Apparently there’s a new whistleblower from DOJ. John Richardson speculates this could mean Holder is gone sooner rather than later.
Category: Guns
Fantastic Activism: MAIG E-Mails FOIA’d
Sean Caranna over at the All Nine Yards blog has obtained copies of Linda S. Vaughn’s e-mails, showing MAIG is definitely pulling the strings, and possibly endangering their related foundation’s tax status. This should be a template for all other MAIG funded public employees.
The Descent Into Madness
Josh Horwitz has plenty of reasons to be a sad panda these days, but his latest tirade about how the NRA is just another part of the vast right-wing conspiracy takes the cake. I’ve been a pretty outspoken about NRA not inbreeding with the D.C. right-wing establishment, and staying true to it’s mission. NRA should be as welcoming to liberal gun owners as it is to conservative ones, and indeed, I believe many of the advances we’ve seen on the social front lately is because lefty gun owners are willing to come out of the closet in greater numbers. David Keene comes from the conservative D.C. establishment, and presents opportunity to our opponents to smear NRA as part of the VRWC because of his former role with ACU, which puts on CPAC. The take they are trying to weave, is pretty thin, however.
Horwitz’s rant is ludicrous, even given Keene’s background. Among the accessions are that Keene moderated a CPAC panel, which had an author on it, who wrote a book which wasn’t completely about the Second Amendment. He then proceeds to go after Keene for being “giddy” about the Wisconsin recall election results. Considering Walker was carrying an NRA endorsement, and signed Concealed Carry and Castle Doctrine in Wisconsin, I’d hardly call that surprising or stepping outside of his role as NRA President. It’s funny how they didn’t mention that Keene, in his former role as ACU President, was advocating for inclusion of gay conservative groups into CPAC, standing against the family groups who spoke against it, and who eventually won out once his presidency was over. Keene is someone I’m happy to have on my side in an issue, and I’m happy he’s NRA President. He doesn’t fit a lot of the stereotypical molds of people in the right-of-center establishment in D.C.
There is a more general risk, however, with this kind of mixing of issues, and dilution of NRA’s core mission with other right-wing causes. I’ve always been a bit uncomfortable with NRA’s participation in CPAC for that reason. But there’s a good argument to be made that such participation, if it is the evil I think it, is a necessary one. In order for any organization to be successful, it has to attract a following, which means marketing itself, and marketing is pretty much what CPAC is about. More importantly, for NRA, it’s marketing to young people, which NRA desperately needs outlets for. The question is whether NRA can long mingle with the right-of-center DC establishment without being wholly consumed by it.
A Ginned Up Controversy
Tam laments the firestorm created by two olympic swimmers posing with guns on a trip to California, and the ridiculousness peddled in the media as a result. Apparently they are being punished for this by being forced to return early, and even other shooters don’t really want to stand up for them:
“They all used them [the guns] responsibly and I think that’s where the line in the sand is here, that these guys allowed stupid photographs to be taken of them, one depicting criminal activity, and second of all unsafe activity with a firearm,” he said.
How about a nice “Have you people in the media all lost your bloody minds?” But then again, I suppose no one wants to risk the powers that be coming down on them. I don’t for a minute believe that the majority of Aussies have collectively lost their marbles. I’m sure if you polled people on this controversy before the media parade, the reaction would have been somewhere between “Meh,” and “So What?” This is a media and establishment generated outrage if I ever saw one. This is the establishment telling the little people how they need to think. So maybe the establishment needs to be taken to the woodshed and roughed up a bit.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the shaking of the bowcaster is a bit of an American thing. You don’t really see horizontal interpretive communities popping up, at least not that I can see, in other countries. I’m not speaking here of guns specifically, but where is the Aussie, British or Canadian equivalents of the Dan Rather takedown? I’d note that it was an American that took down the Canadian Government. Perhaps it is because we’re a culture that was born from revolution, or perhaps it’s that this country has exceptionally strong speech protections by world standards (defamation and libel suits are next to impossible to win here, whereas in other English speaking countries, that is not the case). Perhaps there is a whole community of bloggers, forums, tweeters and the like, forming all manner of interpretive communities that I’m missing, but if there is, I don’t notice it. If that’s the case, I’d say it’s time to start taking down some media figures that peddle this kind of nonsense.
Ingratitude
You’d think with Obama stocking the federal courts with people who will redact the Second Amendment clean out of the Constitution, and running the numbers up for guns going to Mexico to create a pretext for a new Assault Weapons Ban, our opponents would show more gratitude than this:
Whether they want to believe it or not, Obama is their last great hope, in that, if he wins re-election, they have some. There’s a good chance they can reverse or severely limit Heller and McDonald in that instance. You’d think with that on the table, they’d just play along with the charade.
Bad News For Municipalities?
There is a very easy solution to the problem of municipalities and gun regulations: don’t break the law. Why is this such a leap or so radical? Because, as our Supreme Court has said, firearm regulation is a matter of statewide concern, it is a matter that is the exclusive prerogative of the state legislature.
Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray, who backed the local initiative, said the bill would invite frivolous lawsuits.
Mayor Gray apparently doesn’t appreciate the idea that he will not be able to break the law with impunity. There is an alternative I can propose for the Mayor: if he is so concerned with taxpayer dollars going to waste, we can easily run a bill that will hold him and his council personally responsible for the lawbreaking, like they do in Florida. How’s that sound?
This Week’s Bob: VPC In Denial on Falling Crime Figures
I was starting to think the Baghdad Bob thing was getting old, but the other side continues to deny reality in utterly hilarious ways. Following up on reports that crime has dropped, VPC has chosen the path of utter denial, suggesting we have to take a more nuanced view:
The more nuanced view is that you’re losing, and rapidly descending into the dustbin of history where your cause rightly belongs.
Quote of the Day: Training Edition
SayUncle responds to a post by Caleb on training thusly:
It’s like there’s this weird dynamic on this training issue where on one side you have people who think all training sucks and as long as they have theirÂ
lucky rabbit’s foot err gun in their pocket, they’re ten feet tall and bulletproof. And on the other, you have people who eat, sleep and poop training because they’re high-speed, low-drag mall ninja wanna be supper troopers who think everyone who doesn’t work out and train is one cell level above an amoeba in terms of functioning.
I’d be willing to bet the vast majority of people who successfully defend themselves don’t have much more than the basic training requirements for their state. I would never pooh-pooh training, and even though I think HTH training is a good idea, I can’t say that I’ve taken a course. For one, training is expensive, and for two, training takes time, and time and money have been in short supply for two years. Caleb notes:
The great majority of defensive gun uses don’t involve a shot being fired. Most of them are in the home, draws/reloads aren’t a factor, and you know what – the level of training of the good guy isusually not relevant. Those are all great justifications for not getting professional training, because after all you probably won’t need it. That’s the honest truth. But odds are you’re going to go your entire life and never need your gun. $400 for a magic talisman seems a little steep to me.
I think for the carrier, you have a duty to be competent. You should be able to perform all the motions necessary for self-defense with safety and reasonable competence. I don’t think that necessarily has to involve working your way through all the coursework at Gunsite or Insights, though if you decided to do that, it certainly isn’t a bad idea. But if you choose that route, you should choose it for you, not because you have any duty to. Once you talk about going to one of these schools for some of their basic courses, you’ll end up with more self-defense training than many police have, who are orders of magnitude more likely to need their gun than you are.
The Gun Control Crowd’s America
Veterans with distinguished service history end up with SWAT teams called on them:
He saw about 25 officers in full body armor and Kevlar helmets, carrying M4 assault weapons. SWAT and explosive ordinance disposal teams were on all sides. Streets were barricaded for blocks. The veteran knew how to surrender with the least chance of being hurt. He put his hands over his head and spun around so they could clearly see he was unarmed. “I looked down and saw 10 jiggly red dots all over my chest,†he said, appearing afraid at the memory. “I crumbled.â€
All for the crime of having three pistols in the District of Columbia, an act that in the rest of America, is not remotely a crime, and is supposedly constitutionally protected.
“They immediately zip-tied me tighter than I would have been allowed to zip-tie an Iraqi,â€Â Sgt. Corrigan said, pulling up his dress shirt cuff to show his wrist. “We had to check to fit two fingers between the tie and the Iraqi’s wrist so we weren’t cutting off circulation. They tied mine so tight that they hurt.â€
Read the whole sad thing. This is going to be a multi-part series from Emily Miller. Got anyone in the office or a family member who loves themselves some gun control? Show them this article and ask them if this is the America they want, because what happened to Sgt. Corrigan is what gun control is. This is exactly what it boils down to.
Push for Restaurant Carry in North Carolina
Sean in North Carolina has a link on how folks can help with the effort. Restaurant carry bans are particularly annoying, and only result in guns getting left in cars. It’s not a net public safety enhancement. The correct way to do this is directly regulating drinking while carrying, which the North Carolina bill does.