Lefty gun huggers are crawling out of the woodwork, and what’s even better is that lots of them are women.

Next weekend I’m hosting some hippy types in upstate New York. What typically happens on these weekends is that the men do a bunch of shooting. The women run away or watch (and cheer when the men hit the clay pigeons!) and maybe pop three or four rounds on the .22. Generally, the women won’t go near the 12-gauge or anything that looks scary.

After much discussion, we’ve decided to inaugurate a women’s-only shooting class. It will be taught by a female friend of ours who has been shooting since she was 7 and is a better shot than any of the men without professional shooting experience. It will be women only, although I’ve weasled an invite to “supervise”. I’ll actually just be listening and learning. It’s going to be a fun class.

In an effort to encourage more lefties to pick up guns, here’s a comic about peace crusaders and their love of guns.

Don’t tell some people but the army is happy with the 5.56 Nato:

The U.S. Army completed a study of current 5.56mm M855 round, in response to complaints from troops that this ammunition was in adequate in combat. Troops reported many instances where enemy fighters were hit with one or more M855 rounds and kept coming. The study confirmed that this happened, and discovered why. If the M855 bullet hits slender people at the right angle, and does not hit a bone, it goes right through. That will do some soft tissue damage, but nothing immediately incapacitating. The study examined other military and commercial 5.56mm rounds and found that none of them did the job any better. The study concluded that, if troops aimed higher, and fired two shots, they would have a better chance of dropping people right away. The report recommended more weapons training for the troops, so they will be better able to put two 5.56mm bullets where they will do enough damage to stop oncoming enemy troops.

The study did not address complaints about long range shots (over 100 meters), or the need for ammo that is better a blasting through doors and walls. The army had been considering a switch of a larger (6.8mm) round, and the Special Forces has been testing such a round in the field. But a switch is apparently off the table at the moment. The U.S. Marine Corps is doing its own study, but has not finished it yet.

Seems if you’re using two shots, you may as well use ammo that gets it right the first time. Now, you say, Uncle, I thought you dug the 5.56 Nato, being the AR nut that you are? I do in fact, if you use hollow point ammo. Ball ammo, which the military requires, tends to ice pick (which this report confirms by stating If the M855 bullet hits slender people at the right angle, and does not hit a bone, it goes right through) and is not effective unless you use big heavy ammo. Smaller rounds are effective if you use ammo that fragments or expands. It’s also why 9mm ammo is adequate in a civilian gun but the military version lacks oomph.

Via Granted.

I was once a heavy smoker. Then I became one of those drinker-smokers (who smokes when drinking) for a long time. Then, in the last couple of months, I kind of started doing it more and more again. That was mostly due to the lack of a job and more free time than in the past. The occasional smoke with a beer became one with morning coffee. Then one after lunch, etc. until I was smoking more. A lot more.

So, I’ve decided it’s time to just plain quit entirely. That means no more occasional smokes or I’m just one stressful situation from taking it up again. The issue is that, even though I can cut down, I can’t just plain stop completely, mostly because I fucking love to smoke. I basically want to quit because Junior is old enough to start figuring out what I’m doing on the back porch after dinner. And, let’s face it, it’s bad for you.

And, of course, as I type this I’m sitting on said screened in porch at 10:16 on Sunday (kids and wife in bed) enjoying a glass of Knob Creek bourbon and smoking. Said quitting should commence tomorrow.

I have a friend who quit for three months. I went by his house for poker one night and he had started again. I said Dude, you quit for months. Why’d you start again? I thought you had it beat. He said Because smoking was all I thought about. I can’t spend the rest of my life wanting something so bad I can’t stand it. That’s sort of what I fear. See, with the occasional smoking thing, I’d not worry about it because I knew when I got home, I’d pop open a frosty cold Sam Adams, sit on the screened-in porch and smoke. I would smoke eventually, just not all the time. And there are so many activities that are associated with smoking, such as morning coffee and this glass of Knob Creek. Maybe I’ll take up the occasional cigar. Or chew gum. Or, you now, crack.

I went to the doctor and asked about Zyban since others recommend it so highly for quitting smoking. My doctor (and this is why I love my doctor, who is a good ol’ country boy with an MD) said: You just need to cowboy up and quit. You can do anything for two weeks and after that, it’s gone. He’s not a fan of Zyban, I suppose. He also explained that cigarettes give you a fairly intense rush (you don’t notice it but your body does) and said a good way to quit is to level that rush. He said the patch was good for that and to avoid the gum because it mimics the rush. The patch gives a steady dose of nicotine throughout the day and, basically, you get over the habit part first and that is followed by getting over the nicotine addiction part. I think getting over the habit is more important than getting over the drug addiction part.

So, I bought the patch. One problem is I can’t get them to roll up tight enough to light. Any ideas?

It’s been six weeks since the second was born. Those of you with kids will know what this means. Those without will not. It’s also a time when women tend to be extra, err, fertile. So, and I shit you not, we have the pill, spermicide, condoms and plan on acting Catholic (you know, worshippers of Cathol?) for a while.

On travel. Blogging may be light or sporadic.

Eh, what’s the diff? You’re with us or against us, right.

David Hardy has more on our favorite anti-gun, pro-gun group:

Read somewhere they started with half a million in the bank. Pretty hard to find that, when you have no members at the outset.

Sticklers for paperwork:

A librarian is in administrative trouble for demanding that the police actually follow procedure and get (gasp!) a warrant before she released private information about a patron to the police.

On occasion when I send a letter to the editor or some such, I get a favorable response. Mostly, though, I get people either too invested or too stupid to realize their mistakes (mostly the former but enough of the latter to note). But David scored a couple of small victories with Bill Schneider Responds and Bob Confer Responds. Good job.

Kit has a suppressor mini-FAQ. I dig the evo-9. Anyone know if it will also work on fixed barreled pistols or rifles?

Ravenwood on accidental tasering:

I think this kind of mistake happens all the time. Just the other day I went to change the channel on my TV, and grabbed my gun instead of the remote. I shot the screen three times before I figured out why it wasn’t changing.

Heh.

People deal with unexpected events in different ways. Most people are familiar with the five stages of grief. Here are the six stages of grief with our local rulers leaders on County Commission.

DENIAL — No way. It has to be a joke. They would never sue to invalidate the Charter. No one would ever vote for them again. What judge would even take the case?

ANGER — %$@^##& Commissioners! Take an oath to defend the Charter and then sue to invalidate it.

BARGAINING — Someone with standing will appeal the ruling. The Supreme Court will intervene.

DEPRESSION — Xanax, anyone got an extra Xanax?

ACCEPTANCE — What’s the use. This place is just as corrupt as Memphis.

HUMOR — They want a huge travel allowance raise? Haaaaaaaaa. Snort, giggle, heh, that’s a good one.

Read the rest of this entry »

I see you guys from ar15.com coming in for a visit. Unfortunately, the link is from the restricted board. What are you dudes looking at?

Nylarthotep has info on a arms control survey and its bias.

George Bush (yes, that one) issued an executive order that is anti-eminent domain:

It is the policy of the United States to protect the rights of Americans to their private property, including by limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken.

It has a list of exclusions but it’s a start.

Wow. First thing he’s done right in years. Via the geek and carnaby.

Update: It has a clause that kind of makes it useless. One of the Volokh’s has the skinny. Via Jon.

I’ve been critical of Taser use before but this one is quite odd:

Officers responding to a welfare check of a man in a tree in Kitsap County accidentally shot the man in an attempt to use a Taser on him.

The man had been holed up in the tree for hours. An officer used his Taser on the man and after it had no affect, the officer asked another officer to Taser the man. The other officer accidentally used his gun instead of his Taser and the man in the tree was shot.

Poor training? A cop stretching the truth? Incompetence? Beats me.

Update: Whoops. No one is dead. Headline changed since I screwed up.

Saw on the news yesterday at the barber shop that the city (my the city) of Maryville was planning on using eminent domain to take some land for a school. I’ve seen nothing on Al Gore’s Internets. Anyone see anything?

Voolfie looks at gun death stats.

He wrote a piece on guns in PA that is as ridiculous as you’d expect from a member of Ceasefire NJ:

WHAT DO politicians do when they’re under pressure from press and constituents, but lack the clout, skill or patience to do real heavy-lifting?

They propose meaningless half-measures, call them “first steps,” feign concern, gather similarly challenged colleagues and talk of the need for compromise. It’s the politicians’ dance that bamboozles and avoids responsibility

Well, we agree on that. More:

Well, watch out, Philadelphia. Here it comes. This time the dance will be about the growing scourge of gun violence.

We’ll soon hear that a watered-down and time-limited one-handgun-a-month bill is on tap, which will do little, if anything, to save lives. Pols’ sweat will be saved, but not our tears.

It appears that Philadelphia legislators have dumped the statewide one-handgun-a-month bill gaining public support by leaps and bounds for a Philly-only bill that would “sunset” in seven years. The new bill, like cotton candy, looks and tastes good – but it’s ultimately unfulfilling.

Even if you had your way, it wouldn’t matter. One gun a month bills do nothing to stop crime. Ask the CDC. And, as Bryan’s state of New Jersey has proven, criminals just get guns from out of state when restrictions are placed on their purchase. More:

The problem is the unfettered flow of guns onto Delaware Valley streets from Pennsylvania gun shops. It’s estimated that five of every six guns recovered from crimes are illegal. Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms data and law-enforcement testimony confirm the virulence of Philly’s illegal gun market.

The market’s already illegal? And you think one more law will stop that? Idiot. More:

The sensible thing to do is limit the illegal movement of guns from gun shops to the street via the existing statewide one-handgun-a-month-bill (S-1002 and HB-871).

There is no bill that will do what you said as long as people do it illegally.

Their website is back and notes KT Ordnance raided by ATF – Not taking any orders. Also, there was a press mention regarding the raid:

Federal agents seized inventory and paperwork in a raid of a gun parts manufacturing company here last week, the company’s owner said.

Federal officials wouldn’t comment on the June 7 raid at KT Ordnance, which sells nearly finished gun parts over the Internet.

“We haven’t been charged with any crimes and obviously what they found here didn’t violate any laws, because I would have been arrested on the spot,” said KT Ordnance owner Richard Celata, 45. “They confiscated all my inventory, paperwork and made copies of my hard drive.”

So, no charges yet they’ve taken inventory and everything else? That’s not good. More:

The so-called 80 percent market of gun products is a legal undertaking that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is well aware of, Rhoades said. And Celata is well known because he’s one of the leading manufacturers of those products, but there are several other people selling similar gun parts.

“They’ve been wanting to shut down the 80 percent built market for a while, but they’d have to change the Constitution to do that,” Celata said. “Or they can just raid you and scare everybody away.”

Yeah, the crackdown on DIYers is just beginning.

GLN has a big round up of gun related news stories.

The Geek notes that gun rights concerns are being Loftily Dismissed.

Clarion Ledger:

Jackson Mayor Frank Melton said Wednesday he cannot abide by the law if it restricts where he can carry his guns.

“I want to follow the law. What I’m telling you is that I can’t live like that,” he said. “I do have the right to protect myself.”

That might become a problem for the mayor.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood sent subpoenas on Wednesday to three Jackson television stations ordering them to turn over any videotapes showing Melton carrying weapons in public. The subpoenas say the videotapes are to be used in an “ongoing criminal investigation” and that the material can be presented to his office and ordered news executives to appear before a Hinds County grand jury on Aug. 7.

I’m all for you protecting yourself. And for anyone else protecting themselves. Surely, he feels the same way:

“I’m not another citizen. I am the mayor of Jackson,” Melton said. “It’s appropriate that I have a chance to protect myself.”

Fuck you and your office, Mayor.

Can notes this guy is one of Bloomberg’s anti-gun buddies too.

An angel gets its wings.

We now have people that want to do away with the Knox County Charter because they think that less government is better government and it is such a pain and a difficult duty to have private acts passed in the Tennessee Legislature that dumb ideas like the “Jobs Now Program” or the 5 million dollars to a Blount County industrial park would be impossible to do with private acts. According to this line of thought doing away with the Charter is a good thing.

That is muddled thinking. Home Rule is a great advantage and we need to keep it. Keeping government local is what Home Rule and the Charter is all about. We have the right to control the laws of our County. That is why we need the Charter.

The charter is not the problem. The Weaver ruling is the problem.

This whole issue could have been fixed in a single day. Weaver could have suggested that Knox County hold a Charter commission meeting. Add one phrase, Constitutional Offices are defined in the State Constitution. Send the amended Charter to the Secretary of State. We are done.

But nooooo, that’s not the way we do business around these parts. Let’s put every Knox County taxpayer at risk, risk the bond rating, have hundreds of lawsuits, drive everybody crazy, and at the end of the fools errand declare victory and stop to admire and reflect upon the imaginary leadership of the County Mayor and County Commission.

An excellent analysis of why Weaver’s ruling is flawed can be found here.

Why should Weaver’s ruling be overturned? There are many reasons. One of the most important is that of severability which means you do not throw out the baby with the bath water. The legal definition of severability is, “A clause in a Charter that allows that any portion of the Charter deemed to be unenforceable does not affect the validity of the rest of the Charter.”

The Jarvis decision to have this Charter fast tracked to the Tennessee Supreme Court is the right decision. Weaver’s ruling must be appealed as soon as possible and overturned. It must be overturned because it is a bad ruling. What ever popularity the Weaver ruling had it has lost any appeal when people now understand how the Charter actually benefited them. Whether you like or dislike Adult Book Stores or Strip Clubs most people in Knox County do not want one next to their home. The same could be said for a Methadone Clinic or a Homeless Shelter. Do you think people now understand the value of the Charter? The Charter allows a more local input into local ordinances.

When you vote this August exercise manual term limits. Say to these incumbents who ignore the law and sue to invalidate the Charter, “I got your term limits right here” and vote for their opponent. They do not deserve to serve.

I mentioned it here. David has more on them, including:

AHSA’s president, John Rosenthal, founded “Stop Handgun Violence,” and is as big a gungrabber as you will find. Their Board of Directors include honchos from Crime Guns Solutions, ex-BATF careerists who worked to give ammo to the gun maker lawsuits. CGS exec Gerald Nunziato had this to say:

““If it wasn’’t for criminals, there wouldn’’t be a gun industry in this country. The only people [NRA and other gun-rights groups are] protecting are criminals.”

WKM in comments:

How sad society has become that the well mannered kids are the ones that stand out now.

Ayup.

Heh:

Miami Heat wins NBA finals, Carolina something-or-others win NHL finals.

Took The Second Child to the doctor this week. He’s healthy, which is great. He’s also in the 75th percentile on height (compared to junior who is 25% – together, they’re average). He’ll be tall and she’ll be small. Also, his head was in the 100th percentile, meaning his head is bigger than just about all other kids’ heads. That explains the longer labor this time.

The phony Fudds are at it again. Saving Hunters From the NRA:

On the negative side, some OWAA members criticized the new group as being “in favor of gun control.”

Ricker disputed that, of course, saying AHSA only wanted to get guns out of the hands of criminals and that hunters didn’t need machine guns to hunt.

Ricker also noted that America has 80 million gun owners, but the NRA only has 4 million members. He interprets this as a failure by NRA to represent gun owners and hunters because the vast majority has not joined.

NRA has been frequently criticized for its ultra-narrow focus on protecting Second Amendment rights even if it meant supporting the election of conservative, mostly republican, politicians who work hard to destroy the last wild habitat available to hunters. NRA does not support Wilderness designation and even supports more roads in roadless areas so hunters can have more access with jeeps and ATVs.