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The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. - Ayn Rand "I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing." KdT
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Wahabism Delenda Est     Hey, FEC!  BITE ME! I'm a Member of the McCain-Feingold INSURRECTION!    "Jeez, Kevin... calling you an asshole would be a huge understatement, wouldn't it?" -Jack Cluth, The People's Republic of Seabrook (Coming from you, Jack, it's an honor.)  email: gunrightsAT comcastDOTnet INVITATION: If you have never shot a firearm, regardless of your position on the right to arms, and if you live near or visit the Tucson, AZ metropolitan area, I invite you to go shooting for a day. I will provide the arms, ammunition, targets, safety equipment, range fees and instruction. All you have to do is show up. 6 Takers To Date DO YOU LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE and want to try shooting? Click HERE  Proud Gun-blogging member of the Pajamahadeen since May, 2003!
Debates: "The Commentary" A OLD discussion on gun control between me and an Irishman living in London Start here. UPDATED! Now with archive! Post #1 by Alex, a Guest A multi-post discussion hosted here at TSM My short exchange with Professor Saul Cornell of the Second Amendment Research Center Best Posts: The "Rights" Discussion: What is a "Right?" What is a "Right"? Revisited, Part I Part II Rights, Morality, Idealism & Pragmatism, Part I Part II Part III Part IV The United Federation of Planets Is the Government Responsible for Your Protection? Part I & Part II 1975 in Washington, D.C. vs. 2004 in Canton, Ohio Go Ahead, Rely on the Government for Your Protection The Other Side Liberal vs. Conservative: Both are Necessary The Blog that Ate Poughkeepsie Updated and restated as: Of Laws and Sausages Militias A Mistake a Free People Get to Make Only Once This is NOT What I Wanted to Read TRUST The Lying "News" Media, Pt. II Say WHAT? Bias? What Bias? Agenda? What Agenda? The Church of the MSM and the New Reformation Let's See if I Can "Germinate an Intelligent Thought" Here The ACLU Hasn't Changed its Tune They Never EVER Stop It is Not the Business of Government Five Reasons Why It ISN'T They Keep Making Better Fools Five Month Investigation, 10 Tracer Rounds, Two Felony Convictions That Sumbitch Ain't been BORN! On Guillotines and Gibbets England Slides Further Towards Bondage Pressing the "RESET" Button Freedom's Just Another Word for Nothin' Left To Lose A Terrible Resolve The Courts Will Not Save Us Trilogy: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions "Game Over, Man. Game Over." An Important Question And the denouement: Hudson Was Wrong The Dangerous Victims Trilogy: "(I)t's most important that all potential victims be as dangerous as they can" Violence and the Social Contract Governments, Criminals, and Dangerous Victims In the same vein: Those Without Swords Can Still Die Upon Them The True Believers Trilogy: True Believers March of the Lemmings Reasonable People Also in the same vein: Tough History Coming Technical Dissertations Why Ballistic Fingerprinting Doesn't (And Won't) Work Spin, Spin, Spin Speaking of Teddy Kennedy... This is the Kind of Thing That REALLY IRRITATES ME Questions from the Audience?
BLOGROLL:
PROTESTWARRIOR Some people who are taking the fight to the Left. And some GREAT T-shirts, too. DAILY READS I need a longer day! Day by Day InstaPundit Lileks' The Bleat Kim du Toit Mostly Cajun View from the Porch Of Arms and the Law TFS Magnum Ravenwood's Universe Irons in the Fire Say Uncle TRUE EXCELLENCE American Digest The Belmont Club Boobs, Injuries, and Dr. Pepper The Volokh Conspiracy Michael Yon Varifrank Eject!Eject!Eject! Eternity Road Oleg Volk Personal Effects ON INDEFINITE HIATUS USS Clueless The Safety Valve Ipse Dixit The Lopsided Poopdeck Acidman (RIP) Skywritings Publicola D.C. Thorton Smoke on the Water OTHER GUN/RIGHTS BLOGS Airborne Combat Engineer AlphaPatriot Alphecca American Dinosaur A Day in the Life of an Ambulance Driver The Anarchangel The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler Argghhh! The Bitch Girls Boots and Sabers The Breda Fallacy Call Me Ahab Carnaby Fudge Clayton Cramer Cogito Ergo Geek Countertop Chronicles Cowboy Blob Critical Mastiff Cryptic Subterranean FreedomSight From the Heartland Fun Turns to Tragedy!!! The Geek with a .45 Gunwatch Heartless Libertarian Hell in a Handbasket Individ Justin Buist's Blog The LawDog Files Lead and Gold Les Jones Live from the (upper) Texas Gulf Coast Mad Ogre The Michael Bane Blog Moral Flexibility Mr. Completely Murdoc Online The Munchkin Wrangler Ninth Stage No Looking Backwards No Quarters Oscar Poppa Outrageous Malfunction Pass the ammo Posse Incitatus Random Nuclear Strikes Reasonablenut Resistance is Futile! Sandcastles and Cubicles SlagleRock's Slaughterhouse Snowflakes in Hell Surly Curmudgeon Texican Tattler The Ten Ring South Park Pundit Triggerfinger The View From North Central Idaho Vox The War on Guns Weck Up To Thees! Wince and Nod Xavier Thoughts .45 Caliber Justice BLOGGERS I'VE MET A Keyboard and a .45  
| Monday, July 07, 2003 Lest Ye Think I'm a Bible-Thumping Right-Winger Over on AR15.com, someone asked a series of questions of those of us who are non-believers (and if you have to ask "Non-believers of what?" where have you been the last couple of decades?). Sort of an eight-question quiz of the type that have been so, um, popular around the blogosphere of late. Here are his questions (in bold) and my responses (in grey): Our initial kickoff to the USA was the Declaration which says;Your thoughts? | Did You Have a Good Weekend? I did. Celebrated my parent's 49th wedding anniversary on Friday, took a couple of newbies shooting on Saturday, went in to the office on Sunday and programmed. This looks like a really busy week, so posting will be light. Sorry about that. So, to give you something to think about (and possibly more information than you really wanted to know about me,) I'm going to follow Steven Den Beste's lead and answer Acidman's 25 questions. 1. Do you have a personal hero? If so, who is it? Um, no. There are a lot of people I really admire, but no single person I'd consider a hero. 2. What is your favorite book of all time and what made it so fucking good? The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Anson Heinlein. I think this book is mostly responsible for my political outlook. 3. What does “diversity” mean to you? Let me quote from someone who put it better than I could: Diversity is: "...a white guy driving his chinese girlfriend in an Italian car to a Mexican restaurant, and getting pulled over by a black cop." Mix ethnicities and genders as desired. That's America, baby! 4. What is the wildest thing you’ve ever done? Spun a 5.0 liter Mustang off an on-ramp at about 70mph. 5. Do you regret doing it? No. No harm, no foul. And I think it really proved to me I'd chosen the right woman to marry when she (sitting in the passenger seat) didn't rip me a new one for showing my ass. 6. Can you drive a stick shift? Not only can I, I prefer it. I'd much rather stir my own gears. 7. What’s the highest speed you ever traveled in a car? 120 mph indicated. In that same Mustang. It had more in it, but the road didn't. 8. Were you driving, or riding at the time? Driving. 9. Which is better: snakes or spiders? I prefer snakes. Spiders give me the willies. 10. What is the most disgusting thing you ever ate? Asparagus. Sue me, but I find asparagus disgusting. 11. Have you ever shit your pants? Be HONEST! Yup. Syncoptic episode, voided my bowels. Not pleasant. When I regained consciousness someone was looking down at me and said "Are you OK?" To which I replied: "If I was OK, would I be laying here?" 12. Was losing your virginity an enjoyable experience? No. Educational, yes. Enjoyable, no. 13. Should oral sex be outlawed or encouraged? Who in their right mind would want to outlaw it? 14. Name one man with a fine ass. Not my cuppa. I suppose you could pick any random Chippendale dancer. At least that's what my wife says. 15. Do you watch golf on television? If not, will you iron my shirts? No, and no. 16. Who is Martha Burk? A laughingstock, I hope. 17. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I'd drop at least 50 lbs. 18. Do you eat raw oysters? I don't eat anything that resembles snot. 19. Are you claustrophobic? No. 20. If you rode a motorcycle, would you wear a helmet even if the law said you didn‘t have to? Yes. I've studied physics, which is why I wear a seatbelt regardless of the seatbelt laws. 21. Name five great Presidents. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Reagan, 22. Name three shitty Presidents. Carter is the only shitty President I can come up with. Everything he did turned eventually to shit. There were certainly some that were no gems, but I wouldn't hang the term "shitty" even on Bubba. He was merely bad. 23. Now call me fanny and slap my ass. Just kidding. Ha ha. 24. This is the 4th of July. Did you set off any fireworks? No, but I went shooting Saturday. Does that count? 25. If you could have dinner and conversation with anyone in the history of the planet, who would you choose? Robert Heinlein, I think. | Friday, July 04, 2003 THE WAIT IS OVER! TRINITY is up! More later. I need to read & savor. UPDATE: Done - although I had to go back and get the rest. Apparently even Moveable Type has a length limit. Worth the wait, too. Trinity: Capitalism, Freedom, Ingenuity. Get out of the way, we don't know what this thing can do! (But it'll be great!) Go spend some time. Read. Improve yourself. | Thursday, July 03, 2003 Quote of the Day, Last Post of the Night From Tex's Whacking Day blog: Tex's first law of government: The inevitable failure of legislation will be seen as a justification for even more legislation.Ayup. | Emperor Misha Addresses an Excellent Question As you all know, we Americans are extremely proud of being the freest country on the planet, and rightfully so.Go to the post. Leave a comment. Make it a good one. | Well THIS is an Interesting Question. New blogger Wince and Nod asks: Sofia Sideshow commented a while back about how a shotgun is Hollywood's weapon of choice when it comes to dealing with monsters. I wonder what Rachel Lucas, Kim du Toit or Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority would have to say about this.This is reminiscent of the oft-recurring question "What caliber is best for defeating flesh-eating zombies?" that somebody brings up on AR15.com at least once every two or three months. Sofia Sideshow's site puts it this way: Shotguns are also good demon-killing tools. Shotguns are really the action-movie Leatherman. They're so useful. Aliens, Terminators, Demons, Raptors...whoever grabs the shotgun at the "we better grab some weapons" part of a movie usually lives.To go along with that, I've got a quotation archived by a "K.R. Murphy": "There are precious few horror films that couldn't be cut well short by a single loaded 12 gauge and someone with the sense to use it."Truer words...
Shotguns are quite effective defensive weapons. That's one reason that police cruisers were for years equipped with a riot gun. Nothing gets someone's attention quite like racking the slide on a pump-action, and very little else makes as much an impression as 12 .33 caliber 00 buckshot pellets from a 12 gauge shell, or a 1-1/8 ounce slug. At close range, the shotgun is a devastating weapon, even against the undead! No demon will remain unaffected after receiving the contents of both barrels of a boomstick, no zombie will be munching on your brain after you've removed his lower jaw with a well-aimed blast of buck, and even though you risk getting splashed with blood with a pH of zero, no alien exoskeleton will withstand a point-blank impact of a slug. Of course, not too much is effective against the polymer alloy of a T-1000 Terminator, but a shotgun at least slows one down - more than a 9mm Europellet anyway. I think the defensive shotgun is an excellent choice against goblins of all types, which is one reason I own one of these:
Thanks for asking. | Isn't This Nice: Sean Penn Gets One of His Guns Back In April, Sean Penn's Buick Grand National was stolen while he ate lunch at a Berkley restaurant, and in it were two handguns, a 9mm Glock and a .38 revolver. Turns out that Mr. Penn (who has a conviction for assault and spent a month in jail for it) has a California concealed-carry permit! The car was recovered five days later, but not the guns. Well, at least one of them has turned up, and Mr. Penn is going to get it back. The Glock might have turned up. A Glock matching Penn's was found, but it has spent at least a month in the ocean and barnacles obscure the serial number. Per the article: Police said there is no evidence that Penn's .38 was involved in any crimes, and it will likely be returned to the actor, who is currently filming his latest movie called "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" in Oakland.OFF the street? I thought that people with CCW's put more guns on the streets! I cannot help but wonder if, should this have happened to John Q. Public (who probably would have had a much harder time getting a CCW), would the police have been so enthusiastic about giving it back? I feel safer already. | Wednesday, July 02, 2003 If You Didn't See This in the Carnival of the Vanities... Read it now. Via Nikita Demosthenes, Orson Scott Card's article Moral Stupidity. Money quote: It makes me ashamed of the Democratic Party that this seems to be the only moral process available to the party's leadership. I used to call myself a "Moynihan Democrat."Much, much more crunchy goodness. I've always liked Orson Scott Card, although I find his fiction writing hit-or-miss. | The Global Disarmament of the Law Abiding Continues... First, for your reading displeasure, Rachel Lucas has an excellent post about Australia's latest exercise in And our neighbors to the North now have a whole lot more criminals in their midst. Their registration deadline ran out Monday, so an estimated 300,000 new criminals exist! Don't you feel safer already? | "I Know, Let's Make Guns REALLY Illegal!!" Britain's Evening Mail provides the following wrenching and earnest op-ed piece, Let's end gun misery: The anguished mothers of Birmingham's New Year party victims will brief a powerful body of MPs on the problems of gun crime in Britain's inner cities.What they don't tell you is that the shooter used a submachine gun - illegal to possess in England since the 1930's. But they're available on the black market along with other goodies like hand grenades. Now the mothers will tell politicians of the heart-rending and long-lasting impact gun crime has had on them and the community.And apparently risking getting killed for speaking up, since the criminals don't seem to fear the police very much. "They are a credit to the community and we will be interested to hear their views on tackling the menace of guns and the gang culture that spawns such violence.Now, bear in mind that this is in a country where there are only about 600,000 legal shotgun owners and about 125,000 legal rifle owners, and ZERO legal handgun owners or submachine owners, or "assault rifle" owners outside the government. (The London police did recently upgun to the H&K G36 assault rifle.) And the legal ownership levels are declining each year. But NOW there's a SURGE of firearms involved violence. NOW there's an "emergent gun culture." No, they killed the good "gun culture" and are left with the unfettered bad one. What's next, really really banning guns? Let's really end "gun misery" in England - teach people to defend themselves, and then let them carry and keep guns in the home. Nothing else seems to work. Banning sure as hell proved useless. | Tuesday, July 01, 2003 Build a Better Mousetrap... At last Saturday's AR15.com Casa Grande shoot, one of the guys showed up with his new invention, the SST-870:
Introducing the SST-870 AR15 buttstock adapter for the Remington 870 shotgun.Which is too cool, because I own a 590 myself. Can you say "Patent?" Here's the first production run out of the machine shop:
| Alphecca Has It Jeff has the straight skinny on the current status of the amendments to the Constitution as practiced today. Give it a read. One quibble, Jeff. The 17th Amendment should be REPEALED. | Why Didn't They Consider This BEFORE? Say Uncle has the scoop on a new joint Violence Policy Center / Brady Center press release that fixes the whole problem. Why they couldn't have done this years ago is beyond me. (And I have given credit where credit is due for the AWB clock!) | Cannot Find Weapons of Mass Destruction From Clayton Cramer's blog: Follow these instructions exactly:That's freaking funny! | "Stroke of the Pen, Law of the Land. Kinda Cool."
Yeah, that "Constitution thingy" does tend to get in the way, don't it? Day by Day | Monday, June 30, 2003 BIG POST ERROR, POST ID 105702478749413506 REPORT IT You have NO idea just how infuriating this error message is. A long, involved, link-filled post that I've been working on for AN HOUR AND A HALF is GONE! You think the Incredible Hulk gets pissed? The expression "going Postal" FITS. | Clayton Cramer Reiterates My Question In his post Why The NRA May Be Right To Not Rush a Second Amendment Case to the Supreme Court There are a lot of gun rights activists who are upset with NRA's reluctance to go to court with a Second Amendment case. These recent decisions by the Supreme Court are strong arguments for why that reluctance is sensible. In the University of Michigan law school case, the Supreme Court decided that even though the Fourteenth Amendment is explicit that there will be no discrimination based on race, discrimination based on race, as long as it's not made too explicit, is okay. In the other case, the Supreme Court ignored precedent, rewrote some of Colonial America's sodomy laws, and then used due process and a lot of armwaving to strike down a state law of the sort that has been present for centuries--and then discounted everything more than 50 years old as not particularly relevant to their decision. And you suddenly are going to trust the Supreme Court to make a decision about the meaning of the Second Amendment? All your arguments in favor of an individual right are based on:I disagree. I don't think that waiting will do us any good. I think that the Silviera case is the most cut-and-dried violation of the Second Amendment extant, and I think it's the perfect one with which to overturn U.S. v Cruikshank and Presser v. Illinois. But he's right: SCOTUS could very well ignore historical evidence. It very well could ignore older precedents and uphold Cruikshank. It could ignore that the right to arms was held as an individual one since before the ratification of the Constitution. It's a hard question to consider: Do individual citizens have a Constitutionally guaranteed right to keep and bear weapons of military usefulness? And are the States restricted by the 14th Amendment from infringing on this right? Yes or no? SCOTUS might very well answer: "No." It might (probably would) be a 5-4 decision, and the dissents might be philosophical works of art. BUT: That would be, to me, the signal that the system is broken beyond repair. Right now, I still believe the system can work as designed. I think, though, that if SCOTUS can take it upon itself to render meaningless a part of the Bill of Rights that is explicit, then the Constitution is, for all intents and purposes, null and void. I've often wondered if SCOTUS has denied cert. on Second Amendment cases just because the Justices couldn't bring themselves to be that blatant in violating the Constitution. Easier to avoid than to do that. I'm betting about 60-40 that they'll deny cert. to Silviera, too. THEN where will that put us? In one circuit the right to arms will be legally recognized, but in another (the one where I live) it will not. UPDATE: Given the newness of my Comments, I'm going to copy and reply here: AlphaPatriot responds: I'm going to quote an earlier post on my website because I think it's relevant:However, the issue that mitigates for granting a writ of certiorari is the fact that two Circuit Courts are in disagreement on a key issue. This often prompts SCOTUS to step in and settle the dispute. I fully expect them to dodge if they do grant cert. The 5th Circuit certainly did - ruling as narrowly as the could get away with and avoiding addressing anything outside the question at hand. The 9th did not. They stated plainly that the right was not individual, and that individuals had no standing in bringing the question before the Court. Somehow, I don't see how SCOTUS can let that slide given the decision in Emerson. But you might be right - they very well could decide that it's a "reasonable regulation" of an individual right. That, I think, would be a not-quite-phyrric victory for gun owners. I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, but I've read a LOT of case law concerning the right to arms. Since Silviera appears to hinge on whether or not the right is indivdual (as that's how it was decided: "The district court dismissed all of the plaintiffs’ claims. Because the Second Amendment does not confer an individual right to own or possess arms, we affirm the dismissal of all claims brought pursuant to that constitutional provision" citing Hickman v. Block.) At a minimum it would mean remanding the case to the 9th Circuit for re-hearing on the basis that Hickman was in error. THEN the 9th would just find it a "reasonable regulation." Let's be honest here: I'm not expecting a Brown v. Board of Education-like earth-shattering decision, should they decide to hear it at all. But I can hope. Oh, and go read AlphaPatriot's older post on this topic. Very good. | Beware of Engineers with Screwdrivers Sometimes I really hate my job. I'm an engineer by profession. I've got the State license and everything. I've got a customer's machine that refuses to behave. It's got a (Star Trek Technobabble Alert!) single-ended 1024ppr quadrature encoder on it that yeilds 129 pulses per inch - most of the time. Except occasionally when moving in one direction, it will drop some counts. Like several inches worth. And since we're trying to measure to 1/64" accuracy, that's not a good thing. The encoder is connected to an Allen-Bradley high-speed counter card that just counts, 0-999, then rolls over. The counter card communicates with an Allen-Bradley PLC 5/20 processor that totalizes the count. There are three other IDENTICAL encoders on the machine, and they all work hunky-dory. We've changed the encoder, we've changed the high-speed counter card, today we changed the CABLE. It's still thumbing its nose at us. (Edited to add: It's not mechanical, either. Rack & pinion gearing, positive keyed zero slip coupling. Anybody got a chicken to sacrifice?) UPDATE! Problem solved! Of course, after the fact it was something simple, and blindingly obvious - the 5VDC power supply was only putting out 3.5V - just barely enough to make the encoder card work - most of the time. Engineers with screwdrivers? Should be engineers with voltmeters. | Dept. of Our Collapsing Schools Connie du Toit has an excellent post up on the state of education in this country - the difference between learning versus memorizing, and much, much more. I forwarded it to my sister, who is a math and science teacher, for comment. If you have children, you need to read this. If you don't, you need to read it to understand why we're graduating people who are essentially illiterate ignorants. | Sunday, June 29, 2003 Oh Yeah, Gun Control is a Critical Issue Thanks to Ravenwood, I just discovered that the Million Moms March organization had a gathering at the West Palm Beach City Hall to commemorate national ASK Day. Four (4) people came. Yup, those Democratic Presidential hopefuls really need to beat the gun-control drum so they can reach their electoral base. | I Just...Aww Screw It. Go read THIS (I can't improve on it,) then watch the piece. (7Mb - broadband is recommended, but if you're on dialup, it's worth the wait.) | Another "Bankrupt the Gun Manufacturers & Dealers" Lawsuit Bites the Dust According to the Associated Press, Appeals court affirms dismissal of state's lawsuit against gun makers June 24, 2003, 5:59 PM EDTAnd really massive numbers into the hands of people who use them legally, and that's what really bothers you, Spitz, isn't it? "Defendants know that a significant portion of their guns become crime guns but turn a blind eye so as to increase profits, at the cost of many human lives and much human suffering," Spitzer said in his original complaint.How about that - logic and reason from two New York courts. They said the defendants were engaged in "the lawful manufacture, marketing and sale of a defect-free product in a highly regulated activity (!!!) far removed from the downstream, unlawful use of handguns."Not to mention, illegal. The making of laws is restricted to the legislative branch, not the judicial branch. The legislative and executive branches of government might be "better suited to address the societal problems" at issue in this case, the appellate majority wrote.And you fail there, every time. Juanita Scarlett, a spokeswoman for Spitzer, said, "We believe that the court misapplied certain doctrinal principles. We are considering an appeal."Let's see, you've been slapped down by a State court, then bitch-slapped by the Appeals court, but you're going to appeal again. Another example of the bottomless pockets of the State (financed by the citizens) trying to punish the gun manufacturers and distributors financially through the court system because they cannot accomplish what they want in the legislature. Lawyers for the gun manufacturers could not be reached by telephone for comment.At the rates they charge, I hope not. Spitzer's lawsuit was similar to one brought in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The civil rights group alleged that gun makers knew corrupt dealers were selling firearms to criminals in minority communities and did nothing to stop it.This was another of the nine lawsuits so far thrown out or defeated out of something around 33 that have been filed. Then there's the case of Bryco manufacturing losing a lawsuit when a moron failed the first rule of gun safety and didn't keep a gun pointed in a safe direction. A babysitter, trying to unload a Bryco .380 took the gun off safe to clear the chamber (just as you must with a 1911) and PUT HIS FINGER ON THE TRIGGER. The gun discharged and 16 year-old Brandon Maxfield was struck in the jaw. The jury found Bryco liable for $50.9 MILLION. Bryco makes crappy guns, but that one wasn't defective. It worked as it was designed to. Bryco is also being sued in New Mexico for what amouts to the same thing. The Brady Center (hawk, spit) reports that both Bryco (manufacturer) and Jennings (distributor) should be held liable for making handguns that can be accidentally fired by children. Their argument: the Jennings J-22 doesn't have a magazine disconnect. Again, neither does a 1911. And the magazine disconnect is usually one of the first things removed from a Browning Hi Power in order to give it a better trigger pull. I don't think Glocks have a magazine disconnect, do they? (I'm not a Glock fan.) As far as Brady and the VPC and the rest are concerned, if it can go "BANG!" it's too dangerous for anyone outside of the government to have. Interestingly, there's some retaliatory action going on. Valor Corp., the distributor that was found to be 5% at fault when 13 year-old Nathaniel Brazill shot teacher Barry Grunow with a .25 caliber Raven that had been purchased several years before, has had the $1.2 million judgment against it thrown out. Brazill STOLE the gun from a family friend (found 50% responsible - the school district was found to be 45% responsible. The shooter was apparently not responsible at all, though he's serving a 28 year sentence for the killing.) So, according to the Sun-Sentinel, Valor is suing the Grunow widow for court costs and legal fees. Payback's a bitch, ain't it? You can bet the lawyer rich from the tobacco settlement that represented her last time won't be available for this, and I doubt that the Brady Center will pay her bills, either. Let's get the lawsuit pre-emption bill passed and signed and end this crap. If a gun manufacturer really makes a defective product, they can still be sued for product liability, but if it works as designed there should be no lawsuit. PLEASE CALL OR WRITE YOUR U.S. SENATORS. URGE THEM TO: 1) Support S. 659 and 2) Defeat a filibuster of the bill. E-MAIL your Senators. WRITE or FAX your Senators CALL your Senators via the Capitol Switchboard at: 202-224-3121. Please contact your Senator today, and help keep the rights of gun owners intact! | Saturday, June 28, 2003 Comments Are Functional But I've switched services, so all the old comments are, unfortunately, gone. Sorry about that. But this site is only six weeks or so old, and there weren't that many comments anyway. Hopefully Haloscan will be more reliable. (It's free too, so I won't hold my breath.) | Back from the Casa Grande Shoot We knocked off early due to the increasing heat and had lunch at Famous Sam's, but a great time was had by all. I got to set off the one tannerite charge (one shot, thank you,) and I found out that the 1917 Enfield makes a pretty decent skeet gun. (No kidding! I have witnesses!) I've gotta do some more of that! Still have quite a bit of ammo left, but not a single round of .30-06. I plan on taking care of THAT little problem shortly. | Open Mouth, Insert Foot, Shoot Foot
(Off to the AR15.com Casa Grade shoot. I'll write about it later. I've got 450 rounds of .223, about 200 rounds of .45, about 100 rounds of .30-06, and 200 rounds of .22. That ought to last until about noon, I hope.) | Friday, June 27, 2003 7,000 Hits At 7:56 tonight, someone from the Mindspring.com domain was my 7,000th visitor since I started running Sitemeter. I started this blog May 14th. I believe I got sitemeter running a couple of days later. 7,000 hits in six weeks. Whoa. | Sorry About the Light Posting Life intrudes, you know. But, a quick one - today's Friday Five: 1. How are you planning to spend the summer? Working 2. What was your first summer job? I worked in a hobby/crafts shop. (I was seriously into building scale models at the time.) 3. If you could go anywhere this summer, where would you go? The Florida Keys. 4. What was your worst vacation ever? Last year's. I didn't get one. 5. What was your best vacation ever? My honeymoon. In the Florida Keys. | Thursday, June 26, 2003 Comments are Down, and Blogging Will be Light I'm really busy, and there's an AR15.com shoot this weekend, so I've got a lot of ammo to load tonight and tomorrow. Having said this, I did want to mention the recent decisions of the Supreme Court. They don't fill me with confidence should they grant cert. to Silviera v. Lockyer. The majority has demonstrated that they don't consider the Constitution as any kind of limit to their power. The 14th Amendment apparenty doesn't mean what it says (University of Michigan decisions). On the other hand, they're willing to use the 9th Amendment to recognize an unenumerated right of privacy, and use that to overcome the democratically passed laws of some states. The Founders did fear that, by enumerating some rights but not others, that future societies might denigrate the unenumerated rights. In the case of the Second Amendment, we have an enumerated right that has been denigrated. So here's the question: If Silviera makes it to SCOTUS will they ignore the meaning of the Second Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment on the basis of "public good?" Or will they decide that the Bill of Rights really means what it says, even if an individual right to arms means that bad things with guns can happen? You can bet your ass it will be a "divided court" again. And O'Connor will probably be the swing vote. If you wish to discuss this, e-mail me and I'll put up the interesting ones in a post. | Wednesday, June 25, 2003 Dept. of "Kill all the Lawyers" According to the Detroit News, Ford will no longer lease vehicles in the state of New York because of New York's ah, unique liability laws. It seems that the law in NY prevents lessors from being held responsible for accidents. Ford cited a $1-million verdict against its consumer loan unit resulting from a suit by a girl whose father, while driving a leased car, ran over her while she was sunbathing.Well, hell, that was obviously Ford's fault. Jebus. | Tuesday, June 24, 2003
I Wasn't Going to Comment on This Member of the Deep Space Nine, But... (Thanks to Charles Austin who's filling in for Dodd over at Ipse Dixit for the oh-so-apt allusion.) Well, I won't, really. I'll just repeat what Glen Reynolds said. When Gephardt said during a C-Span televised rally: "When I'm president, we'll do executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day."I didn't find it surprising at all. As Glen said: "Gephardt's not a constitutional ignoramus, or an incipient dictator. He's just your standard-model lying politician!"Indeed. | Somebody Needs to Take This Kid to a Range Carly's Story And let her learn some of the REALITY about firearms. | In Other Words, LIE Our friends at Jointogether.org have some Suggestions for Discussing Gun Safety with Other Parents: Emphasize your child's curious nature:Perhaps you should keep a closer eye on little Timmy, then. What if he gets into the kitchen where the knives are? Localize the issue:If THAT bothers you, my house would give you the willies. Set the example:Really? Your pediatrician? And he got his gun training from....? What kind of gun to you have? Sporting-clays shotgun? Deer rifle? No? A 9mm handgun you bought for self-protection? Lots of good that bad boy's going to do you if you need it in the middle of the night, huh? "Sorry, Mr. Burglar, can you wait until I unlock the gun safe, unlock the ammo, and get this thing loaded?" Since it's useless to you, I'd offer to buy it, but I'm not all that enamored of the 9mm Europellet. Have you considered a quick-access safe? Oh, right, precocious Timmy. Well, how about wearing the gun during the day, and then putting it in the quick-access safe at night while you sleep? Make it a joint effort:No, I don't feel funny (uncomfortable) at all. If you're that worried about it, keep little Timmy at home. I don't need him prowling around my house, taking my remote controls apart, and looking for my guns. Oh, and here's a nice sign for your front yard:
| Dept. of Oh for Jebus's Sake: From the Seattle Post (lack of) Intelligencer comes this little op-ed, Gun recklessness should be a crime One of the reasons commonly given for legislators repeatedly blocking a bill to punish adults for unsafe storage of firearms is that the existing reckless endangerment law is sufficient to protect children.Yes, it's always for the Children™ We'll see. | |
