2010 – Page 93 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Article Gun Trafficking in Philadelphia

This article is sure to outrage. Firstly, it gives an account of a criminal gun trafficker, who’s turned his life around you see, but he wants the legal dealers he criminally deceived to pay too:

“I’m supposed to have remorse for what I did. But you wanna tell me these bastards [the gun dealers], they sit back, and they say, ‘Oh well, you know, [Jerome], that was on him whatever he did after that,'” he says, his voice gravelly and angry but still quiet. “If I should feel remorse, these motherfuckers should feel remorse, too. Because I came in there, and they took the money, and they took the money, and they took the money, and they took the money, over and over and over again. And these fuckers are sittin’ in their houses, their nice little house, they go on sellin’ guns, day out and day in, with no consequence. None. None.

So he basically lied to a number of Philadelphia gun dealers about being the true purchaser, and now he wants them to feel sorry with them? Sorry, you’re the criminal asshole. The big question I have is why, if he was doing this in the 90s, is he still not in prison. It’s ten years for every illegal gun they can prove federally. Oh, but we have a former ATF agent too, who complains it’s just too hard to lock up FFLs:

THEYÃ¯’RE GETTING AWAY WITH IT: Joseph Vince spent 28 years with ATF, helped compile a database that traces where guns found in crimes came from and authored the 2004 report on Colosimo’s. He says the standard for prosecuting straw sellers is too restrictive: “You have to prove that they willfully did it, that they intentionally wanted to do it, that they absolutely knew what they were doing was wrong. The truth level is so high, it’s higher than any other [crime] I know of.”

Apparently he doesn’t like Mens Rea, a basic concept in our legal system that says for most serious crimes you must have intent to commit the crime. The article is so riddled withÂ inaccuracyÂ and distortion I could write aÂ dissertationÂ on it. In one shot they show pro-gun counter-protesters and claim them to be anti-gun protesters.

California Gun Control Movement Worried

At least one of their leaders isn’t just declaring victory after McDonald. This battle through the courts is going to be a long fight. Sometimes we’ll come out on top, sometimes they will come out on top. It’s unfortunate, but I believe the Courts, generally, will allow for more gun control than most of us would like. Probably more, honestly than is done in the vast majority of jurisdictions.

Downer

The Bradys manage to even make Independence Day depressing.

Happy Independence Day

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our nation’s independence than to buy a cool American flag for your Austrian pistol:

Or perhaps celebrating theÂ nation’sÂ birth by blowing up a small part of it. I’ve always thought 4th of July at the Huffman household had to be pretty fun.

Screwing with My Childhood

I don’t know too many boys my age that didn’t love Wonder Woman growing up. We were strangely attracted to her, before we even know anything about sex. Â Now it seems like they are making alterations to the classic. Personally, I’ll take the classic:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ROi9Isk_5I[/youtube]

What’s not to like? And for someone about the same age as my mother would be, she still looks pretty good. I guess these days, people don’t expect their superheros to be cheesy, fight for truth, justice, and the American way, and all that jazz. Now they have to be hip and fashionable.

Quote of the Day

Joe Huffman is continuing his anti-gun cartoon posting theme over at View from North Central Idaho, and notes:

Alan Gura spoke about this some with us bloggers at the NRA convention this year. He is of the opinion the NRA is an expert at legislation and lobbying but that in our current situation civil rights lawsuits are most effective. This is not to say that we can’t have two or more solutions to the same problem but that we should recognize the the problem can be framed multiple ways and that depending upon the framing we change the solution set. And with those changing solution sets it may be that a different set of experts are needed.

I tend to agree that the two tracts are complimentary. I believe the Heller ruling had a serious and positive affect on your average American’s view of gun ownership. I suspect McDonald will add to that. But I think both sets of expertiseÂ are going to be needed moving forward. Reason being that I don’t think the federal courts are willing to carve out as broad a right we’d like them to. There are some places I think they will need, shall we say, persuading. Which is the genesis of this idea. My only hope is that the various people of each expertise can find a way to work together.

The Wait

Having recently finished up the last of my birthday present, I decided I needed to celebrate the birth of our nation in an appropriate manner. I have a strict rule about not drinking during the day unless I have people over, so now the wait …

… the peaty goodness begins after dinner. I’ve heard the 30 year Laphroaig is wonderful, but at 230 bucks a bottle, it’s a bit steep for me. I’ve also had Caol IlaÂ recommendedÂ to me, which is another Islay scotch. I found exactly one bottle in the entire State of Pennsylvania, which I plan to snatch up at my earliestÂ convenience.

UPDATE: After posting this, Bitter quite correctly pointed out that I had just announced the last remaining bottle of Caol Ila in the entire state was to be had, and that it would not be out of the realm of possibility for an intrepid reader to beat me to the punch, and buy the bottle. So my earliestÂ convenienceÂ became now. So now the last bottle for sale of Caol Ila in the entire PA Liquor System is owned my me.

Clinton’s Legacy

Dennis Henigan’s love letter to Elena Kagan got me thinking about just how much Bill Clinton well and truly fscked us all eight years of his tenure in the White House. Now, eight years after hisÂ presidencyÂ ended, we’re still dealing with fallout from Clinton’s anti-gun legacy, which Kagan is arguably part of. If we had elected a pro-gun Democrat in the 1992 election, Obama would likely have had no choice but to surround himself with a lot of Second Amendment supporting Democrats.

DC is one of those places, once you’ve been there a while it seems you never leave. Look at how long you’ve been hearing the names Rumsfeld and Cheney? How long have we been dealing with the Bush family in one incarnation or the other? Or hearing the name Kennedy? Jack Valenti was still in Washington D.C., and a presence on the Hill when he died in 2007, after serving in both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. I’ve known the name Wayne LaPierre since I was in high school. Turnover happens a lot at the lower levels, but D.C. has a habit of keeping people for years.

The Courts are the same way. Take a look at the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Of the justices sitting, one was appointed by Carter, four by Ronald Reagan, two by George H.W. Bush, three by Clinton and three by George W. Bush. That’s a full half the court nominated by Presidents who’ve been out of office for nearly twenty years.

When I speak of elections having consequences, these kinds of things are largely what I mean. There’s a certain inevitability to things if you bring a highly left-wing administration into Washington D.C.

Dave Kopel’s Testimony on Kagan

We’re covering it over on PA Gun Rights. Go see the video there if you’re interested in what Dave had to say before the Committee.

Post McDonald Polling

67% say cities have no power to ban handguns, and support for gun control just keeps falling.