GRE Round Up for September 23

Here's the latest from my fellow GREs:

Dan Bidstrup/Denver:

• Johns Hopkins shooting underscores a truth

Sean McClanahan/Des Moines:

• St. Joseph police officer, Iowa native, killed during training

Steve D. Jones/Fort Smith:

• Boozman tells Hillary to repeal gun ban

Liston Matthews/Knoxville:

• Justice Clarence Thomas visits University of Tennessee

John Pierce/Minneapolis:

• The tyranny of the bigoted comes to Madison Wisconsin

Dave Workman/Seattle:

• Anti-gun mayoral criminals have something else in common 
• Juvenile thug in Kent: ‘Gun culture’ didn’t create this little jerk 

 Also check out these other Liberty-oriented Examiners:

• Albuquerque Libertarian
• Cochise County Libertarian
• Conservative
• Michigan Firearms

DISCLOSE Fails

59 Aye, 39 Nay.

My column here.

We're the Only Ones Charging Enough

Charging private citizens seems to be a growing trend by public police forces, apparently to cover their budget shortfalls. [More]

No thanks--I'm not in the market for those services today, and in truth, I'm kind of a do-it-yourselfer. If I need you though, I know where to call.

[Via Mark P]

A Walk in the Park

Residents will soon be sipping beer during events and carrying concealed weapons in Hillsborough County parks. [More]

At the same time?

Not that I necessarily see that as a problem--I have guns and alcohol accessible at home and it's never been a problem for me or for anyone around me--so I don't know why changing the setting I'm in should matter, or induce me to abandon self control, or become irresponsible or violent....

Hell, I could have a couple stiff drinks right now, and then a couple more, and access my choice of potentially lethal objects--if I wanted to.

What's to stop me, except myself?

Hell of a thing, freedom. It's not perfect. Its benefits come with costs. Without responsibility, problems can arise.

It sure beats the hell out of the alternative though, doesn't it?

[Via Ed M]

We're the Only Ones...

...Getting to the Heart of the Matter Enough

Man arrested after lawmen mistake heart medicine for cocaine

...Who Have Always Relied on the Kindness of Strangers Enough

Former Minneapolis Police Officer Pleads Guilty to Five Armed Robberies

...Standing United Behind Bill Enough

Cozzi is serving a 40-month sentence in federal prison. The Chicago police officer was caught on tape beating a man named Randle Miles in 2005.

Miles was handcuffed and shackled to a wheelchair.

...What's All this Racket? Enough

Former Lee County Sheriff E.J. Melvin has been indicted on 47 new charges, including racketeering and money laundering, and prosecutors said Wednesday the allegations represent more layers of a complex drug conspiracy case.

And they're all just so much better and trustworthy than you and I in oh, so many ways....

[Via FFFW]

We're the Only Ones Rising to the Level Enough

St. Petersburg police Sgt. Paula Melanson told Manatee investigators that White's behavior "rose to the level of a criminal violation and the only reason he was not arrested was because he was a deputy sheriff." [More]

You know, a two-tiered justice system. The St. Peterburg police just admitted it's official policy.

You, we do our best to ruin your life. After the beating and tasing and who knows where this could lead?

Us? Professional courtesy.

[Via FFFW]

We're the Former Only Ones Degreed Enough

Patton, who is charged with second-degree murder and is being held in the Fairfax jail without bond, is a former Alexandria City sheriff's deputy. [More]

He brought plastic ties to bind his victims and it's only second degree? That doesn't show premeditation?

[Via Jeffersonian]

Perhaps

Perhaps dissenting justices would be more sympathetic to the right of self-defense if they had a burglar downstairs in their homes. [More]

Perhaps.

I'd love to know how to get a burglar into one of their homes to find out.

Still, coming from a California college professor, what a welcome and refreshing viewpoint to come across! Wish I'd had guys like this teaching--by the early Seventies, the faculty was already pretty much thoroughly commie-infiltrated.

153-151

Amazing how just two idiot subversives can ruin an entire country's whole day--and more. [Read]

We're the Only Ones Off the Cuff Enough

The parents of a teenager say an off-duty San Jose policeman showed up at their home and handcuffed their son for having sex with the officer's 14-year-old stepdaughter. [More]

And they just let him?

And to add insult to injury, the boy is charged, but the "Only One"-connected girl is not? And only after a complaint was reported to internal affairs?

Make sure you read the comments, just to understand the mindset of those who think jackboots are fashionable.

[Via Harvey]

Ignorance is Bliss

Retired Army Sgt. Steven Kropf apparently flashed his military identification card on Monday and drove onto the post carrying a revolver he used to kill one woman and seriously injure another, officials said Tuesday. [More]

Here it comes:

Generally speaking, people are not supposed to carry loaded private weapons on post, an official said.

That would be the generals speaking.

The same policy that worked so well at Ft. Hood, you see... But that's not what it's about, we're told:

It's about making sure that we have resilient systems in place where we can react and respond and take care of our Soldiers, family members and civilians here on post."

React and respond. After you're dead.

How "resilient."

[Via Harvey]

Helping Hands

Wadsworth police say a gun-carrying couple helped them catch a man who was allegedly beating his girlfriend in a parking lot in front of her two small children. [More]

Let's see, he's 18, sweetie has two kids already, they're not married...

The armed rescuers didn't know that, but still, at most I might have yelled at him to stop and said I was calling the cops. I don't know that I would have drawn on him, with the level of follow-up commitment that requires, unless he decided to turn his aggression against me and I deemed him a credible threat that warranted lethal force to stop.

And I ain't saying I'd necessarily hang around afterward, either.

I see a lot of gunnies cheering this as a victory for lawful CCW. I don't mean to be Eeyore here, but I'm thinking the couple is damn lucky they didn't shoot this kid. Back to the situation broken up here, I'm not sure the girl won't want him back, and the dynamics of the choices fueling that sick situation are a hell of a thing to risk your freedom over.

Be a hell of a thing to have the person you think you're saving end up testifying against you in a criminal court and suing you in a civil one.

[Via lots of you]

Senate voting on DISCLOSE Act

What can you do?

Go to the U.S. Senate website and use the "Find Your Senators" tool in the upper-right corner of the page.

Call your senators NOW. [Read]

Today's Gun Rights Examiner column asks you to make a couple of phone calls. Be curious to see how many who claim they're ready to fight a rebellion can be persuaded to take a significantly less involved action...

Also discuss the rap sheets of some of my favorite gungrabbers.

Share the link? (Also a significantly less involved action...)

This Day in History: September 23

Appraisal of a gun lost by Joseph Cadanes Hogeland when he was taken prisoner "at the Liberty Pole" on September 23, 1778. [More]