Blake reports it still has a chance.

Radley Balko has an article in Forbes about the nanny state. Good read:

Lawmakers are also prone to banning trends they don’t understand, or just find icky. Wyoming is debating a regulation that would prohibit facial jewelry in the food service industry, an apparent attempt to keep the alternative girl’s eyebrow ring from dropping into your macchiato, even though its backers couldn’t cite a single such incident. A Texas lawmaker has introduced a bill that would outlaw “sexually suggestive” dance moves in cheerleading routines. California bans tanning beds for kids under 14, citing studies linking tanning beds to skin cancer. No word on whether they’ll bar kids from lying in the sun, too. And the U.S. Supreme Court recently let stand an Alabama ban on sex toys.

What’s wrong with this phrase:

A man fired a semi-automatic machine gun into the air during a fight in the parking lot at the Caribbean Gardens bar in Burlingame early Saturday, according to Burlingame police.

Semi-automatic machine gun? They don’t exist. It is either a semi-automatic (one shot per trigger pull) or fully-automatic (i.e., a machine gun) and keeps firing bullets as long as you hold down the trigger.

Update: It has been changed but the old URL still has the error. The new article is here and does not acknowledge the error.

Its unhealthy fear of sex. Sex sells and it’s the parents’ responsibility to address sex in the media or to restrict its access to children.

A student used profanity on his blog and was disciplined for it:

A New Britain High School drum major has enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut after he was disciplined for posting a profanity-laced entry in an online journal.

Daniel Gostin, 18, a senior, was stripped of his drum major position, given an in-school suspension and barred from participating in music-related extracurricular activities and performances for the remainder of the year.

Lori Rifkin, an ACLU lawyer who represents Gostin, says the school’s actions violate his free-speech rights. In a letter to schools Superintendent Doris Kurtz on Wednesday, she asked that Gostin be reinstated as drum major, his disciplinary record be expunged and that he resume participating in musical activities.

The posting “contained no threats nor did it contain any other statements which would interfere with the ability of school administrators to maintain order and discipline at the school,” Rifkin wrote.

A girl at William Blount High School was suspended for telling local TeeVee that the race issues at the high school have continued:

On April 18th, Bridget O’Neill, a junior, told 6 News one of her classmates made a racial sign.

Her parents say the next morning, the principal pulled Bridget into the office demanding to know why she talked to the media and who made the sign.

“She was screaming at her she was stupid,” says Bridget’s mother, Diane O’Neill. “They threatened to expel her for the rest of the year because she wouldn’t give the name. Then she threatened to call the police. And she was like, ‘why?’ She said, ‘Well, I’m going to have you arrested for standing in the way of justice.'”

The school sent home a letter about Bridget’s suspension. It never mentioned her interview with 6 News but said she was suspended for disrupting the classroom and providing false information about the sign.

I am as gun-geek as they get. And damn proud of it. If you don’t believe me, I’ll shoot you. But even I don’t buy tactical clothes. Up next, tactical jammies and tactical underoos.

You would think a website that is considered a news source for law enforcement would know something about guns. You’d be wrong. In their defense, it appears to be an AP feed:

The expiration of the nation’s ban on the sale of assault rifles and the appearance of more heavily armed criminals have pushed more than 100 St. Petersburg police officers to order assault rifles of their own for official duty.

Actually, while the ban was in effect, the same rifles were available to the public. Those rifles just didn’t have flash suppressors, folding stocks or bayonet lugs. Sadly, the officers must buy their own:

Police Chief Chuck Harmon approved use of the AR-15s last June with guidelines that took months to develop. Officers who want the weapons must buy them for $1,100.

And this denotes no effort to research the guns:

Critics say that the speed and 300-yard range of the bullets pose a threat to bystanders. Advocates say the assault rifles are vastly better than the standard Glock handguns assigned to officers and are more accurate than the pump-action shotguns that the department makes available.

The effective range of the 5.56 Nato is about 600 yards. And the 5.56 Nato has been shown to display less penetration than 40 S&W ammo that most officers use in their handguns.

Update: Ravenwood found another story on the incident. This is particularly interesting:

“Without a doubt, there are thousands and thousands of departments carrying patrol rifles at this point,” said Emanuel Kapelsohn, vice president of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors.

Kapelsohn resists calling them “assault” rifles, saying the word gives a negative connotation. But whatever they are called, the rifles have drawn opposition, nationally and locally.

“Our cities are not combat zones, but when you arm the police with assault rifles, you run the risk of turning them into combat zones,” said Tom Diaz, senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C. “I doubt there very many communities outside Iraq where you need that kind of firepower.”

See, some police know their guns and recognize the assault weapons ban nonsense was, well, nonsense.

And this time, not from people with Rs after their names. Some background:

Perhaps you remember Henry Cisneros. He’s the former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who pleaded guilty in 1999 to lying to FBI investigators during his pre-appointment background check about hush payments to a former mistress, on which it also happens he hadn’t paid the requisite taxes.

Well, the special counsel report investigating all this still hasn’t been made public, thanks largely to procedural roadblocks by Mr. Cisneros’s attorneys. And now, all of a sudden, a rash of news stories and editorials are urging Independent Counsel David Barrett to wrap up his investigation forthwith, without releasing his findings.

Then there’s the amendment that North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan and co-sponsors John Kerry and Richard Durbin are trying to attach to the latest supplemental war appropriations bill that would de-fund Mr. Barrett immediately. This would have the practical effect of making sure that Mr. Barrett’s report never sees the light of day. After 10 long years and $21 million, don’t they think taxpayers deserve to see what the special counsel has learned?

And what are they hiding:

So what don’t Democrats want everyone to know? We’re told that early on the Barrett probe moved away from Mr. Cisneros and his mistress and focused on an attempted cover-up by the Clinton Administration, especially involving the IRS.

Back in the early ’90s Mr. Cisneros was considered the rising savior of the Democratic Party in Texas. “So there were people who wanted to save his political future,” a source tells us. To that end, when the IRS began investigating him for tax fraud an extraordinary thing happened: The investigation was taken from the IRS district office that would always handle such an audit and moved to Washington, where it was killed.

“Never in the history of the IRS has a case been pulled out of the regional office and taken directly to Washington,” our source continues. This information was originally provided to Mr. Barrett, some years into his investigation, by a whistleblower in the IRS regional office with 30 years of experience.

Government corruption at its finest.

The Star Tribune is covering the story of Koscielski’s guns:

Mark Koscielski, the owner of the only remaining gun shop in Minneapolis, is entering the final stages of a fight with the city that could shutter his business, at least at its current location.

Koscielski awaits a hearing next month before the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Earlier this month, the city sent Koscielski an order telling him to cease operating the gun shop on the 2900 block of Chicago Av. S. by April 18 because it is out of compliance with zoning laws.

It’s the latest chapter in a 10-year legal battle with the city for Koscielski. The gun store owner, who ran for mayor in 2001, has frequently needled City Hall leaders. He recently printed up new “Murderapolis” T-shirts to sell as a way to criticize what he considers to be the city’s understaffing of the Police Department. He coined the term a decade ago when homicides in the city hit a peak.

Koscielski initially opened a store in 1995, days before the City Council adopted a moratorium on gun shops. The city tried to close his shop down, but federal courts ordered that he be allowed to continue doing business.

As a result, he was given an exemption in the zoning code.

It’s good to see this story getting some press, seemingly favorable press even.

Never heard of it:

Des Moines police on March 28 confiscated a legally purchased AK-47 assault rifle from the home of Patrick Younk, 18.

Police began investigating Younk after they received a complaint about threats made against Roosevelt High School students.

Sgt. Todd Dykstra said Younk did not take the weapon to school or threaten anyone. The gun was shown to Younk’s friends at a tennis court in the 4600 block of Observatory Road on March 5. Younk was not arrested or charged with a crime, police said.

Dykstra said police confiscated the gun because “we just didn’t want to take any chances.”

Dykstra said the case had been turned over to the Polk County attorney’s office for review because the gun was transported in Younk’s car.

First of all, it’s not an assault rifle but a gun that looks like one. Secondly, did the kid actually commit a crime? Now, if transporting the gun in a car is illegal in Des Moines, charge him for that. However, it does not appear he has violated the law.

If he threatened people, that should be investigated, of course. But it should also be subject to due process of law.

Dennis S. Winningstad writes a letter to the editor in which he shames The Oregonian for buying and repeating the lies about the gun manufacturer immunity bill:

Read the legislation yourself. You can find it in a simple Google search for Senate Bill 1805. It’s not about “immunity.” It’s not about “bulletproofing.” It is not all those scary things the Blue Meanies would have you believe. Here’s what it says: “A bill to prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages resulting from the misuse of their products by others.”

Alan Korwin of Gunlaws.com was on FoxNews. Here’s the transcript.

Looks like the ethics bill is on its way to Governor Bredesen to be signed into law.

Denver, having been declared its own country apparently, will reinstate its pit bull ban:

Watson is one of 150 Denver residents who were sent a letter from Animal Control this week warning them that the city plans to resume its ban outlawing pit bulls within city limits on May 9, city officials said.

An AR15.com regular has started the Middle Tennessee Carbine Club so other black rifle aficionados can get together, stay in touch, swap stories, and chew the fat. Check it out.

The ban on weapons that looked like assault weapons was a bust. The NY Times with Many Say End of Firearm Ban Changed Little:

Despite dire predictions that the streets would be awash in military-style guns, the expiration of the decade-long assault weapons ban last September has not set off a sustained surge in the weapons’ sales, gun makers and sellers say. It also has not caused any noticeable increase in gun crime in the past seven months, according to several metropolitan police departments.

The uneventful expiration of the assault weapons ban did not surprise gun owners, nor did it surprise some advocates of gun control. Rather, it underscored what many of them had said all along: that the ban was porous – so porous that assault weapons remained widely available throughout their prohibition.

Actually, it wasn’t that the ban was porous, it’s that it was pointless. Banning a gun based on how it looks is asinine. It also acknowledges the NIJ conclusion that the ban could not be shown to have affected crime. The NYT, now after the ban is done, even posts pictures of a gun affected by the ban and one that wasn’t. Odd how this comparison was never shown back when the media was in a hysterical hissy fit over the ban’s pending expiration.

This quote contains an error:

While the 1994 ban prohibited the manufacture and sale of such magazines, it did not outlaw an estimated 25 million of them already in circulation, nor did it stop the importation of millions more into the country.

Actually, it did stop the importation of regular capacity magazines into the country. And the quote of the day, from Colt’s legal counsel:

“People might think it looks less evil,” Mr. Chen said, “but it’s the same weapon. It was a hoax, a Congressional hoax, to ban all these different features.”

The latest bogeyman appears to be the filibuster, the great stall method of babbling. I view congress not accomplishing anything as a success. When congress acts, it usually does so poorly, inefficiently, grandstandingly and unconstitutionally. I prefer them not doing anything and I feel safer when they’re not in session.

Frist, addressing some church group or something, says:

“I don’t think it’s radical to ask senators to vote,” Dr. Frist said. “Now if Senator Reid continues to obstruct the process, we will consider what opponents call the ‘nuclear option.’ Only in the United States Senate could it be considered a devastating option to allow a vote. Most places call that democracy.”

What the jackpot Republican Congress fails to grasp is that they will likely not be in power forever. What goes around comes around.

Michael Silence reports that the effort to tax internet sales has been slowed by opposition. Good. The article:

Plans to allow states such as Tennessee tax Internet sales are still a long way off – good news for online shoppers but bad news for a state losing billions in sales taxes.

They’re not losing money. It’s money that was never earned. Some stats:

In Tennessee alone, nearly $500 million is not collected each year in sales taxes on Internet shopping. That’s almost enough to cover a shortfall in the state’s expanded Medicaid program, which the governor has proposed cutting by 323,000 people.

Across the country, more than $21 billion in sales tax is not being collected, according to a University of Tennessee study.

When the Supreme Court decided 13 years ago to exempt mail-order businesses from the tangled web of various state and local tax codes, no one envisioned Internet commerce exceeding $1 trillion.

I see mentioning TennCare and taxes in the same sentence has started early this year.

David Hardy has the scoop and the video.

Bubba notes that the anti-gay marriage amendment is under fire due to the legislature not following procedures that are, you know, spelled out in law.

The Geek, who doesn’t like giving his info to retailers, tells Best Buy where to go. This is the same reason I don’t shop at Radio Shack. Of course, if I need something from either store that I can’t get elsewhere (which is usually odd sizes of batteries from Radio Shack), I just lie and tell them I’m I.P. Freely and I reside at 123 Any Street.

Day By Day does guns.

Maybe I should get on bARbie-15 for Junior?

Let’s be Blount has the latest on the saga of Sunshyne Video.

A video of police arresting and handcuffing a 5 year-old girl. Her crime? A tantrum.

Resonance turns two.

Particularly to Texas bartenders. When you ask me what I want to drink and I respond with Bourbon, do not look at me and say What would you like? We have Jack Daniels and Crown Royal. Those are not Bourbons.

I swear, two different Texas bartenders did that.

Build your own tactical sling. Sweet!

HL is pondering which evil black rifle he wants. He has limited himself to the RobArm XCR and the Krebs KTR. I also recommend he look into the Fulton Armory Mark 14. That rifle, built from an M1A, is a piece of sex: