Guns – Page 9 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Signs and Portents

Politico reports on what is alleged to be a White House proposal (PDF link) for increasing background checks. Only, something is kind of fishy about it. The Politico story quotes a White House spokesman

As far as the document circulating on the Hill, [Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman] added: â€œThat is not a White House document, and any suggestion to contrary is completely false.â€

And when I actually read the (alleged) document, I have my doubts. It’s possible that the White House drafted a proposal that starts with the premise that there are Unlicensed Commercial Sales, and that there are commercial sellers who are not licensed dealers, but that doesn’t seem all that likely to me. Unless they’re expanding the definition of “commercial sales” to include all sales (there’s a reference to “Manchin-Toomey draft legislation” as well, which I haven’t seen the current iteration of).

Anyway, with the White House disavowing the proposal, and the Republican Senate refusing to move without clear guidance from the White House, things are looking a bit less grim? No reason to stop paying attention, though.

You’ll Have to Forgive Me …

…but on this issue I agree with Michael Bloomberg.

Thanks, Irish Robert

Let’s be honest with ourselves: “Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in,” was getting pretty worn. Said years and years ago by a now octogenarian who probably won’t be with us much longer. Gun owners of the future will probably be like “Diane who?” before too long.

But thanks to Bobby Frank, we have a new scare quote we’ll be able to get mileage out of for years and years. Can we now dispense with the gaslighting fiction that no one is after our guns? Should be pretty obvious by now what the real agenda is here. Irish Robert wants to take the most popular gun in America. He said it on live TV where everyone could hear it.

Sometimes honesty is refreshing.

This is a Good Thing

Apparently the National African American Gun Association is thriving. Wayne is out of touch with younger shooters (and by younger, at this point, I mean anyone under 50), and he’s bitterly clinging to his EVP role despite the fact that he’s a few months away from becoming a septuagenarian. So I’m going to be a lot more supportive of groups that are reaching gun owners the NRA has no ability or even interest in reaching. Like African American shooters, or, you know, younger shooters.

Speaking of younger shooters…. I feel like Chris Cox and his inner circle got the typical Gen X treatment. It’s the curse of our generation. Gen Xers are utterly powerless: sandwiched between the much larger Boomer and Millennial cohorts. We’ll never be in charge of anything. The Boomers are going to pass that shit right to the Millennials, then spend their twilight years posting memes on Facebook about how they’re ruining the country.

So good on NAAGA. I hope they continue to grow.

Community is Probably Now More Important than Ever

Don’t be that lone shooter. Get involved in something related to shooting. Training new shooters is a great contribution. Get involved in clubs. Get involved with other shooters somehow. Figure out how to plug those people into a network.

Because citizens around the world have chosen to let a small handful of companies do gatekeeping on the Internet, we’re going to face challenges building the Late Professor Brian Anse Patrick called “Horizontal Interpretive Communities.” If you don’t know what those are, read the book. While the tech monopolies are going to throw challenges at us, they aren’t going to be able to enact perfect censorship. We will need to get creative. We will need to fly under the radar.

Brain Drain

The brain drain continues, with news that David Lehman is out.

Lobbying is a very personal thing, and I believe it’s a talent, like sales, since it’s really a species of sales. Not everyone is going to be good at it. I wouldn’t be good at it.

These folks are not easily replaced. I’ve spent enough time around Wayne, even in closed off events, to think he always looks awkward and uncomfortable. Maybe he’s better at being a lobbyist than he is at being a public figure. I certainly hope so. But I’m really not encouraged by this article that indicates LaPierre signaled to NRA members he had the White House under control and the White House balked at it.

This is not good. I can’t really adequately express how effed I think we are.

Red Flag

USA Today is running an op-ed from Michael Hammond, Chief Counsel for GOA (oops, didn’t notice this was a year old).

But there’s a larger issue:Â If the Constitution can be suspended in a secret hearing, where does this lead?Â
What if this newspaper could be shut down for 21 days without due process â€”Â based on a secret complaint?Â Or an individual could be arrested or imprisoned for 21 days?Â Or tortured?

I was reading NJ AG Gurbir Grewal’s directive to law enforcement about enforcement of New Jersey’s ERPO. I don’t even like the idea of the police walking out of someone’s house with a sharp pencil with this kind of due process. Guns aside, if the state wishes to seize my property, I have a right to due process. I shouldn’t be able to lose property just because the police think I’m an asshole.

And don’t give me “the police have to have probable cause to … blah blah blah.” We all know there’s a gulf between what things ideally should be and how they work in practice. â€œUpon arriving at the scene, based upon my training, knowledge and experience, I determined that Mr. Smith was a danger to himself and his family,” will be to red flag laws what, â€‹”I smelled marijuana coming from the car,” is for traffic stops.

Losing Ground Among Gun Owners

Latest Fox News poll, which is being touted by The Trace and no doubt being put in front of lawmakers too, shows NRA has lost ground in approval among gun owners. That’s going to be spun as gun owners coming around to gun control. That’s a lie, but that’s how it’s going to be spun, and the FAANG corporations will do their level best to make sure we can’t get our message out. We all know the reason for this drop is the utter chaos reigning at NRA.

NRA’s high favorables have always been one of its strongest assets. Wayne is pissing that away as we speak. I don’t know how, at this point, any member of the NRA Board can argue with credibility that Wayne can be allowed to remain EVP. He’s got to go. You have to restore confidence.

The time for that was yesterday. Wayne should have retired in 2016 when Trump was elected, we had the House, and things were looking about as good as they were going to get.

People who knew NRA well knew there were a lot of problems like this for a long time, but we also knew the NRA was still working pretty effectively and that fixing the problem would be more painful than letting it continue. We’re all complicit. It’s not just Wayne. But it has to be fixed now. The person primarily responsible for this mess is still running the show. That can’t stand.

Aimed Squarely at Roberts

Dems are threatening some court packing if the Court actually puts some teeth in the Second Amendment. Roberts is very concerned about the perceived legitimacy of the court, so I believe these Dems are trying to scare him into dismissing the case using arguments that will be likely to sway him.

I can tell Roberts that nothing will endanger the legitimacy of the courts more than failing to secure a robust Second Amendment right. This isn’t just calling a penalty a tax and feeling good you dodged the issue: you’re talking about erasing an amendment out of the Bill of Rights by judicial abrogation.

I Wish My Employer Would Buy Me a House

I’d even settle for a measly $400k house. I was willing to look past the suits and the travel. That was a nothing burger. But this isn’t. I get that the EVP of NRA is going to have security concerns, and that work is the primary driver of those concerns. So I’d be OK with a housing allotment to deal with security issues at any home the EVP owns. But our membership dollars should not be buying the EVP a house outright. Also, why Dallas?

I’ll be completely honest with you, if NRA buying Wayne a $6MM house in Dallas would convince him to retire, I’d say it’s a deal.