Category: Gun Rights

I wouldn’t read much into polls, because the one thing polls don’t tell you is where the passion for an issue is. But Rasmussen is at least a reputable poller, and polls show the public is wary of open carry.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% of Adults are at least somewhat concerned about their safety in the presence of those who have “concealed carry” gun permits. Fifty-eight percent (58%) don’t share that concern.

But 47% oppose so-called “open carry” laws that would allow citizens to openly wear their guns in public. Forty-one percent (41%) favor laws. Several states are currently wrestling with this issue.

In households with a gun owner, support for “open carry” laws rises to 57%. In households where no gun is present, 62% oppose them.

Truth be told, I don’t think these poll numbers are devastating to the cause of Open Carry, and we already know that the Brady folks haven’t had a lot of luck doing fundraising on twitter using the issue. Concealed carry once had poll numbers that were this low. That’s not to say I’m about to endorse open carry in all places and all circumstances, but 57% support among gun owners is better than I thought it would be. The big question is where the passion is, because that’s more indicative of how the struggle will play out politically. The polling doesn’t really matter, but it’s useful to at least get an approximate gauge of what people think.

I did a post yesterday about how gun control bills in New York were having a hard time moving. Well, Microstamping just passed the New York Assembly, and is on its way to the Senate. The Senate has for a while been what’s stopped gun control bills from passing in New York State, as it remained under Republican control for a while. But now it’s hard to say whether that’s going to hold with the Democrats in charge.

The number of campuses that allow carry has doubled since Students for Concealed Carry on Campus got their activism on, and won a major victory in the Colorado courts. It’s really great work on the part of that organization. The Brady folks can claim all they want about how they are winning on this issue, but I think Daniel Crocker has found a great way to look at our progress.

There’s a number of gun control bills in the New York Assembly that aren’t moving, as Jacob mentions, “In the past 18-19 years I’ve been following gun legislation I cannot recall ever seeing an antigun bill that was put on the Assembly Codes agenda fail to be moved out of Codes at that time.”

Gun control bills that never go anywhere are par for the course in most states, but we’ll take any signs of progress in New York as a positive development.

The chairman of the Conservative Party of Madison County, New York seems to know stupid when he sees it:

Let me get this straight. A terrorist bought a car off of Craigslist, fireworks in Pennsylvania, and inflammable fertilizer, parked his dud-car-bomb in Times Square, got onto an international flight, and was only caught at the last minute as the plane was taxing to the runway. Mayor Bloomberg’s solution to this is to call for stricter gun-control laws?

Mayor Bloomberg needs his head examined. If he somehow thinks gun-control laws will prevent criminals, much less terrorists, he is sorely mistaken.

You got that straight, but he doesn’t need to have his head examined. Bloomberg knows exactly what he is doing. Crazy maybe, but like a fox. What should amaze folks is that hundreds of mayors across Pennsylvania have signed on to this agenda. I wish I could get dozens of letters like this submitted to papers all across this Commonwealth.

NRA and CRPA are suing the San Diego Sheriff over their arbitrary carry license issuance policy.

The case challenges the application of California Penal Code section 12050, which allows a sheriff or police chief to issue a permit where “the person applying is of good moral character, that good cause exists for the issuance,” and that the person is a resident of that county.  Under this law, sheriffs and chiefs of police often implement subjective standards for “good cause,” as well as residency requirements that are not constitutionally permissible.   The Complaint was originally filed in October 2009 by a local activist. It survived a motion brought by the County to dismiss the case.  In the Order denying that motion, the Judge confirmed that the constitutional claims were valid, and that the County’s arbitrary permit issuance policy may very well be unconstitutional.  The amended Complaint adds both more plaintiffs and more legal claims for relief. Documents relating to the case are posted at www.calgunlaws.com.

This would be another case, in addition to Palmer in the DC Circuit, being argued by Alan Gura, that involves the right to “bear” arms, rather than just to keep arms. The cases are a bit different due to the different type of law that they are challenging. The CRPA/NRA case would seem to hinge on the arbitrary and capricious nature of issuance, while the Palmer case in DC hinges on their now allowing a non-resident of DC any means at all for carrying a firearm.

As you can imagine, it’s not good. These are the Democratic candidates for Governor, including our current Governor, who I think has convinced the Democratic panel that being in favor of gun control in Pennsylvania doesn’t hurt you.

Bitter is getting pretty good at using iMovie to splice together some propaganda of our own:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Y04Yc2g60[/youtube]