Seen at the Geek’s, Zumbo writes to Congress. I’m reprinting it here:

March 28, 2007
An Open Letter to the
United States Senate

Dear Honorable Ladies and Gentlemen:

It recently came to my attention that one of your colleagues, Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, has chosen to attack firearms owners using remarks I wrote in mid-February as his launch pad. As you probably know, Sen. Levin has been making anti-gun speeches every week for the past eight years because of a promise he made to the Economic Club of Detroit in May 1999.

Mr. Levin has an agenda, and he should have spoken to me before using my name in one of his speeches, especially since his remarks were entered into the Congressional Record. I would like my remarks here entered into the Congressional Record as well.

Sen. Levin is only one of 16 members of the Senate to vote against the Vitter Amendment to the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act. This amendment prohibits the confiscation of a privately-owned firearm during an emergency or major disaster when possession of that gun is not prohibited under state or federal law.

Eighty-four senators voted for that amendment, inspired by the egregious confiscation of firearms from the citizens of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005. Those seizures, you will recall, led the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association to join in a landmark civil rights lawsuit in federal court that brought the confiscations to an abrupt end.

The taking of private property without warrant or probable cause – even firearms – was considered an outrage by millions of American citizens, and yet Sen. Levin joined 15 of his colleagues in voting against this measure. It is no small wonder that Sen. Levin gets an “F” rating from gun rights organizations. He would have American citizens disarmed and left defenseless at a time when they need their firearms the most, when social order collapses into anarchy and protecting one’s self and one’s family is not simply a right and responsibility, it becomes a necessity.

That in mind, Sen. Levin must know that almost immediately after I wrote those remarks, I recanted and apologized to the millions of Americans who lawfully and responsibly own, compete with and hunt with semi-automatic rifles. I took a “crash course” on these firearms and visited with my good friend Ted Nugent on his ranch in Texas, where I personally shot an AR-15 and educated myself with these firearms.

Some of us learn from our mistakes, others keep making them. Legislation to which Sen. Levin alluded, HR 1022, would renew the ban on so-called “assault weapons,” and dangerously expand it to encompass far more perfectly legal firearms. For the Congress of the United States to even consider such legislation is an affront to every law-abiding firearms owner in this country.

This legislation that Sen. Levin appears to endorse is written so broadly as outlaw not only firearms, but accessories, including a folding stock for a Ruger rifle. As I understand the language of this bill, it could ultimately take away my timeworn and cherished hunting rifles and shotguns – firearms I hope to one day pass on to my grandchildren – as well as millions of identical and similar firearms owned by other American citizens.

It is clear to me that the supporters of this legislation don’t want to stop criminals. They want to invent new ones out of people like me, and many of you, and your constituents, friends, neighbors and members of your families. They will do anything they can, go to any extremes they believe necessary, to make it impossible for more and more American citizens to legally own any firearm.

In his final paragraph, Senator Levin misrepresents what I said. I never spoke in favor of a general assault weapons ban. Again, I immediately apologized for my blog statement that was exclusively directed toward hunting and not gun ownership.

I will not allow my name to be associated with this kind of attack on the Second Amendment rights of my fellow citizens.

A few weeks ago, in a letter to Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, I promised to educate my fellow hunters about this insidious legislation “even if I have to visit every hunting camp and climb into every duck blind and deer stand in this country to get it done.”

I will amend that to add that I will bring my effort to Capitol Hill if necessary, even if I have to knock on every door and camp in every office of the United States Senate. In promoting this ban, the Hon. Carl Levin does not speak for me, or anybody I know.

Sincerely,
James Zumbo
Cody, Wyoming

Senator Hutchison’s presser:

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) introduced the District of Columbia Personal Protection Act of 2007, a bill to restore Second Amendment rights in Washington, D.C.

“The constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens do not end when they cross into the borders of the District of Columbia,” said Sen. Hutchison.

“The gun ban has been proven ineffective by the trend of increased violent crime in the District. The citizens of Washington, D.C., deserve to have the same right to defend themselves and their families in their homes that lawful Americans enjoy.

“This requires both a legislative and judicial remedy. I hope the Parker case goes before the Supreme Court and that the court asserts that the right to bear arms is an individual, and not a collective, right as the D.C. Circuit and Fifth Circuit Courts have affirmed.”

The District of Columbia enacted the Firearms and Control Regulations Act in 1976 that banned handguns and required rifles and shotguns to be registered and stored unloaded and either locked or disassembled, giving it the most restrictive gun control laws in the nation. Prior to the gun ban’s implementation, the murder rate in the District was on the decline. Following the ban, the murder rate began to rise while violent crime was decreasing nationally. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, in 2005, the most recent year from which statistics are available, the District of Columbia led the nation in violent crime.

This comes up every couple of years. With Parker v. DC, it might actually get done. But I would not want this bill to interfere with Parker heading to the supreme court. My source says:

As I understand it, the goal is to put this legislation on the table to be enacted after a SCOTUS review of Parker, so that it would not interfere with the Parker decision.

Well, in theory, it wouldn’t be needed then.

Over at Insty’s. I like how the Webb incident is shedding light on DC’s stupid, stupid gun laws. If this happened a couple of years back, there may not have been Parker v. DC.

Bredesen is exploring toll roads to pay for TDOT. This is despite TN’s surplus. Let me be the first to say fuck that. Toll roads are inconvenient, delay traffic, require me to keep change/method of payment in my car, and are generally a pain in the ass. Here’s an idea: use the surplus or cut spending.

Reader Jon is reporting the site is slow to load. I haven’t experienced that at home or the office. Anyone else having trouble?

I ordered a book from Amazon that was published by Two Plus Two. They publish poker and gambling books. Anyway, I get the book which is unread. After page four, it skips to page 37. Later in the book, I find pages 22 – 36. But pages 5 – 21 aren’t there. I send an email to the feedback link at their site and ask if I could get the missing pages and if this was a common problem.

In a couple of hours, I get a response telling me to send them the front cover and they’ll send me a new book. Excellent customer service!

A Firefox extension that allows you to log in to multiple gmail accounts. Sweet.

Seen at NSH:

I’m told the blogosphere is going to eat our lunch. Well, the blogosphere, for the most part, spends its infinitely expanding gas talking about what we – newspapers – write, not what some blogger reported. If newspapers disappeared tomorrow it would be like pulling the fuel rods from a nuclear reactor: the lights would go out and the blogosphere wouldn’t produce a single BTU of intellectual heat.

Listen up, Sparky:

The significance of blogs is not that they break news. It’s that they criticize the news and opine on the news. See, years ago, some journalist could print the talking points of some activist group, display obvious bias, or mislead readers and the only thing that would happen would be a few folks might send a letter to the editor that would probably not get printed. Now, you guys have to kinda watch out for that. That’s the point. Like R. Neal said about blogs: it’s letters to the editor without the letters or the editor.

What is it with gun bloggers and poker?

Creative.

A to the C:

It just seems funny how folks seem to hold to authentic conservatism or libertarianism before or after they get into office, but never during.

Pollen angels

But I laughed my ass off.

San Francisco has banned plastic grocery bags. This is to save the planet. You may remember it wasn’t that long ago that only eco-terrorists asked for paper bags. People would turn in horror and explain how a living tree had to be sacrificed to make that paper bag.

Today we are much wiser. Paper bags are back. We understand that trees are a renewable resource and actually using plastic grocery bags is eco-terrorism. We just didn’t know. Of course really eco-conscious people bring there own burlap bags.

Let me clue you in. There is no right answer. No matter what you do someone will say it is not enough. The reality is we live in a world of Hobson choices.

Let me tell you the next eco-scare that will take about five years to come to fruition. Compact fluorescent bulbs will be banned. California is currently considering banning incandescent lights bulbs because the planet has a fever. Even though most people know compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury they will buy them because sheeple are followers. Better to do what you are told than to think for yourself.

Do you think the people in California will start recycling programs for Compact fluorescent bulbs before they ban the incandescent bulbs? Probably not. Sheeple have to be led.

Fuck the census bureau. Sitting on my desk right now are the following forms:

No shit. And, per each form, YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW. Title 13, United States Code, requires businesses and other organizations that receive this questionnaire to answer the questions and return the report to the U.S. Census Bureau.

This, in addition to registering in every state, dealing with unemployment in every state, licenses in every state, compliance audits from random fed/state/city entities, misc. bullshit in every state, etc. And that’s not counting income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes (for every state and many cities – on that note, I’d personally like to say fuck Alabama), quarterly filings, and other crap that requires a return of some sort.

Now, I know people in government* don’t understand this but us folks in the private sector got shit to do. Our shit, unlike your shit, generally adds value. This is time not spent doing shit that, uh, matters. Why not get this info from, say, the 4,392 other forms I send to the other people in government? Bastards.

My assistant is gonna be pissed.

* note: not applicable to the ones that actually provide a valuable service, like police, fire fighters, military, etc.

Heh.

Recent poker tourney at the final table with 6 players, I’m the short stack due to a bad beat two hands before. I’m the big blind, which is about a third of my stack. I have no choice but to take any two cards and go all in. In this situation, most of your opponents will call since putting you out is a priority at the final table. I get 9♠ 10♣. Last to act with three limpers, I go all in. Limpers call. Flop:

9♣ 9♥ 9♦

I quadruple up, now have the second biggest stack and take second in the tourney due to bad beat in the coin flip err heads up portion.

The Munchkin Wrangler: why the gun is civilization.

Hell in a Handbasket: Everything a Beginner Needs to Know About Hollowpoints

Publicola: Cats and AKs

Snowflakes in Hell: Windex to clean your AK?

Egregious Charles: Bore cleaning trick

Dr. Strangegun: Marlin 60 gun porn

PawPaw’s House: Daddy’s guns

The Sopranos returns. Sweet.

In Ohio, a lawfully-owned M-60 and Uzi machine gun were stolen.

I’ve already said that I believe Jim Zumbo and take his apology and his pledge to fight for gun rights at face value. And his attonement continues:

He has publicly apologized on Ted Nugent’s Internet forum, and he offered the same apology to Gun Week and its readers. The experience has humbled him.

But the disaster to his career has not made Zumbo want to run and hide, though many of his critics say he should. Instead, Zumbo is going to use this experience to become what he hopes will be the worst nightmare that gun-grabbing politicians and gun control activists could imagine.

“I want to join the fight, do whatever it takes,” he said in earnest. “Let’s educate the other dumb people like me who didn’t know about AR-15s. I will lead that charge.

“I’m stupid,” he added, admitting that he has never had what some people might call a “fascination” with firearms. “From my ignorance, let’s enlighten everyone else.”

Zumbo said he could have retired a year ago, and he could do likewise today, but in his heart, he feels a responsibility to square himself, and use his energies to unite the hunting and shooting fraternities, which do not always see eye-to-eye, even in this controversy.

Welcome back, guy.

Series 80 Colt Gold Cup

Heh:

Question:

What would happen to a pistol like the Glock if it was submerged in a container of drano (Drain Cleaner)?

Answer:

Since Drano is safe for plastic and metal pipes, I think it would only dissolve the hair clog in the barrel.

However, in just a few minutes a Glock fanboy will come by and post a link to a test where a Glock was put in a blender filled with Drano, sulfuric acid, Coca-Cola, pirahna, and 2 pounds of industrial diamonds. A CAT D8bulldozer was then dropped on it from 1000 feet. The owner picked up the Glock, chambered a 155mm HE round, hit a post-it note at 917 miles, and then proceeded to run 726,761 rounds of Wolf ammo coated with Gorilla Glue with no failures.

Seen at Terry Frank’s:

Sen. Jackson’s “Girls Gone Wild” bill moves forward

If they can come up with this much stupid being part time, imagine how much stupid they could come up with if they were full time.

Not sure I agree with this:

I agree that Webb should get on the repeal DC gun ban issue pronto.

I think congressional intervention would completely ruin any chance that Parker v. DC has of making it to the supreme court. For good or bad.

As told to me by Junior:

Junior: Knock, knock

Me: Who’s there?

Junior: Orange

Me: Orange who?

Junior: [runs away laughing hysterically]

It made my day.

The Corner notes a press conference by Jim Webb:

QUESTION: Do you, Senator, feel that you are above Washington, D.C.’s gun law?

WEBB: I’m not going to comment in any level in terms of how I provide for my own security.

You weren’t asked about your own security. You were asked about violating the law (for little people). Now, Webb is pretty darn pro-gun. But that doesn’t excuse how the wealthy/powerful/white get off in this town. And I have some more questions:

What type of gun was it? After all, if (in DC) you have a semi-automatic that holds more than 12 rounds it is a machine gun.

Has it or will it be returned?

Is each round of unregistered ammo a separate violation?

Is there a congressmonkey exception to DC law?

What about other DC residents who want to provide for [their] own security? And they don’t have the capitol police on guard.

Via Insty.

Update: Webb says he didn’t give the guy the gun but he doesn’t say if the gun is his or not. He also says:

“I believe that it’s important — it’s important for me, personally, and for a lot of people in the situation that I’m in, to be able to defend myself and my family,” Webb said. “Since 9/11 for people who are in government I think in general there has been an agreement that it’s a more dangerous time. Again, I’m not going to comment, again, with great specificity about how I defend myself, but I do feel that I have that right.”

Good. But what about other DC residents?

And there’s this:

Capitol Police rules allow members and their employees to bring a weapon onto Capitol grounds if it is unloaded and securely wrapped. In this case, it was allegedly neither.

Even if the guns are illegal? Which they would be if they are 1) in DC and 2) not registered prior to 1976.

The story so far. A new twist to the tale of me and my privilege to be allowed to engage in my chosen profession. The latest conversation:

SayUncle: Hello

Tax Collector: This is blah-blah-blah from the waivers department calling about your request for a waiver for penalties on your Professional Privilege Tax payment.

SayUncle: You have a waivers department?

Tax Collector: Yes.

SayUncle: Odd. So, you have an entire department dedicated to the fact you guys make a lot of mistakes.

Tax Collector: Sir?

SayUncle: Nothing. How can I help you, ma’am?

Tax Collector: Well, we show your address as [old address from a number of years back] and I have this letter from you requesting a waiver.

SayUncle: I no longer live there. Like I told the last guy, I let you guys know that via your handy little website that exists expressly for the purpose of letting you know that.

Tax Collector: We need to get your current address.

SayUncle: Well, on that letter that you have, just below the words I can be reached at.

Tax Collector: Yeah.

SayUncle: Well, you’ll notice that the first line ends in the word Road and the second line, oddly enough, ends in a five digit number. We commonly call that a zip-code. It typically indicates that, uh, that would be an address.

Tax Collector: *silence*

SayUncle: It also matches the top left portion of that thing it came in. You know, an envelope?

Tax Collector: So your current address is?

SayUncle: My address is blah-blah-blah.

Tax Collector: Thank you, sir.

SayUncle: Have a good day.

Wow. Just wow.

I know they got it rough due to bureaucracy and red tape from our alleged health care system but at least kiss me first. In the past, I’d go to the doc and he’d see me. On the way out, they’d ask for their money. Now, the want it in advance. The Second is having a very minor procedure (ear tubes) and the Dr.’s office called today to say they’ll need payment ($500, btw, that’s with insurance). But they haven’t even scheduled the procedure yet.

You’ll recall that TN Governor Phil Bredesen wanted to retain the power of restricting the ability to purchase guns and ammunition during times of natural disaster or declared emergency. He has since had a change of heart, reports Bob Krumm:

Gov. Phil Bredesen, who was at one time leery of giving up that power, signaled his support Monday for a plan to prevent Tennessee officials from suspending the sale or transport of guns during a Hurricane Katrina-like emergency.

Glenn has more.