Category: Gun Rights

Dave Hardy relays that they want to study the effect on Canadian gun owners, and notes “That seems to be more than the U.S. did before signing.” Yep. Sad isn’t it? Yeah, we love you too Barry.

Both Thirdpower and John Richardson are speaking about an assertion that’s appeared in the blogosphere that Illinois is now a Constitutional Carry state. I’d take anything you hear on the Internet (and I don’t exempt myself from this) as pretty much the polar opposite of actual legal advice. In other words, don’t think because a blogger says you can do X, that means it’s OK to actually go out and do it.

I try very hard to get things right, but firearms law is complex, and I’ve made my share of mistakes over the years. Even if you read blogs run by lawyers, they may be attorneys, but they aren’t your attorney. Do your own research, consult with your own counsel, and go from there. Our goal is to try to educate, and not to offer advice on whether a certain action may or may not get you arrested. Remember there are precious few petty offenses and misdemeanors when it comes to gun violations, and too many armchair “experts” out there to rely on what you see on the Internet.

The regulations proposed by the State Police, which added back in items that were stripped out by the legislature, have been approved by a Senate committee.

Like many other legislative hearings on gun control this year, members of the NRA and other Second Amendment organization held a rally before the hearing, and attempted to pack the hearing room.

Unlike some of the hearings in February and March which attracted more than 1,000 people, today’s turnout only numbered a few hundred.

And that’s what the anti-gunners like to see. When only a few hundred of us show up to the hearings, that shows they are wearing us down. These regulations will make it next to impossible to exercise Second Amendment rights in places like Baltimore where there are no shooting ranges. But then again, that was the idea, wasn’t it?

Terry McAuliffe will work for New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and not you:

Support common sense gun control measures
As Governor, Terry will support mainstream and majority supported gun control measures like universal background checks, limiting the size of magazines, and a return to the 1-gun-per-month rule. These measures respect Virginians’ right to bear arms while reducing gun violence.

I guess he didn’t learn anything from Colorado. I’ll give Bloomberg one thing, he’s pretty good at getting Democrats to step off the cliff. Bloomberg wants to show that the recall was a one off thing, and that a Democrat sporting Bloomberg’s positions on gun control can win in a purple state like Virginia.

A guy shows up to an open carry protest illegally carrying a chicken to make a point. My solution to this absurdity is to question why it’s illegal to carry a chicken in Appleton, Wisconsin. If the goal of the chicken carrier was to raise awareness of the absurdity of a law banning chickens in public, I’d say mission accomplished. I favor repeal.

I’d also note that long gun open carry is now being subject to effective parody, which generally a good indication it’s time to give that shit a break. Just because you can and it’s your right doesn’t mean you should.

The shooter involved in the Navy Yard Shooting passed an FBI background check for a security clearance, which is about as thorough a background check as anyone can ask for, and he was cleared. And Obama has the nerve to say this?

President Barack Obama accused opponents of gun control of fighting to allow “dangerous people” to own guns in a speech on Saturday to activists at Congressional Black Caucus, promising he  would revive his failed gun control efforts following recent urban shootings in Chicago and Washington D.C.’s Navy Yard.

All this shows is that background checks don’t matter worth a damn if authorities don’t take time to get an adjudication in cases where someone is mentally ill enough to be a danger to themselves or others. That goes the same for criminal convictions, as is the case here when Seattle authorities missed another chance to prosecute the shooter under a charge which would have made him ineligible to own firearms upon conviction. People on our side have been saying this until we’re blue in the face. No background check in the world will stop someone who slips through the cracks of the mental health system or the criminal justice system. In more cases than the authorities are comfortable admitting, or even talking about, that is the case. Until we can have that conversation, more gun control is just putting lipstick on the pig.

h/t northeastshooters.com

You almost have to feel sorry for Shannon Watts while reading this article in the New Republic, trying to stave off the media narrative, which now is that gun control is dead.

Watts looks at it all differently. She sees a Senate vote that came closer to approving significant gun law reform than lawmakers have in two decades, with six senators with A ratings from the NRA, and two senators up for reelection next year in gun-friendly states, voting for the legislation.

You can spin it that way, but a lot of other gun control groups didn’t think Manchin-Toomey went nearly far enough, and while close is fine when dealing in horseshoes and hand grenades, in legislative terms we still call a near win a loss. But I can’t blame them for trying to speak out against the fatalism their media allies are displaying, and it’s everywhere in the media. The Washington Post has an article about how the renewed debate has led to little in the way of results, with more states liberalizing their gun laws rather than tightening restrictions. The Atlantic is speaking about the “Death of Gun Control” openly, suggesting that while the Senate voting down gun control in April was a setback, there was still hope, but then the Colorado recall happened … and a Democrat was sent packing in a heavily Democratic district, proving gun control is a losing issue for Democrats even among Democrats. Rich liberals aren’t enough to save gun control advocates from the wrath of our grassroots if they get pissed off enough.

But Watts is right, gun control isn’t dead, and won’t be. We beat them because we were all paying attention and doing all the right things. If we lose that edge, things could change, and fast.

h/t Miguel for the New Republic link.

This week has been pretty busy, with house guests, our annual Friends of the NRA dinner, and a lot of work stuff. I’ve been falling down on the job in terms of commenting on the happenings of the day, and blew all my blog mojo on a long post about Starbucks. So here’s everything in my tabs:

Sometimes it’s good when our opponents spell out the long term plan for us.

Suit against Maryland here, probably one of many that will challenge the latest rounds of gun control.

John Richardson looks at the impact of the Illinois Supreme Court ruling on right to carry.

Gun Control’s Dead End.

Vulnerable Dems Fleeing from Anti-Gun Nuts.

9 potential mass shootings that were stopped by personally owned firearms.

Gun Control Legislation Isn’t Going Anywhere. This meme is prevalent and is really bad news for our opponents.

Obama pivots back to gun control, but he’s losing the narrative. I doubt the recalls will help get the votes he needs, despite the attempts of our opponents to blame the magazine limits. I love it when even our opponents are running from their own agenda!

Gun control is not the answer. “This is why gun-control advocates need to abandon the routine of using mass shootings to turn law-abiding citizens into social pariahs and instead focus on something that could work.” Yep, and after they do this they are surprised when we won’t cooperate with them.

Hickenlooper continues to stumble. The recalls were an important message, but they have to take a beating in 2014 as well to really drive the point home. If I were an activist in Colorado, retiring Hickenlooper would be my focus.

This study has been making its way around, with anti-gun folks all excited about it. I don’t have access to the journals to evaluate it seriously, but even if it’s true, they only look at firearms homicide. Does it make them feel better if they were all pushed out of windows?

Again, the wages of destroying your civilian gun culture. Without the training and infrastructure support the civilian market provides, police get far fewer and worse training options.

Shot towers from around the world. We have one here in Philadelphia, pictured in the link.

Why are anti-gun activists so violent?

Ban hacksaws!

Textbooks rewriting the Second Amendment. I’m sure there’s more of this out there than we realize, much of it from old and outdated textbooks.

Prince Law Offices continues doing an excellent job covering the ATF rulemaking over NFA weapons. They are also looking for people who have been denied LEO sign-off.

They don’t really have enough bullets.

Gun control support drops after Navy Yard shooting. I’m sure the terrorist attack on a mall in Nairobi isn’t going to help bolster support for gun control either.

 

Peter of Firearms and Freedom will still buy their coffee. I plan to respect their wishes and not bring my gun, myself, and more specifically my wallet into their stores. The OC events might have been the reason they pulled the trigger on a policy change, but what they requested of the community was far broader. I plan to honor their request, and I hope others do too.

This has been making the rounds. “Don’t blame Starbucks, and don’t blame liberals. Blame stupid gun owners. Look in the mirror, own it, give yourself a pep-talk, and go fix it.” I think the best outcome would be for open carry people to reign in the worst instincts of their fringe. Every movement has a fringe, but effective movements step up and try to manage it.

Tam: No dogs or Irish. “You will not have that support anymore; I will be patronizing my real Bohemian neighborhood coffee houses. Maybe their owners don’t like guns either, but they haven’t taken the time out of their busy day to tell me to keep my filthy gun (and, by extension, the nasty gun-owner to which it is attached) out of their establishment.” Yep. I don’t know what Dunkin Donuts thinks of guns and don’t care. They haven’t taken the time to tell me they don’t want my money.

“No, you’re not being persecuted, you just took things too far.”

“If I Wanted Waffles, I’d Have Gone To Waffle House.”

“This is a loss for us. A fairly big loss that is almost completely self inflicted. There is no spin on this.”

“We had a major retailer that was aggressively neutral and the Bradys and the “I have a right to carry an AR-15 here!” people managed to collude, however inadvertently, to change that.”

A lot of people are looking at the circulating memo, which outlines their plan to implement their new policy, which basically amounts to don’t ask, don’t tell. It doesn’t really matter that they don’t plan to enforce it, it’s still a PR win for the anti-gun groups and a loss for us.

“The problem here is that many people in the pro-gun community confused corporate neutrality on Starbucks part for actual support of gun rights.”

Ace of Spades: “Gun rights activists started ‘Starbucks Appreciation Day‘, which encouraged people to open carry in stores where the law allowed. Frankly, I think this is where it started to go off the rails. Gun rights is an issue we’re winning pretty comfortably. The left seeks to paint gun rights supporters as “gun nuts” and nothing helps their case more than pulling stunts like this.”

Cam Edwards of NRA News: “I understand that when I enter your store, I’ll likely be coming in contact with lots of folks who make different lifestyle choices than I do. It’s cool with me. But if you truly want folks to be respectful of others as citizens and neighbors, you might start by not asking gun owners to go quietly back into the closet as long as they’re in your stores.”

UPDATE: Thanks, Idiots.