At David Hardy’s. I finally got around to getting a new card and am transferring some auto-pays and stuff to it. Then, to cancel my account which I’ve had with them for about 17 years.

Press marching lock-step with the pending gun show bill:

At one point, the video is stitched together to make it appear as though there’s a gangbanger with gloves on and his face wrapped in a bandanna actually attending a gun show, handling firearms, and offering a dealer $2,500 cash for a semiautomatic handgun.

Seems a school in WV wants to teach kids hunting:

The move comes as the state watches its hunting population age, and sales of hunting permits drop, leaving a hole in the state budget.

Senator Billy Bailey has introduced a bill that would provide hunting instruction to 7th, 8th and 9th graders, with topics ranging from survival skills to gun safety. Children as young as 10 are already eligible for hunting licenses in the state.

They seem friendly to gun people when you hit him the revenue. Anyway, one gun ownership prevention group (though the press mischaracterizes them as an anti-violence group) is crapping its pants. What’s the big deal? Want to pull sex ed too? In high school, not only did I take hunters education, I taught it.

Science fiction guns here, here, and here. I dunno, I always liked Robocop’s gun. And you can buy an airsoft version.

Taurus 341.

And, with the increasing likelihood of an anti-gun administration looming, Kim posts a list of goodies to buy.

Maybe I was wrong about Corker and he is more conservative than I thought. At least he knows blatant vote-buying when he sees it.

A video. And, no, not like the one that got everyone’s panties in a bunch.

The three steps in Heller.

Gene Patterson:

State Senator Tim Burchett is proposing a bill that would make it illegal to smoke in your car if there are children riding in it.

Tim Burchett has apparently never seen a matter the state shouldn’t regulate. Anyone remember when Republicans were the party of smaller, less-intrusive government? Neither do they. Any way, here’s how it goes. A bit back, when smoking bans at businesses were the rage, we people who opposed them (thinking rightfully that it is the right of the business owner to decide what otherwise lawful activity can occur on their premises) warned that the next step would be banning smoking in cars around children. We were told that was just crazy talk. And then, we said, after that there would be pushes to ban smoking in peoples’ homes if children were present. Doesn’t sound so far-fetched now, does it?

In PA, authorities are trying to shut down an EBay business because, well, the authorities are idiots.

Reader John emails the following on the presidential candidates:
Read the rest of this entry »

Heh. Instant classic.

Yesterday, I asked for help:

So, there’s a lot of pro-gun activists on the Internet. I mean, there’s a ton. We’re just not all in the same place what with message boards, live journal, face book, etc, etc. If everyone actually got together, we’d be pretty influential, I would venture.

Any ideas on how to do that?

Got quite a few responses there and at other websites. Seems the most important thing is to define goals. My goal is pretty simple: a way to alert activists to things that are important. Or, as Ace said, a Bat-signal. I don’t desire a unified coalition in the sense that everyone is on the exact same page. So, hopefully that clears it up. Right now, short of something from a gun board getting emailed to me, I don’t hear about. And short of someone posting on a gun board something happening in blogs, they don’t know about it.

Reactions:

In the original post, there were lots of good suggestions in comments.

Joe has a lot more: Join pro gun groups. The first group you should join is the NRA; even if you think they compromise too much.

Mostly genius has more. I suppose using tools like twitter and reddit could be useful.

Sebastian has more as do his commenters.

And lots of people have volunteered to help. So, with that goal in mind, how do we do that? And, FWIW, a lot of folks suggested a unified website. It’s been tried and drawing traffic to it is tough. Trust me.

And bitter says we need a business plan.

Update: A thought for me is that if I were, say, the 800lb Gorilla, I might get in on this discussion too.

Your sexism is showing

Jessica notes on her blog that a commentator named kip says:

‘Scuse me, you’re a woman, and you’re AGAINST gun control?

If I opined that women were, of course, more likely to support gun control because of their inherently nannyish nature, at least one feminist (i.e., the only one I read and take seriously because she happens to be not insane) would probably write some sort of holy litany to my soul. And I’d be a sexist.

Anyway, the fastest growing demographic in the shooting sports is women. And there’s a lot of them.

And squeaky reports new chicks and guns are forthcoming.

Looks like another federal law is in the works regarding the mythological gun show loophole and the media is still taking anti-gun group dictation. Repeat after me, sales at gun shows are subject to the exact same federal regulations as sales not at gun shows.

Via KDT and Bruce:

Two Palestinian terrorists were killed after infiltrating a school in the Gush Etzion settlement bloc.

The terrorists disabled an alert system built into the perimeter fence of Kibbutz Kfar Etzion on Thursday and then sneaked into the Mekor Hayim high school yeshiva building, according to media reports. They then entered a classroom where they stabbed two counselors. The wounds were not considered life-threatening.

Two armed counselors then overpowered and killed the terrorists, who were unable to fire their weapons. Mekor Hayim high school is run by famed Talmudist Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

It doesn’t fit the narrative about how you’re supposedly hysterical to think it’s reasonable to arm school officials. More at Ahab’s.

Over at Robb’s, he’s having a rational discussion about the gun show loophole with someone who believes in that mythology.

Photos from a tour of the CZ factory. Excellent.

Dewalt AR. Nifty, and I say that as a gun nut and a guy who compulsively buys tools.

What to get your gun nut sweetie for Valentines Day.

Over at Legally Armed, we have TN stats by gender & age; and by county.

Via Jeff, it seems another press outlet is running Bernd Debusmann’s story on the declining gun culture and, again, taking dictation from the Violence Policy Center. I like it when they run out of original things to say because these articles come pre-debunked. We already know that:

1 – Debusmann’s story was wrong and easily refuted.

2- That the alleged study Debusmann referenced was bought and paid for by the anti-gun Joyce Foundation.

3 – That Reuters (where the story orginally appeared) moved the story sans comment from the news section to the opinion section with a disclaimer.

Nope, no media bias here.

In an update to this post, I see commenters have set about correcting the mistakes. And the host there responds with:

Geeeez, you people remind me of those nerds that write letters to the editor of Superman Comics pointing out little unimportant errors–“On page 3 of edition #789 in panel number two, Clark Kent’s suit is orange, but on the very next page, in panel number 4, it’s green–What gives?

I dunno but maybe someone who is advocating laws should educate themselves about those laws. See, misrepresenting assault weapons, machine guns, armor piercing ammo, and kits that make machine guns are not unimportant errors. They’re pretty substantial errors.

Update: Boy, check out the hysteria from that guy in the comments. It gets better. We jerk off to gun mags and we’re idiots and extremists. Funny how correcting errors makes you an extremist. Also, he’s addressing comments that aren’t there so I assume he’s moderating comments. Seems to me that everyone there left reasonable and sensible retorts to Mark’s misconceptions about guns (and only one person violated my rule on scaring white people with the tyranny talk). And he’s telling people to leave. Fine, I won’t bother you again even though this is the most traffic your blog has ever seen. Quite amusing given the header quote.

Hillary Clinton Says She Can Control Her Husband.

If she wants to. She just doesn’t want to.

Having suffered through the trenches of this America, Edwards is taking his hair and going back to his America. He didn’t endorse which is a way of saying Can I be your Veep? This came as a shock to no one but Edwards, who was unavailable for comment because he was out of breath from chasing an ambulance.

9iu11iani is also leaving. Not running a campaign in most states isn’t effective? Who knew? In other news, he, as an authoritarian prick, will reportedly endorse the other authoritarian prick: John McCain.

Update: Bwahahaha:

I still like McCain more than Romney, although I like being kicked in the nuts more than I like either of them.

Dunno about that, but that’s because mine are still achy.

Update 2: The good news about 9iu11iani’s drop out is that I hope it indicates that most of America won’t elect NY Mayors.

Animated AR pic.

Or why I’m buying a bottle of Scotch tonight

Our next president will be either Obama, Hillary, Romney or McCain. Three democrats and one maverick, and by maverick I mean self-serving prick. God help us all. The least offensive is McCain and he’s an authoritarian megalomaniac. I cannot completely rule out Huckabee, I suppose, since a lot of red states vote on Super Tuesday. Huckabee’s another big government ninny who happens to be a member of the God Squad.

9iu11ani put his eggs in the one basket. As we speak, he’s probably beating his advisers like they owe him money. Was yesterday Goodbye Rudy Tuesday? Tonight, he and Edwards will be sitting at a bar together pounding shooters.

The /20~ p@\/1 supporters constantly call the local talk radio. Today, at least two called to tell the host that /20~ p@\/1 beat 9iu11ani in Florida. The host would tell them factually that no he did not. And they’d argue with him. They’d also call and question McCain’s military service. And, well, that’s stupid. I would say they were trying to Swiftboat him but the only retractions that came from the Swiftboat story came from John Kerry.

One caller alleged that there must be mass voter fraud going on. It’s a conspiracy! You see, according to every poll he’d seen on Al Gore’s internets, /20~ p@\/1 consistently was winning yet he couldn’t win primaries. Listen up, sparky, just because /20~ p@\/1 constantly comes in first on HotMILF’s Myspace poll edging out James T. Kirk and Gandolf with Kucinich placing a respectable fourth, it doesn’t mean your average Joe is voting for him. Deal with it.

All politics is local. So, locally, here’s some stuff I’ve observed. The only presidential signs I’d seen around here were for /20~ p@\/1. Until today. I saw a Mitt Romney sign. Mitt Romney: 2008’s John Kerry. Was he a conservative then or is he a conservative now? Was he for conservatism before he was against it? A liberal from Massachusetts who thinks your average voter really buys that he’s suddenly all conservative and stuff. Well, apparently, 30% of your average voters are stupid enough to buy that. Rumor is that the Good Ol’ Boy establishment here in East Tennessee is getting on the Romney train.

They say Huckabee is ahead in Tennessee. Oy.

Suppressed Ruger Charger.

Ryan notes:

Sullivan in April 2007 touted the ATF’s “outstanding relationship” with IACP-International Associations of Chiefs of Police. An organization that has been exposed by the NRA as being in the pockets of a large gun control group. Fitting enough Acting ATF Director Michael J. Sullivan was one of the Keynote Speakers at IACP’s Great Lakes States Summit on Gun Violence. Sullivan also served on a panel that included gun banners Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Joyce Foundation President Ellen Alberding, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Professor David Hemenway.

He has a list of other organizations there as well. You’ll recall that the IACP is an anti-gun group funded by the Joyce Foundation.

Ouch: Apparently killing a woman isn’t enough to draw the ire of left wing feminist groups, but endorsing a black man is.

Reader Mike asks:

Susan Harris has hit upon a subject with which I have personal experience – actually changing someone’s mind about firearm use. I am a recreational shooter who punches holes in paper targets with both handguns and rifles. I have been a shooter for over a decade. My wife has no problems with my hobby and has encouraged me to teach our children both firearm safety and how to shoot well. However, I have found no way to get my wife to try sport shooting with me, due to her negative experiences with firearm victims when she worked in an Emergency Room as an intern in medical school. The emotional and negative experiences with gunshot wounds have, as she admits herself, overcome her rational understanding that sport shooting is an entertaining and safe hobby. Any suggestions on how to reconcile her rational understanding with her emotional reaction?

Anyone? I’d say it’s tough to get past emotional reactions which is why I don’t address those.

People say to me Hey, Uncle how do we win this gun battle? And by gun battle, they don’t mean a gun fight they mean winning the political war over gun control. There are two ways, generally, and they depend on who you’re dealing with. For those on the fence or who generally haven’t thought much about it (and who likely still think the media is credible on the issue), it’s easy: take them shooting. Really. They’ll see we’re not all knuckle-dragging rednecks and they’ll, barring something strange, have a great time.

The second type is the hysterical anti-gunner. They’re almost beyond reason. To deal with them, just calmly refute their false claims by stating facts and do so without scaring your average white person with your crazy talk of revolution and the awkward stage. Use self-defense statistics and other things that won’t freak a soccer mom out. You’re not targeting the hysterical anti-gunner, you’re targeting any passers-by who can be reasoned with.

On occasion, an anti-gunner can be converted. Hats off to guav and friends for that one. If you’re ever my way, I’ll buy you a beer. If I’m ever your way (which will mean Hell just froze over), I’ll buy you a beer.

For those who want the short version, the creator and moderator of a gun control community was convinced he was wrong.

One at a time, my friends, one at a time.

So, there’s a lot of pro-gun activists on the Internet. I mean, there’s a ton. We’re just not all in the same place what with message boards, live journal, face book, etc, etc. If everyone actually got together, we’d be pretty influential, I would venture.

Any ideas on how to do that?

Update: Some ideas here.

Seriously, I don’t think we realize how many of us there are with keepandbeararms.com, ar15.com, DU’s gun board, FR’s gunnies, blogs, etc. There are a lot.