Category: Guns

John Richardson tells the story:

Senate President Cullerton’s aim is to preserve home rule on firearms laws. His strategy seems to be to use the Raoul bill as his bargaining chip. In other words, he’ll be willing to trade off the worst parts of the Raoul bill in exchange for the ability of Chicago and its suburbs to still have their local gun control laws.

Read the whole sorry story. I’d suggest no deal. If they ram through a crappy bill, we’ll see them back in court. You can’t have the Second Amendment mean something different than it does in Peoria. That the right should be uniform is a basic tenant, otherwise it’s no right.

They argue that the vast majority of Sheriffs in the State of Colorado are siding with criminals. These people need to be handed a severe beating in 2014. It definitely needs to be an all-hands-on-deck election. The Democratic Party has pretty clearly become out of the touch with the values of Colorado voters. They’ve become arrogant and entitled, and if they aren’t made to pay a price, this won’t be the end of it.

Apparently gun control bills are “in limbo” in the Ocean State, as they are entering the final weeks of the 2013 legislative session. It looks like the dodge is getting tough on existing gun crime, and creating a task force to review gun laws. If there’s anything politicians love it’s offering the appearance of getting tough on crime, and creating task forces. You can throw that stick and they’ll chase it every time, especially if they are getting real grassroots opposition. In a legislative fight like this, it buys you time, which is usually a good thing when you’re dealing with an emotional response to a tragedy. The gods of “something must be done” demand appeasement. Maybe one day, voters will become enlightened enough to accept that maybe the response to “something” doesn’t, and probably shouldn’t involve a legislative cure.

Democrats in Colorado are worried about these recall efforts:

But even though it’s not an election year, the office is in full campaign mode, with volunteers working the phones and reviewing maps in anticipation of a new front of modern campaigning – the recall phase.

A handful of Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado face recall petition efforts in what looks to be the first wave of fallout over legislative votes to limit gun rights.

We’ve already had one recall come up short, but it garnered enough support the lawmaker ought to be worried. These petitions don’t even really have to succeed, we just need to keep the dial turned up on the oven as much as we can until 2014. We can never make it an easy vote for them. The fact that they are having to call up volunteers and spend resources to fight these recall efforts is excellent. It’ll send them into 2014 tired. We just need to have more stamina than our opponents.

Apparently, like Darth Vader, they appear to be altering the deal. I would work to kill anything worse than what they offered. What’s likely happening is they realized that while the previous offer wasn’t everything we wanted, it was strategically beneficial to us over the long term. They likely don’t find that acceptable. If you live in Illinois, call your Senators, and make sure they understand that you are not at all happy with this crap. Tell them to oppose Amendment 4 to HB183.

It’s been instructive watching this unfold, because it shows you how committed these people are to the hate. From a political standpoint, they’ve been backed into the corner by the federal courts, and not by us. You can always go back to constituents and tell them your hands were tied, and the court forced us to make those changes. Additionally, you can use weak gun laws forced on you by the courts to deflect blame for your own failures, as Philly politicians are expert at doing. Politically, this wouldn’t really hurt them, yet the obstinance continues. Why? Because they hate us.

I hope everyone enjoys their memorial day, even though the weather doesn’t know what season it wants to be. I actually got a little sleet in the rain today, and there are other parts of Pennsylvania that are getting a little global warming falling from the sky. Today is one of my office days, and I’m busy working on drawings to give to the contractor to fit out our new data center. I’m hoping to finish so I can actually enjoy a holiday weekend.