I’m telling you
I’ve said three days in a row now but gun control is about to kick up. Just go here and read the headlines.
I think the anti-gunners are mad because two states went CCW this year.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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May 3rd, 2006 at 3:08 am
Well, theyre really just rallying their original base- big city politicians. That this is their worst should be a reminder of how much we have gained.
Remember that the big city political machines used to:
-control much of the news and television in the country
-control an enormous number of congressional seats and electoral votes
-have a national level agenda through these conduits
Now they can make noise and little more. They have been kicked out and tuned out by a good portion of America. Gun control is down to a few islands of nanny-statism. Their policies have failed in their areas and been rejected elsewhere. This is an obvious end-game scenario that many of us have awaited for years.
Yes, we have a lot of work still to do on the national level, but I see momentum favoring us for the time being. Gun owners are remaining politically active, getting good press (well, certainly more than they got in the 70s, 80s or early 90s) and growing in numbers thanks to constant hard work recruiting new gun owners. The gun grabbers are still trotting out the same obvious lies and being applauded by the same irrelevant idiots. They may retain power in their little areas, but I think the 2010 census is going to show a huge exodus out of these areas for a variety of economic and social reasons.
May 3rd, 2006 at 7:29 am
The Op-Ed by the Christian Science Monitor was especially offensive. The same logic goes on that guns are the evil not the criminals. They also seem to think that the ATF should be the ones aiding the frivolous law suits as a means of enforcement. I must be missing something here in the logic. ATF is responsible for enforcement, a lawsuit is not enforcement by sanctions based on demostrable effects in the Civil setting.
Anyone know a good article discussing the ATF restriction from ‘sharing’ the gun crime database with locals? Most of what I find is a bit thin on details and arguments.
May 3rd, 2006 at 7:50 am
Gun owners are … growing in numbers
Based on what figures? Hunting has been on the decline for decades, and while I know that a) it’s easier to pull someone into target shooting than hunting and b) hunting isn’t inherently a sign of the industry overall, I haven’t seen any convincing numbers to tell me that we’re replacing the hunters and other shooters we’re losing. There’s no data from the industry that tells us our numbers are going up. Even with spikes in gun sales after disasters, numbers are still flat.
As for politically active, NRA’s numbers are insanely low and I haven’t heard of a turnaround since this post. (Again, I realize that NRA membership is not the only sign of political activism, but it’s a reasonable one to use.) Considering the way the Bush Administration and Congress have ignored many gun owner issues even with all of their “capital” they had after the last election, I would say that they don’t consider gun owners to be a force that will make a big difference at the polls.
I’m sorry, I certainly wish our numbers were going up. I wish people on our side were more active, but there’s not enough evidence to say that confidently enough to ignore the threats on the horizon. We may have bits and pieces of good news, but it’s not enough for me to think we could withstand a coordinated attack. I’m not just being negative for the sake of bitching. I practice what I preach and get out there to bring in new recruits. I encourage people who either own guns or are not openly hostile to gun rights to pay attention politically. I just don’t think things are as rosy as you want to believe.
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:20 am
NRA down to 3 million members? Since when? A few months back they were at 4.5mil and climbing I thought?
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:18 am
Firearm “facts” from nracentral.com:
Privately owned firearms in the US: over 200 million
Gun owners in the US:
60-65 million
NRA Members: 4.3 million
Hunters Nationwide:
14 million
NRA Certified Instructors:
38,000
Americans taught by NRA Certified Instructors:
over 700,000/year
I think the rhetoric is being turned up in the media becaue the democrats need _something_ to run on. If they can create a sense of alarm about guns, that’s something they can be scared about.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:20 am
Great. The rest of the country gets freedom while they tighten restrictions in the few states that haven’t seen the light– i.e. NY, where I live.
May 3rd, 2006 at 10:51 am
NRA is below 3 million. If they are seeing a rebound (which I have not heard), it might be enough to put them at the 3 million mark since that post. There should be updates (though probably not public) after the annual meeting in a couple of weeks. I’ll listen closely to the public rhetoric because I know exactly how carefully I’d be choosing my words if I were Wayne LaPierre. (And they haven’t been at 4.5 million in YEARS.)
And, in fact, there are more than 50,000 NRA instructors, so that information is way out of date. The hunters is about right according to 2003 data, but the trend downward is continuing.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:38 am
I remember during the Clinton era when it was big news that his gun-grabbing tactics got the NRA’s membership up to 3 million. My guess is that it’s dwindled in recent years because of the relatively favorable political climate. Gunnies are fat and happy, so they don’t see the need to renew their NRA memberships.
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:45 pm
My guess is that it’s dwindled in recent years because of the relatively favorable political climate. Gunnies are fat and happy, so they don’t see the need to renew their NRA memberships.
I think you’re right on this, which makes us our own worst enemies. I’d worry about the decline of hunters more from a “health of the sport” standpoint, but not from a gun rights standpoint. I could be way off in saying this, but in my experience, hunters are next to useless when it comes to fighting for our second amendment rights. I’d be willing to make a bet most of us know more than a few people who hunt who are not NRA members and generally don’t give a shit about the health of the gun culture in general.