Gun Nuts Media

Immaculately polished with the spirit of a hustler and the swagger of a college kid.

–noun

Seeing as anymore in politics, “moderate” has become synonymous with “progressive”, I now have to abandon my label as a “moderate”. Because honestly, when I think about it – I’m not. I’m an advocate for individual liberty, which is no longer a value considered to be moderate. Oh well, c’est la vie, it was just a label anyway.

Breda has her wrap-up of Gun Nuts from Tuesday, along with pics of the awesome shirt she wore while hosting.

People who think socialized health care is a good idea.

People who care about Obama’s birth certificate.

People who think that “concealed carry = potential criminal”.

People who think we should just stop all immigration, legal or otherwise.

But the number one thing that I don’t get today comes our own pro-gun team – for the life of me, I do not get the compulsion that some of my pro-gun friends and fellow bloggers have to engage in near constant debate with anti-gunners on the blogs and websites of said anti-gunners, or at HuffPo or wherever else the battles are met.  I just don’t get it.  I mean, we’re not going to win these arguments, and the foes with which we’re engaging (the likes of mikeb, jadegold and skyewriter) aren’t exactly what you’d call intellectual heavies either.

Maybe one of ya’ll can enlighten me – what’s the sauce in this?  I don’t see the payoff, but there has to be a reason for it, right?

Sebastian has the full breakdown of the vote on the Thune Amendment, which despite the “yes” votes having almost a 20% majority was defeated yesterday due to parliamentary rules (more on that later).  The final tally was 58 yes, 39 no votes.  Among those “no” votes was Senator Lugar from Indiana, who abandoned Indiana gun owners by voting against this amendment.

I got an email late yesterday evening asking me “if we had the majority, how did we lose”?  Well the simple answer is that we didn’t have enough of a majority – according to the agreement on the amendment, for it to pass and be added to the bill it would have needed 60 votes in the full Senate to be passed, and as you can see we only had 58.  But think about that for a minute.  In the most Democrat-heavy Senate in my lifetime, we pulled down 58 votes for an amendment that would have radically altered the landscape of gun laws in this nation.

NRA said “we’ll be back, and this bill will be coming with us” – which is exactly the right play.  There is blood in the figurative water right now, as the Democrats are weak on gun control, and for the most part are avoiding the issue.  Even Evan Bayh, Indiana’s Democrat Senator voted for this legislation.

Meanwhile, the Brady Campaign and VPC are trumpeting this as a “victory”.  While it is technically a win for them, I think it quite clearly demonstrates the state of Gun Control in this nation – where Paul Helmke and Co.’s best victory is receive less than 40% of the vote and only win because the pro-gun faction didn’t have a large enough majority.  58% of the Senate voted for the right to keep and bear arms.  Look at that list of Senators at Sebastian’s blog.  If your Senator is on the list of “yes” votes, call them and thank them for supporting the right to keep and bear arms.

If they’re on the “no” list, find out when they’re up for re-election.  Even if you live in a state like Indiana where it’s nearly a foregone conclusion that Dick Lugar will get re-elected, we have to do what we can to remind people that gun owners vote.

I just got word that the Nationwide Reciprocity amendment failed to pass by 2 votes. We had a large majority, but needed 60 votes to pass, and ended up with only 58 yes votes. We had almost a 20% majority, but because of a few key votes, the amendment was defeated.

As mentioned below, Senator Dick Lugar from Indiana was among the “no” votes. Allegedely pro-gun, this is the second time in recent memory that Sen Lugar has shown no interest in expanding and preserving the rights of law abiding Hoosier gun owners. This troubling track record has lead me to the decision to actively work against Sen. Lugar at the next election, assuming his opponent is pro-gun. Turning his back on the law-abiding Hoosiers needs to be a serious mistake for the Senator, and I encourage you to call his office and express your discontent.

They are currently voting on the Thune Amendment on the Senate floor right now. Both Senators from Indiana have voted; here are their votes: Lugar (R) – No, Bayh (D) – Yes.

That’s right, Hoosiers. Our republican and allegedely pro gun Senator voted against nationwide reciprocity, while our Democrat voted to expand the rights of law abiding gun owners. As far as Dick Lugar goes, I will remember how he voted when the next election cycle comes around. If your opponent is even a little pro-gun, I will support them and campaign against you.

The floor vote on the National Right to Carry Amendment is today.  Did you contact your Senators?  Last night, on Gun Nuts Radio we talked about National Right to Carry and the various reasons why it’s a good idea.  If you click the link above, it will take you to the show page so you can hear the discussion on the National Right to Carry – and my personal lament as someone who has family in a state that doesn’t honor my carry permit.  To download a handy .mp3 copy of last night’s show, click here.

After the discussion on Nationwide reciprocity, we moved on to a more lighthearted topic, which was “30 seconds with The President”.  If you had 30 seconds to give President Obama a piece of your mind, what would you say?  You can check out people’s responses by listening to the show from last night.  As always, the show is available on iTunes so you can download, subscribe, and take Gun Nuts Radio with you wherever you go by following these handy instructions: Gun Nuts on iTunes.  You can also go to the iTunes store, search for Gun Nuts Radio, and subscribe that way.

There is a chance that by next week we’ll have our hands on the Daniel Defense DDXV carbine – if so, expect us to have an AR/EBR centered show next Tuesday!