Seriously?

Back when I was in prison*, one trend shared by all the inmates was that nothing was their fault. Ever. There were always these explanations that seemed perfectly reasonable (to the inmates) about precisely why they committed some sort of heinous crime. And it always involved blaming someone else. Kinda like how New Jersey blames Pennsylvania for its gun crime.

* I worked there. I was not an inmate. But I always like to start stories that way for shock value.

Squeaky gets a tattoo to show off her gun nuttery.

The NRA has a pretty slick webpage up that contains info and all the briefs in the Heller case.

Ahab interviews Eric Thompson, proprietor of TopGlock.com.

It looks like there’s a push (again) for Tennessee to allow sales of wine at the grocery store (though, while they’re at it I think they should add booze too). It’s a good idea unless you own a liquor store, I suppose. Frankly, I’m just tired of making two stops and the extra gas. So, let’s do it for the environment! Others are saying:

Carly Harrington (who has the biggest smile I have ever seen): Sen. Bill Ketron and Rep. Randy Rinks introduced a bill (SB3139/HB3451) at the beginning of the legislative session. The proposed legislation would allow wine sales only in municipalities that currently allow package sales.

Sean (who has been on this from the beginning and who will owe me a beer and not wine): Regardless, I don’t think the “its all about the children” argument really holds much water in this debate, as the alcohol content of wine is not so significantly higher as to require an entire set of different procedures for selling that product as compared to beer.

Here’s a new site and a blog called Red White and Food that’s advocating the idea.

KAG notes it’s some pretty slick PR.

DC’s brief is here. Reading now. They seem confused that the Solicitor General is on their side and act as though the SG is pro-Heller.

Thanks to reader Michael.

Update: Nothing new yet. Same old tired arguments about how the second amendment, like Laurence Tribe whose article from yesterday the brief references, doesn’t mean what it says.

Update 2: Also says something like: But in case it does protect a right, it doesn’t matter because states can ban guns anyway.

Update 3: And if those two don’t work, banning handguns is good because handguns are dangerous and not militia weapons.

Update 4: Complaints about strict scrutiny being too much.

Update 5: DC’s gun laws are reasonable. No kidding, they say that.

Update 6: that concludes the Cliff Notes version.

Garren has the skinny.

Guns in slow motion.

The other day, I mentioned to the Mrs. one of the new fuel efficiency vehicles. It’s a passing interest of mine. I figure in the next year or two, I’ll have the itch for a new ride. And I’m pretty sure the smart thing to do with our next vehicle purchases is to get something that has increased fuel economy. Right now, I have flex fuel vehicle. But the only place that sells E85 is Pilot Oil and I don’t shop there because Bill Haslam is a member of Mayors Against Guns. Anyhoo, that leaves the various hybrids, fuel cells, battery powered, and what not vehicles. I mentioned one to the Mrs. and she asks:

Why are those vehicles always so ugly?

Good question. They are all atrocious looking. That new Jeep concept is horrid. The Prius looks cheap. A few companies are getting it and just making existing body styles hybrid. I told the Mrs. I thought it was because they wanted them to look futuristic. But, apparently, the future is ugly.

Here’s a podcast interview with a couple of legislators over Kaine’s veto.

Sailorcurt has more.

So, after prodding from a Saturday Night Live skit, the media finally decides it’s time to stop lobbing softballs at Obama and asks him hard questions about some lies he’s told. I guess it really took a parody to wake the real media up to how ridiculous the situation was.

Obama can’t hang, makes excuses, and cuts pressers short. And Hillary picks up a couple of big wins.

In other news, I caught Hillary on The Daily Show. She seemed not at all like a robot and was not entirely unpleasant. She must have taken a class or something.

Huckabee left the race. No one tell him but the race left him a bit back.

Ron Paul won! His district primary, that is.

I have a feeling my original beer bets will be winners.

What, that’s what I said not what I meant.

Respected liberal constitutional scholar and Obama supporter Laurence Tribe stated there was individual right to arms guaranteed by the constitution and noted he may have sway with the liberal justices in the Heller case. Now, he’s written a bit in the WSJ asserting basically that:

1) There is an individual right (I agree)

2) That right is not absolute (I also agree as no right is absolute)

3) Banning handguns is OK. (huh? Did I miss something?)

I’m clearly missing something here. He seems to be asserting the “densely populated area” exception to the second amendment. And he treats the case as though it only addresses the handgun ban, which is intellectually dishonest.

Anyway, my thoughts are that he realized facts got in the way of his opinion. And he aligned his position with Obama’s.

The Heller lawyers are understandably dismayed.

Kopel: Professor Tribe has the right to change his mind, but the air of forceful certainty with which he today argues for reversal seems inconsistent with his unrequited offer from ten months ago to play a “more central role” in securing affirmance.

Hardy: I think his position is somewhere between unclear and inchoherent

Sebastian: Drugs are a scourge of the inner cities as well. Would Professor Tribe support standard of review for the fourth amendment which would allow house to house searches for drugs in urban areas, while leaving the fourth amendment well enough in tact in rural areas?

Update: Jacob Sullum: Tribe ignores another aspect of D.C.’s gun law, the provision requiring that even long guns be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock.” That requirement makes it pretty hard to use any gun for self-defense, except maybe as a club.

The Geek on The Left:

they do not understand that we oppose them for their means, not their ends, and many believe that we oppose the Good they seek to bring forth, and cannot understand why anyone (other than a reactionary degenerate seeking to preserve a position of oppression based privilege) would oppose such Goodness.

Looks like some Reasoned Discourse^tm is breaking out over at Paul Helmke’s HuffPo blog. It’s a trend! You’ll recall the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership’s original Helmke blog shut down comments because there was no better source for pro-gun information than the Brady Blog itself.

At Bitter’s. It’s good that those running are reaching out to the gun blogs.

Prediction: sometime soon, a gun blogger will successfully run for board. I’ll bet a beer on it.

Not sure what it’s all about but their President asked for a change of duties.

So, the Danish, after what they deem a near international incident and we call a case teh st00pid, decide to lecture us on our gun laws. Well, Sparky, don’t look now but some youth just set your car on fire.

It would seem that getting hammered; driving; pulled over by police; calling them Nazis; kicking the police cruiser’s window; disappearing and loved ones file missing person report; turning up in a casino where the local officer friendlies inform you you should go back home because people are worried about you; is a career-limiting move in politics. Who knew?

Ahab:

The most interesting thing about the article that I saw was the selection of hate mail that Thompson has received, the death threats against him, the vandalism against his store, etc.

Red’s Trading Post’s story has made the press again. This is interesting:

The revelation of the 10-gun rule came during the first day of a scheduled two-day U.S. District Court hearing over the future of Red’s license. It offered a glimpse of how the ATF decides when and where to crack down on gun shops. That mystery has evaded Republican Idaho Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, who each put a hold on the president’s nomination of the agency’s head pending an ATF explanation of an apparent escalation in license revocations nationwide in recent years.

So, ten crime guns traced and you’re investigated? Ten out of how many?

More of the same: ATF goes after an insignificant number of clerical errors.

Remember the confiscation in Cali I mentioned yesterday? Guess who’s helping decide what’s illegal? Wintemute. You know, the guy who did an alleged study (peddled by the likes of The Tennessean) in which he walked around a gun store and opined as to what he thought was illegal.

Find the deadly assault weapon round.

Heh.

Squeaky, Rusty, and TD went to the range. Squeaky has a report.

The WaPo says the Supreme Court will release audio of arguments the same day.

Gary Gygax, inventor of D&D, has died. Phelps 1d4 + 1 moments of silence, please

Chris knew the man.

In middle school, his game provided me with many nights of enjoyment. Godspeed, Gary.

Kaine has vetoed the VA Carry bill. CounterTop is not happy.

Update: PGP calls Kaine a liar.

Update 2: NRA has a statement.

The WaPo:

Edgar A. Domenech says he thought Justice Department officials would welcome information about mismanagement at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Instead, the 23-year ATF veteran says, Justice officials ignored his complaints and later retaliated against him by demoting him, denying him a bonus and attempting to give him a poor job review.

“I realized I was committing career suicide at the time, but I felt I had a moral obligation as the deputy director to protect the agency and the men and women of the agency,” Domenech said in an interview yesterday. “In retrospect, I was naive to believe that the department would welcome my honesty.”

And what did he do?

Domenech filed a 13-page complaint yesterday with the Office of Special Counsel, saying that ATF and the Justice Department punished him for raising questions about the performance of former ATF director Carl J. Truscott, who resigned in August 2006 while under investigation for alleged financial mismanagement.

Domenech, who was second-in-command at ATF for four years, said his complaints about Truscott beginning in late 2005 were ignored or played down by aides to then-Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales because Truscott had ties to the White House. Truscott headed President Bush’s Secret Service detail before taking over ATF.

But new management is better, right? Wrong:

Domenech said ATF’s acting director, Michael J. Sullivan, and other officials have taken actions meant to punish him for raising questions about Truscott. The moves include transferring him out of headquarters and excluding him from meetings and duties that usually would be his responsibility.

Good to see the ATF continue its stellar performance!

This morning on the local talk radio, David Foulk asked, basically, what the Hell is going on with all these mass shootings? The host when on to say he thought these mass shootings were temper tantrums by people who don’t get their way. Could be. There’s definitely some crazy in the water lately.

Throughout the whole bit (that I listened to, anyway), not one person called in in support of more gun control.