A quick survey.

Source.

I really don’t think you have the power but I appreciate the sentiment.

This weekend, I had to go do some grocery shopping. An otherwise uneventful trip to the supermarket ended oddly. I was at the check out and some elderly man walks by and asks the cashier if they have a pay phone. She says they do not. He seemed a bit flustered and concerned so I offered him use of my phone. He was thankful, said his phone’s battery had just died, and he just needed to call his wife and tell her he was running late. He made the call and left a message. He gave me the phone back and said bless you.

Then, I’m in the parking lot loading my groceries in the car when a man comes walking toward me. He seemed a bit disheveled and intent on being near me so I made sure my truck’s door was between us and had my weak side toward him. He holds his hands out toward me palms up and begins to speak. Conversation goes like this:

Him: I ain’t no bum or nothing [he shows me his calloused hands that indicate he was a laborer]. I’m a roofer. I work for [such and such].

Me: [an odd opener I thought] I believe you. Can I help you?

Him: Today’s payday and I just spent my entire check to fix my wife’s car [he motions to a car and a woman and child are sitting in the car, it's not running]. It’s just about out of gas and I need some gas to get my family home to [a few towns over].

Me: Sure. How far a drive is that? [And I hand him $10.]

Him: ’bout 50 miles. Do you have a card or a phone number? How can I get this money back to you.

Me: Don’t worry about it. Be safe and get your family home.

Him: Bless you.

Me: Thanks.*

I get in my car and start heading home. My phone rings. It’s the number the first guy called. She inquires who it is and I explain that I loaned her husband my phone so he could call. I tell her he said that he was going to be a bit late. And she thanks me and says “bless you.”

* yeah, his story could have been bogus. Who knows? But he did have a wife and kid in his car. I believed him. And I’m not gonna leave a woman and child to sit in Kroger parking lot.

Video: Gura v. Henigan.

Reader Chris:

“The solution, Sanetti says, is to rebrand the weapons as “modern sporting rifles…”

Speaking of re-branding, maybe we should call them “progressive” rifles.

Heh.

ACK: Get the state out of the primary process

And they get mad when you call them the Democrat Party and not the Democratic Party.

Heh.

The AP:

Gun control advocates are hoping they can win by losing when the Supreme Court rules on state and local regulation of firearms.

Like Heller, they’re really going to push this our loss is really a win mythology? I guess since they embraced the collective rights mythology, they’re used to that sort of thing.

And at Newsweek notes the unlikely common cause of some liberals and the NRA:

At the heart of the left-leaning dissenters’ argument is a plea for consistency. For decades, liberals have insisted that the Constitution assumes—even if it does not explicitly spell out—a right to bodily autonomy. This right, long disputed by conservatives, is a basis for arguments in favor of abortion rights and gay rights. Liberals who support gun rights find a similar implied right to own weapons: after all, they say, what is the right to bear arms but the ability to protect your body from criminals as well as the government? “The right to bear arms gives you a mechanism to protect your bodily autonomy from attack,” says Winkler.

My body. My choice.

Shorter version of Henigan and Cornell : It’s OK to disarm everyone as long as it’s done equally.

Henigan keeps referring to it as a new right. I guess he was so invested in the collective rights mythology that he has to keep holding on to it.

So, ATF is sticking to its story that an airsoft toy can be converted into a machine gun. I’d like to see someone produce one because, so far, I don’t see how it is possible. One, the pins don’t quite line up. Two, the fire control group won’t fit in the receiver. And the things reportedly won’t accept AR magazines. It does, however, appear to have a proper sear hole. But if you can’t get the FCG in there, it won’t help.

Here’s a video of an ATF agent implying anyone can easily convert one of these. You’ll note Mr. ATF agent inserts the magazine backwards. And these are the guys ruling on technical aspects of firearms. Then he says that with minimal work they can be converted to a machine gun. The airsoft sales guy calls it ridiculous, saying that even if you could finagle all the parts in and get it to fire, the gun would explode.

Well, let’s see a converted one, then. Because I doubt it due to the reasons mentioned above. Mike agrees that it’s unlikely and lists why as reported from an Airsoft shop working with a gunsmith:

The WE TTI M4’s lack any sort of functional gas tube which is integral to an AR15’s operation

The upper receiver of an AR15 fits onto the lower of the WE TTI M4

The stock trigger pack in the WE TTI cannot strike the firing pin of a AR15 bolt

The body of the WE TTI lower is several mils thinner than an AR15 lower, and shims would be needed for any AR trigger pack to work

The trigger pack of an AR15 appears to be able to fit onto the lower receiver of a WE TTI M4, one of the AR15 trigger pack retaining pins is impossible to insert without major modification, and the hammer isn’t operable with the WE TTI lower.

So, basically, it’s a machine gun because it has handguards?

First, Tennessee. And now Ohio reports a record increase in handgun carry permits.

Carteach has an unhappy update to his review.

CTD has a the how-to and why-for.

DIY grip slimming and beavertails.

Tactical Life looks at cameos.

Airsoft Browning Machine gun. Only about $4K.

A shooting at an Oklahoma university turns out to be a negligent discharge from a security guard.

And Northern KY University (famous for its jelly) apparently needs $10K worth of AR-15s.

If you have kids, keep the guns where they can’t get to them.

ZOMG!!!: Beachgoers startled by armed group on beach

Or: A roving band of men with guns spread across Baker Beach in San Francisco on Saturday. But most beachgoers didn’t even notice, even with the weapons visibly holstered.

Tactical life looks at some Wii pistols.

Al Gore, no doubt typing from either his earth-fucking house, earth-fucking boat, or earth-fucking private jet:

It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.

It’s OK Al, they can just buy some carbon credits.