March 2011 – Page 2 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Delaware Gun Control Proceeding

Some of Markell’s bills are getting a hearing in the Delaware House Judiciary Committee today. HB 46 is one bill, which allows the state to dispose of firearms it’s accumulating from people who had restraining orders and have not claimed them after the order expired. It only allows disposal 60 days after the owner was notified he needed to claim them. I don’t see any reason the state should be forced to hold on to someone’s property indefinitely, so I don’t think this is unreasonable. The bill does not seem to call for destruction, so presumably the state could sell them. HB 48 merely implements the federal requirements for reporting mental health adjudications to NICS, including the relief from disabilities requirements for people that have undergone successful treatment post-adjudication.

Not all of Markell’s agenda is innocuous, so keep an close eye out if you live in Delaware.

Exactly What I Quietly Feared

Having checked the unrestrained passions, to put it mildly, of the left, the Tea Partiers head home to sleep it off.

Well, look. Victory in the midterms was bound to cool some peopleâ€™s ardor. Conservatives were irate over unchecked Democratic governance, and now thereâ€™s a check in the form of a Republican House, so the temperature had to come down. The difficulty here isnâ€™t convincing grassroots righties that they need to get their message out 24/7, itâ€™s figuring out how to raise that temperature again to the point where people are out in the streets, knocking on doors, volunteering, organizing, donating, and so forth. Candidly, I donâ€™t know how you do it; the best fuel is anger, but having just won a major legislative victory in Wisconsin â€” imperiled though it may be â€” some conservatives just may not be feeling the rage right now, no matter how vicious or intimidating the left tries to be.

Instapundit has more on the subject here. One has to have a grasp on exactly what politics is, and how you win elections. Only a small minority on either side of the political spectrum, however loosely we define it in this country, have put any serious thought into, or have bothered to educate themselves, on the issue of the day. They are motivated by far more superficial considerations than most people who follow what’s going on would be comfortable with. The process of winning elections involves bending these pliable voters over to your side. Neither side is capable of winning elections without bringing these voters along with them.

It’s an open question in my mind as to whether a republic can survive with universal suffrage. Limiting suffrage in this country, however, has been littered with racism and sexism. We’re not keen on the idea, and given the history understandably so. But we’ve developed a notion that voting is a civic duty, rather than something you should only do if you’ve bothered to learn something about the issues. I think being able to vote should be harder, to weed out those who are only casually interested. That could be as simple as requiring people to go to the county seat in order to register.

This obviously is not a workable idea, because we’ve all been raised to revere democratic governance. I’m just not convinced you can have lasting and stable republican government with a voting population that doesn’t want to pay taxes or cut spending. Something has to give.

Galco Fail

Steve of the Firearms Blog has a case of accidental discharge due to a malfunctioning Galco holster. Looks as if the leather got a little too soft and pliable. I’m partial to Mitch Rosen‘s work for leather, as I have one of his pocket holsters, but I carry kydex holsters by Comp-Tac for non-pocket carry. I’ve seen all kinds of things go screwy with holsters. It’s a good idea to check them for issues fairly regularly.

Can’t Take the Snow

A North Carolina man who moved to Pennsylvania got tired of having to dig out his car this winter, and ended up brandishing a gun at the guy operating the snowblower. Unbeknownst to him, apparently the snow blower operator was strapped too. Yet somehow this did not result in a shootout. If you believed the Bradys, the snow would have run red with blood that day, because clearly people can’t resist shooting each other. This guy pretty clearly needed shooting, and yet the legal gun carrier in this confrontation exercised restraint.

Friends Dinner

Sorry for the light posting this evening. Tonight was the Philadelphia Friends of the NRA dinner. I am disappointed not to have won anything, but there will be other dinners. Plenty of non-hunting guns. On raffle this year were a Smith & Wesson M&P 15-22, and a Century AK, both of which ended up auctioned off because people chose the other prizes. The price was good on both. I would have bid if I wasn’t hoarding cash because of the job situation. Plus, the FFL handling transfers is in the city, which means 2% more sales tax. I’ll wait for the Bucks and Montgomery County dinners. You can actually find pretty good bargains at auction if you’re lucky. Who wouldn’t want an NRA Toaster anyway?

Saving Money With a Freezer

When I saw this headline over at Instapundit, my first thought was that William Jefferson had a new book out.

I’ll be here all week.

Own Worst Enemies

SayUncle notes the folks in the comments on NRA’s Facebook aren’t so hot on suppressors. My experience the comment section of NRA’s Facebook page is that it’s a great thing to read if you want your faith in humanity destroyed.

Generally speaking we’re limited in what we can accomplish by what our own people will demand. Many people online spend the vast majority of their time only talking to other people who agree with them, and don’t grasp that the main reason we’re not seeing a repeal of Hughes is that a vast majority of gun owners don’t support civilian machinegun ownership. Many feel the same way about suppressors. I’m not speaking of here of people who happen to own guns, I’m speaking here of people who culturally identify as gun owners (a big difference). We have a long way to go on these issues, but it’s familiarity that breeds comfort.

I’d be a hypocrite if I said everyone should buy a suppressor, and use it at their range, since I don’t yet own one myself. But I’m thinking of soon taking the plunge.

Ballistics Database Fail

Jacob reports the numbers. New York State has collected approximately 312,000 shell casings, spent 40 million dollars, and solved no crimes. NYSRPA press release on it is here:

NYSRPA calls upon Governor Andrew Cuomo, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and state legislative leaders to publicly recognize these boondoggles for what they are, defund the CoBIS program and stand up to the fringe special interests advocating microstamping.

I wouldn’t put any money on that happening any time soon. The standard government answer to something that doesn’t work and wastes lots of money is that it was not properly funded or managed, so the solution is to spend even more money on the failure.

Suspected Astroturfing

John Richardson has uncovered some strong evidence that an Letter to the Editor touted by CSGV is an astroturfing effort. To add more evidence to show that it probably is, I looked up to see whether there was any Charles Ford who held an FFL in Oregon by looking up the list from ATF. There is no one named Ford who holds an FFL in the entire state of Oregon. I think it’s safe to conclude that this is indeed an astroturfing effort by our opponents. As I mentioned, they are not above this kind of dishonesty. It’s the only way they can win.

Like Vultures

Our opponents gather around tragedy like vultures will gather around a corpse. Here’s one report of Brady’s Efforts:

“[Giffords is] the most prominent victim since Reagan,” noted Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

The Tucson incident, combined with the Reagan anniversary, gives gun-control advocates a fresh platform.

Don’t sound so enthusiastic about it Paul. But it’s not just the Brady folks. MAIG is not above exploiting tragedy as well, having gathered as many family of victims as they possibly could, which apparently is one. But it makes you wonder how many of the individuals who are supporting the Fix Gun Checks Act know about all the hidden easter eggs in the bill.

I think the gun control groups are stunned they haven’t been able to get any real traction from this tragedy. I’m not convinced they won’t. If Gabby Giffords becomes a crusader for gun control after she recovers, that might be all it takes. But we’ll see.