Coming Tuesday, Sept.5

A WarOnGuns Exclusive

The Matthew Bracken Interview

Mark Your Calendars

Tell Your Friends

Prepare Your OWN Question

We will be discussing his new book, Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.
Mr. Bracken will be checking posted comments that day and answering questions as time permits.

Lest Ye Be Judged Follow-Up

Comment poster Alex observed that pointing a gun in Georgia is classified as a misdemeanor. I had referenced Georgia law that indicated brandishing a gun could be treated as a felony.

Say Uncle speculated there could be prosecutorial leeway, which this article confirms.

Pointing or aiming a gun or pistol at another occurs when someone purposefully and with no legal reason points a gun at someone else, according to Georgia case law. Courts have held it doesn't matter if the gun is loaded.

One example of when the more serious felony charge of aggravated assault occurs is when someone uses a deadly weapon that could or does cause serious injury.

"When can you point a gun at someone and not threaten serious bodily harm?" said Russell Gabriel, director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at The University of Georgia. "I don't know. It's sort of a rhetorical question."

Gabriel said that in his opinion it is somewhat absurd to have both laws on the books, though the existence of both charges gives prosecutors some discretion in how to charge someone. "The law doesn't always make sense," he added.

Sydney Gun Crimes Double

In inner Sydney, robberies with a firearm increased by 111 per cent over the last two years...

Who could have guessed?

Texas Bull

Jones gets to use the weapons to create a longhorn sculpture for the city's Butler Longhorn Museum, which honors the bovine bloodline that originated in League City.

Yep, honor herd animals.

Honor chattel.

[Via KABA Newslinks]

This Day in History: August 30

"The American Revolution" category over at The History Channel website appears to be down again. But you can bet your tricorne something happened.

Second Amendment Carnival IV

Free Constitution presents links to commentary from sites promoting the right to keep and bear arms.

We're the Only Ones Upsetting Enough

Dear Abby: My husband is a great husband and father to our three children, ages 17, 10 and 4. The problem is, he leaves his loaded 9mm gun lying around our house. Last week, I found it on the kitchen table. Now here's the kicker: He's a police officer...

My kids have friends in and out of our home daily...

--Upset in Washington

Dear Upset,

There is absolutely no reason to worry.

Your husband is one of "The Only Ones," and is thus demonstrably immune to any of the mishaps that plague mere ordinary, non-professional citizens, who don't have the judgment or training to own dangerous guns.

Canada's Newest Gun Control Spokesman

In the wake of increasing violence involving his friends, a Calgary man is speaking out against the proliferation of gun use on city streets.

Jeremy Cesaire, 24, a Calgary hip hop artist whose acquaintances include known city drug dealers, said he sees more people arming themselves now than ever before...

Cesaire is facing his own weapons charges after a loaded handgun was found by police in a car he was riding in with his friend Shaun Dixon on Aug. 18.

Right, Jeremy.

It must be the guns.

It couldn't have anything to do with your lifestyle, your friends or your choices.

"Pro-Gun" LA Times Style

I like guns. I come from a gun family. I am a 2nd Amendment, pro-gun liberal--which makes me a very lonely creature when the subject comes up in casual conversation around the office.

Why do I smell a big "but" nearby?

Their big gun--and the most overtly political weapon in the film--—appears to be a Barrett .50-caliber M107 semiautomatic rifle, a 32-pound, 5-foot-long military sniper rifle that was banned in California starting last year, for the altogether sensible reason that it can bring down airliners.

Oh, that's why.

As I said, I'm pretty pro-gun, but I would never belong to the NRA because, well, those guys are lunatics. One of their more far-fetched paranoid fantasies (here comes the e-mail!) is that the United Nations is conspiring to take away America's guns.

And we know there's never been any credible evidence of that...

Congratulations, Dan Neil. Thanks to transparent sterile queen bees like you, people are getting wise to agenda-driven deception by the dinosaur media. And your--what spin do you guys use?--oh, yeah, "flagging revenues" reflect it.

Like a Good Neighbor

As I started walking up my long driveway to see what was happening, the five police officers were coming towards me, already on my property, approaching my house. From a distance they ordered me to put my hands out where they could see them, and as they got nearer, asked if I was carrying any weapons. I said no. Two of them were carrying AR-15's. They asked me if I had been firing guns. I told them that we had been shooting clays in the backyard. "What kind of guns were you shooting?" "Shotguns". At that point they ordered me to put my hands on my head and submit to a "pat-down". They saw my son, (17 years old) standing by the house, ordered him to walk down the driveway, and proceeded to search him in the same manner...

The Mundelein officer, explained to me that the complainant, a remote rear neighbor, had reported "gunshots fired", ( I would characterize it a case of yuppy-itis, irrational fear of guns).

Notwithstanding that the snitch neighbors could have gotten people killed, assuming they are ignorant of local customs as opposed to malevolant, I'd give 'em one chance to establish cordial relations by inviting them to a backyard shoot. If that didn't work, I'd have a lawyer put them and the police on notice that harassment against lawful activities will not be tolerated, and that restitution for injuries resulting from same will be vigorously pursued.

I'm sure some will have more colorful suggestions, particularly if the yuppies remain militantly unrepentant, but that would only be playing into the hands of those who wish to provoke an emotional outburst rather than a reasoned response...

[Via HZ]

This Day in History: August 29

On this day in 1779, at what is modern-day Elmira, New York, near the state’s southwestern border with Pennsylvania, Continental forces led by Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton defeat a combined force of Loyalists and Indians commanded by Captain Walter Butler and Chief Joseph Brant.

I didn't post over the weekend and forgot to include this on Monday, so here are the history links for:
August 26: "Washington Urges Hessians to Desert"
August 27: "Howe Brothers Defeat Washington in Battle of Brooklyn Heights"
August 28: "St. Elizabeth Born in New York City"

Anti-Gun Politicians

Unfortunately, the majority of California voters, legal or otherwise, continue to vote people in office whose primary focus is to undermine the Bill of Righs, our liberties and our freedom. The problem does not rest in California however, as many are leaving the state en masse and will be taking their anti-American ideas with them -- probably to your town. Additionally, U.S. Senators and Representatives who work at the national level undermine us all with federal anti-gun legislation, namely Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and Nancy Pelosi.

Jennifer Freeman of Liberty Belles gives us her take on microstamping and other acts of subversion originating in "the Golden State".

2nd Amendment Carnival Tomorrow!

Stan just let me know he's going to post another 2A Carnival tomorrow. If you have a submission, get it in ASAP.

Because It's Worked So Well Everywhere Else It's Been Tried

City leaders like Aldermen Yusuf Shah have had enough and are coming up with a few proposals to curb youth violence. One idea is a gun buy-back program.

It's amazing what passes for a "leader" these days. But I'm sure there will be no shortage of lemmings to follow.

Gun Facts Version 4.1

The updated version of Guy Smith's valuable Second Amendment resource book is now online.

The Gun Went Off

[Use BugMeNot to bypass site registration]

According to law-enforcement officials and other gun experts, you could throw a gun with its safety on from a helicopter and it will not go off.

“I can tell you that we have never had a safety fail,” Atlantic County Sheriff's Officer Phil Tucker said. “If your finger is on the trigger and you pull the trigger the gun will go off. It doesn't just go off on its own.”

Now understand: he just got done explaining the mechanics in detail to "authorized journalist" Madeline Vitaly. He even dispels the common myth about Glocks being prone to accidental discharges. He explains it in terms a child can understand:

"[U]nless you pull the trigger, a Glock won't just go bang.”

So what does our intrepid reporter write in the very next paragraph?

...Detective Adam Brownlee's gun went off and his girlfriend Denise Foley, 22, was shot in the leg.

Do Gun Owners Really Want to Stop Constant Assaults on 2nd Amendment?

This increasingly draconian government is running amok because the feminized men of this country protect it with their fear, laziness or territorial imperatives for fund raising or membership drives.

Devvy Kidd is dead on when she indicts "gun owners who only want someone else to fight for their Second Amendment rights..."

A Walk in the Park

...[Derrick] Redd had been arguing with people in the park before he went to his car, grabbed a gun and fired it into the air. He then headed toward 58-year-old James Woody of Pine Bluff, who was unloading his boat.

Holland said Woody saw Redd approaching, reached into his truck, grabbed a gun and positioned himself behind his truck for protection. Redd chased Woody around the truck and threatened to kill him. But the detective said Woody turned and shot Redd in the head and killed him.

Lurch here ought to tell Mr. Woody why guns in parks are a bad idea...

Lest Ye Be Judged

Judge Haywood Turner is charged with pointing a pistol. Police say it appears to be a case of road rage...Investigators say the driver of the car said an older, white male driving a Mercedes attempted wouldn't let them merge, and then pointed a pistol at them...Police did a tag trace, and found the Mercedes registered to Judge Turner...Investigators say he turned himself in on Friday, and was charged with two misdemeanor counts of pointing a pistol.

Misdemeanors?

In Georgia, "simple assault," which is a misdemeanor, includes when you:

"Commit an act that places another in apprehension of receiving violent injury."

Aggravated assault, which is a felony:

"occurs when you assault someone...2) With a deadly weapon..."

So is Judge Turner being judged the way you or I would be judged?

Judge for yourself.

UPDATE: Reason Engaged appropriately pegs this one as belonging in the "Only Ones" category.

A Fellow Republican

Paul Helmke, the new president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, applauded the California State Senate for "embracing this innovative technology," and he said he hopes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger "will listen to a fellow Republican and sign this bill once it passes."

If Arnold signs this, the California GOP will still be counting on gun owners voting for him out of fear of Phil Angelides.

[More on microstamping]