Month: August 2008
Auto Buybacks
Well, it look as if someone has proposed a scheme for a government car buyback. Alex Tabarrok points out that this scheme will have the same economic problems that gun buyback schemes suffer from.
Texas State Rifle Association Team
A picture of the team at the Camp Perry National Championships. Notice all the black rifles that folks like the Brady Campaign and Josh Sugarmann tell us have no sporting purpose. You’d almost think the AR-15 was the most popular target rifle in use today or something.
Olympic Babe Of the Day
Over at Support Your Local Gunfighter. That’s one sexy air rifle. And the shooter ain’t bad either.
Mexico Once Again
The LA Times is falling for it too:
High-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from border states into Mexico, fueling a war among drug traffickers, the army and police that has left thousands dead, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.
Except that high-powred automatic weapons aren’t something you can just waltz into a gun store or gun show with a straw buyer and get your hands on. This narrative has been repeated in so many papers, presented in the exact same manner, you almost have to believe they are using a template of some sort.
A Loss of History
One of the last “Witness Trees” on the Gettysburg Battlefield has died. Visit enough places, and you’ll be impressed by just how much changes through time. Fredericksburg Battlefield has become almost completely overgrown. Look at historical pictures, much of it is clear, but where fields once were, forest now abounds.
Apparently there are two other surviving trees on the battlefield, but living things do eventually die. Such is nature.
Quote of the Day
From the HuffPo of all places:
Zbigniew Brzezinski: Fundamentally at stake is what kind of role Russia will play in the new international system. Unfortunately, Putin is putting Russia on a course that is ominously similar to Stalin’s and Hitler’s in the late 1930s. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has correctly drawn an analogy between Putin’s “justification” for dismembering Georgia — because of the Russians in South Ossetia — to Hitler’s tactics vis a vis Czechoslovakia to “free” the Sudeten Deutsch.
Let’s hope we don’t have to repeat that sorry bit of history. We need a comprehensive missile defense system. We need it yesterday. It makes this all the more troubling:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl32Y7wDVDs[/youtube]
God help us all.
The Guns of South Ossetia
Sanctions?
It’s occurred to me that I’m not certain that I would like to support Putin’s thuggish regime by helping their economy by purchasing more of their ammunition. But what if the response to the Russian invasion of Georgia is sanctions? Would the shooting community be willing to endure even higher ammo prices to teach the Russians a lesson that we won’t stand idly by while the Red Army strangles nascent democracies?
I for one, am willing to make that sacrifice. I think the cold war is probably back on after this, which would mean the end of cheap supplies Russian made ammunition.
If only …
… the big brown truck of joy could bring me things like this.