Rational Review 2A News Announcement

From Mary Lou Seymour:

Due to either a Yahoo breakdown or a cyberattack by unknown persons, the 2AM News email edition, located at Yahoo groups, was deleted last week. (Our parent pub, RRND, was also deleted.) Unfortunately, the entire email subscriber list for 2AM News was lost, presumably forever.

So, I have created a new Yahoo group, 2AM News Digest, located at groups.yahoo.com/group/2AMNewsDigest. If you were a subscriber, please resubscribe by clicking on the above link.

UPDATE:

I've now been informed that possibly it can be restored, but I'm not sure when (or even if it'll actually happen). I had created another group to replace it, but I am now going to wait a day or two to see if the old list reappears ... if so, I'll send out this week's 2AM News then; if not, I'll crank up the new list. Thanks to those who have subscribed to the new list so far and stay tuned!

This Day in History: December 18

The new United States celebrates its first national day of thanksgiving on Thursday, December 18, 1777, commemorating the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga after the surrender of General John Burgoyne and 5,000 British troops in October 1777.

There Are Bad Ideas...

...and there are really bad ideas.

Cryptic Subterranean alerts us to the latter: "Password-protected bullets."

Good grief.

Handgun Owners Irate Over Having Names Published Online

Dozens of readers have taken issue with The Journal News over its decision to run a list of pistol permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties as part of a wider investigative article.

The names of more than 30,000 licensed handgun owners were posted online as part of "Falling Through the Cracks," the paper's Dec. 10 report...

"The Constitution gives people the right to own guns in this country, and it also gives people the right to know whether they own a gun or not," said Henry Freeman, editor and vice president/news at The Journal News. "This is a public record. People have a right to know that.

"We did take it into consideration and did not publish your street address, which is also public information."

Irate?

Irate doesn't quite cover it, you miserable...

Your understanding of the Constitution is as broken as your moral compass. You're a betrayer of your countrymen and a betrayer of your name. You and your employers may yet end up with blood on your hands.

A Questionable Fellow

Gun control researcher Philip Alpers has accused the police officer in charge of firearms licensing of bias over a series of emails questioning his credentials.

Inspector Joe Green has written to two universities where Mr Alpers has held posts, questioning the former TV journalist's roles.

Mr Green has also written to Mr Alpers warning him he could be charged if he continued to use the title Harvard fellow.

So the co-author of the questionable Australian "gun death" study has questionable credentials?

We're the Only Ones Fumble-Fingered Enough

In an unrelated incident, a reserve police officer who was entering the building at the time of the evacuation shot himself in the arm and thigh as he tried to take a trigger lock off a Glock handgun.

And just which lock manufacturer recommends using their product with a round in the chamber?

He doesn't know how to use a lock or a gun, so naturally this damn boob and his kind are "The Only Ones" trusted by the City of Detroit to carry firearms.

Like Sheep to the Slaughter

So a school district actually comes up with a response to school shootings that will actually stop or lessen the blow of a school shooting, and some pantywaist gets upset and gets the program canned.

The Subversive comes to some maddening conclusions about schools, self defense, and mindsets.

This Day in History: December 17

On this day in 1777, the French foreign minister, Charles Gravier, count of Vergennes, officially acknowledges the United States as an independent nation. News of the Continental Army’s overwhelming victory against the British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga gave Benjamin Franklin new leverage in his efforts to rally French support for the American rebels. Although the victory occurred in October, news did not reach France until December 4th.

The Devil in the Details

New details are emerging about what led to the shooting of two ATF agents at an apartment complex in DeKalb County on Friday morning...

Reed says she told the ATF a different story than what they used to issue the warrant.

BATFU playing fast and loose with the details? Why doesn't that surprise me?

I also like this quote from another account:

“I just don’t get it,” the father said. “You come, kick in somebody’s door at 4 o’clock in the morning and what do you expect? This area has had a lot of burglaries and home invasions.”

Besides, haven't we established that if you shoot someone through a door, no charges will be filed? Or does that door not swing both ways?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The grand jury should be respected. The grand jury decision should be respected. In routine criminal cases against citizens throughout the state, grand jury decisions are not second guessed; rather they are respected.

Respect is earned.

Herbivores More Intelligent than Carnivores

Frequently dismissed as cranks, their fussy eating habits tend to make them unpopular with dinner party hosts and guests alike.

But now it seems they may have the last laugh, with research showing vegetarians are more intelligent than their meat-eating friends.

Allow me to illustrate:

Smart

Stupid

Stupid Carnivores With Smart Herbivore: "Try the brains--they're delicious!"

So I think I'll do the smart thing and gain an advantage over predators by getting rid of my guns and becoming prey.

British researchers--is there anything they can't prove?

For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz lawmakers on Thursday approved a law allowing them to possess firearms. Most of the deputies believe that they need arms for self-defense.

We once suffer very bad Gypsy attack...

What You Should Know Before Buying a BB Gun for Your Child

For young boys a BB gun is like a right of passage. It is the first step to gun ownership. [More]

That would be "rite of passage," but that's not why this caught my interest:

The most important thing to remember if you get your child a BB gun is to supervise them while they use it.

See, that's the thing--when I was young, my Dad got us our BB guns and taught us how to use them. We learned safety and marksmanship from a man who spent his early twenties with the Marines on Guam in WWII, so we couldn't have had a more qualified instructor. And we learned rules and consequences, what you can shoot, what you can't, and then we were left free to exercise our judgment independently--critical skills if we were to become adults who understood and appreciated the responsibilities of freedom.

If we abused that freedom, we knew there would be trouble and we would be the ones to pay dearly for it. And we got something immeasurable in return: we learned how to earn trust from adults, who understood that at some point, we'd need to learn to work without a net, and that we'd never learn to be free men and women through incessant nannying.

I took my Daisy with me just about every time I was out playing, strapped to my shoulder as I rode my bike--no eyebrows were ever raised, no cops ever hassled me. And I did this not only here, but also in Iran (click the "Fourth Grade" link over in my blogroll), where we lived for several years, and that brings me to my real point:

If my sons today went casually about their public business bearing a BB rifle, indistinguishable to many from a firearm (both in reality and law), is there any doubt that 9-1-1 calls would flood the police station, that a response team replete with SWAT would be dispatched, that they would have their lives gravely at risk while arrested at gunpoint, and that the aftermath would include legal woes, expenses, potential criminal records and hysterical negative publicity?

This is the state of public respect for the rights of free Americans to keep and bear arms, and how much it has devolved in my lifetime. In this respect, I had more freedom as a boy in the Shah's Iran than my sons do in today's United States of America.

And we've allowed it to be done to us.

This Day in History: December 16

On this day in 1773, a group of Massachusetts colonists disguised as Mohawk Indians board three British tea ships moored in Boston Harbor and dump 342 chests of tea into the water.

Unintended Consequences of UK Gun Laws

LIVERPOOL was today named and shamed as one of Britain's gun capitals.

A new report put the city behind only Manchester for the ease with which criminals can obtain illegal firearms...

We have a real-life laboratory producing real-life results. Anyone who ignores them and advocates continued propagation of the delusion is either ignorant or evil.

Do the Right Thing

The school board for an elementary district has chosen to have a student home schooled instead of expelling him in response to a possession of a gun incident.

The board at Troy Elementary School District made that decision Wednesday night after administrators recommended an expulsion. On Nov. 15, the boy found a pellet gun and turned it over to an official at Troy Middle School...

Am I the only one who thinks they have actually done him a favor? And any guesses on what he'll do if he ever finds another gun?

Gun-Grabber to be Sentenced Next Week

If only the story lived up to the promise of its headline...

Clyde Confident Gun Ban Will Stand Despite Vote

Which no doubt pleases Bonnie, what with the reduced professional risks and all...

The Stéphane Solution

The tragic shooting at Dawson College should convince the Conservative government to acknowledge the necessity for effective gun control in Canada, said Stéphane Dion, Leader of the Liberal Official Opposition, today.

Ok, Stéphane, here's a test.

Kimveer Gill has just pulled a gun and is shooting your family.


Just what the hell are you prepared to do about it--besides shriek, wet yourself, run away or hide?

We're the Only Ones Exclusively Judgmental Enough

A senior district judge charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit has been held for trial...

Presutti's attorney, Michael Witherel, told Court of Common Pleas Judge Lawrence O'Toole on Thursday that his client needed the gun to protect himself from his father-in-law. He argued that district judges are allowed to carry guns because they are "law enforcement officers."

In other words, he's allowed to protect himself and we're not because he's an "Only One" and we're not.

Yeah, that sounds like the kind of Republic the Founders had in mind...