And There Was War in Heaven

Mr Feldman, who is public enemy number one for the NRA, has just published Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist, in which he accuses the association of using scare tactics to keep the money pouring in so that its executives can pay themselves vast salaries.

My first instinct was to dismiss this guy as just another Judas Bob, but I gotta say, his premise is not without foundation. I'll need to get my hands on this book (in my copious free time) and see what else he says, but I'll get it from a library rather than pay for it.

Feldman's hands aren't clean by a long shot, being the architect of the Clinton White House Quisling Fest. The lesson to be learned here: You can't serve two masters.

But some won't learn that lesson. Despite the outright defection of that wretched mercenary Ricker and the protection bartering of Feldman, The Firearms Coalition reported NRA advertising for a State Liaison, where "Experience with firearms, hunting and criminal justice reform issues helpful, but not required."

If you're going to dally with whores, don't act all shocked and indignant when you find them doing somebody else. This whole scenario reminds me of nothing so much as the Mr. Slave/Paris Hilton face-off on "South Park". And just think--these guys are our "leaders," the ones making all the money at this racket.

How, Oh How?

Baltimore police said yesterday that they are investigating how a 15-year-old boy came into possession of a large handgun that they say he pointed at an officer, who then shot and killed the teen Monday.

Yeah, really. Unless maybe...gun control doesn't work?

What Happens When You Really Don't Have a Gun

The iron pressed against his arm was so hot that he could smell his flesh burning.

But in spite of his protests, the men torturing Reservoir Hills resident Kirtikant Desai refused to believe he did not have a gun or a safe.

I, for one, believe him.

Open Letter to Diane Edbril of CeaseFire PA

Daniel Barnett of Amendment II Democrats asks a gun-grabber if she really has no interest in grabbing guns.

We're the Only Ones Shooting AND Shooting Enough

Yesterday, city officials showed off the PistolCam, a lightweight, pager-sized digital camera that attaches to an officer's gun barrel and automatically begins recording as soon as the officer draws his weapon.

Yeah, I'm sure Daley and Bloomberg's enforcers will jump right on it. In NYPD's case, maybe they ought to put cameras on plunger handles.

But like "smart guns," supposedly being developed for the police, but now, somehow they're the "Only Ones" being exempted from requirements, I can see some opportunistic political whore proposing requiring these on all "civilian" guns. While we're at it, maybe we can also make the gun dial 911, where an attendant watching a monitor can authorize whether or not it will fire. And we can put any gun not so equipped on the "unsafe" list, just like they're doing with "microstamping."

Think of what an aid this would be to police investigations. And if it saves one life...

[Via Declan]

We're the Only Ones Conspiring Enough

Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona was charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering in a wide-ranging indictment unsealed Tuesday that also implicates his wife, his “longtime mistress” and two former assistant sheriffs...

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2005 that he had issued badges and concealed-weapons permits to campaign contributors without proper training or background checks.

Well, that sucks. It always baffled me how he would be honored at CRPA banquets because he was a bit more liberal about scraping CCW crumbs on the floor for gun owners to scramble for. I fantasized at one such occasion, when he was being feted as a champion of RKBA, to publicly ask him if he was prepared to arrest me in front of the audience that was honoring him if I revealed I was carrying without a permit. Knowing what the certain answer would be (and mindful of the number of "pro-gun" cops at the event), I didn't see much payoff in having my life destroyed to prove an obvious point (that is, if I was truly carrying. Heavens. What kind of scofflaw radical white people-scaring extremist would actually engage in covert civil disobedience instead of just talking about it?)--and besides, it would have upset the ceremony where everyone was congratulating each other and passing out plaques over what a fine job they've done protecting gun rights in California.

All this aside, here's the part of this story that "really grinds my gears":

In August, Carona agreed to a settlement with the state Fair Political Practices Commission and paid a $15,000 fine after he incorrectly billed his campaign committee for thousands of dollars in non-itemized expenses.

Anyone care to explain why the FPPC economically destroyed Russ Howard's life with over $800,000 in fines over "infractions" nowhere near as serious, when he was trying to do the right thing?

[Via M.S.]
[More from "The Only Ones" Files]

The Oathbreakers Wall of Shame

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

HR 1022 Supporters. May their names, if remembered at all, be recalled by posterity with contempt:

Sponsor: Rep McCarthy, Carolyn [NY-4] (introduced 2/13/2007)
Rep Abercrombie, Neil [HI-1] - 4/16/2007
Rep Ackerman, Gary L. [NY-5] - 3/7/2007
Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] - 3/13/2007
Rep Blumenauer, Earl [OR-3] - 5/8/2007
Rep Capps, Lois [CA-23] - 3/9/2007
Rep Clarke, Yvette D. [NY-11] - 7/12/2007
Rep Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] - 3/9/2007
Rep Crowley, Joseph [NY-7] - 3/7/2007
Rep DeGette, Diana [CO-1] - 3/13/2007
Rep Delahunt, William D. [MA-10] - 3/13/2007
Rep Emanuel, Rahm [IL-5] - 4/26/2007
Rep Eshoo, Anna G. [CA-14] - 3/9/2007
Rep Farr, Sam [CA-17] - 4/16/2007
Rep Fattah, Chaka [PA-2] - 3/7/2007
Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51] - 3/7/2007
Rep Frank, Barney [MA-4] - 3/7/2007
Rep Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] - 3/9/2007
Rep Harman, Jane [CA-36] - 4/19/2007
Rep Hastings, Alcee L. [FL-23] - 10/22/2007
Rep Hirono, Mazie K. [HI-2] - 3/13/2007
Rep Holt, Rush D. [NJ-12] - 4/19/2007
Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] - 8/2/2007
Rep Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 3/7/2007
Rep Johnson, Henry C. "Hank," Jr. [GA-4] - 9/4/2007
Rep Kennedy, Patrick J. [RI-1] - 3/22/2007
Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] - 10/25/2007
Rep Langevin, James R. [RI-2] - 5/3/2007
Rep Lee, Barbara [CA-9] - 9/4/2007
Rep Lofgren, Zoe [CA-16] - 3/15/2007
Rep Lowey, Nita M. [NY-18] - 3/15/2007
Rep Maloney, Carolyn B. [NY-14] - 3/7/2007
Rep Markey, Edward J. [MA-7] - 3/13/2007
Rep McCollum, Betty [MN-4] - 9/25/2007
Rep McGovern, James P. [MA-3] - 3/13/2007
Rep Meehan, Martin T. [MA-5] - 3/7/2007
Rep Miller, Brad [NC-13] - 3/9/2007
Rep Moran, James P. [VA-8] - 3/7/2007
Rep Nadler, Jerrold [NY-8] - 5/8/2007
Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [DC] - 5/8/2007
Rep Olver, John W. [MA-1] - 5/3/2007
Rep Pascrell, Bill, Jr. [NJ-8] - 3/13/2007
Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4] - 3/22/2007
Rep Rothman, Steven R. [NJ-9] - 6/6/2007
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9] - 3/7/2007
Rep Schiff, Adam B. [CA-29] - 3/7/2007
Rep Sherman, Brad [CA-27] - 3/15/2007
Rep Sires, Albio [NJ-13] - 6/6/2007
Rep Slaughter, Louise McIntosh [NY-28] - 3/13/2007
Rep Solis, Hilda L. [CA-32] - 7/19/2007
Rep Tauscher, Ellen O. [CA-10] - 3/15/2007
Rep Tierney, John F. [MA-6] - 9/4/2007
Rep Van Hollen, Chris [MD-8] - 3/7/2007
Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [FL-20] - 3/22/2007
Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 4/26/2007
Rep Watt, Melvin L. [NC-12] - 5/8/2007
Rep Waxman, Henry A. [CA-30] - 4/16/2007
Rep Wexler, Robert [FL-19] - 3/9/2007
Rep Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] - 4/26/2007
Rep Wynn, Albert Russell [MD-4] - 9/4/2007

Lest it has escaped anyone's notice, they are all democrats. That doesn't excuse the RINOs of a thing, but the observation must still be made.

Bob (and Weave) Casey

As you may know, I support the Second Amendment and will continue to uphold the rights of law-abiding citizens to own firearms. I also believe we must fully enforce local gun laws and help local governments put more law enforcement officers on the street. Agencies such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms do not have the resources to enforce current gun laws.

Ryan asks for help and gets back weasel-wording doublespeak.

Alien vs. Predator?

Speculation is rampant in California that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will challenge liberal Democrat Barbara Boxer for her Senate seat in 2010 – and a new poll has them running neck and neck.

Whoever wins...we lose.

Tell me this poster isn't prescient.

[Via KABA Newslinks]

This Day in History: October 31

Washington tries to encourage re-enlistment in the Army by reserving new supplies for those who agree to commit to another year of service. He also promises each man time to visit his family during the winter.

Brady's Misplace Entire US Population

How do you make "the people" disappear?

Simple: through selective omission. Just pretend they aren't there. Dennis Henigan has been doing it for years.

My favorite hypocritical quote:

It is not appropriate for the courts to edit the Constitution

...he says, after editing the Constitution.

Today's Special

From MassBackward:

Me (after picking up my jaw): You'd rather be killed than kill someone, even if that person is trying to kill you?

Mitt Guy: Oh, God, yes.

Who does that remind me of...?

Oh, yeah, now I remember.

The Dish of the Day:
[Via Geek With a .45]

When Zombies Attack

Look at the picture and tell me it doesn't look like that.

The Way Government Works Part 2

The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a lawsuit by the city of Gary against several gun makers can go to trial.

The court ruled 3-0 that a provision in the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 does not bar the case from going forward in state court.

Don't like a law protecting private enterprise, freedom or property?

Figure out a way to bypass the spirit and intent of it through legal chicanery.

Note: This only works if you're in government, or assisting them in subjugation and thievery.

The Way Government Works

The St. Clair County Board passed a pair of resolutions Monday to shut down and seize a nearly 32-acre shooting range that lies within the glide path of planes landing at Scott Air Force Base.

They showed the judge there's no danger, but when greedy, self-important home-grown kleptocrats with political ambitions set their minds on "seizing" property...

That's the way with most cancers. Unless you treat them locally and early, they grow and spread and become damn near impossible to control.

It's a Mystery to Me

Although he teaches firearms classes to people of all ages, he has specialized in training scouts and is the official firearms instructor for Boy Scout merit-badge training in Flagstaff.

Sometimes classes meet over objections of parents. Wainwright convinces them of the importance of firearms safety.

You have to wonder at the type of parent that would enroll their child in scouting and then object to shooting activities.

The Fighting Irish

Fine Gael is claiming that the Gardai are not being properly equipped to tackle rising gun crime in Ireland.

So if they can't do it, and the people aren't allowed do it, just who the hell is doing it?

This Day in History: October 30

Sir: By this Opportunity, I do myself the pleasure to congratulate you on the signal success of the Army under your command, in compelling Genl. Burgoyne and his whole force, to surrender themselves prisoners of War. An Event that does the highest honor to the American Arms, and which, I hope, will be attended with the most extensive and happy consequences.

Shameless Plug: "Not Obliged"

So much for disarmed subjects of the crown relying on the police for protection. But what could be more important than an octogenarian under potentially lethal and immediate attack? Police departments, after all, have limited resources. Perhaps there was a critical emergency endangering more lives and a tough decision had to be made? A riot? A terrorist act? A fire?

Well, no, actually.

"Not Obliged," with special guest star Cryptic Subterranean, is my Rights Watch column for the December 2007 issue of GUNS Magazine, on sale now at obliging newsstands throughout the Republic.

WarOnGuns regulars will recall our coverage of the Thames Valley Police. This is an expansion on that story that illustrates how outrageous the bureaucratic arrogance and incompetence really is.

Stanley Still Crouching

Stanley, there is nothing bold about anything you propose. It is the same old contemptible servitude that the powerful have always imposed on the weak.

What I said to Mayor White goes double for you:

I wonder what these constituents would say if they were provided the truth about the racist origins and continued discriminatory application of the gun control measures you promulgate? Have you told them about the Slave Codes, that would allow a black man to be whipped (or worse) for possession of any kind of weapon? Or the post-Civil War Black Codes, designed to keep the newly emancipated from obtaining the means of defense during the heyday of Klan terror?

Why don't you circulate the following Louisiana statute among a few of the churches that you get your precinct walkers from, and see what they have to say?
"No negro who is not in the military service shall be allowed to carry fire-arms, or any kind of weapons, within the parish, without the special written permission of his employers, approved and endorsed by the nearest and most convenient chief of patrol."

If that doesn't make an impression, why not try the following offering from Mississippi?

"No freedman, free Negro, or mulatto not in the military service of the United States government, and not licensed so to do by the board of police of his or her county, shall keep or carry firearms of any kind..."

Oh, hell, Mayor White, let's cut to the chase and clue them in to Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857):

"Protection of the ‘absolute rights of individuals' to personal security, liberty, and private property is secured in part by ‘the right of bearing arms'--which with us is . . . practically enjoyed by every citizen, and is among his most valuable privileges, since it furnishes the means of resisting as a freeman ought, the inroads of usurpation."

Tell them how racist Supreme Court Chief Justice Taney concluded that blacks, as legal scholar and civil rights attorney Professor Don B. Kates has recorded, "could not be ‘citizens,' because if they were, they would have the right to vote, to assemble, to speak on political subjects, to travel freely, and ‘to keep and carry arms wherever they went.'"

Now tell them how the City of Cleveland has neither the legal obligation nor the capability to protect them, and how your police will not arrive in most life-and-death situations in time to do anything but tape off the crime scene, cover the body and take a report. Then make sure you tell them that you don't credit them with having the judgement or maturity to be entrusted with the means of personal defense, in spite of landmark peer-reviewed studies from Florida State University and the University of Chicago that conclusively demonstrate the crime-deterring, life- saving value of guns in private, law-abiding hands.

I suspect you won't tell them any of this. And, because of the unique privileges and stature that you enjoy in your position, this is especially contemptible.

To have risen to such a prestigious and powerful position speaks of many positive and remarkable characteristics that you must be blessed with, including intelligence, determination and leadership. But a true leader would use his authority to preserve, protect and champion the freedoms of those he serves. How sad, how telling, and how ultimately treasonous that you have chosen to misapply yours for your own gain.

And rather than being a leader in liberty, you have opted to become just another one of the plantation's overseers.