Virginia 2nd District Residents Should Demand Answers

One of only two Republicans to not support the Contempt of Congress Resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder is Virginia 2nd District Representative Scott Rigell. Constituents should ask him why he thinks it is okay for Holder to withhold documents related to the outright lie that guns never walked, told by Justice in a letter to congress, then walked back.

New Virginia Gun Laws Effective Sunday, July 1st

Sunday, July 1st, is the day laws passed by the General Assembly during the 2012 Session will take affect.  Most important among them is the repeal of gun rationing and repealing the requirement that first time concealed handgun permit applicants be fingerprinted.  Here is the complete list:

HB 20 - Emergency Services & Disaster Law; shall not be interpreted to prohibit carrying, etc., of firearms.
HB 22 - Firearms; disposition thereof acquired by localities (requires localities to pass an ordinance allowing engage in a compensated confiscation scheme).
HB 26 - Concealed handgun permit; failure to produce upon demand of a law-enforcement officer, penalty (provides a minor $25 penalty that may be waived by the court once the permit is produced similar to current law related to failure to produce a drivers license).
HB 288 - Courthouses; exception from prohibition against carrying weapon for city and county treasurers.
HB 375 - Firearms; workplace rules by localities (no locality shall adopt any workplace rule, other than for the purposes of a community services board or behavioral health authority, that prevents an employee of that locality from storing at that locality's workplace a lawfully possessed firearm and ammunition in a locked private motor vehicle).
HB 754/SB 67 - Concealed handgun permit applications; removes option for locality to require applicant fingerprint.
HB 940/SB 323 - Handguns; eliminates prohibition on purchasing more than one in a 30-day period.
HB 943 - Service handguns; certain law-enforcement officers to purchase.
SB 563 - Concealed handgun permits; application procedures.
SB 573 - Capitol Police; disposal of unclaimed firearms (provides that the Division of Capitol Police may destroy unclaimed firearms or other weapons after the items have been in the possession of the Division for 60 days).

Media Will Refer to Bipartisan Vote Against #Holder as "Vote Mostly Along Partisan Lines"

We know of at least four Democrats who have said they will vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.  Estimates are that as many as 20-30 mostly moderate Democrats will support the contempt vote.  By the Obama Administration's measure, this should be conisidered a "bipartisan" vote as the administration calls a vote where at least one moderate Republican (i.e. RINO) supports Obama's position a bipartisan vote.  But the media is already using the "mostly along partisan lines" to spin the final result.

@RollCall Daily Briefing Predicts Bipartisan Contempt Vote

CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing reports the obvious this afternoon, that House Speaker John Boehner has confirmed tomorrow's scheduled vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder is on as no agreement was reached during a meeting at the White House yesterday among Representative Darrell Issa’s staff, Boehner’s staff and senior administration officials.  Roll Call, in a rather snarky way, predicted it will be one of the more bipartisan votes in recent weeks:

Third — and maybe most importantly — the NRA is insisting on the vote and promising to make the roll call part of its annual gun rights congressional scorecard, which rather bizarrely guarantees the vote will be one of the more bipartisan affairs on the House floor in recent weeks. (At least 30 and perhaps 40 Democrats want to bend over backwards to do what the gun lobby wants in an election year.) The NRA is of the view that the administration told the ATF to intentionally lose track of the guns the agency allowed to walk from Arizona into the hands of Mexican drug lords so that there would be more violence along the border — which would then provide Obama with a rationale for tighter gun control laws.

Roll Call continued to profer that the GOP leadership believes that no one will really be paying attention as the news will likely be wall to wall coverage of the SCOTUS' ruling on Obamacare, meaning the GOP can  appease their base without turning off the all important "indendent" voters. The story goes that

Yahoo and Guns

This video greeted me on the MyYahoo page when I went to check my email earlier today.

The Gallup number siting only 3 out of 10 Americans own a firearm is a little suspect as it is likely a large number of gun owners don't tell a stranger on the phone whether they have a firearm in the home. And Bitter effectively covered those new gun sales on the blog Shall Not Be Questioned in this post back in April after the NRA Annual Meeting. You know, all those gun sales that the Brady bunch say are going to current gun owners and that there are no new gun owners.

Why Is it So Hard to Describe #FastandFurious Accurately?

I know I shouldn't be, but I continue to be amazed that after over a year, the media simply cannot accurately describe Operation Fast and Furious.  Yesterday, the New York Times had this story on how some Democrats are "feeling pressure from the NRA" to vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in Contempt of Congress for withholding documents related to the scandal.  In the story, the Times once again repeats the familiar talking point:

...Fast and Furious was started by the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to track guns as they moved into Mexico from United States gun dealerships. Seeking to build a bigger case against high-ranking gunrunners, agents did not move quickly against weapons obtained by low-level smugglers, and they lost track of 2,000 guns, most of which probably reached Mexican drug cartels.

Please tell me how the point of an inititive can be to "track guns" when there was no mechanism in place to track them after the sale.  No tracking device on the firearm, no following of the buyer, nothing.  Then, after knowing that, you have this:

Among the thousands of pages of internal e-mails and documents Congressional investigators have gathered about the operation, they found a few showing that A.T.F. officials considered using some examples of documented gun flows to build a case for requiring greater reporting of multiple “long gun,” or rifle, sales by federally licensed gun shops. They singled out AK-47 assault-style rifles and their variants.

Why is it so hard to even entertain the idea that someone in the federal bureacracy might have thought Fast and Furious would have been a neat way to build that case?

Karen Finney: (#FastandFurious) Plot Theory Full of Holes

MSNBC political analyst and Democratic consultant Karen Finney has an opinion piece in The Hill that says the Fast and Furious story line laid out by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the National Rifle Association, Rush Limbaugh and others, is full of holes.

They believe the administration’s “Fast and Furious” gun-tracking program was used to flood Mexico with guns from America, foment violence and create political pressure to re-instate the assault weapons ban and weaken Second Amendment rights.

Finney's Op/Ed follows the same storyline that NBC News anchor Brian Williams laid out last Wednesday after the House Oversight Committee voted to hold Holder in contempt - that this is all a partisan witch hunt.  Someone should ask Finney, how else do you explain a scheme where the aim was for ATF to tell gun dealers to sell thousands of guns to individuals, individuals by the way that the gun dealers believed were "straw purchasers", and ATF had no plan to track said firearms after they were sold.  The scheme allowed over two thousand firearms to cross the border.  Had Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry not been killed with one of them, who knows how many guns would have made it to Mexico.

Ms. Finney also repeated the claim that former Bush AG Michael Mukasey was aware of the use of gun-walking tactics, something that that Holder asserted in testimony before a Senate committee, then walked back last week.

Barack Obama's Eric Cartman Syndrome

Since President Obama claimed executive privilege last week in the Fast and Furious scandal, some have compared his actions to those of President Nixon during the Watergate cover up.  Norman Leahy over on Bearing Drift has a different take.

The President is lawless. He has contempt for congressional oversight, for transparency. And more.

But all this gives him too much credit. Mr. Obama is not Nixonian in his behavior. He’s not even Jimmy Carter-like in his failings.

He’s more like “South Park’s” Eric Cartman.

If you are not familiar with South Park, Cartman is the annoying, petulant child who when he does not get his way, tells his friends "screw you guys, I'm going home."  I've never thought about this comparison but after reading Leahy's reasoning, it does make sense.

House Vote on Holder's #FastandFurious Contempt Charge May Be Overshadowed by Thursday's Obamacare Ruling

Today's CQ Roll Call Daily Briefing predicts that a possible Thursday vote in the full House on Eric Holder's contempt charge will be greatly overshadowed by the Supreme Court's ruling on Obamacare the same day:

With the Supreme Court set to rule on the health care law that morning, cable TV and Web coverage will be so all-consuming  for the rest of the day and afterward that — no matter whether the law is altogether upheld, totally struck down or somewhere in between — the House’s vote will have a nearly impossible time getting on the mental radar screens of millions of Americans. And there was a strong hint yesterday that the GOP thinks the distraction might be just as well, anyway, because the party doesn’t have its overall story straight anymore and is concluding that it’s better to get the focus back on the economy (and the next steps on health care) sooner rather than later.

Roll Call also noted the mixed messages that were sent on yesterday's Sunday news shows by Chariman Issa:

Chairman Darrell Issa went on three of the Sunday shows to defend his stewardship of House Oversight’s investigation of the calamitous Fast and Furious gun-walking operation — but then made news by totally contradicting the rationale for the hard-charge offered by Boehner, his reluctant partner in pushing the contempt vote. Issa said his panel has no evidence to support what the Speaker claimed last week, which is that Obama or his top aides were part of a scheme to mislead and that’s why Holder decided to assert executive privilege in not complying with parts of the panel’s subpoenas.

One of the bloggers who originally broke the Fast and Furious story questioned several months ago whether Rep. Issa was slow walking the contempt process because the GOP Leadership is not completely behind this action.  We'll know if Rep. Issa is serious about the contempt charge, and by extension if Boehner's recent comments on Fast and Furious was just hot air, if they do nothing after Thursday's vote, or if Issa goes to court as the advice given to him last week by lawyer and talk show host Mark Levin suggests should be the next step.

Jim Geraghty on Obama's Use of Executive Privilege in Fast and Furious Matter

Jim Geraghty from this morning's Morning Jolt:

Anyway, if you think Bush using his Constitutional authority to replace U.S. Attorneys is a giant scandal, but shrug your shoulders at the federal government sending guns to Mexico, where drug cartels use them to kill a U.S. Border Patrol agent, then you are a hopeless partisan hack who is literally willing to overlook murder to advance your political agenda.

Partisan Hack, that pretty much sums up Attorney General Eric Holder. 

What To Expect After House Vote on Holder Contempt Charge

After the Holder Contempt of Congress vote by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, talk radio was almost wall to wall Fast and Furious on Thursday.  Rush Limbaugh dedicated most of his show Wednesday and Thursday to the President claiming executive privilege and Fast and Furious.  Wednesday night, Mark Levin put the issue into a legal context that was easy for the non-lawyer to understand.

The full House is scheduled to vote on the charge against Eric Holder next week if he does not comply with the subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee.  So what does a vote by the full House mean?  Yesterday's Roll Call Daily Briefing offered their take:

And, after that vote, there’s no reason to believe the Justice Department will do anything other than what other Justice Departments in other balance-of-power clashes with other presidents have done, which is to slow-walk or outright stonewall its response to the contempt order. (Federal prosecutors, in other words, are not going to move against their own boss to make him turn over the records the House GOP wants.) And at that point, Boehner and the other GOP leaders are extremely unlikely to escalate the standoff by suing (or sending the House sergeant-at-arms to arrest the attorney general) because what they really want is to use the contretemps to illustrate their view that it’s the fault of Obama and the Democrats that Washington is a non-functioning cesspool.

Lawyer, former Chief of Staff to Ed Meese (President Reagan's  Attorney General), and talk show host, Mark Levin, offered some advice to Rep. Darrell Issa and the GOP members of the House Oversight Committee.
Levin stated his belief that this is all part of the administration's plan.  It was all calculated to stretch this as far as possible.  We will see if they have miscalculated.

The right way to proceed is to hold Holder in contempt by resolution of the House and seek authorization from the House for the Committee, by its Chairman, to proceed by civil action to compel production of the documents. (Holder will not enforce a holding of contempt against himself -- and by the way, he should have authorized, say, the assistant attorney general for legal counsel, to handle the contempt matter once the House voted as at that point he is representing his own interests and not those of the nation generally). Chairman Issa should file suit in federal court in DC and seek expedited action. There is no need for Senate action. The use of this procedure has been acknowledged by the Congressional Research Service in a 2007 study. Further, a privilege log should be sought by Issa and ordered produced immediately by the court, in camera inspection done promptly by the judge, and a final order entered compelling production of all documents for which no legitimate reason justifies Executive Privilege.

The Choice is Clear - Support @GeorgeAllenVA

With former U.S. Senator George Allen's strong win in yesterday's GOP Primary, Virginia gun owners have a clear choice between a candidate who signed into law Virginia's Shall Issue Concealed Carry law, voted for the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act while a U.S. Senator, and who this year praised the repeal of Virginia's gun rationing law (Allen), and a candidate who tried to use taxpayer money to send supporters of the Million Mom March to Washington in 2000, who as Governor of Virginia vetoed repeal of the ban on concealed carry in restuarants like Applebees and Olive Garden, and who urged Governor McDonnell to veto repeal of gun rationing (Tim Kaine).

Now is the time for gun owners to get active.  Please contact the Allen campaign and ask how you can help Allen defeat Tim Kaine.

@GeorgeAllenVa, @EricCantor, @Randy_Forbes Win Easily

All three of the NRA endorsed candidates won easily in the GOP primary. Allen had 65% of the vote in a four way race. The Cantor and Forbes races weren't close.

Via @RollCall: Left's Response Far From Fast and Furious

Roll call has this story about the Democrats' muted response to yesterday's announcement that Congressman Darrell Issa was moving ahead with a vote to charge Attorney General Eric Holder with Contempt of Congress for his stonewalling related to responding to the subpoena for documents about the disastrous Operation Fast and Furious.

Is it still a fight if only one side is throwing punches?

Roll Call has a point.  Last Friday, Cam Edwards, host of NRANews.com's Cam and Company also made a good point during the round table discussion when he suggested that the longer the story goes on without coverage, the greater the chance it will die out.  And that is what the Democrats and the Administration are hoping.  CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson is the only member of the "mainstream" media that has dedicated significant time to the story over the last 15 months.  By contrast, NBC News has not even run one story on its nightly news, not even after Holder gets beat up in testimony on the Hill.  You would think that a sitting AG getting pummeled during an appearance before Congress would be news.  One has to wonder if the House indeed does vote to hold the AG in contempt, whether NBC and others (i.e. New York Times and Washington Post) can continue to ignore the story.

Ft. Lee Dusters Clean Up in State Skeet and Trap

On June 4th, the Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP)  Trap and Skeet State Championships were held at the Ft. Lee Trap and Skeet Club and the Ft. Lee Dusters repeated their performance in the state sporting clays championships.  The J.V. Squad were crowned State Champions in Skeet and Trap. The Varsity squad was crowned State Champions in Skeet and State Runner-Up in Trap. The Intermediate Squad of Zachary" Zoopey" Wells and Hunter " Maxus" Belch brought home 3rd place in Skeet. Coach Jeff Atkins said on the group's Facebook page that "They are really a GREAT bunch of young men, DEDICATED to the game !!!"

From Left: Coach Jeff Atkins, Christian Pinney, Alex Murray, Austin Chinault, Coach Bernie Matthews, Front: Colin Lewis, John Mootz, Zachary Wells, Hunter Belch, and Kevin Turner Jr.

Congratulations and best of luck at the SCTP Nationals in July.

PPC Match at Cavalier Rifle and Pistol Club June 16.

Cavalier Rifle and Pistol Club will hold a Practical Pistol Course (PPC) match this Saturday, June 16, at 9 a.m.  The match will be held on Range 4.

 

In addition to the regular match they will have a second match that will include 6-shot snubnose revolvers and similar size semi-autos. For revolvers, any barrel 3" or shorter qualifies. So, bring your "big" snubbie this month as well as your regular PPC gun.  See you Saturday!

 

If you would like to shoot in the match and have any questions, contact Ken.

U.S. Senate, Congressional Primary, Tuesday June 12.

Tomorrow, June 12, Virginia will hold a primary to choose candidates for U.S. Senate and several contested congressional districts.

Candidates for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate are former Governor and former U.S. Senator George Allen, former Richmond Tea Party President Jamie Ratke, Delegate Bob Marshall, and E. W. Jackson.  Two of the four have held elective office and have voting records on issues important to gun owners and sportsmen.

There are also several incumbent congressmen that are being challenged for nomination as well as primaries for opposing candidates.  Below is a list of those races that will also be on the ballot tomorrow. 

In the 7th Congressional District, 2010 "Independent Green" candidate Floyd C. Bayne is challenging House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, for the GOP nomination. Cantor has used Bayne's "Independent Green" label in this year's campaign to question whether Bayne is really a Republican.  Bayne has responded that he cut ties with the Independent Green Party after the 2010 election and that he also submitted a letter to the Chesterfield County Republican Committee repudiating his ties to the Green Party and making clear his desire to return to the Republican Party.

Cantor has been a good friend to gun owners since his time as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates.  He recently signed on to a letter to President Obama urging him to have Attorney General Eric Holder to comply with a congressional subpoena regarding Operation Fast and Furious.  Cantor spoke at the 2012 NRA Annual Meetings in April.


The winner of the Cantor - Bayne primary will face Democrat E. Wayne Powell, a Richmond-area attorney, in the fall.

In another Richmond-area GOP contest, Bonnie Girard of Petersburg is challenging 4th District Rep. Randy Forbes for the Republican Party's nomination.  Forbes is another pro-rights elected official, having voted numerous times in the House of Delegates, State Senate, and now Congress, for legislation that would protect or expand our rights.

Also in the 4th District, Democrats Ella P. Ward and Joe T. Elliott are battling to take on the winner of the Forbes-Girard match-up.

In the 6th Congressional District, Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte faces Karen U. Kwiathowski, a retired Air Force colonel from Harrisonburg.
In the 8th Congressional District, anti-rights Democrat Jim Moran is being challenged for the party's nomination by Bruce B. Shuttleworth, a former Navy fighter pilot.

In the 11th District, Chris S. Perkins, a retired Army colonel, faces Ken L. Vaughn, a traffic engineer, for the Republican nomination. The winner will face Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, D-11th, for the party's nomination.

As the NRA state affiliate, the Virginia Shooting Sports Association provides VSSA members scores for federal candidates, directly and unedited, as provided by NRA-ILA. You can click here to access the NRA-PVF endorsements for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House Primary.  

Polls will open at 6 AM Tuesday and remain open until 7 PM.

The Biggest Take Away from Wisconson's Recall Election

Yesterday, the voters of Wisconson endured one more elections.  It seems as if they have gone the polls every three to four months for the last year.  This time it was to decide if Governor Scott Walker would be the first governor in history to survive a recall.  It should be noted this is only the third time such a move has been attempted in the nation, with the previous two being successful in removing the target of the recall.

The NRA invested a lot of effort in supported Governor Walker, along with the Republican National Committee (Walker is a Republican).  This was an opportunity to test the RNC's Get Out The Vote (GOTV) effort prior to November.  It appears to have worked as Walker actually won by a bigger margin than he did in 2010.  With such a win, talk shows this morning are asking the question, "What does this mean for President Obama in November?"

I agree with those who caution against reading too much into yesterday's results and what it means for the future.  There is a sense that voters in Wisconson did not believe should be used to oust a elected official simply over policy differences.  That is what this was all about.  Erick Erickson over at RedState.com did have some things that could be extrapolated from the results and there is one that stood out to me:

Lastly, I hope the GOP in Washington, which is often afraid of its own shadow, is watching this. In Wisconsin, the Republican Governor was willing to pick a fight on a core Democrat issue, stick to his guns, and go through a recall process. And he won. Sometimes, Messrs. Boehner and McConnell, you don’t have to compromise. You can stick to your guns and still win.

Governor Walker spoke at the NRA Annual Meetings this past April.  If you haven't seen the speech, it's worth the few minutes it takes to watch.

Presidential Campaign Money and Virginia

Anyone who has followed politics knows that 2008 was the first time in 44 years that Virginia went for the Democrat in the presidential campaign.  The Commonwealth swung back to the GOP in the 2009 statewide races and in 2010, the GOP won a majority of the congressional races, sending only three Democrats out of 11 to represent the congressional districts.  This year's U.S. Senate race is considered a tossup between former Senator George Allen and former Governor Tim Kaine.

So it is understandable that both presidential candidates are targeting Virginia in 2012 as one of a handful of swing states that will decide this year's presidential race.  The Richmond Times-Dispatch (RTD) reported this morning the contribution totals for both candidates in Virginia and where their money strengths are in various portions of the Commonwealth.

Obama topped Romney $483,000 to $332,000 that month, according to the nonpartisan tracker of money in Virginia politics. VPAP cited a list of itemized presidential donors provided by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.

Through April 30, Romney still tops the president by a slight margin — $3.3 million to $3.2 million — among Virginians who have given at least $200, according to VPAP. The figures do not include totals from small donors.

According to the RTD, Romney leads in over $200 contributions in the Richmond area, Hampton Roads, Roanoke and Bristol, and Obama leads in Northern Virginia and in Charlottesville.  The RTD also noted that in the liberal enclave of Charlotesville (home of the University of Virginia), Obama has raised $286,638 to Romney's $85,500.

So, what does this mean for the election in November?  Campaign contributions do represent a certain level of support and the fact that Romney out raised Obama during a time when he had competition for the nomination does show some strength.  A better indication of that strength however is going to be the level of volunteers that staff phone banks, various local fairs, and other events where the general public will be inundated by campaign folks from now until November.

The NRA has launched the "All In" campaign for the 2012 election.  While gun owners may be wary of Mitt Romney, the fact is, either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney will be elected President in November.  We know where Obama stands and what type of Supreme Court nominees he will nominate over the next four years.  Gun owners need to be "All In" to defeat Barack Obama.

If Only Eric Holder Would Get This Incensed About Fast and Furious

So, Eric Holder was upset when he thought Obama campaign guru David Axlerod was trying to politicize the U.S. Department of Justice.  And here I thought given the cover-up involved with Fast and Furious, the pooh poohing of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation, and the stink over the various voter ID laws passed in states this year, that it was already politicized.

Hat tip to Jim Geraghty and the Morning Jolt.