Sebastian – Page 372 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Gun Control or Gun Freedom from a Biological Perspective

I have to admit this is a new angle on the issue I haven’t seen before in the media. The article is one of those middle ground articles, and one of my areas of disagreement is that the debate are at dogmatic poles. It only seems that way because the media doesn’t know anything else, and their reporting on the issue sucks. In truth, we’re currently at a middle ground, and will have reached a consensus when one side can no longer move the debate to one side or another very much. I tend to view the role of the courts in this whole affair as eliminating the outliers (like Chicago, New York, New Jersey, etc) and forcing on them a basic respect for the right, while perhaps letting them get away with a bit more in the way of controls as other places. One of my big beefs with these middle ground people is a lack of understanding that politics just doesn’t work like that. Politics arrives at a middle ground, because people on both sides struggle, and reach the limits of their political power.

UPDATE: Bill Quick of Daily Pundit:

You stand there without your gun, and Iâ€™ll attack you with a club and beat you to death. You obviously donâ€™t need a gun because I donâ€™t have one. Or if youâ€™re weak enough, Iâ€™ll just beat you to death with my bare fists. No weapon needed.

Heh. I wonder how much middle ground he could find in that scenario. I think there was actually a lot of wisdom wrapped up in the old saying that God may have made man, but it was Sam Colt that made them equal.

Life Memberships Half Off

The NRA is offering half-off life memberships:

In appreciation of your support helping us reach over 1,550,000 likes on facebook, we are offering NRA Life Membership for half off for the next 48 hours! To take advantage of this offer, please visitÂ http://membership.nrahq.org/facebooklife. Be sure to share this post and ask your friends to like the NRA!

Let’s see, 1.55 million likes. Brady has 21,666 likes. CSGV has 6600 likes. VPC has 421 likes. MAIG has 4072 likes. And these people wonder why politicians listen to the NRA and not them? Even on Twitter, after CSGV has begged like half the planet to please follow them, and NRA has several different feeds, CSGV is still has an order of magnitude less followers than NRA News.

Non-Firearm Mass Murder

As Clayton Cramer documents, the worst mass murders in history haven’t been committed with firearms, but with fire. But I guess it’s hard for some people to get worked up over easy access to matches and gasoline, so the media only focuses on mass killing where a gun is used.

Also see these accounts of non-firearm mass murder, via Instapundit.

Gunsmithing in Pakistan

The Firearm Blog has a detailed photoblog showing how craftsman with minimal technology can manufacture some very good firearms where commercial sources aren’t as common or are unaffordable. But gun control can work, just ask our opponents.

Ammunition Bill Details

Can be found at NJ Today, in what sounds more like a joint press release from the gun control groups than actual reporting:

It requires anyone selling ammunition to be a licensed dealer.
It requires ammunition buyers who are not licensed dealers to present photo identification at the time of purchase, effectively banning the online or mail order purchase of ammo by regular civilians.
It requires licensed ammunition dealers to maintain records of the sale of ammunition.
It requires licensed ammunition dealers to report the sale of more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition to an unlicensed person within any five consecutive business days.

My answer to our opponents on this bill is hell no. We will fight this tooth and nail. We must ensure this bill goes absolutely nowhere.

Maryland Appealing Stay

Maryland is appealing to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse Judge Legg’s ruling lifting the stay, and put it back in place, meaning Maryland would not have to issue permits until the final resolution of this case.

Scalia on Gun Control

Starts at about the 6:50 mark. Good interview though:

I now stand by the fact that I wouldn’t read anything into this. The media is going crazy. The left is saying that Scalia is supporting a right to rocket launchers, and the right is saying he clearly believes we can restrict AR-15s and magazines. I think Justice Scalia is saying no such thing. He is saying it will have to be decided. This is simply fact. There are no tea leaves to be read here.

Tea Leaves

I don’t think there’s too much to be read into Justice Scalia’s statements appearing over at National Journal, in regards to which way an assault weapons ban would go if it appeared before the court. By the Heller “common use” test, an AR-15 should pass with flying colors, but that’s not to say it actually would. I wouldn’t feel comfortable with taking an assault weapons ban before the Court unless we got one or two more friendly votes. That way we can afford to lose a justice or two on a specific issue, and still have a winning majority.

US Refuses to Sign Arms Trade Treaty

So reports John Richardson. So Dick Morris turns out to be wrong, but I’m sure all that exposure he got spreading that rumor helped sales of his book, which was likely his only goal.

UN ATT Postponed Without Agreement

There have been copies of a draft treaty floating around out there on the Internet. If you’ve read them, they say essentially nothing. It is a document of sheer meaninglessness, describing neither what is required of signatory nation or what must be undergone to be in compliance. It is the kind of pablum only unelected bureaucrats at the United Nations could come up with.

That’s why I share Dave Kopel’s joy this session ended without agreement. This puts off any further action until closer to the election, in October, meaning if we change the occupant of the White House, we may be able to avoid an Arms Trade Treaty entirely.