Moore to be Prosecuted

City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko said his office will prosecute Hampton resident Dan Moore for trespassing after he was ordered to leave Waterside for wearing a gun on his hip, and, according to police, refused to leave.

This confirms what we broke here last night.

And they're threatening Mr. Moore with "up to a year in jail"? This is clearly official revenge and a conspiracy to deprive a citizen of his rights. What a strutting little piece of...work this punk Pishko is.

I would think if Waterside is a private entity, and it sounds more like one of those fascist "public/private partnerships," someone representing it would need to be the one to order someone to leave--not a police officer. Ditto for filing a complaint.

But here's the funky part:

Pishko said that although Waterside has received millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars in its 25 years, it is a private institution, owned by Waterside Associates, and thus can ban guns.

Yet the Virginia-Pilot reported in March:

The city’s housing authority bought the marketplace from its private owner in early 1999. At the time, Norfolk leaders said they planned to eventually find a private owner and get out of the landlord business.

Nearly 10 years later, the city still owns Waterside, which has become less of a boon to municipal coffers.

Methinks this creature is neither fish nor fowl, but some confounded corporate hybrid and legal labyrinth--and perhaps the technicalities involved can be exploited to advantage. But it's premature to speculate on what should be the purview of a good pitbull attorney.

Still, it's clear the city of Norfolk is intent on playing hardball, and as a side effect, I think they're apt to suffer some unintended consequences in re trying to squelch open carry. Since VCDL is the group with boots on the ground there, I'll take my lead from what they say. If a defense fund is set up, I'll naturally plug it here.

[Via Mack H]

Maggie's Me$$iah

First we had Calypso Louie heralding the coming of The Messiah.

Now we have a privileged political dilettante from Smith College.

My favorite bit of Sophian sophism is her decrying "tax cuts for the rich."

Do you have any idea what it costs to go to Smith? And that doesn't include room and board. Or a year-long stay in Italy...?

Good grief.

A Liberal Gun Grabber

Let me say it straight out: a John McCain presidency would be far worse than a Barack Obama presidency. With a Democrat in the White House, conservatives and Christians suddenly find their principles and are able to offer resistance. Put a Republican in the Oval Office, however, and those same people become blind, deaf, and dumb to most any principle they profess.

I was chided recently for neglecting Chuck Baldwin and the Constitution Party. My critic was right--he is the most faithful candidate on guns. And for those worried he would impose a conservative theocracy, I'd counter that he understands the Constitutional limits of the executive better than the other candidates.

Problem is...well, we know what the problem is.

If nothing else, this oughtta ruffle some GOA-hating prag feathers...

We're the Only Ones Driven Enough

High-tech Onlyonemobiles. Because I guess regular cars aren't good enough, and hey, gotta spend it to justify next year's budget increase, when we can complain about how outgunned and outcarred we are.

I do wonder though--if one of us had one of these, would it magically transmute from a patrol car to an assault car?

[Via David H]

Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun

Mama Liberty writes:

This is one of the best articles I've ever seen on the subject. I thought you'd enjoy it - and maybe the rest of the site...

She's right. Click on the title link and see for yourself.

We're the Only Ones Spraying Easy Off Enough

Dodge Correctional Institution guard who sprayed nephew-inmate gets off easy in Wisconsin

Just when you thought my groaner titles to these things couldn't get any cheesier...

Nice to see the fine line between criminal and "Only One" is so clear here. Assign someone to guard a relative--now there's some brains. What could possibly go wrong?

[Via David H]

Fear and Loathing — Not Hope and Change

Well, that’s nice that Barack Obama’s not going to take Biden’s Beretta shotguns — not that Biden would ever need them, with that armed security detail provided to him by the American taxpayers — but what about my Springfield Armory M1911A1 pistol, or the DPMS AR-type semi-automatic rifle I’d like to have?

Erik Onstott nails it. He also gives us another kind of hope for change. There are some real journalists out there (as opposed to the hollow frauds), ones who are interested in the truth and knowledgeable about what they write. When we find them, let's encourage their publishers and broadcasters to give us more.

A Place for Fear

Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby, who said he also is a gun owner with a concealed weapons permit, said the law required him to return Hain's permit.

But he questioned her judgment, saying she "scared the devil" out of others at the soccer field.

"Fear doesn't belong at a kid's soccer game from any source," Eby said.

The hell it doesn't. The only argument is about who's doing the fearing.

Has the ceremonial robe and illusory trappings of "authoritah" blinded you to the realities of Nature, you cloistered blowhard? I want predators to fear turning soccer fields into killing fields. And I want agents of coercion to fear infringing Liberty.

That kind of fear belongs everywhere.

I suspect when you say you want a place to be fearless, judge, you really mean you don't want the citizens to be.

Tough. Deal with it. You think just because you're a judicial "Only One" that fear of consequences is your sole province?

I'd say good call, but you made it clear you had no choice, and your snotty aside shows you just don't get it-- and that you would have preferred to relegate Ms. Hain to a perpetual state of court-ordered fear.

[Via Mike H]

Qualified Results

49% "Yes," 49% "No," 0% "Not Sure"?

Dear little things, but hopeless at math. D'ya think maybe a blonde designed the poll? (Easy, armed female pals--I'm just having fun with the humorless rape-enabling NOW harridans.)

In the spirit of inflaming the ember of seething resentment into a full-blown shrieking bipolar inferno of rage, may I suggest voting in Palin's favor (click on title link) even if you don't mean it? You know, just for cheap and immature male yucks and in the spirit of CUM ULLA SELLA IN PUGNO TABERNA...?

[Via M. Terry]

This Day in History: October 15

One Sub, one serjt. and twenty-five Rank and File from each of the four Brigades in the Lines, and in Cambridge, to parade to morrow morning at Sun-rise upon Cambridge Common to cut Fire-wood for the army. The Qr. Mr. General or his deputy, will attend upon the common in Cambridge to give directions to the Officer commanding the party.

BREAKING: Dan Moore to be Prosecuted?

Mack H. has left a new comment on your post "We're the Only Ones Camera-Shy Enough":

The city's Commonwealth's Attorney has told the President of VCDL today that he will in fact prosecute Dan Moore.

I've done a cursory search and can't find outside confirmation yet. I generally would need more to post, but Mack H is a consistently reliable source, so if he tells me something I trust it. Please feel free to enlighten and/or revise as warranted in comments.

A Knob Creek Diary

WarOnGuns regulars know I took the weekend off. I was at Knob Creek. It was great.

I got a chance to finally meet Len Savage and Mike Vanderboegh in person.

Mike brought his in-development manuscript for "Absolved" and shared how the story will continue to unfold and where we'll find ourselves when it "ends." I'll presume to believe you'll really like it. We also talked about strategies for promoting the book and getting it into the hands of the public.

Len was extremely generous and let my son and Mike's daughter shoot several guns. You can tell a lot about a man by watching him exhibit pure joy, and while both kids had a blast, pun intended, it's hard to say who was having more fun.

We knew when we saw it that it would just be a matter of hours before a video about the accident hit the Internet. For those speculating in forum comments, the car explosion and guy on fire were part of a stunt act. What wasn't planned were chunks of metal blasting into the spectators on the front line--they were damned lucky more pieces didn't go flying.

The stunt itself was impressive. Whether it belongs at a shoot I'll leave to others, but based on results it should not have been that close to the crowd. I heard two people were injured and saw one of them--an Ohio gun designer/exhibitor/shooter, wheeled out by the EMTs with his arm temporarily wrapped and blood spatter on his shirt--but all things considered, he was in good spirits and actually joked about it to the people in the bleachers as they rolled him away. I heard the second injured man had broken bones in his hand or wrist, but did not see him. I did see a security guy carry away a hunk of metal that looked to weigh a couple pounds, so the potential for a real negligent tragedy was there.

That said, the incident shouldn't mar enthusiasm to attend future events--I'm sure there's been a lesson learned, and I know I'm looking forward to more shoots now that I've had my first taste.

And here's the thing that struck me more than anything else--here we were surrounded by thousands of hard core gun owners, here we were in the presence of Americans firing machine guns and flame throwers and what-have-you, here we were walking through hundreds of tables filled with militia-suitable hardware most of us can only dream about ever owning, and the major visible "police" presence for most of my time there was guys walking around wearing orange t-shirts, yet I could not imagine a safer place to be. Imagine that--no overt coercion and everybody was behaving themselves.

The "liberal" anti-gun enuretics are so demonstrably full of it--every damn one of them. America's armed-to-the-teeth "extremist" gun owners are the most peaceable people on the planet. Everyone I met and talked to was salt-of-the-earth, nice, interesting, friendly, informed...yeah, I'm sure there must have been some jerks around, but I didn't meet them--and I even made a conscious effort to play "Where's Wintemute?"

I saw nothing but exemplary behavior bolstered with awesome knowledge, safe gun handling...

With all the flash and bang and smoke, it's funny. You'd think that would be what left me with the most visceral reaction, but it's not. What I left there with, more powerfully than my words can convey, is confidence and, to reclaim a word, hope.

We are better than our enemies. Here's to conducting ourselves like we know it.

A Major Benefit

Among the supporters of the proposed ordinance is David Blankenhorn, Pottsville, who said one of his pistols was stolen from him about 20 years ago and police discovered it seven years later.

“It turned up in a drug raid in Auburn. Because I reported it in 24 hours, because I cooperated with the law, I was given that gun back. This ordinance can have a major benefit. If you simply follow the law, it works with you,” Blankenhorn said.

I thought PA had state preemption. And we've been through the self-incrimination exemption for prohibited persons. There would also seem to be a 5th Amendment consideration if your firearm is stolen from your vehicle and you did not have it secured in accordance with state law.

Meanwhile, geniuses like Fudd Blankenhorn here appear too dense to grasp that most of us are going to report stolen property in the hopes of recovery anyway--but criminalizing us--threatening fines, incarceration, and ultimately use of force to coerce compliance--is hardly a "major benefit."

I'm waiting for some sharp and scummy trial lawyer to sue a gun owner reporting a missing gun for negligence, in that they failed to properly secure it from theft--and knew or should have known of the likelihood that it would be used for criminal purposes. The mandated police report ought to give them all the evidence they need.

Meanwhile, Over in Sarah Brady Paradise...

China's weapons laws are among the world's toughest. Its blanket ban on private ownership of rifles, pistols and even gun replicas is a core tenet of social policy...

Yet, these days, reports about gun crimes turn up as often as several times a week even in the tightly controlled state-run media.

Damned American gun shows.

The Philadelphia Klan Terror

Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. was unapologetic in City Council yesterday as he addressed a television investigation questioning the work habits of a top employee.

Goode indirectly defended his aide, Latrice Bryant, who last week flashed handwritten signs in Council Chambers comparing a Fox29 news reporter to the Ku Klux Klan. Goode and Bryant are African American; Fox29 reporter Jeff Cole is white.

And we all know that every time a white person displeases a black one, it must be racism at work.

Could someone please tell us what this creature does to make her worth paying basically three times the last census-recorded median household income of Philadelphians in general, and almost 7 times what the average black citizen there receives?

Oh.

$90K/year and vacations to Jamaica? And she's the one being discriminated against?

Y'know, if I'd been caught red-handed falsifying time cards for any of my past employers, they'd have been justified in canning me on the spot and putting my boxed belongings on the curb. I like the way this pampered parasite just throws back entitled attitude and cheapens the experience of every human casualty who was ever actually targeted by the Klan.

Get over yourself, lady. The reporter simply caught you demonstrating your unique brand of ethics, your level of impulse control, and your intelligence. Your offended posturing is an obscene insult to every victim of racist terror and your blame-shifting charges are offensive to every decent human being.

And oh, look--here's her boss's goon strong-arming an "Authorized Journalist."

Yeah, I'll be letting urban thugs dictate the extent of my rights...

Three-Way Action

Just in case you're looking to get screwed by multiple partners and would like to make it a foursome...

If this and this don't put the lie to AHSA being a "pro-gun group," nothing will.

Your Free Speech is What We Say it is

Lawyers for the city of San Francisco told a federal judge Thursday that the city's ban on cigarette sales by pharmacies has nothing to do with free speech.

Perhaps not, but it has everything to do with free conduct.

You'll note in lefty forums a recurring talking points charge that RKBA activists are only interested in the 2nd Amendment and don't care for the rest of the Bill of Rights. We know that's a damned lie and a transparent projection to boot.

Control nazis are just that. They're compelled to control everything.

It's like a disease, and the danger it poses to society in terms of human misery and death should be treated like the epidemic it is. Maybe we should require health warnings on political ads...

A Good Republican

For more than two years, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan has been consumed by the latest entry on his resume: acting chief of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The Republican has been balancing both jobs while dealing with opposition to his ATF confirmation from members of his own party in the Senate. Now, with the presidential election a month away and Congress adjourned, Sullivan, 54, could soon end up unemployed.

What--there's no demand for breaking up rocks or making license plates, you know, kind of a Big Tent to Big House transition...?

And here's a scary thought:

At various times, he's been talked about in state Republican circles as a possible candidate for governor, state attorney general and the U.S. Senate.

Yeah, maybe a John Kerry/Ted Kennedy/Brady Campaign endorsement will clinch it for him.

Good thing the Republicans can also count on gun owners.

[Via "Mr. X"]

Pilot Error

The classic and well-worn illustration is that it is irresponsible - not to mention illegal - to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater, though the right to free speech is one of America's most cherished. The reason for the prohibition is that people might be hurt in a stampede to escape.

The Virginia-Pilot said it, I believe it, that settles it.

Stuff it, you despicable police state-demanding cowards. You can yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater--there is no prior restraint.

And yeah, right. As we've seen time and again, only the "Only Ones" can be trusted to bear arms without making us regurgitate our cuds. Leave it to effete Orwellian wimps to redefine responsibility as irresponsibility. That way, those who insist on everyone being a potential victim are the responsible ones.

I guess if they repeat that lie enough, they can look in the mirror and deem themselves, if not self-determining men, at least house slaves, and thus superior to the rougher ones in the field.

[Via Mack H]

A Crisis in Worcester

But in the past 18 months, in this city of 176,000, bullets and bare knuckles have given way to 4- or 5- or 6-inch blades. The use of knives in crimes is up 9.5 percent to 231 instances, through Aug. 31, compared with the same period in 2007, while the use of guns in crimes fell 16.8 percent to 94 instances in the same period, according to Worcester police.

So now knives are the "weapons of choice"? It's tough keeping up--the choice keeps changing so much.

No matter. Disregarding for a moment all that Massachusetts knife control, and factoring in the inescapable conclusion that attacking people with knives is illegal, you have to ask yourself why, for all intents and purposes, possession of personal defense tools of choice is forbidden to We the People. Especially when the authorities disclose such detailed knowledge of predator armament and capabilities, and not a one of them takes responsibility for anyone's safety.

[Via John G]