Category: Gun Rights

Heritage has released a paper outlining a US strategy for resisting the Arms Trade Treaty. Since the meme out there these days is that gun owners are paranoid and Barry is really our best buddy, ask yourself for a moment whether you trust Barack Obama to look out after the best interest of America’s gun owners? No, I don’t either, and he’s already started going after gun owners in his 2013 budget.

While there’s little chance that the Senate will ratify a broad ATT, as I’ve mentioned before, the risks to US shooters is significant. Imagine no Glocks, Anschutz’s, no foreign ammunition, foreign shotguns, rifles, etc. Why? Because every other country signed the ATT, and refuses to export to the US because we’ve defied the treaty and don’t live up to “international standards.”

D.C.’s transport laws are absurd, as is detailed by Emily Miller of the Washington Times, and definitely outside the laws in most states, but it might be surprising to know that Pennsylvania’s transport laws for handguns aren’t any different. The only difference is a License to Carry (from any state) is a blanket exception to our transport laws, and those are readily issued to anyone who asks for one and can legally possess a handgun.

Emily Miller, now that she’s become a gun owner, is figuring out that there are some elements of society that want her to be put in prison for a long time, with people who are really violent, all for making common mistakes that ordinary people make all the time, like running out of gas, or forgetting to go to the bathroom before leaving the house. OK for ordinary people to do, but not gun owners. Not in our Nation’s Capital.

The Canadian Shooting Sports Association is looking at some next steps, following up on their victory over the long gun registry. They’re now looking at licensing reform. Whether another step has any legs or not is entirely dependent on Canadian gun owners, but this doesn’t offer much hope, from a dealer in Canada:

Back in Sudbury, Ramakko said he hears very few complaints about gun licences. He expects the conversation at the gun counter will now turn from politics back to hunting.

If that happens, then the registry repeal is just a one time thing, and will quite possibly be reversed the next time the Tory’s are out of power.

Everyone knows about the gun rationing repeal, which is great news. But some other more minor improvements are moving in the Old Dominion. One bill to provide civil immunity for people who defend themselves, another to prevent localities from operating gun buybacks not authorized by ordinance, and also requires guns obtained from buybacks be sold to FFLs, and destroyed only if they cannot be sold. The third establishes a more definitive fine structure ($25) for someone who can’t produce a permit upon request. Looks like a vote could happen also on a bill to eliminate the fingerprint requirement.

I’m particularly interested in the bill on buybacks. Personally, I don’t have a problem with a program that gets guns out of the hands of people that don’t really want them. What I have a problem with are when folks dump valuable historical pieces on a  buyback, only to have a piece of history destroyed. This way, FFLs will get dibs on buyback guns. The junk will still get destroyed, and I’m fine with that, but dealers will have an opportunity to rescue anything of value. That seems to be the kind of common sense reform I can get behind.

I notice there’s still quite a lot of pictures of guns and coffee appearing on Starbucks’ Facebook page. I would like to note that Starbucks never asked for their brand to be associated with gun rights; all they want to do is sell coffee. Now that two days have passed since the end of the appreciation day, I’d like to ask everyone to support Starbucks by continuing to buy their coffee, and yummy baked goods. That is what I intend to do. For the purposes of really playing up the Buycott, I think we’ve gotten our message through. It’s time to let them go about hawking their product. By all means, let’s keep the gratitude pouring into corporate, and pouring into their coffers, but I think we ought to let Starbucks’ brand go back to just being about great coffee. That means not engaging in, what in a person-to-person analogy would be walking up to the barista, and continuing to stick pro-gun stickers all over her, and handing her guns. She didn’t ask for that. She just wants to serve you coffee.

UPDATE: I should note that, I don’t want to dissuade anyone from polite engagement with the anti-gunners bringing fourth their own hate on Starbuck’s page. But I would concentrate on shaming them for dragging coffee into politics, rather than trying to turn their FB into a battleground.

While we’re certainly happy, in Virginia, to see the state’s gun rationing scheme disappear, the GOP controlled legislature is still killing a number of pro-gun bills. It would seem our opponents’ fear of a flood of pro-gun legislation are unfounded. The GOP controlled legislature has killed a measure to shield permit information from public view. I can understand why the GOP might not want to take up the issue of guns on campus this legislative session. I can even understand why, in the state where Liberty University spawns many members of the GOP establishment, they might want to avoid the Sunday hunting issue. But making permits private? I can’t imagine this will push the legislature over the edge into “just too pro gun” in the eyes of the public. The only folks who ought to make an issue out of this are a handful of antigun reporters. I’m aware that open government groups have taken a position here:

“This is not a Second Amendment issue, but it is about the public’s ability to monitor how government conducts the process,” Stanley said. “We would urge you to err on the side of keeping the public’s right to know with court records.” Megan Rhyne of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government said the fact that the state has chosen to require licenses to carry concealed weapons means information about those licenses should be open.

I’m generally for complete transparency when it comes to government, but my chosen method of self-defense ought not be a public matter. The logical result of the obstinance of folks like Megan Rhyne and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, is that we’ll push to eliminate the permit process altogether. Take your pick, because how I choose to defend myself being a matter of public record is not an option here.

It passes by 159 to 130. It’s been a long time coming just to get this far. It goes on to the Canadian Senate, where it’s expected to pass. Once politicians can repeal gun control, and nothing happens to them, they can be more easily convinced to repeal more, and then more. It’ll be up to Canadian gun owners to organize, and make sure the conservatives keep their majority.

We got a media contact today from a reporter at the LA Times’ Seattle bureau, who was looking for a blogger to interview. Unfortunately for me, she wanted someone to go on record with a real name, so I referred her to Joe Huffman, who is quoted in the article. Joe was the person who originally came up with the idea of a Starbucks Appreciation Day, or Buycott two years ago, and I thought he’d make a better subject for an interview anyway.and despite the claim in the article that it started with Dave Workman, it had gone viral by the time he reported it. The genesis of the idea was with Joe. All I did was revive his idea when I heard they were planning another boycott. The rest the power of the Internets did, and I don’t think anyone can rightly claim credit for the success of the Buycott yesterday.

With all the fun had yesterday getting caffeinated via Starbucks, I’m reminded of what a good time we gun owners typically have when we’re advancing our cause.

Reader Adam Z. recently pointed out the other day that the Philadelphia Friends of NRA dinner is coming up in March. Are there any Philly-area readers interested in coming out to have a good time again? If so, would you guys be interested in a table or two for gun blog readers?

It’s scheduled for March 27 at Cannstatter’s with doors open at 5pm and, assuming the typical schedule, that will mean dinner around 7pm. The Philly dinner is pretty well established, so they have some great games with far more prizes and games than the typical Friends dinner. Signal your interest with a comment that includes how many tickets you’re buying, and I’ll let you know when we hit the number for a table.

Remember, the Friends program is about the direct outreach side of NRA. These events provide funds for new shooter events, youth competitive shooting programs, and firearms training for women. Another thing that the Friends dinner funds are local Civil Rights Defense Fund cases. The local challenges to gun laws, whether by NRA directly or by people who have been unfairly prosecuted, are often eligible for funding or other assistance by the Civil Rights Defense Fund.

P.S. The much lower attended Bucks County dinner will be in the fall. I’ll be bugging you all before that one, too. If you want to minimize your chances of a fight over the NRA waffle iron, I suggest attending both dinners so you have a chance at both of them.

UPDATE: Reader Ed reminds us of another Eastern PA event on April 24 where doors open at 5:30pm. Anyone in the Bethlehem area interested?