Bitter – Page 58 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Misplaced Words or True Intent?

It’s not hard to see why tin foil hats are becoming quite the fashion statement in today’s political climate. Whether they started out with a purpose of making as many gun owners as possible into felons, that’s what the current so-called “background check” proposals do.

Today, we have another example of a peculiar choice of words from Obama that makes it appear as though his intent is to effectively shut down gun shows instead of simply pushing a supposed “background check” for gun sales bill. As Great Satan, Inc. highlights, Obama’s speech today called for background checks before a person even enters a gun show. A policy like that would effectively close down some of our biggest gathering places.

It’s not unreasonable to think that this is the goal since Bloomberg has made gun shows a target of such extreme regulation proposals as recently as 2010.

Anti-gun advocates like to say that we’re paranoid to think that they are really trying to go after our entire gun culture, yet it seems to me that we’re just remarkably well-informed and that we pay very close attention to the publicly announce plans of our opponents.

Media & Guns

Most folks who read this blog have have probably seen this “Journalist Guide to Firearms” graphic at some point:

MediaGuidetoFirearms

What amuses me about this is that we’ve highlighted when the Associated Press has tried to push journalists into the direction of using the correct language.

Yesterday, AP announced that they are expanding their “weapons” entry. Digital subscribers have full access to their new definitions, but they previewed one on Facebook.

semi-automatic A firearm that fires only once for each pull of the trigger. It reloads after each shot. The form: a semi-automatic rifle, a semi-automatic weapon, a semi-automatic pistol. The hyphen is an exception to general guidance against hyphenating words formed with semi-.

I find this amusing since people who know guns then started a discussion in the comments to improve the language so as to reduce potential confusion with double-action revolvers. We are everywhere, and I love it.

Excuses & Extreme Fear

I do love the new strategy of anti-gun advocates. If their anti-Second Amendment rallies end up being a bust, they already have their excuses lined up.

The primary excuse? They are too afraid of gun owners since anyone who supports the right to own as many firearms as they want is clearly unstable. And since gun owners might be present to peacefully oppose their rally, they must stay home for their own safety. Otherwise, she swears that there would be hundreds and hundreds of anti-gun advocates in attendance.

This excuse comes to us by a woman who says she must be “pressed” to go out in public spaces and worries that she now needs to “wear a flak jacket and helmet” when she is forced to go out. She also willingly accepts the blame that her promotion of anti-gun rallies will in fact alert the crazy gun owners to turn up. (Nevermind that gun owners already knew about the rallies and started talking about peaceful opposition days before her column ever ran. That little fact gets in the way of her “bold” stand for anti-gun policies.) She uses her column to ask those who are too afraid to leave their homes for fear of seeing a gun owner to write their Congressman instead. Perhaps she would do a greater service to suggest that they find a therapist who can help them through their extreme and irrational fears.

Anti-Gun Resources Flowing into Pennsylvania

We already know that Mike Bloomberg is spending millions to put his advertisements on tv in Pennsylvania with an actor telling gun owners that they have nothing to worry about in the bill that could make many of them felons.

Bloomberg’s coalition of anti-gun mayors are also hoping on board to promote a grassroots feel with anti-gun rallies in Eastern Pennsylvania.

MAIG isÂ sponsoring a rally for gun control on SaturdayÂ just north of Philadelphia, alongside a local state representative’s new anti-gun advocacy group,Â Bucks Safe, that will coincide with the multi-million dollar television ad purchase. Locally, Concerned Gun Owners of Bucks County are letting gun owners know that they can go oppose it, but advise folks to take a very non-aggressive tone in any signs and to make it a fairly silent protest. (I think it’s great advice. It’s also another example of fantastic use of local organizing to stay on top of events that larger groups can’t really cover in the same way.) Farther north, MAIG’s representative in Easton, PA is partnering with Organizing for Action for an anti-gun rally tomorrow afternoon. Another MAIG mayor, this one from Chester in Delaware County, is advertising a press event for more gun control.

Speaking of OFA, they must have heard that Pennsylvania gun owners have been organizing massive postcard and letter campaigns to lawmakers as of late because now they are trying to do petitions for gun control in Democratic strongholds in and around Philadelphia like Media, Center City, New Hope, Ambler, and North Philadelphia.

On the rally front, OFA has recruited Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro to lead their gun control drive locally tomorrow. (Everyone in political circles says that Shapiro has eyes on statewide office – Governor or a Senate seat – so make sure to keep this in mind next time local gun owners see his name on a ballot.) In the Lehigh Valley area, OFA is doing a vigil tomorrow night to promote more gun control. (It’s probably wrong to admit this, but I would get a good chuckle out of anyone who brought one of the many fire extinguisher-themed pro-rights messages to stand across from a candlelight vigil.)

Saturday Night Update

Well, the good news is that we’re on to finishing touches of real work in our basement renovation – shelving, picking out carpet, and other room details before buying the furniture. The bad news is that this means we weren’t around to blog. Here are some highlights we missed today.

Banned magazine smuggler David Gregory is hosting a debate between Wayne LaPierre & Mike Bloomberg on Meet the Press in the morning.

The Senate voted in the early morning hours to ban the Obama Administration from signing onto the UN Arms Trade Treaty. Accused Underage Prostitute Solicitor & Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez thinks that voting to uphold the Second Amendment late at night is “irresponsible,” unlike his alleged late night activities with underaged girls.

Democratic leaders are complaining that their staffers who make $160k/year can’t afford to eat on Capitol Hill because of the sequester. Here’s a tip for those who are nearly destitute on more than $100k, on a very, very small fraction of that salary, even I could afford the Healthy Choice Turkey Breast sandwich at Congressional Liquor Store.

I’m sad to report that we accidentally participated in Earth Hour for at least a few minutes. See, Sebastian had to turn off the breaker to the basement so he can replace some plug faces that were black and clashed with our new color palette.

Obama’s weekly address was focused on gun control, including the gun ban that would likely cost his party any chance of winning outside of major urban areas for years.

Bloomberg is putting up $12 million to buy ads in pro-gun states promising that supporting legislation that will turn most gun owning families into felons won’t actually be a bad thing. The ads will supposedly run in Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

More Money for Public Gun Ranges

Don’t overlook the politics of your state wildlife departments and projects they may be looking to fund soon. The Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Program allows funds to be used to support public shooting ranges, and there’s lots of money to go around.

A record $882 million will be distributed to states this year for fish, wildlife and recreation projects, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday. …

Due primarily to increased sales of firearms and ammunition over the last year, the wildlife fund will provide an unprecedented $522.5 million to the states. The previous high was $473 in 2010.

Pennsylvania is slated to receive $19.1 million. If you want to know how much your state will get, check out this list.

Local Grassroots Tackling Local Anti-Gun Initiatives

I have to applaud the new local gun rights grassroots group for being able to highlight things that otherwise would pass by many gun owners just because they can’t scan every single paper or keep up with every single news report.

They found this story about a county commissioner who is trying to use her personal politics to guide the county’s pension fund. Given that county commissioners don’t typically get much feedback from voters, they are encouraging people to call and email her to oppose her effort to make her personal politics the guide for retirement investments instead of simply trying to get the most in return for the taxpayer’s money.

While the commissioner in question isn’t up for re-election this year, she has to know that motivating more voters to turn out against her in her next off-year election doesn’t bode well for her political future. Local efforts like this are the prime opportunity to remind her that we’re watching closer than we ever have before, and we’ll hold officials accountable at the ballot box.

Charges Filed Against MAIG Mayor

We already brought you the story about Mike Bloomberg’s gun control ally in Marcus Hook, PA who was under investigation for keeping a hostage in his home before firing a round into the floor of the house where his teen daughter also slept. Today, he was arrested and the actual charges released:

The mayor of Marcus Hook, Pa. has been arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and other offenses. …

Authorities say Schirilo faces charges including unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and recklessly endangering another person.

Interestingly, his local party leaders and other officials have called on the mayor to resign over the incident. However, he is digging in his heels and refusing to leave the office. He claims that it’s all the fault of the alcohol, so he shouldn’t be held responsible for the incident.

Why We Can’t Get Lazy

For every headline that reads “NRA fundraising best in decade”, Bloomberg cuts a check that is pittance to him. And yet, he still outraises all of us.

The power of gun owners comes in our willingness to put boots on the ground. 2014 is not the year to sit out of the game. The politicians who have voted for this mess or promoted it must be ousted from office. If we can’t beat Mike Bloomberg’s wealth, then we need to beat him where it counts in turning out votes.

Fear of Cake

NRA Blog features the story of a Connecticut couple who happen to share a love of shooting and support the NRA. For the husband’s 50th birthday celebration, the wife wanted to get him an AR-15-styled cake since she could not buy a real one from the stripped shelves of gun dealers.

Here’s the kicker, she actually had multiple bakeries refuse her business because they didn’t want to make “machine gun” cakes. That’s right, their hatred of firearms extends to cake that looks like a perfectly lawful and commonly owned firearm. However, a bakery named Jenny-Lu’s stepped in and made an absolutely amazing cake.

AR15cake

Seriously, if I lived in Connecticut, I would gladly order a cake from this joint. They have also created fun hunting cakes before, too. And, oh dear Lord, the woman posts sinfully delicious photos of homemade Samoa-style cupcakes. Hey, all you gun companies up in Connecticut, order some kind of amazing gun cake for your employees – and get a side order of Samoa cupcakes. And then post pictures of people enjoying them. Because those look divine and the joy must be shared.