Via the NRA, comes this:

In a lengthy and carefully reasoned decision read from the bench December 13, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipoli declared Jersey City’s one gun a month handgun rationing law null and void, holding that it violates state pre-emption, equal protection, and was “arbitrary and capricious.”

Ordinance # 06-116 – whose stated objective was to reduce crime – wildly missed the mark by rationing handguns to persons pre-certified by the State as non-criminals after undergoing extensive background checks.

Plus what is to stop one gun a month from becoming one gun a year, decade, lifetime or generation?

Update: Oops. Bitter was on this yesterday. Sorry, but usually when I see the phrase New Jersey, I don’t look much further.

Because I’ve decided that airing grievances is fun and want to spread some holiday cheer. Remember, I do this to entertain me . . . not you.

Timing: The holiday season apparently starts right after Labor Day. The stores put their Christmas stuff out in September. This has to stop. A full one third of the fucking calendar year is the Christmas season. That’s stupid. Hell, let’s just make every day a holiday.

More timing: Every year, I put out Christmas decorations earlier and earlier. I’ve always been a Day After Thanksgiving guy myself. But that was back when I was a bachelor and my only Christmas decoration was a festive basket with pine cones in it. After thanksgiving, I’d put it on my coffee table and I was done. Now, decoration day is a full two weeks before then. And it takes up a whole weekend. And that’s just stupid too. One good thing is that the new pad is on a sloped yard and the house has two floors. So, the sides of the house are a full 80 feet off the ground. Therefore, for safety’s sake, I don’t decorate that side. My annual work has been reduced by two thirds.

Santa: He’s a fat bitch. Seriously, can’t we have someone who can teach our children a healthy lifestyle bring them cheer and presents? And how about a haircut and a shave? Right now, it looks like we have an overweight hippie in his damn jammies spreading cheer. Is he joyous from smoking dope? I prefer a nice, clean cut dude who looks healthy spreading wonder and amazement. ‘Cause when a hippie spreads wonder and amazement, you blame the weed.

To the guy in my neighborhood: Sorry, but a 15 feet tall inflatable Scooby Doo wearing a toboggan is not a Christmas decoration. It’s a fucking eyesore. It may have a date with my Gamo 220 Hunter.

Toboggan: To the people commenting on this post on roadside survival kits, when a white boy from Tennessee says toboggan, he means a wool knit hat not a sled. You really think I keep a big ass sled in my truck?

Today, at Junior’s and The Second’s school it’s PJ day. They wore pajamas to school this morning. I think it’s a great idea and think workplaces should have a PJ day too.

Heh.

If concealed carry is ever allowed in Chicago.

A court has ruled that a BB gun is a gun in the legal sense of the word:

A convicted felon barred from carrying a firearm broke the law when he started toting a BB gun, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has ruled.

John Fleming Jr. couldn’t legally carry a gun because of two felony assault convictions, so he packed a BB gun instead.

Ramsey County prosecutors decided Fleming was splitting hairs and charged him with unlawful possession of a firearm.

Fleming won when a Ramsey County District judge threw out the charge, ruling the statute doesn’t apply to BB guns. But the appeals court ruled prosecutors could again take aim at the two-time felon.

The appellate court reinstated the charge against Fleming, finding that a firearm is “any gun from which a shot or a projectile is discharged by means of explosive, gas or compressed air.”

Fleming is accused of carrying a black metal BB gun that discharges a pellet by means of a CO2 cartridge.

Typically, a firearms is defined as shooting a projectile by means of explosives and, at least at the federal level, blackpowder weapons are excluded from that definition. So, when someone enacts an assault weapons ban, will it affect BB guns?

Stupid ruling.

Update: That’s a helluvan airsoft gun.

I had one the other night for the first time. Tastes like a green Jolly Rancher. But in Cali, they want to tax girly drinks. Why? Well, because:

Heeding the pleas of teenagers to help curb underage drinking, California authorities Wednesday moved to raise taxes on sugary alcohol beverages and remove them from convenience stores.

Err, isn’t it illegal for teenagers to drink? That’s just fucking retarded.

The story about the NY Cops firing 50 rounds into unarmed people keeps getting worse:

Four of the five officers who fired a total of 50 times at the car of an unarmed man on his wedding day hadn’t completed mandatory firearms training, a group of black officers charged on Thursday.

[snip]

The report lists the last time each officer was at the shooting range: Mike Oliver — who fired 31 of the 50 rounds — was there on April 5; Marc Cooper on March 3; Paul Headley on Jan. 12; and Mike Carey on March 21. The undercover detective last took practice on Oct. 4, it says.

The report also notes that none of the officers had ever fired their weapons before the Nov. 25 confrontation outside a seedy Queens topless bar where Bell’s bachelor party intersected with a police undercover operation targeting alleged prostitution.

It’s obvious they weren’t pistolsmiths since out of 50 rounds, only 21 hit the car. And 14 rounds hit people in the car.

I’d rather they received training on Shoot – Don’t Shoot scenarios rather than marksmanship. But at least with marksmanship training, when they make the wrong call and shoot in real life, they don’t look like trigger-happy yahoos.

I had some fun at the fact that my traffic has increased a bit due to being ranked high on Google for the search small dicks. Seriously, people google that? Like you don’t get enough sent to your inbox you have to go searching for it?

But this ain’t a post about that, it’s a post about this:

There is an obscure publishing doctrine known as “the small penis rule.” As described in a 1998 New York Times article, it is a sly trick employed by authors who have defamed someone to discourage their targets from filing lawsuits. As libel lawyer Leon Friedman explained to the Times, “No male is going to come forward and say, ‘That character with a very small penis, ‘That’s me!’”

Heh. Via Terry, who apparently thought of me while reading that.

Seen at Publicola’s:

Give everything to your friend, except your car, your wife, and your gun.

Also, what he said.

To Jay who has pics of his new toy. Welcome to the club. Wait, they allow those in Mass?

Good luck finding another magazine for it. It took me like 5 months of constantly nagging Tam to get two more.

Lyle of Ultimak (and if you have an AK you should be buying stuff there) in comments:

I’d be interested to know how many arsonists are allowed to buy matches and gasoline, and why the HELL no one’s required to get fingerprints, photos, a retinal scan, DNA sample and a criminal background check from every buyer of matches, lighters, and gasoline. SHit, you’d think the government just wants crime to happen.

Don’t get me started on knives and baseball bats (to say nothing of rocks– those goddamned things are just laying around everywhere, and no one is doing CRAP about it).

Heh.

Law.com:

Despite increased security at courthouses following shootings in Chicago and Atlanta about one year ago, many judges are bringing their own guns into their courtrooms for protection.

Earlier this month, a Florida judge was ordered to accept mentoring after warning a defense attorney that he was “locked and loaded.” In May, a judicial ethics committee of the New York State Unified Court System found that it was ethical for a judge to carry a pistol into his courtroom.

In Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas, incidences of violence in the past year have prompted new laws or solidified rules allowing judges to bring guns into courtrooms.

And:

In May, New York’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics issued an opinion that found it ethical for a judge to carry a pistol while on the bench.

Via reader Chris, who notes: Kind of funny that the NY Bar had to give careful consideration as to whether a judge can exercise his constitutional right in a courtroom, where rights should presumably be sacrosanct. Well, and I’m sure the Bar in NY isn’t a friend of the second amendment for non-judges.

Insty says:

THE CAR SURVIVAL KIT DISCUSSION from a few days ago led me to consider emulating SayUncle and keep something to cut seatbelts in the car. I could have just gotten a big honking knife, but I didn’t want anything that an unsympathetic cop might consider a dangerous weapon, just in case.

Yeah, I think TN has a knife law that specifies carried knives can’t have blades longer than four inches (or some arbitrary number of inches). That being the case, there’s also these items that are made specifically for cutting belts and look nothing like weapons. They also have the added bonus of a ceramic spike for breaking out safety glass.

Pocket Queens: Screw them. I’m going all in pre-flop with them from now on. When the flop comes, they’re generally as useless as a cock-flavored lollipop.

Dramatic movies with retards: Rain Man, I am Sam, those types. I’m done with them. Some of them star people who are actual retards in real life. As much as you try to tug at my heartstrings, I can’t get over the fact that what is considered acting is also considered bad taste when I do it at a party. Plus, any movie with a retard in it is automatically overrated by every critic. Let’s stick to the cameo appearance in comedies please.

Bruce: who will remind me that I use the phrase useless as a cock-flavored lollipop too much.

Iraq: Sorry but I’m doing some serious introspection on that one. As an initial supporter of the war, I’m torn between 1) the US needs to either go balls out or, err, 2) balls in. That is, get our asses in there and take control of the motherfucker. Or bring everyone home and take our ass-whippin’ and loss of respect in the worldwide community like a man. The latter is clearly the worst option. So, it’s either time for a vulgar display of power or a powerful display of vulgarity. They’re both ugly and no one wants to do either but it’s time to cowboy the fuck up and do something right, whether it’s winning or saying oops, sorry about your infrastructure. And the first person who says I’m advocating cutting and running needs to have their pee-pee whacked.

Me: The fact that by stating the above, I actually agree with John McCain about something. That sucks.

Sensitivity: I’m not an overly sensitive person but I find it to be in poor taste the fact that people care more about congressional control than the fact some dude just had his head split open and the organ that determines the fiber of his being operated on following a stroke. At least have the decency to offer sympathy first before becoming a partisan hack. Anyone checked DU to see for conspiracy theories? I mean, I’m kind of a dick but I’d at least offer condolences to the family before saying OMG, we’re doomed!

My hands: They’re faster than my brain. Been re-reading a bunch of old posts and realize they are riddled with typos.

Google: I’ve had it happen a lot lately where I am Googling up a bit of research and the source is, err, me. Well, quoting me doesn’t do much for backing up assertions made by me.

The people of DC: Look, I hear what you’re saying. Taxation without representation is bad ju ju and people have started wars over that kind of stuff. And having no say in the constitution sucks too. But you’d get a lot more sympathy if your local .gov wasn’t trying to piss on the constitution by banning gun ownership.

Apparently, some kids at the Macomb Intermediate School District are banned from myspace.com. So, they’re having their chat discussions here in comments. So, I’m telling their teachers on them. Pay attention in school or you’ll grow up to be a loser.

So, robby, ses, and tretfd, take it somewhere else. Or, you know, buy your own server space and such. Boring tech stuff below the fold

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In Jersey:

Bullets slip through hole in gun laws

Criminal offenders bought handgun ammunition from nine stores in Monmouth and Ocean counties, according to testimony heard Tuesday by a state panel investigating the link between bullet sales and street violence.

Seven of those stores were in Ocean County, which ranked first among the 19 counties probed by the State Commission of Investigation, an independent watchdog of state government.

The commission used those figures to expose the lack of state laws regulating ammunition sales and how some of those purchases end up in the guns of gang members who use violence to control some of New Jersey’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

Most sales to criminal offenders in the Shore area and elsewhere were legal, as vendors are only required to write details about the sale into a log book and to make sure that buyers of handgun bullets are at least 21 years old.

“You can be a convicted criminal and buy as much as you want,” said Lt. Col. Frank E. Rodgers, deputy superintendent of investigations for the State Police.

I guess the fact that possession of ammunition by a felon being a crime isn’t enough?

On the kid who was shot for stealing a Playstation 3, David:

The student was shot thru the door as they were breaking it down. The officer who fired says that he mistook the sound of the battering ram hitting the door for gunshots, and began firing through the door.

Quick, call a Waahmbulance.

Google blog alerts tells me to read lefty blogs.

It’s rather amusing to me the misconceptions held about gun laws and the NRA by (generally speaking) the left. And more specifically, the widely-read, coo-coo-banana left. Digby says:

In the late 70′s it was a matter faith among liberals that handguns would be outlawed and other guns would be strictly regulated. It was just a matter of time. Within 20 years the NRA had killed the issue. Gun control is no longer even on the menu outside the biggest cities and even then it’s dicey.

And that’s a good thing. The NRA did not kill the issue. It was merely not popular. People support the right to arms by a large margin and, specifically, handguns for self-defense. In the 1980s until this year, many states have passed concealed carry laws (48 of 50 have provisions and 40 of those 48 have right to carry provisions). And, here’s a newsflash, a movement that big doesn’t just happen because of the big bad NRA snapping its fingers. Those legislators have to cater to voters to keep their jobs and they did.

The NRA said that Americans had a right to bear arms. Period. They didn’t bargain or negotiate. And they were successful because when your raison d’etre is protecting a fundamental right, you have to be absolutist or you lose the moral authority of your argument.

This is another misconception regarding arms and the NRA. That they don’t bargain or negotiate. And that’s just crap. There is not a single federal gun control law in this country that has passed without the NRA’s OK. And the NRA has taken some flak for that. In fact, here’s a little dialogue between the NRA and a group that does not negotiate. Read it. It’s the purists at JPFO v. the NRA. Because JPFO does not bargain or negotiate, they are, essentially, powerless in politics. They have no influence. The NRA is the 800 pound gorilla of gun rights but to intimate that they are absolutists who do not negotiate is either done out of ignorance; or misunderstanding; or the fact that the claim is made by someone who is anti-gun.

After quoting an utter misrepresentation of a shooting and castle doctrine laws, Jane Hamsher writes:

I think there is a fundamental incentive problem here — the NRA is financed by gun manufacturers who aren’t going to keep writing the fat checks in order to lose.

The NRA is funded by its members and donations primarily. The NRA’s $80 million yearly budget is largely from its membership dues ($25 per year) from over 3 million members. The NRA is forbidden by law from using these funds to lobby the government. And gun manufacturers are not particularly large companies but they do have their own trade organization, that Nationals Shooting Sports Foundation.

The NRA also supports some gun laws, such as Project Exile; background checks; the NFA, the NRA wrote the law that bans armor-piercing handgun ammunition; the NRA supports laws restricting access to firearms by minors and felons; and was the advocate behind the National Instant Check System (which unfortunately had the assault weapons ban attached to it). Those simply are not extremist positions and that does not indicate opposition to all gun controls.

But it is an article of faith among anti-gunners and some of those on the left that the Big Bad NRA is made of evil gun-maker money and it is an extremist bully that tell congress what to do. They have to believe that because it’s easier to swallow than the fact that most people don’t share their views on guns.

Update: I’m informed that digby is not the coo-coo-banana left. I read more of the blog and concur. Sorry about that.

Minimum evacuation distances for bombs by size.

Remember, that’s why I won’t vote for Barrack Obama. Not because he’s anti-freedom or anything important like that.

Colt CCO is back to blogging. One post every three months might be a record. And I saw him back in Knoxville last week.

Tom, regarding misuse police power and the recent spate of shootings, says:

it has almost exclusively been the modern conservative movement that has moved us toward this sort of authoritarian government and sought to massively expand police powers, while seriously diminishing oversight.

Then why does this map of botched police raids (filter for deaths) show that more botched raids occur in larger population centers, which tend to be more liberal?

The reason is big cities have swat teams and they gotta do something when they’re not saving hostages.

Don’t misunderstand: This is not a liberal v. conservative issue. It should be an issue we can all get behind. It’s more a those in power wanting to look tough on crime v. every one else issue.

Over at No Silence Here, I posted about the second amendment case heading to the court. Some one going by the name Jack Weaver wrote:

The argument of Washington, D.C., on the meaning of the Constitution’s Second Amendment makes sense. That amendment addresses the right of the people to be secure as a political society. It’s the Fourth Amendment that states the right of the people to be secure as individual persons.

If Madison and the First Congress had thought that personal gun use needed protection from interference by the new federal government, they would have explicitly worded an amendment to provide that protection. They could easily have done that by adding words to the Fourth Amendment.

By incorporating the word “arms” the framers could have written the Fourth Amendment to begin, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, arms, houses, papers, and effects…” And at the same time they could have added words to the Fourth along the lines of those in an amendment proposed by New Hampshire’s ratification convention:

“Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.”

The U.S. Supreme Court was no doubt correct when it said in U.S. v. Miller (1939) that the “obvious purpose” of the Second Amendment was the continuation and effectiveness of state militia forces. That statement of purpose, it should be noted, says nothing about the individual use of guns for personal purposes.

It’s a rather ridiculous assertion for a variety of reasons but this ain’t a post about that. It’s a post about Jack then coming to here and making a similar comment under a different name. He’s probably leaving the same comment at other blogs. I don’t care that you leave comments but use the same handle. It’s the polite thing to do.

You may recall there was a little dustup over the World’s Fair Park project a couple years ago. The idea was to save the Sunsphere, the Candy Factory, and the Tennessee Amphitheater.

In the News Sentinel today we learn it may cost $3.4 million for full renovation or $655,000 for complete demolition. Money that was supposed to come from the developer of the World’s Fair Project and not the city.

Looking back on the Candy Factory deal Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam pushed through it is difficult to see how any money was saved. The only assets, the Candy Factory and Victorian Homes, were purchased at rock bottom prices and the Sunsphere and Tennessee Amphitheater were pulled from the project. Looking back at the downtown Cinema project it is now three times over budget. Looking at the Five Points shopping center deal another expensive failure. Don’t even ask about Renee Kesler.

So how is this Mayoral administration doing? This is an administration of futures. Future promises that don’t come true. Not on budget, not on time, and not what was promised. This is what happens when you are more interested in the next political office instead of running the office you currently hold.

There is an election for the office of Knoxville Mayor next November. What kind of report card would you give Mayor Haslam today?

I’m trying to understand why a guy with two masters degrees (one in engineering and a MBA in finance) has spent the last hour and a half trying to figure out how to ship something via UPS.com. Actually, I’m trying to figure out why he keeps updating me on the status of trying to figure out UPS.com because I can 1) do it in about 15 seconds and 2) give a fuck less. And I only have one masters degree.

Sometimes when someone tries to do something good they get confused and screw up something else. This is often referred to as the law of unintended consequences. Case in point would be Senator John McCain’s new bill to crack down on child pornography on the Internet. No one wants child pornography on the Internet but the problem is that this bill is so broadly written it could be used to shut down a website with an innocent picture like this.

It is an important cause and something must be done but this bill is so poorly written it could be used to harm people that have nothing to do with child pornography. If this sounds a little like the War on Drugs or the War on Terror there may be a reason. Could it be Congress Critters? Senator McCain is not alone in not understanding the Internet.

From CNET News:

Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law.

The legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain and obtained by CNET News.com, would also require Web sites that offer user profiles to delete pages posted by sex offenders.

After child pornography or some forms of “obscenity” are found and reported, the Web site must retain any “information relating to the facts or circumstances” of the incident for at least six months. Webmasters would be immune from civil and criminal liability if they followed the specified procedures exactly.

McCain’s proposal, called the “Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act” (click for PDF), requires that reports be submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which in turn will forward them to the relevant police agency. (The organization received $32.6 million in tax dollars in 2005, according to its financial disclosure documents.)

Internet service providers already must follow those reporting requirements. But McCain’s proposal is liable to be controversial because it levies the same regulatory scheme–and even stiffer penalties–on even individual bloggers who offer discussion areas on their Web sites.

More after the jump…

Import Update see comments

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I somehow managed to miss the fact that the Gun Toting Liberal is back.

The house and senate have overridden the governor’s veto of the Ohio preemption bill. This, effectively, gets rid of some 80 or so local gun ordinances in the state, notably the ban on weapons that look like assault weapons in some cities – said bans were just this week upheld by the Ohio supreme court who noted:

In the absence of any limiting provision or declaration to the contrary, we conclude that the General Assembly intended to allow municipalities to regulate the possession of lower capacity semiautomatic firearms in accordance with local conditions.

Oops. Kopel has a lot more detail and notes:

In practical effect, the Ohio bill is the most significant roll-back of gun control that has ever been enacted by a state.

He’s also come up with a term for weapons that look like assault weapons that I like: cosmetically-incorrect self-loading firearms.