March 2013 – Page 2 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Media & Guns

Most folks who read this blog have have probably seen this “Journalist Guide to Firearms” graphic at some point:

MediaGuidetoFirearms

What amuses me about this is that we’ve highlighted when the Associated Press has tried to push journalists into the direction of using the correct language.

Yesterday, AP announced that they are expanding their “weapons” entry. Digital subscribers have full access to their new definitions, but they previewed one on Facebook.

semi-automatic A firearm that fires only once for each pull of the trigger. It reloads after each shot. The form: a semi-automatic rifle, a semi-automatic weapon, a semi-automatic pistol. The hyphen is an exception to general guidance against hyphenating words formed with semi-.

I find this amusing since people who know guns then started a discussion in the comments to improve the language so as to reduce potential confusion with double-action revolvers. We are everywhere, and I love it.

Excuses & Extreme Fear

I do love the new strategy of anti-gun advocates. If their anti-Second Amendment rallies end up being a bust, they already have their excuses lined up.

The primary excuse? They are too afraid of gun owners since anyone who supports the right to own as many firearms as they want is clearly unstable. And since gun owners might be present to peacefully oppose their rally, they must stay home for their own safety. Otherwise, she swears that there would be hundreds and hundreds of anti-gun advocates in attendance.

This excuse comes to us by a woman who says she must be “pressed” to go out in public spaces and worries that she now needs to “wear a flak jacket and helmet” when she is forced to go out. She also willingly accepts the blame that her promotion of anti-gun rallies will in fact alert the crazy gun owners to turn up. (Nevermind that gun owners already knew about the rallies and started talking about peaceful opposition days before her column ever ran. That little fact gets in the way of her “bold” stand for anti-gun policies.) She uses her column to ask those who are too afraid to leave their homes for fear of seeing a gun owner to write their Congressman instead. Perhaps she would do a greater service to suggest that they find a therapist who can help them through their extreme and irrational fears.

Bad Week for Mark Kelly?

First he won’t be getting his AR-15, and then his daughter’s bulldog kills a seal in Laguna Beach, and the whole thing gets caught on someone’s cell phone camera. To be fair, Kelly dealt with the dog correctly. His daughter didn’t seem to have a clue what to do, and seemed pretty upset by the whole ordeal. I’m not sure whoever was playing tug of war with the seal against the dog was really helping things either.

A C183 Firearm? Or C183 Point-and-Shoot Camera?

The media, who know about as much about guns as a squirrel, are jumping all over the story about Adam Lanza having his own gun safe. Maybe he did, or maybe it was Nancy Lanza’s safe. Either way, a big thing they point to is this?

Investigators found more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition in the house, and a holiday card with a check “made out to Adam Lanza for the purchase of a C183 (firearm), authored by Nancy Lanza,” according to a search warrant.

What the hell is a C183? I’ve never heard of a firearm by this model.Â It is a 14 megapixel camera. Did some ignorant journalist see C183 and just assume it was a gun? Who determined a C183 is a gun? I’ve never heard of any gun by this model name, and it’s possible there is one I don’t know about, but it is definitely also a point and shoot made by Kodak.

Thanks to WR2A for the story.

UPDATE: It occurs to me if you misinterpreted a Z as a 1, it could be a CZ83.

Republicans Clamoring For Bill?

The Republicans are busy crafting an alternative bill, according to Politico:

One top Senate Republican aide called Grassleyâ€™s alternative bill â€œa break-the-glass kitâ€ in case Reid does round up 60 votes.

Bloomberg is doing everything he can to round up 60 votes. Yesterday Joe Donnelley caved to Bloomberg pressure, showing his office is willing to be run from Gracie Mansion, rather than from voters in Indiana. Who else is going to cave? Clearly there’s some concern the Democrats can come up with 60. They actually can’t do it without some Republicans, but they are clearly looking for those.

DoS Attacker Strikes Again

I have discovered and blocked our DoS attacker. He struck again this morning. I’m still trying to figure out whether I can prevent this for the future. It looks like the attacker would do a normal request, which just looks like ordinary traffic in the logs, then initiate a close with a FIN packet, then block the ACK from my server, leaving the apache process in a CLOSED_WAIT state. When I look at the traffic on the internet, the ack packet going out, and then get responded to with an ICMP packet saying the port is unreachable.Â I guess what I don’t understand is why retry the ack? It seems my server is trying to be too nice. If he blocks the ack it’s his problem. Call close and be done with him.

Obamacare Claims it’s First Gun Blogger Victim

SayUncle is losing his coverage. This is going to be repeated a lot throughout the country. I’m not unconvinced the idea wasn’t to smash the existing system so that people would beg for single payer.

Not Just About Guns

Clayton Cramer and Dave Kopel, along with Joe Olson, have collaborated on a new Second Amendment law review arguing that knives are protected by the Second Amendment as readily as firearms. Likewise, I think prohibitions on stun weapons and chemical sprays, which exist in some states and municipalities are likewise unconstitutional.

Ammo Thievery

A Bucks County man was arrested after attempted to steal ammo from the Hamburg Cabela’s. Locally, one of our gun stores was the victim of an ammo theft as well. I wonder if even the crooks are having a hard time getting a hold of ammunition. You’d think not, since criminals don’t tend to practice with guns, but it’s possible the less scrupulous are realizing there’s decent money to be had reselling ammo.

Freeganism?

A new term for a long and storied tradition of eating roadkill. Personally, I prefer my meat unseasoned by vulcanized rubber or fiberglass, and un-marinated by radiator fluid, but whatever floats your boat. Waste not, want not.