When your gun laws aren’t quite working out the way you plan, the best course of action is to blame other people. Eric, who is all over the lies about the gun immunity bill perpetuated by the media, also notes that the South must be to blame for gun crime problems in the north.

Additionally, Ravenwood notes that the recent eruption of gun violence in Toronto is also the fault of America. He also asks: So where are the other half coming from? Greenland?

To RTB’s own Mark for a mention in the WaPo.

The senate is set to pass the gun immunity bill and without attaching riders:

Gun control advocates in the U.S. Senate, unable to halt a bill that would shield the firearms industry from some lawsuits, tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to put some gun safety measures in the measure.

Those would not have been gun safety measures but would have been gun control measures.

With a clear majority of the Senate backing it, the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” appears set to pass the Senate within the next few days. It is a top priority of the National Rifle Association, the influential gun lobby, and the White House has strongly endorsed it.

We’re winning.

May be the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a while:

An 11-year-old girl who threw a stone at a group of boys pelting her with water balloons is being prosecuted on serious assault charges in California.

Maribel Cuevas was arrested in April in a police operation which involved three police cars and a helicopter.

She has since spent five days in detention, in which she was granted one 30 minute visit by her parents, and has spent a month under house arrest.

Cars, helicopters, arrest and detainment. I’m glad the authorities have taken care of this violent criminal. Seriously, they got nothing better to do?

And it’s a pretty bad one too:

“The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is ‘okay’ to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is,” Dean said, not mentioning that until he nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court this week, Bush had not appointed anyone to the high court.

Dean’s reference to the “right-wing” court was also erroneous. The four justices who dissented in the Kelo vs. New London case included the three most conservative members of the court – Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was the fourth dissenter.

The court’s liberal coalition of Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer combined with Justice Anthony Kennedy to form the majority opinion, allowing the city of New London, Conn., to use eminent domain to seize private properties for commercial development.

The Minutemen have rejected the idea of working under the direction of the .gov and vow to remain independent of government supervision.

No time to go to high power matches? No problem:

The second title in the NRA Shooting Sports Game Series, NRA High Power Competition, was released today by Interactive Sports Entertainment and Marketing, Inc. “ISE”(formerly Speedco Shooting Sports, Inc.). NRA High Power Competition brings all of the fun and competition of one of the most popular forms of military style competitive shooting to the home computer.

A true-to-life simulation of high power rifle shooting, NRA High Power Competition provides valuable resources which teach the rules, procedures and safety of the sport. Grant Ubl, top-ranked, competitive shooter and owner of two major long range shooting websites, long-range.com and nationalmatch.us, states, “Imagine training juniors with this game before they ever fire a live round… Think of how much this will shorten their learning curve!”

Players can shoot highly detailed civilian versions of three military service rifles (M-16, M-14, M-1 Garand) as well as three sophisticated match rifles. The game includes advanced ballistics modeling and true-to-life reloading (hand loading) systems using products from many of the industry’s top manufacturers, a few of which include Springfield Armory and Bushmaster Firearms, as well as leading powder, bullet and accessory companies.

Players can use the career system to track their progress towards becoming High Master in local competitions, state championships and national championships. NRA High Power Competition can also be played against the comprehensive artificial intelligence mode which will pit the player’s individual skills against some of the most competitive shooters in the world, or can be played online for the ultimate challenge. Collect gear and tune your ammunition to your rifle for the ultimate accuracy.

David Codrea on a recent KABA poll that denotes overwhelming support for Judge Roberts:

Can KABA point to any meaningful indicators on Judge Roberts’ sentiments on the Second Amendment? Unless something new has been disclosed that I’m out of the loop on, even NRA, with all its Washington connections and insider information has been mum on the subject of Roberts and guns.

Here’s what we do know:

Hillary is reported to be ready to confirm him. Feinstein is “impressed” with him. Schumer’s only 2A-related concern is whether or not he agrees with a prior high court decision to overturn the “Gun Free School Zones Act.”

I’ve given Jon Stewart grief before for going easy on Kerry, Gillespie, and others. And for lying about guns. Last night, I watched it on the Tivo and Jon Stewart was a total pussy with respect to his interview with Santorum. It was almost painful to watch. You could tell Stewart wanted to lean into him but apparently he lacked the balls to do so.

It’s not often that the local newspaper writes something that gets the SayUncle seal of approval. But this time, the editorial board gets one right:

Seizure laws out of control

It’s probably fitting that extortion charges against two Loudon County deputies were dropped.
After all, they weren’t the extortionists – we were.

The deputies seized $9,649 from a motorist they suspected of being a drug dealer. Forget the fact that no drugs were collected.

Our seizure laws don’t trifle with such details as evidence. They operate on the great American proposition that a citizen is guilty until proven innocent – if the cops say so.

They can take your car, house and money without due process of law and without a jury trial. Glad to see a media outlet point that out.

John Cole notes the Democrat’s new strategery of moving to the center will be bloody:

The Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of influential party moderates, named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today to direct a new initiative to define a party agenda for the 2006 and 2008 elections.

The appointment solidified the identification of Clinton, once considered a champion of the party’s left, with the centrist movement that helped propel her husband to the White House in 1992. It also continued her effort, which has accelerated in recent months, to present herself as a moderate on issues such as national security, immigration and abortion.

I don’t know that this does much for the perception that Democrats flip-flop. And the lefties don’t like it. Bill Quick points out that those further left are eating their own:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s call for an ideological cease-fire in the Democratic Party drew an angry reaction yesterday from liberal bloggers and others on the left, who accused her of siding with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) in a long-running dispute over the future of the party.

There are a growing number of people that historically vote Republican (ahem, me) who are dissatisfied enough with the Republicans that the Democrats could maybe capitalize on. They failed to do that in 2002 and 2004. I’m not certain that this image change will convince us unless they’re serious about really reconsidering their position on issues like guns, property rights, taxes and the war.

First, they should tell Dean to shut the hell up. Secondly, stop inviting Michael Moore to their little get togethers. And, third, pick someone more charismatic than John Kerry and Hillary Clinton to be their moderate voice.

Jeff has the weekly check on bias against gun.

The Metropulse penned a crap editorial about the Kelo decision. Rich rips Conley a new one for it.

Prehistoric porn kinda sucks.

Are you scared yet? Read the whole thing.

Regarding the bid to take Justice Souter’s home in order to put a hotel there, Kira Zalan reports:

A day after the Kelo decision was delivered, Freestar Media LLC submitted a proposal in the town of Weare, New Hampshire where majority opinion writer, Justice Souter, owns a farm house. They requested that the town board condemn the land and give it to them, as private developers, who promise to construct the Lost Liberty Hotel in its place. Their tax revenue would no doubt be higher than the reported $2,500 that Justice Souter paid in property taxes last year. It would create employment and attract tourism. The town has a website, and an economic development committee, which has identified its two main goals: 1) Encourage the formation of new businesses, and 2) Promote tourism. However, contrary to its stated goals and the legally sanctioned purpose of economic development, the town’s board turned down the proposal.

Governments rarely take homes from rich dudes with political pull.

Update: I will predict her blog will be popular soon. Hopefully, it won’t end with the same result last time I made such a prediction.

Joe Huffman was fired from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for exercising his first and second amendment rights. You can read Joe’s story here. You can help Joe by going here.

I was privy to an advanced copy of his story and it’s pretty damning in its claims.

Seriously, read this unsigned editorial. There’s an email address at the bottom but to save you time it’s voicers@edit.nydailynews.com.

Apparently, Democrats are supporting the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

In my hometown, there has been much discussion about the local high school banning the Confederate Flag at events. Actually, they’ve banned all flags and symbols. The Confederate flag has been a tradition for a while since they’re known as the Rebels. I’ve heard they got the name Rebels because there was a time when football wasn’t allowed and they kept the team anyway.

Tonight at the school board meeting, they’ll discuss the ban. Apparently a large group of folks plan on being there to tell the school board exactly how stupid this is.

Harold Ford, Jr. kinda, sorta almost gets it right:

I support periodic review of any restrictions on the freedoms and rights of Tennesseans and Americans alike. It is unnecessarily intrusive to ask Americans to forfeit rights and freedoms indefinitely. I took the conservative approach and voted against this indefinite and liberal overreach by the federal government into our private lives.

Actually, it is unconstitutional to suspend our rights in general, forget intrusive. He notes he did not support permanently expanding the PATRIOT Act.

Update: Too bad he gets one completely wrong:

The community-rights-trump-individual-rights crowd cheered the [Kelo] decision. “We have a lot of properties in my city [Memphis],” said Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., ” . . . that are crying out for development. . . . I’ve always been one to believe that individual rights is a big thing [but] there is some real value to this

When it comes to AK refinishing, my thoughts have always been Why bother? It’s an AK. Head tells us how to refinish them and give them that new gun smell.

Cowboy Blob has the skinny on stuff to take to the range.

I’ve been tagged by a blog meme. The meme asks what is on my nightstand. Pretty simple stuff, actually. Here goes:

A picture of my daughter eating Oreos.
A poem my wife wrote to me the day before our wedding.
A ceramic pig holding up a heart with XX OO written on it.
A couple of books I’ll apparently never finish.
A lamp.
Cell phone.
Telephone (land line).
A Surefire G2 Nitrolon flash light. It’s a good light. It will light up your life and temporarily blind someone.
A Glock 30 and extra magazine.
Kershaw pocket knife.
A glass of water.
Keys, wallet, watch, and wedding band.

I think that’s it.

I’m also supposed to tag five other bloggers and get them to reveal what’s on their nightstand, so here they are:

Ravenwood
Phelps
Head
Marc
The Geek

DPMS made lower receiver parts kits for the AR-15: $48.

The text of the bill to ban regular capacity magazines is over at Gun Law News.

With the fact that those evil libertarian minded people are trying to seize Judge Souter’s home you would feel that the good folks in the town he lives in would rally behind him and try to protect his homestead.

Nope.

Town Clerk Evelyn Connor has had to return checks from people wishing to donate to a hotel construction fund. A rival proposal from townspeople would turn Souter’s land into a park commemorating the U.S. Constitution.

You have to know you messed up when your own neighbors turn against you.

John Cahill:

I like to remind my Republican friends that the roots of the Brady Campaign are Republican to the core. I do it just to get them backpedaling after some dig about Democrats hating guns. I may also remind them that the original 1993 Assault Weapon Ban amendment could not have passed without Republican votes because eight Democrats voted NO and two of the eight were Nevada Senators Reid and Bryan.

He also caught the Brady Bunch lying through their collective teeth:

The Brady Campaign testified on March 15, 2006 [Update: I’m sure they mean 2005 – Ed.], at the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, against H.R. 800. This testimony included opposition to companion Senate legislation S. 397. Part of that testimony was a letter purported to be from several national Law Enforcement organizations opposing Gun Liability reform. The letter was published on the web along with Brady’s record of testimony. The letter carried a list of 66 individually named Sheriffs and Police Chiefs of major cities. Six of the names listed were Nevada Chiefs or Sheriffs. My Sheriff was included.

I made contact with my Sheriff through a ranking officer in the Department. He remembered getting a briefing from the Brady organization at a State meeting but didn’t remember that our Sheriff had signed any letter. Later my Sheriff responded directly and personally to an email saying he was checking facts on the whole matter.

About that time the National Rifle Association’s NRA-ILA issued an alert to email subscribers in Nevada and urged those citizens to contact the Law Enforcement Officers who signed the letter and ask them to reconsider their opposition. Nevada Sheriffs are elected and Chiefs are appointed by elected officials. That’s a good thing.

Following the NRA Alert, all of the feedback I was able to track indicated that not one of the Nevada Law Enforcement Officers listed had signed the letter or authorized the use of his name. My info now is that every one of the six has demanded his name be removed and two penned letters of support for S.397.

The new site for the Rocky Top Brigade is up. Head on over and check it out. We have a lot of features, like a main page feed that lists recent entries made on RTB blogs, which I think is most excellent.

Rich has been gracious enough to create an RTB message board.

Some brigadiers have not updated their email info and such. If you still consider yourself a member, you may want to give me updated info. Here’s a link to the help/how-to section.

And to join the RTB, go here.

I’d like to thank Johnny for doing all this. And Barry for contributing a great many ideas.

Turns out the guy that the London police shot wasn’t a terrorist. Just some Brazilian guy. On the assumption that the police correctly identified themselves, the guy should not have ran. However, if the coppers failed to adequately identify themselves, there will (and should be) Hell to pay.

Marc has more.