The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
A lot of gun control groups always try to portray the gun industry as deep pocketed, evil, large corporations. The truth is that gun makers tend to be small time operations, often even cottage industries.
Here at the NRA convention, we have a live example of that. I just saw Tom Knapp checking into our Holiday Inn Express downtown.  I guess Benelli can’t afford, or is too cheap, to put him up in the Renaissance across the street :)
My flight in was on an Embraer ERJ 145, which is smaller than your average family sedan. I’m six feet three inches tall, and weight 235lbs. I have a difficult time fitting in the seats of a Boeing 737, let alone a tin can with wings. Pretty soon, if trends continue, it’ll be easier for me to box myself up and FedEX me to my location rather than endure the ever shrinking planes and seating the airline industry is offering.
As I was departing Philly for St. Louis, I noticed there was a Liberty Bell made entirely from Legos in the Philadelphia Airport. It’s located in the new International Terminal:
I thought that was pretty impressive, so I thought I’d share. It’s even the actual size.
I made it to St. Louis, and so did my Glock. The check in process was painless. They didn’t even ask to inspect it. I’m guessing the x-ray machine they use can see whether a round is in the chamber, but there was a big cable lock through the magazine well and slide. I thought I heard one TSA agent mention it was a Glock. Another actually came over, saw my NRA shirt, and asked me if I was a member, when I affirmed, he started asking me about good pistols to get started with handgun shooting on. I told him I was a Glock man, but that some people don’t like them, and SIGs are also pretty good. Either way, I was happy it was such a painless process.  I will not hesitate to travel with a firearm again.
Sorry for the light blogging tonight.  I’ll be liveblogging the convention.  For your entertainment tonight, be sure to read Bill Whittle’s latest essay.
Ahab has several posts on Don’s Guns of Indianapolis. He’s not a big fan of Don, and his support of local gun control measures. As soon as he mentioned this I could swear seeing this name before, and sure enough, I have. I’m not sure where I originally ran into this guy, but my first instinct was “I’m not sure I’d rent or buy a gun from a guy who doesn’t know to keep his finger off the trigger and keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.”
I agree with Ahab. I think it’s a safe bet this guy is a bozo, and man, that laugh is just creepy. I’d rather this guy was selling something other than guns.
Just because it’s your sandbox, doesn’t mean you should be a brat to all the other kids in the neighborhood, because they don’t want to play the same way you do. It’s a good lesson, I think.
UPDATE: The continuing controversy is making me consider proposing a new verb:
Althoused
verb
Usage: #9 got seriously althoused over at KnoxViews.
Hopefully Prof. Althouse isn’t insulted by this proposed verb, but she’s the most prominent target of this type of behavior I’ve seen to date. But it appears she’s not the only one who causes the lefty blogosphere to start stoking the fire underneath the stakes.
I’m still debating whether to take the Glock along to St. Louis.  I’ve never checked a firearm before, since I don’t travel much by plane. I’ve always been kind of worried about getting a clueless ticket agent or TSA drone, and having complications and missing the flight.  Or, even worse, have them lose my luggage.
I’ve meant to blog about this, but I thought I’d do some linky-no-thinky instead. The City Troll has as good a write up on the incident as I would have done. Sestak is a class A bonehead, and this incident just reinforces it.
The really sad thing about this editorial is that I’m not certain whether it’s for real or a joke. If they were talking about any other politician, I would assume a joke. But according to this, John Street is about to blame Philadelphia’s murder rate on global warming.
I really think it’s satire, but since the city government is the biggest joke in the universe, it’s hard to tell for sure.