Sebastian – Page 184 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Is That a Threat or a Promise?

For once I agree with an anti-gun person in terms of strategy. I think this is brilliant. He suggests economic sanctions against pro-gun states:

We can do that by using economic sanctions against states that allow the gun lobby to write the laws. How? By never moving to these states, by moving out of these states and by never vacationing in these states.

You want all those transplanted New Yorkers to move out of Eastern Pennsylvania and back to New York? Oh please, oh please, oh please, YES! Do it. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. This is strategic brilliance. Please implement forthwith.

The Fight Shifts to the Senate

Once again, I want to thank everyone for their patience on Fridays when I am not really able to easily keep up with the blog during the day. The New Jersey Assembly passed the magazine ban, which means the fight is now on in the Senate. From ANJRPC:

The agenda for Monday’s Senate Law and Public Safety Committee meeting is out, andÂ S993Â (gun ban / mag ban) isÂ notÂ on it.Â While that could change at any time, reliable sources in Trenton tell us that an “issue” has arisen that is prompting the legislation to be held until after the budget recess in April.

Whether the “issue” is the outrage of thousands of gun owners, hunters and sportsmen,the realization that the legislation and its amendments are fundamentally flawed, or something else, reports of the reprieve, if accurate, would represent a significant break in the momentum of this legislation.Â Anti-gun lawmakers have been on a full court press since February to get this legislation to the Governor’s desk, and great pains were taken to reschedule an Assembly hearing (after it was cancelled due to winter storm Titan) so the bill could be delivered to the Governor this month.

While gun owners should remain prepared to come to Trenton Monday morning if something changes over the weekend, as of this afternoon it does not appear that will be necessary.Â Should we receive contrary information over the weekend, we will issue a follow-up alert.

In the meanwhile, there should be no break in the momentum from our end.Â Gun owners, hunters and sportsmen must continue to weigh in by email withÂ every State Senator, and by phone and fax withÂ their individual State Senator.Â Â Tell them to oppose S993 (gun ban / mag ban).

This should be a no-brainer veto for Christie. Hell, if I were him I’d hold up a Model 60 in the presser and tell the world this is what the New Jersey Democrats wanted to ban. “You probably had one of these when you were a kid.” The messaging practically writes itself. That might not be a true statement in New Jersey, but it sure is in New Hampshire, and South Carolina, and some of the other early key primary states.

Ninth Circuit Hands Down Baker Ruling

As expected, the 9th Circuit has handed down a decision in the case of Baker v. Kealoah. There aren’t really any surprises. The decision is vacated and remanded back to the lower court in light of Peruta. I should note that the decision does not yet make Hawaii shall-issue. Hawaii still has a chance to appeal the ruling en banc in front of the entire 9th Circuit. Even if they decline to appeal, the case still has to go back to the lower court, and the lower court has to enjoin the State of Hawaii. It’s not clear, in that instance, whether Hawaii will become a shall-issue state, or whether they’ll be enjoined from enforcing their concealed weapons laws as a whole, making the situation more like Illinois than like California. We shall see.

Myth of STEM Shortage

Gun news is pretty thin on the ground today. Via Instapundit, I noticed this article about how there is no real shortage of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workers:

The truth is that there is little credible evidence of the claimed widespread shortages in the U.S. science and engineering workforce. How can the conventional wisdom be so different from the empirical evidence? There are of course many complexities involved that cannot be addressed here. The key points, though, are these …

If you work in a STEM field, I’d highly recommend it. Having worked in the STEM industry for a number of years, I can tell you that if you’re a chemist, at least in my local job market, it’s tough to find jobs. Big Pharma isn’t running large chemistry labs anymore, having shipped most of those functions overseas to places like China and India. There’s still jobs for talented medicinal chemists, but bench chemistry is done almost entirely by overseas firms. Engineering and Information Technology jobs have also had to deal with the outsourcing bug. But I don’t think that really represents the whole picture of the job market, and the real factors are beyond soundbites or short articles.

In IT, at least in my local market, there really is a shortage of talented people. They are tough to find, and there is a lot of chaff to beat through before you can get at the wheat. The article does hint on what I think part of the issue is: the boom/bust cycle. When there are booms in STEM and related fields, the rising pay and opportunity attracts a lot of people into the field who honestly don’t belong in it. They can get hired in boom years because companies are desperate to fill jobs, and since they can’t find good people fast enough, or just can’t afford them, they end up settling. When I graduated from college, it was the height of the dot com boom, and they would hire anyone that could spell “Unix.”

And then comes the bust, and a lot of folks who never belonged in the field to begin with, end up washing out of the field, enduring long periods of unemployment, and/or having to take less pay. It does seem to go in a cyclical fashion, and STEM fields seem to have a particularly harsh business cycle compared to other industries. I think the issue is not so much that there’s a shortage of STEM workers overall, but that there’s a shortage of STEM workers who really belong in the field. The boom cycles that bring a lot of unqualified people into the field tend to make the bust cycles deeper and more painful.

Assembly Vote on Magazine Ban Today

From ANJRPC:

[Today] (March 20) beginning at 1:00 p.m., the New Jersey Assembly is scheduled to vote onÂ A2006Â (gun ban / mag ban) andÂ A2777Â (reasonable deviations in firearms transportation).Â There will be no testimony taken, so it is not necessary to attend in person.Â You canÂ watch onlineÂ (scroll to middle of page and click “view or listen to live proceedings”).

They are asking people call their Assembly critters and demand they vote NO on A2006, and that they FIX A2777 to restore judicial discretion in regards to allowed deviations when transporting firearms.

I think this will probably pass. The reason is because I think its purpose is to try to stick it to Christie and put him in a difficult position. We’ll find out how seriously he wants to run in 2016. If he signs a bill that bans the Marlin Model 60 yet again, his national ambitions are over.

Peace in Our Time

Off topic, but it’s generally a good idea when confronting a guy like Putin not to broadcast your intent to the world. You don’t say something like that even if it’s true, because you kind of want Tsar Vladimir to wonder if you just might be crazy enough to pull the trigger. I mean, we always joke about anti-gun folks needing to stick a sign on their lawn saying “No Guns Inside,” but Obama just planted that in big bold lettering right on Ukraine’s front lawn.

How bad have things gotten when you trust the Chancellor of Germany to keep a lid on the situation more than your own President, because she’s got a bigger set of balls than he does?

MDA: Declaring Victory From the Jaws of Defeat

There isn’t any failure Moms Demean Action isn’t willing to turn around and spin as a huge win. From Emily Miller:

Mothers Demand Action forÂ Gun Sense in America, an organizationÂ funded byÂ billionaire Michael R.Â Bloomberg,Â is falsely claiming a victory for forcing a billboard company to take down aÂ Slide FireÂ advertisement in Chicago.

The truth is that the manufacturer contracted for the billboard to stay up for only two months.

And now that the two months is over, and the billboard rotates to another customer, as billboards are wont to do. Moms Demand Action declares victory! I know why they do this: because they recognize most of their followers don’t know the difference between a real victory and a shit sandwich, and hope they’ll keep donating and contributing enough to keep the organization relevant.

I can’t blame them for trying, because it’s not like our side doesn’t peddle in a lot of BS. But at least we’ll have open discussion about it, as grassroots. The fact that they can get away with such organizational discipline in the first place, shows this to be the hollow hull it really is.

Fundamental Right: I do not Think it Means What They Think it Means

Newtown has changed the conversation on guns in this country so much, authorities in Massachusetts are aghast at the number of people who are trying to exercise their rights.

The local increase in licenses is a trend reflected statewide. The number of people in Massachusetts with Class A licenses rose by nearly 5 percent, from about 271,000 in 2012 to 284,000 last year. The latest number represents an increase of more than 20 percent since 2009.

Of course, to many lawmakers, this is a problem about which something must be done, and they are looking to also issue FIDs, which is what you need for grandpa’s deer rifle and shotgun, on a may-issue basis.

A panel to consider changes was appointed by House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo following the Newtown, Conn., school massacre in December 2012. It developed a list of 44 recommendations, which included giving police chiefs the power to block potentially dangerous people from buying rifles and shotguns, broadening background checks, and strengthening gun safety courses. A bill is now being drafted, according to the speakerâ€™s office.

How long before the federal courts start recognizing that the vast majority of gun laws out there are motivated almost exclusively by an animus toward the idea of the common people being armed?

Reid Blaming Gun Control Groups for Murthy Trouble

The New York Daily News is running an article on the troubled nomination Dr. Vivek Murthy for the post of Surgeon General, which has a Reid staffer suggesting that “MAIG and other gun control organizations failed to meet his request to provide political cover Democrats needed to take tough votes on Murthy.” Well, you know, that’s because they don’t have any cover to offer. Mark Glaze is quoted in the article noting that his group has “emailed its more than 1.5 million members to tie the Murthy attacks to what it says are other instances of the NRA trying to ‘get between us and our doctors.'” The problem is, their members haven’t really done anything except get themselves on a mailing list. They don’t have a dog, or a gun in the fight. All of NRA’s members either pay annual dues or have paid hundreds and sometimes thousands for life memberships. It’s not too surprising, in that instance, that MAIG doesn’t have the juice to cover skeptical Democrats on a controversial nominee.

Harry Reid has certainly abandoned any semblance of supporting gun rights, but that jab at MAIG and MDA from one of his staffers made my day.

Facebook Begins to Send Letters

Breitbart notes a letter that went to Shooter Swap in Austin Texas. Their site can be found here, and the Facebook page here. I thought it was important to see what they are e-mailing out. I don’t think their new “Educational and Enforcement Measures” were much of a problem, but I’m not too keen on telling people exactly what and where they must include disclaimers. If Facebook is going to require a disclaimer they ought to at least provide mechanism for it rather than hijacking a site’s “About” section.