Guns – Page 217 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Inflation

Being a somewhat shameless member of the species packus ratus, I’m finding myself going through a lot of old files that I’m trying to avoid moving back downstairs to my office. I keep literally everything, and I’ve decided that’s a bit much. But it’s fun looking back at how much more I spend on gas and food now. Eating out used to be a lot cheaper. Guns too. I found a credit card statement that had my first firearm purchase back in 2000, during the hight of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.

This was for a Romanian AK and 1000 rounds of ammo, showing here:

ak-47

I was not even really into shooting at the time. I bought it as a symbolic and perhaps obscene gesture to those people who said I shouldn’t own one. Today the ammo damned near costs that muchÂ if you can even find it. I miss those days. I have to give Barack Obama credit — he’s done a lot more to keep guns and ammo off of store shelves than any president in history.

Fixing the Legislative Process

I see this op-ed is a bit of a back-handed compliment.

It acknowledges NSSF’s legal concerns about the abuse of the emergency certification by lawmakers seeking to avoid accountability to concerned citizens, but then basically says that it is really only a problem when such a process is abused for their pet concerns – like restricting pictures available to the press.

It argues that while it may not be ideals, it’s ultimately okay to abuse it for screwing those damn gun owners since that’s clearly a real emergency and it’s not important to actually discuss details of gun laws that could land innocent people in jail.

Reasonable Conversations

NRA is opening a new museum in Springfield, Missouri that highlights historical sporting firearms. (It will be located inside the Bass Pro Shops flagship store, hence the focus on arms used for sporting purposes in history.) Anyway, I caught something from a few days ago that shows Talking Points Memo picked up the story.

Knowing their extreme anti-NRA bias, I couldn’t help but wonder why they might be going after a freakin’ museum that focuses on the shooting sports.

Turns out that the actual blogger didn’t really add much in the way of anti-gun commentary, but the readers sure did. I think it’s useful to see that the same masses claiming they aren’t after your guns used for sport really aren’t even willing to truly accept a museum dedicated to sporting arms where the guns aren’t even available to individuals. Here are some of the highlights:

“The NRA’s National Sporting Arms Museum” better known as The Tower Of Death! Bring the kids for a unique family experience tracing the history of bloodshed in America! …

Are the floors spotless marble or are they covered in blood? …

What’s next? A NRA amusement park where people go in but don’t come out. Where “Stand Your Ground” is a shooting gallery for the Zimmermans of the world so they can shoot young unarmed black teenagers.

Of course, there are plenty of assumptions that NRA members are ready to shoot hippies, minorities, gay men, and atheists. Oh, and don’t forget the assertion that all NRA members are men who need to hire hookers to prove how manly they really are.

This is just the response to news that there will be a museum on inaccessible firearms that have a place in our nation’s sporting history. Imagine how these same people really feel about the concept of owning a firearm for actual self-defense. And these people want me to believe they are open to good-faith compromise? Yeah, right.

Why Gun Owners Really Aren’t Paranoid

Dave Hardy has an excellent essay in Reason about why gun owners have history on their side to back up fighting new gun restrictions. I know that most of you know these things, and it may seem like preaching to the choir. However, I really think it’s worth a read because it’s clearly written for a non-gun audience. I think we sometimes need to remember how to communicate with those who are sympathetic to our cause, but maybe don’t really see what the big deal is over bills like Manchin-Schumer-Toomey.

Compromise requires that both parties relinquish something. If your counterpartâ€™s position is â€œgive me this now, and Iâ€™ll take the rest later,â€ there is no real compromise to be had. Over decades, that has been precisely the experience of American gun owners.

Most of the piece gives specific examples of violations of this concept of “compromise” that we’re so used to dealing with.

Don’t Take Advice from Joe Biden

A man is arrested for firing a shotgun in the air to chase off what he thought were car thieves. He actually invoked the Vice President’s advice as a defense.

Cook County Bans Long Guns for 18-20 Year Olds

And if that wasn’t enough, a whole heaping helping of taxpayer dollars to fund a Joyce initiative aimed at training new anti-gun activists. Sounds like we need a ban on taxpayer dollars being used to lobby government. Might be tough in Illinois, but maybe not in other states. Kansas is leading the way.

Who Benefits from Stand Your Ground?

Clayton Cramer highlights an article in The Daily Caller that would seem to show that Blacks benefit disproportionally from Stand Your GroundÂ in Florida. This does not surprise me either. Blacks are statistically more likely to encounter situations where they may need to use deadly force in self-defense, less likely to get the benefit of doubt in the legal system, and less likely to be able to afford a good defense attorney, the last of which prosecutors are going to weigh when thinking about bringing charges. Prosecutors generally don’t want to bring cases where they aren’t sure they can get a conviction.

I’ve wondered how much of the negative reaction to the Zimmerman case was driven by the idea that Blacks would never get such easy treatment in similar circumstances. In that case, the fact that Zimmerman was walking the streets and not looking at a trial inflamed their sense of injustice. I think they have a point about that, to be honest. But I don’t see how stacking the deck back in favor of the prosecution is going to do anything except make it objectively worse for Black defendants who find themselves arguing self-defense in equally marginal situations.

You Might Be a Gun Nut If…

I had to laugh recently when Sebastian was looking for something to carry his swimsuit, a t-shirt, and other swimming gear like sunscreen to his office pool party. Given that we’re still moving things down into the basement office (lots of re-organizing and moving things into more useful storage as we move things down), there were empty ammo cans near the door.

I think you can guess what he opted to use.

Still Got Guns to Give Away…

Guess who still has tickets available for a gun drawing? That’s right, my local Friends of NRA committee.

We’ve got 5 guns to draw for, including the Kimber featured here. There are also two Kahr 1911s, a Taurus, and an AR. With a maximum of 300 tickets sold for just $20 each, the odds for each ticket are just 1 in 60 to win a gun. There aren’t many chances to beat that.

As mentioned before, there are no online sales. But, if you want a ticket, just shoot me an email and I’ll let you know how you can buy one (or more if you want to increase your odds of winning).

The rules about FFLs and all that good stuff are in the linked post, so go check it out if you have questions.

Targeting Stand Your Ground

Anti-gun groups target stand your ground lawsÂ in the wake of Zimmerman acquittal. This narrative was practically tailor made for them. Of course, it’s complete hogwash that this case hinged on Stand Your Ground at all, such that they have to reach for minor changes in jury instructions to have any case at all. But really, the truth doesn’t matter. The narrative was perfect.

What the gun control groups have achieved is raising the perception of cost for passing these laws, and in politics, perception matters a lot more than reality. Previously, these had been passed fairly easily and with wide margins. Why?

It was an easy way to please a constituency perceieved as important.
It materially did not alter self-defense laws all that much. Most cases don’t rise or fall on a duty to retreat.
The civil immunities are hard to argue against.
States that traditionally were SYG states historically, didn’t seem to have too much trouble prosecuting actual or attempted cases of murder and manslaughter.
There was little downside, short of opposition from Attorneys General, who don’t like the idea of limiting their discretion and making it harder for them to win marginal cases.

Now every lawmakers will be wondering if their names will be all over the papers as having voted for the next Zimmerman acquittal. The media is happy to drive false narratives that hurt us, and the Zimmerman case was also gift wrapped for the Obama Administration and his re-election. The case may have been the perfect storm for the left and their media allies, but every lawmaker will be wondering if it could happen again. Despite the fact that it takes dishonesty, the anti-gun folks played this one well, and it will hurt us going forward.