Wishful Thinking II: Fair Weather Friends and Insults

A regular PuSH'er on Huffpo, Enlightenment45, thinks he can judge the support for gun control based on the number of drive by flamings by other Huffpo regulars. Here is one of his latest comments:

“A gun thread, and all the usual suspects! Fewer than ten pro gun and I see new gun control folks every thread. Sensible citizens find it awfully difficult to justify gun rights when it is tied so closely with insurrectionists, right wing fringe groups, gun carrying marches, Ted Nugent, and other fanatics touting take over of a government. Trying to put a intellectual spin on your position is laughable. Most of the people at these marches will be bereft of teeth and mind. I have found it humorous that the gun lobby only allows a few educated, literate gun aficionados to post comments on sites such as HP.

Your 1789 interpretative 2nd Amendment people are very quickly becoming a lunatic fringe group. The Hutarees made you guys look awfully stupid!”

Well, first of all, the number of 'usual suspects' that support the Constitution outnumber the regulars who oppose individual rights at least 5:1 on every 'gun thread' on Huffpo. The rest of the comments are by individuals who pop in, drop some comment about p3nis size or stupid rednecks, then are never seen again. Some stick around for a few posts but they always devolve into the traditional ad hominems, etc like you see above.

The facts are that the only gun control group that has ANY traction currently is MAIG and even that's limited to a few localities. Polls show increasing support for firearm rights. Most politicians are either pro-gun or afraid to try to push for their pet bills. Funding for most of the gun control groups has been dropping (yes I recognize correlation w/ the recession) while the firearms rights groups (NRA,SAF,GOA, JPFO, etc. ) are increasing their membership and the firearm industry is doing quite well.

More and more, this is what 'gun control' advocates are being reduced to. Statements that we're all paid shills. Bigoted stereotypes. Sophomoric insults. These have replaced even attempts at defending their beliefs w/ statistics or (mostly Joyce Funded) 'reports'.

That's not even counting the nonsense assertions like, for example, the NRA used its control of Congress to force the FBI to skew crime data. Watching them hop when called on to prove those kinds of assertions is more entertaining than "Dancing w/ the Stars".

The Hutaree thing is already off the radar while the only ones squealing about 'right-wing extremists' are also the ones that can't stop themselves from using terms like 'tea baggers' and other inflammatory rhetoric. Rhetoric which tends to turn off the 'fence-sitters' and make them look more closely at what is actually going on instead of the sound-bytes they normally hear so that even NPR is taking a second look.

I hope they continue to yell "We Win, They Lose, Now Let's Get To Work" while relying on one-shot flame warriors, penis jokes and the accomplishments of politicians from over a decade ago.

It makes our job that much easier.

Wishful Thinking

Dennis "I forgot the People" Henigan on the retirement of Justice Stevens:

By putting the Heller majority on the defensive with his implicit charge of judicial activism, prompting the language of Part III, Justice Stevens may well have saved countless lifesaving gun laws against attack.

Translation: We're not losing. Really we're not.

Apparently Dennis needs to review what the word 'defensive' means.While the cases he refers to were primarily a bunch of twinkie defenses, he knows that McDonald is going to be another disaster for the PuSH'ers cause as their banner city, Chicago (pun intended) gets its laws declared unconstitutional.

Poor Dennis. Go have some coffee on me.

Domestic Terrorists Training in Illinois

Better call the FBI on these militia extremists.

Also on Saturday and Sunday, will be “Attack on the Prairie,” musters and drills by the New Salem militia. Hours for the demonstrations are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A Lie Repeated Often Enough.....

Showing that they will never be content with the laws on the books, Illinois gun grabbers continue to lie in their efforts to restrict and/or ban guns. From the ICPGV:

Contributing to this epidemic of gun violence is a dangerous loophole in Illinois law that permits dangerous individuals to access deadly handguns without ever having to undergo a criminal background check. This means that gang members, felons, domestic violence offenders, and individuals with severe mental illness are able to purchase handguns with no questions asked.

Except there is a question that, by law, already needs to be asked:

"Can I see your FOID card?"

You know, the license required to own a firearm or even purchase ammo in the state. The one that the police are supposed to confiscate if you become a prohibited purchaser.

So we know these people aren't stupid. They know the laws. They even have an entire organization of lawyers dedicated to help ban guns.

So why are they being deliberately dishonest in their portrayal?

Because they don't really care about 'gun violence'. The only thing they care about is banning scary guns.

And they know it.

And as polls show, the public knows it as well. I'll continue to do my part to inform those that don't .

The Face of Jealousy...

While trying to hide it under a cover of the NRA '10 convention center location not allowing CCW, the PEG heads are claiming the grapes are sour:

unless you charge me for two days of boring meetings and a build-your-own-breakfast-burrito station at... a convention center.

Poor babies. They wish they had 70,000 members, never mind having that many show up at the national convention with hundreds of vendors and acres of displays.

Back in the Saddle

Just got back from scouting training sites in Northern Elbonia. Quite the weekend while I was away.

AZ is going to get VT style carry
Iowa is looking to make their CC laws more progressive
Judges are telling people to arm themselves.
A MAIG mayor showing his true colors while another gets defeated.

And while O may be able to replace a SCOTUS judge, it won't change the balance, and the BC/PEG heads still have nothing but harassing individual businesses.

(Former) Sheriff Jenne Wants to Get Paid

Remember Sheriff Jenne? He's the guy that said the '94 AWB was all about machineguns then shot a semi-auto AK clone into the dirt, saying it did no damage? (Video Here thanks to 45Superman)

Well he's back in court. This time demanding he should get his pension even though he used his office to embezzle money and commit mail fraud.

What a putz.

Unwise Business Decisions

Taking credit from bankrupt states.

The regular supplier of ammunition to the IL Dept. of Corrections has refused to accept any more orders unless they're paid upfront. The state owes Shore Galleries Inc. about $6k.

So instead of paying its bill, the state charged another $200k (for 761K rounds) w/ a vendor in Indiana that apparently WANTS to go out of business.

Do they honestly think they'll ever see anything but California-esque IOU's from our fiscally responsible legislators in Springfield?

IGOLD 2010: The Movie

Sockpuppet and Liar

Uncle links to a former 'Only One' who posits an editorial supporting the Chicago handgun ban. What the author doesn't mention is that he is a board member of the Joyce puppet ICHV.

He is also either ignorant or a liar. He makes the claim:

Under Chicago's gun ordinance, about 15,000 guns are seized and then melted down each year from individuals who were illegally carrying them in their cars or on the street.

Yet according to the IL UCR, less than 7,000 are traced each year, about 7,400 confiscated and about 6,000 collected in 'gun buy backs'.

Another fabrication:

"homicides -- are mostly committed by family members or friends in the course of an argument

Not according to the FBI. Most are committed by 'acquaintances' ie someone you happen to know. In the case of Chicago, 90% of the offenders have a criminal past and 70% of the victims do. 60% are directly affiliated w/ gangs or gang activity.
Never mind that he ignores the fact that, even according to him, the numbers of privately owned firearms has increased yet didn't equal an increase in crime w/ them.

Either way, his numbers don't add up.

'Only Ones' Not Knowing the Law Enough....

A local prominent individual has the habit of walking his not insignificant property at least once a month to make sure everything's on the up 'n up. When he does, he carries a handgun w/ him in-case of wild dogs, coyotes, or other unforseen problems that may occur.

On this particular day, a passerby on the highway nearly crapped themselves seeing someone walking w/ a gun out in the country and called 911. Local rookie cop shows up and arrests the individual. Said prominent calmly informs rookie cop that he is on his private property and that it would be a good idea to call his supervisor (name given).

Rookie apparently had a bit of sense because he did so and was promptly told to release said individual immediately.

So two issues I see here.

One. Police officer having no idea about the law. While stopping and detaining someone for carrying a firearm in a no carry state may be legit, the second that proof was shown that he was on his property, the cop should have released him and left.

Two. The only reason this didn't escalate to being brought down to the station was that the individual was able to drop names. Not only do we need to get carry laws in this state, we need to make sure the authorities are properly trained in their jobs.

VPC Number Crunching

Bitter over at SIH has been running a series on the financial status of the Brady Campaign and VPC. A question arose as to why the VPC went from the red in 2006 so here's their Joyce grant numbers from '03 to current.

12/4/2003 $500,000 12mo
12/2/2004 $500,000 12mo
12/2/2005 $450,000 12mo
7/20/2006 $700,000 18 mo
12/6/2007 $700,000 12mo
12/4/2008 $700,000 12mo
12/10/2009 $585,000 12mo

So it seems the Joyce's decided to invest more into Joshie, doubling up on the '05 grand and increasing their funding by about 30% (at least until this year).

Fat lot of good it did them.

As noted earlier, the Joyce's are already readjusting where their finances go w. the consolidation of several of their other ineffective groups.

H. Nemerov's Austin GRE did a piece on this.

So between the economy and losing public support, it seems that reliance on donations isn't working real well. Maybe the Brady's should get their own sugar daddy.

More Range Time

On Sat., the BIL and his family came by. Took him and his boys out to play w/ the AR for a little bit.




Of course I had to have some fun as well.

Weekend Wildlife

The Illinois State Legislature is on their Spring Break. I discovered where they all went to:



And a nice deer herd. Probably Chicago area constituents: