At least one Reuters Columnist is setting this up as a clash of the Titans.
Category: Guns
MSNBC Busted
Look how MSNBC snow jobs the guy who showed up with the gun, and try to make it a race issue against Obama. This is really really sleazy journalism:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scE-VrpnU9M[/youtube]
I think Tam said it best in regards to this video:
Listen, you broadcast dinosaurs: You don’t control the horizontal or the vertical anymore, got it? We can adjust our sets any time we want to. We have our own cameras these days. The whole world is watching now.
Dave Kopel on the Armed Protests
Patrik Jonsson of the Christian Science Monitor (remember him?) has written an article on the armed protester phenomena where he quotes Dave Kopel:
“This is really a form of expressive speech, and I think the fact that the Secret Service … hasn’t gotten particularly upset shows good judgement on their part,” he says.
Still, the man didn’t necessarily do the Second Amendment cause any favors, Kopel says.
“While I think it’s really paranoid for some of the media to falsely characterize this as people trying to threaten the president, I think it shows bad judgement to carry [guns] near a presidential speech,” he says. Protesters are “trying to make a statement about Second Amendment rights, but they’re doing it in a way that probably sets back that cause.”
I agree on it being a form of expressive speech, and on the latter part. I support people’s legal right to open carry, but if open carry folks want people to get used to the sight of guns, and think “no big deal” then you have to act in a manner that makes it no big deal. Last I checked, it was a big deal to end up on national television.
This is What Happens with Licensing
Kiwi gun owners are up in arms over changes to the licensing rules for semi-automatic rifles.
Many gun owners are angry at the changes, with some taking official steps to try to stop them. One has applied for a judicial review of the police decision, while a group has complained to the Independent Police Conduct Authority.
Compared to most of the world, New Zealand has traditionally had relatively sane gun laws, which is a bit like saying compared to Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia wasn’t such a bad place. The problem for the Kiwis is they acquiesced to licensing. We have avoided that in this country, even though for a lot of things licensing could make life easier. But it’s a road to disaster. It’s bad enough we have a licensing system to carry concealed, that creates a patchwork of different regulations from state-t0-state on where and whether you can carry. We can’t really ever acquiesce to licensing for purchase or possession, unless we want to end up like the Kiwis, or, you know, New Jersey.
UPDATE: Looking at the Kiwi laws on the matter, it would seem the change is that you need a C (Collector) or (E) (Shooter) endorsement on you’re license. Seems if you have a C endorsement, you aren’t allowed to fire the gun without an E endorsement. With the exception of the B (Pistol) endorsement, which is common, the other two never applied to anything other than machine guns, so police in New Zealand often won’t issue C and E endorsements at all. The Kiwi law is also very strict in it’s definition, and would include M1 Garands and the Marlin Model 60.
This would be roughly analagous to having a much stricter assault weapons ban here, where they were made to follow the same NFA rules that would apply to a machine gun. A shame for the Kiwis.
Summary of the Bloomberg Posts
I feel bad that Bitter’s lengthy and thorough work at researching a strategy that could be used to cut Mayor Bloomberg’s MAIG group down to size kind of got lost in the open carry hubbub from yesterday. For those that might have missed it, a summary can be found at the other site we run for EVC activities, pagunrights.com
For those who’d like to see the whole thing, you can start following at this post here, and follow the links at the bottom. Bitter has spent a lot of time on this, and on helping keeping the blog going in general when I’ve been too busy to do research, to look things up, or to go searching for news stories. She’s my behind the scenes correspondent most of the times, even when she’s not posting herself.
New Line of Work?
Dave Hardy thinks it’s time for the Brady folks to start polishing up their resumes because of the White House endorsing the right of Americans to protest while armed.  Obama would probably prefer the issue to go away. That’s not good news for anti-gun groups, who by now have to be feeling pretty down that Obama is doing everything he can to not end up in a fight with gun owners.
We’re the Criminals?
UPDATE: Looks like it was some folks on her campaign that were indicted.
Norton Begging DHS and SS to Ban Guns Near Obama
Elanor Holmes Norton is asking — well, I don’t really know what she’s asking — I don’t know if she knows what she’s asking either. But to try to make sense of it, she seems to be asking that the Secret Service expand its zone of protection around Obama to keep these nasty gun toters away.
I’m not sure why she thinks this makes sense, given that the toters were never anywhere near Obama to begin with. Even if they move them a mile away, the media is still going to report they carried guns to an Obama event. Pretty soon he’ll be visiting Phoenix, and some dude open carrying in Tuscon is going to get interviewed for why he was carrying a gun at an Obama rally.
Setting Political Sights on Bloomberg’s Anti-Gun Mayors, Part V
The biggest issue for most Pennsylvanians looking to call for their mayors to leave Bloomberg’s coalition will be convincing them that Mayor Mikey is a political liability. If the mayor is a true believer, you might as well stop and either concentrate on booting them out via the ballot box or find another election to get involved with in advance of next year’s battles.
However, one thing you’ll rarely find in politics is a true believer. That doesn’t mean hope is lost. There are arguments to be made that Bloomberg brings baggage.
- Make the mayor aware that Bloomberg signed his/her name to an ad that was run in both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Philadelphia Inquirer opposing a bipartisan federal concealed carry amendment that carried 58 votes in the Senate. Ask if the mayor approved the ad and gave permission for their name to be attached. Also ask the mayor if he/she gave approval for the USA Today ad that says law-abiding concealed carry permit holders “threaten the safety of our police officers.” The ad also says that allowing such permit holders the cross state borders will “undoubtedly result in the deaths of more innocent Americans.”
- If challenged, politely point out that his/her name is specifically included on ads. Perhaps offer to fax a copy of the ads or email a copy to the mayor. Highlight or circle the name for good measure.
- In fact, you might want to ask if any local tax dollars contributed toward paying for the ads. You might also ask if any tax dollars or city services are contributed toward the other programs Bloomberg is running within the coalition. Ask if local money has funded any trips to meet with him or federal officials in regards to Second Amendment issues. With more than half a million of us, it’s a reasonable question to which other gun owners in the town would love to know the answer.
- Also inquire about the letters sent to Congress on concealed carry and other federal issues. If they mayor doesn’t know what you’re talking about, point out that all of the coalition mayors signed a letter to Speaker Pelosi condemning concealed carry across the country. Ask why he/she personally believes that the existence of your concealed carry permit makes you a gun trafficker, as the letter implies. Find out if your mayor endorses the position of revoking Constitutional rights without due process via the terror watch list. Take your favorite quotes and ask if he/she endorses them. Ask about current activities the mayor is involved in at the federal level, and if he/she plans to keep the town’s residents informed of these activities. If they don’t support these actions, suggest that rather than having the Mayor of NYC attribute these statements, they might consider leaving the organization.
- Politely let the mayor know that a decision to leave is not one that will hurt him/her. First, gun control supporters don’t vote on that issue, but gun owners do. Second, they will join a list of mayors, include recent dropouts from Ohio and Texas (Houston, no less!). Previous Pennsylvania mayors have also dropped out, arguing that the coalition was not as presented, “I have learned that the coalition may be working on issues which conflict with legal gun ownership, and that some actions on your behalf are dubious.” Even New Jersey mayors have removed themselves after find out what Bloomberg was doing in their name, “Regrettably, it has become abundantly clear to me that you are using this coalition of mayors to advance a hidden agenda of bringing lawsuits against members of the firearms industry and spreading anti-gun propaganda.”
If the mayor doesn’t make any promises, have family members or shooting buddies call in the next few days. Spread the word around the local range. Start with phone calls and/or emails asking pointed (and polite!) questions about their involvement. Do it as a concerned citizen and a citizen journalist.
The next step before the ballot box might be letters to the editor, particularly if you have a town newspaper. The smaller, the better in many cases. The small papers eat stuff like this up! A letter to the editor may inspire questions from the paper. A little local controversy is always good for readership. (One angle would be to press the tax dollar/time contributed line of questions first. In this economy, there’s no room for wasting time or money on these issues at the local level of government.)
Remember, the goal is to reduce Bloomberg’s sphere of influence. If the mayor is willing to leave the group, say thank you! Ask for verification, or if they might be willing to share the notification letter with you so you can pass it along to other gun owners. Be willing to accept that some people really didn’t understand what they were signing on to with this group. While it can legitimately be argued they should have done their homework, there’s more peer pressure in Pennsylvania than anywhere else in the country. Let’s make sure they remember that constituents are more important than government peers.
If you choose to take this on, please let me know. I’d love to keep tabs on the mayors who are being questioned by their constituents. In addition, whatever the result, I invite you to guest post your experience here. Share with the pro-gun world what worked and what did not work. Let us celebrate in your success or start helping you build a network of support if the mayor refuses.
I’ll Take the Hysteria, With a Side of Over the Top
There’s even an organization whose raison d’etre is promotion of open carry (see http://opencarry.org/). These are the shock troops of the gun lobby. And, they are not going away. We’re going to see more of them and we’ll be seeing increasing incidents of open carry, not just at big events for publicity, but at grocery stores, at concerts, on the street, in places of worship.
Shock troops? Hyperbole much?
The most important point, though, is that such open carrying of guns is a logical step in the gun lobby’s campaign to arm everyone everywhere. For, an armed society is one that will make the gun lobby’s patrons in the gun industry rich.
What color is the sky in Bryan’s world? I mean, this is a controversial issue even among gun people. A visit to any gun forum will reveal endless back and forth about open carry. But hey, why tell the truth when you can paint all this as a result of highly orchestrated shock troops marching to the beat of the fat men in the cigar filled room who are really calling all the shots.  What I wonder is whether Bryan actually believes this, or just believes this kind of rhetoric works.
If it’s the former, the fact that the gun control movement doesn’t have real grass roots could not be more apparent. If they did, they would also have these kinds of internal squabbles. As much as I might worry that some people are taking things too far, I’d rather have that problem than to have control over the message because no one really gives a shit about my issue. Hell, even the White House doesn’t want to touch this. That’s got to hurt if you’re Paul Helmke or Bryan Miller.