Snowflakes in Hell

My tour of sportsmens groups in Bucks County continues apace, and I’m continuing to sign up volunteers.  I have spoken with a club every night this week, except for Monday.  Tuesday I spoke at Branch Valley, which has 500 members.  Last night to a packed audience at my own club, which has 1100 members.  Tonight I speak at Conestoga Rod & Gun Club, a 200 member club.  I’ve had a good reception pretty much everywhere.  Many gun owners came up to me and told me they were unaware of Congressman Patrick Murphy’s record on guns.  Gun owners, overall, seem to be very worried about this election.  They ought to be.  The stakes are high.

This weekend, the National Director of Sportsmen for McCain will be staying with Bitter and I.  We’re glad to help save the campaign some money.  He’ll be accompanying me to talk with my club’s archers on Friday, to a military rifle match at Holmesburg Fish & Game in Philadelphia, and we’ll all be headed to the big rally on Sunday at 1PM at Pike Township Sportsmen’s Association in Oley.  Should be a productive weekend.  We have to deliver Pennsylvania for McCain.  I think it’s possible, despite what the polls are saying.  I’ve believed since the beginning of this race that Obama will over poll.  We have to turn out.  If we turn out, we can win.  Not only for McCain, but for our state and Congressional races too.

The Bucks County GOP is noticing our activities too, which is good.  They are noticing that gun owners are on the ball and doing things in the county.  This will attract support from politicians.  The worst thing that can happen is for politicians to feel taking a position on gun issues won’t help them any.  If they feel that way, they won’t really bother.  As Bitter said, the perception of activity matters.  Even if you only have a handful of volunteers who are really helping out, that makes a huge difference.  Word of mouth gets around, people get involved, the powers that be notice, and before you know it, gun owners in your area are a force to be reckoned with.  It doesn’t really take much.

Via Instapundit, The LA Times brings us twelve gauge rifles.  The picture shows Sarah Palin handling a shotgun, carrying it the way you’re supposed to:

Right? Or maybe not? What do you think?

Hey, is that even the right way to hold a rifle? Can’t you shoot your foot off like that?

Oh yeah, pretty clearly Sarah Palin is a rube who doesn’t know how to handle a gun.  Only LA Times reporters know that.  I’ll tell you, I’d feel a lot safer on a trap field with Sarah Palin than an LA Times reporter.

Won’t somebody please pay attention to us?  This is the same load of horse crap they’ve been peddling for the past twenty years.  Just remember, when they say these firearms have no sporting purpose, they lie.

Phil Goldsmith has been running around Pennsylvania trying to get to know gun owners, and looking for some allies.

Goldsmith hopes to leverage the unsuspected moderateness of our citizenry. CeaseFire PA has formed a PAC and this year will try to “pick off” — electorally, not violently — a handful of legislators whose opposition to gun control seems out of step with their constituents. Goldsmith’s goal is to make officials as fearful of crossing CeaseFire PA as they are of tangling with the NRA — and his trip makes him hopeful it can happen. “In Elk County, I saw more elk than people,” he says. “And the elk are on my side.”

What a great pro-hunting message.  The Elk are on your side?  I guess because those rural cousin humping rednecks keep insisting on shooting them eh?  Good thing Sarah Palin isn’t around!

Get involved Pennsylvanians.  These guys aren’t going to give up.  They can bring money to the table, but what they can’t bring are votes and volunteers.  We have to bring those.

… who thought An American Carol kind of sucked?  I mean, the politics of it might be compatible with what I believe, but it just wasn’t funny.  Airplane was funny, because it was a great send-up of the airline disaster flicks.  An American Carol was a send-up of Michael Moore.  But Michael Moore is a parody of himself.  If you parody a parody, is it funny?  I didn’t think so.

UPDATE: I will say though, it was funnier than Canadian Bacon, which was also a movie that just wasn’t funny, even though there were some very funny actors in it.

If Larry Pratt took your post here and reprinted it on GOA letterhead, it would be entirely believable.  Is that really the kind of company you want to keep?  Is the Brady Campaign becoming the “no compromise” Second Amendment group?  Well, GOA probably makes money money and has more dues paying members than the Brady Campaign.  Maybe we should let Larry know he might have some competition.

UPDATE: Man, Larry really is going to have his work cut out for him.  Now it’s AHSA getting into the game too.  Those releases are so similar, you’d almost think they coordinated their message or something.

This would seem to indicate that Barr’s campaign staff expected an endorsement.  Some are saying they were told NRA wouldn’t endorse this year.  I have to wonder how much contact Bob Barr has with his campaign staff, and what he was leading them to believe.  As an NRA Board Member, and as a politician who worked in Congress with NRA for many years, Barr had to know he wasn’t getting the endorsement; NRA would either endorse McCain, or not endorse.  Bob Barr has done some wonderful things for NRA, pariticularly in fighting the International Gun Control Movement, but on a third party ticket, there was just no way that was going to happen.  It’s a shame his staff seems to think they were going to get the nod.

Conspiracy to commit voter fraud is a felony in most states.  This kind of crap needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  I don’t want to see timid Republicans and Democrats on this one.  Go after them.  Put them in jail.  No less than the health and integrity of our Republic is at stake here.

In Norfolk, where it’s apparently hazardous to carry while black, things are starting to get nastier:

The 24-year-old Hampton resident said police told him to leave because he had a gun. Moore said he refused because the law allows him to display a weapon in public places. He said he was handcuffed, charged and led out of the building.

Norfolk police spokesman Officer Chris Amos confirmed that a summons was issued but declined to comment further.

Waterside receives city funding but is officially owned by a private entity, Waterside Associates, whose partners include the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said NRHA assistant executive director John Kownack. Its policy prohibits weapons, yet weapons are not included on a list of prohibitions posted at Waterside’s entrances, he added.

I’m going to guess they are charging him with criminal tresspass.  I think most malls tend to be posted in the fine print.  It’s always good advice that unless you’re absolutly positively sure you’re in a public place, not a public accomodation, but a place owned by the public, or a public right-of-way, to comply with an order to leave if you’re asked.

But the Norfolk Police are pretty clearly out to make sure that no one in their city can exercise their right unharassed.  They’ve already settled once, no doubt other lawsuits will, and should be forthcoming.

But look at the difference in activism in Virginia vs. some of the things I’ve seen here.  You have people who were going about their business, not looking for trouble.  Trouble found them.  It will happen.  Now you have a pretty clear example of the police targeting young black men carrying guns lawfully.  The racial component will help with public sympathy, because while people might not understand why someone would carry a gun, most of the public believes racial discrimination is wrong.  And you’ll notice Phil Van Cleave playing that angle:

“I don’t see a conspiracy here – I see more ineptness,” he said. “And there may well be prejudice too.”

Moore is black. Van Cleave and most of the others are white.

Moore said a friend who was with him at Waterside also was carrying a gun and also had challenged police when asked to leave. He said his friend, who is white, was not charged.

That’s going to raise some questions in the public’s mind.  VCDL is doing alright here, if you ask me.

Thanks to reader RAH, we have this article on the firearms law of the high seas.  Pretty interesting stuff.

These are the kind of idiots that will ruin it for everyone.  If he was arrested for aggrevated assault before this instance, his LTCF was null and void.  The Delaware County Sheriff should have issued a revocation notice.  Even if he didn’t, it doesn’t change the fact that he was no longer qualified to carry a firearm on his license.

Tester is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of Montana gun owners too:

“I feel very secure in my Second Amendment rights with Barack Obama in the White House,” he said. “I honestly do. And if I didn’t, I’d say it.”

Tester added, “I’ve got a lot of guns, and he ain’t going to take one of them away from me.”

He follows up with hopes to bring unprofitable, taxpayer subsidized Amtrak lines back to Montana, that were closed in 1979.  You know what happened to the last batch of Democrats who surrendered our gun rights for promises of pork?  Go ask them.  They’ve been out of office in 1994.  I can forgive Democratic politicians doing what they need to do for the sake of party, but going out of your way to cover up his atrocious gun record?  That’s not how I expect an A-rated politician to behave.

Sensibly Progressive takes a look at the American Hunters and Shooters Association, and notices their positions are exactly the same as the Brady Campaign.

There seems to be a lot of discussion, so I thought I’d open up comments to the following topic:

Anti-Pirate weaponry.  If you’re sailing the high seas, what would you like to have?

Let’s keep it in line with what’s reasonably available to civilians.  We’d all love to have a harpoon anti-ship missile obviously, but let’s be real.  I’d probably go for a .50 caliber rifle.  It’s got a reasonable amount of destructive power, can reach out pretty far.  As a backup to that, an AR-15.  Let’s also not underestimate the power of a few small, deck mounted, black powder cannon.  It killed pirates just fine 200 years ago, and it will still work today.  I would also add some excellent optics on board, both on the long range rifle, and for spotting to see if the ship in question is friendly, or hostile.

What do you think?

The NRA has endorsed the McCain/Palin ticket.

Battling pirates on the high seas:

The large wooden boat didn’t show on the radar, which was unsettling. He couldn’t reach the crew on the radio, which was scary. The large boat flew no flags and was closing in, so Zac took emergency measures.

The Thousand Oaks sailor started the engine to help him evade whom he was increasingly sure were evil people. He prepared to hit the distress button, which would pinpoint his position in case of a collision. He called his parents from a satellite phone and gave them his position.

“I got my gun and waited,” Zac wrote in his blog. “We passed a couple of hundred yards apart and they stopped dead in my wake.

When guns are outlawed, only priates will have guns.