Or this would be illegal when that law passes:

The State of California, however, required that anyone who had such a rifle prior to the ban undergo a special registration with the California Department of Justice. More recently, California required the registration of 50 BMG rifles by April 30, 2006, after banning their sale and importation.

Surprise! Officers from the Los Angeles County Gun Task Force have now started serving search warrants to residents who are suspected of holding unregistered “Assault Rifles” including 50 BMG target rifles. This “task force” has reportedly confiscated firearms and issued felony charges on at least one individual who was deemed to be out of compliance. If convicted on a felony, that gun owner will never be allowed to legally own any firearms for the rest of his life.

And Xavier also notes:

It is beginning to appear that the confiscations in California are the work of a police informant, not the use of recorded sales of weapons to locate unregistered guns among multiple gun owners.

Can’t blame you for thinking that before. It has happened in the past.

Les has the skinny (and pics) of S&W’s new bear/survival guns. Pretty slick.

For the forseeable future, I have stricken the terms sock-puppet, Greenwald, and snatch from my vocabulary. The first two, because I’m tired of reading about them. The last one because it may be the ugliest word in the English language. For those of you who know what I’m talking about, pat yourselves on the back. For those who don’t, look, a monkey.

What do these three things have in common:

The AP:

Even though Republican Michael Steele says he probably wouldn’t want President Bush campaigning for him in Maryland and that he considers his party affiliation a scarlet letter, the White House said Wednesday that Bush still is backing Steele in his Senate race.

The AP:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, a longtime supporter of Senator Joseph Lieberman, said Tuesday she will not back the Connecticut Democrat’s bid for re-election if he loses their party’s primary.

NPR:

The beleaguered campaign of Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman is expected to get a lift today from two prominent Democrats, including one former President. Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to headline an event at the Palace Theater in Waterbury this afternoon designed to shore up support for Lieberman, a three-term incumbent in the political fight of his life.

They illustrate a problem with our two-party political system. Party is first. Always. Second to party is status quo. Lieberman and Steele, as incumbents, take precedent over any in-party upstart. Ideals are last. Good to know where we stand, eh?

Update: Steele isn’t the incumbent. But he still represents party. I think the point stands. Thanks for the corrections.

Heartless Libertarian has a list. I’d add the airlines circa 2002.

David Hardy notes:

One more nail in the coffin of “collective rights” comes from the discovery, in the 1980s, of a draft for a bill of rights by Rep. Roger Sherman, who, with Madison, was appointed to the committee which reported out the bill of rights.

The draft reads:

The militia shall be under the government of the laws of the respective States, when not in the actual Service of the United States, but such rules as may be prescribed by Congress for their uniform organization and discipline shall be observed in officering and training them, but military Service shall not be required of person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms.

David notes:

The historical point here is that the members of the First Congress knew how to write a “collective rights” amendment, that would only have safeguard State rights to control the militia, if they’d wanted one.

In my post on the lawsuit against Bloomberg (where his investigators broke the law), I asked:

Is there a fund to contribute to?

Reader John says there is one here.

The Ohio Supreme Court did it. The skinny at the Volokh’s:

We hold that although economic factors may be considered in determining whether private property may be appropriated, the fact that the appropriation would provide an economic benefit to the government and community, standing alone, does not satisfy the public-use requirement of Section 19, Article I of the Ohio Constitution.

Update: Another Volokh (I can’t tell them apart) has a lot more.

Via les, comes brass fetcher:

Welcome to the Brass Fetcher Online! Here you will find ballistic gelatin test results for rifles, pistols and shotguns.

Click on your favorite caliber and see some results.

A proposal at the gun blogs. Err, doesn’t get rid of the whole due process of law issue with Lautenberg but it’s a start.

At least, I hope you were looking for me. Otherwise, you got some issues.

Blogger and TN house candidate Bob Krumm cut a commercial. See it here.

Apparently, the biggest threat to positive urban development is the fact that people own property:

Fifty-one out of 73 parcels on the 22-acre site “exhibit one or more blight characteristics,” the study found, including buildings that are at least 50 percent vacant or are built to 60 percent or less of their allowable density. The study also noted that, before Forest City came along, 76 parties controlled the land making up the site. Such fragmented ownership, real estate developers say, is what makes large-scale private urban development difficult without government intervention.

The nerve of them, to own stuff.

In an update to this, the AP:

A judge ruled Tuesday that a 16-year-old cancer patient who has refused conventional medical treatment does not have to report to a hospital as previously ordered and scheduled a trial to settle the dispute.

Blackfork reminds us:

This Friday we load up the trucks and convoy the Texas State Rifle Team up to Port Clinton and Camp Perry for the 2006 Civilian Marksmanship Program state team matches.

I’m on the Texas team.

CMP week is all service rifle competition. That means everyone is shooting an 03, a Garand, a M1A, an AR15 or, for the first time this year, an M1 Carbine in the new Carbine Match.

TN Tax Revolt emails:

STOP the Internet Access TAX

Senator Alexander is THE KEY vote in the Senate and needs to hear from us NOW or he will very likely vote against extending the Internet Tax Freedom Act. Every state will then be free to tax our internet access. We rarely have the opportunity to have this kind of leverage but we can actually stop internet access taxes if we call Senator Alexander TODAY. PLEASE HELP.

The Internet Tax Freedom Act is keeping our Internet Access Tax Free but it will EXPIRE next year. The Senate is considering a permanent extension THIS WEEK and Senator Alexander will vote to increase these taxes if he doesn’t hear from us.

PLEASE take just a moment to call Senator Alexander’s office:

Just tell the Senator’s staff, “My name is _name_ and I live in _city_ and I want my Internet access to be tax free. Please tell the Senator to vote YES on permanently extending the Internet Tax Freedom Act.”

You can reach him at:

Washington Office
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-4944
Fax: (202) 228-3398

Defenseless Bear Killed by Vicious Pitbull and Crazed Knife-Wielding Owner

The Denver Channel:

Marshals: Innocent People Placed On ‘Watch List’ To Meet Quota

Marshals Say They Must File One Surveillance Detection Report, Or SDR, Per Month

You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they’re reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.

The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they’re required to submit at least one report a month. If they don’t, there’s no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments

Kinda like speeding ticket quotas, only it will fuck you for life.

Yes, I have a 9mm AR-15. It would never have occured to me to make a 9mm AK though. But it did occur to Lichtenberg Research, whose slogan is:

Because you can…and…it drives them crazy!!!

Check them out:

Sweet!

Update: Here’s a forum thread on the builds.

Or you could, you know, learn how to fucking drive.

No, I kid bitter.

In comments, I learned that there is a blog about koi.

Nylarthotep notes the house voted Tuesday to prevent law enforcement officers from confiscating legally owned guns during a national disaster or emergency. The senate approved a similar measure a while back. It seems to me to be similar to the senate version in that it bans funding for confiscations. I’m still searching for the vote record. It’s apparently not as quickly updated as the Senate website.

From Reader H, Beretta’s Xtrema 2 Recoil-less Shotgun is impressive:

In other news, that may also be the only pro-gun statement I’ve heard from Chuckles Schumer.

update: Stormy in comments at leanleft:

Yes, thankfully such people–Al Sharpton–are only found on the right. No one on the left–Jesse Jackson–would ever stoop to such depths. I mean, could you ever believe that a liberal–Cynthia McKinney–would try to appeal to anti-semitism for political gain?

tee-hee.

Seriously? I have an editor, it’s called Word. But, all kidding aside, it’s scary that the media makes such stupid mistakes with editors.

In an update to the mysterious, time-traveling gun, KDT asked the press about their failure to factcheck and gets a response:

You are right. The statistics are wrong and we are removing the story from our website. For what it’s worth, the number were cited by Queens D.A. Richard Brown at his press conference. The other information in the story also came from the D.A. While we tend to give credit to law enforcement sources for knowing what they are talking about, we should have realized that the statistics didn’t make any sense.

Seen at Radley’s:

Armed game wardens seized 10 exotic fish from the tank of a popular Chinese restaurant, leaving its owner shaken and outraged.

“They treated me like a criminal,” said Cuong Ly, who escaped from Vietnam 25 years ago. “I lived under communism and I felt like I’m back there again.”

Ly, 45, said his pet koi were like family members and their confiscation in what he described as a heavy-handed raid made him “want to explode inside.”

After obtaining a search warrant, two uniformed wardens and a biologist, accompanied by Freeport police, visited China Rose on Wednesday, taking away the 10 fish that ranged in size from 12 to 14 inches.

The koi had been on display since Ly opened the restaurant nearly 15 years ago and he credited them for bringing good luck to the business in a way akin to the arrangement of articles in the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui.

A few years ago, however, Maine outlawed the importation and possession of koi, and Ly was charged with importing freshwater fish without a permit.

[…]

“It looked like they were raiding the place for illegal drugs,” he said. “They made it seem like a crime scene.”

I’m sorry but that’s retarded.

9mm v. Samurai sword:

Another press follie. Do they even try to research gun stuff?

Colt CCO has the final part in his series on his last AR-15. And there’s pics of girls shooting guns.