2011 – Page 53 – Shall Not Be Questioned

NFL Pat Downs

It’s well known the commissioner of the NFL is anti-gun, now it seems that the NFL is as well, since they are asking for pat down procedures at all their games. Many of these stadiums receive public funding, and are publicly owned. Perhaps it’s time for us to use our lobby muscle to either get the money pulled, or force these publicly funded/subsidized venues to obey the Constitution.

I should note that as a private entity, I think the NFL, or any sports league or franchise, is free to ban weapons of any sort at their games. However, when they accept public, taxpayer money to pay for their stadiums, that changes the equation. If you’re going to receive my tax dollars, you should respect my rights.

Many Thanks

Thanks to all our readers who came out to the Friends’ dinner tonight. Our table was very lucky, since I think we had two raffle winners sitting at it. For the size of the dinner, and for a first year dinner, we did very well. More than $5000 raised for the NRA Foundation, $2500 of which will stay in Pennsylvania shooting programs. Hopefully next year we’ll top 100 people, and even more.

Many thanks to reader Adam Z. who walked away with a very expensive NRA toaster. It’s for a good cause. Many thanks to our friends at Great Satan Inc, who’s ticket gift helped us sell a few more when we really needed to fill seats. We had a little over 80 folks, but they were folks willing to spend money. Despite the fact that I’m out of work, I put 200 of my own dollars into the tickets, games, and silent auction. I think it’s a good cause.

Onslaught Against National Reciprocity

National Reciprocity is seriously disturbing the powers that be. One of the things I use to determine whether we’re fighting for something that matters is the people it’s pissing off. So far HR822 is making the grade on that count.

One of the first memes is this butchers states rights. That would be true if this bill were based solely on the commerce power of Congress, but it is largely based on Congress’ 14th Amendment power to pass legislation to protect Constitutional rights. There is a very strong case to be made that post Heller and McDonald, Congress has a power to protect the right to bear arms. There is also a case to be made on Congress’ power to legislate Full Faith and Credit.

It would also seem now that Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey represents law enforcement in its entirety. Since Philadelphia is leading the charge in Pennsylvania to revoke or modify our reciprocity agreement with Florida in Pennsylvania, he was invited to testify against our Constitutional rights before Congress.

One of our opponents arguments is that most licenses to carry are simple documents that are easy to forge. This is true. The reason is because a concealed carry license is not meant to be used for identification, which is what the state drivers’ license is for. Under this bill, you’d be required to carry identification in addition to your license to carry. Ramsey testified that a person that the lack of standards is a problem. Our opponents are going to push to get some federal standards in the bill in an attempt to scuttle it.

Truth is, if there are federal standards, it becomes a more dubious exercise of federal power. The 14th Amendment only allows you to protect a right, and then only to the agree the right is recognized by the Courts, and the Full Faith and Credit clause is arguably also limited. This bill only forces states to recognized each other’s permits, and not much more. It also stipulates the person had to be eligible to possess firearms under federal law.

The Big Day

Today is the day of our Bucks County Friends of the NRA dinner. I thank those of you who bought tickets. As I mentioned, Friends goes to the NRA programs which are relatively uncontroversial among the parts of the population who aren’t hysterical, such as youth shooting programs. I’ll have to head over to the hall in a few hours to get everything ready. Bitter is co-chair of the committee and has put in a lot of work on this. I am on the committee, but I’m just helping out where I can. In the past week we’ve sold enough tickets to take the attendance from embarrassing to pretty reasonable. We’re still under our goals by a good bit, but we won’t lose money on the event.

Veto Override on Castle Doctrine

New Hampshire is now a castle doctrine state, thanks to the 251 to 111 vote in the House. The Senate voted earlier to override by 17 to 7. It becomes law despite the veto from the Governor.

Green Jobs

As in he spent a lot of our green, and still lost the jobs. Government shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers, or in this case, just losing.

Concealed Carry Illustrated

Miguel has a very good way of looking at the deterrent factor.

Sunday Hunting Hearing

There are hearings being held around on the state on what appears to be NRA’s next legislative priorityÂ in Pennsylvania. There is little doubt that animal rights extremist groups, like HSUS, are going to oppose this move. But the biggest opposition that will be faced, from what I’ve seen, is from farmers and other hunters.

I don’t think hunting can be saved. I don’t think this because it’s impossible, but because hunters don’t seem to have the “no one gets thrown off the lifeboat” attitude that’s become prevalent among gun rights activists. Divide and conquer is an easy strategy with that community, and it’s certainly one that will be relentlessly exploited by the opponents of hunting until it is no more.

Unfortunately for those of us in the shooting community, hunters are still people of the gun, and once they are gone, we will have to hope not to be eaten last.

Debriefing on National Reciprocity Hearing

From Dave Kopel on NRA News:

Use it or Lose It

SayUncle finds some evidence for why SWAT teams are so predominant these days. I kind of wonder whether there’s not a good bit of wanting to be what you see on TV in law enforcement circles. Years ago, you’d cowboy up to go deal with the local town trouble, not unlike what you would have seen in a TV Western. I can remember as a kid, the ending scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation, where the SWAT team closes in on Clark Griswold, armed with a BB gun. That was supposed to be a joke back then, but I don’t think anyone would get the humor today. It would be interesting to find how much TV culture shapes the law enforcement culture.