Sean decided to take down his post on his shooting class, but Tam brings up the interesting topic of walking away. Just when would you do it? I tend to think I wouldn’t walk away from a class I drove a long way for, and paid for, unless the violations were pretty blatantly unsafe, more important, jeopardized my safety. I’d probably be more tolerant of minor stupidity that jeopardized the instructor. I’d be tempted to stick around just to see how much other blog fodder I can get out of the class. But to everything there are limits. I definitely wouldn’t agree to draw a gun, even one I had verified is unloaded, with someone downrange. But a gun with the slide locked back and no magazine in it? I definitely wouldn’t appreciate an instructor who was waving it around like a squirt gun, but I probably wouldn’t have it in me to have a cow over it. I was also surprised that people believed blue guns should be treated like regular guns. I thought the purpose of a blue gun was so you could do things with it you wouldn’t want to do with real firearms? When would you leave a class over safety concerns? Do you have to follow the 4 rules with blue guns? What’s your opinion.
Year: 2013
Anti-Gun PA Activists Demand Gun Control
Those at the gun violence prevention rally – including representatives from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, CeaseFirePA, Mothers in Charge and others – are supporting three bills in particular:
-  House Bill 1010: Introduced by Santarsiero in March, this bill would amend the state’s current background checks policy to include long guns like assault rifles and shotguns.
- Â House Bill 1479: Introduced by State Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-Philadelphia, on Monday, this bill would prohibit large capacity magazines.
- Â House Bill 1515: Introduced Wednesday by State Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery, this bill would require individuals report when their firearms are lost or stolen.
Boyle’s limit on high-capacity magazines bill, perhaps the boldest of the three measures, is about “protecting human life,†he said.
These are likely going to be the first bills we’re going to be facing if the power structure in the PA legislature switches from R to D. It doesn’t look like much of a crowd, to be honest, when you compare it to the crowd the pro-2A community turned out in April without our state being under any serious threat.
Off Google Reader
Last night I finally made the transition away from Google Reader, given that I don’t have much more time before it disappears entirely. I decided to set up my own instance of Tiny Tiny RSSÂ to act as a substitute, and so far it seems to work pretty well. I also took the chance to remove some old blogs that had been long abandoned, and added a few new ones. We’ll see how well things go with this. Given Google’s penchant for killing products, I may try to make myself entirely Google free.
Obama’s Gun Numbers
They continue to decline. A Rasmussen poll released yesterday shows that only 37% of voters give him positive reviews, while 46% give him a poor rating. Also, the poll shows Republicans have the edge over Democrats when it comes to trust on the gun issue. But I thought gun control was popular?
Rich People Try to Silence You Peon Gun Owners
Sportsman blogger Jim Braaten posted something that caught my attention today:
WTF? Ken Burns you just lost a follower and supporter. MT @kenburns: Today we launch StopTheNRA.com to do just that.
— Jim Braaten (@jim7226) June 5, 2013
I find it interesting that a site promoted by a New Yorker who is wealthy partly due to his films that show on taxpayer-funded public television is also funded by rich New York venture capitalists (with a California partner who founded the website promoting their efforts) who are using it to promote the political organization of a New York City billionaire is demanding that the ability of little voters who don’t have as much money as they do to organize, communicate, and take action be “stopped.”
Being a native of so-called flyover country, I get so sick of these self-important rich assholes from the coasts assuming that they can “stop” my political activities, “stop” my personal associations, and “stop” me from having a voice in my government. There is nothing about gun ownership that they aren’t ready to mock and attack, including hunting. In fact, the website’s biggest attack features on NRA’s actual statements and online presence in recent days are actually targeted to NRABlog, a site that has nothing to do with the politics of the debate at all. For them, the only motivation is to completely “stop” your way of life and “stop” your ability to participate in government the same way they do.
Jumping the Shark
I think the Simpsons jumped the shark a while ago, and I haven’t watched it for a long time. Now here’s another reason not to consume their product. I can have a sense of humor when our side gets satirized well, but most of the time the cultural elite try to satirize gun owners, it ends up not being funny at all. I’ve had a phrase going through my head lately “Let their hate unite us.”
The Gun Vote Looks to be Fired Up
Missouri’s special election yesterday to fill the 8th district Congressional seat was expected to be a likely win for Republicans since, according to Charlie Cook, that’s a R+17 district. The final result ended up being an R+40 win. That’s not a typo, that’s a 40 point win in a district where Republicans have a registration advantage of less than half of that number.
I was not watching this race at all, but it appears that guns may have been a bit of an issue. The Reuters summary of the race mentioned that Democratic State Rep. Steve Hodges actually ran a campaign based on being pro-gun. The NRA ratings for the race show that there was still a distinction between the two. Republican State Rep. Jason Smith had a solid A rating that earned him the NRA endorsement while Hodges had an A-.
If gun owners did turn out and help make this such a landslide victory, then I hope it will inspire other gun owners in the rest of the country.
The Federal Gun Control Push
I find it quite interesting that just as Sen. Richard Blumenthal announces that he’s going to bog the pending immigration bill down with gun control amendments, Majority Leader Harry Reid comes out and announces he’s getting the gun control gang back together for another round of stand-alone legislation.
The timing of this makes it appear as though Reid is trying to keep the new gun control crusaders from derailing the entire White House agenda. Of course, if Reid has to do this every time they threaten a key piece of legislation, Sen. Joe Manchin may not ever get a break from having his name attached to gun control in West Virginia for the rest of his term. What he may have believed was a one time thing in the first year of his new term may become a semi-annual debate that always puts his name in the headlines for target the guns of West Virginians. I have no pity for him since he’s clearly digging in for the long haul on this fight. At least Sen. Pat Toomey looked at the writing on the wall and knew to drop the debate.
Madigan Files Motion to Extend Stay on Court Ruling
Madigan says the Governor needs more time:
The Illinois Constitution affords the Governor sixty days to review the Act and sign it into law. See Ill. Const. (1970) art. IV, § 9(b). Recognizing that this Court has already stayed its mandate sua sponte for 180 days, however, state defendants seek only an additional thirty days to provide the Governor reasonable time to review the Act. Accordingly, state defendants ask this Court to stay its mandate from June 9, 2013, to and including July 9, 2013. This additional time will avoid a circumstance in which there is no state law in place governing the carrying of firearms in public places, a circumstance that this Court’s original, 180-day stay anticipated and set out to avoid.
Well, maybe they should have thought about that instead of taking this whole sorry show to the wire. The attorneys for both Mary Shephard and Michael Moore have filed in opposition to Madigan’s motion. I think this bit from the Moore opposition pretty effectively sums it up:
Considering that the state’s remedial legislation passed with overwhelming veto-proof majorities in both houses, as well as the Governor’s deep and protracted involvement in this issue, the time for delay is over. This Court has spoken. The People of Illinois, through their representatives, have spoken. There must be some finality to this process. The motion should be denied.
Yes, we definitely need some finality to this issue. I hope the Court agrees and we can put and end to this sorry charade.
UPDATE: The stay has been granted. The charade continues.
How’s That SAFE Act Working Out?
It always blows my mind when our opponents point to the horrors of violent crime in cities with very restrictive gun laws. What more could we do gun law wise than is currently being done in New York City? Isn’t this basically an admission that gun control doesn’t work? Is the SAFE act really making anyone safer? Sometimes I don’t think they honestly believe their own BS, but crime seems like a good argument for turning a fear and loathing of firearms into policy.