Well, unless they resign. The Tennessean:

Officials work to calm fears after police force quits

Officials here are working to rebuild a police department and a degree of public confidence in the wake of the recent resignation of the town’s entire police force.

Police Chief Jim Baker and both of Alexandria’s full-time officers left the city at the ends of their shifts on the night of Aug. 23.

Town officials said the force quit over a controversial proposal to save taxpayer money by limiting police activity in Alexandria to the nighttime hours. That idea has since been scrapped, Mayor David Cripps said.

But the possibility of days without police officers, as well as the media attention the police resignations received locally, rattled several residents and business owners in the tiny DeKalb County town.

Via NJCSD.

Gunner notes:

The city has given itself the right to seize its residents’ personal property for public use in an emergency.And although commissioners say it would use its new law only in “an exceptional disaster,” some residents are furious

It may well be that odd opportunity to assert a third amendment claim.

Michael Silence has a piece in the local news about blog demographics.

I’ve said before that I thought Wisconsin would go CCW soon, as it is one of two states with no provision. Looks like one gubernatorial candidate is pushing the idea:

Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green, who was the keynote speaker at the conference, said that without concealed carry legislation law-abiding hunters are having their rights infringed upon.

“The fact is, that we have a tremendous amount of sportsmen in this state, including myself, who are law-abiding and feel safer with guns,” said Green. “As long as we have a conceal carry law in effect, we will be able to help educate people more about guns and we will be able to provide more training.”

Green also said that a law allowing citizens to carry firearms would benefit people living in urban areas such as Milwaukee, because in case someone is attacked, the worst case scenario is the victim can defend themselves.

Green shared his befuddlement with the crowd of about 40 people on how Wisconsin is only one of two states in the country that does not have the conceal carry law.

IIRC, Governor Doyle has vetoed CCW twice. And once an override was almost successfully done. I thought this was odd and out of place:

Green recounted an exchange with a reporter during a press conference he and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani held in Milwaukee last month.

“A reporter asked about why New York doesn’t have a conceal carry law and tried to drive a wedge between us,” Green said.

“I answered the question for Rudy, when I informed them that New York has had a very successful concealed law for years that has dropped crime drastically.”

Successful concealed law? What are you talking about?

Five years has passed. I don’t have much to say, really. Sorry. I tried to write this post many times but I got nothing. Not sure what that means. So, I’ll look to posts of 9-11 past:

2002:

It has been a year. To sit around and mope is to concede to the enemy. Please, America, continue doing what you do. Go to work, tell your family you love them, go shopping, but never forget.

2003:

The firefighters above hired a lawyer (who appeared on the O’Reilly Factor) to claim intellectual property rights to this image.

Also, families of victims are holding out for a bigger chunk of money in a potential lawsuit than they would get from the government’s settlement.

The airline industry began taking advantage of their customers after 9/11 after the taxpayer funded bailout by offering more expensive service that was worse.

…

And the office jerk still takes the last of the coffee without making more.

It seems like we’re back to normal again. Don’t forget 9/11 but more importantly don’t forget America.

2004:

I have nothing particularly prophetic or poetic to say about the third anniversary other than don’t forget it. If you are a words person, go here. If you are a picture person, go here.

2005:

It was four years ago today. What’s changed? Well, we’re actually worse at dealing with a national tragedy, evidenced by Katrina. And quicker to trample liberties.

Looks like we learned very little.

Wow, am I really that cynical?

Over at publicola’s joint. He’s building an AK.

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

Colt CCO is blogging again and has some gun and range porn.

State Senator Raymond Finney, who is my rep, is blogging. The format is hard to follow but I’ll give it a read later. Via The Rep.

The NRA is backing Wyoming in its suite against the ATF:

Two national gun rights groups are supporting Wyoming’s lawsuit over a federal agency’s rejection of a state law that allows people with misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence to petition in state court to regain their right to carry guns.

The National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners Foundation have both filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting Wyoming’s challenge against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Wyoming filed suit in May against the ATF claiming it exceeded its authority by rejecting the state law, which was passed in 2004.

Federal law prohibits people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning guns.*

Although Wyoming’s law allows people to petition to expunge such convictions for purposes of restoring their gun rights, it would still allow the original conviction to count against a person as a previous conviction if he ever got in trouble with the law again. ATF says that means the state law doesn’t allow full expunging of a person’s record, and that person would still have a conviction with regard to the federal prohibition.

Here’s hoping states’ rights prevail.

Interesting:

Americans were robbed and victimized by gun violence at greater rates last year than the year before, even though overall violent and property crime reached a 32-year low, the Justice Department said Sunday.

Experts said these increases buttress reports from the FBI and many mayors and police chiefs that violent crime is beginning to rise after a long decline. Bush administration officials expressed concern but stressed that it was too soon to tell if a new upward trend in violence had begun.

Last year, there were two violent gun crimes for every 1,000 individuals, compared with 1.4 in 2004, according to the department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics. There were 2.6 robberies for every 1,000 persons, compared with 2.1 the year before.

“This report tells us more the serious events — robbery and gun crimes — increased and the FBI already told us homicides increased,” said criminal justice professor James Alan Fox of Northeastern University.

I’m sure it won’t be long before the expiration of the ban on weapons that look like assault weapons is blamed.

Heh.

In an update to a defensive gun use being in NYC reported in the NYT, reader d writes:

The bad thing about this though: under NYC law, this is an illegal shooting. (Unless a woman in a wheelchair managed to unlock her guncase, take the triggerlock off, take the ammo out of the separate bag, all while fighting off an adult male).
The NYPD are just too embarrassed to charge her.

At the UT v. Air Force game last night, I saw 3 fighter plans and a B52 bomber fly the stadium as part of the ceremonies. I thought it was an impressive sight. Then I thought I wonder how much this cost the taxpayers? Probably quite a bit. But I should just get over it.

Smarminess aside, Xrlq makes a good point about taxes you should be reminded of.

The NYT actually reported a defensive gun use. I share Kevin’s shock. Perhaps something like this getting press is enough to get New Yorkers to not be so oppositional to shall-issue carry.

What? It could happen.

Update: Feh, nevemind

Nice. Via the Benz.

Heh.

David has the testimony of Preston K. Covey, Ph.D. to The Pennsylvania Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Urban Violence.

Physics Geek:

My blog will change in response to FEC rules. No more quizzes, no more book or movie memes. All political advocacy all the time.

Traction Control:

This site pledges to uphold the Constitutional right to free speech by providing ad and message space to restricted organizations.

Dr. Helen has a post about women learning to shoot. Interesting reading.

Anyway, anyone who wants to go shooting (women or men) in the Knoxville area can shoot me an email at:

I’ll be happy to take you. I’ve taken a few people shooting for the first time and they’ll attest that it was mostly painless.

Speaking of, I think it may be time for another blogger shoot?

No, they don’t.

Some gun bills were marked up in committee:

9/7/2006 Full Committee Markup of H.R. 2679, H.R. 5092, H.R. 5005, H.R. 1384, H.R. 1415, Motion to authorize the issuance of a subpoena to Secretary Elaine L. Chao, Department of Labor, and H.R. 5830. H.R. 2679, the “Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005”; H.R. 5092, the “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act of 2006”; H.R. 5005, the “Firearms Corrections and Improvements Act”; H.R. 1384, the “Firearm Commerce Modernization Act”; H.R. 1415, the “NICS Improvement Act of 2005”; Motion to authorize the issuance of a subpoena to Secretary Elaine L. Chao, Department of Labor; and H.R. 5830, the “Wright Amendment Reform Act.”

The Brady Bunch doesn’t like it. So it can’t be all bad:

A House panel today cleared for full action by the House of Representatives a bill that would make it virtually impossible for Federal authorities to shut down gun dealers who violate the law. The bill would make it virtually impossible for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) to revoke the licenses of even the most egregious rogue gun dealers in the country.

The bill now faces likely House action as early as next week. Opponents of the bill, H.R. 5092, criticized the measure Thursday as a wholly inappropriate step in a time when the nation is otherwise cracking down on security to fight the war on terror.

Wow, more terror references.

The ATF has issued an alert regarding the world’s least powerful handgun:

Federal ATF Agents issued an officer safety advisory on what is called the world’s smallest gun after a CBS 2 inquiry. The Alert has been issued both in the New York and nationally to all Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives criminal investigators and will be passed on to other federal agencies.

ATF has confiscated thousands of disguised or miniature guns — from flashlights that shoot a .25 caliber bullet to pen guns.

Err, neither are mini-guns. Those are Any Other Weapons, and are regulated in the same way that machine guns and sound suppressors are, though the tax on them is only $5 as opposed to $200. The story goes on to say:

According to William McMahon, special agent in charge of the New York ATF office, that makes it the perfect stealth weapon for a variety of criminals.

“A terrorist, a criminal trying to sneak into bank, all kinds of criminals. I can see no legitimate reason to own this gun. It seems to be just made to be hidden,” McMahon said.

Not exactly an alert, now is it. And no story is complete without terror:

As its name indicates, the SwissMiniGun is manufactured in Switzerland. CBS 2 News reached the company’s CEO, Paul Erard, by phone.

He said the gun is a miniature, detailed copy of the Colt Python revolver. He sells it for roughly $5,000 to gun collectors (though he added that most of his guns are encrusted with diamonds and gold, so they can cost $30,000).

He said he has sold 50 miniguns, all to only one area of the world. “Contacts in the Middle East asked me to make a miniature of Colt Python,” said Erard.

Erard refused to say which Middle-Eastern countries. His reaction when asked if terrorists might use it? At first he laughed and said, “ Absolutely ridiculous.”

Yeah, street thugs are going to buy them for $5,000. And they’re not really powerful enough to be much of a threat. I’m pretty sure importing these items may be illegal as they don’t meet the point system for handgun importation. That’s assuming these are classified as firearms.

The ATF Marc has the skinny on the world’s least powerful handgun.

Quote of the day:

Unfortunately, too many members of the clergy believe the First Amendment is absolute, thus, all religions should be legal to practice.

Yeah, go see what she’s talking about.

Insty:

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparancy (sic) Act, S. 2590 has unanimously passed the Senate.

Cool.

Yeah, people have said the gun porn has been lacking. Well, here is a pick of a newly painted VZ58.

Here’s some carbines.

Here’s some pics (scroll down) of the AR45, a 45ACP AR-15 that uses grease gun mags.

And while we’re at it, here’s some links to knife porn.

And some Rimfire porn.

I like Betty Bean. Met her once with a bunch of the other hippies who hang out an Knoxviews.com. Invited her shooting. She said she’d go but I haven’t heard from her. Anyway, I like Betty because she’s the one columnist in Knoxville that isn’t afraid to poke the powers that be with a pointy stick. Apparently, she may be under fire for poking them with a particularly pointy stick known as Tyler Harber:

From what we have learned, when Betty found out that she had been ambushed, so to speak, she called Hallerin and got put through to his voicemail. Apparently she gave him an ear full, and in the heat of the moment may have said something about him being a “chickenshit.”

Rumor has it that a recording of her voicemail is being circulated among the GOB “powers that be” and that “Scripps brass” [as in E.W. Scripps Co. who recently purchased the Halls Shopper and also owns the Knoxville News Sentinel] have been notified.

Well, here’s hoping Scripps doesn’t do the wrong thing.

Prior coverage here of the military looking into a 45ACP pistol. Now, Defense Review notes:

The “Description” section of the latest modification (Modification 04) of Solicitation number: H92222-05-R-0017 for a .45 ACP Joint Combat Pistol (JCP) System–now called the Combat Pistol (CP)–states:

“This notification is to inform Industry the Combat Pistol requirement is postponed indefinately. USSOCOM will no longer issue a Request for Proposal.”

But that would excuse this nonsense.

If you had told your tale a bit differently, you’d have had my sympathy. But the crazy crept in and you said:

Men Are Scum Until Proven Otherwise

You are almost as vile and despicable as this Mathew Allen White you speak of. And the only reason I say almost is because your hateful words at least have the benefit of not causing physical harm. Misandry is as deplorable as misogyny.

Via AC, who says:

On a different occasion, I might quarrel with this assertion — but not today.

Sorry, but suffering a tragedy does not bestow infallibility on the victim. I hate that it happened to her daughter and I have no tolerance for abusive people. But it’s no excuse for crazy. And it’s no excuse for generalization. What if it was a black man? Do we then assert that Blacks Are Scum Until Proven Otherwise? No, because that’s racist and unacceptable.

And Sarcastro notes in comments:

Judging from the pics, it looks like left-handers could also be called utter scum until proven otherwise.

Update: Crazy lady responds:

Never mind that my choice of words was lifted verbatim from the mouth of my daughter’s father — a man who has been issuing the warning: men are scum until proven otherwise — since the day the first boy came near one of his daughters.

Perhaps you should have disclosed that in the original post? Or, more likely, you’re making shit up. And:

The problem is not my choice of words. The problem is that a woman said them.

I don’t care who said it. It’s a vile and despicable thing to say, but that’s what I’ve come to expect from egalia.

I’m not a defender of manhood. Just critical of hysterical, raving lunatics. My sympathies to your daughter for both the abuse she’s suffered and the perverted, disgusting life lessons you subject her to.

Update 2: Aunt B weighs in. A couple of points I disagree with but otherwise, right on.