Category: Anti-Gun Folks

I was relatively amused yesterday when reports from readers started coming in that I had garnered the attention of the world-class hypocrites at Media Matters. It’s always difficult to decide how to respond to an organization, who’s one of the biggest boosters of gun control out there, but whose leader has been condoning one of his underlings illegally toting a Glock around Washington D.C to protect him from imagined enemies. But by waiting, I can at least report to you that Media Matters sent me  a grand total of 18 visits yesterday. So much for the power and reach of Brock’s merry band of discontents.

I would think that Media Matters, of any organization, would support Starbuck’s policy, since it’s pretty obvious that the vast right-wing conspiracy Brock needs to protect himself from doesn’t have any compunction about headed in for a Chai Latte and a scone while peaceably strapped. But I guess if you’re fine with breaking the gun laws of the District of Columbia, you’ll have someone nearby with a hog leg tied on, no matter the wishes of Starbucks on the topic of carry. The rules are for the little people, after all; people like you and me.

For the record, the Starbucks BUYcott was a resounding success. The gun control folks were utterly destroyed, and we captured the media stories about it. My call was a call for politeness; to keep buying, sending a note to corporate every once in a while, and telling Starbucks we appreciate them. But I wanted to let Starbucks go back to selling coffee without having folks trying to continuously drag them into their cause, and making their social media outlets into a battleground of pro v. anti. It’s a shame there’s no voice on the other side of this issue calling for restraint, since the same ten or so anti-gun fanatics have been continuously, and quite rudely, spamming Starbucks Facebook Wall with  all matter of hysterics unrelated to coffee. And unlike me, who never owned this event, and is just another voice in the wind, they could coordinate a stop to their haranguing if they wanted.

No matter though, it’s the weekend, and the shills don’t get paid to troll on the weekends. Perhaps Starbucks will catch a break after all.

Bloomberg recently engaged in some yammering about how anti-gun folks need to replicate the strategy of the NRA. I agree with Jacob:

Good advice except for one, tiny problem: antigunners do not have a voting constituency.  The organizations which represent them are largely just front groups for professional politicians and activists which are funded by large foundations including Joyce and Tides.  They can’t turn out people to vote because they aren’t membership-based; they’re mostly astroturf.

That’s the beauty of it. They couldn’t replicate our success even if they wanted to. They cling bitterly to the notion that polling matters. It does not. If it did, Pennsylvania would have free market liquor right now. But the fact of the matter is, people don’t care enough about boozing it up free market style to actually turn it into a real political movement, and hold politicians accountable for results. Without passion, there can be no movement. We have passion, in large number. Their passionate folks are infinitesimally small in comparison.

From the Christian Science Monitor on how we learned to stop worrying and love Starbucks:

A coalition of secular, religious, and gun-control groups backing the boycott claim to represent 14 million Americans. But the ability of gun control groups to influence the lawmaking process has waned in recent years, with gun-rights legislation outnumbering gun-control laws by a 3-to-1 margin, according to a recent Associated Press analysis.

I heard NGVAC’s leader, Elliot Fineman on CSNBC talking about how they did Monte Carlo analysis to determine their overall impact. For those of you unfamiliar with statistical methods, Monte Carlo if a random sampling technique most often used to achieve results in mathematical systems that are too complex to do by systematic calculation. I’d love to know how this method is applied to Mr. Fineman’s model, but doubt it will be forthcoming, since we probably have enough collective statistical knowledge among the blogger folk to find flaws. If I had to bet, I’d bet that Fineman is completely full of crap, and largely pulled the number of our his posterior.

Perhaps someone who knows more than I do about Canadian politics can help me understand why the Canadian auto workers union is getting involved in the fight to keep the long gun registry data and touting the importance of symbolic gun control.

… so violent?

Thirdpower’s Starbucks Appreciation today was paid for by a surprising source. And he still had some money left over for some ammo. I have verified the check is authentic. I’ve known Thirdpower is a trustworthy source, but the idea that they’d actually cut him a check was so ridiculous, I just had a hard time believing it. I wanted to be sure it wasn’t an off color joke. It’s not a joke.

This has me thinking that the proprietor of National Gun Victims Action Council is crazier than a shithouse rat. I really do kind of feel bad for the guy. It’s difficult for a parent to get over losing their kid.

UPDATE: It is my understanding that I was mistaken about the incident described previously. His son was murdered in San Diego by a mentally deranged man.

The media is started to pick up on the utter failure of the anti-gun Boycott of Starbucks, with articles appearing in the Hawaii Reporter and Loudoun Times about our BUYcott. What I find very telling here is this:

That article hasn’t been up that long and it already has close to 20,000 likes. The numbers don’t lie. The anti-gun Boycott has accomplished nothing but driving more sales to Starbucks then they otherwise would have had. For those not following along on Twitter, I can report to you that the other side is becoming positively unhinged, prompting one person to win the Internets:

In the mean time, our opponents are resorting to the only argument they have left: dick jokes. More of the same over at Joe’s.

Weer’d has discovered one of our opponents in the Gun Control movement is into swordsmanship. A perfectly fine hobby, as far as I’m concerned, but Weer’d notes:

Don’t see a lot of swords around these days. One reason is many places restrict the carry of them. Another big reason is they’re really good for only one thing, killing. Back in the day swords in a similar design to his were issued to ARMIES!

Worth noting that the entirely of the Western world, and a good part of the Eastern world, was largely conquered with this:

This was the most sophisticated killing machine known to man up until he dawn of the gunpowder age. It is as much meant to kill as any firearm, and it is unambiguously a weapon of war. I find it amazing that an advocate of gun control, who practices swordsmanship, can’t understand why people who practice another martial art, shooting, get a little upset when you demean them, ridicule them, and try to limit their access and freedom to exercise their chosen hobby.

One of the strategies Media Matters employs in trying to make sure that all reporters only provide a left-leaning vision of America is to release the hounds on smaller reporters working for regional papers. They throw the weight of their nationwide fundraising and contact list, as well as the bloggers who carry their water, onto reporters who are just trying to cover the news as it relates to the towns around them.

Reporters who weren’t cooperative might feel the sting of a Media Matters campaign against them. “If you hit a reporter, say a beat reporter at a regional newspaper,” a Media Matters source said, “all of a sudden they’d get a thousand hostile emails. Sometimes they’d melt down. It had a real effect on reporters who weren’t used to that kind of scrutiny.”

It’s not a surprise at all, but it is useful to be reminded when it is coming straight from the mouths of former employees.

I highlight this because I think this shows why we should recognize when local papers get the stories on Second Amendment issues right. With Media Matters accepting funds specifically to attack any remotely fair or even slightly pro-rights reporting, they have an incentive to try and scare or shut down reporters who give gun owners a fair shake. (Meanwhile, it would be interesting to know how much of the Joyce Foundation money for anti-gun reporting went to paying the salaries of those who carried guns for the organization illegally.) They simply cannot handle the idea that anyone in the press would even acknowledge the Second Amendment as an individual right or be fair and balanced. If that happens, Media Matters would rather see those reporters “melt down” than keep writing.

Miguel discovers another case of mayors who are on the MAIG list, but claim to have never joined the organization. This isn’t the first time this has been uncovered.