A Republic, If You Can Keep It

Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White's seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday...

Respondents were far more familiar with the Three Stooges -- Larry, Curly and Moe -- than the three branches of the U.S. government -- judicial, executive and legislative.

I'll bet they all have opinions about "gun control," too...

We're the Only Ones In (and Out of) Uniform Enough

"Being honest with you, women do like cops," he said. "Women love guys in uniform."

Yes, ladies, what could be a bigger turn-on than "The Only Ones" giving you the thrill of their affection--whether you want it or not?

Sick and Evil: Yep, That's "The Times"

[Use BugMeNot to bypass site registration]

Florida’s law is a sick cousin of the work of the gun lobby on Capitol Hill, where it has successfully protected the interstate traffickers of guns used in crimes. And it is the evil twin of laws passed in 38 states that allow concealed weapons.

Yeah, sick and evil--except when publisher "Pinch" Sulzberger's daddy "Punch" got his CCW. But that was because he carried money, and we all know Sulzberger money is much more valuable than the lives of mere hoi polloi.

Texas Tomfoolery

He said a quick application of flat-black spray paint can erase any color or marking. "The only thing you're left with is banning their sale completely." he said. "That would still leave us with all the toys piled up in flea markets and garages and homemade ones. You read about the prisoner who makes a revolver out of tin foil and soap. If someone wants to make a fake gun, they can make one."

When toy guns are outlawed...

Seems I covered similar ground a few years back with our good pal Michael Eisner...

[Thanks to Jason M]

We're the Only Ones Flying the Friendly Skies Enough

Chicago police said they are investigating the theft of several handguns from luggage at O'Hare International Airport since the beginning of the year.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said all of the thefts have occurred from bags checked for United Airlines flights by police officers, military personnel and others with the legal rights to carry the weapons.

How can they do this to us? Don't they realize we're "The Only Ones"???

Sure glad Chicago PD'ette and Constitutional law expert Monique is there to educate us about just who has the right to keep and bear arms...and we can only hope if one of those guns kills someone that the manufacturers get what's coming to them!

Now That She Mentions It...

JILL Carroll, the American journalist who was held hostage for 82 days in Iraq, yesterday told how she begged her captors to end her life by using a gun rather than a knife.

Y'know, I think I'd "rather" be shot than hacked and sawed at, myself...

Which poses an interesting question for those who would ban guns: If some maniac was coming at you or a loved one with a knife, you're honestly saying you wouldn't want a gun?

Questions and Answers IV

[Parts I, II and III]

Mr. Licht continues:

I acknowledge that I am a paranoid nut case and I do not trust the state (particularly the current GENERATION of self serving one world "alleged representatives" selling out our children in every way at every opportunity)

I cling to these beliefs being aware that forty states have passed Shall Carry laws and being fully informed about the "castle doctrine" laws. But isn't it possible that "Shall Carry", i.e. "Shall Register" may just be a ruse to determine where all the guns are and that with the stroke of a pen they could use those lists as the basis for confiscation? Again, I know I am an unreasonable "nut case" but if anything is possible and history repeats itself....repeatedly.......?

Someone once said just because you're paranoid doesn't mean "they" aren't out to get you, and in the case of gun owners, it's obvious there are those who would like to see us eliminated.

I don't think permit lists are needed to ID gun owners, what with Form 4473s kept by dealers and the "supposedly" purged instant background check files, but I don't doubt they could be used as a supplement.

To me, the danger of permitting--and the reason I refuse to even apply for one (even though I couldn't get one in LA County if my life depended on it), is that it establishes the legal and social expectation that government permission to keep and bear arms is a legitimate concept for which there is (here comes that term again) a "compelling state interest."

I know some view it as incremental progress that will prep society to the concept of armed citizens. I view it as a prior restraint and an illegitimate erosion of "shall not be infringed." Rights are not permitted. License is not liberty. And I've taken no small amount of flack for this position, which is definitely in the minority, even among Second Amendment advocates.

Mr. Licht again:

Instead of keeping high paid lobbyists going (a la Wayne La Pierre) would it be more prudent to tell our children that confiscation is inevitable, do not cooperate? Wouldn't it be more effective to rally those that would fund these (arguably) gun control organizations (like the NRA) that are raking in millions compromising away our gun rights routinely and incrementally - particularly by pretending we have to ask permission instead of saying "storm the capitals" and "Shall not be infringed" has it’s plain meaning?

I don't believe wholesale (as opposed to localized) confiscation is inevitable, although I can envision scenarios where it would be tried. I think that entirely depends on whether or not we who believe in the Second Amendment are successful at informing/educating a critical mass of fellow citizens to the point where to do so would become so intrusive and widespread that it would outrage more than just a few hard core gun activists. Because, face it--right now a 3:00 AM raid netting an "arsenal" and a "militia extremist" and "thousands of rounds of ammunition" is greeted with a sigh of relief from most of our neighbors and countrymen.

On the next point, I've never been shy about taking on NRA management when I believed it needed to be done--from Project Exile to "gun-free schools" to setting up members for gun registration to--just today--yet another story on undeserved grades for politicians, and more. I do have some ideas for reform, but admit that whether that's even possible is a debatable premise.

But rallying those who fund NRA to an alternative effort means we're gonna need a rallying point--and I just don't see how to get that message out to millions of gun owners without a professional organization "raking in millions."

I'll have more to say on potential NRA reforms, as well as why I believe they are symptomatic of detachment and abdication of personal responsibility--which is the main reason we're in the fix we're in on all fronts, and why "storming the capitals" is hardly an option at the present time.

But look at how long this is already. We still have more of Mr. Licht's initial letter to address over the coming week before it's time to start tying everything together...

GOA Candidate Beats NRA Candidate

Joe Schwarz does not believe the Second Amendment is an individual right; he opposed concealed carry in the state of Michigan; and he voted in favor of mandatory trigger locks when he came to Washington.

So why the NRA "A" rating, and what's with Chris Cox, who told members:

“Representative Schwarz has a legacy of fighting for and protecting the Second Amendment for all law-abiding Michiganders. He has earned the NRA’s endorsement and trust of Michigan’s District 7 gun owners.”

What did Yogi Berra say, "It's deja-vu all over again"?

[Via KABA Newslinks]

Targeted By Anti-Gun Nuts

"[T]hese are just guys who sit in front of their computers at 3 a.m. in their underwear"...

Meanwhile, do you really want these people on these websites (and 40 million other people in the country) to have guns?...

I can cite statistics, and I can tell you why the right to carry a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun with a 10-shot clip is not guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment. But the paranoia and bone-chilling hatred that spew from such sites as packing.org and freerepublic.com make for an equally — and unusually — effective argument for a ban on handguns.

So you can call us names but we can't reciprocate?

Here's the difference, Jenny Price. These people will leave you alone if you do the same to them. But you insist on using the force of the state to bend them to your will--and having them destroyed if they don't comply.

Why not go poke a hornet's nest with a stick, and then whine in shocked indignation at the reaction--as if you provoked and deserved nothing in return?

Officer...Oh Officer! That Man Has a HOLSTER!!!

Fellow council member Joe Teri spotted Perreault wearing a holster on his waist. That sparked enough concern that Teri mentioned it to council member Ed Earl and Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Greg Link.

Teri couldn't just go up to Perreault and say "Hey, I see you like to shoot, too. We ought to schedule some range time together."

No, "city officials" had to "huddle." No one had the guts to even approach Perreault until the bold City Fathers designated the cop as their "stuckee."

Which leads me to a fun new party game I just invented after visiting the Minneola Council website, the War On Guns Wheel o' Wussies:


Simply cut out out the circular image and put a hole in the center you can stick something through to spin it. If Perreault "lands" in front of you, you're "safe". Everybody else, well you can make up your own rules. For instance, maybe whoever ends up with Teri should get a Wheel o' Wussies Wedgie...

The Gun Team

A hand-picked team of detectives, plainclothes and uniformed officers has been selected to prowl the most crime-ridden Yonkers streets and take guns away from criminals, Police Commissioner Robert Taggart said.

I can imagine the comic book cover.

I can hear the theme music.

I can visualize the trailer.

The commissioner said the members of the gun team are counting on neighborhood residents to help them with intelligence on where they might find guns and who has them.

I can see the little flags waving as the occupying troops march down the Champs d'Elysées...

Lawmakers Say Former Law Enforcment Huge Source For Illegal Guns

A huge gun smuggling investigation landed a former Columbus Police officer in major trouble, NewsChannel5 partner ONN reported.

Translation: We can't be trusted, so we must punish YOU...

Is it really too much for authorized journalists to realize and report that all dealer sales at gun shows must go through the background check?

I guess the true question is, are they really that ignorant or really that dishonest?

We're the Only Ones Laughing at the Right to Peaceably Assemble Enough

A newly surfaced videotape that shows Broward Sheriff's Office officials laughing over footage of Ritter being shot by rubber bullets and calling protesters "cockroaches" has sparked outrage and prompted an apology from law enforcement.

The courts have consistently held infringements of the First, Second And Fourth Amendments constitutional, so why shouldn't they laugh, cockroaches?

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

Second Circuit Short-Circuits Fourth Amendment

Random bag searches by New York police at subway stations are constitutional and an effective means of combating terrorism, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday.

And if it turns out "terrorists" are avoiding detection and smuggling vials of liquid explosives by inserting them into body cavities, I won't be surprised if random sigmoidoscopy is upheld as constitutional, too...

At Least She Doesn't Go Halfway When She Lies

Why is the NRA aggressively trying to repeal the Brady Law (background checks), which since 1994 has prevented more than 1.3 million prohibited purchasers from getting guns? ...

It's time for the gun lobby to come to the table and meet us at least halfway in passing common-sense gun laws...

So there have been 1.3 million prosecutions and convictions, right?

As for NRA aggressively trying to repeal Brady, they did fight the waiting period and unfunded mandates to local law enforcement, but supported and proposed inputs to the "instant check" system. The Association's official position, in a nutshell:

The NRA`s membership of more than four million persons, has a strong interest in the proper implementation of the provisions of law concerning the acquisition of firearms by law-abiding citizens and the prevention of such acquisition by violent criminals.

That isn't "halfway" enough for you, Diane?

We're the Only Ones Running Guns Enough

A former Columbus police officer illegally sold 501 guns last year — including one that was found with two Somali men now charged in a terrorist plot in Canada...

Nelson, who joined the Columbus Police Division in late 1997, left because of a spinal disability in June 2005. He was off work and on medical leave in November 2004 when he was charged with felonious assault in a road-rage incident. Authorities say he hit another motorist in the head with a metal flashlight...

After he was caught, Nelson agreed to help investigators trace guns he’d sold.

Breaks laws he would have arrested us for, beats citizens in a lethal rage when he doesn't get his way, and then turns snitch when it's his corrupt butt on the line...

Enjoy the rest of your life, Nelson. It sucks to be you.

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


[Via Dennis Walker]

Gun Control Voodoo

Parents with guns in their homes become less vigilant about how they store those guns as their children grow older, a new study suggests -- even though older children are at far more risk of being harmed by those guns than younger children are...

...Johnson and her colleagues analyzed responses from the 392 people who had at least one gun in the house and at least one child younger than 18.

First you take a subset--people who admit to an interviewer they have guns in their home. Then you take an entire population--including impoverished criminal adolescents immersed in gang activities and drugs, generational government dependence and fatherless homes, and Presto-Changeo! you get hysterical hyperbole presented as general truth! Oh, and pitchfork murders.

It happens every time when witch doctors like Johnson convince people they're scientists.

Their message? Eliminate the bad juju. Keep the evil fetish object locked away.

But under no circumstances apply education, training and discipline...

Q&A IV

I'll have the next installment up on Monday, Lord willing and the creek don't rise...

I still plan to do limited posting on Saturday and Sunday, but site visits tend to drop off pretty substantially. It seems most people--me included--have lives outside of the Internet...

At Least It's Not Cruel and Unusual

Hodges faces a possible life sentence for possession of the marijuana and possession of the shotgun during the commission of a felony.

I'm sure there will be no shortage of "law and order" gun owners who will deem this a good thing. I'm also sure they will have no problem finding the enumerated federal authority for such arrests, prosecutions and convictions in this document that they proclaim such reverence for...

We're the Only Ones Tampering Enough

A suburban Chicago police detective has been charged with misconduct after investigators say he tampered with evidence.

Authorities say 37-year-old Harvey police detective Hollis Dorrough smuggled a gun out of the police station that was linked to an October incident.

Investigators allege that a Harvey city official urged Dorrough to get rid of the gun.

Corruption in Harvey? Nah...

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