Dave Kopel and David Hardy now of a blog entitled Of Arms and the Law. It’s mostly David Hardy right now. Still, it will be an excellent resource.

Terri Schiavo has died.

I don’t mean they’re bad for the environment in that, aside from turning perfectly good food into shit, they spend most of their time making a ton of diapers. I’ve mentioned before that the Mrs. and I recycled. We always felt it our civic duty, no matter the inconvenience, to make sure the world was a better place by recycling and some other hippie, tree-hugging bullshit that comes with the guilt of being affluent.

We had multiple trash cans for aluminum, plastic bottles, and various colors of glass bottles. We also had bins for newspapers, magazines, cardboard and plastic grocery bags. We’d make the weekly trip to the recycling centers (note the plural: no one recycling center in our area takes all recyclables so the trip always involves two stops).

With the baby, storage space is now at a premium in the Uncle household. We’re storing Junior’s no longer used clothes, toys, knickknacks, and other vital items in the event we have another child. So, we made the decision to screw the environment. No amount of hippie, tree-hugging bullshit will clear up a 10 by 5 feet area of valuable storage space in my garage. We’re not recycling anymore.

Plus, think of all the gas we’ll save and how that will put an end to global warming. Additionally, we spend about $30 per month for trash pickup. At the end of the week, our trash can had only one or two bags of trash in it for them to pick up. Everything else, we recycled. We weren’t getting our money’s worth.

I don’t feel bad. Screw the environment, what has it done for me? At least we’re not filling landfills with clothes, toys, knickknacks, and other vital items.

Cathy over at Domestic Psychology has the latest.

Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s just a coincidence but Blogging for Bryant notes that, since I chided the Van Hilleary site for it’s lack of content, that Hilleary’s website now has the disclaimer:

Welcome to the temporary website of the Hilleary for Senate campaign. We’ll have a full website and blog up in the coming weeks. Thanks for your patience.

Heh.

Update: In other news, Michael Silence informed Governor Bredesen about Stacey Campfield’s blog.

Head notes his favorite gun BS lines. I should note that gun dealers are usually the worst. I’ll add:

The military went with the 5.56 because it injured and did not kill. Thus, it took two people out of combat since an injured soldier would be rescued by a comrade.

The 5.56 tumbles upon impact. It goes in one hole and comes out somewhere else.

The 1911 is the best semi-auto ever.

Yeah, a set screw will make it fully automatic.

AKs are better than ARs.

That’s a fair price.

Dealers still label their rifles pre-ban and expect to get $1,500 for them.

I was just cleaning it, it went off in my hand.

Anyone can get a new machine gun, it just costs an extra $200.

Chrome-lined barrels are more accurate.

Update: 25 is an effective round.

A two-liter bottle, potato, or other household item makes a good silencer.

I’ve blogged before about how I’m not up to date on current movies and products because, due to TiVo, I never watch commercials. It also occurred to me tonight that, in the event of inclement weather or disaster, I won’t ever get notification via the Emergency Broadcast System since I don’t watch live TV. I wonder how long before something like that happens and some idiot tries to sue TiVo because it didn’t warn them?

Warning: Profanity to follow, do not click if that offends you and you have no sense of humor.

The Daily Probe is too damn funny

Read the rest of this entry »

I guess she looks so sad in the picture because she spent $422.25 on a gun that I bought for $275. She writes about how easy it is to buy an AK-47, which she describes as:

It was a clone, like most AK-47s in America. The first President Bush made it illegal to import the Russian and Chinese military models. The knock-offs look like AK-47s, fire like AK-47s and are very accurate at short distances. I said I’d take it.

First, you bought an imported WASR-10, which is not an AK-47. It is a semi-automatic version of the Kalashnikov rifle. It is not very accurate at any distance but is good enough.

Even this one, a semiautomatic rifle developed for Soviets tank crews to kill from a mile away.

I think you have your gun propaganda mixed up and are thinking of a 50 caliber. The bullet for an AK will travel a mile but the gun is only accurate out to about 300 yards.

Anyway, welcome to the shooting sports, Josie. Now, go get some ammo. Maybe she should go to the Second Annual Shooting for Women Conference.

An Illinois lawmaker has proposed concealed carry legislation there. Yes, that Illinois:

An Illinois lawmaker wants to allow the state’s residents to carry concealed firearms.

“We definitely believe that with concealed carry permits, the crime rate will go down in Illinois,” Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Norris City, the bill’s chief sponsor, said.

And not only is it Illinois, but there’s that conspicuous D after his name.

That’s pretty funny.

Stacey Campfield reports that one of his bills was killed for what was quoted on his blog. He also reports that the Tennessean is going to do a story on his blog. Good. More politicos should blog. And if they don’t want to blog, they could always send emails to bloggers with permission to post it.

Mr. Campfield, and I mean this in the nicest possible way, you need to run a spell checker on your posts. You can get one here. Granted, it won’t pick up things like for all intense and purposes but it’s a start. A proofreader wouldn’t hurt, either.

Update: TeeVee picked up on the story.

As did The Tennessean.

Bill Hobbs has more.

Update 2: Forgot to mention, Matthew White broke the story first.

I’m all for gun safety. I’m all for educating kids about guns and educating parents too. A recent $40K ad campaign has kicked off in Knoxville advising parents to lock up their guns:

The first of many billboards went up Tuesday morning, announcing the gun safety campaign. The signs say “Put ‘em up for children’s sake, lock up guns.”

Lamar Advertising donated billboard space for the $40,000 campaign. The agency is teaming up with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office for the campaign.

“This is a very important reminder for parents and anyone with children in the house,” Sheriff Tim Hutchison in a press release.

Of course, if you lock up your guns so that your child cannot access them, then you’ve defeated the point of having a gun in the first place because you can’t access them. If they’re in your safe, they’re not going to be real accessible in the event you need one. I have a gun safe for most of my guns but I keep one at the ready in case I need it. Fiddling with a lock is not something I want to be doing in the event I need a gun.

That said, I recommend people explore options such as quick access gun cabinets or storage boxes. They can be accessed by typing in a code or other measures. Junior isn’t walking around yet so, for now, my at the ready gun is in the nightstand. Once she’s mobile, I guess I’ll have to come up with something else. And, more importantly, when she’s of age, we’ll talk about guns and gun safety. Unfortunately, many parents don’t address guns and gun safety with their kids and act like they don’t exist. It’s a pity.

One of the problems with the AR-15 platform is that the gas tube can get dirty very quickly. This will result in failure to feed problems if the weapon isn’t cleaned regularly. This design issue (commonly called it eats where it shits because the gas tub comes in at the bolt, where ammo is fed) can also lead to carbon build up on the bolt and carrier, spring issues, unnecessary heat build up, and more.

Because of this, DSA and POF USA teamed up to create the P-416. This upper, while pricey at $975, operates on a gas piston system and features a ton of extra goodies. Excellent. Arms Tech has had one for a while but is so backed up with military contracts that there are no civilian sales.

Defense Review has more.

Having solved all of the county’s other problems, there will be more legislation against local adult businesses:

Knox County Commission Monday unanimously passed an ordinance that requires adult businesses to get a new license. However, it’s not as far reaching as you may think.

[boo-hooing and crying about the ordinance not going far enough snipped - What media bias? - Ed.]

Meantime, adult businesses in the county have 30 days to apply for a license. Then everyone who works at the store has to pass a background check.

Why a background check? Wait for it:

“One of the things we want to make sure is that employees of these businesses aren’t felons,” says county Law Director Mike Moyers. “And specific felons, basically not sexual predators or drug dealers. We’re limiting the hours of operation.”

Huh? What the Hell does a felony conviction have to do with working at a porn store? I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to sell illegal drugs illegally at other places too. Are we going to perform checks on folks who work at drive-thru restaurants too? It seems to me, they just want to put an undue burden on the places to make opening such an establishment less appealing. More:

The stores can only be open from 8:00 a.m. to midnight Monday through Saturday. They can’t be open on Sunday under any circumstances.

You should be in church, you heathen, not getting a turgid little nubbin in the porn store.

The most significant thing the ordinance does is define what’s classified as an adult business. Some adult stores found ways to get around the classification under old zoning laws that used the amount of adult inventory.

Blount County had a problem with definition of adult businesses too. But, it seems in Knoxville, people skirted the law:

“On Lovell Road right now, there’s a store that sells X-rated videos and they have three, two, maybe three antique Harley Davidson motorcycles in there for sale. The value of those three motorcycles is greater than the value of all the X-rated material they have for sale. So they’ve circumvented the current zoning ordinance,” Griess explains.

I’m glad they’re trying to keep me safe from porn by requiring five tests ranging from the amount of displayed merchandise to the amount of revenue derived from adult merchandise. I mean, you can’t help but go in there. There’s nothing preventing me from going in there except, you know, self restraint and personal responsibility.

The Emergency Evacuation Kit distributed to state employees in NY. How utterly, terribly sad.

Jeff has the latest on anti-gun bias in the media.

Yeah, I know.

A man convicted of raping a woman at gunpoint for two hours before shooting her has been spared death:

The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday threw out the death penalty in a rape-and-murder case because jurors had studied Bible verses such as “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” during deliberations.

On a 3-2 vote, justices ordered Robert Harlan to serve life in prison without parole for kidnapping 25-year-old cocktail waitress Rhonda Maloney in 1994, raping her at gunpoint for two hours and then fatally shooting her.

The jurors in Harlan’s 1995 trial sentenced him to die, but defense lawyers discovered five of them had looked up Bible verses, copied them down and talked about them while deliberating a sentence behind closed doors.

The Supreme Court said “at least one juror in this case could have been influenced by these authoritative passages to vote for the death penalty when he or she may otherwise have voted for a life sentence.”

I’m generally opposed to the death penalty but I am also opposed to judges usurping the functions of a jury.

WATE reports:

A woman from Seymour has sold her name on eBay for $15,199.

Once the legal work is done, Terri Iligan’s new name will be goldenpalace.com.

The mother of five points out, the name change will only be on paper.

“To my kids and to my husband I will always be Terri. My husband is real supportive. He thinks it’s funny and the kids think it’s funny. As long as they get to call me mom, they don’t care.”

To study the recent deaths of people from Tasers and other stun guns, a professor plans to test them on pigs to see if they die from the shock or other causes:

A professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison plans to study whether stun guns alone can kill pigs — or whether other medical factors must be at play — as part of an effort to understand why 70 people have died in North America since 2001 after being shocked by Tasers.

Animal rights groups are upset about it. Why the test?

Webster wants to test his hypothesis that Taser-related deaths were the result of heart failure fueled by drug use and other medical factors, not electrocution by the devices. To do so, researchers will begin in the next month studying how Taser electrical currents flow through 150-pound pigs.

A law aimed to curb the production of Meth in Tennessee is about to become law. The bill would require certain cold medicines be kept behind the counters at the pharmacy.

Sounds like a decent idea, I suppose. However, I’d say this could lead to more pharmacies being robbed at gunpoint.

First, sorry for taking so long to get to this fifth one (and I will do a sixth for Publicola) but been a bit busy. So, here are five questions for Ben:

1 - You can have one handgun and one only for the rest of your life, which would it be?

2 - Now, a rifle?

3 - So, what exactly is Carnaby Fudge and what does it mean?

4 - You use Linux? What on earth for?

5 - Battlestar Galactica: 2005 or 1970s?

Blogging for Bryant alerts us to the fact that Senate hopeful Hilleary has a launched a website. I guess Hilleary and his peeps don’t understand what a website can be used for. All his site tells us is that:

1) He’ll vote for conservative judges

2) So far, he’s in the lead. Yes, 19 months prior to the election, we want to know that you’re in the lead. Whoopty-damn-doo. You were also in the lead in that run for governor. How’d that work out?

We want the issues, dude. Give us that or go home.

Update: Oh yeah, and he wants money.

It’s pretty cool that a local congresscritter has a blog. It’s even cooler that he references South Park. Heh.

No, not the blog. But this article entitled The War of the Wrong is worth reading. A taste:

The recently expired Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) actually gives real insight into the mindset of the Million Mom March, the Violence Policy Center, or the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The AWB, which went into effect in 1994, was passed largely as a “feel good” measure. It made some politicans (sic) look like they were concerned about gun violence at the same time the law was essentially worthless. Though the anti-gun advocacy groups praised the AWB, and even demanded its renewal and expansion before it sunsetted in 2004, the reality of the AWB was that it addressed almost nothing but purely cosmetic features of various “ugly” firearms. The banned firearms, outside of appearances, didn’t fire different calibers at greater speeds than many hunting weapons not affected by the ban. This shows that anti-gunners are far more concerned with how things look than with how they actually are.

I don’t really have an issue with passive verb tense other than to the effect it is used to minimize something. Like this:

Two sheriff’s deputies in Lake County, Fla., were shot and injured when an officer’s gun accidentally discharged while training, according to a Lake County Sheriff’s Office release.

The officer accidentally discharged it. The gun did not accidentally discharge itself.

But only in that half-ass, they don’t really mean it kind of way:

The Virginia state legislature has passed SB301 which will protect some owner rights when property is seized by the state or its divisions through eminent domain.

Property owners, however, will have to wait a while before they obtain any kind of relief. The bill provides that when property is seized by any state government agency and has not been put to the public use for which is was seized after a period of 15 years; the property owner must be offered a chance to repurchase it. The offering price must be the original sale price plus interest at 6 percent per year.

Or how about, you know, just not taking it in the first place if the project isn’t ready to go?

Registration for the Blog conference to be held in Nashville has opened up. If you plan on going, head on over and sign up. Looks like a bunch of folks will be there, some of them I’ve even heard of.

The judge in the Jackson case has ruled that the past allegations of child molestation against Jackson may be used as testimony. Where have these folks been? In a cave in Afghanistan?

Who on the Earth doesn’t know that Jackson has been accused of this stuff before?

If you were ever a total nerd role-playing enthusiast as I was in the ’80s, you’ve probably seen Jeff Dee’s artwork. Turns out he has a home page of his own. It’s nothing fancy, but it does have some of his artwork as well as some articles he wrote. He seems like an interesting fellow.

Enjoy!

I’ve noted in the past how gun laws (notably the Assault Weapons Ban) had made it hard for troops to get adequate supplies. For example, the military magazines for the M9 pistol had spring issues and there was a shortage of the magazines and springs because there was no civilian market for regular capacity magazines (see here and here). Also, there were reports that AR15 regular capacity magazines were harder to come by because the Army’s supply was old and no one was making new ones without an interest from the civilian market.

Now, gun laws are again having a detrimental effect on the efforts in Iraq. An acquaintance of mine has accepted a job as a contractor in Iraq. He is a policeman and has been contracted to serve in a consulting capacity with Iraqi police forces for one year. It’s a sweet deal in that he gets a pretty healthy salary; three trips home for vacation; and his wages are exempt from federal taxation. Of course, it does run the risk of getting him killed. There are many, many other policemen doing the same thing.

He must provide his own weapons for the job (though I would assume he’d have access to some when he gets there). As such, I was asked if I could build him some AR15s, if he bought the parts then I would assemble them. He wants an AR15 for a variety of reasons but notably because with the US military there, parts can be found. He wants two AR15s. One with a 10.5 inch barrel and telescoping stock (at least the AWB is gone, and he can get a telescoping stock legally) for use inside a vehicle; and one with a 16 inch barrel for longer range stuff. I informed him that the 16 inch would be no problem at all. However, to get a 10.5 inch barreled AR, he would have to go the National Firearms Act route and fill out an application to make a short-barreled-rifle; pay the $200 tax; get approval from the chief law enforcement officer in his area; and then wait for 3 to 6 months for approval from the ATF. He’s leaving sooner than that. And I won’t build one because I’d go to jail.

It never came up, but I’m sure he would want them to have full-auto/three shot burst fire control groups as well. If I were in Iraq, I would. Of course, if I built one of those for him, that would be making a machine gun and he and I would go to jail. And, since 1986, there can be no new transfers of machine guns to civilians.

So, we have a guy going to Iraq, contracted by the feds, who can’t equip himself with the weapons he needs/wants. Now, he can wait and get those weapons when he arrives in Iraq. And he could spend about $100 on an AK-47 off the street while he’s there too. However, he wants to get his weapons now so that he can function test them, take them to the range, break them in, and familiarize himself with these weapons before arriving in the combat zone. It’d suck to get there and realize your AR was faulty.

Matthew White has more on Tyler Harber.

The FBI is getting in on the selling guns to people who don’t have felony convictions and are not illegal immigrants but are on a federal watch-list issue:

FBI Director Robert Mueller is forming a study group to review the law that let suspected terrorists buy guns in the United States after they cleared background checks.

Mueller unveiled his plan to form the Justice Department working group, which will include the FBI, in a letter sent Wednesday to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. The group will also review the government report issued earlier this month that said more than 40 terror suspects were able to buy firearms in the United States last year because background checks showed they had no felony convictions and weren’t illegal immigrants.

I would hope they would be. Putting them on a list doesn’t make them guilty and should not revoke their rights.

Bubba welcomes a bunch of blogs into the fold of the Rocky Top Brigade:

Todd, who has a couple of blogs.

Blogging for Bryant, which covers the TN 2006 Senate race and who I have mentioned before.

The Chattanooga-Hamilton Civic forum.

Chris Woodhull, who I’ve mentioned before, is a blogging Knoxville City Councilman.

Communists for TennCare, who I have also mentioned before, is just too damn funny. Though the original communist shtick can be found here.

Poop Happens, by Poopie.

Tennessee Guerilla Women, kinda moonbatty but without all the crazy. And Rs.

Whoa Mama! for your mental health needs.

Will work for doughnuts. He will work hard because most people would take the easy way and spell it donuts.

Welcome aboard all.

A bill is in the works to curb eminent domain abuse in Nevada:

Care’s 2-page bill would bar the use of eminent domain by government agencies to get property for open-space use or for “protecting, conserving or preserving wildlife habitat.”

The measure also says an agency could exercise eminent domain powers to get property for a redevelopment project only after making a written finding that “a condition of blight exists for each individual parcel of property” being acquired.

Not the best but it’s a start. Of course, since the federal government owns 92% of Nevada, they’re probably running out of room.

We keep seeing more bills against eminent domain lately. I’m guessing people are getting mad enough to contact their representatives or they figure the Supreme Court will not rule in favor of property owners.

An $80M federal program to give people free gun locks isn’t working out as planned. It seems farmers are using their free gun locks to lock their gates. I want my money back.

I, personally, have about 10 or so gun locks laying around the house collecting dust. It seems everyone gives you one with the purchase of a new gun these days. I don’t use them. Maybe I could donate them to some farmers.

Via Deb.

In this post, I pointed out how a report had confused millimeters with caliber. I then (from memory, TLTG) figured up a quick caliber conversion. I was wrong. Reader Andrew commented

As I have no doubt you are aware, the .38 special caliber shoots 0.357″ bullets, which equates to 9.0678mm (exactly - the inch has actually been defined as exactly 2.54cm. Interestingly the meter has been defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 seconds. The second has been defined as the time it takes for 9,162,631,770 vibration cycles in the radiation emmited (sic) by cessium (sic)-133). Near enough to just call it 9mm. Now, if the .38 special actually fired 0.380″ bullets, it would be 9.652mm.

I am nothing, if not self-correcting.

Michael Silence notes that some local politicos aren’t happy about other local politicos blogging.

Matthew White first drew attention to the issue:

Speaker Jimmy Naifeh’s staff is taking pot shots at a State Representative for starting a blog and daring to show the public what goes on behind the curtain. The Speaker himself has retaliated against the blogger, Rep. Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville), by re-referring one of Campfield’s bills to committee because he didn’t respect the institution of the House.

And what non-scandal would be complete without an intern. Here’s the intern’s blog and here’s Stacey Campfield’s blog.

For all your weekend gun blogging, The Carnival of Cordite #6 is up.