Sebastian – Page 1474 – Shall Not Be Questioned

What are we supposed to use, harsh language?

From Slashdot, the Brits are talking about installing CCTV which can scold scofflaws through a loudspeaker.

Home Secretary John Reid told BBC News there would be some people, “in the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions”.

“But the vast majority of people find that their life is more upset by people who make their life a misery in the inner cities because they can’t go out and feel safe and secure in a healthy, clean environment because of a minority of people,” he added.

I don’t know about you, but having a camera who can lecture an attacker doesn’t exactly help me feel more safe.Â When you surrender your safety and security to the government, this is the kind of result you can expect.Â We need to make sure this idea never makes it across the pond.

Good News for the NRA

Pew released their latest poll:

Each year since its occurrence in 1999, the April 20 anniversary of the Columbine High School tragedy renews debate about the desirability of stricter controls on firearms. Recent surveys, however, find Americans less disposed to gun control than they were in the years surrounding the shootings.

For example, Americans have a better opinion of the National Rifle Association these days than they did in the mid 1990’s. Over this same period, public calls for stricter gun-control laws have also quieted somewhat. A recent Pew nationwide survey found a 52%-to-32% majority of respondents holding a favorable opinion of the NRA, which will hold its massive annual convention on April 13-15 this year in St. Louis. While this is the first time since 1994 that the favorability rating of the group has crossed the 50% mark, positive views of the NRA have been inching upward in Pew polls in recent years.

I’m not generally one for touting poll numbers, because you can make a poll say whatever the hell you want, but at least according to Pew, the NRA seems to be doing something right. Read the whole thing.

Sign the Petition

State Rep Sam Rohrer is asking Pennsylvania residents to sign his petition to oppose any new gun control laws in the Commonwealth.Â I would ask everyone to do so, if you are from Pennsylvania.

Plus, if my family is to be believed, this guy is a relative of mine.Â I don’t know him from Adam, but according to them, anyone with a name derived from “Rohr” is somehow related.Â Good to see I’m not the only gun nut in my “family”.

Fear The Stache!

Turns out we have a fun keynote speaker for the NRA banquet next week.Â I’m lookin forward to it.

Registration in Pennsylvania

Kim du Toit, or one of his readers, rather, points to a bill that would bring gun registration to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.Â This bill doesn’t stand a chance, but there’s something everyone in Pennsylvania should be aware of.

The Pennsylvania state police already operate handgun registration in conflict with the Uniform Firearms Act. Â Last year Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard a lawsuit bought against the state police over this section in the Uniform Firearms Act:

Notwithstanding any section of this chapter to the contrary, nothing in this chapter shall be construed to allow any government or law enforcement agency or any agent thereof to create, maintain or operate any registry of firearm ownership within this Commonwealth. For the purposes of this section only, the term “firearm” shall include any weapon that is designed to or may readily be converted to expel any projectile by the action of an explosive or the frame or receiver of any such weapon.

The Supreme Court ruled that the State Police database wasn’t, in fact, a firearms registry, even though they can easily find out what hanguns I own, but merely a record of sale.Â Because it was created from the sales data the state police collects, and wasn’t a comprehensive registry, it was no registry.

This surprised everyone, including legislators, who were pretty sure they had passed a prohibition on exactly this. Â I was told by my state representative that there would be aÂ legislative solution, but it didn’t make it through last year. Â My guess is there’s no way it’s going to get past Ed Rendell.

So I hope Kim’s reader will not only write his state represenative and state senator about this registration bill, but ask that the legislature act to end the de-facto gun registry currently being operated by the state police.

Caroline vs. Hamm – SMU Prize Fight

Well, OK, it wasn’t a boxing match.Â Â If it had been, it would have been worth the drive to see it.Â But it was a debate, and the SMU Daily Campus has some balanced coverage of it.

Looks like the Brady Campaign is most worried about castle doctrine, which make sense given it’s one of the NRA’s priorities.

It’s Politics

Bob Levy asks via Instapundit:

Nobody at the NRA has provided a credible answer to this simple question: Why is the NRA pushing the DC Personal Protection Act? If the NRA were to say, “You’re going to lose, so we want to kill the litigation,” I would understand that argument — although I would dispute the premise. Instead, we’re hearing that the NRA wants the Supremes to review Parker. There’s a disconnect somewhere.

I’m not speaking with any special insider knowledge. I really like to know more too, and I don’t discount the possibility the NRA is just being stupid. But I think the disconnect is politics.

The NRA can’t really afford politically to ignore pro-gun legislation that’s being introduced in Congress and leave it’s pro-gun allies in Congress high and dry on a bill they’ve been pushing for a while. I suspect originally, the NRA’s attitude was “you’re going to lose, so we want to kill the litigation”, as Levy mentioned. I can’t blame them, because originally I didn’t think Parker would win either, and there’s a lot of “the courts are too risky” sentiment in the pro-gun community, and for good reason.

But now Parker won, and the NRA is in a pickle. It won’t want to derail Parker, but at the same time it can’t just pull the plug on the D.C. Personal Protection Act either. Do one, and you piss off membership who would like the Supreme Court rule on the second amendment, do the other and you piss off the lobbyists, staffers and politicians who have been working hard on the legislative side. Plus, there’s a not insignificant chance that Parker will fail. Any direction they go, the NRA is screwed. So what to do? Talk out both sides of your mouth, and try not to piss anyone off too much. It’s politics, and politics is ugly.

Why bother fighting crime…

… when you can just look like you’re fighting crime.Â That’s my take on Philadelphia Police Commissioner Johnson’s latest stunt of putting more police brass out on patrol for four hours a week.Â I’m not sure how this helps, but at least it’ll be four hours a week he won’t be begging for new guns laws, which won’t help either.

No doubt Commissioner Johnson will be carrying his service pistol with him on this public relations stunt, because the city is dangerous, after all.Â But that’s something he wants to deny us ordinary peons.

Modersky Gets 14 Months

It’s always hard to fight a crime epidemic when you associate with criminals.Â Just ask Mayor Street.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) â€” A man accused by prosecutors of orchestrating a plan to funnel illegal contributions to the campaign of Mayor John F. Street was sentenced Monday to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $25,000 in fines and restitution.

Joseph Moderski, 70, of Bryn Mawr, was the only one of the four defendants sentenced to prison in the scheme. Street was not charged with any wrongdoing.

Thank god for term limits.

Turnpike Leasing – Pissing Off The Right People

I suspect the Governor may be doing right when I see things like this:

Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell’s initiative to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike was instantly panned by the state Turnpike Authority and union workers who operate toll booths on that road. A majority of New Jersey residents oppose Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine’s idea to lease the Garden State Parkway to cut the state’s debt or lower property taxes, according to a January poll.

People from New Jersey, the Turnpike Commission and the toll workers unions are against it?Â Sounds like it might be worth a try if you ask me.Â Personally, I’d rather just rip the damned tolls up entirely, but I’m willing to give leasing a try for a bit.Â They certainly would have a hard time doing a worse job of maintaining the Turnpike than the Turnpike Commission currently does.