Category: Guns

Looks like HB89 has had some pro-gun amendments attached to it today that include:

• further allowing concealed carry permit holders to carry in recreational areas, wildlife management areas, and public transportation;
• allowing concealed carry permit holders to carry in restaurants; and
• creating a stricter time line for various stages of the concealed carry license application process.

This amendment was tacked on by Representative Tim Bearden, and would appear to contain several of the measures that were in HB 915.  This sounds like a positive development, but NRA is alerting that people need to contact their representatives in order to ensure passage.

In Central Pennsylvania, a “zero tolerance” policy is making it difficult for a junior rifle team to bring air guns into the school so they can hold matches.

To me this is the same type of issue as sex education in schools.  You can either have the kids learn responsible gun use from responsible adults, or they can learn from video games and movies.

Armed and Safe talks about a federal gun show bill. The Democrats aren’t going to touch this before the election, but it’s a good example of the types of bills that will await us if the Democrats manage to shore up their majority if Republicans decide to stay home in November.

Today’s quote is from Joe Huffman:

Come out of the closet. In the early days of the gay rights movement there was a phrase, “Silence equals death!”. Getting people to come out in the open about being a gun owner helps the anti-gun people realize we aren’t red-necked, knuckle dragging, Neanderthals, who beat their wives, complain about the “coloreds” lusting after our women folk, and whose idea of a good time is shooting our empties while chugging beer from the tailgate of our pickups. It worked for the gays and it can work for us.

I agree with this.  When I first started getting back into shooting in my mid 20s, after not having shot since I was a kid shooting cans, I was pretty quiet about it around coworkers.  These days virtually all my coworkers know I shoot Silhouette on Thursdays, am a member of the NRA, and am politically active in the gun rights movement.

It is a risk, because you never know when some corporate drone will decide you’re too dangerous for the company to keep around and fire you.  I think it’s a risk we need to take.  Others who have preceded us have taken far far greater risks in the name of preserving freedom, and if we can’t step up in this manner, we’re doomed.

Of course, the one caveat is that being out only helps if you’re actually normal.   If you’re building a bunker in your cubicle out of old QIC computer tape cartridges and reams of copier paper, in preparation for the day the UN sends in the blue helmeted ones to impose the New World Order on your workplace, you might want to think about staying in the closet.