Category: 2008 Election

I will go into some more detail on FactCheck.org’s claims.  It may very well be that they don’t understand the gun issue.  In fact, I would say that’s so.  Let’s take a look at some of their claims:

Letting the owner of an unregistered firearm escape the penalty for failing to register is one thing, but it’s another thing entirely to make it a crime to use any firearm – registered or not – in self-defense.

I agree with them on this one, that it’s a bit of distortion.  But what they fail to mention is that you can’t register a gun in a lot of these communities because handguns are banned.  You have to have a registration certificate to own one, but you can’t get a registration certificate because they are banned.  The end result is, if you use a gun in self-defense, you go to jail.  Obama voted for that.  It’s not bullshit.

The amendment applied only to handgun ammunition “capable of penetrating body armor” and to rifle ammunition that is “designed or marketed as having armor piercing capability,” however.

The problem here is there’s no such thing as a handgun cartridge.  There are handguns made for hunting and target sports such as Metallic Silhouette which fire rifle cartridges, which will penetrate soft body armor.  Handguns have been made for virtually every rifle caliber.  There are also rifles which shoot ammunition that are generally considered handgun rounds.  But there is no set definition of a handgun round or a rifle round.  The amendment in question was badly worded enough, and poorly thought out enough, it would have had the effect of banning hunting ammunition.  When that was pointed out, the Senate properly defeated it.  But Obama and Kennedy knew exactly what the were trying to do, which was enact a back door gun ban.

As we wrote previously, an amended version of the questionnaire was later submitted to the group, with Obama’s handwritten notes on it providing more detail on some of the answers. Obama clearly saw and handled this version personally and did not alter the question about banning the sale and manufacturing of guns. Nevertheless, his aides maintain that the gun-ban answer was a mistake and didn’t reflect Obama’s true position.

Sure, that’s what his aides say now.  But there it was.  He reviewed the questionnaire and added notes, and he did not change his stated position on the gun ban.  Whether his aides wrote that or not is immaterial.  That’s the position his office took.  He might be singing a different tune now, but he has supported banning handguns.  There’s no rescuing him on this one.

Obama indeed has spoken in favor of licensing handguns, but so far as we can determine he hasn’t called for registration of hunting weapons. And he’s said a national gun registration law isn’t politically possible: “I just don’t think we can get that done.”

Can you explain exactly what hunting weapons are please FactCheck.org people?  I’d really like to know.  Because there is actually such a thing as handgun hunters out there.  You knew that didn’t you?  There are also a lot of handgun shooting sports, which are fast becoming the most popular shooting sports due to the fact that you don’t need a lot of real estate to build a pistol range.

I’ll give FactCheck.org a pass on the assault weapons issue, and on judges.  That’s based mostly on how we know the politics will play on this issue.  Let me ask you this, do you believe Obama will appoint pro-second amendment judges after refusing to sign onto the Heller brief and saying he thought DC’s law was constitutional?  It might be a lot of circumstantial evidence, but I think it would be enough to take to court.

It’s also interesting to note that FactCheck got no response on the questions of increasing ammunition taxes by 500% and on the 5 mile gun shop exclusion zone he one proposed.

I would encourage folks to contact FactCheck and tell them of some of their oversights here.  Be factual.  It very well may be, and probably is, that they don’t understand the gun issue that well, and NRA’s publications are meant more to rally gun owners than they are to educate the masses.  That’s often going to be our job.

UPDATE: SayUncle has a lot more too.

UPDATE: Also The Other Sebastian.

Unions should be ashamed of themselves for lying to their members like this:

Trumka, an avid hunter and fisher, says corporate interests will again seek to exploit the issue of gun ownership this year, hoping to distract gun-owning voters from real issues like jobs, health care and retirement security. This election is too important to let distortions and falsehood affect it, Trumka says.

It’s not corporate issues seeking to exploit this.  Am I a corporate interest?  Are NRA’s 4 million members corporate interests?  No.  You can’t hide from Obama’s record.  Union members need to be aware of their leadership attempting to pull the wool over their eyes this election in hopes they’ll be good little union members, and pull the lever for the O-man.  Let’s hope the union folks are smarter than their leadership gives them credit for come November.

Biden says that Obama better never come after his shotgun:

One of rural Democrats’ biggest fears about Obama? That he’ll come after the Second Amendment. Not so, said Biden — and he’d better not try.

“I guarantee you, Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey,” Biden said angrily. “They’re going to start peddling that to you.”

“I got two, if he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem.”

Biden has said he doesn’t hunt, but shoots skeet with his two firearms. “I like that little over and under, you know? I’m not bad with it,” he said today.

Yeah, except the Second Amendment ain’t about Crazy Joe’s over/under, or his alleged skeet shooting prowess (I’ll believe it when I see it).  Barack Obama not only doesn’t support the Second Amendment, he’s deeply offended by the entire idea.  The good thing in this is Biden comes off as disingenuous to even a slightly discerning ear.  Biden might think these guys are rubes, but we’ll see come November.

We had a good deal of success at the Valley Forge Gun Show handing out literature, bumper stickers, and talking to folks.  For the first half of the show, we worked the NRA Volunteer Table.  We managed to get a few names of people for various other EVCs, but no one from my own district, sadly.  Hopefully we’ll have better luck in Allentown.

One thing about the Valley Forge Gun Show — don’t eat the hot dogs.  I had one around noon, along with some relish whose color I can only describe as glow in the dark green.  After that we went to man the Montgomery County GOP Victory table, where I started feeling progressively worse, wondering if maybe someone poisoned the relish with polonium, perhaps explaining the unnatural green color.  A few antacids when I got home was enough to calm my stomach, but I felt bad that we had to leave early due to the radioactive relish.  We were handing out a lot of McCain stuff.  Everyone wanted McCain/Palin stuff, but those items are in short supply.  I think Palin has literally changed everything for McCain.  Evidence is gun owners are now on board with him, and are motivated for him.  I suspect this will have influence on the NRA when it comes to endorsements.  It should.

We’ve gotten some ideas to use for the next show, which will be Allentown.  My friend Jason has agreed to lend us an LCD touch display so we can try to set up the O-Match Obama applet that PVF created in order to attract people to the table.  I also had the idea of using Digital Picture Frames to display NRA material, and also help attract people to the table.  Granted, there’s a lot of choir preaching going on at these things, but getting the material and bumper stickers out there is worthwhile, just for the buzz factor.  And every once in a while you sign someone up for your volunteer list.

This is a rather amusing publication from NRA’s Political Victory Fund. I found it a gunbanobama.com:

Barack Obama is telling his supporters to spread the word that he supports the Second Amendment.  We’ll have to see if I run into any light bringers when Bitter and I work the Valley Forge Gun Show tomorrow to make sure everyone there knows about Obama’s record on the Second Amendment.  Hopefully we’ll get a few more volunteers out of this effort too.