WATE:

The Rev. Tim McDonald of Concerned Black Clergy said, “For him to have entered the war in the manner in which he did and now to come to lay a wreath for Doctor King is the epitome of hypocrisy.”

Concerned Black Clergy is planning a protest with other local groups during Bush’s visit Thursday afternoon.

McDonald said the president’s appearance shows “that he wants black votes, that he wants to give the appearance that he’s not a racist, that he’s not a war hawk, but we can see through that veil.”

He’s calling the president a racist? Powell and Rice may disagree. And exactly how do we get from entering war to being a racist?

Did you know a black lady was running for President? You’re not the only one. Regardless, she quit and is now supporting Dean.

In other news, Kerry is surprisingly ahead in the polls in Iowa. This came as a shock to everyone, but Kerry.

Mr. Carpenter was met with boos for continuing to make some ludicrous statements (which I covered here).

Another judge has written an opinion stating the second amendment doesn’t doesn’t secure an individual right to arms:

In a 64-page opinion, Walton ruled that the Second Amendment is not a broad-based right of gun ownership.

“the Second Amendment does not confer an individual a right to possess firearms. Rather, the Amendment’s objective is to ensure the vitality of state militias,” Walton wrote.

He went on to say that the amendment was designed to protect the citizens against a potentially oppressive federal government.

He also ruled that the Second Amendment does not apply to the district because it was intended to protect state citizens, and the district is not a state.

Of course, I expected this in DC. I also have to ask: Where are our state militias? Judges have ruled that Governors don’t control the national guard but the feds do. Where is it?

Oh, that’s right, it’s listed in USC Title 10, Sec 311: The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States …

Via Buddy Don comes this account of a novelist going shooting for the first time (user name/password: laexaminer/laexaminer). Worth the read. Some choice quotes:

The man behind the counter was as pleasant as a grandfather from Central Casting. “What would it take for me to buy a gun?” I asked him. He explained the California laws, some of the most stringent in the country. I would have to wait 10 days — the “cooling off” period. There would be federal and local background checks. I’d have to take a safety class. I’d have to buy a childproof lock. I couldn’t purchase an assault weapon. I couldn’t buy more than one handgun per month. Of course, he said, if I didn’t want to wait, I could drive 10 minutes and buy an Uzi illegally out of someone’s car.

snip

Later, I was surprised to discover that some of my closest friends owned guns. People I never would have suspected confessed that their guns made them feel protected. Still, most of my friends thought handguns should be outlawed, completely, in every circumstance.

I no longer was so sure. I did some research — there are countless testimonials about guns saving someone’s life. I looked into shooting as a sport. I spoke to a woman who had found a wounded deer and shot it, ending its agony. I changed my mind: Guns aren’t bad.

Read the whole thing.

Today I stopped at Weigel’s for milk. Bought some Mayfield’s Brown Cows, which I haven’t had in years. Got home and immediately at two. If you haven’t had a Mayfield’s Brown Cow, you’re missing out on some living.

In 1999, taxpayers contacted the IRS for assistance approximately 117 million times.

The AP:

Tests by Danish and American experts indicate there is no chemical warfare agent in mortar shells unearthed last week in southern Iraq, but more testing is needed to confirm the findings, the Danish military reported Wednesday.

I blogged the initial report here. It seems I (and the Danish and American experts) jumped the gun. Now it really makes me wonder what sorts of experts we have checking out all these weapons.

John has some neat stuff.

The AP:

A woman who was drunk when she killed a man in a head-on collision must carry a photograph of the teacher in his coffin as part of her five years of probation, a judge ruled.

If I understand this and this correctly, it seems people are advocating that dinosaurs once inhabited Mars. Maybe it still is? I mean something’s been shooting those probes down. Maybe a really large brontosaurus was just plucking them from the sky?

Of course, I don’t know much about science.

The Democrats continue to change their tune on gun control:

This time, those vying to challenge George W. Bush in November have at least paid heed to public opinion — not to mention the Constitution — and eased their zeal to violate the rights of gun owners. The advocacy group Americans for Gun Safety surveyed the presidential hopefuls on a range of firearms-related issues, including their views on the Second Amendment. With the exception of the Rev. Al Sharpton, every Democrat responded; President Bush said he would provide his answers during the general campaign.

All the Democrats cited various measures they’d take to restrict the rights of innocent Americans. But what’s interesting here is the Democrats’ unanimity when they were asked whether the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to own guns … or whether it simply states the “collective” right of state militias to be armed. All of them said the Second Amendment — within limits they’d never allow to be placed on other freedoms within the Bill of Rights, to be sure — protects the rights of individuals to possess firearms.

The two schools of thought are, of course, that (1) the Democrats have learned their lesson; or (2) they’re just liars. Each is believable.

Bush, who I don’t think is really a friend of gun owners, has stated he would sign the assault weapons ban. As Jeff pointed out in comments earlier, Bush will sign anything and Bush has not actively pressed the issue of renewing the ban. Also, the Bush administration did file papers stating that the Justice Department takes the philosophy that the Second Amendment does secure an individual right to arms.

There are two schools of thought on Bush’s position on the Assault Weapons ban as well: 1) he’s no friend to gun owners; or 2) he’s saying that to appear moderate because he knows the renewal won’t make it to his desk and he feels he’d get more votes showing support for it. Regardless, he has let down millions of gun owners who voted for him.

The other day while driving down Alcoa Highway (which surprisingly is not the most dangerous road in Blount County), I briefly saw a homemade sign on a guard rail that said something to the effect of:

Adultery is filling Hell

Just thought I’d pass it on.

So far:

Crib – $300
Dresser – $599
Armoire – $799
Glider – $300
Stroller – $199

And we got a lot to go.

While at Babies R Us, we discovered that in Tennessee a child less than age nine or less than 80 pounds must be in a car seat. To me, that seems a bit excessive.

Les has some interesting stats on gun sales.

It’s probably not a good idea to strip in front of people when cameras are around. Or else they make you resign. Oh and that link isn’t work safe.

Via A Little More to the Right.

As much as I hate to agree with a racist, a Newport man was ejected from a council meeting after he protested the city’s parade tax ordinance which requires fees and permits to peacably assemble:

A man who said he is a resident of Cocke County was escorted from the Newport City Council meeting Tuesday evening after he continued to protest the city’s parade ordinance.

Randy Gray told the council he believes the ordinance violates the U.S. Constitution because it requires a permit for public speech, which he argued is guaranteed.

Gray declined later to comment on whether he is associated with the Ku Klux Klan, whose representatives had been expected to attend Tuesday’s meeting.

Police in Michigan raided a fighting dog training facility. It’s abysmal that dog fighting is still popular. Worse is that these dog fights lead to the reputation pit bulls have.

A friend of mine in high school had one of those cheap black light posters in his room. It depicted a menacing looking eagle swooping down on a rather cartoonish looking mouse. The mouse had its hand outstretched and was clearly flipping the eagle a bird. Below was a caption that listed Webster’s definition of Defiance. The mouse was sure to die, but he was defiant until the end.

Senator John Ensign recently talked at a high school:

Ensign spent an additional 30 minutes taking questions from students on a variety of topics. He said he intends to vote to repeal a ban on assault weapons, which he called “the stupidest law that was ever written.

“Without the Second Amendment, you might as well throw away the rest of the Bill of Rights. It sounds like kind of a radical statement but I don’t know if there is a truer statement,” Ensign said.

“Every dictatorship that has ever existed, the first thing they do Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot in southeast Asia the first thing they do is disarm the citizenry.

“Because if you disarm the citizenry, then you can trust them. If they are armed, you can’t trust them. That is why our founding fathers recognized the right to keep and bear arms is so critical,” he said.

Ensign said the assault weapons ban is ineffective because it allows some guns that look like and function in the same way as other prohibited guns.

“All you need to know about gun control is to look at Washington D.C., which has the strictest gun control laws in the country and it is one of the least safest cities. All the criminals have guns and none of the law-abiding citizens have guns,” he said. “It is just too easy to get guns illegally to ever ban them.”

I do respect and appreciate the gist of Ensign’s sentiment, however gun ownership was quite prevalent in Iraq. Each family was allowed one gun for self defense (mostly AK47s). This does beg the question: Why didn’t Iraqis revolt? They had guns. My conclusion is that they lacked the quality our little mouse mentioned above had: displaying defiance.

Of course, you can’t blame them. Spending decades with a government that commits night time raids, rapes of family members, torture, gassing people, and a whole other list of atrocities may have lead the Iraqis to develop learned helplessness. After all, seeing a friend or family member dragged off never to return would likely have the desired effect of crushing dissent.

In short, guns are useless without the will to right wrongs and take risks. Sadly, I think America is at the point where most of us are unwilling to take risks, stand up for what’s right, and speak truth to power.

We sit by while our courts restrict speech; politicians authorize government agencies to snoop through citizen’s records without warrants; police randomly harass motorists; indoor plumbing justifies why police no longer have to knock and announce their presence before entering a suspect’s home; dissenters are quarantined to First Amendment Zones; judges tell people they can’t sell their book; local governments abuse eminent domain; men armed with machine guns parade around our large cities; people are detained without access to legal counsel, sometimes in secret; and the list goes on and on.

As long as Michael Jackson is in the news, Paris Hilton is sucking dick, and the latest reality TV shows are popular, we don’t notice. Or we don’t care.

Or we’re forced to pick two losing sides. Democrats and Republicans have equally deplorable records regarding civil liberties. It just depends which particular civil liberty you’re talking about. We often vote for the lesser of two evils.

It’s up to us to change it by holding politicians responsible. If we can’t do that now with our vote, we won’t have the will to do anything if our last hope turns out to be AK47s.

Are we Iraqis or mice?

Two accounts of the same study:

Newsday:

About one of every seven guns linked to American crimes or considered suspicious from 1996 through 2000 can be traced back to the same 120 gun stores, a gun safety group said Monday, urging the government to set up a watch list of irresponsible or corrupt gun dealers.

WATE:

An antigun group Monday said five Tennessee gun stores are among 120 nationwide on a targeted list.

Emphasis added.

Each leaves a rather different impression, don’t you think?

The AP:

The Supreme Court gave police leeway Tuesday to use random roadblocks to track down criminals.

Justices said in the 6-3 ruling that police checkpoint stops, when used to seek information about recent crimes, do not violate the privacy rights of other motorists.

The court overturned a decision by the Illinois Supreme Court, which had ruled that it was not an emergency in 1997 when officers stopped cars at an intersection outside Chicago to pass out leaflets seeking information about a fatal hit-and-run.

Justice Stephen Bayer said that “police appropriately tailored their checkpoint stops to fit important criminal investigatory needs.”

Three justices, however, expressed concerns that the ruling could open up motorists to police interference without yielding information about crimes.

The Supreme Court continues to scare me. Apparently, if there is a specific crime and you are in an area deemed logistically close to the crime, you can be randomly stopped and interrogated.

New stuff at the Carnival, particularly a firing positions for a rifle by the always excellent Publicola.

Lots of good stuff over at the Citizens Against Government Waste blog. Give it a read.

Peter Worthington of the Toronto Sun:

Arguably, the most useless boondoggle ever implemented by a Canadian government is gun registration – a step towards confiscation.

It’s not the horrendous cost of nearly $1 billion (so far) that’s the scandal – shucks, governments waste that all the time, witness our submarines that leak. It’s that gun control may actually increase violent crime. The feds already fudge figures to pretend it works.

A new book in the U.S. by Richard Poe, The Seven Myths of Gun Control – is concise and powerful and should be required reading.

Poe has amassed impressive evidence that lack of guns among the public – in any country – increases burglaries and the criminal use of guns. Britain and Australia have already experienced this.

They’ll be coming around soon.

is this:

Kessler acknowledged there is nothing to indicate that the 120 stores sold the guns illegally or knew they were selling to criminals. He compared them to the liquor stores of his youth.

But the alarmists state:

About one of every seven guns linked to American crimes or considered suspicious from 1996 through 2000 can be traced back to the same 120 gun stores, a gun safety group said Monday, urging the government to set up a watch list of irresponsible or corrupt gun dealers.

Of the 373,006 guns traced from crimes during the five-year period, 54,694 came from the 120 stores, according to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives. The data, which surfaced in a lawsuit by the NAACP against gun manufacturers, was made public by the Washington-based Americans for Gun Safety Foundation.

Gun lobby sets sights on weapons restrictions:

The gun lobby is marshaling its forces for an all-out assault this year to weaken key gun-control laws and shield weapons makers from liability in lawsuits.

“Major advances for the NRA are within reach this year,” said Robert Spitzer, a political science professor at the State University of New York and author of a book on the politics of gun control. “With the most sympathetic administration ever, the gun rights groups will have all their chips on the table.”

Over the next weeks and months, the pro-gun lobby is expected to play those chips in a friendly, Republican-controlled Congress, pushing ahead on an agenda that has gun control forces on the defensive. Congress will consider proposals that would:

Amend a law that now allows FBI gun-buyer background checks to be kept for 90 days after a sale. The new law would require their destruction after 24 hours.

Provide immunity from liability to gun makers and dealers in civil lawsuits in federal court.

Extend the 10-year-old law banning semi-automatic assault weapons that expires in September. House Republican leaders oppose any effort to extend the ban.

I don’t think gun owners have the most gun friendly administration ever. Bush said he’d sign the Assault Weapons Ban. ‘Nuff said. The ban doesn’t ban semi-automatic assault weapons, it bans features they can have.

My favorite is this tidbit:

Given Washington’s domination by the GOP, “the most the gun control advocates can hope for is to maintain the status quo,” said Kristen Goss, a Georgetown University professor, who is writing a book on the history of the gun control movement.

The enemy is scared. The article also points out that the rifle used by the DC snipers wasn’t banned by the Assault Weapons Ban. Actually, it says:

The Bushmaster XM15 used in the Washington-area sniper attacks, for example, may be sold even though it is a similar version of the AR15 assault rifle banned under the law.

Implying that those rascally gun makers are up to something nefarious.

Jeff (who I am no longer calling the God of Biscuits because he’s obviously not an Eddie Izzard fan) relays some history of the Denver Post’s pit bull bias.

I took Rich shooting handguns, his first time. Read his account here and please offer any advice regarding weapons choices and other things.

One note to Rich, it’s called a magazine not a clip. This tends to get under the skin of some gun folks (not me, I know what you mean). The rule is that a clip goes in a magazine but a magazine doesn’t go in a clip.

And I gave Rich the larger caliber gun first. Some people say this is a no-no. I disagree. After firing a short barreled 45, a 9MM is a rather relaxing (for lack of a better word) round.

Also, the shooting stance I tried to teach is known as the Weaver Stance (left foot forward) as opposed to isosceles (both feet aligned). Here’s some info on the two.

As Rich squeezed off his first round, he had gathered quite a crowd. Gun types typically offer their support to any new shooter.

Rich seemed to enjoy it and we plan on going again. In fact, I may organize and RTB day at the range. It’d be fun. I’d even invite Barry, who wouldn’t go what with all that radiation seeping into his brain and stuff.

I did try (unsuccessfully) to not let my preference for handguns influence Rich but he does seem to favor the Glock. Good choice. Here’s why I like Glocks.

Welcome to the shooting sports, Rich. I’m glad I have annoyed Sarah Brady.

A woman who asked about a flight simulator for her ten year old son was treated to a visit from the state police. Lame.

Via Kevin comes this AP report:

The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether the government properly withheld names and other details about hundreds of foreigners detained in the weeks and months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The high court turned down a request to review the secrecy surrounding detainees, nearly all Arabs or Muslims, who were picked up in the United States following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Hiding such activities is never OK.