Egos Patting Their Backs

Some of the biggest egos in local politics are wasting time patting each other on the back. It’s a nauseating thing that’s not normally worth mentioning, except gun control is one of the things they congratulate each other on.

“Mayor Richard Daley and his wife, Maggie, took a bow for their stewardship of the city at an Art Institute of Chicago fundraiser held Friday night in their honor … New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg called Daley “the best damn mayor this country has ever seen” during post-dinner remarks … Bloomberg pointed to Daley initiatives on handguns, education, the environment and the arts that he said he has happily copied in New York …”

Feel free to copy the Daley policies on handguns, Mayor Bloomberg. In case your staff forgot to tell you, we defeated those policies once.

Very Sad News

I am told that former Congressman Harold Volkmer (D-MO) died last night. He was primarily responsible for pushing the Firearms Owner’s Protection Act (FOPA) through the House back in the mid-1980s. I once had the pleasure of once sharing a table with Congressman Volkmer at an NRA lunch event. He was truly one of the giants of the movement to preserve the Second Amendment.

UPDATE: Dave Hardy has more information.

UPDATE: Obituary appears here:

Harold was busy literally in his last days reviewing a legal case for the NRA’s Civil Rights Defense Fund. Known to all simply as Harold, he was touched tremendously by the hundreds of greetings that came to him recently on his 80th birthday.

We have truly lost one of the great ones of this movement.

Performance Art That Will Get You Killed

SayUncle has an interesting story from New York:

Once the door shuts, he starts screaming to the top of his lungs to the people in the car about about something, some sort of pre-robbery speech. Then says it’s a robbery and pulls out his hand and it’s in a brown paper bag. I was a bit surprised that I stayed calm but I did. I discretely pulled my Cold Steel AK47 out of my pocket and stood between the guy and my wife evaluating what I was going to do and when. It was a pretty intense few seconds. Then the robber decides to inform us that he’s not a robber and it’s actually some sort of scare-tactic fundraising pitch for a homeless shelter.

Whoever thought this was a good idea ought to be slapped around. If Bloomberg’s subjects are this foolish, no wonder he doesn’t want people going about armed. In a lot of cities, this guy would be shot, and to be honest, he would have deserved it. Legally, it would have been self-defense. This is foolish beyond belief, even in New York, where there are still people walking around with deadly weapons.

Some Debate with Colin Goddard

Thirdpower has the details of a Twitter debate that’s been going on this Friday between Colin Goddard and a few gun rights people. Debating on Twitter is kind of like dueling haiku, so it’s impossible to discuss complex topics. The topic at hand is background checks. Goddard’s position can be accurately paraphrased as “The innocent have nothing to fear.” But that misses what drives our opposition by a mile.

I think the background check requirement is about as useful for lowering violent crime as pissing out your car window. But if done with respect for the core right at hand, I’m not sure it’s a serious enough impediment to its exercise to rise to the level of unconstitutionality. That said, the proposals by the Brady Campaign are almost certainly not open for debate, largely because they target gun shows with onerous requirements, and impose a significant tax on the transfer of firearms by forcing transfers through FFLs. So we fight it.

Pennsylvania currently bans private transfers of handguns. You have two choices here for transferring a handgun to someone who isn’t your spouse, son, grandson, father, or grandfather. You can pay an FFL to do it, which around here costs a minimum of 32 dollars at some of the smaller, out of the way shops, or drive forty minutes to the county seat, and have the Sheriff’s Office do it. No doubt many gun control advocates don’t really appreciate bringing cost into the equation, but when it comes to exercising rights, costs imposed by government are a serious issue that can’t be lightly dismissed. Especially when the effectiveness of the measures is dubious at best. Despite the fact that Pennsylvania prohibits private transfers of handguns, straw purchasing has become a big enough problem, we’re told we need to acquiesce to a whole host of other controls. The Brady Campaign supports rationing gun purchases in order to deal with this problem in my state, just to name one proposal on the table.

Negotiations on this issue are a non-starter unless something I otherwise could not get is also on the table. Most of that is going to be unacceptable to Colin’s employer, if not Colin himself. Politics is a process of compromise, but compromise is what happens when either both sides are unable to move forward without concessions to the other, or when one side begins to fear his opponent might be able to move an issue forward despite opposition. The gun control movement has never been interested in that kind of compromise. If the Brady Campaign really wanted universal background checks, they could probably get them. Ask how many gun owners here would trade a universal background check you could do with a driver’s license and a cell phone for, say, a repeal of the Hughes Amendment. I think you’d find takers. Ask how many would trade the same for easing restrictions on short barreled rifles/shotguns, and suppressors? National concealed carry? I’d bet you’d get takers just giving up the 4473.

Could Brady make that deal? Are background checks that important? If they answer that question honestly, you’ll see why this goes nowhere. Background checks are a political hobby horse Colin’s side is riding as a gateway to other issues which are more important to them. This was never about the background checks, and I think Colin knows that as well as I do.

Comm2A and SAF File Suit in Massachusetts

They are challenging the ban on firearms possession by lawfully admitted aliens, and the ban on firearms and ammunition purchase by lawful resident aliens. There is very strong case law that will support getting the ban overturned for lawful resident aliens. If I understand the first aspect of the lawsuit correctly, this challenges the ban mere possession, meaning challenging the fact that it’s a crime to take you friend visiting from overseas to a shooting range. Given the Supreme Court has said plainly this is a fundamental right, that probably plays strongly that a blanket ban on possession is unconstitutional, though it may be constitutional to restrict lawful admitted aliens from purchasing a gun under the Heller dicta that permits some degree of qualification on commercial sales of firearms.

Tragedies That Don’t Get Exploited

Tam notes that a New York mother who drowned her kids when she drove her minivan into the Hudson won’t be attracting any activists looking to ban minivans, boat ramps or motherhood. This is a pretty serious question our opponents should ask themselves. Obviously this is a tragedy, but why isn’t anyone demanding the government do something, for the children. Because doing nothing isn’t an answer.

In this case, we universally accept the mother snapped, and nothing much else is to blame. At most people might murmur a bit about more funding for counseling and women’s service. We don’t blame access to cars, or boat ramps. Why? Because none of these objects carry the same spiritual power as the gun. To the extent the other side likes to suggest the gun is our god, if that is true, it is most certainly their devil. I stand by my assertion that the other side is acting in an elaborate passion play. Otherwise, why is the car not to blame? Or the boat ramp?

Assault Clips

We have some pretty good submissions. My favorite two are these:

Submitted by Robert Submitted by ctdonath

Hard to say which one I like better, but both are certainly better than my very bad joke about Dassault Clips from the other day.

UPDATE: Also check out Miguel’s submission. Plus, anyone who’s anybody these days has a Twitter account, and that’s true of Assault Clip too.

Bullies and Victims

Don’t forget to check out some of the commentary at CSGV’s Facebook page. You have Andrew Goddard, who’s Colin’s dad saying “they will all come back as cockroaches – if they are lucky.” Andy Pelosi thanks Joan for the work she does in the “face of cowards.” Another person suggests “never give into a bully.” I think it’s time to cut out the niceties for the moment, and have a little frank discussion, so that both sides may better understand each other.

I am not unsympathetic to your grief. I’ve lost people close to me, some agonizingly over time and others suddenly. I can relate to the pain of loss, and learning how to cope and continue with life. I truly am sorry for what you have gone through, and may be still going through. If I had a time machine at my disposal, I’d go back and undo everything so it never happened. I have no wish to see you continuously hurting.

But you folks have a lot of nerve calling other people cowards and bullies. Let me explain to you why you elicit such “underhanded hate and misguided personal attacks” from some of the people on my side. It’s important for your side to understand. We want nothing more than to stay out of your business, leave you alone, let you heal and get on with your lives. By the same token, we expect the same courtesy in return. That is the fundamental violation you are committing in our eyes, and it’s a serious one.

There is nothing more personal, when it comes to ones own business, than his or her personal security measures. That is not a topic I take kindly to other people poking their noses into, or demanding politicians do the same. This is going to sound cold, but whatever happened in your lives is your tragedy, and not mine. I am not responsible for it. So when you stick your noses in our very personal business, then demand we tolerate that because of your special status as “victims,” don’t then then act surprised and indignant when some of us rhetorically punch you in it. We would all gladly leave you alone. But it seems that your happiness and sense of well being involves trying to take away ours. Are we just supposed to roll over quietly in that case?

Obama’s Gun Control Pow-Wow

At this point, I think Paul Helmke probably wishes it were a beer summit, because at least then he could have gotten a free beer out of it, and maybe met the President. We initially were quite skeptical of Brady claims of success from the summit. With this report in the Washington Post, that skepticism would seem to have been warranted:

But the official the advocates wanted to hear from most stayed mostly quiet.

The silence of Steve Croley, the White House’s point man on gun regulation policy, echoes the decision by Democrats to remain mute on guns as a national issue, even in the wake of the Tucson rampage.

They later go on to say:

One area in which Croley has shown less interest, according to several people who have spoken with him about the issue, is restricting the large-volume ammunition magazines that allowed the Tucson shooter to keep firing. When Paul Helmke, director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, broached the subject during the March 15 gathering with Croley, officials promptly adjourned the meeting.

That adds more evidence that the “assault clip” effort is just the latest ridiculousness from the other side. Though I strongly believe they have given up on passing legislation at this point, and are focusing almost exclusively on testing issues based on their ability to attract media attention, followers, and most importantly donations. Read the whole Washington Post article. This makes me seriously question why Brady is even keeping around a 501(c)(4). They are in hearts and minds territory at this point, and that’s not anything you need a (c)(4) non-profit to accomplish.