Guns – Page 519 – Shall Not Be Questioned

More on PGC Public Range Regulations

Bitter got the Pennsylvania Game Commission on the phone and asked them some questions about the new permit requirement for public shooting ranges in Pennsylvania. I think a lot of people will object to the fact that only $200,000 of $11,000,000 in Pittman-Robertson funds goes to range maintenance. This is especially true when you consider handguns make up more than half of PR funds, and very few handguns are used for hunting.

In effect, the whole of the shooting community is subsidizing hunting. This will no doubt be a controversial statement, but I think that shooters should accept this state of affairs. Until this past year, hunting numbers had been in decline, while hunting license fees have been relatively stable, and not kept up with inflation. This means in real terms, state wildlife management budgets have shrunk. Increasing budgets for shooting ranges would mean decreasing budgets to support hunting programs, or raising hunting license fees, which will only serve to drive more people out of the sport.

A lot of people are going to argue that the baby is sick, probably isn’t going to make it to shore, and we’d be far better off just throwing it off the life boat preemptively, so that we can use the supplies for the rest of us. The problem is, hunting is a critical part of this fight, and we’re going to be far weaker politically if we toss that baby over. We have hunting numbers on the upswing. Perhaps that will continue. Time will tell.

I’m Surprised

Not that Joe Huffman provided a thoughtful answer, but that MikeB actually asked a thoughtful question. Has MikeB decided to give up on life under the bridge?

My Kind of Change

The Republican lawmaker who beat David Levdansky has an op-ed in the Patriot News supporting Castle Doctrine. For those interested in Levdansky’s history in Pennsylvania, you can go here.

Jury Nullification on Gun Charge

In New York City, of all places. I seem to recall hearing that half of all gun possession cases in DC ended up nullified. What do you think a London jury would have found? There is a Second Amendment in the minds of the people, whether our opponents want to recognize it or not.

Chris Christie Pessimistic About Gun Law Reform

Unfortunately, the Governor is right. New Jersey is probably the most hostile legislature in the country when it comes to gun rights. Christie is coming at this issue in the same manner the Obama Administration is, in that he’d really prefer it go away, doesn’t want to burn any political capital on the issue, but at the same time doesn’t want to piss anyone off too much.

The Fine Line Between Fundraising Writing & BS

There’s an art to writing copy for an effective fundraising letter. It differs based on the medium, and it needs to stay within certain guidelines that I like to refer to as “reality.” There’s the kind of reality we talk about here to those of you who read and are relatively well informed about the issues. There’s also a kind of reality used in fundraising letters that’s often a bit on the scare tactic side, but it’s also meant to showcase very real threats that are technically on the horizon for those who don’t really pay attention to what’s happening in the various political debates. It’s not BS if the group is actually working on those issues. It is BS if a group is fundraising off of those issues and not actually in a position to do a damned thing about it.

So imagine my surprise when the National Association of Gun Rights started running Facebook ads with a petition to stop the UN from passing a small arms treaty. The ad linked to a fundraising appeal by a Congressman that says you must give to the “National Association for Gun Rights so [they] can fight for your gun rights and defeat the U.N. Small Arm’s Treaty.” Oh really? A Congressman who has no authority over treaties plans to work with a group that has no presence at the UN to stop unaccountable diplomats with an online petition? That is going to be some show.

Before you start in with rants about NRA fundraising using the UN as a basis for their appeals, I’ll point out one big freakin’ difference in the situations. The NRA is actually an official NGO at the UN so that they can work on this issue. They’ve been working that front for 15 years. In other words, when you respond to that appeal from NRA, your money is going to an organization that is actually able to fight it – with more than just an online petition & Congressman who has no authority over the issue.

Hypocrisy? What Hypocrisy?

Dennis Henigan says we’re being hypocrites, because we say we want to enforce existing laws, but then have Congress cut funding off for ATF to implement long gun reporting. Where to start? First off, the long gun reporting requirement isn’t going to accomplish jack, because even with the information voluntarily provided to ATF by dealers, they apparently lost track of about 2500 firearms, one of which was used to murder a border patrol officer. Secondly, this is not enforcing existing law, this is ATF making up law from whole cloth and implementing it. We’re in favor of using existing laws to lock up violent criminals, we are not in favor of a totalitarian state where bureaucrats get to make up their own law and ignore the limits Congress has placed on their powers.

Four Suggestions

Bryan Miller apparently thinks they are the four suggestions too:

Good to see Miller, a world renowned advocate of “gun safety” demonstrating just how little he knows about the subject.

I’ve been doing a little research on the incident that happened with Miller’s brother, and there’s a whole lot more to it than most of you have ever heard. For instance, there was a lawsuit filed for negligence against the District of Columbia because they failed to follow their own security protocol for the building. There is more I will speak of once I have time to put everything together.

Civil Rights Victory in Virginia

Three bills headed to McDonnell. All of them pretty moderate. So when does the Old Dominion get rid of one gun a month?

Schumer’s Faulty Metrics

Schumer wants to penalize states that are “not enforcing background checks.” At first I thought this meant perhaps adding a stick to the carrot as far as mental health reporting goes, but that might not be the case:

Under the plan endorsed by Schumer and Bloomberg, states and federal authorities would be required to increase theÂ percentage of denied gun permit applicants to the national gun database.Â The penalty for not reporting would be a loss of federal funding forÂ crime prevention.

Not required to make sure the data in the database is more accurate and up to date, but to just deny more people the right to purchase a gun, with no regard to accuracy? They call the proposal “modest.” If their Thesaurus has the word “stupid” next to “modest,” I might buy that.

I haven’t seen language for a proposed bill, however, so it could very well be this is a case of the journalist reporting writing gibberish in their ignorance of the subject at hand, and perhaps ignorance of clear English as well.