Category: Gun Rights

John Richardson has his impressions of his first GRPC, which is an annual event put on by SAF and CCRKBA. I’ve never been to one, but it’s on my list to get to one of these years. Obviously, considering our employment situation, this was not going to be the year.

Our opponents are continuing to distort the National Recprocity Bill. This editorial out of Eugene Oregon note opposition groups suggesting the bill is setting federal standards for permits, which is does not:

But opponents of the legislation, which includes a coalition of 600 U.S. mayors, the American Bar Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, say, if enacted into law, the measure would “dumb down” gun laws all across the country, requiring states, cities and counties with more stringent concealed weapons laws — including gun safety training requirements — to loosen their standards. And that, opponents say, would create a threat to public safety.

The way MAIG and the other gun control organizations are putting it, it makes it sound as if HR822 weakens established state issuance standards. It does not. It just forces each state to recognize permits from each other state. This is a clever way of putting it, which is not technically a lie, since some states, like Ohio, will only sign reciprocity agreements with other states that mandate training. This bill would indeed take that power away from the State of Ohio, and other states that have similar reciprocity standards. But by distorting it this way, they make the bill sound worse, from their point of view, than it really is.

Over at the Captain’s Journal. He believes that gun control is a spiritual battle, as the right to bear arms is granted by God, and that the battle to preserve it is a matter of religion, morality, and righteousness.

I can’t really answer his criticism, because I think it’s correct. Spending enough time in a single issue to tends to make you think more practically about things and less religiously. I agree the right is granted by God, but it has to be protected by men, and for most of our struggle that’s been done through the political process.

Though, in terms of arguing the case from within the context of within a Church, I think the Captain’s approach is probably smarter.

You’d think the Florida Legislature had passed a state law required a detailed proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem from every single local legislator in the country by some unreasonable deadline, judging from the amount of hysteria I’ve seen in the media over the preemption law with teeth. How hard is it to repeal a law at the next town meeting?

After watching all the hewing and hawing from local officials in Florida, I’d really like to get this passed in Pennsylvania. It’s been great watching as local officials, who for years have gotten away with passing and sometimes enforcing laws, thumbing their noses at the state legislature and getting away with it, now suddenly find themselves held accountable.

The New York Times is in fits over the HR822:

This trashing of state and local prerogatives is not only unwise but unnecessary. In its wrongheaded 2008 decision recognizing an individual’s Second Amendment right to keep guns in the home for self-defense, the Supreme Court still left room for reasonable gun limits, including restrictions on toting concealed weapons.

What New York City has are not restrictions on concealed weapons. What New York City has amounts to a prohibition for carrying a firearm at all, except for the rich and well connected. This should not pass any constitutional standard for a fundamental right. Since New York does not choose to prohibit concealed carry, but rather to restrict it in an arbitrary and capricious manner, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be forced to recognize other licenses from other states.

I’d also note that the Court, in Heller, did not endorse prohibitions on concealed carry. It offered that as an example of restrictions that have been upheld, as an example of ways the right has been regulated. That’s a far cry from the Courts endorsing New York City, Chicago’s, or D.C.’s draconian prohibitions.

From Dave Kopel on NRA News:

It’s a race to the bottom. This is a bottom I am quite happy to race to, because all the noise being made in opposition is nothing by the hysterical ramblings of irrelevant and frightened people.