August 2010 – Page 16 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Problems on Kagan

The Hill notes that NRA seems reluctant to put their full weight against Kagan:, quoting from the head of another conservative group:

The group said Kaganâ€™s record shows â€œnothing to indicate support for the Second Amendmentâ€ and promised to count her confirmation vote as a â€œkey voteâ€ when compiling congressional scorecards.

But it has not waged the intensive grassroots campaign some conservative activists had hoped for. These activists believe the NRA is reluctant to strain relations with Democrats, such as Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who often side with gun owners in legislative fights.

From what I’ve seen so far, that full weight is behind it. NRA is urging membership to contact their Senators, and have several times. I’m not sure what kind of “grassroots campaign” that Steve Levey is expecting. This is pretty standard fare for a major vote. I’m also not sure how he can critique their strategy on the Hill, considering that his organization would seem to have no presence on it. The big problem is that 5 Republicans are defecting on the Kagan vote, and a lot of Democrats are sure to defect. Defeating a nomination is hard.

What Democrats are counting on is that NRA won’t be able to mobilize anger on election day over Court nominations. Maybe they are right, but in that case I don’t have a lot of faith we’re going to get broad and robust Second Amendment protections.

A Lie Repeated Often Enough …

Joe Grace and Phil Goldsmith, the two people behind CeaseFire PA, are trying their level best to minimize the damage potential of McDonald:

While support for the reporting of lost or stolen handguns grows, hundreds of Pennsylvania police chiefs have come out in favor of another reasonable reform to close a loophole in state law that allows state residents to sidestep law enforcement and obtain permits from Florida to carry concealed guns, even if their applications were denied in Pennsylvania.

This loophole lets people with criminal backgrounds get out-of-state permits to carry guns in the commonwealth, even after state authorities determine they shouldnâ€™t be allowed to do so.

None of those laws have been upheld on the merits. The suits were dismissed because of standing and ripeness. In other words, they have to prosecute someone for failing to report a gun before the law can be challenged. To date, none of the 45 cities and towns that have passed this law have prosecuted a single person under them — laws they claim are critical for prosecuting criminals.

There’s also not a single state that issues a license to carry a firearm that doesn’t perform a criminal background check on applicants. None. The idea that hardened criminals, with extensive records, are getting permits to carry from other states is just nuts. We could solve much of this problem with universal reciprocity, but you won’t hear them supporting that idea.

Gun Guys Dead?

Thirdpower reports that it looks like he’s stopped blogging, presumably because the money has dried up. That’s the problem with astroturfing campaigns — it takes money to keep them going.

Pro-Gun Op-Ed In New Jersey Media

An attorney that works with ANJRPC currently has an Op-Ed in North Jersey media market that suggests why the Garden State’s gun laws are unconstitutional:

As it turns out, New Jersey gun law offers fertile ground for challenge, not merely because the state has such strict laws but because New Jersey law is exceedingly aggressive toward the law-abiding gun owner.

New Jerseyâ€™s regulatory scheme is highly unusual in that it approaches gun control by categorically banning guns and then carving out extremely limited exceptions to the prohibitions.

Read the whole thing. New Jersey’s gun laws are designed to frustrate the exercise of the right by making it exceedingly legally hazardous to own and transport firearms. Despite anti-gunners claims to the contrary, it’s hard to see how it’s constitutional to start out with the default assumption that all guns are banned.

UPDATE: More here.

Getting Ready for Hawaii – Soaring

One of the things I have planned to do out in Hawaii is to take a one hour lesson in a glider (warning, autoplay video). Hawaii is one of the best places to do this. I’ve spent precious little time with X-Plane flying gliders until I decided to do this, and I have to say, flying gliders is not easy. If you misjudge something, you don’t exactly have an engine to go around and have another go at it. I crashed a few times before I got it right, and crashed once by stalling the glider at an unwise altitude. I will be glad to have someone to do all the hard stuff when I go up.

But it’s quite a lot of fun, even in the simulator, and I’ve largely got the hang of it. I wanted to see if I could successfully get a plane from where the glider people operate out of in Hawaii, Dillingham Field, all the way across to the other side, down the eastern mountain ridge, and out over the ocean to land on Molokai. Creating pretty ideal conditions, the answer seems to be yes.

Lost trivia: Dillingham Field is where they filmed the scenes with Mr. Eko and Yemi, where Remey was shot and dragged into the plane. The “Others” houses were actually a YMCA camp a few miles from the field.

It Must Have Been Painful to Write

I’m guessing typing every word was pure agony, but over on the Brady Facebook, it seems they had to do a bit of “Let’s stay focused” on some of their Facebook Fans:

Every rational person supports that position, except, apparently for the Brady Campaign. What if their core supporters don’t want to “better regulate guns to keep them out of dangerous hands?” Will they keep donating if the best they can hope for is to make all sales go through an FFL?

In other news, it looks like pro-2A voices can get through the “Reasoned Discorse” filter on the weekends when they probably aren’t paying attention.

“Shoot Me First” Vest for iPad

Who knows, maybe the device could stop a bullet. But hey, if Steven Jobs makes concealed carry wear fashionable because people need a way to carry around iPad’s, that’s fine by me.

Public Range Shooter Caught

Some excellent good old fashioned police work have lead authorities to get a suspect into custody. Sounds like the alleged murderer was a correctional officer. Police called out the SWAT team to bring him in. I would like to note this is a use of SWAT teams I can approve of. I also got a chuckle out of this:

For two days, authorities scoured the range for evidence — a tough job because of all the spent shell casings littering the grounds. By the end of last week, police said they knew the kind of gun used to kill Getgen.

Yeah, not the place I’d want to have to gather evidence on a shooting — but they did it, and got their man. I am very happy they caught this guy. This was indeed a case of murdering the guy to get his gun, which made him very dangerous to have roaming the streets, which hopefully after a fair trial, he will never see again.