H.R. 822

When All Else Fails, Lie

H.R. 822 now has 245 cosponsors. I have my reasons for thinking it’s the wrong approach, and even if it does get through the Senate, it won’t be signed. That’s alright. I like this one for one very salient reason: it’s got folks in certain corners going all kinds of asplodey.

Today’s exhibit is from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV). They were originally formed in 1975 as the National Coalition to Ban Handguns. One of the founders was Edward Welles, who also started the Violence Policy Center. At some point, they decided that the phrase “ban handguns” might be a little extreme, and they changed it. If that story sounds familiar, the Violence Policy Center used to be Handgun Control International. Evidently, “control” is also a scary word to the moderates these guys hope to attract.

Under the even less threatening name of the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, the CSGV collects $125,000 from the Joyce Foundation every year, which is about $120,000 more than the Brady Campaign makes.

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Civil Rights

On Hypocrisy

John Crewdson has an article on Bloomberg in which he laments the progress of H.R. 822. One implication of the bill is that a New York resident could bypass his own state’s requirements by simply getting a non-resident concealed weapon license from Florida, which New York would have to honor.

Apparently, this represents such an existential crisis for Mr. Crewdson that he applied for a Florida license. He details the process in the article, along with the fact that he lied on the application:

I’ve never touched a handgun and I haven’t been to Florida in decades, yet this month Florida officials mailed me a permit to carry a concealed gun. (…) Florida, which granted my permit after I viewed a half- hour, online safety video, now says it made a mistake.

Florida Statute 790.06 clearly stipulates that the applicant must have taken one of the training courses listed within, but Mr.

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Civil Rights

John Richardson has the scoop on this one. Introduced by Cliff Stearns of Florida and co-sponsored by Heath Shuler of North Carolina, the bill seeks to enforce national reciprocity for carry permits.

Two years ago, Senators Thune and Coburn attempted to pass a similar bill by amending it to the Defense Department budget. It failed by only two votes then, and the landscape is much more amenable to it now.

That is, if the Tea Party still believes all that stuff they did last November.