I’ve covered how TeeVee shows acclimimate people to civil liberties violations and gun misrepresentations before. here’s one:

Saw the best “Law and Order” episode last night, with about every liberal antigun cliche you could hope to see. White Male college student, upset over his medical school rejection(due to affirmative action quotas), goes postal on a group of female pre-med students in central park with a converted full auto pistol(supposed to be a Mac, but they used some other name in the show)The cops can’t use his confession so they go after both the FFL dealer(a kitchen dealer in PA naturally) and the guy who sold the “conversion kit”. Assistant DA sighs that anyone with “20 seconds and a screwdriver” could do the job. There was also some mumbo jumbo about how the shooter used a file on the barrell rifling immediately after the shooting so that ballistics wouldn’t be able to make a match. For some reason, the DA decides to go after the manufacturer of the pistol, located in Connecticut, and gets humiliated in court when the Judge tells him he has no standing to bring such a case. What a load of crap.

I’ve watched reporters throw out investigative pieces that seem to be lacking evidence. That get all confrontational with some poor schmuck. And I always think to myself Self, why doesn’t that dude knock the shit out of that reporter? What, like you never thought that? Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, some dude assaulted a reporter:

A television reporter investigating a suspected real estate scam was attacked by a woman and her husband, who punched and tackled him as a cameraman videotaped the incident.

Reporter John Mattes of Fox 6 News said he was treated for cracked ribs, bite wounds and cuts to his face after the confrontation Tuesday. The couple, identified by authorities as Assad “Sam” Suleiman, 36, and his wife, Rosa Amelia Barraza, 33, were arrested.

The article concludes with:

No charges have been filed against either in connection with the real estate allegations Mattes was investigating.

Sure, they could be guilty of the scam but I wouldn’t convict anyone based on an investigative journalist’s work.

Brittney has the video.

So, I get a lot of spam comments and Spam Karma does a good job of keeping them away. But every once in a while, one sneaks through the cracks. And last night was such a day. I get a spam comment that says (foul language follows – click more if you can handle pornographic language) Read the rest of this entry »

But a court in Ohio pokes the system with a stick:

Ohio’s rules for primary elections make it too hard for minor parties to get on the ballot, a federal appeals court ruled.

Parties automatically qualify for the primary ballot if their candidate for governor or president received at least 5 percent of the vote in the previous Ohio election. Any other party must file a petition four months before the primary election with signatures equal to 1 percent of the number of total votes cast in the last state election.

That requirement meant minor parties had to file petitions with 32,290 voter signatures by Nov. 3, 2003, to get candidates on the March 2004 primary ballot.

In a 2-1 opinion, a U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel Wednesday that the rules were unnecessarily strict and tougher for small parties to meet. The court ruled Ohio’s rules violate the First Amendment and have “a negative impact … on minor parties and on political activity as a whole in Ohio.”

I’ve noticed here in Tennessee also that minor parties aren’t even identified on the ballot.

David Hardy notes this interview at Buzzflash with Saul Cornell which, as far as I can tell, says the second amendment secures a right to arms; but it doesn’t; but it does; but it doesn’t. Or something. I’m not quite sure. You tell me.

I should point out that Buzzflash is allegedly run by the guy who runs The Gun Guys and the Freedom State Alliance and Ask John Lott and Who is Mary Rosh.

Details here and here.

Prior coverage here and see Pro-Gun Progressive’s excellent coverage here. Here’s the study. First, guns traced aren’t always crime gun, despite what they tell you. Here’s the rifles they found:

21 Colt AR-15s
46 USA Military Surplus M1 Carbines*
55 Ruger Mini14s*
92 HiPoint 9mm carbines*
294 North China Industries SKS variants*

First, none of those are assault rifles because they are not machine guns. Those with asterisks beside them weren’t even classified as assault weapons under the ban. The AR-15s could have been pre or post ban models. And the Rugers and M1s could have been altered to a banned configuration.

Any way, they’re full of it as usual. Could be worse, they could do like the VPC did and classify a jeep as an assault weapon.

Update: From Jay’s comment:

From the Ceasefire press release:

According to the tracing data, the most common assault rifles traced to crime by make and model include: 21 Colt AR-15s; 46 USA Military Surplus M1 Carbines; 55 Ruger Mini14s; 92 HiPoint 9mm carbines; and 294 North China Industries SKS variants.

Note the inclusion of “Ruger Mini14s” as “assault rifles.”

Yet these rifles were specicifically exempted from the 1994 assault weapon ban as “Hunting and Sporting Firearms.”

link

Senator Feinstein, the author of the 1994 Assault Weapon Ban, says on her web site:

Hunting Guns and Other Recreational Weapons Exempted in the Legislation:

Ruger Mini-14 Autoloading Rifle (w/o folding stock)

link

The Brady Campaign says on their web site:

The amendment specifically lists 650 sporting rifles that would not be affected by the ban.

link

Then-President Clinton said in “An Open Letter to Hunters and Sportsmen” on April 29, 1994:

“High-paid lobbyists argue that the assault weapons ban will infringe on our right, as hunters and sportsmen, to own guns. But what they don’t tell you is that the proposal I support specifically safeguards hunter’s rights. It explicitly protects more than 650 hunting and recreational rifles from the ban.”

link

Why is Ceasefire describing as “assault rifles” guns that were described as “hunting,” “sporting,” and “recreational” rifles by Senator Feinstein, the Brady Campaign, and President Clinton?

I put a notice for free ads in defiance of the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act over on the sidebar. No hits yet, which I find odd.

Anyone wanting and ad can email me at:

You can email me your ad text and a small image or I’ll give a free offer code at blogads to run your ad.

Ayup:

“Oh yeah, that’s [shall-issue concealed carry in New York – ed.] going to happen when hell freezes over,” a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Peter Hamm, said.

I think it’s pretty safe to write off California, Illinois, and Massachusetts as well.

It’s no secret that I am no fan of Bob Corker. I’m also not a fan of Harold Ford.

This morning on local talk radio, HHH interviewed ol’ Bob. This was the first time I’ve heard Bob speaking off the cuff. Bob’s message was simple:

My personal opinion is that, while Ford talks the talk, he doesn’t walk the walk. His voting record is inconsistent and opportunistic. I’d like, for example, to think that Ford really is as conservative and pro-gun as he says he is. But his ties with the big government, nanny statists mentioned above means I don’t believe him.

Corker, I’m not a fan of either. He doesn’t have a voting record. His record as Chattanooga mayor is mixed. He’s been caught lying. And I think he’s a pussy.

Ordinarily, backing by Schumer (spit), Kennedy, Clinton, Kerry, etc. would be enough for me to support the opposition. And that’s the case now, but I ain’t happy about it. And, while I’m not happy with Republicans, I damn sure don’t want the Democrats in charge.

Update: And, as Xrlq points out in comments, future supreme court nominees are potentially at risk here. Definitely something I don’t want happening when folks with Ds after their names are in power. And this ain’t the time to farting around with that.

Blast from the past at Simon World on Everything you wanted to know about blogging but were afraid to ask.

WATE:

Drug enforcers have proposed that doctors should be allowed to write prescriptions for 90-day supplies of some powerful painkillers.

The Drug Enforcement Agency says physicians should be able to treat chronic pain under “accepted medical community standards” just as they do other ailments. So the agency plans to eliminate the restrictions on drugs like Oxycontin and codeine that were imposed to prevent abuse by addicts.

Doctors have complained that strict regulations kept them from writing prescriptions for more than a month at a time, and kept their patients coming back every month for otherwise needless office visits.

Kim du Doit reiterates his pledge and notes:

Here’s my additional thought: if a conservative political organization doesn’t place a free ad on this site (or on the many others who have also adopted my pledge) to criticize a politician, then they deserve to lose their freedom of speech for being a bunch of spineless rodents.

Ayup. R. Neal asks:

It’s curious that this doesn’t get much play in the lefty blogosphere. Are we not supposed to be concerned about this? Seems like it could help Republicans more than Democrats this time around.

Rich says:

I Don’t Accept Ads

Never have. Probably never will.

However.

I do accept editorial contributions, and those I find newsworthy will be given prominent display here at Shots Across The Bow. And since we are in an election cycle, coming up on November, it is obvious that contributions written by and about candidates for said elections are newsworthy. As such, anyone that wants to send in an editorial by or about any candidate in the upcoming elections is welcome to submit them to my regular email address, and I will see that they get the exposure they deserve.

Joe Public:

On the subject of campaign ads that name candidates, and not being able to run those ads within 60 days of an election, I think I’d like to solicit a couple. You know, to sow my wild revolutionary pamphleteer oats, or something like that.

I admire his gumption:

A retired police officer has admitted twice flouting the new hunting law by allowing his terrier dog to chase and kill a mouse and a mole.
………
He turned himself in to the police on both occasions to demonstrate that the 2004 Hunting Act was a “ridiculous law”.

Under the legislation, moles and mice are classed as mammals that cannot be killed by dogs, although they can be shot by a competent huntsman.

Mr Morrison said he was not taken seriously when he reported himself, but was eventually cautioned. He was later told no further action would be taken

My guns, that is. See, they haven’t caused any crime and they don’t go off at any time

Gun trace data is generally not indicative of violent crime, as the ATF has said. But Ceasefire MD says:

One semiautomatic assault rifle was traced to a Maryland crime every 48 hours, according to a study by CeaseFire Maryland Inc. released today.

The data, from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) show that 789 assault rifles were traced to crime in Maryland from Jan. 2, 1998 to Dec. 31, 2001, but the actual number of assault weapons traced to crime in the state is likely to be higher.

Insert rant about how there is no such thing as a semiautomatic assault rifle. Assault rifles are, by definition, machine guns and are fully automatic. I think they mean traces in general. David Hardy says 90% are unrelated to crimes. Seems a big to do about nothing. More:

“With assault weapons being traced to crime in Maryland an average of every 48 hours, more needs to be done to get these guns off Maryland streets and to help law enforcement keep our communities safe,” said Lisa Delity, president of CeaseFire Maryland Inc. Lisa’s brother, FBI Special Agent Mike Miller, was gunned down with an assault weapon at Washington, D.C., police headquarters in November 1994.

Are they assault weapons or assault rifles? And aren’t assault weapons (and all guns) banned in DC?

Update: And the press gets it way wrong, which is Ceasefire MD’s intent:

Study: Long Guns Used in Md. Crime Once Every Two Days

Semiautomatic rifles and shotguns are used in a crime in Maryland on average once every two days, according to a study released Wednesday by gun control advocates.

Err, no. The guns are traced every two days. And said crime includes tracing stolen guns, etc.

Update: PGP has much more.

So, when you click on Michael Silence’s story on McCain-Feingold and bloggers, do you get the John McCain ad at the top too?

At Gene Patterson’s blog there is a new call for the Grand Jury from a former Knox County Commissioner who also ran for the office of Mayor of Knoxville.

Former County Commissioner Madeline Rogero echoes the sentiments of political columnist Frank Cagle in calling for a grand jury investigation of the allegations being made by former Knox County employee Tyler Harber.

Terry Frank has also called for the Grand Jury as has Frank Cagle.

What are your thoughts? You can vote in a poll here.

I’m not hungry. Good. My butt is dry. Better. I’m warm. Life is good. Cool, nothing to do but hang out and try to figure out why this starfish isn’t lighting up. Come on, light up . . . light up . . . light up or I’ll cry . . . li . . . oh, there you are. Woohoo. Happy day. Seems to light up whenever I kick those things on my . . . ooh, there’s dad. If I smile, he’ll be happy. See, he smiled back. Chump. What’s he doing? Hmm, at the fridge . . . getting a beer. Wait for it. He’s making his way to the couch. Wait for it. He has the remote . . . patience, it’s too soon. He turned on High Stakes Poker on the TeeVee . . . wait for it. He’s got his feet propped up. This is gonna be good. He’s touching the beer to his lips. Ok, now:

WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

Sucker.

Apparently, the ninth circuit would rather a felon leave a gun he found at a school than pick it up to turn it in to the police. Mind you, the guy’s story has enough holes in it to drive a truck through but if taken at face-value, the ninth is being stupid.

I’ll have to get some of these:

I bought 15 (or 18?) bulbs for $75. Each bulb saves about 40 watts. I estimate 3 hours per day of usage. Over a year, that means I save 657 kilowatt hours (356*15*3*40/1000). At fifteen cents per KWH, that’s a dollar savings of $98.55. Cool. I will recoup my $75 in less than a year. (Except for the NY state cost of electricity, most of these numbers are my own estimates, reflecting a mix of bulb sizes, replacements, and daily usage. A key point – each swirl CFL bulb uses only about one-quarter as much electricity as the bulb it replaces; a 15 watt swirl casts as much light as an ordinary 60 watt bulb.)

And, apparently, they’re environmentally friendly.

Me. Michael Silence did a piece in the Knoxville News Sentinel on blogs and the McCain-Feingold incumbent protection act, which I’ve been covering here.

It’s no secret that the media is biased against guns. This (received via email) seems like a good thing to publicize:

September 5, 2006

Ms. Renee Loth, Editorial Pages Editor
The Boston Globe
135 William T. Morrissey Boulevard
Boston, MA 02125

Dear Ms. Loth,

The Boston Globe ran an opinion piece, “The Sting” by Timothy D. Lytton, on August 27, 2006. It called New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s approach to stopping the flow of guns into the city “ingenious.”

Your editorial pages’ refusal to allow ‘equal time’ to the firearms industry following this 1550 word diatribe, which was chockfull of misrepresentations and inaccuracies, is disappointing and sadly predictable.

While editorials have every right to espouse a particular cause, world-class newspapers have long sought to balance these pieces by providing a venue, the op-ed page, which allows their readership an opportunity to understand both sides of an issue.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of guns and Second Amendment rights, the mayor’s plan is a foolhardy one. His tactics have been deemed reckless for interfering with as many as 18 ongoing criminal investigations, in the process jeopardizing the lives of law enforcement officers and others. Is this our take alone? No. The Justice Department is investigating his actions and law enforcement advocates criticize them.

The fact that the Boston Globe, chiefly Dante Ramos of your staff, twice dismissed our industry’s reasonable request for equal time is as outrageous as it is telling. To have been offered a letter to the editor as a “fair” alternative to Mr. Lytton’s piece demonstrates the difference between your newspaper and papers that are genuinely interested in providing their readers with balanced news coverage.

The readership of the Boston Globe deserves better; readers are entitled to hear both sides of this very important topic. As the trade association for the firearms industry we, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, will defend our industry from the distortions and misinformation that is propagated when you publish pieces like “The Sting.” Fortunately there exist many other venues that are interested in presenting both sides of an issue.

Sincerely yours,

Ted Novin
Director of Public Affairs
National Shooting Sports Foundation
11 Mile Hill Road
Newtown, CT 06470-2359

Phone 203-426-1320
Fax 203-426-1245
Email tnovin@nssf.org
Web www.nssf.org

It is indeed predictable.

Prometheus6, who still hasn’t learned to format posts in a manner so that it’s easy to distinguish content from the copying and pasting, writes:

I need to overlay a map of states with concealed carry laws with that map of the Confederacy

Should be easy, since only two states (Wisconsin and Illinois) do not have concealed carry provisions. And 39 states have shall issue (including Vermont and Alaska, which have not permit requirement). That’s pretty easy to Google up, unless you’re a hack with no interest in doing so and are trying to make stupid and incorrect assertions implying that gun laws are racist.

S/He(?) also writes:

Middle American is about to experience the joys of drive-by shootings by crankheads and bored, drunk teenagers.

People who get carry permits engage in drive-bys? Teenagers get permits? Hmm, seems that’s not allowed.

I need to overlay a map of Prometheus6’s head with a map of his/her ass.

Update: Ask and ye shall receive. Reader Guav made a map. So, there it is. And, P6, the point is?

If only Bob Corker were an incumbent, then this video wouldn’t be plaguing him.

Tom emails:

It wasn’t a pit bull therefore there was no need to identify the breed of the dog

Ayup.

Too much funny to pick a good quote. But if forced, I’d pick:

It’s the hippies. Ninjas hate hippies

Appalachian Gun Trash reminds us that:

Today is the beginning of the 60 day “grace” period of the McCain-Feingold bill that makes it illegal for any organization to do a TV or radio spot about a candidate for Federal office.

Here’s my offer:

Any organization* that wants to run a political ad criticizing any politician in that window can do so here. Not only will I run the ad free, I’ll do a post on the ad on the front page.

Anyone wanting such an ad can email me at:

You can email me your ad text and a small image or I’ll give a free offer code at blogads to run your ad.

Update: Glenn says:

It’s wrong, it’s unAmerican, and it’s the single best argument against either McCain or Feingold running for President in 2008.

Update 2: Bill’s sort of in:

here’s another suggestion for groups wishing to continue running commercials criticizing candidates by name: Make the ads, then upload them to YouTube, and spread them via blogs. BillHobbs.com will be happy to carry commercials criticizing incumbent Democrats.

As is Alan.

More blogs in on the action here (scroll down).

A bit by VERLYN KLINKENBORG in the NYT:

Sure enough, a year ago the State Legislature passed a “concealed carry” law, which means that it’s legal to carry a concealed weapon if you have a permit. So that no one misses the point, the Legislature has also turned Minnesota into what is called a “shall require” state. If you apply for a concealed-weapon permit, the local authorities must grant it to you.

I asked one of the state coalitions opposed to these laws whether it would attack them in the Legislature this year. The answer was no. It is too busy trying to defeat a “shoot first” bill, which would give gun owners the right to fire away instead of trying to avoid a confrontation. The way I see it, Minnesota is only one step away from requiring every citizen to carry a gun and use it when provoked.

You see it that way because you’re a fucking idiot. More:

Every concealed weapon, with very few exceptions, is a blow against the public safety. The new gun laws in Minnesota take away local discretion over concealed-weapon permits, and they cost the local authorities plenty too.

Then why has crime trended downward in each state that enacted concealed carry legislation? I realize it’s a far stretch to say that correlation concludes a thing but it definitely doesn’t show that concealed permit holders are a blow to public safety else crime would likely have trended upward.

Via Denise, who has more:

In other words concealed carry in Minnesota is a done deal and now anti-gunnies are fighting the Castle Doctrine. (Later he describes Florida’s Castle Doctrine as the “Shoot the Avon Lady” law.) There’s more than a little hysteria in his statement that such a law would allow gun owners to fire away. In his willful ignorance, he doesn’t state that you can’t shoot someone unless that person is a valid threat. It just means you don’t have to try to run.

She calls it willful ignorance. I call it fucking stupid. Tomato . . .

Reason engaged:

“In my 55 years I’ve read a lot of newspapers and watched a lot of news on TV, and I just have not seen many reports of incidents where private citizens packing handguns have defended themselves or prevented crimes. I’m sure those incidents do occur, but I’m equally sure they don’t occur in meaningful numbers.”

Well, I guess that settles that, right? I mean, since you don’t hear about it on CNN or EVEN FOX NEWS (*gasp*), it must not ever happen, right? Well, not in meaningful numbers, surely. Let’s see…

Reason should also include Clayton Cramer’s Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog, which tracks near daily uses of handguns for self-defense.

It’s true. I’m heading to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. You may recall my bleg for advice on booking flights. The cheapest rate I found last week was at Delta.com. So, I proceeded to book my flight. After I went through, chose my flight, chose my return flight, entered credit card info and generally thought my transaction was done, their page gives me a message that they’re sorry, but they just sold out. No problem, I think, just pick a different departure flight. Same thing. All the way through the process (including giving them my credit card info), and they’re sorry but it just sold out. I did that three times total. I’ll never use Delta again. I used Expedia, who, while their price was only about $20 more, actually, you know, had fucking tickets to sell.