Sebastian – Page 365 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The Truth About ARs

I’m glad to see outdoor writers clearing the air in regards to AR rifles, and telling the truth about them, including explaining the recent surge in sales. Looks like they interviewed State Rep. Bryan Cutler for this article, speaking of his bill, H.B. 347, which would open the door to legal semi-auto rifle hunting in Pennsylvania:

State Rep. Bryan Cutler, of Peach Bottom, is one hunter and gun enthusiast who joined the AR craze.Â Cutler built his own .223-caliber AR by getting the various parts and creating a custom gun.Â “That’s something I just always wanted to do,” he said.Â Cutler uses his AR for target shooting, and hopes to one day shoot it competitively.Â “I’ve always had an interest in the three-gun competition, so maybe I’ll get into that somewhere down the road when my schedule allows it.”

In a three-gun competition, shooters work through a tactical course, firing a handgun, shotgun and AR rifle at targets.Â Cutler also hopes to someday be allowed to use his AR for hunting varmints and predators in Pennsylvania.Â He’s a co-sponsor of House Bill 347, which would legalize the use of “any semi-automatic rimfire rifle, .22 caliber or less, for the taking of coyotes, foxes or woodchucks,” the bill states.Â The bill is intended to crack the door for using semi-automatic rifles for hunting here.

I’d work hard to keep any politician that was actually interested in three gun and built his own AR. That’s a rare breed in politics. His bill only legalizes semi-auto rimfire in .22 or less, and obviously we’d eventually like to see centerfire semi-automatic rifles hunting legal in Pennsylvania, but baby steps. Read the whole article. It’s pretty refreshing to see something like this in the main stream media.

Visiting a Sikh Temple

Sean took a visit to a temple in North Carolina, and found some fellow gun nuts. I’m not an expert on the Sikh religion, but the way I understood their dedication to peace, among all peoples, was that it was backed up with a healthy, “but don’t f**k with us,” philosophy on the virtue of self-defense. That’s the kind of peace I can believe in.

Wrong Strategies

Blake Zeff laments the fact that the gun control movement has no power, and offers this bit of advice to them:

For ideas on how to improve their effectiveness, gun control advocates could do worse than to study the playbook of the most effective liberal policy initiative in recent years: the movement to legalize same-sex marriage.

I would turn around and argue the movement to legalize same-sex marriage has been an utter disaster for gays who want to marry. They’ve been screwed by the radicalness of their own leadership, who chose to try to force this through the judicial system, and then faced a backlash by a public that was overwhelmingly opposed to it. How many states now need a constitutional amendment passed in order to legalize same-sex marriage? Anyone with strategic sense, looking at the generation gap on this issue, would have decided the prudent course of action would be a legislative strategy in blue states, followed by purple, and then red, as the generation gap played out over time. As it is, it will take serious effort to undo the damage done by a panicked public, caused by the choice to try to enact gay marriage through judicial fiat. So I don’t think that the gay marriage movement is a model. It is a case of a bridge too far, too soon, and if we had that much damage to undo with gun rights, I wouldn’t feel very good about things right now.

Now, the overall gay rights movement, on the other hand, is a fairly effective model, but as Â Joe Huffman also notes that this guy has it backwards, but it looks like Reasoned Discourse is in effect over there.

Want!

It’s totally not rational, but I started drooling when I saw this DRD Tactical Paratus Takedown RifleÂ over at The Firearm Blog. I’d actually prefer one in .223, rather than .308, but I’m most attracted to the take down feature, and its ability to fit in a small case for easy transport. I’m considerably less attracted to $5615 price tag. For that price, you might as well get the SBR version and pay the tax.

Texas A&M Shooting Suspect “Crazy as Hell”

This really is making me think Clayton is onto something big time when it comes to treatment for the mentally ill. The A&M shooter’s parents know he’s as crazy as a shithouse rat, and a danger to himself and others, know he’s buying guns, and yet they do nothing? I have a standing order with all my close family that is I ever start wandering off the reservation, they are remove the guns from the house.

In an interview withÂ KPRC, a local television station, Caffallâ€™s stepfather, Richard Weaver, said Caffall was a â€œticking time bombâ€ who quit his job nine months ago and vowed never to work again.

“He was crazy as hell,” Weaver said. “At one point, we were afraid that he was going to come up here and do something to his mother and me.”

Now the question is, who else knew this guy was “crazy as hell,” and did nothing?

Soaked to the Bone

Getting a late start this morning. We had a bunch of waste from some work we’ve been having done around the house, including getting rid of some concrete from a sidewalk we took up. Looking at the cost of a dumpster compared to the cost of a junk hauler, I’m willing to pay some extra bucks so I don’t have to deal with moving it all. Plus, I was worried about putting a roll off dumpster on the fresh asphalt that’s on my driveway. But I’m one of those folks who likes to keep an eye on things when I have people working, and it’s pouring down rain out. I’d say it was worth the soaking. I’ve been keeping piles of crap from various jobs around the side yard where people can’t see, and now that’s all gone, and in a lot less time than it would have taken Bitter and I to haul it ourselves.

Gun Control in Venezuela: Police State

From Miguel, who kindly translated some parts of their law from Spanish:

If you own a restaurant where alcohol is served, you must force your clientele to be searched & probed before going in. So basically you have to go through a TSA screening every time you go wanna eat something or choose a restaurant that does not sell alcohol which in Venezuela, other than fast food places, there are very few.

Sounds like the kind of common sense approach to gun laws that our opponents believe in.

Quote of the Day

Frank W. James on the mass shootings:

Combining the two tragedies in Aurora, Colo., and Oak Creek, Wis., into a single question about gun control is tantamount to asking if we should make it harder for consumers to get the make and model of the automobile driven by a drunken driver after he crossed the center line and killed a family of four.

Yep. In most other contexts I think your average person would think the gun control crowd’s prescription was sheer madness and hysteria. But we treat guns differently. Probably because the mentality that lead to thinking like this is still alive and well in the public mind.

Game Changer?

All I keep reading in the conservative media is how McCain has made a bold choice, and how the veep pick is just totally reshaping the whole race. It’s a different dynamic! A game changer! It’s not just McCain now, it’s a ticket! Lines around the corner to see the newly selected Veep! We’ll have this election in the bag!

Wait, did I say McCain? I meant Romney. I guess a bit too much deja-vu today.

The Media Hysteria is Winding Down

For the past several weeks, it’s just been wall-to-wall hysteria in the media about the need for more gun control. If my Google Alerts are any indication, the media is predictably moving on to other topics that generate more eyeballs. Move along. Nothing to see here. At least until the next sensationalist story comes along. I obviously have not covered much of the hysteria. It’s not changing any minds anyway.

I think we may have come to a stability in terms of public opinion on the gun issue, where we’ve pretty much convinced a majority that gun laws are not the solution to social ills. This is a good place to be, but we still need to do more. How? The Second Amendment, that you have some, if perhaps ill-defined in the public mind, right to own a firearm for self-defense, is now greater than an 80% issue. That you have a right to a handgun is approaching an 80% issue. I’d like to get the need for new gun laws to an 80% issue as well, and increases the number of folks who think maybe we ought to repeal a few. But how?

I suspect we’ve reached a stability because we’re not able to penetrate into the cities very effectively. New York and its entire metropolitan area is gun hostile. That’s close to 20 million people right there we can’t effectively reach. There’s another 13 million in the Los Angeles Metro area, and 10 million in the Chicago metro area. That’s 43 million people, the vast majority have no exposure to firearms, shooting, or hunting, and more importantly, 43 million people who are extremely unlikely to even know someone who does these things. If you total up all the hostile metro areas in this country, 5 million in the Boston area, 5 million in the bay area, 5 million in the San Bernardino area, and 3 million in San Diego, you’re starting to talk about a sizable chunk of public opinion.

I’ve always thought the fight in the Courts was important, but now I’m becoming convinced it’s of the utmost importance. If we’ve truly reaching a stability on the gun issue, the only way we’re going to make any further significant strides is to be able to re-establish a healthy shooting culture in these metro areas where it’s been extinguished because the anti-gunners control those legislatures or city councils. I also think it’s going to become more important for Congress to exercise it’s Section 5 powers under the 14th Amendment to eliminate state and local outliers in terms of gun laws. In fact, this is probably safer option than the states. If we can do that, I think you’ll see public opinion on this issue swing quite rapidly in our direction. If we can get most of the basic concepts of gun rights to 80% issues, most politicians won’t dare even speak the word gun control, no matter what the media and our hysterical opponents say.