Speaking of New Mexico, there’s a bill pending to ban the breeding of pit bulls. This could be hard to do since pit bulls aren’t a breed:

The breeding of pit bulls could be banned statewide as early as July, if a bill proposed by a state senator is passed into law.

Under a bill proposed by Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, breeding of pit bulls will be prohibited, owners of pit bulls will be required to neuter or spay the dogs and new pit bulls will not be permitted in New Mexico after July 1, 2005.

The attempt is for an outright ban. The bill goes a step further:

In an explanation of the bill, breeds such as Akitas, Malamutes, Bulldogs, Boxers, Canary dogs, Chow Chows, Dobermans, German Shepherds, Danes, Huskies and Rottweilers are classified as dangerous dogs.

How about classifying actual dogs that have proven to be dangerous as dangerous? The bill has two good points in that it increases fines for dog bites and dog fighting.

Bill Hobbs introduces Lance In Iraq. Lance is a soldier with the 278th regimental combat team.

Via Michael Silence comes two stories that again state there is no correlation between gun laws and gun crimes. The first:

No one has done the right studies to prove whether gun ownership laws increase or decrease crime, or whether the tens of thousands of gun deaths in the United States each year could be prevented by gun control, a committee of experts said on Thursday.

“Few topics engender more controversy than ‘gun control,”‘ a National Research Council committee of experts on criminal justice, psychology, education, statistics and sociology said in a report.

“One theme that runs throughout our report is the relative absence of credible data central to addressing even the most basic questions about firearms and violence.”

They found that for virtually any subject involving guns, there were conflicting studies that could support one argument or the other. But none really answered the key questions.

“For example, despite a large body of research, the committee found no credible evidence that the passage of right-to-carry laws decreases or increases violent crime, and there is almost no empirical evidence that the more than 80 prevention programs focused on gun-related violence have had any effect on children’s behavior, knowledge, attitudes, or beliefs about firearms,” the report reads.

“This is unacceptable when we see the impact that firearm-related violent injury and death have on American society and especially some of the most vulnerable segments of that population,” it adds.

The other says:

A new analysis of efforts to control violence by restricting guns says there is not enough evidence to reach valid conclusions about their effectiveness.

The National Research Council said Thursday that a major research program on firearms is needed.

“Policy questions related to gun ownership and proposals for gun control touch on some of the most contentious issues in American politics,” Charles F. Wellford, chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said in a statement.

Among the major questions needing answers are whether there should be restrictions on who may possess firearms, on the number or types of guns that can be purchased, and whether safety locks should be required, said Wellford, professor of criminal justice at the University of Maryland.

“These and many related policy questions cannot be answered definitively because of large gaps in the existing science base,” he said. “The available data are too weak to support strong conclusions.”

Both seem to intimate to me that there is no correlation between gun laws and crime, which makes gun control rather pointless. Yet, as the anti-gun CDC has done in the past, they conclude they need more information. They need more information so that they can get the result that they want.

Michael Silence, who is apparently part of the problem, writes:

If you tailgate, I drive slower just to honk you off. If you are in a hurry, leave earlier!

Assuming you’re not in the left passing lane, doing less than the speed limit, and beside another car, I don’t have an issue with it. Generally, I get out of the way. And I’d expect others to be courteous and get out of my way. After all, you never now who is on their way to the hospital; who is on their way to a house fire; who generally doesn’t care about your (or their) well-being; or who is psychotic with a gun under their seat.

Staying in the way makes you the problem. It’s a passing lane for a reason: to pass other people and get out of the way. This whole tap the breaks (or as some idiots do, lock up their car) is akin to bright lighting someone who is bright lighting you. Sure, flash your lights to let the other guy know his lights are on but don’t keep your lights on when they approach because then you have two people on the road who can’t see.

And while I’m talking about driving, is it too much to ask that other drivers look more than one car length ahead? Seriously, the signs indicating that the lane you’re in is about to end started a mile ago. Get the Hell over sooner instead of waiting until the last minute.

Also, I am apparently the only person in the state of Tennessee who knows the rules for a four way stop sign. Here’s a hint: It’s not piece of shit cars go first.

A millionaire is convinced that 9/11 was an inside job. As such, he’s offering a $100K award to anyone who can prove him wrong:

The millionaire activist is so convinced of a government cover-up he is offering a $100,000 reward to any engineering student who can prove the World Trade Center buildings crashed the way the government says.

“Of course, we expect no winners,” Walter, 57, heir to an $11 million fortune from his father’s home building business, said in a telephone interview from California on Wednesday.

He said a panel of expert engineers would judge submissions from the students.

Next month, he also launches a nationwide contest seeking alternative theories from college and high school students about why New York’s World Trade Center collapsed. The contest offers $10,000 to the best alternative theory, with 100 runner-up awards of $1,000. Winners will be chosen next June.

While I’m wearing my foil hat, I caught this show on The History Channel (thanks TiVo) which detailed that Timothy McVeigh and some of the militia groups were actually in cahoots with Islamic terrorists. Apparently, near a dozen witnesses reported seeing two men described as Arabic in appearance hanging around the truck bomb and some report that the men were armed. Two witnesses also reported what are presumably these same two men speeding off at 9:00 (2 minutes before the explosion). One witness stated she was almost run over by them as they sped off. Ordinarily, I’d outright dismiss these things except that one person they interviewed was some sort of former CIA director and another was a retired FBI agent who worked the case. Apparently, there was an APB put out for two Arabic looking men in a black pickup shortly after the explosion. Then, it was canceled when McVeigh got pulled over for speeding. Both men attest that, even though the APB was publicly canceled, the FBI and CIA continued to look for the two Arabic men.

The CIA guy and McVeigh’s lawyer both stated that McVeigh was protecting others involved in the bombing. The CIA guy pretty much indicated that those people were Arabic in decent. The big gaping hole in the theory was that the militia groups (which were identified as white supremacists) were working with Islamic terror groups. I don’t see racists getting along well with zealots of another color.

Just thought I’d pass it on.

Only two of them will suck. While you’re at it, bring back New Coke. Or better: A new new Coke.

And you Pepsi folks need to bring back Crystal Pepsi too. And Tab.

Officer Fatally Shoots Man During Traffic Stop. As Uncle is often pointing out how the media is biased against firearms, I noticed this one in my own local paper and found the online version. By the headline you’d assume the cop just went postal, only halfway through do you find out the one who was shot had a gun as well. Even police themselves aren’t able to have defensive shootings these days, sadly.

On an alternative subject regarding New Mexico… I was ordering something last week from a retailer in Utah, the whole transaction went quite well until I was asked for a shipping address, to which I told them New Mexico. They told me, and I quote here “We don’t ship outside the US.” Apparently, they didn’t believe that New Mexico was a state, and were seriously going to cancel the order on me. I ended up talking to the manager and having him check the zipcode, to which his reply was “Oh hey, it does show up.” Did I mention that Utah borders New Mexico (on a corner)?

My wife likes the movie Christmas Vacation and I’m forced to watch it every year. I hate the movie. I hate it mostly because Chevy Chase is not funny. He never has been funny. I can’t figure out how the guy got a job as a comedian. Apparently, he proved to be unfunny again:

He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Dick Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a “dumb (expletive).” He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, “I’m no (expletive) clown either. … This guy started a jihad.”

Chase also said: “This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck … and we still couldn’t beat him with a bore like Kerry.”

If you’re going to bash the President, at least be funny about it. People who are also not funny: Margaret Cho (unlike local boy Henry Cho, who is funny – I don’t think they’re related). Ellen Degeneres. Ben Stiller.

This article, detailing a shooting, is pretty presumptive:

Police found the injured man in an upstairs bedroom, and located eight shell casings from an Intratec “TEC 9,” a 9-mm semi-automatic pistol. Police believe the man was shot with the TEC 9, which is one of several weapons previously included in the assault weapons ban.

9MM shell casings don’t come out of the gun with the label TEC 9 on them. This could have been any handgun or rifle that in 9mm. I’m uncertain how the police would have been able to determine that it was a TEC 9. Additionally, Intratec, the company that made the TEC 9, went out of business in the mid 1990s. As such, there are no new TEC 9s. So even if this was a TEC 9, it was not affected by the now dead assault weapons ban.

Residents of Maryland were asked to discuss the Bill of Rights:

However, the shoppers had differing opinions on whether or not people should be allowed to have guns, as stated in the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.

They were also asked whether the federal assault weapons ban, which was lifted in September, should be reinstated.

John Gardner of Crownsville said he supported guns for hunting and agreed with the end of the assault weapon ban.

“They shouldn’t be banned for people who target-shoot,” he said.

But not everybody had the same feelings on the gun issue.

“I think the idea of controlling crime and not gun control is pretty ridiculous. It goes hand in hand,” said Tim Parsley of Crofton.

There has historically been very little correlation between crime and gun control. Interesting to also read their thoughts on searches and seizures.

Here’s a good read entitled The Truth About Guns.

Newsflash: Sane, Normal, Law-Abiding People Own Guns too.

Jeff reports that San Francisco is looking to ban handgun ownership:

City residents will vote next year on a proposed weapons ban that would deny handguns to everyone except law enforcement officers, members of the military and security guards.

If passed next November, residents would have 90 days to give up firearms they keep in their homes or businesses. The proposal was immediately dismissed as illegal by a gun owners group.

James has more. As does Publicola.

There is also new stuff at the Shooters’ Carnival.

In Golden, Colorado a privately funded group has been set up to ensure water supplies are adequate. What is disturbing, however, is this:

Because the district has private backing, it won’t use voter-approved mill levies or taxes, as most special districts do, but it will have powers such as eminent domain.

Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to grant any privately funded entity the powers of the state.

Michelle attempts to set the record straight on the analogy that home improvement programs are like porn to women. This got me to thinking about porn and what it really is for men. Unlike the posts linked above, I’m actually going to write about porn. This post will use crude language and likely be offensive to some. If you’re easily offended, don’t click below (and no, I’m not posting any porn).

Read the rest of this entry »

Cubicle is asking for opinions on a first handgun purchase. I recommend a Glock in any .4X caliber for a variety of reasons.

Go give your opinion.

Update: Les has more.

A reader familiar with the Wisconsin murders emails a link to this memorial of the hunters killed at Rice Lake.

And here we have proof that the airways aren’t as safe as you thought. Yes, it seems that during a bomb detection exercise, the fake bomb somehow ended up on an Continental Airlines flight to Amsterdam. I’m just wondering what the officials in Amsterdam thought when they found it coming off a flight from Jersey. Atleast it’s not an Air Marshal leaving his gun behind, which anyone could have picked up…

And I’m flying Continental next month, should I be worried?

To: You people who are upset or depressed that Anna Kournikova got married
From: Reality

Yeah, like you had a shot.

Knoxpatch is back!

The WaPo:

Electoral problems prevented many thousands of Ohioans from voting on Nov. 2. In Columbus, bipartisan estimates say that 5,000 to 15,000 frustrated voters turned away without casting ballots. It is unlikely that such “lost” voters would have changed the election result — Ohio tipped to President Bush by a 118,000-vote margin and cemented his electoral college majority.

To make sure that I understand, they are asserting that the impatience of voters is an electoral problem? Give me a break. Me and the Mrs. waited in line for about 45 minutes to vote. We considered it our duty to do so we braved the wanton inconvenience to be heard.

Also, the impatient voters could not have swayed the election by the WaPo’s own assertion. This is a story that isn’t a story.

Today is Bill of Rights Day. I have nothing particularly insightful to say about it other than to note that it has been bastardized out of convenience to the government. I might be more cheerful about it if it meant much but here it is:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

In an update to the vandalism at a local church, three more churches were also targeted.

The Blount County (my county) commission is set to have their second and final reading of a proposed $30 wheel tax:

Blount County Commissioners have their second and final reading of a $30 county-wide motor-vehicle tax, or wheel tax, at Thursday’s meeting.

The wheel tax passed on first reading last month. To fund road improvements, commissioners marked $10 of the tax for the county highway department. The other $20 a resident pays will go for school capital projects, like new schools.

County finance department estimates project that the $30 tax would bring in about three million dollars annually in new revenue — one million dollars for roads and about two million dollars for school capital projects.

As with any new tax, I don’t like it.

Rochester, NY is getting some pretty cool technology called Shot Spotter:

Rochester will become the first city in the Northeast to use a new technology called “shot spotter.”

Police install audio sensors on the tops of buildings which pick up the sound of gunfire and instantly send the information to police dispatchers.

Officers expect shot spotter to help them find the scene of a shooting very quickly.

That’s pretty neat. Yeah, some gun types might complain about it but, even if you use a gun justifiably in self defense, you should want the police on their way. If nothing else, they can probably recommend someone who’s good at getting blood out of the carpet.

Usually, when an intended victim shoots the robber, you only find out later in the article that it was justifiable. This time that’s not the case. Good for News Channel 3.

In addition to abusing eminent domain to take land from private parties to give to other private parties (which violates the constitutional criteria of public use), some governments try to use it to get an unfair price (so much for just compensation):

Capital Improvement Board members said Monday that the city has failed to negotiate a price with the current owner. The property is listed on a real-estate Internet site for $10 million.

“What we’re really talking about is a disagreement over its value,” said board President Fred Glass.

Other board members said the price was “two or three times” what the city is offering. Under eminent domain, the city can take the property and pay a value assigned by a third-party appraiser.

A Canadian politico has an alternative to the proposed breed ban:

Julia Munro, the Conservative member for the riding of York North, introduced a private member’s bill that would, if passed, define a vicious dog in law and toughen penalties for their owners.

”I’m offering this bill to show that there is a positive alternative to the attorney general’s bill,” Munro told a news conference.

”Vicious dogs are a problem in our province, but a breed ban is not the way to solve the problem.”

Munro’s bill would define a vicious dog as one that bites or otherwise injures a human being and subject their owners to jail terms of up to two years and fines of up to $60,000.

It’s good to see a proposal that bases the criteria for viciousness on a dog actually being proven to be, you know, vicious.

Smijer has info on the the Tennesseans for Fair Taxation proposal. The state is in trouble but I am inclined to think it’s the spending not revenue side, with TennCare being the perfect example that spending is the trouble. Also, without limiting or eliminating sales tax, the proposed income tax could result in excessive taxation over time.

And you had better mean it this time!

The Geek has a run in with the Ask Campaign.

The Smart Gun, which is mandated by NJ law, is at least five years away:

New Jersey’s 2002 smart gun law requiring the technology on handguns sold in the state is written to take effect three years after the state attorney general certifies that the technology is available for retail sale.

The Smart Gun, of course, is a gun that is designed to recognize its owner so that only that owner can fire it. Just like New Jersey to mandate a gun that doesn’t yet exist. They could mandate a cure for cancer too.

The Smart Gun doesn’t pass the police test, in my opinion. If this technology is developed, I doubt police will trust it. As such, I’ll stick with regular, mechanical guns that I can rely on an gun safety.

TriggerFinger reports that the Libertarian Party is in the news and this time it’s for something not crazy:

The decision by 2004 Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik to play a leading role in the Ohio presidential recount is causing a bubbling controversy within the Libertarian Party itself as many members ask why Badnarik embarked on a venture that will cost taxpayers money without changing the outcome of the election.

The national Libertarian Party played no role in the decision to seek a recount, which was made by Badnarik himself and his campaign staff.

At least now the LP can not be taken seriously, uhm, seriously.

Good start. But I’d actually like to see the commerce clause significantly addressed. Congress has a nasty habit of stating everything is commerce and overstepping its bounds.

Here’s an odd little tale:

Man Allegedly Bites Dog As Punishment

A man has been charged with animal cruelty for allegedly biting his Jack Russell terrier as punishment, and police say he used a 200-pound bull mastiff in an attempt to keep back officers who arrived to arrest him.

The mother of Mount Lee Lacy’s girlfriend called police because she was concerned about an argument between him and her daughter about Lacy’s unusual discipline method for his dog Lady.

To punish what I presume is a biting dog, the man bites the dog back. Not an effective punishment in my opinion though some dog folks will tell you that, in case of a biting puppy, gently biting just enough to hurt them back may be just the thing to make your point. More to the story:

Officers kicked down the apartment door when they heard an argument and a barking dog. Lacy was holding the mastiff named Breaker on a taut leash six feet inside the door. The officers drew their guns but didn’t fire.

Lacy, 21, was handcuffed and jailed Saturday on one count each of felony animal cruelty and resisting arrest without violence. He remained in the Alachua County Jail on $25,000 bail Tuesday.

So, a barking dog and an argument (not a mention of violence or physical fight ) is probable cause to go in with guns drawn? And biting a dog’s ear is felony animal cruelty?

And, for the record, I don’t think having a Mastiff and Jack Russel in the same home is a good idea. Any play (or, worse, aggression) between the two could be dangerous. If you have two dogs, it’s generally a good idea they be roughly the same size.

Matt details why he got off is duff and decided to get a concealed carry weapon permit. Go Read.

As you might have guessed from my “nom de blog,” I’m originally from Louisiana. I haven’t lived there for at least 10 years, but I do visit my folks from time to time. This time of year, of course, I miss some of the “bon temps” that roll:

Mansfield police officers victims of their own chemical spray

Judge who wore blackface is suspended

Louisiana town awaits telephone age

I’d like to move back someday, but my wife—for some strange reason—isn’t too keen on the idea. Oh well. I can still visit.

As promised, Chris Muir has restarted Day By Day as of December 1. Here’s today’s cartoon:

Apparently there is an award for worst sex in a novel. Although this passage didn’t win, it came pretty close (young readers, skip to the next entry unless you like analogies):

“(It was) like a large exotic mushroom in the fork of a tree, a little pleasure dome if ever I’ve seen one, where Alph the sacred river ran down to a tideless sea. No, not tideless. Her tides were convulsive, an ebb and flow that could take you very far, far back, before hurling you out, wildly and triumphantly, on a ribbed and windswept beach without end.”

Huh..huhuhuhuh…he said “ribbed…”

Non Sequitur: Glenn Reynolds walks into a bar:

Moving is fun, except for, you know, never getting caught up. I can’t unpack because I need to paint. So I paint. Still can’t unpack because I need to swap out all those outlets. Get distracted from installing outlets so I can install 16 mini-blinds. Then decide to dismantle the stove because it’s the freaking nastiest thing I’ve ever seen, but buying a new one is $1900 so I don rubber gloves and a giant bottle of Grease Lightning and roll of paper towels and a vacuum cleaner. In the meantime we get a contract on the other house (hooray!), so we have to go over there and clean and haul even more stuff over to the new house. Then realize that while doing all this, I’ve skirted my duties as board member and have lots of web programming to get caught up on, then remember I traded the realtor some programming for a discount on his fees, so I have to write THAT program. Then the wife needs attention and the dogs need to go out and we need to make supper, go to Home Depot, Christmas shop, run gas line to the back porch so I can hook up the grill, still go to work during they day, attend board meetings, pay bills, figure out why the mail hasn’t forwarded yet, cancel Dish (keep getting put on hold forever), and blog.

Whew!

Then I had a dream last night we decided to sell the new house because it has too many steps, and suddenly we realized that we had nowhere to live and couldn’t get another home loan because we had three mortgages still on our credit report.

Is this what they call “stress?” Heh… Only 17 more days until my vacation time is replenished…!

Big Box Bullies:

Mega-merchandisers such as Costco Wholesale Corp., Home Depot Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. try to control acquisition costs the old-fashion way — they have politicians take the desired land from property owners so it can be transferred to them.

“Legalized theft” is not an oxymoron to those familiar with eminent domain. Government’s right of eminent domain had been limited to taking private property, and offering compensation, for truly public uses. New roads. Fire stations. Courthouses.

Now government grabs private property on behalf of the big-box bullies. The confiscation is rationalized as being for the greater good, supposedly to create jobs and produce taxes. And the original owner is offered some money.

The jumbo-jerk arrogance was epitomized by Costco vice president Joel Benoliel. He told shareholders two years ago that “probably dozens” of its projects involve eminent domain “or the threat of it.” He also offered that this is not a corruption of the free market and that limiting government land-grabbing to genuine public uses was a “simplistic” libertarian argument.

So dozens of stores are planned to be taken through eminent domain. I find it offensive that respecting property rights and abiding by the Constitution are “simplistic” libertarian arguments.

And, in New Jersey, another case of taking from private citizens to give to private developers:

The city plans to knock down all the houses left on her street, Titus Avenue, along with one block of Pennington Avenue, to make way for 15 new houses officials hope will each fetch $90,000, nearly twice what Thompson stands to receive in compensation.

Taking from the poor to sell to the rich.

RTB’s own Rex Mundi has released his own independent film called Snapper. You can see it here.

Nifty toy: Full auto rated, 22 caliber silencer. Excellent for your AR15. A steal at $250!

A local church statue was vandalized:

A solid marble statue of the Virgin Mary holding her infant son Jesus has been defaced by vandals. Red paint now scars Mary’s face. Baby Jesus’s head and arms have been broken off.

Now, as though it was news, the local PD has determined it is not a hate crime:

The crime is being classified as vandalism because it was isolated and there’s no evidence the vandals were targeting a specific religion.

Well, other than the upside down cross painted on the Virgin Mary.

First, I’m not real keen on hate crimes as law any way. I don’t think it matters if you murder a black man or a white man. You murdered someone, period. Even if I were keen on the idea, I’m trying to figure out why this story is a big deal. People vandalize stuff all the time. Why the police would put more effort into this case than someone keying a car is beyond me.

Michael Silence has pictures.

Update: Rich has more comparisons to local hate crimes past.

I’ve not really followed it but it seems that a jury has convicted Scott Peterson should be executed for murdering his pregnant wife. But this is the part that gets me:

Judge Alfred A. Delucchi will formally sentence Peterson on Feb. 25. The judge will have the option of reducing the sentence to life, but such a move is highly unlikely.

Trial by jury would also denote a sentencing by the same. Why does the judge have any say in this at all?

Actual headline: Apparent family dispute leads to shooting death

What really happened: Nutjob shows up with rifle and threatens to kill his family. Nutjob doesn’t win the battle between chest cavity and 12 gauge.

Conventional wisdom regulates machine guns because they’re too dangerous for regular Joes to have even though such ownership is Constitutionally protected. They call it a revenue measure but that is clearly not the case. Some weapons may be regulated because they aren’t dangerous enough:

Tasers, an incapacitating electro-shock weapon popular among law enforcement agencies around the country, would become illegal for Bellingham residents to own under a proposed ordinance before the City Council.

The ordinance would make it illegal to possess Tasers, stun guns and other energy weapons within the city limits, though police would still be allowed to carry them.

Bellingham City Council will discuss and possibly vote on the ordinance tonight.

Police Chief Randy Carroll, who brought the ordinance forward to City Council, said Tasers were developed for law enforcement and should stay only in its hands.

Such as training that would prevent someone from, say, Tasering a grandmother or a six year old boy?

Anyone notice how Insty is using a ton of posts to promote his Amazon.com account?

Jeff has the latest!

It seems that gay people aren’t icky.

And here’s my daily laugh about the criminal underworld… Suspect makes getaway on lawnmower. Let’s hear it for stupid criminals, if only they all followed this guy’s example.

On an alternative note, I finished assembling my tactical shotgun. It has all sorts of goodies, set up to fire Federal 12gauge slugs. Even the new tac-mod from the nice guys over at Knoxx, their Sidewinder magazine feed conversion for the Mossberg 500. There’s just one problem, after installing the conversion with it’s off-angle kelly grip, I find that my arms are too short. Guess it wasn’t designed with small framed women in mind. I’ll have to install a pistol grip instead of the Chote stock I’ve got on it now, don’t know how well I’ll be able to handle the recoil though without a stock.

Howard Nemerov points out that gun rights folks have won the battle but not the war:

Okay, so we had a good election cycle for the pro-liberty movement. I hope it gave you a reason for a celebratory mood at Thanksgiving.

Wait. Republicans are pro-liberty?

Now it’s time to get back to work. The people who fought so hard against your Second Amendment rights are still in Congress.

Yes, they are. This is, in my opinion, the most pro-gun the country has been in a while. Concealed carry laws are the rule, not the exception. The Assault Weapons Ban is gone. We’re winning. Now, gun rights folks should go on offense. Instead of fighting new gun control laws as they pop up, I think gun owners should launch an offensive for laws they want (federal concealed carry) or repealing laws that need to be repealed. Why the gun lobby wants to waste its time on this gun industry lawsuit bill is beyond me. These lawsuits go (in every case but one) in favor of the gun industry. The industry needs to go on the offensive as well and counter sue these bozos. A couple of activists suddenly in the poor house sends the message.

I’ll throw one out there: Let’s work to repeal the Hughes Amendment, which states that after May 1986 no new machine guns may be transferred to civilians. It’s the real assault weapons ban. I don’t think it will happen but it’d be nice if the gun lobby stood up for gun rights and not just manufacturers.

The doom and gloom cries from the anti-gun folks that the expiration of the politically incorrect looking err assault weapons ban would lead to unmitigated violence and blood in the streets don’t seem to have materialized:

The number of murders dropped by nearly 6 percent in the first half of 2004, an indication that a four-year climb may be ending, the FBI reported Monday.

Granted, 6% is not a huge decrease but it sure as Hell isn’t an increase. Additionally:

The preliminary figures show a 1.9 percent decline in the property crimes of burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft during the first six months of 2004. In addition, the FBI said arson was down by 6.8 percent from January to June.

Update: My bad. Reader markm points out that I can’t read and that the figures were for the first half of 2004 which is before the ban expired. I misread it as preliminaries for the last half.

On the issue of self defense in England, I don’t think the gun bloggers are gullible. Tim Lambert thinks that they are. Tim notes (and I agree) that the British media is misrepresenting the law regarding self defense:

The Daily Telegraph’s campaign is nothing more than a beat up to create an issue to attack the government with. The truly disgraceful thing about their scare campaign is that it could convince people that self-defence is unlawful and frighten them out of defending themselves against an attacker, resulting in injury or even death of a crime victim.

That is, I think, a valid concern. In England, it is not illegal to defend yourself. However, under the letter of the law, it is quite difficult to legally defend yourself:

To show self-defence you must:

1. show that you reasonably fear immediate attack.
2. show that you had no alternative avenue of escaping the attack. If you can, you must run away.
3. your response must be proportionate to the threat. If someone threatens you with a balloon, you may not respond with a knife. If your own life is not under threat you cannot threaten somebody else’s life.

Fleeing is not conducive to any self defense. If you are attacked and your back is turned, you simply cannot effectively defend yourself. That combined with the fact that no one should be forced to flee from their own home under rule of law, makes the assertion that people in the UK already have the right to defend themselves against burglars or anyone else who threatens them a bit misleading. So, in England, if you’re backed into a corner, you can defend yourself.

Where did the White House go?

Proper parenting.

XRLQ lists what he terms a few types of gun control that really do make sense, or at least should be given credit for not being inherently unreasonable. Publicola thinks he’s full of crap and calls a flag on the play for name calling. Give them a read. I left some comments at XRLQ’s.

XRLQ claims that the ideas aren’t necessarily ones that he agrees with but that they aren’t unreasonable. I tend to agree with the stated positions on background checks, CCW licenses, and gun bans for felons (depending on the felony and length of the ban). However, the disagreements come from:

Banning plastic guns: On the surface, reasonable sounding. Then the government will take over and determine what percentage of plastic without any regard for the gun’s ability to set off metal detectors. They do something similar now with imported semi-autos by mandating that only a certain number of parts can be foreign, as though that matters at all in terms of a gun’s functionality. Of course, these guns don’t exist so we may as well ban sharks with laser beams on their heads too. Also, given the spirit of what this ban attempts, what about pen guns, credit card guns, and briefcase guns? Currently, such guns require a $5 transfer tax and approval from the ATF.

Registration: I only oppose registration to the extent it could be a vehicle for confiscation, which is what registration has a history of becoming.

Assault rifles (real ones, not those lookalikes covered by the now dead assault weapons ban): I want the Hughes Amendment repealed and the $200 NFA tax repealed. There has been one NFA weapon used in a crime. The system seems to work.

DC gun ban: Repeal it.

Regular capacity magazines: I find this one to be unreasonable. First, what is a high capacity magazine? It’s a hard term to define. The restriction of 10 imposed by the Assault Weapons Ban was random or based what they thought congress would approve. An AR15 is designed with a 20 or 30 round magazine in mind. That is not high capacity that is regular capacity. Maybe it could mean Beta C mags, which hold 100 rounds (and, coincidentally, are hard to load).

The anti-gun crowd is not about reasonable gun control. The are about banning gun ownership outright. Any law that restricts gun ownership (no matter how unreasonable) gets their support. If they were serious about reasonable measures, maybe some compromise could be reached. But they are not.

XRLQ didn’t even mention the private transfer provision of the law (AKA gun show loophole).

In Chicago, people are protesting gun shops. As with most Illinois media stories regarding guns, this one starts with the sad tale of a man who got shot before actually getting to the rather stupid point:

Aref and dozens of others affiliated with United Power for Action and Justice stood outside Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale on Friday to announce that next year state and federal elected officials will be targeted in a concerted effort to make sure laws change so gun dealers are held accountable for weapons later involved in crimes.

United Power representatives said they have registered more than 11,000 new voters in an effort to force lawmakers to address the issue.

Chuck’s Gun Shop topped a report earlier this year by the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation, which found 2,370 guns involved in crimes from 1996 to 2000 were traced back to Chuck’s.

But as Riverdale police officers manned the street opposite the gathering, protesters made it clear Chuck’s was only one example of a larger problem. Of the top 35 dealers that supplied crime-scene guns during the same time period, 13 are located in Illinois and Indiana, according to the report. Stores in Gary, Valparaiso, Lake Station and Griffith also made the list.

Tracing a gun’s origin to a shop typically doesn’t denote a problem with the shop, particularly when that shop is located in the murder and gun crime capital of the world. In the event (as is highly likely) that these crime guns were bought through straw purchases, it’s not the shop’s fault unless they were explicitly aware that straw purchases was taking place. More:

The group’s effort was spurred, in part, by recent setbacks, including last month’s Illinois Supreme Court dismissal of two lawsuits accusing gunmakers of knowingly allowing criminals to get guns. The group also blasted federal lawmakers for allowing the ban on assault rifles to expire and charged gun regulatory agencies with failing to curb the problem.

Now, the group is attempting to influence local and federal legislators. The article ends with:

Jim Horton, of Palos Heights, said he is an avid hunter and supports the right to bear arms. But at some point, the type of weapons sold and the intent for which they were manufactured has to be scrutinized, he said.

“Who goes hunting with handguns?” Horton said. “I’ve never gone hunting with a handgun in 35 years.”

Hunting with handguns is actually quite popular but it is irrelevant with respect to the right to keep and bear arms.

Owen Courreges:

Furthermore, the Brady Campaign seems to be saying that, since they believe the entire concept of the ‘milita’ is an anachronism, we are permitted to ignore the Second Amendment. Setting aside the obvious fact that the militia clause does not, textually, restrain the individual right laid out in the Second Amendment, the Brady Campaign is actually itself ignoring the milita clause because of their belief that it is outdated. This is surely impermissible. If I think free speech is outmoded, that doesn’t make for a legitmate constitutional argument that the First Amendment is irrelevant. (sic)

Yup. Read the whole thing.

IRS cleared to employ private bill collectors:

When Reps. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., teamed up in September to get the House to pass an amendment blocking the use of private companies to collect back taxes from delinquent taxpayers, it seemed the Bush administration plan might be doomed for at least a year.

But in the final hours of drafting a 3,300-page spending bill last month, House and Senate negotiators eliminated Capito and Van Hollen’s handiwork, clearing the way for the Internal Revenue Service to hire commercial debt collectors. These private agents could keep as much as 25 percent of the amounts they recovered.

I have no doubt that private debt collectors will be more efficient than civil servants but that’s kind of the problem. This seems to open the door for abuse, particularly if compensation for the private collectors is excessively based on money collected. I tend to think a private company may be less inclined to follow appropriate laws of restraint that a government entity would follow.

No, really:

District Court judge finds “home rule” trumps state law

Doggone.

At least pit bulls, anyway, which can be legally banned from Denver, a Denver District Court ruled Thursday.

In upholding the city and county’s 15-year prohibition on pit bulls and related breeds, the court found that “home rule” gives Denver the right to ban specific breeds of dogs, even though a recent state law prohibited Denver and other cities and counties from doing so.

However, Denver cannot restrict temporary transportation of pit bulls through its borders, ruled District Judge Martin F. Egelhoff.

Aside from the fact that breed bans are pointless and ineffective, Denver’s home rule can trump state law? Seems a bit odd to me. What if Denver, say, made the sale, manufacture and marketing of cocaine legal? Talk about your slippery slope.

what this is:

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This time, in Ohio:

The Milo Grogan neighborhood is organizing against a proposal for a new shopping center that would wipe out 200 homes through eminent domain.

Another city taking private property to hand over to another private individual.

you’re too old:

The volume of a concert by the heavy-metal band Korn left Hillsborough County commissioners fuming and briefly had them considering getting a court order to halt future concerts at the amphitheater that hosted the group.

More than 50 residents — some living miles away — complained of booming noise and profanity-laced lyrics coming from the open-air Ford Ampitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds during this week’s concert.

“I came home from the hospital Tuesday (the day of the concert), and I couldn’t get to sleep,” resident Peg Sexton said. “I’ve never, ever had it so loud. It was like it was across the street. It’s unbelievable. We don’t get that noise from a thunderstorm.”

During an emergency meeting Thursday, County Commissioner Ronda Storms referred to venue owner Clear Channel Entertainment when she said: “A bane upon them; may the worms of your avarice consume your intestines, Clear Channel.”

The racket even shocked county Environmental Protection Commission officials, who this summer cited Clear Channel and the Florida State Fair Authority for violations of noise ordinances. The citation has been appealed.

I went to a Korn show back in the early 1990s (back when nobody had heard of them) and it pretty much rocked. I was younger then and the noise didn’t bother me. Actually, that was the last concert (if you can call it that, it was at a local small venue) I went to. I’m too old to metal and admit it. Ronnie James Dio, however, can’t. Have you seen the new video? Egad.

A couple of bloggers apparently forgot that they have archives.

Jed notes the media, attempting to drum up ratings or fear, has exposed that an 80 year-old farmer can buy (gasp!) farm supplies. Shocking that those who need things to provide for their livelihood can, you know, get them.

Jed’s right. It’s not news. Nothing happened.

The Geek notes:

I’ve found it illuminating to browse the covers of Time magazine, whose editorial policy is that “gun control was too important for them to take an unbiased position.”

And check out the collection of Time covers.

Speaking of anti-gun media, read this too.

Some Tennessee cops were decommissioned and placed on leave after carrying their guns in a bar (while off duty and drinking):

Undercover police detectives Ernest Cecil and Ulysses Hernandez had their guns and badges taken and were placed on administrative duty.

A bouncer for Club Hurricane, located on Second Avenue North, called for uniformed police officers after he bumped into Cecil and felt Cecil’s gun. Cecil identified himself as a police officer. The bouncer asked Cecil to leave the bar but he refused. That’s when the bouncer called for uniformed officers.

It is illegal for anyone to carry a weapon inside a bar. That includes police officers unless they are “on-duty and acting in their official capacities,” Police Chief Ronal Serpas said.

If that was me or you (and we weren’t drinking), we’d be in jail.

Check out the one in the top left corner. Oh, and as far as addressing the article, the toy gun would be the one with bright orange paint on the tip of the barrel, unless someone violated the law and painted it black.

A Jersey legal firm has filed a friend of the court brief for the pending Kelo v. New London case:

An Atlantic City organization is getting involved in a Supreme Court case it says has ramifications for developments in South Jersey.

South Jersey Legal Services has filed an amici curiae – or friends of the court – brief in connection with a Connecticut eminent domain case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, the organization’s deputy director, Douglas Gershuny, said Wednesday.

[snip]

South Jersey Legal Services’ suits also accuse Camden and Mount Holly of civil rights violations, as the two neighborhoods declared blights are minority neighborhoods.

I do wonder how much credence the SCOTUS puts in friend of the court documents?

There’s a new blogger here. Fox meet blog. Blog meet Fox. However, I didn’t know he was a girl.

Via Smijer, Boortz, who claims to be a Libertarian when he’s more like a Republican who is slightly less critical of Republicans (or maybe he’s the stereotypical Libertarian and is just a Republican who smokes weed), has a poll on banning pit bulls. Unsurprisingly, his faux Libertarian minions seem to think they should be banned (currently 62% to 38%). Sayeth Boortz:

This time it happened in Orlando. A 4-year-old boy is now dead after a relative’s pit bull chomped down on his head. Don’t give me that BS about these pit bulls being just dandy if they’re raised right. It’s in their blood line. They’re killers. They’re bred to attack and to kill. No one owner, no matter how wonderful, is going to erase the vicious blood lust out of these dogs. My friend Bugsy … who unfortunately lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan where rock-n-roll seems to be king … says that these “damned psycho animals should be banned from being ANYWHERE other than prison yards.” Good line Bugs. ‘Bout time.

Boortz has donned his hysterical nanny hat and has taken someone’s talking points word for word. Pit bulls (and I mean the American Pit Bull Terrier since there is no breed called the Pit Bull) were bred, theoretically, from the cattle/hog dog that used to be the English Bulldog (the current freak of nature is not remotely similar to its former incarnation) but is now called the American Bulldog; and the Bull Terrier. The current Bull Terrier is a much friendlier version than its old counterpart, which was also bred for dog fighting and dog aggressiveness. The Bulldog was chosen due to it’s gameness (tolerance for pain) and sheer power (these are arguably the most powerful dogs on the planet, relative to their size). The Pit Bull was bred to fight other dogs due to its inherent dog aggressiveness and its tolerance for pain enabled it to stay in the fight longer. Pit bulls were not bred to attack people. In the hideous practice of dog fighting, you want a dog that is tolerant of people so that, when you break the fight up, the dog doesn’t attack the people breaking the fight up.

Pit bulls typically don’t play nice with other dogs. It’s in their nature. This can, to an extent, be mitigated by proper socialization but that should not be relied upon and owners should take care to supervise interaction with other dogs. Owners should also supervise the interaction of any dog with small children. Period.

Unfortunately for Pit Bulls, they attract owners who shouldn’t own any breed of dog, much less one with the power and gameness that these dogs have. They are also popular among criminals who gamble on dog fighting and drug dealers who keep near emaciated dogs to guard stashes. And, as breed bans have shown in the past, banning a breed is ineffective as criminals ignore it and other people, who want a bad ass dog, just switch to a number of other breeds. Of course, if your criteria for owning a dog is that it is a bad ass, you’re probably one of those people who shouldn’t own any dog.

Say, is Boortz pro-gun like me? Seems a bit hypocritical.

XRLQ has more.

Greetings everyone, it seems that I’m the new girl around here, so I suppose I should introduce myself with a nice little posting here of something I found while reading through CNN.com of all places. Yes, it seems that Terrorists have a new weapon. The military’s been experimenting with this kind of thing for years, so is it really a surprise that the possibility would arise from terrorists as well? When I hear more about it, those reading here will be the first to know… but incidentally, while it seems the FBI is worried about it, the AirForce isn’t. Air traffic control operators and pilots working for the military have been briefed that attacks of this kind are “unlikely due to the cost involved in lasers with enough power and focusing capability to cause more than temporary blindness that would pass before a crash would be probable” in an unclassified memorandum almost two weeks ago.

Anyway, its something new to think about.

Walk

Dimebag Darrell Abbot 1966 – 2004

Update: News item here.

And Michelle has more.

Update 2: Rolling Stone reports:

The shooter — identified as Nathan Gale, 25, of Marysville, Ohio — dressed in a hooded sweatshirt and hockey jersey, jumped onstage at about 10 p.m., just as Damageplan were beginning their first song. After making a statement about the breakup of Pantera, he shot Abbott in the chest several times at close range and then turned his gun on the crowd of hundreds.

I was upset over the break up but that is insane.

Also, the gunman had a hostage when the officer shot him:

Investigators in Columbus, Ohio, say the gunman, identified as Nathan Gale, had a hostage in a headlock when a police officer shot Gale. Police won’t identify the hostage.

Officer James Niggemeyer was patrolling nearby and was in the club less then a minute before he shot Gale, allowing the hostage to escape. Investigators say the officer’s actions saved other lives.

Patterico shoots and scores.

I wish Bushmaster hadn’t settled but they did. A judge approved the settlement:

The dealer and manufacturer of the rifle used by the Washington-area snipers will pay $2.5 million to the families of six victims and to two surviving victims under a settlement approved Friday by a Washington state judge.

The settlement, reached in September, marked the first time a gun manufacturer paid damages for negligence that led to violence, said David Beninger, one of the attorneys representing the families.

I hope it’s the last. However, since they’ve set a precedent, I doubt it will be.

The NSSF reports accidental firearm fatalities are at an all time low:

A report from the National Safety Council shows that accidental firearm-related fatalities continue to decline and are at the lowest level in the history of record keeping. Statistics in the council’s “Injury Facts 2004” reveal a 54 percent decrease over a 10-year period ending in 2003.

Last year, 101,537 U.S. residents died in accidents of all types. Less than one percent, 700, involved firearms. The most common deadly accidents involved motor vehicles, falls and poisonings, claiming 72 percent of all accidental deaths.

I chided the congress for voting to approve a bill that there is no way in Hell it could have read. Gunner draws this comparison:

3000–pages 9/11 bill just passed
1472—pages War and peace by Leo Tolstoy
1075—pages Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
701—–pages Black’s Law Dictionary (Pocket), 2nd Edition
1440—pages doomsday Book: A Complete Translation(census of Norman England 1000AD#)

Tom quoting a piece on possible chief justice Thomas:

Although he frequently is seen as an identical vote with Justice Antonin Scalia, in fact, Thomas has gone far further in his positions than any justice, including Scalia. In a recent, little-noticed biography of Thomas by Atlanta Journal Constitution writer Ken Foskett, Scalia provides a remarkable assessment of his colleague. Thomas, Scalia says, “does not believe in stare decisis (the doctrine that courts must adhere to precedents set by previous court rulings”, period. [sic] If a Constitutional line of authority is wrong, he would say, let’s get it right. I wouldn’t do that.

Emphasis added. Assuming he’s on the right (meaning correct side), I don’t see how that is bad. There are thousands and thousands of pages of bad case law. In fact, a lot of it is total bullshit. A clean slate gets the nod from me.

Looks like Contra Costa is trying to prohibit gun shows at the fairgrounds that they don’t own.

Deb has a comparison of the recently unfunded Project Safe Neighborhoods.

Lady Liberty has a run down.

A new blog called Left2Right seeks to reach out to us pickup-driving, gun-toting, red state residents of Jesusland. One post by Gerald Dworkin attempts to find mutual ground, a noble endeavor. One such item raised was:

Both parties to the abortion debate can agree that it would be preferable if there were fewer abortions

I don’t think you’d get any disagreement from either side on that one. I, who am left on a number of issues and right on others (left on that issue), tend to agree but I think the following statement proves that the left fails to understand or refuses to understand some issues:

Both those who advocate gun-control and those who oppose it can agree that trigger-locks and other safety devices are desirable.

I am as pro-gun as they get and I don’t think trigger-locks and other safety devices are desirable. If a trigger lock is placed on a handgun that’s primary use is home defense, you may as well have a paperweight or a rock. My personal criteria for a home defense handgun is that it is one that a police officer would trust with his life and they generally don’t carry weapons with trigger locks, low capacity magazines, or other safety devices.

I also view those who would mandate the use of trigger-locks as attempting to exert an unnecessary control over a constitutionally enumerated right to arms. I also view it as an attempt to make guns less beneficial for defense purposes, therefore making them less appealing.

I tend to doubt Mr. Dworkin has had any serious discussion about this issue with anyone who is pro-gun. I think for this Left2Right thing to work, they need to make a serious attempt at understanding us Jesuslanders.

The real mutual ground is that both sides agree that gun death and gun violence need to be reduced. They disagree on how to achieve that goal.

Or rather does it lead to the end of libertarianism? Eric, who has been on a roll lately, writes:

I’m sure I’m just being paranoid, but it seems to me that once you have a kid, you lose independence in a major way, and I do not refer to the loss of time spent taking care of the kid or earning the extra money it takes to raise a kid. I mean that suddenly, you’re supposed to be worried about what the other kids and their parents are doing, what the damned school is doing or not doing. Whether your kid is going to be drugged with Ritalin because he can’t sit still and pay attention to a moronic (and bored) teacher who can’t spell, add, subtract or teach, but who instead wants to yell at your kid about “gun violence,” tell him his country was founded by bigots who slaughtered and enslaved the world, and make him take classes in things like “anger management.”

As a new father, I do worry about the day Junior comes home and tells me her teacher said something stupid, political, offensive, or just plain wrong. I don’t worry that I’ll suddenly become an anti-gun extremist but I’ll be even more cautious about my firearms, household cleaners, tools, cooking utensils, electrical outlets, five gallon buckets, bathtubs, and the other miscellany around my house that could do her harm.

Full auto shotgun video. Sweet.

JR notes some hysteria:

The weapon known as the AR-15 is not a machine gun, but it’s close

No, it’s not close. The AR-15 differs pretty significantly from the M16 in terms of rate of fire and internal parts components. Bias or stupidity? I report, you decide.

Tennessee has an unconstitutional ban on shipping or receiving alcoholic beverages. This is a particular problem for me because, after a bet on a certain election (also illegal in Tennessee), some folks owe a beer.

The Supreme Court is looking at the issue and apparently it could have an impact on local wineries:

The Tennessee Valley Winery in Loudon attracts customers from across the country.

“Hawaii, New York, Alaska, a lot of people from Montana,” says owner Tom Reed.

Visitors can buy more than 22 varieties of wine in person. But under the law, the winery can’t ship the bottles to home addresses out of state. It can only be sent to wine and liquor stores.

“I thought that you could do it. Just automatically could. Did not know there was a law that said I couldn’t do that,” says customer Kathy Loy of Campbell County.

“Some states are calling it a felony, which is two and half years in jail and a $20,000 fine,” says Reed. “So, it’s not worth doing it. Sometimes its just a slap on the hands.”

I hope the court does the right thing so I can collect my beers without driving. If I were Kevin, one of the Brutal Huggers, Chris, Xrlq, or Smijer, I’d be nervous.

The accompanying footnotes are an integral part of these 10 commandments.

While I generally opposed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004, which granted retired and off duty police the means to carry concealed weapons any where in the country, because it granted special privilege to special citizens, I understand why it was viewed as a good idea. More armed and trustworthy people on the streets can prevent crime. The Chicago Tribune, in its typical anti-gun hysterical way, opposes that idea:

At a time when the city is trying to get guns off the street, a new federal law that permits retired law-enforcement officers to carry concealed weapons promises to have the opposite effect, and the measure could cost Chicago taxpayers millions of dollars in legal claims, a senior city lawyer said Monday.

“Washington, D.C., should not decide who carries [weapons] in Chicago,” deputy corporation counsel Lawrence Rosenthal told the City Council’s Police and Fire Committee. “Very significant questions of liability are raised.”

The city could be named in suits alleging wrongful force simply because it issues identification cards to retired Chicago officers, opening the door for them to be armed, Rosenthal said.

Chicago goes back and forth every year with DC as murder capital of the world. Their strict gun ban isn’t working for them. The real problem Chicago seems to have is that they can’t control who gets the right to carry concealed weapons:

The right to carry concealed weapons under the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004 applies to former officers who retired in “good standing.” But the act does not define what that means, and it provides the right to people who served “a wide variety of agencies” nationwide, Rosenthal said.

That means that a retiree “from some mosquito abatement district in Louisiana” conceivably could carry a weapon while visiting Chicago, he said.

“What the federal government is saying is that they are going to turn this country into the wild, wild West,” said Ald. Isaac Carothers (29th), the committee’s chairman.

The last ironic bit from the article:

“We’re in trouble,” said Ald. Ariel Reboyras (30th).

I think you’re in trouble now with the highest murder rate in the country.

Us anonymous guys in pajamas have no credibility, or so factions of the media say. When the media choose to be anonymous, it’s an editorial. In this particular case, that’s a good thing as I can’t see how someone would want to take credit for something so damn stupid. This Times Herald editorial on police and citizen uses of Tasers (my concern regarding tasers is well documented):

We certainly would support Taser’s ad campaign aimed at having private citizens buy their stun guns if data would show a corresponding decline in the number of handguns purchased.

That correlation is not entirely relevant. People buy handguns for target practice and hunting (in addition to self-defense). On solutions to the problem of citizens with Tasers:

Perhaps one answer would be to lower the voltage in Tasers available to the general public.

As a general rule, a home defense handgun should be comparable to what a police officer is willing to carry. For me, that would apply to Tasers as well. If using a Taser, I would want to incapacitate the individual, not piss them off.

Police shootings dropped by more than half and fatal shootings by 31 percent in 2003 due to the use of Tasers, according to an Associated Press story. We believe those numbers are extremely encouraging.

I’d like a cite for that. There are these things called hyperlinks. However, there are also cases where Tasers were clearly used when unnecessary, such as against a 6 year-old and a 75 year-old woman. Again with the gun comparison:

But anyone interested in stemming the proliferation of handguns must consider the stun gun as an alternative. Anyone on the right side of the law has no desire to shoot anyone else; stun guns could provide a solution.

Proliferation of handguns? What media bias? Lethal use of force is justified in self defense even for civilians. Even if they use a gun. I personally wouldn’t take my chances with a Taser to defend my family. They’re ineffective against multiple attackers and may not stop an intruder. However, not many folks can survive a 230 grain 45 ACP center mass.

Congress members voted 336 to 75 on the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act. The 3,000 page document was passed without a final copy made available. Members of congress voted by a huge margin for a bill that there is no way in Hell all of them read. That’s pretty horrendous.

England, which has more violent crime than the US despite conventional wisdom, is currently pushing for right to unlimited self defense. Dave Kopel has a good article on it:

One reason that British burglars are so much bolder than their American cousins is that only about 4% of British homes legally possess a gun, whereas about half of American homes do. British police administrators require guns at home to be stored unloaded in a safe, and that ammunition be in a separate safe. No American jurisdiction has such extreme “safe storage” requirements. As a result, an American burglar who breaks into an occupied home faces a significant risk of getting shot.

As I detailed in an article in the Arizona Law Review, when an American burglar strikes at an occupied residence, his chance of being shot is about equal to his chance of being sent to prison. According to a study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are about half a million incidents every year in which an American burglar is scared away by a victim with a firearm.

Kevin has been on this story for quite some time, go there and scroll away. The fact that a man defending himself can be subject to the same (or worse) criminal penalties in England is hideous. I guess that’s the price you pay for being a subject. Americans are more like verbs.

During questioning, potential jurors were asked how they feel about gun control. I think the better question would be to ask how the feel about a man firing into a crowd.

Not the kind you think:

Jails and detention centers around the country must stop using police dogs to control immigration detainees as of Saturday under a new policy issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of Homeland Security, issued a memo to its field offices last month ordering them to refrain from contracting with lockups that use dogs around detainees.

And why:

Dogs are used to accompany prisoners being transferred to and from the infirmary, or to break up fights.

National Public Radio last month aired a report and made public documents describing a dog attack at the jail. The jail temporarily stopped using dogs around detainees last month, but recently resumed the practice.

Dog attacks can be pretty brutal, particularly from a dog trained to attack. I’ve worn my fair share of sleeves and taken a few hits. Dogs are quite impressive and deadly when the need arises. A well trained dog has an on/off switch and views that attack as a game. Once the dog is done, it’s business as usual.

If you’re reading this blog, some of the best arguments occur in comments. Like this one.

FALARAK at AR15.com shows us how to make our own low profile front sight base out of an existing front sight base. Pretty cool. It’d be cooler if he showed us how to cut a Weaver rail into it.

Also, up next are step by step instructions on how to legally turn your Saiga into a pistol grip, regular AK magazine accepting, folding stock configuration. Definitely worth the read. In fact, I see SayUncle’s next project in the future.

Yeah, this WECSOG* stuff may bore some of you, but I dig it.

Gun law rant: It seems to matter to the .gov whether or not the parts that comprise a weapon that looks like an AK47 are imported or not (USC Sec 18 922 ( r ) and 925 (d). You can see more here. I didn’t know this. Apparently, in order to assemble an AK clone from a Saiga, only 10 parts can be imported. So, you have to buy a Saiga then replace some of the internals with American parts. At that point, you can fix it to accept pistol grips, stocks, and regular capacity magazines. So, what you have is a completely arbitrary and reasonably stupid law that serves no purpose other than making us buy American.

* Wile E. Coyote School of Gunsmithing

Assault SUVs – Washington DC

The answer is clear, we must ban them. For the children. These implements of death were only designed for one thing:

To run down as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. Their high fuel capacity (some hold fifty gallons and are equipped with multiple fuel tanks!) only serve to let them run down more people for a longer period of time. These SUVs are often civilianized versions of military vehicles that have no place in civilized society.

“These vehicles serve no legitimate transportation purpose,” said a token hysterical representative of the activist group Sport Utilities Cause Killing (SUCK). “There is no need for these monstrosities when a nice Honda Civic will do,” SUCK continued “After all, a 113 pound women whose only significant cargo is a bag of groceries and a snotty 4 year-old doesn’t need one of these killing machines.”

Joe Bob, of the extremist SUV Lobby, said “What the Hell are you talking about? You know you people are crazy, right?”

The military features of these SUVs are designed to kill. Their high fuel capacity (can stay on the road longer to kill more), over-sized engines (more power means more squish), shitty turning radius (if they could turn on a dime, they’d kill less people), large tires and height from the ground (for clearing obstacles that get between them and killing people) only add to their killing efficiency. We must act now.

SayUncle asks congress now to enact a ban on these killing machines. For the children.

I seem to catch some flak from my more conservative readers since I don’t oppose gay marriage. Why do I support it? For cases like this:

In 1999, a lesbian couple, Tina Burch and Christine Smarr, had a child in West Virginia. Smarr, the biological mother, was killed in a car accident in 2002. Her parents have spent the last two years seeking to take custody from her partner (the surviving parent) in West Virginia’s courts.

Taking a five year old from one of the only parents he has known? Who does this benefit?

If you’re looking for more ways than loud music or reruns of Saved By the Bell to kill your brain, look no further than simply washing your hair. Especially if you are a rat. Yes, it seems that there is a chemical in shampoo and other such products that might or might not give you dain bramage.

My mother is always keeping me up-to-date on the latest things that can kill you by causing cancer or whatever. Stuff like electric blankets or farm-raised salmon (but she uses Sweet & Low, which says right on the package that it causes cancer in laboratory rats–go figure). She never told me that washing my hair can kill me.

Of course, anything can kill you or cause brain damage. Even water. Is this a case of scientists with nothing better to do than research shampoo side-effects, or is there really a problem? We report, you decide… But I’ll be waiting on the next Pantene commercial: “Pantene…ridding your head of dirt and neurons. Some users of Pantene may experience side effects, such as brain damage, miscommunicative neurons, or anal leakage. If symptons persist, contact your doctor immediately.”

A local gay military person is part of a group suing over the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy (you know, that super-duper, pro-gay rights policy that a Democrat gave us):

The Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy is being challenged by 12 gays who have been separated from the military because of their homosexuality.

They planned to file a federal lawsuit Monday in Boston that would cite last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that overturned state laws making gay sex a crime.

One of them is Justin Peacock, a former Coast Guard boatswain’s mate from Knoxville. He was kicked out after someone reported he was seen holding hands with another man.

“Don’t ask, don’t tell,” was put in place during the Clinton administration to allow gays and lesbians to serve in the military only if they kept quiet about their sexual orientation and abstain from homosexual activity. The Pentagon’s previous policy barred homosexuals from military service.

I’m honestly indifferent regarding the gays in the military thing. The reason is, assuming someone is openly gay, that other straight soldiers (who are generally not known for their open-mindedness) may take issue and be unwilling to serve with them, defend them, or stick their neck out for them; or, worse, commit violence against their gay compatriots. Additionally, closeted gays in sensitive positions may be victims of blackmail that could compromise their security position. At the end of the day, soldiers have a job to do and if someone being gay interferes with that job, it is problematic and somebody may get killed over it.

That said, if someone is gay and wants to be soldier and other soldiers don’t seem to have a problem with it, I don’t see there being a problem. And, of course, we can’t segregate gay units from straight units as segregation is an ugly word.

Seems like a dangerous precedent to me but I don’t find it completely unreasonable:

Watch this carefully. Lewinski’s experiments have shown a suspect can fire, turn his back, and begin running, in just 18/100th’s of a second.

“The fastest was a forty-one-year-old women. She simply rotated her hips.”

It takes an average officer 33/100ths of a second to respond, and that’s with their finger on the trigger. The difference, is more than enough time for the bullet to hit the back.

It does not sound unreasonable to me that this is the case. But I do wonder how many defensive gun uses by private citizens result in someone getting shot in the back for the same reason? Then, of those, how many are prosecuted under the claim it wasn’t self-defense as the target was shot in the back?

Under Color Of Law:

Police officers, prison guards and other government officials who improperly abuse the rights of individual Americans have long been recognized in federal law as a threat to society as a whole. That’s why, immediately after the Civil War, Congress approved Title 18 USC 242 — a statute making it a crime to deprive any person of their rights “under color of law.”

But, as case-by-case Justice Department records make very clear, a law on the books does not always translate into a law that is enforced. In this particular case, for example, the latest available Justice Department data show that federal prosecutors declined to file charges against virtually all — 98.7% — of the individuals who the investigative agencies had concluded were in violation of 18 USC 242.

Apparently, no one.

A policeman, who was probably not following gun safety, was shot by his Glock. Or that’s what he’d like us to believe. He’s suing Glock for making a defective product:

A Tac-team cop who was accidentally shot in the right knee is suing the makers of the Calgary Police Service-issue Glock pistols. In a statement of claim filed in Court of Queen’s Bench, Const. Thomas Marston says his holstered service weapon discharged Dec. 6, 2002, while he got out of his police vehicle.

“Const. Marston was opening the passenger door to the vehicle … when the pistol discharged suddenly and without warning, wounding (him) in the right knee,” the lawsuit says.

“Const. Marston was not attempting to fire the pistol when it discharged and had his right hand on the vehicle’s door,” says the claim, a copy of which was obtained yesterday by the Sun.

Marston and his partner, Const. Shannon Scott, had been called to assist another police unit in a downtown alley at the time his weapon fired, it says.

The court action, which seeks damages of $150,000, alleges the gun’s manufacturer, Georgia-based Glock Inc., produced a faulty weapon.

Since the firing mechanism on the Glock requires that the trigger be pulled to pull the pin back, one of three things likely happened here:

1 – The Glock safety feature failed, this is highly unlikely.

2 – A holster problem where some part of the holster actually applied pressure to the trigger, which has happened before.

3 – The cop is lying. Unless he was using a cowboy action holster that is tied to his leg, a holstered weapon can not shoot him in the knee. Tactical holsters rest on the hip and I don’t see how a holster in that position can ever point the weapon at a knee. If the gun was holstered and it was a holster problem, I don’t see how it is possible for the guy to have been shot in the knee.

My bet’s on number three. I think the guy goofed up and is trying to save face.