Guns – Page 670 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Missing Important Facts, Even When They Take Our Side

When an Oregon paper editorializes that Obama’s pro-gun moves have been sensible, it really has to chap hides over at the Brady Campaign. That’s partially because the paper otherwise supports the anti-gun agenda and is willing to give a pass on some issues, but also because even when they take our side, the facts are wrong. It’s rather funny, actually.

The anti-Second Amendment group last week criticized Obama for â€œcontinuing concessions to the â€˜guns anywhereâ€™ mentality of the gun lobby.â€
…
The restriction in national parks was unenforceable, and lifting it has caused no harm as far as has been reported.

Likewise, the Amtrak ban on transporting guns in checked baggage was nonsensical on its face, considering that the only people it affected were legitimate hunters and competitive shooters traveling to marksmanship matches. It forced these people to transport their equipment on the highways instead of taking the train. Criminals, on the other hand, if any were taking Amtrak trains, could carry their handguns concealed as they got on the train.

By signing acts of Congress that got rid of these restrictions, Obama did the sensible thing.

So now they’ve been called out on their Chicken Little response to everything we support by a sympathetic group, and that can’t be fun. But the knife has got to hurt a little more since the support for the national park carry is justified by the fact that it hasn’t caused any notable problems. While I doubt it ever will cause problems when it actually takes effect, I’m sure that Peter Hamm is writing a swift response to claim the end of civilization in and around national parks won’t happen until next month. Just wait, that sky will fall soon!

Maybe now the Brady staffers will get a very small dose of what it’s like when the media grandstands on the issue without actually knowing what the hell they are talking about. We’ve been dealing with the problem for years.

Still Aiming for a State Rifle

It would seem that Sen. Pat Browne is still hoping to get the Pennsylvania Long Rifle designated as the official state firearm. It’s not clear on how this is an update on the bill which was actually dropped last year.

Tough Night for the Brady Campaign

The President’s State of the Union address would have been a prime opportunity for Obama to speak about gun control. The police officer who stopped the Fort Hood shooting was among the audience, but was never acknowledged (none of his guests were, actually, which is kind of shocking). You have all the props there to make a good argument for the Brady Position. Not a peep. Nothing. That has to hurt, especially after they tried to embarrass him by making a media sensation out of giving him a failing grade.

Injecting Race

Josh Sugarmann notes that Pennsylvania is number one in Black Homicide victimization. His solution, naturally, is to “put a focus on reducing access to firearms.” I don’t see any reason to inject race into the equation, other than it makes his numbers work out for states that he wants to put pressure on. Any murder is a problem for society, and the solution to fixing the problem of murder is the same no matter what the race, color or creed of the murderer or victim — locking the criminals up, and making sure they serve real time. Studies have shown that among alleged murderers in Philadelphia, nine out of ten have had prior criminal records, with half being charged with either violent offenses or weapons offenses. Josh’s response is to turn society into a low level prison, where the innocent and guilty are likewise punished.

From When Collective Rights Ruled

Dave Hardy found a copy of an old law review he wrote the year I was born on the topic of gun rights. Back then it looks like no law review would take it, so it was published by a magazine publisher known as Neal Knox. The rest, shall we say, is history.

UPDATE: More from Dave here.

A Tired Internet Meme, but Still Funny

Hitler finds out how much the new Bushmaster ACR will cost:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0Pu-rvFjs[/youtube]

Washingtonians Show Up

Looks like Washingtonians showed up in large numbers to oppose the proposed “assault weapons” ban in their state. This is over a bill that didn’t have much of a chance of getting out of committee. When are the anti-gun people going to face the fact that this issue is not a winning one for them? Back in 2004, the Bradys promised we’d see a half dozen or so states pass their own ban if the federal ban were allowed to expire. They’ve passed exactly zero. In a decade, there has been absolutely no traction on this issue anywhere — even if their safe states. It’s time to admit defeat and move on.

All Quiet on the Western Front

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but there’s not a whole lot going on in the gun rights world right now. We don’t really have any major legislation advancing, either pro-or-anti, at least in my areas of focus. The media is too busy talking about other things to editorialize on guns, and I think the Brady folks might be busy polishing up their resumes, after the Obama failing grade story got, as best I can tell, fairly minimal press coverage, and not a peep from the White house. I’ve heard nary a peep out of Brady, despite a few opportunities for them to push their issue. On the pro side, Congress is tied up on other issues, we’re all waiting for the next big things to happen in the McDonald case, and other than that, not much else.

I should be pretty happy it’s quiet, considering I’m busy as hell with work and putting in 70 hour weeks in an attempt to take our company in a new direction, and hopefully give it a new lease on life. But it’s deeply unsatisfying to know that blog quality suffers through lack of things to talk about. Generally speaking, the way I blog is to take stories I get through Google alerts, tips, or through reading other blogs, and aggregate them in open tabs in a browser. I keep them sorted according to how interesting they are. When I have time, bang out a bunch of posts, either published immediately or timed for publishing, depending on the time sensitivity. Often times my second or third tier material is stale by the time I get around to it. Lately, I’ve been going through even those, and still not much else out there. So it’s a good time, if you have anything that might be interesting, to send it along.

Another Schuylkyll River Trail Shooting?

Via MikeB, I hadn’t heard about this one. Apparently a guy took a shot at a dog who was charging him. Interestingly enough that he was following good advice:

Bennett said after he crossed the bridge over Markley Street on the way to the Norristown Transportation Center, he spotted a dog running free that was growling in a threatening manner and headed in his direction. Fearing he would be attacked, he fired at the animal with a Glock brand handgun.

Shooting at a dog or other animals threatening to attack a domestic pet or person is legal in Pennsylvania; however, as a precaution, Brooke took the manâ€™s gun and pepper spray he was carrying.

The guy had his gun and spray returned to him. Pepper spray can be useful in these kinds of situations, but charging, angry dog probably isn’t one of them, if your goal is not to get bitten. Given where he was on the trail, I would be concerned the dog was either feral or dangerous myself. I think he made the right call, and obviously the police didn’t have a problem with it. If he had been bitten, you’d want a corpse they can test for rabies. Absent a corpse you go through a series of costly injections as a prophylactic measure. The only problem is that it’s very hard to hit a charging dog, as this guy found out, and unlike humans, an angry dog doesn’t know he’s supposed to stop when he gets shot. I’ve heard of stories of dogs taking multiple hits and still attacking.

It’s not surprising that people carry on the trail. I carried on the trail myself when I used to bike there. The Norristown through Conshohocken leg isn’t the best of neighborhoods, and attacks have happened. I notice also that they didn’t cite this guy for violating the county rule against weapons on the trail. Maybe they got the message that’s not enforceable.

Another Opportunity for Reasoned Discourse

Looks like Heeding God’s Call is getting their new media game on with a shiny new Facebook page, where for now people can comment freely. If arguing the religious and philosophical basis for self-defense isn’t your thing, CeaseFire PA also has a Facebook group, and it’s all “Lost and Stolen” all the time over there. Well, assuming there was any discussion, which so far it doesn’t appear that there is.

I don’t expect these to be open discussion forums for long. Our experience with gun control new media projects is that when they are overwhelmed by pro-gun arguments, they quickly decide that stifling the opposition viewpoint is really the best means to their ends.