Could We Sue Over Operation Choke Point?

We’ve been noticing more problems with Operation Choke Point, the Obama Administration’s program to bully banks into starving the gun industry of financial services. As Prof. Glenn Reynolds notes, “Sounds like a conspiracy to deny civil rights.” That would be under 18 U.S.C. 241. The Second Amendment necessarily has to protect a right, though one subject to regulation according to the Heller decision, to engage in commerce with firearms. If it’s not legal to engage in the business of manufacturing or selling firearms, then in effect the Second Amendment would be meaningless.

Now, I don’t expect Eric Holder to prosecute himself, but that’s why we have 42 U.S.C. Section 1983, which allows a person subject to deprivation of rights to file suit. It looks like in the time since Prof. Reynolds original post, the financial institution has retracted its statement that Operation Chokepoint was to blame. But if we can get some solid proof, why not file a 1983 action against the DOJ, going all the way up to President Obama? The discovery alone would be epic.

Bloomberg Probing our Defenses in the Green Mountain State

I was concerned when it looked like Bloomberg was moving in on Vermont, and trying to get some gun control momentum in the Green Mountain State. Vermont can probably best be summed up with “armed hippies.” Fortunately, even the Dems seem to be saying no. Probably the best argument Vermont has is that there’s basically no crime, so what problem are you trying to solve, exactly?

That’s not to say the threat is over. Vermont is taking in a lot of people from states that have severely curtailed the Second Amendment rights of its citizens, and that will bring anti-gun attitudes. Additionally, you never know when our opponents may find an appropriate tragedy to exploit. The fortunate thing for us is that there is no ballot in Vermont, so Bloomberg’s tactic of rounding up his fellow billionaires to outspend us 10:1 in order to sell his trojan horse to voters is not an option for him.

UPDATE: More ground prep here.

Who’s the Sad Panda?

Gun control got a snub from the Commander in Chief during the State of the Union. Not a mention, not a one. The best they mustered was a vague reference to Newtown. Not even Newtown, CT, just Everytown, Newtown. Shit, the President worked harder to win the hearts and minds of the French this year. The French! They got a speech and James Taylor song. What did the gun control crowd get? Even the left is recognizing it.

Pundits might be debating who’s really winning the gun control debate, but it’s apparent that even the true believers in the Obama White House believe it’s lost cause enough to not even be worth more than a vague dog whistle in the SOTU. That’s what they’ve been reduced to. That is what Bloomberg and his rich buddies are getting behind as a winning idea. Even the White House doesn’t believe it anymore.

Bringing Colorado Back into the Fold

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I was pleased to see there might be a ray of hope after the 2014 elections, to bring Colorado back to free America:

The state legislative session just started this week. It is already apparent that Republicans are aiming to repeal the unpopular gun control bills and expand gun rights:

  • House Bill (HB) 15-1009 would repeal the magazine ban
  • HB 15-1049 would extend the “castle doctrine” to include businesses
  • HB 15-1050 would repeal the expanded background check and fees
  • Senate Bill 15-032 would allow concealed carry without a permit

Will any of these bills make it through the legislature and onto Democrat Gov. Hickenlooper’s desk? Would he sign them? He already told a meeting of Colorado sheriffs last year that he hadn’t really read the earlier bills and that it was a mistake to sign them. It would be a great opportunity to see if there was any truth behind his words.

Read the whole thing. Things sound very promising. It would be a tremendous rebuke to Bloomberg to bring Colorado back from the brink of being an anti-gun state, and to do it with Hickenlooper’s signature. In fact, it would be the first time, I can recall, a state would have repealed laws such as this. Every other state that’s started going down Colorado’s path has only gotten worst over time. Once the scales tip, there’s usually no going back.

Colorado has a strong libertarian streak compared to many other states. Unfortunately, the Colorado GOP has been largely unable to jettison the parts of its coalition which are a severe liability to it. Let’s hope we can bring Colorado back and keep it back.

We Have Our Share of Rage Mongers

Jim Geraghty has this to say about recent incidents in the name of #BlackLivesMatter:

My fellow men and women of the Right… yes, we have our bad days. Yes, there are times somebody on our side embarrasses us or does something stupid. But we can all thank our lucky stars we don’t have idiots, losers, and misanthropic rage-mongers like this claiming to act in the name in our cause.

You sure about that Jim? The thing that pisses me off about the current situation in Washington State is that we need people who engage in peaceful civil disobedience. We need people who are willing to engage in some Irish Democracy. I have no beef, in principle, with the “We Will Not Comply” crowd. But why would any sensible person want to live under a horrendously bad law when there’s an opportunity to make it just a bad law? To me, you take ground back where you can.

I get that a lot of people are unhappy with Alan Gottlieb because of the Manchin-Toomey deal. I was not happy with him after Manchin-Toomey either. It was a bad deal, and we had the votes to kill it, so we killed it. We were very lucky that Gottlieb’s endorsement didn’t cost us that vote, because it was very close. My fear at the time was some of our weaker Senators would use his seal of approval as pro-gun cover to switch their vote to a “yes”. I think it’s fair to criticize this move.

But I think trying to shit on other hard-working activists who are trying to take as much ground back right now, because they think they can get it, is beyond the pale. Taking back lost ground is not compromise. Even the simple measure of exempting transfers to Washington LCCP holders would destroy I594’s usefulness as a scheme to register all firearms. I don’t see the logic in not seeking even a simple exemption like that if the votes could be mustered for it in the legislature.

The law doesn’t cease becoming the law just because you choose to ignore it. They aren’t going to arrest people en mass engaging in political protest. They aren’t going to arrest someone who transfers a firearm to a friend. What they will do is take cases on the margin, and make examples out of those folks to intimidate the rest of the scofflaws. This is not a plea to comply with the law, just a dose of reality for how it’s going to work. If we can take action now to ease the law to make fewer scofflaws, we ought to.

Maryland Gun Policies in Pennsylvania to Come?

Remember the headlines about Maryland police officers possibly targeting gun owners for stops?

Well, we could be looking at the similar attitude against guns and their owners coming to Pennsylvania highways. The Maryland State Police Superintendent was just appointed by Gov. Tom Wolf to be the new head of the Pennsylvania State Police.

Elections have consequences, and this is just one more reminder for those guys and gals you know who are choosing to sit home and pout rather than trying to find a coalition so that they – and their rights – aren’t under constant attack.

The Media Will Spin Things For Their Own Purposes

I was a bit concerned when I noticed that The Truth About Guns was running a high profile “simulation” of the Charlie Hedbo massacre given that site’s propensity for grandiose self-promotion. I don’t think my fears were unwarranted. The resulting story in the press essentially conveys the notion that armed self-defense is useless. It was even linked approvingly by our favorite Brady Board member.

I’m absolutely not criticizing the idea of running a simulation like this. It’s never a bad idea to see what we can learn. What was a bad idea was inviting the media along in the name of self-promotion and publicity, before the results were understood and digested. Even if TTAG’s subsequent analysis turns out to be very useful, the media’s version of the story is already out there; running away is a better tactic than armed self-defense. It only adds to the arguments of our opponents.

It may very well be that in a Charlie Hedbo scenario, you’re pretty well screwed no matter what you do. No one except fools argue that a defensive firearm is a talisman that wards off all evil and harm. Nor would anyone argue that sometimes a hasty retreat is the best way to stay alive. But that’s a very different thing than offering the media and our opponents an opportunity to reinforce what they already believe: that armed self-defense is a myth, and you’re better off just running away.

NRA Suing Three Pennsylvania Cities

The cities are Lancaster, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. One presumes that the timing of these suits is related to an ill-advised lawsuit launched by U.S. Shield Law. These are the three cities that have thumbed their noses at the new preemption law, and are actively working to have the law invalidated by the courts as unconstitutional. They attorney handling the case is Jonathan Goldstein, who is a good choice, and is experienced in arguing gun-related cases. In the mean time, Attorney Joshua Prince’s campaign against the many municipalities across Pennsylvania is bearing a lot of fruit. It’s practically daily a municipality agrees to rescind its law. Only Lancaster, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have, so far, been willing to put their taxpayer dollars on the line to thumb their noses at the rights of their citizens to have gun laws be uniform throughout the commonwealth.

Journalists for Blue Laws

The Express-Times are standing behind New Jersey and Pennsylvania’s blue law that bans hunting on Sunday, originally enforced because you should be in church. They are arguing hunters have to share the great outdoors, which they largely pay for, with other people who don’t pay for it. I am not a hunter, but it’s very important for gun rights in this country to turn around its decline. There are plenty of people on our side who are happy to throw the “fudds” off the lifeboat, but the hunting cultures nonetheless provides a lot of bodies to the gun rights movement, and it’s decline will hurt us at the end of the day. Nearly every other state in the country allows Sunday hunting. There is no reason that New Jersey and Pennsylvania should be among the last states to repeal this blue law.

Epic Pearl Clutching Over Toy Guns

Don’t ever let anyone tell you no one is out to take your toy guns. When I was a kid, my mother didn’t let me play with toy guns, and look where it got me?

I question the need for any toy gun. This sends a message to our kids that guns are OK, you can play with them and maybe later use the real thing. The entire “gun culture” needs questioning. We have enough educational, fun, constructive toys available for kids so that guns with their negative message are not needed in the toy box.”

How all the kids that grew up in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s managed to survive, when toy guns still looked pretty real, must be a great mystery. The world was safer when we didn’t have so much pearl clutching over things like this. Back when just about every kid was free range, you didn’t have all the school shootings, and didn’t have zero tolerance, zero brains policies. And somehow everyone managed to survive.