Snowflakes in Hell

From Pro-Gun Progressive:

Read the citizens’ reports on the testimony for MD’s proposed ammo serialization bill, HB517. You’re basically required to turn in all non compliant ammo (yeah, like that’s gonna fly) and only use the encoded, serialized stuff.

Turning in the unserialized ammunition sounds like a fine idea to me.  Be sure to check out the background on the boneheads who are trying to cajole various state governments into buying this scam.

The ACLU has to be commended when they do right, and I have to admit, this video is pretty good.

Information technology is just getting too good, and we’re going to have to learn to live with other people knowing a lot about us, but we should be very fearful of a confluence of information technology in both public and private hands enabling a meddlesome government to be even more meddlesome.  It will be very hard, and I’m not sure even a net public good, to prevent private entities from sharing information, but we must be very wary of government getting into the game, especially if they decide to declare themselves the only provider of health care.

Hat tip to Michael Bane.

I originally saw this from Michael Bane, but didn’t get around to it until today.  Looks like the Supreme Court granted a motion to allow the solicitor general to argue on the side of Washington DC for an addition 15 minutes over the time alloted for DC’s attorneys.   Dave Hardy weighs in on this too:

Hard to read much into it, beyond the fact that it gives a tactical advantage to DC. 45 minutes of argument for reversing D.C. Circuit, only 30 of argument for affirmance. DC can probably figure the SG won’t use a lot of time arguing for the individual right. The key to the SG getting where they want to go is standard of review, intermediate rather than strict scrutiny, so that’s where the SG will spend his time. DC can cut back on argument over standard of review — which might have occupied half their time, and more than half if they appeared to be losing on individual right — and use the time elsewhere.

So Bush’s Solictor General is not only going to file the brief, but he’s going to argue in front of the Supreme Court against gun owners! Am I surprised?  No.  Bush’s strategy has been to throw gun owners token gestures, but to do nothing, or actively screw us on stuff that really matters.

Do I regret voting for the bastard?  No.  Because if we had been stuck with 8 years of Al Gore, or Kerry, the outcome of this case would be a foredrawn conclusion, and that conclusion would be we’d flat out lose.  The Socilitor General is offering The Court the option of handing us a win on the individual rights count, but handing DC a win in terms of getting the case remanded, and forcing us to go through this process all over again.

I fully believe if the case is remanded, the district court will uphold DC’s ban as a reasonable exercise of governmental power to limit the second amendment.  We will have to appeal, possibly winning at the circuit court again, and the fight will continue.  But the Supreme Court probably won’t touch another gun case for a while, letting the lower courts hash through the new precident.  End result is nothing changes much, but it’s an individual right.  The real danger is a strongly anti-gun president stacks the court with justices who would be willing to overturn or severely restrict the scope of the second amendment post Heller, and when the next case goes before The Supreme Court, we end up with a constitutional right that’s individual and not collective, but still doesn’t mean anything.

Bloggers attending the Second Amendment Blog Bash in Louisville will be getting media credentials from the National Rifle Association, and access to the media room.   SayUncle notes we’ll get a peek into the secret lives of reporters, some of whom may end up wanting to report on you too!   So if you’re a blogger, and can make it, go register.

SayUncle notes that George K. Kollitides, a managing director for Cerberus Capital (who own Remington, Bushmaster, and DPMS), is running for the NRA board of directors.

Ahab reports that NICS is reporting a 5.3% uptick in background checks for January.  Not too surprising to me with gun owners faced with the strong likelihood of Obama the Gun Control Messiah, or Hillary the Power Mad Gun Control Harpy moving into the White House next year.

More locations from Ry Jones.  Harris County, TX (Houston), Dallas/Ft Worth, Terry Haute, Indiana and Indianapolis.

… you might not want to believe some of the things you hear from tour guides.  The tours at Independence Hall that are guided by the park rangers have tended to be pretty good.  Some rangers are far better at doing the tour than others.  It’s about half scripted, and half whatever the ranger feels like talking about that day.

No carrying in the building that The Constitution was signed in, and the Second Amendment was ratified.  Even if we fix the National Park carry ban, it’s still a federal facility, so 930(a) applies.  I’ll have to be happy to have carried in the room the second amendment was likely first drafted in.

Not a new concept in artillery, by any stretch, but there’s some great photography in this video:

Hat tip to my friend Jason for finding this one.

DirtCrashr on California politics commenting at SayUncle:

Here in CA we are all minorities in a One Party State made-over by Identity Politics and gerrymandered into perpetual servitude to a political class that chooses its voters, rather than the other way around.  The square peg went into the round hole and the Governator came out a Democrat on the other side.

Sad, isn’t it?

This might be the only time you’ll her me defend Barack Obama, but the people making hay out of this issue need to get bent.  Would it raise an eyebrow if a German-American politician gone to Germany and donned some liederhosen that was given to him?  But who is being accused of circulating this:

“Everybody knows that whether it’s me or Senator Clinton or Bill Clinton that when you travel to other countries they ask you to try on traditional garb that you have been given as a gift,” he said. “The notion that the Clinton campaign would be trying to circulate this as a negative on the same day that Senator Clinton was giving a speech about how we repair our relationships around the world is sad.”

Every time I start getting scared of the messianic following Obama has, I’m reminded of the fact that Hillary Clinton is a vile, vile creature, and I rightly deserves to lose for resorting to tactics like this.

… for folks who open carry.

I am sorry for the light posting today.  I honestly just don’t have it in me today.  Some people don’t seem to be happy that I banned a reader.  I’m kind of curious what people think:

 Loading ...

I do promise I’ll tire of my new polling plugin eventually.

I don’t take banning users lightly, and despite repeated statements of disrespect from this particular commenter, I actually still feel bad about doing this.  I have always wanted this blog to be open to all points of view, even ones that I find personally distasteful.  I have accepted many points of view here, and have been very tolerant to people even taking an unfavorable view of me and the things I say.  But there are lines that should not be crossed, and this crosses it:

Fuck you people. I get all this heartburn because I asked how NRA is treating someone to a concert that is sponsored by Gander Mountain?

No wonder you are from Waurika, that is where Comanche used to send all our mentally disabled, Bitch.

I was asking a serious question, but you assholes are so goddamned fragile you can’t answer it because you think it is some kind of attack.

Hell! It may have been, but if it was, I wasn’t aware of it. I really wanted to know about the mechanics of it.

Ok, you have provided me with an answer to a question that has been niggling at me for a while now. The answer to the question is: no! you are not small l libertarians, nor are you second amendment advocates, nor are you civil rights advocates, nor are you political conservatives (forget it, none of you are smart enough to know what that is), nor are you interested in procuring or reacquiring rights that have been lost or truncated over the years. You are simply people who like to feel important at no cost and have decided the best way to do that is to ride popular or semipopular coattails that have a chance of ascending to acceptance. You are merely cheerleaders with no loyalty to any team as long as you are paid. In your cases the pay is acceptance of a larger group .

Did I mention fuck you?

Oh, by the way, I will be in Comanche, Ok 0ver Easter. Bring your boyfriend, we’ll talk.

Comment by straightarrow on February 25th, 2008

I’ve been very tolerant of straightarrow up until that comment, despite his generally nasty disposition.  I draw the line at attacking my girlfriend and making veiled threats against the host.  I did not warn him.  I will not lecture him like he is some kind of misbehaving school child, I just took what I thought was appropriate action.  Since straightarrow is so insistent that I am nothing but a mouthpiece for the NRA, from now on, anytime he visits my blog, it will redirect him directly to NRA.  No need for him to receive his propiganda filtered through this place, when he can get it right from the source.

UPDATE: I’ve determined through logs that I have one, possibly two other readers on the same IP subnet as straightarrow.  Since these readers have never commented, I will deal with this issue differently, and will disable the redirect.

Last week Traction Control did a great fisking of John Rosenthal, board member of American Hunters and Shooter Association (and also a founder of Stop Handgun Violence, a Massachusetts gun control group) claims of NRA lies.

Now Bitter rips apart another AHSA press release claiming all manner of things about the NRA.  Give both a read.  It’s important to make sure gun owners are not fooled by these shucksters.

It’s been scheduled.  October 9th through the 12th.  I have every intention to re-attend this year, but won’t know for sure until later in the year.  I work for a biotech that’s been running off vulture capital for the past seven years, so you never know when I might find myself unemployed.  Makes long term planning a bear, but I should be able to make it.  I hope you can too.

It looks like Alex Tabarrok doesn’t think gun buybacks make a whole lot of sense from an economic point of view.  Dave Hardy relates his own story.  My story is that once, when Philadelphia used to do these things, I ran into a couple of Pink Pistol guys at the range who had managed to purchase two Kalashnikovs with the money they had made from saving up old junk guns in anticipation of the next gun buyback.  The organization that does these in Philly has since wised up, and on longer hands out cash for guns.  You can, however, get a gift certificate for sneakers, or other such non-cash items, the value of which depends on the type of gun turned in.  No doubt this will keep collectors away, but I would imagine it keeps pretty much everyone else away too.  If Philadelphia ever decides to hand out cash again, I have a few worthless pieces of junk I’d be happy to get rid of.

You can find it here.

On Friday, May 16th NRA will thank not only NRA members, but also the whole Louisville community with a free concert featuring Grammy award-winning artist John Michael Montgomery. This event is sponsored by Gander Mountain and hosted by Louisville’s Fourth Street Live.

With an estimated 60,000 attendees and more than 400 exhibits, this year’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits promises to be among the best in NRA’s 137-year history. Leading firearm manufacturers will display the firearm industry’s latest products. Various hunting and shooting accessories, and an extensive private collection displayed by NRA-affiliated gun collector clubs, will fill acres of convention space.

Aside from having no idea who John Michael Montgomery is, it sounds pretty good to me.  I will be attending as part of the Second Amendment Blog Bash, but everyone should consider coming out.  You can visit nraam.org for more details.

Interesting conservation going on over at the Du Toit place.

I think the big difference between our points of view is that you haven’t given up the fight, while I have. -Tamara K.

I think that pretty much the issue in a nutshell.  Kim’s answer to that is classic Kim:

And I never will. This is the last place on Earth where freedom lives, no matter how much you think it’s become corrupted and not worth fighting for.

Throwing up your hands and surrendering just because the struggle might seem hopeless… sorry, that’s just not my style.

I’ll give up when the boot’s on my chest and the bayonet’s at my throat—and not one moment earlier.

And even then, I’ll spit on the boot.

I’m actually not that convinced it has to come to that.  Polls show that somewhere between 10 and 20% of voting age Americans have libertarian sentiments.   That’s nothing to sneeze at, and if you can tap that resource, you can have a big influence on political outcomes.  The problem here is twofold.   The first is with the voting public itself.  People won’t typically spontaneously organize for political action, and libertarian minded people are typically horses that don’t really want to be lead to water.  Their philosophy can best be summed up as “leave me the hell alone”, which makes organizing them a challenge compared to people who have something to gain through the political process.  The second fold of this problem is with the activists, because every political movement needs a dedicated core set of activists to organize people to action.

Over the years I’ve come to understand libertarianism as a philosophical movement and not a political one.  The people who would form this dedicated core of activists have more energy to argue with each other, and to attend to the philosophical purity of the movement, than they do for getting their ideas out into the political arena where they can start to make a difference.   But there is hope.

If you look at the gun rights movement, it’s one libertarianish issue that’s managed to work itself into the political mainstream and be astoundingly successful once it had sufficient momentum to affect outcomes.  I think this model could be easily replicated with other issues if more libertarian activists would pick some issues that are short term winnable, and push those out into the political arena.

But the difficulty for libertarians activists is that it will mean making alliance with people who don’t buy your whole philosophy.  We have many non-libertarians with us on the gun issue, and sometimes that friction comes to the surface.  But its only through coalition building that you can get anywhere.  A lot of libertarian activists seems to be OK with this on the gun issue, but talk about replicating that system with other issues, and they get difficult. Try to talk about which issues aren’t winnable right now, they don’t want to hear it.

Liberty is a never ending battle.  We will never win.  Like the game Whack-a-Mole, it’s frustrating, and sometimes it seems like you’re doing all you can to just hold the line.  But giving up is a sure way to lose at Whack-a-Mole, so to libertarians, I offer this: “Keep whacking!”  How’s that for a motto?

From the Times Leader:

Many women won’t leave the house without a purse or lip gloss. But for others, like Barb Smith of Sugarloaf, the daily routine includes something more.

A handgun.

Smith carries the gun during her long commutes to a local hospital — for protection, she said. The side roads she takes to shorten her drive don’t give her a good feeling, but knowing she has her handgun makes her feel secure.

There are between 17,000 and 20,000 license-to-carry firearms permits in Luzerne County though Sheriff Michael Savokinas said he does not know how many have been issued to women. The county’s application for a permit to carry a gun asks for the applicant’s gender but Savokinas said there is no way to determine the number of women with permits because of a recent computer problem.

Some area gun shop owners have noticed an upward trend in the number of women who are buying guns and seeking permits to carry the weapons for self-defense.

Read the whole thing.  We’re doing pretty good if my only real complaint about the article is that they misspelled Beretta.  I’m almost ready to say I think the media is getting better about our issue lately.

The Democratic National Committee is charging McCain with violating McCain-Feingold.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers responded that “Howard Dean’s hypocrisy is breathtaking given that in 2003 he withdrew from the matching funds system in exactly the same way that John McCain is doing today.”

Dean and the DNC sought to emphasize that when Dean was running for president, he never hinged his loan on a promise of public financing.

You made this bed Johnny boy, and now you can sleep in it.

Hat tip to Of Arms and the Law

More from Dave Kopel, an interview with Joe Olsen of Academics for the Second Amendment.  They talk about ASA’s amicus brief filed in the Heller case.

Dave Kopel is asking for some help in figuring out where gun dealers would be excluded from under Obama’s five mile radius plan.  Here’s one example using King County Washington.

UPDATE: Bitter did her home town in rural Oklahoma.  She had to give up on Northern Virginia, because there’s just too many intersecting circles.   I suspect most places along the east coast are going to be Obama Gun Sales Exclusion Zone.

Clayton Cramer surmises that Obama the Socialist Messiah may be George McGovern reincarnated:

The only good thing about being old is that you get to say, “I’ve seen this idiocy before!” It is increasingly apparent that the Democrats are planning to reprise the 1972 election–with a Republican that many Republicans didn’t like, because he wasn’t very conservative (the 55 mph national speed limit, wage and price controls) running against a very liberal Democrat that talked a lot about idealism.

Read the whole thing.  I don’t remember the 1972 presidential election, because I wasn’t born until two years later at the height of the Watergate scandal.

Were McGovern people cheering his nasal secretions too?

Bitter really stirred the pot with some snark about VCDL on the National Park Carry issue.  Sailorcurt took very strong exception to what he perceives is an unfair attack on VCDL.  Bitter responded on her own blog, and some folks brought the conflagration over here too.

Sailorcurt’s problem with me seems to be that I defended her actions.  I might be more willing to suggest her snark is in poor taste if I hadn’t seen her to do it just about every other pro-gun group out there, and had she not ripped NRA for web site crapitude two days before.  It’s her blogging style, and I’m certianly not going to tell her “Well hon, you can take snarky cheap shots at every other gun group, but you always have to be nice to VCDL.”  Bitter’s blog persona is snarky and bitchy, which you might expect from the title of her blog, and based on her moniker.

Besides, no one is questioning VCDL’s worth as an organization.  All three of us have stated that they are a top notch state level grass roots organization.  I would argue a standard by which other state level organizations should be measured.  I think people are overreacting to this whole thing, to be honest.  If Curt wants to think Bitter, Countertop and I are elitist, well, that’s his perogative.  I do hope that all this will blow over, and we can all be friends again.