"I Don't Remember Who Is Responsible"

That's funny: That line never worked for me when I was six years old.



Stonewall Miller

When The One loses NBC...

...there may be a glimmer of a shadow of a possibility of a hope that someone meaningful will be held responsible.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAA!!!!!

Right.

Earth and Sky Photo Contest 2013

Earth and Sky Photo Contest 2013 from Babak Tafreshi on Vimeo.

Cows With Guns

A paean to the armed Bovine-American:



Not to mention the revolutionary solidarity between Bovine-Americans and Poultry-Americans.

As one of the Founders said: Gentleman, we must all hang together, or all hang separately.

Katrina Gun Confiscation

Pew Research: "Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware"

Pew Research has this to say about the explosion in gun related crime in the US:

Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49% lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew. The victimization rate for other violent crimes with a firearm— assaults, robberies and sex crimes— was 75% lower in 2011 than in 1993. Violent non-fatal crime victimization overall (with or without a firearm) also is down markedly (72%) over two decades...

Despite national attention to the issue of firearm violence, most Americans are unaware that gun crime is lower today than it was two decades ago. According to a new Pew Research Center survey, today 56% of Americans believe gun crime is higher than 20 years ago and only 12% think it is lower.

In other words, gun-related violence has collapsed while most people think it is going up.

So, what is the reason for the wild mis-perception? One might wonder if it has something to do with how the daily news is presented, although crime accounts for a smaller share of reporting than it did years ago.

For the Pew report, clik here.

Send the NRA to Guantanamo?

All of us? Yet another newspaper has shown its fealty to the Constitution:

I have seen the light. After all these years, I now agree that it’s fruitless to give the benefit of the doubt to people who are so obviously corrupt, so clearly malevolent, so bent on hurting innocent people for their own sick gain.

No more due process in the clear-cut case of insidious terrorism. When the facts are so clearly before all Americans, for the whole world to see, why bother with this country’s odious and cumbersome system of justice? Send the guilty monsters directly to Guantanamo Bay for all eternity and let them rot in their own mental squalor.

No, no, no. Not the wannabe sick kid who blew up the Boston marathon or the freak that’s mailing ricin-laced letters to the president. I’m talking about the real terrorist threat here in America: the National Rifle Association.

As Aurora, CO, Aurora Sentinel editor Rick Perry's headline said "PERRY: WE CAN ONLY SAVE OURSELVES FROM KIDNAPPERS AT THE NRA
I’m talking about the real terrorist threat here in America: the National Rifle Association".

I'm glad to see that yet another so-called liberal is out of the closet on hewing to the Constitution. Gun killings are at a more than 40 year low, down 39% since the 1990s, gun injuries down 70%*, but Mr. Perry is outraged by fellow citizens who defend the Constitution's provisions which he despises. I wonder how he feels about having the government wire his thumbs behind his back and applying electrodes to his testicles, if only they assert that well, of course it is cruel, but since it is no longer unusual it it constitutionally authorized. Mr Perry seems to be one of those who use the Constitution as a shield without allowing others to do the same. That can come back to bite, and hard.

What choice, persuasive, words did Mr Perry write or quote?

...craven, lying, sniveling, cowardly U.S. senators cheated the very premise of American government to back their masters at the NRA...Nobody wants the mentally ill having a gun. Nobody, that is, except many of your senators. They just don’t care....not only did the liars at the NRA cheat the 90 percent of Americans ...the NRA has forced the action of about 45 ineffectual U.S. senators, a clear act of terrorism and treason. ...

Mr Perry has added a postscript which is remarkable for it's lack of insight. I replied just now:

Remarkable postscript, Mr. Perry. You wrote in your original column "No more due process...why bother with this country’s odious and cumbersome system of justice? Send the guilty monsters directly to Guantanamo Bay for all eternity and let them rot in their own mental squalor."

Then you profess surprise when your intended victims of government criminality take offense. "I am bewildered by the number of people who are paranoid about the U.S. government coming to enslave them. " Mr Perry, you editorialized in favor of the government doing exactly that. So where is the paranoia?

Remember when you wrote: "...many people are convinced that if they were forced to pass background checks at a gun show, or if Congress outlawed a list of guns that act like military assault rifles, that goose steppers would be knocking at their doors demanding papers and their weapons."? Sir, you just called publicly for the government to do exactly that and a good deal more, and you call gun owners paranoid?

Mr. Perry, your lack of self-awareness is remarkable. And your propensity for violence against people who just want to be left alone is exactly why people worry about people like you. You are the reason gun owners won't disarm. You are the direct threat to peaceful people.

Yes, Mr Perry, you are the goose-stepper.

You can read the whole sorry thing here.

* Just in case you doubt these assertions about collapsing gun crime rates, read an LA Times story here.

Why "High Capacity" Magazines Are Necessary

Here.

Women of the NRA

Manchin-Toomey Gun Bill

The Manchin-Toomey Gun Bill went down to defeat today, as should any gobbledygook called a bill.

From the text:

SEC. 121. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this subtitle is to enhance the current background check process in the United States to ensure criminals and the mentally ill are not able to purchase firearms.
SEC. 122. FIREARMS TRANSFERS.
(a) In General.-Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended-
(1) by repealing subsection (s);
(2) by redesignating subsection (t) as subsection (s);
(3) in subsection (s), as redesignated-
(A) in paragraph (1)(B)-
(i) in clause (i), by striking "or";
(ii) in clause (ii), by striking "and" at the end; and
(iii) by adding at the end the following:...

"(C) In this paragraph-
"(i) the term ‘interactive computer service' shall have the meaning given the term in section 230(f) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230(f)); and
"(ii) the terms ‘qualified civil liability action', ‘qualified product', and ‘seller' shall have the meanings given the terms in section 4 of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (15 U.S.C. 7903).
"(D) Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to affect the immunity of a provider of an interactive computer service under section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230)....

(c) Prohibition of National Gun Registry.-Section 923 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
"(m) The Attorney General may not consolidate or centralize the records of the-
"(1) acquisition or disposition of firearms, or any portion thereof, maintained by-
"(A) a person with a valid, current license under this chapter;
"(B) an unlicensed transferor under section 922(t); or
"(2) possession or ownership of a firearm, maintained by any medical or health insurance entity.".

That last is interesting: Section (c)(m)(A):

" Prohibition of National Gun Registry.-Section 923 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
"(m) The Attorney General may not consolidate or centralize the records of the-
"(1) acquisition or disposition of firearms, or any portion thereof, maintained by-
"(A) a person with a valid, current license under this chapter;"

So that means that, contrary to the assertion that a national gun registry is prohibited, in fact this would allow the creation of a national gun registry -albeit an incomplete one- by consolidating and centralizing the records of gun dealers who go out of business. Such dealers are required to turn their records in. So this bill would have done exactly what it claims to have prohibited. And it only prohibits the Attorney General from acting, not other departments or agencies.

If interested, you can find the text of the 7800 word bill here.

UPDATE: Dave Kopel has much more at Volokh Conspiracy. It's even worse than I wrote.

UPDATE II: Kopel links to this additional analysis, but it deserves its own link here. As the author, Michael E. Hammond of Gun Owners of America, wrote:

Second, whatever ATF thinks it’s compiling with the 4473’s it does not regard it as a “national gun registry,” even though we regard it as such. I drafted the language in McClure-Volkmer prohibiting national gun registries. I also drafted the first draft of the Smith/Tiarht amendment doing the same. ATF does not regard itself as violating these. Third, with respect to making unauthorized copying a crime, the person who will determine whether the Department of Justice is prosecuted is Attorney General Eric Holder (who, by the way, is the head of the Department of Justice).