Halbrook on Historic Gun Registries

National Review posted a column from Stephen Halbrook that comes from his latest book that looks at how German gun registry laws were used to disarm political opponents and Jews around World War II. What I find most interesting is that in less than 36 hours, it’s already generated more than 500 comments. Clearly, it’s a topic that gets people talking and reading.

Reality and Perception

The Washington Post is busy helping the antis drive the perception that gun control won them Virginia, or at the least didn’t hurt them. In politics, perception is just as important as reality, so as long as they can make the powers that be believe what they say is true, it doesn’t honestly matter if it’s not. Did Al Gore really lose over his position on gun control? That’s the perception. It doesn’t matter if it was true or not. I think often time our side sees the lie and assumes everyone else will see it too. Here’s the spin the Post is offering:

The National Rifle Association ran commercials against Herring, but its messages were directed at voters who our own polling showed were never accessible to Herring. The NRA avoided the largest concentrations of swing voters in the Northern Virginia, Norfolk and Richmond markets. That is not a recipe for growth or success.

What they are arguing, essentially, is that the gun vote are already baked into the GOP numbers. In other words, the Democrat has nothing to fear on gun rights, because those votes were never really up for grabs anyway. As someone who has pulled the D lever before, in order to punish the GOP for their stances on certain issues, I can at least personally say that’s not true for me. I might be willing to vote for a pro-gun Democrat against Corbett, who seems to be just about as good at raising my taxes as Ed Rendell was. But the gun issue will likely keep me in Corbett’s corner in 2014.

The other side is now driving the perception that gun control is a winning issue for Democrats, whereas up until very recently, it was seen as a toxic issue. This is not a good place to be in, if they are successful. We will lose our rights if we remain here, because you can’t count on one party to control everything all of the time, and it will only be a matter of time before the GOP realizes they can, once again, get away with just not being as bad as the other guy. The Democrats have to be punished severely in 2014 for their stance in favor of gun control. This should lock them out of certain states and regions.

Vague Political Speech Restrictions on Government Property

There’s a gun-related case in the Arizona Court of Appeals today that deals with overly vague content-based speech restrictions on government property. The Goldwater Institute and ACLU are siding with pro-Second Amendment folks who submitted various advertisements for the Phoenix mass transit system only to see some of them turned down on content restrictions against politically-related advertising and others with similar messages and links accepted.

It’s a case that isn’t just about considering federal First Amendment protections/restrictions on speech, but also may define the state’s constitutional limits on the freedom of speech. The ACLU has apparently argued that state courts have never ruled on the issue of content-based restrictions on government property or provided legal tests to determine when such regulations may be allowed.

The pro-speech/gun side is arguing that the rules are so vague and arbitrary that a reasonable person could not be expected to know when their advertisements may be approved or might be turned down. Attorneys for the city claim that if they can’t have these vague rules that apparently only city bureaucrats understand, then they will be forced into an “all-or-nothing approach — allow no advertising or allow all advertising.”

EPA Creating Lead Shortage?

Yes, says Allen West:

Come 2014, all ammunition sold to civilian gun-owners in America will have to be imported, a result of President Obama’s crackdown on sulfur dioxide and lead emissions and accompanying harsh Environmental Protection Agency regulations, said former Florida congressman, Lt. Col. Allen West.

Well, any lead that comes from ore will be imported, not necessarily the ammunition. From what I understand about the lead market, the vast majority of lead consumed comes from recycled sources. In other words, you spend a typical day at the range shooting mostly old car batteries, wheel weights, etc down your barrel. Granted, I don’t think relying on imported lead is a good thing, but I also don’t think it’s necessarily something to panic over either.

UFA Renewal Up for Consideration

Looks like this proposal would extend the law for another ten years. Introduced by Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC). Who I’d note carries an A rating from NRA and GOA. There’s no constituency to prevent an extension of the UFA. We’ll see what happens once this hits the Dem controlled Senate.

UPDATE: Note that the bill can be found here. It’s straight up extension for ten years. None of Schumer or Israel’s bullshit. Other blogs are reporting that a UFA expansion bill is up for consideration. Israel’s Bill is still listed as only being introduced. It hasn’t even been referred to a committee.

Post-Holiday Link Dump

It was nice to take a break from blogging over the holiday as well, but I still keep track of everything so I don’t miss any real big news.

Why we oppose registration. There have been numerous instances if it being used to facilitate confiscation in this country. It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you. More here.

A new anti-gun tactic?

Sheriffs in Colorado don’t have standing to sue over the recent gun control laws. This doesn’t kill the case, however.

The logic of violence.

Fortunately, I did not encounter any MAIG placemats this Thanksgiving.

Uncle makes a prediction on a new Glock. I hope he’s right.

A civilian legal G36? Looks better than the previous attempt.

NSSF is considering leaving Newtown. I wouldn’t stay where I’m not welcome.

Evolving Christian attitudes towards personal and national defense.

But I thought they just wanted a few common sense gun laws?

Back to the Grind

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, after a few days off. I spent a good part of the weekend visiting family and attempting to get more family pictures to scan. My aunt had kept a box of things she collected from my grandmother’s house after she died back in 2004. I enjoy reading old letters, because they are first hand historical documents, not history told through the lens of elites who can sometimes warp history to conform to their own biases.

I found this letter, written 5th October 1936, from a Mary Kidner who was traveling around the country with husband and children, living out of their car, and looking for work. This letter was written from a logging camp in Blodgett, Oregon, where they had stopped to find work. This letter was sent to my great-great Aunt Madeline, who forwarded it along to my then 12-year-old grandmother, asking her if she could use it in school. It’s not a terribly well written letter, but it gives an idea of what at least someone’s family life was like during the Great Depression. As bad as we might think we have things now, most of us aren’t raising a family in our automobiles and roaming the country looking for any chance of work. One thing it make me thankful for is that I wasn’t raised during the Great Depression.

One other little side rant is that the letter is hand written. I understand the schools are now going to stop teaching kids handwriting. This horrifies me, because I believe it makes the kids partially illiterate. As soon as they stopped forcing me to use long hand in the schools, I reverted to printing. I probably couldn’t write a letter in long hand today without great pain. But I did learn it, and can read it. The idea that a whole generation are going to be raised with a letter like this being no better than gibberish to them is shameful. The endarkenment continues.