We’ll end the week on a news post. Been busy trying to make up for some lack of productivity in the beginning of this week.
The Nation: “Voters Are Ready to Punish Pro-Gun Politicians. There’s Just One Problem.” They claim the problem is voters don’t know the positions of their politicians. This is probably space prep for ad campaigns by Bloomberg against Ayotte and Rubio. If either of them go down the gun control folks will take credit. They are building their own narrative, and they are doing it successfully. Why? Because our people are living in a fantasy land, for the most part.
None of these activists are going to vote for Pat Toomey, and a lot of gun voters aren’t either. So what did Toomey gain by courting Bloomberg? Note who Toomey didn’t throw under the bus? The “values voters.” He’s still as pro-life as ever. When gun owners understand why that is, we might get somewhere. Why is that? Because they are a far more motivated minority than we are, and they get their hands into everything. You can’t swing a dead cat in DC without hitting a SoCo, even in issues that have nearly nothing to do with social conservatism. It’s not just DC either. Pro-lifers show up locally too.
This article overstates the degree to which the gun control movement is building real grassroots, rather than enjoying the largess and showmanship Bloomberg’s money can bring, but the pro-gun side has turned unserious and disunited. If we don’t change that, for all practical purposes, this article is correct.
TSA stops a passenger with a 3D printed revolver.
Interesting developments in Supreme Court opinions that aren’t about guns but affect gun rights. If you’ve ever been convicted of a Misdemeanor of the First Degree in Pennsylvania for refusing a DUI blood or breath test, you can now obtain relief from firearms disability.
Former soldier: “We need gun control now more than ever.” He doesn’t know the difference between a machine gun and a semi-auto. Any gun owner who supports gun control is delusional if they think they won’t be eaten last.
Hey, Dems are running ads attacking Toomey for being too pro-gun anyway. How’s that talking out of both sides of your mouth working for ya Pat? Even PolitiFact is calling Toomey on his record. The gun control vote was never up for grabs, what little of it there is. All Toomey did was piss off supporters he needs for fundraising and votes.
Legal Insurrection: “Maybe there’s something to the slippery slope argument after all.” Anyone who understands the political process knows that slippery slopes are very real. Only naive people believe it’s a fallacy.
#DisarmHate on rally on the National Mall. What’s hate, you might ask? You are!
Notice that the New York Times says “Donald Trump Courts the Gun Zealots.” Think they’d use “Hillary Courts Pro-Choice Zealots?” or “Hillary Courts Black Lives Matter Zealots?” No, if course they wouldn’t. That would be bigoted, and the SJWs would destroy them.
I never liked that the Libertarian Party seemed more interested in arguing about what libertarianism is, and defining people out of the tent rather than building a political movement of generally like-minded people. That said, I think the kids today could probably use a lesson on what libertarianism is (hint, it ain’t Bill Weld). Yeah, not this bullshit either. Then again, if you don’t play dirty, you’re not really playing.
Seen on the Internets: “This isn’t a case for the NRA. This is a case for Aerosmith.” Yet another case where you couldn’t have a discussion with someone because they lack the basic level of knowledge necessary to begin the discussion. Unfortunately, very few people can admit “OK, so you got me, I really don’t know much about this topic. Explain it to me.”
I think this is true: “Today’s Tech Oligarchs are Worse than the Robber Barons.” There was a time when tech people were almost universally anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian. Then some of us decided to become the man.
“How Jon Stewart’s Culture of Ridicule Left America Unprepared for Donald Trump.” I was more of a fan of The Daily Show and Stewart when the show was a parody of the news. Once Stewart picked sides and got overtly political, but then would cop out with “I’m just a comedian,” when people would challenge him, his schtick got old quick. He’s another figure that became “the man” while always denying it.
Its past time to admit that gunowners really have becone their own worst enemy for one simple reason: gunowners becane to complacent and relaxed after The Heller and McDonald decisions. Our side got to cozy with the notion of assuming that the SCOTUS had ended the gun debate, failing to realize that the leftwing, outright communist, antigun movement vowed to, after the Heller and McDonald decisions were made,overturn them and outright ignore them, and made the implied promise that if they flipped the courts in their favor, they would abolish the 2nd Amendment.
Too many people on our side are trapped in the notion that “no one is coming to take your guns”, and have also been suckered into the antigun side, by their deceptive portraying that they now all of a sudden respect the 2nd Amendment. Its been talked about on this blog that the antigunners changed their language in the form of gun BANS to “gun safety”, and a portion of our side has fallen for it, not knowing the antigunners are licking their chops for the opportunity to slit their throats once they’ve turned their backs.
Someday gun owners will have to start punishing anti-gun Republicans like Pat Toomey, even when their opponents are worse than they are.
Toomey needs to lose the coming election, and lose it in a way that is more than just having been steamrollered by the cities and “liberal suburbs.” Then, analysis has to show he lost it by losing the rural counties’ gun vote.
That may be tough, because if Herr Trump manages to lose in a landslide, all anti-Republican outcomes down ballot will be blamed on him. We should begin advertising our disenchantment with Toomey publicly, early, and often.
“Why Is the NRA Ignoring This 14-Year-Old Girl Jailed for Shooting Her Abusive Father?”
Wow, those comments.
Do they think the NRA comments on everyone who gets arrested “for shooting someone”, if they’re a white male?
She’s charged with aggravated murder, not unlawful possession or the like; the NRA doesn’t get involved in murder charges, well, ever, that I’ve seen.
(Since one of the first comments I saw was basically “the reason is she’s black and female and a victim of domestic violence” – you know, the NRA is all racist men who love beating their wives.
Because shut up.
[A quick search of the NRA Twitter Feed right now shows no defenses of Evil White Men Jailed For Murdering Spouses.
But one congratulations to someone who killed such a man in self defense.
And a link to a celebration of gay shooters motivated by self defense post-Orlando.
Truly, as you say, they have no idea whatsoever that their Honestly Held Sincere Beliefs about the NRA are completely false.
And anyone that tells them they are? Well, they’re just apologists.)
Have to love the claim of “As many as 10,000 or more people.”
I guess they all showed up after the photographer’s battery died. In the pictures, when you don’t count the people who show up multiple times or the press, a generous count is 25, and it seems like they photographed between 25 and 50% of the crowd judging by the angle on the stage. Maybe 100 people.
Gotta love lazy reporting
It sounds like standard journalistic practice, mostly independent of ideology, other than the ideology of telling people what they want to believe.
I remember well in 2003 that Nightly News footage of the statue of Saddam Hussien being pulled down in Iraq. It looked like a mob of thousands, but independent aerial views of the crowd showed no more than a couple hundred. And of those, closeups showed many faces that were shown getting off a plane from outside the country, a day or two before.
Never forget that your own side (whatever that means) has as great an interest in propagandizing you, as your opposition has in propagandizing their people.