Archive for January, 2008

January 29, 2008

More gun porn

Machine gun shoot in Texas. Poor Barney.

Carney joins Congressional Second Amendment Caucus

In other news, there’s a Congressional Second Amendment Caucus?

Speaking of England

Well, if she had a gun, someone might have gotten killed.

Golf clubs to be banned soon.

England to ban bows soon

Because bow hunting is popular in France.

AK Kaboom

On video. Like Bill Frist diagnosing via video, I like to gunsmith via video. My initial reaction was that pressure popped a loosely placed receiver cover off. Having watched it more, it looks like a case rupture. Ouch.

Decline

Can’t make it up. A kid was arrested for sniffing his teacher’s hand sanitizer:

Mr. Ortiz said the family’s ordeal began Oct. 19, when his son picked up a bottle of hand sanitizer from the desk of his fifth-period reading teacher at Killian Middle School in Lewisville. He rubbed the gel on his hands and smelled it.

Gun Porn

Old S&W.

Linguistics

If this Heller brief passes for science or objective study then the field of linguistics is collectively retarded:

Perpetuation of a “Well Regulated” Militia Is the Purpose of the Amendment.

Yes, in fantasy land.

January 28, 2008

Your government at work

I’ve yammered before about how it’s almost a full-time job at mid-sized companies just dealing with .gov agencies. Today’s moment of smart comes (again) from the US Census Bureau which has sent some census forms to fill out. They have sent me no less than 300 pages of forms and instructions and threats that if I don’t do it, ninjas will come arrest me. Of course, the trouble is that all of these forms have to do with the trucking industry. We’re not in the trucking industry. Or even close. 300 pages of NA is fun.

Dumbball

Chris Matthews seems to buy into densely populated area exception to the second amendment:

I want people disarmed in our major, major cities. How’s that for a plan? I don’t think we should all be armed, and I don’t think more guns is the answer. I think it’s wacky to say that the solution to armed robbery and killing in our streets in big cities is to put more arms in the streets.

He’s also cool with a police state:

You know what I think? In big cities they ought to check people on sidewalks like they do getting on airplanes.

Technicality

A judge has ruled that Bloomberg’s agents did not violate the law because the alleged transfers did not happen:

U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak said Friday the court had found “that the city’s actions do not constitute a crime or fraud” because an actual straw sale never happened. In the purchases made by the city’s investigators, the buyers did not hand over the guns later.

That also, of course, means that no gun dealer involved broke the law.

215 convicted killers free in NY

But, remember, one more gun law will keep you safe.

The Evil Gun Lobby

Over at the Harvard Political Review (which seriously cannot afford its own domain name?), comes PSH alleging that gunnies engage in PSH:

The NRA boasts over four million members and is ranked, year after year, as the most powerful lobbying organization by Fortune. “The NRA exploits fear,” Anthony Bragga, a senior research associate in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government told HPR, “and they have created a culture of fear.” The group has been successful in framing many issues surrounding gun control as potential threats to the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding, gun-owning citizens.

This week it’s fear, last week it was wheelbarrows full of cash. I get confused on what I’m supposed to be shilling for. Anyway, the myth seems to always be that we active in gun rights are afraid or scared or paranoid, etc. The claim is bogus, of course.

Anyway, you’d think something with Harvard in the title could be bothered to do some research. But you’d be wrong. Anyway, GABRIEL UNGER seems to be fawning over Bloomberg’s Taking on the illegal gun trade in America, which is odd because Bloomberg to date has only taken on the legal gun trade. And Bloomy likely broke the law while doing so. More stupidity:

About 30,000 Americans are killed every year because of gun violence, and research shows that only one out of six guns in such situations is legally obtained. The remaining guns are illegal and unregistered, and are often obtained through the careless or intentional negligence of legally-established gun dealers.

Actually, well over half of those killed are suicides. What research? None I’ve ever seen. And you’re implying that only 5,000 of these guns were lawfully obtained? No way. Particularly factoring in suicides.

And, of course, there is no requirement for a weapon to be registered so the word unregistered is meaningless.

And crime guns are rarely obtained through intentional negligence of legally-established gun dealers. They are mostly (93% per the BATF anyway) obtained unlawfully from street dealers.

The watchmen don’t like to be watched

According to some security guard with a master’s degree, it’s illegal to take pictures of public buildings you pay for:

When I got to to the building, I stood across the street with my wide angle (to fit the huge structure in the frame) and put the camera to my face. And after a few clicks of the shutter, I hear this man yelling at me, “Ma’am! Ma’am! You can’t photos here!!!” It was the security guard, and he was running down the stairs towards me. I immediately put my camera down by my side and ran across the street to the guard. I asked him what the problem was, and he suddenly went into a tirade about post 9/11 laws prohibiting the photography and videography of any federal properties. He went off about terrorism and national security and then threatened me with two years in the penitentiary for possessing images of federal property. I had to delete my photographs or else I would get two years in jail.

Via Silence.

Duty to protect

Courts have long ruled that the police have no duty to protect you. This case may change that:

The lesson of that day haunts Cockerham-Ellerbee: The protective order designed to keep Ellerbee away from her family was merely a sheet of paper. The promises of police to arrest him came up empty.

Cockerham-Ellerbee wants the protective order to mean something to police. She has been given permission by the state Court of Appeals to try. In an unprecedented lawsuit being followed by domestic violence advocates across the state, Cockerham-Ellerbee is blaming her hometown police department — officers to whom she once sold coffee at a local market — for broken promises that cost her daughter’s life and shattered her own.

If she prevails, Cockerham-Ellerbee’s case will likely force officers in North Carolina to more vigilantly monitor abusers ordered to stay away from their partners.

Restraining orders are just pieces of paper.

.gov advocacy

I dunno but I would think that a city registering as a PAC to use your tax dollars to advocate a sales tax might be unethical. Using your money to tax you more? Have they no shame?

More on NORC

You remember NORC? That group that did the study funded by the anti-gun Joyce Foundation that concluded the gun culture is fading. Anyway, thirdpower looks at the data:

Double checking the data sets here and here, the report percentages are based off of straight response numbers. No controlling for population or variables.

Kids today

Are generally ignorant:

I spoke with Dombkowski last week and he said the state requires permits for handguns but not necessarily for other weapons, such as rifles. Because the federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004, if you can pass a background check, you can legally own such automatic guns.

The did not prohibit ownership of automatic guns or even semi-automatic guns.

More on TN microstamping

David has more and notes who will pay for it:

(a) The cost of establishing and maintaining the ACSD shall be funded by an end-user fee. Vendors shall charge an additional one half cent ($.005) per bullet or round of ammunition to the purchaser.

(b) There is established the coded ammunition fund for deposit of the end-user fees described in this section. Moneys in the fund, upon appropriation, shall be available to the TBI for infrastructure, implementation, operational, enforcement, and future development costs of this act.

Good thing this has no shot of passing.

Gun Porn

GSG5, a 22LR that looks like an MP5. Via Sebastian.

In case you wanted to know

I can apparently take 31 five year-olds in a fight.

Heh

cars kill.

haha

Tom was just kidding.

January 27, 2008

Stainless Mags

Anyone know much about stainless AR mags? Seem like they’d last longer. Decent price too.

Congrats

Justin is getting hitched.

January 26, 2008

Dominion

Over at the Carpet Bagger report, Morbo laments that the NRA continues to hold dominion over Virginia. Morbo incorrectly notes:

In Virginia, lawmakers have rejected modest legislation closing a loophole that allows people to buy weapons at gun shows without undergoing a background check. This should be a no-brainer after what happened, but still the measure failed.

Sales at guns shows fall under precisely the same federal and state laws in VA as sales not at gun shows. The myth of the gun show loophole is one of the more widely perpetuated anti-gun myths. And, of course, less than 1% of crime guns come from gun shows. But let’s not let facts get in the way of making life more difficult on the law-abiding. After all, a pointless law that only inconveniences the law-abiding is modest. Continuing, we bring up the body count of VT and dance in blood:

Some of the survivors offered compelling personal testimony.

I’m sure they did. However, nothing in the proposed law would have prevented Cho from obtaining a weapon. What would have would be for the state of Virginia to establish and fund reporting of those adjudicated mentally defective. That is what the recent NICS improvement (pushed by NRA) bill seeks to do. Cho’s weapons purchases were illegal but no one decided to fund federal requirements back in the 1990s. Oops.

Morbos continues with frequent references to gun nuts (you say that like it’s a bad thing) and other hysterical ravings like:

To the gun nuts, “gun control” is synonymous with seizure of weapons. They do this on purpose to frighten people.

Ah, projection. I’m sure soon there will be allegations that we’re compensating for our inability to throw a rock at 3,000 feet per second err penis size. Gun control has lead to seizure of weapons many times. It did in England, Australia, New York and California. But that’s not what this law or debate is about. Even more:

Thus, the debate becomes whether people can have guns or not instead of what reasonable restrictions we can put in place to make sure the wrong people don’t have access to guns.

Err, no. The debate right now seems to be the effectiveness of this particular law. Nice little straw man, build it yourself? And I suppose that reasonable is a synonym for pointless, as this law would have an effect on crime approaching zero. But it makes people feel good. And that’s what it’s all about. Morbo seems upset that politicians in Virginia have realized consistently that gun control is what you do instead of something.

Why settle for a lesser evil?

Cthulhu for president!

Strong on foreign policy.

Conversion

An anti-gunner becomes a pro-gunner:

To make a long story short, you were all right, and I’m sorry. This man with a gun saved me, and I just keep thinking if I had gotten my wish and guns were banned, there is no telling where I’d be, and what would’ve happened to my daughter. The only regret I have is not getting the man’s phone number who saved my life. I thanked him over and over again, and told him that he saved me, but he calmly said to me something I’d never forget. He said “That’s what people like me are here for Ms., and I’m happy to have been able to help.”

Update: in comments, people have their doubts.

Update 2: Lesson in creative writing.

Microstamping in TN

Looks like there’s a proposed bill for it here. There’s no way it will pass.

Update: Rusty has more, with contact info.

Tacticool

Heh. But at that price, you could buy it, take it apart, and have some cool goodies.

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

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