The Daily Caller is noting the growing pressure on Governor Christie to pardon Brian Aitken.
UPDATE: More from Fox News.
Category: Guns
‘Twas the Night before Christmas
When all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse – because creatures that go bump in the night know we’re well armed in the Snowflake household.
Christmas presents have started to arrive here at the house, and now it’s time for me to really get crackin’ with decorations so I can start wrapping them. However, one is still in production and won’t be here until a few days before the holiday. When it is finally wrapped, I’ll have to punch holes in the box and wrapping paper. Is it a cat? Lord, no. I’m not bringing any of those demons home. Is it a dog? If so, it would have my name on it and this gift is solely Sebastian’s baby. Nope, it’s not an animal at all. It’s a holster. The holes are so I can smell it from time to time because I know the leather will smell that good.*
We got a preview a week or so ago after I placed the order for a Mitch Rosen holster and they sent a catalog. OMG, I have never wished for a scratch and sniff catalog before, but oh how I wanted one for his holsters and belts. I don’t even care that we wouldn’t have a need for many of his products, I wanted to order one of everything the second I opened it up. If we don’t have a gun that would fit some of his designs, we could buy one later. In fact, that’s what we’ll be doing with this piece. We don’t actually own the gun yet. But, I know that Sebastian will order one sometime soon, and then he’ll have a nice new custom holster for it.
Mitch’s work is incredible, and I can’t wait to see what arrives shortly before Christmas.
*If I wasn’t trying so hard to stay off of Santa’s naughty list, I would wrap the holster in the girliest wrapping paper we own and slap my own name on it – at least until Sebastian gets the gun.
Interesting Article on Condie Rice
From the Philly Inquirer. It almost seems like Harold Jackson is afraid to say too many good things about her, but what tripped over my alerts was this passage:
Rice’s recollection of events that night comes pretty close to my own, although we were in different households. “The men of the community took up their neighborhood watch,” she said. Rice explained that these watches had begun months earlier, after homes and churches were bombed.
She said that when her father was on watch, he would sit on the porch with a “gun on his lap . . . looking for white night riders.” Because of that experience, seeing her father take up a weapon to protect his family, Rice said, she was “a fierce defender of the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.”
My father and other men in our housing project also armed themselves to protect us after Sixteenth Street Baptist was bombed. That never made me want to join the NRA. But as I said, my life and Rice’s were very different. The little gun violence I saw as a teenager convinced me that it should be harder to get a gun.
Except it it had been harder to get a gun, you can bet the hoops one had to jump through would be enforced vigorously against the black community, while the Klan would have had all the guns they want. What few gun control laws exist in this country were mostly targeted at disarming minorities. Read the whole article. It’s quite good.
Displeasure Among the Gun Control Ranks
Seems some didn’t particularly care for Ed Rendell’s departing surrender on the issue of gun control. Chief among them Joe Grace, who Kinney reports as “pained by the glum talk about guns.” Joe’s pain is my content. It doesn’t look like Representative Tim Briggs thinks to highly of it either:
Montgomery County progressive Democrat Tim Briggs became a loyal CeaseFirePA soldier in his first term, but frets that building a broad coalition might be for naught if Corbett and Co. “try to push an extreme social agenda.” Indeed, Corbett has said he would happily sign the “castle doctrine” expansion.
Broad coalition? 159 Pennsylvania representatives voted for Castle Doctrine the first time, only 38 voted against it. 38 out of 202 seats is a broad coalition? I’d say you were tilting at windmills out of the gate, Rep. Briggs. Second time around he lost two votes from his “broad coalition.”
Ed Rendell sees the writing on the wall because he can count. I have no doubt Rendell did what he thought he could to advance the issue, particularly pushing Democrats who would run on gun control vocally. But that ultimately failed. Having failed, Ed is giving up, and riding off into the sunset, leaving suckers who bought his line on the issue, like Tim Briggs, in the dust.
On the Ropes
Jacob takes a look at the sad state of the gun control movement. He points out they haven’t gotten any new gun control passed in New York in a decade. Thinking a bit, it’s really only been California and New Jersey they’ve been able to get anything done, and lawsuits are underway that will hopefully reverse even that in due course.
New Low for the Bradys
Just when you think they couldn’t get any lower, after unfairly attacking James D’Cruz’s interest in movies and books a few days ago in a press release, they are now trying to scare people with James in his halloween costume into donating them money. Yes, that’s right. I actually asked about the picture, and it’s a halloween costume. Of course, the Bradys went right past the picture of James in his JROTC uniform to get to the one that supposedly shows how off balance he is.
In addition, it’s probably worth pointing out that technically, that photograph is © 2010 by a one James D’Cruz, which would mean Bradys use of it for fundraising purposes falls outside of fair use, and therefore is copyright infringement. So not only are they maligning James’ reputation, but they are pirating a photograph from him as well. I think James’ should demand royalties. Granted, given the state of Brady fundraising, that might not be much, but at the least I think Paul Helmke owes James a Starbucks gift certificate or something.
How Pro Second Amendment is Chris Christie?
I never had very high expectations from Chris Christie on the gun issue. New Jersey has a one of the lowest rates of gun ownership in the country, and it’s part of both the New York and Philadelphia media markets, neither of which are known for gun friendliness. But the recent Brian Atkins case has people talking whether a pardon is in the cards:
As for Christie, he seems to have learned a lesson from that loss. By the time he ran for governor last year, he had adopted the position that politicians traditionally adopt when they really, really wish the gun issue would just go away: He said he wouldn’t seek new laws, but would enforce current laws.
That’s not good enough for gun lovers, and the case of Brian Aitken shows why. Aitken, a media consultant in his mid-20s, was a normal, law-abiding citizen until January of last year. That’s when he moved back to his native New Jersey from Colorado, where he had lived for several years.
It should cost Christie nothing to pardon this guy. I’d be surprised if 10% of New Jerseyans think justice is served keeping that guy in prison. The big risk Christie faces is a Democratic opponent attacking him for “pardoning a mentally unstable man for carrying illegal guns, deadly ammunition, and high capacity magazines,” which unlike other states will actually work in New Jersey on people who are ignorant of Aitken’s plea. But given the Philadelphia media’s sympathetic coverage, I would say this makes it safe politically. It’s an non-controversial, visible way that Governor Christie and stand with us. If you believe in the right to bear arms, even if you believe that right is restricted to the home, that right necessarily has to cover moving arms between residences.
Surprising Daily News Coverage of Brian Aitken
I’ve never seen the Philadelphia media cover a railroaded gun owner so favorably. Fortunately, the Judge who railroaded Aitken was dismissed by the Christie Administration, but the right thing for Christie to do here is to pardon him. I’m relatively appalled the jury, who clearly wanted to find this guy innocent, didn’t just do so, ignoring the judges instructions. I’d hang a jury as long as it took to either get them to relent or at least get the guy a mistrial.
But I’m equally appalled at the attitude of Bryan Miller, even if I’m not surprised. From the Daily News Article:
“What little I can glean about the transportation issue leaves me puzzled, but a person with common sense would not be moving illegal products from one place to another by car,” said Bryan Miller, executive director of CeaseFire NJ, an organization devoted to reducing gun violence.
“If Mr. Aitken did the research he said he did, he would not have hollow-point bullets and large-capacity magazines in the vehicle,” Miller said. “They are illegal, period.”
I say not surprised because I decided years ago Miller wasn’t someone who disagreed in good faith. The guy hates gun owners. He’s a textbook bigot. It’s just common sense, you see, when New Jersey is the only state in the nation which has any kind of restrictions on hollow point ammunition, and if Aitken was moving, he fell under the exception anyway. The big crime they nailed him on was merely having the pistols in the trunk of his car. As far as Miller is concerned, it’s just another gun owner in jail where he belongs. What a hate filled man.
Chastising Rendell for Vetoing Castle Doctrine …
… from Investors Business Daily? I’ll take any allies I can get.
Amtrak Allowing Guns
Amtrak protested endlessly that they couldn’t allow guns on trains. Well, it turns out they can:
Under the policy, beginning Dec. 15, guns can be brought aboard trains that have checked baggage service. Gun owners must inform Amtrak officials 24 hours ahead of departure. Unloaded firearms must be packed in hard-sided containers and will be stored in train lockers.
Not sure why 24 hours advanced notice is required. Airlines don’t require that. Of course, the Brady Campaign says this is just going to make it that much easier for “makes it easier for terrorists to bring weapons on trains with intent to do harm.” Looks like the Brady folks are responsible for the twenty four hour notice thing.
Come on guys. What purpose does that serve other than to harass gun owners? You want to know why we can’t really have dialog? Stuff like this is the reason why. Is a terrorist going to give Amtrak 24 hours notice? Ian Argent had some useful observations yesterday:
Once the gun is out in the world, the owner can do anything with it. The law-abiding one will, of course, limit himself to the lawful activities. But not one of New Jersey’s many strict and serious firearms laws could stop me from loading up my legally-purchased and legally-owned limited-capacity magazines and my legally-purchased and legally-owned handgun, and going out to cause mischief. It’s worth noting, by the way, that, given my lifestyle and normal mode of dress, I could be carrying my handgun and a hundred rounds of ready ammo at any time I carry a pocketknife (which is most of the time) and had I been doing so there is essentially no chance I would have been discovered doing so.
Of course, I don’t do any such thing. For one thing, that much ammo is HEAVY. I could get by with probably 2 extra magazines. But, more seriously, I don’t carry because it is against the law, and I don’t have a pressing need to.
I have been carrying for about eight years now, and the only time I’ve ever had to present my license is because I was legally required to tell the officer I was armed (TX requirement). If I had been carrying illegally for eight years, without a license, I would have been able to get away with it. Given that reality, who do the Brady folks think is being deterred by these laws? Certainly not criminals. Definitely not terrorists. If one has a gun, the law can only amount to punishment after the fact, and since most of the unlawful things you can do with a gun carry hefty jail sentences, it seems rather redundant. Unless your goal is to punish the otherwise law abiding for not following the rules, or to frustrate the exercise of the right.
The Brady goal has nothing to do with crime or terrorism. Their goal is to frustrate the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right to the extent that they can get away with it. Nothing convinces me more of that than the fact that they pushed a 24 notice requirement on Amtrak.