Head over to Publicola for live updates on the debate. More on the quite ballsy accusation that NRA is bussing people in, when nearly everyone in the Colorado Capitol lobbying for gun control is from out of state.
Month: March 2013
Attacking the NRA by Attacking Discounts
Unfortunately, the left has made a machine that is very good at intimidating companies, most of whom are loathe negative attention. They are now turning it against the NRA:
Supporters of tighter restrictions on guns are deploying a new tactic: pressing companies such as Wyndham Worldwide Corp. (WYN) and Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (HTZ) to stop giving discounts to members of the National Rifle Association.
Web-based organizations with ties to Moveon.org, an advocacy group that backed President Barack Obama’s re-election, want to shrink the NRA’s membership by eliminating an incentive to join — cheaper hotel rooms and car rentals.
I don’t know any people who are members of NRA for the discounts. We’re not the AARP. They are nice to haves, but it won’t substantially weaken the NRA. Nonetheless, the Soros funded Obama sycophants at MoveOn.org are still being pricks. This one is a particular middle finger extended right in our faces:
Cigna Corp. (CI), based in Bloomfield, Connecticut, also was asked to stop underwriting the NRA’s accidental death and dismemberment insurance policy for members.
They want to require insurance for gun owners, but then they are going to go after people who actually insure us? Do you need any more evidence that the motivation for all this is simply a hatred of gun owners?
- Contact info for Wyndham Worldwide.
- Contact info for Hertz
- Contact info for Cigna
We should probably add a little pressure of our own.
Zero Tolerance, Zero Brains
Apparently a kid who stopped a school shooting on a bus in Florida by disarming the gunman has been suspended instead of given a medal. At the gun show on Saturday I had an old guy tell me how he used to keep a shotgun in his locker at school to hit the fields after school, and no one ever thought anything of it. We’ve gone from that to this. We talk about winning the cultural war, but I think it’s more that we’ve only just begun reversing decades of damage. The old guy thought the reason was that the media sensationalizes everything, so everyone is scared to death of the idea of guns and schools. I tend to agree, and it makes me wonder if the death of mass media wouldn’t be a good thing for liberty in this country. Reading about things weeks after they happen is a lot less frightening than the 24×7 news cycle. Obviously, we’re never going back to that world, but we haven’t exactly missed cable news when we cut the cord. We find out about breaking news just fine.
The New Jersey Factor
On an article about Chris Christie:
Politicians who don’t trust law-abiding citizens to own guns do NOT see them as equal members of a democratic republic. To put it bluntly, they see them as serfs. Or children who need to be protected from themselves. And that sort of attitude will NEVER get you the nomination from a Republican Party that wants to keep Conservatives inside the Big Tent. NEVER. The way he treats the voters of New Jersey is the way he will treat the voters of America. Take it to the bank. The Second Amendment is not just one amendment in the Bill of Rights: It’s the Founders’ message to the citizens of America – “We Trust You”. And if you fold on that amendment? You’ll fold on all the others. Guaranteed.
Yep. That’s one reason I believe this issue is so important: it goes way beyond guns and hits at the heart of how a politician views the relationship between the people and their government. How a politician feels about an armed populace tells me a lot about how they think.
New Jersey is actually a great microcosm for how gun politics would play out if we gave into them on a national level. The Garden State is further along the path than many other places. The last gasp, so to speak, for the gun vote in New Jersey was the ouster of Jim Florio. Florio had backed New Jersey’s assault weapons ban in May of 1990, and in 1993 vetoed an attempt by the GOP controlled legislature to repeal the law. Florio managed to piss in plenty of other people’s Wheaties too, and by the time the next election rolled around, he was out and Christie Whitman was in, with promises to gun owners. Whitman then proceeded to do exactly nothing, and that was it for the gun vote in New Jersey.
It’s not that there are no gun owners in New Jersey, there are still many of them, but they have been broken, first by the Democrats, and then by the Republicans. The Republicans in New Jersey no longer view the gun vote as anything worth cultivating. Why? Years of onerous regulation, dating back in 1966, has greatly reduced the incidence of firearms ownership in the Garden State. Gun ownership, unsurprisingly, is a key indicator of one’s views on gun control. Without a lot of gun ownership, you have a fertile garden of ignorance that opponents of civilian gun ownership are very adept at cultivating. You end up with Democrats against gun ownership because they hate it, and the Republicans afraid to touch the issue because they don’t want to risk losing votes of the ignorant who are easily manipulated into thinking they want to to supply weapons to crazies, criminals, and terrorists so they can mow down kindergartens with 50 caliber heavy machine guns. The failure of the gun rights movement in New Jersey to effectively change anything, and their subsequent abandonment by the Republican Party, made a lot of gun owners just give up. They stopped caring or paying attention to the political fight.
And this is exactly the future President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg has planned for the rest of us. What remains to be seen is whether the national Republicans will play along.
Doylestown Rally Draws Several Hundred
There was a pro-gun rally held this Saturday in the County seat (my the County) by Concerned Gun Owners of Bucks County, a new group to spring up since Obama decided to make this an issue. Philly.com on the rally here, and also at phillyburbs.com. More on the group’s Facebook page here. Looks like about 150-200 people showed up. Here’s my favorite pictures, sent by a reader:
Bitter and I did not attend the rally because of working the antique gun show this weekend, but I wholeheartedly approve of promoting the Second Amendment for the children. I’m glad someone is thinking of the children.
Sunday News Dump
It’s time to get some lunch and hit the paintbrushes for me, while Bitter works the Sunday part of the show. So here’s all the news that’s fit to link:
On the offense in Florida. SayUncle notes we should go on the offensive federally. That would be a great strategy if the Republicans would go along with it, but I don’t give that much possibility. We’re probably going to be very lucky if the Republican Party does not sell us out and helps maintain status quo.
Good question for the antis (and funny).
Idaho bills moving forward. It’s actually surprising how fast we’re moving ahead in a lot of states while our opponents are distracted.
Clayton Cramer wonders why Colorado is fighting campus carry.
A couple faces a felony rap for sneaking into a movie theater. The gun control folks are naturally fine with this state of affairs, where everything is a felony, because it means fewer people can own guns. Forget ruined lives, we have to look at the big picture, you know. Everyone should read Glenn Reynolds’ “Ham Sandwich Nation: Due Process When Everything is a Crime”
Joe has some thoughts on the Canton police officer incident. Where did he learn that behavior from?
This week is the last week to stop the horror in Colorado.
I have to hand it to Magpul on the “Boulder Airlift” graphic.
Recalling anti-gun Democrats in Colorado? If this is possible, this is a great bandwagon to jump on if you live there.
The truth about assault weapons and background checks from John Lott.
A bill expanding the stand your ground law is floated in Florida. I’m not really a fan of encouraging warning shots but in terms of fighting off gun control, an offensive move forces your opponents to react. The goal is to come out on top in the legislative fight. When someone else starts a bar fight, any chair will do.
Manufacturers aren’t exactly lining up to produce 7 round magazines. A lot of people in New York are going to have expensive paperweights when all is said and done. There are some firearms out there for which there are no ten round magazines, let alone seven round magazines.
Bad bills are still moving forward in New Mexico. NRA needs phone calls.
The ‘Footlose Fix’. I really wish the GOP would put Glenn Reynolds in charge of their election strategy.
Fun Show Weekend
Bitter is off volunteering to work gun show on behalf of ILA, to get post cards together to go off to our Senators. I spent yesterday working the show with her, but she’s more of a talker than I am, and she’s much better at dealing with people. I usually let her work point, and I only deal with overflow when things get busy. This is a small antique gun show run in a local Shriner’s hall in Montgomery County, which means the clientele runs on the side of rich and old, and when you wander around and look at prices, you’ll see why. I went with her yesterday, but because of the size of the show, there wasn’t much for me to do, so I decided to stay home today and continue with the painting. The response for such as a small show was pretty good, however. Bitter just texted me this:
Just had an 18-year old girl eagerly sign the postcards and shoved two more in her dad’s hand saying “Sign these now.”
That’s someone who wants gun rights when she’s old enough to buy her own. There were very few young people there, which I would expect given the prices. We watched a few groups of young guys walk in, make one round, and walk out, apparently disappointed there were no ARs made prior to 1898, and no cases of .223 dug up from the Spanish-American War. One thing we definitely noted was that husbands who came with wives were the most enthusiastic people we talked to when it came to the current fight. We need to do even more to bring women in, because women will tend to get the family involved, and I think men who have the backing of the women at home tend to be the happy warriors.
One guy who stuck in my mind was an older gentleman, who came up, signed our cards, and thanked us for what we were doing. He said he was sorry for us, because of what we’d likely live to see. I got the impression his wife had passed on, and he ended the conversation with, “I’m not likely to be around much longer anyway. Let my door be the first one they come to.” In this issue you see a lot of chest beating, but I don’t get the impression this guy was engaging in that; he was dead serious. Given how close we came in New York to a confiscation bill, and given it’s still on the table in states like California, it begs the question to our opponents of how many bodies of guys just like this they are willing to stack up? Because that’s what it’s going to take. These people claim to be against gun violence, but yet they will be demanding other people engage in quite a lot of it on their behalf, to get at people who never would be violent people if left to pursue their own happiness.
Joe Biden Says We Can’t Have Tanks, WSJ Proves Him Wrong
In the same interview where he advised people to randomly shoot guns in the air and violate discharge ordinances, Joe Biden told everyone that citizens aren’t allowed have tanks under the law. We already know that’s not accurate, but the Wall Street Journal decided to have some fun with this topic and actually profile tank owners.
Tank brokers—yes, there is such a thing—estimate there are several hundred to 1,000 private tank owners in the U.S.
Not only is it legal to own tanks, there’s an entire market for them with brokers. Awesome. Why would anyone want a tank?
When their insurance agent inquired about their plans for the tank, the Neal brothers emailed back, “We are going to use it to take over the world.”
Says Ken Neal, 45: “A tank is cool.”
For anyone who think these two tank owners are an insurrectionist threat, their efforts toward world domination have only managed to extend to driving their 1966 British Chieftain over a rusty car in the desert. Another tank owner talks about the lifestyle challenges:
He says he has put about $280,000 into his Sherman so far and expects to spend as much as $75,000 more. “You get a tank, you end up with an ex-wife,” warns Mr. Miller, who has one of each.
If Sebastian bought a tank, I would never, ever leave him. I’d probably jump up and down and hug him at the news. The WSJ also highlights their value as investment pieces:
In 1993, a top-notch Sherman went for $75,000, according to the Illustrated Tank & AFV [Armored Fighting Vehicle] Buyer’s Guide. Now Dave Uhrig, a Chillicothe, Ohio, tank broker, is offering one for $387,000.
The good news is that they report that prices have recently dropped or flattened. So if you can’t find an AR at your local gun shop, you may be able to find a slightly discounted tank. They note that while tanks aren’t street legal, owners often get flexibility from authorities to take it to the gas station or drive it in parades.
I think the best part of the story is at the end. One of the tank owners reported that he took it out for a drive in his warehouse parking lot to play with a special propane setup he has to generate just the noise and muzzle flash for the machine gun on top. Needless to say, someone called the cops. The first officer asked if the owner knew why they were there. The second – well:
The second policeman, Jeremy Marshall, got out of his car and eyeballed Mr. Bauer’s tank. “Awesome,” he said.
And this is why we win. Because it is awesome. Go read the entire article because I didn’t cover nearly all of the good stuff. Plus, there’s a slideshow and video.
Gun Bloggers and the Congressional Record
I think Thirdpower may be the only gun blogger (who isn’t Hardy or Kopel) that has ended up in the Congressional Record. Josh Horwitz of the thoroughly extreme Coalition to Prevent Gun Ownership Gun Violence decided to include him in his testimony before the Senate. Josh must really be frightened by Thirdpower, and I can understand why, given how intimidating he can be. That’s the face that launched a thousand threepers right there. He’s just itching to overthrow some legitimate democratic government, according to CSGV, when he’s not busy being a nerd.
Like Thirdpower, CSGV has attacked me in the past for extremism as well, as surely evidenced by my drone program, which might seem like just another nerdy hobby, considering my day job as a mild mannered IT professional. But such a hobby obviously has some kind of Dr. Evil, insurrectionist purpose. Clearly we must be stopped, and only CSGV is up to the task.
This is how utterly ridiculous Josh Horwitz and CSGV are. It’s amazing to me anyone takes them seriously enough to invite them to testify before the Senate. This would be like having me or Thirdpower testify before the Senate as credible representatives. By sniping at gun bloggers in serious testimony, Horwitz has elevated us to his level. Unfortunately, that level is quite a bit lower than I think many of us have aspirations for.
What the Media Really Thinks of Gun Owners
Locally, there’s a new group that has popped up to defend gun rights. The media is aghast, and they resent being reminded that 1 in 17 of voting age adults in the county have concealed carry permits – a number from before the rush on permits post-Aurora and Newtown.
“Registration? Does it include the criminals?†[a local pro-gun State Rep.] asked, repeating a very tired argument. He went on, concluding: “Firearms protect children, wives and husbands.â€
What about the dog? Should we shoot people who threaten the family pet?
Yes, the paper just called the argument that we should punish criminals “tiring” before comparing the value of the lives of your spouse and children to that of a dog. Let that sink in. They think the concept of defending the lives of your children is as worthless as defending a house cat. Why? Because you own guns.
But, the unsigned editorial doesn’t stop there. No, they have to make gun owners out to be dangerous creatures.
Said one of the “concerned gun owners†of possible government intervention, “They have a hunger to control us — unless we stop them.â€
God help us.
Clearly, divine intervention is needed. Because gun owners couldn’t possibly be talking about stopping power-hungry politicians through civic engagement, public education efforts, citizen lobbying, and election volunteer activities.
This doesn’t even get into their policy discussion. They promote Obama’s gun ban agenda as “modest,” and then they try to claim that full gun registration isn’t really controversial at all. They think that a ban on firearms commonly owned and used by thousands of gun owners in the region is just not big deal and shouldn’t be challenged. They do make clear that we’re “entitled” to have opinions, but they are outraged that gun owners dare organize to express them.