I took a similar class several years ago and found it very useful. One of the instructors gives an overview of the class given last month and reports on the functionality and reliability of the AR-15 (including piston versions), AK-47, SCAR, Sig 556, and FN FS2000 (mostly useless).
Gun cartoon of the day
Apparently the artist hasn’t spent any time at, or even looked at the crime rates, at gun ranges and stores. Facts are irrelevant to bigots.
Quote of the day–John Lott
A comparison with the First Amendment is useful: If Chicago were to put any tax on a newspaper, even a penny, courts would throw it out as an abridgment of freedom of speech. Why should the Second Amendment be treated any differently?
Apparently, the city of Chicago sees no constitutional problem in imposing a $100 Chicago Firearms Permit fee plus another $15 per firearm (even on the non-operational ones) every three years. A valid Illinois Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card is also required, at a cost of $10, although it seems redundant as the Chicago permit and the Illinois FOID card do the same things. On an annual basis, Chicago’s fees are about 2.5 times the cost for the average concealed handgun permit.
…
Let’s face it, Mayor Richard Daley wants to ban guns, all guns. And he thinks that a complete ban is a “reasonable” regulation. The Supreme Court has ruled that he is not allowed to ban guns, but this is not going to change his mind about guns in the slightest. Daley now wants to place as restrictive rules as he thinks that the courts will let him get away with. Pretending that these rules are anything more than an attempt to limit gun ownership as much as possible is simply dishonest.
John Lott
July 9, 2010
Let’s Face It, Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley Wants to Ban Guns, All Guns
[And if he wanted to license or tax religions that too would be throw out. This is all well settled law. This is no different than the poll taxes and literacy tests imposed on blacks to prevent them from exercising their right to vote. Again and again Mayor Daley and his city council are nothing but a bunch of bigots.
Some politicians wanted the National Guard in Chicago and maybe they should be–to enforce the Second Amendment just like the Army was called out to protect students from racists following desegregation of the schools.–Joe]
Gun cartoon of the day
This exemplifies the poor stereotype they have of gun owners. I suspect the only reason the artist used a waiter with a tie and a wine bottle instead of some bucked-teeth inbred stereotype opening a bottle of bear was to increase the contrast between the two frames.
Quote of the day–AlanR and Hank Archer
I recommend that this be called “Markley’s Law.”
That has to be some kind of variant of Godwin’s Law: As an online discussion of gun owners’ rights grows longer, the probability of an ad hominem attack involving penis size approaches 1.
AlanR and Hank Archer
July 9, 2010
Comments to Quote of the day–Stephen Markley by AlanR and Hank Archer.
[Therefore, let it be know throughout the entire Internet that henceforth when an anti-gun bigot attributes the exercise of the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms to the inadequate size or envy of male genital that it be referred to as Markley’s Law, as first articulated by AlanR and named by Hank Archer.
See also further discussion on this topic here.
I started to add it to the Urban Dictionary but they say, “We’ll reject inside jokes and definitions naming non-celebrities”. Someone else want to take a crack at getting it in Wikipedia?–Joe]
Like that will help
Sounds like a good time and place for rival gangs to set up an ambush:
Sanders, senior pastor at the Koinonia House of Worship in Bellevue,
said he hopes the Omaha Police Department’s gun-amnesty program –
scheduled for Saturday at 30th and Spencer Streets in north Omaha –
will help gang members and others end violence.“One of the
things we’re working on is a gun ceasefire and a truce between the
gangs,” Sanders said. Gang members, he said, are “looking for a way
out.”People who drop off their guns and ammunition at the
dropoff point between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. will not be questioned, and no
names will be recorded. Omaha police will perform ballistics tests to
determine whether the firearms had been used in crimes, but will not
check for DNA or fingerprints.
If they want “a way out” then why not just leave the area or not associate with other gang members? I don’t see how giving up their arms fundamentally changes their situation unless the “way out” means being defenseless when they get whacked by their rivals.
There is more than a little bit of truth to the bumpersticker that proclaims, “Those who beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who didn’t.”
Respecting the First Amendment through the Second
And people wonder why we don’t want law enforcement to have discretion when we apply for a discreet carry license:
Paul [Dorr] was denied a permit precisely because Sheriff Weber believed that his free speech rights offended the majority of voters in Osceola County….
In denying Paul a concealed weapons permit, Sheriff Weber single handedly hijacked the First Amendment and nullified its freedoms and protections. Ironically, Sheriff Weber, sworn to uphold the Constitution, in fact retaliated against a citizen of his county who used this important freedom of speech and association precisely in the manner envisioned by the founding members of our Nation who ratified the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791.
Imagine how some deep south pot-bellied sheriff would used “discretion” in issuing licenses to the people with dark colored skin in his jurisdiction. There might be a conflict of interest with his duties as the leader of the local chapter of the KKK.
Abuse of discretion is still going on in places like California. This needs to be corrected.
H/T to Ted for the email (and some bloggers for the) pointer.
Gun cartoon of the day
I cannot recall when the U.S. Congress ever approached anything like a NRA “theme store”. Other than getting the regulation against firearms in national parks thrown out (ETA: and being able to check your gun onto Amtrak) what law has the NRA been able to get legislated out of existence in the last 20 years?
Alternate reality. It has to be an alternate reality these people live in.
[This is a set up for a set of cartoons related to a NRA proposed theme restaurant in Times Square. Many people may not realize there was such a proposal.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Stephen Markley
Gun safety and regulation is a battle so lost, it’s barely worth flipping a hand at and saying “bah.” One might have thought following clear demonstrations of why a society awash in cheap, easily purchased handguns is a pretty f***ing stupid idea. Columbine, Virginia Tech, the South Side of Chicago–meh, who cares? Think about how many guys’ penises feel bigger because they’ve fired a gun.
…
But it’s totally not even a subject worth arguing over. Frankly, I don’t even know why I’m writing about it. Even perfectly sane, rational friends of mine are in love with the idea of gun ownership for all (small penises likely being a key ingredient). But this atmosphere of hyperventilation about “gun rights” (what a moronic term) now manifests itself around the country in the form of court challenges to some highly reasonable laws.
…
But again, I don’t care. Guns have permeated our culture so thoroughly, become trafficked in such heavy volumes and have such an ironclad grip on our political class that it’s not even worth thinking about. Have your guns, have your 30,000 gun-related deaths each year, have your fun.
Oh, and have your obviously insufficient penises.
Stephen Markley
July 9, 2010
Gun Control Is a Completely Pointless Battle
[I find his obsession with penis size and telling us how much he doesn’t care “interesting”. The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks.–Joe]
More bad news for the Brady Campaign
Roberta reports the Better Business Bureau gives the Brady Campaign a failing grade.
Sebastian reports how the good guys get A’s.
Charity Navigator gives them a score of 43.74 compared the NRA Foundation at 60.85.
In the most blatant example of doublespeak I have seen outside of an Orwellian novel GuideStar categorizes them as “Civil Liberties Advocacy”. “Someone” should write a review for GuideStar on the Brady Campaign.
The Brady Campaign is having financial problems and they have low charity ratings which hurts their fund raising. Sounds like a death spiral to me.
Those Racist Lefties
She has obviously struck a nerve.
I’ll keep reminding people that the KKK were virtually all Democrats, until it is taught in public schools nationwide, and Bill Clinton with Obama get together for a national public service ad and apologize to the world for the KKK/Democrat association.
I wanted make a bigger point about the slinging of insults, often including some rather well contemplated sexual insults, when you have no argument, but I just don’t have the energy. Then there’s the even bigger point of that against which we are fighting. It doesn’t reason and it doesn’t have empathy or compassion. It doesn’t even want to be seen as reasonable, if spending the energy to appear reasonable isn’t necessary. It longs for a situation in which all pretense of reason and compassion become unnecessary. It’s hate with a life of its own, and it will flow from one person or group to another. As such we should understand that this isn’t personal. You can defeat this person or that group of people, and the monster lives on. Hell, am I starting to sound religious? You may call it that if it makes you feel better.
Gun cartoon of the day
Again, limiting the potential “solutions” by misstating the problem.
Quote of the day–Sheriff Richard I. Mack
Washington powercrats want to create an unarmed nation. It’s all pretty simple. They are uneasy about a gun-toting constituency that believes in a constitutional right and duty to resist oppressive federal government. They continually assume additional power not granted them by the Constitution. Efforts to repeal the Second Amendment are underway.
…
A day of reckoning is inevitable. Will guns be outlawed and taken away, leaving little vestige of constitutional freedom? Armed Americans (hopefully) will not submit willingly. On the other hand, a disarmed citizenry will have no choice but to behave like sheep. The pioneers of freedom who wrote the Declaration of Independence were considered traitors by a despotic British government, but they were not sheep. Neither did they intend their descendants to be.
Sheriff Richard I. Mack
From My
Cold Dead Fingers–Why America Needs Guns, Third Edition (“Final Chapter”), pages 156 and 157.
[This book was written in the mid 1990s. That was a very dark time for the future of gun ownership. Now, with gun control well on it’s way to the dustbin of history, freedom activists are considering moving on to issues such as food control. My work with gun control won’t be done until there are successful prosecutions of anti-gun politicians and law enforcement people for violation of 18 USC 242 and donating money to the Brady Campaign is as socially toxic as membership in the KKK is today.
I think my next cause will be the elimination of the TSA (A Security Theater) or the war on some drugs.–Joe]
Gun cartoon of the day
I guess women shouldn’t be allowed to possess firearms then.
I “wonder” if there were people making “jokes” like this about “allowing” women to vote and to drive automobiles too.
What I really wonder if this artist would still have any publications purchasing his work if this had been about any other topic than gun ownership.
Quote of the day–Robert Verbruggen
The Supreme Court’s decision gives Americans a lot to think about — from the “privileges or immunities” clause to the Court’s proper role in enforcing the Constitution. But whenever we discuss gun control, we need to remember that a government capable of gun control is capable of tyranny. Both the majority opinion and Thomas’s concurrence in McDonald — following in the steps of works such as Stephen P. Halbrook’s Securing Civil Rights — perform the crucial service of explaining how important that fact was in the wake of the Civil War.
Robert Verbruggen
July 7, 2010
Gun Rights Are Civil Rights
[Via Jeff.
We need to hammer this point whenever we can. The specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms is a civil right. We are civil rights workers and leaders. Those that oppose us are bigots who wish to deny us and people in general an inalienable right.–Joe]
I would prefer it were prosecutions
The NRA just filed suit against Chicago again.
Sebastian has more details. I’m pleased but would prefer it were Federal Marshals hauling Daley and gang away in handcuffs with prosecutors considering the maximum penalties. But considering where we are compared to 10 or 15 years ago I can’t complain.
Gun cartoon of the day
A little different flavor than usual. This is because Rob Robideau wanted a “good gunny cartoon“. This doesn’t quite qualify but it does show that some artists do “get it”.
Quote of the day–Robb Allen
We are winning, slowly but surely, and this is because logic, reason, and morality are on our side.
Robb Allen
July 6, 2010
When I say Read the Whole Thing
[15 years ago I would have said this wasn’t going to be enough and I began my preparations accordingly (which is part of the reason there is Boomershoot). And perhaps it wasn’t.
We had some luck and I think our opponents made some stupid blunders. I would like to think that luck and opponent blunders were not required but when I think about those dark days I can’t help but believe things could have ended up very differently if only a couple key battles had gone the other way.–Joe]
Experts Surprised…
…again. One wonders how often an “expert” can express surprise at an outcome and still qualify as an expert.
Breaking news! Apparently it can get hot in New York in the summer. Amazing.
Gun cartoon of the day
This is a rather odd and telling way to represent a civil rights leader.