Author: Sebastian

The Reset Button

Kevin Baker talks again about the “reset” button.  I’ve said previously, any pressing of said button will have to be instigated by a state government, rather than through actions of individuals or groups of individuals.  That gets hard when states basically suckle at the federal teat, but I don’t see any other way to stand up to the federal government that won’t end badly.  We already have some examples of states willing to make token gestures.  The big problem is, we’re not losing our freedom by the guillotine, but by death of a thousand cuts.  It’s hard to convince other people that “This encroachment has to be it.  The line has been crossed.”

Personally, I don’t think we’re there yet, but I think it’s not unwise to whip up some resentment of federal meddling in matters they have no business in, within state legislatures.  What Oklahoma has done is a start.

UPDATE: Maybe we don’t have it so bad.

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Australian Media on the Gun Issue in 2008

Obama needs to pick a veep who is good with gun owners, says news.com.au.  He’s not the only one though.  Of course, the funny thing about this is the Australian media isn’t to up on a lot of our politicians:

There are two front runners. Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia is just like his state – a mix of progressive ideals and conservative values of the old rural south. A pro-gun, pro-life, Church-going family man from the heartland but also a Harvard educated lawyer and greenie.

Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania is described by his local newspaper as “a laughing, back-slapping, forearm-squeezing, all-pro schmoozer”.

He is a political warhorse, renowned for his love of shooting and football as much as his formidable reputation for fundraising, grass roots organising and delivering his key state to Democratic candidates.

His prowess helped Clinton to a 10-point win in Pennsylvania.

Ed Rendell and Tim Kaine are both gun lovers?  That’s news to me.  Last I checked Kaine is getting behind a new round of gun control initiatives in Virginia, and Rendell is trying to bulldog the legislature into passing more gun control laws.  Let’s also not forget that as Mayor of Philadelphia, Rendell pioneered the idea of suing the gun industry out of existence as a public nuisance.

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NRA Losing Power

According to the LA Times, it’s because we’re winning.  SayUncle says: “I find it amusing that the LAT felt it had to spin NRA’s success as a negative.”  It’s hard to accept it when your agenda is going down the drain.

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McCain Endorsement?

Dave Kopel talks about some inaccuracies the Brady’s have put forth in the ABC News article.  Namely the statement:

“For John McCain to be the political candidate of the NRA shows how things have changed,” Helmke said.

First off, the NRA hasn’t endorsed McCain’s candidacy, and I don’t have any reason to believe that such an endorsement is forthcoming, though nothing would surprise me considering how stunningly bad Barack Wolfgang Amadeus Obama is on this issue.  Secondly, as Dave points out, McCain on the gun issue is really no worse than Bush, who indicated in 2000 that he would sign a renewal of the assault weapons ban.  Bush apparently has also supporting closing the gun show loophole.  McCain at least opposes renewing the assault weapons ban.

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The Pink Pistol Experience

Joe Huffman relays a funny story about working with the Pink Pistols in Idaho, and a fun sounding IPSC match meant to make fun of Fred Phelps .  It just goes to show what a bunch of backward queer hating rednecks we all are doesn’t it?  Joe says:

The big lesson I would like for people to learn from this story is that gun owners can get favorable press. Boomershoot with all the potential hazards of  “assault weapons”, “snipers”, “sniper rifles”, and “bombs” has been successfully pitched to the public as what it really is. People from all walks of life who are, in essence, having an early 4th of July celebration of freedom. In the same way with all the hazardous of “vigilante justice”, “cowboys”, and “angry red-necked white guys” potentially associated with a pistol match where people shoot at human shaped targets we were able to get it portrayed, as it actually is, just ordinary people having fun and practicing to defend innocent life from bodily harm.

It wasn’t that hard, it didn’t take that much extra work, and the positive media coverage reached 100s of thousands of people.

It gets the message out, and hell, maybe people might even think it’s fun and give it a try.  Be sure to read the whole thing.

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Insights on Brady Concession

Dave Hardy has further insight into the ABC News article from yesterday that stated the Brady Campaign was bracing for a loss on the Second Amendment:

Brady Campaign goes on to cite what they could push for, and could hope to pass constitutional muster: universal (i.e., private sale) background checks, AW bans, “curbing large volume sales,” i.e., one gun a month.

Leaving aside whether those would pass muster … how does the Brady Campaign hope to survive on them? I’d wager that a LOT of its contributors give only because they believe those are stepping stones to things more significant, a “good start” rather than an end. If they faced a reality in which everything would stop with background checks, an AW ban, and one gun a month — that they’d never get beyond that — they might well bail out.

I would say a lot of their constituency is in it in order to ban guns.  You might get people casually saying “Oh yeah, that sounds reasonable,” to a lot of their agenda, but the folks who care enough to send money and get involved either hate guns, or are scared to death of them.  Either way, if the courts take their eventual goal off the table, I don’t see how they stay in it, unless the Brady’s want to start a movement to repeal the second amendment (good luck with that one).

If I were Peter Hamm or Paul Helmke, I’d be thinking there surely has to be other places in the D.C. establishment where they can put their skills and talents to more effective and creative use.

UPDATE: More here and here.

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