The Gun Ban!

Yesterday it happened: Obama issued 23 Executive Orders on gun control*. Guys, the balloon just went UP. In addition to his 23 orders he has also put on the table:

1. A new "assault weapons" (a made-up term by gun-grabbers to include semi-automatic rifles that look scary) ban.
2. A 10-round Magazine limit (because criminals cannot reload).
3. Banning armor piercing bullets (all criminals carry armor piercing bullets).

Congress will have to decide on those--but dictator Obama has used his executive power to do those 23 things. What are they? Here (my comments in bold).

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background-check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background-check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background- check system.

4. Direct the attorney general to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

6. Publish a letter from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

7. Launch a national safe and responsible gun ownership campaign. THOSE BASTARDS!!

8. Review safety standards for gun locks and gun safes (Consumer Product Safety Commission).

9. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.

10. Release a Department of Justice report analyzing information on lost and stolen guns and make it widely available to law enforcement.

11. Nominate an ATF director.

12. Provide law enforcement, first responders, and school officials with proper training for active shooter situations.

13. Maximize enforcement efforts to prevent gun violence and prosecute gun crime.

14. Issue a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.

15. Direct the attorney general to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun-safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.

16. Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.

17. Release a letter to healthcare providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits them from reporting threats of violence to law enforcement authorities.

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

19. Develop model emergency-response plans for schools, houses of worship and institutions of higher education.

20. Release a letter to state health officials clarifying the scope of mental health services that Medicaid plans must cover.

21. Finalize regulations clarifying essential health benefits and parity requirements within Affordable Care Act exchanges.

22. Commit to finalizing mental-health parity regulations.

23. Launch a national dialogue led by Secretaries Sebelius and Duncan on mental health.

Here's what the Cato Institute had to say about the orders:

President Obama’s 23 executive orders generally take positive steps towards stopping gun violence – such as improving the background check system and increasing enforcement of gun crime – though I have federalism or privacy concerns about a few of them.

Yeah. That was my impression too. Some people are really het up about #16, presuming that doctors will use their questions to ferret out gun owners and then turn that data over to gun-grabbers at BATF or something. Yeah, seems legit.

As to his legislative proposals? Not going to pass the House. So Obama will do his 23 things and then throw the bills over the wall and let them die in the Senate--and wash his hands of it. That's my prediction. Except, wait--what's that on my TV!?

How We Will Lose Our Guns

There are two major threats to 2nd Amendment rights right now. Neither one of them is Obama. Below is the first one:

The Ad
Elitist Hypocrite is a "weird" 36 seconds long--a smidgen too long for saturation TV play--but it's not meant for TV--it's meant for viral web play. It begins with a nervous beat and iconic graphics with shadowed foregrounds and washed out backgrounds. We start by seeing a lunch box with the presidential seal on it.

"Are the president's kids more important than YOUR kids?" it asks. Shadow children play the great American game of baseball with an American flag in the background!

"Then why is he SKEPTICAL about putting Armed Security in schools--" We see a bleak looking school building with the American flag flying above it. Our point of view is that of a bug's--the shadowed foreground are silhouettes of grass.

"When his kids are protected by armed guards at Their School!" Two, erm, officers (their shirts say Police--they are presumably not guards) pop up in front of the building, blocking our view, arms folded! We don't see their faces--just their bodies ... and their gun belts.

"Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes--" We see the capitol building on the back of the dollar bill. The scene cuts to an image of Obama's eyes over a spinning pile of money.

That's YOUR Money He's Eyeing!

"But he's just another Elitist Hypocrite--when it comes to a fair share of security!"

Wait, is That Boehner Down There!?

We see shadow swat-team members and soldiers flank the soft politicians holding their deadly full auto weapons.

I Think I See Pistol Grips!

"Protection for THEIR kids and Gun FREE Zones for Ours!" says the narrator and we see the school with a Gun Free Zone sign in front of it.

Attack Here

We then get a full six seconds of their sending you to their sign-up page. That's the longest image in the ad by far.

What Does It Mean?
The key to understanding this ad is the money-shot--I mean the actual shot with Obama's hateful eyes over the pile of dough. You might ask: What does taxes have to do with gun control (if you go off on how certain regulations become a kind of 'gun tax' you are smart and missing the point). The point is this: YOU (the target market) already HATE Obama--and one big reason? Because YOU just got beat up and humiliated on the Fiscal Cliff argument. So YOU are going to spend the six seconds of the end of the ad memorizing the NRA's sign-up page.

YOU are going to send them Money.

This ad is not about influencing policy or changing people's minds--it is about funneling every last Obama-hater to the NRA's coffers. It's about sign-up numbers and in order to do that it has to get you riled up. Taxes do that. The whole specious argument about his kids and our kids does that. It doesn't have to be logical: mad people make money.

That's the Glenn Beck Unified Theorem in case you were wondering.

The second biggest threat to gun ownership is that the use of the president's kids in this hamfisted, tin-eared ad will piss off enough people that it'll change any 'moderate' in the political debate by 1 to 3 percentage points towards Democrats.

The biggest threat to gun ownership in America right now is that the conservative Republicans in the House will blow up the debt ceiling debate leading to loss of the House in 2014. If that happens and people are still annoyed by the NRA?

Then we might see today's legislative points pass a Donkey-Controlled congress. That's how you lose your guns.

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* The number 23 is not coincidence, either. It was carefully chosen for it's cabalistic value (do you not see the padding)? 23 Is a resonant number (the Law of Fives: 2+3 = 5!). Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times. Kurt Cobain was born in 1967 and died in 1994: 1+9+6+7 = 23. 1+9+9+4 = 23. William Shakespeare was born--and died--on April 23rd. Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes to start a new human life. There are 23 dogmas in the Catholic church. Blood circulation happens ever 23 seconds. The human arm has 23 points of articulation. In geometry, the Euclid contains 23 axioms. The Latin alphabet has 23 letters. The Torah has 22 letters and Cabalists proclaim the 23rd will appear at the end of the "eon." The Blue Meanie in Yellow Submarine has 23 on his shirt--so did Michael Jordan.