The VPC has launched a website to promote the renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 that is set to expire in just under a year. The site is here. A quick review of the site yields the same old lies that the VPC and Brady Bunch have been spouting for years. It does have a neat chart detailing pre and post ban models here. Seems they’re conceding the current Assault Weapons ban is pointless and gearing up for a bigger fight.

The solution proposed by the VPC is:

Now they want to ban all of them. And note the list of supporters. The usual suspects.

For some real humor, check this out. It explains assault weapons spray-fire design and calls them bullet hoses. It calls the Bushmaster XM15 an assault weapon. Mind you, the XM15 is not banned by the AWB of 1994.

Also, here’s an interesting article on a proposed ban of Sniper Rifles, which calls the XM15 a sniper rifle. I suppose now the terms assault weapons and sniper rifles are interchangeable.

This past Saturday, I attended the UT v. SC game with some friends. The game was broadcast on ESPN2. I thought I’d try to have some fun but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get 107,000 people to yell Beat Those Cocks! on TV. I guess they’re all too mature. Bunch of college kids.

The Mrs. relays to me a story from her office. She’s having a conversation with two female coworkers. Coworker1’s daughter recently had a friend commit suicide and the daughter was depressed, as was the coworker. Coworker2 asked how her friend committed suicide. The answer was that the friend shot himself with a gun. Coworker2 then states I can’t believe they’d have a gun in the house. The Mrs. then states that we have guns in our house and that we always will. And that the parents should have restricted access to the gun. She also stated that people don’t always use guns and he could have locked himself in the garage or a variety of other methods.

I was proud!

Per this:

With guns holstered at their sides, about 50 people marched down neighborhood sidewalks in Cincinnati Sunday.

They want to draw attention to their effort to allow people to carry concealed weapons in Ohio.

In Ohio, they banned concealed carry but open carry is allowed in a lot of places.

AlphaPatriot addresses the relationship of school performance and money (i.e., there isn’t one). Of course, our politicians only response to anything is to throw money at it.

Whenever someone tells you that there’s an inordinate number of children killed with guns each year, remind them why. Of course, if you go by the VPC’s stats (children included people under age 24) then {insert Lewinski joke here}.

It turns out one of the 19 guys that we were told was responsible for 9/11 has been found alive and well in Morocco.

But remember, it’s reported by the BBC. I will consider the source since they’ve been wrapped up in some scandals lately regarding their reporting.

This weekend I went to the gun show with Les. One particularly interesting thing happened to me while there. I was walking around with an AR15 (not that I’m necessarily trying to sell it but, hey, everyone has a price) when a fellow walks up and asks about it and how much I want for it. He then proceeds to ask: So, did you put his flash hider on here? My immediate thought was that he was an ATF agent. I paused and informed him that some arbitrary law made it illegal for me to put a flash hider on that gun because then it would be an assault weapon. I also explained to him that it was a muzzle break because the holes were only at the top instead of all around. After that, he was no longer interested in the gun. I told Les I’d bet $100 he was an ATF agent who thought he had someone.

Via Unknownnews, this St. Louis Post article on gun shows is interesting:

Scrutiny of gun shows in the St. Louis area laid the foundation for raids, quietly conducted in April, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized 572 guns from the homes of five show participants, according to court documents.

At least one criminal prosecution has resulted, in federal court in East St. Louis.

So, they seize 572 guns and search 5 people and get only one perseprosecution?

Then the article goes into the tired and irrelevant argument of the evil gun show loophole, which doesn’t exist. All that exists is the right of citizens to engage in lawful commerce.

You may recall my dissatisfaction err annoyance err outright anger regarding the builder next door, which has resulted in me taking an extension cord hostage. This is a story of inadvertent revenge. Since that post, I came home one night and realized that the same sprinkler head that had been cleaved with the Bobcat (which I subsequently marked with one of those little red flags that are used specifically to mark pipes so people don’t dig them up) was covered in dirt. The same genius Bobcat operator who cut it had now dumped about eight inches of dirt on it.

I was a bit miffed. That’s an understatement. I was in my yard yelling expletives best not mentioned in mixed company. I thought I was yelling the aforementioned expletives and that no one could hear me. It turns out that while I was yelling those expletives, there was a couple walking around and looking at the house next door. After my tirade, I imagine they had serious second thoughts about moving next door to a raving, cussing lunatic because they quickly got in their car and left. It wasn’t intentional. I may have just cost him a buyer. Pity. I imagine the next few couples may be witness to the same thing. Or they may get to listen to the musical stylings of the band Hatebreed. Or I may hook up the old 4X10 cabinet and play Smoke on the Water for hours.

Oh, no one has mentioned the whole extension cord hostage situation.

Publicola tells you what to do after you buy that gun.

Per the KNS:

Gov. Phil Bredesen plans to close Brushy Mountain State Prison and replace it with a new and larger facility in Morgan County, according to a document obtained by the News Sentinel.

Why does this make me sad? According to some family history, my great grandfather’s brother was the first man to escape from there.

Tom emails this link which details a city ban on, get this, slingshots. Those whacky Canadians.

Mike has a run down on the living wage campaign in Memphis. Scroll down to The Living Wage Comes To Memphis.

If you pay burger flippers $12 and hour, there will be no burger joints.

Matt has an indepth analysis of Klein v. Leis. Give it a read.

Got a comment posted to an old post that was entirely penis enlargement spam.

IP Address: 66.111.50.170

A quick Whois
Company: United Colocation Group, Inc.
Address: 200 Paul Ave., Suite 500
City: San Francisco
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 94124
Country: US
Comment:
RegDate: 2003-01-29
Updated: 2003-01-29
Phone: +1-888-993-9339
Email: info@unitedcolo.com, sysadmin@unitedcolo.com

Drop them a line.

Granted this story may lack confirmation, but a man details a search executed on his house because he wrote a paper which argues that federal income tax on wages isn’t required by law.

Kevin debunks the whole 41 cops killed by assault weapons line that the usual supects are spouting off. Go read.

Big news in the Silveira v. Lockyer case. Dunno what I think of this one yet.

Via Chuck comes this BBC article on guns in Africa:

There is one weapon in circulation for every 20 people in Africa, according to a report released on Tuesday.

The 2003 edition of the Small Arms Survey, a report by the Geneva-based organisation of the same name, says about 30 million light weapons are in circulation in sub-Saharan Africa.

This, the report says, is far fewer than previous estimates have suggested.

Okay, I’ll buy that there are guns for 5% of the population (1/20). The interesting part is this:

The unchecked spread of small weapons has exacerbated African inter-state conflicts, contributed to human rights violations, undermined political and economic development, destabilised communities and devastated the lives of millions of people.

It seems to me that most of the rights violations come from the governments, not the unchecked spread of weapons, but I digress. The article associates number of weapons with the atrocities mentioned above. For reference, in 1997 (the last year I have found data for) there were 230 million guns in the US (I’m also fairly certain there are a number of guns not registered, so I’d put that number a bit higher). There are roughly 300 million of us. There are enough guns for 77% of our population. Yet, we lack the problems mentioned above at least in terms of degree.

It seems to me the problem may be cultural, economic, or political instead of one that can be blamed on objects. Of course, my math could be off.

In the beginning, a Dixie Chick said something that some people didn’t like.

She then (realizing her sales were down) apologized for the remark. I’m guessing sales didn’t recover.

Now, feeling more acceptance for her views from the rock crowd, the Chicks have abandoned country since that genre of music wasn’t accepting of her views. Having done that, she posts a letter on their web page. Some of her wisdom is:

Message 1:
Saddam Hussein called and wants to know where his weapons of mass destruction are. Listen Saddam, I already told you, I don’t know. You’re going to have to call the White House on that one.

Message 2:
Country radio called and wants to know if it’s true that you’re leaving country music? This one must be a prank call. I mean, how can you leave a party now when the hosts had shown you to the door six months ago.

Message 3:
Sheryl Crow and Lenny Kravitz called to see if you could come to their party Friday night. Oh that one’s easy. I can’t, I’m already going to Ashton and Demi’s party.

Message 4:
G. Gordon Liddy, Rush Limbaugh, and Don Imus all called again to ask about the plane crash. Listen guys this is really getting old. I’m sorry, but no we did not die in a plane crash. But look on the bright side…we fly all the time.

Message 5:
Arnold Schwarzenegger called to see if we wanted to “verk out” with him at “zee gym” next week. Hmmm that’s both weird and scary. He must not have heard what Emily “said” about him or know that we’re married!

Heard on the radio this morning that Ollie North will be at some Christian bookstore in Knoxville tonight signing books.

I posted this post about Edwards’ voting record (ahem, lack of), Chris Muir emailed me the original comic I was referring to:

Turns out it was Gephardt. Heh!

Tom needs to find a good, reputable Boxer breeder. If you know of one, let him know.

Edwards has missed 90% of Senate votes. I seem to recall a day by day comic about this months ago.

Via Kevin comes this:

If Sahlin had gone to trial and been convicted on two indictments, he faced a mandatory sentence of 30 years for using a machine gun in the robbery — on top of a sentence for bank robbery. In exchange for his plea, the government dropped the machine gun charge and substituted the lesser charge of using a firearm during a crime of violence.

Sahlin’s lawyer, federal defender Bjorn Lange, said if the case had gone to trial, a jury would have had to decide whether the weapon could be converted into a machine gun and therefore fit the legal definition of a machine gun; Lange contended it wasn’t.

The prosecutor said the U.S. government’s position was that it was a machine gun and Sahlin knew it was a machine gun.

Government information describes the weapon as a Colt M16A1, 5.56-caliber semiautomatic assault weapon. Ollila said it had been a machine gun when owned by the military and had been converted into a semiautomatic for local police.

Let me repeat: whether the weapon could be converted into a machine gun and therefore fit the legal definition of a machine gun

A gun is a machine gun or it isn’t. He had an AR15 that had the auto sear and selector switch removed. I guess I have a machine gun at home then. Mind you, I don’t have any parts to turn it into one but since the possibility to convert it exists (as it does with all semi-autos), law enforcement can trump up a machine gun charge?

It is illegal to have a rifle and the parts to convert it to a machine gun. However, one can own a rifle or the parts to convert one, just not both. Absent from the story is whether or not he actually possessed the parts.

Update: This is my 1,000th post. Jebus!

Per this:

Southern Methodist University shut down a bake sale Wednesday in which cookies were offered for sale at different prices, depending on the buyer’s race or gender.

The sale was organized by the Young Conservatives of Texas, who said it was intended as a protest of affirmative action.

A sign said white males had to pay $1 for a cookie. The price was 75 cents for white women, 50 cents for Hispanics and 25 cents for blacks.

Members of the conservative group said they meant no offense and were only trying to protest the use of race or gender as a factor in college admissions.

Via Donald Sensing, get your very own R. Lee Ermey motivational figure.

And if you’re not watching Mail Call, you should be.

<R. Lee Ermey Voice>I suggest you unfuck yourself you grab-asstic little momma’s boy and get right on it.</R. Lee Ermey Voice>

Via Matt comes news that the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled in Klein v. Leis that Ohio’s laws do not unconstitutionally infringe the right to bear arms.

I’m no lawyer so this was interesting to me:

It is fundamental that a court must “presume the constitutionality of lawfully enacted legislation.”

..Snip..

Therefore, we begin by presuming [the laws] are constitutional. Accordingly, the legislation in question “will not be invalidated unless the challenger establishes that it is unconstitutional beyond a reasonable doubt.”

So, a law is automatically presumed constitutional and one must prove it’s not? That makes the knee-jerk libertarian in me cringe, but I digress.

One particularly bright spot from the ruling is Today, we reiterate that the right to bear arms is fundamental.

I’m not up on Ohio constitutional standards but it is commonly believed (even by diehard pro-gun guys, like me) that the Second Amendment doesn’t necessarily guarantee an unrestricted right to carry weapons unless as part of the defense of the state (transporting and other things that are inherent in owning arms, like going to the range, excepted). In this case, I think the Ohio Court is right (likely to the chagrin of my other pro-gun bloggers). I do however think that states should have a carry permit process.

Update: Mike quotes the Ohio Constitution in comments:

Kevin discusses some negative political ads (by Republicans) that claim someone (a Democrat) is unpatriotic. He also says that the Democrats engage in no such thing (in his comments).

I wonder if Kevin has read Dean’s latest, which compares the Republican administration to tyrants. I’m sure somehow this will be excused even though it a case of glass houses and stones.

Dirty pool all the way around or politics as usual? Well, the left calls the right facists; and the right calls the left communists.

Yup, as usual.

So Jeff has the weekly check on the bias. Check it, yo.