December 2007 – Page 21 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Let’s Play “Spot the PSH”

A 36 year-old janitor belonging to the Aryan Nations shoots 200 rounds from two military-style semiautomatic weapons, killing his wife, a police officer and a church sexton.

Gotta get that assoication of gun ownership with racism in there eh Paul? Because if people believe all gun nuts are racist, they can continue to look down on us and give you money.

A disgruntled client of attorney Michael McKenna forces his way into a busy downtown office building, where he barricades himself inside and shoot and kills McKenna and two other employees. The shooter was killed after a gunfight with the SWAT team.

I thought guns were illegal in Chciago? How could this have happened?

A man first kills the mother of his child, then goes to his workplace and shoots three others to death before committing suicide.

Good to see all those workplace violence policies you folks have convinced HR clowns they need working out really well.

Tyler, Texas. February 2005. A gunman – wearing a bulletproof vest and a military flak jacket – shoots over 50 rounds with an AK-47 killing his wife and a bystander. The shooter’s son and three law enforcement officers are wounded in the gun battle.

What he doesn’t mention is that that the bystander that was killed saved the kid’s life by trying to take out the shooter with a .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol, which, unfortunately, doesn’t penetrate body armor.

A fired worker shoots and kills six of his former co-workers with a .38 caliber semi-automatic pistol.

.38 is a revolver caliber. They don’t make semi-auto pistols in .38. He probably means .380, but we don’t expect people advocating for gun control to actually know anything about guns do we?

An angry employee, denied vacation because of a paperwork mix-up, shoots and kills a co-worker, wounding two others before killing himself. The shooter was armed with four handguns and had spent much of his spare time shooting at targets behind his home.

We must get everyone in workplaces fearful about people who target shoot. That way they can’t find jobs anywhere, will get fired, or what have you.

John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo randomly selected victims in sniper-style shootings – one acting as a long-range shooter from the trunk of their car. Muhammad and Malvo have been linked to 20 shootings, including 13 killings, in Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Arizona, Alabama, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C., many of which were carried out with a Bushmaster XM-15 semi-automatic assault rifle.

The rifle the DC snipers used was irrelevant. They could have used an antique bolt action rifle, because they only ever fired one shot. Good thing they didn’t, because antique bolt action rifles are much more powerful than a Bushmaster XM-15.

Wow, that’s a lot of mass shootings! Sure makes me glad I’m licensed to carry a firearm by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. You’d think it’s dangerous out there from what Paul says.

Gun Free Zone No Longer?

According to Michael Bane:

On the Nebraska mall shooting, I’m getting unsubstantiated reports that the mall has removed the “No Guns” signs from their little gun-free zone paradise, lest someone take a picture of them.

It would be interesting if it turns out to be true

Never Forget

Today is Pearl Harbor DayÂ Cassin Downes

That is the Wreck of the USS Cassin, and USS Downes.Â In the background is the USS Pennsylvania.Â It is a lesson in being unprepared, and in the folly of believing our oceans still protect us.Â America took a stand against Japanese imperial aggression in east Asia by passing sanctions against Japan, but we were unprepared for war.

There are those who argue Pearl Harbor is a lesson in getting involved, and those who argue it cautions against isolationism.Â I am in the latter category.Â America’s entrance into World War II was inevitable, but the sense of isolationism that pervaded the American populace left the country wholly unprepared for war, and left Pearl Harbor vulnerable.Â There is no going back to the days when we could count on the Royal Navy to protect global trade networks.Â That responsibility now falls on us. Â Pearl Harbor is a big part of the reason I can’t vote for Ron Paul. Â Whether you call it isolationism or non-interventionism is of little matter to me. Â Paul’s philosophy is inward looking.Â While I share his concerns about our nation remaining sovereign, the United States has a role to play in the world, and Pearl Harbor was the wakeup call that it was time to step up.

Lawsuits in the Old Neighborhood

Looks like the Mayor of Rutledge, who is also an attorney, plans to sue Mike Nutter over his controversial “stop and frisk” policy. He’s going to have his work cut out for him, because Terry v. Ohio is the established precedent that says police officers are allowed a limited search for weapons before questioning someone, to ensure their own safety. The standard in Terry is “reasonable suspicion” rather than “probable cause.”

But I’m quite happy to see he’s also suing the Upper Darby Police Department for their policy of seizing firearms illegally. The UDPD has a reputation in Delaware County, or at least had a reputation when I lived there, that was less than stellar. This would indicate things haven’t changed much:

Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood Sr. said yesterday that his department will not return seized firearms without a court order or his personal approval. Those that aren’t returned to the owners are destroyed.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the state attorney general’s office are investigating aspects of the township’s policy.

Those investigations are focused on activity that apparently predated Chitwood’s arrival in 2005.

Chitwood apparently doesn’t care about Pennsylvania law, which states very clearly:

The Pennsylvania State Police and any local law enforcement agency shall make all reasonable efforts to determine the lawful owner of any firearm confiscated by the Pennsylvania State Police or any local law enforcement agency and return said firearm to its lawful owner if the owner is not otherwise prohibited from possessing the firearm. When a court of law has determined that the Pennsylvania State Police or any local law enforcement agency have failed to exercise the duty under this subsection, reasonable attorney fees shall be awarded to any lawful owner of said firearm who has sought judicial enforcement of this subsection.

There’s no penalty other than having to award attorney’s fees. If I were a taxpayer in Upper Darby Township, I’d be outraged that my Chief of Police was promulgating a policy that wasted taxpayer money fighting their legal obligation to return seized or stolen property to the rightful owner.

Hat tip to War on Guns

Blaming Pennsylvania Again

New Jersey is busy exporting criminals to Pennsylvania, so we can shoot them, apparently. In this report they claim criminals are moving here because of our lax gun laws.

In Hudson County, New Jersey, prosecutor Edward DeFazio says there’s one overriding reason the Lehigh Valley sees trouble moving in from the Garden State. DeFazio: “Handguns are much more easily purchased in Pennsylvania than in New Jersey.” Statistics show that the vast majority of gun crimes in New Jersey can be traced back to Pennsylvania purchases. DeFazio says the criminals are getting their guns in Pennsylvania … and now they’re committing crimes in the Keystone State, too.

Except it would seem Pennsylvania is also a more hazardous place to try to terrorize people. There are about 580,000 LTCF holders in Pennsylvania.Â Had Mr. Pierce been a resident of New Jersey, he’d be the one in the hospital, or worse.

Improvement

It’s much better doing Silhouette when your trigger pivot pin is properly in place.Â Last week was 22 and 25, which put me dead last in my class.Â Â This time I got 31 and 33, which puts me in the middle of the pack.Â This is with a stock 10/22, crappy “Golden Bullet” ammo, and a 30 dollar scope.Â I figure some better equipment might be worth a few more animals.Â I like shooting the ram silhouette the best.

Student Newspaper Cluelessness

It seems that the UMass Daily Collegian know about as much about running a web site as they do about our gun laws.Â Here’s a comment I tried to leave for Nick Milano, but was unable to because of server errors.Â Â Maybe they have “not a commie” detectors to weed out the crazy folks like me.

Interesting… so you learned about our countries gun laws from West Wing eh?Â Great.Â Please tell me you’re not a law student.

What is this “illegal gun industry?”Â All firearms manufacturers in this country are required to be federally licensed.Â They sell their firearms to distributors, who are also federally licensed.Â That transaction is logged and recorded, according to federal regulations.Â Distributors sell firearms to dealers who, you might guess, are also federally licensed.Â These dealers sell firearms to gun owners like myself, after presenting photo ID, filling out ATF Form 4473, swearing under penalty of felony I am the actual purchaser of the firearm, a US citizen or permanent resident, not a drug user, never been convicted of a felony, am not a fugitive from justice… you get the idea.Â After that the dealer conducts a background check to verify the information on the form is correct.Â This happens over the phone and takes a few minutes.Â After that, the transaction is similar to any other consumer product.Â Of course, there are laws about where you can and can’t buy a firearm.Â Different states have extra restrictions, and you can’t go out of state to evade them.Â You and the dealer can go to jail for that.Â Massachusetts requires a license to buy firearms, which, for handguns, the police can decide not to issue to you because they don’t like that awful garlic breath you have from theÂ linguine you had for lunch.

Now of course, that’s the one option.Â The other option is to buy one out of the back of a van in Dorchester.Â Criminals obtain firearms from a variety of sources, none of them legal, which is why we call those guns “illegal guns”.Â This is the black market.Â If you believe we should be enforcing those gun laws, and locking illegal gun runners up, I would agree with you.Â But you’ll have about as much luck stopping the illegal gun trade as stopping the illegal drug trade.Â There’s a reason they are called “criminals” it means they break laws, and gun laws are just another law to break.

Nothing you guys didn’t already know, but I didn’t want it to go to waste.

Brady Press Release About Omaha Shooting

They Brady’s seem to have quietly done their press release.Â Not big push for donations, like after Virginia Tech.Â The headline on the latest release is, “America Again Witnesses The Cost of Assault Weapons In Civilian Hands.”Â Unfortunatly for the Brady Campaign, the SKS was never covered by the federal ban, and isn’t an assault weapon under any of the state bans that I’m aware of.Â It’s certainly not an assault rifle, as it was not designed by Comrade Siminov to fire automatically.

I’m glad the Brady’s don’t seem to be exploiting this tragedy like they did Virginia Tech, but they are still misleading the American people as to the true nature of the firearms they are trying to demonize.Â Paul wants to know where the rifle came from, well, it’s looking like the killer stole the rifle from his step father, probably because he’s prohibited from possessing a firearm under the law, and is unable to purchase one thanks to the, clearly very effective in this instance, background checks mandated by the Brady Act.Â Maybe we need to make it illegal to steal a firea… oh wait.

Message to New Jersey Criminals

Don’t mess with Pennsylvanians, ’cause we’ll shoot you:

While being told to be quiet and cooperate, he was dragged across the street in the darkness and told he was going to be shot. But in an instant, the hunted became the hunter.

Pierce, who carries a handgun for protection, pulled out a .357 revolver and shot Maurice Cook of Easton, who had thrust a .45 handgun into Pierce’s back and the side of his head.

Cook, 22, who was shot in the abdomen, was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital-Fountain Hill, where he underwent surgery and was expected to survive, police said.

He and the other mugging suspect, Tyrone Wright, 22, of Newark, N.J., were charged Wednesday with robbery, aggravated assault and conspiracy. Wright told a district judge he was recently freed from a New Jersey prison, where he had been held on a drug charge.

In a sharp contrast to what the reaction would be in Philadelphia, here’s what the Northampton County DA had to say:

Morganelli said he supports laws that allow people to carry concealed weapons and hopes this latest shooting in the West Ward, the second in less than a week, sends a message to ”these young thugs” that their victims might fight back.

Not so easy pickings on this side of the river, eh? Â Thanks to Clayton for the pointer.

Editorializing Nonsense

Check out this editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constipation. That could have been written by the Brady Campaign.

Not surprisingly, Northern states are getting tired of watching their residents gunned down by weapons imported from the South. That’s why New York City sued 27 gun shops, including some in Georgia, whose weapons showed up in crimes 800 miles away. Last year, four Georgia shops and 11 in other states settled the case and agreed to court-appointed monitoring of their sale practices.

Of course, New York’s largest source of guns is… New York itself!

Among the allegations in the lawsuits: Adventure Outdoors of Smyrna was the source of at least 21 handguns recovered at New York crime scenes between 1994 and 2001. The suits also contend that at least 126 weapons first sold by the Gun Store in Doraville were recovered in New York crime investigations between 1996 and 2000.

Wait wait, I can change a few things here to make this work better

Among the allegation in the lawsuits: Adventure Motors of Smyrna was the source of at least 21 vehicles wrecked in drunk driving accidents in New York between 1994 and 2001. The suits also contend that at least 126 bottles of Jim Beam sold by the Booze Barn in Doraville were recovered from drunk drivers between 1996 and 2000.

So. Ms. Downey, do you believe we should sue Jim Beam and Adventure motors? Wouldn’t that be patently ridiculous? Why is it good to hold gun shop owners responsible for criminal action when they are not breaking the law? Oh, right, because you have no idea what you’re talking about.