This is one reason to use the words black or white:

… it’s been 11 days since two African- American teenagers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this.

No the French are not killing Americans.

The Gun Guy tells us gun folks to chill out with respect to the crazy talk:

But it’s time we gun owners grew up. When there’s reason to be paranoid, we should be. What I’m saying is that we don’t have to be paranoid anymore—just eternally watchful, and suspicious.

Jeff notes the SF handgun ban has passed. A similar measure was struck down in 1982.

I finally managed to get the new and improved WASR-10 out to the range. Here’s the post on some of the mods I made with before and after photos. But, for you folks too lazy to click, my AK set up is Romanian WASR-10, which you can learn everything about it by clicking here. Seriously, the guy’s page is full of general info and how-to info that proved invaluable to me when doing my modifications. The modifications I’ve made have been to add this folding stock by Tapco; the Ultimak scout rail and mount to allow co-witnessing the iron sights of the AK with the red dot scope (see previous posts here and here); and a Tacpoint red dot sight (everything you ever wanted to know about the Tacpoint – good and bad – is here).

Here’s the WASR in it’s afterglow.

The magazine feeding problems I had mentioned before were nonexistent. On the advice of Robert, I used a Dremel to shave off part of the rear of the magazine well and the mag release. No problems at all. This also fixed the jamming issues. Not a single malfunction in about 150 rounds. So, how’d it shoot:
Read the rest of this entry »

Packing.org reports:

The National Police Concealed Carry Law – H.R. 218 is being manipulated to make carrying a concealed firearm under that law a liability for the officer or retired officer that might be found exercising his right in NYC and some other states.

In NYC, “there’s a memo directing NYPD officers who encounter a fellow officer carrying a firearm in accordance with the cop carry law to seize the gun, detain the person, and call a supervisor onto the scene. From there, the supervisor is to keep the gun and person in custody until the persons off duty or retired credentials can be verified through the department and the persons home agency.”

Gun Law News has the results of its poll regarding what should be next on the agenda for gun right:

The question was ‘Where should we go for next?’. And the results were:

Nationwide CCW Reciprocity 43.5%
Repeal of NFA 34 28.4%
Repeal of ‘sporting use’ 11.5%
Repeal of the Brady Bill 6.8%
Repeal of the Hughes Amdt 4.3%
Interstate sales of all firearms 4.0%
Other 1.6%
Interstate sales of rifles 0.1%

Jeff has the latest on gun bias in the media.

One for the too stupid to fisk category. David Kairys is either a disingenuous anti-gun hack or an idiot.

Speaking of burying the lede, saw this at Patterico on Alito:

Murphy said he and Alito agree that the 1973 landmark abortion-rights case Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.

“He is much more an Anti-federalist where state and national authority clash, more libertarian on issues such as gun control, and much tighter on some matters as the rights of the criminally accused than I,” Murphy said in an earlier email message.

I’d consider that a good thing.

Update: Considering this, the Gun Owners of America endorsement and the fact that the Brady Campaign feels the need to lie about Alito, I’m moving away from being neutral on the Alito nomination and more toward supporting it. Not entirely convinced yet, but closer.

TNKen reports on the latest in the not really a machine gun trial of Ernie Wrenn:

As you may know, Ernie and his attorney were allowed to inspect and take the semi auto Maxims that were alleged to be machine guns to the range in an attempt to duplicate ATF’s allegation that they would fire fully auto. At the first test, ATF refused to allow Ernie and his attorney to video the test. The second time, they got a court order to allow the taping, only to have ATF force them to surrender the video following the test. ATF refused to participate in the testing, and the guns of course, only fired in semi if at all.

Late last week, ATF filed a motion to exclude the video. First, on the grounds that it had Ernie in it, and the government would not be able to cross-examine him if he did not take the witness stand. If Ernie did take the stand, ATF argued that the video would only be duplicative of the oral testimony, and thus not necessary for the defense. Obviously, the government does not like the facts portrayed in the video.

Abysmal. Lying about it being a machine gun then preventing him from proving it. More Wrenn past coverage here.

Getting older and having a kid, I started really looking at life. So, I asked my dad what advice he could give and he said (and I am not making this up):

There was a third one but I forgot it. It may have been the important one. As you were.

Update: Guess that explains this. Maybe I should ask mom.

Bill Hobbs asks if tax referendums are a threat. It seems Tennessee Tax Revolt is a pain in the butt to people who want to raise your taxes. Good for them.

The Freeholder:

30,000–that’s the population of a large town or a small city. It’s the number of seats in one of the smaller major league baseball fields. It’s the size of a US Army Corps.

Wired also reports that it’s also the number of “national security letters” issued by the FBI on a yearly basis. These letters allow access to your Internet use, telephone, email and financial records, all without judicial review. (Not that I trust the judicial system, but any sort of oversight would make me a little more comfortable.)

30,000 is 100 times the historical average of these letters, which first came into use with the passage of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in 1986.

Good thing we have this right to privacy thing.

Joe may have had a hand in preventing the Australian terror attack. Even he says chances are slim but still.

Just Johnny just moved. New site here. He’s also providing free blogs for all of East Tennessee. If you’re interested, head on over and sign up.

Seen at Alphie’s:

How large does the Republican majority in the House and Senate need to be before Republicans act like the fiscal conservative I thought we were?

Ouchie.

By now, everyone has heard the story about the pirates that attacked a cruise ship off the east African coast:

Pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns tried to hijack a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast Saturday, but the ship outran them, officials said.

Two boats full of pirates approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the Somali coast and opened fire while the heavily armed bandits tried to get onboard, said Bruce Good, spokesman for the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.

The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course.

The cruise ship outran them and also fired some sort of sonic weapon at them. So, given that they had rocket propelled grenades and machine guns which they supposedly fired at the ship, here’s my question: Why are we so sure they’re pirates and not, I don’t know, say terrorists?

Sure, we don’t know because they didn’t catch the ship but I don’t think I’d rule out the possibility.

Side note: saw on Mail Call one night a special about the Coast Guard. They had a pretty cool gun set up. It was a Barrett 50 semi-auto fitted with an EOTech holographic scope. It’s purpose was to disable engines. Interesting application, I thought.

Apparently, they think when the judiciary doesn’t defer to congress on matters of the Constitution that that is Right-Wing Judicial Activism and a Threat to Federal Gun Laws.

The Confederate Yankee catches them lying as well. The Bradies claim a straw purchaser’s address was a local mission but:

But Van McQueen’s home address was not a local mission as Brady claims, at any point in the gun purchasing process.

They also claim McQueen came back three days later but:

Records will further show that Van McQueen did not come back three days later to attempt to purchase a firearm.

Three days after November 26 was November 29.

FBI NICS records and other documentation will show that Van McQueen did not purchase the shotgun until December 29 at 4:07:23 PM, 33 days later, or more than a month after the Brady Center’s claim.

They have to lie to win and that’s still not working out so well for them.

This is my letter sent to each member of City Council:

I am writing to ask you for your help. Over the years the yellow light
duration has gone from 5 seconds to 3 to 4 seconds. This has created a
safety hazard for intersections in Knoxville. I ask that you require
City Engineering to have a full five-second yellow light and a two
second hold on cross traffic.

I ask that you do this regardless of what decision you make on the red
light cameras. I hope you will change your previous approval and deny
the red light cameras. City after city has learned that these cameras
cause more accidents. Public safety is your most important
responsibility. If the City must have more revenue then raise the
property tax.

This is one of the most important decisions ever considered by City
Council. It is possible that a major lawsuit against the City could be
filed charging that the City was negligent in allowing the red light
cameras with a shortened yellow light duration. There is so much data
available today to show red light cameras with shortened yellow light
durations cause accidents. How could the City defend against such a
lawsuit?

The majority of the residents are against the red light cameras. Our
desire is public safety. When you placed revenue over public safety
you do so against our wishes.

If for any reason you have not seen the information I am referring to
I have listed some of it below. Please use your authority to require
City Engineering to have a full five-second yellow light and a two
second hold on cross traffic.

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS01/510300317/1002

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/288.asp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html

http://www.motorists.com/issues/enforce/georgiacenter.html

http://www.cityofknoxville.org/engineering/traffic/signals.asp

http://www.phantomplate.com/testimonial/weeklystandardPart2.htm

See part 1 here. All you folks are apparently too lazy to Google. Questions have arisen about compliance [18 USC 922(r)] parts for the AK. Here’s a list, taken from AR15.com:

The 16 countable parts of an AK rifle. No more than 10 of these parts may be imported.

(1) Receiver*
(2) Barrel
(3) Trunnion
(4) Muzzle attachments(flash hiders, brakes, barrel extensions, barrel nuts)*
(5) Bolt
(6) Bolt carrier
(7) Gas piston
(8) Trigger*
(9) Hammer*
(10) Disconnecter*
(11) Buttstock
(12) Pistol grip*
(13) Forearm handguards
(14) Magazine body
(15) Follower
(16) Floorplate

The [bold] parts are the most commonly available U.S. manufactured parts.

On a typical stamped receiver rifle you need to replace 5 parts with no muzzle attachment and 6 parts with a muzzle attachment.

On a typical milled recevier rifle you need to replace 4 parts with no muzzle attachment and 5 parts with a muzzle attachment, because there isn’t a barrel trunion, it is part of the receiver.

When building an AK pistol, these regulations do not apply. You can not have a stock or forward pistol grip on a pistol.

* represent non-imported parts I plan on using.

TriggerFinger advocates contacting members of the Judiciary Committee, noting Gun Owners of America supports Alito. Like me, Publicola also isn’t too sure about Alito’s stance on guns:

His dissent clearly expresses that if congressional findings were included, even from a referring committee then he’d view the case in a different light. He also felt that a jurisdictional element (usually a simple little phrase such as “being used or having been used in interstate commerce” inserted into the operative part of a law) would have made the law acceptable. But as it was he felt Lopez demanded a striking of the law as it exceeded the Interstate Commerce Clause powers conferred by the constitution as reasoned in Lopez.

He also went on to say that states are not prohibited from banning simple possession of machine guns. That would indicate that he does not think that the 2nd amendment can be applied to the states via the 14th amendment, but whether that’s his read of the constitution or merely his being bound by precedent is not clear.

Matt sort of disagrees, noting:

It’s true that Alito was silent on the 2nd Amendment question, and this does not necessarily bode well. However, it’s my considered opinion that the Supreme Court is going to need to be where 2nd Amendment cases start winning; there is so much established precedent against that most judges probably figure the Supreme Court would have corrected it if it was wrong.

I suppose being not-hostile to the second amendment is the best some of us can hope for.

Michael Silence has an article about us local troublemakers in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

The latest is up at Tinkerty Tonk.

Reader Shoot-N-Scoot and I set out a while back to build some Kalashnikov rifles. We ordered a some of these kits from Tapco. They look like this:

Note how it’s cut in two at the receiver.

The other piece involved is a receiver flat, which is a piece of stamped metal with holes drilled in it. Once you bend it, it then becomes the receiver. Essentially, you take the rifle kits and remove all the parts from the old receiver, which has been decommissioned by being cut in two. Bend the new receiver and put the rifle kit together on the new receiver. To comply with federal law, the kits come with a semi-auto fire control group (meaning it’s missing the parts that would make it a machine gun). You can also only use ten imported parts to comply with federal law so we will add some American made parts as well. The fire control group is not imported so this helps with your part count. This post will detail bending the flats and removing the old receiver.

We initially used flats bought from Tapco as well but the first attempt at bending one didn’t work. We obtained some laser cut flats, which are easier to bend but require welding to strengthen.

Here’s a pic of the flat:

More pics and commentary below:
Read the rest of this entry »

In the little town of Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor was starting on his second cup of coffee when Barney Fife came storming in, “Andy we have to have red light cameras, Mt. Pilot has them”. Andy looked puzzled and asked, “Well Barney that’s what the Mayor said when he told us we had to build the fancy meeting center that no one goes to. The Mayor said if Mt. Pilot had one then Mayberry has to have one. We will be paying for that thing for fifty years. And Clara Edwards says we have to have a fancy new library because Mt. Pilot built one. Barney, you ever figure maybe we should just be Mayberry and not worry about what Mt. Pilot does?”

Isn’t that the way everything happens in Knoxville? Some other city has something that we have done without forever but because of the inferiority complex this town seems to have we just have to play follow the leader. Here is a new idea; maybe Knoxville should just be Knoxville.

The latest copycat move is red light cameras. I cannot think of a worse idea. Study after study show that they are unsafe. There is the moral issue of raising money by artificially shortened yellow light durations. For a town that is so determined to attract tourists it is hard to understand how this idea is rolling out the red carpet. Some one might want to point out that the Knoxville Convention Center is not doing very well and if you want repeat business a speed trap might not be the way to go about it.

Many blogs here locally have hammered home what a bad idea this is but to save you a little time I have prepared a primer. Take a look and call or email your City Council representative. Let them know that it would be better to implement a five second yellow light all through Knox county with a two second hold time on cross traffic. Tell them we do not need red light cameras what we need is a five second yellow light. You can do it.

http://www.cityofknoxville.org/citycouncil/members/

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS01/510300317/1002

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/288.asp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html

http://www.motorists.com/issues/enforce/georgiacenter.html

http://www.cityofknoxville.org/engineering/traffic/signals.asp

http://www.phantomplate.com/testimonial/weeklystandardPart2.htm

I have a feeling we’ll be seeing the phrase It takes a village… …idiot a lot in the future:

Folks, when I see someone in a position of authority get all proprietary like that towards their little minions, it makes me want to jet to Bed, Bath & Beyond for some goosedown pillows, and then duck into Home Despot for some roofing tar. How have people with opinions like that been allowed to walk the streets, much less been put into positions of responsibility? Why are little tin Napoleons with such Skinnerian ideas of social engineering even allowed access to pens and paper, let alone robes and gavels?

While I think we can appreciate the effort, when police pull over hybrid car drivers to give them gas cards, the .gov may have overstepped some boundaries:

The Alexandria Police Department is teaming up with the “Ford Hybrid Patrol” to pull over fuel-efficient drivers at random in a customized Mercury Mariner Hybrid patrol SUV (complete with flashers and bullhorn). Drivers will be rewarded free gas cards.

It’s part of Ford Motor Company’s Washington, DC effort to promote fuel efficiency and explain the myths and realities of hybrid technology.

Via David Kopel.

Hellbent tells us how to fix football. I don’t think Tennessee would make the Consolation Bowl.

The Carnival of Cordite is up! Lots and lots of gun stuff.

The once scruffy little town of Knoxville awaits with dreaded anticipation to learn if the reported news that the Halls Shopper-News has been assimilated by the Borg juggernaut of the Scripps Howard Media (E.W. Scripps Company) empire is true.

Sadly it is true.

The weekly newspaper (twice-weekly on the Internet) that is considered to be the source for unfiltered local news was purchased by the E.W. Scripps Company on November 1st. E.W. Scripps Company also owns the Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville’s only daily newspaper.

Improvements in art and graphics will be featured in the new paper and hopefully the news and editorial content will remain unchanged.

From the website of the Halls Shopper-News, “We will affiliate with the News Sentinel for printing and technology and with a related company for distribution. Our news, advertising and graphic arts staff will remain independent of the News Sentinel. In fact, we will continue to compete with the daily paper for advertising and breaking news.”