… they want to use to tell us whether we can have constitutional rights or not?
Month: September 2012
He’s Back! Clinton Headlines Nostalgia Night at the DNC
The non-prime-time part of the DNC, the part the major networks don’t air, was horrid. Any time your convention boos God, it’s time to think long and hard about the constituency you’re cultivating. No matter whether one is an atheist or a believer, any follower of politics knows that booing God is a losing proposition among the electorate. The Democrats made a highly damaging mistake of taking an internal squabble among their factions, and dragging it out into the public light for all to see. As ironic as it might be for a blog, who often highlights internal squabbles among People of Gun, I’ll still say it’s a losing strategy. The GOP, and more importantly their related PACs, now has the DNC booing God on camera. Way to go!
It was all pretty much horrid until Clinton came up, and showed why he’s still the person most fit to lead the Democratic Party. Hell, even I felt a little nostalgia. Those were good times. I was just starting out in my career, and since it was the dot com boom, companies were just throwing cash at anyone who could spell UNIX. Additionally, if it wasn’t for Bill Clinton, I might have never been outraged enough to buy a gun, and you might not be reading this blog right now. Since I met Bitter through this issue, you could say Bill Clinton brought us together.
But the nostalgia didn’t last as long as Clinton’s speech. Not nearly as long. He was clearly enjoying himself, stomping on the nighttime news broadcasts, so folks turning in for local news would see ol’ Bill, I can’t believe wasn’t intentional. The Republicans are probably lucky he overstayed his welcome, and laid it on a bit thick. People think of Clinton as the great moderate — the man who out republicaned the Republicans — but Clinton governed as a lefty for the first two terms of his Administration, and caused a backlash enough to lose Congress. It was the Clinton who got soundly beat in 1994 that we saw last night, and for far too long.
First Mention of Guns at DNC
DiFi promises to bring about a new assault weapons ban. One thing is for sure, the Democrats in 2012 have abandoned any pretense of moderation. Well, at least until 10:00 rolls around and the network start airing speeches.
The Gun Room in City Hall
A look, by a reporter who feels the need to explain his qualifications:
I am not exactly a gun virgin – I have been to a shooting range, and I have a brother who hunts. I’ve never gone hunting with him, though I’ve politely inspected his three guns and his crossbow. That’s about it for my exposure to actual guns. I am well-versed, however, in the concept of guns. I’ve written for years about the corrosive, violent gun crime that plagues the city.
The concept of guns – the arguments, the fretting, the hand-wringing over the havoc they cause, the arguments over the Second Amendment – has nothing to do with confronting real guns, especially in the Gun Room.
You’ve been to a shooting range once? This my friend, means you have no business or knowledge to be opining on this topic, and should stop right here, any more than I have knowledge to have an informed opinion on proper veterinary care because I once dissected a frog in biology class in high school. The author goes on to call us uncaring liars, who don’t give a damn about gun violence. If you have a subscription to the Daily News, cancel is now. Starve the beast!
On the Ted Kennedy Tribute
Last night a lot of GOP folks were lambasting the Dems for not being able to let go of the Kennedys, making fun of the Kennedy tribute video. I have two words for you: Ronald Reagan. It is best for those who live in glass houses not to throw stones. Though, to be fair, I’m pretty sure Reagan never drowned a woman in a drunk driving escapade. Some folks on Twitter, however, got the real problem here. This was my favorite comment, “The DNC cares about women, that can swim.”
Quote of the Day: Speech Formula 2012 Edition
From the Inbox, this morning, Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt:
It does feel like there’s now a paint-by-numbers formula for giving a speech that garners media raves:Â My parents/grandparents/great-uncle Iggy came from humble beginnings. They struggled to give me a better life. Here is my focus-group-tested anecdote of my childhood. From this humorous event, my elderly, or preferably deceased relative/mentor figure, who will be played by Morgan Freeman in the movie, told me this valuable lesson: Only in America can you find opportunities like this. Only in America can you find opportunities like the ones I, and millions of other Americans, enjoyed! These opportunities are endangered by the policies of our opponent. But they are strengthened by the policies of our nominee! And I will not give up upon this majestic dream of a better future that is America! I will not give up and neither will you! We will do this together! Si se puede! Thank you! God bless America!
From what polls have been showing, the partisans are already lined up for this November, and that includes the people who call themselves independents, but generally lean one way or another. The rest is aimed at reaching the low-information voters who are still undecided. In fact, the election will hinge on how the people who barely pay attention fall.
And people wonder, and often lament, why our founding fathers had a healthy distrust of democracy, and did their level best to check it.
Schumer Thinks Bloomberg was Unfair to Obama on Guns
Schumer has been an anti-gun leader in the Senate for years, and he’s obviously playing the long game on guns, defending Obama against attacks on his gun record from Bloomberg,. The best chance the other side has of erasing the Second Amendment from the Constitution is to give Barack Obama a second term. I’m really surprised more of them aren’t seeing that.
The DNC Opens
With GOP theater having concluded, Democratic theater is now in full swing. The first part of the convention, the part not widely aired, was a lot of shouting, and a lot of the politics of gender and race. Bitter was getting quite irritated with the gender politics, which she said weren’t even laid on as thick at the women’s college she went to. The first part was pure base rallying, focusing on Obamacare and, if you’re a woman, about how the evil Republicans want to control, or otherwise do bad things to your girly parts. They will defend your vagina!
The entire tone of the convention changed for the prime time speeches. I thought Michelle Obama was every bit Ann Romney’s equal, when it came to making the case for her husband as a person. Both Michelle and Ann are pretty good at delivering political speeches, which makes one surmise if they don’t have some political talent on their own. I suppose you have to in order to be First Lady these days. Speaking of politics, when you’re getting up and giving a speech during a prime time speaking slot at a Party national convention, you don’t get to say “I’m really not a political person.” It doesn’t pass the smell test.
Another Case of Brady Deceit
The Brady folks often can’t talk about this issue without spinning a tale. I think what often surprises me is that sometimes the data can make a case for them, even without the tale. It’s like they are so strongly committed to the deception, that they can’t break their mental mindset. Such is the case with this latest article, guest written by Griffin Dix, Ph.D, talking about how wonderful California’s gun laws are. A model for the nation:
Before 1997 California’s firearm mortality rate was consistently higher than that of the rest of the nation. But as California’s gun laws took effect the state’s gun death rate dropped lower. Of course many factors besides gun laws affect firearm mortality rates.
There’s that sleight of hand again, discussing firearms mortality rates, of which the vast majority of which will be suicides. But if you look at overall violent crime and murder, from the data appearing at this source here, and here, you can see that California still has a violent crime rate significantly higher than the nation as a whole, despite the fact that the vast majority of the rest of the population lives under what Brady would classify as unacceptably weak gun laws.
Perhaps it is a desire on the part of the Bradys to make gun control look more miraculous. Maybe they feel it doesn’t make for so compelling a case to suggest that California’s murder and violent crime rates are indeed dropping faster than the rest of the nation, without controlling for other factors. Or perhaps they recognize the number of potential donors impacted by suicides is larger, and wish to cultivate that potential donor pool more than victims of criminal activity?
UPDATE: I used a stacked graph by mistake, so the numbers were shifted. It is corrected now.
Taking it on the Chin
I’ve shot an AR-15 pistol with a cheek weld on the buffer tube, and I didn’t find it recoiled that heavily, so I don’t think this would be as uncomfortable as it looks. As to whether it can get around the NFA requirement, as Uncle discusses, I wouldn’t care to wager. ATF has ruled that anything that makes it “designed” to be shot by two hands is an “Any Other Weapon” (AOW), not a pistol, so foregrips on pistols make it a Title II firearm, but hand guards are fine. The risk here, as I see it, is that it would be easy for ATF to suggest that the chin stock makes the firearm such that it’s no longer “designed to be held and fired by the use of a single hand.,” which is the legal definition of a pistol. If something isn’t a rifle, shotgun, pistol, revolver, or a machine gun, it’s an AOW. It could go either way, in regards to whether it’s an AOW. The issue is “designed.” You can cheek weld a buffer tube, because the buffer tube isn’t “designed” into the gun for that purpose. But ATF also allows handguards over the barrel of a pistol, such as this. So who knows? And let’s not even get into how a pistol grip shotgun is neither a pistol, nor a shotgun, under federal law, but also can’t be an AOW.
Once you realize how much ambiguity there is in the federal statutes regulating firearms, the idea of a hostile administration who is hell bent to screw us, because, you know, he doesn’t ever have to face voters again, should scare the hell out of you.