The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Apparently some members are not too happy NRA is going after Debra Maggart. I’d say that if this isn’t a story cooked up by Maggart’s campaign, I’ll eat my hat. Even if NRA pissed me off enough to cause me to resign my life membership, I wouldn’t feel that was something worth going to the press about.
NRA is supporting a primary challenge against Maggart in the GOP primary.
Tam alerts us to an gun store and range, Tactical Firearms, in Katy, Texas who is perfectly willing to throw your freedom under the bus to make a buck at the expense of his online competitors. With friends like this, who needs enemies?
A lot of gun owners seem to be reacting to this like some kind of gotcha against Bloomberg. I think it’s correct and proper for the NYPD to do this:
But on Wednesday Mayor Bloomberg’s position on gun control looked shakier as it was revealed that his police department, the NYPD, had sold 28,000lbs of spent bullet casings to a store which reloads them and sells them cheaply to customers.
I think that’s fine. We ought to be defending this practice, and not trying to use it as a club to beat Bloomberg over the head. It saves the NYPD money, helps keep the cases from being melted down and sold for scrap (at less economic value) and shooters get cheap, reloaded ammunition. I’ll give New York City and Bloomberg credit when they do something right.
Of course, I’ll leave it to your amusement that the Telegraph doesn’t know the difference between a bullet and a casing.
Thirdpower has the details. Apparently it’ll ban Glock pistols, and you’ll be required to register all your magazines over 10 rounds. One wonders how the mechanics of that work, given they don’t stamp serial numbers on magazines. Either way, Governor Quinn said in his statement vetoing important pro-gun legislation regarding ammunition:
I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution– the right to bear arms.
The last refuge of scoundrels, is that statement. They’re all supporters of the Second Amendment in their own minds. Even Bloomberg. Theyare no such thing. Not when banning Glocks and numerous common shotguns. I’d note, because of this, it would also ban the Beretta 92. Not to mention all the jobs that will be cost downstate when companies like Armalite are forced to leave the state. Don’t you love how these bills also have language that just happens, you know, to ban hundreds of commonly owned firearms no one in their right mind has ever considered assault weapons? You’d almost think the assault weapons issue was just a ruse to ban as many guns as these cretins can get away with.
According to Dave Hardy, they’ve granted a stay, meaning Maryland will still be permitted to consider “good and substantial” reason for permit applicants, until the case is decided on appeal. But as Dave mentions, they’ve accelerated the schedule for hearing the case, and it’ll be heard late October.
According to gold medal-winner Vince Hancock, he believes that more people are taking the shooting sports seriously here in the U.S.:
So why is the U.S. so dominant in the sport over the last several years?
“I really think it’s because we want it more. And we’ve been bringing the youth along with us,” Hancock said. …
Hancock said the elite American shooters set a standard that brings up the competitive level of all shooters. “I’ve been shooting high scores for eight or nine years now. When I first started out, a 192 out of 200 in a local competition would win it. Now, it’s barely making the final,” he said.
“With Kim and I shooting these extremely high scores, it’s making everyone else shoot harder, and be more proficient and hit more targets. And that’s making us shoot even harder. Kim and I know that if we slip up, we’re going to lose.”
He also had a message that will hopefully convince some more folks to give shooting a try:
“There is nothing dangerous about what we do here, at any level. The biggest thing that we preach is safety first.”
Hancock believes shooting is one of the safest sports for competitors of any responsible age.
“I always tell a joke out there that we have less injuries than table tennis,” he said.
And if you think his outreach for the sport doesn’t help win us a few more hearts and (eventually, hopefully, minds), then you’re wrong:
Sometimes, that message is as simple as exposure to the sport. Hancock recalled one journalist about five years ago whose opinion was quickly altered after a day on the range.
“She was extremely anti-gun. But I talked her into trying it,” he said. “And once she hit some targets, you couldn’t take her off the field.”
We’re winning. We just need to keep up the work to expose more people to the positive aspects of gun ownership. We need to keep showing them why the gun range is a cool place to be instead of the non-existent and far less cool “anti-gun range.”
I already highlighted the Twitter and blog attacks on U.S. Olympic shooter Corey Cogdell last night, but reader TS pointed out one of the Facebook groups organizing the attacks. Here’s just a sampling of comments I caught with screenshots this morning before we lost power.
I know that Shootin’ Buddy was noting that many of the threatening comments on Twitter were coming from people in other countries, but several of these folks are Americans.
I also thought it was worth highlighting because one of the comments relates to something I posted about recently – when someone who disagrees with gun owners or hunters on a matter of public policy, they try to define said disagreement of sign of a mental illness.
With the various Olympic records being shattered by American shooters in London, there’s an increased interest in the human interest stories behind Team USA. Unfortunately, that increased coverage has resulted in animal rights groups learning that many of our Olympic shooters – gasp – hunt! Here’s one report about the biggest attacks on Corey Cogdell:
She grew up in Alaska where wild game was what’s for dinner, hunting and fishing with her father and her sister. It was hunting that lead her to competitive shooting, which lead her to the bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympic games. But, the rabid animal rights groups…started berating Cogdell with nasty comments and death threats. …
Cogdell gave a great statement on her Facebook page defending her hunting. Unfortunately, the comments have become so terrible that she decided to take down her fan page.
By the time I heard about what was happening, the page was removed. However, that hasn’t stopped animal rights activists from attacking her on blogs, Twitter, and other social networks. Here’s one woman who tries to claim that Cogdell conducts her Olympic practice on animals. You can find a Tumblr user who not only spreads the same lie about using animals for target practice, but goes on to say this about our Team USA Olympian:
Corey demonstrates true pyschopathic behaviour in this photograph by her lack of remorse.
Activists have started a petition out to convince the US Olympic Committee to kick hunters (and all of those who defend lawful hunting) off the team. Another animal rights blogger rants about how an athlete who hunts should be considered as engaging in misconduct:
Misconduct is a very mild word when used in reference to Olympic medalist, Corey Cogdell.
But I think Twitter is where some of the worst things have been posted to Cogdell’s account. There are the threats & wishes for bodily harm:
@coreycogdellYou are a DISGRACE to AMERICA..Killing Innocent Animals for Fun..I Hope someone HURTS You Badly over There!!!U R A POS!!!— Y does that Matter (@GAC_BONESaddict) July 28, 2012
@coreycogdell U disgust me n clearly many people U sry excuse 4 a human being dont let a bullet hit u in the ass on the way out when u LOSE!— amber (@AnimalLovrAmber) July 28, 2012
@coreycogdell i wanna shoot your face off bitch!#badluck#karma#watchyourback— Mob Ruldoon (@mobruldoon) July 30, 2012
@coreycogdell i hope your rifle backfires on you,,animal killer!!!— desmond van staden (@desmondino) July 28, 2012
@coreycogdell So, do you like to kill animals, right? Go fuck yourself nasty whore! You must dead.— Alva Rojas (@rojas_alva) July 30, 2012
@greysealhugger@sadiemae1967@coreycogdell You’re kidding?? She should be put in the line of fire & are how she likes it! Sick individual.— Lennox Law (@lennox_law) July 31, 2012
@coreycogdell Youre not remotely welcome here! Youre pointing that gun in completely the wrong direction you moo-cow.— Jade Fluffy Lay (@Fluffy_4eva) July 31, 2012
There are the wishes for her to fail:
@coreycogdell not welcome on our soil, praying you miss every shot, murderous excuse for a human being.#Olympic2012you are NOT worthy— Teresa T (@riverdancefan) July 29, 2012
@coreycogdell I hope you fail miserably.You are disgusting.— Nicholas (@NicholastheWise) July 29, 2012
@coreycogdell What You have done to all these Animals,seen on your Fb Account already sent to the IOC to get a Killer like U OFF the Games!— sik ion (@sixyl) July 29, 2012
@coreycogdellShoot targets, not unarmed defenceless animals,I hope your olympic dreams wind up as dead as that zebra!— Marilyn Legge (@ScantiLee) July 28, 2012
Yes, this is the kind of support that our Olympic athletes are getting right now as they prepare for their competitions. So, if you’d like to lend a little support to Team USA, you can find the list of all of the shooters on Twitter here. I’m sure they could use a bit more positive support after seeing what Corey has had to deal with.
UPDATE: Here’s even more threats against Corey from other networks. More Americans are involved than on the Twitter accounts, including a Minnesota man who says he wants to physically assault her.
Below the jump, there’s more of a taste of how these animal rights folks view hunters just because they don’t agree with the pastime. I suppose it’s a great representation of the new civility. Continue reading “Abusive Anti-Hunting Advocates are Targeting U.S. Olympic Shooters”
The Baltimore Sun is whipping up good old fashion straw-man stereotyping hoe down, where we celebrate those silly and stupid gun nuts who think people want to ban their assault weapons, regulate gun show out of existence and force registration of firearms. Silly gun owners. I have no idea where they could get such a nutty idea like that from. Really. How stupid can these ignorant rednecks be? I mean, we here at the Baltimore Sun know these types struggle with reading, but we are so much better than them. Let’s celebrate!
The folks at the Baltimore Sun want to shame us out of our activism with their own smug sense of superiority. Clearly they believe we should listen. I would. If you have a subscription to the Baltimore Sun, cancel it now. Tell them why. Starve the beast. It’s the only way to beat them.
Pew: Views on Gun Laws Unchanged after Shooting. Yet on their side there has been hope, that this time was going to be different! This time they were going to turn it around, and start sticking is to us. They’d show us!
Well, not bloody likely, is this polling is believed.