Sebastian – Page 297 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Welcome to Tea Party 2.0: Gun Rights Edition

So I’m afraid my initial skepticism of Gun Appreciation Day has unfortunately panned out. We went down to the local gun shop to see if there was anyone participating that maybe we could reach in terms of helping to write lawmakers. But as you can see, just a typical Saturday down at Classic Pistol. No lines out the door or obvious presence.

But Gun Appreciation Day being a success or not, today was no failure. We have an excellent example of Tea Party-style organic organization happening right under our noses, which us by surprise. If we had known about this we would have gone to Harrisburg instead of trying to implement our plan.

Harrisburg, PA:

Images courtesy of @lauraolson

Denver, CO:

Images courtesy of @TickdOffPatriot & @fffalcon

Albany, NY:

Image courtesy of @anna12061

St. Paul, MN:

Images courtesy of @S_Larson & @robdoar

Salem, OR:

Images courtesy of @Beeshabomb2011 & @RedOregonCTU2

Salt Lake City, UT:

Images courtesy of @streetbauble

Madison, WI:

Image courtesy of @chunnamark

Jefferson City, MO:

Image courtesy of @BadtotheBohn

If you have pics from a rally at your State Capitol, please share.

NRA More Popular Than Obama

NRA Favorability is 54%, whereas Obama’s is 53%. For unfavorables, the number is 38% having an unfavorable view of NRA, compared to Obama’s 41% unfavorables.

h/t Instapundit

What Would Romney Have Done?

I pretty much agree with Tam’s take on this. Romney would be singing platitudes, and trying to avoid talking about the issue, but Barry would still be President right now. The only difference would be that I’d feel a bit better about the future. I say a bit, because I still wouldn’t trust Mitt. The other thing I’d suggest is that if Barry were on his way out, those executive orders would have been a lot worse. They would have been Barry’s dog shit in a paper bag left burning on the White House steps, daring Mitt to step on it.

I think we’d still be in trouble even if we had elected Mitt, but we’d probably need to be less concerned about long term trouble. Mitt would be looking to get re-elected, and throwing a key constituency under the bus early on wouldn’t be a great way to start a term. We also would likely be dealing with a demoralized and defeated left, rather than the energized and active left we’re facing now. So would it have mattered for now? Not much. But over the long term, I think we could count on a fierce fight over the next year, with Mitt disappointing us in some ways, but over the long haul, I think we’d be safer, and would have more options than we do looking forward now. I’d also feel a lot better if the GOP house had a President to protect, rather than to fight against. Mitt would likely, I think, take the Bush approach. He’d endorse legislation he knows Congress has no intention of ever putting on his desk.

The 40% Number

Getting a late start today because I was too busy last night to get anything up for this morning. But I’ll try to catch up a bit.

Clayton has an interesting article over at PJ Media questioning the scope of the “gun show loophole” problem, and also more at his blog on the much touted “40% of all guns sales are private,” number. This sounded awfully suspicious to me too, to be honest. I’m about as gun nutty as they come, and I can count on one hand the number of private transfers I’ve done. In two cases, I was the seller, and in two the buyer. In both cases I knew the person I was buying/selling from. I know people who are true collectors, who do a lot more buying and selling privately than I do, but true collectors do not represent a large majority of gun owners.

Protection Against Tyranny

Two thirds of American agree that is what the Second Amendment is aboutÂ (Warning, auto play video at that link):

Two-out-of-three Americans recognize that their constitutional right to own a gun was intended to ensure their freedom.

While there are often wide partisan differences of opinion on gun-related issues, even 54% of Democrats agree with 75% of Republicans and 68% of those not affiliated with either major party that the right to own a gun is to ensure such freedom.

This was a losing issue for them a few months ago. I think it still mostly is. But I’m not sure how much that matters in the current political climate. The only way it’s really a losing issue for them is if we make them lose.

Ooops

The idiot Cuomo forgot to exempt cops from his draconian new gun ban. I agree with Glenn Reynolds, who notes: “If I were a member of the legislature, Iâ€™d oppose a fix just as a lesson…”

Thoughtful Commentary on Today’s Situation

Dave Hardy looks at some history on this background check issue. Here is the gun control logic in a nutshell, imagined as a conversation between gun control advocates and policymakers:

Circa 1968:

Gun control advocate: “Well, you see, we have this problem, and the problem is that that all these gun transfers are private and largely unregulated, and we need a way to regulate and scrutinize these things.”

Policymaker: “Here is a Gun Control Act, which is the solution! We will license them!”

And the gun control advocates did thus rejoice.

Circa 1993:

Gun control advocate: “The problem is that too many people are complying with your previous solution and getting too many licenses, so now we need a solution to the problem caused by the first solution.”

Policymaker: “Well, OK then, we’ll make it expensive and difficult to get an FFL, and add all kinds of new requirements!”

And the gun control advocates did thus rejoice.

Circa Right Now:

Gun control advocate: “Well, we a problem with all these private, unregulated sales, so we need a solution to the problem caused by theÂ solution to the problem caused by our first solution.”

Policymaker: “It sounds likeÂ the problem caused by theÂ solution to the problem caused by the first solution is an awful lot like the original problem we passed the first solution for in the first place.”

Gun control advocate: “Well, do you want to talk about a solution for the problem of there being gun owners yet?”

More Stolen Guns in New York

Another home robbed of firearms, thanks to the handy map of targets provided by the Journal News. How can these people claim, with a straight face, the anti-gun cause is really about gun violence prevention? It has never been about that. It’s about shaming people out of gun ownership and hating on people who refuse to take cues from hacks pretending to be their cultural betters. If this was about gun violence prevention, something like this never would have been published.

Of course, I guess there’s nothing to worry about since Governor Cuomo made it a crime to fill the magazine. Surely that was complied with, and criminals, of course, have no idea how to top off a magazine.

What Bloomberg’s Money is Buying?

Recommendations from the Gun Policy Summit, which I’m sure did not include any actual experts on guns or policy, and more accurately is a summit composed of a bunch of people with pieces of paper that they think say they are smarter than the rest of us. The rest of us who decided to forgo six figure debt to get into an unrewarding and over-regulated profession controlled by politicians, government bureaucrats and insurance company lobbyists. See also, anti-gun hacks sitting around a table trying to figure out how to better run your lives. No wonder Bloomberg is funding this. He loves this kind of nanny bullshit.

Filibuster Deal?

Being reported by Red State.

The left is fully on board and gearing up for this fight because they think they can get gun control through the Senate and other liberal initiatives.

A big problem we’re going to have is that I’m not sure the GOP would be too concerned about getting certain Democrats on record as supporting gun control. But by the same token, I don’t think they are going to want the House to look obstructionist either. One thing is for sure, if the GOP want to play games, they better pray nothing gets through, because if they hold together, nothing will. This means we still need to be writing our reps.