Some of you remember I mentioned the date to look for on this issue was October the 10th, which has come and gone. The problem, I’m told, is that there’s no rule about when rule changes have to go into effect once they are finalized. Apparently ATF has had final rules pending for years. I’m not sure how much leverage NRA is going to have with a lame duck administration, and it’s important to keep in mind that the NPS bureaucracy is very much against this rule change. There’s a possibility there’s feet being dragged in the hopes that the next administration will be happy to kill the rule. I sincerely hope we can get a new rule in there before the next administration.
Category: Gun Rights
Preemption Battle in Washington
Looks like round one goes to gun owners, but Joe notes that victory could be short lived if the legislature takes the issue up again. Pennsylvania is going through similar problems right now, though I think there’s little chance of our legislature weakening preemption. Things could go south for us in a hurry though, if we let it. Especially under President Lightworker.
An Open Letter to Sportsmen
I lobbied Barack Obama extensively while he was an Illinois State Senator. As a result of that experience, I know Obama’s attitudes toward guns and gun owners better than anyone. The truth be told, in all my years in the Capitol I have never met a legislator who harbors more contempt for the law-abiding firearm owner than does Barack Obama.
Read the whole thing. Sadly, there are sportsmen who aren’t getting the message.
We Know Obama Won’t Peresonally Take Them
Robb has a good post up refuting the arguments to all the Obamatons that been coming around telling us how crazy we are for thinking Barack Obama is going to take our guns. One other thing I would add is that being able to own a gun doesn’t matter much if you have no where left to buy them, and nowhere left the shoot them. Without gun shops and ranges, it’s a hunk of steel rusting in a closet. The gun culture will be extinct within a generation. They won’t have to come door-to-door. People will get rid of them because there’s nothing left to support the gun culture. Obama knows this, and he’ll probably keep his promise not to send the .gov around to confiscate your guns. But he also knows he can destroy us without doing that.
A Call for Unity from Outdoor Life
Via SayUncle, there is an excellent article by Derek Reeves of Outdoor life:
We are heading into, perhaps, the darkest times for gun ownership and our liberties. We have the potential for the most anti-gun, anti-liberty, socialistic President in the history of our country. Running on the platform of “Change, We can believe in†with dashes of hope his Second Amendment stance is, at best, horrendous. Barrack Obama, claims he supports gun ownership while his own actions contradict his words. He feels that no one, other than law enforcement, should have concealed carry permits, that no civilian should have a semi-automatic weapon of any kind, and has said he will reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban and that the Washington D.C. gun ban is proper and should stand.
He goes on to call for unity, and action, which I couldn’t agree with more:
Now is the time for all of us, gun owners and constitutionally minded individuals, to come together under one banner. That banner can be the NRA but most importantly it has to be heard through votes. There are an estimated two to three hundred million registered firearms in the hands of law abiding Americans–that is a strong and very loud voice at the polls. Or we can stay divided, kick back and hope for change or is it change for hope?
Read the whole thing. Too many gun folks are thinking about voting for Barack Obama. I have heard from an activist up in the northern part of the state of a club there where about half the membership were supporting Obama. Even I ran into one guy who stated that he had to make a choice between his guns, and eating, and he had to eat. The risk for us is that people are worried to death about the economy. Even I am pretty worried. But I don’t seek comfort in Obama. Obama will not fix us. He is just a man — from Chicago.
One thing I should relay is that working with the campaigns, I’ve heard their internal polling is telling them something vastly different than the polls you see the media. Obama spent his weekend in Philadelphia. He wouldn’t do that if his polls were telling him he had Pennsylvania sown up. This is still winnable, but we have to get involved. The time is now.
Pulling The Wool Over Your Eyes
The AFL-CIO is doing a massive direct mailing to members to help cover up Obama’s atriocious record on gun control. They cite Obama’s endorsement by AHSA as proof that he supports our second amendment rights. One wonders whether they’ll tell their members about Obama’s endorsement by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership. If the AFL-CIO would only expend this much energy on keeping anti-gun Democrats off their tickets, they might not find themselves in this situation where they have to lie to their members.
John Lott’s Op-Ed in the Inky
John Lott points out Obama’s real record on guns. I actually worry in the Philadelphia media market, that could help more than hurt. We need to get that message into Northeastern Pennsylvania, and out west.
Chinese Gun Control
Apparently it’s not working too well. And this is in a country with total prohibition, and where gun trafficking will get you a bullet in the back of your head:
Yet gun crimes continue to grab headlines. Early last year, a man in the northeast went on a rampage with a homemade pistol, killing five family members and neighbors. In September 2007, a young Guangzhou man was found guilty of using a replica gun to rob a bank customer of $218,000, and drew a 19-year prison sentence. In December, a guard at a munitions dump machine-gunned a colleague over a chess match. Two days later, he was killed, too, in a shootout with police.
Who would have figured. When guns are prohibited, criminals still find a way to find them, or make them. Here’s a handy timeline of the history of guns in China.
What Bitter is Doing
Bitter was headed to the Women for McCain rally today in Blue Bell, PA. Apparently she’s going to be on stage at the event with John McCain. One of the Montgomery County GOP folks upgraded her pass to a stage pass. There are perks to getting involved. Her’s is being on stage with McCain. Mine is telling you all about it :)
Sportsmen for McCain Rally Footage
The rally was, I would say, a success. It was attended by a few hundred people, which I think was pretty good for an event in a remote part of Berks County and which didn’t feature either of the candidates. This video is of Aaron Hobbs, the National Director of Sportsmen for McCain, who I had the pleasure of hosting for the weekend:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRSHj85sysc[/youtube]
The crowd Aaron was speaking to was certainly orders of magnitude larger than AHSA, which is alluded to in his speech. My basic message is: don’t believe the polls. Obama spent his weekend in Philadelphia while McCain was sending surrogates to the southeastern part of the state. That tells me that both McCain and Obama’s internal polling is showing the race as a dead heat, and that Obama’s polling is telling him his support in Philadelphia needs to be higher. Don’t give up — this is still winnable. Pennsylvania will be a key state in this election.
This won’t be our last event. We’re working on getting a table for yet another gun show up in Allentown. This is again, out of our district, but it’s bound to draw a lot of folks from this area. We also really need to bolster NRA endorsed candidates, now including John McCain, in the northeastern part of the state. Lehigh County is close enough that we can make a contribution, and still do the work we need to do for our own district. There will be no break until Barack Obama is a distant memory.