Guns – Page 288 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Guns in Schools

Glenn Reynolds talks about the topic, and the idea that when we had more guns in schools, we had less school shootings. I think the extinction of high school shooting teams has been one of the greatest cultural losses we’ve suffered. Glenn notes:

Reader Gary Robinson emails: â€œWe worry about kids and sex â€“ so we have sex education in school. We educate kids about driver safety, drugs, healthy lifestyles and a host of other things that we have concerns about so kids learn safe practices. If weâ€™re worried about kids and guns, why donâ€™t we teach basic gun safety in schools?â€

I would say that the effort by gun-controllers to â€œdenormalizeâ€ gun ownership, and to portray it as deviant and dangerous, actually increases the allure of guns to unbalanced minds.

I agree with that. I think long term, we have to get shooting teams back in high schools. It would have been something I absolutely would have taken to as a kid, if it had been available at my school. I was not involved in sports as a kid, but rather was a band geek. I still would have done band, but if a shooting team had been available, I would have done that. It gets kids away from the video games, and gives them something to do that requires a degree of self-discipline to master.

Assault Legislation Appears in Connecticut

I suppose we all knew this was coming. I do believe these people mean to destroy shooting in their Northeastern enclaves. They don’t want to associated with icky gun owners and their icky guns. As I mentioned, this is cultural, and doesn’t have anything to do about reducing violence.

BTW, Part II of that link above will come soon. It’s still kind of stewing, and with having to go to the dentist this morning, it’s not going to be today. But soon. Good news is I don’t have to see the dentist for another six months. I just saw him a month or so ago, as I have nearly every month since my last six month checkup. But all caught up now.

Semi-Auto Ban in Vermont Withdrawn

It looks like the sweeping ban was introduced by the incoming Senate Majority Leader in Vermont, but he came to realize that it would absolutely divide the Democratic caucus for him to push gun control. He said this:

After much thought, I’ve decided to withdraw S32, a proposed ban on assault weapons. It was a difficult decision, and one I fear will disappoint those who have written expressing their support. …

But it is painfully clear to me now that little support exists in the Vermont Statehouse for this sort of bill. It’s equally clear that focusing the debate on the banning of a certain class of weapons may already be overshadowing measures with greater consensus, like tightening background checks, stopping the exchange of guns for drugs, and closing gun show loopholes. Finally, as incoming Majority Leader, I owe it to my caucus to remove an issue that seems increasingly likely to complicate our shared agenda this biennium.

Clearly, his statement still leaves quite a bit of room for him to push for added sales restrictions and extreme regulation for anything he defines as a gun show, but he’s learning that gun owners will speak up.

Joe Biden, Pathological Liar?

As the Senator from next door, I’ve had the displeasure of a long familiarity with Joe Biden. Stories like this, where Biden claims to have had a brush with the Nickel Mines massacre in Pennsylvania are nothing new to anyone familiar with his career. I’ve concluded that Biden may, in fact, be a pathological liar. He’s certainly a world class weirdo, at the least, and certainly makes you hope the Secret Service has their A game on.

Eastern Sports & Outdoor Show Bans PA Sportsmen’s Club Fundraiser

The ban on modern semi-automatic rifles at the Eastern Sports & Outdoors Show doesn’t just apply to the display and sale of the actual firearms and related accessories. According to the early report from Firearms Industry Consulting Group, the new rule also says that vendors may not feature “brochures or documentation that mention or picture any ‘black rifle’ or high capacity magazine.”

This means that the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs cannot sell tickets to their raffle for a Bushmaster XM-15E2S A3. They have posted the order form online for anyone who wants to mail in a form with payment. So, if you’re interested in a chance of winning a rifle for $10 (or 6 chances for $50) with a only 500 tickets sold, take a look.

UPDATE: PFSC provides confirmation that even their raffle ticket is banned at the ESOS under the current rules:

PFSC had planned to sell raffle tickets for a chance to win the hottest-selling firearm on the market today. It comes fully-accessorized! Unfortunately, we wouldnâ€™t be able to mention, display or provide a picture of it at the show.

They also include in the announcement that they will no longer have an active presence at the show because of the ban on modern semi-automatic rifles.

From the Vice President

From an e-mail sent out to the White House e-mail list, from the Vice President, which begins with the sentence:

Taking the oath of office is a serious piece of business.

Put another way, it’s a big ‘effin deal, right Joe? You mean the oath of office which says:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Which refers to the Constitution which says:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

If it’s “a serious piece of business,” why don’t you start the first term actually following your oath, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President?

Photo of the Day

A former slave from Tennessee, Mary Fields, holding the assault weapon of her age. The Winchester 1876 carried fifteen rounds, which is more than double the amount deemed necessary for self-defense by Governor Andrew Cuomo Â and the New York State Legislature.

Today is Martin Luther King day. King is, by some ways of looking at it, the man who finally won the Civil War. In the Reconstruction and Jim Crow era, often times Blacks had to protect their rights as Americans with Winchesters like the one Mary Fields is seen here with. Their tormenters just as often government as private terror groups. Often they were the same thing. Indeed, as many have documented, the history of gun control is intertwined with the subjugation of African-Americans as second class citizens. They went hand in hand.

Hat Tip to Cemetery, who has the full sized photo.

Quote of the Day: Shrill Gun Control Advocates Edition

Our favorite Brady Board member writes:

The emotion about the Sandy Hook school shooting is exactly what is driving the movement to change our current gun laws so that more parents won’t send their children to school in the morning and get a call that their child is one that didn’t make it home that afternoon. That’s emotion. The emotion felt by those families was felt by the entire country. If the protesters who showed up on Saturday don’t or can’t feel that emotion, what is wrong with them? Their emotion is all about fear and paranoia that is fueled by the NRA lobbyists.

This represents something the gun control faithful won’t accept and truly don’t understand, it represents why their can’t really be any “national conversation.” We all want to make sure our children are well protected. We all felt awful in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. To think that every protester that showed up as some kind of uncaring monster is exactly the kind of attitude that makes having a conversation impossible. We are not monsters. We care just the same for our families as you care for yours, we just have vastly different philosophies on how they are best to be protected. That’s a wide gulf, to be sure, but it’s not one so wide that people on the other side can smugly declare that they are the only ones who care about children.

Maryland Shall Issue Needs Help

Maryland is next:

The Maryland Legislature is being asked to consider a broad range of gun control proposals. The Governor claims he will have an easy road to banning anything he determines to be an “Assault Weapon” and to force fingerprinting and registration of all buyers in the state. He will ban magazines holding more than ten rounds and force expensive training requirements on those who would purchase and own firearms.

The goal in Maryland is simple: make the ownership and use of firearms so expensive and so onerous that people will not bother to exercise their right. Gun Controllerâ€™s in this state look to take a big bite today, and then continue to chip away at our rights every chance they get. Their goal is the eventual destruction of the right through implementation of impractical laws, expensive training and onerous regulation. O’Malley wants to eventually force you to turn in your guns, just like they will in New York.

You can follow Maryland Shall Issue here. Let’s hold them at New York.

Tab Clearing: Cause It’s Monday Edition

News is building up, once again:

A survivor of Tiananmen squareÂ on gun rights.

A way to foil ground penetrating radar? Could be handy if you live in New York.

A tale of two cities. Richard Fernandez’s guest poster sees the gun control fight as boiling down, essentially, to a battle between a Rousseauian “general will” vision for America, and the civic minded republican individualism of our founders so admired and observed by Alexis de Tocqueville. Very much worth your time.

I saw some people here suggesting that NRA use Jessie Duff as a spokesperson for the cause. Well, here you go.

Demographic change undermining the gun control movement. See also this.

Lighting money on fire. This is a tax credit idea I could get behind. If prices drop back down, it’ll help me trade up. Don’t think of it as a voluntary buyback so much as a tax credit for gun collectors.

How many kids had a choice in writing letter asking Obama to ban guns?

The problem with public research on gun violence that Obama wants us to pay for.

Gun sales rise in Pennsylvania.

How to crush dumb gun control arguments.

Obama’s tired gun control schemes won’t make children, or the rest of us, any safer. By Chris and Jeff Knox.

Chris Christie sets up a “task force” and suggests one of NRA’s ads is reprehensible. Now sure how he thinks he’s going to win a Republican primary at this rate. There’s also this.