Category: Gun Rights

Via the Outdoor Pressroom, we have the first gun incident in Glacier National Park since the practice of carrying firearms was legalized in February. Is this the first use in the lower 48? A few weeks ago a hiker shot a grizzly in Denali, up in Alaska, which previously prohibited firearms. This woman shot the ground to scare away a deer, after her pepper spray failed to reach that far. Looks like the rangers issued her a warning rather than a fine. That seems to me to be the right thing to do. I’m not generally a fan of warning shots, but she was doing the right thing carrying the spray and the gun, which is what I’d suggest for someone venturing out into one of our big National Parks.

Yesterday I commented on a post by Family Research Council’s Vice President of Government Relations, which claimed that GOProud viewed national reciprocity for concealed carry license as a gay rights issue, implying it was part of the gay agenda to get gay marriage. Quite a leap I thought. Now they’ve issued a correction to their post, and update I would note that conveniently changes the URL of the post:

GOProud’s position on gun control we confused with a statement on Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Miss.), so we corrected that – the rest of the facts below speak for themselves.  As for FRC being “against the Second Amendment.,  that claim could only be done in total ignorance.

For not being a second amendment group we have done more for those rights than any homosexual group can claim, including filing an amicus brief earlier this year in McDonald v. Chicago.  In fact with our opposition to the DISCLOSE Act we are doing more for the Second Amendment by defending the First Amendment then arguably the NRA is (just ask Gun Owners of America!)  Additionally, I personally, ever since they repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, am a huge fan of the whole U.S. Constitution from the first word to the last period – and will defend it from liberal activist judges who seek to misuse it to either redefine marriage or take away our right to bear arms.  Grover and his friends aren’t able to say that.

Wow.. so FRC is now claiming they’re doing more for the Second Amendment than NRA? They seem to have forgotten the first rule of Public Relations, “When one finds oneself in a hole, the first step is to stop digging.” For one, I’m pretty sure the folks over at NRA know Claire McCaskill is a Senator from Missouri, and not Mississippi. For two, it would seem FRC hasn’t been reading the same chess board I am.

I am glad that FRC has clarified its position on the Second Amendment, and I certainly do appreciate their support on our issue. But I still want to be sure that FRC is clear on the Right to Bear Arms being the birthright of all Americans, whether black, white, gay or straight. Comfortable with that? If that’s the case, we have no problem then.

Apparently Germany’s strict gun laws are not enough:

The “Keine Mordwaffen als Sportwaffen” campaign is using Great Britain as the example of how it believes the German government should act. Following a shooting spree in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996, the British government banned the private ownership of all handguns, and confiscated thousands of weapons in exchange for financial compensation. The move was also the result of a massive popular campaign that collected over a million signatures, despite heavy criticism from gun lobbies and sports clubs.

Because that worked oh so well didn’t it? The nutjob still got a gun. BTW, “Keine Mordwaffen als Sportwaffen” means “No Murder Weapons as Sporting Weapons.” Since you can use any firearm as a murder weapon, that pretty much tells you what their agenda is, doesn’t it? What’s next? “Keine Mordmesser als Kuchenmesser?”

I had almost forgot until SayUncle mentioned it that Alito was once called by our opponents “Machine Gun Sam” during his confirmation fight. Here’s why:

In a lone dissenting opinion as a federal appeals court judge in 1996, Alito argued that the federal ban on possessing machine guns was unconstitutional — a stand described by both admirers and detractors Tuesday as one of the most revealing cases in the lengthy judicial record of President Bush’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I would note, however, that his reasoning in this case was based on commerce clause grounds and not the Second or Fourteenth Amendments. What makes me nervous about Alito was his deference to the government in his dissent in the Stevens case. My other concern is that he’s from New Jersey — he grew up in Hamilton about 15 minutes from where I live. I don’t know how familiar he is with the issue and the gun culture. Now Scalia is from New York City, but Scalia also is a hunter and a shooter, and even has stories about how you used to be able to carry a rifle on the New York Subway system without everyone freaking out. So my concern is likely a case of the jitters.

At this point I’m not worried that we have lost. I think we will have won McDonald at the end of the day on Monday. My worry is that we’re going to get dicta that’s less firm that we need it to be. Granted, the important thing is that we win, and it looking likely. Let’s hope my fears are completely unfounded, and this turns out to be a solid, decisive opinion.

… even China is admitting it’s not working.

I was happy to see this news from Jacob, that the Westchester Gun Show, running in one of the suburbs of New York City, was back in business after being closed down in post-Columbine hysterics. At first I thought this was good news, but I am so thankful for the New York media pointing out that it was just a bunch of nazis. The New York Daily News I am particularly grateful for pointing out that no one has thought of the children, in addition to driving home the whole nazi thing.

But in all seriousness, we all know most guns hows have militaria, and a lot of the same people who collect guns collect militaria, this reinforces my view that gun show promoters who are operating in hostile media markets (and you don’t get much more hostile than New York City’s) need to think about public and media relations. I actually would like to see NSSF do more to reach out to gun show promoters and try to build some accepted practices. I am absolutely not suggesting this road needs to lead down the path of removing militaria from gun shows, but as we restore gun rights to a lot of these infringing jurisdictions, we’re going to continue to have this problem, and have to have a plan.

The Daily News and the Journal News ought to be ashamed of themselves for such one sided, shoddy journalism, but we can expect more of this kind of thing if we don’t think about how to mitigate the problem.