The NRA is backing Wyoming in its suite against the ATF:

Two national gun rights groups are supporting Wyoming’s lawsuit over a federal agency’s rejection of a state law that allows people with misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence to petition in state court to regain their right to carry guns.

The National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners Foundation have both filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Wyoming’s challenge against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Wyoming filed suit in May against the ATF claiming it exceeded its authority by rejecting the state law, which was passed in 2004.

Federal law prohibits people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning guns.*

Although Wyoming’s law allows people to petition to expunge such convictions for purposes of restoring their gun rights, it would still allow the original conviction to count against a person as a previous conviction if he ever got in trouble with the law again. ATF says that means the state law doesn’t allow full expunging of a person’s record, and that person would still have a conviction with regard to the federal prohibition.

Here’s hoping states’ rights prevail.

Interesting:

Americans were robbed and victimized by gun violence at greater rates last year than the year before, even though overall violent and property crime reached a 32-year low, the Justice Department said Sunday.

Experts said these increases buttress reports from the FBI and many mayors and police chiefs that violent crime is beginning to rise after a long decline. Bush administration officials expressed concern but stressed that it was too soon to tell if a new upward trend in violence had begun.

Last year, there were two violent gun crimes for every 1,000 individuals, compared with 1.4 in 2004, according to the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. There were 2.6 robberies for every 1,000 persons, compared with 2.1 the year before.

“This report tells us more the serious events — robbery and gun crimes — increased and the FBI already told us homicides increased,” said criminal justice professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University.

I’m sure it won’t be long before the expiration of the ban on weapons that look like assault weapons is blamed.

Heh.

In an update to a defensive gun use being in NYC reported in the NYT, reader d writes:

The bad thing about this though: under NYC law, this is an illegal shooting. (Unless a woman in a wheelchair managed to unlock her guncase, take the triggerlock off, take the ammo out of the separate bag, all while fighting off an adult male).
The NYPD are just too embarrassed to charge her.

At the UT v. Air Force game last night, I saw 3 fighter plans and a B52 bomber fly the stadium as part of the ceremonies. I thought it was an impressive sight. Then I thought I wonder how much this cost the taxpayers? Probably quite a bit. But I should just get over it.

Smarminess aside, Xrlq makes a good point about taxes you should be reminded of.

The NYT actually reported a defensive gun use. I share Kevin’s shock. Perhaps something like this getting press is enough to get New Yorkers to not be so oppositional to shall-issue carry.

What? It could happen.

Update: Feh, nevemind

Nice. Via the Benz.

Heh.

David has the testimony of Preston K. Covey, Ph.D. to The Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Urban Violence.

Physics Geek:

My blog will change in response to FEC rules. No more quizzes, no more book or movie memes. All political advocacy all the time.

Traction Control:

This site pledges to uphold the Constitutional right to free speech by providing ad and message space to restricted organizations.

Dr. Helen has a post about women learning to shoot. Interesting reading.

Anyway, anyone who wants to go shooting (women or men) in the Knoxville area can shoot me an email at:

I’ll be happy to take you. I’ve taken a few people shooting for the first time and they’ll attest that it was mostly painless.

Speaking of, I think it may be time for another blogger shoot?

No, they don’t.

Some gun bills were marked up in committee:

9/7/2006 Full Committee Markup of H.R. 2679, H.R. 5092, H.R. 5005, H.R. 1384, H.R. 1415, Motion to authorize the issuance of a subpoena to Secretary Elaine L. Chao, Department of Labor, and H.R. 5830. H.R. 2679, the “Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005”; H.R. 5092, the “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act of 2006”; H.R. 5005, the “Firearms Corrections and Improvements Act”; H.R. 1384, the “Firearm Commerce Modernization Act”; H.R. 1415, the “NICS Improvement Act of 2005”; Motion to authorize the issuance of a subpoena to Secretary Elaine L. Chao, Department of Labor; and H.R. 5830, the “Wright Amendment Reform Act.”

The Brady Bunch doesn’t like it. So it can’t be all bad:

A House panel today cleared for full action by the House of Representatives a bill that would make it virtually impossible for Federal authorities to shut down gun dealers who violate the law. The bill would make it virtually impossible for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) to revoke the licenses of even the most egregious rogue gun dealers in the country.

The bill now faces likely House action as early as next week. Opponents of the bill, H.R. 5092, criticized the measure Thursday as a wholly inappropriate step in a time when the nation is otherwise cracking down on security to fight the war on terror.

Wow, more terror references.

The ATF has issued an alert regarding the world’s least powerful handgun:

Federal ATF Agents issued an officer safety advisory on what is called the world’s smallest gun after a CBS 2 inquiry. The Alert has been issued both in the New York and nationally to all Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives criminal investigators and will be passed on to other federal agencies.

ATF has confiscated thousands of disguised or miniature guns — from flashlights that shoot a .25 caliber bullet to pen guns.

Err, neither are mini-guns. Those are Any Other Weapons, and are regulated in the same way that machine guns and sound suppressors are, though the tax on them is only $5 as opposed to $200. The story goes on to say:

According to William McMahon, special agent in charge of the New York ATF office, that makes it the perfect stealth weapon for a variety of criminals.

“A terrorist, a criminal trying to sneak into bank, all kinds of criminals. I can see no legitimate reason to own this gun. It seems to be just made to be hidden,” McMahon said.

Not exactly an alert, now is it. And no story is complete without terror:

As its name indicates, the SwissMiniGun is manufactured in Switzerland. CBS 2 News reached the company’s CEO, Paul Erard, by phone.

He said the gun is a miniature, detailed copy of the Colt Python revolver. He sells it for roughly $5,000 to gun collectors (though he added that most of his guns are encrusted with diamonds and gold, so they can cost $30,000).

He said he has sold 50 miniguns, all to only one area of the world. “Contacts in the Middle East asked me to make a miniature of Colt Python,” said Erard.

Erard refused to say which Middle-Eastern countries. His reaction when asked if terrorists might use it? At first he laughed and said, “ Absolutely ridiculous.”

Yeah, street thugs are going to buy them for $5,000. And they’re not really powerful enough to be much of a threat. I’m pretty sure importing these items may be illegal as they don’t meet the point system for handgun importation. That’s assuming these are classified as firearms.

The ATF Marc has the skinny on the world’s least powerful handgun.

Quote of the day:

Unfortunately, too many members of the clergy believe the First Amendment is absolute, thus, all religions should be legal to practice.

Yeah, go see what she’s talking about.

Insty:

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparancy (sic) Act, S. 2590 has unanimously passed the Senate.

Cool.

Yeah, people have said the gun porn has been lacking. Well, here is a pick of a newly painted VZ58.

Here’s some carbines.

Here’s some pics (scroll down) of the AR45, a 45ACP AR-15 that uses grease gun mags.

And while we’re at it, here’s some links to knife porn.

And some Rimfire porn.

I like Betty Bean. Met her once with a bunch of the other hippies who hang out an Knoxviews.com. Invited her shooting. She said she’d go but I haven’t heard from her. Anyway, I like Betty because she’s the one columnist in Knoxville that isn’t afraid to poke the powers that be with a pointy stick. Apparently, she may be under fire for poking them with a particularly pointy stick known as Tyler Harber:

From what we have learned, when Betty found out that she had been ambushed, so to speak, she called Hallerin and got put through to his voicemail. Apparently she gave him an ear full, and in the heat of the moment may have said something about him being a “chickenshit.”

Rumor has it that a recording of her voicemail is being circulated among the GOB “powers that be” and that “Scripps brass” [as in E.W. Scripps Co. who recently purchased the Halls Shopper and also owns the Knoxville News Sentinel] have been notified.

Well, here’s hoping Scripps doesn’t do the wrong thing.

Prior coverage here of the military looking into a 45ACP pistol. Now, Defense Review notes:

The “Description” section of the latest modification (Modification 04) of Solicitation number: H92222-05-R-0017 for a .45 ACP Joint Combat Pistol (JCP) System–now called the Combat Pistol (CP)–states:

“This notification is to inform Industry the Combat Pistol requirement is postponed indefinately. USSOCOM will no longer issue a Request for Proposal.”

But that would excuse this nonsense.

If you had told your tale a bit differently, you’d have had my sympathy. But the crazy crept in and you said:

Men Are Scum Until Proven Otherwise

You are almost as vile and despicable as this Mathew Allen White you speak of. And the only reason I say almost is because your hateful words at least have the benefit of not causing physical harm. Misandry is as deplorable as misogyny.

Via AC, who says:

On a different occasion, I might quarrel with this assertion — but not today.

Sorry, but suffering a tragedy does not bestow infallibility on the victim. I hate that it happened to her daughter and I have no tolerance for abusive people. But it’s no excuse for crazy. And it’s no excuse for generalization. What if it was a black man? Do we then assert that Blacks Are Scum Until Proven Otherwise? No, because that’s racist and unacceptable.

And Sarcastro notes in comments:

Judging from the pics, it looks like left-handers could also be called utter scum until proven otherwise.

Update: Crazy lady responds:

Never mind that my choice of words was lifted verbatim from the mouth of my daughter’s father — a man who has been issuing the warning: men are scum until proven otherwise — since the day the first boy came near one of his daughters.

Perhaps you should have disclosed that in the original post? Or, more likely, you’re making shit up. And:

The problem is not my choice of words. The problem is that a woman said them.

I don’t care who said it. It’s a vile and despicable thing to say, but that’s what I’ve come to expect from egalia.

I’m not a defender of manhood. Just critical of hysterical, raving lunatics. My sympathies to your daughter for both the abuse she’s suffered and the perverted, disgusting life lessons you subject her to.

Update 2: Aunt B weighs in. A couple of points I disagree with but otherwise, right on.

I’ve covered how TeeVee shows acclimimate people to civil liberties violations and gun misrepresentations before. here’s one:

Saw the best “Law and Order” episode last night, with about every liberal antigun cliche you could hope to see. White Male college student, upset over his medical school rejection(due to affirmative action quotas), goes postal on a group of female pre-med students in central park with a converted full auto pistol(supposed to be a Mac, but they used some other name in the show)The cops can’t use his confession so they go after both the FFL dealer(a kitchen dealer in PA naturally) and the guy who sold the “conversion kit”. Assistant DA sighs that anyone with “20 seconds and a screwdriver” could do the job. There was also some mumbo jumbo about how the shooter used a file on the barrell rifling immediately after the shooting so that ballistics wouldn’t be able to make a match. For some reason, the DA decides to go after the manufacturer of the pistol, located in Connecticut, and gets humiliated in court when the Judge tells him he has no standing to bring such a case. What a load of crap.

I’ve watched reporters throw out investigative pieces that seem to be lacking evidence. That get all confrontational with some poor schmuck. And I always think to myself Self, why doesn’t that dude knock the shit out of that reporter? What, like you never thought that? Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, some dude assaulted a reporter:

A television reporter investigating a suspected real estate scam was attacked by a woman and her husband, who punched and tackled him as a cameraman videotaped the incident.

Reporter John Mattes of Fox 6 News said he was treated for cracked ribs, bite wounds and cuts to his face after the confrontation Tuesday. The couple, identified by authorities as Assad “Sam” Suleiman, 36, and his wife, Rosa Amelia Barraza, 33, were arrested.

The article concludes with:

No charges have been filed against either in connection with the real estate allegations Mattes was investigating.

Sure, they could be guilty of the scam but I wouldn’t convict anyone based on an investigative journalist’s work.

Brittney has the video.

So, I get a lot of spam comments and Spam Karma does a good job of keeping them away. But every once in a while, one sneaks through the cracks. And last night was such a day. I get a spam comment that says (foul language follows – click more if you can handle pornographic language) Read the rest of this entry »

But a court in Ohio pokes the system with a stick:

Ohio’s rules for primary elections make it too hard for minor parties to get on the ballot, a federal appeals court ruled.

Parties automatically qualify for the primary ballot if their candidate for governor or president received at least 5 percent of the vote in the previous Ohio election. Any other party must file a petition four months before the primary election with signatures equal to 1 percent of the number of total votes cast in the last state election.

That requirement meant minor parties had to file petitions with 32,290 voter signatures by Nov. 3, 2003, to get candidates on the March 2004 primary ballot.

In a 2-1 opinion, a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel Wednesday that the rules were unnecessarily strict and tougher for small parties to meet. The court ruled Ohio’s rules violate the First Amendment and have “a negative impact … on minor parties and on political activity as a whole in Ohio.”

I’ve noticed here in Tennessee also that minor parties aren’t even identified on the ballot.

David Hardy notes this interview at Buzzflash with Saul Cornell which, as far as I can tell, says the second amendment secures a right to arms; but it doesn’t; but it does; but it doesn’t. Or something. I’m not quite sure. You tell me.

I should point out that Buzzflash is allegedly run by the guy who runs The Gun Guys and the Freedom State Alliance and Ask John Lott and Who is Mary Rosh.

Details here and here.

Prior coverage here and see Pro-Gun Progressive’s excellent coverage here. Here’s the study. First, guns traced aren’t always crime gun, despite what they tell you. Here’s the rifles they found:

21 Colt AR-15s
46 USA Military Surplus M1 Carbines*
55 Ruger Mini14s*
92 HiPoint 9mm carbines*
294 North China Industries SKS variants*

First, none of those are assault rifles because they are not machine guns. Those with asterisks beside them weren’t even classified as assault weapons under the ban. The AR-15s could have been pre or post ban models. And the Rugers and M1s could have been altered to a banned configuration.

Any way, they’re full of it as usual. Could be worse, they could do like the VPC did and classify a jeep as an assault weapon.

Update: From Jay’s comment:

From the Ceasefire press release:

According to the tracing data, the most common assault rifles traced to crime by make and model include: 21 Colt AR-15s; 46 USA Military Surplus M1 Carbines; 55 Ruger Mini14s; 92 HiPoint 9mm carbines; and 294 North China Industries SKS variants.

Note the inclusion of “Ruger Mini14s” as “assault rifles.”

Yet these rifles were specicifically exempted from the 1994 assault weapon ban as “Hunting and Sporting Firearms.”

link

Senator Feinstein, the author of the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban, says on her web site:

Hunting Guns and Other Recreational Weapons Exempted in the Legislation:

Ruger Mini-14 Autoloading Rifle (w/o folding stock)

link

The Brady Campaign says on their web site:

The amendment specifically lists 650 sporting rifles that would not be affected by the ban.

link

Then-President Clinton said in “An Open Letter to Hunters and Sportsmen” on April 29, 1994:

“High-paid lobbyists argue that the assault weapons ban will infringe on our right, as hunters and sportsmen, to own guns. But what they don’t tell you is that the proposal I support specifically safeguards hunter’s rights. It explicitly protects more than 650 hunting and recreational rifles from the ban.”

link

Why is Ceasefire describing as “assault rifles” guns that were described as “hunting,” “sporting,” and “recreational” rifles by Senator Feinstein, the Brady Campaign, and President Clinton?

I put a notice for free ads in defiance of the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act over on the sidebar. No hits yet, which I find odd.

Anyone wanting and ad can email me at:

You can email me your ad text and a small image or I’ll give a free offer code at blogads to run your ad.

Ayup:

“Oh yeah, that’s [shall-issue concealed carry in New York – ed.] going to happen when hell freezes over,” a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Peter Hamm, said.

I think it’s pretty safe to write off California, Illinois, and Massachusetts as well.

It’s no secret that I am no fan of Bob Corker. I’m also not a fan of Harold Ford.

This morning on local talk radio, HHH interviewed ol’ Bob. This was the first time I’ve heard Bob speaking off the cuff. Bob’s message was simple:

My personal opinion is that, while Ford talks the talk, he doesn’t walk the walk. His voting record is inconsistent and opportunistic. I’d like, for example, to think that Ford really is as conservative and pro-gun as he says he is. But his ties with the big government, nanny statists mentioned above means I don’t believe him.

Corker, I’m not a fan of either. He doesn’t have a voting record. His record as Chattanooga mayor is mixed. He’s been caught lying. And I think he’s a pussy.

Ordinarily, backing by Schumer (spit), Kennedy, Clinton, Kerry, etc. would be enough for me to support the opposition. And that’s the case now, but I ain’t happy about it. And, while I’m not happy with Republicans, I damn sure don’t want the Democrats in charge.

Update: And, as Xrlq points out in comments, future supreme court nominees are potentially at risk here. Definitely something I don’t want happening when folks with Ds after their names are in power. And this ain’t the time to farting around with that.