Guns – Page 38 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Weekly Gun News – Edition 64

It’s time for some tab clearin’. We’ve actually had some positive developments in the past week, namely that the SHARE Act passed committee, and rumor has it a floor vote will be held in October. Time to put pressure on the critters.

Breyer: Second Amendment not about the right of an individual to keep a gun next to his bed. Notice Kennedy didnt’ retire this summer? Nothing changes. I had worried those rumors were meant to push him out, but it looks like he’s staying on at least another year.

The press went absolutely nuts that NRA did a concealed carry fashion show. I saw this all over my news alerts when the Carry Guard Expo was happening. Foreign press particularly covered it.

Science Alert: “Here’s Why Gun Violence Research in The US Is About to Come to a Grinding Halt.” As Glenn Reynolds notes: “Because it’s been a cesspit of politicized pseudoscience for decades.”

Breitbart: “Moms Demand Actionâ€™s Secret War on Concealed Carry for Law-Abiding Citizens.” I’m not sure it’s all that secret, but then I suppose that wouldn’t generate clicks.

New Jersey is moving to legalize tasers in light of Caetano.

Yehuda Remer: “The National Rifle Association is the Jews’ Safest Place.”

John Lott: “Apply background checks for gun purchases to voting.”

Tam: “Review: SIG Sauer P320 X-Carry Pistol.”

Kopel & Greenlee: The racist origins of gun control.

Scam Artists in the Firearms Community.

California is disarming people who commit misdemeanor hate crimes. Eventually, getting a speeding ticket will be a disqualifying offense. It’s not like the courts will stop it.

LEO Weekly: “Black People Should Arm Themselves NOW!”

Dave Hardy on Heller’s common use test. It’s not perfect, but if it was actually followed, we’d have far broader protections than courts now are willing to offer.

Kennedy didn’t retire, so not going to happen: “Supreme Court Urged to Overturn Marylandâ€™s ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban” Cert will be denied.

Police brass comes out against Constitutional Carry in Indiana.

Everytown boss in New York Times: Ban open carry of firearms.

You don’t say: “N.J. in line for tougher gun laws if Democrat wins governor’s race.” Christie has his faults, but he’s been the most pro-gun New Jersey governor of my lifetime, which should give you an idea of what sorry shape that state is in.

Bad Satire Gets Confused with Reality

Apparently a number of gun control groups and at least one Brady Campaign Board Member were confused by a parody Facebook event. Looking through the Facebook Event, it even looks like it was mostly being enjoyed by the “Let’s make fun of those dumb, toothless, cousin humping rednecks” crowd. So either anti-gun groups are really, really dense, or they’re deliberately trying to use this anti-redneck parody to make gun folks look like people who are stupid and irresponsible enough to think shooting a hurricane will help things.

Which is it? I don’t know. I could see them believing gun owners are dumb enough to put something like this together for real. In that case, who’s the joke on here?

Baltimore Gun Task Force

Glenn Reynolds notes, “How many members of Bloombergâ€™s mayors-against-guns group wound up in jail?”Â in response to the news that there’s only one officer left standing after a bunch of federal indictments in the Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force.

My take? The US doesn’t culturally view such services as an important public good, so it is not a high status job in the mind of the public. If that’s the case, the people attracted to busting down doors for guns are those with bad incentives and attitudes. Bloomberg’s problem was that he self-selected a group of people that’s highly prone to graft and corruption, and the results were predictable.

Well, They’ve Been Out Branded by Bloomberg

John Richardson notes that Dan Gross is stepping down as head of the Brady Campaign. He will be replaced by co-presidents Kristin Brown and Avery Gardiner. Co-Presidents? Really? Does that ever work?

The problem the Brady Campaign has is that it’s been outcompeted by Bloomberg. Brady has the problem of being dependent on fundraising from the general public, and the issue has a limited pool of donors. Bloomberg’s money has probably enabled Everytown et al to hoover up a decent chunk of Brady’s donor and support base. I haven’t given much thought to Brady these days, because they are largely irrelevant. Remember, the movement was on the outs before Bloomberg came along, and I can’t imagine things have gotten better for the groups without wealthy patrons.

Liberal Advice Columnist Tackles Gun Ownership

…and it doesn’t end up how one might expect.

One of my weird little guilt pleasures is reading Dear Prudence. She’s young and very liberal who not only lives, but also works in that bubble. Needless to say, I figured I knew which way she would come down on the side of a wife who doesn’t want to buy a gun with her husband who does want one for self-protection in the home.

I have to admit though, I thoroughly agree with her advice. First, she makes clear that the wife does not have to commit to using a firearm if she’s not comfortable doing it. That is absolutely true. Not everyone is going to be comfortable using a firearm or any type of lethal force. Self defense is a personal decision, and just like we should have the right to decide to have access to a firearm to defend our lives and families, others have the right to choose an alternative (or no alternative if they are true pacifists).

After that, though, “Prudie” points out that if her husband is equally determined to own a firearm as the wife is to not using one, there’s still an argument to be made she should know enough about to have a reasonable discussion on safety precautions when it’s around her in the house. Again, that’s perfectly reasonable. I’ve made the case plenty of times that even when one household member isn’t too keen on gun ownership, just having a basic knowledge on how to safely handle it and unload it if needed can go a very long way in easing their comfort with the existence of one at home.

It didn’t come down to politics at all – just a reasonable argument that the couple will need to solve it for themselves and that both have the rights to their views. Could it be that we’re winning more of the culture fight than we might sometimes realize?

If you want a question related to guns that involves a little more drama, there’s this one from July where a girl raised living off the land hunting and fishing in a poor household is involved with a rich girl trying to go vegan and they are getting serious enough to consider kids – except they can’t agree on food. While Prudie says it’s a relationship worth trying to save since this is the only major disagreement, she also kind of quietly acknowledges that there’s a good chance something this major won’t end well for trying to raise children together.

The Law: Tis For The Little People

Despite being illegal under federal law, the US Virgin Islands have declared a gun confiscation. That’s not even speaking about the constitutionality of the whole endeavor. Granted, they are handled by the 1st Circuit, which is pretty gun unfriendly, but the judges would really have to reach to justify upholding this.

For those in the path of the Irma, and I myself have a lot of family, I just want to wish you all good luck. We’re all counting on you.

New California Regulations

From Bearing Arms:

The question is whether these new regulations would stand up to judicial scrutiny. I have no doubt that California courts will find these rules constitutional, but would it survive higher courts? I have to believe they donâ€™t, if for no other reason that this is a clear attempt to restrict an individualâ€™s right to keep and bear arms. That said, Iâ€™m not a legal expert.Â This is something for the legal experts to hammer out.

I give approximately no chance that state or federal courts will strike down these regulations. Remember, the 9th Circuit has, so far, successfully overturned Heller’s direct ruling striking DC’s safe-storage law. SCOTUS let them get away with it.

The only way this regulation is going down is if there is a chance on the Court. Otherwise it’s going to go the same way every other case has gone: there might be a temporary victory at one level of the court if we get the right judge or judges, but it’ll be undone. California prevails en banc, and SCOTUS refuses to hear the case.

California can do whatever it wants to gun owners. Pretty soon, New Jersey will be in the same position, once Christie is gone.

Bloomberg Steals from the Little Guys?

I have to admit that I would expect Bloomberg’s people to be much more thoughtful about the optics of taking the work produced by individuals with far less cash in their bank accounts in this era of economic populism.

Bloomberg was smart enough to realize that after years of his political allies getting arrested – often for gun violence crimes or crimes against women & children – that Illegal Mayors Against Guns wasn’t going to go anywhere. Not to mention, actual grassroots gun owners in many non-urban areas successfully convinced several to very publicly disavow his agenda. He already had a lock on urban leaders, so he rebranded.

He can’t rebrand himself as “not a billionaire.” It is something that has worked against him repeatedly since it automatically paints him as a guy looking to come into states, throw some personal wealth around, and outspend any local voices. Because, well, that is exactly what he does in elections. Regardless, you’d think he’s still want to keep a softer image with it outside of election season so that he can try to build a network of allies to use in the next election season before he pisses them all off.

Nope, Bloomberg’s folks apparently want to promote the image of big, bad jerk billionaire because his partner Shannon Watts decided to take the work of a Houston-based independent photographer. Despite having licensing information clearly stated on his Twitter bio, Shannon swiped his work – how this man in a disaster area supports himself – and posted it to show how much she and her political partners “care.”

In fact, not only did she take it without paying for it, she didn’t even credit him for his work and the fact that he ventured out into the storm to capture the magnitude of the damage. She spent nearly $3 million on a house in the mountains, and her boss is worth about $53 billion, but their online advocacy efforts run through her Twitter page would rather take the (fantastic) work of others without credit or license than pay licensing fees to small business owners. In fact, even though the image is gone from her Twitter account, she refused to acknowledge the wrong and apologize or even wish him & his family well in the ongoing disaster.

Of course, it gets better. This theft of other people’s work goes beyond Twitter and photographs. NSSF’s Larry Keane found that state leaders for Bloomberg & Watts are using local government offices to request Project ChildSafe gun locks and slapping their own branding on them, pretending like they are responsible for the program.

Billionaire Bloomberg funded @MomsDemand tries 2 coop NSSF's @ProjChildSafe Try getting UR own firearms safety program! @NSSF @NRA @NRA-ILA

— Larry Keane (@lkeane) August 27, 2017

Bloomberg the Billionaire only cares enough about gun safety to buy a little paper, send state leaders around to pick up gun locks provided by the firearm industry, and pretend he’s running his own program. Again, it’s a case of Everytown taking the hard work of people with fewer resources and pretending it is his own without any credit or acknowledgement. This is why class warfare rhetoric works with so many people. Outside of the walls of Everytown, this kind of behavior of taking credit for the work of those with less means rubs people the wrong way.

I Have To Agree on Armed Protests

SayUncle comments on the Second Amendment Foundation’s position on armed protests.

â€œWe are not a fan of armed protests and highly discourage that,â€ said Alan Gottlieb, the founder and executive vice president of the SAF. â€œFirearms serve a purpose, and the purpose is not a mouthpiece. Itâ€™s to defend yourself. If you are carrying it to make a political point, we are not going to support that.â€

I wouldn’t go to one of these protests unarmed, but it would be concealed. But I agree with Uncle: I wouldn’t go to one of these protests where both sides are idiots.

What you’re going to end up seeing are states passing laws against protesting while armed or starting to use laws on the books against parading while armed.

Internal Strife at Everytown

Looks like Kate Ranta is on the outs with Everytown. The reason? Everytown started to move in on the FoP, and some of their kookier members lost their shit because the FoP do not support their mission of disarming Americans with sufficient zeal.

Any readers out there who are cops should read this article, and have zero doubt these people will absolutely disarm you if they get half a chance.

On Thursday, I resigned as an Everytown Survivor Fellow after being blocked by the Survivor Network Facebook page for voicing my concerns about the sponsorship.Â My conclusion is that dissenting voices have no place in these organizations. You toe the line or youâ€™re out.

Of course. They don’t need you. Bloomberg gives them plenty of money. Not having to worry about what grassroots members think helps them stay on message. If you’re no longer useful to them, they don’t want or need you.