Category: Gun Rights

Be sure to read his letter to the Police Chief of Honolulu, who is attempting to get .50 BMGs banned in Hawaii

Via Kim du Toit

The debate moves to Washington State:

George Coulbourn is an NRA member too but works as a volunteer backcountry ranger at Mount Rainier National Park. He sees no benefit to allowing people to carry loaded weapons in the park. Kris Paynter is the mother of two young girls and the wife of a police detective. She said allowing guns at Mount Rainier would ruin the sense of sanctuary the park now offers.

Yeah, that’s a rational reason for forcing me to run the risk of ending up like this woman.   I mean, heaven forbid we ruin anyone’s sense of sanctuary.

“If you’re not comfortable visiting the park because of animals, you don’t belong there,” Coulbourn said. “I have seen countless bears in the backcountry of Mount Rainier. But every single one of them has ignored me or run away.”

He added that the handgun a park visitor would likely carry into the park would not have enough stopping power to bring down a bear or cougar.

So basically he’s saying I have to risk being lunch if I want to visit the park?  What he says about stopping power is definitely true, but I’d take my .44 Magnum over my bare fists, or swiss army knife.  I wonder how long it took the News Tribune to track down all these gun owners who are opposed to removing the restrictions in National Parks.

My gay friend Andrew, who has been the subject of other Random Conversations, is from Montana.  I decided to talk to him about a serious topic:

Sebastian: Is Montana depressing?
Andrew: I like the state in theory, but there’s not a lot to do and it can be lonely and frustrating.  As much as I like it here I kind of want to leave sometimes.
Sebastian: Do you ever want to kill yourself?
Andrew: Why do you ask? Are you feeling depressed?
Sebastian: I’m wondering why Montana is one of the leading suicide states in the country
Andrew: Because it’s almost all rural.  Even in Helena, even though there are people, there’s really almost nothing to do. For an awful lot of people the only thing to do on a weekend is drink.
Sebastian: According to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, we need to take all your guns away so you don’t kill yourself so much
Andrew: Is gun the typical suicide in Montana?
Sebastian: CSGV says that guns make it easy to kill yourself
Andrew: I dunno.. I mean, it’d be easy and fast. but.. I would always be afraid the bullet would go on and kill someone else too in a freak accident.  Plus, what if you Didn’t kill yourself and only brain damaged yourself? Eww.
Andrew: The only people I personally know who have done it or attempted, none used guns
Andrew: Car is a popular one. and trains
Sebastian: What about covering yourself in honey and looking for a Grizzly Bear?
Andrew: Nah. If I ever did it it’d have to be a way where it’d be nearly certain death and quick. That way is neither.
Andrew: Probably a long fall down a straight mountain cliff in Glacier Park. Pretty view.
Andrew: As for banning guns… if they want to ban anything people can kill themselves with, they need to ban cars and level the mountains and outlaw pharmaceuticals
Sebastian: pretty much
Andrew: I just find it ironic that they use Montana as an example for why gun control is necessary. It’s not like a nanny-state city where everyone is anti-gun…  Montanans generally like being able to own guns

So there you have it.  Gays in Montana don’t seem to be contemplating suicide.  Don’t seem to be contemplating using guns to do it, or contemplating using honey and Grizzley Bears.  And before you say this isn’t a representative sample, how many gays do you think are really in Montana?  Brokeback Mountain nonwithstanding.

Gun Legislation & Politics in New York has some interesting background on Tim Sullivan, who’s legacy is the Sullivan Act in New York City, which was one of the early gun control laws that appeared in the United States.  It still lives on today, as a fine piece of  “common sense” gun control brought to you by Irish gangsters.

It must suck to be Peter Hamm or Paul Helmke these days.

Kansas is about to join the twenty other states that have passed “Katrina Bills” which prohibit mass confiscations of firearms during states of emergency.  Not everyone is happy about this:

I understand the unfairness of disarming citizens and not criminals, but Greensburg isn’t New Orleans.

It just seems silly to craft a bill to guard against something that never happened in Kansas and probably never will.

I don’t see how whether or not this ever happened in Kansas is really at issue, and pardon me if I don’t take a reporter’s word that it’ll never happen there.  What harm is there in passing this law?  I don’t know about you, but it sounds like a case of sour grapes to me.

It’s been a busy day over at HuffPo.  Josh Horowitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence is apparently an expert on gun use for self-defense.  So much so that he is apparently disturbed the justices take a skeptical view of his ilk dictating on the topic to others:

A quick look at the NRA’s Gun Safety Rules webpage reveals just how far out of the mainstream these justices are. One of the NRA’s “fundamental” rules for safe gun handling is “ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.” The NRA also tells gun owners to always “store guns so they are not accessible to unauthorized persons,” noting that “dozens of gun storage devices, as well as locking devices that attach directly to the gun, are available.” In a “Parents Guide to Gun Safety,” the NRA also points out the potential dangers to children, stating “a parent must, in every case, assess the exposure of the firearm and absolutely ensure that it is inaccessible to a child.”

Except that trigger locks are probably the worst way to ensure this.  Few argue that firearms need to be kept away from young hands, but different solutions are optimal depending on the situation.  This is a matter that ought to be left up to the individual, and not dictated by the state.