Thanks to all our readers who came out to the Friends’ dinner tonight. Our table was very lucky, since I think we had two raffle winners sitting at it. For the size of the dinner, and for a first year dinner, we did very well. More than $5000 raised for the NRA Foundation, $2500 of which will stay in Pennsylvania shooting programs. Hopefully next year we’ll top 100 people, and even more.
Many thanks to reader Adam Z. who walked away with a very expensive NRA toaster. It’s for a good cause. Many thanks to our friends at Great Satan Inc, who’s ticket gift helped us sell a few more when we really needed to fill seats. We had a little over 80 folks, but they were folks willing to spend money. Despite the fact that I’m out of work, I put 200 of my own dollars into the tickets, games, and silent auction. I think it’s a good cause.
National Reciprocity is seriously disturbing the powers that be. One of the things I use to determine whether we’re fighting for something that matters is the people it’s pissing off. So far HR822 is making the grade on that count.
One of the first memes is this butchers states rights. That would be true if this bill were based solely on the commerce power of Congress, but it is largely based on Congress’ 14th Amendment power to pass legislation to protect Constitutional rights. There is a very strong case to be made that post Heller and McDonald, Congress has a power to protect the right to bear arms. There is also a case to be made on Congress’ power to legislate Full Faith and Credit.
One of our opponents arguments is that most licenses to carry are simple documents that are easy to forge. This is true. The reason is because a concealed carry license is not meant to be used for identification, which is what the state drivers’ license is for. Under this bill, you’d be required to carry identification in addition to your license to carry. Ramsey testified that a person that the lack of standards is a problem. Our opponents are going to push to get some federal standards in the bill in an attempt to scuttle it.
Truth is, if there are federal standards, it becomes a more dubious exercise of federal power. The 14th Amendment only allows you to protect a right, and then only to the agree the right is recognized by the Courts, and the Full Faith and Credit clause is arguably also limited. This bill only forces states to recognized each other’s permits, and not much more. It also stipulates the person had to be eligible to possess firearms under federal law.
Today is the day of our Bucks County Friends of the NRA dinner. I thank those of you who bought tickets. As I mentioned, Friends goes to the NRA programs which are relatively uncontroversial among the parts of the population who aren’t hysterical, such as youth shooting programs. I’ll have to head over to the hall in a few hours to get everything ready. Bitter is co-chair of the committee and has put in a lot of work on this. I am on the committee, but I’m just helping out where I can. In the past week we’ve sold enough tickets to take the attendance from embarrassing to pretty reasonable. We’re still under our goals by a good bit, but we won’t lose money on the event.
New Hampshire is now a castle doctrine state, thanks to the 251 to 111 vote in the House. The Senate voted earlier to override by 17 to 7. It becomes law despite the veto from the Governor.
I don’t think hunting can be saved. I don’t think this because it’s impossible, but because hunters don’t seem to have the “no one gets thrown off the lifeboat” attitude that’s become prevalent among gun rights activists. Divide and conquer is an easy strategy with that community, and it’s certainly one that will be relentlessly exploited by the opponents of hunting until it is no more.
Unfortunately for those of us in the shooting community, hunters are still people of the gun, and once they are gone, we will have to hope not to be eaten last.
SayUncle finds some evidence for why SWAT teams are so predominant these days. I kind of wonder whether there’s not a good bit of wanting to be what you see on TV in law enforcement circles. Years ago, you’d cowboy up to go deal with the local town trouble, not unlike what you would have seen in a TV Western. I can remember as a kid, the ending scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation, where the SWAT team closes in on Clark Griswold, armed with a BB gun. That was supposed to be a joke back then, but I don’t think anyone would get the humor today. It would be interesting to find how much TV culture shapes the law enforcement culture.
Tam’s wikihole adventure yesterday morning, in regards to the world of Sid and Marty Krofft, took me back. Some of my formative childhood experiences were from one of their shows, namely Land of the Lost. Looking at the date on those, I was probably picking up reruns a few years after it originally aired. My sister and I had a stay  home mom, who’s stay at home mom gossip circle were the ladies by the kiddie pool at the local swim club.
There were two shows I’d throw fits over missing if we were dragged to the pool. One was Star Blazers, and the other was Land of the Lost. We were fortunate to be early adopters of VHS technology, which enabled my mother to set the primitive timing device to record my shows, and get me to the pool with minimal complaint. Sadly, I don’t think I kept any of these recordings, but for those of you of a different generation, thanks to the miracle of YouTube and internets, you can find it here:
I had a horrible little boy crush on the Holly character. I can remember being young begging my parents to take me to a place regularly advertised on TV in the Philadelphia area, Crystal Cave, in Kutztown. As a small child, I was convinced if I could get to these caves, I could unlock the secrets that would allow me to control the universe, bring on the Sleetak/Dinosaur revolution, and be with Holly forever. Eventually my parents relented, and we went. I was thrilled with anticipation. When I got there… no friggin pylons. In case you’re not sure what I’m saying here, there were no friggin pylons! What kind of lame-ass place calls themselves Crystal Cave, and no only are there no pylons, there aren’t even any damned crystals. No Sleestaks, and definitely no dinosaurs. The secrets of the universe turned out to be pretty damned lame to me as a young kid.
I’ve been in caverns since, but I’ve never been back to Crystal Cave. Maybe it’s time to go back and give it another chance.
