bitter was carrying a sign, and I was documenting the whole thing on Twitter. I am not much of a protester, and don’t particularly enjoy attracting attention to myself, so I mostly lurked in the background taking pictures, and tweeted the event. Midway through, I wished I had a giant inflatable pig, because really, what protest is complete without a giant inflatable pig? Just think of the possibilities!

This was an easy affair for the Vice President. Pop in, stick your foot in your mouth, and pop out. What was amusing for us was that the venue for this Dem fundraising shindig is at the local caterers that Bitter and I constantly make fun of when we go to the supermarket. It is straight out of the 1970s, and I don’t think has seen much renovation since. Certainly not a place you’d expect a fancy Dem fundraiser. I think they had to clear out to make way for Spinal Tap, which was playing the venue after Joe.

I am pleased to mention that anti-administration protesters outnumbered pro-administration protesters by a ratio of about 10 to 1 at the height of the protest. That was our 10, to their one. I can’t even say their one had a sign that was all that pro-administration, since Obama seems to want both healthcare and warfare. He hasn’t exactly left Iraq and Afghanistan in a hurry, lady. Though perhaps he’s about to change that. She was very nice and cordial, and I was friendly, waved, and smiled. Her beef was that she had to pay 1000 dollars a month for health care for her and her daughter. I am sympathetic. I have to pay 1600 dollars a month for a mortgage for a house to put a roof over Bitter and I. Affordable housing is a right, isn’t it? So naturally the solution is for taxpayers to make my mortgage payments for me, right? I mean, it’s the fair thing to do.

At the end of the day, Bitter was happy that Biden, on his way out, was looking at her, and her sign. Granted it was through several layers of ballistic glass, but it was definitely him. For the curious, I did not attend the protest armed. I know, I know. Some people will suggest I am the Brady Campaign’s bitch by leaving my guns at home, but did not know, being just across the street from the Vice President, what the Secret Service reaction would be if they made me. I figured between the Secret Service, the State Police, and three local police departments, there were plenty of guns around to protect everybody. If the S was going to HTF, I don’t think they would have appreciating me trying to play a starring role in that drama.

Bitter was happy to feel like she stuck it to the man, or at least the Joe, just a little. I was sad I did not have an inflatable pig. Maybe next time.