I see Paul Helmke is pushing the mythology that the passage of HR 2640 into law represents the first major new gun control bill in more than a decade. That claim is totally false. Here’s some details of the bill.
Joe warns of the dangers of compromise. The good thing about this bill is that it provides relief from disabilities and that’s a good thing.
Gov. Kaine breaks out the biggest band-aid he can find in an attempt to pass a law that would not have prevented the Virginia Tech massacre:
Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced a legislative proposal to close the gun show loophole in existing laws requiring instant background checks for firearms purchases. The Governor made the announcement standing with family members of students killed or injured in April’s Virginia Tech shootings, as well as legislators and members of the law enforcement community.
There, of course, is no such thing as the gun show loophole. Sales at gun shows are subject to the same regulations as sales from gun shops.
Update: See.
So, night before last I was rolling naked in my wheelbarrows full of cash thinking about the best ways to ensure our children were armed with AK-47s when I said to myself Self, we haven’t heard from Laura Washington in a while. What’s up with that?
Bush signs 2640. That’s what my sooper seekrit sources say.
I’m no longer speechless. Seems the police force that engaged in this:
Get down on the floor! Get down on the floor or I will shoot you! Now take two aspirin and call me in the morning!
had a good reason:
The sheriff said the decision to use SWAT team force was justified because the father was a “self-proclaimed constitutionalist” and had made threats and “comments” over the years.
And then there’s this:
However, the sheriff declined to provide a single instance of the father’s illegal behavior. “I can’t tell you specifically,” he said.
Yeah. Radley nails it: By the sheriff’s own admission, then, the show of force was more about Shiflet’s political beliefs and desire to be left alone than any real child neglect.
Update: people are asking for a non-WND source (what bias?), here’s a news account.
Some mediocre political commentary. First, the Dems:
Obama: Represents change. Yet, no one can tell me what he’s going to change. I mean, looking at the issues, it seems to be the same old pie in the sky that folks with Ds after their names have been pushing for years. Minimal specifics.
Hillary: It’s probably tough being a woman running for president. And it just got tougher since the talking heads report that you broke down on TeeVee. And there’s no crying in politics. Yes, I know you didn’t really but that’s how it’s spun. No one wants the keeper of The Button to appear all emotional.
Edwards: Are you ever going to take the hint that we Americans just aren’t into you? Stop calling us. It’s over.
Richardson: My favorite Dem but he’s done.
Republicans:
Romney: I just want this guy to lose. Can’t stand him. He looks dirty and I am generally opposed to just about every political view he has. He’ll say anything to get elected.
McCain: The Maverick! And by maverick, I mean self-serving prick. Big government but ballsy.
Giuliani: Well, the thing about Iowa is that it proved that you’re just not gonna pull off the red states. Good. Like Romney, you’re a big government authoritarian nanny.
/20~ p@\/1: Actually beat Giuliani in Iowa. The right wing establishment can’t stand him as evidenced by the fact he wasn’t even invited to the Foxnews debate, even though folks he beat in Iowa were invited. I think, ultimately, the right wing establishment fears his message. But if /20~ p@\/1 can’t win in New Hampshire (Live free or die) he really can’t win anywhere. I don’t think America is ready for his message and I doubt they ever will be.
Huckabee: The worst of the left and right rolled into one. Big government and backed by the evangelical crowd. Not a good combo. Will likely lose steam in NH because of that.
Thompson: My personal choice. He has consistently laid out detailed policy positions. Over at factcheck.org, he’s the candidate who never gets fact-checked. But his positions don’t fit neatly into soundbytes. And the press seems to mostly ignore him for a couple of reasons (one of which is that he is conservative). If he doesn’t get it together by South Carolina, he’s probably done.
So, with that, my predictions this time for New Hampshire:
Dems:
1 Obama
2 Edwards
3 Hillary
4 Richardson
Republican
1 McCain
2 Romney
3 Thompson
4 Huckabee
5 /20~ p@\/1
6 Giuliani
Update: BTW, I think Obama’s success is going to be tough for Republicans if it continues. Their machine is set in motion to deal with Hillary. Not him.
America is filled with gun nuts, and any one of them could turn Obama into Martin Luther King Jr. at any moment.
Update: more here.
In NY, there is a push to remove the exemption on black powder and muzzleloading firearms.
I have had for a long time now a Citi bank card. But I’m going to cancel it. Seems Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp. are refusing to process lawful transactions involving firearms:
Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp. are refusing to process any credit card transactions between federally licensed firearms retailers, distributors and manufacturers — a move which will severely limit available inventory of firearms and ammunition to military, law enforcement and law-abiding Americans.
The first company to be affected by this decision appears to be firearms distributor CDNN Sports Inc.
“We were contacted recently by First Data/Citi Merchant Services by a June Rivera-Mantilla stating that we were terminated and funds were being seized for selling firearms in a non-face-to-face transaction,” said Charlie Crawford, president of CDNN Sports Inc. “Although perfectly legal, we were also informed that no transactions would be processed in the future, even for non-firearms. I find this very frightening.”
To voice your concern to Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp., please contact June Rivera-Mantilla at 631-683-7734 or her supervisor Robert Tenenbaum at 631-683-6570.
To change to an NSSF-affiliated credit card processing program, contact Payment Alliance International at 1-866-371-2273 (ext. 1131).
It’s a pity. They’ve always provided good service, to the point where they one day called my cell phone while I was standing in line paying for a laptop to make sure that my card wasn’t stolen. Seems they knew I don’t make many large purchases on my card. They also responded quickly to some fraudulent issues with my card very quickly. It was seamless for me and I didn’t notice anything unusual but they took care of it pretty quickly.
Joe reports having had similar issues in the past.
John Lott: It is difficult for me to understand what the “business” reason would be for this. Indeed.
Sebastian says to call them and tell the politely how much they suck.
Update: It just occurred to me precisely how big a PITA that is going to be. Gotta update Amazon, hostmatters, all manner of bills. But, I’m diligent. It’ll take a bit of time.
A reader emails:
I recently took the TN handgun carry permit class and at that time I purchased the TN Handgun Permit Travel Guide. The class instruction and page 52 of the guide noted that handgun carry is restricted “on the grounds of any public park, playground, civic center, or other building facility, area or property owned, used or operated by any municipal, county or state government, or instrumentality thereof, for recreational purposes.”
This seems to be tied to TCA 39-17-1311 – “Carrying weapons on public parks, playgrounds, civic centers and other public recreational buildings and grounds. —(a) It is an offense for any person to possess or carry, whether openly or concealed, with the intent to go armed, any weapon prohibited by § 39-17-1302(a), not used solely for instructional, display or sanctioned ceremonial purposes, in or on the grounds of any public park, playground, civic center or other building facility, area or property owned, used or operated by any municipal, county or state government, or instrumentality thereof, for recreational purposes.”
However, when I look at TCA 39-17-1302(a) it is not apparent to me that a handgun would be a prohibited weapon in the locations described by TCA 39-17-1311. TCA 39-17-1302 – “Prohibited weapons. — (a) A person commits an offense who intentionally or knowingly possesses, manufactures, transports, repairs or sells: (1) An explosive or an explosive weapon; (2) A device principally designed, made or adapted for delivering or shooting an explosive weapon; (3) A machine gun; (4) A short-barrel rifle or shotgun; (5) A firearm silencer; (6) Hoax device; (7) A switchblade knife or knuckles; or (8) Any other implement for infliction of serious bodily injury or death that has no common lawful purpose.”
I would think that a handgun carried by a legally permitted holder would be an implement that DOES have a common lawful purpose. Is a permit holder truly restricted from carrying “on the grounds of any public park, playground, civic center, or …”??? Would you recommend I ask this question of someone else? I have also sent a similar message to Legallyarmed.com.
I plan to contact our TN state representatives about relaxing some of the current handgun carry restrictions. I would like a clarification of the restriction noted above before I write them.
My reply was that I think it is still considered a violation of the law. And the authorities will arrest you for it. I think this might be a defense though. Any lawyer types out there?
So, you’re the manufacturer of politically incorrect self-loading firearms. It doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense to support a presidential candidate who supports laws that end the lawful sale of your product to the civilian market. So, why is Robinson Arms CEO Alex Robinson supporting Mitt Romney for President?
It doesn’t make any sense to me. Mitt Romney doesn’t like gun owners. And he doesn’t like politically incorrect rifles. And, generally, he doesn’t think you should have guns. So, why is the manufacturer of products that would be completely illegal if Romney had is druthers supporting Romney?
Update: Seems to be a Utah thing.
In the first half of 2007, violent crime has dropped:
The number of violent crimes reported nationwide appears to have fallen modestly in the first half of 2007, signaling the first notable decline in violence in two years, the FBI said yesterday.
Kinda sorta. See, the last two years saw an increase despite long term drop in crime. Could be leveling off. Some numbers:
Violent crimes including homicides, robberies and assaults fell 1.8 percent in January to June of last year compared with the same period in 2006, according to the preliminary FBI statistics.
The largest declines were in the Northeast and in cities with more than 250,000 residents, while crime in rural areas and cities with fewer than 25,000 residents increased 1.1 percent. The number of homicides in suburbs rose by 5 percent.
And then of course there is Washington DC:
The FBI report did not separate out data for the District, which has reported a 7 percent spike in homicides in 2007, part of an overall surge in gun violence.
Bad timing for DC’s lawyers in Heller, don’t you think?
Ordinarily, that headline would just indicate another day in Memphis. But the twist this time is that it’s justifiable self defense shootings:
The number of justifiable homicides in Memphis jumped from 11 in 2006 to 32 in 2007.
More:
More people are getting carry permits and more people know their rights. As many as 35,000 people in Shelby County have carry permits, which means they have had some training on the laws governing self-defense.
The education, Givens says, is “trickling down” to friends and family members.
There were 19 fewer criminal homicides in 2007 compared to 2006. There were fewer gang killings as well, which are less likely to be viewed as justified, and there were fewer beating deaths, which, again, are rarely justifiable.
A while back, I asked:
So, is it the policy of ATF to repeat anti-gun misinformation in the press in an effort to expand gun control?
I think it may be the case with other police agencies as well. In a piece on weapons that look like assault weapons, comes this:
“You just pull a trigger and 20 or 30 rounds come in a second and in those 20 rounds you’re sure to hit your intended target and some innocent bystanders, totally unlike a firearm that is just one bullet every time you pull the trigger,” Miami Police spokesman Willie Moreno said.
Despite the implication, the assault weapons ban did not cover machine guns.
Via NRA-ILA.
Joe points out that the term gun safety is back. They anti-gunners were big into this term a bit back. It seemed to go away. After all, I’m a gun safety advocate and think everyone should learn the four rules. Yet the press will refer to them as such. And the pro-gun forces will always be called the gun lobby. Remember, it is taken as a fact that the gun lobby is responsible for Zumbo losing his job even though the gun lobby didn’t even issue a presser until the incident was concluded.
Any way, this reminds me a bit back when an alleged gun safety expert was doing an online chat. A reader asked:
I asked if my low SN 1903 would be safe with modern factory ammo.
No answer was given, of course.
Seems we’ll be having dinner with Glenn Beck! Info on the bash here.
Six years after new rules made it much easier to get a license to carry concealed weapons, the number of Michiganders legally packing heat has increased more than six-fold.
But dire predictions about increased violence and bloodshed [repeated at length by the press – ed] have largely gone unfulfilled, according to law enforcement officials and, to the extent they can be measured, crime statistics.
The incidence of violent crime in Michigan in the six years since the law went into effect has been, on average, below the rate of the previous six years. The overall incidence of death from firearms, including suicide and accidents, also has declined.
In Jersey, it looks as though the bill requiring reporting of a theft of guns in some arbitrary amount of time is set to pass. Now, when you’re burgled, you may be victimized twice. Another gun law that only makes life difficult for the law-abiding.
Seems a man is teaching the elderly martial arts with their walking sticks. In other news, the UK plans to ban walking sticks. Meanwhile, this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. But I suppose that when you ban effective means of self defense, ineffective ones become a reality.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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