Second Amendment
March 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
As a pensioner, when I’m not blogging, I spend much of my time reading and watching sports on television. But nothing I do these days is more amusing than watching Ted Cruz annoy the legacy Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee and cause some of them to betray their foolishness. The latest victims were Dianne Feinstein and Chairman Patrick Leahy. Feinstein has proposed a ban on 157 different models of
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March 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Sources involved in the investigation of the Sandy Hook murders gave an interview to the Hartford Courant yesterday that included some interesting updates. The paper headlines the fact that Adam Lanza had studied prior mass shootings and may have been trying to outdo killers like Anders Breivik. This is consistent with the observation that mass shooters inspire one another, which is why such incidents tend to appear in streaks. The
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March 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Broad consensus exists for federal gun legislation that would improve background checks. But that consensus doesn’t take the anti-gun crowd even close to where it wants to go. Accordingly, as Charles Cooke reports at NRO, Chuck Schumer acted at the last minute to crowbar oppressive amendments into S. 374, the Senate’s background check legislation. The legislation was then approved by the Judiciary Committee on a 10-8 straight party line vote.
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March 11, 2013 — John Hinderaker
In an interview with Jason Mattera which was conducted last month but is just now hitting the news, Democratic Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky admitted that the Democrats’ effort to ban “assault weapons” is “just the beginning.” In addition, Schakowsky says that she wants to ban all handguns, and thinks this can constitutionally be done, despite the Second Amendment. I think it is obvious that Schakowsky was only saying what a great
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March 7, 2013 — John Hinderaker
That’s the headline you should be seeing, but won’t. Instead, you will see headlines like this one, on CNN: “Study links gun laws and lower gun mortality.” Or this one, from the Chicago Tribune: “States with strict gun laws found to have fewer shooting deaths.” The study they are talking about was conducted by Dr. Eric Fleegler of Boston and published in JAMA Internal Medicine. You can read it here.
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March 7, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s not easy for Senate Republicans successfully to filibuster President Obama’s judicial nominees; nor, in my view, should it be. How, then, did Republicans succeed in blocking Caitlin Halligan’s nomination? The one word answer, if we’re honest, is: guns. It’s not that Halligan’s left-liberalism is confined to Second Amendment issues. It extends to the full range of controversial legal issues as to which she is on record including, most notably,
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March 6, 2013 — John Hinderaker
This is truly shocking. A young woman named Amanda Collins mustered the courage to testify before a Colorado legislative committee on that state’s proposed gun ban legislation. Ms. Collins testified in opposition to a blanket ban on guns on college campuses, and described her own rape. She had a permit to carry a pistol but was unarmed when she was attacked. Ms. Collins was treated sensitively by Republicans on the
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March 3, 2013 — John Hinderaker
I went shooting this afternoon with a friend from church. It was the second time we have gone to the range together; the first time, he said that he hadn’t fired a handgun in something like 30 years. But he shot beautifully; I attribute that to the fact that he is a dentist, which means that his hands are both strong and trained to be steady. Or maybe he is
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March 2, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported yesterday that the State of Minnesota issued 31,657 permits to carry handguns in 2012, a record number. No surprise there. The Strib puts that number in the context of the current debate over gun control, and concludes with these statistics, presented without comment: Minnesota’s permit holders have committed at least 1,159 crimes since 2003, including 114 in which a gun was used, according to the
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February 28, 2013 — John Hinderaker
Specifically, to make sure that Joe Biden never, ever gets his hands on a firearm. Biden loves shotguns–nothing wrong with that, but it appears that every time he fires one, somebody’s life is in danger. Here is the latest: I did one of these town-hall meetings on the Internet and one guy said, “Well, what happens when the end days come? What happens when there’s the earthquake? I live in
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February 23, 2013 — John Hinderaker
President Obama has put Joe Biden in charge of his anti-gun initiatives. In another administration, you might assume that means Biden knows something about guns. In this administration, no such luck. Biden has drawn a lot of criticism for his advice to women who think someone may be trying to break into their house. Don’t buy an AR-15, buy a double-barreled shotgun! Biden says he told his wife Jill (at
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February 21, 2013 — John Hinderaker
To further his gun-ban efforts, President Obama is using his permanent campaign organization, Organizing For Action, to solicit stories about “gun violence.” Some of the stories are no doubt sincere, some–since they are anonymous–are likely fabricated, and some are merely political, like this one from “Keith K.”: As a high school teacher, my students ask me why their lives are not as important as an NRA money. “that’s just the
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February 20, 2013 — John Hinderaker
In our republican form of government, politicians are not our rulers, they are our employees. That goes, too, for the bureaucrats who staff the many federal agencies. But these days, it seems clear that many politicians, and perhaps even more bureaucrats, have lost track of who is working for whom. To cite just one of many examples, President Obama and Congressional Democrats would not have rammed Obamacare through Congress against
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February 19, 2013 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats now control all of the levers of power in Minnesota, so when the national Democratic Party made its gun control push after Newtown, Minnesota Democrats followed suit. Legislation to ban a random selection of semiautomatic rifles and average-capacity magazines for all firearms was introduced here, largely mirroring gun control measures at the federal level and elsewhere. Given the Democrats’ control over both the legislature and the governor’s office,
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February 16, 2013 — John Hinderaker
That isn’t quite what he said, of course. Rather, the topic was guns, and the occasion was the president’s Google Plus “Fireside Hangout” on Thursday: Obama was asked why he favored a ban on assault weapons, which account for only a small percentage of gun deaths, as opposed to handguns, which are responsible for the majority. “I actually don’t think we should ban handguns,” Obama said. “But keep in mind
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February 14, 2013 — John Hinderaker
One month ago, in response to the administration’s gun control initiatives, the NRA produced an ad that called President Obama an “elitist hypocrite” because he sends his children to a school that is protected by armed guards, while insisting that your children be gun-free, i.e., defenseless. I wrote about that ad, which I thought was good, effective and fair, here. The ad was widely denounced, including by some Republicans, for
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February 4, 2013 — John Hinderaker
President Obama passed through Minneapolis today to push his gun control agenda. He met with local law enforcement officers, and delivered a photo-op speech in front of a backdrop of uniformed law enforcement personnel. The speech, while brief, was marked by Obama’s trademark incoherence. Everything is “reasonable,” and “common sense,” and favored by pretty much everyone. And yet, if you actually listen to what he says, it makes no sense
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