Politics – Page 62 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Lost & Stolen Reporting for Us, Not Them

I find it interesting that not a single city in Pennsylvania with officials who claimed “lost & stolen” reporting criminal code was absolutely vital to fighting street gun crimes has ever charged anyone with violating the law. (They largely don’t do it because then it gives standing for us to sue.)

But it looks like any city with one of those laws on the books might want to take a closer look at any U.S. Park Police personnel working armed in their city limits. It turns out that federal government employees have a special talent for losing guns.

According to the report, investigators discovered 1,400 guns that were supposed to have been destroyed. An additional 198 handguns donated to the Park Police by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that are not reflected in official records are being housed in a building in Southeast D.C. There is no evidence that the wayward guns have found their ways into the hands of criminals, but the report noted that the Park Police might not be aware if they had.

They are so careless that they wouldn’t even know if they lost a gun and it ended up in criminal hands. Though one might not want to call it careless since their entire system of firearms management is apparently described as “conditions that would allow for theft and misuse of firearms, and the ability to conceal the fact if weapons were missing.” The report says that the attitude of not giving a damn where guns end up isn’t just a low-level employee thing, it apparently goes all the way up to the chief.

What Checks & Balances Really Means…

Since when did the concept of a three branch system of government end being defined as “whatever one guy wants to do”? I’m just curious about the understanding of checks and balances in Illinois after reading this article on the status of their concealed carry bill.

Many lawmakers expect Quinn to use the issue to try to help himself politically, taking advantage of his amendatory veto powers to rewrite the bill to make it more stringent. On Thursday, Madigan said she agreed that the governor would rewrite the bill.

The comments came at a luncheon where she encouraged female politicians to use their children as political props to create a “soft” image, but to be careful not to be so blatant about it that voters can actually see that they view their offspring as political tools.

Is That a Gun in Your Pocket Underwear…

It seems that one Pennsylvania police officer may have taken the joke about having a gun in one’s pants a little too seriously and actually confused underpants for a gun.

I’m not even going to attempt to judge the merits of the shooting or the lawsuit by the man who was shot against the city. I’m not sure where you begin when the situation begins with a man was standing in a dark alley holding a pair of black underwear.

Charges Against WV NRA T-Shirt Teen Dropped?

According to a very initial report from WOWK, it seems the criminal charges against the West Virginia teenager who wore an NRA t-shirt to school have been dropped.

As Sebastian said when I informed him of this update, the news of the dropped charges should have come with an apology letter that acknowledges they never should have brought them in the first place. Obviously, that’s unlikely.

I was hearing reports about attempts to organize rallies, and I’m sure we’re not the only ones who highlighted that the judge who banned the media from the courthouse in this case and the district attorney who oversees the two prosecutors who not only brought charges, but then tried to silence the boy and his family, are elected. They can still be sent home during the next election.

NAGR Steps into Pennsylvania Politics

I’m just going to say “not helping.”

It’s clear that Dudley Brown knows nothing about the political climate here in Pennsylvania. I haven’t seen any PA-specific approval ratings lately that indicate any kind of serious plunge or distrust of Obama, but aside from that issue, their messaging for a blue state is terrible. Brown chooses to focus on questioning whether Pat Toomey is a true conservative. Well, in a state like Pennsylvania, being less than perfectly conservative (or at least perceived as such) is a good thing. It’s clear that Pennsylvania doesn’t want hardcore conservatives.

Fortunately, according to PoliticsPA, the ad buy is small and limited to cable.

Don’t assume that this is a “support Toomey no matter what he does to us” kind of post. I’m really not a fan at the moment, and I’m not going to forget it when the next election comes about. But as a person who actually lives in the suburbs of Philly that make such a huge difference in Pennsylvania elections, I can say that this messaging is off. I’m just glad that it is years out from the election. Hopefully Brown will stay out of Pennsylvania politics again because he clearly doesn’t know how to message to voters here. Portraying Toomey as someone the right expects to be an extreme conservative isn’t the way to win votes of squishy GOP and moderate voters.

Charging Reporters with the Crime of Journalism

Man who broke DC gun law but got off scott free: “Why should @ggreenwald get off scott free?” http://t.co/tzvSWMIoiB

â€” Political Math (@politicalmath) June 24, 2013

A government-approved contract staffer decided to release just enough information to give people the heads up that there is a surveillance program happening that many people may not find to be constitutional. Yet, the media who so obviously support Obama decide that the reporter who broke the story must be punished for the crime of reporting something unfavorable to the government.

In West Virginia, we see something similar happening when it comes to reporting the story of a prosecutor going after a minor for wearing a pro-Second Amendment t-shirt. When the tide turns against the government agent, the judge orders the reporter barred from the courthouse to keep her from filing a petition on behalf of the press in a gag order hearing and the bailiff enforcing the ban threatened the reporter with arrest after reaching to take her camera and microphone. The prosecutor apparently claimed that the state was trying to silence the teen’s legal team and family for their own good.

Dear West Virginia freedom supporters: The judge who ordered the media banned from the courthouse is elected. You can fix this and send him a message about limits on his power. The prosecutor overseeing the two staff attorneys who insist that court orders silencing defendants are the best things for society and individuals is also elected, and his name is John W. Bennett. There you go; you have tools to make positive changes in your local community. (h/t to Miguel for the link on the WV case)

York County Sees 63% Growth in LTC Issuance

I’ve seen stories like this all around the state. It’s going to be interesting when the State Police release the PICS numbers, which shows how many checks were run on people who apply for LTCs in a given year. The estimate on the number of LTCs issues was around 600,000, statewide. Will it hit 700,000? 800,000? It would be very good for that to be the case, because few politicians want to risk pissing off 800,000 voters in a state of 12 million people.

Manchin Unveils Ads

He was on The Morning Joe on MSNBC this morning. You can follow and see the videos. He asks for West Virginians to call the NRA and tell them to support background checks. I’m sure the phones are going to be ringing off the hooks in Fairfax over this one.

On Monday, Manchin unveiled plans toÂ match the NRAÂ by pulling from his re-election war chest to bankroll a counter-attack ad buyâ€”an unusual move for a just-reelected senator.

Good. Make him spend money. We’re going to have running fights over the next six years as we try to punish all the people involved with this latest gun control push. We have to have long memories and be committed to a lengthy fight.

Messaging Fail in Colorado Recall

A key message of the pro-gun advocates trying to unseat Senate President John Morse is that he’s a stooge for New York City’s mayor and not really representing his district in Colorado.

So what is the first message he posted as it appeared the Secretary of State would approve enough signatures for his recall?

Meanwhile, Mr. Morse, a Colorado Springs Democrat, released a statement Monday on his Facebook page asking for out-of-state help from those in traditionally liberal cities to help fight the recall effort.

â€œWe can get phone lists to you and things like that and have you help from Boston, Massachusetts, or San Francisco, California,â€ said Mr. Morse in a video message.

It’s like he thinks that being controlled by out-of-state interests is a good campaign message. Somehow I doubt that is the case for a guy who only won his last election by a few hundred votes.

But I hope that he keeps putting out videos like this. It just makes the job of people who support his recall easier. I hope that pro-gun folks use his own words against him and highlight in their door-to-door campaigning that Morse is calling on people from Boston, San Francisco, and NYC to buy this election for him. I mean if he didn’t want that to be the key theme of his campaign, then presumably he would not have made that the first video of his campaign, right?

From the State that Bought You the Lautenberg Switcheroo

They get a Mulligan on gun control.Â From ANJRPC:

Today, the New Jersey Assembly Budget Committee passed Senate President Stephen Sweeneyâ€™s “centerpieceâ€ gun legislation (S2723Â /Â A4182) in a “do-overâ€ vote, following the embarrassing failure of the bill to pass a roll-call vote of the Assembly Law & Public Safety Committee on June 6.Â Â Assembly Democratic leadership brazenly rigged the system by moving the legislation to the Budget Committee, where they could better control the outcome and ensure the billâ€™s passage.

The bill passed along party lines, with 8 Democrats voting yes, and 4 Republicans voting no.

The Sweeney legislation throws out existing FID cards and replaces them with either a privacy-invading driver license endorsement or other form of ID; suspends Second Amendment rights without proof of firearms training; imposes a 7-day waiting period for handgun purchases; ends all private sales; and effectively creates a registry of ammunition purchases and long gun sales. Democrats have touted the bill as a “national model.â€

The bill now moves to the Assembly for a full floor vote, which is likely to occur on Thursday, June 20.Â Â Please immediately callÂ both your Assembly membersÂ and tell them to oppose all new anti-gun legislation, including A4182.Â Â If passed by the Assembly, the bill could go back to the Senate next week for concurrence with Assembly amendments.

There was testimony from gun rights activists at todayâ€™s hearing, including ANJRPC Executive Director Scott Bach, who sharply criticized the Sweeney bill and ripped the process of swapping committees in violation of legislative rules.Â Â “Anywhere else in the country that would be called vote-rigging,â€ Bach said. “Here, it masquerades as â€˜legislative processâ€™.â€

A recording of the hearing will beÂ posted hereÂ within 24 hours. Scroll to Monday, June 17, 2013, then click “listenâ€).

Please watch for future ANJRPC alerts and updates.

Usually when you bring a bill up for a vote, if it loses, that’s too bad — it’s the end of the bill. Not in New Jersey, where apparently you can pull it in the middle of a vote when it becomes apparent it’s not going to go the way you want.