March for Our Lives

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An Unholy Alliance

June 5, 2022 by 2 Comments

I received a press release on May 31st from the American Federation of Teachers. They are the smaller of the two major teachers’ unions in the United States. The release announced that the teachers’ union was preparing to have a series of event “to demand action on gun violence (sic) prevention.” They planned vigils outside of the offices of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA).

It really isn’t news when a lefty union holds an event outside a politician’s office. Whether it is higher pay, gun control, or opposition to school innovation and/or charter schools, it is the same old same old.

However, what really caught my eye in this press release is that they are announcing a new partnership.

Educators, parents and students will send the message that “enough is enough” and that students, parents, educators and communities deserve commonsense gun safety laws now. The union also will be partnering with Parkland, Fla., school shooting survivor and activist David Hogg in the lead up to the March for Our Lives on June 11.

So David “Camera” Hogg and the AFT will be partners.

It really isn’t that surprising. Both are engaged in indoctrinating the youth of our country that “guns are bad”, “only the police should have guns”, and “Republicans are evil”. While it may be a good match for each of them, it is an unholy alliance for our schools and our children.

UPDATE: Going through my email, I found a second press release from the American Federation of Teachers issued on June 1st. It included additional comments by AFT President Randi Weingarten and “Camera” Hogg.

From Weingarten:

Our No. 1 priority is keeping our children, our members, our families and our communities safe, and that requires a commitment from every single one of us: educators, parents, students, faith leaders and legislators alike. We are teachers, nurses and public employees who have been on the front lines of the gun violence epidemic, and we’re standing side by side with the country’s students to demand action on gun safety before one more life is lost, whether it’s a mass shooting on school grounds or one of the countless instances of gun violence that take lives in our neighborhoods every day. Enough is enough. The vast majority of Americans have found common ground on preventing gun violence and want action on gun safety now.”

Gun control is not gun safety and never has been. I also take issue with “the vast majority of Americans” finding common ground on gun control. Perhaps if you use a push poll worded to get the answers you desire but that would be it.

From Hogg:

“Our teachers are everything to America’s children. They’re counselors, mentors, they’re there for our highs and for our lows. In this moment of crisis, as gun violence has soared to become the leading cause of death in our children, our teachers are there with us shielding us with their care and sometimes even their own bodies. The threat to our lives from gun violence is unacceptable, and once again our teachers are here to fight for us. We’re organizing across the country with teachers, teacher aides, and our entire school communities to say: Enough is enough. This will be the beginning of the end of gun violence, and the American Federation of Teachers is there with us to make it happen.” 

I think Hogg confuses the role of teachers with that of parents. We all have had teachers we admired and even loved. That said, they rarely were our everything.

If you really wanted to empower teachers to shield students, you would offer training such as the FASTER program along with “stop the bleed”.

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Some People Will Believe Anything!

December 22, 2019 by 1 Comment

March for Our Lives, the children’s crusade against firearms, has just shown their gullibility and ignorance. If it involves guns, they will believe anything an anti-gun politician spews out.

They have retweeted an absolute lie told by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D-PA). He wants people to have the impression that it was the National Rifle Association that sued him after his autocratic redefinition of what constitutes a firearm. Shapiro knew that throwing the name “NRA”, the term “ghost guns”, and tying it into crime was red meat for your average ignorant anti-gunner.

Look at the first page of the application for an emergency preliminary injunction. That action is being brought by a Pennsylvania FFL, a New Hampshire FFL, a manufacturer and dealer in what are called 80% lowers, and the Firearms Policy Coalition. No where do you see that the NRA is involved in this case. Indeed, if you had attended the Meeting of Members at the 2019 NRA Annual Meeting, you know that that old guard had nothing but disdain for attorneys Josh Prince and Adam Kraut. Don’t forget that Marion Hammer has called Adam “the enemy within”.

Shapiro sent out his original tweet the day after the application was filed. He knew or should have known that the NRA had nothing to do with this case.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives has consistently held that unfinished forgings or castings that are “completely solid and un-machined in the fire-control recess area” are not firearms and not subject to the Gun Control Act of 1968. See the attached determinations beginning on page 67 of the application for an injunction. Moreover, BATFE doesn’t even use the term “80% lower” or “80% frame” which is more of a marketing term than anything else.

As Josh Prince notes in his law firm blog, only the Pennsylvania General Assembly has the power to write law and it cannot be delegated. In other words, Shapiro’s “legal opinion” is making law and therefore invalid.

With regard to Shapiro’s claim that he is being sued by “companies that fund the @NRA”, only Polymer 80 exhibited at the most recent NRA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. Having a booth at a national show which attracts thousands of gun owners is smart business for Polymer 80. While the NRA does gain some marginal revenue, “funding the NRA” is not Polymer 80’s purpose in being there. Just like we are all the “gun lobby”, so, too, we are all “funding the NRA” through our memberships.

Politicians and their PR flacks will say anything to push their position. Sometimes it is true. More often it is either the shading of the truth or an outright lie. I’ll let you decide what Shapiro was trying to do with his tweet.

March for Our Lives’ tweet, on the other hand, is a demonstrable lie. Like naughty children, they should be sent to their room with no TV, no phone, and no Internet to think about the consequences of their lie.

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There Is Neutral And Then There Is Delta Neutral

March 25, 2018 by 6 Comments

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Back in February, Delta Airlines discontinued the airfare discount for NRA members. They did this in the face of a campaign by gun control groups to get corporations to end any and all discounts for NRA members.
Here is what they said at the time on their website in the way of explanation:

Delta’s decision reflects the airline’s neutral status in the current national debate over gun control amid recent school shootings. Out of respect for our customers and employees on both sides, Delta has taken this action to refrain from entering this debate and focus on its business. Delta continues to support the 2nd Amendment.


This is not the first time Delta has withdrawn support over a politically and emotionally charged issue. Last year, Delta withdrew its sponsorship of a theater that staged a graphic interpretation of “Julius Caesar” depicting the assassination of President Trump. Delta supports all of its customers but will not support organizations on any side of any highly charged political issue that divides our nation.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian went a bit further the next week in a memo to Delta employees as reported by the Washington Post.

Caught in a maelstrom over his company’s decision to cut ties with the National Rifle Association, Delta Air Lines chief executive Ed Bastian said Friday that his intention had been to “remain neutral” and “remove Delta from this [gun control] debate.” Delta, he said, is now planning to end discounts “for any group of a politically divisive nature.”

He went on to say:

“Our people and our customers have a wide range of views on how to increase safety in our schools and public places, and we are not taking sides,” he wrote. “Our objective in removing any implied affiliation with the NRA was to remove Delta from this debate.”

The key words you keep hearing from Delta are “neutral status”, “not taking sides”, and “refrain from entering this debate”. That was what Ed Bastian and Delta were saying at the beginning of the month.

So what did they do in light of today’s gun control march?

Delta Air Lines has donated three round-trip charter flights that allowed hundreds of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students to participate in the “March for Our Lives” protest against gun violence in Washington.

Delta said the donation is “part of our commitment to supporting the communities we serve.”

 Ed Bastian and Delta Air Lines must be suffering a bout of cognitive dissonance if they think ending a discount for NRA members and then giving three round-trip charter flights to students advocating gun control is neutrality. These actions are about the furthest thing from neutrality that I could imagine.

My last flight with Delta will be in May to attend the NRA Annual Meeting. That ticket was paid for before the change in Delta policy and it is non-refundable. Over the last 20 or so years, 90% or more of my air travel has been on Delta. No more.