The NSSF reports:

Today, a Manhattan-based federal appeals court ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against firearms manufacturers by the City of New York that sought to hold the manufacturers responsible for the criminal misuse of firearms.

Judge Robert J. Miner, writing for the U.S. Court of Appeals, held the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, enacted in 2005, is constitutional and that Brooklyn, NY, federal court judge Jack B. Weinstein misinterpreted the law by not dismissing the case.

Good. Judge Weinstein was originally chosen because he’s an anti-gun judge. And I think it’s the same case started by 9iu11ani. Say, speaking of Rudy, he doing much these days?

Update: David links the opinion.

Tam joked yesterday about the race as electing a priest-king what with all the healing the sick and other promises being made. I thought it was a good gag and some quality snark. But people really think we are electing a lord and savior.

URL that is.

WBIR has a new series of forums. One deals with guns and gun rights.

Lautenberg wants to increase the length of time that the feds keep gun records from 24 hours to six months. Ten years, if you’re on the terror watch list (which is the same list that Ted Kennedy was on). Says armed and safe:

The name of this charming bit of tyranny? Preserving Records of Terrorist and Criminal Transactions (PROTeCT) Act of 2008. So . . . we’re keeping records of all gun sales through licensed dealers, and calling all such sales “Terrorist and Criminal Transactions,” eh? Does anyone have any doubts about what the senator thinks of gun owners?

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership is all for it.

WBIR notes that Corker supports the changes and says this of Lamar Alexander:

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander says he sees no need to change the current rule.

Rich notes HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act, which would classify poker as a game of skill and exempt it from Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Currently, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act doesn’t even define the illegal gambling it regulates so it could come up as someone’s defense that poker is not gambling and is a game of skill. But that’s gonna be a tough sell. Sure, a skilled player will, on average, make money. But there is an ever present element of luck. If there wasn’t, then there would be no fish.

Overall, the game involves skill but luck is the difference between someone winning a big tournament and not. Don’t believe me? Then let’s play a fun game. It’s a tournament and, lucky you, you will be dealt pocket aces every time. Great! Sign me up! But pocket aces against a random hand still only wins about 85 percent of the time. If you play ten hands in a row, you will lose 1.5 of those hands on average. To win, you’ve probably got to not lose some of that 15 percent of the time. And that involves some luck.

More realistically, though, is that you’ll often be getting all your chips in when you’re about a 70 percent favorite and your hand will have to hold up more often than odds dictate to win a big tournament.

For the record, I think poker is a game of skill but whether or not a court of law would buy it is questionable. So, defining it in the law wouldn’t hurt.

Update and bump: Seems that typing percent signs in wordpress breaks my comment function. Hence, the bump.

Joe Huffman hosts his annual Boomershoot in which participants shoot long range at explosive targets. I need to go one of these years.

This year, they blew up a toilet for Dave Barry. Pics and video here.

A few bloggers attended and have reports.

Matthew has posts here and here.

Phil has posts with lots of pics here and here (lots of gun porn at that last link).

More pics and an injury report from Ry Jones.

Assuming Heller goes our way, at some point that argument will have to be made as to what arms the second amendment protects. Sebastian looks at the issue.

Soon, the long tradition of passing the beer may come to an end. Seems the senate wants to make it illegal for automobile passengers to drink while being driven around. Notable in the bill is that there is an exception for rich people driving around in their limousines.

Phil Bredesen: Pony up for the state!

Barack Ernest P. Worrell Obama gets one right noting that a temporary gas tax break won’t amount to much. So, I’m all for eliminating the tax permanently.

And why they’re crap.

Turns out, you can’t mail a brick.

I concur. I don’t see how it prevents anything.

A demographic that is 2.96% of the population accounts for 49.6% of victims. Also, they have a higher rate of being the shooter. And more here.

But we can’t talk about this like grown-ups lest we offend the delicate sensibilities of someone. Clearly, guns must be to blame instead.

Anti-gunners often think that we gun owners view guns as having these magical powers that make us indestructible. Like the guy mentioned here who also threw in a wild west reference. It’s a load of crap. Gun owners stress training and practice as well.

This whole accusing us of worshiping totems thing, in which one ascribes magical powers to inanimate objects, is kinda funny since they keep telling us that guns cause crime all by themselves.

When your EBR costs about as much as a Hyundai. And that post is useless without pics.

Bitter is not happy.

Not an issue I get really worked up about either way. After all, my car is my property and if your lot is open to the public . . .

The Department of Interior has proposed new rules for carrying in parks:

This move will restore the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms for lawful purposes on most DOI lands, and will make federal law consistent with the state law in which these lands are located. Fifty-one U.S. Senators sent a bipartisan letter to the Department of Interior (late last year) supporting the move to make state firearms laws applicable to National Park lands and refuges.

You’re scaring the white people.

Translation: Get me a Democrat that appeals to dumb, bitter, cousin-humping gun owners!

Most folks think we’re electing a priest-king.

Update: Or Priestess-Queen, lest I be thought sexist

Some guy in a meeting breaking bad news:

This is gonna go over like a fart in church.

I don’t think suicide prevention involves killing someone before they kill themselves. No, really.

Update: Yes, I know he had a gun but still . . .

Throw those red light camera tickets in the trash?

People like Xrlqy Wrlqy in comments say to me that my definition of a loophole would pretty much render the term meaningless. I think that’s bullshit. The term loophole usually implies some attempt to circumvent a law. The non-existent gun show loophole does not. Therefore, the argument made by some (i.e., changed) is that the loophole must be that a flea market style venue where people could walk around with guns around their shoulders just waiting for someone to walk up and say ‘how much’? As such, exploitation of said market is a loophole. And because Sean is a good liberal, a market must equal exploitation of some kind. But, no. It’s still breaking the law if you unlawfully purchase a weapon whether it occurs at a gun show or somewhere else. A guy who buys illegal drugs from kid on a street corner where drug dealers are known to hang out is not using the street corner loophole. He’s breaking the law.

The other issue that I have with the non-existent gun show loophole is that now it’s called the gun show loophole and activists seek to close it. And by close it, they mean regulate private party transactions that occur at gun shows. This opens up the door to regulating all private party transfers. Because if such a law is passed, we will next have to close the gun show parking lot loophole (which would actually be a real loophole as people would simply step outside to avoid a background check or avoid paying a $10 background check fee – I would do the latter since $10 is $10). Shortly after that, they’ll want to close the in the sanctity of your own home loophole And I recently used this non-existent loophole to buy an Enfield from Les Jones.

That said, it’s not really a hot button issue for me. I do not like seeing it misrepresented as it often is in the press that gun shows are these mysterious places where all kinds of law-breaking occurs and criminals load up on guns. Neither is correct. Less than 1% of crime guns are obtained at gun shows and less than 1% of convicts report getting their weapons at gun shows.

The Op-Ed!

Bryan Miller lying? That never doesn’t happen!

against guns:

The anti-gun bias that exists in the Daily Herald, as well as most major news sources, is despicable. You will go to any lengths to promote gun control, and lying and deception are not below your standards.

The April 15 front page large print headline read, “Crowd split on gun laws.” That in reference to a forum in Naperville the day before sponsored by California-based Legal Community Against Violence (LCAV). Moderating the forum was gun control movement veteran Steve Young.

Of the 175 or so attendees, all but a handful were gun-rights supporters. And I mean a handful … maybe five. You call that “Crowd split on gun laws”? That’s a split? I’m glad you’re not my partner. I thought split meant roughly 50/50.

At least they printed the letter.

In defense of Pizza Hut.