McDonald 2A Trial - Privileges and Immunities, YOU CAN HAS!

An excellent "layman's" interpretation of Wednesday's Supreme Court Hearing on the McDonald case, which, essentially challenged Chicago's Gun Ban under the 2nd Amendment of the United States.

In essence, does the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution of the United States actually bar States and localities from banning guns? The 14th might say it does, but apparently the Statists think it does not.

FELDMAN: Here’s my first argument.
SCALIA: That argument sucks.
FELDMAN: Ordered liberty?
SCALIA: We haven’t used that since 1937.
FELDMAN: Have too.
SCALIA: When?
FELDMAN: Uh, here’s my second argument.
SCALIA: You just argued against your first argument.
FELDMAN: Did not.
SCALIA: Did so.
FELDMAN: DID NOT!
SCALIA: …
FELDMAN: *cries*
SCALIA: …
ROBERTS: You just argued the losing Heller argument.

Go here for the complete text, now including pictures! Very adult language, but very funny as well.

Share and enjoy!

Gun Control...It works...really!!!!

Obese Houston inmate found with gun after 5 searches

So let me get a handle on this. You hoplophobic gun grabbers want to make the entire United States a gun free zone. You really and honestly believe that somehow all the criminals will just stop using guns if you make them "illegal". And yet, you can't even keep your freaking prisons gun free?!?!

An obese Harris County jail inmate turned over a pistol that had been hidden in the folds of his skin after he went through at least five searches upon his arrest and was booked into two different local lockups, authorities said.

The stupidity of the gun hating elitists astounds me.

The Definition of Insanity

Weis: No Probation for Gang Member Caught With Guns

Jody Weis says the city has had a handgun ban since 1982 but people are still walking around with weapons. He thinks greater deterrence is required.

Let's ban them again! Yes! Or....maybe we can cut the thumbs off of anyone caught with a gun! Yeah!

They're already illegal you bloody moron! What more can you possibly do except make the sentences for having them longer???

I truly don't understand these people. Obviously, logic plays no part in their daily lives (and unfortunately, their daily legislative activities) but really - are people that stupid that they don't see what is going on?

GUN BANS DON'T WORK.

The Beginning of the End

I've asked in prior posts: Where is your line in the sand? At what point do you say "this far and no farther"?

David Codrea of the War On Guns, alerted by Jeff Knox of The Firearms Coalition really stirred a hornet's nest over on his National Examiner Blog today.

H.R. 45 was introduced on the first day. The effective result - the registration of all long guns with detachable magazines, and handguns by requiring a permitting system whereby all gun owners must take training and pay for a permit to prove their worthiness to exercise their inherent right to self defense. Further, there are national safe storage requirements, additional record keeping requirements, and, short of "occasional" gifting of firearms amongst family members, the Government steps in and regulates all transfers of firearms by requiring background checks.

Please go read David's writeup at the Examiner link above, it is excellent and will bring you up to speed.

So obviously, I read that post this morning, and the rage filled me (I think I spilled some coffee). I figured I'd post a comment on that site, adding to the sounds of who were giving the bill a richly deserved blasting.

Lo and behold, here comes Mr. Fudd himself! A poster styling himself The Rifleman immediately started defending the bill on the basis that it did not actually ban guns, and it's ok to license guns just like we do cars.

My response to him, and to this bill follows (I regret that I mistyped David at one point in my original response on the Examiner site - if you are reading it there under the handle Triptyx, please replace that one instance of "David" with "The Rifleman"):

The Rifleman. Every confiscation effort *ever* has begun with "common sense" regulations - like this registration scheme. This is unconstitutional (licensing a right guaranteed by the constitution), it's stupid (criminals will not register, they will not get their thumb print taken, and they will not use a gun registered to themself in the commission of a crime), and it's absolutely pointless.

What happens next year when they increase the exam requirement to yearly, and institute a fee of $500 to take it?

How about the year after that when they refuse to allow half of authorized exam proctors to re-up their authorization?

What about when they suddenly decide you don't "need" a handgun any more, and show up at the door of every registrant to take them with a SWAT team?

Hunters such as you, The Rifleman, that refuse to see that just because a restriction doesn't affect your bolt-action hunting rifle or shotgun now, doesn't mean they won't call it a sniper rifle and demand it be turned in next year, are the one of the key factors in the erosion of our rights.

This is not about "safety", it is not about "security", it is not about stopping crime, it is the first step to full blown confiscation. Plain and simple. If you refuse to see that, if you refuse to step up and stand united with other gun owners against laws that will do nothing to improve safety, or reduce crime, and cost billions of dollars of your tax money for no real gain, you'll pay the price later when they come for *you*.

This *is* the line. It shall not be crossed.

The Rifleman posted again later and said:
"

After making my post, I talked to a colleague of mine and predicted exactly the kind of wild attacks that appeared here today. I wonder how many of you were this concerned with warrantless surveillance on Americans. I suspect, very strongly, that the majority of you were in support of it. Hypocrites.

"

And there is more prattling on about how you can't yell fire in a theater, etc. At no point does he actually address any one of many well thought out and reasoned responses to his original posting. Naturally "Karen" then chimes in that seeing the responses to the article, she thinks maybe we *should* ban guns. Wow Karen, you don't see that every day. (end sarcasm)

That's ok though. We know that The Rifleman and Karen are either liberal plants, or a person whom we will not convince anyways.

Here is what the myriad of responses on that article should tell anyone who is supporting, lobbying, or voting for this bill:
You, the sponsors, supporters and enablers of this bill, are hereby placed on notice that there exist a large number of people in this nation that will not tolerate this. They will do what Americans have done since (and before) the founding of this country. They will dig in their heels and refuse to heed your decree. They know all too well that the Government that registers arms rapidly becomes the Government that confiscates those arms. Shortly after that, they become the Government that exterminates large percentages of its people.

You will either have to arrest or kill us. You will have to go door to door to make sure everyone registers, and you still won't get even 30% participation. And all the while, criminals will still be out there killing indiscriminately. Your bill is worthless garbage. It isn't worth the paper it is written on, nor the air that will be expended by all of you pompous, vapid windbags as you ramrod it through Congress. This bill is doomed to fail. Yes, you might get it passed into law, but you will very likely be signing death warrants for some number of the Police Officers that will enforce the law. You will be creating even more criminals to stuff in your overcrowded jails - the same ones you're having to release people from right now since you can't even bloody well afford to keep them there. You will be marginalizing a class of people for whom self sufficiency and a sense of honor is treasured. Attempting to remove that treasured heritage will result in bloodshed.

This bill itself might just finally finish tearing the fabric of this country irrevocably. You are pusillanimous tyrants, fit only to wallow in your own excrement and gorge from the trough of public funds. You are liars, and, worst of all, are without honor.

This far, and no farther. We will not register. We will not prostrate ourselves upon the floor and beg permission to exercise those rights which are granted to us merely by living in this world. We do not recognize your usurpation of the Constitution in this matter, and never will. You may kill some of us, others you may throw in jail, but you will not succeed.
III

Progress of this bill can be monitored at OpenCongress.org.

Happy Holidays

I've been traveling, and find that when I'm with family and friends out of town, I don't have a lot of time to sit down and post blog entries.

One thing I did while I was in Tucson, AZ was visit a gun show. What makes this interesting for me is that I am able to compare this show with shows that I attended a few years ago. Seeing as how I've been away from Tucson for that long, I was granted a unique opportunity to observe first hand the changes that our new administration is wreaking on the firearms industry.

Tucson isn't known for having a show every weekend like Dallas. While I saw advertisements for another show in mid-January, typically you see shows in Tucson about 4 or 5 times a year.

So I grabbed my father, who also enjoys shooting and carrying firearms, and a good buddy of mine who has been working with me on various shooting techniques he learned the hard way and we headed down to the show. I intentionally arrived just as the show opened, as I've seen here in Dallas just how nasty things have been getting.

I was very impressed. Tucson, where I have never seen a line to get in to any show had a line that was well over 100 yards long to get in. And this to one of the smaller shows I had been to. Luckily, my father noticed that people were all waiting in line for one ticket booth - another was open right next to the first without a single person waiting. After dispelling a whispered rumor in the long line that you had to be in that line to get a firearm zip tied, we proceeded right into the show.

I was shocked at the dearth of actual guns for sale. Racks that in previous years always held a few good battle rifles, tables full of AR uppers and lowers and accessories, palettes of ammunition - all pretty much absent. I noticed a fair number of Mosin Nagants and their like, but not a *single* M1A was in evidence. I did notice one, and I mean one, Garand (it was actually a beautiful example of the species and not unfairly priced - if I had had the money I would have bought it). I did see a few AR uppers here and there, but in all reality - most of what was around, with the exception of hand guns, was junk.

I saw one real ammo dealer, and it looked like he was selling gold bullion to Wall Street investors - his table was jam packed with people buying everything they had.

After grabbing some plinking ammo to shoot with my buddy while I was in town (I drove my lovely M4 clone out there with me as a treat) we left. We had been inside a couple of hours, and came out to find....you guessed it - a line 100 yards long waiting to pay to get in. And of course, with BAA sounds in my mind, the second ticket booth was still empty. I took pity on the line folks and mentioned the red-headed ticket booth a few times as I walked beside it on the way to the car.

Nothing has happened yet. As Vanderboegh has mentioned, the crush is on, and we haven't even had pending legislation mentioned yet. I do believe that there are a fair number of first time buyers running around out there (a friend at work whom I have been attempting to introduce to shooting told me today he's "heard some things" and wants to buy a gun very soon), but certainly not the press of blind sheep that will surely come when the Messiah takes office and the legislation starts flying. The worst part - rifles and ammunition are already running very low. There are little spurts of bulk ammunition popping up here and there, and if you're savvy, you can still hit a show and find a lovely Patriot Ordnance Upper for MSRP (and by the way, that price hasn't budged by much for the last year or so that I've seen), but in reality, I agree that the crush is coming. The panic will start.

As with the Clintons, I think we can likely thank the Libs for promoting firearms, and especially "assault weapon" (man I hate that term) proliferation, but I cringe to think of the final buying panic when the first couple of bans are suggested on the floor of the House or Senate.

Have you gotten enough ammo to hold out for a while yet? Why not?

Blunt Force Trauma

Former Bond Actress Bludgeoned to Death by Home Intruder

I sure am glad that home invader didn't have a gun. He might have hurt someone!

What many gun controllers forget is the equalizing influence that a firearm provides. Lets say, for a moment, that there was a way that someone could flip a switch and all the guns on the planet just stopped working...for good.

Your typical gun controller would be dancing in the streets! Right up until he/she realized that the removal of firearms simply means that those who are strongest now rule...well....everything.

It's more difficult for weaker people, who haven't been in the prison yard pumping iron for 5-10 years, to defend themselves without equalizing tools. The firearm allows anyone the ability to equalize the differences between them and an attacker. Differences such as strength, skill at hand to hand combat, even mobility (or lack thereof).

In this case, a woman who, had she been armed, would have had a fighting chance against this thug paid for her country's policies on guns with her life.

But again, at least he didn't shoot her!