Just Like Old Times

I just talked with Joel Rosenberg, at the Capitol.  The Public Safety Committee killed Tony Cornish’s “Stand Your Ground” bill a little bit ago.

Nothing really shocking there. 

But there was good news, too.

As I noted yesterday, back in the dark days of DFL hegemony in this state, you could still count on pro-Second-Amendment people – real Americans, working people with actual lives and obligations – to outnumber the orcs by at least 20-1 at these hearings.

Today?  According to Joel, the orcs brought two paid staffers.  At least sixty real Americans showed up. 

And there’ll be a list of names, legislators who should have known better – a list of infamy almost as grotesque as the Gang of Six, legislators who were expected to side with real Americans, but who cast their lot with the orcs.  And it’s with memories of the end of the dark age – back in ’00 and ’02 – when even though concealed carry reform didnt’ pass, outstate legislators who stabbed real America in the back got tossed under the bus at the polls.  And this was before Tim Pawlenty took office.

So here’s an open letter to those legislators, whomever they are; real Americans have long memories – and November isn’t that far away. 

Don’t make any plans in Saint Paul for next February.  That’s all I’m saying.

Joel Rosenberg’s gonna get the names and post ’em tomorrow.  And I’m going to make damn sure nobody forgets. 

UPDATE:  Joel and Andrew Rothman liveblogged the hearing – sorta.  You can see a couple of things; the incredible disingenuousness of the orcs (Cornish on hearing someone refer to the “rights” the bill would impart on criminals, “asking what bill the opposition read, since their comments had nothing to do with the bill”), and the fact that the bill “lost” 9-9; ties go to the status quo.

Bad, but not catastrophic.  If the GOP has a decent year – and anti-Second Amendment RINOs and outstate DFLers are expunged from both parties, which is far from unusual after votes like this – we can make more progress next year.

14 thoughts on “Just Like Old Times

  1. It’s kind of a cop-out, I know – but if you want to see turn-out, let them hold these hearings at 7pm or so. A lot of us would certainly be there for these things if we weren’t booked during the day. I’ve often thought controversial legislative proceedings should be held when the greatest number of people could actually attend them. Power to the 60 who did attend.

  2. Yup; that’s why Mullery made sure that the bill would be heard in a room that’s barely larger than a linen closet — he didn’t want turnout.

    He lost on that. And he’s probably going to be losing his job, shortly. More on that another time.

    There’ll be more tomorrow and over the weekend, but there really wasn’t any question that wasn’t answered by the fear in the appropriate faces. We’re going to have to go back to the Capitol, but vinceremos. We will overcome. You can take that to the bank.

    One correction: I was reliably informed that my count was off; it was 65, not sixty.

    My one serious disappointment of the day: because the hearing room didn’t even have standing room, I didn’t get to hear David Gross speak on the subject. The recordings should be up shortly; I’ll be pointing to them. He’s always terrific, and I’m told by reliable sources that he was in fine form — even for him, and that’s saying something — today. I’m glad he’s on the side of truth, justice and the American way.

    Defeated? We’ve barely gotten started.

  3. That’s too bad but we have to get used to losing a lot this session. We just don’t have the numbers. Hopefully the takeaway will be for most people (as you say) not let’s go hide under a rock but let’s suit up for the endorsing conventions and November. My North Minneapolis neighbors at the PEACE foundation were getting a group to testify against this bill. Did you notice them?

  4. One small correction: Joel, mrokern and mitchx3 liveblogged. I just did a little reposting of their updates from forum.twincitiescarry.com to Joel’s blog. They deserve all the credit — I just pushed a few buttons.

    If you care about this stuff (and if you’re reading this, I’ll bet you do), the forum is about the best place in the state to keep up on these things. We will almost certainly need some more of these “real Americans” at the Capitol before the session is over.

  5. So here’s an open letter to those legislators, whomever they are; real Americans have long memories – and November isn’t that far away.
    Don’t make any plans in Saint Paul for next February. That’s all I’m saying.

    Nice to see the MOB’s Nacht der langen Messer is still going strong. It’s like watching the same train go over a cliff again and again.

  6. Nice to see the MOB’s Nacht der langen Messer is still going strong. It’s like watching the same train go over a cliff again and again.

    What state were you watching in 2000-2004?

    The train ran the DFL over on the gun issue, bigfella.

  7. Gee, nice to know there are 60 gun nuts in the Twinkie Cities with their days free. Just sitting around, collecting disability. Brooding.

    The cops took down their names, I hope.

  8. The cops took down their names, I hope.

    there you have it – spoken like a true Tic (and the party of racism) – the unqualified support for the use of police to oppress law abiding peoples.

  9. Silly kel. The police aren’t supposed to surveil terrorists and illegal immigrants (especially the ones engaged in prostitution).

    Law-abiding working guys? The constitution doesn’t apply.

  10. ac, you really are clueless about our good cops, aren’t you? The Capitol security folks are great, and utterly unworried about our crowd; they’ve seen us show up, armed — with information, and many of us with our personal safety devices — for years and years, and know the score. Captain Mary did come out to have a word with us at the hearing, before it started; she was concerned that some of us might have forgotten the rules about holding up signs (a fair worry; some of the working men and women who took a day off from work and family to come down and support self-defense for law-abiding Minnesotans weren’t familiar with the rules forbidding holding up signs during a hearing) and wanted to be sure that none of her people were going to have to deal with that sort of problem.

    Of course, they didn’t.

    One of the hysterical antis kinda went batshit when Mullery mentioned that Representative Cornish was carrying; there was much amusement in the room, but nobody mentioned to her, then, that there were literally dozens of citizens carrying there. I don’t know if anybody clued her in, later.

  11. Is there going to be any more activity at the Capital related to this? I would like to know, and possible go, if I can. The wife had a small surgery yesterday, so there was really no way I could make it. 🙁

  12. Not this session, is my guess, alas.

    Will there be in future sessions? Well, yeah. There will be, and when there’s more going on, grab an oar; we’re all going to be doing a lot of rowing.

  13. Pingback: Shot in the Dark » Blog Archive » It’s A Start. Sort Of.

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