The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
Jersey City’s little experiment that their supporters describe as an effort to force all police and military firearms purchases to be based on “the social responsibility of the manufacturer” instead of how well the firearm functions to defend their lives has had the expected impact: significantly higher costs to taxpayers, few companies willing to do any kind of business with them, and no real answers to their gun control questionnaire.
Shocker.
The Supreme Court has finally weighed in on Abramski v. United States today, and it was a 5-4 decision written by Kagan for Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor with Scalia dissenting and joined by Thomas, Roberts, and Alito. If you’re looking for more background documents on the case, here’s the SCOTUSblog page.
Did you know that mass shootings that wouldn’t be resolved by more gun control are simply a messaging problem rather than a failure of the mental health system to get clearly troubled and dangerous people help?
Oh, and the primary reason gun owners don’t trust gun control advocates to stop at background checks is simply because Edward Snowden disclosed that the NSA is snooping on everyone instead of the reasons like the fact that they propose banning the most popular types of firearms sold today and the President recently praised other countries for the fact that they confiscated firearms.
These are the reasons that Mark Glaze gave for not getting more gun control passed recently. I guess I should give him credit for acknowledging that many of the mass shootings wouldn’t be stopped by their proposals, but I do find it a little disturbing that those instances, because they don’t fit their political narrative, are really just considered to be messaging problems to gun control advocates instead of an opportunity to discuss how to address mental health issues.
I do also find it amusing that he argues Congress’s debate over the Farm Bill is why none of you readers trust the government to handle gun control. It has nothing to do with the actual proposals by lawmakers that they boast about and submit as legislation.
And none of that distrust on overreach could ever be attributed to Bloomberg’s own allies in the gun control movement who Glaze himself represented. I mean, sure, we found that those allies used their official positions in government to steal charitable gifts given to those in poverty and order the police to round up people they would eventually hold hostage at gunpoint, but it’s all Edward Snowden’s fault for teaching us not to trust government the way that good old Mayor Mike and his gun control buddies need us to in order to get more gun restrictions passed.
It seems that two armed robbers decided they needed more guns and robbed people coming out of a local shooting range (Delaware Valley Sports Center) to get them. Unfortunately, they also shot one of the victims as they were fleeing. Police also say that there was a robbery at another area gun shop the night before.
Be careful and extremely observant, shooters in the Philadelphia area. These people have more guns and ammunition, and they are clearly willing to shoot you if they think they can get more guns off of you.
I will say that this makes the private club Sebastian shoots at more appealing because there’s no easy access without having to closely follow a member in and no easy exit.
I confess that I have not been paying close attention to the Mississippi Senate primary, but now I’m curious to know if any of our readers know why Mike Bloomberg has recently donated $250,000 to keeping Thad Cochran in office. Cochran has the NRA endorsement and is rated A+, so this seems a little counter-intuitive.
My first assumption was that the PAC Bloomberg gave the money to was involved in multiple races around the country, but all I see is pro-Cochran material on their site, so I don’t think that’s the excuse. Any Mississippi voters who are paying close attention want to chime in?
It was reported last month that NRA Annual Meeting was one of the fastest growing conventions or trade shows in the country, but I wanted to provide longer term trend information. Unfortunately, I found I had a gap in my reports since I started attending NRA’s Annual Meeting and had to wait on the numbers to present an accurate report. I just received those numbers and made a pretty little chart for you all to see how we’ve been trending.
Keep in mind that that the bottom line in this chart is 40,000 people, and the lowest attendance documented here is still more than 54,000. While the number of attendees from Houston to Indianapolis dropped, the end of the 10-year span is still reflective of a 23% increase in members coming out. Even within the same city, both repeat cities have seen double digit increases in turnout. That’s pretty impressive.
A few years ago, I decided to make a note of which lawmakers sought or ran on NRA’s endorsement who initially refused to step up and support national reciprocity. After people reported calling the offices of the mysteriously missing potential co-sponsors, several stepped up and signed on.
While looking at the Pennsylvania angle again for this year, imagine my surprise when I found some key names left off of the sponsors list – again.
These are the members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation who support the bill:
I might add that Rep. Rothfus actually didn’t have the NRA endorsement last time around. He had an A rating, but with the incumbent Democrat’s record, it was issued to the incumbent.
These are the members of the Pennsylvania congressional delegation who sought & received NRA’s endorsement in 2012 against anti-gun opponents who are not on that list:
For 2014, Rep. Gerlach is retiring, but the others will be on the ballot. Reps. Dent, Barletta, and Pitts are expected to be pretty safe, so I’m surprised that they are not willing to help their law-abiding license holder constituents. In fact, Charlie Cook has all three of those seats, plus Rep. Meehan, in the “Solid Republican” category as not really competitive.
In 2014, I find it hard to get excited by candidates who don’t even think that law-abiding citizens who undergo regular background checks still can’t be trusted with firearms. If you live in any of these districts, it might be good to let them know that you noticed they wanted your vote in 2012, but that they won’t even get on board with national reciprocity.
According to this article, there are only about 30 international-style trapshooting ranges open to the public in the US. Fortunately for enthusiasts in Wisconsin, they are now home to the latest one.
I think this is great news because I’d like to see more Olympic shotgunners from the United States. Because the traditional version of trap shot here isn’t like the international version shot at the Olympics, we don’t really do as well on those sports as one would expect with a wider gun culture. I hope that an expansion of these ranges will help change that.
I know that some recreational shooters assume that Olympic competition style is boring, but I’m not sure that’s true.
An online outlet claims that Target is apparently paying attention to gun control groups and seriously considering a sweeping ban on firearms except for law enforcement.
This broad ban may end up being a formal policy change that could even result in stores posted. The reasons are likely due to the fact that they were targeted by the gun control groups and then someone, likely a shoplifter based on the evidence released so far, left a gun behind in the toy aisle of a Target store in South Carolina.
Because of the combination of events, Target is getting a lot more media than other outlets ever received on this issue. I would strongly suggest that if you don’t want Target stores posted, call them at 1-800-440-0680 (menu choice 2 for “store experience”) and let them know that as a lawful gun owner, especially if you carry concealed, you would appreciate it if they didn’t ban guns because a criminal misused one. Feel free to fill their email box as well at Guest.Relations@Target.com.
I will say this to Target:
I will be seriously grumpy if I have to stop spending money with you because you tell me that the gun I lawfully carry concealed isn’t welcome. I would disclose how much I spend on bags and jewelry there, not to mention the very pretty peacock cards that I’ve been sending out like crazy lately, but then I’d probably have to answer to Sebastian on that issue. Just know that I’m definitely a contributor to your bottom line, as well as a lawful gun owner. Regardless, I will vote with my wallet if you tell me that I am not welcome in your stores just because I own and lawfully carry a firearm.
UPDATE: It looks like the local grassroots are also taking notice and asking people to call in/email their opposition to a sweeping anti-gun policy.
UPDATE II: This is my favorite graphic so far. Share to your likeminded friends lists, folks.
We’ve been busy with family lately, and we’re just now catching up on the news of the weekend. Included with that is the news of what happened in Vegas. Interestingly, catching up on the story after the police have had time to investigate a bit more, you see different information from what is often left out of “breaking” coverage. One is that the victim at Wal-Mart was a concealed carry holder who actually successfully confronted the male shooter, but didn’t realize that he had a partner in the crime.
From the report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, police say that the concealed carry holder confronted the male shooter while the female shooter was pushing a shopping cart. She then slipped behind the concealed carry holder and shot him at close range, unfortunately.
“He had no idea the wife was walking behind him,†the police official said of the murdered man. “This guy (Wilcox) was not some idiot with a gun. “He had no idea the wife was walking behind him,†the police official said of the murdered man. “This guy (Wilcox) was not some idiot with a gun. To me, he was a hero. He was trying to stop an active shooter.â€â€
