Not really a plasma gun in the sci-fi sense, but cool anyway.

See the video!

Thirdpower has the scoop. I am with him on my lack of sympathy for this shop. As much as I can understand feeling strong-armed, and believing a settlement is in the best interest of your business, it’s really not. This is a perfect example of gunowners being wary of manufacturers, distributers and dealers that sell out to bullies like Bloomberg. By giving in, he put every other dealer in his state, and in other states, at risk from Bloomberg’s publicity stunts.

But as much as I might be angry at this gun shop for not fighting, it doesn’t even compare to my anger at Mayor Bloomberg, for ultimately, being the person responsibile for driving this shop out of business, when it had committed no crime or offense.

Cam Edwards points out a new anti-gun blog. I’m half tempted to put up a blog called “Why Was This Criminal Roaming the Streets?”. It would appear that this blog has not yet been introduced to Paul Helmke’s “reasoned discourse”. In other words, comments are open. Be nice!

UPDATE: Thirdpower mentions in the comments:

Actually, the comments are “moderated”. Just like Robyn Ringler’s, the author seems to be deleting the majority of the pro-gun comments. I posted several polite ones questioning the accuracy of other posters w/ evidence and they never showed.

So I was incorrect.  This blog uses a different kind of discourse from Paul.   They use “reasoned echo chamber”, it seems.

Faced with escalating gun violence, the Sacramento City Council […] voted unanimously to require gun owners to report thefts of firearms within 48 hours […] and to require firearms dealers to thumb-print […] record the names and addresses of people who buy ammunition.

Um, OK.

Similar measures enacted in other cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Oakland, have not reduced gun crimes.

If even you say it won’t affect the problem, why do you support it?

The Tiahrt Amendment, named after U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, the Kansas Republican who first tacked it onto a Justice Department appropriations bill in 2003, bars law enforcement officials from sharing information about gun trafficking trends.

Oh I see it now, this really about blaming Congress for the local police not stopping all gun violence.

The next time someone in California is killed by a criminal using an illegally obtained firearm, their survivors should contact Congress, including Reps. Lewis and Calvert, to ask them to explain why they voted to deprive police of the tools they need to combat illegal gun sales.

There we go. Except local police can get trace data on stolen firearms, just like they could before, simply by asking for it. What I think the Sacramento Bee is not saying, is they can’t use trace data for anything except tracing stolen firearms. No politically inspired data mining. No agenda backed fishing expiditions. No vendetta’s. Just stolen firearms traces.

A couple of recent DVD releases you might be interested in. For fans of the 1980 Sci-Fi cult classic with the glorious Queen soundtrack, be sure to check out Flash Gordon: Saviour of the Universe Edition. It’s especially relevant, given the recent launch of the not-very-good SciFi Channel series.

Also, The Tick vs. Season Two is now available, albeit with one episode missing (as was also the case with the Season One DVD). Sadly, the missing episode this time is “Alone Together,” the Omnipotus episode, one of my favorites from that season.

Go forth and support our economy! 🙂

Cross-posted at Lean Left

I called earlier today to see if the background check went through so that I can pick up my shiny “new” arm-extension, and was told that the system was still down.

I was told last night that it would be up today.

The range told me to call again this afternoon to check, so I did.

And it’s still down.

I suppose I shouldn’t expect much from the entity that can’t even keep a whorehouse from losing money.

So I suppose the gun pr0n will have to wait another day or so.

Anyone else have to deal with this?  How do you keep from going insane?  I was totally looking forward to shooting a couple (yes, a couple) of boxes of rounds tonight.

*sigh* And now the waiting and whining begin…

Clayton Cramer has an article running on Shotgun News about HR2640, and what it really means.  Go have a read.

Part 3 in the three-part series is excellent reading. The punch line:

There are no good guys in this story. Misguided and incompetent regulation combined with utilities that found ways to game the system resulted in what had been the best communication system in the world becoming just so-so, though very profitable. We as consumers were consistently sold ideas that were impractical only to have those be replaced later by less-ambitious technologies that, in turn, were still under-delivered. Congress set mandates then provided little or no oversight. The FCC was (and probably still is) managed for the benefit of the companies and their lobbyists, not for you and me. And the upshot is that I could move to Japan and pay $14 per month for 100-megabit-per-second Internet service but I can’t do that here and will probably never be able to.

In case you haven’t been reading Crigley’s blog (and you should be), Part 1 and Part 2.

I take a look on the web and see:

First they came for the cockfighters…

Oi. But it was only to be used to fight terror?

Paul Helmke is quoting Sarah Brady:

 The fact is that this debate isn’t about guns at all. It’s about how we as a society relate to guns. It’s about how we buy them, sell them, store them, and use them. When we talk about gun control, what we’re really talking about are ways to encourage people to behave differently around guns. A gun may be just a tool, but it’s a tool whose misuse can have profound and permanent consequences.

When we talk about gun control, we’re talking about ways to make criminals out of otherwise law abiding citizens.  That’s what it does.   I don’t disagree with Mrs. Brady’s characterization of gun control about being how we relate to guns, but I certainly disagree with the Brady solution, which is more laws, and more regulations.  The way to encourage responsible gun use is through education and outreach to gun owners, something that the NRA has done far more of than The Brady Campaign ever has.

You see some guns online and just drool on your keyboard.  Then you look at the price tag, and you dry up.

When you see one of those guns used, with all the accessories you’d get from the original manufacturer, and for a sizeable discount, sometimes you just gotta make the purchase.

Tonight I go to pick up and make my payment for a Springfield XD 9mm service pistol, after finding it for consignment at Range USA last night.

So there you have it.  I’m a gun owner as of this evening.  It’s a new era…or something.

I’m only supposed to go pay and pick it up, but I’ll probably shoot a box of ammo while I’m there.  Just because I can.

From Common Folk Using Common Sense (wish I’d come up with that name), commenting on the line below, comes the Quote of the Day:

There are too many people who are just evil and mean-spirited. They will hurt you for no reason. If more people were packing guns, it might serve as a deterrent.

To which Shamalama replies:

I wish people didn’t have to have a gun pushed into their face to understand this simple concept.

Amen, brother.

I am not a hunter, I never really have gotten “into” hunting.  However, if all hunting was like this, I’d probably do a lot more hunting.

How to hunt Feral Cats with a mortar

Now that is funny.

Granted, the Onion isn’t as influential as it once was, but when its opinion pages stand solidly behind the 2nd Amendment, I can’t help but smile.

It seems freedom of speech is alive and well in the United Kingdom, as long as you’re not wearing a t-shirt that’s “using offensive, abusive, or insulting language.”

If you decide to be a rebel, you might end up being threatened by law enforcement.

Tam says that you can’t swing a cat in Knoxville without hitting another blogger. Apparently Philadelphia is quite a bloggy city itself.  Some Philly area blogs I know about:

Support Your Local Gunfighter
Classical Values
I know GeekWithA.45 moved somehwere around here!
Tony Phyrillas
And last, but hopefully not least, me.

So we have a few folks, but I don’t run into other bloggers.  We’re a pretty big area, so it would take a pretty big cat.

Mostly because I can’t think of anything serious to write about, I’ll give you one of my favorite words.

“Ambisinister”: clumsy or unskillful with both hands.

Ambisinister, or ambisinistrous is the antonym of ambidextrous.

What makes this word interesting is an examination of the Latin roots of both ambisinister and ambidextrous.  Omitting the “ambi”, which is the same for each word, you’re left with “sinister” and “dexter“.  The Latin word for right-handed is “dexter”, and the Latin for left-handed is “sinister”.

Thus, ambisinister, literally means “like having two left hands”, and its antonym means “two right hands”.

Whenever you are reminded that “commonsense firearms laws” are the right way to go, remember to point them at that former bastion of common-sense, Britain.

I say former, because now that firearms are effectively banned from the law abiding, the laws and rules continue to slide into crazy-land.

The 47-year-old entertainer, also known as Tony Turner, has previously had to ditch his bubble-making machine because he could not get public liability insurance as companies assessed that youngsters might slip and hurt themselves.

He said he was also told by one venue he could not twist balloons into the shape of guns for fear of encouraging youngsters to commit violence, although swords were deemed acceptable.

As far as encouraging violence goes, have you ever seen what happens when a clown makes shapes out of balloons? While waiting for the little’un to get his fill of playing in the “tubes” at Mickey Dee’s a clown showed up and started making animals and such. Everything that was long and thin, such as swords and snakes were used by the kids to whack each other over the head. Those with twist shapes, such as dogs, ships and rabbits turned them into guns. and used them by standing back out of the way making “Kapow” noises.

Political correctness trumps reality when you let things slide too far.

But the kids understand…

Reader, commentator and reasoned-discourse-inator Thirdpower now has a blog. So, is it like a law that if you have a gun blog on blogspot you have to use that template?

Anyhoo, get thee hence and read.

How a machine gun works.

This Chicago-Sun times porters asks “Why aren’t others joining the call for gun control?“:

We have become blithely dulled by the headlines. A 10-year-old girl in Englewood shot to death at her own birthday party. During the last academic year, 34 Chicago schoolchildren were lost to gun violence. Early this month, three college students were shot to death in a Newark, N.J., schoolyard.

A few know the clock is ticking and they are doing what they can. Mayor Daley knows. Daley may be the Evil Enemy of Black People to some, but he is doing more than just about anyone to get guns off the streets. He has made gun control a signature issue and has vainly pushed to get anti-gun state legislation through the intractable and juvenile Illinois General Assembly.

Maybe the reason we’re not joining, Laura, is because New Jersey, California and Chicago already either heavily restrict, or ban firearms, and are held up by gun control groups, like The Brady Campaign, as models for the nation. If it’s not working, why do you think more of what’s not working would help? Perhaps instead of accusing other people of a juvenile outlook, you ought to take a long hard look at the abusurdity of what you’re actually suggesting.

As Uncle would say: Gun Control, it’s what you do instead of something.

Hat tip to, a new gun blog, by commenter Thirdpower, Day of our Trailers.

UPDATE: Coutertop has sent her a great response.
UPDATE: Thirdpower too.

Fred Thompson weighs in on the Newark, New Jersey shooting tragedy. I’m probably a good bit more pro-immigrant than a lot of hard core conservatives. I support making it easier for people who want to come to this country to work to do so, but I definitely believe that when an illegal immigrant has a run in with law enforcement, they should be reported to ICE and put on short list for deportation.

It’s baffling to me how politicians in these “sanctuary” areas can calim that the gun is still to blame, when they refuse to do anything to protect their cities against criminals, especially when the easy option of deportation is available. I’m all for anyone who wants to come here to work to be able to do so, but they have to follow our laws. The politicians who are running these “sanctuaries” should have to answer for that, before forcing me to answer for my gun ownership.

If you are, there’s a new group that is planning on lobbying in Virginia to forbid universities and colleges from restricting licencees from carrying on campus. It’s an uphill battle, but one worth fighting, and I’m glad to see those young people who are actually affected taking the lead. It has never made sense, when these young adults are licensed to carry anywhere else, that they are forbidden from carry on campus, as if their fundamental character changes as soon as they enter a lecture hall. As the tragedy at Virginia Tech illustrated, someone bent on muder isn’t going to be stopped by a policy written in the student handbook.

Actually, I’m always happy to see young people getting involved in the issue. At 33, it’s kind of scary to consider that my age is actually pretty young for this issue. Let’s face it, not too many 21-25 year olds have the money to get into this hobby.

Dr. Helen reminds us of the importance of fighting back.

So this guy opened fire in a church service (First Congregational in Neosho, MO).

He first told the kids to get out, then started shooting church “leaders”.

Apparently he had a grudge.  Ya think?

This caught my eye, toward the middle of the article:

The gunman had two small-caliber handguns and one 9 mm semi-automatic machine pistol with a large magazine

Where’s the PSH icon?

“one 9 mm semi-automatic machine pistol with a large magazine”

Let’s try to cram as many adjectives into that description as possible, shall we?  Make it scary, because people are becoming comfortable with guns, and that can’t happen!

I like how they left the “small-caliber handguns” alone…I guess a .22 revolver just isn’t scary enough (note:  I don’t know based on this article that that’s what he used, but I’m willing to bet that it is, since they didn’t really provide any more details).

MSNBC keeps with the “small handgun” description, while adding a new angle of sexual assault to the mix.  Maybe it’s revenge?  Maybe not.  Who can tell?  Let’s add more drama!

STL Today just says that he was carrying 3 weapons, choosing to focus on the crime rather than the means.  Good on them.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t a machine gun synonymous with an automatic weapon?  So…semi-automatic pistols (which only fire one round per trigger pull, as you’re well-aware, I’m sure) wouldn’t be called “machine pistols”.

As Uncle would say, “What media bias?”

You can see it here.

It seems the best course of action is to audit all departments under the control of the Knox County Mayor’s office along with all non-profits that receive money from Knox County government.

Nothing else can restore faith in Knox County government.

According to Dave Hardy, ammo prices are about to go up even more.

You know how some anti-gun types seem to think guns are sentient beings, capable of actions all on their own?

Maybe we should think that way too, that way guns would be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Wonder what a jury of its peers would look like?

Checking in. Just got back from the beach, two different pools, and a bike ride. The Mrs. and Junior are shopping. My job is to get the second to sleep.

Looks like one of you scored an instalanche.

Oh, and no pictures. Someone didn’t pack the cable thingy and my laptop only has a mini SD slot not whatever the camera is.

Update: handy tip when on vacation is to subtract eight hours from your usual beer:30 to get your converted beer:30

It would seem that some mayors in California have more sense than others.  No doubt Mayor Gomez is not eager to see all the money that gun owners would spend in Daly City go poof because they offend Gavin Newsom’s sensibilities.