Tag: Minnesota

Mayor Bloomberg Looking for the Ultimate Fight

Wow I don’t know how I missed this article but apparent Mayor Bloomberg is starting an open war against the NRA. He’s going up against the NRA using his cronies in the Mayors Against Illegal Guns group that is nothing more than a group advocating restricting the second amendment.

This is going to be an interesting fight. On one hand you have the NRA and it’s 4 million members, but on the other hand you have a group of mayors with access to the politically wealthy and well connected of their cities. Well if it’s a fight they want it’s a fight they shall receive. The first volley came from their side in the form of a declaration of war while I think our first volley should be to dislodge their power base by ridding ourselves of mayors in this group. Although I have a policy against linking to anti-gun sites I’m officially going to break that here and now so I can provide a list of mayors in the organization provided by the organization itself. Of course being a Minnesotan I’m calling out the names of Minnesota mayors in this league here and now. They are:

Mayor Steve Lampi of Brooklyn Park
Mayor Elizabeth B. Kautz of Burnsville
Mayor Gary F. Van Eyll of Chaska
Mayor Gary Peterson of Columbia Heights
Mayor Don Ness of Duluth
Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis
Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul
Mayor Andrew G. Humphrey of Wayzata

These Minnesota mayors need to be gone. Remember the best way to take down an organization is by removing it’s power base. As it sits right now the NRA does have far more members but a majority of those members are us average Joe’s while the Majors Against Illegal Guns have the politically well connected and super rich.

If they want a fight we shall give it to them.

Disappointment in Senator Klobuchar

I’m not a very difficult man to make happy. It’s really quite simple in most cases, especially if you’re one of my representatives. All you have to do is either pick up the phone when I call or reply to any e-mail or letter I send with something along the line of content.

So here’s the fiasco. I wanted to let my representatives know that I would like them to vote yes on the Thune amendment that would allow national reciprocity for carry permits. Of course being time was very constrained I was unable to use the old snail mail system. In it’s place I sent an e-mail first. To send her an e-mail you need to use a form on her website as she doesn’t publish her e-mail anywhere (although I did get it eventually from the reply that was sent). Of course I didn’t get a response e-mail that night, I figured this was expected since I believed they would need staff there to send the reply.

I then called her office in D.C. At that late of an hour nobody was there to pick up so I left a message with my name, city, phone number, and what position I wanted her to take on the Thune amendment.

Yesterday around noon I also called her office, this time the local one. Again I was greeted with a machine saying nobody was there to pick up. This I found really odd being it was the middle of the day and their office is open until 17:00. Once again I left a message expecting some kind of return call.

Well I never received a return call and nobody is picking up the bloody phone. I did however receive an e-mail which read as the following…

Dear Christopher:

Thank you for taking the time again to contact me about guns. I realize the importance of this issue, and I appreciate hearing from you.

To keep track of what I am doing both in Washington and in Minnesota, please visit my website at http://www.klobuchar.senate.gov. You may also like to track legislation through the Library of Congress legislative information website at http://thomas.loc.gov.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. One of the most important parts of my job is listening to what the people of Minnesota have to say to me. I am here in our nation’s capital to do the public’s business and to serve the people of our state. I hope you will contact me again about matters of concern to you.

Sincerely,

Amy Klobuchar
United States Senator

Wow. Just wow. This is the ultimate form letter of form letters. It had to be generated automatically as there is no content in it that would imply it was a response to what I sent. No where does it state her position for or against, well, anything. I don’t ask for much but a response to the message I sent would be nice. A simple yes or no answer to by request with some reasoning is all I’m looking for. I just want to know some human looked at what I sent and at least let my senator know where I stand.

I’m very disappointed with her office and her. She should be stomping on her staff for not responding to her constituents. Every other one of my representatives has no issue at all responding to my communications. Usually these responses aren’t even form letters or e-mails but actual thought out responses.

Since I was only able to find contact information for our new senator, Franken, I’m giving his office a couple days to give me the courtesy of a reply.

Things are Looking Up

I’m getting reports from all over that gun stores throughout the Twin Cities area have ammunition! .380 is still a problem although a local shop has brass for you if you want to reload it yourself. Yes they even have primers of all things. Hopefully we’re looking at the tail end of the shortage.

Minnesota Finally Picked Their Senator

And it only took us eight fucking months…

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/49520987.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aU1yDEmP:QMDCinchO7DU

So Al Franken is our second senator after the long drawn out pissing match that didn’t seem to want to end. Personally I’ve been indifferent between the two of them as they both demonstrated their capability to be whiney little brats. Now to see how Franken responds to my inquiries about the second amendment.

Minnesota Firearms Freedom Act

Fire Montana, then Texas, and now Minnesota. Since I felt this deserved it’s own post and I needed time to read through the law I didn’t mention it when I posted the results of the open carry picnic. But Representative Tom Emmer stopped by and let us know about the Firearms Freedom Act he authored for Minnesota…

https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/revisor/pages/search_status/status_detail.php?b=House&f=HF2376&ssn=0&y=2009

Like other similar acts this one would exempt firearms manufactured in Minnesota for sale in Minnesota from federal regulation and registration. It seems like a pretty simple and good piece of legislation although it does have text in it to exempt machine guns from this bill. Either way it’s a great idea and everybody in Minnesota needs to write their state representatives about it.

Granted after receiving my reply from Ron Latz about his stance on several second amendment issues I’m doubting he’ll support it but I wrote him anyways.

Results of the Lake Harriet Open Carry Picnic

Well I just returned from the open carry picnic at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. It was a great success with roughly 50 gun toting people in attendance. It started at 11:00 and the last few of us left a little before 17:00. The food was great, the conversation was lively, and the weather couldn’t have been better. Many of the people in attendance even brought their family along for the fun.

One lady did call 911 when she saw all of use terrible gun owner eating burgers and overall being happy. We only know she called 911 because the person who the dispatcher called came over and let us know with a smile. We all laughed. We did hear an awful number of sirens coming towards our area and that lady’s fact lit up with glee. Her high hopes were shattered though when it was discovered the police and ambulance were responding to a person having a heart attack further down the lake shore.

We also had one person come over with a desire for argument. He spewed off such things as how terrible it is us permit holders don’t have to take a urine test. His argument didn’t last long though after being offered a brat. He happily accepted and went on his way.

I know all the anti-gunners like to say anytime there are people together with guns there will be shooting and blood in the streets. So I’m posting the thing that the anti-gunners are so excited to see the body count of people who were shot at Lake Harriet during the open carry picnic…

Males
Ages 0 to 20: 0
Ages 21 to 40: 0
Ages 41 to 60: 0
Ages 61 to 80: 0
Ages 81 to 100: 0
Ages 101 to 120: 0

Females
Ages 0 to 20: 0
Ages 21 to 40: 0
Ages 41 to 60: 0
Ages 61 to 80: 0
Ages 81 to 100: 0
Ages 101 to 120: 0

Total People Shot During Event: 0

For the Minnesotans, A Page Tracking State Home Invasions

I came across a useful site today thanks to AJ187 on the Gun Rights Radio Network forums…

http://mnhomeinvasionwatch.com/

It’s a list of home invasions that have occurred in Minnesota. It’s very nicely setup and even includes a Google Maps application highlighting the location of each home invasion.

I bring this up mostly as proof that even here in Minnesota, where people think they are safe from the scary bad people, we have crime. This should motivate my fellow Minnesotans to at least draw up a plan on what to do should an invader come a knocking.

Moorhead, Minnesota Resident Shoots Invader

I have mixed feeling about this self defense story brought to you by The Red Start…

http://www.startribune.com/local/48680082.html

Vernon Allen of Moorhead, Minnesota shoot and killed an intruder in his apartment on June 20, 2009. That’s the good part now for the part I’m rather concerned about…

Police say a Moorhead man shot and killed an intruder who walked into his unlocked apartment.

Yes he shot and killed an intruder who entered his unlocked apartment. Here in Minnesota a lot of people love to boast how friendly everybody is. They say this friendliness is so strong that there is no need to even lock your doors. Bullshit. You should always have your door locked whether you’re at home or away.

Locking the door offer cheap prevention against unknown individuals entering your domicile. And no matter what a locked door needs to be dealt with whether by kicking through the door or finding an alternative means to gain entry into the building. This gives you time. The next part of this story that bothers me is the following…

He says when he didn’t leave, a fight ensued. The resident then allegedly got his shotgun, which went off during a struggle.

From how the story is written I am to believe that the man entered the fight before retrieving his shotgun. If somebody you don’t know enters your home you should assume ill intent. Upon this assumption you should arm yourself then confront the intruder. Falling out of this order and confronting the intruder before arming yourself is putting you at a disadvantage. Now it could be such a thing where the man was unable to get to his shotgun without going through the intruder but in that case it sounds like his home defense plan needs some tweaking.

Update: Here is a link with more information…

http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/244383/

Mr. Allen was not charged with any crime which is good. Some people are making a stink that the intruder was only 17 but in my book if you’re old enough to enter a person’s home without permission and fight him you’re old enough to deal with the consequences.

North Minneapolis Shooting

There isn’t much to go on but one person was injured and another pronounced dead at the scene…

http://wcco.com/crime/north.minneapolis.shooting.2.1041426.html

This should drive home the fact that you aren’t safe even in your own home. This is why I carry on my person all day, every day. In fact my gun is sitting in my hop holster as I type this from my recliner.

Update

A little more information from The Red Star…

http://www.startribune.com/local/47877422.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr