This could be one of our folks, but the possibility of this kind of thing happening is exactly why I think it’s important to engage the gun control movement publicly. We don’t get to do this in the regular media.
Year: 2007
Canadians Dueling Over Handgun Ban
It’s good to see that gun control is not such a settled issue in The Great White North, that things like this are still a bone of contention. Canada is a great example of why anyone who thinks they will stop with licensing and registration is a fool.
“The risk that a legal handgun becomes an illegal handgun is not a hypothetical risk. It’s established,” Bryant said, pointing to the Toronto police figure that 30 per cent of crime guns are stolen from legal owners and 70 per cent are smuggled.
To Bryant and company, it means that getting rid of legally owned handguns in Canada would reduce a significant number of handguns from getting into the hands of criminals.
If it were up to Ontario and Quebec, Canada would already have a handgun ban.
In The Line of Duty
This article talks about the slaying of an Oakland journalist. This would be not blog worthy material except that it closes with:
Don Bolles, a reporter for the Arizona Republic, was the last reporter killed in the line of duty in the United States. He was killed by a car bomb in 1976 while reporting on organized crime.
Emphasis mine. Sorry folks, journalist don’t get “killed in the line of duty” that’s reserved for police officers, firefighters, soldiers, and other such professions that report for duty (sorry John Kerry, not you) to serve the public. Reporters get murdered while working on a story, or killed on the job. As much as other journalists might think they have a duty to the public, that they serve, saying something like this diminishes those who actually do.
ATF Closes Another Idaho Gun Shop
Ryan Horsley has the details. And this is happening under a “pro-gun” administration folks.
The Real History
Cam Edwards notices some inconsistencies in some of Bryan Miller’s statements, and points out the true history of the Tiahrt Amendment:
The ATF has been opposed to the general release of its trace data since at least 1999, when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley sued the ATF to try and gain access to the data under the Freedom of Information Act. The ATF, under the Clinton administration, also felt that this information should not be available to the general public.
It wasn’t until the case was headed to the Supreme Court in 2003 that Congress stepped in and passed the Tiahrt Amendment, rendering the Daley case moot.
The facts are such inconvenient things for the gun control movement.
It Was Only a Matter of Time
It was only a matter of time before the shit awful drivers on I-95 between DC and Philadelphia nailed one of us. Bitter called me and told me she had been rear ended. She’s OK, but the car is screwed. Don’t know if she’ll be able to make it up now. Might have to go in a rescue mission, though she says the car is drivable, but I don’t know how drivable. More later.
UPDATE: Bitter called me back. She’s resumed her journey. The MD State Trooper said the car was road worthy. Doesn’t sound that bad. They hit the rear tire and shattered the windshield.  The door is probably toast, but the main body, I’m thinking, is probably OK.  Door and window will have to be replaced.  The question will be whether to get it done here, and have her rent a car to take home, or drive the car home and get it taken care of there. The State Trooper said it was the 9th accident today, the tenth happened while Bitter was off to the side, and she witnessed it.  I’ll need to be careful when going through Baltimore.  In my experience, drivers along the I95 corridor in the Northeast are among the worst in the country.
The Open Source Firearm
Interesting article in The Register talking how the Kalashnikov is the open source rifle that took the world by storm.
Bad BBU
I seem to have a faulty battery backup unit on my FiOS system that’s causing the outage. When I came home the light was on at the junction box outside that indicated the power was out and battery was low. I go check the AC line, and it’s feeding power to the BBU just fine. Fortunately, unplugging the battery convinced it that it had a bad battery, but everything else was fine. We’re back up for now. Verizon will be out tomorrow to replace the faulty BBU.
Life Free or Die!
Well, I think Ed Brown, the notorious tax protester, is going to choose the latter option. It’s a very well written post. These are the kinds of people I’d honestly prefer not have guns.  They make normal gun owners look like whack jobs. Taxes are not a reason to threaten to murder people, and whether he ends up dead or in prison, I won’t shed a tear for him.
But I will say this, his situation is an interesting study in how power works. If you defy your governments laws, eventually men with guns will come and exert the government’s power over you.  All power comes down to that.  To those people who believe that small arms can never be effective against an oppressive government, Ed Brown’s continuing resistance to government power shows that the notion is incorrect. If it wasn’t for being armed, he’d be in federal custody already.
I believe Mr. Brown is gravely mistaken in his belief that the government has gotten so out of control that violence is an acceptable solution. Â I’m sympathetic to the idea that the government has made too many encroachments into our liberties, and that our federal government exercises power beyond its constitutional limits, but the government has done no wrong so grave that taking up arms against it, and against its agents, it warranted.
My Beer Fridge Doesn’t Do This!
This is very cool.  Unfortunately, it means you have to drink beer from a can, which is sacrilege.  Beer is properly drunk from a glass, unless you’re a heathen.  I suppose it would be possible to construct a robot that would throw you a bottle, and a fresh glass, but failing to catch it could get rather messy.