Guns – Page 1117 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Left’s Ideas on Constitutional Rights

I sometimes wander across other Pennsylvania bloggers in the course of my readings, and occasionally feel like pointing out something else. I agree with many of the sentiments in this fairly well written post, but one stands out to this libertarian:

My biggest concern with Nutter has been his “stop & frisk” proposal, Nutter’s ‘stop & frisk’ emerges as flash point. I’m not quarreling with the fact that a crisis situation exists in Philly, which needs to be dealt with, based upon the gun violence that has made Philly the Baghdad of the United States. I’m just not crazy about any infringement of our constitutional rights, whether it originates from the left or the right.

As I’ve written here before, I have issues with Nutter’s “Stop and Frisk” policy. But I find this blogger’s disdain for gun owners and support of gun control rather contradictory for someone who is concerned about constitutional rights.

She also brings up the issue involving State Rep Cruz and Williams, which I have previously condemned here, here, and finally here. I would point out, though, that every political movement has it’s crazies, and most of us aren’t nuts. I would encourage folks out there who are sympathetic to this bloggers views to meet some gun owners. You might find we’re not monolithically right wing people. Our beliefs and politics span the political spectrum. I am not a religious man. I support legalized abortion. I support allowing gays to marry. I agree with this blogger that Santorum had to go, despite his strong support of our second amendment rights. I’ve met plenty of other gun owners who are more progressive than I am. But we all do share a common belief that the right to keep and bear arms is an important constitutional liberty, and ought to be treated equally to the others, and not with disdain and scorn. Is that too much to ask from some elements of the left?

Article on Open Carry in Pennsylvania

At Lancaster Online:

Surprise. In Pennsylvania and 43 other states, any law-abiding resident 18 and older can carry a loaded handgun on his hip in plain view to shopping malls, restaurants and on strolls down the street. No permits required, no questions asked. You thought you needed a permit for that? Nope, only if you conceal the gun.

I’ve never seen anyone open carrying in this area. I’ve seen it a few times in other parts of the state, but it’s not common. This surprised me: “He’s never been stopped and questioned by a cop.” I would imagine this means he’s never tried to open carry in Philadelphia, where I’m pretty sure the police would have a lot of questions.

I do not open carry in populated areas, only while hiking, but I support everyone’s right to do it. I am somewhat skeptical of this though:

The group sells a t-shirt that says, “Oops, my civil rights are showing.” Seeing people carrying guns in a nonconfrontational way gets people to recognize the practice as legal and encourages them “to think about the liberty and foundation aspects of our country,” Pierce says.

I think most people either a) don’t notice, or b) assume the person is a police officer. I’m not sure that people open carrying is really going to do much to make the public think about liberty and our country.

NFA Sex Toys?

Apparently in Canada, someone is charged with six counts of murder using a gun with a certain sex toy on the end of it. Would that make it an AOW here? Not sure, but maybe not if it’s just attached on the end, because then it would still be designed to fire using a single hand.

It would be kind of amusing to submit a design for one to the ATF for evaluation on its classification.

Make it Hurt

As we await Mayor Street’s signature on several anti-gun ordinances recently passed by City Council, we’re faced with what to do about it. It’s not clear yet whether the city actually plans to enforce its new ordinances, or whether this will be window dressing as the election approaches, and soon forgotten about.

The big problem we face as a state is that Philadelphia incurs little in the way of cost for passing their own gun control ordinances. If they do try to enforce them, charges won’t hold up in court because of state preemption. But that won’t help keep folks out of jail, and the city will still be able to hassle gun owners. There will be lawsuits, but those will take a while to immediately hurt the city, and make it reconsider its actions.

What we ought to do is add a provision to the state’s preemption.

c) Penalties: Not withstanding any other provision of state or local law, any county, municipality or township creating or enforcing an ordinance or regulation in violation of Â§ 6120 (a) shall forfeit any appropriations from the state budget.

Or something along those lines. If there is a cost to the city of passing and enforcing these things that would be felt immediately, I think this nonsense would stop.

Illinois Magazine Ban Passes Senate

The magazine ban has passed the IL senate. It will now be heard by the house.

Feinstein at it Again

Diane Feinstein, who really wants to make sure their party loses in 2008, are pushing for making 50 caliber rifles NFA weapons. Another bit of “reasonable” gun regulation we’re asked, with righteous indignation, why we won’t endure.

I’m In!

I am now a proud member of the Falls Township Rifle and Pistol Association. Facilities include trap range, with manual and automatic throwers. Indoor 25 yard pistol range. Outdoor 25/50/100/200 yard rifle range. 25 yard plinking range. It’s NRA and CMP affiliated, which is nice.Â I’m hoping to get some CMP stuff through the club.

Now the real question is whether to maintain my membership at Classic Pistol, in Southampton. Classic Pistol is, without a doubt, the best indoor range in the area that’s not members only. Full auto is allowed, as well as rifles of any caliber. Pistol lanes are up to 15 yards, rifle up to 25. I think I’ll probably maintain it, and only drop it if I’m not using it enough. Since I can shoot there without being a member, if I don’t go enough, it’s not worth it to maintain the membership.

I’ll extend an open invitation to any of my readers to go shoot as a guest if you’re ever in the area.

Fort Dix Six Trained in Poconos

Looks like the Fort Dix Six trained at a Pennsylvania Game Commission range in Gouldsboro, PA, the PGC Shooting Range at State Game Lands 127. See this article in the Pocono Record, with map locations of where they lived. Also see this article, where a local shooter describes them as lousy shots, who were breaking range rules and never bothered to clean up their mess.

From one of the suspected terrorists:

â€œYou are in the mountains in the Poconos … In Pennsylvania. It is about two hours away from here. We went there for a week walking in the mountains and shooting in the open shooting range.â€

The video showed 10 young men in their early 20s â€œshooting assault weapons at a firing range … while calling for jihad and shouting in Arabic â€™Allah Akbarâ€™ (God is great),â€ the complaint said. The 10 included six of those arrested, authorities said.

Scary stuff. I repeat the call for shooters in Pennsylvania to be vigilant, on the look out for people that look out of place, and are breaking the range rules. Report suspicious activity¹. Carry at all times, if you have a license to do so.

Pennsylvania Game Wardens have just been put on the front lines of War on Terror. Hopefully they will step up patrols of public shooting ranges. Welcome to asymmetric warfare in the 21st century.

Hat tip to Nathaniel for the links

¹Use your judgement here. I think everyone would agree that someone on the range taking video of themselves shouting “Allah Akbar!” would fall into the realm of suspicious activity. Anyone flagrantly breaking range rules, or being unsafe would fall under this as well. We must take care not to be unfriendly to new shooters.

Meme Battles

I’m hopping angry at Attorney General Gonzalez and the Bush Administration over this terrorist watch list anti-gun bill.Â He might as well have handed the anti-gun groups and the media the rhetorical vise with which to put the screws to us.

Here’s the meme we’re fighting, it’s all over the media:

NRA wants to allow suspected terrorists to purchase guns

Take a look, and you’ll find this everywhere, and it’s incredibly damaging to us.Â The reason is because these battles are waged in the public mind through use of memes, and that is a powerful one.Â The answer to that is not a meme.Â It’s complicated, and difficult to dispense with in a sound bite.

Much of the left, which normally strikes out against the administration for various perceived or real infringements on civil liberties, has embraced this one, since it’s damaging to a core conservative constituency.

How do we fight this meme battle?Â How do we make the position that no citizen should be deprived of constitutional rights without due process? How do we make people understand that we don’t want terrorists getting a hold of firearms any more than anyone else in this country does?

I don’t have an answer to this. Â And I’m quite getting tired of the media, who are quick to defend liberties they find dear to them, so carefully maligning liberties other people find important, and not even having the courtesy, and actually having the gall, to suggest that our concerns are driven by a desire to arm terrorists rather than legitimate due process and civil liberties concerns.

The Three S’s

Conservative Scalawag, amused by a local news report on pet eating coyote troubles in suburban Atlanta that recommends swinging a broom at the varmints, tells us how to deal with the problem in a proper manner:

I will be over on my side of fence with a Ruger 10/22 with a suppressor practicing the 3 S’s. Shoot, shovel, and shut-up. This is the proper way to handle coyotes folks.

Sounds like a good way to piss off PETA, which is a good reason to be for it.

UPDATE: Link fixed