April 2009 – Page 6 – Shall Not Be Questioned

World Turned Upside Down

What does it means when you have an editorial in the US News and World Report that says gun control is unconstitutional, period, and the Baltimore Sun runs an article about the ineffectiveness of the gun control movement?

It’s part of American legend that when Corwallis’ men surrendered to Washington and LaFayette after the Battle of Yorktown, effectively ending the American Revolution, the band played “The World Turned Upside Down.”Â Someone send Paul Helmke a fife.Â If the media abandoned them, all is lost.Â That’s not to say gun control is dead, but the current incarnation might be.Â Will there be a rebirth?Â Will Brady change their name again?Â Who knows.Â But pretty clearly what they are doing now isn’t working.

What Will NRA Do?

I was just tying up some loose ends with the Blog Bash this morning, and a thought occurred to me. This year’s banquet speaker was supposed to be Rush Limbaugh. Something in his schedule conflicted and he had to back out, but a note was sent to attendees that he promises to come to the 2010 banquet in North Carolina.

Only now, after he negotiated with NRA (presumably for a pricey speaking fee), Rush decided to become a shill for HSUS, an organization that vows to ban hunting and sponsors ballot initiatives to close down hunting seasons.

Now I suppose I have an interesting question for one of our sessions at the Blog Bash – will the staff who plan the NRA Annual Meeting for Charlotte continue to extend an invitation to (and pay) Rush to speak in light of his new support for HSUS? Will we give a stage to someone who is recording PSAs for an organization that seeks to end our hunting heritage if he does not apologize?

While I’m on the subject of pondering next year’s Annual Meeting, want to take bets on how many patriotic words NRA can fit into a banquet title? In 2007, I recall the event was simply called the National Rifle Association Annual Banquet. In 2008, it was the National Rifle Association Celebration of American Values Annual Banquet. In 2009, they have renamed it the National Rifle Association Celebration of American Values Freedom Experience Banquet.

If you can come up with a more patriotic sounding title using as many words as possible, I will submit it to NRA as a suggestion for the 2010 banquet. If there is sufficient interest and entertainment value, I’ll try to sweet talk Sebastian into awarding a prize for the best suggestion.

UPDATE: I forgot to add that another twist in the “WWNRAD” (What will NRA do?) saga is that they opted not to sign onto a letter with 28 other sportsmen’s groups asking Rush to stop supporting HSUS and their anti-hunting agenda. I will be sure to ask why they didn’t sign on to the group letter at the Bash, too. It’s quite curious considering they are usually part of these group efforts.

UPDATE: NSSF has posted the letter where you can see NRA did not join. (Before anyone asks, yes, they are on the list of groups notified when an effort like this is being organized.)

More on Self-Defense

Brillianter has two more good bits on handgun retention, and verbal commands.Â Verbal commands is one area I never really worked on, and probably should if I’m going to carry a pistol for self-defense.Â Despite the fact that I never shut up here, I’m not the most vocal person you could ever know in person.

ATF Reform

Even the agents are calling for it now.

Quote of the Day

From Clayton Cramer over on Volokh’s comment thread about the VPC deception:

I have this fantasy of a world where gun rights scholars get to work full-time at it, and gun control advocates have day jobs to slow them down.

I’m sure Clayton has even less free time than I do.Â I say this still at work at close to eight because taking a day off on Tuesday to go to Harrisburg put me way behind at a critical time for our company.Â I’m missing Silhouette tonight, which doesn’t make me happy.

Extremist T-Shirts

Jennifer is selling some really great T-shirt for future tea party goers.Â I think it’s a great all around T-shirt.Â Perhaps another for Kevin Baker to add to his collection.

Open Carry Issue in Pennsylvania

Yesterday we covered the incident with the Milwaukee Police Cheif in Wisconsin.Â Now it looks like we have another media relations issue brewing here in Pennsylvania with some of our open carry activists over a planned picnic.Â Reporting in the Hazleton Standard Speaker:

The gun rights group that held a picnic in Hazle Township Community Park last year in a public demonstration of their right to openly carry firearms is planning a spring picnic at the park.

This time, theyâ€™ve selected a date that they believe will guarantee a large public crowd.

Members and supporters of the Pennsylvania Firearm Owners Association have scheduled their picnic for May 16 â€“ the same date as the local American Red Crossâ€™ Celebration of Life Walk, which is held annually at the township park on American Armed Forces Day.

The double date is not a coincidence, the gun owners say.

They make it sound like it was intentional, but it wasn’t.Â I confirmed on the thread at PAFOA that they scheduled their picnic that date before they knew about the Red Cross.Â The problem is, once they knew about it:

The small and large pavilions are both being rented by the American Red Cross, as it seems they hold an annual run/walk at the park every Armed Forces day. This is one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and take the other pavilion, as it will give us some great exposure to the many people who will no doubt be there for the other activities going on.

And then this:

Red Cross Walk/Run… Yep… they walk through the entire park, but when they pass by the middle pavilion, they run!

Which was dutifully picked up on by the media, and reported.Â They also reported this:

Do I have to carry, or open carry if I come?
No. There is no requirement that you carry, or to carry in any particular manner if you do. However, because of the holiday (Armed Forces Day), and The Red Cross walk/run in the park, we believe this will be an excellent opportunity to portray gun owners and carriers in a positive light to the general public. Because of this great opportunity, we are encouraging folks to open carry if they are comfortable doing so, but again, you are absolutely welcome regardless of your decision on if/how you carry.

It would seem that when this story hit the media, a lot of groups participating in the Red Cross walk freaked out and said they would pull out.Â Red Cross is now suggesting they will cancel the event.

Whatever the intent of this picnic, and I do believe the intent was originally just to have a picnic, the story now in the media is “Gun owners distrupt Red Cross veterans benefit event.”Â It’s not fair, but that’s the situation, and things said on a public forum fed right into that narrative.Â Being a gun rights activist will make you enemies, especially in the media, and if you don’t have a plan, they’ll pretty quickly make you look like jackasses.

Open Carry needs to be a casual thing.Â If a bunch of PAFOA members want to get together and plan a picnic, great.Â If someone people want to carry openly, no problem there.Â It’s not illegal in this Commonwealth.Â You have a right to do it.Â But as soon as you make Open Carry into a form of overt activism, as soon as you being salivating over the chance to expose your guns to a bunch of kids and veterans, you’re going to give the media a chance to smear you, and by association all gun owners.

They gay rights movement didn’t succeed because of gay pride parades (NSFW, or anywhere really).Â If anything, it succeeds despite the fringes of its movement, not because of it.Â Gays won acceptance because they came out of the closet and started talking to people about it.Â Not because they got half naked and put on leather and got in everyone’s face.Â I am generally supportive of equal rights for gays, but I don’t like having someone’s sexuality waved in front of my face.Â Â Most people feel that way about this and other issues.

If this had just been a picnic, there never would have been a controversy, even if it was known by organizers and attendees that people would show up open carrying.Â My stance on open carry is just do it.Â Making plans to shove it in people’s face isn’t going to make you friends, and gives plenty of ammunition to our enemies, as we have seen here.

A Compromise on the Cell Phone Issue

The State House passed a bill yesterday that would address the cell phone while driving issue.

Ross’s proposal would impose additional fines for a person cited for careless driving if they were found, among other things, to be reading, eating, grooming, or gabbing on a cell phone. Unlike Rep. Josh Shapiro’s cell-phone amendment, Ross’s amendment would make those violations a secondary, rather than primary offense.

I think that’s a fair compromise.Â If you can’t talk on the cell phone without commiting the traffic offense of careless driving, then I don’t have any problem with the secondary offense.Â It also includes a number of other items that are equally hazardous.Â Shapiro’s bill was too draconian.Â If I’m stuck in traffic, I don’t want to risk a fine because I call the office to tell them I’m running late.Â Not much of a risk to the public for calls of that nature.

Talk About Over the Top

Robert Legge of the Culpeper Star Exponent, is helping the newspaper live up to its name by some exponentially sour rhetoric about the National Rifle Association:

Joining the NRA became almost a patriotic duty, especially for rural Americans. But somewhere along the way, the NRAâ€™s tenor grew more ominous. After the 1994 sieges at Waco and Ruby Ridge, the NRA leadership whipped up anti-government hysteria, culminating in a famous fundraising letter warning of â€œjackbooted thugs … (who could) break in our doors, seize our guns, destroy our property, and injure or kill us.â€

Timothy McVeigh bought into that kind of incendiary rhetoric. A week after that NRA letter was sent, he blew up the federal Murrah building, killing many of the U.S. federal agents he so despised.

Actually, the infamous “jackbooted thugs” rhetoric can trace its origins to Congressman John Dingell (D-MI).Â But why let the facts get in the way when you’re trying to pin McVeigh on the NRA.

There’s No Winning

The Army’s new green training rounds carry with it a cancer risk because of the tungsten.Â They’ve stopped production.Â Maybe they should go talk to Dan Smith of ICC, who’s ammo we shot last summer at Blackwater with Todd Jarrett.Â That stuff is non-toxic sintered copper and tin, and it worked well.