You can stop the blood dance now. It ain’t happening. Give up. You have lost.
Hat Tip, Instapundit.
Year: 2011
Where We Are
Michael Bane offers some cogent thoughts:
My take is that the gun control fanatics have overplayed their hand…that is, the rush to get some legislation in both the House of Representatives (ever the fanatic Carolyn McCarthy , D-NY) and in the Senate (the reprehensible Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ) looks more like political opportunism than reasoned thought, of course generally the case with antigun legislation.
I think he’s spot on. I think their reaction to this crisis has been awful, and I mean that even from the point of view of their own cause. They tossed their lot in with the left’s and the media’s premature ejaculation. Those days are past. It used to be that a lie had a chance to get around the world before the truth got its pants on. Now maybe it gets as far as Kansas. Our opponents have not adapted to the new reality, and the beauty of it is that I don’t think they can.
UPDATE: I think Jacob’s read is correct too.
Where Is NRA?
Joan Peterson wants to know. If the shooter had been African-American, would you ask where the NAACP is? If he had been gay, would you ask where the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is? If he had been Jewish, where B’nai B’rith is? Would Exxon Mobil have to explain themselves if he had filled a super soaker full of gasoline and burned 5 people to death? Would Ford have to explain if he drove his car into the crowd? Would you demand the ACLU make a statement explaining their role in defending the disgusting speech of Fred Phelps?
Why does the NRA need to have something to say about a whack job murdering people? Why isn’t “Anything other than prayers for the victims and their families at this time would be inappropriate,” appropriate in this situation? Careful. Your bigotry is showing. We don’t owe you a debate. Introduce your bills in Congress, and watch us make sure they go nowhere.
Quote of the Day
“In the wake of these kind of incidents, the trick is to move quickly,” said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, one of the gun control groups working with McCarthy’s office.
Never let a crisis go to waste. These people are unbelievable.
Backpedaling
SayUncle reports on this Reason article that shows GOA’s Larry Pratt backpedaling on his statement to Fox that indicated he did not support gun rights for permanent legal residents. He’s claiming he position was misstated. Except in the first comment over at Uncle’s, we have a response that indicates that was not the case.
This looks like a case of Pratt not expecting quite the backlash he did, and backpedaling.
“Step Away From the Pump, Sir”
Apparently pumping your own gas, which is unlawful in New Jersey, can be used as a reason to stop someone and search them. Sadly for this guy, when they searched him, they found a loaded gun.
Don’t Blame Politics, Blame Guns
That act, which followed an attempt on President Ronald Reagan’s life, requires that background checks be conducted on individuals before they can buy a firearm from a federally licensed dealer, manufacturer or importer, unless an exception applies.
Despite his obvious troubles, Loughner didn’t have a criminal record, so he was easily able to get a gun. And what a gun: He used a Glock 9mm pistol, modified with a high-capacity magazine that fires 33 rounds. These types of high-capacity magazines were outlawed by the 1994 assault-weapons ban. That ban expired in 2004.
THAT ALLOWED HIM to convert his rage from a single shot that might have missed his target into a deadly bloodbath whose victims included a 9-year-old girl.
Again, the assault weapons ban didn’t ban anything. It banned manufacture, and exempted police agencies. I got plenty of 30 round magazines legally during the ban. The Glock 19 is probably one of the most common handguns around today. Certainly it is very common among police agencies. There’s nothing odd or particularly deadly about it that’s not true of most other firearms. Then you have the lawmakers and anti-gun folks:
Robyn Thomas, executive director of Legal Community Against Violence, which was formed after the 101 California St. killings, said such weapons have “absolutely no legitimate sporting purpose or self-defense purpose.”
OK then, so your bill isn’t going to have an exemption for police officers then, right? If this is true, I see no reason for the police to have them either.
The Other Big Weekend News
So Verizon made the iPhone official today. I can’t wait. I don’t plan to upgrade from my first generation Droid since I’m perfectly happy with my phone. However, Sebastian will likely make the switch as soon as possible. He purposefully did not get the iPhone 4 so he wouldn’t be trapped in a 2-year contract with AT&T. Instead, he got an iPad. Now he can upgrade and have a carrier who can, you know, actually handle phone calls.
I’ve been a Verizon customer since my early days of college. I avoid the stores at all costs, but their phone customer service has been nothing but wonderful. They don’t make doing business with them a pain in the butt, and I’m a fan of such simplicity. More importantly, I can make phone calls.* :) Continue reading “The Other Big Weekend News”
Arizona Paper to Sheriff: Do Your Damn Job
At this point, most people are tired of extreme partisans trying to blame the Arizona shootings on talk radio, dissenting opinions, and politicians they don’t like. Why are they tired of it? Because it’s all utter BS at this point. This was a highly disturbed man, and some reports from neighbors who have talked to his parents, they just never noticed he had issues. Which is odd since apparently his father was a stay-at-home dad for decades and the shooter lived at home.
One of the worst offenders in this case is the Pima County Sheriff. And the local press is taking notice:
The world’s eyes, once again, focused on Arizona for the worst of reasons. And Dupnik stood before the cameras interpreting the shootings as politically motivated, despite an increasing weight of evidence depicting the shooting suspect, Jared Loughner, as a mentally ill young man who rambled incoherently about pervasive bad grammar and other apolitical obsessions. Even Dupnik has observed that Loughner had made death threats against others and that they had been investigated by police.
Still, Dupnik used the opportunities to blame Arizona’s lax, new gun laws and, again, the angry “rhetoric” of talk radio. The shootings were spurred, he suggested, by “the rhetoric about hatred, about mistrust of government, about paranoia of how government operates.”
Dupnik took up his cause again on Monday. And, in response, we have to say at last . . . enough. Enough attacks, sheriff. Enough vitriol. It is well past time for the sheriff of Pima County to get a grip on his emotions and remember his duty. …
Dupnik needs to recall that he is elected to be a lawman. With each additional comment, the Democratic sheriff of Pima County is revealing his agenda as partisan, and, as such, every bit as recklessly antagonistic as the talk-show hosts and politicians he chooses to decry. (Emphasis added.)
Pot, Kettle, I think you two know each other.
Eliminationist Symbolism from the Brady Campaign
Thanks to Todd Vandermyde for pointing this out, but it would seem our friends at the Brady Campaign have used violent target images themselves:
Remember, this is the same organization who’s President just said, “Sarah Palin used gun “target” metaphors encouraging voters to defeat Rep. Giffords and others.” Pot, meet Kettle.
Hat tip to Carl from Chicago for helping put together this post.
UPDATE: You can find the full Brady mailing here.