Eric Holder to Head Up DOJ

Kurt Hoffman notes Obama’s pick for the Department of Justice.  This is the position that will most affect gun owners, and his stance on gun rights doesn’t look good.  I will say, however, that if Mr. Holder can prevent his department from burning down houses with children in it, murdering women and children with sniper fire, or pointing submachine guns at 6 year olds, his record will at least be better than his Democratic predecessor.  I will hope that he adopts Obama’s “Yes we can!” attitude in terms of trying to achieve that particular goal.  Come to think of it, it wouldn’t really be that hard to top the performance of the last Republican occupant of that office either.  I would hope Mr. Holder can agree with us that these are realistic, and achievable goals.

UPDATE: Someone points out that Ruby Ridge was at the end of the Bush I presidency, and that would seem to be correct.  But I would note that it doesn’t appear Janet Reno did much housecleaning to get rid of the people who concocted the unlawful rules of engagement.

Blog Bash Attendance Looking Good

Looks like we’ll have quite a crowd at the blog bash at the NRA Annual Meeting in Phoenix next year.  I just have to say, it would be really really cool if NRA could get Governor Palin to speak at the meeting next year.  I know NRA people read.  So yeah, take that as a suggestion from me.  Well, probably from all of us.

.50 Caliber Nonsense

Kurt Hoffman finds some ridiculous assertions about the New Jersey ban on .50 caliber firearms.  The vote that was scheduled for last night has been postponed to December, according to ANJRPC:

In response to your calls, faxes, and emails, the New Jersey Assembly on November 17 delayed passage of A2116 (banning most firearms of .50 caliber or larger) and instead amended the legislation in an attempt to respond to gun owner concerns. The amended bill could be considered by the full Assembly as soon as December.

The amendments are currently under review and further alerts will be forthcoming. However, no amount of tinkering can “fix” a gun ban, and A2116 remains fundamentally flawed legislation because it bans handguns and long guns based on the size of the hole in the barrel instead of punishing criminal behavior.

Please continue to contact your Assembly members and oppose A2116. Their contact information is available here.

Hopefully they’ll find better things to do, like fixing the gaping holes in the state’s budget.

When To Worry

There are literally hundreds of bills that get introduced in Congress, or thousands if you count the legislatures of the several states, each legislative session.  Most of them aren’t going anywhere.  Every Congress since the Assault Weapons Ban expired have had a bill to renew, and an even worse bill.  They are typically introduced by the usual suspects, and will languish in committee, never to see the light of day.  The mere introduction of a bill means nothing.

When to start worrying is if you see a sudden surge in legislators co-sponsoring a bill.  When you start approaching a majority, or large majority of the house co-sponsoring a bill, that increasing the likelihood that the bill will get a hearing in committee.  The time to start worrying about a new assault weapons ban is if one of the introduced bills gets a committee hearing.  If there was going to be a time I’d suggest buying, that would be the time.

Even if a bill gets a hearing, it doesn’t mean it will be passed out of the committee on to the floor.  The committee chairs decide what gets a hearing, and what does not.  The Chairman of the Committee that handles things like assault weapons bans is John Conyers, and probably will be in the 111th Congress as well.  The composition of the committee makes it challenging for us, but we have yet to see a bill get a hearing in this Congress.

We do keep track of this stuff, and if it looks like things are going against us, you’ll hear it on the blogosphere first.

Wayne Goes to Ohio

Yesterday, Wayne LaPierre spoke at Ashland University about the very real dangers that await gun owners even after our SCOTUS victory.

Historic victories for gun rights occurred in 2008, but the fight for firearm freedoms must continue to preserve the Second Amendment, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told a crowd on Monday at Ashland University. …

“Seventy-five years ago in his first inauguration as president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,’ ” he said. “Today, I would argue almost the exact reverse is true. The greatest thing we have to fear in many ways is not enough Americans are afraid, because not enough realize what grave dangers are out there to our freedoms.”

There is a lot of truth in that statement. To back up his words, he highlighted interviews with Katrina victims who were then victimized by government officials who took their guns and comments from Rebecca Peters encouraging a limit to the kinds of guns hunters are allowed to own. There are still many gun owners out there who don’t know these things happened and who would find it hard to imagine even if you told them about it.

Get Real

The Beaver County Times thinks we need to “Get Real”:

Like gun control, that’s not going to happen. Here’s just a partial to-do list for Obama and Congress: an economic meltdown, an unstable stock market, a dreadful businesses climate, home foreclosures, rising unemployment, record federal deficits, rampant entitlement spending, growing status as a debtor nation, a sickly health-care system, climate crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and terrorism.

And the Democrats’ priorities are guns and talk radio? Get real.

Yeah, except that it’s in his transition platform.  If it’s not something his administration will want to do, why is it in there?  Is the media even bothering to actually do reporting anymore?

UPDATE: Compare and contrast to the Dallas Morning News, who actually managed to write a good news article that sought varying positions and opinions, including Steve Halbrook’s, who says we don’t have to panic.  I should note I’m not planning on buying an AR right now.  We should have good warning on any impending ban.