Bitter – Page 56 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Fast Cars & Freedom*

I love markets. Markets generally tell us what people really want and how much they value something. For example, gun rights and fast cars.

For those of you who aren’t NASCAR fans, NRA has sponsored a race tonight, the NRA 500. As a politician opposed to freedom and fun, Chris Murphy (D-CT) stepped in and tried to use the pressure of his office to have NASCAR turn on NRA’s long planned sponsorship. That didn’t work, so Murphy turned on Fox to try and get them to yank it from the air. (Though NASCAR has pledged to review their sponsorship agreements after the race.)

Fox didn’t pull it, but fans are noticing that Fox announcers are going out of their way to avoid saying the name of the race tonight except where they are contractually obligated to do so. (I would embed the tweet on that topic here, but Cameron Gray of NRA News, who reported on the contract requirements, blocks us for some reason, so I cannot get the embed code.) I just can’t fathom how a network that really needs to attract viewers willing to spend money on sponsors and advertisers decides that it is in their best interest to piss off those people ready to spend money.

How do I know they are ready to spend money? Easy, the President of the Texas Motor Speedway tells us that the combined NRA & NASCAR fanbase is spending big, big bucks:

Just learned #NRA500 merchandise sold out 2 1/2 hours before race. Best sales ever. @txmotorspeedway #nascar

— Eddie Gossage (@eddiegossage) April 14, 2013

According to a statement by Gossage covered by ESPN earlier, objections to the NRA sponsorship are few and far between. Interestingly, they actually looked up those who complained and found that the vast majority of those few are not even customers.

“We’ve had fewer than a dozen responses,” Gossage said. “Of those, only two had purchased tickets [to other TMS events]. There is no controversy or big uproar or even a tiny uproar.”

But Fox is hardly the only shortsighted business involved in tonight’s race. The same ESPN article notes that the PR directors for two drivers ordered them not to grant any interviews in the media room so that they won’t have to be pictured with the letters NRA behind them. No doubt those same PR pros have probably squashed any efforts by the driver or their teams to use the #NRA500 hashtag tonight on Twitter – you know, the hashtag that’s trending nationwide right now. We wouldn’t want those drivers to turn up for any racing fans searching that hashtag, now would we?

If I was a driver, regardless on my views of guns, I would look at the merchandise sales and the social media opportunities lost, then I would promptly fire my PR person for not knowing a damn thing about my customer base. Numbers don’t lie, but PR directors apparently do when motivated by politics instead of the best business interests of their clients.

If Gossage is interested, this former Texas Motor Speedway customer appreciates the class the Speedway has shown in the face of a hostile media and an lawmaker who forgets we’re a free society. Granted, the last event I attended was a Rolling Stones concert in high school. But I am a proven customer nonetheless!

*Title shamelessly stolen from ExUrban Kevin

Anti-Gun Reactions

I pondered with Sebastian this morning what the reaction from anti-gun advocates would be in response to the Manchin-Toomey deal if it really turned out that it left many private sales alone, pushed no other fronts of gun control, and possibly gave gun owners several benefits.

I admit to being thoroughly amused by the first Brady tweet following the press conference.

POTUS says if your Senator isn’t part of 90% of Americans who support background checks, ask them why not. Call (202) 224-3121

— Brady Campaign (@bradybuzz) April 10, 2013

It kind of brands whatever happens in the Senate as Obama instead of Brady. Combine that with the fact that they still haven’t released a statement on the deal limitations yet, and I’m thinking they are none too happy.

As VSSA notes, CSGV is talking to the press about how they want Senate Democrats to ignore all the pundits warning them off hardline gun control measures and just pass it already. (Although they have opted to remain silent after the press conference and just promoted their protest against a filibuster.)

Remember that the White House told the gun control groups that they are not allowed to criticize anything in this debate. They are no even allowed to second guess anything publicly.

Now the question is whether the gun control groups have the nerve to pick a fight with the White House over the deal if the administration decides that they’ll take whatever Reid can manage to send over to the House. How much are they willing to risk being shut out of meetings where they will get to “feel” important?

MAIG, for their part, has decided to focus their attention on possible GOP presidential contenders in elections that are years away. That doesn’t exactly sound like they are jumping up and down in excitement there in Bloomberg’s office.

UPDATE: Just as I put this up, the Brady Campaign says they “are reviewing carefully.”

BREAKING: Bipartisan deal reached in Senate on expanded #gun background checks. We are reviewing carefully. usatoday.com/story/news/polâ€¦

— Brady Campaign (@bradybuzz) April 10, 2013

NRA’s Reaction to the “Deal” on a Gun Bill

It’s here. It really highlights the mixed bag from this morning’s news.

While the overwhelming rejection of President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg’s “universal” background check agenda is a positive development, we have a broken mental health system that is not going to be fixed with more background checks at gun shows.

Coverage of the Toomey-Manchin Gun Control Press Conference

Well, my first attempt to live blog today didn’t go so well when the Democratic gun control sponsors decided not to stream their press conference to the public after promising they would do so. With that, I’m moving on to the feds and their bill.

So far, we’ve just got lots of panning around the room looking at reporters.

Joe Manchin starts off, calling Pat Toomey his “good friend,” along with Chuck Schumer and Mark Kirk as being key to this gun control bill.

Manchin says there’s still a lot of work left to do. It’s a deal with Schumer, not a deal with Manchin. It’s not clear who is actually writing the bill.

Manchin says that we need a federal government commission to study violence.

Manchin is using the promotion words of anti-gun groups by calling this “gunsense.” He says that this bill is this “gunsense.”

He just keeps saying that it’s about keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and insane people, but won’t offer specifics at all.

Manchin still loves Pat Toomey, his “dear friend.”

Toomey is now speaking.

Toomey applauds his staff for their work on the bill – the same staff who were telling voters that Pat Toomey wasn’t working with Manchin at all. Trust.

Toomey says that there’s no gun control in background checks at all. He won’t volunteer what kind of issues he’s promoting other than lots and lots of background checks.

Toomey now claims he didn’t seek out working on gun control, but then immediately complains about how there was a “risk” that no gun control would pass. He says he reached out to Manchin & Kirk.

He now points out that background checks aren’t a cure for crime.

Toomey says that no records would be mandated from private citizens, but he won’t volunteer exactly what he means by requirements of background checks at gun shows and online.

Toomey claims that gun owners get benefits, but he refuses to say what they are.

This will be an amendment, so those of us outside probably won’t see any language.

Manchin says he’s “been in dialogue” with NRA, but he admits that he can’t actually speak for how the organization will react.

In taking questions, Manchin is just repeating the same things he said earlier in the press conference. He claims that he strengthened his own personal gun rights, but he still won’t say what he’s actually promoting.

Toomey was asked if his NRA ‘A’ rating even matters to him, whether he’s worried about it. He says he only cares about what people want.

Toomey is asked if he’ll get more Republicans between him & Kirk. Toomey admits he has absolutely no idea if there’s any other Republican who supports this.

Manchin has pledged to vote for the bill, no matter what it is, if his amendment is on it. Toomey says that because other amendments could be added, he won’t pledge to vote for it.

Manchin is specifically asked about private sales, and he just says that gun sales at shows and online will be covered.

Toomey is challenged on the benefit for gun owners. He just gives an example, not a list. It sounds like strengthening FOPA while driving. It supposedly fixes where active duty military can buy guns.

Toomey is then asked whether the driving protections are a “first step” toward national concealed carry reciprocity. Manchin jumps in and say, “YES!” Toomey more quietly says that he supports it.

I’m assuming that there’s some content the reporters have that we don’t because there’s something about concealed carry licenses protecting you from arrest at NY airports while traveling.

Manchin promises that when he gave the talking points to his political friends back home and they are fine with it.

Toomey goes to the Morning Call for the last question. She asks him if he’s bringing along House Republicans from the Philly suburbs along on this bill. He said that there is interest, but they want to know what’s really in the bill first.

Live Blogging the Pennsylvania Democratic Gun Control Press Conference

Pennsylvania State Representative Steve Santarsiero called for confiscation of semi-automatic rifles in December, but he’s since scaled back his legislative plans into “background checks.” This post will track his press conference to further restrict gun sales in Pennsylvania. Right now, we’re waiting on the live video link to start working.

UPDATE: So, um, still no press conference. The House Democrats are promoting it with a link, but there’s nothing at the link. D’oh!

UPDATE: Well, it looks like we little voters have been brushed aside in covering this gun control announcement. The presser started, as evidenced by media in the room:

Capitol newser on universal background checks for gun purchasers. twitter.com/ByJohnLMicek/sâ€¦

— ByJohnLMicek (@ByJohnLMicek) April 10, 2013

Even though the House Democrats promised to stream it online, they have opted not to do turn on the streaming for this event.

Watch LIVE as @repsantarsiero and AG Kane discuss gun background checks pahouse.com/mediacenter/PAâ€¦

— PAHouseDems (@PaHouseDems) April 10, 2013

Denying History

Several of you may have heard about the Connecticut student who was told to do a lesson denying that there’s an individual Second Amendment right to bear arms.

For those of you who didn’t catch the story I don’t mean that the text simply opts for the collective rights interpretation, I mean the teacher distributed a worksheet that completely denies history.

â€œThe courts have consistently determined that the Second Amendment does not ensure each individual the right to bear arms,â€ the worksheet states. â€œThe courts have never found a law regulating the private ownership of weapons unconstitutional.”

The worksheet, published by Instructional Fair, goes on to say that the Second Amendment is not incorporated against the states.

In the most generous interpretation of events, the teacher is using materials that are more than half a decade out-of-date and has simply opted not to keep up with current events or current curriculum. The less generous assumption is that the teacher is seeking out these false documents in an effort to deny history and purposefully lie to students. Either way, the school refuses to answer any questions about the situation or even provide a statement on whether they plan to stop purposefully giving out false information to students now that it has been brought to their attention.

Cam Edwards is hosting the father of this student on today’s Cam and Company at 4:20pm Eastern. I plan to tune in because, well, I was that pain-in-the-ass student who kept my teachers on their toes over stuff like this. :)

Cam did joke today when promoting his interview that he would love to see Dave Kopel be invited to respond to the class lesson. I just think it would be funny trying to picture the teacher arguing with Kopel that he wasn’t really in the SCOTUS building and sitting at the table during the Heller case – it is all simply a figment of his imagination.

On a related note, these are your public schools, folks.

UPDATE: Sadly, it doesn’t get much better at the college level with this report of a professor at a public university forcing her students to make anti-gun art espousing her personal views for her political crusade against firearms in direct violation of state law.

Gun Control Groups Claim Credit for NRA Member Calls

The anti-gun leaders are just so eager! It’s naÃ¯vely cute, except for the press that just happily relates their claims of success without actually questioning anything they do.

Take this NPR article that reports a claim by an anti-gun group that they generated tons of phone calls to Sen. Mark Warner’s office on the same as an NRA action alert that they were the ones who overwhelmed the office – not NRA members.

The National Rifle Association had told its members to barrage Warner’s office with calls that morning. When Moms Demand Action heard that, they launched a counteroffensive, clogging up Warner’s phone lines so badly that calls were going straight to voicemail.

The reporter does nothing to actually question the claim. Now, I wouldn’t expect them to demand a detailed list from the Senator’s office about how many calls came from each side. However, I would ask the anti-gun advocate how she came to that conclusion when she knew for a fact that the opposition with more than 4.5 million members known for political activism weren’t part of that barrage. If the anti-gun group couldn’t prove it, the the paragraph should have been worded very differently to note that it’s a claim by the organization based on member accounts or whatever metric the organization leader claimed. But that doesn’t drive the agenda of “proving” how weak NRA is compared to these anti-gun groups.

Why Some Gun Owners Won’t Be Happy with Pat Toomey

Some have pointed out that we don’t know what Pat Toomey is bringing to the table on gun control, and that it might not actually be any more than fixing the current background check system. That’s true. That’s why I’m not calling for Full Outrage! yet.

However, regardless of what he promises in the press conference at 11am, Pat Toomey burned bridges with several Pennsylvania voters today because his staff spent the last two days telling outright lies about his involvement in the bill to constituents who called.

Dancing around and avoiding an issue annoys people, but encouraging or allowing your staff to tell lies burns people. It turns off activists and evangelists for your candidacy. Only the party faithful want to get involved with a candidate who will instruct his staff to tell voters he wasn’t working on a bill while he is in the meeting working on that bill.

No one believes that politicians are angels. Many believe they barely qualify as human. No one believes that politicians are truly and totally honest. Many believe they can’t pass a lie detector test that only asks their name. Those views don’t mean that, as voters, they like being told an outright lie.

Back to the actual content of the bill, we don’t know what’s in it. DC folks are trying to tell us tonight that it’s no big deal. Supposedly, it will just cover sales at gun shows and online. However, we’ve already heard promises from the very people Toomey worked with on this bill that they would just go after background checks for actual sales, and look what kind of language they actually gave us. There’s a good chance that those of us who aren’t in DC may not know what is in the bill until after it has passed (assuming they have the votes).

At this point, Toomey has taken a huge political risk that he’s hoping Pennsylvania voters won’t remember in 2016. The message many gun owners will take from this is that Sen. Toomey will lie to them as readily as any anti-gun candidate challenging him. Commenter Patrick H. summed up something I was saying to Sebastian as all of this started falling into place tonight:

It’s not just that he didnâ€™t go with the filibuster. It’s not that he even voted on a gun control bill. He is actively writing one, and this was after everything seemed dead.

It’s like Pat Toomey went looking for a fight on guns. Why? Harry Reid seemingly couldn’t find the votes to pass anything. Now, President Obama is going to brand this as a Republican bill as much as a Democratic one. With this outreach to anti-gun leaders, Toomey has also likely hurt the brand of many of his GOP counterparts in the Senate.

The rest of the week looks interesting, to say the least.

Fill His Voicemail Boxes – All of Them

Well, now we get the official confirmation that Sen. Pat Toomey is helping to write a gun control bill:

Toomey spox: “Senators Toomey and Manchin continue to work on final details but they appear close to a deal.” â€” Jonathan Tamari (@JonathanTamari) April 9, 2013

NBC News is also reporting that Toomey’s spokesperson is scheduling a press conference alongside Sen. Joe Manchin to celebrate this victory.

There’s nothing on what deal he’s putting together, but Pennsylvania voters need to make every single phone in every single office ring loud and clear tomorrow morning. Every office that allows voicemails should have a completely full box by the time staff arrive. Call tonight; call again tomorrow.

Need a reminder for his numbers?

DC – (202) 224-4254 (full)
Allentown – (610) 434-1444 (full)
Erie – (814) 453-3010 (full)
Harrisburg – (717) 782-3951 (full)
Philadelphia – (215) 241-1090 (full)
Pittsburgh – (412) 803-3501 (full)
Scranton – (570) 941-3540 (full)
Johnstown – (814) 266-5970

I doubt a flood of calls will truly change his mind at this point, but the debate isn’t over and there have been no votes cast, so the message that gun owners are not happy needs to be sent loud and clear.

I’m just baffled. I would not agree with a vote on a bill, but I can at least understand the pressure to cast a vote will be an issue for some senators on both sides of the aisle. But, this, this is just politically stupid. Now the narrative is that Sen. Toomey is writing gun control bills. He isn’t just under pressure to vote in this case, he went out of his way to write a bill.

As a reader on Twitter noted, Pat Toomey just gave a political victory to Obama, and I would argue that we just lost at least two House GOP votes from Pennsylvania on this issue, if not three to four votes. (Toomey’s support now makes it damn near politically impossible for Representatives Fitzpatrick and Meehan to oppose the bill. It makes it very tough for Gerlach and, perhaps, Dent.)

If you call and find out that a voice mail is already full, check in here, please.

One Hour to Gun Control

According to Politico, Sen. Joe Manchin has until 5pm to cut a deal on gun control. If he doesn’t, Reid just starts moving what they have.

If you live in Pennsylvania, call Sen. Toomey’s office RIGHT NOW. We couldn’t get through to his DC office, so try his lead district office at (610) 434-1444. If that’s busy, try his other offices.

You will likely be told that he won’t vote for something bad, but send a polite warning. If you live in an area where Toomey will need help in 2016, say it. If you previously volunteered, say it.

This doesn’t mean to get angry with Toomey because we don’t know what he has been doing, but it is the time to remind him that we voted him in to stand up for our rights.

UPDATE: A report on our Facebook page says that Toomey’s staff was specifically using MAIG talking points to defend a possible deal.

Another media report notes that Toomey “rushed past” reporters asking for comment. They noted, however, that Joe Manchin launched into a full run away from reporters with arms flailing.

UPDATE II: Another Inquirer update says that Manchin & Schumer had a mini press conference after the deadline saying that they do not currently have a deal worked out, but that they are closer than ever. I don’t have any insight into what that means. It could be a way to buy some time. Toomey still won’t answer questions.

UPDATE III: Well, now we get the official confirmation that Pat Toomey is helping to write a gun control bill:

Toomey spox: “Senators Toomey and Manchin continue to work on final details but they appear close to a deal.”

— Jonathan Tamari (@JonathanTamari) April 9, 2013

There’s nothing on what deal he’s putting together, but Pennsylvania voters need to make every single phone in every single office ring loud and clear tomorrow. Every office that allows voicemails should have a completely full box by tomorrow morning.

Need a reminder for his numbers?

DC – (202) 224-4254
Allentown – (610) 434-1444
Erie – (814) 453-3010
Harrisburg – (717) 782-3951
Philadelphia – (215) 241-1090 (doesn’t have voicemail set up)
Pittsburgh – (412) 803-3501
Scranton – (570) 941-3540
Johnstown – (814) 266-5970