The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Even after getting into media trouble signing a dead man’s name to letters for years, MAIG still isn’t careful about actually checking in with mayors to see if a) they actually support their gun ban agenda or b) if they are even in the coalition.
One California mayor is now saying that their use of his name on lobbying letters is illegal since he is not part of the group and made his resignation clear months ago.
Now we have some good evidence to show why more businesses caved and issued statements saying gun owners aren’t welcome to Shannon Watts after Bloomberg bought “merged with” her group.
It seems that not giving Shannon her press release telling lawful gun owners that they aren’t welcome means Bloomberg will spend at least six figures to attack your company.
Kroger is really pissing her off by not giving in to her political agenda. She hasn’t been successful at motivating a grassroots response, so now she’s opening Bloomberg’s wallet with billboard buys, as well as “print and digital full page ads and wraps in both the local Ohio press and national titles like USA Today.”
It’s past that time of year again! Our local Friends of NRA committee has a three gun raffle going on, and you have the chance to win since we have lots of tickets available.
Tickets are $20, and we’re drawing three times, once for each gun. That’s a 1 in 67 chance to win one of these guns for each ticket – assuming we even sell out. (We have in the past, but raffle tickets aren’t the hot ticket item this year, oddly. It’s been our banquet tickets.)
If you’d like to purchase a ticket, email me (address on the upper right) ASAP and I’ll send you the details and where to send a check. If you’d like to pay by credit card, email me and let me know so I can make sure a trusted committee member can take your call to get the information. (I know. I wish we had online ordering, too. It’s not something I can fix beyond airing my complaint which I know goes in one ear and out of the other with our Field Rep rather than getting passed on to HQ.)
I will say that for each of the past two years we have promoted raffle tickets on the blog, readers have won. In fact, last year saw two blog reader winners. That doesn’t mean the same will happen this year, but I just say it to show that we really do give away the guns. :)
The fine print, so to speak: Winners will be responsible for picking up the guns from the local FFL or arranging transfer to their own FFL. Winners must pass appropriate background checks and will be responsible for any fees regarding the transfer.
All money raised goes to support the NRA Foundation programs – the shooting stuff, not the political stuff. So if you want to help us reach more junior shooters, train more women, or help out clubs that need some help with improvements for shooters, then take a chance and buy a ticket.
This seems kind of random, but Wall Street Journal has a piece in their Arts & Entertainment section talking about the 200th anniversary of Samuel Colt’s July birthday and the NRA museum in Missouri at Bass Pro Shops.
According to one retired judge in Alaska, developing a perfectly functioning “smart” gun is just as easy as adding simple seat belts to a car in the very early days of car safety developments.
Clearly, there’s not any unexpected circumstance where a non-functioning gun could actually end in innocent lives lost. Nope, not a single downside ever. Nope, never ever any unintended consequences, ever according to the judge.
Mississippi & Louisiana are about to kick off their tax-free weekends on guns, ammunition, and other sporting equipment.
Some groups have found that these sales tax holidays (on all items, not just “hunting” themed days) don’t actually stimulate extra purchases, they just inspire informed shoppers to shift the date they plan to purchase items they would already purchase. (Apple set up a website to guide their shoppers on when they can take advantage of the breaks in their states.) In fact, that 2013 report notes some interesting facts about some of the gun-themed sales tax holidays. In Louisiana, their sales tax holiday for hurricane supplies is capped at purchases of $1,500, but their holiday for guns & ammo isn’t capped at all. Based on the state official guide, it seems like Mississippi’s holiday is also unlimited, whereas their sales tax holiday on clothing is capped at $100. (The guide also provides a detailed list of what is included and what is not included.) South Carolina’s sales tax holiday on just guns (not ammo) that falls the Friday & Saturday after Thanksgiving isn’t listed in the report, but I didn’t find any reference to a cap online, and their other sales tax holidays aren’t capped, either.
Sales tax holidays on guns and ammo are something I kind of feel “eh” about in the big scheme of things. It doesn’t radically change anything on the freedom scale for either fiscal change or gun rights. In fact, there’s quite a bit of truth in the summary from the report linked above that notes if your sales tax situation is so terrible in your state that you need to offer citizens a holiday from it, the entire sales tax system should be revisited. On the other hand, if all of these other special interests get a tax holiday, why not guns, too?
Dave Kopel wrote a wonderful article in the September issue of America’s First Freedom about the fake narrative of just being a stay-at-home mom that Shannon Watts created for herself. He highlights her political work as the Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan’s Public Affairs Officer during the same period that the governor was doing public events and public calls for gun control in the media, and yet Shannon claims she’s never ever worked on gun control before. Sure.
Shannon isn’t too happy about the fact that it uncovers her previous political career and work for a company hated by many of her followers – Monsanto – so she’s fighting back, but not because she can actually refute anything in the article. She’s getting women to argue with #MomsNotMaids because of the NRA publications department depiction of her.
This is one of those times when neither party is right. (Except Dave and his excellent article, which will be sadly overlooked – exactly what Watts wants.)
Watts is wrong because she’s effectively arguing that real moms don’t clean their family homes. Um, hate to tell you Little Miss Priss Spoiled Girl, but the vast majority of moms do clean their own homes and know many of these little tools quite well. (Well, except for the rotary phone – that was a relic even when I was a child.) Making sure their kids live in a home that’s safe and that they are fed is a very typical role for a mother, obviously not something that a woman as wealthy as Watts does because that’s work for the maids.
Watt’s vehement reaction against being portrayed as a woman who cleans a home is also inherently demeaning. What is wrong with being a maid? I know plenty of women – mothers, even – who clean buildings and houses for a living. Why does Watts consider a perfectly legitimate and honorable profession to be an insult? Again, this is illustrative of her stuck-up elitist out-of-touch Twitter rants.
On the other hand, whoever designed this little illustration for NRA is also in the wrong, too. Stay-at-home moms are a hell of a lot more than just cleaning supplies, rotary telephones, and nearly archaic coffee makers. I’m not even a stay-at-home mother, and I am insulted by this attempt to sum up their days like this. The stay-at-home moms I know today are frequently home-schooling their kids, getting the kids involved in many hobbies and activities, or are active in non-profit groups. Even the sit-com stereotypes of how stay-at-home moms get their entertainment (through the phone, in the illustration) isn’t accurate for today if they were trying for a failed version of tongue-in-cheek.
The concept of a paper doll playing dress up for a part isn’t inherently a bad illustration for Shannon Watts and her little effort to pretend she’s not a paid professional with years of experience in Democratic politics and PR circles, but they didn’t even do a good job of trying to creating a visual image of how one would dress up and fake being a stay-at-home mom today.
This comes on the heels of some really great media coverage of pro-gun women lately, and I suspect that’s another reason why Watts is trying to make the NRA look anti-woman. Unfortunately, they gave her the bait to do it.
According to local news, the Chair of the DC City Council says they have decided to appeal the ruling forcing DC to recognize some kind of lawful carry by citizens.
We all know that the NRA leadership are really demons placed on this earth to make humanity hurt as much as possible – at least that would be our “knowledge” if we listened exclusively to the mainstream media.
So, with that perception from those in the media, the WaPo seemed a bit shocked that Wayne LaPierre has agreed to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and donate money to further research for the disease. He’s on a trip right now, so as soon as he returns, he’s going to do it.
I just have to say that I really hope the NRA staff gets very, very creative with this and actually shows NRA staff having fun and wiling to make the world a better place.* Continue reading “Those Heartless NRA Members”
It looks like the Republican Governors Association thinks that pushing gun control is going to be a worthwhile attack on John Hickenlooper out in Colorado.
There’s quite a bit of fair criticism that it appears as though Republicans often tend to only turn to our issue when they can attack Democrats for it rather than doing very much in the way of positive work to advance the cause. I suspect the truth in that statement, like any issue dealing with politics, varies wildly depending on your state and region. However, I can at least say this about our GOP governor in Pennsylvania – he’s the reason that controversial gun control is not an issue in this year’s state elections, and I think that’s under appreciated by many gun owners.
