The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
I have a few videos building up in the tabs, so I thought I’d do a video day. The first video for today, accompanied by an article, is Dana Loesch’s appearance on “The View”
I thought she handled it well. After the big stink the Demanding Moms, all she had to do was avoid breathing fire.
I woke up early today, took a look outside, and went back to bed. It was really coming down, and what’s worse, it’s the wet stuff; the kind of snow so heavy, you might as well be shoveling dead beavers off the driveway. All the previous snow was well on its way to melting away yesterday, but today it’s back with a vengeance. The office is closed today, but since this is one of my work from home days, it doesn’t really matter. Here’s some news links:
About the Super Bowl ad you didn’t see last night. The NFL is anti-gun folks. Hate to tell ya. Every time you watch the NFL, God shreds a vintage 1911.
A CSGV supporting politician goes to jail for domestic violence.
Someone tried to do a FOIA request of some of the 4473s sitting in an ATF warehouse in West Virginia and were denied. Good. I generally support transparent government, but not when it’s requesting information it really has no business asking about in the first place.
Uncle doesn’t think MDA’s Nashville chapter is going to last long. I’m going to guess that’s already a pretty small meeting.
The problems of early voting. Because being an informed voter takes some time, I think the easier and more convenient we make voting, the more people will be casting completely uninformed ballots. I am against early voting.
More gun laws in Massachusetts? They didn’t do much after Sandy Hook. It’s hard to say whether this is serious or just hot air from a windbag, but something to keep and eye on.
Dana Loesch takes on ABC’s “Young Guns.” Fortunately for us, the network news organizations have far far less influence than they used to. One of the great social advances of the past couple of decades is that more and more people seem to understand our media is full of crap. I’ll have more to say about Dana Loesch later.
Percentage who think our gun laws are too strict triples. That’s very good news. Those of us who believe we could use a lot less gun control have generally been a small minority. What I’m hoping is that a lot of these new gun owners have learned what the laws are, and they are pissed.
The weaponization of government. This was my biggest concern about electing a President from Chicago. This is how things are done there. Here’s an example on guns, for instance.
“Irish Democracy” at work in Colorado.
No one will want to take point.
Yes, let the hand wringing continue in Chicago.
Why would students on campus possibly need guns for self-defense?
Because the political elites in Chicago should have to read stories like this. They need to read stories like this:
Vernon has been a firearm owner and activist for decades, but he doesn’t fit the stereotype of a gun nut. He’s a middle-class African-American who lives on Chicago’s south side. A former university administrator, he’s studied civil rights history for decades. A framed photo of Malcolm X hangs in the living room of his modest home. He voted against Mitt Romney in the last presidential election—though he can’t quite bring himself to admit that he cast a ballot for President Obama.
Vernon is also a member of the NRA, mostly because the organization offers top-notch training and certification courses used by federal law enforcement agencies. But he admits to some mixed feelings. “The only thing we agreed on was guns,” he says of the NRA. On the issue of gun-ownership rights, “I’m on the same side as a lot of people who are very conservative and certainly would be considered right of center.”
There’s really nothing remarkable about the firing line pictured in the article, as they look like most gun folk to me, save their color of skin not fitting the typical progressive narrative of rural, fat, middle-aged white guys
This is everyone’s right. It belongs to all of us. That has to be our motivating force in moving the ball forward. The Second Amendment should be no different in Chicago than Cheyenne, and the court wins have succeeded in making Chicago a little more like Cheyenne. We haven’t gone far enough, but just four years ago, Chicago progressives could rest happy in their own insulated media bubble, and never have to read articles like this that challenged their preconceived notions. The fact that they now do is what I call progress!
I’m rather enjoying reading the comments to Professor Johnson’s guest blogs over at The Volokh’s new home, which is warming me up to their experiment with the Washington Post. Here are his posts:
Some of my favorite comments:
“Most black people that I know are pro gun control, but I would imagine that we have black gun nuts in this country. The overwhelming majority of gun nuts are white. If we banned guns completely or restricted them to single shot long guns only, some black gun nuts would not like it, but I think that the overwhelming majority of blacks would be gracious, and very supportive of such an effort.”
You can almost hear the neural circuit breakers tripping on that one.
“The stories recounted here are part of the reason I perceive (1) a constitutional right to possess a reasonable firearm for self-defense in the home and (2) the merit of careful regulation of firearms.”
Followed by a bunch of people challenging the commenter to define “reasonable firearm,” and who gets to decide.
“Although I tend to favor more control of firearms than most folks here, I must say that I have no objection to any law-abiding, mentally-competent person, black or white, owning anything in the Winchester catalog.”
Time for Winchester to make an AR-15? The lever action was the assault weapon of its age. It even holds more than ten rounds. It’s not certain that all of the folks aren’t previous readers, but it’s good for the WaPo audience to be exposed to these ideas, and in a context that totally defies their prejudices and stereotypes about the topic. We don’t have enough of that in our current public discourse.
Happy Thursday, almost Friday. Where did the week go? The news cycle on guns is pretty slow this week, but here’s some news:
The depressing thing about this, is that these people vote.
How the NSA bulk data seizure program is like gun registration.
Private Citizens stop 16% of mass shootings.
How to make and reload wax bullets. I think I owe Miguel the hat tip for this one, but not sure.
A reversal of fortune for gun grabbers. Well, this is why they switched to politically incorrect long guns. At one time it was a small base of shooters, so it made an easier target.
Armed citizenry? Bah, who needs it in the 21st century. Antiquated idea that is!</sarcasm>
The .gov ruined this man’s life and arguably sent him to an early grave. I’m glad to see people still spreading the story. Your government lies. It is not trustworthy or reliable, and when one finds oneself on a jury, that bias should be firmly entrenched. The media are even bigger liars.
Maryland lawmakers are talking more gun laws after a mass shooter followed Joe Biden’s advice and got himself a shotgun.
This has to be awkward for the Obama Administration.
This has to be disappointing for Mom’s Demand Action.
A wood AR-15 lower. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. The only problem with wood as a material is that it can splinter along its grain, and it has a tendency to expand and contract with heat and moisture. So while I think this would work, I think it will tend to unreliability. Why use wood when there are polymers just as easy to machine?
Meet the Black Talon of the 21st Century.
Before the 2014 election season truly kicks into high gear in Pennsylvania, at least I have a little hope for the state with two little bits of information.
The big one is that Virginia just overcame the hardest vote to end the ban on Sunday hunting. There’s still a Senate vote to go, but it has passed in that chamber before. If Virginia can do it after years of arguing, then hopefully Pennsylvania can, too. Perhaps opponents will see that the sky won’t fall, just as it hasn’t in the vast majority of states that allow hunting on Sunday, and reason will prevail.
The second item is a bit of an election year kissing babies moment, but it was announced today that Gov. Tom Corbett is going to attend the NRA Friends dinner that will be held in conjunction with the new sportsman’s show in Harrisburg. Pennsylvania gun owners who appreciate our commonwealth’s laws over places like New York, Maryland, and Connecticut should really help out in a big, big way this year. Gov. Corbett came out firmly against gun bans when the press was pushing him hard to make a call for gun control, and he did it early enough that it shut down any major threat from the legislature.
I hope everyone had a good weekend. I’m pleased that for the first time in days the temperature is actually above freezing! Who would have guessed such things were possible. Here’s some news links:
Miguel notes the hypocrisy of the Chicago Police Department. They are battlefield weapons that don’t belong on the streets when you have them, but necessary “patrol rifles” when they do.
To be fair, they have to squash dissent, because they don’t have any arguments.
Illinois is also proposing a state law to disarm people prescribed medical pot.
Connecticut is planning an amnesty because so few people registered their guns. I doubt that’s going to help. They didn’t register them because they know better, not because they forgot, or didn’t hear about it.
Tim on Rule 1 guns. Rule 1 of gunfighting is to have a gun.
This is a ghost gun. Don’t cross the streams!
I have to admit, this makes me reconsider my hesitance to agree that the Volokh move to the WaPo was a good idea. I agree with Ace of Spades who note: “I hate to tell him this but: They know that’s what you’re offering to the public. That’s the problem.”
A newspaper boss wanted to make a public database of gun owners, then decided to change his mind. These people are evil. I have no doubt they’d stuff us all into cattle cars if they thought they could get away with it.
I’ve never carried to the opera before, but I’ve carried to orchestra concerts. We’re not all uncultured rednecks like they think. Maybe they could use some therapy for their phobias.
Prof. Nick Johnson is going to be guest blogging over at Volokh, speaking about his new book “Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms” You can also see his excellent interview on C-SPAN’s Book TV here.
Off topic: I’d say I’ll never eat at Subway again, but I don’t eat at Subway to begin with. Why? Because their food sucks. It’s just bread and filler — hardly any meat and cheese.
The Glock 42 joins other firearms that will not be available for Californians. I’d like to see manufacturers depart the LEO market too. Even though they are better than you and me. Guns that are deemed “unsafe handguns” are only unsafe when you and I have them, according to California law.
I’d really like to see the courts call them on that nonsense. Generally speaking, I think the courts should be very skeptical of law enforcement exemptions. Law professor Nelson Lund wrote a paper on this topic, arguing that the Courts should look at police use when determining whether an arm was protected. I couldn’t agree more. I strongly believe civilians should be able to own anything cops can own. You can’t argue a weapon is for mass murder, or a weapon is unsafe, and then turn around and say the police need them for self-defense and they aren’t unsafe in the hands of cops. That’s transparently about crapping on civil rights rather than about public safety.
While he’s not proposing a system that American gun owners would tolerate, it is interesting to see a British politician arguing that banning handguns for the law-abiding is a terrible idea that was done as a senseless knee-jerk reaction.
Of course, his critics try to insult him by saying his positions are irresponsible and too much like America. To try and find middle ground, the handgun “advocate” also calls Americans crazy for allowing so many law-abiding citizens to own guns.
Smith and Wesson is also pulling out of California. I don’t expect they’ll be the last. My understanding is that any semi-automatic pistol already on the roster of approved handguns is grandfathered, but as soon as a manufacturer makes a single change or improvement to the gun, it has to be re-certified, which is when the micro-stamping requirement kicks in. I know this sucks for folks out in the Golden State, but in reality, I think the more manufacturers that stop selling their wares, the stronger the case gets against micro-stamping being an unconstitutional requirement.
The anti-gun people are unable to get gun bans through thanks to Heller and McDonald. Given that, requiring manufactures to employ a theoretical and unproven technology under the guide of crime fighting is the next best thing, because it has the effect of banning firearms in a way the courts will likely allow them to get away with. Or so they think. The question is whether the federal courts are capable of seeing through such a transparent means to unconstitutionally limit the availability to firearms to law-abiding civilians.