2016 – Page 15 – Shall Not Be Questioned

But I Thought Gun Control Was a Winning Issue?

From Politico: “Dems urged to retool their guns message.” Basically Gabby Giffords is nervous that Hillary keeps talking about “taking on the NRA.” Gifford’s focus groups studies are revealing that people have a pretty favorable view of the NRA, and she would prefer Hillary to use the term “gun lobby,” because that’s totally less offensive to gun owners.

Actually, I think there’s a lot of good advice in this article, and I actually hope no one on their side listens. On a positive note:

ARS also developed specific messages to turn out parts of the original Obama coalition of blacks, Hispanics, women and millennials. The latter might actually be the most difficult to persuade. ARSâ€™ pollsters found that millennials’ views on guns track more with the party ID than their age, andÂ other studiesÂ have found that younger voters are especially open to gun rights, seeing them in the same vein of personal liberty as gay rights.

But as I’ve said before, it doesn’t matter if they won’t vote on it. What we corporate gun lobby folks need is more single issue or near single issue voters.

New Massachusetts Assault Weapons Ban

Via the Boston Globe. This was done entirely by executive fiat of the Attorney General. You can bet Bloomberg’s fingerprints are all over this:

The directive specifically outlines two tests to determine what constitutes a â€œcopyâ€ or â€œduplicateâ€ of a prohibited weapon. If a gunâ€™s operating system is essentially the same as that of a banned weapon, or if the gun has components that are interchangeable with those of a banned weapon, itâ€™s a â€œcopyâ€ or â€œduplicate,â€ and it is illegal. Assault weapons prohibited under our laws cannot be altered in any way to make their sale or possession legal in Massachusetts.

It won’t apply to firearms purchased before the new rule, but from hereon out, this is the new rule. Things are just going to continue to get worse in blue-model states that Dems control. The only way we’re going to save them is federal preemption, either by the courts or Congress, and if Hillary wins, you can forget the Courts. If you live in those states, I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is. And the worst part? Oregon, Colorado, Washington, all states that for now are blue but still good, are probably most in jeopardy. Pennsylvania is currently controlled by the GOP in both houses, but that won’t last forever.

Gun owners need to wake up, or things are going to get very, very bad in blue and purple states. If you’re in those states and still voting for Dems, you either a fool, or at the end of the day don’t really value your gun rights.

I Can Sympathize

Glenn Reynolds: “I always say that if I ever quit blogging, itâ€™ll be because I canâ€™t take following the news anymore. Itâ€™s depressing.” I remember growing up my aging barber telling me “After a while, the idea of dying doesn’t scare you as much. In some way’s you’ll get happy about the idea of checking out. Look at the shit going on in this world today. AndÂ I probably haven’t seen half of what you’ll see. I’ll be happy to be taking a dirt nap.” Of course, the younger me that was told that was also promised flying cars, moon bases, and men on Mars. Today, I can play Pokemon Go!

I think about that a lot these days. I’m really glad my Grandparents didn’t live to have to make the choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. It also doesn’t say anything good about our politics that my grandparents, who have been dead for 20 years, would still know both candidates.

UPDATE: This somewhat related WaPo article is a good read. I also did not really appreciate my grandparent’s generation until they were gone, though mine were working class people from South Philly and not upper crust like the authors. Yes, that generation had their issues, but their progeny would have whole subscriptions.

How You Know There Will Never Be Enough Gun Control

Mom’s Demand laments 14 dead in California shooting that “no one is talking about.” Sorry Shannon, we may be too busy watching the post-war order my grandparent’s generation establishedÂ fall apart all around us, like Germany for example, where apparently an axe lost it and decided to chop a bunch of people on a train. I’ll have to go chain mine up after this. Same headline at CNN: “Germany ax attack injures several on train, police kill suspect.” Maybe I need to start drilling axe shooting scenarios!

Where there’s a will to maim or kill, there will be a way. The media and elites believe if they just stick their heads in the sand a little farther, everything will be fine. Then, on the other extreme, you have the folks who think the only good muslim is a dead one, despite the fact that muslims are doing the majority of the fighting and dying to put an end to this barbarity.

California just passed a battery of enhanced gun control laws, already having had some of the toughest in the nation. Yet bad things still happen, and people like Shannon Watts don’t ever accept that there will always be evil in the world. They’ll keep demanding more and more laws, and burying their heads ever deeper in the sand.

UPDATE: An another one. Good thing Europe has such strict gun laws, or someone might have gotten hurt.

Give Me That Old Time Law and Order

The Cleveland Police Union asks that open carry be banned for the Republican National Convention. I can certainly understand why they would prefer this. I can certainly understand why they might just want to ban protests too. But the fact of the matter is that it’s just not constitutional under the laws of Ohio for the governor to do this. Fortunately, Kasich seems to know his limits.

Recall it was an armed march by the Black Panthers during Ronald’s Reagan’s stint as Governor of California that prompted the legislature to pass, and Governor Reagan to sign, the first ban on open carry in the Golden State.

Sometimes respecting constitutional rights makes the job of the police difficult.Â That said, if you’re planning to OC at the RNC, I’d keep it slung/holstered if I were you.

Weekly Gun News – Edition 43

Again, hate to start off the week with a links post, but it’ll be a long week. Went to the Doctor for the migraines and they found out my blood pressure was through the roof. They are trying anti-hypertensive drugs to bring things down, and I’m trying to be patient and not panic about it. Doesn’t help that I’m pretty severely medical phobic, as in takes every bit of my willpower not to run out of there screaming. Even with home checking, the cuff freaks me the hell out and the thing reads all over the place. I think the protocol will probably be to medicate me with anti-hypertensives until I start passing out :) I seem to be pretty tolerant of the beta-blocker I started taking Friday, but it also isn’t dropping it a whole lot (it’s about a 40% of max dose for my weight). But enough about that, here’s the news:

France is looking for some good guys with guns.

The Nation: “The NRAâ€™s â€œinsurgency theoryâ€ fantasy rests on the idea that â€œpatriotsâ€ will rise up in unison against government tyranny. But the reality is that firearms have never been a bulwark against tyranny; weâ€™ve maintained a Constitutional government for 230 years because of the separation of powers â€“ because the Framers divided power between co-equal branches of government that serve as checks on any branch gaining absolute power.” Good thing no one is doing everything they can do undermine separation of powers.

Bloomberg seems to be rallying top generals and veterans to push gun control. I don’t for a minute believe these are independent efforts.

Reason: “If you like the war on drugs, you’ll love the war on guns!”

Al Sharpton asks if the Second Amendment is for whites only. I don’t know anyone in the RKBA movement who believes that.

Why 2016 Could Be a Turning Point on Guns. To be honest, it could be.

Dems vow to keep heat on GOP over gun control. They think it’s a winning issue, and if they keep winning, they will be right.

Congressional staffers refuse “gun free zone” signs in front of their houses. I’ve never really thought this was much of a gotcha, to be honest. I wouldn’t put a “This home is well-armed” sign in front of my house either.

Gavin Newsmen is a piece of garbage, but he’s also likely to be the next Governor of California.

Obama can’t lay off the gun control talk, even at a funeral. Classy.

Non Gun:

Truck attack!

The 9th Circuit has ruled it’s now a crime to visit someone’s web site if they don’t want you to. No worries here. Everyone is welcome.

I thought this was a good read: “When and Why Nationalism Beats Globalism”

This is actually worthwhile legislation if the Republicans are serious about pushing it: “Itâ€™s time to dismantle the ‘fourth branch’”

How Obama Left us More Racially Divided Than Ever.

The World Turned Upside Down

An attack in Nice, South of France. Looks like dozens dead. Plowed a truck through a Bastille Day crowd. There are reports of gunfire, but that could be police trying to shoot the driver. Early reports are almost always wrong in some way. This will no doubt bolsterÂ Trump and Marine LePen.

God help us all. This will not end well.

Quantifying the Social Costs of Guns

Professor Tim Smith has calculated “The Social Costs of Guns.”Â Apparently if you use “market approaches” to artificially drive up the cost of gun ownership, it’s not really gun control, even though his proposal would cost me thousands of dollars each year. He does a calculation on the social cost of gun ownership. To Prof. Smith’s credit, he admits that the social costs of rifles are actually very low, because they are so rarely used in crime. But at the end he proposes an annual registration fee of $140 per firearm, to cover the social cost they impose.

A lot of people would give up on gun ownership under this scheme, so it’s a political non-starter. It would gut our political power to resist further encroachments, and the registration scheme it would involve would result in massive non-compliance by gun owners. So this is not something that would ever become reality even if it could be passed.

Prof. Joe Olsen Expressed Concern About St. Anthony Police

This was prior to the Castile shooting:

Instead, the stop was so troubling that he later went to the then-St. Anthony police chief to tell him he may have a serious problem with how the department conducts traffic stops. But the chief, Olson said, dismissed his concern.

â€œI told him that if you donâ€™t fix this, youâ€™re going to have an even bigger problem,â€ Olson said. â€œAnd thatâ€™s apparently what happened.â€

Read the whole thing. Joe Olsen is one of the academics responsible for the Heller and McDonald decisions, and has been a RKBA activist for a long time. Longer than I’ve been alive.

The Big Contradiction

Cam Edwards latest column:

Have you noticed the cognitive dissonance that many supporters of â€œcommon-senseâ€ gun control have been exhibiting as of late? Iâ€™m not sure itâ€™s possible to support more gun-control laws and oppose â€œmass incarcerationâ€ or â€œexcessive policingâ€ policies. How can someone argue that young men of color are overpoliced, while at the same time calling for more non-violent-offender gun laws to be placed on the books?

Cam goes on to ponder why the media was quick to jump on NRA’s lack of commentary, then cautious commentary on the Castile shooting, but isn’t asking Bloomberg about his “stop and frisk” policies that he promoted as mayor, which even he conceded disproportionally jailed minorities for non-violent offenses.