A bill that allows any soldier, regardless of age, to be able to get a Florida Concealed Weapons Permit, has passed with a unanimous vote. Robb notes that means even the die hard anti-gun folks didn’t want to touch this one. Like I said, it’s hard for the anti-gun folks to find friends these days.
Category: Guns
Unable to Move On
It’s amazing how many anti-gun people just can’t move on:
Many are smart enough to see through the fog of the National Rifle Association. Many understand that the Second Amendment mentions a “well-regulated militia†because the right to bear arms is only within that context.
It is mentioned only in the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Therefore its mention is purposeful and within this context when guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms.
Nope, you lost this one. It’s done. Over. There’s no more debate. It’s not the National Rifle Association anymore, it’s the Supreme Court of the United States. There seems to be a concerted effort among our opponents to stick their heads in the sand and pretend they aren’t losing.
Another Beating
The man was riding his bicycle about 11 a.m. on the Thun Trail near the Bertolet Fishing Dock in West Reading when the boys knocked him off his bicycle, police said.
Two of the boys were assaulting the man when he pulled a handgun and shot them, police said.
The police arrest everyone, but released the 65-year old victim, and sent the uninjured kid to juvie. I’m going to guess the Berks County District Attorney is going to decline charges in this case, except for the juveniles. This isn’t Philly.
The New Era of Anti-Gun Groups
Strategically, the smartest opponents to the right to bear arms are now based out of the offices of a billionaire in New York City. The folks who are headquartered in Washington, DC have been on the decline.
But here’s what I find interesting. Sebastian noted that the National Gun Victims Action Council are “a particularly whacked out fringe group” based on their very bizarre claims and goals. First of all, they carry this warning in large red letters on their website:
CAUTION Whenever you hear ANYTHING about guns that seems appealing, reasonable or factual KNOW IT IS PROBABLY NOT TRUE. For the facts contact us at: info@gunvictimsaction.org
Second, they really do work on the assumption that every person in the U.S. should be a presumed future criminal with claims like this: Fact: Every criminal was once law abiding citizen.
Third, instead of the standard Brady talking points that they don’t actually want to come for our guns, NGAC outright admits their goal is to come take our guns away: Any sane gun law will lead to the government being able to take your guns away.
What’s interesting is that their boycott is not based on the idea that they don’t want to be around gun owners while they enjoy their scones and frappuccinos, it’s actual goal is to force Starbucks to donate to NGAC. To end the boycott will require Starbucks ban all guns from its stores—and become a major supporter of policies to reduce gun violence. In other words, banning guns isn’t enough. They will demand that corporations line the pockets of the leaders of this group in order to end the boycott.
But here’s the very interesting thing about the National Gun Victims Action Council: They are the Brady Campaign.
From their Board biographies:
- Elliot Fineman is a senior member of the Brady PAC–Illinois, the group that makes endorsements on behalf of the Brady Campaign in Illinois.
- Andrew Goddard is the President of the Richmond Chapter of the Million Mom March, a division of the Brady Campaign.
- Lori O’Neill is the past President & Vice President of the Million Mom March of Cleveland which she calls the “grassroots arm of the Brady Campaign.”
- Jeanne Bishop has served as President of the North Suburban Chicagoland Million Mom March Chapter and lists herself as a general Brady Campaign volunteer.
- Griffin Dix was Chairman of the Brady Campaign’s Million Mom March National State Presidents Council and the chapter-elected member of the Brady Campaign Board of Trustees.
- Bill Jenkins is married to the National Program Director for Victims and Survivors for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and represents the organization with his wife at public events.
- Thom Mannard is a founding member of the Brady PAC-Illinois.
- Alice Thomas-Norris is the President of the Million Moms March Chicago Chapter of Survivors for the Brady Campaign.
- Tom Vanden Berk is a board member of the Brady Campaign/Million Mom March.
- Amanda & Nick Wilcox are Legislative Co-Chairs of the California Chapters of the Brady Campaign as well as leaders of the Sacramento Valley Chapter and the Nevada County Brady Campaign Chapter.
- Willie Williams works with the Brady Campaign to target pro-rights lawmakers in Illinois during election years.
- Heidi Yewman is the Washington state president of the Million Mom March/Brady Campaign.
In other words, out of 16 people listed on NGAC’s board, 13 are in the Brady Campaign leadership. Most are state leaders, but several are national leaders.
So, given that this new unofficial arm of the Brady Campaign is turning towards a mission of embracing extreme gun control & extended boycotts, it looks like the folks who recognize at least some limits of Heller & McDonald have been run out of the organization. This suddenly makes much more sense when it comes to Helmke’s departure. Whereas he probably didn’t think it was wise to keep spending money trying to promote boycotts and petition drives to private corporations that weren’t working, they don’t want to relent. When he conceded that Heller took door-to-door confiscation off the table for the time being, they don’t consider that limitation to be within the realm of sanity. Certainly, this explains a lot of the odd behavior we’ve seen out of what was once the dominant gun control organization in the country over the last year and a half.
Keeping it Mainstream
Josh Sugarmann and the VPC were always a little out there, but Sugarmann has always been more honest about his end goals than many of his counterparts, and he was a man willing to do his homework on the issue. For a while he was the brains of the gun control movement.
But now VPC wants to take personally owned firearms away from soldiers because they might hurt themselves with it. Yeah, that’s a message I’d want to take front and center in front of the public as an example of the kind of common sense measures their movement thinks we need. This has about as much logic as suggesting that depressed doctors and pharmacists remove any medication from their medicine cabinet at home because the easy access means it’s too easy for them to deliberately OD.
The First Starbucks Appreciation Day
I was looking through my archives, because I remembered we did a Starbucks Appreciation before, and noticed it was Joe Huffman who originally came up with the idea, back two years ago when the anti-gun folks first spewed the notion of harassing Starbucks for, you know, following state law. Back then I posted my receipt from that day, and will do so again this time around. A reader suggested posting receipts in the comments, which I think is a fine idea.
Looking back on the last fight, the Brady’s got upset over Joe’s campaign rather early on, and Abby Spangler, from Protest Easy Guns, got a little sexist. Outside of McDonald, I noticed Paul Helmke and Peter Hamm looking pretty cold, and was tempted to bring them some Starbucks as a joke. I’m only sorry I didn’t follow through (I didn’t want to get out of line and risk losing my place). Things were different then. Brady was more professional, and the other side wasn’t practicing the kind of frothing at the mouth demonization of their opponents that is now a favorite of the Laddites in the gun control movement. Lastly, Abby Spangler wouldn’t let the issue go.
I haven’t noticed the Brady organization saying anything about this year’s Starbucks Boycott effort. I suspect they don’t want to waste their time and energy on a battle they are quite likely going to lose. This current effort, two years after the first, is being lead by a particularly whacked out fringe group called National Gun Victims Action Council, who are now proclaiming:
Our economic lever cannot be overcome because we outnumber the NRA’s “extremist†faction by minimally 50 to 1. To establish the economic lever, NGAC will initiate targeted boycotts.
No, they don’t, because no one is paying any attention to them except for the frothing at the mouth crowd, and I can promise you we all have much greater buying power than they do. I have more Facebook fans than they do, and I just got started with that. I have an order of magnitude more Twitter followers, and I’m small potatoes in this issue. Take a look at who’s linking to the press release. These people have already lost, but they are too blind to see.
UPDATE: Competing events on Facebook. One here, and another here, the latter of which is the one I joined. I should note that the total number of people who say they are going is currently 3,771 across the two groups, which I expect will pass 4,000 before too long. This extremist anti-gun group has pretty clearly bitten off more than it can chew.
Hard For Gun Control Orgs to Find Friends
All the usual suspects are in dire straits because the President didn’t mention anything about gun control, err, sorry, gun violence, in his state of the union address. I don’t know why they are surprised by this. There’s only one person who wants to avoid the gun issue in the 2012 campaign more than Obama, and his first name rhymes with shit. Yet they continue to act like jilted stalkers lovers when Obama doesn’t toss them a bone during high-profile public speeches.
But who can blame them? Friends are hard to find these days for the gun control movement. We all remember Andrew Cuomo right? He was the HUD secretary under Clinton that sued firearms manufacturers, and then strong-armed Smith and Wesson into accepting the infamous deal that very nearly ruined its iconic American brand. Now Cuomo, following in his dad’s footsteps, is Governor of New York, and the state is running out of money. When it comes to fiscal responsibility and keeping up appearances for the sake of the gun control groups, what does he choose? Fiscal responsibility. He’s recommending the CoBIS ballistic database be scrapped, because it costs too much money and is ineffective. Andrew Cuomo is proposing scrapping a gun control law, because it doesn’t work. He is no longer willing to pretend the emperor is wearing clothes. I half expect next that Bill Clinton will come out of his Manhattan Office with an AR in one hand and an AK in the other, thrusting them in the air exclaiming “You know all that gun control stuff? Yeah. That was all Hillary. Long live the NRA!”
The New AK-12
Looks a lot like the AK-74m, only with a new stock, better pistol grip, a lot more rail. It does look, however, like they took a stab at the AK’s poor ergonomics, but I’ve always been the opinion that the achilles heel of that system ergonomically was with magazine changes, and it doesn’t look like that’s any different.
Tweet the SOTU
Sean has a few pertinent questions he’s trying to get in front of the Administration during the SOTU, including convenient links for helping get the word out across Twitter.
NRA Board of Director Election 2012 – Endorsements
It’s that time of year again. As you start to receive the ballots for the NRA Board of Directors Elections in your mailboxes, we hope you’ll consider casting a vote for some of the candidates we believe contribute something unique to the Board.
***Scott Bach – Newfoundland, New Jersey
When most gun owners have given up on New Jersey, Scott has stayed to fight. He defends gun owners regardless of their interest – .50 caliber bans, bear hunters, collectors who want the freedom to buy more than one gun a month, and many more. Scott is the Executive Director of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, the state organization leading the fight for gun rights in the Garden State. He’s an attorney who has used his skills and network to defend both the First & Second Amendment. When a public school was caught sending home anti-gun literature, he sued to mandate that pro-gun literature be honored in the same way. When NY/NJ Port Authority police locked up a Utah man for lawfully traveling with firearms, Bach put the resources of ANJRPC to work to sue the officials who unlawfully arrested him in violation of federal protections. Through ANJRPC, Scott also works with competitive shooters and manages a large shooting range. Their member clubs have trained Olympic shooters. He is also a member of state groups in seven other states, actively supporting their efforts with what he has learned from the political and cultural fights to preserve gun rights in New Jersey.
Scott also gets new media and the importance of embracing new technology to advance the issue, and at one time, he launched his own blog on the Star-Ledger’s website to counter the anti-gun Bryan Miller. He has done interviews to discuss his thoughts on how new media can be leveraged to advance the Second Amendment and develop the shooting sports as well as where he saw the push for our rights headed in light of Heller the last time he ran for the board. He notes that the ANJRPC range may have been the first in the country to offer its members free wifi in the clubhouse.
***Joseph DeBergalis – Buffalo, New York
Joe DeBergalis is a career law enforcement professional fighting for gun rights in New York as Vice-President of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association. He’s also a competitive shooter in pistol, rifle, and shotgun sports, as well as a certified instructor.
DeBergalis has put his background to good use by serving as the Chair of the Education & Training Committee, Vice-Chair of the Action Pistol Committee of the Board. He’s no slacker politically, either. He’s the Election Volunteer Coordinator for four New York Congressional Districts and the District of Columbia. On the new media front, he’s a moderator at AR15.com and Match Chairman of AR15.com/Rockcastle Shooting Complex Pro AM Three Gun Championship.
It’s worth noting his work in New York, and not just because it’s a challenging state. Other pro-gun leaders in the state have heaped praise on Joe for his efforts there, and that speaks volumes for his usefulness in serving the pro-Second Amendment cause. Here’s his take on what gun owners could do to get more people involved in our community.
***Jeffrey Crane – Annapolis, Maryland
As President of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, Jeff Crane knows how to make sure hunting & shooting sports aren’t overlooked by Congress. He currently serves on the Wildlife and Hunting Heritage Conservation Council that advises the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture on agency activities that related to our the hunting and shooting communities. He has recently been serving on the NRA’s Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Committee and the Government Affairs Committee for Safari Club International.
In his role with CSF, Jeff also oversees sportsmen’s caucuses in 38 state capitals. Some are more active than others, but they’ve played an important role over the years not just working on hunting policy, but also worked on general gun issues in their states. The caucuses are a vehicle to help organize friendly lawmakers and get them talking about the issues.
I realize that this is heavily hunting, but that’s because it’s his background. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t “get” the Second Amendment or gun ownership for self-defense or the shooting sports. Considering NRA has to have a well-rounded board to represent all parties interested in our rights, we believe that Jeff would make an absolutely great addition to the Board to represent hunting rights and the shooting sports while making sure that the core issues in the Second Amendment debates are heard by leaders.
***David Coy – Adrian, Michigan
If there was one thing we have heard in the last year from board members, staffers, and people who pay attention to the needs of running NRA as an organization, it was that David Coy, an accounting professor from Michigan, needed to be put back onto the Board of Directors. Unfortunately, he was just under 2,500 votes shy of re-election last year, and he passed on running a campaign for 76th Director to someone else. That’s not because he is unwilling to serve, though.
His biography doesn’t sound nearly as exciting on the shooting front as some because his financial background is most needed on the Audit & Finance Committees. In other words, he contributes to the areas that keeps NRA running, not just the fun stuff at the range. (Though, he has also served on shooting sports committees, too.) The strengths we had highlighted to us over and over by so many people were his knowledge subjects of accounting, financial reporting, and internal control procedures for non-profit organizations. Besides the number crunching, he’s also active in the political battles as an Election Volunteer Coordinator.
***Joel Friedman – Pasadena, California
As the 76th Director, Joel has had to run twice in the last couple of years, and he could use the help to secure a three year term on the board. We sat down with him in Pittsburgh and talked about various issues, namely the struggles of gun owners in California.
He plays well with other organizations, as evidenced by this endorsement thread by several folks involved in Calguns. Based on much of the history you can find on the web, Joel has been involved in the many sides of this issue that need attention & support in a state that is otherwise so frustrating to gun owners. Whether it’s the NRA Foundation & shooting sports & youth programs supported by the Friends of NRA or the legislative battles at the state level, you can find he’s been involved at every level.
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As always, there are plenty of good people on the ballot. Just because we did not list someone here does not mean they aren’t worthy of a seat on the board. These are people we have either worked with directly or know enough about their contributions to the organization that they stand out and deserve your vote.
In the next few weeks, we’ll put up videos from the candidates and more.