I was going to say it but Sebastion beat me to it in comments:

I think what they need to concentrate on now is engaging their membership, and I don’t mean only their usual bit about asking for money, even though that’s important too. I think the internet is an invaluable resource for organizing gun owners, and I don’t think the NRA honestly does a very good job of utilizing it. The only thing that’s going to keep the Democrats in line at the federal level for the next two years is fear of the NRA, and that’s only going to happen if they are strong and can deliver up votes and money. They can only do that with our help. That’s why I’m wary of squabbling amongst ourselves because some people favor different tactics for achieving our goals.

I think the recent transfer of power to folks with Ds after their name will likely lead to an increase in NRA members. Bill Clinton and Janet Reno were the best thing for their membership numbers.

That said, the NRA should use the internet more effectively. It’s good to see that Wayne LaPierre has a blog. There is a very active gun-blogging community and the NRA should openly support those folks. Link to good blog articles from your news page, mention us in your magazine articles, offer discounted membership in NRA through our websites, and other things. Hell, I’ll even give you guys free ads.

Other things to consider would be to set up a NRA blog. You could even get some prominent gun bloggers to contribute there. Sell ad space on it.

But, here’s the thing: We internet guys are more your black rifle sorts. The NRA caters largely to hunters and outdoorsmen in their publications. Bridging that gap may be tough. I know the NFA guys feel mostly abandoned by the NRA. Some of your hunting types don’t like my pimped-out AR-15 because it looks scary. My response to those sorts is, generally, that: if they come for your hunting rifle, I can’t help you because they already have my assault weapon. But those guys don’t like to hear that. It scares them. So, that could be tough. But we could be united on gun rights, regardless of our tastes in toys.

When Al Gore invented the internet, he gave the NRA great tool and, so far, they haven’t quite taken full advantage of it. They need to get on it in this increasingly webcentric world.

I was having a discussion with bitter about this and I gave her some suggestions. Never heard back from so I don’t know if she concurs or if my email got lost. But, there it is.

Neither do they:

President Bush says he and other government officials have the power to snoop through your mail without a judge’s warrant.

Bush made the claim last month in a signing statement attached to a postal reform bill. Bush wrote that the bill “provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection.”

It’s only for emergencies. Of course, being at war and all, anything is an emergency.

I think I’m going to start mailing highlighted copies of the fourth amendment to addresses in Tehran.

Update: Les:

Bush doesn’t much like getting warrants, does he? If there’s enough intelligence to suggest the need for a search, there should be enough intelligence to get a warrant. That’s all the Constituion asks.

A while back, I asked of the NRA What Next? Well, Neil Smith wrote a letter on the issue of NRA’s priorities a bit back. It’s a good read. I don’t agree with all of it but some points leap out at me. Like:

FOURTH, in the same context, I’d want the NRA to disconnect all future discussion of the Second Amendment from the totally unrelated topic of crime. My rights have nothing whatever to do with anything anybody else does, right or wrong. If the crime rate were only 1/10 that of today, my rights would be unaffected. Likewise, if the rate were TEN TIMES what it is, it would have nothing whatever to do with my individual right to own and carry weapons.

FIFTH, I’d want the NRA to reject all future argument about the “sporting use” of weapons — why look like an imbecile, pushing the AK-47 as a deer rifle, when it meets the Founding Fathers’ ACTUAL criteria so elegantly? — in favor of frank and frequent public reference to the original Constitutional purpose for an armed citizenry, which is to intimidate the government.

…

SEVENTH, in support of that objective, I’d want the NRA to print ads, half a page in every issue, in all its periodicals, reminding members of the duty and power of an American jury to nullify any law it believes unjust or unconstitutional. Alcohol prohibition died this way. Gun prohibition could, as well. All it takes is eight and a third percent of the population, one twelfth, to carry it off.

There’s more. Go read.

Les has a big post up about the CMP offering M1 carbines, including price speculation and such. Looks like these rifles will be a good deal but the price savings will be needed to find magazines.

Sig file seen at online poker:

Don’t take life so seriously. It isn’t permanent.

Heh.

We know how I feel about the smoking ban. Good to see Naifeh do the right thing. For once:

Despite reports of growing support for a ban on smoking in workplaces, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh said Wednesday he opposes the idea and believes most other legislators feel the same way.

MKS says: Can you say “tobacco lobby?”

I can. I can also say private property owners lobby or nanny state pricks lobby.

Mike Freeman says that the recent murder of an athlete is due to:

America’s fascination with guns

The Trainer has them. Only two states have no provision for concealed carry and one of them will soon. Bet on it.

Colt CCO says Knoxville has it based on suppressor sales. Yeah, I’ve been looking at suppressors. I’m not sure which one I want. I want one suppressor for four guns. I want a 9mm suppressor for use on my 9mm AR, a 9mm handgun, the Walther P22 pistol and the Ruger 10/22 rifle. I think one can do the job but I’m not sure which.

Colt CCO recommended the Gemtech Trinity. There’s also the AAC Evolution 9.

Any recommendations?

Terry, noting that in Europe they’re paying people to have kids, wonders why people aren’t having kids:

Is it culture? Is it religion? Is it greed? Is it modernity? Is it selfishness? Is the West too prosperous? Narcissism?

No. It’s because at some point those people were around babies. See, babies are a pain in the ass. It’s true. Examples:

They smell bad (newsflash folks – and women cover your eyes – but that baby smell you love so much is a mixture of lotions, ointments, vomit, and baby shit. It’s true, sorry)

Can’t do a damn thing for themselves. Seriously. Can’t get around, can’t eat, can’t hold their heads up. And my personal favorite is that they can’t even keep a pacifier in their own mouths. If they can’t do it, no one can.

When you have babies, forgot about getting a good night’s sleep until the kids go to college.

They’re expensive. Do you realize I have to pay for two college educations, one wedding, two first cars, maybe some braces, and who knows what else? That’s in addition to food, clothing, enough diapers to fill a landfill, and toys.

Etc.

In short, they’re not easy. Me and the Mrs. contemplate often whether we want to have a third child. And let me tell you, that during that three in the morning scream-fest that occurs about twice a week, the case for that third child is pretty weak.

But they sure are cute:

That said, I love my kids and would do anything for them. But I often wish I was single again, just for like a day or two. You know, get up in the morning, kick whatshername out, sit on the couch in my underwear watching TeeVee all day. But that won’t happen again for, like, 18 years.

Confessions of a gun snob.

CNN sorry to report that Senator Barack Hussein Obama was hanged in Iraq.

Meanwhile, this is conspiracy but this is funny?

Speaking of Hussein, I think he had more to worry about than taunting.

Guess what Nebraska got for Christmas? CCW!

See, whenever I talk to God, he tells me that Pat Robertson is kind of a dick. And that I’m out of Double Stuf Oreos and I should probably get on that right away. Then we have this long discussion about why Nabisco’s marketing folks decided to spell it stuf and not stuff. Despite what you may think, God doesn’t understand marketing at all. Which is odd, since he’s an all-powerful deity.

Update: It occurs to me that his lack of marketing skills might explain Hinduism. I mean, blue dude’s with many arms? That’s marketing genius!

Remember that? Well, here’s a write-up on it. Also, the NRA is warning its members:

The National Rifle Association is warning that Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill “could be one of the most unfriendly” to the NRA.

The organization is unhappy with the voting records of incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House Democrats, the Washington Post reported, and is serving notice that it will resist attempts to pass new gun laws.

“The new leadership could be one of the most unfriendly to the National Rifle Association,” said NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam.

Every year, some local news organization runs some article on how much Tennessee collected with its illegal drug tax. Every year, I say bullshit. This year, it’s $1.8M and it’s still bullshit.

Update: MKS has more. And here’s the presser:

During the second year of Tennessee’s unauthorized substances tax, the Tennessee Department of Revenue collected $1,773,535 and assessed $43,187,787. Year one of the unauthorized substances tax resulted in $1,714,565 in collections and $32,172,918 in assessments. Created by Public Chapter 803 and effective Jan. 1, 2005, the tax applies to controlled substances and certain illicit alcoholic beverages, including cocaine, crack, methamphetamine, marijuana, moonshine, and non-tax-paid liquor.

Translation: We’ve laid claim to $43M in property without due process of law.

Update 2: Fine, fine. Here’s a link to all my past entries on Tennessee’s illegal drug tax.

Nashville blogger Bill Hobbs made a write up at Boston.com about Mitt Romney (RINO – MA), bloggers, and Mitt’s aspirations to be president.

Les lists the 2006 things he learned in 2006.

So says the AP. The gist of it is:

But I found this odd:

The document also predicts some $100 million could be spent against Giuliani to highlight political vulnerabilities like his three marriages and moderate stances on social issues including gun control and gay rights.

Say it with me: Giuliani is not a moderate on gun control. He is for most gun control.

LaPierre is again asking that you call ATF’s Illegal Gun Hotline at 1-800-ATF-GUNS (that’s 1-800-283-4867) and tell them that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is hiring private investigators to commit straw purchases in several states, and you want them to investigate. Ask them if Bloomberg has turned over his videotaped “evidence” to ATF and, if not, has the ATF subpoenaed the evidence?

Well, hop to it. I’ll be here when you get back.

Meanwhile, The Bloomberg Approach to Crime. Heh.

I guess if you throw enough words out on Al Gore’s internets, it’s bound to happen.

Pretty cool. I wonder if he got an approval letter from the ATF?

Heh:

Let me start out by saying I consider myself smarter than most people… Not better, not happier, not funnier, not more inclined to make a real difference… Just smarter, or not as dumb, which is more accurate

Update: Why are pacifists always angry?

Happy B-Day, barry.

Tennessee and Pennsylvania now have CCW reciprocity.

You’ve got it all wrong.

Seriously.

Don’t you know that after conviction, there has to be at least two full decades of appeals. Then get some hippies to do candlelight vigils. Then get some of the washed hippies on the TeeVee to talk about how wrong it is to make a Saddam Yo-Yo. Then it happens anyway. And you get some other hippies bitching about the fact that maybe (just maybe) having your neck snapped by a rope and gravity was a bit uncomfortable. And we shouldn’t have done it.

You’ve got a long way to go yet, Iraq.

Blogger Joe Huffman was fired from his job for his views and advocacy relating to the second amendment. He lost his job at Pacific Northwest National Lab after his superiors spent hours upon hours perusing his website. Joe has documented the incident here.

And he’s now getting press coverage:

A former cyber security researcher has sued for wrongful termination, claiming his former boss at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory didn’t like his pro-gun beliefs and that’s why he was fired.

Joseph Huffman of Moscow, Idaho, alleges in a lawsuit filed in Benton County Superior Court that his supervisor at the federal lab in Richland spent hours examining Huffman’s personal Web site about gun rights issues in the weeks before the firing in June 2005.

Joe reacts here.

Not only is the constitution not needed in courts, it’s disregarded on the road.

Seems a couple of gun-fearing senators want the ATF investigated:

“In a letter to Carl Truscott, ATF director, the New Jersey senators questioned the need for expensive office upgrades while laws governing firearms are not adequately enforced and equipment for field agents is under the knife.

“[These] unnecessary upgrades, including nearly $300,000 in upgrades for your office suite alone, ha[ve] put this project $19 million over budget, just as the ATF is eliminating funding for 500 bulletproof vests and 300 new cars for field agents who enforce the nation’s federal gun laws,” the letter said.

Seems the senators are upset that we’re wasting our money on niceties when that money could be spent on stomping kittens, err, tank fuel, err, model rockets, err, breaking the law at gun shows err law enforcement. Yeah, that’s it. Meanwhile, here’s one of those crimes you could be investigating.

The Office of Civilian Marksmanship should have for sale soon.