Politics – Page 83 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Thoughts for Liberal New Yorkers

Don’t you think you might have bigger problem than guns and people putting more than 7 rounds in a magazine when your legislature can apparently draft legislation in smoke filled rooms, vote on the final product with 30 minutes notice, and get everything all wrapped up before the public has had a chance to sip their morning coffee? I mean, I get we’re not a democracy, but don’t you think there’s something vaguely wrong about lawmakers passing a bill before the public even has an idea what’s in it because the Governor says it’s an “emergency?” I would think this is something the left and the right can agree on.

And what does it say about their confidence in gun control that they feel they need to accomplish everything quickly, before the public has a chance to mobilize, and, I don’t know, maybe carefully consider the bill? Hear all sides? This wasn’t a conversation on guns. They don’t want a conversation, and that has been abundantly clear since this whole farce began.

The Real Problems of School Security

Remember when the media said that NRA was nuts for suggesting that schools consider a wide-ranging security plan, not only for school shooters, but for other security threats that weren’t as obvious? Yeah, most of us do.

Well, shortly after dinner, my phone started going nuts with alert to look up the local Amber Alert. I Googled it as a good little citizen, and it just goes to show that the schools don’t take security seriously at all. A 5-year-old was kidnapped from her own classroom and the school didn’t even bother to report her missing.

According to what has been released in the last few hours, a woman described as wearing “Muslim-style clothing” walked into a school before 9am–minutes after the girl was dropped off–told the staff she was a mother, didn’t show ID, scribbled a line that was not a name onto a log sheet, walked into a classroom to tell the teacher that she signed a kid out and the teacher handed the student over, which, needless to say, is not “protocol.” The teacher just allowed her to walk out with the little girl without being questioned or stopped. Neither the teacher nor school officials bothered to follow their own procedures to find out if this was a person who even had permission to pick up the girl. They didn’t report the odd circumstance. They just let the kidnapper get away for hours without any report of what kind of vehicle she might be in, what direction she headed, or whether there were accomplices.

It was only when the girl’s daycare program that picks her up from school noticed that she wasn’t present and called her mom to verify that she was legitimately absent that anyone took notice. By that time, it was almost 3pm. The kidnapper had a 6 hour head start, and all because the school staff member was too lazy to question why a stranger who never had to show any ID just walked into a classroom and demanded to take a little girl.

These people aren’t serious about the safety of other people’s children. The child was dropped off just minutes before, and not a single staff member thought it would be odd that someone would turn around and pick them up within 5 minutes. The staff just believed a nice little title from the stranger that she was “mom” even though they couldn’t see her face or recognize her if they had known her since she purposefully covered everything except her eyes. The teacher just believed the stranger that she signed a kid out and handed the child right over. They simply didn’t care enough to give a second thought to that child and the very clearly odd circumstances in front of them.

If you have the means, you might want to take more seriously the Buffy the Vampire Slayer quote channeled by Glenn Reynolds and consider that home schooling is “not just for scary religious people any more.” At least then you’ll know that the person supervising your children actually cares enough to consider real security.

Elvis Syndrome

Tam describes the phenomena here. I haven’t been covering the James Yeager issue very much, because on one hand, I think such pronouncements are unhelpful, but on the other hand, there’s a lot of folks out there on the left that don’t realize the seriousness of what they are proposing. I much prefer the Wyoming approach for pushing back against the fedsÂ than I do actions by lone wolves or private militias acting outside any lawful authority.

There are many people out there who feel the same way James Yeager does, even if they exercise more judgement than to put it on YouTube, and probably would not seriously follow through on their anger. But the anger is there, and not all of them are suffering from Elvis Syndrome. Like I said earlier in the week, I’ve seen some ordinarily serious people talking about things are getting uncomfortably close to their line in the sand, and it may be worthwhile for people on the left to know these people are out there. How many Americans are you willing to jail and murder to achieve your fantasies about a gun free society? How many?

I ultimately endorse the Wyoming approach because I think the answer for most people is “none.” They aren’t serious enough to escalate this to that level, so I don’t believe it’ll be necessary. The Wyoming approach provides a lawful framework for a confrontation, which does not necessarily have to escalate into violence. It is far more responsible than the approach originally advocated by Yeager. The first step is to beat gun control back politically at the federal level, and failing that, to beat federal gun control back through our state governments by demanding they nullify a clearly unconstitutional law. The Second Amendment may not have its own tanks, but the Federal Judiciary doesn’t have them either. Our federal system works through cooperative action between the federal government and fifty separate sovereigns. Mutual cooperation is fundamentally essential for the scheme to work. If that cooperation is withdrawn, it becomes nearly impossible for the federal government to maintain enforcement of an unpopular law, even if the states do nothing at all other than withdrawing cooperation. States that have recently legalized pot should also take note of this.

Ooops

Apparently Senator Feinstein didn’t renew her domain or something.

Latest Registration Proposal from Illinois

But not on guns, on precious metals. Yeah, the tin foil hat crowd is going to love that one.

Dishonest Turds

That’s what I’d call Joe Biden, Obama and his panel. See this Tweet from Larry Keene of NSSF. Apparently they promised no media, and when NRA and NSSF showed up, there were cameras and media. You know, if you follow certain theories floating around out there, that can work two ways, Joe.

These Kabuki rituals are tiresome. I’d would be nice if we were the kind of country that valued honest interaction, and it was considered socially acceptable to drop a fresh deuce right there on the conference table, in response to what American gun owners thought of the Administration’s ideas. We used to be a country whose lawmakers would challenge each other to duels, and fist fights on the House floor were commonplace.

Wal-Mart Switches Gears

The store chain initially said it would not attend White House meetings on gun control, but now they have changed their tune and plan to sit down with the Obama Administration to discuss these policies.

UPDATE: Thanks to UTLaw, we learn that Wal-Mart is taking calls on this issue. You will speak with a live customer service agent, and they claim that they are listening to customer input.

The phone number to call is: (479) 273-4000. Tell them you would like to offer input on their decision to meet with the White House on gun control. You will be passed off the some kind of priority customer service.

The Conservative Media Catches Up

It’s tough to know what to post about today since the big headlines that general rightwing folks are pushing are the upcoming announcement later today about what gun controls New York will push and the Iowa lawmaker who is advocating for confiscation of firearms. That’s the problem with following the issue pretty closely. We covered Rep. Dan Muhlbauer’s comments a week ago, and we already knew to look for extreme proposals out of New York.

In fact, right now I’m trying to put myself in the mindset of someone who is reading today’s Drudge headlines and tweets from conservatives as big “new” news. I’m helping Sebastian with his legislative report to his gun club meeting to make sure that all the relevant bases are covered. When lawmakers are just piling on, it’s hard to remember everything. Obviously, it won’t be about issues in New York or Iowa, but we’ve had our share of bad things promised in the last month here in Pennsylvania or from our federal representatives. Many of these folks will be hearing about these issues for the very first time tonight.

I Hope He’s Exaggerating

According to this article, freshman Rep. Tom Cotton from Arkansas’s 4th district is getting phone calls in about a 9-to-1 ratio calling for him to stand up against gun control.

You might wonder why I say that I hope he’s exaggerating since that sounds like winning. I hope he’s exaggerating downward. If you click through and look at that district, this guy should be seeing pro-Second Amendment phone calls and letters from constituents outnumber anti-gun supporters by at least 15-to-1.

For those who say we don’t need to worry because the GOP has the House of Representatives, well, the fact that any House office could be hearing from us in ratios that are lower than 9-to-1, that makes me nervous. If every person who walked into a gun show since the middle of December wrote to their Congressman, we’d be in a much better position.

Category: Politics