January 2012 – Page 4 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The First Starbucks Appreciation Day

I was looking through my archives, because I remembered we did a Starbucks Appreciation before, and noticed it was Joe Huffman who originally came up with the idea, back two years ago when the anti-gun folks first spewed the notion of harassing Starbucks for, you know, following state law. Back then I posted my receipt from that day, and will do so again this time around. A reader suggested posting receipts in the comments, which I think is a fine idea.

Looking back on the last fight, the Brady’s got upset over Joe’s campaignÂ rather early on, and Abby Spangler, from Protest Easy Guns, got a little sexist. Outside of McDonald, I noticed Paul Helmke and Peter Hamm looking pretty cold, and was tempted to bring them some Starbucks as a joke. I’m only sorry I didn’t follow through (I didn’t want to get out of line and risk losing my place). Things were different then. Brady was more professional, and the other side wasn’t practicing the kind of frothing at the mouth demonization of their opponents that is now a favorite of the Laddites in the gun control movement. Lastly, Abby Spangler wouldn’t let the issue go.

I haven’t noticed the Brady organization saying anything about this year’s Starbucks Boycott effort. I suspect they don’t want to waste their time and energy on a battle they are quite likely going to lose. This current effort, two years after the first, is being lead by a particularly whacked out fringe group called National Gun Victims Action Council, who are now proclaiming:

Our economic lever cannot be overcome because we outnumber the NRAâ€™s â€œextremistâ€ faction by minimally 50 to 1. To establish the economic lever, NGAC will initiate targeted boycotts.

No, they don’t, because no one is paying any attention to them except for the frothing at the mouth crowd, and I can promise you we all have much greater buying power than they do. I have more Facebook fans than they do, and I just got started with that. I have an order of magnitude more Twitter followers, andÂ I’m small potatoes in this issue. Take a look at who’s linking to the press release. These people have already lost, but they are too blind to see.

UPDATE: Competing events on Facebook. One here, and another here, the latter of which is the one I joined. I should note that the total number of people who say they are going is currently 3,771 across the two groups, which I expect will pass 4,000 before too long. This extremist anti-gun group has pretty clearly bitten off more than it can chew.

Hard For Gun Control Orgs to Find Friends

All the usual suspects are in dire straits because the President didn’t mention anything about gun control, err, sorry, gun violence, in his state of the union address. I don’t know why they are surprised by this. There’s only one person who wants to avoid the gun issue in the 2012 campaign more than Obama, and his first name rhymes with shit. Yet they continue to act like jilted ~~stalkers~~ lovers when Obama doesn’t toss them a bone during high-profile public speeches.

But who can blame them? Friends are hard to find these days for the gun control movement. We all remember Andrew Cuomo right? He was the HUD secretary under Clinton that sued firearms manufacturers, and then strong-armed Smith and Wesson into accepting the infamous deal that very nearly ruined its iconic American brand. Now Cuomo, following in his dad’s footsteps, is Governor of New York, and the state is running out of money. When it comes to fiscal responsibility and keeping up appearances for the sake of the gun control groups, what does he choose? Fiscal responsibility. He’s recommending the CoBIS ballistic database be scrapped, because it costs too much money and is ineffective. Andrew Cuomo is proposing scrapping a gun control law, because it doesn’t work. He is no longer willing to pretend the emperor is wearing clothes. I half expect next that Bill Clinton will come out of his Manhattan Office with an AR in one hand and an AK in the other, thrusting them in the air exclaiming “You know all that gun control stuff? Yeah. That was all Hillary. Long live the NRA!”

This Can Never Be Good

Jim Geraghty takes a look at Newt’s contract from Freddie Mac, a subject of current controversy. But what interests me, particularly, is the opening line from one of his readers:

I worked at FreddieÂ as a consultant during the same timeframe that Newt was there. I can tell you that the place was creepy with consultants of all ilk. The semi-circle drive in front of the main building was logged jammed with Lincoln Towncars come 4:30 pm every day. Iâ€™ve stood in line with Paul Begala waiting to get a coffee at the Starbucks in the Freddie lobby. Freddie at its height was a multi-trillion-dollar company that had only about 6,000 employees. Everyone else was a consultant or contractor.

There’s no way this is the situation and there’s not an awful lot of fleecing going on.

The New AK-12

Looks a lot like the AK-74m, only with a new stock, better pistol grip, a lot more rail. It does look, however, like they took a stab at the AK’s poor ergonomics, but I’ve always been the opinion that the achilles heel of that system ergonomically was with magazine changes, and it doesn’t look like that’s any different.

SOTU Summarized

Hey, aren’t I awesome? I killed Bin-Laden. Congress sucks because they won’t work with me. You kind of suck too, by the way. The rich, they also totally suck because they aren’t paying as much as Warren Buffet’s secretary. What we really need is a government program, and if you put that on my desk, I’ll sign the shit out of it right now. Not everything is bad, because Master Lock kicks ass. If you think things are bad today, it’s because we don’t work together like Navy Seals do. Did I mention I killed Bin-Laden? Goodnight capitalist pigs.

– Barack Obama

Philly’s Murder Problem

We’ve covered for months the fact that Philadelphia is cooking the books when it comes to reporting murders in the city. Even when murders are up over last year, they keep their little green downward pointing arrow posted.

Those are the current numbers. In the first 23 days of the year, Philly has had 27 murders. That’s 1.17 murders per day so far. But their little PR people want you to believe that crime is on the decline and everything is just fine as long as that little green arrow points down. Move along and don’t ask questions, sheeple.

Tweet the SOTU

Sean has a few pertinent questions he’s trying to get in front of the Administration during the SOTU, including convenient links for helping get the word out across Twitter.

NRA Board of Director Election 2012 – Endorsements

It’s that time of year again. As you start to receive the ballots for the NRA Board of Directors Elections in your mailboxes, we hope you’ll consider casting a vote for some of the candidates we believe contribute something unique to the Board.

***Scott Bach – Newfoundland, New Jersey

When most gun owners have given up on New Jersey, Scott has stayed to fight. He defends gun owners regardless of their interest â€“ .50 caliber bans, bear hunters, collectors who want the freedom to buy more than one gun a month, and many more. Scott is the Executive Director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, the state organization leading the fight for gun rights in the Garden State. Heâ€™s an attorney who has used his skills and network to defend both the First & Second Amendment. When a public school was caught sending home anti-gun literature, he sued to mandate that pro-gun literature be honored in the same way. When NY/NJ Port Authority police locked up a Utah man for lawfully traveling with firearms, Bach put the resources of ANJRPC to work to sue the officials who unlawfully arrested him in violation of federal protections. Through ANJRPC, Scott also works with competitive shooters and manages a large shooting range. Their member clubs have trained Olympic shooters. He is also a member of state groups in seven other states, actively supporting their efforts with what he has learned from the political and cultural fights to preserve gun rights in New Jersey.

Scott also gets new media and the importance of embracing new technology to advance the issue, and at one time, he launched his own blog on the Star-Ledgerâ€™s website to counter the anti-gun Bryan Miller. He has done interviews to discuss his thoughts on how new media can be leveraged to advance the Second Amendment and develop the shooting sports as well as where he saw the push for our rights headed in light of Heller the last time he ran for the board. He notes that the ANJRPC range may have been the first in the country to offer its members free wifi in the clubhouse.

***Joseph DeBergalis – Buffalo, New York

Joe DeBergalis is a career law enforcement professional fighting for gun rights in New York as Vice-President of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association. Heâ€™s also a competitive shooter in pistol, rifle, and shotgun sports, as well as a certified instructor.

DeBergalis has put his background to good use by serving as the Chair of the Education & Training Committee, Vice-Chair of the Action Pistol Committee of the Board. Heâ€™s no slacker politically, either. Heâ€™s the Election Volunteer Coordinator for four New York Congressional Districts and the District of Columbia. On the new media front, he’s a moderator at AR15.com and Match Chairman of AR15.com/Rockcastle Shooting Complex Pro AM Three Gun Championship.

Itâ€™s worth noting his work in New York, and not just because itâ€™s a challenging state. Other pro-gun leaders in the state have heaped praise on Joe for his efforts there, and that speaks volumes for his usefulness in serving the pro-Second Amendment cause. Here’s his take on what gun owners could do to get more people involved in our community.

***Jeffrey Crane – Annapolis, Maryland

As President of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Jeff Crane knows how to make sure hunting & shooting sports aren’t overlooked by Congress. He currently serves on the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council that advises the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture on agency activities that related to our the hunting and shooting communities. He has recently been serving on the NRA’s Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Committee and the Government Affairs Committee for Safari Club International.

In his role with CSF, Jeff also oversees sportsmen’s caucuses in 38 state capitals. Some are more active than others, but they’ve played an important role over the years not just working on hunting policy, but also worked on general gun issues in their states. The caucuses are a vehicle to help organize friendly lawmakers and get them talking about the issues.

I realize that this is heavily hunting, but that’s because it’s his background. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t “get” the Second Amendment or gun ownership for self-defense or the shooting sports. Considering NRA has to have a well-rounded board to represent all parties interested in our rights, we believe that Jeff would make an absolutely great addition to the Board to represent hunting rights and the shooting sports while making sure that the core issues in the Second Amendment debates are heard by leaders.

***David Coy – Adrian, Michigan

If there was one thing we have heard in the last year from board members, staffers, and people who pay attention to the needs of running NRA as an organization, it was that David Coy, an accounting professor from Michigan, needed to be put back onto the Board of Directors. Unfortunately, he was just under 2,500 votes shy of re-election last year, and he passed on running a campaign for 76th Director to someone else. That’s not because he is unwilling to serve, though.

His biography doesn’t sound nearly as exciting on the shooting front as some because his financial background is most needed on the Audit & Finance Committees. In other words, he contributes to the areas that keeps NRA running, not just the fun stuff at the range. (Though, he has also served on shooting sports committees, too.) The strengths we had highlighted to us over and over by so many people were his knowledge subjects of accounting, financial reporting, and internal control procedures for non-profit organizations. Besides the number crunching, he’s also active in the political battles as an Election Volunteer Coordinator.

***Joel Friedman – Pasadena, California

As the 76th Director, Joel has had to run twice in the last couple of years, and he could use the help to secure a three year term on the board. We sat down with him in Pittsburgh and talked about various issues, namely the struggles of gun owners in California.

He plays well with other organizations, as evidenced by this endorsement thread by several folks involved in Calguns. Based on much of the history you can find on the web, Joel has been involved in the many sides of this issue that need attention & support in a state that is otherwise so frustrating to gun owners. Whether it’s the NRA Foundation & shooting sports & youth programs supported by the Friends of NRA or the legislative battles at the state level, you can find he’s been involved at every level.

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As always, there are plenty of good people on the ballot. Just because we did not list someone here does not mean they aren’t worthy of a seat on the board. These are people we have either worked with directly or know enough about their contributions to the organization that they stand out and deserve your vote.

In the next few weeks, we’ll put up videos from the candidates and more.

Trading in Precious Metals

Clayton Cramer has an amusing tale about “of two Americans being shut up in a room together, and emerging twenty-four hours after, each with a large fortune made by swapping jack-knives.” Apparently bowie knives were often used by Americans as a stand in for currency, to which Sir Lyon comments “it must be admitted, that it lends American trade a certain kind of respectability, by giving it some sort of metallic basis to rest upon.”

I’m hoping this means Clayton is researching the background of the bowie knife, and how it came to be associated with the criminal element. Some of the earliest moves by the pant wetters in America came about over the bowie knife, and then again many years later when the hysteria of the day were switchblades.

Review of “Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun”

Tam has a good review of the book by Paul Barnett, Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun. She notes that he claimed the book would be even-handed, and it looks like he delivered. I have not yet had a chance to read this book, and I may not have time for a while, but it looks pretty interesting. I’m not surprised that Mr. Barrett, who is more sympathetic to restrictions on firearms than you or I likely are, would follow through on his promise. It’s good capitalism. If you do a scathing unbalanced attack, the only people you can market to are anti-gun whack jobs, and there just aren’t that many of them. If you want to sell the book to gunnies, you have to be even-handed.