Bitter – Page 51 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Colorado Recall of the Senate President

According to this article, signatures to recall the Colorado Senate President will be presented to the state today.

This could be the interesting recall to watch since he’s a bigger symbolic target, and the numbers behind the last election show he is beatable if he has pissed people off. What impressed me from the article is that gun owners appear to have been quite sharp and focused in meeting their goal on this recall effort:

Many of those petitions were signed at Paradise Sales under the watchful eye of Mr. Paradis, who says he was careful to check the eligibility of interested supporters on the secretary of stateâ€™s website before letting them sign.

â€œAbout 50 percent of the people who came in to sign the petition didnâ€™t live in the district, but wanted to help,â€ said Mr. Paradis, one of three residents in Mr. Morseâ€™s district who launched the recall. â€œThereâ€™s a real groundswell of support for this. They woke up a sleeping giant.â€

That’s good to know that at least one of the organizers was being especially focused. And it’s great to hear that people who weren’t qualified to sign were still offering to help.

Too many gun owners feel like they live in areas where they can’t make a difference, but the district right next door may be a prime target. Unlike Mike Bloomberg, you’re still part of that community.

One problem with a successful petition is that gun owners may believe that the message sent has been loud enough, and it won’t be until 2014. The energy needs to carry on into far more districts. If that can happen, then the message will likely be very loud and nationwide.

UPDATE: And, of course, in the time I started writing the post and actually got around to publishing it, Cam has updated that they have turned in far more signatures than needed.

More than 16k signatures turned in to CO Sec of State’s office for recall effort against State Senate President John Morse. #gunversation

— CamEdwards (@CamEdwards) June 3, 2013

Journalism Prof Misfires on NRA Speech Claims

It would seem that journalism professor Chris Swindell has forgotten the elementary lesson we all learned that one should be able to answer the 5 Ws when reporting a story. Sure, he asserted the Who, and he made some dubious claims about the What and Why. But, he didn’t include the When, Where–you know, the actual evidence for his claims.

Here it is. The NRA advocates armed rebellion against the duly elected government of the United States of America. That’s treason, and it’s worthy of the firing squad.

I’m sure most of you have read this article by now since it was linked on Drudge, but I have to admit that I’m floored the Charleston Gazette opted to run it since claims like this aren’t backed up by any kinds of quotes or speech references. It’s devoid of facts, but makes outlandish claims while citing zero evidence for much of his piece. In the few areas where he does reference some kind of “fact,” it is misconstrued beyond even what even other liberals will claim, or as far as I can tell in one reference, completely falsified.

The closest Swindell comes to actually citing any sort of “evidence,” he completely misconstrues the case beyond even what Media Matters was willing to do. He references Jim Porter’s speech where he made the comment that in the South, plenty of people still call the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression. He made the comment as a joke in discussing the fact that the NRA was founded in New York, where he was speaking in 2012. (See what I did there? I answered who, where, when, why, and what. That lesson is free of charge, Chris Swindell.) Swindell falsifies the “fact” and claims that it was an entire speech about the Civil War. No, it wasn’t. In fact, Porter, in one throw away line during a speech that briefly mentioned the history of the NRA, was making light of something that is actually true in some areas. I didn’t even live in the old south that was most involved in the Civil War, and I heard people call it the War of Northern Aggression.

At another point in Swindell’s article, he says:

To turn the song lyric they so love to quote back on them, “We’ll put a boot in your —, it’s the American way.”

I know this sounds petty, but where they hell is the evidence that any NRA leader quoted that song at Annual Meeting or any other event? I was there, and I don’t recall hearing it. I searched for it, and I can’t find any references for Wayne LaPierre or Jim Porter quoting from the song. In fact, the singer responsible for the song from which that lyric is lifted is a Democrat who openly supports Obama’s policies. (Toby Keith was once hired to play an NRA convention 5 years prior to his declaration of support for Obama. That puts Keith outside of the mainstream of even other Oklahoma Democrats since not even the Democratic elected official to DC would support Obama.)

But back to the point of the post, there’s no actual evidence that I can find that this lyric was quoted. The evidence shows that Jim Porter did not actually deliver an entire speech on the Civil War while only calling it the War of Northern Aggression. And there are no actual quotes referenced that back up Swindell’s claim that it’s time to kill NRA members with assaults from tanks, jets, and missiles while putting the rest of us up in front of a firing squad.

Now, I get that the Charleston Gazette probably ran this piece because they knew exactly the kind of response it would get. I mean, come on; who isn’t going to click on an article by a journalism professor who advocates killing 5 million Americans for having different political views? But maybe I’m naÃ¯ve when I think that even such link bait should at least follow the most elementary of journalistic principles. Apparently the editors of the Gazette and the journalism department of Marshall University don’t agree and believe that facts are optional in their reports.

Family War Service

Our little adventure out to find Revolutionary War graves over the Memorial Day weekend got me started on a fishing expedition for family information. I feel spurred to share a few of my discoveries regarding service in many of the wars this country has fought because of John Richardson’s Memorial Day post featuring the draft registration cards for his father and grandfathers.

I knew my great grandmother was a member of Daughters of the American Revolution, so I thought I would see what I could do to join since there are multiple active chapters around this part of Pennsylvania. After a few emails back and forth with my grandmother, we discovered that my great grandmother’s membership was no longer valid, not because she passed 11 years ago, but because the only family member she documented to DAR (her 3rd great grandfather) was found to have been turned down for a pension in further record reviews. However, she told my grandmother that she had documented multiple family members who had proven service in the Revolution. My grandmother, happily enough, pulled out a book from her father’s side that gives a direct and handy list of all the relatives back to my 6th great grandfather who is documented to have served in the war.

However, in my little trial of Ancestry.com, I started clicking on random branches with their little leaf hints attached. I am no where near done since most branches of my family have been in this country for a long, long time. However, I did just hit a someone who appears to be a documented veteran of the War of 1812. There’s totally a lineage group for that–National Society United States Daughters of 1812. I don’t really know much about them, but they don’t have a presence in the Philly area.

I also found a documented veteran of the Confederacy on a side of the family I really didn’t expect to see it on. Yup, there’s a group for that, too. (United Daughters of the Confederacy) My grandmother thinks that we also have documentation to prove lineage from a Union soldier as well. That would cover me for Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, 1861 – 1865. I’m seriously thinking that if I can document both connections, I may actually join both. Maybe I’m just silly, but I would find amusement in that.

I haven’t gone digging deep yet, but the family that is reportedly connected to Jefferson Davis, eh, not looking so good. As Sebastian noted, there are probably lots of Southern families with people named Davis who claim a relation. However, that side of the family is really into genealogy, so my mom is going to see what she can gather from those folks and we’ll see if there really is a connection. (Interestingly, if this connection is proven and documented, it could also be a different path for me to DAR, and the only likely path for my niece.)

I set up a tree on my account for Sebastian, and if he has followed the census records properly, he may have found a 3rd great grandfather who served for the Union in the Civil War whose service was previously unknown to his family. (Yes, there’s a Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.) Considering his family on both sides has been presumed to be fairly recently off the boat, this is actually an exciting possible find for him.

Another little tidbit I’ve discovered (though am waiting on family records to verify), is that by moving to be with Sebastian here in Southeast Pennsylvania, I’m apparently simply returning to the family lands of my 5th great grandfather. It turns out he owned 99 acres in Upper Bucks County as far back as at least 1789. I find that very, very odd.

To bring this rambling family war service post back to guns, we have learned that between the two of us, family names include John, Moses, and Browning.

Colorado Gun Vote Related Recall Fails – Sorta

According to this Denver Post article, the first of four attempted recalls targeting Democrats who voted for the gun control bills has failed. However, I would note that it really only failed on paper at the moment because there are some key points that look good for pro-gun advocates if they can get enough people motivated to work their butts off in 2014.

From the article, the requirements are that recall organizers must obtain signatures from enough voters to represent 25 percent of the votes cast for all parties in the last election in that district. The recall organizers who claimed that they had no professional help, no funding, and a completely grassroots local effort did manage to get about 20 percent of voters from the district to sign on and say they are so pissed off at him that they don’t even want the guy to finish his term. That is not a good sign for the incumbent to have that many people that pissed off so early.

There are still three more recall efforts to go in Colorado, so we’ll see how they go.

But this shows that kind of showing in a relatively unorganized recall effort shows that Colorado gun owners can turn this situation around if they get off their butts. There are no excuses for Centennial State gun guys and gals next year.

Things I Don’t Understand About Voting in Philly

I’m baffled by the stories that come out of Philadelphia after every single election. Last November, one polling location staffed by many Democrats thought it was perfectly appropriate to line up the voting machines in a room with a giant mural of a candidate on the ballot. A judge had to step in and let them know to cover it up. I wouldn’t even care if it was my candidate, my first thought would be to send someone out for a tarp, bed sheet, or giant roll of paper to cover it since it could clearly be seen as electioneering. But, no. This is something that Philadelphia poll workers needed a court to order.

After yesterday’s primary, the news was complaining about the lack of “shenanigans” that required court intervention in Philadelphia. I mean, how dare these people think that holding reasonable elections without rampant violations of election laws is acceptable?

That said, the main story this highlight still leaves me baffled. Apparently a candidate on the ballot tried to convince a poll worker running the elections to wear a temporary tattoo that promoted his campaign. The story says that the candidate was joking (but he apparently doesn’t dispute that he made the suggestion), but the opposition still went to court in order to get a judge to make it official that candidates should not be pushing poll workers to campaign illegally inside polling places. I would think this is common sense, but apparently not in Philadelphia.

And for these many reasons, I’ll never understand that city. I’m even more confused by the voters who consider all of this reasonable behavior.

It’s Election Day!

It’s primary day in Pennsylvania for most municipal elections, and it’s a great day to vote. Here is a partial list of MAIG mayors who may be on the ballot this year. It was written before filing deadlines, so a few of those mayors may have decided to retire. However, most have not.

After today, results will be more official, so it’s a great time to contact opposition to those MAIG mayors with serious challengers. There’s no reason to wait until 2014 to send the gun grabbers a message.

**Please excuse the post with relatively little detail about key races. I meant to do a better post on this topic yesterday, but the afternoon was largely spent watching KFOR in Oklahoma City online and helping spread word related to the statewide storms. My hometown was under a tornado warning for hours yesterday with multiple rotation areas detected throughout the day. Yet, through social media, folks were trying to get word out that the tornado sirens weren’t working for some reason.

Watching the live coverage had multiple veteran reporters losing the battle of tears on camera. There aren’t many places in the country where reporters will put down the cameras and join in the urgent searches, and yet that appears to be what happened in several cases when citizens were stepping up in areas where first responders couldn’t get quickly enough.

Official Statement on Supposed Perazzi Arrest

It turns out that the story that lit up the blogosphere was not exactly accurate. Or, as Perazzi says, “devoid of any foundation and the news is completely fabricated.”

With reference to press reports concerning Daniele Perazzi’s alleged unlawful arrest for terrorism last Saturday in Denver (Colorado), we state that the incident is devoid of any foundation and the news is completely fabricated. Daniele Perazzi (founder of Perazzi SpA) died last year, and his son Mauro was not in the United States last Saturday. The Perazzis are not involved in any wrongdoing in any way, shape or form and, to our best knowledge, are not under investigation or scrutiny nor are targets of criminal proceedings. It is difficoult to think that this news are a mistake; there are reasons to believe that somebody who has interests against the company is dissaminating false informations. The Perazzi Company, contrarily to what has been reported, is very familiar with the US legislation on weapons, due to its extensive and successful presence in the American market. Perazzi has allready given mandate to its lawyers to promote criminal and civil action with the purpose to protect the brand and company’s reputation and its activities conducted also in the United States.

Perazzi SpA
Roberta Perazzi CEO

Top Five Guns for $600 Million

Kevin notes that with so many folks talking about the $600 million lottery jackpot tonight, it’s a great day to dream. With that in mind, he asks people about the top 5 guns they would buy if they woke up discovering they managed to be that 1 in 175 million odds winner.

What would you guys buy?

I can’t really make a list since my primary motivation for buying guns is whether or not they are “pretty.” Chances are that you’d find me at some gun auctions looking for crazy beautiful antiques. Oh, and I’d get a Browning Cynergy since I have always considered that a lovely shotgun. It might take me a while to get around to shooting it since I’d be quite content to simply admire it. Ask Sebastian, my first stop at any NRA Annual Meeting is to go admire the Cynergy wall at the Browning booth.

Gun Control in the House of Representatives

We have seen stories in the last few weeks that indicated gun control may be moving in the House.

Yet, VSSA’s Dave Adams shared an update from a pre-party for the Virginia GOP convention:

Just saw @RepGoodlatte in the @MarkObenshain party. Said no #guncontrol will get through his committee.

It really makes me wonder if all of these previous stories are really just an attempt to make gun owners distrustful of the GOP in hopes that they will stay home in 2014.

California Freezes Handgun Roster?

A tweet from California attorney Jason Davis indicates that California’s microstamping law is now in effect:

Cal DOJ certifies microstampingpatents open and microstamping mandated for all new handguns. oag.ca.gov/sites/all/fileâ€¦?

— Jason Davis (@calgunlawyers) May 17, 2013

Based on this release this afternoon by the California DOJ, they are certifying the microstamping law in full effect.

According to the document, this effectively means that handguns not currently on the roster must have microstamping in order to get on the roster. Since no manufacturer makes this available, it would seem that the market for handguns is currently frozen and limited to guns already approved.

Not being an attorney, much less one who specializes in California gun laws, I’m sure there will be more people much smarter than me talking about the impact of this announcement that was released on a Friday afternoon.