The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
As if their whacky permit-to-purchase scheme doesn’t ration enough, one-gun-a-month is back on the table in New Jersey, and it scheduled for a vote on Monday. Call your state senator now. Last time this came to a floor vote, action from gun owners in New Jersey managed to get it pulled from the agenda at the last minute. They did not have a majority to pass this.
It’s time to repeat what we did before.
Pretty horrifying 911 call of a woman who had her pet chimp kill a friend. David points out:
But let’s forget the pundits and persuaders for a moment and just ask ourselves two basic questions:
Or would I rather be useless, and stand shrieking and blubbering helplessly into a telephone while some government worker on the other end of the line tells me to calm down?
If that were my loved one being mauled, having her face ripped off, being rended limb-from-limb, would I want to have the most effective means at my disposal to immediately save her?
I would imagine their solution would be to ban chimps.
Apparently a hair weave managed to save a woman from potential injury by gunfire. It’s actually not too surprising. The tensile strength of human hair is not that much different than structural steel of the same thickness. It’s not out of the question that a tight enough weave would actually be pretty effective at stopping a small caliber bullet. It’s just a matter of it being tight enough that the strands can’t easily move out of the way, and this will absorb a lot of the bullet’s energy breaking strands.
Raising Farrahzona did everything right, but is now way upside down on her mortage. She’s wondering if it wouldn’t be better to just walk away. A lot of people are in this situation right now.
I would have a hard time walking away, even if I could accept that I’d be financially better off. Just because something would seem vaguely wrong about sticking the bank with my problem. But really, there are two people who take a risk when property is purchased with a mortage. You, and the bank. The bank has every incentive to keep a homeowner in their house. If they walk away, the bank is stuck selling the property at a significant loss. The bank might we willing to negotiate, and I think I would try to come to an agreement with my bank before walking away.
My home value has been falling as well. I purchased in 2004. The value is still higher than what I paid for it, but a few more months of this and I’ll be at the price I paid for the house. Because I put 10% down, and have another 10% in a seperate home equity loan, It’ll be a while before I’m actually underwater. I have the cash to pay off the equity loan if the bank demands it because of falling prices. I’m in a far better position than a lot of folks, but Pennsylvania hasn’t gotten soaked as much by falling prices as other places.
I’m glad to see NRA backing away from a proposal to open up a firearms season in bow hunting counties in West Virginia. The crossbow issue seems to antagonize bow hunters in Pennsylvania enough as it is. Let’s not get people pissed at NRA next door too. Also, can we not insult the bow hunters as we’re trying to calm their fears?
When the NRA sent out its postcard poll, Austin said, the West Virginia Bowhunters Association “flipped and thought we were going to try to run a bill.â€
“That just shows they have no knowledge of the process and how it works,†he said.
“We were just in it to see if there was an interest. And there is no interest. We have no desire (to seek changes). We’re a membership-driven organization.
Emphasis mine. Even if it’s true, you don’t say it to the media. I sincerely hope that was a misquote on the part of the paper. It’s important to tread carefully on issues like this. They have the potential to divide our community at a very critical time for us politically.
I do not agree with NRA on the parking lot issue. I will just state that categorically. But this is a welcome victory. Why?
The challenge to Oklahoma’s bill presented some serious risks to gun owners, in that it was argued that the Occupational Safety and Health Act, through the Supremacy Clause of the constitution, really mandated a federal ban on firearms in the workplace, which state law could not contravene. If this outlook had prevailed, it employers would presumably be obligated under federal law to ban firearms in the workplace.
So I am very glad this line of reasoning was shot down by the courts. But there’s still a problem:
“We disagree,” the appellate judges wrote in a 23-page decision. “OSHA is aware of the controversy surrounding firearms in the workplace and has consciously decided not to adopt a standard” banning firearms from the workplace.
What if OSHA did adopt a standard because a certain President directed them to? In addition to disagreeing with the NRA on principle on this issue, I also just don’t like the politics of this issue, and this is one of the reasons why.
The Modesto Bee doing the heavy lifting:
On Tuesday, federal police fighting gunmen in the northern border city of Reynosa had to call the army for help. After the fighting, which left five gunmen dead and seven police injured, authorities seized several assault rifles and even a 60 mm mortar.
In a recent report, the federal Attorney General’s Office said Mexican authorities have seized the most weapons from the Gulf drug cartel and its gang of hit men, known as the “Zetas.” Members of the cartel have been found with rocket launchers, grenade launchers, and weapons capable of piercing armor.
Yeah, because if we don’t stop these 60mm mortar parts kits, and the RPG-7 parts kits, from coming into the United States, Mexico is doomed. Do any of these journalist even bother to check what the law is?
Eugene Volokh talks about a case out of the 7th Circuit that denies Second Amendment rights for drug dealers conducting drug sales. I’m particularly interested to read the final publication of the draft law review he’s working on, which is quoted in the post. I think he gets the balance right in terms of gun possession in the facilitation of crime.
I’m hoping to get the questions wrapped up by Friday, so if you want to ask Scott, Edie or Joe some questions, submit them here. I’ve already gotten several good ones. I’m particularly looking for questions that are competition related for Edie.
Once upon a time, the New York Times actually reported on the NRA’s efforts and activities in a balanced way. Bitter has been combing through their older archives to find stories about their meetings that were reported without bias in the paper of record. What follows are a few of the highlights.
Creedmoor’s far-famed rifle range resounded from early morning until nearly sundown with the “ping, ping” of the marksman’s bullet. The occasion for this lavish expenditure of gunpowder and lead was the sixteenth annual meeting of the National Rifle Association of America.
Creedmoor was the NRA’s first rifle range out on Long Island, and this report on the annual meeting was featured on page 8 in 1888. The range was serviced by train, and one meeting report from 1879 discusses regular train service out to the range for shooters. According to NRA’s history page, the political climate in New York changed rapidly after that story. Political pressure forced the NRA to give up Creedmoor in 1892 and move to a friendlier location – New Jersey.
After reviewing just a few of the many reports the NYT features, it appears that many of the debates we have today were not uncommon 100+ years ago. In 1900, the Times reported that the NRA board underwent changes expanding it to 36 directors and electing new officers who pledged:
[to] be aggressively active from now on in the interest of rifle shooting, and to make this sport one of the popular pastimes of the people. …
[and to] …break away from antiquated ideas and customs and to increase innovations in the way of running-man targets, disappearing targets, up-to-date skirmish matches, and other attractive features at annual meetings.
That sounds familiar.
It is sad to say that we can’t expect such fair or positive coverage at this year’s Annual Meeting & Blog Bash. However, past experience does tell us that you can expect to be misquoted.