The Right To Bear Arms

So there’s this story in Reuters:

A bipartisan group of 325 U.S. mayors on Wednesday sent a questionnaire to the U.S. presidential candidates, challenging them to take “common sense steps” to tighten the background check system for gun buyers.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama have until Sept. 8 to respond to the six questions, the group said.

The story proceeds not to tell readers what the questions are. Plus I like the group giving the candidates an ultimatum. They have until September 8 or what?

Anyway, that’s just lazy reporting. The questions are listed at the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website:

The first question involves the non-existent gun show loophole. The one where supposedly “unlicensed dealers” bring hoards of guns to sell to drug kingpins. It’s actually private sellers and they’re not required to be licensed so calling them “unlicensed” is bogus. But I want to focus on one part of what it says on the website:

ATF has reported that about 30% of their investigations into illegal gun trafficking involve guns purchased at gun shows.

I did a little digging and they got their information from this ATF study which was done eight years ago. If you go to page 24 of the PDF (not the study itself) you’ll see where they get the 30% from. Of course, in all of their trafficking investigations the ATF has done, how many did they do in total for gun shows? 41. How many were done involving private sellers at gun shows? 12.

TWELVE.

There are probably thousands of gun shows across America every year.

The second question involves preventing the sale of guns to people on terrorist watch lists:

As President, would you support passage of S.1237/H.R.2074 or other similar legislation to close this Terror Gap in federal laws?

Translation: Do you support passage of a law that would deny people due process?

This is one of those areas where the ACLU shows what a hack organization it truly is. They’ll go into hysterics about such lists being used to prevent somebody from getting on an airplane, but not how it affects the constitutional rights of people.

Third question:

As President, would you support passage of H.R.6676 or other similar legislation that would require that people behind the counter at gun stores pass the same background check as their customers?

What possible good comes from passing a law like this?

Question four:

As President, would you support passage of H.R.6664 or other similar legislation to put an end to the practice of allowing gun dealers whose licenses have been revoked for selling guns illegally to continue selling guns in their inventory without doing background checks?

This makes no sense whatsoever. If a gun dealer has his license revoked because he broke the law, how would he even be allowed to retain possession of his inventory? Another useless piece of legislation that will do nothing to prevent trafficking.

As President, would you eliminate the Tiahrt Amendment crime gun trace data restrictions in your budgets for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF)?

More privacy invasion. “Gun trace data” is just a euphemism for registration. And I don’t want to hear any blather about “Well we register cars!” That’s a stupid argument.

A. You don’t have a constitutional right to drive a car.
B. You actual do NOT have to register a vehicle if you’re not going to be driving it on public roads. If I have a large farm and use a pickup to get around on the farm, I don’t have to register it.

Any gun that is sold from a dealer has a serial number and the sale can be traced back to the origin. There’s no reason for the government to know what kind of guns Say Uncle owns in order to investigate crimes involving guns.

Question six:

Will your first proposed budget include full funding of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007?

This is a no brainer. Not even sure why it made the list.

Considering Mayor Bloomberg’s history with illegal gun activity, this entire line of questioning is political fodder. It’s the kind of “common sense” type of legislation that people usually just shrug over, but the problem is, it violates constitutional rights and won’t make a dent in crime.

Filed under: 2008 election, Rights, Stupid Legislation | 6 Comments »

From Reason:

The District’s position seems to be that banning all handguns except revolvers fits with the Supreme Court’s implicit approval of bans on “dangerous and unusual weapons.” I’ve noted the circular logic of that exception, whereby banned weapons (such as actual machine guns) remain banned because the ban has made them unusual. The “dangerous” part is puzzling too, since all weapons are dangerous; that’s what makes them weapons. But whatever the phrase means, it clearly does not apply to semiautomatic handguns, which are not “unusual” in this country by any stretch of the imagination.

Regarding the storage rule, Halbrook and Gardiner note that the new law, like the original one, includes a general exception for guns carried by law enforcement personnel and guns kept in places of business. “Such provision acknowledges the need to keep a firearm in useable condition for defense of self and others against an unlawful, sudden, and deadly attack,” they note, which highlights the unreasonableness of demanding that guns in the home be kept unloaded and locked until the very moment they are being used to fend off an attack. They point out that the law even forbids D.C. residents to unlock their guns “for innocuous purposes such as cleaning.”

And they want self rule in DC.

Filed under: Gun Control, Stupidity | 1 Comment »

Sebastian has a link to the download of the bill in question and says the Democratic version is actually better than the Republican one.

Also, somebody asks in the comments if Barack Obama will skip this vote. Sebastian thinks so.

So do I.

Filed under: 2008 election, Second Amendment | 9 Comments »

Good piece here. The money part:

In the majority opinion of the Court, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: “The handgun ban and the trigger-lock requirement (as applied to self-defense) violate the Second Amendment . . . Similarly, the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.” What part of “unconstitutional” doesn’t the D.C. City Council understand? Did anyone read the Court’s opinion, or are they being openly defiant? Either way, it’s about time the Congress spanked the City Council and took away its self-governance because it has once again proven itself incapable of self-rule.

And this:

I’d love to see U.S. marshals arrest the D.C. City Council members and bring them to the Supreme Court before Justice Scalia, who would remand them into custody and hold them in contempt until they authored a city ordinance that complied with the Constitution.

I’ve read several people suggest this course of action.

Filed under: Rights, Second Amendment | 1 Comment »

How about the fault of our justice system. A young woman that used to work in my office was shot and murdered last night in Daytona Beach. Look at this:

According to court documents, Flynt, 37, was sentenced to 57 days in jail after pleading no contest in September 2007 to aggravated assault and domestic battery. He was also ordered to forfeit all his firearms, undergo anger management training and receive psychological counseling.

So he served less than three months for aggravated assault and domestic battery.

In Florida, an aggravated assault charge can bring up to five years in prison. This joker, who already had a record, served less than three months. And now a woman is a dead.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

I finally got to see ‘The Dark Knight’ on Saturday and it was everything everybody said it was. Sorry Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. Until ‘The Dark Knight’ the original ‘Batman’ was the best (and that includes ‘Batman Begins’ which was second until this one), but this was just a fantastic movie. It featured not only great action, but excellent acting, a good script and memorable performances from everybody involved, especially that of Heath Ledger as the Joker. If you haven’t seen this movie, do so.

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As for the comparison between Ledger and Nicholson as to which was the better Joker, it’s not a fair comparison because both were played differently. Nicholson’s version of the Joker featured some elements of the campy Joker character from the 60’s television show. Ledger’s version on the other hand, was just a psychopathic killer. The character didn’t have a background. We never really knew how he came to be or where he came from. They were in essence two totally different characters. They only thing they shared really was face paint and purple suits.

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Some people said that the Yankees trade for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte was no big deal. Question: Do the Yankees come back and win yesterday’s game with Brett Gardner in left field? Okay then.

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One has to chuckle at the irony of the “first black President” having to say, “I am not a racist.”

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Barack Obama proposes another stupid Robin Hood idea.

The new Obama ad opens with a driver pumping gas. The announcer says, “Every time you fill your tank, the oil companies fill their pockets.”

Gasp! Oil companies actually make money when we buy gas??? Those bastards!

Filed under: 2008 election, Non Gun Stuff | 1 Comment »

Back in May I wrote:

If you thought accusations of racism were bad with Hillary (and some of those criticisms were fair, and some were not. When she said that Obama seems to have trouble getting working class whites to vote for him, she was right. She wasn’t playing “the race card.”), it’s going to be a racist accusation free-for-all in the general election.

So John McCain has this ad out that goes after Obama in the “You’re famous because you’re famous” way invoking Britney Spears and Paris Hilton along the way. Of course it didn’t take long for some nitwits to declare that the ad in question has racist overtones. Josh Marshall? You are a nitwit.

Cripes, even Oliver thinks that’s wrong.

Filed under: 2008 election, Stupidity | 2 Comments »

The Yankees trade for Pudge was a good move. Brian Cashman has pulled off two very good moves without giving up anything in return. Contrary to what people are saying, the Yankees didn’t need a blockbuster trade. They needed to fill holes and they’ve done that. Their one glaring hole now is the back end of that rotation. They miss Wang more than ever now. Pettitte, Mussina and Chamberlain are pitching great. But then it’s Sidney Ponson and Darrell Rasner. Not good.

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Even some of Manny’s teammates are getting tired of Manny’s antics. I hope he does get traded, because no matter what kind of distraction he may be, the Sox will miss his bat. .348/.508/.652 in the playoffs last year.

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Apple has the iPod Touch for $199 (8GB Refurb). Man that is really really tempting.

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Why has the media ignored the John Edwards affair story? Because it first appeared in The Enquirer? Rush Limbaugh’s Oxycotin story first appear in those pages and the media didn’t ignore that. The NY Times had no problems suggesting John McCain was having an affair with a lobbyist back in February.

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So Exxon posts record profits. Expect more faux outrage from Democrats and more idiotic calls for “windfall profits” taxes.

Filed under: Non Gun Stuff | 5 Comments »

This meme has been used and abused for the last six years, but the left never seems to get tired of it. Jonathan Chait writing in the LA Times whips it out:

McCain may be committing lots of blunders, but the blunders aren’t hurting him because the spotlight is on Obama. McCain is getting attention for his attacks on Obama, especially his frequent insinuations that Obama lacks patriotism.

Emphasis mine. This is exactly the type of drivel that we’ve been hearing since 2002. Every time a Republican questions the foreign policy and security policies they want to implement or change, they immediately cower behind bogus claims that their patriotism is being attacked.

They’ve expanded that same meme to include almost any criticism. Valid criticism on policies and ideas turns into a personal attack. The media of course, is happy to buy into the notion. It was never more apparent than in 2002 when Republican Saxby Chambliss ran against Democrat Max Cleland in Georgia. An ad was created that questioned Cleland’s judgment and lack of courage, bowing to Democrat pressure to not vote for creating the Homeland Security Department without union support. The ad started off with four images. One of Osama bin Laden, one of Saddam Hussein and two of US troops. It then went on to…..Here..you can see the ad in question if you want.

Never before had I seen such a reaction to what really is a mild ad. Yet, the left and Democrats aided by the media went into conniptions. We were reminded in every article about the ad that Max Cleland was a triple amputee veteran of Vietnam as if that had anything to do with is votes on Homeland Security. They portrayed it over and over again as an “attack on his patriotism” and the ad has taken on mythical proportions with people saying now that the ad “compared Cleland to bin Laden” and the ad featured a moment when Cleland’s face morphed into bin Laden’s. But the media of course is controlled by Fox News.

Filed under: 2008 election, Stupidity | 4 Comments »

Dick Heller is suing Washington DC again. Per Sebastian, Heller is seeking an injunction against DC’s:

1. Ballistics testing which requires a fee be paid by the owner of the gun

2. DC’s contention that semi-automatic handguns cannot be registered due to the fact that they are considered “machine guns” in that they “load from the bottom.” I’d say that’s a load allright.

3. Any other relief the court will grant.

I expect a quick ruling. There’s no way that DC can justify classifying a 9mm handgun a “machine gun.”

Filed under: In The News, Rights | No Comments »