Archive for July, 2004

July 27, 2004

That old adage: enforce existing laws

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (which is almost as dumb a name as Post Intelligencer) writes:

More than 7,000 people who should have been barred from buying guns were able to buy them anyway in 2002 and 2003, according to a Justice Department review released Monday.

The government rarely prosecutes such cases, the report said.

Federal law stipulates that gun buyers might have to wait up to three business days before receiving their weapons; under a system of instant FBI background checks instituted in 1998, most sales are approved much quicker. Of the 17 million gun purchases in the past two years, 122,000 were denied because of the checks.

If the background check isn’t completed within the period, however, the law says the purchase must go through. In 2002 and 2003, there were a combined 7,030 “delayed denial” cases in which the FBI found that a prohibited person was able to get a gun after the period expired, according to the review by Glenn Fine, the Justice Department’s inspector general.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives retrieved the weapon in 97 percent of those cases. But that sometimes took a year or longer.

The study did not say how many times a crime was committed with the gun before it was retrieved but provided some examples, including an instance in which a prohibited buyer was charged with aggravated assault after firing the illegally purchased weapon at another person’s car.

Several reasons were cited by the bureau for its failure to retrieve the guns more quickly, including staff shortages, technology problems and lack of adequate timeliness standards. The review also found that agents did not consider it a priority to track down the illegal gun purchasers because they are not viewed as dangerous. “We were also told that ‘bad guys’ generally do not purchase their firearms through legitimate dealers,” the review said.

The study also found that federal prosecutors brought charges in only 154 of the 122,000 illegal purchase cases.

I suppose the three-day rule is to rule out denial of a legal purchase by simply not doing the check. Seems the better solution is to mandate the check be done in three days.

Only 154 charges in 122,000 cases? Maybe if the ATF was more willing to enforce existing gun laws, the calls for more gun laws might not be necessary.

Ain’t that America

The Geek shows us the free speech zones at DemCon.

Ravenwood has more.

I’m sure all those lefty bloggers who were bashing Bush’s free speech zones will come out and decry these horrendous acts? Bueller?

Update: Good for SKB on calling it outrageous.

Online comedian interviews actual comedian

The Comedian, a site you should be reading, landed an interview with comedian Jim Norton. Read it here.

If I were running for office . . .

I’d have one guy whose job it as to make sure I didn’t do anything that, you know, made me look really stupid.

KNS Convention Blog

The Knoxville News Sentinel‘s Tom Humphrey is blogging the Democratic National Convention. Good for the KNS.

Assault Weapons Ban Round Up

There’s a lot of good AWB stuff today. Bill O’Reilly gets the assault weapons ban wrong, according to Vox Day:

Mr. O’Reilly once attacked the president of the Gun Owners of America as a nutcase on the fringe due to the GOA’s opposition to the assault weapons ban. This demonstrated three things:

1 “The Factor” does not understand the purpose of the Second Amendment, which is to ensure that the people are able to militarily resist their government. Of all people, a New England man should know that Lexington and Concord were fought by those resisting the attempt of the then-legitimate government to confiscate private weapon stores.

2 “The Factor” does not understand the Assault Weapons Ban, which does not concern itself with bazookas and machine guns, but pistol grips and magazine clips.

3 “The Factor” has no intention of allowing open debate on his program. It’s his program, so that’s his right, but it puts the lie to his “No-Spin” claim. Mr. O’Reilly is every bit the agitprop artist that Michael Moore is, the primary difference being that Moore lies and seeks the destruction of his targets in order to destroy them, while O’Reilly lies and seeks the destruction of his targets in order to sell himself.

And party foul to Mr. Day for using the phrase magazine clip.

It turns out that the police do not overwhelmingly support the ban, at least among the rank and file. The Law Enforcement Alliance of America writes:

Long guns of any type are used in only a tiny fraction of gun crimes (the preferred firearm for criminals is, naturally, more concealable pistols). And despite the impression you may get from movies and TV, the criminal use of rifles classified as so-called “assault weapons” is even rarer. Indeed, those firearms classified by the legislation as “assault rifles” are the least likely firearms to be used in crime.

In effect, the 1994 law bans 19 types of semi-automatic rifles and pistols because they have two or more “scary looking” features –like a bayonet lug, pistol grip or flash suppressor. Note that none of these features actually contribute to criminal use of the firearm. And, there is a prohibition on newly manufactured ammunition magazines capable of containing more than 10 rounds, for rifles or handguns.

Surely there must have been some reduction in crime as a result of this sweeping ban? Actually, no.

The U.S. Department of Justice conducted two studies of the consequences of the 1994 ban. Nearly five years after passage, in 1999, the U.S. Department of Justice, still under Clinton’s control, looked exhaustively at the ban’s effects. It concluded that “the public safety benefits of the 1994 ban have not yet been demonstrated.” In 2001, a second Justice Department review similarly found no evidence that the ban had a statistically significant effect on violent crime. Finally, a congressionally mandated study by the liberal Urban Institute reached comparable conclusions.

This article states that police are largely underwhelmed and will view the sunset of the ban as just another day:

Big shots in the national gun-control debate may party or hang out black crepe paper Sept. 13, when a 10-year ban on assault weapons is expected to end.

Area law enforcement officials expect it to be just another day on the streets.

“I think it makes most police officers uncomfortable knowing the amount of fire power that is out there and available to the percentage of the population that would use it for evil purposes,” said David Lain, chief deputy of the Porter County’s Sherrif’s Department.(sic)

But I don’t see that, ban or no ban, that it’s going to affect what weapons the bad guys are able to get ahold of.” (sic)

Indeed.

On the political front, Clinton, in his book, apparently blamed the 1994 ban to the Republican congressional sweep that happened two months later:

One issue that Democrats are not highlighting on a national level is gun control. In his new book, Clinton writes that the passage of the assault-weapons ban helped Republicans take control of Congress 10 years ago.

Sen. John Kerry, who supports extending the ban that expires Sept. 13, has stressed that he is an avid hunter. He interrupted his campaign schedule earlier this year to vote for the extension of the assault-weapons ban.

However, he does not list gun control as a major issue on his campaign website and has attempted to make a clear distinction between his views on guns and those of 2000 Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore.

If you haven’t heard, Carolyn McCarthy will be giving a speech about the ban at the Democrat National Convention. The ban is definitely the party line at this point. If the ban sunsets, I’ll have to reconsider my support for Bush because if Bush loses, the Democrats will push for it.

However, this article states that Democrats are divided on the issue:

The issue is complicated for Democrats because some party leaders, including Louisiana Senate candidate Chris John, now a U.S. House member from Crowley, strongly support the National Rifle Association position against gun control, which is that aggressively prosecuting lawbreakers is more effective than any gun legislation.

Those who helped write the Democratic platform apparently didn’t want to place a major emphasis on the gun-control issue, devoting just a single paragraph to the topic.

“We will protect Americans’ Second Amendment right to own firearms, and we will keep guns out of the hands of criminals by fighting gun crime, reauthorizing the assault weapons ban and closing the gun show loophole, as President Bush proposed and failed to do,” the platform reads.

Protecting my rights by infringing on them? I think you misunderstand the concept. The article also details the struggle in the party about, though most Democrats support the ban, they don’t want to push it because it will cost them votes. So, if it’s not an election year, expect a push for it if the Dems gain power.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has a fact sheet on semi-automatic firearms.

Dumb political joke

What did one America say to the other?

Shove it!

July 26, 2004

This Is Not Comforting

Feces Flinging Monkey knows who’s going to win the Presidential election:

I looked up how many electoral votes are at stake in each of these states, and did the math. I then considered various ways of interpreting the data, and kept coming back to the same conclusion – Florida. Whoever wins Florida wins the game.

That just warms the cockles of my little heart, it does.

One in six guns in the world is a Kalashnikov

Bet you didn’t know that. The Commissar has the scoop on AK theft and wonders why American forces are buying them when they’re so readily available.

AWB in the media

An editorial (this one signed) that calls out other editorials for their misrepresentations regarding the assault weapons ban:

Newspaper editorial pages have lately become a choir in support of renewing the ban on so-called “assault weapons.” The authors of those emotional appeals should research the issue a bit more, so they can at least get their stories straight.

Take, for example, an editorial in the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune that stated, “In 1993, prior to the ban, assault weapons accounted for 8.2 percent of all guns used in crime. After the ban had been in effect for three years, the proportion had dropped to 3.2 percent.”

Two days later, the New York Daily News editorialized, “Before the federal ban, assault weapons were used in almost 5 percent of crimes. After the ban, that number dropped to 1.6 percent.”

Well, which is it? Statistical surveys compiled by David Kopel with the Independence Institute, a Colorado-based think tank, revealed the following:

In 1990 in California — four years before the ban — only 58 of the 1,979 guns seized from drug dealers were classified as “assault weapons.” Between 1985 and 1989 in Chicago, only one murder was committed with a rifle firing a military-caliber cartridge, and in 1989 Chicago police seized 17,144 guns, only 175 of which were “military-style weapons.” Also in 1989, New Jersey authorities reported no homicide involving a rifle of any kind. Incidentally, in Chicago, according to FBI data, the chance of being stabbed or beaten to death is 67 times greater than being murdered with a so-called “assault rifle.”

Kudos to Dave Workman, a writer for Gun Week, and the AJC for printing it.

Consent searches

I show up at your door, armed to the teeth. Then I say I’d like to search your home. What do you do? Odds are, you let me in. But is that really a consent search? Per this:

Police last week seized a number of firearms during consent searches of homes in the area, but need the bullet to match against them. Police also served a search warrant at the property they believe the shot originated from.

July 24, 2004

Cool

When Pete isn’t busy telling us about the ridiculousness of the war on civil liberties err drugs, he’s apparently busy being a photographer. Here’s some of his stuff.

Heh!

Some gun porn courtesy of the Violence Policy Center.

Green Ammo

Environmentalists will be happy to see lead free ammunition. I read an article on how much the manufacturers of this stuff had to go through to get approval from the BATF to market this stuff. There were concerns that may have been armor piercing, whatever that means.

We may have won

Congress is out of session until September 7. After, they will have six days for both houses to pass the assault weapons ban. They will also have to get Bush to sign it. Things are looking up for the good guys.

Of course, my fear is that it will sunset only to come back in a few months/years and be more restrictive. As a public service, when the ban sunsets, I will buy about ten of these.

July 23, 2004

Congrats!

Congrats to Cox and Forkum on their first newspaper gig. Here’s to many more!

Knight Industries Two Thousand

KITT from the TV show Knight Rider is up for bid on ebay. Cool.

Next time . . .

someone tells me that cops are better trained in the handling of firearms, I will be sure to send them here. That is not proper firearm safety.

They grow up so fast

At five weeks old, my little girl outgrew her first outfit today. I was trying to put her in a gown and was about to break out the shoehorn when the Mrs. says She may have outgrown that. Then she checks the tag, which says up to eight pounds. My daughter now weighs almost nine.

Funny story: A few nights ago, she starts crying for her 3 in the morning feeding. I get up, grab her and notice she’s had an accident that soaked through her clothes. I then take off her clothes and diaper, pick out a new little gown, and dress her back up. I get her bottle ready and start feeding her. A few minutes later, I feel warm. Then I notice I’m wet. She peed on me. I started cussing the diapers under my breath. By the way, one thing you learn as a parent is that urine is sterile. I go get some more clothes and another diaper. I remove her clothes and realize that in my 3 in the morning stupor I forgot to put a diaper on her. Just a gown. It could have been much worse.

I miss sleep.

Today’s Quiz

True or False: Sushi is raw fish.
Read the rest of this entry »

From the Department of Duh

The AP:

The extraordinary secrecy imposed by judges in the cases of Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Martha Stewart has some media experts and scholars warning that America is developing a two-tiered justice system — one for celebrities and one for everyone else.

Actually, it’s simpler than that: there’s one system for wealthy folks and one for everyone else.

Couple of sites

Cool site of the day!

Headache causing site of the day!

Anyone else find it odd?

The conventions are coming. There will be a lot of talk at these conventions about freedom and rights and what makes America great. Kind of ironic that they’ll be doing this while declaring what is basically martial law* (complete with many armed guards, armed vehicles and free speech zones) in these two cities.

* I mean martial law in the figurative sense, of course.

Assault Weapons Ban Letter

A letter written to congress from the NRA Director says:

To respond generally to the claims, please let me stress several provisions of federal law that these four Members apparently overlooked:

  • Firearm dealers are prohibited from selling a rifle or shotgun to a person under age 18.
  • Firearm dealers are prohibited from selling a handgun to anyone under age 21.
  • It is unlawful to mail or ship any firearm to someone who is not a federal firearm licensee (manufacturer, dealer, etc.).
  • The Gun Free School Zones Act prohibits possession of a firearm on school grounds.
  • AK-47s and similar foreign-made firearms are prohibited under firearm importation law and administrative rules, which will not be affected by the expiration of the Clinton gun ban.
  • Two other guns, among the “19” guns the letters claim will be legal again (both very rare revolving cylinder shotguns) are separately prohibited under the National Firearms Act, which will not be affected by the ban’s expiration.
  • Also, the maker of the Tec-9 is apparently out of business. There’s more, read the whole thing.

    Sickos

    Two boys aged 10 and 14 are accused of torturing five kittens and cutting a dog with box cutters.

    July 22, 2004

    Like you and me, only better

    President Bush signed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act into law. The law exempts active and retired police officers from local prohibitions regarding carrying firearms. Qualified policemen can carry weapons nationwide.

    That’s a good thing, don’t get me wrong. However, I’d like to see national concealed carry for everyone.

    Watch it grow

    Our bloated government failed us says the 9/11 Commission. The solution to the failure of big, complex, bureaucratic government is to make it bigger, more complex and more bureaucratic:

    Among its recommendations, many of which already had become public, the commission recommended creating a new intelligence center and high-level intelligence director. An intelligence-gathering center would bring a unified command to the more than dozen agencies that now collect and analyze intelligence.

    Running the center would be a new national intelligence director, reporting directly to the president at just below full Cabinet rank, with control over intelligence budgets and the ability to hire and fire deputies, including the CIA director and top intelligence officials at the FBI, Homeland Security Department and Defense Department.

    Yet, the commission concludes, the biggest failing was one of imagination. You can’t legislate imagination. Other recommendations include:

    …improved immigration screening to keep terrorists out of the country and a more focused foreign policy approach to reach out to moderate Muslims around the world.

    The improved screening is a good idea. Reaching out to Muslims is one of those touchy-feely things that will never affect the desire of the radical few Muslims who want to kill non-Muslims. The results of this commission, though they may make some people feel better, will do little to make us safer if implemented.

    Note that it didn’t recommend taking fucking tweezers from people.

    Soccer Moms to Security Moms

    Michelle Malkin, who blogs here, addresses how soccer moms are becoming security moms. And she has shirts!

    Les has more

    Gun links are up!

    Not all media opinions are hysterical

    Here’s a pretty good article on the doom and gloom rhetoric of the assault weapons ban:

    There is one major flaw with the ban. It’s one that the critics bring up at some peril to law-abiding gun owners. It’s this: In mechanics and function, some of the banned weapons are not appreciably different than an array of rifles and shotguns that remain perfectly legal to manufacture. Generally speaking, the banned weapons look different than sporting arms. But functionally, they’re the same.

    That’s one reason why Sept. 14 will not dawn with the staccato sounds of automatic fire. The assault weapon ban ended the manufacture and retail sale of certain weapons, but hardly dented the firepower at Americans’ disposal.

    Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.

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