If you want to actually understand why gun control failed, let’s try a simple exercise. Raise your hand if you had a strong opinion about the background check bill that was in front of Congress.
Keep your hand raised if you know how your own Senator voted on it. Otherwise put your hand down.
Keep your hand raised if you actually live in a state that might plausibly elect a Republican to congress.
Okay, now keep your hand raised if that bill was in the top one or two issues that you’ll be voting on in 2014 or 2016. By which I mean, if your Senator votes the wrong way on that bill, you will vote for anyone who opposes them. Anyone–even someone with the wrong opinions on gay marriage, social security reform, transportation subsidies, the Keystone XL pipeline, carbon taxes, marginal tax rates on people who make more than $250k per annum, the deficit, and student loan repayment programs.
Now look around. Aside from those three guys in the back from Handgun Control Inc., do you know who still has their hand raised? NRA members.
— Memo: The Aaron Sorkin Model of Political Discourse Doesn’t Actually Work
Category: Uncategorized
Überpost Update (Bumped)
This one’s going to be long and link-filled. Still working on it, bear with me.
UPDATE: (4/23, 10:10PM CDT) It’s at about 5,800 words now. Instead of finishing it tonight, I went to see Oblivion. Enjoyed it very much. I will try very hard to have the post done for Thursday. I promise.
Quote of the Day – Compromise Edition
Michael Z. Williamson wins today’s Quote of the Day with this beauty from his Facebook page:
I am the counter to the extreme “no guns” camp. I am the “legalize nukes” camp. Somewhere in the middle is a bargaining point. As long as it includes machine guns and cannon, I’m willing to compromise on nukes.
What I am not willing to do is say, “We gave up nukes, arty, machine guns, so let’s compromise on rifles.” Because that is NOT compromise, it is piecemeal surrender, with nothing given in return.
In exchange for compromising on nukes, I expect the CMP to not only sell weapons to civilians, but to furnish a crate of ammo per buyer every 5 years, to support its Congressionally mandated charter of equipping the militia–all able bodied adults.
See? Compromise. 🙂
Adventures in Closed Captioning
Two in a Row for Marko
Mr. Munchkin Wrangler (aka Maj. Caudill) gets his second Quote of the Day in a row:
Take away your ability to defend yourself against armed criminals, then send the 82nd Law Enforcement Division (Mechanized) into your residential neighborhood to flush out said criminals. Once again, government breaks your legs, hands you a pair of crutches, and tells you that if it wasn’t for government, you wouldn’t be able to walk. And people APPLAUD that shit?
Amen. (Internal link is mine, not his.)
Houston!
One thousand ninety-eight miles, just over fifteen hours on the road, and I’m here! Just got checked in, still need to unpack, then I’m going to verify the route to the training center so I can get there easily tomorrow morning.
More writing tonight, I hope, but the Überpost probably won’t go up before I go to bed.
Quote of the Day – Marko Kloos Edition
From a Facebook post:
I like George Takei, but I find it amazing that somebody who has been personally put into an internment camp by his government can hold the position that only the government should have guns.
Ft. Stockton
Checked into a hotel room at 6PM after departing Tucson at 7AM. Two-hour time shift involved, so I was on the road for eight hours, with about an hour’s stop in El Paso for food and fuel. Averaged 73MPH and 24.6MPG. (I love that just East of El Paso the speed limit on I-10 is 80!)
Just checked the comments. How did you guys get access to my Überpost draft? Dammit, you’re making my arguments for me! That’s my job!
Tomorrow, on to Houston!
Headed for Houston
So tomorrow morning bright and early I’m headed out for Houston. My plan is to stop in Ft. Stockton, and then drive on to Houston Sunday. I’m taking the ‘Stang.
I’ll be taking a technical class for two weeks, but at the end of it is the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting, which happens to be scheduled at the same time as a major gun-blogger get-together! I’m really looking forward to meeting a lot of people I’ve read but never shared meatspace with, and seeing others that I only have met once or thrice.
I am working on another Überpost, but it probably won’t go up before Sunday night at the earliest.
And congratulations to the various Massachusetts police departments who got to put on their full battle-rattle, drive around in their armored vehicles and practice house-to-house searches while looking for a guy who was actually outside the perimeter they’d set up. But they got him, and I’m glad. Thankfully for Chris Matthews, both of the bombers were Caucasian (by definition!) but they were Muslims apparently practicing Jihad. Who’s the sad clown now?
More Bullet Hoses
Now, tell me again that these “weapons of war” have “no place in civil society,” that they’re only good for “killing large numbers of people quickly, indiscriminately.”
Edited to add:
