Paul Helmke, in a bit of irony that’s so obvious anti-gunners can’t see it, says:

It’s easy to mobilize people for political purposes if you scare them into thinking that their rights are about to be taken away. Inventing urgency and injustice can create a mob on the streets or on the blogs. Time and again, we’ve seen such mobs try to impose their will on the majority of citizens. In politics, the vocal minority often helps make the rules.

This, from the organization that gave you cop killer bullets, assault weapons, blood in the street, gun show loophole, etc. In other news, Helmke can’t even get a mob in the gun control capitol of the world. Or on the internet. Hell, his blogs comments are about 10 to 1 pro-gun.

Boy, that’s not shocking at all.

At one of the local blogger get togethers, I told Dr. Helen (who, by the way, doesn’t like to be called Dr. Helen) that I often had to fight the urge to comment at her site. Here’s one such post. Nothing I wanted to say was OK in polite company. As you were.

Awkward:

A prominent Illinois gun control advocate found himself tongue-tied after he was caught telling something other than the truth about a popular brand of target rifles. The gaffe came during a Wednesday press conference hosted by Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-33) in support of several gun control bills.

In his address, Kotowski pointed to a rifle staged as a prop for the event and described it as being a “military” weapon. What Kotowski did not know was that Mr. Mark Westrom, President of Armalite, Incorporated, was in the audience. Mr. Westrom rose to inform the attendees that his company manufactured the rifle in question, and that his company has never sold the rifle to the military. Westrom continued by pointing out that the rifle is purchased primarily by civilian target shooters. Westrom’s revelation changed the course of the press conference, to say the least.

B-b-b-but it’s black and evil looking. It must be.

A gun shop in Idaho is getting shut down by the ATF for clerical violations that don’t exceed a percentage point. The shop, Red’s Trading Post, has set up a website to document its case. They also have a petition here.

It even hits the movie scene:

The best movie so far of 2007 is one in which Rose McGowan, best known to TV audiences as a kind witch on “Charmed,” has her leg chopped off and replaced by a snap-on semi-automatic machine gun.

No such thing.

Alan Gura has a podcast about the case here. Also, his comments from last week are here.

See prior posts here and here. Yesterday, we recieved the waiver in the mail. And I swear to Jebus I am not making this up: they mailed it to the wrong address. Fortunately, we’re the only house on our block of the road so the postal worker got it to us.

And that concludes this lesson of fun with licensing agents.

I dig it:

U.S. Congressman Phil Gingrey today introduced H.R. 1791, the Fairness in Firearms Testing Act. This legislation improves consistency and accountability in firearm testing by giving U.S. gun manufactures access to video documentation of their products’ testing at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Video documentation will give firearm manufactures the right to contest and review BATFE testing decisions, which are highly inconsistent.

“Currently, BATFE lacks written procedures and clear guidelines for firearm testing,” Gingrey said. “How can we expect firearm manufacturers – or any industry, for that matter – to comply with moving target regulations? The Bureau’s rulings are so inconsistent that BATFE threatened to prosecute one gun manufacturer in Heard County, Georgia not even a year after sending written approval for that company’s product. This runaround is a waste of time and resources. My legislation will help restore accountability to the BATFE testing process and help restore the words ‘made in America’ to our firearms.”

In the past five years, 85 percent of American firearm manufactures have gone out of businesses, largely due to complex and ever-changing regulations. H.R. 1791 is a step toward the goal of formal, written firearm testing guidelines, and helps ensure a level playing ground for both BATFE agents and manufacturers.

A to the Men. The ATF has pulled some real boners. For example:

I, for one, support the ideas of standards, accountability and consistency in government agencies.

So, this weekend, me and the Mrs. planted roughly 300,000 plants and trees. That wasn’t enough so she’s off today to buy roughly 300,000 more. Egad.

And I wish all the trees would stop their massive orgy already. There’s tree-sperm everywhere and my truck looks like the star of some tree bukkake movie. And my allergies are beating me senseless.

No, I do not think that Sarah Brady broke the law when she bought her son a high-powered sniper rifle as a gift. But, if she had her way, it would be.

In response to The Funky Bunch possibly illegally handling a gun, Chris says not so fast:

In MA, if one does not receive a sentence of 24 months or more, in a prison not a jail; no matter the crime, one is not necessarily counted as a felon.

I recently was educated about all of this a bit back. See, there are many factors and they all boil down to pissing matches between the feds and the state. The fact is, it’s at the discretion of each level. In MA, it seems, he’s in the clear. But the feds can still press charges. However, as a general rule, the feds will often look the other way unless said felon is charged with something else. That is to say, if he gets arrested again, the charge could come back. And there’s also the issue of traveling state lines. A felon in one state could have his firearm rights restored in that state. However, if said felon crosses state lines (i.e., moves), it’s completely at the discretion of the federales.

Speaking of the Funky Bunch, me and the Mrs. caught The Departed this weekend on pay per view. Excellent movie, I thought. If there’s one thing more annoying than a Boston accent, it’s a bunch of actors faking Boston accents. But once you get passed that, it’s quite good. Did not end at all how I thought it would.

In this film, the Funky Bunch is in possession of a Beretta 92 and a sound suppressor. That would be two crimes.

Homemade bubble recipes.

More proof:

A flight attendent (sic) accidently (sic) carried a gun on board an airplane. She apparently went right through security with it. If they can’t defend against people accidently carrying weapons on board then they sure as heck can’t defend against people that deliberately attempt to get them past security.

Good thing she didn’t have nail clippers or try to check some ammo.

TNR:

It’s true that repealing the Second Amendment is politically impossible right now; that doesn’t bother me. It should be hard to take away a constitutional right. And it is certainly easier to pretend that’s not what we’re proposing–that the Founders never created the right and that our values and theirs (except, of course, concerning slavery, women, Native Americans, and a few other odds and ends) are more or less congruent. It’s a lot simpler to pretend that Silberman–but not, of course, Tribe, Amar, or Levinson–is a dangerous radical. But it’s not healthy. We should seek gun control and a Constitution that means something.