Shall Not Be Questioned – Page 1671 – The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …

Bradys Bad Mouthing Good Gun Shops

This, rather shocking Philadelphia Inquirer article, shocking in the sense that it’s not virulently anti-gun, tells a tale of a Bucks County, PA (my county of residence, north of the city) gun shop that got wrongly blacklisted by the Brady Bunch:

Which is what happened last month when the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence released a report, “Shady Dealings: Illegal Gun Trafficking from Licensed Gun Dealers.” Tanner’s store was featured as one of the scurrilous.

What the Brady Center didn’t know is that the sale had been a sting, arranged in cooperation with the local office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The rest of the article goes into more detail. They do get one thing wrong though:

While he considers the fine points, the woman will wander around, utterly uninterested. But when they’re ready to buy, she’ll be the one filling out the paperwork. If it can be proved she bought the guns for the man, it is a “straw purchase” – a felony.

This isn’t necessarily a straw purchase, since you are allowed to purchase firearms as gifts. Even in Pennsylvania, where private sales of handguns are generally illegal, there is an exception for spouses, and immediate family members.

But overall, it’s good to see stuff like this. I will have to send the Philadelphia Inquirer some praise for printing a good, balanced article on the issue. Oh, and Tanner managed to get an apology out of the Brady’s and a retraction, after getting a lot of phone calls from irate customers who read a newspaper article on the Brady’s report. I would have hoped that gun shop patrons would know ahead of time that the Brady’s are full of crap.

I Hate Guilt

Today I got a letter from my little cousin (once removed):

Hi! Iâ€™m joining in the American Heart Associationâ€™s Jump Rope For Heart event at my school. I will be jumping rope to help the American Heart Association raise money to fight heart disease and stroke. Can you help me by making a donation? Thanks!

The American Heart Association’s online fundraising website has a minimum donation amount of $25.00. If you want to donate less, that’s ok. You can just send the check right to me and I’ll make sure the American Heart Association gets it.

Thank you!

You know, normally I’d be all for something like this, because I think both the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association do a lot of good work.

But lately, they’ve been pushing smoking bans and were lobbying for sticking it to big tobacco. So now the AHA and ALA aren’t charity cases, they are political activist groups hell bent on removing freedom from Americans. And because of that, I will ignore my cousin’s e-mail. I’d really like to help out, but not at the expense of liberty.

Charity groups get involved in political issues at their peril.

Car Survival

As the incident in Pennsylvania should remind us, we must always be prepared when venturing out in inclimate weather in our vehicles. I won’t say I’m always perfect in this regard, but there are several things every car should have when traveling, IMHO:

Sufficient drinking water
Some kind of emergency ration. Could just be some power bars or something
Something to keep warm, you never know when you will be exposed for prolonged periods of time
Some means of making fire
Some means of extinguishing fire
Cell phone
Decent set of walking shoes if you have to wear heels or dress shoes
Change of clothes if you’re in dress clothing.
A rifle and spare ammunition, where legal

This is probably preaching to the choir a bit, since we gun nuts generally give more thought to this kind of thing than the average person, and are thus better prepared. The last entry will probably give non-gun folks the willies, but too bad. Most of them wouldn’t blink over my suggestion to have a fire extinguisher in the car, and having a rifle is really no different. A pistol could be substituted for a rifle, but rifles really are better for extreme circumstances, and they don’t take up much room in the car. For a car or truck gun, I think you can’t really beat the Kel-Tec SU-16 or SUB-2000 series. I wish they made the SUB-2000 in .45ACP though, because the great thing about the SUB-2000 is it takes the same ammo you carry in your pistol. A lot of people like to carry .45, and given that advantage, you’d think they’d want it available in all three of the common pistol calibers rather than just two.

God No! Please God No!

Milton Street, older brother of John Street, the current Bozo in Chief of the city, appears to want to run for mayor. I’m already upset enough with the whole Bill and Hillary thing. We don’t need to add to the whole “keeping it in the family” meme.

The article notes that Milton is facing federal charges in the airport consulting scandal, which brought to light much of the “Pay to Play” politics that was going on with the Street Administration. It also notes that he lives in New Jersey.

I sincerely hope his candidacy isn’t going anywhere. I’d hate to see Philadelphia beating out New Orleans for “most corrupt city”. Sadly, I think we’re already in the running.

Ice Storm Grievences

This story seems to have gotten picked up by the national press:

HAMBURG, Pa. – National Guardsmen in Humvees ferried food, fuel and baby supplies Thursday to hundreds of motorists stranded on a 50-mile stretch of highway for nearly a day by a monster storm blamed for 15 deaths.

The traffic jam on the icy, hilly section of Interstate 78 in eastern Pennsylvania started to ease by the afternoon, but drivers were still seething.”How could you operate a state like this? It’s totally disgusting,” said Eugene Coleman, of Hartford, Conn.

Hey Mr. Coleman: Screw you and the horse you rode in on. I’ve had too much experience driving through your sorry state to know that sitting on a highway there is a regular occurance. You people have no room to lecture other states about their highway systems. You just have I-95, pretty much, and if I can average 30 through it, I’m doing pretty well. For some reason your state’s highways are under such perpetual construction, it’s been nicknamed “The Construction State” (satire on the state motto “The Constitution State”).

I should note, that Hamburg, PA is one of my favorite places in the entire commonwealth. Not only does it have Cabelas, but has some great hiking trails as well. I highly encourage folks to visit this area, and spend some money at Cabelas while you’re at it.

Ammunition Control

New Jersey is laying the groundwork for ammunition control. I can’t say this shocks me, because to be honest, I’m surprised they haven’t gone for an outright ban yet. New Jersey continues to provide me with reasons to support global warming, namely that, if the climate models are to be believed, it will return portions of the Garden State to the sea from whence it came. Can’t happen soon enough if you ask me!

I am not optimistic about the future of New Jersey for our 2nd amendment rights. It’s a lost cause. The only way they will be saved is for the courts to remind them that they are part of the United States, and are thus subject to the Bill of Rights, including the second and fourteenth amendments.

It struck me this weekend, that what I legally do regularly in Pennsylvania, which involves throwing a bunch of evil black rifles in the back of my car and disappearing for weekend, could land me in prison for years in New Jersey. The only difference being on one side of a river or another.

Since I’ve been involved in the shooting community, I’ve become much more aware of state borders than I was in the past. I envy the folks in the West and Southwest, who can drive for days and not really have to think about it. We don’t have that luxury in Pennsylvania. We’re surrounded by states that want to lock up law abiding gun owners on three sides. The real question for us, as gun owners and shooters, is explaining to folks that don’t ever give this much thought, exactly how absurd this sorry situation is. But in my experience, most people really don’t have a commitment to freedom. Freedom is lip service for most people; something you say you’re in favor of, but when the rubber meets the road, suddenly it’s suggested “Oh, no. I don’t like that. Freedom certainly doesn’t mean that”. To the folks in New Jersey, it seems to boil down to whether you have the right to cut a fetus out of your body or marry someone of the same sex.

I’m not trivializing these concerns, just that, there’s a lot more to freedom than the standard bullshit that the left cares about. I’m not convinced that either party has a monopoly on supporting or eroding freedom, but if New Jersey is the left’s example of how they view freedom, you can count me the hell out. I’ll move to Arizona. Better weather anyway.

You know you’re a gun nut when…

… You find yourself using SHTF (Shit Hits the Fan) with non-gun nuts, and are shocked they have no idea what it means.

Last Night’s Episode (Spoiler Warning)

So if Desmond is seeing future events, because he relived it before, doesn’t that mean he’s also relived his time on the island as well?Â And if Charlie was killed by lightning originally, wouldn’t he have had to relive it more than once to know that Charlie would later drown trying to save Claire?

Also, from last week’s episode, the brainwashing scene backwards:

** The Video Which Once Appeared Here Was Removed By YouTube **

Only fools are enslaved by time and space.

It Was Only a Matter of Time

A new assault weapons ban has been introduced into the Democratic Congress.Â By none other than our great friend Carolyn McCarthy.Â Don’t despair yet, because it currently has no cosponsors, which I think says something.Â The subcommittee makeup doesn’t look all that good for us, so it’s possible this could make it out of the subcommittee.Â Hopefully, it’ll never make it to the floor.

If it does, there might not be votes to pass it.Â But if it does, I doubt Bush will veto it.Â He’ll trade signing it to get something else he wants.Â No cause for alarm yet, but we have to be vigilant here.

What’s Your .22LR Survival Weapon?

Ahab of WWJWD talks about Survival Rimfires.Â Pretty cool.Â Some good points I never would have thought of:

Noise signature – .22LR isn’t very loud. If your weapon has been so modified, it can be quite easy to suppress even further, which again is an advantage if you’re concerned about giving your position away while foraging for food.

I have a Ruger MKII pistol and a Ruger 10/22 myself, though I never would have thought of it as anything more than a plinker.Â But the ability to silently take down small game is a great observation for usefulness in the “oh shit” scenario.Â Read the whole thing.