I know that my alma mater is safe from today’s tornado in Western Massachusetts, but I wonder how the Smith & Wesson facilities are doing. I learned to shoot on their range. We got home late, so I am not completely up-to-speed on what happened and where. If anyone has any reports from up there, I’d love to hear them.
Author: Bitter
Cowboy Action Shooty Goodness
Cemetery has pictures of his weekend shooty activities. There’s a top hat, a couple of fireballs, and a whole lotta smoke.
Saving Lives – Not the Goal of Some Law Enforcement Agencies
Jake has more information on the shooting by the sheriff’s deputy in Virginia that caused a major interstate system to be shut down for the better part of a day. It turns out that the sheriff for which the deputy worked had information that he went rogue and was planning to kill his ex-wife. You’d think information like that would call for a regional alert that all law enforcement agencies should be on the look out for an out-of-jurisdiction officer and maybe even get some protection to the intended target.
Nope, not when it’s your staffer. Instead, the sheriff called one local department where the intended target lived (not where she was shot) and left a message for a supervisor. That’s right, he left a message. And this is while he ordered his own dispatch not to issue an alert to other agencies. Seriously, go read more at Jake’s place. That sheriff has some serious questions to answer from the victims and their families.
Getting the Message Out
As much as people blog, I really hate that gun owners don’t do more letters to the editor in their regional papers. Take this letter from Marion Hammer down in Florida:
Sue Carlton is calling out St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster for respecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners and not joining a New York City gun control organization that lobbies against the rights of honest citizens.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s organization, Mayor Against Illegal Guns, is not about illegal guns; it is a front for gun control activities against law-abiding gun owners.
She proceeds to outline the many ways that MAIG has lobbied for gun control which have nothing to do with illegal guns. Believe it or not, but letters to the editor are still a great way to communicate. While newspapers might be on the decline, they still reach a broader audience on a daily basis than the vast majority of blogs do in 6 months. And, for purposes of Google-magic, newspaper content is often ranked higher than regular websites.
Next time there’s an anti-gun piece in your local paper, respond to it. When the message is from someone local, it makes a bigger impact.
Anti-Gun Activists on Parade
About 200 people marched on the NRA meeting in April, and I went to talk to a few of them about what inspired them to participate in a protest, what they believed was happening inside the convention, how they felt about concealed carry at such an event, and how they view the Second Amendment.
First, I want to thank reader Adam Z. for taking the pictures. Oh, and for bringing a buddy new to the issue along to Pittsburgh for their first NRA meeting. They both decided to go check the protest out with me, and this video would be missing several of the shots of signs & people if it had not been for Adam. Second, I apologize for the shaky images. Again, forgetting the tripod was not one of my better moments. But, for much of the video, it would not have mattered since I was conducting most of the interview while we were actually marching. During said march, I was dodging construction signs, potholes, and cars.
Palin’s Media Circus
I’m thankful I don’t have any errands to run today in Philadelphia because the Palin media circus has come to town. I don’t even understand what the hell this tour is about.
It’s not a family vacation – at least most families don’t launch political action committees to fund a completely wrapped bus in order to promote themselves and ask people to follow along when they head out to visit monuments and parks. It’s not a grassroots tour because she’s refusing to contact local tea party or Republican groups. It’s not a media tour because even though she invited her favorite host for an interview on the bus and is telling people to follow her for updates, she doesn’t really want them to follow her or talk to her. She says that it’s not a publicity tour, yet she’s “about highlighting the great things about America.” Highlight how if not through the press or groups with contacts on the ground in these areas?Highlighting to her staff who are paid to listen to her?
I think that this observation sums up the purpose of the tour:
Sarah Palin and her advisers are refusing to tell members of the media where she is going on her current bus tour – and the former Alaska governor seems to be enjoying the cat and mouse game that’s resulted.
It is the “Pay Attention to Me Tour of 2011.” The way she’s acting based on the Twitter accounts of those following the tour and her comments to the media are really juvenile at this point. If she is trying to sow support from the grassroots activists who will fuel any potential 2012 campaign, she’s not exactly demonstrating competency in putting together these kinds of events with any success.
Grumpy Naked Old Men
I really have to wonder what goes through a person’s head when they decide to take it all off and showcase their goods to the neighborhood while sunbathing on their roof. I really, really want to know what goes through their head when that person is a 71-year-old man.
An Interesting End to a Weekend at the Range
Sebastian should be about an hour away from home by now. Unfortunately, he’s still probably about four hours away. Why? Because of a 16 mile back up on I-81 northbound in Southwest Virginia.
Why was traffic backed up for 16 miles? Because a sheriff’s deputy got in his official vehicle, stalked his ex-wife to a gas station, pulled his rifle out and shot her multiple times in front of a child in her car & bystanders nearby. Then he got back in his out-of-county sheriff’s vehicle, evaded state police for a while, then pulled over and shot a state trooper in the leg before getting about a mile down the road and engaging in another shoot-out with two additional state troopers.
Unfortunately, Sebastian didn’t see the traffic until he was just past an exit. Then he spent over an hour trapped while trying to get 5 more miles to the next exit. In an attempt to use AT&T’s cell network, I routed him around the roads where the state police were dropping the rest of 81’s traffic, but it added another hour and a half to his time.
The good news is that the state trooper who was shot is doing fine. The sheriff’s deputy has “life threatening” wounds.
NRA Reaches 1 Million Facebook Fans
Earlier today, the NRA crossed the 1 million fan milestone on their Facebook page. Meanwhile, the Brady Campaign recently crossed the 14,000 fan mark. Just sayin’.
Brian Aitken Interview
I’ve been meaning to listen to this for a couple of days, but just got around to putting it on as background to working on random projects. Brian Aitken did an interview with Sam Adams Alliance to talk about his arrest, and this portion gives the basic story with a focus on why he turned down several plea bargains.
Take a minute to listen: Brian Aitken Interview