I don’t even drink the stuff but I like this:
As the NRA says, the Brady Campaign will say anything at anytime to get what they want:
Yesterday, however, the Brady Campaign spoke with a new enthusiasm for “states [and cities’] rights,” demanding that Congress “Let D.C. residents govern themselves,” while complaining “Every year we see members of Congress interfering with the fundamental American principle of self-government.” This nonsense follows the group’s opposition to limiting state and local power over the right to keep and bear arms through the Supreme Court’s McDonald v. Chicago decision last year.
The Brady Campaign should stop their hypocrisy and phony arguments. The notion that the group believes in the Tenth Amendment is laughable. Everyone knows that the group believes in restricting the right to keep and bear arms any way it can, with federal gun control, state gun control, local gun control, by executive regulation, by court decisions, by lawsuits designed to bankrupt gun manufacturers, and by any other means it can think of. Trying to cast itself as a defender of our country’s federal system, it only discredits itself even more than usual.
Is it that they have crap for brains or do they think everyone else is afflicted?
In other news their YouTube videos viewing statistics are telling:
Compare that to my video, Planting the Seeds for Gun Owner Rights in India , added 2 days ago with 124 views.
When some third tier, part time gun blogger in the middle of Idaho throws together a crude video of some people going shooting and gets 10 times the attention than a D.C. based organization with the ear of movie stars, the Speaker of the House, and a former U.S. president it’s a sure thing that Paul Helmke isn’t earning his 250K/year salary. They should just fold up shop or break out the Tequila while we maintain a suicide watch.
Although some government officials may wish otherwise, protected speech is called “protected” for a reason. The courts will safeguard it at the financial peril of those who violate the Constitution. Parody cannot be criminalized, and those who create parody cannot be treated as criminals.
Erica Goldberg
June 7, 2011
Court Holds Prosecutor Personally Liable for Unconstitutional Search of Student Who Created a Parody Newsletter
[H/T Say Uncle.
Someday we need to leverage this ruling or others like it into legal action against those that violate our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]
There is no legal basis to the idea that the Second Amendment protects the right of an individual to take up arms against the government.
Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
June 7, 2011
The Truth About ‘Second Amendment Remedies’: How to Counter Insurrectionist Arguments
[I see. Are they saying there is no law, no act, no outrage so terrible that the individual has no legal option but to endure it?
It seems to me people of that mindset are inviting a future which resembles the worst of our past and the most dystopian of our visions. When the police are again the KKK and the police battalions become executions squads will the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence still be advocating for compliance?
I can only see two possible reasons for these people to make such claims. Either they are either incredibly naïve useful idiots or they are advocates for tyranny.—Joe]
Please do not ignore my warning. Once your gun rights are gone, there is no way to get them back.
Name Held By Request
June 7, 2011
Don’t Make Brazil’s Gun Rights Loss Be America’s Future
[H/T to Jeff.
I knew gun owners in Brazil had won the referendum in 2005 but I did not know, “This vote has been disregarded by the Supreme Court, that uphold government right to regulate all aspects of gun possession. Today, a Brazilian can not have even a sword, like those samuri, for example, nor a simple pellet gun or a copy of a pellet pistol that vaguelly or accuratelly represents a real gun. Children cannot even play ‘guns’.”
One has to wonder how things could have changed so drastically in less than 6 years without the “Tree of Liberty” being refreshed.—Joe]
See that smile? That is why we win.
What can the Brady Campaign do to compete with that?
This was a private Boomershoot party on Saturday. There were lots of smiles that day. The video below gives some hints as to how they were generated:
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government.
Senator John Sharp Williams
From Respectfully quoted: a dictionary of quotations found in Williams works, Thomas Jefferson: His Permanent Influence on American Institutions, p. 49 (1913). Lecture delivered at Columbia University, New York City, 1912.
Although this is often attributed to Jefferson himself this is probably false with Williams deserving most of the credit.
[This certainly applies to many many instances of bad government. I suspect it is a direct effect of power corrupting. The more power a government has the more it becomes corrupted. The only real solution, realized at the time our country was founded, was to enumerate and limit the power of government. Now that those enumerations and limitations are ignored we again have corrupted and bad government.—Joe]
I like the republican idea of guns in bars better – a great way to cull the gene pool in my estimation.
J_Spicoli
June 2, 2011
In answer the the Yahoo question, How did The Brady Campaign successfully block the republican “Guns on Campus” bill in Texas?
[To disambiguate this guys orientation I did looked at a bunch of his other answers. He is a big Obama supporter so I presume he is generally anti-gun.
Regardless of his orientation this guy has crap for brains. There is no justification for advocating the death of innocent people. This is just another example of violence being part of the nature of liberals.—Joe]
This appears to be a little old but it’s still interesting to me that the Brady Campaign is asking people to work for them for free. I guess being on the wrong side of history doesn’t pay very well:
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its sister organization, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, are the nation’s largest, non-partisan, grassroots organizations leading the fight to prevent gun violence. We are devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.
Overview of the Communications Department
The Communications Department develops and implements the public education and message strategy for all organizations (Campaign/MMM,Center, VEF) through print, video, audio and television outlets. The Department plans press conferences, writes press releases, op-eds, articles and editorial reports and supervises content and design of the organization’s website ensuring that legislative, outreach, fundraising and message delivery are as effective as possible.
Description of Internship
Graphics and Video interns work with the Communications Director and our Internet Advocacy Department to create and edit videos for the Brady websites and to expand and improve the use of graphics in the design of online and offline materials. Interns are also expected to pitch in on administrative tasks related to research, public affairs, or fundraising. The organization uses Apple’s Final Cut Pro and Adobe design programs such as Creative Suite, Photoshop, and Illustrator.
Interns should have the ability to:
1) Conceptualize, shoot, and edit digital videos quickly, sometimes on a daily basis
2) Translate concepts, statistics, and written materials into visual presentations
3) Excellent interpersonal and communication (both verbal and written) skills
4) A strong team orientation
5) High level of initiative.We are now taking resumes for bachelor or graduate level interns for the Spring 2010 semester.
Also note that they state it is there goal to “creating an America free from gun violence”. This is in despite of the Supreme court rules that people have a specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms to defend themselves. So how can the Brady campaign achieve their goal without violating the right to use firearms in self defense? As already admitted by Brady Board Member Joan Peterson any death by gunshot is too many and that she will continue to push for more restrictions on guns until the number goes to 0. Hence, the Brady Campaign is trying to push us down the slippery slope they claim doesn’t exist all the while they are telling their staff and supporters the real goal is zero deaths via gunshots—which is their code phrase for zero guns.
The single bloody thread that runs through these incidents is the easy accessability we allow our citizens to the most lethal categories of firearms, such as handguns. After these shootings a predictable pattern emerges, we quickly look for a loophole to be plugged, a limited law that could be better enforced, or other `common sense’ solutions, while never stepping back to look at the big picture: the freeflow of guns in our nation. America’s gun violence problem will not be solved by licensing and registration, trigger locks, or lamentations over the evil in men’s hearts. These tragic shootings are America’s future until we eliminate handguns, the tools that make such violence possible.
Josh Sugarmann
March 5, 2001
Santana High School Shooting Latest Proof of Need For Handgun Ban
[This quote is from over 10 years ago but we can’t let the world forget this is their goal. It is because of statements like these Sugarmann and friends are probably more of a problem for the Brady Campaign than gun owners these days. This kind of talk make it difficult for Helmke and friends to argue there is no slippery slope.—Joe]
Registration allows guns which are used in crimes to be tracked to help law enforcement to learn where they came from, and to target that source. The only reason to oppose such a measure is to allow the trade in illegal guns to continue, and to allow people to be killed by them.
baldguy
May 27, 2011
I’ve said it many times: as a start, register every gun; license every gun owner.
[The “only reason to oppose such a measure”? That bald guy is severally lacking in imagination. I think one only needs a single counter example when dozens are possible. But even that is the wrong approach. The correct approach to demand such dimwits demonstrate the effectiveness of such a proposal when there are so many examples of their failure. Unless, of course, they are measuring effectiveness in a far different manner than sane people.—Joe]
The sad reality is we really don’t do much of anything to prevent the bad guys from getting guns. It is harder to get cigarettes and cough medicine in this country…than it is to get guns.
Paul Helmke
May 19, 2011
Police Chief Dodd says Chattanooga can’t arrest its way out of the gang and gun problem
[Wow! Lying comes so easy to him. Since when do people need to fill out a government form and submit to a background check from the FBI to buy cigarettes or cough medicine?
It appears he has no shame or suspicion that nearly everyone will know he is lying. Could it be the money he earns or is he a sociopath?—Joe]
It never ceases to amaze me that so many can get so upset over something so innocuous as simply leaving people alone.
Lyle@UltiMAK
May 31, 2011
Comment to Quote of the day—Dave Workman.
[Yeah. Amazing isn’t it? But yet it happens over so many things like homosexuality, skin color, what (if any) religious beliefs you observe, and how many rounds of ammo your gun holds. Why should there even need to be constitutional protection for something so innocuous?—Joe]
A year after passage, the Civil Rights Act was the subject of a report from President Grant to Congress which stated that parts of the South were under the control of Ku Klux Klans, the objects of which were “to deprive colored citizens of the right to bear arms and of the right to a free ballot ….” In debate on a bill to expand civil rights protection, Senator John Scott explained how Klansmen seized the firearms of their victims before lynching them. But Senator Pratt observed that the Klansman “fears the gun” of a man in his “humble fortress.” The Klan targeted the black who would “tell his fellow blacks of their legal rights, as for instance their right to carry arms and defend their persons and homes.”
In sum, the Civil Rights Act of 1871 was understood to provide a remedy to persons who were deprived of the right to carry firearms for self defense. This is such a case.
Stephan P. Halbrook
May 25, 2011
AMICUS CURIAE BRIEF OF CONGRESS OF RACIAL EQUALITY, INC., IN SUPPORT OF APPELLANTS AND IN SUPPORT OF REVERSAL
EDWARD PERUTA, et at., Plaintiffs-Appellants v. COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, et at., Defendants-Appellees
[Via David Hardy.
The right to keep and bear arms is a civil right. The first laws in this country to deprive people of this specific enumerated right were specifically intended to keep slaves, and sometimes more generally all “people of color”, from possessing firearms. When governments expand the prohibitions to include nearly all people what they are implicitly saying is the people in general should be treated as slaves with the upside down relationship of the public servants being treated as the masters.
This arrogance of public servants cannot be tolerated. Sometimes servants need to be reminded of their position in life. This is one of those times.—Joe]
Wisconsin would not be in its present situation had it not been for anti-gun former Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat. He twice vetoed concealed carry legislation that had been supported by most people on both sides of the issue that would have included permits. His actions have resulted in something of a civil rights backlash, with many gun owners now pushing for full carry rights without a permit. It’s essentially payback for Doyle and a handful of Democrats who refused to override his vetoes. If Wisconsin’s Legislature adopts constitutional carry, the blame, or credit depending upon one’s perspective, lies at Doyle’s feet and nobody else’s. He had two chances to be “reasonable,” as the gun control crowd always puts it, and he blew them both.
Why this is important to gun rights advocates in the Pacific Northwest should be obvious. Washington has one of the strongest state constitutional right-to-bear-arms provisions in the nation. Open carry has been legal here since before statehood, as noted yesterday. CPLs were not required until 1933. We can carry right now in the Capitol and legislative office buildings, a fact that gives gun prohibitionists heartburn. A growing contingent of Evergreen State gun owners think we ought to return to the “good old days” and point to Alaska, Arizona (which has a state constitutional provision identical to Washington’s) and Vermont as examples of properly minimal gun regulation.
If Wisconsin adopts, right out of the gate, a constitutional carry measure where no concealed carry provision existed previously, then 2012’s legislative session in Olympia just might see the same proposal. In an election year, that could create a degree of political discomfort for lawmakers who do not care to rile this state’s activist gun owners.
Dave Workman
May 26, 2011
WI panel OKs gun bill; columnist shows bankruptcy of anti-CCW mindset
[The repression of a group over a long period of time spawns resentment. This resentment can result in a demand for “justice” that far exceeds the original modest requests. For many decades gun owners have been treated as second and third class citizens instead of first class as have those that exercised other specific enumerated rights such as freedom of speech.
Those that lament our recent successes in our regaining the recognition of our rights should celebrate that we found success in the courts and the legislatures rather than through our method of last of resort. I suspect we were far closer to the breaking point than the other side realized. Hence our gains are far more modest than they really should be but there is the benefit of the gains being obtained without the shedding of blood. For that both sides can and should celebrate that the system is working.—Joe]
The first thing I ever thought of when I thought of “Buffy: The Movie” was the little…blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed, in every horror movie. The idea of “Buffy” was to subvert that idea, that image, and create someone who was a hero where she had always been a victim.
Joss Whedon
Welcome to the Hellmouth DVD Commentary from Wikiquote.
[The idea of the right to bear arms is the same.
About 70% of the people in the firearms classes I have taught have been women. All of them were taking the class so they could get a concealed weapons license. I don’t consider them heroes. They are ordinary individuals exercising their natural rights.
We create people who can and will defend themselves against evil. We create a society of individuals who can, will, and must respect the sanctity of life and the dignity of others.
The Brady Campaign has a vested interest in the “little blonde girl” getting killed in the dark alley because that is how they perpetuate their organization. The more victims the more they can dance in the blood and the more donations they get. They create victims and call them heroes and experts. This has to stop. It has to stop with my generation and I intend to help make it so.—Joe]
John Richardson has an easy way to send the ATF a message about the ATFs efforts to register multiple sales of certain rifles.
From the USPSA:
Attention all Junior Shooters!
This year’s camp is going to be the best yet! This year the scheduled instructors include Phil Strader, Max Michel, Randi Rogers, B.J. Norris, Matt Burkett, and Manny Bragg! This year’s camp is going to be in Parma, ID on July 22nd – 24th. Price is $260 per junior shooter and includes lodging for the shooter and his/her guardian. All of our former sponsor are once again showing their support by donating prizes, cash for scholarships and Remington has even offered to provide each junior shooter with 500 rounds of ammo! For more information check out the camps website at www.juniorshootercamp.org. There is a limit of 60 shooters so get your entries in soon!
The camp is the weekend before the MGM Targets Grand Nationals Man on Man Shoot Off (modeled after the American Handgunner World Shoot Off) www.mgmtargets-grandnats.com. This will be a great vacation for families that enjoy shooting!
Camp Staff
Here is a story from the 2010 camp.
I wonder what the Brady Campaign has to offer the young to pick their sides in the war over gun ownership rights. Oh! That’s right. They just have sad stories and obvious lies to tell.
The Second Amendment is not about what I need. It’s about what I want — as long as I obey the law with it. If we start restricting everything to what we need, we are going to be a very boring society.
Clark Aposhian
May 27, 2011
Utah market shows a boom in military-style guns
[While correct this is a little bit weak. More forceful would be “The Second Amendment is not about what I need. It is about what the government is forbidden to do. The question of ‘need” is what must be demanded of the government and never the individual. It is a Bill of Rights. It is not a bill of needs.”—Joe]
Via email from Jeff Knox:
From: The Firearms Coalition’s e-Update
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 4:55 PM
Subject: [Fcalerts e-Update] Immediate Action Alert!
Immediate Action Alert . . . . FirearmsCoalition.org
Immediate Action Needed – Window Closes Tuesday!!
Copy the text of the email below or rewrite it in your own words and email it to:
The comment period for the ATF’s proposed “temporary,” emergency regulation requiring firearms dealers to file reports every time someone purchases more than one semi-auto long gun was reopened, but that comment period closes this Tuesday, May 31.
During the last comment period on this gun owners were outnumbered by the prohibitionists. That should NEVER happen! We outnumber them 10 to one and our response to outrageous proposals like this should reflect that numbers advantage.
The ATF claims the reporting is necessary to combat the flow of firearms across the border into Mexico, but in light of the “Gunwalker” scandal currently being investigated in Congress and by the Justice Department Inspector General’s office, it looks like ATF is the problem, not the solution.
Some implications of the Project Gunwalker scandal are that ATF has already been receiving significant, voluntary cooperation from gun dealers in the border states, but that the agency has used that cooperation more to build inflate the numbers of illegally “trafficked” weapons as a way of justifying their existence.
Beyond the complications of Project Gunwalker, the idea of requiring reporting of multiple long gun sales is clearly in conflict with established congressional mandates and restrictions on ATF’s authority. By attempting to push through this major regulatory change without congressional approval (which they could not get), ATF is seriously overstepping their legal authority.
Please copy and paste the following note into an email or write your own and get it submitted as soon as possible. Also, please do the following: Cc info@FirearmsCoalition.org so we have some record of responses; Send copies to your Senators and Representative and ask that they send their own notes of opposition to ATF; Be sure to repost this Alert to all of your friends and every pro-gun forum you can find. We must have an overwhelming response to this.
Sample comment:
To: oira_submission@omb.eop.gov
Subject: Oppose Regulation Expanding Multiple Sale Reporting
I am writing to oppose the Information collection action to register multiple sales of certain rifles with BATFE from the 04/29/2011 Federal Register: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-04-29/pdf/2011-10355.pdf
This information collection is both illegal and unnecessary.
* The action proposed is outside the statutory grant of authority to record information about multiple sales of firearms. Title 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(3)(A) specifically grants the authority to collect multiple sale information on handguns and revolvers. Other firearms are excluded and there is no implied authority to extend this reporting requirement to rifles or any other type of firearm.
* Analysis of the number of firearms seized shows that Mexico is being primarily supplied with firearms by South American countries, NOT the United States. In fact, a STRATFOR report indicates that fully 90% of the firearms traced in Mexico are NOT coming from the United States, contrary to assertions in the mainstream media: http://wwwprod-1756134246.us-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com/index.php?q=weekly/20110209-mexicos-gun-supply-and-90-percent-myth.
Additionally, Wikileaks cables have shown the US Government is at least partially responsible for supplying Mexico from the United States: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2011/02/pentagon-fingered-source-narco-firepower-mexico. These firearms are NOT from the US commercial market.
* Source documents of the BATFE uncovered by US Senator Grassley and US Representative Issa show that BATFE has been complicit in supplying Mexican Narco-terrorist forces with firearms: http://www.scribd.com/doc/49971654/2011-03-03-CEG-to-DOJ-ATF.
* ”FFL” holders are already required by law to respond to BATFE requests for information on firearms distribution pursuant to criminal investigations: Title 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(7).
* The regulation contains no provision for the destruction of information collected, which establishes a nationwide registry of “certain types of firearms” as proposed. Because of this the regulation, as proposed, is illegal under Title 18 U.S.C. § 926(a). ”No such rule or regulation … may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or disposition be established.”
There is a grave potential for this regulation to unduly burden citizens who are collectors or must obtain purchase permits at the local or state level to possess firearms. The proposed regulation does not say what the agency intends to do with the information but ostensibly it would be for criminal investigations. Subjecting law abiding gun owners to this type of investigation under the guise of “information collection” is an overt attempt to prevent them from exercising their 2nd Amendment rights to purchase and own firearms.
This regulatory action should not be approved.
# # #
Whether you use this specific language, edit it, or compose a letter of your own, please take action immediately! Do not put off sending a comment!
Comments must be received by Tuesday May 31, 2011.
Repost — Repost — REPOST!!
Please Send Your Comments Immediately and cc to info@FirearmsCoalition.org.
Thank you for your Action!
Jeff Knox
Director, The Firearms Coalition
www.FirearmsCoalition.org