Jered again!

This time in video form:



I'd say that Jered and I have quite a bit in common, and I think he does a much better job of defending his beliefs in this video.

Jered Townsend

So first, Here is a Reason Magazine interview with Jered Townsend, the YouTuber who asked the gun control question at the CNN-YouTube debates, I think he does a good job of defending his actions and his mental competency.

Looks like other news outlets have been curious about him too.

After the debates, he contacted Biden's campaign by email and phone asking if he could just talk with Biden to talk about the 2nd Ammendment. He'll never get a response though. Biden has made it abundantly clear that he has no intention of winning over the 23 percent of Democrats who identify themselves as gun owners. What frightens me is that perhaps the silence of the other candidates (sans Richardson) paired with the loud applause at the debates, indicates their approval of Biden's comments.

This is political foolishness, as one in three Americans who live in the Midwest and South owns a gun, and it is precisely by tapping gun-friendly Democrats like John Tester & Jim Webb did the Democrats finally manage to achieve some victories. If the Democratic party hasn't learned from its 1994 mistakes, then they'll once again grab defeat from the jaws of victory in the next election.

The Democrats need to listen to what Richardson is saying. Most gun owners (except hardcore Libertarians) are fine with the idea of preventing criminals from being able to purchase guns. Some of us are even willing to provide a legal mechanism by which private individuals can safely sell their weapons to other individuals through a background check system (i.e. closing the gun show loophole). But you will not bring us to the table (or the voting booth) by calling us mentally unstable because we happen to like our guns as much as you like your Prius.

How local gun control gets passed

This is how gun ineffectual feel good local gun control laws get passed in California:



Not for crime prevention reasons, but for feel good reasons. I'm sure this happens on the state level to some degree too.

I'm glad that here in VA there are laws on the books that prevents localities from crafting gun control laws, i.e. state law trumps local laws.

gun control laws

A primer:

the CNN YouTube Debates

So... Clowns Not News held their YouTube debates last night with all 8 of the current Democratic contenders. I didn't watch all of it, all I watched were a few short Q&A's that I saw online with the issues that concerned me.

So what pisses me off is that CNN chose this question:



Instead of this one:



Now, I'll be honest. Sometimes I hold one of my favorite rifles and yeah, I do treat it like a baby with all the care I give it. But, if I were trying to make a pro-gun argument while at the same time ask a serious question to all of the Democratic candidates, I would have posed the question in a manner similar to the second video, which is why I'm pissed off that CNN chose the one it did. By choosing the first video, it made gun owners look like nuts.

Plus, and this really pisses me off, they only allowed Richardson & Biden to answer the question. Even though the question itself wasn't phrased well, I would have liked to have heard answers from the top tier candidates, and not just form two long shots who won't get the nomination. How would Edwards respond to that question? And Obama? And yes, I would even have liked to have seen Hillary respond as well. Instead, we got Richardson squirm because he was placed in the difficult position of defending gun rights, while Biden slandered gun owners as mental. Great.

Thanks Clowns Not News, you have entertained and misinformed us again!

Armed America

Kyle Cassidy, a regular poster on the Livejournal Guns community, has finally released his book, Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes.

I think he does an excellent job of showing that we're not all just a bunch of crazed armed rednecks like Ted Nugent.

Anyways, here is the link to his book. Go check it out.

Kyle is a great photographer, and he's not as radical as Oleg Volk(who is so awesome it hurts). Anyways, he deserves whatever support he can get for this book. I had considered posing with my dad for Kyle's book, but that fell through due to medical issues with my dad.

BTW, Kyle has posted many of the photos up at armedamerica.org. Go check it out.