Baghdad Heather

It’s been my contention for quite some time that Heather Martens – “Executive Director” and likely sole steady member of “Protect Minnesota”, and unelected Representative from House District 66A – has never, not once in her entire career as an anti-civil-rights pundit, made a single original statement that was substantially true.

Martens (center) adjusting the leashes on Jane Kay of “Moms Demand Action” (left) and Rep. Paymar (even farther left, but to the right of the picture) last week.

Martens’ weekend press release about last week’s legislative actions didn’t just continue the pattern: it was an epic howler that deserves to be sent to every state legislator, with a goal of getting Martens laughed out of the Capitol by everyone that cares about the truth:

NRA Lobbyists Fail — Background Checks Move to House Floor

Yesterday, the Minnesota Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee passed H.F. 285, a bill that would ensure background checks for all pistol and assault weapon purchases at gun shows. The bill passed 10-8 and will head to the House floor. Despite only covering gun shows, Rep. Paymar, the chair of the committee, has vowed that H.F. 285 will ensure that universal background checks are debated on the House floor. Click here to read the whole story.

How many ways is this story wrong?

What “NRA Lobbyists” “failed”?:  While the NRA has sent a rep to put in an appearance at one hearing, all of the heavy lifting against the DFL’s gun grab bills was carried by the MInnesota Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance – which, unlike “Protect Minnesota”, is an actual grass roots organization with thousands of actual members, hundreds of whom came out to support civil rights over this past month while “Protect MN” managed, on a good day, maybe a dozen.  Martens is lying.

With More “Failures” Like This…:  Martens’ posting is an attempt to put lipstick on a pig.  Gun-show background checks – which are useless in preventing crime, would have saved not a single life at Newtown or Virginia Tech, and are only a burden to the law-abiding citizen – are the very last of the measures with which the extremist DFL metrocrats marched into battle last month.  The Metrocrats and Martens have been decisively rebuked by bipartisan majorities on…:

  • Ugly Guns Untouched: Banning “Assault Weapons” – which proved useless in preventing crime from 1995-2005.
  • Citizens Not Hamstrung In Face Of Violent Criminals: Restricting magazine sizes – again, useless in preventing crime of any type, much less mass killings.
  • The Law-Abiding Citizen Prevailed: Making Minnesota’s carry permit laws more niggling and onerous – from the effort to run applications past unelected police chiefs rather than elected sheriffs, to eliminating recourse for unjust denials, the DFL tried to make law-abiding carry permittees – among the safest constituencies in all of Minnesota, with a violent crime rate a couple of orders of magnitude below the general public (including metro DFL activists)
  • Success Has Many Fathers: Failure Is An Orphan: Most importantly;  a bipartisan majority of the entire House, including many DFLers, signed on to a bill specifically targeted as a rebuke to “Protect Minnesota” and the extreme Metrocrat left.  Half of the House, over 100 total members from both parties, co-authored the Hilstrom bill; Paymar’s bill had eight.

And all of this with a DFL legislature that is fundamentally disposed to support Martens and her organization’s agenda.

Viewed against that context – which, naturally, neither Martens nor her sycophants in the regional media will never provide – the conclusion is inescapable; “Protect Minnesota’s” 2013 agenda been a complete failure.

But Martens has successfully defended her title as least truthful lobbyist on Capitol Hill.  So at least there’s that.

 

14 thoughts on “Baghdad Heather

  1. Aside from the practical benefit, the show of force by pro-gun everyday citizens must have been astounding to Martens, her follower(s), and politicians on both sides who probably thought they owned the floor. Although I am the world’s most unremarkable person, I went to the capitol three times (my first time there was my first time ever), e-mailed and called specific politicians, signed-up for GOCRA updates, and then joined GOCRA outright.

    While none of this is noteworthy, the fact that someone as unremarkable as I did it probably means that many, many others like me did the same, for the first time, along with the regulars. That couldn’t have been lost on the politicians, the anti-gun people, and even lowly pundits like “Uncle Junior” Coleman.

    At least to me personally, this was a very successful event. Perhaps that’s what that young man from “Girls”, Len Dunham, meant in the Obama commercial in which the importance of “first times” was addressed. At least Len was right about that part …

  2. Joe, most Twin Cities lefties have zero diversity their lives. They live in ultra liberal echo chambers and are not used to coming in contact with people who are not 100% like them. A normal citizen just showing up makes a big difference. It puts a face on an ordianary person who believes in things like 2nd amendment rights, amoung many other issues.

  3. Yeah, they failed so badly, Paymar slinked out of his own committee hearing with his bill firmly wedged in his ass, with NonMonkey Nick covering his six.

    Pfffft.

  4. Unfortunately we must all remember that these slugs will keep coming back, and they’ll have even more lies to tell next time around.

  5. Some minor points: The NRA rep Christopher Rager, nice guy, and very helpful, has been to most of the hearings. There is also the Oakdale Gun Club’s lobbyist who went to a few hearings, I met him too, he also seems like a nice guy.

    Also worth mentioning they wanted us to turn in any magazines over 7 rounds, or face several years in prison regardless of any intent to do harm. Then they called us paranoid for opposing any registration schemes, and denied they were trying to take our guns. The AWB bill had a few confiscation features too, such as on death.

    According to Rager (NRA rep) HF285 will either be amended to match HF1325 (pro-gun bill), or die on the floor. There are not enough votes for any other outcome. Either way we win.

    One thing that I always find strange on both the state and federal level is the lack of research the anti gun side does. Even after several years of pushing the same issues they can’t be bothered to show up with a bill that could theoretically be passed due to details that they didn’t bother to solve regarding how the bill fits with prosecution, or the various government offices. They often don’t define the terms they use, or work out who is responsible for administering or controlling something. Heather Martens couldn’t even answer some basic questions about a few of her bills. The Joyce Foundation is not getting their monies worth from her.

  6. Dustin,

    All points well taken.

    But…

    “the Joyce Foundation is not getting their monies worth from her.”

    Shhhhh. Let’s not have them wising up and sending in someone competent.

    If they have one of those.

  7. The “gun-show loophole” bewilders me. I’ve tried to figure out why Liberals want so badly to ban private transfers, if not to create a registry for future confiscation. What present crime prevention justification is there?

    I read a couple of papers from 2007 alleging criminals get their guns from gun shows but the examples given were not persuasive. What other evidence is there to support Paymar’s case? We should know, if only to better refute it.
    ,

  8. It’s worth noting that many leftists not only have no diversity in their lives, but also no inclination to learn how the other side thinks. I once had a discussion about the estate tax with a liberal who refused to even consider the possibility that most rich people do not inherit their wealth, and think what that would mean to the discussion.

    I gave him the complete source and offered to loan it to him–refereed paper and all–still no dice. So it’s not just a question of not living in a diverse community, but rather often a situation where people refuse to even hear out another perspective.

    And they say they support diversity. Go figure.

  9. Pingback: Rise Up, Peasants, And Defend The Plutocrats! | Shot in the Dark

  10. Pingback: Stalingrad On Fountain Creek | Shot in the Dark

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.