Go straight for the form letter without even reading what your constituent was talking about.
Category: Politics
McCain on Assault Weapons
John Snow has the video, and commentary.
Open Carry Dinner Gone South
GunTruth has a pretty detailed piece up over at his blog about an open carry dinner in Pennsylvania that got raided by the Dickson City police. This kind of thing happened in Virginia too when VCDL started doing this. I don’t open carry much at all, but it is a legal practice in Pennsylvania, without a license in the rest of the state, and with a license in the City of Philadelphia. I have met the guy who was arrested in this, and while he is someone who will stand up for his rights and the law, he’s definitely not brash, abrasive, or rude.
It’s a fact of open carrying that sometimes people will freak out and call the cops, especially in the parts of Pennsylvania that are absorbing a lot of residents from New Jersey and New York, where the practice is illegal. I think 911 call centers and police departments need to be trained on the fact that the practice is legal, and how to deal with that kind of situation. VCDL has done a pretty good job of getting that done in Virginia, and I think we will in Pennsylvania too.
UPDATE: I should inform everyone that you’ll see a lot of talk of registration in this thread. Pennsylvania currently has a defacto registry, as the PA State Police has been computerizing records of sale and putting them into a big database. The legislature made creating a registry illegal in 1996, but the State Supreme Court ruled that because the database was not comprehensive, it was not a registry. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen cases where the registry is being treated as a registry of all firearms. We need to make getting rid of this “registry” our number one priority in Pennsylvania once we’re rid of Fast Eddie.
The Obama Rally
The media made a big deal that Obama drew 72,000 people to hear him speak. Well, the NRA draws nearly that much every year to their Annual Meeting. But apparently there was a concert by a popular band right beforehand. Of course, NRA had John Michael Montgomery scheduled to headline the opening celebration, but I heard he checked himself into rehab a few days before being scheduled to go on, and canceled.
Joyce Getting Behind Gun Control in Pennsylvania
Joyce has made a $350,000 grant to CeaseFire Pennsylvania:
The Chicago-based Joyce Foundation is granting the organization the money over two years to aid its bid to build a statewide, grass-roots response to gun violence, CeaseFirePA’s executive director Joe Grace said.
That’s big money aimed square at gun owners in Pennsylvania, and Joe Grace has demonstrated that he’s a capable and effective leader of CeaseFire PA. This isn’t going to stop, and we need to have our A game on.
Jill Porter on The Rule of Law
Tyrant
Harsh words from C. Scott Shields for Mayor Nutter:
NRA attorney C. Scott Shields later accused Nutter of being a “tyrant” willing to cast gun-shops owners in a false light. “To suggest that they’re engaging in unlawful trafficking of handguns is outrageous,” Shields said.
The city ultimately hopes to take this fight to a higher court to provoke reconsideration of a 1996 state Supreme Court ruling that killed the city’s last attempt at gun-control laws.
City Solicitor Shelley Smith yesterday said that she’d be ready with an appeal in a week to 10 days if Greenspan rules against the city.
Earlier in the article
Nutter said that “you don’t have to be a rocket scientist” to know some legally purchased guns are later resold to people who are prohibited from owning them.
So Nutter thinks having lost in the state legislature, he can just decree Colosimo’s and The Firing Line to be criminals? Well, that pretty much fits the definition of tyrant if you ask me, which in ancient Greek meant a ruler who seized power without legal right.
Nutter Targeting Philly Gun Shop
Nutter is dragging Philadelphia gun shops into this now.
“These gun traffickers are not going to stop us from keeping the citizens of Philadelphia safe,” Nutter said in a news conference before an afternoon court hearing on the five laws he signed into law last month. One of them limits gun purchases to one a month in an effort to curb “straw purchases,” in which individuals buy multiple firearms for resale to felons and others forbidden to own guns.
I would be talking to a lawyer right now about a libel suit against the Mayor. Good thing is, the lead attorney appears to hint at the possibility:
C. Scott Shields, who spent the afternoon arguing the case against the laws in a City Hall courtroom, called Nutter’s words “shocking.”
“He may be inviting separate legal action for casting Colosimo’s and the Firing Line in a false light,” Shields said. “To suggest that they’re engaged in illegal trafficking of handguns is outrageous.”
The three ring circus in that city continues. But why isn’t Mayor Nutter talking about this? Why isn’t the media forcing him to address it?
Looking Good for NRA Lawsuit Against Philadelphia
Things are looking good to get a permanent injunction against the city’s five illegal gun control laws:
Greenspan ordered the city and the NRA to condense their positions into writing by this morning, in advance of an afternoon hearing.
The city wanted to offer testimony from 10 witnesses, including Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey and a retired ATF agent, along with 75 exhibits that included two semiautomatic assault rifles. The city planned to use that testimony to argue that there is “no common lawful purpose” for assault weapons.
But NRA attorney C. Scott Shields objected to such a lengthy proceeding.
“What we’re trying to circumvent now is putting on a dog and pony show of having to listen to all the different reasons why the city needs gun control,” Shields said. “They should really be concerned about criminal control.”
The judge seems to have rebuked the city’s request for a dog and pony show of witnesses. I’m guessing the judge didn’t take too kindly to having her courtroom used as a three ring circus for the city politicians. This is really a matter of law, and the City of Philadelphia is on the wrong side of it. I do hope that Judge Greenspan rules the right way on this one.
UPDATE: Just noticed this one, “The hearing drew a small crowd of demonstrators from X-Offenders for Community Empowerment, a group of men who previously served prison terms, some for crimes with guns.”
Felons for gun control! Are you kidding me?
McCain Dissapointment
Sorry for the light posting, but the Annual Meeting has been so busy, I haven’t had time. I wasn’t really all that happy with the McCain speech. I think he could have, well, really should have, hit this one out of the park. McCain has a real problem with the base, and coming to speak to the NRA regulars, the die-hards, and saying you want to shut down private sales, is not a great way to endear yourself to them. That’s not to say I’m not voting for him, because let’s face it, the choice is between getting hit by a bike, or getting hit by a dump truck. I’ll join Kevin Baker’s McCain ’08 Campaign.
We heard Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, speak at the NRA Banquet last night, and let me tell you, that guy is impressive. Frank talk about what happened in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, and the efforts he took in Congress to make sure it never happened again. Why couldn’t we have him instead of McCain? Either way, Jindal probably needs to get an already impressive record in Louisiana further cemented, but if your political reputation can be that you cleaned up Louisiana, there’s no limit to what you can accomplish, including, probably, running for President. If Jindall is what we have to look forward to in the Republican Party, I feel pretty good about the future. Election ’08 is going to be rough, but there is hope for the future.