In the wake of the Jew-hating shooting in Kansas, the National Council of Young Israel, an Orthodox network, is urging Jews, on the last days of Passover, not to walk home alone from synagogue.

With all due respect to Young Israel, that advice is just silly and only reinforces victimhood.

Do you honestly think that a Jew-hating murderer is going to be deterred by two or more unarmed Jews strolling to or from synagogue?

Robert J. Avrech
April 20, 2014
Young Israel Urges Jews Not To Walk Home Alone
[I see nothing wrong with two more people walking together to protect one another. The real point is that when there is significant risk of being attack being unarmed is taking an unnecessary risk.—Joe]

Deciding that they should organize a protest outside of the NRA annual meeting in Indianapolis, gun control advocates “flocked” to show their disdain for American gun-owners… But, there was only one problem: With a mere 25 people deciding to show up for the rally, the “protest” looked more like an OFA global warming meeting.

Apparently, two dozen people was the absolute most the anti-gun group, Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence, was able to gather for the afternoon… Heck, I could probably attract a larger crowd by handing out high-capacity sodas on any given afternoon.

Michael Schaus
April 28, 2014
Bloomberg Is His Own Worst Enemy on Gun-Control
[David Hardy was there and took a picture with his cell phone (they blocked his video camera). I cannot count more than 25 in his picture yet “Moms Demand Action” claim there were “More than 100…”. And in the comments JT Niggle points out that on their Facebook page they claim “over 300”. They do have a picture up that might have 100 people in it but there is no way they have 300.

Anti-gun people almost always seem to have a problem with numbers. This is just one more example.—Joe]

During Michael Bloomberg’s three terms as mayor of New York, he loved nothing more than to lord over the nation’s largest city. Now he’s just a normal civilian multibillionaire, sitting right below the prime minister of India on the Forbes list of the world’s most powerful people — a lowly position that is no doubt a source of immense personal disappointment. Short of patrolling New York’s parks in a spandex bodysuit to inflict vigilante justice on cigarette smokers and super-sized Slurpee drinkers, what’s a rich ex-mayor to do?

Luckily for Bloomberg, in American politics, controlling sublime amounts of capital is its own qualification, and lavishing it on pet issues counts as philanthropy. And this time, without an elected office to use for a pulpit, he’s going to need that money: After attacking tobacco and soda, Bloomberg is coming for guns.

Malcolm Harris
April 25, 2014
The real reason Michael Bloomberg cares about guns
[I think I found this via a post on Facebook but I can’t find it now to give the appropriate credit.

Bloomberg loves power and ordinary people having access to guns erodes some of that power.—Joe]

The National Rifle Association is successful because it is popular, because its members are highly engaged, because it is defending a right that is enumerated in the nation’s founding document and a tradition that is cherished by members of both major political parties, because its opponents routinely embarrass themselves with their hysteria and with their lack of rudimentary knowledge about the topic at hand, and, most of all, because it is a single-issue organization that maintains its focus.

Charles C. W. Cooke
April 27, 2014
The NRA’s Next Challenge: Its Success
[H/T to bitterb.

There are other problems with success as well. You get lazy. An organization can rot from the inside and only have an empty shell that looks imposing but doesn’t have the inner strength to take on the next opponent.

This is why I think it is good that the NRA has competitors for the dollars and grassroot minds of gun owners, such as SAF, CCRKBA, hundreds of state organizations, and even GOA and JPFO.

I want each of these organizations to be constantly thinking and working to improve themselves. They should be constantly asking themselves, “How can we be more successful in crushing the enemies of the Second Amendment? How can we repeal ineffective, stupid laws that infringe upon the rights of innocent people?”

NRA and gun owners in general are headed in the right direction but our current set of infringing laws and oppressive public sentiment has been decades in the making and it will probably be decades more before the likes of The Brady Campaign, Bloomberg and friends, The Violence Policy Center, and Coalition to Stop Gun Violence are as despised as much as the KKK are now. The NRA, and gun owners in general, need to keep the final goal in mind as well as fighting and winning the individual battles.

As Cooke points out this will require some focus and discipline. It would be easy for a lot of the supporters of the NRA to dilute its power by branching out into issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and racial issues. Our opponents recognize this as our softest spot and frequently attack it. Don’t make their jobs easier. The issue is the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. As soon as our opponents veer to another topic call them on it. Announce they must be admitting defeat on the topic at hand. If the best they have are dick jokes and absurd claims of race or a “war on women” then most people will recognize the crazy rants for what they are.—Joe]