Congrats to Ravenwood, who is now contributing to the Dumb Criminals website.

Michael Silence on The Big Chill:

A Cleveland editor was holding back on some big stories due to fear of federal prosecution.

There’s more. He concludes with:

In sum, that ain’t daylight at the end of the tunnel.

Ayup.

He also notes a Federal Agency (guess which one) violated privacy protections.

CounterTop has the latest on what we secular conservative sorts are yammering on about.

As far as I can tell, here are the facts. Meleia Willis-Starbuck was hanging out with friends. Some guys decided to hit on them and it didn’t go well. The guys called them bitches. Meleia Willis-Starbuck then, allegedly, calls some friends to do a drive-by shooting on the dudes who called her and her friends bad words. Meleia Willis-Starbuck is shot during this drive-by. And here’s the press coverage, in which it’s called a tragedy:

“No one blames anyone in this,” said Perkins, who spoke at the memorial service and was prepared to speak on Wilson’s behalf in the courtroom. “We are all caught in this matrix created by too many handguns.”

Actually, I do. I blame whoever decided that doing a drive-by because someone’s language offended them. More:

Those who attended the memorial were asked to wear purple wristbands symbolizing the effort to end domestic violence, one of Willis-Starbuck’s causes.

Uhm, how about not doing drive-by shootings?

Update: Meanwhile, Phelps keeps it real.

BB guns are not toys. They should be treated like any other gun.

Been a big month for Junior. She’s off the bottle and up to the sippy cup. She’s also walking, which me and the Mrs. figure makes her a toddler now and no longer a baby. Neat stuff. More importantly: We were watching Headbanger’s Ball yesterday and that tune Color of Money by Bury Your Dead (who happen to kick ass, by the way) came on. I started giving it the white-boy-head-bop. Junior chimed in with her own head-bop. My girl can head bang! Excellent.

Number five is up. Give it a read.

Kirk has made a SayUncle link button! Pretty sharp looking:

The Carnival of Cordite is up.

In part one I linked to a press release that mentioned a study I have never heard of before. One that showed resisting crime was normally to the good of the victim. After a call to Minnesota and a few more to Florida I finally got my hands on the report.

Resisting Crime: The effects of victim action on the outcome of crimes
Jonhgeon Tark
Gary Kleck
Florida State University

When I talked to Mr. Kleck I asked him if he was surprised at the results he found especially when the police and press have always said that resisting leads to more violence.
His reply of “No, Not at all” surprised me. He went on that he had done other studies and research projects and findings elsewhere have shown that resisting normally lead to less injury to the victim.

The report starts by showing how data was recorded and interpreted. Then the results are shown. The results are shown in chart form and good explanations throughout.

But it is words in the conclusion that raised my eyebrows.

It is in this light that we offer tentative advice to victims. While there are exceptional situations, victims resistance is usually either successful or inconsequential, and on the rare occasion that it is harmful, it is rarely seriously so. There fore unless there are circumstances that clearly indicate resistance will lead to significant harm, the evidence reported in this paper indicates that some form of resistance should be the path generally taken.

Now this goes in the face of all the police and media have always said. The chanting from them that resisting will only lead to more violence does not stand up to the light of a university study.

He also says something that every second amendment activist should read.

Various kinds of forceful victim protective behavior, such as threatening the offender with a gun or other weapon, show the strongest negative coefficients, though none are significant. A conservative interpretation would be that armed and other forceful resistance does not appear to increase the victim’s risk of injury.

Again against everything told by the police and media.

He ends the report with this

Future research might bring better evidence that contradicts these conclusions. At present, however, the best available evidence indictaes that victim resistance is generally wise.

The report is a good read, even though some of the breakdown material did confuse me a bit. I have it on a PDF file(7.9mb) and will send it to anyone who wants a copy. Drop me a line at “noquartersblog ***at*** yahoo ***dot*** com” and I will send a copy your way.

Justin Buist has kindly hosted it on his server for those who want a copy. Here it is for your reading pleasure
.
Note: I have gotten back a MAILER-DAEMON failure notice on one email I sent out. If you requested a copy and have not received it yet please email me.

Barry’s gonna be on TeeVee tomorrow.

In an update to this post on the Iraqi constitution, it looks like the draft Iraqi constitution has taken some of that anti-Israeli language out, though not all.

The Anti-Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act of 2005 is in process.

Refuse to be a victim of suicide bombers.

Via Analog Kid.

Gunner is watching the PATRIOT Act and notes that, while protecting our northern border, that:

The thing is there is no like section that mentions the southern border. It took me only a few seconds to realize something. There is no giant Canadian voting block, while there is a Hispanic voting block.

He also points to attempts to ban .50 Calibers and to an effort to prohibit people on watch lists from buying guns.

Additionally, a provision has been added to expand contraband cigarettes to include smokeless tobacco.

Lastly, he notes his rep, Bart Gordon, has misled about his support for the Patriot act.

In this post, I wrote:

First, warning shots are always illegal. Second, shooting to wound is usually illegal.

Pawpaw has taken me to task and notes:

… train yourself that you will only shoot someone to compel him to stop doing a certain action. In short, you want to Shoot to Stop. We don’t shoot to kill, nor shoot to wound, but shoot to stop.

I concur. I should have clarified that I meant intentionally shooting to wound to the extent that it is not shooting to stop or kill. Meaning that if you intentionally shoot some one in the leg, your story to the cops shouldn’t be that you didn’t want to kill that person so you shot him in the leg. It should be you shot to stop.

Looks like Blount County is taking another stab at passing a wheel tax:

Homemade signs, honking horns and a standing-room-only crowd at the Blount County Commission meeting Thursday could not kill the wheel tax.

Commissioners voted 11-9 to refer it to the Financial Management Committee, “where it should have gone to begin with,” said Commissioner Donna Dowdy.

A wheel tax, which failed in December and again in February, was back on the commission’s agenda this month, though there was no corresponding resolution setting an amount or a designation for revenues.

Despite the ambiguity — or perhaps because of it — the wheel tax sparked a rally from the anti-tax group Citizens for Blount County’s Future. About 20 tax foes staked out points around the courthouse for an hour prior to the commission meeting, encouraging other tax opponents to honk horns in protest of a wheel tax. One wore a bumper sticker proclaiming Blount County “the most crooked little county in the South.”

Patterico notes that congress is looking to expand daylight savings time by four weeks. I’m with Patterico, make it year round.

Side note: That really requires and act of Congress? By what authority does congress regulate time? I guess because commerce must occur in time or some such other silliness.

And some stock in gun companies. Investment advice from The Street.

Cowboy Blob’s friend reviews the Kel-Tec Sub2000 9mm Carbine.

Cowboy Blob tells us that the MechTech sucks.

Mr. Completely reviews the Hi Point 9MM carbine.

And when you’re done, have some pickled cole slaw.

John Cole notes some conservatives who aren’t happy with Roberts:

President Bush promised us a Scalia or Thomas. Instead, he has nominated a man who helped big government trample the rights of property owners. Forcing businesses to advertise competing products is wrong. Telling land owners you have not stolen their land because they can still pay taxes on it is wrong.

And Keep and Bear Arms notes that Roberts has made political contributions to anti-gun candidates.

In Oregon, you may soon need a doctor’s prescription for Sudafed:

Oregon would be the first state in the nation to fight the spread of methamphetamine by requiring prescriptions for some cold medications under legislation that passed the House on Wednesday.

The 55-4 vote sent House Bill 2485 to the Senate, which unanimously approved a companion bill with stiffer penalties against makers of meth, an illegal stimulant, if children or seniors are present at houses used as labs.

Both chambers also approved $7.1 million in spending for added investigations and prosecutions of drug-makers and treatment of addicts.

In Tennessee, pharmacies are required to keep it behind the counter and ask for ID. Readers have reported to me that they even write down your driver license number. This is pretty stupid.

Now, that Sudafed commercial will get ridiculous. Instead of people coming in and the guy saying Aisle five, he’ll have to start asking for blood samples.

Via Radley comes news that congress is looking to tax porn websites at 25%. And more:

Portions of the draft point to age-verification requirements on “regulated pornographic” websites. The requirements include using Federal Trade Commission-approved age-verification software packages that check the age of visitors before they are shown adult content.

I’d link to the source but it’s not safe for work.

Chuck notes a bill in the Alabama assembly that expands circumstances that justify deadly force. Here’s the bill.

London police shot a man who was wearing heavy coat. According to the radio, witnesses report they chased the man and he fell. Police then held him down and then someone shot him. Could be bad. If he was actually a bomber, good. However, if he was just some smart-ass in a heavy coat, this could be some bad joo-joo.

Regarding yesterday’s bombs, I think Mike may have the most accurate take on it:

Details are still a bit fuzzy, but it’s clear now that four would-be suicide bombers attacked three trains and a bus in London today. None of their devices worked as planned; apparently they detonated but each produced only a small blast, just large enough to tear apart the backpacks they were hidden in and to break a few windows on the bus. Only a handful people were injured.

I’ll go out on a limb here and assume that is was the detonators which exploded, but that the main charges failed to go off.

I am very distressed that so many people have been quick to dismiss this as the work of amateurs or copycats. To be blunt, that’s just nonsense. These guys are arguably more capable and even better organized than the 7/7 bombers just two weeks ago. And all of them are reportedly still at large.

Read the whole thing.

Heh:

Profanity is the inevitable linguistic crutch of the inarticulate motherfucker.

From the comments at Chris’ place.

Fox News says so:

Three London Underground stations were evacuated at midday Thursday, and the London police commissioner confirmed that four explosions occurred in the subway and on a bus. The Fire Brigade was investigating a report of smoke at one station.

State Senator Tim Burchett says something stupid:

During WATE’s TennCare town hall meeting Tuesday night, state Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) said Wal-Mart shares some of the blame for the TennCare crisis.

“A large percentage of their employees are on TennCare and I’d like to see them use some of their profits to support some of their people, and things like that,” Burchett said.

Support it by paying payroll and income taxes? Support it by collecting sales taxes? They already do that. A Wal-Mart rep responds:

6 News talked with a company spokesman several times Wednesday. He issued a statement: saying, “The company does not encourage associates to apply for public assistance, nor does Wal-Mart design plans to be subsidized by it.”

Sympathetically, the reporter chimes in with:

But what about Scotty? Remember, he was already on TennCare. Does Wal-Mart encourage its employees to stay on public assistance, as opposed to enrolling in the company’s plan?

What actual experts say about .50 calibers:

The M107 is the Army’s first semi-automatic .50 Cal sniper weapon system. Soldiers will be able to effectively engage multiple material targets, such as parked aircraft, light armored vehicles, and computers at distances of up to 2000 meters.

I would think if a selling point was shooting planes out of the sky, the article would mention that. And congrats to Barrett Rifles on the military deal.

Robert reports some good news from the ATF:

ATF was recently advised by the Department of State that its Bureau of Political Military Affairs will now, on a case-by-case basis, permit the retransfer of U.S. manufactured military firearms that were sold or granted by the United States Government that are classified by ATF as Curio or relic firearms to U.S. private entities…

That could mean buying surplus 1911s, Garands, and a whole host of other goodies.

Update: M1As would be nice!