Fortunately Jacob has already fisked this fit for wrapping fish article from the New York Times.
Year: 2008
CZ-82 Report
Looks like Sailorcurt has joined the CZ-82 club. I have to say, it’s the best pistol I’ve ever paid less than 250 dollars for. Mine also came with some finish wear, especially that annoying chipping on the slide from the importation stamp. I fixed that problem with some Birchwood Casey Super Black, which is basically like a magic marker, only it marks with paint instead of marker. You basically dab it on, let it dry, then polish it up with some cloth. It does tend to wear off after a while, so I’m not sure it would be useful on a grip, or something else that gets rubbed on, but it made the slide chipping a lot less noticable.
More Bob Ricker
I don’t know if anyone noticed, but Bitter’s blog was featured in yesterday’s NRA Outrage of the Week:
But when NRA-ILA puts the word out that AHSA is an anti-gun front group, these “sportsmen” get a little sensitive, calling ILA staff “right-wing attack dogs” and calling gun owners who support the right to own firearms to defend themselves “self-defense whackos.” (To see the comments Ricker made on a popular pro-gun blog, please click here.)Â But the truth is, AHSA and its anti-gun leadership have supported anti-gun lawsuits and gun bans, and its leaders have given money to the Brady Campaign and to anti-gun politicians like John Kerry, Al Gore, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, and Ted Kennedy.
Bitter has a post that devastates Riker’s assertion in her comments here:
At AHSA, we value quality over mere quantity and let me asure you there are plenty of very wealthy “progressive†gunowners out there who understand AHSA’s mission. You know, NRA in over 100 years has only signed up about 4 million of the 70 million gun ownres out there and it’s not like the other 66 million gun owners have not heard from the NRA- clearly a huge majority of gun owners have rejected NRA’s message. That leaves a huge market for a group like AHSA that has a more reasoned and rational approach.
Basically about 33 million people think they are members of NRA, but aren’t paying dues, which is what counts for membership numbers. That leaves Bob’s pool of “progressive”gunowners much smaller than he thinks. There’s never been a group that’s been able to seriously capitalize on disconcent with NRA. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, capitalizing on discontent from the right of NRA, GOA’s income from membership dues puts their numers at about 30,000. I highly doubt AHSA will do any better, but maybe they can dupe enough folks that they can afford some digs that are a bit more swanky than a post office box in Fredrick, Maryland.
Gunman Drill in North Carolina
This is pretty crazy. Elizabeth City State University decides to hold a mock gunman drill:
The News & Observer of Raleigh reported in Wednesday’s editions that an armed man burst into a classroom Friday, threatening to kill students. The drill came eight days after a gunman killed five people and himself in a classroom at Northern Illinois University.
Anthony Brown, vice chancellor of student affairs, said ECSU was testing its response to such shootings. E-mail and text messages were sent five days before the drill, notifying students, staff and faculty, he said.
“The intent was not to frighten them but to test our system and also to test the response of the security that was on campus and the people that were notified,” Brown said.
But not everyone got the word, including assistant professor Jingbin Wang, whose American foreign policy class was held hostage.
“I was prepared to die at that moment,” Wang said Tuesday of the moment the gunman entered the room.
What would you do in that situation? The report says it was a “red” plastic model gun. I’m guessing the type that officers use for training. Breda notes, relaying a story about a mouse she found in her garage:
A campus police officer posing as a gunman burst into a classroom, where he proceeded to hold the students hostage and terrorize them with a fake gun for 10 minutes. Not one of the students fought back. Not one thought to pick up a chair or a desk, or even a book, to defend themselves. They all lined up against a wall and passively waited for death.
One of the students said, “I was prepared to die at that moment.” Several students say they considered leaping from a window.
My mouse had more courage than this. Against insurmountable odds, it growled at me and prepared to fight, even to its death. The college students who meekly bared their throats to those who wanted to rip them out are dead already – they just don’t know it.
The will to live is life.
Even with an obviously fake gun, I would at least challenge the “attacker”. Hell, he might even get drawn on if he’s acting really erratic. I sincerely hope that most of the students knew this was the drill, and decided to play along.
Relationship Between Gun Ownership And Freedom
Dave Kopel and Howard Nemerov have cooperated on a paper that seems to show that countries with higher rates of gun ownership correspond positively to greater freedom. Go check it out.
Need Some Pro-Gun Representation
It would appear the proprietor of TopGlock is feeling awful about the fact that he sold a pistol to the Virginia Tech scumbag and the NIU scumbag. He’s started a web site, which includes a forum, open to both sides in the gun debate. Right now it looks to have some anti-gun representation.  Readers with more time than I have might want to go there to make sure the pro-gun side of the debate is represented.
I don’t think Eric Thompson has anything to feel bad about, any more than a car dealer should feel guilty if he sells a car to a guy who ended up causing a drunk driving fatality. The moral blame is on the muderous scumbag, not the person who legally sold them the tools.
Hat tip to reader Kaveman, who heard about this on NPR this morning.
Undermining the Cause
This isn’t going to help shut up Bloomberg:
NEW YORK (AP) — A South Carolina gun dealer who sued New York’s mayor for saying his shop engaged in “criminal behavior,” has asked judges in two states to put his case on hold so he can fight an unrelated criminal charge.
Licensed firearms dealer Larry Mickalis was indicted earlier this month on a charge that he illegally sold a rifle to an ex-convict two years ago at his pawn shop in Summerville, S.C.
The charge was a surprise development in the merchant’s ongoing legal battle with New York City, and his attorneys have now asked courts to freeze the civil litigation until the criminal case is resolved.
Recall that ATF was steamed that Bloomberg’s antics interfered with several ongoing federal investigations.  I’m guessing this was one of them. Either way, this isn’t a good development.
Raining on The Brady Parade
SayUncle puts a damper on their Brady Act anniversary celebrations:
1.4M? Sounds impressive. It’s 1.9% of all transactions. But how many were arrested? You know, for breaking the law because they were illegally purchasing guns? 1,400 were. And only 9,575 were even investigated. And only 135 were charged. 46% of rejections were due to felony convictions. 161K rejections were appealed and 57K of appeals were successful. (all data from the DOJ).
They have to lie. It’s the only way they can win.
In the Vise
Once they have your back against the wall, and your political power has been neutered, they will continue to tighten the vise:
EIGHTY per cent of Central Victoria gun dealers will be driven out of business and attempts by farmers to control vermin will be undermined if recommendations of a licence fee increase are accepted, dealers claim.
The Regulatory Impact Statement is part of a State Government draft proposal on changes to firearm regulations recommending lowering some licence fees including rifles by 11 per cent, professional hand guns by 17 per cent, increasing others such as sporting hand guns by 97 per cent and firearm dealer licences by up to 647 per cent.
A & L Guns owner Rod Flower said his licence fee will increase from about $1380 to $7400 for a three-year period under the new price guidelines.
‘‘This will close down 80 per cent of the businesses and will affect country Victoria more than anywhere else,’’ Mr Flower said.
They don’t care. That’s the whole idea. It’s for the children, after all.
Rubbing it In
Yep… pretty much.