See, the left thinks they’re centrist. I’m moderate on lots of issues and right and left on many issues. I do not think I am a centrist but at least I have the mental capacity to understand that.

Another reporter channels SayUncle and notes the popularity of pink guns.

Reader Dale emails this letter to the editor:

Ijust (sic) wanted to say how much I liked the gun swap at the Convention Center on Saturday.

Over the last few years, I have bought several guns at shows for $15 to $20 each. Most were break-open shotguns or handguns that could no longer be fired but were good for spare parts. I turned in two Saturday and got $200 worth of free gas. Between the parts I sold and the turn-in, I cleared $185.

I would have turned in more guns, but I didn’t have time to get home and back before closing.

What a deal – free gas for the next month! Time to buy more cheap guns.

Sweet.

I’ve searched and cannot find the text of the Hughes Amendment to the FOPA. Anyone?

In countries where firearms suppressors are not regulated like machine guns are, they cost about $45USD.

Not today:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday announced no action on a new case testing the meaning of the Second Amendment. The next date for possible action on it is likely to be November 26, following a pre-Thanksgiving Conference set for November 20.

So, today the Supreme Court should announce if it will hear the Parker/Heller case. I think they’ll take it but wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t. After all, they’re kinda skittish when it comes to anything controversial. If they don’t take the case, we win. If they do, we still could win.

Other thoughts:

Bitter is just waiting.

Kevin says it’s for all the marbles and has a lot of good info. I think it’s going to be for only most of the marbles.

Counter notes that the SCOTUS has affirmed the right to arms before in Dredd Scott:

It would give to persons of the negro race, who were recognised as citizens in any one State of the Union, the right to . . . to keep and carry arms wherever they went.

Joe notes it could be a big day:

I agree with those that say, in essence, the U.S. Supreme Court cannot be counted to rule in any rational fashion. They will rule however they want to rule without regard to original intent. Oh, they will find something someplace to hang their decision on but if they will have no qualms about putting on the blinders and steadfastly ignore data that disagree with how they want to rule.

He has a lot more.

Just one more law.

Can’t contest traffic tickets in DC. Of course, contesting them has been cost prohibitive for years in most places. Ya know, they could just put some credit card readers in the police cars. Sure, it’s still conviction without due process but it’s much less of a pain in the ass.

Shirley Katz, the teacher who wanted to carry a gun because of a fear of violence from her ex, lost her case.

Mossy Shotty.

All those safeguards for the new definition of privacy aren’t for shit if the people in charge have a history of violating them.

Following in the footsteps of Barrett, STI has stopped selling firearms in California:

The move by STI comes after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed microstamping legislation into law. “This law is not going to stop criminals, it is only going to hurt law-abiding citizens in the state,” STI’s Pauletta Skinner told Bullet Points. “We felt like we had to take a stand against this law.”

I guess soon Cali LEOs will have to buy only HK. Because you suck and we hate you.

Mel goes to Ladies Shooting Camp.

Mike Hollihan:

The crucial difference? It’s one word: ‘assault.’

That word, often used in reporting on rifles, is seen by many readers and viewers as a loaded word employed by those who support gun control.

Well, I think it largely indicates ignorance. Continuing:

If the AK-47 involved is in fact a true assault rifle, one with full-automatic fire, then that is news. Scary news. But if it’s the standard model available in America, then calling it an ‘assault’ rifle is needlessly inaccurate and distracting.

Ayup.

Shotguns are not a good substitute for a wrench.

Looks like the folks at Hellbender Press, a local environmental education group, have started blogs.

22LR suppressors for under $200. Specs and videos here.

Where Guns Are Concerned, It’s Not Worth The Paper It Is Written On:

We are now more than 20 years into the “assault weapon” debate, so you would think enough time has passed, and enough information is available on the internet and elsewhere, that even the laziest and least competent newspaper reporter could get at least a handful of the most basic facts straight on the issue.

You would think that, unless you read the Miami Herald.

Recently, the Miami Herald has come out with both barrels blazing on the “assault weapon” issue, making false claims about the functionality of guns defined as such under the now-expired Clinton Gun Ban and advocating the ban’s restoration.

In September, the paper ran an editorial claiming that a Glock 19 is an “assault weapon,” presumably because it is designed to use a detachable ammunition magazine. It also ran an article that claimed that a person can actually fire 600 rounds in 60 seconds with a semi-automatic AK-47.

My experience has been that even when you point out errors in reporting on the assault weapon issue, reporters insist they’re still correct. I cannot tell if the ignorance is willful or not.

That’s the percentage of NRA backed candidates that won in last Tuesday’s elections.

Good:

Take another unsettled legal question: whether the Second Amendment secures an individual right to bear arms. Here is what Judge Mukasey told me: “Based on my own study, I believe that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

In other words, Judge Mukasey agrees with the Bush Administration when it comes to retroactive immunity and the Second Amendment.

Even if a court holds to the mythology that there is only a collective right to arms, they still don’t mean it:

The court essentially rules that since the State Guard can be armed by the State when activated, and the governor *probably* would do that, ownership of the guns was not reasonably related to its purposes.

An AR-15 piston upper when Kaboom!

It doesn’t mean what you think it means:

As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping, a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.

Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people’s private communications and financial information.

In other news, as is the trend, there is consideration for giving telecom companies immunity:

The most contentious issue in the new legislation is whether to shield telecommunications companies from civil lawsuits for allegedly giving the government access to people’s private e-mails and phone calls without a FISA court order between 2001 and 2007.

A time line of what lead them to where they are today.

Garand and Remington.

Armed Canadian ask of the Parker/Heller case:

What If We Lose?

Then, giddy up. Talk about energizing a bunch of gun owners.

Bargain AR-15s for $550! Via Rustmeister.

Today, the Supreme Court decides whether or not to hear the case. Decision to be announced on Tuesday.

ABC:

Exclusive: FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago

The FBI is warning that al Qaeda may be preparing a series of holiday attacks on U.S. shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago, according to an intelligence report distributed to law enforcement authorities across the country this morning.

The alert said al Qaeda “hoped to disrupt the U.S. economy and has been planning the attack for the past two years.”

I’m surprised it’s not happened yet. Also, it could be misinformation given to the feds.

LA and Chicago? Well, slim chance of meeting armed resistance there.