South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley proved that she is quite comfortable talking guns, business, and the business of guns in a recent video. While it is mostly just a summary of her trip to a gun manufacturer, I do love how she brags about taking time to shoot while in heels. The highlights of her visit show that she is absolutely comfortable handling firearms – certainly far more comfortable with firearms than most of Pennsylvania’s elected representatives.
Category: Politics
Neat Graphic on Pennsylvania History
We found this during genealogical research. It shows the evolution of Pennsylvania counties from the founding of Pennsylvania in 1682 until the present county divisions that has remained in place since 1930. It also shows the claims Virginia, Maryland and Connecticut made over Pennsylvania. The border for Maryland was eventually settled by the Mason-Dixon survey, and settlers often fought low-level wars with settlers from Virginia and Connecticut over their claims. Connecticut claims were strong enough that many Revolutionary War service records for soldiers from what is now Western Pennsylvania are to be found with the State of Connecticut.
Speaking of the Mason-Dixon survey, here’s an interesting fact:
It was not the demarcation line for the legality of slavery, however, since Delaware, a slave state, falls north and east of the boundary. Also lying north and east of the boundary was New Jersey where, in reality, slavery existed, in limited numbers, until 1865. It was not until 1846 that New Jersey abolished slavery, but it qualified it by redefining former slaves as apprentices who were “apprenticed for life” to their masters. Slavery did not truly end in the state until it was ended nationally in 1865 after the American Civil War and passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.
There was technically some measure of slavery in Pennsylvania until 1847, when slavery was completely outlawed. Pennsylvania passed its Gradual Emancipation Act in 1780, which didn’t abolish slavery, but which prohibited further importation of slaves into the commonwealth, and made any children of slaves freeborn. This was actually the model used by most of the northern states, but New Jersey was one of the last states to begin gradual emancipation, only starting in 1804, 24 years after Pennsylvania started the trend. The only state to do immediate emancipation was Massachusetts in 1783, and that was through a court decision. So it’s probably not entirely fair to single out New Jersey in this example.
Update on the Colorado Recalls
Not surprisingly, the decidedly unhappy Democrats who are subject to recall are fighting with everything they’ve got and going to court. The decision will is apparently expected at about 1pm local time today.
As an outsider, you know what I see? I see two incumbents who are continuing to generate headline after headline that voters in their district don’t want them anymore. While they may be delaying the potential recall elections, they are also creating more headlines and stories that opposition in any general election could use against them. Oh, and it’s giving local opposition more time to recruit and vet recall challengers. I see the opportunity for people within their own party to figure that they want this this mess to go away already, so they may be considering whether or not they want to primary the incumbents.
The big challenge for our side will be keeping gun owners fired up and ready act once there’s an election happening. They need to be willing to give to opposition candidates with both their time and money. It’s tough to keep that kind of excitement sustained, but hopefully Colorado can pull it off.
Can Self-Defense Really be “Senselessly Expanded”?
Attorney General Eric Holder believes that we go too far in allowing law-abiding citizens to defend their lives in attacks by criminals:
Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation’s attention, it’s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods. (emphasis added)
Speaking about broader self-defense laws beyond the Zimmerman case, Holder calls putting the duty on the law-abiding citizen to retreat from attackers “common sense.”
Prius-Driving, Pink Shirt-Wearing Candidate for Colorado Governor
It looks like the freshest candidate in Colorado’s gubernatorial race is a big cycling enthusiast who hops in his Prius when he has to drive somewhere and is comfortable showing off in a somewhat slim-fitting pink polo.
Oh, and he’s a pro-gun guy.
As Jim Geraghty notes, another big plus to Brophy is that he’s not Tom Tancredo. I also appreciate his pitch for issues beyond the gun issue:
“Instead of limiting the capacity of ammunition magazines, we will work to increase the capacity of our highways,†Brophy said. “We will increase the number of charter schools and magnet schools.â€
Even if the gun control law is a big reason why he’s running for governor, it’s good that he has a message of positive changes he wants to make, too.
Shooting-Related Craftiness
I recently found a vintage Friends of NRA committee member pin on Etsy for a steal, and I’d like to clean it up and do something cute with it. For this year, I’ll stick to just wearing it as-is. I’d like to do something crafty with it, but I don’t actually know how to make jewelry, nor am I particularly creative.
In the meantime, I went surfing on Etsy again for a little gun jewelry inspiration and found some pretty stuff worth sharing.
Right now, I’m thinking charm bracelet for my new (old) pin. I suspect that’s something I could manage to make on my own without too much effort.
In other antique gun news, the city of Harrisburg is having an auction to rid itself of all the crap that a former MAIG mayor bought on the city’s dime while claiming it was for a museum. (Last year, the Department of Justice opened up an investigation into his questionable spending, so he’s another misbehaving Bloomberg ally.) Part of the collection is a series of antique firearm advertisements, plus several historic guns.
Shifting Policy by Ignoring Reality
As much as we often mock anti-gun advocates when they are just blatantly and laughably wrong about facts, it would appear that some groups are actually using this as a strategy. The crazy thing is that I’m not sure that it won’t prove effective over time.
Theodore Bromund shares an email received by a Congressional office from eight gun control groups that were opposed to Rep. Mike Kelly’s amendment to the Defense Department budget to ban using funds for implementation of the UN Arms Trade Treaty. What’s interesting about it is that they really approach the entire debate as though the US has already signed on and ratified it. They also get many basic facts wrong, but many of those misstated “facts” add up to creating the perception that the Arms Trade Treaty is the law of the land. How many Congressional staffers will know they are wrong? Very few.
Throughout their email, the NGOs completely fail to distinguish between the ATT and the authority of Congress: as they see it, everything the U.S. does in the realm of arms export control is already regulated by the ATT.
In fact, that’s the NGO strategy: Set up the ATT as the controlling moral and legal authority for U.S. policy, then slowly reinterpret the ATT to drag U.S. policy into alignment with their preferences.
Just to add some icing to the cake, Bromund also notes that UN is setting up a program to fund these anti-gun groups to provide “legal or legislative assistance” in expanding the Arms Trade Treaty to more countries.
Joe Manchin Lied, Gun Rights Nearly Died
Okay, so maybe the slogan in the title is a bit over-the-top and not really that catchy. Regardless, it sort of sums up the content of a letter that NRA is mailing to 200,000 voters in West Virginia.
The letter will outline why NRA opposed Manchin-Schumer-Toomey, and it will also highlight that Manchin intentionally mislead voters on his views on this very specific policy when he was running for office.
I guess this shows that Sen. Manchin really is allowing Obama to rub off on him. It looks like his election promises are now reaching their expiration dates.
More on Giffords/Kelly Election Consequences
It does look like there may be some election-related consequences for Democrats targeted by Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords. They just aren’t the kinds of consequences Kelly is hoping for these days.
It looks like the only impact they may have for the North Dakota stop of their gun control tour is to drive the Democrats about 200 miles out town to avoid the anti-gun event.
$38 Million for Gun Companies
It looks like one mid-state Pennsylvania Republican is putting in a request for some state economic investment dollars to go for luring gun companies to the Commonwealth from anti-gun states. Back in February, several lawmakers at the state level started writing letters to gun companies in unfriendly states asking them to consider Pennsylvania.
I’m not really going to comment on the use of millions of taxpayer dollars to bring gun companies in since I don’t know much about the program. In the article, the third paragraph describes the $38 million as matching grants that sound like handouts, but then eight paragraphs later, the program is described as a loan program.
Kahr has already signed a contract with Pike County, PA authorities as of mid-June to start the process of getting permits and engineers out to a 620-acre business park that they can snatch up for $2 million. They’ve apparently already hired many of the firms needed to seal the deal, and they started a search for someone to oversee the process. (Oddly, even though the company was already starting the process of securing the Pennsylvania property, they apparently had a contest on Facebook asking fans what state they should move to.)