Is a local Rep making a dick joke? I report, you decide.

Check out the Barrett XM-109 25mm. Yes, you read that right a 25MM.

Myself, Instapundit and Busy Mom are guest blogging over at No Silence Here this week. Maybe I should pick a fight with Glenn? I kid.

Update: No worries, I’ll blog here as well.

Steve just bought a PSL (the Dragunov looking AK style sniper rifle). He’s looking for ammo and help on sighting in his scope.

Here’s 780 rounds for $89 delivered.

The Mrs. made a DVD of home videos of the baby (we got one of those DVD recorders for the TeeVee). She wants to give copies to family and friends. How can I make copies of a DVD? I have a DVD recorder on the laptop.

Otherwise, our recording options are to copy the DVD to VCR then use the VCR tape to make copies of the video (each time would take 4 hours).

Der Commissar (oh wah oh) has created the RINO image map. Check it, yo.

Tom tagged me with one of those blog memes. This one wants me to list:

Seven things to do before I die
Seven things I cannot do
Seven things that attract me to (…)
Seven things I say most often
Seven books (or series) that I love
Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would if I had time)
Seven people I want to join in, too.

Here goes:

Seven things to do before I die

Buy a registered machinegun, like this one (I’d do it now but they’re pricey and I’m about to be unemployed – that one is $13K)
Go skydiving. I’ve bungee jumped 379 times but have never once jumped from a plane
Kick Chuck Schumer’s fat ass – I really hate that guy
Lucy Liu
Win the Powerball/strike at rich – Not only is life too short to be poor, it’s too short to be affluent
Drive a car in excess of 200MPH
Cure cancer – unlikely, but since I’m wishing, I may as well do something nice that isn’t for Lucy Liu.

Seven things I cannot do

Fly a plane
Drive a motorcycle
Tell a joke well. Delivery is everything and I ain’t got it
Stop buying guns, it’s an addiction
Lucy Liu, apparently
Stop blogging
Wrap presents, seriously, I suck at it

Seven things that attract me to Guns (duh, what’d you expect?)

I link to tinker with mechanical things
They’re fun to build
I enjoy shooting
They go boom
To ensure I have the best means of protecting myself and my family
They scare bed-wetting pansies who deserve to be scared
They annoy liberals

Seven things I say most often

No (dogs and kids, you know)
The F bomb (I’m a potty mouth)
The fervent prayer that people think is taking God’s name in vain.
Beat it (code word to dogs for get off couch, bed, etc.)
I don’t know
Hey, pretty girl (wife and baby)
What? (my wife mumbles)

Seven books (or series) that I love – not big on fiction, really

Incarnation series by Peirs Anthony
Lost Rights by James Bovard (love to read it but not what it says)
Art of War by Sun Tzu
Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader series (I like random facts)
Gun Laws (seriously, I read those a lot – not a book though)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Encyclopedias

Seven movies I watch over and over again (or would if I had time)

Big Trouble In Little China
Unforgiven
The Princess Bride
Amazon Women On The Moon
Goodfellas
Tombstone
Monty Python’s Holy Grail

Oh and Raising Arizona is a strong number 8

Seven people I want to join in, too.

If you want to try this meme, go ahead.

The Carnival of Cordite is up!

tkdkerry points to an edited version that does contain the corrections.

What he said.

As reportedly happened during the DC sniper incident, gun owners are suspects again for the crime of happening to own a similar rifle to one used in a crime:

Authorities investigating a shooting spree that left one man dead and two injured in restaurant parking lots are focusing on the weapon the gunman used.

It appears to be either an SKS or AK-47-type assault rifle that could be used to fire a 7.62v-by-39 mm round, North Augusta Public Safety Department Lt. Tim Pearson said. Investigators want to talk to anyone in the area who owns a similar weapon or ammunition, Pearson said.

It may well be just for questioning but I doubt this method is particularly effective at, you know, solving a crime.

Heartless Libertarian makes suggestions for customizing an AK.

Ripclawe, linking to the Barrett story, notes the AP PR bit about their news values and principles:

It means we don’t misidentify or misrepresent ourselves to get a story. When we seek an interview, we identify ourselves as AP journalists.

Ouchie.

In my post on Idiots with Guns, the boyfriend has responded. So did Don.

I mentioned an article that ran at The Tennessean about Barrett Rifles. I received a tip from Anthony Garcia in comments that the folks at Barrett were surprised by the piece because the reporter, Rose French, approached Barrett on the premise that she was interested in doing a business feature about the company. Anthony forwarded me an email from Barrett to the Associated Press that addresses this concern and some factual inaccuracies contained in the story. The Barrett folks were understandably surprised that the piece she actually ran was largely anti-50 caliber material from the Violence Policy Center.

I sent Dan Goodwin, Media Relations Manager for Barrett Rifles, an email to confirm that he had written the email and to ask his permission to reprint it. He ran it by Ronnie Barrett and they agreed I could. However, they asked that I not print the document referenced in the email. Here’s the email, which is Mr. Goodwin’s inquiry to the AP’s Nashville bureau:

Gentlemen;

I contacted the AP’s national headquarters and they insisted upon my contacting your bureau first. I eagerly await your replies.

This is in response to the Rose French story “Small-time tinkering leads to big-time guns, sales by Tennessee Company” released for distribution last weekend by the Associated Press.

First, based on what was published, I believe Ms. French misrepresented her purpose in coming to our plant for a tour and interview.

I asked her what the story was about beforehand and she said “a business feature about your company.”

I relayed her request to my boss and Ronnie Barrett and they were concerned about it being a political story. Ms. French reassured me mention of legislative issues would be brief and “it’s mostly going to be a business feature.”

Please note Ms. French and her photographer were here well over two hours and half that time was a taped interview with Barrett.

The byline and copy ran 975 words, according to the word count tool on my computer. The portion dedicated to political opponents and experts was 407 words.

Now, I’m a J-school graduate like you fellows and somewhat math impaired. But my computer says that is right at 42 percent of the story.

Ms. French’s story had direct quotes from Tom Diaz of the Violence Policy Center before it had direct quotes from Ronnie Barrett. I also noted Mr. Barrett was only quoted once directly.

It was clear during her visit that Ms. French knew little or nothing about firearms in general and our products in particular.

She couldn’t seem to grasp that we make three different models of rifles chambered for the .50 BMG cartridge (a semi-automatic 10-shot, a 5-shot bolt-action repeater, and a single-shot bolt-action) as well as a 6.8mm SPC-caliber carbine.

As in her story, she didn’t seem to get the difference between the rifle and the cartridge during her visit.

Judging by the story’s lead and a later reference, Ms. French also couldn’t understand the difference between a lightly armored personnel carrier and a tank.

I tried to educate her somewhat about firearms as did Barrett while she was here. I offered, during her visit and afterward, to review her manuscript for factual accuracy _ stressing I was not making an attempt at prior restraint.

Ms. French declined my offer, and the result is an inaccurate, clearly biased political hack job that received worldwide distribution by the AP. It’s also clear, given the mistakes, that she based a lot of it on outdated VPC propaganda.

I’ve attached a Word copy of Ms. French’s story, highlighting the incorrect portions in red and making corrective comments at the end. Everything therein was covered correctly during her visit. I’ve also highlighted in blue portions of a political nature.

Also attached is a copy of source material given Ms. French that includes a number of facts about our company’s recent achievements (Army’s Top 10 Inventions Award, Lessons Learned report, etc.), new products and a brief history _ which she ignored _ but then this wasn’t really a business feature.

By the way, she was also told:

1. The Discovery Channel is featuring us in an upcoming series called Ultimate Weapons slated for release during summer sweeps

2. BFMI is a finalist for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce’s Exporter of the Year Award and Barrett is up for Executive of the Year

3. We’re producing the Barrett Firearms 2006 Annual, for worldwide newsstand distribution, in association with Harris Publications.

Not worthy of mention in a “business feature”?

Needless to say, we are now quite wary of having anything further to do with Ms. French or AP. Her story pitch was unethical, and her time here resulted in no new information.

Of course the damage is done, but we want urgent and repeated clarifications sent out to AP subscribers.

Regards,

Dan Goodwin
Media Relations Manager
Barrett Firearms

So, the situation is that Ms. French held herself out as doing a business feature, then does a biased anti-gun piece using the company, omits information that would be consistent with a business feature, and the report contained many factual inaccuracies.

Dan has informed me in comments that the AP would issue a correction. They did and it is here (the AP beat me by one hour because I actually, you know, fact checked and verified my sources):

In a Nov. 25 story about Barrett Firearms Manufacturing Inc., The Associated Press reported erroneously that .50-caliber rifles were used to penetrate the armor of Iraqi tanks from a mile away during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Such rifles were used against Iraqi armored personnel carriers, but military experts say they could not penetrate tank armor from that distance.

The story also said company founder Ronnie Barrett started tinkering with the .50-caliber Browning Machine Gun in the early 1980s. A company spokesman said Barrett took photos of one such gun, but then built his own rifle.

The story also quoted a criminal justice scholar who said the rifle wasn’t useful for hunting because it would destroy game meat – a claim Barrett Firearms disputes. Bryce Towsley, a Vermont-based gun writer, said that when the .50-caliber rifle is used with the proper bullet, it would not destroy the meat.

No mention in the correction that Ms. French lied to the folks at Barrett in order to do an anti-gun hit piece.

Update: I neglected to mention that Michael Marks of the Fifty Caliber Institute responded to the article. It can be seen here. [link fixed sorry about that]

Les helped Johnia Berry’s brother and mother create a new website to help find her killer. Here’s the website. Johnia Berry was a graduate student at UT and who was brutally stabbed to death in December 2004.

The ATF has issued another open letter regarding the pending barrel import ban that I covered before. It concludes with:

ATF recognizes that certain firearm barrels may be used to assemble either an importable or a nonimportable firearm. With this fact in mind, ATF believes that such “dual use” barrels would be eligible for importation into the United States under section 925(d)(3) for commercial purposes, provided prospective importers of such barrels make representations indicating that neither the importer nor subsequent purchasers of the barrels will use the barrels to assemble nonimportable firearms. Importers of such barrels must provide sufficient information, e.g., specific model designation(s) of the firearm(s) that the barrels will be used to assemble, in the “Specific Purpose of Importation” section of the ATF Form 6 that would enable ATF personnel to establish that the barrels sought for importation are being imported for the assembly into importable firearms. If the dual use barrels are being imported for resale to third parties, the importer must state in the “Specific Purpose of Importation” section of the ATF Form 6 that purchasers have been or will be advised that the barrels may only be used for assembly into certain importable models and must list the specific models for which the barrels will be sold. Inclusion of a model not known to be sporting may require the submission of a sample for evaluation to determine if importation of the barrels will be approved.

Seems they’ve backtracked some. Good. Another reason to push for the repeal of the sporting purpose language.

The local mall has a play area for kids and toddlers. It features various plastic playthings, like a slide and a plastic log for kids to walk across. Junior really enjoys going there and we try to take her once a week. Yesterday, I took her there for a little bit.

There was another guy there with his son and I struck up a conversation with him. We talked about the kids’ ages (his was two), the mall, Christmas and other stuff. While this was going on, Junior stood at the step to the large plastic log mulling whether or not this would be the day she actually tried to climb up on it (she hasn’t yet). Then, here comes the little boy who walks right up to Junior, pushes her shoulder (like men do when they try to pick a fight), and says what I figure is two-year-old for Outta my way.

Without hesitation, Junior takes both hands and pushes the little boy to the ground and says what I figure is 17-month-old for Oh no, you just didn’t. I was proud.

She never did climb up on the plastic log.

It’s OK, I have one of those too.

Next month, apparently:

Knoxville’s first traffic enforcement cameras could be installed and operational within 30 days, said police, who are in the midst of finalizing a list of city intersections with the worst records of red-light-running drivers.

The Knoxville Police Department, however, is doing its homework before deciding where to put anything.

Time to buy some PhotoBlocker.

Via Insty, comes this piece on styles of blogging. It’s a good read. I guess I’m a Nicheblogger who focuses on, surprise, guns.

David Kopel ruminates the anniversary of the Brady Bill. Like a lot of gun control laws, it was based on a lie.

The other is Steve Bailey, who Bruce fisks.

Tam has much more with her industry insider view of the JCP.

Nathan Theising, from this link sent by reader Kevin:

I am responding to Delman Nelson’s Nov. 23 letter to the editor about gun control letting criminals rule. Outlawing guns will not allow criminals to rule as long as we have law enforcement. An armed private citizen who is targeted in a crime is not guaranteed his or her safety because he or she is armed. Being armed only increases the chance that there will be a shootout between two or more untrained individuals, leading to tragedy.

The smart thing to do is comply with the criminal and let law enforcement deal with the perpetrator afterward. It is what they are trained and paid to do.

Really? Research seems to indicate otherwise.

Also, the argument that criminals do not respect the law and so laws will have no effect on them is not true. If guns are outlawed, most of the facilities that manufacture them would stop doing so, making it much harder for the criminal to find a gun to purchase illegally in the first place.

That may be the dumbest thing I’ve read. Gun legality does not equal gun availability. And it definitely does not equal gun crime.

I mentioned before how I had always heard gunnies claim that, during the DC sniper incident, the police went to the houses of those who had 223 caliber rifles to do ballistic fingerprinting on them. I asked if anyone had an account. Ask, and ye shall receive. Reader Al sent this link:

Prior to the capture of “Beltway Sniper” suspects John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, an unconfirmed number of Maryland gun owners received surprise visits from the FBI as part of the investigation. One such gun owner had a surprise of his own for the agents when they arrived at his home.

[snip]

Brown’s apprehension prompted him to contact an attorney, who instructed him on preparing for the visit. So, when FBI Special Agent Greg Metzger and his partner arrived at Brown’s home for their scheduled meeting, they were greeted by Brown and his wife, Mary, along with reporters and photographers from various media outlets.