Jeff has the latest on anti-gun bias in the media.

The local paper has a bit about Scoot by Jamie Satterfield. The article seems a bit sensationalist in my opinion. Also, seems he had a third felony from 1997 as well. Also, it looks as though he’s been accused of manufacturing for resale, which he has denied.

Check out the newest member of the Gun Bloggers Community, Entrenched Meanders. He has pics from behind enemy lines here.

Check out Property Rights Knoxville, a blog focusing on eminent domain and other property issus in K-Town.

Is it wrong to laugh at this?

Just got word he’s been released on bond. Story should be in the paper tomorrow.

In comments to a post on the Holiday Inn getting sued for not protecting its customers in a high-crime area, bob says:

What a novel concept. The courts rule that the government has no duty to protect individuals and now we get a court that rules that private businesses do have a duty to protect individuals.

Infuckingdeed.

Update: Xrlqy Wrlqy disagrees, in comments.

Gun Law News has the skinny:

In the short term, the bill allows the importation of ANY firearm parts (including barrels, frames and recievers) so long as they will be used for repair or replacement. This includes firearm parts for firearms that are no longer importable. The BATFE would no longer be able to decide unilaterally that would not allow importation of certain parts.

I’m don’t think that used for repair or replacement would apply to, say, AK or FAL kits that one builds themselves, which is a pity. But it’s a start.

Over at Glen’s, there’s a debate in comments on what well-regulated means in the second amendment. Well, when I read the second amendment, the phrase ‘well-regulated’ modifies the word ‘militia’ and not the phrase ‘right of the people to keep and bear arms.’ But I’m no English teacher.

Via Drug War Rant, comes news that Angel Raich is continuing her fight:

A lawyer for an ill California woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive asked an appeals court to prevent federal drug agents from ever arresting her.

The case, focusing on whether the gravely ill have a right to marijuana to keep them alive when legal drugs fail, is likely to reach the U.S. Supreme Court soon. Yet each time the high court has ruled on medical marijuana it has come down against allowing the sick and dying to use the drug to ease their symptoms and possibly prolong life. […]

“Medical cannabis is necessary for the preservation of Angel Raich’s life,” said Randy Barnett, the Oakland woman’s lawyer. He later told the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that, “If she obeys the law, she will die.”

Ravenwood is back, somewhat but not exactly.

A San Diego man, whose son went on a shooting rampage with a gun he stole from his father, has had his guns returned:

Two students were killed and 13 were wounded by then-15-year-old Andy Williams, who took a revolver out of his father’s locked gun cabinet.

The 4th District Court of Appeal ruled the weapons owned by Charles Jeffrey Williams were not a nuisance, as a trial judge had ruled, because they were not used in the school shooting. Weapons seized at the home included a .22-caliber rifle, a .20-gauge shotgun and an M-16 military bayonet.

Now, I can understand taking the gun used in a crime for evidence. But taking the other guns, which were otherwise lawful to own, seems a bit of an overreach on the part of those investigating. Additionally, the judge who ruled the uninvolved weapons were a nuisance should have his head examined.

At first, this seemed a bit, err, silly:

A guest who was shot eight times in the parking lot of a Roanoke Holiday Inn Express should be allowed to sue the motel for not protecting its customers in a high-crime area, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled.

Ryan Taboada had filed a $3 million lawsuit against the owners of the Holiday Inn Express after being shot and carjacked in the motel’s parking lot on Gainsboro Road Northwest in March 2003.

But there’s more to it:

According to police reports cited in the lawsuit, the motel’s staff or guests had been the target of at least 12 robberies or attempted robberies over a three-year period prior to the shooting.

The lawsuit also claims that police officials warned the business, owned by Danville company Daly Seven, that the property’s location posed certain dangers to its customers.

Despite those risks, the Holiday Inn Express decided to terminate its security force sometime before Taboada was shot, and failed to install surveillance cameras outside the motel, limit access to its parking lot and take other steps to ensure its guests’ safety, the lawsuit states.

And that makes it slightly less silly.

Manish, blogging for the first time in a long time, looks at illegal immigration. He addresses what he considers myths about immigration.

I generally favor open immigration because it’s one of the things that made this country what it is. But it does seem that some sort of reform is needed that makes immigrating here legally a bit easier for those who legitimately want to enter while keeping those with nefarious intent out. Of course, with miles and miles of borders and coastlines, that’s probably a pipe dream.

Update: Alphie has more:

My daughter-in-law, a Brazilian, was not able to get permanent status so she was given “temporary permanent status” (no kidding — only a government agency could coin such a phrase and use it as though it were the most natural thing in the world). A Ukrainian friend and his wife went through the long process of becoming a citizen. They turned in the green card for their daughter so she could get documentation saying that she too is a citizen (which is automatic, given that both her parents are). Over three years later they are still waiting, in spite of letters, visits to the INS, and the involvement of our senator’s office.

Chris has a detailed post on ballistics entitled Lies, Damned Lies, and Ballistics. That should get an award for the title alone.

Joe has an update of sorts regarding the question for his readers mentioned a bit back.

Terry Frank notes some polling info related to eminent domain. Most striking:

Should local governments be able to seize homes for private economic development that will produce jobs and tax revenue?

Yes: 4.63%

No: 93.57%

Sounds like near total opposition to me.

ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr. on blame:

Don’t blame the rave scene for the Seattle’s worst mass murder in more than two decades.

Blame the guns — and a culture that celebrates firepower.

Blame the murdering madness on a country that has seen Columbine, Kip Kinkel and bullets at the Tacoma Mall, but lacks the common sense to clamp down on weapons of mass carnage.

Blame the gun lobby on the other Capitol Hill — not the rave crowd on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.

Or, crazy as it sounds, blame the guy who shot people. He then implies that the assault weapons ban would have helped. So would cracking down on gun shows. In short, he runs down the gun control wishlist even though none of those items would have prevented this tragedy.

Via Brittney, congrats to A. C. Kleinheider on his new gig:

I couldn’t be more thrilled to announce that News 2 will be adding a new, strictly political blog to our line-up. WKRN management has hired popular political blogger A.C. Kleinheider of Hard Right to write VolunteerVoters.com. He begins at the station next week on Monday, April 3rd.

Kleinheider will, like me, write Volunteer Voters full-time from within the newsroom. Tennessee has such a rich and extensive number of political blogs–and a super hot Senate race on its hands–that we thought there should be a blog devoted strictly to them. There will be an aggegator at Volunteer Voters as well, I think. Like NIT, Kleinheider will pick up blog posts from area writers for his site, and add his own commentary and opinion.

Congrats A.C.!

In light of recent events, I have some more thoughts and information on Scoot. Nine years ago, he was convicted of two felonies. Those were felony contempt and felony reckless endangerment. All I know is the names of the charges and have no other details of the crimes. My wild-ass guess is he violated some sort of court order (restraining, child support, etc.) and fled when confronted. I have no factual information pertaining to that and it’s just speculation.

In the past, Scoot was an EMT, an occupation that requires a license that you’re apparently excluded from if you have a criminal record. I Googled his name and discovered that he appeared before the Tennessee Department of Health for an appeal hearing, and they approved his license despite his conviction noting that he does not endanger the general public. Additionally, I’m fairly certain he, at some point, had passed a TICS. And, according to him, he also had custody of his kids.

In my mind, something doesn’t add up here. Something is missing and I don’t know what it is. Those are three things that you would not associate with someone who is a felon. Also, not all felonies are equal. A person who murders a child is a felon. But so is a person who imports orchids into the United States. You can lose your right to arms, right to vote and others whether you’re an axe murderer or you import lobster tails in plastic bags instead of cardboard boxes. Obviously, some crimes warrant stripping access to guns.

In other words, when it comes to determining the severity of a person’s crime, the term felon is about as useless as a cock-flavored lollipop.

The latest is up at Cold Hearted Truth.

I’ve touched on this before. To carry a gun in New York City, you have to be rich and connected. Regular Joes can forget about it. Look who’s packing:

Billionaires are going ballistic.

Ronald Lauder has joined trigger-happy tycoons Donald Trump and Seagrams scion Edgar Bronfman Sr. as the richest men in the city packing heat, according to the NYPD’s gun-permit list.

Lauder, the cosmetics heir, and multimillionaire Marvel Comics CEO Isaac Perlmutter are the newest gun-club members licensed to carry a weapon – topping a list that already included “Mean Streets” actors Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, “Scarface” producer Martin Bregman and shock jocks Don Imus and Howard Stern.

These boldfaced names are among more than 38,000 licensed gun owners in the city; the number has steadily declined in recent years as fewer people apply for permits – and fewer are approved.

That’s just the folks who can own them. Those that can carry is a bit more exclusive:

Other gun-toting notables – who have a license to carry as opposed to a permit to keep their weapon only at a home or business – include anti-gun activist Fernando Mateo and Giuliani Partners execs Richard Sheirer and Anthony Carbonetti – an in-law of the notorious booze-peddling Dorrian clan.

Republican Senate majority leader Joe Bruno and music czar Tommy Mottola remain licensed carriers, according to NYPD records through March 17.

Millionaire Winthrop Rockefeller and former TV Anchor John Roland are no longer on the list; the NYPD wouldn’t say why not.

Former Manhattan Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder is also licensed to carry a firearm.

“You will see a lot of judges with [gun] permits, and I’ve also noticed over the years more women applying,” said NYPD License Division Capt. Mike Endall.

Queens DA Richard Brown is the only elected prosecutor in the city with a gun license, but “he has his own security, so he doesn’t walk around carrying a gun,” said spokeswoman Nicole Navas.

Celebrity divorce lawyer Raoul Felder said he has carried a gun since 1961 during his days as a prosecutor.

“A man threatened to kill me, and since he was a murderer I thought it was time to get a gun,” he said. “We live in a very disturbed age. There’s all kinds of sickness.”

Subway vigilante Bernie Goetz’s lawyer, Barry Slotnick, is also strapped.

It looks as though this is the precursor for a ban on 50 caliber rifles:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is raising concerns that high-powered rifles could be used against Border Patrol agents near the U.S.-Mexico divide.

In a letter to Deborah Spero, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Feinstein asked the department to look into whether .50-caliber rifles pose a threat to officers.

The gun, which has been banned for sale in numerous U.S. cities, is a high-powered rifle that can fire accurately at targets up to a mile away and penetrate steel armor.

“The threat posed the easy availability of the .50-caliber sniper rifle could endanger our Border Patrol agents and hinder our ability to control our borders,” Feinstein wrote.

Border Patrol officials have testified about officers coming under sniper fire in Texas and other areas near the border.

The senator asked Spero to conduct an assessment of the threat posed the rifle and come up with ways to deal with their possible use along the border.

I’ve no doubt that they’re coming under fire. But it makes little difference if that fire is from a 50 cal or from a 30-06.

Seen at Jed’s place, it looks like Al Gore’s Internets will be subject to election laws:

The Internet’s freewheeling days as a place exempt from the heavy hand of federal election laws are about to end.

Late Friday, the Federal Election Commission released a 96-page volume of Internet regulations that have been anticipated for more than a year and represent the government’s most extensive foray yet into describing how bloggers and Web sites must abide by election law restrictions.

The rules (click here for PDF) say that paid Web advertising, including banner ads and sponsored links on search engines, will be regulated like political advertising in other types of media. They also say bloggers can enjoy the freedoms of traditional news organizations when endorsing a candidate or engaging in political speech.

Looks to me as though it’s not as bad as everyone first thought. In other words, the early hysteria over subjecting blogs to campaign rules was of the they’re trying to shut us down variety. Now, it looks as though they’re just regulating ads similarly to the way they do in other media. That said, I still don’t like it. Restricting speech is restricting speech.

There could be more to this but, on the surface, it looks pretty damning:

On March 14, [Common Cause President Chellie] Pingree participated on a panel on open government sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties, Michigan that received news coverage in the local newspaper on March 17.

A week after the panel, an FBI agent contacted the local League president, Susan Gilbert, to raise questions about Pingree’s published remarks at the panel. In her brief comments addressing the law, Pingree raised some privacy and secrecy concerns about the USA PATRIOT Act, and praised Senators John Cornyn (R-TX) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) for their leadership on Freedom of Information issue.

Remember when the Minutemen kicked off their campaign? A bunch of folks were calling them potentially violent, right-wing extremists and even the President called them vigilantes. Well, turns out a few members of the Minutemen were protesting and were attacked by counter-protesters.

I went out to the back 40 yesterday and did some shooting with my brother and some friends as posted about on my blog. Near the end I received a rather nasty burn due to a hot barrel and inexperience.

Thus I have decided to purchase a pair of shooting gloves to keep this from happening again. I have seen some online but they are so big they look like they should be sold with a parka. Anyone have suggestions or warnings on the type to buy or avoid?

David Hardy notes that Mohammed Taheri-Aza, the terrorist who drove his car into a crowd, left a note reading:

I would instead use a handgun to murder the citizens and residents of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but the process of receiving a permit for a handgun in this city is highly restricted and out of my reach at present, most likely due to my foreign nationality

Clearly, he didn’t get the memo from the VPC and The Brady Campaign that he could just do a straw purchase or go to the evil gun show loophole where he could have gotten an evil Saturday night special 50 caliber assault sniper weapon rifle handgun automatic semi-automatic bullet hose designed for spray firing from the hip at targets four miles away^tm without any checks or legal obstacles.

Or maybe not:

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Thousands of calls to Chattanooga’s 911 call center have been going unanswered, according to records examined after a caller was unable to report a kitchen fire because three of four dispatchers were taking breaks at the same time.

Stacey Hunter and her family members called 911 from her home phone and cellular phones Monday afternoon when the fire broke out, but the calls went unanswered. Finally, Artterius Bonds, and 14-year-old nephew, Quayshaune Fountain, ended up running a half mile to get help from the fire station. No one was hurt.

“If they hadn’t gone running, my house would have completely burned up,” Hunter, 34, said as she stood in her scorched kitchen.

Chattanooga Police Chief Steve Parks, who oversees employees of the Hamilton County Emergency Communications District, said the department was responsible for the unanswered calls.

One dispatcher was taking calls and three others working the shift were taking a break, the chief said. He described the situation as an unacceptable failure of the 911 system.

But records indicate the problem is more widespread.

Yes, guns six times because it’s the double edition of the Carnival of Cordite here and here.