Here’s some links to security camera pics thanks to Google. Via Ben.

Regarding the mystery gun, Dr. Strangegun bet his job he knows the answer:

I got the “new” BMP and blew it up. That is 100% for certain I’ll stake my job at the gun shop on it a Tokarev TT variant. (/stake) The barrel’s not big enough to be a .45 so it’s either a 54 or a 213, likely just a type 54…

It’s pixellated, but you can see the trigger guard shape, a bare hint of the shape of the grip frame by where his fingers are pushed out to, the shape of the back of the slide, somewhat distinctive undercut at the nose of the slide, no guide rod, round hammer profile, relationship of the rear sight location on the slide and it’s distinctive narrowness and height, the vertical serrations and location on the slide, and finally the barest hint of the retaining clip or the extended end of the slide lock/link pin sticking out of the slide… that’s a TT. I’m 100% sure.

I think I have one of these:

GAMO USA Corp., of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Wednesday it is recalling about 14,000 air rifles.

The scope mount on the rifles can be installed incorrectly, causing the rifle to unexpectedly fire. This poses a serious injury hazard to consumers.

GAMO has received one report of an air rifle firing unexpectedly. No injuries have been reported.

The recalled air rifles are the following GAMO models: Hunter Pro, Hunter Sport, Shadow Sport, and F1200. These models bear the serial numbers 04-IC-415577-06 through 04-IC-579918-06. The model and serial numbers can be found on the left side of the barrel just above the front left side of the stock. Models Shadow Sport and F1200 look identical.

Bleg: I just got my first MP3 player. Ok, actually, I got a phone (this one) that happens to play MP3s. I converted a few CDs to MP3 a while back. Now, when I convert them in Windows Media Player (which is what works with my phone), they’re WMAs. So, what are those? And what do I need to know about this MP3 player business?

Speaking of blog issues and comments and whatnot, if you trackback the site, try a link. In fact, it annoyed me so much it’s now a setting. If you ping, it will look for a link. No linky, no trackbacky.

Also, anyone notice that the big dick/erectile dysfunction spam that floods our inboxes now comes with a religious theme and bible quotes?

Rikki has a good post on racism on KnoxViews. Gene Patterson just posted a different look at racism on his blog. Between reading the two different posts I found myself asking a question.

Is there an industry that uses racism as a product? Are there race merchants? I am not talking about anything as obvious as Jesse Jackson, is there a hidden industry of race merchants disguised under the cloak of academia or human resources management?

In Gene Patterson’s post he quotes a column in the Knoxville News Sentinel by Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, who points to a Harvard test as proof that we all have latent racist attitudes. Gene took one of the tests and he writes, “I took the test and it showed that I – on a scale of slight, moderate and strong – have a slight preference for European Americans. That, according to the test, makes me a racist.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Ninth Stage says the MP9 will soon come in a civilian flavor.

Looks like NY is an even bigger brother. I guess folks in NY have solved all the city’s other problems if they can devote time to this crap.

Nannyism, what governments do instead of something.

Alphie looks at advertising in a DVR world:

This is how the free market operates, adjusting to changes in technology. While Hollywood works with our legislators to stifle technology (like forbidding fast-forwarding through commercials), creative minds are working to come up with ways to deal with the new reality.

There are coupons hidden in the frames that folks with DVRs and TiVos can find. Interesting. I haven’t watched commercials in about three years. The only downside, as far as I can tell, is I never know what movies are playing and I had no idea what a Nintendo Wii was until I saw my friends.

BTW, I must get a Nintendo Wii. For the kids, of course.

A bit back I asked for help identifying a gun. Well, Terry has posted a non-answer:

The answer is that the gun is a working replica of a Chinese .45 automatic — or at least that’s what I was told via my translator.

This is what happens when you give guns to non-gun-nuts. I still don’t know what it is. But, and I’m guessing here, it’s probably one of the Norinco 1911 clones that were real popular until Bush 1 said we can’t import semi-autos anymore.

I don’t recommend doing it. But I’ll gladly watch video of someone else doing it:

Via Standard Mischief who opines on the relative safety of it.

Heh.

Via Kevin, seems the state department has an essay on every amendment to the bill of rights. Except one. Can you guess which one? It’s apparently because one of the Volokh’s beat up on it a while back for adopting the collective rights mythology.

I’m calling my congress monkeys.

Another town asking everyone to arm themselves. No one is being forced to (which I’d oppose) but it’s being recommended.

A piece on why it needs to go:

The divine right of kings carried with it the notion that whatever the king did was OK, because the king was the law. Another way of saying the same thing is the king was considered to be above the law.

Today we have renamed this very mistaken view as the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The sovereign is immune from suffering any consequences of his acts. Sometimes the sovereign (government) graciously allows himself to be sued in specific, limited cases. But for the most part, there is no accountability for government officials who lie, cheat and steal – even on occasion who commit murder (think Ruby Ridge where an FBI sniper shot in cold blood a woman holding a baby).

Bob Arwady runs the Ammo Dump, a gun store in Houston, Texas. His first exposure to the abuses of sovereign immunity came from a knock on the door from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. After operating his new shooting range for police and public shooters for four months, the Commission shut him down with the threat of fining shooters $5,000 for each bullet they put in the dirt berms used as bullet traps. They claimed that they had a water sample that proved that those bullets were leaching lead in dangerous quantities into the stream behind his range and polluting water downstream.

It turns out that the signed affidavit by the Environmental Quality officer stating that he had taken the water sample was a lie. Arwady never got to use his expert toxicology witness that metallic bullet never, ever leaches. It is not soluble. Only lead salts (such as found in lead paints) are dangerous.

I don’t think it needs to go. But it definitely needs to be reformed. I think it is still applicable when an agent of the state is acting in a manner that a reasonable person could conclude is in the best interest of society. Otherwise, every time someone was arrested, they’d sue. That said, any negligience, dishonesty, incompetence, or criminal behavior on the part of any agent of the state should lead to forfeiture of said immunity. Now, said agents can lie, cheat, or half-ass their way into making someone’s life hard with impunity. And they’re motivated to do that because performance is often measured by arrests, fines, community contacts, quotas, or other euphimism for increasing number of arrests/meddling to prove they’re actually doing something.

Short of reform of Sovereign Immunity, the only thing that will bring attention to this type of stuff is when people start shooting the bastards, unfortunately.

Update: In comments, beerslurpy says regarding the best interest rule:

No need for such a rule. A jury would decide cases that way whenever appropriate. Juries would be loath the support a verdict against a police officer that was being harassed by a criminal. Adding such a rule only allows judges (who were usually prosecutors before they became judges) to dispose of cases of abuse before they even get to juries.

Good point.

At some point, I figure the British government is going to mandate that all of its subjects (they are still subjects, right? I mean, they’re treated as such) be relegated to rubber rooms with all sharp items and heavy blunt objects either put away or wrapped in foam. See:

In the hands of Shane Warne, a cricket ball is an offensive weapon. A total of 650 fallen wickets prove it.

Police on a London Underground station thought it was an equally dangerous item in the hands of Chris Hurd, a 28-year-old City accountant who occasionally bowls leg spin for his local team in Belsize Park, North London.

This is a country that has effectively banned gun ownership and self defense. Now, the latest targets are airguns and knives. You even see the phrase knife culture repeatedly in the press there. It’s sad that a country once known as Great Britain doesn’t even trust its subjects with pointy things. Or hard things.

They say it like it’s a bad thing:

80 local gun laws imperiled by bill

Laws that hold adults responsible when children get guns.

Assault-weapon bans in Columbus and six other cities.

Prohibitions on “Saturday night specials.”

A Cincinnati measure barring firearms sales within 1,000 feet of schools.

All those and dozens of other ordinances would be swept away by a proposed state law that Gov. Bob Taft has pledged to veto.

Sound like good things to get rid of to me.

If you use blogspot.com and leave a blogspot url in comments, WordPress thinks you’re a spammer. So, leave it blank or use tinyurl.com. SK2 is on autopilot and even though I remove the entry from the spam file, it gets put back shortly thereafter because of the 100,000 idiots who use blogspot to set up spam sites and link farms. Sorry about that but it’s beyond my control.

Sweet. A Tromix Saiga 12 short-barreled shotgun. I have no use for one nor a desire to have one but they’re pretty damn neat.

What’s your Starbuck’s name? I don’t have one because I don’t get coffee at Starbucks because, well, only a crazy person pays $3 for a cup of coffee. And their coffee isn’t that good. Or as cafkia says:

Oddly enough, I like coffee so I have never been in a starbucks.

But it’s a funny read.

CATO is saying we libertarian sorts are the swing voters. Of course they are. But they may be right this time. After all, some one swings elections and it’s not the party faithful.

Meanwhile, there’s a call for a libertarian-liberal alliance. As I said before, if liberals would get guns right, they’d get more recruits. Libertarians just don’t trust people who don’t trust them.

Bulletproof wallboard? Not so bulletproof. Via Marc.

Deseret News:

A Duchesne man whose rifle exploded on a hunting trip and sent shrapnel into his face is suing the gun company for negligence.

Jesse Tatman is suing the company that makes the rifle, Savage Arms, as well as The Sports Authority — formerly Gart Sports — for liability, breach of warranties and negligence.

Tatman bought the rifle in January 2003 and hunted in the 2003 season during which the 300 Remington Ultra Magnum worked flawlessly, according to a lawsuit filed in 4th District Court on Oct. 20.

However, during a deer hunting trip in Daggett County on Oct. 22, 2004, when he aimed at a deer and pulled the trigger, “the gun exploded and disintegrated into dozens of pieces, sending debris as far as fifty feet away, and into (Tatman’s) face,” according to the lawsuit.

Tatman’s nose was bleeding and he had several pieces of “gun stock lodged in his face,” according to the suit.

My initial guess is faulty ammo (either reloads or an oops from some factory ammo). But we’ll see.

Bitter is spreading some. By the way, I dig the video. I mean, who knew firing automatic weapons made breasts do that.

Update: Link fixed. Sorry to have denied you a view of jiggly bits.

The Cleveland Plain Squealer (who supported the idea that lists of concealed carry holders be available to the public, i.e., they supported state-sponsored lists of people to rob to get guns) once supported local preemption. Now, they’ve suddenly changed their minds for no reason anyone can figure out.

A lot of the supposed grassroots anti-gun organizations are not grassroots at all. Rather, they are a variety of different shells that operate under the same management. Like the Gun Guys, Freedom States Alliance and others.

Over at Front Sight Press, there’s some info on them.

Also, Georgia Packing keeps a pretty detailed list of them too.

Know your enemy and all.

Another case of a criminal claiming to be police (in this case FBI) and breaking into a house. This time, the criminal shot a man. It’s hard to tell them apart.

Phil has more on the WA ban.

But here’s a knife that is also a gun.

During England’s recent knife amnesty, a variety of homemade cutting and puncturing weapons were turned in. I wonder how many weren’t turned in.

We are pleased that the owners’ have been responsible and handed them in. We would urge anyone who has home-made weapons to take the same route and surrender them at one of the designated police stations.” Tackling knife culture is paramount to the safety of our communities. People who carry bladed weapons run the risk of that weapon being used on them, or inflicting serious injury on others. It also carries a jail sentence of up to four years. The total number of weapons surrendered in Staffordshire during the amnesty, which has now been running for four weeks, has reached 1,420.

Via Street Use, which has some nifty pictures.