As someone who just got back from vacation, I’d buy a power assisted stroller. Even better, one with a remote.

Over at Bryan Miller’s blog, reader dwlawson translates Reasoned Discourse^tm into English:

What they say ==> What they mean

Dialogue = => you listen to us
Spew ==> facts and statistics
Dangerously Extreme ==> passionate and committed
No time or inclination ==> unable to respond
Sensible Gun Laws ==> gun bans
Good Gun Laws ==> gun bans

Ya know, I don’t mind making fun of gun owners if it’s actually funny. But this isn’t:

Heh:

With the outbreak of Reasoned Discourse^tm over at Paul Helmke’s Brady Blog to Prevent Gun Ownership you might think that there’s no way to inject facts into the debate anymore, well at least not with Paul Helmke.

However that is not the case. I am not the first to notice that the Brady Bunch is crossposting over at The Huffington Post. Comments are allowed with registration.

I chose other. And by other, I meant AC Kleinheider prior to June 28, 2007. You know, back when WKRN had a sack. I didn’t always agree with AC but he made me think.

Update: And honorable mention to B-ho, Abramson (who I’d link to if he actually wrote at one site) and Braisted. And that other guy, you know, the one you’re thinking about.

Heh:

I’m selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn’t notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.

The NRA steps up to help Red’s Trading Post. The doc is at David’s.

So, where are all the assault weapons that are supposed to be used in all those crimes?

I pre-emptively call myself a racist so you don’t have to. Neener neener.

One of the things rarely discussed (because it’s just not PC) is violent crime and race. It’s OK this time, because a black guy’s doing it:

Last year, among the nation’s 10 largest cities, Philadelphia had the highest murder rate with 406 victims. This year could easily top last year’s with 240 murders so far.

Other cities such as Baltimore, Detroit and Washington, D.C., with large black populations, experience the nation’s highest rates of murder and violent crime. This high murder rate is, and has been, predominantly a black problem.

According to Bureau of Justice statistics, between 1976 and 2005, blacks, while 13 percent of the population, committed over 52 percent of the nation’s homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer.

Blacks are not only the major victims of homicide; blacks suffer high rates of all categories of serious violent crime, and another black is most often the perpetrator.

Liberals and their political allies say the problem is the easy accessibility of guns and greater gun control is the solution. That has to be nonsense. Guns do not commit crimes; people do.

Deb also notes: If Guns Cause Crime, Why Aren’t All Communities Affected?

Now, I’ve touched on this cultural phenomenon before. And, notably, Useful Fools did some comparisons across countries and via race, noting that the US had a substantially lower violent crime rate than European countries but a higher murder rate. And that the homicide rate for blacks was 20.5 whereas the rate for whites was 3.3. And, while overall violent crime and homicide among non-blacks declined, among blacks it continued to rise.

And, according to the Justice Department, Firearms Violence 200% Higher for Blacks Than For Whites. Other race based stats:

* Firearm violence rates for blacks age 12 or older (8.4 per 1,000 blacks) were 40% higher than rates for Hispanics (6.0)

* 200% higher than rates for whites (2.8 per 1,000).

* Blacks were about 9 times more likely than whites to be murdered with a firearm.

* On average black victims of firearm violence were 3 years younger than white victims — 29 versus 32.

* From 1993 through 2001 blacks accounted for 46% of homicide victims and 54% of victims of firearm homicide but 12% of the U.S. population.

Is it also rather handily dispels the myth that there’s this pipeline of guns flowing into states with strict gun laws. I also would think that the time to crime figures dispel the myth that gun shows are supermarkets for criminals since it takes several years for a gun to traced relative to the date of its retail purchase.

Heh. But I think it needs another monkey behind it flinging poo.

Oh, the canininity.

Somebody tell my wife:

Please stop making these lame, feeble and comically arbitrary attempts to water your lawns.

Also, funny story. Behind the house, we have a creek. The Mrs. and I both thought it would be a good idea to install a pump in the creek and use it to power a sprinkler system (dude, free water!). So, we looked into it. Turns out, we’d have to pay fees, hire a lawyer, file forms with the EPA, take 8X10 glossy photos, have a study conducted, file forms with the local .gov, and juggle three chipmunks on one leg while facing north singing Blame it on the rain. For a portion of a creek that I own. You know, usual bureaucratic crap. And that’s not counting the cost of the pump, piping, power and system. Long and short, we’d have to use the pump system for several, several years to recover the cost involved and for several decades to make up for the lost time. So, we scrapped the idea.

So, I was amused to learn that while I was on vacation the city (my the city) asked us to conserve water. Well, I would have been conserving more if I didn’t have to jump through hoops to keep my grass looking decent. I think I’ll turn on all three bathtubs when I get home. I kid.

It is outrageous but this quote is hysterical:

When I saw the Headline “Student Suspended for Drawing Gun,” (link) I first thought “he should keep it holstered during the schoolday”.

Sadly, a kid was suspended for doodling a pic of a gun.

Driving while hungover.

Explained.

Ya know, I’m probably pretty far from Blount County Commissioner Windy Pitts Reeves politically but I do like the fact she pokes the powers that be with a pointy stick and addresses conflicts of interest. More at Blountviews.

Seems the .gov loses money making money. Of course, the .gov loses money selling sex, which is really hard to do.

And we’re not reading this from a card, why do you ask? For the Dem debate:

You can head here and answer their questions.

Could be. Regarding Robyn Ringler’s anti-gun rights blog and allegations she’s deleting comments, a reader (who I will identify, if the want) emails:

I think there’s some confusion about the moderation/deletion on her blog.

When you post a comment on her blog, you see it immediately posted, but it’s not really through moderation, you can only see it because you’ve posted it, nobody else can see it.

I’ll post a comment at work and see the comment appear on the entry, but when I check the same entry on my computer when I get home, it’s not visible—at least not until she allows it through moderation, at which point it’s viewable from anywhere. On the other hand, if she doesn’t allow it through moderation, it will no longer be visible on either computer.

It’s the same way on LiveJournal—when you screen comments by default, the person who posted a comment will see their comment posted when they view the thread, but it’s not publicly viewable until I unscreen it. If they log out of LJ or view it from another computer, their comment will appear to have been deleted.

So I don’t think your comments are being deleted, they are simply never allowed through moderation in the first place (it just appears that way). Not that there’s much of a difference between deleting a comment and never allowing it to be seen by everyone—it’s still censoring content and of course the end result is the same.

On a side note, have you noticed that her entries seem to contain much less PSH than they did a month or two ago? Either we’re making an impact on her mindset, or she’s realizing that she can’t continue to make ridiculous arguments without having her ass handed to her. I’d like to think it’s a little bit of both, but either way, we win

Could be.

I missed this the first time but caught it on the republish: DIY Grip Stippling.

Heh.

Salty air is bad for guns. Had to scrub a bit of rust off of the ol’ KelTec rear sight. No rust any where else, though.

Supposedly weird guns. I say supposedly because some don’t seem weird to me at all. By the way, what is this?

Via Greg.

Update: Per ColtCCO (whose blog seems unbloggy at the moment) it’s 9mm Tavor.

Heh:

You know why I like reading newspapers? They remind me what I read on the blogs yesterday.

Seems the blogspot blogs are down. Or is it just me?

I dunno but I think I’d rather actually be safer than feel safer.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership:

Brady Center Lawyers Assail Appeals Court for Endorsing An “Armed Populace” over “Well Regulated Militia” of the Second Amendment

Now, I know I’m just an uneducated, ignorant hillbilly but my copy of the second amendment says nothing about an “Armed Populace”. It says that a well-regulated militia is necessary to a free state. And then says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. It doesn’t say pick one or the other.

The ATF has released trace data by state. Unsurprisingly, most traced guns originate in the states where they are traced (who knew? all this time, I blamed Virginia).

Speaking of Virginia (which seems to be the front line in the war on guns these days), Sebastian notes some irony:

If this ATF data is to be believed, then Virginia is still a major source of traced firearms. Maryland is too. It’s useful to note that Maryland has some rather restrictive handgun laws, and that Virginia has one-gun-a-month. One gun a month, folks who support gun control tell us, is critical to stopping illegal gun trafficing (sic).

More analysis of the trace data here and here.

Apparently, Massachusetts is exporting it’s criminals to New Hampshire too.

Seen at DAMIT’s:

This is such a divisive issue. I’m a little surprised that the third option didn’t get more votes. It seems that gun control is SO divisive, people can’t be rational about it.

Seems to me that according to recent surveys and your own poll (with only 3% calling for gun control) that it’s not so divisive at all. And the only folks who seem to be incapable of being rational are the gun controllers. We pro-gun sorts have, time and again, made our case and, as a result, keep shutting down the comments sections of anti-gun blogs. They simply can’t stand up when there is actual discourse. We win, they lose. The want only echo chambers. So, as I keep saying, we’re winning.

DAMIT is also having the spouse on guns problem and notes:

I know my wife and I have very different opinions about firearms. I want to teach the children about them so that I don’t have to worry about them. She wants to keep the children insulated from them. My thought on that is that we don’t know what they’ll face in life at other peoples’ houses, and kids are naturally curious. If they don’t know how to handle a firearm safely, then they and everyone around them is in danger. She’d rather scare them silly about the subject (much as she is). She can’t listen to anything relating to guns rationally.

Well, scaring kids and feeding them misinformation works so well on kids when it comes to complex issues. This strategy is doing a wonderful job of keeping kids from having sex or doing drugs, right? Oh, wait . . .

Now, look, kids and guns don’t mix. It’s a given. I’ve written about it before and what my plans are. And it’s never too early to start teaching young-uns.

US Citizen has some advice on this subject as well. And there’s a discussion at AKAA45.

As to why have a gun, it’s simple. Time and time again, active resistance with firearms in the face of violent crime has been shown to be the most effective to reducing injury to the victims. Period. Reason enough.

And, of course, you should get your kid active in shooting because:

The study was conducted from 1993-1995 by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Child psychologists tracked 4,000 boys and girls aged 6 to 15 in Denver, Pittsburgh, and Rochester, N.Y. Their findings?

– Children who get guns from their parents don’t commit gun crimes (0 percent) while children who get guns illegally are quite likely to do so (21 percent).

– Children who get guns from parents are less likely to commit any kind of street crime (14 percent) than children who have no gun in the house (24 percent) — and are dramatically less likely to do so than children who acquire an illegal gun (74 percent.)

– Children who get guns from parents are less likely to use banned drugs (13 percent) than children who get illegal guns (41 percent.)

– Most strikingly, the study found: “Boys who own legal firearms have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use (than boys who own illegal guns) and are even slightly less delinquent than non-owners of guns.”

I guess if you don’t log into your old blogger account after a while, then your old site becomes available again.

What he said.

And we’re every where:

Americans are being closely and constantly watched, carefully scrutinized and meticulously monitored as never before. From government wiretapping, to Google cameras that offer up street-level views of private houses around the world, to mighty digital data banks that record and store everything from real-estate-loan applications to pizza purchases, the machinery of observation and analysis has become powerful and pervasive.

What I find bizarre is that, generally, Americans seem mostly unconcerned by the whole thing.

I’ve never heard anything good about the 25ACP. But someone is doing some testing on the mousegun round.

Seems the public is not for more gun control:

A recent Zogby International poll question conducted for Associated Television News found that 66% of the American voting public in a recent poll of 1,020 Americans from August 8-11, 2007 (margin of error of +/- 3.1%) found that the American public rejects the notion that new gun control laws are needed.

We’re winning.

However, most of the public probably doesn’t even know what current gun laws are.

Fred File:

While this attack by New York City on the Second Amendment reinforces the importance of appointing judges who apply the law as written, there is another important legal point. Federalism, though usually seen as a protection of the states from the federal government, actually grew out of the need to protect states from other states that interfered in free commerce beyond their borders – as New York is doing today. In this case, we need Federalism to protect states from a big bully in New York City.

The future of bullet proof vests and home insulation may be “frozen smoke”, also know as Aerogel. It is 98% air. The Brick Brigade Team, a group of eight 11 year olds, has more.

A MIRACLE material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars.

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.

An electric Mini?

The company has successfully converted a Mini into an electric vehicle (EV) with four direct-drive wheels, each with an electronic hub motor of 160 break-horse-power. This combined 640 bhp allows for an acceleration of 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 150 mph (240 kph).

A small 250cc petrol engine charges the car’s battery while the car is being driven. In this mode it will run for up to 900 miles before needing to re-fuel, while in pure EV mode it will run for 200 miles. Previous electric models barely managed 60 mph (100kph) and had a range of less than 100 miles.

Seen at KABA:

“ABC 7/Newschannel 8 has learned the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority have charged Democratic Representative Robert Filner of California with assault and battery following an incident at Dulles International Airport Sunday night.” …
——-

Submitter’s comment
Filner:
– Voted NO on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers. (Oct 2005)
– Voted NO on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse. (Apr 2003)
– Voted NO on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1. (Jun 1999)
– Rated F by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun control voting record. (Dec 2003)

It’s easy to see why he’s so anti-gun. He thinks we all have as little self-control as he does.

In other news, his party affiliation was a mystery but I’m not sure how. Could’ve guessed when I got to the word California.

I am remiss in mentioning that the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Ownership and Jesse Jackson are having some sort of protest on August 28. After all, media whoring is cheaper than lobbying and we know they suck at lobbying. Of course, their methods are stupid:

You are also welcome to organize your own event on this day. Think about what you could do on this day to bring attention to the problem of illegal guns in your community. There is a lot of flexibility in what you do. It could be a

* candlelight vigil or bell ringing for victims of gun violence
* press conference on an issue in your city or state
* protest outside a gun shop known for selling guns that end up being used in crime
* prayer gathering
* ProtestEasyGuns lie-in
* rally or march

Because that will stop violence! Any way, that said, David Codrea is proposing that on that day we buy ammo. See here and here.

I also propose that, if you can, take someone shooting who has never gone before.

Update: I was perusing the internet trying to see if any protests would be close by so I could go point, laugh, and play some games. But no dice. Nothing. I fired off an email to a contact who might know such things asking if he’d let me know if he hears of anything and told him that I would go. And he said: And see three people protest? Heh!

Reasoned Discourse^TM will soon be a gunblogger meme along with PSH.

Update: BTW, pro-gunners meet pants-shitter. This is funny:

As anyone who has spent five minutes browsing it knows, the Internet is filled with people who cannot be bothered with facts, who know almost nothing, and yet who insist on throwing their lack of knowledge around as widely as possible as though it were valuable.

Hence, your blog. It’s like a bio not a political statement.

On purchasing a Yugo SKS.

Michael Bane notes that Bushmaster is buying Cobb Manufacturing, a maker of high end rifles.

Yeah, I don’t get it either.

Boneheaded idea: TN schools could create their own police forces. Don’t they already have access to local police? Aren’t there DARE officers stationed in a lot of schools already?

No one wants to take our guns away. Right?

Be on the look out. Someone stole Elvis’ gun. From a museum.

Gist of story: Drunk driving deaths are down in most states. Headline: Drunken driving deaths up in 22 states.

It’s always Virginia’s fault:

Law enforcement authorities traced more than 10,000 guns recovered in Virginia, Maryland and the District last year — and nearly half came from Virginia, according to federal data released yesterday.

But, you know, if you look at the stats on the sidebar then Virginia doesn’t really stand out so much. Well, unless you’re in Virginia.

Via insty, it seems that the reasons for the ammo price increase are different from what we’ve been told:

According to two spokesmen for the world’s largest ammunition manufacturer, which runs the military’s ammunition manufacturing plant and separately, is a major supplier of law enforcement ammunition, it is a massive and unexpected increase in law enforcement ammunition demand that is causing delays in law enforcement ammunition delays, not the war.

Odd. I had heard it was the increase in metal prices coupled with war demands.

With Uncle back from vacation, my “services” are no longer needed. It’s been fun, even if posting was light.

I suppose to counter the PSH of Bryan Miller, NJ.com now has a pro-gun blogger, Scott Bach. You’ve probably heard of him. I have.

Get thee hence.

We’ve played this game once before.

Alleged law-breaker and alleged journalist Steve Bailey (background here) has hit another snag. Seems the gun dealer involved refutes his claim to have engaged in a straw purchase (though Steve, evoking sixth grade playground rules, has since called a do-over):

Gun Week has learned from a source close to the investigation that the columnist and/or his companions at the Lebanon gun show in late 2005 apparently approached more than one dealer with inquiries about buying firearms. The dealer who finally sold them the gun asserted that he was not aware that the buyer was with Bailey—as both Bailey and Rosenthal have alleged—until about three months later, after reading a copy of Bailey’s Nov. 30, 2005 Globe column that circulated around the gun show. He promptly alerted New Hampshire state police to what he thought may have been a crime.

So, Steve, what gives?

Less crime Err, has no real discernible impact on crime whatsoever:

Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy Confirms that Reducing Gun Ownership by Law-Abiding Citizens Does Nothing to Reduce Violence Worldwide

By now, any informed American is familiar with Dr. John R. Lott, Jr.’s famous axiom of “More Guns, Less Crime.” In other words, American jurisdictions that allow law-abiding citizens to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms are far safer and more crime-free than jurisdictions that enact stringent “gun control” laws.

Very simply, the ability of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms has helped reduce violent crime in America.

Now, a Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy study shows that this is not just an American phenomenon. According to the study, worldwide gun ownership rates do not correlate with higher murder or suicide rates. In fact, many nations with high gun ownership have significantly lower murder and suicide rates.

In their piece entitled Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide? A Review of International and some Domestic Evidence, Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser eviscerate “the mantra that more guns mean more deaths and that fewer guns, therefore, mean fewer deaths.” In so doing, the authors provide fascinating historical insight into astronomical murder rates in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and they dispel the myths that widespread gun ownership is somehow unique to the United States or that America suffers from the developed world’s highest murder rate.

To the contrary, they establish that Soviet murder rates far exceeded American murder rates, and continue to do so today, despite Russia’s extremely stringent gun prohibitions. By 2004, they show, the Russian murder rate was nearly four times higher than the American rate.

More fundamentally, Dr. Kates and Dr. Mauser demonstrate that other developed nations such as Norway, Finland, Germany, France and Denmark maintain high rates of gun ownership, yet possess murder rates lower than other developed nations in which gun ownership is much more restricted.

First of all, thanks to all the guest bloggers for chipping in. I really enjoyed reading it. And it was a big help. But, what did you think of the variant hive-collective?

There was no better source for pro-gun information than the Brady Blog itself. So, they shut off comments after running some pretty hateful correspondence they had in a series entitled reasoned discourse. None of that stuff actually appeared on the blog, though. Additionally, other anti-gun blogs suffer the similar fates:

Another anti-gun blog starts up called Under Fire. Same situation where pro-gun folks quickly descend what with their facts and all. Activity is limited and comments are temporarily shut off.

Gonzo is a joke with no readers. And they don’t have comments.

Bryan Miller of Ceasefire NJ starts an anti-gun blog. PSH and moonbattery start on the first day, immediately followed by insults and calls for the waaahmbulance. And they are already heavily moderating comments.

In short, the anti-gun blogs are learning a lesson: they’re not effective when people can address their obfuscation, misrepresentations, and can counter their talking points. Propaganda typically fails when challenged. In other words, we’re winning.

And, we discover that one of the Brady Blog Commenters was a board member for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership. In short, we pro-gun guys are kinda kicking their butt.

But they never learn. Seems anti-gunner Robyn Ringler is hard at work crushing dissent by deleting comments here. Robb has screen captures of it here. And here is my comment, which has also gone down the memory hole.

It proves one thing and that is the anti gunners need only echo chambers. When there is actual discourse, they lose quite handily. It’s a beautiful thing. We win, they lose.

Says Robb:

But like vampires, the gun control enthusiasts fear sunlight and their own reflections.

Notice how the Brady Bunch doesn’t allow comments on their blog. Notice how Robyn Ringler has to moderate the comments and doesn’t allow dissent. And take my latest addition to my commenters, Alex who “loves his daughter more than you love your gun”. His blog doesn’t allow comments either. Yet he likes to come here and blather on about how us NRA Zombies are immune to facts when he ignores anything that doesn’t adhere to his stereotype of a “gun nut” (including that pesky fact that I’m not a member of any gun organization. Yet).

The Gun Guys? No comments. The VPC? No blog that I know of. WhereDidTheGunComeFrom.com? At least they allow comments, however I’ve yet to see much in the way of anything worth commenting on. And don’t even try to video tape a Million Mom March meeting.

Most gun controllers thrive on misleading data, bending ‘facts’, appeals to authority (i.e. ivory tower scholars or police chiefs), and above all, the total control of the dialog. Truth and information to them is sunlight to vampires.

We pro-gunners leave our comments open. Feel free to challenge us. Because we’re better.

Seen at DWR:

He’s directed state officials to continue to work toward finding a way to implement the law, and has written a letter to the President urging him to end the “White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s misguided priority and wasted resources spent to intimidate states trying to implement medical marijuana programs.”

Looks like a new trial in the Kwan case. David Hardy has the ruling and some analysis:

One gets the impression the court was a bit put off by ATF. (1) The raid was without any basis. Defendant had been an NFA dealer, and when he went out of that business, transferred an NFA gun to himself. At trial, the US Attorney conceded that was entirely legal. ATF either didn’t notice the transfer, or claimed it was illegal in some other way. (2) The court cites an ATF advisory letter which clearly suggests that the count upon which defendant was convicted was without basis.

Well, lack of basis has never stopped ATF before.

Looks like round two of Wyoming trying to, you know, use their alleged states’ rights:

The state of Wyoming says the federal agency that enforces gun laws was wrong to reject a state law that seeks to allow people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence charges to regain their firearms rights in the state courts.

Wyoming this week filed its opening brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver challenging a ruling this May by U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne.

Johnson ruled against the state’s claim that the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arbitrarily rejected a 2004 state law that allows people convicted of domestic violence to petition in state court to restore their gun rights.

The federal agency had warned Wyoming that if it continued to allow people with such domestic violence convictions to buy guns, the agency would no longer recognize more than 10,000 concealed carry permits issued by the state as a substitute for federal background checks for firearms purchases.

Speculating about AC’s future.

What games can humans still win? Uhh, poker?

I’ve got to wonder what kind of moron would Tase an adult holding a baby

How to get out of plastic handcuffs. I personally carry a key for the real kind.

Messing with surveillance cameras.

Oddly missing is take cover and return fire.

It’s been fun!

Gonna miss the variant hive-collective

Thanks Uncle, for the opportunity to put up a few posts. Less that I had hoped, but more than I ever expected. Welcome back.

I leave with a shameless plug for our new venture starting in a week or two: www.aardvarkscrapbooking.com – helping keep our better-halves happy while we are out at the range!

Dave thA

Remember, Junior, we took the monsters to the beach and the sharks ate them.

Thank you for letting me blog here for a bit Uncle. It’s been fun. You have an impressive audience.

Since I hope one of both of my readers here will miss me, I blog occasionally over at Ride Fast.

Thanks for reading people, this has been an interesting ride.

Uncle’s back, so I’m out.

If you liked anything you read here, or just want to know where to find me for whatever reason:  Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease.

Thanks to Uncle for letting me guest blog, and thanks to his regular readers for “putting up” with me.

I see that SayUncle is back from vacation, so I will bid you all farewell.  It’s been fun blogging for a larger audience than I normally do, and reading all of your comments.  Come over and give me a read from time to time over at Snowflakes in Hell.

We’re back home. Tanned, rested and ready. Well, more like tanned and not so much rested. And ready is relative.

And don’t worry, Andy, I have plenty of ammo (though today I did grab my usual 100 rounds of Winchester White Box at Wal-Mart for $14 instead of the usual $9).

The military is getting the first of the ammunition, and most have dedicated suppliers that ONLY manufacture ammo for them.

The police forces buy from the same places civilians do.

At least, that’s what this article says.

And they’re running low, cutting funding for training classes needed in order for them to qualify and carry certain weapons.

Maybe they should have someone in-house re-packing shells?  It’s an idea, at least.

Those without weapons claiming that the police are the only ones who should have guns need to pay attention to this sort of thing.  If the police can’t get bullets, how are they supposed to protect anyone, least of all themselves?

(H/T to Jesse via email)

The states credit rating is the second worst in the nation, better only than Louisiana. California is the only state that has yet to pass a budget this year. They seem to be on track to surpass the record latest budget, passed on Sept. 5, 2002. The current disagreement hinges on how large the deficit will be and controlling the Attorney General. The GOP people want to keep him from sueing cities over global warmining.

You would think the budget would have their full attention but they are still screwing around with other things, including 15 pending firearms and hunting laws. Not all of these proposed laws are horrible, some are just bad.

I wouldn’t trust someone who can’t balance a checkbook with any technical decisions. No wonder these moonbats think microstamping fired cartridges will work. The proposed law only involves semi-autos, by the way. I assume criminals can’t figure out how to operate a revolver.

Ryan Horsley gives the ATF a lesson in the word “willful”

My new baby:

 It’s a Smith & Wesson 6906. A nice sized 9mm that will be serving as my winter carry gun.  Spotted it at the Range while shooting with Squeeks and Company.

I used to own one of these, about 15 years ago. It was the first gun I actually bought from a gun store (Ft. Bliss Rod & Gun, actually). I really liked it.

There’s a long story about how I was parted from it, but I won’t concern you all with that here. Maybe over at TGB sometime.

Suffice it to say, shooting it was a pleasure. It’s like an old friend moving back into town.

Via Kim Du Toit comes David Codrea’s call to action:

On August 28, activists in cities across America will hold a national day of protest to focus attention on the scourge of illegal gun trafficking.

As I said on KABA Newslink Comments:

I’m going to try and start a blog swarm at WarOnGuns to get gun owners to buy a box of ammo on Aug 28–be nice if gun stores would offer some sort of nominal discount or a door prize (no purchase necessary to enter, just to keep things legal) or some such on that day to encourage this–Tuesdays may typically be slow days anyway, so this would get people in their stores and probably work out to their profit.

It’d be nice unintended consequences for the Bradys if we could demonstrate a few percentage points of sales increases on that day because of this.

(emphasis mine)

So, buy a box and stick it to the Brady Bunch!

John Lott has some links, information and commentary on campus carry here and here.

Coal IS sequestered carbon. God bless them, without liberals our only source of comedy would be comedians.

Over at Progressiveville is a link to WhitesCreek Journal where we learn that the world’s greatest terrorist is not Usama bin Laden but actually Daniel Roling, the CEO of National Coal.

Yep. So says Steve, also known as Whitescreek. He is a middle aged hippie type who really believes coal should be left in the ground because it pollutes the air.

Steve does not say what we should use to generate electricity but I would imagine the usual suspects of solar, wind, and hamsters running on little wheels come to mind.

But wait, there’s more. Steve writes:

Mining coal is about the stupidest thing humans can do. Here we are worrying about climate change caused by atmospheric carbon dioxide, and we’re digging the stuff up out of the ground and burning it straight into our air.

Steve is a pal of Al Gore. Another great comedian.

Yesterday I posted a profile of a gun control advocate, then Joe Huffman found a quote I can’t believe I missed:

“We do baby steps,” he said. “Jan and I had 29 years of the most amazing love affair that somebody could have on the planet. I thank God every day for that. I’d love to be able to take your hand gun. But we’re not going to do that.”

Emphasis mine.  Don’t trust these people any farther than you can throw them.  When they say they aren’t coming after your guns, they are lying.

I am looking for feedback on Glaser Safety Slugs – my interest was sparked by the article I wrote on Home Defense.

You can leave your thoughts here, or in the thread at my blog home at What Would John Wayne Do.

Thanks!

A police officer has a well thought out editorial in the Arizona Republic.

It is due to that reality that I made a promise to myself many years ago: Whatever it requires, no member of this family will become someone’s victim.

He spends some time on the issue of home defense, of being armed to provide for that defense, but the most important thing that on which he focuses is that the police probably won’t make it to your house in time to stop something bad from happening.

The way he states his case isn’t opposed to the police, but rather points out the reality of an emergency situation – the cops aren’t waiting around for 911 calls, they’re out doing their jobs.

Read the whole thing.

A group of legislators in Utah were told, before touring a Chevron refinery, they had to leave their pistols as the door:

Then their tour buses pulled over at the gate to the Chevron refinery and four of their colleagues dramatically filed off to unholster concealed guns.
“It was one of those ‘Only in Utah’ experiences,” said Rep. Roz McGee, who, along with everyone else, watched from the bus.

The four dug out their handguns (one from an ankle holster) and turned them over to National Rifle Association lobbyist Clark Aposhian, who stored them in his car until they finished the tour of the refinery.
Chevron, unlike the Legislature and the University of Utah, does not allow weapons on its premises.

The identities of three of the pistol packers came as no surprise to lawmakers: Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield; Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, and Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman.

But several were startled to learn that Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, president of the lobbying group Utah Taxpayers Association, packed heat.

My big question is, how did they know? I guess these guys are more polite than I would be.

The City of Philadelphia, after 77 years, is giving Holmesburg Fish and Game Protective Association the boot.

Jeff Soyer says they are talking about registration in Newark. Little known fact is that The Garden State does actually have preemption:

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the local governmental units of this State may neither enact nor enforce any ordinance or other local law or regulation conflicting with, or preempted by, any provision of this code or with any policy of this State expressed by this code, whether that policy be expressed by inclusion of a provision in the code or by exclusion of that subject from the code.

So it would appear Corzine is fine with his local communities violating state law. It’s for the children.

UPDATE: Ahab has more.

We’ve been lead to believe that Osama has been in Pakistan.  Personally, I think he’s a stain on a cave somewhere.  But an intrepid individual in Florida has managed to pin him down:

In a few weeks, the gun show at the South Florida Fairgrounds will be an ideal event for all violent criminals to attend. At these shows, there is a gun show loophole in the law that allows them to buy guns from other private individuals without any documentation or paperwork. Even a person like Osama bin Laden would have no problem purchasing automatic and semi-automatic weapons.

Congress has been trying to close this loophole for years, but the National Rifle Association has made sure none of these bills passes. Some states have closed the loophole. Florida is not one of them.

Emphasis mine. Except that there is no private sales of automatic firearms in the United States, and that automatics are heavily restricted.   This guy also mentions that some states have closed the “gun show loopholes”.    My home state of Pennsylvania is one of those states that has done it for handguns, and as anyone who has followed Philadelphia’s murder rate will tell you, it doesn’t work.

Doesn’t look like Uncle has any video plugins enabled, so head here if you want to see a pretty good marketing video from Izhmash Arsenal in Russia.

1. If the Enfield No. 4 Mk. 1 rifle bolt head length is .630″ (the No. mark on the bolt head is illegible), is that more likely a No. 1 or a No. 2 bolt head?

2. What are the likely consequences of firing a bolt action rifle with excessive head space? (The rifle failed the No-Go gauge test, field gauge test not done)

Thanks in advance.

Bloomberg’s suits against six gun dealers has been allowed to proceed by our favorite activist judge.

I’m kind of wondering how ATF is doing this if they are destroying NICS records like they are supposed to be doing under the law? Is e-trace really a database? Or is it just an electronic means of submitting a trace request to ATF? I can’t find good information on how this works exactly. It’s not like the press is going to bother getting details.

UPDATE: Dave Hardy has some information here.

I guess the Pennsylvania State Police got jealous of TBI’s outage of Tennessee’s instant check system and decided to do one themselves.

WBIR has a blurb about the TICS outage.

Like, literally a blurb.

WSMV has a little more – an interview with a dealer.

WVLT steals their news from WSMV.  Or maybe vice-versa.

Yes, that was a joke.

So TICS is on a temporary server until tomorrow, when they’ll apparently move to a new server entirely.

There’s been some chatter about the new bill passed by the TN .gov concerning self defense, what many people call a “Stand Your Ground” bill. I wrote about it here.

There’s a lot of assumptions going on, so I’m going to post up the summary (found here, thanks to Jesse.)

I took the liberty of breaking it into readable chunks, seeing as no one in the state knows what an Enter key is. It’s below the fold:

Read the rest of this entry »

Dave Hardy is saying that some police chief organiations are worried about the new “lady taser” being used against police:

“If a police officer or a civilian is stunned with a Taser there are a whole array of things that can happen and most of them are very bad,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police in Washington, D.C.

Pasco, whose group represents 325,000 police officials nationwide, said the immobilizing devices should be limited to well-trained law enforcement professionals.

“There’s a tremendous amount of respect and accountability that goes along with a police officer using a Taser,” he said. “This Taser is no more regulated than a hair drier.”

If you want to know why I won’t give any money to the FOP, ever, despite a desire to support folks in law enforcement, crap like this is why.  At some point, we’re going to have to expand this debate such that arms encompasses much more than just guns, because in the end, it’s not really about guns.   It’s the fact that there’s a large large segments of our political class that don’t care if ordinary people are effectively unable to defend themselves from criminals.

They are willing to sacrifice the safety of ordinary citizens on the alter of a desire to bloat their egos by giving law enforcement a special status, and elevating their position above that of other civilians.  I have a tremdous amount of respect for people who wear the badge and carry the gun.  It is a difficult, stressful and thankless job, that we don’t often appreciate because it’s taken for granted.   But police leadership is becoming generally atrocious.  The sooner we return to the idea of police being civilians, that we hire to keep the peace, solve crimes, and arrest criminals, the better off we’ll all be.

Sort of:

Makes the perfect gag gift for the gun guy who’s got everything. I also have a Hawk for sale:

Contact me if you’re interested.

P.S. I guess I lied. I actually do own a couple of Evil Black Guns.

Robb Allen points out that our friend Robyn Ringler is twisting up logic like tornado through a trailer park:

Twelve babies have died in America so far this year by [heat stroke] in a parent’s car. Distraction, inattention, the simple fact of being human can result in the most tragic, devastating consequences.

We can all say this would never happen to us, but how do we know?

Just like there is no such thing as a parent who will never be negligent and never make a mistake, there is no such thing as a responsible gun owner who will never make a mistake.

Given the number of gun owning households in the United States, and the relatively low number of children who are dying in gun accidents, I think it’s safe to say that most gun owners don’t, in fact, make that sort of mistakes, just as most parents will never forget their kid in the car, and have it die of heat stroke.

Careless people will sometimes make careless mistakes. If you go down the path of taking away anything that people could be careless with, that could possibly hurt their children, then pretty soon you no longer live in a free society. Everyone will have their lives controlled so they no longer are free to make errors.

Robyn has come to this conclusion because she believes there is no good in having people possessing firearms. I strongly disagree with her on that. This is a classic example of trying to shift the debate into the realm of emotions, without serious consideration as to the consequences of following a certain line of thinking. Every can be guilty of it sometimes, but it is the stock and trade of the gun control movement.

UPDATE: Linoge in the comment says she’s participating in some good old fashioned reasoned discourse by deleting comments from pro-gun folks.

Springfield XD

Originally uploaded by redmuse_poet

My newest acquisition.

I decided yesterday that I wasn’t going to pick the gun up until tonight, when I was planning to go to the range with a friend, anyway. But, being me, I couldn’t wait. And since I didn’t have any more work to do, I decided to cut out an hour early, buy the gun, shoot a few (yes, a few) boxes of ammo, and call it a night.

I have to download the manual, because whomever had it before didn’t include it, but that’s not a huge deal. Then I can field-dismantle it and give it a thorough cleaning, rather than the piddly once-over I gave it last night.

Sorry for the crappy picture. There are more on my Flickr page. You can go check them out if you want, but they’re not much better. More photos will follow after range/cleaning time tonight.

I swear, I just saw this article a month ago, but now a new verion, with more pants shitting hysterics, has popped up in Forbes.  The gist of it is that guns from the United States are the source of most of the guns used in crime in Mexico.   Link to article here.

Authorities are sounding the alarm about an influx of assault rifles, armor-piercing pistols and fragmentation grenades from the United States, weapons that they say are increasingly being used to kill police and soldiers fighting drug cartels.

The entire article is littered with statements about the “US Gun Industry” and “funneling weapons”, etc.  A “government report” issued to the Mexican senate estimated that 99.4% of the guns in the hands of criminals in Mexico game from the US.

I would really, really like to see that report.  Because to say that 99.4% of the illegal guns in Mexico came from the US would mean that people in the US are supply Mexicans with full-auto Kalishnikovs and other weapons that aren’t easy to get your hands on here.

The article even trots out the “Five-SeveN boogeyman” – I’m sure you’re familiar with this.  It’s where the 5.7mm cartridge from FN will cause the streets to run red with blood.

There are a couple of statements in the article that seem accurate.  A Mexican official pointed out that the illegal gun trade in their country is linked to the narcotics trade.  I guess that means he gets the “No shit, Sherlock” award for his fabulous dective work on that one.

Near the end of an article, a “Mexican firearms enthusiast” opines on how easy it is to get a gun in Mexico, provided you know the right people.  I agree, it probably is pretty easy to get armed down there – but I just have a hard time buying the accusation that America is supplying 99.4% of Mexico’s illegal guns.

Especially since I can’t see the report that they used to come to that conclusion.

I have to go up to Milwaukee to watch the Brewers lose. If the weather forecasts are accurate, it will also be about 40 degrees cooler there than it is here. But I’ll enjoy that part.

I’ll be at The Gun Blogger Rendevous now barring a major catastrophe.  The question is, since there’s a shooting event, what guns to bring?  Two rifles and a pistol is the limit I’m willing to take on an airline where I’m connecting.  I’m thinking the 16″ AR-15 and AK-7 plus Glock 19.

Also, does anyone know whether open carry is accepted in Reno?  I’m disappointed Nevada doesn’t have any recprocity with other states, but open carry is legal.   But I don’t know whether I’ll be eating sidewalk for doing it.  Hell, if I’m open carrying, maybe I should bring the S&W 629 Classic.  You can never carry too much gun

While we were at the range the other night, TB (”the boyfriend”, for those who aren’t regular readers on my blog) and I saw a news story on the “Stand Your Ground” legislation that passed here in Tennessee.

Jesse writes about it so much more eloquently than I could.  He needs some more readers to encourage him to write more frequently, anyway.

The basic premise:  if you don’t have a license for your gun, and you shoot someone outside of your home, you are a criminal and are not allowed to say “omgz it was self-defense”.  Nor are you allowed to sue an individual who shoots you if you threaten them with your illegally-owned weapon.

This is FABULOUS news.  Encourage people to register for their license by telling them that if they don’t, they’re basically screwed.  Obviously criminals still aren’t going to register, but more law-abiding citizens might be encouraged by this.  I know I am.

And more armed law-abiding citizens?  NEVER a bad thing.

Now, if TICS could just start working, we’d be in business.  What’s up, TBI?  Are you going to fix your damned system this week?

Looks like the Zombie Apocalypse has finally come to the attention of our Commander in Chief

clicky

I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there.

Over at my blog I address some of the problems with TICS, and background systems in general.   Sqeaky has been having some problems getting her Springfield XD because the system has been down.  In this case, I’m glad she’s just getting a gun because she wants one, and not because she needs one.  If the anti-gun folks want to have some reasonable dialog, let’s talk about how infringing even instant background checks are if you are a law abiding person who suddenly finds themselves in a situation where they need to provide for their own security in a hurry, and the systems are down.

I’ll be the first to agree that instant background checks are much preferred over a waiting period, but let’s not pretend there’s no argument at all as to the degree they are infringing on people’s fundamental rights.  The background check is a prior restraint, after all.

The Gun Blogger Airways flight crew assignments have been posted. I’m not sure what a Flying Low Coordinator does, but having a good high powered rifle on hand can’t hurt, so I’m getting one ready for the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in October.