Guns – Page 419 – Shall Not Be Questioned

CeaseFirePA Writes Re-Election Ads for Pro-Gun Lawmakers

There is nothing about this headline that doesn’t scream “re-elect these people,” and we have our opponents to thank.

Anti-gun violence group targets legislators
CeaseFirePA campaigns against Barletta and Marino for backing border legislation.

The article immediately puts CeaseFirePA on the defensive, forcing them to answer the question over whether their targeting of Republican Reps. Lou Barletta & Tom Marino is really just about partisan politics. They cite an ad targeted at Rep. Mark Critz in the southwest corner of the state, but they fail to mention anything about Reps. Tim Holden or Jason Altmire in their interviews on the ad buy. I guess the former Democratic staffer running the organization doesn’t want to piss off the two Democrats most likely to keep their seats in redistricting.

Back to the title of this post, this is where you know CeaseFirePA made a great investment in making sure that pro-gun lawmakers stay in office in those districts that are extremely friendly to our rights:

For their part, Barletta and Marino say they have no qualms about having voted for the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, which gives gun owners who have a concealed carry license from one state the right to arm themselves in any other state that also has a concealed carry law.

The spokespeople for the representatives talk about how this would simply be like the same recognition as a driver’s license and how Pennsylvania already has reciprocity with 26 states. It’s simply no big deal.

I just have to laugh at the ad targeting one more time. Even the Democrats who held these seats in safer years went out of their way to be seen as pro-gun, and you’d frequently see “Sportsmen for…” signs out for candidates of both parties. So, thanks CeaseFirePA! The myopic NJ-centric attitude of the organization’s leader is helpful with silly moves like this.

Concealed Carry Numbers for Pennsylvania Counties

After an email exchange with Dannytheman this morning, I was reminded of a method we used to answer questions about how big the pro-gun electorate in Bucks County was during the 2010 elections. We were asked by campaign advisors who weren’t the types to turn their back on gun owners if our numbers were small, but they would have liked to have the number quantified just so they could understand priority in doing outreach during campaign season.

The first form this question takes is usually how many NRA members are in a given district. Well, we don’t know that. Not even NRA knows exactly how many they reach in a given area. (I explain the reasons for this in a post on the same topic for PAGunRights.)

Nor is there a way to calculate exactly how many gun owners there are in a standard political district. A person whose entire collection of firearms was inherited 20 years ago may make voting in defense of their rights just as much a priority as someone who recently sought out training for the first time and is buying everything new. In addition, while all firearms in a household may actually belong to one person, the family may vote along the same principles.

However, we can use concealed carry license numbers as a rough guide. These are people who take gun ownership serious enough that they undergo additional background checks and pay extra fees. They take the time out of their busy lives to stop by the sheriff’s office and wait in line for their license. Even if they aren’t putting a gun on as part of their daily routine, they care enough to make an extra effort in defense of themselves and their rights. This is a reasonable substitute to give a rough idea of the number of voters interested in hearing about a candidate’s record on the Second Amendment.

In Bucks County, that number based on the latest available data is right around 27,000. That includes the nearly 1,000 sportsmen’s firearms permits issued. Even though that is a fairly small percentage of the entire county population, it’s still a very large interest group in one region.

So, if you’re looking for a way to articulate the approximate impact of people who will be interested in a candidate’s Second Amendment record, consider using the number of licenses and permits issued as a reasonable proxy. My guess is that it still underestimates the number of people who care about the issue because of the influence of family and friends on voters, but it’s a reasonable measure to consider when having these sorts of discussions with lawmakers and candidates.

Fast and Furious Hearings

Dave Hardy has some good excerpts of the hearings going on in Washington currently. This scandal has started to become like an overly drawn out drama, where you get tired of the movie, and just want to get to the end, where the villain gets what’s coming to him. But the political process, unfortunately, does not work like that. Republicans will have no problem dragging this scandal out to election season. Their desire to get Holder removed I think is sincere, but they’d much prefer to do that through the elections by removing his boss. That’s why I don’t think they are pushing that hard.

On Being Fit and Shooting

Caleb thinks that being fit makes you a better shooter. While I generally would agree, I know some utterly fantastic shooters I would not classify as fit. Actually, far from it. That said, I think it does help. I’ve had instances shooting where I’ve felt my stability would be significantly improved if I were in better shape. Certainly you will shoot better if your pulse rate is lower.Â So I would say it helps, but in the overall scheme of things, I think there are a lot more important aspects to being a good shooter.

BTW, Gun Nuts Media is sporting a new look. It’s cleaner and more modern, and it looks like they’ve also embraced threaded comments (which maybe they had before, but when you blog you don’t comment on other people’s blogs. It’s a rule :) )

A Review of Dave Kopel’s New Paper

The new job doesn’t leave much time for reading papers, which I have to reserve for the weekend, but Joe Huffman has a pretty good review of Dave Kopel’s latest, “How the British Gun Control Program Precipitated the American Revolution“

Whipping Up a Non-Existent War

The Delco Times, my home town paper, I suppose you could call it, is busy making CeaseFire PA out to be more than it really is:

One of CeaseFirePAâ€™s advertisements featured a letter to Meehan, a former U.S. attorney and Delaware County district attorney. The letter in the ad was written by Mike Carroll, former president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

There’s also a quote by someone rumored to be a reader around these parts:

â€œI recognize the decision for him is a tough one, but I support what he did,â€ said McMonigle, also a member of the Firearms Owners Against Crime. â€œPat Meehan understands that the Second Amendment supports law abiding citizens having the right to arm themselves. Pat Meehan also understands that right doesnâ€™t stop at state borders. Iâ€™m still a law abiding citizen in the United States of America.â€

Good representation there, Dan. As for Nacheman, he’s a paid stooge, and if there’s any evidence that CeaseFire PA is anything more than a couple of people, and a paid stooge, I haven’t seen it. Looks like Casey and Toomey don’t want to comment, which is the smart move. Why bother giving the Delco Times more ammunition to whip this into more of a controversy than it really is? It’s only a controversy because Max Nacheman pitched it to you, and the media is gullible and sympathetic.

A Consequence of Winning

Tam has another link to training fail, which seems to becoming more common. While I think gun bloggers have a role in pointing this stuff out, I think there’s no better evidence for the phenomena of lots of newly minted gun owners than the training fail phenomena. If it’s correct that guns and shooting are going completely mainstream as a hobby, you’re going to see a lot more unqualified people getting into the business in an attempt to cash in on the larger pool of newbs floating around out there that wouldn’t know good training from bad.

So I put this phenomena in the “good problem to have,” category, because of what it means. It would be interesting to see as well, whether NRA’s had an uptick in problem instructors, since NRA’s credential is not all that difficult to obtain, and widely recognized. While they probably would want to keep quiet about that if it were the case, it would be more evidence there are a lot of new shooters floating out there on the market looking for training.

Japan Looking to Ease Gun Laws?

Maybe I shouldn’t have changed the blog name:

Farmers in rural areas have been reporting increasing damage to their crops by wild boar, deer and other animals. To make firearms more accessible, a bill that would loosen the currently tight restrictions on hunting rifles has been proposed in the Diet. But, the Sankei Shimbun (Dec 4) reports, the police remain adamantly opposed to changes in the law.

You hear this a lot in foreign countries, but you have to wonder how often it’s true that “police” opposition in these countries is also nothing but political appointees.

Gun Control a Goal of Fast & Furious Sales Number Reporting

Sebastian said I should report on this CBS report on documents that show it was used by ATF to push for more gun control. Sadly, my first thought was wondering how it is news at this point. Everyone who paid even scant attention to the scandal knew this was a tactic to push for more gun control. It hardly seems news now that it’s proven.

I look forward to the amusing announcement that these documents are just part of our paranoid conspiracy theories about gun rights as Media Matters so frequently likes to argue. If they were intellectually honest, they would admit that this new evidence shows it wasn’t paranoia run amok, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.

County Wasting Money on Gun Buybacks

It looks like the County (my the County) officials are busy allocating public funds to cover the costs of gun buybacks in Bristol Township:

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP: $50,000 for municipal building roofing project; $35,000 for a 80 kw portable generator; $17,000 for GIS mapping services for GIS system upgrade; $200,000 for road improvements; $58,000 to the township public works department for a diesel bypass pump; $48,000 for a township public works department roofing project; $60,000 for a storm water inlet replacement project; $30,000 for a municipal complex solar lighting project; $22,000 for a municipal complex sign project; $25,000 to the township police department for a gun buyback program

The authority that is responsible for distributing these funds is the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority. No doubt Bristol Township officials requested it, but the redevelopment authority still approved. In other news, it looks like the County SWAT team will be getting some money for new toys.

My concern here is that this a waste of money that could be better spent on measures more proven to actually do something to reduce crime. The amount being allocated here would cover a decent portion of the cost to hire a whole extra police officer. I thought I’d let me local readers know in case anyone wants to go stake out the buy backs and make sure no one turns in history for destruction; my other big issue with buy back programs.