December 2012 – Page 9 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Mobilization

Thirdpower notes that the local gun show near him broke records. This weekend around here, the Oaks gun show was absolutely swamped. I just hope all these people panic buying are planning to join the fight, because there’s no guarantee you’re going to get to keep what you panic buy if you don’t. Voting with your wallet is part of the picture, but only part.

But we also need to make the Obama Adminstration sorry they decided to fuck with gun owners, and make sure lawmakers and policy makers can’t take a dump without running into some gun owner asking them to vote against more gun control. We have to hold feet to the fire, of Democrats and Republicans alike. So what do we do?

Know the facts.
Communicate with lawmakers. Communicate with them now. Communicate with them when we have an actual bill, and keep the pressure on.
Show up at rallies and protests when asked.
Give them idea of things to do (Something must be done!) that doesn’t involve more gun control.
Talk to neighbors, friends co-workers and family. This can often be more productive than shouting at people on the Internet. Use some of the same idea you use with lawmakers.
Do you belong to a gun club? Get them involved.
Sign people up for NRA. I know a lot of people don’t like them, but they are who the politicians pay attention to, and a surge in NRA membership would make them pay attention.

I believe our opponents response was planned and coordinated, and they were ready to execute the moment the awful news hit the airways. I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure where I would have found professionally made signsÂ late on a Friday ready for noon Monday delivery. I don’t know how so many of the same outlets were right on message. We were told by anti-gun groups in the weeks approaching that change was coming, and that the writing was on the wallÂ for our day in the sun being soon over. That smacks of someone who knows of a brilliant plan, and who were just waiting for a moment to execute.

Our side is not quite so coordinated. We are composed of a great many more people than our opponents have ever given us credit for. We take time to mobilize, but the Powder Alarm has sounded, and we’re seeing signs of it. The petition at the White House is getting close to 40,000Â (it was 18,000 when I posted yesterday about it). The NRA’s plan was radio silence. We did this without them. If Joe Manchin, who is backpedaling a bit, think what they are facing right now is scary, well, sir, I think you ain’t seen nothing yet. Today I’ve been focusing dark clouds on the horizon, and make no mistake, we’re in the fight of our lives. We emerged from the 1994 AWB beaten up, but our strength renewed. If we fight them back now, this will be it for them. They will no longer be able to keep up the narrative of the NRA, and gun voters as a paper tiger. But that depends on what we’re willing to do.

Something To Think About

This didn’t work. So why is passing a federal ban the answer?

State Gun Control Action – Pennsylvania

It’s time to start talking politics because the politicians are talking about more specific bills, even ones that they acknowledge have nothing to do with the Newtown shooting, but they want to pass anyway.

In Pennsylvania, we’ve got the following reports from various politicians calling for more restrictions on law-abiding gun owners, both federal and local.

Federal Lawmakers
Sen. Bob Casey – As the media notes, now that Sen. Casey is no longer running for re-election, his office is actually going on the record that he’ll gladly ban guns.

When pressed to clarify Casey’s stance, an aide said everything is on the table, including an assault weapons ban, an about-face from a stance he took after the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre in July. At the time, his office said Casey, who was facing re-election, would not support legislation banning assault weapons.

From the same article, we see that Sen. Pat Toomey and Rep. Charlie Dent are focusing on the mental health concerns.

Rep. Chaka Fattah – Rep. Fattah is going straight for a gun ban federally, but the sources are light on details like whether he will introduce one to compete with the ban promised by Sen. Dianne Feinstein or will simply back her planned bill.

U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.) also got behind the calls to limit assault weapons and clip capacity.

Rep. Allyson Schwartz – As a frequently tossed around name for the Democratic nominee for Governor in just over a year, we find from the same article above that she’s refusing to answer any questions about specific bills she supports, simply summing things up as new gun laws. She also refused further interview on the subject. I would say that her response is pretty much the clear writing on the wall that she’s going to run statewide. Gun owners would be wise to remember that she’s F-rated for a reason.

Rep. Mike Doyle – Rep. Doyle has made clear that he not only supports a ban on semi-automatic rifles, but also seemingly wants to ban every semi-automatic firearm based on his comments bemoaning the lawfulness of handguns.

â€œI just donâ€˜t understand the civilian use for semiautomatic weapons, or these clips that hold 30 rounds. Thatâ€˜s not how you hunt deer,â€ said Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills. Doyle said he supports reinstating a ban on military-style rifles that expired in 2004. … â€œIf this young man went into his motherâ€˜s house and all she had was a six-shooter and a hunting rifle, there would not have been this many dead,â€ Doyle said.

Rep. Bob Brady – From the same article above, we see that he wants to ban all private transactions of firearms, ban guns, and limit how many guns that law-abiding gun owners who pass all of his other new proposed restrictions can buy.

Rep. Bob Brady, D-Philadelphia, said Congress should go further by requiring more extensive background checks, closing the so-called gun show loophole â€” which allows people to buy guns at shows without a background check â€” and restricting gun purchases to one a month.

Guns such as the Bushmaster rifle donâ€˜t â€œbelong in anybodyâ€˜s hands unless theyâ€˜ve got a uniform on and theyâ€˜re fighting for the United States,â€ Brady said.

From his comments, it sounds like he also wants to ban police departments from using semi-automatic rifles.

State Lawmakers
Rep. Steve Santarsiero – Early out of the gate, Rep. Santarsiero came out calling for a gun ban in Pennsylvania that would ban not only sale, but possession. The proposal would make tens of thousands of law-abiding residents instant felons.

I will be sponsoring a bill in the new legislative session that would outlaw both the purchase and possession of assault weapons such as those used in Connecticut last Friday. I know that similar efforts will be made at the federal level –and I sincerely hope that they are successful — but that fact should not prevent us from moving forward with our own legislation here in Pennsylvania. Moreover, I understand that at least one of the bills being considered at the federal level would only prohibit the purchase of these weapons on a going forward basis. If such a limited bill were to become law, it would leave a considerable loophole that we here in Pennsylvania should and, indeed, must close.

To him, the current lawful possession of firearms is a “loophole” that must be closed.

Rep. Daylin Leach – After admitting that there’s not a cure-all solution to a crime where a madman was willing to kill his own mother in order to obtain guns to commit a greater tragedy, Sen. Leach doesn’t hold back on the two primary gun control bills he has backed for years that have nothing to do with the Connecticut situation.

But he says he thinks of two bills right away when it comes to gun safety â€“ one would limit a person’s gun purchases to one a month… Another bill would require people to report lost or stolen guns to police within two days of finding the gun missing.

Again, the goal is to limit how many firearms a law-abiding gun owner who has already gone through state and national background checks is allowed to purchase. (Sen. Leach did question the right to own semi-automatic firearms to another media outlet, but made no mention of wanting to ban these common rifles.)

Rep. Ron Waters – In the same main article linked above, we find that the House will have another advocate for banning semi-automatic rifles.

Philadelphia’s Ron Waters says he’s proposed banning such guns four or five times, and he’ll introduce the measure again next year.

Cheaper than Dirt Stepping in It

Cheaper than Dirt is getting savaged right now online for suspending online firearms sales. To be fair, it seems that it’s because they don’t warehouse guns, and there are no guns to be had right now, as they are getting bought up as fast as they can be manufactured. Emotions are definitely high all around. If this were a battle, and I was an opposing general, the panic appearing on my opponent’s lines would only encourage me to attack more ferociously. I’m OK with lining up true traitors in front of the firing squad, but right now, the enemy is that way folks!

My Apologies if My Previous Post Sounded Glum

Did I sound a bit down in this post? I will admit to being a bit exhausted. I was up until past 3AM last night, because I spent all day following things that were coming in, talking to people on the phone, and getting my club into the fight, and various other things. That meant I had to make up time for work from after dinner into the wee hours. I was up early this morning just from poor sleep. Today will be a bit easier. Daily Pundit takes a look at the polling, and while it’s shifted a lot more than I’m comfortable with, it’s not time to preemptively give up… and I certainly wasn’t trying to say it was. At the same time I do try to be realistic about what we’re up against, though perhaps I should not do it out loud :)

Why It’s Not Quite 1994

Some folks have said it’s like 1994 all over again. I disagree. There are many factors that are different. Some play in our favor, and some don’t. But the ones that do:

We have better access to the media than we did in 1994, such as this Dave Kopel article in the Wall Street Journal illustrates.
Back in 1994, the standard competition rifles were the M1A, the M1 Garand and M1 Carbine. If people owned a semi-auto, it was probably more likely to be a Mini-14 than an AR or AK. Today those have largely been replaced by the AR-15, except for specific Garand or Carbine competition.
That leads us to numbers. We have more far people that would be affected by a ban today than yesterday. My fear is that many of these new owners are not politically initiated, and will likely spend their time panic buying rather than trying to stop the predators of their rights.
Anti gun groups are much weaker, relatively, than they were in 1994. They fought us for a decade on the Brady Bill, and when the dam finally broke, they were very strong, and NRA was at a weak point. I think part of the urgency you see how is that many on the left know if they can make no headway in the aftermath of this, they are finished. Keep in mind the stakes for them are every bit as high as they are for us. This works both ways.
The media, overall, is less influential. We have plenty of new outlets to express ourslves and communicate.

Gun owners need to be quietly influencing things on social media. I generally don’t do politics on my FB page; it’s a way to keep in touch with friends, family, and coworkers. I am open about being a gun owner and a shooter. I have been making a personal appeals on this topic since yesterday, without making it overtly political. Are you going to be around family these holidays? Talk. Don’t shout about your rights, and get angry. Make personal appeals. We have to talk our way out of this, not shout our way out. Make your family, friends, co-workers, etc know how much some of these proposals would affect you. Most people don’t know what it’s like to be a gun owner and a shooter, if they aren’t one themselves.Â Frame it as being like someone demanding you turn over your car, without being compensated for it. Or suggest you can’t ever buy the car you like again, or sell or trade your car in, because some drunk plowed into a bus full of kids and killed them. Imagine if when you said that wasn’t fair, you were told the whole thing was your fault anyway for for being a driver and having a car fetish. Don’t let them get away with, “but cars aren’t meant to kill people,” dodge. Make them imagine that reality as a hypothetical. Make them think about how that would make them feel. When they reach that understanding, if they are capable, you follow up with

“That’s what it’s like being a gun owner. I had nothing to do with this, but I am told I am to be punished because of the actions of a psychopath. It is not conceivable that this could ever happen with cars, because everyone owns them and is familiar with them. But this happens all the time to gun owners.”

I think even the most hardened, but thoughtful person, could be made to understand that.

Quote of the Day

From Joe Huffman:

Clarke was an advocate of human rights. He was active in the abolition movement and and the education of women.

Today the basic human right of self-defense is under attack. We have strong conviction but in some people they have been trampled so hard and so deep for so long that they have not been expressed. Now it is essential toÂ find your voice, find your convictions, and stand up against a great evil that is attempting to destroy our right to keep and bear arms.

Don’t let that happen. Don’t let the last decade of progress be swept away because of one mentally ill young man and a million mental midgets who think yet another restriction on guns would have made any difference in the Newton, Connecticut tragedy.

We are better than this.

Kudos for turning the Brady slogan back around on them. Joe doesn’t think a lot of us are being firm enough. I don’t think people are listening to reason right now. I don’t think they are in a mood for reason. As much as I appreciate someone suggesting I’m a Sam Adams figure, I do not have the temperament or style to be the kind of person who’s going to sound the charge and lead people into the fight, nor am I an effective agitator, like Adams or the late Andrew Brietbart. I got into activism because, frankly, I just wanted to be left along to pursue happiness in my own way. I’ve never considered myself particularly gifted at motivating people.

I should note that I do not believe we should preemptive surrender anything, but if I seem glum it’s because what I see coming in from the horizon looks dark and ugly. I don’t revel in the fight or conflict. Two weeks ago I was complaining to Bitter that it was difficult gun blogging these days because no one seems to give a shit about our issue anymore. Careful what you wish for, I guess.

How Long Did It Take for the Cops to Get There?

“Police and other first responders arrived on scene about 20 minutes after the first calls.” Can someone explain to me how a magazine ban is going to matter worth a damn?

I’m not as fast as Joe, but over the course of twenty minutes, even 10 reloads (that’s 100 rounds) is not going to amount to more than 1/40th of that time. The problem isn’t that these guys don’t have time to reload.

UPDATE: I keep thinking about 20 minutes in my head, and how long a period of time that is. It’s just mind blowing. Did we learn nothing from Columbine about needing a fast and immediate response? The murderer could have taken a break for a cigarette and a beer, let alone a handful of magazine changes, or loading up a second gun.

Let’s Have A Conversation

Kurt Schlichter, who occasionally appears on Cam & Company, has this to say about having a conversation:

For once I agree with liberals. Itâ€™s high time to have a conversation about guns. Letâ€™s start with the problem that there are far too few guns on our streets.

Wait, we canâ€™t haveÂ thatÂ conversation. In fact, weâ€™re not supposed to have what people might commonly describe as a â€œconversationâ€ at all. Weâ€™re supposed to shut-up and listen as liberals, barely masking their unseemly delight at the opportunity, try to pin the murder rampage of one degenerate creep on millions of law-abiding Americans who did nothing wrong.

Read the whole thing. There’s a lot of anger out there on our side, and I think we need people out there being our cheerleaders. I generally tend to be a happy warrior, and after seeing so many “friends” on the right head for the hills in the wake of this, even I could use a pep talk. I’ve seen plenty of gun owners who basically say they aren’t going back to the 1990s. I believe them. I worry where this road is going to take us. More Americans, I think, should be worried too.

The overall big picture, the 30,000 foot view, to borrow a cliche, is that the huge election loss was utterly demoralizing for the center-right coalition. The left now believes they have a majority coalition, that they do not need to appeal to moderates, nor do they need to compromise. The November result has unleashed terrible forces, and after this tragedy, they are smelling the blood in the water. They see a path to cut us away from the center-right coalition and sweep us from the field. Those NRA assholes will finally get what’s coming to them! I don’t for a minute believe this is about grief. Grief is what we’re all going through. Grief is why many of us are late to this fight. Grieving people do not threaten to murder other human beings. At some point, we need to get our s**t together and start punching back, as Glenn Reynolds says, twice as hard, or we may see the terrible places this ends up going.

Assessing the Landscape

I think we’re going to get it shoved you know where. I think it’s only a matter of how far it get shoved you know where. Why? Erstwhile friends are running for the hills. Corporate folks are well known cowards, and it’s hardly surprising that Dicks is going to stop selling evil black rifles. More surprising is Cerberus selling Freedom Group, thoughÂ I seem to recall they were looking for a buyer before. Freedom Group made substantial investments in the State of New York, an investment they probably figure is now going to be a bust, either because of state action, or federal action.

It is now the case that our backs are to the wall. Many will likely not want to hear this, but our choice is likely between bad and worse. But we have to fight. Our current struggle will determine whether we live to fight another day, or whether in the next several months, we watch everything we’ve built for the last decade fall apart. That is what is at stake now. The more we fight, the less we have to just bend over and let the other side savage us. We can push them back, if we show the resolve, and bring others to the fight.