September 2013 – Page 5 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Illinois Supreme Court on Right to Carry

Following the result of the Seventh Circuit’s holding in Moore v. Madigan, the Illinois Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in People v. Aguilar agreeing with the results. From the opinion:

After reviewing these two lines of authorityâ€”the Illinois cases holding that section 24-1.6(a)(1), (a)(3)(A) is constitutional, and the Seventh Circuitâ€™s decision holding that it is notâ€”we are convinced that the Seventh Circuitâ€™s analysis is the correct one. As the Seventh Circuit correctly noted, neither Heller nor McDonald expressly limits the second amendmentâ€™s protections to the home. On the contrary, both decisions contain language strongly suggesting if not outright confirming that the second amendment right to keep and bear arms extends beyond the home. Moreover, if Heller means what it says, and â€œindividual self-defenseâ€ is indeed â€œthe central componentâ€ of the second amendment right to keep and bear arms (Heller, 554 U.S. at 599), then it would make little sense to restrict that right to the home, as â€œ[c]onfrontations are not limited to the home.â€ Moore, 702 F.3d at 935-36. Indeed, Heller itself recognizes as much when it states that â€œthe right to have arms *** was by the time of the founding understood to be an individual right protecting against both public and private violence.â€ (Emphasis added.) Heller, 554 U.S. at 593-94.
…
Accordingly, as the Seventh Circuit did in Moore, we here hold that, on its face, section 24-1.6(a)(1), (a)(3)(A) violates the right to keep and bear arms, as guaranteed by the second amendment to the United States Constitution. Defendantâ€™s conviction under that section therefore is reversed.

How We Won the Recall

Good analysis from Dave Kopel over at Volokh:

It would be accurate to say that the recall campaign was driven by opposition to the anti-gun bills which Morse and Giron pushed through the legislature. But this is only the first part of the story. As it turns out, Morse and Giron sealed their fates on March 4, the day that the anti-gun bills were heard in Senate committees. At Morseâ€™s instruction, only 90 minutes of testimony per side were allowed on each of the gun bills. As a result, hundreds of Colorado citizens were prevented from testifying even briefly. Many of them had driven hours to come to the Capitol, traveling from all over the state.

Every once in a while, legislators need to be reminded who they work for. Read the whole thing.

Recall Roundup

Reactions from around the Internets:

Gun nuts and potheads living together. Mass hysteria!

“Well, when you try to deny peopleâ€™s civil rights, thereÂ shouldÂ be swift consequences.”

“Victor Head, aÂ plumberÂ who had never been politically active, took down a senator in a district that went Democratic in 2012 by ten points; a group ofÂ six concerned menÂ from the AR15.com chat room removed the stateâ€™s top-ranking legislator.”

“Hickenlooper, who kept a low profile during the campaign, said he was disappointed in the electionâ€™s results.” Aww… who’s the sad clown?

“Make no mistake, thisÂ recall reflects the interests of the corporate gun lobby and a small group of extremists not the citizens of Colorado.” It’s funny they keep claiming we don’t represent the will of the people when we keep beating them with democracy.

Play with the Bull, Get the Horns.

“Yesterday it was all over the big network sites as aÂ NATIONAL REFERENDUM ON GUN CONTROL, and now it’s like it didn’t even happen.”

Who are the bullies in this again?

Do Democrats Still Think the NRA’s Clout is a Charade?

The award for best spin goes to Colin Goddard. Would you take an action that you knew had a 2 in 5 chance of costing you your job? Yeah, I wouldn’t either.

The Hunting, Shooting, Squirrel-Cooking, Military Beauty Queen

I don’t even know where to begin in the awesome description of Miss Kansas, Theresa Marie Vail. Her beauty pageant platform is “Empowering Women: Overcoming Stereotypes and Breaking Barriers.” How does she do it?

Well, let’s pull out the highlights of the pageant resume: She’s a double major in Chemistry and Chinese. She’s a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the Army School of Ordnance and Army School of Health Science. She’s working on getting her pilot’s license, and she wants to be a dentist for the military. She founded the Miss Outdoor Girl brand and website, and she’s a spokeswoman for the Suburban Woodsman hunting company. Not surprising, she’s an expert marksman who can take out squirrels with her gun and wants to take a bear with her bow. Oh, and she runs all-girl archery clinics. She can skin her own deer, and then make a mean stew with squirrel and sauerkraut.

She only got into pageants less than a year ago when her commanding officer suggested that she was a fantastic role model for women. When the pageant found out that her talent going to be archery, they notified her of a “projectile” ban only 2 days before the pageant. The options she was provided? Suddenly find a new talent or just drop out. Her decision? Pull up Nessun Dorma on YouTube and learn it on her own with her only serious prior singing experience was in the high school choir. She won the state talent competition.

She’s making headlines today because she’ll be the first contestant to not hide her tattoos – a prayer and a military insignia. But her resume says so much more about the stereotypes she hopes to break.

What Are You Doing With Your Newly Discovered Enthusiasm?

By the comments posted on this blog, I’m assuming most people are as thrilled as we are with the Colorado recall results. With the new enthusiasm, I’m curious to know how people are thinking they might turn that into action in their own backyards. If you have ideas for how you might step up your own local election activism in coming months, please post. It would be interesting to see what kinds of races you guys think are winnable.

For myself, I plan on contacting a local mayoral race after my mother & grandmother go home from their visit next week. Why the local mayoral race? Because it’s winnable with some extra energy and resources, and it’s in opposition to a MAIG mayor.

In fact, all Pennsylvania gun owners who have a little extra spring in their step today might want to look at the local races on the ballot this November to see if there’s a MAIG opposition candidate who could use a hand distributing literature or putting together yard signs.

Senator Says MAIG Should “Fold It Up”

I didn’t realize that one of last night’s losing lawmakers in Colorado actually argued that losing even one seat was sign enough that Mayors Against Illegal Guns should just wrap it up and go out of business. Alas, she did.

If you live in area with a tempting target for Mike Bloomberg, then this is a worthy quote to share with them from a lawmaker who was promised she would be taken care of by the billionaire. The billionaire didn’t deliver. Joe Biden called these lawmakers, and not even Obama could save them in blue districts in a blue state.

The original reporter who printed the bold remarks by Sen. Giron is already in spin mode. While he said in his original article that the Bloomberg was taking the issue as seriously as Giron framed it, today’s message is that gun control voters have better things to do, like attend back to school nights for their kids. The implication, I guess, is that gun owners don’t have kids who they love enough to be involved in their education.

Attention NRA…

This story needs to be told at next year’s annual meeting.

â€œIâ€™ve never been politically active before,â€ Victor Head, the man behind Pueblo Freedom and Rights, tells me. â€œIâ€™ve never done anything beyond voting. I never went to rallies, never went to protests, never wrote a letter to a senator or anything like that. But as soon as these gun-control laws started being talked about, my brother and I were like, â€˜we should do something.â€™â€

Make that happen. Please. (Actually, I’m not asking that nicely. I’m kind of demanding.)

In the meantime, everyone should go read the whole story of a guy who just got concerned that his local lawmaker wasn’t listening to him.

Oh, and in case anyone needs a reminder that when women come into the movement, we really get involved, there’s this little note:

The six- or seven-person phone bank is almost exclusively staffed by retired women, each working from a cell phone. Running methodically down the lists of recall signatories, the callers politely ensure that each and every one has voted â€” and, if not, that they know where to go.

It is Time to Pass on the Tradition

Back in the days when the Brady Campaign was actually relevant, I had a tradition of offering some advice to the vanquished and disenfranchised, to attempt to assuage the sorrow. Hate to say it, Mark, but Christmas ain’t coming early this year. That is OK. There is a remedy. When things are getting bad, there is really only one choice:

Bad Tequila

I’ll even rehash my original post on the topic, “Itâ€™s readily available, especially in DC, itâ€™s cheap, and it will make the pain go away very quickly.Â When it comes to assuaging your sorrow, thereâ€™s nothing in the world that beats tequila. I can speak from experience here.” Mark Glaze, send your intern to the liquor store, crack open a bottle, and get started. During times like this, never trust a tequila that isn’t sold by the liter.

UPDATE: And yes, sometimes I’ve had to take my own medicine. But that was a temporary setback. Is the ink from Obama’s pen even dry on that fix yet?

Aunt Anne! Toto! It’s a Twofer, It’s a Twofer!

Giron is out too! I didn’t honestly think to get champagne. Bitter and I decided just to open a cheap, crappy bottle of white and mix it with some Pellegrino to improvise. It’s kind of bubbly. I was feeling pretty good this morning that we’d get at least one of the bastards, but felt that hoping for two was getting a bit greedy.

It actually turns out we beat Giron by a wider margin than Morse. I think we ought to dub this the recall heard round the world. Gun control is a losing issue. That can’t be any more clear than it has been tonight. Giron was in a Democratic district, but it was a working class, blue collar Democratic district, and those folks can be motivated to cross party lines when the gun issue is pushed.

I will have more about this later, but if you contributed anything to the recall, even if you were like us and just contributed the cost of a dinner out, pat yourself on the back. If you were part of the on-the-ground recall effort in any of these two districts, go buy yourself a nice steak dinner. You deserve it! You have done the rest of us in this country a huge favor. We owe a tremendous debt to you, especially to those of us in other purple come blue states, like Pennsylvania. This effort will need some serious study. This should become a playbook on how to accomplish great things in the gun rights movement.

Morse Concedes

Repeat after me: gun control is a losing issue for Democrats. Morse is conceding that he has indeed been recalled. Giron is doing better, but results are very preliminary, and she was a stretch goal to begin with. We can get the rest of the bastards in 2014 regardless, but we can’t go back to sleep.