Shall Not Be Questioned

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg is paying for ads to run in Virginia urging a ban on private sales.

New York’s mayor and relatives of Virginia Tech massacre victims are releasing a new television ad next week urging the state to close a gun show loophole.

The second anniversary of the shooting is next Thursday.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will join victims’ relatives in Arlington on Monday to release the ad.

Two quick things:

1. The Virginia Tech shooter did not buy his guns at a gun show or through a private sale.  This ad serves no purpose other than to use the victims to advance a political agenda.
2. The timing was picked for no other reason than public relations grandstanding considering the Virginia General Assembly went out of session in February.  In fact, they met for the last time this week just to review vetoes and actually overrode two vetoes of pro-gun legislation.

This screed suggesting the “new” idea to enact gun control is laughable.

The solution is obvious, create an alternate organization that supports gun ownership but in a responsible manner. I would call the new organization the “American Rifle Organization” (ARA) or something similar. (sic)

They would have progressive gun ownership rules like the following:

1. Support for single action rifles, shotguns and Revolver Handguns only.
2. Licensed and certified gun ownership.
3. Separation between public, police and military style weapons. It would be illegal for the public to purchase or own police and military style weapons.
4. No public ownership of automatic or semi-automatic weapons.

Apparently no one told the Air America hosts that someone is already trying it, and it’s not working.

It looks like along with all of their money, the Philadelphia Inquirer has also lost all of their creative thinking abilities. In an effort to fill their editorial page this morning, the Inky decided to simply publish the current Brady agenda and slap their own name on it, calling it an editorial.

But the starting point has to be stricter gun control measures – including a national assault-weapon ban, wider reporting of lost and stolen guns, universal background checks, and limits on handgun purchases.

Tom Diaz of VPC has some advice for his movement that if you took out the word “control” could have come from Larry Pratt:

I am sick and tired of the incrementalists in the so-called “gun control movement,” the strategic geniuses and direct-mail fundraisers who fed the shark by bits and pieces for years until it ate their movement.  Many who ran off the beach now mock the ones who stayed.  It’s a dead issue, you understand, and those who fled have more important things to blog, twitter, opine, and bloviate about.

Larry can feel your pain Tom, I’m sure.  Even if it’s from the other side of the coin.  Of course, how many legislative victories does VPC have?  Oh, I suppose some credit can be taken for coming up with the “assault weapons” bogyman.  But wasn’t that incrementalism?  Meant to get the public used to real gun bans?  The 1994 ban itself was built on top of another incremental victory with the National Firearms Act, then the Federal Firearms Act a few years after that, which was further built upon with the Gun Control Act of 1968.  HCI (now the Brady Campaign) had a string of legislative victories in the early 90s, and if it wasn’t for the election upset in 1994, they would have really screwed us.

But I can’t tell you how relieved I am to see this poison appearing on the gun control side of the issue too.  Keep holding out for that one big win, Tom.  And we’ll keep incrementally chipping away at the regime your cause built up over the 20th century.