We're Ahead

But participation's pretty pathetic...

Educating Monica

Andrew Frechtling gives a wayward journalist a dose of truth. Will she be able to handle it?

Dear Ms Kinney –

You are correct about one thing in your column of 5 Oct (Tough gun laws can make a difference).

Tough gun laws increase violent crime by disarming the law-abiding and making criminals’ work safer and easier.

This table tells the tale.
In the first column, we list Pennsylvania and all its immediate neighbors. The second column lists the violent crime rate in each state per 100,000 persons, taken from the 2004 FBI Uniform Crime Report, which is the latest complete UCR available as I write.

The third column is the 2005 “grade” for each state from the Brady Campaign, formerly known as Handgun Control Incorporated. This represents an aggregate grade of several sub areas rated by the Brady Campaign. As might be expected, restrictive gun control practices, like arbitrary denial of concealed handgun permits, are rated “best” by the Brady Campaign. You’ll see that New Jersey ranks high because of just the sort of restrictive procedures you had to go through to buy a gun.

We see that the two least violent of Pennsylvania’s neighbors, West Virginia and Ohio, are rated as having the least restrictive gun control laws by the Brady Campaign. And the most violent of Pennsylvania’s neighbors - Maryland – ties with New Jersey as having the most restrictive gun laws in the region.

So there is little reason to believe that gun control laws have any positive effect on violent crime rates.

However, it is indisputable that armed citizens are able to fight back against criminals more effectively than unarmed citizens.

And to the extent that gun control laws work to discourage citizens from arming themselves, such laws make us less safe, not more.

Andrew Frechtling
Major, USAF (retired

Great letter, Major Frechtling. Thanks for letting me post it here. Please let me know if you get a reply that we can share.

Campus RKBA Roundup #2

I've been taking some time in the evenings to find some RKBA-related articles originating from our nation's campuses...

The Mad Hatter tells us what's on young minds and in young skulls.

This Day in History: October 8

A group of Continental Army soldiers under the command of Colonel William Butler launch an evening attack on Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant’s home village of Unadilla on the Susquehanna River in what is now Otsego County, New York, on this day in 1778. The assault was retaliation for Brant’s September 17 raid on the town of German Flats, New York.

You've Got Mail!

Letters are in the mail to more than 25-thousand gun permit holders in Berks County who may have had their personal information accessed.

Government. Is there anything it doesn't do well?

Damned Foraners Ruining it for Everybody

The Foran student approached another student in the hallway about 11:20 a.m. Friday and allegedly opened his backpack to reveal a pellet gun resembling a .45-caliber pistol...

What's with all these damned foraners either committing crimes with guns or demanding more "gun control"?

What?

Foreigners...?

Uh...never mind.

Demand to be a Victim

An 18-year old who was among the shooting victims at Dawson College last month is crusading for better gun control in Canada.

The Star's headline: "Shooting victim wants better gun control"

A more appropriate headline: "Man who won't defend himself demands all others be rendered just as contemptible"

Yeah, it's a tad long. Feel free to use the "Comments" to share the headline you would use.

Wyoming Sues BATFU

A federal agency is balking at a Wyoming law that allows people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence to regain their right to own guns simply because the agency wants to take guns away from as many people as possible, a state lawyer told a federal judge Friday.

You can read about what some victims did to "earn" a lifetime federal ban here (along with a tale about an anti-gun celebrity who has inexplicably managed to avoid becoming firearms-disabled).

I've said it before, and I'll keep repeating myself:

If you can't be trusted with a gun, you can't be trusted without a custodian.

An Incomplete Question

Well, yeah, of course they should. But so should the rest of us.

Right now, amazingly, "our" side is losing, albeit less than 300 people have voted thus far. If you're into these kinds of things, follow the title link and add your opinion to the mix.

No, it won't change anything, but if we don't overwhelm them, the antis will bray about public support being on their side, so what the hell...why not take 30 seconds?

I'll check back on the results tomorrow morning when I post.

[Via Skip]

This Day in History: October 7

Patriot militia under Colonel William Campbell defeat Loyalist militia under Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of King's Mountain in North Carolina near the border with Blacksburg, South Carolina, on this day in 1780.

The Sting

Bloomberg had private eyes buy guns for felons? Isn’t that illegal, particularly since the mayor of New York and his private surrogates have no jurisdiction in other states? Isn’t that a criminal conspiracy? And doesn’t it violate federal as well as state gun laws?

“Investigators in New York City made illegal gun purchases in five states as part of an undercover investigation,” the Chicago Defender asserted. “Fifteen gun dealers made illegal sales during the two-month long sting.”

"The Sting," my Rights Watch column for the September issue of GUNS Magazine, is now online.

GUNS Magazine, October 1956

• Hunter safety is paramount in "Will You Kill a Man This Fall?"
• They said it couldn't be done, but the self-taught young man didn't know that. Learn about "The Impossible Shotgun of Carbine Williams" (including fascinating biographical information on a legend who almost spent his life in prison for the death of a deputy who raided his still).
• Enjoy classic ads of the period.
• And there's much more...

The October 1956 issue of GUNS Magazine is now online.

The Best Laid Plans...

Recognizing that "it can happen here," school systems in Southwest Louisiana are reviewing their safety plans in light of recent cases of school violence around the country.

"You and I know that if someone wants to walk onto a school campus with a gun, even with law officers at the schools, they can find a way to do it," Jeff Davis Assistant Superintendent David Clayton said.

No, duh.

And I don't suppose all those plans of yours include the only proven deterrent?

"Swelled"? You Sure You Don't Mean "Metastasized" ?

Mayor Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced yesterday that their coalition of mayors fighting for stricter gun-control laws has swelled to 109 from 15 since April.

Nice...uh...reporting,"authorized journalist" Greg Wilson! No one can ever accuse you of being a cheerleading shill for the police state who masquerades editorial support as straight news!

And "gun-ho"! How witty! Oh, my sides, they ache!

You professionals!

This Day in History: October 6

Sailing up the Hudson River to come to the aid of General Charles Cornwallis and the besieged British army at the Battle of Saratoga, General Henry Clinton and 3,000 British troops stop to launch an attack on Forts Clinton and Montgomery, in what is now Orange County, New York, in the early morning hours of October 6, 1777.

We're the Only Ones Overpowered Enough

Authorities were still searching for a man arrested on kidnapping charges who overpowered a female sheriff's deputy at a hospital yesterday and stole her gun.

How could this have happened?

I mean, the guy didn't even have Monica Yant Kinney's husband's permission...

Maybe he'll kill someone with the stolen gun and we can then:
A. Demand more citizen disarmament laws, and
B. Sue the dealer, distributor and manufacturer.

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

Monica Makes a Difference

In New Jersey, I faced a rigorous, intensely personal process with my local police department. I got to know my detective inquisitor by name, and he learned everything from my actual weight to the location of my tattoo.

He quizzed two friends about my state of mind and drinking habits. Even my husband got a say in my quest to arm myself.

Had I ever sought mental-health treatment - for anything from postpartum depression to anxiety - the detective had the right to ask my doctors whether they thought I was emotionally stable enough to own a gun.

I know it's wrong to make such superficial judgments, but is anyone really surprised that someone named "Monica Yant Kinney" is anti-choice when it comes to guns? What a perfect example of contradiction in what's passed off to the masses as "feminist thought." Following such "logic" to a generalized conclusion, the fragile dears are apparently incapable of making an important decision for themselves without permission from males and other authority figures.

So a woman needs her husband's permission to arm herself? What if he's the one she's arming herself against? Or let someone suggest that permission should be required from her husband to get an abortion and listen to the howls of outrage.

Be back in a minute...

Sorry--had to go purge the thought of the location of Ms. Yant Kinney's tatoo. Now where was I?

Oh, yeah, tell ya what Monica--you figure out a way to get the predatory reptiles to get your husband and your doctor's and the police's permission to get their guns, and then we'll talk.

We're the Only Ones "Sorry, Wrong Number" Enough

[D]eputies dumped out drawers, went through his wallet and checkbook, seized computers, CDs, floppy disks, VHS tapes and other material and refused to clean up the mess in the raid Sept. 27.

Half a dozen sheriff's vehicles converged on the house, and after taking photographs outside Hines told officers within hearing of the neighbors, "Now let's go inside and get some porn," the owner said...

Among the confiscated items were copies of "The Lion King" and "Snow White," found in a bedroom where the couple's granddaughter stays when she comes to visit, the man said.

Old boy's lucky he didn't "go for his waistband."

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

[Thanks to joe_2r25]

Is It Time to Arm Our Rural Schools?

One suggestion would be to follow the lead set by North Carolina, which since 1993 has had the state-based Center for Prevention of School Violence working to place armed School Resource Officers (SROs) inside its schools.

No, it's time for free sovereign individuals to keep and bear arms in all public places, including all schools, not just rural ones. Remember, Columbine had a trained "Resource Officer," and while he protected himself marvelously, when Harris retreated for easier prey, the officer did not pursue.

[Thanks to HZ]

This Day in History: October 5

On this day in 1775, General George Washington writes to the president of the Continental Congress, John Jay, to inform him that a letter from Dr. Benjamin Church, surgeon general of the Continental Army, to Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Gage, British commander in chief for North America, had been intercepted. Washington wrote, "I have now a painful tho' a Necessary Duty to perform respecting Doctor Church, Director General of the Hospital."