Tuesday, November 11, 2008

What Won't Prevent Cleveland's Next "Shooting Death"

Questions like these have already been asked. The answers are already known, but they just don't serve the agenda of those who value your control over your freedom.

Here's today's Gun Rights Examiner piece.

The Art of Driving

What if I proposed that we hand three sticks of dynamite and a detonator to anyone who asked for them. All an applicant would need is money to pay for the explosives. You’d have to be an idiot to agree with my plan—at least based on the assumptions you picked up in school about human nature and human competence.

And yet gasoline, a spectacularly mischievous explosive, dangerously unstable and with the intriguing characteristic as an assault weapon that it can flow under locked doors and saturate bulletproof clothing, is available to anyone with a container. Five gallons of gasoline have the destructive power of a stick of dynamite.

I've long maintained anyone who can't be trusted with a gun can't be trusted without a custodian, and used a similar rationale.

This explores such concepts more thoroughly, and is really quite good.

[Via Mama Liberty]

Just a Sales Technique

But, the news is that it's a mainly just a sales technique.
That's a hell of a sales technique--running out of inventory when you still have customers clamoring for more.

What line of work did you say you were in, Bryan? Besides shoveling sh**?

[Via Mr.X]

No Dismissal for Melton

U.S. District Court Judge Dan Jordan this afternoon refused to dismiss civil rights charges against Jackson Mayor Frank Melton and an ex-bodyguard based on a defense motion filed Friday that cited the alleged behavior of former co-defendant Marcus Wright.
Good. It's time Frank faced the music. It's time all anti-gun political criminals did.

[Via Stephen S]

Voice from the Grave's Edge

Statism and totalitarianism, which we spent so much blood and money to fight in the Second World War and the Cold War, rise everywhere. They will keep rising until the private, secret impulse to freedom among individual men and women becomes a working majority. It will. First this majority will be silent and almost invisible. Then, overnight it will seem, it will emerge as a tempest which will sweep most of what we know today into history's garbage can, both the good and the bad. Blood will run.
An important cry for freedom--from Canada.

Go. Read.

[Via Jeet]

The Will of the People

Most voters in 10 Illinois counties said on Election Day that they think the state should pass a law permitting citizens to carry concealed weapons, but voters in another four counties rejected the idea...

State Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria, said he doesn't expect any concealed-carry proposal to advance very far in the Legislature because of strong opposition from Chicago Democrats, who control both the Senate and House.
Chicago Democrats...Chicago Democrats...where have I been reading about one of those lately?

Thing is, they are experts of sorts...

[Via Jeffersonian]

We're the Only Ones Not Pussyfooting Around Enough

Unaware Police Carry Guns, Mountain Lion Charges at Officer
But if it hadn't been an "Only One," chances are the kitty cat would be at its cache purring and licking its paws about now...

[Via Jed]

Sign of the Times

A local gun shop that used Barack Obama's name to hawk weapons has backed down, saying the message was meant to champion gun rights, not threaten violence.
Personally, I would have told the disgruntled mommy and her fellow cud chewers where to graze. And yeah, leave it to what friend Russ Howard calls the "race fluffers" to throw that card on the table.

I guess they wouldn't appreciate one that said "Minion Repellent Sold Here," either...?

[Via David H]

We're the Only Ones Getting Off Enough

The jury Friday decided Vela, 44, was innocent of performing oral sex on a former patrol officer without consent after the officer passed out drunk at a barbecue.
So does that mean he had consent?
As for the theft charge, Guerra said trial testimony showed the Alton police department was so poorly run there was no way to prove how the gun found during a search warrant got to Vela's house. Vela had been accused of taking the gun from an evidence locker.
So he got off there, as well. But I think the meaty question here is, did the other guy get off too?

One good thing about the modern age--we have such good documentation, and when discussing "Only Ones" don't need to rely on oral history...Anyway, glad to see he kept a stiff upper lip throughout the ordeal. It must have come as quite a blow. You know how tongues wag in small towns. And I do apologize.

[Via JR]

We're the Only Ones Secretly Being Serviced Enough

A Secret Service sergeant was arrested early Saturday after he allegedly tried to solicit sex from a D.C. police officer working undercover as a prostitute, authorities said.

What's the big deal? Eliot Spitzer got away with it. Who does he think he is, some super special über "Only One"?

[Via Stephen S, Ron W, and Ian B]

An Allowance Parents Don't Give

Would you allow your son or daughter to room with someone at college who carries a gun?

What about students carrying concealed guns on campus for protection?
Would I "allow it"?

What the hell am I, the government?

If I've done my job properly, my children will have absorbed the values they've been raised with. And I must be doing OK, because, yeah, we've had some minor kid stuff, but they've never given me cause to question their character.

[Via David H]

Breaking News: A Victory for Kwan

We therefore conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in ordering a new trial to instruct the jury that the Government had to prove that Kwan had no other apparent legal purpose for the shoulder stock than to convert his unregistered pistol into an illegal short-barreled rifle.

AFFIRMED.
This is good news. Per Len Savage:
So Albert Kwan would get a new trial. If there is a trial, the burden of proof will be on the government. And they will have to prove "no other apparent legal purpose," which would be impossible because, as the Ninth Circuit pointed out, Kwan testified that the stock is plastic and breaks easily (so the apparent purpose is replacement) and that Kwan purchased the second stock before Kwan purchased the civilian version (so a second apparent purpose would be to have it go with the military version).

Look for this now to be dismissed, as the trial judge pointed out there is no violation.

Don't forget in Kwan's case the ATF came to his place of business and removed the "registered " pistol and one stock, leaving the unregistered pistol and one stock. Then they came back and seized "an unlawful collection of parts" that could be assembled into a SBR, and charged him based on constructive possession [for having the parts that the ATF left him]. ATF also charged him with possession of a machine gun that only fired as a machine gun after the ATF altered it. The Jury understanding that, acquitted.
Of course, with BATFU, anything's possible...we'll see if they still go forward after this. But for now, it is definitely good news.

One other thing-- I note the title-linked disposition document says:
NOT FOR PUBLICATION...

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
I'm not sure I understand what that means in terms of restrictions, if any--all I can say is, if they have any that apply to We the People, they shouldn't make it accessible on a public website. Whatever, I saved a copy.

This is yet another case of an American being harassed into financial ruin, something we're all too familiar seeing. I'll see what I can find out about what we can do to help Mr. Kwan, as what he's done on his own can benefit the rest of us in the future.

Gerald Celente Predicts Revolution


Scary stuff. And it's not just coming from fringe activists any more.

[Via Anonymous]

BATFU Contradicts Itself on Olofson

It quotes from the government's claims, "Olofson's gun would sometimes jam after multiple rounds were fired with a single trigger pull, but not before the magazine was completely empty."

"The government provides no record citation for this remarkable statement – that Olofson's gun never jammed before the magazine was emptied – because there is none," the brief says. "To the contrary, the prosecution's witness – Robert Kiernicki, the person to whom Olofson had loaned his AR-15 on July 13, 2007, testified that, on each of two or three occasions when Kiernicki placed the firearm in the third selector position, the AR-15 'shot three rounds or maybe four when I pulled the trigger and then it jammed.'
So BATFU officially says one thing...their witness says another...tell me again why an American who served his country is in a federal prison this Veteran's Day?

Good on GOA. I know some like to disparage them at every opportunity, but they're the ones who've stepped up to the plate here, aren't they? And they could use your help...

The Little Red Hen

…just a short work of fiction, nothing more.
Very clever. Although there may be some chickens who think otherwise.

This Day in History: November 11

The Continental Congress engages the missionary Samuel Kirkland to spread the "Gospel amongst the Indians," and confirm "their affections to the United Colonies...thereby preserving their friendship and neutrality."