For once I am going to join with the Brady Campaign in opposing a piece of legislation in the form of the DISCLOSE act. The vote on DISCLOSE is going to be today. It’s important that we light up the switchboards if we want to stop this. You can find contact information here. It will be a huge embarrassment too Pelosi and the White House if this goes down to defeat.
Anti-Gun Groups Petitioning German Parliament
Apparently Germany’s strict gun laws are not enough:
The “Keine Mordwaffen als Sportwaffen” campaign is using Great Britain as the example of how it believes the German government should act. Following a shooting spree in the Scottish town of Dunblane in 1996, the British government banned the private ownership of all handguns, and confiscated thousands of weapons in exchange for financial compensation. The move was also the result of a massive popular campaign that collected over a million signatures, despite heavy criticism from gun lobbies and sports clubs.
Because that worked oh so well didn’t it? The nutjob still got a gun. BTW, “Keine Mordwaffen als Sportwaffen” means “No Murder Weapons as Sporting Weapons.” Since you can use any firearm as a murder weapon, that pretty much tells you what their agenda is, doesn’t it? What’s next? “Keine Mordmesser als Kuchenmesser?”
Machine Gun Sammy
I had almost forgot until SayUncle mentioned it that Alito was once called by our opponents “Machine Gun Sam” during his confirmation fight. Here’s why:
In a lone dissenting opinion as a federal appeals court judge in 1996, Alito argued that the federal ban on possessing machine guns was unconstitutional — a stand described by both admirers and detractors Tuesday as one of the most revealing cases in the lengthy judicial record of President Bush’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.
I would note, however, that his reasoning in this case was based on commerce clause grounds and not the Second or Fourteenth Amendments. What makes me nervous about Alito was his deference to the government in his dissent in the Stevens case. My other concern is that he’s from New Jersey — he grew up in Hamilton about 15 minutes from where I live. I don’t know how familiar he is with the issue and the gun culture. Now Scalia is from New York City, but Scalia also is a hunter and a shooter, and even has stories about how you used to be able to carry a rifle on the New York Subway system without everyone freaking out. So my concern is likely a case of the jitters.
At this point I’m not worried that we have lost. I think we will have won McDonald at the end of the day on Monday. My worry is that we’re going to get dicta that’s less firm that we need it to be. Granted, the important thing is that we win, and it looking likely. Let’s hope my fears are completely unfounded, and this turns out to be a solid, decisive opinion.
Looks Like It’s Alito
Expect McDonald to be handed out Monday, the last day of the Supreme Court’s term. In the opinions handed down today, Justice Ginsburg wrote an opinion from the same sitting as McDonald. This likely puts her out of the running. You can all breathe a bit easier now, though, to be honest, I’m nervous about it being Alito. Hopefully this goes over well. Cross your fingers folks.
UPDATE: Opinions are handed down in reverse order of seniority, so if Alito is writing the opinion, McDonald will likely be among first case released among the set of opinions to be released on Monday.
Civil Rights Victory
News came yesterday from Kim Stolfer of Firearms Owners Against Crime that Mayor Bill Goldsworthy of West Pittston, PA has resigned from the group, thanks to the work of a handful of dedicated FOAC activists. It doesn’t take much to make a difference. Sometimes it can just be a matter of explaining to your mayor what MAIG has been up to. By now we have clear and convincing evidence they are the same tired agenda slickly repackaged as an anti-crime measure.
More Crap From the “Family” Groups
For those who believe these people are about freedom, think again. See this media release from GOProud:
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, GOProud, the only national organization of gay conservatives and their allies, responded to attacks from the anti-gay Family Research Council (click here and here). “Over the last week, the Family Research Council has shown its true colors – attacking GOProud for working with the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America to protect 2nd Amendment rights, attacking GOProud for supporting cutting taxes on American families, and for supporting the free market healthcare reform proposal offered by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK),” said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director. “These attacks make it clear the Family Research Council doesn’t care one iota about the conservative agenda.”
I’m not speaking of individual conservative Christians. I know many, and they believe in small government and individual freedom. They understand what free will means. But the groups that claim to speak for them have become bastions of big government, and now are criticizing our promotion of the Second Amendment as a right of all Americans, no matter what their color, creed or persuasion:
Equalize “concealed carry reciprocity†amendment with gay rights via state rights. Support guns being carried and recognized across state lines, in order to further the agenda that gay marriages legal in only a few states be recognized legally in all. (July 2009)
Get that? National reciprocity is part of a homosexual conspiracy to get gay marriage legalized. Please don’t anyone tell Rep. Metcalfe that!
Texas GOP Still Running Scared from Gay Cooties?
I’ve had a few people send me this article from the Raw Story. Not really the raw story, because these passages are cherry picked from a very long document, and a are a bit distorted. For instance, it would only be a felony for officials to issue a marriage license to same sex couples. Gay marriage itself would not be a felony. But nonetheless, there is this:
We believe that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit, and leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans.
Read the whole sorry section. Really guys? When this was what the debate was about the Democrats were kicking our asses all over creation. The polling for these kinds of issues is looking increasingly favorable to Democrats, especially for younger people.
It’s one thing to oppose gay marriage. This is a safe position for the time being, and has to do with state power rather than individual liberty. But standing in favor of criminalizing sodomy, cracking down on porn, gambling, and using the FCC to crack down on that which the Christian right finds offensive? Explain to me what these things have to do with promoting individual freedom and encouraging small government? That’s right, exactly nothing.
God help the GOP if the Democrats actually learn something from the beating they are about to take this election.
Castle Backing Away from DISCLOSE
Even RINO support seems to be drying up. Granted he’s disgusted by the deal rather than the unconscionable restrictions on free speech, which really tells you all you need to know about Mike Castle. It doesn’t look to me like it’s going to get easier for Pelosi to push this bill forward with time, but health care looked doomed more than a few times, until it wasn’t.
Gun Control …
Westchester Gun Show
I was happy to see this news from Jacob, that the Westchester Gun Show, running in one of the suburbs of New York City, was back in business after being closed down in post-Columbine hysterics. At first I thought this was good news, but I am so thankful for the New York media pointing out that it was just a bunch of nazis. The New York Daily News I am particularly grateful for pointing out that no one has thought of the children, in addition to driving home the whole nazi thing.
But in all seriousness, we all know most guns hows have militaria, and a lot of the same people who collect guns collect militaria, this reinforces my view that gun show promoters who are operating in hostile media markets (and you don’t get much more hostile than New York City’s) need to think about public and media relations. I actually would like to see NSSF do more to reach out to gun show promoters and try to build some accepted practices. I am absolutely not suggesting this road needs to lead down the path of removing militaria from gun shows, but as we restore gun rights to a lot of these infringing jurisdictions, we’re going to continue to have this problem, and have to have a plan.
The Daily News and the Journal News ought to be ashamed of themselves for such one sided, shoddy journalism, but we can expect more of this kind of thing if we don’t think about how to mitigate the problem.