It looks like the gents who fired off a mistakenly loaded rifle at a gun show in Virginia a while back have been sentenced to 40 hours of community service, after being charged with obstruction of justice and recklessly handling a firearm. Â Given that, and this incident here, it’s probably best to follow this guy’s advice here, and not talk to the police if you have an ND in Virginia. Â Especially in a case like this, where the dealer negligently brought a loaded rifle on to the show floor.
Author: Sebastian
Organizing Against World Net Daily
I couldn’t agree more with Jon Henke on this. Â World Net Daily has long been a rag of a publication for a while now, and I make a point not to link to them unless the purpose is mockery, or to dispel some untruth they are peddling.
Interestingly though, I’ve heard the publisher of WND, Joseph Farrah, speak, and I found him very thoughtful and engaging. Â I suspect he’s catering to an audience with his paper, and I’m sure it makes him a lot of money, but I think what he peddles isn’t adding anything helpful to the conversation.
One Way Trip to Mars?
The New York Times ponders a one-way-trip to Mars:
There is, however, a way to surmount this problem while reducing the cost and technical requirements, but it demands that we ask this vexing question: Why are we so interested in bringing the Mars astronauts home again?
Apparently there’s no shortage of people who would be willing to take a one way trip, knowing that would mean they die on Mars. Â For me, a successful mission means bringing the astronauts home again. Â It wouldn’t have mattered much if Christopher Columbus had sunk in the Caribbean, never returning home to tell everyone of the New World. Â No, a successful mission has to bring the explorers home. Â The problem is that space is full of radiation, and shielding is expensive and heavy.
I’ve pretty much lost all faith in government space initiatives. Â I do think we’ll go to Mars. Â But we’ll go to Mars because there’s money in it. Â If someone is willing to take a one-way-trip, there’s someone else who will pay a lot of money to go and return. Â All we need is for private industry to make it cheap and routine.
New Training Focused Blog
Via Joe Huffman, John Fogh of Insight Training Center in Seattle has started to blog about training related topics, with a link to Robb. Â It’s good to see folks in the training industry doing new media outreach. Â One of my chief criticisms of new media efforts by established organizations in the issue has been the lack of outreach to pre-existing communities within new media that could help get them out there. Â That doesn’t necessarily need to mean links, but it does mean building relationships, and links are one way to do that. Â They are also a way to get the community to pay attention. Â Good on Insight for starting off on the right footing.
Manufacturing Confusion
Thirdpower points to some campaign flyers for candidates in Illinois that are basically trying to scare voters into thinking machine guns are legal in Illinois (they aren’t) and that clearly we need to ban them.
At best, Representative Kathy Ryg is completely ignorant about what she proposes to regulate, and at worst is lying and deliberately misleading her constituents.
More Switcheroo Rumors
Impact of NRA Annual Meeting
For Pittsburgh, the decision to put politics above Second Amendment rights would be a huge pain for the local economy. The last time the Steel City hosted the organization’s annual meeting, they brought in $15 million to local coffers. The NRA was the first major convention to visit the city’s new convention center in 2004 and has remained one of the largest events Pittsburgh has ever hosted. Predictions for 2011 showed that gun owners would fill approximate 9,000 room nights and draw just as many visitors to the region as the record breaking 2004 event.
Seems like a lot of money for a cash strapped and job scarce city to be throwing away over something that doesn’t even make any sense.
That’s Like 150 in People Years
SayUncle has turned seven. Â I’ve been following for about 5 or 6 of those years.
Guns Everywhere! It’s Mass Hysteria!
We would be the first to concede that the gun provisions are legally dubious, given that in this case — regrettably — state law would seem to preempt anything Pittsburgh might enact. Empowering the police to be mind readers of intent is also troublesome. City Council should tread warily when these proposals are discussed in chambers tomorrow and a sunset provision would be reasonable.
So it’s questionably legal, but the Post-Gazette will support it anyway, because police can’t be mind readers. Â I guess that means they can’t be expected to delineate between peaceful and non-peaceful protesters too, so we might as well just tear gas them all!
I can understand Pittsburgh’s concerns about the G-20. Â These meetings attract all manner of violent, idiotic people. Â But I what I’ve failed to understand is what the City Council is trying to accomplish with this ban. Â Either someone is engaging in riotous behavior, or they aren’t. Â Police are legally permitted to use deadly force against rioters under Pennsylvania law, and I would certainly agree that use of deadly force against rioting protesters with guns would be justified. Â I’m just not sure what extra power the City of Pittsburgh thinks this will give them that they don’t already have. Â Protesting peacefully is lawful. Â Rioting behavior is unlawful. Â If there’s people planning to riot at the G-20 with guns, I’m not sure they are going to care all that much that the City of Pittsburgh says you can only riot as long as you’re not carrying 67 models of firearms.
Pocono Record Mistaken About No Fly List
The Pocono Record endorses the idea of denying Americans fundamental rights based on their presence on a secret government list that no one knows how to get on, or how to get off. Â Doesn’t sound so reasonably when you put it that way, does it? Â Especially when you consider if you happen to be a person unlucky enough to share a name with someone on the list, you’ll never be able to exercise your rights again. Â Shame on the Pocono Record for promoting such tripe.