The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
It’s pretty clear what he’d like it to be:
Chicagoans will hear from Mayor Richard Daley Monday for the first time since the election of his successor.
Daley and Congressman Mike Quigley were expected at a joint news conference about gun laws on the city’s West Side Monday morning.
Worried Rahm won’t be anti-gun enough? Doesn’t strike me as much of a worry, but pretty clearly Daley, even in retirement, still wants to make this an issue.
This one is the Mayor of Monticello, NY, and the charge would seem to be tax fraud, trademark counterfeiting, and misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
Dennis Henigan says we’re being hypocrites, because we say we want to enforce existing laws, but then have Congress cut funding off for ATF to implement long gun reporting. Where to start? First off, the long gun reporting requirement isn’t going to accomplish jack, because even with the information voluntarily provided to ATF by dealers, they apparently lost track of about 2500 firearms, one of which was used to murder a border patrol officer. Secondly, this is not enforcing existing law, this is ATF making up law from whole cloth and implementing it. We’re in favor of using existing laws to lock up violent criminals, we are not in favor of a totalitarian state where bureaucrats get to make up their own law and ignore the limits Congress has placed on their powers.
Bryan Miller apparently thinks they are the four suggestions too:
Good to see Miller, a world renowned advocate of “gun safety” demonstrating just how little he knows about the subject.
I’ve been doing a little research on the incident that happened with Miller’s brother, and there’s a whole lot more to it than most of you have ever heard. For instance, there was a lawsuit filed for negligence against the District of Columbia because they failed to follow their own security protocol for the building. There is more I will speak of once I have time to put everything together.
Schumer wants to penalize states that are “not enforcing background checks.” At first I thought this meant perhaps adding a stick to the carrot as far as mental health reporting goes, but that might not be the case:
Under the plan endorsed by Schumer and Bloomberg, states and federal authorities would be required to increase the percentage of denied gun permit applicants to the national gun database. The penalty for not reporting would be a loss of federal funding for crime prevention.
Not required to make sure the data in the database is more accurate and up to date, but to just deny more people the right to purchase a gun, with no regard to accuracy? They call the proposal “modest.” If their Thesaurus has the word “stupid” next to “modest,” I might buy that.
I haven’t seen language for a proposed bill, however, so it could very well be this is a case of the journalist reporting writing gibberish in their ignorance of the subject at hand, and perhaps ignorance of clear English as well.
Carolyn McCarthy is pretty clearly desperate for her bill to be seen as having legs. Unfortunately for her, and fortunately for us, all I think she’s accomplishing is to help boost magazine sales.
Chris from Arma Borealis notes some disagreement between himself and a certain Brady Board member about the status of victims in the public debate. I think victims deserve a say just like anyone else, but I’m not sure it’s at all true that victims have unique insight. In fact, I think victims are more likely than not to have their judgement clouded by their unresolved grief. Chris wonders what you do when victims disagree. Does Joan Peterson’s experience give her the same moral authority to speak as Suzanna Gratia Hupp? I doubt Joan Peterson would agree, but to accept victims have special insights presents you with Chris’s question. What do you do when they disagree?
NRA has announced some staff changes, of which the big news would appear to be James Baker coming back to head up federal affairs. Baker is largely responsible for turning ILA into the well-oiled lobbying engine it is today, so members should take this as a positive development.
On the other hand, as Joe Huffman has been tracking, and Thirdpower has also taken note of, our opponents seem to have either undergone some kind of restructuring, or some of their staff have decided their energies are best devoted elsewhere. Peter Hamm seems to no longer be with the Bradys and has struck out on his own. Whatever is in Peter’s future, we wish him well. He was a worthy adversary, and in a world marked by divisive and nasty politics, understood political struggle didn’t have to be personal. I’ve long maintained that in the current climate, civility suits us better than nastiness. I wish any former Brady staffers well. We would, indeed, like them all to move on to more worthy causes.
But whatever has happened at Brady, it is hard to say. They will be tight lipped about anything. Staff reductions in DC are taken for what they are, which is a sign your cause is on its way out. No group wants to announce a restructuring, especially if finances are the chief driver. A spate of resignations wouldn’t look good either. So I don’t expect Brady to announce what’s actually happened, but it would seem we’re going to have some new public faces for our adversaries.
New Jersey already limits magazine capacity to fifteen rounds in magazines. Apparently some lawmakers think that having those five extra rounds is just too wild and crazy, and are proposing to reduce the arbitrary and ridiculous limit to ten.
Truth is, New Jersey is in the middle of the pack. Maryland is 20 rounds. New York is 10. New Jersey was in the middle. The even greater truth is these lines are totally arbitrary, and have nothing to do with public safety. This is just another opportunity for our opponents to get more law abiding un owners behind bars where they think we belong.
Bloomberg, Gun Control Tour 2011 is beginning:
Displaying a tally of the number of Americans killed with guns since January’s Tucson, Ariz., shootings, the “National Drive to Fix Gun Checks” truck will spend two months driving across at least 25 states, Bloomberg said. That includes stops to meet with local leaders, law-enforcement officials and victims of gun violence — the first in Newark on Wednesday afternoon at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, for an event hosted by Mayor Cory Booker.
This is one area local activists can really make a difference. Bloomberg needs to be relentlessly protested everywhere he stops. Do not let him own the field.
UPDATE: Commenters are pointing out there’s not exactly a clear schedule. This, of course, makes taking action difficult, which is why I would imagine they are making it up as they go.