The headlines, they write themselves:

Flying and oral sex don’t mix, a judge ruled Tuesday as he upheld the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to revoke the license of a pilot who allowed a busty blonde woman to perform a sex act on him as he flew her around San Diego.

So, there’s an electronic cigarette that supposedly delivers nicotine and flavor without tobacco and its combustion byproducts. It is said that it eliminates virtually all of the health hazards associated with smoking. So, of course, there is a group of anti-smoking extremists who want it banned. I guess because it could save some smokers’ lives or something. Someone somewhere is always upset that someone somewhere else might be enjoying themselves.

In other news, we’ve all heard the justification that smoking should be banned because it costs so much in healthcare costs. Turns out, every pack of cigarettes smoked saves the country $0.32. After all, smokers die earlier than non-smokers so we don’t have to take care of them in their adult diaper wearing years.

Man, I miss the warm weather or tonight I’d having a Rocky Patel 1999.

The profile of an active shooter is pretty interesting. Seems they give up pretty quickly when confronted and aren’t very good shots.

More excerpts from Implementing the Right To Keep and Bear Arms for Self-Defense: An Analytical Framework and a Research Agenda here.

First, guns. Now, the 911 operator.

How come few ever blame the psychotic nutjob?

Update: Blame assault weapons even when they weren’t used.

Tam on gun shows:

Everyone who’s ever attended a gun show knows that you are guaranteed to find at least one table (and probably several) of genuine whackos: Neo-Nazis, conspiranoiacs, people who think space aliens assassinated Elvis with fluoridated water, that sort of thing. It’s just the eddies in the stream where the First and Second Amendments flow together. Frankly, a gun show without Nazis to mock would be like a gun show without beef jerky.

* ETA: For those who don’t get the reference in the title, it’s from the Dead Milkmen song Stuart.

The media is really struggling these days. But they still don’t get it. They don’t know what to do. So, like any good nanny-state-enablers and critics of capitalism, they sue.

Zing:

Our old business model sucks, and we’ve got no freaking clue how to adapt to the changing market place, so this is the best we’ve got

And US Citizen notes:

Imagine that. A News Agency that doesn’t want to spread the news.

As I type this, Al Gore is dumping some Global Warming on us. In April.

Paul Helmke blames the right-wing NRA propaganda machine for going out and getting everyone all riled up and buying guns. They state the evil gun lobby perpetuated falsehoods about the anti-gunners and the Obama administration wanting to ban guns. And that was a lie.

But in the next breath, the anti-gunners say they want to ban guns.

It also kills the brain cells of our politicians:

the Senate of the United States voted 58 to 39 to reject an amendment to the budget bill designed to keep kids on bikes designed for them and thus off adult vehicles. The reason the amendment was offered by South Carolina’s Jim DeMint is because the 2008 “Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act” mandates that products containing even trace amounts of lead –trace amounts highly unlikely to ever come in contact with a child’s digestion system– were banned from sale to children 12 and under.

As RF says: Do these people really think kids are putting motorcycle parts in their mouths? No, they just don’t think.

Speaking of the media bias against guns:

For years I would tell news people about the fact that every single multiple victim public shooting in the US involving more than three people killed took place in one of these gun-free zones. The response was they might include this information as part of the story if I could get it to them fast enough so that it could be included as part of the news story. But when I started to do that I was told that it would be editorializing to include that information. My response has been that if news stories can contain long (often inaccurate) discussions of the type of gun used in the crime, why isn’t it also newsworthy to note one common characteristic that occurs in attack after attack?

often inaccurate may be the understatement of the year.

What media bias against guns?

Xavier brings one into the fold.

And another new shooter here. Via Jay.

Steve debunks the canard by actually looking at the confiscated arms. The LAW, M249 beltfed machinegun, and the fragmentation grenades are not coming from US gun shows.

Meanwhile, this is brilliant. You see, the guns do come from here. Except we are smuggling them from US gun shows to Guatemala. Then Guatemalans smuggle them in to Mexico. Do these people realize how stupid this stuff sounds?

No wonder most people don’t believe the administration or the press (but I repeat myself) when it comes to the Mexican Gun Canard.

Over at the Unforgiving Minute, tips on how to sight that rifle in.

After the event, there’s always two kinds of posts you see on the internets. The first kind you’ll see are the ones where people go take cool pictures of stuff like here, here, here, and here.

And then there’s the kind where some lefty one goes and takes photos of the less than 1% who have some kind of Nazi stuff. And then someone reads it and is all butthurt because someone compares Obama to a Nazi. As though that’s something new to behold and only comes from the right.

Wait until Heller. Then release 80% the city’s inmates.

Kidding aside, they are not related. But that’s pretty stupid. And if I were in DC, I’d definitely go get another gun.

Hope and change.

Word now is that HK has not halted production of their HK416 rifles. They still, however, put the pins in the wrong place.

After a news rag published a list, there was a push to make the list of records confidential. Looks like the senate version of the bill exempts names and zip codes from being confidential. Odd. And it passed the senate.

Gang leader put back in jail, local shootings drop 92%.

Gun Kills Five Children In Washington State. I guess they are magic.

Passes House 70-26. According to my sources. Not seen it on the news yet. Reportedly, Jimmy Naifeh said something like we shouldn’t pass this bill NRA likes it.

Update: News article.

Looks like the bill exempting Montana from federal gun controls is heading to the governor:

Montana-made guns may form the basis for a court showdown over states’ rights if the governor signs a bill to release some firearms in the state from federal regulation.

The proposed law aims to exempt firearms, weapons components and ammunition made in Montana and kept in Montana from federal gun laws. Since the state has few gun laws of its own, the legislation would allow some gunowners and sellers in the state to skirt registration [note: there is no registration at the federal level for buyers – ed], licensing requirements and background checks entirely.

“We’d like to just be able to make our own guns here in Montana and have the feds stay out of it,” said Gary Marbut of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, which helped draft the bill.

The real target, though, is the U.S. Supreme Court. And Marbut and others believe they can hit that mark with a simple Montana-made youth-model single-shot bolt-action .22 rifle.

In particular, they plan to find a “squeaky clean” Montanan who wants to send a note to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives threatening to build and sell about 20 such rifles without federal dealership licensing. If the ATF tells them it’s illegal, they will then file a lawsuit in federal court n with any luck triggering a legal battle that lands in the nation’s highest court.

House Bill 246 sailed through the Montana Legislature, but Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer has not yet offered a position on the measure, which awaits his action.

That’s what they called a blogger so they could raid his house. Raided and computers seized. For criticizing bad cops.

HK 416 production has been halted due to problems with them. They mean other than the pin being in the wrong place and being generally incompatible with accessories.

I’ve touched on before how anti-gun folks ascribe magical powers to firearms. To them, firearms have the magical ability to turn you into a raging psycopath, shrink your penis, and turn otherwise reasonable people into frothing at the mouth lunatics. Or whatever. A flip side to that is touched on by Aunt B.:

I do want to say a little about guns, though. And that is this–guns are not magic. Even if you have a gun, it’s no guarantee that you’re more likely to survive the evil intentions of a mass murderer than anyone else.

I sort of agree and sort of don’t. I agree that guns are not magic. All too often, some people get a weapon thinking it does give them the magical power of invincibility. And they are wrong. And, of course, while there is no guarantee, armed citizens have a decent record against mass murderers. I like those odds better. And, if you’re in a situation where it takes the police two minutes to arrive and over an hour to secure the scene, a gun is probably quite a useful thing to have.

But Aunt B. is correct. Guns are not magical. They do not bestow you with invincibility nor infallibility nor super human strength nor wisdom. A weapon is a tool. A tool designed to do a job. Nothing more. Now, they are a tool that, with practice, you can get pretty good with. And, as Aunt B. says, if someone is intent on killing you and gets the drop on you, then you’re number is up in the life lottery. Not much you can do there. I can draw from a retention holster, take aim, and fire center mass in a bit less than one second. That’s at a range where I’m practicing. But when you factor in things that would happen in a real life situation such as taking the whole of what’s happening into consideration; the location of, say, your family members; the loss of fine motor skills; tunnel vision; etc. that happen in these situations; then I simply cannot assume that I will draw and fire as quickly or as accurately. I address that by going to the range and practicing more. But it’s no guarantee. And it ain’t magic.

On the shooting in NY, police arrived in two minutes. In two minutes, a lot can happen. It then took them one to one and a half hours organize and enter the building. That’s a long time.

More from Tam, who notes: You don’t want me to be able to bust caps to save myself, but you’re not going to do it for me, either?

In NY, a county gives $2M to Remington to stay there. Well, maybe if you got the state legislature to stop trying to put them out of business, you could save some money. Remington’s economic impact on the community is valued at $105M.

In March.