Could Have Fooled Me

The federal government, because its powers are enumerated, is not regarded to have a “police power”. Could have fooled me. You know, I used to think Bush didn’t have his bureaucrats well under control. Obama makes Bush look like a stern taskmaster in comparison.

History of the “Cop Killer” Bullet Issue

Dave Hardy finds that the issue went all the way back to the 1930s, with J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover, in my opinion, was one of the greatest stains on American freedom to ever plague the American political scene. This is just more evidence.

Go After The Gun, Not the Criminal

That seems to be the advice from anti-gun groups in Connecticut:

But 88 percent of gun arrests are for criminal possession while only 12 percent are for gun traffickers, he says.

Both Pinciaro and Fair think it would be more effective for cops to focus on gun suppliers instead of just the shooters.

Fair has spent years asking police to track guns used in crimes. At meetings with police in the past she was told it was too difficult or too time intensive. Last week she heard a different answer.

These people are unbelievable fools, asking that scarce police resource be diverted from tracking criminals into tracking inanimate objects that are a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself. The problem is the criminal.

Pinciaro is pushing a new tool — microstamping — to help cops quickly track guns used in crimes. The new technology would imprint a gun’s serial number on bullets fired from it. Pinciaro says the technology would allow bullets to be traced back to the gun immediately without needing to first find the gun and then wait for the state’s forensics lab to run tests.

How does that work exactly? If all you have are empty shell casing, there’s not really any forensics that’s going to help you if you don’t already have the gun, and if you already have the gun, what do you need the forensics for? You can just look at the serial number. If the serial number is filed off, well, chances are the micro stamp is gone too.

Even if you had micro-stamped shell casings, you’d still presumably need a forensics lab to lift the serial number, and then execute a trace with ATF, which is still only going to find you the last legal owner. These people have no idea how this technology works, and they are supposed to be the ones we listen to? Screw that. These people are clueless and should be exposed as such.

Taking the Times to Task

NSSF’s Stephen Sanetti writes to the New York Times about their editorial lamenting lead in ammunition, suggesting such a move would gut most of the federal tax dollars that go to wildlife conservation. Of course, take a look at the letter right below it, and you’ll see these types aren’t going to be swayed by argument. They are zealots who have no idea where food comes from.

New Jersey Bear Hunt a Success

But it might not be enough:

A study commissioned by the state Division of Fish and Wildlife and performed by wildlife biologists at East Stroudsburg University estimated the number of bears in two study areas of northwest New Jersey at almost 3,500. There were 589 bears killed in the hunt, which is 17 percent of the population. In spite of the culling, biologists believe there will be at least 800 cubs born in winter dens and emerging next spring. In other words, the culling was designed to reduce the rate of black bear population growth. There will be more black bears next year but the number will more likely be about 3,700 instead of 4,300.

That’s an unbelievable number of bears for as small a habitat as New Jersey’s forested areas represent. But even if the bear population is still growing, the hunt will benefit New Jerseyans by culling the bears that are least fearful of humans, leaving the survivors being the ones who are adept at avoiding us.

Fixing the State Police Problems

This is apparently about a week old, but we missed it in the rush up to the holidays: Governor-elect Tom Corbett is replacing the State Police Commissioner who has been working with Mike Bloomberg’s political group to push more gun control.

The new appointee comes from the Attorney General’s office, so hopefully he’ll stay out the gun control fights and we’ll no longer have to deal with a Commissioner pushing a personal political agenda with the weight of his office behind it.

A Victory for Common Sense

Two guys walk into a bar in Pennsylvania, both carrying guns. An argument ensues, causing both men to be shot in the process of said argument. At least one of them was a felon-in-possession, having previously been convicted of aggravated assault with a firearm. The felon who was shot sued the bar owner, arguing that his failure to search bar patrons was negligence. A federal court has just rejected the lawsuit.

A New Challenge for Pro-Gun Efforts

RIP Sen. Michael O’Pake

In 2008, Sen. O’Pake was A rated and endorsed by NRA. It’s not uncommon for a Democrat outside of the Philly area, but it is still notable because he represented an area with a very high number of hardcore MAIG mayors.

Gun owners need to get involved in the Democratic Party efforts to fill the seat at primary time. In addition to being a likely solid blue district, the local GOP doesn’t seem to give much thought to gun rights based on the attitudes of the last two challengers. In 2004, the Republican refused to even respond to NRA’s questionnaire. In 2008, the GOP candidate received a whooping C-. Hopefully, local gun owners can make sure the candidate looking to fill the seat are both pro-gun by putting pressure on the local leadership and candidate hopefuls in both parties.

Losing a pro-gun Democratic Whip in the Senate when it is the GOP senators causing the hold up with Castle Doctrine could make it harder to pass as a clean bill next session. We’ll really need to boost our efforts and outreach with other friendly members of the minority and majority parties who will stand up for our rights against the leadership.

In the meantime, our thoughts certainly go out to Sen. O’Pake’s family and friends.

ABC Pushing Brady Agenda

Not biased. No. Not at all. Newsbusters mentioned:

Again, she was speaking to the assistant director of legislative affairs for the Brady Campaign. This is a group that opposed the historic 2008 Supreme Court decision declaring the Second Amendment an individual right. To describe one of their representatives as “not anti-gun” strains credibility.

Without a doubt. This comes to us via Cam Edwards, who no doubt will be talking about this on his show tonight. They are just nice people, you see, looking for common sense solutions to gun violence. They aren’t gun hating zealots. Heavens no.