South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley proved that she is quite comfortable talking guns, business, and the business of guns in a recent video. While it is mostly just a summary of her trip to a gun manufacturer, I do love how she brags about taking time to shoot while in heels. The highlights of her visit show that she is absolutely comfortable handling firearms – certainly far more comfortable with firearms than most of Pennsylvania’s elected representatives.
Author: Bitter
Fixing the Legislative Process
I see this op-ed is a bit of a back-handed compliment.
It acknowledges NSSF’s legal concerns about the abuse of the emergency certification by lawmakers seeking to avoid accountability to concerned citizens, but then basically says that it is really only a problem when such a process is abused for their pet concerns – like restricting pictures available to the press.
It argues that while it may not be ideals, it’s ultimately okay to abuse it for screwing those damn gun owners since that’s clearly a real emergency and it’s not important to actually discuss details of gun laws that could land innocent people in jail.
Reasonable Conversations
NRA is opening a new museum in Springfield, Missouri that highlights historical sporting firearms. (It will be located inside the Bass Pro Shops flagship store, hence the focus on arms used for sporting purposes in history.) Anyway, I caught something from a few days ago that shows Talking Points Memo picked up the story.
Knowing their extreme anti-NRA bias, I couldn’t help but wonder why they might be going after a freakin’ museum that focuses on the shooting sports.
Turns out that the actual blogger didn’t really add much in the way of anti-gun commentary, but the readers sure did. I think it’s useful to see that the same masses claiming they aren’t after your guns used for sport really aren’t even willing to truly accept a museum dedicated to sporting arms where the guns aren’t even available to individuals. Here are some of the highlights:
“The NRA’s National Sporting Arms Museum” better known as The Tower Of Death! Bring the kids for a unique family experience tracing the history of bloodshed in America! …
Are the floors spotless marble or are they covered in blood? …
What’s next? A NRA amusement park where people go in but don’t come out. Where “Stand Your Ground” is a shooting gallery for the Zimmermans of the world so they can shoot young unarmed black teenagers.
Of course, there are plenty of assumptions that NRA members are ready to shoot hippies, minorities, gay men, and atheists. Oh, and don’t forget the assertion that all NRA members are men who need to hire hookers to prove how manly they really are.
This is just the response to news that there will be a museum on inaccessible firearms that have a place in our nation’s sporting history. Imagine how these same people really feel about the concept of owning a firearm for actual self-defense. And these people want me to believe they are open to good-faith compromise? Yeah, right.
Why Gun Owners Really Aren’t Paranoid
Dave Hardy has an excellent essay in Reason about why gun owners have history on their side to back up fighting new gun restrictions. I know that most of you know these things, and it may seem like preaching to the choir. However, I really think it’s worth a read because it’s clearly written for a non-gun audience. I think we sometimes need to remember how to communicate with those who are sympathetic to our cause, but maybe don’t really see what the big deal is over bills like Manchin-Schumer-Toomey.
Compromise requires that both parties relinquish something. If your counterpart’s position is “give me this now, and I’ll take the rest later,†there is no real compromise to be had. Over decades, that has been precisely the experience of American gun owners.
Most of the piece gives specific examples of violations of this concept of “compromise” that we’re so used to dealing with.
Update on the Colorado Recalls
Not surprisingly, the decidedly unhappy Democrats who are subject to recall are fighting with everything they’ve got and going to court. The decision will is apparently expected at about 1pm local time today.
As an outsider, you know what I see? I see two incumbents who are continuing to generate headline after headline that voters in their district don’t want them anymore. While they may be delaying the potential recall elections, they are also creating more headlines and stories that opposition in any general election could use against them. Oh, and it’s giving local opposition more time to recruit and vet recall challengers. I see the opportunity for people within their own party to figure that they want this this mess to go away already, so they may be considering whether or not they want to primary the incumbents.
The big challenge for our side will be keeping gun owners fired up and ready act once there’s an election happening. They need to be willing to give to opposition candidates with both their time and money. It’s tough to keep that kind of excitement sustained, but hopefully Colorado can pull it off.
You Might Be a Gun Nut If…
I had to laugh recently when Sebastian was looking for something to carry his swimsuit, a t-shirt, and other swimming gear like sunscreen to his office pool party. Given that we’re still moving things down into the basement office (lots of re-organizing and moving things into more useful storage as we move things down), there were empty ammo cans near the door.
I think you can guess what he opted to use.
Still Got Guns to Give Away…
Guess who still has tickets available for a gun drawing? That’s right, my local Friends of NRA committee.
We’ve got 5 guns to draw for, including the Kimber featured here. There are also two Kahr 1911s, a Taurus, and an AR. With a maximum of 300 tickets sold for just $20 each, the odds for each ticket are just 1 in 60 to win a gun. There aren’t many chances to beat that.
As mentioned before, there are no online sales. But, if you want a ticket, just shoot me an email and I’ll let you know how you can buy one (or more if you want to increase your odds of winning).
The rules about FFLs and all that good stuff are in the linked post, so go check it out if you have questions.
Can Self-Defense Really be “Senselessly Expanded”?
Attorney General Eric Holder believes that we go too far in allowing law-abiding citizens to defend their lives in attacks by criminals:
Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation’s attention, it’s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods. (emphasis added)
Speaking about broader self-defense laws beyond the Zimmerman case, Holder calls putting the duty on the law-abiding citizen to retreat from attackers “common sense.”
Prius-Driving, Pink Shirt-Wearing Candidate for Colorado Governor
It looks like the freshest candidate in Colorado’s gubernatorial race is a big cycling enthusiast who hops in his Prius when he has to drive somewhere and is comfortable showing off in a somewhat slim-fitting pink polo.
Oh, and he’s a pro-gun guy.
As Jim Geraghty notes, another big plus to Brophy is that he’s not Tom Tancredo. I also appreciate his pitch for issues beyond the gun issue:
“Instead of limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines, we will work to increase the capacity of our highways,†Brophy said. “We will increase the number of charter schools and magnet schools.â€
Even if the gun control law is a big reason why he’s running for governor, it’s good that he has a message of positive changes he wants to make, too.
CT State Police Aren’t Engineers
This is the reason that State Police Det. Ken Damato gives for the Connecticut State Police refusing to give manufacturers any guidance on what features of a firearm would be within the bounds of the state’s new gun control laws. He says, “We’re not arbiters of weapons construction.”
Such excuses are interesting considering that he then admits the same non-engineers who know so little about firearms are telling retailers what they can and cannot sell, and I have little doubt that these non-engineer/non-firearms experts will gladly arrest a citizen with a gun they claim they don’t really understand.
Of course, don’t expect any consistency out of the State Police on this issue. They will defend their absolute knowledge when it comes to arresting people, but not when it comes to assisting the firearms business in attempting to follow the law.
This reeks of Massachusetts-style attitudes. There are two sets of requirements that have to be met before handguns can be sold in Massachusetts, and Attorney General requirements are essentially handled the same way that the Connecticut State Police are behaving now. They tell manufacturers that they will not assist in judging compliance–unless, that is, you break the law. Then they will gladly go after you for the crime.
I remember a period of a few weeks when Glock decided to try legally selling in Massachusetts back in 2004 or so. The AG’s office, which would not provide guidance up until that point, just suddenly decided that they didn’t actually meet requirements and made them illegal to sell. If you want an idea of the kind of mess that Connecticut may be on the path toward by adopting Massachusetts-style attitudes on gun regulations, then check out this crazy page by a Massachusetts gun dealer that tries to explain what he can and cannot sell.
Even the Connecticut press seems to think this attitude that the State Police are refusing to help people abide by the law is too much. Granted, their solution is to make government bigger to answer more questions, but at least they acknowledge that there’s a problem when bureaucrats try to keep things vague for people trying to follow the law.