I have to confess that I’ve never had much use nor a desire to get into surplus rifles. But Tam does and she tells us why. They are indeed historical and neat but I’m just an Evil Black Rifle guy at heart.

Michael tells us the cost of his bypass surgery.

Via Gunner, comes this:

I just heard from a friend who had a frightening story to tell. Turns out he has a friend who works for the NSA. Apparently, the NSA has been getting the records of gun buyers from the FBI. I guess the program works like this…

Person enters gun shop,

Person files background check paperwork,

Gunshop sends background check info to government,

[snip]

So when the goverment gets the info, they have the phone number and other personal information and they do the background check.

All this information is sent to the NSA to be added to the database with phone records and other information you provided for the background check.

This program will allow the NSA to identify potential terrorists and to know what type of weapons they may have purchased through legal channels. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if they use an alias because the NSA tracks phone numbers and addresses to find the terrorist patterns.

It comes from Kos so take with a huge grain of salt. Let me say unequivocally that this not any sort of confirmation nor proof of any such activity and I see no convincing evidence that this is taking place. But I’ll also say that this sort of activity would not surprise me in the least if it did happen.

I told you a while back the gun control push was upon us again. I was right. Peruse these headlines if you want proof. With some steam from the mayor of NY, that time is upon us. So, be ready and prepared. Start pestering your congressmen now.

Here’s a particularly hysterical example:

The NY Post on Bloomberg’s suit:

SUE THE BASTARDS

Nice. more:

The easy availability of illegal guns on the streets of America’s big cities is a scandal of long standing, and Mayor Bloomberg’s continuing efforts to do something about them are to be applauded.

Yesterday, Hizzoner announced an interesting escalation of that initiative – city-backed lawsuits against 15 gun dealers in five states. The mayor alleges that these sellers are a significant source of high-quality weaponry taken all too regularly from punks arrested in New York.

Whether the city has standing to pursue such litigation is unclear and, in any event, it will be years before the suits bear fruit. If they ever do.

That’s not the point. [actually, it is a very important point – ed]

The fact is that something must be done about illegal guns – emphasis on illegal – and right now the only action on that front is in City Hall.

Per a presser:

Media representatives are invited to join a discussion of the problem of illegally trafficked handguns with a panel of experts from the media, law enforcement, and advocacy groups to focus on the question, “Where did the gun come from?” Since five out of six guns recovered in crime were bought illegally, it’s vital to find ways to intercept the thriving illegal gun business.

Media, advocacy groups and law enforcement are experts? What about a federally licensed gun dealer? Or, say, an NRA legal rep. And are you guys finally admitting that it’s not gun shows and lawful gun dealers that put crime guns out there but it is those that purchase guns illegally?

Gun Law News has a ton of info.

And I was surprised:

Legally Owned Guns Do Far More Good than Harm

Bullets vs. Bull manure, part two

Guns: The best health insurance

[snip]

Legally Owned Guns Do Far More Good than Harm

Bullets vs. Bull manure, part two

Guns: The best health insurance

In the last Dose, I posited that earlier in American history, a Winchester rifle was the most potent health insurance (it was the only kind, really) most people could get. I also alluded to how this might still be the case today…

Seriously, folks – despite all the mainstream’s trumped-up claims about the dangers of firearms (the one about a gun in the home being more likely to harm the homeowner than a criminal cracks me up), the real statistics firmly cement the fact that legally owned and carried guns do far, far more good than harm.

Cases in point, from public records: In U.S. states that DON’T ALLOW law-abiding citizens to pack heat without restriction…

There are 89% more violent crimes than in states that allow “concealed carry” (that’s gun-speak for being legal to carry a hidden firearm on your person)
There are 127% more murders than in states that allow concealed carry
There are 25% more rapes than in states that allow concealed carry
There are 96% more aggravated assaults than in states that allow concealed carry
There are 106% more robberies than in states that allow concealed carry.

[snip]

In the seven-year period following the adoption of such laws, U.S. states that allowed unrestricted (or virtually so) concealed-carrying of handguns enjoyed an average:

27% reduction in violent crime
31% reduction in murders
16% reduction in robberies
26% reduction in aggravated assault
8% reduction in rapes

There’s more but try telling that to the AMA. Now, I know that correlation is not causation but it does show that CCW laws and access to guns don’t cause an increase in crime.

Not feeling it today. Later, kids.

While pregnant, the Mrs. wasn’t drinking (of course). But she did have a hankering for the refreshing taste of an ice cold beer on occassion. So, she’d been sipping on O’Doul’s non-alcoholic brew. Well, she’d been giving a sip or two to Junior now and then since it wasn’t alcoholic and Junior asked for it and seemed to like it. Well, being no longer pregnant, I bought her some real beer. Junior walked up and made a motion for it and, out of reflex, the Mrs. hands her the bottle and Junior takes two big gulps. That’s when the Mrs. says aloud Oh crap realizing she just gave Junior a real beer. Oops.

Some stats on officer deaths in 2005:

Fifty police officers were shot to death in the United States last year, among 122 who were killed in the line of duty.

FBI: 122 Police Officers Killed in 2005

Mon May 15, 12:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Fifty police officers were shot to death in the United States last year, among 122 who were killed in the line of duty.

In all, 55 officers were killed intentionally, two fewer than in 2004, according to preliminary
FBI statistics released Monday. Vehicles were used in five deaths, the bureau said.

At the time they were killed, 34 officers were wearing body armor. But the FBI did not say whether bullets penetrated the armor in any of those deaths. Handguns were used to kill 42 officers, while five were shot with shotguns and three with a rifle. Six officers were killed with their own weapons, the FBI said.

The bureau said that authorities solved all the killings.

Twenty eight officers were killed in the South, 10 in the Midwest, 10 in the West, and five in the Northeast, the FBI said. Two officers were killed in Puerto Rico.

There were 67 accidential deaths of officers in 2005, 15 fewer than a year earlier, the FBI said. There was no description of how those deaths occurred.

The preliminary numbers come from information submitted by more than 10,000 state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies. The FBI publishes final numbers in the fall.

What do you do when a person who was a police officer threatens you? Well, this guy drew down:

A Mt. Pleasant Township man is fighting to regain his right to carry a concealed weapon after police charged him with drawing a handgun in a public area and threatening to kill a former state trooper.

Court records say David J. Warburton Jr., 49, had his firearms permit revoked in April. Police say Warburton unholstered a Browning .380-caliber pistol during a confrontation with David S. Flagg, 45, on Dec. 4 inside the East Huntingdon Township Wal-Mart.

Westmoreland County Sheriff Chris Scherer said he decided to take Warburton’s permit away after he learned state police charged Warburton with recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats, simple assault and harassment. Warburton’s lawyer, Jeffrey Abramowitz, said his client did not point the gun at anyone and drew it only because he felt threatened by Flagg. Abramowitz appealed Scherer’s decision last week.

“He had no intention of discharging the weapon. He had no desire to do anything but ensure his own safety,” Abramowitz said.

Err, never draw a weapon unless you intend to use it. It’s not just good policy, it’s usually the law. As to why the fuss:

“Absolutely, I felt threatened,” Flagg said. “He asked me twice, in succession, did I want to die tonight.”

Jeff has the latest.

Seems the idiots at the Gun Guys are posting the NRA’s tax returns (which are public for anyone who asks, btw) and yammering about salaries. Well, David thinks that if it’s good for the goose . . .

An interesting ruling out of Cali:

The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that a person can’t be convicted of the crime of possessing a sawed-off rifle unless prosecutors can prove that the defendant knew the weapon was unusually short.

The court upheld the conviction of Sean King of San Francisco for possessing a short-barreled rifle in 2001.

Police found the loaded rifle in the drawer of a workbench in the garage of a house shared by King, his mother and his brother.

The stock of the rifle had been sawed off so that the weapon measured 24 and 1/8 inches. The state’s Dangerous Weapons Control Law makes it a crime to possess a rifle less than 26 inches long.

Not sure how similar Cali’s laws are to the federal laws (not sure what the overall length is for federal rules but think 26 sounds right) but it seems odd.

First Qwest, now Bellsouth says they didn’t do it:

BellSouth says it has no evidence it was contacted by a U.S. spy agency or gave the government access to any of its customers’ phone call records, disputing a published report that sparked a national debate on federal surveillance tactics.

The regional Bell, which offers telecommunication services in nine Southeastern states, said Monday it had conducted a “thorough review” and established that it had not given the National Security Agency customer call records.

A report Thursday by USA Today identified BellSouth Corp., along with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., as companies that had complied with an NSA request for tens of millions of customer phone records after the 2001 terror attacks. Experts said the agency was likely seeking to detect calling patterns in the mountain of data.

“Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA,” the company said in a statement.

As for Verizon:

Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni referred to a company statement Friday that said Verizon doesn’t “provide any government agency unfettered access to our customer records or provide information to the government under circumstances that would allow a fishing expedition.”

Increasingly, it looks like someone went and got me all worked up for nothing.

NEPA News:

The Bloomberg administration’s unusual move appears to circumvent the law signed by President Bush last year that gives gun makers and dealers broad protection from civil suits, except in cases where they violate the law.

Actually, it doesn’t if the dealers involved knowingly sold weapons to straw purchasers. Otherwise, there really is no negligence on their part. But it looks like they did, according to this report:

For the sting operation, the city singled out about 45 dealers based on gun trace data that links weapons sold in those shops to hundreds of shootings and other crimes in New York City from 1994 to 2001.

Private investigators wore hidden cameras and attempted “straw purchases,” where one person fills out the legal forms and makes the purchase for someone else. The scam, prohibited by federal law, is typically used by people who cannot own firearms, such as convicted felons.

The city said the undercover investigators entered stores in teams of two, usually a man and a woman. While the woman roamed the store and acted disinterested, the man made all the inquiries about the gun and made it clear he was the buyer. When it came time to make the purchase, the woman would step up to fill out the paperwork.

The majority of dealers refused the sale, Bloomberg said. In a video from one such attempt, the man behind the counter shrugged his shoulders, apologized and said it would be against the law for him to sell to the woman because she was clearly not the intended user.

But the 15 dealers named in the suit allowed the transaction, and Bloomberg called them “the worst of the worst.”

“They were either intentionally or negligently selling handguns in a manner that violates federal law,” he said.

Of course, the city of New York running sting operations out of its jurisdiction is a bit troubling.

Also, it rather depends on if the man was in fact a prohibited person. If he is, the investigators broke the law.

Update: No real details but the shops in Georgia are denying selling guns illegally:

Earl Driggers, the owner of A-1 Jewelry and Pawn, said his store has cooperated with authorities in a sting operation in the past, but was not a target of the probe. He believes he has always complied with the law. He said that once someone passes a background check and is sold a gun, it’s impossible for gun stores to control who the buyer gives that gun to.

“We certainly do everything we can to make sure guns don’t leave our store illegally,” Driggers said. “I don’t know what you’re supposed to do. If a guy comes in and meets all the criteria and you comply with the law, I don’t know what you do.”

His son, Greg Driggers, is owner of AAA Pawnbrokers. The younger Driggers said he, too, was baffled why his store was named in the lawsuit.

“We’re not selling guns illegally,” the younger Driggers said. He added, “If they wound up in the hands of criminals, that’s because people are doing things illegal, but it’s not on the part of us. At any time, anybody, any authority is welcome to come in and check my records.”

Interesting poll results:

Majority (54%) Feel Current Gun Registry Should Be Scrapped And Most (56%) Blame Liberal Politicians, Not Bureaucrats (37%), For Bungling

But:

But Majority Of Canadians (67%) Also Support Idea Of Having Some Type Of Gun Registry Put In Place By Harper Government

Alrighty then.

USA Today:

The city is suing 15 out-of-state gun shops it says supply a significant portion of the guns that flow into New York, including some that end up in the hands of criminals.

The lawsuit being filed Monday asks the federal court to order supervision and extra training for the dealers in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia. It also seeks some damages and compensation.

“By and large, most gun dealers respect and follow the law, but the small group of dealers that do not should be held accountable,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

The city’s law department singled out the 15 gun shops after hiring private investigators who fanned out to dealers in the five states over the past several weeks.

Wearing hidden cameras, the investigators entered stores in teams of two and attempted “straw purchases,” in which the buyer completes the paperwork and passes the background check, but later hands over the weapon to someone else who is not allowed to own a firearm.

The scam, prohibited by federal law, is typically used by people who are under 21 or convicted felons. The 15 dealers named in the suit sold guns to the undercover investigators. The city said the sales were refused at about 30 other shops.

So, the investigators broke the law? I wonder if the owners of the shop knew that was the case? It makes a big difference in terms of legality.

GLN has more.

Perusing the blogs, I found this post at Mr. Completely’s. Then I say to myself: Self, why do I recognize that gun. And Self responds with Dude, because it’s yours . . . well, before you got all Tactical Tommy with it.

The Million Mom March merged with the Brady Bunch a while back. I always wondered why. Via David Hardy, now I do:

We can only speculate on why the Million Mom March Foundation felt that it had to liquidate itself and transfer its assets to the Brady Center but the information and that at Link (“problems” with the group’s tax return for 2000) suggest that, had it not done so, its 501(c)(3) exemption would have been revoked by the Internal Revenue Service because of widespread evidence of abuse of that status.

Tax problems? Well, since they think 5 = one million, I’m not surprised.

First, Kevin Drum says the powers that be were likely aware that this wasn’t a slam dunk:

Gee, Pete, you seem awfully sure that this program “fully complies with the law and the Constitution.” So why is it that when Qwest asked for a routine court order to make everything legal and tidy, the NSA decided it would rather leave a gap in its surveillance than get one? According to USA Today, their lawyers told Qwest “they didn’t want to do that because FISA might not agree with them.”

And Pattycakes, via Xrlq, says the following (I’ve added notes to for your convenience):

Next thing you know, the government will require me to tell it: what I do for a living; exactly how much I make^1&2; where I live¹; what stocks I buy and sell^2&3, and for how much²; what I pay in property taxes²; and how much profit I make on my investments^2&3.

1 – The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.

2 – The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

3 – Powers of Congress . . . To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

I was looking looking for that section that said the .gov had the power to compile massive amounts of data on its citizens unrelated to commerce, a census, and a tax but I cannot. So, help me out here.

Jeff notes the common them among gun controllers is an attempt to Stop Crime By Punishing the Law Abiding. Of course, all this schemes do is punish the law abiding and have no effect on stopping crime.

Via Chris, comes one of the best things I’ve seen on teaching kids about gun safety.

At some point in the next few days, this blog will hit 1,000,000 visitors (per sitemeter, anyhoo – we’re well passed that on my other stat package but no one sees it). So, go me.

The Carnival of Cordite is up for all your gunblogging needs.

Or at least your words maybe showing up there? Head on over to AC’s place. Sayeth the AC:

Howz about you? Does the border need troops? Does supplementing the Border Patrol with Guardsmen even amount to militarization? What do you think of Bush’s plan as you understand it?

Make sure and spellcheck and otherwise prettify your comments because they may very well be selected for broadcast on THE NEWS this afternoon.

Your comments could appear on the TeeVee.

Not much here today but there’s some good stuff at The Gun Blogs. My favorite:

In thinking about statistics and how they are used by every gun control advocate from Sarah Brady to Michael Bloomberg,it occurred to me that perhaps we should use some of our own. Admittedly this idea will be much more effective when you are talking to that sister or neighbor or uncle or talkative stranger in the taxicab than it would be to a large audience. Someone with whom you have established a rapport that predisposes them to at least listen, and maybe with a tendency to trust what you say.

Soonews:

Americans Brace for AK-47s Now in Streets

It is one of the most feared weapons that have largely been inaccessible for decades. That has changed recently, as law enforcement authorities in Palm Beach and Martin counties documented deadly incidents involving the new weapon of choice by gangs. In both counties, AK-47s were used to kill two people and wound four others in three separate incidents.

[snip]

The weapon is believed to be a badge of honour for organized youth gangs. AK-47s still are less readily available than the more traditional weapons used by gangs, but they appear to be the next phase of evolutionary drug turf battles. The illegal drug trade is a multi-billion dollar industry, with most of its acquired revenue secured by mid and upper levels of its hierarchy. The lower rungs of the organizational structure is where gang members are younger, more brazen, much more likely to take aggressive risks and more violent.

New AK-47s have been banned in the US since 1986. The import of the semi-automatic versions has been heavily regulated since the 1990s due to sporting purpose import restrictions. Yet, I’ve never known of a shortage of the semi-auto versions due to manufacturers making models to comply with import restrictions. The facts are that the gang members using these guns are doing so illegally. Not sure what the point of the story is regarding why they think they were inaccessible and are now suddenly flooding the streets. And the Canadians look at the second amendment:

Although guns have become a more imposing problem in large metropolitan Canadian cities, they are much more prevalent in the United States. The history of the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment was constructed and serves the means “…necessary to the security of a free State…” With this in mind, the Second Amendment was issued for the militias of the free states, whose ample supply of able-bodied, part-time members, to be armed with their own weapons. The idea was for the states to have the freedom to defend themselves against enemies foreign and domestic.

Close. I am amazed that when someone covers the second amendment, they tell you all about it and what it says but rarely quote the damn thing.

Update: And what the Hell is that rifle in the picture. It is not an AK that I have ever seen.

Update 2: Per a commenter at KABA:

The picture in the article is not even a real firearm. It is a paint ball gun dressed up as an AK. You can see the valve for the CO2 bottle on the bottom of the pistol grip.

The latest is up.

Junior’s taking to her little brother quite well. Mommy and daddy’s little helper: