2010 – Page 195 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The 8th District Circus Candidate Forum

Last night, we gave up a couple of hours to civic duty in the name of being educated voters. The local Tea Party organization, Kitchen Table Patriots, did an absolutely swell job at pulling together a great event that served as a fantastic way to weed out the serious candidates from the not-so-serious candidates. Just about everyone in attendance – and they filled a large school auditorium – could walk away feeling like they had a choice of key candidates.

But that’s not very fun to report, so in comes the snark. And some interesting observations about Patrick Murphy via his sleazy staffers who kept violating the rules to disrupt those around them.

General Observations
These kinds of events are very hard on candidates, especially if they don’t have any formal public speaking experience or haven’t been trained to really rally an audience. While my criticism will mostly be snark, it also pales in comparison to what Patrick Murphy’s deceitful little followers will say. Not to mention, if some of the candidates had more confidence, they could have better sold their most controversial plans. I have two very specific examples of this winning over audience members with one candidate and costing support to another.

The moderator, Steve Highsmith, did a fantastic job at keeping the event running smoothly. He was friendly and engaging without getting boring and monotonous with the same questions for each candidate. Since there were 9 candidates each getting 12 minutes, that was serious work.

There were some crappy questions. Like the “Yes or No: We should weaken Roe v. Wade.” What does that even mean? You’re talking about one of the most hotly debated legal questions of our time, it’s hardly a yes or no answer. They also asked candidates to take an ATR-esque pledge on taxes that all save one agreed to. I will say now that there were no questions or remarks about the Second Amendment.

One big surprise of the evening was a question about medical marijuana. They asked it in the context of 10th amendment, and whether or not candidates agreed with President Obama’s executive order to not go after those growing & distributing medical marijuana in states that have legalized it. Half of the candidates agreed! Holy cow! The old woman in front of me was in great distress every time someone agreed, so I took extra joy in each answer. It was wrong, but I laughed inside each time she shook her head disapprovingly. I was tempted to say something controversial involving drugs, alcohol, and sex in front of her for kicks, but I figured after the crazy controversy of medical marijuana, her heart could probably only stand so much… Continue reading “The 8th District ~~Circus~~ Candidate Forum”

Gun Boom Cooling Off

Gun Pundit reports on the NSSF report on December NICS numbers. What’s interesting is that the numbers are still pretty elevated over 2007.

A Favor to Keep Friendly Relationships

NRA is throwing its support behind an effort to improve the Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act, which allows retired and off-duty police officers to carry their firearms nationwide. I know this is not hugely popular among some of the grass roots, and even I have some reservations about whether it’s constitutional, but it’s important to keep law enforcement rank and file on our side. Remember the last time we lost support of the Fraternal Order of Police? It was the early 90s, and I don’t think too many of us need a refresher on what happened then. Consider this a favor in order to keep friendly relationships. I’ll support law enforcement in this, as long as the FOP keeps supporting us, especially on the Tiahrt issue, which MAIG and Brady are directly opposed to, and which the FOP favors.

Harold Ford Now Anti-Gun Enough for NY

Harold Ford, based on NRA grades, was never a gun owner’s best friend. But as a C rated candidate in Tennessee, that’s not nearly anti-gun enough for Manhattan. Via Dave Adams at @VSSA, we find out that Ford is now declaring that record to be not representative of his new views.

I remain committed to promoting gun safety and handgun control, and I look forward to working with Mayor Bloomberg and Newark Mayor Corey Booker and their coalition to reduce handgun violence in cities across America.

Purple Menace

Great Satan Inc has a rifle that would make Mayor Bloomberg’s stomach turn. Not only is it purple, in defiance of Mayor Mike’s crusade against colored guns, but the thumbhole stock makes it an evil assault weapon under some definitions, including New York City’s, I believe. The magazine that goes into the firearm is illegal in New York City (limited to 5 rounds).

That’s what Mayor Mike means when he speaks of common sense laws to fight illegal gun trafficking.

More Pain in the Gun Control World

Days of our Trailers has done a good job of covering this last week, first with some of the local Illinois groups also merging, and consolidating under umbrella groups, like we saw with CeaseFire New Jersey merging under a peace group umbrella. Also, he’s found that Joyce is cutting VPC’s funding by a fairly significant amount.

It’s going to be painful days ahead for the gun control movement, as their funding dries up. This does not mean the gun control movement is going away, or that we can declare “Machine guns for everyone!” and wrap this whole thing up in a few years. The gun control movement is reinventing itself, as it has many times throughout its history. Expect more groups appearing under the MAIG model. Not necessarily with mayors, but in terms of rebranding their same gun control proposals as a crusade against “illegal guns” and “illegal gun trafficking.” Will it be any more successful than the current banner they march under? Who knows. We can’t take any chances, however. I will say this, MAIG has shown themselves to be smart enough that when the pendulum swings back, it’s going to swing hard. Our job is to make sure it never swings back.

Money Bomb for Scott Brown

If you want a head start on decreasing the Democrat’s majority in 2010, I would suggest that folks consider taking part in the money bomb for Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown. On guns, he’s been good on the issues as long as I was following the minutiae of the Bay State’s gun control debates.

I don’t want to completely get your hopes up about this race. If you opened a dictionary, this would be the definition of long shot.

BUT, for those you who paid attention to the Massachusetts political scene several years ago, remember that his current Senate seat was formerly held by Cheryl Jacques. Remember her? He won that seat in a special election against her staffer, Angus McQuilken. So remember that anything is possible. So if you have a few spare bucks in your wallet today, lend a hand to the long shot campaign today. Let’s make sure that we don’t lose it because of a lack of resources in the last few days.

It’s High Time

Since there aren’t too many bloggers that cover New Jersey politics from a Second Amendment angle, I decided it was high time I added a category specifically for New Jersey. Nothing happens in this issue in a vacuum, and we’ve had more than a few examples of New Jersey based activists crossing the river to push for gun control in Pennsylvania. Bitter and I keep a close eye on what happens in New Jersey, and are in regular communication with leaders in the issue over there. I feel confident we can provide good coverage for New Jersey gun owners.

New Jersey Pols in McDonald Case

Cemetery points out some New Jersey pols that have signed up to oppose McDonald, in response to Bitter’s list of Pennsylvania reps who either joined, or who did not take a stand in the case.

Even in New Jersey, they could only get three Congressmen who wanted to go in record in favor of gun bans. I should also note that New Jersey had three Congressmen who joined the Congressional Brief supporting McDonald, and standing up for the Second Amendment, those reps are:

Representative E. Scott Garrett (NJ-5, R)
Representative Leonard Lance (NJ-7, R)
Representative Frank A. LoBiondo (NJ-2, R)

If you live in New Jersey, be sure to thank them. Even in the Brady Paradise of New Jersey, the anti-gun forces still couldn’t outnumber pro-Second Amendment forces.

Some Misconceptions about Motion for Divided Time

There’s been a few things I’ve seen floating around that probably could use some clarifying, about the NRA’s Motion for Divided Time that I spoke about here and here. Some folks in the comments were wondering why NRA can’t ask for some of Chicago’s time. The short answer is that they can’t. They are Respondents in Support of the Petitioner in this suit, meaning they are arguing against Chicago and in favor of McDonald’s position. Obviously the Court doesn’t allow the opposing sides in a case to divide each other’s time. If NRA wants time before the Court, they have to motion to divide Alan Gura’s time, not Chicago’s.

Second argument I’ve heard, reported on by Christopher Burg, is that there’s some other nefarious conservative concern at work here in regards to gay marriage. I can assure you that NRA is pretty singularly focused on the Second Amendment, and aren’t going to waste their time and resources with these kinds of ancillary concerns. As I’ve said, I think the motion is a mistake, but I do believe the NRA doing is what they think is the right thing.