This temporary outage was brought to you by Faulty Ethernet Cable. We’re not happy with this sponsor, and won’t be inviting him back again. I’m guessing it was borderline, and my switching the cables out last night pushed it over the edge.
Month: July 2007
Proposed Changes
Pennsylvania is considering some changes in firearms law, it looks like, with the OK from the NRA. I’ve been a bit out of the loop for the past few days, as I’ve been in Virginia since last Tuesday, but it looks like the definition change in the term “firearm” (which under PA law typically only means handgun, long guns are largely unregulated) in regards to penalties to crimes committed with a firearm. If that’s the case, I have no problems with this. If you knock over a liquor store with a shotgun, I don’t see any reason to not charge you as if you had done it with a pistol. Of course, I think penalties should be stiff even if you use a butter knife, but politicians will be stupid.
I’ll look for actual language for these bills tomorrow, but I trust Hohenwarter isn’t going to agree to anything that’s going to affect law abiding gun owners.
Jackson Moving to Bay Area
Jesse Jackson is moving his attention whoring campaign to the bay area now.
“We have to look at tighter regulations around sales of guns, where they’re being sold, how they’re being sold, how we’re requiring accountability by those dealers,” Harris said. “We should be looking more seriously at the proliferation of guns in our community, including assault weapons, because there really is no need for an assault weapon in a civil community.”
Jackson is in the Bay Area to raise awareness of gun violence in society at large before a nationwide protest that his civil rights group, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, has scheduled for Aug. 28.
Of course, what the article fails to mention is that California already has the strictest assault weapons ban in the country. So if they are having a problem with them in their neighborhoods, wouldn’t that say that the ban is mostly useless? At least one person has a clue:
Lorrain Taylor of Hayward, whose twin 22-year-old sons were gunned down in Oakland in February 2000 while working on a car, left the rally skeptical.
“I think we’re not looking at the root of the problem. This sounds very political,” Taylor said. “Closing down the gun shops will not stop the violence. … I don’t think the source is the gun stores. It’s a deep spiritual problem.”
Yep. Jesse Jackson is a cheap attention whore. It’s high time the media stopped paying attention to him.
Budget Feud
The Republicans and Democrats in our state are currently engaged in an epic battle over the budget.  The Republicans want to cut spending to prevent tax increases.  The Democrats want to get Rendell’s tax and spend plan through. Needless to say, the Democrats can kiss my ass.
Shutting down the casinos is one highly publicized result of the ongoing, increasingly hostile budget standoff between Democrat Rendell and Republican senators. If a budget deal can’t be reached by Sunday night, it also would cause the shutdown on Monday of state parks, including Presque Isle State Park, a popular Erie destination in Ms. Earll’s district, as well as all other state parks, forests, museums, historical sites and other facilities.
This is pure political crap. Here’s one thing I’m wondering. Is Ed Rendell considering PICS essential? It better be. Start making that a pawn in budget battles, it might be worth a constitutional challenge against the whole system. I’m guessing PICS, which is operated by the Pennsylvania State Police, which are considered essential, will remain up, however. Nonetheless, this is another reason Ed Rendell can go to hell.
Pennsylvania Government Shutdown
I have this to say about the looming shutdown: bring it on.  Apparently 24,000 state workers could be temporarily laid off if a compromise is unable to be reached on the budget.  I’m fairly certain that those workers have very little impact on my daily life. I’m also fairly certain that things in the Commonwealth will largely hum on as usual in their absence. Police will still be working, same with fire. I’m assuming Penndot is largely essential, at least the parts that matter.
I can bear through the loss of state parks and what have you. I want the Republicans in Pennsylvania to understand this completely: Hold out. Do not give into the Governor. I do not want my taxes raised. It’s time to put a stop to his agenda here. If that means the state has to shut down, so be it.
Maybe Because the City is Wrong?
I don’t think it even occurs to ABC News that the reason Philadelphia has such a high murder rate is because the city politicians refuse to do a god damned thing about the criminals. This article seems to offer credence to the city’s notion that its crime rate has more to do with ignorant country rednecks tying the city politician’s hands, and preventing them from doing something about the evil guns, rather than asking why they aren’t doing something about the evil criminals.
It’s easy to fiddle while Rome burns when you have willing accomplices in the media who will assure the public that the fiddling will actually help put out the fire.
Belated Birthday
I seemed to have missed out on the fact that 7-7-07 was an important anniversary in firearms history. It makes the 60th birthday of the AK-47:
7/7/2007 9:35:24 AM Almost a household name and the largest selling automatic rifle in the world, the AK 47 assault rifle is 60 years old and getting younger. The world’s deadliest automatic rifle sought after by guerrillas and several armies in the world is named after its designer Mikhail Kalashnikov and is estimated to have sold in excess of 100 million in the last 60 years. The Russian army took up the AK 47 in 1947, however, the automatic is now copied and fakes available in many countries. Kalashnikov says he is not to be blamed for all the bloodshed his invention has spread but rather accuses politicians who are unable to resolve problems without the use of arms. However, Kalashnikov said he was saddened by the unfortunate popularity of the weapon amongst gangsters. Kalashnikov was part of celebrations in Moscow to commemorate the 60th year of the AK 47.
You have to scroll down to the bottom.
Romney’s Son Gets Grilled on 2nd Amendment
Mitt Romney’s son apparently got asked a tough question last week:
“Your dad recently joined the NRA, didn’t he?” Mac McWilliams asked during the Sangamon County Republican organization’s breakfast.Romney’s son said yes, his father had joined the NRA earlier this year.
“Well then, has his position changed on banning assault weapons? Because I found that as governor of Massachusetts, he signed a ban into law in 2004,” McWilliams said.
Now, to be clear, the 2004 law Romney signed wasn’t exactly a new ban on assault weapons, it was preserving some definitions in the federal ban that kept certain rifles exempted (Bitter knows more about the specifics than I do). But you’d expect Romney would have his staffers and son prepared to deal with questions like this.  Nope:
When asked about the ban, Romney’s Illinois campaign chairman State Sen. Dan Rutherford intervened and reminded the audience of his own support of the Second Amendment.
“I wasn’t sure what Rutherford’s views had to do with Romney’s position, but I knew that question time was over,” McWilliams said.
Doesn’t sound like he got his answer. Romney is a rank political opportunist, and you’d think he’d at least have his folks drilled on how to spin his record to appease gun owners. Mitt Romney is presenting himself, at least to me, as the Republican version of John Kerry. Or maybe John Edwards. Kerry really is a lifelong hunter, unlike Mitt.
Something’s Wrong With This Picture
A routine traffic stop for a noise violation led to the arrest of a sus pected drug dealer who had a loaded AK-47 assault rifle on the back seat of his car, Jersey City police said.
How could that be? They are illegal in New Jersey. Long ago, Jim Florio rid New Jersey of AK-47s once and for all. Of course, this isn’t news, except then they say this:
A search of the vehicle turned up the loaded assault rifle as well as 52 rounds of .22-caliber ammuni tion and a bag of cocaine, police reports said.
An AK-47 doesn’t take anything close to .22 caliber ammunition. Or wasn’t an assault rifle? Maybe it was a tube fed .22 that holds more than 15 rounds? Who knows. This is the media. The details don’t matter. Neither does getting the facts straight.
UPDATE: Here’s more details from The Jersey Journal:
Sternes was taken out of the car without incident, and then a search of the vehicle turned up the loaded assault rifle as well as 52 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition and a bag of cocaine, reports said.
Further investigation turned up a .22 caliber revolver stashed behind a garbage bin at the Holland Gardens public housing complex. Police believe it was a “community gun” used by Sternes and others to commit street crimes, and are trying to determine if the weapon is linked to criminal activity, reports said.
Sternes spent three years in prison after a 2002 conviction on drug charges, state Department of Corrections records show.
“This incident not only underscores the reality that routine police stops rarely are just routine any longer, but the availability of dangerous weapons has reached epidemic proportions,” Mayor Jerramiah Healy said in a statement. “I mean, an AK-47 on the streets, it’s ridiculous.”
Epidemic proportions? But… but… but… they are illegal. Either way, I doubt that it’s anything close to an epidemic. If a routine seizure is enough to make the news, that would seem to indicate that finding assault weapons in a traffic stop is rare. Had it been a pistol, no one would care. That kind of thing happens all the time.
More Ammo Supply?
Looks like General Dynamics just won a $44 million dollar small arms ammunition contract. I’m hoping this means they will be able to add production capacity, and can help keep the price of 5.56x45mm NATO down to a reasonable level. Lately, I’m trying not to shoot so much of it because of the price, and I hate that.