Category: Anti-Gun Folks

We’ve been seeing a lot of this logic lately:

Hafter’s daughter, Lizzy Hafter, a Dean’s List graduate of the University of Virginia, was murdered in September 2006 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Charlottesville, Virginia. The killer had stolen the gun weeks earlier. The gun had not been reported stolen. Lizzie’s mother is advocating for a law in South Carolina, Lizzy’s Law, to require gun owners to report to police a gun that has been lost or stolen.

How would this woman’s daughter have been saved if the gun had been reported stolen?  It’s a violation of federal regulations to have a firearm on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the first place, but does reporting the firearm magically remove it form the hands of the criminal?

It’s relatively easy to keep up on the activities of anti-gun bloggers, since there are so few of them.  Remember Nancy Robinson?  Who showed up at Yearly Kos whining that lefty bloggers wouldn’t pay attention to her pet issue?  She did start a web site Where Did the Gun Come From, but it looks like it doesn’t get updated much.

She’s back in the news in Boston:

“That created a sense of urgency,” said Nancy Robinson, a Newton resident with a teenage son who will serve as the coalition’s executive director. “We needed to move ahead.”

In 1990, the year Citizens for Safety was first formed, Boston had 152 homicides, the highest number on record. The group helped create after-school programs and jobs for city teenagers. They focused on compelling gang members to get together for basketball matches. They were among several grass-roots organizations whose work with police helped lead to the so-called “Boston Miracle.”

Color me skeptical that basketball can solve violent crime, but I’ll give kudos for the effort here.   I will take issue with this, however:

Robinson said she wants the group to have a national effect and be able to pressure federal authorities to enforce gun laws and urge legislators to pass new laws that would force stricter background checks on gun purchasers.

Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis and Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who are expected to attend the announcement, said they welcome the group’s return.

“We have a new start and new emergency and renewed commitment,” Menino said.

The group’s goals do not please everyone. Andrew Arulanandam, spokesman for the National Rifle Association, said new gun laws would not be effective.

“The reason that gun control laws don’t work is that they require the cooperation of a very unlikely source, and that is the criminal,” he said. “A criminal intent on committing a robbery or assault or whatever is not hindered by that law. He will do whatever, she will do whatever to get a gun.”

Nancy Robinson’s problem is that from the early 90s until now, background checks have been instituted nationally, and Massachusetts has passed numerous gun laws.  Why did crime go down in the 90s, but it is going up now, when gun laws nationall have not substantively changed, and gun laws in Massachusetts have just gotten more strict?  Maybe it was the basketball.

Paul Helmke’s reaction to the DOJ brief was apparently different from Dennis Henigan’s.  With Bush establishing a middle ground a lot closer to where the Brady Campaign would like it to be, it makes it easier for Henigan to move the ball closer to Brady’s goal.

It looks like county executives are eager to find out exactly where Mike Bloomberg and his cohorts buy their Bill of Rights toilet paper. Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano has started his own anti-gun coalition so they don’t feel so left out.

Looks like Paul Helmke doesn’t have any problems with the Bush Administration DOJ filing. Helmke knows a gift horse when he sees it, and isn’t going to look this one in the mouth. The Brady Campaign has everything to gain and nothing to lose by fawning over this brief. They won’t mention that six years ago they were furious about DOJ adopting the individual rights view, which is identical to the one they are now applauding.

When your back is against a wall, you have nothing to lose. Bush has offered Brady two things with his brief. The first is a way out of their nightmare. An individual rights ruling that means nothing is something Brady can work with. Remanding back to District Court will likely preserve most of the DC ban, despite what the DOJ may actually think about it.  It’s not likely to cause state laws to be threatened in the circuit courts.   Incorporation will be far less likely.

Furthermore, Paul Helmke is aware that gun owners are furious with Bush over the brief, and that this situation puts NRA in a real pickle for 2008. With the gun vote furious at Bush, and with McCain or Romney the likely nominee at this point, NRA is in a very poor position heading into this election. That’s the icing on the cake for the Brady Campaign. Paul Helmke isn’t stupid folks, and what you’re witnessing here is a brilliant political move on the part of the Brady Campaign, compliments of the backstabber in the Oval Office.

Some of you might remember Howard Nemerov investigating some Brady Center deceptions a while ago.  I posted on it here.   Well, he’s done more digging, and, what a shocker, found more deception.

… debunk this study a few weeks ago?  Oh yeah, we did.  And then we discovered the organization that funded it was funded by Joyce.  I’m glad Thirdpower is on this, because Bryan is starting to bore me.

Paul Helmke says that America is Turning the Corner on the gun issue.   My response to Paul:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpf9bP6xdaI[/youtube]

Apparently Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp are being evil and refusing to allow credit card transactions between federally licensed dealers.  NSSF provides contact info in the link above if you’d like to call them to tell them (politely) how much they suck.

Looks like Robb is restating his case against Alexander Tristan Riley.