Cemetery defines a financial instrument that’s very common in New Jersey politics.
Month: July 2009
Don’t Tase Me Bro …
Proof!
Bears and Handguns
Joe Huffman takes an excerpt from a book on the topic. Surprising, or perhaps not surprising, nothing seems to beat a shotgun loaded with 00 buck for dropping a grizzly, but rule number one seems to be the first rule of gunfighting: have a gun.
Revocation OK, but Durante Confused About Law
Back when I was biking more regularly, one of my favorite bike trails was the Schukyll Trail. I would rarely ride the whole thing, but the parts that go through Norristown can get a bit sketchy. I’ve seen kids throw rocks at bikers on the trail. Not like big rocks that are going to knock someone out, but bad enough behavior. Apparently things have gone downhill, and there have been actual attacks. This guy would make a pretty good poster boy for Brillianter’s pepper spray argument:
According to court records, DePaul told police he was riding his bike on the trail and almost crashed into a fence after a boy kicked him in the ribs near the 900 block of Conshohocken Road. DePaul said the boy had a BMX bicycle. Upset, DePaul fired all six rounds at the boy from a distance of 200 to 250 feet, the records say he told officers.
Facing these kinds of charges, the Sheriff is definitely within his legal rights to revoke his License to Carry. It’s hard to make a self-defense argument for a threat that was almost a football field away from you. It’s quite likely, if the news releases are true, that he’s going to go to prison, and he’ll deserve it. He’ll be unable to own, let alone carry a firearm if convicted, and I won’t shed a tear for him.
But the reaction of the Sheriff of Montgomery County concerns me, especially since I carry on that trail when I bike it:
Sheriff Durante once again reminds the public that carrying a firearm on the trail or in any county park, regardless of whether or not one has a concealed carry permit, is illegal and a violation of the rules and regulations of the Montgomery County park system. Anyone caught in possession of a firearm in violation of these rules and regulations will immediately lose their concealed carry permit and will be turned over to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
It is entirely and unambiguously unalwful for Montgomery County to enforce this ordinance, and I can promise Durante a giant lawsuit if he tries. As a violation of statewide preemption, it couldn’t be any clearer. Furthermore, I’m rather outraged that Durante chose to focus on it (not) being illegal to carry in a county park, rather than mentioning this jackass’ LTC was revoked because he drew his hog leg and started shooting up the place like it was high-noon at the OK corral.
If you have a License to Carry a firearm, this ordinance does not apply to you. Carry on the trail if you feel inclined, and if you get in trouble, contact an attorney and fight it. The rest of us shouldn’t be punished because of one jackass.
You’re a criminal …
… no really. But how do we change it?
The Bill Corzine is Pushing
Here’s a copy of the New Jersey Microstamping bill. It’s bad. Really bad. There’s a big distributor over in New Jersey, Sarco, that will be put out of business by this bill, as it makes it unlawful to bring any non-microstamped firearm into the state with the intent of selling it or transferring it, even if it would be to an FFL out of state. Here some other stupidity at work:
- Revolvers? Need to have those microstamped. Can’t have criminals carrying around non-stamped casings in their wheel guns, you know.
- No exemption for air guns, meaning air guns will have to be imprinted with the required microstamp, or will be illegal to sell or transfer in New Jersey after the date of this act.
- There is no exemption for police. This will apply to police departments too, since they procure either from dealers or distributors.
- If you work for someone who is a “manufacturer, wholesale dealer of firearms, retail dealer of firearms” you will be guilty of a felony for transporting an air pistol into the state if it does not have the requisite microstamping on it.
- It does not demand that the imprint be on the primer, but rather on the case. Again, this applies to air guns too.
This law is beyond stupid. But much like the one-gun-a-month law, which the legislators were told was badly written, and apparently did not care, I would not be surprised for this to pass.
UPDATE: Just noticed there’s no exception for antique firearms either, so muzzle loaders will need to be microstamped to imprint on the non-existent casing.
New Digs
We notice that Jacob is no longer running his blog off the New York State Rifle Association’s web site, and has decided to strike out on his own. We wish Jacob the best of luck in his new independent blog venture.
Toy Gun Scare
Princeton instituted it’s super secure, extra careful campus lock down procedure, with “Stay inside and do not go outside to travel to another building. Close and lock the doors and windows.” instructions to students, because they thought there might be someone on campus with some sort of weapon. Turns out it was a water gun. Whew. Can you just imagine what might have happened if it had been an actual weapon?
Any bets on whether you could walk across campus carrying a packet of matches and a gallon of gasoline?
Kids Today
Glenn Reynolds has an interesting link on “100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About.” I’ve set IRQs before, but anyone who rembers NuBus knows this was the inferior way. It was nice when PCs finally caught up. What things am I too young to remember doing? Not much. Definitely remember using Mosaic for the first time. I remember Gopher and Archie, and I’ve uudecoded more than a few things in my life. I still have a lot of negatives on disk film somewhere. This list had to have been made by guys in their mid 30s. You know, at some point, I should probably look at getting all the video footage from when I was a kid, all on 8mm, transferred over to DVD.
UPDATE: How many have kid pictures on this medium? How many kids today will know that the term “slides” in power point actually dervives from this, and also the term “Slideshow” in image programs.