You can carry at the NRA convention.

Jill Porter: How many must die before gun lobby gets message?

Uhm, all of us.

Seriously, Sebastian takes her to task.

Jamie Satterfield notes that the state Supreme Court is looking into TN’s waiver of due process of law err illegal drug tax:

In a separate case, Brad Buchanan tried today on behalf of the state Department of Revenue to convince the state high court to overturn a lower appellate court ruling striking down as unconstitutional the state’s Unauthorized Substance Tax Act, more commonly known as the “crack tax.”

Under the law, the illegal wares of drug dealers were to be taxed. Dope peddlers could voluntarily pay the tax with the promise of anonymity but those who failed to do so but wound up busted by police were assessed the tax whether or not they were ultimately tried or convicted of criminal charges.

A Davidson County chancellor deemed the tax punitive in nature and, therefore, afoul of constitutional protections including the right to due process and the right against being punished twice for the same crime. The state Cout of Appeals also struck down the tax but for different reasons, arguing the state cannot tax an illegal activity or product.

Defense attorney Phil Lomonaco, on behalf of Lenoir City construction worker Steven Waters, asked the Supreme Court today to keep the crack tax out of Tennessee’s tax code.

“It is conditioned upon a crime,” Lomonaco said. “This is purely a tax on an illegal activity.”

Actually, it’s not a tax at all. It’s a scheme to take a person’s property without due process of law.

Michael Bane shows off his Serbu shorty and his fine taste in sweatshirts.

forget the title. Just go here.

Isn’t twitter just blogging for lazy people with short attention spans? You know, like some blogs you may read?

Seems that the VPC takes issue with video games that perpetuate the gun culture.

No, not games like Grand Theft Auto, games like Duck Hunter.

In this case, real life mimics the parody.

Breda got a Bersa.

Letter to the editor in Philly:

ABOUT 90 percent of the people shot in the city last year were African-American. While figures are unavailable, it is assumed by most that close to 100 percent of the perpetrators of these shootings were African-American.

Almost all the firearms used in these shootings were obtained, possessed and carried illegally by those who perpetrated the shootings. If, as is constantly claimed, we MUST DO SOMETHING to stop this violence, then why not ban African-American residents of the city from owning handguns?

The answer is that that is patently unfair and discriminatory. To judge an entire group as a problem and punish all members of that group, irrespective of their individual actions, is unconscionable.

Yet, it’s deemed perfectly acceptable to discriminate against one particular group – gun owners.

Let’s just tell the truth. The instant Mayor Nutter gets the right to pass gun laws for Philly, it will become a practical impossibility to own a handgun or any other weapon the city deems “inappropriate.”

I’ve done nothing wrong, but my rights are to be removed step-by-step because others – entirely outside the law – are using guns feloniously. How is this any less outrageous a suggestion than that black people shouldn’t be allowed to have guns?

J.F. Wolfington, Philadelphia

M1 carbine disassembly.

Another mass shooting stopped by an armed person.

Other such instances from the past.

The NYT on NYPD gun handling:

New York City police officers fire their weapons far less often than they did a decade ago, a statistic that has dropped along with the crime rate. But when they do fire, even at an armed suspect, there is often no one returning fire at the officers. Officers hit their targets roughly 34 percent of the time.

When they fire at dogs, roughly 55 percent of shots hit home. Most of their targets are pit bulls, with a smattering of Rottweilers and German shepherds.

Officers’ guns go off unintentionally or by accident for a variety of reasons: wrestling with suspects, cleaning the weapons, leaning on holsters — even once, in 1996, when a gun was put in an oven for safekeeping.

And how often do they use their equipment incorrectly.

Yeah, I have more than one today and if I don’t post them now then my QOTD stuff gets backed up and it messes up my system. That’s just no good for anyone. So, here goes:

LabRat Stingray, in a must read post on the crazies who are suing to stop science:

I for one support any operation that boils down to “Hey, what happens if we concentrate the power consumption of the eastern seaboard of the US into a space roughly the size of Barack Obama’s integrity?” You just know something cool is gonna happen.

NK in comments to all you who poo-poo the NRA:

If it weren’t for the NRA, I would not know how to shoot. We had ranges and instruction at my high school and college.

Sebastian:

If you think the ATF is bad now, wait until you see Obama’s ATF.

So, DU is hotlinking my images. I’m torn because they’re probably on our team (i.e., pro gun) but they’re stealing my stuff. I left them a message at the post.

Let it slide or get all tub girl on them? What say you?

So, due to budget concerns, there will be due process of law. I would think that budget concerns would lead to a lack of due process of law. And to think, I’ve had it wrong all this time.

Overboreness. My head hurts.

TRAVIS BARRETT:

Maybe I’m in the minority, but here’s the way I always saw the National Rifle Association:

It was a picture of Charlton Heston, in a 10-gallon hat high on a white horse, brandishing a Winchester or a Smith and Wesson or a Remington or Beretta or whatever his weapon of choice actually was. He was talking about how you could pry it from his “cold, dead hands” and all that.

Whatever former military general was running the United States at the time would be standing proudly beside, a wide grin and another rifle.

It just felt so, well. . . mythical.

But John Murphy of Oakland, the co-chairman of the Central Maine Friends of the NRA committee, blows the myth right out of the water. He doesn’t think the most important goal of the NRA today is to fight gun-control legislation tooth and nail, nor does he think he should be able to have 632 automatic machine guns in his living room just because the United States Constitution gives us the right to bear arms.

Do you think the NRA thinks that?

Michael Silence used to do reporting on blogging. Then, he started blogging on reporting while still reporting on blogging. Now, he’s going to be mostly reporting on blogging and blogging on reporting.

Or something. I’m confused.

Tam: You don’t have to be a vote-pandering, dumb-as-a-stump, collectivist simpleton to get into politics. But it helps.

Or writing a concession speech.

So, Barack EBITDA Obama won North Carolina. And Hillsy’s victory in Indiana wasn’t so stellar. I mean, her ads celebrating our right to arms were so convincing!

Seems all the pundits are saying Hillary is done for unless there’s a superdelegate coup or a lawsuit that says Michigan and Florida voters count for something. The former would be bad for the Dems for a variety of reasons, including a major blow to the Dems stranglehold on the black vote. The latter would drip with irony so delicious that I’d bottle it up and sell it as a mop sauce for ribs. But, then, Democrats suing in an attempt to override an election wouldn’t surprise anyone.

Will Hillary drop out? I don’t think so. She’ll fight to the end. She’s been planning this for more than a decade. Hell, when McCain is getting sworn in, she’ll still be campaigning.

McCain now has a sizable war chest. And he’s been getting ready to unleash the hounds on the victor of the Democrat primary for a while. So, now the fun begins.

The only trouble I have is I can’t remember if I’ll owe Sean or Tom a beer.

Update: Heh.

Sebastian notes that gun controllers aren’t raising any money. Well, duh. They get all their money from a few big sugar daddies. There’s no roots in the supposed grassroots gun control movement. It’s all bought and paid for.

Bitter expands on how many gun rights supporters a city could handle.

And don’t even get me started on the chicken wing.

David has his doubts about whether the story/pic is even real or not

Now look, I know religious people aren’t all kooks. In fact, I’m a believe in God sort of guy. There was this church sign I saw the other day that went something like this:

Bear religious fruit not religious nuts.

But you guys gotta reign in your nut jobs. Like in this case where, and I shit you not, a teacher performing a magic trick is accused of wizardry. Like Guav said I’m gonna go out on a limb here and assume that when a substitute teach in Florida does a magic trick in class and gets fired for “wizardry,” that there are some fundamentalist morons involved.

Ok, this is 2008. There ain’t no wizardry and the earth is not flat and we don’t put people on the rack because of disputes over how many angels fit on the head of a pin. Put the adults in charge.

ArmedAndSafe tells us that HR4900 (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act) has 165 Cosponsors. If your Rep (like mine, Jimmy Duncan) is not on the list then call and ask them why.

Been a bit of an issue in the state. Terry and AC have the info on it. Campfield sums it up thusly: Farr illegally collected the Ipod tax before he found out he couldn’t collect the tax but he still collected the tax until he can pass a bill allowing him to collect the tax.

Bad racist jokes land you in jail.

Actually, I though the joke was kinda funny.

A gun battle in London did not happen because of all that gun control.

And crime cannot be up in Berkeley because of all that gun control.

ATF actually goes after real gun crime!

More like that please. Of course, the article is filled with the usual PSH over assault weapons and cop killer handguns, which are illegal in the US. And this is unpossible:

“I just learned from Mexican authorities that more law enforcement officers were killed in Mexico last year than all the people killed in New York, Philadelphia, Newark combined,” Forcelli said. Mexican authorities told ABC News more than 2,000 law enforcement officers have been killed in the past 18 months.

Unpossible, with all of Mexico’s gun laws.

In an update to the sooper seekrit smoking room for legislators mentioned here, comes a confession:

State Rep. Joe McCord acknowledged today that he and others have been smoking in his legislative office suite, violating a state law that he supported.

Hypocrite.

But the Maryville Republican questioned a Nashville television reporter’s tactics in doing a story on the indoor-smoking activities.

Boo-hoo. I wonder if there are any substantial legal penalties for breaking this law? So far, my google-fu is weak.

It’s true. In the event I actually run into him, anything you want me to ask? Should I ask about baseball or McCain-Feingold?