2007 – Page 121 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Pennsylvania Gun Bills

I have an update to my post from yesterday.Â The Senate session information is up, and I have a link to the bill that passed.Â Â The Senate bill (I was looking at house bills yesterday, wrong place to look):

Senate Bill No. 623Â

It does update the definition of firearm for receiving stolen property and theft, as the house bill I posted yesterday did.Â I support this measure, since it extends penalties for stealing or receiving all firearms, not just handguns.Â This strikes me as sensible.

The bill also requires the police to trace guns recovered from juveniles and make a determination as to how the juvenile came into possession of it, even though the Brady Campaign and numerous other groups would like us to believe the Tiahrt amendment prevents law enforcement from doing things like this. Â Passing a handgun to a juvenile is a crime in Pennsylvania, except under limited circumstances (target shooting, hunting, etc), so the police can trace the gun.

Very important to note: The state police registry has been stripped out in this version!Â It did not make final passage.Â This removes my major objection to the bill.

I will have to agree with the NRA’s acquiescence to this bill.Â Pennsylvania isn’t passing gun control, no matter what the Inquirer and city politicians would like to dupe the citizens of Philadelphia into believing.

ATF Antics

Anyone remember back in the early 90s when the NRA got in trouble for suggesting that the ATF were a bunch of “jack booted thugs”?Â Â It caused President Bush to resign his life membership.

I guess the truth hurts.

Cigar Tax: 20,000% Increase

They want to take it from 5 cents to $10 dollars. No word yet on what Hillary’s position is on the cigar tax, but I’m betting she’s for it. This will be sure to create a burgeoning black market in tobacco products, which will, of course, become violent. The federal government won’t outright outlaw tobacco, but they will tax it out of existence.

I’m really glad to see those Democrats protecting people’s civil liberties against the evil Republicans, let me tell you.

UPDATE: Sigivald points out:

Closer reading suggests they want to raise it from 5 cents to 54 percent, with a cap of $10.

Not $10 per cigar, flat.

Not good, by any means, but not the same as a $10 tax on a $8 cigar.

One of the problems with blogging is not always having the time to read everything very carefully. Â Corrections and clarifications are always appreciated.

Of course, I still think it’s a crappy tax increase.

John Lott Editorial in Inquirer

John Lott has an editorial running in the Inquirer:

But it is not just a problem of police. The city is seeing lower conviction rates, and it is not keeping criminals in jail for very long. One could make up for this difference by hiring more police – research has shown the number of police officers to be the main factor in reducing crime. But Philadelphia’s problem is how it uses the police it has.

Pointing to more gun-control laws as the solution is simply a way for politicians to pass the blame. Besides, such proposals offer little hope for actually reducing the murder rate. They’ve all been tried before, from one-gun-a-month limits and reporting stolen guns to the ultimate catchall – letting Philadelphia pass its own gun laws again.

Read the whole thing.

Good Advice

Chris Byrne has some good advice on how to handle a robbery situation. Sounds pretty sensible to me.

Attention IE Users

For those of you using Internet Exploder, I just fixed a CSS problem that was causing you guys to all see a text only version of the blog.Â I know at least half of you are using IE, even though you should be using Firefox :)

You guys should have said something :) Â Well, one of you did, but the rest of you must have just though I had spartan taste when I redesigned the layout of the blog.

Kissmobile

Bitter was telling me she saw the Kissmobile today, and all I’m thinking of is a van or bus driven by these guys:

But it turns out it was just the Hershey Kissmobile.Â Seriously, take a look at the Kissmobile:

How fast do you think that thing can go?Â I’m wondering, because I think the funniest thing in the world would be for someone to steal the Kissmobile and take it on a high speed chase with the police.Â On a slow news day, you couldn’t really write better stuff. Â It would be even more funny if the panels were to come off at high speed revealing chocolaty goodness underneath.Â Imagine a spectacular crash at the end, that spills Hershey’s kisses all over the highway, with the highway patrol having to shoe small children away from the scene.

Bias? What Bias?

There’s certainly none in Cleveland!Â Actually, once you get over the provocative headline and snarky and misleading introduction, it’s not all that bad.

OSHA Reconsidering

Good job folks.Â OSHA is backing down it seems.Â Â A busy day indeed!

Man Shot in Colorado Coup Attempt

It’s not often the media show dead bodies on news stories, but I guess in this case they’ll make an exception:

The man claimed that “he was the emperor, and he was here to take over state government,” said Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer.

The guy apparently was wearing a tuxedo. Â If he was armed with an old fashioned flintlock pistol, that would pretty much complete the “stylish wacko” thing he looks like he was trying to put on.

Anyone know whether the Colorado State Capitol is a gun free zone?Â Based on my reading of their carry laws, it’s quite likely.