Democratic candidates embrace gun control despite political risks
And in other news, the sun is forecast to rise in the east tomorrow . . .
Aftab Pureval, a Democrat seeking to unseat a Republican congressman in Ohio, knows the political risks in calling for gun restrictions – and taking on the powerful National Rifle Association, which has spent more than $115,000 supporting his opponent over the years.
But after a spate of school shootings, including February’s massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Pureval believes voters in the Republican-leaning district have had enough of congressional inaction.
“The leaders that they sent to Washington, D.C., to represent them have had their opportunity time and time again – and time and time again, they have failed,” Pureval, 35, said after a rally with gun-safety activist and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who suffered brain damage from a gunshot in 2011.
I went to a huge conference on school safety. No one wanted to talk about gun control.
Go figure . . .
Making it harder to purchase guns seems like an obvious solution. But at the conference, talk about gun control was practically taboo. When I asked Canady about it, he didn’t want to go there.
“We don’t get involved in politics — that’s toxic,” he said. Instead, the association is focused on making sure school cops are prepared to face a teenager with an AR-15 who is ready to commit mass murder, he said.
When I asked Lewis about passing laws to restrict gun sales, she just shook her head. “I don’t know if that would work,” she said.
As I walked through the conference exhibit hall on the last day, none of the vendors I spoke to wanted to talk about gun control either. It wasn’t that they thought people should be able to buy guns freely. Their responses came more from a sense of resignation, even cynicism, about the possibility that lawmakers would ever restrict gun ownership in the United States.
How gun control and gay rights became key to selling jeans
Another brand looks to alienate a large portion of its customers . . .
After the deadly February massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students there began organizing to demand gun control. Their voices led to the massive March for Our Lives national movement, one that has left the National Rifle Association and conservatives apoplectic.
The teen-age activists caught the attention of American Eagle Outfitters, a 40-year-old youth-oriented clothing brand that its outpacing similar retailers and has seen its stock (NYSE: AEO) soar in the past 12 months. The company sent an email blast to its database of millions of customers urging them to RSVP for the march and posted an image about the event to its 2.7 million Instagram followers.
“Our high school years are supposed to be about freedom and fun–not fear and violence,” the email said. “We are committed to doing whatever we can to support (the students’) efforts to make our schools safer.”
It was a bold move for the brand, which still operates 1,000 stores throughout the country, many in red state havens like Hoover, Alabama, and Minot, North Dakota, where gun lovers rule. On Instagram, it was clear the brand had alienated some. “Stay out of politics, and do what you’re good at… selling clothes,” wrote user “heyitzjim” underneath the brand’s March for Our Lives post. “Many are using these terrible events as a means to justify ending the Second Amendment instead of looking at the root of the problem.”
Hogan Outguns Jealous on NRA Questionnaire
That’s a low bar . . .
Jealous challenged Hogan to return any and all NRA campaign contributions and to release his responses to the NRA campaign questionnaire. Hogan scoffed, his campaign saying he had no intention of filling out the questionnaire, according to reports. Gun laws are settled business in Maryland, and that’s that.
Hogan is a nimble politician who has generally avoided the culture wars that bedevil many conservatives and has concentrated mainly on fiscal issues. Otherwise, he has given Democrats much of what they want.
Jealous is getting an object lesson on the advantages of incumbency. Jealous met at a Starbucks with a group of students from Great Mills High School, where Jaelynn Willey, 16, was gunned down by a spurned classmate. Hogan invited representatives of the same group to a meeting in the imposing office of the governor in the antique State House.
On a polarizing issue like gun control, can lawmakers find common ground?
Not when one side wants to restrict or eliminate an enumerated civil right . . .
“Its time to take off our partisan colored glasses and realize President Obama wasn’t going to take away anyone’s guns, nor is President Trump going to allow all gun laws to expire — (nor) will he urge Congress to repeal all of them,” said Jason Grill, a media consultant. “Extreme hyperbole on both sides of the aisle and from special interest groups is the reason why common sense legislation doesn’t exist in America.”
Universal background checks were popular among the Influencers. As they rated various gun-control policies, about 92 percent of the Influencers either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with universal background checks.
Nearly 90 percent wanted to make it harder for domestic abusers to get guns, and about 80 percent agreed with banning assault-style rifles such as AR-15s. Banning bump stocks and high capacity magazines had strong support, but raising the minimum age to buy a rifle or shotgun was less popular.
Oh, and one more time…you can’t stop the signal.
People aren’t supposed to be able to legally download plans for 3D-printed guns until Wednesday, but by Sunday, more than 1,000 people had already downloaded plans to print an AR-15-style rifle, the Pennsylvania AG says https://t.co/tcb9lQGvl6 pic.twitter.com/Td6bq9HWmb
— CNN (@CNN) July 30, 2018
American Eagle Outfitters you say???Can WE make them the next Dick’s?!? Gee I suddenly feel like spreading their BS all over fakebook😄😎😏
I think they already made themselves Dick’s, didn’t they?
I dunno bout you but it seems they are just mirroring their customer base. Most folks I know wearing American Eagle are dicks.
high school years are supposed to be about
NO put the joint down and LEARN something. Start with useful technical subjects and traditional American/World history and civilized Western cultural values.
Just thinking that. The highschool years are about learning life skills and the foundations of a traditional liberal education. No, not liberal in the political sense but renaissance education and learning sense.
Democrats also embrace socialism despite Venezuela.
but but it works so well with Medicare, Social Security, Education, the Post Office, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Canadian Healthcare….
SARCASM
Yes those are examples they actually use.
It’s all about banning firearms. Only when everyone is turned into a defenseless slave will they be happy!
I want to 3D print a bong that looks like an AR-15 made out of the severed tongues of illegal immigrants.
Deadpool?
Mr. Wilson, please save the bedroom talk for later, you’re scaring the children
I’ve got no desire to print a firearm, but I sort of want to download the instructions for the sake of being counted as another download. Just out of spite at this point.
Yup.
Dittos.
I’m putting a 3d printer and a Ghost Gunner on my Christmas list.
I don’t need any of that stuff, but am considering an outright donation. DD is carrying a lot of our weight right now.
Meanwhile the ATF is classifying .50 cal AR uppers as firearms.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2018/07/30/breaking-news-atf-is-classifying-50-cal-bolt-action-ar-uppers-as-firearm/
But fiddle with your 3D printed guns as Rome burns…
Goddamn that enrages the shit out of me. These clowns are overstepping boundary after boundery and sooner or later, it’ll come to a head. One that they will, undoubtably, find themselves on the wrong side of. Also, does this mean all uppers will soon be treated as firearms even though federal law clearly stipulates that the serialized part of the firearm is the only part actually considered the firearm. The ATF cannot make law and where the hell is this honestly coming from?
“…and where the hell is this honestly coming from?”
It’s coming from the fact the .50 BMG upper being sold is a BOLT ACTION that is mostly self-contained.
If you bothered to read the determination letter, it spells out the difference between that upper and a standard AR upper, and how that ruling doesn’t apply to regular AR uppers……
At least not yet. The ATF has a very poor record for consistency in its definitions, and this looks to be a step in the direction of classifying all AR uppers as firearms (since they all contain the bolt). Looks like a backdoor way to addressing the fears of people 3D printing lower receivers.
ATF is an Executive Branch agency; wonder why our supposedly great supporter of the 2nd Amendment president is letting this happen.
Seems the question is whether the bolt or the fire control system defines the “firearm”, but that question was decided (somehow?) over 50 years ago, how does it come back up now, and will SCOTUS go along? Ya know, before we get upset, if the upper becomes the firearm, lowers won’t need to be serialized any more, we can have a universe including unserialized uppers (up ’til now), and unserialized lowers (from now on), allowing millions of totally unserialized rifles to suddenly appear. I love that kind of confusion!
So if I put a serialized bolt action upper on my serialized AR lower, what is the serial number of my firearm?
A mucking fess!!
So Mark Kelly took his puppet to Ohio?
I love the “80% of respondents want to ban Assault-style rifles like AR-15s” polling question BS. You can get surveys, to a large degree, to say whatever you want depending on how you phrase the question and who you ask. People (apart from the lefty-bankrolled groups) aren’t demanding en masse to have these weapons banned or it would already have happened, NRA or no NRA. How the courts react is another thing, but someone other then the Boulder City Council would bite the bullet. But if representatives see it’s a losing issue, they’ll hem and haw and do…nothing. Like they are doing. Heck, if (the People’s Republik of) California hasn’t done anything but annoy people by banning pistol grips and grenade launchers(!), there isn’t an 80% support for a real ban. Their laws are unconstitutional idiocy, but if they haven’t banned anything, I can’t imagine the country having an 80% support for an outright ban. Someone needs to start distributing copies of “How to Lie with Statistics” en masse as a public service…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ZZJXw4MTA
An interesting late update for the ‘Digest’ –
“Better Bring Our Own Guns” – Portland Antifa Plotting “Direct Confrontation” At Pro-Trump Rally”
“A violent Antifa cell based in Portland, Oregon is planning a “direct confrontation” with participants in a pro-Trump rally next Saturday, according to a call to action on the leftist website “It’s Going Down.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-30/portland-antifa-plotting-direct-confrontation-pro-trump-rally-threat-escalates
Note to self. Stay the heck away from Portland.
Oh yeah, I already do that.
No sense of adventure, Tom? 😉
Nope.
Not in that sense.
Guns they stole? Thats about the only way these greasy smelly felons could obtain them
I guess they need to ask dad and grandpa if they can play with their guns for a day
“a violent Antifa cell” – is there any other kind of Antifa cell?
I tried to read the article
“I went to a huge conference on school safety. No one wanted to talk about gun control.
Go figure . . .”
I was unable to continue after reaching this paragraph
The underlying problem is pretty easy to explain: The United States, by far, has the largest concentration of privately owned guns in the world, and the highest rate of gun homicides in the world. Research has consistently shown that more guns lead to more gun violence. The most logical policy to prevent gun deaths, which has worked in countries like Australia, is to make guns less accessible. But that’s the one thing Republican lawmakers in Washington refuse to do.
The false information given here just chafes my hide. While it is true that U.S. citizens have the most small arms per 100,000 population (roughly 1.2 per person), We are no where near the having the highest rate of gun homicides. That distinction goes to Honduras at more than 66.6 gun homicides per 100,000 occupants, more than 14 times the rate in the U.S. ( and that with only 0.11 guns per person). And although the number of gun related violent acts in Australia was reduced by removing guns, the violence and suicides went unabated. People in Australia just found other ways to kill each others and themselves.
I saw no need to continue reading because, well, why waste my time reading BS.
You’re right. And if the researchers took the time to look into this, they’d know that the heightened rate of US homicides vs. Europe is a trend extending back to the 19th century, and the comparison between us and Europe has been holding steady for a long time. You’d think guns and gun control, having changed a lot over the years, could be ruled out as the reason, but…the libs gotta blame the guns. The real reasons are pretty complicated, but suffice it to say, for better and worse, Americans aren’t Europeans. Thank the good Lord.
Violence has more to do with the particular society than weapon count.
“Research has consistently shown that more guns lead to more gun violence.”
That’s a rather obvious lie.
Violence of most types has gone down markedly over the last two decades, including crimes using guns.
Gun ownership over the same twenty years has risen markedly.
Even the most casual “research” shows that the statement above is a lie.
All comparisons of same region similar age, income, education demographic states and jurisdictions with more guns show on average they have less not more criminal violence than juristions with less guns
“On a polarizing issue like gun control, can lawmakers find common ground?”
In a word No.
The Leftist’s of both parties do not believe in the US Constitution,so it’s impossible to find common ground when going in one side is supporting Marxism not the U S Constitution.
Have to disagree. Common ground is very simple to find. Locate a copy (or 2 if you can’t share) of 2A, read it once or twice, and common ground is instantly apparent. If you don’t think so, then STFU, your free speech is revoked. Before you know it, everybody either agrees or wears a muzzle. No more problem!
Just a quick setting to the global length scale and you can thrint out a Liberator in the awesome and deadly .9mm…
This Pureval guy in Ohio should consider the possibility that if the incumbent has never stumped for gun control and has been reelected several times, maybe the voters actually want it that way.
But what am I saying? Of course the possibility would never occur to this guy. He’s a Democrat. Progressive Democrats don’t do things for the public, they do things TO the public (for your own good, of course, whether you want it or not).
Also, I love how they’re talking about $115k spread over several years like it’s really big money when Daddy Bloomberg throws out millions to his pet anti-gun projects on a yearly basis.
Likely the candidate has seen all the polls conducted by gun control organizations and widely publicized by the complicit media saying what majority of the public want universal background checks, assault weapon bans, etc., and is fool enough to believe that those polls translate to an actual mandate. Politicians who favor gun control just cannot bring themselves to see that supporting gun restrictions is a perennial way to lose votes.
Let the dims go for gun control. Extol all its non existent virtues.
Should still be more then enough reason not to vote for a Libitard.
Even amongst themselves.
How long have the detailed machine drawings from Colt and the MIL specs for the AR-15 upper and lower receivers been openly available to the public?
Why didn’t Congress outlaw the use of 3-D CAD software before that?
Because full feature CNC machines are expensive, 3D printers were not available to the common person, and very few people with forges forge gun parts. Most of the smiths on Youtube just do knives, jewelry, and other useless crap but never guns.
Then 80% lowers became a thing the quality of which has risen tremendously and 3D printers became capable of printing an 80% lower. This took power away from the .gov so naturally they have to try to expand to counter this.
All Defense Distributed is really doing is saving people a few hours of work with the CAD software of their choice. That’s it.
http://www.firearmfiles.com/files/AR15/AR15%20Lower%20Machine%20Drawing.pdf
It’s not their fault that the designs are in the public domain, have been for years, or that progress has been made in the fields of machine automation and manufacturing.
“Most of the smiths on Youtube just do knives, jewelry, and other useless crap but never guns.”
You should never underestimate people who can make things.
The fact that you never see them make guns does not in any way mean they can’t, or haven’t.
You’ve never seen me, but I exist. Not seeing something doesn’t negate its existence.
You missed a important part of that statement “Most of the smiths on YOUTUBE” don’t forge parts on Youtube because either 1. They generally don’t do that or 2. They’re smart enough to not show something that could cause them a legal headache and if by chance they didn’t get raided by our favorite alphabet agency for illegal manufacture Youtube would definitely kill off their channel.
I said that:
“The fact that you never see them make guns does not in any way mean they can’t, or haven’t.”
Well, that “no files for you” is just what happens when the apparatcheks realise that someone, somewhere is doing something without asking for permission, first. Only they get to do that.
Everything not compulsory is forbidden.
Let’s say you want to make progress on school safety. You know, brainstorm some ideas, build some support, get something done. Do you want half of the audience (or somewhat more or less, depending on locale) to get up and leave or to stay and oppose you? If so, break out the gun ban/ confiscation rhetoric.
If Leftists really want to find common ground, I would suggest that they visit a cemetery.
Should anybody tell CNN (and all the other morons hyperventilating about “OMG 3D GUNZ!!!”) that those plans have been available since the first day they were published? The State Department’s shenanigans with ITAR just moved them to torrent sites, dark web sites, etc. It doesn’t matter if Defense Distributed puts them on their website. That horse left the barn so long ago, she’s in another county and having babies.
Also, nobody tell them about the books that have been around since at least the 80’s about how to make homemade guns out of hardware store items.
Speaking of books, “The Anarchist Cookbook” has been available continuously since 1971. Read it for the easy-to-understand instructions on making explosives, weapons and illegal drugs.
It’s been driving the G totally insane for over 45 years and the G wanted to ban it, but that pesky First Amendment got in the way.
That Kansas City website has deleted every comment (almost ALL were pro-2A) on that article…
And that surprises you? It shouldn’t… The hypocrisy of the LSM knows no bounds! Cuz, you know, they’re in the “truth” business, and all that…
And one can’t risk having intelligent people put up links to dispute the statistics quoted from poorly done studies using questionable definitions. See gunfact.info.
Sorry, gunfacts.info.
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