Guns – Page 353 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Olympic Shooters & Their Medals

Wall Street Journal highlights how surprisingly common it is for Olympic athletes to lose their medals. Of the athletes they interviewed, many report that their medals were stolen; though a few cited circumstances that may have been a bit more in their control. There are two shooters mentioned in the story:

Some Olympians don’t like talking about their absent-minded moment. Glenn Eller, a shotgun shooter who won gold in Beijing, says only that someone took it while he was out with colleagues in Fort Worth, Texas, in late 2008. “I put myself in a situation that I probably shouldn’t have been in, and someone stole it out of my pocket,” he says. “I’m trying to forget it and go ahead.” He has since received a replica. …

Corey Codgell, a shotgun shooter who won bronze in Beijing, doesn’t take any chances. She usually keeps her nicked-up medal in her front pocket when she travels. Before letting an audience at an event handle it, she warns everybody: “No one leaves this room until I get my medal back.”

On a slightly related note, Pennsylvania is represented on this year’s shooting team by Jamie Gray and Joshua Richmond.

I also continue to be amazed by the number of Olympic shooters from states that aren’t exactly known for being gun friendly or having a strong gun culture – California has three shooters while Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey each have one Olympian with ties to the state.

Why Would Anyone Take the New York Times Seriously on Gun Policy?

When it comes to how much the New York Times knows about guns, a reader found me exhibit A:

New York Times Gun Reporting Fail

The caption says a .40 caliber Glock. The picture shoes a Les Baer 1911 in .45 ACP. So why, again, should anyone give a crap what the New York Times thinks about guns? Even your basic counterstrike kiddie (or whatever the kids are playing these days) can generally tell the difference between an M1911 and a Glock. I almost wonder if someone at the New York Times looked up this bit of satire …

Journalist Guide to Guns

… and thought it was real. I’ve been doing this long enough, when I see stuff like this now, I just want to declare the person unfit to have an opinion until they relieve themselves of ignorance. The real unfortunate thing is that people still read the New York Times, and thanks to New York’s gun laws, many of its readers are just as or more ignorant about the subject than the Times.

Searching for the old journalist guide satire, it turns out Extrano’s Alley has more to say about this picture going around.

UPDATE: That journalist guide had gone around so much I forgot it was Robb who created it, so credit should go to him.

The Madness of King Bloomberg

Bloomberg calls on police officers to go on strike until there’s action on gun control. Unfortunately for the Mayor, the vast majority of police are on our side. In the mean time, it looks like MAIG has been pushing editorials around the country that fall along this line. They are appearing everywhere. We’re very lucky that the media is increasingly irrelevant in influencing public opinion.

UPDATE: According to John Richardson, calling for a police strike in New York is illegal. Though, to be fair, because even Mayor Mike has First Amendment rights too, I think there would be serious free speech issues as to this law applying to Bloomberg’s statement.

Of course, if he did get busted for his speech here, all I would say is that Karma is a bitch. We all have to respect each other’s rights. It is the only way we maintain a free society.

UPDATE: Hat tip to Miguel for finding this gem of an open letter to Mike Bloomberg from a police officer:

How dare you, Mayor Bloomberg. How dare you in your arrogance assume that police officers are such lowly scoundrels that they would readily set their duties aside either to serve your interest OR to reduce the risk they face each day in a selfish attempt to force the public to support a given agenda. How dare you suggest that over 700,000 honorable, decent and brave men and women neglect their duty, forget their oath, and risk the public safety in the name of YOUR anti-gun agenda.

Word. Read the whole thing.

Another Media Meme That Annoys Me

Every time you have a mass shooting, you see headlines about how this latest shooting has “Reignited The Debate on Gun Control!” See this USA Today headlineÂ as an example.Â The only people I see debating gun control are journalists and vacuous TV talking heads like Piers Morgan. If ordinary people were debating gun control, I’d have people all over my blog taking exception to nearly everything I say. But where are they? This is called manufacturing news and controversy. My message to the media is this: we had a debate on gun control, and your side lost. Get over it.

That’s a Frummy Thing to Say

Certain segments in the media persist in this ridiculous notion that David Frum is conservative. This article would seem to indicate that notion is nonsense, rattling off nonsensical statistics about the dangers of guns in the home. Tam pretty effectively eviscerates his arguments. I always love the arguments from anti-gunners about how the presence of a gun in my home raises my risk of suicide. My risk of suicide is exactly zero. Would anyone say such a thing about the presence of rope or Tylenol? Would anyone suggest the presence of a railroad in my town, or a tall building, increases my suicide risk? No, most sensible people would say thats patently ridiculous. It’s just as patently ridiculous with guns.

Probably Not the Reaction Our Opponents Wanted to See

Since the Aurora mass shooting, guns sales are up 41%. Probably some combination of fears of new gun control, and some people thinking “Well, if there’s going to me homicidal mass murdering whack jobs out there wandering around, I want a gun, too.”

Breaking News in Maryland on Concealed Carry

Judge Legg has issued a permanent injunction against enforcement of the requirement of needing a “good and substantial” reason to obtain a permit to carry in Maryland. The injunction isÂ to be effective in 14 days. Maryland Shall Issue talks about what this will meanÂ for Maryland residents. In theory, this should render Maryland a shall-issue state, but in practice there are probably ways the Maryland State Police can stall. This will be appealed to the Forth Circuit Court of Appeals, and they could side with the state. Nonetheless, this is excellent, excellent news. Kudos to the Second Amendment Foundation and Alan Gura, who brought this case. This is a substantive win for our side.

The Problem of Collective Action

Joe Huffman has a great post on redefining the no-win situation:

I can only think of one course of action that would apply in most lone-gunman mass shooting cases: EVERYONE on the scene channel the inner Super Hero, Marine, mama grizzly, Todd Beamer, or whatever amps up their kill instincts to 11, and as a group do a mass â€œcharge the ambush!â€ with the express intent of taking his screw-cap off, ripping off his arm and beating him to death with the bloody stump, or stopping him in any way possible.

A primary difference, I think, between this scenario, and Flight 93, was that the folks on Flight 93 had time to communicate with their fellow passengers and coordinate a response. In the movie theater shooting, there was no time for that, which I think is the problem with collective action in a situation where there’s no time to communicate and plan. I’m certainly not going to charge an armed man and just hope some people join in. I’d need to know at least a few other people are game.

But overall, I agree with Joe with this point, “This sort ofÂ training and mindsetÂ MUST start in the schools.” Recently a friend who is a schoolteacher was up visiting, and I was relatively appalled they do regular cower and hide drills in schools these days. I offered her some advice on what to do if someone actually does get into the classroom, but if the schools are going to prepare for the extremely remote possibility of mass shootings, passivity is not what they should be teaching. Passivity will get people killed.

Quote of the Day

Says James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, in regards to the complaint that there’s no debate on gun control:

When people find it necessary to demand a “debate” or complain about the absence of same, it usually means they’re frustrated because thereÂ isÂ a debate and their side is losing.

Word. Hat tip Instapundit.

“Did you all fit in one Suburban?”

The protest at NRA’s Federal Affairs office in DC looks pretty sad to me. I particularly like that they had to put a person there with a sign pointing out that they were not, in fact, protesting a popular bar. I count 11 people, two of which I know for sure work for gun control groups. According to their Facebook page, they had 31 signed up to go and 12 maybes. That’s dedication! Only about 1/3rd of those motivated to click they’d be there bothered to show up. As one person on Twitter put it, “Did you all fit in one Suburban?”