December 2011 – Page 9 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Public Support for the Shooting Sports

I guess this goes in the “we’re winning” column, but the optimist in me sees room for improvement.

Seventy-one percent of those polled approve of recreational shooting, with 44 percent strongly approving. …

The most noteworthy part of the survey documents a slight but consistent upward trend in American opinions favoring shooting sports. In 2001, 59 percent indicated shooting sports were “perfectly acceptable.” In 2006 the percentage had climbed to 63 percent; this year shooting sports are “perfectly acceptable” to 66 percent. In contrast, the percentage of Americans who said “shooting sports are inappropriate” dropped from 11 percent (2001) to 5 percent (2011).

CeaseFirePA Writes Re-Election Ads for Pro-Gun Lawmakers

There is nothing about this headline that doesn’t scream “re-elect these people,” and we have our opponents to thank.

Anti-gun violence group targets legislators
CeaseFirePA campaigns against Barletta and Marino for backing border legislation.

The article immediately puts CeaseFirePA on the defensive, forcing them to answer the question over whether their targeting of Republican Reps. Lou Barletta & Tom Marino is really just about partisan politics. They cite an ad targeted at Rep. Mark Critz in the southwest corner of the state, but they fail to mention anything about Reps. Tim Holden or Jason Altmire in their interviews on the ad buy. I guess the former Democratic staffer running the organization doesn’t want to piss off the two Democrats most likely to keep their seats in redistricting.

Back to the title of this post, this is where you know CeaseFirePA made a great investment in making sure that pro-gun lawmakers stay in office in those districts that are extremely friendly to our rights:

For their part, Barletta and Marino say they have no qualms about having voted for the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, which gives gun owners who have a concealed carry license from one state the right to arm themselves in any other state that also has a concealed carry law.

The spokespeople for the representatives talk about how this would simply be like the same recognition as a driver’s license and how Pennsylvania already has reciprocity with 26 states. It’s simply no big deal.

I just have to laugh at the ad targeting one more time. Even the Democrats who held these seats in safer years went out of their way to be seen as pro-gun, and you’d frequently see “Sportsmen for…” signs out for candidates of both parties. So, thanks CeaseFirePA! The myopic NJ-centric attitude of the organization’s leader is helpful with silly moves like this.

Concealed Carry Numbers for Pennsylvania Counties

After an email exchange with Dannytheman this morning, I was reminded of a method we used to answer questions about how big the pro-gun electorate in Bucks County was during the 2010 elections. We were asked by campaign advisors who weren’t the types to turn their back on gun owners if our numbers were small, but they would have liked to have the number quantified just so they could understand priority in doing outreach during campaign season.

The first form this question takes is usually how many NRA members are in a given district. Well, we don’t know that. Not even NRA knows exactly how many they reach in a given area. (I explain the reasons for this in a post on the same topic for PAGunRights.)

Nor is there a way to calculate exactly how many gun owners there are in a standard political district. A person whose entire collection of firearms was inherited 20 years ago may make voting in defense of their rights just as much a priority as someone who recently sought out training for the first time and is buying everything new. In addition, while all firearms in a household may actually belong to one person, the family may vote along the same principles.

However, we can use concealed carry license numbers as a rough guide. These are people who take gun ownership serious enough that they undergo additional background checks and pay extra fees. They take the time out of their busy lives to stop by the sheriff’s office and wait in line for their license. Even if they aren’t putting a gun on as part of their daily routine, they care enough to make an extra effort in defense of themselves and their rights. This is a reasonable substitute to give a rough idea of the number of voters interested in hearing about a candidate’s record on the Second Amendment.

In Bucks County, that number based on the latest available data is right around 27,000. That includes the nearly 1,000 sportsmen’s firearms permits issued. Even though that is a fairly small percentage of the entire county population, it’s still a very large interest group in one region.

So, if you’re looking for a way to articulate the approximate impact of people who will be interested in a candidate’s Second Amendment record, consider using the number of licenses and permits issued as a reasonable proxy. My guess is that it still underestimates the number of people who care about the issue because of the influence of family and friends on voters, but it’s a reasonable measure to consider when having these sorts of discussions with lawmakers and candidates.

Great Use for Old Computer Equipment

A few weeks ago I shared with you the floppy drives that played the Emperor’s March from Star Wars. No I bring you old computers and an HP scanner covering “The House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals:

The singer’s pitch sounds off to me, but still pretty cool. Hooking up the scopes was a nice visual touch.

GOP Senate Candidates on Board with Second Amendment Rights

Today, seven Republican candidates met for a debate leading up to the primary to ultimate take on Sen. Bob Casey. Most questions focused on tax policy, the economy, and healthcare. However, during the lightning round where questions were answered with a show of hands, they asked two gun questions.

One question was whether they support national concealed carry reciprocity. Every single candidate raised their hand without visible hesitation (that I caught, or that moderators caught). The second question was whether they could imagine a scenario where they would restrict any firearms sales to lawful owners. Not a single hand raised.

I mention the hesitation thing because moderators were looking for disagreement, hesitation, eye rolls, or other non-verbal communication so they could pick on candidates for detailed follow-up. None of the follow-ups were related to the gun questions.

Hesitation is also relevant given the squishy vote on the issue from the incumbent senator on the issue in the previous Congress.

It’s Not a Compliment

Jim Geraghty was hitting some great notes in today’s Morning Jolt on the topic of Jon Corzine’s testimony to Congress. He claims that even though he ran the company, he just doesn’t know where the $1.2 billion in missing customer money went in the final days of his tenure at MF Global.

Corzine conceded that he knew “there were an extraordinary number of transactions during MF Global’s last few days,” but he didn’t know that the customer cash went missing. Geraghty’s response:

Ah. So Jon Corzine ran MF Global the way Eric Holder runs the Justice Department.

Another gem out of the email has absolutely nothing to do with guns, but I thought I would share regardless:

I find Corzine to be a fascinating case. He was the man from Wall Street, wholeheartedly embraced by the Democratic party at the precise time they were denouncing Wall Street. The man went back to Wall Street and then promptly made the kind of big gambles that Solyndra-cash-losing President Obama is denouncing. He is the walking, breathing personification of the Democrats’ hypocrisy in how they view Wall Street and wealth.

Fast and Furious Hearings

Dave Hardy has some good excerpts of the hearings going on in Washington currently. This scandal has started to become like an overly drawn out drama, where you get tired of the movie, and just want to get to the end, where the villain gets what’s coming to him. But the political process, unfortunately, does not work like that. Republicans will have no problem dragging this scandal out to election season. Their desire to get Holder removed I think is sincere, but they’d much prefer to do that through the elections by removing his boss. That’s why I don’t think they are pushing that hard.

On Being Fit and Shooting

Caleb thinks that being fit makes you a better shooter. While I generally would agree, I know some utterly fantastic shooters I would not classify as fit. Actually, far from it. That said, I think it does help. I’ve had instances shooting where I’ve felt my stability would be significantly improved if I were in better shape. Certainly you will shoot better if your pulse rate is lower.Â So I would say it helps, but in the overall scheme of things, I think there are a lot more important aspects to being a good shooter.

BTW, Gun Nuts Media is sporting a new look. It’s cleaner and more modern, and it looks like they’ve also embraced threaded comments (which maybe they had before, but when you blog you don’t comment on other people’s blogs. It’s a rule :) )

A Review of Dave Kopel’s New Paper

The new job doesn’t leave much time for reading papers, which I have to reserve for the weekend, but Joe Huffman has a pretty good review of Dave Kopel’s latest, “How the British Gun Control Program Precipitated the American Revolution“

Whipping Up a Non-Existent War

The Delco Times, my home town paper, I suppose you could call it, is busy making CeaseFire PA out to be more than it really is:

One of CeaseFirePAâ€™s advertisements featured a letter to Meehan, a former U.S. attorney and Delaware County district attorney. The letter in the ad was written by Mike Carroll, former president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

There’s also a quote by someone rumored to be a reader around these parts:

â€œI recognize the decision for him is a tough one, but I support what he did,â€ said McMonigle, also a member of the Firearms Owners Against Crime. â€œPat Meehan understands that the Second Amendment supports law abiding citizens having the right to arm themselves. Pat Meehan also understands that right doesnâ€™t stop at state borders. Iâ€™m still a law abiding citizen in the United States of America.â€

Good representation there, Dan. As for Nacheman, he’s a paid stooge, and if there’s any evidence that CeaseFire PA is anything more than a couple of people, and a paid stooge, I haven’t seen it. Looks like Casey and Toomey don’t want to comment, which is the smart move. Why bother giving the Delco Times more ammunition to whip this into more of a controversy than it really is? It’s only a controversy because Max Nacheman pitched it to you, and the media is gullible and sympathetic.