The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
The Democrats new choice to take the Pennsylvania chair has an interesting name, that is hopefully prognostic, given the openly gun control supporting folks running on the Dem ticket in the state wide races this year. But we’re happy the MAIG mayor lost her bid for the position.
We have no idea where Jim Burn stands on the Second Amendment, but we’re hopeful being from Allegheny County, he does not follow the current trend of going against us.
Sebastian noted that our Democratic nominee for governor is blaming the Republican candidate for a non-loophole that he declares to independently be a loophole – reciprocity. Unfortunately, he kind of got some big freakin’ facts wrong – but as any internet commentator knows, that won’t stop a blowhard from beating his chest indignantly.
First, there’s the fact that Onorato is specifically blaming Corbett for the Florida reciprocity agreement. Which is funny because the Florida reciprocity agreement was signed in 2001 – before Corbett took office in 2005.
Second, there’s the fact that under the law, the Attorney General actually has an affirmative duty to sign the agreements. So it doesn’t matter who is in the Attorney General’s office, they are supposed to seek out reciprocity opportunities with other states. The laws for issuance of the other states are all at least as strict as ours – and Florida actually has more requirements to obtain a license than Pennsylvania. So if they can do away with the Florida agreement, the anti-gun folks will just pick another state to target. And it won’t be long before all of our concealed carry agreements are gone.
Onorato is blaming Tom Corbett for the so-called “Florida Loophole,” showing that the candidate for Governor in 2010 is not shy about sending his gun control views up the flag pole. This is in contrast to Governor Ed, who conveniently dropped the issue like a hot potato during his 2002 and 2006 runs.
I’m convinced that Governor Ed has convinced fellow Dems that the NRA can’t touch them. His evidence? His two terms, and Barack Obama’s ten point win in this state. Except Ed ran against two lackluster candidates, and so did Barry. Corbett isn’t a weak candidate. He’s a hard campaigner and a good fundraiser.
It’s absolutely important we send Dan Onorato packing this fall, or it’s going to be over for us in Pennsylvania. Democrats will say the NRA can’t hurt them, only then they will be right.
Cam Edwards on his show tonight reads a response from Brad Smith from the Center for Competitive Politics, the group Cam mentioned on Tuesday as being the premier group for fighting this kind of campaign finance nonsense. They are the one that coined the term “Shotgun Sellout.” Well, Jim Geraghty of National Review picked up on this story too, which got Brad’s attention, so Cam reads his response here, which is considerably more conciliatory:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmc1kY9dcHo[/youtube]
I have also lent some monetary support to the Center for Competitive Politics, because I really appreciate Brad’s response and honesty here. My comment to them?
I am disgusted by DISCLOSE. I do support NRA’s position on this bill as an NRA member, concerned about the Second Amendment, but I am hoping you folks will do some good work bringing in the First Amendment support. Campaign Finance reform is an abomination for First Amendment rights. I look to the NRA to defend the Second. I will look toward you to defend the First. Thank You.
I will be honest. I did not know about CCP except through Cam’s show. Now that I know about them, I will support them. Fighting Campaign Finance laws is difficult work. The people pushing incumbent protectionism in the name of clean politics have the rhetoric on their side. It is an uphill battle. I wish CCP all the luck in the world in this fight. It’s a difficult one, but it is of supreme importance.
In Pennsylvania, we defeated one official MAIG mayor in his Democratic primary. And yes, guns were an issue. He took major hits and lost votes when NRA endorsed his opponent and highlighted his anti-gun group membership. (I know because I talked to some of those Democrats while working a gun show not too far from the district a couple of weeks ago.)
Unfortunately, we’ve still got at least one more on the ballot for November to defeat. And yesterday we learned that a Bloomberg fangirl of a mayor may end up leading the entire Democratic Party.
As we noted yesterday, Pennsylvania Democrats meet in Camp Hill tonight to kick off two days of meetings that will culminate in the election of a new chairperson — possibly York Mayor Kim Bracey — on Saturday morning.
York has produced a few vehemently anti-gun politicians, and Kim Bracey is apparently one of them since she joined forces with the Mayors Against Guns coalition.
The fact is that MAIG is a serious threat to gun rights. The microstamping law they were pushing in New York recently was so outrageous that it was a defacto ban on semi-automatic handguns. That’s in no way a mainstream viewpoint, and we need to get those politicians out of all offices.
It remains to be seen how she would wield her influence over any pro-gun Democrats who want to run for office. But if you’re a Pennsylvania Democrat, I’d be raising a bit of hell over this with your county party leaders.
The bill is obviously not dead, but it’s in seriously jeopardy at this time:
Democratic leadership aides said the vote would be rescheduled until next week, but it is still unclear whether Pelosi and Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the author of the bill, will have enough votes to move forward then.
I would say Countertop is now very close to being right. The Blue Dogs and Congressional Black Caucus were no votes, the Blue Dogs because of business interests lining up against DISCLOSE, and the CBC because of the NRA exemption.
I don’t think NRA’s plan was to derail this bill all along by seeking to be exempt. The reaction of other groups isn’t something they could have anticipated. But it’s worth noting that if NRA had sat idly by, this would have passed, because no one was paying attention to it, or understood how bad it was. It was NRA’s threatened opposition to the bill that made Pelosi carve out an exemption, so she could keep her Blue Dogs on board. It’s also worth noting if NRA had just opposed DISCLOSE, we also would have likely been saddled with it, because the CBC would have been on board. As Politico says, “Pelosi and Van Hollen could not afford to lose large numbers of votes from the Blue Dogs and the CBC.” She probably could have lost most of the Blue Dogs and still passed this. But not the Blue Dogs and CBC, with CBC representing 43 members.
Pelosi didn’t pull it out of the kindness of her heart. She pulled it because she does not have the votes to pass it. It’s hard to see how she’s going to get those votes without carving a wider exemption, which will cost her votes among those pushing Campaign Finance. It’s hard to see how Pelosi is going to put this one back together at this point, but I wouldn’t count her out. Health Care seemed dead more than a few times. The question will be will Pelosi want to spend the political capitol shoving this bill down our throats like she did with HCR? We’ll see.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu recently stated that Mexican drug cartels now control parts of Arizona . It won’t be much longer until they control the Phoenix Metro area, unless our politicians get it in gear and start reclaiming the land that they have already surrendered to drug and human smugglers.
This is a foreign concept for this Pennsylvanian, since the only international border we have in our state is a small maritime border with Canada. This problem isn’t new in our country’s history. Dave Hardy a few weeks ago noted some of Auto Ordinances early marketing touting the Thompson submachine gun as great for defending against border raiders. But we have to face these problems with the same resolve now as we did back then. It’s a shame we can’t reanimate John J. Pershing. We’d get this mess cleared up in no time.
I would say if the Mexican Cartels are seriously controlling parts of Arizona, it’s time for Brewer to mobilize the National Guard and take them back. That’s a situation that can’t be allowed to stand.
They aren’t happy Lentz’s reciprocity weakening bill is being held up:
When it comes to firearms, some people refuse to face facts.
Blindly invoking the Second Amendment, written almost 235 years ago when militias were needed to defend a fledgling nation, they decry any effort to stem the flow of guns to the general public.
Even spurning attempts at compromise, they grouse at any hint of gun control.
How would the Delco Times feel if we said the First Amendment’s right to freedom of the press was antiquated, written almost 235 years ago when we needed a formal press establishment? It seems if it’s there, we ought to respect it, and last I checked the Times didn’t need a license from the state before it had permission to exercise its right. The editorial that follows is completely one sided. I know it’s an editorial, but they sought out quotes from proponents,and their quote from someone on our side was a throw away, meaningless one liner. There was no attempt to convey our concerns about the abuses of Philadelphia’s discretion in issuing and revoking Licenses to Carry. You want to agree that it’s still a smart measure, fine, but don’t give our opponents views credence without listening to us. This is why the dead tree media is going down the toilet.
Joe Huffman thinks this deal could end up being the long shot that kills the whole campaign finance monstrosity. Countertop thinks that’s exactly what’s going to happen, and notes that this controversy is forcing the media and our opponents to highlight the fact that NRA has a million members and receives little corporate funding. Kind of blows a hole in VPC and Brady’s “gun lobby” claims, doesn’t it? Van Hollen is having to do some work to keep allies in line. The backlash from left groups appears to be starting. Certainly none of these things are good for the bill, but I’m not sure the Democratic leadership won’t shove it down everyone’s throats anyway.
If the attention this deal is getting does kill the bill, I think it would be giving NRA too much credit to say they planned it that way, but nor do I think anyone at headquarters will shed a tear. No one likes this bill. It’s the Democrats who want it.
I see the Brady Campaign is jumping on the narrative that the Supreme Court, by refusing to take an appeal, based entirely on the standing issue, rather than the merits, has upheld Philadelphia’s Lost and Stolen ordinance. I have to admit that their ability to shape public opinion and perception through the use of these kinds of distortions in the media is second to none among advocacy groups.
I can promise you the MAIG/Brady lackey in Pennsylvania, Max Nachemann, will only be too happy to bring this narrative to every Borough, City and Township counsel when gun owners try to say the ordinances he’s pushing are illegal under Pennsylvania’s preemption law. A pity none of it will actually be true. The hope is that no one will bother to look hard enough. Sadly, often they don’t.