2012 – Page 83 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Wayne LaPierre Before the United Nations

Wayne LaPierre spoke before the United Nations yesterday on the Arms Trade Treaty:

Let me state â€“ in the clearest possible terms â€“ that it is not.Â A preamble to a treaty has no force of law.Â We know that, and a strong bipartisan majority of the United States Senate and House of Representatives know it as well.

Any Arms Trade Treaty must be adopted by two-thirds of the U.S. Senate, which has 100 members.Â Already, 58 Senators have objected to any treaty that includes civilian arms, and a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives also opposes such a treaty.

The NRA represents hundreds of millions of Americans who will never surrender our fundamental firearms freedom to international standards, agreements, or consensus.

NRA is essentially threatening to push the US out of the Treaty if the scope at all extends to civilian weapons, and the delegates know NRA can follow through on that threat. It’s a firm speech, but one that’s entirely for domestic consumption. I wish Wayne, rather than only concentrating on American rights and freedoms, had spoken a bit more about the fundamental human right to self-preservation, and the right all people have to the one tool most effective at affecting that defense: the firearm. He’s essentially conceding the ground that this is some peculiar American right, and while it practically may be, we can’t accept that philosophically.

If You’re Going to Get Busted for DUI …

…Â I guess it helps to do it in some style, like Ted Nugent’s drummer:

People are always fleeing police, but usually it’s in a vehicle where they have a chance to get away. That wasn’t the case for Mick Brown, drummer for Ted Nugent, who tried to make his escape in a golf cart […]Â Brown, who was reportedly intoxicated, evaded several people who tried to stop him and somehow picked up two women along the way, the department says on its Facebook page.

I guess he was doing pretty well with the golf cart if he had the time to pick up two women while making his get away. Well, if this has any impact on his career as a drummer, those of you who follow Tam’s blog know he may have a potentially successful career option with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Quote of the Day: We’re Doomed Edition

From Jim Geraghty:

But we shouldnâ€™t imagine Harkin is some financial genius or wheeler-dealerâ€¦ “Harkin credits his wealth largely to his wife, telling The Des Moines Register this month that â€œI donâ€™t know squat about investing money.â€Â â€¦ says the man on the Senate Appropriations Committee, directing billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars.

God help us.

The Intellectual Corruption of the Anti-Gun Movement

Following up on a comment yesterday, it occurred to me that our opponents repeatedly suggest that civilians should not be allowed to carry firearms for self-defense, a key reason being that civilians don’t receive sufficient training compared to police. But then when we seek out the same kind of training as police, they disapprovingly exclaim, “Who needs â€˜tactical firearm trainingâ€™?”

So which is it? Do you want civilian gun carriers to be better trained? Or do you just hate the idea of people with guns. If the latter, just admit it and drop the charade of caring about gun violence, or wanting to reduce accidents. You know what reduces accidents? Training and education.

Podcast: ATT & More

See the Politics and GunsÂ podcast for this week, by Paul Lathrop. This week features myself, noted insurrectionist militiaman Thirdpower, and Charles Heller of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Not all at the same time, but in the same episode. I’m speaking mostly about the UN Arms Trade Treaty, in the last segment.

Hug of Death?

Yesterday someone forwarded me a story of a woman hugged a cop from behind and somehow set off his gun, killing her. I’m with UncleÂ that something is awfully fishy about this incident. I’d be curious to know what gun and holster it was, but I can’t imagine any police issue gear is going to spontaneously discharge like that.

UPDATE: From the comments:

Latest info says it was a soft holster that did not cover the trigger. Police Issue M&P 40 in what probably was made for a smaller CCW gun. Trigger was exposed, the woman was “dirty dancing” behind the guy and it went off when she tugged at his waist and grabbed said trigger by accident. She was low to the ground, and the bullet entered lung and now she’s dead.

So basically, a fatal decision on equipment on the part of the officer. Triggers need to be covered!

Unlicensed Dealer at a Gun Show

You often hear our opponents speak of unlicensed dealers at gun shows. Here’s an example of what happens to unlicensed dealers, and why we suggest that another word for “unloosened dealer” is “felon.” You can be Â private, unlicensed seller, making an occasional sale or trade, or liquidating a collection, but as soon as you have a “principal objective of livelihood and profit,” you’re committing a felony if you do not first obtain a Federal Firearms License.

And I’d note the guy charged here is among those class of people our opponents tell us have magical gun powers, and are the only ones who can be trusted with firearms. Clearly if he hadn’t been under the influence of the “Demon Ruger,” this never would have happened.

Update on United Nations Arms Trade Treaty

US News and World Report notes the big bad gun lobby’s opposition to a treaty that everyone says won’t affect domestic firearm policy, despite the fact that the treaty is being pushed by notable anti-gun NGO’s. Trust us, they say. Yeah, we’ve heard that one before.Â Investors Business Daily is offering more publicity to Dick Morris. Maybe he’ll sell a lot of copies of that book he’s hawking. My only hope is that Morris’ self-promotion will get people’s attention, and cause them to seek better information. Nothing riles gun owners up more than the old “blue helmeted bastards at the UN are coming for your guns” meme, but I certainly hope people can move beyond that and actually become engaged.

Ted Bromund at Heritage is doing excellent reporting of what’s going on with the Arms Trade Treaty, which includes useful information like Australia paying to bring delegations from poor countries. Australia is a major backer of the Arms Trade Treaty. He speaks of the real division on the conference:

There are (1) nations (mostly in Europe) that do not for a moment intend to stop selling arms or are trying to beat the Americans out of contracts but also want an ATT at least in part because they naively hope to curb a few state-led human rights abuses; (2) nations (mostly totalitarian or autocratic) that donâ€™t want an ATT at all unless it disarms their opponents, enshrines their right to buy, and does not limit their access to technology; (3) nations (mostly African) that want capacity-building assistance and whose motto might as well be â€œshow me the moneyâ€; and (4) Russia and China, which donâ€™t really want an ATT but donâ€™t really want to stop it openly either. The U.S. doesnâ€™t fall into any of these camps, which is why it spoke for the Permanent Members.

Read the whole thing. He goes into other detail about the nature of the proceedings, which gets to my fundamental discomfort with the United Nations entirely; it is a fundamentally undemocratic body. It seems to me the Europeans want an ATT because they are under the illusion that gun control actually works. You won’t stop totalitarian regimes that abuse human rights from getting guns any more than you’ll stop drug cartels from getting guns. This whole endeavor is a fools errand, and all we’re creating here is a vehicle for NGO’s to drive gun control at the international level.

Laws Are For Little People

Pennsylvanians who don’t live in Scranton dodged a political bullet in 2010 when the city’s mayor lost two Democratic primary races for higher office. The MAIG mayor first tried running for governor, but dropped out when it was clear he was losing the primary race. Then he tried running for a state senate seat in his area, but he lost that race to a pro-gun Democrat.

At the time he was running, Doherty announced he wanted the state to enact a one-gun-a-month law and wanted to end preemption. It turns out that it’s a good thing his career has kept him at the local level since he has now decided that laws don’t apply to him.

Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty cut everyone’s pay — including his own — on Friday, saying the state’s sixth-largest city is broke because the City Council blocked his proposed tax increase. Doherty, a Democrat, warned nearly 400 police officers, firefighters and public works employees about his doomsday plan, prompting a Lackawanna County judge to order the city to pay full wages to all employees, citing that it is a violation of their contracts. Hours later, the payday envelopes went out, and, despite the judge’s order, they were light.

What does a judge’s order really mean? It’s not anything Doherty believes should carry the force of law or be used to hold him accountable. Clearly, he can use city dollars however he chooses without the interference of that pesky judicial oversight or even input from his fellow elected officials who actually vote on the budget. If this is how he views division of government for his city, can you imagine what he would have done on gun laws if elected governor with a legislature that wasn’t willing to pass anything?

Rule Four, Folks, Rule Four

Apparently some folks need a refresher: Know your target and what lies beyond it. A quick look on Google to asses the area shows it to be pretty rural, but it looks like there’s been recent McMansion activity. There’s about 800 yards of nothing between the two properties. The range must be recent because it’s not on satellite photos, so it’s hard to gauge how much care was taken in the range’s construction. The article talks about concrete cinder block barriers, ten feet high, between three shooting areas of about 30 yards wide, so clearly some effort went into what the article describes as a “makeshift range”. But if someone’s house got hit with enough force to break glass and lodge in a wall, it clearly wasn’t enough.Â If you’re shooting within 800 yards of someone’s house, you need to take extraordinary care to prevent errant rounds from leaving your range, and that goes double if you’re going to invite 30 people over for a class. If you don’t want to pay for, or do the work to make it safe, don’t do it.

Hat Tip to Common Gunsense, who seems a bit more hysterical today than usual: “Further, who needs ‘tactical firearm training’? What country do we live in again? Are we at war?” It’s called a free country lady, and different people have different ideas of entertainment, get over yourself and mind your own damned business.