Fred Thompson has more to say about the horrific murders in Newark that I blogged about here.
Year: 2007
Uniform Firearms Act: Act 158 – Right to Carry
We will start this continuing series with Pennsylvania going from a “may-issue” discretionary issue state, to a shall-issue state. Prior to Act 158, the law read something like this:
Issue of License.–The Chief or Head of any police fore or department of a city, and elsewhere the Sheriff of a County, may, upon the application of any person, issue a license to such person to carry a firearm in a vehicle or concealed on or about his person within this commonwealth for not more than five years from the date of issue, if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear an injury to his person or property, or has any other proper reason for carrying a firearm, and that he is a suitable person to be licensed.
Act 158 was actually a child welfare bill, that had right to carry attached to it. It fundamentally altered the licensing language to say:
Grant or Denial of License.–Upon the receipt of an application for the license to carry a firearm, the sheriff shall, within 45 days, issue or refuse to issue a license on the basis of the investigation under subsection (d) and the accuracy of the information contained in the application. If the sheriff refuses to issue a license, the sheriff shall notify the applicant in writing of the refusal and the reason. The notice shall be sent by certified mail to the applicant at the address set fourth in the application.
This basically made the state shall issue. Subsection D spells out the conditions that one must meet to qualify for a license, and they are objective, for the most part.  But, there was a catch:
 (2) In a City of the First Class, a license shall be issued only if it additionally appears that the applicant ahs good reason to fear an injury to the applicant’s person or property, or has any other proper reason for carrying a firearm and that the applicant is a suitable individual to be licensed.
Philadelphia is the only city of the first class in the Commonwealth. Act 158 specifically exempted Philadelphia from the right-to-carry requirement, and allowed the city to continue to refuse to issue gun licenses to anyone they didn’t sufficiently like.
Act 158 also made provision for sportsman’s permits, for carrying a firearm while hunting, in addition to strengthening the state’s preemption to include ammunition and ammunition components.
Nuge News
I’m really glad to hear that Ryan got to talk to Ted Nugent for a bit while he’s in town. I voted for The Nuge for the NRA board, and I’m glad to see he’s holding up his end of the bargain.
Philadelphia Grocery Store Shooting
Eric has a pretty good read over at Classical Values. I’m always impressed with the depth that he looks into issues, especially in regards to our area.  In this article, he’s looking at a recent murder in a Chinese owned grocery; a robbery gone sour.
Wyatt Earp also has some thoughts on it.
Light Posting
I’m having to split stuff I find between here and SayUncle, so posts on here won’t be as heavy for the week. Later today, my series on Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act will continue.
The Awkward Phase
I have to admit that I chuckled reading Robb’s post here, because it’s true. I think it’s because we all go through that awkward phase when we first start shooting, where we’re trying out a lot different things and figuring out what works and what doesn’t.  Perhaps some people never really get beyond that awkward phase.
I myself have a tricked out HiPoint 9mm Carbine that I never shoot anymore. I’ts from the awkward phase, complete with all the things Robb mentions, except that it doesn’t have particularly good optics. I quickly figured out all the gadgety crap didn’t really help with the fundamentals of shooting, so I shed it. I couldn’t shoot for shit then, and sometimes I can’t shoot for shit now. But I’m better than I was. I have a few guns I shoot regularly with optics, but I generally stay with iron sights.
This past Friday I took the PSL out to the range to shoot some 7.62×54 goodness at 100 yards. The target was a standard 100 yard large bore rifle target. I landed 3 in the 10 ring, 3 in the 9, two in the 8 and 2 in the 7, for a total of 87/100. I’m not one to be satisfied with a B when I’m shooting a rifle with optics! I’ve never been able to shoot the PSL all that well. I do much better with small bore shooting, which means I need to learn to be better at managing recoil. The PSL dishes out recoil in spades. It’s also difficult to shoot if you wear glasses, because of the rubber eyepiece on the Soviet era optics doesn’t fit nicely over glasses.  I have a tendency to wince or flinch when shooting the PSL. The flash from the mighty 7.62x54R fills the entire scope if you shoot it right. Good rule of thumb is, if you see flash, you probably didn’t flinch. I’m getting better at shooting this rather large rifle, but I won’t be happy until I can get all my shots in the nine and ten ring.
A Challenge from Brady
This weekend I learned from David Codrea that the Brady’s have recruited Comedian Lewis Black to encourage people to make videos in regards to how they feel about gun violence. I think David is correct that just submitting pro-gun videos to them wouldn’t do anything useful other than maybe making us feel better.
David suggests that he has some videos he made a while back, that he’d post online. I think it’s a great idea for us to make some video footage ourselves to make our own version of this. If anyone wants to submit a video to YouTube, send me a link and I’ll build a collection of them.
The Brady’s have been trying out new media. We’ve all seen their mistakes with their foray into blogging. Now they are playing to their more traditional strengths, using celebrity notoriety to mobile supporters, but with a new media twist. I think we ought to be showing we can match the Brady’s in the new media every step of the way.  What say you all?
By the way, I once attended a concert by Lewis Black in Upper Darby. I thought his bit on candy corn was really amusing. I was also legally concealing a 9mm pistol, and yet somehow didn’t manage to cause mass hysteria. Lewis Black may be a talented comedian, but he needs to understand that firearms can be used for good or ill, it depends on the person that’s possessing it.
Nice Shootin’ Tex
Check out this article at MSNBC. In short, two officers show up at the scene of an accident. Find two gunshot victims yards apart on the side of the highway. Police try to help gun shot victims, and are fired on themselves. Officer gets wounded. Passers by show up, and are also are fired on. One passer by retrieves a pistol from his car, shoots gunman dead.
You gotta love Texas. Hat tip to Syd of Front Sight, Press
UPDATE: The article updated to say the suspect shot himself.
Predicting DC v. Heller
Orin Kerr makes some predictions of his own regarding DC v. Heller, and thinks the court will go a bit further in applying scrutiny to gun laws than this article would suggest.
UPDATE: Alan Gura, Attorney of Record for the Heller case, in the comments:
The facts are simple: the city bans guns.
If this were a “time place and manner” case, involving regulation rather than prohibition, it would have been an entirely different type of case. But it isn’t. The city claims guns are a social ill that should be prohibited. If there is a right to keep guns, the city’s policy preference is irrelevant.
Suppose the city abolished the exercise of religion, determining that religion poses an unacceptable challenge to the authority of the state, promotes sectarian strife, and is generally harmful because it undermines the public school’s educational mission with unscientific superstition. Such a law would be struck down as plainly inconsistent with the First Amendment, even if the government could establish to a judge’s satisfaction that religion has been known to have such deleterious effects, and that the legislature had a compelling need to address the risk.
And just imagine if trials were held to determine the current validity of constitutional provisions defining the structure or powers of government. We’re no longer the same society that initiated the income tax, or first elected a President every four years. Are those provisions suddenly subject to trial?
The Second Amendment is a duly ratified, operative part of the Constitution. People may disagree about how we should interpret the Second Amendment, but in our legal system, we do not have trials to determine whether it is desirable for portions of the Constitution to go into effect.
Flyover Country
I don’t actually live in “flyover country” myself, living six miles northeast of Philadelphia.  Philadelphia is not part of flyover country. We’re drive past country. We’re the city, that if you’re driving through on the way to Washington DC from New York, you made a mistake.  We’re not flyover country, as in people look down on us from afar as they fly between the coasts, we’re “Don’t care country”, as in no one gives a shit about Philadelphia. It’s the forgotten city.