We Need More Of These

As Tam points out, a role model we can all hope to imitate.  The money quote  "It'll never happen to me".  Indeed.

Colleges and Guns

One of the leading assumptions that opponents to college concealed carry is that Students lack the maturity to carry.  Seems like this student certainly has the maturity and did the right thing.  Most opponents would cite that places where students gather would become bloodbaths as immature students resolve differences with guns instead of reason.  They say that the University is no place for guns as ideology should take precedent and guns would inhibit (somehow) said ideology.

One should wonder what sort of reasoning and ideology would have gotten the ten students out of a situation where two armed intruders had separated the group into those to be murdered and those to be raped and murdered?  Anyone?

Luck would have it, one student did have a gun and had the internal fortitude to stand against those that would have done grievous harm to himself and his friends.

I wonder what the producers of last month's ABC hit piece on guns have to say about this?  How did a one student out of ten prevail while outnumbered two to one when ABC's show depicted differently?  The difference?  These thugs didn't know who had a gun and weren't firearms instructors and the stakes were real.

Let's be clear, the gun didn't save these students, one of the students saved them, he just happened to have the correct tool for the job and enough skill to get that job done.  I think all anyone who is for concealed carry on campus wants is to have the opportunity to carry the right tool for self defense against armed opponents.

Shooting War

Unless you live under a rock, you've heard that the US A.G. William Holder has dropped the other shoe.  Sure, we all expected that the BHO White House would move to bring the US more in line with Socialist Europe, but there are those that held that because of recent strides of pro 2nd Amendment forces, that even BHO would have a tough row to hoe to bring about another AWB.  Well, what did it take?  35 days or so for them to start talking about how this is necessary and for what?  Mexico's safety?  Soverenty much?

Now if these pecker-heads want to ban a scaring looking rifle because they're scared of it and they hold some sort of false hope that this will curb violent crime (even in the face of overwhelming FACTS to the contrary) that's one thing, but to take away US citizens CIVIL RIGHTS over some shit in Mexico?  MEXICO!?!  Well, that just bullshit!

So for all you out there who said it wouldn't happen, how about now?  And for all you BHO apologists, go screw off would you?  I don't give a monkey's pimpled ass how much hope and change and unicorns made of rainbows D-Bag In Chief has promised you personally, this guy is going to leave this country far worse off than before he came to office.  Between spending us into oblivion, the push for "Fairness Doctrine" to the call for a "Scary Rifle" ban, your money, your rights and your dignity are being stolen right under your nose and all you can do is say "isn't it great we have a black President?"

Yeah, its terrific, now pass the borsch commrad.

Buh-bye

Say goodbye to your civil rights folks, what we have left of them anyway.  Seems you can't have a snarky sign in your truck window as someone (in this case an officer) may mistake the meaning of the word abort and start violating your right to speech.  It won't stop there, they'll turn it over to the Secret Service and they'll come calling to make sure you don't belong to any groups they don't approve of.

''When I was on my way there, the Secret Service called me and said they weren't going to ransack my house or anything ... they just wanted to (walk through the house) and make sure I wasn't a part of any hate groups."

At least they were "cordial" about the whole thing, I wouldn't want the SS to be rude about making sure you weren't in violation of, well not being PC.

Somehow I find it ironic that a sign that says "Abort Obama, Not The Unborn" would be taken as a threat on the President.  Perhaps the officer feels that aborting babies is somehow killing them or a bad thing.  I'm sure I'm mistaken because the powers that be certainly wouldn't want to give us the impression that abortions are a bad thing.  The idiot probably just doesn't know what abort means.

The newsok.com story I linked to above mentions that everything was set right in the end, I beg to differ, this sort of behavior by persons in power is never right and no amount of backpeddling will make those actions "right".

Hat Tip to Michael Bane

Huzzah!

This is good news!

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Lyle Laverty today announced that the Department of the Interior has finalized updated regulations governing the possession of firearms in national parks and wildlife refuges. The final rule, which updates existing regulations, would allow an individual to carry a concealed weapon in national parks and wildlife refuges if, and only if, the individual is authorized to carry a concealed weapon under state law in the state in which the national park or refuge is located. The update has been submitted to the Federal Register for publication and is available to the public on www.doi.gov.

AND

“The Department believes that in managing parks and refuges we should, as appropriate, make every effort to give the greatest respect to the democratic judgments of State legislatures with respect to concealed firearms,” said Laverty. “Federal agencies have a responsibility to recognize the expertise of the States in this area, and federal regulations should be developed and implemented in a manner that respects state prerogatives and authority.”

Someone at the Dep. of Interior is using common sense?  This confuses me, but I'm willing to roll with it.  Perhaps the common sense fairy could come to The Hill and bestow some sense before those idiots give away even more money we don't have to corporations and banks that don't deserve it.

Free Plaxico

This article in the WSJ from Dave Kopel certainly hits the nail for me.  I think Plaxico is an idiot for having a Glock shoved in the waistband of his sweatpants, but I don't think he should do significant jailtime for it.

Shooting yourself is stupid, really stupid.  So is sticking a glock in your pants without a holster.  Discharging a firearm in a public place is illegal and should be unless you are defending yourself or others.  Simply having a gun in your possession however, should not be illegal, nor should it carry a silly minimum sentence.

UPDATE: John R. Lott, Jr has a piece up at fox.com about disarming citizens, as they were in India, even if they are physically superior like NFL athletes.

When police can’t promise to protect law-abiding citizens such Plaxico Burress or the victims in India, why don’t we allow people the right to protect themselves? Unfortunately, bans do more to encourage crime than prevent it.

You don't say

Dave Hardy links to a pretty interesting piece on police tactics towards "active killers" and the changes or evolution thereof.  The study done by the Tactical Defense Institute of Adams County, Ohio concludes that the proper response by police should be a singe officer response, that is, the first officer on the seen aggressively goes after the killer.  The reasoning for this is that the time it took to assemble a SWAT team and later an ad-hoc tactical team from the first four or five uniforms on scene cost lives.

Here's the money quote from the study though.

The other statistic that emerged from a study of active killers is that they almost exclusively seek out "gun free" zones for their attacks.

Really?  You mean to tell me that a person who wants to kill a lot of people as quickly as possible will go to a convenient local where many people gather and cannot have firearms?  But they're gun free zones!  GUN FREE!  Many have started to refer to schools and malls as victim zones, you can't really argue with that, if a nutjob wants to get his 15 seconds of fame by blasting 40 some odd people into the afterlife before he lethally injects himself with lead, what the hell good is a law or even a sign for that matter?

Now as for the single officer tactic, I'm not so sure about that.  I would think it would be a matter of time before some idiot wants to kill a lot of cops and decides to head for the local mall to kill a few civies and wait for the cops to come one by one.  Maybe the first two officers would be a comprimise, or (GASP!) you could abolish "gun-free" zones and let responsible permit carries have a fighting chance and maybe save a lot of lives in the process?  Nah!  That'd never work because only government can save us.

Sherrif Defends CCW Holder Identities

An Oregon Sheriff is fighting a newspaper request for the names of CCW holders in Washington County on the grounds that Oregon law that states records are not public if they could reveal a person's security measures or weaknesses. Sheriff Rob Gordon believes that it is implied that the permits were obtained for security purposes (NO! REALLY?!) but the court is saying that permit holders have to state that they obtained it for security purposes before they can be considered non-public.

So Sheriff Gordon is contacting by mail all 10,000 or so permit holders to elicit whether they indeed obtained them for security reasons.

"Instead of going through the process of saying that it's implied, we're going though the process of getting the documentation that says that it is," said Sgt. Vance Stimler, public information officer at the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

I wish all Sheriffs would be this progressive in thought towards the CCW community, sadly, I think he's in the minority.

Well done Gordon!

One Good FU Deserves Another

As we all know by now "The One" has ascended to the office of POTUS.  This doesn't bode particularly well for gun owners, or conservatives, or hell, anyone who wants to keep the money they earned or Civil Liberties!  I digress.  What to do about it?  Why go out and buy one of the most hated guns the idiot Left fears, an AR15 EBR (Evil Black Rifle).  I don't "need" one, but I've wanted one for a while and had made up my mind to get one this year "just in case".  Well I put it off for a while looking for a pre-built that I think I want at a decent price (I'm Cheap Frugal) as I don't really know enough about the EBR to know what I want so's I can build one.  This past weekend, I spied the ticket, the DPMS Sportical AR15 from Panther Arms, its a complete flat-top AR with no forward assist and not a sight to be found, a blank slate of an AR to be done with what I wished.  The best part?  $640, sweet!

Anyway, I had MCSports put it on hold for me as I wanted to deal a 1911 away I've been wanting to get rid of.  I took ownership of it today of all days, kind of appropriate no?  Perhaps I'll see if I can save some more before 1/21/09 to buy another (or just some lower recievers) on innaugaration day, just my way of flipping the bird to those that are ignorant and unfortunately in charge as of next year.

I voted yesterday...

How about you!

So far in my district they have had record numbers voting everyday using early/absentee voting. I stood in line for 2 hours...take your ipod and a book cause the lines are only going to get longer. Whatever you do, get out and vote.

SCOTUS & Parker

For those living under a rock and may not know, the Supreme Court has decided to hear the Parker vs DC case where a lower court ruled that DC's ban was unconstitutional. This is the first time in 68 years that the court will rule on the 2nd amendment, so yeah, its a big deal. David Hardy over at Of Arms & the Law has some thoughts on the question that the court will rule on. He feels pretty positive about wording of the question if you can read anything into it at all and I think you can since they took their sweet time of it.

David also has some thoughts on the timing of when the case will be heard based on the timeline of when the parties have to file and the Court's schedule. Late March 2008. Make that 69 years...

BTW, if you aren't reading Of Arms & the Law, what's wrong with you?

Black Rifles

NBC on black rifles (aka AR-15s).

The piece starts out well enough, but certainly turns ugly when the loon at the Violence Policy Center (funded by George Soros) starts with her lies and Ms. Myers points out the features of an AR-15 which make it particularly effective evil. You know, like the 30 round magazine and pistol-grip (so the gun can be easily fired from the hip? whatever). The DC sniper case was brought up as an example of how these guns can be used for evil purposes, like if they ban them, nobody can go pickup a proper sniper rifle like a Remington 700 and kill people. Newsflash! the DC sniper didn't need 30 rounds, a collapsable stock, flash supressor, bayonet lug or pistol grip. All he needed was an accurate rifle and scope, period. Banning scopes would sooner prevent another sniper case than banning the AR and scopes don't require a background check! Gasp!

I was sort of surprised that they use images from Oleg Volk who's firearm photography is very good (check this one out). I've always wondered whether some of his content, especially the captioned photos with women in danger, are doing more harm or good to 2nd amendment rights. I don't think its exploited to the point of harming the cause, but I do think some of his stuff is pandering to the point of fear-mongering. I like his stuff, but he should tone it down a little.

BTW, I've seen other pieces that Lisa Myers has done that were actually pretty good, she takes a class at Front-Sight IIRC and does a decent job, but that was a few years ago.

Hat tip David Hardy

Reason #10 for having a safe

So the freakin' plumber doesn't report you to the police and over-reactionary glory hounds raid your house to kiss the mayor's ass. The story from Brian at Snapped Shot. Interestingly enough, Brian fell for it too, at least he has the guts to admit it, unlike almost any new organization. My favorite part is how the author of this article and the police can't figure out why anyone would want some AK47s, a grenade launcher and 500 rounds of ammo, hint go shoot them and you'll know.

My advice to this "gun collector" (as if any self-respecting "collector" would be caught without at least 1,000 rounds of ammo), get a safe and put your guns in there before the plumber comes.

Yes, this guy could be a complete dirtbag if the suspected child porn holds true, but with the stellar policing by Dallas PD (who admittedly don't know whether some of the stuff is illegal), I wouldn't put money on it. Probably just some midget porn.

Hat Tip: Instapundit