2010 – Page 9 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Latest Florida Shooting

So a convicted felon managed to get a gun anyway and went to a school board meeting with the idea of shooting himself some people. Only his plans were thwarted by someone else with a gun and he decided to shoot himself before someone took away all his glory:

District security chief and former police officer Mike Jones ran in and shot Duke, ending his shooting spree. At that point, Duke pointed the gun on himself and committed suicide. SWAT officers stormed the room soon after.

And yet we’re constantly told a gun wouldn’t have mattered at Virginia Tech. But I forget, this is a highly trained police officer with magical gun powers the rest of us can’t possibly possess. Apparently Jones is pretty torn up over shooting the guy. It’s understandable. But I’m glad he was there, and did what he did. Superintendent Husfelt acted valiantly too, trying to calm the gunman down, and buying time. Also valiant was Ginger Littleton, who tried to disarm the man (though quite ineffectively).

Littleton would have been more effective if she had grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher, or some other object, and bashed the guy’s skull in, but what she tried to do is commendable. In the end what was needed was someone else with a gun. Most of these murder-suicide types are acting out a fantasy, as soon as that fantasy gets interrupted by a gunfight they didn’t expect, they usually give up and off themselves before someone else gets to do it. These types aren’t fighters. I have no doubt our opponents will latch on to this, but it proves our points more effectively than it does theirs.

In this instance, people didn’t behave the way the shooter wanted, and refused to play the part in the fantasy, and in the end only the shooter was the dead guy. Resistance works. Passivity is what racks up the body count for these whack jobs.

Warming our Hearts this Holiday Season

If you’re a wine snob, a free market nut, or just generally hate swindlers and thieves, then I’ve got news to warm your hearts in time for Christmas. Two-thirds of Pennsylvania voters support dismantling the state liquor system this year.

Fresh from the crack research team at the Department of No-Brainers comes a new Quinnipiac University poll this morning concluding that more than two-thirds (66 percent to 26 percent) of state voters favor selling off Pennsylvania’s state-owned liquor stores.

That’s what we call a mandate. Who knew Christmas miracles would come so early this year?

Even better, we get some holiday entertainment in this battle to free our liquor. According to one NPR reporter, the union representing state store employees is so desperate that they are crashing press conferences to argue against it:

Sign state store sale fight heating up: UFCW rep shows up at Q-Poll presser to dispute questions showing majority favor privativation. … Union guy got a tad confrontational when told press conference was for reporters, not interest groups, to ask Qs.

Of course, it looks like the union is going to have to rely on thuggish tactics since appealing to public support isn’t going to help them much. More than half of voters said they support cutting state jobs to balance the budget. With privatizing the system, we cut state jobs, and we get the influx of cash from selling the system and the products.

It will indeed be a very merry Christmas when my mom can bring up a bottle of Virginia wine for a holiday toast and not have to worry about breaking the law.

Another Startling Revelation from the WaPo Article

We have this interesting bit about Ray Schonke, founder of the now seemingly defunct AHSA, from the Washington Post article:

Recognizing his vulnerability in swing states, Obama began to run an alternate campaign to calm the worries of gun owners, said Ray Schoenke, a former Washington Redskins lineman who founded a moderate gun rights group, the American Hunters and Shooters Association, as part of the Obama effort.

The Obama campaign paid for Schoenke’s travel to 40 events in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Colorado to address pro-gun voters.

So Schoenke was basically on the payroll of Obama’s campaign. That’s spelled “shill” with two ls Ray, just in case you weren’t aware. No wonder this guy had no credibility.

WaPo on NRA

So the WaPo has finally done their bit on the NRA, and reveals this bit of information:

In the past few days, the plan [to require multiple long gun purchases to be reported] has quietly gained traction at Justice. But sources told The Post they fear that if the plan becomes public, the NRA will marshal its forces to kill it.

I also love this:

The fate of the Mexican gunrunning rule is only the most recent example of how the gun lobby has consistently outmaneuvered and hemmed in ATF

The mexican gunrunning rule? Instead of the “we get to hire additional bureaucrats to process all this extra paperwork, and thus grow our empires” rule? I will say this, and say it proudly: I’m not willing to give an inch to deal with Mexico’s problem. Guns are largely illegal in Mexico, and largely legal here, and they are the ones with the violence problem, and not us. In addition, and we’ve said this until we’re blue in the face, the cartels are not getting machine guns, grenades and rocket launchers from legal sources in the US. Also, let’s take a look at this:

Don Davis, 77, has run Don’s Guns and Galleries in Indianapolis for 37 years and says he is one of the highest-volume dealers in the region. A big supporter of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, Davis resigned from the NRA many years ago. “They used to be an organization for the hunter and the fishermen,” he said recently. “Then they got into politics. They’re so political, that’s what they do with their money. Today if you say anything about a gun, they use their money to run against you.”

That’s this Don’s Guns. I seem to also recall that this guy is a major source of crime guns. Hey Brady folks and Bryan Miller: why don’t you go protest Don? I promise, I won’t lift a finger to help him, and I think everyone else will probably agree.

The WaPo article then goes on to speak of NRA as a powerful, evil force, blocking these very nice people at ATF who just want to fix this whole nasty gun violence thing. I mean, how can you argue with unbiased reporting like this:

Obama never said anything about banning handguns or closing gun shops. His campaign platform promised to pursue long-standing proposals to address urban violence: reinstating the assault weapons ban, outlawing “cop killer” bullets and closing the “gun-show loophole” that permits firearm sales without background checks.

Except he did. He has supported both in his past, and that fact is well documented. And how do you square that any of those other measures will do anything to address urban violence? The CDC studied the assault weapons ban and found it did nothing. I also doubt that the WaPo reporters involved in this piece have any idea what a “cop killer” bullet is. But it exists. Trust them. They are gun experts, right?

It’s days like this that make me happy fewer and fewer people are paying attention to print media.

Proposed Preemption Language

Currently our state’s preemption statute says this:

No county, municipality or township may in any manner regulate the lawful ownership, possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunition or ammunition components when carried or transported for purposes not prohibited by the laws of this Commonwealth.

This has been interpreted by some to mean local municipalities have some power to regulate guns, despite the Courts saying otherwise. I would propose Pennsylvania adopt a variation on Washington State’s language, which is unambiguous:

The General Assembly hereby fully occupies and preempts the entire field of firearms regulation within the boundaries of the Commonwealth, including the registration, licensing, possession, purchase, sale, acquisition, transfer, discharge, and transportation of firearms, or any other element relating to firearms or parts thereof, including ammunition and reloader components. Codes and ordinances enacted by counties, cities, townships, other municipalities or political subdivisions are preempted and repealed, regardless of the nature of the code, charter, or home rule status of such city, town, county, or municipality.

And we also have Rep. Metcalfe’s proposed bill which adds some teeth to the preemption language:

Remedies for unlawful regulation.–Notwithstanding anyÂ other provision of law, upon finding that a county, municipalityÂ or township in any manner regulated the lawful ownership,Â possession, transfer or transportation of firearms, ammunitionÂ or ammunition components in violation of subsection (a) or 53Â Pa.C.S. Â§ 2962(g) (relating to limitation on municipal powers),Â a court shall direct the county, municipality or township to payÂ actual damages and reasonable attorney fees and costs to a partyÂ who successfully challenges the regulation.

I think we need both Rep. Metcalfe’s bill and a rewrite of the preemption language to make it crystal clear to local governments that they may not touch the area of firearms. Sadly, I don’t think attorneys fees will be any deterrent to Philadelphia, who will be happy to waste city taxpayer dollars on challenges, and then run poor mouthing to Harrisburg for more of our taxpayer dollars. I would like to see appropriations from Harrisburg to Philadelphia be contingent on them not passing unlawful ordinances.

Philadelphia Bucking Preemption Yet Again

This time they are going to refuse to recognize Florida licenses for residents unless the person also holds a Pennsylvania license.

The NRA has in the past sued over the cityâ€™s ability to pass its own gun legislation.Â Clarke joked about that likelihood, telling Gillison, â€œLook forward to being with you in court again.â€

At this point they know it’s illegal, they are just doing it to be pricks. Hopefully we can get real teeth to preemption so we can penalize the city for doing crap like this. I’d settle for an unambiguous preemption statute, with state funding cut for cities who have gun laws on the books. I don’t even care if they aren’t enforced, time to remove them. This crap has to stop, and stop now.

Not Letting them Own the Field

Quite a counter protest was had in Maryland against Heeding God’s Call, Bryan Miller’s conjured up “faith group” that supports gun control. I thought the Armored Personnel Carrier was a nice touch. I know I’m normally perception sensitive, but sometimes you have to have some fun. As the photos show, as much as you might want folks to show up who don’t fit the stereotypes, a few will, and you can bet they are who the media is going to photograph.

Must Go!

Every once in a while, something comes along that will convince me to venture into the City of Brotherly Mayhem. This is one of those things. My high school chorus generally did one bit from the Requiem each year, and at one time I could have translated the latin. All skills long lost to disuse. Actually, there are more than a few Requiems out there, but if you say “The Requiem,” one generally means that which was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The historical fiction Amadeus, one of the great movies of all time distorted a lot of the history of this piece. While much of the play and movie were faithful, there was a lot of fanciful embellishment of the story. Mozart’s Requiem was actually commissioned by Count Von Walsegg, who had the odious habit of commissioning works from famous composers, and then passing them off as his own. That didn’t seem to work in this case, though it is true that Mozart died before the Requiem could be completed. Constanze Mozart had lesser known composer finish the work.

I am not familiar but with one other composers Requiem, and that’s the one written by Hector Berlioz. That piece was written to commemorate the dead in the French Revolution of 1830. Not to be confused with the French Revolution of 1832, on which Victor Hugo based his novel Les Miserables, which was later written into a musical of the same name.

What a Waste

Article on the destruction of guns in Luzerne County. This is one nasty side effect of all the immigration from New Jersey and New York to Northeastern Pennsylvania. I’m disappointed to see this:

Financed by a $10,000 Project Safe Neighborhoods grant secured by state Rep. Todd Eachus, D-Butler Township, for use the 116th Legislative District, the District Attorneyâ€™s Office offered gift certificates for the Laurel Mall in denominations of $50 per long gun and $75 per handgun.

Eachus is A-rated. How many of those guns destroyed have historical value? Collectors should get first dibs before the guns are destroyed. You could make a program like this self-funding, essentially hooking up people who don’t want the guns anymore with people who do want them. Destroy the junk? Fine. But this is a waste, both of taxpayer dollars and potential historical collector pieces. Is this something an NRA A-rated politician ought to be enabling? I don’t think so.

A New “Loophole” From the WaPo

So the Washington Post notes that when a dealer gets his FFL revoked, and someone else takes over the company, they can apply for a new FFL. A common thing that seems to happen is a business is owned by some old guy, who in his age can’t seem to keep the bookkeeping straight, so ATF revokes the license. Son takes over the family business, and applies for a new license to keep the dealership, often family businesses, operating. As Richard Gardiner notes, anyone involved on the old license can’t be on the new one:

To be licensed, applicants at a minimum need to be 21, cannot have been prohibited from owning a gun – as with felons and people with certain disabilities – and must have a fixed address. Companies can apply for licenses, but their principals must meet the restrictions for individuals. Initial fees are $200. Licenses last three years. The agency might spend years in court revoking a license from a troubled dealer but by law must approve licenses to eligible applicants within 60 days.

Richard Gardiner, a former counsel for the National Rifle Association who has defended many dealers in ATF revocations, said family members, friends or associates who were not directly involved in the old license are legally entitled to their own licenses. “It’s not a loophole,” he said.

Truth is, license revocation is a poor enforcement mechanism to begin with, which is why the NRA backed reform bill will hopefully pass in the next Congress, which limits the use of revocation for enforcement, and creates a civil penalty structure to replace it. No doubt our opponents, with their penchant for blaming inanimate objects, will argue that the business should be closed, and a gun shops shall never re-open at the same site or under the same name for time immemorial. This is also a poor solution.