The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Pro-Gun Progressive and dcist are reporting that the D.C. Voting Rights bill appears to be dead, and along with it, the D.C. Second Amendment restoration amendment. One unconstitutional law is sacrificed, so another may live. What a great sense of perspective our government has.
UPDATE: Lots of sad pandas. Time to bring the icon out, in honor of Delegate Norton.
Robb takes a look at how we overcame a societal perception that tomatoes are poisonous, and compares it to guns in restaurants. Some people just aren’t drinking the tomato juice, no matter how many times they see someone do it, and not die.
I think the problem, and what this whole gun rights issue really boils down to, is whether you trust ordinary citizens to generally do the right thing, or whether you view them as poor in judgment, and thus in need of structure in order to protect themselves and society from it. If you believe the latter, you believe it’s only a matter of time before someone chokes on a tomato, so maybe people are just better off not eating them. And surely when this inevitably happens, you will be quick to point out “See! Tomatoes kill people.”
What I’ve never been able to understand is why the gun control crowd believes having a badge immunizes a person from the poor judgement they attribute to other ordinary people. Why put so much stock in the badge, but so much less in another token from the state which sends many of the same signals? It must be something deep seeded: ordinary people just can’t be trusted. They know that sure as 18th century Americans knew tomatoes killed people. It’s something I understand, but then again, I’ve always liked tomatoes.
Looks like Joe Huffman got to ask the Mayor of Seattle a question about guns when he visited Microsoft.  No, not that question, but still a good one. Apparently the Mayor is still planning to ban carry in city parks, in violation of state preemption.
Oh, how I can’t wait for the Philadelphia Inquirer to shut down its presses. That will be a glorious day, fit for celebration. But then what will I use to get my blood pressure up, and have something to write about?  Wayne Pacelle has an op-ed in the Inquirer:
Five years ago last week, I took the helm of the Humane Society of the United States, an organization founded in 1954 with the goal of confronting cruelty to animals on a national scale.
If by cruelty, you mean hunting and eating animals, he’d be accurate. They aren’t your local animal shelter, even though they are perfectly aware they capitalize on the confusion.
Similarly out of step with prevailing public sentiment is the National Rifle Association’s opposition to an anti-poaching bill before the state legislature. Introduced by State Rep. Edward Staback (D., Lackawanna, Wayne), the legislation would make it a felony to assault an officer enforcing the wildlife code; increase the state’s penalties for poaching, which are among the weakest in the nation; add jail time for chronic or serial poachers; and require the forfeiture of hunting licenses for poaching violations.
Pacelle is misrepresenting the NRA’s objections. The NRA’s objection is that the proposed law would make a felony out of some minor game code violations. It’s one thing to argue that assaulting a game officer ought to be a felony, but it’s an entirely different matter to argue that taking a deer over your bag limit ought to be treated like robbing a bank. What Wayne won’t tell you is that he believes shooting a deer at all ought to be treated like murder. Pennsylvania’s game laws are not notoriously weak, and are entirely comparable with other states.
One NRA representative reportedly told a group of lawmakers that there should be “an acceptable level of illegal activity.”
Reportedly told, yet you have a direct quote eh?
For instance, it remains legal to shoot dogs in the state – even after the owners of a puppy mill in Ronks shot their 80 breeding dogs last year, rather than comply with an order to give them basic veterinary care.
I guess we’ll have to have a Wayne Pacelle approved remake of Old Yeller. Either way, HSUS make the Brady Campaign look like pikers. Pacelle is slick, very smart, and very good at what he does. Hunters in this state need to be very concerned that he’s targeting Pennsylvania. Shooters need to be concerned, too, because HSUS has called for a comprehensive lead ammunition ban. This is a huge threat to an important American cultural tradition, all wrapped up in the happy-feel good of your local helping the animals shelter.  PETA is a joke. HSUS, which shares the same goals as PETA, is not.
Far from the claims that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act would offer blanket immunity to the gun industry from suit, it once again is shown not to be the case.
Once appeared here a quote from the SLC Tribune, but I removed it because they work with the scum of the earth Righthaven. The dealer being sued was fined because the sale of the shotgun was illegal, so the suit was allowed to proceed.
It’s not the kind of suit that PLCAA was meant to stop, so it can go forward. It was only meant to prevent cities from suing gun manufacturers on completely bogus premises, like they are responsible for all the crime in the city, and are creating a public nuisance.
In Florida, the media seems to have found several female business owners who have decided it’s time to step up and defend themselves.
Lake Worth business owner Mayra Ramirez has been practicing at the Palm Beach Shooting Range in Lake Worth for months.
“I was always against guns but from watching the news and seeing so many things happen, I figured it was time to get one,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez is arming herself because she’s fed up with the crime around her business. A week ago a man was shot just steps away from her storefront.
“At the beginning, firing a gun was terrifying,” she said. “When I first started I couldn’t stop shaking. “But after your first few times, you look forward to coming in.”
A few doors down from Ramierz’s store, coffee house owner Marilin Garcia is also arming herself for the first time.
“You can protect yourself just being alert and in case you see danger, it’s there for you to use,” Garcia said.
It’s always a reason to celebrate when a couple of empowered women decide to learn how to use firearms safely.
Eric Shelton issued a challenge on his last handgun podcast, for a handgun podcast 6%ers. I guess you could call them sixers, but I think our local basketball team might take issue.
Six Percent is almost embarrassingly low. Â It’s actually kind of sad to think that that’s all I feel I can reasonably expect to get involved. Â But the good news for you guys is it dramatically increases your chance to win! Â Post email replies or scanned images of mailed replies from your elected officials here, when you contact them about your Second Amendment freedoms. Â They’re politicians, so I don’t expect them to say anything worthwhile in their letter. Â But knowing that you contacted them enters you to win the Handgun Podcast pistol that will be awarded in Episode 100.
I’ve said that with twenty motivated people, I could change the politics of this whole Congressional district when it comes to guns. It doesn’t really take much. Kudos to Eric for putting up a gun as a prize for getting people more involved.
I’m pulling for Creigh Deeds to come out as the Democratic candidate. Virginia Shooting Sports Association has a very nice guide to the Dem primary (Part 1 and Part 2). He’s the best candidate in the race for gun owners, I think. The Democratic establishment is busy pushing Terry McAuliffe, including my governor. McAuliffe is even running against guns, which seems to me to be a stupid idea in Virginia.
My understanding is Virginia has open primaries, so if you’re a gun rights supporter, I would encourage you to go vote in the Democratic primary for Creigh Deeds tomorrow. Virginia deserves better than another Tim Kaine, and I don’t think we’d go wrong with Deeds.
Doug Pennington of the Brady Campaign says:
Doug Pennington, with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, finds it curious when gun-rights supporters rail against federal gun-control measures, considering how few such measures there are.
“What people don’t realize, at the national level, at least, is that I can count the federal gun laws on the books on one hand. I don’t even need all five fingers to do it,†he says, quickly rattling off the 1934 ban on machine guns, the Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibiting gun sales to felons, and the Brady Law, which requires licensed gun dealers to perform criminal background checks.
Smart rhetoric, since most people don’t know better, but very misleading. Anyone’s who’s ever had to deal with the maze of regulations that is our federal gun laws knows better. It underplays just how significant GCA ’68 really was. Let’s look. The relevant parts of the United States Code, which is Title 18, Part I, Chapter 44. Load that, and keep scrolling. Does that look like a handful? Easy to understand because it’s so trivial? And yet, that is only part of our federal gun law. Let us not forget, also, that the National Firearms Act is to be found in the Internal Revenue Code, Title 26, Chapter 53. Keep scrolling there too.  But wait! We’re not finished. We haven’t looked at the Code of Federal Regulations yet!
And this isn’t even comprehensive, as I’m leaving out the various federal codes and regulations that do things like, regulate firearms on aircraft, or on certain federal lands. Does Doug Pennington still want to argue that he “can count the federal gun laws on the books on one hand?” Could you understand all this without having a lawyer explain it to you?  Even the lawyers get it wrong sometimes.
Hat Tip to Joe Huffman, who takes a similar line of reasoning. I thought it would be useful to see visually exactly how large this body of law is.  Do the gun control people still want to argue guns are less regulated than teddy bears?
It’s a bit more problematic than running with scissors. Fortunately, if safety rules are followed, it’s more an embarrassment than anything else if you trip and fall. That’s probably why IPSC and IDPA are considerably less forgiving of safety violations than other shooting sports.