Tag: gun control

So. Name the last policy position that President Obama’s successfully sold to Americans.

Alternative title: Moe’s not really alarmed about tomorrow’s gun control press conference.

President Obama will unveil a sweeping set of gun-control proposals at midday Wednesday, including an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and limits on the number of bullets that ammunition clips can hold, according to sources familiar with the plans.

The announcement, which press secretary Jay Carney said is scheduled for about 11:45 a.m. at the White House, is also expected to include a slate of up to 19 executive actions that the Obama administration can take on its own to attempt to limit gun violence.

Continue reading So. Name the last policy position that President Obama’s successfully sold to Americans.

Targeting vulnerable Democratic Senators on gun control.

No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money has cross-indexed this post of mine about at-risk 2014 Democratic Senators and cross-indexed it with said Senators’ National Rifle Association (NRA) and Gun Owners of America (GOA) rankings.  Some good advice there for people wanting to put pressure on the seriously at-risk Senators; as to the list there, I should note that since I wrote it it’s come out that Al Franken’s still waiting on getting a serious opponent lined up (which would make his seat a little safer), and Jay Rockefeller has decided to retire (which will make his seat considerably more at risk).  I presume that the list will fluctuate between now and the nominal start of the 2014 election cycle (as opposed to the actual start, which was Election Day 2012)…

An excellent and acceptable gun control legislation suggestion.

This is an idea of pure genius from Frank J Fleming:

…here’s a great idea that should make everyone happy: Let’s just pretend to pass gun control legislation.

What we can do is pass a law banning a bunch of made-up things that sound scary, and many gun control proponents already have great ideas along this line. For instance, I read a column in which Howard Kurtz mentioned a ban on high-magazine clips — we can certainly do without something that nonsensical. And I’ve heard the press before mention armor-piercing hollow points and plastic guns (actually, I think we already banned that made-up weapon in the ’80s). And as long as the NRA and Wayne LaPierre go apoplectic about it (“This ban on sorcerer-enchanted guns is just a slippery slope toward eliminating all witch-hexed weaponry!”), gun control proponents won’t know the difference between this and actual gun control. And this will help protect our most vulnerable people out there: politicians. Because long after the gun control advocates move on to other things, like who they want to tax next, gun owners will still be annoyed by any actual gun control legislation. One of the greatest fears politicians have is seeing an angry guy with lots of guns charging down the street, because they know he’s probably on his way to commit an act of voting.

Of course, with this idea, absolutely nothing will be done to keep criminals and madmen from obtaining guns, but that’s the effect of every other gun control law, so we’re just reaching this end in a much cheaper and less messy fashion.

Continue reading An excellent and acceptable gun control legislation suggestion.

QotD, Start With Eric Holder, Joe Biden edition.

From the New York Times’ glum realization that no, the President has no stomach for a fight with pro-gun civil rights activists over the 2nd Amendment comes two sentences that really did deserve a directed lightning strike.

In addition to limits on high-capacity magazines and expanded background checks, Mr. Biden’s group is looking at ways of keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and cracking down on sales that are already illegal. One possibility is tougher laws against straw purchasing with longer prison terms for those who buy guns for others.

Unless they work for the Obama administration, of course.  In that case there’s apparently no need for prison terms at all.

Moe Lane

PS: It must be distressing, having a President from one’s party who is also a coward.  I wouldn’t know, of course: I’m a Republican.

Barack Obama planning wide-range gun-grabbing legislation?

(Via Drudge) Well, isn’t that special of them. From the Washington Post:

The White House is weighing a far broader and more comprehensive approach to curbing the nation’s gun violence than simply reinstating an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, according to multiple people involved in the administration’s discussions.

A working group led by Vice President Biden is seriously considering measures backed by key law enforcement leaders that would require universal background checks for firearm buyers, track the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthen mental health checks, and stiffen penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors, the sources said.

Continue reading Barack Obama planning wide-range gun-grabbing legislation?

Illinois Denny’s manager (temporarily) kicks out off-duty cops for being armed.

Now this is just dumb.

Five police officers were kicked out of a Denny’s restaurant for carrying their guns.

It happened in downstate Belleville.

Needless to say, the national chain is kind of freaking out over one of their soon-to-be-former manager’s decision to encourage off-duty police officers to eat their crime-preventing breakfasts/dinners elsewhere.  Because there’s a reason why Denny’s restaurants don’t get robbed more often, and it’s because criminals are generally smart enough to avoid the places where cops eat.

Sheesh.

Continue reading Illinois Denny’s manager (temporarily) kicks out off-duty cops for being armed.

David Gregory should be arrested for violating DC’s gun law.

Background: last Sunday on Meet The Press David Gregory brandished a 30 round ammunition magazine while lecturing interrogating interviewing NRA head Wayne LaPierre.  The problem is, however, that the mere possession of this item is in point of fact illegal in the District of Columbia, where Meet The Press is filmed.  The police have been notified, and they are “investigating.”  I’m not sure what they would be investigating, since Gregory demonstrated possession of the item on national television and the law is clear.  The penalties are also apparently up to a $1,000 fine and/or a year in jail, but that’s actually incidental to the discussion at hand.  What is not incidental is that we have a clear case where somebody broke the law.  Probably unaware: but then, ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law.

I am perfectly serious. David Gregory needs to be arrested, for a very simple reason: if I publicly demonstrated my possession of an illegal magazine in DC then I would be arrested – which is something that I already knew very well.  That David Gregory apparently did not is because David Gregory thinks that he is protected by privilege – which, as Robert Anton Wilson once reminded us, literally means ‘private law.’  The DC law is absurd and inequitable; it should be repealed.  But if it is not going to be repealed then it absolutely must be enforced equitably. Continue reading David Gregory should be arrested for violating DC’s gun law.

The Deport Piers Morgan petition drive now requires an official White House response.

Via @Yousefzadeh comes this admittedly silly, yet perversely entertaining, wuss-slap of Piers Morgan (whose opinion on gun control I did not in point of fact ask for):

Somebody thought of this point before I did, but I endorse it entirely: can we stop this stupid White House petition thing, already?  Nobody takes it seriously – except, I think, maybe the potheads. I didn’t sign the dang thing, myself – but I will cheerfully note that if Morgan takes from this the thought that “foreigners have less leeway to criticize our country than Americans do,” well, good. Honestly, he got this much of a pass from being a member of the Anglosphere.

Megan McArdle, fighting back, and the detractors of both.

Pejman Yousefzadeh reminded me today of this Megan McArdle column where she cataloged all the conventional wisdom of What Do We Do About Mass Shootings, and found all such wisdom to be pretty much ineffective.  Which it would be; Megan’s not the first person to notice that the primary goal of a lot of rhetoric about gun control seems to have as its primary objective the goal of making the person who is using the rhetoric feel better.  Whether this is psychologically healthy or not is beyond my ability to diagnose… but I did notice a bit of, well, Lefty screeching about this suggestion of Megan’s:

 I’d also like us to encourage people to gang rush shooters, rather than following their instincts to hide; if we drilled it into young people that the correct thing to do is for everyone to instantly run at the guy with the gun, these sorts of mass shootings would be less deadly, because even a guy with a very powerful weapon can be brought down by 8-12 unarmed bodies piling on him at once.  Would it work?  Would people do it?  I have no idea; all I can say is that both these things would be more effective than banning rifles with pistol grips.

Continue reading Megan McArdle, fighting back, and the detractors of both.