Thirdpower reports that it looks like he’s stopped blogging, presumably because the money has dried up. That’s the problem with astroturfing campaigns — it takes money to keep them going.
Year: 2010
Pro-Gun Op-Ed In New Jersey Media
An attorney that works with ANJRPC currently has an Op-Ed in North Jersey media market that suggests why the Garden State’s gun laws are unconstitutional:
As it turns out, New Jersey gun law offers fertile ground for challenge, not merely because the state has such strict laws but because New Jersey law is exceedingly aggressive toward the law-abiding gun owner.
New Jersey’s regulatory scheme is highly unusual in that it approaches gun control by categorically banning guns and then carving out extremely limited exceptions to the prohibitions.
Read the whole thing. New Jersey’s gun laws are designed to frustrate the exercise of the right by making it exceedingly legally hazardous to own and transport firearms. Despite anti-gunners claims to the contrary, it’s hard to see how it’s constitutional to start out with the default assumption that all guns are banned.
UPDATE: More here.
Getting Ready for Hawaii – Soaring
One of the things I have planned to do out in Hawaii is to take a one hour lesson in a glider (warning, autoplay video). Hawaii is one of the best places to do this. I’ve spent precious little time with X-Plane flying gliders until I decided to do this, and I have to say, flying gliders is not easy. If you misjudge something, you don’t exactly have an engine to go around and have another go at it. I crashed a few times before I got it right, and crashed once by stalling the glider at an unwise altitude. I will be glad to have someone to do all the hard stuff when I go up.
But it’s quite a lot of fun, even in the simulator, and I’ve largely got the hang of it. I wanted to see if I could successfully get a plane from where the glider people operate out of in Hawaii, Dillingham Field, all the way across to the other side, down the eastern mountain ridge, and out over the ocean to land on Molokai. Creating pretty ideal conditions, the answer seems to be yes.
Lost trivia: Dillingham Field is where they filmed the scenes with Mr. Eko and Yemi, where Remey was shot and dragged into the plane. The “Others” houses were actually a YMCA camp a few miles from the field.
It Must Have Been Painful to Write
I’m guessing typing every word was pure agony, but over on the Brady Facebook, it seems they had to do a bit of “Let’s stay focused” on some of their Facebook Fans:
Every rational person supports that position, except, apparently for the Brady Campaign. What if their core supporters don’t want to “better regulate guns to keep them out of dangerous hands?” Will they keep donating if the best they can hope for is to make all sales go through an FFL?
In other news, it looks like pro-2A voices can get through the “Reasoned Discorse” filter on the weekends when they probably aren’t paying attention.
“Shoot Me First” Vest for iPad
Who knows, maybe the device could stop a bullet. But hey, if Steven Jobs makes concealed carry wear fashionable because people need a way to carry around iPad’s, that’s fine by me.
Public Range Shooter Caught
Some excellent good old fashioned police work have lead authorities to get a suspect into custody. Sounds like the alleged murderer was a correctional officer. Police called out the SWAT team to bring him in. I would like to note this is a use of SWAT teams I can approve of. I also got a chuckle out of this:
For two days, authorities scoured the range for evidence — a tough job because of all the spent shell casings littering the grounds. By the end of last week, police said they knew the kind of gun used to kill Getgen.
Yeah, not the place I’d want to have to gather evidence on a shooting — but they did it, and got their man. I am very happy they caught this guy. This was indeed a case of murdering the guy to get his gun, which made him very dangerous to have roaming the streets, which hopefully after a fair trial, he will never see again.
Thirdpower on Appleseed
Thirdpower gives an account of his recent Appleseed experience. The program he described sounds unequivocally positive. I suspect there is a good deal of variation in the program, depending in who’s running it, but if Thirdpower’s program is more the rule than the exception, there’s not much wrong with it.
From the Road
Doing a post while driving back from my dad’s. The reason we went out there was because I planned to swing by the Apple Store in King of Prussia to get myself an iPad before Bitter and I head out to Hawaii. I have no intention of taking a laptop, but I don’t want to be totally off the grid for two weeks. The iPad is a nice compromise between a laptop and a phone. So far, I find the keyboard to be only slightly more awkward than a Netbook. I can go at a much higher rate than on an iPhone. Most the problem so far is the moving car. But hey… 10 hours of battery life. There a lot of places I go where I don’t want to take a laptop, but don’t really want to spend all my time viewing the Internets through a teeny tiny iPhone screen.
We’ll see how this works for me out in Hawaii.
PA Liquor Gestapo Strikes Again
This time raiding a gun club and a firehouse, who have been selling alcohol to members without a liquor license, a practice I cam promise you they have been doing for a loong time. Gun club was probably a member looking to get even with someone for a transgression.
Yes, some shooting clubs have bars. Every one I’ve been to or heard about has procedures in place that if you’re coming to socialize (i.e. drink) you get flagged and can’t enter the firing ranges.
But let me just say I am so glad that crime in this state is under such firm control that the State Police have the resources rid our society of the scourge of unregulated liquor sales. Clearly this gun club and firehouse were sending drunk people onto the streets by the hundreds to poop on lawns, puke on the sidewalks, and pass out in the azaleas.
Note this part they are speaking of at the end:
Kriedeman said club licenses, other than those issued to veterans organizations, are issued as long as a vacancy exists in the county. Club licenses can be obtained through purchase or transfer if a vacancy does not exist. Veterans organizations can receive liquor licenses even if there are no vacancies.
See, in Pennsylvania, we ration liquor licenses. Each county only has a certain number available, so if you want one, you have to wait for some other establishment to give theirs up. Given the hassle, it’s no wonder some private organizations just take their chances. Perhaps it’s time to consider making liquor licenses more freely available in Pennsylvania, like they are in most other states? This has impeded the restaurant business in this state for years.
Good to see those new Irish gun control laws …
… working so well. See also here.