2012 – Page 133 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Insurrectionist Militias

I’m going to anxiously await CSGV to condemn this:

The New Black Liberation Militia, a self-styled black survival group, has announced that it plans to make a citizens arrest of Zimmerman next week, the Associated Press reported.

It quoted Najee Muhammad, a group leader, saying, “We’ll find him. We’ve got his mug shot and everything.”

Natalie Jackson, a lawyer for the Martin family, said she does not support the threat, but also cannot control them.

If CSGV is to live up to its own standards, and not be hypocritical tools, it would not only condemn this, but also smear the Martin family. As it is, I think the Martin family is correct in their response, and I agree they can’t control the situation. But what some people would call justice, I would call vigilantism and kidnapping. CSGV is willing to hold all of us responsible for the actions of whack jobs and lunatics, so I don’t see why they would make an exception in this case.

I roundly condemn what the NBL Militia is attempting here, and believe CSGV should as well. The rule of law is the rule of law, and men are entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law. If this were the New White Liberation Militia, they would condemn their very existence, and I would join them. They would also smear us with the specter of such a militia, which I would not do. It is as unfair to smear all African-Americans with the specter of the NBLM as it is to smear all Second Amendment supporters with the specter of Tim McVeigh and racist militia groups. But I can promise you CSGV lives by a double standard here. They are fraud, they know they are frauds, which is why all they have left is anger.

911 Tapes Released in Martin Shooting in Florida

Zimerman’s Call.

Listening to his call, he had no reason to view Martin as suspicious. He said he was walking down the street looking at houses. You know, kind of like what I do when I walk around my neighborhood. What else is there to look at? You’re either looking at houses, looking up or down the street, or looking at the sky.

As soon as he noticed Zimmerman is following him, the kid took off running. If some strange guy was stalking you, who wouldn’t? Zimmerman got out of his car and pursued. 911 told him they didn’t need him to pursue the kid. Sounds like after he hung up, he did anyway.

Calls 1-3.

None of these calls, save one, reveal any more detail than someone was screaming, then there was a gunshot, then no screaming, and a dead black male. In one call, you can hear the screaming. The final caller revealed she saw someone in a white t-shirt on top of someone, but could not identify the race of the individual because it was dark.

Calls 4-6.

Nothing useful here. It almost got useful on the 4th call, but the dispatcher didn’t press for any further information.

Call 7.

Totally useless. I’ll do you a favor and tell you not to even listen to this one.

The 911 tapes don’t really clear up anything. In cases like this, it’s going to be a matter of whether Zimmerman’s statement to police is contradicted by any witness statements. I’d really like to add I’m glad I don’t live in this neighborhood. If I hear someone outside my home screaming for help, I’m going outside to see what’s going on. If it’s dark, I grab a flashlight.Â At the least I’m going to be a witness, and be able to give police useful information. This is an example of the complete extinction of civic virtue in our society. Because no one was willing to even look when someone was screaming for help, if Zimmerman is a murderer, he’s likely going to get away with it.

UPDATE Here’s a Google Earth view of the neighborhood this took place in. I’m guessing, based on descriptions given to 911, the scuffle and eventual shooting happened on along that lake. You can see the path between the townhouses that Zimmerman likely used to pursue Martin.

Blogger to Author

Wyatt Earp from Support Your Local Gunfighter has taken the plunge on being the latest blogger to go from blogger to author, with a book “Only Son“, which he co-wrote with Pamela Meister. You can buy it now from Create Space, but a Kindle version is in the works.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day, for the Irish, is usually a day for festive drinking, which is to say not that different from any other day. It’s just on St. Patrick’s Day, you drink wearing green. My immediate plans for celebration involve heading down to McDonald’s to get a Shamrock Shake. I’ll wait until later for a drink. When I was a kid, an anxiously awaited the arrival of the Shamrock Shake every year. I seem to recall for a while it was just a regular vanilla shake with green food coloring in it. Those were disappointing times. But now it’s back to its original goodness. Now that I’m an adult, I’m wondering what a Shamrock Shake would taste like if you added a shot of Jameson’s to it. Hmm.

Preemption Enforcement Tabled

Looks like the GOP chickened out on preemption enforcement. There were a few local reps here that looked to be wavering. Tabling might have done the bill a favor if we need time to get the needed votes and support, since if it had been voted down it’d be dead for the session. But it’s disappointing that some are going soft on the issue. Preemption is a bedrock principle for gun owners.

Constitutional Carry Vetoed by Governor Daugaard of South Dakota

This was a surprise to wake up to this morning, but it does go to show why Constitutional Carry is such a difficult issue for us in Pennsylvania, when it’s extremely difficult to get it even in states where it should be a slam-dunk. Governor Daugaard has signed a number of pro-gun measures into law during his tenure, but this was apparently a bit too much for him. South Dakota would have been the 4th state to enact Constitutional Carry, and the 5th state to not require a license or permit to carry a concealed firearm. The other states are Alaska, Arizona, and Wyoming. Vermont has always had constitutional carry.

The State of Internet Gun Reviews

The Vuurwapen Blog has an interesting post on the state of gun reviews online. He doesn’t feel they are up to par in most cases. I haven’t done that many reviews here, largely because I only review guns I use fairly regularly, and have some expertise with. I only have two pistols I carry regularly, a Glock 19 and an Elsie Pea, and there are enough reviews out there on those guns that I don’t really have anything to add. I did recently do a review / comparison with my previous pocket carry piece, the P3AT. but generally speaking, I don’t consider gear to be something I have any unique expertise in. I’m also out that phase where I see a new gun an automatically have to have it. Sure, every once in a while I’ll see something that strikes my fancy. Not too long ago at a gun show I saw a beautiful, unmolestedÂ Krag-Jorgensen and damned near dropped the 1400 they were asking on it in a month where I had already spent my play money. I ultimately hesitated, because I always like to research what to look for on a gun before diving in, so I can ensure the price is right. But I’ve never seen one since, so I kind of regret being careful.

Either way, back to the original subject, a good bit of advice to up and coming bloggers it to find an area of expertise in the community you’re blogging in, and fill that niche. For me, I’ve tried to develop expertise in the politics of the gun issue, and on how the law surrounding firearms works (or doesn’t work, as the case may be). I’ve also spend a good deal of time learning about the National Rifle Association, how it works and doesn’t work, and how the organization is structured and operates. In that process I’ve gotten to know a number of people in the Association, both in Fairfax and in the field. I think developing unique expertise is important, and there’s plenty of areas out there that are lacking. For instance, until John Richardson came along, I couldn’t keep up with all the Second Amendment cases that were filed post McDonald. John has developed the expertise and is the go-to blog when there’s a case development. SayUncle is the blog to hit when you want to see what everyone is writing about today, and what the topics of conservation are, which brings up another important point. The Internet gun blog community is really an ongoing conversation on the topics of the day. The key to relevance is entering that conversation with the expertise you developed. If you consistently do that, you’ll earn people’s respect and they’ll start linking to you. It’s unfortunate that getting noticed is harder now then it was when I started blogging, but it’s not impossible. The key it just to get yourself out there and make enough conversation that people notice. I generally will read links provided in the comments, and generally read e-mailed links (though, due to volume of e-mail, I miss a lot).

I’m with the Vuurwapen Blog that reviews are now pretty much a dime a dozen. I don’t read gun reviews anymore. That market has been so crowded by SEO seekers with no real expertise such that any review is suspect. When I’m in the market for a new gun, I will generally ask someone I know who’s got experience or expertise on a particular type of firearm, like Tam, Caleb, SayUncle, or JoeÂ depending on the gun of interest.

Preparedness for Kids

From Shooting Illustrated:

The first thing you do is talk to them about why. Donâ€™t bombard them with doom and gloom scenariosâ€”make it fun. In discussing why with my children, we talked about everything from weather, asteroids, zombies, pirates and more stuff than I can remember.

So I guess you save the conversation about having to eat the family dog until that option is really on the table (no pun intended). Makes sense.

Tab Clearing

Time for another tab clearing. I have a quarterly meeting today, and I need to get an expense report in because I put close to 700 dollars worth of equipment on my credit card, and it’s time to get that back. Posting may be light until I’m out of the meeting.

John Richardson takes a look at the astroturf gun control organizations. and compares some of their social media penetration with organizations on our side.

HSUS is once again misleading the public. HSUS is arguably a greater danger to hunting and shooting than MAIG is, as they’ve gotten behind every lead ban initiative out there. They are well funded and have a huge base of people to draw from.

There’s a carry case in Hawaii that’s moving forward. Baker v. Kealoha.

Don’t forget that the NRA Annual Meeting is April 12 -15 in St. Louis. We’ll be there, though we aren’t organizing any blogger stuff this year. We may in the future again, but between switching jobs, etc, it’s just been too busy. You’ll probably see us around though, if you’re another blogger and planning on going.

Stephens Media would seem to be getting stuck with the Righthaven bill. This is just desserts.

Joe has a quote about anti-rights twaddle of the media, and how it’s almost pointless to argue with them. I don’t do take downs of media articles too often these days, largely because there just aren’t as many, and what does appear is just unbelievably ridiculous. I think it’s becoming obvious to everyone the Emperor has no clothes, and probably never did.

Looks like the TSA Nude-o-Scopes don’t even really work that well.

John Richardson takes a look at one Jesuit Priest who is failing to live up to the order’s intellectual rigor.

Clayton thinks Republicans need to stop acting like Democrats.

Rethinking the 5th Circuit

Gun owners tend to think favorably of the 5th Circuit, because it’s the circuit that Emerson came out of, but they’ve been on a roll lately with unfavorable decisions. This latest one they argue that the right to bear arms only covers arms in general, and not one specific firearm. What? So let me get this straight, the police can come into my house, take all my firearms, not charge me with anything, and that’s not a violation of my rights because I can always go buy new ones?

The right protected by the Second Amendment is not a property-like right to a specific firearm, but rather a right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.

I’d be curious to know what the case law is on something like this in a First Amendment context. Can the police seize a printing press from a newspaper, fail to file any charges, and keep the press? Would this create a viable First Amendment complaint?

Very interesting is that Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, the dissenting judge in this case, brings up, once again, Judge Kavanaugh’s dissent in the Heller II case in the D.C. Circuit. I may have more to say about this later. But I think Judge Kavanaugh was on to something when he penned that dissent.