Guns – Page 102 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Shotgun Weddings

Las Vegas is the world capital of tacky weddings. You can get married by Elvis and have a shrimp buffet afterwards! So it’s no surprise that someone set up a range to sell “shotgun weddings.”Â It’s all in good fun. But of course, the killjoys over at CSGV and the Brady Campaign are having none of it:

“Responsible gun owners appreciate the risks of having a gun,” says Jonathan Hutson spokesman for theÂ Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “They don’t treat a gun casually like a party favor.”

As long as they are following the four rules, I don’t really see what the problem is. Sure, even as a gunny, this wouldn’t really be my cup of tea, but did I mention this was Las Vegas?

To love guns enough to include them in your wedding vows is a problem with our culture, according to Ladd Everitt, the communications director for theÂ Coalition to Stop Gun ViolenceÂ in Washington, DC. “We live in a society where a certain subset of gun owners fetishize firearms, talking them as something akin to religious idols,” he said. “There is a strong spiritual element here, where commonly embraced maxims of faith, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me,’ are rejected outright. The gun culture takes great pride in ignoring the risks posed by firearms, and embraces the suffering they cause: ‘That’s the price of liberty.’ Some might describe this philosophy as nihilism.”

I’ll bet Ladd is a load of fun at parties. I’d have left it at “Well, it seems kind of tacky to us,” but I’m not the type of person who wakes up at one in the morning in a cold sweat worrying that someone out there might be having fun.

Correction: Constitutional Carry in Maine

I got sidetracked in yesterday’s post, since one of the Bangor papers headlines their articles with today’s date, making me think I was reading something current. In truth, Maine’s legislature addressed the Governor’s concerns, and Governor LePage is signing the revised bill today. Maine will become the 6th state to adopt Constitutional Carry. Congratulations Maine!

And the ball keeps rolling.

The State of Gun Control Finances

I’ve suspected for a while that the non-Bloomberg gun control groupsÂ had to be in pretty bad shape. Not just because gun control is a losing issue, but because to whatever extent gun control was revived by the President’s exploitation of the Sandy Hook Massacre, most of that benefit has gone to Bloomberg’s organization since everyone else seems to be getting ignored by the media. But to know for sure, we had to wait until the 2013 Form 990s we out. The answer seems to be that everyone in the gun control movement undoubtedly reaped a windfall from the massacre, and their movement’s 501(c)(3) branches continue to do better than they did pre-Sandy Hook.

First, let’s look at the Brady Campaign. In 2012, the Brady Campaign made 4.91 million dollars in revenue, which was up from 2.93 million in 2011. We suspect most of that money poured in during the few weeks after Sandy Hook on December 15, 2012. It was the fight into early 2013 where it became apparent that Bloomberg and the White House were running the gun control agenda, and Brady started falling off everyone’s radar. So it is not surprising that in 2013, the Brady Campaign did not raise as much money as it did in 2012, most of which was probably raised in the first several weeks of that year.

Now for the Brady Center, their 501(c)(3) public charity. It looks to me like they might have shifted their fundraising, and some of their personnel cost over to The Brady Center. The Center didn’t get as much of a windfall in 2012, bringing in 3.82 million versus 2.88 million in 2011. But the Center managed to increase it’s revenue in 2013 to 4.58 million.

I also note that in 2013, salary costs to the Brady Campaign drop by 33%, while the Center’s salary costs increase 31%. I suspect they are shifting more of their personnel costs to the 501(c)(3). Previously, when the Bradys were in really dire straits, it became apparent they were using the Center as a bit of a lifeboat, since the Campaign was nearly out of money. Without a doubt, Sandy Hook saved their asses, and I suspect they are still enjoying some benefit of Obama making gun control cool again.

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence had a similar story to the Bradys. They had raised 333 grand in 2011, and 492 grand in 2012. But again, in 2013, they were down to 484 grand. EFSGV, their 501(c)(3) branch, also tracks the Brady Center. In 2011, 460 grand in revenue, then 638 grand in 2012. In 2013, EFSGV raised 950 grand, almost a million dollars. I guess maybe that foaming at the mouth stuff works! They outperformed the Brady Center in terms of revenue growth.

VPC is largely supported by wealthy foundations, but their revenue was also up in 2013. They managed to boost their public support percentage to 21.50%, which is actually still pretty sad, but better than 2011 when it was 17.28% and 2012, when it was 18.17%. I’m sure they are hoping since their public support is heading in the right direction, the IRS will stay off their backs. They typically have to include a letter explain why it’s so low, and what they are doing to bring it up. They’ve been doing this for a while.

It is without doubt Everytown is now king of the gun control movement, with 2103 revenues of 36 million. Their 2012 revenue was 4.86 when they were MAIG. I’d note that Everytown spends previous little on fundraising, which means most of that money is likely coming from Bloomberg. We all pretty much knew as much. Bloomberg is certainly generous about spreading his organization’s wealth around. Their 2013 990 shows a 47,500 grant to CSGV, 6 grand to CeaseFirePA, 263 thousand to Moms Demand Action, among other groups.

So how does Moms Demand Action look? She raised 890 large in 2013, and we know 30% of that came from Bloomberg through Everytown. She spent a reasonable amount on fundraising. You’ll note in their 990, however, that MDA as a separate entity officially terminated the same year, and merged into Everytown. So Shannon Watts’s operation is entirely Everytown, and not a legal, separate entity. Everytown’s 2014 990s will be very interesting. I doubt MDA was ever really independent from Bloomberg, and the whole thing was a Bloomberg-backed venture from the get go.

So where does that leave things? A gun control movement that probably got most of it’s boost in the weeks after Sandy Hook, but are still largely benefitting from the raised awareness the President and Bloomberg’s money have bought the movement. I would not get despondent over their improved fortunes, however. Why?

Because in 2012, NRA’s revenues went from 219MM to 256MM, and in 2013 they went to $348MM. Get that? Between 2011 and 2013, NRA’s revenue increased by 129MM. That’s more than 3x the amount of every other gun control group’s revenue increase from 2011 to 2013 combined. And that’s just NRA proper. The NRA Foundation went from 29MM to 43MM from 2011 to 2012, then dropping slightly to 41MM in 2013,Â I suspect because people wanted to donate to the political arm since that’s where the threats were coming from.

The President’s and Bloomberg ginning up of gun control post-Sandy Hook has made NRA much stronger proportionally than the gun control movement. That’s because of people out there like you.

Taxing a Civil Right

Seattle is proposing taxing guns and ammunition. The tax would be $25 dollars on firearms, and 5 cents on each round of ammunition. This would probably put every dealer within city limits out of business, which is probably the idea. By all rights, this should be unconstitutional, because in the context of other rights, these kinds of taxes have been held as such, but the courts have shown almost no willingness to protect the Second Amendment as anything other than a second class right, subordinate to all the others.

I think Scalia and Thomas’s dissent in denial of cert forÂ JacksonÂ will act as signal to the lower courts that Heller and McDonald are going to be more like Lopez and Morrison;Â odd, outlying cases rather than landmark rulings which change everything. I hate to be pessimistic, but without change, it’s pretty apparent the Court will not be revisiting the Second Amendment.

That said, I think a pretty good argument could be made in Washington State courts that such a tax violates Washington State’s preemption statute, which has pretty strong language. Surely if a local municipality can’t regulate the sale of firearms and ammunition, it can’t accomplish the same by trying to tax sales out of existence. Washington State also has a RKBA provision, and there’s nothing that prevents Second Amendment claims to be considered by Washington State courts.

More Dumb Lawsuits

Rev. Michael “Snuffy” Pfleger has a problem. He can’t sue gun shops anymore, because they are immune from frivolous lawsuits under PLCAA, and he can’t sue the state or federal government, because they have sovereign immunity. So what’s a radical gun hating Catholic priest to do? Well, sue the town the gun shops are in, of course, under the theory they aren’t keeping a close enough eye on what’s going on in their towns. Our opponents have done very well in the courts, largely because the legal establishment doesn’t think too much of the Second Amendment. I can’t think of any better way of helping change that than by repeated filing of frivolous lawsuits that simple waste the generally very limited time of judges and the court system.

Constitutional Carry Update for New England

Governor Hassan has vetoed the Constitutional Carry bill that was passed by the New Hampshire legislature. It’s worth nothing that Constitutional Carry in Maine is still awaiting the signature of Governor LePage, who is now saying he won’t sign it because the age is 21 rather than 18. I can’t find fault with the Governor’s reasoning, but I have to wonder if this is a game, because LePage has been saying he won’t sign anything until the legislature repeals the income tax. This being a way to live up to his promise, while appearing to be more pro-gun than thou.

I’d call his bluff and pass one that’s allows carry for those 18 and older, but I don’t know if we’d still have enough votes. Perhaps we can get this overridden? They’ve certainly been willing to do it for other bills. Constitutional Carry is a difficult issue. It’s been harder to get these bills done and made into law. It’s only going to be continued pressure from our people that will help get this done.

Major Loss for Antis in Court

You remember how Trinity Wall Street church sued Wal-Mart over their selling of AR-15s? The church is a shareholder in Wal-Mart, and they tried to get a proxy ballot put in place that would allow shareholders to vote on whether to tell the Board of Directors to implement standards for gun sales. They had won in district court, but the Third Circuit Court of appeals overturned that decision, arguing that the shareholders were trying to inject themselves directly into Wal-Mart’s business operations, and federal law permits the company to reject attempts to do that. Needless to say, this is good news. If this had been permitted, it would create a template by which anti-gun people could attack all the large FFLs. This ruling is limited to the Third Circuit, but since the Third Circuit encompasses Delaware, and a very large number of businesses incorporate there, this will cover most big companies they might try this with.

Things aren’t going to well for the Brady Center to Cling to Relevance either. A judge has rebuked their complaintÂ against a local FFL, and told them they had 20 days to amend their lawsuit to remove what the judge saidÂ â€œpushes a social agendaâ€ and has nothing to do with the suit. They are not off to a very good start, making a poor impression with the judge.

Positive Coverage on Gun Culture 2.0

I had expressed skepticism a while back about getting a fair story out of NBC on guns, but despite Newsbusters pooh-poohing piece, I find no fault with how any of the participants handled Farrow’s jabs:

The end result, I think, is a pretty fair piece. I think it’s clear from the lines of questioning, they would have exploited any opportunities here, but the interviewees didn’t give them much to work with.

I’m very torn on the value of speaking to media. With rare exceptions, I’ve ignored media inquires unless the person contacting me is someone known to be fair. But the other side of the coin is getting our message out there.

Weekly Gun News – Edition 6

Pretty clearly I need to do a better job of keeping this feature a weekly one, or I’m going to have to change it to biweekly gun news. So what gun news is there? Let’s clean out the tabs!

A reasonably balanced article in Jezebel about moms and guns.

NRA directly addresses the impact of Obergefell on concealed carry reciprocity. I really hope no one ends up going to jail because they believed this.

CNN’s Lynne Russell: “If you donâ€™t want to carry please donâ€™t. Then, shut the f–k up about it. Make your own decisions.” Good for her. Minding other people’s business has become an epidemic in this country.

Are school shootings contagious? We in the gun blogosphere have been saying for a while that the media attention the killers get are the prime mover for mass slayings. Not that they should, but no one will speak of restricting the media from glorifying the killer, because of the First Amendment. A shame the Second doesn’t draw as much respect.

Jacob Sullum: “‘If Congress had passed some common-sense gun safety reforms after Newtown,’ President ObamaÂ saidÂ on Friday, ‘we don’t know if it would have prevented what happened in Charleston.’ Actually, we do know:”

NRA a hate group? Yes, says gun control group.

A review of the Walther CCP.

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy is trying to shut down the nation’s largest FFL, arguing that Walmart can’t possibly sell guns responsibility. Remember folks, they aren’t after your guns, only trying to ensure you don’t have anywhere to buy one. Common sense gun laws!

Of course, the gun ban lobby, much like our President, is lately enamored with Australia’s gun laws, which conducted a forced confiscation.

Positive coverage of the gun issue in…. the Boston Globe?

Chris Christie is trying very hard to ease his problems with gun owners, but he’s got a few other bills he’ll be expected to veto coming up. I just don’t see how he’s going to get through the primaries as a blue state Republican governor. But then again, I never would have expected Donald Trump to jump into the number two slot, ever.

Leland Yee takes a plea deal on racketeering charges.

Top three contenders for the XM17 modular handgun program.

Remember,Â gun control groups claim that guns are less regulated than teddy bears.

There is an effort in New Jersey to recall Stephen Sweeney. As a wise man once said: punch back twice as hard.

Hey, Uber, how’s that anti-gun policy working out for ya?

Off Topic:

Greeks vote for free money to fall from the skies. Eventually socialism runs out of other people’s money. The Germans have snatched back their credit card and probably aren’t giving it back. This will not end well. Take a hard look though, because this will be us eventually, if things don’t change. It’s already partly here.

On that George Takai thing calling Justice Thomas a “clown in blackface,” I couldn’t agree more with Ace. I was surprised he apologized. Who was going to force that? Certainly not the media, and certainly not the Social Justice Warriors.

Thom Anderson of SC Morning News Parades Ignorance

YellowJournalism

I was going to place this in the Weekly Gun News, but reviewing it, I couldn’t waste a perfectly good yellow journalism post. Thom Anderson of the South Carolina Morning News doesn’t understand all this icky gun stuff. That’s OK, not everyone does. But a wiser person would leave it at that. Not Mr. Anderson, however:

Really? Can you imagine that guy wading into a crowd and killing nine people with a knife? He quickly would have found the knife shoved exactly where it belonged. A gun is the only thing that would have enabled him to commit this act or enable a weak, cowardly person to do such killing.

I don’t have to imagine it, becauseÂ it happenedÂ with a death toll as high as Virginia Tech, the worst mass shooting in the this country. In fact, knife attacks are not uncommon in China, and the death tolls are higher than you would think, often with far more horrific woundings.

Terrible acts with guns seldom happen in other countries. In the United States, they are frequent because an overly influential right-wing minority sincerely fears that gun confiscation is just around the corner, and many politicians profit from that fear.

Were you asleep or unconscious on 22 July 2011? Worst mass shooting in history, and happened outside the United States.Â This claim, echoed by our President, was too much even for the biased folks at PolitifactÂ toÂ abide by. Seems other DemocratsÂ have been on a rollÂ with this one too. Dave Hardy has even more on this topic. The idea that this seldom happens in other countries is indefensible. He goes on to conclude, “[I]t would be even nicer to see our near-worship of guns decline and the 2nd Amendment brought back to the use The Founders intended.” Oh, what pray tell might that be, Mr. Constitutional scholar? At least with this claim, he managed to follow this sage advice.