High Caliber Advocacy : How the NRA won the fight over gun rights

NAtional Review ^ | 2-14-05 | John J Miller

[Rocky Mountain High]

Not sure what you're disagreeing with...

[oyez]

It's about protecting your family from violent thugs.

Foreign and domestic.

[fire_eye]

The fight is not won.

You can drive Satan back to hell with his tail between his legs, but you can never kill him. He'll just sit there and brood and plot and plan until he gets another chance.

[RJL]

...If I could re-invent the world, Saturday night specials wouldn’t exist,” said congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts...

Yup, if a bad comes at me with a gun, I certainly don't want him to have a cheap, unreliable, small caliber gun, I want them to have a reliable large caliber weapon when they start shooting at me.

/Sarcasm

[TC Rider]

Just remember that to Bwarney, every handgun with a barrel lenghth of less than six inches, no matter how high its quality, is a Saturday night special

He better not call my Model 24 a Saturday Night Special!

Who needs an excuse for gun porn?

[El Gato]

The fight is not won.

It's barely begun. There are several tens of thousands of "gun laws" on the books. The vast majority of them are unconstitutional. Right up to the one that raises the punishment for having gun during the commission of felony, which is invoked regardless of whether the gun is actually used, or plays any part, in the commission of the felony.

[El Gato]

Here's a real Saturday Night Special, from Smith & Wesson. The empty gun weighs about the same as the five rounds of ammunition that it holds.

It also has been reported to hurt like the devil to shoot, at least with full power .357 Magnum loads. Not so bad with .38 special. In fact, just this morning, a coworker reported on shooting the one he recently bought. "Bang ... ouch", "Bang ... ouch", "Bang ... ouch", "Bang ... ouch", were his exact words. (you fire 4 rounds, and check the fifth for problems with the bullet either setting deeper or working out under recoil)

[goldstategop]

Funny as hell and it stuck because Jean Francois came across as French-thinking, French-looking, and French-speaking AND as a poodle at the same time "French Poodle" became a memorable way of remembering who he wasn't: a heartland American.

Denny Crane: "I want two things. First God and then Fox News."

[Blue Collar Christian]

I thought it was a dinner at Denny's.

[BobL]

"The NRA began to win when Wayne LaPierre went on the Sunday morning talk shows and said something like "it's almost like Clinton needs a certain amount of gun violence to further his agenda." back in 2000."

I also remember that. I had taped it. It was May, 2000, on This Week with Sam and Cookie. Cookie (that's what I call her) actually studdered when she heard that line - you could tell she was floored.

And it wasn't just that line - it was that Wayne had back-up. He was able to point out specifics, such as Janet Reno not prosecuting gun crimes. When he started doing that, the Dems clammed up and the gun control debate of the late 20th century was over, and WE WON.

It feels great!!

[gc4nra]

Teddy doesn't need a bodyguard, he can defend himself with an Oldsmobile!

[risk]

I recently stumbled across some amazingly frustrating arguments at bluecorncomics.com - it's a Peace Party page, which you should try to ignore while digesting it.

I can sum part of it up as follows:

1. Courts have limited the 2nd amendment, so there's... precedent. Very difficult to countermand. It's true! It doesn't seem reasonable to say that all court rulings are correct or permanent. Few second amendment cases have come before the Supreme Court, for example. There is room for interpretation and a revisiting of new cases to clarify the situation.
2. The founding fathers were (insert random contrary quote here). Difficult to argue with, kind of like a byzantine conspiracy theory is difficult to fully disprove - no matter how unbelievable. Given the fact that the founding fahters were themselves revolutionaries, and given their beliefs about the corruptability of individual human beings, it is not difficult to argue that they believed government needed the check of an armed populace, and that a government that defended its citizens in every way would be too powerful.
3. The well regulated phrase. Regulated by... the federal government, of course! This is a challenge, too. I think we have to dig into the federalist papers and personal quotes to address this issue. The Constitution is a very compressed document, and the founding fathers did not mince words. Unfortunately, they compressed their information a bit too much here. But I think from various quotes we can at least argue that they felt that the citizens were themselves the militia. Furthermore, the bill of rights preserves individual liberty in every other context.
4. Madison didn't mind a standing federal army, and didn't spend much time on the individual right to bear arms... Therefore, arms are for the military only. Er, a long stretch, I'd say. I think the debater is stretching the limits of our beliefs here.
5. Arms would include WMD. Well we've heard this one, and we know that there is a difference between precision arms and strategic arms. That's the best I can do, but it does work. This is a false dichotomy, as far as I'm concerned.
6. People who like guns are nuts. Therefore, gun rights advocates are gun nuts. OK, I have to admit that this is a difficult one to dispell because to discuss anything involving potential violence is touchy. But I think one has to argue that to not be willing to discuss such issues is to live in denial. Crime and tyranny are real situations that exist in the human condition at every corner of the planet.

Just my $0.02 for today. Comments and argument enhancements are more than welcome.

[Squantos]

I kinda like the scandium revolvers... I have the 329PD and the S&W 317 Snub .22.........

The 329PD gets a steady diet of 200gr 44 special GDHP's from CCI blazer .

[Sparticus]

Where did you get those stocks? I'd love to have some like that for my Smith.

By the way, for folks who don't know, the term "Saturday Night Special" is as racist a term as there ever was. It's a shortened version of the phrase "(N-word) Town Saturday Night Special." It refers to a black prostitute. The phrase "Saturday Night Special" in reference to handguns was a calculated attempt to scare white folks by conjuring up visions of mobs of blacks armed with cheap handguns.

[Squantos]

I haven't had a problem with the 44 specials....the full house magnums are a handfull but the Ahrends wood grips are better at mitigating the recoil than the hogues that also came with it.

It's no worse with full power (240gr factory) 44 magnums than shooting full house buffalo bore 500 linebaugh's from my converted ruger bisley. Sharp recoil but manageable. It's a great carry a lot shoot a little rig for my non hunting trips when I go four wheeling or fly fishing in the lower 48....... Weatherproof is a benefit also.

My day to day carry is a 1911A1 so 329PD is pretty much a gun safe paperweight.....albeit a really lite one !.....:o)

[bad company]

Could you add me and mine to your list please?

[loboinok]

Thanks for the ping Joe... good read.