It looks like the major networks are only featuring Chicom athletes in the shooting sports.
Scared by English
Someone reporter in Massachusetts is apparently getting his panties in a bunch because some of us believe the Second Amendment means exactly what it says. I guess the prospect that we can read plain English is indeed frightning to some who believe most of us can barely read.
Corruption of Blood
Mother Jones is now implying that Sean McFate, the son of Mary McFate, was let go from a D.C. think tank because of his mother’s actions. The Think Tank says he moved on prior to the incident.
TSA Exceeding Its Lawful Authority?
They are considering banning guns at airports entirely, despite what state law may say about the matter. Since when did airports become federal installations? I’m sorry to say, but if this passes, Philadelphia will, no doubt, exercise this authority, which means I won’t be able to go to the GBR III event, since it seems to indicate they can just ban them:
The Airports Council International said in a recent letter to Hartsfield, “There is no justification for permitting firearms at any airport.” Policies vary from state to state and from airport to airport. Some bar guns fully, others allow them, sometimes in areas such as a parking lot, said Charles Chambers, the council’s security chief.
Hartsfield spokesman Herschel Grangent said that someone firing a gun in the airport would force a massive evacuation that could disrupt flights nationwide. Hartsfield, with 89 million passengers in 2007, is the world’s busiest airport.
Just one more reason to avoid flying. This is going to be a bitch on competitive shooters if TSA doesn’t make exceptions. Does TSA even have the legal authority to do this?
UPDATE: Looking at the relevant US Code and Federal Regulations regarding airport security, it is my, admitedly non-professional opinion, that the banning firearms from airports entirely would require a change in the Code of Federal Regulations (which is subject to the rulemaking process), but because the US Code demands the screening of all passengers and property, essentially you’d have to make the entire airport a secured area, meaning banning them in the parking lots would be largely impossible. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act doesn’t seem to grant TSA the power to regulate activity in the non-secured areas of airports. They seem to be able to issue recommendations, so they could certainly recommend to the State of Georgia to ban guns in its airports, but in my reading, they can’t force the issue.
It Took Twenty Years …
… but the Brady Campaign finally gets to say “I told you so.” You knows, in another 20 years maybe they’ll get to exploit a concealed carry permit holder shooting up a school.
Are You Sure Senator?
Apparently Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is inserting himself into the Mary McFate controversy.
Although the NRA and I certainly have had our disagreements over the years, I hope that we can agree that the gun violence prevention debate should be based upon an open and honest exchange of ideas, not on underhanded tactics.
I question whether the Senator really understands what he’s asking for here. There’s been very little that’s honest about gun control organizations, which is why they don’t want to have an “open an honest” conversation about the matter. Otherwise how can they take bloggers out of context, mislead the public about the nature of firearms, firearms owners, the NRA, and the second amendment. Would you like to have an open and honest discussion in public about the nature of the “Terrorist Watch List” that you want use to deny Americans fundamental rights?
We’re completely willing to have an open and honest exchange of ideas, Senator. Are you sure your allies in the gun control movement are willing to do that?
Well, At Least We’re Not Detroit
I might complain about Mayor Nutter, but at least he’s not this guy. Nutter I think is often misguided, but I don’t think he’s a crook. That’s certainly an improvement over Philadelphia’s last Commander-in-Cheat. Definitely an improvement over Detroit. You know things are bad when even Philadelphians are saying “Damn, I’m glad I don’t live there!”
Driving Extremism
If one looks back at history, one of the primary drivers of the American Revolution was not taxes, it wasn’t Parliament, or a seething hatred of the crown. Those were just manifestations of a deeper problem. I think if you had to pick a fundamental, underlying reason why Americans separated from Great Britain, it would have to be that the colonies suffered from a deficit of dignity. There was an impression, even among elites in the colonies, that the cream of British society looked down on them from on high, and did not consider them to be equals. No matter how successful someone might have become in the colonies, to the folks back home, they would always be colonials — second class Englishmen. Once elites felt the indignity along with the common man, the seeds of the separation had been sown.
I bring this up, because there is the beginnings of a dignity deficit beginning to appear in some segments of American culture. I’m not suggesting we’re on the road to another revolution, though some seem to believe that, but I think we’re seeing symptoms of a problem that can lead to Very Bad ThingsTM if left to fester. The American left, for all their pretensions of caring about the Bill of Rights, civil liberties and freedoms, and the plight of the common man, has largely given up on them in practice. They care about civil liberties to the extent that they can use them as a political club to beat their opponents over the head with. They care about every day people to the extent that it helps them cement their power. Since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, you haven’t really heard much philosophy coming from the left in terms of what our rights and freedoms ought to be.
This is important, because liberty and freedom are values we should all agree on as Americans. Sure, we can argue over whether the general welfare clause allows Congress to establish “free” health care for everybody. We can argue over what to do about Social Security’s looming insolvency. We can argue over gay marriage, abortion, and all the other issues people love to bicker about. But there are some things that as Americans, we should all find outrageous, but it’s a sad fact that we don’t.
The media is perhaps the worst of the bunch when it comes to standing up for justice and liberty, and holding the powerful accountable. Sure, they are willing to do it when it involves topics the left disapproves of, but they tend to ignore a lot of Americans’ deeply established and held values. If this wasn’t the case, no one would pay attention to Rush Limbaugh. This is what contributes to a deficit of dignity — when the elite in politics and the media ignore and trivialize entire segments of society, those people start believing their concerns don’t matter. That’s not just wrong, it’s dangerous if taken to extremes.
Where’s the outrage in the media about the fact that a man was sent to prison for clearing brush out of a temporary waterway? We might all want clean water, but talk about unintended consequences. Why don’t you see stuff like this in the New York Times and Washington Post, where, especially, people who make these policies and laws can see the consequences of them, taken to extremes. Why is the left not outraged at repeated stories like this, and beginning to question why police are using more and more military style tactics when dealing with enforcing victimless crimes? Why did it take the NRA and SAF, and not the ACLU, to hold Nagin and Riley’s feet to the fire after they unlawfully confiscated firearms from elderly women in the lawless aftermath of Katrina, leaving them utterly defenseless. Hell, why isn’t the media and ACLU demanding that Nagin and Riley be thrown in jail? Has there been outrage among elites that Fenty has openly defied the spirit of the Heller ruling? Or is the sentiment more “Go Fenty! Screw those gun nuts!” Regardless of how you feel about Randy Weaver, or the Branch Davidians, can anyone on the left make a reasoned argument as to exactly why Lon Horiuchi should not be in prison right now? Can they explain why no one went to jail for mudering dozens of children in Waco?
These aren’t merely concerns of madmen. They are real questions that people have asked, but because their viewpoints aren’t represented among the elite, no one acts like they care. It’s quite possible no one among the elite does care. Having ones concerns and grievances marginalized is a great driver of political resentment, and while I don’t think too many people are ready to start a revolt over this, its what feeds a lot of the angry people who hurl invectives at those of us who suggest that they still have faith in the process. Given that the popular attitude among elites is to mock and dismiss them, as the Brady Campaign suggested I should do yesterday, is it any wonder they are pissed off? Something they ought to think about.
Looks Safe to Me
Blue Trail Range is still closed, but the picture in this article shows a rifle’s eye view of the firing line, with a bulldozer building up the berm in the back. You can’t see much sky there, and I don’t think the baffling there allows enough elevation for a bullet to head over that mountain. At this point, you’re probably either dealing with people who just hate guns, or hate physics. One of the two.
English First
Eugene Volokh takes Larry Pratt’s other venture, English First, to task for berating Tyson foods for accomodating its Muslim workers by offering certain Muslim holidays off:
Not all religious beliefs, of course, have been accommodated, and not all should be accommodated. But requests from minority religious groups (including recent immigrant groups) for accommodation are a longstanding and respectable part of the American tradition of religious freedom. Where religious pluralism goes, multiculturalism is indeed a traditional American value. And the union vote at the Tyson plan is not “multiculturalism run amok” — it’s the American tradition of religious tolerance and religious accommodation working as it should be.
Amen.