And why such comparisons aren’t particularly meaningful at Bitter’s .

Apparently, Fred Thompson has gone from: speculating about continuing to think about considering the possibility of maybe trying to ponder chewing over the prospect of flirting with running for president. Maybe next weekish, if, you know, you’re not busy.

To: announcing that he’s announcing some time soon but after the YouTube debate. Fred, get in before the debate.

Tom King, President of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, has a blog at Timesunion.com that is pro-gun running counter to the PSH of Robyn Ringler. Now, Robyn has been deleting pro-gun comments faster than John Ford is stocking up on soap on a rope (see here and here). She claims she’s only deleting comments that lack civility. And that is bullshit. Just click the two previous links to see. The fact is lack of civility means eviscerates her point or makes her look stupid. So, we gun bloggers came down on her.

Anyway, Tom King, the pro-gun blogger, has banned a commenter and deleted some comments:

PLEASE!!! I don’t care that Ms. Ringler is too insecure to post opposing views, that will never happen on this site. However; Jadegold and Warvet if I find any more posts containing wishes that our children or anyone else is injured or killed I will edit it and ban your posts from this blog. Shame on Ringler for allowing posts like that.

And she does. Tom subsequently banned Jadegold. But, here’s the deal, let them say those things. And link to them to show what vile disgusting people they are. Let their vile flummery stand to show what their side is like. They’re losing and desperate. Highlight it, don’t hide it.

Sebastian notes:

Now, I will say that it’s Tom’s sandbox, and he can definitely set any rules he wants for his blog. But we don’t do things like this in the gun blogosphere. Let them post their hysterics, cliches, and faulty data, an let our people tear it apart. That’s how it works.

[…]

We’ve spent a lot of time, here in the pro-gun blogosphere, trying to build a reputation of being willing to debate the anti-gun people on the merits of their arguments, and they’ve lost every time.

Ayup.

Update: Tom responds. I concur that the VPC is not a reputable source for, err, anything. But I like pointing out their hysteria and lies. They are their own worst enemy.

Rustmeister notes a study that concludes with what we already know:

In their analysis, Kates and Mauser compared different countries, different population groups and different types of interpersonal violence, homicide and suicide throughout much of recorded history, and found that the old anti-gun axioms that you so often hear are false:

* More firearms do not equate to more homicide or more suicide.

* Fewer firearms do not equate to less homicide or less suicide.

In fact, more often than not, just the opposite is true.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership is touting its recent protests as a success. I don’t think it means what you think it means.

Ryan Horsely makes the case that Acting ATF Director Michael J. Sullivan should not be confirmed. I concur. Under his leadership, the ATF has continued it’s priority of shutting down lawful gun dealers over clerical violations.

Seems the WaPo’s headline doesn’t match it’s story. Well, that happens when you write headlines in advance and know what you want to say.

Well, I always preferred politically incorrect self-loading rifle.

Update: Heh: PSH Inducer

Eavesdropping and warrantless wiretapping made easy:

The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act.

Via email from Jon.

Excellent news.

With Senator Larry Craig ready to resign for smoking something in the boys room, seems there’s a push to replace him with Ryan Horsely of Red’s Trading Post.

I just joined. Not sure but I think it’s fitting that I did so on my blog’s fifth birthday.

Via Ninth Stage, Bushmaster has a cool flash page showing how an AR-15 works.

Here’s one for a Glock.

Here’s one for a 1911.

The NYT doesn’t care for rights actually enumerated in the Constitution. But rights not in the Constitution are peachy. And, apparently, they think they’re in the Constitution.

Layers of editorial oversight, indeed.

Today, this blog is five years old. Wow, that’s old for a blog. I usually run some numbers on the birthdays (here’s last year’s). I’m an accountant, it’s what I do.

12,507 posts

42,416 comments

629,910 spam messages

1,676,578 words in posts

2,744,935 words in comments

1,520,729 visits per sitemeter

2,630,856 page views per sitemeter

3:28 Average Visit Length per sitemeter (note: i don’t even look at my internal stats package any more)

11,121 in bound links per technorati

One opinion piece published in a newspaper.

Five different blog software packages.

16 mentions in dead-tree media (that I know of)

$868.84 spent on blogging

$4,979 dollars made from blogging

1 number of times hacked

Update: For your reading pleasure, my first post in which I went undercover to attend the meeting of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

I used to go to Lowe’s and Home Depot about the same number of times. I recently switched completely and became a Home Depot only guy because, since I moved, they are closer to my house and they installed self check out, which absolutely rules at a home improvement store. But, despite convenience and proximity, my dollars will now go to Lowe’s only:

Dustin Chester is job hunting this week, after The Home Depot fired him and the general manager for thwarting a thief from running away with a pocket full of stolen cash.

Last week, the 24-year-old department manager confronted a man who was standing by a soda machine in front of the Murfreesboro store off Old Fort Parkway holding a crowbar and a wad of cash. When the suspect started running, Chester said his instincts took over.

He was fired Monday for violations of company policy in the incident.

“When he ran, I ran after him,” he said. Chester caught the thief and restrained him in the parking lot until police arrived.

Chester was shocked to find out that for managers and most employees, catching and detaining thieves is against company policy.

And:

The Home Depot said its policy, which directs workers to notify loss prevention specialists or police to handle criminal situations, is in place to protect its employees and customers.

“The associates involved were not following company policy, resulting in this disciplinary action,” said Don Harrison, spokesman for the Atlanta-based company. “Safety is a primary focus for our company.”

Doing the right thing should also be a primary focus.

Another of my County Commissioners has a blog. Welcome Commissioner Walker.

Gun Blogger The Trainer has suffered a stroke. Send happy thoughts his way.

Writes Wayne LaPierre on Why They’ll Lose:

At the end of the day, the Brady Campaign “wins” by taking away your rights. The NRA “wins” by protecting them. And ultimately, I believe that’s why we’ll win more battles than we lose.

I look at it this way: we are already winning. 48 states have CCW provisions, of which 37 are shall issue and 2 states don’t require a permit. The AWB expired. The gun maker immunity bill passed. The DOJ’s official position (bucking 40 years of precedent) is that the second amendment guarantees and individual right. Both major political party platforms say that as well. I predict Wisconsin will go shall issue in the next two years. 2/3rds of Americans oppose additional gun controls. A circuit court in DC struck down draconian gun laws based on second amendment grounds. States are passing castle doctrine laws so fast, my head is spinning. And they’ve expanded self-defense laws. The Democrats won’t touch gun control with a ten foot pole. And anti-gunners like Romney and Giuliani are recanting their old positions. We’re winning and we will continue to do so. The best that anti-gunners can do is spin the NRA supported NICS Improvement bill as a gun control measure, which it is not.

That scares the Brady Bunch, the Gonzos, the Ringlers and the Millers.

For when you’re lost in the woods.

Says Sebastian:

I hate being a cheerleader for the NRA. I would love to be able to sit down with pro-gun people, and have a reasonable discussion about things that I think the NRA could be doing better, things I wish they wouldn’t do, and things I wish they’d pay more attention to.

But all too often I get the sense that a lot of people are more interested in flinging poo at the NRA than they are at fighting gun control. There’s even an active contingent of pro-gun people out there who believe that flinging poo at the NRA amounts to fighting gun control!

Yes. He concludes with:

To the extent that the pro-gun movement is a bickering family, we’re healthy, and I don’t worry. But as soon as it turns into the Hatfields vs. McCoys, we’re in serious trouble. Too many people want to make this a feud, and it gets tiring. I can think of no better way to enable a resurgent anti-gun movement than to spend energy fighting each other.

To prove my sincerity, I will today (for the first time) join the NRA.

punk’d.

In light of the upcoming Republican YouTube debate, people are getting their questions on. Perhaps this time, CNN will pick questions that do not evoke PSH (unlike last time). So, here’s one I’d love to see asked of the Republicans:

Joe says:

Here’s the assignment/request/bleg… It will literally take ONE MINUTE of your time.

Go to CNN’s comment page LINK HERE and post the following message:

Please play Tom Gresham and Clint Smith’s question for the GOP candidates!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FI4LwjbEyg

Via Tam.

I haven’t read it yet. But Stan has.

In NY. Shocking! Speaking of John Lott, he has an opinion piece that runs a familiar theme about more guns and how they would prevent mass murder. I would also point out my very unscientific accounting of mass murderers stopped by armed citizens.

At our vacation condo, Junior was confused by the telephone. See, she’s never seen one with a cord attached to it before.

Of course, she’d never seen commercials before a couple of months ago.

The city (my the city) is getting a mobile command center. I don’t know what that is or why Maryville needs one but they’re putting their drug and Homeland Security money to use.

But the Shooters’ Carnival is done for.

Photoblog at the Norfolk City Council Meeting.

In other news, CAOCOO is back.

101 = hundreds.

And the four to one ratio indicates no bias at all.