August 2007 – Page 2 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Biting the Hand that Feeds You

I’m intrigued by this post from Second City Cop, that talks about leaders of a community that are demanding police do something about violence, while having previously crapped all over them for…. doing something about violence.Â I thought this quote from an otherwise good editorial Chicago-Sun times was also interesting, but a little off in terms of semantics:

During that same period, 1,253 persons were shot by random civilian gunfire. Of that number, 410 victims were 19 years old and under. The total number of fatal shootings in this age group was 44. Also, four teenagers were bludgeoned, four were stabbed, one was burned to death and four others were killed by an unknown weapon.

Is this gunfire really that random?Â Or does it involve disputes among criminals?Â The term civilian does, actually, have the term “civil” in it, and I’m relatively hesitant to apply the term “civilian” to thugs shooting it out with each other on the streets.Â I’m generally not one to pick over semantics, especially when I agree with the points made in the editorial, but I think the more we write like this, the more we lose.

It’s great to see the media beginning to understand the problem; that neighborhoods need to stand up and cooperate with police to fight crime, but I will still encourage the media to carefully pick terms that do a better job of characterizing criminals, who are willful, and generally not all that random, in the type of crime they ply in their neighborhoods.

Should Sullivan be Confirmed?

Ryan doesn’t think so.Â Â I don’t think so either.Â I also think Bush needs to replace Gonzalez with someone who will be a friend of the second amendment.

Now He Has to Come to Louisville in 2008

SayUncle says he’ll join the NRA.Â Â I hope he’ll join us in Louisville next year.Â Â I had a great time last year, and it was a lot of fun to get to meet other bloggers like Sam and Denise, Dave Hardy, Dave Kopel, Michael Bane, and Cam Edwards, in addition to some other great minds of the gun rights movement like Steve Halbrook and Robert Cottrol.Â Â Â Plus it’s one of the only places you’ll get to do things like talk with exhibition shooter Tom Knapp about the crappy weather as you’re heading from the hotel to the exhibition floor.

It’s a good time.Â If you’re an NRA member, you should try to make it to at least one convention sometime.

Happy Blogoversary

To SayUncle.Â Five years is a long time.

Making Progress

It’s not a sea change, but it’s certainly a welcome development.Â Â Bitter talks more about how the media isn’t quite as hostile as it used to be toward the pro-gun side of the argument.

Can I Let You In on a Little Secret?

I hate being a cheerleader for the NRA. I would love to be able to sit down with pro-gun people, and have a reasonable discussion about things that I think the NRA could be doing better, things I wish they wouldn’t do, and things I wish they’d pay more attention to.

But all too often I get the sense that a lot of people are more interested in flinging poo at the NRA than they are at fighting gun control. There’s even an active contingent of pro-gun people out there who believe that flinging poo at the NRA amounts to fighting gun control!

To me the NRA is like an annoying little brother; he sure does annoy you sometimes, and you wish he wouldn’t go off and get himself into trouble that you felt compelled to get him out of. But when the chips are down, family is family, and you do what you have to do.

To the extent that the pro-gun movement is a bickering family, we’re healthy, and I don’t worry. But as soon as it turns into the Hatfields vs. McCoys, we’re in serious trouble. Too many people want to make this a feud, and it gets tiring. I can think of no better way to enable a resurgent anti-gun movement than to spend energy fighting each other.

Misery Likes Company

Thirdpower reminds us that ACT isn’t the first anti-gun organization to run afoul of the SEC.

Neighborhood Troubles

If there’s one thing you never want to find yourself saying late at night, when your girlfriend calls you on the phone, it’s get a round into the chamber!

This prompted me to think that I should give Bitter my current shotgun, and she should file the NFA paperwork to saw it off. But then I remembered her complex recently changed owners, and adopted a new, more upscale name. So I’m thinking she needs something more upscale, like maybe sawed off Holland and Holland, rather than my cheap Mossberg.

But seriously folks, when it comes to defense of dwelling in an apartment, the shotgun is, without a doubt, not to be beat. It has been said:

The shotgun is the ne plus ultra of manstoppers. No other weapon will put a man down as reliably as a shotgun, and no other weapon is as likely to hit your opponent as a shotgun filled with buckshot. No doubt you have heard a lot of nonsense about the lethality of “assault rifles” and “Uzi sub-machine guns” and the like. The fact is that the shotgun is by far the deadliest and most effective firearm for short-range personal defense. For example: an Uzi or Heckler & Koch sub-machine gun has about 340 ft-lbs. of impact energy – a 12 gauge shotgun has 2500 to 3100 ft-lbs. of impact energy, and it is a heck of a lot easier to hit your target with a shotgun than a sub-machine gun.

Plus, there’s no better sound in the world than operating the slide on a pump-action shotgun. I think it’s important for women living alone to think about home defense. Bitter certainly has done her fair share of that, and I’m happy that now she lives in a state that is more respecting of her right to defend herself, without having to worry about ending up being treated like a criminal.

More RealCo Protest Blogging

Kenn Blanchard has a must read about the RealCo protests.

Some of the Protesters

Keyboard and a .45 has a post about one of the protesters in Dallas yesterday:

Lamont Levels may have changed his ways. Lamont Levels may be actually helping kids stay out of the gangs and stay in school. For that he should be applauded. But for the Brady Bunch to parade him out in front of the cameras, with an unnecessary and poorly applied eye patch, wailing about evil guns, is a bunch of crap. Lamont knows that gang bangers do not obey the law. Lamont knows that the guns in the hands of the gangs were not legally purchased through an ffl, but either stolen or purchased on the black market. Lamont knows that no amount of gun control laws will control the criminals who use guns. And you know what? The Brady’s do to.

I agree.Â It’s a good message to get kids to turn away from violence.Â That Lamont has reformed himself and taken it upon himself to try to keep kids out of gangs is commendable, but I don’t get being big on toughening the laws that he wasn’t concerned about obeying at the time he was shot.