not out:

Illegal guns come from a variety of sources. In some cases, residents of states where it’s easy to buy several guns at a time — and no records of the purchase are kept — act as “straw purchasers” who buy guns for people from more gun-restrictive states such as New York.

But authorities say about 75 percent of the illegal guns seized by Rochester police each year are traced back to New York residents who either lost them or reported them stolen.

Via Keep And Bear Arms.

Cowboys take up AK-47s* to combat Mexican drug runners. And why:

Notoriously porous, the border has reached new levels of lawlessness this year as smugglers, known as “coyotes”, have become increasingly brazen, willing to fire on anyone – from border patrols to the likes of Mr McCaslin – who gets in their way

*The gun in the pic looks like a Saiga to me.

I’m used to the bad press that pit bulls get but I was shocked to see one started a fire:

The pit bull named Satchel climbed on top of the stove Thursday and turned on a burner by stepping on a push-button control, said the dog’s owner, Josh Larson. The burner ignited something plastic on the stove top.

Commenter MarkF:

Why can’t we all just get a long-gun?

The Carnival of Cordite is up. Also, today is National Ammo Day. I’ll be at Wal-Mart today to buy some Winchester White Box.

Buck on the movie Jarhead:

My wife said it was probably the single worst movie she has ever seen. You can chalk that up to constant profanity and about 30 seconds of sex scenes. (My wife is not used to 30 seconds of sex. To her that would be a marathon)

I keep seeing various links to The Gun Guys, which is just an anti-gun blog where they claim to be straight shooters but are probably one of the Brady’s many websites. How straight exactly? Well, like this:

A sobering story in the Guardian Unlimited illustrates very clearly how nonexistent the line is between “responsible gun owners” and criminals.

[snip]

But the truth is that there aren’t “good” and “bad” gun owners– there’s just gun owners. And they don’t “defend” or “attack”– they shoot. They kill. That’s why guns are such a problem in this country, because people are taught by the NRA to believe that some guns can do “good” work, that they can defend families and households. But they don’t. They destroy families. They crush households, and then end lives over and over again, every day of every week.

And the NRA is viewed as extremist? The Gun Guys have lost their tiny little minds.

Update: Now that I think about it, not even the Bradies are that stupid. They probably believe that but aren’t stupid enough to admit it. I wonder if the Gun Guys are run by pro-gun folks to make anti-gunners look even dumber and more hysterical than they are?

Sing along:

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Dear CCW in North Carolina
Happy Birthday to you:

North Carolina’s concealed handgun law, which becomes 10 years old next month, has worked well. Even gun-control advocates concede that point.Now one gun-rights group – Grass Roots North Carolina – hopes the law will be expanded so that people with concealed handgun permits will have fewer restrictions on where they can carry their weapons.

Blogger Bob Krumm is pondering a state senate run.

So, yes, I am seriously considering a run for the State Senate. And no, I won’t claim that “a lot of people have approached me, encouraging me to run.” Some have, but it would be an insult to your intelligence to pretend that I’m an unwilling accomplice in this endeavor.

That’s honesty. He also asks for your advice and feedback.

Well, he got my endorsement for governor a while back. He’s also gotten an endorsement from Blake and Matthew White. In all fairness, I should point out I also endorsed Blake for Governor too. I just hand these things out, apparently.

It makes the news when politico has a blog. Now, it’s time for the news to be a blogger becomes a politico.

This one is making the rounds:

The former employee “was pointing a gun at two witnesses … and made statements that he was going to kill them,” said Dallas police Sgt. Dwaine Sides. “That’s when the owner acted.”

Shots were fired, and after officers and medical personnel arrived, the man was pronounced dead at the scene, said Dallas police Sr. Cpl. Donna Hernandez. The man’s name was not released.

Guns at a place of business may very well have prevented a workplace massacre.

Der Commissar has narrowed The Greatest Blog Post Ever down to the ten most nominated posts. He may want to start the poll over because I can’t vote for the 10 selected since I already voted. Just a thought. My endorsement of the top ten is for Those Without Swords Can Still Die Upon Them Or: Why I Am a ‘Gun Nut’ by Kevin Baker.

Howard Bashman on the subject:

In conclusion, to return to the question presented in the title of this post, I doubt whether anonymous blogging is possible. It surely isn’t possible if the blogger conducts email correspondence with others and fails to mask his or her internet protocol address.

Juan Non Volokh on anonymous blogging:

Howard is absolutely correct that truly anonymous blgging (sic) is exceedingly difficult to do, particularly if someone is determined to find out who you are and you respond to e-mails and blog on matters that relate to your professional or personal interests.

Daniel J. Solove tells you how to blog anonymously.

Half Sigma has a variety of thoughts, including:

Does anyone really care enough to put effort into figuring out who you are? Having a blog that no one reads (99% of blogs) is a great source of anonymity.

To the naysayers out there, I do not use a free service. I’ve been blogging for over three years anonymously. A lot of bloggers know who I am because I tell them. Several people at local media outlets know who I am because I’ve met them. Several of my friends know about the blog too, even though I initially never told any of them. When on travel, I try to meet other bloggers and when some travel to my neck of the woods, I meet them. My reasons for being anonymous are listed here.

Besides, SayUncle is more a pseudonym. A character, if you will. For example, I don’t really write like this when I’m preparing a professional document and I tend to be a bit more, uhm, sesquipedalian (see, that’s a word I’d use for business). On the blog, I write like I speak. I know, surprising to learn that I don’t drop F-Bombs and yammer about guns or porn in professional documents. I’m also a bit more to the point on the blog.

Plus, if you knew who I was, you wouldn’t care. I’m nobody, really.

The AP:

A jury has ordered the Ford Motor Co. to pay more than $61 million to the family of a 17-year-old boy killed in a roll-over accident when his friend fell asleep while driving an Explorer.

Ford was liable in the accident because it sold a vehicle with poor handling and stability, the jury said Tuesday.

The company planned to appeal, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.

The family of Lance Crossman Hall claimed Ford knew the Explorer was prone to roll-overs and failed to warn consumers about the vehicle’s defects.

Ford blamed defective Firestone tires for the Explorer’s handling and stability problems, and the company knowingly continued to produce unsafe vehicles, Bruce Kaster, an attorney for the family, said Wednesday.

How about the fact that the driver fell asleep? Unbelievable.

Orin Kerr summarizes parts of the PATRIOT Act compromise.

Good:

The Blount County Commission on Thursday night voted not to fund its $11.9 million portion of a proposed $55 million Civic Arts Center at Maryville College.

Because the measure needed 11 votes to pass, and 10 commissioners voted for the measure and 10 voted against it, the four hour commission meeting ended with Civic Arts Center proponents going home disappointed. The number of proponents in the commission room out-numbered those against funding the center by more than a three-to-one margin.

More than 200 people were crowded into every seat and along each wall of the commission room.

Good for the county. This was interesting:

In many cases Civic Arts Center supporters stressed economic, educational and cultural opportunities the facility would bring. Civic Arts Center opponents pointed to economic and education priorities for not funding the facility. Still others said they supported the facility, but not the public funding.

The meeting was not without at least one surprise when commissioner Joe Everett voiced his support for the project after initially speaking against the funding two years ago. He said that information about attracting business and industry were his reasons for supporting the plan.

Well, if it’s to be so profitable and all that, why not get some private investors to foot the bill? And, at least one commissioner, agreed with me:

Commissioner David Graham spoke against the funding while acknowledging the civic center was a good idea. “It’s hard for me to support funding the civic arts center when we’re not anywhere near solving the overcrowding problem (in the schools),” Graham said.

Ravenwood reports:

Louisiana State Representative Steve Scalise, R-Metairie is pushing a resolution that calls for the government to give hurricane victims their guns back, and plans to introduce legislation to remove the emergency powers statute that “authorized” gun seizures during a crisis.

Good.

More like an insult to pit bulls:

A Florida law firm’s television advertisement featuring a pit bull, a dog breed known for its aggression, is misleading and an affront to the legal profession, the Florida Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

I particularly like this;

The advertisements “demean all lawyers and thereby harm both the legal profession and the public’s trust and confidence in our system of justice,” Chief Justice Barbara Pariente scolded a unanimous decision.

Err, last I checked, there wasn’t much public trust and confidence in our system of justice.

Update: Xrlq is in snark mode.

With Knoxville taking the deadly and money making option of putting in redlight cameras a question arises. Does Knoxville have some nice cliffs?

Xavier is running a series of idiots with guns. Pretty frightening.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

The Augusta Chronicle reports:

A North Augusta man pleaded guilty this week in federal court to committing mail fraud involving the transfer of illegal machine guns and lying to federal agents.

Ernest Wrenn, 56, pleaded guilty Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of South Carolina to one count of mail fraud and one count of knowingly making a materially false statement to an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Sentencing will be later.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia, Mr. Wrenn lied to an ATF agent in 2002 about how many machine gun kits he had, and in January 2004, investigators discovered he was scamming customers by selling illegal machine guns he said were ATF-approved.

So, the only charges in the case are lying to an agent and mail fraud. Unless there’s more to it than we know, Wrenn did not have machine guns. He had made a semi-automatic Maxim. The ATF, according to the folks at Subguns, couldn’t make that stick.

Update: Basically, Wrenn got the Martha Stewart treatment. He was guilty of lying about a crime no one could prove he committed. As of yet, the details on the mail fraud charge are sketchy. Some folks allege he sold the items even though he had obtained a denial letter from the ATF stating the upper receivers were subject to the NFA. Others claim he sold them not knowing the ATF considered them NFA items but was advised to keep the money he received by his attorneys. Something here ain’t right.

Past coverage here.

You can’t make this stuff up:

Fewer than 100 vehicles torched overnight as calm returns to France

Police in France report 98 vehicle torchings and 33 arrests overnight Wednesday, which they say means the country is now “totally normal” after three weeks of turmoil.

98 car burnings in one night is totally normal? Wow.

The only thing dumber than this:

“We can’t be breeding right now,” says Les Knight. “It’s obvious that the intentional creation of another [human being] by anyone anywhere can’t be justified today.”

Knight is the founder of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, an informal network of people dedicated to phasing out the human race in the interest of the health of the Earth.

Is when ace reporter Gregory Dicum says:

Knight’s position might sound extreme at first blush, but there’s an undeniable logic to it: Human activities — from development to travel, from farming to just turning on the lights at night — are damaging the biosphere. More people means more damage. So if fewer people means less destruction, wouldn’t no people at all be the best solution for the planet?

No, Mr. Dicum, it sounds extreme at first blush and any subsequent blush. The fact that you’re trying to pass it off as logical may be one of the most irresponsible things I’ve seen. And to all you folks who think this is a good idea, I’m glad you’re choosing not to breed. One more:

“May we live long and die out,” says Naomi Thompson, quoting the VHEMT slogan. Thompson, who is in her late 20s and works as an analyst for Wells Fargo in San Francisco, has also concluded that childbearing is irresponsible. “It’s not about wanting to kill people, but it’s selfish to have a kid at this point when so many aren’t getting the love and attention that they deserve.”

No wonder they’re taking guns from you people.

Via Bob.

Xrlq alerts us to a petition to end the pending doggie racism in San Fran.

The Geek found a strategy paper on the tactics of international arms control. The paper is here. Give it a read. The Geek asks:

. . . the pro gun NGOs seem to be MIA, which causes me to wonder what exactly the counter strategy (if any) is.

The NRA certainly likes to ring the alarm bell on UN interference with armed civilians, so it seems to me they either need to get on the ball here, or fill us in on what they’ve got in mind.

Good question. Of course, I’m still wondering why the NRA hasn’t made a peep about the Wrenn case. Anybody know?

Blount Today:

Some said it’s not needed, it’s too expensive or we should build schools. Others said it’s a nice amenity, but those who want it should pay for it.

Also, the vote on it is tonight at 7 p.m. at the Blount County Courthouse. People opposed to the idea are planning on marching there.

Oleg Volk, of gun photographer fame, has a blog.

Even though it wasn’t a crime, she did time:

Allysan Isaac, 24, was held nearly a year in work release for something that a judge said Tuesday was not even illegal.

“You were incarcerated for a case that was not a crime,” said Mesa County District Judge Brian Flynn, who presided over the case.

Flynn, the prosecutor and Isaac’s defense attorney were unaware last year that the offense she was charged with was not a violation of the law.

No one had noticed that a prescription drug found in Isaac’s possession, an anti-anxiety medication called Buspirone, is not a controlled substance.

I guess we’ve reached the point where it is assumed that a substance is controlled before assuming it’s not. I hope she sues their asses off.

Via Publicola.

Bill Hobbs has a gaggle of guest bloggers.

Canadian Geese have become quite a nuisance and their population has grown. Alphie reports:

The plan will allow farmers, property owners and public health officials to kill geese by various methods, including hunting, with state approval but without federal permits, the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer said.

I hate geese.

Media overstate pit bull dangers:

It seems that the Register attempted to yet again blame the breed for this “mauling” which looked like nothing more than a bite to the mail carrier’s hand and arm. In no way am I stating that this attack isn’t important, painful or dangerous, however it shouldn’t be called a “mauling.” It was a dog bite and those happen often with all breeds. However, pit bulls are the only ones that are really reported on.