Warm Your Cold Heart

Feeling a little cynical with all the anti-gun bills introduced & discussed at the state & federal level lately? Well, here’s a story to warm your heart.

Kayla R. McMullen never fired a gun before signing up for Wilson High School’s newest sport.

But with a little practice and a steady hand, the 17-year-old junior has become the top shooter on the rifle team.

“I fell in love with it instantly,” she said of the marksmanship competitions. …

Some team members are hunters, but many never touched a gun before.

“We have people who are scholars, to those who are artists, to those who are struggling and we monitor their grades,” May said. “We reach people who would never play in an active sport, to those who fit this in between basketball.”

The principal reached out to the coach to start the team. They note that while other schools in the area are cutting sports, the principal thought it was a great addition to their program, and it doesn’t cost them much since they shoot in a former weight room and use air rifles.

Ignoring the Problems

It’s somehow appropriate that the Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, was chosen to give the counterpoint to Chris Cox’s piece in US News. In his call for a magazine ban & “assault weapons” ban, he uses a Philly example to justify the bans.

Since May 2006, eight Philadelphia police officers have been killed in the line of duty, six by gunfire. One, Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski, was felled by an assault weapon.

We’ve covered Liczbinski’s killers here before, and it’s time to hold Mayor Nutter accountable. Before becoming mayor, Nutter was part of the City Council since 1992. During the time he has been in office, these murderers were repeatedly put back out onto the streets even as they racked up an impressive 26 combined pages of criminal offenses, the most of which were Nolle Prossed. As shown in his criminal record, if the City of Philadelphia had put the trigger man behind bars for only the firearms charges, he never would have been on the streets to kill Liczbinski in the first place.

Of course, Nutter won’t answer for why Philadelphia keeps putting these killers back out on the street every single day under his leadership. Instead, he hopes some op-eds in favor of more gun control will keep his constituents from asking real questions about his record on crime.

Defense Rests

More detailed information on the Ung testimony at Phillylacrosse.com.

“I saw the group of guys and I saw Joy jumping up to the scaffolding and a guy kicked out at her,” Ung testified. “I said, ‘Joy let’s go’. I got 10 to 15 feet … I heard someone screaming … hey, hey I’ll touch her if I want, bleep.’

“I said, ‘Seriously, dude.’

”We began to walk backwards away from them. They kept coming at us; kept screaming. Tom kept coming at my back I just remember him screaming and Joy screaming. Tom was coming at me; he was right up on Joy.

“This guy was attacking Joy. I remember her pleading with him. He said, ‘I’ll bleeping kill you!’

” I walked away. I thought I saw Tom was reaching for something a gun or knife. I thought this guy was going to attack us again. We continued to walk away.”

Next time we report on this case, it should be with a jury verdict.

UPDATE: More over at Above the Law.

Destroying Preemption in Pennsylvania

A Senate Bill has been introduced. NRA is not calling for action yet, just noting it. What’s interesting to me is that one of the sponsors of SB176 is Republican Stu Greenleaf, who is the committee chair for the Senate Judiciary Committee. Greenleaf lost his NRA endorsement after helping to sabotage Castle Doctrine with anti-gun amendments in the last session. I’m guessing his leadership position on this anti-gun bill means we can pretty much put him in the anti-gun column from now on.

What this means for Pennsylvania gun owners is that the party leadership of the Senate Judiciary Committee is now solidly anti-gun, despite the Republicans being in control of the Senate.

Chris Cox on the Magazine Ban

Chris Cox in US News and World Report. I’m guessing the publication chose that headline, since “high capacity” just plays into the other side’s rhetoric, and I’d like to think Chris Cox knows the difference between a clip and a magazine.

Ung Testimony

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that witness testimony is over in the trial. It now goes to closing arguments, and to the jury. I will keep my fingers crossed that justice is served.

“I tried to kick him [DiDonato] away first,” Ung, 29, told a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury this morning, describing the incident at Fourth and Market Streets in Old City.

“He grabbed my right leg and I started to fall backward and my shoe came off. I just remember seeing sparks and hearing pops.”

Defense attorney Jack McMahon, who has argued that Ung fired in self-defense, drove the point home: “Did you shoot?”

“Yes, I pulled the trigger,” Ung replied though he added he did not know how many times he fired the .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol he had a permit to carry.

That’s not unusual. The same thing happens to police officers. You shoot until the threat ceases, and unfortunately, DiDonato fell into Ung, which a reasonable person couldn’t distinguish easily between going down and continuing to attack. The ADA seems to be hinging her case on Ung keeping up the “expletive-punctuated banter” with DiDonato. This is presumably to convince the jury Ung was a willing participant in the affray, but I don’t think words are an invitation to a beating.

Swiss Keep Shooting, But For How Much Longer?

Swissinfo.ch notes that this vote was about national identity:

“A gun in the cellar has become a metaphor for a traditional, well-fortified and independent Switzerland,” said the St Galler Tagblatt, adding that an “excellent marketing machine” had stylised the gun debate as a question of national good or evil.

The Basler Zeitung agreed that the image of a “fortified Switzerland” had been evoked explicitly. “The vote wasn’t about having a weapon in your cupboard, but about Swiss identity as such,” it said.

Zurich’s Tages-Anzeiger agreed. “For broad sections of the population it was a question of national identity, of defending freedom and self-determination and of the fight against the nanny state”.

Despite vast differences between the shooting culture in the United States and that in Switzerland, I believe we fight for the same reasons. These argument would be familiar to Americans (poster says “A monopoly on guns for criminals?”). This debate has never really had anything to do with guns themselves, except to our opponents. The question is, how long are the Swiss going to hold out?

Polling shows there was a generational gap in the voting. The Swiss shooting culture is linked very heavily to their militia system. Their militia system is something many younger Swiss, who have grown up in a much safer Europe than their parents and grandparents, believe is an anachronism. They may be willing to vote for heavier gun restrictions if they believe it will convince their fellow countrymen to abandon the militia system.

Such a move was not be so bad in this country, where the tradition of gun ownership outlasted our militia system falling into disuse. But would the Swiss shooting culture be able to survive the death of the militia system, as Switzerland also looks toward greater integration with the European Community? I have my doubts. Having a generation gap is never a good thing, and extricating the Swiss gun culture from their militia system might have to come sooner or later, if they are to preserve at least a semblance of their traditions.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Perhaps you need a little inspiration for sending your loved one an email to share your feelings. In that case, take a peek at the famous email inbox of Elizabeth Bennett. I suggest staying away from the emails of Romeo Montague.

For those of you who absolutely abhor the holiday, perhaps you might find more amusement in the inbox of Yoda.