As noted at GLN, it’s a slow day in the gun blogging neighborhood. I don’t have much to say. So, what do you want to talk about? Consider this an open thread, or something.

Via Eric’s place, comes bikini clad women with guns.

I recently purchases a forearm mounted front sight from brightflashlights.net. Their website is here (it’s under construction) and their AR15.com page is here. Good prices, excellent service, fast delivery, and quick response to my inquiries. By good prices, I mean a YHM free float, light weight forearm for $87 and a YHM forearm mounted front sight for $64.

I ordered it and they changed to my preferred shipping method for a nominal fee. They were out of stock on one item I inquired about and I asked they let me know when they got it in. I expected to not hear from them again, which is usually the case with most online vendors. However, less than two days later, I get an email telling me the item was now in stock and asking if I wanted it. Unfortunately, I had already ordered the item from elsewhere but that is excellent service. I’ll use them again in the future and think you should give them a shot too. So, check out brightflashlights ad board and their website.

I guess whoring is a good skill for both. Anyway, (via PTH) Mimi Miyagi is running for governor of Nevada. As a Republican. Here’s her campaign site.

This time, it’s a movie.

Marc is hosting a EPostal match. So, break out your printer and pistol and get with it.

Today, for the first time, Bush told Congress no. And it was for something stupid.

In comments here, ben recommended fasting to aid in quitting smoking. I’ve now been fasting for a week and a half (with the exception of Friday, when I tried the other smoking). You could say I stopped this weekend and restarted on Monday. My diet has consisted entirely of all the water I can drink, 12 ounces of carrot juice for lunch, and about five spoonfuls of plain brown rice for dinner (except for Friday). I did some research on it and figured that was the best fast for me. Some notes:

First day, you hardly notice. The second day, you get a bit cranky. And the third day, it’s as though you’re mind becomes clearer. That, according to some hippie-tree-hugging theory that I don’t necessarily believe, is because the toxins are being cleansed from my body. I have lost about 11.5 pounds (though this is not the reason for the fast, it’s not uncommon). I plan on breaking the fast tomorrow during a meal that is coincidentally called breakfast.

Somehow, a pro-gunnie (Chris Cox, actually) broke through the WaPo’s filters:

The House Commerce appropriations bill states that firearm trace information can and will be shared with any federal, state, local or international law enforcement agency in the course of a bona fide criminal investigation or prosecution. While this provision may not please New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg or The Post, 325,000 Fraternal Order of Police members and other rank-and-file law enforcement officers support it.

The editorial also said that studies have indicated that child gun safety education programs don’t work. It’s astonishing to hear anyone make the case against education. Gun safety education programs, such as NRA’s Eddie Eagle, have been pivotal in decreasing fatal firearms accidents for children 15 and under from 550 in 1975 to 56 in 2003 — down 90 percent. We take issue with your higher statistic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that classifies people 18 to 20 years old as children. The National Rifle Association invests millions of dollars to develop and teach gun safety while others merely pay lip service. The NRA will continue to work with and support rank-and-file law enforcement as they successfully combat crime.

Wow. They printed it. I am surprised.

Via Bitter, photoshopping of Giuliani campaign posters.

Via NIT, B-Ho writes:

. . . the proposed amendment simply does not discriminate against anyone. If it passes, gays and lesbians in Tennessee will continue to have the exact same marriage right that all adult Tennesseans’ already have: the right to marry one person of the opposite gender.

That’s the dumbest line of reasoning I have ever heard. In other news, you can’t marry who you want but you can chew gum – just like everyone else. Up next (via MKS) comes another conservative sort on gay cooties:

But what I just don’t understand is why conservative Christians, of which I am one, care about what two homosexuals do? If it doesn’t harm me or anyone else and it doesn’t infringe upon my freedom, then I could care less.

A marriage, as defined by the Bible, is a covenant between man, woman, and God. How many marriages do you think are performed in this state every year that do not fit that definition? I’d say quite a few.

Gay marriage has absolutely nothing to do with you, me or our freedom. So tell me, why are we spending all of this time worrying ourselves over something that has nothing to do with us?

Ayup. I support gay marriage for a variety of reasons. One reason is that certain rights (such as survivorship of an estate and the ability to make medical decisions for a loved one) should not be eliminated because a couple has matching genitalia. If they have committed themselves to one another, more power to them and they should be allowed to do it. But the primary reason I support gay marriage is because the arguments against it are just stupid. They tend to break down like this:

So, come on guys, you have to do better. Seems to me the real reason is fear of gay cooties. And unless I hear a convincing reason otherwise, I think it stands to reason to assume that.

David Hardy:

I’ve posted before on how the antigun Joyce Foundation was using its millions to, essentially, rent law reviews as fora for second amendment attacks. It’d invested in symposium issues of the Chicago-Kent Law Review and Fordham Law Review, getting them to bring in outsiders as symposium editors, inviting only anti-second amendment articles, and then paying for copies to distribute to judges and legislators. Understand, most law reviews run on a shoestring. Authors are unpaid, editors get a pittance ($600 a year when I did it). Some tax-exempt place comes in and offers tens of thousands, it’s unprecedented.

The spring issue of the Stanford Law and Policy Review is coming out with a symposium issue on, you guessed it, gun laws and the second amendment. So I did a bit of research and found this note on Joyce Foundation’s homepage, under its 2004 grants:

Go read.

Or, if I were the Brady Center, that’s what my headline would be:

The numbers are so stark you think they must be a misprint.

You check again, on another page. Same numbers.

Police fired 616 shots last year, an astounding 75 percent more than the 352 in 2004 and the highest number in any year since 1999.

They were also involved in 16 gunfights last year, up from 11 in 2004. No surprise there, as the city had more overall gun violence last year than the year before, with increases both in the number of shooting incidents and shooting victims.

But here’s what is troubling. In those gunfights with suspects, police fired 276 times – they did so just 92 times in 2004’s gunfights – while the bad guys shot back at police just 72 times. The worst cop imaginable has more restraint than the average gunman, so this is clearly a red flag.

Huh? That makes no sense. Seems to just imply that they have more ammo. Seems the cops fired about 17.25 times per gun fight. 17+1, coincidentally, happens to be the magazine capacity of their issue handgun. Not unreasonable to conclude that maybe they empty their guns in gun fights and that is not indicative of restraint.

Here’s the headline:

Mass. High Court: Gun Owners Must Lock Up Firearms

Here’s the story:

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled that gun owners may be negligent for shootings with their stolen firearms in specific situations, if they fail to properly lock up the weapons when they know someone with a history of violence has access to them.

The state’s high court, however, rejected broader firearm liability claims, dismissing the argument that gun owners should be held responsible for harm done with their weapons in all theft cases.

That’s not consistent with the headline.

Publicola calls me out on it:

As Say Uncle said:

“Here’s hoping they turn all their ammo in first.”

But as Say Uncle previously said:

“Sure, I made a half-hearted comment about sending guns to Connecticut but its pointless because I can’t send them balls.”

You’re gonna use the first veto of your entire freaking Presidency for THIS?

In light of all the nonsense on blogs about condemning people for what they say or not condemning them for what they say, I (at the urging of reader Wes) hereby condemn myself for saying:

Here’s hoping they turn all their ammo in first.

Of course, I’ve said worse and thought better of it.

Feel free to condemn me too for my excessive hyperbole.

Update: Also condemn my self for anything I said in the past. And I issue a preemptive condemnation of anything I say in the future.

American tourists are unhappy because the gov isn’t bailing them out of Lebanon fast enough, nor will the gov pick up the tab when they do get around to rescuing people. I wasn’t aware my passport came with travel insurance. I love that being an American means never having to bear the cost and responsibility of your own risk-taking.

Interestingly, France, Italy and Britain aren’t having much difficulty getting their people out. What’s more, they’re not requiring evacuees to reimburse them.

I was in Israel at the start of the second intifada. It was dangerous, but I stayed because I didn’t think Israel was going to get any better any time soon. I figured that as bad as it might be, Israel was at a relatively safe point and it might be my last chance to see Israel for a long time.

I accepted that risk. If it had turned out poorly for me, I’d have had to blame my own stupidity before blaming Washington for my bad fortune.

WATE:

A Knox County couple is suing Walt Disney Entertainment and a laundry list of others because they claim their dog was taken from East Tennessee and cast in a blockbuster motion picture.

“The dog’s getting older every day. I want him to be with me as he’s getting older,” says William Robinson.

The Robinson’s dog, Kolby, is a pure-bred Alaskan malamute.

In the summer of 2004, the Robinson’s claim Kolby broke free from his leash attached to a dog run in their yard. They haven’t seen him, in person, since that day.

But on February 14, nearly two years later, came a frantic phone call from a family member.

“We’ve seen your dog in the paper, there’s a big story about Kolby in the paper,” said William, recounting the conversation.

The story was an article in the Knoxville News Sentinel. It was a review of the movie “Eight Below” and it discussed the K-9 allegedly Kolby as “.. a former Knoxville stray who was rescued and then discovered during a casting call.”

Speaking of potential gun confiscations in Cali, I am reminded of this post at Ravenwood’s, which notes that Cali has a history of confiscation. There’s a link to a Lockyer signed document circa 1999 that concludes:

Once the 90-day window of opportunity for turning in such assault weapons concludes, we will send each sheriff and police chief a listing of the affected individuals and specific assault weapons that corresponds with their jurisdiction.

Mr. and Mrs. California, turn them in.

The state of our world is fucked up. There’s some major hooey going on in the middle east and it likely won’t improve for a while.

The Israeli’s aren’t exactly saints in their various conflicts but then, in a war, who the Hell is? And I can’t blame them really. No matter their concessions, the aggressors against them have not stopped. Ever. Even if they did, some other radical extremist group would take their place and, after a slight lull, it’s back to targeting civilians, buses, night clubs and other acts of terror. Israel takes a lot of flak from the rest of the world and some of it is deserved. But not all of it. After all, how do you deal with an opponent who wants to drive you into the sea? Simple, really. You kill them all. The flaw with that plan is the amount of civilian casualties and collateral damage. But Israel has not done that. If they were the evil bogeymen that some would have us believe, that’s what they would have done. I have a feeling the amount of a shit they give about what the world thinks will soon be about zero. And this situation is going to get worse.

Tam sums it up:

So, what we have here is a rising storm of conflict, brewing along an arc running from the mouths of the Indus to the Nile Delta. Civilization’s home turf, as it were, is sporting very few signs of it these days. That may be the soil where writing and agriculture and beer and other good things first sprang from, but that’s not all that was invented there, and sometimes it shows.

This is a situation where both sides have engaged in some pretty fucked up things. But you basically can tell which side does the more fucked up things. In terms of picking a side, I can’t help but support the one that doesn’t want to, say, kill me. So, go Jews.

Hope for peace but don’t count on it. It will likely get worse before it gets better.

In Illinois:

Earlier this month, Cook County Board member Joseph Moreno stood before the county board and called for “…house to house searches to pull every gun out of Cook County.” Moreno’s statement comes within days of Blagojevich claiming that anyone in Chicago who owns a gun is a “gang banger” and is “…up to no good.”

That’s a lot of … which may indicate Dowdifying. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the case. Looks like they have something in common with Cali.

Guy Montag got a mention in the press for his date set up via a conservative dating service, which turned out to be a reporter who wrote an article on such a service. Original story here.

A warning:

Officers from the Los Angeles County Gun Task Force in CA have begun serving search warrants on residents in that county who are suspected of holding un-registered “Assault Rifles” including 50 BMG target rifles.

If you or any of your friends have not complied with the provisions of AB-50 that require you to register any 50 BMG rifles you own, you may very well expect a knock on your door at any time.

This information was received from a former ATF agent in CA

Read the rest of the tale too. Here’s hoping they turn all their ammo in first.

A second amendment debate between Mark Tushnet & Saul Cornell. Via granted.

The “debate”, if that is the correct word, is on.

WATE reported at 5:00 and 6:00 PM Monday that Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison would “debate” former Knoxville Mayor Randy Tyree, his opponent in the 2006 Knox County Sheriff’s race, Thursday morning the 20th on radio station WNOX 100.3 FM from 7:00 to 8:30 AM.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bob Krumm posted various questionairres he’s filled out on his site. Here’s the one from the NRA. He says full-auto weapons should be licensed. He also says he thinks current laws are sufficient. Tennessee laws, other than concealed carry, basically mimic federal laws. He supports expanding places where citizens can lawfully carry. He opposes the assault weapons ban. He opposes registration. He wants to scrap the $10 TICS fee because it is redundant. He opposes limiting lawful commerce at gun shows.

He also opposes the Lautenberg amendment. I should note that he relayed a story about the Lautenberg amendment in comments a bit back. He noted:

I ran into this exact problem with one of my best NCOs when I commanded a Cavalry Troop. Thanks to Senator Lautenberg’s overly broad legislation, our nation lost a great soldier when we could have used him, because he was prohibited from being issued a weapon in the most controlled weapons environment possible: the U.S. Army. All because his ex alleged (and never proved) something during a bitter divorce.

Oh, and repeated letters to Sen. Lautenberg, written by the NCO’s commander were never once responded to.

One nit I would pick is that he opposes laws allowing people to keep weapons in their car on company premises. He states that private property owners can control their own property. I concur that they should be allowed to do that. Of course, my vehicle is my property and if I keep a weapon in it, it’s my business and not my employer’s.

Radley has a paper on botched paramilitary raids by the police here. And here’s a interactive map showing where they’ve occured. There’s one near you.

I haven’t kept up with the Glenn Greenwald thing. He said:

Prominent right-wing blogger today calls for the murder of Supreme Court Justices – the Right fails to condemn it

Failing to comment on something isn’t an endorsement so it’s a pretty lame accusation. Xrlq says:

That sounds pretty damning, until you consider that (1) no one called for the murder of Supreme Court Justices, (2) “the right” is not a religion, political party or any other entity worthy of being capitalized, (3) no one had any duty to reply to Misha’s rhetoric, and therefore cannot be reasonably said to have “failed” to condemn it if they haven’t discussed it at all, and (4) numerous right-wing bloggers have in fact condemned it. Apart from those four minor details, however, the title is spot-on.

Ok, then.

All linky, no thinky. Busy today but here’s some stuff:

Gunner has a link to a nifty looking AK scope mount. I dig the Ultimak. Looks like the one gunner likes bolts to the gun to eliminate rocking and travel, which is a problem with most AK receiver mounts.

The gun buyback in Memphis nets 41 guns.

Like you and me, only better: It is fine for New York Judges to Keep Guns Under Their Robes While They are On the Bench. Or The first indication of an oppressive law is when the law makers exempt themselves from it.

The other biased Washington paper:

When it comes to combating our crime epidemic, the nation’s capital might learn something from the state of Florida, where it’s just been reported that the crime rate has dropped for the 14th straight year, to its lowest mark since 1971.

Jeff says: Buy Those Assault Weapons While You Can. Well, you should buy them any way.

TriggerFinger, who has been doing a great job keeping up the Parker v. DC case, also notes: The Supreme Court has repeatedly suggested an individual right. Yeah, I know:

– The Court has not been quiet on this subject as previously thought, using some form of the word “gun” in its decisions 2,910 times (gun, rifle, pistol, shotgun, firearm, etc., even Winchester five times) in 92 cases. Three dozen of the cases quote or mention the Second Amendment directly.

– Armed self defense with personally owned firearms is recognized and supported in more than a dozen cases, is a distinct right of American citizens, and an ancient “duty to retreat” is not obligatory.

– The often-cited Miller case from 1939 is inconclusive, which is why gun-rights and gun-control advocates both claim it supports their position. The record shows that the Court actually remanded this case back to the lower court for retrial and a hearing on the evidence, since there was no evidence presented. Because Miller had been murdered by that time and his co-defendant had taken a plea agreement, no retrial or evidentiary hearing was ever held.

– All 92 cases are reproduced to show what the Court has actually said. More than 1,000 interesting quotations are highlighted, and each case includes a plain-English description. A special “descriptive index” reduces each case to the firearms-related question(s) it answers.

Some crime guns in DC are coming from Iraq. Don’t they know that’s illegal?