Not much gun news that’s very exciting today, so it’ll have to be news links today for the lot of you. The latest trend in media sites working to ensure no one bothers to read them is now playing 20 questions before you can read an article. I’m not going to play, and won’t make any of you, so if you see that, it’s a mistake. But I will do my best to weed that out. The list of sites so annoying, that I won’t link to them, continues to grow and grow:
Rosa Parks’ experience with firearms: “Very late in the process, the leadership of civil rights groups became concerned that groups like the Black Panthers were damaging their brand, and so swept all that under the carpet.” Sound familiar?
Eric Holder is a sad, sad panda. I am very happy to disappoint him.
Maryland gun rights groups are having their Second Annual Second Amendment day tomorrow in Annapolis. It seems Minnesota already had a successful lobby day.
Campus Carry advancing in Montana and Wyoming. though the bill looks to be dead in the Virginia Senate.
Idaho is now considering Constitutional Carry. We need to pass this in another state to keep the momentum going.
They’ve never had the numbers to amount to anything. Without Bloomberg’s money the movement would be nothing. It would already be in the dustbin of history.
I think these sites just make up facts when they write stories. Case in point: “The ease of availability of small arms is driving growth in the US guns market. The gun-related incidents of crime and violence are on the rise whilst the convenience and economic factors of smaller arms are making them the weapon of choice for law enforcement agencies.”
This writer is clearly under 40, “I never heard of a kid getting shot by a cop because his Star Trek phaser was mistaken for a real gun. It was an era in which toys looked like toys.” Back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, and even as late as the 80s, manufacturers were making realistic looking toys guns, and somehow we all managed to survive.
“Every time the gun lobby attempts to weaken our existing laws, we will show up,” which is why we also need to show up. Never let them own the field. The laws that were passed in Colorado in 2013 absolutely need to be repealed, even if it takes a decade.
SAF is filing a new suit against DC’s new concealed carry laws while Palmer is still in the works. I believe contempt is still an option for the judge in the Palmer case.
“We don’t have to guess how hardened criminals will get their guns if universal background checks are passed, because we already know how they get them now: through theft, black market purchases, criminal associates, and straw purchasers. Background checks cannot and do not stop any of these things.” All background checks did was force criminals to use straw buyers.
This gun condom less-than-lethal looks like a magnificently bad idea.
Miguel talks about some misconceptions our opponents have about LEO training.
A man is charged for shooting at DEA agents in a raid. He is claiming self-defense.
An enhancement of the FOPA safe-travel provision would be the perfect kind of bill to put on Obama’s desk to dare him to veto. Out them for being the radicals they are.
Joe Huffman takes a close look at Operation Choke point. Dave Hardy notes: “Now, if someone whose bank spurned them would file a Federal Tort Claims Act claim, citing tortious interference with contract, things might get quite lively, especially during the discovery process.” I absolutely believe we should try to file suit over this.
Off Topic:
I always thought hotels that had hourly rates were something of a legend. Apparently not in Philly.
Ian did a post on vaccines here a bit ago, my own view is closer to Ace’s, though, I’d add that epidemics are kind of like fire. It can go from being a not so serious problem to a crisis right quick. Also this.
There is going to be a hearing on a campus carry bill in Texas on 2/12. Earliest hearing I can remember. Also an open carry bill for concealed license holders. NOT the open carry for all that the IDIOTS in “open carry Tarrant county” threatened legislators over.
I’ve used hourly rate hotels in major international airports (‘international’ as in, not in the USA). South Korea, Bangkok…a few other places I was too tired to remember.
I would get off a flight and have a 13 hour layover. Having a hotel to crash in was awesome. They were right inside the terminals, so no need to process security or customs. Off plane, stop at food court, go to sleep in a real bed for eight hours. Like I said: awesome.
I don’t fly much anymore, but I really, really wish we had these in US Airports.
Still a pretty good list for a slow day. One the articles you posted hits the nail on the head. It’s the big money coming from bloomberg really fueling a lot of this anti gun stuff out of the local, state, and national legislatures. Most Americans find the gun laws suitable or too restrictive already. On my website where we sell guns online I see the trends first hand and our customers let us know. Thanks for the update today
RE: Ferguson: Instead of finding, researching, purchasing, and training on a “new” “less-lethal” force option, why aren’t they purchasing enough Tazers to go around?
IIRC, Ofc. Wilson’s testimony indicated that all of their officers are trained on Tazers, but the dept. doesn’t own enough of them for everyone, so carrying them is optional, not mandatory.
Seems to me that remedying this shortcoming would be a better use of funds and officers’ time than trying to learn how to use a “gun condom” (excellent choice of words on that, btw!), and I’d put out a reminder that “less-lethal” doesn’t mean or guarantee “non-lethal”. If “The Alternative” hits hard enough to “maybe break some ribs”, what happens to a person hit in the face/head?
Also, the device would be make/model/caliber-specific, wouldn’t it? The video shows a Glock, but Ofc. Wilson carried a SIG. Do they cover all “service pistol” variants?
Also (yea, another “also”), it’d take a few seconds to mount/replace the device on the pistol, so if the first shot misses or fails to incapacitate the suspect and the officer is forced (in the heat of the moment) to use “live” rounds on follow-up shots – or there’s simply not enough time to mount it in the first place – will he/she/the department be subjected to additional scrutiny/flack for not taking the time to (*snerk*) “replace the broken condom”?
Jokes aside, while I appreciate an innovative attempt to reduce fatalities-by-cop, there’s so much long-term fail built into this design that I’d avoid it.
Heck, if it hits hard enough to “maybe break some ribs”, it hits hard enough to kill by causing commotio cordis – the same thing that kills a pitcher who takes a line drive to the chest.
There are so many reasons this is a bad idea that it’s hard to know where to stop.
The biggest thing that disturbs me about this “less” lethal option is the fact that it uses a *very* lethal gun to implement. Indeed, anyone trained with the gun is taught that a single bullet isn’t going to stop a threat, so you are supposed to shoot until the person is no longer a threat…and we’re supposed to disregard this training for the first shot?
I’ve been listening to Gun Talk podcasts these past couple of weeks, and one point particularly stood out to me: you should never pull your gun out with the idea that brandishing a gun will perhaps deter the threat, because doing so will lose you precious time that may cost you your life. Instead, you need to pull your gun out with the intent to use it, because your life is in danger, and only stop if the assailant runs away.
This device violates that principle in spades! You have to stop, assess the threat, put a (hopefully) less-lethal object onto a lethal device, and then remember to shoot once, then stop. If you have that much time to make a decision, then you *probably* shouldn’t be using a lethal device in the first place!
(And this is yet another example of a reform that would have done *nothing* to stop the incident that is the concern of the reform in the first place. Michael Brown attacked the officer, leaving him no choice but to resort to lethal force *immediately*.)
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of combining less than lethal system with lethal ones. If one gets manufactured improperly, you get a dead guy that you didn’t mean to be dead. I’m fine with LTL, but it needs to be its own system.
Hotels that rent by the hour are all over the place in Japan.
I think hourly hotels are big everywhere in Asia, except Laos. I spent time there and they don’t take kindly to the idea. Heck, last time I was there they did not even sell women’s bathing suits except in dark corners, and they were more akin to 1950s Idaho than anything in Maxim. Most girls I saw swimming were wearing jean shorts and long-sleeve shirts.
They are a cool people managed by some very old communists.
So are we still unsure that OCTC are not a false flag group funded by Bloomberg?
Also Nintendo once owned a chain of love-hotels in Japan that rented out by the hour.
RE: OCTC
Nah. We gotta own our idiocy before we can fix it.
The Maryland rally was attended by at least two hundred persons, despite schools closing, highway pileups in Annapolis and generally freezing weather due to an impromptu ice storm.
Emily Miller was the keynote and many state legislators attended and spoke. There is now a reciprocity bill in the senate to recognize non-MD permits and it has bipartisan support. Not over the hump yet, but far closer than anything like it to date.
Good to hear! Stay frosty down there (not literally, figuratively)
No-knock raids. Should be treated as an “unreasonable search” subject to strict scrutiny. The only justification I can see for them is kidnapping in progress and known armed violent fugitives.
Drug raids don’t rise to that level. The technology exists to make “flushing the evidence” a non-issue.