Guns – Page 451 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Onslaught Against National Reciprocity

National Reciprocity is seriously disturbing the powers that be. One of the things I use to determine whether we’re fighting for something that matters is the people it’s pissing off. So far HR822 is making the grade on that count.

One of the first memes is this butchers states rights. That would be true if this bill were based solely on the commerce power of Congress, but it is largely based on Congress’ 14th Amendment power to pass legislation to protect Constitutional rights. There is a very strong case to be made that post Heller and McDonald, Congress has a power to protect the right to bear arms. There is also a case to be made on Congress’ power to legislate Full Faith and Credit.

It would also seem now that Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey represents law enforcement in its entirety. Since Philadelphia is leading the charge in Pennsylvania to revoke or modify our reciprocity agreement with Florida in Pennsylvania, he was invited to testify against our Constitutional rights before Congress.

One of our opponents arguments is that most licenses to carry are simple documents that are easy to forge. This is true. The reason is because a concealed carry license is not meant to be used for identification, which is what the state drivers’ license is for. Under this bill, you’d be required to carry identification in addition to your license to carry. Ramsey testified that a person that the lack of standards is a problem. Our opponents are going to push to get some federal standards in the bill in an attempt to scuttle it.

Truth is, if there are federal standards, it becomes a more dubious exercise of federal power. The 14th Amendment only allows you to protect a right, and then only to the agree the right is recognized by the Courts, and the Full Faith and Credit clause is arguably also limited. This bill only forces states to recognized each other’s permits, and not much more. It also stipulates the person had to be eligible to possess firearms under federal law.

The Big Day

Today is the day of our Bucks County Friends of the NRA dinner. I thank those of you who bought tickets. As I mentioned, Friends goes to the NRA programs which are relatively uncontroversial among the parts of the population who aren’t hysterical, such as youth shooting programs. I’ll have to head over to the hall in a few hours to get everything ready. Bitter is co-chair of the committee and has put in a lot of work on this. I am on the committee, but I’m just helping out where I can. In the past week we’ve sold enough tickets to take the attendance from embarrassing to pretty reasonable. We’re still under our goals by a good bit, but we won’t lose money on the event.

Veto Override on Castle Doctrine

New Hampshire is now a castle doctrine state, thanks to the 251 to 111 vote in the House. The Senate voted earlier to override by 17 to 7. It becomes law despite the veto from the Governor.

Concealed Carry Illustrated

Miguel has a very good way of looking at the deterrent factor.

Sunday Hunting Hearing

There are hearings being held around on the state on what appears to be NRA’s next legislative priorityÂ in Pennsylvania. There is little doubt that animal rights extremist groups, like HSUS, are going to oppose this move. But the biggest opposition that will be faced, from what I’ve seen, is from farmers and other hunters.

I don’t think hunting can be saved. I don’t think this because it’s impossible, but because hunters don’t seem to have the “no one gets thrown off the lifeboat” attitude that’s become prevalent among gun rights activists. Divide and conquer is an easy strategy with that community, and it’s certainly one that will be relentlessly exploited by the opponents of hunting until it is no more.

Unfortunately for those of us in the shooting community, hunters are still people of the gun, and once they are gone, we will have to hope not to be eaten last.

Debriefing on National Reciprocity Hearing

From Dave Kopel on NRA News:

Once Again, We’re the Scapegoats

We’re made out to be responsible for the acts of murdering criminals. I know about this unfortunate murder, because in Twitter Space, the Brady Campaign have been hanging about like a sleazy ambulance chasing lawyer at the scene of a fatal accident.

Sorry, but I didn’t kill that young woman. It’s illegal under federal law, in case the NY Daily News is not aware, to buy firearms in South Carolina and smuggle them to New York City to sell on the streets to criminals. You can do ten years for each count in the federal pen. I don’t know what else we’re supposed to do, that still respects the fact that being able to buy a gun is a basic, fundamental right if you’re law-abiding.

Getting the blame for the criminal actions of others is one of my primary motivations for staying active in this issue. There’s no practice of our opponents that I find more motivating than their attempts to make me the scapegoat for these social ills. It’s ironic that the New York Daily News probably believes it’s helping fan the flames of gun control, but in reality they are sowing the seeds of the destruction of New York City’s gun laws, by keeping people like you and me in the game.

Ready, Set, Go!

It’s a race to the bottom. This is a bottom I am quite happy to race to, because all the noise being made in opposition is nothing by the hysterical ramblings of irrelevant and frightened people.

CSGV Latest Pathetic Attack

CSGV’s latest message seems to be that when it comes to gun scandals, at least fourÂ out of NRA’s 76 elected board members have some experience backing anti-communist guerrillas in Cold War proxy conflicts, some of which didn’t have the nicest of bedfellows. Shocking, I know, that our government engaged in lot of unpleasantness to rid the world of Soviet communism, resulting in a lot of folks with dirty hands. But what exactly is the greater strategy at work in Fast and Furious? At best, and this is still a dubious claim, there’s some elaborate cloak and dagger affair in play to prop up the Sinaloa Cartel. If that’s the case, I’d really like to know how that helps the situation in Mexico. At worst, Fast and Furious was meant to get more guns into Mexico to make the case for more gun control, and bigger budgets at the Department of Justice.

I don’t think four NRA Board members can be construed to represent an endorsement by NRA as a whole of their past activities. Whether Horwitz likes it or not, Ollie North is a hero to many Americans, and enough NRA members, to get him the votes he needs to be on the Board. If you think this article is utter fail, this web site on NRA Board members should give you a better idea of just how sad, pathetic, and bitter the folks at CSGV are. But I do have to thank them. Their little web site provided at least fifteen minutes of amusement for me in realizing just how out of touch they are with ordinary Americans, in terms of what they find to be “controversial.”

I think it’s also quite telling that, rather than trying to get to the bottom of F&F, CSGV is instead of spending it’s time looking for ways to smear NRA. That should tell you just how much of a masquerade the whole gun violence thing is. The difference between NRA and CSGV is NRA is still being true to it’s mission. CSGV has shown they care more about hurting NRA than they care about gun violence.

Bloomberg is Scared

He commissioned a poll, which isn’t cheap, to try to defeat National Concealed Carry Reciprocity, HR822. It comes with a brand new web site. When I first clicked on it, I thought maybe the individuals were MAIG mayors, since I believe MAIG mayors have also been convicted of all those things, and at greater rates than concealed carry license holders.

Remember, if your mayor is in MAIG, it’s time to get him or her out. They are putting their names on opposing your rights. It should be made abundantly clear to MAIG mayors that they are supporting gun control. Don’t let them tell you otherwise.

It’s interesting, because you can see the poll results here. 35% favor the bill. 38% oppose. 28% are undecided. This poll actually doesn’t look good at all for MAIG, so I’m not sure why they are publishing it. The politicians know quite well that overwhelming majorities support the phony assault weapons ban back in 1994, and Democrats still got their asses handed to them when it came time to put people in the voting booths.