We're the Only Ones With This Kind of Money to Waste: Yours

For at least the past two years, 100 military surplus M-16 rifles have been gathering dust in the Dallas County Sheriff's Department armory.

Leave it to "The Only Ones" to squander their loot--that is, "taxpayer money"--on something they say they desperately need and then not only don't use but forget about. For years.

Besides which, why would we want the police using a "justifiably maligned" weapon that, according to a self-designated Second Amendment Lite spokesman, is only good "for killing of human beings and the damage of war equipment and facilities"?

We're the Only...Where Did He Go...?

A motorcyclist-riding gunman twice eluded police in North Hollywood remained at large.

But don't worry--"The Only Ones" will protect you from him--once they catch him.

In the meantime, you're on your own.

Disarmed by law if you share a street with the blasting biker, and on your own.

One other minor point: A "motorcyclist-riding gunman"? Well, it is North Hollywood...

A Belated 2A Saturday

Free Constitution's weekly offering...

Deadly Assault Sausage Murders German Woman

The prosecutors said the man had given a patchy account of events, acknowledging that he may have "administered" a Bockwurst to the woman.

Just unbelievable. People find ways to kill each other with sausage!

What law do you think could have prevented this? And why is the media blaming the man instead of the Bockwurst?

Kalashnikov: It's Not My Fault

IT WAS the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union that motivated Mikhail Kalashnikov to design the assault rifle that bears his name. But, six decades later, he laments its transformation into the worldwide weapon of choice for terrorists and gangsters.

Don't fret, Mr. Kalashnikov. If you think about it, only Nazis blame you.

We're the Only Ones--Just Ask the Voters

The roommate of an unarmed trespassing suspect who was shot to death in a dark attic by two San Francisco police officers said Friday he had told the officers the man didn't have a gun...

Police originally reported that Sullivan had fired on officers through the attic floor and that his gun had been found at the scene. They later said neither was the case. Investigators now think Keesor fired first, grazing his partner's ear and prompting her to shoot as well.

Yep--these are the only ones San Franciscans think ought to have guns. By 58% to 42%.

It's Dependence, Stupid

"We don't shy away from the fact that the real problems lay with the Caribbean blacks," says Sutherland, who was inspired to get into filmmaking after writing and performing in a play at his high school. "Growing up, it wasn't guns. We had butterfly knives. It wasn't crazy like this. There are now so many guns on the street, it's ridiculous. We had no access to guns. There were no big pipelines [of guns] coming up [from the U.S.]."

Sorry, Sutherland. It's not guns and it's not Caribbean blacks.

You could put a gun in the home of a rational person and initiation of violence would not occur.

You could raise a child from any race in a loving home where individual responsibility is a fundamental ethic and produce a balanced human being.

As I've said before, we can't eliminate race from the equation "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."

But I wouldn't expect artsy socialists who actually believe their own spew about how "only a black man would have dared to make the riveting CTV movie Doomstown" to know what the hell I'm talking about.

Maybe if they throw some more plunder--I mean--"government money" at the problem...

This Day in History: June 10

On this day in 1775, John Adams proposes to Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, that the men laying siege to Boston should be considered a Continental Army led by a general.

BATFU Raids KT Ordnance

Or could it be because too many gun owners are discovering that building their own firearms is simple, anonymous, and LEGAL...?

Looks like this Republican administration is doing everything in its power to alienate its core constituency.

This is what happens when a class of firearms is "justifiably maligned" in the eyes of the public.

The Darwin Rap

Ronnie Webber was playing with a gun while he acted out a rap song, and when the song said shoot he did. Webber, 27, told officers the gun in his hand discharged, fatally wounding Johnathan Beasley, 23, Thursday afternoon.

"The gun in his hand discharged."

All by its own self, yo.

27 and 23, and this is the extent of their personal development. Simply amazing.

How to Screw Up Your Kids

"I don't like squirt guns," said Mendez, 45, of the Northside. "I think toy guns send the wrong message, because what's next? I don't even like my daughter to touch them."

Julianna Thibodeaux, 40, who lives in Meridian-Kessler, doesn't like squirt guns, either.

"We're so saturated with violence as it is in the media and in our culture," she said. "Anything we can do to mitigate that is good. Besides, there are so many other water toys to play with, like bubbles or water balloons. It doesn't have to be a gun."

Good grief.

Another Form of "Gun Control"?

The state's highest court ruled Thursday that an insurance company must defend a Clarksville man in a wrongful-death suit brought by the estate of a man he killed in self-defense.

I don't know enough about the subject to do more than speculate, but if this precedent stands, I can see insurance companies charging extra premiums or refusing to provide coverage altogether if you have a gun in the home.

Don't expect to see them tripping all over themselves to recognize the overwhelmingly protective benefits of gun ownership and offer discounts--as many do if you have a home burglar alarm...

Bloomberg: "Color Me a Media Whore"

Lauer says he does appreciate all the media attention the mayor's tirade has brought him. His Dura Coat sales doubled for two days after the media reports.

As for his New York business, Lauer says he has records of only one sale to someone who uses it to protect bicycles. There are two other orders which Lauer presumes are from the aide who purchased the product for the mayor's news conference.

The mayor got face time and Lauer sold a few more cans of paint. Sounds like a win-win.

In a related matter, SAF has it right about Bloomberg's attack on two New York gun dealers. The fact that their inventories have been returned demonstrates he is abusing the power of his office. He's causing real economic harm to legitimate businesses in his insane and illegal quest to punish those he hates. I hope those store owners sue him personally.

Flexible Principles

Canada's former top accountant says the senior bureaucrat overseeing the controversial gun registry didn't want to ask Parliament for more money to cover cost overruns for fear it would affect the upcoming 2004 federal election.

So much for doing something because you believe in it and it's right.

Yet more evidence of the "principles" of our enemies in action.

This Day in History: June 9

On this day in 1772, colonists, angered by the British Parliament’s passing of the Townshend Acts restricting colonial trade, blacken their faces and board the HMS Gaspee, an armed British customs schooner that had run aground off the coast of Rhode Island. They then wounded the ship’s commander and set it aflame.

A Crack in the Wall?

Google's China-approved Web service omits politically sensitive information that might be retrieved during Internet searches...

Anybody know how this works?

Would someone in China get the same results and be able to access Jingjing and Chacha...?

We're the Only Ones "Not Right" Enough

He spent his whole career enforcing the law. Now a former Bethlehem Police Captain is on the other side of it for allegedly holding a loaded handgun to the head of another officer...

A short time later, it's alleged McLaughlin pulled it out again and held it to the back of Fryslin's neck...

He then returned with an empty shotgun.

Good thing he was a trained LEO. Imagine how much more whacked out a mere citizen woud have acted in this situation...

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

We're the Only Ones Visionary Enough

Two San Francisco police officers who shot and killed an unarmed man in the darkened attic of an apartment mistook him for a trespasser with a gun, police officials said Wednesday.

Asa B. Sullivan, 25, had his arms outstretched and was holding a "cylindrical object" when the officers confronted him Tuesday night in the apartment near Lake Merced, prompting them to open fire, said Police Chief Heather Fong. The object turned out to be an eyeglasses case.

Ah, the City by the Bay, where the cud-chewing electorate thinks only "the authorities" are responsible enough to be armed.

And the winner of "most-predictable line" from this article is:

Police refused to release the officers' names...

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

This Day in History: June 8

On this day in 1776, Canadian Governor Sir Guy Carleton defeats American Patriot forces under John Sullivan, who were already in retreat from Quebec toward Montreal.

“Justifiably-Maligned Assault Rifles”-Part II

Opinion articles are easy to write. All you need is an opinion and a basic grasp of language.

Well-writen, informed and correct opinion articles are another matter.

Yesterday, I responded to an anti UN gun-grab editorial where its author, Bob Confer, made a good case for defending gun rights with one key exception: he claimed "assault weapons" were "justifiably maligned."

I contacted Mr. Confer and invited him to justify maligning them. He responded, and parts of his response were troubling: he believes they're only made for killing, although he is open to being "swayed."

It's troubling because, via published opinion pieces and radio appearances, he has established himself as a liberty leader of sorts, someone who influences the course of public debate, and thus, public acceptance of political actions. To do this with such a fundamental lack of knowledge as he has displayed is irresponsible. His "assault weapon" stance is essentially identical to that of the Brady Campaign.

We've run into "sportsmen" who call for "reasonable gun laws" before. I don't think Mr. Confer is overtly one of these guys, but if he maintains and continues to promulgate the Fuddite concept that "sporting purposes" guns are good and ugly, cheap, too big, too small, too hot or too cold guns are bad, his effect will be twofold:

• It will misinform the general public.
  
• It will continue dividing the gun owner community, with the sporting crowd protecting their turf, but abandoning "shall not be infringed."
  

I haven't seen any indication from Mr. Confer that he's been swayed, despite many discerning responses from WarOnGuns contributors. Particular kudos go to regular correspondent straightarrow, who never fails to impress me with his insights and ability to articulate them.