I haven’t really had enough material to continue with the regular news link post for some time. It’s not that the media isn’t writing about guns, it’s that so much of it is dreck it’s not even worth a link. It used to be, I’d ignore a lot of the local papers, and focus on big, reputable national papers writing stupid and ignorant things about guns. Of course, they still do that, but are there still people who aren’t committed lefties who don’t realize the New York Times is, for the most part, full of shit? So I’ll do these kinds of posts when I have material, and dispense with the notion that it is a regular feature.
The sky is, in fact, falling in Illinois. They only need to get lucky once. We have to be repeatedly lucky. If they can get assault weapons bans in just a few more states, that makes our fight against them that much more difficult. Right now those laws are outliers. We want them to stay that way.
Also, Florida is in big heap trouble, and Florida WILL be a bellwether for the nation, unlike some of the other states.
Dave Kopel is starting a multi-part series on the history of the assault weapons issue. He starts with the Stockton murderer, whose story will sound eerily familiar. Worth keeping an eye on.
Axios has a story about NRA’s digital game. I’m working up an article in my head about NRA’s ground game in general, and how it’s going to need to improve. This incident should be a wake up call. But more on that later.
Salena Zito: By ditching the NRA, companies are dividing Americans. They had all this planned out and ready to execute at the first viable pretext. You should be very worried, because they have been executing this strategy very well. I have in my time in this issue never seen the gun control movement so well-organized. We will need to up our game. Doesn’t matter that billionaire money is the only reason they can afford all this. Doesn’t matter that it’s unfair. It is, and we have to be prepared ourselves. I can say personally, I was not prepared for the Republicans to cave as quickly as they did.
I haven’t done any posts people about Trump’s gun control comments with Democrats. One, because Trump has a habit of saying whatever crazy shit comes into his head and then changing his mind later. Two, because my preferred candidate in 2016, Marco Rubio, folded like a cheap deck of cards under pressure, so it’s not like my preferred option was any better, and three, NRA has met with Trump and said everything is fine. All I have to say is I would not count on Trump with a Democratic Congress, so don’t any of you Trump voters even think about saying home in 2018.
School shootings spread like a virus. The article points out the media has managed to maintain an unwritten rule about not covering field rushers. Well, field rushers don’t earn the media great ratings. School shootings do. The media aren’t going to stop glorifying the mass murderers until there’s real social shame in it. But until then, the drive for ratings will dominate.
The Federalist: “Why Did It Take Two Weeks To Discover Parkland Students’ Astroturfing?”
Tam on “Playing Hooky For Gun Control”
Let the age giscrimination suits begin! Delta has already been made to pay. Others should follow. They need to be convinced that Bloomberg’s people mislead them. They must pay a terrible price for working with him.
Shocker: Membership in pro-gun groups surging. I’m at the highest level of life membership, so I can’t join any more, but despite the fact that my finances have been tight for some time, I’m going to find some money for a donation.
Kevin Creighton: “How do we flip that into a message of hope?” One word: community. As civil society and civic culture in this country implode, it’s what a lot of people need. It’s also something we can offer if we develop it. Churches were more successful when they were community institutions, but we’ve spent a lot of time in the past 40 years trying to tear it down. I’d also note: online communities are no substitute for real ones.
USA Today: “School shootings are not the new normal, despite statistics that stretch the truth.” More on that theme here as well.
Reason: “The jumping-off point of the story is that millennials (variously defined as those between the ages of 18 to 29, or people under 40-years old) seem to be left-wing on such issues as marriage equality, more-open immigration, drug legalization, for instance. But they also seem to be pretty right-wing on guns, despite having come on age in the post-Columbine era of semi-regular school shootings.” I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. None of this will matter if they don’t actually give a shit about the issue. Because if they elect a fanatic anti-gun big city Democrats, our gooses are cooked.
Remember, no one wants to take your guns. Though, personally, I agree that they should call for that. It would at least be a more honest debate. I’ll likewise do the favor of admitting that I think machine guns should be legal.
LA Times: “Actually, there is a clear link between mass shootings and mental illness.”
Analysis True: “Attacking the NRA is really attacking everyday Americans.”
I upped my life membership to Endowment and my wife to life just because of this issue.
I’m not surprise some Republicans caved- some of them have always been squishy on this issue. But I’m also not surprise at this movement, I don’t think they are any more prepared than any other time. It just seems that way in the movement. The big different is how they are attacking.
Reason had an article today on how everything is now politics and attacking gun owners in everyday life is the next step. Its just like campus silencing- making people feel shunned and outside the main stream. Even tiny companies are getting into it
But as Delta found out, its not going to turn out the way they think. This will end very badly for them.
We have got to start retaliating against corporate interests that attack us. I am in the process of cancelling accounts and withdrawing funds but that is not enough. We need collective action. We need to use the levers of power that we control to make their lives miserable and less profitable. The Georgia legislature showed the way by pulling the tax break for Delta. How about bans on using those offending airlines and car rental places for official travel. How about excluding MetLife from employee benefit programs. How about anti-trust against tech oligarch. There must be something regulatory or legal we can do to Black Rock which is perhaps the most dangerous of them all.
To add to what you said %&^$ Delta (Don’t Expect Luggage To Arrive) and the plane they flew in on. They sucked bad enough to avoid them before this nonsense. I’m glad GA put the screws to them.
We will know next Tuesday, March 13th, what the 2018 Midterm Elections will have in store for us. From looking at it right now, if the polls on about the PA Special Congressional Election of Saccone Vs. Lamb are correct about Lamb winning,……the 2nd Amendment, The entire Bill Of Rights, and America as a whole,…..are all f***ed…..The Democrat Party will be taking back both Chambers of the Federal Legislature, and will be the majorities and the local, county, and statewide levels of Government by January of 2019.
Connor Lamb (the Democrat) is running a campaign of lies and deceit, and it looks like people out that way are indeed, Useful Idiots to be falling for his lies. He is running as a (Fraudulent) Blue Dog/Moderate Democrat, railing against Nancy Pelosi, but if people have common sense (which they don’t), Connor Lamb will be good lap-lackey stooge for Nancy Pelosi.
Everyone has to look not just, but also beyond the 2nd Amendment, and the outlook for America should the Democrats win the House of Representatives and/or the Senate in 2018. They will bring total political chaos into the Country with the “Russia” Witch-Hunt/Persecution.
That Political Chaos will bring in such horrible economic chaos, that by the summer of 2020, the USA could easily be in a double-dip recession or,…….even an economic Great Depression. 2020 could be the year that an outright Communist like Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren win the Whitehouse, and pulls coattails to 2/3rds Democrat Dupermajorities by January of 2021.
This Country, for 2018, is in the “Death Rattle Phase” right now, and might be finished in 2020 and 2021.
Joe, stop it with the hysterical garbage again. It is getting old.
If you take the psychotic rhetoric of the Leftwingers in this Country seriously (like you should), there is nothing hysterical about what I’m saying.
The Democrat Party, which is the “plurality” party, the largest Political Party in America in Voter Registration Quantity, is openly saying that they want to Destroy the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Wake….the hell….up
Time mag. is reporting that there is already discussions for a preemptive NRA surrender http://time.com/5181212/nra-republicans-gun-control/
Sounds like the NRA could be surrendering to the idea of putting “controls” on so called “Assault Weapons” by possibly, putting them under a new section of the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA).
Did you even read the short article? It’s a conspiracy-minded screed which basically puts out the idea that boosting gun sales is the reason for keeping gun laws in the headlines.
Now what are you blabbering on about regarding the NFA again?
I don’t believe that for a second.
I wouldn’t give that any credibility.
Washington State has a Bill going through their State Legislature about putting “Assault Weapons” under their State Handgun Regulatory Stipulations, and raising the age limit on them to 21. Washington State, I believe, is the actual National Bellwether on the 2nd Amendment from here on out. However, to summarize the jeopardy that the 2nd Amendment is in right now;….see below.
Right now, there are 7 States with “Assault Weapons Bans”. They are; Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii, and California. If 2018 is a “Blue Wave Democrat Year”, then the following States will have one-party, Democrat Rule, and “Assault Weapons” Bans sometime between the Spring of 2019, and Summer of 2020. Those States will be; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island (Which, surprisingly doesn’t have an assault weapons ban), Delaware, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, Washington State, Oregon, Nevada, and Illinois, AT A MINIMUM! There’s a chance that States like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota could wind up becoming 1-party Democrat States, and end up getting slapped with “Assault Weapons” Bans
The total amount of States with “Assault Weapons”Bans by the summer of 2020 could skyrocket from 7 to 19, or even higher, between 20 and 23.
If that happens, the law of economics will kick in. If so much as 15 States adopt “Assault Weapons” Bans, the demand for Semiautomatic Firearms will be legislatively banned, abolished, and wiped off the map in America, at a large enough, collective plot at the State Level. Smaller scale gun manufacturers, and AT MINIMUM, half of the FFL’s in America, will go bankrupt and be out of business by the early 2020’s, as the likes of Michael Bloomberg, Tom Steyer, and other Democrat Billionaires will have an open season to litigate the 2nd Amendment out of existance, economically.
The radical left will then focus on repealing the PLCAA so the remaining gun manufacturers and FFL’s out there can be sued out of existence. After that, the left will start pushing for “poll taxes” on gun owners like liability insurance, and yearly registration excise taxes. This will wipe out the ability of people to exercise their 2nd Amendment Rights, and a Right not exercised is Right that is Abolished/Stolen/Wiped Out of Existence.
2018 will be the year that 2nd Amendment will either be continued to be preserved, or, be the spark year that enables the gun-ban movement to wipe out the 2nd Amendment by 2030.
The substitute bill for WA SB 6620 now excludes all tactical semi-auto shotguns. Unfortunately, it includes all semi-auto rifles (no features required). It’s not on the Senate floor, yet. No movement on the house companion bill, either.
“Those States will be; Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont…”
These same states have constitutional carry and very strong gun cultures — highly doubt they would pass legislation banning semi-auto military style rifles.
(although constant vigilance is always called for)
When everything broke instantly after Parkland – very sharply-defined stuff was showing up on TV in time for the 4PM news here – it was obvious that the entire message was pre-packaged, cocked and ready, just waiting for a suitable tragedy to roll it out.
We can counteract that, but it’s going to be a slow, heavy, constant grind that we’re not going to be able to let up on. I don’t think there’s a magic bullet for our side, and we’re behind the curve on media output – the Lefties will always get their lies published and aired, ours usually never see the light of day.
Richard (above) makes a good point – that long, slow grind has to include bringing pressure to bear on fence-sitting businesses: notify anti-gun businesses you refuse to spend money with a company that wants to abolish civil rights, and that includes bringing internal pressure on companies we work for, and socially-based authoritarian companies like Google and Facebook.
I doubt it will come during my lifetime, but I can foresee the American experiment ending in a new civil war; the gun rights issue is at the forefront, but liberty at all levels is under attack by the organized Left.
We need the same kind of organization the Left has, similar quantities of money, and the same level of passion for our positions as they have for theirs. This is not “social differences,” it’s a war, and it’s time we understood that and acted like it. Talking a good game won’t do it, we need to play the game with the same intensity as our enemies; the Marquess of Queensberry rules we’ve always insited on playing by need to be discarded.
I don’t know if people appreciate just how much of a pernicious enemy we have in the mainstream Press.
For example, the press buried a very effective example of pro-gun rights activism which highlighted the plight of Shaneen Allen. I had no idea she was so forthrightly on our side, nor that our side had tried to use that to our advantage.
Because the press uniformly buried the powerful story by releasing it on Christmas Day 2017! I only stumbled upon the story by chance.
What would help more than raising your membership level would be to donate to the NRA-ILA. That’s where the political money is needed.
I forgot to mention this in my comment above-
I did both. I upped my membership level, and donated to the NRA-ILA.
If you havn’t seen this, you need to see it RIGHT NOW.
If you have anyone 18 to 20 years old in PA, they need to get down to the nearest DICK store and/or Walmart and get turned down for a rifle, 10/22 is cute, and then SUE THEIR ASS OFF for discrimination. The lefties are going to HATE FOLLOWING THEIR OWN RULZ.
A lawsuit has already been filed in Oregon on this: http://reason.com/volokh/2018/03/06/age-discrimination-suit-against-dicks-sp
My local Walmart said the age change officially goes into effect today, March 6th, but in practice it will go into effect when their computers get updated.
This tactic has been practiced in recent past. Invade an institution. They have done with the Science fiction awards . No conservative/ libertarian gun loving writer need apply. Now it is the country music awards Expect them to try to do that to the NRA. Nascar turned against their customers by banning the Rebel Flag. The rebel flag is just a totem of the south. But they made is akin to being a racist. Then they went after southern statues and Confederate heroes. That was very fast.
They practiced with gay rights going after freedom of religion where people could refuse based on religious conscience. Pence folded in Indiana.
Many on this site have been upset with the NRA fighting back on the culture part. But they are destroying the culture of the individualist, patriotic Christian, and shooters and hunter.
If you do not stand up for hunters Then do not expect hunters to stand up for shooters. If you do not stand up for freedom of religion do not expect the religious people to stand up for you.
The object is control so demonization is the tool. As a gun rights person I have been told I am culpable in the murder of these 17 people. I know better but people I know have said and stood by that statement.
We should organize letter writers to various corporations and as a group write to Enterprise, Delta. United Bank of Omaha and others
David Hines: How the Left Runs Psyops On Allied and Enemy Americans
—Ace
He further elaborates the basics of the plan being executed in Operation Parkland.
So, let me explain what’s going on with this and the NRA benefits thing: none of this came together on the fly; this is a carefully researched strategy that’s being executed now bc the moment is favorablehttps://t.co/shedUseZWD
— David Hines (@hradzka) March 2, 2018
Parkland Student: NRA Is ‘Basically Killing Children’ https://t.co/x40QjJ0T7E pic.twitter.com/zdkA6KIPSP
— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 1, 2018
Further tweets below are taken out of tweet format and just printed as normal text, in blockquotes. But they come from David Hines (@hradzka on Twitter).
The way spectrum of allies analysis works is: you categorize people and groups by where they stand in relation to you and your target on whatever issue you’re working on.
…
Active opponents are against you, and fighting you.
Passive opponents are against you, but they’re not fighting you.
Neutrals are neither against or for you.
Passive allies are with you, but they’re not fighting for you.
Active allies are with you and are fighting for you
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=374125
The point of spectrum of allies analysis is figuring out who you can move one notch. Who can you move toward you? Who can you move away from your enemy? And how do you make sure you don’t push people away from you?
…
Active allies: engage them.
Passive allies: make them active.
Neutrals: inform or educate them to make them passive allies.
Passive opponents: make them move to neutral by worrying their position may cost them — BUT CAREFULLY, so they don’t become active opponents.
…
Active opponents: make it clear that anything they do against you will cost them, so they retreat to being passive opponents. Failing that, isolate them.
You are now thinking, “Holy crap, yeah, I’ve seen this technique used everywhere.”
…
So under this system, companies giving the NRA discounts are passive opponents to gun control activists. Get them to drop this discount. Make them neutral. And it’s not like NRA members really *use* discounts much, so the companies will see no strong material argument against.
…
But if this works: look, now you’ve got precedent. Activists have been researching firearms companies, finding ones vulnerable to pressure or whose parent companies are. That’s where the REI thing comes in. This has not been done in a few weeks. It is careful preparation and it takes months. Groundwork was done months ago.
…
That’s how this stuff is done: preparation, preparation, PREPARATION, then carefully staged release, usually on a calendar, but in this case probably at the most favorable moment that presented itself.
…
What you’re seeing is activist pressure to turn NRA’s passive allies neutral.
The Lyft thing? Free rides to the march? Lyft didn’t just decide to do that. They were asked, and asked carefully, and the people asking knew the people they asked were passive allies needing a push.
…
It pays to be familiar with activists’ analytical tools (this isn’t the only one, of course). Turn them against yourself or your organization; that way, if you’re subject of an activist attack, you’ll get an idea of where the attack is likely to come from. Don’t get caught blind.
/fin
oh, and a PS. If all this stuff sounds military to you? *That’s because it is.* Don’t think of activism as bullshit the other guys do. Think of it as a non-violent army. That’s what it is. And it’s hard work. Respect it.
We have to organize and get our passive allies to be active. That means the gun manufacturers large and small. They are being targeted. We have to make REI & Dicks pay They should have been passive and are now active against us. We need to gather like the Great Eastern Show and band together All outdoors people should be turned active allies. Recruit the boaters, fisherman . hikers .and Knife rights people. We are behind but we do have allies.