September 2007 – Page 18 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Opinion on Open Carry

I think I’m slowly starting to change my opinion on open carry. Previously I tended to view it as damaging to our cause, because it tended to just scare people, without really educating them. But I am impressed with what’s been done in Virginia. Open Carry has always been lawful in Virginia, but there were always places you risks getting hassled by the police. Now it’s not uncommon, it’s accepted, and the police know the law and won’t generally bother you.

I’m also very impressed by how much the issue has motivated activism, particularly from the kind of person who otherwise might choose just to sit around and be angry. I’m also reminded of Countertop’s example of open carry in Virginia, where he opined that part of it’s utility was showing the folks traveling through Virginia that “the rest of the country isn’t like New Jersey and New York.”

I will still choose to carry concealed, but I’m being converted on the utility of open carry in regards to pro-gun activism.Â What do you folks think?

Ringing Rocks County Park

Bitter and I paid a visit here today, since it was such a lovely day

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvSX7Z6WjYU[/youtube]

There is actually some debate as to the origin of the rocks.Â Some folks suggest the Wisconsin ice sheet never made it down that far, but others have said:

While Pennsylvania’s boulder fields are characteristically situated closed to where the Wisconsin ice sheet once stood, there is one oddball exception located to the south of the glaciated part of the state, in the Triassic Lowland. This is the locally famous Ringing Rocks County Park — the county being Bucks, just a short distance from the Delaware River north of Philadelphia. Here the boulders are made of a much harder, igneous rock called diabase. This rock formed when magma welling up from the Earth’s interior during the rifting and breakup of the supercontinent of Pangea cooled close to the surface. In this particular park, the boulders are said to produce a variety of ringing tones when struck with a hammer.

I don’t know.Â I think my Ron Paul theory is better.

There is no saving people…

… from a perception of reality that is this fundamentally warped.

UPDATE: Follow the link, and one faculty member makes the claim that if they arm campus poilice, it will mean the obviously racist cops will just shoot more black people:

Social work professor Katherine van Wormer said UNI regularly rates as one of the safest campuses in the country, and murders at colleges nationwide are extremely rare. She added that national statistics show African Americans are more likely to be shot by police than a white suspect.

“It explains why people from the black community are very concerned about this,” she said.

Professor Wormer, what an appropriate name. To smear all police officers with this brush is unconscionable. These are the people that are teaching our kids! God help us.

UPDATE: Rightwingprof has more.

Robbery Foiled

From Deb, comes a report of a group of armed robbers is Ypsilanti, MI, who didn’t expect to find themselves staring down the business end of a shotgun.

The clerk told deputies he saw someone crouching in front of the counter and shouted as another man wearing a ski mask attempted to enter the store. Upon seeing the shotgun, the man by the entrance held the door open as the man by the counter crawled out, Egeler said.

Shot through the door was a bad move.Â You don’t take shots at fleeing men. Â But it’s good in this instance that no one got hurt, and the robbers didn’t walk away with their booty.

Outrageous Hunting Fees

Countertop has a pretty good post on the high cost of hunting licenses.Â Let’s see what he would pay as a Pennsylvania resident:

Resident State Hunting $20.00
It appears you get one turkey with your license.
Resident Bear: $16.00
Resident anterless deer: $6.00
Resident Muzzleloader $11.00
Migratory Waterfowl Conservation Stamp $3.00
Contribute $2.00 to Hunters for the Hungry $2.00
Total Fee $58.00

So if Countertop were a PA resident, he’d pay a bit less.Â As a non-resident:

Non-resident Hunting:Â $101.00
Non-resident Bear: $36.00
Non-resident Deer: $26.00
Non-resident Muzzleloader: $21.00
Non-resident waterfowl: $6.00
Contribute $2.00 to Hunters for the Hungry: $2.00
Total Fee: $192

Wow, that’s pretty insane.Â Remember that hunting has been in decline for quite a while, and most game agencies do not receive state tax dollars to fund them.Â They are entirely funded by license fees and Pittman-Robertson funds, which is a federal excise tax on guns and ammunition.

Pennsylvania also does not allow Sunday hunting.Â Sunday hunting has been fought by a lot of groups, including hikers, who do not pay a blasted thing to use public lands and trails that other people pay for.

Can you imagine someone who wants to get into hunting having to navigate the legal maze that exists? Â Barriers to entry for this sport are too high, and I think that is, in large part, responsible for the decline.

Hunting is an important part of the shooting sports community.Â A lot of us deride the “Fudds” who would gladly throw shooters under the bus as long as they get to keep their deer rifle, but hunters are an important part of the shooting community as whole, and without them, we lose political power as a whole.

Illinois CeaseFire in Some Hot Water

Well, well, Thirdpower (who now that he has a blog, and is getting Hardy and Uncle links, should think about moving off of blogspot) finds another anti-gun group ends up with some money troubles.

The organization started in 2000 and is run by the University of Illinois at Chicago. CeaseFire received $16.2 million for the fiscal years between 2004 and 2006. The state funded the majority of its total, $11 million. The audit comes days after Gov. Rod Blagojevich cut more than $6 million in funding for the group.

Let me tell you, if I were down state, and I found out my state government was spending 11 million a year to fund a group that was dedicated to removing my constitutional rights as an American, I would throw a fit. I think it’s time people downstate started getting together and burning the Governor in effigy. We don’t do nearly enough of that these days, and it was always fun back when it was royal governors, which Blagojewhateverthehellhisnameis is dangerously close to becoming.

Drink A Beer in His Memory

Michael Jackson, who is the beer critic of beer critics, has died as the age of 65 from Parkinson’s disease:

Jackson especially loved Belgian brews. His books “The Great Beers of Belgium” and “World Guide to Beer” introduced them to many export markets, including the United States.

By identifying beers by their flavors and styles, and by pairing them with particular foods and dishes, Jackson helped give birth to a renaissance of interest in beer and breweries worldwide that began in the 1970s, including the North American microbrewery movement.

This is to the beer community like losing Jeff Cooper was to us gunnies.Â This weekend, I will enjoy a bottle of Liefmans Frambozen in his memory.Â So long Michael.

Hat tip to Rustmeister.