The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
CNN has dropped to the bottom of the crap pile of Cable News. They must think they can help up their ratings by scaring people with the militia bogeyman:
There might have been a time when they would have worked, but I think everyone realizes by now that the emperor has no clothes.
It’s interesting to compare and contrast things in DC to here back home. I think you can argue that the Restaurant business is a good bellwether of how people are feeling about the economy. Back here in the Philadelphia area, since the economy went into the crapper, wait lists have shortened or disappeared altogether, often even on weekends. You can still find waits at some of the econo-chains, like Outback, but most everywhere else it’s just a matter of walking in. Especially in higher end restaurants.
So you can imagine my surprise when we hit the dinner scene in DC and we’re back to one hour waits. Even past 8:00, we had to wait 45 minutes at one place in Arlington. If people are feeling uncertain about the economy and their jobs in DC, it’s certainly not showing up in people eating more at home like it is here. But why should people in DC worry about their jobs? Their major industry is growing like gangbusters, and they can always suck more money away from parts of the country that really are struggling and uncertain. No wonder people are fed up.
I’d like to know the numbers without the word “registered” being in there, but this is interesting:
Our survey included the question: “In general, do you agree or disagree that an individual should have a right to have a registered handgun at home?†52% strongly agreed, 30% agreed somewhat, 10% disagreed somewhat, and 7% strongly disagreed. This is also consistent with polls concerning views of the Second Amendment, where over 70 percent view gun ownership as an individual right. See [here]. It appears that support for gun rights has increased during Obama’s first year in office, although the trajectory seems to be a continuation of a trend that began during the last years of the Bush Administration. See [here].
And I have to wonder how much of the 10% somewhat disagreement was people who hated the “registered” language. I think a lot of gun owners would have a tough time saying yes to that entirely. Either way, it’s enough of a majority to pass a constitutional amendment, in all likelihood.
Jacob Sullum wrote an article here about the Fort Hood shooting, which must have socked the Brady Campaign in the gut to prompt this kind of response from Doug Pennington, but Jacob Sullum wasn’t about to let it go.
He’s pulling a John Kerry, and visiting around with local clubs. Do these clubs seriously not know what side this guy is on? If so why are they letting him use them to fool people?
Joe has some comments on open carry that is very well said, and adds some new information to the debate; namely that open carry has actually been focus grouped. It’s well worth reading.
Bitter and I are checked into our hotel in Chantilly, Virginia. Tomorrow we’re hoping to meet up with Bitter’s friend from college, who lives in these parts. Stopped by the NRA Headquarters building to meet with some folks we’ve gotten to know over the course of the whole blogging outreach. I can assure you that rumors that occasionally circulate around the Internet about NRA HQ being a gun free zone are completely unfounded.
Headed over to NRA News Studios next to see Cam and Crew next. The show is airing in 40 minutes, but we’ll at least get some chance to talk to Cam on break.
I think we knew that no good would come of the Joint Task Force. Well here is the no good we were worried about. I think we’re probably safe until the mid-terms, but things could get ugly if the Second Amendment gets lost in other issues Americans have on their minds.
In what could be bad news for the shooting sports, it looks like Olympic Pentathalon will be replacing their air pistols with specially engineered pistols that shoot a laser beam at the target. The reason it’s bad news is the reason they give for thr move:
UIPM President, Dr h.c. Klaus Schormann stated that “the decision to introduce non-air pistol shooting was the second big step for the sport following the decision in 2008 to change to the combined run/shoot format. This is a significant development in terms of lowering the environmental impact of the sport.â€
So they claim environmental impact, even from air guns, which fire a tiny 7 grain lead pellet, and which are easily recovered and recycled.
We should not fear the technology, which is something the shooting community could make positive use of, but the reasoning of the committee is disturbing. I hope this doesn’t portend bad things to come with other Olympic shooting sports, who’s environmental footprint is arguably worse.
Joe Huffman is reporting that the Brady Center is not filing a brief on either side in the McDonald case. I’m not sure what the Brady folks are thinking here, but I’m wondering if this is a sign of them being resigned to lose, and filing a brief for their own purposes rather than for legal effect.