The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
On the part of the Associated Press:
Officers fanned out around the northeast Philadelphia store in search of the alleged gunman, identified by police as Daryl Anthony Birch, 30. A telephone listing for Birch could not immediately be located by The Associated Press.
So the guy just shot a few people, is on the lam, and their first reaction was to try to track him down to get a statement? That would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
Looks like the newfangled sonic weapon, the LRAD, doesn’t work too well against pirates. I could never figure out how a loud noise was going to deter a determined attacker. I mean, these guys are presumably firing off a lot of AK-47s, which isn’t exactly quiet. The pirates seem to have used their AKs to shoot out the device.
No really, it’s not a political debate. They just got it wrong. The Capitol Visitor Center opened today, and Heritage Foundation’s Matt Spalding highlights how Congress got it wrong.
In the Visitor Center’s Exhibition Hall, the theme is “E Pluribus Unum — Out of Many, One.†Initially, words etched in marble called that stirring phrase the nation’s motto. A bad plaster job now covers the reference, someone having noticed that, well, “E Pluribus Unum†is not our national motto. “In God We Trust†is.
You’d think for a project that ran more than double the projected costs and is nearly 5 years overdue, they would take some time to get it right. But what’s more troubling is the blatant left-wing bias that permeates the exhibit. The Washington Times reports on the butchering of the Constitution:
He singled out the display on “Knowledge,” which he said selectively cuts the powers granted to Congress by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, reducing the full explanation “To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries” to an expansive grant: “The Congress shall have Power To … promote … useful Arts.”
The display says that grant of powers is the basis under which Congress has founded the Library of Congress, “promoted public education, supported the arts and sciences, and funded extensive research.”
Essentially anything in the Constitution that discusses a limit on power got chopped. Lovely.
The Times reports that members of both parties reviewed the education materials and approved them. In fact, the Architect of the Capitol, the office charged with creating the Visitor Center, noted in a letter that the GOP very specifically signed off on this interpretation:
In June of 2005, the Commission, under the Co-Chairmanship of Speaker Dennis Hastert and President Pro Tempore Senator Ted Stevens, unanimously approved the CVC exhibit plan and script of the thirteen minute orientation film. Subsequently, in December of 2006, the Commission unanimously approved the final version of the orientation film under the continuing leadership of Co-Chairmen Hastert and Stevens.
And because this is a gun blog, there’s no mention of the Second Amendment of any text of it anywhere in the educational materials or the script of the movie. Unfortunately, combined with the hatchet job done on the rest of the Constitution, these are gaps that not even a bad plaster job can fill.
UPDATE: Oh yeah, and Harry Reid is just happy he doesn’t have to smell the common people anymore.
And now with video:
Personally, I would never buy reloads. I’ll shoot my own, but that’s about it. This is why. Looks to me like someone got rifle powder mixed up with pistol powder. He’s lucky to not be seriously injured.
American-Manifesto sends a letter to the editor to the Philadelphia Inquirer over their attempt to paint Bryan Miller as a moderate on gun control. Two things. Calling Bryan Miller a moderate on gun control is like calling Fred Phelps a moderate on gay rights. Sceond, Bryan is obviously playing this game for the long haul. We have to get out there with our message too.
NRA is a paper tiger, and the time to pass more gun control is now. You’d almost believe that the gun control groups are pitching these editorials.
Looks like they went after a US flagged cruise ship. The captain basically outran the pirates. Cruise ships can move pretty fast when they have to. One wonders when the international community is going to realize that disarming people on the high seas isn’t helping this situation any. The proper response to being fired on by pirates, aside from full steam ahead, is return fire. Won’t take too much of that before piracy doesn’t pay anymore.
A few years ago the state increased the license fee for a license to carry by six dollars. Philadelphia kept charging the old rate of 19 dollars. Now the city is sending out the following letter:
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Demanding that people pay the back fees owed, or they will be turned over to collections and have their LTC revoked. Unfortunately for Philadelphia, there’s no provision in state law that allows a License to Carry to be revoked because the issuing agency charged the incorrect fee.
The PAFOA thread about this topic can be found here.
Attitudes like this towards hunting are actually becoming more common than poor attitudes toward other shooting sports. Hunting is in more long term political danger than the shooting sports — if only the hunters would realize it.
Man, the guys at Langhorne Rod and Gun Club have more fun in a weekend than I have all year:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vUQy-O5w3c[/youtube]
Looks like it attracts quite a crowd too. Yeah, it’s cheesy, but it’s fun, and unusual. It’s something that can get people to come out to the club, who might decide to come to other matches. I might have to think about going to a few of their matches and join. It’s only 20 or so minutes from me, and it looks like they do a lot of cool stuff.
Hat tip to The Geek