The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Looks like she’s dumping the fat kids and picking up gun control as her cause célèbre.
Aides say the first lady isn’t making gun violence a new and distinct issue, but is folding it into her work encouraging youth to focus on getting an education.
Yeah, because not enough gun control is the reason the youth today aren’t getting a quality education.
Jeff Soyer reports on a company that claims it has built in firearm component detection into its software. You can’t stop the signal. I predict this will be about as effective as Digital Rights Management has been at preventing people from copying video games, movies, and music. I suspect 3D printer makers are concerned that hysterical politicians in states like California and New York may enact restrictions on their product if the printer manufacturers don’t act first. This is not an unreasonable fear, given that both these states have an instinct to ban scary things first and ask questions only later, and then not very intelligent questions at that.
MPN News asks the question. No, there isn’t a middle ground to be had. Tom Coburn, of all legislators, offered them a middle ground, and because it only included universal background checks and nothing else, it was rejected by those who demanded more controls — controls that would have driven up the cost to transferring a gun to 50 dollars or more and created universal de facto registration. So you tell me: is there a middle ground? The great untold story of this whole struggle was that they were offered a compromise, and they rejected it. It’s not about background checks. It has never been about background checks. It’s about adding as many burdens, traps and expenses as they think they can get away with. Background checks are just marketing — a way to make the bitter pill go down for people who don’t really pay attention to these things.
Just got back from the biannual teeth scraping and cleaning ritual, which always comes with the a heaping helping of the story about how if I don’t floss more, the skies will darken and toads will rain down on the land. But other than that I didn’t have any issues that required going back and facing the drill. Any checkup that ends with “see you in six months” is a good check-up, no matter what they say about how my gingiva is doing.
So it looks like MAIG, having abandoned any pretext of not being anything other than a gun control advocacy group is apparently losing members. I’ve always been pretty unsure the best strategy for getting MAIG mayors. The purpose of preemption was to help keep uniform laws, but a secondary effect is to keep us from having to constantly do battle at the local level. Bloomberg’s group practically begs for us to engage there again to get rid of some of these MAIG mayors, but I’m not convinced it’s a great use of limited resources. I think a whack-a-mole strategy is most sound when it comes to MAIG mayors: ruthlessly crush them any time they seek higher office in state capitals or Washington, where they can start to affect gun policy. Not all mayors have higher political ambitions, but many do. I think if we make MAIG membership toxic to those who do have those ambitions it might be enough to make many mayors reconsider joining. Ideally I’d love MAIG to become a coalition of big city mayors, and mayors from states where they’ve already largely succeeded in eradicating the gun culture.
UPDATE: I tend to think 50 mayors leaving isn’t a huge blow to MAIG, but the meme is getting out there, for sure. This isn’t good for MAIG. They will have to counter this meme, and that’s good for us. Make them work for it.
UPDATE: This might be an attempt to fight the meme.
UPDATE: Mayors For a Name Change? Stranger things have happened. It’s not like we haven’t seen name changes in this issue before, and I approve of their proposed name. It’s more honest.
If only it were that easy.
It’s going to be screened at the Ritz at the Bourse, 4th and Ranstead Street, Philadelphia, PA. That’s here, for those interested.
Assaulted: Civil Rights Under Fire
With Guest Speaker Gun Rights Attorney Joshua PrinceThursday, August 8th 7:30pm $13.00
Ritz at the Bourse, 4th and Ranstead Street, PhiladelphiaTickets are available ONLINE ONLY. Please reserve yours ASAP.
https://www.tugg.com/go/akjcvx
You will not be charged unless/until screening attendance threshold is met.
Here’s the trailer:
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley proved that she is quite comfortable talking guns, business, and the business of guns in a recent video. While it is mostly just a summary of her trip to a gun manufacturer, I do love how she brags about taking time to shoot while in heels. The highlights of her visit show that she is absolutely comfortable handling firearms – certainly far more comfortable with firearms than most of Pennsylvania’s elected representatives.
Jim Geraghty has a handy guide, including a lot of aspects of it I didn’t know about. I didn’t realize this would be a mail-in ballot. You have to first vote “Yes” to recall, and then vote for the replacement. A “no” vote on recall will leave the incumbent in place. Not voting on the recall question will invalidate your ballot.
Having thrown down, we really have to win the recall. Closer to the election, when the ducks line up, we’ll take a look at the opposition candidates. I would encourage everyone to do what they can to support the recall efforts. A win or a loss here will have implications for the entire country, not just Colorado.
Hopefully to be replaced by fresh news if the media can stop talking about Trayvon Martin for 10 minutes, and I suspect they will. But that new shiny thing is likely to be Will and Kate’s new baby. Some weeks it’s tough to be a gun blogger.
NRA blasts back at Holder over Stand Your Ground. Also on Salon, The Hill, and Politico. You have to admit that NRA can get the big names in media to bark on command at this point.
TalkLeft has some commentary on the Zimmerman verdict.
What’s the worst that could happen?
Clearly we’re dealing with a murderous monster! Saving people from overturned trucks is what racists do.
Radley Balko gets an article about the militarization of police in the Wall Street Journal. I’m glad this is getting mainstream attention. More on the related topic of over-criminalization here.
Durbin is going host a panel to “review” these SYG laws.
I’ve been surprised by how little press coverage I’ve seen of Bloomberg’s gun control bus tour, but they did generate a bit of press in Aurora, along with a counter-protest that also seemed to get reasonable coverage.
Massad Ayoob has more to say about the Zimmerman verdict. The original is here. Part II, III, IV, V. Five is particularly interesting.
Gun control advocates are disappointed in Rhode Island. Let’s hope they stay disappointed.
MAIG applauds an increase in ATF’s budget. I guess they have to savor the little victories. Hopefully ATF won’t use that extra cash to traffic more guns to drug cartels.
MAIG is also taking out a new ad campaign in the wake of the Aurora anniversary. Probably also to help with the recall elections too. I guess New York City residents don’t care much about having their tax dollars wasted on Bloomberg’s pet projects.
Antigun Colorado legislator has major rap sheet. What a shocker.
Confiscation? What confiscation? That’s just paranoia ginned up by the corporate gun lobby.
Jacob notes that one of the Mayoral candidates for New York City is bragging about getting financial companies to divest from gun companies. I agree with Jacob that there could be other reasons. I would not be confident investing in firearms companies over the long term myself because there’s just so much I don’t know. While I agree that the market for shooting products is expanding, the big question in my mind is how much of it is permanent. Even though we all agree the number of new shooters is growing, is it growing fast enough to deal with the secondary market getting flooded once Obama is out of office, and hoarders start to divest inventory. Is it growing fast enough to deal baby boomers dying off and their collections hitting the market?
