15 people shot in Chicago in six hours. No way. Guns are banned there.

Seen on facebook from someone at NRA:

the Indy Star’s assertion that NRA did not respond to requests for comment is inaccurate. When asked for NRA reaction to the Governor’s signature, we sent him our press release, complete with quotes from Chris Cox, NRA-ILA’s executive director – stating NRA’s reaction to the Gov’s signature. He had a quote from the Pre…s of the Chamber and could have used the quotes from NRA-ILA’s Exec Dir, but he made that decision.

Toledo Blade unsigned editorial:

Although we’re glad the robberies were thwarted and thankful no innocents were injured, we’re not sure that store owners and employees defending themselves with deadly force is an absolute good.

teh st00pid can be fatal.

Of a crocodile discovering that you shouldn’t try to eat a baby hippo.

For my Earth Friendly Rifle, I was exploring options for optics. At the recommendation of Ben from Bison Armory (full disclosure, I’m part owner), I checked out the Nikon Monarch line. I wound up with this 1-4x German reticle model. Pics to come but the scope sits atop a couple of Burris 3/4 inch high, heavy duty rings with thumb screws so you can remove them. Seems sturdy.

The concept of a 1-4x always intrigued me but I never really bought one or shot one. I reasoned that pros would be that it is suitable at 1x for close work with both eyes open and for a wide field of view. The center portion of the German #4 reticle seems to function adequately has a red dot for fast target acquisition. We’ll see after the first range trip. And that I could crank it up to 4x for longer ranged stuff. The biggest con seems to be that access to back up iron sights requires removal of the scope. And I do wish it came with an illuminated reticle. Given the conditions in which I usually shoot, the back up iron sights access hasn’t proven to be an issue yet.

The scope is solid. It came with lens covers. And the glass is clear. The image is sharp and crisp. So far, I am a fan and may even replace one of my EOTech’s with it.

From my post on being a kid in Hawaii, it seems quite a few readers spent some of their formative years there too. Cool.

Remember when Barack Obama took office and we got out of Afghanistan and Iraq; ended torture; got lobbyists out of Washington; government became transparent; bills wouldn’t be rushed through so he would delay signing them and they would be put on a webpage so we could all see them; there’d be no no-bid contracts; reformed the political appointment process; repealed DADT; and we all had a Coke and a smile and there was peace on Earth? Me neither

Had lunch with a friend yesterday who was an Obama supporter. He was a supporter for the right reasons, in my opinion. Those reasons consist entirely of the republicans sucked hard for six years. And they did. But he expressed to me utter disappointment in a man who has the presidency and control of the house and senate, yet has a complete inability to get anything done.

Campfield says the university of Tennessee is crossing the line:

Much to the chagrin of the University of Tennessee Students who are on their own time, on their own property doing legal things with legal guns still have constitutional rights. The University of Tennessee wants to have control over those rights. I have legislation that would say they do not.

or corny

The Brady Campaign PSH Chart.

Believe it or not, you cannot actually profit from loaning money to yourself.

This year’s convention is held at a place that doesn’t allow concealed carry. This has happened before. IIRC, Louisville was the first one that allowed it. It’s because of the venue and not NRA policy. Curt says he won’t go because of it. Sebastian says it’s an issue but there are other considerations NRA has to factor in to its choice of venue.

I’m going. Already got a room.

ETA: Some doubt as to whether Louisville was the first and I cannot find where I read that. So, maybe not.

Lewis gun found in Illinois. More pics here.

Top 10 Anti-Gay Activists Caught Being Gay

Computer snafu is behind at least 50 ‘raids’ on Brooklyn couple’s home

I had always assumed it was shall issue. Turns out, sheriff’s have broad discretion. A bill in the works to fix that.

Target: Snapple.

A comparison.

Governor of Indiana signs bill into law.

Rooney

World’s fastest bolt action?

MM23e

Bersa Thunder, refinished

Davy Crockett’s first rifle

Estimating Range With A Mil-Dot Reticle

Add to the complete list of things that global warming causes that Russians may invade Canada.

Looks like Todd Jarrett’s new gun company is about to gear up.

Scary.

Via guav.

Specific to Florida but still worth the read.

Some combination of websurfing last night brought back a flurry of childhood memories. Not quite sure how I got there. But I managed to stumble across a few things that reminded me of when I was a kid and dad was stationed in Hawaii, in the late 1970s. Every day, after school, me and my sister would watch Checkers and Pogo, a show I’d honestly forgotten the name of until I somehow stumbled across it last night. There’s even youtube videos of it.

Then, that got me to thinking about other things there. One of those things was my favorite candy as a kid called Salty Seeds. It was made by a company called Yick Lung. And whenever mom took us to the commissary, she’d give us a dollar to buy candy. And you could get 5 various candies for that dollar. I’d get five packs of salty seed. Loved them. In 1999, I started working in public accounting. One of my co-workers was from Hawaii and I asked him if Yick Lung still made Salty Seeds. He got me some. Just as good as I remember. We’ve lost contact and I’ve not been able to find any since. Until I discovered this site. May have to order some.

Then, further searching lead me to pictures of Rabbit Island and Turtle Island, which we could see from one of the beaches we used to spend our weekends at.

If Hawaii wasn’t such a racist place, I might go back to visit.

Shorter Brady Campaign: Well, that didn’t work. Let’s try a different lame accusation!

82 year-old grandmother ends beating by drawing her gun.

Wisconsin town disbands police department. Not sure what to do with 58K rounds of ammo laying around.

Americans less worried about environmental issues.

Reader kristopher on the recent going ons in Belle Meade:

He forced these victim-disarmament ninnies to change their law … and make it fall under state pre-emption.

Well played, actually.

A grandfathered gun law is now vulnerable to legal attack.

You can polish a turd.

Tam:

What I want to know is how come the same person who would never walk alone through a dark alley in New York City will go and “experience” the wilderness by themselves without so much as a dull butter knife to their name

Looks pretty handy.

Handled the gun fight with civility.

It also marks a change. In the past, the Brady Campaign could bleat at some company and it might cave. If you can’t get the hippie culture at Starbucks to look your way, well, I’d say you’ve got your work cut out for you.

Bane sent them an email over their opposition to unlicensed carry and gets a response.

IRS gets all IRS on someone over $0.04.

Girls Beat Boys as TCU Wins NCAA Rifle Championship

Greg Gutfeld:

I became a conservative by being around liberals and I became a libertarian by being around conservatives.

Also via phelps.

Idaho gets firearm freedom, only with health care.

Orbital mind control lasers and the New World Order. If the Illuminati shows up, I hope it’s in the Pussy Wagon with the dancers dressed like Wonder Woman.

Via phelps.

Hybrid pump action double rifle.

12 gauge SKB Model 600

Sig carbines from Sig handguns.

From barstock to slide

Killing the cells, anyway.

Turns out, bullets have lead in them. Who knew?

Go Green!

Not here. But Bison Armory has a snazzy new webpage. Robb does good work.

heh.

Here’s some real ones.

DeGroat NANO, Narrow Aperture Noise Obliterator. And it’s titanium.

Time magazine has a look.

Henigan misrepresents Barr and Gottlieb.

Ya know, I’ve used the lying to win meme for a while. And the problem with the meme is that they don’t actually win. So, I may have to change it to Lying to Lose.

In Texas, empty holster protests allowed and folks not limited to ‘free speech zones’.

More on the Oregon man who was raided by two SWAT teams and had his guns taken because he bought guns after losing his job. Good news is he got his guns back. And is likely going to sue. Bad news, of course, is that it happened in the first place.

State trooper leaves gun in Lowe’s bathroom.

Well?

I got this via email of the NRA warning that:

On Wednesday, March 17, the Belle Meade Board of Commissioners will consider a proposed ordinance (Ordinance 2010-2) that would forbid any person with a handgun carry permit to carry within the city limits.

This would be problematic because it’s a violation of Tennessee’s preemption laws. And probably unconstitutional. The other issue is that I didn’t know anything about it. So, I sent an email to some folks to see if they had heard of it and ACK posted about it. Turns out (via ACK), not so much:

The current Belle Meade municipal code includes a section on firearms and weapons that says “it is unlawful for any person to carry in any manner whatever, with the intent to go armed and razor, dirk, knife, blackjack, brass knuckles, pistol, revolver or any other dangerous weapon or instrument…”

It also includes the phrase “except the army or navy pistol which shall be carried openly in the hand.”

The new ordinance deletes the exception that would include the Navy black powder pistol Leonard Embody carried when he walked down Belle Meade Boulevard in mid-February.

The author, Sherry Phillips, continues:

Embody, who is active on many gun rights blogs, first gained attention in December when he brandished a loaded AK-47 pistol at Radnor Lake State Park.

I think he was active. Most blogs and message boards I know of have banned him or made fun of him for being an asshole. Also:

As you probably know, he came into the city [with a Navy model 1851 black powder pistol] basically forcing our hand on the law,” Thornburg said. “The police were expecting him to come, we were expecting him to push buttons.”

She said Embody found a loophole in the law that allowed him to carry the military-style weapon, and the city is amending the law to take off the out of date exemption.

For once, the press uses the phrase military-style correctly to describe a 150 year old black powder revolver.

Out of committee.

A look at shotgun laws, to explain why this may require a $200 tax or a $5 tax.

More on the Mac converted to take Glock mags.

A bit back, the GunPal CEO was arrested for impersonating a police officer and pulling someone over. Turns out, not so much. All charges dismissed. And, apparently, made up.

Magpul iPhone case

Full auto fun

Ruger Vaquero .44 Magnum

John McClane’s Beretta

Benelli MR1

A review.

Apparently, Omaha offers a reward for information about ‘illegal guns’. Because you can tell they’re illegal by looking at them. In other news, I did not know that Omaha registered guns.

I do not think that means what you think it means.

At least he doesn’t have his booger-hook on the bang-switch.

In comments,the Geek says of Paul Helmke crying about guns being normalized:

More to the point, it’s evidence that the gun bigot’s decades long organized attempts to -de- normalize guns has collapsed into ignominious failure.

Word.

I concur with the latest iteration of the TN hippie contingent:

Making the sale of confiscated weapons mandatory seems like a serious overstep on the part of the state. Each county and municipality should have the authority to determine what is right for its community, rather than be dictated to by the state legislature on this issue.

Sure. Let the cities decide what they want to do. But, as is expected from the local hippie contingent, the truthiness is weak:

The revelation that two guns used in recent high profile shootings only makes that more clear, even though the sale of those weapons came years before the enactment of this law.

Except that whole part about that law not being in effect when those shooters obtained their guns. So, Memphis did decide to sell the guns prior to that law going into effect. But the progressive community tends to get facts about guns wrong, so that’s not surprising. They even parrot the year of the gun canard:

here’s to hoping that at some point these folks will stop focusing so much on firearms access, and spend a little more time on something that effects all of us, like say employment access.

Last year was called “year of the gun” because the legislature spent a whopping 1.8% of their time addressing gun bills that Jimmy Naifeh had spent years killing in committee.

Clenched fist salute to ACK.

Environmentalists are dicks.

And they steal.

That definitely looks illegal.

In Toronto, a $500 reward if you give a tip to police regarding the whereabouts of an illegal gun. How would you know if the gun is illegal.

Say Uncle was the name of a CSI episode.

That in addition to being a gay porn movie, a movie not involving porn or gay, a ska band, a music production company, an album, and a line of clothing.

Sergeant discharged from Chair Force because she’s a lesbian:

Jene Newsome played by the rules as an Air Force sergeant: She never told anyone in the military she was a lesbian.

The 28-year-old’s honorable discharge under the U.S. military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy came only after police officers in Rapid City, South Dakota, saw a marriage certificate from Iowa — one of the handful of U.S. states that recoganize same-sex marriage — in Newsome’s home and told the nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base.

She played by the rules and was discharged anyway. Don’t ask, don’t tell should also include a mind your own business provision if folks are going to go snooping.

Public intoxication. Doesn’t seem like an effective way to get converts.

Web designer doesn’t have high speed internet access. So, obviously, we should all pony up and buy it for her. The feds have a plan.

A few notes on this video.

Do you notice how, generally, the pro-gun activists are smiling and friendly and having a good time. But the anti-gun folks are tense, angry, and yelling? Except for that one pro-gun guy that they zoom in on right when they say NRA.

They mention NRA but they never actually talk to anyone from NRA. I wonder if NRA was even contacted by CBS?

Heidi Yewman says she doesn’t know if the person with a gun is there to protect her or shoot everybody. Well, Heidi, as a general rule, neither. I mean, all those folks were there with guns and no one shot you.

The pretty boy reporter seems shocked that it’s getting simply easier to carry a handgun. Of course, he’s from LA.

Paul Helmke says gun owners are forcing guns into every nook and cranny of society, which is false. He also goes on to illustrate the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership’s real concern (and one that they lose ground on every day) that guns are being normalized. Well, they are normal, sparky. 100M households are estimated to have one.

I’ve said that for years, to the ridicule and scorn of folks who claimed I didn’t know what I was talking about. I would tell them that a promise to pay, even if backed by the US government, is not actually, you know, a real fund. I am right. And now, it gets interesting:

The retirement nest egg of an entire generation is stashed away in this small town along the Ohio River: $2.5 trillion in IOUs from the federal government, payable to the Social Security Administration.

It’s time to start cashing them in.

For more than two decades, Social Security collected more money in taxes than it paid out in benefits — billions more each year.
Not anymore. This year, for the first time since the 1980s, when Congress last overhauled Social Security, the retirement program is projected to pay out more in benefits than it collects in taxes — nearly $29 billion more.

There is no money. Just paper saying the .gov has an obligation to pay. The whole trust fund thing is a lie.

ESR says it’s the fiscal event horizon. Soon, bonds could lose a lot of value.

So long, evil black rifle

The Army will allow soldiers to paint their guns so that they blend in with the terrain.

Passed and awaiting the governor’s signature:

Gov. Gary Herbert’s signature is the only hurdle remaining for a holiday memorializing the late Utah firearms inventor John M. Browning.

The Utah House voted 64-0 Wednesday to commemorate the Utah-born inventor on Jan. 24, 2011, the opening day of next year’s legislative session. It will come 100 years after Browning invented the 1911 .45 automatic pistol, which became the official sidearm for the U.S. military.

Chicago area gun stores preparing for increased sales pending the McDonald case. Don’t know that I’d plan on it that much. I’m sure Daley and the machine will throw many more obstacles in the way.

A map.

They have a youtube channel.

And open government:

The government’s use of legal exemptions to keep records secret rose during President Barack Obama’s first year in office, despite promises of increased openness, an Associated Press review found.

The review of annual Freedom of Information Act reports filed by 17 major agencies found that overall, the use of nearly every one of the open-records law’s nine exemptions to withhold information rose in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.

At public meetings. AK has some of the most lax gun laws in the nation. No permit required to carry, for instance. Wonder what the practical point of OC there would be.

Same as other guns: A BB gun — you don’t even want to be aiming at anything you don’t want to destroy

Army ditching bayonet training to focus on fist fights.

Remember the guy who took his AK-47 pistol with tip painted orange to look like a toy gun and went gallivanting through the woods and was shocked when the other folks in the park weren’t fans. And then was held by the po-po who determined that, well, he had a permit? Yeah, that guy. His carry permit has been revoked by the TN Department of Safety because he posed a material risk to the public.

Kinda weird because that particular disqualifier isn’t actually listed as a, err, disqualifier.

Update: More from Linoge, who notes that the guy’s sheriff had issues with the required sign off on paperwork for a NFA weapon.

It’s really kinda like this guy wants to screw it up for everyone.

Update 2: M4shooter notes in comments that the revocation of handgun carry permits comes under a different statute, 39-17-1352:

(a) The department shall suspend or revoke a handgun permit upon a showing by its records or other sufficient evidence that the permit holder:

(1) Is prohibited from purchasing a handgun under applicable state or federal law;

(2) Has not accurately disclosed any material information required by § 39-17-1351;

(3) Poses a material likelihood of risk of harm to the public;

(4) Has been arrested for a felony involving the use or attempted use of force, violence or a deadly weapon or a felony drug offense;

(5) Has been convicted of a felony;

(6) Has violated any other provision of §§ 39-17-1351 — 39-17-1360;

(7) Has at any time committed an act or omission or engaged in a pattern of conduct that would render the permit holder ineligible to apply for or obtain a permit under the eligibility requirements of § 39-17-1351;

(8) Has been convicted of domestic assault as defined in § 39-13-111, or any other misdemeanor crime of domestic violence and is still subject to the disabilities of such a conviction;

(9) Is subject to a current order of protection that fully complies with 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(8); or

Disarming minorities:

It’s fairly common for gun control activists to stereotype firearm owners as ‘knuckle-dragging rednecks’ and that our feelings would change if we saw ‘black folk’ walking around open carrying firearms. They even have Bogus research supporting them. Why is it then that most ‘gun control’ bills seem focused on disarming minorities?

In AL:

Demario Terrell Davis’ 2004 arrest on a misdemeanor marijuana charge popped up on a federally required background check when he sought to buy a military-style rifle the following winter.

Criminal history records did not reveal the outcome of that arrest, however. Government checkers had three business days to find the answer, according to the law, or the sale could go through regardless.

The government lost that race against the clock, and Davis had himself a new .223-caliber Stag 15. He later went to prison for having the weapon.

So, the guy goes to buy a gun and gets put on hold. The police can’t figure out the outcome and the sale goes through. ATF later arrests him as a prohibited person.

If we’re going to have background checks, they should work right instead of being the silly show that they are. And a failure of police follow-through ought not land one in prison.

The restaurant carry bill is advancing quickly. I was wondering if the governor would, for the second time, break his promise and veto the bill. It looks as though the legislature is presuming he will.

In Chicago, if Pfleger or Daley assemble two people touting gun control, the Chicago Tribune makes a mess in its pants from all the glee. But thousands of pro-gun folks descend on the capital and it gets nary a mention:

There were recently three Town Hall meetings held with pro-gun agendas, in McHenry County, DuPage County and the south side of Chicago. Not a single sentence appeared in the tribune. Yesterday there was an estimated 7,000 gold shirted citizens in Springfield for IGOLD; the Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day. They marched almost a mile through downtown Springfield and crowded into the Capital Building to lobby their elected representatives. Even though the Tribune had reporters and photographers in Springfield for Mr. Quinn’s budget address not one word of coverage made it into the Tribune.

More here. And here’s some video from the event.

A Mexican military helicopter hovers over a Texas neighborhood.

An online shot log.

If you run a firearms training academy, going on record as opposing firearm carry without a permit seems like a bad idea.

The latest shrieking hysterics about Tennessee gun laws are because the guns used in a couple of shootings were once in the evidence locker at a Memphis police station. Oh no. Seems police sell evidence they’ve confiscated once they no longer need it to raise money, since police stations are usually cash-strapped. Again, oh no. Just like they do with cars, boats, and other items that they may confiscate and have no use for. May as well turn them into money. Oddly, no AP Exclusives when one of the cars that used to be in the impound lot is driven by a drunk driver and takes out a family. Cars, unlike guns, aren’t magical totems.

Over at Knoxviews.com, they’re even blaming a law that wasn’t in effect when the shootings occurred and they call for banning private transfers at gun shows.

LeanLeft is temporarily out of commission due to technical issues. Tom explains.

Florida working to repeal obsolete laws.

Hope and change: Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest

A dozen handy things to take to the range.

I think I see the problem:

We’re Democrats. We won’t even buy him a toy gun.

Mac converted to take Glock magazines.

Brady ranks and violent crime.