The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is noting H.B. 40’s lack of movement. It still has to get through the appropriations committee before hitting the House Floor, where it clearly has enough votes to pass. The head of appropriations is Dwight Evans. Given that I’d say it’s probably safe to say it’s not getting a floor vote. This is one area I’ll be partisan with. We have to kick the Democrats out in November if we want to move any pro-gun bills through the Pennsylvania legislature. The cost of Castle Doctrine seems to have been all those anti-gun bills, but also the Lentz bill, which seems to be a high price for a bill that isn’t going to clear appropriations, in all likelihood.
Category: Guns
Article Gun Trafficking in Philadelphia
This article is sure to outrage. Firstly, it gives an account of a criminal gun trafficker, who’s turned his life around you see, but he wants the legal dealers he criminally deceived to pay too:
“I’m supposed to have remorse for what I did. But you wanna tell me these bastards [the gun dealers], they sit back, and they say, ‘Oh well, you know, [Jerome], that was on him whatever he did after that,'” he says, his voice gravelly and angry but still quiet. “If I should feel remorse, these motherfuckers should feel remorse, too. Because I came in there, and they took the money, and they took the money, and they took the money, and they took the money, over and over and over again. And these fuckers are sittin’ in their houses, their nice little house, they go on sellin’ guns, day out and day in, with no consequence. None. None.
So he basically lied to a number of Philadelphia gun dealers about being the true purchaser, and now he wants them to feel sorry with them? Sorry, you’re the criminal asshole. The big question I have is why, if he was doing this in the 90s, is he still not in prison. It’s ten years for every illegal gun they can prove federally. Oh, but we have a former ATF agent too, who complains it’s just too hard to lock up FFLs:
THEYï’RE GETTING AWAY WITH IT: Joseph Vince spent 28 years with ATF, helped compile a database that traces where guns found in crimes came from and authored the 2004 report on Colosimo’s. He says the standard for prosecuting straw sellers is too restrictive: “You have to prove that they willfully did it, that they intentionally wanted to do it, that they absolutely knew what they were doing was wrong. The truth level is so high, it’s higher than any other [crime] I know of.”
Apparently he doesn’t like Mens Rea, a basic concept in our legal system that says for most serious crimes you must have intent to commit the crime. The article is so riddled with inaccuracy and distortion I could write a dissertation on it. In one shot they show pro-gun counter-protesters and claim them to be anti-gun protesters.
California Gun Control Movement Worried
At least one of their leaders isn’t just declaring victory after McDonald. This battle through the courts is going to be a long fight. Sometimes we’ll come out on top, sometimes they will come out on top. It’s unfortunate, but I believe the Courts, generally, will allow for more gun control than most of us would like. Probably more, honestly than is done in the vast majority of jurisdictions.
Downer
Quote of the Day
Joe Huffman is continuing his anti-gun cartoon posting theme over at View from North Central Idaho, and notes:
Alan Gura spoke about this some with us bloggers at the NRA convention this year. He is of the opinion the NRA is an expert at legislation and lobbying but that in our current situation civil rights lawsuits are most effective. This is not to say that we can’t have two or more solutions to the same problem but that we should recognize the the problem can be framed multiple ways and that depending upon the framing we change the solution set. And with those changing solution sets it may be that a different set of experts are needed.
I tend to agree that the two tracts are complimentary. I believe the Heller ruling had a serious and positive affect on your average American’s view of gun ownership. I suspect McDonald will add to that. But I think both sets of expertise are going to be needed moving forward. Reason being that I don’t think the federal courts are willing to carve out as broad a right we’d like them to. There are some places I think they will need, shall we say, persuading. Which is the genesis of this idea. My only hope is that the various people of each expertise can find a way to work together.
Dave Kopel’s Testimony on Kagan
We’re covering it over on PA Gun Rights. Go see the video there if you’re interested in what Dave had to say before the Committee.
Post McDonald Polling
67% say cities have no power to ban handguns, and support for gun control just keeps falling.
McDonald Freaking Out the Medical Establishment
The condescending assholes over at the New England Journal of medicine seem to be trying to convince their profession that the sky won’t fall, and they throw in some condescension toward Mr. McDonald as well:
In all likelihood, [Mr. McDonald] will get his gun. Ironically, that handgun may not be the panacea he seeks. It will not address the root causes of the drug- and gang-related crime plaguing his neighborhood. Its promise of safety may be illusory, and it may just increase the risks of homicide, suicide, and accidental injury and death of those who live in or, like his grandchildren, visit his home. It may also create legal problems. If he kills a neighborhood thug in self-defense, the odds that he will be held blameless are slim: in every year from 2004 through 2008, less than 2.5% of handgun-related killings by private citizens were deemed justifiable homicides.4 McDonald has, how- ever, secured a measure of immortality; he will forever be as- sociated with the case that bears his name.
Can you feel the scornful stare down from the ivory tower? Â So New England Journal of medicine apparently believe one of our nation’s veterans, who was quite competent enough to bear arms in defense of their freedom to look down on him, is apparently incapable or unable to properly secure firearms when children come over. He is also surely going to murder someone and end up in jail! Seriously. That’s what you are saying, Julie D. Canter, MD, JD, who wrote this article. I’m glad she’s not my doctor. I think maybe it’s high time Dr. Canter came down from the ivory tower and started looking at her fellow citizens as equals rather an inferiors. I think that would help her become a better person than she apparently is now.
On the Reid Endorsement
NRA hasn’t yet endorsed Harry Reid, but I would be shocked if they didn’t. Truth be told, they’d be insane if they didn’t. Why? Well, this is probably the best reason, but I also really want to address some of the distortions of Reid’s record mentioned over at Red State, which looks like they could have come directly from Larry Pratt. Pratt is a shameful hack, and it would appear he’s turned Red State into one too, at least on the gun issue. Red State has a long list of transgressions committed by Reid. I don’t have the time or energy to address them all, but I will address the main points.
Harry Reid did, in fact, vote for the Brady Act. This vote was in 1993. Also voting for the Brady Act was Kay Bailey Hutchison, who GOA gives an A grade to. Funny how Republicans get forgiven, isn’t it?
Oh, but he voted for the evil assault weapons ban, Sebastian! Well, he did, but he didn’t. The assault weapons ban was attached to the Crime Bill, which was a must-pass part of a highly popular President’s agenda. See my post on the history of the Assault Weapons Ban. The actual AWB was called the Feinstein Amendment, and Reid voted against that. There were only four Senators who voted against the final Crime Bill. One of the other votes for the final bill? GOA A-Rated Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby. Shelby also joined Reid in voting to eliminate CMP funding. And here too, along with Hutchison again.
But I’m not going to sit here and do this all day for decades old votes. I mean, yeah, he did vote against the Lott Amendment back in 2000, but so did Fred Thompson. He did vote for trigger locks back in 2004, but so did Hutchison. But he also voted against renewing the Assault Weapons Ban on that same bill. Reid also voted against the final version of the bill that was amended with the trigger lock provision, gun show provision, and assault weapons ban.
Also worthwhile to note Harry Reid voted for the PLCAA, which was NRA’s major legislative initiative for the last decade. But I think what stands out the most is Harry Reid’s leadership on the issue in this Senate. Shall we name what we’ve gotten?
- An amendment to allow National Park carry inserted into the Credit Card bill.
- An amendment to fix DC’s gun laws inserted into the Voting Rights Act.
- An amendment to create national reciprocity recognition that even included recognition for states that did not issue licenses, like Vermont. We lost his one, but the vote never would have happened without Harry Reid.
- Funding rider to force Amtrak to allow guns in checked baggage.
- Let’s also not forget all the other funding riders which are important for us, which Reid helped us get.
You can be upset all you want with him on other issues, but Harry Reid is solid on the Second Amendment. We’ve gotten more out of the Senate under Reid than we got out of Republicans in the roughly 14 years they ran things. Reid is not perfect, but there’s no politician that has a voting perfect record, and many that have records on guns comparable to Reid which GOA rates highly. I will leave it to my readers to determine whether Red State and GOA have any credibility at all when it comes to these issues, or whether they are using gun rights as a club to try to beat Democrats they find unsavory on other issues, and beating up on NRA because they know they are going to be supporting a lot of Democrats this fall. I think the answer is clear.
New Chicago Gun Laws Pass
They backed off on a few provisions, but it’s now law. Instead of one gun only, they did one-gun-a-month. No ban on gun shops, but a ban on gun ranges. This is still unacceptable, however.
UPDATE: More information here. Not sure whether all these made it into the final version or not.