A Smarter Way

I nominate Ronald Brownstein over at The Los Angeles Times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He's single-handedly come up with "A Smarter Way to Control Outbreaks of School Gun Violence."

If only the fed-gov would force us to use "smart guns," the Red Lake Massacre wouldn't have happened.

Well, the technology isn't actually ready yet, Brownstein admits, but if it was, this would sure be a smarter way to control outbreaks of school violence.

Of course he doesn't address what we'll need to do with the estimated 250 million or so "dumb" guns already in circulation. Nor that the Red Lake killer would have still been able to steal guns from his LEO grandfather, since the police will exempt themselves from using them (even though the justification for the original research was to create a smarter way to control incidents where perps shoot cops with their own guns.)

He doesn't say anything about how the new technology will likely raise the cost of basic defense pistols out of the reach of many low-income people, the ones who live in the most crime-prone neighborhoods and presumably in the most routine danger. Nor does he consider how criminals, like the police, will also be exempted from any mandates.

He also doesn't consider the near universal experience of pointing a remote control at a TV or garage door and having absolutely nothing happen. But maybe increasing the likelihood of a firearm failing to perform as intended will turn out to be a smarter way to revive gun industry lawsuits.

And he's dead silent on the certain demands for the police to have a "shutoff switch" like the engine disablers being developed as a smarter way to stop car chases. After all, what excuse could a "law-abiding" citizen have for not supporting this? Like someone who asserts his Fourth Amendment rights during a traffic stop, what have you got to hide?

The sad thing is, I'll bet over 90% of The Times' readers will never hear such arguments, and of the ones who do, the majority will find the outcomes desirable.

Ronald Brownstein is counting on that. After all, we've established that he's a pretty smart fellow.

A Sticky Situation

Jennifer Freeman over at Liberty Belles says some of their "members and supporters have been placing the Liberty Belles bumper stickers on newspaper racks and public telephone booths. Apparently these stickers have been popping up all over the country.

"While we appreciate the enthusiasm and support," Ms. Freeman says, "it has generated some complaints from the owners of the property. As such, we kindly ask that you request and receive permission prior to placing our sticker in a place where it can be easily viewed by the public."

In other words, STOP IT. STOP IT NOW.

"In the meantime," she reminds us, "Liberty Belles bumper stickers still look great on your car. (Please don't put them other people's cars!)."

These stickers are complimentary and can ordered on their website at http://www.libertybelles.org/shop.htm

Joy, and Danger, of Witlessness

The family of a bicyclist slain by a cougar at Southern California's Whiting Wilderness Park is suing the state, that would be us private individuals who have taxes extorted from us.

"Because the county installs signs warning about mountain lions — and rattlesnakes — at the entrances to all its wilderness parks," The Los Angeles Times intones, "it's likely Reynolds knew there was some chance of a mountain lion encounter."

The Times actually argues for individual responsibility for one's own safety!

Yep, the Park Rules are posted.

But I wonder why the editorial doesn't mention the one that says "Possession or use of firearms or weapons is prohibited."

Yeah, I wonder.

Tough on Guns, Weak on Brains

Mark Benjamin of Salon.com thinks frivolous lawsuits should be employed against the gun industry.

Mark Benjamin of Salon.com wants BATFU to be able to harrass dealers out of existence.

And perhaps most importantly, Mark Benjamin of Salon.com wants the government to be able to declare people terrorists and deny them their right to keep and bear arms without due process.

In other words, Mark Benjamin of Salon.com is yet another in a long line of boringly unoriginal anti-gun Establishment propagandists.

Correspondent Brian Naylor shared his letter to Salon.com with WarOn Guns. Among his pithy observations:

"You go on to raise all the VPC/Brady cornerstone spectres - 'TEC-9 submachine guns' and 'street-sweepers.' You use the all-too-familiar VPC tactic of purposefully confusing fully-automatic M-16s with semi-automatics. You fail to mention that the armor-penetrating rounds for the recently fearsome FN 5.7 are not available to the public at all.

"You continue to pretend that there is a gun show 'loophole' when there is no such thing. You even weigh in on the VPC's latest manufactured boogeyman, the .50BMG, with their canonical list of imagined horrors. As far as I can tell, the only VPC bullet points you failed to hit were the use of the phrases, 'spray bullets' and 'blood in the streets.'

"Do they actually send out a list of talking points, or did you go to the trouble to cull them all yourself? I'm not sure which would be worse."

To view "Tough on terror, weak on guns," you'll need to get a "day pass" and watch an ad.

Brady Campaign: NRA Calls for More Guns in Schools

Hey, if you dry up sources of blood, how is Michael Barnes gonna dance?

I'm sure if he was addressing a school assembly on the benefits of being helpless sheep, and an armed teen psycho rushed in and opened fire, Mike would spring right into action.

I just wonder how many kids he'd trample in his haste to escape?

NRA Leader Advocates Guns for Teachers

"All options should be considered to prevent rampages like the Minnesota school shooting that took 10 lives -- including making guns available to teachers, a top National Rifle Association leader said Friday.

"'I'm not saying that that means every teacher should have a gun or not, but what I am saying is we need to look at all the options at what will truly protect the students,' the NRA's first vice president, Sandra S. Froman, told The Associated Press.'"

Why not every teacher? And why limit keeping and bearing arms based on profession? Why not acknowledge Patrick Henry's "great object"?

But there's one obstacle Sandra faces, even with her modest goal: Wayne LaPierre.

"First, we believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America's schools, period," he told NRA Annual Meeting attendees in 1999, "with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel.

"We believe America's schools should be as safe as America's airports. You can't talk about, much less take, bombs and guns onto airplanes.Such behavior in our schools should be prosecuted just as certainly as such behavior in our airports is prosecuted."

Right, Wayne, make 'em as safe as pre-911 airports.

I've heard some laud Ms. Froman's selection as NRA's president-elect because she likes to shoot machineguns. If being a good shooter was the sole criterion, I'd be hard pressed not to vote for Lon Horiuchi.

Call me irresponsible, but I prefer to look at things like past support for gun control.

"To curb gun violence, Froman says that it is important to enforce old laws instead of passing new ones. 'If the Brady law stopped 600,000 illegal gun purchases, where were the 600,000 prosecutions?'

"One measure she [supports] is Project Exile. 'It works...it doesn’t victimize peaceable gun owners.'"

How about REPEALING instead of ENFORCING "old laws," Sandra? Not only are most a violation of the 2nd Amendment, but the recent exhaustive National Academy of Sciences report couldn't find a single instance of these laws reducing violent crime--even the ones suppported by NRA. Besides, wasn't "enforcing existing gun laws" the reason Mr. Horiuchi was deployed in the first place?

As for Exile, no, it does not "work." Look at the results in Richmond and Philadelphia. Besides which, maybe someone from NRA leadership would be kind enought to point us to the clause in the Constitution where We the People delegated gun law prosecutions to the feds.

What, there isn't one?

Feelings, Nothing More than Feelings

As the ninnies who bleat for government destruction of our rights have consistently demonstrated, it’s not about results. Commentator Martha Blume, in Chesapeake’s Bay Weekly calls for a Constitutional amendment: “The right of the people to feel safe from gun violence in their homes, neighborhoods, schools, places of worship, employment, on the streets and in any other public places shall not be infringed.”

"Feelings, Nothing More than Feelings" is my submission for the May issue of GUNS Magazine, on sale now at emotionally secure newsstands throughout the Republic.

It's Easter Weekend

So WarOnGuns is taking a break for a few days.

I suggest you get off the damn computer and go be with the people you love.

If there are no people you love, I suggest you get off the damn computer and work on that.

Where There's Smoke

One of the themes I’ve been covering is government interference with the internet—from the FEC trial balloon to judges declaring just who gets to be an “official journalist.” After all, we can’t expect the Establishment lapdogs to give fair coverage to Second Amendment issues.

Here’s another example: Kid catches principal smoking on school grounds, in violation of state law—something the kid would get suspended for. Kid posts pictures on the internet. Principal demands kid remove pictures and suspends him.

In other words, a sovereign citizen exposes a corrupt official violating the law. The official demands that he erase all traces of his expose, and uses her official capacity to punish him.

“The school, says an AP account, “had sent the sophomore a letter telling him he was suspended for harassment and slander via the Internet.”

Yo, public skool administraitors: That would be “libel." Assuming you had a case. Which you don't.

Once exposed, the tyrant wannabe apologized—FOR SMOKING, as opposed to abusing authority to trample a sovereign individual's unalienable rights in order to protect her sorry butt. Here’s what is unclear:

“On Tuesday, the sophomore was offered reinstatement but only if he complied with the removal order.”

WTF? If I were the kid, my response would be “Remove THIS!” followed with a hefty lawsuit.

To his credit, the site still stands.

You can reach Czarina (or is that Fuhrerette?) Elaine Almagno here. Ask her who the OTHER “adult” in the picture with her is, and why HE thinks it’s OK for the law to apply to the ruled but not to the rulers.

Elaine—try suing ME for “slander,” you abusive mandarin.

Download GUNS from 50 Years Ago

GUNS Magazine is doing something cool. Each month you can download a complete copy of their issue from 50 years prior.

The March 1955 issue is now online.

And by all means, buy the current issue, or better yet, subscribe, and tell them to “Pay Codrea lots of money.” There’s no advertising or Tip Jar on WarOnGuns, nor do I plan to change this, but young Uday and Qusay have this nasty habit of expecting regular meals.

UNbelievable Hypocrisy

Kofi Annan wants to "eliminate all private weapons."

Right.

End the War on Freedom on “Vanishing Point”

Mr. St. Clair recommends it.

“Man did I hate the cops by the end of the movie,” he says.

Have you seen it yet?

Also see:

“If you love freedom, get this film. You will not regret it.”

Vanishing Point Reappears Today

Why I Love Guns

Vanishing Point Reappears

A Bum Rap

"Rising rapper THE GAME is prepared to risk going to jail by keeping a gun at his California home, because he deems the firearm vital to his survival."

What have we here, a 2A champion in The Hood, someone who can demonstrate the virtues of an armed citizenry to his peers through the example he sets?

Not exactly. It appears he's not that wholesome a character:

"A shoot-'em-up at the Hot 97 studios was triggered by a simmering feud between gangster rapper 50 Cent and his turncoat protégé The Game - and cops are bracing for more bullets."

What a disappointment. He seemed like such a nice young man.

NRA's Montana SNAFU Redux

FreedomSight makes some interesting counter-arguments about when property rights conflict with RKBA.

He raises some good points.

If you want to enter my premises, I should have the right to set the terms: only if you give me a million dollars, poke out one eye and paint yourself blue.

Assuming I can't coerce you into doing this, you have the right to either accept my terms or tell me to go to hell, and go someplace where the terms are more to your liking.

My main point is that I don't believe a state rep acts in defiance of Beltway policy.

Words and actions are sometimes very different things.

The Blood Dancers Have a Toll-Free Hotline…

...and they’d like to hear from YOU:

866-SPEAK-UP

Go ahead. Speak up.

Just remember, toll-free numbers generally record the originating number, so don't say anything they can turn you in on.

Red Lake "Security" Guard Unarmed

Why is the Establishment Press Avoiding the Issue?

Say Uncle points us to Joe Huffman, who links to ABC News where this tidbit is buried.

It's not like the lapdogs are straining themselves getting this information out there. A Google search of the terms: "red lake" guard unarmed (leave the quotation marks that way to ensure the most precise results) shows what I'm talking about.

So in other words, the ones highlighting and spreading this information are the blogs--but somehow we've got to validate our journalistic originality and worth to the black robes because we're just not as legitimate as CBS and Al-Jazeera.

Red Lake High School Rampage: Let the Blood Dance Begin!

Plenty of people are going to sound in on the Minnesota reservation school massacre. New shrill demands for more "gun control" will certainly feature prominently on editorial pages and broadcasts across the land, and some might even grudgingly acknowledge that it looks like the weapons were taken from a cop.

I've pretty much written all I have to say on this and any other school shootings here.

Buckeye State Blackmail

Ted E. Daniels, editor of the Ashland Times-Gazette is threatening to publish the names of CHL holders if the Ohio legislature amends the concealed carry law so that the information is no longer disclosed to “journalists.”

Well, I guess if you’re gonna ask permission to exercise a right, this sort of nonsense should be expected. Still, Daniels is behaving like a cheap extortionist thug, and ought to be treated like one.

What has always struck me about this law is how government takes it on itself to decide who they will and will not recognize as a “legitimate” journalist. I’ve raised this concern several times now.

As I understand the law, I probably wouldn’t qualify to get the list of names (not that I would want it), but this group would.

Cop Killer

“Ban bill to target cop-killer handguns and rifles,” declares Michael P. Norton of State House News Service, just like he knows what he’s talking about.

Of course, the first line of the story admits that what’s being talked about is potential capability—no real cops killed with the pariah firearms can actually be produced. But the damage is done, and once more, the establishment propaganda machine manages to score a point with the uninformed under the guise of objective journalism.

But perhaps we’re taking the wrong tack on this. Perhaps we ought to up the ante.

Maybe we should insist they’re not cop-killer weapons, but soldier-killer weapons. After all, what they’re alleged to be capable of defeating is paramilitary equipment, as opposed to traditional police gear. It’s only when the police have become militarized that the special capabilities of these firearms are spotlighted.

Then we can invoke Justice James McReynolds’ rationale in US v Miller, when he observed: “In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a ‘shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length’ at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument.”

The corollary to this, of course, is, if a firearm can be shown to have such a reasonable relationship, the Second Amendment would guarantee the right to keep and bear such an instrument.

Yeah, I know. Keep dreamin'.

How Many Lies Can You Tell in 60 Minutes?

SayUncle has made a good start at deconstructing last Sunday's anti-gun hit piece on 60 Minutes.

He exposes some of the obvious lies, and provides some good dope on Ed Bradley's narco-terrorist source--a John Kerry fundraiser, naturally.

"I TiVoed it and may have more later," he says. I hope he does, because he's doing a good job with this.

Leave it to the Establishment propagandists to spook the Eloi by claiming overseas insurgents need to come here for guns. NRA printed an excellent article on this by Jim Pate.