Chris has something you can do about the Colorado bills. We’re a vote away from defeating this crap.
Month: March 2013
The Shape of Things to Come
What the Obama machine is morphine into:
Obama veterans are building a wide network of deep-pocketed groups and consulting firms independent of government, the Democratic Party and traditional liberal groups, a sweeping — if not unprecedented — effort outside the White House gates aimed at promoting the president’s agenda and shaping his legacy.
From campaign strategists to online gurus and policy hands to press agents, Obama loyalists — including many who discovered that a second term yields fewer administration job vacancies — are slicing his agenda into smaller parts and launching highly targeted efforts on subjects including health care, job creation and electoral politics.
Obama’s opponents really don’t have an answer to this, and that is the problem. This group will no doubt aim to rob the American people blind, rob future generations blind, in addition to removing fundamental constitutional rights of Americans. The problem on the center-right is that many of the “deep-pocketed groups and consulting firms independent of government,” are more concerned with exploiting our issues to feather their own nests than they are actually fighting for the cause.
Campus Ban Passes Senate Committee
SCCC notes that the Senate Committee in Colorado has advanced the campus carry ban to the floor.
Committee Chairwoman, Senator Angela Giron cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the proposed campus carry ban exclaiming in tears that “the testimony tonight has been very compelling, but I made a promise [to vote yes]!â€
Colorado has allowed licensed concealed carry on college campuses for nearly a decade, but lawmakers in the Centennial State reacting to recent mass shootings last year seek to reverse that provision despite no ill effects, a drop in both overall crime rates generally and sexual assault rates specifically after carry on campus was permitted, and no permitted student ever causing a disruption with a firearm on campus.
Who was it she made that promise to? Joe Biden? Do we run Colorado out of Washington these days? That seems to be the Democrats’ plan. Clayton Cramer has more here.
UPDATE: I guess not too surprising when they have this kind of contempt.
Joe Manchin and Gun Control
He doesn’t want to talk about it. You know, Joe, we don’t have to vote on this stuff. I’m sure Harry Reid would prefer not to as well. Why not just tell the White House to piss off? There was a time, before the 2010 cycle, when no Democrat wanted to be seen with him. It kind of makes you wonder what the Administration is threatening these Dems with if they don’t toe the line.
Challenge to PLCAA in Alaska
Arma Borealis updates on a case under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. It’s a really interesting case if you read through all the facts. Essentially the dealer showed what he thought was a potential customer a gun, the customer wavered, and he left the room. The customer then “stole” the gun, by taking it and leaving 200 dollars on the table. The Brady Center alleges this was a setup for an unlawful transaction that the dealer was a part of, which would waive any immunity under the PLCAA. Of course, a legitimate theft would still leave a dealer immune. The media is spinning this as the death of the PLCAA, which it is most decidedly not. See Chris’s post for the details.
Quote of the Day
Actually, of a few days ago, but I’ve been meaning to use this for about that long. Jim Geraghty writes:
Our political culture and our popular culture are the one-two punch contending that you, ordinary American, going to work or looking for work or looking for better work and just taking care of your families, have somehow become the root of the biggest problems facing the country. It’s your fault.
Kind of feels that way, doesn’t it? As the article goes on to state, this is why David Gregory can get away with breaking the law, but you can’t. David Gregory isn’t the problem. You’re the problem, so it’s time to learn your place, serf.
GOP Regret?
Looks like the Republicans are regretting their sellout in New York. I guess they figured there were votes there they could use after all! What a bunch of weasels. The Republicans in New York have one way they can make it up to gun owners. No fixes, no adjustments: repeal.
Deal Reached on Gun Control?
The Republican instinct to “get tough on crime” is almost like a poorly programmed subroutine that executes any time they feel imagined heat on the gun issue. Granted this is just agreement among the four person negotiating team, which comprises two mouth foamers and two soft Republicans:
The bill strengthens the law prohibiting material false statements in connection with purchasing a firearm and strengthens penalties for purchasing a gun with intent to transfer it to someone involved in violent crime or drug trafficking.
This is already a crime. You can do five years for some, and ten years for others. It’s not well enforced. So how is raising it to 25 years going to help anything? If you’re not enforcing the existing law, enhancing the penalty isn’t going to do squat.
It would also outlaw illegal purchasers of firearms from smuggling weapons out of the country.
Already a crime, it’s just not enforced. Ask Eric Holder, who is still walking the streets a free man despite his DOJ breaking numerous federal laws in Fast and Furious.
The legislation is largely based on a bill Gillibrand has been working on for the past four years. It cracked down on both the sale and purchase of guns likely to be used in crimes and lowered the mens rea thereshold for prosecuting offenses. Sellers and purchasers can be found guilty if they think — instead of know — the firearms will be used in crimes.
And how exactly does that work? Meas rea is important, because it requires the state to prove you were aware of the crime you’re committing. Strict liability offenses for serious crimes on any subject matter ought to be very suspect. For instance, if you were pulled over in a rental car where someone had stuffed a kilo of coke into the wheel well, you technically can’t be convicted for it unless they can convince a jury you were aware it was there. Knowing is an important element of possession. If possession were a strict liability offense, you could still go to jail in that situation, since all the prosecutor would have to prove is that they pulled a kilo of coke from the wheel well, and you were renting the car. So lowering the standard from “knowing” to “thinking” is essentially creating a strict liability offense.
Let me explain how this would work in the Gillibrand bill context, if I understand it correctly. If you sold a gun to someone, and they told you ahead of time they were going to rob a bank with it, that makes you guilty. You knew, and if that was in an e-mail or note, or someone can credibly testify about your knowledge, that gets over the mens rea requirement. So how does a standard of “think” even work? Do you have to tell or document somewhere, “I think that guy might use that to rob a bank?” Can the government just assert you should have been thinking that, and there is essentially no barrier to the crime being a strict liability offense?
One Million Customers
Midway USA has a million active customers. This is one of the companies that the gun control crowd claims funds NRA:
Please note that NRA “Round-Up” contributions come from you, our Customers, and each week since 1992 we have sent your contributions directly to the NRA/ILA National Endowment for the Protection of the 2nd Amendment. Our Customers should get all the credit for that, we just collect and remit your money. Now, in March of 2013 came another milestone to celebrate – one million active Customers – Customers who have ordered from MidwayUSA during the last twelve months. For a country kid from Missouri, that’s an amazing milestone.
Midway is one of NRA’s largest, if not the largest corporate donors, but it’s all done voluntarily by the customers… the one million customers. Like I said, the gun control proponents go through great lengths to convince themselves they aren’t battling millions of real people, but that would make them kind of awful, wouldn’t it?
It’s hard for me to think of any activity or past time people engage in that I find horrible enough that I think it ought to be taken away from them. Even though I will admit I like being able to go out without having to deal with cigarette smoke, as a general principle of freedom I remain opposed to public smoking bans. That’s about the closest thing I can think of. It’s hard to think of anything else that doesn’t involve a tragedy of the commons issue. I guess I just don’t have any Carrie Nation type moral crusading tendencies. I have enough going on managing my own life. I definitely don’t have the time to manage anyone else’s.
The Grassroots Support for Gun Control
Compare this rally in Eugene Oregon, put on by CeaseFire Oregon, to the one in Doylestown this weekend. No one outside the media and the Democratic Party leadership are clamoring for gun control right now. This is a deep blue state in a highly liberal city, and this is the best they could come up with? I see larger gatherings of gun owners on a regular basis around here.
UPDATE More from that rally in Oregon. They don’t even have any idea what they are supporting:
UPDATE: Also, what’s with the dressing all in white and going by the name Baldr Odinson in real life? I mean, I get pen names, since I use one and all, but any of my activities in real life happen under my real name. Does he think he’s some kind of superhero? I’m probably the last person who should be calling anyone a nerd, but, dude, you take the cake.