The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
From Twitter, in regards to our attempts to promote Cam Edwards’s answer to CSGV promoting a link to a poetry slam:
Yeah, I enjoyed that. No doubt they will keep pimping that link over and over in the hopes of getting more people to watch it. We accomplished that in 24 hours, and entirely through grassroots efforts. NRA News made the video, but we promoted it. And just so we can beat them even more, feel free to click here and watch if you haven’t already.
Shooting Illustrated shows off a collection of gun related tattoos. I’m especially a fan of the “I’m the NRA” ass tattoo. Now that’s dedication!
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the NRA Annual Meeting:
The convention is attended by a good number of families, and the exhibit areas are designed to be safe for children — the guns on display are disabled, no live ammunition is exhibited (canine sweeps will check daily for gunpowder), and attendees carrying weapons are barred from unholstering them. Manufacturers will be showing off their latest models, but firearms will not be on sale on-site as they would be at a gun show.
Gunpowder sniffing dogs in a room full of gun nuts? Those dogs are going to be acting like a hippy in a field of ganga. I’m going to bet they mean explosive sniffing dogs, and someone drew some conclusions. But I’m going to guess that the dogs aren’t present to root out live ammunition. My understanding is the primary safety precaution for guns on the floor is that their firing pins have been removed.
This is one area I’m really glad to disappoint them, but look at the arrogance in the reporting:
But the gun lobby cowed the committee into inaction by flooding the hearing room with more than 200 people in March. Ranking Judiciary Committee member Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, is right that lawmakers should listen to constituents. But they also have a duty to consider common sense and whether a bill would enhance public safety.
It wasn’t citizens who flooded the hearing, it was “the gun lobby.” That nefarious, nameless evil. We know better. Kudos to everyone who showed up to the committee hearing. That, more than anything, is responsible for the bill’s swift death.
Apparently, the Pittsburgh equivalent of the classic cheesesteak is a sandwich from a chain of joints known as Primanti Brothers. Unfortunately for those of you who plan on attending the NRA meeting and want to try a bit of local cuisine, you should probably know that Primanti Brothers hosted Bloomberg’s anti-gun billboard campaign at their Pittsburgh stop back in February.
You can see from the pictures that they set up the truck at the front of the parking lot and then the staff invited Bloomberg’s crew behind the counter to promote anti-gun legislation while the staff wore the MAIG t-shirts. Know that if you spend your money at Primanti Brothers, you’re supporting a company that supports Bloomberg’s work to restrict our rights.
Looks like there’s going to be a vote on the pigeon shooting ban. I am not happy that legislators are going to be made to post a vote on this issue. It’s a real complication for gun rights, and I’m not keen to just hand a victory to HSUS, who you can bet will be back for more if they win this. A lot of suburban legislators who are otherwise friendly are going to get dinged for voting in favor of this. But considering there are a number of clubs that still do this kind of shooting, NRA is going to be in opposition.
I would advise you to call your Senators and oppose the ban. This is going to open up a can of worms I don’t want to open if this gets the thumbs up and heads to the house. It will complicate everything else we’re trying to accomplish.
Miguel picks off another gem from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence’s Facebook page. This guy apparently thinks we’re plotting to kill liberals, gays, Jews, and certainly all those scary furners. They claim we’re doing this so we can turn cannibal once the plan goes into place. I kid you not. I’ve long known some of our opponents are as nutty as rabid squirrels, but I didn’t think so many of them would be so quick to broadcast it in public.
I hold out the possibility that this was a lame attempt at humor, but it’s hard to tell. The real funny thing here is anti-semitism being attributed to a gun rights group founded by a Jewish man, and for Jewish people. Really? JPFO might be over the top, but I give them a break. They have 6 million reasons to take this stuff to a greater extreme.
I’ve never been to an NRA meeting that had a serious protest. A few stragglers showed up last year, and did one of those morbid “lie-ins.” This year it looks like there are going to try to organize a whole bonafide rally, organized by the Unitarian Church. I will let our protest be the 65,000+ people who are bound to show up in Pittsburgh. I think that’ll send a stronger message to the politicians than any sad display they may put on outside of Annual Meeting.
I love it when our opponents do this stuff. Why? Because it helps motivate our own people, to know they are hated and loathed for valuing an important constitutional right, and enjoying a hobby. Let them show themselves to be the radical prohibitionists they are. I can’t think of anything that will help the NRA more than that happening right outside their Annual Meeting. They are shooting for 300 people. To be honest, I’ll be surprised if they managed 1/3rd that number.
But 300 seems to be the magic number. For instance, Heeding God’s Call was all about protesting gun shops in Philly this weekend, claiming 300 people. Thirdpower has some photos of protest up on his blog, and it looks like an order of magnitude fewer people. I’ve been to gun blogger events with more people than that.
I am very pleased with our opponents having to wrap themselves up with the peace movement in order to keep some semblance of a cause alive. That pushes them farther and farther out of the mainstream, and I think that will only benefit us.
Anyone following our opponents on Twitter knows they’ve been pimping this link, which is a poetry slam against carry on campus. Well, Cam Edwards came up with this own parody on this video, which you can see here:
Cam’s video is at 179 already. CSGV, for all that pimping, only has 470. How long do you think it’ll take for Cam’s to pass theirs?
In addition to about a dozen rifles, the museum will showcase gear essential to the true rifleman. Powder horns — cow horns used to carry gunpowder — make an appearance, including an 18th century example engraved with patriotic sayings: “LIBERTY OR DEATH,” “KILL OR be KILLD.”
Pretty clearly Coalition to Stop Gun Violence would have serious issues with Fort Pitt Museum celebrating these dangerous militia insurrectionists.