The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
After seeing a video on YouTube from a Facebook friend, I started doing some research into something called a Photoplayer. Apparently this is a one man orchestra that is a relic of the silent film era. This lead to looking at examples of this on YouTube, but the one that was the best was the one I saw on Facebook:
Looks like quite a lot of work, and also looks like a fun instrument to play. Apparently the instrument can be played live as well, without the use of a piano roll.
I’ve been bugging folks at NRA that they need to do apps for iOS and Android apps for a while now. Looks like they’ve gotten around to producing one. Essentially it acts as a portal to NRA News, ILA alerts, and a lot of NRA’s social media efforts. As a just out of the gate app, I’d give a B-. Some things I’d change:
In short, I think this is a good start, but it could be a lot better. In general, I feel the app could be better organized. It makes some assumptions that you understand how NRA is structured. For instance, the uninitiated aren’t going to know what “ILA Alerts” are, and that the NRA Blog is only run by a subset of NRA, and is generally non-political.
I’d think a lot bigger on an app than just to act as a portal for various efforts NRA is already doing. It’s essentially a portal, but I don’t really feel it’s engaging.
I’m interested in the poll linked over at Extrano’s Alley, asking which gun Emily Miller, a Washington Times reporter who jumped through all the flaming hoops to get a gun in DC, should buy. One thing I can say for sure is that on the Internet, there a lot of fans of the Hrvatski Samokres 2000, more widely known as the Springfield XD.
I’ve never really caught the XD fever. I’ve never seen what the advantage to an XD was over a Glock, except for being a little bit cheaper. When I’ve tried XDs, they feel pretty much the same, in terms of grip, as the Glock. They look like a Glock. And they have certainly borrowed some design features from the Glock.
But the Glock is much more widely issued both by major police departments and the militaries of several NATO members. This means parts are widely available, and the design has been proved by people who are hard on guns.
So what’s behind the XD love? Why would someone choose and XD over a Glock? Why would someone choose an XD over a Smith & Wesson M&P, which is seeing widespread adoption by major police departments?
By now you’ve all heard the story of the woman from Tennessee who made the unfortunate mistake of believing that New York City was part of America. I am late to this story, largely because I wanted to gauge the reaction, and think about how to use this story for the greater good. There’s now a Facebook group dedicated to freeing Meredith Graves. Amazingly, some New York politicians are speaking of changing the law:
State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a Democrat whose district includes the 9/11 Memorial, wants to hold hearings on how New York City’s stringent gun laws are being enforced. Silver wants to find out if changes to the law need to be made.
We already have a proposed change to this law, and Mayor Mike is fighting it every step of the way. Perhaps a solution is to tell Hizzoner to withdraw his snout from other people’s business, and back off opposition to HR822. This problem will be easily remedied with HR822.
I think this woman is an excellent poster child for what’s wrong with how we’re treating a constitutional right in this country. We should rally behind her. It puts our opponents in the awkward position of having to explain how justice and public good are served by throwing a felony charge at a woman who is no threat to society. Their reaction will expose them for the extremists that they indeed are. Let us lead them there.
UPDATE: Over at NRO’s The Corner, Robert VerBruggen thinks this is a states rights issue. States rights is generally code word for states being able to flout their obligations under the 14th amendment not to “make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” So I strongly disagree. This is a federal issue and Congress is within its Section 5 powers to protect the exercise of this right from state and local interference.
UPDATE: Bloomberg libeled her by suggesting she had cocaine. According to Graves she had a crushed up aspirin in her purse she took for migraines. People like Bloomberg really shouldn’t be trusted to wield the power the voters have given them.
A story about record gun sales, in the UK’s Daily Telegraph. The Brady folks are sticking with their story that gun ownership is really in decline. Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt, folks.
I’m sure our opponents are going to make hay out of this, but this guy isn’t looking to me like he’s the type that’s going to give a crap whether guns are allowed in National Parks or not. The ranger shot was a mother of two.
In our house, 2011 has not been the best of years. In May, over lunch with the CEO, I was told that the Board had decided to dissolve my employer of ten years, and that I would be retained to help wind down the company until the end of June. Everyone else was gone within a week. Many of my co-workers, who over the course of ten years also became friends, are still out of work in a pharma industry which is in utter turmoil. I spent four months unemployed until deciding to accept a job for considerably less pay and in a more junior role.
As for the blog, it’s been an eventful year. We ditched the name Snowflakes in Hell, and adopted a new title and theme. Along with that came accepting advertising. I am pleased to report that the advertising is paying for the Internet connection and related server costs. So what were the most highly trafficked stories this year?
Other than ones that tripped over a lucky keyword, Racist Motivations vs. Racist Outcomes was one of the most popular posts this year, which I’m happy about, because I spent time on that post. It’s most frustrating when “Look! Something shiny!,” fetches tons of traffic and something you spent time on doesn’t. But sometimes it works out. There were a few other stand outs traffic wise. People were concerned when Obama finally spoke out on gun control. No one particularly liked it when NPR set us up the bomb, and I guess a lot of Floridians stopped by to laugh at my reaction to a little bit of rain. Not a highly ranked story traffic wise, but I think the victory in Ezell is one of the biggest successes of the year, which was balanced by a significant loss in Heller II. Let us also not forget HR822 passing the House, on the legislative front, and Pennsylvania finally getting Castle Doctrine.
My top referrers were Say Uncle, Glenn Reynolds (the good Professor can bring in more eyeballs in a single link than a peep show near a naval port), Tam, The Firearm Blog, Robb Allen, and John Richardson. I thank my partners in crime.
Other big news of the year is the precipitous decline of our opponents. We all remember CSGV getting their Twitter account suspended for trying to “out” everyone. Howard Nemerov takes a look at just how bad it’s been for the Brady Campaign, and we’ve certainly closely followed their descent into irrelevant madness here as well.
For gun rights, 2012 is going to be pivotal. The Second Amendment can’t afford Barack Obama stuffing the federal courts, or God forbid, the Supreme Court, with more anti-gun judges. Even Romney, as bad as he might be, is an improvement over the status quo, particularly when it comes to judges, since any GOP President knows that court appointments are where you throw bones to your interest groups. Bush forgot that with Harriet Meyers to his peril.
I sincerely hope everyone has a healthy and happy 2012, and here’s hoping the Second Amendment (and given the Title of this blog, Article I, Section 21) has a successful 2012 as well.
Apparently they are trolling gun blogs and gun related sites anonymously. What’s more sad is that they didn’t realize that kind of thing can be tracked.
I’m not surprised to see a piece in Bloomberg Businessweek, trying to dig up dirt on NRAÂ probably to try to discredit HR822, and maybe help push the IRS to investigate his claims:
A toaster that burns the National Rifle Association’s logo onto bread fetched $650 at an auction last month, just one reflection of the money-making power in the gun group’s brand.
The NRA, which began as a grassroots organization dedicated to teaching marksmanship, enters the 2012 election season as a lobbying, merchandising and marketing machine that brings in more than $200 million a year and intends to help unseat the incumbent president. From 2004 to 2010, the group’s revenue from fundraising — including gifts from gun makers who benefit from its political activism — grew twice as fast as its income from members’ dues, according to NRA tax returns.
The gifts from the gun makers do not go to NRA political activism. The toaster money raised don’t go to political activism (ours raised $400 from a reader who bought it). They go to the NRA Foundation, which does not participate in political activity. Indeed, it cannot participate in political activity.
More than 50 firearms-related companies have given at least $14.8 million to the Fairfax, Virginia-based group, according to the NRA’s own list for a donor program that began in 2005.
Again, mostly to the NRA Foundation to support shooting sports programs. What they fail to mention is that the amount donated by NRA’s 4 million members is orders of magnitude larger than what’s donated by the industry. That’s why this quite is insulting:
“Unlike organizations which start out controlled by industry and created by industry, like lobbying groups for coal or oil, they really started out as a grassroots organization and became an industry organization,â€Â said William Vizzard, a former agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who’s now a professor of criminal justice at California State University in Sacramento.
They became an industry organization in Professor Vizzards mind, and that’s about it. If he can back this up, which he can’t, I’m all ears. I think the NRA’s response to requests for comments are highly appropriate:
“The NRA will not participate in agenda journalism driven by a news organization owned by an avowed enemy of the Second Amendment — a politician who has been aggressively working against the interests of the NRA, our members and the nation’s gun owners for years.â€
Bloomberg can keep this smear campaign up all he wants, but I’m here to tell him his nightmare is true. We’re going to hammer New York City’s gun laws on the relentless anvil of civil rights legislation and litigation. We’re going to beat Bloomberg into submission to the Bill of Rights.
Countertop explains, in a comment, how attorneys fees are generally awarded, which suggests that the 1.1 million award to Alan Gura is actually pretty good, considering. But it was important to go after as much as possible. Not only to reward good work, but also, and perhaps more importantly, to discourage other municipalities from resisting our cause when we file lawsuits. I am hoping that the 1.1 million award here is sufficient to accomplish that, even though I would have been tickled pink by a higher amount. The best outcome upon a municipality or state receiving a Second Amendment suit is to fold immediately. We’ve seen that happen already, and I hope the award here will further those results.