Anyone interesting in what went on today at the NSSF Summit should be following The Bitch Girls, namely the posts here, here, here, and here. Also see Michael Bane’s latest posts covering the competitive shooting discussion group here, here, here, and here.
Year: 2008
Different Take on Airsoft
Josh has a different take on my Airsoft post earlier in the day. I should note that when I was saying airsoft wasn’t a shooting sport, that wasn’t meant to suggest that airsoft guns don’t have utility as a training tool for shooting sports, or as a substitute for real guns in societies that don’t allow firearms ownership. I own an airsoft Glock 19 that I use to practice quick draw.
When I said airsoft, what I mean is the game, similar to paintball, where you don equipment and shoot at other players. The key component to a shooting sport is marksmanship. You can mix up conditions by adding speed and tactical elements, you can even score based on these, but at the end of the day, a shooting sport should involve aiming at a target, and being scored based on your ability to hit it.
I should add that I’ve never played Airsoft the game, so maybe it’s a bit different than paintball, which I have played. But the reason I don’t consider paintball a shooting sport is because marksmanship doesn’t matter. Paintball guns just aren’t accurate enough to rely on anything other than volume of fire to hit something. When I play paintball, I don’t even use my sights, I aim roughly, and just saturate the area the other player is in with balls, and hope one finds its mark.  To me a shooting sport depends, at the end of the day, on being scored based on your marksmanship ability. I have little doubt, given my experience with airsoft guns, they could be use in shooting sports, but I’m not sure I’d consider the tactical game of airsoft one.
VPC Lies About Concealed Carry Holders
Howard Nemerov takes a look at some of VPC’s claims that appeared in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. He’ll be on Cam & Company tonight at 11:40PM EDT to discuss this. You can listen on NRANews.com
Setting the Record Wrong
Clearly this person is an expert in constitutional law, all the modern scholarship that provides powerful evidence that he’s wrong be damned. I should also note that Justice Scalia has to get four other justices to agree with him in order for his opinion to be the majority opinion. Dave Hardy, who is a real expert in these matters, talks about possible methods of interpretation in Heller here.
Airsoft Guns Aren’t Toys
The Washington Post ran an article last Sunday on an encounter by a bunch of kids who broke into their school to play airsoft, and sheriff’s deputies with real guns.
Some parents say the guns are fairly harmless, especially with safety goggles and supervision, just a step beyond laser tag and Nerf guns, a less-expensive and cleaner cousin to paintball. Officials at a major airsoft importer said that safety should be a priority and that the guns are marketed for adults.
Some parents think it’s harmless to give their kids pot and throw boozer parties for the kids and kids’ friends too. I do not advocate banning airsoft guns, as many do, but they aren’t toys, and parents that let their kids run around the neighborhood with them are stupid.
As for Airsoft the game, I have no problem with it if it’s done at a field designated for it, and the proper safety equipment is used. I’ve done paintball before, and it’s fun. But I can’t help but wonder whether it would be better for kids to have exposure to the shooting sports, rather than airsoft, so that they can learn that the firearms they see in video games aren’t toys to be played with.
Bryan Miller on Heller
Bryan Miller shares his thoughts on Heller:
Know what? I’d consider [a ruling favoring Heller] a victory for public safety, for common sense and for the gun violence prevention community. Why? It would remove the debate about guns and gun violence from the static and useless 2nd amendment arena and put it squarely in the ‘reasonableness’ arena, unencumbered by the 2nd amendment argument that the gun industy and lobby and chicken-hearted legislators and pols hide behind. I’m totally comfortable placing debates and decisions about gun legislation and laws in that arena, where the issue of public safety will be supreme.
I hate to break it to Bryan, but this isn’t going to end the debate. It’s just going to alter it, and whether he wants to admit it or not, this shifts the debate considerably in our favor. Yes, the gun issue will end up settling in an area where neither side is entirely happy, but if the second amendment is treated as an individual right, it going to be the gun control movement that’s most unhappy. Most rights are not subject to a “reasonableness” test, but to strict scrutiny, and even if The Court adopts an intermediate level of scrutiny, the burden is still on gun control advocates, not those of us who claim our liberty.
As has been stated before, if prohibition is off the table, there’s a good chance many of the supporters in the gun control movement, who hate guns and want to see them banned outright, are going to give up on the issue.
NSSF Statement
Michael Bane has a formal statement that has been issued by the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Go have a read. The meat of it is:
The NSSF has no intention of abandoning pistol shooters. Our very successful First Shots program is specifically designed and targeted to encourage pistol sports shooting. Much of the NSSF staff, including its new president, have been pistol shooting both recreationally and competitively for decades – and, in fact, some have worked in the handgun industry.
Good. Now they just need to get away from this whole lethal, non-lethal crap, and I don’t think we have an issue here.
Getting Hotter Than Heller Here
Again, we play the waiting game.
UPDATE: The Court is releasing opinions.
UPDATE: The Court just vacated the punative damages in the Exxon Valdez incident. “In Exxon, the judgment is vacated and remanded. Â The Court divided depending on the issues. Â The Court divided equally on whether maritime law permits punitives for the acts of agents (Alito not participating). Â The Court deemed the punitives excessive based on maritime common law, holding the punitives should be equal to the compensatories.”
UPDATE: Kennedy v. Louisiana, the Court reversed and remanded a low courts upholding the death penalty for child rape. “The Kennedy v. LA decision holds that the death penalty for child rape is unconstitutional if the defendants’ acts were not intended to cause death.”
UPDATE: Interesting cases today, but I want Heller, dammit!
UPDATE: At least one more decision is coming.
UPDATE: Last opinion coming now.
UPDATE: Last case involved tribal law. Damned Indians! This must be revenge for us stealing their land.  No Heller today.
All Your Search Are Belong to Us
Someone set us up the google bomb! The fun thing about these search results on the term Law Abiding Gun Owner is that, quite literally on Monday, SayUncle sent a few of us bloggers an e-mail saying “We should probably get our google-fu on to squash this one before it starts,” and by the close of business on Tuesday, we had practically pushed the Brady Blog clean off the first page.
Our google-fu is mighty indeed!
UPDATE: So Says Uncle: “Close of business nothing. It was 23 minutes after my 9:07AM post.” So it’s even better than I thought!
UPDATE: Looks to me like now they are clean off the front page, and moving down the second.
Congrats to Xlrq
For joining the ranks of law abiding gun toters.