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...]