October 2010 – Page 4 – Shall Not Be Questioned

CeaseFirePA Attacking Corbett

So implies CeaseFire PA, who I can’t imagine has the cash to actually air this video:

Ryan Hacke was killed in 1997, four years before Pennsylvania entered into a reciprocity agreement with the State of Florida, under a different Attorney General than Tom Corbett. His death was certainly a tragedy, but it has exactly nothing to do with the issue being touted.

What you never hear about is Vaughn Mathis, the criminal that murdered Ryan Hacke. We give kudos to Allegheny County for actually prosecuting criminals, which is more than you can say for Philadelphia, but in 1993 Mathis plead guilty carrying without a license and having a firearm with an altered serial number, a first degree misdemeanor and second degree felony respectively. He received probation, though at this point it was illegal for him to purchase or possess a firearm, or get a license to carry in PA or Florida.

It’s worth noting that if he had gotten the maximum allowed under law for the initial weapons charge, he never would have been on the streets to murder Ryan Hecke. But it doesn’t stop there. Mathis was out on bail awaiting trial for rape charges, terroristic threats, and aggravated assault when he committed the murder. The crimes he was out on bail for were committed in 1995, and two years later the state had not yet gotten around to trying him. He was only tried on that arrest after the Hecke murder.

In all this talk of loopholes, guns, our opponents are forgetting about the piece of human debris that pulled the trigger, and the justice system that failed to keep him behind bars and off the streets.

Silly Season Weather Forecast

One thing we’re paying careful attention to is weather. Weather is one of those things that affect election turnout. When the weather is bad, it typically benefits the side on the motivated side of the enthusiasm gap. This year, that’s going to be the evil tea party sympathizers. We would absolutely love a giant cloud hanging out over the city of Philadelphia, pouring down rain there and nowhere else on election day. But that’s not very likely.

Still, I’m pleased that the forecast seems to be calling for rain in the Northeast. Granted, forecasts out this far aren’t much more scientific than a wild assed guess, but we’ll keep hoping.

McCarthy’s Troubles

Jacob has been following the continuing troubles of Carolyn McCarthy, and notes that NRA is hitting that district on behalf of Becker.Â The Democrats are having a difficult time even manning the firewall. John Richardson notes that McCarthy is running attack ads, which is something not typically done by candidates who are on top.

This is one election I’m going to be watching with anticipation on Tuesday night.

Thirdpower Asks the Question

What have you done:

While everyone has the right to express their opinion, what have you done to make your opinion actually worth something? Besides sending in your annual check I mean.

His point is well taken, in that in most pro-gun groups your membership fee isn’t doing much to help protect your rights, but I wouldn’t ding someone who has better things to do with their time, but makes up for it by writing checks to help the cause. In fact, for people who live in safe districts for gun rights, that might actually be the best use of your resources.

Since my luck in recruiting volunteers for campaigns here has been virtually non-existent, I’ve been thinking about other ways to influence candidates. One thing we tried this year was fundraising in small increments. I’m not sure we were any more successful at raising money than we have been at raising volunteers, but the idea, essentially, is to spread donations out among a lot of pro-gun candidates in the hopes they notice there’s a constituency willing to give money for the Second Amendment. My belief is that it’s probably better for 20 pro-gun candidates to get ten dollars and a note that says “Thanks for supporting the Second Amendment,” than it does for one candidate to get 200 dollars.

One reason we haven’t been able to get rid of Patrick Murphy is because of the amount of money this guy can pull in from outside the district. He is a fundraising machine. The left is far better at this game than the right, and infinitely better at it than libertarians. If you live in a safe district, consider a small donation to a pro-gun campaign in a district that’s not so safe. Most states have them somewhere, so you’d probably not be looking at a completely altruistic donation to a race that doesn’t remotely affect your own situation. Most state nd local activists worth their salt will be able to tell you which races they are concerned with in any given election.

NRA-PVF certainly donates to candidates, but they are a PAC, and PACs are limited by campaign finance rules in how much they can donate. Individual donations still matter.

Shooting Ourselves in the Foot

Robb warns us not to be “that guy.”

Bloomberg Looking to Avoid a Lawsuit

Apparently he went to New York City Council with a plan to cut gun permit fees to anywhere between $25 and $110 bucks. City Council says no.

“There’s no way I could vote on this. Since I’ve been in the council, we’ve voted on numerous bills where fees and fines were increased and it would send a strange message to New Yorkers that the one fine we look to reduce is the fee and fine to permit a gun,” Councilman Erik Dilan (D-Brooklyn), who did not attend the caucus, said.

Thank you, Erik Dilan, for calling it a “fine.” You’re making the inevitable multi-million dollar lawsuit against your city that much easier. Another fine council member notes wonders why they would get sued when the fee has been that high for years, as if length of time on the books has anything to do with a statutes constitutionality. What kind of screwed up place is New York City when Bloomberg is the pro-gun guy in this picture?

It’s the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Our favorite Brady Board member:

As I have said over and over and over again- yes sir, it is legal to sell guns to felons in most states that have not passed a law to require background checks on all gun sales at gun shows. Private sellers are more than just people selling occasionally. Some of these private sellers sell hundreds of guns a year at gun shows. That is a fact that cannot be avoided…

Under current law, it is never lawful, in any state, to knowingly sell a gun to a felon, whether there’s a background check conducted or not. It is never legal for a felon to purchase a firearm, whether from an FFL or from a private seller. It is never legal to sell a firearm to someone who does not reside in the same state that you do. It is again, not legal for someone to be engaged in the business of selling firearms and to not hold a federal firearms license. This is all current law. I could quote the relevant parts of federal statutes, but I think most people here are familiar with them.

So essentially, the leaders of the gun control movement are advocating we make changes to federal law, when they don’t even really understand what federal law currently is.Â Not only that, but if there’s a coherent argument for ending private transfers coming out of Common Gunsense, I’ve yet to hear it. This is in spite of some people being willing to have a dialog on the issue.

We can certainly talk about enforcement of these current laws at gun shows, and how we can do better. ATF has undermined enforcement of illegal trafficking at gun shows by not being able to help itself from using strong-armed police state tactics when it’s tried. A better run agency would find a lot of willing help from the firearms community when it comes to preventing people dealing and buying unlawfully, but they don’t, and part of the reason is ATF’s long history of treating their mission as if it were to destroy the lawful commerce in firearms rather than to ensure that the firearms commerce proceeds according to the law.

Another DCCC Attack Ad

This one is incredulous that these dangerous tea party types actually believe the federal government’s powers are limited to those constitutionally enumerated:

This is running in Colorado. These people are utterly incredulous that anyone would have to audacity to tell them their power is limited. We need to beat these totalitarians roundly next week.

DCCC Running Anti-Gun Ads for Lentz

If I were a Pennsylvania blue dog, I’d be livid that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was running this ad. This was run during the Phillies game on Saturday. This goes to show that we absolutely have to make sure that Lentz doesn’t win a congressional seat:

Interesting they show a submachine gun as an assault rifle, isn’t it? And interesting how the supposed loophole has nothing to do with either assault rifles or submachine guns. But when has the truth ever been an obstacle for gun haters like Lentz?

If you want to help the Meehan campaign, and please do, you can donate here, or volunteer here. He needs help. We have to win this one.

UPDATE: You know, this isn’t even a federal issue. This is a state issue. But how many people realize that?

New Shooter

Elena Kagan, apparently taken to the range by Justice Scalia.