Memphis police chief is supporting a gun law. He uses as a prop a Sig 551 to show the scariness of such evil weapons (like the one that was stolen in Memphis). These weapons have never been used in a crime that I know of. Because they are new machine guns (which are banned for civilian ownership) and Sig doesn’t sell them to the public. Alphie has more.
The downside of the tubes: Building landing strips for gay Martians.
Co-blogger #9 has written extensively about YouTube and its potential effects on politics and society. Well, there’s one thing on there that I can’t stand and Brittney reminded me about it. See, I hop on YouTube on occasion to watch old music videos and the like. And I search for songs for which I have never seen the video. And I was shocked and happy to learn that one of my favorite songs of all time had a video. Cool! Then I realized that it did not. Seems people like to just film themselves lip-synching to someone else’s tune. No, I’m not upset about copyrights and whatnot. I just don’t care to watch some guy lip-synching and doing it poorly. As to one of my favorite songs of all time, here’s the video of some guy no one knows mouthing the words:
People say to me: Hey Uncle, no one wants to take your guns. I’ve never, ever heard any politician say they want to take away my hunting rifle. This is a false argument created by gun lobbyists like the NRA. And I can say: Really? Then why do they have a plan?
I’ve used UPS to ship guns for repairs and to ship gun parts quite a bit. Seems the feds busted one of their drivers for stealing and then reselling guns.
Over at a new (to me) blog called Grappling with Guns:
I am a democrat.
I am also a gun owner and possessor of a concealed handgun permit in my state of residence.
I am also a college professor.
I am not (yet) a member of the NRA, but based on much of the current debate about gun control, I may join.
Over at West, by God comes another response to my little thought experiment on gun laws (see my post here for background). A taste: Take away BATFE’s ability to capriciously write policy. Or, heck, just put their policy decisions under review.
This again. So, we have this terrorist watch list. I don’t know how you would know you were on it unless you were detained at an airport. Now, there’s a push to ban people on this list from purchasing guns. Now, no one (except terrorists) wants armed terrorists. But, from what I have read, most people who are on the list are usually guilty of having a similar name to some other person. And, of course, being put on this list doesn’t require a conviction or due process of law.
In other news, anyone else find it frightening that we keep such lists?
I know that people get a bit antsy when there are mass shootings. Then they starting pointing out how England banned this or that after a mass shooting and they haven’t had one since. But no one ever points out that crime with firearms in England has doubled since then.
Told to express emotion for a creative-writing class, high school senior Allen Lee penned an essay so disturbing to his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct, officials said Wednesday.
Lee, 18, a straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested Tuesday near his home and charged with the misdemeanor for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location.
I am without words, which is good since they’d arrest me for them.
And since the Gun Blogger Rendezvous is in Reno.
I gamble. Not a lot but often enough. I enjoy it and I only play with an amount of money I am willing to lose. If I engage in a game, all the money I take to the table I consider already spent. Never gamble more than you’re willing to lose. I’m not encouraging you to gamble and assume no responsibility if you lose money. Now, with those lame disclaimers out of the way, here’s Uncle’s brief intro to gambling.
The way you win is to stake money when the odds are in your favor. And that doesn’t happen often or, with many games, at all. And staking money when the odds are in your favor consistently over time. The classic example is in poker and you have a flush draw with two cards to come. If you hit your draw you will win. In the pot, there is $100. Assume your opponent will do one of two things: (longish post, you’ve been warned.)
Average white folks are not extreme. They are not as informed. They do not share your anger. They have not become radicalized and chances are you don’t want them to be.
Ayup. AC also touches on one other point which is that we don’t want a bunch of radical white people. When a bunch of white people get scared, people die.
CNN:
A police officer and a former officer pleaded guilty Thursday to manslaughter in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman during a botched drug raid last fall. Another officer still faces charges in the woman’s death.
It wasn’t a botched drug raid. It was a criminal assault carried out by those entrusted to uphold the law. A few new (to me) details:
The charges followed a November 21 “no-knock” drug raid on the home of Kathryn Johnston, 92. An informant had described buying drugs from a dealer there, police said. When the officers burst in without warning, Johnston fired at them, and they fired back, killing her.
Fulton County prosecutor Peter Johnson disclosed Thursday that the officers involved in Johnston’s death fired 39 shots, striking her five or six times, including a fatal blow to the chest.
He said Johnston only fired once through her door and didn’t hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues, he said.
This case is a symptom of a disease. Hopefully, it will lead to a serious look at drug war tactics in this country. But I’m not holding my breath.
You always hear about the GAO finding fraud. But you never hear of anybody getting fired for it.
In response to my question here on what gun controls pro-gunners could live with, Armed Canuck has a lengthy (as in grab a drink) response: Reconstitute the Militia.
Clayton Cramer looks at the bill to close it (HR 297):
As I said on a radio broadcast this morning, I support the concept of improving state reporting of disqualifying mental illness problems, but the devil is in the details. So I have been reading over HR 297, and I am having trouble finding where “this bill would allow the FBI to obtain massive amounts of information” about individuals. The bill doesn’t even require states to provide information–it only sets standards for how much money the state can receive for improving its reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System based on its level of data that it reports.
Jeff has a transcript. The only one who called for more gun control was Biden. (note: by more, I don’t include the mental health records as more. That law is already in existence but there’s no reporting requirements). And five of eight admit to having guns at some point.
Another idiot threatens violence against a lawmaker. At least this lawmaker packs heat.
After the 1997 shooting of 16 kids in Dunblane, England, the United Kingdom passed one of the strictest gun-control laws in the world, banning its citizens from owning almost all types of handguns. Britain seemed to get safer by the minute, as 162,000 newly-illegal firearms were forked over to British officials by law-abiding citizens.
But this didn’t decrease the amount of gun-related crime in the U.K. In fact, gun-related crime has nearly doubled in the U.K. since the ban was enacted.
Some bloggers and others are describing what it was really like to find themselves being robbed at gunpoint. It’s probably a good idea to read those accounts before forming an opinion about how a person can be expected to react.
Les has a round-up. Fact is, you don’t know what you’ll do. Too much to consider and lose. If I was robbed, I’d just hand over my wallet. If I were in fear for my life, that’s a different story.
ATLANTA (AP) — Three current and former police officers have been indicted in the shooting death of an elderly Atlanta woman during a botched police drug raid.
Here:
Stop Exploiting Tragedy
It’s been more than a week now since a mass murderer struck on the campus of Virginia Tech, and as the NRA joins the debate on policies and laws, there are a few things I want to point out.
It wasn’t 24 hours after the horrific shootings that the politicians started flapping their lips. Congressman Jim Moran suggested that somehow the tragedy was the fault of Republicans and President Bush. Barack Obama compared the evil events in Blacksburg to outsourcing jobs overseas. Senator Dianne Feinstein called for a new dialogue on gun control. Mayor Bloomberg spoke of the events in Blacksburg as he pushed to stop the Tiahrt Amendment from being renewed. And that’s just the politicians.
Gun control advocates had a field day. Within hours, the Brady Campaign had a “Donate Now!” button on their website. The Violence Policy Center was blaming “lax gun laws” in Virginia for the murders, instead of placing the blame on the madman. John Rosenthal, head of Stop Handgun Violence in Massachusetts, even suggested that the gun laws in that state make it less likely for mass murder to occur there.
I’m a gun nut. And a pretty hardcore one at that. However, I’m about to lose some of my gun nut street cred. I’d like to touch on one of my rules for convincing others why I’m right. I’ve alluded to it before (here and here) but I don’t think I’ve ever written about it specifically. Are you ready? It’s real simple:
Don’t scare white people.
Uncle, you say, What the Hell are you talking about? Well, let me explain. Most people in this country fit a certain demographic. That demographic is the prototypical family with two cars, 2.4 kids, stability, owns a home, is in debt, have no issues with gay people other than they don’t want them to get married, etc., etc. Most decisions in this country in terms of legislation center around what these people think. So, when I say white people, that’s who I mean. Don’t scare them. If you scare them off by appearing excessively gun nutty, then you’re turning the people who politicians almost exclusively pander to against you. So, don’t go get a sign that says:
Rep. Cruz should be hung from the tree of liberty for treasonous acts against the Constitution
And show up at a protest. First of all, it’s hanged. Secondly, it’s not smart. Sure, your heart may be in the right place and all that other hippie tree hugging crap to make you feel better about yourself. But white people think you’re fucking nuts. And you’re not doing gun rights any favors. Don’t get me wrong, I think Rep. Cruz is a moron. His bill would require gun registration and a $10-a-gun annual fee. And, well, that’s probably unconstitutional. But that’s no excuse to out-moron him. See, I’ve come close to saying things like that before and then actually did a blog post about me thinking about saying it and then deciding it’s not something that should be said. And then saying it in a weasel way because I’d done fessed up to thinking it.
And, if it’s any consolation, his supporters don’t quite get the first amendment either when they say:
No one has the right to call for the lynching of another human being — no one
Sure they do. It’s not a smart thing and if they actually incite someone to do it, they should be held accountable. But we can say crazy shit like that. The issue, for me, is that it’s stupid to say stuff like that.
And here’s the other thing: The press loves to show off some right wing nut jobs and gun nuts. If some right winger or gun nut does something stupid, it’s all over the news. However, idiots at left wing protests rarely get press coverage. You’ll never see these photos or significant coverage of them in an AP story.
Others:
The Geek: Fight Hard, Fight Smart
Bitter: Dig Faster
David (who likely doesn’t agree with me - he does): it’s certainly not “just a figure of speech.”
Sebastian: Putting the “C” in Crazy and This is one for the “How Not to Win Column”
Well, the only surprise is that they’re admitting it now. They’ve been taking dictation from anti-gun groups for years. Says Newsbusters:
CBS Blogger: We Need More Gun Control Stories
In an April 25 post, CBS’s “Public Eye” editor Brian Montopoli worries that the media are not doing enough reporting on gun control, lamenting that the media are waiting for political players to gin up the issue.
There were reasons not to take up larger issues and assign blame in the immediate wake of the shootings – those first few days needed to be about how people were dealing with the horror of what had taken place. But some time has now passed, and I’m hard pressed to think of a better time for the media to focus on a huge issue that isn’t going away anytime soon.
I’m sorry, but where has this dude been?
Jeff says:
So what Montopoli appears to say is that since media thinks there’s a problem of gun availability in this country, it’s up to media to fan the flames of the people to demand more gun control laws.
I’m not that concerned. Sounds like business as usual to me.
The fact that presidential candidate Ron Paul is a regular guest on a radio show that talks about US government mind control conspiracies; or that, of the current field, he’s the one I’m more likely to vote for?
Looks like the house is trying to close it:
Since 1968, federal law has prohibited the sale of guns to anyone adjudged mentally ill. But more than half the states cannot — or will not — supply the necessary mental health records to the FBI database that is used to conduct background checks on would-be gun buyers.
That could change following last week’s massacre at Virginia Tech. The U.S. House is considering a bill that would encourage states to share mental health records with the federal government by giving them more than $1 billion in grants to help cover the costs.
Privacy laws and lack of technical ability now prevent 28 states from sharing such information with the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System based in Clarksburg, W.Va., according to a Justice Department report.
Privacy: It’s about more than abortions!
Mr. Completely has some room rates and codes. I tentatively plan on going. Who else is going?
Looks like the supreme court will take up the incumbent protection act err campaign finance reform. Again. Maybe they’ll get it right this time? Hell, even the bill’s supporters don’t much care for it these days, including Fred Thompson.
Looks like Barney Frank will introduce a bill to repeal the ban on transfers of money to online gaming sites. More at The Politico. In other news, SayUncle agrees with a Democrat from Massachusetts.
Joe Huffman is having the 2007 Boomershoot in three days.
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