Shootings with handguns cannot happen in England. Those are banned there.

But I have found a way to improve the world’s greatest sandwich: add a slice of onion.

Terry Frank links a new video from YouTube. What would Patton say?

I see from my logs that the Boston Globe is checking us out. I wonder why that is?

Oh noes! Joe Biden thinks that if you own an evil black rifle, you’re not mentally qualified to own a gun. Wait. So, wanting to own one means you’re not qualified to. We can apply the same not-logic to presidentin’: Biden wants to be president therefore is not mentally qualified to be one. But don’t worry, Joe, the odds of you actually becoming president are about the same as me actually becoming president. Only, I won’t spend millions of someone else’s dollars to figure that out.

And Richardson, ordinarily a friend to gun owners, quickly lost his cool and went on about gun shows.

Update: Glenn notes: The big news isn’t the diminution in Biden’s already microscopic chances of becoming President, but the collateral damage to other candidates and the Democrats’ brand. It’s hard to win swing states if gun owners hate you. Biden just exacerbated a problem the Democrats have been trying, with some success, to ameliorate.

Ayup.

BTW, I must have some serious mental deficiencies:

Update 2: Video:

Any excuse to post pics.

In other news, war is good business when you make ammo.

The Knox County Sheriff’s office is putting video of crimes up on YouTube.

I think so:

Jim Zumbo Has Done More GOOD For ‘BLACK RIFLES’ Then Anyone Else In Modern History

[…]

Jim Zumbo touched off the spark that has allowed black rifles to go mainstream. My guess is that more and more hunters will begin to use these black rifles as they learn about them and see that they are accepted within the hunting community. This wouldn’t be happening if Jim Zumbo had just kept his opinion to himself.

Were it not for Zumbo, I don’t think the NYT nor NBC would have done non-hostile pieces on them.

Hard to see with the naked eye

Yup, that’s me alright:

The NRA and its friends in the “militia movement” are into the same stock-in-trade: Fear. Their target audience: Those people, generally disenfranchised white males with at most a high-school education and middling to piddling income, who suspect they’re being screwed but either have no clue who’s screwing them — or who know but don’t have the guts to fight the real enemy. The NRA and its allies push fear in general, and fear of non-whites in particular, to these white males, telling them that blacks/liberals/Jews/women/unions/etc. (but never ever ever corrupt corporations or businesses) are the cause of the white guys’ problem (and that the problem is crime, not the hyper-rich bleeding everyone below them) — then promptly sell themselves as the solution.

Remember, kids, gun nuts must be racist, violent miscreants with small pee-pees. Else, someone’s worldview is shattered. Say, isn’t Sandy Froman a Joooooooo with no penis? The NRA is sneaky like that.

Via Sebastian.

Chris has a detailed look at the AR-15 Kaboom that I mentioned yesterday.

A few items on the high school in Maryville here and here.

Or why hackers seem to also be gun nuts.

So, I finally spent Sunday catching up on TeeVee. Four months after it aired, I finally caught the season finale of Battlestar Galactica. That is one seriously good show.

Mostly the lying. But it seems that the Second Amendment Foundation is sticking to its guns about alleged journalist Steve Bailey (prior coverage here and here) breaking the law:

Boston Globe columnist Steve Bailey is having a hissy fit about finding himself in the same uncomfortable position he has wished upon so many law-abiding American gun owners; he’s being investigated for violating a federal gun law, when he believes he did nothing wrong.

He thinks it is no big deal that some 20 months ago he accompanied John Rosenthal, head of Stop Handgun Violence in Massachusetts, and two other men, to a New Hampshire gun show, where he admits giving money to one of his companions to buy a handgun. He acknowledged that he asked a gun dealer at the show whether he could personally purchase the gun, and was turned down cold because he lives in Massachusetts.

Bailey handed $240 to a man identified as Walter Belair, a New Hampshire resident, after the dealer allegedly stated it would be legal for Belair to purchase the gun. Bailey then expensed the purchase price to the Globe and wrote about it in November 2005, omitting these important facts. Bailey and Rosenthal made a big deal of this escapade during a July 10 chat on WRKO-AM with talk host Tom Finneran, both contending the dealer knew it was a straw sale.

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), which I founded more than 30 years ago, and others called for an investigation because what Bailey described was arguably a straw purchase, and that’s a felony. Bailey is miffed because on the day we asked for the investigation, and his dismissal from the Globe for this ethical breach, agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and a Manchester police officer tracked down Belair at work, showed him a search warrant and subsequently confiscated the gun.

Bailey complained that “intimidation is the stock in trade of the National Rifle Association and all the NRA knock-offs out there. Dare to say we need fewer, not more guns in this country, dare to say we need a uniform system for monitoring gun sales in this country and you become a target to be hunted down…Count me as a proud member of the gun lobby’s hit list.”

Portraying himself as a martyr for gun control extremism does not trump the fact that Bailey is being investigated for violating a federal gun law. His on-air braggadocio brought that down, and being disingenuous about it is flimsy. The “gun lobby” doesn’t dispatch federal agents to investigate people. The audio of his broadcast provided ATF with probable cause, and SAF doesn’t issue search warrants, judges do.

This is the kind of treatment to which he and Rosenthal think other Americans – those who own firearms and buy or sell them at gun shows – ought to be subjected, but not them. Bailey somehow thinks that just because he’s an anti-gun columnist, he should be immune from the law. Welcome to the world of gun control that people like you created, Steve. Like it so far?

Poor Steve. He’s just a victim of the evil gun lobby. We’re out to get him, you see, what with our demanding the novel idea that existing law be enforced. See, I got up this morning, received my marching orders, and was told to go on the attack. It’s true. We have secret meetings and everything. And a handshake. Next week, we get our decoder rings. Oh, wait. I’ve just been informed I’m actually not a member of the NRA. So, forget all that.

Anyway, here’s the deal. I don’t think Steve really violated the law. Additionally, if he did, it would be very difficult to prove since he is not in possession of the gun. What I do care about is that he egregiously lied. But, as far as he’s concerned, he lied to fight the Righteous Fight^tm so it’s OK. I do hope he gets a slap on the wrist but that is unlikely. It is, however, quite refreshing to know that he’s scared enough to start covering his ass. Welcome to the laws of us little people in fly over country. Hope you enjoyed your stay.

A guy at arfcom bought some cheapy ammo. Then his AR went Kaboom. Pics.

SLTRIB:

Jim Marsh, of Salt Lake City, recently had Lasik surgery, improving his vision to 20-20 and enabling him to get a driver license with no corrective lens requirement for the first time in his adult life.

With doctor’s note in hand, he rushed to the state Driver License Division for his new, unrestricted license. He was issued a temporary paper license and was told the permanent license would arrive in two weeks, which it did.

But shortly after getting his temporary license, he was informed his brother was dying in Missouri and he needed to fly there right away. At Salt Lake City International Airport, he was informed that the temporary license would not qualify as an ID form to clear him to board.

Just when he thought he would miss seeing his brother, guess what came to the rescue?

He produced his trusty Utah Concealed Firearms Permit, which made him a safe enough bet to board the plane.

OMG! You mean a guy asked to produce a government ID did and it worked? Shocker!!

The AP:

Poker champion Phil Laak has a good chance of winning when he sits down this week to play 2,000 hands of Texas Hold’em — against a computer.

It may be the last chance he gets. Computers have gotten a lot better at poker in recent years; they’re good enough now to challenge top professionals like Laak, who won the World Poker Tour invitational in 2004.

But it’s only a matter of time before the machines take a commanding lead in the war for poker supremacy. Just as they already have in backgammon, checkers and chess, computers are expected to surpass even the best human poker players within a decade. They can already beat virtually any amateur player.

“This match is extremely important, because it’s the first time there’s going to be a man-machine event where there’s going to be a scientific component,” said University of Alberta computing science professor Jonathan Schaeffer.

As to details:

The Alberta researchers have endowed the $50,000 contest with an ingenious design, making this the first man-machine contest to eliminate the luck of the draw as much as possible.

Laak will play with a partner, fellow pro Ali Eslami. The two will be in separate rooms, and their games will be mirror images of one another, with Eslami getting the cards that the computer received in its hands against Laak, and vice versa.

That way, a lousy hand for one human player will result in a correspondingly strong hand for his partner in the other room. At the end of the tournament the chips of both humans will be added together and compared to the computer’s.

Should be interesting. I can’t see a computer being bluffed off a hand or slow-played, which is important against a human.

Looks like the Senate has introduced the Long-Range Sniper Rifle Safety Act of 2007. (can’t get the link to work so search for S 1331 at thomas). The bill, as written, adds 50 caliber (and equivalents) to the list of items regulated as NFA weapons, specifically destructive devices (i.e., a 50 caliber will be treated like a machine gun, suppressor, short barreled rifles, etc.).

Fox news (video at link) says the FBI can eavesdrop on you via cell phone. Even if it’s turned off.

Pretty dog. In other news, Joe lives in the town I spent my formative years in.

Liberty Sphere has some questions about recent trends at the ATF.

Joe has an update to his suit. Seems his employers weren’t bigoted but were rather incompetent.

Tagged by Xrlqy Wrlqy: list eight habits or facts about yourself, then tag eight more people.

1 – I have bungee jumped exactly 380 times. Which is two times more than I have seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I have never been sky diving though.

2 – I don’t really own a lot of guns.

3 – My legal name is unusually long. I have two middle names and a suffix. Additionally, due to various degrees and certifications I have an additional four suffixes. Because of (or in spite of) this I always go by the nickname my dad gave me and last name. It’s a lot of names. So, technically, you people who know my name really don’t. Due to two middle names, I received two forms for selective service at age 18 and had to go explain to the .gov that I was not actually two people. It’s also created issues with a couple financial items and for my Q Level security clearance when I did some consulting for a large governmental entity.

4 – I am one of the less than 1% of people who has (had) a nerve that ran over the top of the jaw bone instead of under. This nerve was severed when I had my wisdom teeth removed. I cannot feel the inside right half of my mouth (including the entire right side of my tongue). It explains why I like food that is rather, err, strong. And I’ve made lots of money on bar bets by putting cigarettes out on my tongue.

5 – For a skinny dude, I can drink a whole lot.

6 – I’m the first person in both my mom’s and dad’s family to get a four year college degree. And the first to get a graduate degree. My dad has a two year degree and he was the first in his family to go to college. My mom was the first in her family to finish high school.

7 – My wife proposed to me by spelling Marry Me at a game of Scrabble. Technically, I had a big weekend planned and was going to propose to her on a trip we took. However, I got wind from someone that she somehow knew that. To surprise (and, apparently, frustrate) her I held off. When we returned from the trip, we played the game. When she did that, I got the ring and officially proposed.

8 – I used to take pride in the fact I didn’t kill things. Ever. I never killed bugs. I would instead escort them out. Yeah, big bad gun nut isn’t too keen on killing anything. That changed when I had kids. I will kill any thing that bites or stings on sight (and other nefarious things). I’ve even killed bees by grabbing them out of the air and squeezing them. It hurts. But I can’t imagine Junior or The Second getting stung or bitten. Amazing how kids will change you. And bugs creep me out. I can’t stand to feel a bug crawling on me and will throw a full-blown arachnoleptic fit.

If you wanna play along, consider yourself tagged.

Seems alleged law-breaker and alleged journalist Steve Bailey of the Boston Globe blames all of his ills on the evil gun lobby:

There is an epidemic of handgun violence in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods, and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is investigating me?

Well, you implied you broke the law. Then went public with it. Why wouldn’t they?

Consider this my confession. I plead guilty to offending the loony gun lobby.

Really? That’s the best you can do? I mean, you implied you broke the law and then failed to mention the involvement of anti-gun group’s president in your, uh, journalistic (term used loosely) practice. And somehow that’s the fault of that evil gun lobby?

Twenty months ago, a lifetime in columnist time, I wrote in this space about going to a gun show in New Hampshire. The idea was to see how easy it would be to buy a handgun just across the border from Massachusetts, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. The answer: not very hard at all.

But you had to break the law to do it, right? That’s rather our point: criminals don’t obey the law.

I went with John Rosenthal, the Boston gun-control advocate the gun lobby loves to hate, a cop named Andrew Heggie, and a former prison guard, Walter Belair. I also took my kids, who got in free. The cereal makers may be cutting back on marketing to kids, but the gun industry knows it is never to early to target the next generation.

And would it have been so difficult to disclose that involvement 20 months ago? And there goes that evil gun industry, what with trying to sell their products and all.

Belair could have bought 100 guns in tax-free, no-limit New Hampshire that day, and I could have put them in my trunk and driven (illegally) home. That was exactly the point I was making. That is not what I did. Belair took the gun with him; I’m afraid of guns.

So, you didn’t actually purchase and take possession of the firearm, then? Because in both this column and on a radio show, you implied you had engaged in a straw purchase.

Were you lying then or are you lying now?

More:

Coincidence or not, you decide, two ATF agents and a Manchester, N.H., cop visited Belair at his work the same day. They had a search warrant and a tape of the radio interview. They wanted to know about the gun, Rosenthal, and me. Belair told them the gun was at home; they went there later in the day, and confiscated it. They did give him a receipt.

The ATF investigating a possible gun crime? Shocking!!! I mean, we loony gun types often say that we should enforce existing law.

And, lastly, more on that evil, evil gun lobby (which seems to be what he devotes most of his paragraphs too) in all Bailey’s pant-shitting hysterical glory:

This is how it works. Intimidation is the stock in trade of the National Rifle Association and all the NRA knock-offs out there.

To date, the NRA has not been involved in this case. That I know of. Another little stretch of the truth there Steve?

Anyway, you keep referencing gun types as loony and such. But, you know, at least they’ve not been caught lying about alleged gun crimes.

Update: BTW, the article seems to be engaging in some major ass-covering. After all, we now know that Steve did not take possession of the gun (he’s an admitted hoplophobe, after all) and the guard retained the weapon (assuming we can believe Steve, which is hard to do. But he does claim the ATF took the weapon from the guard). However, if the dealer knowingly sold the weapon aware of the fact that the buyer was buying for someone else, then that is a violation of the law. Of course, we have to again rely on Steve’s word, which is hard to do. So, to conclude: Steve likely did not break the law. He just implied that he did. Journalistic integrity, indeed.

Update 2: Amen:

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you should go to jail, because I don’t think what you did ought to be against the law. But instead of insulting us, maybe you can wake up and smell the coffee, and admit that perhaps we have a point in our opposition to these laws?

Hee hee.

Still more because it’s fun: Reporter Michael Silence on us loony gun sorts:

Geez, talk about stereotyping. And here all these years of practicing journalism I thought we tried to avoid that.

And in comments Sam reports another whopper by Steve:

BTW, Bailey is lying at some point in this episode. On his previous appearance on WRKO, he admitted he had made a straw purchase and when asked about the location of the gun, he mumbled something about a desk drawer somewhere. Now he says that he had never taken possession of the gun. Who knows which is the truth?

Some prison guard does. And if pressured with going to Club Fed, he’ll talk.

Still more: That’s why they call them stories.

More from Bruce.

Bob Krumm:

One difference I’ve noted between certain elements of America’s two political parties is that Republicans tend to criticize Democratic primary candidates as being “too liberal,” while Democrats criticize the GOP’s potential offerings as not being conservative enough.

Amen.

Heh:

It amuses and gratifies a supporter of the Second Amendment to see the New York Times, the so-called “paper of record,” so constantly reduced to sputtering fools over their constant loss in the battle for draconian gun control measures . . .

High speed X-rays of guns and bullets.

Really? I’d have gone with toilet paper.

If that’s how it went down, heads should roll.