Pennsylvania – Page 16 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Biden Announces New Gun Control Legislation

Not the Biden you’re thinking of. Fresh off a recent legislative victory on banning private transfers in Delaware, Beau Biden wants some more gun control:

The DOJ could then ask a judge to prohibit the person from owning or possessing a gun. The judge also could order the seizure of any guns that the person owns. In the case of a troubled child, authorities could seize any guns owned by a parent or guardian with whom the child is living.

It needs to be adversarial. If my rights are going to be removed, I ought to be able to contest that. If it’s just a judge issuing orders based on the word of government officials, that does not amount to due process in my book, and ought to be unconstitutional.

Also, we have a long tradition in this country of eschewingÂ corruption of blood. It’s interesting that the left, newly emboldened after the late election victory, is slowly trying to do away with limits on governmental power that have served civilized society for hundreds of years. Taking my guns away because my kid is troubled?

With the exception of being a may-issue, but mostly does issue state, Delaware’s gun laws haven’t been too bad for a state that’s been pretty deep blue for a while now. It’s a shame to see that changing so quickly, but it was probably inevitable. The Democrats were afraid to be seen as the Party of Gun Control for the better part of two decades, and so in many of these states there has been an uneasy stalemate. But with Obama declaring the Democrats the Party of Gun Control again, and the Democrats believing the Republicans are finished in states like Delaware, the stalemate is over, and now they are doing to us what they can. Part of this is demographic, especially in states like Delaware. But part of it is the utter failure of the Republican Party in the Northeast, which is now spreading into the Mid-Atlantic states as well.

If gun owners don’t start thinking of ways to turn around some of these states, I expect the divide between the Two Americas I have spoken about here will continue to deepen, with blue states not having gun rights to speak of, and the rest of the country continuing to liberalize their gun control laws. What truly worries me is where Pennsylvania will fall on that divide.

Greetings to All in Harrisburg

Today is the annual 2nd Amendment Rally. I had actually planned to go this year, even up until a few days ago, because I thought it would be important to make this a big year. But other circumstances have intervened, and to tell the truth, I’m a bit burnt out on gun rights events, and didn’t relish the idea of driving to Harrisburg at 6 in the morning only to have to come back in the afternoon and work until I can’t stay awake anymore. If anyone’s there who can get a good crowd shot, let me know and I’ll post it.

Anti-Gunners Lose More Money…

NRA just helped deal a one-two economic punch to anti-gunners today. We’re talking millions of dollars worth of a punch.

In case you’ve forgotten the story, Reed Exhibitions sponsored the Eastern Sport & Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania every year and managed to generate upwards of $74 million in the local economy and in support of the non-profits that raise money and sign up memberships at the ESOS every year. However, Reed banned the display of modern sporting rifles and the backlash of their attack on our community cost them so many vendors and customer refund requests that they had to “postpone” the show. Obviously, the show has never been rescheduled and it was handled so poorly by Reed that lawmakers asked that they never be allowed to host the show again.

All of that meant that Harrisburg-area tourism groups and Farm Show complex organizers went shopping for a new host to a sporting show for the region. What do you know? NRA happens to host a smaller scale show just 70 miles down the road in Maryland right around the same time of year.

It was announced today that NRA has been selected as the vendor to run a much larger scale Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg during the traditional time of the Eastern Sport & Outdoor Show. Maryland, after pushing extreme gun legislation, now loses the economic impact of that show and Pennsylvania gets a new vendor for the sportsmen’s show that doesn’t hate hunters & shooters. To top it off, Reed forever loses the multi-million dollar show they once hosted. Anti-gunners lose and a pro-gun state wins.

Comment of the Day

From Steven ofÂ Bucks Right, in the comments:

ARLEN SPECTER MUST GO!

Oh, wait.

That was a good laugh this morning. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Though, to be fair, Toomey at his worst is still better than Specter.

Live Blogging the Pennsylvania Democratic Gun Control Press Conference

Pennsylvania State Representative Steve Santarsiero called for confiscation of semi-automatic rifles in December, but he’s since scaled back his legislative plans into “background checks.” This post will track his press conference to further restrict gun sales in Pennsylvania. Right now, we’re waiting on the live video link to start working.

UPDATE: So, um, still no press conference. The House Democrats are promoting it with a link, but there’s nothing at the link. D’oh!

UPDATE: Well, it looks like we little voters have been brushed aside in covering this gun control announcement. The presser started, as evidenced by media in the room:

Capitol newser on universal background checks for gun purchasers. twitter.com/ByJohnLMicek/sâ€¦

— ByJohnLMicek (@ByJohnLMicek) April 10, 2013

Even though the House Democrats promised to stream it online, they have opted not to do turn on the streaming for this event.

Watch LIVE as @repsantarsiero and AG Kane discuss gun background checks pahouse.com/mediacenter/PAâ€¦

— PAHouseDems (@PaHouseDems) April 10, 2013

Why Some Gun Owners Won’t Be Happy with Pat Toomey

Some have pointed out that we don’t know what Pat Toomey is bringing to the table on gun control, and that it might not actually be any more than fixing the current background check system. That’s true. That’s why I’m not calling for Full Outrage! yet.

However, regardless of what he promises in the press conference at 11am, Pat Toomey burned bridges with several Pennsylvania voters today because his staff spent the last two days telling outright lies about his involvement in the bill to constituents who called.

Dancing around and avoiding an issue annoys people, but encouraging or allowing your staff to tell lies burns people. It turns off activists and evangelists for your candidacy. Only the party faithful want to get involved with a candidate who will instruct his staff to tell voters he wasn’t working on a bill while he is in the meeting working on that bill.

No one believes that politicians are angels. Many believe they barely qualify as human. No one believes that politicians are truly and totally honest. Many believe they can’t pass a lie detector test that only asks their name. Those views don’t mean that, as voters, they like being told an outright lie.

Back to the actual content of the bill, we don’t know what’s in it. DC folks are trying to tell us tonight that it’s no big deal. Supposedly, it will just cover sales at gun shows and online. However, we’ve already heard promises from the very people Toomey worked with on this bill that they would just go after background checks for actual sales, and look what kind of language they actually gave us. There’s a good chance that those of us who aren’t in DC may not know what is in the bill until after it has passed (assuming they have the votes).

At this point, Toomey has taken a huge political risk that he’s hoping Pennsylvania voters won’t remember in 2016. The message many gun owners will take from this is that Sen. Toomey will lie to them as readily as any anti-gun candidate challenging him. Commenter Patrick H. summed up something I was saying to Sebastian as all of this started falling into place tonight:

It’s not just that he didnâ€™t go with the filibuster. It’s not that he even voted on a gun control bill. He is actively writing one, and this was after everything seemed dead.

It’s like Pat Toomey went looking for a fight on guns. Why? Harry Reid seemingly couldn’t find the votes to pass anything. Now, President Obama is going to brand this as a Republican bill as much as a Democratic one. With this outreach to anti-gun leaders, Toomey has also likely hurt the brand of many of his GOP counterparts in the Senate.

The rest of the week looks interesting, to say the least.

Fill His Voicemail Boxes – All of Them

Well, now we get the official confirmation that Sen. Pat Toomey is helping to write a gun control bill:

Toomey spox: “Senators Toomey and Manchin continue to work on final details but they appear close to a deal.” â€” Jonathan Tamari (@JonathanTamari) April 9, 2013

NBC News is also reporting that Toomey’s spokesperson is scheduling a press conference alongside Sen. Joe Manchin to celebrate this victory.

There’s nothing on what deal he’s putting together, but Pennsylvania voters need to make every single phone in every single office ring loud and clear tomorrow morning. Every office that allows voicemails should have a completely full box by the time staff arrive. Call tonight; call again tomorrow.

Need a reminder for his numbers?

DC – (202) 224-4254 (full)
Allentown – (610) 434-1444 (full)
Erie – (814) 453-3010 (full)
Harrisburg – (717) 782-3951 (full)
Philadelphia – (215) 241-1090 (full)
Pittsburgh – (412) 803-3501 (full)
Scranton – (570) 941-3540 (full)
Johnstown – (814) 266-5970

I doubt a flood of calls will truly change his mind at this point, but the debate isn’t over and there have been no votes cast, so the message that gun owners are not happy needs to be sent loud and clear.

I’m just baffled. I would not agree with a vote on a bill, but I can at least understand the pressure to cast a vote will be an issue for some senators on both sides of the aisle. But, this, this is just politically stupid. Now the narrative is that Sen. Toomey is writing gun control bills. He isn’t just under pressure to vote in this case, he went out of his way to write a bill.

As a reader on Twitter noted, Pat Toomey just gave a political victory to Obama, and I would argue that we just lost at least two House GOP votes from Pennsylvania on this issue, if not three to four votes. (Toomey’s support now makes it damn near politically impossible for Representatives Fitzpatrick and Meehan to oppose the bill. It makes it very tough for Gerlach and, perhaps, Dent.)

If you call and find out that a voice mail is already full, check in here, please.

One Hour to Gun Control

According to Politico, Sen. Joe Manchin has until 5pm to cut a deal on gun control. If he doesn’t, Reid just starts moving what they have.

If you live in Pennsylvania, call Sen. Toomey’s office RIGHT NOW. We couldn’t get through to his DC office, so try his lead district office at (610) 434-1444. If that’s busy, try his other offices.

You will likely be told that he won’t vote for something bad, but send a polite warning. If you live in an area where Toomey will need help in 2016, say it. If you previously volunteered, say it.

This doesn’t mean to get angry with Toomey because we don’t know what he has been doing, but it is the time to remind him that we voted him in to stand up for our rights.

UPDATE: A report on our Facebook page says that Toomey’s staff was specifically using MAIG talking points to defend a possible deal.

Another media report notes that Toomey “rushed past” reporters asking for comment. They noted, however, that Joe Manchin launched into a full run away from reporters with arms flailing.

UPDATE II: Another Inquirer update says that Manchin & Schumer had a mini press conference after the deadline saying that they do not currently have a deal worked out, but that they are closer than ever. I don’t have any insight into what that means. It could be a way to buy some time. Toomey still won’t answer questions.

UPDATE III: Well, now we get the official confirmation that Pat Toomey is helping to write a gun control bill:

Toomey spox: “Senators Toomey and Manchin continue to work on final details but they appear close to a deal.”

— Jonathan Tamari (@JonathanTamari) April 9, 2013

There’s nothing on what deal he’s putting together, but Pennsylvania voters need to make every single phone in every single office ring loud and clear tomorrow. Every office that allows voicemails should have a completely full box by tomorrow morning.

Need a reminder for his numbers?

DC – (202) 224-4254
Allentown – (610) 434-1444
Erie – (814) 453-3010
Harrisburg – (717) 782-3951
Philadelphia – (215) 241-1090 (doesn’t have voicemail set up)
Pittsburgh – (412) 803-3501
Scranton – (570) 941-3540
Johnstown – (814) 266-5970

New Anti-Gun Divide & Conquer Strategy

Bloomberg has a new ad out semi-praising Sen. Pat Toomey based on the media reports that he’s working to push their gun control bill in the Senate. They present a new message that struck a cord for a number of reasons.

Interestingly, MAIG is trying to claim that the current federal bill just makes Pennsylvania’s language into federal law. That, of course, is bullsh*t.

While Pennsylvania law does require handgun sales to go through a dealer for a background check & does restrict some loans of handguns, Sebastian & I are not be felons for loaning guns to carry between one another. That’s what the federal bill does. This is a legitimate issue for us–and presumably other gun owning couples–since, at times, he has opted to carry my Sig (lawfully, since we both have licenses to carry) because it has a smaller profile than his Glock. He has also, at times, wanted to take off his jacket without open carrying, so he has given me his Glock to carry in my purse. If the current federal language were the law, we would both be in prison.

It’s interesting that this ad announcement comes today. Yesterday, a commenter on the PAGunRights.com Facebook page started trying to convince people that the federal bill would just make Pennsylvania laws the law of the land and that gun owners should just trust Joe Manchin to give them a bill we will all like. He tried to make it sound like there was no need to call Sen. Toomey to oppose his potential support the actual federal bill on the table.

I commented to Sebastian that it sounded like a gun control advocate who was not identifying himself as such. He didn’t think I should make that assumption, but something about this guy’s messaging that would discourage gun owners from getting engaged just seemed out of place for me. Typically, the lazy gun owners who don’t care about their rights don’t make the effort to even argue for being lazy. For me, the assumption was pretty much sealed when he took made the argument back to those who argued against him that the federal bill, based on a reading of actual language, that they essentially were advocating to undo the entire Pennsylvania law. (Since that’s not even on the table, there was just no need to feed the trolling. He was trying to derail a discussion of actual federal language.)

Anyway, with this new ad that has this commenter’s exact same Pennsylvania-themed message, I decided to Google his name. Turns out that he’s a co-founder of a new anti-gun group in his city that is promoting MAIG-funded efforts in Pennsylvania. Of course, he never disclosed such affiliations when he was trying to tell gun owners to cool off their activism. Isn’t that just convenient?

I do find it interesting that Bloomberg’s allies are now trying to infiltrate pro-gun groups online in an effort to convince gun owners that there’s nothing to worry about and no reason at all to call lawmakers. I think they are tired of the fact that we’re not just going down quietly.

So Many Lies…

The district he represents will never be competitive, but I would still like to think that the constituents of Rep. Chakah Fattah’s district deserve better than being lied to about what the laws are surrounding gun sales in Pennsylvania.

It’s just such flagrant disrespect, especially to a crowd of seemingly older folks who he probably views as too passive to actually challenge his fact-challenged anti-gun rant.