It doesn’t quite feel like hump day this week, since Monday was a holiday, and I started the week on Tuesday in the office. My apologies for the dead air yesterday, but I was too tired on Monday and too busy on Tuesday to get anything up.
California Shooting:
It’s time to stop blaming the NRA and constitution for madmen. The idea that NRA is responsible for this is insulting enough, but it makes it doubly so that they are being blamed for an incident that happened in a state Brady rates as tops, with an A-, and that has a legislature the NRA only has minimal influence over.
Clayton Cramer notes that California already has enough gun laws. Note you don’t see that anywhere in the traditional media. Wouldn’t help the narrative.
The USA Editorial Board pushes the “gun violence restraining order” idea, which would mean your friends who don’t like you or don’t like guns could have your rights removed on a whim. Second Amendment rights at the whim of an angry ex! Yep. Sounds like freedom to me.
WaPo’s Paul Waldman: “Could the California shooting revive gun control?” Only if the conversation includes how everything the anti-gunners claim to want, California has, and why it didn’t work.
The New York Times manages to both propose laws that would have done nothing to prevent the UC shooter, and demonstrate to us that they are indeed coming after our guns in the same editorial. Quite an accomplishment! Remember, no one wants to ban guns, except semi-automatic pistols, semi-automatic rifles, and anything else they think they can get away with.
Democrats introducing more gun control in the house that would have done nothing to stop the UC shooter. You’d think some reporter would question them about this? But they are as eager to drive the narrative as the lying politicians.
Joan Peterson can’t convince me she’s not a prohibitionist. It’s an outright lie to write these things and suggest you’re not about banning guns. Fortunately, the Brady organizations are almost completely irrelevant in the current debate, and Joan is too.
This supposed celebrity I’ve never heard of is a prohibitionist too. But no one wants to take your guns. I don’t know if Thirdpower ever heard of him either.
The Never Ending OC Fallout:
Gun free zones work so well, Jack-in-the-Box has suffered three armed robberies since their decision to ask icky gun people to stay the hell out. We hear you loud and clear. Unfortunately for you, the criminals don’t care.
Things we don’t want to see: stories on why more businesses are going “gun free.” It’s the latest trend!
I don’t know if these guys are rifle OCers, but they got their event booted from Texas Roadhouse. What’s been happening with restaurants and long guns is going to be bad for all forms of carry, and particularly for people who open carry pistols. Restaurants are unlikely to make the distinction.
David Harsanyi of the The Federalist doesn’t think conservatives should boycott Chipotle. I agree boycotts aren’t effective, but if they don’t want me, I don’t want them. The problem with just ignoring all this is that eventually these companies will get bold enough to post, and then we have a big problem.
General Gun News:
Exurban Kevin is hanging it up, but because he got a job in the industry. We congratulate him.
Over at Volokh: More on Operation Choke Point.
“Why I, an avid gun owner, hate Red Jacket Firearms.” I never even heard of this show.
Chris Cox: “We Love Our Moms and Trust Our Doctors, But We Still Don’t Want Gun Control”
Alabama passes hunting with suppressors. There’s good news out there after all!
Author and pro-2A activist Ken Blanchard is running for public office in Maryland.
This is why we need some good evasion doctrine when it comes to the Second Amendment. Most of the stuff these people propose is shamelessly intended to evade the court’s constitutional pronouncements.
The lesson here is that if you find yourself in a position where the police want to take you to the loony bin, go voluntarily. This is especially true if you live in Pennsylvania. Make it clear you are going voluntarily. Make that clear to the attending psychiatrist too that you are there of your own volition. You don’t lose your gun rights if you go voluntarily, and even if they mark it involuntary, you give your lawyer something to work with.
Those Crazy Anti-Gunners:
Fortunately, I don’t think anyone gives a crap what college presidents think. I sure as shit don’t.
Seems as though Richard Martinez covered up his communist bullshit with those crocodile tears. I have no sympathy for him and have lost all sympathy for these shooting victims families. We are approaching the 25th anniversary of the 1989 Tianaman Square Massacre and are being told we must surrender our gun rights, that we must sacrifice our due process rights because we own guns, that we must give up our privacy by being forced to submit to home inspection from the (KGB) police, that we must be spied on from a registry list, etc.
Have you noticed that Joan’s posts get longer as the gun control movement becomes more irrelevant?
Someone should do a study :)
She can’t write her way out of a wet paper bag.
I’m not boycotting Chipotle. I’m honoring their polite, plainly worded request to not visit them. Boycott implies it’s my idea.
Yes! That’s the perfect way to put it.
I’m not boycotting them either.
Because I have never eaten there in the first place. {chuckle}
But I agree with what you say, Drifter — if it was a place I normally visited, and they asked me to stay out, I would politely keep myself and my wallet out.
Re: Red Jacket Imgur:
This exchange in the comments made me smile: http://imgur.com/gallery/xb9yQLL/comment/229861468
Re: The article on funding gun violence research as if it were a public health issue.
It occurred to me that, while we don’t know the cause of all gun violence (and probably never will), we *do* know that a significant cause of violence–both gun violence and otherwise–is gang activity. Yet I don’t see any funding going into research to understanding, and reducing, gang violence.
And we know that gangs are a major cause of violence, too! If we look at the major centers of violence–Chicago, LA, Washington DC, New York, etc–it’s clear to see gang activity being a problem. And it’s not just a race issue, because gang violence has been a problem in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah, gradually growing. I don’t want it to grow to the levels of Chicago or LA before we start crying that people should do something!
And who knows? It may be that the reason why gangs haven’t grown as extensively in Utah, is because of the strong gun culture. We need to do the research to find out, though…