We're the Only Ones Insulted Enough

Three female minority police officers claim they were insulted with the same language radio host Don Imus used. But they said the abuse came from fellow officers.

Would that make them "The Ho-nly Ones"?

"The System Failed"

One of Ms. Cleland's chief concerns, however, is what happens after the initial sale.

The same gun that she sells to a customer can be resold virtually without scrutiny and without a trace in five minutes, five days, or five years.

A private individual also can sell a handgun at the ever-popular gun shows around the state without paperwork or scrutiny. Federal firearms license holders and dealers at the same shows, however, do have to fill out the forms.

"It's a loophole. We do all this paperwork, but to me that is the big loophole. We're regulated to the teeth, but then we have this huge gray area where people just go out and sell them without keeping any records," Mrs. Cleland said. "It makes it look like we're controlling guns, but we're not. That's what we're dealing with, with the Virginia Tech thing. It's not the gun issue but that the system failed."

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here, Mrs. Cleland, that your statement was taken out of context, or you didn't mean what it sounds like you're saying.

Because if I thought for a minute you're endorsing for what it sounds like you're calling for, I'd be making some recommendations to my friends about where to shop...

[Via Nathan F]

Oppose the McCarthy/Dingell/NRA Gun Control Axis

On Friday, The Washington Post reported on the strange coalition. "With the Virginia Tech shootings resurrecting calls for tighter gun controls," the Post said, "the National Rifle Association has begun negotiations with senior Democrats over legislation to bolster the national background-check system."

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), who was once on the NRA Board of Directors but resigned when he supported and voted for the Clinton semi-auto ban in 1994, is reported to be "leading talks with the powerful gun lobby in hopes of producing a deal [soon]," Democratic aides and lawmakers told the newspaper.

Rep. McCarthy admitted to the Post that her "crusades" for more gun control have made her voice "toxic" in gun circles. "So Dingell is handling negotiations with the NRA," the newspaper reported. "Dingell is also in talks with Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner (Wis.), the senior Republican on the House Judiciary Committee."

I was on my way out the door on Friday when I first heard about the "mental health background check" proposal. All I really had time to post was this:

Four days after the fact--when the whole country is furiously debating the impact of the Virginia tech shootings on the Second Amendment--there's still no leadership from our self-proclaimed leaders? All we get are plausibly deniable signals sent through seconds that they'd endorse an expansion of NICS if only there were some way to work around privacy protections?

It's hard to argue with the general public about background checks, particularly where mental health questions are involved. Deep-rooted prejudice and an inclination to discriminate is tough to overcome, and people are skeptical when you tell them the mentally ill are no more inclined toward violence than the general population.

Likewise, most of our countrymen are oblivious to the concept of enumerated Constitutional powers for the federal government. Perhaps National Rifle Control, Inc./The LaPierre Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence would be kind enough to show us the section of this document that authorizes their bright new idea for applying prior restraint.

So what am I arguing? Crazy people and psychopaths should be able to walk into the hardware store and walk out with a grenade launcher? Look, I've said this before, many times: Anyone who can't be trusted with a gun can't be trusted without a custodian.

Here's something else I've pointed out numerous times: If we are to believe official reports, the single biggest act of mass murder in our nation's history was committed with mail room tools. The second largest death toll was created with gardening chemicals. The third utilized about a buck's worth of gasoline.

And here's another concern that has been left unsaid in this bill, but you can bet your guns (and you will be if this thing passes) that those behind it will be back with Phase 2. After all, if it makes sense to keep people with questionable mental health backgrounds from buying guns, wouldn't it make even more sense to remove existing guns from their homes? And how will the government know who has guns, unless NICS has the capability to keep records if only the political will existed to do so?

And why stop with your mental health, or make allowances that we all have periods of tragedy and trauma in our lives that tax--and sometimes overcome--our ability to cope? How about if your spouse is being treated for depression, or your child has been diagnosed with "ADHD" by a school with a government grant money incentive to get him on Ritalin? How can we possibly allow dangerous guns to be brought into such households, and it follows, how can we allow existing guns to remain?

Also, will there be an "Only Ones" loophole? That may be a way to help stifle enthusiasm for this bill--start insisting on an amendment that gores their ox.

Unfortunately, this is the kind of cynical posturing I've come to expect from current NRA management. I don't know if a campaign to call or write them will make any difference--perhaps it will if you include a copy of a donation check made out to GOA.

The other thing to do is contact the Republicans named in the GOA release. I agree with activist Andy Barniskis, who suggests adding the following text to GOA's pre-written letter:

[Insert after 1st paragraph] I DO NOT AGREE WITH NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION, WHICH HAS GIVEN ITS APPROVAL TO THIS TERRIBLE LEGISLATION.

[Insert as last paragraph] PLEASE DON'T BELIEVE THAT SUPPORT BY THE NRA WILL PROVIDE SUFFICIENT COVER FOR YOU IF YOU VOTE FOR THIS LEGISLATION. GUN OWNERS WILL NOT FORGET HOW YOU VOTE.

The Common Denominator

I scanned the above from the April 17 edition of The Daily Breeze, a newspaper in Southern California's South Bay. It summarizes school shootings over the past 40+ years.

Something about it strikes me as more than coincidental. It's as if all of these random acts in different locales spanning decades had some common thread, some shared factor, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

What could shootings at the University of Texas and Kent State University and Cal State Fullerton and the University of Iowa and San Diego State and the University of Arkansas and the Appalachian School of Law* and the University of Arizona and Shepherd University and Virginia Tech possibly have in common?

I feel like the answer is staring me in the face, like it's something obvious. Give me some time. It may come to me.

* I couldn't find a weapons policy for the Appalachian School of Law, but note that those reports which admitted students with firearms subdued the killer (most simply said they tackled him) said they had to run to their cars to retrieve them.

What's Up, Doc?

How come you took this post off your site?


I've been beating this drum for years, mostly to myself, it seems. Your reach is much longer than mine.

So what's the deal, Prof. Lott? It's the truth and it's relevant. Hell, it's more than relevant, it's giving sanction to evil laws that are killing--and will continue to kill--real people. Don't you think gun owners/NRA members deserve to know where the most influential name in "the gun lobby" stands on this issue?

It's your blog and you can post what you want, but I don't think we can be faulted if some of us are wondering what prompted you to remove it. I hope you reconsider--adding your voice to those asking LaPierre why his self-serving blowhard anti-defense posturing is worth anyone's life seems a legitimate pursuit.

Take the Magic Marker Challenge

Winset said he gave students a disclaimer before he started his Virginia Tech re-enactment, which involved him pointing a Magic Marker at students and saying, “Pow.” He then had another student shoot him with an imaginary gun to make the point that Cho could have been stopped by another student with a firearm.

Good thing he didn't try this with an Airsoft pistol--there would have been mass intestinal evacuations from the administration.

He sounds like the type of educator students would actually learn something useful from. No wonder they had to can him.

[Via ChareltonHest]

Project Exile's Miracle in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A bloody, bullet-filled weekend left 11 people dead across the city, where drugs and disrespect have trumped brotherly love and the murder rate is on pace to be the highest in a decade.

C'mon, criminals. NRA dares you to carry a gun.

This business of teaming up with anti-gun politicians to promote gun control sure works wonders, doesn't it?

This Day in History: April 24

To THE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY OF NEW YORK New York, April 24, 1776.

Gentn: It being necessary, that I should know the number of Troops to compose the Army here, I must request the favor of your Honble. body, to inform me, how many Regiments are raising in this Province for the Continental Service, by order of Congress, and what their state is, as to Men and Arms. From the Accounts I have had, I have reason to fear there is a great dificiency in the latter...