For this country, that’s mostly history, for some others it’s their current reality.
Year: 2010
Top Shot Getting Promoted in Chicago Media Market
This can’t be anything but good. Whether Tara realized it or not when she auditioned for the show, she’s now the face of the shooting sports for Chicago residents. Hopefully a lot of them watch, and become interested, because hopefully not too long from now their rights are going to be restored.
California Condors and Lead
Looks like their lead levels haven’t dropped since they banned lead ammo. Could it be the ban was based on hysteria rather than science? No…. the devil you say.
Clash of the Narcissistic Titans
This ought to be interesting. I hope there aren’t hearings. There isn’t a room big enough for those two egos.
Going After New York
I would characterize this as a very bold lawsuit on the part of SAF. But we will, at some point, have to go after discretionary licensing. But we are going after both the right to carry and discretionary licensing in one lawsuit. I would say this is quite a leap, but I thought Parker was when it first came out too, and we all know how that turned out (it became Heller). Same situation too. Someone’s going to do it. I’d prefer it be someone who makes a very thorough and strong case than some amateur, or worse a kook.
Hat tip to Ian Argent.
Gun Control Donations
Jacob notes that Gillibrand has received the most amount of gun control money. So far it looks like only McCarthy and Gillibrand have gotten serious money from the Brady PAC. I guess they want to ensure her conversion over to the dark side sticks. One of the great ironies of the 2008 elections is the Bradys dumped most of their PAC money into the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Considering the Senate Democrats have been remarkably pro-gun, I’m guessing they aren’t feeling too good about that expenditure right now.
But the real telling story is that the Brady PAC has only raised 2500 this cycle so far, and from a single donor. By contrast, NRA has raised $12,233,649 so far this cycle, from a quite large donor base. That’s almost 5000:1. Hell, even GOA’s very sad PAC has out-raised the Brady PAC by almost 28:1.
In the two big sources of political power, money and votes, the Bradys can no longer bring either of them to the table. And they wonder why Obama isn’t paying attention to them. No wonder Dennis Henigan is a sad panda.
I Think We Should Shoot More
Someone in New Jersey I guess had finally had enough of these flying grass to poop conversion factories. Only in the Garden State would this be considered a heinous crime, rather than a public service.
Serious Question
My question is to Colin Goddard, who’s testimony before the Congressional Panel on banning private gun transfers can be found here. It’s quite a chilling story. Given the circumstances described, if he had to go back in relive that day, would he have preferred to have a gun with him or not? It’s very difficult for me to understand how the answer could be no. Putting aside for a second the burdens of carrying a gun, it seems difficult for me to believe anyone would say no. I’m not sure what it says about your own belief in yourself, your abilities, and your self-image.
Perhaps it is pacifism. There are some people who simply could not bring themselves to do violence on another, even if the other person were trying to kill them and everyone else around them. I can accept that is a personal choice, but it seems to me to be a personal choice — not something to be imposed on others through force of law.
Sin Tax?
Reuters seems to be counting Pittman-Robertson dollars as sin taxes. PR has been around for quite some time, and as far as I know has been 11% pretty much its whole existence. The dollars used for fish and wildlife management, as well as public ranges. Even so, it might be unconstitutional. The Heller ruling probably puts upper limits on how much governments can consider firearms and ammunition to be a “sin” and tax it accordingly.
How Obama Loses
Great article on Politico about how the more Obama wins, the more he loses:
The problem is that he and his West Wing turn out to be not especially good at politics, or communications — in other words, largely ineffective at the very things on which their campaign reputation was built. And the promises he made in two years of campaigning turn out to be much less appealing as actual policies.
The big problem Obama has is that he knows how to give a speech from a teleprompter. That’s his real talent. He is unskilled in politics. Truth is I don’t see him as capable of reinventing his presidency, as Clinton did after 1994. In addition, my friends in DC say the Democrats are demoralized, a sentiment also echoed in this article:
Many Democrats on the Hill don’t much like Obama, or at least his circle of advisers. They think the White House makes them take tough votes, but doesn’t care that much about the problems those votes leave politicians facing in tough races in 2010. Numerous Democrats have complained privately that Obama only cares about Obama — a view reinforced by Gibbs’s public admission that Democrats could lose the House.
By 2012, the White House may have few friends left. This is good for us because we desperately need to make him a one termer if we’re going to preserve the gains we’ve made recently in the courts.