The United States Postal Service has instructions on how to ship a hippopotamus.

Letter to the editor:

I would also like to comment on the lack of mention on the breeds of dogs that fatally killed this gentleman. The dogs were an American bulldog, Johnson bulldog, Border collie, and a Neapolitan mastiff. I find it interesting that when a pit bull bites someone, the breed is the headline. When it’s other breeds, they aren’t mentioned. This story is a perfect example of why breed-specific legislation is flawed. It would not have covered these breeds. I feel for the family members of the gentleman who was killed by these dogs; house arrest is not enough.

The American Bulldog is what Politically Incorrect Dog is and they are often called pit bulls by those not in the know. He’s a standard American Bulldog. The Johnson is another type of American Bulldog. So, maybe the press did it right. And Border Collie? That surprises me.

Some 1911 gun porn for your viewing pleasure.

Wage:

the existence of the blogosphere at all is evidence of a serious market failure.

And More Harold Ford, Jr. on guns.

So, Harold Ford, Jr. was on the radio again this morning. And he was again asked about two issues that were important to me. The first was guns. You may recall that I reported he told a little fib about his gun position a bit back where he claimed he had a B rating from the NRA but the NRA reported he had a C. This time, he said he had a B rating from the NRA for the last two years, which is probably a true statement. I’m sure he may have misspoke the first time. Good for him as it was an honest answer. However, Mr. Ford was definitely anti-gun up until 2003, which I figure is when he decided he’d make a play for Senate. And in 1999-2000 he introduced the anti-gun Gun Industry Responsibility Act, which encouraged governments to sue gun makers in civil court for gun damages. He has since voted for the the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms act, which prohibits frivolous suits against gun makers. A near total turn around. He also said he had a good relationship with the NRA. So good, the NRA endorsed Corker.

Then a caller asked something else that is important to me. I’ve said before I will not support Ford because of his ties to nanny statists like Schumer, Clinton and Kennedy. The caller said, essentially, I will not vote for you due to your ties to your party. How would you address people like me who like your message but, basically, don’t believe you? Ford stated he was only beholden to the people of the state of Tennessee and that he has come under fire by his own party for not toeing the line. As an example, he said he supported and still supports Lieberman (who in my opinion is as much a nanny statist as the others mentioned – he’s just a pro-war nanny statist). Good answer, Mr. Ford, but given your opportunistic and inconsistent voting record, I don’t believe you.

Earlier in the week, Ford called Corker a wimp. He’s right. I said something similar and more vulgar early on.

On Bob Corker:

Dude, stop sending me your junk mail. Seriously, I get this crap three times a week. Also, I want your mom to stop calling my house and leaving pre-recorded messages on my answering machine. And I want your little campaign monkeys to stop calling my house twice a day, mispronouncing my name, and calling my wife the wrong name. If you want your message out, I stay informed. I read the news, listen to the radio, read Al Gore’s Internets. Put your message there. Quit being a wimp. Your negative campaign is not effective. I throw your junk mail away. I hang up on your campaign monkeys (the wife doesn’t but she’s a much nicer person than I am). I want to hear you throw down. Debate someone. Get on the radio. Otherwise, Ford is right. You’re a wimp. I’ll vote for you. More importantly, I’ll vote against Ford. But I’ll hold my nose when I do it.

Sometimes, you can’t be a nice guy to one person without being an asshole to another.

Pulled up to the stop light I always do on the way home. I, who am apparently one of the only 1% people on the Earth who as the ability to look more than one car ahead of myself in traffic, was the fourth car at the light waiting to turn left. I notice the first car at the light was having engine trouble and couldn’t move. They appeared to have fixing it taken care of. So, the two people in front of me were stuck. Being the nice guy I am, I backed up so the two cars between me and the first guy could get in the other lane. As I was backing up, one of you other 99% comes barreling down on me not noticing that the first car was stalled. So, the two cars in front of me were sort of stuck halfway in the right lane. And I was stuck blocking the exit from a parking lot as one of the guys I was nice to was in front and the 99%er was behind me. I couldn’t go forward or back. I was trying to be a nice guy. After all, I could have just gotten in the right lane and left these two other people stuck where they were.

And, right on cue, a person is trying to exit the parking lot. And I’m blocking them in. While trying to be nice to one group of people, I was inadvertently an asshole to another person. They were pretty pissed. Started honking at me and pulling up really close to the side of my truck as if to intimidate me and let me know I was an asshole. The were in a conversion van so they were literally only about 5 feet from me. I gave them the I’m-sorry-wave-and-shrug. They kept honking, cussing at me from the window, and inching up on my truck. I thought to myself: Self, you could try to explain to these people that you were just trying to help the two people in front of you. They kept honking, cussing at me from the window, and inching up on my truck. I could have told them the perfectly reasonable explanation I had for being in their way and costing them 2 minutes of their life. They kept honking, cussing at me from the window, and inching up on my truck. I could have explained that I was actually a nice guy and sorry to have inconvenienced them but if I didn’t do what I did, this traffic light would back up forever and they’d never get out. They kept honking, cussing at me from the window, and inching up on my truck. Instead, I told them to fuck off.

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale talks with WATE’s Gene Patterson this Sunday on the political talk show “Tennessee This Week”. The program will air at 12:00 noon.

WATE broadcast a teaser last night and it is interesting to watch the Mayor’s body language. Watch this Sunday and see if you can spot the “tell”.

Ragsdale would have made a decent magician as he is skilled in the art of misdirection. His summary of the entire Tyler Harber saga can be distilled as he, “believes the stories were generated out of a personal vendetta by Betty Bean and Halls Shopper editor Sandra Clark.”

Betty calls the Mayor on that balderdash here. An invitation to the parking lot behind Eddie’s Auto Parts may be imminent.

The County Mayor has a very simple political philosophy, you are either with him or you are against him. By the way, he wants to be Governor.

Seen at David Hardy’s:

VCDL has set up a defense fund for the two Virginia FFLs sued by Bloomberg and who have refused to settle. The donation page is here.

After entering the amountand clicking ‘Continue,’ you need to enter “Gun Dealer Legal Defense Fund” at the bottom in the “Message to Seller (Optional)” field. (Alternate instructions for mailing check are in extended remarks below).

Mail a check made out to “VCDL” with “Gun Dealer Legal Defense Fund” written on the comment line.

Mail to:

Virginia Citizens Defense League
Attn: GDLDF
P.O. Box 513
Newington, VA 22122

Joe notes some for Barrett Rifles. I watched that show when it first started coming on. After that episode, I never watched it again due to the supposed weapons expert’s numerous errors, such as saying the AK fired a 308; his lack of gun safety; his lack of wearing eye protection; and other reasons.

The press has a bit on Bob Corker’s misleading claim that he reduced crime by 50%. Late for Dinner was on this already.

Chris asks*:

That every time a gun rights case gets beyomg the circuit; the defendant is some kind of scumebag; or the case itself is argued on peripheral elements?

Because we law-abiding folks, err, abide by the law. He points out:

Someone on the NOR brought up the Maadi-Griffin .50bmg handgun/rifle kits that Bob Stewart used to sell, before he got his corrupt, convicted felon ass hauled unjustly to prison for.

He ended up getting convited for having unlicensed machine guns, and the case was overturned on appeal under the grounds that the commerce clause which justified the law he was “violating” in the first place, did not extend to items that had ever been in interstate commerce.

Clearly Stewart was wrongly arrested, and wrongly convicted; and even the ninth circuit (who generally hate guns, and states rights) agreed; but the supremes decided not to hear the case; instead saying that US v. Raich was controlling and sending it back to the ninth (who have not yet reheard the case), when clearly Lopez and Morrison were the controlling decisions.

Why do I say he’s a scumbag? Well it could be the fact that he is a white supremacist who created the Maadi-Griffin for use in the racial holy wars he believed to be coming; or it could be the fact that he tried to have a fellow inmate murder a judge who ruled against him…

* scroll down, blogger is busted.

It’s also known as The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act. A summary of the bill is here. The text is here. My SWOT analysis is it’s an incremental step in the right direction. Note to absolutists, if you drive a truck 20 miles in, you have to drive it 20 miles out.

That said, here’s the latest stuff:

Jeff says our old buddy Diane ‘38 in her purse for me but not for thee’ Feinstein has used that Senate hold thing on the bill:

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has frozen a bill that she says would gut federal agents’ ability to shut down or severely penalize reckless gun dealers.

Bloomberg is a step away from taking his toys and going home:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg unleashed a tirade on Congress yesterday for pushing gun legislation that, he said, leaves it easier to track the origins of tainted spinach than a cache of illegal firearms.

Speaking yesterday near the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., where he called for tougher gun laws in that state, Bloomberg drew a direct link between gun-related violence and proposed legislation that makes it harder to track illegal guns and penalize rogue dealers.

McCarthy, as usual, channels Captain Coo Coo Banana:

“In my 10 years in Congress I’ve never seen a bill with a more misleading name than HR 5092, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Modernization and Reform Act of 2006. Instead of modernizing or reforming the ATF, this bill simply undermines the Bureau’s ability to crack down on the most corrupt and negligent gun dealers and traffickers.

A man convicted of molesting and murdering a girl has had the words Katie’s Revenge tattooed on his forehead. I’m assuming it was against his will. Countertop has the skinny and pics.

All week long, the local news was aflutter with the news that two pit bulls attacked and seriously injured their owner. It was on the radio a lot. One expert said that pit bulls are similar to cats (yes, cats) in that they are hard to read and react quickly to stimuli. I don’t think the expert knows dick about pit bulls because while I agree they are quick to react, they’re quite easy to read, just like other dogs. Anyhoo, turns out the dogs were not pit bulls. Of course, pit bull isn’t actually a breed.

Update: WATE is sticking with the pit bull angle and notes that noise from a lawnmower may have set them off.

Never heard of it*:

Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday signed legislation by Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) that will provide additional protection for people seeking court protective orders under the Family Code…

Specifically, Senate Bill 585:

1. Adds additional provisions to the Family Code to allow law enforcement to consider seeking the immediate surrender of a firearm from a person served with a protective order.

Like the dude said: Fuck that place.

* scroll down, permalinks seem busted. Link fixed.

Les Jones:

If Oleg Volk’s Gun Photos are Gun Porn then Tam’s gunwriting is Penthouse Letters.

Junior has started wearing pull-ups. In fact, she went all day yesterday wearing just one. For those without kids, this means that she went all day and used the potty instead of her pants for her, err, business. It’s a big day.

Also, she’s started sleeping in her big girl bed frequently. This is also good stuff.

As for The Second, he’s sleeping through the night. Unfortunately, his night starts at about eight. So, he sleeps until about 4:30a.m., which is awful inconvenient for me and the Mrs.

He’s also become very reactive to his environment. He smiles, laughs, and reaches for things. When he smiles, his whole body smiles.

Good times. Well, except that getting up at 4:30 part.

Will you? The Gun Blogger Rendezvous is next week in Reno, NV. I’ll be getting in late Thursday. Looks like an all-star gun-blogging line up will be there.

There’s also prizes and range time planned. Trying to figure out the best way to transport some toys with me to Reno, as flying with Mr. Blasty and my UltiWASR may be tough. And ammo. And mags. And everything else.

I thought about mailing them. Any suggestions?

Seems the Philidelphia Inquirer actually presents both sides of the gun issue. Novel idea, eh? Such as this:

One-gun-a-month laws sound attractive to gun-control activists and draw broad public support in polls. But it’s not clear that such statutes have had much impact on gun violence.

A study published last year in the journal Injury Prevention found that the laws restricting purchases had had no measurable impact. The study was done by a team of doctors from the University of Washington, using data from 1979 to 1998.

Another study, done in 2001 by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, found evidence of a slight decrease in gun violence associated with Maryland’s one-gun law.

With only California, Virginia and Maryland having such laws, there isn’t much evidence to be had. What is available raises questions about the effect of limiting individuals to one handgun purchase every 30 days.

Also, if they can limit it to one per month, why not one per year? Or one per lifetime? The goal, of course, is none ever. And Philly.com also writes:

The gun owners fired back yesterday.

About 300 of them from around Pennsylvania roamed the Capitol encouraging legislators to oppose any new laws limiting the right to own and bear arms.

They were steadfast: crime is Philadelphia’s problem, caused by Philadelphians, and any new laws to restrict the sale of guns won’t solve it.

The only solution, they said, is to crack down on criminals, enforce existing laws, and end what one gun supporter called “Philadelphia’s catch and release program.”

Ayup.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a need for SWAT teams and the like. My issue is that these teams are used too frequently and, many times, fatally. Sorry, but if a kid has an ounce of weed, the police should show up, knock on the door, and announce themselves. When there’s absolute proof of hostilities, that is a justification for such force. Regardless a look inside some of their training:

The dynamic entry was scheduled to start off with a bang. More accurately a flash bang grenade that will be lobbed in a broken-out window – a “breach and bang” – of the house on Polk Street. Along the sides of the front door of the house, five men in olive green uniforms, loaded down with equipment and faces hidden behind black balaclavas and military style helmets wait for the signal to go. The military-style CAR-15s and Glock 22 pistols in their hands are loaded and chambered for any trouble. They communicate with hand signals to avoid making noise.

BANG!

As the stun grenade goes off, the men in position yell, “Go, go, go!” The first man in the line slams a pry bar into the sturdy-looking front door to gain entry. From inside a voice yells, “Get away from my house.” The men are not swayed, almost ripping the door off its hinges within a few seconds. “Police, search warrant!!” is yelled. The occupant of the house, on the second floor, yells that he does not want to surrender, fearing he will be shot. The lead officer behind the mask talks to him and calms him down, eventually convincing the subject to surrender.

Sebastion attended the festivities of the “Committee of the Whole” session on gun violence and crime and took some pics.

WSJ reports that Republicans don’t really want to win in November. The Republicans are bleeding from the right because they’ve abandoned even the pretense of fiscal conservatism. They’re bleeding from the left as moderates peel off because of the Iraq debacle. And Libertarians have finally woken up to the fact that Bush has never opposed a single proposal to expand federal power.

Finally, even folks that like Republicans want to lose. They want some Democrats around so they have somebody to blame their failures on.

Other Republicans couch their desire for Republican losses in political terms, arguing that Democratic control of Congress for at least two years would increase the chances of Republicans retaining the presidency in 2008, by giving Republican candidates high-profile Democratic targets.

It’s nice to see the Republicans pay a political price for being a bunch of feckless weasels. It’s too bad the only real alternative is the Democrats.

Local talk radio guy Hallerin Hilton Hill’s show this morning was kinda silly. Sure, he did what he always does which is to repeat himself over and over and over and over. But the topic was Harold Ford’s and Bob Corker’s commercials. HHH asked if these were effective. And he also asked if anyone out there had fact-checked any of the ads. Note to Mr. Hill: Maybe that sophisticated fact-checking should be done by, you know, guys with radio shows with the intent and purpose of talking about it on that show. Asking your listeners to do your job is lazy.

The highlight of the show was the caller who referred to a candidate (doesn’t matter which one) as Harold Corker. Truer words were never spoken.

NY wants to ban fatty foods:

Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids.

The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at any of the city’s 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil.

Artificial trans fats are found in some shortenings, margarine and frying oils and turn up in foods from pie crusts to french fries to doughnuts.

I guess they could get all California on them and sue Crisco?

Carolyn Davis:

The handgun limit is a reasonable step

Pennsylvanians closer to the center of the state seem more willing to try new ideas than their lawmakers in Harrisburg dare to believe.

Why? Because when it comes to a proposal as reasonable as a purchase limit of 13 handguns per person per year, many members of the General Assembly have their priorities and loyalties all wrong.

They would rather be on the leash of the absolutist gun rights lobby than lead Pennsylvanians to greater safety from gun violence. That’s as shameful as, well, as lawmakers who give themselves a pay raise in the middle of the night.

State representatives have a chance to get their priorities straight in a special session beginning today that is devoted to fighting crime and violence. They can use the nonbinding votes taken this week to signal support for House Bill 871, a statewide purchase limit of one handgun per person per month offered by State Rep. John Myers (D., Phila.). Myers understands the violence plaguing cities. His son, Shamari Taylor, 26, was abducted last month and is still missing. Taylor’s mother and sister were shot and wounded shortly after his kidnapping.

Myers’ bill exempts rifles and collectible antique guns. Add a provision allowing counties to opt out of even this mild limit, and you’ve got a compromise that most Pennsylvanians could live with. At least that’s the sense I got from people I spoke with at Cabela’s, a wilderness outfitter superstore in Hamburg.

In that case, I’d like to propose a bill that every newspaper can only write on editorial per month. After all, it’s a compromise we could all live with. It’s a reasonable step.

CJ (who I think is that CJ) notes that the ban on online gambling is rearing its ugly head again:

Over the past 24 hours, there have been a series of reports telling us that the dreaded internet gambling bill is both alive and dead. In recent weeks, we’ve reported that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) had hoped to sneak the gambling bill into the massive Defense Department 2007 Appropriations Bill.

That bill has now passed through the conference committee, but it doesn’t seem to be headed for guaranteed passage, nor is it clear that the gambling bill will ever be attached. Currently, House Republican leaders are holding up the bill hoping to add unrelated bills on immigration and court security.

Pennsylvania is becoming the center of the gun control debate. Seems the antis are pushing their wares non-stop there:

Pennsylvania lawmakers held a special session on Tuesday to discuss 94 initiatives to tighten the state’s relatively loose gun controls in an effort to reduce gun crime.

The two-day meeting was attended by the mayors of New York and Trenton, New Jersey, who believe their cities’ crime rates are affected by the laxer rules in Pennsylvania. The state has one of the strongest pro-gun lobbies in the country.

“What happens in Pennsylvania or any other state doesn’t stay in Pennsylvania or any other state,” New York’s Michael Bloomberg told a news conference. “We can’t fight illegal guns from behind state lines.” He said 85 percent of the guns used by criminals in New York originated outside the city.

I think perhaps because of this battle in PA, we’re seeing the increase in anti-gun shilling, such as Saul Cornell’s book getting press. The Geek reports that none of the anti-gun bills have passed:

On the PA committee of the whole thing is that all gun control has been defeated, and that the planned multi thousand people demonstration against gun rights was sparsely attended. Well, “sparsely attended” being a generous description of “less than ten”.

Good! That combined with the vote by the house that passed on HR 5092 (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act) makes for some interesting times for gunnies and frustrating times for anti-gunnies. You can see the bill info here. That bill passed the house 277-131 and is headed to the senate. The NRA backed the bill and is all giddy:

Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA Chief Lobbyist stated, “Today marks a great victory for law-abiding gun owners and retailers across the country. H.R. 5092 makes necessary improvements – and establishes new guidelines – for BATFE investigations. It will curb abuses and provide a streamlined process for all necessary parties.”

H.R. 5092 was drafted in large part to address recent, blatant BATFE abuses at Richmond, Virginia gun shows highlighted in hearings before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

H.R. 5092, the “BATFE Modernization and Reform Act”, establishes a more efficient system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers and importers of firearms. Prior to this bill, for most violations BATFE could only either give a federal firearms license (FFL) holder a warning or completely revoke their license.

With this stuff going on, it’s no wonder the antis are breaking out the usual claptrap, like this:

House sycophants of the National Rifle Association are aiming this week to hobble the federal government’s power to revoke the licenses of rogue gun dealers who arm the underworld. A shameless proposal would replace existing law with wrist-slapping penalties and an impossible definition of “willful intent” that would hamstring efforts to close lawless marketeers.

The rhetoric of the approaching debate will undoubtedly invoke sportsmen’s rights, but the real issue is the rights of sociopaths and terrorists to make future purchases at their friendly local AK-47 dealer. The House proposal, in fact, would have stopped federal agents from ever revoking the license of Lou’s Loans, the Pennsylvania dealer that sold battlefield weapons to one of the co-conspirators in the 1993 assault on the World Trade Center.

So many lies, so little time. There are no friendly local AK-47 dealers because AK-47s are illegal. The house proposal, in fact, would not necessarily have stopped revocation of this man’s license depending on the circumstances. This one is good too:

“Oh, God. Oh, God. This is bad. This is really bad.”

With those words, 16-year-old Jeremy O’Sullivan died of a gunshot to the chest in an Albany backyard at about 3 a.m. on July 1, another victim of the Second Amendment.

Meanwhile, what about victims of other amendments? Like me, who had the misfortune to read this horseshit. And this one:

Five months after hosting the first Mayors’ Summit on Illegal Guns at Gracie Mansion and fulfilling a promise made in his January State of the City address, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to join Philadelphia Mayor John Street and other mayors from the state to call on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to toughen state gun laws and increase penalties for gun offenders. Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Street were joined by Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski; Reading Mayor Thomas McMahon; Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan; York Mayor John Brenner; Scranton Mayor Christopher Doherty; Lancanster Mayor Rick Gray; Williamsport Mary B. Wolf; and Trenton, New Jersey Douglas Palmer. While in the Pennsylvania state capital, the Mayors met with both Senate Democratic and Senate Republican leadership to discuss the impact of illegal guns on their cities. The mayors in attendance today also had the opportunity to sign the Statement of Principles developed during the April Mayors’ Summit.

“The fight against illegal guns cannot be waged from behind state lines,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

Remember, kids, illegal guns in New York is probably any gun you have in your house right now. And I love when the Brady Bunch gets all crazy:

Congressmen Jim Gerlach and Mike Fitzpatrick must not have heard that many of their constituents were in the Pennsylvania state capitol of Harrisburg Tuesday, practically begging state lawmakers to do something to get illegal guns off the streets of Philadelphia.

Because they were in Washington D.C. voting with the extreme gun lobby and against the law enforcement community for a bill that will make it harder to fight illegal gun trafficking.

And even more crazy:

The United States House of Representatives today chose to pass special interest legislation that benefits the law-breaking gun pushers who make money by selling firearms that end up in the hands of killers, muggers and thieves. They ignored the concerns of our nation’s Mayors and law enforcement leaders who opposed this awful bill.

“One must ask the question: When does this end in our country? How many children and police officers must die before our elected members of Congress stop doing the bidding of the gun lobby?

The hyperbole would be amusing, were it not so pathetic.

Rich has a nifty tip for those of us with webpages.

Via Cam, comes this:

The man shot by a Janesville doctor in what authorities think was a burglary of the doctor’s home has sued the doctor for negligently using excessive force.

Kurt Prochaska, 39, Janesville, still is awaiting trial on charges of burglary and felony criminal damage because of events late on the night of Oct. 31, 2005, when, police reported, he crashed through the ceiling of Michael Rainiero’s home, 2520 Linden Ave., Janesville, in an attempt to burglarize the home.

Indiana:

Ordinary citizens will have to check their guns at the Statehouse’s entrances when metal detectors are installed in the building next year.

Lawmakers, however, will be allowed to take their guns with them inside.

It’s no secret that I am not a big fan of Bill Clinton. The man got a pass in the press for years, unless it involved dick sucking. Someone at Fox finally asked him a tough question. But it was a stupid question. The question may as well have been Why are you a moron? It was a partisan question and was phrased in a way that the man could not possibly answer it effectively.

Radley Balko has a column on Breed Specific Legislation. Via, err, Radley.

The NRA says Vote Corker.

At GunShowOnTheNet, comes the LOC page:

“On motion, on article the fifth, to strike out the word ‘fifth,’ after ‘article the,’ and insert ‘fourth,’ and to amend the article to read as follows: ‘A well regulated militia being the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’

“It passed in the affirmative….”

Don’t tell Cornell.

Even more staggering:

SayUncle thinks that a state passing 400 laws in a session is bad. According to a service dedicated to tracking state legislation, 29,840 laws have been adopted or enacted in 2006 as of August 24, 2006. That averages out to 597 laws per state in 2006.

Jebus.

I think Kevin pretty much nails all the hubbub regarding Saul Cornell’s book A Well Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America. Says Kevin:

He doesn’t have to be right, he just has to be convincing. The ill-informed who read this piece think “Hey, he’s an authority, he must be right. That’s why his side has to keep repeating the big lies.”

Yeah, Bellesiles fraud go glowing reviews too. Clayton Cramer puts the last two in its dome.

Remember that the Second Amendment Research Center at the John Glenn Institute is funded by the anti-gun Joyce foundation.

Michael Silence:

Further evidence there are no political parties and politicians with ideals anymore, just those who are in power, and those who are not.

Aunt B. says this gun nut ruined crappy TeeVee for her:

So, there I am watching Cold Case, which is one of those shows that one watches only so that one can properly enjoy the MadTV send-up of it, when all of a sudden it dawns on me that this particular episode is strangely biased against guns and violent video games.

You know how it came out a couple of years ago that the government had some kind of arrangement with Television that, if shows had a sufficient anti-drug message, they’d reap some governmental benefit? I don’t remember the particulars, just that the government was encouraging shows to subtly preach that drugs are bad.

Watching this show last night?

I’ve begun to suspect that there may be a similar program against guns, if not also violent video games.

Well, TeeVee teaches us all kinds of stuff for our own good that is total bullshit, such as telling us that the police can search/detain you no matter what. I’ve covered that stuff here, here and here.

Coloner Cooper, the father of modern combat handgun shooting, has passed away.

I used to know the answer to that question but I am no longer sure. Have we lost our collective minds regarding local government and development in Knox County?

The reason that development can be good is that is provides income to the local government. A case can be made for TIF’s (Tax Increment Financing), IF there is a return on the investment of the TIF. If the project fails then the local government does not receive the full extent of the projected property taxes and the local government pays the balloon note on the infrastructure. All projects have risks. There are no slam dunk real estate projects. There are no sure things.

We need to have a debate about what is the role of government. It has morphed from what we learned in high school to something very different today. We cannot fund schools or police retirement because we are using too much tax money to make speculative risky investments with private enterprise on the “hope” the end result will be increased property taxes. That is not the role of government. The government is not meant to be a lending partner to local real estate speculators. That is what banks are for. The government is supposed to build schools and pay its policemen.

Read the rest of this entry »

David notes that the 4th Amendment Suspension Bill Passes House:

[T]he House of Representatives has approved a tough new anti-drug and anti-weapon law that would require local districts to develop search policies – including strip searches – with immunity against prosecution for teachers and staff

Mohave Daily News:

Some 400 new state laws created during the most recent legislative session took effect Thursday and 20 of them involve guns.

So, in one session, a state enacted 400 new laws. 400 laws. Egad.

Odd case:

Fadi Mohammad didn’t think there was anything wrong with storing a gun in the center console of his car.

He found out differently when he was charged with illegally carrying the weapon during an arrest for drunken driving in Louisville.

When his case went to court, a judge dismissed the charges, saying the center console fell under a provision in Kentucky law allowing guns to be carried in a glove compartment.

Sounds reasonable to, oh, everyone. Except the supreme court of Kentucky:

But the Kentucky Supreme Court reinstated both charges yesterday in a split decision issued in Frankfort, saying a center console is not a glove compartment.

“A glove compartment is a small storage cabinet in the dashboard of an automobile,” Justice Donald C. Wintersheimer wrote in the opinion.

In Kentucky, it makes a difference if you put it in the console or the glove compartment.

Gives me the warm fuzzies:

About a dozen residents of a Dallas neighborhood beat a man after reports that he had been showing pornographic pictures to children on a playground, police said.

Brandon Scott Burke, 20, showed up Wednesday at an Oak Cliff apartment complex and was alleged to have shown a magazine with pictures of naked women to some of the children playing there, police said.

When one of the mothers saw him and asked Burke what he was doing, he tried to run and the woman started screaming, said Elizabeth Williams, the mother of another child. According to a police report, Burke said about 15 men “jumped him and hit him repeatedly on the face with their fists.” He suffered minor injuries, police said.

The Fifty Caliber Institute reports:

The LA County Gun Task Force has served another search warrant on the home of another member of the fifty caliber community. On Monday September 18th, eighteen police cars swarmed the neighborhood where the FCSA member lives and served a search warrant signed by Judge Steven Kleifield of the LA County Superior Court. The officers were at the residence for several hours and confiscated all semi-automatic firearms belonging to the victim.

The probable cause for issuing the search warrant was not available in the body of the affidavit so the reason for the search is unknown at this time. It should be noted the LA Gun Task Force used “High Risk” entry tactics by sending a SWAT Entry team to make the initial entry into the victim’s residence. Gun owners in LA County need to be prepared to expect these kinds of entry tactics and respond to commands from any officers if you are contacted.

FCI wants everyone to be aware that the LA County Gun Task Force is lead by agents from BATFE; LAPD and LASO. They appear to have focused their attention on members of the fifty caliber community and are aggressively trying to arrest law abiding citizens for just being “Gun Owners”.

In the situation that occurred this past Monday the victim had his entire firearms collection seized and he was told charges are going to be filed because he had in his possession linked ammunition in quantities of more than 10 rounds of ammunition at a time. This has been interpreted as a violation of the “High Capacity Magazine” portion of the Assault Weapons Act in CA. The victim owns a Semi-auto M2; a semi-auto M3 and a 30 caliber semi-auto 1919

Everyone living in California needs to pay attention to what is happening in Los Angeles. This can happen to you simply because someone who knows about your firearms calls the LA Gun Task Force and gives them information they interpret as a violation of the Draconian Gun Laws they have been passing for the last five years.

So, linked ammo is a magazine? Doesn’t look to me like any of the weapons listed will even take linked ammo.

Via Kevin, who says:

As the New Jersey court said, “When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril.”

They keep this up, some of that peril is going to shift.

Spank that Donkey has the Best of Carnival of Cordite, with lots of gun porn goodness.

Strategy Page (again) confirms what Uncle readers already know. The 45 SOCOM project is done:

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Defense began a search for a new .45 caliber combat pistol. Now that search has been mysteriously called off. The Department of Defense has announced, without any explanation, that is no longer looking for a new combat pistol.

Bummer.

The Hawaii Reporter notes that Eddie Compass may have been fired as a result of the gun confiscations in New Orleans:

McGraw, according to the transcript, then asked Nagin, “He (Compass) said that you were concerned about image and that you criticized him for showing emotion including on my show. You know, when I asked you about it and we talked before, I said, ‘Was he fired?’ and you said, ‘No, he wasn’t fired.’ And I said, ‘If he hadn’t wanted to quit, he would still be here?’ and you said, ‘Yes, he would have.’”

Responding, Nagin said this: “And I still stand by that. But he had to agree to step down because we were starting to get lawsuits.”

McGraw asked, “What kind of comments were bringing lawsuits?”

And Nagin replied, “Well, he made a comment about something with guns and the NRA fired up. And it was just a comment that kind of got us in trouble.…”

The “comment” at the center of this firestorm was Compass’ announcement that nobody other than law enforcement would be allowed to have guns. He was quoted by various news organizations declaring, “No one is allowed to be armed. We’re going to take all the guns.”

Bullshit. A disassembled AR-15 cannot possibly fire.

Brittney did an on-air piece on what bloggers were talking about, which was apparently spinach.

Sporting goods store Gander Mountain has opened in Knoxville on Parkside Drive in Farragut. I’ve not been, but JHill at arfcom has. He writes:

Shoes, boots, etc–good selection of both hunting and hiking (limited makes) and casual stuff.

Flyfishing: a very good selection of materials for making flies, selection of rods and ect. seemed okay

Fishing: they have a ‘quick’ entrance for just buying bait–kinda cool. Not Basspro selection, but pretty good

Boating: misc stuff–no interest in this area–would probably say, “Go to Basspro”

Some ATV stuff

Archery: Nice selection, didn’t puruse the bows, but they had both conventional and crossbows, lots of arrows, heads, impressive quiver selection, seemed like a great practise range (well light, easy access).

Duck/goose, predator, trapping selection: Seems good for waterfowl, was impressed/suprised to see pelts (artic fox, raccoon, coyote, skunk) traps, snares,etc.
–they also have 2 Foxpro 416? model callers $399

Flashlights: VERY NICE section! Selection includes: Surefire, Cyclops, lots of headlamps, Inova,

Great knife sharpening selection and good selection of knives–several Benchmades

Gps: whole locked case

GUNS, GUNS, GUNS–I have never seen so many shotguns!, Both used and new rifles and pistols, AR’s (Bushys, High Stnd?) 2 M1a’a, VERY large muzzleloading area

AMMO/cleaning: Great selection of ammo–they do have Adco 5.56 and Blackhills (52grn HP), lots of .22’s, .308 (~15 selections), lots of shotshells, cleaning supplies

Reloading: reloaders (not dillon), equipment, bullets, shot, primers, wads, etc Powders?

gun cases: big selection

Airsoft/paintball–decent on airsoft, crappy paintball

Major Letdown: Camping–terrible selection of packs and bags. Good selection of foods Mtn house, backpackers pantry. Overall–like if Walmart expanded their camping area…

nick-nacks–ho hum

Hunting clothing–good. would probably work well as a ‘reference/resource store’, then look elsewhere

Carnaby gets their newsletters so I don’t have to:

That tripe could not convince a thinking human being. It’s pretty clear they’ve gone to a quantity over quality approach. Lets look at what they’ve got

I’d feel dirty getting that tripe.

Congrats to Brittney:

Starting tomorrow, I will be on the air weekly for a segment about what we discussed this week at Nashville Is Talking. Every Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Les wants to know if you’ve tried them. Look pretty nifty in terms of having a gun that is secured from kids and readily accessible. I recall a gun magazine recommending them a while back but, since those are funded by ads, they tend to recommend everything they review.

For those who can afford it, fill out forms in triplicate, and send them certified mail to some bureaucrat, who might open it in the next couple of weeks:

The new Loudon County Mayor decided that citizens asking for public records were just too damned pesky so he decided to assess a fee of $25 and required all records requests to be in writing. BOTH of these policies are illegal. Attorney Phil Harber has filed suit on behalf of Loudon County residents to STOP this raw arrogance by someone who is supposed to be a public servant, not a public tyrant.

In the comments to my Flood Insurance post, Straightarrow pointed to the hole in the ozone layer as an example of how climate scientists perpetrated a fraud on the world. After all, he says, this was a big deal and now we never even hear about it. It’s a good question. Fortunately, there’s a good answer.

The reason we don’t hear about ozone anymore is because it’s a solved problem. There’s no need for further action, so you no longer hear the calls to action. The hole is still there, but it’s size peaked in 2000. Scientists believe it will heal itself in the next 50 years or so.

The reason the hole is closing is becuase international agreements brought down CFC usage enough to make a real difference. The 1985 Vienna Convention and the 1989 Montreal Protocol are really good examples of how international cooperation can work. Even if we don’t meet the 2010 target of eliminating CFC production, we’ll be ok.

Contrary to the ozone hole being an example of chicken little hysteria (or scientists conspiring to lie in return for grant money), it’s actually a success story. You can see an ozone timeline if you scroll down this page. Read what the NOAA says about ozone. It’s one of the few times science saw a threat, raised a cry, and the world (eventually) responded.

David has been keeping up with quite a few gun stories:

Cops raid the wrong house (again)

He even calls our side out when they’re not accurate:

“Let me give you a concrete example of what I mean: the anti-gun Joyce Foundation has donated $650-million to the Freedom States Alliance (parent organization of the GunGuys’ Web site), who, in turn, funded the .50 Caliber Terrorism and License To Murder web sites, as well as others.

That number can’t possibly be right. It’s either misspeaking or a misquote.

Here we go: It’s $650 THOUSAND, and that was in 2005. You can also see a yearly breakdown of other subversive cells being funded with Joyce grants.

Wow. Joyce gave money to this retard?

Actual Headline: BSO deputy shoots, kills 170-pound dog

Uncle’s Headline: Cops can enter property, kill dog without warrant, probable cause.

No one does snark better than Xrlqy Wrlqy. Heh.

I hate when one set of fundamental rights takes precedent over another fundamental set of rights:

An Ellis County man has been ordered by a judge to keep the noise down on his property during deer season after he was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of disrupting hunters.

An Ellis County jury found Galen Morris, 38, guilty on Tuesday of violating one count of the state Sportsman’s Rights Act. He was found not guilty of a second, similar charge.

The judge in the case ordered Morris to make sure his children don’t disturb hunters on a neighboring property by playing loud music or driving four-wheelers before noon or after 4 p.m. during deer season, which starts in November. Morris was also issued a $250 fine and a year of probation.

I’m as pro-gun as they get but a man’s property is a man’s property and he’s free to enjoy it in a manner he sees fit, so long as it does not interfere with another’s enjoyment of their property. Hunt somewhere else.

I was planning on (again) voting for Phil Bredesen. What’s not to like? He’s pro-gun and a pretty sharp guy. But Roger puts it in perspective:

Brysonites, you do realize, don’t you, that there is really only one reason to vote for Jim Bryson, and that is that every time a lame duck governor sits in office a push for a state income tax is the result. That’s it. That’s the only reason.

Of course, Roger is endorsing Bredesen in that post.

Harold News:

“For all those who think that if we give the anti-gunners just a little, they would be satisfied and go away,” Pearson said, they should consider a frightening development. “Maryland Cease Fire now says there is no difference between a so-called ‘assault weapon’ and any other firearm. They are now pushing for a ban on all long guns.”

Baby steps will go a long way.

YouTube worth $1.5 to $2B? How?

I don’t know why anyone does business in Cali:

The state attorney general’s office has ordered Jimenez Arms, the maker of inexpensive semiautomatic handguns, to stop making guns after several models repeatedly failed safety tests.

The cease and desist order was the latest setback for the company previously known as Bryco Arms, which was bankrupted by a $24 million court judgment after a teen was paralyzed by an accidental shooting.

Cool:

Crave Entertainment, a leading publisher of console videogames for the casual gamer, today announced that NRA Gun Club, a target shooter for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system, has shipped to retail stores throughout North America. Officially endorsed by the National Rifle Association, NRA Gun Club allows gamers to enter the shooting range, steady their nerves, and take aim at the bulls- eye and score in a wide variety of competitive environments.

I guess that’s one way to get America’s youth into the shooting sports.

Guaranteed to suck:

Horrible, wonderfully horrible news. Bjork and the Sugarcubes reunion concert planned.

I thought they were already united. Or it could have been the sound of two cats fucking. Not sure.

Got up this morning, showered, put on a polo shirt. Looked at the thermometer and realized outside it was 44 degrees. Put on a long sleeved shirt. You know what this means? No, not time for sweaters. Time to put up the Kel-Tec and break out the Glock.

Good time of year.

First, tobacco. Then gun makers. Now, automakers:

California is suing the auto industry over tailpipe emissions, marking the first time a state has sought monetary damages for the impact of global warming by vehicles.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Wednesday sued the six largest U.S. and Japanese automakers, claiming they have causing millions of dollars in damage by creating greenhouse gases.

Lockyer is suing on the theory that greenhouse gases are a “public nuisance” under both California and federal law, an argument similar to one being pursued in a case before the 2nd U.S. District Court of Appeals in New York.

It’s like the two biggest nanny states are at war with business or something.

Update: The National Association of Manufacturers calls it Grandstanding, Litigiousness.

Blogs and the local news were all aflutter over our little airport getting a new airline: Allegiant Air. I thought cool, maybe prices will drop a bit or we’ll get a direct flight to Vegas. Well, Allegiant Air does one flight per day to Tampa. And you can’t even book them yet. Not impressed.

I haven’t been myself for a couple of weeks. You may have noticed. I went from irrationally harsh (I think the point stands, but I was a dick about it) to all linky, no thinky on the blog. And the reason why is quitting smoking. I tried. I tried again. I stopped blogging about it because I didn’t want to feel pressured to blog about it. Quitting became too much and I was often faced with a dilemma. I could either:

1) Kill someone

Or

2)Smoke

Mind you, I cut down considerably but just could not get to the point where I laid them down completely. Something had to be done. So, I went to a new doc. He put me on Wellbutrin. I started taking it on September 12. I was to take it for one month, then attempt to quit. No problem. Wellbutrin doesn’t actually combat the urge to smoke. It’s an anti-depressant and basically ensures that while you’re trying to quit that you’re not an asshole and you don’t kill anyone.

This brings us to Tuesday. On Tuesday, I have various rashes all over my body. I also have the worst heartburn I’ve ever had in my life. Once the heartburn subsided, I had constant pain in my esophagus. And one time, I hiccuped and it felt like my insides were going to come out. I went back to the doc. He tells me I’m allergic to Wellbutrin. I’ve never been allergic to anything in my life. It was odd. He explains to me that the allergy is causing the rash and that my throat and esophagus are swollen (hence, what I thought was heartburn). He tells me to quit taking it and, at our next appointment (after the Wellbutrin is out of my system), we’ll work on plan B. Whatever that is. I found it odd that it took near ten days for the allergy to show up.

A few things on being on an anti-depressant:

I was only in it for the short-term (6 months tops) to quit smoking.

My wife said it made me less of an asshole.

It made me feel like I was more of an observer of my own life than an actual participant. Sure, I’d interact with folks and stay focused, but it seemed like the interaction just happened without me really being involved. Not sure how to describe it, really, other than the real me seemed buried underneath the doped up me.

My morning, err, friend stop showing up.

In short, I didn’t like it. I’m not sure how people can take these things for years and years.

So, back to the drawing board.

But you are from Boston.

From The Brady Campaign:

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence today issued a study which thoroughly dismantles the gun industry claim that federal law enforcement authorities penalize gun dealers for mere “trivial violations” of gun laws unrelated to public safety. Instead the study found that federal action against gun dealers typically occurs only after numerous, consistent and serious violations of the law.

The study — “‘Trivial Violations’?: The Myth of Overzealous Federal Enforcement Actions Against Licensed Gun Dealers” — was issued in the wake of House Judiciary Committee action approving H.R. 5092, a bill supported by the National Rifle Association, that would make it more difficult for federal authorities to revoke the licenses of gun dealers who violate the law.

The bill, which the House leadership has included as part of its “American Values Agenda,” is expected to come up for a final vote in the House very soon.

The Judiciary Committee relied in part on testimony from attorney Richard Gardiner, a former Assistant General Counsel for the National Rifle Association, who also represents gun dealers accused of violating the law. One of Gardiner’s clients is NRA Board Member Sanford Abrams, whose gun shop — Valley Gun of Baltimore — has been cited by the Justice Department as a “serial violator” of federal gun laws. Gardiner had asserted that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which regulates gun dealers, focuses on “trivial, immaterial violations unrelated to public safety,” a theme echoed by other supporters of H.R. 5092.

“It is fiction that federal law enforcement officials are penalizing gun dealers based merely on trivial, inadvertent mistakes,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center. “The gun lobby’s bill should be called ‘The Sandy Abrams Act,’ because its purpose is to protect irresponsible gun dealers like the one who sits on the NRA Board.”

Whose word would I take? An anti-gun group’s or a man who has forgotten more about gun laws than I’ll ever know. They conclude:

The new study examined every published Federal court decision over the last five years — 21 in all — in which gun dealers challenged ATF’s license termination actions. Instead of “trivial violations,” the cases are replete with frequent and serious illegal conduct by dealers, including:

– Selling guns to straw buyers, and even advising criminals to bring straw buyers into the store to fill out the paperwork;

– Selling an assault pistol with its serial number obliterated;

– Selling guns to juveniles;

– Having no record of sale for hundreds or thousands of firearms that were acquired by the dealer but were no longer in store inventory;

– Failing to conduct Brady background checks on gun buyers.

Here’s a piece on Gardiner’s findings:

Richard Gardiner, a Virginia attorney and an expert in federal firearms laws who often represents FFLs and gun owners under ATF scrutiny, argued that Lara’s case is actually closer to being the rule than the exception.

“The ATF tends to focus or has a significant focus on trivial, immaterial violations which are unrelated to public safety,” Gardiner said. “And they impose unreasonable standards of perfection which are simply not humanly achievable.”

As an example, Gardiner recalled an ATF review of 880 “Firearms Transaction Record Part I – Over-The-Counter” forms collected by one of his gun dealer clients. Of the 34,320 blocks of information collected on those documents, ATF found 19 clerical errors.

“That is a 99.96 percent perfect completion record,” Gardiner noted. “Yet ATF took the position that, because the dealer was aware — based on the fact that he had completed 99.96 percent of the forms accurately — that he committed a ‘willful violation’ with regard to the other four one-hundredths of a percent because he knew what his legal obligations were.”

The bureau revoked that gun dealer’s license and closed his business.

I guess people will blog about anything. Michael Silence has an article on Mayfield’s dairy blog too.

DefRev says Armalite (the A in AR) will introduce a line of pistols. Of course, SayUncle readers knew that 6 months ago.

Rich wants us East TN bloggers to hook up:

What: A meeting of East Tennessee bloggers, and any other bloggers who want to make the trip.
When: September 30, 6PM till we get thrown out
Where: Barley’s in the Old City
Why: To see what the folks behind the opinions look like
Who: Bloggers, commentors, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, significant others, insignificant others

Several of my friends (and my sister!) are expecting. Naturally, the question of what to name the kids is a contentious and often funny conversation. Here for their edification is the best and most comprehensive advice I’ve ever seen on how to avoid giving your child a regrettable name.

Roll call is another thing to watch out for. Make sure it’s not worse putting the last name before the first. Ted Farr probably won’t be happy for long, neither will Lester Moll or Nick L Pumper. However, this will probably keep them out of the armed services.

This is what optimism looks like in Iraq:

Asked point-blank whether the United States is winning in Iraq, Abizaid replied: “Given unlimited time and unlimited support, we’re winning the war.”

And here’s the wikipedia definition of quagmire:

a foreign military campaign in which there is either no foreseeable possibility of victory or the objectives are unclearly defined, and at the same time no clear exit strategy has been formulated in the absence of victory.

Feeling safer yet?

When you live just a few blocks from the edge of a small island, the prospect of global warming and rising seas can be extremely scary. The worst case scenarios say the oceans could be almost a meter deeper by 2100, but I had no idea whether that meant I should buy some flood insurance. Fortunately, somebody repackaged a googlemap to show how far the seas can rise before you need to grow gills.

At 1 meter, my neighborhood’s coastline barely moves. While some major streets would flood, my personal little bit of dirt would be unaffected. In fact, it appears I’m good to 10 meters, assuming I don’t mind a flooded basement.

Seen at Jeff’s:

Nearly every home in Greenleaf would be asked to keep and maintain a firearm under a proposed ordinance being considered by the City Council.

Ordinance 208, sponsored by Councilman Steven Jett, is known as the “Civil Emergencies Ordinance.”

In addition to a recommendation that certain heads of households own guns, it authorizes planning for a city emergency operations center, authorizes development of an emergency operations plan, authorizes the promotion and support of citizen emergency response teams and neighborhood watch groups, and authorizes promotion of firearms safety and training for residents.

Jett said the primary purpose of the ordinance was to support county emergency operations planning, but realized the firearms provision would be what would “make the headlines.”

Greenleaf Mayor Bradley Holton said he supports the spirit of the ordinance, and pointed out that the proposal is not a mandate because it encourages gun ownership, but does not require it — as a similar law has done in the town of Kennesaw, Ga. since the early 1980s.

Compulsory firearms ownership, I would have a problem with.

Fûz has built himself an AK.

The Carnival of Cordite is up for your gun-blogging fix.

Joe Public:

This is just awful. Tennessee, we can do better than this.

GovTrack sorts bills by subject. It even has an RSS feed.

Via ben.

Tam has a must read:

See how much unnecessary futzing around with the pistol that involves? Every time you go in and out of the house you are adding more windows for opportunity for an ND by adding more administrative weapons handling. This is when ND’s occur

I switch weapons regularly. I have a summer gun and a winter gun. I have a jeans/T-shirt gun and a khaki pants/collared shirt gun. I just keep them all loaded all the time. And stored properly, of course.

Canada:

Why not ban guns altogether? Some would argue that they are useful for self-defence, hunting and as collector’s items. These arguments come from the minority, and as shown by the recent Ontario smoking ban, the minority does not matter when the health of the public is at stake. It is clear that public safety would be increased dramatically if guns were banned and the law to do so is past due.

MARGARET WENTE:

The other day, on a quiet suburban Toronto street, someone hacked a man to death with a machete. It’s possible you missed the story, because it got barely a mention in the local media.

Machetes are not top of mind with the public. Nobody is demanding stricter controls on machete sales. On the other side, nobody is defending responsible machete owners from meddlesome bureaucrats. Nobody is asking how the killer got the weapon, or why nobody noticed that he was a deranged lunatic, or whether he liked violent video games, or had a taste for Goth, or if he’d been bullied in high school. No one interviewed the neighbours to inquire how traumatized they are. No one has called for a machete registry, or mandatory sentences for machete murderers. In fact, not a single politician has raised the subject. That’s because there are no votes in machete crime.

Gun crime is a different matter. Last week’s shooting spree at Dawson College was barely over before the politicians opened fire. Spewing rhetoric randomly in all directions, they left the impression that innocent college students were being mowed down by the hundreds.

She ends with:

Personally, I hate guns. I don’t see why anyone should have one in the house unless they hunt for food — especially 25-year-old males with serious anger-management issues. But I also know that tougher gun laws don’t seem to make a difference.

Even antis see when their side is full of it. That, or our side has wised up and started doing the opposite of the I’m a gun-owner but hooey of the anti-gun crowd.

Here in New York, our local telco is Verizon, a monopoly provider of traditional telephone service. For the last three weeks, my phone hasn’t worked and neither has my DSL.

Both Verizon and my new DSL provider have been incredibly incompetent throughout, and I still don’t have service. I won’t list my travails here, but suffice it to say that all my problems started when Verizon was supposed to switch me to a competing DSL provider. I believe Verizon is being purposefully uncooperative to prevent me from switching.

The hours spent on Verizon’s tech support merry-go-round convinced me to seek other options, and happily I have found one. Using a software package called Asterisk, it is possible to get telephone service over the internet for negligible money ($2/month for the same base services I currently pay about $40 for).

We use Asterisk at work. It’s just like using a regular phone. Every once in a while I have moments of poor sound quality and each month it will go down for an hour or so. But it’s incredibly cheap, and you never waste a whole day waiting for a tech who never shows up.

I have an old computer gathering dust. I’m going to install the software, buy the $80 bit of hardware I need to connect it to my phones, and never bang my head against Verizon’s walls again. It’s great to watch a monopoly crumble.

Over at Knoxviews, they were doing blog like Instapundit day. Reading what they wrote there reveals how they view insty’s messages. But this ain’t a post about that, it’s a post about this thread which I thought was hysterical:

Check out these jugs.

Here’s some boobies.

Nice tits.

Check out these sweater puppies.

Nice rack.

Some hooters.

Check out these headlights.

Some big ol’ knockers.

Yeah, what he said.

AC on the second amendment:

To be “pro-gun”, to be a defender of Second Amendment rights, you need not to have ever held a gun, tracked a deer, or even fired a shot. This is a philosophical debate. Do we have an individual right to preserve and protect our rights or do we not? It is that simple.

Ayup.

Chicago:

Two powerful Chicago aldermen are proposing a gun offender registry that would allow the city’s police to track people convicted of weapons violations.

The ordinance proposed by Aldermen Ed Burke and Isaac Carothers would require offenders to check in with police every six months. Unlike sex offender registries, the information would be available only to police and not to the public.

News Busters:

Media Can’t Find a Single Critic of Gun Buyback Program

Bruce:

I beg to differ.

And, by “differ”, I mean, “kick McCain in the balls”.

Teehee. That was in response to this:

So, according to these insufferable little weasels masquerading as duly-elected representatives of The People, the First Amendment (and by extension, I assume, the entire Bill of Rights?) is now but a “loophole”.

Miracle Man’s is none too happy:

I am not surprised that the NRA would endorse Bob Corker over Harold Ford, Jr. What surprises me is the “A” rating that they gave Corker. I would have thought that an unrated endorsement would have been just as effective without having to do the mental gymnastics required to give Corker an “A” rating.

Speaking of A ratings from the NRA, Blogger and TN Senate candidate Bob Krumm scored one too:

I am pleased to announce that the National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund has awarded me an “A” Rating for my ”positive responses” to their candidate questionnaire, and my “strong and vocal support of the Second Amendment.”

Time for us to go. Seven prominent conservatives say the GOP should go in 2006:

With Republicans controlling Congress and the White House, conservatives these days ought to be happy, but most aren’t. They see expanding government, runaway spending, Middle East entanglements, and government corruption, and they wonder why, exactly, the country should be grateful for Republican dominance.

The GOP in power has been a total and complete disappointment. The party in power is the party of big government.

Via Der Commissar.

Jay Caruso (who I thought stopped blogging – what happened to Jane, anyway?) agrees with me:

A high profile prosecution such as this is something that could get such a stupid law changed, but in NYC, District Attorney’s are elected, not appointed. Therefore, there is no way a DA that is also a politician is going to allow this woman to be prosecuted. That’s good, but what’s bad is that chances are, she’ll never see this gun again and will have a hard time trying to get another one.

I started watching it but was interrupted. David Hardy notes that it is not accurate, in the same way that The Path To 9/11 is not accurate:

I watched Assault on Waco on the Discovery Channel last night, having sent the producers some footage and audiotapes…. I gave up after the first 20 minutes or so. There were too many areas where it was just plain invented.

Docudramas are often more drama than docu. I’ll probably still watch it.

Yeah, the site was down for a while. Everything seems back to normal now.

According to the folks at subguns (and the law), you cannot pledge NFA weapons as collateral on a loan. Apparently, that is considered a transfer even if they don’t take possession.

An interesting look at the NRA’s international record over at the NYT (yes, that NYT):

Around the world, the N.R.A. is finding that a rights-based approach translates into many languages. As the N.R.A.’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, says: “They made the rights argument [in Brazil.] They made the argument that this was being taken away from the people.” He pauses. “It caught Iansa” — the International Action Network on Small Arms — “by surprise. They already had the Champagne on ice.” In the mid-1990’s, the N.R.A. became a nongovernmental observer at the United Nations and helped form a global coalition of pro-gun groups to match disarmament coalitions.