Category: Gun Rights

… with just … one … click.

If only it were that easy.

Hopefully to be replaced by fresh news if the media can stop talking about Trayvon Martin for 10 minutes, and I suspect they will. But that new shiny thing is likely to be Will and Kate’s new baby. Some weeks it’s tough to be a gun blogger.

NRA blasts back at Holder over Stand Your Ground. Also on Salon, The Hill, and Politico. You have to admit that NRA can get the big names in media to bark on command at this point.

TalkLeft has some commentary on the Zimmerman verdict.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Clearly we’re dealing with a murderous monster! Saving people from overturned trucks is what racists do.

Radley Balko gets an article about the militarization of police in the Wall Street Journal. I’m glad this is getting mainstream attention. More on the related topic of over-criminalization here.

Durbin is going host a panel to “review” these SYG laws.

I’ve been surprised by how little press coverage I’ve seen of Bloomberg’s gun control bus tour, but they did generate a bit of press in Aurora, along with a counter-protest that also seemed to get reasonable coverage.

Massad Ayoob has more to say about the Zimmerman verdict. The original is here. Part II, III, IV, V. Five is particularly interesting.

Gun control advocates are disappointed in Rhode Island. Let’s hope they stay disappointed.

MAIG applauds an increase in ATF’s budget. I guess they have to savor the little victories. Hopefully ATF won’t use that extra cash to traffic more guns to drug cartels.

MAIG is also taking out a new ad campaign in the wake of the Aurora anniversary. Probably also to help with the recall elections too. I guess New York City residents don’t care much about having their tax dollars wasted on Bloomberg’s pet projects.

Antigun Colorado legislator has major rap sheet. What a shocker.

Confiscation? What confiscation? That’s just paranoia ginned up by the corporate gun lobby.

From an article on guns and suicide:

But researchers who study mental illness, guns and suicide say curtailing access to guns won’t necessarily reduce firearm suicides. Education and prevention may be a much better answer than stricter gun laws, they say.

They are pushing for education rather than laws, saying new laws won’t make much of a difference. It also notes they are getting help from the gun community. Funny how that happens when your goal is actually to solve problems rather than just take away our rights and freedoms. The only person who seems to insist gun laws would matter is a Joyce stooge.

Dave Hardy has an excellent essay in Reason about why gun owners have history on their side to back up fighting new gun restrictions. I know that most of you know these things, and it may seem like preaching to the choir. However, I really think it’s worth a read because it’s clearly written for a non-gun audience. I think we sometimes need to remember how to communicate with those who are sympathetic to our cause, but maybe don’t really see what the big deal is over bills like Manchin-Schumer-Toomey.

Compromise requires that both parties relinquish something. If your counterpart’s position is “give me this now, and I’ll take the rest later,” there is no real compromise to be had. Over decades, that has been precisely the experience of American gun owners.

Most of the piece gives specific examples of violations of this concept of “compromise” that we’re so used to dealing with.

And if that wasn’t enough, a whole heaping helping of taxpayer dollars to fund a Joyce initiative aimed at training new anti-gun activists. Sounds like we need a ban on taxpayer dollars being used to lobby government. Might be tough in Illinois, but maybe not in other states. Kansas is leading the way.

Anti-gun groups target stand your ground laws in the wake of Zimmerman acquittal. This narrative was practically tailor made for them. Of course, it’s complete hogwash that this case hinged on Stand Your Ground at all, such that they have to reach for minor changes in jury instructions to have any case at all. But really, the truth doesn’t matter. The narrative was perfect.

What the gun control groups have achieved is raising the perception of cost for passing these laws, and in politics, perception matters a lot more than reality. Previously, these had been passed fairly easily and with wide margins. Why?

• It was an easy way to please a constituency perceieved as important.
• It materially did not alter self-defense laws all that much. Most cases don’t rise or fall on a duty to retreat.
• The civil immunities are hard to argue against.
• States that traditionally were SYG states historically, didn’t seem to have too much trouble prosecuting actual or attempted cases of murder and manslaughter.
• There was little downside, short of opposition from Attorneys General, who don’t like the idea of limiting their discretion and making it harder for them to win marginal cases.

Now every lawmakers will be wondering if their names will be all over the papers as having voted for the next Zimmerman acquittal. The media is happy to drive false narratives that hurt us, and the Zimmerman case was also gift wrapped for the Obama Administration and his re-election. The case may have been the perfect storm for the left and their media allies, but every lawmaker will be wondering if it could happen again. Despite the fact that it takes dishonesty, the anti-gun folks played this one well, and it will hurt us going forward.

All the news media is talking about the Zimmerman case, and all the old narratives are coming back. The ignorance burns. Everyone knows what happened in the Zimmerman case. Everyone’s an expert, and everyone has an opinion, even when they have no idea what they are talking about. Here’s the news:

The psychology of gun laws. She should have stopped at “I’m no legal expert”

USA Today has their viewpoint, and they think none of us are responsible enough to bear arms.

The Chicago Police Chief also thinks you’re stupid.

Mississippi gun laws are too confusing, apparently. OK… I’ll bite. Let’s get rid of them then, if they are too confusing.

It’s like Deja Vu in Florida.

Glenn Reynolds: A black man defends himself against a white attacker and is acquitted. Yeah, I didn’t hear about this either. Also, American own nearly half of the privately owned guns on earth. I think we can do better too.

The ignorance, it burns.

The rush to gun control causes Connecticut to pass a bill so we could find out what’s in it.

Not gun related, but this makes perfect political sense to me. Those welfare recipients vote Republican.

Remember, they hate us. The best revenge is working through the system to ensure they remain very angry, very disappointed people.

Black lawmakers are readying a flurry of bills in response to the Zimmerman acquittal, none of which would have anything to do with the actual case. I’m sympathetic to racial profiling by police, but the best way to stop that is to end the drug war.

A gun buyback you can believe in.

Is grey the new black?

 

We’re winning more than we’re losing, which is good. When we show up, we win. And even where we lost, we didn’t lose as badly as one might fear. Perhaps we’ll get to see how the convictions of the town councils that defied us stand up under a federal lawsuit.