Soldier of Fortune is offering their own board endorsements here. We are pleased to see there is significant overlap with our NRA board endorsements, with Scott Bach, Joe DeBergalis, and Edie Fleeman (Fleeman is her married name, she’s typically gone by Reynolds for the board elections, but I notice it was “Fleeman ‘Reynolds'” on the ballot) . Also, Bob Brown is one of our other endorsements, and is publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine.
Month: February 2009
WSJ Covers Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show
Very positive coverage, I would say, from this article. Looks like outfitters aren’t doing too badly during the bad economy either. I’m wondering if hunting is benefiting from reductions in gasoline prices as much as it might be hurt by the economy. With travel not costing as much, it might be a good explanation.
More on Importation Rules
We’ve discussed pretty thoroughly the letter from Congressman Engel here, here, and here. It turns out it’s not just so called “assault weapons” that we need to worry about, it’s also pistols. I was talking to SayUncle the other night, and he brought up this old post of his which outlines the ATF point system for pistols. The interesting thing about this, is if this is the system ATF uses, it’s just an ATF policy. The regulation actually says on the importation Form 6, the importer must include:
(F) If a firearm barrel for a handgun, an explanation why the handgun is generally recognized as particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.
This, folks, means the Glock you’re carrying on your hip could be banned just by a mere policy change, which could be done by executive order with no rulemaking process at all. ATF can just change it’s policy to exclude Glocks, because they aren’t suitable for sporting purposes.
Gun Control Dynamics in New York
This poll is rather shocking. It shows Kirsten Gillibrand losing in a Democratic primary to Carolyn McCarty, with 34 percent of Democratic voters supporting McCarthy, with only 24 percent supporting Gillibrand. I’m a bit like a kid with an ant farm over this whole topic. A pro-gun politician elevated to represent a staunchly anti-gun state as a member of the staunchly anti-gun party is not something I’ve seen in my lifetime, and it’s been fascinating to watch.
I still don’t believe there’s any real passion for gun control, even among New York City Democrats. If there were, we’d run into them more often, and we don’t. Even the Huffington Post is a rather lonely place for Paul Helmke. But the fact remains that Carolyn McCarthy, a Congresswoman from Long Island, who’s sole issue is gun control, and who had no success getting anything relating to guns passed until NRA rewrote one of her bills and backed it, is ahead in polling for the Dem primary.
My theory is that it’s not so much gun control itself that is the issue, but that it represents a cultural signaling mechanism to the downstate establishment. Gillibrand’s support of gun rights signals that she is not one of them. That she comes from an area that hunts, fishes, and shoots. That’s something upstate cousin-humpers do. Those aren’t the values of the Upper East Side. The message hammered home by the media downstate is that Kirsten Gillibrand is not one of you. She’s not New York. Carrie McCarthy? Well, she’s from Long Island at least. I do think the cultural condescention is actually that bad among upper middle class urban dwellers from the Northeast, which are going to be heavily represented in any Democratic primary in New York State.
I actually think framing the debate in terms of hunting hurts her. Self-defense is another matter, and if I were advising Gillibrand on how to handle the gun issue, I would advise her to steer clear of hunting. Hunting is something completely alien to someone who has lived in New York City all their lives. Most everyone, even liberal Democrats, can relate to wanting to protect their family and their homes. Gillibrand will no doubt want the media to drop the gun issue completely, but they won’t. Given that, if she is going to keep her position on the issue, she needs to speak about it in a context New Yorkers can understand.
Is Philadelphia This Screwed Up?
This seems pretty screwed up if you ask me. My first question is why is a judge using a police roll call room as an impromptu courtroom? Shouldn’t a judge have their own courtroom? Or at least a courtroom shared among several judges?
And if you’re a judge, who has to hold hearings in a police roll call room, isn’t it understandable that the decorum, I don’t know, might more accurately reflect that of a police station rather than a court room, especially one that just lost an officer.
I can understand the desire to create an appearance of impartiality, but when the city apparently has no money for a proper court room, and you have to use a police station, it seems to be you should respect the people who primarily use the room. It’s not like the person appearing before you won’t understand he’s being arraigned in a police station.
Fixed Question Form
My apologies for those of you who tried to submit a question to our board candidates. I have fixed the problem with the form.
Anodized Obama
Downstate/Upstate
Tom King talks about the dichotomy that exists within the Empire State, and how it could play out for gun owners there. Things do not look very good in New York State right now, so now is not the time to be complacent.
NRA Board Candidate Interviews
We’re going to be conducting interviews with three of our endorsed NRA board candidates. I have created a form by which readers can submit questions. I decided to use a form, rather than the comments so that I can direct questions into folders I have created for the specific candidates in my mailbox. Plus, I don’t want the candidates to see the questions ahead of time.
I will narrow down the interviews to probably no more than six questions, with maybe a follow up or two. Keep in mind the different backgrounds of the candidates. I’d like to get some good shooting sports questions for Edie Reynolds, for instance, since that’s what she brings to the table. Scott Bach is President of ANJRPC, so some New Jersey questions would be good for him. Joe DeBergalis has a law enforcement background, so that’s an angle to explore there.
The DOJ Response in NPS Brady Suit
Some folks have asked about the DOJ response in the case the Brady Campaign have brought against the Department of Interior over the National Park carry rule. For those of you who are interested, here it is. I’ll update with later with any thoughts I have on it.
UPDATE: It appears that NRA and Mountain States Legal Fund filed a Motion to Intervene. What this is, essentially, is NRA and MSLF asking to become a party to the lawsuit. DOJ, in this brief, is asking the court, that if they grant the motion, that they limit the intervention, so as not to “unduly multiply or delay these proceedings.”
I could be wrong about this, but it looks to me like DOJ would rather NRA and MSLF not be involved in the case, but don’t really have any legal grounds to argue they shouldn’t be. The consequences of the limits being asked for is that the NRA and MSLF will be limited from seeking “discovery or extra-record consideration,” basically meaning they won’t be able to demand documents and other items from the agency in an attempt to build a case.