The Editorial Page Editor for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review rips apart various gun control proposals that violate not just Second Amendment rights, but also our Fourth Amendment rights. Whether it’s insurance, warrantless searches, or the terrible firearms advice from the Vice President, Colin McNickle holds nothing back. He even demonstrates how, if we applied the logic of many gun control advocates to the First Amendment, the modern media would not exist. This is a column that absolutely deserves some pro-rights clicks and praise.
Year: 2013
More on the Illinois CCW Debate
Thirdpower has more Todd Vandermyde, at a Chicago “Town Hall” meeting on concealed carry. Todd has been quite willing to engage in this issue at a very grassroots level, and I wish more NRA liaisons would take that cue. It is going to be increasingly necessary, going forward, for the strategy in every state to involve a combination of grassroots outreach and lobbying. Lobbying alone is simply no longer a recipe for overall success, and additionally, tends to drive mistrust and skepticism among the grassroots with the most energy to offer the cause.
Video Weekend, Part II: Todd Vandermyde
Todd is the NRA State Liaison for Illinois, and is thus tasked with implementing the 7th Circuit’s edict, which demands Illinois pass a constitutional carry scheme by June 9th. A few days ago, there was a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee before which Todd testified. The subtitles are my own, special addition, where I translate politicianese into ordinary language.
A lot of folks have been asking about why NRA doesn’t just run the clock out, and we’ll have Constitutional Carry for everyone after the court deadline passes. That is not really in the realm of reality. Reality is we don’t know what the Court’s further course of action will be. Will they enjoin Illinois? As Todd mentions in the video, NRA will move for that if the deadline passes. Will the Court do it? Or will they just extend the deadline?
Secondly, there’s no reality where the Illinois legislature is going to allow the situation to go from no carry to Constitutional Carry. They will pass something to try to satisfy the courts, so the choice is to stand back and let the politicians in this video try to pass something on their own, or participate in the process and try to get a good shall-issue bill. Todd has been working on this issue for years, and has come within a razors margin several times. The ruling by the 7th Circuit on carry offers the possibility of picking up the extra needed votes, in addition to the possibility of getting a better bill than would have been possible in the past.
Working with the current ruling to get a good shall-issue bill is the best course of action going forward. Anything else is trusting in the courts and politicians to do the right thing, and when they don’t, having to go back to the federal courts and re-litigate.
h/t to Chris from AK to pointing me to the video. Chris has the unedited version, which includes all 3 an a half hours of testimony.
Video Weekend, Part 1: Clarence Thomas
I’ve built up a number of videos worth watching during the week. It’s a good thing to keep on as background noise while I’m working. I enjoyed this video from Harvard of a visit with Justice Thomas:
Via Ann Althouse.
In the same series, they also have a visit with Justice Ginsburg that’s worth watching too. Ginsburg is looking a lot better these days. She’ll probably retire during Obama’s term, but I’d love it if she held on another four years into the next Administration.
Weekend News Dump
Due to my being busy for the past few days getting everything ready for the demo, I haven’t had much time to blog, but I’ve managed to build up some tabs of news items:
Fastest growing demographic among gun owners: women.
Mexico wants a registry of border state gun owners. How about this one liner ASCII art for an answer: oIoo.
Absolute moral authority. Victims only matter when they are on the side of gun control, don’t you know?
Comcast bans gun ads. Comcast is an enemy of freedom, which is why they will never get my business back. Well, that and the fact that they suck.
Clayton Cramer notes that this is the third time Washington Democrats have proposed door-to-door confiscation. It was no accident. Also in PJ Media, Clayton has an article about fixing our mental health system.
More on door-to-door confiscation from Ace. Remember kids, door-to-door confiscation is an imagined paranoid delusion of crazy gun owners, not something that’s ever been seriously proposed.
Is the copycat effect real? Experts keep saying no, but it’s hard to see how it’s not the case. It’s almost like they are ignoring evidence. I don’t get why either, because it’s not like anyone has a political agenda to silence the press.
Chris in AK notes that Obama is looking for gun violence stories, and that hey, know you we have a lot of those on our side too.
What they really want. Of course, this is all gun nut delusions.
Looks like Iowa is getting ready to heat up.
OFA is getting behind gun control in a big way. I think OFA is a huge threat and needs to be countered with our own grassroots action. OFA is also busy tugging at heartstrings, knowing quite well gun control won’t win on the pure logic of it.
A Little Happy, Feel Good Gun News
The Lancaster (Pa.) Sunday News features this 950+ word article on the success of area school rifle teams. The focus is on how these are well-balanced kids who compete in other activities more commonly associated with high school, such as cheerleading, soccer, drama club, swimming, and field hockey. Yet, they use firearms in a safe and lawful manner, and their sport doesn’t get the same kind of cheering and high five response from a crowd when they do well. But they keep doing it because they enjoy it. (h/t @patrickhenry2nd)
Sorry for Lack of Posting
Monday we demo our new product to the first potential customer, so this is the culmination of a lot of work happening in the next few days. I just don’t have time for the blog right now. I’ll be posting a bit over the weekend, but until we pull off the demo, I’m a busy bee. If the potential customer shows real interest, then it’s going to be a crash program to get this whole thing ready for the real launch. It is tremendously exciting and scary at the same time.
The Anti-Gun Rally
Great Satan, Inc. wanted to do a little compare and contrast between a pro-Second Amendment rally and a planned gun control rally. Only they couldn’t find the anti-gun rally. By the end of the trip, they thought they might have possibly found the rally. However, they then realized that it may have just been office workers on a smoke break.
Combating the New Big Anti-Gun Money
The president’s pet policy group is spending 6 figures on a Twitter campaign today to target Republicans they think they can cause problems for with Second Amendment issues. Gun owners need to step up and oppose this massive purchase of “grassroots” activity.
So, with a little click of your mouse, you can tweet to each of these lawmakers one of these messages. If you live in their district, make sure to say it. If you don’t tweet, the lawmaker names go to their Facebook pages.
Jim Gerlach (PA-6)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- New Hampshire Residents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Susan Collins (Maine)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Maine Residents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Dave Joyce (OH-14)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
John Kline (MN-2)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
David Valadao (CA-21)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Gary Miller (CA-31)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Mike Coffman (CO-6)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Buck McKeon (CA-25)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Daniel Webster (FL-10)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Jeff Denham (CA-10)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Robert Pittenger (NC-9)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
These three were initially in the target group, but OFA dropped them because they think they may be able to work with them more easily:
Erik Paulsen (MN-3)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Pat Meehan (PA-7)
- I vote and support the Second Amendment. Support me and my rights. Oppose gun control.
- Constituents: I love our community and country. I vote and oppose gun control. So should you.
Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8)
New Jersey Gun Control Heads to Senate
After getting a push from Obama’s activism wing to turn out more Democrats against gun rights in Trenton, the Assembly passed their gun control bill package.
According to some commentary by the Senate President, Sen. Steve Sweeney, the Senate does not plan to push these bills through quickly. Now, that doesn’t mean that they won’t pass. It just means that NJ residents have time to call and try to oppose the legislation – unlike New York residents.
ANJRPC is reporting that the likely possible dates for votes are in March or April, but nothing is actually planned at the moment.