The California Senate passes a draconian gun bill, which, according to the Firearms Policy Coalition, will effectively bans all semi-automatic firearms, and requires registration of those remaining. No more bullet buttons, no more anything. No state that’s ever managed to pass a certain number of gun laws has ever done anything except get worse. Once they have broken gun owners as a voting bloc, they’ll do what they please, when they please to us. Colorado is starting to tip, but it is not too late for Colorado. The rest of the states are either going to be saved by the courts, or by federal preemption. For approximately 1/3rd of the US population, they effectively don’t have a Second Amendment right.
Author: Sebastian
All Ricin, All the Time
Fox is on it. So is NBC News. Throw in the WaPo and the Wall Street Journal too. Even the Montreal Gazette. It’s a big story, no matter how you cut the deck. A lot of folks are skeptical, but for me it’s just a matter of incentives and math. I don’t believe this is an intentional setup, and would be very surprised to find MAIG was this stupid, or that it was someone on their side who has a beef with Bloomberg. Disgruntled employee, it could be, but again, I doubt it. Disgruntled employees tend to get caught quickly.
I’d be very surprised MAIG ginned this all up, as some have speculated. The wider a fabrication is, the more likely someone is to talk, or blow the whistle, and now you have the NYPD and FBI involved in the case. Bloomberg also isn’t stupid enough to risk all his credibility on a move like this, so it’s likely the action of a deranged, lone wolf. Actually, it’s not just credibility on the line, with the FBI involved, it would come with criminal charges if this were a hoax.
The next speculation is that it’s an anti-gun person trying to make our side look bad. The math would suggest that on any side of a political battle, you will have some small percentage of kooks, whack jobs, and sociopathic nuts. I don’t know why it’s hard to believe someone who believes in gun rights couldn’t do something like this, when you consider we’re dealing with tens of millions of people who share that political viewpoint. The number of people dedicated to the gun control viewpoint is vanishingly small in comparison. It’s not that I don’t believe the whakadoodles on their side couldn’t do something like this, but the fact that gun control is mostly astroturf, and that doesn’t play well for our odds. It’s just not that hard for me to believe that some sociopath who got a bug up his ass about Bloomberg’s organization decided to poop in the punch bowl and do something like this. We have a huge number of people who agree with us on the issue, and it’s just a fact that some of them, however small, are going to be crazy, impulsive, and willing to do something rash. That needn’t reflect badly on the millions of the rest of us who aren’t, though the media is certainly going to try.
The New York Times a Tool of the Brady Campaign
Sorry for the late start this morning. Insomnia can be a harsh mistress. Emily Miller notes that the New York Times is a tool of the Brady Campaign, with a leading story that drags up cases from the early 2000s that show the industry doesn’t care about curbing the use of guns in crime. Much like Ford and Toyota don’t care about drunk drivers, because they make and sell cars.
How to Give the Gun Control Groups the Moral High Ground
Committing acts of terrorism against the anti-gun folks is a pretty sure way to help their cause and harm ours, and at the end of the day it’s some poor staffer who will be the ones opening the letters. You an expect them to play this up to the hilt, and paint themselves as the victims, and gun owners as a bunch of ricin mailing terrorists. Ridiculous that someone would do this.
Who’s Pitching This Bagdad Bob Storyline?
I can believe a lone story about NRA’s demise, but when two sources write essentially the same story, someone is shopping this meme around. The first question is who, and the second question is why. As Joe points out, NRA has had a banner year, and so did other groups. Who’s passing these articles around to media outlets is hard to say, and speculation wouldn’t accomplish much. But I will speculate on the motive. No one wants to sink time, resources or money into a cause that they think is lost. This is aimed more at convincing the supporters of gun control than it is anyone else. If they are to build a grassroots movement, they first have to convince people that the cause is not lost, and that it is winnable. I suspect a lot of groups are seeing interest in the topic fade. The media certainly seems to have moved on to other issues, given that I’ve seen a precipitous drop in news stories about gun control. This is worse news for our opponents than it is for us, so you get the Baghdad Bob routine. This is probably a good sign things in the gun control movement are not as swell as they are making things out to be.
Bloomberg’s money can still certainly do a lot of damage, but only in the sense that the ads he finances can help paint candidates and politicians as being out of touch with the mainstream, and only as far as he can conceal who’s financing the ads. What they need genuine grassroots activism, but that’s hard to come by when people think gun control is a lost cause.
UPDATE: The Philadelphia Daily News throws in their two cents as well, on the demise of NRA meme: “Have six sweeter words ever been uttered?” I can think of six words to describe this article, but none of them are sweet.
UPDATE: The Guardian joins the meme.
More on the Illinois Shenanigans
John Richardson tells the story:
Senate President Cullerton’s aim is to preserve home rule on firearms laws. His strategy seems to be to use the Raoul bill as his bargaining chip. In other words, he’ll be willing to trade off the worst parts of the Raoul bill in exchange for the ability of Chicago and its suburbs to still have their local gun control laws.
Read the whole sorry story. I’d suggest no deal. If they ram through a crappy bill, we’ll see them back in court. You can’t have the Second Amendment mean something different than it does in Peoria. That the right should be uniform is a basic tenant, otherwise it’s no right.
Hate of the Day
Maybe I should start a new feature, instead of quote of the day. It would be hard to run out of material. Oh the many ways we are hated and loathed:
“Your group” is full of morbidly obese, chain smoking, lower economic, disenfranchised people who just look plain miserable. Gun lobbying is giving them a target for the anger and despair in their govt.
RTWT. I could stand to lose a 20 or 30 pounds, but I’m not morbidly obese. I don’t smoke. I’m on the upper end of the curve for household income, and I’m decidedly not angry. If we look pissed off, it’s because people like this just won’t leave us the hell alone. Leaving us along is all we ask. It’s pretty easy. If you enjoy life, enjoy it, and stop trying to interfere with our enjoyment.
I’m Quaking in my Boots
The New Republic says the NRA is at the end of its rope, and facing something it’s never faced before; a real gun control movement. Well, I guess that depends on what your definition of “real” is. We’ve seen plenty of astroturf from the other side, and more than a fair share of emotional blackmail, shaming, and condescension. But a real grassroots gun control movement? It doesn’t exist, and has never existed. Additionally, as Astroturfers-in-Cheifs go, Bloomberg is a great villain. No doubt, Bloomberg is a threat, but the level of threat he represents is entirely dependent on us. If we keep our grassroots game going, i.e. don’t fall back asleep, we can sweep him aside. This is Bagdad Bob level nonsense. NRA is bigger than it’s ever been, and we’re looking around at what the other Friends Committees are raising in disbelief. NRA at it’s end? Hardly.
Colorado Democrats: Out of Touch
They argue that the vast majority of Sheriffs in the State of Colorado are siding with criminals. These people need to be handed a severe beating in 2014. It definitely needs to be an all-hands-on-deck election. The Democratic Party has pretty clearly become out of the touch with the values of Colorado voters. They’ve become arrogant and entitled, and if they aren’t made to pay a price, this won’t be the end of it.
Tuesday News Dump
The gun rights news cycle is getting a little dry, so this news dump will have a few off-topic links.
The Reason-Rupe poll: Congress should cut spending and forget gun control.
The people still don’t approve of Obama’s handling of the gun issue. But gun control is a winner!
Anti-gun groups blowing money to praise O’Malley. Yes. Let us make sure everyone knows he’s a gun control supporter. That ought to help destroy any Presidential ambitions he might have. Also, in Illinois, anti-gun groups are running deceptive ads by showing an M4 firing on full-auto.
“But hubris got to them and decided to ignore a basic principle of living and politics in the USA:Â Leave Gun Owners Alone.” That pretty much sums up the first half of 2013.
The gun control crowd is still applying pressure to swing state Senators. Kelly Ayotte is fighting back.
PA lawmaker wants gun database dismantled. This has taken way too long to fix, and I doubt it’ll happen this session, but I’m glad it’s not being completely forgotten about.
Florida Carry is filing some lawsuits.
Mother Jones discovers building your own gun is legal. The horror! Except there’s some question that the bullet button device on the AK wouldn’t comply with California law because it’s placed too far back, which would allow the magazine to still be detached without the use of a tool. I’m not an expert on this, but I wonder if any of the irony strikes him.
Off topic, but interesting:Â an Illinois school teacher is in hot water because he taught students about their right against self-incrimination, protected under the 5th Amendment of the Bill of Rights. Well, when it comes to the War on Drugs, we can’t be having any of these constitutional rights, now can we? We definitely can’t have the little tykes asserting they have rights that trump the authority of school administrators either.
Government v3.0. One of Kevin’s trademark Überposts.
Instapundit on the proposed media “Shield Law”: “We need protections for journalism, not journalists.“