Tag: Gun Rights

Brady Bunch Trying to Bankrupt Starbucks

In these hard economic times you have to do everything you can to keep your business going. Every dollar you can get counts. Well unless you ask the Brady Campaign who according to the every knowledgeable Snowflakes in Hell has a petition going to convince Starbucks to ban guns on their premises. From the Brady site (Which I won’t link to directly):

Dear Friend,

I ain’t your damned friend…

Over the past few months, more and more gun owners have been gathering at restaurants and coffee shops like Starbucks with guns strapped to their hips, intimidating fellow patrons.

Businesses can legally prohibit guns from being carried in their establishments – and so far, Peet’s Coffee & Tea and California Pizza Kitchen have heeded customer concerns and barred the open carrying of guns.

But Starbucks is refusing to prohibit the open carrying of firearms in its stores, despite protests from loyal customers.

Starbucks is being smart, they like money and therefore they want to keep us gun owners happy. I do have to laugh at the fact the Brady Bunch can only list two other businesses that ban carry in their businesses, and one of them I’ve never heard of.

I think I might send off a nice letter to Starbucks informing them of the fact I appreciate their respect for my rights. I may not like their coffee or their prices but I like the fact that they are OK with me being able to defend myself in their store. Good on them and I hope they keep refusing.

Utah Passes Firearms Freedom Act

Well it appears as though Utah has passed their own Firearms Freedom Act in a vote of 19 to 10. That’s good news to hear.

I know a lot of people believe these laws are only symbolic and can not actually be enforced but I think it’s also an act of defiance against the federal government. Regardless of the enforceability of these acts they do serve as a big middle finger from the states that enact them to the federal government. I think more of this style of defiance is needed honestly, the states really need to take back their rights. I’m hoping Minnesota passes this act when it comes up for vote as well.

Better Late Then Never I Guess

I just checked my inbox and got a reply from Senator Franken to an e-mail I sent him… seven months ago.

Seven fucking months! I guess it’s better to be late than never. Anyways it dealt with the Thune amendment I asked him to support. Here is his response:

Dear Christopher,

Thank you for contacting me about the Thune Amendment (S.A.1618) to the Department of Defense authorization bill. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue, and regret the delay in responding.

I strongly support a Minnesotan’s right to own a gun for collection, protection, and sport. In 2003, our Minnesota State Legislature worked hard to balance that right with the safety of all Minnesotans. When it passed the Minnesota Personal Protection Act, the Minnesota State Legislature strengthened the right of gun ownership in our state, but also expanded certain safety requirements. It did this through requiring live firearms training for those receiving permits. It also required background checks prior to the purchase of a firearm. This condition helps prevent perpetrators of domestic violence from getting handguns.

The Thune Amendment would have taken away our state’s right to decide what sort of standards would be enforced within its own borders. It would have allowed any person issued a permit from any state to enter Minnesota with a concealed firearm, regardless of whether he or she met our state’s mandated requirements. This would have undermined our state law and potentially jeopardized the safety of Minnesotans.

In voting against this amendment, I stood with the Minnesota Chief of Police Association, eight Minnesota Mayors, and numerous community groups. I firmly believe that when it comes to law enforcement and community safety, Minnesotans know what’s best for Minnesota.
Thank you again for contacting me, and please don’t hesitate to do so in the future regarding this or any other matter of concern to you.

In other words his no friend of gun owners.

Virginia Tech Still Isn’t Getting It

Virginia Tech is still going about gun violence prevention in the wrong manner. Currently the campus is looking at banning ammunition, including Airsoft pellets and Painballs. Here is part of the proposed ban:

Resolved, that Policy # 8300, Student Code of Conduct – Weapons be amended as follows:

Student Code of Conduct – Weapons

Unauthorized possession, storage, or control of firearms, weapons, on university property, including storing weapons in vehicles on campus as well as in the residence halls. Furthermore, ammunition can not be stored in any residence halls on campus. (Note: organizational weapons of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, approved by the commandant, are not prohibited by this policy.) Weapons

Firearms are defined as any gun, rifle, pistol, or handgun designed to fire any projectile including but not limited to bullets, BBs, pellets, or shots (including paint balls), regardless of the propellant used. Ammunition is defined as any material intended for use in a firearm, capable of being projected by a weapon and/or makes the weapon operational. Other weapons are defined as any instrument of combat or any object not designed as an instrument of combat but carried for the purpose of inflicting or threatening bodily injury.

Anybody who goes there needs to group behind your local Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and do everything you can to ensure this resolution doesn’t pass.

Mayor Steve Lampi of Brooklyn Park

The office of Steve Lampi has been very good to fill my information request in a timely manner. They’ve done an outstanding job providing all information between Mayor Lampi and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. I haven’t read through everything yet but I’m going to post what I have received. The documents linked here are not descriptively titled which I apologize for. I’m going to leave the document titles as I received them until such a time I can come up with a decent filing system and naming convention. Anyways here’s what I’ve received so far:

Document 1
Document 2
Document 2A
Document 2B
Document 2C
Document 2D
Document 2E
Document 2E1
Document 2E2

Minnesota Mayors Against Illegal Guns

We all know the organization Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a deceptively named organization that is actually Mayor Bloomberg’s personal crusade to disarm the American populace. Of course this organization is also fairly secretive with little information given publicly.

Thankfully there are laws similar to the federal Freedom of Information Act in every state. Since I live in Minnesota I decided to use our law to extract as much information about the organization as I can from Minnesota mayors whom are members. There are five Minnesota mayors in the coalition:

Mayor Steve Lampi of Brooklyn Park
Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz of Burnsville
Mayor Don Ness of Duluth
Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis
Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul

I have sent requests to each of these mayors and am planning on posting all retrieved data on this site as well as Truth About Guns. There are two main goals to this project. Goal one is simply to find what information the coalition is sending to its members. The second goal is a little more complex.

We know many mayors don’t know the actual purpose behind Mayors Against Illegal Guns. This is known because may mayors have left once it was made apparent that the coalition isn’t against illegal guns alone, but guns in general. This lead me to believe the correspondences being sent to members are as carefully worded as information that is publicly released. If this is so this information could help us better fight Bloomberg’s little posse.

Periodically I’ll post information retrieved. Everything I receive will be posted regardless of perceived value or redundancy with information previously posted. I urge every gun owner to take similar actions in their state of residence.

Responses

Mayor Steve Lampi of Brooklyn Park

NRA Granted Divided Time in Chicago Case

Some news has appeared during my moving hiatus that I’m not very happy to hear. Via Snowflakes in Hell I found out the NRA was granted their divided time in the Chicago case in front of the Supreme Court.

Those of you unfamiliar with Supreme Court cases each side gets half an hour for their arguments. Within this half hour time space each side must also answer questions from the judges. This leaves little time for each side and losing 10 minutes, or 1/3, of the time to the NRA is going to really eat into Mr. Gura’s time.

I’m not happy with this outcome nor the NRA’s little ploy but I do understand their reasoning.

ATF Beating Up on Legal Gun Shows

Scary but expected news via Snowflakes in Hell. There is an excellent write up over at theGun Rights Examiner. From the article:

Darwin Boedeker is the Texas Gun Shows (TGS) promoter. In a phone interview, he said that last Thursday, January 14, there was a meeting with Austin PD (APD), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the building lessee (HEB) and Andrew Perkel of Austin Market Place, who subleases the building from HEB and supports TGS.

At the meeting, Boedeker said the APD read off a “long list” of nuisance violations to the HEB representative. When Boedeker told everybody that these activities happened while another promoter hosted the gun show at that location–TGS began hosting shows November 2009–nobody else knew this.

Boedeker claimed that ATF and APD “intimidated” HEB into instituting a requirement that only dealers with a Federal Firearms License (FFL) can sell guns. Boedeker said APD invited the HEB representative “knowing he would crack.” That left two choices: cancel last weekend’s show on one day’s notice, or abide by FFL rule. Boedeker said that attendance was “horrible” last weekend, with 50 empty vendor tables and low attendance. He also said that 90% of those complaining about the new rule thought TGS was to blame.

Yes the ATF used it’s weight in an attempt to force a Texas gun show to ban private sales at the event. I guess this adds further credence to the ironic statement, “It’s OK I’m with the government; I’m here to help.”

Scott Brown Wins Massachusetts Seat

Good news everybody Scott Brown win the seat for MAssachusetts senator. This means the minute man state managed to dump a murdering gun control nutcase and gain an NRA A rated senator. Things are looking up.

Furthermore the Democrats lost their ability to prevent a Republican filibuster meaning they won’t be able to simply slam the health care bill through without worry of resistance. I would just like to say yet again things are looking up.

Good work Massachusetts voters!

Update 2010-01-20 16:01: Corrected the use of the terminology filibuster.