April 19, 1775

BY the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Publicola also reminds us of last year's post.

We're the Only Ones Off Key Enough...

A Hermosa Beach police officer named in two excessive force lawsuits was arrested in Redondo Beach last week after he got into a scuffle with someone who reportedly was heckling him during a karaoke performance.

You like me. You really like me!

Or else.

For my next number: Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Black and Blue...

Mi-mi-mi-i-i-i....

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

We're the Only Ones Responsive Enough

POLICE chiefs were today facing demands for an inquiry into how a technical fault left hundreds of non-emergency police calls unanswered...But the most recent April call figures show the centre receives around 80 non-emergency calls an hour from all over Edinburgh and the Lothians meaning that around 360 calls may have gone unanswered...It is ust another hiccup for the £10.4 million call centre, which ran into controversy soon after opening in February 2004, when 300 calls went unanswered in the first three weeks.

"You don't need to have a gun; the police will protect you."

Ri-ight.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

Protected Mayors Plot Disarming Everyone Outside Their Jurisdictions

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will host a summit next week for about a dozen of their colleagues to discuss gun violence, a problem that has long frustrated big-city mayors.

Mayors from Dallas, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Washington, D.C., and Seattle are among those scheduled to attend the meeting at Gracie Mansion, the historic Upper East Side house where Bloomberg holds official events.

And they'll meet under the finest armed security taxpayer money can buy!

Dare I Speculate?

Siretha Woods, whose daughter was killed last month by stray gunfire, also called on guns to be relinquished. Siretha White, 10, was struck by a stray bullet at her surprise birthday party in an Englewood home. Police have said the intended target was someone standing on the porch.

"I got 11 more kids," Woods said. "Let's let the rest of them grow up."

12 kids in all? Different last names from you? Grammar indicating lack of education? An intended target was on your porch, an invited guest to one of your parties?

Siretha, I don't suppose any of your life choices have contributed to a culture where stuff like this happens...?

Big Crybaby Quits Sierra Club

“It appears to me that the Sierra Club should have better projects to spend $15,700 on than sending some nimrod to Alaska to shoot wildlife.”

He doesn't get his way, so he calls people names, then takes his ball and goes home.

Paul Watson, you're a paragon of maturity.

[Via John Schaefer]

University Professors Shape Laws

All of which, Kleck said, can be boiled-down to a bumper-sticker slogan: "Bad guys have guns, bad effects. Good guys have guns, good effects."

This is a pleasantly surprising balanced report, although I suspect the line about guns and property owners will renew an old debate...

Yet Another Gun "Buyout"

The Rev. Louis Coleman, who directs the center, said volunteers buy guns from people for $20 to $25. Those guns are later destroyed.

The campaign is an effort to keep weapons off the street and out of homes, Coleman said.

And how about away from your kid, Reverend?

I have to wonder if anyone has done a criminal background check on the volunteers handling the firearms?

How to Stop a Potential School Shooter in His Tracks

What we are doing right now is reviewing our discipline plan and our lockdown procedures, and we are making sure the staff on site have a daily schedule for the principal, assistant principal, probation officer, and the student accountability specialist. ... We are also determining if we need more hand-held radios.

Schedules, radios and an accountability specialist. Why the solution is so simple it's elegant. Why didn't we see this before?

What do you think, Wayne?

A Matter of Purpose

Critics rightly point out that some criminals don't bother to register their guns and that criminals may acquire them by illegal means. The fact some people ignore the law does not mean that the registry serves no purpose.

Yes, we're aware of the purpose it serves--and whose.

UN Renovation Needs U.S. OK

The United Nations headquarters is "falling down," but a planned renovation still needs U.S. government approval, the project director said yesterday.

I say let it fall. Maybe we can melt the metal down and make something useful--like arms for free people. Start with this:

We're the Only Ones Lame Enough

A Clayton County Police officer reholstering his gun after a brief foot chase Sunday morning accidentally shot himself in the leg.

At least they don't say he was shot by his gun...

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

More Guns Plague City Streets

Altoona police reported one shooting incident over the weekend and confiscated a gun with its serial numbers filed off.

That's it? You use the word "plague" and I'm expecting something Biblical here, like locusts or pestilence.

Nice use of hyperbole, Altoona Mirror!

"Gun Advocates Ignoring Columbine"

Didn't Benjamin Franklin say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

I'm not sure who said it, Heidi Yewman, but he had a point. Every public school in America is a "gun free zone" and we can see how well that works.

Or are you expecting different results the next time?

Oh, I know. There woudn't be a "next time' if we only banned guns.

Yeah, we see how well that's worked everywhere it's been tried, too.

Heidi, are you insane?

How to Be a Polite World Citizen

The reputation of the "Ugly American" abroad is not, however, just some cruel stereotype, but - according to the American government itself - worryingly accurate. Now, the State Department in Washington has joined forces with American industry to plan an image make-over by issuing guides for Americans travelling overseas on how to behave.

Under a programme starting next month, several leading US companies will give employees heading abroad a "World Citizens Guide" featuring 16 etiquette tips on how they can help improve America's battered international image.

I wonder if it contains tips such as "Don't sneak over foreign borders and make yourself at home"?

Europe is being taken over by increasingly hostile and violent strains of Islamic fundamentalism and they're worried about us being rude?

Destroying Babylon

Babylon, in reggae and hip-hop slang, is a term for a corrupt place — it is sometimes used to refer to white society. Bascunan and Pearce interviewed more than 100 rappers worldwide for the book, to be published by Random House of Canada, talking about the role guns played in their lives.

"How many rappers have been shot, lost a brother, lost a friend?" asks Bascunan. "How much gun violence have we heard of? It seemed pretty obvious what the problem was. Guns escalate violence."

There you have it. The cause of violence in the gangsta community is white society and guns! It must be so, because more than 100 rappers say it is...(I wonder if they interviewed Proof?)

My favorite line comes from Ms. Dynamite, who started out strong and then blinked:

I want a man that has, if not a job, then is looking for a job.

Yeah, baby, I'm lookin'...

We've talked about crime and violence in "the community" before, and acknowledge this is fraught with the peril of being branded with today's Scarlet Letter, the dreaded "R." I will repeat myself:

[W]e also can't forget to look at race--not as a cause of violent crime, but as an indicator of populations most directly affected by and responsive to a continuing history of destructive government policies.

If we're afraid to even address this, we're never going to be able to make things right. And those hurt the most by this self-imposed blindness will continue to be the least properous and protected among us.

Hristos a Înviat!

Adevarat a Înviat!

"Student Safety Was Not in Jeopardy"

A lockdown at the West Bend High Schools Thursday yielded a gun in a vehicle that led to an arrest. No drugs, however, were found in any locker or vehicle.

The gun, a cased, 22-caliber rifle, was found in a West student’s truck in the parking lot. Ammunition was found in the Ford truck as well.

The driver, a 17-year-old town of Trenton male, said he was an avid hunter and forgot it was in the truck behind his seat, according to the West Bend Police Depart-ment and the school district. He was arrested and taken to the Washington County Jail on charges of possession of a dangerous weapon on school grounds, the police said.

The cased rifle was confiscated.

Students’ safety was not in jeopardy.

Sounds like they've taken the one kid who, in his spare time, pursues activities requiring patience, discipline, intelligence, work, knowledge and skill, and dropped the hammer on him for it.

The compulsory education system requires individuals to attend and report to a specific location for a specified time. To then turn around and require them to submit to warrantless searches and seizures sounds a lot like the state ordering you to surrender your unalienable rights--and assuming the power to punish you if you don't.

It sounds like that because it is like that. Not that you could ever get one of the black robed high priests charged with abiding by "the supreme law of the land" to agree...

We're the Only Ones Following You Enough...

A former police officer has been convicted of stalking a woman with whom he claimed to be romantically involved.

Yep, sure glad this creep spent decades carrying a gun where you and I could not.

We're the Only Ones Immune Enough

A former FBI agent accused of helping a ruthless mobster plot gangland slayings in Brooklyn more than a decade ago wants his case moved to federal court, his lawyers said in court papers.

State prosecutors have charged R. Lindley DeVecchio with four counts of murder in what they billed as one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in U.S. history. They said on Tuesday that they would fight to keep the case in state court...

Attorneys for DeVecchio claim the case belongs in federal court because there -- unlike in state court -- they would be allowed to argue that he was immune from criminal charges arising from his duties as a federal agent.

It certainly sounds like he was operating by the book...and still is.

Second Amendment Sunday

Free Constitution shares some thoughts on the First and Second Amendments.

Mystery Gun

That gun was Aguilar's companion for the rest of the war. It stayed in his pocket for 21/2 days as he lay in the basement of a rural farmhouse, bleeding from shrapnel wounds to his knees, waiting for the Germans to come and finish him off. The pistol became a token of luck and survival.

He won't sell it.

It's nice to see a counterpoint to this.

We're in the Business of Public Safety

"We're in the business of public safety and our goal with gun amnesty was to reduce the risk of having the firearms stolen from residences and used for criminal purposes," said Deputy Chief Ken Leendertse.

Yeah, good job, Ken. We can all sleep better knowing another Brown Bess--made only for killing, and firing a .71 caliber projectile (much larger than the diameter of a .50 BMG. sniper rifle bullet that shoots through 12-foot armor plated airplanes at 7,000 miles and is the terrorists' weapon of choice for targeting underground bunkers, dams and, Oh God, we're not safe anywhere!)--off the streets.

I love the new law enforcement subterfuge that by removing our property, they're removing criminal temptation.

The idiot owner who didn't know what they had on their hands reminds me of the Eloi in the George Pal version of The Time Machine. They had a library at their disposal, but they weren't even curious enough to know what books were, let alone to learn what that the markings were symbols that could impart knowledge. Volumes still on the shelves crumbled into dust when picked up.

This is what heritage and the sacrifices of the past mean to far too many of our contemporaries. It's a major reason why we're in the mess we find ourselves.

Nagin Regime Forced to Begin Returning Stolen Property

More than seven months have passed since New Orleans residents were forcibly and illegally disarmed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and starting Monday, April 17, the City of New Orleans will be returning seized firearms to their rightful owners, thanks to legal action by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle Association (NRA).

You will, of course, be subjected to a background check, that is, the people who stole your property want to make sure you're not a lawbreaker.

On a side note, anybody want to take my bet that if NRA puts out an announcement about this, it won't include mention of SAF?

Any takers?

Anyone?

We're the Only Ones Wrong Enough But We'll Assault Your Kids Anyway

A cop accused a fast food worker of short-changing him. Then he sprayed her in the face with mace. And it turns out she was right all along. [More]

What a big, brave man.

My favorite line:

"Officer McDonald was cleared of any wrongdoing."

Yes.

Of course he was.

[Via SayUncle]

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

Night of the Evil Streets

Seven years ago, the streets swallowed up Clifton Montgomery and spat him into an Ohio prison after he was convicted of aggravated robbery and burglary...Money drove Montgomery, who was released from prison more than a month ago. Now he wants to steer youth away from the route he took.

Montgomery is one of many local people featured in Peace by Peace, an anti-gun violence documentary...

Yeah, the streets do that to me all the time, too. It's not like I have free will or anything.

Sorry, Clifton. You've only been out a month. You've got a lot of proving to do before I'll want you anywhere near me. In the meantime, if you don't mind, or especially if you do, I'll keep some firearms handy over here.

Just in case those streets work their mind-consuming magic on you again...

We're the Only Ones Off Duty Enough

A gun stolen from a high ranking San Antonio police officer's car is now in the hands of thieves.

It happened at Tokyo Steakhouse off of San Pedro Wednesday evening, while Deputy Chief Rudy Gonzales was at the restaurant off-duty.

Way to go, Rudy. Now, when some lowlife pops a cap into somebody with your negligently stored gun, maybe the San Antonio SWAT team can raid the wrong house again, and you can be out in front of the microphones swearing "everything was done by procedure."

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

We're NOT the Only Ones...

A 38-year-old man was kidnapped in front of his house Thursday morning by three men armed with guns and dressed as police, authorities confirmed.

And when you're conditioned to automatically submit to authority...

The 81-Year-Old Woman Could Only Watch Helplessly...

AN ELDERLY woman watched in terror as robbers shoved a gun in her son's mouth.

The 81-year-old woman could only watch helplessly after three men forced their way into her flat demanding cash and threatening her son at gunpoint.

What kind of sick control freak would demand a mother be helpless to protect her child? Or that a man should be helpless to protect his aged mother? And what degeneration of the human spirit must occur for sovereign, free-willed individuals to accept this as their lot in life?

Bloomberg Plots Surprise Suspension of 4th Amendment

As New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained it, safety officers will use mobile scanners starting this spring, allowing them to make unannounced visits to city middle and high schools to check for weapons.

Students will be asked to go through detectors similar to those used in airports.

"Our reasons for doing this couldn't be clearer or more compelling," said Bloomberg. "We have zero tolerance for weapons of any kind in city schools."

Plus, our desire to indoctrinate them into the mindset of being inmates instead of citizens couldn't be more clear and compelling, either.

Any bets Mikey's taxpayer-funded bodyguards observe his zero tolerance policy when he visits a stalag...I mean...campus?

Mr. Darwin, the New Nominee Has Arrived...

Police officials said Barcott was visiting friends when he retrieved a gun and suggested they play Russian Roulette. He then loaded one bullet into the cylinder, spun it and closed it.

His friends told him not to fire, but Barcott put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, police officials said.

Maybe if California passed a law making it illegal to "sell a handgun to an individual under 21 years of age..."

What? They already did?

Then how did this happen?

Anti-Gun Film DOA

Guns are bad. They fire bullets. They hurt people.

That's the message "American Gun" hits its audience over the head with, using all the grace and finesse of a pistol whipping.

Boring, overbearing, repetitive and negative: Yep, sounds like the antis to me.

Suspect Restraining Techniques: An Open Inquiry

This is addressed to anyone who has knowledge and training in restraining suspects.

Look at the photo posted at here.

Is this a standard restraining technique for cuffed, prone suspects? Is there a name for this maneuver? Who teaches it?

I know LAPD was banned several years back from employing a chokehold, and there are guidelines specifying approved restraining techniques. Does anyone know of any reviewed and approved guidelines recommending the technique being employed in the photo, and if so, can you tell us the agencies that use it or provide documentation to substantiate it is a common and safe practice?

Proof--Say It Ain't So...

Word is hot all over the Detroit news that slain rapper Proof is actually the one who started the gun battle that ended with his death at an illegal Detroit, Michigan nightclub yesterday...

Who cares who started it? The point is, if it hadn't been for evil guns, we'd still have this role model elevating America's youth with such poetic inspiration as:

Just bring who you gon' bring on, who you gon' swing on?
I'm King Kong, guns blow you to king-dom come
Show you machine gun funk
Sixteen m-16's and one pump [click-clack]
The snub in my paw, shove it in your jaw
Have you runnin out this fuckin club in your drawers
We lovin the broads, there's nothin to applaud
But fuck it it's all good, the hood is up in The Source
It's fight music

Rest, my brother. God, I miss you so much.

No Guns Bank Robbed With No Gun

A man entered the bank and claimed to have a gun but didn't show one...

And it's a good thing he didn't! Fifth Third Bank doesn't allow guns!

Ad Campaign to Deter "Gun Crime"

If you get caught with a gun on a felony charge, you're going to jail -- for a long time.

That's the message of an awareness campaign the Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced Wednesday.

Your tax dollars at work.

Not Right From a Federal Standpoint

Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents, on campus Tuesday for Project Safe Neighborhoods training, detained a “suspicious individual” near the Georgia Center, University Police Chief Jimmy Williamson said.

Jeremiah Ransom, a sophomore from Macon, was leaving a Wesley Foundation pirate vs. ninja event when he was detained....

“Seeing someone with something across the face, from a federal standpoint — that’s not right,” McLemore said, explaining why agents believed something to be amiss. [More]

Oh, really? And which federal edict does that violate?


The guy is on the ground cuffed. Why the hell is the BATFU thug putting his weight on a citizen's neck with his knee? If the citizen is a threat, why does the other thug have his hand in his pocket while he talks on the phone?

And why didn't Chief Williamson have them arrested for assault?

These incompetents can't tell the difference between a costume party and a crime, so naturally their first instinct is to react with violence. After all, if they don't understand something, it must be treated like a threat.

What kind of power hungry sociopath would want a career in this sick, unAmerican criminal syndicate?

[Via KABA Newslinks]

Maybe If You Wish Hard Enough...

Community leaders in the city of Dayton will announce on Wednesday morning a new initiative that they hope will help cut down or eliminate gun violence in the city...

Community leaders said the gun violence is a cycle that they believe needs to stop.

It's bold leadership like this that makes America great.

Why the Elite Support "Gun Control"

Heiress Chelsy Davy, 20, was met by two armed officers as she flew in to Heathrow from Cape Town. Three more joined her in arrivals before she was whisked off in a 4x4.

See, there's you, and then there's us...

A Question of Expertise

A nurse had spotted the paddle and thought it was a shotgun. She reported seeing an armed man and prompted a lockdown at the hospital.

So does this mean we shouldn't be addressing "gun violence" as a public health issue?

Kaine's True Colors Showing

Kaine also turned back a bill that would allow gun owners without concealed-weapon permits to store firearms in locked compartments in their vehicles. The legislation, advocated by lawmakers concerned about Second Amendment protections, was passed over the protests of those who champion gun controls.

I don't understand. In the past, he's been so supportive of "gun lobby" programs...

Permitting the Right: Nuts to That

Nelson was sent to a mental-health center for a 96-hour evaluation in September 2003 over fears he would harm himself. He was evaluated and released with no finding of mental illness or need for treatment.

Last year, he applied for a permit to acquire a weapon. The Callaway County sheriff denied the request, citing a section of law barring people who were committed to a mental-health center from obtaining a permit.

My thoughts on the mentally ill and guns has not changed since writing this.

I'm glad Nelson had the will and the resources to fight this beyond the sheriff, the small claims court, and the circuit judge. If he hadn't he'd still be disarmed.

Amy Blame the Gun

Yes, criminals will continue to acquire firearms (legally and otherwise) and commit gun crimes with them. The issue we have yet to address is that of law-abiding citizens purchasing guns that later cause the intentional or unintentional death of the gun owner or someone else.

There it is, folks, in a nutshell.

I'm the Only One Litigious Enough

A Drug Enforcement Administration agent who stars in a popular online video that shows him shooting himself in the foot during a weapons demonstration for Florida children is suing over the tape's release, claiming that his career has been crippled and he's become a laughingstock due to the embarrassing clip's distribution. Lee Paige, 45, blames the video's release on DEA officials in an April 7 federal lawsuit filed against the U.S. government. [More]

Welcome back, Mr. Paige. I consider you the Founding Father of WarOnGuns' ongoing "Only Ones" files... Newsflash, pal. You are a laughingstock. If anyone is going to sue, it ought to be the video's owner. Where does DEA get off confiscating and then erasing the original tape? By virtue of its exposure, including being featured on national television shows, I'd say the owner deserves substantial compensation. [Via The Smallest Minority and Nicki]

Absolutism 301; Felons

[I]f a person cannot be trusted with arms, he cannot be trusted in society. Any law that attempts to make exceptions to that, especially if based upon prior restraint, is not a good law in principle or practice.

If a person walks among us freely, then he should be able to defend his life from unjustified attack. If we deem him unsafe to defend himself then we should not release him into society.

I couldn't agree more.

China Supports Police to Legally Use Guns

Yes.

Of course they do.

The Eloi of the Month Award...

...goes to Bonnie Topa of Hartford, CT.
God, these people are petty and vindictive...

Cops, Cars and Guns

Cars and trucks, not guns, are becoming the No. 1 threat to police officers.

Traffic accidents have killed 429 officers nationwide this decade, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Nearly one in five was hit by a vehicle.

In contrast, guns have killed 351 officers, the memorial fund says...

The number of police killed in traffic -- whether driving their cruisers or standing outside them -- has risen 40 percent in 30 years, while gun deaths have declined 36 percent, Mendelsohn said.

See the journalistic sleight of mind being performed here? When vehicles are involved, the officers are killed by "traffic accidents." When guns are involved, they're killed by...uh..."guns."

Nothing to Fear

Responsible gun owners have nothing to fear from a bill in the General Assembly that would help to close a loophole in state law governing illegal trafficking in guns...The legislation would put the responsibility for a gun's safe-keeping squarely with the owner. Specifically, it would require owners to store guns to avoid "a substantial and unjustifiable risk" they'll be stolen. The bill would also require gun owners to report a lost or stolen firearm to police within 72 hours.

Read another way: Responsible gun owners have nothing to fear from a bill that will make them responsible for something they're not responsible for. Honest.

Sniff Dogg in Taser Scare

Authorities used a Taser gun on a dog on Monday who bit his owner and two other people in South Philadelphia.

What?

Snoop Dogg in Gun Scare

Clubbers at Gas, who had waited hours for a glimpse of Snoop Dogg, panicked and hit the floor when shots were heard at around 2.30am - but it turned out the noise came from rocks being thrown at the doors by guests who had been denied entry earlier.

But the editor can't write "Snoop Dogg in Rock Scare." That just wouldn't generate the desired hysteria.

We're the Only Ones Drunk Enough

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was arrested in connection with the accidental shooting death of his friend following a night of drinking, authorities said...

"He was carrying his gun in his hand back into the house," Ansara said. "They were just playing around, and somehow the gun ended up pointed toward the victim's head, and the trigger was pulled, and he was struck once."

The gun ended up pointed...the trigger was pulled...he was struck...

Not the drunken cop pointed the gun, the drunken cop pulled the trigger, the drunken cop fired a shot that struck...

See? I knew it was the gun's fault!

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

Peace Through Strength?

A SriLankan Airlines flight to New Delhi from Colombo on Thursday night was delayed after an undeclared revolver was found in the possession of the Norwegian peace delegation led by International Development Minister Erik Solheim.

We're the Only Ones Taking It On the Chin Enough

The policeman was sitting with his chin on the barrel of his rifle. The rifle accidentally went off and the bullet hit his chin and pierced his head.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

Permitting the Right: From the Mouths of Antis

Yesterday I linked to an article about a minister who claims attempts to mandate "no guns" in churches violates the separation doctrine. The post allows comments, and no shortage of enuretics use them to take the obligatory swipe at gun owners and the concept of bearing arms--invariably offering sweeping and unsubstantiated opinions and characterizing anyone who disagrees with them in a negative light.

I generally avoid these things, but one guy struck me as particularly ignorant and obnoxious, so I asked him:

If someone DOES bring a gun to church, what exactly are you prepared to do about it?

His partial response:

I'd do the same thing you would do if someone brought a gun to school, or anyone of the other places that the concealed carry law will be exempt from.

Thing is, aside from his expectation of what I'd do, he's right.

He'd do nothing. He'd be helpless. Just like Susanna Gratia Hupp was when she left her gun in the car and the madman who invaded the cafeteria did not.

And so would most gun owners with CCWs, I'd wager. After all, if someone goes to the time, effort and trouble to obtain a license, they're probably the type who follows the rules. These people are the very definition of "law abiding," and probably wouldn't want to risk losing their permit or getting into legal trouble by flouting the law.

Now, if you have a CCW and you wouldn't disarm just because you're in a forbidden zone, why get a license in the first place if you intend to break the law whenever you deem it "pragmatic"?

No Safe Harbor

Counterfeit goods. Guns. Humans. If you're trying to slip any of those through local ports, officers have you in their well-trained sights.

Nice cheerleading piece, Josh Grossberg. I like the way it squares with reality:

More than 6 million shipping containers arrive here at...U.S. ports annually. Only 2% are inspected. The rest remain sealed as they are shipped throughout the country. It would be easy, some fear, to take a container, stuff it with explosives, a chemical weapon or a nuclear device and inject it into the nation's economic bloodstream.

Hey, if we can't go back to sleep, can we at least have some more Kool-Aid?

Permitting the Right: D-Day

Sailorcurt likens incrementalism to Allied opposition of Hitler, pointing out that D-Day did not cause the immediate surrender of Nazi Germany. As much as I enjoy reading his opinions, I don't believe this analogy works, and here's why.

The tactics used to achieve the strategy of defeating Germany involved making concessions and decisions due to logistics, resources, manpower, terrain, the weather, battlefield conditions, etc. They did not involve making concessions to Hitler.

And as D-Day was used as an example, we saw there some troop transports going off course and landing on the wrong beachhead.

I'll accept this analogy if someone can show me where Eisenhower sought Nazi permission. Otherwise, it seems the Allied strategy--the unconditional surrender of Axis powers--was pretty much an example of "absolutism."

Concealed Gun Law a Violation of Church/State?

History shows us that when shootings take place in a church, it is by people that come off the street and start shooting. If this law stands, then it will make it illegal for "religious" people to defend themselves.

The state has no right to determine what and who can go into a church; this is a decision of the church. If this law stands, then it will give the government a crack in which they can invade the church.”

So naturally, the Wichita Eagle editor who posted this takes a swipe at both Christians and guns with the Landover Baptist Church graphic.

I guess they realize they can heap all the ridicule they want on Christians with guns and remain safe. I do note the Landover crowd does nothing to offend the Fatwah crowd...

We're the Only Ones Corrupt Enough

Relying on hours of secretly recorded conversations of the officers, federal prosecutors spent almost three weeks presenting evidence that the officers robbed drug addicts in West Baltimore to reward their sources on the street and line their own pockets.

Prosecutors sought to show that King and Murray abused the tools of their trade - department badges, unmarked cars and department-issue guns - by stealing drugs and money, distributing heroin, cocaine and marijuana to their informants and sharing in the proceeds when the drugs were sold.

Hey, you can't make an omelette without breaking some heads...I mean, eggs.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

We're the Only Ones Drunk and Mean Enough

Reports say the sergeant who lives with his family at his mother-in-law's house came home drunk and beat up his wife and daughter.

After police seized the gun, the sergeant, still drunk went to the Arima police station where he threatened the investigators.

What the hell YOU lookin' at?

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

Backup Second Amendment Saturday

Stan is having trouble with Blogger (Really? I wouldn't know...), so he's posted this week's 2A commentary over at his backup site.

We're the Only Ones Goombah Enough...

TWO ex-New York cops were last night facing life behind bars after they were convicted of secretly working as Mafia hitmen.

Louis Eppolito, 57, and Stephen Caracappa, 64, were involved in the assassination of at least eight people for the Mob while serving as detectives.

They also sold drugs, intimidated witnesses, carried out kidnappings and helped Mafia bosses with money laundering scams.

And what do you think would have happened to a regular citizen if he got a piece and popped these two meat eaters?

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

We're the Only Ones Biting Enough

A GROUP of young boys were bitten by an off-duty police dog as they played football after it escaped from its enclosure...

Fortunately, no private citizen was armed, so the animal was not injured.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

We're the Only Ones "In the Mood" Enough...

Seven people, including five police officers, were charged yesterday in connection to the alleged rape of a 29-year-old woman on Rhodes, sources said.

Cigarette?

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

We're the Only...JOHNNY!

Policeman's Gun Accidently Goes off at School

A 13-year-old boy at Saunders Middle School in Manassas, Virginia, accidentally discharged his father's weapon on a school bus, fortunately no one was injured. The weapon was at the school all day without incident up until that point in time.

Oops.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

A Dynamite Idea

I do not want to take all weapons away from Americans; we have the privilege to hunt. However, Americans do not need assault weapons or even semiautomatics.

So I challenge Mr. Hannick to answer this question: What does he want a semiautomatic or an automatic for?

Perhaps he is going to hunt with it. If so, I would like to suggest the sport of hunting with dynamite.

Jori Byrne-Diakun

Indignant anti-gunners. Is there anything they don't know?*

I also love her childish line: "A life is a life, and is the most precious thing in the world."

I wonder what she'd think if some latter day Gollum broke into her house, and was advancing on her, "My Precioussss..."

[ * Based on a Homer Simpson line about actors]

Permitting the Right: Truth in Advertising

Words have meaning.

Framing the ccw debate around the term "right to carry" is calculated, deliberate and pervasive. Because it requires permissions and licensing, it's also not true.

Just be careful pointing that out to most "pro-gun activists."

Update in re Angel

Dear Friends of Angel,

Angel had his day in court today. His attorney and the prosecutors had worked out an agreement, which the judge accepted. Here are the results.

The judge overseeing the case ordered the police to give Angel's guns back, but he must register the handguns in compliance with Michigan law (euphemistically called a "safety inspection", but it is clearly registration, a law adopted in the 20s to keep guns out of the hands of Blacks). The only charges on the table were four misdemeanor counts of failure to present a handgun for a safety inspection. The theoried charge discussed in the media and on the Net about "menacing" and threats was not advanced by prosecutors, because there was no substance to the theoried charge. Police and prosecutors figured this out after looking at the facts and evidence.

Angel will be on non-reporting probation on the failure to register charges for a year and a half. Angel will have on his record forever four misdemeanor violations of failure to present his handguns for "safety inspection". Angel must perform three days of community service, which will hold him in Michigan for almost a month (because they are court-scheduled days).

I've been saying for too long now that the attorneys have insisted on silence from anyone having inside information about this situation, because release of such information could very well have torpedoed the deal Angel's attorney had worked out with the prosecutors. Frankly, the prosecutors were not anxious to go to trial on this case, and Angel is too clearly a clean and good guy to be able to spin him as some dangerous nut case.

Now is probably time for me to confess a bit of an ulterior motive in all of this. Angel plans to move to Montana where can live under what legal scholar Dave Kopel calls the freest gun laws in the World (see Dave's Foreword to my book, Gun Laws of Montana), where he can go Prairie Dog hunting with my son Ty and myself, and where he will undertake the needful task of recruiting scads of members for MSSA. According to the plan, recruiting membership for MSSA will be Angel's vocation for the indefinite future. I suspect you may be hearing a pitch from Angel (an MSSA Member since 2003) to join MSSA (hey, a lot of our members don't live in Montana).

So, stay tuned for more info about how this all happened to Angel. In the meantime, if you haven't donated to Angel's legal defense, but wish to do so, there is information about this at:

http://www.marbut.com/angel

There IS a deficit of about $10,000 to pay the legal expenses incurred so far.

Thanks loads to all of you for your tolerance of the imposed silence, for your now-justified faith in Angel, for your support letters, and for your donations to Angel's legal defense.

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

Dial 911 and Die

Woman dies after son calls 911; dispatchers think it's a prank...An investigation is underway in Detroit after a six-year-old boy called 911 to get help for his mom, and the operator acted as if it were a joke...Detroit police are investigating and say they are not sure about what, if any, disciplinary will be taken against the 911 operator.

Naturally.

And, as is typical with out Watchdog Press, we know the names of the citizens involved, but not of the outrageously negligent government employee.

[Via Xavier Thoughts]

The Parasite Preservation Act

The mayor of Miramichi, N.B., says there is a way of saving 200 high-paying federal jobs if the government scraps the federal gun registry.

The mayor, John MacKay, said people working there could begin manufacturing identity cards that may soon be required under new security measures imposed by the United States at border crossings.

God forbid anyone lose their seat on the gravy train.

Permitting the Right: Dueling Machiavellis

Since Machiavelli has been introduced as a source to justify asking and paying the government for permission to bear arms, I thought I'd follow up with another of his quotes:

To be disarmed is to be contemptible.

How many of you would petition the government for a license to not be contemptible?

Stu Loser

"This bill has nothing to do with the Second Amendment," said Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser, "and everything to do with the dangers [that] illegal guns pose to our police officers and citizens."

So, Stu, when you were a kid, did you know you wanted to grow up to be an apologist for tyranny, or is that something you found an aptitude for as you grew older?

A Night to Remember

He said that there were reports of riots in Nashville. Then he handed me an M1 carbine rifle and left me and my wife there all alone. We were out in the middle of nowhere, and the only lights you could see were those of the gas station.

Why didn't he just rely on the police to protect him?

Coming Soon: Fabric Control

Just what law enforcement needs: another headache. Yet Thor Shield promises to be a thunderbolt from heaven for those resisting arrest.

The product is a polyester fabric that bonds a conducted material and sends the electricity coming from a stun gun back where it came from. It is now available for sale only to military and law enforcement agencies, but one wonders how long before it is being worn by those on the streets of America...What is intended to be used to protect the police might one day soon be used against them.

It's all about keeping the state safe for police, isn't it, Dave White? What legitimate need could an average citizen possibly have for this?

Excusez-Moi

French police have apologised after one of their officers went shopping at Waterloo station still carrying her gun...Such a sight may be commonplace if the Home Office decides to opt into the so-called "hot pursuit" provisions of the Schengen convention, under which armed officers from one country can continue chasing criminals into another.

Say, why don't we try that here?

N.J. Intends to Crack Down on Gangs, Gun Violence

This time we mean it. Really. We're warning you.

Yep. Call neighborhoods "Cease Fire Zones." Dang, is that all it takes?

And, of course, accept no bail money in a brown paper bag.

Peace is at hand.

Permitting the Right

I started a bit of a debate with my comments regarding the new Nebraska concealed carry law. It has spilled over to The Smallest Minority and Captain of a Crew of One.

I'm going to address this further and in detail, but within the confines of some very real and pressing restrictions on my time--which means I'll post on this when I can.

I stipulate right up front that mine is not the popular view--by far. I don't go into this with any illusions that the vast majority of "gun rights" supporters will agree with me. Still, so far, I haven't seen anyone specifically demonstrate where any claim I made in my post is wrong. All the arguments seem to be that "absolutists" are immature and impatient, and even enemies, and that only by trading rights for privileges can one be considered "pragmatic." Incrementalism is what got us here, and only incrementalism will save us.

I reject these assumptions, and will explore them in more depth in the coming days. Just please be patient. And please post comments with an eye toward generating light, not heat.

Sharon Stoned on Guns

Security:
As needed. To be mutually decided by Producer and Sharon.
--Approved 24 hr armed bodyguard--[adt'l?] bodyguard app'd by SS if she requests

So that explains why Sharon Stone could make such a public spectacle of "surrendering" her guns!

"I choose to surrender my right to bear arms in exchange for the peace of mind of doing the right thing."

Los Angeles police, at Stone's request, confiscated one shotgun and three handguns from her Beverly Hills home on May 14. Authorities described the weapons as "lawfully obtained and legally kept."

Stone said she was moved to disarm by April's Columbine High massacre that left 15 people, including the two teen gunmen, dead. She asked other gun owners to similarly downsize.

"I urge you to trust and believe in your local law enforcement officers and believe in the courage of following your heart and surrendering your fear and anger," she said.

You didn't surrender your right to bear arms, Sharon, you outsourced it. And as for placing trust in the police for protection: You first.

We're the Only Ones...

...Well Adjusted Enough

For the past two weeks, investigators have been looking for a suspect Eaton County Sheriff Sergeant Jeff Lutz says shot him while on duty, but now investigators are looking at Lutz himself.

...Appropriately Forceful Enough

Ronald Robbins, 45, who claimed he acted in self-defense when he shot 22-year-old Jason Starkey in the back during a fistfight with Starkey and another man on Sept. 22, 2002, faces up to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder.

...Touchy-Feely Enough

Swatara Police arrested Michael Fernsler, 33, of Orrstown, Pa., on Friday night while he was on the job as a police officer with Shippensburg University. Police said he sexually assaulted two 4-year-old girls in their Swatara Township, Pa. home.

...Dynamic in Our Entries Enough

Bullets peppered the wall, ceiling and refrigerator in an incident late Saturday during which two Muskegon police officers fired shots at each other inside a McLaughlin Avenue home.

How can anyone argue against the position that trained professionals like these are the only ones who should have guns?

[Via KABA Newslinks]

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

No Borders No Guns

Jennifer Freeman of The Liberty Belles sounds a warning...

We're the Only Ones Retired Enough

Even though Illinois has among the nation's most restrictive firearms laws, hundreds of retired police officers, now private citizens, are quietly being licensed to carry concealed weapons...

Still, most former officers have no desire for a concealed weapon...That is the case with Capt. Mel Weith, of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department, who said he didn't think he'd want to carry a gun when he retired from law enforcement.

"I just don't see a need for it," he said.

"I don't know what is more pathetic," correspondent HZ wrote when he emailed me this link, "that some people believe retired police officers should be the only ones allowed to carry concealed weapons or that some retired police officers abhor the idea of carrying concealed...."

I wouldn't want to learn the hard way the difference between retiring and being terminated.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

We're the Only Ones Guilty Enou...Wait, That Doesn't Sound Right...

Two U.S. air marshals pleaded guilty Monday to accepting money to smuggle cocaine on a flight to Las Vegas and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

We've talked about these two stalwarts before...

[Via Jason M]

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

"Anti-Gun Activist" Awash in Excuses

"If there weren't guns on the street, there wouldn't be guns in my home," she says. "The system failed me and it failed my son. I'm angry at everybody who has the authority to stop gun violence and the proliferation of guns."

Anything but accepting responsibility for her own failure to raise her kid and control what goes on in her home...

My favorite whine:

(The police) are doing their job, but do they have to do their job like this?"

What, they messed up the place doing a search to enforce edicts she promotes?

I don't think I've ever seen so many self-serving pity-poor-me deflections of responsibility crammed into such a compressed space.

BREAKING NEWS: IRAQ AWASH IN GUNS!!!

[M]ore Iraqis than ever have been buying, carrying and stockpiling weapons, adding an unnerving level of firepower to Baghdad's streets.

You can actually buy guns over there?

But I thought they had to come over here and attend a gun show...

Boom Times on Underworld Gun Market

ILLEGAL guns can be bought "as easily as a pack of cigarettes" through a booming weapons black market in Queensland.

Despite official denials, The Sunday Mail has been told that weapons are freely available through underworld dealers.

Fair dinkum, mate?

Maybe we've been going about things the wrong way.

Maybe, if we really want to create a free market for gun buyers without government permits, fees, registrations, etc., we ought to join the gun ban movement.

Gun in One Hand, Rosary in the Other

AN 18-year-old boy was found dead inside his room in Taguig City before dawn yesterday. In his left hand, he held a rosary and crucifix. In the right, he held a gun.

Let me guess--despite this being an incident precipitated by a troubled state of spirit and mind, no one is going to call for religion control...

VICTORY IS OURS!!!

If you are going to church, leave your gun in the car.

Going to the bank to cash a check? Leave your gun in the car....

[T]he law has a litany of places where weapons are not allowed. Schools, churches, hospitals, county commissioner meetings, bars, and jails are among some of the places where guns are not allowed...

Gov. Dave Heineman has announced he would sign LB 454 into law at a ceremony next week.

But don't bring your gun. Political events are gun-free, under the law.

Unalienable rights?

"Shall not be infringed"?

That's the problem with you absolutist troublemakers. You just don't recognize incremental victories when you see them--along with the many examples from history where compromising essential rights and giving the state claim over them has produced enduring liberty.

Just stay out of our way and we'll make licensing and fees and prior restraints and limitations and restrictions and conditions and denials and revocations the benchmark for the trumpeting of gun lobby success. Infringements have become customary, expected, codified into existing gun laws, and you know who cries the loudest for enforcing those .

Good luck unraveling that Gordian knot. And woe unto you who just decide to bear arms on your own authority.

Yep, smells like victory to me. The only question is, whose?

We're the Only Ones Rampaging Enough

Former Lehi policeman Art Henderson - accused of trying to kill former police colleagues, his estranged wife and her boyfriend - waived his right to a preliminary hearing Friday, advancing the case toward trial...

Prosecutor Mariane O'Bryant had wanted bail set at $1 million. She called Henderson's alleged January shooting rampage "extremely serious," and said that in addition to the alleged intended victims, Henderson had "almost killed a 7-year-old boy" with a stray bullet.

The bullet smashed through the rear window of the car in which the boy was sitting and struck a headrest just inches from his head.

Wow. And this happened to a trained professional. Good thing Sarah & Co. don't want amateurs like you and me armed.

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

We're the Only Ones Elevated Enough...

A Thurston County jail inmate being escorted by a female corrections officer jammed a courthouse elevator and attacked her Friday, struggling with the officer for 20 minutes and finally grabbing her gun just before other officers pried open the elevator doors.

It's not like pairing a larger, stronger male prisoner with a lone female officer has ever been a cause for concern before...

[More from "The Only Ones" files...]

Kennedy Dog Injured in Gun Mishap

Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) has been questioned by Hyannisport authorities for what police are characterizing as "alcohol-related accidental firearm discharges" at his family home that left a pet in need of emergency medical treatment.

Splash, the senator's Belgian water dog, is reportedly undergoing surgery at a nearby veterinary hospital for multiple gunshot wounds...[More]

It's 2A Saturday...

...over at Free Constitution...

When Aliens Attack!

Be afraid. Be very afraid.
And look to the skies.

"When Aliens Attack!," my April Rights Watch column for GUNS Magazine, is now online.

GUNS Magazine, April 1956

It's now online. Enjoy.

Phone Call From the NRA

Dear MSSA Friends,

I just answered an incoming phone with no caller ID. I answered, as I usually do, "Gary Marbut." There was a click and then a female voice said, "Could I speak with Mr. Gary Marbut please." My response, "If you are paying attention now, I'll answer the phone again - Gary Marbut."

The lady said, "I'm very sorry, I didn't hear you the first time. Could I take just a minute of your time to play you a message from Wayne LaPierre about how important it is to get a bill passed in your state to allow Montana people to protect their families?"

My response, "Absolutely not! I am the president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association, the primary political action organization for gun owners in Montana. We had such a bill before the 2005 session of the Montana Legislature. We asked the NRA to support our bill and the NRA refused. I will certainly not listen to Wayne, followed by a pitch for a donation to the NRA to support enactment a bill we tried to enact but the NRA refused to support!"

The lady on the phone was shocked. I explained the details to her,including Randy Kozuch's role in the Montana fiasco. The lady apologized again.

That ended the call.

If you have any questions, see: http://www.mtssa.org/nrasnafu.phtml

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association
http://www.mtssa.org
author, Gun Laws of Montana
http://www.mtpublish.com

A Different Standard

A Richmond police officer, her ex-policeman husband and her mother have been charged with participating in an illegal gambling operation at the mother's Henrico County home...

"No police officer is held to any different standard than any other citizen," said Richmond Police Chief Rodney Monroe.

Right, Rodney.

Tell it to Salvatore Culosi.

Slow Going Ahead

WarOnGuns regulars: the demands of my real job will be at seven days a week, including many evenings, for the foreseeable future--at least through to August.

I'll post as I can, but please understand if you don't see the level of activity I've managed to squeeze out in the past. I also have a family that needs my attention--what little my job allows me to give them. Of the writing I do, the magazine gig that allows me to contribute a bit more to our household finances will need to come first.

It doesn't mean I'm going away. It just means that some days, posting will be light or possibly not happen at all. I also ask you to please bear with me if I don't have time to give your emails the attention they deserve.

There's only one of me, the load is heavy and the road ahead is getting steeper with each step.

“It Just Went Off. It Just Went Bang.”

I will not make a stupid double entendre out of this.

We're the Only Ones Recovered Enough

A .40 caliber handgun lost near Leesburg by a Loudoun County Deputy March 23 was returned to the Sheriff's Office two days later.

The service weapon was lost during the course of the deputy's duties, a Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

After that last story, why do I hear Peter Griffin laughing and remarking "He said doody!"

[More From The "Only Ones" Files]

We're the Only Ones Wiped Out Enough...

A sergeant on the Boca Raton Police Department has been issued a reprimand for leaving her loaded service handgun in a public bathroom at the Boca Raton Resort & Club shortly before Vice President Dick Cheney spoke at a fund-raiser for U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw.

Sorry about the title. Really.

Well, not really.

[More From The "Only Ones" Files]

The "NRA Shill"

Sketching a likely general election theme, Gov. Blagojevich came out swinging Tuesday against GOP gubernatorial front-runner Judy Baar Topinka, accusing the state treasurer of being a shill for the National Rifle Association and the right wing.

"The NRA just gave her an A rating -- an A rating -- and if you get an A rating from the NRA, you're basically taking their talking points and doing their bidding," Blagojevich said. "And I would urge her to forget about the NRA, stop pandering to the right wing and join us and help us pass a ban on assault weapons."

Actually, I can't find a current NRA rating for Topinka, just one from 2002, where, indeed, she got an "A."

As correspondent HZ observes, "I would love to know the NRA's response to their A rated candidate's responses to this questionnaire."

I have supported efforts to strengthen our FOID card program with a system to rapidly check backgrounds of people before they can obtain a FOID card. We must keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to society. My position on assault weapons legislation will depend on the specific definitions in the final bill.

The governor has spoken out against Uzies and AK 47s, weapons that are already prohibited. While they are illegal, I certainly agree with keeping Uzies and AK 47s off the street. If the final language of a bill that passes the legislature includes language to ban weapons similar to Uzies and AK 47s, I would have no problem. If the language is broader and includes weapons currently in use by law-abiding citizens, then I would have concerns. The key will be in the definitions.

I see this as a huge and continued credibility problem for NRA management. An "A" should be measured against a "shall not be infringed" benchmark.

NRA members and other gun owners are sophisticated enough to handle the truth and to make their decisons accordingly. Certainly, when compared to the wretched Blagojevich, Topinka is far less oppressive on rkba issues. But don't blow smoke at us and tell us someone who supports prior restraints, licenses, fees and functional gun bans based on "definitions" deserves an "A".

That is, unless the criteria is something other than "shall not be infringed," and if support for an agenda takes precedence over the Second Amendment...