Syd Barrett, founder of Pink Floyd, has died.

A gun buy back in my fair state:

Officers say before you show up to the Pyramid Saturday, take the gun you plan to turn in, remove the ammunition, and do everything else to make sure that fire arm is not a hazard.

“The mitigating factor is you’re bringing this gun to turn it in, and the way to do that is put it in a paper sack, unload it make sure that you are going to have it in a safe manner,” said Sgt. Vince Higgins, spokesperson for the Memphis Police Department.

Higgins said guns turned in Saturday will cataloged and destroyed. He believes that fewer guns on the street will result in fewer shootings and fewer homicides.

“Many times these guns are the result of law abiding citizens’ homes being broken into, or their car being broken into, or theft or some sort,” Higgins said. “We want people that have these weapons that they don’t have any use for, that they feel are unsafe in their home, to bring them to us.”

Higgins said gun experts will be on hand at the Pyramid to help answer key questions about any guns you may bring.

“Part of this is to teach safety about handguns,” he said. “The other part is lets get them off of the street. That gun that’s turned in in our gun turn in campaign? It’s going to be one less gun to be stolen and used in another crime or, sold for crack, or some other drug.”

I wonder if they’re buying them or if it’s just a turn in? If they buy them, some enterprising upstart may be able to score a good deal. Any way, getting guns off the streets this way isn’t likely to help. Those inclined to turn them in likely aren’t the type to commit crimes anyway (well, unless they can get paid for them).

Ask any police politician (chief or sheriff) and they will deny there is a speeding ticket quota. Ask any beat cop and he’ll tell you otherwise. Of note:

Coopertown Mayor Danny Crosby routinely told police officers to ticket at least three or four motorists a day so the city could pay for services without a property tax, two town police officers testified in court this morning.

The mayor also told police that Hispanics were “easy targets” for tickets and told officers to monitor particular roads in search of political adversaries, according to testimony.

District Attorney General John Carney filed a court petition to have Crosby ousted from office. He’s accused in court filings of illegally running a speed trap in the small Robertson County town; having cops profile Hispanics, soldiers and out-of-towners for tickets and using officers to harass and threaten some members of the community

And there’s the issue of harassing political enemies.

Gun Law News has it.

As readers know, I’m into building my own guns. Never occured to me to build my own knife. But Irons in the Fire is doing it and showing us how. Nice.

Via Jeff.

The Lowell Sun:

Massachusetts may have some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, but the state is woefully inept at keeping track of the whereabouts of guns seized by local police departments.

An expose in The Sunday Sun (July 2) revealed that thousands of guns confiscated from individuals facing domestic-abuse violations wind up in bonded public warehouses for firearmas and are rarely, if ever, returned to their rightful owners.

So what happens to the guns?

Sun reporter Rita Savard posed the question to countless police, state officials and warehouse owners over three months. Incredibly, no one could give an exact answer.

Despite a comprehensive gun law enacted in 1998, Savard found there is no trail of public records on the seized guns, nor is there a state agency monitoring the storage, disposal or resale of the guns.

The findings are alarming, leaving police and gun-control advocates wondering whether the seized guns are being recycled into the population through auctions or Internet sales offered by owners of the bonded public warehouses.

Wow. And more:

While the state Executive Office of Public Safety has the responsibility of implementing the law, Savard found officials to be clueless about the gun-warehousing provision. After repeated inquiries, officials admitted finally that because no public records existed to document the transfer of the seized guns from local police departments to the bonded public warehouses. The admission was surprising, since public warehouses charge a $20 transfer fee for each gun to cover the costs of paperwork, specifically federal and state forms.

Once told about the inconsistency, the Office of Public Safety issued a statement saying the 1998 Gun Control Act doesn’t require the state to monitor seized guns.

If you can’t own up to the responsibility, just dismiss it entirely. That’s basically what the Office of Public Safety is saying.

I wrote about Christian’s piece here. S/he’s has replied to critics by stating, err, I’m not sure what. Anyhoo, Aunt B. ain’t happy.

In comments to his post, Christian non-responds with his tripe:

Either owner seems to not care for the dog’s life or the actions taken by the majority, as represented by their elected officials, to ban them from their neighborhoods.

I suppose Christian then is OK with the notion of denying rights to gays. I mean to do otherwise would be to not care for the actions taken by the majority, as represented by their elected officials. Right?

I’m not a fan of Lieberman. He’s a statist and only seems to appeal to the conservatives lately entirely due to the war. But his opponent, Lamont, is saying the right things:

LAMONT: Look, you want to boast about how many earmarks you bring to the state of Connecticut? Alaska gets 10 times what we do. We’re not doing very well on that front. But more importantly, I think we should outlaw these earmarks.

(CROSSTALK)

LAMONT: Hear me out, sir. I think we should outlaw these earmarks. I think they corrupt the political process. I think they are written by lobbyists and they’re wrong.

LIEBERMAN: Try to explain that to the (inaudible).

LAMONT: I think these things should go through the congressional process. Sir, you have been there for 18 years. You support the earmarks, you work with the lobbyists, and that’s what needs to be changed.

And that’s from a Democrat. Here’s hoping he actually means it.

So, does the Libertarian party have a candidate in the Tennessee Senate race? I searched and found nothing. I’m not sure who to throw my vote away on this time.

AC says that Giuliani’s PAC has launched a website.

Good:

An FBI raid on a Louisiana congressman’s Capitol Hill office was legal, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan said members of Congress are not above the law. He rejected requests from lawmakers and Democratic Rep. William Jefferson to return material seized by the FBI in a May 20-21 search of Jefferson’s office.

In a 28-page opinion, Hogan dismissed arguments that the first-ever raid on a congressman’s office violated the Constitution’s protections against intimidation of elected officials.

“Congress’ capacity to function effectively is not threatened by permitting congressional offices to be searched pursuant to validly issued search warrants,” said Hogan, who had approved the FBI’s request to conduct the overnight search of Jefferson’s office.

Der Commissar:

A three-story building at 32 East 62nd Street in Manhattan exploded this morning and is burning.

Hundreds of firefighters and rescue workers are on scene at what FDNY officials are calling this a “major incident.”

There are reports of multiple people trapped inside the building, but there are no confirmed injuries at the moment. FDNY workers are now climbing over the rubble of the collapsed building to try to get to those who are reportedly trapped underneath. The FDNY Collapse Response Unit has arrived on the scene and has joined the search.

No cause given as of yet.

Update: The AP:

The cause was not immediately known, though White House press secretary Tony Snow said there was no indication of terrorism.

Update 2: Allah says Foxnews reported it was a gas explosion.

Michael Bane laid out his. The Department of Justice has theirs.

Via Bob, comes Knoxville 520, which (per Bob) featur(es) assorted and sundry entertainment options in mighty KnoxVegas.

Cool.

Yes, people from Massachusetts, this is what we in flyover country think.

Well, some of us.

Michael Bane posts his Five Point Plan for a national political strategy on guns. I really like number 5:

Dismantle the onerous conditions of the 1968 Gun Control Act, the machinegun amendment of the 1986 FOPA, the 1990 Crime Control Act and the 1999 “Al Gore Stands Up!” trigger lock requirement.

Publicola has more and doesn’t think Michael’s plan is enough.

So says the US News and World Report:

The NRA is riding high; gun control is a political loser

[snip]

“When we as Democrats are trying to reach out and speak to voters in the center of the country, I don’t think that we can support gun control,” he explains. After seeing Democrats hammered at the polls for voting to regulate guns, many of his colleagues seem to agree. As a result, a number of pro-gun measures moving through Congress will most likely face little opposition, as advocates of gun control increasingly find themselves marginalized and ignored.

Not long ago, it was the gun lobby on the defensive from the passage of the Brady bill in 1993 and the 1994 ban on “assault” weapons. But some say support for gun control cost Democrats the House in 1994, and former President Clinton credited it with Al Gore’s 2000 presidential defeat. “It’s different than it was in the early ’90s. Those were, in retrospect, the glory years,” says Paul Helmke, former GOP mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., who recently took the reins of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Meanwhile, with little fanfare, National Rifle Association backers in Congress allowed the assault weapons ban to expire in 2004 and last year shielded gun makers from being sued over crimes committed using their products. Since 1999, nine states have eased restrictions on concealed weapons, and NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre says the freedom of gun owners is in “the best shape it’s been in decades.”

Ayup.

TriggerFinger notes the Fraternal Order of Police having issue with the Lautenberg amendment. Seems a restraining order during a divorce proceeding isn’t forgivable like felon in possession is. In comments here, he notes:

Oh, and the reason for the lawsuits is that the federal law about misdemeanor domestic violence convictions or restraining orders does NOT contain such an exception. So, a cop who has a boilerplate restraining order filed by his wife in the middle of a divorce can’t carry his gun and is thus out of a job; while a cop with a felony conviction for murder could remain armed so long as someone deemed it in the public interest. I’m not surprised the FOP doesn’t like that situation.

Campground pet policy:

Ocean Lakes is happy to have your entire family, including your pets! Pets (excluding rottwielers, pitt bulls and exotic animals) are allowed at all campsites. They are not permitted in our rental sites – sorry!

And check out the picture of the dog in shades. Why, it looks like a . . .

Update: Everyone else seems to think it’s a boxer. Boxers have been classified as pit bulls as well. They share lineage.

The Carnival of Cordite is up for your gun blogging pleasure.

Christian Grantham shows video of a pit bull attack. Then s/he* endorses a ban and calls them a vicious and uncontrollable breed. Aunt B. calls him/her out on it, though I think B’s original sentiment, while lacking in the subtlety department, is likely the best way to deal with dog ignorance.

Dog attack by breed are generally tied to breed popularity. The big bad dog of 1970s was the German Shepherd; 1980s it was Dobermans; 1990s it was Rottweilers; now, it’s the pit bulls turn. Of course, there is no breed of dog known as the pit bull. It is a class of dog that includes American Pit Bull Terriers, Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Terriers and others. The crocodile hunter’s dog was a pit bull; so was Petey from The Little Rascals; pit bulls were on US propaganda posters in WW2; and the dog that recently won Westminster was a pit bull. But they’re evil killing machines, as far as the ignorant are concerned.

The dog that would become the pit bull was originally a cattle dog. It was then bred with Bull Terriers to create a dog fighting dog. It’s a shame, but their past is in dog fighting. As such, they are inherently dog aggressive but this can be socialized out of them. If you have other dogs, don’t get one. If you can’t properly socialize a dog, don’t get one. If you want a dog because you want a tough dog and think you’re going to train one to be mean, don’t get one.

However, they are not inherently people aggressive. In fact, people aggression was bred out of them because, in a dog fight, a handler had to be able to separate a dog without getting bitten. A people aggressive dog was disqualified from the fight. People aggression must be taught to the dog or is the result of poor socialization.

The trouble with pit bulls is that they are currently popular. As such, people who should not own any breed of dog now get them as status symbols because they’re known as tough dogs. And drug dealers get them to guard drug stashes and dog fighting is making a comeback so others get them for that.

This year, it’s pit bulls. Next year, it will be whatever dog people decide is cool next. The Preso Canario, for example, had an uptick in popularity after it killed that lady in San Francisco. If you ban a dog based on dog attacks, another will just take its place. Pit bulls rank in temperament tests as well as retrievers and better than ShiTzu’s and Scotties (here’s the rankings from ATTS).

The solution is to hold folks criminally liable for dog attacks regardless of breed. But I suppose it’s just easier to ban things, like dogs, guns, bathtubs, cars and anything else. For the children.

Here’s a savage mauling I happened to witness with a camera ready:

* yes, I could probably peruse the site and determine gender but, honestly, I don’t give a squirt of shit.

You may recall that KT Ordnance was raided for, err, well, no one really knows as it’s secret (See past coverage here and here). The latest at FMN:

A Montana gun-kit dealer’s home was raided by FBI, BATF, and Canadian law enforcement agents, after he gave “subversive” literature to his local Sheriff, according to a story posted on an online news site.

After distributing his handouts to the local Sheriff, Richard Celata reportedly got a phone call asking him to “come in” for a meeting, scheduled the day after the local elections. When Celata arrived at the office, he found the place half-full of BATF and FBI agents, who handed him a warrant to search his home. However, Celata noticed the warrant contained “no signed affidavit,” and was thus invalid. He was told the affidavit though it did exist, was “secret and sealed by the court.”

The raiders claimed five of the pistols found on the premises “were used to commit murders in Canada,” without further elaboration of details. In addition, Celata was reportedly questioned about his ownership of such dangerous materials as the Citizen’s Rulebook and speeches by George Washington. He was also questioned about “specific individuals in the freedom movement, including JPFO’s Aaron Zelman, author Devvy Kidd, and constitutional attorney Edward Vieira.” (The story notes that only by accessing his e-mail account, could the authorities have known of his interest in these individuals.) After a lengthy interrogation, Celata’s entire inventory of 80 percent finished gun frames was confiscated, and his computer’s hard drive copied (and crashed).

A few things:

Sooper seekrit warrants should be illegal

Why are Canadian law enforcement officers involved?

Speeches by George Washington are dangerous materials? Maybe if you’re Canadian.

Snooping emails for others who may be subversive?

Egad.

Update: More details here:

Celata said he knew he was in trouble as he was introduced to BATF and FBI agents and handed a search warrant and a promise that his premises were going to be raided.

“I read the search warrant and low and behold there’s no signed affidavit,” said Celata.

Celata told the Sheriff that the search warrant was therefore void to which the FBI and BATF responded that the affidavit was secret and sealed by the court.

“Now they can make up the affidavit to match what they found if they want to,” said Celata as he was told that the agents would carry out the search anyway.

Celata was then escorted by an estimated 40 FBI, ATF and Canadian law enforcement agents to his property. Salada asked if he could call his wife so as to enable her and their two small children to leave the property before the SWAT team arrived but was refused on the grounds that he was giving her a secret code to destroy evidence. However, the Sheriff allowed the call to be made and the family was able to leave. At no point was Celata shown any identification by any of the agents.

The cadre of agents, which now included Canadian AFT agents, then began the process of methodically cataloguing and seizing Salada’s possessions – bizarrely urinating on the exterior of the property ignoring the two bathrooms located inside the building.

Celata was told, without being shown any supporting evidence, that five of the pistols he had sold were used to commit murders in Canada.

“I said look, guns don’t kill people – people kill people,” said Celata.

So far, the only sources (other than one media mention I’ve found) are blogs, online boards, and such. So, take it for what it’s worth.

So, if I understand this correctly, it’s OK to wish harm on someone’s children because of chimpy mchitlerburton’s evil war for oil. Or something.

Via Pattycakes.

Kopel:

As of 6 p.m. eastern time, the word from the United Nations small arms conference is that the conference is concluding with NO final document, and NO plans for any follow-up conference. It was the latter issue that prevented an agreement about a final document. The officials who had been charged by the conference chair with drafting the conference document presented a final take-it-or-leave it document a little while ago; that draft document eliminated various provisions that the U.S. delegation had found objectionable, but also declared that there would be at least two more conferences. The U.S. delegation refused to assent, and so the conference ended with no consensus agreement, and no plans for future conferences. The back-up plan of the international gun prohibition movement, and their many allies within the U.N. and national U.N. delegations, was to give up on significant progress in 2006, but to keep the game going with future conferences, when a more pliant U.S. administration might welcome an international gun control program.

Good. I think (and have said before) we are one administration away from having to fight the gun battle here in the US. That administration could be line-toeing democrats or maverick, big government republicans (think Giuliani or McCain). David also says:

If a few hundred votes had changed in Florida in 2000, or if 60,000 votes had changed in Ohio in 2004, the results of the 2001 and 2006 U.N. gun control conferences would have been entirely different. There would now be a legally binding international treaty creating an international legal norm against civilian gun ownership, a prohibition on the transfer of firearms to “non-state actors” (such as groups resisting tyrants), and a new newspeak international human rights standard requiring restrictive licensing of gun owners. With a Presidential signature on such a treaty (even if the treaty were never brought to the Senate floor for ratification), the principles of the anti-gun treaty would be eroding the Second Amendment, through Executive Orders, and through the inclination of some courts to use unratified treaties as guidance in interpretting the U.S. Constitution.

No, not Biden. The reaction to it (well, ok, Biden is dumb too but that’s expected):

Facing criticism, potential 2008 presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden has been forced to explain his recent remark that “you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

On a recent edition of the C-SPAN series “Road to the White House,” the Delaware Democrat is shown shaking hands with a man and boasting about his support among Indian-Americans.

“I’ve had a great relationship. In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking,” Biden said.

Seriously, this is why people are upset?

Les Jones in comments at knoxviews on why uses the word “liberal” as if it were a perjorative (sic) or a curse word:

Because “liberal” has gotten to be a bad, dumb brand that’s all about flashing politically correct gang signs instead of thinking straight or getting anything done. Note that Eleanor A. had to defend “he” as a pronoun for politicians for fear of offending anyone’s delicate PC sensitivities.

Heh.

Regarding my post on a cop with a felony conviction who is a criminal, PawPaw writes:

Third, here in Louisiana we recognize that people, good people, can make mistakes and our laws reflect that.

I’m not so sure. Felon in possession is a federal crime and the ATF does not fund the program to uninfringe their gun rights. Someone who is a felon with a gun is always a federal criminal.

That is, unless I’m missing something here. I suppose a full pardon may work.

To be clear, I’m all for giving people second chances but no special treatment for cops. And, to be clear, I’m all for felons owning guns. If a released felon can’t be trusted with a gun, they should still be in jail. Once you’ve paid your debt to society, pick up where you left off.

Cultural sensitivity training, circa 1942: How To Spot A Jap. Apparently, you can tell Japanese from Chinese because Japanese people shuffle instead of walk. And Japanese people have buck teeth. Why not just say they can be identified by their laziness and devious oriental minds?

One of them is illegal and one is not:

Former Officer with Criminal Record Wants Second Chance

A former Clarksville police officer said he deserves a second chance. Rudy Castro recently lost his badge after a background check revealed he has a criminal record.

Castro wouldn’t say what he did, but he said he committed a felony at the age of 18.

I would daresay that this man carried a weapon in his capacity as a police officer. I’m sure the ATF will pursue the case since felons can’t have guns, right?

B-Ho notes that WKRN To Accept Bloggers’ Video Stories For Air. Cool.

Hats off to WKRN for being a very blog friendly station. I salute them.

Maybe I should try this video blogging thing since all the cool kids are doing it.