Here we’ve been worried about him taking our guns, when apparently it’s our knives we have to worry about. Banning folding knives? Are you kidding? Fortunately, there’s a group for this. I guess since guns were out of the question, well, he had to take something dangerous away from us plebes, didn’t he?
Category: Guns
La Quinta Inn Watches My Traffic?
Michael Bane gets shut out of some Hotel WiFi for “questionable traffic,” namely, reading gun blogs:
Am on the way to the airport in a couple of minutes…I wanted to post more, but the airport hotel I’m in, La Qunita, whacked my Internet access because of “questionable traffic…” That would, I suppose, be guns. I signed off their service and booted my 3G model. Interestingly enough, the specific site that got me was The Firearms Blog, which I like to check every day.
This is why I always use an encrypted tunnel if I’m on Hotel or other WiFi that I don’t control. I can tell you this though, I won’t be staying in an La Quinta inn any time soon.
Restaurant Carry a Reality in TN
The Tenneessee Senate has overriden the Governor’s veto, which makes me wonder what the Governor thought he had to gain? Where are the folks cheering Governor Breseden’s “common sense?” In fact, given that there were more votes for the override, it seems to me the Governor is losing friends.
When we were on our way down to Texas a few years ago, we stopped in to meet with SayUncle and the Instafamily at a local eatery. Had to leave the guns in the car, even though neither of us had anything to drink. Now, where do you think a gun is more likely to cause trouble: on the person who carries it, or in a glove box where someone could steal it?
Positive Coverage of WY Machine Gun Shoot
From the Casper Star-Tribune. They donate proceeds from the shoot to the local volunteer fire department:
Campus Carry Reform Passed in South Carolina
People with concealed carry licenses will be permitted to carry in vehicles on school and college campuses. Not quite campus carry, but some progress.
No Sporting Use
Joe Huffman takes on a notion, promoted by the former Attorney General of Maryland, that handguns have no sporting use. This Sunday is our monthly IHMSA match, which I suppose doesn’t qualify as a sport in the mind of Joseph Curran.
Vandalism
Via Caleb, who compares and contrasts pro-and anti-gun forces, looks like a local shooting range in Georgia was vandalized by anti-gun folks. I should not that this is the first I’ve heard of this kind of thing. If I were the Brady Campaign, my first thought would be that this kind of thing is the last thing we need, but I would also have to admit that at least someone out there has some passion for the cause. In order to have the problem of having your grass roots do things that embarrass you, first you need to have grass roots!
Gun Chicks
A mother and daughter team in Ohio offer basic safety classes to women who want their concealed carry licenses. While they do teach men, they do something a little different and offer all women’s classes to help some get over the intimidation factor.
One of my proudest moments was after teaching a woman to shoot a handgun, taking a break to watch her learn how to shoot rifles ranging from high-end competition .22s to a beat up AK-47 and then hearing her brag about how many clays she busted on the shotgun range. But that wasn’t particularly noteworthy at this all female event. What was noteworthy was when she came up to ask me how to join the club, if there were more women involved other than just me and that this was a first step she was taking after losing two family members to tragedies involving firearms. (IIRC, one was suicide and the other an act of violence.) That was pretty amazing.
Back to the article, one of the women specifically cites getting involved, taking the class, and getting her carry permit as a direct response to Obama’s gun positions. Again, so much for the Brady argument that it’s all seasoned shooters buying up the guns.
More Gun Sales Means More Excise Taxes
I’ve always loved having the argument in my pocket that gun sales are good for Bambi. This California outlet points out that rising gun sales have been VERY good for Bambi in the last few months.
According to a federal report, in the last three months of 2008, the amount of money paid into the fund spiked 31 percent, as compared to the year before. Nearly all of the increase was due to increased handgun production.
Of course, I keep that argument on hand mostly for the folks who sit on the fence or aren’t typically on our side but could be swayed by it. I also realize that the excise tax money can go for public ranges, which some states are quite good about. (Florida and Arizona come to mind.) Hopefully that means in the next couple of years, we’ll see vast improvements in range quality. (It’s going to take a while since the feds only disperse the money once a year and most states don’t have much money to kick in the 25% they are required to pay for projects. It’s not “free” money for them and they can’t print more if they feel like it.)
For the FY2008, money distributed to the states & territories totaled nearly $310 million. It will be interesting to see how much is available by the end of FY2009.
Appeal Filed in Chicago Case
Looks like the appeal to the Supreme Court has been filed.