2011 – Page 73 – Shall Not Be Questioned

The Brady Online Grassroots

I’m so confused by the new strategy of the Brady Campaign when it comes to promoting any grassroots support they can find online. They periodically retweet people who talk about hating gun violence. I get that retweets don’t always equal an endorsement of everything that person has ever tweeted, but I also don’t think it’s a bad idea for an organization to go and look at the last page or two of tweets from anyone they are about to promote on their own channel.

In the post-Peter Hamm era, Brady has been retweeting some interesting folks. They like retweeting folks who use the N word. One of the first people I ever saw them retweet was a blogger who had never before talked about guns or violence issues. Her entire blog was about Jesus and how much she loved Victoria’s Secret panties.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Jesus or Victoria’s pretty underthings. VS makes some damn fine bras if you ask me. But making that a focus of a blog doesn’t exactly make you a great grassroots outreach target on public policy – unless we’re maybe talking TSA policies that discriminate against women who wear underwires.

Another early retweet came from a woman whose previous musings included her proclamation for enjoying…umm…shall we call it sexual activity of the back door variety? It just seems odd to me that the people they want to promote mix messages of gun control. But that’s not such a weird combination of messages when you consider one of the men they retweeted expressed his disapproval for gun violence in one tweet, yet bragged about how much of a thug he and his buddies were just a few tweets prior. Is Brady embracing the thug lifestyle? It seems of all the odd folks to push on Twitter, that is one with a combination of messages that directly undermines their agenda.

Today’s retweets include a young mother who, just 20 hours prior to their retweet was concerned about her toddler son and how he might be ill. As evidenced by the message Brady shared, she’s concerned about gun violence as well. However, she’s apparently not concerned enough about her own choices since she tweeted just two hours after her son was sick that she was smoking weed. Umm… But that’s okay, the other person they retweeted also talked about using drugs just an hour or so before Brady promoted them. Oh, and she declared that “asian women are fucking evil.”

Again, I realize that retweets of one message don’t mean that you endorse everything the person has ever said. I get that it’s a challenge to find a balance to these issues in a day where no topic is off limits in social media. But you would think that the Brady Campaign would at least filter out anyone who has said anything racist or advocating the use of illegal substances in the last 24 hours or most recent page of tweets. It’s called common sense. And considering they call for common sense in gun control, you’d think they’d demonstrate a little bit of it when developing their media strategy.

Last Taxidermist in New York City

The New York Post writes an article on the last taxidermist operating in New York City:

He practices his old-fashioned craft in a dusty Brooklyn storefront called the Cypress Hills Taxidermy Studio, where the stuffed deer, boars and pheasants on the walls are reminiscent of an era when hunting was still popular enough that even the Big Apple had several taxidermy shops.

“It kind of makes me feel special that I’m the only one left, like I’m the last dinosaur,” said Youngaitis, 57.

The article goes on to speak of his need to moonlight as a plumber to make ends meet. This is not shocking, because New York City makes it difficult to impossible to own a firearm. I was once at a gun show in PA, and ended up in the line for paperwork behind a guy from New York City, who was just trying to buy a 10/22. Took him a while to find a dealer willing to process that transaction, and seemed to involve some extra phone calls on the part of the dealer, I’m guessing to verify the permit to purchase. By the time this guy was at the dealer buying the gun, most of the grueling work had already been done. All he would have left to do is register the firearm with the NYPD when he returned (if you buy from a New York City dealer, they will do this for you).

But their target isn’t hunting, which has traditionally been the only sport our opponents concede is a legitimate reason to own a gun. Yet a city of 8 million people can’t even support a full time taxidermist, due to the laws they support.

Well, not much longer. One of the greatly satisfying things to watch with Second Amendment litigation is the strong possibility we will lay waste to New York City’s gun laws, and send them into the dustbin of history where they belong. I’m not sure that’s going to help Mr. Youngaitis’s business quickly enough to matter, but I leave you with the words of Justice Scalia:

I grew up at a time when people were not afraid of people with firearms.Â I used to travel on the subway from Queens to Manhattan with a rifle. Could you imagine doing that today in New York City?

No, I can’t. But that’s going to change.

Dueling Op-Eds in USA Today

USA Today itself is blaming the “gun lobby,” for gun smuggling to Mexico, with only passing mention of ATF being responsible. Their article today on Fast and Furious doesn’t seem to suggest there’s much to blame, except maybe the straw buyer.

But they did at least give NRA a say:

That must be some form! The administration claims it will help stop cartels from bringing drugs and mayhem to our country. Really?

Can this form also leap tall buildings in a single bound? President Obama must be kidding.

I find Wayne’s public rhetoric often sounds a bit contrived, but I think mockery is absolutely the correct way to deal with this, and the messaging here is good. The idea that you’re going to disarm drug trafficking networks with billions of dollars is absolutely ludicrous. Laughably ludicrous.

But I Thought They Weren’t For Gun Bans

The Bradys seem to have flashed back to the 1970’s handgun freeze movement, which I would note failed on the ballot in California even then. It was tried in states like Massachusetts also, and failed there too. They seem to have forgotten their losses, even in their heyday, and fail to remember why they needed to change their name:

Bill Maher is certainly the kind of asshole that can make you pine for the past, but the past is gone, and I, for one, am happy to see the Brady’s wallowing in it. Amateurish mistakes like this have become part and parcel for Brady’s current new media strategy, if you can even call it that.

Peter Hamm was a worthy adversary. It’s quite sad to see what the Brady folks have turned into since. I don’t think there are any adults in charge there now. It is much the same feeling that sailors on the opposing side get watching an enemy ship sink beneath the waves, or a fighter pilot feels downing an enemy ace. You thirst for victory, but easily besting your opponent has a certain sadness to it.

More on Privacy

Joe Huffman has more thoughts on privacy, from a discussion a few days ago. I would not say I’m comfortable with what’s coming, but I have to agree with Alan that whether we’re comfortable with it or not, it’s coming, and there’s not much we can do about it.

One issue I have with the idea of a transparent society is that I’m not sure information flows can ever be completely egalitarian. But I look toward the fundamental idea behind the Second Amendment, which is one way to have a check on governmental power is to make sure the distribution of military power within a society is more dispersed and less centralized. That’s the same fundamental principle working with privacy defeating technologies as well; as long as they are distributed more or less equally, the weak have the power to shine the light on the powerful as much as the powerful may shine the light on the weak. It’s not perfect, but then again, the distribution of military power in our society has never really been very egalitarian either, yet we have largely remained a free society, and have arguably become more free as the distribution has become more centralized.

When thinking of “Second Amendment remedies,” to borrow a phrase from our opponents, meaning citizens having to act as a check on abuses of governmental power, I think it’s unwise to limit ones thinking purely to military matters: to small arms, to infantry tactics, and the such. This is fighting the last war syndrome. When facing an out of control and abusive government, I’d think one of these would be as useful as hundreds of rifles, as would be one of these.

Speed Reload Tips

From SWAT Magazine:

Thanks to Tam for the pointer. Only thing is I’m not a big fan of using the slide release versus racking manually. Racking manually works on any gun, and it’s a coarser movement than required for the finer movement of pressing down hard on a slide release.

Media Doing Our Jobs For Us

I am often amused by how the media sometimes, trying to make our arguments look ridiculous, actually ends up doing our jobs for us by getting the word out in a way that’s likely to scare the living hell out of our people. This is an example:

The latest ridiculous [NRA] scare tactic involves a federal requirement that gun shop owners in border states provide the ATF with the birth dates, addresses, race and gender, of individuals who purchase two or more semi-automatic rifles greater than .22 calibers in a five-day period.

Well, when you put it that way, surely the tinfoil hat crowd will wonder what all the fuss has been about. None of our people could, likewise, imagine buying a semi-auto rifle for a home and the cabin on the lake in a five day period. I think it’s also amazing that they think this is is all driven by NRA, rather than the other way around.

Civil Rights Victory in Chicago

Chicago is now forced to register SKS rifles.

Castle Doctrine Explained

State Rep. Tim Mahoney explains castle doctrine in PA, which goes into effect August 27th. I’m glad he’s doing this, if only because of the amount of hysteria and misinformation surrounding this subject. Now that it’s a done deal, I would hope the media takes some measures to explain the law to people. It’s important that people understand the justifiable use of deadly force, and what the law actually means, without all the hysteria.

Holding off Flash Mobs

Miguel has a video of a guy who held off a flash mob with a World War II era Mosin-Nagant rifle. The news briefly shows a picture of the guy’s house, which pretty clearly advertises that this is the kind of guy who is going to shoot you if you mess with him. I guess flash mobs aren’t all that collectively smart. Personally, if I was going to hold off a violent mob with a Mosin-Nagant rifle, I’d at least fix bayonets. Close combat is never desirable, but the bayonet is long enough on that rifle I’m not sure it’d be all that close. I’m not sure you’d even need to leave your porch to clear the lawn.

UPDATE: Just noticed he seems to be wearing what looks like a welding apron, while wearing some sort of kilt. I would definitely not have messed with this guy.