The first round of hearings will be in Annapolis this Wednesday, February 6th. Maryland Shall-Issue has the details. They are looking to pack the hearing room, and to make the hearings run overtime. The key is to make it painful for them.
Month: February 2013
Object of Fear, Object of Hate
The more and more I am looking at the new civility, as we go through yet another national conversation on guns, the more convinced I am that our original supposition that the prime driver in the gun control debate is a visceral fear of guns is completely wrong. Jeff Cooper coined the term “hoplophobia,” but I think it’s turning out to be way off the mark. Not that I don’t think there are people out there who are afraid of guns, but in the national debate, they aren’t who we’re dealing with.
Take a look at this article from Twitchy on sexist heckling of a woman pro-rights supporter as just one example, or this catch from Miguel of the Coalition to Stop Gun Ownership’s Facebook page. Clayton speaks of the fire eaters. Something I read earlier from Michael Bane sort of tied all this together for me. They aren’t afraid of your guns, they don’t hate your guns. They hate you, or to quote Michael Bane’s article, “It’s not the guns they hate…it’s us.”
I think this is absolutely correct, and everything we’ve been seeing in the media and from the gun control organizations seems to back that up. It fits with the article I did earlier on the cultural changes the coastal elites are seeing being the root cause of this latest backlash. We’ve been too successful for our own good. As long as gun ownership were confined to old, fat white guys (OFWGs), they were content to tolerate it. The changing face of gun ownership worries them, not because of a fear of guns, but for fear and loathing of the people who enjoy them, who increasingly are looking like them. If something isn’t done soon, they may have to take the opinions of gun owners seriously. Gun control is a movement of old white people, but they aren’t going to go down without a fight.
Gun Control Details in the Senate
The good news is we’ve seemingly beaten an assault weapons ban, the bad news is they are pushing on magazine limits.
Senate Democratic leaders expect a gun bill to move to the Senate floor that includes most of the proposals backed by President Obama, with the notable exception of a ban on military-style, semiautomatic weapons, reports the Wall Street Journal. A top aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said the bill would likely seek to limit the capacity of ammunition magazines; expand background checks to include sales at gun shows and other private transactions; and require better record keeping to keep guns out of the hands of those with mental illnesses. It would also try to curb gun sales in states with more relaxed gun laws to buyers in states with stricter laws.
Absolutely not. Magazine bans are just as out of the realm of discussion as the assault weapons ban. If you have not yet called or written your Senator, please do so. Don’t use the form letters by Ruger and Smith & Wesson. These kinds of forms aren’t as impactful as a personalized message, and aren’t given as much weight. In short, this takes real work. I’ve gotten so many people asking me to blog about these form letters, but there’s a reason I don’t. It’s better than nothing, but if it’s easy, it won’t have as much of an impact. There’s no getting around it. Feel free to take letters you see floating around out there and modify them. I’ve made some here. But take the time to personalize them and send them yourself. E-mail is generally best, but a mailed letter to a district office (not DC) is also impactful. We are not out of the woods by far.
Ammo Sales Still Going Like Gangbusters
From the CMP this morning:
Aguila .22LR Ammunition. The CMP is sold out of caliber .22 rimfire ammunition. The manufacturer, Aguila, has advised that the earliest we can expect resupply is late April, 2013, at slightly higher pricing.
But they are still taking orders. Also:
Lake City Carbine Ammo. The caliber .30 Lake City Carbine ammo that we offered for sale beginning 2 Jan, 2013 will be sold out by 8 Feb, 2013. We still have over 1,000 orders for this ammo that have not yet shipped, but will be filled over the next few weeks.
Again, still taking orders:
Purchase Limit on HXP .30-06 ammunition. As a result of the purchasing frenzy of the HXP .30-06 ammunition, effective immediately CMP is imposing a 10 can per year per customer limit for CMP Item number …
One of my big concern is the hoarders are making it very difficult for new shooters who are just getting their feet wet with this stuff. If those rifles, pistols and shotguns end up going into closets for lack of ammo, they may never come back out again.
Monday Morning News Dump
Took a bit to get moving this morning with sore muscles, mostly my back, from bending over, and my arms and fingers, from spending so much time with a death grip on a utility knife. My drywall cut mostly worked. Unfortunately, because the stairs were not perfectly square, I transmitted error with every measurement up the whole length of the stairs, and the gap between the stairs and drywall kept getting larger going up. Wish I had checked that with a level beforehand. Nothing that can’t be fixed with some hot mud though. So what’s going on in the gun world?
Tam comments on a post over at PDB’s on accessorizing your rifle. I have one AR upper that’s all rail, and to be honest, it’s not comfortable. I prefer the standard A2 hand guards, and I’ve never liked vertical fore grips. One accessory I’ve always wanted is a mount for a flashlight that fits on the bayonet lug, so it could be easily removed when I take it shooting.
Tam on child labor “We never should have let the little savages out of the coal mines in the first place.” We’ll make sure they wear their helmets and kneepads, and sprinkle the bottom of the mines with rubber mulch so if they fall they won’t get boo boos.
Our public schools introduce thought crime. I never used to think too highly of homeschooling. Not that I have any problem with it being legal, or people doing it, but I never thought it’d be for my kids. I can’t imagine sending my kids to the public schools of today. “Home schooling: not just for religious nuts anymore,” I think I saw that on Instapundit a few weeks ago.
The income tax celebrates 100 years, and along with it, some of the most elaborate and entertaining conspiracy theories ever devised by man. Oh fringed flag, long may ye wave.
A veteran stands charged with possession of a 30 round magazine. Instapundit notes that he must not qualify for the David Gregory exemption.
The Democrats in Minnesota are planning themselves some gun control. Standard fare we’ve seen everywhere else. Draconian gun bans, seven round limits.
Everything is an assault rifle. Maybe they read the Journalist Guide to Firearms.
“Guarded optimism,” is the watchword for the suit by NYSRPA/SAF against New York City over excessive gun license fees after oral arguments seemingly went well. I think our victories in Court are partly responsible for the current backlash. We have the wild animal backed into a corner.
Of course rapists want women disarmed. #WarOnWomen
Loaded language poisons the gun debate.
Two posts by Professor Nick Johnson, one on the miseducation of Danny Glover, and one on the President’s gun control proposals.
Miguel notes that lawmakers don’t seem eager to sign on with Feinstein’s gun ban. Don’t get complacent. If they win on any issue, it’s going to make a follow up victory much more likely. Don’t forget after Brady passed, they finally got their “assault weapons” ban. Next time that bridge too far won’t have a self-destruct mechanism built into it. They won’t fall for that again.
I’ve been trying to ignore the prattling fools at CSGV, but every once in a while, the stupid burns. Joe has a quote of the day. CSGV are the kings of erecting straw men to tear them down. Nearly all the features on the AR-15 that are “evil,” (save maybe the bayonet lug, which are no longer evil, apparently) are ergonomic features. We don’t deny they serve an ergonomic purpose. But when we say the ban is cosmetic, that is also accurate, because they are looking for common cosmetic features that apply to all rifles the other side think looks scary. The AR is just damned comfortable to shoot, which is why it’s popular. Because it’s popular is, of course, the reason they want it banned. It’s like if the obesity advocates decided to help people exercise more by mandating that comfortable chairs and sofas be outlawed.
Well, that’s all for this round. One of these days I’m going to do one of these dumps and then not have anything to write about for the rest of the day.
Lack of Posting
My apologies for the lack of posting this weekend, but I’m getting tired having my office torn apart, and all my furniture scattered all over the rest of the house. I have decided to get to work and finish this. It’s one of those things that didn’t seem like it would be much, but like most things with home improvement, it always more work than you thought initially. I mostly wanted some fresh paint and carpet, because when I first moved in, it looked like this:
It looked like Rainbow Brite had a few too many tequila shooters and threw up on the walls. Without giving it any thought, and before the ink was dry on the settlement papers, I went and bought plain white paint, and covered over that crap before I moved any of my stuff in. Once my initial revulsion passed, I kind of regretted not taking time to pick out a decent color, and so started the current project.
Of course, it’s more than just a paint job. You can see the baseboard is in sorry, sorry shape. It hadn’t gotten any better with age. Has to get replaced. It turns out there was a 3 inch drain around the perimeter of the basement. They put wood in there to act as a bridge for the carpet around the edges. It’s not something you’d notice unless you pulled up the carpet. Surprisingly the carpet and padding was dry, unmolded, and in good shape. It doesn’t get much water in there, but it is moist. The support legs for their little wood bridge were in sorry shape. I replaced all that with a PVC wood-like product that won’t rot. There some paneling in the stairwells that looks like it was put in by someone who wore bellbottoms. Has to go. Turns out the paneling was put in before the stairs, and it extended all the way down. I had to cut out all the paneling at the stair level with a razor blade knife. The paneling was composite, and did not cut well. Pain in the ass.
For some of the finish woodwork, I had to borrow a circular saw from my dad, then get a new blade because I think my dad bought all the saw blades he’s ever owned in the 70s, and has never replaced any of them. Next up is to cut the drywall. I hate drywall. I can think of dozens of materials I’d rather work with than drywall. After that, on to the finish carpentry, which I don’t find as tedious. This house was a built-by-owner job, and he sucked at finish carpentry. I’m no expert, but I can do a lot better than he could. I’ve replaced a lot of his crap work already, but not in my office yet. After I’m done that, then Bitter can get started on the painting (painting is girl work). After the painting is done, I can put up the new baseboard radiators, then carpet. I don’t do carpet. I bring in contractors for that. I’m hoping to be back down in my office by spring. When I started this in the fall, my goal was to be done by the new year. Yeah, missed that deadline. I will say that the pneumatic nail gun is perhaps the greatest invention of all time.
More Hearings on Gun Control
It looks like the anti-gun lawmakers are not through with the dog and pony show of gun control hearings. We already knew that Dianne Feinstein wasn’t happy with pro-gun speakers allowed on the main Judiciary Committee hearing witness list, and she demanded to have her own hearing.
Well, it looks like Dick Durbin is joining that club and having what will be the second of (at least) three hearings on gun control. There isn’t a posted witness list yet, but Ted Cruz is ranking member of the subcommittee, so he has the opportunity to have a little more fun with his large gun pictures and “evil” gun accessories.
Unexpected Responses
My mother recently retired to Tennessee, and her first political activism in her new home state was to write her Congresswoman, her two Senators, her State Representative, her State Senator, and her Governor to oppose gun control. She faxed all of her letters early last month, and today she got her first response.
It was from the Governor who went from being a MAIG mayor to publicly opposing Bloomberg’s views to leaving the organization to indicating he supported constitutional carry. He’s the only one who has been willing to respond after several weeks. I don’t have a copy of the text, but she said it’s a good letter and favorable response.
On Getting Rid of Gun Control
You cannot claim to defend the second amendment while supporting or openly accepting the NFA of ’34 and GCA ’68. Or background checks. It makes absolutely no sense.
I think it depends on what you mean by “accepting.” When every expert in the field tells me that fighting the National Firearms Act, or most provisions of the Gun Control Act in court are fruitless endeavors, I can’t really find much ground to disagree with them considering we can’t even get the courts to agree we have a right to bear arms. Legislatively, I’ve never talked to a gun lobbyist who thinks that NFA or the many regulatory aspects of GCA are repealable in the current political climate, or in a foreseeable political climate. The current situation bears this out; if we’re worried about a ban on semi-automatics, because too many people think they are machine guns, how do you expect to find the votes to ease restrictions on machine guns themselves? I think it’s a waste of the community’s energy and political influence to fret over battles we lost years ago and can’t win now. It’s talk of storming the castle, when we aren’t even half way up the hill the castle is on yet.
Joe has a good post on the fallacy of the effectiveness of background checks, and I agree with him that’s true. An old study by the Bureau of Justice Statics bears the facts out for all to see. It shows in a simple table where criminals obtained their guns. It’s pretty clear that the decline in guns obtained at retail after the enactment of the Brady Act was nearly perfectly replaced by straw purchasers, most of whom are friends and family of the criminals who have clean records. The reason we got background checks is not because the NRA or gun rights advocates caved on the issue. NRA caved on the issue because the vast majority of Americans agree with background checks, and it was going to be a choice between instant background checks and background checks with a lengthy waiting period. As I said in the last post, sometimes it’s a matter of having to pick your poison. Most people have no inclination to dive into the data and find the truth, and if background checks feel emotionally satisfying to them, they’ll dispute your claim of ineffectiveness even without bothering to look at the evidence themselves and make up their own minds. They have no dog in the fight, so why should they?
If you want to eradicate the current gun control regime, you have to first deal with this: a majority of Americans do not own guns, know nothing about the gun culture, shooting, hunting, or anything involving firearms. About 100 million Americans live under state or local governments who have enacted enough strict gun control as to effectively destroy their shooting culture. That’s 1/3rd of the population of the United States we can write off, just starting out. Unless we get strong enough protection from the courts to make it possible to rehabilitate the shooting cultures in these places, that population will effectively remain among the people we can’t ever reach. The only way you’re going to make strong advocates for the Second Amendment is to give people a personal stake in the fight. One reason I often advocate people getting over the NFA is because, to be honest, it’s going to be necessary to concede those issues, for now, in order to get stronger protections for everything else. You have to reach into the areas where that 1/3rd lives, and start changing minds before a conversation about NFA or GCA, or the Brady Act, is even going to be possible. That is the fight right now, and the current backlash your seeing is because the elites in those places know we’re being successful, and it frightens them. We may one day get to storm the castle, but that will likely belong to the kids being born now. It’s incumbent on us — those in the fight now — to get them to the top of the hill.
Armed Guards at Schools
It works. (Why is it that they are called “resource officers?” It’s an odd use of the word.) I think a lot of  the people who oppose putting armed guards in schools do so because they don’t really want to believe we live in a society where there’s a perceived need to do such things.
I’m not personally convinced of the urgent necessity, because mass shootings in school are rare, despite all the press attention they receive. If you made a cold, hard calculation, you’d probably save society more violence if you used that money to get more cops chasing criminals, rather than use it to park one in a school all day waiting for a mass killer who will, except through very long odds, never come. But many people are unwilling to accept that there are tradeoffs; that policy decisions, any policy decision, will have unintended consequences.
Institutionalization was often cruel, and there were many abuses, but there’s a cost to letting dangerously mentally ill people roam freely in society. Perhaps we ought to start institutionalizing again, or perhaps hiring “resource officers” is lower than the cost of institutionalization. You have to pick your poison. A big problem I have with many gun control advocates is the idea that there’s no downsides to any policy choice, particularly gun control. The same could be said for hard-core libertarians who oppose institutionalization. There’s always tradeoffs. Gun control doesn’t necessarily make for a crime-free utopia, and deinstitutionalization could, over the long term, drive the population to supporting more gun control in response to crazy people getting guns and doing crazy things that make headlines.