Bitter – Page 97 – Shall Not Be Questioned

GOP Senate Candidates on Board with Second Amendment Rights

Today, seven Republican candidates met for a debate leading up to the primary to ultimate take on Sen. Bob Casey. Most questions focused on tax policy, the economy, and healthcare. However, during the lightning round where questions were answered with a show of hands, they asked two gun questions.

One question was whether they support national concealed carry reciprocity. Every single candidate raised their hand without visible hesitation (that I caught, or that moderators caught). The second question was whether they could imagine a scenario where they would restrict any firearms sales to lawful owners. Not a single hand raised.

I mention the hesitation thing because moderators were looking for disagreement, hesitation, eye rolls, or other non-verbal communication so they could pick on candidates for detailed follow-up. None of the follow-ups were related to the gun questions.

Hesitation is also relevant given the squishy vote on the issue from the incumbent senator on the issue in the previous Congress.

It’s Not a Compliment

Jim Geraghty was hitting some great notes in today’s Morning Jolt on the topic of Jon Corzine’s testimony to Congress. He claims that even though he ran the company, he just doesn’t know where the $1.2 billion in missing customer money went in the final days of his tenure at MF Global.

Corzine conceded that he knew “there were an extraordinary number of transactions during MF Global’s last few days,” but he didn’t know that the customer cash went missing. Geraghty’s response:

Ah. So Jon Corzine ran MF Global the way Eric Holder runs the Justice Department.

Another gem out of the email has absolutely nothing to do with guns, but I thought I would share regardless:

I find Corzine to be a fascinating case. He was the man from Wall Street, wholeheartedly embraced by the Democratic party at the precise time they were denouncing Wall Street. The man went back to Wall Street and then promptly made the kind of big gambles that Solyndra-cash-losing President Obama is denouncing. He is the walking, breathing personification of the Democrats’ hypocrisy in how they view Wall Street and wealth.

On Propaganda

Santa stopped by the house a little early this year and dropped off a Kindle. Yay! I kind of went nuts downloading the free books the first day. To date, I’ve only purchased one book – Brian Anse Patrick’s The Ten Commandments of Propaganda. It’s available only via Kindle at the moment, though he plans to publish a paper version next year.

I haven’t started it yet, but when I do, I’ll probably pull out some of my old communications textbooks on related topics just for fun. This reading hobby is dangerous.

Gun Control a Goal of Fast & Furious Sales Number Reporting

Sebastian said I should report on this CBS report on documents that show it was used by ATF to push for more gun control. Sadly, my first thought was wondering how it is news at this point. Everyone who paid even scant attention to the scandal knew this was a tactic to push for more gun control. It hardly seems news now that it’s proven.

I look forward to the amusing announcement that these documents are just part of our paranoid conspiracy theories about gun rights as Media Matters so frequently likes to argue. If they were intellectually honest, they would admit that this new evidence shows it wasn’t paranoia run amok, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.

A Date which will Live in Infamy

If pictures are worth a thousand words, then here are a couple of thousand to honor those who gave their lives 70 years ago.

According to this article, the ashes of another survivor from the USS Arizona who passed recently will be placed on the ship this week. As of November 14, there were 18 known survivors of the Arizona. We can also find this profile of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association which served any veteran who survived the day that reflects on why they are being forced to shut down this year. It’s the struggle of an organization which is rapidly aging and literally has no one from which to recruit new leaders. Read it because history is wrapping up in front of us.

John Micek of the Morning Call linked to these scans of the AP bulletins from December 7, 1941. It also includes the story of what was happening behind the scenes in the newsroom as the story broke. The details on their experience of the day are incredible, including tidbit at the end about the reporter who wrote the second “flash” of the day and could never eat the peanut butter & bacon sandwiches they were all having for lunch that day again (at least until the time the account was dictated more than a month later).

Should Pro-Gun People Be Allowed to Have Children?

Sebastian sent me a link to Joan Peterson’s latest ramblings, and I truly could not believe what was on the screen before me. I don’t mean the standard non-sensical ramblings with her own set of facts that change depending on what argument she wants to make. She’s actually questioning whether people who even own gun-themed clothing are reasonable enough to have children. She asserts that people who make such decisions may not be acceptable role models. This is what she has to say about the 17-year-old who was stopped by TSA for having a gun design on her purse:

The teen is pregnant so one has to wonder what role model this will be for her young child? There’s a message here and it’s not one of “peace on earth, good will towards men.”

This is not some sort of fantasy of a random gun banner in a thoughtless Facebook comment or careless tweet. This is “thoughtful discussion” from a board member of a group that some members of Congress actually take serious when it comes to policy on our fundamental rights. She considers it reasonable to question whether a home with a women who merely owns a purse with a gun design on it makes her a fit parent.

It almost makes me wonder what Joan would really have to say about the NRA tricycle and NRA jeep. Or, even better, what would she really say about the fact that there was a bidding war for the tricycle at our Friends of NRA dinner in September?

Denial, Then Acceptance (with Excuses)

The initial reports about the Black Friday gun sales surge were met with denials from Brady Campaign Acting President Dennis Henigan.

Today, it seems as though they have come around to the idea that there really was a verifiable sales spike. However, their spokesperson now claims that while they accept that it happened, it was clearly a one time event due to marketing. That’s not the funny part of the article.

The article notes that if it’s just a spike due to marketing, it’s marketing that works. Even better are the quotes from two investment types who note the consistent performance of the firearms industry over the last few years.

“Whereas five years ago it was politically incorrect (to own guns), … what seems to be changing is social acceptance,” said Bret Jordan, analyst at investment firm Avondale Partners. “I think there might be a changing view of firearms.”

If you feel like it, MSNBC posts a poll at the bottom of the article asking people if guns make good Christmas gifts. I know I loved unwrapping a gun on Christmas Day. Apparently, I’m not the only one. Right now the poll is running 80%-20% in our favor.

Cheerleading More Dangerous Than Hunting with Guns

I always loved it when a fellow instructor used to pull out the stats on range safety versus cheerleading. For many of the people in the room, the thought that they were sending their little girls off to a far more dangerous activity than if they took them to the gun range or took them out hunting with guns usually took a minute to settle in.

Today, NSSF released some data comparing various activities – including cheerleading – to hunting with guns. Now keep in mind that the numbers for hunting are many times not related to gun incidents. Tree stand falls are some of the most problematic injuries hunters face. So, if you want to give your kids a great activity to keep them outdoors and safe, teach them to hunt. Cheerleading, football, basketball, and even riding a bike are far more likely to result in injuries than hunting.

Groupon Comes Around on Shooting Sports

Just a few days ago, the gun blogosphere was talking about this article that said Groupon refuses to do gun-related deals so as not to offend anyone. Well, I guess that position didn’t last very long when they saw their competitors were making thousands of sales off of shooting sports bargains (something we have documented before).

I saw this deal for more than half off of a round of sporting clays in New Jersey come across the @GrouponPhilly Twitter account this morning.

Yay for learning!

The Brady Campaign is Continuing the Cycle of Violence

I’ve been reluctant to argue that in some marginally convoluted way the Brady Campaign is continuing the cycle of violence by supporting the outlaws who will remain armed. But, I actually found an incident tonight where they are outright endorsing an online group that calls for retaliation rather than justice through the legal system and honors a man who was an active part of the drug culture.

This is the tweet that caught my attention. I checked out the linked Facebook page, and I was shocked by what they were promoting. That speaks volumes since I have already documented when they retweeted a young mother who was using pot around her sick child and a man whose previous tweets were calling for an expansion of the “thug” lifestyle. There were also the racist tweets that dropped the N word frequently and the woman they promoted who publicly attacks women of other races as “evil.”

The Facebook page in question is called Families Against Gun Violence. However, in the About section, it notes that the page is actually to honor Moises Nazario who was shot as part of a drug transaction. He was not an innocent bystander, as police say he was on the scene specifically to take part in the drug deal.

But, let’s say that the Brady Campaign simply didn’t do their homework to see who they were honoring with this tweet. Instead, we’ll look at the wall of the page, the link that the Brady Campaign highlighted to all of their followers. On the front page of the group, we have messages like this:

Yeah. You want to convince me that an all caps message with that kind of rhetoric is all about waiting on the legal system to take its course? I don’t think so.

This, combined with the previous people that the Brady Campaign has promoted in their social media networks, indicates that they have embraced those connected with violent and drug-related activities as spokespeople for their movement. I don’t understand how some of their own board members who are known to be active on their social media sites accept this kind of messaging. It’s unacceptable to promote these kinds of messages.