wooly bugger

Did you just say what I think you just said? Now it that had been caught on tape, it would have been priceless. So, if they won't curb gun violence, then why are they risking their cushy jobs to ram these through? It's good to share these responses, because others will probably hear them again. If anyone hears that, please turn that into the focus of the entire conversation. Why are you passing laws, against huge resistance, and risking years and millions of dollars of litigation, that do nothing good?

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+1 Of course be civil. Even if he's your enemy, he's taking time he doesn't have to take to meet you. And remember, everything you say and do can be recorded. So, speak and act as if the meeting is going to be streamed on Huffington Post. I completely agree that the burden is on THEM to demonstrate the validity of their laws. Not on US to explain why it's so important to be able to buy ammo from the internet. The default should always be for them to explain themselves. Not vice versa. The perfect example of this was when Cryan baited someone about how many rounds of ammo Loughner had and how he got them (6000. Internet.) The proper response would be: "OK, with your law in place, what would have been different? Would the outcome have been any different if he had gone to his LGS, shown a real (or fake) ID, and walked out with 500 rounds?" We should also anticipate likely hypotheticals, like Cryan's whopper about taking a .50 BMG to a bridge and setting off a chemical factory with an incendiary bullet. Question: 1) where would he get a .50 caliber incendiary bullet? Do they even sell them to civilians? Are they legal in NJ? 2) Given an incendiary bullet and a target the size of a warehouse, would the outcome be any different if he'd fired it out of a .30-06? As a bonus, he could fire the .30-06 out his window, which would be hard with the .50 I think the hardest hypotheticals to beat are the mag capacity ones. It's true, in a couple of cases, shooters were stopped when they fumbled. The best I can think of is: 1) in a firefight 20% hit rate (I heard this at one of the SAFE meetings. don't know the source) 2) have a pocket full of stories, like the one about the Georgia woman who shot the intruder 5 times, and he still got away. 3) a premeditated shooter will have as many mags as he wants. in a self defense situation, it's not practical

"45,000 voting FID card" Where does this number come from??? It would be powerful if we could compile a database on number of FID holders in each of their districts. I'll be working on figuring out the OPRA process on Monday. And remember, not every gun owner has or needs an FID. An interesting and probably unanswerable question is, what percentage of owners actually have an FID. In my recruitment calls to my friends, I discovered that two didn't. They'd just never bothered.

" 8% of guns bought in NJ are recovered from a crime within 2 years. National average is three times higher at 24% (tracetheguns.org - ATF 2010 Gun trace data)" ???? what does that mean? It can't mean what it sounds like it means. Do you mean 8% of those "illegally" bought?

That was precious. Another good juxtaposition for our Youtube montage. Another good soundbite for discrediting these people.

My thoughts exactly. Seeing how the autoresponse emails evolved (or devolved) over time makes me think he was taking some serious heat from his colleagues. Now that last one was too precious to waste. I sent the key paragraphs in a letter to my assemblymen asking them to send the bills back to committee for a proper hearing. Hard to argue with when the chairman himself admits he wasn't listening. I truly think that email may have been a turning point. No matter what happens from now, we will drag out that email at every step. We've got some pretty great material for a Youtube montage. I'm imagining Navy woman't video followed by a black screen with his email text displayed. Also the "communist" accusation fading into Vlad's memorable speech. I still feel like we're babes in the woods, though. If nothing else, he's a seasoned operator. We don't know why he's doing what he is, but if we're going to play, we need to do it from a level of equal sophistication. I realize that it's not good to talk strategy in the open (kind of like broadcasting the football huddle across the stadium,) but is there anyone on the forum with legal/political background that can help prep people for these kids of meetings?

So it has to be initiated by the senate president or assembly leader? That person can just block anything they don't like? Is there no way to force a hearing?

I'm looking into the nuts and bolts of the legislative process. Last year 4042 bills were introduced! http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/02/as_new_nj_legislative_session.html What I'm trying to figure out is, what does it take to move a bill from being "introduced" to being referred to committee. For example, this one has been "introduced" for over a year, and I'd be very interested to discuss it in committee: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2012/Bills/A0500/499_I1.HTM Is there anything we can do to put it on the schedule for the next meeting? Others were introduced just three days before the meeting: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2012/Bills/A4000/3583_I1.HTM

Where does it say he has a CCW?

Hey, give him a break. It's not like he got caught with a 16 round magazine or something.

I hate playing racial politics. It turns my stomach. But you know what they say about strange bedfellows. It looks like Connors is pretty well-protected, but there was strong resistance to seating a non-Hispanic in his seat. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/04/hudson_county_democrats_tap_je.html

Dead to me. It's a completely shallow gesture. Here's what their web sites says about government sales: http://www.cheaperth...nmentSales.aspx I don't see anything about excluding sales to certain states. Somehow, I don't think the NY State Police surf the web for the best prices before placing an order for 100k rounds of .223.

Seriously, we need a lot of input into this from the pros. We have a lot of money and a lot of time. Deployed correctly, we can change the outcome of several elections. Deployed wrong, it's going to be wasted. My brother is a union organizer, now in law school. (yes, we are very different people.) I talked to him about it last night and he gave me some advice. One is, just stay away from Hudson County, which runs on an "underground economy." Notice how little money is listed in Mr. Mainor's contribution disclosure? http://ballotpedia.o.../Charles_Mainor Notice that a man with an annual income of $49,000 and a home in foreclosure has $9000 to fund himself. We could play by these rules, but without the political patronage these people have developed, we'd be exposed in a second and really hurt our reputation. My personal opinion is that it's probably more useful to fund opposition candidates with real prospects than it is to set up brand new one issue candidates with no experience. We don't have to like the opposition. Once they're bought and paid for, they'll do as they're told. I really think Cryan could be vulnerable in a primary challenge. Look at how narrow his victory was. http://ballotpedia.o...le=Joseph_Cryan I don't know who Tony Monteiro (Montana?) or Carlos Cedeno are, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that with $20,000 in extra campaign funds in a district that's 33% Hispanic, they'd have a real chance to get the extra 1000 votes they'd need to unseat Cryan. If that's not enough, add another $10,000 in "opposition research." It may sound like a lot of money, but it's a lot less than the amount of income the people gave up to come to that hearing. It's the amount that 10 Vlads spend in one year of shooting. The Cryan family came up in a time when the Irish mob ran swaths of New Jersey, and people didn't have the guerilla technology we now have to expose underhanded dealings. Imagine how that committee meeting would have turned out 20 years ago, before cell phone video, real time online forums, univeral access to email, and youtube? Those times are gone.

Have you ever supported a foreign terrorist organization? Do you display photographs in your office of yourself in the company of known foreign terrorists? Has an immediate member of your family ever had a restraining order against you? Has any immediate member of your family ever been convicted of felony assault and/or repeated DUI? Has your father ever been charged with racketeering and had the charges dismissed on a procedural technicality? Has any business owned by you or your family been shut down for serving alcohol to minors? Despite all of this has the state seen fit to provide you with a no-show law enforcement job and permission to carry a concealed weapon? If any or all of the above apply, you are qualifed to be the Majority Leader of the Assembly.

Wouldn't it be funny if instead of "desk duty," bad cops got reassigned to "reloading duty?" They'd first have to sneak across to Cabelas in PA, buy a bunch of components in bulk, and then scrounge brass from the police training range. Poetic justice. In some cases, lack of training might actually make us safer. While a cop is spending 20-30 seconds changing his magazine, any innocent bystanders can catch a cab and leave the scene.

I would like to join such a force; not because I'm seriously worried about an apocalpytic battle against the feds (yet), but more because I like military history and I'd just like to learn basic military tactics. Unfortunately, anyone who sets up an organization like this is going to attract a lot of unwanted attention from the ATF, with their loose interpretation of rule of law. I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Here's the left wing catch-22. 1) You can't have a gun unless you're part of a militia 2) If you join a militia, you'll end up on a watch list that will prevent you from having a gun Civil War reenactors seem to be pretty much left alone. How about a "WWII reenactment society?"

I've already sponsored 6 NRA life members. Given what I know now, I'll be be directing them to NJ2AS and/or ANJRPC

Is there going to be another one? Unless absolutely required by law, I can't imagine them wanting to subject themselves to that humiliation again. I'll admit, I'm wasting way too much time fantasizing about how to eviscerate these people next time.

The only thing they could dangle that would make me even consider a trade is "shall issue." Never going to happen. And if these clowns did dangle it, it would obviously be a devious trap. So, in reality. Nothing.

So, in keeping with our guerilla campaign, I'm thinking it would be interesting to find out which of our overlords are among the lucky 32,000 CCW holders. I'm investigating how to access records under OPRA, and here's what I came up with. http://www.nj.gov/grc/act.html Here's a key passage: "The custodian of a government record shall permit the record to be inspected, examined, and copied by any person during regular business hours" Does this mean, if I can find out who keeps records of CCW holders, I can just show up and flip through the files? They do carve out a vague exemption: "a public agency has a responsibility and an obligation to safeguard from public access a citizen's personal information with which it has been entrusted when disclosure thereof would violate the citizen's reasonable expectation of privacy" But, if they've felt compelled to introduce a bill protecting this information, doesn't that imply that under the existing condition, this information is not considered private?" So, does anyone have any idea where this information might be kept?

I'll bet if Ceasefire introduced Eddie Eagle, it would be lapped up. The NRA introdues it, and it's poison.

Well, better report it within 90 days, or you're a criminal. Or is it 180. I can't keep track anymore....

There is just so much stupid crap going on that I don't know anymore what's serious and what's not. I assume that almost anything outlandish outside of CA, MA, IL, HI, NJ, or NY has no chance. Wow, that sequence of states reminds me of a lot of shopping web sites.

Snail mail it is. Need to run to the post office for some stamps....