Sunday, November 25, 2007

Securing the Blessings of Liberty in Washington

Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.

In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime.
Oh, now, come on. I'm sure they need this tool to help track Homegrown Terrorists.

[Via AvgJoe]

Burma Shave IX



Previous "Burma Shave" Signs:
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII

[For those not familiar with the Burma Shave roadside billboard campaign or the CCRA RKBA campaign]

Easy Access

FOREWORD: This little essay, which I wrote in 2001, has disappeared from other sites where it originally appeared, so I'm going to give it a home here at WarOnGuns:

Half a lifetime ago, my friend Howard's dad bought him a Stevens bolt-action, single-shot .22 with a Weaver 4X scope. By the time he was 13, his dad trusted him enough to take the gun by himself to the range in Santa Monica. The rest of the world didn't have a problem with it either.

Stevens rifle in hand, he and a friend walked down the street and boarded a bus, opening the action to show the driver that the gun wasn't loaded. After getting off at their stop, they walked another half-mile to the range. And they returned home the same way.

Fast-forward to the present. The place is Hawthorne, California, the scene, the 99 Cents Plus Mini Market. Two predatory teenagers have decided the store is a low-risk target, with vulnerable prey. This is the third robbery at the place in two months. It's not as if the cops are around. And when you're an easy mark, word spreads on the street.

Still, there is nothing like an overwhelming show of force, just to make sure your victims know who's in charge, and violent criminals always seem to understand this. To that end, one approaches a 62-year-old female clerk and sticks a gun to her head, a machine pistol according to the news accounts.

Another gun crime committed by troubled adolescents. Isn't this further proof that youth today have all too easy access to guns, and that if we don't do something about it, the senseless killings will continue?

Let's stop for a moment and examine the facts. In California, a juvenile cannot legally own a gun. He cannot legally handle one outside the supervision of an adult. He cannot legally carry a concealed weapon, nor can that weapon be loaded, even if carried openly, which he's not allowed to do. So at this point, we have several violations of state gun control laws, each enacted under the promise that it will help end this sort of thing. And, as automatic weapons have been regulated, licensed and taxed by the federal government since 1934, illegal possession of a machine pistol makes this a federal rap as well.

Like any of this matters to any but opportunistic politicians and those incapable of separating reason from emotion who elect them. Street hoodlums are smarter than that. They know they can get a gun any time they want. They laugh at anyone who thinks that another law is going to slow them down one bit, as if someone who would commit armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon by sticking a machine pistol to a 62-year-old woman's head would worry about the penalties for violating one of the 20,000-plus gun control laws already in place. No?

But let's return to the 99 Cents Plus store and see what harvest easy youth access to guns has reaped. There is a struggle. The woman's 12-year-old grandson grabs a hidden handgun and fires at one of the attackers, killing him and causing his accomplice to flee.

He has repelled two monsters, this brave youth, most certainly saving his grandmother, and probably himself, as murderers tend not to look upon witnesses with favor. He has stopped a violent crime from happening and assured that at least one sociopathic reptile will never again find human victims.

So where are the headlines: RESPONSIBLE ARMED YOUTH SAVES LIVES...? I mean, the press is supposed to be objective and unbiased, right?

Do you think the scenario may have played out differently had the wonks at Handgun Control, Inc., been heeded? What do you think the outcome would have been had the grandmother kept her gun unloaded, locked up and separated from its ammunition, or if she had installed a trigger lock? What about if her firearm was a personalized "smart gun" that no one but herself could fire? And had these "safety methods" resulted in the death of this valiant boy and his grandmother, would HCI have exploited this to call for yet more gun control?

Half a lifetime ago, a boy carrying a scoped rifle boarded the Santa Monica bus and no one gave it a second thought. There can be no doubt what the result would be if he tried the same thing today, in our climate of "easy youth access to guns."

Just a Gun

[Use BugMeNot to bypass site registration]
After one outdoors writer saw his career ruined when he said he saw no place for "black" rifles in hunting, this writer wanted to use such a rifle for hunting himself.
True, it ain't about hunting, but otherrwise, Dennis Anderson does a good job setting the record straight. About the only thing I'd add--and his readers should know about this--is how the term "assault weapon" was an intentionally deceptive term employed to exploit public ignorance. We all deserve to know when we're being lied to, and who those liars are.

We're the Only Ones "No Show" Enough

Despite a court order, a police detective has repeatedly failed to show up to give a deposition in a Brooklyn man’s lawsuit charging police brutality. Now the city says the detective has retired and cannot be found, an explanation that has failed to satisfy the judge overseeing the case...

The detective accused of beating Mr. Victor, Dwayne L. Chandler, has missed five appointments to give his own sworn account of the case.
All I can say, Mr. Victor, is you're lucky you didn't "lift a finger" against him.

D'ya think former "Only One" Chandler still carries a gun...?

[Via Peter R]

Let's Do a Warrrantless Gun Search on YOU, Jeanine

HZ sends us a link to Jeanine Pirro demonstrating how a Republican fascist can be just as loathsome (if not more) as those with "D's" after their names.

If she's so into warrantless searches, I have one for her--or hell--get a warrant--I insist:

"I have a .22, a .38 and a Mauser," she bragged to the annual New York Conservative Party conference in a shameless pandering session to lie about her record and whore for votes.

OK, Jeanine, since we the little people apparently have nothing to hide, where do you keep them? Because as we all know, your husband is a convicted felon, and he can't have access to firearms--which again, for we the little people generally means living in a place where they are present.

For someone who enthusiastically put convicted felons in prison over firearms possession violations, I'm wondering why the double standard, Jeanine--and how it is we ever got to the point where our ruling elites can flout laws they impose on the rest of us with impunity.

If New York law enforcement had a shred of integrity, they'd investigate and prosecute--they do in the poor community based on less reliable tips than a person's own words quoted in a major newspaper. And if this...woman had a shred of decency, she'd go crawl in a cave somewhere in shame instead of flaunting her status as exhibitionist for the police state.

Me and My 30'06

Joe Bethancourt punches little holes in pieces of paper in this offering from his "Naked Banjos" CD.

This Day in History: November 25

The British and Hessian forces were ordered to withdraw from New York on November 25, 1783. As the retreating armies relinquished control of northern Manhattan, the American army advanced toward the city at a respectable distance behind the Royalist army (about an hour apart). General Washington along with General George Clinton (who served as Governor of the State of New York from 1777 to 1795) marched to Manhattan through what is now Washington Heights and Inwood. While in the area, Washington and Clinton stopped at the Blue Bell Tavern, which was located at what is now 181st Street and Broadway. Both men were on their horses with the army passing in review as they marched southward to McGown’s Pass and lower Manhattan.