In what is a hideous incident, Jason and his wife detail what happens when you try to obey gun laws in Spokane, Wa. Give it a read then come back. You back? Are you good and pissed off? If so, contact the sheriff’s department:
Or call them:
Crime Check 509-456-2233
Crime Prevention 509-477-2592
And if you know a good lawyer, let Jason know.
It’s amazing to me how a police officer with something to prove can, essentially, ruin somebody’s life.
Lobbygow has the details on (to use his various for euphemisms for dookie):
This Leviathan of a development firm has already shat two indescribably hideous piles of cement excrement into the heart of Brooklyn, Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal. Of course, these concrete coprolytes are only a warm-up for the big dump, the much ballyhooed Atlantic Yards Project, an orgy of neighborhood destroying crapola that adds insult to injury by introducing the specter of eminent domain.
Wal-Mart, with its tradition of trying to get politicians to take land, is at it again:
Ogden City wants Fernandez, along with residents of 33 other homes and owners of eight businesses, to move out to make way for a Super Wal-Mart.
“It’s not a palace. But it’s my home. It’s my home!” says Fernandez, a widow who keeps a big garden and lives on a Social Security check.
On summing up the issue:
“I don’t think in America we should ever be forced to do this,” says Hal LaFleur, who owns several of the area’s private parcels, including the 4-year-old building that houses his son-in-law’s welding business. “This is not for public use. This is for Wal-Mart.”
“Every illegal gun begins life as a legal gun,” said Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control.
Via everybody, it seems the Justice Department has decided that most gun laws are illegal:
. . . we conclude that the Second Amendment secures an individual right to keep and to bear arms. Current case law leaves open and unsettled the question of whose right is secured by the Amendment. Although we do not address the scope of the right, our examination of the original meaning of the Amendment provides extensive reasons to conclude that the Second Amendment secures an individual right, and no persuasive basis for either the collective-right or quasi-collective-right views. The text of the Amendment’s operative clause, setting out a “right of the people to keep and bear Arms,” is clear and is reinforced by the Constitution’s structure. The Amendment’s prefatory clause, properly understood, is fully consistent with this interpretation. The broader history of the Anglo-American right of individuals to have and use arms, from England’s Revolution of 1688-1689 to the ratification of the Second Amendment a hundred years later, leads to the same conclusion. Finally, the first hundred years of interpretations of the Amendment, and especially the commentaries and case law in the pre-Civil War period closest to the Amendment’s ratification, confirm what the text and history of the Second Amendment require.
Somebody tell the courts, quick. This isn’t new. The Bush adminstration’s justice department stated that it took an individual rights view to the second amendment pretty early on. However, Bush claimed to support the assault weapons ban. Go figure.
It’s almost impossible to fully teach your dog about kids. It’s easier to teach your kids about dogs. Read Catherine’s observations on the issue.
Ok, I have two: Kevin Murphy in the comments section at XRLQ’s:
We don’t ban handguns here. We ban cheap guns, expensive guns, long short guns, short long guns, scary guns, fake guns, large bore guns, unsafe guns, effective guns, and concealed guns, but other than that we allow them.
John Stewart on The Daily Show:
The Bush administration has a real hard-on for abstinence.
Heh:
Senior Army officials told a wire service reporter Wednesday that within 24 hours of a soldier’s complaint to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about shortages of vehicle armor in Iraq, protective armor had been installed on every vehicle in the soldier’s unit.
The SCOTUS will hear Kelo v. New London on February 22.
Fighting eminent domain abuse has rallied troops from both sides of the political spectrum:
The Institute for Justice has soldered progressive and conservative groups into a surprising coalition that is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to prohibit the taking of private property for economic development.
Twenty-five groups with assorted political views have filed briefs in support of the Fort Trumbull residents who are resisting the city’s effort to take their houses to make way for offices and a hotel that will strengthen the city’s tax base. The Institute for Justice is representing those residents before the high court, which will hear the case on Feb. 22.
The use of eminent domain riles libertarian groups, including the Cato Institute, because it infringes on an individual’s right to hold property. And it vexes progressive groups, including the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, because it undermines the strength of community.
The Boston City Council has officially sanctioned the abuse of eminent domain:
The City Council voted yesterday to extend the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s urban renewal powers until 2015, allowing the agency to continue using eminent domain in private development projects.
Speaking of New Mexico, there’s a bill pending to ban the breeding of pit bulls. This could be hard to do since pit bulls aren’t a breed:
The breeding of pit bulls could be banned statewide as early as July, if a bill proposed by a state senator is passed into law.
Under a bill proposed by Sen. Sue Wilson Beffort, breeding of pit bulls will be prohibited, owners of pit bulls will be required to neuter or spay the dogs and new pit bulls will not be permitted in New Mexico after July 1, 2005.
The attempt is for an outright ban. The bill goes a step further:
In an explanation of the bill, breeds such as Akitas, Malamutes, Bulldogs, Boxers, Canary dogs, Chow Chows, Dobermans, German Shepherds, Danes, Huskies and Rottweilers are classified as dangerous dogs.
How about classifying actual dogs that have proven to be dangerous as dangerous? The bill has two good points in that it increases fines for dog bites and dog fighting.
Bill Hobbs introduces Lance In Iraq. Lance is a soldier with the 278th regimental combat team.
Via Michael Silence comes two stories that again state there is no correlation between gun laws and gun crimes. The first:
No one has done the right studies to prove whether gun ownership laws increase or decrease crime, or whether the tens of thousands of gun deaths in the United States each year could be prevented by gun control, a committee of experts said on Thursday.
“Few topics engender more controversy than ‘gun control,”‘ a National Research Council committee of experts on criminal justice, psychology, education, statistics and sociology said in a report.
“One theme that runs throughout our report is the relative absence of credible data central to addressing even the most basic questions about firearms and violence.”
They found that for virtually any subject involving guns, there were conflicting studies that could support one argument or the other. But none really answered the key questions.
“For example, despite a large body of research, the committee found no credible evidence that the passage of right-to-carry laws decreases or increases violent crime, and there is almost no empirical evidence that the more than 80 prevention programs focused on gun-related violence have had any effect on children’s behavior, knowledge, attitudes, or beliefs about firearms,” the report reads.
“This is unacceptable when we see the impact that firearm-related violent injury and death have on American society and especially some of the most vulnerable segments of that population,” it adds.
The other says:
A new analysis of efforts to control violence by restricting guns says there is not enough evidence to reach valid conclusions about their effectiveness.
The National Research Council said Thursday that a major research program on firearms is needed.
“Policy questions related to gun ownership and proposals for gun control touch on some of the most contentious issues in American politics,” Charles F. Wellford, chairman of the committee that wrote the report, said in a statement.
Among the major questions needing answers are whether there should be restrictions on who may possess firearms, on the number or types of guns that can be purchased, and whether safety locks should be required, said Wellford, professor of criminal justice at the University of Maryland.
“These and many related policy questions cannot be answered definitively because of large gaps in the existing science base,” he said. “The available data are too weak to support strong conclusions.”
Both seem to intimate to me that there is no correlation between gun laws and crime, which makes gun control rather pointless. Yet, as the anti-gun CDC has done in the past, they conclude they need more information. They need more information so that they can get the result that they want.
Michael Silence, who is apparently part of the problem, writes:
If you tailgate, I drive slower just to honk you off. If you are in a hurry, leave earlier!
Assuming you’re not in the left passing lane, doing less than the speed limit, and beside another car, I don’t have an issue with it. Generally, I get out of the way. And I’d expect others to be courteous and get out of my way. After all, you never now who is on their way to the hospital; who is on their way to a house fire; who generally doesn’t care about your (or their) well-being; or who is psychotic with a gun under their seat.
Staying in the way makes you the problem. It’s a passing lane for a reason: to pass other people and get out of the way. This whole tap the breaks (or as some idiots do, lock up their car) is akin to bright lighting someone who is bright lighting you. Sure, flash your lights to let the other guy know his lights are on but don’t keep your lights on when they approach because then you have two people on the road who can’t see.
And while I’m talking about driving, is it too much to ask that other drivers look more than one car length ahead? Seriously, the signs indicating that the lane you’re in is about to end started a mile ago. Get the Hell over sooner instead of waiting until the last minute.
Also, I am apparently the only person in the state of Tennessee who knows the rules for a four way stop sign. Here’s a hint: It’s not piece of shit cars go first.
A millionaire is convinced that 9/11 was an inside job. As such, he’s offering a $100K award to anyone who can prove him wrong:
The millionaire activist is so convinced of a government cover-up he is offering a $100,000 reward to any engineering student who can prove the World Trade Center buildings crashed the way the government says.
“Of course, we expect no winners,” Walter, 57, heir to an $11 million fortune from his father’s home building business, said in a telephone interview from California on Wednesday.
He said a panel of expert engineers would judge submissions from the students.
Next month, he also launches a nationwide contest seeking alternative theories from college and high school students about why New York’s World Trade Center collapsed. The contest offers $10,000 to the best alternative theory, with 100 runner-up awards of $1,000. Winners will be chosen next June.
While I’m wearing my foil hat, I caught this show on The History Channel (thanks TiVo) which detailed that Timothy McVeigh and some of the militia groups were actually in cahoots with Islamic terrorists. Apparently, near a dozen witnesses reported seeing two men described as Arabic in appearance hanging around the truck bomb and some report that the men were armed. Two witnesses also reported what are presumably these same two men speeding off at 9:00 (2 minutes before the explosion). One witness stated she was almost run over by them as they sped off. Ordinarily, I’d outright dismiss these things except that one person they interviewed was some sort of former CIA director and another was a retired FBI agent who worked the case. Apparently, there was an APB put out for two Arabic looking men in a black pickup shortly after the explosion. Then, it was canceled when McVeigh got pulled over for speeding. Both men attest that, even though the APB was publicly canceled, the FBI and CIA continued to look for the two Arabic men.
The CIA guy and McVeigh’s lawyer both stated that McVeigh was protecting others involved in the bombing. The CIA guy pretty much indicated that those people were Arabic in decent. The big gaping hole in the theory was that the militia groups (which were identified as white supremacists) were working with Islamic terror groups. I don’t see racists getting along well with zealots of another color.
Just thought I’d pass it on.
Only two of them will suck. While you’re at it, bring back New Coke. Or better: A new new Coke.
And you Pepsi folks need to bring back Crystal Pepsi too. And Tab.
Officer Fatally Shoots Man During Traffic Stop. As Uncle is often pointing out how the media is biased against firearms, I noticed this one in my own local paper and found the online version. By the headline you’d assume the cop just went postal, only halfway through do you find out the one who was shot had a gun as well. Even police themselves aren’t able to have defensive shootings these days, sadly.
On an alternative subject regarding New Mexico… I was ordering something last week from a retailer in Utah, the whole transaction went quite well until I was asked for a shipping address, to which I told them New Mexico. They told me, and I quote here “We don’t ship outside the US.” Apparently, they didn’t believe that New Mexico was a state, and were seriously going to cancel the order on me. I ended up talking to the manager and having him check the zipcode, to which his reply was “Oh hey, it does show up.” Did I mention that Utah borders New Mexico (on a corner)?
My wife likes the movie Christmas Vacation and I’m forced to watch it every year. I hate the movie. I hate it mostly because Chevy Chase is not funny. He never has been funny. I can’t figure out how the guy got a job as a comedian. Apparently, he proved to be unfunny again:
He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Dick Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a “dumb (expletive).” He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, “I’m no (expletive) clown either. … This guy started a jihad.”
Chase also said: “This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck … and we still couldn’t beat him with a bore like Kerry.”
If you’re going to bash the President, at least be funny about it. People who are also not funny: Margaret Cho (unlike local boy Henry Cho, who is funny – I don’t think they’re related). Ellen Degeneres. Ben Stiller.
This article, detailing a shooting, is pretty presumptive:
Police found the injured man in an upstairs bedroom, and located eight shell casings from an Intratec “TEC 9,” a 9-mm semi-automatic pistol. Police believe the man was shot with the TEC 9, which is one of several weapons previously included in the assault weapons ban.
9MM shell casings don’t come out of the gun with the label TEC 9 on them. This could have been any handgun or rifle that in 9mm. I’m uncertain how the police would have been able to determine that it was a TEC 9. Additionally, Intratec, the company that made the TEC 9, went out of business in the mid 1990s. As such, there are no new TEC 9s. So even if this was a TEC 9, it was not affected by the now dead assault weapons ban.
Residents of Maryland were asked to discuss the Bill of Rights:
However, the shoppers had differing opinions on whether or not people should be allowed to have guns, as stated in the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms.
They were also asked whether the federal assault weapons ban, which was lifted in September, should be reinstated.
John Gardner of Crownsville said he supported guns for hunting and agreed with the end of the assault weapon ban.
“They shouldn’t be banned for people who target-shoot,” he said.
But not everybody had the same feelings on the gun issue.
“I think the idea of controlling crime and not gun control is pretty ridiculous. It goes hand in hand,” said Tim Parsley of Crofton.
There has historically been very little correlation between crime and gun control. Interesting to also read their thoughts on searches and seizures.
Here’s a good read entitled The Truth About Guns.
Newsflash: Sane, Normal, Law-Abiding People Own Guns too.
Jeff reports that San Francisco is looking to ban handgun ownership:
City residents will vote next year on a proposed weapons ban that would deny handguns to everyone except law enforcement officers, members of the military and security guards.
If passed next November, residents would have 90 days to give up firearms they keep in their homes or businesses. The proposal was immediately dismissed as illegal by a gun owners group.
James has more. As does Publicola.
There is also new stuff at the Shooters’ Carnival.
In Golden, Colorado a privately funded group has been set up to ensure water supplies are adequate. What is disturbing, however, is this:
Because the district has private backing, it won’t use voter-approved mill levies or taxes, as most special districts do, but it will have powers such as eminent domain.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to grant any privately funded entity the powers of the state.
Michelle attempts to set the record straight on the analogy that home improvement programs are like porn to women. This got me to thinking about porn and what it really is for men. Unlike the posts linked above, I’m actually going to write about porn. This post will use crude language and likely be offensive to some. If you’re easily offended, don’t click below (and no, I’m not posting any porn).
Cubicle is asking for opinions on a first handgun purchase. I recommend a Glock in any .4X caliber for a variety of reasons.
Go give your opinion.
Update: Les has more.
A reader familiar with the Wisconsin murders emails a link to this memorial of the hunters killed at Rice Lake.
And here we have proof that the airways aren’t as safe as you thought. Yes, it seems that during a bomb detection exercise, the fake bomb somehow ended up on an Continental Airlines flight to Amsterdam. I’m just wondering what the officials in Amsterdam thought when they found it coming off a flight from Jersey. Atleast it’s not an Air Marshal leaving his gun behind, which anyone could have picked up…
And I’m flying Continental next month, should I be worried?
To: You people who are upset or depressed that Anna Kournikova got married
From: Reality
Yeah, like you had a shot.
Electoral problems prevented many thousands of Ohioans from voting on Nov. 2. In Columbus, bipartisan estimates say that 5,000 to 15,000 frustrated voters turned away without casting ballots. It is unlikely that such “lost” voters would have changed the election result — Ohio tipped to President Bush by a 118,000-vote margin and cemented his electoral college majority.
To make sure that I understand, they are asserting that the impatience of voters is an electoral problem? Give me a break. Me and the Mrs. waited in line for about 45 minutes to vote. We considered it our duty to do so we braved the wanton inconvenience to be heard.
Also, the impatient voters could not have swayed the election by the WaPo’s own assertion. This is a story that isn’t a story.
Today is Bill of Rights Day. I have nothing particularly insightful to say about it other than to note that it has been bastardized out of convenience to the government. I might be more cheerful about it if it meant much but here it is:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
In an update to the vandalism at a local church, three more churches were also targeted.
The Blount County (my county) commission is set to have their second and final reading of a proposed $30 wheel tax:
Blount County Commissioners have their second and final reading of a $30 county-wide motor-vehicle tax, or wheel tax, at Thursday’s meeting.
The wheel tax passed on first reading last month. To fund road improvements, commissioners marked $10 of the tax for the county highway department. The other $20 a resident pays will go for school capital projects, like new schools.
County finance department estimates project that the $30 tax would bring in about three million dollars annually in new revenue — one million dollars for roads and about two million dollars for school capital projects.
As with any new tax, I don’t like it.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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