Sebastian – Page 309 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Multi-Front Attack in Illinois

Contacts I have in the Land of Lincoln indicate the attack from the anti-gun folks is far broader than initially indicated.

There is a shooting range bill that would essentially shut down most recreational shooting in the state, and bring the remainder under strict regulation.
There is a magazine ban. The grandfathering is practically non-existent for existing magazines. Transfer is not possible except to an heir or out of state. Magazines must be registered to be legal.
There is a lost & stolen requirement for magazines. Do you know where all your magazines are? I don’t. I haven’t even counted. Why? Because it’s a box with a spring.
The assault weapons ban is charitably worse than Feinstein’s. Basically if it’s not grandpa’s deer rifle, it’s pretty much illegal. It will outlaw just about all popular semi-automatic firearms. What about .50BMG? Can’t have those either. Grandfathering is as non-existent as it is for magazines. Registration is required for them to be legal, only transferrable to heirs or out of state.
The anti-gun folks in Illinois also seem to believe the only legitimate sport shooting is Olympic shooting. The rest of us who do other shooting sports, sanction by NRA, USPSA, or IDPA can get bent, apparently.

So if you’re in Illinois, get calling. Get your friend to call too. Know an old guy that has an M1 Carbine or two he thinks are safe? Get him involved too, because the M1 could be affected. We have to stop them here. It was inevitable that the Chicago machine would lash out after losing so badly in Court, but we have to stop them here. Illinois gun owners are now at the front line of the first battle in what’s going to be an awful, multi-year war.

The goal here is to throw everything at us, wear us down, and keep wearing us down until we capitulate; until people are so tired of calling and writing, that we stop doing it. Are we going to let them do that to us? We have to stop each and every one of these.

Truer Words Were Never Uttered

Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for reminding me of this gem:

Most politicians aren’t voting their conscience. Some of them have been in this business so long I’m convinced they have one. They are voting what’s politically expedient most of the time. If you change what that is, you can change their position.

What is Often Attributed to Malice …

… is often just plain stupidity. Every town, including the small borough I grew up in, had a cop where everyone thinks, “I can’t believe they let that guy walk around with a gun.” In big cities there are more people, and much bigger departments.

Wednesday Tab Clearing

Tabs are getting built up again, and there’s a lot of stuff happening now:

New York State Rifle and Pistol Association and Westchester County Firearms Owners Association are calling for a boycott of the Journal News and its advertisers.

The Journal News apparently has hired armed guards to protect them. See, guns are only dangerous in the hands of the little people.

An analysis of Senator Feinstein’s claims the assault weapons ban was effective.

Why I rejoined the NRA.

Newtown-style assault rifle? Really? All this time I’ve been carrying a Virginia-tech-style handgun. I didn’t even know it.

Just Noticing Now?

We noticed this “easter egg” in the health care bill when it happened, so did Politico. But the Washington Post is just now getting around to noticing. Harry Reid, who <sarcasm>was of course not worthy of an NRA endorsement</sarcasm>, got that put in there for us. The provision prevents the federal government from using doctors to create a database of gun owners. More broadly, it seems to prohibit the inclusion of information about gun ownership in medical records at all.

Hey, if you’re going to force government health care down our throats, everything becomes political. And I think a requirement like that is on better First Amendment grounds than the bill that gagged doctors from talking about gun ownership at all. The WaPo, however, is pretty obviously doing it’s part to try to discredit the NRA. But consider that this was sent by a reader who though this was a good catch on NRA’s part.

What Bloomberg Wants

Article by Jeffery Goldberg appearing in Bloomberg’s publishing empire, debunking the myths of gun control. Take a careful look at “Myth No. 3” I think Bloomberg would be perfectly OK with conceding everything else that’s been thrown at us if he got a gun show loophole bill. I view their placing an article by Goldberg as an attempt to work that particular field while the President is busy doing his thing.

Glenn Reynolds summed it up best: “Divide, weaken, and rule.” Hey, it works for Chicago. It was only a matter of time before he executed this tactic on gun rights.

Forbes on Assault Weapons

“[A] PR stunt that fools the gullible and easily deluded.”Â We also have to be concerned about a magazine ban, which is going to be floated a “reasonable compromise.” No.

A New Season

Something we’re getting into is buying up old cast iron cookware, and restoring it. We’re starting with my late grandmother’s old #8 skillet, which was in horrible shape when I got it. I only made it worse by using it to hold hot coals for my smoker, which stripped a lot of the seasoning off and opened it up for more rust. I also bought, for six dollars at a thrift shop, an antique #8 skillet from the turn of the century (the last century), which has a few rust spots on it, but otherwise looks to be in quite good shape. Over the holidays, Bitter’s mom gave us an old #10 skillet that needs to be restored.

As a kid growing up, my mother always had well-seasoned cast iron cookware, which I learned to cook on. After my mom died, and we all moved out of the old house (my dad remarried, and my sister got married), either my sister or my dad got my mom’s cast iron. None of the modern pans I’ve used since have been their equivalent, so I’m looking to make some of my own, and ditch the modern non-stick el-cheapo crap. I’ve been making more pan cooked dishes lately, and miss the old cast iron. If this all works, I might look at trying to score a cast iron wok.

Fiscal Cliff Deal

I’m just not as mad as some on the right are about this. The rich overwhelmingly voted to have their taxes go up by re-electing Obama. So be it. I also agree with Powerline blog that it will hardly make a difference in the deficit:

But what happens now that Obama has gotten his way? It will soon become apparent that the fiscal cliff deal, including precisely the tax increases that Obama has been demanding for four years, makes hardly a dent in the deficit. At best, it will reduce the deficit by five or six percent. We will continue to run up deficits of close to $1 trillion a year, and the national debt will continue to grow, as Obama has always intended. This fact canâ€™t be hidden; it will be reported.

I’m not sure about it being reported, but the fact that this won’t close the deficit is truth. I certainly don’t want my taxes raised, but at some point people have to come to terms with the real cost of the big government they are voting for.

A lot of conservatives, and I do as well, favor a balanced budget amendment, except in the case of war or other extreme emergencies. If that were ever to become reality, paying for the government you’re voting for is pretty much built into that idea. As it is, anti-tax pledges are essentially a mechanism whereby we can continue voting for big government, buy paying for it through borrowing from future generations. Maybe it will take making people understand the cost of all this, by actually paying for it, before they will be willing to reassess whether big government is really what they want.

New Details on Illinois Gun Ban Bill

According to ISRA:

Based on what we know about Cullertonâ€™s bill, firearms that would be banned include all semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and shotguns.Â Pump action shotguns would be banned as well.Â This would be a very comprehensive ban that would include not only so-called â€œassault weaponsâ€ but also such classics as M1 Garands and 1911-based pistols.Â There would be no exemptions and no grandfathering.Â You would have a very short window to turn in your guns to the State Police to avoid prosecution.

They seem to be taking the tactic of “go big or go home,” and it’s incumbent on each and every one of us to ensure the latter is the result. This is their end game. Anyone who says they aren’t coming for your guns is a liar. They most certainly are where they think they can get away with it.

UPDATE: John Richardson, “You have to wonder just how committed to democracy and representative government are those politicians who would push for gun bans.” You also have to wonder what it says about the strength of their position, that they feel they have to spring this on us the day after a holiday so that there’s no time for debate. They know we can be a force once mobilized, so they are hoping to ram something through before the alarm is heard and responded to.