Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 299 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Thursday Mini News Links

Links probably has a much better connotation than dump, which is something most of us usually do in the morning. Gun news is a little dry lately, but I’m still building up some stories in the tabs where I don’t really have much to add other than a link.

Picking a competition holster. I can’t speak for competition, but my regular carry holster for my Glock 19 is a Comp-Tac IWB Infidel holster, and I can’t say enough good thing about it. It basically stopped my quest for the better carry holster.

An interview with an anti-gun person at what looks to me to be the rally on Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Remember, no one wants to take your guns. This guy even says banning nails is “something to think about.”

An effective ban on all new handguns in California. I’d say they just make the lawsuits that much easier, but I’ve become more skeptical the courts can do a whole lot more for the Second Amendment. We’ve honestly lost too many elections.

To win Millennials, the GOP needs to embrace its inner libertarian.

Incredible 1000 yard shot with a .50BMG Barrett, offhand. I’d have a hard time even holding it in position, let alone being steady enough to hit something.

The gun control debate continues in Massachusetts. I didn’t think it had ever ended. Actually, Massachusetts has been pretty quiet post Newtown. Almost too quiet.

Support Your Local Gunfighter turns 8. Not many blogs make it to 8!

Bloomberg’s Bucks Continue Flowing

Bloomberg wants the best gun control money can buy. Now he’s crapping all over Oregon trying to keep a bill banning private transfers in the Beaver State alive and well.Â Bloomberg is also dumping another $400,000 bucks against Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, andÂ funding a 100-day bus tour for MAIG. He continues to pour money into running campaign ads for Mark Pryor in Arkansas by letting everyone know he’s a pro-gun Democrat.

But all kidding aside, Bloomberg’s money can do serious harm. Politicians will fear what Bloomberg’s money can buy. Money in politics is so important, it’s going to take millions of us just to counter what Bloomberg can put into a race.Â Traditionally gun owners are much better at negative reinforcement than positive reinforcement, in other words, we’re better at voting those who cross us out of office than working to help keep people who vote with us in office. If people want to understand why we can’t, for instance, get the Hughes Amendment repealed, this is why. If you’re only good on defense, you convince people to play defense for you, but convincing them to go on the offense gets harder. Also, if you can’t defend the people who vote with you, you’ll run out of friends in a legislature quickly.

In 2014, destroying Bloomberg has to be a top priority, and that means every race he dumps money into, he loses. That means politicians like Ayotte are going to need our boots on the ground to counter his money. If Bloomberg can show his money can buy elections, the pendulum on this issue is going to swing, and swing hard. Our biggest asset is that everyone generally thinks Bloomberg is a rich asshole, but rich assholes can buy elections. But money isn’t any substitute for the hard mechanics of coalition building, community organizing, and getting people out to the polls on election day. If that weren’t the case, Mitt Romney would be President right now.

When Would You Walk Away?

Sean decided to take down his post on his shooting class, but Tam brings up the interesting topic of walking away. Just when would you do it? I tend to think I wouldn’t walk away from a class I drove a long way for, and paid for, unless the violations were pretty blatantly unsafe, more important, jeopardized myÂ safety. I’d probably be more tolerant of minor stupidity that jeopardized the instructor. I’d be tempted to stick around just to see how much other blog fodder I can get out of the class. But to everything there are limits. I definitely wouldn’t agree to draw a gun, even one I had verified is unloaded, with someone downrange. But a gun with the slide locked back and no magazine in it? I definitely wouldn’t appreciate an instructor who was waving it around like a squirt gun, but I probably wouldn’t have it in me to have a cow over it. I was also surprised that people believed blue guns should be treated like regular guns. I thought the purpose of a blue gun was so you could do things with it you wouldn’t want to do with real firearms? When would you leave a class over safety concerns? Do you have to follow the 4 rules with blue guns? What’s your opinion.

Anti-Gun PA Activists Demand Gun Control

Anti-gun folks gathered at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg to demand gun control, in what looks to be a Bloomberg branded event.

Those at the gun violence prevention rally â€“ including representatives from Mayors Against Illegal Guns, CeaseFirePA, Mothers in Charge and others â€“ are supporting three bills in particular:

Â House Bill 1010: Introduced by Santarsiero in March, this bill would amend the stateâ€™s current background checks policy to include long guns like assault rifles and shotguns.

Â House Bill 1479: Introduced by State Rep. Kevin Boyle, D-Philadelphia, on Monday, this bill would prohibit large capacity magazines.

Â House Bill 1515: Introduced Wednesday by State Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery, this bill would require individuals report when their firearms are lost or stolen.

Boyleâ€™s limit on high-capacity magazines bill, perhaps the boldest of the three measures, is about â€œprotecting human life,â€ he said.

These are likely going to be the first bills we’re going to be facing if the power structure in the PA legislature switches from R to D. It doesn’t look like much of a crowd, to be honest, when you compare it to the crowd the pro-2A community turned out in April without our state being under any serious threat.

Off Google Reader

Last night I finally made the transition away from Google Reader, given that I don’t have much more time before it disappears entirely. I decided to set up my own instance of Tiny Tiny RSSÂ to act as a substitute, and so far it seems to work pretty well. I also took the chance to remove some old blogs that had been long abandoned, and added a few new ones. We’ll see how well things go with this. Given Google’s penchant for killing products, I may try to make myself entirely Google free.

Obama’s Gun Numbers

They continue to decline. A Rasmussen poll released yesterday shows that only 37% of voters give him positive reviews, while 46% give him a poor rating. Also, the poll shows Republicans have the edge over Democrats when it comes to trust on the gun issue. But I thought gun control was popular?

Rich People Try to Silence You Peon Gun Owners

Sportsman blogger Jim Braaten posted something that caught my attention today:

WTF? Ken Burns you just lost a follower and supporter. MT @kenburns: Today we launch StopTheNRA.com to do just that.

— Jim Braaten (@jim7226) June 5, 2013

I find it interesting that a site promoted by a New Yorker who is wealthy partly due to his films that show on taxpayer-funded public television is also funded by rich New York venture capitalists (with a California partner who founded the website promoting their efforts) who are using it to promote the political organization of a New York City billionaire is demanding that the ability of little voters who don’t have as much money as they do to organize, communicate, and take action be “stopped.”

Being a native of so-called flyover country, I get so sick of these self-important rich assholes from the coasts assuming that they can “stop” my political activities, “stop” my personal associations, and “stop” me from having a voice in my government. There is nothing about gun ownership that they aren’t ready to mock and attack, including hunting. In fact, the website’s biggest attack features on NRA’s actual statements and online presence in recent days are actually targeted to NRABlog, a site that has nothing to do with the politics of the debate at all. For them, the only motivation is to completely “stop” your way of life and “stop” your ability to participate in government the same way they do.

Jumping the Shark

I think the Simpsons jumped the shark a while ago, and I haven’t watched it for a long time. Now here’s another reason not to consume their product. I can have a sense of humor when our side gets satirized well, but most of the time the cultural elite try to satirize gun owners, it ends up not being funny at all. I’ve had a phrase going through my head lately “Let their hate unite us.”

The Gun Vote Looks to be Fired Up

Missouri’s special election yesterday to fill the 8th district Congressional seat was expected to be a likely win for Republicans since, according to Charlie Cook, that’s a R+17 district. The final result ended up being an R+40 win. That’s not a typo, that’s a 40 point win in a district where Republicans have a registration advantage of less than half of that number.

I was not watching this race at all, but it appears that guns may have been a bit of an issue. The Reuters summary of the race mentioned that Democratic State Rep. Steve Hodges actually ran a campaign based on being pro-gun. The NRA ratings for the race show that there was still a distinction between the two. Republican State Rep. Jason Smith had a solid A rating that earned him the NRA endorsement while Hodges had an A-.

If gun owners did turn out and help make this such a landslide victory, then I hope it will inspire other gun owners in the rest of the country.

The Federal Gun Control Push

I find it quite interesting that just as Sen. Richard Blumenthal announces that he’s going to bog the pending immigration bill down with gun control amendments, Majority Leader Harry Reid comes out and announces he’s getting the gun control gang back together for another round of stand-alone legislation.

The timing of this makes it appear as though Reid is trying to keep the new gun control crusaders from derailing the entire White House agenda. Of course, if Reid has to do this every time they threaten a key piece of legislation, Sen. Joe Manchin may not ever get a break from having his name attached to gun control in West Virginia for the rest of his term. What he may have believed was a one time thing in the first year of his new term may become a semi-annual debate that always puts his name in the headlines for target the guns of West Virginians. I have no pity for him since he’s clearly digging in for the long haul on this fight. At least Sen. Pat Toomey looked at the writing on the wall and knew to drop the debate.