Quote of the day
The NRA got seventy five thousand people to come to Pittsburgh in the rain, in a weak economy, in late April. A rusty old northern industrial city was so packed with people you couldn’t find a place to park, and every restaurant, motel and tavern was doing land office business.
On the other hand, the Bradys couldn’t get seventy five people to a Nevada brothel if they were offering complementary … er… services, yet in the mind of the WAPO, they’re a force to be reckoned with.
May 2nd, 2011 at 1:12 pm
I’m still waiting to hear how many shooting related incidents occurred at this NRA event since, I read, that there was indeed firearms carry by civilian citizens attending the convention? Incessantly we are told by the anti-civil rights crowd that events and circumstances of this nature will lead to ‘blood in the streets’? So what’s the tally? Anyone know?
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May 2nd, 2011 at 1:19 pm
The Brady’s are a force to be reckoned with because they have the full power of the liberal media shilling for them.
If the NRA had the Brady’s press support we’d have nation wide constitutional carry and you’d be though weird for NOT carrying a gun.
May 2nd, 2011 at 1:24 pm
I would like to see the crime prevention impact that the NRA had on the Burgh over the weekend.
May 2nd, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Free brothel services aren’t going to entice people who lack the appropriate equipment.
May 2nd, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Can we get off the “rusty old industrial city”? Unlike, say, Detroit or Clevland, Pittsburgh has done a great job moving away from it’s steel industry roots. It’s not particularly run down anymore.
May 2nd, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Bryan,
Probably nil, if it could be measured. Although I feel Lott’s work is rock-solid, there is enough legitimate uncertainty in the history and presentation of the More Guns = Less Crime claim as to leave a point of attack for our opponents (they will ad hominem Lott instead of facing the data). Getting off into how “good” lawful carry is for society on that data is an unecessary distraction.
Remember, the lawful exercise of -any- fundamental Right, including the RKBA, does not hinge on having any measurable positive impact on society, in this case lower crime rates or increased “public safety”, it is enough to simply have -no- effect.
We can prove “no effect or slight positive” six ways from Sunday with “unstained” data. After all, that’s what the critical follow-ups to Lott’s work found, at -worst-.
We don’t have to defend ourselves with that kind of data anyway, the key is continually pointing out that in American society the burden is on the restricter to demonstrate that lawful exercise, however unrestricted, not only causes a negative impact but enough of a negative impact to overcome the overwhelming presumption in favor of the law-abiding.
Getting caught up in “less crime” arguments is proving the negative and is unsound from a criminological standpoint (crime simply has too many facets to control for).
We need to frame our argument as
1) We have the inalienable Right to begin with
2) the Brady bunch have failed over decades to come up with solid studies showing a negative to its exercise
3) Neutral (and negative, CDC) peer-reviewed science over those same decades has failed to demonstrate any of the “reasonable restrictions” and “common sense gun control” have worked anywhere they’ve been tried.
So the question to keep asking is, if they revere freedom like we do and the evidence, of which they are aware, says they are wrong in trying to restrict that freedom, why do the Brady’s persist on trying to restrict a fundamental Right with no evidence?
Particularly under this, friendly to them in theory, administration which was going to be all about ” good science” leading the way on policy.
May 2nd, 2011 at 1:50 pm
Matthew, it went down 45% in Charlotte.
Correlation not causation and all. But still.
May 2nd, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Stormy Dragon – No offense intended, I meant rusty in a “rough, tough, and full of guts” sort of way. I’m from Cleveland, and you guys have a lot to be proud of – I’d never been to Pittsburgh before, and I had a great time. I wish Cleveland was half as nice.
May 2nd, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Well, having been there, I can testify that many shots (of Bourbon) was discharged that weekend. : )
May 2nd, 2011 at 4:52 pm
There were no shhoting incidents at the nra meet because the hypocritical nra prohibited guns.
May 2nd, 2011 at 4:55 pm
kwikrnu, they did? I carried one every where I went. Openly.
May 2nd, 2011 at 5:25 pm
The Bradys couldn’t book a brothel for a meeting because the brothel wouldn’t want the competition.
May 2nd, 2011 at 5:35 pm
kwikrnu, I also openly carried a sidearm, a loaded sidearm, everywhere i went on the show floor.
And the convention center could not say squat because of preemption laws here, and I think the management wouldn’t care either way.
May 2nd, 2011 at 5:38 pm
@kwikrnu…
No, the NRA did NOT prohibit. I was actually stopped when we (JayG, Weer’d, Uncle, and myself) were walking into the convention center Friday morning, and the gentleman who stopped me shook my hand, and thanked me for open carrying.
I carried openly, as did SayUncle, each and every day. There were times when I walked right past a cop, and got a smile and nod.
May 2nd, 2011 at 6:05 pm
Uncle,
I’m not denying it, it’s just the (potentially) weakest and least necessary of our arguments.
If we tout “crime reduction” all the time and focus on it to the detriment of the central issue being the RKBA as trump regardless of crime, and it being their burden to justify restricting it, the minute a reduction doesn’t happen during a Con or after a carry bill we lose credibility and undercut ourselves.
It puts us in the position of defending to the public why it didn’t happen this time instead of continuing to hammer the anti’s to put up or shut up with their “evidence”. The best defense is a good offense, and we’ve got a great one.
If we stick to the unassailable (by rational people) arguments and then throw in “and crime seems to go down most of the time during conventions/when carry laws get passed/ etc., for what that’s worth” as a casual throwaway on the end we can still get that point out without making it so central that attacks on it by the anti’s can cloud our overall message to the undecided.
Just a tactical preference on my part.
May 2nd, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Yep, I OC’d at the Convention Center (and all around the Town). But surprisingly, most people there didn’t. I did get a few people at the Convention Center asking me how I was able to OC. When I explained the rules, a few people said, “But why didn’t the NRA tells us we could?” But I’m sure there were a lot of CCW Permits floating around the floor. I’ll tell you this, the Radisson on Thursday Night treated us well, and they had no Problem with OC. Walking around the streets Friday night, my Smith 4043 hanging out in the breeze, well, it was nice, very nice. Saturday Night I wore the Baby Browning, but it was a more formal Event.