February 2008 – Page 12 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Northern Illinois School Shooting

I have very little to say about this myself, except one question to all the folks out there who keep suggesting we gun nuts are paranoid nuts for suggesting more guns are the problem:

If you were sitting in a school auditorium, you suddenly heard a loud “BANG!” followed by another, then another.Â You turn around and see a ban walking down the aisle wielding a shotgun, taking aim and shooting at people along the way.Â Unbeknown to you, the man next to you is a competitive pistol shooter, and has been shooting since he was a child.Â He immediately grabs you, and pulls you down to cover. Â At this point, would you prefer the man next to you be armed, and have the ability to end all this will a well placed shot? Â Or would you prefer that the state has made him every bit as helpless as it has made you?

Of course, I know what the answer will be.Â That if we allow people to carry guns, the man next to me is more likely to be an inbred yahoo who can’t hit the side of the barn, and will just kill more innocents.Â Because clearly it’s those types of people who own and carry guns.Â One day perhaps these people will surrender their predjuicial fantasies, but it seems an awful lot of people are willing to see an awful lot of other people cowering in the face of these monsters, rather than allow for the possibility that someone could do something about it.

Friday Through Saturday

Bitter and I will be doing our annual (well, I guess this makes two years in a row, so we can call it that) winter camping expedition in Northern Pennsylvania.Â I’m told there’s eight inches of snow up there, and rising.Â Sounds like a good time to me!

Needless to say, won’t be much posting over that time period.

Gun Control in Space

Apparently the Russians keep a firearm on the International Space Station, and with the gun, comes the gun haters:

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.Experts said the idea of an astronaut losing control was unthinkable until one year ago, when Lisa Nowak shattered the myth.

My opinion on the matter is if the Russkies have a gun, we should too.Â We can not allow for a space station gun gap! But in all seriousness, having a firearm on board a return vessel that could get lost in the wilderness for a period isn’t a bad idea. Lisa Nowak is a sign that there’s something horribly wrong with NASA’s screening practices, not that the Russians need to keep dangerous objects out of the space station.Â Crazy people in a space station is inherently dangerous, weapons or no.

Some of Obama’s Ideas

This bit about his tax proposal:

Senator Joe Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has not endorsed either Senator Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. But on Thursday, February 14, he is trying to rush Obama’s “Global Poverty Act” (S.2433) through his committee. The legislation would commit the U.S. to spending 0.7 percent of gross national product on foreign aid, which amounts to a phenomenal 13-year total of $845 billion over and above what the U.S. already spends.

Given that this is a GOP activist oriented site, I should link to the actual bill as well.Â I’m not in favor at all of tying spending to GDP levels.Â Spending on foreign aid should be geared toward our national and international interests.Â I don’t see any reason to do something like this. The article also points out, this is part of the UN Millennium Development Goal, which also includes restricting small arms and light weapons.Â This bill doesn’t implement that, but it does call into question what other parts of the UNMDG Obama likes.

Obama Wave Cresting?

I’m not as sure about that as this Wall Street Journal article, but the article brings up a lot of good points:

Whatever else, Barack Obama isn’t talking sunshine in America. He’s talking fast and furious. People not yet baptized into Obamamania may start to look past the dazzling theatrics to see a vision of the United States that is quite grim and could wear thin in the general election.

There may indeed be a Message B for the fall in the Obama drawer. This week’s speech, like a televangelist’s, may be designed to drive small contributions. The Web-site version ends with an appeal to donate to “this historic moment.” I suspect, though, that it is the core of the Obama campaign, now or later.

Odds are that he will ride it to the nomination among Democrats for whom America can never quite escape the Depression. Hillary Clinton can only offer what she’s got — a clear-eyed ambition to get, and use, Democratic power.

Everything in life has a top — stocks, football teams and political phenoms, as she well knows. Though down, Hillary ought to suck it up for Ohio and Texas and hope the Obama wave starts to break. On current course, it will.

Read the whole thing.

Via Instapundit

Congratulations are in Order

Wyatt Earp has a new baby boy.

Breach of Faith

Bob Levy, one of the guys behind Heller, takes the Bush Administration to task for it’s brief filed on the side of Washington D.C.

Funny of the Day

From SayUncle:

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.

Idiots With Guns

In this case, an idiot who doesn’t think you should be able to have one.

The photograph has pervaded talk radio and cyberspace, creating blog chatter and a forum for public opinion. Many pundits, bloggers and forum-poster took aim at the mayor. The shot was taken at a public unveiling of new additions to the New Orleans Police Departmentâ€™s arsenal.

â€œWhen most saw it, they were horrified,â€ Loyola University professor of communications Dr. Robert Thomas said. â€œThe way people feel about guns, with the murder rate here, itâ€™s something we have to deal with.â€

All the better to arm the NOPD for the next time they unlawfully invade people’s homes and steal their property.Â Can’t have the uppity townspeople outgunning the “good guys” can we?

War on Guns has more.

Compromises

I know some of you might be shocked to hear an NRA board member say Compromises Do Not Work, but that’s what Tom King is trying to do with one guy that goes by the alias “Gman”.Â Gman is one of the disenfranchised souls that is disappointed Harlan Carter managed to wrest control of the NRA in the 1977 “Cinncinatti Revolt”.

It’s generally been my experience that, unless you’re the type that thrives on politics, the more understanding of the process that you have, the less you trust it.Â Gman says this, in regards to Tom’s last post on ballistic imaging and microstamping:

Donâ€™t be shocked, but I happen to agree 110% with you on this oneâ€¦and would like to take a step back to my post on microstamping. Because it would seem to me to be pretty much the same logical principle; that it really does not aid in apprehending a criminal, even if the gun is IDâ€™ed. It just adds expense. The new evidence on imaging should help make the case for microstamping moot up in the Capitol.

It really seems to me to be a no-brainer. And I would think that it would be one of those issues that would be fairly simple to head off early in the legislative process by a fairly clear explanation; that is, an issue that the legislative liaison folks could take care of, alleviating the information overload on Joe Sixpack gun owner.

My response to that is one should never assume the legislative process involves a bunch of smart, well meaning people sitting around trying to fix real problems with real solutions. Think of the opposite of that, and you have the legislative process. This isnâ€™t about the utility microstamping has in crime solving, itâ€™s being pushed by the gun control groups because it will drive the cost of guns up, and drive some manufacturers who wonâ€™t be able to afford to add this to their production process to either close shop if they manufacture in-state, or sacrifice the market in a large state (like New York and California).Â The gun control groups don’t give a whit if it never solves a single crime, beause it’s about increasing the regulatory burden on the gun industry, driving prices up, and putting a damper on the market.

Politicians will go along with this if they think they can go back to their constitents, and talk about all the wonderful things they are doing to fight crime.Â This is why you can’t rely on liasons, you have to educate people, tie these issues together, so that gun owners understand what they are up against, and will tell their legislators that they want none of this nonsense.