Bitter – Page 57 – Shall Not Be Questioned

New Anti-Gun Divide & Conquer Strategy

Bloomberg has a new ad out semi-praising Sen. Pat Toomey based on the media reports that he’s working to push their gun control bill in the Senate. They present a new message that struck a cord for a number of reasons.

Interestingly, MAIG is trying to claim that the current federal bill just makes Pennsylvania’s language into federal law. That, of course, is bullsh*t.

While Pennsylvania law does require handgun sales to go through a dealer for a background check & does restrict some loans of handguns, Sebastian & I are not be felons for loaning guns to carry between one another. That’s what the federal bill does. This is a legitimate issue for us–and presumably other gun owning couples–since, at times, he has opted to carry my Sig (lawfully, since we both have licenses to carry) because it has a smaller profile than his Glock. He has also, at times, wanted to take off his jacket without open carrying, so he has given me his Glock to carry in my purse. If the current federal language were the law, we would both be in prison.

It’s interesting that this ad announcement comes today. Yesterday, a commenter on the PAGunRights.com Facebook page started trying to convince people that the federal bill would just make Pennsylvania laws the law of the land and that gun owners should just trust Joe Manchin to give them a bill we will all like. He tried to make it sound like there was no need to call Sen. Toomey to oppose his potential support the actual federal bill on the table.

I commented to Sebastian that it sounded like a gun control advocate who was not identifying himself as such. He didn’t think I should make that assumption, but something about this guy’s messaging that would discourage gun owners from getting engaged just seemed out of place for me. Typically, the lazy gun owners who don’t care about their rights don’t make the effort to even argue for being lazy. For me, the assumption was pretty much sealed when he took made the argument back to those who argued against him that the federal bill, based on a reading of actual language, that they essentially were advocating to undo the entire Pennsylvania law. (Since that’s not even on the table, there was just no need to feed the trolling. He was trying to derail a discussion of actual federal language.)

Anyway, with this new ad that has this commenter’s exact same Pennsylvania-themed message, I decided to Google his name. Turns out that he’s a co-founder of a new anti-gun group in his city that is promoting MAIG-funded efforts in Pennsylvania. Of course, he never disclosed such affiliations when he was trying to tell gun owners to cool off their activism. Isn’t that just convenient?

I do find it interesting that Bloomberg’s allies are now trying to infiltrate pro-gun groups online in an effort to convince gun owners that there’s nothing to worry about and no reason at all to call lawmakers. I think they are tired of the fact that we’re not just going down quietly.

Pennsylvania Gun Woes

I guess there’s good news and bad news to being a Pennsylvania gun owner. The good news is that there’s little interest in pushing gun control at the state level by current leadership. The bad news is that our federal lawmakers didn’t get this message.

I never really know what to tell people about these kinds of stories. On one hand, many of the points in favor of Sen. Pat Toomey working with Joe Manchin for some kind of background check bill are valid. He’s a Senator who has to run in a blue state during the next presidential election when turnout among Democrats will be much, much higher. On the other hand, it’s not well sourced and may have easily been dropped by anti-gun forces just because Toomey’s office didn’t hang up on them. Or, it could be something in the middle where he’s talking to them, but pointing out some absolutely fundamental objections that doesn’t mean he’ll actually try to push whatever language they want to push.

Add in the fact that Bloomberg is targeting Toomey in his attack ads and OFA has been targeting GOP lawmakers in the Philadelphia suburbs who have perpetually tight races, and it’s a constant reminder for people to call their lawmakers.

Then, today I was getting pushback from someone who was advocating that gun owners not call their Senators just because he’s confident that the eventual bill won’t have any of the concerns raised by gun owners so far. I argued that those concerns were based on actual language of the bill, not talking points. Yet, he continued to tell people to sit back and just trust our lawmakers. I am still pondering if it’s an American Hunters & Shooters-style infiltrator trying to convince gun owners to lay off the pressure since we’ve managed to hold the feet of our lawmakers to the proverbial fire for this long.

I’m curious if others who live in states that aren’t under immediate local threat are feeling this same kind of frustration in mobilizing federal action.

Blogging Delays

Sorry for the lack of weekend posts and for the lack of posts scheduled for tomorrow. You know those home improvement projects that just manage to need one more thing? Then, when you get that thing, something isn’t quite right, but you don’t notice something was missing from the package until you get home after the store has closed? Yeah, it’s been one of those weekends. We’ve got more time sensitive work to do today, so don’t expect much, if anything, on the blog.

On the positive side, Sebastian & I had been going back & forth over whether a decor idea I picked up from Pinterest was at all possible. I insisted it was, but he said no. Weeks of back and forth over this. He finally let me try it this weekend. Let me just say that it looks beautiful. :)

UPDATE (from Sebastian): The good news is that I now know where the water comes into the house behind the walls of my finished basement. This is the only good news.

So Many Lies…

The district he represents will never be competitive, but I would still like to think that the constituents of Rep. Chakah Fattah’s district deserve better than being lied to about what the laws are surrounding gun sales in Pennsylvania.

It’s just such flagrant disrespect, especially to a crowd of seemingly older folks who he probably views as too passive to actually challenge his fact-challenged anti-gun rant.

Lancaster, PA to Vote on Gun Control Resolution

Some Pennsylvania activists are trying to drum up opposition to a local effort to promote more gun control at the federal level. Lancaster’s City Council is expected to vote on Tuesday to support MAIG & all of their gun control efforts.

A fellow activist shared the email addresses for any Lancaster residents who can’t make it to the meeting to oppose this resolution:

Louise B. Williams, President – LBWilliams1@aol.com
John E. Graupera – jeg114@gmail.com
James D. Reichenbach – jamesreichenbach@comcast.net
Tim J. Roschel – Troschel@aol.com
Todd E. Smith – Tesmith1111@yahoo.com
Jose E. Urdametz – Jurdaneta@urdaneta.net
Barbara J. Wilson – bwilson.citycouncil@gmail.com

The article notes that the resolution is expected to pass. Regardless, it might be worth reminding these council members that municipal elections are this year. An outcry might just make some hesitate.

Future Potential Illegal Mayor Arrested

Even the candidates for mayor who turned out to promote MAIG/Organizing for Action/Ceasefire PA events are being arrested this week.

Pittsburgh mayoral candidate A.J. Richardson, who participated in a MAIG press conference last week, was arrested this morning after he was found slumped over the wheel of his minivan that was stopped on a street with the engine still running. He was charged with driving under the influence.

Do we call this new class of criminal Bloomberg associates the Illegal Wannabe Mayors Against Guns?

The good news is that MAIG won’t hold any conviction against Richardson if he manages to win and wants to join Bloomberg’s network of sketchy mayors. I mean they promote Vaughn Spencer, mayor of Reading, PA, who was convicted of violently assaulting a police officer and caused him to suffer lifelong disabilities, so a DUI picked up during the campaign shouldn’t be a big deal at all.

Connecticut Gun Shops Swarmed

Apparently, gun owners are swarming gun shops today ahead of votes in the Connecticut legislature.

Dear gun shop owners, you know what would be very handy to do today for every customer who isn’t at the Capitol? The phone suggestion here in this post – have those customers who aren’t lobbying in person fill their voicemail boxes while the staffers deal with constituents in person.

Another Illegal Mayor Arrested

Wow, MAIG’s criminal scrubbers are fast this morning. Today’s attempt to erase criminal affiliation stems from this morning’s arrest of Spring Valley, NY Mayor Noramie Jasmin. She was picked up on bribery charges over a proposed real estate deal, and it is connected to a wider arrest net of several other politicians who were trying to illegally game the open NYC mayoral race.

Targeting Pennsylvania – Again

A Democratic PAC is pushing gun control in Pennsylvania with a $50,000 ad purchase. It won’t be a long-running campaign like Bloomberg’s, but it is still designed to put pressure on Republicans to cave.

This purchase also targets lawmakers in New Hampshire and North Dakota.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Rally in Pennsylvania

Mayor of Chester: “We need to ban all these illegal guns!”

— Sebastian (@SebastianSNBQ) March 30, 2013

This was an unintentional laugh line during the Mayors Against Illegal Guns-sponsored rally in suburban Philadelphia today, but it reflected the non-sensical rambling of many of the speakers. Earlier this week, the local organizers of the MAIG rally told the media that they expected NRA would bus in people to oppose their gun control event. As is so common in the gun control movement, it was really a case of projection when the gun control crowd from OFA actually brought people in from DC.

The message of the MAIG-sponsored event was that we’re uncivilized if we don’t believe that more gun control is the answer and that 97% of American voters support Obama’s agenda of the background check bill and the modern sporting rifle ban. Not even Bloomberg himself makes such outlandish claims, but the speakers chosen to run his rallies argue that absurdity.

Interestingly, the rally featured a speaker who called gun confiscation plans “a political miracle,” and he made it clear that confiscation of at least some firearms was part of his larger agenda for the MAIG-sponsored rally. So the next time that Bloomberg says that he’s not trying to take guns from people, ask why his organization sponsored Rev. Robert Moore to talk about how wonderful confiscation was as a political goal. If Bloomberg wants MAIG to sponsor rallies, he can own the false statistics and the political agendas of his speakers.

When the anti-gun speaker says Congress has listened to NRA, cheers went up from pro-2A crowd.

— bitterb (@bitterb) March 30, 2013

The MAIG mayor who stepped up to the mic after the raving Reverend tried to claim that they were just pushing policies that respect people’s Second Amendment rights, but he did not denounce the previous claims that confiscation is a great political goal. Funny how they call us paranoid for pointing out when their own leaders are calling for taking guns.

They are importing mayors from cities with high crime rates telling us we should support their policies. Um, no thanks.

— bitterb (@bitterb) March 30, 2013

Pro-gun protesters were out in force. It was tough to gauge exactly how many were there compared to the anti-gun rally since gun owners were spread out down the sidewalks and actually at the back of the rally crowd. The rally crowd was crammed into a small space so that no matter how many turned up, it would look full. Overall, I’d say they were roughly equal crowds. If one side was larger than the other, it would be by no more than about 20%.

Neither side can claim a moral high ground on behavior. There were some pro-gun folks who crossed the line from respectful while agressive into flat out rude. However, the anti-gun crowd wasn’t exactly a model of good behavior with one little old woman going around trying to pick fights with “big bad gun owners” even after a cop stepped in and asked her to knock it off. Then a bunch of other older women walked back to the pro-rights crowd and spoke loudly about how the only reason we weren’t in support of more gun control is simply because we are not capable of any serious thought. The raving Reverend felt he needed to step up to the microphone in closing and remind his supporters that before they set out down the sidewalks and encounter the pro-gun crowds, they needed to remember that they are believers in non-violence, so they shouldn’t try to start fights.

There were many folks open carrying, but it really didn’t seem to make a difference with the crowd at the rally. Many were as visibly disgusted and annoyed by the people with peaceful signs and American flags as they were at the open carry crowd. They were simply that hostile to any kind of dissenting thought.

My protest sign for Bloomberg’s sponsored rally was somewhat subtle, but I feel like the branding of a nice “red state” company was like extra sugary frosting on top of the cake. (Sonic is based in Oklahoma, a state that is actively reaching out to gun companies being attacked in anti-gun states.)