Enough Was Enough

Linoge at Walls of the City has done yeoman’s work in compiling the record of plagiarism, theft, copyright violations, and outright lies perpetrated in the name of gun blogging by Robert Farago and his minions at Tthe Truth About Guns. This post was a long time in the making and probably overdue. As Linoge notes, he was assisted in his efforts by a number of other pro-rights bloggers and I’m happy to say I was one of them.

What brought this to a head and resulted in the Linoge’s “uber-post” were two events that happened at the Gun Rights Policy Conference. The first was the awarding of a SAF Defender of Liberty award (one of many) to Farago. When the Second Amendment Foundation made the award they were unaware of Farago’s duplicitous past of plagiarism, copyright violations, and lies. An uber-post like that of Linoge – and the linking of it by other reputable gun bloggers – will help prevent this sort of error in the future.

The second, and much more serious, event was the treatment of Washington Times senior editor Emily Miller by Farago. Not only did he ambush her in the hallway in a creepy manner but his subsequent posts were beyond the pale. From Emily’s comments on the encounter which she posted at Shall Not Be Questioned:

Thank you so much for this post. I felt ambushed by that guy. He was
very creepy and jumpy, which made me nervous. I should have trusted my
instincts, but instead stayed and answered all his questions politely. I
don’t know why he feels the need to repeatedly attack me for being a
girl and for not having extensive training in the six months I’ve owned a
gun. That’s all true, but I’ve also gotten the gun laws changed in D.C.
to make it easier to get a legal gun, so the haters don’t affect my
work!

If you do read Linoge’s post – and you should – you will see a report of an incident at the 2011 NRA Annual Meeting involving similar rude and condescending behavior by Farago towards attorney Alan Gura. I was there, I witnessed it, and I was furious. 

Alan Gura and Emily Miller have in their different ways done more for gun rights in the last five years than virtually anyone out there. We don’t need the National Enquirer of the gun blogosphere treating them like dirt. It is as simple as that. We can quibble about whether it matters if Farago is a plagiarist or not but rude, boorish, and condescending behavior towards good people doing great work should always be called out.

Like I Said – An Attractive And Effective Spokesperson For Gun Rights

Emily Miller of the Washington Times was on Fox and Friends Weekend this morning to speak about the rise in gun ownership and gun use by women. I think she is correct when she attributes it to the desire for increased self-protection.

I think she did an excellent job in her interview. As I wrote earlier in the week, the unintended consequence of D.C.’s draconian gun laws was the creation of a new spokesperson for gun rights.

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

The Unintended Consequences Of Putting Up Roadblocks To Emily Getting Her Gun

I doubt the District of Columbia City Council knew what was in store for them when Emily Miller started her path towards gun ownership. She just wanted a handgun for protection and they made it incredibly hard. Little did they realize that the roadblocks that they had erected to prevent gun ownership in the District would create such an attractive and effective spokesperson for gun rights.

If getting a handgun in the District had been as easy as it was in Virgina, Emily may have written one story and that would be that. The unintended consequence of their recalcitrance has been a 30-part series in the Washington Times, television interviews with Fox News and News Channel 8, testimony at a Council hearing on gun policy, and multiple interviews in the gun media ranging from NRA News to Tom Gresham’s GunTalk Radio.

Emily’s latest interview aired today on Bret Baier’s Special Report and is now the featured story on the Fox News site as I write this. The DC Council is reaping what they sowed.

Watch the latest video at <a href=”http://video.foxnews.com”>video.foxnews.com</a>

Creating A Gun Rights Activist

Emily Miller just wanted a gun for protection at home. The District of Columbia still wants to delay the process as long as possible and put up as many bureaucratic roadblocks as possible the Heller decision notwithstanding. The end result is that as of today Emily Miller is officially a gun owner as she picked up her Sig P229 pistol and took it home. She is also now a gun rights activist.

Now, this series is far from over. As I’ve found, the hurdles placed before gun owners do not end here. I need to figure out the laws on getting ammunition and transporting the gun to a state that allows practice shooting.

Most of all, I intend to keep pushing the Council of the District of Columbia to rewrite the its laws to make them fair and constitutional for law-abiding Americans.

Emily has already testified before the DC City Council about her experience in obtaining her gun permit and her Sig P229. I fully expect that she will keep pushing the DC City Council to bring their gun laws in line with the rest of America.

There is an old saying that says politicians shouldn’t pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the ton. This is exactly what DC just did as Emily is a senior editor at the Washington Times and I think that they will rue the day that they made it difficult for her to defend herself.

What If Emily Wasn’t Smart, Articulate, And Connected

In the interview below with Natasha Barrett of Newschannel 8, Emily Miller explains the events that convinced her to want to buy a gun and then her efforts to actually purchase a gun since she is a D.C. resident. If you have been following her series in the Washington Times, you know it has been a long and arduous process.

It has also been expensive. In addition to the price of her new Sig 229, Emily has had to spend $435 in fees and other expenses to meet the District of Columbia’s gun regulations. She is now having to wait 10 days before she can take her new pistol home due to a “cooling off” period.

Emily Miller is an attractive, well-educated (Georgetown), well-spoken young woman with a high profile position as a senior editor with the Washington Times. Before that she was the deputy press secretary for both Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condolezza Rice.  If someone like her with all of her connections has this much trouble exercising her Constitutional right to own a firearm for her own self-defense in her own home, imagine what it is like for everyone else who isn’t as bright, articulate, and connected. If you said, damn near impossible, I think you’d be correct.

I hope she mentions that when she testifies before D.C. City Council on Monday, January 30th.

Emily Gets Her Gun Series

Emily Miller is a senior editor at the Washington Times. She also lives within the District of Columbia and wants to have a handgun for self-protection. In a series of articles, Ms. Miller is finding out just how hard it is to obtain a handgun in the District of Columbia. If it is this hard for someone who presumably is well connected, just imagine how hard it is for ordinary people to obtain the tools for self-defense in the District of Columbia.

Beginning of the quest.

Inside DC’s Gun Registry Office.

Interview with Charles Sykes – DC’s only gun dealer.

In this interview with Cam Edwards of NRA News, Ms. Miller describes her encounter with the Gun Registry Office.

Below is Cam Edwards’ interview on Tuesday with Ms. Miller for NRA News in which she describes meeting Mr. Sykes.