Category: Gun Rights

John Richardson tells the story:

Senate President Cullerton’s aim is to preserve home rule on firearms laws. His strategy seems to be to use the Raoul bill as his bargaining chip. In other words, he’ll be willing to trade off the worst parts of the Raoul bill in exchange for the ability of Chicago and its suburbs to still have their local gun control laws.

Read the whole sorry story. I’d suggest no deal. If they ram through a crappy bill, we’ll see them back in court. You can’t have the Second Amendment mean something different than it does in Peoria. That the right should be uniform is a basic tenant, otherwise it’s no right.

They argue that the vast majority of Sheriffs in the State of Colorado are siding with criminals. These people need to be handed a severe beating in 2014. It definitely needs to be an all-hands-on-deck election. The Democratic Party has pretty clearly become out of the touch with the values of Colorado voters. They’ve become arrogant and entitled, and if they aren’t made to pay a price, this won’t be the end of it.

Apparently gun control bills are “in limbo” in the Ocean State, as they are entering the final weeks of the 2013 legislative session. It looks like the dodge is getting tough on existing gun crime, and creating a task force to review gun laws. If there’s anything politicians love it’s offering the appearance of getting tough on crime, and creating task forces. You can throw that stick and they’ll chase it every time, especially if they are getting real grassroots opposition. In a legislative fight like this, it buys you time, which is usually a good thing when you’re dealing with an emotional response to a tragedy. The gods of “something must be done” demand appeasement. Maybe one day, voters will become enlightened enough to accept that maybe the response to “something” doesn’t, and probably shouldn’t involve a legislative cure.

Democrats in Colorado are worried about these recall efforts:

But even though it’s not an election year, the office is in full campaign mode, with volunteers working the phones and reviewing maps in anticipation of a new front of modern campaigning – the recall phase.

A handful of Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado face recall petition efforts in what looks to be the first wave of fallout over legislative votes to limit gun rights.

We’ve already had one recall come up short, but it garnered enough support the lawmaker ought to be worried. These petitions don’t even really have to succeed, we just need to keep the dial turned up on the oven as much as we can until 2014. We can never make it an easy vote for them. The fact that they are having to call up volunteers and spend resources to fight these recall efforts is excellent. It’ll send them into 2014 tired. We just need to have more stamina than our opponents.

Apparently, like Darth Vader, they appear to be altering the deal. I would work to kill anything worse than what they offered. What’s likely happening is they realized that while the previous offer wasn’t everything we wanted, it was strategically beneficial to us over the long term. They likely don’t find that acceptable. If you live in Illinois, call your Senators, and make sure they understand that you are not at all happy with this crap. Tell them to oppose Amendment 4 to HB183.

It’s been instructive watching this unfold, because it shows you how committed these people are to the hate. From a political standpoint, they’ve been backed into the corner by the federal courts, and not by us. You can always go back to constituents and tell them your hands were tied, and the court forced us to make those changes. Additionally, you can use weak gun laws forced on you by the courts to deflect blame for your own failures, as Philly politicians are expert at doing. Politically, this wouldn’t really hurt them, yet the obstinance continues. Why? Because they hate us.

I hope everyone enjoys their memorial day, even though the weather doesn’t know what season it wants to be. I actually got a little sleet in the rain today, and there are other parts of Pennsylvania that are getting a little global warming falling from the sky. Today is one of my office days, and I’m busy working on drawings to give to the contractor to fit out our new data center. I’m hoping to finish so I can actually enjoy a holiday weekend.

A lot of folks are upset that a deal has been reached over the CCW issue in Illinois. It would seem neither side likes the deal. But the leadership of the Illinois Legislature has essentially signaled this is as far as they’ll go, and if we walk away, they’ll shove a may-issue bill with gun bans down our throats. Note the GSL source:

There is no June 9th cliff.

We don’t have enough votes willing to go over the cliff.  Not even close.

We do have the latest bill submitted by Brandon Phelps.

Put your drink down and take a deep breath.

Go ahead and start your deep breathing relaxation exercises.  Seriously.

In fact, you might want to pour yourself about three fingers of your favorite adult beverage and get a good start on it before reading further.

I’ll wait.

Read the whole thing. A lot of people didn’t understand why there was even negotiation over a shall-issue bill, believing constitutional carry was in the cards if Illinois defied the court. That was always a pipe dream. If they had passed a may-issue bill, a lot of the issues would have had to be re-litigated, and Madigan would have been in a more comfortable position. I also think the deal sets us up for long-term success. Also from GSL:

It also has across the board pre-emption on all local firearm regulations and restrictions.

Chicago’s gun registration regime?  Gone.

Chicago’s ban on mags, lasers, etc.?  Buh bye.

Cook County’s black gun ban?  History.

Local “safe storage” ordinances?  Into the dustbin of history.

It also means we only need a simple majority to tweak it in coming years, not a 3/5ths majority.

Yes, we’re actually REPEALING so-called assault weapons bans and gun registration programs in post-Sandy Hook America.  Heck, we’re doing it in one of the bluest states in the nation.

Getting rid of the supermajority requirement will be a big deal, because that’s been the primary obstacle to getting shall-issue in Illinois. My only concern would be, as I understand it, whether a supermajority is required is really at the discretion of the leadership. What’s to prevent them from imposing it anyway? I can’t find anything in the rather lengthy bill stipulating that for future amendments.

My feeling is that it’s a shall-issue bill, with preemption. It’s the final offer from the leadership. I’d take the deal and then work to improve the bill through legislation, and I’d re-litigate over the steep fees and argue that many of the places you’re prohibited from carrying are not “sensitive places” per the Heller decision. I’m also guessing this will mean that the Moore/Shepherd case will not be appealed to the Supreme Court, which begs the question, will the Court take a carry case? Maybe not.

Looks that way. Too many Republicans think there is a middle ground on this issue. There isn’t. It’s either you throw your lot in with us, or you throw it in with the gun control people. The gun control people will never vote for you, no matter how much gun control you vote for, and I have better things to do than vote or volunteer for Republicans who support mag bans. The only middle ground is not signaling you’re a whackjob on the issue. At this point, supporting concealed carry and opposing magazine bans does not make one a whack job. Those are mainstream positions.

Thanks to an embroiled Obama Administration, gun news has just about dried up. But there’s still some talk on guns.

Are ‘smart guns’ a smart way to approach gun control? There’s a poll.

Lawyers.com says to expect more 2nd Amendment fights, and outlines some circuit splits.

Forbes does a really good article on how O’Malley’s gun control is anti-business. Anti-gun groups are running ads to praise O’Malley.

Josh Horwitz, Executive Director of Coalition to Stop Gun Ownership, is starting to sound as unhinged as Joan Peterson. Probably because CSGV is increasingly irrelevant. Bloomberg is gun control’s future.

A gun safe monitoring system. Hey, I think I could use this.

The hazards of cheap ARs.

Have you written thank you letters to your Senators? Well, we Pennsylvanians get out of that task, but I like the idea of thanking Beretta. I think I might thank them by buying one of their products.

A lot of folks in Illinois wants to know who is footing the bill for this lobbying effort.

Statistics, they are what’s for dinner when it comes to background checks. Clayton also has a paper out, which I’ve had in my tabs for weeks now, but I haven’t gotten around to reviewing.

I recently added Glenn Reynold’s paper too, but I’ll link that as well, since I shouldn’t kid myself these days about how much time I have to read things that take careful reading.

Mom’s Demand Action for Gun Sense Bans is going to attempt to pressure a number of companies to treat gun owners like second class citizens. I’ll put Starbucks, Walmart, Cabela’s, Wyndam, and National Car Rental on notice now that I boycott companies that treat me like a pariah.

Cabela’s we probably don’t have to worry about, because they are doing quite well in the Great Obama Gun Panic. Lots of positive articles coming out of Forbes these days.

NY SAFE is looking to be a real cluster as there seems to be no guidance for how to implement it.

Bill Maher is apparently a world class hypocrite. A lot of these celebrities and talking heads are.

Apparently the left doesn’t like the idea that there shouldn’t be any such thing as second class civil rights.

Well, that’s it until next time. As I said, the news cycle is scandal, scandal, and more scandal. And Tornados. But I had more stuff than I thought I did.