2010 – Page 10 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Swiss Cops Pull Support for Guns at Home

Looks like doctors and police are lining up to ban military-issue guns in the home. The government, at this point, doesn’t want to do it. How long is that going to last? Police are a tough groups to lose, even more so than Doctors.

It’s worth noting that any time we’ve had the FOP come out against us, we’ve generally lost. Rightly or wrongly, politicians don’t want to stand on the opposite side of rank and file officers. Why? Because most people who are active in their local communities know their local cops, and all politics is local. In the comments a few days ago, we had some folks that were unhappy with Constitutional Carry in Arizona and Alaska, because it allows for officers to disarm people during a stop. My guess is this was in there to buy the silence of law enforcement. We need to keep the police on our side, and maintain the unspoken relationship. If we lose cops, we lose. This probably does not bode well for the Swiss militia system.

Is This Thing On?

Sorry about the outage folks. See, a few days ago I noticed Verizon was offering a 25 megabit/sec up and 25 megabit/sec down FiOS deal for 100 bucks a month. Given that’s what I was paying for a 20 megabit/sec up and 5 megabit/sec down FiOS circuit, I decided to remedy this situation. I’ve done this a few times, and it’s always gone without a hitch. Suddenly you just find yourself upgraded to ludicrous speed.

This time the sales guy put in the order to change my account, over to a DHCP dynamic IP account, unbeknownst to me. I didn’t notice until everything suddenly went offline. A call to Verizon’s tech support quickly revealed the problem when the tech told me “I’m going to cancel all the leases and reset your line,” which prompted me to say “Leases? What leases? I have a static block. We don’t need no steenking leases!” But this was apparently not reflected in my new account information. Panic sets in. The tech can’t do anything without billing’s approval, and billing, who keep bankers hours, are already closed. This means I’ll be out for the night.

So this morning I called first thing at 9, when the billing people arrive, and thanks to the valiant efforts of Nicole at Verizon, we seem to be operational again. I was very worried due to some system issue or another, I would be unable to get back the same IP addresses, which would have protracted this outage another day or so, and maybe more for some people being fed by a DNS server who doesn’t honor cache expiration. So now we should be up and running again with the old IP block, much faster speed, and a 50 dollar account credit for the month.

I’ve generally been very happy with FiOS, and Verizon was very cooperative and apologetic once they realized their error. I’ll forgive a mistake that gets fixed smoothly. This is good, because I really only have two choices when it comes to high speed business Internet, and Verizon is definitely the lesser evil.

Setback for Concealed Carry in California

The judge in this case rules that the right to carry a weapon concealed is limited. The court here essentially argues that California allows unloaded open carry, with loaded open carry being permitted if there’s an immediate danger, and that this satisfies the constitutional requirement.Â Â I think the courts reasoning here is flawed, but the argument seems to be that since it was the concealed carry statute that was challenged, rather than the open carry statute, that the concealed carry statute could be held to pass constitutional muster. The court at least seems to acknowledge that a total prohibition on guns outside the home could be problematic, but this is far from the ruling we want. The opinion is here if you want to read it.

Carrying in the Cold

I was puzzled by Miguel’s question here, since cold weather usually makes carry easier for this Yankee:

OK, so how the heck do you carry up North? Grant you we donâ€™t have the clothes so we work on the 17 layers of Hawaiian shirts and Guayaberas to achieve insulation, WalMart has been smart enough to import long johns from other stores and it is a problem to be wearing 6 pairs of socks with flip flops or sandals. This bulkiness leaves very little room for the regular carry gear I use.

Oh hell, Iâ€™ll freeze.Â Iâ€™ll practice dry firing with stuffed oven mittens a bit later.

For you southern folks who may not experience extreme cold very often, the trick is to get a good, versatile winter coat. A winter coat hides the gun on your hip much more effectively than a light jacket or a shirt. Coats also tend to have more pockets for things like flashlights, OC, blades and spare magazines.Â Accessibility is achieved by wearing a thick enough outer shirt that you can leave the coat open. If you zip the coat up, obviously accessibility becomes a problem. If it does get so cold that you have to bundle up, a pocket gun with a decent pocket holster in the outside pocket of a coat jacket works well. Some people even like a snubby in a jacket pocket because you can fire it straight through the pocket, though I don’t know how you’d practice that, so I’ve never considered doing it.

If you carry a Glock like I do, with the right kind of gloves, you can shoot just fine and still keep your hands warm. You won’t have as much feel for your grip or the trigger, so it takes some practice. It can be done though. I don’t look forward to winter, but I do look forward to having more flexibility in terms of carry that a winter coat brings you.

Guam’s Gun Laws

Chris, who recently visited, talks about firearm ownership in Guam, which is a US territory. I guess they are worried if there are too many guns on the island, it will tip over.

Quote of the Day

Dave Hardy responds to Justice Breyer’s assertion that the founders were familiar with gun laws:

Of course the Framers knew of gun laws. They required most male citizens to have at least one.

Getting a Gun in Chicago

Many folks believe the current process is too difficult, and here you have more examples of what a gap there is between elite and ordinary opinion on self-defense:

During the final hour of a training class in November, the ears of the 16 permit-seekers perked up when an instructor started his lesson with the course’s most eagerly anticipated lecture: the use of deadly force. But many weren’t happy to learn they can’t use their weapons to stop a garage burglary, to scare off car thieves or even to frighten a trespasser.

“This don’t sit well with me,” said a retiree and military veteran after being told it isn’t legal to shoot through a closed door, even if he believes he’s defending himself.

“You don’t have to agree with it, (but) my job is to tell you the law,” the instructor said. “I’m not asking you to accept the law, I’m asking you to understand it.”

Because of the militia purpose outlined in the Second Amendment, I believe it’s within the states military powers to require firearms training (though not as a precondition for exercising the right), but if the state is going to require it, the state must pay for it. That’s not the case in Chicago, certainly. I can think of ways the city could structure its training requirement so that it would be constitutional, but its current method should not be declared so.

Regulators Jerking Around Gun Makers

It’s not here, but in India.

This Ugandan KASHMIRS 80- year- old tradition of making 12- bore guns, used for hunting birds and small game, faces the threat of being wiped out.

Gun making is no longer a profitable business in Kashmir, says Zahoor Ahmad Ahangar, one of the owners of the Subhana gun factory, established in 1925. Subhana, along with Zaroo gun factory are the only large factories left in Bandook Khar locality in the Ranwari area today. Until 1960, Bandook Khar was a gun manufacturing hub.

â€œI would have given up long ago, but this is our ancestral business. There is nothing left in it for my children,â€ he says. …

Subhana and Zaroo are not allowed to make much more than 300 guns a year, says Ahangar. â€œBut there are many factories in Jammu and no one touches them. Their quota was increased every three years.

Recently another factory came up in Jammu which can make 1,500 guns,â€ he adds.

The factories were one of many casualties of the 90s militancy.

Then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Jagmohan ordered their closure saying militants trained with AK- 47 rifles might use the 12- bore. People were asked to hand over their 12- bore guns to the police.

â€œThe factories were closed for two to three years. The government later realised that 12- bore guns are different from AK- 47s,â€ says Muhammad Yaqoob, 60 one of the oldest workers at Subhana.

The government has since allowed the factories to operate, but it did not increase the production quota. …

There are no dealers of 12- bore guns in Kashmir today. Ahangar, who had applied for a dealership four years ago, says despite the no- objection certificate by all the state departments, the police kept the application with itself.

The authorities admit that guns were never misused throughout the long conflict in Kashmir. â€œ We have never received any malpractice complaint about the gun makers. We have never seen them doing anything illegal,â€ deputy commissioner, Srinagar Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo told MAIL TODAY. About the issue of licence, he says: â€œ The home department has to look into the matter.â€

It sounds like they took a page right out of the books of the best and brightest of Chicago, New York & DC politicians. We have a problem with X. We’re gonna ban Y to “solve” the problem with X. The problem with X still doesn’t go away, so we might concede on Y, but we’ll still jerk you around just because that’s what we can do. We’re from the government – and we’re here to help!

First Person Perspective

When I was out in Hawaii, I decided to get one of these to film things I wanted a first person perspective for. It works, especially with a flip camera screwed on to it, but you have to position the hat just right. I’m a lot more impressed with Joe’s video camera glasses. Go see it in action on an IPSC stage.

I wish they made one that would clip to an existing pair of prescription glasses. I could shoot with uncorrected camera glasses on, since my uncorrected vision isn’t that awful, but obviously seeing clearly is better.

Another Daily News Piece on Brian Aitken

This one is very sympathetic. At this point, it’s pretty clear that Governor Christie has the cover necessary to do the right thing. Governors hate this kind of thing, no matter what the issue. You don’t want to pardon a guy then have some 14 year old girl come out two weeks later and say she got knocked up by the guy you just pardoned, or have him go our and rob a bank. That’s largely why the clemency process has been formalized in most states, and delegated to boards to keep Governors away from it.

So I would hope that folks will keep the pressure on Christie’s office, but be patient. His people are likely going to have to dig to see what they can find, lest reporters find it later (and they will look). If I had to bet, I would bet Christie will commute his sentence, but leave the conviction itself intact for an appeal. That would be the least politically risky move from the Governor’s point of view, and would accomplish the goal of getting Brian out of jail. Christie can also use the excuse that it’s just not fair to the taxpayers to spend tens of thousands of dollars every year to keep this guy behind bars.