A comment by Addison over at Xrlq’s on penumbra, living constitution stuff:

Yeah, I don’t hate Shakespeare.

I just hate it when it’s performed by actors with English accents on a stage, exactly as written.

Far better to use the stories as a “guideline” and let the actors “ad lib” – and let the audience interact!

Ravenwood is now completely gone? What gives?

Bummer.

It looks like Alito will be the next US Supreme Court Justice. Despite claims that he’s out of the mainstream (which is code for he may not be pro-choice), claims that he’s a radical right wing judicial activist (again, code for the fact he may not be pro-choice), that he is a gun fanatic in the pocket of the NRA (which means he thinks the commerce clause actually was not written with disappearing ink), claims that he’s a racist, Bible-thumping misogynist (which is code for he belongs to the same country clubs as that paragon of moral certainty Ted Kennedy and he may not be pro-choice) and despite a pretty abysmal attempt at a filibuster, he will likely be confirmed according to, well, every account I’ve seen. What do I think? I’ll tell you:

The claims that he’s libertarian on guns and his GOA endorsement are good things.

The fact he’s a fan of the commerce clause is good too.

However, he seems to be a statist Republican on the surface for most other issues and that’s bad.

I could be wrong on any of those points but, based on what I’ve seen, I have no reason to think otherwise.

Update: He’s confirmed.

Never seen this subgun before. It looks pretty cool.

Via Defense Review who has a lot more info on it and tons of pics.

I’ve had a few readers complain that they occasionally get a 412 Precondition Failed error here in the past. I’d never really gotten it so I could not investigate. Well, this morning, I got one. I hit refresh on the main page while posting an entry and got the error. Once the entry posted, the error went away.

Any ideas?

The local war on porn (covered before here) has had its first terrorist attack:

A man armed with a rifle and gasoline set fire to an adult novelty store early this morning, authorities said.

Shortly after 4 a.m. the man walked into the 24-hour Town and Country Book Den, 7011 Clinton Hwy. and began pouring out gasoline and setting fires, according to the store clerk.

Idiot.

Lawmakers say the veto override is likely to succeed:

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and two Democratic state lawmakers came together Sunday to put up a last-minute fight against a bill that would legalize the carrying of concealed weapons in Wisconsin. But they acknowledged that even with their protests, the legislation would likely become law.

“The possibility is very, very strong that by the end of this week, people will be able to carry concealed guns in Wisconsin,” said Barrett, who spoke outside State Fair Park with Reps. Jon Richards of Milwaukee and Tony Staskunas of West Allis.

Good.

In the past, I often wondered why America had a high murder rate compared to other Westernized nations. I eventually stopped wondering and began assuming that we Americans were just generally prone to killing. After all, this land was taken by killing the natives. Our country’s independence was gained by killing folks. I just figured that’s how Americans were and stopped wondering.

I’ve ruled out access to guns, because other countries with fewer guns have higher murder rights. And other Western countries where gun ownership is generally banned have higher violent crime rates. And some countries with access to more guns (or where owning military weapons is mandated by law) have a lower murder rate.

Then, I read this post by Kim du Toit. He was commenting on Kevin’s homicide stats. Kevin opined:

It suggests that the homicide by firearm problem is concentrated in a small, identifiable group. It suggests that homicide is heavily concentrated in the overall black demographic, and especially in young black men.

Kim stated:

The United States has always had a higher murder rate than other countries, not because there are more guns around, but because we are a nation of immigrants. When people have few or no ties to a community, their propensity towards lawlessness is much higher. (It’s why, for example, small-town sheriffs had a habit of telling strangers to leave town—they were playing the odds.)

I began to think that was nuts. Then, as the day wore on, that thought kept coming back to me. And I realized that it made a sick sort of sense. The nation of immigrants factor is just about the only thing we don’t have in common with other comparable western nations.

But what that doesn’t explain is why, in our country, the homicide rate is heavily comprised of murders of black people by other black people. After all, black people share a heritage and do have ties to the black community. I suppose another factor in that equation is the proximity to drug dealing and concentrated areas of poverty.

It’s very clear that America has a problem with black on black violence. But it will never be given the attention it deserves because examining the cause would be viewed as racist.

H&K is scaling back operations after the XM-8 project was canceled:

When German gunmaker Heckler & Koch showed up in Columbus more than two years ago, it had big plans for becoming one of the city’s major local companies.

On the drawing board was a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, a $25 million capital investment and at least 200 high-paying jobs — maybe more. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue even visited Columbus to attend a groundbreaking at Muscogee Technology Park, the industrial area off Macon Road where H&K was supposed to construct its large facility.

But Sterling, Va.-based Heckler & Koch (pronounced “coke”) had to scale back its strategy in a major way after learning last October that the U.S. military had canceled competitive bidding for the next-generation assault rifle. H&K was hoping to land a lucrative contract with the government to replace its 40-year-old M4 carbine and M16 rifle.

Now the company is regrouping in Columbus, forgoing construction of a large plant for an existing 13,170-square-foot building near Columbus East Industrial Park off Macon Road. The structure, formerly used by Cessna Aircraft, is the U.S. distribution center for H&K’s 80 models of weapons and accessories.

Peter Simon, H&K executive vice president for programs and government relations, in an interview last week, was cautious in his remarks about the company’s downsized fortunes. He knows offending someone in the military’s supply chain could harm H&K’s chances of landing a huge contract.

Still, he said it has been tough watching the XM8 assault rifle developed by his company — and generally applauded by soldiers testing it in the field — get shot down in the bidding process.

Well, if the project has been shot down, does that mean they’ve selected another rifle? If so, which one? Maybe the FN SCAR? Mmmmm, SCAR.

Iceberg, over at Publicola’s, talks about the CCW push in Kansas.

A good read by Jeff Knox on gun owners and elections:

In the end, Kerry lost no support from the anti’s by claiming to be pro-gun and gained nothing from the pro-gunners or the middle.

Meanwhile, Bush gained nothing from the anti’s or the “mainstream” but lost vital support from gun-rights activists. While the Bush team and the NRA are congratulating themselves, the belief that politicians are all liars who will say anything to be elected has been solidly reinforced and gun owner’s mistrust of the Republican Party has been rightly increased.

Another mistaken belief that has been reinforced is that of Republican strategists that gun-voters will always be with them. Former Republican National Committee Chair, Lee Atwater expressed it bluntly during George H. W. Bush’s reelection campaign when he asked, “Where else are they going to go?”

Though NRA made every effort to bolster the senior Bush in that election, his support of assault weapons bans and his earlier attacks on NRA itself were too much for gun-voting stalwarts and they went to Perot or to Clinton or just went hunting.

Read the whole thing.

It’s 3:00 and Junior’s still in jammies!

Here’s a fairly positive article on machine gun shooting:

After a week of delicately etching out cavities with a laser, dentist Rob Dugger of Wilsonville heads to the target range with his modified M-16.

“If it wasn’t this, it would be hot motorcycles or hot cars,” Dugger said, standing in the cool mist of a Sunday morning at the Albany Pistol and Rifle Club. “I do it to relax.”

Dugger, 49, a married father of four children ages 8 to 18, joined the substantial ranks of Oregon machine gun owners three years ago when he discovered that fully automatic weapons were legal in Oregon, as long as they are properly registered.

It also has some factual info on machine guns (some one alert the Bradies, the truth is getting out), like:

The federal government prohibits private citizens from owning automatic weapons made or imported after 1986. But Oregon — unlike California, Washington and seven other states — has not extended those restrictions to all machine guns. Oregon, in fact, has some of the more liberal weapons laws in the country. In Oregon, you can legally fire a machine gun, shoot a flamethrower, even launch a few grenades as long as you do it safely and with registered equipment.

and

Jim Ebert, a former Oregon City commissioner who has taught machine gun safety and marksmanship for 20 years, bought his first M-16 for $500. It’s now worth about $11,000. Thompson submachine guns — the Tommy guns associated with Al Capone and 1920s gangsters — can fetch $10,000 to $40,000.

Pricey stuff since the transfer of new machine guns to citizens was banned in 1986.

Does your kid have a blog? If so, read this. If they do, you may want to make sure they’re not giving out too much information.

Heh:

How ironic, that of the last two Senators who have lost elections to a sitting President, the one who went on to advertise erectile dysfunction treatments is not the one losing his dignity.

Via James, it looks like the M9 is on its way out and will be replaced by the .45ACP. James thinks it will be a Sig.

Readers of SayUncle already knew about the Joint Combat Pistol (see here and Les’ post here) but I think this is the first report that didn’t come from a gun board.

Update: Tam says Nopers:

The pistol will replace the M9, but only for SOCOM. My money is currently with the USP45, whose dimensions, as it has been pointed out, are suspiciously similar to the max dimensions given in the RFP.

Green Bay Press Gazette says a veto override for the CCW bill is going on.

Gunscribe notes:

In a predictical move Senator Chambers has avowed to do everything in his power to kill not only the CCW bill, but the Fetal Assault measure that is before the Unicameral.

Senator Chambers plans to nit pick and filibuster every bill that comes up for debate from now till the end of the short session.

Bummer. The override push has started in Wisconsin though.

Xavier is disappointed in an Airsoft 1911 replica that he bought to practice with. The video he shows is pretty cool but the pistol in no way functions like that. Speaking of, this video (via Marc) of a Japanese IPSC style match is pretty darn neat. Anyone know what sort of pistols they’re using? That’d be pretty cool to do in the garage.

Alphie notes that an Iraqi general claims Saddam’s WMDs were moved to Syria prior to the invasion:

“There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands,” Mr. Sada said. “I am confident they were taken over.”

Mr. Sada’s comments come just more than a month after Israel’s top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam “transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria.”

They are up over at The Radical Centrist’s joint. He neglected to post my entry. It is here.

I thought Mrs. Wigglebottom was a cat. Aunt B. on Kathy McIntyre’s publishing the names and addresses of pit bulls (which I discussed here):

No, I’m not going to run out and buy a gun. Yes, I will continue to be ill-at-ease about guns. But, god damn if Say Uncle doesn’t remind me of the importance of… well, fuck me, boys, I don’t even know what you call yourselves… guns-rights-advocates (?) and the necessity of throwing props their way every once in a while.

Why, you may ask, am I moved to cheer for guns-rights-advocates? Because when it comes to the silliness and offensiveness of trying to shame people into “proper” behavior, they get it.

I prefer to be called gun nut.

These Wild West short barreled lever guns are pretty neat looking. Those are classified as short barreled rifles and require a $200 tax. However, these mare’s legs are classified by the ATF as pistols. Not sure why.

Head continues his AK building reference. This time, he talks about barrels.

B4B writes:

We Can Do Better than a “Cut and Paste” Senator

It seems Hilleary borrowed heavily from an RNC press release.

Kevin has what is probably the definitive post on US gun crime stats.

Publicola has the Carnival of Garands!

Err, rather 45s, 45s, 45s! The Carnival of Cordite is up and focuses on 45s!

In news you probably won’t get anywhere else, Sunshyne video reports that porn starlet Anna Malle has died. Link not safe for work.

For the record, I don’t get paid by anyone to plug their gun stuff. I just like pointing out deals when I see them. Coal Creek Armory has Rock River Arms stripped lowers for $109. That’s a damn fine price. They had Superior Arms lowers for $99 last time I was there too.