Joe notes that it didn’t take long. Never let a crisis to go waste and all that. Chris notes that this sounds familiar. Explosives regulations are even dumber than gun control, as an idea, since explosives can be manufactured easily from household items. I made black powder in my basement as a kid. The idea that you can restrict this kind of thing is laughable, but I’m sure control freaks like Lautenberg are serious about it.
Category: Anti-Gun Folks
Terrorists for Gun Control
Bob Owens has an interesting find about one of the Boston Bombers. Dan Riehl had the Tweet of the night last night:
Purely as an aside, if this were going down in your neighborhood right now, Democrats would prefer you were unarmed. Just sayin’
— DanRiehl (@DanRiehl) April 19, 2013
And Massachusetts, in particular, has been particularly successful at ensuring the only people with firearms were the cops and terrorists. And they want to bring that idea to the rest of America? No thanks.
UPDATE: Bob updated with more information that would appear to indicate the Twitter account is fake.
OFA’s Post-Vote Call to Action
OFA sponsored a broadcast conference call to supporters of gun control today, and they focused on trying to rally the troops into not admitting defeat. Their strategy really is best summed up as a never-ending campaign for office instead of policy campaigns.
Whereas there was quite a bit of commentary yesterday about the tone of Obama’s speech perhaps being a bit too over-the-top emotionally, OFA was damn proud of the speech that they bragged was “anger and frustration” of a community organizer who will organize us all into doing what he wants. The message was very much framed as action is a personal challenge from Obama and that activists are doing this to serve Obama. It makes me wonder if that is partially in response to the negative feedback OFA initially got when they started using the campaign lists to push for policy & ask for constant donations.*
As for the actual action part, right now their focus is on thanking those who voted for Toomey-Manchin and to start chastising those who did not. They made absolutely no mention whatsoever about any of the other amendment votes, including those that Obama has repeatedly said were on his agenda (the gun ban & magazine ban). They suggested the supporters focus their praise & chastisement on Twitter (mentioned most often), via phone calls (second most frequently mentioned), and through Facebook messages (mentioned only a couple of times).
OFA also said that supporters in states with pro-gun senators “will be given tools” to help them fight for more gun control immediately, but no real mention was made about what those tools will look like. They also indicated that supporters in states where both senators voted for gun control will be asked to shift their focus to those other states. That may work in a campaign strategy when it’s about knocking on doors and making phone calls to show up on one key day, but every time I have contacted a lawmaker’s office, they have asked for at least my zip code before indicating they are remotely concerned about comments.
A key message of the call was to attack NRA for “outright lies” and the supposedly mistaken perception that the gun vote will hold lawmakers accountable while the anti-gun vote will have moved on to different issues. They swear it won’t be like that, and OFA is going to prove the NRA wrong. Well, just to be clear, I’m not getting emails from NRA trying to shift my focus onto immigration reform. I am from OFA. Just sayin’…
They are also promoting some kind of National Day(s) of Action on Friday and Saturday, but they gave no indication what those days of action will look like. There was mention of the importance of the “tone” of these events, but then they promptly followed that with an expectation that messages “scream” over the recent votes. OFA is seeking “swift” and “aggressive” action for the supposed round 2 of this fight. It’s rather funny since they are being warned by their own party not to do this right now.
*For those who complain about NRA requests for donations, you haven’t seen anything compared to OFA. Seriously, imagine if every single call to action to call your lawmakers had a call for money. Every. single. alert. Plus, the standard fundraising pitches that are stand-alone pitches. You think that Obama trying to shame the American people for not voting his way is annoying? Try reading his blatant attempts to shame those who don’t give his favorite policy group more money.
Saul Cornell Lecture by Newtown Action Alliance
Streaming live here. For those of you who don’t know, Saul Cornell was a Joyce Funded scholar, who tried to make a case against the Standard Model of the Second Amendment. His work is largely discredited in mainstream Second Amendment circles, and was rejected by the Supreme Court. He hasn’t been seen around much since Heller, so it will be interesting to see what he has to say, and particularly questions. When they argue against the Second Amendment itself, we win.
Canadian Ad Agency Behind AR-15 Ads
I think bans on Little Red Riding Hood, Dodgeball and Kinder Eggs are just as repugnant to a free society as banning AR-15s. Freedom is a difficult concept for a lot of people. Especially these days, it seems. This “Mom’s Demand Action” is a new group. You can read more about them here. It’s interesting that their Facebook Page already has more followers than the Brady Campaign. I think we’re going to see some old enemies die off, and some new ones come about in this current political struggle.
UPDATE: According to Thirdpower, they are a rehash. Speaking of rehashes, I think the Brady folks are planning to change their name again. “Voices Against Violence” anyone? It wouldn’t surprise me. I suggested back in 2009 they were making some pretty awful branding decisions. It ought to be noted that Bloomberg has avoided that mistake.
MAIG Pulls Opposition Ads on Toomey
Story here at Politco. People have long said that gun control won’t bring any votes to the table, and that’s true, but politicians hate looking bad, and that’s one advantage that our opponents have when backed by someone with Bloomberg’s money. I’m in agreement with a commenter at Ace’s:
By the way Senator, this isn’t an election season. If this pansy runs from commercials NOW what will he do during his actual campaign?
Good question. I think Bloomberg is happy to have weakened Toomey. If Toomey thinks Bloomberg will sit out the 2016 election if there’s blood in the water, he’s lost his mind. BTW, the article over at Ace of Spades mentions a mental health provision that I think would be highly unacceptable, but given that we haven’t seen language yet, I’m not going to jump on it and declare it truth. But it’s something to keep an eye on.
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/pol…
— Brady Campaign (@bradybuzz) April 10, 2013
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/s…
— 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/PA…
— PAHouseDems (@PaHouseDems) April 10, 2013
Gun Control Groups Claim Credit for NRA Member Calls
The anti-gun leaders are just so eager! It’s naïvely 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.
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.