Rep. Stacey Campfield has a bill up to authorize concealed carry at Tennessee universities.

How a minigun works.

Remember the cop who decided that a man in a wheelchair should stand up and dumped out of the wheelchair for not complying? You know, because he’s not able? Well, turns out people are hurting her widdle feewings:

As outrage spread nationwide over a Hillsborough County jail inmate being tossed from his wheelchair onto the floor, the detention deputy at the center of the controversy has been getting nonstop phone calls, many racist in nature.

“It’s not even just in Florida,” said Beverly Crecy, the roommate of suspended Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones.

“These calls are from out of state,” she said, with tears in her eyes. “People calling her ‘n—‘ and ‘fat’ and all kinds of stuff. Seven o’clock in the morning and all through the night.”

Remember kids, when you call someone up to tell them that they are unfit for duty and, generally that you think they’re disgusting human beings, don’t call them racist terms or make fun of their apperance. Because it’s hurtful. I mean, not as hurtful as being dumped out of a wheel chair. But still, that’s mean.

Not all people with guns are about to go shoot up a campus.

Town with no hotels to enact hotel tax.

A recurring theme. An anti-gunner commenting at ABC News.

The grandparents picked the kids up from school and kept them a few hours. The Mrs. picked up some sushi for dinner. And she and I stayed home drinking and playing Wii. Do I have a great wife or what?

The Paper of making up the Record:

The political power of the gun lobby was formidably displayed this month when a majority of the nation’s lawmakers — 55 Senators and 250 House members — signed on to a legal brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns.

The gun lobby scored an even bigger coup when Vice President Dick Cheney signed the same brief — a remarkable move that put him at odds with the administration’s own position before the Supreme Court.

You see, it’s always the gun lobby. It’s never that, you know, these congresscritters are pro-gun or that they come from pro-gun constituencies. Or that most people are, generally, pro-gun. It’s always about the power of the gun lobby. It can never be otherwise lest the fragile little world views of the New York Times Editorial Board come crashing down.

The level of spin from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership is astounding. I mean, it’s obvious they have zero political clout outside a few cities and, generally, people aren’t on their side. So, when live hands you crap, make crap-ade. They’re taking credit for the NICS improvement bill, which was written by NRA without Brady input. And some bills with few co-sponsors have been brought up.

Looks like the Russians were the first to put a gun in space:

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station apparently have access to a gun.

Russian Cosmonauts carry a gun on their Soyuz space capsule, which is attached to the space station.

Every spacecraft carries survival gear for crash landings, and the Russian Soyuz has a kit that includes the gun.

Sounds reasonable to me. I mean, you never know when you’ll encounter a moon monster or someone with space crazies. But cue pants-shitting:

Former NASA engineer Jim Oberg, who is an author and journalist, wrote about the gun on his Web site. He said the gun has no place in an environment where people are under such high stress.

“There have been cases of severe psychological strain on people in space, strain that they have taken out — that their shipmates worried about the ultimate actions,” Oberg said.

[hysteria about recent crazy astronaut who was stalking someone]

Oberg knows an astronaut bent on orbital manslaughter could simply throw any number of switches to do the job, but he said the crews would be safer if the gun was locked up or left on Earth.

Or, you know, a club. I wonder what kind of gun it is? Probably a handgun.

Any way, I’m upset. The US needs a gun in space. Or two. Some M4s. Dammit, NASA, put a weapon in space!

In comments, Lee says:

Actually, the Soviets had a 120mm cannon mounted to the exterior of their spy/observation station which was in service in the early seventies. I forget the name of the program, but our parallel program was called MOL (Manned Orbiting Laboratory), and was scrapped in 1969 in favor of unmanned spy satellites which were cheaper and backed by the CIA/NRO (National Reconnaissance Organization). Even the name of the NRO was only declassified in the early nineties.

Regardless, the Soviet gun was intended to shoot down enemy satellites which got to close. The gun was never fired with men on board, but it was fired remotely in order to test the station’s ability to

We really are behind.

James reminds us it exists.

Video of Aimpoint’s new Corner Engagement Unit. You can shoot around corners.

In a state where citizens are prohibited from carrying firearms, near a city where handguns are banned, on a school campus where firearms are prohibited (unless you have a note), there was another mass shooting. Seven dead, counting the shooter. Too bad no good guy was armed. Nothing to say that I haven’t said before. Shooter reportedly used a shotgun and one (or two – depending on the source) handguns.

But others are saying plenty:

So, now what?

How are those [gun free zones] working out for you?

He just walked in and just started shooting at people randomly

Thirdpower has more.

Here we go again.

Waiting to die.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Update: Insty was on the radio last night talking about it. Transcript here.

Chris’s blog is three.

Don’t bother upgrading to the latest Firefox. It’s completely screwed and the window sizes are goofy.

Looks like, since the Dept. of the Interior isn’t getting the hint, congress is looking to pass a law telling them to drop the gun ban in parks:

Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Chairman of the Republican Study Committee http://www.house.gov/hensarling/rsc/ , and Congressman Lamborn (R-CO) introduced the Protecting Americans from Violent Crime Act of 2008 (H.R. 5434). The bill is a House companion to Senator Tom Coburn’s (R-OK) Senate legislation and would prohibit the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service’s inconsistent and unconstitutional regulations that ban law-abiding citizens from carrying firearms on land managed by these agencies.

Despite numerous efforts by local, state, and federal officials, the Department of the Interior has not taken any steps to review their unconstitutional firearm restrictions. The ban effectively overrules laws in 40 states that allow law-abiding citizens to carry a firearm within the state.

Received via email.

Just got back from lunch with part of the problem err media types Jack Lail and Michael Silence. It’s fun to talk with other bloggers in real life. It’s also neat to get together with media types. I’d never met Jack before. Super nice guy. Talked shop. Talked kids. Talked politics. Talked gun blogging. We were all equally dumbfounded at the fact Congress has nothing better to do than, once again, address steroids in baseball.

The Pentagon plans on shooting down a spy satellite before it hits earth. If they need a 50 caliber sniper rifle capable of shooting down satellites, I think Josh Sugarmann can get it for them.

Via KAG.

Heh:

Mr. Bloomberg also disclosed yesterday that he is a member of the National Rifle Association. A membership card with his name on it arrived about four weeks ago. He said he doesn’t know who signed him up for it.

Mr. Arulanandam of the NRA said he suspected he knew who was behind the membership.

“It was likely his campaign manager, upon realizing that the graveyard of presidential hopefuls is filled with people who supported gun control,” he said.

Lots of SHOT pics.

Good:

The confirmation of US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was thrown into further doubt yesterday, when a Republican senator who is blocking the nomination renewed complaints that Sullivan has refused to loosen licensing rules for guns.
more stories like this

The development means that the future leadership of the US attorney’s office in Boston will remain cloudy for the foreseeable future, because the Bush administration has been unable to nominate a replacement.

For now, Sullivan is performing both roles while his nomination is caught in a crossfire over gun policy.

Senator David Vitter of Louisiana said yesterday that he met with Sullivan late last year to discuss what Vitter described as burdensome regulations imposed on gun owners and dealers by the bureau, which Sullivan has led as acting director since September 2006. Vitter asked Sullivan to address the concerns in writing.

“I recently received his answers to those questions, and I was disappointed in his responses, so I am going to continue to hold this nominee,” Vitter said in a statement released to the Globe. “The nominee seems to support the ATF’s current inadequate policies and exhibits a lack of willingness to address these problems.”

Good for Vitter.

Dr. Helen notes why women like diamonds:

A good way to screen for men who are both willing and able to invest is to demand an expensive gift–known as a courtship gift or nuptial gift in evolutionary biology. Not just any expensive gift will do. A Mercedes or house does not usually fill the bill–for these might have intrinsic value to the man if he likes European cars or is interested in real estate. A courtship gift, according to the book, must be costly and lack intrinsic value and be useless.

Boy, this talk of evolutionary biology is sexy, no?

The Mrs. is more practical than that. For Valentines Day this year, she wanted shelving. SayUncle is opposed to buying diamonds for political reasons (diamond mining is deplorable; it funds violence in Africa; and diamonds fund terror groups). But I’ve been known to buy other baubles and such. I suppose this also explains why flowers are a good gift too. After all, they are useless and just sit in the house and die. But The Mrs. likes those, though being the practical sort, she forbids me from buying them anywhere near Valentine’s Day because the prices are ridiculous. Oh, and did I mention she’s frugal?

Men, however, like toys which may or may not be useless. Things that light up, go boom, etc.

Regarding the Violence Policy Center having a Federal Firearms License to deal firearms, Dr. Strangegun in comments here:

Having an FFL means that they get the Big Book of Gun Laws ™ once a year.

This moves all arguments of ignorance about gun law to the dumpster and relegates them to 100% untruth and lies.

Bloomberg’s latest:

In a new tactic against urban crime, the mayors of several East Coast cities, including New York, plan to launch a database that will allow them to share information on known gun offenders.

The database, expected to be operational later this year, will pool data from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with information collected by local agencies, including ballistics information and intelligence gathered from debriefings of gun offenders.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon and other urban leaders said Wednesday that the first-of-its-kind database will make it more difficult for illegal gun dealers to do business throughout the Interstate 95 corridor.

And how exactly are they going to get BATF data? I seem to recall that’s not exactly legal.

Here in Blount County, there were some Tennessee Wildlife Resource Officers who happened to be near some bait for bears and, by all accounts, seemed to be hunting. But no charges will be filed because, despite being in the hunting area near the bait, they can’t seem to prove who placed the bait there.

In Nashville. Details at ar15.com.

No wonder Ray Nagin sent cops door-to-door to confiscate guns in New Orleans. He thinks you’re as stupid as he is.

Your typical misinformation about the ban on weapons that look like assault weapons.

And someone fell for the old not only do commas separate things but can alter the meaning of words gag.

When I was in high school and college, I paid the bills by working at a grocery store. When I first started, I was the lowliest of rungs on the ladder: a bag boy. As a bag boy, you did all the crappy jobs. One of those crappy jobs was mopping the store. Now, mopping a 25,000 square foot store sucks. But it gives you ample time to think. But this ain’t a post about that, it’s a post about this:

One night, I’m mopping away. A couple of aisles over I hear the following conversation from a black couple in the frozen food section:

Black Dude: You know what white people like?

Black Chick: Huh?

Black Dude: You know, how they say we like watermelon and fried chicken?

Black Chick: Yeah.

Black Dude: They like pizza. Look at this aisle, it’s half pizza.

This website reminded me of that. Via Brittney.

So, Tam is moving to Indy to roommate with Roberta. When we gunbloggers got together in Knoxvlle, she spilled the beans. I’ll miss occasionally running into that former Merchant of Death. But, I’ll still see her here on Al Gore’s Internets. Make sure you look up Ahab when you get there.