Looks like Pittsburgh is the latest city to jump on the “Lost and Stolen” bandwagon. And all this with zero proof it does anything to limit the supply of guns to the black market.
Category: Gun Rights
Pixels for Pistols
Toronto officials want people to give up their nasty, brutish habit of marksmanship, if you want to point something at objects and pull a trigger, they have an alternative for you:
The amnesty program, Pixels for Pistols, is a joint endeavour with the 26-store Henry’s camera chain, based on Church St. in Toronto. For four weeks, Toronto residents who hand over a gun, legal or not, will receive a digital camera, either a Nikon Coolpix S52 or a Coolpix P60, listed at $230 and $190 on the Henry’s website. The offer includes photography lessons.
Fortunately, some gun owners in Ontario already know they are sad, evil individuals, and are taking steps at cleansing their souls:
Among the callers was John Hope, who keeps a trigger lock on the 9-mm Beretta stowed in his Bracebridge home. He says he’s eager to give up the gun so it doesn’t land in the wrong hands – a criminal or suicidal teenager, say. Since he can’t trade it for a camera, he now plans to throw it into the middle of a lake.
Argh! Sell that thing to a collector who would value it. Restricted firearms in Canada are tough to come by. It would have been like someone tossing a fine pre-ban AR-15 in a lake during the height of our assault weapons ban.
Weapons Control Japanese Style
They are getting more strict:
The revised firearms and swords possession control law would ban the possession of daggers and other double-edged knives whose blades are 5.5 centimeters or longer, and swords and spears with blades of 15 cm or longer. At present, one is prohibited from owning swords, knives and spears whose blades are 15 cm or longer.
The bill would also expand the scope of a ban on gun ownership to people with such records of such criminal action as stalking and domestic violence as well as bankrupt people and those feared to commit suicide.
American gun owners should note that, despite Japan’s astronomically low crime rate, the government of Japan is not saying “Well, our controls work well — we live in a very safe society.” No, when the weapons control laws fail, as they always will, the answer will be to squeeze tighter and tighter.
How Not to Earn an Endorsement
Of the entire Bucks County delegation of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, I have only two endorsed candidates: Paul Clymer of District 145 and Gene DiGirolamo of District 18. Scott Petri of District 178 is a B+ rated candidate, and we can see what issues he’s weak on:
Petri, who has been endorsed by the Fraternal Order of Police, said he wants a Pennsylvania State Police-maintained database and an enforceable, constitutional provision that requires people to report lost or stolen handguns. He said he will introduce legislation that would make straw purchasing a second-degree felony, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. He also wants any gun dealer who sells a weapon to a straw purchaser to lose his or her license forever.
The third party opponent seems to be pretty good on guns, and Petri does not carry an endorsement. Nonetheless, I would say he’s the lesser of the two evils for people who the gun issue is important to. It’s not a good idea to tell gun voters that your vote against a gun control provision is because it did not go far enough, and you’d be happy to vote for one that did. Also, while I agree with prosecuting straw purchasers, how is the dealer to know that the person he is selling to is a straw purchaser? The whole idea of the strawman is to put someone forward who will appear to not be a criminal, and who will pass the mandated background check. The moral culpability for the crime lies with the straw purchaser, who unlawfully buys the firearm, then unlawfully passes it to someone with a criminal record. Dealers do not have ESP. They can’t read people’s minds. If a dealer knowingly makes an illegal sale, that’s already a crime, both under state and federal law. They don’t just risk losing their license, they risk going to prison.
This is how politicians lose NRA endorsements, and why Scott Petri isn’t getting any of my volunteers this election. I appreciate he’s a B+, and his opponent is likely worse, but he needs to talk to some gun people in the area, and get an idea for how to speak about our issue in a way that gets tough with criminals, but signals to us that you understand our concerns, and will respect our rights. Petri is failing at that this election.
It’s Really Gun Control!
How do you get political cover for signing what is really a pro-gun bill? Claim it’s actually a gun control bill. Fortunatly the press is willing to go along.
Quote of the Weekend
Breda did some precinct walking this weekend:
…if a one-legged librarian can be on her feet for two hours, walking alone in an unfamiliar neighborhood, hoping to change hearts and minds, you can do it too.
She asks “What have you done to defeat Barack Obama today?” It’s a great question. This show we were doing a harder sell for volunteers, trying to get people lined up for the 72 hour effort right before the election, so we can turn out the sportsman vote. Our pitch was basically if you only volunteered an hour of your time, it would go a long way to helping pro-gun candidates. Most people said they didn’t have the time, despite driving a long way to spend a few hours at a gun show. If everyone that attended that show would have, the following weekend, donated that same amount of time to their local pro-gun candidates, the effect would be amazing. This is why we gain ground so slowly, have to compromise, and often just outright lose. I had several people thank us for what we were doing on behalf of the Second Amendment. I appreciate that, but appreciate more people who sign up themselves. It’s nice to be appreciated, but it’s even nicer to have help, and to win.
Ed Rendell Does Something Right
You won’t often see NRA touting something Ed Rendell does, but he signed HB 1845 into law today. State park carry in Pennsylvania is now law, among other things. Previously in Pennsylvania DCNR regulations prohibited guns in parks, much like they prohibit alcohol. If you were caught with a concealed firearm in a state park, they could write you a citation and eject you from the park. Now the only off limits places in Pennsylvania are court houses, and possibly schools (schools are a legal gray area).
Philadelphia Tries Again
They introduce two new gun bills to City Council. One that closes a non-existent loophole in Pennsylvania Law:
Under legislation proposed by Council members Donna Reed Miller and Darrell L. Clarke, anyone reselling a gun would have have to run the sale through a licensed dealer, who would run a background check on the buyer.
A similar state law already exists, but critics say it is too narrow and has no effect on individuals selling guns to other individuals.
“We’re looking at all the avenues and cracks in the system,” Miller said.
There are no private sales of handguns in Pennsylvania. That is apparently a fact lost on City Council. I don’t know what loophole they think exists, but this is a non-starter and pretty clearly a violation of state preemption.
The other bill introduced yesterday would raise the city penalty for carrying a gun illegally from $300 to $1,900 and would allow police to confiscate a car driven by someone illegally carrying a gun – regardless of ownership of the car.
Careful you don’t leave a pistol in the glove box of your car if you lend it to someone. I oppose this law, because I think Civil Asset Forfeiture is wrong on principle. Doesn’t matter if a gun is involved or not. This is also a violation of state preemption.
Does the rule of law mean nothing to Philadelphia City Council? Sadly I think I know the answer already. How can they expect their residents to respect the law when they themselves refuse to?
Guess Who Doesn’t Win Brady Endorsement?
Congressman Patrick Murphy is not among the Brady list of endorsed candidates. Joe Sestak got one. So did Allyson Schwartz. Of course, the NRA rated him a D-. He’ll win no friends on the gun issue this election. This is what we call a poor political calculation.
There’s a lot to be gained by being pro-gun. A lot of the Tom Manion signs and bumper stickers around Bucks County were put up by my volunteers, or were given out by my volunteers. I have people phone banking for NRA endorsed candidates. We’ve been stuffing envelopes for Tom Manion and John McCain. This could all be working for you Pat, but now it’s working against you. Where are your throngs of volunteers, coordinators, and bloggers from CeaseFire PA or the Brady Campaign? Even if you hadn’t pissed them off too, there’s none to be had, because they aren’t a real grass roots movement.
We don’t ask for much Congressman Murphy, just that you vote consistently with the Second Amendment. But you don’t, so our support goes to your opponent. I am an independent, and a single issue activist. I have no special love for the Republican Party. But I definitely don’t have any love for you when you sign on to ban the guns I shoot with competitively.
More Preemption Challenges
Both the Pittsburgh papers and the Lancaster papers are running editorials on the “Lost and Stolen” provisions that are being passed around the state:
With every right comes a responsibility. You would think that every law-abiding gun owner would want to report a missing firearm as soon as the theft was discovered and would not object to a law on it for a sound public-safety reason — deterrence of so-called “straw purchases” that criminals use to obtain guns.
Yes, people should report lost or stolen firearms. I believe that. But failure to do so shouldn’t result in a huge fine and prison time. You do not victimize people who are themselves victims. There’s absolutely no evidence whatsoever that these regulations discourage straw purchasing, which is already a felony. None. Nada. The burden should be on those proposing the regulation that it actually works, and doesn’t risk entraping people who are not involved in the illegal arms trade, which these regulations very much do.