Bitter – Page 38 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Weekly White House Gun Control Meetings

The White House Office of Public Engagement, which is under Obama’s favorite aide, Valerie Jarrett, is still somewhat on top of gun control as a primary goal of this Administration.

They are hosting weekly meetings with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action, the Center for American Progress, Organizing for Action and Americans for Responsible Solutions in order to plan out the future of more gun control in the next 3 years.

Interestingly, it would seem that Vice President Joe Biden has either been sidelined for not getting “the job” done before, or he’s just lost interest in it since there is no path to federal legislation. The gun control groups have now made it very clear that they are steering clear of federal gun control and focusing on the states.

Obamacare & Gun Registries

The same company that built the nightmare that is Healthcare.gov is also responsible for the boondoggle that was the Canadian long gun registry. Mark Steyn does a great job at highlighting what their previous “success” means the American people can expect from just the website fiasco in Obamacare:

The registry was estimated to cost in total $119 million, which would be offset by $117 million in fees. Thatâ€™s a net cost of $2 million. Instead, by 2004 the CBC (Canadaâ€™s PBS) was reporting costs of some $2 billion â€” or a thousand times more expensive. …

That works out to almost $300 per gun â€” or somewhat higher than the original estimate for processing a firearm registration of $4.60. Of those $300 gun registrations, Canadaâ€™s auditor general reported to parliament that much of the information was either duplicated or wrong in respect to basic information such as names and addresses.

He continues to explain that there was supposed to be a helpful toll-free number to support the database, but it was never used or really useful. Then, the company said that they just needed to start over, so they were given an additional $81 million, on top of the $2 billion already lining their pockets, to build a second registry. About 4 years beyond their deadline for the new registry, they still didn’t have a functioning product.

Interestingly, the gun registry isn’t the only other high profile failure of this company. Apparently, the Ontario government gave up a diabetes registry that the company was contracted to do after not meeting deadlines and being over budget, but the taxpayers were still out $46 million for a database that was never used.

Steyn also points out that despite these very spectacular and very public failures, the company’s executive brags, â€œ[w]e continue to view U.S. federal government as a significant growth opportunity.â€ Your money, and now every detail of your healthcare decisions, are in the very best of hands…

Anyone want to bet that another “growth opportunity” they see for the federal government is another gun registry? It would be interesting to know if they have ever hired any lobbyists to push that type of legislation. If they could make more than $2 billion on the last attempt to simply register 7 million long guns in Canada, think about how much they would stand to make trying to register all of the guns in the U.S.

Favorite Friends of NRA Merchandise

This morning, Friends of NRA posted on their Facebook page that they wanted submissions from supporters to talk about their favorite Friends of NRA product and how they use it.

You have no idea how tempted I was to jest about the tobacco walking stick that Sebastian won a couple of years ago. I mean, it is a walking stick. No one knew what to think of it, and that’s why Sebastian won it since pretty much no one entered the raffle for it.

But then, I started thinking it could be more fun to come up with creative claimed uses for the branding iron set we won this year. I’m sure that I could make up some stories there that would have the poor staffer choking on their coffee. I can’t tell you how many people picked up the NRA branding iron at gun shows and pretended to brand their significant others, particularly on the backside.*
Continue reading “Favorite Friends of NRA Merchandise”

Changing the Tone of the Argument

VSSA looks at a comment that Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe made during a debate where he basically said he doesn’t care about what NRA or its members think about his positions. He’s running on an openly hostile platform for guns, a switch from what most Virginia Democrats have had to do in the past in order to be competitive.

Now, I realize at this point that the Virginia race was largely polling in one direction before the gun control groups really started pouring money in so they can claim the result is a verdict on gun control. However, it’s important to understand this shift in rhetoric from the candidate himself.

I think you’ll see more Democrats really run on outright hostility to gun owners and the most popular firearms in America because they’ll look at facts like Barak Obama winning two elections, Terry McAuliffe possibly winning purple Virginia, and the fact that gun owners couldn’t stop legislation in purple Colorado. Even with some high-profile consequences in Colorado, the Democrats are still in charge. It sent a message, but a limited one.

So, while some people may embrace the honesty of anti-gun people speaking out about their disdain for gun owning voters, is it really a “good” thing if we end up losing those elections?

Traditional Shooting Sports

Who says that more traditional shooting sports like trap have to be boring?

Video via Charles C W Cooke who adds: “This is the greatest thing Iâ€™ve ever seen and I will not be happy until Iâ€™ve done it.”

Big Anti-Gun Money in Virginia

I already saw comments and photos from friends in Northern Virginia that the Gabby Giffords PAC has spent lots of money on a constant stream of campaign mailers that practically accuse gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli of wanting to give away free guns to babies, terrorists, and domestic abusers.

Then word broke yesterday that Michael Bloomberg is dropping another $1.1 million in advertising into the state in just the final two weeks of the race. Politico notes that if Terry McAuliffe wins, he is a guarantee to be a very big Bloomberg ally on gun control.

They will always try to outspend us, and with someone like Bloomberg behind them, it will sometimes work. Fortunately, Colorado showed that sometimes we can also counter their big money by motivating voters in a big way. In fact, I would argue that the Colorado losses and the continued threat of more recalls there is why the gun control groups are going so big into the Virginia governor’s race. They can’t afford to lose something so high profile in another purple state, and they know it. Unfortunately, the polls look like they just might get that win they so desperately need to remain relevant unless Virginia voters really step up and turn out.

Interpol Secretary General Says We Need to Talk about Armed Citizens

The current Interpol Secretary General, the first American to hold the post, says that after the Westgate Mall act of terror, it’s time to start having a serious conversation on the value of armed citizens. He basically highlights that to minimize the risk of these kinds of attacks, we can go to a police state where you need exceptional security to go into any building or there’s the option of an armed populace:

“Societies have to think about how they’re going to approach the problem,” Noble said. “One is to say we want an armed citizenry; you can see the reason for that. Another is to say the enclaves are so secure that in order to get into the soft target you’re going to have to pass through extraordinary security.”

He notes that these terrorists didn’t go to a place like Texas to find victims. They went to a place where citizens are largely unarmed.

Looking up his story, this is a complete break from so many things you would expect about a man with his background. He was born in New Jersey and went to New England for college. He’s a tenured professor, and he served in the Clinton Administration as Undersecretary for Enforcement at the Department of the Treasury. That means he was also involved in the “review” of ATF’s actions at Waco. He has previously been so well liked by his colleagues in the international law enforcement world that his last two elections as Secretary General have been supported unanimously.

Keeping Your Kids Fearful

The principal and teachers in a Goldsboro, NC middle school thought it would be a great idea to tell kids that there was an armed robber roaming the school and then have a staff member dressed up in a ski mask armed with a fake handgun break into the room.

The school claims that they were teaching situational awareness. However, I’m not sure how it is you’re teaching them to be anything other than frightened sitting ducks when the teacher indicates that they know there’s a threat lurking, but the class is just expected to sit there and let it happen. Follow that up with a fake gunman entering the room, and it’s just so hard to see why this went over about as well as a lead balloon. At least the district spokesman admits that the staff involved lacked judgement, and the staffer who pretended to be the gunman may face disciplinary action.

I saw this link from Free Range Kids, and she made a great point with these types of exercises:

Kids are NOT in constant danger, so can we please stop dreaming up ever more dramatic ways to â€œprotectâ€ them as if they were?

Of course, the sad part is that it could be argued that at least the North Carolina incident was based on a general threat in life, that while extremely unlikely, isn’t completely insane. Ventura County, California schools thought the families of their students needed to spend their time developing plans for how to deal with their children in school if the get nuked. Yup, this is where your money to the public school system goes these days, folks.

New Jersey’s Upcoming Elections

Today is Tuesday. Tuesdays are when people vote. Except in New Jersey in 2013. Wednesday is the day to vote for those who are interested in the special Senate election.

Cory Booker still has a double digit lead over Steve Lonegan, but that’s been falling lately. Being on a Wednesday in October with plenty of headlines about other national issues, that means the turnout may be key to who wins instead of typical polls.

I’ll be honest, I don’t like Lonegan. But, if I lived in New Jersey, I’d vote for him. The fact is that Cory Booker is going to be a vote for every gun control bill that ever makes it up for a vote. He’ll probably sign on as a sponsor to some of the most extreme gun control fantasy bills as well. So, with that in mind, the best vote on the gun issue is Lonegan. While the numbers point to a clear Booker win, it’s the ability to turn out motivated voters that may make a difference in the final tally over any turnout models the pollsters are currently using.

Pennsylvania’s Capacity Limits

I realize this is off topic, but this is just one of those “what the hell” topics that blows my mind. In Pennsylvania, we restrict the capacity of your bags of potatoes.

No, I’m not kidding.

Apparently, eight pound bags of potatoes are one of the most popular sizes in many states. In Pennsylvania, selling potatoes in bags that hold eight pounds is illegal. We can buy them in bags of three pounds, five pounds, or even ten pounds. But, eight pounds is where someone thought it was important to draw the line.

While there’s an effort to get this absolutely absurd potato capacity law off the books, it doesn’t seem to be moving anywhere fast. That’s part of the problem in government. No one seems to put any real priority on repealing bad laws that in no way serve or protect the public.