St. Patrick’s Day, for the Irish, is usually a day for festive drinking, which is to say not that different from any other day. It’s just on St. Patrick’s Day, you drink wearing green. My immediate plans for celebration involve heading down to McDonald’s to get a Shamrock Shake. I’ll wait until later for a drink. When I was a kid, an anxiously awaited the arrival of the Shamrock Shake every year. I seem to recall for a while it was just a regular vanilla shake with green food coloring in it. Those were disappointing times. But now it’s back to its original goodness. Now that I’m an adult, I’m wondering what a Shamrock Shake would taste like if you added a shot of Jameson’s to it. Hmm.
Author: Sebastian
Preemption Enforcement Tabled
Looks like the GOP chickened out on preemption enforcement. There were a few local reps here that looked to be wavering. Tabling might have done the bill a favor if we need time to get the needed votes and support, since if it had been voted down it’d be dead for the session. But it’s disappointing that some are going soft on the issue. Preemption is a bedrock principle for gun owners.
Constitutional Carry Vetoed by Governor Daugaard of South Dakota
This was a surprise to wake up to this morning, but it does go to show why Constitutional Carry is such a difficult issue for us in Pennsylvania, when it’s extremely difficult to get it even in states where it should be a slam-dunk. Governor Daugaard has signed a number of pro-gun measures into law during his tenure, but this was apparently a bit too much for him. South Dakota would have been the 4th state to enact Constitutional Carry, and the 5th state to not require a license or permit to carry a concealed firearm. The other states are Alaska, Arizona, and Wyoming. Vermont has always had constitutional carry.
The State of Internet Gun Reviews
The Vuurwapen Blog has an interesting post on the state of gun reviews online. He doesn’t feel they are up to par in most cases. I haven’t done that many reviews here, largely because I only review guns I use fairly regularly, and have some expertise with. I only have two pistols I carry regularly, a Glock 19 and an Elsie Pea, and there are enough reviews out there on those guns that I don’t really have anything to add. I did recently do a review / comparison with my previous pocket carry piece, the P3AT. but generally speaking, I don’t consider gear to be something I have any unique expertise in. I’m also out that phase where I see a new gun an automatically have to have it. Sure, every once in a while I’ll see something that strikes my fancy. Not too long ago at a gun show I saw a beautiful, unmolested Krag-Jorgensen and damned near dropped the 1400 they were asking on it in a month where I had already spent my play money. I ultimately hesitated, because I always like to research what to look for on a gun before diving in, so I can ensure the price is right. But I’ve never seen one since, so I kind of regret being careful.
Either way, back to the original subject, a good bit of advice to up and coming bloggers it to find an area of expertise in the community you’re blogging in, and fill that niche. For me, I’ve tried to develop expertise in the politics of the gun issue, and on how the law surrounding firearms works (or doesn’t work, as the case may be). I’ve also spend a good deal of time learning about the National Rifle Association, how it works and doesn’t work, and how the organization is structured and operates. In that process I’ve gotten to know a number of people in the Association, both in Fairfax and in the field. I think developing unique expertise is important, and there’s plenty of areas out there that are lacking. For instance, until John Richardson came along, I couldn’t keep up with all the Second Amendment cases that were filed post McDonald. John has developed the expertise and is the go-to blog when there’s a case development. SayUncle is the blog to hit when you want to see what everyone is writing about today, and what the topics of conservation are, which brings up another important point. The Internet gun blog community is really an ongoing conversation on the topics of the day. The key to relevance is entering that conversation with the expertise you developed. If you consistently do that, you’ll earn people’s respect and they’ll start linking to you. It’s unfortunate that getting noticed is harder now then it was when I started blogging, but it’s not impossible. The key it just to get yourself out there and make enough conversation that people notice. I generally will read links provided in the comments, and generally read e-mailed links (though, due to volume of e-mail, I miss a lot).
I’m with the Vuurwapen Blog that reviews are now pretty much a dime a dozen. I don’t read gun reviews anymore. That market has been so crowded by SEO seekers with no real expertise such that any review is suspect. When I’m in the market for a new gun, I will generally ask someone I know who’s got experience or expertise on a particular type of firearm, like Tam, Caleb, SayUncle, or Joe depending on the gun of interest.
Preparedness for Kids
The first thing you do is talk to them about why. Don’t bombard them with doom and gloom scenarios—make it fun. In discussing why with my children, we talked about everything from weather, asteroids, zombies, pirates and more stuff than I can remember.
So I guess you save the conversation about having to eat the family dog until that option is really on the table (no pun intended). Makes sense.
Tab Clearing
Time for another tab clearing. I have a quarterly meeting today, and I need to get an expense report in because I put close to 700 dollars worth of equipment on my credit card, and it’s time to get that back. Posting may be light until I’m out of the meeting.
HSUS is once again misleading the public. HSUS is arguably a greater danger to hunting and shooting than MAIG is, as they’ve gotten behind every lead ban initiative out there. They are well funded and have a huge base of people to draw from.
There’s a carry case in Hawaii that’s moving forward. Baker v. Kealoha.
Don’t forget that the NRA Annual Meeting is April 12 -15 in St. Louis. We’ll be there, though we aren’t organizing any blogger stuff this year. We may in the future again, but between switching jobs, etc, it’s just been too busy. You’ll probably see us around though, if you’re another blogger and planning on going.
Stephens Media would seem to be getting stuck with the Righthaven bill. This is just desserts.
Joe has a quote about anti-rights twaddle of the media, and how it’s almost pointless to argue with them. I don’t do take downs of media articles too often these days, largely because there just aren’t as many, and what does appear is just unbelievably ridiculous. I think it’s becoming obvious to everyone the Emperor has no clothes, and probably never did.
Looks like the TSA Nude-o-Scopes don’t even really work that well.
Clayton thinks Republicans need to stop acting like Democrats.
Rethinking the 5th Circuit
Gun owners tend to think favorably of the 5th Circuit, because it’s the circuit that Emerson came out of, but they’ve been on a roll lately with unfavorable decisions. This latest one they argue that the right to bear arms only covers arms in general, and not one specific firearm. What? So let me get this straight, the police can come into my house, take all my firearms, not charge me with anything, and that’s not a violation of my rights because I can always go buy new ones?
The right protected by the Second Amendment is not a property-like right to a specific firearm, but rather a right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.
I’d be curious to know what the case law is on something like this in a First Amendment context. Can the police seize a printing press from a newspaper, fail to file any charges, and keep the press? Would this create a viable First Amendment complaint?
Very interesting is that Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, the dissenting judge in this case, brings up, once again, Judge Kavanaugh’s dissent in the Heller II case in the D.C. Circuit. I may have more to say about this later. But I think Judge Kavanaugh was on to something when he penned that dissent.
Stabby
Mass stabbing in Ohio. Note I don’t hear about this from the media. Clearly if we just had universal background checks on all knives, and required them to be locked in a safe when not in use, things like this just wouldn’t happen.
A True American
Bob Owens speaks of some bad home invasion advice, but I wanted to draw attention to a comment:
I’m a muzzleloading enthusiast exclusively, before you laugh trust me that the fire and smoke a .75 caliber Brown Bess puts out would scare the bejesus out of even the most determined intruder. While they’re wondering what happened I’ve got the bayonet… ;-)
I’m thinking “wondering what happened” is more like trying to pat out the fires on the perps clothes started by embers of unburnt powder. Either way, I like people who take their hobbies seriously. It’s also just kind of amusing for those among our opponents who think the flaming death machine is a modern invention. A hit from a Brown Bess is going to ruin your day, really no matter where it hits.
I should note that this does not mean I’m endorsing the Brown Bess as an ideal home defense firearm, but it was good enough to build the British Empire, and round for round, quite a bit more lethal than many modern firearms. A 9mm Luger +P JHP is heading out about 1200-1400fps, which is roughly the same as a Brown Bess. But for a 9mm pistol, that’s throwing 115-147gr of copper and lead projectile downrange, whereas the Brown Bess is throwing close to 600 grains of lead downrange.
I’m going to bet that goes through more than a few sheets of drywall.
That Was Good of Them
Newtown Township, here in my County, has decided to follow state law. They are seeing the writing on the wall in regards to how we feel about preemption, and decided to take some preventative measures. This is a great development, considering the bill isn’t even law yet.
UPDATE: Greg notes in the comments that they are still requiring a permit for parks, meaning they still have some changing to do if they want to remain compliant with state law in regards to preemption since it’s not unlawful to openly carry in a park, according to state law.