Saturday, June 28, was a good day for the Independence Institute. Its sixth annual ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) Party attracted a record number of participants to the Kiowa Creek Sporting Club for the “most politically incorrect” event of the year.
But while Jon Caldara’s group advertised the 2008 AFT incarnation by urging people to “have fun…while it’s still legal,” the Supreme Court decision on the Washington, D.C., gun case released Thursday case gave the group real reason to celebrate.
And, in fact, institute research director David Kopel, who played a key role in preparing that case, was the first to address the crowd at the lunch that followed the morning’s skeet-shooting. He was followed by Jonathan Hoenig, FoxNews contributor and author of Greed Is Good, and Fred Barnes, executive editor of the Weekly Standard , a Beltway Boy who doesn’t smoke, drink or shoot (but will stand beside Caldara, as shown above).
But then, despite this event’s billing – and it’s Best of Denver 2007 award as the Best Place to See a Drunk Conservative -- most of the shooting here is traditionally done from the lip, not the gun or even the bottle.
Alert to Media Matters: No need to comb the photographs of the event, as an intern did last year (the late Chase Parr, who was also working at Westword at the time). Yes, I was there and wearing my “I was bitch-slapped by Jon Caldara, and I loved it” T-shirt -- created after a researcher determined that Westword used the term far more liberally than did Caldara.
Of course. – Patricia Calhoun
