2010 – Page 133 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Why Talking to Candidates is Important

Take a look at this video from a Tea Party forum that features the Republican Challengers for the seat currently held by F-rated Allyson Schwartz:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YIpOLsGFLM[/youtube]

The first candidate at least has the right answer, but his big intellectual contribution to the issue would seem to be noticing that both Article I, Section 21 of the PA Constitution, and the Second Amendment both use the word “shall.” Â The second guy, I have to think this is the first time he’s ever had to consider this issue seriously. He’s also got the right answers, but the fact that he’s not well versed is blindingly obvious. The third guy, Adcock, seems to be the leading contender, and probably has the best answer.

You can see from this that candidates often have no idea, honestly, what our concerns are, and haven’t thought much about our issue, or how to handle it publicly. These candidates need to talk to gun owners and develop an understanding they can build theirÂ positions from. This has recently been an issue in my club, where many of the club’s leaders don’t want to get involved in politics. I am an advocate for at least some degree of engagement, and preventing candidates for public office from wandering aimlessly around our issue is part of the reason. If they never hear our concerns, or never learn how to speak to the issue, it’s quite likely they are going to conclude there’s nothing to be gained in it, and drop it from their radar.

“Excessive and Unnecessary”

That’s what Democratic candidate for Governor, Joe Hoeffel, calls Castle Doctrine. Not too much of a surprise, though. When Hoeffel was in Congress, one of his pet issues was closing the musket loophole, by making black powder and antique firearms subject to the same regulations as modern firearms. Tony Williams, his leading competitor in the Southeast, is also very anti-gun, but I hope he cleans Hoeffel’s clock, because Williams is at least a sensible guy on other issues, and not aÂ doctrinaireÂ lefty. Overall, the best Democratic choice for gun owners would be Jack Wagner so far. He’s at least only bragged that he once supported an assault weapons ban.

UPDATE: Things really got interesting with Tony Williams in today’s chat. According to him, Castle Doctrine will “erode the quality of life” of his fair city, and he also took questions on the viability of his campaign for running anti-gun commercials in Western Pennsylvania markets.

Two Kinds of Protest

Hey, if having more open carry means we get more of the other, I’m fall for it:

Portland is becoming a popular site for people who want to show that they can do things that are legal, just not things usually done.

Earlier this month, Congress Street was home to a parade of topless women, who were asserting their right to appear in public while shirtless, which is the same as it is for a man.

This Sunday, Back Cove will be the site of a demonstration by gun rights enthusiasts, who will be asserting their rights to openly carry firearms.

Though, I seem to recall there was an incident in New Hampshire where someone combined these two forms of protest, and asserted her right to carry a firearm topless.

All Good Memes Must Come to an End

As some of you might have heard, the German film company who owns the rights to Downfall has been issuing DMCA Takedown notices to YouTube trying to get the parodies pulled from the Internets. That, of course, has created the inevitable Hitler Parody:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBO5dh9qrIQ[/youtube]

It’s an old and tired joke, but I’m sorry to see it go. Especially like this. The great irony is I actually bought a copy of Downfall because of the parodies, and it’s a great piece of historical drama. I would highly recommend it.

Hat tip to Eugene Volokh.

Time to Play the Blame Game

The failure of the Second Amendment March is all NRA’s fault! Funny,Â I seem to recall seeing a reminder in NRA’s Grassroots Alerts for several weeks approaching the march. The problem is, our folks aren’t much for protesting. That’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just the nature of the beast.Â I seem to recall back in February of last year saying as much:

The main that will likely go wrong is you get, if youâ€™re really lucky, a thousand or so to show up.Â Even in this lousy economy, most gun owners have a job, and have families, which means they have better things to do than to attend protests.

PA gun rights groups organize a rally every spring in Harrisburg, and if it get enough people to fill the Capitol Rotunda, itâ€™s a good turn out.

I would say that the D.C. rally got some decent press coverage. It wasn’t really a failure. They tried to do something positive, and trying is more than most people who are in this issue ever do. There’s been no harm done. I don’t think there’s any reason to throw blame around. Get back on the horse and try something else.

Open Carry Ban in California Advancing

Covered by Jeff Soyer. It’s passed out of the Public SafetyÂ Committee, and now goes to Appropriations. Here’s a list of appropriations committee members. Now is the time to contact them and express opposition. The bill is AB1934. Having skimmed over the bill, I think the worst effect this has is not just banning openly carrying an unloaded handgun, but also making loaded open carry in an unincorporated area, which previously has been lawful in California, unlawful. It would seem to do this by removing a part of the law that explicitly defines carrying in a belt holster openly as not being concealed.

Practically speaking, I don’t know how many people availed themselves of open carry in an unincorporated area, and I don’t know how much of California is unincorporated, so it’s hard to assess the magnitude of this loss, should it come to pass.

North Carolina Carry Laws

Given what the law is for North Carolina, I think I’ll probably leave mine at home when we go to the NRA Annual Meeting in Charlotte. When it’s in Pittsburgh next year, you’ll be able to carry. The only place off limits in PA are court houses, and (maybe) primary and secondary schools. That’s it.

Brady Fundraising on Open Carry

We’ve already seen the Brady Campaign partner with new media fundraising and organizational groups like Credo, who worked with them on the Starbucks Campaign. Now we notice they are working with a group called Karma411, which is a new mediaish fundraising group. They seem to have begun a campaign to try to raise money using the open carry issue as a lever to drive people’s interest in their cause.

I’m going to be watching this campaign closely. They’ve set a goal of 10,000 dollars. Will they reach it? So far they are only 20 dollars toward their goal. What I want to see is how much traction Brady gets with this issue. This is going to reveal some pretty critical pieces of information in relation to this fight:

New media fundraising is going to give us some kind of idea how their message resonates with younger people, who are going to be the target audience of this new media message. If they can bring another generation into the gun control fight, that’s going to beÂ beneficialÂ to them in the long run.
It give us some idea how much money there is in scaring people about open carry. We’ve documented here in thorough detail that the Brady folks are having difficulty raising money. Is this an issue they could use to turn that around? Is the issue dead, or is it just that they’ve been going aboutÂ fundraisingÂ the wrong way?
It gives us more information for our own internal debates about the issue. If Brady can’t raise any money on it, those of us who have beenÂ detractorsÂ of open carry as a strategy will have to accept that despite what the public may or may not think about it, it’s not an issue that is going to hurt us, because the other side can’t do much with it. On the other hand, if they beat their fundraising goals, that’s a critical piece of information that open carry might be motivating renewed interest in gun control.

None of this will be perfect or conclusive information, no matter what way it goes, because we don’t really know what karma411’s fundraising effectiveness is. Ten grand is a sideshow of a fundraising effort anyway, even for the Brady Campaign. But the important thing is the names they get from this can be used to raise further money. I’ll be curious to see how this turns out for them, because it’ll at least be an important bit of information we can use.

I Don’t Think They Understand the Process

Sometimes I read what politicians do, and it makes me wonder how many times they’ve stumbled across the stupid stick.

The House Transportation Committee voted unanimously to report as amended HB 914 which amends Title 75 requiring certain first time DUI offenders to have their vehicles equipped with an ignition interlock device and increase the required time period for ignition interlock to third and subsequent offenders. After the vote was taken, several committee members raised questions regarding the bill and its potential impact. A motion to reconsider the vote was made but eventually withdrawn with the understanding there will be further discussions regarding the bill.

Typically the questions are asked and impact considered before the damn vote.

In other news, I hope that those who have made one unfortunate mistake of driving while a little over the limit are willing to give up mouthwash and/or use of their cars.

Fight Continues Against Pittsburgh L&S

Looks like NRA is appealing in the decision from Pittsburgh.