TTAG Daily Digest: Narrative Uber Alles, Dems Over-Reaching and the House GOP Favors Regulation

Because we can’t let the fact that campus carry wasn’t a factor disrupt the narrative . . . Fatal shooting of Texas Tech officer renews debate over 2016 campus carry law despite shooter’s age

Texas allows licensed handgun owners to carry a concealed weapon on many areas of public four-year university campuses, but the minimum age to get a license to carry is 21 (military veterans and active members are the exception). The alleged shooter, then, would have likely been too young to legally carry a concealed handgun.

The Texas chapter of Students for Concealed Carry said on Twitter that there is “no evidence” the law had an impact on the Texas Tech shooting, citing the suspect’s age.

Still, the Texas Democratic Party called the law enacted by the Republican-controlled legislature allowing the carrying of concealed firearms on college campuses a “dumb and dangerous idea” as it shared a link to ongoing coverage on its official Twitter account.

The Voxen recount the NRA’s long march toward greater firearms freedom . . . How the NRA resurrected the Second Amendment

Experts and historians in this field told me that this deterioration has been decades in the making, as the top organization of the gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, took part in a decades-long, massive political campaign that helped alter Americans’ — and even the courts’ — views of gun rights and particularly the Second Amendment.

In doing this, the NRA shifted the country from the view that the Second Amendment is about the federal government’s role in state-run militias to one that it’s really about individual Americans’ right to bear arms. Through this constitutional shield, America’s gun rights enthusiasts have been able to tilt the country’s politics dramatically to the right on this issue.

They always over-reach . . . Democrats propose ban on high-capacity magazines in wake of Las Vegas attack

Democrats are planning to introduce legislation to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines in the wake of the Las Vegas attack that left at least 59 people dead and nearly 500 more injured.

The proposed ban on the transfer, importation, or possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition follows separate legislation to ban “bump stocks”, the novelty device that Stephen Paddock appears to have used to make semi-automatic rifles mimic the rapid fire of a fully automatic weapon.

If they didn’t have double standard, they wouldn’t have any at all . . . Why Does The Left Contradict Itself On Gun Rights Versus Abortion Rights?

However, the Left’s philosophy regarding guns and abortion contains a contradiction that it isn’t willing to confront. Jimmy Kimmel, in what I believe was a genuinely heartfelt and sincere late-night response to the Las Vegas shootings, exposed that hypocrisy. “When an American buys guns then there is nothing we can do about that,” he said sardonically. “The Second Amendment, I guess, our forefathers wanted us to have AK-47s is the argument, I assume.”

But have you ever noticed that the Left only makes an “originalist” argument about the Constitution when it comes to the Second Amendment? Several of these originalist arguments have surfaced after the Las Vegas tragedy, and Kimmel alluded to one in his statement.

Too soon . . . 3 Nevada gun shows canceled – including one in Reno – but others will go on

A Northern Nevada gun show scheduled for this weekend was canceled out of respect for those affected in the Las Vegas mass shooting, according to the casino that was to play host to it.

The Rocky Mountain Gun Show, a series of markets that travel throughout the West, was scheduled Friday to Sunday at the Grand Sierra Resort east of downtown Reno, according to a news release. Show organizers were not immediately available to comment, and six other shows — including a Jan. 27-28 stop at the Grand Sierra — remain on the schedule.

Law enforcement is much easier when the morons self-identify . . . Snapchat videos lead police to Grand Rapids gun thieves

Investigators used videos from the mobile app Snapchat to identify and locate three teens involved in a string of gun shop larceny attempts in the Grand Rapids area.

The videos led officers to a red Jeep occupied by Desiree Taggart, 17, Cameron Ellis-Ayers, 18, and an additional juvenile on Sept. 26 — two days after guns were stolen from Barracks 616 in Cascade Township.

Taggart and Ellis-Ayers were arrested and have since been charged as adults. The juvenile was charged a few days later.

Please, ATF…save us from ourselves . . . House Republicans shy away from action on ‘bump stocks,’ hoping the ATF deals with it

Curbelo said Tuesday that administrative action alone would not solve the issue, noting that ATF has previously ruled that the devices should not be regulated like machine guns.

“If they were to get sued after changing that interpretation, the plaintiffs would have a very strong case, given the agency’s previous determinations,” he said. “So if people agree with banning these devices, let’s pass a law. It’s the best way to make sure it gets done.”

That one time the NRA actually lost in the Supreme Court . . . After one Georgia gun lover wanted to build his own machine gun, the NRA got its worst defeat ever

Congress had just passed the Firearm Owners Protection Act, a law that restored many previously restricted gun rights but banned machine guns manufactured after May 19, 1986. But Farmer, a gunsmith and enthusiast from Smyrna, Georgia, wasn’t prepared to give up. He filed an application with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) in October and provided fingerprints, agreed to a background check, and submitted the $200 tax. The ATF turned him down, citing the unlawful “making of new machine guns for possession by private persons.”

Farmer sued ATF director Stephen Higgins in federal court. One of his lawyers argued that Farmer “made a living from manufacturing machine guns. He was selling them to collectors and…his automatic weapons were used on such TV shows as Miami Vice and the miniseries Amerika.” Judge Owen Forrester ruled in Farmer’s favor.