Chicago is lame
I have friends who are from The Region who are constantly telling me how awesome Chicago is, and how it’s the best city in blah blah blah and oh it’s so great. I get tired of hearing this, because frankly, Chicago is kind of lame. Sure, they have the Field Museum which is easily one of the top five most bitchin’ museums on God’s green Earth, but other than that, I’m not really impressed.
But you know what really kills me? Chicago, land of the total gun ban, has a murder rate that is 3 times higher than the rest of the country, and 6 times higher than the rest of the state.
When you couple that with the fact that it just can’t compare with a city like Seattle or Boston, Chicago really doesn’t have a whole lot to offer me.
Vote to be held
The House will vote on HR 6691 sometime next month – again, this is the bill that will restore many of the currently denied rights to residents of Washington, DC. Hit the link to GunNuts: The Next Generation blog for more info.
Your girl power is weak, EW
Breda’s list of “girl power” movies is a hell of a lot better.
Her girls kick ass.
Why you can’t trust polls
So, fun little personal anecdote. I had a political survey taker call me yesterday evening and ask me questions about which candidates I intended on supporting in the upcoming presidential and gubernatorial elections. I almost felt bad for the poor girl asking me the questions, because I kept pointing out how the questions were biased towards driving responses toward a specific answer, and she would laugh and giggle like I was being funny.
Two of the questions stand out in my mind – one was along the lines of “Would you rather have a candidate with years of Washington experience, or one who will bring change and new ideas to the established system”; the other was “on the Iraq war, would you rather we stay in for as long as it takes, or withdraw in a responsible manner and focus on Afghanistan”. Which is sort of why you can’t trust polls, because when the questions are phrased like that, of course I want change and new ideas in Washington, but I want them to be smart ideas and good change. And with the Iraq question, yes, in fact, I wouldn’t mind if we weren’t in Iraq – but I’m guessing that my definition of “responsible withdrawal” is a hell of a lot different from Barack my socks off Obama.
At the end of it all, the girl on the phone asked me “even though you’ve indicated you’re currently supporting Senator McCain, what is likelihood that you’ll end up voting for Obama?” I replied, “Unless he completely reverses his policies on gun control, taxation, energy, and pretty much everything else, there is no chance.”
I love biased questions.
Washington DC First Shots Program
From yesterday’s press conference with NSSF, we have more info on the Washington, DC area First Shots program that will be launched to teach residents of DC the basics of handgun safety.
The program itself it will be held at the Izaak Walton League range on Sunday, August 24th in Centerville, VA – attendees must first register at www.nssf.org/firstshots, and attendance is only open to residents of Washington, DC. The FirstShots seminars allow people with no prior firearms experience the opportunity to learn hands on about the essentials of handgun safety.
The program includes about 90 minutes of classroom time instruction on the basics, including the functional differences between a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver, gun safety rules, etc; and then from there transitions to range time, with the pistols and ammunition and trainers being provided by NSSF/FirstShots.
For those of you not in the DC area, but perhaps living in a state or city (coughChicagocough) that frowns on personal firearms ownership, I have good news for you as well. NSSF President Steve Sanetti said yesterday that they plan on continuing the advertising campaign and aggressive promotion of the FirstShots program in more than just Washington, DC.
“With growing interest in handgun ownership among men and women across the country, the firearms industry understands that the best way to help ensure its products are used responsibly and safely is to start new gun owners off with a supervised and educational experience,”
Major kudos to NSSF for running this program, and for taking the initiative to announce in major newspapers in the DC Metro area. I hope that this effort in Centerville is a huge success – and I hope to see a similar advertisement to the one that ran in the Washington Post show up in the Chicago Sun-Times sooner than later.
Now that’s funny
I don’t care who you are.
I lol’d, then I lol’d some more. My shirt’s even the right color.
NSSF Running ads in DC
The National Shooting Sports Foundation is promoting their First Shots Training program to people in Washington, DC. Essentially, NSSF is promoting their established “First Shots” training program to residents of DC who are now legally able to own a handgun for their defense.
I think this is a great idea, and applaud NSSF for their action. I’m looking forward to seeing more of these ads in the papers of places like Chicago, Boston, and other anti-gun cities.
Steel Shooting
Check out The Gun Nuts blog for more information on this weekend’s Friday Night Steel shoot at Marion County Fish and Game.
I hope to see you there!
Final Show Thoughts
Now that’s it no longer 10 minutes after midnight, I wanted to put my final thoughts on last night’s show down on the record so to speak. To listen to the show, visit the link for our Extreme Gun Activism show – or go to The Gun Nuts Blog and click on the embedded player to listen to the show.
My first and overarching thought on the show itself was that it was waaaaay too short. We had 45 minutes to cover topic that has had literally thousands of words dedicated to it; and I think that within our time constraints we did a good job. As I mentioned, we’re planning on running a follow-up show some time after I get back from Blackwater, and we’ll probably do a longer show format just for that episode.
A couple of points that I also wanted to address – I agree with Sebastian that we all do have a line in the sand. Even to me, the government can in fact reach a point where they have crossed my final line, and at that point I say “No more”. After last night’s discussion, I believe that fundamental divide is where that line is located; because for me it’s certainly not located in the same place as it for others. The belief that our system of government is not yet broken beyond repair, the gains I see us making within the system for the right to keep and bear arms have served to give me hope that we can might be able to salvage this mess.
Which leads us to the other divisive issue about “salvaging this mess”; which is namely how should we go about it? I think that Kurt and Sebastian both brought up excellent points that despite our methods, ultimately we’re on the same side – some may advocate for a more in your face approach, and some more prefer a more gentle approach. Ultimately, if it wins over the people in the middle that we desperately need on our side if we want to win, I’m in favor of whichever approach works.
You see, no matter what gets said on the debate, and no matter how many people register guerrillamail email address so they can call me a traitor to the 2nd Amdment (sic), my ultimate bottom line is that I want to win this thing. Not just the 2nd Amendment, but the whole Bill of Rights, a culture of individual liberty. We live in a country that is very complacent and to win our fight, we need to make Suzy and Joe and Bob next door realize that attacks on any part of the Bill of Rights are attacks on literally all of us. If we can do that, if we can get the casual gun owner who owns a semi-auto shotgun for ducks to wake up and say “holy shit, they want to ban my what?” then we’re going to win.