Guns – Page 769 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Chris Christie, NRA Shill?

If only it were actually true.Â New Jersey is a tough state.Â Christie is not going to be able to be overtly pro-gun in his rhetoric, and still come out in the race.Â It’s one of the few states I know of where politicians smear their opponents as being pro-gun, and it actually works.Â Christie will be an improvement over Corzine, and will at least block New Jersey’s laws from getting any worse.Â Don’t expect him to lead the charge on concealed carry, or repealing New Jersey’s assault weapons ban, but being able to stop bad legislation is an advantage, and is step one in turning things around.

New Jersey has been on this path in 1966, when it passed most of its onerous gun laws.Â It’s going to be tough to get things turned around, and it’s going to take a long time.Â But I admire the folks who stay there, and don’t give up.Â It prevents the anti-gun folks from moving on to other states.

On National Concealed Carry

I’m not of the opinion that National Concealed Carry is constitutional under the guise of the commerce clause (possibly something could be done under the 14th Amendment), but I have to agree with Joe’s reasoning:

Although IÂ agree with Linoge on a philosophical basis I also am of the opinion that once our enemies violated that principle (Hughes Amendment, Lautenberg Amendment, etc.) it would be unethical for us to defend our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms on an unequal playing field. We are only playing by their rules. So when they start whining just tell them something like, “Karma is a bitch ain’t it?”

I’ve heard others express similar sentiment.Â I also consider that if such language would kill the hate crime bill, it might be worth a try.Â Once the government starts creating hate crimes, they aren’t too far away from creating thought crimes.Â In fact, hate crimes are thought crimes, so strike that.

Obama’s War on Knives

U.S. Customs has denied a request by the American Knife and Tool Instutute for an extension of proposed customs regulations that would treat folding knives as switchblades.Â It seems they are intent to ram through this new regulation.

Clean Shoot

Looks like the South Carolina man who shot an armed robber at an AA meeting won’t be facing charges.

We Knew It Would Happen

They are already using the shooting at the Holocaust Museum as a political tool to try to beat down the amendment on the D.C. Voting Rights bill:

â€œCongress needs no more evidence than todayâ€™s tragedy, which occurred blocks from the White House, for the justification of the Districtâ€™s strict gun laws, which protect the President, Members of Congress, D.C, residents, and millions of tourists who travel to Washington, DC each year to visit monuments and other sites like the Holocaust Museum,â€ said D.C. Councilman Phil Mendelson in a statement.

The gunman in the Holocaust Memorial shooting was a prohibited person.Â It was illegal for him to possess a firearm anywhere.Â Gun control laws don’t protect anybody, and if this is a case for anything, it’s the ineffectiveness of D.C.’s existing laws.

Ladd Everitt Has Lost His Mind

CSGV issues a press release blaming the holocaust shooting in Heller:

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has repeatedly warned of the ascendancy of the insurrectionist idea, which was recently embraced by the Supreme Court in the case of District of Columbia v. Heller. We believe that this yearâ€™s string of shootings is not a series of random occurrences but part of a new, loosely-knit political movement characterized by the slogan â€œthe guys with the guns make the rules.â€ This is an incredibly dangerous idea that has real consequences for our democracy and society.

I’m in awe of the audacity of this.Â Heller, which let people jump through tons of hoops in order to register handguns, and had nothing to do with rifles, is responsible for a man illegally bringing a gun into DC, illegally carrying into a federal facility, within a National Park, no less.Â And somehow Heller and gun rights people are responsible.Â And they wonder why no one takes them seriously anymore.Â This is more not being able to talk to real people.

Reasoned Discourse Strikes Again

Over at Joe Huffman’s.

Pennsylvania to Have State Gun?

Apparently so:

Sen. Pat Browne, R-16, Allentown, has sponsored a bill designating the Pennsylvania Rifle as the official firearm of the state. Every time you think lawmakers have drawn the well dry on these designations, a new one comes along.

How many states have an official state gun?

Lancaster Passing Lost and Stolen

Lancaster adds itself to list to become the eighth municipality violating statewide preemption.Â I have to hand it to Joe Grace, his campaign might not result in Harrisburg passing the legislation he wants, but I wouldn’t call it ineffective.Â The trick for our side, is going to be ripeness and standing, in that we might have to find someone who’s actually charged under one of these ordinances.Â We’ll want it to be a clean case; someone who is charged that will be sympathetic to the courts.Â We’re not going to want someone charged who’s got, say, a long string of drug convictions, or is otherwise unscrupulous.

Blogs in the Shooting Wire

Looks like blogs got a mention in the shooting wire, in an article about Cerberus in the gun industry:

That aversion was one that led gun bloggers, some of the new power-brokers in the gun world, to run an anti-campaign against a senior Cerberus member’s campaign for a position on the NRA board. After he failed to get elected, one blogger laughingly told me “maybe now they’ll realize if you don’t talk to us, we don’t have any use for you.”

I wouldn’t say we ran an anti-campaign against Kollitides, but we definitely aired concerns, and asked questions.Â I agree with Jim that he needs to talk to people if he wants the grass roots support.Â I’d be reluctant to suggest blogs are serious power brokers, but we definitely reach an audience, and in that sense can be a useful way for organizations and people to communicate with opinion leaders in the issue.Â If George Kollitides ever wants to avail himself of that, he knows where to find us.Â I think you’d find from talking to some of our other board candidates that we’ll be fair, and respectful of personal circumstances.

The goal in issuing endorsements isn’t really to broker power, so much as to make the board election process more transparent and available to members.Â I think this is good for members, and good for NRA, as a whole.Â Members benefit from the extra information, and NRA benefits from having a way to communicate with its membership in a more casual manner.Â It helps both parties establish more credibility and trust with each other.