Politics – Page 75 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Bloomberg’s Next Target

Over at VSSA, there’s speculation that Bloomberg’s next spending target may be Virginia. It is noted that the off-year gubernatorial election in a purple state would certainly make a nice pick-up for Bloomberg’s anti-gun crusade. With the the Democrat calling for handgun rationing and semi-auto bans, it be quite the trophy.

His two big federal wins haven’t been real “wins” in many ways. His win in Pennsylvania for the Attorney General is the closest thing he has to making a real impact, and even that race was still largely about a scandal involving child rape.

VSSA asks a good question about the dedication of gun owners in these target areas:

There has been a reawakinging of the grassroots. The question is, will it last long enough to put Bloomberg in his place. Virginia in 2013 could be the first test.

Bloomberg Mayor in Hot Water Over Personal Security Spending

The Pittsburgh mayor who has signed letters to Congress opposing concealed carry for mere citizens has been spending big taxpayer bucks to pay police officers to escort him everywhere – including nightclubs where he’s busy making out with young women.

A local report shows that Luke Ravenstahl has been spending an average of more than $110k a year in tax dollars for the last three years to pay just the overtime costs of multiple police officers to escort him and keep him safe from whatever threats a mayor faces. The video shows a photo taken of the mayor and his taxpayer-funded security hanging out at a bar with a young chick on his lap wrapped around him while he was still legally married. (According to reports, he was separated from his wife at the time, but had told the press that he had no intention of actually divorcing her. Publicly screwing around her, apparently, but not divorcing her. She filed sometime after the photo was taken.)

As this news comes to light, political reporters note that this MAIG mayor is no longer attending political events and is expected to announce that he will either end his re-election campaign or possibly even resign over this and other police-related scandals that have involved his administration.

I would say that this sounds like a big improvement for the people of Pittsburgh. It’s bad enough to have a mayor who uses your public resources to go party and screw around on his wife. But to have that mayor saying you need to fund his personal security to those parties while you shouldn’t have the right to carry and defend yourself, well, that’s just insult to injury.

More Time to Mobilize

The Senate Judiciary Committee was set to possibly start moving gun control today, but they’ve decided to put it off for at least a week. They are waiting on a Tom Coburn/Chuck Schumer deal before they act. However, Sen. Grassley is saying that he thinks the universal background check bill could be passed without a deal. (Iowa, it sounds like you need to be making more phone calls…)

I’m happy with the delay since now it means I know I can go to the gun show this weekend and get lots of people signing postcards to Senators Bob Casey and Pat Toomey asking them to oppose gun control legislation. We’ll use the extra time to mobilize more people.

Taking a Look at Bloomberg’s Mayors in 2013

It seems like we just put the presidential election behind us, and yet, there are already more elections to think about in terms of gun rights. Most political observers are already looking to 2014. However, Pennsylvania gun owners should be looking to this year’s municipal elections against mayors who have been lobbying Washington, DC officials in support of a ban on semi-automatic rifles and more via Bloomberg’s MAIG.

Many of the mayoral races are unchallenged, but others are closer than you would expect. Penndel’s 2009 mayoral race was decided by just 68 votes. Those in Pennsylvania might think that since Penndel is a pretty tiny borough, that seems like a pretty big margin. However, it doesn’t take into account significantly decreased turnouts in these off-year elections. Fewer than 26% of registered voters in the county actually cast a ballot in local races that year.

In the next county over, the contest for Pottstown mayor was decided by just 2 percentage points – even as write-in candidates took 5 points in the race. Somewhat farther north, the mayor of Roseto was elected by only 53 votes. Out in the western part of the state, Ingram’s anti-gun advocate mayor won his last election by just 9 votes.

If you want to help weaken Bloomberg’s anti-gun alliance, then this is a great way to start. Find out about your own races and get involved in the races around you if you can. Think about the race decided by 9 votes – you could help reach that many voters in one hour on a Saturday afternoon.

PA Attorney General Goes National on Gun Control

Not content to simply add new concealed carry restrictions, Attorney General Kathleen Kane has decided to promote bans on commonly owned firearms and accessories used by Pennsylvania residents in a national television appearance. She took to Chris Matthews’ show to say that Pennsylvanians would gladly accept new gun restrictions.

Pennsylvania Cities Get in on Gun Control Lobbying Game

I can’t tell you how very happy I am that Pennsylvania’s Governor, Tom Corbett, has made it pretty clear that gun control will not be on his agenda. Even though there are many anti-rights bills introduced, there’s no serious threat that any of them will move at the moment. That said, it’s not stopping local towns from weighing in on the fight.

On the pro-rights side, New Britain, PA is considering a resolution to reaffirm the Second Amendment is an individual right and that the town “strongly objects to the passage of any new law or regulation … that infringes upon Second Amendment rights.”

Explaining why she wanted the resolution, [Councilwoman Mary Pat] Holewinski said, â€œWhen I was elected and sworn in, I swore to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Pennsylvania Constitution. I introduced it as a means for borough council to show support for the Constitution.â€

On the anti-rights side, we see a bit more action. First there was the effort by Lower Makefield to lobby for ending preemption, but they deserve credit for rescinding their resolution. Now, we have Upper Moreland using town resources to lobby for more gun control, seemingly for full registration in addition to semi-automatic rifle bans and more.

Combating the New Big Anti-Gun Money

The president’s pet policy group is spending 6 figures on a Twitter campaign today to target Republicans they think they can cause problems for with Second Amendment issues. Gun owners need to step up and oppose this massive purchase of “grassroots” activity.

So, with a little click of your mouse, you can tweet to each of these lawmakers one of these messages. If you live in their district, make sure to say it. If you don’t tweet, the lawmaker names go to their Facebook pages.

Jim Gerlach (PA-6)

Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire)

Susan Collins (Maine)

Dave Joyce (OH-14)

John Kline (MN-2)

David Valadao (CA-21)

Gary Miller (CA-31)

Mike Coffman (CO-6)

Buck McKeon (CA-25)

Daniel Webster (FL-10)

Jeff Denham (CA-10)

Robert Pittenger (NC-9)

These three were initially in the target group, but OFA dropped them because they think they may be able to work with them more easily:

Erik Paulsen (MN-3)

Pat Meehan (PA-7)

Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8)

New Jersey Gun Control Heads to Senate

After getting a push from Obama’s activism wing to turn out more Democrats against gun rights in Trenton, the Assembly passed their gun control bill package.

According to some commentary by the Senate President, Sen. Steve Sweeney, the Senate does not plan to push these bills through quickly. Now, that doesn’t mean that they won’t pass. It just means that NJ residents have time to call and try to oppose the legislation – unlike New York residents.

ANJRPC is reporting that the likely possible dates for votes are in March or April, but nothing is actually planned at the moment.

Be Seen, Don’t Just Be Heard

Watching this new Obama video for gun control, we learn that Obama is very, very willing to flex Bloomberg’s muscle for his cause. He’s also relying upon Bloomberg’s money by seeing to it that he had more than 100 gun control advocates flown in to DC and to state capitals to push for his gun control agenda.

They highlight the importance of being seen by lawmakers. This is a reminder that if you can get out to a lawmaker town hall meeting or even just stop in their local district office, do it. Put a normal, reasonable face on gun owners. Invite them to speak at your local gun club and get people to turn out.

Felony Aggravated Menacing and Reckless Endangerment

Just among a few of the charges Jill Biden could face if she follows the advice of her husband. I’d much sooner try to teach a woman how to shoot an AR-15 than a shotgun. Self-defense rounds for shotguns are brutal. If short-barrled shotguns were less regulated, I think they’d make fine home defense weapons, but every shotgun I own is far more unwieldy in a small house than any carbine I own. Not all of us can afford to live in a house as big as Joe Biden’s.