Sebastian – Page 959 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Court Upholds Lancaster Discharge Ordinance

Looks like the courts are giving this the OK.Â We covered this issue previously here.Â Apparently the ordinance does have exceptions for self-defense and other activities.Â I should note that whether Mr. Swinton acted in self-defense or not is a question of fact, rather than of law, and is something for a jury to decide at trial.

What the judge here is saying is that, as a matter of law, the ordinance is in accordance with state law.Â Pennsylvania’s preemption statute does not explicitly prohibit the regulation of firearms discharge.Â Obviously state law has to preempt some aspects of firearms discharge, otherwise what’s to stop cities from making the discharge of a firearm unlawful under any circumstance?

Straining the Air Force

Glenn Reynolds reports that the US Air Force is having some difficulty moving Obama around with his gigantic entourage.

The large delegation traveling with the president in Europe required moving several transports, including jumbo C-5s and C-17s, from sorties ferrying supplies to Afghanistan to European bases for the presidential visit, said two military officials familiar with the issue.

Just to be clear, that a few of these, and a few of these.Â How much luggage are these 500 people taking?

Earmark for Remington

The New York State legislature is going to give Remington Arms 2 million dollars to keep them in New York.

In an attempt to show county commitment to keeping the Remington Arms plant in the village of Ilion, the Legislature on Wednesday authorized spending up to $2 million for future equipment purchases by the firearms manufacturer. The budgetary impact of the amount serves as sufficient proof of legislator loyalty.

You know, maybe if it wasn’t for the constant political risk to their business from both anti-gun politicians and New York State’s awful business climate, they wouldn’t have to bribe companies to stay.

Civilization in Detroit at an End

If you live in Detroit, the time to leave is now:

[A Story Once Appeared Here About a Man Who Hunt and Sold Raccoons, but it is from a newspaper working with the scum of the earth I will no longer link to.]

You’re eating racoons.Â It’s over Detroit.Â Life is better in other places, like Camden, New Jersey.Â Or perhaps I can suggest a fine town like Oakland, California.

Hat tip to Eric of Classical Values.

UPDATE: Watch the video.Â I think the “Coon Man” is my new hero.Â I admire people who can capitalize on tragedy.Â Also, check out this post about how nature is reclaiming Detroit.

Media Gets it Right

Fox News hasn’t always gotten its facts on guns right, but it did this time.Â I join many other bloggers in praising Fox News for telling the truth about this issue.Â It covers exactly the things I highlighted here.Â They add:

In fact, it’s not even close. The fact is, only 17 percent of guns found at Mexican crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

[…]

But a large percentage of the guns recovered in Mexico do not get sent back to the U.S. for tracing, because it is obvious from their markings that they do not come from the U.S.

Which is what I suspected.Â The guns they recover that have obvious sources from the Mexican or foreign militarys don’t get traced through ATF’s systems.Â The other question I have is what percentage of guns the Government of Mexico recovers are from violent individuals and drug cartel members, and what percentage were recovered from people who smuggled the guns back to relatives so they could protect themselves from the individuals I just mentioned.Â The latter is a human rights issue, but the Mexican government doesn’t see things that way.

April E-Postal – Deficit Shooting

JimmyB has the April E-Postal match up.Â Has to be in by the 27th at midnight.Â This is a really creative match.Â You start off 12 trillion dollars in the hole, and you try to reduce your deficit by hitting the small (-1) targets, without hitting any of the bigger deficit busting whoppers that surround it.Â Each hit on those is worth a trillion dollars in savings to your budget.Â Can you do better than Obama on the budget?Â Find out and shoot this month’s e-Postal match.

The 2010 Election Begins

Arlen Specter is already running ads against Pat Toomey.Â That’s rich.Â Arlen Specter, who voted for Obama’s Porkulus bill, is trying to suggest that Pat Toomey, who has spent the last several years heading up Club for Growth, which advocates for smaller government, has destroyed America.

I guess now it’s time to think about starting a 2010 Election category, and pondering whether I have the energy for a nasty primary, followed by a nasty general election.

Correlation

Megan McArdle shows us why correlation is not necessarily causation.Â I’ve dealt with this even in my professional life, because there’s a lot of lessons to be drawn from this even in the drug discovery field.

Cleaning Up After Corrosive Ammo

Dave Markowitz has some advice.Â I have to deal with this sometimes with the Nagant, and I’ve been the victim of shooting other Soviet Bloc ammo I didn’t realize was corrosive, but was.Â It can rust a rifle pretty quickly if you don’t deal with it.

I think it’s good advice.Â He recognizes that it’s the surfactants in Windex that make it a good cleaner, not the ammonia.Â When I shoot my AK-74 with the corrosive 5.45×39 ammo (you can shoot all day with that stuff for a good price) I just take the gas tube, flash suppressor, bolt carrier, and bolt, and give it a bath in soapy water.Â Then run some patches down the barrel with soapy water, clean the surrounding areas, and then go over everything with gunzilla once it’s dried out.Â That seems to do a good job of keeping the rust away.

Perspective

Robb things we need to start focusing on the important things.Â I’ve seen talk of Obama Derangement Syndrome floating around in other places too.Â It’s certainly a risk, but in trying to build a coalition with moderates, you have to hit on a lot of areas, in hopes that some of them will resonate with people.Â Whether we like to admit it or not, humans are wired to gossip about gaffes and violations of social protocol more than they are about how Obama is ruining the economy and driving us closer toward a Social Democracy along the European model.Â I would argue the left was actually rather effective at making Americans embarrassed by George W. Bush’s foreign policy.

During the election, I feared that Obama was a game changer.Â Basically someone who would fundamentally alter the American landscape and political climate, and in highly radical ways.Â FDR was this kind of politician.Â During Obama’s transition, seeing that his picks for his cabinet were Democratic establishment, rather than radicals, I started believing he might govern closer to the middle.

I think Obama has turned out to be a radical, but he is no FDR, and this isn’t the 1930s.Â The American population isn’t in any mood to accept a new New Deal, though they Democrats are trying to foist one on us anyway.Â We should be well positioned to make gains in 2010, but the real difficulty will be whether the Republicans can capitalize on Obama’s missteps.Â So far, they aren’t showing much leadership.