Month: February 2013

Justice Scalia thinks we’ll be hearing more Supreme Court cases on guns soon. I think Scalia would vote to give us a strong and robust Second Amendment, but he needs four more votes to win cases. I’m glad to hear he’s softening up Kagan. Who would have thought in the 70s and early 80s we’d be primarily fighting long gun bans because handgun bans were off the table? I actually think it would benefit even a very urban and very gun weary Democratic Party to have the courts largely settle the issue in favor of gun rights. That opens the door to the Democrats using gun control the same way Republicans use abortion. Republicans love to talk a good talk on abortion, but the fact is the court protections preclude most of the policy options they advocate, and they are then left nibbling around the edges, and mostly failing at that, when it comes to policy. But it’s a good issue to drag out at election time and dangle in front of important constituencies. I’d be tickled pink of the gun issue ended up like abortion, and with similar levels of protection from the courts.

Amicus briefs have been filed in Kachalsky. I don’t think all this late gun control nonsense is going to change the fact that carry will be the next issue before the Court, and we can hope the Court will clear things up a bit when it comes to standards of review.

Rahm is looking for help from suburban lawmakers for gun control. People often make the mistake of thinking the core of the gun rights movement is rural. It is not. It’s largely a suburban phenomena, if you have ever taken a serious look at studies that have looked into who the gun culture is really comprised of. In my experience, people in rural areas are less aware of what a contentious issue guns are. A lot of people from my generation who became active in this issue came out of the tech industry.

TFB notes that  “Guns are the new golf,” linking to a story about a reviving of the shooting culture in Silicon Valley, and noting some famous gun wielding techies, like Eric Raymond. It’s worth nothing that ESR is from around here, rather than Silicon Valley, and the Philadelphia suburbs still has a fairly healthy gun culture, whereas California has taken extensive measures to destroy its own legal gun culture. This makes reviving a gun culture difficult, but the seed is there if we can fix California.

Among Gen Xers, tech people tended to be pretty libertarian in their thinking and political orientation. The Millennials who are coming up to replace us are culturally just as tolerant as we were, but identify more with the left on economic issues and on the role of government. I’ve often wondered how much of the current push was to try to pull Millenials, who think quite highly of President Obama, into being the next generation of gun control advocates by using Obama’s cool factor to help make gun control seem cool. As Glenn Reynolds notes, gun control is a movement of old white people, and old white people die off.

All the news that’s fit to dump:

More fun with headlines, and the media spin. BTW, that Vermont story came out right after Sandy Hook, so I took some time to watch this guy’s videos, and thought it was something Clayton Cramer might be interested in. I’m not sure that concerns this guy had mental issues are unfounded.

Are Governor Cuomo’s Presidential ambitions ruined? Well, jumping on the gun control bandwagon isn’t going to help win Democratic primaries in the South.

Chris takes a look at the dominoes. Once they start to fall it’s going to be hell to stop them. He notes: “‘Pack up and move’ seems to be a dwindling option at the rate the infection is spreading.” The anti-gun folks are raising the stakes. You do realize that works both ways, right? We need to work hard. We need to regain momentum and crush them.

Would new gun laws spark widespread civil disobedience? I’d hope so. If we ever get to the point where we stand idly by and allow our civil liberties to be taken from us, we’re not Americans anymore.

It’s another Markley’s Law Monday.

So you want to ban magazines, eh? Do you even know where all yours are? I always find them when I go digging through my bins.

Democrats have a full blown Aiken on theirs hands. I think all sides can probably agree that if you’re a politician, and the word “rape” comes into your wormy little brain, zip your trap. Resist the temptation. More here.

Maybe we need magazine limitations for cops.

The real danger lurking in David Frum’s ignorance.

Colorado Democrats think you should consider alternatives to defending yourself with a gun, like ball point pens.

Chicago has no space for more “gun criminals,” but yet we need more gun laws.

Trying to make progress in other states. We’ve actually been winning battles, if you pay close attention. Our enemies are focused on other things.

This is all part of the plan to destroy the Second Amendment. What’s scary is that he might succeed.

UK legal pistols by exploiting the “steel counterweight loophole.”

Lawmakers predict Congress will OK new gun laws. They want to make you think this is inevitable, so why bother lifting a finger? Don’t listen to them.

California-approved handgun safe.

Guns are really boaring. But I thought if you shot an animal with an AR-15, it exploded?

Guns are not a defensive weapon. Really? So Police Chief Ken James’ officers carry them for offensive purposes like murder? Remember that police chiefs are politicians. Actually, in some cases they are worse than politicians. They are usually appointed by politicians, which means chapping your lips on an awful lot of asses to get there.

NRA is noting that it’s starting in Pennsylvania. We have the advantage of a friendly House, a so-so senate, and a friendly Governor. Even though the GOP controls all three, their fortunes here over the long term don’t look good. Pennsylvania should absolutely not be taken for granted. Bloomberg is putting a big target on all of us.

Glenn Reynolds goes over the Taxonomy of gun control in response to the CSM article about Obama’s divide and conquer strategy. Remember, the real enemy is ignorance, not anti-gun folks. The anti-gun folks just garden in that manure. The problem our opponents have is, while there are certainly moderate gun owners out there, you’re not going to convince the vast majority of them to push gun control. Their best bet is finding lefty apparatchiks that have some plausible claim to be gun owners. You know, like this tool.

Over at Washington Times, they take a look at the study on gun control that NRA uncovered from the Administration’s DOJ. I like the reaction of Glenn Reynolds, who notes: “The science is settled. You can’t argue with science. You don’t want to be a science-denier, do you?“

34-31, with all Republicans and 3 Democrats voting against it. Some of those Democrats who voted for it will be in tight districts, and this is was a tough vote for them. They need to be targeted in the next election. There is no room for sitting on the sidelines now. Now it’s time to take the fight to the Senate.

UPDATE from Bitter: The vote is the same for HB 1226, the ban on concealed carry by licensed individuals on college campuses.