Category: 2008 Election

Another Gun Blog points out that the Democratic candidate for governor this year is about as anti-gun as you can get.  Current Governor Ruth Ann Minner was a pro-gun Democrat, with an A-rating from the National Rifle Association, and who signed into law Delaware’s reciprocity bill.  Things in the First State could take a serious turn for the worse if Jack Markell is elected.

What’s always surprised me about Delaware is that it’s remained a largely pro-gun state, being pretty solidly blue.  Half a million of Delaware’s 864,000 residents are located in Democrat dominated New Castle County.  Things could get ugly in The First State.

Peter of Firearms and Freedom points out some easy ways to get involved in the election.  Even if you hate John McCain, there are plenty of downstream candidates worth supporting.

Looks like the anti-gunners might be getting upset with Pat Murphy.  Either that or Bryan Miller is behind on his marching orders.  See this Philadelphia Inquirer news roundup, and scroll down to “Under the Gun”:

U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, whose Bucks County district includes a sliver of Northeast Philadelphia, is taking flak from gun-control groups for his support of a bill loosening gun regulations in the District of Columbia.

[…]

Bryan Miller, executive director of Ceasefire NJ, expresses outrage. “As I understand it, Murphy is joined at the hip to [U.S. Rep.] John Murtha, and Murtha is a tied-at-the-hip NRA [National Rifle Association] guy,” Miller said. “I don’t see any other reason why a suburban Philadelphia Democrat, with Philadelphia going through the horrible throes of gun violence, would sign onto a bill making the availability of guns so much greater in D.C. I think, frankly, [Murphy] should be ashamed of himself.”

So by Bryan’s logic, since he hangs around Murtha a lot, surely he must be pro-gun right?  That’s not entirely true.  He is a supporter of Congresswoman McCarthy’s ban on most semi-automatic firearms, and never signed on to a Congressional Amicus brief to end the ban.  It’s hardly surprising that Congressman Murphy, close to an election, is signing onto pro-gun bills in an effort to placate Bucks County’s numerous gun owners, hunters, and shooters.  If this represents a turnaround on behalf of the Congressman, I welcome that, but until he takes his name off McCarthy’s bill, forgive me if I suggest Bryan Miller has no clue what he’s talking about when he tries to paint Patrick Murphy as too pro-gun.

I suspect, though, that the Brady Campaign is probably wondering what they are getting for their 5000 donation to Congressman Murphy in the last election.

Hazel township is still insisting that it’s ban on firearms in local parks is lawful under the preemption statute in the Uniform Firearms Act.  Local park bans are actually quite common in Pennsylvania, despite preemption.  Hazel Township is far from the only political entity in this state who is guilty of violating it.

Firearms are presumably not allowed in state parks, due to DNCR regulations.  To the best of my knowledge that’s never been challenged.   But Pennsylvania does not generally prohibit firearms in parks, so local communities are preempted from regulating it.  Next step is a lawsuit, and they are collecting funds to bring one.

Only 51% of Americans think McCain is better than Obama on guns.  We laugh at Obama’s attempts to convince us that he supports the second amendment, and won’t take our guns.  But it really does fool a lot of people.  This is going to be a tough election.  As Bitter points out, Obama has a much better ground game, and a much larger warchest.

Obama is determined to have Pennsylvania.  We have to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make that not happen this election, or at the very least force Obama’s campaign to spend like hell to hold onto the Keystone State.  That ties up funds and volunteers here, and McCain can shore up his support in other battleground states.  This is definitely not the election to sit on the sidelines.