CNSnews has a lot more. Read it all and be amazed. Some tidbits:

Agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), allegedly acting without warrants or legislative authority to do so, seized firearms from at least 50 gun show patrons in Virginia according to congressional testimony and an agency document made public Wednesday. Witnesses also testified that African-American and female gun buyers in Richmond, Va., and Pittsburgh, Pa., were profiled based on their race or sex and some in Pittsburgh were threatened with arrest by ATF agents for alleged actions that are not violations of law.

More:

“There’s a way to have a sting operation that’s legal. This dragnet, apparent dragnet, however, is not the way it ought to be done,” Scott said. “You have to show probable cause and it can be done. But you ought not just stop people without probable cause and without any indication of guilt.”

John White, a former law enforcement officer who is now an FFL operating under the business name “The Gunsmith,” said female customers who approached his sales area at the Richmond shows were immediately targeted by the “undercover” officers.

“If a woman showed up at my table, she was surrounded by law enforcement,” White recalled. “If the lady walked off and suddenly stopped, they would have bumped into each other. Their surveillance methods were pitiful.

“Every woman that makes a purchase, every woman who comes to my table to buy a gun was automatically [treated as] a straw purchaser,” White said. (A “straw purchaser” is a person who can otherwise legally purchase a firearm, but who does so with the intent to illegally provide it to an ineligible buyer such as a convicted felon or an illegal alien. “Straw purchases” are illegal.)

More:

“Did anybody mention that it is a federal crime to deny women or minorities their civil rights?” Feeney asked. “Did anybody mention to the ATF that denying civil rights, including the right to bear arms, is a federal crime?”

Feeney suggested that, since ATF had refused to comply with the Freedom of Information Act requests from the gun show promoters, the subcommittee should request the information they were seeking. Coble noted that such a letter had already been sent.

Something to hide, eh?

And, again, there has been no mainstream media coverage of this story. None, that I’ve seen. Completely silent. Where are you guys? Oh, still crying because Cheney didn’t call you. Feh.

Dave Bane at subguns.com reports:

Have several Michigan transfers pending and just received formal notification from the ATF signed by Nickie Dudash, that their office is not processing transfers for Michigan at this time until a final opinion from the MI Attorney General is received…

Heh.

Law enforcement officials match names of those who buy stuff that may be used to make meth:

Narcotics Officers with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Knox County man Wednesday night and charged him in connection with a meth lab in his mobile home. Fifty year old William Randall Vittatoe is charged with initiation of process to manufacture methamphetamine and promotion of methamphetamine manufacture. His total bond is $100,000.

Vittatoe came to the attention of officers after pseudoephedrine logs were pulled from several area pharmacies and it was noted that he had purchased several boxes of the pills from many different pharmacies within a thirty day period which totaled over 24 grams. It is illegal to purchase more than 9 grams in thirty days. A warrant was issued for Vittatoe and officers went to his mobile home at 2713 Byington Ball Camp Road. He wasn’t at home and as officers searched around the trailer looking for him, they found four home-made generators used to manufacture anhydrous ammonia.

Publicola has more on the ATF’s house judicial committee hearings.

but I did. Others are posting their dirty magazine pics too.

It continues to be one of the best shows on TeeVee. And is definitely one of the more thought provoking. Friday’s abortion episode was a good bit of television, addressing rights and complex social issues. Good stuff.

Update: Yeah, this post is intentionally spoiler free. But I was rather shocked at the non-PC theme.

The Muhammad emoticon:

(((:~{>

Seen here.

Check out this quick draw video.

To Mr. Completely for winning the gun blog awards.

Again, the Blount County Commission voted No on the civic arts center. Excellent.

Update: More at Knoxviews.

Update 2: Testing Knoxviews trackbacks.

The Carnival of Cordite is up.

Via Insty, comes Jane’s law:

The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane.

Nice.

First, kudos to the TimesDispatch for being the first media outlet I’ve seen actually run the story. But a wag of the finger to them for putting all the allegedly illegal actions of the ATF at the bottom of the story without mentioning that it was, you know, potentially illegal. Some snippets:

The organizer of an August gun show at Richmond Raceway Complex told a House panel that a large team of federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and city, state and county police patrolled the two-day show, harassing law-abiding gun buyers while looking for illicit gun sales.

Annette Gelles of Showmasters, the organizer, told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime that agents’ aggressive tactics unnerved some attendees, and the visible presence drove away other customers.

Now would be the part where I would have addressed what the ATF did but that’s just me. More:

ATF director Carl J. Truscott defended his agency’s operations in a letter to the committee.

From 2004 to 2005, four homicides in Richmond were linked to guns sold at shows, he wrote. Agents patrolled eight shows during the period, leading to more than 30 arrests for gun crimes, including lying on background check forms and “straw purchases” — buying a gun for someone else.

The justification comes first. More:

James Lalime, a gun dealer from Colonial Heights who testified yesterday, said he was interrogated at length by two ATF agents because he was considering purchasing some guns.

Pretty big-brothery, but not the illegal part. More:

Suzanne McComas, a private investigator hired by the National Rifle Association to look into the allegations of harassment, said officers targeted minorities.

“Anyone who was a minority, they picked up their trail and followed them through the show. . . . It was ridiculous,” she told lawmakers.

Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., told McComas that he found the racial allegations questionable.

“I’m not saying that I disbelieve you, but I’m shocked that they could be that stupid. It’s almost difficult to believe,” he said.

The racist angle, but still not the illegal stuff. Still more:

In some cases, officers followed gun buyers from the show or went to their homes to confirm addresses listed on background check forms, the witnesses said.

In his letter to the committee, Truscott defended “residence checks” as “an important and useful tool to ensure the lawfulness of firearms transactions and to prevent straw purchases.”

There it is. One little blurb with no substance. The residency checks are illegal. Also, there are allegations that the agents were telling neighbors of buyers that they were buying guns. More detail on that here and here.

Phelps says Knock and Announce Works! Uncle concurs. No-knock warrants, once the exception and now often the rule, are generally uncalled for and have resulted in the unnecessary deaths of folks, both suspects and police. They are, on occasion, necessary but are more often not.

Knoxville blogger Rob Huddleston is pondering a run for Tennessee’s first district. I think he’d have to move, though.

Pro-Gun Progressive to gun owners: Get off your asses. Really:

The reason gun rights aren’t advancing as fast as they should isn’t a lack of gun owners; we’re moving slowly because of the 60,000,000 [I thought it was 100M? – Ed.] gun owners in the US, only a small fraction actually do anything beyond owning the gun or sending the NRA a check once in a while. Gun owners aren’t active enough. Period. While I don’t expect everyone who owns a gun in MD to join me on a Wednesday night in the basement of the VFW hall in suburbia all the time, we do need to start doing things that will both drive more attention to sites like mine and MarylandShallIssue’s, and make it more likely that gun owners will become active, visible, educated, and motivated to vote.

I live in a safely pro-gun state so I’ve never even known of any such press conferences or anything. I’d probably show up if there was one. However, at the Federal level, I call my congressmonkeys regarding gun bills. Several times. I fax them for good measure and send emails. Calls seem to be more effective, though.

Nicki has the tale of a man who was lawfully carrying a weapon but was arrested, detained, fined, had his property taken and then released but still hasn’t got his gun back. Operative phrase:

I don’t care what the laws or the Supreme Court say. WE are NOT going to have people running around, wearing guns..

Tam’s into dirty magazines too. But neither of us have anything on this guy.

No, really:

Rufus cuddled up beside the couch, ready for a good nap. Belly full from his favorite steak dinner and tuckered out from a romp around the house, he put down the head that has become the signature of dogdom in America.

“He’s a wonderful pet,” owner Barbara Bishop cooed. “My grandson used to sleep with him in the crate.”

But in some parts of the country, dogs that look like this Best in Show winner are seized, muzzled and in some cases, destroyed.

Cities in about 20 states have either enacted or are trying to pass “BSL,” short for breed specific legislation designed to control certain types of dogs that are deemed dangerous.

Pit bulls and pit bull mixes are the main target of such laws and ordinances, along with American Staffordshire terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers – part of the so-called “bully” breeds, with stout bodies and distinctive heads. Owners can be fined and even jailed.

Rufus is a colored bull terrier, the same breed that spawned Spuds McKenzie and the Target store mascot. Nearly 6, he won Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club show this week, thanks to a perfect, egg-shaped noggin the size of a football.

Tan and white, Rufus also is a marked dog because some of the BSL includes references to dogs that have similar physical traits as the outlawed breeds.

“There are places we won’t go because of the BSL,” Bishop said Thursday from her home in Holmdel, N.J. “You just don’t know what might happen.”

Aunt B. cracked a joke about that the other day.

By the way, why are dog shows covered in the sports section? That’s like making modeling a sport.

You can’t make this stuff up:

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson wants to dispel “innacuracies (sic) and stereotypes” about the use of eminent domain for economic development, a practice the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in last year’s notorious Kelo v. New London decision. Last fall Peterson told a Senate subcommittee that when the government threatens to condemn people’s property because it thinks someone else can make better use of it, “a majority of the time, most people agree to sell.”

Well, yeah, under the threat of a boot to the throat, most folks would. More:

“Cities use eminent domain most often as a negotiating tool with property owners,” explained Peterson, who was speaking for the National League of Cities. “Just having the tool available makes it possible to negotiate with landowners.” Sure it does—in the same way just having a gun available makes it possible for a bank robber to negotiate with a teller.

Ouch.

Standard Mischief has more on Wal-Mart being forced to sell products it otherwise would not.

Looks like Kansas is set to pass shall issue CCW:

Law-abiding Kansans could carry concealed guns under a bill that passed the Senate by enough votes Thursday to override a veto by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who spiked a similar measure two years ago.

The 29-11 vote — two more than needed to override the Democratic governor — includes six senators from her party. The question is how many will go against her should she veto the measure.

We’re winning.

Update: More here.

It’s probably done for:

The Conservative government has created a committee of two cabinet ministers and a backbencher to figure out how best to kill the long-gun registry as soon as possible.

A couple of nights ago, I had an odd dream. I dreamt that aliens invaded the Earth. Their plan, apparently, was to land, exit their ships and begin killing us all off with their great physical strength and agility in hand to hand combat. The only problem was that, in what I assume was a slight miscalculation on their part, they were only about 14 inches tall and kinda flimsy. They were also basically an amalgam of every movie alien you ever saw. They were black, slimy looking, had sharp teeth, long claws, with large eyes. In fact, they’d be quite scary were they not 14 inches tall.

So, in the dream, a gaggle of aliens (which in my dream land, a gaggle is apparently what you call a group of aliens) was gathered in my drive way. I saw them from the window then went to the garage. I opened the garage door about 14 inches and looked at them. They then, doing their best battle scene from Braveheart impersonation, charged my garage. When they got about half way up the driveway, I hit the button to shut the garage. I could hear their little bodies bouncing off the garage door. Then, silence. After waiting a bit and hearing nothing, I anxiously, and with a feeling like when someone does something stupid in a movie when a serial killer is on the loose, opened up the door. To my surprise, the collision with my garage door killed them all. So, not only were they small and considerably weaker than they calculated, they weren’t too bright. My dog was in my garage, and I commented to the dog that it was amazing this race of alien ever mastered interstellar travel since they weren’t too bright. He looked at me and said in a deep voice with a heavy British accent that he knew they would come and he’d been preparing me for their arrival. We then went and spread the word about their stupidity and that they could be lured, like lemmings, to suicide by garage door. Humanity was saved.

And, yes, whenever I have a dream where my dog talks, it’s always with a deep voice with a British accent. And for some reason, I’m never surprised by the fact he can talk.

Not a scandal: Cheney waiting 18 hours to contact the press about the shooting.

Actual scandal: Cheney waiting 18 hours to contact an ambulance about the shooting.

Idiots.

Barring some new development, that’s the last bit on Cheney shooting somebody that I’ll write.

There was a bill in Colorado to allow CCW holders skip the background checks. Makes sense to me, after all the entire CCW process is a more thorough background check. But the bill was killed:

A bill that would let concealed- gun permit holders skip federal background checks when purchasing firearms died Tuesday after a half-dozen law enforcement officials and anti-gun activists testified against it.

Opponents told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee the bill was an attempt to weaken a state law passed in 2000 by voters that requires background checks for all firearms purchases.

“The bill opens a big loophole,” said Tom Mauser, whose 15-year- old son, Dan, died in the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. A gun in the incident initially was purchased at a gun show and resold illegally to the gunmen.

“We shouldn’t put lives at risk to save a few bucks or to make life easier for gun dealers,” he said.

Ahh, the old emotional argument that has nothing to do with this law. Boy, that one’s tough to beat unless you, you know, point out that the CCW process is a big background check. So, Colorado trusts you to carry a gun but not buy one.

This, by the way, is another case of what anti-gunners mean by sensible gun control laws. This law was quite sensible in that it would have allowed those who have met the CCW criteria to forego a check and it would save the state some money by not having to run checks on those who have already been checked. It’s a good idea. Yet, the anti-gunners oppose any seemingly pro-gun bill, no matter how sensible it is, just to oppose it. Remember, they think DC’s complete ban on firearms is sensible gun control.

Tish at Knoxviews posts an update:

On Tuesday, the Massachusetts pharmacy board ordered Wal-Mart to stock emergency contraception pills at all its stores in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is the second state to require the world’s largest retailer to carry the morning after pill.

The unanimous decision by the pharmacy board came two weeks after three women, backed by abortion rights groups, sued Wal-Mart for failing to carry the drug in any of its 44 Wal-Marts and four Sam’s Club stores in Massachusetts. The women had argued that state policy required pharmacies to carry all “commonly prescribed medicines.”

As Bruce would say:

Massachusetts: Live free or there.

Though it’s lacking in photos, Defense Review has some quick hits from the SHOT Show. Colt is making a gas piston type of rifle, which I assume is an AR-15. The new EOTech’s will come with a throw lever mount and have been raised a bit.

And, my personal favorite piece of sex, is the new Elcan Specter Dr. It is a 1x combat optic that changes to 4x at the push of a button (more like flick of a switch but damn fast). It also has built in back up iron sights. Here’s their demo on how it works. Sweet! DefRev reports this things will go for about $1,450, which is way, way steep.

Aunt B.:

Ferocious Pit Bull Kills Everyone at the Westminster

Oh, wait, no.

He won Best in Show. Too bad breed specific legislation will keep him out of Denver.

Heh. Mark my words, this breed is about to hit the shitter. The worst thing for any breed of dog is to be popular. Bull Terriers have their history in dog fighting (in fact, most say that’s where the American Pit Bull Terrier gets its dog aggression as it is thought to be the result of breeding bull terriers with English bulldogs – the real kind of English bulldogs and not those squatty freaks of nature we call English bulldogs today). Expect increases in dog bites reported from this breed, an increase in rescue dogs of this kind, and an increase in price.

BTW, I’m not one for dog shows based on appearance. I don’t really think breeding based on appearance is good for breeds of dog. In fact, it’s usually quite bad for the breed as a whole (look at English Bulldogs if you want to know why). But, I don’t mind dog competition. I’m more an Iron Dog sort of guy myself.

Winner of the Iron Dog: Did protection work, competed in hardest hit, ran a 50 yd dash, pulled 50 times its body weight, was airborne for 20 minutes hanging on to a 2X4 with its teeth, had a tug of war with a comparable dog, and ended with a nice 12 mile run.

Winner of Westminster: Looked pretty, got brushed.