The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
I noticed that someone in a volunteer group was asking about NRA advertisements, so I went to check out the PVF site to see if any were posted yet. It looks like they just started posting some this week. For those of you not in swing states, I thought you might like to see some of the ads.
In Virginia:
In Ohio:
In Florida:
Caleb relays some of his experience and advice. His experience is different from mine, because I never really concerned myself very much with trying to be popular, and still don’t, really. But I did find there was a certain threshold, once you start to build an audience and people start to take you seriously. When you cross that threshold, things you used to be able to get away with as an up-and-coming blogger you can no longer get away with. The best advice I could offer is that if you’re going to provoke an argument with another blog, always attack up the food chain. Never attack down. If you attack up, you’re just trying to get noticed, and larger blogs generally have developed pretty thick skin when it comes to those kinds of things. Additionally if they think they can use your provoking an argument to generate content, they will. They get content, and you get traffic. It’s a fair trade. But attacking upstart blogs from higher up will be taken badly, and half the battle is realizing you’re not an upstart anymore. It’s not your perception that determines what you are, it’s everyone else’s.
Bitter has a summary of the down ticket races to watch in Pennsylvania in regards to gun rights. Despite turning a number of the Philadelphia suburban ring county districts back to red in the 2010 election, I’m still very concerned about how long term trends look for the GOP. Gerlach has always been in tight races. It’s one of those things that just feels like it’s a matter of time. I am quite pleased that Kathy Boockvar, the Democratic Challenger of Mike Fitzpatrick, scored an A on her NRA questionnaire. While Fitzpatrick will undoubtedly carry an endorsement per NRA’s incumbent friendly policy, it is a sign that perhaps the Democrats don’t think running anti-gun candidates is a wise choice, even very close to Philadelphia. The worst thing that could happen to us would be for the Democratic Party in this area to become reflexively pro-gun-control. Not only does that run the risk that a good seat goes bad, it makes it easier for the Republicans to get away with just not being as bad as the other guy.
Just to drive the point home, NRA holds a joint even with the Romney-Ryan Campaign to announce their endorsement just outside of DC in Virginia:
10,000 people show up. CSGV gets outraged and calls for protests outside of the White House, and you get this. And they wonder why no one pays any attention to them, or gives a crap about their cause?
UPDATE: Many more pictures from John Richardson.
The announcement for a special event hosted by NRA came a few days ago, so I figured that could only mean one thing. From Chris Cox:
I’m proud to announce today that your NRA Political Victory Fund is endorsing Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for President and Vice President of the United States.
Romney’s statement on assault weapons from years ago while he was Governor of Massachusetts will continue to dog him with the gun vote, but with what’s on the line with the Courts, I expected NRA would endorse him anyway. In fact, in Chris Cox’s letter, the first reason listed is “Mitt Romney will appoint pro-Second Amendment judges to the Supreme Court.” With the endorsement, hopefully NRA will have some input into the selection process when it comes time to replace justices.
Folks are unhappy “The Truth About Guns” Robert Farago was given an award by Second Amendment Foundation, and it’s prompting a discussion about whether gun blogging has jumped the shark. I was not pleased to see Robert Farago win an SAF award, only to turn around and mistreat Emily Miller by asking personal questions about her carry habits off the record and publishing it, nor headlining her bathroom habits, which I complained loudly about on Twitter, and which The Truth About Guns did not seem to appreciate. It is quite unfortunate that they lambast the Main Stream Media, and engage in the same kind of unethical reporting we took to blogging to escape. But I’m not certain why this should have any bearing on gun blogging as a whole. I’m certainly going to continue to do what I do without much regard to what awards the TTAG folks are or aren’t getting, and if people like what I have to say, great. To quote Uncle, “Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.”
New York State Senators are taking to the papers to complain that they can’t get any gun control passed because it keeps getting blocked by the “Gun Lobby.” Well, you know, maybe when you’re finding micro uzis in the Bronx that should be a pretty strong indication your gun control laws don’t work.