July 2015 – Page 3 – Shall Not Be Questioned

More on Everytown’s Efforts to End Default Proceeds

Everytown is apparently seeking a large ad buy ($12 million) in order to push what they are now calling the “Charleston Loophole.”Â This is very dishonest. First of, the bureaucrats had five days to act, and they did not. Secondly, there’s supposed to be follow up on default proceeds. There was not. This was entirely a failure of government. Default proceeds were intended to prevent people exercising their rights from having those rights held hostage to bureaucrats who refused to act. All it would have taken was a phone call. Default proceeds are not a “loophole.”

I’m also amused by Everytown’s attempts to inflate their numbers. Their claims of membership are laughable: “Everytown for Gun Safety says it has more than 3 million members and 40,000 donors.” I’m sure they have 3 million people who signed a petition, or had any other contact with their organization, like signing up for an e-mail list. I’m signed up for their newsletters, so I probably count as a member. If they were to use something closer to NRA’s standard, they have 40,000 members. They have 780,000 followers on their Facebook Page (who I’d bet count as members), and I’d wager a good number of them are pro-gun people keeping tabs. NRA has 4.2 million.

Nonetheless, Bloomberg’s money is the biggest threat we face. The gun control movement has never seen this kind of cash put behind it. We’re probably quite lucky that we’re dealing with Bloomberg now, after all our cultural gains of the last decade, and not dealing with him back in the 90s. I shudder to think what his money would have done to us back in the 1990s.

Gun Ban for Elderly Proposed by Obama Administration

A set of thumbscrews, a metaphor for this Administration. — A set of thumbscrews. A metaphor for this Administration.

Sometimes you just have to wonder if the Obama Administration is trolling us at this point. The White House floated a proposal to strip Second Amendment rights from about four million of our nation’s senior citizens who receive Social Security benefits through a “representative payee.” This is personal for Bitter and I because her grandfather, at 90 years old, falls into this category, and he owns firearms that have been in the family for a long time. He’s plenty safe to handle firearms, however he has had someone else managing his affairs for him for some time. One can imagine someone elderly who might forget to pay bills if they managed their own affairs, but can still handle a firearm safely.

NRA has more to say about it here. And what is the purpose of this? Do we have an epidemic of octogenarians committing mass murder? Holding up banks? Hitting the streets and robbing people so they can get the money for their next hit of Geritol? There’s no public safety issue at work here. This is just meant to screw people for embarrassing the Administration on guns.

The thing I really hate about the Obama Administration is that it has no issue with being unjust or unfair; if you oppose its policies, you can expect it to try to stick it to you. Not stick it to Congress, or stick it to political rivals in DC, youÂ will be made to pay. The Obama Administration has no issue taking out their anger on ordinary Americans. Bill Clinton’s Administration dealt us a number of defeats in the 1990s, and you did have the HUD deals, and other executive shenanigans, but even then I don’t remember Clinton sticking it directly to the rank and file like Obama does.

So what’s going to happen here? My guess is NRA can probably get another of the many budget riders it’s gotten out of Congress to defund any attempt by the Administration to implement this plan. I can’t imagine preventing 4 million SSA recipientsÂ from suddenly, overnight, becoming prohibited persons is going to be much of an ask to Congress.

Let the Pant Sh**ting Hysterics Commence!

Looks like someone else armed a drone. Per FAA regulations, this isn’t legal, but not like that’s going to stop anyone intent on causing harm, or anyone just looking to have some fun.

Nonetheless, I’m sure there are politicians out there who are, as we speak, trying to figure out how to make this more illegal. Because if weapons control doesn’t work, you just need to double down on it, only this time with vigor!

Jonah Goldberg on “The Donald”

From his column over at National Review:

His biggest fans disappoint in other ways as well. I marvel at how they can simultaneously despise Obamaâ€™s arrogance but revel in Trumpâ€™s. (I chuckle at all of the people who tell me heâ€™s a heroic truth-teller for â€œtelling it like it isâ€ and â€œcalling it as he sees itâ€ but who at the same time fume at me when I tell it like it is about Trump and call it as I see it.)

I’ve learned over the years that you get in trouble for actually calling things as you see them. Where you are on safe ground is being in the business of telling people what they want to hear and emotionally validating them. That’s the business Trump is engaged in.Â Jonah then lays out the case for Trump being a fraud. I’ve said before, he’s a stalking horse for Hillary.

Look, these are rough times for conservatives, for reasons too lengthy, and all too familiar, to go into here. But none of our problems â€” demographic, political, cultural â€” can be solved unless conservatives take the cause of persuasion to heart. All of our problems can be fixed by convincing people to join our cause. That is what politics is about â€” persuading people that their interests and concerns are better addressed by coming to our side. And, given the degraded nature of our culture, I wonâ€™t deny that having a celebrity on our side has its utility. But itâ€™s only helpful if that celebrity convinces people to switch sides. As a purely mathematical proposition, it is insane to believe that Donald Trump will convert more voters than he will repel.

Rhetoric matters. It takes more than emotional validation to win elections. The candidate I’m looking for in 2016 will be the one who can manage things well behind the scenes to destroy the bureaucratic monstrosity the left has built, and restore constitutional government, while publicly smiling to the camera, charming reporters, and convincing the country what a swell guy (or gal) he or she is. It’s a rare talent, especially among Republicans, but it’s what I’m looking for.

Gunblog Variety Podcast: Oversight On My Part

I have four different devices I use for trolling for news and keeping track of what I want to post about. I hate it when I find a tab with something I meant to post about, but overlooked until the news was stale. Ordinarily, I usually just write that story up as a loss, but I’d feel bad if I did that in this case.

Several weeks ago I was on an episode of the Gunblog Variety Podcast, talking about this post. I had the episode open but didn’t find it until yesterday when I did my gun news postÂ and went through all my tabs on every device. Checking my history, sure enough, I never did the post. You can listen to their latest podcast here.

I tend to feel that there’s an obligation to engage in cross promotion, so I didn’t just want to let this go. It takes a lot of work to do vlogging and podcasting, and I dropped the ball here. If you ever looked at my desk, yeah, the computer side of things isn’t much more organized.

NRA Instructor Wins Fight Over Hat

Apparently during the elections in Georgia last October, an NRA instructor was asked to remove his “NRA Instructor” hat at a polling station. Georgia’s law is not uncommon, in that it does not allow campaigning or election materials at or near polling stations. Bundy Cobb was made to take off his hat, but later decided to fight. It appears that he won.

I often wear some kind of NRA hat or shirt soÂ the local politicians can see that we show up and vote. I’ve never had a problem with it, but this isn’t the first story I’ve heard of people being asked to take off NRA paraphernalia. On the other side of the issue, I’ve been scolded before as a poll stander for helping an elderly NRA member who was legally blind find his way into the polling place, and I forgot I had put campaign materials (for a candidate) on my hat. That was my fault, and I apologized to the poll watcher, but once they realized the voter was blind, the presumably Dem watcher didn’t seem to mind so much.

UPDATE: The title originally said lawsuit, but he did not sue. He appealed to the State Department and County Election Board.

The Eloiification Continues

Tam recounts a story from the TODAY show, where a grown man admitted on television, in front of the nation (or well, at least about 1.6% of the nation) that he was afraid of using a fire extinguisher. Not in the panic of a house fire, mind you, but in a controlled environment, meant to teach people how to use fire extinguishers. If I had done that, my father (a volunteer firefighter for 45 years and counting) would have disowned me. I’ve had a few pan fires, and never really thought much about dumping baking soda or going to the fire extinguisher. Putting the lid on the pan does the trick. Oven fires will generally go out on their own if you turn off the oven and just leave the door closed.

If Jeff Rossen and Savannah Guthrie are intimidated by an ordinary household fire extinguisher, I wonder what they would think of mine?

Sometimes I don’t think it’ll be that long before we’re all buying Brawndo.

Weekly Gun News – Edition 7

I’m sorry to tell you that it’s been a pretty slow week for gun news. I didn’t post anything on Monday, not because I was pressed for time, but because I just didn’t find anything interesting to write about. It’s that slow. But I’ll give a gun news post a try and see how it goes. Hopefully this won’t leave me dry tomorrow:

Clayton Cramer: “Close the Police Car Loophole!” It’s more common than people think. The San Francisco shooting was just a particularly high-profile case.

Miguel: CSGV hits every branch of the bigot tree on their way down. It’s not Markley’s Law Monday, but plenty of dick jokes in there. Though, it does seem that becoming a hate group has been more successful for CSGV than being a gun control group. I just wonder what their religious peace-loving coalition partners would think if they knew?

Joe Huffman thinks I was a little off using Gladys Kravitz as a patron saint for the gun control movement, because Gladys was honest, and everyone around her thought she was a nutcase. Not so with the gun control movement. A valid point!

Winning the Culture War: The return of High School shooting sports.

Dave Hardy is celebrating diversity. 14% of Illinois carry permits are issued to women, and in many minority neighborhoods. Imagine what it would look like if costs weren’t driven up beyond what many poor folks can afford? This was a big enough issue, Bloomberg’s mouthpieces felt the need to pooh pooh the article.

Looks like Cuomo has been experiencing difficulty implemented his beloved SAFE Act. Plus, this.

I love people who claim to be NRA members, but have no idea what the organization does. Hint: it already has a substantial training program, and it even puts out “video discs,” or whatever it is the kids are using these days.

The UK Daily Mail: African-Americans still favor gun control, but views are shifting. The other side is terrified of this.

Charles C.W. Cooke: “‘Better Ideas’ Are Nothing without Guns to Back Them Up, Mr. President.”

New Jersey’s draconian gun laws strike again.

Gun control advocates are extremely butthurt over the fact that we’re successfully using the budget process to thwart executive gun control. I sincerely hope NRA’s lobbyists can keep disappointing them. They have gotten pretty good at playing this game.

The Washington Post throws down on Hillary and her gun position. It’ll be very important for us that Sanders gives Hillary a run for her money. Sanders is far from perfect on the gun issue, but the bet among progressives is that the gun issue will hurt him.

Glenn Reynolds: The Donald and Bernie Show. Both candidates are entirely a result of the establishments of both parties not listening to their voters.

You know the old retort that the attacker will just take the gun away from you? Well, it finally happened.

The Rifle that almost became the M1 Garand.

Apparently you collect firearms and drive to Canada at your own risk. Note how ATF spend resources going after a collector. Probably because real criminals might shoot back.

Funny: Fast and Furious ain’t just a movie anymore.

Kids today! In truth people have always been ignorant, but I think the difference is this generation seems to combine profound brilliance without profound ignorance in a way my generation didn’t.

Apparently another SYG fight is coming in Florida.

New Study: You’re Better off Running Away

Now that Bloomberg has put some real money back into anti-gun research, the studies appear to be flowing. Bloomberg’s mouthpieces, Evan DeFillippis and Devin Hughes (yes, those guys, who I now speculate were paid shills all along)Â point to a new study out that shows you’re really just better off running away. Notice how all their studies are published behind paywalls, while our researchers upload their studies to SSRN where anyone can read and dissect them?

Anecdotally, I only know two people who have ever had to use a gun in self-defense. In one case, the friend was in an attempted robbery. Attempted because he drew a gun on the robbers, and they retreated posthaste. The incident was reported to 911, but the dispatcher asked if the friend really wanted a car sent out to take a report, and he answered no. The second was in a rural home, before the days of 911, and was just never reported to police. Both of these were absolutely and unambiguously self-defense.

I’m not surprised they are picking these studies apart, because just about every study has shown a fairly significant amount of defensive gun use. I would expect more studies on how ineffective firearms are at protecting people. But here’s a question for Mr. DeFillippis and Mr. Hughes: if firearms are so ineffective at self-protection, when will Mr. Bloomberg, your patron, voluntarily disarm his security detail? Or are guns only effective when they are protecting rich billionaires?

I’ve Officially Seen Everything

Behold the majesty of the DildAR:

I think the funny thing is, it looks like it shoots pretty flat.